Playstation 3 review by The New York Times - It ain't pretty.

[Extromaniac]

Thanks for proving my point!!!

You've also disproven your point by half the other posts you've made.

Congratulations! t:

 

[LongDong]

Yes, alot of bad with a few rays of sunshine is called a SUBJECTIVE review. They're not going to praise the ****ing console if there's blaringly large flaws (like the ones he pointed out) in it's design. Just because you can't be happy with anything other than, "PS3 iz da L33tzorz!!! Everybody go buy now, it has blue-rai player!" Doesn't mean you should piss all over the review.

If you can't handle something you like getting a bad review, stop playing games. I wonder how you deal with review sites scoring games you like lower than '10s'. "BILL GATEZ HAZ INVADEDED REVEIW SIGHTZ!!!" Frankly, that sort of outlook on life is nothing short of childish.

And actually, the 360 fans in general here actually use logic and reasoning to point out the misnomers of systems like PS3, and what they get in return is a *****fest of cry-baby Sony fans shouting "BLLUE-RAII!!!" and "MGS4 LOLLERSKATEZ!!" or something else completely stupid. Polite my ****ing ass, the fact that you jumped on this thread to claim that the article (by a journalist from the Times, why the hell would he be scheming against the PS3, by the way?) was biased to the '360'.

Zenien needs to find a new SDF.

Objective? Hardly. It is obviously a very biased written article and only someone who suckles at the teet of Bill Gates would not recognize that.

I have NEVER seen ANYONE who is an MS fanboy use "logic" to dispel the othe rsystems, it is always with insults and childish behavior. Your use of the term *****fest cry-baby Sony fanboys shouting BLLUE--RAII LOLLERSKATEZ proves that point.

Granted it is what is to be expected when the majority of the people who come in to forums like this are children. It just surprises me at how many of the 21 and up age act that way as well.

Friggin grow up and have an adult conversation.

 

[LongDong]

You've also disproven your point by half the other posts you've made.

Congratulations! t:

Ummmmmmmm K if you say so buddy!!

 

[C. Lee]

Both the Sony and MS supporters argue with each other, but we keep it civilized.

You are just a ****in' idiot.

Everyone needs to stop with the name calling and the nastiness....NOW.

 

[LongDong]

Everyone needs to stop with the name calling and the nastiness....NOW.

Agreed

 

[Fran]

Edit.

 

[Fran]

Everyone needs to stop with the name calling and the nastiness....NOW.

My bad. Just had to vent a tad.

 

[Extromaniac]

Objective? Hardly. It is obviously a very biased written article and only someone who suckles at the teet of Bill Gates would not recognize that.

Subjective, not objective. And no, really, it looks like it's from the view point of someone revealing the downsides of the PS3's supposed multi-media usability. It isn't biased, it's an educational piece of writing that's meant to tell you the upsides and the downsides of the machine. Damn, didn't you ever take journalism classes?

I have NEVER seen ANYONE who is an MS fanboy use "logic" to dispel the othe rsystems, it is always with insults and childish behavior. Your use of the term *****fest cry-baby Sony fanboys shouting BLLUE--RAII LOLLERSKATEZ proves that point.

Not really, because the rest of my post is using simple logic that you learn in high school to prove my point. The reason I included that part is that's usually what Sony fanboys do (like you) whenever someone says something bad about their chosen company. It's reviewing the console's uses, not talking about how it sucks. It's not biased, get over yourself.

Granted it is what is to be expected when the majority of the people who come in to forums like this are children. It just surprises me at how many of the 21 and up age act that way as well.

Friggin grow up and have an adult conversation.

Grow up and have an adult conversation? Is that the best you can do? I guess that's what you do when you have absolutely no stable argument, talk about how immature the other poster is. Great job there, sparky. Your execution is a bit shoddy, though.

 

[hippy fascist]

Everyone needs to stop with the name calling and the nastiness....NOW.

Edit.

up:

 

[Fran]

It was a close one, h f.

 

[Red]

Not to sound like a 360 fanboy (360 > PS3 LOL )

But the artical makes a lot of good points.

 

[dred one]

Why do people get so fired up over products they're not going to make any money on?

 

[LongDong]

Subjective, not objective. And no, really, it looks like it's from the view point of someone revealing the downsides of the PS3's supposed multi-media usability. It isn't biased, it's an educational piece of writing that's meant to tell you the upsides and the downsides of the machine. Damn, didn't you ever take journalism classes?



