Post Your Top Likes & Dislikes of Sony's PS3

[Digital-Nitrate]

It's been just over three months now since I got my PS3 and I think it's time to share the things I like the most about it, and the things I dislike the most about it.

First the good stuff:

• Blu-ray!!
  50GB capacity, 1080p video and 24bit lossless HD audio. 👍👍
  
  
• Games
  Obviously it is still much too early, but I am throurghly impressed with the graphics and sounds of several games already, and the gameplay of F1CE has me hooked... easily the best F1 game I have ever owned or played, and there have been many!
  
  
• PS Button!
  Possibly the best added feature to the PlayStation series. No longer do I have to run through menus and submenus to quit a game, or to have to go to the console and reset or turn off the machine. It is a very handy feature!
  
  
• XMB
  OS menu design is very nicely laid out, although could be improved (see Do Not Like list)
  
  
• Sony Store
  Easy to navigate, get info on downloads, and for me at least, very fast download times even using the wireless connection.
  
  
• Memory Recall
  I really like how the PS3 remembers exactly where you left off when watching a video file from the HDD. It will even keep track of where you stopped for every file, not just the last one watched. Very nice!
  
  
• Bluetooth Wireless Controllers
  Amazing range, response, and long battery life.

OK, so now for the not so good stuff:

• No Option to Create Submenus/Folders
  This is essential to better organize your files (games, videos, etc), especially for those who plan on upgrading to larger HDDs. I'm only using about 20GB of the space and don't like how all the video files are mixed in with one another.
  
  
• No Automatic File Checking before Downloading
  The SonyStore doesn't tell you if you have already downloaded a file, or have it already on your HDD, so you either have to go back and forth checking if you have it already, or end up wasting time downloading it, only to end up with two of the same files.
  
  
• Background Downloading
  I understand though this is supposed to get fixed with the upcoming 1.6 update.
  
  
• No Music Videos???
  What is up with that? Sony controls one of the largest libraries of music videos, and they offer movie trailers for download, so bring on the music videos Sony!
  
  
• L2 & R2 Trigger Design
  OK, I really like having a trigger with as much play as the SIXAXIS offers, but the problem is that it doesn't have enough surface grip and doesn't have any guard at the bottom to prevent your finger from slipping off. For games like Motorstorm where you are trying to keep that R2 trigger down for a long period of time, this makes it uncomfortable. I even posted a thread dedicated for those that are interested in doing some DIY fixes to the triggers.
  
  
• No Way of Sorting Online Players to Find "Friends"
  Although I strongly suspect this is going to be fixed in future tweaks of the online network system.
  
  
• Front Case Design
  While it certainly has the look and feel of a very high-end piece of A/V gear (reminds me of something Bang & Olufsen might design), its front design makes it a terrible fit for professional HT racks, which use custom face plate mats, to not only give a uniformed surface depth, but to seal the rack from the front for directing heat and preventing dust build up.
  
  
• PS3 Piano Black Polished Finish
  It shows more fingerprints than an FBI criminal database, and attracts more dust than a bottle of scotch in a Mormon's pantry.
  
  Where is that wonderful looking buffed silver case that Sony continus to keep showing in some of their marketing materials for the PS3?

So what are other people's top likes & dislikes?

 

[Jeremy Ricci]

No Automatic File Checking before Downloading

Actually, if you visit the download list, it will show you everything you've downloaded, and all games and content will not appear after you've downloaded it.

 

[Dead_Poetic]

I like the case and finish. Yea, it gets dirty easily, but some electronic wipes can be purchased and they work extremely well.

Another thing that i would like to comment on is the battery life of the controller. I was extremely surprised that when i played resistance online for around four and a half hours, the battery life of the controller still had all four bars! It takes forever to kill the battery on that thing.

 

[DuckRacer]

Games
Obviously it is still much too early, but I am throurghly impressed with the graphics and sounds of several games already, and the gameplay of F1CE has me hooked... easily the best F1 game I have ever owned or played, and there have been many!

To be honest, the games seem lacking... Resistance is fun on short sprints, but it's a little bland. F1 is boring as well, but if they added FFB support, I'd buy it the second I find out. Motorstorm is extremely fun and intense... much better than the demo.

But after that, there really isn't much. When it comes to future games, I have no interest in Oblivion, I already have Rainbow Six and GRAW2, and other future multiplatform games will probably be better on the 360. I'll be looking forward to Lair, Warhawk, and Heavenly Sword this summer, however. And the fall comes and I'll be a busy little gamer.

