Final Fantasy XIII Demo is Enormous

[Balgus]

I think that the FF series will go back to the grand tradition of having about 4 discs of maximum capacity, recently been playing FF9,7 but not 8 cos drawing magic sucks soo much; and I've missed the huge "Hell yeah end of disc 1!" So I think that even if its not 4 discs I have a feeling that at least 2 blu-ray discs

 

[Caliostro]

Why is this a big deal?

1 DVD isn't enough? Make it 2, or 3, or 5. Back in the PS1 era FF games would go around 4 CDs each... What's the big fucking deal...?

Obviously multiple disks are out this generation.

You mean "out" as in "impossible to do" or "not cool"?

Cause it's not impossible, far from it... And "not cool"... Fuck'em... If you're THAT bothered by switching a disk, a 10 second procedure, every like... 10-20 hours of gameplay (more if you're sandbox friendly) then you're not that interested in the game.

 

[Inverse Skies]

Wow... you can almost see Square-Enix throwing everything they have into this game. I have a feeling this game will be a lot more important to them than a lot of people realise. If the long production time means anything, in conjunction with the massive amount of data they seem to be throwing around, we could be in for something very good indeed.

Thats the hope anyway.

 

[Vlane]

Why is this a big deal?

1 DVD isn't enough? Make it 2, or 3, or 5. Back in the PS1 era FF games would go around 4 CDs each... What's the big fucking deal...?

Obviously multiple disks are out this generation.

You mean "out" as in "impossible to do" or "not cool"?

Cause it's not impossible, far from it... And "not cool"... Fuck'em... If you're THAT bothered by switching a disk, a 10 second procedure, every like... 10-20 hours of gameplay (more if you're sandbox friendly) then you're not that interested in the game.

I mean it's not cool.

I remember playing FF IX which had 4 disks and I really liked switching them because it meant that I have achieved something.

 

[Caliostro]

Wow... you can almost see Square-Enix throwing everything they have into this game. I have a feeling this game will be a lot more important to them than a lot of people realise. If the long production time means anything, in conjunction with the massive amount of data they seem to be throwing around, we could be in for something very good indeed.

Thats the hope anyway.

I'm getting the inverse vibe... Look at it, most of it is video... Getting a bit of an Hideo Kojima vibe: "10 hours of cutscenes for each 1 hour of gameplay" factor...

 

[Fangface74]

I wish I had a life so easy that a game more than 2 disks in size was an annoyance to me!

 

[Caliostro]

I mean it's not cool.

I remember playing FF IX which had 4 disks and I really liked switching them because it means that I have achieved something.

Yeah I remember that, each disk was like a chapter. Everytime you passed to the next you had that feeling of accomplishment, that you beat another part of the game. It was like reading a book with it's own chapters. I feel that has somewhat been lost since the PS2 era, with the one-dvd-fits-all approach.

 

[Inverse Skies]

I'm getting the inverse vibe... Look at it, most of it is video... Getting a bit of an Hideo Kojima vibe: "10 hours of cutscenes for each 1 hour of gameplay" factor...

The Final Fantasies have lately had some very impressive and long cutscenes, but they're different to MGS4 in that they're an RPG with huge sections of gameplay. The movies could be that big simply because they haven't compressed them down properly yet, or are pulling out a lot of graphical power in order to generate them. The graphics look impressive, I'm assuming (meaning I could very easily be wrong) that the detail involved is why they're so big, as well as length.

 

[Goldeneye103X2]

Square could just pull off a GT5 prologue and release the demo on a disc for a quick rental or something.

And then never make the full game.

Don't be so pessimist.
(Thinks for a second) Wait this is square we're talking about isn't it?

 

[Hey Joe]

Admittedly there is one game i would have bought an XBOX 360 for, but only because the franchise changed console recently for some unexplained reason... Tenchu.

And i like using "cos". I use it when speaking out loud too. Same as "prolly" instead of probably. If its obvious by context who gives a toss, but your constructive criticism will be taken on board and who knows maybe i will change my habits.

It's also 'I'. The I is capitalised.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

Final Fantasy XIII Demo is Enormous

A recent tech analysis of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete and the accompanying demo of Final Fantasy XIII, has revealed that the trial demo alone weighs in at an astounding 5.09 GB

The analysis, which came from a Japanese blog, found that the bulk of the data was a result of two video files in the demo. An article detailing the blog: "Further analysis of the files in the demo show that there are two big movie files, one of which is 2.04GB (z016_ps3.wmp), and the second is 2.37GB (z000_ps3.wmp). This means that 4.41GB of the demo is just video."

This is troubling news for Xbox 360 owners as the demo is only an hour long, sure to create storage issues with the final game. Wikipedia says that the absolute maximum capacity for a double-sided, double-layer (meaning the disc would have to be flipped)DVD is approximately 17 GBs of information, as opposed to 50GB for a double layer Blu-ray disc. This obviously means that there will be a graphical discrepancy in the PS3 and 360 versions of the game unless the 360 ships with substantially more discs than ever seen before.

The enormous size also severely cripples the chances of the demo, in its current form at least, from finding its way to Xbox Live or PSN. Video compression could be a possible answer to trimming some of the size for the purposes of getting a demo out, though if such measures are taken with the 360 retail version, the internet is likely to collapse from the simultaneous gloating of PS3 fanboys worldwide.

Source: <a href="http://www.ps3news.com/PS3-HDD/confirmed-final-fantasy-xiii-demo-consumes-5-09gb-of-space/"
target="_blank">www.PS3News.com (Via N4G)


Permalink

This won't be a problem, cause the game itself isn't put in the 360. a game is several GB. Only thing the 360 does is saving records of the progress.

 

[WrongSprite]

I will donate to a fund if The Escapist will force Yahtzee to play this game

And complete it.

 

[Simalacrum]

permission to join in with PS3 fanboy gloating! XD

 

[pirateninj4]

A.) Rock and roll...I don't own either console having way too much fun on a PS2 still.
B.) There is nothing wrong with having a game on more than one disc.
C.) If the Xbox gets a crappier version, HAVE A FARKIN CRY. It's just the start of it, being that the PS3 is a superior machine and Blu-ray is a superior medium. You're gonna see more of this to come so get used to it.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

How to make the demo smaller (for the sake of both console's Hard Drive space):

Make the cutscenes in SD only. HD video files are just way too big compared to SD. Then pump them back up for the disc version.

 

[1stewart]

two things:

1) the video files have _ps3 in them, chances are that because they don't really have to worry about size with a demo, they can throw the highest definition video files on there. the actual game video files may be in a lower definition.

2) bluray offers upto 50gb yes? these video files are 2.X-4.X, now consider the amount of space sound files for all NPCs are going to take (oblivion was mostly sound files), and everything else. they will only be able to fit about 10 cut scenes on a bluray disc. isn't that a little worrying?

 

[Baby Tea]

Wow, what terrible video compression.
Is it totally uncompressed? Or near it?

For Pete's sake, grab a freaking codec!

I've got a 40" LCD TV running my 360 at 1080p, and every video I've seen in demos that are under 800 megs looks just fine. So either this is another MGS4 issue of super freaking long cutscenes, or there isn't a term for 'compression' in Japanese.