Not really, because the rest of my post is using simple logic that you learn in high school to prove my point. The reason I included that part is that's usually what Sony fanboys do (like you) whenever someone says something bad about their chosen company. It's reviewing the console's uses, not talking about how it sucks. It's not biased, get over yourself.



Grow up and have an adult conversation? Is that the best you can do? I guess that's what you do when you have absolutely no stable argument, talk about how immature the other poster is. Great job there, sparky. Your execution is a bit shoddy, though.

Wait, aren't you now banned?

Point proven.

 

[Erundur]

A Weekend Full of Quality Time With PlayStation 3

Howard Stringer, you have a problem. Your company’s new video game system just isn’t that great.

Ever since Mr. Stringer took the helm last year at Sony, the struggling if still formidable electronics giant, the world has been hearing about how the coming PlayStation 3 would save the company, or at least revitalize it. Even after Microsoft took the lead in the video-game wars a year ago with its innovative and powerful Xbox 360, Sony blithely insisted that the PS3 would leapfrog all competition to deliver an unsurpassed level of fun.

Put bluntly, Sony has failed to deliver on that promise.

Measured in megaflops, gigabytes and other technical benchmarks, the PlayStation 3 is certainly the world’s most powerful game console. It falls far short, however, of providing the world’s most engaging overall entertainment experience. There is a big difference, and Sony seems to have confused one for the other.

The PS3, which was introduced in North America on Friday with a hefty $599 price tag for
the top version, certainly delivers gorgeous graphics. But they are not discernibly prettier than the Xbox 360’s. More important, the whole PlayStation 3 system is surprisingly clunky to use and simply does not provide many basic functions that users have come to expect, especially online.

I have spent more than 30 hours using the PlayStation 3 over the last week or so and may have played more different games on the system — 13 — than probably anyone outside of Sony itself. Sony did not activate the PS3’s online service until just before the Friday debut. Over the weekend a clear sense of disappointment with the PlayStation 3 emerged from many gamers.

“What’s weird is that the PS3 was originally supposed to come out in the spring, and here it came out in the fall, and it still doesn’t feel finished,” Christopher Grant, managing editor of Joystiq, one of the world’s biggest video-game blogs, said on the telephone Saturday night. “It’s really not the all-star showing they should have had at launch. Sony is playing catch-up in a lot of ways now, not just in terms of sales but in terms of the basic functionality and usability of the system.”

Sadly for Sony, the best way to explain how the PlayStation 3 falls short is to explain how different it is to use than its main competition, Xbox 360. When I reviewed the 360 last year, I wrote: “Twelve minutes after opening the box, I had created my nickname, was in a game of Quake 4 and thought, ‘This can’t be this easy.’ ”

I never felt that way using the PlayStation 3. With the PS3, 12 minutes after opening the box I realized that Sony inexplicably does not include cables to connect the machine to a high-definition television. Keep in mind that one of Sony’s main selling points has been that the PS3 plays Blu-Ray high-definition movie discs. But high-definiton cables? Sold separately. The Xbox 360, by contrast, ships with one cable that can connect to either a standard or high-definition set.

Then, before you are even using the PS3, you have to connect the “wireless” controller to the base unit with a USB cable so they can recognize each other. If you bring your PS3 controller to a friend’s house, you’ll have to plug back in again. The 360’s wireless controllers are always just that, wireless.

If there is one thing one would expect Sony to get perfect, though, it would be music. Wrong. Sure, you can plug in your digital music player and the PS3 will play the tunes. But as soon as you go into a game, the music stops. By contrast, one of the things I’ve always enjoyed most on the Xbox 360 is being able to listen to my own music while playing Pebble Beach or driving my virtual Ferrari. Doesn’t seem too complicated, but the PS3 can’t do it.

In that sense it often feels as if the PlayStation 3 can’t walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. In the PS3’s online store (which feels like a slow Web page) you can access movie trailers and trial versions of new games, but when you actually download the 600-megabyte files, you’ll be stuck watching a progress bar crawl across the screen for 20 or 40 minutes. Astonishingly, you can’t download in the background while you go do something that’s more fun (like play a game). On the Xbox 360, not only are files downloaded seamlessly in the background, but you can also shut off the machine, turn it on later, and the download will resume automatically.

