If Blu-ray ends up winning the hi-def movie war, I will probably get a PS3. From a gaming perspective, at least at this point, the 360 is superior and things may well stay that way for this gen of systems.
It's not about the graphics though. It's about being fun to play. The Wii is definitely fun to play, and has a unique way of interacting with the console that definitely does help you feel more "in the game." Good graphics are only there to help the game feel more "real." The Wii accomplishes this same effect through the controller. And cuts the price significantly in doing so.
Not that I was planning to buy a PS3 but it is certainly easier to add a new type of controller than improve the graphics in a console. Unless Nintendo has a patent lock on every way to add motion controllers so no one can replicate the remote.
That seems unlikely given some of the the other VR prior art and InterLink's patent. Wii's IR sensor thingy may be one of the cheapest methods but others should be available.
I'm buying a 360...not because of hardware but because of Mass Effect...a 360 exclusive. If I were a fan of some PS3 exclusive I'd likely buy that instead but I like BioWare RPGs...tho' my platform of choice is the PC for RPGs.
Heck...which PS3 exclusives are still left? Either way...Wii isn't even in the running for me. There are no titles I care that much about on the Wii platform except Zelda and only because I played Zelda waaaaay back when...and Wii wont scale with the 360 and PS3 when the other two platforms get better in 2007/2008 as devs more fully exploit the hardware.
Wii is not getting anything close to Gears of War, Resistance:Fall of Man, etc and these are early titles that will be eclipsed in the future. And that's because its a souped up GameCube.
If Blu-ray ends up winning the hi-def movie war, I will probably get a PS3. From a gaming perspective, at least at this point, the 360 is superior and things may well stay that way for this gen of systems.
Apparently the porn industry has just formally backed HD-DVD - citing manufacturing costs. (and Sony's resistance to adult content)
OK, nothing "happened" to the PS3 and it certainly isn't a flop. Inventories are extremely low, whether or not you can see them here and there. I'm so sick of Wii fanboys and the anti-PS3 crowd posting anecdotal evidence and then interpreting it to mean the console is a flop.
Dave
Quote:
What exactly happened to the Playstation 3? It appears it has become a gigantic flop! I see them in practically every store I visit.
I'm sorry, but you sound like a moron when you say that.
Quote:
I am just surprised with what seems to be a surplus of PS3 available.
A surplus? A surplus? Because you can find ONE of them in each store you visit?
Man...if that's the standard than Circuit City has a HUGE surplus of HDTVS. Christ...they haev them in STOCK! They must be failure too!
spam:
Quote:
PlayStation3 was/is waaaaaay overpriced. Only an "idiot in a hurry" would shell out $600 for a gaming system (even with Blu-Ray, which it looks like is sputtering in terms of sales). Wii is a more reasonable sell to families and the average consumer. Most people would probably spend the $$$ on an iPod anyway.
Yeah, it's so overpriced that they can't make enough of them to meet demand. It's so overpriced that they are losing $200 on every console.
Blu-Ray is not "sputtering." There is no way to predict in terms of hard data which format is winning. And btw, this "idiot" just paid $600 for the console that plays Blu-Ray better thant he standalone players and has the best graphics capability of any of the consoles. Not everyone buys a console because it's more family friendly.
You guys are literally rooting for the console to fail. It's so...dumb.
It wont fail, and I dont want it too, it is the best console, and contains alot of cutting edge tech. If anything, its slightly ahead of its time. It needs a couple of years to show its potential, and for the rest of the industry to catch up with it. When that happens, im confident it will be the best selling console by far.
No need to take any sides here. But it is becoming very clear that the PS3 is simply not the runaway success that Sony wanted it to be.
The initial sell-through of consoles was not great - because Sony could not manufacture the units. The launch titles were very poor, despite Sony having a head start on Microsoft. And in a head-to-head comparison with its main rival, the PS3 just does not look that good.
And although developers will not come out and say this publically (because of the suicidal nature of such statements). It is fair to say that the development community are not happy with the performance of the machine - or the ease of creating games.
