What's Up With the PS3?

[ThisMachineKillsFascists]

For the longest time, gamers and the gaming media have seemed content with characterizing the "console war" between the PS3 and the 360 as a conflict over the same niche group: hardcore, non-Wii gamers. On the American front, the 360 has been winning (for lots of really good reasons that I don't think I need to get into, here), and a lot of gamers have been happy to deride the PS3 for its superfluity. I'm poor, so I get one system; I bought a 360, because I don't give a shit about MGS4, but I am interested in every third 360 game. But since making that decision, I've been wondering at the PS3: who, exactly, is it for, who is it supposed to be for, and how is Sony making it for them?

Now I'm starting to get it. I don't know if it's been intentional, but the PS3 is becoming the artsy console:it's high-end, more liberal about hardware usage, and the games are fewer but becoming more interesting. At first, my pangs of regret came only in the form of the new and improved flOw, the PixelJunk series, Everyday Shooter, and Echochrome; then I started to realize how cool Little Big Planet is actually going to be; and now I'm positively jealous over Flower, Fat Princess, the game from the Ico team, and some PSN game that I heard about that involves actual GPS maps. Granted: all but two of these titles are PSN exclusives, but in a way that does credit to the tangibility of this movement. I know from interviews with the PixelJunk, flOw and Flower, and Everyday Shooter creators that they were actually courted and then supported and nurtured by Sony. It could be that the results stand out against every other aspect of the system, because they're the only aspect of the system that have worked-out. And if Little Big Planet and the new Ico project sell well, maybe Sony will just go with it?

Has anybody else been noticing this trend, and can anybody account for it? Does anybody get the impression that Sony has started to purposely facilitate this characterization or that they might start-to? And what about other territories? I know that in Japan, the 360 is seen as a niche console.... Ideally, I think Sony would love to be all things to all people as was the case with the PSX and PS2, but I think they might grudginlgy accept the "artsy" mantle in the US, if it's their only way to claim a small victory.

[NFG]

I bought a 360 'cause I wanted to play a handful of games on it. PacMan CE was totally worth the investment for me, and Geometry Wars 2 and Bionic Commando:RE only cemented my sense of satisfaction. This is my second 360, my first lasted about 4 days before I started gettind drive read errors. This one's got all the new cooling and I've high hopes it lasts a long time...

But everyone I know who has a PS3 is totally happy with it. They've none of thise sense of impending doom I have when I play the 360. They don't wonder "Will this be the last time I play before RRoD?"

There are four reaons I don't buy a PS3, and only one of them is 'cause my new camera has blown such a deep and lasting hole in my finances:
1. I don't trust Sony. Those fuckers are bastards, second only to Microsoft in the way they have historically sought to screw me.
2. I don't want a newer, crippled console. I want the original one with all the gimmicks, and I don't want it used.
3. They're still $699 in Australia ($555 USD).

Also, I hate glossy black consumer electronics. I live in a dusty world filled with fingerprints, not some purified laboratory like everyone at Sony appears to inhabit.

But there's a growing appeal for the PS3. I can't put my finger on it, perhaps it's just that it is somewhat less evil than the 360... It's certainly not the software - not the retail releases anyway. I couldn't name six PS3 games to save my life.

And Sony allows real money to buy PSN softs, none of this MS Point bullshit.

So yeah: I feel the pull, I can't really explain it.
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[aderack]

Hasn't Sony's first-party stuff always been kind of artsy?

I actually respect Sony's software division a hell of a lot more than its hardware one. I'd love to see what they could do with Nintendo hardware...

Meanwhile, my attitude about Nintendo is roughly the opposite.

[FortNinety]

Yeah, I'm kinda annoyed how I have the desire to buy Sony's latest monster, if only to play a bunch of $10 games, albeit really cool and artsy ones.

But yeah, I really hate Sony on almost ever level. I almost wish the other guys would get their acts together and finally rob the mindshare they have over everyone. Though the power that is Blu-ray means that will never happen. Many predict that in the end, the PS3 will be the dominant system in terms of sales and influence, and I'm assuming that the experts are correct. And many bought the system simply because of the these experts, which is a whole different can of worms.

