Just picked up a PS3

[dangel]

THEN compare it to the 3rd person that is around on the 360 by then

Exactly. Punters aren't going to cut the PS3 a break just because Sony couldn't make it to market on time - it'll have to face off against the current competition. To suggest people will view it otherwise is sheer madness i tell ya! "Oh well the games suck but i'm sure they'll be much better in a year I'll buy one now and play the naff games till then" or "the games on that other system look great - and there's so many more of them! Wait, it's cheaper too?"

[kempez]

Yep no forgiveness for Sony being late to the party I'm afraid

[Kumagoro]

Did you remember as your a tourist you can get the 5% VAT knocked off.

[directhex]

Thus descends the black cloud that is directhex..

the ps3 is made from candy and unicorn giggles, and causes spontaneous orgasm to all those who go near it. that better?

Cos guys, you're comparing a game launched over 14 months after the console game out with games that are not even out on a yet to be released (in the UK) platform.

how long does this excuse apply, out of interest? do we look at the games in 2 years' time and go "well, the 360's been out much longer, so you can't compare the two"?

and even if we take it at face value, would you call the ps3 a worthwhile investment right now? does the game library warrant the capital outlay? will it do so in april, when it launches in the uk?

[Azza]

Im planning on getting the Dell Ultrasharp E207WFP and getting a HDMI to DVI cable and hooking my PS3 up to that and using it as a PC monitor aswell.



**PICTURES**

[Stewart]

how long does this excuse apply, out of interest? do we look at the games in 2 years' time and go "well, the 360's been out much longer, so you can't compare the two"?

I'd say the 'excuse' (for what exactly?) lasts until the 2nd gen Sony titles hit the machine. Let the people making the games get fully to grips with both systems.

and even if we take it at face value, would you call the ps3 a worthwhile investment right now? does the game library warrant the capital outlay? will it do so in april, when it launches in the uk?

Was the 360 lineup that amazing at launch?

Unless its a Nintendo system launching with a big first party Mario \ Zelda game, you rarely get great games avalible.

I got my PS1 complete with Battle Arena Toshinden, a sub-sub-sub par Tekken clone. It was crap. Didn't seem to stop the PS1 selling a bajillion units, nor affect the supply of great games that followed.

You follow?

[Nick]

and even if we take it at face value, would you call the ps3 a worthwhile investment right now? does the game library warrant the capital outlay? will it do so in april, when it launches in the uk?

Value is in the eye of the buyer...

I personally think it's massively overpriced for the UK market and I wouldn't buy one at UK prices simply because I think that over £500 is too much for a games machine.

However, that's MY view, a view which won't be shared by many who will by the PS3 when it launches over here... so questions on prices are by and large, irrelevant except for those who are wondering which system to buy.

But before you go slagging early adopters, don't overlook the fact that if it weren't for the people who went out and bought the Xbox 360 on launch and over the last year, that console wouldn't be enjoying the support from developers it has now...

If part of the argument is that the PS3 has a crap catalogue of games, I think you owe a thank you to all of us who bought an Xbox 360 at a higher price earlier on so that developers had some faith in the platform and starting coding for it for you to enjoy now.

Or of course we could all sit back at every platform launch, glancing at each other like virgin teens at the disco waiting for the devs to pour a pot of money into an apparently unsupported platform on the chance folks will buy it... but then we'd all still be playing on Nintendo Game and Watches.

[directhex]

I'd say the 'excuse' (for what exactly?) lasts until the 2nd gen Sony titles hit the machine. Let the people making the games get fully to grips with both systems.

excuse for the ps3's underwhelming visuals & games, i think. after all, sony promised me that the next generation didn't start until they told me it did!

as for the developers, there's a lot to developing for a system. good libraries and tools is a key component of that. sony have a track record for producing poorly documented, incomplete tools that developers have to fight with for years. without extreme use of middleware, the ps2's game library would never have risen above the first generation, bar one or two titles from experts like kojima productions. the ps3's third party middleware is starting to ramp up (UE3 is the canonical example), but the architecture is nightmarish to work with at best - with sony's lacklustre development support, it's just plain painful.

you don't get guys like carmack smack-talking the ps3 as a development platform for no reason

Was the 360 lineup that amazing at launch?

nope. and i'd have looked at people buying one at launch funny too

Unless its a Nintendo system launching with a big first party Mario \ Zelda game, you rarely get great games avalible.

you know, i can't actually think of a non-nintendo system with a good launch lineup. even the n64 was worth the capital outlay at launch - but largely because mario 64 is worth the price of the console alone

I got my PS1 complete with Battle Arena Toshinden, a sub-sub-sub par Tekken clone. It was crap. Didn't seem to stop the PS1 selling a bajillion units, nor affect the supply of great games that followed.

so you buy a machine based on sheer potential? isn't that what buyers of the jaguar, 3do, cd32, and others were doing?

