We went hands-on with Sony’s major PS3 releases for the holiday season and beyond.
It was a sunny afternoon, with an inconveniently placed fountain in the central courtyard giving us what could only be called a faithful recreation of a sea breeze. Nobody could’ve guessed that a small setting such as a custard factory in Birmingham would be the destination for trying out SCEE’s stable of upcoming triple-A titles, many of them to be herald in the 3D ‘revolution’ Sony is spearheading.
In truth, 3D is still a good way off for most of us. With the pricing of the equipment at the moment it’s still a bit of a millionaire boys club. We tried 3D games on PS3 just last month and weren’t dramatically overwhelmed. Regards of the AV nonsense, at PlayStation Beta Rooms we tested out the likes of Killzone 3, Gran Turismo 5 and got our hands on PlayStation Move games too. We’ve got a lot to shout about, so settle in.
Gran Turismo 5 (Sony)
Released: 03/11/10
Gran Turismo 5 was on glorious show, centre stage at the front of the event, and we can now say that it’s exactly the same game – but in 3D. The same meticulously detailed visuals, guaranteed to have the same massive expansive universe of modifying and tuning, and the same core gameplay, but with a key difference.
You shoot down the mile long straight on the Nürburgring, your competitor creeping up in your slipstream behind you. Then he makes the mistake of nudging into the back of you which causes you to start sliding from left to right, with your car leaning precariously on two wheels. Yes, at long last vehicles in GT have damage models.
The AI feels much more human, making decisions and mistakes instead of racing in a column that is never broken. And your car actually feeling like it could roll over, gives it a much larger sense of risk. There has been much tweaking and revamping to the physics engine. You can see the preparation for the limited amount of cars you can damage. We didn’t get a look at the complete feature set, but expect it to be vastly expanded beyond GT4. We’re even promised a half-decent online interface. So far, so good, but what about the most significant change? What about the implementation of the third dimension? Well, it works… some of the time.
The preset bumper camera really doesn’t do the effect justice. The three dimensional effect is really poor in this angle. There’s a lack of believable depth to it and you might as well be playing it in 2D for the sake of saving yourself eye ache.
Luckily, one of the Beta reps was around to tell us to switch to the cockpit view. At this point, the whole experience changed. Everything, and we mean everything, was injected with a whole new dimension. There was real depth to what you were seeing. But not only had the 3D improved, the car reflected accurate shadows of individual leaves in trees real-time, and the rear view mirror doesn’t just have wireframe models anymore.
However, 3D doesn’t add any new gameplay benefits to GT, in fact, it kills them off. With how the cockpit view looked, it’s the death of the bumper camera that we used so faithfully. But, even so, it’s one beautiful looking game. Definitely one of the best titles for motorheads or the handful of you looking to show off your new 3DTV.
LittleBigPlanet 2 (Sony)
Released: 12/11/10
It feels particularly strange to be playing a sequel to a game that promotes its infinite amount of creativity. But the game that just feels like a big hug with the voice of Stephen Fry for icing has returned, and while it’s a very similar game on the surface there is a whole different beast lying underneath.
Media Molecule is bringing big visions to the table. The first game changer does actually change the game considerably: it’s the simple notion that LittleBigPlanet is no longer a platform game, it is a platform for games. You can make everything from shooters to racers, RTS to stealth… No idea how all these new masses of customisation will be translated into the creation tools, or how many new layers of confusion will be put on top of it all, but we move on with smiles of hope.
The level we played was a 2D platformer, and it felt more or less exactly like the previous game; albeit with a grappling hook and less awkward jumping. No graphical improvements can be found either, and 3D has not even been attempted (thank god, no more sore eyes). PlayStation Move support will be part of the final game, though. LBP2 wasn’t the same in an old and tired kind of way, but rather as a ‘coming home’ sort of feeling. It’s a good feeling people.