Still, Sony is doing some things right... in addition to courting plenty of cool indie devs (though waving around a lot of money certainly helps), the get a few basic things right from the get go. I love explaining to friends, who are on the fence about either the PS3 or the 360, how you have to pay to play online with MS's machine and not with Sony's, and not having any real explanation whatsoever.

I also love how anytime some tiny thing goes wrong with the 360, I feel the absolute worst. Meanwhile, I hear the PS3 is like an absolute tanks.

Anyhow, I'm gonna grab mine sooner than later. It totally bites how backwards compatibly has been completely gimped (ironic, considering how it was such a pivotal key in the PS2's early success), but at this point, many of my PS2 games are imports or on non-supported media, plus I have three PS2s anyway, no need for another (but I can TOTALLY understand others wanting it themselves).

Oh, and I'll just say it, and let me be the first, and maybe only: I played Little Big Planet a while ago and thought it kinda stunk. The level creator was awesome, but the actual game itself, especially the controls, flat out sucked IMHO. I also feel the game will be a complete bomb. Will I eat my words? More than likely, but I just had to say it.
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[Lurky]

I was delighted when I opened it up and realized the controller charge cable is just a standard usb to mini-usb cable. That's been iconic of the whole experience. The designers were making a piece of 'home theater equipment'. It runs quiet, there's no proprietary shit.

I've only got MGS4 so far. I'm looking forward to Tekken 6. If they ever bring those psn card things to Canada, or Amazon.com I'll start buying the artsy games.

[NFG]

[EU03]

[takashi]

People will tend to forget the PS2 was a fairly open standard machine. It does play DVD's, it does have USB ports that connect to normal USB devices, and (had) a firewire port. The hard drive was a bog standard 3.5" ATA drive. As far as consoles go in 2000, that was pretty amazing.

PS3 is a nice machine, hindered by the worst, most horrible lie-powered hype machine of all time. I sincerely hope every single marketing person at Sony Computer Entretainment was sacked. The hardware is fine, the network platform is .. allright (especially for free). More important, Sony has a good pulse of "what's hip".

But then again, X360 is a cheaper, more powerfull gaming machine that fights that with simply more stuff and a sustainable online plan that isn't based on rainbows, unicorns, and Singstar track sales.

That leaves me with the thought that PS3 has some sort of middle-high-class indie crewd. That's why we want it. It's the Gwen Stefan of this world's J Lo's.

Also, this just in, no console hardware manufacturer cares about us. At all. They'd release consoles in throw away cardboard boxes that would self-ignite in 3 weeks if they were allowed.

[Lurky]

[FortNinety]

The Xbox is cheaper, but it should be less, if one factors in how long its been out and other scheme of thing standards.

I also think its still insane that the thing doesn't have wi-fi built in and their stupid adapter costs $100. Jesus.
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[takashi]

I really should have erased powerfull. It's not a graphic issue, albeit that's what powerfull normally means in this situation - I meant the gaming power: the available games, the available matchmaking and so on. Even the slight arcade bias of the marketplace counts to this feeling.

However, a X360 is cheaper. You can, indeed, play with a wired controller and a ethernet cable tightly connected to modem. And I guess a 15" SD television. It would be a horrifying experience, but it should be the same game in the end.

Games consoles don't appear to obey any scheme of things. A PS2 Slim costs the same now than what it did in 2006. Store price for a brand new GBA SP is still 99€ around here.

[luvcraft]

I don't think that the PS3 has more artsy games, I just think that most of the few good games for it happen to be artsy. Everyday Shooter is out for the PC, and even the 360 has Braid, and Geometry Wars really is "artsy" even though it's incredibly popular.

Something I'd really like to see is a comparison of Jon Mak's relationship with Sony through the development of Everyday Shooter versus Jon Blow's relationship with Microsoft through the development of Braid. Maybe such a thing already exists?

[shnozlak]

Some things people seem to have wrong:

Power:
There is a reason research groups on a budget are snatching these things up.

The Cell Processor is really powerful but requires knowledge of vector programming to be useful. Vector programming is kind of unique and not really widely understood yet. If people do crack this nut I think the PS3 is going to absolutely scream. But that could be a big if, depends on the industry I guess.

