Christophe Balestra believes Uncharted 2 will max out PS3

"On the notoriously obtuse PS3 hardware, Uncharted is the studio’s technical leader. Balestra has even said that he expects exclusive holiday blockbuster Uncharted 2: Among Thieves to “max out” the systems many SPUs, compared to the 30% usage Uncharted took advantage of."

link: http://www.edge-online.com/features/the-hot-100-game-developers-2009?page=0%2C8

So, one of the most respected Playstation brand developers (Naughty Dog) fully expects to tap out the PS3 by year 3.  Does this not go against everything that has been said of how hard the PS3 is to develope for and due to its complex design that it will take a very long time to tap all PS3's power?

It doesnt surprise me. All that talk about how long it will take to max out hardware is mostly PR talk. Give a good developer enough time and money and they can break any system. Also, Naughty Dog has done nothing but develop for the PS3 with the current gen consoles. Of any studio, they should know the hardware the best and how to take advantage of its strengths and weaknesses.

Most of the best looking stuff came out near the end of the PS2s life.
Plus Naughty dog had to build their engine for uncharted 1 from scratch. So its no suprise that they are expecting big improvements for this one.

So i really dont think has significant relevance to how hard the ps3 is to develop for.

Unfortunately I never played the first one. Personally, it doesn't really matter to me how much "power" you use in your game. I don't buy a game based on SPU statements. Wow me with something else, replayability, coop, online, etc.

"It doesnt surprise me. All that talk about how long it will take to max out hardware is mostly PR talk. Give a good developer enough time and money and they can break any system. Also, Naughty Dog has done nothing but develop for the PS3 with the current gen consoles. Of any studio, they should know the hardware the best and how to take advantage of its strengths and weaknesses. "

I would hope by now developers would be attempting to max out all the SPUs, especially for games exclusively on the PS3. This isn't so much saying that it couldn't get better, because quality and efficiency of the code is always an issue. It's just saying that they are attempting to distribute a maximum load to all SPUs. The approach needed to accomplish such a task is not a simple one, so it's understandable that it would take a while to fully exploit.

Well, we'll see. David Jaffe said something similar about GoW 3, and it looks like a freaking ps2 game.

Yes the PS3 is hard to develop for but that doesnt mean it is not possible to get the best out of it and usually this happens with a studio that is 1st party, such as Naughty Dog.  But I really think people sound stupid when they say, oh we are just using 30% of the systems power or we are gonna max it out.  What the fuck does that mean?  How do you define 30%?  What the games you make are gonna be 3 times better when you max it out?
Anyway, yes i think the biggest mistake sony made was going with the cell processor when it is Power PC based, not even Apple is using that anymore, so when you are trying to develop multiplatform games to get your game out there as much as possible, and the 360 has a x86 processor, you are not gonna use money and effore to optomize for a processor you dont have much experience with.  The same thing happened with the Sega Saturn, that thing had two CPUs and no one like developing for it, but the studios that would develop for it could get the most out of it because they focused only on that system, and it was shown that some games could blow the Playstation and N64 out of the water, like Panzer Dragoon and the early build of Shenmue.
Killzone 2 is an amazing looking game, but please, no more of this 50% power or SPUs being used to the max, it just sounds weak, trying to make yourself feel better.

"But I really think people sound stupid when they say, oh we are just using 30% of the systems power or we are gonna max it out.  What the fuck does that mean?  How do you define 30%?  What the games you make are gonna be 3 times better when you max it out?"

"Anyway, yes i think the biggest mistake sony made was going with the cell processor when it is Power PC based, not even Apple is using that anymore, so when you are trying to develop multiplatform games to get your game out there as much as possible, and the 360 has a x86 processor, you are not gonna use money and effore to optomize for a processor you dont have much experience with."

"super_machine said:

"It doesnt surprise me. All that talk about how long it will take to max out hardware is mostly PR talk. Give a good developer enough time and money and they can break any system. Also, Naughty Dog has done nothing but develop for the PS3 with the current gen consoles. Of any studio, they should know the hardware the best and how to take advantage of its strengths and weaknesses. "

I have a PS3 and enjoy it, but what grinds my gears is how a companys PR, in this case Sony, sits there and makes statements that are untrue to drum up interest.  For instance, I can't remember how many times I heard or read....how the PS3 is futureproof and how its SO POWERFUL that it may not be realized.  Just marketing spin like that makes me so ticked, especially when one of your own developers chimes in and says...."excuse me...ah...we will max out your consoles power with our next title" three years in its life cycle."

Tips on how to get the best out of the ps3.

1. Be a sony first or 2nd party *i know 2nd party isn't a real word but it is a moniker used for a dev that is close with a system maker and recieves development support, money and such from said company.
2. Thats the only thing you need by being a first or 2nd part you get monetary suppliment and you get the biggest and best coding methods out of sony R&D and your guranteed to get the latset version of tool sets.

"Well, we'll see. David Jaffe said something similar about GoW 3, and it looks like a freaking ps2 game. "

sammyb you used a ingame picture and then an CGI. and while i do not think we have seen actual gameplay that looks just like god of war 1 and 2's CGI.

Pretty sure the GoW3 trailer was in-game stuff, merely scripted sequences as GoW games are filled with. In any case, haven't we gotten past the "how much % of the system game x uses" discussions ever since they started that with the PlayStation 2's "emotion engine" bullcrap? It's just another meaningless way to hype their creations, the result is what matters and not technical specs. You really can't say how much % a game uses anyway, an engine and content using the cpu and gpu 100% may still result in a worse game than an engine and content that uses it only 70% yet is far more efficiently programmed and skillfully designed. Stats like these are completely meaningless, and dumb.

"Well, we'll see. David Jaffe said something similar about GoW 3, and it looks like a freaking ps2 game. "

"sammyb you used a ingame picture and then an CGI. and while i do not think we have seen actual gameplay that looks just like god of war 1 and 2's CGI."

""On the notoriously obtuse PS3 hardware, Uncharted is the studio’s technical leader. Balestra has even said that he expects exclusive holiday blockbuster Uncharted 2: Among Thieves to “max out” the systems many SPUs, compared to the 30% usage Uncharted took advantage of."

link: http://www.edge-online.com/features/the-hot-100-game-developers-2009?page=0%2C8So, one of the most respected Playstation brand developers (Naughty Dog) fully expects to tap out the PS3 by year 3.  Does this not go against everything that has been said of how hard the PS3 is to develope for and due to its complex design that it will take a very long time to tap all PS3's power?"

"Unfortunately I never played the first one. Personally, it doesn't really matter to me how much "power" you use in your game. I don't buy a game based on SPU statements. Wow me with something else, replayability, coop, online, etc."

i don't give a fuck about SPU power or whaever bullshit they're talkin about. I just want the game to be fun and beautiful to play with. Uncharted 1 is one of my favorite game of all time, it was fun to play with, and it was pretty to look at. no doubt U2 will look and play even better, but stuff like "U2 will maxed out PS3 power......" is all bullshit to me, i don't really care about those things.

I'm tired of all these "maxing out" claims. Uncharted 2 looks great, and lets keep the discussion about the game, not how much percent it uses of the PS3's hardware. I just want to see some more information and some gameplay videos on the game.