10k fists

From the sources I have talked to, Microsoft & Bioware will be keeping the Mass Effect trilogy and all episodic content on the 360.

You get 17-18 GB... There isn't 9 GB of reserved space for the OS and caching... I currently have 12 GB left on my HDD, and I've got the Lost Planet demo, PGR 3 demo, Fight Night Round 3 demo, Gears of War trailer, Halo 3 trailer, Too Human trailer, 4 CD's worth of music, Ice Age 2 trailer (720p version), all six Superman Returns videos (720p), Chronicles of Narnia trailer (720p), and the Pirates "2" trailer (720p). I also have save files for: Oblivion Top Spin Condemned Call of Duty College Hoops Tomb Raider Perfect Dark Zero Need for Speed Quake 4 Madden Full Auto Kameo Fight Night 3 GRAW As well as Hexic HD and Geometry Wars for XBLA... It really bugs me when people complain about the HDD when it appears as though they are just making stuff up.

You plan on keeping demos forever? Save game files take up next to nothing, and demos are normally deleted after a while. 20 gig was plenty to launch with, but Microsoft will be releasing larger capacity HDDs in the future.

I don't think it came with a free month of Silver service, since Silver is always free. HDD stands for the harddrive - the split userbase means that because Microsoft chose to release a console that came standard with a harddrive and one that didn't, the usebase is split between the two styles. This forces developers to develope for the lowest common denominator, which would be a harddrive-less console. It removes the ability to take the extra step to optimize for a harddrive since work has to be put into making sure the game works without one instead.

As far as I understand, both versions of the PS3 will have a HDD. Spliting the userbase like Microsoft did is just plain stupid. It forces everyone to develope for systems without a HDD, which is doesn't allow for better optomization for the HDD. DUMB DUMB DUMB ... lol

It was a horrible mistake on Microsoft's part to split the userbase.

I was wrong? Most people I know will gladly rent a game just to try it out, regardless of whether or not they know anything about it or not. Be it through Gamefly or renting in a store. You, on the other hand, are dead set against having anyone justify the HDD. Go you...

That's nice.

You can't really rent demos. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You didn't get it... The demos allow you to play a part of the game without renting them. That's why trying all the demos will save you money from blindly renting games.

Again, it wasn't a Sony-made controller, it was a 3rd party controller for the Playstation.

Your standard motion sensing technology that's been around for many years.

Only putting a seven year old engine in a new car doesn't make the engine technology new. Hence, the technology in the PS3 controller not being new, and your original arguement being flawed. It's old tech, no matter what kind of Sony fan-spin you put on it.

Old technology is old technology, oh defender of Sony. Third party controllers that did what the PS3 controller does and more were around for the original Playstation. To claim that it's "new" because Sony opted to use it for themselves the first time is an ignorant comment. If you bought a seven year old car, you can't call it a new car, regardless of the fact that you've never owned that car before. It's still used, and old for that matter.

The tech in the PS3's controller isn't "new technology" though, so your argument by nature is flawed.

The premium version is far more than just for playing online... The main purpose of the HDD is to store demos, videos and BC updates - which is all part of the free Xbox Live service. If you download the demos available on the marketplace, the HDD pays for itself in game rentals right there.

Neither - KOTOR 2 runs poorly in emulation on the 360, and DoA 4 is a sub-par fighter. Once you get it, download a bunch of demos and see if any of them are of your liking. I'd recommend buying Oblivion and renting pretty much everything else at the moment.

One of the best RPG experiences I've ever had the pleasure of playing. Great game.

The even more puzzling question is, why aren't Blu-Ray movies using the supposed mandatory VC-1 codec? Even though it may not be entirely Sony's fault, you can't help but lose more faith in them everytime they make a claim and then go back on their word...

