PS3 Flower's grass impossible on other systems

GameZine:

"ThatGameCompany describes their dependence on the PlayStation 3's SPU processors in rendering Flower's multitude of grass blades.

I was incredibly impressed by the graphics of ThatGameCompany's Flower when I reviewed the game in February. There are thousands of grass blades that all interact with you (the wind) during gameplay.

In an interview with Kellee Santiago, co-founder and president of ThatGameCompany, we spoke on the technology and techniques used in rendering the PlayStation Network game."

[ToastyMcNibbles]

i wouldnt doubt it for a second...the game is amazing

[techie]

200,000 reacting blades is pretty outstanding - and pretty in general :)

[fishd]

I yet have to see a CPU doing something like this...

http://www.tomshardware.com...

[na2ru1]

I downloaded this year. It was a breath of fresh air.

[XxZxX]

Tha game is a good piece of art. It's relaxing and awesome at the same time.

[ape007]

the cell processor is starting to show it's difference in games

imagine using it in gta 5?

imagine

infamous look to have lots of things going on

sony'ss vision is just outstanding

cell processor

blu-ray

1080p

the ps3 is a monster

[no-spin]

the PS3 is just an amazing piece of technology, as developers start focusing on harnessing its power we will see very special games. And to think is only starting its 3rd year, wow just amazing. 10 years plus lifetime is not impossible, even with the PS4 being sold.
Sony delivers in value when someone buys a PS3, because its going to last a pretty long time, at least 5 years life cycle as a minimum, just look at the PSP- 50 million sold and 2009 line up is looking major for the hand held , nice

[StephanieBBB]

It would be incredible.

[ChampIDC]

The only people that doubt the graphical power of the PS3 are fools and fanboys. I'm no graphics whore, but I'm a sucker for stylish games like Flower.

[FarEastOrient]

@fishd

My main computer can only do 8 at the same time before it becomes unhealthy for the system to do anymore without me crashing the whole system. Which is still good because I built this graphic design rig two years ago and it wasn't able to play Empires: Total War at the max settings.

[rockleex]

All the ignorant comments that fill up the bottom half of this page.

Posted by sarshelyam:

"This next part isn't directed at you Rome but the abundance of ignorant warmongers that currently reside in this article. Yes, it's only grass...if we're analyzing the object then it can be broken down to ignorant & simplistic comments like that. It's only grass, but it's some of the best LOOKING and most realistically behaving grass in a game. Simply because the subject matter isn't overly complex and doesn't feature guns/sex/violence, do we have to break it down and belittle the experience? Mario is a fat plumber, but somehow we get around that and enjoy the majority of his unbelievable-in-theory games.

Why can't we simply enjoy an experience for its intent. Flower is not meant to be a conventional game, nor can we draw conventional comparisons to more typical games in the industry...and that is why every negative comment here fails."

[Aquanox]

There's been a lot of things "impossible" for the Xbox 360.

First it would be Assassin's Creed. Believed to be PS3 exclusive and "impossible" on Xbox 360. Similar fate had this title called "Devil May Cry 4" and we all know how it ended up.

Then MGS4 was released... with great graphics, lightning and detail... totally out of the Xbox 360's league. Later though, Resident Evil 5 was launched with even more impressive visuals, detail, lightning and color.

KZ2 is also impossible on Xbox 360, yet CryEngine 3 has just been released for the Xbox 360 as well, and if it manages to pull anything near Crysis then this claim will also be debunked.

Lets just leave the "impossible" on other system claims and center on the games themselves, shall we?

[rockleex]

Yes, but there will likely be less blades of grass to interact with.

Now, does it matter that the PS3 can do more blades of grass? Not really.

Each system has a different architecture. What one system can do and another can not do is mainly due to the difference in architecture and has little to do with the difference in power.

I don't get what all these fanboys are crying about when articles mention that one system can do something better than another system. We ACCEPT that the Wii has the best motion controls in a console system, the PS3 follows behind with SIXAXIS, and the 360 has none. So why is it that we ARGUE when it comes to technical stuff?

Just take each console for what it is and we'll all be happy.

@Aquanox: Killzone 2 is not possible on the 360 because of the way it utilizes the Cell Processor and its SPUs. If it was made for the 360, they would have to throw away deferred rendering which would severely handicap the lighting system and everything else the Killzone 2 engine offers.

You chose the wrong game to prove that the 360 is just as powerful as the PS3. What you don't realize is that its not a matter of difference in power, but actually a matter of difference in architecture.

[Sharpshell]

anyone who thinsk that resident evil 5 looks better than mgs4 in terms of textures, partical effects, lighting, hell even sheer depth of vision needs to get their eyes checked next time they are at the doctors for their acute fanboy disorder. Both GeOW2 looks better than RE5 and GeOW2 is in the same leauge as MGS4 in terms of graphics (just different styles) so 360 fanboys careful before you say I am an idiot...

Also with a game like flower I would say that how many blades of grass move is kind of important, the question is how does that translate, or if it translates into a more, regular, game.

That beign said ever exlusive game is sort of dependant on the arcitecture to be possible, its like Davinci saying that without canvas the Monalisa (sp?) would be imposible.

[pixelsword]

...until I actually saw it in motion. It's not a game to play, it's a work of art to be appreciated for it's craftsmanship and feeling.

It's like fl0w in that it's a game the plays like it's not a game, which is a whole new feeling.

It's awesome.

[SprSynJn]

"First it would be Assassin's Creed. Believed to be PS3 exclusive and "impossible" on Xbox 360. Similar fate had this title called "Devil May Cry 4" and we all know how it ended up.

Then MGS4 was released... with great graphics, lightning and detail... totally out of the Xbox 360's league. Later though, Resident Evil 5 was launched with even more impressive visuals, detail, lightning and color.

