Do you own a PS3?

[Harrison]

Does anyone here own a PS3 yet? And if so what do you think of it so far?

Also do you have it hooked up to an HD display and decent sound system?

I really do want a PS3, but I'm going to resist temptation and wait until later in the year when the price drops and some decent games are released.

[Demon Cleaner]

My resistance still stands, and I'm not excited much yet, but that can switch over in some seconds.

[Toasty667]

Too exepensive. A mate just got one and is annoyed at the fact there are no memory card slots to use his old save games. I have a pc and a ps2 so I'm happy atm.:)

[Harrison]

That is something I also thought strange. They developed the PS3 with backwards compatibility as a key feature, but then didn't bother including the PS1/2 card slot. Seems very odd to me. Especially if you compare it with the Wii. Nintendo did a great job with Gamecube compatibility by including all of the ports from the older system.

[AlexJ]

Two of my mates have got PS3's so I don't see much point in getting one myself.

I'm not too impressed with the graphics - although there's more detail in the background the main action doesn't seem much better (although it's on an SDTV) One of them's got a HD display coming so we'll see how it looks then.

The 3 games I've played are Motorstorm, Resistance and Ridge7. Oh and the GTHD demo/game. Motorstorm's OK with the ability to take several routes which cross over a nice touch compared to more linear racing games. The 'sixaxis' motion control is a gimmick though and I soon reverted to the analoguesticks. Resistance wasn't too impressive. FPS's aren't my favourite genre to be fair, but this didn't seem to offer anything over PC FPS games. Ridge Racer, good fun but essentially not too much new over the PS2 versions. Gran Turismo HD felt just like the PS2 version, albeit with slightly better looking background & spectators.

Having said that, it's still doing a good job keeping us away from the growing pile of assignments so it's good but the first generation of games aren't groundbreaking. Much better to come I feel.

[Harrison]

It will be interesting to see if your opinion changes at all once you play the PS3 with an HD display connected. Especially GT HD.

[Teho]

I have a PS3, got it at launch. And bought a 40" Full-HD LCD display the week after. :)

I'm pretty happy with it so far. I've only bought Motorstorm and Resistance for it, and gotten several of the downloadable games available. First off, I've never tried an Xbox 360 so I'm not even going to try and do any comparisons or anything like that.

First off, playing this on a 40" 1080p set looks Bloody Amazing, there's no denying that! I've also gotten some Blu-Ray movies and I just can't put into words how good the picture is while watching those on it.

But it is the games that's important isn't it. It's very true that the current lineup is pretty poor. Resistance and Motorstorm were the only two titles interesting me. Ridge Racer 7, Virtua Fighter and Genji being some other popular ones that I personally don't like much. Never was a Ridge Racer or Virtua Fighter fan, and Genji just.. wasn't for me.

Motorstorm is enjoyable for a while, but it does get old fast. Once you get over how good it looks, and how awesome some of the crashes can be (HUGE amount of parts coming loose from the vehicles and flying everywhere, axles, springs everything you can imagine can and will go flying), It all becomes pretty reptitive. There are only eight tracks, but each one is huge and have multiple routes. This being a key gameplay feature, it is important to pick the correct route for the vehicle you're currently driving. The muddy riverbeds are for example almost always the shortest route, but taking a bike or a rallycar into them is a very bad idea, better to take the longer but much straighter and flatter route with the rallycars, and the narrow, twisting, jump riddled mountain paths with the bikes. A huge truck on the other hand is not fast enough to follow the rallycars or manouverable enough to follow the bikes, but will plow through that mud (and most other vehicles) like it wasn't even there. There are eight or so different vehicle types to choose from, and knowing the characteristics of the one you're driving is equally as important as knowing the track you're on.

On top of that, the gimmick is that usually all or most of the different vehicle types are all racing at the same time. And the races are usually very chaotic with vehicles crashing all over the place, everyone fighting to get the best line for their vehicle while avoiding the ones that are bigger, and mowing down the ones that are smaller.

All in all it's pretty enjoyable, but for me it got old pretty fast.

