Anyone Getting A Ps3 Tonight?

Brettster · March 22, 2007

Yup crazy old me is going to pick up my PS3 tonight at midnight, booked tomorrow off work so I can geek with it when I get home.

Anyone else stupid enough to sell a kidney to buy one yet?

lexus_IS_200 · March 22, 2007

i was thinking of getting ne but:

PS3 vs. XBOX 360

Being a video game developer (I develop for both, Playstation 3 and XBOX 360) people ask me almost daily which platform I think is better. These are my personal feelings, in no way does this reflect my employer.

Short answer: XBOX 360.

Long answer: Price, performance, visual quality, game selection and online support. I think the XBOX 360 wins in every category.

Price: This is obvious; the XBOX 360 core is only $299. The PS3 is around $499 for the 20GB version. It comes with a hard drive, but you don’t need a hard drive to enjoy a lot of great games on the 360 so I think it’s fair to compare both core systems.

Performance: On paper, the PS3 is more powerful. In reality, it’s quite inferior to the 360. Without getting into too many details, the three general-purpose CPU’s the xbox360 has are currently FAR easier to take advantage of than the SPU’s on the PS3. I suspect a few years down the road some high budget, first party PS3 exclusive titles will come out that really take advantage of the SPU’s and do things the XBOX 360 can’t, but I don’t think the console is worth buying based on this speculation (for some it will be though, we'll have to wait and see how these games turn out).

Graphics: The XBOX 360 is a clear winner. The GPU is more powerful. It has more powerful fillrate, and far more pixel and vertex processing horsepower. Part of the reason is their choice of memory, and architecture of pixel and vertex procesing. I can’t get into details but the same vertex shader will run much slower on the PS3 than the XBOX 360. The 360 also has a clever new way rendering high definition anti aliased back buffers. To accomplish the same effect on PS3 is prohibitively expensive. For this reason I think many games will have no choice but to run in non-HD resolutions on the PS3 version, use a lower quality anti aliasing technique, or do back buffer upscaling. The end result in all cases is going to be noticeably worse image quality.

Game Selection: The XBOX 360 has a huge head start here. 1 year is an eternity in gaming. Almost all multi-platform developers have made the XBOX 360 their primary platform due to timing of release-to-market, this means the games will look and perform better on the 360. The PS3 versions will be ports of the 360 versions. (The opposite was true for XBOX 1 vs. PS2). The XBOX 360 is also far faster to develop for due to better development tools (massively popular Visual Studio .NET vs. proprietary, buggy PS3 compiler and debugger), better documentation, and easier architecture (3 general purpose CPU’s vs. 8 specialized processors that require DMA). Timing has also caused all next-gen middleware developers to make XBOX 360 their primary platform, and they will ‘add ps3 support’ as needed. This support will probably be inferior to the XBOX 360’s due to manpower and more importantly, demand. It’s this catch-22 now that will continue to drive the 360 forward and hold PS3 back.

The other obvious point here is that right now the Xbox360 already has a very impressive line-up of titles on store shelves; the ps3 just launched, and has virtually nothing of interest. Also, many 360 games are already discounted ($25 for Fight Night 3 at CircuitCity). PS3 games are all full price since it just launched.

Live: Microsoft’s online support with XBOX1 was phenomenal. They built in-house experience, user base, facilities, $$ commitment from executive level (since it proved successful), and most importantly, feedback from 100,000s of XBOX Live subscribers. Playstation 2’s online support sucked. They are now playing catch-up, trying to emulate Xbox’s model. But they had their hands tied just trying to make the PS3 work, it was incredibly ambitious (blu-ray etc.). I haven’t seen it yet, but I seriously doubt the quality will be anywhere to the level of XBOX 360.

