Speaking of name-calling, remember the Sega Dreamcast? It was a great piece of hardware, too. In fact, some homebrew programmers are making a PS2 emulator for the Dreamcast--some claim it even runs faster than the PS2 itself. Many actually consider it the first next-gen game system before the PS2 and XBox, even though it came out around the time of the PS1. However Sega's marketing strategy was not to tout how good its hardware was, but how bad the competition was.
Remember "Sega does what Nintendon't"? How about the little brat in the TV commercial throwing his PS1 out the window and shooting it with a pistol? I'll bet it was things like this that led to Sega's downfall. Many people who already owned a PS1 and N64 were offended by these statements and chose not to buy a Dreamcast on those grounds alone. These were early adopters that would have gladly bought a Dreamcast otherwise. Sega tried to tell people to throw away everything else and buy only their products. As such, we know where the Dreamcast ended up--discontinued a couple years after its release. Since then, we've seen precious little from them at all since the early 2000s...
Smear campaigns rarely get you anywhere, in fact they ususally lead to nothing more than a bad image and resentment from its customers.
...By the way, wasn't the PS3 supposed to come in three colors: white, silver and black? If that's the case, how come I've only seen a black version?... If they later decide to, or have already released that white one, they may just increase my chances of buying one up to 2%.
I still have my Dreamcast. It was a great console; really powerful for its time and it had lots of great games. It was also the first console to really offer a rich online gaming experience, even if it was only over a 56k line.
The real reason the Dreamcast never made it however was that Sega was too far in debt by the time it was released. After the success of the Sega Genesis, they really screwed up big time by releasing way too much hardware in too short a period - they had the Sega CD (a CD based gaming add-on for the Genesis), the Sega CDX (a Genesis/Sega CD combo), the Sega 32x (a 32bit add-on for the Genesis), and the overpriced but underpowered Sega Saturn. They really fragmented their market and simply didn't have the infrastructure (or the money) to support all those systems and went heavily into debt. It also led to a lot of consumer confusion and downright bad blood.
It turned out the Sega CD was such a resource hog that most games looked and played worse than their cartidge versions. And people who bought the 32X add-on were understandably PO'd when only a dozen games were released for it and the Saturn was announced a short time later. Sega also committed a major design boner with the Saturn by first going very conservative with the specs and then, at the very last minute, adding a second processor chip when they heard about what Sony was developing. This made the console very hard to program for and most games really looked and played poorly. When Sony came along with the relatively inexpensive PS1, Sega was in really deep trouble. The PS1 was relatively easy to develop for and the games looked so much better right out of the gate. Developers and consumers abandoned Sega in droves.
By the end of the 32 bit era, Sega's only chance at survival was to kill all their disparate product lines, focus on one new console: the Dreamcast, and pray that it would fly off shelves. They almost made it; the Dreamcast was a big success for the first few months of its life and sold really well; but once Sony started touting the capabilities of the PS2 and its "Jurassic Park quality graphics", the buzz quickly died, sales sputtered and Sega quietly left the hardware business. Of course, the real irony here is that the PS2 was nowhere near as powerful as Sony would have had us believe; and for the first year of its life it had nothing. Still, it didn't matter. By that time, Sega was so far in the red it had to choice but to concede the hardware battle, write off most of its debts and assets and become a console-agnostic, software only developer.
As for the PS3, I'd also read that it was supposed to come out in multiple colors. I think that idea died a long time ago though when Sony realized how expensive it would be to make these things.
Hey, thanks for the explanation, Tony. I had always read that it was the smear campaign that did Sega in... It's kind of sad when you think about it. I never did get a Dreamcast, but I remember seeing all kinds of add-ons and things for it. Particularly those memory cards with LCD screens and virtual pet mini-games and whatnot. I also remember hearing it was the first console to come out with online play.
This is off the subject, but I'm sure you've heard all the buzz about Halo 3. Even the classic rock radio station was talking about Master Chief yesterday! It seems that as of late, good old Chief has gained as much of a cult status as Luke Skywalker. :O That said, the game looks like it will live up to the hype. I played the original Halo on PC. Absoultely brilliant. The shooting was great fun and very user-friendly. As far as the story goes, I would have loved to have seen the rumored Halo movie made into production...
I may just go get an XBox 360. With all this talk of the Chief, resistance is futile, I'm sure... I saw one at GameStop for $280. I'm assuming that's the core system and that the Premium version isn't that much more... B-)
There's plenty of chat about Halo 3 over on the Xbox games thread. I've already pre-ordered my copy, as have a few other folks around here.