And besides this level and a couple trailers, there wasn’t really much else to go into. But it was more than enough to get any person who played the previous iteration feel a wave of excitement at all the new options and additions (including AI Sackbots for programmable AI made simple). If the original introduced us to an all new universe of creativity and community to explore, the sequel will most probably go a good way towards perfecting it. Definitely one to watch when Media Molecule unleashes this burlap-juggernaut in November this year.
Killzone 3 (Sony)
Released: Feb 2011
Having played Killzone 2 religiously online for a while, we had high expectations for this. Were they matched? Well, yes and no.
As with other triple-A sequels, there isn’t little actual gameplay changes. We have, essentially, the same game that caused so much CG-related controversy the first time around, only with new snow and temperate environments. The same cover-and-move gameplay that was enjoyable the first time around returns, but felt a little stale. This isn’t to say the gameplay doesn’t work, but it would’ve been welcome to see more upgrades then just the introduction of a jetpack. You have a complete dystopian universe at your hands, Guerrilla. Get creative!
The level we played began with us flying on a landing craft, blowing away multitudes of foes on an arctic oil rig. What a thunderous and epic way to beginning. The 3D realisation of this game was startling in comparison to GT5. Snowflakes fly at you as destruction ensues, gouts of blood flick across your vision and the added depth gives you something of a targeting edge. There are a couple of cheesy 3D moments, including pipes flying past you and close-ups of jetpack flames burning directly into the camera. It’s all impressive stuff to say it’s a computer game.
You can get a much more accurate measure of distance to judge how far in front of an enemy’s path you should shoot. If results are same online, then players using 3DTVs could have a slight technical advantage over those without. Everything else is all for the chaotic war experience, which is very absorbing.
They showed a 2D version of the same demo, and in spots the textures looked infinitely better than on the 3D version. You really see the incapability of differentiating 3D and HD strongly when you put the two side-by-side, creating a curious either-or situation. Killzone 3 in 3D was entertaining, but everything looks a lot clearer on the 2D version of the same demo, no matter how much you can brag about the depth of images.
MotorStorm Apocalypse (Sony)
Released: Q1 2011
Having torn up the deserts of North America in its debut and gone for a romp on a tropical island in Pacific Rift, Evolution Studios are now taking their brutal off-road racing series to the urban wastes with MotorStorm Apocalypse. Think of Split Second, except instead of just certain things being destroyed, everything is blown up and crumbling to the ground.
You begin to race through a city. Nothing appears unusual, except for the fact that a helicopter is carrying the start gate. Just why becomes apparent as the terrain beneath your car begins to crack. A mighty earthquake grips the city, skyscrapers collapse to the ground, and cranes fall, flinging their cargo straight at the camera.
Out of all the 3D demos shown to us at this event, Apocalypse had to be the best by a long shot. Debris flies directly at you, massive destruction of buildings loom as you speed towards them. It’s a magnificent experience, which isn’t replicated in 2D. Fair enough, the textures aren’t as detailed, but you’re moving too fast to notice this at all.
Not only are you aware of the game’s beautiful destruction, but also the developer was very assured, emblazoning every large moment of catastrophe with a square button prompt to zoom the camera in on the epicentre of the destruction.
Apocalypse joins a new string of arcade racers that bring a much more fierce experience to racing than mere turns and apexes. However this doesn’t mean a compromise to the control. The same boost mechanic as in previous titles returns making sure you use it reservedly throughout races. A pandemonium racing experience, which is made accessible with simple arcade-like steering control. The AI is enough of a challenge, and yet not as annoying as before. But there is one thing we can see being a problem.
You see, the tracks are fun to play through, and it definitely is enjoyable to watch also. The question is how long each new seismic surprise will last? As we waited for our turn, we saw the track played through a good three times and saw the same sections of destruction. At that point we knew what sections to dodge and managed to place first. How this small, two minute clip of pure awesome can expand into a fully-fledged game is going to be a tricky one, but this has made us quietly confident that we could see a resurgence of the MotorStorm name with its third outing.
Look out for a full preview of PlayStation Move and its games soon.
Jason England
Tags: 3d, gran turismo, killzone, littlebigplanet, motorstorm, ps3, sony