Sony did something identical with the PS2. In 2001 the hypestorm worked. And despite the lousy hardwarem the PS2 became a self-fulfilling prophecy of success.
This time, the hype didn't work. And to be completely honest, I *am* happy to see Sony get a bloody nose, not because I am rooting for the others, but because I don't like to see these tactics succeeding. Companies should focus on delivering, great products to customers.
Apparently, at least 750k PS3s had been sold in the US market as of mid December, so there may well be more than 1 million of them out there. Nintendo probably sold more Wiis, but that's not my point. I have nothing against the Wii.
The point, rather, is that there are more than a million Blu-ray players out there, and polls seem to suggest that the Blu-ray feature of the PS3 has been a major contributor to its sales. In contrast, there are fewer than 200k HD-DVD players. At the moment, the PS3 is a trojan horse. It's not going away anytime soon, and regardless of the cheekiness of the Wii or the relative maturity of the 360, the PS3 makes a well defined value proposition to the consumer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carniphage
And although developers will not come out and say this publically (because of the suicidal nature of such statements). It is fair to say that the development community are not happy with the performance of the machine - or the ease of creating games.
Your bias against non-linear programming is quite well established at this point (check older threads). Whether or not the PS3 succeeds is one matter, but the success of the Cell is a very different one -- and all signs seem to point to the Cell being a huge success. Programmers who don't want to get used to massive multicore-ing should consider alternative career paths. The other option is to license A tool like this one which claims to provide a much more yesterday-friendly Cell API/IDE than the one available in the PS3 dev kit.
Apparently, at least 750k PS3s had been sold in the US market as Your bias against non-linear programming is quite well established at this point (check older threads). Whether or not the PS3 succeeds is one matter, but the success of the Cell is a very different one -- and all signs seem to point to the Cell being a huge success. Programmers who don't want to get used to massive multicore-ing should consider alternative career paths. The other option is to license A tool like this one which claims to provide a much more yesterday-friendly Cell API/IDE than the one available in the PS3 dev kit.
(Grin.)
If Cell programming costs more for equivalent functionality - (which appears to be the case) - then yup, sell me a ticked to Biasville. I hereby declare my bias against even higher development costs. Games development is unfortunately mired with the unfortunate obligation of making something called "profits".
I think the Cell seems like a great solution for video compression etc.
It's clever. But it is the wrong sort of cleverness for videogames. The bottleneck in modern games is often the branch-frenzy in actor behavior code. And the Cell is not the solution.
Meanwhile the 3 general purpose CPUs in the 360 seem to be causing far fewer headaches.
If Cell programming costs more for equivalent functionality - (which appears to be the case) - then yup, sell me a ticked to Biasville. . . .
Well, Cell is the direction the industry is heading. We're not seeing 10GHz sequential machines, and the 360's Xenon isn't going to scale anywhere except towards Cell. CPU power and heat are big considerations, too, and they didn't used to be. The business and EE communities want the Cell's GFlop/watt, which means that we'll be seeing more and more software toolkits for it as new products are developed. If a product that will undoubtedly be profitable can't be realized without Cell, then it doesn't really matter if the development phase will cost more. Software development is always slower to get with the program. If it weren't, it wouldn't be using a syntax as error-prone as C's. New Cell toolkits should help.
Sony has definitely screwed up - but I don't think that it is bad enough to kill the PS3. The PS3 has the best hardware by far, and if you add the wireless dongle and HD-DVD player to the 360, the PS3 is less expensive ($599 for the 60gig PS3, and $399+$109+$199 = $707 for the xbox, and once the new xbox hardware comes out in a few months I think the price will be even more).
- you can run linux on the PS3
- the hard drive is easy to replace
- bluetooth, built in wireless, the xbox requires lots of extra dongles that the PS3 does not
Ok, it's been an exciting day today. After resisting the urge to sell this baby, I've decided to enjoy it. Ebay, be damned!
