Inside the PS3: Has it been maxed out?

PSReveal: "With Sony's PS3 approaching its sixth birthday in a month, there is no doubt that the technology found within it is aging."

[360ICE]

Depends how you define "maxed"
and "out"
and "PS3"
and "Inside"
and "it"
and "been"
and "the"

[toxic27]

Yup :) Absolutely. That's why I added to the bottom of the opinion piece the discussion point of whether it actually means anything.

For example, if the PS3 is "maxed out," games can still be developed on it and it doesn't necessarily mean the PS4 is needed ASAP. The main point of this article was to determine (or let the reader determine) whether or not the technology within the platform has been completely explored.

In short, will any technological "jumps" be seen in PS3 games anymore?

[yewles1]

"In short, will any technological "jumps" be seen in PS3 games anymore?"

Beyond: Two Souls and The Last of Us may be the 2 final answers to that question.

[360ICE]

Also, shouldn't the main point be to inform the reader.
Or are the best teachers the ones going:
"What do you feel happened during WW2, Jim"

Forgive me if I'm being a little unfair, but a lot of articles seem to take the "you decide" shortcut, instead of taking a stand for objective explaration.

[toxic27]

@360ICE

I see what you're getting at. What I was aiming for in writing and publishing this article was to present the reader with various "subjective" opinions from developers who have a good amount of PS3-developing experience. From that, instead of slamming down an objective viewpoint, I wanted the readers to debate one themselves.

Thank you for your comments though; they'll help my future articles :)

[I_LOVE_MYSELF]

I don't think we will see significant technical jumps, but I do feel the system can squeeze out a better performance than what we have seen. The Last of Us looks set to do something special.

The system is pretty much set in stone for what it can acheive. The only thing left to do now is for developers to use clever ways to build their games that will result in better visuals.

Example? GodOW2 on PS2. The system clearly had reached the point where people knew what to expect.GodOW2's development process and design choices were so clever that it even managed to raise the bar ever so slightly even though it was so late in the consoles life cycle.

It is more a case of developers getting maxed out and not the conoles.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

@toxic27... I love that you get disagree's for posing the question. I think your question of will any technological jumps be seen in PS3 games moving forward is pretty legit.

I dont think you will see any "huge" jumps. You may see a few more refinements but its not going to be ground breaking at this point.

Beyond Two Souls and the Last of Us are held high as an answer to your question seemingly saying that yes there will be more jumps and they are proof. I say they are not. Both those games are just refinements of the developers previous work. Last of Us looks great! but it doesn't look like some leap of technology over Uncharted 3. Beyond Two Souls is basically Heavy Rain tech with a different story/setting/genre and hopefully much better voice acting and some tweaks to an already fantastic graphic engine.

PS3 is still a monster of a machine and will continue to produce great games...but the days of huge technology leaps on this machine are over. No matter how good you think the cell processor is on the PS3 the combined 512mb of RAM are ultimately going to handcuff the PS3 moving forward.

[Anon1974]

"It is more a case of developers getting maxed out and not the consoles."

You hit the nail right on the head with that statement. That's why we have developers cautioning us right now not to expect a huge leap in the games we see when new hardware becomes available. At this point, the bottleneck is with developer resources more than it is with the hardware. Hardware might ease some of their problems, but I'm not expecting anything revolutionary when the next gen roles around.

[Pushagree]

The Ps3's hardware has absolutely been maxed out. It's potential in the blu-ray department is another story though since only a few devs have gone beyond a single layer.

[knowyourstuff]

This is actually a complex question, it isn't so black and white. The game engine is what limits a console, technically a developer codes according to the engine, and you can be more or less efficient with the way you code the game. If you're less efficient, you will have "maxed out" and reached the limits according to what you are capable of with how you approach code design. What needs to change is the efficiency of the game engine, and the efficiency with how things are coded, better utilizing the hardware, as there are always new and creative ways to utilize hardware, you just need to find them.

