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IGN, Gamespy and the Playstation 3

The media is indeed very powerful in controlling public perception. I know i've posted this earlier, but later on I will provide something that's worth thinking about.

Note in the following comparisons how differently two media avenues cover the PS3.

WARHAWK

IGN says...
In the demo, the game was shown with a full HUD of the new futuristic Warhawk ship. Across a massive battlefield, [b]you could see ambient warfare everywhere, with background battles raging far away from you. Our editors report great lighting, volumetric cloud effects, and incredibly fast motion. One of the coolest events involved burning pieces of capital ships raining down and falling into the gorgeous ocean below.

Gaming Age says...
Warhawk, while looking great, was essentially a barren section of ocean with a lot of fighter ships (they were aiming for a hundred for the final game) going around destroying larger vessels and some nice looking water (wave simulation with procedural animation) and clouds (volumetric raytracing). Overall it was a great demo but a far cry of what was shown last year and gave a nice sobering introduction to the rest of the demos which was shown towards the end. Fortunately it will be playable at E3.

MOTORSTORM

IGN says...
Compared to the E3 presentation, the game is close in presentation and functionality and look to its promise, with detail not reaching the level of the astounding E3 demo but still running with some very cool technology to provide a new way of playing in the mud. Developed by Evolution Studios, the game's presentation featured buggies and motorcycles running through a rugged desert. The game's advanced new mud physics were incredible, leaving ruts behind in the mud using real physics. For example, a motorcycle was seen cutting a deep groove in the mud while kicking up muck at a white truck following it, the trailing vehicle buckily wildly as it battled off the streaming mud while also trying to find a line to drive in the groove-etched bog. The particle effects, however, were not nearly at that level of quality, looking a little temporary at this stage of early development. Hopefully, the unfinished details will be sweetened up as the game goes on, and the gameplay already showed signs of achieving the frantic nature of the E3 2005 teaser video.

Gaming Age says...
Next up was Motorstorm and just like Warhawk was no where near the E3 target render. The car models and physics were decent although the texturing and the environment was PS2 level of quality. The real star of the demonstration was the deformable terrain which worked quite well with the physics of the cars. The demo also had HDR, post processing effects, and occlusion.

RESISTANCE/I-8

IGN says...
In development at Insomniac Games (the makers of early Spyros and all the Ratchet and Clanks), the new real-time demo showed the game in much more complete form than the simple FPS that was shown at E3 in 2005. In the demonstration (which may still an alternate version of historic warfare, although the latest trailer showed more of a post-apocalyptic, alien-invader look), the gameplay was shown with new weapons very much like Ratchet and Clank, only now with a more realistic slant. How real did the game demo get? There were body parts tossed about that rolled around on the ground... with realistic physics, of course. The demo also showed off effects such as smoke trails on grenades, tactical troop movements, and enemies that came from the ceilings as the lead character ran down a devastated corridor.

Gaming Age says...
The next game was Resistance, the title formally known as I-8. Out of all the games this one was the farthest along but unfortunately the least interesting. It was your standard FPS affair with highly linear levels, decent A.I. and moderately interesting weapons. The lighting/texturing/modeling was all decent but nothing groundbreaking.

Why are there differences between what IGN says and what Gaming Age says? I propose the following reason:

IGN and Gamespy will be helping Sony in building their version of Xbox Live. They stand to profit in the BILLIONS if Sony becomes successful. This is clearly shown in this slide from the Playstation Business Conference:



Another interesting article related to this story.

IGN Entertainment's GameSpy Division, the supplier of multiplayer technology used in more than 300 PC and "PlayStation 2" game titles, has ported its technology to the "PLAYSTATION 3" and has received approval to join Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s (SCEI) Tools & Middleware License Program for the "PLAYSTATION 3." GameSpy technology lets game developers add sophisticated online game features to their game titles for "PLAYSTATION 3" just as they have with the PC, "PlayStation 2" and "PSP" (PlayStation Portable) platforms and with the same confidence. GameSpy technology significantly extends the capabilities of online game titles by enabling competitive team play - even across platforms - with worldwide matchmaking and advanced awards systems. GameSpy is also now able to bring customized server processing to "PLAYSTATION 3" game titles, a feature game developers call "persistence." An example of this can be seen in the Majesco Entertainment Company's Infected title, launched for "PSP" in November 2005, where the game continues to move forward even when a player is offline. "We are proud to continue to be a valued SCEI's tools and middleware licensee and look forward to accelerating the 'PLAYSTATION 3' market success by speeding creation of terrific online titles," said Jamie Berger, Vice President and General Manager of IGN Publisher Services. "Since developers are already familiar with our technology and interfaces, including it in their titles should be quick, giving them more time to refine gameplay and take the best possible advantage of the 'PLAYSTATION 3' platform." In addition to the "PLAYSTATION 3," GameSpy technology is available for the PC, "PlayStation 2," "PSP," Xbox, Nintendo DS, Linux and Macintosh platforms. Game publishers and developers interested in learning more about GameSpy SDK services should contact devrelations@gamespy.com or visit www.gamespy.net.

So in the end, all the positive IGN media coverage on the Playstation 3 boils down to this:


UPDATE:

April 24, 2006---

My theory isn't as far fetched as some people think.....

Further Evidence of the IGN Conspiracy vs the Xbox 360, PART I

Further Evidence of the IGN Conspiracy vs the Xbox 360, PART II

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