PS3 Review

[lendarios]

A Weekend Full of Quality Time With PlayStation 3

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By SETH SCHIESEL
Published: November 20, 2006

Howard Stringer, you have a problem. Your company’s new video game system just isn’t that great.
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Sony Computer Entertainment

A view of the screen of “Resistance: Fall of Man,” one of the games for the new Sony PlayStation3.
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The controller of Sony PlayStation 3 looks like earlier ones.

Ever since Mr. Stringer took the helm last year at Sony, the struggling if still formidable electronics giant, the world has been hearing about how the coming PlayStation 3 would save the company, or at least revitalize it. Even after Microsoft took the lead in the video-game wars a year ago with its innovative and powerful Xbox 360, Sony blithely insisted that the PS3 would leapfrog all competition to deliver an unsurpassed level of fun.

Put bluntly, Sony has failed to deliver on that promise.

Measured in megaflops, gigabytes and other technical benchmarks, the PlayStation 3 is certainly the world’s most powerful game console. It falls far short, however, of providing the world’s most engaging overall entertainment experience. There is a big difference, and Sony seems to have confused one for the other.

The PS3, which was introduced in North America on Friday with a hefty $599 price tag for the top version, certainly delivers gorgeous graphics. But they are not discernibly prettier than the Xbox 360’s. More important, the whole PlayStation 3 system is surprisingly clunky to use and simply does not provide many basic functions that users have come to expect, especially online.

I have spent more than 30 hours using the PlayStation 3 over the last week or so and may have played more different games on the system — 13 — than probably anyone outside of Sony itself. Sony did not activate the PS3’s online service until just before the Friday debut. Over the weekend a clear sense of disappointment with the PlayStation 3 emerged from many gamers.

“What’s weird is that the PS3 was originally supposed to come out in the spring, and here it came out in the fall, and it still doesn’t feel finished,” Christopher Grant, managing editor of Joystiq, one of the world’s biggest video-game blogs, said on the telephone Saturday night. “It’s really not the all-star showing they should have had at launch. Sony is playing catch-up in a lot of ways now, not just in terms of sales but in terms of the basic functionality and usability of the system.”

Sadly for Sony, the best way to explain how the PlayStation 3 falls short is to explain how different it is to use than its main competition, Xbox 360. When I reviewed the 360 last year, I wrote: “Twelve minutes after opening the box, I had created my nickname, was in a game of Quake 4 and thought, ‘This can’t be this easy.’ ”

I never felt that way using the PlayStation 3. With the PS3, 12 minutes after opening the box I realized that Sony inexplicably does not include cables to connect the machine to a high-definition television. Keep in mind that one of Sony’s main selling points has been that the PS3 plays Blu-Ray high-definition movie discs. But high-definiton cables? Sold separately. The Xbox 360, by contrast, ships with one cable that can connect to either a standard or high-definition set.

Then, before you are even using the PS3, you have to connect the “wireless” controller to the base unit with a USB cable so they can recognize each other. If you bring your PS3 controller to a friend’s house, you’ll have to plug back in again. The 360’s wireless controllers are always just that, wireless.

If there is one thing one would expect Sony to get perfect, though, it would be music. Wrong. Sure, you can plug in your digital music player and the PS3 will play the tunes. But as soon as you go into a game, the music stops. By contrast, one of the things I’ve always enjoyed most on the Xbox 360 is being able to listen to my own music while playing Pebble Beach or driving my virtual Ferrari. Doesn’t seem too complicated, but the PS3 can’t do it.

In that sense it often feels as if the PlayStation 3 can’t walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. In the PS3’s online store (which feels like a slow Web page) you can access movie trailers and trial versions of new games, but when you actually download the 600-megabyte files, you’ll be stuck watching a progress bar crawl across the screen for 20 or 40 minutes. Astonishingly, you can’t download in the background while you go do something that’s more fun (like play a game). On the Xbox 360, not only are files downloaded seamlessly in the background, but you can also shut off the machine, turn it on later, and the download will resume automatically.

The PS3’s whole online experience feels tacked-on and unpolished. On the Xbox 360 each user has a single unified friends list, so you can track your friends and communicate with them easily, no matter what game you are in. On the PlayStation 3 most games have their own separate friends list and some have no friends function at all. There is a master list as well, but in order to communicate with anyone on it, you have to quit the game you are playing.

There are some high points. The multi-player battles in Resistance: Fall of Man are excellent. The arcade-style action in the downloadable Blast Factor is suitably frantic.