KZ2 is also impossible on Xbox 360, yet CryEngine 3 has just been released for the Xbox 360 as well, and if it manages to pull anything near Crysis then this claim will also be debunked."

Assassin's Creed, if I am not mistaken, was touted as a 360 exclusive when it was first developed. How can it then have been said to not be able to run on it? I have never heard anywhere that Devil May Cry 4 could not run on the 360, considering that was always projected to be on both systems. Where exactly did you hear it couldn't?

Whether or not Resident Evil 5 is better looking when compared to Metal Gear is entirely up to personal opinion. Some people believe Uncharted is the best looking game to grace the PS3 even with Metal Gear out there. I say Killzone 2 is far better than anything out there to date. Again, that is personal opinion though.

As far as the CryEngine goes, let us see some games on it before we make judgements shall we? Look, I know you are trying to defend your baby, but please come up with some factual statements before you bumble in on a topic. OK?

[No Way]

Assassins Creed was at first said to be a PS3 exclusive. Later down the line it became a multiplat game.
It was never touted as a x360 exclusive..

[phosphor112]

And I was amazed. At first I was just thinking they were sprites or what ever..no..they couldn't be. You know like the grass in FarCry 2? It bends and what not..No I stared at the grass and was like... Holy crap! The blades have depth to them too!

I so wish more of this game would be released. I was saddened when I beat it. Not because it was so short, but because, I wanted more.

[otherZinc]

Talking about that POS! Game is some trash.

[XxZxX]

otherZinc just lack braincells to appreciate arts.

[techie]

Actually No Way, AC was originally a 360 exclusive, changed to a PS3 exclusive and then was MP again :)

[LoVeRSaMa]

Beautiful innovative game which packs lots of power, one of my favorite conceptual games =]

[theEnemy]

.

[ikaris]

I want more flower :(
I've gotten every trophy, every green flower, and i think every flower in the game.... yet I still want more..
It was such a fantastic experience.

[Nicolator]

well.. what can i say.. i am a lover of both systems and own them..both.. but one thing i would say to sony fanboys "DONT COUNT UR EGGS BEFORE THEY HATCH".. clam this X and Y cant be done on this system then 6 months later to a year .. WALLAH.. and u go all quiet..as far as tech is concern both systems have very diffrent architecture.. but still about the same power so any game that can be pulled off on one system can be done on another.. its might just take 360 multi disc since dvd9 is small.. other than that... nothing...remember cryengine3 is looming ... so its best u dont miss fire ur mouths yet... just a word of advice.

[TheHater]

Flower grass should be in every game that is release on the PS3 that feature grass

[edgeofblade]

Consider how much is really going on in game here. Not much. Even the 360 could handle this if all it has to do is grass. If you add more details to the game, you have to get that processing power somewhere. Despite the delusions of certain fanboys, the Cell has a limited amount of processing power...

[Mr Marbles]

Anyone who thinks this PSN game cannot be done to the same level on 360 is really naive and gullible.

Most games run better on 360, ESPECIALLY low budget cheap games like this one, PS3 can't even handle Unreal as well as 360.

[ZuperAmazingCooKie]

"MAiKU
Anyone who thinks this PSN game cannot be done to the same level on 360 is really naive and gullible.

Most games run better on 360, ESPECIALLY low budget cheap games like this one, PS3 can't even handle Unreal as well as 360. "

Your logic fails miserably. Even on games that run "better" on 360 the PS3 has proven to have less pop-in and higher draw distance, that includes GTA4 and Hawx, just to name a few. If you knew anything about the hardware and took off your fangirl goggles, you'd know that the cell processor does game geometry much faster than Xbox 360.

The point this guy is trying to make is that you can't replicate as many grass blades (or as many polygons) on any other system, including high end PCs, because of the SPUs in particular; the 360 CPU pales in comparison to the SPUs, it isn't even made for processing geometry, it's only used for physics (that also pale in comparison to the SPUs), game logic and AI, i.e. nothing related with graphics.

There is no CPU on the PC market capable of beating the cell processor at what the SPE's are meant to do, and that's why games like uncharted sport more than twice as many polygons per character than Gears of War 2 even though Uncharted only uses about 30% of the PS3 while Gears of War 2 was approaching the limit of what the 360 could do.

Oh, and don't make us laugh with that Unreal Engine quote. That engine is outdated and isn't made to take advantage of any particular hardware, it's simply a 3rd party middleware solution for developers that don't want to mess with the hardware.

[shawnsl65]

Mr. Marbles has lost his marbles..

[gumgum99]

@shawnsl65

lmao

[killzone2ownsallfps]

yeha.. like kill zone 2

[swinesucker]

It's great and all but I don't think it natively renders 1080p because 1080i looks about the same as 720p on my dell where as games like echochrome and such are noticeably better in 1080i.

Not talking about motion here just detail. I don't see much more in 1080i and 1080i should technically have a lot more detail if natively rendered and not upscaled.

[swinesucker]

Yes, I am correct, but it's not true 720p either. And being locked at 30fps means 1080i should be just as good as 720p or even better because both the vertical and horizontal resolution are higher than 720p.

from the creator--

As far as native resolution goes, Flower is locked at 30 frames per second and the gameplay is rendered out at 810x1440 2x anti-aliasing. All post processing is done at 810, and then the scene is run through a lens distortion shader onto a buffer of native TV resolution, up to 1080p. Because the lens distortion causes an uneven resolution distribution, when the camera is fully zoomed out the center of the screen is effectively slightly less than 480 and the edges are over 1080. We chose 810p because it was the lowest resolution we could find before the center of the screen started looking too aliased.

Unlike gameplay, the menu and HUD are rendered at native TV resolution, up to 1080p.

http://thatgamecompany.com/...