The PS3’s whole online experience feels tacked-on and unpolished. On the Xbox 360 each user has a single unified friends list, so you can track your friends and communicate with them easily, no matter what game you are in. On the PlayStation 3 most games have their own separate friends list and some have no friends function at all. There is a master list as well, but in order to communicate with anyone on it, you have to quit the game you are playing.

There are some high points. The multi-player battles in Resistance: Fall of Man are excellent. The arcade-style action in the downloadable Blast Factor is suitably frantic.
But the list of the PS3’s disappointments remains, from its undersupported voice chat to its maddening cellphone-like text messaging system. (In frustration I ended up plugging in a USB keyboard.) Overall, Sony seems to have put a lot of effort into cramming as much silicon horsepower under the hood as possible but to have forgotten that all the transistors in the world can’t make someone smile.

And so it is a bit of a shock to realize that on the video game front Microsoft and Sony are moving in exactly the opposite directions one might expect given their roots. Microsoft, the prototypical PC company, has made the Xbox 360 into a powerful but intuitive, welcoming, people-friendly system. Sony’s PlayStation 3, on the other hand, often feels like a brawny but somewhat recalcitrant specialized computer. (Sony is even telling users to wait for future software patches to fix some of the PS3’s deficiencies.)

The thing is, if people want to use a computer, they’ll use a computer.

Through the decades of the Walkman and the Trinitron television, Sony was renowned as the global master of easy-to-use, seamlessly powerful consumer electronics. But recently Sony seems to have lost its way, first in digital music players, in which it ceded the ergonomic high ground to Apple’s iPod, and now in home-game consoles. For now Sony’s technologists seem to have won out over the people who study fun.

As a practical matter, given the limited quantities Sony has been able to manufacture, the PlayStation 3 will surely remain sold out throughout the holiday season. If you can’t find one, don’t fret. Sony still has a lot of work to do. As Mr. Grant of Joystiq put it: “Maybe in six months it’ll be finished. Maybe by next fall I’ll be able to do all the cool stuff. I’m still kind of waiting.”

Another reason while I wait a couple of years before getting one at all

Until then, I might buy meself a wii, it will be my first nintendo console since SNES.

 

[LongDong]

Another reason while I wait a couple of years before getting one at all

Until then, I might buy meself a wii, it will be my first nintendo console since SNES.

Buying any system at launch is a gamble. I might get a 360 come Spring and a PS3 come next fall, let them work those bugs out.

 

[Fran]

Wait, aren't you now banned?

Point proven.

Well, Extro accepted it, that's the thing...

 

[hippy fascist]

Buying any system at launch is a gamble. I might get a 360 come Spring and a PS3 come next fall, let them work those bugs out.

thing is though...a bug is a technical fault with the system. The problems pointed out in the review were simply bad decisions, things like the friends list, sony chose to do, same with the in game music. Ultimately the biggest fault with the ps3 is the blu-ray drive. We're talking about an unproven technology that has recieved nothing but bad press so far. Microsoft made the right decision by going with a cheap and proven format. Whichever one wins microsoft will simply create an add-on drive. However if blu-ray fails there will be a lot of pissed off ps3 owners who payed $600 for an obselete piece of plastic which doesn't even fill sony main remit for the product...a movie player.

That's why the ps3 sucks and it's not something that will get fixed over time. It can't be fixed unless they do a product recall which sony an't afford right now. They have overextended themselves, and foolishly bought into their own hype, which ultimately will probably spell the end of the company....

 

[Fading]

thing is though...a bug is a technical fault with the system. The problems pointed out in the review were simply bad decisions, things like the friends list, sony chose to do, same with the in game music. Ultimately the biggest fault with the ps3 is the blu-ray drive. We're talking about an unproven technology that has recieved nothing but bad press so far. Microsoft made the right decision by going with a cheap and proven format. Whichever one wins microsoft will simply create an add-on drive. However if blu-ray fails there will be a lot of pissed off ps3 owners who payed $600 for an obselete piece of plastic which doesn't even fill sony main remit for the product...a movie player.

That's why the ps3 sucks and it's not something that will get fixed over time. It can't be fixed unless they do a product recall which sony an't afford right now. They have overextended themselves, and foolishly bought into their own hype, which ultimately will probably spell the end of the company....