HD Content: The PS3 comes with one built in (blu-ray). The XBOX 360 offers HD-DVD as an add-on for $200. You probably don’t care about HD-DVD right now. But you will soon (The quality between DVD and HD is comparable to VHS vs DVD, if you have the right TV) so I suggest paying attention to the war that’s begun. There are two formats: HD-DVD and BLU-RAY. Basically if you rent a BLU-RAY DVD from Bockbuster, it won’t play in your XBOX 360 HD-DVD, and vice versa with the PS3. The implications of this format war would require another article on its own. But as far as the consoles are concerned, the XBOX 360 wins because the DVD player is a separate unit. Playing movies is very taxing on the DVD reader, and let’s face it. In 3 years when your PS3 DVD drive goes out due to playing lots of movies (PS2 was notoriously bad about this) you will have to go buy another PS3. With the 360, you’ll just chuck your HD-DVD player, and go buy another one at the store. In 3 years standalone units wlil probably only cost about $99-150. Another point for the XBOX 360, is that I don’t know who will win the format-war, so I would rather wait with purchase of a HD player. The PS3 doesn’t give you this option.

PS3 controversy: Shootings, Wallmart fights, $15,000 eBay sales etc. My advice is ignore it. It will pass soon.

Bobski · March 22, 2007

I'm still waiting to have a Wii.........

Yep a strong bladder :)

Kazi · March 22, 2007

For what Sony are raping people for...no thanks!

I'll stick to my Wii! Had lots of fun so far and loving the Virtual Console! :D

Brettster · March 22, 2007

Well the way I figure it, if i have all 3 main consoles then im not stuck thinking damn I really want to play that game. I love the Virtua Fighter games and it's not out on 360 for a few months yet. same with Tekken games so I pony up and buy a PS3, hopefully it will be cracked wide open soon so I can use it as a High Def media player too and Finally retire my trust old xbox with XBMC.

lee_iceman · March 22, 2007

Having owned one 2 months ago and getting rid of it 1 month ago, I think it pretty much sums up what I thought of it. Having had the PS2 from launch I thought Sony would just run away with the console market but I have to say Microsoft have really clawed it back.

Still got more over here for it than I paid for it in the States :)

Tyger · March 22, 2007

Wiiiiiiii for meeeeeeeeeee.

Neither the XBOX 360 nor PS3 are worth looking at until perhaps Xmas next year when devs have had time to take advatage of their real power. Price will be way down and games that can take real advantage of these systems will have had time to be developed.

I have had EVERY console to date and these are the first I have NO interest in at present.

Zelda and Sports on the Wii. WoW on the Mac.

:)

Mike_B · March 22, 2007

If I was gonna have one, it'd be the Wii. Just because it's different. Sitting still pushing buttons would bore me to tears (I'm not one of natures gamers, really) but with the Wii it's genuinely different, with the 'real motion' type controller.

No wonder it's been a runaway success, it's the first console to offer something *really* different from *all* the others. Ever-higher graphics capabilities don't make a game more satisfying to play, but actually having to move yourself to get a character to move on-screen makes a huge difference to playability and enjoyment!

Ellz · March 22, 2007

I do like the Xbox but im am a lover of the gran turismo and the graphix in the new one look amazing as also in motorstorm which looks flipping amazing.

The thing with the PS2 they were still somehow making the graphics in the games better and better even tho it had been out for so many years, if they do the same with this one i think xbox will have to launch a new one in a couple of year as that when the PS3 will be getting in to its stride.

Ditto all the price comments tho, i'll be waiting until late this year to get one. Im looking forward to the Wii type controllers tho, could be interesting.

star a · March 22, 2007

i was thinking of getting ne but:
PS3 vs. XBOX 360

Being a video game developer (I develop for both, Playstation 3 and XBOX 360) people ask me almost daily which platform I think is better. These are my personal feelings, in no way does this reflect my employer.

Short answer: XBOX 360.

Long answer: Price, performance, visual quality, game selection and online support. I think the XBOX 360 wins in every category.

Price: This is obvious; the XBOX 360 core is only $299. The PS3 is around $499 for the 20GB version. It comes with a hard drive, but you don’t need a hard drive to enjoy a lot of great games on the 360 so I think it’s fair to compare both core systems.

Performance: On paper, the PS3 is more powerful. In reality, it’s quite inferior to the 360. Without getting into too many details, the three general-purpose CPU’s the xbox360 has are currently FAR easier to take advantage of than the SPU’s on the PS3. I suspect a few years down the road some high budget, first party PS3 exclusive titles will come out that really take advantage of the SPU’s and do things the XBOX 360 can’t, but I don’t think the console is worth buying based on this speculation (for some it will be though, we'll have to wait and see how these games turn out).