[techie]

1080i (not p) renders less lines than 720p. You should run your games at 720p and not 1080i.

I doubt your Dell supports 1080p.

Where did you pull that quotation from? And that's higher than 720p.

[ToastyMcNibbles]

well the important thing is it looks beautiful

[swinesucker]

Actually, technically, native 1080i runs more pixels at any given moment then 720p.

Horizontal resolution in true 1080i is still 1920p folks all the time. The vertical res is two alternating odd and even line of pixels at 540 each creating one 1080i image every 30th of a second hence why you see less motion artifacts when games run at 30fps where clearly in games like SSTFHD that run at true 60fps scan lines are very visible even though 1080i still looks a LOT BETTER THAN 720p for that game because of the increased resolution.

My dell is technically 1080p I love my 2405 I use components for ps3 and that is why I cannot run true 1080 because of HDCP CRAP! But my mac runs everything just fine with 1080p it's just I cannot use HDMI which does kind of bite but....

Blurays looks WAAAAAAAAAY better in 1080i because of the increased resolution and the fact that most film is at 24fps.

[no-spin]

1080i > 720p

At least i notice it is visually better, smother graphics on 46 in tvs

[sukru]

Come on, did you even "try" to read what I said.

GPUs are no longer "graphics only", but a very powerful general purpose (cannot emphasize this enough) numerical processors.

Take a look at http://gpgpu.org/, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

And finally, we're not comparing CPUs, but "systems". Last time I checked, my graphics card is still in my system. (Which is a PC if you need reminding).

[ikaris]

No offense but, you guys are kinda taking the convo. astray.
Who gives a **** if flower isn't fully 1080p? Killzone2 is only 720p, and I imagine God of war III will also be 720 by the time they are done with it.

Sometimes theres just too much going on for 1080p.

That being said, Flower is the best game I've played for a long time.
It isn't just interactive art, look on thatgamecompany's website.
Or maybe I just read about this in my history of video games class, but they have a list of development goals, and they orient the design around having everyone able to play, but giving room so 'hardcore' gamers can still have fun.

Oh, and 360fanboys, flower would never feel like flower with the 360 controller... the biggest part of flower is the immersion, and flower with the sticks would just be so lame.

Sorry wii owners, even with motion controls, its just not as sexy,

flower can only exist on the psn, and I think it makes ps3 owners just a little happier to know that.

[El_Colombiano]

Haha I was waiting for this. The second I started it up it was so obvious.

[Philip J Fry]

What about a PC?

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

nice.

[jams_shop]

I used to believe to PCs were PC(Personal Computer)

[SuperM]

Not in a viable way no... because it would limit the game to the few amount of consumer having good enough pc to run it. And it would require a really really high end cpu to run. Because cell is more powerfull then most cpu's and this game is optimized for a system that only run games, not all kinds of other programs at the same time.

bringing up PC in these discussions is really stupid though. Because tecnically you could link together all the pc's in the world and create a monster pc that would run anything.

[Philip J Fry]

So your saying it CAN be done on a PC? Awesome.

[Fishy Fingers]

Of course it could be done on a PC. A PC of a certain level, and one I guarantee you could not afford for the price of a PS3, or 5.

[GiantEnemyFlop]

it can be done, but YOU will Never Ever can Play this game without PS3

buy the way, why bringing pc always when comparing who's powerful between the 3 console, it just plain stupid

[sukru]

But not on the CPU, of course. Any PC with a decent (decent: at least $150) "graphics card" can render it.

Nowadays GPUs can be used as general purpose computing (both nVidia and ATI, also DirectX 10.1, and Java (third party) provides APIs for this). (Look at folding@home project for a practical use).

As far as I know PS3's cell is capable of a theoretical 1 TERAFLOPS, whereas
* The best Intel processor can provide ~50 GIGAFLOPS ( see http://www.intel.com/suppor... ). So they are out. (1 TERAFLOP = 1000 GIGAFLOPS)
* My last gen HD3870 can provide ~0.6 TERAFLOPS
* Current ATI offerings (HD4870 x2) can do 2 TERAFLOPS

So it can be done on the PC.

[ZuperAmazingCooKie]

They're taking about CPU-exclusive related tasks. There is no commercially available processor as capable as the Cell processor in terms of what the SPEs are best at. That's why currently there is no system capable of handling it. That's why the Cell processor is used by scientists for heavy computing and that's why PS3 exclusive games have an insane amount of effects going on per frame.

[Philip J Fry]

The quote literally from the article and quoted is, "It really would be impossible to do it on any other system." Well not really, I mean a PC is a system, and nowhere are consoles mentioned or compared.

[FarEastOrient]

@Philip J Fry

Technically not really and especially at the price the PS3 is, if you look at my comment on the same page my computer can only decode, playback, trace, and cache 8 480p videos at the same time while the PS3 can do 48 at the same time is a big difference.

I built my computer for graphic design and programming two years ago, I build a new one every two years and the one I'm currently using cost me $3300 to make.

[Philip J Fry]

but it appears to me that he has quantified his statement, and that his statement is, that the grass in Flower cannot be duplicated anywhere.

[Electricear]

it says, "It really would be impossible to make it look the same on any other system." Notice the key words LOOK THE SAME. The person isn't saying that grass couldn't be done on any other system, it just couldn't look the same using the techniques they used with the cell, because, "...John Edwards just made it happen on the SPUs. " Lets not read into things to much, but based off what was said I believe they are saying the SPU code causes the grass to look the way it does, and though other systems could make grass it couldn't be done in the same way.

[starvinbull]

True. Game had to have been made on a PC.

[ikaris]

Tell me how you would control flower on a pc? with your mouse?
That would be so lame..

part of the beauty of flower is the simplicity of the controls...
any button = goes faster
tilting/changing the pitch = steering

[2FootYard]

What is Flower? It seems like an interesting game but I'm not really sure what its about.

