Q&A: Nihilistic's Huebner, Cooke Talk PS3, X360 Dev Ease

In another of Gamasutra's year-end Q&As, we talk to Rob Huebner and Mark Cooke of Nihilistic Software (Vampire: The Masquerade) about the relative ease of use for developing for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with the duo favoring Microsoft's tools, but suggesting that "over time the differences [in ease of development] will even out".

Huebner, who is President of the former Starcraft: Ghost developer and has worked on titles including Descent, Starcraft and Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 was joined for this chat by Mark Cooke (Jedi Knight, Grim Fandango), who is lead gameplay programmer at the company.

[Scrumptious]

Proven superior once again!

The PS3 will catch up in a few years, but it will be too late for then, especailly with a 360 price drop and superior hardware, games, multimedia, online...ect.

[Denocao]

You are wrong. PS3 will "catch up" earlier than that! In no time you will realize 360 will start looking like last gen.

[power of Green]

Yah! all the Dev's and the techies are wrong! only if they were as smart as you.

[Tut]

Fictional Facts? That's a good term. I love oxymorons.

[power of Green]

Saying things that are not true and passing it off as truth, is that better. Idiot.

[Tut]

Hahahaha. Lighten up, man. Everything doesn't have to be serious black or white all of the time. I was joking with you, but thank you for the clarification.

Smile once in a while, it's too frigid in here as is.

[power of Green]

I'm glade you looked up fiction in the Dictionary. Coolness.

[Tut]

Oh the bitterness and pessimism is palpable with you all of the time.

Smile once in a while. =)

[dantesparda]

Tut, cuz he's and a-hole. Big fanboy too.

[PS3n360]

I wouldnt want to have to wait another three years for PS3 to catch up, thats ridiculous. I did finally have a chance to play motorstorm and it was graphically terrible. I thought I was warming up with the gameplay footage I saw but when you play it and all the sage bushes on the ground look like transparent GIFs from the net 8 years ago and the textures on the rocks at certain points werent lining up...oh boy! I was shocked how crappy it looked. The physics are good though I will say that the cars had a nice bounce to them as they motored along the uneven ground. The futureshop rep said "its only running at 720i though Ha! 720i? no such thing

[Denocao]

It's only a demo. The finished product will be a lot better.

[power of Green]

You mean alot better like all the other PS3 games(look and play like early PS2 games)games and the console itself?( not 3x as powerful but weaker).
It will still look like an PS2 game with some XBOX1 effects

[Denocao]

That itself makes motorstorm a lot more enjoyable to play than most most 360's race games without the wheel. Do you have that on 360? I don't think so! My subwoofer substitutes the vibration feature of the 360. I am starting to agree that vibration is last gen. Talking about sound... Resistence is THX cerified! Sounds beautifully! My opnion is that ps3 has nothing to catch up and you can't argue with my opnion. Whatever comes that's better for the ps3, and we all know it will happen, will be bonus!

[dantesparda]

Hey power of queens, you telling me that most 360 games at launch didnt look just a little bit better than last gens graphics?, give it a rest you fanatic fanboy.

[power of Green]

I never thought of that, gee im going to open one of my PS3's and keep it Just for MotoStorm, I got to try the subwoofer thing, yah! rumbles so last-gen feeling whats going on in games is so lame. J/K what ever floats your boat.

[Dusk]

I haven't yet heard someone rationalize Sony's lawsuit loss and lack of money to pony up for a rumble feature with, "My subwoofer substitutes the vibration feature of the 360." Calling vibration "last gen" is also a very poor excuse for Sony not being able to afford rumble. You act as if it was Sony's intention to not include rumble all along. It's amazing to me that Sony loses a lawsuit, won't pony up like MS and Nintendo and the fanboys are so blinded that they claim that it's actually a good thing. Amazing.

[AuburnTiger]

it's funny how people keep beating that dead horse.

I wouldn't call the loss of rumble good, but it's not detrimental or anything. I've been playing FPS's on the PC for years and the fact of not having rumble in my mouse hasn't crossed my mind at all, however I wonder if that would work...

[Denocao]

Indeed. But Logitech and other 3rd parties didn't. I think that vibration will be available for ps3. Logitech is my bet. I don't miss vibration and won't buy a controler with the feature + I like the lightweight.

[Scrumptious]

games have been around since the 3D0. Woot!

[THAMMER1]

I see it rubbed some of us the wrong way. But you can not win them all. The 360 is the best right now and if the PS3 shapes up things may change.

But untill then welcome2wait is the new slogan.

[dantesparda]

That's a good one. No really, i like that one. But you're still a POS, sorry, bro! And P.S. give it a rest people, both systems suck!

[ApocalypseShadow]

was him saying 360,ps3 and wii are great systems.360 has great dev tools and a 1 year head start.ps3 has good tool because of sn systems but they could be better.wii is a creative fun system to play.oh...and they want you to buy all their cross platform games.simple to me.

