As developers learn more and more about the Sony PlayStation 3's hardware, speculations on what possibilities lie ahead are constantly being raised. This time, Red Faction: Guerrilla's  (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC) producer was placed on the hot seat and was asked whether he thinks the PS3 can outdo the Xbox 360 graphically. Find out what he had to say after the jump.

Quite a number of announcements were made by Sony in this year's Game Developers Conference. While most are probably talking about the fact that there are 2.8 million PSN gamers, developers have been going crazy at the new PhyreEngine from Sony Computer Entertainment. For more on this, be sure to check out the full article.

During the Game Developers Conference 08 in San Francisco, the company Havok has released version 5.5 of its renowned game engine of the same name. The announcement was done by no less than Managing Director David O'Meara.

There have been many changes to the engine that promise to make gameplay experience more immersive. Know all about these changes after the jump!

In able to successfully render the realm of Lucas Arts' upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game, three different physics engines were used. In a video we have for you, the developers talk about how Havok, Euphoria, and DMM take part in making the world of the Star Wars unlike any other game under the franchise.

Eden Games haven't said much about its upcoming Alone in the Dark: Near Death Investigation (Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, PC), but German magazine PC Games was able to visit the developer's studio and learn more. Check out what they found out at the full article.

Aside from the PlayStation 3 gaming community, it looks like another group's very happy with the way Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword is turning out. Middleware company Havok is apparently all praises for the title, which used the company's physics Software Development Kit (SDK), and animation system. Given the way Havok CEO David O’Meara phrased his company's official remark, it looks like they're happy about the same stuff we're enjoying for the game:

Heavenly Sword is a fantastic game on a number of fronts. An emotionally rendering storyline, a beautiful heroine, a wide range of villains, epic scale destruction, in a beautiful environment, with the realism of Hollywood visuals offers the player an incredible gaming experience, especially on PlayStation 3.

In light of O’Meara's statement, Ninja Theory itself appears to approve of the devkit they used to create Heavenly Sword. As Mike Ball, Ninja Theory's CTO, had to say:

Havok Complete allowed us to enhance game-play in Heavenly Sword by enabling us to create characters that responded to a complex physical world, with a rich set of physical interactions. The characters respond in a convincing way to physical forces they experience, such as getting back up in a realistic manner when they have fallen down or negotiating obstacles they encounter.

In case you missed it, Heavenly Sword for the PlayStation 3's has been out since September 12. The UK's also picking up the game as part of a PS3 60GB starter pack, although we'll be going off-topic if we detail that bit of info. Keep in touch in case we hear of any updates for the game.

What we have here are 10 smoking screenshots for the PlayStation 3 build of the video game TimeShift. The game was originally announced for the PC and the Xbox 360 platforms but Sierra Entertainment and Saber Interactive eventually revealed that the time-bending shooter will also be making an appearance on Sony's black shiny console.

Speaking of time-bending, TimeShift is not just your ordinary shooter because it relies heavily on the manipulation of time in the game. Here, players can slow down, freeze, or even rewind the time line. Aside from the awe-inspiring premise, the game also comes with astounding technical features like the integration of the physics engine Havok 4.5.

Both the Xbox 360 and PC versions of TimeShift will be available on October 30. On the other hand, the relatively newly-announced PS3 version will be released this December. It was reported that those who will pre-order a copy of the game will also be getting an exclusive character playable in the multiplayer mode.

See the other screenshots at the Full Article link!

Develop Magazine's Industry Excellence Awards broke records after gathering 500 games industry executives last night. Among them, 17 different companies and individuals claimed the 18 awards over 15 categories.

A panel of industry experts voted for the best in different categories to reward various creative achievements in game development - from visual arts to innovation. The diversity of the list gives us nothing but a positive outlook, and assurance that the market won't run out of good games if these guys are around.

