Scratching a $499.99 itch - Playstation 3 hardware review.
by G.A. Golembiski IIHere are some first impressions from a new PS3 user.
You’ve probably read it elsewhere, but it has to be said after seeing it in person; the Playstation 3 is big and heavy.
The Six Axis controller is remarkably light. However the USB charge cable is stupidly short, which shouldn’t be a problem when you’ve got a full charge; but I sit about seven feet away from my television, so this ridiculously small cable presents a problem should I need to charge whilst playing games. Oh well. Should the situation arise, that may just be a good time to turn off the system and rest your eyes.
Also, the buttons on the Six Axis feel taller than those on the Dual Shock. I could be wrong, but to the touch they feel higher. Maybe that will wear off once I break the controller in.
I briefly look at the manual on the basic connections, and then threw caution to the wind and booted up the system itself.
The first thing I did was find my MAC address and add the system to my home wireless network. Then I tried to test the network connection on the PS3. It didn’t work. Turns out the wireless connection needed to be enabled. After some fumbling through the Network menus and cursing the system, I finally found the option to turn on the wireless network device.
Next thing I did was download the firmware updates for the system. I updated to Firmware v1.82 Total time to download: 10:28s
Time to install: 4:57s
With the firmware updated, I decided to set up my PSN account. I held off on game purchases, opting instead to play around with the game demos available on the PSN store to see what I like first.
Initially the PS3 did not want to connect out to the PSN registration site. I encountered two DNS errors (Sorry, I didn’t note the actual number of the error). I went back and checked the wireless Internet settings and the connection succeeded in both tests.
So I went ahead and launched the web browser to see if there was any network connectivity. The PS3 web browser launched and went straight to the Playstation 3 Portal site. I clicked on the demos link. Hey, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam. I want to try that, maybe I can get it without a PSN account. I move my cursor over the icon and press X. Nothing happens. Again. Nothing happens. Okay how about Ninja Gaiden Sigma? Click X over icon, nothing happens.
Either I’m doing something wrong or you can’t download demos from the PS3 Portal site. So I decide to give PSN account creation another go. My network connection is clearly working.
I hook up my USB keyboard for this part. Sorry, but I’m not going to torture myself with slow and awkward text entry with the Six Axis. I go through the name, address, and such fields. Now it’s time to pick an account name.
What’s this?!
All the nicknames I want to use are taken already. Once you have your account set up and ready to roll, you can choose an avatar from 21 pages of icons (IRC, there were about eight icons per page).
Total time to set up my PSN accout 22:30s.
So now I can connect to the Playstation Network Store. Click on demos.
There’s Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, file size 449MB. I choose Download in background and go browse around some more. I download some E3 videos. And I click on the view Downloads button, but the screen only shows Gundam being downloaded in slot 1 or 1. What? So I go to click out of the menu, and my connection takes a crap on me and boots me out of the store.
I reconnect to the store and queue up the download again. This time I notice the spot to monitor your background downloads. So I leave the store and go check on the downloads.
I was surprised to see my PS3 had queued six downloads for me. Three game demos, and three E3 movies. It also had the second Gundam download I queued, so I pressed triangle and cancelled the duplicate.
All in all, it took 45:28s to download the Dynasty Warriors: Gundam demo. That’s a bit long for a 450MB file, and I’ve read complaints about PSN downloads elsewhere. So hopefully Sony does something to address this in the future. On my connection, that file should finish in half that time with a strong connection.
I installed the demo and proceeded to whup some giant robot buttarks. About 45 minutes later, I defeat Musha Gundam and finish the demo. Fun game!
When I exit the demo, I receive messages that the Unreal Tournament 3, Killzone 2, and Warhawk E3 videos completed downloading in the background while I was playing demo. Nice!
Meanwhile, the Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Armored Core 4 demos are both at around 10% complete. So I decided to mess around with Folding @ Home. You have to download the initial package which is 50MB. After it installs and relaunches, you have to download a smaller patch.
Once everything was patched, I joined in on the cancer curing fun. You get a neat rotating globe graphic that displays other Folding users around the world. And if you move the thumbsticks, you can get a detailed progess screen of your contribution to the cause.
