PS3

[Big_Ego]

cant wait for the PS3 to launch over here, im on Stus list

[Stuart]

Hanbury Street in East London has never looked more inappropriate for Sonys 3rooms presentations. Bearing in mind this was their big opportunity to show British retail why we should gleefully dump the 360 and jump aboard their corporate bandwagon, the backstreet slum style building looked like a set up. It seemed we had been sent the wrong address altogether...........until

We parked up, rounded the corner, me cursing that I must have had the details wrong when one of Sonys staff greeted us. The relief on my part was obvious, she knocked on the plate glass door twice, and a guy opened the door and we were allowed in. Very 'Layer Cake'.

The interior of the building more than made up for exterior, I think that was deliberate, lavish furnishings, 60" Bravias everywhere and a general ambience that any one of us would have been delighted to call 'home'. A definite 'Carlsberg' moment

We were invited to partake of the normal high quality food and drinks before being escorted through to the area designated for movies......more 7.1 sound surround, more Bravias and more 1080p. Yum and indeed, more yum. The film we were shown was pretty pants but the detail available at such resolution was superb, and bear in mind this is old analogue film, the studios aren't using HD to film in yet!!

The games on show included Fight Night, Motorstorm, GT HD, Ridge Racer, Resistance, Genji, Formula One and Lair. GT and Fight Night stole the show for me, not in terms of gameplay(been there, done that) but the polish these two titles showed give a true indication of the fun to be had. Resistance is possibly the only true next gen IP that hasn't been seen before........Lair was impressive, but I didn't try it properly....too distracted by everything that was going on, a true kid in a candy shop. We proceeded to unlock all of the standard cars on GT within about 20 minutes, but the physics looked promising and this is only a 'tweak' of GT4s engine.

For me the most impressive element of the PS3 is its online functionality. Imagine you and your mates want to look at your holiday snaps. You all gather around your HD and boot the PS3 up. The logically laid out home screen guides you to the 'photo' section as easy as pie (Oh yeah, the time of day and time of year have a bearing on the organic display background so it changes as the time and seasons do to. Pointless but cool) Anyway, photos.........yeah, normally your buddies will only be watching at this point if there is topless action lined up, so why not entertain them with some music from your hard drive, of your choice, whilst they look? The PS3 can multitask like Jenna Jameson. Listen to music, scan through pictures, stream info from your PSP wirelessly or to it......simple. Now for the party trick. Treat your PS3 like an all in one home digital home entertainment system. You can surf the net properly, having up to 8 pages open at once. These pages are browsable in full page simply by pressing left or right on the keypad, PSP or your wifi keyboard if you have one. If you have a wifi keyboard you lose no functions at all over a laptop or desktop, or you can use the predictive text style input using your pad ala 360 (Buy the keyboard) Killer punch~ here goes. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to remotely download stuff to the PS3 if you were out and about? Say you're in the car listening to the radio and Chris Moyles/Terry Wogan (delete as required) tells you about the latest CD release. If you have your PSP with you and you're in a wifi hotspot, simply get online, visit Sonys PS3living.com site and set your PS3 to download the CD for you. From the car!! Even better still you can then remotely get that same data sent back to the same PSP over the net!!

So we have good quality gaming, certainly the same graphical quality enjoyed by 360 with the headroom for greater resolution and depth. The online gameplay is unproven but Sony know this is something they must improve on. We also have internet functionality of something like a laptop/desktop but it will look so much better on a bloody great plasma than your 17", believe me. We have remote uploading and downloading between PS3 and PSP. We have blue ray movies and all of the AV smut that brings. We have a really nicely made gloss black and brushed metal digital entertainment system....not something resembling the draw on your washing machine. We have the ergonomic delight that is the old trusted Dualshock pad, no wires and rechargeable on the fly via the USB2 port.....

Breaking news

The PlayStation 3 console will be releasing on March 23rd 2007 in the UK. You heard it here first. Prices are to be announced but expect a price in the region of

[RX7]

Awww dammit Stu,

I soooo wanted you to come back and say it was awful and that you wouldnt buy one over the 360 !!!!

Now it gives me a dilemma lol

Even though GT is in a new resolution and there are a couple of extra tracks did it feel like a next gen console game ? Or a more graphical version of the last one ? After seeing the vids of a car on the new mountain track it looked very good it has to be said. However when I saw a vid with more than 1 car and it still had the 'bounce' physics when you hit another car it didnt inspire confidence.

That said the console sounds brilliant. The Wii has an internet browser but sadly it fails on some Java sites, hopefully the PS3 is better.

Sounds like it is a great purchase, for all of those who havent experienced next gen gaming then it sounds like a good choice.

And as you said before if it goes wrong then they send a replacement within 48 hours and collect the old one rather than having to send your console off and wait 15 days for it to come back.......bitter about that....me.....never !!!

With the 360 its strength has to be xbox live, the way you can see who is online then send them an invite to the game you are playing or send them a quick voice or mail message is great. How did the PS3 compare to that ?

Will you have a demo one in store for us to come and experience ?

Am sure I will have a good chat about the console with you on sunday.

[Ben]

I know I will purchase one - I can wait till the hype dies down though - can't wait to get my hands on this puppy. Glad you had a good day too.

[Stuart]

1) Even though GT is in a new resolution and there are a couple of extra tracks did it feel like a next gen console game ? 2) Or a more graphical version of the last one ?
3) That said the console sounds brilliant. The Wii has an internet browser but sadly it fails on some Java sites, hopefully the PS3 is better.
With the 360 its strength has to be xbox live, the way you can see who is online then send them an invite to the game you are playing or send them a quick voice or mail message is great.4) How did the PS3 compare to that ?
5) Will you have a demo one in store for us to come and experience ?

1) Gran Turismo HD is merely a demo that you can download, probably free of charge, from Sony. It has one mountain course with 10 cars and then 10 further tuned versions. It also has three game modes. It uses the new graphic engine but uses GT4's physics engine, albeit tweaked. Treated as an appetiser rather than the main course and it's huge fun.

2) Answered above.

3) They demonstrated Sonys own site with full Java support, Ebay, Google and a few others. Very slick and lightening fast.

4) PS3 online is their biggest challenge, just as I would say that it is Microsofts trump card. The actual experience looks very similar, friends list, messages, whos online etc etc.

5) Demo unit~ I'm going back up to Sony for round two next Friday and will know more then. I do know that we are being considered for Concept store status. There will be a handful of retailers around the UK (17 in total across the country) This status should mean that we have a very nice demo area with sound surround, Bravia etc etc. When this will be in place is anyones guess but I would suspect after launch. We will buy at least one for demo use.

[Ben]

So testing night at the shop then mate ....

[rolty]

When will you need to start taking deposits?

[Stuart]

Already started mate

[rolty]

Will have to see what I can do. What sort of position would giving you a deposit at Easter sort of time put me in? Would I be too far down the list to make it worthwhile?

[Stuart]

George

These badboys are released before Easter mate :? We can have a natter nearer the time. Always happy to help mates out.