So it's not about whether the console has been maxed out in most cases, it's whether the developer can do anything more with their current technology, game engine, and methods of coding. This is why each developer listed has a different answer to that question. Notice how the more creative developers who made Dishonor are on clear consensus that more creative stuff can be done to get more out of the console, and other devs who are a lot more derivative can't seem to find anything else to do with the console? This does have a lot to do with whether the previous methods of each developer used were efficient to begin with (The Uncharted guys were pretty outstanding already) but the point stands.

[Enigma_2099]

Done your article on the 360 yet? Or is it just the PS3 you want to give the impression of being old and antiquated?

[toxic27]

@Enigma_2099

You do realize that the domain name of my site, PSReveal.com, stands for PlayStation Reveal, meaning revelations associated with the PlayStation brand, right? The point of the article was not to make the PS3 sound old, or even new for that matter. The point was to get people to think and discuss the "remaining" power of the system and develop their own stance.

Your assumption that my goal of the article was to make the PS3 look old is simply a mirrored summary of your developed subjective opinion of the text. So, Mr. Engima_2099, why do you think the PS3 is "old and antiquated," since no place in the article pushes for such an objective thought. Good day :)

[Enigma_2099]

@toxic27

Reflex response to these types of articles. And I could give a good god d*** what you call your site. You didn't want to give that impression, title your articles better.

Why do I think the PS3 is "old and antiquated?" I don't. But then again, I don't think it's been maxed out either.

[Blaze929]

who comes up with this shit

[Cam977]

Hahaha!

[MostJadedGamer]

Heres the most important line from the article

"And if the PS3 is maxed out, does this necessarily mean that it is time to move on?"

The answer is no we don't need to move on if the PS3 is already maxxed out. Instead its time to focus on gameplay, and finish the PS3's life my putting out the best games possible in 2013, and 2014.

[mewhy32]

It's safe to say that that developers are maxing out both consoles most of the time. Optimization is the name of the game now. To get more production from the consoles we're going to have to get better code.

[neogeo]

It's all about code, time and profit. There are small projects I have seen that still program for Snes and can max it higher then N64 graphics.

The problem is profit. If I had a billion dollars to waist it would be fun to build a massive engine from the ground up that used hand written code for the PS3 SPU's that would take years and millions of hours to make that is 99% error free. We could see 1080p games@60fps looking better then ps4. It would take years and WAY more money and time to make and would be not profitable even if the game sold 100 million copies. I would still love to see it happen.

[lonesoul65]

does it matter?

[TCG_Returns]

Dumb headline and a ridiculous picture to match.Congrats toxic.You've confirmed you have no interesting ideas to write about to you just spew bullshit onto a plank page and submit it looking for hits.

I'll remember how shitty your site is from now.

[toxic27]

Hi TCG_Returns, do you mind explaining this "bullshit"? I'm all for improving both my site and writing abilities and would love some details on your criticism. Care to explain? Thanks

[Gazondaily]

Really mature there TCG_Returns....

[ravinash]

TCG_Returns....and then bug*** off again.

[abzdine]

At least 3 graphical monsters are coming next year :

God of War: Ascension
The Last of Us
Beyond

The Last of us looks better than Uncharted 3, God of Was Ascension better then God of War 3 so NO the PS3 hasn't been maxed out yet!

EDIT : Those who disagree can you explain why ?

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Because barely anything has been seen to make that kind of comparison?

[srcBFMVBMTH]

God of War: Ascension does indeed look beautiful.

http://images.vg247.com/cur...
http://www.gamepur.com/file...

It'll definitely look better once the game actually comes out.

Same with The Last Of Us and Beyond.

http://www.ikogamer.com/wp-...
http://media1.gameinformer....

http://images.eurogamer.net...
http://images.eurogamer.net...

Sad to say that the PS3 has been maxed out a long time ago though. It's still amazing what devs could pull out of 6 year old hardware though IMO.

Pretty much what M2- said below.

"Lettuce be reality, the PS3 (on topic) has been maxed out for sometime. The real question is how much room is left for game engine optimization?"

[Norrison]

GOW doesn't look that good, it's full of low res textures. But it still looks good for consoles.
Last of us got ugly textures too, look at the floor on the first shot, and look at the truck and the ceilling in the second one. Even though most of the enviromet looks vibrant and the character models are flawless.
Beyond two souls does look good.