Neat, but is my PS3 still downloading demos? I hop out of Folding @ Home and check my downloads.
Yes!
The downloads are still coming down. Awesome.
So I go back to Folding, turn off my television, and go to bed.
When I wake up seven hours later, the demos are done downloading and I’ve completed one Folding process! Woohoo.
Overall, the Playstation 3 so far is a pretty nice peice of kit. However the issues I had with my wireless connection have me a bit concerned as to how stable the connection will be while playing online games. Further testing will reveal all.
I also still wish Sony had chosen an external power supply. The PS3 runs pretty hot for me, and it’s all coming from the internal PSU.
Right now, the game line-up doesn’t completely thrill me. So I probably could have waited a bit longer, at least until Killzone 2 released to pick up a PS3; but I had a devil on my shoulder coercing me for months; so the $100 temporary price drop and free Blu Ray movies were incentive enough for me to jump in both feet first.
Unless you want to show off your HDTV or want to play Resistance Fall of Man, you would probably do well to wait on more software to show up for the system, or another price drop.
Na razie,
G.A
Stumble it!
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4 Responses to “Scratching a $499.99 itch - Playstation 3 hardware review.”
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Congratulations! I envy you and wish I could afford one. I’d say one other reason to jump hastily on the PS3 wagon right now if you can manage it, is Backwards Compatibility. The 80GB models don’t have the Emotion Engine in there IIRC, so you will be dependent on software emu if you go with it or a later model. In all fairness, I’m sure Sony will delivery good emulation eventually, but if I had the choice I’d get one now just to eliminate doubt and waiting.
Just spoke to a friend down in Huntsville who recently got a PS3; he mentioned having a little trouble getting it to show PS2 titles without aliasing and interlacing problems even after the firmware update. If I’m remembering right, his solution was to have the PS3 output in 480i and have the TV work out the right display ratio. I’d have to ask him for the specifics. You aren’t mentioning a new HDTV, so I’m assuming this wasn’t a pressing issue.
I picked up a Toshiba HDTV a few months ago, mainly for the form factor. It’s 32″ and 40lbs. Which beats the pants off of my 32″ Sony WEGA CRT that easily weighed 150lbs.
So far as image quality is concerned, IMO HD is just marketing spin. I have yet to see an HD set demonstrating a movie on Blu-Ray or HD DVD that looked far and away better than the image on the aforementioned Sony WGA set with Component connections.
I mean, if I were coming from and RCA or S-Video connection it might make a world of difference; but coming off of a fairly robust television set; it’s barely noticeable, and like I said - I don’t need an army of people to move this one.
I’ve tried demos for:
- Resistance Fall of Man
- Ninja Gaiden Sigma
- Nucleus
- Armored Core 4
- Gundam Musou
So far Gundam Musou has been the only one I’ve enjoyed playing through.
Ninja Gaiden is just a port up of an old Xbox game, so there’s no point in breaking the bank to buy a PS3 and then get fleeced to pay $59.99 for a port of a two year old game. The game itself plays too much like Devil May Cry for my taste. So basically DMC in DoA skins with more boobs, if that floats your boat fine.
Resistance looks like a pretty competent FPS and the graphics are very nice and shiny, but some of the stages in the demo looked very monotone. Making things hard to distinguish and see where in the hell I’m going. Everything is either brown, rust, or some shade of earth tone on the second level of the demo and after a while I just got sick of wandering around trying to figure out what the hell to do and turned the demo off.
- Nucleus is a Playstation Network game where you play some sort of jellyfish-like probe that appears to be under a microscope. It’s a bit of a shooter, but the demo really didn’t grab me. Not something I’d pay $9.99 for.
- Armored Core 4 appeared to have problems with the AC’s locking onto targets. I’m not sure if I was holding down L3 and causing the machine to cycle through targets, I’ve been known to do that on accident; which I why I dislike having functions on the R3 / L3 buttons. The experience was very disconcerting as you could imagine having played gobs of AC in the past, not being able to reliably lock onto a target was just a pain in the ass.
