Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent Comments by Tom Bramwell

ouch

Broken Port... = 8/10 ???

Question for you PS3 folks... I was playing Motorstorm on a PS3 at Futureshop on the weekend and it seemed to be really choppy... Is this just a demo? Does the actual game have this problem?

Lazy port then. Glad I skipped it.

"Broken Port... = 8/10 ???"

speaks more to the quality of the underlying game than anything else. IGN's review was even more scathing; they even did an Insider comparison video to show just how ugly the PS3 version is in comparison to the 360 one.

Ubisoft in lazy port shocker!

Any explanations as to why it's such a crappy port?

@bcolter - Motorstorm is very smooth, it's just the store demos which are crappy.

JMM - Thanks!

I was playing Motorstorm on a PS3 at Futureshop on the weekend and it seemed to be really choppy... Is this just a demo? Does the actual game have this problem?

I have MotorStorm, and so far I have only noticed a framerate drop once (when half of the vehicles were crashing on eachother) since I first booted it. Dunno about the demo, but you're definitely not running the same game if you got something "choppy".

Any explanations as to why it's such a crappy port?

Ubisoft aspires to be the next EA?

"Any explanations as to why it's such a crappy port?"

I hear Unreal Engine 3 "doesn't work very well" on PS3.

"Broken Port... = 8/10 ???"

Game earns it in spite of the port, basically.

8 is high for this version.

>I hear Unreal Engine 3 "doesn't work very well" on PS3.

True... some blame it on texture memory problems.

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/5850/...

versus

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/5850/...

Question for you PS3 folks... I was playing Motorstorm on a PS3 at Futureshop on the weekend and it seemed to be really choppy... Is this just a demo? Does the actual game have this problem?

No. Smooth as.

@Yossarion - We've established it's a bad port.

don't cry

Dizzy: Which is odd considering the PS3 can use all 512 (-92) megs for textures as the GPU has full speed access to the main memory.

Grow up Yossarion.

@ disc: I thought it was the other way around, the CPU could read/write on the whole 512, while the GPU could only use half.

Ubi has realized where short term cash lies. New console owners wanting something to play. Will it pay off in the long run though?

You decide

Blimey, so much for Teh Power Of The Cell ...

Are there actually ANY 360/PS3 games that are clearly and undeniably BETTER on the PS3?

Yes indeed Disc.. it is the other way around. The 360 GPU has full access.

So maybe SC3 is one of those games that break the GPU memory barrier of the PS3? Then again it could also just be a crap port :) (even then I wonder why it runs so much worse). OFC it could also be the 10MB extra super fast GPU memory of the 360 that makes the difference in a straight port without work for optimizing for PS3.

I bought the game on the 360 on the strength of the eg review and thought it was all very ho-hum. So my advice would be to buy neither of the versions, as they are both rubbish

@bonker - Oblivion is one afaik.

Not that it matters, the power of a system is never tested by ports is it?

>"@Yossarion - We've established it's a bad port. "

Yes we have, just never knew how bad until yoss posted those pics.

YIKES.

I'm no techie, but I've also heard about this UE 3 stuff too. Any actual reasons why? especially when (it seem like) most games these days use that same bloody engine.

it'd be pretty rubbish if you heard gunshots after somebody had fallen over

Well it depends how far you are stood from them at the time..........
(speed of sound < speed of light)

:)

The worrying issue is that for multi-platform releases, multi-platform owners would likely choose X360 version over PS3 version if the shoddy port becomes the norm. The larger install base of X360 and ease of crossover from PC to X360 would mean that this would be the main platform and that PS3 having problem with large textures. I saw the Insider video and was shocked to see the prison guard having crappy face and uniform texture (look at the US flag badge on arm) compared to X360.

Still I ll own PS3 mainly for its exclusive and have said elsewhere that I would probably choose X360 over PS3 for multi-platform as I am Gamerscore whore!

The power of the CELL!!

Watch out, when it's emotion engine kicks in it'll have you in tears over Sam Fisher.

Reading quite a lot about frame rate issues on the PS3 when compared to the 360 versions of the same game. :|

Clearly ported to PS3 badly, it suffers in single player from framerate issues, unresponsive controller issues and some severely frustrating camera angles.

Even the ubisoft startup logo stutters, with the audio jumping - which to me highlights the entire game as a shoddy port.
There is no excuse for this.

Online is smooth though, with all the XMB friends features as you'd expect.

Aren't most multiplatform developers using the 360 as their lead platform? If so, isn't this to be expected? No big deal. They're both pretty much the same game still.

It's not good whichever way you look at it. Either it's a downright lazy port (which is putting me off getting Vegas and GRAW for PS3), the PS3 is proving hard to get to grips with or it just isn't anywhere near as powerful as the 360.

Not sure which is worse :(

@ bcolter

I also have motorstorm, and imho its a very over rated game. nothing special about it, i think everybody is talking about that cuz after resistance there is not much else to play (especially if you own a 360). I might try RR7 (that in the end is always fun, and you always know what you are getting). I think my biggest disappointment on motorstorm was the graphic (so ugly imo) cuz gameplay is not so bad. its very balanced (a bike is not always better than a truck, which is not always better than a rally car....). But i bet that in 1 year nobody will even remember about it. At the moment ps3 is great as a blu ray palyer (no sarcasm) and its woth to appreciate her for that. In september, then we-ll talk games....

@enzima - If you think Motorstorm is ugly, you need to see an optician.

Double Anal more like

@enzima - Or stop playing on a crappy 14" portable.

If it's that bad shouldn't it have failed Sony QA?

