Orange Box PS3 actually OK?

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 29th November 2007
Comments (20) Stumble
Orange Box PS3 actually OK?

The news about the PS3 version of Episode Two is better, but still not good.

There's been a lot of things said about the PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box. That it's pointless to have a game like that released late on a console when everyone will already play it on the PC or Xbox 360, that the performance for the game is abhorrent - the list goes on.

Hell, even Gabe Newell came out and explicitly said that he thought the PS3 was a "waste of everybody’s time", both in general and in regards to a Orange Box port. That didn't stop EA though, who pressed on regardless and got it's own porting team to handle it because Valve wouldn't.

It turns out though that one of those concerns may have been a bit of an exaggeration, specifically the technical performance. 1-Up.com did a preview of the game just a few short days ago and said that there were major framerate problems with the game and that although Portal was good, Episode Two was just down right unplayable. Team Fortress 2 meanwhile wouldn't even play. Not good for code which was running late and was described as 'near final'.

Since then though, IGN and Gamespy have done their own previews of the game, provided you want to listen to them, and they have come to some rather different conclusions.

"Unless you require your games to never dip below 30fps, you should not strike The Orange Box off your PS3 holiday wish list." Writes IGN's Hilary Goldstein - something which is sure not to please Ghys.

Gamespy meanwhile says that although there are a few FPS dips, they only occur in Episode 2 and that they never make the game unplayable, though they are noticeable. I guess that makes it OK then?

Personally, I thought the main attraction of a console was to give dedicated hardware which developers could write for reliably without worrying about performance issues. What do you think? Let us know in the forums.
Quote CanadianViking 29th November 2007, 08:10
Good news for PS3 owners.
Quote cjoyce1980 29th November 2007, 08:22
from the reviews, its still sounds like its a half hearted port and will not be anything like the pc or the 360 versions.

but will most pc developers start passing there pc and 360 versions over to a third party to do a port....? sound like the sega saturn all over again to me...
Quote DarkLord7854 29th November 2007, 08:58
:)
Quote 2JSC 29th November 2007, 09:07
I blame EA and Valve for doing a halfassed job. Seriously though. If the PS3 is that hard to work with, how come developers like NaughtyDog are able to make such a beautiful game from scratch and EA can't even make a freaking port?
Quote Bursar 29th November 2007, 09:16
Didn't TF2 fail because the servers weren't up rather than some catastrophoc coding errors?

And maybe porting the game is the source of the problems. If the game was created straight out of the gate for the PS3, then maybe it would be great and porting it to the PC and 360 would have been problematic.
Quote mmorgue 29th November 2007, 09:23
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2JSC
I blame EA and Valve for doing a halfassed job. Seriously though. If the PS3 is that hard to work with, how come developers like NaughtyDog are able to make such a beautiful game from scratch and EA can't even make a freaking port?

Exactly! Ass Creed and COD4 are fantastic on the PS3 -- HL2/Source is a fairly old engine now. Sure the PS3 might be hard(er) to code for but it can't be *that* hard unless the original source code was a spaghetti-mess to begin with.

For Gabe & Co. to let a sh1t version of their product go gold on the PS3 and then to sit back and complain about is just plain poor. Others can do it, and much better than you Gabe -- what's your excuse?

/sigh
Quote Jamie 29th November 2007, 09:25
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bursar

And maybe porting the game is the source of the problems. If the game was created straight out of the gate for the PS3, then maybe it would be great and porting it to the PC and 360 would have been problematic.

This is why the PS3 is having a hard time with games at the moment. Since it came to the game late people were already developing games for windows and the xbox 360. It sounds like Sony's development framework is quite different to that of Microsofts in which lies the problem.

The PS3 is in a bit of a chicken and the egg situation. Gamers don't want to buy it because it's not getting the big games (it is getting some now but for the last year it's been left a little in the corner doing it's own thing, but I digress) and developers don't want to develop for it primarily because it doesn't have the userbase (again, that is slowly turning around now).

Once the developers get used to writing for or porting to the PS3 we are going to see stories like this.
Quote CardJoe 29th November 2007, 10:07
Valve aren't handling the PS3 port either, thats a big part of the problem. They don't see the console as being important or worth porting too. They can port to the 360 because it's VERY similar to the PC and it just takes a few extra weeks, so they don't lose anything by doing it. Porting to PS3 is radically more complex and takes a hell of a lot longer - hence the delay. Gabe et al don't think it's worth it to give that wait for a game which will never play as well as the platform it was intended for (the PC) and for a console they think is going to fail. Hence, EA handles the port and, in doing so, do it badly and prove Gabe right.
Quote VictorianBloke 29th November 2007, 12:21
I work with several PS3 owners who are all waiting in anticipation of the orange box coming out, they don't seem too bothered by the framerate issues but then thats maybe because they all play pro-evo which, if I'm not mistaken, had horrendous slowdown and lagging problems on release.