Resistance on the other hand I find highly enjoyable. People say it's just your average FPS bringing nothing new, but I disagree. Either those people are wrong or I've not been playing the right games. Okay, it is a war FPS, and there's only so much you can do with a war FPS. So it does indeed not bring much new gameplay wise, except for a couple of nifty weapons perhaps (no surprise there I suppose, the game is by Insomniac who do the Jak and Daxter games). But it still isn't your average FPS in my opinion, it's a damn good one. It may be doing what's been done before, but it does it well. It tells a pretty cool story, set in England in an alternate 1950s setting where the second world war never happened. Instead, a race of strange creatures called Chimera appeared in Asia with superior technology and strenght, and started taking over the entire world. At the time the game is set, England has also fallen, and you're playing an american soldier (of course) fighting alongside british resistance members.

The game looks pretty good, the graphics have a lot of detail in them, and the areas you play in are very well designed. Be it war-torn suburbs with car wrecks and caved in buildings all over the place, or chimera bases with alien technology everywhere you look. And in full 5.1 surround it sounds the part too with bullets flying everywhere in my livingroom.

The multiplayer part is also great fun and you have a good variety of maps to play on, ranging from huge 30 and even a couple of 60-player maps to small 8-player ones. There's the standard gameplay modes like deathmatches and capture the flag, and a few others like Breach where two teams fight to invade the other's base and destroy their reactor, which can't be done without taking out a few other targets first.

Very enjoyable all in all I think, and I still play this quite a bit.

As for the downloadable games, they're all pretty cheap right now firstly, since there's a limited offer going that lasts till May 23. Gran Turismo HD is completely free, but there is only the one track and 10 cars. So it doesn't offer much but then again it doesn't cost anything either. It looks fantastic of course, that is not strange considering Gran Turismo always was about looks. It plays like every other Gran Turismo too, except there is also drift racing in it now. Which is damn hard, but very satisfying once you manage to pull off a couple of good ones.

Lemmings is also available. I don't know, is there some rule that says every single platform in existence must have a Lemmings game? It's still your ordinary 2D Lemmings game, as fun as always.

And there's PSP's Tekken Dark Resurrection of course. It's the same as the PSP game, only in 1920*1080 resolution. Looks great enough, and the gameplay hasn't changed. As if it ever will.

I do have some complaints with the system, but they're all with the networking and mediaplayer side of things. Firstly, the PS3 has wireless networking out of the box. Great. That's just to get an internet connection though. It refuses to network with your PC. That's right, there's no way to communicate with the PS3 across the network, or for it to communicate with the PC. If you want to transfer music, videos or images to it, you have to use some form of removable storage be it burning it to disc, USB storage or memory card. That's just horrendously stupid in my opinion, and something I'm sure will be corrected sometime in a future firmware upgrade. For now, there exist an alternate solution; Red Kawa File Server (http://www.redkawa.com/fileserver/). This sets up a simple FTP on your local network that you can access through the PS3's web browser. You're still only able to transfer files one at a time (making it a nightmare to move whole albums) so it isn't a perfect solution but it works. Hope they fix this soon.

Also, it does not support a lot of formats (yet, I'm sure that too will be added eventually). Worst is, it does not play .AVIs. No DivX then. And it doesn't play Ogg Vorbis audio either which is also a damn shame. The format is superior to MP3, completely free for anyone to use, so why not support it.

Those are the only gripes I have with it though, that and that the game lineup is pretty weak so far. I don't think it was too expensive, considering I'll be using most of it's features. If you want one solely for playing games and nothing else, then I agree that it is expensive.

So all in all I'm pretty satisfied with it. The game lineup is going to improve soon with some great titles around the corner, so I think it was well worth the purchase.

[Demon Cleaner]

They developed the PS3 with backwards compatibility as a key feature, but then didn't bother including the PS1/2 card slot.The PS2 is not compatible with PS1 memory cards either.

[AlexJ]

They developed the PS3 with backwards compatibility as a key feature, but then didn't bother including the PS1/2 card slot.The PS2 is not compatible with PS1 memory cards either.

But you could use PS1 memory cards for PS1 games on the PS2.

[Harrison]

In fact you have to use PS1 memory cards for PS1 games on the PS2. You can store the saves from PS1 cards on the larger PS2 cards, but not access it from a PS1 game. Limitation of the older PS1 software not knowing what the PS2 card is.

Some great thoughts there Teho. Which HDTV did you purchase?

That does seem mad regarding the inability to network the PS3 up to a PC network to share files. It seems this is currently one area the 360 has the PS3 beat. With the 360 you can connect it up to a local network and it will automatically extend itself into a media player for any content it can access on the network.