First, the actual hardware. It has a glossy exterior, not too unlike the PSP, ironically. The system can stand vertically, or sit horizontally, like it's predecessors. But, this time, you can rotate the 'PS' logo so it's upright no matter which way you have it--a nice touch. All of the ports are in appropriate places to hook up accessories and cables to. No daunting, arm-stretching is necessary. I will note that there are no USB ports on the rear side. Not a huge deal, but I would've appreciated one or two for a camera, in order to hide some of the cables.
The controller, as mentioned before, is quite a masterpiece. I know rumble is gone, but you have to appreciate what is still in there. The controller is light as a feather. I found myself wondering where the battery was. It is internal and from what I could tell, you cannot remove the battery--odd. There is a small reset button on the back of each SIXAXIS, in case you need to re-orient your controllers to the system. Plugging in the controller was as easy as plugging the USB cord in and then plugging the small end into the controller. It immediately worked. Sometimes when switching between media, you need to press the 'PS' button in order to re-assign the controller again, but that didn't happen to often to become annoying. While in wireless mode, the controller performs great. No wireless-lag that most cheap wireless controllers suffer from. It's perfectly responsive and impossible to tell the difference between the wired and wireless during a game. One thing that you Xbox 360 players will notice is a lack of a headset port. This is a shame, but hopefully Sony will release a wireless headset, negating the need for a port on the controller. Wireless>Wired after all.
The system buttons themselves are a marvelous thing, let me tell you. First of all, when you turn power on, you barely have to touch the thing. I makes a very quiet, but almost tactile beeping noise when it powers up...almost aircraft like. It really did fool me the first time, because at first glance, I thought to myself no way THAT is the power on/off button. It's something you need to do yourself before you can appreciate it. The eject button is the same way--just a feather touch activates it.
Perhaps my favorite hardware improvement is the slot drive. As dependable as tray drives are, having a slot drive really adds some sex appeal to your entertainment center. Someone else had mentioned the bright lights on the front of the console. I have to agree that the blue and green power and disc lights are nice to look at and not distracting, even when watching your favorite blu-ray movie. There is also wireless activity and hard-drive access lights, but they are hardly noticable, and an amber color.
Next thing I noticed is the noise the Playstation 3 puts out, or the lack thereof. I can confidently say that it's at least as quiet as a PS2, probably closer to Gamecube quiet. You will not notice any noise from it when you are playing. This, to me, was the most suprising part of the experience today...a quiet machine that's as powerful as this. When I placed my hand on the right side, I could indeed feel some heat coming out of the machine, but it doesn't feel like an oven, like the Xbox 360 does. There seems to be 2 different major areas where heat dissipates from the system. It's hard to tell where exactly the intake is, since there are just so many grill holes throughout.
Ok, now on to the testing of the system. First off, I poppped in "Talladega Nights" movie that came with it. It looked great in HD (720p mode). I watched the whole movie, just to see if there would be any hiccups, glitches, or bugs during playback. Not a one.
Next, I played "Resistance: Fall of Man". It ran flawlessly.
To test the backward-compatibility, I ran Okami, a PS2 game. It requires you to make a virtual hard drive memory card. I made one with no problems. It even lets you select which slot the PS2 games will see the memory card, slot 1 or 2. Okami played great and had no glitches.
Next, onto the PS1 test. For this test, I selected a generation 1 PS1 game, "Raiden Collection" from 1995. The game loaded up without a hitch.
I have to say, seeing your older PS1 and PS2 games being played through an HDMI compatible TV is amazing. I'm glad Sony decided to support older games.
Next, the Cross Media Bar (XMB). Upon turning on the system, the PS3 plays a short symphony orchestral clip as it's power-up tune. Very classy. It reminds me of a sound you might hear if heaven were to open up and bright lights beam down on your mortal face. Once into the interface, it prompted me to do an update to the software. This part was clunky and not nearly as user-friendly as the Xbox 360 updates are. It required me to agree to a user agreement, followed by several "I agree" and "hit enter to start" messages. Not a huge deal if you are patient. After the update was complete, I browsed the interface some more. It appears to support a USB mouse and keyboard out of the box. I didn't test this, but will soon.