[swinesucker]

A fantastic experience that you should buy now. Nuff said. There are plenty of reviews but surprise is much better.

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

In the words of Angelica Pickles, "If you have to ask, you'll never know."

[Philip J Fry]

What's a ZJ?

[XxRoosterxX]

I believe that would be the first Rugrats reference in N4G history.LOL

[IcarusOne]

This kind of holier-than-thou attitude is a great way to bring people into the fold.

[SonyRulz]

Is GRASS really something worth starting a pissing contest over? Kameo had great grass, but I don't remember anyone saying anything about it. Flower isn't even a GAME....of COURSE they were able to devote a lot to the grass. If you want to impress me with the "power of teh Cell", put grass like this in a game like Oblivion.

Yeah.

[techie]

Actually there's a thread on NeoGAF simply about great 3D grass in games. Both Kameo and Flower are in the list. And Flower looks great because of its grass.

[Coconutz919]

If all you have to say is "Hey, it's just grass..." then obviously you've never seen the game in action. Flower is stunning because of that.

[SonyRulz]

But that's just it....it IS "just grass". To brag you're pushing a console to it's limits...and doing something that can't be done on others...you need some SUBSTANCE. Show me this grass, with the animals in Afrika, and the open world design of FarCry 2. THAT would tell me the PS3 can do something no other console could do...but not JUST GRASS.

This is a glorified f*cking TECH DEMO.

[Chubear]

Kameo: $60 disc, launch game. Flower: $10 Downloadable game. :/

[SonyRulz]

ACTUALLY, Kameo was $50, and yes...A LAUNCH TITLE; not to mention, a game that started out on TWO previous-gen consoles. Flower had the benefit of MUCH more dev experience with the hardware, and MUCH less going on in the "game", to take resources away from the grass. :/

[techie]

Which is why there are more blades rendered in Flower, and why Flower's grass looks and behaves more realistically.

[SonyRulz]

What/who exactly are you responding to? Your comment is too incomplete and vague to have any real meaning.

[IcarusOne]

It could be more graphically impressive. I'm just a dumb player and not a programmer, but it doesn't seem like there's a lot going on - despite 200,000 blades of grass. For how simple it is, the visuals also seem a little simple. The joy of this game is in how it moves, so I'm not complaining, but it would have been nice to have more texture to the grass. Some of the later sections feel very bland compared to the visual majesty of the first few.

[Coconutz919]

Well, either way Flower is still great to look at and until I see landscapes like this in another game, then ThatGameCompany can boast all they want.

[rockleex]

Metal Gear Solid 3 for the PS2.

Trust me. Go try it. ^_^

Anyways, if the PS2 was able to pull off such amazing grass with MGS3... just imagine what the PS3 can do. And Flower gives us an idea of what the PS3 can do with grass.

The point of this article is that if the developers made this game for the 360, then they would have to cut down a LOT on the grass. Because the Cell Processor is much better and quicker at doing calculations.

Are you trying to NOT acknowledge the Cell Processors advantages in calculations just because it was displayed with "grass"? An advantage is an advantage.

Anyways, Flower isn't the only game that utilizes Cell's advantages. Killzone 2 wouldn't be possible on the 360 either. But of course you probably don't even know what the Killzone 2 engine does that makes it only possible on the PS3.

If you hadn't noticed, the Cell Processor works much differently than conventional processors. Therefore there are certain things that can only be done on the Cell.

[tristanmike]

I'd care about it, but the reality is I can't, and I don't. I couldn't care less if the PS3 even provided the smell of grass... in the end, it's just grass, endless, boring....grass. and if it can't be incorporated into a REAL game, not a glorified TECH DEMO, then it's useless, no matter how pretty.

SonyRulz, I agree with everything you said. You bring sound logic and reason to this otherwise enlightened crowd.

[rockleex]

Just because it was achieved through grass. Fine, your opinion.

Nevertheless the 360 still can't pull this "tech demo", off therefore the article's title is still correct.

If you want to see great technical achievements implemented in "real games" then go look at Killzone 2. Yup, not possible on the 360 because of its extensive use of the SPUs and how the SPUs work.

Of course, this is not to say that the 360 is weak. Just saying that the Cell works differently, therefore different things can be achieved because of that. But somehow, there will always be people who are offended that their system can't do what another system was specifically built to do. -_-"

Its like Person A getting pissed off that Person B can draw better than him. So what? Person A can do other things better than Person B. I don't get why people get offended when articles like these state that PS3(or another console) can do certain things that other consoles can't do well. Duh! Its a matter of difference in architecture, and less to do with difference in power.

This is similar to people discrediting the Wii and claiming its all just mindless "waggle" simply because their console can't do the same.

[techie]

I was replying to this SonyRulez: "A LAUNCH TITLE; not to mention, a game that started out on TWO previous-gen consoles. Flower had the benefit of MUCH more dev experience with the hardware, and MUCH less going on in the "game", to take resources away from the grass."

[Electricear]

What I mean is this. Many games have had grass that is simply a few polys textured and animated with a local and global cycles. A local cycle would be a single blade or small clump of grass animated together to give a sense of individuality to the blades of grass, where as a global cycle would be a pre calculated cycle that affects large volumes of grass so that it looks like a gust of wind blows from one side to another. Typically you layer these local and global animations so that you end up with a nice looking grass. The benefit of this technique is it isn't very math intensive and looks like pretty decent grass. The problem with this is that the grass can't interact with the user (unless a local cycle is made that is triggered off a character moving with in a certain proximity of the grass). This type of animation is what most people see in most video games.

