DF Retro: PlayStation 3 - The 1080p Dream Part 1 - 2006-2007 - Full HD Gaming Tested On The Triple!

[Music] during the 2005 consumer electronics show the world was introduced to the latest display technology and the birth of full hd 1080p in the living room while blu-ray and hd dvd movies were still more than a year away this new standard promised unrivaled clarity representing the true next generation of high definition television months later at e3 2005 sony unveiled playstation 3 in what would go down as one of the most infamous press conferences in gaming history and by the time the console launched in late 2006 it was clear that many of those original promises had not fully come to fruition although the console would eventually find success its beginnings were challenging one of the key marketing points leading up to the release of playstation 3 however was the promise of full hd 1080p support for both games and movies as we know now however such a high resolution was ultimately unattainable by most software but surprisingly this push was never completely abandoned and 1080p games did indeed ultimately ship but at what cost so on this episode of df retro we're taking a journey back through the playstation 3's library to discover and assess the games which did fully realize this 1080p dream over the course of this video we'll check out more than 85 games running at or near 1080p and rate each one on a scale of 1 to 1080p then at the end of the video we'll determine which was the best year for 1080p gaming on playstation 3. as we explore the library i'll be grouping games together by release year to help determine how well the system fared over the course of its lifetime we won't cover every single 1080p game but hopefully i can tackle most of them so join me as we dive back into the first generation of full hd gaming [Music] meet the cell broadband engine it's the digital soul of the playstation 3 and though it may look like an ordinary microchip it is the future it all comes down to processing power the faster you think the more things you can think about and that makes you smarter playstation 3 launched on november 17 2006 in north america with 14 disc based games plus two additional psn exclusives of these 16 launch games five offered support for full hd 1080p but this was just the beginning before we dive into these games however we need some additional context i think so one year prior to the arrival of playstation 3 microsoft was first to market with its next generation machine the venerable xbox 360. and this console had already defined expectations for next generation gaming with a slew of impressive releases including the then brand new gears of war which handily demonstrated the capabilities of unreal engine 3 that would go on to dominate the generation it was clear that xbox 360 was truly a force to be reckoned with but what the 360 did not offer out of the gate however was digital video output early 360 consoles were limited to analog video only and while 1080p over component video is possible in select cases the system did not initially support this option now in 2007 an hdmi capable version of the 360 was released and 1080p was definitely on the table then but when ps3 launched no other console could boast true digital full hd support and i believe this is part of the reason why sony focused so heavily on marketing 1080p it was a differentiating factor problem is the hardware itself didn't quite live up to expectations in terms of overall performance and many early titles felt woefully short compared to similar games on xbox 360. launch titles such as call of duty 3 and madden 07 both ran at half the frame rate of their 360 counterparts i mean just look at how awful call of duty 3 is on this system even small rooms like this trigger massive performance dips it's dreadful and this begs the question was the ps3 just empty hype or was there something more to it it turns out the answer isn't so simple so as i mentioned earlier the ps3 launched in north america with five games supporting 1080p output three disk based games and two psn titles also worth keeping in mind if you see 1080p support on the back of the box that doesn't necessarily mean it supports 1080p rendering many later playstation 3 games support upscaling from 720p or less but before you even get to playing those games the ps3 puts on a strong showing with a true native 1080p dashboard featuring sony's cross media bar the xmb had been used on psp and certain other sony products already but the ps3 presents it at its best it's super sharp features pixel perfect font rendering and a smooth 60 frames per second update along with plenty of neat features such as music visualizers all presented at 1080p the ps3 also famously supports blu-ray disc playback the first blu-ray players had only become available in the summer of 2006 mind you and it's clear that sony wanted the ps3 to help drive the sale of blu-ray movies just as the playstation 2 did for dvd but of course new consoles are all about games and the five 1080p launch titles actually did make a decent case for high resolution output on ps3 the most prominent example is almost certainly namco's ridge racer 7. i recently produced an entire episode of df retro on this era of ridge racers specifically but the key point here is that ridge racer 7 expands upon the work done on 360's ridge racer 6 from the following year it features improved visuals more content and you guessed it support for native 1080p at 60 frames per second if you were lucky enough to have access to a 1080p display in 2006 this was a real treat the higher resolution was stunning to behold while it's true that lacked anti-aliasing and pc gamers were already used to high resolutions full 1080p was still very new for console gaming i feel that ridge racer 7 is a perfect argument in favor of conservative rendering features targeting higher performance ridge racer 7 uses completely baked lighting static environments and well-worn rendering techniques it kept