So the ps3 launch was on Friday here, and one of my buddies from work got one, so he invited me up for a gaming session tonight. He got a 60gb ps3, 4 games (motorstorm, resistance, virtuae tennis 3 and virtua fighter 5) and an extra controller, i don't know how much he spent in total but it must be around the £600 mark.

So anyway, here goes.

The System

Now i didn't actually physically touch it or anything, but i thought the "touch scree" eject controls were pretty fancy, I liked that. I still think the system itself is an ugly monstrosity, but each to their own. It's not as quiet as people make out, I would say the fans are on par with that of the 360's, however when comparing it to a 360 with a game disc running it's a million times quieter, which is nice.

I quite like the OS on it, the simplicity appeals to me, however i think that of the 360's and wii's are far more user friendly, in saying that, it's not difficult to navigate by any means, it feels very.."sony", heh. The ability to reassign controller is a very nice feature, something i would like to see on my 360. By pressing the home (guide) button during a game you have instant access to the ability to shut down the console, turn off the controllers etc.

The browser is a nice feature and it seems to have a lot of cool stuff in it, most of which i have yet to sample


Loading times seem to vary between games, motorstorm being the slowest, it was pretty ridiculous actually.

The controllers are something i must mention, where they have improved in one area they have almost degraded in others. The lack of rumble being the worst, i really miss it, even the owner of the system admits to missing it despite previously being adamant he wouldn't. I didn't actually try out the six-axis, although i watched him use it in motorstorm, doesn't seem anything special, or anything i cant have on my wii.

The addition of actual triggers is very nice and something i was glad to see, however, i feel they are too high up (i have big hands) and they feel a little flimsy, i also felt that they didn't have enough "action" on them, being that they dint move as much as i would like.

The analogue sticks are still poor, in fact i think they are worse, they feel thinner, and they are still in the wrong place, that is definitely something they should have changed, the buttons are still spongy due to the fact they are still pressure sensitive (why?).

I like they fact they are nice and light, but not too light, sort of like playing with a wired 360 controller, they still feel slightly uncomfortable as far as I'm concerned, but hey, the snes pad was hardly a marvel.

The lack of HDTV cables and a headset for online chat is a poor decision on sony's part, but i think that's been discussed enough already.

The Games

i wont go into too much detail here for fear of boring you guys. But i will say the lack of achievements is a harsh blow,

Motorstorm

This was a fun racing game, reminded me of an old PC games called 1nsane, sort of a combination between that and burnout. I was slightly disappointed at the damage, i feel in this day and age full deformation should be on the cards. i mean 1nsane came out about 7 years ago and to this day nothing has even came close to beating its vehicle deformation. i experienced a few frame rate drops whilst i was playing, for a racing game, i find that unacceptable. Overall this was probably my favourite game out of the 4 i played, it's definitely a title i will get when i purchase a ps3.

Resistance : Fall of Man

Your average "shoot all the aliens" shooter, It's a fun shooter, something i could play through but i felt the visuals were disappointing. There were never any framerate drops here, even when the action got quite intense. It feels like a good solid shooter, nothing special though. The multiplayer was fun for a while.

Virtua tennis 3

Exactly the same as the 360 version minus the online play and achievements. A very good, solid and fun tennis game, its very easy to just pick up and play a few matches with your mate, i recommend trying this out if you like tennis games. Oh, and the graphics are SUPERB.

virtua fighter 5

Great fighting game, it has alot of nice customisation features and the gameplay is good. Everything is smooth and looks fantastic, and hey, the chicks are hot. I will probably pick this up for my 360 when it comes out.

Overall

I think the PS3 is a good solid system, it has it flaws like any other system. The price is a major issue, although i do understand it and with a lack of really good first party titles anymore i think that alot of people will go for a 360 or wii. Sony could have done better this time. I hope that the exclusives that do come out are great, i don't want to buy a ps3 and have it sit unplayed for 6 months at a time whilst im waiting for a decent game to come out on it, unfortunately i'm going to favour games for my 360 (mostly due to the controller, and achievement's ). here's hoping for a bunch of really good games for a very decent system, i look forward to owning one.

These are just my thoughts on it at first impressions, ive tried to be as unbiased as possible although i will imagine a lot of you will disagree with me there. Hope at least a few of you read through the whole thing

Cheers.

Thank you for that!

Good mini review!. Its interesting what you say about prefering the 360 due to gamer achievements (I don't know if I could live game without them ). I'd like to try a ps3 but don't know a single person who's either got one or is willing to spend the cash. Maybe GAME will have one on display for me to try out this week. Can't ever see me buying one though.

This is the only part I really disagree with. IMO, analog > digital for controllers any day. As for why, for the same reason you would use analog input in any game. It could be used to control the speed of a throw in a sports game, acceleration control in any kind of vehicle, throwing objects (grenades, etc...), etc... The lack of analog buttons was about my only real disappointment with the 360s controllers. I haven't had any issues with the buttons feeling too spongy or soft... really, they don't feel all that different than the 360s.