Flowers Grass does not look like this type of pre calculated cycles. Flower looks, and I could be wrong, to be using particle simulation for the grass. Particle simulation is FAR more complex as it applies forces to the grass to emulate wind. Each blade of grass has spring like properties that give it stiffness, resistance to move, dampening to keep it from moving for to long after a force has passed by and other such properties. This allows each blade of grass to react to any force that it interacts with. So when the player passes bye the grass each blade reacts to the users presence and then sways back in to place in a much more natural and random fashion than a pregenerated cycle could ever hope to.

[sulack]

If you havent noticed yet flower has more grass in one frame than full games have in all the levels combine.

[sweetlewfor3]

These fanboys need to stop. Now wonder this console war is always a flame war with all this S_H_I_T. Now your making articles about PS3 being able to be the only console to run "THE GRASS ON A PSN GAME?"

[swinesucker]

Dude the game is fantastic and beautiful.

STFU

[XPC HARDonE]

i'll be impressed when I smoke it

[hesido]

The game looks beautiful, but it is not 60 fps.

BTW, for the interlace discussion: interlaced modes are something that holds back the industry, because of the need for more complex decoders, the need for deinterlacers, and lesser quality when image is moving. In a world where 98% of your target displays use progressive technology, it should have taken the interlace backers a lot of lobbying to get their ideas across, and have the "i" modes accepted in the industry.

Luckily, the industry is moving towards "p" modes.

[Parapraxis]

I guess you'd have to grab WipEout HD if you want both 60fps and 1080p at the moment.

That and flower IMO are worth more than a lot of retail games and are cheaper to boot.

[GiantEnemyFlop]

mmmm Flower that can not be smell by the xbots

[HolyOrangeCows]

But seriously, these ''only possible on'' things are getting old.

[evilmonkey501]

You might actually have a clue what this article is about....This game really does look amazing in action.

[nightelfmohawk]

Real developers animate each individual blade of grass. Don't try this on the 360, kids.

[Sir Ken_Kutaragi]

...Are we allowed Positive PS3 News like this on this site??? ;-D

+ Tomorrow on n4g.com -

Micro$oft say their Version of Flower will be 1 Billion times better and even give you Hayfever!!! ;-D

[Etseix]

LOL!
*and u will be able to see ants too*

[evilmonkey501]

that's funny

[Dimitri]

hayfever hahahahahaha ;D

[jBat17]

that's what xbots were smoking to make them think the 3fixme is more powerful than the PS3

[Strikepackage Bravo]

love the thing to death, but do you guys seriously believe Flower can only be done on PS3? You have to be kidding me, its Flower!!!

You guys will eat up anything anyone says about PS3 as long as its positive, how many developers who have done something exclusive on PS3 have later said it can only be done on PS3, do you guys not see a pattern here, don't be fools. Sony is behind the rhetoric.

[Sarcasm]

Or how about we just use our own pair of eyes?

Uncharted, a game released back in 2007. Still stands toe to toe or surpass Gears of War 2 in terms of texture detail, animations, and lighting, etc. Drake is made up of 20,000 polygons, while Fenix is made up of about 12,000 polygons. Infact, each enemy in uncharted is 12,000 polygons and each enemy in Gears is only about 8,000 polygons.

Tells you a lot about the tech doesn't it?

And my own eyes tell me there is not a single game, not ONE, zero, zip, nada, that the 360 has the same level of technical excellence that is Wipeout HD.

And I can go on and on about more examples, but instead of telling people not to believe in the PS3's graphics, you should tell the people to stop denying it.

[xg-ei8ht]

SonyRulz - Oblivion is crap. Boring!!!!

Graphically POOR!

[free3sixty]

its always cool to see that all impossible games that are on PS3 come after some months/ years with better graohics on the 360 xD

MGS4 is comming.. but not with 22Gb uncompressed 7.1 True HD sound of course. we need just the game (11GB on japanese ISO) which would be able to compress on a DVD9.

Thank you!

[GiantEnemyFlop]

keep living the xbots dream

by the way, it was 33GB loser

[jBat17]

MGS4 360 = MGS 4: Substandard

[randomwiz]

all of you are wrong, MGS4 was compressed a bit to fit the 50gb limit of blu ray.

"MGS4 is comming.." you just lost all your creditability there.

[ambientFLIER]

Lol, I remember when the PS3 dorks were bragging how Unreal III wasn't possible on the 360, and then it came out with better graphics. Lol.

[edgeofblade]

Why are we STILL seeing glorified tech demos this far into the console's life cycle? I'm not fooled by calling this an "art game". Screw that.

And screw PSN. If this game were on XBL, there would be a demo. Then, there might be a chance in hell I'd buy it.

[swinesucker]

LOL at all the disagrees

for what!

facts?

and killzone contrary to what everyone is saying DOES NOT RUN 1080i Native

I don't know why the producer says this as they scale the vertical resolution from 960 and it is not true native 1080i

720p is preferable to me

[Sarcasm]

Killzone 2 looks best in 720p anyway. I find that it's more clear and keeps the textures sharp and detailed over 1080i/p mode.

[randomwiz]

no game runs natively at 1080i. 720p has a slight edge over 1080i, in my opinon, but 1080p is far better.

[Qdog]

I keep imagining to myself how amazingly well this would go with home. Now hear me out, what if Flower was an integrated Home game, and you could choose to walk about with your avatar while 6-8 people played the game per server. Imagine how beautiful that would be to walk around exploring the landscape and to see the wind carry other players' flower trails up, over, through and under all in real-time. Now understand, that it is more than possible on the Playstation 3, as it was always meant to be a hub to online worlds. The Cell BE actually excels at streaming, as well as bandwidth management, so why wouldn't it. In fact I think sometime in the near future, Sony is going to make this vision a reality. As we step forward into this generation with new architectural improvements and standard-breaking technical achievements, we realize that what we once thought was impossible on a non-sentient/silicon based platform is now possible, much like the difference between the PCs of today and the PCs of yester-year that could barely play a monochrome colored math-blaster game. I am very excited that all these things are possible on Sony's platform, even though the cost of which was planning far into the future, raising the cost by making higher performing components the standard, spearheading a new architecture that utilizes new programming techniques that lazy developers shy away from, and using vision and insight to nurture and enable creativity, so that developers could see their artistic vision come to fruition in the hands of the eager gamer. To be confident that the only limit that this imposes, is the limit of the developer's imagination. Game on players, game on.