[FKN Unbelievable]

Trying to Find a Silver Lining Bub?

[dantesparda]

Trying to find a "silver lining"? are you stupid are something? Thats exactly was it said. Just becuase they said that the 360 has better dev tools (which has been the case since MS 1st entered the console realm). doesnt mean that the 360 is a better machine. Plus its true that they also have more experience on it. That may make it better for a developer to develop for (easier/better tools, plus more experience on it) but that doesnt definitively prove that the 360 is better than the PS3. The problem here is that, the truth it probably that both are really equal with the 360 doing certain things better and the PS3 doing other things better. So when you factor in the the fact that the 360 is just easier to develop for, than you end up with a system that is not only better for the developers to work on but easier to extract it quality from. But the thing that all you idiots need to realize, is that once people learn how to work the PS3, it ceases to be difficult to program for.

[DJ]

PS3's slightly harder to developer for, but what do you expect when upgrading from a 3-core CPU(Xenon) to an 8-core CPU (Cell). Thankfully, Sony owns SN Systems, but they're inherently a hardware company. Microsoft specializes in software instead, and while they emphasize ease of use, they don't have the hardware superiority this time around. It'll be interesting to see how things turn out for both platforms.

[marcusfenix]

When the RSX is very weak. Proof is right in front of yoour face and you still don't see it.

While the bulk of the levels seems relatively untouched, the cinematics in between stages seem to have been revisited. Surprisingly, however, the textures of the buildings in London and other environments seem a little scaled back; they just don't look quite as detailed as the Xbox 360 version, but it's not something I really noticed during the intense dog-fights. And this is blazing angels an ugly game to begin with.

Link to quote:

http://uk.ps3.gamespy.com/p...

List of games Superior on the 360: Call of Duty 3(frame ratesuperior, more realistic visuals), Blazing Angels(texture inferiority on PS3), Madden 2007(lack of shadows on PS3 version and framerate), Marvel Ultimate Alliance(framerate superior), Rainbow 6: Vegas(framerate superior), FNR3(better overall visuals), NBA 2k7(framerate superior), TH Project 8(framerate superior)

Man the list keeps growing each month, LOL

[darx]

is that I will be enjoyng my 360 5 years from now. Microsoft isn't going anywhere and Sony isn't going anywhere and for that matter neither is Nintendo. All in all the two are on the same level.

[HaKeRsCanRotINHEL]

remember Sony saying that the PS3 was going to have a 10+ year lifespan/cycle. Now the developers of Motorstorm say in 5 years PS4, what gives? Great article by the way.

[DJ]

PS2 has been going strong for almost seven years.
There's no reason to think the PS3 won't last a decade either. But console cycles do switch up every 6 years or so.

Even with the PS3 out, we're still getting great PS2 titles.

If you want to use Microsoft as an example, not only did they show up to the last generation two years late, they also ended a year early. They're the only console company I know of who ditches their customers after only 4 years on the market. It's one thing to release a successor, and another to shut down all support.

Hell, they barely managed to get half of their titles backwards compatible, which has made developers and publishers alike suffer financially. Just go to Circuit City, and you'll see a posted list of Backwards Compatible titles, just so that customers don't complain when their 360 doesn't play a newly purchased Xbox 1 title.

[HaKeRsCanRotINHEL]

nice Mr. DJ but I'm talking about the PS3 not PS1,2 or xbox 1.

[EnforcerOfTheTruth]

The devs said nothing new, we all know PS3 is harder to develope for and that they had more time with the 360 hardware.

[ApocalypseShadow]

sony continues to support its fanbase.microsoft abandoned theirs.and that included me because i have an xbox.rpgs are still coming on ps2.action games like god of war are still coming for ps2.you name it.

and fkn,it's not damage control.that's what he said.i just simplified it.he did not say 360 was better or that ps3 was better.it comes down to developers and tools.

[FKN Unbelievable]

Damage control. Plain and Simple.

[beans]

Apparently Sony fans will defend PS3 no matter what and will not shut up until they are all proven wrong! 2007 and 2008 will be dominated by 360 games that out perform PS3 titles to point to where all of this back and forth bickering will be pointless as it already is! Some of you guys are just hard headed and honestly I don't see why 360 fans even care because you are the guys that will be missing out as usual and not them! Keep your PS3's and be happy but so far there is nothing about it that shout's next generation or worth the hype in my opinion!

[marcusfenix]

While the bulk of the levels seems relatively untouched, the cinematics in between stages seem to have been revisited. Surprisingly, however, the textures of the buildings in London and other environments seem a little scaled back; they just don't look quite as detailed as the Xbox 360 version, but it's not something I really noticed during the intense dog-fights.

http://uk.ps3.gamespy.com/p...

List of games superior on the 360: Blazing Angels, Rainbow 6: Vegas, Tony Hawk Project 8, Marvel ultimate Alliance, NBA 2k7, Call of Duty 3, Madden 2007, FNR3

mAN THE ps3 IS GETTING pwned! LOL