So this is the best Splinter cell port from the x-box to another console yet?

It's not good whichever way you look at it. Either it's a downright lazy port (which is putting me off getting Vegas and GRAW for PS3),

But that wouldn't be like Ubisoft!!! ;)

the PS3 is proving hard to get to grips with or it just isn't anywhere near as powerful as the 360.

I think pretty much as soon as the tech specs of both machines were known, the general consensus amongst techy-heads was that the PS3 had a pretty decent (but not huge) power advantage over the 360 - but also a design that'd make it very hard to reach that optimum (kind of like the PS2s' utterly terrifying design, if you compare God of War 2 to launch titles). Since then I think MS added an extra wodge of RAM to the 360 (before said machines release) to narrow the gap and perhaps give it an advantage in that area, but AFAIK the situation is simply that the PS3 is playing catchup on both developer experience and the tools available and if it is ever fully harnessed (a very big if) it will be the 'superior' machine (in a technical sense, anyways...).

Anyways, methinks it'll still be a year before you can judge the PS3, same as the 360 launched with some pretty indistinguished games. Which is handy, as maybe by then it'll be a price that won't require you handing over your firsborn to LoansDirect.

>I hear Unreal Engine 3 "doesn't work very well" on PS3.

True... some blame it on texture memory problems.<

Isn't this unreal engine 2.5.

I thought RSV was ubi's first unreal engine 3

"If it's that bad shouldn't it have failed Sony QA?"

superroflmao adventure

Anyone have any links to the rumours about UE3 problems on the Playstation 3?

@septimus

maybe you meant a 32" 720p/ 1080i lcd samsung? or you are having trouble respecting somebody´s opinion because its different from yours? or cuz you own only a ps3? do you at least have a hdtv?

I like how the reviewer says that the port sucks totally from the technical point of view and still goes on to give it an eight out of ten. I guess that ratings system is just a joke and something you just forward to the publisher, then?

Lot of rumors about the alleged PS3 problems. I think it's safe to bet that any old rumor is as good as the next so if someone of you feels better thinking PS3 is **cked because it has a slow BD-drive or because UE3 doesn't work properly on the machine then, please, feel free to enjoy the information any which way you want. You perverts :)

Like I said, optician. DO IT!

As someone already pointed out, lazy ports from Ubisoft are no breaking news.

Take Capcom's PC line owned by Ubisoft: I'm grateful I can have those games on PC, but Devil May Cry 3 and Resident Evil 4 for PC are just clearest examples of laziness, while Onimusha 3 (after the patch) was surprisingly OK...

Looks like SC:DA, although maybe conceived as a multiplatform effort, was then treated as a standard and lazy port.

SC:DA uses UE2.5

However, there was concern last year about UE3 on PS3 as Mark Rein had touched upon in this interview: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_in...

As Gears Of War ends, Rein explained that the concentration is changing to making the Unreal Engine 3 engine for PlayStation 3 better. He notes: "We have a couple of worried customers" regarding the PlayStation 3 and UE3, who are asking: "How are we going to get it to perform as well as the Xbox 360"? But this is now what Epic is concentrating on, as it moves toward the completion of Unreal Tournament 2007 "some time in 2007."

IIRC the 360 has a better GPU. (DX 9.9 essentially).

The PS3 can do better physics, etc. if teh power of the Cell is properly utilized. Oh, and more storage through Blu-Ray.

I think that sounds right; albeit I think it's kind of muddy as both ATi & Nvidia would give different answers on the GPU thing based on their own interests....from what I can tell the PS3 was, or perhaps even still is, designed to place some graphical stuff on the PUs rather than purely through a GPU, and the inclusion of the nVidia chip was a design compromise.

It's pretty hard to find info on this, at least for an uneducated pleb like me :). I don't think the 360 (or, in comparable terms, the PS3) uses a Direct X 9.9 though, AFAIK it's a 9.0c level thing. That's kind of a guess, though.

I like how the reviewer says that the port sucks totally from the technical point of view and still goes on to give it an eight out of ten. I guess that ratings system is just a joke and something you can forward to the publisher, then?

Well, to play devils' advocate, he could be ranking gameplay over relatively minor technical issues; that is, as a standalone game it's fun, and not compromised too much by the worse technical er....thingys.

I did expect a much lower ranking based on the review, though. Perhaps yon reviewer figured the discussion of the gameplay could be found easily on the 360 review and it was more useful to focus on the (mostly technical issues) differences between the two.

However, there was concern last year about UE3 on PS3 as Mark Rein had touched upon in this interview: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_in...

Well, it doesn't mean there are actually problems, though - it could be down to the pain-in-the-arseness of the PS3 to work with or something, or the console still being a bit of an unknown quantity.

(god, I sound like a Sony adverty person with all these 'defensive' replies - for some reason I feel obliged to reply with caveats in threads like these....)

"@bonker - Oblivion is one afaik.

Not that it matters, the power of a system is never tested by ports is it? "

K, I haven't seen/heard anything about Oblivion yet.

Well no, not necessarily but it's just a mite concerning that the PS3 is arriving to the party 18 months late and, let's face it, isn't cutting the mustard. Not only is it clearly not on a par with the 360 NOW but it's actually struggling to deliver last year's 360 output satisfactorily.

Not having a fanboy dig here, just genuine concern that the PS3 desperately needs a couple of uber AAA titles to settle things down ...

MS must be pissing themselves ...

Wrong, it's delivering well with exclusives, and let's face it, people don't buy new console for multiplatform titles. Well, not people with any sense anyway.