Resistance padding files only 420MB per region [update 2]
by Justin Murray 
{ Nov 26th 2006 at 3:15PM }
[Update 1: We got our answer. The entire thing is blown way out of proportion. There are still padding files, but they're a relatively meager 420MB per region. 2: We've removed the original headline which read "Resistance = 17.75GB of garbage?" We've maintained the original post below for accountability, but remind readers that the speculative remarks about the game's size aren't accurate.]
Resistance: Fall of Man was billed to be the defining game for why Blu-ray exists in the first place. Resistance developers Insomniac stated that the game took up 22GB of space and that all those bits and bytes were necessary to make the game work. It would seem that ripping the disk in Linux shows otherwise.
A NeoGAF forum member by the name of squatingyeti posted a long list of padding files on the Resistance disk; the padding took up approximately 17.75GB of space. Padding is frequently used to push data to the outer edges of the disk to improve read times, but Blu-ray is supposed to be a constant read over the entire disk.
It's possible that the data isn't fully true and we would like to see some confirmation; however, if this report that 81% of Resistance is just empty filler and could fit on a single-layer DVD is accurate, will this put a hole in Sony's claim that Blu-ray is absolutely necessary this generation? The padding isn't needed to make the read speeds any better and (if true) is a lame way for Sony to justify Blu-ray for gaming.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Area51 @ Nov 26th 2006 3:20PM
Hahaha Wow. Just... Wow.
Sony seems to sink to a new low everytime they open their mouth.
victor @ Nov 26th 2006 3:20PM
haha. sony really needs to stop trying to impress the world with their tech specs and just try to creat some amazing and unforgettable games, thus the reason behind why nintendo and microsoft and even sega can still exist and be profitable. O and i own a ps3 too. and i think resistance sux compares to gears of war. =)
trevsweb @ Nov 26th 2006 3:21PM
oh no!!! another sony medium is useless? what a surprise. they will change that i guess by giving us piles of video instead but still useless really.
BMORE @ Nov 26th 2006 3:23PM
Haha....oh Joystiq how you make me laugh with the stories you post...I'm not gonna even say what's really on my mind. Lets just say I know what is garbage and what is not.
Hurricanes711 @ Nov 26th 2006 3:23PM
"ok so you got us.....we still have real time weapon change tho thanks to the cell"
Kevin @ Nov 26th 2006 3:24PM
Blu-Ray is definitely not needed. Look at the many awesome PC games that just use DVD.
Also, I heard Resistance is very short as well.
Ben @ Nov 26th 2006 3:27PM
After playing Resistance, nothing would surprise me less than this. That game is laughable, and is the perfect game to be coupled with the PS3. It was overhyped, has undelivered, and is nothing but a lot of fluff that leeches off of its predecessors and pretends to be original. I fortunately did not buy a PS3, but I played this game with one of my friends who did buy one on the night that the PS3 came out. I was unimpressed but didn't say anything, and in the middle of playing, he just stopped and said, "This really isn't very good." He hasn't even cut his PS3 on since. I think it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever that any game within the next few years will "need" a BluRay disc to exist. Maybe the special features will be in Hi-Def or something, but the core gameplay will not require it. But you, the consumer, will still have paid more for the system for the built-in BluRay player so you can play games that don't need it and watch movies that don't look any better (and worse in many cases, especially the pack-in Talledega Nights with the PS3) than their HD-DVD counterparts. What a joke.
Philip Karpiak @ Nov 26th 2006 3:29PM
Not surprising. I doubt any game would be able to use all of the blu-ray's capacity in the PS3's lifetime with legit data, let alone a launch title needing nearly half of it.
Protoster @ Nov 26th 2006 3:29PM
Ha, thats pretty bad Sony, all the Microsoft and Nintendo fanboys cant be any happier!
bust @ Nov 26th 2006 3:35PM
pretty stupid on sonys part. it seems to me more and more that the ps3 is a platform to move blue ray onto the market, a format that isn't really needed. this padding of resistance only further shows that blue ray was a waste. if they had cut blue ray out of the ps3 they would have been able to produce more systems at lower expense and made more profit. Blueray = death for sony
Pikachelsea @ Nov 26th 2006 3:34PM
Blu-ray was never "necessary" to begin with... while it may be more convenient to have an entire game on one disc, there have been plenty of multiple-disc games over the years on different consoles. Blu-ray is just another over-hyped disposable proprietary format.
stiill @ Nov 26th 2006 3:37PM
Resistance is fine, but it's graphically inferior to Gears, which uses regular DVDs. So even if it does use more than a DVD's worth of data (and not just because they can get lazy with compression), it doesn't really prove anything. If there's going to be any "proof", it'll be in a few years.