...Then again, Warhawk may be a PSN title and Heavenly Sword will probably be delayed until fall.

PS Button!
Possibly the best added feature to the PlayStation series. No longer do I have to run through menus and submenus to quit a game, or to have to go to the console and reset or turn off the machine. It is a very handy feature!

Personally, I think the time you need to hold down the button to exit the game or shut off the console is too long. They should drop it by a second at least.

And "best added feature to the PlayStation series"? Better than built-in HDD, Blu-ray, the analog stick, etc?

Sony Store
Easy to navigate, get info on downloads, and for me at least, very fast download times even using the wireless connection.

It's not easy to navigate, but it's not all that hard either... however, my biggest qualm is that it's web-based. Too clunky. 👎

No Music Videos???
What is up with that? Sony controls one of the largest libraries of music videos, and they offer movie trailers for download, so bring on the music videos Sony!

Music videos?! Now seriously, I don't see any point to that at all.

PS3 Piano Black Polished Finish
It shows more fingerprints than an FBI criminal database, and attracts more dust than a bottle of scotch in a Mormon's pantry.

Where is that wonderful looking buffed silver case that Sony continus to keep showing in some of their marketing materials for the PS3?

Out of all the things I don't like about the PS3, this is my biggest problem. Literally minutes after I dust it, it becomes dusty again. They should pack in a 5-year supply of Swiffer wipes.

 

[Eric.]

Music videos?! Now seriously, I don't see any point to that at all.

In that case, there also isn't any point in game trailers and movie trailers, either.

 

[Robin]

So of these have been covered but......

GOOD STUFF

The consoles exterior design, a work of art and pays homage to the PS2 in slight styling cues... Love the gloss black, chrome and touch sensitive buttons. As for fingerprints, its not meant to be touched, I will be moving it with fluffy cloth gloves!

The consoles interior design, the heatsink design thats huge! the great care and thought put into shape airflow and heat management in a reasonably small package.

The XMB menu, This is by far the best OS Ive ever seen, simple and so elegant with the smokey silk object floating in the background... Just pure genious!

Blu Ray format, from what ive seen over the past few months I think blue ray is seriously starting to pull ahead. I hope Sony get lucky this time so we don't have to hear the word Betamax again.....

The Online Store and Online Play for all, pretty much every game has a demo and you get amazing stuff like the newly announced Home social network...... and dont forget flow!

BAD STUFF

Lack of Games, I mean like killer games, but Sony needs some more time to be pumping out Gears of War beaters..... Only a temporary issue.

The Price, Its not cheap! but I suppose if its gonna last 10 years it should be reasonable..

The L2 R2 Triggers, Yeah I don't really like them all that much either, I don't really have a problem with my fingers slipping too much but I would still rather have hooked ends like on the 360 ones. Actually I feel although the controller functions great they could have done more to the design to make it more aesthetically pleasing.....

 

[Solid Fro]

First the good stuff:

• PS3
  It makes me not want a Xbox 360.

OK, so now for the not so good stuff:

• Blank
  Nothing.

 

[LaBounti]

I'm not trying to judge anyones opinions but to say it lacks games is a little too harsh. The PS3 has many good games for the times its been out beating both Ps1 and 2 for its first few months. Sony's systems never had that killer app right away. And other than Gears of War what does the 360 have as that killer app? Nothing. Gears came out a year after the system was out. "Lack of games" is an opinion fabricated by spoiled gamers, all they do is compare rather than play.

Now

Good

Controller
If its not broke, dont fix it. However they may have screwed up with the triggers, but i won't say its belongs in the bad because every game is not a racing game.

Free internet play
Although we get what we pay for its free and the PSN has a lot of potential

Blu-ray
At a major price do we secure the future of games and movies but its load times should be improved in time.

SCEE
A great publisher with many popular brands to toss around, even ones unheard of in years or even generations ago(Jet Moto, War hawk, Colony wars etc.)

Backwards Compatibility
I love it, unlimited memory card space importing and exporting save games to share. Ps2 games look a little fuzzy but its still better that FW1.0 and 480p standard. Ps1 gaems are 480p upscaled unlike ps2's hardware and later software emulation.

Downloadable Games
Sony has a nice large download limit that should bring us more PSN games with great visuals and audio and hopefully some gameplay to go with it.

Bad

XMB
Seems unfinished and we are the beta testers. this will change but I'm rating what we have for now. Many features are missing or unfinished.

PlayStation Store
Needs to be overhauled, a new front end maybe some audio and notify via msg option for whats new with out waiting 1 minute for the page to load under heavy load with new releases. Show the file size before the download starts.