pixel shader usage to a bare minimum and avoids things such as cascaded shadow maps entirely something that would come to dominate this generation it's focused completely on creating a simple clean image that runs smoothly and i feel this is one of the key reasons it holds up so well today the art design gels with the fast performance and crisp image quality perfectly performance wise ridge racer 7 holds up with a generally very stable performance during gameplay 60fps is the target and that's what you're gonna get in most scenarios that said there are occasional fleeting moments where you can dip the frame rate for just a moment usually when combined with the boost feature but thankfully it's a minor issue and overall it holds up very well ridge racer 7 remains one of the finest examples of 1080p 60 on ps3 thus it receives the coveted full hd award all 1080ps another key 1080p launch game then is and i quote nba07 full hd 1080p look it's right there on the box are you really gonna argue with that yes sony's first sports game on ps3 already serves as a strong example of what's possible when keeping your rendering ambitions in check like ridge racer before it nba 07 aims to deliver a native 1080p presentation running at 60 frames per second it even warns you on startup that you're gonna need a capable 1080p tv and suitable hdmi cable to experience it nba07 is the product of sony's san diego studio then which was also responsible for the long-running mlb the show series and while it's visually conservative to say the least they did manage to include some visual features that i think elevated above what was possible on last generation machines for starters player models are reasonably detailed and managed to feature normal mapped uniforms but more impressive is the fact that they all have cloth simulation now by today's standards it's rather quaint but for 2006 the way the shorts and jerseys bounce around as the players take to the court is reasonably impressive this is coupled with planar reflections used on the court surface with the surface texture itself using shaders to realistically distort those reflections across the uneven wooden surface it looks pretty good i think beyond this the crowd is comprised entirely of fully animated polygonal models which lends the game a more authentic atmosphere and in the far distance they even use depth of field which both reduces aliasing and improves the cinematic nature of the presentation even the game's ui is rendered beautifully with full hd artwork everywhere that matches those visuals it looks really shockingly good for the time the caveat here is that performance is not 100 flawless it does manage to stick to 60 frames per second most of the time but you're gonna run into dips when the camera moves in certain positions and that can be a little jarring [Music] if you switch the game to 720p however all of these issues are cleaned up but by then you've defeated the entire point of the game's subtitle it's no longer full hd so while nba 07 is a convincing argument for 1080p60 overall and an impressive launch game the minor performance issues and occasional unflattering angles means a lower score than ridge racer thus i give nba 07 900 ps out of 1080 one thing to note at this point in the video though unlike the 360 ps3 doesn't automatically scale games to the desired output you see back in 2006 many hd tvs only offered support for 40p and 1080i input 720p was not supported the issue is that ps3's hardware scaler could only scale on one axis the horizontal so as a result 720p games that did not offer 1080i or 1080p support would end up running at 480p on these displays instead in the case of games which offer 1080p support however this also unlocks 1080i support for these tvs yes it was frustrating and confusing at the time for many owners but unfortunately that's how it was early on but the next real 1080p launch game then was one of the first downloadable playstation games ever released and that's blast factor it just so happens that this release is the very first game from blue point games and it's a completely original one at that humble beginnings and all that i suppose so this is a twin stick shooter with an interesting twist you pilot a small craft through infected cells so to speak clearing these cells of infection as you go your path through each stage varies based on your performance leading to various branching paths reminiscent of darius from taito it also features motion control allowing you to rapidly tilt the arena in one direction causing viral particles to capsize in the process and yes as you can see this one also supports full hd 1080p running at 60 frames per second while simple the clarity and fluidity of the experience is impressive to behold even now the number of particles and the interactive fluid sim really elevate this experience and honestly if you release this today on a modern machine as a result of its simple art design i think it would still hold up thus this one gets 1 000 ps out of 1080 it's not quite on the level of ridge racer owing to its smaller scale but what's here is very polished and impressive for a launch game a sharp beginning for blue point games but we'll be seeing them again later in this video our next 1080p game just happens to be the other downloadable psn title that was available at launch and it's called cash guns chaos i'll be honest this is one of those games that i've never heard a single person ever discuss since launch day it is basically a smash tv clone at its core but the art direction is well not especially attractive i think but i will give them some credit the developers really went for it when it comes to resolution and frame rate like our last three games cash guns targets 1080p native at 60 frames per second and by and large it delivers it looks ugly as heck while doing so mind you but hey it still reaches that target that said the performance is not 100 flawless and it can exhibit drops in performance from time to time but still i'll be