State of the Station: Pre-PS3 Launch Impressions (gamespy)
- gamespy -
It's nearing the home stretch for fall game releases, as most publishers rush to get their titles out in time for Black Friday sales. With that in mind, we're two days from PS3 launch. I've spent the last eight days with the console in some shape, form, or fashion. While I've done a battery of tests on the machine, I still feel like I haven't fully scratched the surface. However, I feel that in light of the long line that I'm about to stand in tomorrow to secure more machines for the office, it's a good time to talk about it.
Firstly, before talking about the hardware itself, I'm going to share a prediction that I made a few weeks ago. Tell your friends that are camping out to eBay a PS3 that they can make a couple of hundred dollars by just going to work, because I think that the flood of online auctions is going to drive down the average price of a system. Double your investment? I think not. If people make one or two hundred dollars, I won't be surprised, but I doubt they're going to come into the windfall that they expect. I could be wrong, but this is one of those cases where I think I won't be. Toss in the slashed unit estimates that GameStop just announced, and you've got a recipe for disaster. Game store employees: I feel your pain. I was in your position once.
Everyone wants to know what makes the PS3 more or less special than its direct competitor, Xbox 360. I've been as objective as possible about the system over the last week, but I think it's a good time to state the pros and cons of the new hardware.
Your friends still find your vacation pictures boring
While the Xross Media Bar has gotten a lukewarm reception from a few people, I've found it rather easy to set up most features. The visualization on the system during music playback is great, just like the 360's. I had few problems in setting up my display and sound, and my hunch is that most gamers will be fine. What I really like about the system is that setup will be very intuitive for most gamers, as it should be.
It's the multimedia functions, however, that I really like. Granted, I question whether it's necessarily something that's going to justify dropping nearly a month's rent on this thing, but having one to try stuff out, I like the fact that there's versatility. Not only can I take the memory stick out of my PSP and load up the pictures and music I've got on it, but I can also take the SD card out of my girlfriend's camera and load up a slideshow on our TV, which I did for my non-gaming father the other night. The man's a Yale grad who didn't even like Brain Age, but he was impressed with the clarity of the photos and what the system could do.
Music is just as easy within the XMB, although I haven't encountered any game that lets me play a custom soundtrack yet. I wonder if it's going to be like the PSP, in which programmers will have to enable it within their titles, like in GTA or the new crop of EA games. Either way, unless there's a patch to fix it, it's a realm in which Microsoft has an advantage at this point.
I haven't gotten to try out the HD-DVD player for the 360 yet, but Blu-ray looks pretty impressive. Still, it's too soon to make a judgment call. Am I really going to care about watching movies on it? Possibly not, considering that I pretty much just use my TV for gaming and nothing else. Either way, Talladega Nights looks pretty good.
There's potential for the PS3 in regard to multimedia. The music functionality, while cool because it will take a variety of memory sources, is still a few steps behind Microsoft's at this point. However, using memory cards and sticks is definitely easier than trying to network a bunch of stuff to get Windows Media Connect to work with the 360, a feat that I still haven't pulled off. Then again, I don't know anyone who's managed to get it to successfully work.
The hard drive wars are on the way
When it comes to hard drives, I'm pretty solidly convinced that the next step for Microsoft will be a bigger hard drive. All roads point towards it, between the downloadable entertainment roll-out next week, the release of PlayStation-era titles like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on Xbox Live Arcade -- which will undoubtedly go above and beyond the size limits of arcade classics -- and the plethora of paid content that people aren't going to want to delete over time. The 60GB PS3 drives that home even more, mainly because of one seemingly minute feature: You can install game data to the PS3 hard drive.
For those few people who own (legal) PS2 hard drives, certain Capcom titles like (the otherwise mediocre) Resident Evil: Outbreak and Street Fighter Alpha Anthology had the ability to install game data in order to expedite the loading process. So far, most Sony first-party titles and Ridge Racer 7 allow for portions of the game to install to the HDD. As a result, the loading times decrease dramatically. Even if Genji: Days of the Blade is fairly abominable, it loads quickly after doing the install. The load times on Ridge Racer 7 are nearly halved after installing the game.