[srcBFMVBMTH]

@Norrison

"But it still looks good for consoles."

Uhhhhhmmmmmm yeeeeaaaaa, pretty sure that was the point dude. lmao. Compared to other CONSOLE games, they look beautiful.

And considering the games aren't even CLOSE to being finished with God Of War still having about 24 weeks until release, and The Last Of Us and Beyond not even having a release date yet. They still have a lot more time for tweaking.

If you are comparing them to PC standards though then your post is COMPLETELY irrelevant considering I only said they look good, for old six year old outdated hardware. lmao

[Dee_91]

they look good regardless of how old the hardware is really.

OT
Like we discussed on this site back in 09 there is no "maxed out "
It depends on the developer and how much they can optimize.
Im sure they can make a game for ps2 right now and it would look better than every ps2 game to date.
That doesnt mean the ps2 is or isnt maxed out .

[otherZinc]

@abzdine,
I'll explain...

ND said its tapped. Uncharted 3 had side mission co-op. If they had unified RAM in the PS3, I'm positive The Last Of Us would have Campaign Co-op but it cant.

That's moving forward with power. Making a game look slightly better is ok but make the next step in your game.

If The Last Of Us can have an AI companion running through the Main Campaign, a human should be able to control that character.

There's a reason campaign co-op isn't in The Last Of Us.

[beerkeg]

I'm pretty sure I read that The Last Of Us won't have co-op because of design reasons, not because they couldn't do it.

I can't remember where I read it, but I do remember them saying something to that effect.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

@abzdine... graphical monsters =/= technological leaps for the PS3. It has had many graphical monsters over its life time.

Last of Us looks better than UC3...fine you think it looks better, but is it a "technological leap" beyond UC3? I think not.

God of War: Ascension looks fantastic...but is it a "technological leap" above God of War 3? I think not.

Beyond = Heavy Rain...just different story/setting and actual good voice acting from what we can tell. It doesn't look head and shoulders better than Heavy Rain. Just looks like a refinement of the previous work.

I will go with developer sentiment more than a fan of the system. If ND is saying they have pretty much tapped out the system then I will believe them.

[abzdine]

"God of War: Ascension looks fantastic...but is it a "technological leap" above God of War 3? I think not."

maybe not a huge gap but as long as we can notice a difference it's enough to confirm that PS3 hasn't been maxed out.

[Dee_91]

From what i seen in Last of Us the AI is a HUGE technical leap over Uncharted.
And yes one game is the same as another because it was made by the same people.
Fifa 13 is madden 13 the ball is just shaped different ... crash bandicoot is obviously uncharted sully just grew a mustache :p /s

[VonBraunschweigg]

No no, it's not maxed out, can't be. General consensus says it's doomed, DOOOMED! and we don't max out stuff that's doomed now do we? That would be dumb, look a doomed console, let's max it out. Doesn't happen.

[TheLyonKing]

Nothing has ever been maxed out, it is impossible to max out something cause no one can utilise everything the machine has to offer cause it is not nessesary.

However graphics wise (by which I mean looks for gameply) I don't think we will see anything better looking now but the same constant standard.

Side note as well even if it is "maxed out" who cares? end of a console cycle now and the games look fantastic.

[LocutusEstBorg]

Wrong. If it can't run at 1920x1080p then its GPU is maxed out. End of story.

Reducing the resolution and increasing the in-game effect quality isn't "not maxed out". You can reduce the resolution to 160x90 pixels and produce Avatar quality graphics.

[M2-]

Lettuce be reality, the PS3 (on topic) has been maxed out for sometime. The real question is how much room is left for game engine optimization?

[kayoss]

Dont you mean the xbox360 has been maxed out for sometime now? If the PS3 is maxed out sometime ago, how do explain the graphical advancement of two souls and the last of us? these games hasnt even been completed and released yet. We havent even seen what the new metal gear game will be like, from what is shown it seems that not only it is a graphical powerhouse but it also using a technology that requires a lot power to pull off. That is why the new metal gear game is not going to be ported to the PS vita.

