PS3Center ModNation Racers interview

Nick @ PS3Center writes:

ModNation Racers may have slipped under the radar for a few gamers because it isn't a bloody action game or frantic first person shooter. ModNation Racers is a casual kart racer targeted at players of all ages, much like LittleBigPlanet, it's Play, Create, Share predecessor. However, don't let that innocent facade fool you, ModNation racers will push the PS3 to it's limits, just like Killzone 2 or Uncharted.

[WildArmed]

The demo at E3 had alot going for it.
The processing is definitely put under alot of pressure for the physics engine etc.

I just want a feature list of what you can do in this game :)

They went for a different art style so it might be a tad hard to believe it uses up 100% of the ps3. But I'll take their word for it.

[PLAYINB3YOND]

I doubt they're pushing the PS3 to the limit, i know the physics involved in that type of a game require alot of processing power but i think the PS3 has a few years at least before we can truly say it has been "maxed out", especially when the art style is the way it is, it's not exactly photo reaslistic and a million polygons and counting.

[Christopher]

Yeah, not sure about what they mean by 'limit', but the game is hopefully pushing the limit on options it will give us players. I've got this idea of a race track that is completely suspended and spirals from wide ovals at the bottom to really small ones at top... the goal? Go up and back down without dying.

Also, would love to see someone come up with a TPS like concept with the Player, Create, Share concept. Imagine giving people the ability to quickly mod together not only an capture the flag level, but also give them the ability to determine the type of weapons (magic, mundane melee/bow, modern, future) as well as everything else in the terrain. Add in some platforming capabilities and puzzle solving, you've got yourself a mini-Uncharted game maker.

[Syronicus]

They are pushing the PS3 to the limit at THEIR current code. Later, when they have leaned out their code, they will push the PS3 even further. The code is just not fine tuned and so it is expected that devs will say this type of thing.

[rockleex]

As much, or more, than Little Big Planet did.

[gaffyh]

I think by "max" they mean that at some points during the game (maybe in the creation process), all processors are running at max speed. Same way when you encode a video on PC, all the processors will run at 100% etc.

I wouldn't doubt them though, because their on-the-fly level creation actually seems more advanced that LBP in terms of the amount of time you can create a level in. LBP requires hours in order to make a great level, whilst Modnation may only require a few minutes.

[PLAYINB3YOND]

yeah it may be quicker to create a level in Modnation but you will undoubtedly end up with more shovelware levels as a result of its ease of use. I agree LBP creation is not easy and it is precisley that that prevents people taking 2 seconds to make garbage. because of the time it takes to create a masterpiece people are forced to think first about what they're gunna make, which can only be a good thing as it results in more high quality levels for us to play through. So it being quick and easy to create something does not always mean it results in better products. I mean look at the Wii and the amount of shovelware on that platform because of the how easy it is to code for.

[I did not murder him]

LOL

[Jaces]

I really get tired of hearing that...

[Erotic Sheep]

This is a joke right? This game?
Was I looking at the same demo at E3?

Next up: Pixeljunk Dev: "We did it, the PS3 has been maxed". >.>

[gaffyh]

@1.8 - Tired of what? LOL?

j/k

@1.6 - True, first thing I'm sure is going to happen is a penis level. You know it, and then hopefully we'll get the more serious levels e.g. Nurburgring, Laguna Seca etc.

[militant07]

Im not sure about the power but they both run at 3.2 Ghz

[WildArmed]

@1.7 wow havent seen you in awhile! wb

[Redempteur]

Well Lbp is already going even further ..with water physics ..

Maybe next year they will add even more ?

Play .create.share games have a lot of potential and we can expect devs to improve them if they have time . And i don't doubt they will

[D4RkNIKON]

I hate when they say this! It is one thing to promote your game, but to claim that the system can't handle anything more than you are providing is not only BS but it sounds more like you are ripping the system than hyping your game....

[shadow2797]

Ignoring the flamebait...

This was actually an interesting article that got me more interested in this game. I'd love to see some of the battle tracks that people will make. That was always my favorite part of Mario Kart. This game doesn't get enough credit for how much fun it'll be.

