PS3 programming problems a sure early roadblock
Previously I’ve stated my opinion that the cell processor in the PS3 wouldn’t be tamed anytime soon. Indeed even the three homogenous processors in the Xbox 360 aren’t being used effectively. There’s a nice article by IEEE Spectrum Magazine on a company called Insomniac Games and their development of one of the heralded PS3 launch titles “Resistance: Fall of Man.” Some at EDN including Brian Dipert, who has written extensively on consoles, felt the story was overly flattering of the cell processor design. I felt like the article actually made clear the biggest challenge for PS3 success and cast a rather negative light on those chances.
The story on Insomniac detailed their hand-coded approach that was needed to leverage all of the Cell processor elements. Clearly, no one is going to be able to churn titles to the market using that approach. We’ll see if other developers or Sony have any luck with automating the multi-processor programming task.
Meanwhile, Insomniac’s resulting game is getting pretty good reviews both from the gaming press and from the avid teen gamers that I know. On the other hand, that PS3 title isn’t rated nearly so good, by the press or my local teen squad, as the hot Xbox 360 title “Gears of War.” Perhaps the two aren’t directly comparable because the PS3 title is a first-person shooter and the Xbox 360 title is a third-person shooter. Moreover, the Xbox developers have had longer to work on the platform. Still the title on the presumably inferior hardware is better from both a graphics and action scenario – and that opinion, while not mine because I’ve played neither, seems universal.
Killa.Sam commented:
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