Richard @ Nov 26th 2006 3:36PM
More like 22GB of garbage :)
CakeOrDeath @ Nov 26th 2006 3:36PM
This would be hilarious if true.
More Sony lies.
^FourthDimensionGod^ @ Nov 26th 2006 3:37PM
Joystiq needs to stop posting stories that might hurt sales. they should be helping Sony out as much as they can since they're both in the video games industry. Joystiq just seems to pile the bad news on Sony everyday.
i wonder if joystiq is owned by microcrap? seems like it.
vidGuy @ Nov 26th 2006 3:38PM
I guess our assumption of the intentional misuse of compression schemes isn't accurate...
Sam @ Nov 28th 2006 7:14PM
"more like 22gb of garbage :)"
QFT!
Julle @ Nov 26th 2006 3:39PM
Joystiq, Exactly where in that thread except for the title did you get the 17.75GB number from?
Fisher @ Nov 26th 2006 3:39PM
Dear ^FourthDimensionGod^,
Your brilliant satire has illuminated my dreary Sunday. God bless brilliant men such as yourself.
Sincerely,
Fisher
edmund @ Nov 26th 2006 3:41PM
How is Sony still talking with all the feet in it's mouth? I think we all know that Blu-Ray, as cool as it is, isn't necessary for anything regarding home entertainment. It seems like overkill. Sonyhas embarassed itself yet again, Poor Sony.
I was a big Nintendo/Sony fan who really never cared for the Xbox. But I'm starting to love the idea of the Wii60.
Ripperrim @ Nov 26th 2006 3:42PM
I'm most definately a Nintendo fanboy...yes I admit it and yes this news just adds to the multiple reasons why sony are rubbish spouting fools but let me just say..."It is possible that the data isn't fully true" For now I shall keep a wait and see stance but really, this wouldnt be surprising in the least
DECEMBER @ Nov 26th 2006 3:41PM
This shouldn't really surprise anyone.
Resistance is a fun game, much better than most Microsoft fanboys would suggest, but one of the first things you think when you play it is "why is this taking up 20GBs of space?"
ncxcstud @ Nov 26th 2006 3:41PM
The only place I see bluray or any type of higher capacity disks would be with Japanese RPGs...with loads of pre-rendered FMV...
It's already rumored that Blue Dragon comes on 2 or 3 discs because of the FMV. But, what can you expect from the former member of Square and Final Fantasy who lives off of pre-rendered FMV to drive the story :)
In my mind, it doesn't matter, whether I have to switch discs or not, as long as the games fun and exciting it won't bug me at all :)
mumbles @ Nov 26th 2006 3:46PM
Like someone else already said, this entire news article seems to be based on a thread title. If one were to actually read the content of the thread you'd realize it's bullshit.
Don't joystiq contributers get fired over this kind of sensationalistic posting?
NotAnElitistPrick @ Nov 26th 2006 3:48PM
Who's shocked by this? They had like what 8-12 months to put this game together, since the dev hardware wasn't in anyone's hands, right?
They're supposed to manufacture 20GB of data in that timespan and still make the game run well?
Just wait. There will be something that fills up the disc with real content.
You always think, "Hey, there's no way I could fill 300GB with pr0n" and look what happens every time...
"Necessary" for games? Probably not, unless you need them running at the highest res, and they're an Oblivion-style RPG. But that's just marketing doublespeak. Do you spend all your time picking apart everything every company says that isn't true?
If you can't see through that by default in this day and age, please, give me your credit card and bank information, I have a relative in Nigeria who needs to store some of their wealth...
Night Elve @ Nov 26th 2006 3:48PM
"But, what can you expect from the former member of Square and Final Fantasy who lives off of pre-rendered FMV to drive the story"
So now we are talking nonsense, Final Fantasy does not need FMV to drive the stories.
