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PSX2=Perfection? PlayStation 2 Announced. The biggest news of the last couple of weeks, of course, was the announcement that Sony would release "the next PlayStation" by the end of this financial year in Japan. Although I’m sure many of you have been privy to this information for some time, it’s worth covering the main points of this new console. The main CPU is the 128-bit Emotion Engine chip, running at 300MHz. Backwards compatibility with all current PlayStation titles comes courtesy of the current PSX CPU, which will be used as the next console’s I/O chip. (Very ingenious indeed.) The console will also come with a DVD drive, which means much more storage space and the ability to play back higher-quality movies. The main benefit to the next PlayStation will be its ability to process a maximum of 70 million polygons per second, although with all the standard processing overhead (like texturing and lighting), the net result will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 million polygons per second. Nevertheless, this is pretty spectacular, and will clearly herald a new degree of graphical complexity and immersiveness in console gaming. It’s worth addressing some of the rumors and confusing points about the PSX2 that were circulating in the days before and after this announcement. First, there was a recurring rumor in the Japanese press just before the announcement that the price would be as much as $1000. This was actually erroneous and due to some phrasing confusion. Sony indicates that it would like to keep the price of the console under $400. The date of release was announced as sometime before the end of Sony’s financial year (March 2000), but a number of sources have indicated that December of this year is Sony’s preferred launch date for Japan, partially due to the advantages of launching before Christmas, but also because that would make the launch exactly five years after the original PlayStation release (December 3rd, 1994). Of course the actual release date will depend on how Sony can marshal their manufacturing facilities and how far into development the launch titles are, but at this stage it looks possible to this correspondent. (The U.S. and European release, as is customary, will probably happen 6-12 months after Japanese release.) The rumor that the PSX2 will not only emulate PlayStation games, but accelerate and filter them, seems to be incorrect. Sony has indicated that there will be no enhancements, possibly because frame-rate and filtering issues may cause gameplay problems with existing titles. However, if that’s the case, PlayStation titles released after the PSX2’s launch could build in a special ‘enhanced mode’ to allow 60FPS at all time to support filtered visuals. Sony may outlaw this to prevent customer confusion though, however possible it may be. Finally, a couple of important points regarding DVD. People have presumed that because the PSX2 will contain a DVD drive and hardware MPEG2 decoding that the console will double as a DVD movie player. However, Sony has indicated that the PSX2 will not have the ability to play DVD movies straight out of the box. It’s possible that at some point an add-on at some point might support this (similar to the official and unofficial video-CD add-ons for existing consoles), but as it stands now, DVD movies won’t be supported by the PSX2. It would seem difficult to justify this decision on anything other than economic reasons, but Sony claims that since there’s no front-end or control panel for movie viewing built into the PSX2’s hardware, it just won’t be possible. Clearly, for a very small amount of money, such controls could have been added. But it’s a strategic decision not to do this, and we have to respect Sony for doing it and protecting their existing DVD player hardware, don’t we? Dreamcast addresses piracy. Many online sources indicated this week that piracy on the Dreamcast had been made possible via a new mod-chip made in Hong Kong for the console. However, despite photos of the alleged device, it seems to have been a hoax -- the GD-ROM issue is proving thornier than many people thought, and it seems that the Dreamcast will be free from piracy for the foreseeable future. That’s good news for Sega. New Dreamcast games. Konami announced a new Dreamcast title, Raizeleet, that looks very interesting. It seems to be some variety of action-RPG, with a medieval guitar-laden musician as the lead character. This title appears to have ties to Hideo Kojima (the new game development superstar responsible for Metal Gear Solid), but my guess is, if involved, he’s only dealing with the project in an executive role. Marvel vs. Capcom and House Of The Dead 2 head for the stores on time and with some great extra features. On the downside, the promising game Buggy Heat has been delayed from April until August, and Dreamcast software sales aren’t exactly booming -- Sonic Adventure has still sold only 360,000 copies, already outsold by ‘lesser’ titles such as Pokemon Card GB and Smash Brothers. Zelda rumor mill. An interesting rumor (courtesy of Magic Box Gaming) is that Nintendo might release an add-on cartridge for Zelda that would add extra stages, quests, and game parts. The contents of this were originally designed for the 64DD. If you look at this in the context of Nintendo announcing Pocket Monster Stadium 2 for the standalone N64, yet another title that they could have held back to help sell the 64DD optical drive add-on, then surely it’s not coming out, right? I think there are two options that Nintendo is considering for the 64DD. The company can release it and push out Zelda, Mario, and Pokemon titles on it, which will guarantee reasonably big sales. This would risk upsetting customers when practically no other software came out for the 64DD, though. Or Nintendo could ditch the 64DD entirely and concentrate on their next console. Chances are we’ll find out when SpaceWorld finally happens. Yu Suzuki’s Dreamcast RPG. Some contacts of mine have had a chance to see Shen Mue, Yu Suzuki’s Dreamcast RPG, up close recently. They said that graphically, it blows everything else away. But there’s still concern from a number of quarters about the game’s Dragon’s Lair style of gameplay. There are a number of interactive sequences where the player just has to press his joypad in a certain directions indicated to participate in the action. Can this really work in a game? It’s a bold move, and apparently, there’s 200 artists currently working on the title, so Sega is obviously wagering a lot on the concept. Sources within Sega are trying to downplay this forced interactivity angle, saying it only makes up about five percent of the gameplay. Japanese Top 10 (For the week ending March 1.) Much of this chart speaks for itself this week. Final Fantasy VIII predictably burns and pillages all before it – expect to see this title hanging around the Top 10 for the foreseeable future. Smash Brothers continues to hover around the top spot and is still excellent fun, contrary to a rather sniffy review by a certain ‘prestige’ U.K. magazine this month. The only real new entry in the chart is Jaleco’s Option Tuning Car Battle 2, and the title speaks for itself: you build cars and race them. There’s a number of licenses for custom parts and drivers in the game, and the original version was relatively successful. It looks a little like Gran Turismo, although it’s never been released outside Japan. And will those Game Boy titles never get out of the Top 10? I guess not.
Simon Carless is a game designer/project director at a UK games developer. His game credits include design on PC and Playstation titles for (amongst others) Eidos and GT Interactive. He can be contacted at h0l@mono211.com. Simon would like to thank Magic Box, Re:Tokyo, Gamespot, FGNOnline, Core Magazine, and his other Japanese sources for the information that helps to write this column. |
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