But the list of the PS3’s disappointments remains, from its undersupported voice chat to its maddening cellphone-like text messaging system. (In frustration I ended up plugging in a USB keyboard.) Overall, Sony seems to have put a lot of effort into cramming as much silicon horsepower under the hood as possible but to have forgotten that all the transistors in the world can’t make someone smile.

And so it is a bit of a shock to realize that on the video game front Microsoft and Sony are moving in exactly the opposite directions one might expect given their roots. Microsoft, the prototypical PC company, has made the Xbox 360 into a powerful but intuitive, welcoming, people-friendly system. Sony’s PlayStation 3, on the other hand, often feels like a brawny but somewhat recalcitrant specialized computer. (Sony is even telling users to wait for future software patches to fix some of the PS3’s deficiencies.) The thing is, if people want to use a computer, they’ll use a computer.

Through the decades of the Walkman and the Trinitron television, Sony was renowned as the global master of easy-to-use, seamlessly powerful consumer electronics. But recently Sony seems to have lost its way, first in digital music players, in which it ceded the ergonomic high ground to Apple’s iPod, and now in home-game consoles. For now Sony’s technologists seem to have won out over the people who study fun.

As a practical matter, given the limited quantities Sony has been able to manufacture, the PlayStation 3 will surely remain sold out throughout the holiday season. If you can’t find one, don’t fret. Sony still has a lot of work to do. As Mr. Grant of Joystiq put it: “Maybe in six months it’ll be finished. Maybe by next fall I’ll be able to do all the cool stuff. I’m still kind of waiting.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/ar...in&oref=slogin

[lendarios]

I found that article on the NJ times and its pretty interesting. While I do not own neither system, I heard nothing but praises from the 360 crowd, while the PS3 crowd is having problems like the ones mentioned in the article.

[Soygen]

I can't comment on the PS3, but I agree with everything he said about 360. I've only owned one for a bit over a week, but I'm extremely impressed by the online setup and the system's os/features. I can't help but be a bit let down by the craptacular start the PS3 seems to be having. It does, however, make me happy I didn't wait in line for days or pay some retarded amount for one.

[Kiely]

Basically, he enjoys playing the games but doesn't like the small tidbits of the OS.
Fair enough, I suppose, if you compare that part to xbox360 but I wouldn't go as far to say it undelivers fun.
Sure, with a bit of a lackluster launch in terms of games, he's right to complain about the small things because theres simply nothing else to complain about. But I don't simply care, it's until I see the titles I want to see pop up in there promised glory, then I will start to care about how much Ps3 owns or not. If ff13 undelivers etc.

[Zefah]

Wow that interface sounds really lame. No unified friends list? No voice chat / voice messages? No ability to play music or download things in the background? I often play music off my iPod during 360 games and I spent like 3 days downloading and playing demos.

Luckily they can update all of this shit and fix it via patches, but I wonder why they didn't get their act together before launch. After postponing the thing for like 7 months you think their interface would be a little more polished.

[Darus Grey]

You'd think that, but it isn't.

PS3 is currently acting as a Emulator-and-HTPC for me, and playing PS2 games, and nothing else.

[Akileese]

Originally Posted by Zefah

Wow that interface sounds really lame. No unified friends list? No voice chat / voice messages? No ability to play music or download things in the background? I often play music off my iPod during 360 games and I spent like 3 days downloading and playing demos.

Luckily they can update all of this shit and fix it via patches, but I wonder why they didn't get their act together before launch. After postponing the thing for like 7 months you think their interface would be a little more polished.

Like he said, all the horsepower in the world won't make you smile. They spent so much time focusing on hardware that they tacked on a shitty unpolished interface WITH a 7 month delay. You would of hoped they could have atleast gotten a easy to use interface put in but no. Now, MS had a one year head start, so let's be a little fair. They've had a few options here and there, but the 360 Interface was polished at launch. It's easy to use and although I do prefer the Wii's interface system (Look at the polish on their interface as the only problem is congestion when downloading updated due to too many users), the 360 interface is atleast a close second if not a tie.

A friend of mine said 'Sony is done.' when he heard about all of the launch issues they had (a tremendous undershipment and still mass system failures), but I disagree. They can recover from it, but they need to start pumping out systems faster and get that interface fixed so it isn't an aborted step child of the PSP interface. Also, the biggest gripe, not even component cables? Common now Sony. I know you're a bunch of fucking cheap skates, but to give VGA cables to your HD crowd is a fucking joke.

