- 6,009
- Austin, Texas
- D-Nitrate / GTP_DNitrate
I recently read the following excellent in-depth article/review on the PS3 published by ars technica, and thought others may find it just as interesting as I did. It offers a frank retrospective on the continual development and growth of the PS3, as well as links throughout that help recreate the PS3 dateline, all while reviewing the current state of the PS3 platform.
While I disagree with some of the opinions in the article/review and have found some facts that contradict some of what is said, and disappointed to see many of the excellent features and games on the PS3 were overlooked... although not too surprising seeing as how ars technica has had a history of, in my opinion, unfairly casting a bad light on the PS3 early in it's lifecycle. However, despite all that, overall I thought it was a superb and informative read. 👍
More importantly, I also thought that besides sharing the article here, perhaps it might also be interesting for us to share our own personal retrospectives on our own experiences with the PS3, and where we think it's headed.
First the article/review:
They say it got smart: a 2008 review of the PS3
Published: June 04, 2008 - 11:30PM CT by Ben Kuchera on arstechnica.com
While I disagree with some of the opinions in the article/review and have found some facts that contradict some of what is said, and disappointed to see many of the excellent features and games on the PS3 were overlooked... although not too surprising seeing as how ars technica has had a history of, in my opinion, unfairly casting a bad light on the PS3 early in it's lifecycle. However, despite all that, overall I thought it was a superb and informative read. 👍
More importantly, I also thought that besides sharing the article here, perhaps it might also be interesting for us to share our own personal retrospectives on our own experiences with the PS3, and where we think it's headed.
First the article/review:
They say it got smart: a 2008 review of the PS3
Published: June 04, 2008 - 11:30PM CT by Ben Kuchera on arstechnica.com
The revolution will not be televised, it will be downloaded an update at a time
Back in the crazy days before the current generation of gaming consoles, the console you bought at retail was the console you had for the life of the hardware. My SNES acts exactly the same now as it did when it was first released, and outside of the addition of Xbox Live, the first Xbox system remained largely unchanged throughout the hardware's life cycle. Those days are long over, and now which version of Sony's PlayStation 3 that you bought is only one part of the equation: welcome to the firmware wars.
No console system has changed so dramatically in the time since its launch as the PlayStation 3. We rather notoriously gave the 60GB model a six when it was first released, and we stand by that rating—the system just felt undercooked. What player of high-definition media can't display content in 720p? Also, the lack of background downloading felt like a drag when we tried to use the online store. And the games were mostly terrible; there wasn't anything that looked as good as the titles on the then-mature Xbox 360, much less any evidence that the PS3 was as powerful as Sony had promised. Remember, this was the system that had been hyped from here to eternity, so it was easy to feel let down by Sony's anemic launch offerings. The PS3 never became hard to find, the price cuts began sooner than expected, and the system has been trailing both the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii almost every month since it has been released.
It may sound a bit dire when you sum it up like that, but something has been happening with the PlayStation 3 since launch. The firmware has received update after update. The Blu-ray capability has become much stronger, and it may in fact be the most affordable and fully-featured high definition disc player on the market. The price has come down to a much more palatable $400 for the 40GB model, and the game selection continues to improve, with strong multiplatform support and a wide selection of exclusive games. Finally, the Sixaxis has been discontinued, and in its place now sits the Dual Shock 3: a controller with both motion-sensing capabilities and rumble.
Sony has done an amazing job of rallying behind its flagship system, and where there used to be arrogance there is a now a more realistic sense of what needs to be done, as well as a more open approach to dealing with the press and bloggers alike. Sony launched its own blog to speak directly to the consumers, for instance, and both the PlayStation blog in the US and ThreeSpeech in the UK do a great job of providing news; both sites also have many developers and publishers interacting directly with the comments. Even the commercials for the system have gotten better. This approach seems to be saying one thing to console gamers like us, who were unimpressed with the system at launch: "We're different now. We understand what went wrong. Come home to the PlayStation you know."
So today, in light of all that has changed since the system's launch, we're going to re-review the PlayStation 3 by taking a look at the system you'll get if you buy one today, not the system that launched in November of 2006. Trust us, it's no longer a six.
Blu-ray player and media functions
The first thing that was wrong with the launch version of the PS3 was that its Blu-ray support wasn't exactly the asset that it is today. The original unit's lack of 720p support was criminal, and the selection of Blu-ray titles was weak. No one wanted to buy content for a format that might die, and if they did, the majority of people with high-def displays most likely ran at 720p as the standard resolution.
