starcraft said: makingmusic476 said: starcraft said: I generally agree with this review. The one exception to that agreement is the implication through "ever-increasing library of exclusives" that the PS3 has a solid number of high-quality exclusives. At this stage it doesn't have those exclusives yet, and MGS4 alone (massive as it is, its from a niche genre) wont fix that. But they are right about the PS3's media capabilities. I was messing around with a buddy's PS3 the other day and its pretty nifty. Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, etc. say hai! And seriously, you're reading far too much into his comment. All he said was that the ps3 will continue to get more exclusives over and above what it already has. Take the aforementioned and add in MGS4, LBP, Resistance 2, etc. The ps3 is recieving quite a few good releases over the next 4-5 months. Based on Metacritic (which isn't perfect, but its the best we've got) the PS3 doesn't have a AAA exclusive (other than the very recent addition of MGS4.  This of course included Uncharted and R&C.  We are constantly getting the whole "just wait until all the PS3's big exclusives come" line all over the forums (which can FINALLY be put down after MGS4). But whilst they didn't do it with XMB, it appears they HAVE included potentially good exclusives and the potential of Home in their score.

 Yeah, because anything under 90 on gamerankings is horrible. :|

And both Uncharted and R&C would probably be over 90% on GR if you ignored GameSpot's insanely low scores (8.0 and 7.5 respectively).  Uncharted is at 89.8, and GR itself rounds up to 90% when you actual go to Uncharted's page.

Though I don't know why I'm arguing the numbers.  The fact is that the ps3 has some very good exclusives, with even more on the way.

Edit: Whoops, mixed up MC and GR.  But my point still stands, lol.

I expected Ars Technica's original review to be more hardware specifications centric. But it's nice to see them re-evaluate the platform.

From a hardware perspective the PS3 was IMO near a 10/10 (considering hardware specs provided for its IMO amazingly low price), but it's daring radically new design (especially with regard to the Cell technology and lesser extend the Blu-Ray drive) was and still posses somewhat a problem with regard to the amount of software R&D required to correctly tap its potential.

I agree the original firmware and most launch games would justify a 7/10 score from the user perspective though. Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm though were IMO great launch titles, so 6/10 seems too low for me.

From a hardware perspective it was very likely there would be major enhancements, for instance the PS3 has two 128 MB flash memory chips for the firmware while the 360 only has 32 MB for this in total and for that platform there's little to no room for major improvement from this perspective.

The upcoming Playstation Home and music / movie additions I expect to be great value add from the end user perspective.

With regard to media distribution I hope and expect them to continue to aim for a similar end user experience as these Sony services provide:

Qore service
SingStore interface

A software emulator for the PS2 is also rumoured to be in the works for release later this year, this for those PS3s lacking the PS2 chips. Just so much to do for Sony, but IMO there's plenty of time. IMO the PS3 will only really start to hit the full mass market with a cheaper slimline version and the release of Final Fantasy XIII. By then the hardware will be far less costly for them to make and I expect major marketing hype when all the loose ends come together.

It just takes a lot of time and effort to get everything right (such as the upcoming DVR and PlayTV DVB-T functionality) and optimising existing components as well as possible. A lot of requested features have been added with past firmware updates such as a more integrated PSN store, XMB customization, BD 2.0 support, DivX support, DTS-HD Audio and many other improvements.

There's just so much they can and will implement, first up should be firmware update 2.4 which will include in-game XMB access including communication improvements such as video chat and is rumoured to introduce a Trophy system (which can be used with or without the upcoming Playstation Home service) and custom music selection.

It would be nice if all the big review sites will fully re-evaluate the platform by the time a slimline model hits the market.

in the next 5 YEARS they will give it a perfect 10 cuz they will be tons of improvements with new updates

starcraft said: makingmusic476 said: starcraft said: I generally agree with this review. The one exception to that agreement is the implication through "ever-increasing library of exclusives" that the PS3 has a solid number of high-quality exclusives. At this stage it doesn't have those exclusives yet, and MGS4 alone (massive as it is, its from a niche genre) wont fix that. But they are right about the PS3's media capabilities. I was messing around with a buddy's PS3 the other day and its pretty nifty. Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, etc. say hai! And seriously, you're reading far too much into his comment. All he said was that the ps3 will continue to get more exclusives over and above what it already has. Take the aforementioned and add in MGS4, LBP, Resistance 2, etc. The ps3 is recieving quite a few good releases over the next 4-5 months. Based on Metacritic (which isn't perfect, but its the best we've got) the PS3 doesn't have a AAA exclusive (other than the very recent addition of MGS4.  This of course included Uncharted and R&C.  We are constantly getting the whole "just wait until all the PS3's big exclusives come" line all over the forums (which can FINALLY be put down after MGS4). But whilst they didn't do it with XMB, it appears they HAVE included potentially good exclusives and the potential of Home in their score.