[ChickeyCantor]

But then again, have you tried it =D?

Nog saying anything bad about this game, but it sounds a bit bias.

[ForROME]

Sigh what a GREAT..............screen saver......

[ChickeyCantor]

Although im still planning on getting it, your somment made LOL.

[sarshelyam]

You own a PS3, but did you purchase Flower ForRome? Cynical comments like these only feed the fanboy mentalities that litter the comments currently.

This next part isn't directed at you Rome but the abundance of ignorant warmongers that currently reside in this article. Yes, it's only grass...if we're analyzing the object then it can be broken down to ignorant & simplistic comments like that. It's only grass, but it's some of the best LOOKING and most realistically behaving grass in a game. Simply because the subject matter isn't overly complex and doesn't feature guns/sex/violence, do we have to break it down and belittle the experience? Mario is a fat plumber, but somehow we get around that and enjoy the majority of his unbelievable-in-theory games.

Why can't we simply enjoy an experience for its intent. Flower is not meant to be a conventional game, nor can we draw conventional comparisons to more typical games in the industry...and that is why every negative comment here fails.

[rockleex]

Too bad your comment was pushed all the way to the second page. -_-"

[sarshelyam]

Because comments on Page 2 are glazed over...

[Pennywise]

sarshelyam, you should get used to people like forROME who own a PS3 but make nothing but cynical comments towards the machine and the company.

You know, if a game doesnt have violence, shooting, driving, or things blowing up... it isnt a game. Its a screensaver.

[Koroshiya_Keefu]

General ignorance amongst teenager gamers tend to ruin forums these days. I'll be happy when the youngsters will be impressed more by something simply beautiful as Flower's graphics engine, rather than how high they can rocket jump in Halo.

[Chrisy]

TEH IMPOSSIBLE GRASS ONLY POSSIBLE ON CELLZ!!!!!

Just like FFXIII and DMC were impossible..............

But if true than ist over for 360. Grass lowers pledge exclusive support to sony???? MS pulverized!!

[Hallucinate]

do you think the computer cares whats it renedering? no it doesnt either it can do it, or it cant

[Bathyj]

Who said those games were impossible?

They're both running on multiplatform engines.

[HBK619]

Flower is far more than a glorified tech demo, it is an amazing gaming experience of the likes of which you have never and may never play again.

I say play the game before you pass on it, it is really cheap and has some of the most original gameplay in a game for more than 10 years!!!

[fr0sty]

flower is far from a "tech demo". it is one of the most innovative and enjoyable games to come out this generation. obviously those calling it that have never played it. And yes, there are better looking games. It's a $10 downloadable game that was made on a budget probably 1/1000 the size of killzone 2's. As such, you can't really expect them to be able to squeeze that much out of it. As for the grass, sure this game could be done on 360, but you wouldn't get the same detail out of the grass. they'd have to blur out the blades into a mess of green after a set number rather than displaying an entire screen full of grass because the 360 doesn't have the processing power to handle it. that's the advantage of having 7 cores vs. 3. however, the grass is the last thing they should be bragging about when comparing their game to other systems... there's also the fact that it is better than the vast majority (arguably all) of the downloadable games found on other systems. The game does what it is made to do well. it's beautiful, innovative, fun, and gets a message across without saying a word.

[sarshelyam]

Certainly one of my favorite gaming experiences on the PlayStation 3 thus far. I don't need to kill things all the time and enjoying the experiences, the dreams of the Flowers is a wonderful departure to the norm.

[Mr Marbles]

Come on man, not only is that an insult to all of our collective intelligence, but it is an insult to all the other developers out there working hard to bring us great new games, what makes this game so superior to a game like Braid?

You clearly are just a huge fanboy spouting crap to support your system of choice. I seriously doubt you have the qualifications to declare this game superior to EVERY downloadable game on the other two consoles, like you have any clue what is available on XBL arcade or community games library. And yes this simple PSN game can be done, probably BETTER on 360, hate to break it to ya. The "power of the Cell" is seriously overrated, most games run better on 360.

[nothere413]

I enjoyed PixelJunk Eden alot more.

It's good, but there are quite a few games that are more innovative this gen.

Such as Portal and The Witcher.

[Koroshiya_Keefu]

Oh the shame "Mr Marbles", you have clearly not been able to find yours have you?

[Microsoft Xbox 360]

Mr Marbles. Same can be said to anything you say good about the 360. Stop being such a hypocrite. You seem to be attacking him because he is not praising YOUR console of choice. FACT.

[ChickeyCantor]

" that's the advantage of having 7 cores vs. 3"

Correct me if im wrong, but doesn't the 360 have 3 cpu's with some sort of HT tech?

Marble,
The innovation is more the grass, not really the gameplay itself.

[CertifiedGamer]

I downloaded the video and the grass is awesome but the flowers look like they dont have much detail
I agree that it does look really good but if I want to look at something 360 cant do Id rather look at killzone 2
common guys grass only a ps3 fanboy would disagree with this 1.
Free3sixty keep dreaming there hasnt even been an announcement of mgs4 on 360 so you have to stop talking out your ass

[cayal]

Of course you'd know..being joe average on an internet forum.

