The PlayStation 3 and the 1080p Dream: Part 1 of the 88-game mega test

Sony’s PlayStation 3 was released in November 2006 and from the start the console maker faced a real challenge in the form of Microsoft’s Xbox 360. We’re dealing with two devices of the same generation here, with Sony’s closest competitor arriving a full year earlier and bringing a hardware advantage in the form of AMD’s Xenos GPU. How did Sony react to this, even though the hardware was specified years beforehand? Part of the marketing response was to focus on something the Xbox couldn’t offer: full support for the new HDMI digital video standard, including the ability to output games in Full HD – 1080p.

Of course we now know exactly how this situation developed, don’t we? I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Digital Foundry Retro’s biggest project yet: a cross-generational analysis of how well the PlayStation 3 has delivered on its initial 1080p promises. In a total of four parts, John Linneman reviews every single PS3 title that supports 1080p resolution that we’ve been able to locate. Finally, let’s see which year was the best for Full HD gaming on the PS3.

First a small note: we cannot cover every single 1080p game. Some may have slipped the web, others supported 960×1080 output (or even lower on the horizontal axis) as a fallback option when 720p wasn’t available, and we’re not particularly interested in that. However, a total of 88 titles are covered in the four episodes. At a time when many PlayStation 3 games (and even Xbox 360 games) couldn’t even offer native 720p display, the Full HD qualities of Sony’s device have been pushed into the background over the years , but there are, perhaps surprisingly, many highlights. Which? You will see that in this and the following parts.

Part one covers the early years of the PlayStation 3, starting with a truly spectacular 1080p60 version. Ridge Racer 7 is a platform-exclusive game that’s still tied to the PlayStation 3 to this day, but it’s a stunning 1080p60 feast that’s vastly superior to its Xbox 360-exclusive predecessor. Ridge Racer 7 focused on simple yet highly effective imagery to deliver a near-constant Full HD 60fps experience. It’s 1080p how it’s done right, and its philosophy of exploiting PS3 hardware laid the groundwork for many of the system’s best Full HD offerings.

I won’t go into detail about the rest of the lineup, John’s video is worth watching but there’s a lot to enjoy in this first episode. Watching Blast Factor, Bluepoint Games’ first title, you’ll witness the full horror of Marvel Ultimate Alliance in its 1080p mode running at 12-20 fps (spoilers: it’s not great in 720p either), you’ll be ahead of Sega’s full Auto 2 flinch and then there’s the debut of Gran Turismo HD. An interesting demo from Polyphony and the first 1080p release that’s not quite a full Full-HD experience would deliver.

There are other interesting approaches to 1080p too: EA Sports’ NBA Street Homecourt offered both 1080p30 and 720p, and it was also the first Full HD title for Xbox 360 (with an additional MSAA missing on the PS3) if you put the Quake 2 port ignored, which years later we learned was running at 1080p on the Microsoft console. But back to PS3, how about That Game Company’s digitally released flow, which appears to be downsampled from 1440p to 1080p?

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg. We leave you with a few more enticing titles in this first episode, some names that will take you back to a whole different era: Sega’s brilliant Virtua Tennis 3, Sumo’s fun Super Rub-a-Dub, and of course Super Stardust HD, Housemarque’s more amazing one Shooter that started out in 1280×1080 before receiving a full HD upgrade in the following years (thanks to the optimizations for the stereoscopic 3D version). Add to that Factor 5’s Lair with its multi-sampling based horizontal upscaling, the first pixel junk title from Q-Games, Loco Roco, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue… whether it’s 1080p showcases or performance disasters, they are all fascinating to watch.

I hope you enjoy this work. If you want to support projects like this, you should consider the retro stage of the Digital Foundry Supporter Program consider. Projects like this only exist because we have the investment from supporters to make them possible. Join us and help us to do more. You’ll get a bunch of exclusive retro shows for backers, early access to most DF content, bonus features, behind-the-scenes videos, and more. The full video, three hours and 16 minutes long, has been available to backers for some time. Next week we will return with the second episode of this epic, covering the years 2008 and 2009. And believe me, you don’t want to miss this.

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Originally written by Richard Leadbetter, Technology Editor, Digital Foundry