Why the PS3 doesnt suck.

[lupin]

Ok let me start this with a little history in the name of fairness.

E3 '05 - PS3 is announced 360 shown on the show floor. 360 offers very little and PS3 promises big. Nintendo brings nothing to the show floor. I love the PS3 hate the 360.

September '05 - I start work at Gamestop Tokyo Game Show happens. PS3 continues to blow my mind with new "gameplay" trailers. 360 has very little presence. I start to rant on to customers about how the 360 is the next Dreamcast because they are both white and Nintendo isnt really coming out with anything new.

November '05 - My gamestop gets 2 Core 360s that we are told can be sold to employees. 1 person claimed one the other is left unclaimed. I pick it up just because. I get Perfect Dark Zero and Condemned. I fall in love with the 360.

March '06 - After a quite winter spring is sprung on the 360. GRAW and Oblivion make me realize this was a good $300 spent. PS3 no news.

E3 '06 - PS3 shows off more gameplay footage of great games. Reveal price point and release date. Flabbergasted by price. Start to shy away from PS3. Nintendo reveals Wiimote. Next day I take in TiVo remote to work/gamestop and openly mock Nintendo

Sept/Oct '06 - I get use to the idea of the Wiimote/become very excited about it. News starts coming out that the PS3 isnt all its cracked up to be. I lose interest.

Nov '06 - I go and pick up my Wii with Red Steel (doh!) and Zelda. Play it and love it. Also net Gears of War love it. Am very confident the Wii60 combo is superior over the PS3 in all ways.

Dec '06 - I pick up Lost Planet for the 360 and Rainbow Six. Both are decent titles but Gears left me with a void of a great game. I make jokes about how the PS3s on eBay cant be sold.

Jan '07 - I pick up Wario Ware for the Wii and Burning Crusades for PC. TBC holds my interest for 2 solid weeks of non stop action. After that I spend a few days with Wario Ware till the Crackdown demo comes out. I like the Crackdown demo so much I run out and pick up a HDTV. After purchase I go to gamestop to pre order my Halo 3 beta/Crackdown and tell the employee I could of bought a PS3 but my 360 needed a new TV instead.

Feb 3rd AM '07 - I come into some money and out of no where start to feel the PS3 itch. I look online and see it has no games that are rock your socks off great. I like into the future of it and see the same thing. But still some reason I want to get one

Feb 3rd PM '07 - I have my PS3 at home opened hooked up and loving it. Thats right I went from Lover to Hater and then back to Lover. And Im going to tell you why you should give the PS3 a chance in the next post.

[lupin]

All right got that out of the way? Lets talk PS3. First thing we all need to realize is the PS3 isnt a gaming console in a traditional sense. To me it feels more like a game console like PCs have. Yeah your PC can play game but it also does so much more; as does the PS3. But I found it weird because it seems all of the PS3s great features have been overlooked. So lets dive into them.

Internet. Remember when the Wii browser came out? Everyone was talking about it, it was all over digg and people where stoked it could do Flash. Remember that? Well yeah thats cool but it does poor flash and half of it is broken. Now the PS3, the PS3 has a web browser. It does full flash. You go to youtube and watch a video and it never stutters. Plus you can watch Rev3 shows with their built in flash player unlike the Wii. Also, speaking of Rev3, you can download the Quicktime Small episodes of shows strait to the PS3 HDD or Memory Card/USB Device and watch them from the console. Now there are a couple of down sides. Mainly that you cant zoom in on the pages like you can on the Wii making some text hard to read. Also unlike the PSP there is no RSS Feed support, which makes no sense to me. I know I would love to sign up to all of Rev3s video RSS feeds and have them directly download to my PS3 to watch on my TV. Maybe in a new FW update...

As I mentioned in the previous section the PS3 supports not only supports .H264 but also MPEG-1 MPEG-2 PS and MPEG-2 TS. Also as noted by IGN there is no resolution cap. If you have the storage you can house and play full HD movies/video clips on your PS3. Thats a very impressive feature. Music also includes all the standards: MP3 AAC and WAV. One of the nicest features is how easy it is to get content on the PS3. Have some music you want on the PS3? Grab a USB Flash drive Flash Card (on $600 unit) or a USB Harddrive load it up and plug it into the PS3 and start copying onto its HDD. Its really simple compared to the 360. Also allegedly their are plans to implement streaming a larger collection of codecs (xvid and divx for a couple) from your PC/MAC. Idly this will come in the form of a firmware update when the European launch happens this March. As far as music and video go I really dont have any complaints. Except I would of loved to seen them support Divx/Xvid on day 1.