[evilmonkey501]

if your not here to read what other people think and to discuss, then why are you here? Not every single person on the internet is "the average joe",(whatever that means) and some people actually DO know more than, ...well....YOU,

Personally, I like the game.

[free3sixty]

MGS4 japanese ISO is 48 GB big. 15Gb MGO.. and WHOLE 22 GB uncompressed 7.1 True HD sound.

cuncompressed True HD sound is used in EVERY PS3 exclusives.. that gives me the question why only sony exclusives can fill a Blu Ray disc, lol.

[devilhunterx]

the other team is on damage control ... again

[Bladestar]

Another example of how Sony ruin the PS3...

PS3 = Tech Demo Platform used by Sony to promote blu-ray.

I mean... seriously... only sony leg humper on this site would even care about a Grass simulator!... and you call yourselves gamers?

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

so your saying MS didn't ruin the 360 by remaking Shiats of War 1.1, to tell you the truth SOW1.1 looks like a tech demo of some realy old ps1 game, hows that for trash talk!

[Man_of_the_year]

Can you use proper terms if you want to get a point across? what is SOW? and what version is 1.1? I have never heard of these games on the 360.

Please try a little bit to act somewhat mature enough to atleast type what the proper names are of games...unless SOW is a real game that i am unaware of.

I prefer Blades trash talk better cause it actually makes more sense than yours...your is just reaching with no class or tangibility. You sound like a 12 year old kid who doesn't have enough intellect yet to make a witty response.

[pwnsause]

poor bots, they come in to troll on against a game thats been given universal acclaim on dozens of sites. its ok bots, your trauma of having no games will continue throughout the year. just keep playing your $20 DLC. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[jeseth]

Funny how the expensive hardware Sony puts in its consoles becomes mainstream 2 or 3 years later! Those guys at Sony must have a crystal ball. LOL.

C'mon dude. That Blu Ray comment was lame.

As for the Flower thing, not sure many other games are jealous of PS3 having this "game". I buy a ton of stuff from the PS Store but Flower just ain't my cup of tea.

MORE PIXEL JUNK PLEASE!

[ambientFLIER]

The PS2 didn't introduce DVD technology. It was mainstream already.

[nothere413]

If they use this type of technology on things that would really matter, like fur on a playable animal character or something, I'd be really impressed.

As good as the game is, I don't think you can really sit around talking about how good the grass looks.

Because, when it boils down to it, it's only grass.

[randomwiz]

"its just grass"
they're using the example of the grass to get a point across. Besides grass is 50% of flower so technically they would want to make the grass look good.

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

why do the bots keep on bringing up DMC4, saying that it looks better Bla bla bla, ok then we'll see this is an image when it was an exclusive, picture of real-time scene

http://home.btconnect.com/h...

now the picture below is when it lost its exclusivity
http://xbox360media.ign.com...

WHa wha what in the world happend to the game, it went from next-gen to last-gen.....Thank you MS

[pwnsause]

because thats the closest they can get to a GOW Clone, a Multiplatform game HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Iceman100]

"I yet have to see a CPU doing something like this... "

try playing oblivion on full settings if you can that is.

[free3sixty]

and what happed to KZ2? Warhawk and Heavenly sword? the CGI (ingame)Trailer also looked better, lol

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

KZ2's CGI was proven to be a target render, so i dont see whats wrong with that?, & heavenlySword is just the worlds crapiest game to me, it looked crap from the start, & WarHawk never had a CGI trailer they showed off realtime gameplay for warhawk.

but anyways your completely off the point, you went on about CGI trailers & i was talking about realtime gameplay, those screenshots of DMC4 when it was exclusive to PS3 is clearly realtime & looks much better then the final build, the finale version of the game looks like crap & that was after it went multiplat, its because of the 360

[outlawlife]

i fail to believe this fully

if someone were to develop a game on 360 that the central focal point of the game would be grass i'm sure they would come out to a similar result

it all comes down to programming, and a well versed programmer on a platform can do amazing things

perhaps flower could not be accomplished on 360 handled the way it is but that is the nature of programming on different platforms

it is a bit of spin i think, flower as it is could not work on 360, but if it were developed from the ground up using the 360 sdk then i believe it is very possible with barely any difference

im also not impressed with flower overall as a lot of peopel seem to be, sure it is unique for a game but it isn't a new thing

these things have been around for years, they are called tech demos and honestly that is all flower is

next we will be seeing a "game" that pours thousands of rubber duckies into a bathtub

[commodore64]

Au contraire!

"next we will be seeing a "game" that pours thousands of rubber duckies into a bathtub "

well observed!

[BGDad]

Sonys got some cool stuff stop being such idiots and check it out.

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

don't always come behind my back you dumbass, and SOW stands for Shiats of War 1.1, you must be dumb and blind because i wrote Shiats of war1.1 on my first line and then on the second i shortend it to SOW1.1, its so obvious but you just picked out something to trash me on, but guess what....IT NEVER WORKED!!, i wonder why you never correct PP when he says Killflop2.

ummmmm i wonder what Killflop is? you mind telling me you nerd!

[evilmonkey501]

I think were pretty much all video game nerds here.

[Magic_The_Celt]

Lol great game

[Ldubbz]

You know, I also heard that Castle Crashers is impossible on the PS3.

Really people? How many straws can people grasp at?

[dkgshiz]

Hes been making stupid comments on every ps3 article. Its quite annoying.

[Bathyj]

He's just the normal bot loser. No games to play. Nothing better to do. Never even talks about XB, just bad mouths PS3. Wants one so bad but his paper route wont pay for it. Only 10 and hasn't discovered masturbation yet otherwise he wouldn't be first in every article he'd just be pulling himself. Even PSN games threaten him.

