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Re: PS3 Madden 2010 Potential Buyers
Having more space does not directly mean that you can add more features, and does not mean you can make a longer game, etc. RAM is actually the biggest bottleneck for modern consoles, not disc space. You could have 5,000,000 Gigabytes of storage but if your ram is limited to 128 MB you're not going to benefit at all. The PS3 has a more limited and divided architecture where the RAM is sectionalized and can only be used for certain things (512 split into 2 sections). The 360 archictecture allows the RAM to be divided however the developer sees fit. But let me explain how disc space relates to features without getting too off topic. I'll try to make it straightforward.
What more disc space allows you to do is add more content meaning art assets, videos, audio, etc. The gameplay features themselves are relatively unaffected by how much space you have to work with. I'll try to explain clearer.
Video games are a collection of different forms of "content" which creates the game that you experience. Games use captured video footage (cutscenes are different), audio (voices, sound effects, music, etc), "art assets" (textures used for buildings, grass, people, menu art, etc) and something I will simply label "game code", which is obviously much more involved than I'm making it sound. "Game code" would include AI routines, animations, lighting, physics, IO system (controller functions), and most importantly the "gameplay features" themselves. When a game like Madden is reiterated on and a new feature is added, new game code is written to carry out these features.
The code for the new feature will call upon the different content from the disc including audio and the art assets, but the feature itself takes relatively miniscule disc space. Where disc space COULD become an issue is if this new feature requires a large amount of content, for example video footage or audio. So depending on the feature, it could be very space intensive. For example, if Madden was going to introduce a new feature where every single game ever played in the NFL is on the disc, the new FEATURE itself (the code that instructs the game to call up the video) is not space intensive, it is the footage required to make the feature work, in this case video, that takes up a lot of space.
Video is one of the largest space takers, especially when you're working with HD video. Cutscenes are NOT prerecorded video footage, they are simply specific "code" instructions that call on specific animations (which is not a huge space taker, although it is getting larger).
So realistically, Ian could add as many gameplay features as he wants (as long as they use current assets) without taking a big hit on space.
The advantage of more disc space is more variation in the assets, not the quality or length of the game.
For example, you could recreate an entire city street on either a floppy disk or the largest hard drive in existence. The feature itself (recreating an entire city street) is not limited by disk space. What is limited is the amount of unique assets and variation allowed. On a floppy disk, all of the buildings would look the same and everything would look the same because they will call on the same textures (art assets), which is reliant on the space. On a 100 TB hard drive, each building could use entirely unique textures and extra unique touches could be added. Now, if a new feature was to be added to this "game", it would not require a significant amount of disc space. For example, if they wanted the add the ability for you to be able to run through the street using a button press, this could be done almost exactly the same on both. All it requires is new instructions ("game code") to allow the person to move at a faster speed. No assets are changed (the buildings look the same, etc) but a new "feature" is added.
That's also an extreme example and it doesn't take into account the biggest issue (RAM) but I hope you get the point. The difference between the 360's storage and PS3's Blu Ray is not a significant factor as far as I know, especially for a game like Madden. Games like Fallout 3 which offer EXTREMELY massive and open ended worlds with LOADS of audio prove this point. A game like that would be affected by disc space before a game like Madden is. Yet Fallout 3 (on 360, PS3 and PC) is considered by many to be the Game of 2008 , and the 360 is considered the premium version (besides the PC of course for mod support).
Last edited by NYyankz225; 04-06-2009 at 02:06 PM.
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04-06-2009, 09:28 AM