 

The thing is I think the whole AAA thing is way over valuded.  PS1 and PS2 both sold huge amounts and in neither case do I think it was down to AAA games.  It was the fact they had everything covered - sports, kids, casual, etc. 

While the Wii library is still lacking this dimension IMO it's the console closest to delivering broad appeal coupled with a nice new approach to controls and look how it sells vs 360 and PS3 right now.

AAA games are nice, but I question how much they really add if your goal is the 100M consoles plus mark vs a strong brand across multiple demographics and a very broad library of games covering most genres.

 

 

Reasonable said: starcraft said: makingmusic476 said: starcraft said: I generally agree with this review. The one exception to that agreement is the implication through "ever-increasing library of exclusives" that the PS3 has a solid number of high-quality exclusives. At this stage it doesn't have those exclusives yet, and MGS4 alone (massive as it is, its from a niche genre) wont fix that. But they are right about the PS3's media capabilities. I was messing around with a buddy's PS3 the other day and its pretty nifty. Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, etc. say hai! And seriously, you're reading far too much into his comment. All he said was that the ps3 will continue to get more exclusives over and above what it already has. Take the aforementioned and add in MGS4, LBP, Resistance 2, etc. The ps3 is recieving quite a few good releases over the next 4-5 months. Based on Metacritic (which isn't perfect, but its the best we've got) the PS3 doesn't have a AAA exclusive (other than the very recent addition of MGS4. This of course included Uncharted and R&C. We are constantly getting the whole "just wait until all the PS3's big exclusives come" line all over the forums (which can FINALLY be put down after MGS4). But whilst they didn't do it with XMB, it appears they HAVE included potentially good exclusives and the potential of Home in their score.   The thing is I think the whole AAA thing is way over valuded. PS1 and PS2 both sold huge amounts and in neither case do I think it was down to AAA games. It was the fact they had everything covered - sports, kids, casual, etc. While the Wii library is still lacking this dimension IMO it's the console closest to delivering broad appeal coupled with a nice new approach to controls and look how it sells vs 360 and PS3 right now. AAA games are nice, but I question how much they really add if your goal is the 100M consoles plus mark vs a strong brand across multiple demographics and a very broad library of games covering most genres.

But that paints an even bleaker picture for the PS3's gaming state.  Its shown the least ability of all three consoles to "cover everything."  In fact, its sort of become/becoming the "shooter console," albeit with shooters that are scoring less than Xbox 360's shooters.  Resistance/Haze/UT3 vs Gears/Bioshock/Halo 3.

 

starcraft said: Reasonable said: starcraft said: makingmusic476 said: starcraft said: I generally agree with this review. The one exception to that agreement is the implication through "ever-increasing library of exclusives" that the PS3 has a solid number of high-quality exclusives. At this stage it doesn't have those exclusives yet, and MGS4 alone (massive as it is, its from a niche genre) wont fix that. But they are right about the PS3's media capabilities. I was messing around with a buddy's PS3 the other day and its pretty nifty. Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, etc. say hai! And seriously, you're reading far too much into his comment. All he said was that the ps3 will continue to get more exclusives over and above what it already has. Take the aforementioned and add in MGS4, LBP, Resistance 2, etc. The ps3 is recieving quite a few good releases over the next 4-5 months. Based on Metacritic (which isn't perfect, but its the best we've got) the PS3 doesn't have a AAA exclusive (other than the very recent addition of MGS4. This of course included Uncharted and R&C. We are constantly getting the whole "just wait until all the PS3's big exclusives come" line all over the forums (which can FINALLY be put down after MGS4). But whilst they didn't do it with XMB, it appears they HAVE included potentially good exclusives and the potential of Home in their score.   The thing is I think the whole AAA thing is way over valuded. PS1 and PS2 both sold huge amounts and in neither case do I think it was down to AAA games. It was the fact they had everything covered - sports, kids, casual, etc. While the Wii library is still lacking this dimension IMO it's the console closest to delivering broad appeal coupled with a nice new approach to controls and look how it sells vs 360 and PS3 right now. AAA games are nice, but I question how much they really add if your goal is the 100M consoles plus mark vs a strong brand across multiple demographics and a very broad library of games covering most genres. But that paints an even bleaker picture for the PS3's gaming state. Its shown the least ability of all three consoles to "cover everything." In fact, its sort of become/becoming the "shooter console," albeit with shooters that are scoring less than Xbox 360's shooters. Resistance/Haze/UT3 vs Gears/Bioshock/Halo 3.

