So I have an 80Gb Playstation3 on loan for a couple of weeks, mostly to play Metal Gear Solid 4 amongst other things, and I figured I would jot down my impressions as I go along.
***DISCLAIMER*** The comments below are based on a couple of hours of messing around with the device, WITHOUT reading the manual. A lot of what I say here will be completely based on assumptions I have made, and thus might be completely incorrect so don't take anything for a fact, and please do correct me if I go astray.
Well the first thing you notice when opening the box, would be the horrible...no ghastly packaging. Unlike Microsoft who knew they manufactured the device quite badly and thus need to protect it properly, Sony figured they did a decent enough job to just skip all protection all together. How these units get shipped across the world and make it out alive on the other end I have no idea. Not only doesn't it offer much protection, with no foamalite (spl?) anywhere in sight, but it looks terrible and very very cheap. There's no branding on the inside of the box, nothing nice to look at, it's all just good old brown cardboard everywhere. Now I bet many of you are saying, what the hell difference does packaging make to games? Well it's got nothing to do with games, and everything to do with the fact that if I just spent R5000 on a product I want to feel like it was worth the money. So, in this regard the Xbox360 and the Wii even more so,are light-years ahead, which you would expect to be the exact opposite considering the PS3 is the most expensive.
Taking it out of it's bleak plastic wrapping, the immediate size of the thing isn't so apparent, that is until you put it down on the shelf above the Xbox360 and realise that it is in fact Godzilla. Being a pre-owned console the fact that it won't stay shiny forever is very clear, with dust and finger marks all over it, already convincing me that buying a non-glossy version or a white one would be a much better option down the line. Plugging in is straight forward, especially since the power supply is integrated and it takes nothing more than a good old PC kettle cord to get things on the go. Initially figure it was broken, because nothing switched on but then of course I found a secondary power switch on the back.
Initially I rolled with HDMI since I used that for the Xbox which I had just plugged out. Of course the Optical Out jack sits right on the back of the console, instead of on the cable as is the case with the Xbox360, which means no hack-job or massively expensive cables required, and a straight forward installation. Immediately when switching on the console it asked me if I would like to use the HDMI for Audio & Video, which is really a mistake if you want to use the Optical Out, since saying yes disables it and saying no takes you nowhere. A bit silly really as I would expect it to detect that the Optical port is in use, and thus just go with that. I remember when they first came out, many people on forums all over asking how they can use Optical instead of transporting audio over HDMI. It's a simple menu item change really, but still something unnecessary which should just work out of the box, and typically shows Sony's HDMI-uber-alles stance.
Strangely the interface, which is much the same of that found on the PSP, is very PC-like especially with the wording. You "Log in" for instance, but in general I found it PC-ish just because there are so many options to go through, many of which don't really explain themselves all too well, and could be quite overwhelming for anyone who isn't a geek. A nice thing about the system is that it shares all media on the hard drive across profiles, so basically anyone can see anything everywhere than anyone else uploaded to the console or downloaded from the web. Demos, Music, Videos etc etc...which might only be a problem if you plan on storing your porn collection on the HDD and you have minors in the house, but I'm sure there would be a parental or user lockdown feature somewhere.
I then quickly played around with TV settings, and also switched to the Component cable just for a non-scientific comparison. Oddly enough I found that HDMI and Component look pretty much identical, which wasn't the case at all with the Xbox360 on the same TV, where VGA & HDMI were identical but Component was absolutely rubbish and the colours were over the top. Scouring the internet I couldn't find any specifically calibrated settings for Component, so I went with HDMI for the time being. The settings I got from my good old Samsung R81 link at AVForums made for a very yellowish image, especially on text in the Dashboard (XMB or whatever you want to call it), so I tried some settings from my olf friend Flatulentcow which resulted in a much less yellow picture yet still slightly tainted, but a massive improvement overall.
Now on that note I just have to mention that the Playstation3 doesn't support ANY resolution other than the TV-standard ones, which means 480i/480p/576p/720p/1080i and 1080p only. Which means you won't be so lucky as to run your screen's native resolution using this console as you would with the Xbox360, ultimately meaning that you will also suffer a bit of a quality loss due to the scaling process, unless your TV/Monitor's native resolution is either 1280x720 or 1920x1080 or support 1:1 Pixel mapping. A bit of a bummer for me since my display has a 1366x768 native resolution, but ultimately I must say the result is still pretty damn good and of course since I can't switch to the native resolution to see what it could potentially look like, it doesn't bother too much.
