Topic: A little diatribe on the PS3

[K-man]

There are three reasons why I bought a PS3:

1. Metal Gear Solid 4
2. Using Fantasy Football winnings made it a rather guilt-free purchase, and I happened across a 60 gig with full backwards compatibility in a store long after it was reasonable to find one.
3.  Eventually I would talk myself into one anyway.

Say what you want to about the Xbox 360 and reliability issues.  Hell, it's an absolutely valid complaint.  But it's definitely a mark in favor of the system when despite huge failure rates, consoles continue to sell due to the software and feature selection.  A lot of you bitch and moan about XBL's price of admission, but when compared to what Sony has masquerading as a central online service, it becomes more than worth it.

I mean for a yearly premium of 49.99 (realistically 25-30 bucks with the frequency of deals on 12 month cards) I get a truly centralized online presence, access to netflix movies, the ability to chat with others while playing a game (not a big deal until you find you STILL can't do it on the PS3), access to really cool ideas like 1 vs. 100, etc etc.  I mean Sony's had a number of years to bring their online "service" up to par with the 360's, but they still don't deserve to even sniff XBL's jockstrap.  PSN still feels so disjointed and user-unfriendly compared to XBL.  And the features are absolutely NOT there

Not to say I'm terribly displeased with the PS3.  I enjoy the exclusives I'm interested in (LBP, MGS4, Resistance series, Folklore, etc), and it's a very sexy piece of machinery.  But I think XBL really does hold the key to the future of the console presence.  It's not just a service, it's a community. 

I don't know.  Maybe Sony just isn't adept at developing something like XBL.  If Home is any indication, that statement is certainly true.

I was pissed when my 360 RRoDed just like everyone else.  But you know what?  If mine broke tomorrow out of warranty I'd have to buy another because I flat out couldn't live without it.

[Cobra951]

That I'm sure will start some colorful debate.  Since I don't have a PS3, and now I doubt I ever will, I can't do the comparison like you did.  I do agree that XBL is a good thing overall.  The defectively designed hardware is still inexcusable.  But as you said, it has become essential, so warranty or not, it will live on. 

[iPPi]

I think it depends on what you're after.  I've got all three systems, and I use the PS3 the most, even though I only have 3 games for it.  The blu-ray, and the better media player interface via the XMB makes streaming video and audio from my PC simpler. 

I do not disagree though that XBL is the better online service, but I don't play games online anymore or often enough to justify the cost. 

However, given the hardware problems of the Xbox, when given the choice, I will absolutely now buy a game for the PS3 instead of the Xbox version, since I do not know how longer my Xbox will survive.  If it dies, I will not buy another one.

[K-man]

I guess the best way I can put is is that the 360 best represents what the future of console gaming will be.

The problem with multiplatform games is that they most often perform better on the 360.  There are a few I have bought for PS3 though, like the Sonic collection and Street Fighter IV. 

But aside from the 360 superiority, The PS3 really should have a much better feature set than it does now.  There's no excuse for their online service.  And it's not just playing the games online.  It's also the community that Microsoft has fostered with their service.

[Cobra951]

Considering that the 360 is basically a 2005-06 game PC, it's not surprising that PC-tech games come off better on it without serious efforts with the PS3 architecture.  Also, the 360 handles the scaling to different resolutions completely independently of application resources.  This has been a problem for some PS3 games.  I think it impacts video memory too much.

By "superiority" I assume you mean the online experience, right?

[K-man]

Not just the online experience, but I feel the overall package is superior.  Regardless of the reasoning behind why 360 games look at the very least comparable to PS3 (and sometimes better), the fact still stands.  The online system is superior, the game selection is superior, the feature set is superior, and the overall experience is superior in my opinion.

the only thing I can see that is inferior to the PS3 is hardware reliability.

[K-man]

And bear in mind, I don't think the PS3 is complete and utter shit.  I mean I own one.  I just can't believe how much Sony let Microsoft just hand them their ass this console generation, especially after MS basically handing Sony a Mulligan with the hardware issues.

[Cobra951]

It is surprising that Sony couldn't capitalize on Microsoft's hardware blunders.