generous and give this one 714 ps out of 1080. it hits the target but the game is highly constrained and ultimately rather unattractive so it can't play with the big boys honestly though when you look at these first few titles you could almost believe sony's marketing when it comes to native 1080p rendering on the ps3 each of these games targets true native 1080p at 60fps and all of them managed to hold up today as a result of smart though conservative visual choices everything seems great thus far that is until you load up our next game but first it's time for a commercial break [Music] [Laughter] [Music] this is marvel's ultimate alliance our fourth and final 1080p launch game for ps3 and as you can see it's kind of a mess so ultimate alliance is the creation of raven software and was developed using vicarious visions alchemy engine it first arrives in october across multiple platforms including xbox 360 the pc playstation 2 the original xbox and psp the ps3 iteration though would launch a few weeks later alongside the new console now the xbox 360 version was the best looking of the bunch at launch and the ps3 version is derived from it the main difference is that ps3 supports native 1080p output unfortunately it does not run well in this mode as you can see it averages out to roughly 20 frames per second but often dips below that going as low as 12 fps in heavy sequences and this is just the beginning of the game mind you for a title played from an overhead perspective with a significant amount of lateral motion this renders the game nearly unplayable in my book it feels awful to play here's the thing though you can reduce the rendering resolution of the game by selecting different resolutions at the system level and 720p is dramatically faster more in line with the 360 original while 480p is even better problem is if you're using a 1080i tv you would have been stuck with the same lousy performance as the 1080p mode if using hd output so you were probably stuck with 480p so what the heck is going on here i can only offer some guesses but let's try as a first generation game it's likely that ultimate alliance is not deeply multi-threaded and it likely leans heavily on the rsx the playstation 3's gpu from nvidia as we know the ps3 is heavily bottlenecked by the rsx which is less performant than the ati chip used in xbox 360. and many early generation ports reflect this the secret to speedy performance on ps3 lies in the cell processor and its spus as we know many gpu-centric tasks could be offloaded to spus but in 2006 it was still early days for this now ultimate alliance makes use of many visual features that would become staples of this generation per pixel lighting normal maps dynamic shadows and more advanced particles it looks pretty good i suppose for the time but i believe it serves as a cautionary flag for troubled waters ahead demonstrating what we could expect during the first couple years of ps3 multi-platform development as a result i give ultimate alliance a mere 200 ps out of 1080. the fact that it's a launch title means that it deserves some credit but it remains one of the worst examples of 1080p performance on the playstation 3. beware so at launch it's fair to say that while things were looking pretty good from certain perspectives games such as ultimate alliance and call of duty 3 served as evidence that something was awry with playstation 3 that would begin to rear its head more and more going forward remember the ps3 was widely considered more powerful than xbox 360 when it launched but reality started to catch up with it and it wasn't quite so cut and dried in the end these were not the only 1080p titles available in 2006 however three other games released before the year was through two of these games are available as downloads via psn and of those one of them was free i'm talking about gran turismo hd this small downloadable demo features one track with a limited amount of content and basically served as a demonstration of what polyphony digital had hoped to achieve on playstation 3 much as they did with gt2000 on the ps2 of course little did they know that the road to release for the actual gran turismo 5 would be so long and so painful but this was just the beginning what makes this release so interesting though is that it's the first 1080p title to not quite reach 1080p what i mean is the game does not render its visuals at full 1920x1080 rather it targets 1440 by 1080 during gameplay yes as mentioned before ps3's scalar seemed to only support single axis scaling on the horizontal so developers had the option to aim for a higher resolution than 720p without needing to render full 1920 by 1080. the result is an image that is naturally less crisp than full hd but at the same time we're still seeing games today released on modern platforms such as the switch or even last generation consoles with resolutions lower than this so in that sense it's pretty good for 2006. furthermore while gt hd's environments are derived from work done on gt4 for playstation 2 they've added an hdr rendering pipeline to the mix more advanced shadow rendering and dramatically improved car models with higher quality reflections and shading plus the car selection screen does actually reach full native 1080p so you can really appreciate that leap in detail that was possible thus gthd earns 800 ps out of 1080. it looks and runs well but it's not true native 1080p either so it falls behind our first three native titles on this list the other digital game available during this period though is tekken dark resurrection online a ps3 conversion of the system 256 arcade game this hardware is of course based on the playstation 2 architecture meaning that it's one of the first examples of an hd remaster released during this generation i'm not talking about games that were released across multiple generations hd re-releases would become increasingly common in time but tekken was here almost at launch delivering gorgeous 1080p 60 visuals unlike ridge racer 7 however