Going to the internet browser, it feels almost exactly like the PSP browser. It contains much of the same functionality. If you don't have a keyboard/mouse, it's going to take you forever to type any URL, so it may not be useful to you unless you don't have a computer in your house. The browser does work just fine. I went to Sony's webpage and clicked around. The browser software isn't extremely pretty, but it get's the job done. It's no Firefox, but I like it ok just the same.
Just like the Xbox 360, the PS3 requires you to register your information if you are to play multiplayer games or use the online store. I registered and got a username within 5 minutes. It was nice to see the Sony network was performing well, despite it was system launch day. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that no one is playing a PS3...everyone's selling them. I digress. After registering a user name and password, I browsed the online store. There were only two games available for download. I was hoping to see some PS1 games available. Nope. The prices for the two games were 7.99 and 9.99 respectively. A little pricey for some games that no one's heard of yet. Especially when compared to XBL download gems like Geometry Wars Evolved and Hexic. I will say I appreciate Sony not using "points", and instead going with actual dollar amounts. Yay for logic!
Browsing further, I discovered just how many devices the PS3 could theoretically support. It allowed me to register a bluetooth device, which I can only suspect would be something like a PSP, ect.
On the front of the PS3, you will find a compact flash, type 1, an SD slot, and a memory stick slot. I plan on using the memory stick slot, since it's compatible with my PSP memory stick Pro Duo.
I haven't had a chance to test all the features, but I plan on posting more of my findings after a week or so. Thanks for reading.
Pros:
Sleek, Sexy exterior. Powerful new hardware, backwards compatible too. Ultra-quiet. Blu-ray player.
Cons:
High price. Not 100% backwards compatible. No intuitive chatting system. No headset capability out of the box. Online service lacks polish. Not many Downloadable games.
OK, nothing "happened" to the PS3 and it certainly isn't a flop. Inventories are extremely low, whether or not you can see them here and there. I'm so sick of Wii fanboys and the anti-PS3 crowd posting anecdotal evidence and then interpreting it to mean the console is a flop.
Dave
...
I'm sorry, but you sound like a moron when you say that.
...
A surplus? A surplus? Because you can find ONE of them in each store you visit?
Man...if that's the standard than Circuit City has a HUGE surplus of HDTVS. Christ...they haev them in STOCK! They must be failure too!
...
Yeah, it's so overpriced that they can't make enough of them to meet demand. It's so overpriced that they are losing $200 on every console.
Blu-Ray is not "sputtering." There is no way to predict in terms of hard data which format is winning. And btw, this "idiot" just paid $600 for the console that plays Blu-Ray better thant he standalone players and has the best graphics capability of any of the consoles. Not everyone buys a console because it's more family friendly.
You guys are literally rooting for the console to fail. It's so...dumb.
Man oh man...and you think the guy you're quoting sounds like a moron...
1) Console sales and TV sales are two entirely different things. While there are 100s of different types of TVs, with different brands and different features, there are three main (this-gen) consoles out right now. When one isn't flying off sales when its INITIAL FIGURES OF DELIVERY WERE CUT IN HALF, it isn't a good sign. When eBay markup only lasted for two weeks, after which the sellers started to lose an average of 50 dollars / console? Again, not a good sign. So far, quite a few things about the PS3 show a (current) lack of demand.
2) The ancedotes shared in this thread are, multiple times, noted for their value of less-than-nothing, seeing as they are only ancedotal. The posters state this.
3) When people say the PS3 is overpriced, they aren't talking about the hardware that Sony is selling. It is hard to argue for a better Blu-Ray player. WHAT THEY ARE ARGUING is that it is too overpriced as far as consoles go, many (myself included) think that the current price tag is too steep for a general audience.
I personally have none of the next-gen consoles, not a huge fan of any of them - but your post was, in a word, ridiculous.
When the PS3 has Final Fantasy (Versus) XIII, and White Knight, I'll pick one up.
Until then, my Playstation 2 is more then enough to keep me busy (whenever I actually have time for it these days) and I'm not in a hurry to pick up a 360 any time too soon either.
