Saw this over at Teamxbox about the upcoming Lost Planet sequel. Apparently the Devs are saying some major portions of the game are having to be left out due to limits of the DVD format.

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/22132/...e-Led-To-Cuts/

It mentions they would need three discs to get what they have and had to settle for two. Mass Effect 2 came in on two discs this time around. So the question is the limits of the DVD format starting to catch up and wonder if MS will listen to the Devs on this? It's going to sad if Devs have a great game to offer only to be told they'll have to ditch 1/3 of it to send it out which apparently is the case on this.

I ended up pre-ordering FF XIII on the PS3 instead of my preferred platform, the 360 since it's on one BR disc as opposed to FOUR DVDs.

Swapping discs for Mass Effect 2 didn't bother me at all. I never really understood what the big complaint about it was.

I'm sure someone will give the silly "devs are lazy! they can compress!" argument.

Well, they can.

But there are no cities.

Up to a certain extent, but from there it's just a bone headed comment or suggestion

Considering PS3 games have been hampered by oversized installs and crappy load times due to having to access everything on one disc (thankfully they patched Bayonetta by allowing an install), I don't think it's been a problem for the reasons you stated. I'm not sure how many people are that put off by having to switch discs, and I have yet to see a game that came out simultaneously on both platforms that had a great amount of extra content on the PS3 because it could only be done on Blu. And before we start getting into an argument about ports, I remember that a bunch of Xbox games were noticeably superior to their PS2 counterparts.

As far as Lost Planet goes, why don't they have a 3rd disc? Cost?

I thought this was going to be something about how Blu playback gained the PS3 some sales. Where is our Blu add on for the 360 anyway?

I believe Microsoft charges a premium to publish games on more than two discs so the developers cut corners whenever they can.

Probably due to alot of cut scenes. The game looks fantastic.

Having dvd is one of many reasons the xbox is easier to program for, and one of the reasons early on, and to some extent still, many games run a little better. In theory the PS3 should pull away as game developers learn how to use it, but 3rd party games have yet to see that. That being said, I absolutely wish the xbox had used HD dvd or something. Mass Effect 2 is the perfect example why. On a large screen in 1080p you could see a lot of compression going on in cut scenes. Shadow detail suffered, and you can see a lot of motion artifacts. I guarantee it had a lot to do with how much they had to compress the video segments.

I haven't really cared, but I'm now at the point now where I wish there was a larger disc solution for the 360 (blu-ray would be fine). Just so developers no longer have to think about it, and I no longer have to read forum threads with people complaining about having to change discs (not dvdtalk). Also, I presume there must be faster blu-ray drives now than when the PS3 launched so hopefully the 720 will have faster read times.

"Not having a BD player catching up with 360?"

That's a silly question/statement to assert. We are five years into the life-span of the 360, and you are talking about a single game*. The exception, not the rule. In any other generation we would already be talking about pre-ordering the next-gen console, however this generation has proved quite different lasting longer than usual. By comparison the original Xbox was pulled from shelves after 4 years. Point being, if this was a normal console cycle this topic wouldn't exist.

Also with the install function, and if devs do it right, what's wrong with installing discs 2+ and keeping disc 1 in the drive for zero swapping action?

*even with FF13 and ME2, that's a miniscule fraction of the library of games.

Not that it disproves your point but a couple of others that come to mind are Lost Odyssey (4 discs) and Star Ocean 4 (3 discs). Star Ocean 4, in particular, had pretty obnoxious disc swapping. As for installing multiple discs and just using a single disc 1, I wonder whether it is Microsoft or the game publishers that are preventing this from happening. If it were possible it would sell me on a bigger HDD.

Not sure, because Oblivion, you could install Shivering Isle, which was as big as most games, and never needed the disc again. This actually would seem to hurt the developer, because disc swapping was big....now with a game like Mass Effect 2, if the first disc was needed, and you could install the second disc, I don't see how this would hurt the developer because even if you loaned out the second or third disc, you would still need the first disc in your player. This has to be a Microsoft thing. I wish they would back off the cost for more than two disc, and let them allow installs. This would end any problems with compression.

and I don't care about swapping disc...it is not a big deal...

I think this is largely caused by pre-rendered cutscenes, since these are basically HD movies on these consoles.

Digital Distribution FTW! [runs out of thread]

Can't wait until the ps3go comes out so I can download my 40 gig games to my 80 gig drive.

and if the original Lost Planet is any indicator I'll be skipping all these cut scenes anyway. I like story driven games, but I don't need a full movie breaking up my gameplay. Leave all that noise out of the game and there is plenty of room on a DVD or two.

I agree. This is usually done in a way that isn't too obtrusive.

Still waiting for the day that the 360 version of a game is gimped because it just couldn't handle what the PS3 can handle. And I don't count having to switch discs, or software problems (hello Darksiders).

Will that be year 2 into the Xbox720 and year 7 into the PS3 lifespan?

I would actually prefer multi-disc changer attachment. Hopefully, the cost wouldn't be too prohibitive but it does get to a be a pain sometimes to change discs.

Now that is a idea. Looking back maybe they should've kept the HD Format for games only. Granted it would do good for movies but no big deal with the cost of BD and online rentals like Netflicks.

We're seeing stuff today we could only dream of a few years ago. Gamers are constantly wanting more and better visuals nd sound which both take tremendous space. We may not care about swapping discs but the DEVs may not like it.

I like the install to HD option better than swapping discs. MS put the feature in, developers just need to start using it. I don't care if the game comes on 4 discs. Just copy it to the HD and away you go.