The Core 360 is $280; the Premium is $350. The premium is a better deal as it includes a 20GB hard drive, wireless gamepad, headset, and standard/hi-def AV cables. You really need the hard drive once you start downloading game content and it also means you don't need a memory card to save your games. Once you add the price of a memory card to the core, you're more than half-way to the cost of the Premium.
There's plenty of chat about Halo 3 over on the Xbox games thread. I've already pre-ordered my copy, as have a few other folks around here.
I'm thinking of purchasing Halo 3 for my partner. Would you recommend that I do so?
NightshooterIn bed with SolitairePosts: 2,917MI6 Agent
Only if you want an edition that isn't the regular edition. If you're fine with the $60 regular version, every retailer will have many of those. But if you want some of the more limited editions, I'd preorder.
As I wade thru middle age, I find myself questioning the choices I've made in my life and am more and more uncertain about what the future holds. Do I like my job? Should I find a girl and settle down before it's too late? Will I ever be able to enjoy a new James Bond movie again?
When I start to focus on such dark and disturbing thoughts, the only way out of it ... is to spend some money. So here's my latest toy, one of the new, slimmer PSP's. This model, the PSP2001, has a slightly smaller footprint, better battery life, a brighter screen, and can even output to a TV or monitor. In addition to playing games (many of which can be had for $10 these days) the PSP can also stream music and videos via a USB port and can even double as an MP3 player. It also has a nifty little mini-web browser.
Here's a pic of the latest addition to the family, pointed to everyone's favorite website. Click on the pic for a larger image...
Anyone else contemplating buying a ps3 just for Time Crisis 4. This is a release that could sway me to buy one.
Does that game use a light gun? Because if it does, it probably wouldn't work with newer hi-def TV's. I wouldn't be surprised if they made you use the Sixaxis controller as a kind of pointing device for where to "shoot" but based on how it plays with other games (like Lair) I wouldn't be too optimistic.
Sony is going to be releasing a less expensive PS3 in November. It will only come with 2 USB ports and a 40GB drive (it's rumored that it will retail for $399 in America). However, this new model will have no backward compatibility support whatsoever for older PS1 or PS2 games. If that's not an issue for you, you may want to wait for that version and save some money.
The PS3 is a great BluRay/DVD player and media hub for streaming music, pictures and videos from your PC. But as a games machine, it's still struggling mightily - most exclusive titles simply aren't very good and the cross-platform games usually look and play better on the 360. I've had mine for about three months and have bought and kept a grand total of two games for it.
Apparently it's going to use sensor bars like the wii so you can use the gun on HD LCD screens. I have no use for the media functions or blu-ray functions as my pc is connected directly for that. So I'd basically be buying a £300 games console to play 1 game. I could get the original time crisis arcade machine for that. No other games really appeal to me either and my wii and 360 have been redundant for the last 4 months. Might just buy it and sell on straight after hopefully without too much loss.
Last week I finally got my hands on a PS3. I got it for 499euros with 2 games; Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm and I have also bought Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.
I toyed with the idea of an Xbox 360 but I really dislike the controllers and have always preffered the games that are exclusive to the Ps system, MGS etc and the PS3 exclusive games appeal to me more than the xbox ones.
I have a standard definition tv and all the games look absolutely fantastic. It's not even a good SD tv, its absolutely crap to be honest and everything still looks fantastic.
It's not quite as good graphically as my brothers xbox 360 but its not as far off as some would have you beleive.
There are some really good looking games coming soon. Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Haze and Assassins Creed all look really good.
1- On Her Majesty's Secret Service 2- Casino Royale 3- Licence To Kill 4- Goldeneye 5- From Russia With Love
Congratulations on your purchase Jamesbondjr. While I prefer the 360 over my PS3 when it comes to games, there's no denying that the PS3 is a solid and versatile piece of hardware. If you have a PC, you'll find that the PS3 makes a great media hub for streaming videos, pictures and music. And if you ever pick up a high-def TV, its an excellent BluRay player as well.
Resistance has been my favorite game for it thus far; I also picked up the new Ratchet and Clank game yesterday. Let us know what you think of the games. {[]
I have to agree about games, the 360 has the edge at the moment due to the lack of decent titles for the PS3. Don't get me wrong there are some good games out, there are just more good games for the 360. I'm sure it will even out over time.