Photos work as expected with being able to view pics from an external source or saved to the HD. Also, you can download fresh pics from the built in we browser. Unfortunately you cant use them as wallpapers. That is pretty odd especially since this has been a feature on the PSP since about August of '05. Another feature the PS3 is lacking in is the ability to play music in games ala the 360 guide. That has consistently been one of the best things when I have some friends over, having a constant playlist in the background of whatever we do. PS3 also has a friends and contacts list for your online persona. I havent messed with that too much quite yet. But that does change gears into the PS3 Network features.

If the PS3 lacks anywhere (other then games) this is the area. A few seconds into the PSN area and you real start to think someone from SCE sat down with XBOX Live for 30 minutes and that they knew exactly what they did right. While it doesnt have a clean navigation I was happy to see a few demos all though I dont think any new content has been added since the release. But at least the PSN uses real money instead of a points system. And you only get charged when you buy the item. None of that "lump sum" that some people hate.

Now thats the PS3 OS and really its great and all but there is something else the PS3 can do that makes it great: install an "otheros". Im sure everyone knows this by now but the PS3 has support to install another OS on its HDD, namely Linux. So far it seems Fedora Core 5 and UBUNTU have the best walkthroughs and support. Well I shouldnt say the best support, I guess that honor would have to go to Yellow Dog Linux's PS3 PPC-64Bit edition distro. This puppy has been constructed from the ground up to work as good as possible with the PS3. While this maybe true in my experience with it I could not get Package Manager nor the Update System to work, and anyone with Linux experience will know thats an issue. Also I spent 5 hours trying to do a manual install of UBUNTU that failed because I forgot to type in a couple commands. But to me thats great. If stuff is to easy you dont feel challenged anymore.

With that said I think we come to the main point. The PS3 isnt a gamers machine. It is a PC mans machine. The amount of playing around with and tweaking that can be done to this system can be daunting at times, but if that kind of thing gets you going then this is defiantly the system for you. This is not a system for someone who just wants to play games. This is a system for people who want to feel proud of the end product.

Now im not saying the PS3 is without faults. Im just saying I and many other people are probably bashing it way to hard and maybe its time we actually take a look at what this machine does and admit somehow those who have it typically feel justified with that $600 they dropped on it. I know I do.

[tokenuser]

Interesting writeup.

So, if PS3 is for PC Gamers ... who is the target for X360??
Multimedia streamers?

Where would the Wii fit?? People that want to have good old fashioned fun with others? Co-op modes of play are cool and all, but they are really just you playing with other people that are suddenly characters in your universe.

The Wii seems to actively encourage you to play with other people in the room ... while comparing the PS3 to a PC gaming experience to me indicates that it is more of a solitary experience.

Care to comment?

(BTW - I have an original Xbox (/w upgraded HDD, and Xecuter X3 mod). It is the only console I have ever owned ... so just after opinions.)

[ryudo]

Post all the techno babble you wish but I buy consoles to play games and like the failing PSP PS3 is sold as a technology and things just don't sell like that and 600$ is just too much regardless ESP how for cheaper 360 has a bunch of titles PS3 is eventually getting and 360 is getting a bunch of System sellers this year and in Japan it's picking up with the creator of Final Fantasy releasing Blue Dragon and soon Lost Oddessey...360 is getting Guitar Hero II with downloadable songs GTA4 Bioshock Halo 3 Mass Effect Assasains creed VF5 and yes some of this is on PS3 also but 360 is cheaper.

Wii wil have some good titles this year many 1st part many already know but also DDR and now Square is putting Japans fave series on Nintendo consoles..Dragon Quest...DQ9 on DS and DQ Swords on Wii and that will no doubt go insane in Japan as if it was not already bad enough.


PS3 can be sold as a technology all it wants but most consumers don't give a shit about what it has(tech geeks do but they are in the minority in this regard) they care about that 600$ tag and so do I since I just want to play games and Wii and 360 will have that for me when I purchase them.

DS was fun and PSP was a great piece of technology but hardly any games worth buying came out for it that made it worth the purchase while DS gets loads and I am very much waiting for DQ9 and FF12 Revenant wings.

PS3 is a cool piece of technology but too difficult for developers to program for and EVERY game it has must sell over half a mill to break even and make profit..that is impossible and has never been done and developers have stated they will skip PS3 for a while and go for handhelds or other "options" some that have stayed on most decided to also go release it on 360 a well to make that profit....even Kojima in that gamepro int didn't sound too pleased with PS3 right now and he hinted MGS MIGHT not be PS3 only and Sony better hope he keeps it there...as for 2007 it's pretty much the only Killer app it has.