It's something that most people haven't thought about much, because they haven't experienced it, but it makes a huge difference. We've all grown accustomed to waiting for games to load up, but it doesn't have to be a long time with an install option. If I had that on the otherwise-solid SmackDown vs. Raw 2007, I'd be even more stoked.
In this corner, weighing in at a few slight ounces: the Sony Sixaxis
And then, there's the controller. The Sixaxis is definitely lighter than the Dual Shock, thanks to its lack of rumbling motors. It's been bitched about on message boards and blogs everywhere. I definitely feel the difference myself. However, I'm willing to wait and see what happens with the controller. Given the spotty track record of first-party peripherals in the US (EyeToy hasn't really succeeded here the way that it has in Europe), I'm curious to see whether games use the Sixaxis's motion controls after the hype surrounding Warhawk and Lair dissipates.
It then becomes a trade-off. What will gamers who want to play old PS2 games do, since there's no rumble? I'm not even sure that the PS3's emulation software could replicate it, even if someone figured out how to rig a DualShock 2 to work, even without the PlayStation button.
On the other hand, I like the battery life of the Sixaxis much more than the 360 controller, which I feel like I constantly have to keep charged, and is a pain in the ass to keep in communication with the system. It's not the most intuitive control setup, and there have been many occasions when I've tried to turn on the system by holding down the X icon on the controller only to give up and go turn the system on manually. The Sixaxis turns on the system with no problems, although a potential stumbling block could be programming it to work on another system. The controller that came with the debug is tied to that system and only turns that specific one on, and vice versa with the retail unit. Then again, I've only had the systems for four days, so I'm still discovering a lot about it, in between commuting to work, eating, and sleeping.
But of course, it all comes back to the games
I expect people to bitch and moan about how they bought a PS3 and there are no games out for it. This same thing happened around January with the 360. It will continue to happen until MotorStorm and Heavenly Sword drop. Unfortunately, there's a cost that comes with early adoption, and it's usually a plethora of rushed launch titles that don't deliver. Tony Hawk's Project 8 came to PS3 with no online, which is pretty much a sign that it shouldn't have come out on the system at launch. Subsequently, I panned it. Genji: Days of the Blade is stunningly mediocre. I didn't hold back my judgment. Still, if Resistance's forty-person online multiplayer delivers on Friday, it'll be a solid contender for PS3 Game of the Year, unless Rainbow Six: Vegas can deliver on its potential. Ridge Racer 7's online sounds intriguing, although no one with a PS3 can sign up for PSN until launch day, when it's available to the general public. Either way, check out our Out of the Box features to tide you over until our final verdicts this weekend!
With that said, I think we'll see some good games drop over the next ten months or so, but the second wave of titles will separate the wheat from the chaff. Metal Gear Solid 4 and the next Grand Theft Auto should turn up the heat on the console wars; my cynical side doubts that Final Fantasy XIII will get a Western localization and release in time for Q4 2007, but I could be wrong.
Still, amidst the sea of games and spending a great deal of the workday e-mailing and calling publishers to secure review code and retail copies (for online multiplayer), I've come to realize one thing that this system desperately needs to gain an edge on Microsoft: reward points. Call it unoriginal. Call it biting MS's style. Our now-former Xbox editor said it best in his My So-Called Live column in January: Achievements are addicting. If Sony wants the edge in third-party software sales, they've got to do something. It's going to be tough to justify logging in time on Grand Theft Auto IV next year with the knowledge that I could be getting points for playing it on a machine that costs $200 less.
So that's it for now. Our new console editors and I will be reporting from the PlayStation Store in San Francisco tomorrow during the launch event. After that, it's review time. Either way, we're not stopping until we've played over PSN against gamers like you, because GameSpy is devoted to delivering the best reviews regarding online multiplayer. Stay tuned!