Early launch titles
Most do not support PSN and most games are "Get it on shelves" rushed quality(or every EA game ). Ones that do have net play ahve no voice support.

Downloadable Content
Just doest exist yet in the U.S. Sure Genji has new costums but thats it.

THE MEDIA
They will take the smallest detail and turn it into an atrocity. UK PS3's weaker? Come on.

 

[DuckRacer]

In that case, there also isn't any point in game trailers and movie trailers, either.

There's a difference - movie and game trailers preview what a future movie/game will be like. With music videos, you're just watching someone sing something and do generic things... when you can already buy the MP3/CD of whatever song is being sang.

 

[LaBounti]

Sing Star lets you make your own Music Videos and share them over PSN

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

There's a difference - movie and game trailers preview what a future movie/game will be like.

So Duck prefers advertising over original content.

Seriously though, while clearly Duck has no interest in music videos, the fact is that many millions do judging by sales and downloads of music videos, as well as viewership of music videos on TV, VOD, and online.

In addition, music videos have historically been used by the music industry primarily to promote sales of the songs in the videos, so it is all the more odd that Sony has so far not offered any music videos for download on the PS3.

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

No Automatic File Checking before Downloading

Actually, if you visit the download list, it will show you everything you've downloaded,

I checked that, and it shows none of the trailers I downloaded, only the demos and games.

More importantly though, it should alert you before downloading, that you already downloaded that file. Currently it does not, and so it means you either have to check for yourself if you have already downloaded it, or wait for the download to finish, and then go see if you have two copies of the same file. 👎

and all games and content will not appear after you've downloaded it.

I'm not sure what you mean by this? All the demos, trailers, content, etc, that I have downloaded still appear, and without any notification, it will let me download them again.

 

[Touring Mars]

PS3 Piano Black Polished Finish
It shows more fingerprints than an FBI criminal database, and attracts more dust than a bottle of scotch in a Mormon's pantry.

Excellent post, I'll +rep it when vBulletin allows me

I'm not a big fan of the shiny black box either, and considered holding off buying a PS3 until either the silver or white model came out, but that could be some way off, and tbh, I don't intend spending much time oggling the box.

My biggest gripe (although not having even seen a PS3 yet, let alone used one) is that the launch models will come without the rumble hardware, but hopefully the new Sixaxis will be available soon... as such, do you think that games like F1CE will have rumble compatibility built-in?? And GT:HD? Surely the programmers would have thought that the dispute between Immersion and Sony would come to a happy end... seems a shame that a title such as F1CE would be doomed to never having rumble or FFB, even when a compatible controller becomes available?

 

[DuckRacer]

Excellent post, I'll +rep it when vBulletin allows me

I'm not a big fan of the shiny black box either, and considered holding off buying a PS3 until either the silver or white model came out, but that could be some way off, and tbh, I don't intend spending much time oggling the box.

My biggest gripe (although not having even seen a PS3 yet, let alone used one) is that the launch models will come without the rumble hardware, but hopefully the new Sixaxis will be available soon... as such, do you think that games like F1CE will have rumble compatibility built-in?? And GT:HD? Surely the programmers would have thought that the dispute between Immersion and Sony would come to a happy end... seems a shame that a title such as F1CE would be doomed to never having rumble or FFB, even when a compatible controller becomes available?

It's up to the developers whether to patch in rumble. They might make a patch, or they may just decide to screw it and move on to the next F1 game.

 

[msako]

Unless you're in the UK, you better buy it soon because there are rumors of Sony taking out the emotion engine from the Japanese and US versions soon.

Excellent post, I'll +rep it when vBulletin allows me

I'm not a big fan of the shiny black box either, and considered holding off buying a PS3 until either the silver or white model came out, but that could be some way off, and tbh, I don't intend spending much time oggling the box.

My biggest gripe (although not having even seen a PS3 yet, let alone used one) is that the launch models will come without the rumble hardware, but hopefully the new Sixaxis will be available soon... as such, do you think that games like F1CE will have rumble compatibility built-in?? And GT:HD? Surely the programmers would have thought that the dispute between Immersion and Sony would come to a happy end... seems a shame that a title such as F1CE would be doomed to never having rumble or FFB, even when a compatible controller becomes available?

 

[ALPHA]

Reminds me of something Bang & Olufsen might design.

