Mass Effect Takes up only 6.74 GB

Team Xbox did get a sneak peek or the main screen on the dev kit and the size of the game is 6.74 GB – well within the contstraints of a dual layer DVD-9. When you see how huge this game is, you'll see that even future iterations like Mass Effect 2 and 3 with their upgrades will not have a problem with disc space.

[sjappie]

DVD.

[Crazyglues]

LOL.... Priceless...

[cloud360-7th_account]

This game is only pssible on DVD and not Blu-Ray.

Only games that have awesome sound and graphics and lenght are possible on Blu Ray

[Odion]

kinda like your 6 hour Heavenly Sword, to my 60 hour Mass Effect?

[InMyOpinion]

"Only games that have awesome sound and graphics and lenght are possible on Blu Ray"

How come Oblivion was possible on both DVD and Blu-Ray?

Where are these Blu-Ray titles you are talking about? I have'nt seen any yet. Guess what. GTA IV fits on DVD as well.

[sjappie]

I think he was being sarcastic. Oh, I guess not after reading his 2nd comment.

Crazyglues, thnx for the award, I'm sure I'll find a nice place for it on my mantle.

[socomnick]

Dvd and blueray are both capable storage formats for this generation. Blueray seems to hold more but in reality devs just spread out the files uncompressed onto the ps3 to help with load times because blueray loads so slow.

[hazeblaze]

Just wait til you guys play the game and then try comparing the environments and sound to games like Heavenly Sword and Uncharted.

In EVERY vid shown of Mass Effect we've already seen that the environments are pretty bland... even on the ship. The graphics are gorgeous but there's not a lot of detail... and that's the difference.

Not saying it's a bad thing... for a game with as many worlds to explore, it would have taken MUCH longer for them to fill each one up with the level of visual or audio detail of HS, R&C, or Uncharted. I've been saying this for MONTHS... the game looks great & can't wait to play it, but it lacks the detail of a lot of games we've already played. Even Bioshock's level design included more detail than we've seen in any of the ME vids. I still think gameplay can make up for a lack in visual/audio detail but fanboys shouldn't act like the small space is not noticeable in the detail of the game.

Also, when I refer to audio, I am refering to environmental ambience. There's a ton of dialog in the game and the usual combat sound effects. But the other games mentioned include environmental audio for a realistic ambience... may be present on some of the worlds but it hasn't been shown off on any of the vids yet. That's the kind of stuff that gives games more immersion.

EDIT: @GODOFTHUNDER. You're stupid. For one, the PS3 doesn't even cost $600 anymore. Second, it'll be less than $300 in less than 1 years time. And third, games are ALREADY taking advantage of the extra storage space that blu ray offers... of course games on the 360 aren't going to take up extra space... b/c THEY CAN'T. For UBI to say they were having to work to get Assassin's Creed to fit on dvd... it means that it is already an issue. What Mass Effect DOES prove is that a game CAN lack in some areas and still be appealing. And what games like HS, MGS4, Uncharted, & KZ2 show is that games on blu ray will be pushing the level of detail in games far beyond anything we will see on the 360. Own both consoles and quit being a moron.

[godofthunder10]

here's proof that dvd-9s are good for games,mass effect have awsome graphics and hours and hours of game play and they didn't use all the dvd-9 but sony fans will say that it's a lie and it used all the space up even with proof.dvd-9 is perfect for games for another 3 to 4 years(i didn't just come up with this it was in pc)so by the time game really need br and hd-dvd the drives will be a lot cheaper and you could buy a system for under $400 with every thing in it including everything that the $600 ps3 had instead of $600 like the ps3.just think if the ps3 last 10 years like sony said (what a joke)then by the time you really need br or hd-dvd then you only have about 2 to 3 years before a new one comes out and you paid $600 for nothing but microsoft did it right they released a system that will last 5 years and every one could afford then it will release one with br or hd-dvd for under $400 so every one could it unlike sony'they forced br on the customers to win the format war not for games like they claimed and if you think about it for a while and be honest instead of bias you will know that.so sony released the ps3 with a price tag that most people want spend on a kids video game system and it hurt them in the long run of the ps3 but it helped them in the format war because without the ps3 then br would've lost already so sony accomplished it's main objective.

[rubarb23]

MS is proving that blu ray isn't necessary for games. there is talk that future games may require more space but so far so good for ms i guess.

[Evil0Angel]

made my day.bubble sir+track list

[Mu5afir]

Mass Effect is an RPG, the "actual" gameplay is probably no more then 12 hours long at best. Comparing these two genres is idiotic, pointing to Heavenly Sword, when you could have pointed to R&C etc as examples of more storage used right.. is moronic and fanboyish.

Defending an inferior format, because you own a Xbox 360 and can't afford a HD-DVD / Blu-Ray player is sad.

[Mark 1]

YOU'VE BEEN HIT BY...
@@________
@@@______(*) THE BOABY...
(__)_)

[gaffyh]

I'd wait to see how good it actually is, I don't see an RPG like this working, the facial animations are stiff and gameplay looks a little strange.

By the way FFX was also on a DVD, I think it used more space than this (and was as long if not longer), which makes me wonder what the devs have compromised on. Most likely they have completely replaced all FMVs with Cut scenes to cut down on the size (like in MGS series). It looks like it could be a good game, but they should be aiming to use up the full disc capacity.

[FreeMonk]

proves that you don't need a Blu-Ray disc to fit a game that looks and plays amazingly.

The 360 version fits perfectly onto a DVD disc and is 99.9% the same as the PS3 version with 1080p graphics and all, which shell's out a Blu-Ray disc using around 20gb of data compared to the 7gb DVD on the 360. The same probably goes for Assassin's Creed when that gets released.

If Mass Effect is indeed 6.74gb, it just re-confirms that Blu-Ray is still not needed at this present time, especially when the graphics in Mass Effect look amazing and matches any PS3 game out there at the moment, plus runs at nearly 50hrs worth of gameplay.

I'm sure the Sony Fanboys will have something to say about this, so just explain why Bluray is needed for next gen titles??

[Mr Bubbles]

thank god somebody here still has a sense of humor. I realize the irony of me posting this but, I kinda wish that first comment was the only one on this thread. Bubbles for the wit and the quick draw, sjappie!

[fusionboxer]

Ok you can't really say the amount of time you play a game all of a sudden equals the amount of storage space needed or desired. Details such as audio, textures, actual gameplay time, environments and all of that make up the reasoning why developers could use more memory on their discs.

I bet the mass effect dev team would have loved to have extra space regardless of whether or not they did or didn't have it. Hideo Kojima said he wanted more space for games on the ps2 let alone games this generation. Metal gear solid 3 definitely wasn't a 60 hour game yet it used quite of bit of data. I played Monster Hunter freedom 2 for going on almost 400 hours now, but that doesn't mean i'm seeing new environments, gameplay variations or anything like that. I'm basically moving to similar looking places, using familiar fight mechanics, against your basic npc's that other then textures pretty much act the same. This goes for oblivion (regardless of how engrossing and fun it was), your final fantasy's, and even my favorite psp game monster hunter. Mass effect is an RPG with very cool shooter elements and a bit a strategy. It's looking amazing and I never once thought it needed more then a dual layered dvd because the gameplay is seemingly(not sure yet) set in stone. The environments look nice, but aren't the focus because you simply use your vehicle to get around. The characters are definitely the focus here and I really don't expect the rest of the game to match up to the character textures, animations, and interactive dialogue.

Not to sound one sided, but i can see ratchet or heavenly sword needing the extra space because of the amount of textures, physics, size of envrionments, audio, and even AI all working together at once running off a single disc. Those games may not be long, but the scale of everything is simply over the top.

But yes regardless of how you look at it, some games will need extra space, and some won't. Simple as that.

[MADGameR]

As for the idiots trying to bash Blu Ray. MS can do everything right with the 360, they can overhype but the fact is, they will still lose. End of story... soon you will find out. You are just blindly being hyped by DVD9.

[Sam Fisher]

i agree but u got to admit that sony is FAR ahead of its time and thats y its fails so much... but theres way more problems on the ps3 than on the 360 thats 4 sure 4 EX:

link - http://onaxis.blogspot.com/...

[godofthunder10]

i'll agree that some games used more then they have on dvd-9 but they could' ve let out some stuff the game didn't even need and on top of that you still have 99% of games that don't need extra space.the person that said the developers wanted more space is wrong because if that's true then why didn't they used all the dvd-9 and the game play on mass effect is a lot more then 11 hrs like one sonyfan is trying to say and the guy that said the xbox 360 already lost doesn't even know what he's talking about because the 360 is still out selling the ps3 and it will out sell the ps3 for christmas to because every one i know is buying a 360 and best buy,circuit city,game stop, and walmart well i live at still have the 60 ps3 because they can't sell them.the guy at best buy asked me if i knew any one that wanted a ps3 to send them their because they can't sell them,they never sold out on the released date and target to still have the 60 ps3s and i asked the guy all the ps3 selling well he said know but the 360 are selling.i know that some sony fans will say that i'm lieing and god knows i wish i could proof it some how because it's the truth because where i live at the ps3 isn't popular, i don't know why.i thought that the ps3 would win the console war when it first came out but now there's no way it will win now.the ps use to be #1 on the release date but it's over a year old and still in third place behind the wii and 360 and they are still out selling the ps3.if the ps3 doesn't win this christmas then it's over for the ps3 and i know that it will loose where i live out just because they never sold out on release date and they never sold out the 60 ps3 when they drop the price because you could buy them any where they sell electronics,a few days ago when i went to game stop they still had about 5 60 ps3s and that when they asked me if i knew anyone that wanted a ps3 to send them there because they can't sell them but the 360 is still selling because he said that parents come in the store and look at the price and buy a wii or the arcade version of the 360.people need to realize that parents buy a game systems for their kids and they get the cheapest one and parents don't worry about the online features because they are not planning to put it on line.