I honestly don't get all the PS3 hate, if you don't like the system then you don't have to buy it, or belittle those who do (not directing that at you, just saying in general).

I quoted you tho because I think it's funny...so Sony as a company is going to go under, and their system sucks because you think that Blu-ray is a failure? Blu-Ray has potential and none of us can judge it yet. It has a thinner surface than HD disks meaning it's easier to read and fingerprints don't block the data as easy, it has a special coating to make the disks more resiliant, and it holds more data than an HD disk. The reason it costs more is because it's specially made with that coating, and the thinner layer. Give it time and they'll become more specialized in making them and the cost can go down.

Seriously you all need to cool down on the PS3 hating. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Saying it's failed before it starts and all sounds like fanboy ravings. I'm going to buy a PS3 myself after a few months and the intial wave of bugs that all new consoles have gets fixed, and I'm not buying it because Sony told me to, but because of my own choice. PS1, and PS2 were the greatest systems I've owned and I've tried all of them since Saturn and PS came out (and a few before it). X-Box honestly offers nothing I'd want to play that I can't get on a Sony system or on my computer, their exclusives don't entice me in the least, but I'm not going to bash the system. Just because I can't stand Halo compared to Half Life 2, or DOA compared to Tekken doesn't mean I'm going to start thread after thread of hating on the system I don't like.

BTW I'll prob be buying a Wii too, Nintendo for the most part is a great company and I have no doubt their new system is gonna rock .

Edit - BTW this wasn't written in anger so I don't get in trouble lol. This was a "let's all be friends, and enjoy gaming rather than bash eachother" post.

 

[Sloth7d]

Didn't PS3 recently declare a recall of all consoles?

 

[Fading]

Didn't PS3 recently make declare a recall of all consoles?

Not sure, that's why I always wait lol. Learned from two of my friends, one who bought a PS2 and it broke after a week, he returned it and proped it against the door to pull out his TV and his sister opened the door tipping it over and breaking it again. Then my other friend who bought an X-Box and it was broken too but out of the box, and he spent two weeks shipping it back and forth before he could play it.

I'll look it up later tho, probably.

Edit - Just looked it up, the only thing I found was a massive battery recall for Sony laptops, nothing about PS3's that I could find.

 

[sandwraith]

Not to my knowledge at least. My PS3 runs fine. Though I do agree with some points, the price aside:

-Lack of multi-tasking: Music? Check. Movies? Check. Games? Check. Internet Browser? Check. Free Online Gaming? Check. Ability to listen to music WHILE gaming or surfing....???

-Lack of personalizing: Now you can upload pictures to your PS3!!! You can't do much with them, heck you can't do dick with them but hey you can put pictures on the PS3!

-Weak launch games: I saw this coming I admit but when I was faced with the opportunity to get myself a PS3, it was either that or 1 Grand worth of Warhammer minatures so either way I was going to spend cash.

The multi-tasking thing is my biggest complaint. I'm quite happy about how it can run most of my DVDs and store my...acquired movies on it but whats the point if you can't really switch between tasks while their all running? Hopefully Sony addresses this with a Patch or an upgrade. Long shot but I don't mind waiting

 

[Apollo]

does playstation 3 have the built in HD Blueray dvd player??

 

[Mentok]

yes.

 

[Mentok]

That would mean something if the GT series didn't suck so much.

They needs to stop linking the physics to the Frames Per soceon... Thats totally stupid.

Its a great Physics engine (for the most part) but when the uptae rate needs to jump (like when you hit a wall ar another car) things just go stupid because it cant sample fast enough (Limited to the framerate).

Oh, and the game REALLY needs a damage model.

 

[Zen]

I count myself as extremely lucky... my housemate is a rabid gamer, he doesnt choose sides, he simply buys everything in sight.


we have all three consoles, he even paid me to wait in line and buy a ps3 with him so he could sell it on the internet and basically get his ps3 at no charge.

i remember waiting in line for the 360 as well.

and the Wii... that was fairly easy to get, nunchuk controllers... not so much, still sold out.