As it happens, I’ve received the exact comparison. They obviously got their inspiration from somewhere 👍

My mine gripe in regards to the PS3’s appearance is the use of the Spider Man font. I wouldn’t mind it so much if it wasn’t plastered along the top of the unit, but bloody hell it’s ugly. Who ever made the final decision to go with it made the wrong choice, it should’ve been Comic Sans.

I’m really impressed with the unit, and especially the lack of proprietary accessory requirements, region free games, and the PS Network—though the store needs some improved usability. Yay for expandable hard drives.

Currently my first gripe is the lack of decent software; the Japanese F1:CE beta release already handles like crap, and that’s even without force feedback. The new releases are apparently twitchy as opposed to 1/3 of the wheel being dead zone, and that’s the immediate centre of rotation. Disgusting.

My second gripe is the Wi–Fi, it’s pathetic—I close the door in which the router’s in and I loose my signal, awesome. At a friends place in the room opposite the router, it’s only getting 55% signal strength, yet further away in the house the laptop was performing perfectly, no random disconnecting or shamefully slow speeds.

As it is the PS3 is an amazing piece of equipment, I hope Sony continues refining it with the speed and improvement as in previous firmware updates, the backwards compatibility fix is much loved. I can’t wait until the next wave of titles are released, 2007–2008 is going to be a great time to be a PS3 owner.

 

[Sambert]

Same issue here with the WiFi, and to be frank, I might as well have purchased the discounted Japanese 20 Gig unit. Nothing like getting most of the way through a sizeable download, only to experience a WiFi brain fart. The issue of resetting due to overheating was my main concern, and due to negative experiences with early model PS2s, I decided to pension off this PS3 prior to the PAL launch (my Japanese PS3 adventure only set me back around $70 USD.) I'll be purchasing a new model when there's a title that warrants play (hardware without meaningful software is wonderfully depressing), though in the mean time I'll be filling that 300C sized hole under my tele with something more useful.

 

[Eric.]

For the record, I'm thrilled with the performance of my WiFi. I haven't lagged at all online, never lost connection, and download speeds are similar to XBL via a wired connection. 360 wireless on the other hand, sucked.

 

[Raitziger]

BAD: 4GB filesize limit of usb hard drives due fat32.

GOOD:600€ machine that can outperform my 1300€ pc.

 

[G.T]

For the record, I'm thrilled with the performance of my WiFi. I haven't lagged at all online, never lost connection, and download speeds are similar to XBL via a wired connection. 360 wireless on the other hand, sucked.

That's good news for me if it's the same case with the Euro PS3s coming. 👍

But:

My second gripe is the Wi–Fi, it’s pathetic—I close the door in which the router’s in and I loose my signal, awesome. At a friends place in the room opposite the router, it’s only getting 55% signal strength, yet further away in the house the laptop was performing perfectly, no random disconnecting or shamefully slow speeds.

If this is the case, I won't stand a chance, as the router will be 25 ft away from it going through a couple of walls and a floor... But then the PSP is absolutely fine, so I can't see why a PS3's Wi-Fi will be worse than a PSP's...

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

My PS3 is one floor down, and more than 40' from my very old Dell TrueMobile 2300 wireless router, and I have not had any connection or speed problems.

Of course, with wireless so much depends on the enviroment the equipment is in regarding interference form any number of different sources.

 

[Eric.]

Well, my PS3 and router are less than ten feet from each other, so I can't really brag on range there. I guess I should have tried some online when I had it in the living room.

 

[Earth]

Top Likes:

- Blu-ray
- VERY quiet
- I can upload all my music to it
- I can upload all my videos to it, once I've converted them though
- I installed Linux on it and it works fine
- Nice steady stream of great games
- Online is free, inluding HOME
- SIXAXIS: I never cared much for rumble. Using the motion sensing for a steering wheel in Motorstorm works fine and adds extra fun to the game


Top Dislikes:

- No background downloading (yet)
- Only supports MPEG video files
- The PSN desperatly needs HOME
- The built in Internet Browser needs to be overhauled
- There needs to be a better way to organize your photos and videos

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

Earth, good points, but the PS3 does support multiple MPEG codecs. In fact, every video file I've downloaded from the Sony Store is in AVC (aka H.264, aka MPEG-4 v10) which along with VC1, is the most advanced standard in video compression currently available to consumers. It is equivalent to what Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD can do to audio, but in the video domain. In other words, its the most ideal solution that not only offers a transparent reproduction of the original uncompressed video file, but at the same time can be compressed to 1/4th the size of an MPEG-2 file. 👍

That said, I have not even attempted to transfer any video files to the PS3 outside of those offered from the Sony Store. What type of video files are you using that the PS3 wont support? Maybe there is a way to convert them?