There was no need to configure any network settings, I just plugged in the cable and started her up and immediately in the top right corner appeared something like an RSS feed from Sony with all sorts of information on new and upcoming games. Sure this is non-intrusive compared to the massive ads found on the Xbox Dashboard, but at the same time it's so non-intrusive that I would never read it or notice it, and on top of that I still haven't figured out how to actually go to it to see more, and thus I don't know if that's even an option. Which brings me to the online component of the console. It appears to be a completely separate entity, not incorporated into the core of the system in the slightest. Anything Online is listed in a separate tab, where you have to go Sign-in separately since your online and offline profiles appear to be completely independent of each other. Here you can access the Playstation Store and what not to download games, add-ons, themes etc etc. It doesn't seem like there is anything that will jump out to tell you there is special content for a game when you pop it in, but rather than it's up to find it, or I'm guessing up to the individual game to tell you about it.
Somehow this has made me appreciate the advertising on the Xbox360/Live Dashboard, especially of course the game related advertising since I'm always kept in the loop about new content that is either on the way, or has already been made available. On the PS3 it seems there's no "community" integration as such, everyone fends for themselves, whereas on the Xbox they have regular Live events like Double XP weekends, or Family Game Nights or whatever. I've only spent one night with it sure, but already I've sensed what everyone means when they say the PS3's online component simply can't compared to Xbox Live, whether free or not. And I haven't even played any games online yet...which says it all.
A minor irritation in the layout of the XMB is the way that depending on what kind of disc you insert, you need to go find it in the relevant Music, Video or Game tab. I know it sounds silly, and surely one should know what you slotted into drive (ooh and I love that slot loading drive) and thus know exactly where to find it, but I just feel that a centrally managed system with one place to look for the drive content, would be so much simpler. Just put in the disc and play, surely the PS3 can figure out what to do with it then.
Well enough nonsense about the console...let's get to the games.
Considering the prime reason I have the black behemoth sitting on my counter top is Metal Gear Solid 4, I just couldn't hold out anymore so into the Blu-Ray Drive she went. Initial impressions were familiar, with much the same menu system as they've used across all the previous titles in the series. Naturally I had seen the start of the game before, but never in 5.1 Digital Sound so it was refreshing to have the good old soundtrack maybe sweet war sounds in my ears.
Sadly MGS4 just doesn't have the epic introduction that both MGS2 and MGS3 had, so it's a bit of a let down on the initial front. Also having been away from Playstation for so long I had a bit of a difficult time with the controller, especially since MGS is a pretty complex game and uses every button available in various combinations. So progress was pretty damn slow, and by the end of my session and only gotten to the first meeting with Deben. The game is beautiful however, although very bland with the camo and desert colours everywhere, but the textures are top notch and facial detail absolutely astonishing. Of course being a japanese game with voice overs the lip syncing isn't quite there, but it's not something you really complain about since you know why it's a bit off.
A worrying occurrence at this point in time already was the aliasing issues I had already seen everywhere in the demos I had played quickly while setting up, and then also in Metal Gear Solid 4. I had seen this at Strifehart's place before, but always figured it was the TV causing it, but now it seems to be completely game (and development) dependent. Strange that a console touted to be superior to all and everything else, struggles to smooth out simple things like rough edges, where the supposedly inferior Xbox360 I can't even recall a game that had any bad aliasing trouble.
Back to MGS4 I can't really comment all that much as the game starts off quite slowly, and thus I can't really say too much about it just yet.
After my taste of Solid Snake I must admit that the controller was starting to feel a bit more natural in my hands again. Sure I've always despised the analog sticks, not because of their location but more so because of their "floppiness" and the very little to no resistance that they offer, making it difficult to control compared to the analog sticks of both Xboxxes and the Dreamcast before that. The soft touch face buttons do feel less accurate than the hard plastic buttons of the Xbox360 controllers, but I do think your fingers will love you more after extended hours of gameplay. I still dislike the L2/R2 buttons, and much prefer the analog triggers found on other controllers, even with the extensions fitted to these controllers, Sony still dropped the ball. The L1/R1 buttons aren't too bad though, and again also a bit softer on the hands maybe explaining why they are the "primary" buttons in a game like MGS.
Next I popped in Little Big Planet, just to see some colour after the camouflage everywhere. I remember this game looking quite crappy on Strifehart's system something to do with it's native output being 720p and his TV not liking it or whatever I can't remember now. Needless to say I wasn't expecting much, but was then marvelously surprised to find that it looked pretty damn fine, actually more like astonishing, on my system.