It's a nice change to hear someone talk rationally about both PS3 and 360, more often than not it's one or the other and people just resort to insulting the other console, it's pretty pathetic! When will people realise they can enjoy both 8-)
I'm working away from home at the moment, so I'll be able to enjoy my ps3 in HD when I get back in december. Can't wait
As for the games, I have only briefly played Motorstorm. It's a good racer but it doesn't get a look in, with Resistance and Pro Evo taking up my time at the moment. Resistance is very good and looks great but the gameplay is nothing new really, a bit linear and similar Call of Duty, with a sci-fi twist and better graphics. The animations and enemy AI are a lot better, but thats to be expected.
Pro Evo is good also, it tries a little to hard to incorporate real life variables into gameplay though I.E. balls ricocheting off players or taking awkward bounces. They happen a little too often. Having said that, the opposition really does find your weakness and exploit it, forcing you to re-evaluate your tactics constantly.
As I said before though, its future releases I am most eager for. Especially Drakes Fortune, I have seen a few videos of gameplay now and it looks unbeleivable, right up my street. As does Assassins Creed. November and December might see me turn into a hermit
1- On Her Majesty's Secret Service 2- Casino Royale 3- Licence To Kill 4- Goldeneye 5- From Russia With Love
Oh, I've taken more than my fair share of potshots at Sony (and Microsoft while we're at it) when they make boneheaded decisions. Sony really screwed up the rollout and support of the PS3 and continue to pay for it to this day.
Resistance struck me as Halo meets Call of Duty. As you say, it wasn't particularly original but still well done within its genre. The game was developed by Insomniac, who also did the just released Ratchet and Clank game. They're one of the few development houses who really seem to have their act together when it comes to releasing polished PS3 games.
Going forward, the PS3's exclusive games are what I'll be curious about. I've found that cross-platform games like the forthcoming Assasin's Creed usually look and play better on the 360. On the other hand, properties like Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Dexter, God of War, and Gran Tourismo will always be Sony exclusives. As you say, the ideal solution is to have both.
BTW, if you have a Sony PSP it interfaces nicely with the PS3. Certain PS3 games can actually be streamed down to and played thru the PS3 and you can even stream media from your PC down to your PS3 and from there down to the PSP, all over a wireless internet connection. There's some pretty impressive technology behind that.
On the other hand, properties like Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Dexter, God of War, and Gran Tourismo will always be Sony exclusives.
Don't forget Metal Gear Solid. There was seculation that this too would be also released on 360 but it has recently been confirmed as a ps3 exclusive.
I have a psp but haven't set it up with the ps3 yet. I need an internet connection to my ps3 to enable atrac playback, or so it says. I don't have a connection to my ps3 yet.
1- On Her Majesty's Secret Service 2- Casino Royale 3- Licence To Kill 4- Goldeneye 5- From Russia With Love
Sorry, but I just never got the appeal of those Metal Gear games. I remember trying MGS for the Playstation 1 and then MGS2 for the Xbox and neither did anything for me. Kojima's storylines and characters are just too bizarre and outlandish for my tastes. I also hate how so much of the game focuses on cinemas and endless dialog. Not my kind of game at all, I'm afraid.
I'm actually pretty eclectic and enjoy just about every genre other than RTS games, which I never had the patience for, and fighting games, which I burned out on after years and years of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.
I'm always on the lookout for a good racing game, a first person shooter or a 3rd person action game. Lately, I've been playing a lot of Forza Motorsport, Project Gotham Racing, F1, Resistance, and Halo 3.
Poor guy's PS3 went on the blink. Since it was under warranty, he sent it back. Sony refused to repair it due to 'excessive dust' inside the unit, amounting to 'negligence'. The only problem is that in order to clean the inside, the guy would have had to open it up...which wuld have voided the warranty. Now Sony's leaving the guy high and dry. 8-)
Poor guy's PS3 went on the blink. Since it was under warranty, he sent it back. Sony refused to repair it due to 'excessive dust' inside the unit, amounting to 'negligence'. The only problem is that in order to clean the inside, the guy would have had to open it up...which wuld have voided the warranty. Now Sony's leaving the guy high and dry. 8-)
My experience with Sony support is similar (they refused to honor the warrantry on my son's PS 2), which is why I refuse to buy any Sony product ever again. Not that I hold a grudge or anything.