[bewrong666]

it's possible with 360 but it'll be an automatic RoD :P

[Sonyfanclubpresident]

hmmmm,
something to be real proud of there Sonykids.

You guys can keep the flowers and grass and your 1-3 decent titles on your BluRay players,
I'll stick to my Jasper 360 and it's arsenal of critically acclaimed software,superior multiplat games, and unsurpassed incredible online capabilities.

lol flowers!

[Lost-Cause]

He isnt lying That much Detail for an Environment is rarely been done in this generation Well done "ThatGamecompany"

[Why dis]

I take it the sales are poor?

This is the best way of hyping a game for sure. Probably more complex things going on in ROBOBLITZ on XBLA lol.

No doubt there are some sort of major smoke and mirrors trick(s) going on the devs are not talking about while supporters/fanatics/devs boast PS3's supposed power.

I find it funny PS3 is always talked about as some sort of uber advanced future tech, some sort of role model or god. PS3 is treated like a person when it comes to the way PS3 supporters want it to be viewed.

[Bathyj]

You cant say one nice thing about PS3 without the bot farquits turning up to trashtalk it. Seriously you jerks are getting old.

PS
Flower is what Farcry 2 would look like in Springtime.

[commodore64]

Me?

I'll take the superior multiplats and exclusives on the other system.

[Jaces]

LOL!

....Oh, you weren't joking.

[Firstkn1ghT]

LMFAO!

[ShabzS]

haha ... grass !! ... of all the things ... get a life guys just smoke that grass ... u'll feel better

[Firstkn1ghT]

Grass? Are you serious? LMAO.

[XDF]

Allen Iverson: Practice? We are talking about practice? What are we talking about here, not the game I love and die for, but practice, MAN, PRACTICE!

Jim Mora: Playoffs, Playoffs? are you kidding me?, Playoffs!, don't talk about playoffs, we just hope we can win a game.

Sony fanboys: PS3 grass, PS3 grass, grass , ps3, grass, the grass is awesome, grass. What are we talking about here, grass!

Now that KZ2 came out and not theHalo or Gears killer itwas suppose to be according the the fanboys, the NEXT weapon, "PS3 can do better grass than x360." LMFAO

[Run_bare]

I have downloaded flowers about a week ago, and i really enjoy it, it's really soothing and calming.

[ShabzS]

oh god .. you guys are really jobless aren't you ...

[yojoe26]

I have the system with the best grass......

[psycho360]

I thought teh power of cell was shown with Afrika.

[Toneman]

Who the hell cares? It's a game about freakin flowers!!! If you take the 10$ and buy real flowers for your girlfriend/wife you'll have WAY more fun that this game could ever provide.

[Cynical-Gamerzus]

This articles title is pretty darn misleading.
Now the deferred rendering effects of Killzone2 and the animations and physics etc. but grass effects on flower hmmm???
if the game was in true 1080p and looked more real instead of cartoony then i would believe, but come on the grass is ok...
im sure the Dreamcast could of done this with more RAM!

[KingKionic]

is this true. no other console can get grasslike flower? thats something wow...what engine there using?

[Pug]

I had no idea this existed on the Playstation store until I saw this thread. It seemed to be sparking some controversy so I downloaded to check it out.

I have to say for the price its a really neat game and quite relaxing and I was totally blown away by the grass.

I'm also really sick of the ignorant people posting in this thread saying its only grass. You go and stick any other game in your console and you'll see grass and plantation is used in loads of environments. Games like Flower highlight what can be done and shows developers what they can aspire to when making other games like, imagine this kind of grass in Uncharted etc.. To say its only grass is as dumb as saying...oh its only water. How many games do you see water in and people drooling over there effects, shall we replace it with a sheet of blue texture maybe... after all... its only water!

[Morituri]

Reading the exchanges of nerds living in their mommy's basements always bring a smile to my face. Especially the geniuses that pull out tech specs and know the history of their respective console far more than they will ever know the sweet touch of a woman. Now you guys are getting all worked up over grass...GRASS!!! This site is priceless. How could I make it through the day at the office without all this free entertainment? Carry on melvins,carry on.

[rbbrdman]

GOTY..

Grass Of The Year..

I'm sooo funny.

[Qdog]

I keep imagining to myself how amazingly well this would go with home. Now hear me out, what if Flower was an integrated Home game, and you could choose to walk about with your avatar while 6-8 people played the game per server. Imagine how beautiful that would be to walk around exploring the landscape and to see the wind carry other players' flower trails up, over, through and under all in real-time. Now understand, that it is more than possible on the Playstation 3, as it was always meant to be a hub to online worlds. The Cell BE actually excels at streaming, as well as bandwidth management, so why wouldn't it. In fact I think sometime in the near future, Sony is going to make this vision a reality. As we step forward into this generation with new architectural improvements and standard-breaking technical achievements, we realize that what we once thought was impossible on a non-sentient/silicon based platform is now possible, much like the difference between the PCs of today and the PCs of yester-year that could barely play a monochrome colored math-blaster game. I am very excited that all these things are possible on Sony's platform, even though the cost of which was planning far into the future, raising the cost by making higher performing components the standard, spearheading a new architecture that utilizes new programming techniques that lazy developers shy away from, and using vision and insight to nurture and enable creativity, so that developers could see their artistic vision come to fruition in the hands of the eager gamer. To be confident that the only limit that this imposes, is the limit of the developer's imagination. Game on players, game on.

[Jaces]

I find it hilarious that Xbots are getting up in arms about the PS3's grass. Oh my, so desperate.

[XDF]

DESPERATE? You mean the other way around. Using grass as a weapon is a sign a desperation. LMFAO

[Jaces]

Well if it's not such a big deal, then why bother to reply at all?

Unless you felt the need to make yourself feel better by adding in some random comment dissing something you know nothing about.