You follow?

i follow. and i don't doubt that there will be fantastic exclusive games for the ps3 at some point. but right now? and you'd spend almost five hundred quid for the system and a game on the basis of the current crop of ps2-grade launch titles? hey, remember "The Bouncer"?

[directhex]

I think you owe a thank you to all of us who bought an Xbox 360 at a higher price earlier on so that developers had some faith in the platform and starting coding for it for you to enjoy now.

cheers matey!

playing PDZ so i don't have to!

[MadduckUK]

There no games worthy of that outlay as it stands right now. however as more are released and the price of th console falls the lines on the imaginary graph will get closer and closer together. and eventually they will touch and ill buy one.

when that is depends totally on Sony, at the moment they seem to be doing there damnedest to keep me away

[Nick]

and you'd spend almost five hundred quid for the system and a game on the basis of the current crop of ps2-grade launch titles?

playing PDZ so i don't have to!

Or just play an Xbox-grade launch titles then?

[directhex]

Or just play an Xbox-grade launch titles then?

ick

the xbox was almost entirely devoid of worthwhile games for its entire lifetime, despite being damned powerful

[MadduckUK]

wasnt that powerful. was just very well thought out. if you could get a game of halo2/forza's standard to run on a P3 800 with a GF3 graphics card then my average X2 3800/7900GT combo should be far better than it is

[redlight]

I have 3 kids 3 PCs an Xbox,Xbox360 and now a Wii. It really does not matter which is best the PS3 is to late. Like most households we have spent enough over the holiday period and will not even consider buying a PS3 until much later in the year if ever and even then it will have to drop in price. In my house there is one clear winner with all the family and that is the Wii. Even myself a diehard PC fan has to admit the Wii proves that fast and flashy does not equate to the best experience. So sorry Sony you are just to damn late.

[Stewart]

excuse for the ps3's underwhelming visuals & games, i think. after all, sony promised me that the next generation didn't start until they told me it did!

Well, I haven't seen a PS3 running in the flesh, hooked up to a nice HD screen, but I think the 'underwhelming visuals' are in your own mind, to be honest. I've not seen reviews and previews of things like MotorStorm or Fall of Man slaging off the visuals in any way.

I think you might be confusing 'doesn't look as good as Gears of War' with 'looks crap'. Anyway, as we both know, graphics do not make the game, they are simply a nice bonus.

I'm sure Need For Speed Death Race Ninja Flame Attack 26 looks far better than Super Mario Kart, just as much as I'm sure Mario Kart is by far the better game.

I'm currently playing through Chrono Trigger (just got Magus in my party and collected the Trigger from the Guru of Time), and its almost RPG perfection. Looks rubbish, as you know.

as for the developers, there's a lot to developing for a system. good libraries and tools is a key component of that. sony have a track record for producing poorly documented, incomplete tools that developers have to fight with for years. without extreme use of middleware, the ps2's game library would never have risen above the first generation, bar one or two titles from experts like kojima productions. the ps3's third party middleware is starting to ramp up (UE3 is the canonical example), but the architecture is nightmarish to work with at best - with sony's lacklustre development support, it's just plain painful.

Sony have a track record of producing consoles that sell millions, have great games, and are everything you could want from a console. No matter how awkward it is to make quality games on, when there is money to be made and a user base of millions, the quality will be there.

you don't get guys like carmack smack-talking the ps3 as a development platform for no reason

No, you don't. Personally though, I've never purchased (or not purchased) a console based on the opinion of John Carmack, and I have no intention of starting now.

so you buy a machine based on sheer potential? isn't that what buyers of the jaguar, 3do, cd32, and others were doing?

No. I'd still quite happily buy a PS3 with MotorStorm, Fall of Man, and Tiger Woods 2006 though, and be content until Virtua Fighter 5, Virtua Tennis 3, Armoured Core 4, Bladestorm, F1 Championship, etc, arrive.

And while I'm picking the cream from that crop, the Metal Gear Solids, Grand Theft Autos and the like are ever closer to release.

Buying a PS3 doesn't exactly leave you playing Pong, peering into a gameless void. There are certain safety measures built into the PS3 that prevent it from going the way of the Jaguar or the 3DO - its the little Sony badge on the front.

i follow. and i don't doubt that there will be fantastic exclusive games for the ps3 at some point. but right now? and you'd spend almost five hundred quid for the system and a game on the basis of the current crop of ps2-grade launch titles? hey, remember "The Bouncer"?

I sold my 360 a while back, so I'm not really looking to get another. The Wii, whilst having some standout titles that I really want to play, has not sold itself to me. Zelda, Mario etc will be great, but away from the first party releases, what is there?

A gimmicky new way of controlling things, and a vastly underpowered system to do it on. I have no desire at all to play Red Steel.

Which gets us down to the PS3. And if there are enough quality games to be going on with at UK launch, then I expect I'll get one then or soon after

[MadduckUK]

Anyway, as we both know, graphics do not make the game, they are simply a nice bonus.

you KNOW its more important than that. it takes something special (wii?) to turn peoples heads from the pretty pictures