That leaves the Wii, which I don't really have a good excuse for, I just don't want to buy a new console right now.
Comments
On the other hand the PS3 is selling well to those people who want the lowest cost Blu-Ray player.
If people bought the console soley as a DVD player - it would be a disaster for Sony.
The PS3 is heavily subsidsed - Sony lose money on each console sold. The only way they recoup this loss is through game sales. (not DVD sales)
Sony needs an attach rate of 6-10 games before the PS3 goes into profit. If half the buyers never buy games this makes things really bad.
C.
It's not about the graphics though. It's about being fun to play. The Wii is definitely fun to play, and has a unique way of interacting with the console that definitely does help you feel more "in the game." Good graphics are only there to help the game feel more "real." The Wii accomplishes this same effect through the controller. And cuts the price significantly in doing so.
Not that I was planning to buy a PS3 but it is certainly easier to add a new type of controller than improve the graphics in a console. Unless Nintendo has a patent lock on every way to add motion controllers so no one can replicate the remote.
That seems unlikely given some of the the other VR prior art and InterLink's patent. Wii's IR sensor thingy may be one of the cheapest methods but others should be available.
I'm buying a 360...not because of hardware but because of Mass Effect...a 360 exclusive. If I were a fan of some PS3 exclusive I'd likely buy that instead but I like BioWare RPGs...tho' my platform of choice is the PC for RPGs.
Heck...which PS3 exclusives are still left? Either way...Wii isn't even in the running for me. There are no titles I care that much about on the Wii platform except Zelda and only because I played Zelda waaaaay back when...and Wii wont scale with the 360 and PS3 when the other two platforms get better in 2007/2008 as devs more fully exploit the hardware.
Wii is not getting anything close to Gears of War, Resistance:Fall of Man, etc and these are early titles that will be eclipsed in the future. And that's because its a souped up GameCube.
Vinea
If Blu-ray ends up winning the hi-def movie war, I will probably get a PS3. From a gaming perspective, at least at this point, the 360 is superior and things may well stay that way for this gen of systems.
Apparently the porn industry has just formally backed HD-DVD - citing manufacturing costs. (and Sony's resistance to adult content)
So that's it. The war's over.
C.
We already carefully and explicitly explained how stupid that notion is.
Dave
What exactly happened to the Playstation 3? It appears it has become a gigantic flop! I see them in practically every store I visit.
I'm sorry, but you sound like a moron when you say that.
I am just surprised with what seems to be a surplus of PS3 available.
A surplus? A surplus? Because you can find ONE of them in each store you visit?
Man...if that's the standard than Circuit City has a HUGE surplus of HDTVS. Christ...they haev them in STOCK! They must be failure too!
spam:
PlayStation3 was/is waaaaaay overpriced. Only an "idiot in a hurry" would shell out $600 for a gaming system (even with Blu-Ray, which it looks like is sputtering in terms of sales). Wii is a more reasonable sell to families and the average consumer. Most people would probably spend the $$$ on an iPod anyway.
Yeah, it's so overpriced that they can't make enough of them to meet demand. It's so overpriced that they are losing $200 on every console.
Blu-Ray is not "sputtering." There is no way to predict in terms of hard data which format is winning. And btw, this "idiot" just paid $600 for the console that plays Blu-Ray better thant he standalone players and has the best graphics capability of any of the consoles. Not everyone buys a console because it's more family friendly.
You guys are literally rooting for the console to fail. It's so...dumb.
It could still do with a price reduction though
The initial sell-through of consoles was not great - because Sony could not manufacture the units. The launch titles were very poor, despite Sony having a head start on Microsoft. And in a head-to-head comparison with its main rival, the PS3 just does not look that good.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=22215
And although developers will not come out and say this publically (because of the suicidal nature of such statements). It is fair to say that the development community are not happy with the performance of the machine - or the ease of creating games.
Sony did something identical with the PS2. In 2001 the hypestorm worked. And despite the lousy hardwarem the PS2 became a self-fulfilling prophecy of success.
