HEXUS.gaming - Review : PlayStation 3

[Nick]

Surely that should be "translucent" or "transparent" rather than opaque?

Write?
....
As a network fan (but not expert, frustratingly), I would like to see better streaming capabilities. Then again, you could just run Linux on it and use that.

That first error is totally down to me... the second is the damn grammar checker and me not checking what it was changing!

And have a look at HEXUS.tv for my thoughts on Linux!

I think it's a great piece of kit, but there nothing to play on it.

Aye, which is why I'd recommend holding off buying one for now... purely because that "I've got a new piece of kit" feeling might well be tarnished soon after purchase when you realise there's not that much 'awesome' software out for it.

[chuckskull]

Anyway, as chuckskull said, the issues about media connectivity etc would be virtually meaningless if MGS, Gran Turismo and GTA all had shiny new versions ready to play. I don't know what the sales show, but I would bet that that trio are some of the highest selling PS2 games, and they will sell zillions on the PS3 too.

Yup all PS3 needed was one good launch game, just one and all it's other foibles would of been forgotten.

[DragonStar]

but can u play DivX from a USB drive? lol, i dont want to stream content, i want to be able to play the movies i have stored on my 80GB USB drive, i just want to be able to plug it directly into the consolde and watch them, with the 360 the only way you can do this is if the files are in wmv (ewwwwwwwwww).

[Stoo]

Give me two secs and I'll find out..

(although I can't remember seeing anything about avi support..)

Having said that, one of the updates suddenly let me view .bmp format pictures..

[Nick]

Well I have to say that so far the responses to the review have been measured and sensible.

I guess we'll have to wait for the US to get home from work for the flaming to really begin!

See you in the morning, guys.

And for any of our US cousins reading this, yes, I'm a keyboard luvin' PC jockey with Xbox 360 branded across my heart. No, I didn't know my mother or father and yes, I was deprived of oxygen at birth, that's why I don't write so good and do half-assed reviews of consoles that don't perfectly line up with your narrow minded view of the world.

Just thought I'd get that in early... in fact, I might set my e-mail to auto reply with it too.

[PenguinJim]

Enjoyable review. May I ask how, after a conclusion of no good games now, and just the potential for some good games at some point in the future, coupled with "unproven" online support, and then media which "falls on its arse"... how on Earth did the PS3 get an Editor's Choice award?! Especially as you've just said in this thread that you wouldn't buy one now.

Or was that a mistake?

Other than that, I'm looking forward to harrassing one of my friends to buy one, so that I can keep "helping him with it". Must... get... own... HDTV!

[Stoo]

Nope, no .avi support, but you can always convert them to avc mp4 with something like ps3 video 9

(I've just been converting a bunch of quicktime HD trailers, and it works really well)

[Nick]

Enjoyable review. May I ask how, after a conclusion of no good games now, and just the potential for some good games at some point in the future, coupled with "unproven" online support, and then media which "falls on its arse"... how on Earth did the PS3 get an Editor's Choice award?! Especially as you've just said in this thread that you wouldn't buy one now.

Because I strongly believe, as I said in the review, that the machine has massive potential and could well end up to be the pure gaming platform of choice.

Which is why I made it clear that it needs decent software support.

One thing I haven't mentioned in the review is that I've owned one for some four months now and have every confidence that Sony are going to invest the time and money to continually improve not only the firmware on the machine, but the online experience too.

[PenguinJim]

You're giving Sony an 'A' for effort, then. I see. Cheers for the quick response!

[kalniel]

Nick,

I don't think you mention about the noise/heat of the PS3. When I played it I was quite impressed by how silent the unit was - I had to put my ear next to it to hear the fans and it was a very pleasant whir at that. Likewise you can't feel any heat - despite having the power supply built in you have to put your fingers directly over the vents to feel the air and it's not even all that warm - and that was playing a fairly demanding Oblivion..