[cmrbe]

I always want devs to push my console to the limit. This is what consoles exclusives are suppose to do.

[UnSelf]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[DaTruth]

Hope this is like an advanced MarioKart Editor. The original MarioKart was one of my favourite games!

[DaTruth]

One of my LBP levels was so cool, it maxed the PS3's power!

[TheReaper42]

actually u can push the ps3 to its near limit on LBP. Just spam a whole bunch of bubbles and rocket into them. You'll get that lag if you know what i mean.

@modnation.. what a load of crap.

[Turn 10 Studios]

Of course you ARE

[IcyJoker187]

PS3 Games Pushing Limits
360 Games Falling Below Limits (640p)

[HighDefinition]

OF COURSE you are.

Just sayin.

[Leathersoup]

But don't mention Ghostbusters on the PS3.. (540p)

[ReviewsArePolitics]

Oh wait, it's made by Atari, which was supposed to deliver a AAA last year and gave us a piece of trash

[TotalPS3Fanboy]

Multiplatform games doesn't count.

[FlipMode]

Funny how resolution matters when we talk about Ghostbusters on PS3 but when people bring up Halos Bad resolution stones are thrown at you.

EDIT............Haha Seems to be a a lot of 360 fans in here. ^_^
Shouldnt you guys bee in ODST Articles? And not invading PS3 articles?

[I did not murder him]

Yes some 360 only developers choose to do low rez games on the 360.

You're missing the point, when devs try to push their games and tap into the console's hardware to bring those games to new levels the PS3 versions always have lower resolution or sub HD when the 360 does not lol.

LOL you try to paint a fictional picture about resolution when the 360 produces superior multi platform games no matter what console is the lead and the PS3 falls short being lead platform or not.

[The-Warranty]

B-B-B-B-B We don't troll!!!!
lol So many 360 fans butthurt at the amount of good Exclusives we get.

I shouldn't be mad at you guys though.

I mean Halo got Killzowned
Resistowned
Unchartowned
Ratchowned
LittleBigPowned
Metal Gear Solidowned
DemonOwned

it even got owned by Flower

Bad day to be a 360 fan =(
Wipeouwned

[TotalPS3Fanboy]

360 exclusives can't push HD resolution while PS3 exclusives can. Meaning 3rd parties are lazy while at the same time, 360 is inferior.

[I did not murder him]

I wonder how PS3 is going to handle the most graphically advanced games to have ever set foot on consoles? lol games like: RAGE, CRYSIS 2 and BRINK.

[The-Warranty]

We Praise Exclusives
You rely on Multiplats

That's the difference between us.

[TotalPS3Fanboy]

"I wonder how PS3 is going to handle the most graphically advanced games to have ever set foot on consoles? lol games like: RAGE, CRYSIS 2 and BRINK."

The PS3 can handle Rage and them fine. It's the 360 that will need 4 DVDs.

[LCF]

"I wonder how PS3 is going to handle the most graphically advanced games to have ever set foot on consoles? lol games like: RAGE, CRYSIS 2 and BRINK."

Your argument fails because of DVD9 and lack of mandatory HDD in a particular console and a slow CPU.

[TheBand1t]

http://news.vgchartz.com/ne...

You apparently missed the memo. 720p was mandated on the 360, something Sony never enforced. With that now gone, expect your so-called 'superior multiplats' to run in Sub-HD.

[shadowfox]

I think what needs to be clarified is that it may not push the GRAPHICS to the max like Uncharted or Killzone, but the hardware to the max. There's a lot of physics and stuff going on here.

[navyguy21]

ModNation racers??? Seriously?? Those devs should be shot on sight.

[LCF]

Agreed. This game looks more Cell intensive, than Cell/RSX intensive. This game (like LBP) is heavy in the physics category. Max could mean they managed to run all 6 SPEs. Looks like a fun custom-build arcade racer and a nice addition to the new play, create, share genre for consoles.

[LordMarius]

If I do an infinite loop
I can push the PS3 to the max

[zootang]

Has the PS3 got a max

[sunil]

Every developer seems to have been pushing it to the max nowadays.