Graphics: The XBOX 360 is a clear winner. The GPU is more powerful. It has more powerful fillrate, and far more pixel and vertex processing horsepower. Part of the reason is their choice of memory, and architecture of pixel and vertex procesing. I can’t get into details but the same vertex shader will run much slower on the PS3 than the XBOX 360. The 360 also has a clever new way rendering high definition anti aliased back buffers. To accomplish the same effect on PS3 is prohibitively expensive. For this reason I think many games will have no choice but to run in non-HD resolutions on the PS3 version, use a lower quality anti aliasing technique, or do back buffer upscaling. The end result in all cases is going to be noticeably worse image quality.

Game Selection: The XBOX 360 has a huge head start here. 1 year is an eternity in gaming. Almost all multi-platform developers have made the XBOX 360 their primary platform due to timing of release-to-market, this means the games will look and perform better on the 360. The PS3 versions will be ports of the 360 versions. (The opposite was true for XBOX 1 vs. PS2). The XBOX 360 is also far faster to develop for due to better development tools (massively popular Visual Studio .NET vs. proprietary, buggy PS3 compiler and debugger), better documentation, and easier architecture (3 general purpose CPU’s vs. 8 specialized processors that require DMA). Timing has also caused all next-gen middleware developers to make XBOX 360 their primary platform, and they will ‘add ps3 support’ as needed. This support will probably be inferior to the XBOX 360’s due to manpower and more importantly, demand. It’s this catch-22 now that will continue to drive the 360 forward and hold PS3 back.

The other obvious point here is that right now the Xbox360 already has a very impressive line-up of titles on store shelves; the ps3 just launched, and has virtually nothing of interest. Also, many 360 games are already discounted ($25 for Fight Night 3 at CircuitCity). PS3 games are all full price since it just launched.

Live: Microsoft’s online support with XBOX1 was phenomenal. They built in-house experience, user base, facilities, $$ commitment from executive level (since it proved successful), and most importantly, feedback from 100,000s of XBOX Live subscribers. Playstation 2’s online support sucked. They are now playing catch-up, trying to emulate Xbox’s model. But they had their hands tied just trying to make the PS3 work, it was incredibly ambitious (blu-ray etc.). I haven’t seen it yet, but I seriously doubt the quality will be anywhere to the level of XBOX 360.

HD Content: The PS3 comes with one built in (blu-ray). The XBOX 360 offers HD-DVD as an add-on for $200. You probably don’t care about HD-DVD right now. But you will soon (The quality between DVD and HD is comparable to VHS vs DVD, if you have the right TV) so I suggest paying attention to the war that’s begun. There are two formats: HD-DVD and BLU-RAY. Basically if you rent a BLU-RAY DVD from Bockbuster, it won’t play in your XBOX 360 HD-DVD, and vice versa with the PS3. The implications of this format war would require another article on its own. But as far as the consoles are concerned, the XBOX 360 wins because the DVD player is a separate unit. Playing movies is very taxing on the DVD reader, and let’s face it. In 3 years when your PS3 DVD drive goes out due to playing lots of movies (PS2 was notoriously bad about this) you will have to go buy another PS3. With the 360, you’ll just chuck your HD-DVD player, and go buy another one at the store. In 3 years standalone units wlil probably only cost about $99-150. Another point for the XBOX 360, is that I don’t know who will win the format-war, so I would rather wait with purchase of a HD player. The PS3 doesn’t give you this option.

PS3 controversy: Shootings, Wallmart fights, $15,000 Ebay sales etc. My advice is ignore it. It will pass soon.

wow, awesome write-up, but you are forgetting the all important winning reason for x-box360...................................HALO 3 (apparantly)

Adie · March 22, 2007

Forza Motorsport 2 looks and sounds like it'll be alot better than Gran Turismo

eXOBeX · March 22, 2007

Not forgetting of course Sony's reputation for quality and reliability, which went out of the window with the PS2 (disc read error, anyone?). I can't imagine the PS3 being any more reliable.