[Twist96]

[Regarding PGR4]

"The artists use software application Photoshop to draw the worlds and Maya to build the cities in three dimensions. At the end of the process each city is more than 6.3GB in size, across 10,487 different files. That data is crunched down by a render farm into a size manageable by the Xbox 360. The team even uses pre-production 360s to help export the data. At the end of the crunch a city is only 593MB in size, held in just three different files."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/...

Excellent note about the value of compression. Games will fit on DVD9 for at least another two years. After that we'll go to Digital Distribution. Screw expensive HDDisk formats. Both 360 owners (Tv Shows, Demos, Arcade Games) and PS3 owners (Warhawk) have seen the advantages of Digital Distribution.

[Twist96]

Can you try typing in paragraphs?

[SlappyMcTaint]

Holy sh!t, I think I'll go slap yo momma -only 6.74gb?! wow, that's incredible!! How did they do that? OMGbbqSauce!! What will they think of next?

[P4KY B]

Very impressive indeed.

[InMyOpinion]

The only ones who said space was gonna be a problem this generation were Sony, and look what they know about designing dev-tools. The only thing they are good at is spreading hype and bs. That's what's selling the PS3. People think it's more powerful cause that's what they've been told.

[green_ghost5]

By compressing animations and everything else to 1% of it's original size.

[Gorgon]

jenzo, its the same thing with games like Halo and COD4. People just think they are awsome because they've been told so. Every PC gamer is laughing at those games right now. For us its old hat.

[dhammalama]

Sony's definitetly not good at making game consoles!!! Name one Sony console that ever did relatively well. . . . oh, never mind.

[InMyOpinion]

I could name a couple of Sony formats that flopped completely if you like? =) How about Betamax, MiniDisc, ATRAC, HiFD, Super Audio CD and UMD?

Only calling MS greedy is funny cause all Sony wants with their new formats is to gain monopoly. They are both as greedy, as are all multinational corporations. It's part of the game.

[WilliamRLBaker]

really? then why did halo 3 outsell every single pc fps in one day? why has it garnerd higher scores then pretty much 95% of them?

why has it reached a media size no pc game has ever seen besides mmo'S?

lol pc gamers are crying and thats a fact.

[sticky doja]

Name one Sony console that hasn't been over hyped by Sony themselves. Every one of their systems has underperformed from what they promised it would be capable of.

[dhammalama]

Still they make good games and I think bluray was a good decision. It's forward thinking and I'm glad I have it. Basically I'm safeguarded from being funked buy the "HDDVD vs. Bluray WAR" because even if bluray doesn't win, my bluray player isn't obsolite. I also think that although sony has a lot invested in the bluray format, the ps3 gives them a perfect digital distrobution base as well. (as long as it sells well)

[TheMART]

That large universe to explore and not even fill up the complete 8.5 GB DL-DVD.

So now what Sony fangirls, BluRay is soooo needed. Right? For pushing movies and the format indeed. Not for games if well programmed/compressed. That's clear by now.

[Bonsai1214]

you know as well as i do that chances are that they'll reuse textures in different colors much like they do in almost every game ever made. its the same for oblivion. they have the same grass, same trees, same people everywhere.

i'm not saying its a bad thing, but its a shortcut devs have been using for ages. see: mortal kombat

[Mu5afir]

It's an RPG, I am pretty sure it doesn't have 60 hours of gameplay.

[Close_Second]

...the same is true for Sony exclusive games like Killzone 2 and GT5. Some images I have seen from both of those games you can see the same texture being re-used many times in a single scene - GT5 especially.

Having more space does not necessarily mean the use of more textures. For one thing, having more textures will result in more time required to develop a game. It also means you need more graphics memory to render the increased number of textures in a single scene.

The Nintendo 64 was stifled because of its low storage capacity. Blu-Ray for this generation is the opposite - its overkill. DVD is still fine even if it means having to split a game across 2 or 3 DVDs.

What should have happened this gen is for the ability to install game content from the DVD onto the HDD. Unfortunately MS have prevented this by releasing its "Core" and also only supplying a 20GB (of which only 13GB approx. is usable) in its "Premium" console.

The PS3 would have been fine with standard DVD for games as long as you could install a game on the HDD like you can with a PC...which as it happens is still using DVD. However, Sony wanted to push Blu-Ray for two reasons:

1. They want the blu-ray format to win.
2. They needed something big to distinguish the PS3 from the 360.

[Zhuk]

Blu-Ray is only necessary when you make a games console and pack it in with a ridiculously slow drive from a half dead format that actually needs to continuously replicate data across the disc or if you want to pointlessly add audio in 10 different languages and not encoding it

[techie]

You know that's not true. The Xbox drive reads doublelayer dvd's at 8x, and the 2x read rate of Blu-rays is faster than that.

Bioware did say that they were thinking they'd have to put it on two dvd's, but worked very hard to get it on one dvd. Surprised they took it so far, I expect it's because of extras.

[Zhuk]

http://www.joystiq.com/2007...

"According to comments made by Bethesda's Todd Howard in the latest issue of EGM, the development team is using extra space on the Blu-ray disc to duplicate crucial data and improve load times. "Drive speed matters more to me [than capacity], and Blu-ray is slower," Howard told EGM"

"Overall, we know that the Xbox 360 drive reads data faster than PS3's. While the Blu-ray drive might consistently read data at the same speed, the 360 drive is faster at reading data on the outer layers of the DVD disc; and that's were devs tend to put the biggest files."

[TheMART]

As far as I know the 360 uses DVD players at 12 x speed and IS proven faster then the PS3 BluRay reading in multiple games (multiplatform) comparison. That's why they use the HDD install on the PS3 so much. To speed up for the slow BR player.

[InMyOpinion]

Jason Booth from Harmonix stated the same thing in his blog.

I believe them more than I believe some delirious fanboys on this site.

[Bonsai1214]

shall i dig up that article that states that 360's dvd drive only spins at 12x at the outer rim, and progressively slows to 1.x times when it reaches the center of the disk? whereas the ps3 drive reads at 2x on every part of the disk. and when averaged, the ps3 drive has a faster data transfer fate.

(actually, i can't find that article. but most people know what i'm talking about. meus, care to pull it up for me? :-p)

thanks vip3r

[Vip3r]

http://forum.beyond3d.com/s...

It's been said over and over again.

2x Blu-ray Drive (72Mbps(9MB/s))
Single Layer (2x CLV) - Constant Linear Velocity (Same speed across entire disk)
Double Layer - Couldn't find any data but no games have been released on a double layer yet.

Entire Blu-ray Disk is read at 9MB/s.

12x DVD-Rom Drive SL (9.25MB/S-15.85MB/s(AVG ~8x(10.57MB/s) DL (4.36MB/s-10.57MB/s(AVG ~6x(7.93MB/s)
SL(DVD-5) 12x Max (5-12x Full CAV) - Constant Angular Velocity (Speed Varies from edge to edge)
DL(DVD-9) 8x Max (3.3-8x Full CAV) - Constant Angular Velocity (Speed Varies from edge to edge)

SL DVD is 1.57MB/s > SL Blu-ray
DL DVD is 1.07MB/s < SL Blu-ray

Seeing that Mass Effect will be on a DL DVD it mean that BDs will be faster a loading.

[Zhuk]

"Overall, we know that the Xbox 360 drive reads data faster than PS3's. While the Blu-ray drive might consistently read data at the same speed, the 360 drive is faster at reading data on the outer layers of the DVD disc; and that's were devs tend to put the biggest files."

[techie]

Single layer the 360 drive reads at 12x, double layer it reads at 8x. FACT.

Blu-ray read speed is above the lowest read speed of a single layer DVD (outer rim), but below the fastest 12x (inner rim), but it is faster than the 8x it is to read a double layer DVD. FACT.

Honestly it doesn't matter. I mean Uncharted uses the HDD so there's NO loading throughout the whole game. So I just wanted to point out your stupid comment, and maybe you learnt something. Both drives are very capable.

[skagrerrrr]

so that why the 7200 rpm hdd gives a data transfer boost

all that aside... Great work, bioware!

[cloud360-7th_account]

hahahahahha i GUESS MOST OF IT IS JUST REPLAY VALUE. TO SEE DIFFERENT SCENES.

TRUST ME THIS GAME IS THE X360 VERSION OF ffx-2.

Depending on the Questns you answer depened on the scenes, and thats replay for the game

[jaja1434]

As opposed to what? The whole point of replayability is to get a different experience then what you did last time. And least I be mistaken taking a different conversation path which in turn could lead to a completely different story is a different experience. So really. Know what, I'll just skip to the end and call you an idiot.

[MK_Red]

I remember the original Elder Scrolls: Morrowind on PC took only 570mb and was on 1 CD.
(There was a 2nd CD for Editor though)

Impressive, superb work BioWare.

[Zhuk]

Imagine a sci-fi Morrowind! though Fallout 3 will keep me happy for sure :)

[P4KY B]

Elite 2:frontier was on a single 1.44mb floppy.

It had thousands of star systems and you could land on and mine any planet or asteroid in the universe.

[MK_Red]

Zhuk, as much as I love Morrowind, I hope Fallout 3 is a totally different game and not a sci-fi Oblivion. But I agree that a sci-fi Morrowind would rule. Morrowind is easily one of my fave RPGs of all time.

Back to topic, I must say that BioWare's work is more than incredible and awesome. So much dialogue (Spoken dialogue), planets and worlds... Kudos to BioWare.

[Gorgon]

MKRed, the "original" Morrowind isn't the original Elder Scrolls game. In fact it was the third on the series, preceded by ES: Dagger Fall and another I don't remember the name. Oh, and the first one fit on a floppy disk if I'm not mistaken.

EDIT: to MK-RED bellow:

Thats it , Arena. I actually though that you probably knew that because of your avatar... ;)
Cheers!

EDIT II: to JU bellow:

Yes, a new ELITE would be great. But I doubt it would have any success with the usual console crowd. They would probably turn it into another FREELANCER to catter to popular console tastes.