[NoFanboyRequired]

Both consoles are maxed out. There's things called optimization developers do. Halo 4 and Beyond are great examples. They both look better than anything multiplatform on consoles.

[givemeshelter]

Maxed out is a sweeping term.
What do you mean by Maxed out? It can mean many different things.
Now there is room for optimization for the games in general and the surrounding PS3 hardware.
But to squeeze more polygons, Textures, Shaders, etc wont happen as that is fixed. If you put more of one in a game, you have to take from another do to consoles fixed hardware capabilities. So don't expect to see increased visuals and physics unless some areas are taken away from within the game.

[kayoss]

I heard this somewhere before??? oh yes, about 2 years ago when the developers were saying that they have maxed out the PS3's power for games like Crysis 2, uncharted 3, God of war 3 etc...But here were are again asking ourself if the system is maxed out? It may seems that with Two souls and the last of us is the most advance in term of what the ps3 can do have reach its limits. But from what history has shown us with Sony's console is that there are always improvements that they can do with the console. PS2 games that were release one year ago looks like early ps3 games. For me the system is maxed out when it is no longer in use and every body else moves on to the next gen.

[ChunkyLover53]

Yep.

[NastyLeftHook0]

no, the last of us says otherwise. it is the best looking console game.

[srcBFMVBMTH]

I actually do think PS3 has been maxed out. But

"it is the best looking console game."

Agreed, ALONG with God of War Ascension and Beyond.

It's crazy how they'll manage to outdo these games though.

Uncharted 3 Vs. The Last Of Us
http://scgamers.com/site.ho...
http://www.ikogamer.com/wp-...

God Of War: Ascension Vs. God Of War 3
http://www.gamepur.com/file...
http://catplaysgames.com/wp...

And it's crazy because The Last Of Us and God Of War still have A LOT of time to be tweaked visually and they ALREADY look that good. lol

On the 360 side. Halo 4 doesn't look too shabby either.
http://s.olid.us/wp-content...
But considering it's already gone Gold, I don't see it looking much better than that.

Also can't wait for Ground Zeroes!!!!!

[ChunkyLover53]

The Last Of Use looks good, but you can tell that they are using Uncharted's Engine. I'm not saying it'll play like Uncharted because it looks like it'll play a lot differently, but the character models and environments both look a lot like Uncharted.

I'm sure they will find a way to make a few more things look detailed, but there isn't much more you can do with 6+ year old hardware. Its the same for all the current consoles, I love them and play them all, but they are maxed out to the max.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

People have been saying that the PS3 and 360 are maxed out for years now. But then here comes Halo 4 and The Last of Us proving people wrong...

[miyamoto]

"The Last Of Use looks good, but you can tell that they are using Uncharted's Engine. I'm not saying it'll play like Uncharted because it looks like it'll play a lot differently, but the character models and environments both look a lot like Uncharted."

A: LOL!
Of course. You obviously have no info about the Last of Us & the Naughty D Engine (one of the best video game engines in the whole world). Its the same engine but constantly being updated & improved since U:DF.
Though I disagree with your statement that TLOU looks like Uncharted.

"I'm sure they will find a way to make a few more things look detailed, but there isn't much more you can do with 6+ year old hardware. Its the same for all the current consoles, I love them and play them all, but they are maxed out to the max."

A: LOL.
Really? Have you played the Uncharted games on HD?

I play both 360 & Ps3 but the PS3 ain't no 360.

The Xbox 360 has held back the PS3 & PC gaming since its the lowest denominator developers had to consider making multi-platform games for the three.
PS3 has 50GB Blu-Ray full of uncompressed assets & textures to output for PS3 unlike DVD9, etc, etc.

Even Killzone 3 or infamous 2 or Halo Reach does not come close to the graphical superiority of Uncharted games.

Don't be surprised to see Bungie's multiplat games made for the PS3 & Xbox 720 & PC but not for Xbox360.

[NoFanboyRequired]

Lol you act as the ps3 can do anything. Skyrim says hi.