About Vector Programming:
http://www.vector.org.uk/archive/v223/smill222.htm
http://www-03.ibm.com/industries/media/doc/content/news/pressrelease/1875614111.html


Back compatibility:
has been fixed in the latest firmware updates.

Your PS3 can wirelessly stream media from you Vista enabled computer.

. . .

If you need to keep the dust off get some Laptop wipes, 2.50 a pack (24 wipes) at target in the computer isle.

. . .

opinions:

>To me having the first cell based consumer computer is pretty exciting in and of itself.

>PS3 is the Target to MS's WallMart

>The interface is friendly and feels more like a created work by an artist than a boardroom corporate product. NO blades with grotesque colors and no "dash board" Its simple and to the point, makes much better use of space with easier readability.

>The ability to acquire PS1 games on PSN and shoot them over to a PSP mem card via built in wifi is really niiice.

The Sony flash standard has been opened up and you can now get an MicroSDHC adapter that fits the slot. 8GB MicroSDHC cards can be had for 25.00USD.
The adapter (quick google):
http://photofast.manufacturer.globalsources.com/si/6008825134391/pdtl/PC-card/1008293271/Micro-SD-SDHC-to-MS-Pro-Duo-Adapter.htm

Their is a friendly Linux install procedure. So if there is something you cant do with your PS3 that you want to do with it you can just reboot it into Linux.
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Technology has NOT improved.

[Lurky]

[aderack]

I think Mak had a pretty rosy time with Sony, from what I've read. It's hard to parse out what Jon Blow's experience was like, as he's so grouchy. In the end they seemed to let him do pretty much whatever the hell he wanted, though.

[shnozlak]

[NFG]

[ThisMachineKillsFascists]

[dai jou bu]

[leau]

Discounting Metal gear for a moment, would it be incorrect of me to say that despite it being the all powerful black monolith from 2001, that the best games for the PS3 are small, downloadable titles?
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"He's Chinese. Is it alright to hurt him?"
"You can hurt him as much as you want Madeline. Just don't call him any names!"
-X-Statix

[EU03]

In terms of AAA, killer-app, must-have titles aside from multiplatform? You're probably right.
Though Uncharted isn't so bad...just playing it right after MGS4 made it seem pointless after a while.
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[jjsimpso]

[layazero]

[aderack]

Well. This year there's Braid, Castle Crashers, and N+, for starters. Not "indie" as such, but on the progressive end there's Pac-Man CE and Galaga Legions.

There's some pretty neat stuff on the 360, and not all of it high-profile and obvious. Bullet Witch and Earth Defense Force are no-budget yet made with a certain joy. There's a lot of stuff like Senko no Ronde.

Then there's Capcom. Dead Rising is one of the more interesting high-profile experiments in recent years.

[dai jou bu]

[ThisMachineKillsFascists]

[dai jou bu]

[FortNinety]

Yeah, the only reason to get the PS3 for me as well are the $5 games, and those are the ones I only really play on the 360, though there's a few, already mentioned "full" games that got me to pony up the money in the first place. Mostly Senko.

[aderack]

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/376/dead_rising_a_trope_down_memory_.php?page=1

I have no idea how well that's written.

[ThisMachineKillsFascists]

[Cossix]

[Lurky]

Say, how do people feel about rumble?
I turn it off. Oh man, Psycho is hilariously impotent if you turn rumble off.

I'm probably the minority though, most people dig rumble right?

[aderack]

It makes sense in Wii games. Otherwise, it's just... kind of there.

[EU03]

[ThisMachineKillsFascists]

When rumble first started showing up alongside N64 games, I thought it was another stupid video game gimmick.

Then all I really played for the next decade-or-so were JRPG's and the occasional esoteric whatchamacallit. I'd heard of the Psycho Mantis fight in MGS, so I thought that there was a use for rumble, afterall.

Then I played Shadow of the Colossus, and I finally "got" rumble. SotC uses rumble to really bring the player into the experience at hand (the rumble of a colossus approaching, the steady bucking of the horse, the tension of holding an arrow back, etc.).