[MK_Red]

Gorgon, I know that :) I'm not that noob
What I meant by original TES:Morrowind was the first retail version of PC not GOTY versions or later DVD packages. I LOVE and worship Daggerfall (Seriously ahead of its time). The other one was Arena.

EDIT: To Gorgon:
Classic RPGs FTW! Cheers :)

[Ju]

Elite...those were the times. I'm still waiting for the next-gen version (but they'd screw it up anyway with over realistic visuals and lacking game play). But, true, Elite contained just geometry and no textures what so ever (100% flat shaded).

[AllroundGamer]

will probably use a great number of the same materials/textures in the game, just like Gears, therefor it can fit on one DVD9.

[InMyOpinion]

You got it twisted. You are talking about how they utilize Blu-Ray. Fill it up with cloned textures for each level in order to make up for lousy drive speed and lack of memory.

[Ju]

Even if the BD would duplicate each texture, it would still give you 12.5G on a single layer. Stop bubbling. Yes, they use mirrored textures on the BD. So ? Why not. You have the space, use it. In addition, you can rely on a HD and stream textures to a cache on HD. Which e.g. results in almost no loading time on any of the latest games (and, BTW. Oblivion has seamless level loading while you play). How is that an disadvantage.

If they got Mass Effect on <7G, great. But it doesn't negate the fact, that 25Gig is an advantage.

[iNcRiMiNaTi]

i wonder which one will take it

i have money on CoD4, that game is awesome...i thought halo 3 was gonna take it this year, i even bought into the hype and got the legendary edition, and ended up a bit disappointed...CoD4 hasnt disappointed yet, the graphics are insane and the ranking system is pretty cool...but with other games like uncharted, mass effect, assassins creed on the way it looks like this will be a tough decision

[power091999]

I really want to know how they did this. Amazing feat indeed.

Reusing textures maybe?

I don't know, but I am rightfully impressed.

[RealityCheck]

Impressive indeed. I would guess that there are very little pre-rendered cut-scenes (maybe one at the beginning) and all the rest are procedural in-engine cutscenes. Also, some planet areas might be proceduraly randomly generated.

A lot of the vast games stated in the other comments that took little space is because they use procedural generation.

[jesuisankit]

Nows that Mass Compression stuff :D.. Mass effective compression.

[Ahmadinejad]

im sure they will announce in 2 weeks that mass effect production was a joke and it is really being released on blueray and PS3

kick in the balls

[green_ghost5]

You are as dumb as the guy in your picture, WTH is up with that fu*king picture. Are you a terrorist? Maybe? What kind of an idiotic statement was that, anyways? How is a game that is being published through Microsoft, going to be on the PS3. Was that the best you could come up with? Are all of you terrorist supporters that stupid? I would really love to see your reply!

[Ahmadinejad]

Save yourself the embarassment please and look up the word "sarcasm" in the dictionary. i am not sure ur nationality but if you are american i would say that you dont have any place to argue about the intelegance of leading hirachy. cheers mate

[Dick_Mitchell]

Mass Effect is being Developed by Bioware, and Published by Microsoft Game Studios.

Although EA has now purchased Bioware, the contracts that Bioware signed in the past are still valid.

1up.com actually confirmed that Microsoft Game Studios has signed a contract with Biosware for the exclusive Publishing rights to THREE Mass Effect games, because Mass Effect was always planned to be a Trilogy.

Now that Bioware has been purchased by EA, they may no longer decide to create Mass Effect 2 or Mass Effect 3. But, based on the pre-order sales, it's pretty safe to say that there will be a Mass Effect 2 & 3. And when those games are released, they will be published by Microsoft Game Studios.

*

If anyone tries to say that the PS3 will ever see Mass Effect, first point out that Microsoft Game Studios is the Publisher.

*

Then, point out that EA has already released games like Command & Conquer 3, and Battle for Midearth 2 on the Xbox 360 and PC, but NOT for the Playstation 3!!!

With that in mind, it's VERY SAFE to say that Mass Effect will NEVER be seen on the PS3!

[Ahmadinejad]

Are u lot f*cking high or soemthing, i was joking to take the piss out of the blueray camp but noone seems to be familiar with sarcasm

I know, i know, mass effect is exclusive, i been waiting for it since it was announced. for god sake, some people...

[skagrerrrr]

funny hahahaha

[MasterChief2829]

Compression ftw! Damn, only that much for that huge game. Awesome :D

[THE TERMINATOR]

Would have been bigger and better had it been on blu ray.

[sjappie]

more development time and money that's needed. See, that's the problem with you idiots. You think that because blu-ray has more storage, it automatically means bigger and better games, as if the blu-ray will do the developing.

[Gorgon]

sjappie, good answer. Unfortunately most console users are a bunch of juvenile retards that simply don't get how game development and the game industry works and fall for every hype MS or Sony throws at them. The console crowd is better start growing up a little or we'll all loose.

[OpiZA]

By that logic the game should've taken up the full capacity of the DVD instead of the odd 6 gigs.

I'm pretty sure memory budget is considerably more important than storage space in the current gen (now till 2010/11)

Just cause you can fit more onto a disc, doesn't mean you can fit more into your mem.

This game is going to be an exclusive that really stings. Can't wait.

[caffman]

sold an quarter of the copies

[predator]

bioware - cant do anything wrong.

hope all over developers take note of what bioware achieved and stop moaning about disk space

[Gorgon]

They can do many wrong things. Nevrwinter Nights is boring to death, just another D&D clone and I'm afraid that Dragon Age will be just another RPG rip-of with just better graphics and presentation to show for. At least they've done Mass Effect.

I hope they learn something with their protegees CDProject, who did pull an interesting setting and storyline for a change.

Now I'll just wait for Mass Effect on the PC one year from now...

[ChibiSelz]

just gona be the same people in diffrent colours textures lol or planets in diffrent colour textures with a few movements here and there enjoy

[mesh1]

when ever we here whines about dvd 0 plz lets remind the fanboys about this mass effct to date is large in scale that any game ever realesed on allconsole platforms inc this gen and is done on a dvd9 ps i can say this cause i gotqthe review from my mag and what they say about the story.talking to ppl /graphics /depth/and they say its a benchmark fo rall sctionrpg to date and the scale has never been seen before that what the mag said but they said they were dissapointed as they were expecting more action elements (whicH mass effect is not really aboput tbh its a rpg at heart) basically the wanted it to be more action orineted but still the are astonished wit the game .

[hazeblaze]

Actually, Disgaea & Disgaea 2 are larger in scale... PS2 games. The argument for a larger format doesn't equate to longer games, etc.... but it does effect the content. Just as the graphical fortitude of the Disgaea games have never been their strengths.

And just as fanboys once tried using Oblivion as an excuse to why blu ray was not needed. Unfortunately, all they proved is that dvd can still be used if you don't mind the graphical shortcomings and glitches.

The difference you will find once you have the chance to play... the environments and gfx of a game like ME will never compare to Gears, Uncharted, HS, or R&C. And the latter 3 games on blu ray pack in a lot more detail in their environments that Gears did. Fanboys can go back and forth... but just as there was a noticeable difference in cartridges vs. cd-roms vs. dvds... there is a noticeable difference in games using blu ray.

[mesh1]

hazeblaze ur saying ur finished mass effect and know its no as big than the gqame u mentiond plz u dont knwo anyhting about mass effect i can say i have read a 4 page review amnd also plz u have no clue about ANY thing mass effect has WAYY better grapics than uncahrted dude go see some screen shoots and stop stroking ur ego.

[Retro-Virus]

Yeah, but unfortunately Mass Effect can't support uncompressed 7.1 PCM on DVD-9 and that's when you need space and that can be HD-DVD or Blu-ray.

I don't care about majority but I am an audiophile and I demand it :)

[sjappie]

no Mass Effect for you then.

[Gorgon]

Well, I demand good games. You can keep the uncompressed audio.

[theBishop]

I found this line funny:

"the game is 6.74 GB – well within the constraints of a dual layer DVD-9."

Yes, well within DVD9, however Xbox360 DVDs are limited to 7GB with the file structure and security features. Mass Effect is pushing the DVD to its limit.

This is something people on the "DVD is enough" side don't understand: no game is going to have obviously geometry missing. But look at Gears of War. The PC release has 5 additional chapters and several multiplayer maps. Is this just because it came later, or because it wouldn't fit on a DVD? Hard to say. But this problem isn't going away.

People expecting a significantly larger sequel better get ready for some serious disc-swapping (or a completely linear story).

[ThaGeNeCySt]

"The PC release has 5 additional chapters and several multiplayer maps. Is this just because it came later, or because it wouldn't fit on a DVD? Hard to say. But this problem isn't going away."

I think it has more to do with giving PC users a reason to buy Gears of War on the PC.

[razer]

But Gears of War PC ships on a DVD9 as well. I know they have an HDD to work with but so does the 360 and Epic could make all the additional chapters/maps available as DLC. I think they just want to give incentive to buy the PC version.

[Darrius Cole]

@ theBishop Post #18 - Bubbles for you.

I was going to point out that 6.74GB is about as close as you can reasonably get to max capacity on a DVD-9. Microsoft puts about 1GB of security crap on every game disc. The leaves about 7.5 GBs of space for the game. The fact that all these games are coming in at approx. 6.5GBs is proof that they are all aiming to make 6-7GB games and are withholding content in order to make the game fit.

@razer Post 18.2

The 360's hard drive is OPTIONAL whereas the hard drives of computers & and the PS3 are STANDARD, which makes all the difference in the world.

I would also like to point out that according to Charlie2688 post 52, that the Shivering Isles is actually larger than the ordinary Oblivion game. Remember how colorful Shivering Isles is compared to the rest of Tamriel (the country in which Oblivion takes place)

[DeckUKold]

good work microsoft

[bootsielon]

2x Blu-ray Drive (72Mbps(9MB/s))
Single Layer (2x CLV) - Constant Linear Velocity (Same speed across entire disk)
Double Layer - Couldn't find any data but no games have been released on a double layer yet.

Entire Blu-ray Disk is read at 9MB/s.

