HEXUS.gaming - Review : PlayStation 3

[Stoo]

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 main problem is that the 360 was never designed to work at 1080 anything in the first place, the system was optimised around 720p and the thermal output that running at that resolution produces, running at 1080 makes the GPU run significantly harder and pushes the system outside of the thermal envelope it was originally designed for.

That doesn't mean that the GPU isn't capable of 1080 output, it means that the system would need to be thermally redesigned to cope with the extra heat, something along the lines of:

Redesigning the case & cooling system to remove any thermal hot-spots
Upgrading some of the components to more temperature resistant versions

It's not like every 360 will suddenly fail when pushed to 1080, but you'll end up with higher failure numbers depending on usage patterns.

I'm sure you'll get less problems with newer versions, especially as new hardware revisions come along and components go through die-shrinks

[dangel]

I wonder how many folk will have a 1080p capabable display anyway - they're not cheap and they're not small either (37" and up right?) so perhaps this is more about specmanship than practicality. Perhaps it's more sensible to assume more folk are going to be using SD or 720 screens with both consoles, at least for a couple of years..

[shaithis]

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.

in that case its going to be interesting to see how many people have to return them due to faulty drives in the first 6 months or so.

I've always found the Playstation drives to be a bit ropey, so by including such new tech as a BluRay drive and then placing a PSU right next to it, I'm wondering if they thought that through properly

[Raz316]

I enjoyed that review, thanks (as well as all of the responses).

Still don't think I'd buy one right now, but the great thing about consoles being connected to the net these days is that firmware updates can happen. My opinion could literally change over night which is only a good thing for me!

As I understand it, the EU console has different components to the US/Jap ones? It'd be interesting to see if anything goes wrong.

[Wildcard[UK]]

Great review.

I agree with what you've written. I think 6 months down the line with improved functionality from Sony's ongoing software development, an increased games library and (If what i heard about the settlement with Immersion is true) rumble pack controllers etc. this console could be immense. £400 plus is not the kind of money I have to spend on a whim so it'll have to prove itself before I consider the investment. I'll also have the benefit of seeing how the Blu-Ray HD-DVD war is going.

On a slight tangent I saw a video of a Little BigWorld presentation. Absolutely stunning and if that's a show of what's to come this will be THE console of choice.

Also, damn Virgin for giving away FREE 46" HD TV's with every PS3 sold on opening night in London. Now THAT's good value!

[joshwa]

A few questions:

When will the next Gran Turismo be available?

Also, in one of the paragraphs you say that 1080 is flipping impressive - but is it really leagues ahead of a PC running 1280 or 1600+ ?

With such a high price for a console some people may feel they'll get a better gaming experience from a PC? (especially with games that suit a mouse).

Josh

[Zak33]

Like I said, I know Sony aren’t pushing the PlayStation 3 as a media system... but that’s like opening a butcher’s shop and only selling free range chicken when the guy across the road does everything for half the price. It’s not just about what the PlayStation 3 does, it’s about what the competition does, too.

Sums it up for me. I too like the idea of backward compatibility on Consoles, not cos I'm gonna sell the other one (it gets moved around the place for different games in different places), but cos I aint got much room under the telly! And that PS3 is bigger than my SHED......and it aint ever getting moved once the concrete foundations have been laid under the TV for it.

[kalniel]

Also, in one of the paragraphs you say that 1080 is flipping impressive - but is it really leagues ahead of a PC running 1280 or 1600+ ?

Well 1080 is equivalent to a PC's 1920x1080 - which most of them aren't doing by default. Sure the top range ones can, but this is every single standardised spec PS3 capable of running smoothly at that res.

And you're only inches away from a PC.. 1080 at couch distance is overkill

But have they implemented any form of native AA? The units I saw didn't, and it was noticeable that 720 didn't look half as good. IMO you will need a 1080 TV to get the PS3 looking good.

[Nick]

Aye, I agree 100%.

Standard def on a standard telly looks, well... standard, really.

But when I got a nice 42" 1080 panel it was very much a case of OMFG!

And being able to sit all comfy on the sofa, have a massive image that's nice and crisp ten feet away is lovely.

Not that the Xbox 360 doesn't do nice HD stuff too...

That said, the Xbox 360 seems to have less going on on-screen than the PS3... though Blazing Angels on the PS3 is suffering from some serious slow-down in places.

We'll have a review of that up for you soon!

[whitebloodcell]

Thanks for the review, serious shame about the lack of streaming capability. Hopefully solutions in a similar vane to Tversity will arise to help out with that.