On top of that, I found the surplus of attack / weapon related controls a pain. Cycle left weapons, cycle right weapons, fire left weapons, fire right weapons, I think there’s a slash button in there somewhere and a fire back weapon button. What? What ever happened to K.I.S.S. interface design.
Keep It Simple Stupid!
Not that AC was ever excessively use friendly, but this was just absurd.
Visually the game was very hard on the eyes. Everything is either very starkly contrasted, with bright lights and deep shadows on buildings; or heavily filtered to recreate heat shimmering. Overall it made navigating stages and picking out my foes a pain in the neck. I’m sure I could adjust the contrast on the television; but I’m of the opinion that generally shouldn’t be required.
Additionally the new HUD is also disconcerting. Everything is so god damn small. I play on a 32″ television from about seven / eight feet away. So with the postage stamp sized radar it was hard to make out the even smaller red and green blips of enemy craft.
As a former fan of AC games, I was looking forward to this demo as SEGA and From have finally delivered what Agetec and From could not - on-line play; but they f@cked with the formula too much.
Personally, I’d love to see From scrap AC4 entirely and rebuild the series yet again.
I like the speed and energy consumption of AC4 versus the PS2 iterations; but the controls are just FUBAR and the graphics overly shiny.
- Gundam Musou worked for me on account of it being a Musou game. Granted I didn’t like being stuck using that twat Heero Yuuy from Gundam Wing; but the game was just fun. Hacking through hundreds of Gundams and securing points on the map, unleashing musou attacks. If you’ve played Dynasty Warriors; you’ve played Gundam Musou - only it now has upward of 40 character on-screen and limitless draw distance.
I would have preferred an option to have the camera less close to my Gundam; it seems a bit closer than it was in past Dynasty Warriors games, but what the hell. It was fun.
I hope Gundam Musou 2 has Maxter Gundam in it.
I also downloaded the free Gran Turismo HD. Which is just GT4 assets with a shiny HD coat of paint. I’m not a fan of driving games, so it’s just there for me. Looks pretty enough. Drive around a track. Whoop-dee-doo! I figured Sony is giving it away; I may as well take it.
I eagerly anticipating the release of Warhawk. I never played the PS original, but the PS3 version caters to my on-line addict / twitch gamer blood.
Beyond that I’m waiting on Unreal Tournament 3 (Will support mouse & keyboard), Street Fighter 2 HD Double Dip edition (finally a non-Japanese only on-line Street fighter game for a Playstation console), and Soul Calibur 4 (again, on-line play for the win).
Hopefully SEGA will patch or release a PSN version of Virtua Fighter 5 with on-line play. No on-line. No sale.
Simple as that.
(chuckle) Actually, after the acclimatization process, AC4 is far and away more user-friendly and shooter-like than any of the prior games. It doesn’t sound like you’re interested enough to relearn the controls, so I won’t argue the issue. However, all opinions I’ve been previously exposed to regard AC4 as a rather profound improvement.
I envy the hell out of that Gundam Musou demo too. Hope Live gets one soon.
“However, all opinions I’ve been previously exposed to regard AC4 as a rather profound improvement.”
I’m calling shenanigans; because we both know the crowd you run with.
To the uninitiated, AC4 is still the same stew of inaccessible ingredients. It has a collectively lower score than most of the lackluster PS2 outings if you refer to Gamerankings just for an average score.
Of course AC zealots are going to adapt, or go mad from separation anxiety. This is the same lot who stuck with a franchise that continually promised and failed to deliver on-line play in the West for the length of the PS2 lifecycle. Through some of the worst iterations of the franchise.
I’m going to rent the game this week, if possible; but so far I stand behind my initial impressions, and given the response I’ve seen to it post-launch on non-AC gaming forums, it’s still the same old song to gamers who are not indoctrinated in the cult of Armored Core.
Given the surplus of quality software available in the gaming market today, I see no reason to spare AC any quarter for the sake of nostalgia.
“I envy the hell out of that Gundam Musou demo too. Hope Live gets one soon.”
There’s supposed a demo on Live today, if not sometime this weekend. Ports ahoy!
Just another check for “Yes” in the Console Standard column.