In May of 2007, Sony launched the 1.80 firmware update, and the game was changed: 720p support was finally added, as was the ability to upscale existing DVDs. DLNA support also came to the system, so that you could stream your content from your home network.
Even as Sony was rolling out these firmware updates, the Blu-ray standard itself was evolving. Different profiles for the standard asked different things of the hardware, meaning that many players wouldn't be able to take advantage of the latest features of some discs. Taking a look at each Blu-ray profile, you can imagine that early adopters of the format aren't happy with the situation:
- 1.0 is the launch profile, and secondary audio and video decoders are optional, as is local storage and network connectivity. The majority of standalone players fit into this category.
- 1.1 is a newer profile, and to take advantage of these discs, players need a secondary audio and video decoder to handle picture-in-picture, as well as at least 256MB of local storage for content.
- 2.0 is the very latest profile, requiring the two secondary decoders, 1GB of local storage for updates and content, and an Internet connection.
Sony has already launched the software update that allows the PS3 to play discs that use the 2.0 profile, called "BD Live," and at the moment the PS3 is one of the few players that will be able to play these discs. What does BD Live get you? Picture in picture, online features like trivia games, and other goodies like downloadable ring tones. The price of standalone players that are fully compliant with the 2.0 spec will most likely be above the $400 asking price of the PS3. Furthermore, buying Sony's console instead of a standalone player also gives you an added insurance policy: with its media processing muscle, hard drive, and Ethernet port, the PS3 is one of the only completely future-proof Blu-ray players on the market. No matter how the spec changes, the PS3 will be able to play it.
Sony's is also the only console to be completely Divx certified, unlike the limited support the format enjoys on the 360. "The recent Xbox update does not support full DivX playback; Microsoft has added support for MPEG-4, which is not the same thing as full DivX Certification," Bruce Lidl, PR manager for DivX Inc., told Ars Technica. "In practical terms, it is true that some DivX files will play back on the Xbox, because DivX is in part based on the MPEG-4 standard. But many early versions of DivX video will not play back on the console, and the device has not been tested to guarantee an acceptable level of quality and full support for DivX video at the proper resolution." In contrast, the PlayStation 3 is fully certified to work with DivX in all its incarnations, a large selling point for people with Divx content already on their network.
The Blu-ray and DivX situation has left Sony with the upper hand over Microsoft in the race to turn consoles into networked home media players. In short, Sony's gaming system is one of the most robust and affordable pieces of home theater hardware on the market: it's the best Blu-ray player, it has a relatively low price, it's fully Divx compatible, and it allows video streaming from your network. Furthermore, regular DVDs look amazing after being upscaled, and the system now takes advantage of all your high-end audio equipment. If you take away the gaming features completely, the hardware is still worth more than $400 for home theater enthusiasts; in a surreal twist, you could argue that Blu-ray is the Trojan horse bringing PS3 gaming to the masses, not the other way around.
Story of Rumble
When the PlayStation 3 was released, it launched with the Sixaxis controller. This was something of a departure for Sony in that it had no rumble, and its motion-sensing technology seemed to have taken some cues from the Nintendo Wii. Without rumble, the controller was light, and the triggers had a much larger range of motion than the Dual Shock 2. Some loved it, some hated it, but it was certainly an interesting choice.
"I believe that the Sixaxis controller offers game designers and developers far more opportunity for future innovation than rumble ever did. Now, rumble I think was the last generation feature; it's not the next-generation feature. I think motion sensitivity is," Phil Harrison famously told GameDaily back in February 2007. The truth is that Sony was locked in litigation with the Immersion Corporation, and rather than capitulate and license the rumble technology, Sony decided to use its power to try to make rumble look passé. The ploy didn't work.
"I really miss the rumble feature, and I already said to Mr. Kutaragi that I want the rumble feature back," Hideo Kojima said, and many gamers agreed with him. Sony ended up settling with Immersion, and almost immediately the tune changed. Sony couldn't wait to work with the company.
In a later interview, Phil Harrison played politics to try to downplay Sony's old stance about rumble. "As to previous statements that I made; we were in a lawsuit—what do you expect me to say? We were in a lawsuit. We were in litigation. Of course I have to defend our view. And actually, I still truly believe that having the Sixaxis controller the way it is is the best way to control games. And I think that we're looking forward to working with Immersion going forward, and who knows where that is leading us."