Most of the other comments about the controller I agree with. I've always felt the PS controllers are a bit too small. I also think the analog sticks are too loose. Going from the 360 to the PS3 I end up controlling the game a bit wildly until I adjust to the how loose the sticks are. They also need to swap the left analog stick and d-pad. Why they refuse to do that is beyond my understanding. That lack of rumble is kind of lame, but the addition of motion controls is nice. I imagine the motion controls will be used more as time goes on... for example, there will likely be a PS3 version of LocoRoco which should be perfect for motion controls.

Oh yeah, I do disagree with the comment about it being an 'ugly monstrosity'. The mere fact it comes in black puts it ahead of the 360, IMO. I HATE white home electronics destined for an entertainment center. White is total garbage considering that pretty much every other piece of home electronics on the planet comes in black or silver.

i really will have to quite strongly dissagree with the anologue buttons, there is simply not enough throw in the buttons to accuratly control anything, especially in a time restricted environment (throwing a grenade), for anything that its really important there are always the triggers, or even short and long button presses.

The idea of pressure sensitive buttons is a good one but it's implemented incorrectly, ive never in all my days played any playstration or xbox1 game where i have found the pressure sensitive buttons useful, infact im more likely to curse them, especially in a driving game, sometimes its gets annoying having to mash the button into the controller to get full throttle, i have experienced this on the xbox also. I was most pleased when they did away with the them for the 360. Of course as always, each to their own preference.



I will agree with you on everything here, about the sticks. Im glad they are releasing controllers with rumble in the future, but why the didnt do that in the first place is beyond me.




This comes down to pure personal preference, i mean i dont think the 360 is a beautiful creation, but i do like it more that the look of the PS3, and when my dreamcast, wii, and satellite box are white too, it doesnt really look out of place, infact my ps2 looks out of place sitting between them. I would prefer my electronics to be white, based on the fact my room is white and red. This obviously excludes the tv since they are black as not to draw the eye away from the screen.

I think they are most useful in sports game. There isn't a lot of play to work with, but they can be controlled with decent accuracy. Have you ever tried that controller test utility on the XBox 1? It shows you all 255 levels of pressure sensitivity as you press the buttons. The buttons aren't as smooth as the triggers, but you can control them fairly well, it just takes a bit of practice. Either way, the buttons on the 360 and Xbox 1 feel virtually identical to me, so I really don't see the point of removing the the analog. Same feel, inferior control.

Well, they gave some lame excuse about the motion controls being hampered by the rumble, but I think the real reason is they were in a legal battle with Immersion over the use of rumble. MS and Nintendo just paid them off. In hindsight they should have done the same, but I applauded their efforts to fight Immersion. IMO, Immersion is just another lame ass patent squatter.

Here's my set-up: Guess who stands out

Now imagine that picture with a black 360 and black Wii. Oh yeah...

only reason i bought one is because of the F1 game, and being a fucking huge F1 nut, i was going to buy which ever one had the F1 game,

but i have a wii, 360, ps3, and i would for sure say the 360 is the best, but the F1 game is amazing on the ps3

still, no headset, and no hd cable really fucking lets this shit down.

Nice overview.
I would like to add that I have played the same games on the ps3 and was not impressed as I was when the 360 came out. Probably because when the 360 came out it was the first next-gen console.
I really dont like the ps3 controllers. They feel too flimsy, and they creak. kindof annoying.
My buddy had to spend another $99 for hdmi cable to actually get high def. that just sux after dropping $600+
I think one of the biggest things is the achievements. unfortunately I am getting addicted to getting those! I have not played my orig xbox for months because there are no achievements! sounds lame, but I think m$ did a great job adding that to the mix.
thanks for the good read grim. I look forward to another from you.
any chance on getting one for the Wii?

i agree that the ps3 is ugly. not because of it's color but because it just is ugly. it is huge, the cables shouldn't be in the back because standing up is the only way it looks nice. and, while standing, with the cables in the back, they stick out and make it look ugly. it's a ps2 with a rounded top, if no one has noticed. the control is horrible, too small, analog sticks are pointless (because of their position) and the triggers are just done wrong, they're backwards. the flip (curvature) should be going out on the bottom not in. pressure sensitive front keys are nice, i don't really miss it on 360 but in games like crackdown i do, for jumping around. it would be nice to have pressure sensitive keys for that. there are other things that are annoying about the ps3. some things sony did well like built in optical port and hdmi. i don't blame ms for not putting hdmi on their box but i do like the integrated optical on the ps3 (also was on the ps2). also i think audio sounds better on the ps3. however as a gaming machine, i'll keep playing my 360 and my ps3 will keep folding.

Nice review, though if I got one now I would probably only run like folding@home and Linux on it, since there is only like 30+ games on it now. I think I'm gonna get one March next year, like I have waited a year for the 360 (still haven't got one lol).

Hopefully the 60GB model will price drop and ill get a PS3 Elite if an Elite type model don't come out, I'm definitely going to upgrade the hard drive to like 300GB using the Team Xecuter adapter for a 3.5" HD. 60GB don't cut it.

i dont think so. its been out here too long now most people know what its like.