the assets are still those that were used in the arcade game but there are some key improvements characters now feature self shadows for instance there has been some debate over the resolution as well but it does appear to retain full 1920x1080 it's just that certain stages employ a post-processing effect inherited from the arcade game which can soften the output performance wise there's really not much to say here the frame rate is 60 frames per second just as advertised and i was unable to find even a hint of slowdown throughout furthermore the loading times are extremely quick ultimately i give tekken 900 ps out of 1080. it's derived from prior generation hardware but it does deliver a perfect 1080p 60 experience so that counts for something thus far though the games that have successfully delivered 1080p at 60 frames per second have largely avoided using then modern rendering features or at least sticking to very light usage the ps3 was clearly capable of reaching 1080p under certain circumstances but you weren't pushing cutting edge visuals while doing so i think this sort of supports the notion of it being a design choice then developers that targeted 1080p needed to make certain that the choice was made early on in order to keep their visual targets in check on the way to the finish line which is why the next game is so interesting because it's an example of what happens when you fly too close to the sun so to speak this is full auto 2 battle lines sequel to full auto for the xbox 360 that had been released earlier in 2006 that's right they released a sequel in less than one year crazy stuff the thing is full auto 2 is a marked improvement over that original in many ways at least when using the right visual settings but there's a problem here if you're using the 1080i or 1080p mode you're in for a bad time you see the developers not only opted for full hd 1080p rendering in this mode they also enabled 4x multi-sampling anti-aliasing or msaa surprisingly high texture filtering and high-res particle effects while building a game that features loads of destructibles and then modern rendering features needless to say the playstation 3 does not tolerate this well and the game's performance is frankly abysmal it averages around 24 frames per second which you know is highly cinematic but it still manages to dip below this point for a racing game this just doesn't cut it image quality is shockingly clean though resembling what you might expect from a high-end pc game of this era while combating the enemies though there is also a way to combat the frame rate drops and that's by selecting either 480p or 720p from the xmb the rendering resolution is then reduced and performance is massively boosted now it's still wildly unstable mind you there's no frame rate cap so it can go above 30 for instance but it's a lot more playable 720p is the sweet spot i'd say but if you drop all the way to 480p performance improves even further so like marvel before this is another case where the user needs to be aware of their video settings in order to properly enjoy the game as a result this one only gets 512p out of 1080. it's not nearly as bad as ultimate alliance but still it has some serious problems in 1080p but with that release out of the way we've reached the end of 2006 and the first month of playstation 3's life at the end of each year then we'll tally up the full hd scores divide by the number of 1080p games that year and present this the grand total this means that 2006 earns 763 ps out of 1080 and at the end of this video we'll determine the best year for 1080p in the history of the playstation 3. so let's keep moving what does 2007 hold for the system let's find out the world is our stage and we are the entertainment [Music] blu-ray to make everything more beautiful 2007 is perhaps the playstation 3's most difficult year but also one of its most interesting the console would finally arrive in europe in march of 2007 with revised consoles lacking hardware support for playstation 2 backwards compatibility relying instead on a partial software solution but hey at least the lineup of games was a lot better more importantly on march 13 2007 the world was introduced to chad warden sub chairwood here all right i'm talking about that ps triple the ps triple i ain't talking about that we now we people people will be talking about how it's all new and but you know what i'm trying to say needless to say chad only accepts that which satisfies abab you know as ballin as possible so obviously the push for 1080p would continue with more than a dozen games released capable of full hd but as you might expect most of these games remain rather conservative when it comes to pushing technology even still i would classify it as true abab it begins with the release of nba street home court in february a game which marks as i'd like to call it the year of 1080p the reason well not only does this game support 1080p native output on playstation 3 it's also the first official game to support 1080p on xbox 360. of course years later i discovered that the quake 2 bonus disc included with quake 4 also offered native 1080p support at the launch of xbox 360. but it was never marketed as such and the system didn't even support 1080p at the time it was kind of a hidden option so what does 1080p buy you in nba street well it does indeed deliver a crisp clean presentation the game looks really sharp at 1080p even on both consoles but unfortunately there's a catch the framerate you see on both systems engaging the 1080p mode basically halves the frame rate i say basically since it does seem to be using a double buffer v-sync setup meaning that at times you'll notice the game spike up to 60 frames per second for a brief moment before dropping back down to 30. it's a tricky one in that sense the game is perfectly playable at 30 frames per second but it definitely benefits from a greatly increased frame rate which is precisely what's possible when selecting 720p instead yes like several other