Some of the items addressing Sony's bad decision making in this thread contributed mightily to my decision to NOT buying a PS3. It's either an Xbox or a Wii, but I haven't made the jump yet.
Some of the items addressing Sony's bad decision making in this thread contributed mightily to my decision to NOT buying a PS3. It's either an Xbox or a Wii, but I haven't made the jump yet.
I also had a couple of bad experiences with Sony back in my PS2 days. I had two consoles die on me right after the 1 year warranty had expired. In both cases, the DVD drive had failed and in both cases Sony was not at all helpful. That caused me to avoid Sony videogame hardware for about 6 years.
The PS3 seems to be a more durable piece of hardware (knocks wood); it's a great entertainment hub and BluRay DVD player and the games are starting to get better (Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction has become one of my favorite titles). But yeah, caveat emptor.
As to being undecided between Wii and 360; if you can't live without Nintendo's first party IP's (ie: Mario, Metroid, Zelda, etc.) then you don't really have a choice. But if those games aren't that important to you then I'd strongly recommend the 360. The Wii is a badly underpowered piece of hardware and just about all 3rd party games are uniformly lousy with very bland graphics and really bad Wiimote controls. Once you see some 360 games, there really is no going back to Nintendo's cutesy games. All my opinion of course.
I have just sold my Wii and my 360 is on ebay at the moment.
I thought I might try a ps3. Can someone tell me if I can playback movie files including hd films from a portable usb hard drive through the ps3 onto my tv. If it can do this, that would make it a very useful piece of kit for me.
NightshooterIn bed with SolitairePosts: 2,917MI6 Agent
I have just sold my Wii and my 360 is on ebay at the moment.
I thought I might try a ps3. Can someone tell me if I can playback movie files including hd films from a portable usb hard drive through the ps3 onto my tv. If it can do this, that would make it a very useful piece of kit for me.
Not sure about the PS3, but you could have streamed the stuff from your comp to the 360. Too late, I guess.
I have just sold my Wii and my 360 is on ebay at the moment.
I thought I might try a ps3. Can someone tell me if I can playback movie files including hd films from a portable usb hard drive through the ps3 onto my tv. If it can do this, that would make it a very useful piece of kit for me.
Not sure about the PS3, but you could have streamed the stuff from your comp to the 360. Too late, I guess.
To the best of my knowledge, the PS3 only currently supports the MPEG formats (MPEG1/MPEG2/MPEG4) for playback. If you have anything else, I think you'll have to convert them to one of those formats. Here's a page with all the supported formats:
To the best of my knowledge, the PS3 only currently supports the MPEG formats (MPEG1/MPEG2/MPEG4) for playback. If you have anything else, I think you'll have to convert them to one of those formats.
If you want to play downloaded video files on your TV, the very best thing to do is buy a DivX player. Of course, this will require burning files to a DVD+R, but there is free burning software out there that works wonders. Most downloaded video files are in DivX or its derivatives. Some DVD players come with DivX playback capability. I know mine does, and it's been one of the most useful pieces of hardware I've ever bought. Of course, hi-def is probably another story, but there may be HD DivX players out there.
Before I bought a DivX player, I used to convert video files to MPEG, and I can tell you that doing so is extremely time consuming (if you want the quality to be remotely good). You can convert files to MPEG and play them on a standard DVD player, but the space required on a disc is far more than if you just burned the DivX files themselves. Not to mention that converting to MPEG causes the file to lose picture quality. Then there's audio sync, which is notoriously bad when converting to MPEG...
Maybe I somehow did everything the hard way, but converting to MPEG was an absolute nightmare for me... The DivX player was a godsend.
Thanks for the responses. I had a nightmare playing anything through my 360. It would always been unsupported. There is no point in streaming from my pc. I might as well have connected my pc to the tv. I have over 500 films and quite a lot of .mkv. I haven't got the time to burn these or convert them. Think the best option is to buy a laptop or PC to play through. It's a shame because I wanted a ps3 for Time Crisis 4. Can't warrant buying it just for that though.
Got a few games and stuff on ebay if anyone is interested. Username: bjnsharp
I've been thinking about Sony and its Bluray format lately. I really don't have anything hi-def capable yet, so the switch for me will take a while. For now, I am perfectly happy with my DVDs--which brings a question to my mind. What is going to happen to DVDs in the near future? Anything in high definition right now is very expensive, so I'm sure I'm not the only one who's waiting to make the switch.
