Haze not in HD, has 4GB install Comments by Robert Purchese

JSPOOLE - Yes there is that of course, but was trying to be diplomatic and also concentrate on the game for a change ;)

Man, these massive installs are getting tedious. What's the point of having a 60 GB hard drive if games lop off sometimes 5% of the space?

Gradius wrote:We know the 360 performs better on a lot of multi platform titles. Why do you feel the need to rub peoples faces in it?

Its not about that - its about letting people know that the 360 is a better choice if you want the best of the best. Not all people can afford both PS3 and a 360 like you and me. All serious gamers needs to own a 360 imo. I feel the need to inform gamers that the fact of the matter is 360 is superior regarding both muliplatform and exclusive titles. Only hardcore movielovers that buy a lot of blueray movies should consider the PS3 over the 360.

Yep, once again Eurogamer never missing a chance to point out ANYTHING that will cast PS3 in a bad light. Nice job guys.

@thinred

Whats the problem - Its the truth. Consumers/gamers should always be interested in this kind of reveals.

Ok Umberty, you've had your anti-360 rant now, got anything to add to the topic itself? ;)

"Darren, I agree that Sony's hardware design philosophy needs re-evaluating"

It's not their hardware design philosophy per se that needs re-evaluating (if you're referring to the Cell processor) but they need to make sure good tools are available to utilize the hardware. I think it's a good thing to have abandoned the 'archaic' PowerPC processor platform if only to keep the industry from fully depending on a single processor architecture and thus limiting future options for innovation.

"It's not really about questioning the PS3's power, it's about the reality that it's not as powerful as some gamers like to believe (i.e. those who still believe the PS3 will blow away the 360 in future). The 360 and PS3 are very simliar in terms of power, with the PS3 having a slight edge for those devs with the resources to get the most out of it."

As long as people only judge a console's power based on the pixels it pushes, PS3 and 360 are quite evenly matched. The 360 is a pixel powerhouse, the PS3 can be if it's pushed (so Cell supporting the GPU) but there are far better uses for it's power (which is why exclusives in general are so much better than the third party efforts that invest 90% of their time in getting both versions to look the same...

Played the Haze demo for a short while. Was better than I expected and the nectar effects are nice. But I currently have had my FPS fill so I might pick it up once it hits the bargain bins (or not, still have to play MGS3 and finish FF XII amongst others). Too much baseball to play (both MLB The Show 08 and PYS5 are excellent efforts and big improvements upon last year's versions for those interested).

@Umberty

Bullshit! The RROD is not a big issue for consumers cause you just return it an get a new one. The scratched discs is nothing i have experienced with two 360 consoles and over 50 retail games. And Xbox Live is such a great service its worth three times the small amount it costs. I actually only paid for it once. I got a free 12 month Live card with my GTAIV purchase. If cost issues are important then PS3 is not a better choice at all. I bet you dont own or never did own a 360 anyway.

I was playing the Haze demo again last night in anticipation of the game's arrival from GAME on Thursday and think I may have judged it too harshly on what is only a small section of the game. Sure the graphics could be better, especially the textures, and it looks a little blurry but they serve their purpose and everything runs smoothly plus at least it isn't a jagfest. It plays well enough and after watching some gameplay videos I'm looking forward to actually playing it more than I was. Ahem.

Quickly moving on, one thing that does irk me though is the way the bodies fade away almost immediately, nothing kills the immersive factor quicker than a cadaver fading away in a game, it's so 2001. I just can't understand why they do as the original Halo on the Xbox managed to keep bodies onscreen long enough to make the game world believable so why not the PS3 with its standard HDD? An annoying side-effect of this is that ammo dropped by the enemies is actually harder to find, a bit of an oversight by Free Radical I think. :?

Anyway, I'm not going to comment any further on this game until I've had a chance to play the final product. The game is apparently released in the US today which makes the lack of reviews very odd but hopefully we'll get EG's within the next day or two?

Yikes!

IGN gave Haze a 4.5/10.
What gives?

@muscleblade

"its about letting people know that the 360 is a better choice if you want the best of the best."

C-mon mate, we already know about these two consoles, people who keep on repeating the same thing over and over again are not doing so to help new consumers make a considered choice, it's childish gloating.