[Redempteur]

and each time the boundaries are crushed .

One game crushes it with physics ..
Another crushes it with graphics ..

[Chuk_Chuk]

very interesting read. this one my most highly anticipated games of 2010. Shame the Goty edition of LBP is only in america.

[ExgamerLegends2]

Naughty Dog: WE'RE PUSHING PS3 TO THE MAX!!!
Guerilla Games: WE'VE PUSHE THE PS3 TO THE MAX!!!
Kojima: METAL GEAR PUSHES THE PS3 TO IT'S LIMITS!!!
Polyphony Digital: WE'RE MAXING THE POWER OF THE PS3!!!
Sony Santa Monica: WE'RE USING 100% OF THE PS3'S POWER!!!
Those Heavy Rain Guy's: WE'RE SQUEEZING EVERY DROP OF POWER OUT OF THE PS3!!!
President Obama: THIS NEW HEALTH CARE POLICY USES ALL OF THE PS3'S POWER AT THE MOST EFFECT LEVEL!!!
Microsoft: WE'RE WORKING ON SOMETHING THAT USES ALL OF THE PS3'S PROCESSING POWER!!!

Whatever happened to those guys back in the day that said no one can or ever will use all the power of the ps3?

[damnightmare]

LOL at that last one xD

[DigitalAnalog]

Tsk tsk tsk...

You're forgetting the original slogan: PLAY B3YOND....

All of them reached MAX level, they haven't touched B3YOND level yet..

Just wait..................

[Boody-Bandit]

"President Obama: THIS NEW HEALTH CARE POLICY USES ALL OF THE PS3'S POWER AT THE MOST EFFECT LEVEL!!!
Microsoft: WE'RE WORKING ON SOMETHING THAT USES ALL OF THE PS3'S PROCESSING POWER!!!"

Good stuff

[Sarcasm]

lol, as a PS3 fan I'm also tired of hearing this.

The same things were said about the PS2 at one time. Then God of War II pwned them all.

[LukaX23]

Guerrilla Games never said they're "maxing out" the PS3 with Killzone 2.

http://www.psxextreme.com/p...

[CreepyB]

the ps3 is limitless power, it does not have a max.

[kenpachi]

hopefully the beta will show us how good it is........... anyway i thought that GG only used 60% of the ps3 for killzone so hows that the limit

[DigitalAnalog]

Maybe the PS3 really "isn't" that hard to develop for.............

[LarVanian]

Duuude....you are sooooo 2007 man.

[DigitalAnalog]

I forgot to add the /s remark.

Sorry...

[LarVanian]

Lol I was just joking myself

[DaTruth]

It is hard to develop for. That's why everyone's code is so bad, that it takes 100% of the PS3's power to run it!

[Kamikaze135]

Didn't some developer state that if other developers say that they've pushed a console to it's limit, it's a sign of that developer not being creative enough?

I think it was EA.

[Halo_Reach]

There will be allways new ways to make better graphics and physics...

EVER.

[Lord_Ranos]

360 already maxed out with gear of war 2. So your wrong.

[LittleBigSackBoy]

maybe they just mean once you've put everything on your track, max trees, max hills, max road, max everything. it'll use all of the ps3s power?

[Shane Kim]

Eeeeh? In terms of graphics? Wierd, I'm sure I've seen games that looks a million times better than this.

[Eric Cartman]

If you remember, they said the same thing during the E3 conference. How the hell does this push the PS3 to the max?

I take ND's claim about Uncharted 2's 100% use of PS3 power with a grain of salt, now they want me to believe this?

PlayStation 3 goes way beyond anything we can imagine at the moment.

[Shane Kim]

The thing is, developers always comes up with new engines or whatever to harness more power from the existing hardware. What I mean is that graphics will look better in future PS3 games, even if the developers are saying that they are pushig PS3 to its limits. There will always be some developer that'll make a better looking game than the next one.

[Eric Cartman]

It will take a few more years to make the device sweat. God of War 2 did that on the PS2.

[Prototype]

Still Day 1 regardless, its nice to see a mix of Mario Kart, Little Big Planet, and Gran Turismo all in one.