I for one won't buy any more Sony products. The only Sony kit I have at home is a MiniDisc recorder and a 14" Trinitron TV, both made when they still gave a damn about quality control.

fatpieman69 · March 23, 2007

If I was gonna have one, it'd be the Wii. Just because it's different. Sitting still pushing buttons would bore me to tears (I'm not one of natures gamers, really) but with the Wii it's genuinely different, with the 'real motion' type controller.
No wonder it's been a runaway success, it's the first console to offer something *really* different from *all* the others. Ever-higher graphics capabilities don't make a game more satisfying to play, but actually having to move yourself to get a character to move on-screen makes a huge difference to playability and enjoyment!

Totaly Agree

To be honest though, when the PS3 drops to a price I can affored (willing to pay) I will get one, I had the PS2 on release date and found it to be great and never regreted it. Graphics arn't everything but it is slightly sad that the Wii has been slightly hindered by it's graphics,, I'm sure if they were a little better they would out sell every other consol because even the Die Hard graphics (PC) gamers would notice it. But one thing to note, Blue-ray player's are around £1k so for half the price you get one and the games consol thrown in free!?

Kazi · March 23, 2007

If I was gonna have one, it'd be the Wii. Just because it's different. Sitting still pushing buttons would bore me to tears (I'm not one of natures gamers, really) but with the Wii it's genuinely different, with the 'real motion' type controller.

No wonder it's been a runaway success, it's the first console to offer something *really* different from *all* the others. Ever-higher graphics capabilities don't make a game more satisfying to play, but actually having to move yourself to get a character to move on-screen makes a huge difference to playability and enjoyment!

Totaly Agree

To be honest though, when the PS3 drops to a price I can affored (willing to pay) I will get one, I had the PS2 on release date and found it to be great and never regreted it. Graphics arn't everything but it is slightly sad that the Wii has been slightly hindered by it's graphics,, I'm sure if they were a little better they would out sell every other consol because even the Die Hard graphics (PC) gamers would notice it. But one thing to note, Blue-ray player's are around £1k so for half the price you get one and the games consol thrown in free!?

Nothing wrong with the Wii's graphics my friend.... :winky:

usuf_x · March 23, 2007

So whos got one and whats it like....

I wanted one but the price tag put me off plus the Wii is different lets you interacte with the games then your normal controler...

Id rather go with the wii and then maybe get a PS3 when prices come down next year or if somthing better turns out

Parthiban · March 23, 2007

Hmm, this is interesting, as I thought the PS3 would be miles ahead straight away.

I'm still thinking about getting one - but as many are doing so at the moment, I want one primarily as a BD player, and the fact that it plays games is a bonus!

This is where it simply smashes the competition, it's gonna cost £400ish, and no standalone BD player is anywhere near that at the moment..........

Wish it had Wii style controls though, can't have been that hard for Sony to implement........

Kazi · March 23, 2007

Hmm, this is interesting, as I thought the PS3 would be miles ahead straight away.
I'm still thinking about getting one - but as many are doing so at the moment, I want one primarily as a BD player, and the fact that it plays games is a bonus!

This is where it simply smashes the competition, it's gonna cost £400ish, and no standalone BD player is anywhere near that at the moment..........

Wish it had Wii style controls though, can't have been that hard for Sony to implement........

Sony last minute revised the spec of the PS3 as soon as the Wii specs and Unique Sellin Points were announced.....hence why they will include a basic motion sensor control system...im guessing last minute they didnt have enough time to 100% copy Nintendos ideas...

Sony have the brand name but lack imagination and innovation....I think with Mr Gates machine despite its reliability issues and the Wiis launch success the PS3 may well struggle..

Rikos · March 23, 2007

I'm looking forward to seeing the PS3 and it's capabilities having owned a PS2 for many years.

A friend has a 360 and they are good and you cannot beat Gears of war it is awesome!!! In single player, coop and online.

I cant see though how to justify spending so much on a PS3 or any new console when you know that next year it will be half the price but that's just me.

Wouldn't mind having a go on a wii though they look pretty good, kazi get it warmed up i'm on my way round :P

Kazi · March 23, 2007

I'm looking forward to seeing the PS3 and it's capabilities having owned a PS2 for many years.
A friend has a 360 and they are good and you cannot beat Gears of war it is awesome!!! In single player, coop and online.

I cant see though how to justify spending so much on a PS3 or any new console when you know that next year it will be half the price but that's just me.