So now I think rumble's great and can really add to a game. Like any other element of design, it becomes inane unto pointlessness in the hands of most, genius in the hands of a genius.

[Gironika]

[DJ]

I've sort of unexpectedly morphed into a die-hard PS3 fan (see hurr) after getting one for free (and an HDTV to go with it) thanks to sexy job perks.

It came down to, I could get a 360 or a PS3 for free at that time, but not both. What actually tipped me in the PS3's direction was the fact that it was the truly insane 60GB one that will play basically anything you could ever hope to throw at it save games for other consoles. I had also moved out with literally nothing, so reliable BC for two consoles (PS1 & 2) instead of shaky support for one (Xbox Fat) seemed like a better deal at the time, plus, hey, Blu-ray player and I love me some Criterion Collection.

The idea, though, was always that the PS3 was going to be a stopgap measure until I could land an Elite 360.

And slowly but surely, I've stopped wanting the 360. Not entirely, mind, I'm still definitely going to get one, but I'm content to wait until Microsoft inevitably kicks out a new revision of it that's not as death prone and then I can go bargain-bin hunting and walk off with a huge chunk of good games on the cheap.

In the meantime, I've come to really appreciate the PS3 for basically all the reasons that have already been listed here. It's got a weird elegance to it, and the inclusiveness is just not something I expected to see in a Sony product. No region lockouts? I can slap any laptop Hard Drive in there? The online store uses dollars? I can slap a burned DVD full of fansubs in there to get my geek on and it will not only play them but upscale them to high definition with the ease I'd normally only expect out of a computer? Guh? Totally unexpected but man, I approve. It's the closest thing to an officially-made modded Xbox Fat that I've ever owned.

[ThisMachineKillsFascists]

People seem fond of mentioning the apparent conundrum of a Sony product being anything less than draconian, but I think it's common knowledge by this point that Sony very deliberately keeps their branches separate: that way it wouldn't matter if, say, the music branch completely tanked, because the other branches would be completely unaffected. As far as I've noticed, this policy really does go as deep as ideology, with the PS3 being the most striking example.

Also, you can download free DivX support for the 360. It's tacked-on, so I don't doubt that the PS3 does it more efficiently; but the option is there for people who only have a 360, like myself.

[NFG]

[ThisMachineKillsFascists]

You know, I actually have no idea where I heard that, so I have no way of substantiating it. Maybe I shouldn't have been shooting my mouth off about it? I think the reason that I've taken it as "common knowledge" is because it feels like something I've heard a lot.

I guess what I was referring-to is that within The Sony Group each subsidiary regards a different form of media (SCE for games, BMG for music, etc.). I'd always been given the impression that these groups were pretty much kept separate, physically and ideologically, but I can't really substantiate that with anything real. (Within a large conglomerate like Sony, you can always lean in either direction.) I did some quick research, and most of the articles seemed to be old stuff about Stringer, who seemed to be in favor of further integrating the activity of the subsidiaries. So maybe it goes through cycles, or maybe I'm wrong, or maybe...a third thing.

I don't know if we have any financial analysis nerd hereabouts, but they'd really be the people to clear this up. (I have to admit that I don't read the business pages.)

[Jon R.]

[aderack]

How would you compare the space shuttle to peeling an orange? With a trowel? Underwater?

I'm not sure the negativity is really necessary.

[DJ]

[Jon R.]

I'd be less hostile if i had a dollar for every time i'd heard someone praise the PS3 for everything it does other than play its own games while trying to give Nintendo shit out of some pathetic sense of them being a threat to HRDC0R G4M1NG. One company is so headless that they've lost millions for two generations now and another sat on a petard so big that the former looks good in comparison. But yeah, Nintendo's the shady destroyer of gaming as we know it with hardware that's profitable and affordable, and a philosophy that doesn't chase polygons or a juvenile, Image Comics sense of maturity.

It's just icing on the cake that this one pretends to be by someone who made a choice as a shrewd consumer instead of the recipient of a freebee.

[EU03]

There is a good reason why I offed my Wii and got a (used) PS3.
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