Geez!
J @ Nov 26th 2006 3:48PM
Once again, Joystiq proves it's a bunch of stupid fanboys. Did you even read the damn thread? The whole thing got locked cause it was a pile of BS.
B_Glass @ Nov 26th 2006 3:51PM
The person who posted this info calculated the file improperly and read the data as kilobytes when they were actually bytes. There's actualy less than a Gig of padded data in the American localization, but it's still funny to see the fantards go nuts when seeing incorrect info like this.
J @ Nov 26th 2006 3:53PM
27:
Those are not bytes, kilobytes, or whatever. They are just labeling numbers.
will @ Nov 26th 2006 3:57PM
Ahhh, sony marketing
J @ Nov 26th 2006 3:59PM
Ok, so now that this is proven to be to false, how long before someone from joystiq is fired or the story retracted?
ncxcstud @ Nov 26th 2006 3:59PM
26.
Yet, Every FF game since FFVII has included FMV at critical junctures in the game to *gasp* drive the story forward.
If it doesn't play a part in the story, then why depend on it in critical sections of the game.
Don't get me wrong, I love final fantasy games (it's the one reason I'm trying to convince my wife so I can buy a PS2 for FFXII), but I know that most of the FMV isn't needed. I'm also very much looking forward to Blue Dragon.
Don Jose @ Dec 2nd 2006 1:51AM
Resident Evil 4 taking up 2 Gamecube discs: Valid.
Resistance:Fall of Man validating Bluray: not so much.
Sony's consumer cornholing FTW!
Izzy-B @ Nov 26th 2006 4:01PM
Honistly how stupid can you be ... ? If there's a game that sony has really proved to be a real individual, it has to be Resistance fall of man. I mean seriouly how many games do you no out there with 40 player multi player wireless and with the design of weapons and the story line is just amazing and out of this world. If there wore to be Resistance fall of man for any other system PS3 would still remain the best for its gaming style. If you were to compair ps3's Resistance to xbox 360's gears of war it would seem like a pretty easy guess or no brainer to some people but you have to think it through you compare the actual game and resistance brings amazing artilary and genius thought in the game but the smae with gears of war but after you beat gears of war how much more reason is there to keep on playing the game with Resistance you still have 40 play multi player and friends to battle with. I think i've proved my point well enough there.
ncxcstud @ Nov 26th 2006 4:01PM
And I bet most of you saying "its just kilobytes, this thread is garbage" didn't read the entire thread as well. You stopped when someone agreed with what you wanted to believe in.
The numbers are marking numbers, not file sizes. That's why the start small...and gradually increase with the PS3update being the largest number.
Fin @ Nov 26th 2006 4:01PM
So ppl on here are so happy to see Sony fail that they prefer to get up from their couches and go switch discs in the middle of a gameplay session? I guess those ppl also prefer audio tapes to CDs.
More space is better, Sony messed up, but don't be freakin' xenophobic luddites!
J @ Nov 26th 2006 4:03PM
32:
Yes! One file (a real file) is actually 6GB in of itself. That alone proves the story is bull. Now if joystiq editors are actually half-competent we may see some correction soon.
minus_273 @ Nov 26th 2006 4:13PM
"I mean seriouly how many games do you no out there with 40 player multi player wireless and with the design of weapons and the story line is just amazing and out of this world. If there wore to be Resistance fall of man for any other system PS3 would still remain the best for its gaming style."
Geez, with your spelling, I cant tell if you are supporting sony or not.
Matthew @ Nov 26th 2006 4:07PM
So Joystiq, are you going to retract this post? It's already been proven as BS...or are you just going to continue letting the MS and Nintendo fanboy's go crazy over nothing?
kraoro @ Nov 26th 2006 4:08PM
Izzy-B, learn to type before you call someone stupid.