I suppose you could always run Linux on the PS3 and use the networking and media centre abilities available for it.

[Demon Cleaner]

First off, playing this on a 40" 1080p set looks Bloody AmazingDue to a greater resolution, LCD screens can display the 1080p signal, my plasma only does 1080i, but it also looks great in 720p, which I use with my HDMI DVD player.

I tried 1080i and 720p to compare both, but didn't barely see any difference, I think 720p is even the better configuration. Plasma must be over 50" to display 1080p.

[J T]

You've got a Panasonic 37PV50 right DC? I seem to remember that from the old forum. We've got the 37PX60 and it can accept 1080i signals but it rescales them (down) to it's own resolution which is what yours would be doing too. For that reason I set my HD cable box to output in 720p. I too barely noticed a difference in picture between outputting 1080 and 720 - and wasn't expecting it to really as the screen's native resolution isn't that high in compariosn to LCDs, so stuck with 720p (indeed, the onscreen programme guide text looks a little bit better when set to 720, as the screen isn't rescaling the picture and messing about with the signal so much).

I've always preferred the colour and motion on plasma over LCD, so what we lose in total pixel numbers we gain in other areas in my book.

Like I always say though, each to their own and the picture I like best may not be what others like best.

[Teho]

Some great thoughts there Teho. Which HDTV did you purchase?

A Samsung LE40F71. Pretty happy with it, it has the connectors I need, two HDMI and two Scart. Only bad thing is that it's PC connector is VGA, not DVI. But the PC image is more than good enough for me, so I'm not really complaining about that.


I tried 1080i and 720p to compare both, but didn't barely see any difference, I think 720p is even the better configuration. Plasma must be over 50" to display 1080p.

I know many agrees that 720p in fact is better than 1080i. I don't know all the details, but I do know that it's not only the difference beteen interlaced and progressive images. 1080i is "forcing" a 1080 resolution on a 720 screen. It's not the same full 1920*1080 that a 1080p screen is showing. So there really is a big difference between 1080p and 1080i, at least technically. I guess you'll need a sharp eye to spot the difference in reality though. I haven't actually watched a 1080i image that much, so honestly can't say if there's that much of a difference. The reason I went for a 1080p screen is that I have the PS3 which does 1080p. And I thought if you're going to blow a lot of money on a new set anyway, might as well go all the way. :)

[J T]

I would've like a plasma that could do 1080p but a 50 incher wouldn't really have sat right in our living room, and there was no way I could have talked the missus into it anyway :dry:

[Harrison]

I would've like a plasma that could do 1080p but a 50 incher wouldn't really have sat right in our living room, and there was no way I could have talked the missus into it anyway :dry:

Why is it that when women buy something and then "break" the news to you later you ave to agree what a nice purchase it was, whereas when we want to spend money on something we first are required to get approval from them? :unsure::blink:

[Demon Cleaner]

You've got a Panasonic 37PV50 right DC?Yep, it's the 37PV500E, to be exactly.

I've always preferred the colour and motion on plasma over LCD, so what we lose in total pixel numbers we gain in other areas in my book.I also preferred plasma, but in the last month, LCD gets better and better.

A Samsung LE40F71.Best screens you can get at the moment are Samsung, Panasonic and eventually Pioneer, who had problems with their latest plasmas, due to a foil behind the glass, which went slightly off, ruining the picture.

[J T]

I would've like a plasma that could do 1080p but a 50 incher wouldn't really have sat right in our living room, and there was no way I could have talked the missus into it anyway :dry:

Why is it that when women buy something and then "break" the news to you later you ave to agree what a nice purchase it was, whereas when we want to spend money on something we first are required to get approval from them? :unsure::blink:


Good point, but then handbags and shoes don't often run into multiple thousands and dominate the entire living room, to be fair :tease:

[Harrison]

I would've like a plasma that could do 1080p but a 50 incher wouldn't really have sat right in our living room, and there was no way I could have talked the missus into it anyway :dry:

Why is it that when women buy something and then "break" the news to you later you ave to agree what a nice purchase it was, whereas when we want to spend money on something we first are required to get approval from them? :unsure::blink:


Good point, but then handbags and shoes don't often run into multiple thousands and dominate the entire living room, to be fair :tease:

You sure about that? :eyebrow: They definitely do once the number of shoes (and the new handbag that is required to go with each new pair of shoes) starts to grow!