Edit:

Blame the developer, NOT the hardware. It's a lot easier to blame the hardware though.
12x DVD-Rom Drive SL (9.25MB/S-15.85MB/s(AVG ~8x(10.57MB/s) DL (4.36MB/s-10.57MB/s(AVG ~6x(7.93MB/s)
SL(DVD-5) 12x Max (5-12x Full CAV) - Constant Angular Velocity (Speed Varies from edge to edge)
DL(DVD-9) 8x Max (3.3-8x Full CAV) - Constant Angular Velocity (Speed Varies from edge to edge)

SL DVD is 1.57MB/s > SL Blu-ray
DL DVD is 1.07MB/s < SL Blu-ray

Seeing that Mass Effect will be on a DL DVD it mean that BDs will be faster a loading.

[TheMART]

So why did all those video comparison of other games that are on DL-DVD, shown in the past that the 360 loads the game faster then BluRay?

Numbers are fine, but reality says something different... How come?

[hazeblaze]

There aren't many games that load faster on 360, if any. Oblivion for instance loads much faster on PS3. But the bigger question is... who the hell cares?! Load times haven't been that serious an issue for either console this gen... most devs are continuously streaming levels.

[Vip3r]

Because when the PS3 was first release most of the games were 360 ports and the Devs didn't know much about the PS3. But now things will soon change. Dirt and Oblivion are just two examples.

[squelchy15]

see, who needs blu-ray

[Bladestar]

no surprise here... everyone knows that what takes lots of space are those pre rendered CGI movies... textures, poligon data, meshes, etc do not take that much space.. everything this game does in ingame.
This is why Metal Gear and final fantasy requires lots of space... because of the game is talking and prerendered CGI movies... this game will always be a reminder to Sony fanboys and developers... to make a AAA game blu-ray is not required.

[allforcalisto]

explain why John carmack's free-roaming game rage is coming out on one blu ray and 2 360 disks.
Explain why rockstar devs made the comments about the lack of hd space creating an issue. I'm well aware that they've ram issues with the ps3.

[hazeblaze]

Really, b/c Heavenly Sword doesn't include that much CGI... the environments & sound in HS appear to be of much higher quality than ME so far, and that's the difference. In fact, textures in HS seem to be better than ME. ME uses a gorgeous artistic design and color palette to it's advantage but doesn't push that much graphical muscle. Even going back to KOTOR, design has always been greater than gfx for this team.

[bootsielon]

Microsoft's idea with the first Xbox was to include multiple languages and subtitles on a single disc. Why the sudden change of mentality? Why do you join them? Morons....

Anyway, I rather have developers work on improving performance than on compressing a game, which takes vital CPU clock cycles. IT makes you wonder how much better would Mass Effect have been had it been started on PS3... no need for ocmpression therefore more clock cycles available. Reduced loading times thanks to the HDD. Fewer limits to content due to available disc space. 7.1 surround sound... that would have deffinitely surpassed a DL DVD, i.e. 8.5 Gigabytes.

[sjappie]

While you wonder, we'll be playing it. Enjoy Stevie!

[Grim]

I'm no fanboy and own a PS3 and 360 but just to let you know the 360 can uncompress data of the disk on the fly at no cost to the CPU. Not that the CPU is struggling anyway, games are not using all the cores at the mo.

[mesh1]

i dotn think the ps3 is actually meant to support smart gamplay if u kno what i mean i.e mass effect /oblivion as ive never seen a ps3 exclusive t built up stright from the ps3 hat actually can do this ( thus oblivion was ported and was a 360 ex) the 360 exclusive are no brainer games , ratchet and clank/warhawk/hs/uncharted/ u see the trend its liek the cell cant handle multiple a.i programs to well , most ps3 exclusive suffer froma flawed gameplay warhawk for 1 u cant realy enjo the warhawks the only way to have fun is to foot patrol, lair u know the rest,hs cgi cutscene the only tiem the game actaull looks good in certain areas and character models is is very lwo quality and the game is flawed .while games lie bioshock break narritive boundries ,

[allforcalisto]

it's interesting that rockstar had problems capacity issue with the 360 and yet bioware didnt.

there's got to be a catch, something very obvious a lot of people aren't realizing.

i think it's the fact that most of the areas in mass effect seem quite restricted and small, in conjunction with what others were saying about duplicating textures n whatnot.
there aren't wide expanses that are densely populated with characters and vehicles.
there aren't cities that spread outwardly in all directions.
i don't think you'll ever have a sequence where you're moving your vehicle through traffic, or flying an aircraft through air traffic above a very detailed city.
all i've seen so far of Mass is space stations, mining colonies and that arid desert. They aren't doing what Ubisoft are doing with assassin's or what Rockstar are doing with GTA IV. it looks like they're doing less but i reckon it's the inverse.

Mass effect is very open in the sense that you can go wherever you like(i.e. move from space station 8 to mining colony 2), but the environments seem quite empty.

btw remember john carmack's rage? that game is coming out on 2 360 disks and 1 blu ray...and it's an open-ended sandbox game. Space must be an issue when it comes to making certain types of games.

has anyone seen any civilian areas? towns with lots of npcs in Mass effect ?

[elrmelon]

it's great to own both systems. You just don't miss out on any games.

[Dick_Mitchell]

Mass Effect is being Developed by Bioware, and Published by Microsoft Game Studios.

Although EA has now purchased Bioware, the contracts that Bioware signed in the past are still valid.

1up.com actually confirmed that Microsoft Game Studios has signed a contract with Biosware for the exclusive Publishing rights to THREE Mass Effect games, because Mass Effect was always planned to be a Trilogy.

Now that Bioware has been purchased by EA, they may no longer decide to create Mass Effect 2 or Mass Effect 3. But, based on the pre-order sales, it's pretty safe to say that there will be a Mass Effect 2 & 3. And when those games are released, they will be published by Microsoft Game Studios.

*

If anyone tries to say that the PS3 will ever see Mass Effect, first point out that Microsoft Game Studios is the Publisher.

*

Then, point out that EA has already released games like Command & Conquer 3, and Battle for Midearth 2 on the Xbox 360 and PC, but NOT for the Playstation 3!!!

With that in mind, it's VERY SAFE to say that Mass Effect will NEVER be seen on the PS3!

[hazeblaze]

#1 Microsoft is only the publisher on the first title and WILL NOT be the publisher on future titles.... EA now owns publishing rights to ALL future Bioware games. Yes, it sucks but it's a fact.

#2 Microsoft has not yet bought any rights to the next two installments of ME but they are in talks with both EA and Bioware... so we'll see what happens. Bioware themselves admitted that they'd intended for the trilogy to be exclusive to the 360 but now will have to see what the future holds for the franchise... which means that there has AT LEAST been talk of making the franchise multiplat.

[bumnut]

can't we just all play games and have fun? whatever the system

[waldopepper]

Are you crazy? What are the tards going to do all day if they can't argue over what the best games console is? I wish they would stop and think about how sad they all sound. "OMG the PS3 is more powerful than yours and you will cry when you see that, no lag...", "LOLZ split memory and no gamez..."

Each time I click on comments to try and find discussion about a new or interesting game, I instead to see a chorus of children shouting and crying at each other.

This site should be renamed FanTardExchange because that's what practically every article ends descends into.

[bootsielon]

...that you can do on PS3? I'm talking about games here. Mass Effect is obviously limited, just as GTA will be, just as carmack's RAGE will be, and so on. The content was obviously reduced in order to make it fit, and compressed (and therefore Xbox 360's CPU won't make the game live to its full potential).

Of course, there are things that you can't do on PS3, such as dedicate more than 256MB of CPU or GPU resources from the RAM. But hey, no machine is perfect, not even PS3 ;)

[mazirjones]

sure you can't dedicate the ram, but what's stopping developers from dedicating secondary storage?, like the hdd included with every ps3

[supaflypriest1]

Ram is more important than hard drive space, Ram is much faster...

[UltramanJ]

Mass Effect is so huge, but if Oblivion can pull it off then why is this shocking? DVD ftw.

[EDF 2017]

THey still have two gigs left that is a crap load of space, don't worry guys it an rpg with graphics like graw2.

[skagrerrrr]

work on optimizing space!

[cherdman]

I thought Oblivion already showed us that DVD9 was sufficient. I guess folks needed more proof (licks pre-order box and bonus disc).

[skagrerrrr]

to bioware for a great job

[nevelo07]

but the animations will not look as good as uncharted and im sorry but if you xbox guys think good texturing is just shining stuff up your messed up in the head. it fits but there wont be anything advanced you get a basic game, mass effect gay alien sex give me a break, hey bioware try and put a uncompressed dd soundtrack on there not needed neccesarily but it enhances the experience just like dirt includes a 7.1 dd soundtrack.

[aiphanes]

This game will not have the graphics and sound like Uncharted or Ratchet and Clank...It will not have the textures quality....but it will be a good game...this is the last of the good Xbox 360 games...it is all down hill from here on out...the PS3 will start to rule after Uncharted is released...Once MGS4 and Final Fantasy 13 come out...everybody will realise that DVD9 and the Xbox 360 and even the Wii are old school...wait till we get our first dual layer 50 GB PS3 game....that will probably be Final Fantasy 13....

[goodganja]

Mass 3ff3ct will get port3d to PS3 and you'll see the diff3r3nc3 with blu-ray on the PS3 port. B3li3v3 that.

P L A Y B 3 Y O N D

[kalle]

Hey retard, in your dreams that ME will come out on PS3.

[caffman]

please, for the good of your health, lose some weight. Your podgy fingers seem to be mashing the E and 3 key at the same time. Or you have a dodgy keyboard

[jay3]

So is there really a problem with storage on DVDs anymore? Can someone tech savvy please help me out with this? I mean, if they can make Mass Effect fit i'm pretty sure almost anything's possible...

[Ju]

ME is a great game, I would hope (pitty I have no chance to play it - well, maybe later). But, e.g. add one more city in Assassins Creed (there are only 3), and its over for DVD9.