In April of this year Sony finally released the Dual Shock 3, complete with rumble, and then killed the Sixaxis completely. The Dual Shock 3 is going to be the controller for Sony moving forward, and many games already support the rumble feature. The story of the Dual Shock 3 is one of the most drastic turnarounds seen in the gaming industry.
Holding a Dual Shock 3 in my hand, I can't help but wonder how many gamers who haven't yet bought a PlayStation 3 will even remember this story. For the majority of the system's life, the Dual Shock 3 will be the controller everyone knows, and it's a very good controller. Strong battery life, rumble, wireless... it's what the system should have shipped with from the beginning. The Dual Shock is one of the most iconic designs in the history of gaming, and it's great to have it back, rumble included.
The Dual Shock 3 is yet another way that the system has improved since launch. Rumble is now back, and the PlayStation 3 has the stock controller it always deserved.
Home is where the heart is
Comparisons of Sony's PlayStation Network to Microsoft's Xbox Live have driven quite a large percentage of the online fanboi flamewars. For those that swear by it, the most important "feature" of the PlayStation 3's online network is the fact that it's free, and you won't pay a monthly fee to play online or to get your content a little faster. In contrast, with the Xbox Live you're paying for a unified infrastructure, but it also happens to be a lot stronger than Sony's free service. Some online-enabled PS3 games support voice, and some don't. There is no way to send invites across games. And most annoyingly, publishers may ask you to sign up for many different logins to play their games. So online play isn't a bad experience with the PlayStation 3, but it can be underwhelming after getting used to Xbox Live. Indeed, some argue that Sony doesn't charge you for its service because there isn't much of a service there to charge for.
But Sony's online network is certainly improving as time goes on, and it's expected that Home, Sony's social gaming answer to Xbox Live, will do a great deal to turn the tide of the online war. Home will give you a personal space in which to collect trophies; you'll be able to watch movies with other gamers; and organizing games will become easy—just get everyone together in one virtual room and launch the game. While Sony is promising microtransactions via Home, the basic service will be free to every PlayStation 3 owner.
While Home offers much to get excited about, the problem is that the service has seen multiple delays, with no solid release date in sight. EA's Peter Moore expressed the impatience that many gamers are feeling. "Phil Harrison showed me a demo–it's very cool, but let's go already. And so I'm disappointed that it's been pushed back a little bit again," Moore said to GamesIndustry. "But I really hope it gets going and becomes that portal to the PlayStation Network and we can utilize it. But boy, I just wish we'd get going."
SCEE President David Reeves told CVG that it's possible the service is spending too much time focusing on the non-gaming aspects of the experience. "We've realised that maybe we were too ambitious with the non-gaming applications within Home, getting sponsors and stuff like that," Reeves said. "In that sense we were deserting gamers. So, we're concentrating on the gaming by launching games in Home, and attracting people who are into gaming in first—instead of the Nike people, or Adidas people who are into fashion and not necessarily into gaming." This is good to hear, but as a gamer I find disconcerting how long it took Sony to realize that games need to come first with an online service, well before the "Adidas people." Hopefully the final version of Home will reward our patience.
The PlayStation Store was likewise anemic at launch, but these days Sony has been busy keeping it stocked. Today, you'll find downloadable games for gamers both casual and hardcore, and some of the downloadable titles are so good that they're nearly worth buying a system for. Everyday Shooter, PixelJunk Monsters, Trials of Topoq, flOw—the store is filled with interesting games, and more are coming. So while the Xbox Live Arcade is filled with many remakes and, frankly, disposable games, Sony has done a good job of stocking its own store with a great variety of titles without as much chaff to cut through.
The store itself has also just gotten a reboot that makes the process of shopping much zippier than the web-based monster the store was upon launch.
Sony has another advantage over the Xbox 360 when it comes to online sales: no maximum file size. This has allowed Sony to release full-sized games online and sell them directly to gamers. From Warhawk to Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, you'll find games that you can download directly that are full, no-nonsense releases. This is something Microsoft, with its expensive, proprietary hard drives, is going to have trouble matching. If you fill up your hard drive on the PlayStation 3, you're encouraged to swap it out for a larger one; the process is simple and the system uses off-the-shelf 2.5" SATA hard drives. Contrast that with Microsoft's insistence on charging you $180 for 120GB of space, and you'll see why Sony has won over so many fans in this area.
In conclusion, the PlayStation 3 has come a long way with its online offerings, but the store could still use a good tightening-up to make images load faster, and Xbox Live still trumps the free offerings with its robust feature set; something Home is hoping to change. We've also been promised much more content to buy and download, including video. That's in the future, however, and right now there is still much room to grow. Social gamers are still served better on Microsoft's rival service.