games on this list the rendering resolution varies based on which option you select at your system level 720p delivers a much smoother 60 frames per second experience but you of course lose some clarity in the process it still qualifies as an ea hd game i suppose but it's certainly not full hd anymore more interesting perhaps is the difference in image quality between playstation 3 and xbox 360. while the ps3 version is fairly well optimized this is another example where 360 takes the lead specifically ps3 has no anti-aliasing at all while xbox 360 features 4x msaa leading to an image that looks so clean that it's beyond many playstation 4 and xbox one games even still aside from this the game looks otherwise identical between the two platforms and honestly it's a fantastic looking title all around smooth animation work excellent reflections where appropriate at least strong lighting and visual design it's basic stuff but it looks fantastic i'll be honest i actually skipped this game back in the day and only picked up a cheap copy for this video but i was instantly surprised by how playable and fun it really is it's basically ea big's own take on the nba jam concept with more of a street ball vibe and three players per side instead it controls super well and has a fantastic sense of style and a nice soundtrack the whole menu system and all the graphic design is just fantastic and believe it or not all of this was made using flash so when it comes to rating this one i'm going with 850 out of 1080ps the visual style and image quality pushes it towards the top but obviously the hit to frame rate means it can't stand up to the best on this list while we're talking nba how about a little bit of nba-08 santa monica returns with its second basketball game and it's largely the same as o7 and it is clearly a continuation of the technology featured in nba-07 full hd 1080p and of course it's still native 1080p and it's still 60 frames per second i respect their dedication to full hd at a time when most other competing sports titles opted for lower resolutions but unfortunately they axed the depth of field effect from that original game which i feel is a step down in terms of overall visual quality a minor thing but a loss nonetheless given that this is a later release and it loses some of the visual fidelity of the first game i have to drop the score slightly to 850ps out of 1080. it is still surprisingly solid though next up then is something completely different released in february 2007 on playstation 3 this is flow from that game company while tgc has become well known for its later game journey it all begins here with flow on the surface it's visually simplistic but it also offers a design language that really showcases what's possible with an hd display which i guess is the point so the basic idea here involves using motion control to manipulate various underwater creatures of sort you swim around eating anything in your path slowly growing and evolving in the process throughout the game you'll run across these blue or red objects and eating these will send you up or down a level respectively so progress involves growing and slowly making your way deeper into the watery depths it's moody and engaging what i love about the presentation though is the reliance on depth of field to communicate the depths below the active playfield is always razor sharp but everything below is obscured by this layer of depth of field blur which looks really great in motion couple this with a generally smooth frame rate and swirling particles and you have a memorable visual experience flow takes advantage of 1080p displays by rendering from a higher resolution then it seems to render at 1440p internally downscaling to lower resolutions including 1080p so it's basically relying on super sampling to achieve its image quality now the frame rate can dip slightly in certain later stages unfortunately but the overall experience is fluid by and large as a result i award flow 950 ps out of 1080. the slowdown and simplistic design keeps it from the very top but it's still remarkably solid then just a few weeks later on march 8th 2007 sega and sumo digital unleashed a home port of virtua tennis 3 and this one is awesome now i'm a huge fan of virtual tennis and this third iteration is no exception it's one of the most satisfying and responsive tennis games in the market and is packed with content virtual tennis 3 stems from the then new generation of sega arcade games built around the lindbergh hardware that also powered other titles such as virtua fighter 5. unlike vf5 however virtua tennis 3 supports full hd 1080p output on both home consoles making it one of the sharpest looking games available yes this is another one available on both ps3 and the xbox 360. more importantly it retains a smooth 60 frames per second update at least during gameplay these interstitial scenes do run less smoothly of course much like the original naomi game but the gameplay itself is buttery smooth this is the second game to run at 1080p on both the 360 and ps3 then but this time they're basically identical in terms of image quality as they both utilize 2x msaa with the quality of its presentation and beautiful visual design then virtue attendance 3 is our second game on the list to win the coveted full hd awards scoring a full 1080 out of 1080. nice work sumo digital but of course 2007 is just getting started up to this point when showcasing its most recent playstation consoles sony loved to wheel out a demo featuring ducks toying about in the water and on ps3 they've finally turned this concept into a real game with super rub-a-dub and this game shares something with gt hd which i mentioned earlier specifically it supports 1080p output but runs at a resolution below native 1080p specifically it runs at 1600 by 1080 rather than a full 1920x1080 in action however the result is surprisingly good the game looks sharp and feels suitably high res even if it's not quite as crisp as other games on this list i'm