So much rich detail, and beautiful colour everywhere. Sure it's not all in the high resolution textures, but largely also the artistic approach to the game's design, but you can't help but be overwhelmed by the beauty of it all, and I found myself stopping every now and then, especially once into the actual game itself, to just look around and appreciate the details. The game makes use of fabric everywhere, with everything being stitched together, something you don't see when running around, but the moment you stop you see things that you'll find all over your house, and yet here they are used in a completely artistic fashion instead.
LBP actually got me more involved than MGS4, which I've almost to scared to admit. Also it was the first taste I got of the motion sensors in the PS3 controllers, which appear to remarkably well. I don't see how they'll really use it, for full motion based games since there isn't really enough of it to go around, but I can see it offering a few nice additions to "normal" games, as is the case with LBP where you simply use the motion controls to have your sackboy look around the screen, which I hope will explain itself through the game because I don't see the relevance just yet.
And then it was 1:00 and time to get in bed, so I can come to work today, so I can make money, so I can buy my own PS3.
At the end of the day I found many niggles, and nothing that I could really say "well this is clever" about, but I was thoroughly entertained and I expect to be more entertained in the next few weeks while I have the machine. That being said, the games I've played so far could be done equally well on any other platform, and there's nothing here that pushes me to buy a Playstation3 other than the fact that the games in question can't be found elsewhere. I figure I've already made my mind up to wait for a price drop...and maybe a new SKU so that I can buy the thing primarily for the Blu-Ray drive, with the added benefit of the odd Playstation Exclusive.
The way I see it now, the Playstation3 will be sitting under the TV as a glorified DVD player, and will most certainly remain the offline console in the house.
*** Which might all change next year when both Microsoft and Sony get their motion sensing projects on the market.
***DISCLAIMER*** The comments below are based on a couple of hours of messing around with the device, WITHOUT reading the manual. A lot of what I say here will be completely based on assumptions I have made, and thus might be completely incorrect so don't take anything for a fact, and please do correct me if I go astray.
Well the first thing you notice when opening the box, would be the horrible...no ghastly packaging. Unlike Microsoft who knew they manufactured the device quite badly and thus need to protect it properly, Sony figured they did a decent enough job to just skip all protection all together. How these units get shipped across the world and make it out alive on the other end I have no idea. Not only doesn't it offer much protection, with no foamalite (spl?) anywhere in sight, but it looks terrible and very very cheap. There's no branding on the inside of the box, nothing nice to look at, it's all just good old brown cardboard everywhere. Now I bet many of you are saying, what the hell difference does packaging make to games? Well it's got nothing to do with games, and everything to do with the fact that if I just spent R5000 on a product I want to feel like it was worth the money. So, in this regard the Xbox360 and the Wii even more so,are light-years ahead, which you would expect to be the exact opposite considering the PS3 is the most expensive.
Taking it out of it's bleak plastic wrapping, the immediate size of the thing isn't so apparent, that is until you put it down on the shelf above the Xbox360 and realise that it is in fact Godzilla. Being a pre-owned console the fact that it won't stay shiny forever is very clear, with dust and finger marks all over it, already convincing me that buying a non-glossy version or a white one would be a much better option down the line. Plugging in is straight forward, especially since the power supply is integrated and it takes nothing more than a good old PC kettle cord to get things on the go. Initially figure it was broken, because nothing switched on but then of course I found a secondary power switch on the back.
Initially I rolled with HDMI since I used that for the Xbox which I had just plugged out. Of course the Optical Out jack sits right on the back of the console, instead of on the cable as is the case with the Xbox360, which means no hack-job or massively expensive cables required, and a straight forward installation. Immediately when switching on the console it asked me if I would like to use the HDMI for Audio & Video, which is really a mistake if you want to use the Optical Out, since saying yes disables it and saying no takes you nowhere. A bit silly really as I would expect it to detect that the Optical port is in use, and thus just go with that. I remember when they first came out, many people on forums all over asking how they can use Optical instead of transporting audio over HDMI. It's a simple menu item change really, but still something unnecessary which should just work out of the box, and typically shows Sony's HDMI-uber-alles stance.
Strangely the interface, which is much the same of that found on the PSP, is very PC-like especially with the wording. You "Log in" for instance, but in general I found it PC-ish just because there are so many options to go through, many of which don't really explain themselves all too well, and could be quite overwhelming for anyone who isn't a geek. A nice thing about the system is that it shares all media on the hard drive across profiles, so basically anyone can see anything everywhere than anyone else uploaded to the console or downloaded from the web. Demos, Music, Videos etc etc...which might only be a problem if you plan on storing your porn collection on the HDD and you have minors in the house, but I'm sure there would be a parental or user lockdown feature somewhere.