What do i think??

i have played all three systems pretty much night and day. id have to say the article is correct in what it says, definately. however i will agree that the tone of the article was a bit slanted, i cant say that the things mentioned are un true...

everything about the Ps3 doesn't seem polished at all. first off its humonguous. heavier and larger than the first xbox, which is ironic given all the flack that first system got. also i dont like the material the system is made out of... its that shiny plastic that is so rediculously prone to scratches that i dare not touch the console. i should also mention that its too clunky to carry around easily to friends houses... granted i know its not really meant for that but both the Wii and the 360 can be easily ported without fear of scratches or droppin the heavy b*tch, plus the ps3 is just not conducive to be carried in general. not including an HD cable is probably the biggest mistake Sony made during this launch. let me tell you how bad these graphics look on a regular television set. SERIOUSLY... buying this console is worthless if you dont plan on dropping more duckats for the cables... the games look piss poor and < than 360 without the cables. however, go buy the cables and MAGICALLY its much much better. i dont understand why they couldn't at least keep it on par with 360 without cables. having to go back to the store for the cables was just a twist of the knife, but i was elated to see the graphics get much better. ill be honest the games look good, resistance looks good. i did expect a little more from how much sony was hyping the machine, i mean gears of war is this good in the graphics department... but i can see potential down the line. i too, also have a quam about the music in the background... this is a feature that you fail to realize how nice it is untill you use it, it was simple... intuitive and a very welcome tool that i cannot wrap my head around why the ps3 falls short here - untill they get a firmware update. the Online service is annoying yes but hey... its F*&%ing FREE, i understand all the microtransactions banter but there are also some on xbox, albeit less mandetory. i do not like loosing the rumble feature... i dont care what reasoning sony came up with, pitch and yaw sensitivity or whatever... its a damn blow to not feel the immersion that has become standard in games since its inception (N64?). come on Madcatz!!

the launch lineup is lackluster, the controlls in gears of war are supperior to resistance, but i would definately say the graphics of resistance have an edge... that is, if you bought the cables.

all the good games that i want for ps3 are a year or two away.

even my housemate, who made the purchase said he wasn't too impressed with the Ps3's showing. i saw how much it hurt him to say that because he was, and still continues to be quite empatic about the system. but i just can't take him to seriously when he plays the Wii and the 360 much more then the Ps3 right now.

time could change that, firmware upgrades could help that... and the games on the horizon will definately soften the initial dissapointment, but you gotta ask yourself "how long will it take for this system to be worth it??" how many good releases does it take to merit dropping half a grand (more with cables and premium package) on just a game system?

i was looking hard at the Ps3's exclusives and the amount has shrank... with square and rockstar both making multiplatform games, and specifically GTA not being a time exclusive, i just dont see how PS3 is going to establish itself on anything besides brand loyalty and MGS...?

i will say i hate the directional pad on the 360 controller, its unresponsive and i could sayworse, the sixxaxis directional would be far superior for playing fighting games, which could arguably be my favorite genre behind RPG.

and thats a sad thing to have to pay 600 dollars for, for me when MGS, virtua fighter, tekken, a final fantasy game, and a god of war 3 game were all available, then i might have ponied up the money, but by then this monster should be cheaper... hopefully.

Congrats to anyone else who has one, i hope you didnt buy it off ebay

*shudder at the thought*

the Wii - is fun, tiring sometimes... arms get sore, wrist gets sore... the machine even suggests to go outside and take a break every now and then between games. t:

but i dont see it as gimicky, i see it as a first step in taking the next step in gaming. Zelda is fun, although i wish the swordplay was a bit more exact, i just wave the thing around franticly because it doesnt matter how you wave it... i think they could have done that a bit better. but its still a good game. Wii sports is fun but gets boring quick... i like tennis better than bowling because i like getting 4 people together to play frantic games, and thats close enough... bowling and taking turns... id have to be fairly drunk to enjoy waiting for my turn, baseball was horrible and boxing wasn't responsive enough.

Trauma surgeon is great, Excite truck i feel is better than the reviews it got... i love the game, though your arms can get tired quick if you dont figure out a way to keep them resting while you turn the controller like a steering wheel.

Redsteel is... im hoping anyway... just a learning curve game. its hard to get used to, even the gun isn't nearly as easy as i thought it would be, but the juries still out on this game untill i give up trying.

rayman is fun but i didn't find it as fun as everyone else in the hosue who loved it.

All in all im having more fun with the Wii than the Ps3, which would piss me off to no end if i had paid for both. if it wasn't for gears of war and need for speed (im a sucker for clone racing games, i dunno... you really can't innovate them much more can you? i still like them anyway) i would only be playing Wii right now.