[ThisIsWaiting]

also tack on 1 more year of development?

would it be worth it?

[redsymphony]

yeah we dont need blu ray or hd dvd keep telling yall selves that and hope your 20gb hard drives will never run out of space lmfao!!!!!!!!

[Z501]

8 people.Ever wonder why in those gameplay videos there's not a huge population of inhabitants (like GTA)

Keyword phrase is Space exploration.
When you go to bed at night and look out the window at sky what do you see?
A black background dotted with blueish white specs and the moon.That's is nothin else.
Aside from the graphics,this game could be done on the PS2.
Just remember when playing "where's all the people?"

[Silver Bull3t]

..for ME!!! Great they fit it on 1 disk.

As for all this talk about disk swapping... If a disk swap will deliver an awesome game experience I don't care. Regardless of format. Big deal!

[Lex Luthor]

But, but ,but what about bluray?

Makes you wonder and laugh at HS having 10gb of audio.

Even then, Mass effect could always be put on 2 disks. No problem at all.

[celticlonewolf]

How can you come up with a comment like that lol you have seen the screen shots right. Im not getting into the debate on if blue ray is needed or not the fact is ms doesnt have it on the 360 so thats the end of it. What gets me is if this game was on the ps3 looking exactly as it does now and teh devs said they used something like 20g on it suddenly you guys be like the graphics are amazing the size of this game is way out there and all that. Thumbs up to the people on here that posted good feed back. One last thing take a look at the 06 demo I think theres a scene when they are in some sort of club lol way more than 8 people in there lol. Anyway how could this thread on both sides turn into flaming?

[Premonition]

You know what this means, sure its good thing to show that blu ray isnt needed but at the same time just imagine the possibility of what could have been if it took up more space, probably a bigger galaxy or even more places to explore, maybe more dialog, more customization, the list can go on. Again its good that they prove a good game like this doesnt need HD DVD or Blu ray but at the same time with those to big other formats they could have expanded the game even more. If you disagree, then post why because im making some good points, I mean mass effect is a good game and its not a bad thing to have more on a good game like this.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

Not a good day to be a Droid, hell it's not a good year for Droids. Thats why they keep talking about next year. Got news for ya, next year is going to be just as bad. MS is keeping their hits quiet so they can drop a killing bomb on Sony.

[CRIMS0N_W0LF]

Lets except recyled textures and voice acting just like Oblivion and also gets 10/10.

Also Oblivion sucked near Morrowind.

[DrRage77]

aww, is the poor ps3 fanboy going to cry because the xbox360 has a game that according to all ps3 fanboys should have been impossible on the lowly dvd format? LMFAO

go play your heavenly sword with 6 hours of gameplay and 10gb of audio while we enjoy 40 hours of gameplay....you can go "play beyond", and us 360 owners will go "play now"...LMFAO

[CRIMS0N_W0LF]

Youre the fanboy here. + my gaming comes from PC not PS3.

What a tard.

Go check Oblivion. Go in city and keep talking to same begger and you notice her voice will change all of a sudden. This happens to other people too.

Get your facts straights.

[CrazzyMan]

of course they will fit on DVD! =)))))))
what about gameplay in this game? =))

where is demo of game? =)) will FPS lovers(x360 users) like this game, where a lot of dialogues and minimum action? =)))

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

Are we jealous?

[367 To Your Ass]

you see i like that some one is always trying to prove a point and the point is simple, 50-60 hrs of game play on 6.74 GB.

ill give some of you a little hint what blue ray is really used for, games like "FF" take advantage blue ray having at least 2-4 hrs of cinema, because that their is so much cinema in a "FF" games like FF13 need at least a hole or a half of a blue ray.

this is also ware it gets very interesting ps3 and 360 have the same amount of memory (give or take a few things that one another has over each other) they can only have a certain amount of memory allocated for textures (this why ps3 and 360's textures are looking the same or with little differences).

Blue ray will have a huge leep over dvd when consoles start having at least 3-4 GB of ram.

MGS4
http://media.ps3.ign.com/me...

MASS EFFECT
http://media.xbox360.ign.co...

[andy001]

Well looking at the combat trailer the environment looks a lot sparser than Gears of War, and the character doesn't look very detailed.

If it uses 6.74 GB from a DVD at this early stage then we can see that developers are reaching one of the many bottlenecks present in this generation.

PS3 is Ram alledgedly, 360 is space. It does make me wonder why the PS3 only has 512MB RAM, but the designers obviously know what the target capabilities are and then create the most cost effectvie way of doing it, so I feel that the developers will be able to produce superior experiences than what will be available on the 360. The 360 has the restriction on space because they wanted a low cost SKU without a hard drive and they wanted to release the 360 first, so didn't have time for HD DVD to sort itself out. This is obvious to anyone not drinking MS Koolaid.

Mass Effect does not have as good graphics as Gears of War, which is still the benchmark of quality on the 360. Sorry, but it is plain to see.

[Says you]

doesn't have 60 hours 60 hours of dialog yes but hours of play no, more like 10 or 11 and plus who wants to play a game that has more talking than actually doing anything and infact you call this RPG this is more like a shooting game as usual they actually think this is rpg right this is a joke!.

[jcgamer]

just look at how many gamers are simply commenting about the fact that Mass Effect fits on a DVD...wow...you would think IGN just released the review...this thread might even reach 1000 degrees...Bioware, gather your wine glasses and make sure to chill a nice bottle of expensive bubbly....almost time to celebrate...

[RadientFlux]

wow you think with such anger expressed by people in these posts that something negative was said about the PS3 and yet the PS3 was't even brought up.

Just an article about a game that is looking more and more like the RPG of the Year created by the top RPG developer in the world.

@Premonition: I meant the article itself but I know what you mean you can't have one article without someone dissing either the PS3 or Xbox360 two posts in.

[Premonition]

Actually it was, its called trying to throw back something in peoples face, as you can see it didnt take long for someone at the start of this news to say something about the PS3.

[PS360PCROCKS]

Damn, haha that's quite the achievement. But honestly Microsoft should of done something about this...dvd's really are dead and I am sick of hearing restraints, I want developers to give me exactly what the envisioned, not a water downed version due to space restraints

[Charlie2688]

I don't know how this is shocking to anyone, EVERY single 360 game due to the format of the files (or something around that area) HAS to fit in around 6GB if the game is much more bigger its another forced 6GB

but enough talking bring the examples
Call of Duty 4 -6.35GB
Halo 3 -6.14GB
Bioshock -6.05GB
Gears of War -6.27GB
PES 8 -6.46GB
Ace Combat 6 -6.89GB
Eternal Sonata -6.47
Blue Dragon -6.50GB -6.53GB -6.49GB
Madden 08 -6.21GB
Crackdown -6.58GB
Splinter Cell Double Agent -6.15GB
TES Oblivion -6.4GB
TES Oblivion Shivering Isles -6.71GB

So next time you say "ZOMG itz only 6GB, DVD FTW" , it is NOT "ONLY 6GB" it HAS to be 6GB, and if compression cant make it around 6GB its another forced 6GB like Blue Dragon

[367 To Your Ass]

360's is a dual layer DVD 9-GB (with encryption about 8 gb to use).

speed? (CrazzyMan) the speed of ps3's blue ray player is slower than 360's dvd player.

ps3 has a slow blue ray player and not enough memory, these two thing are whats keeping ps3 down to earth.

[CrazzyMan]

because SPEED of DVD is NOT Constant, and textures won`t be able to load in time. =]

[DJ]

A GB isn’t 1000 MB, it’s actually 1200MB. There’s two different ways to count Gigabytes. So if you count up the storage limit that we’ve seen with Xbox 360 titles, which seems to be around 6.6~6.7GB per disc, and turn that into a MB count you get 7,920~8,000 Megabytes of data.

Microsoft has imposed an approximately 500MB chunk of security data on every Xbox 360 DVD, so this goes hand-in-hand with the data that we’re seeing.

[Pain]

6.5g? Nowonder this game has that Stale color look to it. to bad Blu-ray would have made this game
Extra More Pretty ; ; but seems they ran out of room, cuz what eles is taking up the rest
the space? FMV''s? cuz why would they not fill it with more detail?

And for the Kids YES! BLU_RAY dose help make games Beter! But what yur idea of beter, Longer like RFOM? or Screaming Detail like Heanly Sword? or lair? Ractchet and clank? or 1080p and 60fps

Cuz games Like Gears of War could have Been longer for one, and with
oh~ idont know alil more color and Longer.

How and why people try to Defend old tech agaisnt newer beter stuff like dvd vs Blu-ray
that helps make things beter not just ok, is Mind Numbing.

[367 To Your Ass]

MY APOLOGIES (DJ)

BUT HEAVENLY SWORD COULD HAVE BEEN MORE EXTENDED FOR THE SAKE OF USING BLUE RAY.

[Premonition]

Heres the problem elite360, why bring up one game? is that the only game you can dog on, 6hrs? you act like blu ray will never have more than 6hrs, if you think so then your just a bad fanboy.

[7ero H3LL]

HOW ABOUT RACHET.....THAT TAKES ABOUT 8-9 HRS.

not really making a really big jump in the long run.

also how come COD4 for ps3 didn't get any extra content to boost that 6 hrs of game play.

[Close_Second]

...So how long do you think it would take to create a game that uses 100% of a Blu-Rays capacity without just dumping multiple copies of textures on the disc?

Sure, Blu-ray provides space to grow but you have to keep in mind that it takes a lot longer to develop a game that will use that extra space effectively. Longer development times = higher cost to market = higher RRP.

Also, you jam pack a scene with more textures and suddenly you need more RAM to display it...seems like the PS3 could have been better served by having a dedicated 512MB display and 256MB system memory to help support the increased capacity of blu-ray.

[DJ]

Heavenly Sword took me 8 hours to complete, and I breezed through it. It's impossible beat the title in 6 hours. Too bad he doesn't like to bring up Ratchet, which takes 12~15 hours just to do the basic story mode without side quests.