I then quickly played around with TV settings, and also switched to the Component cable just for a non-scientific comparison. Oddly enough I found that HDMI and Component look pretty much identical, which wasn't the case at all with the Xbox360 on the same TV, where VGA & HDMI were identical but Component was absolutely rubbish and the colours were over the top. Scouring the internet I couldn't find any specifically calibrated settings for Component, so I went with HDMI for the time being. The settings I got from my good old Samsung R81 link at AVForums made for a very yellowish image, especially on text in the Dashboard (XMB or whatever you want to call it), so I tried some settings from my olf friend Flatulentcow which resulted in a much less yellow picture yet still slightly tainted, but a massive improvement overall.
Now on that note I just have to mention that the Playstation3 doesn't support ANY resolution other than the TV-standard ones, which means 480i/480p/576p/720p/1080i and 1080p only. Which means you won't be so lucky as to run your screen's native resolution using this console as you would with the Xbox360, ultimately meaning that you will also suffer a bit of a quality loss due to the scaling process, unless your TV/Monitor's native resolution is either 1280x720 or 1920x1080 or support 1:1 Pixel mapping. A bit of a bummer for me since my display has a 1366x768 native resolution, but ultimately I must say the result is still pretty damn good and of course since I can't switch to the native resolution to see what it could potentially look like, it doesn't bother too much.
There was no need to configure any network settings, I just plugged in the cable and started her up and immediately in the top right corner appeared something like an RSS feed from Sony with all sorts of information on new and upcoming games. Sure this is non-intrusive compared to the massive ads found on the Xbox Dashboard, but at the same time it's so non-intrusive that I would never read it or notice it, and on top of that I still haven't figured out how to actually go to it to see more, and thus I don't know if that's even an option. Which brings me to the online component of the console. It appears to be a completely separate entity, not incorporated into the core of the system in the slightest. Anything Online is listed in a separate tab, where you have to go Sign-in separately since your online and offline profiles appear to be completely independent of each other. Here you can access the Playstation Store and what not to download games, add-ons, themes etc etc. It doesn't seem like there is anything that will jump out to tell you there is special content for a game when you pop it in, but rather than it's up to find it, or I'm guessing up to the individual game to tell you about it.
Somehow this has made me appreciate the advertising on the Xbox360/Live Dashboard, especially of course the game related advertising since I'm always kept in the loop about new content that is either on the way, or has already been made available. On the PS3 it seems there's no "community" integration as such, everyone fends for themselves, whereas on the Xbox they have regular Live events like Double XP weekends, or Family Game Nights or whatever. I've only spent one night with it sure, but already I've sensed what everyone means when they say the PS3's online component simply can't compared to Xbox Live, whether free or not. And I haven't even played any games online yet...which says it all.
A minor irritation in the layout of the XMB is the way that depending on what kind of disc you insert, you need to go find it in the relevant Music, Video or Game tab. I know it sounds silly, and surely one should know what you slotted into drive (ooh and I love that slot loading drive) and thus know exactly where to find it, but I just feel that a centrally managed system with one place to look for the drive content, would be so much simpler. Just put in the disc and play, surely the PS3 can figure out what to do with it then.
Well enough nonsense about the console...let's get to the games.
Considering the prime reason I have the black behemoth sitting on my counter top is Metal Gear Solid 4, I just couldn't hold out anymore so into the Blu-Ray Drive she went. Initial impressions were familiar, with much the same menu system as they've used across all the previous titles in the series. Naturally I had seen the start of the game before, but never in 5.1 Digital Sound so it was refreshing to have the good old soundtrack maybe sweet war sounds in my ears.
Sadly MGS4 just doesn't have the epic introduction that both MGS2 and MGS3 had, so it's a bit of a let down on the initial front. Also having been away from Playstation for so long I had a bit of a difficult time with the controller, especially since MGS is a pretty complex game and uses every button available in various combinations. So progress was pretty damn slow, and by the end of my session and only gotten to the first meeting with Deben. The game is beautiful however, although very bland with the camo and desert colours everywhere, but the textures are top notch and facial detail absolutely astonishing. Of course being a japanese game with voice overs the lip syncing isn't quite there, but it's not something you really complain about since you know why it's a bit off.
A worrying occurrence at this point in time already was the aliasing issues I had already seen everywhere in the demos I had played quickly while setting up, and then also in Metal Gear Solid 4. I had seen this at Strifehart's place before, but always figured it was the TV causing it, but now it seems to be completely game (and development) dependent. Strange that a console touted to be superior to all and everything else, struggles to smooth out simple things like rough edges, where the supposedly inferior Xbox360 I can't even recall a game that had any bad aliasing trouble.