This time, the hype didn't work. And to be completely honest, I *am* happy to see Sony get a bloody nose, not because I am rooting for the others, but because I don't like to see these tactics succeeding. Companies should focus on delivering, great products to customers.
But Sony have been playing a different game.
C.
The point, rather, is that there are more than a million Blu-ray players out there, and polls seem to suggest that the Blu-ray feature of the PS3 has been a major contributor to its sales. In contrast, there are fewer than 200k HD-DVD players. At the moment, the PS3 is a trojan horse. It's not going away anytime soon, and regardless of the cheekiness of the Wii or the relative maturity of the 360, the PS3 makes a well defined value proposition to the consumer.
And although developers will not come out and say this publically (because of the suicidal nature of such statements). It is fair to say that the development community are not happy with the performance of the machine - or the ease of creating games.
Your bias against non-linear programming is quite well established at this point (check older threads). Whether or not the PS3 succeeds is one matter, but the success of the Cell is a very different one -- and all signs seem to point to the Cell being a huge success. Programmers who don't want to get used to massive multicore-ing should consider alternative career paths. The other option is to license A tool like this one which claims to provide a much more yesterday-friendly Cell API/IDE than the one available in the PS3 dev kit.
I'd take the phone.
Hmm. I don't want an iPhone until it's 3G, and I don't want a PS3 until I'm ready to get a nice TV. Can I get $600 off of a macbook instead?
Ummmmmm... no.
Apparently, at least 750k PS3s had been sold in the US market as Your bias against non-linear programming is quite well established at this point (check older threads). Whether or not the PS3 succeeds is one matter, but the success of the Cell is a very different one -- and all signs seem to point to the Cell being a huge success. Programmers who don't want to get used to massive multicore-ing should consider alternative career paths. The other option is to license A tool like this one which claims to provide a much more yesterday-friendly Cell API/IDE than the one available in the PS3 dev kit.
(Grin.)
If Cell programming costs more for equivalent functionality - (which appears to be the case) - then yup, sell me a ticked to Biasville. I hereby declare my bias against even higher development costs. Games development is unfortunately mired with the unfortunate obligation of making something called "profits".
I think the Cell seems like a great solution for video compression etc.
It's clever. But it is the wrong sort of cleverness for videogames. The bottleneck in modern games is often the branch-frenzy in actor behavior code. And the Cell is not the solution.
Meanwhile the 3 general purpose CPUs in the 360 seem to be causing far fewer headaches.
C.
(Grin.)
If Cell programming costs more for equivalent functionality - (which appears to be the case) - then yup, sell me a ticked to Biasville. . . .
Well, Cell is the direction the industry is heading. We're not seeing 10GHz sequential machines, and the 360's Xenon isn't going to scale anywhere except towards Cell. CPU power and heat are big considerations, too, and they didn't used to be. The business and EE communities want the Cell's GFlop/watt, which means that we'll be seeing more and more software toolkits for it as new products are developed. If a product that will undoubtedly be profitable can't be realized without Cell, then it doesn't really matter if the development phase will cost more. Software development is always slower to get with the program. If it weren't, it wouldn't be using a syntax as error-prone as C's. New Cell toolkits should help.
- you can run linux on the PS3
- the hard drive is easy to replace
- bluetooth, built in wireless, the xbox requires lots of extra dongles that the PS3 does not
- much lower noise level
All they need now is better games...
posted at 11/17/2006 03:06 PM PST
Ok, it's been an exciting day today. After resisting the urge to sell this baby, I've decided to enjoy it. Ebay, be damned!
First, the actual hardware. It has a glossy exterior, not too unlike the PSP, ironically. The system can stand vertically, or sit horizontally, like it's predecessors. But, this time, you can rotate the 'PS' logo so it's upright no matter which way you have it--a nice touch. All of the ports are in appropriate places to hook up accessories and cables to. No daunting, arm-stretching is necessary. I will note that there are no USB ports on the rear side. Not a huge deal, but I would've appreciated one or two for a camera, in order to hide some of the cables.