including it here though as it's another early example of horizontal scaling on the ps3 still the aesthetic holds up in motion and it updates at a smooth 60 frames per second while featuring a reasonably robust fluid simulation that has water sloshing about as you guide your rubber ducts to the exit like flow this one also uses motion control and it works pretty well the further we delve into the 1080p library on ps3 though the more it's clear how showing restraint in terms of visual design is really the key to delivering a smooth game at a resolution this high and i'll be honest i'd rather play something at 1080p60 with simplistic visuals like this than a game running at like 600p at 20 fps which is unfortunately something we saw often on the ps3 so what about the score well i'm giving this one 750ps out of 1080. while i appreciate the simple design gt hd does have an edge over this one and of course it's not a true native 1080p so it has to lose some points despite the fluid performance our next game then is one that has been seemingly forgotten over the years by most players but i've always had a soft spot for it i'm talking about calling all cars created by incognito entertainment known for twisted metal calling all cars is their first smaller scale downloadable game the idea it's basically basketball in cars with weapons and a criminal instead of a ball kind of like nba jam meets twisted metal i suppose you drive around twisted metal like maps trying to snatch up your target then deposit them into the nearest jail cell there's usually multiple points to deposit your prisoner as well and you gain more points for hitting those more challenging goals the whole thing has this old-school tune vibe that i like and yeah it runs at a full 1080p at 60 frames per second i used to bring this game along when testing hd tvs back in 2007 actually its sharp simple visual design really pops at 1080p it uses cell shading combined with seemingly hand-drawn textures to create its cartoony world and as with so many other ps3 games targeting 1080p 60fps it's not pushing any new visual techniques it's certainly not a technical powerhouse but i do feel it is one of the best examples yet in terms of dialing in a strong distinct visual style that is just conservative enough to run smoothly on the ps3 at this resolution with that in mind calling on cars receives 1040p out of 1080 falling just short of the top simply because it doesn't quite stack up to ridge racer 7 or virtual tennis 3. our next game though is something truly special it's super stardust hd from house mark and it remains one of the best games they've ever made in my opinion at least it's basically a new take on the classic amiga shooter which they made back in the day and it looks and plays like a dream so this one was released first in june 2007 but here's the thing at launch stardust hd ran at just 1280 by 1080 making it our lowest 1080p title yet that is until a later date when the game was updated to support 3d tvs and house mark managed to boost the resolution to a full native 1920x1080 in 2d mode yep this is a fantastic example of what's possible when a developer learns new tricks over the course of a generation you see to deliver the game in 3d they basically had to run it at an effective 120 fps or 60 frames per second per eye but at a lower resolution this extra headroom made it possible to both double the split screen frame rate to 60 and boost the resolution in 2d mode cool right and yeah it's a complete success story the game delivers razor sharp 1080p visuals at a full 60 frames per second with tons of particles lights and explosions 1080p means the transparent geometric grid surrounding each planet is now mostly devoid of aliasing while the strong contrast between the out-of-focus backdrops and the crisp foreground is enhanced further even when the action heats up the game manages to retain a very steady frame rate which combined with the stellar visuals and art direction means that this game holds up very well even today it fully deserves the prestigious full hd award just like ridge racer 7 and virtue attendance 3 before it there's little doubt house mark knew what it was doing so we're halfway through 2007 thus far and looking pretty good five of the six games we've covered thus far run a true native 1080p and a different five games also run at 60 frames per second unsurprisingly the games skew more towards either sports or simple downloadable games but our next game is perhaps something completely different than anything we've discussed thus far the fate of two civilizations is in your hands lair rated t for teen only on playstation 3. this is the now infamous lair created by factor 5 a game which unfortunately cost the studio dearly but i feel from a modern perspective at least it deserves a second appraisal it is effectively a pseudo sequel to the star wars rogue squadron games like rogue squadron it focuses on aerial missions set across various regions and the basics of combat are extremely familiar in a good way problem is at launch sony wanted the game to become a showcase for the system's motion control feature something factor 5 was seemingly not too keen on according to various interviews furthermore the initial review build that went out to press was even less polished in this regard than the final game leading to less than stellar review scores following its release though factor 5 went on to update the game with new options including support for analog controls and even the addition of a rogue squadron style reticle but alas it was too little too late and the game was doomed back in the day though i did manage to have some fun with those motion controls they're honestly not bad but certain moves such as the 180 turn were difficult to execute and it could become frustrating as a result the addition of analog controls mostly solves this leading to a more enjoyable combat experience all around beyond this the actual missions are pretty ambitious and large in scope with so much