Back to MGS4 I can't really comment all that much as the game starts off quite slowly, and thus I can't really say too much about it just yet.
After my taste of Solid Snake I must admit that the controller was starting to feel a bit more natural in my hands again. Sure I've always despised the analog sticks, not because of their location but more so because of their "floppiness" and the very little to no resistance that they offer, making it difficult to control compared to the analog sticks of both Xboxxes and the Dreamcast before that. The soft touch face buttons do feel less accurate than the hard plastic buttons of the Xbox360 controllers, but I do think your fingers will love you more after extended hours of gameplay. I still dislike the L2/R2 buttons, and much prefer the analog triggers found on other controllers, even with the extensions fitted to these controllers, Sony still dropped the ball. The L1/R1 buttons aren't too bad though, and again also a bit softer on the hands maybe explaining why they are the "primary" buttons in a game like MGS.
Next I popped in Little Big Planet, just to see some colour after the camouflage everywhere. I remember this game looking quite crappy on Strifehart's system something to do with it's native output being 720p and his TV not liking it or whatever I can't remember now. Needless to say I wasn't expecting much, but was then marvelously surprised to find that it looked pretty damn fine, actually more like astonishing, on my system.
So much rich detail, and beautiful colour everywhere. Sure it's not all in the high resolution textures, but largely also the artistic approach to the game's design, but you can't help but be overwhelmed by the beauty of it all, and I found myself stopping every now and then, especially once into the actual game itself, to just look around and appreciate the details. The game makes use of fabric everywhere, with everything being stitched together, something you don't see when running around, but the moment you stop you see things that you'll find all over your house, and yet here they are used in a completely artistic fashion instead.
LBP actually got me more involved than MGS4, which I've almost to scared to admit. Also it was the first taste I got of the motion sensors in the PS3 controllers, which appear to remarkably well. I don't see how they'll really use it, for full motion based games since there isn't really enough of it to go around, but I can see it offering a few nice additions to "normal" games, as is the case with LBP where you simply use the motion controls to have your sackboy look around the screen, which I hope will explain itself through the game because I don't see the relevance just yet.
And then it was 1:00 and time to get in bed, so I can come to work today, so I can make money, so I can buy my own PS3.
At the end of the day I found many niggles, and nothing that I could really say "well this is clever" about, but I was thoroughly entertained and I expect to be more entertained in the next few weeks while I have the machine. That being said, the games I've played so far could be done equally well on any other platform, and there's nothing here that pushes me to buy a Playstation3 other than the fact that the games in question can't be found elsewhere. I figure I've already made my mind up to wait for a price drop...and maybe a new SKU so that I can buy the thing primarily for the Blu-Ray drive, with the added benefit of the odd Playstation Exclusive.
The way I see it now, the Playstation3 will be sitting under the TV as a glorified DVD player, and will most certainly remain the offline console in the house.
*** Which might all change next year when both Microsoft and Sony get their motion sensing projects on the market.
*** UPDATE ***
Forgot to mention that I had a quick look at the Internet Browser and found it quite easy to use, and it could be potentially useful in the future especially if websites made easy to access PS3-specific webpages with relevant information. Flash worked out of the box, Gmail worked just fine although in "basic" mode, which wouldn't bother me especially since I won't be sending messages on it, but someone who plugs a full keyboard and mouse into the thing (you can do that can't you?) might be disappointed.
It works well enough that I could actually see people using it as their primary machine at home, if they don't have a computer, and need nothing more than online functionality to check emails and create documents and such, then the Google solution of online services would be perfect for them.
I do love and hate the onscreen keyboard all at the same time though. They did so many good things that Microsoft need to pay attention to, like the predictive text input and the fact that the keyboard is generally more compact and thus faster to access. It is overly complicated though, and it took me a good few minutes to figure out how exactly to capitalize a letter mostly because it doesn't have a Shift button as you would expect but rather a cellphone-esque A/a button. Instead I would have much preferred something more like the PSP system, where you can hold down the button and it capitalizes the letter, or hold down an available shoulder button and do it with a combo as per a normal keyboard. It's such a waste to go press another button for a function like that, and then to go press it again to switch it off. It's no bloody wonder language is degenerating on the internet, because it could have been so much simpler if someone just thought it through properly.
And I'm guessing I just need to learn a shortcut here, but predictive text would be so much more useful if I could just straight to it, instead of needing to scroll across the entire keyboard to get there.
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