The game's the thing
Unless you're buying a PlayStation 3 simply because it's the best Blu-ray player on the market (and I'm sure many will), the thing you're most interested in are the games. Are there enough titles to justify the $400+ purchase? Are more coming? Let's take a look at some of the best titles that you can buy right now, leaving out future releases and multiplatform titles. (While many developers had issues with ports in the past, that problem is hopefully behind us, as many games now launch pitch-perfect on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.) A look at the exclusives available for Sony's console shows that there is much to like here, and way too much for one budget.
Full retail releases
Gran Turismo 5: Prologue: Sure, it may feel like a demo with its relatively small number of tracks and disappointing online play, but as a hint of what we'll be getting with the full release this has to get your mouth watering. The graphics are amazing, and the feel of actually driving these cars is second to none. Polyphony Digital is the king of racing titles, and this proves it.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune: There is a reason this game keeps coming up in discussions of the PlayStation 3; it's simply that good. Flawless dialogue and voice acting, mixed with a strong story and pacing, turned what could have been a Tomb Raider knock-off into something special. The beautiful graphics don't hurt, either. This is one of the best modern adventures in gaming, and to say anything more would diminish the fun of simply jumping in blind and playing it. Sony sent us a review copy after Frank and I argued over whether the title would find a place in the crowded market, and we fell in love with the game. How much did we believe in it? We knocked the Mass Effect review planned for the feature down to the gaming journal to make room for Uncharted. We simply thought it was a better game.
Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds: Golf games can be either very calming, or they can be exercises in frustration. This newest version of Hot Shots Golf is both. Easy enough for anyone to play after only a few minutes of practice, but deep enough that the hardcore gamer will be refining their technique weeks after they begin to practice. Fun, stylized graphics, and a lobby-based online mode that allows for 50-person tournaments round out a great practice with nearly unlimited replay value. There could be more courses, but lord knows we'll be sold more content down the road. A great time for everyone, and one of the most approachable games on the system.
Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction: Insomniac has long been recognized as one of the best development studios in the industry, and Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is the proof positive that the status is well-earned. Having learned a lot from the release of Resistance, the team brought their trademark Ratchet and Clank franchise to the PS3 in a big way. Some of the most vast, varied, and incredibly detailed worlds ever to spill from the imagination into a game are the backdrop of this excellent platformer-shooter hybrid. The series staples of shooting, jumping, and upgrading, when coupled with an eye-melting new presentation that screams at a locked 60 frames per second despite uncountable explosions, make this one of the most impressive pieces of software to hit any console yet. And, most importantly, it's just plain fun.
Warhawk: Though the Xbox 360 may be better associated with online multiplayer, Warhawk stands as a beacon for multiplayer done right on Sony's platform. Well-balanced play and tons of flexibility in strategy, play modes, map confirgurations, and more are only the start of why Warhawk is one of the strongest online multiplayer games around. A solid clan system, an integrated friends list, and great voice chat make Warhawk one of the most fully-featured multiplayer titles on the system. Best of all, the game is one of the only to be truly made better by Sixaxis control: flying the Warhawks with a joystick just isn't the same.
Eye of Judgment: Although Nintendo gets all the props for coming up with new ways to interact with games, this mixture of collectible card game and video game is much better than it has any right to be. The strategy is solid, the online play is great, and the whole thing as an experience is almost too geeky for words. Once set up, with a worthy opponent sitting across from you, this is a game that will eat your free time like none other. It's sad that the cards were so easily pirated, but even with each player only owning a starter pack, competition can be fierce. It's a unique idea, with great execution.
Honorable mentions: F1 Championship Edition, Resistance: Fall of Man, Motorstorm, Heavenly Sword
PlayStation Store Releases
Everyday Shooter: Yes, everyone has the dual analogue shooter on their system, and there are many, many of this type of game out there. Why is Everyday Shooter different? Well, the graphics are beautiful, for one, and the music is guitar-based and catchy, in contrast to the techno styles that have become so overdone with gaming these days. Created by one man, Jonathan Mak, and championed by Sony, this is a great experience that takes fairly boring gaming mechanics and makes them all seem new. Trying to figure out how to score the highest points in each level before the song is over adds a certain puzzle aspect to the game, and each level is much deeper than it may at first appear.
