This is a video on the Fosfor Gadgets website of a Sony/EA presentation showing the level of detail possible in animating game characters on the PS3.
What is amazing is whereas before to get an ingame character on the PS2 to respond to events happening in space around the character and turn to look at that event such as a ball in a basketball game it is obvious from the video that the developers had a number of different versions of the character and would switch between the graphic animations, eg for one for each point of the compass and maybe one inbetween each point. Now on the PS3 they have enough horse power to animate to turn and respond to something happening 360 degrees around the character, without having to swtich between different animation sets of images (or if they do it is completely seamless).
The level of detail in the basketball character as he moves is also quite amazing. They point out in the video before on the PS2 most of the time foot movements are not truely animated, but the character’s feet tend to slide across the floor, for example as he turns on the spot. Now on the PS3 his feet movements can be truely animated as if the character is walking and turning, and it looks very realistic.
What I also noticed is the physics details in the players body movement – his arms don’t just raise up and down – as they come down to his side you get the impression of weight as they move, and as he turns it is obvious his arms have weight and are affected by the movement of his body. Quite amazing.
I don;t know if this is a technical demo or in game action (they said it was live and being demo’d on a PS3), but it really is amazing.