[Snaga]

Anyone used this yet?
/www.orb.com/en/orb_networks_does_it_again_playstation_3_gamers_can_now_get_all_of_their_digital_media_on_their_tv_s creens

[finlay666]

I use Orb on my wii when I take it home to stream stuff from my uni pc (leave the uni pc connected to the internet and stream it to my house (and the uni upload speed is pretty decent too)

as for the PS3.....I think its really too early to tell if it is going to be a success or not, I think after christmas we will know fo' sho'

[Nick]

Nick,

I don't think you mention about the noise/heat of the PS3. When I played it I was quite impressed by how silent the unit was - I had to put my ear next to it to hear the fans and it was a very pleasant whir at that. Likewise you can't feel any heat - despite having the power supply built in you have to put your fingers directly over the vents to feel the air and it's not even all that warm - and that was playing a fairly demanding Oblivion..

Not sure I agree with you on the heat issue, both of these ones here getting surprisingly warm during use.... it's pretty obvious the transformer is up the top end, near the BD drive.

But you're right, it is very quiet, in fact it's near silent, even when spinning a disk up it's still less noisy than an Xbox 360 without a disk.

[finlay666]

Not sure I agree with you on the heat issue, both of these ones here getting surprisingly warm during use.... it's pretty obvious the transformer is up the top end, near the BD drive.

I would agree with you there Nick, we used one running in the window to help improve sales in a glass cabinet and it was certainly very warm (not hot though) to the touch

[Karlos007]

Ths ps3 certainly look tasty, but i have a few thaughts to bring to the table..

Firstly, the big resolution issue. if im thinking correctly, the ANA scaler chip on the 360's motherboard will be the part taxed on the 360 initialy with the machine going 1080p. Lets take gears of war as an example, the game supports 480p/720p/1080i. So when u set it to 1080p, its not bieng rendered internaly at 1080p, its the scaler doing the work upscaling it. why would that affect the gpu? The other issue is with regards to the claim the update bricks consoles, i too came foul of a bricked console, about 3 weeks after updating. my telly is a 720p panel. the console wouldent let me turn it up to 1080p, so how did 1080p strain the gpu when i never put it up to that setting?
1080p is as achievable on the 360 as the ps3, the R500 in the 360 is debatabley FASTER then the RSX in the ps3, and at high resolutions the cpu bottleneck is removed, so the cell " advantage " goes out the window. The only main concern with 1080p on 360 is that very few tvs do 1080p, and finding one that does it through componant makes a short list of models even shorter. games like virtua tennis 3 tho are starting to support native 1080p on 360 and the console plays em smooth as silk, no worrys.

Thers no question sony has stumbled with the ps3, but the console is finding its feet, sony have the know how, the playstation brand is a strength on its own, and the console has great potential. but microsoft have made all the right moves, created a console thats definatly in the same league as PS3, with a definate ideal as to what they want there console to be. XBL is awesome. 360 is a community driven device, its about competitve gaming, its a defining part of the 360 experiance. Nintendo is about fun gameplay, and making everybody welecome. Whats sonys vision? hard to say, im sure they have one tho.

Out of the 3 new consoles, to me 360 is king, its the perfect balance, extremely capable hardware ( to the point that many games, such as tony hawks 8, nba2k7, nfs carbon, 2ksports baseball 2007, call of duty 3, and many more multi platform games have been reviewed as looking a little sharper then there ps3 counterparts - although it maybe just beacuse developers have had more time to master the 360 hardware ), it has got online right ( to the point that many games, including virtua tennis 3, have been reviewed as a better game on 360 because of online ), it has price right, it has games right, with some high level defections such as devil may cry 4, its just an allround good pakadge, with only some slight questions on hardware quality on the earlier models merking up the waters.

PS3 looks awesome, and could do well, but i dont think the fight is over, this generation will be a VERY close battle, not the run away sucess that the last one was for sony.

all i want now is a MGS4 announcement for the 360 and ill be happy as larry

[Stoo]

Yep, it gets warm, but the cooling system does a great job of removing the heat from the case, the internal construction of the system is like a giant heat-sink, with an absolutely vast cooling fan right in the middle (seriously, it's almost the same width of the console!), so any heat built up is directed away so it doesn't end up stressing the critical components

I wonder if the transformer is having to work harder stepping the voltage down on 240 volts so producing more heat than the systems running on 110? Is anyone on a 110 system able to do a comparison?