[Ju]

@DJ, yes, that's more like it. And given, that without the treasure map you get at the end of the first run through, its hard to find all the gold bolds. So make that even more (R&C). And BTW, CoD4 is a multiplatform game, why would they add additional content in the PS3 version ? I think they wanted to get the game out. That's a pity for the PS3. DVD is holding it back (at least in case of multi platform).

[Salvadore]

60 hours of gameplay on a DVD disc, that's nice.

[zonetrooper5]

Damn I need to get some money, I'm getting Assasins Creed next week for the 360 and I've just ordered a PS3 60GB with Motorstorm and Resistance for £330 off play.

[honorable1]

Currently I own just a 360 eventually I will get a PS3 but I will probably hold off until God of War comes out or some other title that is just a must have to me. Don't get me wrong PS3 has a lot of good games but it takes a great game to get me to buy a new console. I will get a Wii when Super Smash Brothers comes out or whenever I feel like making a mini me!

Anyways I for one am not really worried about the space constraints on the DVD. There is a game that is extremely dated that had a good amount of play time and that only takes up around 400 meg after I have added on so much third party stuff. It had great game play and is still one of my favorite first person shooters. The name of the game is Quake 2. For when it was released it had so much detail it was ridiculous and the quality of the game was so awesome not to mention it had four player co-op. Even with all of the visuals and the sweet game play the game was still well under half a gig.

They were able to do this because they had literally mastered the engine that they had chosen to use. So as developers get more and more accustomed to what they are working with I don't think space will be such a problem. Granted as new games and engines are being developed the space may be a problem but I think the 360 owners will eventually get a game even if it is a delayed for a little bit. Then again that is just my opinion so who knows I could be way off base.

To reiterate what I was saying at first the new engines will be big and bulky, though after refinement and overhauling they will hopefully be sleek and powerful little things.

[EDF 2017]

It's 7.95 gigs, this article I linked explains it all. Condemned a launch game on the 360 was only 3.5 gigs.

http://www.gamesfirst.com/?...

[FPS nut]

Thats not much considering that BluRay is "supposed" to be needed for games. Mass Effect looks that good and has that much gameplay and with room to spare on the DVD disc. Thats impressive.

[unlimited]

they must compressed the crap out of it..so no dvd9 is not enough..i bet u mass effect 2 will be on mulitple disk..

[Premonition]

But the funny thing is PS2 games and xbox games on DVD last gen were already doing 60+ so why are people acting like 60+ on DVD is a new thing, now graphics wise ya its impressive to fit those details on DVD+ the 60hrs but other then that its not like discovering fire all over again or something. People can hate on blu ray but the fact that it has the room, and that devs can use it however they want, whether to expand upon their ideas, if they have something big they want to do, Blu ray wont really hold them back, and thats one of the benefits of having more space, its like saying I rather have compressed graphics than natural graphics, or I rather the draw distance be sucky rather then to the point I can see whats ahead of me and it could help me win this game etc etc, now if you find these perks bad, then I dont know whats wrong with gamers these days.

[BubblesDAVERAGE]

The guy from bioware said differnt in a article with gamepro...he said it barely fit.....look it up on gamepro.com its there

[crank]

And the game isn't even out yet.

Why don't we all just go back to ******* ROMs if DVD is enough. I mean, seriously GUYZZ!, DVD forever and how about we add two letters in 10 years or so if we EVER have any problems. LOL!

O the future is bright for an Xbot.

YAY!

[SoulKillah]

Guess DVDs will hold up for 2/3 years more before finally dieing...

[Marceles]

"We were not allowed to take pictures of actual gameplay, as there are agreements in place with sites like IGN, TXB and GS that have put an embargo on this content until the release of the game"

I'm really really excited for this game, but that statement makes me just a little bit scared of how the in-game graphics will look compared to the cutscenes. Nevertheless, this is definitely a AAA game.

[power of Green]

I busted up laughing great post. lowl Man its happening all over the internet many angry fans because of this game. They tried to hide their intrest blowing this game off but we'll see fanboy wars as great as pre halo launch wars.

Funny post man.

[power of Green]

Only oblivion has the right to be on that list the point was bigger, better and prettier games are being developed with less and less space. You fan fuc's are getting out of hand.

READ #50's post.

[Hamadzedan]

then maybe the game going to be 480p output.

[ScentlessApprentice7]

Because of the xbox 360 and its last-gen dvd format.

Rockstar was holding out hope that MS would allow them permission to require a hard drive to play the game. I think the 360 version is really going to hold back the developers true visions for GTA IV (since of course devs always have to develop to the lowest common denominator).

Rockstar has even said from the beginning that squeezing GTA IV down to a single DVD-9 on the 360 would be a tall order in comparison with the space a Blu-Ray disk offers, as well as the mandatory hard drive space on all PS3's.

All the MS fanboys knock it now, but 2008 will be the year Blu-Ray displays its true relevance.

[EDF 2017]

You need to replace your avatar with Michael Jackson.

[ScentlessApprentice7]

How did I disgrace Kurt Cobain?

and WHY THE HELL would I want Michael Jackson on my Avatar? All the people around here will start thinking I "like" little boys. I just like High School girls.

I luv dem high school girls. I keep getting older and they stay the same age!

[ben806]

but heavenly sword only managed 6 hours of game play on blu-ray?
mass effect has got 40 hours plus on dvd?
im confused people help me out.

[ScentlessApprentice7]

But from what I've gatherned on this subject, Mass Effect has so much more gameplay time than Heavenly Sword, but all the textures and graphical effects are nowhere near the quality of Heavenly Sword.

I've read that most enviroments in Mass Effect are kind of bland and urbane. So to kind of answer you're question, it kind of boils down to quantity over quality in terms of visual substance. Mass Effect is a lot longer but Heavenly Sword looks better.

[7ero H3LL]

how many of you think blue ray has improved textures in the world of gaming?

has blue ray really shown any effect in gaming? other than movies, i know it will in the future (PS4) but what about now (PS3)?

and is it OK for next-gen games to be brief?

[crank]

Heavenly Sword has graphics mass effect could only dream....

[crank]

It is okay for games to be brief, JESUS ******* CHRIST!

Does every game have to be 30 hours long.

How long is ******* space invaders?

As long as you make it.

[Big Jim]

The reason its not OK for games to be too short is because they cost 60 f-ing bucks. I'll be damned if I'll spend 60 bucks for a game that lasts 6 hours.

[ben806]

yer would be a 36 hour long mass effect dream i would be having long after you are looking for you next game to buy.

[crank]

All in all, it is great this game fits.

The whole ******* argument is about two years down the road when M hits a pothole and kills the whole family in a caravan that couldn't keep up.

The argument fanboys would like to give you corresponds with their attention span!

Right here right now, and as we all know that means nothing for systems that are projected to last 6 years.

All I am saying is WTF are you going to do dealing with red rings and a system that is deficient 2 years down the road.

Well, for one, you just aren't going to get certain games without lapse in quality.

Oh well, 360 fans already have enough games, right.

[Chris_GTR1]

BLUERAY IS NEEDED!@!!! .......what else are ps3 owners suppost to do on their ps3 but watch movies?

[Cherchez La Ghost]

Now that was funny!!

[Wii60_FTW]

lmao

[xionpunk]

Here's an article I found http://www.joystiq.com/2007...

just thought i'd put it up, but I also heard that the 360's Dvd discs only hold 7gb. Is that right?

Edit:Oh well that makes sense. well why did the devs say it just barely fit?

Edit (again): Nope I was right http://www.afterdawn.com/gl...

anyways if it only holds 7gb i wouldnt say it was well within the constraints, and as for sequels...

[Chris_GTR1]

the hold 9 gb. why do u think they call it DVD9.
well it says 7.95 gbs.. so its 8 gbs. not 7.

take into account that when u format something there is lost space. like for example if u format a 60 gig hdd only like 55 gigs are usable. (my pc has a 60gig hdd)

[randomGuyOnline]

Technically you don't lose GBs, as the GBs themselves weren't actually there to begin with. Formatting a HDD does not make you lose disk space, instead, it prepares the HDD in order for it to be of use.

Like the link that xionpunk provided states, DVD9 is actually 8.5GBs. Although, a GB in true terms as stated in the link above, is 1024MB, companies actually rate them in 1000MB increments to keep it nice and rounded.

So to summarize my post, DVD has less than 8.5 GBs of space when talking in bits of data, such as 0s and 1s(binary).

Also, I have read somewhere on this site that the actual amount of space given to developers is limited, because of the security measures put in place by Microsoft on each disc.

[7ero H3LL]

GOW, HALO3, SPLINTER CELL DOUBLE AGENT, RACHET AND CLANK ,AND MGS go under brief 8-13.

MASS EFFECT, BIO SHOCK, FF,ELDER SCROLLS,LOST ODYSSEY, BLUE DRAGON, ETERNAL SONATA, WHITE KNIGHT, GO UNDER LONG TERM PLAY 14-40+

I KNOW I MISSED ALLOT.

[Dogswithguns]

....Is that why BlueDragon took 3 discs for one game?

[Chris_GTR1]

hd videos take up alot of space. not gameplay.

[randomGuyOnline]

Agreed, FMVs scenes take up a lot more space than in-game assets, in fact more than last gen because they are saved in an HD format. Higher quality FMVs lead to larger files, which is the reason why Blue Dragon is three discs long. However, I don't believe that Bioware is a company that relies on FMVs. Somebody, please correct me if I'm wrong as I haven't played many Bioware games.

I myself, do enjoy fully rendered and cinematic scenes. It was one of the things that drew me to the PSX rather than the N64 back in the day.
I enjoy in-game graphics just as much as the next guy, but not as much as I enjoy FMV.

[jaja1434]

yea the rely on the ingame engine to run everything on the fly. And with the way todays engines work they look very very good. So all of the videos you've seen are done in real time. No pre-renders there.

[mirroredderorrim]

When you think about it. Alot of games are short. Mass Effect being 60-80 hours long sounds like it's got the right stuff to keep my attention. I just don't like the character face models. Other than that..I want this.