happening on screen it felt like a massive leap over what we had already seen in the impressive rogue squadron games in that sense beyond that lair has a superb musical score take a listen [Music] ah [Music] [Music] and many of its missions are dripping in atmosphere flying around spotlights at night during a thunderstorm is never not appealing so how does it fare visually then well expectations were high for this game of course and the team delivered in many aspects but it also falls short in others basically in terms of image quality layer is technically our lowest resolution game discussed yet today but its approach is fascinating essentially it runs at 800 by 1080 per frame with multi-sampling anti-aliasing but it merges the aaa buffers to temporarily double the horizontal resolution so it's kind of a pseudo 1600 by 1080 image it's surprisingly effective in that sense so while it's not a full 1080p of course it still looks a lot sharper than 720p would unfortunately there's a huge caveat here and that's the performance the framerate is disappointingly low throughout it aims for 30 frames per second but regularly drops below this point leading to a somewhat choppy experience in the end with plenty of screen tearing it's clear that the scope of the environments combined with the chaos is just a little too much for the ps3 and the heavy reliance on screen filling alpha effects taxes the rsx there is a solution however switching your console all the way down to 480p solves most of the performance issues at the expense of clarity but then you're no longer at 1080p are you layer is a step up from games like full auto 2 and ultimate alliance when it comes to performance of course but it's still not great in the end lair scores 675 ps out of 1080. it's ambitious and beautiful in many ways but the screen tearing and low performance are distracting and the pixel count is ultimately a ways off from delivering that true 1920x1080 image it's a game that feels like it needed some extra time and development to really shine but even still i recommend giving it a second chance following the release of lair however two more 1080p 60 games would arrive in september of that year pixeljunk racers and lokoroko kokoreicho i'm grouping these two games together as both offer a similar performance and visual profile pixeljunk racers marks the first entry in the pixel junk series from q games the studio founded by the legendary dylan cuthbert it's perhaps the least ambitious game in the series but still well worth checking out it basically combines slot car racing with various objectives this includes anything from aiming for maximum speed while avoiding other vehicles to basic racing and a whole lot more actually we're looking at the updated version of the game here i should note but it looks the same the game benefits a lot from native 1080p by offering a zoomed out perspective of the track with little tiny cars it's almost like peering out across a real slot car track in that sense at least from a distance the high resolution allows the game to maintain a nice level of detail even with the camera situated far above the track unsurprisingly it has zero issues maintaining a flawless 60 frames per second at all times it's not technically ambitious or anything but it makes smart use of its available technology loco roco then is completely different it's a game derived from the amazing psp titles but presented as more of a puzzle game you guide a butterfly cursor around the screen while trying to collect and manipulate the locorokos the game takes place on a large map with gated sections that require x number of loco rocos to continue it's not as direct or fun as the psp games i might say but it's still an enjoyable little romp that features the same great musical madness you'd expect from the series targeting 1080p60 allows for a pristine presentation with beautiful colored shapes vibrantly bouncing around as you explore the map like pixel junk racers it also locks to 60 frames per second with ease and looks great while doing so as a result i'd like to award both games 1020 ps out of 1080 while unambitious visually they each perfectly execute what they set out to achieve without any technical hiccups along the way while we're on the topic of smaller scale titles then another 1080p game worth mentioning is everyday shooter released in early october of 2007 just in time for autumn everyday shooter is kind of an important release and that it's one of the earliest games in the indie movement of this era i suppose the same could be said of flow as well but releasing a small solo indie project on a major console in 2007 was kind of a big deal something that we'd see a lot more of as the generation progressed either way it's a cool little game it started out on the pc before the playstation 3 version but it's much improved in terms of overall presentation and feel it's basically a musical shooter where each stage is a unique song with its own combo system it's fun simple and clean with a super sharp native 1080p presentation it's another game that could still be released on steam right now and it wouldn't feel out of place that said it's not quite as fluid as our last two games so i'd give this one 980ps out of 1080. but our next game is well take a look just one year prior disney and pixar unleashed cars into theaters and it quickly became one of the most popular films in pixar history so of course they had to cash in on this with a game right enter cars mater national championship the greatest game of the generation it has lightning mcqueen it has mater it has racing it's basically forza horizon before forza horizon and okay well i'm kind of teasing here but honestly it's a whole lot better than i expected so firstly it's developed by rainbow studios you know the developer behind the atv off-road fury games on playstation 2 among many others i should note i love rainbow's work and somehow missed that they were involved with this project of course we're talking about the ps triple