It seems ps3 owners are getting repeatedly hit with rushed code/ports that software developers try to fix later with patches, and I thought that was the realm of the PC gamer...
Quote Paradigm Shifter 29th November 2007, 13:36
Quote:
Originally Posted by VictorianBloke
It seems ps3 owners are getting repeatedly hit with rushed code/ports that software developers try to fix later with patches, and I thought that was the realm of the PC gamer...
Yeah, it was. Until the dawn of internet enabled consoles. ;)
Quote -EVRE- 29th November 2007, 15:18
Quote:
Originally Posted by mmorgue
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2JSC
I blame EA and Valve for doing a halfassed job. Seriously though. If the PS3 is that hard to work with, how come developers like NaughtyDog are able to make such a beautiful game from scratch and EA can't even make a freaking port?

Exactly! Ass Creed and COD4 are fantastic on the PS3 -- HL2/Source is a fairly old engine now. Sure the PS3 might be hard(er) to code for but it can't be *that* hard unless the original source code was a spaghetti-mess to begin with.

For Gabe & Co. to let a sh1t version of their product go gold on the PS3 and then to sit back and complain about is just plain poor. Others can do it, and much better than you Gabe -- what's your excuse?

/sigh

What if they didn't bother to even port it to PS3.. would you still be complaining? They didn't think it was worth doing... because they knew it would be a 'sh1t' version port to get it to work on the PS3? You have to remember they are out to make money, and Gabe didn't think it would be worth it to recode the game... EA did and look at what they got. Granted, Valve could have done a better job, but I bet even they wouldn't have been happy with it.
Quote mmorgue 29th November 2007, 15:43
I agree with that -- at the end of the day they write/port/dev games for making money. To be honest, I really couldn't care about whether or not they ported it -- for me, HL2 and Source is "done and dusted". I have no interest in it.

It's the idea that VALVe found the PS3 'that' difficult to work with. Comparing the quality of current games out now it seems other developers have managed to produce some outstanding works. Sure it might have been a trial. But why are VALVe, for all their knowledge and experience and wisdom, unable to meet the same level of quality?

I just think it sets a horrible precident when a developer says, "Ugh, it's too hard/difficult/hassle to write for that system".
Quote glaeken 29th November 2007, 16:06
We had a PS exec come do a talk a few days ago. If you were to teach a one semester class on the PS3, you would basically spend the whole time trying to get a Hello World message on screen. It's a very difficult console to come to terms with. And because it's such a different architecture to that of PC and Xbox, porting would not be an easy job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mmorgue

I just think it sets a horrible precident when a developer says, "Ugh, it's too hard/difficult/hassle to write for that system".

I think that says something about the console itself don't you? From what the exec said, Sony plans to have a reasonably simple development pipeline in 5 years.
Quote Omnituens 29th November 2007, 22:06
Wasn't the PS2 in a similar situation though? with the EE?

Xbox was just a PC in a fancy box, so didn't have any issues.
Quote completemadness 30th November 2007, 03:12
Quote:
Originally Posted by cjoyce1980
.... and will not be anything like the pc or the 360 versions.....
I've played the 360 version, and IMO, its crap (in comparison)

M&K just rapes a controller, any day of the week

I'm still trying to get my WiiMote to work with HL2(PC) - it looks quite interesting
Its the only controller that actually makes sense with a FPS game >_<
Quote Amon 30th November 2007, 04:38
Lol Ghys gets an honorable mention...
Quote RedDethX 1st December 2007, 22:41
As much as I love the Playstation 3, I don't understand :/ Oh well, I also must confess, I would prefer Episode 2/TF2 on PC over Playstation 3 anyways. Gogo PC! :D Though I do want MGS4 and Ratchet and Clank for Playstation 3.
Quote Ghys 1st December 2007, 23:43
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amon
Lol Ghys gets an honorable mention...

lmao, why ?
what did I do !

EDIT: HAHAHA I JUST NOTICED


NIIIIIIIIIIIIIICEEEEEE

my bitching was not done in vain !!!!!!
hahaha :D:D:D:D
Quote boiled_elephant 1st December 2007, 23:56
This is bizarre...Ep2 runs smooth as anything on my machine (sig), and the PS3 was geared to be the ultimate in hardware - it certainly outstrips mine by miles, as well as having the advantage of being a console. How can it not play the Orange Box smoothly? I'm not even angry, just astonished.
Quote completemadness 3rd December 2007, 03:01
Quote:
Originally Posted by boiled_elephant
This is bizarre...Ep2 runs smooth as anything on my machine (sig), and the PS3 was geared to be the ultimate in hardware - it certainly outstrips mine by miles, as well as having the advantage of being a console. How can it not play the Orange Box smoothly? I'm not even angry, just astonished.
As said before, the PS3 is lots of slowish processors, and Source barley takes advantage of multi-core

They are not very well suited

The 360 on the other hand is dualcore? and therefore much more suited to the orange box
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