PixelJunk Monsters: You take Tower Defense, add an actual character to control, and hone the game-play to perfection, and you've got PixelJunk Monsters. Running around and building turrets to defend your base while picking up the coins and jewels that the enemies drop sounds frantic, and it is, but this game creates a level of addiction that's surreal. The features don't stop there, though: online leaderboards, co-op play, and the ability to use Remote Play to take the game on the road with you via your PSP makes this a game that shows off everything the PlayStation 3 can do. Be sure to download it, but also be sure to clear your schedule.
Calling All Cars: Created by David Jaffe, the man behind the first God of War title, this is a tiny little nothing of a game that didn't seem to spark the minds of many gamers, and that's a shame. The simple play of driving around in your car, snatching the bad guy, and depositing him in jail will grab you, refuse to let go, and whisper in your ear that yes, you CAN make the jump to get the higher point value for your deposit. Online play is even more fun with human opponents cursing and ramming each other. It may sound basic, but wait until you play it.
Trials of Topoq: This is what happens when you mix Tai-Chi and gaming. The game uses the PlayStation Eye to project your image on the floor of each puzzle, and any movement causes the elevation of each section, so the ball naturally rolls downhill. This means you have to make gentle, sweeping gestures to guide your ball down the tower and to avoid the obstacles, and the exercise is both calming and fun. The later levels take concentration, fine control of your entire body, and a clear head. This is another game that deserved more love than it ended up getting.
Super Stardust HD: I got in trouble with our readers by complaining that this seemed to be yet another dual-analogue shooter; their argument seemed to be who cares if it's going down well-worn terrain when it does it this well? Good point. Each level takes place on a sphere as you protect the planets from falling debris, and avoid the enemies. Leveling up each of your weapons gives you some impressive fire power and, while game-play is king, it doesn't hurt that this game is gorgeous.
Honorable mentions: Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, High Velocity Bowling, Blast Factor: Advanced Research
Coming up with these lists involved a few hard decisions, but I hope the point has been made: the PlayStation 3 already has a strong and compelling library of exclusives, and more are on the way. It took a while for us to get here, but if you pick up a PS3 today, you'll be able to choose from a wide selection of retail releases, PlayStation Store titles, and multiplatform titles. No matter what system you have, there has to be at least a few games on this list that you're jealous of.
A better PlayStation makes a better industry
We didn't give the PS3 much love when it first launched. Parts of the system plain didn't work, the online play was all over the place, and the software support was limited, at best. Multiplatform games played noticeably worse than their Xbox 360 counterparts. So many of us had a bad taste in our mouths from all the claims that the PS3 was going to completely blow away the competition, and that the only real high-definition graphics were 1080p. Sony walked into this generation with a set of claims that their launch hardware and library simply couldn't back up, and the company took a bad beating for it.
To Sony's credit, though, they learned. They slowly, but surely, addressed every beef gamers had with the system: the software lineup improved; developers learned how to work with the system; the price went down; Blu-ray won the format war; and the firmware updates kept adding value to the system. (Also, it helped that Ken Kuturagi stepped down, which was a good move. The man was a brilliant engineer, but anyone who believed he should be speaking to the public deserves to... well, to have Ken Kuturagi say crazy things about their products.)
Today Sony isn't simply playing catch-up; the PS3 has grown into a capable system that does almost everything the Xbox 360 can do, and many things even better. As a home theater box it's impeccable, and it's getting better with every update. As a gaming machine the lineup of exclusives is impressive, and more are on the way. Sony failed when it thought that it was unbeatable, and it rallied when everyone thought it couldn't be saved.
In the end, competition is a great thing. Every gamer, no matter what their system of choice, should be happy that the PlayStation 3 has become a worthy contender. Sony will make Microsoft try harder, as both companies fight to have the best games with the best features. The gaming world is better with a PlayStation product in it, and Sony has proven that it's folly to underestimate its tenacity and power in the gaming space.
The Good
- The best Blu-ray player on the market
- Rock solid hardware with a minimal defect rate
- Excellent media functions across the board
- Dual Shock 3 is a great controller, with many options for creative developers
- Online store has no upper limit on size of games
- Storage is a snap to upgrade
- Excellent convergence with the PlayStation Portable
- An ever-increasing library of exclusives
- Home could make great strides in online gaming
The Bad
- Home has seen too many delays
- Online play still doesn't measure up to Xbox
- Backwards compatibility seems to be going the way of the dodo in newer models
- Focus on media could take away from gaming aspects of the system
Don't think that numerical scores are coming back, but since we're re-rating the hardware, I thought we'd take them out for one last hurrah, since these days the PS3 gets a...
9 out of 10