It's nearing the home stretch for fall game releases, as most publishers rush to get their titles out in time for Black Friday sales. With that in mind, we're two days from PS3 launch. I've spent the last eight days with the console in some shape, form, or fashion. While I've done a battery of tests on the machine, I still feel like I haven't fully scratched the surface. However, I feel that in light of the long line that I'm about to stand in tomorrow to secure more machines for the office, it's a good time to talk about it.
Firstly, before talking about the hardware itself, I'm going to share a prediction that I made a few weeks ago. Tell your friends that are camping out to eBay a PS3 that they can make a couple of hundred dollars by just going to work, because I think that the flood of online auctions is going to drive down the average price of a system. Double your investment? I think not. If people make one or two hundred dollars, I won't be surprised, but I doubt they're going to come into the windfall that they expect. I could be wrong, but this is one of those cases where I think I won't be. Toss in the slashed unit estimates that GameStop just announced, and you've got a recipe for disaster. Game store employees: I feel your pain. I was in your position once.
Everyone wants to know what makes the PS3 more or less special than its direct competitor, Xbox 360. I've been as objective as possible about the system over the last week, but I think it's a good time to state the pros and cons of the new hardware.
Your friends still find your vacation pictures boring
While the Xross Media Bar has gotten a lukewarm reception from a few people, I've found it rather easy to set up most features. The visualization on the system during music playback is great, just like the 360's. I had few problems in setting up my display and sound, and my hunch is that most gamers will be fine. What I really like about the system is that setup will be very intuitive for most gamers, as it should be.
It's the multimedia functions, however, that I really like. Granted, I question whether it's necessarily something that's going to justify dropping nearly a month's rent on this thing, but having one to try stuff out, I like the fact that there's versatility. Not only can I take the memory stick out of my PSP and load up the pictures and music I've got on it, but I can also take the SD card out of my girlfriend's camera and load up a slideshow on our TV, which I did for my non-gaming father the other night. The man's a Yale grad who didn't even like Brain Age, but he was impressed with the clarity of the photos and what the system could do.
Music is just as easy within the XMB, although I haven't encountered any game that lets me play a custom soundtrack yet. I wonder if it's going to be like the PSP, in which programmers will have to enable it within their titles, like in GTA or the new crop of EA games. Either way, unless there's a patch to fix it, it's a realm in which Microsoft has an advantage at this point.
I haven't gotten to try out the HD-DVD player for the 360 yet, but Blu-ray looks pretty impressive. Still, it's too soon to make a judgment call. Am I really going to care about watching movies on it? Possibly not, considering that I pretty much just use my TV for gaming and nothing else. Either way, Talladega Nights looks pretty good.
There's potential for the PS3 in regard to multimedia. The music functionality, while cool because it will take a variety of memory sources, is still a few steps behind Microsoft's at this point. However, using memory cards and sticks is definitely easier than trying to network a bunch of stuff to get Windows Media Connect to work with the 360, a feat that I still haven't pulled off. Then again, I don't know anyone who's managed to get it to successfully work.
The hard drive wars are on the way
When it comes to hard drives, I'm pretty solidly convinced that the next step for Microsoft will be a bigger hard drive. All roads point towards it, between the downloadable entertainment roll-out next week, the release of PlayStation-era titles like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on Xbox Live Arcade -- which will undoubtedly go above and beyond the size limits of arcade classics -- and the plethora of paid content that people aren't going to want to delete over time. The 60GB PS3 drives that home even more, mainly because of one seemingly minute feature: You can install game data to the PS3 hard drive.
For those few people who own (legal) PS2 hard drives, certain Capcom titles like (the otherwise mediocre) Resident Evil: Outbreak and Street Fighter Alpha Anthology had the ability to install game data in order to expedite the loading process. So far, most Sony first-party titles and Ridge Racer 7 allow for portions of the game to install to the HDD. As a result, the loading times decrease dramatically. Even if Genji: Days of the Blade is fairly abominable, it loads quickly after doing the install. The load times on Ridge Racer 7 are nearly halved after installing the game.