[Jeff257]

I think they mean the same as the devs at Uncharted 2 when they said they had "maxed" out the PS3. Its just them stating they have the Cell and all the SPUs working together to run the game. Many 3rd party devs still havent learned to use all the SPUs so therefore they cant say they have "maxed" the system out.

[LukaX23]

I don't see how it's being "pushed". From what I saw at E3, it didn't look like it was.

[Sir Ken_Kutaragi]

http://coin-op.tv/wp-conten...

;-D

[Sir Ken_Kutaragi]

http://www.macobserver.com/...

It's in COLOUR!!! ;-D Well it's Green anyway;)

[bjornbear]

=)

[KiRBY3000]

Killzone 2 use about 70% of the PS3 power.
Uncharted 1 maybe 50%.
Uncharted 2 should be in the 80-90% range.
GT5 will be somewhere around the 90%.

the 1st party studios still have many years to improve their codes and the way they work with the PS3's unique architecture.

I like to think that 2009 is only the beginning of what awaits us. playstation systems have proven to allow developpers to do better and better over time. hystory will repeat itself.

[shark97]

i think its like an commercial 4 the game but its not true ,, ( it doesent mean that the game is bad ,, cause its amazing !! )

[yoghurt]

Devs always say this, imagine if they said well we are only using 50% of the ps3 power, people would go nuts saying they need to work harder and they would also expect the game to not be as good as it could be

[peeps]

exactly. it's just a way of going 'look we're putting in a lot of effort to make this a great game'

anyway quite looking frwd to this game, hope it doesn't take ages before we get to play it.

[hoops]

So true. All devs say this to promote their games. I really don't think they would say we are only using a portion of said consoles power...Talk about killing possible sales for that game.

[RAM MAGNUMS]

jealous?

[RAM MAGNUMS]

Hey, i think modnation racers is pushing the limits in the play, create & share genre. thats not only a opinion, thats a fact.
i must be a fanboy for acknowleding the truth.

Bite me.

[JonnyBigBoss]

This game looks outstanding. Seriously, this is one of my top upcoming titles.

[free3sixty]

so the 360 is maxed out with gears2.. but the PS3 isnt although 3 devs already confirmed that they maxed out the POS3.. KZ2, Uncharted2 and now this.

You PS3tards are really strange.

Also the FF13 gameplay (360) at GC looked better as the PS3 one.. but you say that FF13 was gimped down because of the 360.. i think its the other way around xD.

MS needs just more studios with OWN engines.. just like sony has. Turn10 shows what the 360 can do. ID SOftware with RAGE which looked already better as KZ2 runs great on MSFTs console, right now even better, but iam sure the ps3 code will also be improved.

[CernaML]

I thought Guerrilla Games said something about Killzone 2 using 60% of its power. Nice try.

[peeps]

and id deffo said something about the 360 making it hard to dev RAGE because of lack of storage in not having a hdd as standard and dvds

[skatezero246]

lmao your joking ryt? then how come all of the ps3 exclusives sh!t on everything on the 360 when it comes to graphics? so it appears 3rd party studios are lazy or gimp the ps3.

please enlighten me name one game that's on the 360 that can compete with uncharted let alone uncharted 2 I know it must suck for you constantly seeing a new ps3 game being announced but come on

[ColossiSlayer]

There was once a game that came along 5 or 6 years into PS2s life that finally pushed that system to it's "Max". Actually Ill say there were 5 games that simply were Technical Marvels:
God Of War 2
MGS: Snakeater
FF12
GT4
And last but certainly not least,
Shadow Of The Colossus
With that said, I think we have at least 3 more years til the Devs "master" the PS3. Then we will see games thatll push the envelope on what we thought was possible on a console.
Uncharted 2 & Heavy Rain looked to be heading in the right territory, but Last Guardian oh that will quite possibly be the most techinally impressive game ever released on a console. Team Ico will push the PS3 B3yond just like they did with the PS2.
That's why I call SOTC, The "first" PS3 game....
*As for ModNation Racers, it looks cool, I've been waiting for a good PS "Mario" kart. I really wanna see if I can create Royal Raceway from Mario Kart 64.*

[KiRBY3000]

the minute i started playing, I too, called SOTC the "first" PS3 game.