version here which was actually made by incinerator studios and this of course runs at full hd 1080p yep this one is a true 1920x1080 game as well but this time with quincunx msaa remember that one it's a lot like 2x msaa with two geometry sample points but also uses three samples from neighboring pixels which results in a slight blurring of the image so at its core cars made or national lets players run loose around radiator springs taking part in various events and races along the way again kind of like forza horizon as we know today it's surprisingly alright in fact i'd go so far as to say it's a competent and fun racing game licensed movie games of this era were largely terrible remember so that's a real positive in its favor so how does it fare tech wise though well there's basically two modes here the native 1080p mode and a 720p mode and the difference aside from pixel count lies entirely in frame rate at 1080p it's basically a 30 frames per second game with screen tearing while 720p targets 60 instead and that's pretty much it in comparison the xbox 360 version is limited to 720p output but with 4x msaa now the 1080p situation here is not optimal as the tearing can prove rather intrusive but it's still within the realm of playability and probably would have looked pretty sharp on a 1080p tv back in 2007 thus in the end cars made her national scores 860 out of 1080. the hit to performance coupled with terry knocked some points off the top but what's here is honestly not half bad by now though we're closing in on the end of 2007 with just a couple more games to cover the first one i want to mention briefly is the second pixel junk game pixel junk monsters releasing in japan on december 6th 2007 monstrous takes a similar visual cue from racers in that it's a simple 2d game that leans on the clarity of full hd output to improve its presentation i think it makes a big difference here interpolating from lower resolutions often blurs and obscures the art but monsters is crisp and clean and yes it's fully 60 frames per second thus i give this one 1020 ps as well but the last big game i want to talk about for the year 2007 is the japanese release of gran turismo 5 prologue yep just one year after gthd polyphony had something else to show it's basically a larger scale demo that was sold at retail kind of like those gt concept releases in europe and japan this one features a multitude of tracks and events to race on along with a much larger selection of vehicles but it's still far from being that complete gran turismo experience the final version of gt5 would not arrive for another three years or so at this point keep in mind visually however it does feel like a proper leap from gthd the new tracks especially london are remarkably detailed and well designed but this comes at a cost the rendering resolution is reduced further down to 1280 by 1080 so it just barely qualifies as a 1080p experience as a result that said it does utilize 2x msaa in this mode so it looks reasonably sharp if you opt for 720p however instead you get 4x msaa in comparison this release is certainly unusual however given its distance from the final version of gt5 and in revisiting it i feel like it does some things better it generally feels quicker the menus are faster there's less loading and it has a nice focus to it it almost feels like their ambitions hadn't quite gotten away from them yet and it's a nice bite-sized release keep in mind that gran turismo 5 prologue arrived on playstation 3 at the same point in its lifespan as the playstation 2 when gt3 launched for that console so performance is not flawless it aims for 60fps of course but doesn't always reach the target and you will encounter mild screen tearing from time to time so yeah gt5 prologue is an interesting taste of things to come but demonstrates that full hd 1920 by 1080 was never fully possible with visuals of this quality on the playstation 3. thus i award gt5 prologue 775 ps out of 1080. the visuals are more ambitious than gthd but the resolution and performance has been reduced so it falls slightly below our very last game of 2007 though is a little less serious it's something called snake ball it's a small scale little game and i only have the trial version mind you but basically it's a lot like snake but with more collecting and shooting it's a fun little game it runs at 60 frames per second and delivers a pseudo 1080p image that is it runs at 1280 by 1080 like gt5 prologue actually i don't really have a lot more else to say about it but i did want to squeeze it in here as this one's surprisingly not bad since it falls at the low end of 1080p though and is rather constrained in its scope i think it deserves 725 out of 1080 and our grand total for 2007 is 912 ps out of 1080 a nice step up from the launch here with that however we've reached the end of 2007 at this point the results are in line with what i noted earlier the ps3 is perfectly capable of 1080p60 when the visual target is kept in check but combining high resolution rendering with the more ambitious visual features makes this difficult to impossible furthermore while there are many interesting releases for playstation 3 in 2007 it was also a difficult year where both xbox 360 and nintendo wii seemed to dominate the conversation and 360 typically had the advantage in terms of performance in 2008 however things would begin to improve for the ps triple [Music] next time on df retro we'll continue our exploration of the playstation 3's full hd library by tackling 2008 and 2009 now this period would prove difficult for the console but the 1080p dream was still alive and well the next two years certainly run the gamut in terms of quality some of the games will impress while others will make you scratch your head but i promise you good times will be had so be sure to tune in um [Music] you

Channel: Digital Foundry

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Length: 58min 18sec (3498 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 10 2022