[lupin]

Interesting writeup.

So, if PS3 is for PC Gamers ... who is the target for X360??
Multimedia streamers?

Where would the Wii fit?? People that want to have good old fashioned fun with others? Co-op modes of play are cool and all, but they are really just you playing with other people that are suddenly characters in your universe.

The Wii seems to actively encourage you to play with other people in the room ... while comparing the PS3 to a PC gaming experience to me indicates that it is more of a solitary experience.

Care to comment?

(BTW - I have an original Xbox (/w upgraded HDD, and Xecuter X3 mod). It is the only console I have ever owned ... so just after opinions.)

Wii is a gamers system. Its all about the games. From classics to new shit it was about making it cheap to game again. With a $250 price tag and games selling for anywhere from $40 to $50 it is the true gaming machine.

360 is the Home Theater in a Console system. You pay a little more then the Wii (I ignore all core setups btw just fyi) but you do get that extra bang for you buck. Not to mention Lives excellent VoD service that is still gaining steam as we speak. And there is the MCE aspect which is nice for streaming media. But, once again WMV only codec support unless you turn to 3rd party is almost contradictory to this.

And yes I think the PS3 is for PC gamers. Also, I think the PS3 is going to have a DS effect. Where as it may not get many games or exclusives, but the ones it does get/keep will be solid. Though the launch titles betray this way of thinking, I still believe that this is where this system is heading. Then again only time will tell. We all the XBOX was going to go down without a fight but in the end it was neck and neck and some even feel game for game XBOX was the better system.

[decemberfall]

Here is my question, i'm not a huge gamer, but now that I have an HD TV I want HD video, would it be better to buy just an HD DVD or bluray player or to buy a console where I have the ability to play games later, if I so choose

I currently own an original Xbox that I play every once in awhile...

[casework]

If the PS3 lacks anywhere (other then games)
But why would I buy a video game console if it lacks in the one area that it's built on?

I'm the type of person that buys a car to drive it, not because it's packed with DVD players and heated seats.
Post all the techno babble you wish but I buy consoles to play games and like the failing PSP PS3 is sold as a technology and things just don't sell like that and 600$ is just too much regardless ESP how for cheaper 360 has a bunch of titles PS3 is eventually getting and 360 is getting a bunch of System sellers this year and in Japan it's picking up with the creator of Final Fantasy releasing Blue Dragon and soon Lost Oddessey...360 is getting Guitar Hero II with downloadable songs GTA4 Bioshock Halo 3 Mass Effect Assasains creed VF5 and yes some of this is on PS3 also but 360 is cheaper.

Wii wil have some good titles this year many 1st part many already know but also DDR and now Square is putting Japans fave series on Nintendo consoles..Dragon Quest...DQ9 on DS and DQ Swords on Wii and that will no doubt go insane in Japan as if it was not already bad enough.


PS3 can be sold as a technology all it wants but most consumers don't give a shit about what it has(tech geeks do but they are in the minority in this regard) they care about that 600$ tag and so do I since I just want to play games and Wii and 360 will have that for me when I purchase them.

DS was fun and PSP was a great piece of technology but hardly any games worth buying came out for it that made it worth the purchase while DS gets loads and I am very much waiting for DQ9 and FF12 Revenant wings.

PS3 is a cool piece of technology but too difficult for developers to program for and EVERY game it has must sell over half a mill to break even and make profit..that is impossible and has never been done and developers have stated they will skip PS3 for a while and go for handhelds or other "options" some that have stayed on most decided to also go release it on 360 a well to make that profit....even Kojima in that gamepro int didn't sound too pleased with PS3 right now and he hinted MGS MIGHT not be PS3 only and Sony better hope he keeps it there...as for 2007 it's pretty much the only Killer app it has.

I couldn't agree more. And as someone who is a bit of a tech geek and used to be a PC gamer, whatever they're trying to market the PS3 on(that it's more than just a console), I'm not buying it.

Personally, I'm the type of person that would rather have a cell phone, an iPod, and a camera in my pockets. Even though I could buy a device that has all 3, I don't want it. Companies make products that try to do too much when all I want are devices that do their job well. The only reason I even have a camera phone now is because it's pretty much standard in most phones, and I do use it, but if I think I might want to snap a few pictures, I always bring my camera. The camera phone is just nice to take a cool picture to set as my background, and that's it.