Here's the list of winners that deserve our cheers:

• New Console IP - MotorStorm (Evolution/SCEE External Development)
• New Handheld IP - Crush (Zoe Mode)
• Best Use of a License - Lego Star Wars II (Traveller's Tales)
• Visual Arts - Rare (for Viva Piñata)
• Audio Accomplishment - FreeStyle (for B-Boy)
• Publishing Hero - Sega
• Innovation - Real Time Worlds (for Crackdown)
• Tools Provider - Havok
• Best Use of Online - Eden Studios (for Test Drive Unlimited)
• Services & Outsourcing - Babel Media
• Recruitment Company - Datascope
• New UK Studio - Realtime Worlds
• Handheld Studio - Rockstar Leeds
• Business Development - Blitz
• Independent Developer - Traveller's Tales
• In-house Developer - Ubisoft France
• Development Legend - Ian Hetherington
• Grand Prix - Sony

We're not sure about the exact criteria, but a good guess would say Sega earned the "Publishing Hero" award for having plenty of titles in all flavors under its belt. With Rockstar Leeds' big games in its arsenal (GTA: Liberty City/Vice City Stories), it's no surprise why the company is branded the best "Handheld Studio."

Sony's Grand Prix Award is due to 12 months of extensive support for internal and external developers to create cutting edge next-gen games.

About a few months ago, Saber Interactive is a video game developer based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. They focus on first person shooter games. It released the game Will Rock in 2003, and is currently developing another game called TimeShift.">Saber Interactive's TimeShift for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC got pulled into the proverbial wormhole for some major design revamps. Aside from several tweaks to the game's mechanics and graphics, the team was also going to integrate the Havok 4.5 physics engine, which was hoped to bring out even more of the game's potential.

Now, in case you're wondering how the title's looking in light of its overhaul (and previous trailers), we've pick up a new gameplay trailer for your viewing pleasure - and it's just in time for E3 2007.

Currently published by Sierra Entertainment, TimeShift is expected to launch this Fall. Keep an eye out in case we hear more details.

An article on Doctor Dobb's Programming Journal looks at the many advantages and disadvantages of programming for the Cell processor. After all of the tech talk and the analysis were done, the conclusion is such:

....The Cell offers an impressive potential for performance. However, due to its architecture and limited support offered by the compiler, you can't expect to exploit this potential by just recompiling your current applications. Applications must be radically redesigned in terms of computation and data transfers.

Of course, this caveat of "radically redesigning" applications for the Cell only means that game developers will have to spend some more if they want their multiplatform game to show up on the Sony PlayStation 3.

What's amusing about this is that Sony seems to agree. GamePro reports that Sony Senior Director of Corporate Communications, Dave Karraker, had this to say in his blog:

If your game starts on Xbox 360 you will have to re-engineer aspects of the game to run properly on PS3. This means additional effort. Some developers have been complaining about this but I don’t believe we can solve that.

Now this doesn't directly mean that Sony is leaving the developers to figure things out for themselves. Karraker does hint that they're doing what they can to help developers along. While talking about online capabilities, Karakker said: "XBL provides more and better standard libraries for online gaming to developers. For the same features on PS3, developers have to do some extra work. We’re catching up, but there is a difference."

Also, thanks to Sony we already know that starting games on the PS3 is just as costly as starting games on other platforms. "If a game starts life on PS3, then man-hours per feature or costs related to asset production are comparable with industry norms," or so says Sony officials to GamePro.

But what about multiplatform games? How long do we have to wait for the PS3 to be friendly to porting? Karraker says they've already done some steps. He says that this is what the SCE offered to devs so far:

Middleware tools like Havok and other specialist graphics tools are now customized to exploit Cell’s SPUs. These mean that developers don’t have to reinvent those particular wheels themselves. Also, PlayStation Edge does some very difficult and performance-critical aspects of the graphics pipeline on the SPUs: geometry processing, animation, compression - delivering performance unachievable on other systems. This is available for free to all developers from SCE.

Sony better get more of those tools out. More tools only mean more potential games on the system, and that's what we all want, right?