[Covenant]

I give approximately two flying figs about how much space it takes up.

I'm far more interested in HOW IT PLAYS.

[jinn]

only 6.74GB?

[jinn]

looking worse than the halo 3 console

[jazzmanb]

case in point..blue ray wasnt intended for gaming..got it? it was sonys way of trying to win a format war,they knew the ps3 would sell,and every ps3 owner would have to buy blue ray movies..blue ray not only is a waste of space for gaming,its insanely costly for developers..unless you have a lot of cgi in your games[final fantasy,many other eastern rpgs] there never well be a need for blue ray disc space...in fact it allows developers to essentially be lazy in a lot of areas,i dont have the time to get into that with a bunch of people who know nothing...seriously if games like orange box[5 full amazing games],oblivion,bioshock and gears[the most technically advanced graphics out there to date,and no uncharted isnt as graphically impressive..sorry to state the obvious,but many of you still think uncharted is all that graphically...simply put, uncharted,ratchet,metal gear could all be done on dvd9 with room to boot,plus developers would make a shatload of money on the discs...this is fact OK,do not respond with bs,because i know a lot more than you...

[jazzmanb]

ding,ding cgi takes a lot of space...ding,ding...its also stupid and a waste in the next gen...realtime is where its at...got it? good

[highps3]

Id still take Heavenly Sword over this game in a heart beat. Just another shooter for 360 to get. Do you guys actually get REAL games? Or just shooter after shooter after shooter?

[jaja1434]

Most popular PS3 games
WarHawk.
Restance.
Hmm two shooters...
I guess you could throw HS so you have have that.

And now the games that are most looked foward to.

MGS
KZ2
hmm both shooters? My god thats just odd...

[wallace1000]

Man there are a lot of haters in here. From what i have read, most of them seem to be making the sony executives very happy. The executives are probably sitting in their corporate office right now watching this saying "Dance puppets Dance!"

[FirstknighT]

You can add Heavenly Sword, Motorstorm, Resistance, and Lair and you still don't get the amount of gameplay and graphics of Mass Effect.

Blu Ray just got PWNED!

[wallace1000]

Since this thread has gotten off topic and turned into a blu ray is the best, i am going to join in too. What ever happened to the earth shattering spiderman 3 sales that the blu ray fanboys were promising us all? Surely it must be destroying transformers because spiderman 3 is on blu ray (obviously the best format every to bless our planet) and because sony is packaging spiderman 3 with almost every product they sell. Just curious thats all.

[BLACKJACK VII]

"Mass Effect Takes up only 6.74 GB" ... with 50+ hours of gameplay ?!?
LOL, BluRay ?!?

ROTFLMAO !!!!

[randomGuyOnline]

Didn't Oblivion itself have more play time than numerous PS3 games. And it should, because its an RPG. Mass Effect itself is an RPG an thus should have more hours of gameplay than an Action game. Besides, the amount of time it takes to complete a game varies from person to person. Although some may complete the game within 50 hrs, others may complete it faster, depending on the person. Game playing time is subjective and depends on the person playing the video game.

Video game playing time should be rated in the amount of time an individual can invest in a game until it no longer appeals to them. I myself I have put in about 40 hrs playing Oblivion until I just stopped. I could have played the game more but the game got repetitive to me and I just lost interest.

Bluray is what it is, a media storage disk. It doesn't increase playing time or the quality of the game experience, instead it allows developers more flexibility in what they want to do with their games. They don't have to compromise as much as they would have, had their game been on a DVD. Bluray is just more space for the developers, nothing more nothing less.

[Big Jim]

You xbox fan boys keep saying that DVD 9 has plenty of space for this generation, but Blue Dragon is ALREADY using multiple dvds. Lost Horizon is expected to use 3 or 4 dvds. Dvd is already too small for these games. Games are using multiple dvds right now! This situation is not going to get better either, it will only get worse. Would you rather play Lost Horizon on 4 dvds or on one blu-ray disk? I think you know the answer to question.

[jaja1434]

Are you really asking whether someone is to lazy to get up every 20 or so hours to switch a disc?

[PimpHandHappy]

who follows movie sales?

your getting a bit deep in the sh!t if your talking about Spidey vs Tranformers hi def sales

personaly i love the first time u see sandman on my blueray. That sh!t was crazy looking. I also got Unforgiven for 18bucks on blueray

[Ahhhh]

who needs the blu-ray? Probably the best game on PS3 is WarHawk which was a downloadable game.. it was a smalllll file. So great games dont need to be big in size.

Someone said the actual gameplay of Mass Effect was about 12 hours... are you serious? The Devs even said it's gonna take about atleast 40 hrs.

@highps3 - Are you retarded? So I guess you won't be getting MGS4, Uncharted, Haze, UT3, or KZ2 for the PS3 then will ya? It's just "another" shooter. And, plus, like the devs said this game is an RPG first a Shooter second. And, why don't you do some research before you post something stupid like that.. teh 360 has more games of other genres than shooters.

[stuntman_mike]

mass effect only takes 6.74 gb...what they didnt tell you was that 6.74gb is the intro and character selection screen if you wanna play any more of the rest of the 25gb then your gonna have to cough up another 40 smackers!

so well done microsoft not only has your console got a red ring on it your customers have too where you shaft em to pay for stuff that should be there in the first place! lol

[Ahhhh]

And, your pretty stupid.. go figure. Go buy a brain on E-Bay.. I saw one for $5.. it was black.. didn't look too good, but I'm sure it will do better than the one you have now.

[PimpHandHappy]

right on dude

i played Oblivan for about 30 hours and my buddy played for about 40 more. When i traded that game in i had 73hours and i couldnt even look at it.

Im at 74hours on warhawk and i see myself playing that game till the end of the PS3 life cycle if they keep adding stuff like maps maybe a shotgun and this dropship is really going to add some great game momments

I played HS for about 14hours
Lair=4
NGS=20
Vegas=20
GRAW=10 but im not trading it in. Warahwk took my time
RFOM=60
GT=100's
socom=100's
MGS=100's
COD4 will be my staple FPS till maybe KZ so that=100's

Game time is most deffinelty on the player and me myself i play all my shooters on the hardest level after getting the story on normal

[randomGuyOnline]

Yeah, I can't even count the amount of time that I spent playing Gran Turismo 3 and I'm still not part of the 100% club, lol.

Shadow of the Collosus: Maybe 10 hrs or less, but the game felt longer. Still, it was one of the best PS2 games I'd ever played.
God of War: Less than 15 hrs on Spartan Mode. I still haven't played God mode.
FFX: 50+
FFXII: Around 40
Resistance: Still playing it. Alot online.
Motorstorm: Still playing it.
MGS: Too much to count.
Neverwinter Nights 2: Don't know because I stopped playing, but maybe around 30. The game was awesome at the beginning but fell off towards the end. This is something that I hope doesn't happen to Mass Effect.
That being said, I'm pretty confident Mass Effect is going to be one hell of a game.

But yeah, the amount of time it takes to complete says nothing about how well somebody may receive the game. Those who don't like the genre will avoid it, but others will receive it with open arms.

[JokesOnYou]

to all of the sonykids claims which constantly seem to blow up in their faces, DVD9 will do just fine, despite their predictions that next gen games NEED bluray, hell the simple fact that there are already long AAA games like Oblivion on 1 DVD9, while ps3 bluray games haven't shown any reason why its NOT possible on DVD other than redundant duplicate data fillers so sony devs can say "hey look its 22 gigs", but most importantly the GREAT DEV'S WILL ALWAYS FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE A GAME WORK WITH THE SPACE THEY HAVE= Bioware made their vision of Mass Effect on DVD9 because they had to, but IF they needed more space, I'm sure they would have made it work on 2 discs, would I or any normal gamer care if it was 2 disc's, ha ha when's the last time you ever heard your avg gamer say "OMG this sucks 'cause this *great game is on 2 discs", ask you local gaming store= no one cares about the amount of disc's, they care about how good the content is on the disc. GREAT JOB BIOWARE! sonykids don't sound like a happy bunch lately=

JOY

[randomGuyOnline]

Although I agree with you that very few people care that a game is on 2 discs vs 1. I mean I still think that multiple discs means more gameplay, but thats just me. Can I ask you this question?

What did sony fans do to anger you so much? Because it seems that you have a personal vendetta against them. BTW, I'm just curious.

Also, in response to what you said about them adding another disc if they needed to. Well, think of it this way. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in Mass Effect you can visit anywhere you like during the entire game. In order to add another disc to the game they would have to eliminate a previous planet or place you could visit in order to free up more space. They would have to change their entire game around the choice of adding a new disc.

Note that the example below is for that of a linear rpg, and not a free roaming one such as Mass Effect. However it is still similar enough to get my point across.

Example: FFVIII took a total of four discs. Towards the end of the game most of the fmv data had taken up a large portion of the fourth disc. In order to correct this players weren't allowed to revisit previous towns and cities, since there wasn't a sufficient amount of space to do this. They had to cut corners in order to finish the game. Although very few people noticed this or cared, it makes you wonder what the towns and cities would of looked like had they been on a greater optical storage media than cd.

[Ri0tSquad]

you can still have a next gen AAA game on a dvd no doubt but when don't you have something to say about the "sonykids"? Its quite obvious they piss you off but every comment I read is sonykids this sonykids that.

[IPlayGames]

Have people heard of genre???

If your gonna compare the do it to Folklore (havent played the game just the demo so i dont know how long it is but its prob longer than 6hrs.)

I promised not to get in this fanboy stuff but yet and still.

I still like my PS3 better because of the choices in gaming.

PS3: exclusive's
Warhawk - multi/flying/shooting
Heavenly Sword - Action/adventure/swords
Uncharted - action/adventure/treasure hunting/shooting
Eye of Judgment - card based/online

360:
Halo 3 - FPS/3rd person Shooter
Bioshock - FPS
Mass Effect - RPG/3rd person Shooter

[Big Jim]

Call it laziness if you want, but I used to have a game cube and a lot of their games came on multiple disks and it was a pain in the azz to switch them all the time.
Enjoy your future of constatly switching out multiple dvds, xbots. Maybe you can use your 8 track tapes while you're at it. Its just too bad that microsoft couldn't see far enough ahead to know that dvds would be obsolete, and that they should have tried to keep the 360 out of the middle ages.