I'm not doubting that the PS3 works, and works well, for someone who wants to utilize everything that it comes with, and maybe they finally are starting to deliver on their promises, but I'm just not interested.

I didn't buy a MacBook Pro so I could browse the web on my video game console or watch Diggnation. I'm not buying an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player because I'm not paying out my ass to satisfy these companies and their pissing contests on formats that aren't yet set in stone.

[tokenuser]

Here is my question, i'm not a huge gamer, but now that I have an HD TV I want HD video, would it be better to buy just an HD DVD or bluray player or to buy a console where I have the ability to play games later, if I so choose

I currently own an original Xbox that I play every once in awhile...I wouldn't buy a next gen DVD format player just yet. Wait for the format wars to settle down ... I think you'll find that one format emerges on top for video, and another will rise for data ... and they will converge again down the line.

In the mean time, the HD DVD for the 360 is a good deal only if you already have a 360. A BluRay PS3 is also a nice option. BUT look at the limited selection of movies out there in either format (or just releasedon one and not the other).

I took an interim step, and got an upconverting DVD player (Samsung HD850) ... and it cost me less than $100. With an HDMI connection to my AMP (Sony STR-DG800), and my HD Cablebox (SA-8500HD from Time Warner) connected via HDMI as well, the quality is amazing.

Next year will be the year of HD DVD (or BluRay) ... but this year will be a waiting game until the dust settles.

[decemberfall]

I wouldn't buy a next gen DVD format player just yet. Wait for the format wars to settle down ... I think you'll find that one format emerges on top for video, and another will rise for data ... and they will converge again down the line.

In the mean time, the HD DVD for the 360 is a good deal only if you already have a 360. A BluRay PS3 is also a nice option. BUT look at the limited selection of movies out there in either format (or just releasedon one and not the other).

I took an interim step, and got an upconverting DVD player (Samsung HD850) ... and it cost me less than $100. With an HDMI connection to my AMP (Sony STR-DG800), and my HD Cablebox (SA-8500HD from Time Warner) connected via HDMI as well, the quality is amazing.

Next year will be the year of HD DVD (or BluRay) ... but this year will be a waiting game until the dust settles.
my boss bought the same DVD player and recommended it as well. I might just wait, but after seeing the TV in HD, it's really hard to watch a regular movie...

[rhett803]

I think once the PS3 gets more game titles out, which should be this year, I'm going to buy one. From what I've played and been told they are a very nice system. You just have to make sure your tv supports 1080p.

Price wise, when you calculate inflation into it, it's not that bad.
Console Prices without Inflation: http://curmudgeongamer.com/imgdisplay.php3?shotfile=console-prices-absolute.png
Console Prices with Inflation: http://curmudgeongamer.com/imgdisplay.php3?shotfile=console-prices-relative.png

As far as the format wars go, BluRay holds 50gb on a double laryer disk. HDDVD holds 30 ona double layers disc. Therefor I hope BluRay wins. It's that simple. Also, Sony has been talking about a 200gb BluRay disc being in the works.

Now, more than likely I'll end up buying all of the next gen consoles. They each have their pros and their cons. I'm 23, I earn my own money, and blowing it on all these games is something I choose.

[lupin]

Yeah mine supports 1080p but only outputs at 720p which is real nice. Very future proof hehe. I plan on getting a HD-DVD player for my 360 too at some point. Each format has great titles coming out. Sucks for us eh?

[ryudo]

Except blu ray uses older way to code Blu ray and HD DVD compresses better..and after 25 GB blu ray is unstable...besides we all should know no matter which has the tech upside...that never helped Betamax over VHS as porn industry chose VHS and whoever they choose to go more with wins.

[casework]

People want to use the amount the discs hold as an argument... here's something I learned a few days ago: Current video games take up about a third of a standard DVD disc. For movies, obviously more space means more features, no more double discs, etc, but I really don't think it's that big of a deal. Also, the fact that video games take up such little space really put things into perspective for me.

[lupin]

Casework the PS3 dumps we have range about 18gb+ I think some is dummy but idk.

[tokenuser]

my boss bought the same DVD player and recommended it as well. I might just wait, but after seeing the TV in HD, it's really hard to watch a regular movie...CSI - especially CSI:Miami is AWESOME in HD ... and DiscoveryHD Theatre is amazing. Free to air TV never looked so good. Some shows make no difference, they are still crap, but for others it adds a whole new dimension.

Universal HD showing BSG and HDNet (? I think) with Enterprise in HD ... I am a happy little vegemite ... these are even better than what you see on DVD.

I think you are going to love your new purchase.