It's something that most people haven't thought about much, because they haven't experienced it, but it makes a huge difference. We've all grown accustomed to waiting for games to load up, but it doesn't have to be a long time with an install option. If I had that on the otherwise-solid SmackDown vs. Raw 2007, I'd be even more stoked.
In this corner, weighing in at a few slight ounces: the Sony Sixaxis
And then, there's the controller. The Sixaxis is definitely lighter than the Dual Shock, thanks to its lack of rumbling motors. It's been bitched about on message boards and blogs everywhere. I definitely feel the difference myself. However, I'm willing to wait and see what happens with the controller. Given the spotty track record of first-party peripherals in the US (EyeToy hasn't really succeeded here the way that it has in Europe), I'm curious to see whether games use the Sixaxis's motion controls after the hype surrounding Warhawk and Lair dissipates.
It then becomes a trade-off. What will gamers who want to play old PS2 games do, since there's no rumble? I'm not even sure that the PS3's emulation software could replicate it, even if someone figured out how to rig a DualShock 2 to work, even without the PlayStation button.
On the other hand, I like the battery life of the Sixaxis much more than the 360 controller, which I feel like I constantly have to keep charged, and is a pain in the ass to keep in communication with the system. It's not the most intuitive control setup, and there have been many occasions when I've tried to turn on the system by holding down the X icon on the controller only to give up and go turn the system on manually. The Sixaxis turns on the system with no problems, although a potential stumbling block could be programming it to work on another system. The controller that came with the debug is tied to that system and only turns that specific one on, and vice versa with the retail unit. Then again, I've only had the systems for four days, so I'm still discovering a lot about it, in between commuting to work, eating, and sleeping.
But of course, it all comes back to the games
I expect people to bitch and moan about how they bought a PS3 and there are no games out for it. This same thing happened around January with the 360. It will continue to happen until MotorStorm and Heavenly Sword drop. Unfortunately, there's a cost that comes with early adoption, and it's usually a plethora of rushed launch titles that don't deliver. Tony Hawk's Project 8 came to PS3 with no online, which is pretty much a sign that it shouldn't have come out on the system at launch. Subsequently, I panned it. Genji: Days of the Blade is stunningly mediocre. I didn't hold back my judgment. Still, if Resistance's forty-person online multiplayer delivers on Friday, it'll be a solid contender for PS3 Game of the Year, unless Rainbow Six: Vegas can deliver on its potential. Ridge Racer 7's online sounds intriguing, although no one with a PS3 can sign up for PSN until launch day, when it's available to the general public. Either way, check out our Out of the Box features to tide you over until our final verdicts this weekend!
With that said, I think we'll see some good games drop over the next ten months or so, but the second wave of titles will separate the wheat from the chaff. Metal Gear Solid 4 and the next Grand Theft Auto should turn up the heat on the console wars; my cynical side doubts that Final Fantasy XIII will get a Western localization and release in time for Q4 2007, but I could be wrong.
Still, amidst the sea of games and spending a great deal of the workday e-mailing and calling publishers to secure review code and retail copies (for online multiplayer), I've come to realize one thing that this system desperately needs to gain an edge on Microsoft: reward points. Call it unoriginal. Call it biting MS's style. Our now-former Xbox editor said it best in his My So-Called Live column in January: Achievements are addicting. If Sony wants the edge in third-party software sales, they've got to do something. It's going to be tough to justify logging in time on Grand Theft Auto IV next year with the knowledge that I could be getting points for playing it on a machine that costs $200 less.
So that's it for now. Our new console editors and I will be reporting from the PlayStation Store in San Francisco tomorrow during the launch event. After that, it's review time. Either way, we're not stopping until we've played over PSN against gamers like you, because GameSpy is devoted to delivering the best reviews regarding online multiplayer. Stay tuned!
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