[Ghandi]

I'm happy enough with my decision to get a PS3 over a 360, although I should mention that I don't use the online service (and probably wouldn't on the 360 either). The library is pretty thin at the moment, but there are some good looking titles on the horizon. I do often wish, though, that I'd bought a 360 since I do want to try out some of the exclusives. Ironically, my decision was based mostly on the hardware, and my PS3 broke last year. Cost a ton to fix as well.

[K-man]

How much if I may ask?  that's one of my big fears with the PS3.  At least if my 360 breaks they're relatively cheap to replace now.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I've been pretty happy with my PS3 since I got it a little over a year ago (I think).  I use it as my DVD/Blu-Ray player when I'm not playing games and I run Winamp Remote on it sometimes so I can play music from my computer when people are over.  While I don't have a large amount of games for my PS3 quite yet, there's a lot of them I still need to play and plan to get.  I've been working on a backlog of PSP and PS2 games before I get any newer PS3 titles(with the exception of BlazBlue) and they'll probably be a little cheaper when I get around to getting them.

I think the main reason I got a PS3 was not only for exclusives that I wanted but the types of games that come out for it seem to suit my taste better, especially in the JRPG genre.  While the 360 has been better about getting more JRPGs than with the last generation, there's seems to be more (either out now or in the future) on the PS3.  While Square-Enix may be leaning towards releasing their games on PS3 and 360, some of the other JRPG producers, namely Atlus, seem to favor PS3 over the 360, like they did with the last generation of consoles.  There is a small list of games that are 360 exclusive that I would like to play but it really isn't enough for me to buy a 360, even at the price it is at now.

The online stuff with PS3 seems fine to me but I don't really play a lot of games online and never really had a huge urge to.  I've played a little bit of Street Fighter IV online and I will probably be playing some BlazBlue online but that's really about it.  Online experience was not really a deciding factor in my purchase, it was more like a bonus and if Sony charged for online services like Microsoft does, I probably wouldn't subscribe since I am happy playing games by myself.

[Ghandi]

How much if I may ask?  that's one of my big fears with the PS3.  At least if my 360 breaks they're relatively cheap to replace now.

$40 just to look at it and another $40 to replace the laser. Would have been another $100 if it was the drive instead of the laser. I got mine refurb and didn't have a warranty.

The guys at the store said that they have been getting a bunch in - for varying reasons depending on the make.

[iPPi]

I just find the Xbox too damned expensive at the time when I bought it.

I paid $400 for my PS3 and I got everything I needed from it, with an 80GB drive and don't need to worry about space at all based on my usage.

On my 360, I just poured my wallet out for it and the number of peripherals to make it as 'complete' as the PS3 was just ridiculous.  I bought my 360 the day the PS3 came out, and got a 20GB model for $450, spent $100 for the wireless adapter, spent another $200 for the HD-DVD add-on.  On top of that, I had Gold for about two years, when I did use it, and it was about $50 a year.  In total, that's $850 spent just on hardware and service.  Not to mention, there was no HDMI when I got it, so I couldn't get 1080p output on HD DVD video.  Add to that -- no DTS support either.

The PS3 -- $400 done and done.  It has the blu ray built in, the wifi built in, and the online service, no matter how inferior to XBL, is free.

[scottws]

Why would you have gotten the HD-DVD add-on?  Even then it was getting pretty clear that BD was going to win out.

[iPPi]

The format war tipped toward blu-ray on Jan 2008 when Sony paid $450 million to Warner Bros. for exclusive support, and I believe Warner Bros. represents 47% of the home video market.  When I got HD-DVD every indicator was on HD-DVD winning the format war.

[Quemaqua]

I thought it was a done deal when the porn industry showed its support of HD-DVD.  I wrote it off as inevitable at that point, heh.

Anyway, I've already expressed my opinion on this enough.  I can't agree with this and never will.  God help us if this is the way of the future of consoles.  Just what we need, everybody making shitty, unreliable products and charging us for every conceivable thing they can think of.  Yeah, that sounds awesome.

[K-man]

I thought it was a done deal when the porn industry showed its support of HD-DVD.  I wrote it off as inevitable at that point, heh.

Anyway, I've already expressed my opinion on this enough.  I can't agree with this and never will.  God help us if this is the way of the future of consoles.  Just what we need, everybody making shitty, unreliable products and charging us for every conceivable thing they can think of.  Yeah, that sounds awesome.