[darknessgp]

my boss bought the same DVD player and recommended it as well. I might just wait, but after seeing the TV in HD, it's really hard to watch a regular movie...

I'd suggest waiting and getting one of the combo players. They are coming out with players that'll play both HD-DVD and bluray.

And about the PS3. No one cares. It's a video game console, if it doesn't have cool games no one cares. But not to worry, once Square releases the next Final Fantasy game in Japan it'll be a huge hit there. The Japanese have insane brand loyalty, and they would die for Square.

[lupin]

CSI - especially CSI:Miami is AWESOME in HD ... and DiscoveryHD Theatre is amazing. Free to air TV never looked so good. Some shows make no difference, they are still crap, but for others it adds a whole new dimension.

Universal HD showing BSG and HDNet (? I think) with Enterprise in HD ... I am a happy little vegemite ... these are even better than what you see on DVD.

I think you are going to love your new purchase.

Wait which network shows enterprise in HD? Ive been paying for them on XBOX Live...

[decemberfall]

CSI - especially CSI:Miami is AWESOME in HD ... and DiscoveryHD Theatre is amazing. Free to air TV never looked so good. Some shows make no difference, they are still crap, but for others it adds a whole new dimension.

Universal HD showing BSG and HDNet (? I think) with Enterprise in HD ... I am a happy little vegemite ... these are even better than what you see on DVD.

I think you are going to love your new purchase.
We have a local station that's the CW (the new WB/UPN) and we can't even get it that's not fuzzy without HD, with HD it's perfect, we're so excited because Veronica Mars is one of our favorite shows!

Heck it was worth it just for the superbowl, really wished I would have had it at the colts/pats game, just to see how pretty Tom Brady is in HD...

[decemberfall]

Wait which network shows enterprise in HD? Ive been paying for them on XBOX Live...
all our basic stations have an HD through the antenna, CW, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox

[noonebutme]

Point one - Internet browsing: Microsoft can release or any other dev can release an update for this (See XNA).

Point two - Video support. Microsoft or any other dev can release an update for this (See XNA) as well.

Point three - Linux. Novelty. Who buy's a game system and takes away the ability to play games? PS2 could run linux as well, but no one bothered with that feature. And thats what it should be - a game machine. The average person, and hardcore gamer wants to play games on their ps3, geeks only make up a portion of gamers. And most geeks that i talk to despise sony over the XCP fiasco, blu-ray, and high prices.

As for formats? DL-DVD vs Blu-Ray. If Gears of War can fit onto a DVD, then i think Sony needs to take some lessons in compression and not stick unrendered video's + Garbage data onto a disc to fill it up. And Gears of War looks better then Resistance does. Plus, 360 + HD-DVD is cheaper then PS3. Not to mention the price of movie's to start with. Sony can come out with a quintuple-layered disc, but as it stands, the disc's wont be able to read anything beyond a dual-layer cd.

Plus, PS3's hardware is incapable of displaying 1080i/p display's in some cases. That's kinda a bad thing.

[tokenuser]

Wait which network shows enterprise in HD? Ive been paying for them on XBOX Live...HDNet programming via cable box. Times/Episodes (http://hd.net/program_search_results.html?keyword=Star%20Trek%3A %20Enterprise&whattosearch=title&refPage=series.html&searchType=literal) ... and they are amazing to watch in HD ... as are Firefly and BSG.

[lupin]

Oh yeah we dont get HDNet out here. Just HD Universal and INHD. Damn I live in freaking phoenix you would think we would get all the good stuff.

[klitzy]

Numbers don't lie....

Right now...The PS3 is sucking.

That is all.

[decemberfall]

are the PS3's backwards compatible, someone asked me...

[rhett803]

Yes they are.

Hardware wise the ps3's are good. It's just the selection of games. When more games come out I plan to own one.

[lupin]

I cant believe no one *****ed about how long of a post that was. And I am worried about the PS3 as a gaming console. Nearly every title will also come out for the 360. Though, I think it is important to remember we are still in the early stages of this console cycle and the PS3 is literally only months old. I think we may all be jumping to conclusions when it comes to lack of exclusives. Also the idea that dev'ing for the PS3 is a pain maybe true but that doesnt mean come 1 or 2 years dev's realize the PS3 tools can be better tapped into then the 360s or even vice versa. Only time will tell. But at least Sony has given people enough to play with until we are told by said time.

[klitzy]

I cant believe no one *****ed about how long of a post that was.

Hell....We're just glad it didnt make us want to cut ourselves like the rest of your posts...

;)