Also, both consoles are holding gaming back. All games are sub hd , barely maintaining a smoth 30fps besides a handfull of games.

Halo 4 comes close to any of those games you've
Mentioned. If not surpasses them. All those games are linear experiences. They dont require the power an open world or sandbox a game do.

And why wouldnt bungie release a game on a console they know better than any other?

[aquamala]

If ps3 is much more powerful than 360, why don't the multi plat ps3 games look more like the pc versions? They never do.

Bf3 on ps3 look just like on 360, and nothing like pc. Same for max Payne 3, spec ops the line, arkham city, etc etc etc

[miyamoto]

Lol you act as the ps3 can do anything. Skyrim says hi.

A: Wrong impression. That honor goes to the PC.

Also, both consoles are holding gaming back. All games are sub hd , barely maintaining a smoth 30fps besides a handfull of games.

A: I was talking about multi platform games for the 3.

Its not just about graphics performance, its also about the business & politics of how these multi-plat games are made.

Many generations before developers make multi-plat games to utilize & max out a particular platforms capabilities until M$ stepped in.

M$ pays millions to devs & publishers to make sure exclusive PS3 & PC go multi-plat to 360 & games' contents "do not look bad" on the 360 compared the PC & PS3 in whatever ways possible.

That's the bigger hold back in HD gaming compared to graphical performance issues. Reason why many PC gamers are so pissed at 360.

A:
Dude,720p is HD.
Generally any video image with more than 480 horizontal lines or 570 lines is considered HD.

720 & 1080p games on PS3 ain't no "handful"

http://wikibin.org/articles...

Halo 4 comes close to any of those games you've
Mentioned. If not surpasses them. All those games are linear experiences. They dont require the power an open world or sandbox a game do.

A:
Have you experienced it totally?
Invalid evidence, for now.
Dude, inFamous 2 runs on a sandbox game engine.

And why wouldnt bungie release a game on a console they know better than any other?
A: Have you read their "contract" with Activision?

[LNDCalling]

If we are talking 'overall' graphics, AI, Physics etc then I don't think it is as code can always be improved / tightened. HOWEVER, given how late we are in the cycle I find it hard to believe that Third party studios or even Sony's First party will put a huge amount of pressure on pushing it much further.

I think that as far as pushing the console goes 'The Last of Us' and 'Beyond: Two Souls' are about as far as we will see it pushed as studios will then be looking at developing for the next gen and pushing that.

This is all on the assumption of course that Sony release a 'next gen' console within the next 24 months!

[jjb1981]

We are in final gen software for the ps3

[josephayal]

There is no way that the PS3 is maxed out, Developers are just lazy and haven't come close to pushing it to it's limit

[Ck1x]

So you are saying that Naughty Dog is lazy then? Because from their own statement they believe they maxed out the PS3 on Uncharted 2 and are basically tweaking things to get what they need from the system. I don't know what everyone is looking at but TLOU does look to be an amazing game, but I don't think it blows UC2 away graphically like most would like to evangelize that it does... UC2 for me will always be the game that made me take notice of the PS3 this gen.

[tachy0n]

LOL how in the complete hell people believe a system from 2005 is not maxed out in 2012?

funny how far the levels of fanboyism can reach.

[vortis]

The fact you got all those disagrees lets me know how thick the air is here in this thread.

I think I'll pass on making any further comments.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

N64 still has a lot potential left!!

[Cam977]

BEYOND
TLOU
NO

[aquamala]

Yep it is. We don't see big jumps anymore, we see minor improvements, if at all

[InklingGirl]

With games like the Uncharted series and Killzone can game really look any better?

[LordSane]

Skyrim
The Witcher 2
Crysis

[XabiDaChosenOne]

I'm pretty sure he was referring to console titles.

[SkullBlade169]

He should have said that then.

[MysticStrummer]

Does PC gaming really need to be shoehorned into every article about another platform?