I was planning on waiting until the format wars were over to make the switch, but I didn't think they'd end this fast...
I know it's old news, but I've been busy... ;% I thought the format wars would go on through my college years. However now we know that Toshiba has abandoned the HD-DVD format, so it's all up to Bluray. Popular Mechanics says that the future of movies could still be downloadable, which I think is rubbish unless you're talking about Bittorrent. I don't think paid movie downloads are going to go very far--at least I won't be buying them. When I finally decided to download a 99 cent song, I expected lossless quality, not a simple 128Kbps MP3. If one wants a 128 bitrate MP3, they can easily go to Limewire. I personally see films as having the same fate--choppy, grainy video "optimized for your connection. I'm a perfectionist, and I think that when you pay for something, you should get full quality. But not everyone's a perfectionist...
Since Bluray can hold almost twice the amount of space an HD-DVD can hold, I would have bet my money on Bluray. But with HD-DVD gone, I suppose the real question is will plain old DVDs be phased out any time soon? I know VHS took a long time to go away (just very recently, in fact--about ten years after DVD's release, if I remember correctly), who thinks--or hopes the same will happen with DVDs? Any other thoughts on the format wars or downloadable movies?
I don't think standard def DVD is going anywhere anytime soon. And in any rate every single BluRay player is backwardly compatible with standard DVD's and even upscales them (the PS3 does great upscaling BTW).
Having said that, I read an article recently that said BluRay sales have finally started to make a measurable impact on standard DVDs. The end of the format war means that people no longer need to agonize about which way to go anymore and I think this will lead to more and more people taking the plunge.
I also don't think that the ability to download movies will kill the DVD/BluRay market. As you say, the picture and sound quality of downloaded movies, while definitely very good, still isn't anywhere near a true 1080p film mastered for BluRay. I also think people just like having something tangible in hand when they shell out $20 or more. Also, the infrastructure still really isn't in place yet for everyone to be able to download movies quickly and conveniently; it can take an hour or more to download a movie from Xbox Live and the pricing system is very unbalanced (5 minute cartoons cost the same as some full length TV episodes). The technology needs to mature A LOT before it become viable for the mass market.
Finally, a word of warning Sly; you sound like a budding videophile - once you've had a taste of properly mastered BluRay movies on a good HDTV, there really is no going back to standard def. Whether its newer movies (like Casino Royale) or older catalog titles (such as BladeRunner and 2001) that have gotten good transfers, the jump in visual fidelity that BluRay affords really makes a difference. Now that I've been spoiled, I've really changed my buying habits and hardly buy any standard def DVD's anymore.
BTW, just as an aside, I've been playing around with TVersity for streaming audio, video and pics to my PS3 and 360 (it also works nicely with my PSP). Its a great little freeware program that so far has worked really well. It can even convert video codecs on the fly and seems to run a fair bit faster and supports far more formats than even Windows Media Player. Definitely worth a look for anyone interested in streaming media from a PC to other devices.
Comments
Remember "Sega does what Nintendon't"? How about the little brat in the TV commercial throwing his PS1 out the window and shooting it with a pistol? I'll bet it was things like this that led to Sega's downfall. Many people who already owned a PS1 and N64 were offended by these statements and chose not to buy a Dreamcast on those grounds alone. These were early adopters that would have gladly bought a Dreamcast otherwise. Sega tried to tell people to throw away everything else and buy only their products. As such, we know where the Dreamcast ended up--discontinued a couple years after its release. Since then, we've seen precious little from them at all since the early 2000s...
Smear campaigns rarely get you anywhere, in fact they ususally lead to nothing more than a bad image and resentment from its customers.
...By the way, wasn't the PS3 supposed to come in three colors: white, silver and black? If that's the case, how come I've only seen a black version?... If they later decide to, or have already released that white one, they may just increase my chances of buying one up to 2%.
[img=http://gearmedia.ign.com/gear/image/article/709/709082/sonys-huge-playstation-3-bet-20060517045210965.jpg]I'll admit, that is one fine looking piece of hardware...
The real reason the Dreamcast never made it however was that Sega was too far in debt by the time it was released. After the success of the Sega Genesis, they really screwed up big time by releasing way too much hardware in too short a period - they had the Sega CD (a CD based gaming add-on for the Genesis), the Sega CDX (a Genesis/Sega CD combo), the Sega 32x (a 32bit add-on for the Genesis), and the overpriced but underpowered Sega Saturn. They really fragmented their market and simply didn't have the infrastructure (or the money) to support all those systems and went heavily into debt. It also led to a lot of consumer confusion and downright bad blood.