[foreverflame]

This game will flop pretty bad looks very kiddy also.Forza 3 is miles better than this mario kart rip off.

[Eric Cartman]

You compared Forza to a kart racer? Sounds about right.

Modnation destroyes Forza 3 in every single category.

I like how you bots pwn yourselves. Keep it up.

[peeps]

i'm sorry but you started off by making a good point

"you compared Forza to a kart racer? Sounds about right."

but then you went on to say this...

"Modnation destroyes Forza 3 in every single category."

which is what you're criticising him for doing lmao. what an idiot

[Eric Cartman]

Obviously, you're not familiar with the concept of trolling.

Give this a read and I will give you a bubble: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[peeps]

well i guess we are in the open zone lol

[champ21]

pushing the ps3 or 360 to the max shouldnt be too hard, they are just outdated 3yr old pcs lol.

[Aquarius]

Thanks for giving me a disagree BTW, when I tried my best to be logical in another article I commented in a few hours ago.

BTW I disagreed this time.

[champ21]

disagree all you like.... its not a big deal to max out 3 year old hardware.

when crysis 2 comes out i am sure it will run at low/med textures on consoles.. most fps already do.

[FF7numbaone]

skipping LBP and getting this. RD?

[Morituri]

Stfu with all of this "maxing out the ps3" crap. When did God Of War came out for the ps2? Second year? Third year? Hell no! It was in the twilight years of the ps2's cycle that all that graphical power was squeezed out. And they want us to believe that in this early stage of the ps3's life that they have hit the wall so soon? C'mon, give me a break.

Show me something to knock my socks off. Something like Ucharted 2 or Killzone 2. And the scary part is, those games will just continue to look better. Uncharted 1 was amazing, still wipes the floor with most current games. Didn't think it could look any better. Glad I was dead wrong.

The blessing & the curse of the PS3's guts it the complexity & "difficult" nature of programming for it. As the devs continue to tame the beast, it slowly reveals its secrets to them. That's what SONY meant when they said that they made it hard to program for. The 10 year plan is more than just talk people.

[The_Nameless_One]

Every time new info for this game comes out , my interest level keeps going up. I have a strong feeling that this game will bring a much needed rejuvenation to the stagnant kart racing genre.

[RAM MAGNUMS]

Well, pc gamer
what game is pushing the pc to the limits and why does it suck so much?

try not to mention cysis because that game is crap. graphically flat and you must play online alot right.

[peeps]

well for a start pc games have much larger player counts...

just off the top of my head isn't operation flashpoint:DR 64 players on pc, but it's 8 players on consoles...

[Aquarius]

but MAG is 256 players so what?

a 360 which is basically a Pc can only do 5 on 5 with GeOw with lag and glitches.

[gamingisnotacrime]

And that translates in music to gamers ears. Now im thinking this game will have endless possiblities and tons of content...
Awesome!

[TheTeam06]

I hope they don't mean graphically because Uncharted 2 is shaking it's head and finger at them. Even MGS4.

Hardware based? Probably not. It looks like a really fun game, but not a mazed out one =)

[Sibs]

Looks like an insanely fun game, I hope people don't forget about it.

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

They said they're 'pushing it to the max' they never said they 'have' pushed it to the max.

In other words however much of the juice they can get out of the PS3 is their max point.

Reaching the max doesn't always mean super duper realistic graphics.

[Pacman321]

What else is new

[bruddahmanmatt]

Can't wait to see people shooting for sub 8 minutes times on a user created version of the NurburgRing.

[gamerzBEreal17]

i dont like this ps3 is only in its third year and there pushing it to max out

[NateNater]

Every dev who develops for the PS3 always claims they are "pushing the ps3 to the max"

Well I don't believe it! KZ2 was supposed to push it to the max. But now look at Uncharted 2 and God of War 3 or even Heavy Rain! PS3 won't be pushed to the max until a couple of years from now imo