Wouldn't mind having a go on a wii though they look pretty good, kazi get it warmed up i'm on my way round :P

Long as your not a soar loser.....

Great fun mate!

marcus · March 23, 2007

I have a Xbox,360 and i love it.........for me it all comes down to price, and what they want for a PS3 is a joke ;) 1 or 2 years down the line then and only then i would think about geting one.

you still can not beat online gameing with the PC "ie" the FPS games with 16 to 32 guys running around killing anything that moves :D now thats fun :winky:

Ellz · March 25, 2007

I have a Xbox,360 and i love it.........for me it all comes down to price, and what they want for a PS3 is a joke ;) 1 or 2 years down the line then and only then i would think about geting one.
you still can not beat online gameing with the PC "ie" the FPS games with 16 to 32 guys running around killing anything that moves :D now thats fun :winky:

Cnat go wrong with PC gaming, used to be a massive geek at the old counter strike, had to full pn give up, was a bit of an addiction, think its been passed on to the car which is good

Can wait to have a go on some of the games on the PS3 tho they do look might impressive motor storm and of cors the GT HD. gotta be impressive at some of the photos been put up

http://uk.media.ps3.ign.com/media/713/7138...shot_id=3323103

Brettster · March 26, 2007

Right then, I've had my PS3 for a few days, here's what I think.

Out of the box, It blows away the 360 for me in many ways, First of all is how quiet the machine is, I couldnt even tell it was switched on, which cannot be said for my 360 which sounds like a swarm of angry hair dryers. Trying to watch a HD DVD on the 360 with all that racket going on really spoils the mood for me.

I downloaded the demo of Ridge Racer 7 and Straight away I could see the VAST improvement over the 360's Ridge Racer 6. Motorstorm is trully stunning in the later levels and on the replays etc you would think your watching live High Def TV, it really is that good.

I have both consoles running in 1080p on my 55" sxrd Tv and it's fair to say that at the moment the PS3 wins for Graphics quality.

The joypad on the PS3 does have motion sensors but in the games I have played they either dont use them correctly or the ones in the pad are just poor, this isnt anywhere near as good as the one's in the Wii.

The online functions are very similar to Xbox Live with a buddy list and it shows what games they are playing etc. you can use a standard Bluetooth hands free headset for online chat. and you can use a Bluetooth or USB keyboard and mouse for the built in web browser (much better then the one on Wii so far)

One other little thing that could be huge, is the useful option to install Linux to the PS3's HDD this is something that the PS3 allows it's called Install Other OS basically lets you dual boot the system making it a fully fledged personal computer with 7 core processor!!! should be sweet once the homebrewers get the hang of it.

If you have a nice HDTV I would say the PS3 is the best thing you could plug into it at the moment. The price, Is Excessive but no more so than a 360 with HD DVD and a wireless adapter.

Im very Happy with it and it can only get better as time goes on. But dont bother with it unless you have a HDTV to make the most of it.

Adie · March 26, 2007

Cheers for that Brett. I was thinking of getting one but I think for the time being I'll stick with the 360 untill the price comes down.

I suppose one of the main factors for me is the whole blue-ray vs HD DVD battle as I'm a huge film fan.

Brettster · March 26, 2007

Ive not got a bluray movie yet, waiting for Sony to send me the free Casino Royale. but from the HD trailers i've seen on the ps3, they look just as good as the HD DVD's Ive got running on the 360. I like my movies too but the noise the 360 makes arrgghhh!!! so annoying. I'll be interested in the new 360 Elite, the one with HDMI and 120 Gig Drive. It's using a smaller die size for the cpu so it should be easier to cool, also should mean it would be quieter too. all they need to do now is put in a much quieter DVD Rom Drive too. The PS3 really has this concern licked. it's as quiet as a normal DVD player. Amazing for the power of the beast.

lee_iceman · March 26, 2007

I was thinking of getting one but I think for the time being I'll stick with the 360 untill the price comes down.

I don't think it will be too long before the price comes down tbh.

Went into town on Saturday afternoon and Gamestation had 50 ordered and only 3 pre-orders and most of the chains had them in stock to buy whenever you wanted.

I may consider getting another one when the price drops to around £300-£350.