I obviously wasn't referring to the hardware difficulties, but the overall presentation of the product.

And yeah, digital distribution and the charging is just how it's going to be.  There's money in it and no one who wants to turn a buck is going to turn their back on that.

[Quemaqua]

*Shrug*

No personal reflection on you, but I find it inexcusable and unsupportable due to my own convictions.  Hence I barely use the thing anymore.  And when I do, it's usually for weird stuff.  Like I just bought Guilty Gear 2: Overture.

[Cobra951]

A lot of you bitch and moan about XBL's price of admission, but when compared to what Sony has masquerading as a central online service, it becomes more than worth it.

I mean for a yearly premium of 49.99 (realistically 25-30 bucks with the frequency of deals on 12 month cards) . . .

As if on cue.  But do hurry up if you want it.

Edit:  Oh, I guess it ran out early.  I'll leave the link up, because there are other deals there for a year of gold.

[idolminds]

A lot of you bitch and moan about XBL's price of admission, but when compared to what Sony has masquerading as a central online service, it becomes more than worth it.

I suppose the other way to look at it would be "If they are charging for it, it fucking should be better."

[K-man]

I suppose the other way to look at it would be "If they are charging for it, it fucking should be better."

Either way the point stands.

[Quemaqua]

Not really.  I prefer PSN to XBL.

EDIT - Not meant as a troll post.  What I mean to say is I really don't like the XBL stuff.  I know, I'm in the minority and we've discussed it before, but... I like it less, it costs money, and it requires me to buy expensive wireless dongle.  That's a big pile of lose for me.

[K-man]

I know it all boils down to preference, but even knowing that I just have a terrible time believing that anyone would prefer PSN to XBL.  Money issues (and your personal wireless requirements) aside, it's just better than PSN in about every way

[Quemaqua]

Not for anything that I would ever do with it.  The very few games I play online don't require much, and I generally hate the design philosophy behind pretty much everything ever developed for the 360 software-wise.  I understand that PSN is still lacking in a few ways that irk some people, but for my money, I will more than happily accept a couple of limitations in exchange for not having to pay for something I'm only likely to use a few times a month.

[K-man]

OK, if you don't use or plan on using the functionalities then I could definitely see not paying for it. 

[Quemaqua]

It's not even necessarily a question of not using, but of raw frequency.  If all future consoles go into a pay-to-play online model, I'm fucked.  I'll never get to play anything online.  The majority of my time doing anything multiplayer is on the PC, and while I do enjoy picking up and playing games on my consoles, it's too infrequent to justify paying for it all the time.  And it's an annoying hassle to have to start and stop the service every time I want to use it, especially since I'm usually already broke from buying whatever game it is I'm playing, let alone from considering paying extra to get more use out of it.

[scottws]

Not really.  I prefer PSN to XBL.

EDIT - Not meant as a troll post.  What I mean to say is I really don't like the XBL stuff.  I know, I'm in the minority and we've discussed it before, but... I like it less, it costs money, and it requires me to buy expensive wireless dongle.  That's a big pile of lose for me.

Yeah the price of the wireless dongle is ridiculous, but there are alternatives.  I have a router operating as a WDS client and my 360 is connected to that via an Ethernet cable.  Yeah, my router was $60, but still it is cheaper than $100.

Regarding the Gold for-pay package, I totally agree.  I got it when I got my 360, but I only played Lost Planet for a short time and Gears of War just a couple of times.  I had it because these other guys at work all got one too and we talked about playing together but it only happened once.  I went back to Silver and haven't looked back.  Until recently, Microsoft didn't really offer anything with Gold other than online play and it was completely not worth it.  But now they've worked in Netflix and they sometimes have discounts that are Gold-exclusive, but it is still not enough to get me to bite.

As far as the overall comparison between PSN and XBL, I can't speak on that.  I've never even seen a PS3, much less PSN running on one.

[Cobra951]

I got a long ethernet cable so I could hook up my 360 to the router, which at the time was in my brother's room together with the cable modem.  I was not about to pay $100 for 360 wireless either.  The cable was like $18.  Since he moved out, I moved the router to my room, so the long cable worked out well.  (The modem is still in his room.)