Exclusive: Hands-On with PlayStation 3

Kikizo presents a detailed, early account of its first-hand experience with a little known console called PS3. Is it looking like a new generational leap, or emotion engine tears? We have some answers.

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Some developers are finding other ways to get the most out of things, though. For example, a middleware application called SpeedTree effortlessly creates lifelike 3D trees with fully detailed branches and leaves, although it's nothing bleeding-edge anymore: "We're not using SpeedTree at the moment, but it's something that can already be seen in Project Gotham 3, so why don't you go play that instead of asking me stupid questions?" our flustered source barks. "Programmable shaders need huge power... the increase in power means that skilled artists become more important; games will look incredible thanks to the skilled artists."

SpeedTree is useful middleware first used in PGR3

Sure, there's still some framerate optimisation to go in this particular game build, but generally, framerate shouldn't be an issue for long. SCEI's Masa Chatani describes PS3 architecture as elegantly simple with outstanding performance, and developers say they love the streamlined Open GL environment. But our guide adds: "Cell is weird and difficult to work with... coding has progressed with high speeds and paper specs in mind, it's one of the reasons framerate specs aren't met yet. We've been anti-aliasing through software which also means a performance hit, although the 720p upscaling minimises that problem a bit."

Cell is technically capable of more sophisticated volumetric physics, and while there were some decent highlights during our playtime in this regard, we haven't exactly played anything that made us gasp in the same way as Half-Life 2's physics, and we've not yet seen anything to illustrate how the increased power could potentially be used to improve a gameplay scenario in any significant way yet.

That's not to say that someone, somewhere, has not already thought of creative new ways to do just that. "Everything will continue to depend on developers," it's pointed out. "Some things that weren't possible before are now possible, and some previous ideas can now be made into games." And of course, there are many other original applications for Cell's power as it becomes more flatteringly unlocked - high definition IP webcams is just one example that keeps us excited.

Ain't Got Nothin' But Real Time

One memorable point in another game build altogether observed some intense character based interactivity. Finally being able to control on a PS3 the sort of visual quality we realistically expect, with convincing and varied human facial expression, did feel like a moment of relief - this stuff is realtime after all. We had lighting effects and specular highlights used to great effect, shadows forming realistically on wrinkles of skin, precise colours, ultra-detailed rippling materials (though the ripple needed some work) - and that's not even talking about the surrounding environment, which had its own moving objects and particle elements. As far as "emotionally believable" experiences go, this moment was more solid than we've experienced in a past generation title. It was nothing we couldn't imagine running to the same sort of effect on Xbox 360, but it was reassuring to see it in genuine realtime and with some developer perseverance, a few required improvements seem within reach.

Future Vision is one of PS3's most convincing works to date

Later, one non-interactive (but, based on playable sections that followed, clearly realtime) cut-scene also demonstrated exceptional draw distance (think perhaps Great Wall of China in terms of its setting - distance, geometry, texture variation) that 'felt' next generation - like a feeling of legitimacy, of confirmation, that we've only occasionally felt towards the new generation so far. We were also hoping to see some water and maybe take a swim or something, to see if water looked as amazing on real hardware as we've previously seen in the TGS trailer of WarHawk for example, but we'll have to wait a bit longer.

Another thing we've not been able to see on real hardware is hair: with increased speed, there's a likelihood PS3 will be able to handle free-flowing hair with the authenticity seen in Nvidia's impressive "Luna" demonstration. With Xbox 360's Dead or Alive 4 fresh in memory, one graphical element in the Team Ninja game that stood out as disappointing was the long-haired characters; their hair just crumpled around in blocks unrealistically and clipped into shoulders and clothing - frankly we've seen better hair coded on past-gen systems. So wavy hair is still something we want to see on a real PS3.

We want hair that looks like Nvidia girl Luna's.
Come to think of it, we want all girls to look exactly like Luna.

Generally speaking we're playing stuff that easily has potential to offer realism and believability, but again for the sake of detail, it was marred by early glitches and offered something of a grating experience. If we looked past this, then our PS3 virginity-busting experience pretty much had us convinced for now - and now that our early gameplay craving is satisfied, we're dying to see more complete products coming together and seeing them as they're intended.

I Want to Believe

Everyone knows that the Killzone trailer was rendered to reflect what the developer thought they might be able to achieve on PS3 architecture, but some of Sony's most talented studios will be questioning the ambition they showed nine months ago. In hindsight, there was some stuff that looked decidedly more like what we've been playing now - UbiSoft's Killing Day seeming like it was a good, honest estimate. Rewatch that below, and consider this is comparable to the technical visual quality of what we've played, and you'll likely conclude that this is, for now at least, really same-generation stuff next to Xbox 360.

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