Montana @ Nov 26th 2006 4:08PM
This doesn't surprise me - I've played a good handfull of the Playstation 3 launch titles and am very underwhelmed. The games look and play worse than the Xbox 360 launch titles that came out over a year ago (the 360 games AT THE TIME where better than the PS3 games a year later). I thought that the fire/explosion effects in Genji and Resistance looked truly awesome, and there were a good deal of NPCs on the screen at any time, but the load times (even after installing several of the games) were prety terrible and the graphics were nothing too amazing. In Ridge Racer one of the levels is actually just cement walls on either side of the road, the models in Resistance look rubbery and the game steals gameplay mechanics from Prey, Half-Life 2 and Quake, Need for Speed Carbon looks grainy and suffers from constant frame slow-downs, Call of Duty 3 was just simply un-impressive and Madden's rain looked really realistic but was bogged down with constant slow-downs and none-too-impressive graphics - not to mention that "blast factor" or whatever it's called arcade game is a blatant clone of Geomatry wars. That's a gyst of all the PS3 games I've played thus far.
I used to run a PS3 fan site (ps3lounge.net) but as Sony made more and more mistakes I started to lose hope in the console. Let's up Sony can pull a miracle out of their rear end because at the moment the system's just flailing and hope it stays afloat.
Sony tried to push too many underdeveloped new technologies into their console and it's coming back to hurt them. It also looks as though the success of Blu-Ray rides on the shoulders of the Playstation 3.
nick @ Nov 26th 2006 4:10PM
Two things funny about this. Because you can operate Linux on PS3 this dump was possible. That in itself is bad news for Sony. I would not be surprised if games are cracked/copied on the PS3
Second thing, the padding is somewhat funny.
Didn't someone give an interview saying that the space on Blu-Ray was necessary? Was it the developers of Resistance?
B_Glass @ Nov 26th 2006 4:11PM
If those aren't file sizes then Joystiq really jumped the gun in posting an article from a single source that didn't show any supporting information.
J @ Nov 26th 2006 4:14PM
Even if they were file sizes you still only have a few hundred megabytes of "padding" data. So basically if the guys at joystiq had spent more than 2 minutes looking through this claim, they would have never posted this and axed it as BS. Unfortunately they aren't that smart.
slickhead @ Nov 26th 2006 4:18PM
I'm Glad to see Sony make good with their claims of PS3 being 4D.
D#1 :Delays
D#2 :Deceit
D#3 :Downtime
D#4 :Dung
Now ^^that^^ folks is true 4D.
Ps: PS4 will be 5D.(when they upgrade the 'dung' to 'Doo Doo')
shoo008 @ Nov 26th 2006 4:22PM
#34/Izzy-B,
I think that the only thing you proved is that a PC would be the best system to play Resistance on. The PC has had 64 player multiplayer for years. The PC has had the same level graphics for at least a year, and has a far superior control scheme for FPS.
I have not idea what you mean by superior artilary. Is that an adverb or a noun? Do you mean artillery? or do you mean artilary like as in art, but with a word you just made up? If you are going to make an educated post to prove your point use some real words and at least attempt to spell most of the words correctly.
digitalFrequency @ Nov 26th 2006 4:23PM
bluray was something i never saw as something revolutionary for games... it's something more useful i think for movies.
it'll be some time before a developer is able to effectively use a lot more space whether it be for content, textures, multi-lingual soundtracks, etc.
John @ Nov 26th 2006 4:23PM
"Since the other thread got closed, I suppose I'll put this here. Those numbers in that Resistance file list are the LBA indices and each block is 2kb. This means that each padding file equals 32MB, making is a total of 7GB of FMV with 1.9GB of padding. Audio, in all its localisations, totals 2.24GB. The remainder is the archived game assets totalling 6.12GB."
From NEOGAF.
Optimus Prime @ Nov 26th 2006 4:24PM
1. The final game is about 16gb not the 22gb as sited.
http://blogs.ign.com/Ted-Insomniac/2006/10/19/
"As we moved into the final week of finishing up the game we made two big changes which dropped the size of the final disc to just over 16Gb – still pretty large nonetheless. "
2. As indicated by many posters, that thread is bullshit. the 17.75 number is something Justin Murwii pulled out of his big wet asshole.
Ian @ Nov 26th 2006 4:27PM
The way I see it is, that all games technically should be able to fit a DVD9 disc, but all the HD CGI and no texture compression is just going to make the game retardedly bigger.
So technically we'll be getting a 6 GB game with probebly 10 GB worth of textures and 4 GB worth of HD FMVs. Not counting the other amounts of useless data.