 I thought the XBOX was known for its "shooters"-reputation? 

starcraft said: Reasonable said: starcraft said: makingmusic476 said: starcraft said: I generally agree with this review. The one exception to that agreement is the implication through "ever-increasing library of exclusives" that the PS3 has a solid number of high-quality exclusives. At this stage it doesn't have those exclusives yet, and MGS4 alone (massive as it is, its from a niche genre) wont fix that. But they are right about the PS3's media capabilities. I was messing around with a buddy's PS3 the other day and its pretty nifty. Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, etc. say hai! And seriously, you're reading far too much into his comment. All he said was that the ps3 will continue to get more exclusives over and above what it already has. Take the aforementioned and add in MGS4, LBP, Resistance 2, etc. The ps3 is recieving quite a few good releases over the next 4-5 months. Based on Metacritic (which isn't perfect, but its the best we've got) the PS3 doesn't have a AAA exclusive (other than the very recent addition of MGS4. This of course included Uncharted and R&C. We are constantly getting the whole "just wait until all the PS3's big exclusives come" line all over the forums (which can FINALLY be put down after MGS4). But whilst they didn't do it with XMB, it appears they HAVE included potentially good exclusives and the potential of Home in their score.   The thing is I think the whole AAA thing is way over valuded. PS1 and PS2 both sold huge amounts and in neither case do I think it was down to AAA games. It was the fact they had everything covered - sports, kids, casual, etc. While the Wii library is still lacking this dimension IMO it's the console closest to delivering broad appeal coupled with a nice new approach to controls and look how it sells vs 360 and PS3 right now. AAA games are nice, but I question how much they really add if your goal is the 100M consoles plus mark vs a strong brand across multiple demographics and a very broad library of games covering most genres. But that paints an even bleaker picture for the PS3's gaming state. Its shown the least ability of all three consoles to "cover everything." In fact, its sort of become/becoming the "shooter console," albeit with shooters that are scoring less than Xbox 360's shooters. Socom/Resistance/Haze/UT3 vs Gears/Bioshock/Halo 3.

 Fixed :)

@ starcraft

I think Sony themselves try to cover many different gernes. Intentional or not at this point, this IMO posses some lmitations with regard to pushing users towards buying into the system, as Singstar is a very different game compared to Eye of Judgement and other cool Eyetoy games. They suit a lot different game gernes while the 360 has far more a hardcore focus.

What I am trying to say is that I think LBP + Ratchet & Clank: TOD + Jak & Daxter will be more powerful in combination to push platformer fans towards the system than having available each title seperately at any point of the console's lifecycle.



Bioshock is going to be available for the PS3 this year and UT3 should become available for the 360. Soon it's more going to be like Resistance 2 / Killzone 2 / Metal Gear Solid 4 (and to a lesser extend Uncharted / Warhawk / Socom) vs mainly Gears 2 / Halo 3 (/and maybe GTA IV exclusive content) with regard to luring 3D shooter fans towards the two systems. The entry-price advantage of course goes to the 360, but I think the 'wow factor' will be on the PS3's side.

I completely agree with his review of games, and with the ever-growing list of exclusives that Sony is getting, it is an awesome time to be a PS3 fan, and a PS3 owner.

starcraft said: I generally agree with this review. The one exception to that agreement is the implication through "ever-increasing library of exclusives" that the PS3 has a solid number of high-quality exclusives. At this stage it doesn't have those exclusives yet, and MGS4 alone (massive as it is, its from a niche genre) wont fix that. But they are right about the PS3's media capabilities. I was messing around with a buddy's PS3 the other day and its pretty nifty.

This is interesting. You play MK, and all the sudden the Wii seems like a better gaming machine. You screw around with the PS3 the other day (am I to assume it was the first time?), and it has some cool features.

Have you ever played Uncharted, R&C, HS, UT3, GT5P, or any other PS3 exclusive?

If not, I can't believe I have I have been arguing with someone who is coming from a position of ignorance all this time. You argue constantly against the PS3, yet have never really played one. Nice.

OT: Nice review, I only wish the price of both the PS3 and the 360 would go down, When the PS3 launched, everything on that list was still true (side from DS3) and the thing was worth it's price. Today it's a little expensive. Hopefully a price cut is in the future for the HD consoles.