It turned out the Sega CD was such a resource hog that most games looked and played worse than their cartidge versions. And people who bought the 32X add-on were understandably PO'd when only a dozen games were released for it and the Saturn was announced a short time later. Sega also committed a major design boner with the Saturn by first going very conservative with the specs and then, at the very last minute, adding a second processor chip when they heard about what Sony was developing. This made the console very hard to program for and most games really looked and played poorly. When Sony came along with the relatively inexpensive PS1, Sega was in really deep trouble. The PS1 was relatively easy to develop for and the games looked so much better right out of the gate. Developers and consumers abandoned Sega in droves.
By the end of the 32 bit era, Sega's only chance at survival was to kill all their disparate product lines, focus on one new console: the Dreamcast, and pray that it would fly off shelves. They almost made it; the Dreamcast was a big success for the first few months of its life and sold really well; but once Sony started touting the capabilities of the PS2 and its "Jurassic Park quality graphics", the buzz quickly died, sales sputtered and Sega quietly left the hardware business. Of course, the real irony here is that the PS2 was nowhere near as powerful as Sony would have had us believe; and for the first year of its life it had nothing. Still, it didn't matter. By that time, Sega was so far in the red it had to choice but to concede the hardware battle, write off most of its debts and assets and become a console-agnostic, software only developer.
As for the PS3, I'd also read that it was supposed to come out in multiple colors. I think that idea died a long time ago though when Sony realized how expensive it would be to make these things.
This is off the subject, but I'm sure you've heard all the buzz about Halo 3. Even the classic rock radio station was talking about Master Chief yesterday! It seems that as of late, good old Chief has gained as much of a cult status as Luke Skywalker. :O That said, the game looks like it will live up to the hype. I played the original Halo on PC. Absoultely brilliant. The shooting was great fun and very user-friendly. As far as the story goes, I would have loved to have seen the rumored Halo movie made into production...
I may just go get an XBox 360. With all this talk of the Chief, resistance is futile, I'm sure...
The Core 360 is $280; the Premium is $350. The premium is a better deal as it includes a 20GB hard drive, wireless gamepad, headset, and standard/hi-def AV cables. You really need the hard drive once you start downloading game content and it also means you don't need a memory card to save your games. Once you add the price of a memory card to the core, you're more than half-way to the cost of the Premium.
When I start to focus on such dark and disturbing thoughts, the only way out of it ... is to spend some money. So here's my latest toy, one of the new, slimmer PSP's. This model, the PSP2001, has a slightly smaller footprint, better battery life, a brighter screen, and can even output to a TV or monitor. In addition to playing games (many of which can be had for $10 these days) the PSP can also stream music and videos via a USB port and can even double as an MP3 player. It also has a nifty little mini-web browser.
Here's a pic of the latest addition to the family, pointed to everyone's favorite website. Click on the pic for a larger image...
Does that game use a light gun? Because if it does, it probably wouldn't work with newer hi-def TV's. I wouldn't be surprised if they made you use the Sixaxis controller as a kind of pointing device for where to "shoot" but based on how it plays with other games (like Lair) I wouldn't be too optimistic.
Sony is going to be releasing a less expensive PS3 in November. It will only come with 2 USB ports and a 40GB drive (it's rumored that it will retail for $399 in America). However, this new model will have no backward compatibility support whatsoever for older PS1 or PS2 games. If that's not an issue for you, you may want to wait for that version and save some money.
The PS3 is a great BluRay/DVD player and media hub for streaming music, pictures and videos from your PC. But as a games machine, it's still struggling mightily - most exclusive titles simply aren't very good and the cross-platform games usually look and play better on the 360. I've had mine for about three months and have bought and kept a grand total of two games for it.
I toyed with the idea of an Xbox 360 but I really dislike the controllers and have always preffered the games that are exclusive to the Ps system, MGS etc and the PS3 exclusive games appeal to me more than the xbox ones.
I have a standard definition tv and all the games look absolutely fantastic. It's not even a good SD tv, its absolutely crap to be honest and everything still looks fantastic.
It's not quite as good graphically as my brothers xbox 360 but its not as far off as some would have you beleive.
There are some really good looking games coming soon. Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Haze and Assassins Creed all look really good.
