• 30Dec 06

  Both Sides Of The Fence - An Owners Opinion Of Playstation 3

  Here it is guys. The review I have been threatening to do for the past 3 days. I wanted to get a few good days of gaming and movies under my belt before passing on my thoughts of the Playstaiton 3. It has incredible, great, good, bad and terrible features all rolled into the one machine.

  The first reason for me buying this machine was for HD movies. I had been looking at Blu-Ray players earlier in the week and nearly bought the Samsung player. I used a little rational thinking and decided instead of getting a $1,300 sole player, I should get a Playstation 3 from DVD Crave for $1,100. To be honest, I was going to buy a Playstation 3 at launch anyway. Now I get it earlier and I didn't pay the close to ransom figures on eBay in early December. It's a JAP NTSC console. This has both good and bad points which I cover later on.

  Setting up the JAP NTSC console requires little more than a power convertor or what I did, get your own PC cable rated to 10A - 240V. Most PC power cables will plug straight into the Playstation 3. The power supply is inside the console and you can feel it. The console gets very warm. I'm not saying this is bad for it, merely an observation. I had a spare HDMI cable not being used and promptly cast aside the rubbish composite cable supplied with the PS3 and plugged in the HDMI. Set up took no more than 5 minutes including the ethernet cable. The ethernet cable has been plugged into my 4 port router. The network was extremely easy to connect to. No settings to adjust or detection process. Plug it in and the PS3 does the rest. In fact it's a little too easy. I was looking for a menu to connect to the network. There simply isn't one.

  At this point I discovered the problem with importing a console before launch in my region. I was registering my online gaming name (m0ntyFC) and entering details for the Playstation store when it dawned that there are only 6 nations on the console for registration. It seems Sony don't think anyone buys consoles from overseas. I can't enter my billing details for Playstation Store purchases or register the console. I tried to do this on the Playstation site, but again, no option for Playstation 3 registration in Australia. As it stands countries on that list are United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and 2 others I had forgotten. This means I won't be able to purchase any premium content like maps, cars and new items until the Australian launch date. We all know there's a Melbourne Cup style sweep going to find out when that is. I will be contacting Sony Aus next week to make this known to them. They are essentially stopping people from buying items from their own online store.

  The dashboard is entirely new to me. I've never owned a PSP, nor will I. My DS serves me just fine. At first it's all very simplistic in it's layout and will be suitable for most casual gamers. Here however, is where my first beef arises. The PS3 uses a predictive text system, which works fine on a mobile phone but feels a little wierd when using a controller. The friend network is easy enough to use and adding my one and only friend was a breeze. But, messages are restricted to 20, yes 20 characters!. Hopefully this will be lifted in a future update. Voice messaging can only be done via specific in game menus. This is where we start to see Microsoft's Live service exert it's authority on community gaming. I'll have a further update later as understandably online gaming on the Playstation 3 is a very quiet place right now. The nicest touch was game specific backgrounds when cycling through demo and BD games lists.

  So, Blu-Ray movies. Are they really that much better than DVD? Well on a 1080p set of course they are. Colour and sharpness have improved immeausurably. I haven't got a HDDVD player so I can't give any comparisons. All I can say is that the Playstation 3 successfully manages to satisfy my needs for HD movie playback. For some reason my test BDs from JB HiFi all worked on this Region 1 console. It's seems not all BDs are region locked.

  The much touted web browser is........................ rubbish! Even on a HD set websites look drab and uninspiring. They are too hard to navigate and there are no flash drivers on the PS3 for animation on these sites. It seems like a fancy mobile phone browser. I'll stick to my PC for my interweb needs. And before you jump in, no it really is bad and pointless. No arguments at all allowed.