To think I was actually going to post a similar topic today when I got home ... But oddly enough, I was beaten to it, and I don't think I could possibly match what has been said here. My thoughts on the subject that everyone seems to be ignoring though... It's very interesting that there are so many issues with Blu-Ray. Sony did claim it was a superior format across the board, but currently all HD-DVD titles are using 30GB dual-layer discs with VC-1 and have DD+/DTS/DTHD audio while Blu-Ray titles are using 25GB single-layer discs with the older MPEG2 with uncompressed PCM 48kh 16-bit audio. I think they went a little to far to claim outright superiority in their format. Also, another interesting tid-bit is the fact that both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs are in 1080p24, and that all the players use Broadcom decoders for reading the disc, and in doing so, they all read the 1080p24 signal as a 1080i60 signal. The only difference is, the Blu-Ray players de-interlace the signal that was just interlaced, while the Toshiba (HD-DVD) just displays the 1080i60 signal. It sort of washes the argument of Blu-Ray being superior for 1080p/1080i, since both formats interlace the picture, and Blu-Ray players will de-interlace it for you, while HD-DVD players will require your display device to do the de-interlacing. On a side note, I'm rather disappointed in a lot of the responses in this thread. Either the topic creator made a mistake, or he really played you all like a game. I'm beginning to think that you all were played pretty well, seeing as how pretty much everyone ran off topic, and focused on his thread title, rather than the content itself. If you're incapable of discussing it, why even bother posting in the thread?

I don't know enough about the hardware of RSX to answer your first question. But the SPEs should be more flexible than a shader unit on a GPU. So while it may or may not have been faster, the flexibility would have made it a better alternative, in my opinion. Your conspiracy theory isn't actually a theory. That was, I believe the initial goal of the PS3 - to not have a true dedicated GPU. If they had more time and better yields, it probably would have happened. A larger Cell would have be more than sufficient to double as its own GPU. My own personal bias towards Nvidia will probably shine here, but I don't think they would have put the time and energy into a GPU for Sony like ATi did for Microsoft. Nvidia seems to prefer to hash out cards now, adding clock speeds and pushing the paper specs, over trying to push the industry foward.

I don't think it does, when I'm offering people the opportunity to debunk what I've said. If someone really doesn't believe me, then I welcome them to provide something that says the opposite. In regards to Cell/Xenon, those that have tried to provide a counter argument have only provided articles that pretty much back what I've said... It's not like I make a claim and then disappear, or make a claim and then continually ignore someone while I go about posting more information all crazy-like. I try to explain myself and help, or offer a different approach to those that ask. So, instead of linking to some random article or whatever else people are asking for, my support is the fact that I continue to discuss the subject, and post everything I can post on the topic.

Sorry, but I'm not going to do it. I'm more than happy to discuss the tech to certain limits, but I'm not going to qualify myself on an internet forum. I'm willing to debate with people that try to dispute what I actually say though. But if someone just doesn't believe me, then that's fine. The problem is, if I qualify myself then my argument loses its ground, and people judge what I say based on my experience in the field. It shouldn't matter whether I'm a high school janitor, one of the engineers behind some of the PowerPC processors, or a game designer. I said that in jest... I was poking fun at the fact that almost everywhere you go, someone is claiming to have "insider" knowledge, but they're under NDA, so they beat around the bush with vague comments.

The SPEs could handle a scripted event fairly easily. I don't think the PS3 or the Xbox 360 will have a problem with FEAR (it's coming to the Xbox 360 already). The PPE can run AI we've already seen with no problem in my opinion. Cell just doesn't have the capabilities to really advance forward in AI. For most people, that's ok, as the AI in games we have today is sufficient enough for them. I and I'm sure other people feel the same, would love to see advances in AI. Cell was designed in a way that would not allow for large improvements. With that said, I really doubt these short comings will come into play, and the majority of games across the two platforms will be identical. I have no problem discussing what I know, but I'm not going to reveal why I know it.

Not going to claim NDA status on an internet forum, it's far too common to see... I just know, and that's all I'm really willing to say. I'm not totally sure as to what you were asking... But I'm going to take a shot in the dark and hope this is the type of answer you were wanting, gonna try and remove the "techno-babble" as well. Cell is great for pushing geometry (graphics), and I mean really great. It also has good potential to really push a lot of physics as well. But there are other factors that make a video game what it is. Some of these other factors (such as AI) don't have a lot of room for growth on Cell. I'm not saying it'll be bad, I'm just saying that Cell was designed to excell in one direction, but, in a way, remain still in the other. What did you want simplified?

Like I said, I don't read Cell documentation from the internet all that often... So you can believe what I say or not, it doesn't really make much difference to me. Strength for gaming in that it's a floating point beast. It's great for pushing great graphics, but we all know graphics don't make a game.