[JokesOnYou]

thats the difference between you and normal gamers looking to play great games, switching disc's is a minor concern, I have played plenty of games with multiple discs and I have never had to "constantly" swap discs every few minutes, stop exaggerating. I dont like FF at all but I never ever heard complaints about multiple discs from all those gamers who love the series, I played RE4 on Gamecube and it didn't bother me one bit, it isn't until now that bluray is here that suddenly sonykids believe its a big deal because uhm, well "thats so last gen"= nowhere have I ever knocked the idea of bluray having MORE space as a bad thing, I have simply stated what is evident based on what we see: its nice to have, but NOT a neccessity for making, huge great AAA games.

@randomguy, I'm not angry, I simply see things different from sonykids, which is why I own a 360 and refuse to buy a ps3 so far, I'm simply giving my opinion which I base on the facts, and obviously my personal preference is a big part of how I judge those facts, but nevertheless, I dont think I go off on wild rants that don't make sense, I try to use common sense. I know sonykids dont like me simply because what I see and say doesn't favor their platform of choice, I dont care I'm going to say it anyway, and yes I call them sonykids because based on most of sony "fanboys" comments, they seem to lack any deductive reasoning skills so they sound like kids to me, fanboy/kid its all the same, I know it goes both ways and I know some will label me one as well, I dont care, 'cause even though my comments my sound harsh or biased, I make an effort to use common sense, unlike many sonykids.

JOY

[Foliage]

I can't remember who posted this link: http://forums.audiworld.com...

Why is anybody surprised this is only 6.78 GB? Put Final Fantasy 13 on a DVD9 and I'll be surprised, but this is stretching it. Considering the developers only had the size of a DVD9 to work with, they would have to find some way to make it fit by cutting corners. Maybe this can serve as a lesson for some of you that graphics aren't always the most important factor in a game.

It's shocking how many people mistaken disc space for game length. It's also shocking how someone can try to claim that larger file sizes and better quality results are not important, and then post the opposite in the latest "mutli-platform graphics comparison video" post. Get over it. Getting a built in player that is capable of HD results is not a bad thing.

To those who continually knock Heavenly Sword, give it a try some day. I'm sure you'll all shut up quickly.

[IPlayGames]

Do you know if its open world or open/linear like FFX-2 where u can go where ever you want but the game is set in chapters.

Just a question.

???

[Shaka2K6]

Yeah re4 on the game flop was 2 disk horrible thinig, specially from todays gaming machines, thank god the supeior version came out later on jsut one dvd with alot of extras to spare.

now oblivion was also in just one dvd but remenber those horrible 2 minute load time? compression = fits in one dvd = cheaper production = bigger load times = sucks to be paying $60 for dvd games.

[jazzmanb]

played heavenly,and it was a fun rental,nothing special,at least for my tastes..it was cool though...blue dragon and lost odyssey well be mutiple discs because of fmv,cgi and cutscenes...got it? i dont think so, because you guys keep blabbing about blue ray...for now on no one well talk about blue ray unless were talkin movies,it has ZERO to with games...mass effect has a minimilist look to the planets because of art direstion and size of the planets youll explore..you wanna compare detail look at gears,because uncharted or ratchet look old and stale compared to gears,dont kid yourselves.....i know more than you

[Guardian0fPeace]

As long as the games are awesome it shouldn't matter whether the data is compressed using advanced techniques that preserve the original quality or if they're not so compressed but stored on a much larger capacity media unit. Let them use whichever is more convenient for them, neither method is at all harmful to our gaming experience, there's nothing to be bashing each other over for Pete's sake! Look at COD4, the graphics are freakin identical!! Really, what is all the fuss about? Both are great systems, can't we all live with that?

[Big Jim]

Thank you for the sermon, you hippie. Fighting over which console is the best is the fun part. I own a PS3 and a 360, but I constatly bash the 360 just because I want to argue and fight and so I need to pick a side. Thats the whole fun of it. I don't even really hate the 360. The only console I really hate is the Wii, because it is bad for hardcore gamers because developers will spend their time making women's games like Cooking Mama for the Wii instead of making good hardcore games for the two real systems. But anyway, the point is, take your peace and love and harmony and give it to Jesus.

[Guardian0fPeace]

now that I have a bit of a glimpse of your mind...funny...very funny...lol, that's really all I can say...

[devilhunterx]

I am just curious as to how long is this game? I can easily do 50 hours plus on any "last gen" RPG

[Dr Pepper]

They said around 40 hours if you only focus on the main quest and no side missions. If you want to do everything, it's 60+ hours.

[demolitionX]

walk talk walk talk talk talk talk talk walk talk talk walk walk, SHOOT, walk walk walk talk talk walk walk talk shoot walk shoot talk talk talk talk talk talk talk.......................... ............................... ............................... ............................... ....................bla bla bla........................... ............................... ..100 hours game!!!! WOW!

[BLACKJACK VII]

MASS EFFECT FTW !!!

[solidt12]

They must of compressed the hell out of all of that audio they are using. I guess it is possible if Warhawk on the PS3 is under 900 MB, But Warhawk doesn't have voice acting. I have high hopes for this game but I probably won't be playing it any time soon. It is at the bottom of my to buy list but I would still like to play it some time when it is $20.00 at Gamestop.

[Z501]

Resident Evil 1 was only 3 hours.
And i've put in 98 hours on 2 disc Xenogears.

[honorable1]

Like blue dragon don't get me wrong I played it, it was okay though I got bored it took a very long time. In fact I didn't beat it because it got so easy that I could cook and play at the same time. I just new I had to keep mashing A. I don't know about you guys but I never had to level or anything and nothing ever came close to beating me.

Sorry off topic there for a second anyways what I think made Blue Dragon spread across three discs was because of the movies. What if while you were playing you downloaded the next movie or two depending on how close they were and then they played when they had too. After playing they deleted. Don't get me wrong somethings in RPGS are just so cool they have to be in a movie and not in game but still I don't want to switch disks all the time to see them. I know it's lazy but if I have to switch disks just to go to different worlds or something like that I would be kind of mad.

Now if all of the disks of this future game that has no name that I am using as an example could play the game and access every feature of the game except for the movies then I would be okay with it. But having to switch back and forth just to explore new worlds and such would be a pain. Especially if I hit the new area but wanted to go back just to grab one thing and then come back through. Wow, I would feel pretty dumb and would probably slightly lose interest. Doing this multiple times would leave me wanting to just watch tv.

[SDS Overfiend]

Compression.

Damn Microsoft and their bullsh1t. I hate Microsoft for its ability to shut sony down cause of the fact their money is longer than the O.J. trial.

I hate the fact that Blu-Ray was deem inefective cause of MS compression Techniques.

Screw you M$

*Sarcasm*

[demolitionX]

what if mass effect came on 2 versions: one is 2 DVDs and the other is 1 DVD? u think the 1 DVD will be a better game than the 2 DVD one???

[Gahigiddy]

Us: Liars.

Try not repeating textures. It might make the game look better.

[Cetra]

Having a larger capacity and built-in blueray is always a plus for both the devs and ps3 owners.

So what if mass effect can fit into a DVD9? I dun get it. Even if current 360 games are able to fit into the DVD9 now, can one still guarantee its going to be this way for the rest of the next maybe 6-8years of the console life? There will definitely be games that is unable to play on xbox360 becos of capacity constraint,reduced content/quality to fit into 1 DVD9 or annoying multiple disc swapping.

So laugh at the blueray while u still can.

[Chris_GTR1]

get your facts straight. EVERY 360 game has been on 1 dvd exept for 2 games...both are japanese RPGs. k .. multiple disk rpgs require you to sawp dvds every 15 hours of gameplay.. did all the ps2,ps1 FF get any worse because of multiple disks?

[caffman]

I'm still looking forward to this as is my son and daughter. So the twat is I'll have to get 3 copies! Bum!

[PumPum]

Enjoy the framerate and loadtimes!

[TheMART]

Thanks we will enjoy the high framerate and the low loading times! Instead of the slideshow games the PS3 gets constantly. Great you let us think about that again.

Thanks again dude!

[leon76]

If the world was ruled by the ideas of the xbots, we're still using diskets for the actual games!!....

[Mars Attacker]

Lair and HS were games that intentionally loaded as much graphic and sound uncompressed on the disk as possible in a lame attempt to prove that "bigger is better" and justify doubling the price of the PS3 by including Blu-Ray. Lair was a flop and HS is average at best. Warhawk blows both games away, is less than 1 gig and will almost fit on a CD!

Hindsight being 20/20... Sony should have released the PS3 with no Blu-Ray, at least twice as much RAM, minimum of 60gb HDD and rumble with a launch price of $299. Any game that is bigger than one DVD could have come on two disks and load one to the hard disk (just like the 360 will start doing next spring). Blu-Ray could be offered as an add-on for those few (13%) who actually care about it.

Sony's insistence on using Blu-Ray has done nothing but sell Wii's and 360's. The dismal installed base of PS3s is turning off developers.

The PS3 won't shrivel and die like the 3DO, but Sony has no one to blame but their own greed when the look back on the PS3 and wonder why it is WAY behind the Wii and 360 in sales.

[Darrius Cole]

I fell for the "Lair is awful and Heavenly Sword is average" BS. I now see that lie for what it is, a player-hating, lie. You may be able to get away with saying that Lair is average, although from my experience it is pretty good once you learn to control the dragon. Heavenly Sword on the other hand is pure greatness. Heavenly Sword's in-game camera looks better than every other game's cut-scenes and FMV's; it looks THAT good. It plays that good also.

P.S.

Cell is responsible for as much of the PS3's cost as Blu-Ray.