The controller, as mentioned before, is quite a masterpiece. I know rumble is gone, but you have to appreciate what is still in there. The controller is light as a feather. I found myself wondering where the battery was. It is internal and from what I could tell, you cannot remove the battery--odd. There is a small reset button on the back of each SIXAXIS, in case you need to re-orient your controllers to the system. Plugging in the controller was as easy as plugging the USB cord in and then plugging the small end into the controller. It immediately worked. Sometimes when switching between media, you need to press the 'PS' button in order to re-assign the controller again, but that didn't happen to often to become annoying. While in wireless mode, the controller performs great. No wireless-lag that most cheap wireless controllers suffer from. It's perfectly responsive and impossible to tell the difference between the wired and wireless during a game. One thing that you Xbox 360 players will notice is a lack of a headset port. This is a shame, but hopefully Sony will release a wireless headset, negating the need for a port on the controller. Wireless>Wired after all.
The system buttons themselves are a marvelous thing, let me tell you. First of all, when you turn power on, you barely have to touch the thing. I makes a very quiet, but almost tactile beeping noise when it powers up...almost aircraft like. It really did fool me the first time, because at first glance, I thought to myself no way THAT is the power on/off button. It's something you need to do yourself before you can appreciate it. The eject button is the same way--just a feather touch activates it.
Perhaps my favorite hardware improvement is the slot drive. As dependable as tray drives are, having a slot drive really adds some sex appeal to your entertainment center. Someone else had mentioned the bright lights on the front of the console. I have to agree that the blue and green power and disc lights are nice to look at and not distracting, even when watching your favorite blu-ray movie. There is also wireless activity and hard-drive access lights, but they are hardly noticable, and an amber color.
Next thing I noticed is the noise the Playstation 3 puts out, or the lack thereof. I can confidently say that it's at least as quiet as a PS2, probably closer to Gamecube quiet. You will not notice any noise from it when you are playing. This, to me, was the most suprising part of the experience today...a quiet machine that's as powerful as this. When I placed my hand on the right side, I could indeed feel some heat coming out of the machine, but it doesn't feel like an oven, like the Xbox 360 does. There seems to be 2 different major areas where heat dissipates from the system. It's hard to tell where exactly the intake is, since there are just so many grill holes throughout.
Ok, now on to the testing of the system. First off, I poppped in "Talladega Nights" movie that came with it. It looked great in HD (720p mode). I watched the whole movie, just to see if there would be any hiccups, glitches, or bugs during playback. Not a one.
Next, I played "Resistance: Fall of Man". It ran flawlessly.
To test the backward-compatibility, I ran Okami, a PS2 game. It requires you to make a virtual hard drive memory card. I made one with no problems. It even lets you select which slot the PS2 games will see the memory card, slot 1 or 2. Okami played great and had no glitches.
Next, onto the PS1 test. For this test, I selected a generation 1 PS1 game, "Raiden Collection" from 1995. The game loaded up without a hitch.
I have to say, seeing your older PS1 and PS2 games being played through an HDMI compatible TV is amazing. I'm glad Sony decided to support older games.
Next, the Cross Media Bar (XMB). Upon turning on the system, the PS3 plays a short symphony orchestral clip as it's power-up tune. Very classy. It reminds me of a sound you might hear if heaven were to open up and bright lights beam down on your mortal face. Once into the interface, it prompted me to do an update to the software. This part was clunky and not nearly as user-friendly as the Xbox 360 updates are. It required me to agree to a user agreement, followed by several "I agree" and "hit enter to start" messages. Not a huge deal if you are patient. After the update was complete, I browsed the interface some more. It appears to support a USB mouse and keyboard out of the box. I didn't test this, but will soon.
Going to the internet browser, it feels almost exactly like the PSP browser. It contains much of the same functionality. If you don't have a keyboard/mouse, it's going to take you forever to type any URL, so it may not be useful to you unless you don't have a computer in your house. The browser does work just fine. I went to Sony's webpage and clicked around. The browser software isn't extremely pretty, but it get's the job done. It's no Firefox, but I like it ok just the same.
