SpenniesPlaystation 3
February 22nd 2007 08:18
Through some divine intervention I found myself invited to the media launch of the PS3 here in Sydney. I of course wasn't going to turn that down, even though I have no intention of ever purchasing one, or ever liking one, but free canapes, alcohol and new games did all the decision making for me.
Alas, it was a pretty damn good day.
The PS3 is pretty big for a console. It's bigger than the PS2 and the Xbox 360, but not by much. I've seen ads of it in silver, but all they had to show us was the black. Anyway. The controller is the normal standard PS controller but with a new button: the Playstation button. Functioning much like the Xbox button in the middle of the new wireless Xbox 360 controllers, the Playstation button will allow you to turn your PS3 on and off without actually getting off the couch (thus encouraging even MORE laziness, great). Anyway besides that it's also wireless, but you'd expect nothing less.
Moving on to the console itself. It can do a whole bunch of things - store music, photos, videos, surf the net, check email, connect to your mobile phone, to your fridge, vaccuum the carpet and feed the dog. Also, you can play games on it.
This part wasn't really surprising, since Sony had to live up to Microsoft and make the PS3 do everything the Xbox 360 can, so it has. No biggie. The only difference is that some of the games you can get on the PS3 are Blue-Ray, which means the graphics are unbelievable, but not unless you have a TV good enough to support it.
The new PS3 games is Sony's seller in this regard. We got a half-hour demonstration of 'Resistance: The Fall of Man' which is a first-person shooter along the lines of 'Gears of War'. The story is pretty much the same - men shooting aliens. Again, the graphics are amazing...the dude from the games studio explained about a whole lot of CPUs or CCUs or something doing a whole lot of things all at once and all that, but really, the game just looks stunning. It's got about 15 hours of gameplay, you can play online, co-op and of course versus mode. Seeing it for the first time reminded me of 'Half-Life 2' in terms of the physics of the game: you shoot a chair and it falls over, just like it would in real life. However, Half-Life 2 is better in this regard because after you play five minutes of 'Resistance: Fall of Man' and you start shooting things which shouldn't be shot (like a wooden chest of drawers) nothing happens. So much for game physics.
The other big one is 'Motor Storm', a racing game that uses motion sensitive play in the controllers. Which mean you don't have to press the right or left trigger to move, you just tilt the controller whichever way you want to go. The graphics in this are again, pretty great, and that plus the motion sensitive controller option makes racing through the desert on dirt bikes and trucks a whole lot of fun.
There's also a whole lot of other games Sony is releasing with the PS3 (like new Tekken, Sonic, etc) which are really just the same deal.
On the whole, at RRP of $999.95, the PS3 is not going to seem worth it for a lot of people. It's true the graphics are unmatched by any other console to date, but it seems like a lot of dosh for something you're only really ever going to use for gaming, despite what the Sony PR guy kept trying to tell us (you don't need ANYTHING else in the living room except your Sony TV and your new Sony PS3, how great is Sony, did I mention Sony is great?', etc.).
Anyway I'm not complaining. They had an orchestra there who played the intro to 'Final Fantasy XII' and something from the 'Shadow of the Colossus' soundtrack so I was happy. That and free beer.
Alas, it was a pretty damn good day.
The PS3 is pretty big for a console. It's bigger than the PS2 and the Xbox 360, but not by much. I've seen ads of it in silver, but all they had to show us was the black. Anyway. The controller is the normal standard PS controller but with a new button: the Playstation button. Functioning much like the Xbox button in the middle of the new wireless Xbox 360 controllers, the Playstation button will allow you to turn your PS3 on and off without actually getting off the couch (thus encouraging even MORE laziness, great). Anyway besides that it's also wireless, but you'd expect nothing less.
Moving on to the console itself. It can do a whole bunch of things - store music, photos, videos, surf the net, check email, connect to your mobile phone, to your fridge, vaccuum the carpet and feed the dog. Also, you can play games on it.
This part wasn't really surprising, since Sony had to live up to Microsoft and make the PS3 do everything the Xbox 360 can, so it has. No biggie. The only difference is that some of the games you can get on the PS3 are Blue-Ray, which means the graphics are unbelievable, but not unless you have a TV good enough to support it.
The new PS3 games is Sony's seller in this regard. We got a half-hour demonstration of 'Resistance: The Fall of Man' which is a first-person shooter along the lines of 'Gears of War'. The story is pretty much the same - men shooting aliens. Again, the graphics are amazing...the dude from the games studio explained about a whole lot of CPUs or CCUs or something doing a whole lot of things all at once and all that, but really, the game just looks stunning. It's got about 15 hours of gameplay, you can play online, co-op and of course versus mode. Seeing it for the first time reminded me of 'Half-Life 2' in terms of the physics of the game: you shoot a chair and it falls over, just like it would in real life. However, Half-Life 2 is better in this regard because after you play five minutes of 'Resistance: Fall of Man' and you start shooting things which shouldn't be shot (like a wooden chest of drawers) nothing happens. So much for game physics.
The other big one is 'Motor Storm', a racing game that uses motion sensitive play in the controllers. Which mean you don't have to press the right or left trigger to move, you just tilt the controller whichever way you want to go. The graphics in this are again, pretty great, and that plus the motion sensitive controller option makes racing through the desert on dirt bikes and trucks a whole lot of fun.
There's also a whole lot of other games Sony is releasing with the PS3 (like new Tekken, Sonic, etc) which are really just the same deal.
On the whole, at RRP of $999.95, the PS3 is not going to seem worth it for a lot of people. It's true the graphics are unmatched by any other console to date, but it seems like a lot of dosh for something you're only really ever going to use for gaming, despite what the Sony PR guy kept trying to tell us (you don't need ANYTHING else in the living room except your Sony TV and your new Sony PS3, how great is Sony, did I mention Sony is great?', etc.).
Anyway I'm not complaining. They had an orchestra there who played the intro to 'Final Fantasy XII' and something from the 'Shadow of the Colossus' soundtrack so I was happy. That and free beer.
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