  After the little debacle with the Playstation Store earlier, I warily logged in to see what was available. Again the layout is a little messy and slow and if you thought Dead Rising text was hard to read, you're gonna hate the Playstation Store. There are demos for GTHD, Motorstorm, Genji, F1 07 CE and others all listed for download. Speeds are quick and the average 600MB demos are downloaded after no more than 2 hours. So far I have GTHD and F1 07 CE and as I type this Motorstorm is downloading. The store will need a serious makeover as time goes on as even now 6 weeks after launch, the interface is very hard to navigate through content. There is no option to download in the background like the 360 which means leaving the console on while grabbing shuteye. Again, this can be fixed with an update. Microsoft did it with their first dashboard update. Let's hope Sony do also.

  Now the games. Or lack thereof. With my PS3 I bought Ridge Racer 7 and Resistance - Fall Of Man. Both titles were the highlights of a lacklustre launch range according to reviewers. Firstly, Ridge Racer 7. Well, it's Ridge Racer. It feels like every other Ridge Racer, sounds like every other Ridge Racer but looks like that ugly he or she at the bar after you've had a few drinks. You know it's not that pretty but you're prepared to have a go just for fun. It does however show off the PS3s higher resolution gaming though and the frame rate never dips. The cars all look solid and it's shows that this machine has alot more horsepower untapped under the bonnet.

  Resistance - Fall Of Man, as I have posted elsewhere is a huge disappointment. While I've never been a huge fan of run 'n' gun FPS's, Resistance reminded me why. Average gameplay was rife with circle strafing and idiotic hero runs out into the open to wipe Chimera out before they get to you. The visuals are too clean. This doesn't feel like a wartorn country, more like a playground full of kids playing cowboys and indians. Landscapes are spotless and damaged buildings and structures all seem to be built that way. Accurate fire is off-putting when it changes camera views completely when switching to crosshairs. Why couldn't they copy every other FPS on the market here? The audio does save the game slightly. Guns, explosions and music try to drag the player back into the moment, but it's not enough for mind to keep coming back.

  GTHD!!!! It's bold for a reason. The demo features THE BEST visuals I have ever seen in a driving game. I have shown lo res and webcam vids to a few people from these forums now and they have all reacted the same way. Awestruck! Details on the roadside such as people, grass, fences and flags are incredible. The mountain backdrop is stunning and you'll take a second look whilst driving down the main straight just to make sure they aren't real. The demo handles like any other GT, but having such amazing visuals reall does make you want to watch every replay in it's entirety. If this is what we can expect from Sony's leading developer, then MGS4, DMC4 and GT5 can't come soon enough.

  The good news about importing a JAP NTSC console is that ALL games will work on it. PAL format PS3s may still have some kind of region locking on games.It remains to be seen to what extent.

  The much talked about "flappy bit" opens to reveal a spot for Sony Magic Gate cards, PS2 memory cards and another that I haven't investigated completely. Using the MG card from my Sony Ericcson phone made it easy to browse photos stored on it. They all appeared clear and detailed, especially for a 2 megpixel camera. Music an video playback is weak compared to the connectivity of the 360 with WMP11. This is another area I see Microsoft holding all the aces.

  So really, the PS3 isn't better or worse than a 360. It's just an alternative and serves it's own purpose, much like the Wii. As a quick rule of thumb, if you're after a dedicated gaming console immediately, buy a 360. The Live network is established and very polished and there are squillions of games available. It's multimedia features are superior in the music, video and downloadable content areas. It's a better all-round console and would keep the majority of people interested for longer.

  The Playstation 3 is a seriously impressive machine that's still very much in it's infancy. It could go one of two ways. If developers and Sony can utilize it's strengths and pinpoint it's faults early enough, we could be looking at one of the greatest consoles yet. That is however, a big "IF". My initial reason for buying the PS3 was for HD movie playback. It's perfect for that so I am happy in my decision. Just don't expect it to rock your world for another 12 months. It's a work in progress.

  Thanks for your time in reading this guys. I know it's a little long, but hopefully it puts a few arguments to bed. As I discover more I'll add to the topic.

  • Posted Dec 30, 2006 2:46 pm PT
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