Just like the Xbox 360, the PS3 requires you to register your information if you are to play multiplayer games or use the online store. I registered and got a username within 5 minutes. It was nice to see the Sony network was performing well, despite it was system launch day. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that no one is playing a PS3...everyone's selling them. I digress. After registering a user name and password, I browsed the online store. There were only two games available for download. I was hoping to see some PS1 games available. Nope. The prices for the two games were 7.99 and 9.99 respectively. A little pricey for some games that no one's heard of yet. Especially when compared to XBL download gems like Geometry Wars Evolved and Hexic. I will say I appreciate Sony not using "points", and instead going with actual dollar amounts. Yay for logic!
Browsing further, I discovered just how many devices the PS3 could theoretically support. It allowed me to register a bluetooth device, which I can only suspect would be something like a PSP, ect.
On the front of the PS3, you will find a compact flash, type 1, an SD slot, and a memory stick slot. I plan on using the memory stick slot, since it's compatible with my PSP memory stick Pro Duo.
I haven't had a chance to test all the features, but I plan on posting more of my findings after a week or so. Thanks for reading.
Pros:
Sleek, Sexy exterior. Powerful new hardware, backwards compatible too. Ultra-quiet. Blu-ray player.
Cons:
High price. Not 100% backwards compatible. No intuitive chatting system. No headset capability out of the box. Online service lacks polish. Not many Downloadable games.
Bottom Line:
Is it worth $600? Yes"
OK, nothing "happened" to the PS3 and it certainly isn't a flop. Inventories are extremely low, whether or not you can see them here and there. I'm so sick of Wii fanboys and the anti-PS3 crowd posting anecdotal evidence and then interpreting it to mean the console is a flop.
Dave
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I'm sorry, but you sound like a moron when you say that.
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A surplus? A surplus? Because you can find ONE of them in each store you visit?
Man...if that's the standard than Circuit City has a HUGE surplus of HDTVS. Christ...they haev them in STOCK! They must be failure too!
...
Yeah, it's so overpriced that they can't make enough of them to meet demand. It's so overpriced that they are losing $200 on every console.
Blu-Ray is not "sputtering." There is no way to predict in terms of hard data which format is winning. And btw, this "idiot" just paid $600 for the console that plays Blu-Ray better thant he standalone players and has the best graphics capability of any of the consoles. Not everyone buys a console because it's more family friendly.
You guys are literally rooting for the console to fail. It's so...dumb.
Man oh man...and you think the guy you're quoting sounds like a moron...
1) Console sales and TV sales are two entirely different things. While there are 100s of different types of TVs, with different brands and different features, there are three main (this-gen) consoles out right now. When one isn't flying off sales when its INITIAL FIGURES OF DELIVERY WERE CUT IN HALF, it isn't a good sign. When eBay markup only lasted for two weeks, after which the sellers started to lose an average of 50 dollars / console? Again, not a good sign. So far, quite a few things about the PS3 show a (current) lack of demand.
2) The ancedotes shared in this thread are, multiple times, noted for their value of less-than-nothing, seeing as they are only ancedotal. The posters state this.
3) When people say the PS3 is overpriced, they aren't talking about the hardware that Sony is selling. It is hard to argue for a better Blu-Ray player. WHAT THEY ARE ARGUING is that it is too overpriced as far as consoles go, many (myself included) think that the current price tag is too steep for a general audience.
I personally have none of the next-gen consoles, not a huge fan of any of them - but your post was, in a word, ridiculous.
Is it worth $600? Yes"
Market forces are a brilliant Darwinian mechanism for setting prices.
C.
Update - hot off the presses.
The Market says.... $600 is too high a price.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=22243
Until then, my Playstation 2 is more then enough to keep me busy (whenever I actually have time for it these days) and I'm not in a hurry to pick up a 360 any time too soon either.
That leaves the Wii, which I don't really have a good excuse for, I just don't want to buy a new console right now.
Sebastian
The Market says.... $600 is too high a price.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=22243
They have a sign "PS3s available" in my local gamestop - saw it this morning when I went to pick up the burning crusade.