Resistance has been my favorite game for it thus far; I also picked up the new Ratchet and Clank game yesterday. Let us know what you think of the games. {[]
It's a nice change to hear someone talk rationally about both PS3 and 360, more often than not it's one or the other and people just resort to insulting the other console, it's pretty pathetic! When will people realise they can enjoy both 8-)
I'm working away from home at the moment, so I'll be able to enjoy my ps3 in HD when I get back in december. Can't wait
As for the games, I have only briefly played Motorstorm. It's a good racer but it doesn't get a look in, with Resistance and Pro Evo taking up my time at the moment. Resistance is very good and looks great but the gameplay is nothing new really, a bit linear and similar Call of Duty, with a sci-fi twist and better graphics. The animations and enemy AI are a lot better, but thats to be expected.
Pro Evo is good also, it tries a little to hard to incorporate real life variables into gameplay though I.E. balls ricocheting off players or taking awkward bounces. They happen a little too often. Having said that, the opposition really does find your weakness and exploit it, forcing you to re-evaluate your tactics constantly.
As I said before though, its future releases I am most eager for. Especially Drakes Fortune, I have seen a few videos of gameplay now and it looks unbeleivable, right up my street. As does Assassins Creed. November and December might see me turn into a hermit
Resistance struck me as Halo meets Call of Duty. As you say, it wasn't particularly original but still well done within its genre. The game was developed by Insomniac, who also did the just released Ratchet and Clank game. They're one of the few development houses who really seem to have their act together when it comes to releasing polished PS3 games.
Going forward, the PS3's exclusive games are what I'll be curious about. I've found that cross-platform games like the forthcoming Assasin's Creed usually look and play better on the 360. On the other hand, properties like Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Dexter, God of War, and Gran Tourismo will always be Sony exclusives. As you say, the ideal solution is to have both.
BTW, if you have a Sony PSP it interfaces nicely with the PS3. Certain PS3 games can actually be streamed down to and played thru the PS3 and you can even stream media from your PC down to your PS3 and from there down to the PSP, all over a wireless internet connection. There's some pretty impressive technology behind that.
Don't forget Metal Gear Solid. There was seculation that this too would be also released on 360 but it has recently been confirmed as a ps3 exclusive.
I have a psp but haven't set it up with the ps3 yet. I need an internet connection to my ps3 to enable atrac playback, or so it says. I don't have a connection to my ps3 yet.
What type of games do you play most often?
I'm actually pretty eclectic and enjoy just about every genre other than RTS games, which I never had the patience for, and fighting games, which I burned out on after years and years of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.
I'm always on the lookout for a good racing game, a first person shooter or a 3rd person action game. Lately, I've been playing a lot of Forza Motorsport, Project Gotham Racing, F1, Resistance, and Halo 3.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/industries/technology/article/sony-gamer-excessive-dust-voids-ps3-warranty_366866_12.html
Poor guy's PS3 went on the blink. Since it was under warranty, he sent it back. Sony refused to repair it due to 'excessive dust' inside the unit, amounting to 'negligence'. The only problem is that in order to clean the inside, the guy would have had to open it up...which wuld have voided the warranty. Now Sony's leaving the guy high and dry. 8-)
My experience with Sony support is similar (they refused to honor the warrantry on my son's PS 2), which is why I refuse to buy any Sony product ever again. Not that I hold a grudge or anything.
I also had a couple of bad experiences with Sony back in my PS2 days. I had two consoles die on me right after the 1 year warranty had expired. In both cases, the DVD drive had failed and in both cases Sony was not at all helpful. That caused me to avoid Sony videogame hardware for about 6 years.
The PS3 seems to be a more durable piece of hardware (knocks wood); it's a great entertainment hub and BluRay DVD player and the games are starting to get better (Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction has become one of my favorite titles). But yeah, caveat emptor.
As to being undecided between Wii and 360; if you can't live without Nintendo's first party IP's (ie: Mario, Metroid, Zelda, etc.) then you don't really have a choice. But if those games aren't that important to you then I'd strongly recommend the 360. The Wii is a badly underpowered piece of hardware and just about all 3rd party games are uniformly lousy with very bland graphics and really bad Wiimote controls. Once you see some 360 games, there really is no going back to Nintendo's cutesy games. All my opinion of course.
I thought I might try a ps3. Can someone tell me if I can playback movie files including hd films from a portable usb hard drive through the ps3 onto my tv. If it can do this, that would make it a very useful piece of kit for me.