@Darren
The bodies disappearing is all part of the story and nectar dosing. It makes bodies disappear to de-sanitise the soldiers from the havok they reap. Remember the Haze Distortion bit as you get to the village? The effect wears off briefly and you see one of the dead bodies from the bombing lying on a rock before it kicks in again. Obviously when you switch sides the same will not be true.

This affect also has a big impact on the multi-player as rebels can play dead when they take enough damage - this will make them disappear quite handily. It's all about balancing between Nectar dosed players and rebels.

So what you thought was a shit restriction could actually be quite a cool gameplay mechanic :)

Similarly to someone who complained about the annoying "Jock" AI characters in the demo. You're not meant to like them - it's part of the story.

wanted this game since i got my ps3. ign are generous with scores so 4.5 is reajjy a 3. so gutted goes off to buy cod4

I thought the IGN review of Haze was rather poor, focusing far too much on the story, nearly one page of a two page review, and not enough on the game itself. Also IGN have a tendency to rate everything else low if the game is below par like presentation, sound and graphics and it's so apparent here. Sure Haze isn't an especially great looking or great sounding game but the scores they gave are a tad harsh. I guess we'll have to see what the other reviews make of it... rumour has it that gamesTM have given the game 4/10 too. Worrying...

Yep - they seem to have almost grasped the idea that you are not meant to like you team mates at the start, but then never actually make the connection to the side switch too. They also miss a lot of the uses of nectar against the enemy once you switch sides (aside from the grenade).

No it's not the best of games, but that review does seem to have missed the point in a few areas.

Wheres Swam these days.....i miss that retard.....

Anyone who says Halo3 doesnt look great or even amazing on the levels where they really went all out is either blind, a fanboy, or still playing their daddies console on a SD 14" Tecknika TV (£29.99 from tescos).

I suggest a poll, who actually plays their nextgen console on a 'HDReady' TV?

To start the ball rolling.....im on a 50' Panasonic Plasma (TH-50PX70PED) native res 1366x768...

Uncharted, Gears, GT5, Condemned 2 and Bioshock (for the water effects) are graphically the most impressive ive played...so far

Halo 3 looked very good at times but too often it looked merely OK IMO, thanks to the low rendering resolution and complete lack of AA which was surprising for the 360's flagship title. It looked rough and unfinished in places. Although the lighting was nice, it didn't look any better than other games on the 360 that used HDR so the decision to go with that over image quality always struck me as odd... and a mistake. That's just my opinion though but very few of the reviews I read raved about the graphics which as far as I'm concerned was very telling. I'll just say that they were good enough but rarely impressive compared with, say, Gears of War or Call of Duty 4. Sorry.

P.S. I play games via HDMI on a calibrated Sony Bravia HDTV... ;)

"rumour has it that gamesTM have given the game 4/10 too. Worrying..."

I don't have any reviewer in high regard but gamesTM is near the bottom after they slammed the best game in the last 2-3 years (Patapon for PSP) for missing a feature (removing troops from the line-up) that it doesn't miss. A bunch of wankers.

I didn't ever think this game would review well due to being so generic it literally hurts, buy I'll still but it because I like the demo. The visuals are fairly poor, but I want it for the multiplayer and playing dead :) Love the feature in MGO, I'll love it here too.

Oh, and the 0.01% chance of some kind of monkey cameo. Don't dissapoint Free Radical.

"To start the ball rolling.....im on a 50' Panasonic Plasma (TH-50PX70PED) native res 1366x768..."

You have a 50 foot plasma screen with a resolution like that? So the pixels are what, about the size of a brick? Blimey.

On topic, played the demo round my brother's house, it's just a shit game even if you completely ignore the underwhelming graphics. Very, very uninspired.

@Darren - I guess im more impressed by the engines robustness than the actual visuals (the reflective surface and shadows on the wraiths/ghosts always get me a little giddy. Nearing the end of it (bit late i know but ive got far to many games to complete atm) and an airborn battle with 2 scarabs was great to watch aswell as play, as there was so much going on and the engine just took it in its stride. Looked fantastic.

Gonna have a look at the Haze demo tonight, see what all this pissin an bitchin is about....

@Barkotron - Ok you got me, i lied about the 50 foot panny, its only lowly inches.....i do have a 5m long remote control though...has good girth too! :)

Les wrote: "As long as people only judge a console's power based on the pixels it pushes, PS3 and 360 are quite evenly matched. The 360 is a pixel powerhouse, the PS3 can be if it's pushed (so Cell supporting the GPU) but there are far better uses for it's power (which is why exclusives in general are so much better than the third party efforts that invest 90% of their time in getting both versions to look the same..."