[LordSane]

yes

[NirvanaInChains]

yeah all of the uncharted games & kz2 + 3 pretty much set the bar with ps3. i recently got a powerful pc and battlefield 3 is really a new game on pc compared to the ps3 version i was use to playing. the half fr on the console version kills the experience imo. And people were right when they said going back to console is hard after playing on a true pc gaming rig. Usually people who say pc still sucks is because there usually playing on a pc that wasn't even really built for gaming. But if your on a budget you cant beat consoles and exclusives of course are worth getting a console for.

[vortis]

Same boat as you.

Got a gaming rig and now I can't look at console games without noticing jaggies, 30fps framte-rate caps and low-res textures.

The exclusives are good (though outside of Halo/Forza I can't really say the 360's exclusives are worth it) but I just can't game on consoles anymore.

Overclocking my GPU on a modded version of STALKER with all those graphic tweaks is like a completely different experience than what you can get on console.

And OMG, GTA IV on PC is like a completely different game (after mods) than it is on console. I can see why that game got a lot of hate on console, though.

[blackblades]

I doubt it developers always say they maxed out but someone else comes along proves them wrong, most of them don't even know how to max out.

[tweet75]

even its maxed out if games are made at the caliber uncharted id be happy for years to come

[leogets]

the only time my ps3 dropped my jaw with revolutionary jump in visualls was killzone 2 demo. since then even the best of games havnt blown me away. maybe uncharted 2 and 3 did at some stages but not to the extent of what killzone 2 did for me.disagree untill ya hearts content. this is my opinion. yours doesnt count. if i wanted ur opinion id tell u it ;)

[Tontus]

The only PS3 game to truly blow me away is God of War III. Most of the time it looks like a CGI film, it's absolutely beautiful.

[jd666]

There's a lot of game developers on here today!

[Ruggadagod]

It's not even about raw power. It's about the lifespan of the console.

PS1 had a long lifespan
PS2 had a long lifespan
PS3 will have a long lifespan

All at least 8 healthy years.

[Bobbo44]

PS2 came out about 6 years after PS1. PS3 came out about 6 years after PS2, as well. This will be the 6th year since PS3 came out.

[BrianG]

He is referring to developer support. Meaning the PS1 and PS2 had at least 8 years of good dev support, aka new games.

When the PS4 comes out I highly doubt every developer will turn a cold shoulder to the PS3 immediately. It will still see support for a copule years into the next generation.

[Bobbo44]

Have any of you even tried playing a PC game on a decent system recently? Consoles are so far behind it's ridiculous. Anti-aliasing (which is a huge graphical enhancement) has been out for years now on PC, almost perfectly refined, yet consoles don't get any of that. Or take into consideration that most of these games are running at horrible resolutions. They upscale the output so you THINK you're playing games in 1080p, but, for example, I doubt Crysis 2 is even running at 720p. Also take into consideration that most modern games are running, at most, at 30 frames per second. Nevermind that PC's are moving on to new graphical enhancements, such as ambient occlusion (which looks amazing, btw). Oh, and don't forget about tessellation.

Console hardware is a joke at this point. Granted maybe they can squeeze out some extra performance by throwing in some optimizations, such as stream loading textures (ever wonder why you get texture pop in?), but they desperately need to move on. I don't understand why these developers are saying the hardware still has more to go. They have to be paid by Sony or something because, seriously, this hardware is crap at this point. DICE knows what they're talking about, considering they have one of the best looking engines out right now.

Stop being ripped off by console BS. You can build a decent PC for like $600, and, bam, you're already in the next-gen. You're getting ripped off paying the same price for PC games, yet getting a tenth of the quality. Granted, PC has it's downfalls, but it still beats the crap out of playing old hardware. If you don't believe me, compare hardware specs.

[MysticStrummer]

What is it about PC gamers anyway? It seems like you guys believe that anyone who games on a console is doing so against their will or something. I've tried PC gaming and didn't find it to be the Holy Grail of gaming that you seem to think it is. It will always be more about the games than the specs. Play games on a platform because it has the games you want to play, not because whatever games it has are rendered better.

[Norrison]

As a PC and Console (PS3), I know PCs destroy consoles in graphics and gameplay most of the time, but it doesn't make them a bad platform, they still give a good gaming experience.