[J T]

That's what the wardrobe is for.

And the shoe rack.

And the cupboard in the hall.

And the spare bedroom.

And the garage.

And the loft.

Actually, I think you may well have a bloody good point there Harrison.

[Submeg]

Im pretty sure a house is used for the sole (BA BOOM!) purpose of housing shoes

[AlexJ]

Here's a good one. One of the guys I know with a PS3 tried to get the Spiderman3 game today. Of course Spiderman 3's a Sony film, so of course you'd expect the game to come out on their flagship console. The logos even use the same font:


http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/969/ps3sm3fx5.png

Turns out it's released on every other format (Wii, 360, PSP, PS2) but the PS3, where it'll be released in 10 days time (and 14 days in total after the other formats).

The different parts of Sony just don't speak to each other do they...

[Toasty667]

On the memory card subject aparently there will be an adaptor released I heard today. So that's some good news.

[Demon Cleaner]

I have Spiderman 3 (for PS2), but I didn't test it yet. It got some very bad reviews though, worst Spiderman game ever. As for the font, I already saw that when the PS3 got released, as Spiderman 2 already used the same font.

[AlexJ]

As for the font, I already saw that when the PS3 got released, as Spiderman 2 already used the same font.

So it does... and the first film as well. One has to ask then, why Sony decided to use a font that had been used on a 5-year old movie franchise on a £425 games console, when they already had a recognised PlayStation font and designing a new font would have cost a tiny fraction of the total development cost.

[Harrison]

There are only so many well designed fonts in existence that stand out and look different from each other. Maybe Sony already owned the rights to that Font so decided to use it again. Definitely looks OK in my view.

I think they wanted to give the PS3 more of a complete home entertainment feel with the new font, compared to the existing Playstation fonts used in the past that have mainly been associated with gaming only.

And that is good news about the memory card adaptor. Is that a Sony or third party product?

[Toasty667]

And that is good news about the memory card adaptor. Is that a Sony or third party product?

Both Sony and third parties will be making them.

[Harrison]

That's good. Although some third party devices are good, I always find you get a much better constructed product from Sony. And the plastics they use and finish is always better.

[Submeg]

Thank god for that...otherwise it would have been impossible to play FFXII

[Harrison]

Unless they release an updated HD version of FFXII for the PS3 that is! That could make me go out and purchase both a PS3 and HDTV within minutes of hearing such a release was due.

[Submeg]

I second that...

WAIT! imagine if they remade VII in HD!!!! DROOOOOL!

[Demon Cleaner]

WAIT! imagine if they remade VII in HD!!!! DROOOOOL!I think they will. I read something about it.

[Teho]

Thank god for that...otherwise it would have been impossible to play FFXII

Just want to point out that you can save PS2 and PS1 games on the PS3. You can create virtual ps1 and ps2 memorycards on the PS3 HD, and assign them to virtual memorycard-slots which the PS1 and PS2 emulators will recognise as the real thing. It's just transferring your old saves from real memorycards that's the problem.

[Harrison]

Not sure about that. There are always rumours about FFVII floating around, but Square/Enix did state that it was the end of FFVII when FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus was released.

But with such a famous franchise and such a huge fan base for that specific game in the series I think they would be mad not to build on it and either remake the original VII, or create an epic sequel that incorporated the original, but updated version.

[Demon Cleaner]

This is what I read:
Square-Enix announced their company strategies shifted in remakes of PS1 RPGs today. So FF VII is confirmed.

PS3 gets FF VII in 1080p with Unreal Engine 3 style graphics. (Square-Enix licensed this from Epic.) Final Fantasy XIII uses the white engine.

The Final Fantasy VII demo was using an early white engine build. This new game will look like Gears of War.

[Submeg]

Just do a remake...the game was soooo good, yet sooo bad at the same time. If only you could see where you were going...

[Harrison]

Thank god for that...otherwise it would have been impossible to play FFXII

Just want to point out that you can save PS2 and PS1 games on the PS3. You can create virtual ps1 and ps2 memorycards on the PS3 HD, and assign them to virtual memorycard-slots which the PS1 and PS2 emulators will recognise as the real thing. It's just transferring your old saves from real memorycards that's the problem.