Well I'm certainly not only judging the consoles by graphics alone Les :), and yes, exclusives tend to be better (but not always) than multi-format games because devs can optimize the game specifically for one architecture.

(Quick reply... can't say more... I'm at work :))

@penhalion

Can't hurt to have a 5th/6th SKU on the market, surely?

@Gradius

Man, Im no fanboy and not a boy either. Screw MS for all i care. I only care for good games and for the gamer's best. The thing why i rub it in their faces is cause I still don't understand why they support Sony so much? If they would open their eyes see that they pay TOO much for a console specially when the BR has done nothing than made them pay exra till now on the gaming department and also they still have to use 10% of the console's HD drive for 1 game's installation, they will need only 9 more like that to fill it up with just installation files isnt that right? So why don't they all drop fucking Sony, let them hang with that high price ( also other companies will see the warning right there ) and realise that gaming isn't for thick wallets only. I spend too much money for my entertainment specially in my place. Since when do I have to spend also so much on a gaming console? Just cause Sony wants to? Stop paying for the fucking PS3 since it's unexplainably expensive and let them get close to bunkcrapcy so they will start thinking over before they come up with PS4 or whatever they will name the next console. Then you'll see how many ppl can afford an xbox, a wii and a play station. Thats why i rub it in. Cause they keep paying for shitty things which is actually insulting for themselves and it's pissing me off.

Fuck MS, Fuck Sony. But at least MS preferred to loose a lot of money to keep the consoles in logical prices for anyone that might want to buy an xbox. See xbox ( the first ). Sony did what? Sells ppl a damn tostier saying that the yellow instead of red heating is better for your bread when it isnt and you practically pay double for it. The thing is that those kids in this site can't fucking think for themselves. They turn against MS cause they prefer PS3? What is the point in that? I turn against Sony cause they are using the trust of the consumer and that they taking advantage of the reasons why kids and ppl generally prefer to buy a PS console. Simply cause they are used to that. This piece of crap came out, how long after the xbox? And yet its offering worse graphical quality in almost all the crossplatform games. It's not even worth half it's price till they prove to me why that shit is worth being apart of my livingroom actually. Seriously, think about it.

@davisorle

"But at least MS preferred to loose a lot of money to keep the consoles in logical prices for anyone that might want to buy an xbox"

This has been repeated to death, but some people still don't get it, for some strange reason. 360 is NOT cheaper than PS3 if you factor in the price of a wifi adapter (a must for many people), a useless HD drive AND the Live subscription if you want to play online. Believe or not these three items are essential for A LOT of people, and they all come free with PS3.

"This piece of crap came out, how long after the xbox?"

I suppose you're talking about the 360, right? Cause in my book a poorly designed, insufficiently tested console with such a high failure rate qualifies much more as a piece of crap than the PS3. Not to mention the fact that MS was FULLY AWARE that the console was faulty when they launched it. They just couldn't give a damn as long as they got first to the party this time round.

Er..what was this topic about again? ;)

I love when the SDF say the 360 costs more with all the addons.

Lets see:
360
Premium £200
If you have any sense then you wire the network on both consoles £0
Play and charge kit £15
Live... optional

So thats £215 or £275 for the elite with 120GB hd

The 20GB HD is more than enough to download demos etc and as you don't need 4GB per game should be fine.
Live can be got for £23 if you shop around, I can honestly say its worth every penny and would rather keep paying than xbox live than it go free and drop to PSN standard.

Meanwhile:
PS3 £300
DS3 to replace gimped sixaxis in box £30.

So thats £330 , not a bad premium to pay for a blu-ray drive I don't want or need.

Haze is a bad game it has an average of 54 so far on metacritic with 11 reviews in. Too bad Killzone 2 looks like it gonne be average at best with dull backrounds and poor controls aswell. MGS4 should be of high quality hopefully.

IneptPercy

You forgot the PS3 does not come with Hi Def cables (£20) or a head set for voice chat in online games (really required for games like Haze) (£20), both of which are included in the 360's £199.

Also the dual shock will be much more than £30 when it is released in Europe, its more than that in the States which does not bode well for here.