BTW, you shouldn't be telling people what to buy if you don't know how many money and time they have in their hands.

[sdplisken]

pc has no games that i want to play whatsoever
so yeah have fun with mmos and rts games

ill take sony's franchises any day and for a fraction of the cost of a decent pc

The Last of Us
God of War: Ascension
Beyond Two Souls
The Last Guardian
etc
dont see those on pc now do ya?

[aquamala]

These games won't be out til nxt year. Whar are you playing now til then? Still playing uncharted?

[Tontus]

God of War: Ascension will be the game that maxes out the PS3 just like God of War games always do on Sony systems.

Hell, God of War III is 2 1/2 years old and still looks better than everything else on consoles, it also looks a hell of a lot better than The Last of Us, I can't see how that's impressive during gameplay, nice looking cut-scenes though.

If (It will) God of War: Ascension even looks at least a little bit better than its unmatched predecessor then it'll have the best visuals on consoles.

[ZoyosJD]

Most devs (ND included) stopped producing (CGI-style) cut scenes for their games as using the in game engine with a higher LOD usually suffices and producing CGI at a higher quality than than capable in game is expensive for practically the same results.

Just look at all the games that use comic book style cut scenes.

Anyway if GOW:A, Beyond, TLOU, FFvs13, TLG, and MGS:GZ are what it takes to max out a PS3, I am already one happy gamer.

[wastedcells]

Boring

[mochachino]

Who cares, if it has or hasn't it still going to look past gen. I bet the PS1 wasn't maxed out, doesn't mean I care to see if it can be.

[sdplisken]

nope, not even close

[spektical]

until i see many 3rd party games coming out at AAA PS3 SONY exclusive level i will say no.

[moodgamer]

WE JUST WANNA PLAY GAMES. Well, at least its what i wanna do. =)

[Resistance]

If it still cranks out good games who cares?

[smallz]

Who writes this shit?

[Neko_Mega]

3rd party yes and some of the 1st party says no or maybe.

[Eldyraen]

Its getting to the point where the differences are becoming negligible but that doesn't mean its not still progressing. Again as others have said, even if it hit the wall today what both consoles are capable of is more than sufficient and in many ways surpassed my expectations.

I admit I'm a pc gamer first (especially past couple years) but I still love the console exclusives and although they don't 'look as good' as modern PC games (even most diehard fanboys know it, even if very deep down and only admit it to themselves) that doesn't mean I don't appreciate and am at times surprised what devs do on the console front. Exclusives though always shine much brighter no matter the platform and are what keep people coming back.

Still, there is always room for improvement both from devs this generation and on the hardware front for the next one ;)

[Knushwood Butt]

I've got a pile of unplayed PS3 games, simply because I don't have as much time to game as I'd like, and because I spend most of my time playing GT5 these days.

There are also a bunch of games announced that I want.

I really wouldn't care if it was maxed out or not, but I think we still have some surprises left. Last Guardian? GT6?

[miyamoto]

Where Uncharted 3 is peerless and unparalleled is in its ability to defy the technological constraints of current-generation platforms, which raises an interesting question about whether

ideas are the real premium now over and above the technological arms race that has powered current-gen console game development.

We put that point to Naughty Dog's Richard Lemarchand.

"I think that we are rapidly approaching the point where ideas are more important than the technology but I don't think we're quite there yet," he reckons.

"I think we have a ways to go in terms of graphical technology, in terms of more sophisticated skin shaders and shaders for other kinds of material.

"But I do like the implication of your question and, yes, the world really is our oyster. We're only limited by our imaginations."

[carlocgc]

Good games don't need new hardware. Next gen consoles are way beyond top spec pcs atm don't expect them anytime soon... silly, silly wabbit. :)

[Phoenix76]

It is possible to squeeze out a slightly more powerful graphics engine I believe, however that really just software. The hardware side has not changed at all really in the past 6 yrs. so in some way the ps3 is and/or isn't maxed depending on your own POV.

Now can N4G pls get back to the task of offering some real news and not every Tom, dick and Sally's opinion pls.

Getting tired of this site now