Cool, I didn't know about that feature. That is definitely a great solution and much better than needing to rely on the older legacy memory cards. It also means you don't have to hunt for ages to find a card with some space on it.

Are the virtual cards created with the same amount of space as the originals? 15 blocks for PS1 and 8MB for PS2? or can they be creating in different sizes?

I will still probably get a legacy card reader for the PS3 once I get one just so I can transfer all my saves over.

[Harrison]

This is what I read:
Square-Enix announced their company strategies shifted in remakes of PS1 RPGs today. So FF VII is confirmed.

PS3 gets FF VII in 1080p with Unreal Engine 3 style graphics. (Square-Enix licensed this from Epic.) Final Fantasy XIII uses the white engine.

The Final Fantasy VII demo was using an early white engine build. This new game will look like Gears of War.

Ah, I remember the news that Square-Enix had licensed the Unreal 3 engine. This will be really cool if it becomes reality.

Lets just hope they don't change their minds and instead release a poorly realised port on the DS instead! FF3 anyone?

[Submeg]

Yea that would be a shame...:nono:

[Teho]

Are the virtual cards created with the same amount of space as the originals? 15 blocks for PS1 and 8MB for PS2? or can they be creating in different sizes?

No, they're just the standard 15-block/8MB ones. But you can create as many as you want. And then you just choose which to assign to which slot. There's a Memory Card Utility in the PS3 Menu that does the job, and does all the managing of them. Once created you can manage them just like you could with the real ones, browse them, copy saves from one to the other and so on.

I haven't needed to, but needing to change cards while in-game may be a problem. I'm not sure if you can do that, or have to quit to the PS3 menu in order to do it. Will have to check.

[Harrison]

But I think most people would just use one virtual card per game so that wouldn't really be much of an issue.

[Submeg]

But how do you read your previous saves that are already existing?

[Teho]

You mean from your old cards? Well that's the problem isn't it. If you're able to get the saves from your cards onto your PC, then you can transfer them to the PS3. But of course, most people aren't able to do that. Getting that adaptor is the only solution it seems.


But I think most people would just use one virtual card per game so that wouldn't really be much of an issue.

Agree. But I know the way I usually find out that a card is full is when a game fails to save onto it. Being able to switch virtual cards without quitting the game would be good then. I did check yesterday, and you can in fact do that so no problem then.

[Submeg]

Hmm...that sucks, especially when I have 50+ hours of gameplay on FFX and finished MGS and all its variants many times to unlock items..

[Harrison]

In which case you will need to buy the memory card adaptor for the PS3 so you can transfer from over.

That is good that you can switch virtual cards while in a game. Does it also allow the creation of a new virtual card while in a game?

the way I usually find out that a card is full is when a game fails to save onto it.I tend to be the same with memory cards, only realising I'm out of space while playing a game. It has been annoying recently because I completely ran out of space on all of my PS2 memory cards mid game so lost 3 hours of gameplay on the RPG Steambot Chronicles. I really should check such things before starting to play a game for hours.

[v85rawdeal]

Maybe Sony (or a third party) could, shock horror, take a leaf out of Microsoft's book and produce a controller for the PS3 that has a memory card slot.

There are probably hundreds of reasons why not, but hey, it would work for me.

[Harrison]

That method worked fine on the N64, Dreamcast and Xbox so I cannot see why they couldn't do it. Equally I would like to see a PS3 pad with rumble added back in!

[Demon Cleaner]

Equally I would like to see a PS3 pad with rumble added back in!I think they're gonna add the feature in their next controller releases.

[Teho]

Does it also allow the creation of a new virtual card while in a game?

No, it doesn't. Best to have at least one with plenty of space handy. When choosing which card to assign from that ingame menu it also lists how much space is left on each one, so at least you don't have to keep trying them all until you find one with enough space on it.

[AlexJ]

When choosing which card to assign from that ingame menu it also lists how much space is left on each one, so at least you don't have to keep trying them all until you find one with enough space on it.

That's good, I remember having an 8MB memory card on the PS1, and having to cycle through the pages trying to find a free space. The refresh in the memory card manager was about 20 seconds per page.

[Harrison]

I remember the same. I also had a 8MB memory card for the PS1 and often had to do that to find space. Quite annoying, but better than having a stack of 8 cards.