[spazman]

Edit to reply to Spazman:
Aye, I'll give that a go. Does it stream over the network though?

Yea it streams over a network, the way it works on my PSP is that i have pimpstreamer server client running on my server box (only 1.6ghz athlon) this re-encodes any video/music/picture file into the format the psp likes and then streams it via wifi to my PSP. I mainly stream music on it have it set up in kitchen to listen to some tunes while im cooking, id assume it works exactly the same way for PS3 and Wii.

[digit]

I have played on my friends PS3 and below is my opinion of a brief go for less then one hour on it:

Pros:

• Looks Expensive
• Transparent casing enables you to see inside
• PSP style menu system
• Motorstorm is pretty good
• Motion sensitivity works just as well as a wii mote
• Touch sensitive disk eject and power buttons
• Quiet when doing nothing and whilst in a game!!!!

Cons

• Vibration is a big missing feature from the controller
• L2 and R2 now are triggers but don't quite function as well as the 360 controller
• The disk read time really does seem to be an issue in motorstorm, a 10 - 15 second wait at the car selection screen
• Zippo media streaming features
• Could not see a way to replace in game music with that stored on SD cards or the like
• Very cramped controller design

Motorstorm was the only game I played and I was on the most part impressed but I do have a few gripes. The game did have very nice graphics but I don't think its anything the 360 could struggle producing. The controls worked well for the game and I especially enjoyed using the six axis technology to control the steering of my vehicle. I think the physics behind the game have been blown a little out of proportion in that its been seen before in burnout for instance. They are very good however so kudos for creating the explosions and the cringe effect seeing your vechicle get smashed. Selecting a vechicle for a race took a bit to long and I sat with a disk logo spinning whilst a car model was loaded. This is very similar to what gran turismo was like on the playstation, good but frustrating at how long it took to pick a car!

Although the neagatives do outwiegh the positives I did enjoy the short time I did have on the PS3. I just wish that the controller was slightly improved. It could do with being far bigger, and featuring force feedback, because it felt really odd smashing into a wall, seeing it and not feeling it. The triggers are certainly a welcome addition to the controller replacing the traditional L2 and R2 buttons, but they felt far to small and didn't have enough movement for my liking.

[Nick]

Can't return to main menu without ejecting a disk
The 'ps3 logo' button on the controller when pressed does nothing
Very cramped controller design

Erm, at the risk of seeming to be argumentative, I'll just reply to these points as you're wrong.

To drop back to the menu from within game you don't have to eject the disk, you just press hold the PS3 button, which also answers your second point there too... It's a press and hold, not press once, except when you use the controller to turn the PS3, then you can just dab the PS3 button on the joypad once.

And I'm not sure what you mean by cramped controller design, it's EXACTLY the same size as a standard DualShock controller for the PS2.

[digit]

Erm, at the risk of seeming to be argumentative, I'll just reply to these points as you're wrong.

To drop back to the menu from within game you don't have to eject the disk, you just press hold the PS3 button, which also answers your second point there too... It's a press and hold, not press once, except when you use the controller to turn the PS3, then you can just dab the PS3 button on the joypad once.

And I'm not sure what you mean by cramped controller design, it's EXACTLY the same size as a standard DualShock controller for the PS2.

Well as i said I had only played it for an hour, so only had a very quick lookaround I shall correct what I said accordingly. I stand by what I said about the controller mind. It felt very cramped and far to small compared to a 360 controller. It didnt feel at all confortable for the short time I used it.

[Blademrk]

so there’s none of the money grabbing ‘buy the extras to make full use of the machine’ that we saw with the original Xbox (remember the DVD dongle and remote?)

I've actualy got one of those DVD dongle's... somewhere. That was the problem with that you hhad to take it out in order to use the joypad port which invariably meant you'd lose the dongle.

I would like to point out that the inital PS2 unit did need a IR dongle for the remote to work, the donlge also had a pass-through connection for a joypad to also be plugged in (the IR reciever was added to the main unit in later revisions and the dongle dropped from the remote package - which means if you had an older console you could buy a remote but it wouldn't work).

Although, you didn't need this donglein order to actually view movies on your PS2 (unlike the x-box) the joypad could be used to contol the playback (no such luck with the x-box, dongle plugged in or no DVD for you).

[madmobile]

I haven't seen an actual console yet.
I guess the graphic will be a bit better than x360.
ps3 is too expensive as a console and i don't really care blu-ray disc right now.
GT4 , Metal gear solid, Kill zone,etc