They need to get off their asses and get to fixing things right away. They only have until the summer/fall to win back the angry customers or else they'll fall too far behind Nintendo (who could end up catching MS in world sales by spring if the system keeps flying off the shelves). All and all, I think this is a good lesson for Sony if they can survive this. Big hardware doesn't mean shit if the rest of the system is a hassle. Less hardware, more ease of use. When it takes you a few minutes to load in a game, boot it up, and finalyl play, your interface has issues.

[brekk]

The current situation sucks for Sony, but its great for the game industry.

All the major companies within the console industry really have to stay on their toes. Sony was becoming bloated and over confident because of the PS1, and PS2 dominance. But with this new generation and a changing of the guards, they're going to have to really step it up. Even with updates and fixes, i think their already screwed for this generation. Will they sell enough and survive? Yes, but they will be losing a good chunk of market share.

Between the PS3 failure, and the Wii success some companies are really going to be rethinking their plans for their next gen systems. You can no longer just go all graphics crazy and assume you'll be victorious.

Its very similar to the situation with the PSP vs. DS. PSP is vastly superior technology wise. Better graphics, media player options, and yet it has failed compared to the DS because of lack of polish.

When companies really have to compete, the consumer wins.

[Szlia]

Note: you can patch software, not hardware, so the important thing is how fast and how well the PS3 UI will evolve. If they are too slow and do not go after the biggest flaws first, then it will be time to worry.

[Akileese]

Well, I said before that success of the PS3 is a terrible thing for consumers because what would be the 4th generation of playstations could see a $1000 price tag simply because it's "a good value for $1000". Honestly, by the end of March when Prime 3 hits and supposibly more PS3s should be hitting retail, we'll know everything.

But yeah, Sony got overconfident and Kuratagi made that fucking ridiculous "I want people to want to work more to buy a PS3" statement and honestly, it's been completely downhill since. I don't think they've even gotten an ounce of good press since then and if they have, it's been so overshadowed by negativity that you can't even see it. For every one PS3 owner who loves everything about their system, there's 50 who dislike a little or a lot, and well, 5000 who sold it on ebay :P.

You may be right about them being dead in the water already. It'll be interesting to see how many 360s Smackdown vs. Raw (which will undoubtedly steal some PS3 customers to 360), Gears of War, Tony Hawk (which is getting fairly crappy reviews for a Tony Hawk game), and Viva Pinata (surprisingly addictive) can push this winter for them. If they don't push a lot and Nintendo can roll out Wii's like they plan to, things could be going back to the way it used to be.

It's funny though isn't it? When N64 was released people were saying the same thing about Nintendo. Not the price, but that using carts were arrogant and stupid on their part when they could have had used a cheaper media, but they wanted the extra cash. Sony came in and took over because of it. Now the tables have turned because Sony insists on pushing their personal agenda on a gaming machine (something that should just never be done, I mean ever).

If Nintendo can keep selling and they come out on top, it'll be interesting to see how much they learned from their N64/GC mistakes and everyone will ask "well, we have the motion sensor, what's next?" I think it could be mixing the wii mote with a VR helmet, but I don't know that we're there yet.

I just hope to christ that if Sony comes out of this at all and makes it to the 4th gen of Playstation, that they learn from their mistakes and try to better themselves.

Hopefully this will lead us to a 4th generation where the high point is $400 and not $1000. Only time will tell though.

[Slick Willey]

Originally Posted by Akileese

But yeah, Sony got overconfident and Kuratagi made that fucking ridiculous "I want people to want to work more to buy a PS3" statement and honestly, it's been completely downhill since.

That was classic. Off-topic, but another one of my favorite Kutaragi-isms was his comment that "The next generation starts when WE say that it starts." Unfortunately for Sony, none of their launch titles (and I believe near-future titles) even comes close to looking as good as Gears of War. Still, you want to talk about being arrogant, it doesn't get much more arrogant than that.

[Darus Grey]

"The next generation starts when WII says that it starts."

Secret message...!

[Lyenae]

Originally Posted by Darus Grey

"The next generation starts when WII says that it starts."

Indeed,

LOL @ Cellphone Typing.

[frott]

Yawn, look at the ps1 or ps2 launch titles and tell me this is any different.

[Hateyou]

Originally Posted by frott

Yawn, look at the ps1 or ps2 launch titles and tell me this is any different.

Or any console launch. Seriously, I don't ever remember a great launch on any system from any company, ever. (game title-wise)