Not sure about the PS3, but you could have streamed the stuff from your comp to the 360. Too late, I guess.
To the best of my knowledge, the PS3 only currently supports the MPEG formats (MPEG1/MPEG2/MPEG4) for playback. If you have anything else, I think you'll have to convert them to one of those formats. Here's a page with all the supported formats:
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/742/742009p1.html
As for the 360, here's a page on what it supports; definitely more supported options for playback:
http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/05/09/spring-07-video-playback-faq.aspx
In both cases, you can definitely connect a thumb drive or even point the console to your PC and stream from there.
If you want to play downloaded video files on your TV, the very best thing to do is buy a DivX player. Of course, this will require burning files to a DVD+R, but there is free burning software out there that works wonders. Most downloaded video files are in DivX or its derivatives. Some DVD players come with DivX playback capability. I know mine does, and it's been one of the most useful pieces of hardware I've ever bought. Of course, hi-def is probably another story, but there may be HD DivX players out there.
Before I bought a DivX player, I used to convert video files to MPEG, and I can tell you that doing so is extremely time consuming (if you want the quality to be remotely good). You can convert files to MPEG and play them on a standard DVD player, but the space required on a disc is far more than if you just burned the DivX files themselves. Not to mention that converting to MPEG causes the file to lose picture quality. Then there's audio sync, which is notoriously bad when converting to MPEG...
Maybe I somehow did everything the hard way, but converting to MPEG was an absolute nightmare for me... The DivX player was a godsend.
Got a few games and stuff on ebay if anyone is interested. Username: bjnsharp
I was planning on waiting until the format wars were over to make the switch, but I didn't think they'd end this fast...
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/4250039.html
I know it's old news, but I've been busy... ;% I thought the format wars would go on through my college years. However now we know that Toshiba has abandoned the HD-DVD format, so it's all up to Bluray. Popular Mechanics says that the future of movies could still be downloadable, which I think is rubbish unless you're talking about Bittorrent. I don't think paid movie downloads are going to go very far--at least I won't be buying them. When I finally decided to download a 99 cent song, I expected lossless quality, not a simple 128Kbps MP3. If one wants a 128 bitrate MP3, they can easily go to Limewire. I personally see films as having the same fate--choppy, grainy video "optimized for your connection. I'm a perfectionist, and I think that when you pay for something, you should get full quality. But not everyone's a perfectionist...
Since Bluray can hold almost twice the amount of space an HD-DVD can hold, I would have bet my money on Bluray. But with HD-DVD gone, I suppose the real question is will plain old DVDs be phased out any time soon? I know VHS took a long time to go away (just very recently, in fact--about ten years after DVD's release, if I remember correctly), who thinks--or hopes the same will happen with DVDs? Any other thoughts on the format wars or downloadable movies?
Thanks for listening to my ramblings.
Having said that, I read an article recently that said BluRay sales have finally started to make a measurable impact on standard DVDs. The end of the format war means that people no longer need to agonize about which way to go anymore and I think this will lead to more and more people taking the plunge.
I also don't think that the ability to download movies will kill the DVD/BluRay market. As you say, the picture and sound quality of downloaded movies, while definitely very good, still isn't anywhere near a true 1080p film mastered for BluRay. I also think people just like having something tangible in hand when they shell out $20 or more. Also, the infrastructure still really isn't in place yet for everyone to be able to download movies quickly and conveniently; it can take an hour or more to download a movie from Xbox Live and the pricing system is very unbalanced (5 minute cartoons cost the same as some full length TV episodes). The technology needs to mature A LOT before it become viable for the mass market.
Finally, a word of warning Sly; you sound like a budding videophile - once you've had a taste of properly mastered BluRay movies on a good HDTV, there really is no going back to standard def. Whether its newer movies (like Casino Royale) or older catalog titles (such as BladeRunner and 2001) that have gotten good transfers, the jump in visual fidelity that BluRay affords really makes a difference. Now that I've been spoiled, I've really changed my buying habits and hardly buy any standard def DVD's anymore.
BTW, just as an aside, I've been playing around with TVersity for streaming audio, video and pics to my PS3 and 360 (it also works nicely with my PSP). Its a great little freeware program that so far has worked really well. It can even convert video codecs on the fly and seems to run a fair bit faster and supports far more formats than even Windows Media Player. Definitely worth a look for anyone interested in streaming media from a PC to other devices.