As for organizing photos and videos, I agree! The PS3 also needs to better organize the games stored on the HDD. What is really needed in a software update that gives the user the ability to create and name subfolders so we can organize all the files the way that is most convenient to us.

For instance, I do not like how all the video files are mixed in with each other. I would want separate folders for Movie Trailers, Blu-ray Trailers, Game Trailers, etc. I also do not like how all the games are mixed in together as well. I would like separate folders for Game Demos, Free Games, and Games bought and downloaded from Sony Store.

 

[DuckRacer]

That said, I have not even attempted to transfer any video files to the PS3 outside of those offered from the Sony Store. What type of video files are you using that the PS3 wont support? Maybe there is a way to convert them?

I have a program called HandBrake that rips your DVD movies to your computer as an .mp4... and it doesn't work with the PS3. It seems there's many ways to encode them, and the only way I found is using FFmpegX to encode it as an Xvid MP4. It's definitely a very complicated process.

 

[Earth]

For everyone wanting a program that will transfer every video to a format the PS3 understands download this:

http://www.redkawa.com/videoconverters/ps3video9/

I've had this for a couple of months and it works perfect. I even (after getting the files to one .vob) converted an entire DVD movie to mpeg4 (AVC). It took 7 hours though but I had the file on the highest quality setting. 4mb/sec video and 156kb/sec audio. But that was converting a 9GB movie. Converting a 50mb video to AVC only takes about 6-10 minutes.

PS3 will not, at the moment and probably ever, read .avi or .wmv video files. You will have to download the files on your PC and then convert them with the above program.

Digital, at the moment I seperate my movies by what I call them, for example I will begin all trailers with TRAILER then the name. But of course that is very primitive and an update that allows you to create subfolers should cure this for all of us.

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

[*]No Music Videos???
What is up with that? Sony controls one of the largest libraries of music videos, and they offer movie trailers for download, so bring on the music videos Sony!

OK, I think I know why there aren't any music videos.

My wife is really into Karaoke so she asked for me to see if there were any Karaoke games for the PS3 coming out any time soon. Looking around I saw that there was one for the PS2 called SingStar, and that a new version will be coming out shortly for the PS3, so I added it to my PS3 game tracker and didn't give it much more thought.

This morning I read that it may not be coming out until June, so I decided to read up on the PS2 version to see if maybe she might like that one instead of waiting for the PS3 version.

It appears that both versions offer music videos as part of their content, and allow users to download additional music videos from Sony's SingStar servers.

So it appears Sony may not want to offer music videos via the SonyStore, in order to help promote sales of their SingStar games?

Still, it seems odd, and maybe this only has to do with resource and time restraints that Sony is certainly under right now, trying to get their PS3 system available world wide, working on software updates, and other more important issues than offering music videos.

One thing does still surprise me however, is that there are many more movie trailers available from the SonyStore from Warner Bros (11) than Sony (4), and that while all the Warner Bros trailers come in your choice of 480p, 720p, or 1080p - none of the Sony trailers are in 1080p...???

You'd think Sony wouldn't want to promote films from other studios, especially by that margin of a difference, and why the trailers from Sony are not in 1080p is frankly bizarre.

At least Sony is doing a better job with their trailers for Blu-ray titles. In this case they offer eight trailers, and only three are not available in 1080p... Coincidentally, they were the first three Blu-ray trailers Sony had listed on the SonyStore when the PS3 came out.

I'm still some what shocked they are allowing other studios (although I'm sure Sony is either getting paid to list them, or have worked out some other kind of deal), to promote their films on their SonyStore. If anything, if they were going to allow other studios to promote their films, I would have thought that they would limit it to studios that exclusively support Blu-ray - and yet so far only Warner and Paramount have movie trailers available for the PS3.

Very interesting. Makes me almost wonder if some kind of deal has been brokered, and that this may be linked to quotes from Warner and Paramount reps saying they are now working with Sony, 20th Century Fox, Disney, and Lion's Gate to get the message across that Blu-ray should be the HD disc format of choice.

Who knows, Sony may have said, "You start supporting Blu-ray exclusively, and we will help promote your films." Stranger things have happened.

 

[land sea air]

my main gripe is features missing from the ps3 that are available on the psp, I imagine that will change with the update thats fast approaching...

 

[Danny]

Good

The fact that it will be here in 3 days.

Bad

I have to wait 3 days.

 

[Robin]

The bad at the moment

The constant loss of PS3 exclusives getting into now higher and higher profile games.....