PS Blog - Rage PS3 Hands-on: Dead to the World

Sid Shuman writes: Last week, Jeff and I went hands-on with the PS3 version of Rage, id Software’s October-bound first-person shooter. All told, we experienced more than two hours of post-apocalyptic action, driving, and exploration in a nuke-shattered world of exquisite visual detail and startling violence.

[NukaCola]

I really want to see this game running on PS3. I don't understand why id says console controllers have to much lag. Controllers can run 60 frame gaming no problem.

[thespaz]

All console games have a little bit of lag... some games have a lot. It depends on how well the game is developed. Then, you add an HDTV to the equation and it's going to introduce even more lag (especially if it doesn't have a game mode). Even when game mode is turned on, you'll still get about 40ms of lag JUST FROM THE TV.

However, I play my PS3 on a computer monitor which has virtually no lag (or a very small amount) because computer monitors do not try to clean up the image on the screen. It gives you 1:1 pixel accuracy and when you run a lower resolution (as most games are 720p) there is no pixel sampling going on... it's going to show you exactly what the PS3 is outputting so there's no signal processing going on at all. Notice when you use a PC, the mouse cursor feels 1:1 with your hand movement.

Most people play PS3 or 360 on HDTVs, so that's where most of the lag comes from, but each game has a little bit of lag as well (sometimes due to v-sync or triple-buffering v-sync).

[50Terabytespersec]

This may be the fillin in for Resistance 3 if what i hear is correct that R3 is Low def last gen garbage..
Rage will definitely be in my que

[Dynasty2021]

id are PC developers, the last thing they are going to do is show console footage first.

Hope it sucks on consoles. Hate how devs are selling out to consoles, but obviously thats where the money is as well so...

Anyway.

Have to say Im torn on Rage. Pre-ordered but might cancel it depending on the reviews.

It just feels a bit...meh. The gunfire seriously isnt working for me, there seems to be hardly any recoil and dont look like they have any weight to them. That can really ruin a game for me.

[thespaz]

How are you supposed to simulate weight when a game is running at 60fps? Sure, they can slow down the aiming, but can't you just increase the sensitivity anyway?

The only thing they can do to make the guns feel heavier is to make the dead-zone on the analog sticks bigger so you have to move the stick further before the image on the screen moves.... not exactly sure how they would simulate analog sticks with a PC mouse though.

To me, every game on PC feels like super fast twitchy controls because you can move the mouse as fast as you want. With a controller, the camera will only move as fast as the developer wants it to move (take Killzone 2 for example). You can shoot the analog stick all the way over as fast as lightning, but you still have to wait for the game the turn the camera at the game's speed.

[Ducky]

Weight can be implied through separate camera/gun movements.

On PC, a few FPS games do this (RedOrchestra comes to mind) where the mouse controls the gun, but not the camera.
If you quickly jerk the mouse to the left, your gun will point left, but your character will still be looking ahead for a fraction of time before facing the new direction.

This allows for realistic movement of the character, while still allowing quick and precise aiming to the user.
(It all goes to hell when you go into iron sights and can do 360's on a whim, but having that high of a sensitivity more or less defeats the point of using the sights to begin with)

A few other games have mouse acceleration and other tricks to inhibit the twitchy-ness and add a sense of inertia, which eventually leads to angry PC players that disable it because hardly anyone likes 'weighty' controls.

Other than that, a weapon's weight is mostly shown through animations. GuerillaGames is good at it, and DICE is also getting exceptionally good at making animations and adding recoil that give each weapon a feeling of weight.

[Redgehammer]

Actually Id has previously shown the 360 version in many of the public showings. I came in here to see what the PS3 previewers had to say, and it is nice to know they are as pumped as the 360 previewers have seemed to be.

"but the total package looks breathtaking. It’s especially impressive given the ultra-high framerate, lighting detail, animation, and massive environment size. It looks like nothing I’ve seen on a console."

that is awesome to read, and it even got me more pumped.

[mrmancs]

why after so long waiting , loads of awesome games coming this way? bloody eckers its like a bus stop lol(no bus for ages , then 3 arrive at same time!). :)

[HaHa_Ostrich]

Good to see another great game running smoothly on the "pain in the ass to develop" console. Great dev is a great dev.

[Spenok]

What I want to know is they say they are streaming the data for the textures and high resolutions, thus they aren't limited by capacity. How or what are they streaming this data from? Obviously they will let you play this game without a net connection. So again, what are they streaming from?