Editorials

The PS3: What’s hot and what’s not?

September 17, 2009, Author: Andy Corrigan

Some of you may have noticed in my last couple of posts, on the podcast or over our twitter, that I have mentioned my recent purchase of a PS3. A combination of a less than ideal financial situation, indecision when I did have the cash, and a dislike of the online infrastructure were amongst some of the major reasons that it’s taken me this long to get to this point. That said, the biggest reason is that I’m heavily invested in Xbox Live and the Xbox 360’s achievement system, and as such the sole use of the PS3 would be reserved strictly for exclusives. With that in mind it’s fair to say that up until last year there really weren’t enough of those to justify blowing that amount of money for the sake of three or four big games. However with the recent price drop, the likes of LittleBIGPlanet, Killzone 2, and Infamous being added to the growing list of games that I could only play on PS3, along with the ongoing improvement of the firmware, my decision was made.

So, as a new PS3 owner, how am I finding the experience? Well I have to say that my impressions are mostly very positive at this point, however as with most things there are some niggles. So without turning this into yet another ‘360 vs PS3 fanboy debate’ by making direct comparisons between the two consoles, here are the things I love, hate, and the things that I’m currently undecided about when it comes to owning a PS3.

The exclusives
One of the major things that kept me focused on getting a PS3 was LittleBIGPlanet. Yes, it was just a cutesy platformer. Yes, it’s nothing that couldn’t have been done on the 360, but there are few games that boast this amount of charm, originality, and customisation to this degree. Alongside that, the ridiculously polished Killzone 2 and Uncharted: Drakes Fortune have helped quench my lust for action and adventure. With the likes of Heavy Rain coming along and some other big exclusives to come in the next year, it seems Sony has finally gotten their backsides into gear when it comes to securing big games that set their system apart from the others.

That the online is free
Online isn’t as important to me as it is to others I know, but it’s still undeniable that because of Sony’s blasé approach to having control over their online infrastructure, the PSN service does lack the class and shine of Microsoft’s counterpart service. However, you do get what you pay for. For a free service PSN works pretty well in my opinion, although it’s far from the finished article.

The media functionality: iPlayer, Vidzone, internet browser etc
To my surprise some of my most used features on the PS3 lie in the backend. Thus far my favourite has easily been BBC’s iPlayer. I don’t tend to watch a lot of TV generally, preferring to game, but when I’m writing things for the site I like to have something on in the background, and the iPlayer has allowed me to watch some of my favourite comedy shows while doing so. Vidzone has also been somewhat of a surprise factor, almost like the video equivalent of Spotify or similar to having a modern pub jukebox in your living room. Perfect for leaving on while you and friends get ready for a big night out. The internet browser has been underused but has come in handy, especially when getting my dose of Zero Punctuation on a Wednesday. It does have one issue though; it doesn’t seem to want to display this very site. I’m not entirely sure why.

The constant improvement of the infrastructure
This pretty much counts for most major electrical purchases these days, but the PS3 was very much maligned early on, especially when you couldn’t check messages or invites without quitting out of whatever game you were playing at the time. This, along with many other complaints, has already been rectified and while they probably release the firmware updates a little too often for my liking, it’s a good sign that Sony is willing to continue to put the time in to make the system what people want.

That it still plays PSone games
I was under the impression that the PS3 slim model was ditching all backwards compatibility, but it seems that they have left the PSone chipset well alone. I tried it just out of pure curiosity and to my delight I now don’t have to pay £7.99 to play Final Fantasy VII again as I already own the disc.

The updates for games
So picture the scene; I’ve been waiting for ages to get my hands on LittleBIGPlanet. I get my new PS3 home and set up and have just spent 15-20 minutes waiting for it to finish updating to firmware 3.0. Awesome, straight on with LBP… Nope, I have to wait another thirty minutes while it applies nine title updates. Nine! There has to be a better way of handling this. This has been the case with most of the games I’ve bought, and you can multiply this frustration by ten when you get this along with…

The installs
I understand that a lot of the games need data installed on the HDD due to technical limitations with the speeds of current blu-ray players, but it’s frustrating when you consider that console gaming is generally about a plug and play mentality. What has annoyed me most is the need to install demos. You not only have to endure a lengthy download process, but then spend more time watching it install than you do actually experiencing the demo. For example Heavenly Sword; it took roughly twenty minutes to download and install that demo, and about five minutes to play.

Home
The pointless sex-pest simulator. It’s like an MMO without anything to do. Sure there are the odd games like chess or bowling, and you can view a trailer in the cinema, but is there any point when you can just get to most of this stuff via the normal menu? As soon as a girl avatar appears, she gets swamped by horny geeks doing stupid dances. That’s all this experience is. Seriously, anyone who finds any fun parading around in this glorified chatroom has probably suffered a severe blow to the head.

Sixaxis
My indecision on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing comes down to the fact that I’ve seen the good and ugly side of its usage in the PS3 games I’ve played so far. When the feature was announced I felt it was a rushed inclusion in reaction to the Wii, and at the moment it still feels the same. There are some excellent uses, my favourite so far being requiring to keep a steady hand with the sniper rifle in Killzone 2. Using it to help Nathan Drake balance across logs in Uncharted is another good idea, but as soon as you see a decent use most games follow it up with a poor one.

Using it to change the trajectory of grenade tosses in Uncharted is just one such example. In SOCOM it can be used to control crouching and leaning, and it sounds brilliant in theory, but it’s simply clumsy when put into practice and I switched it off immediately. For developers to get the best of this, it needs to be used very subtly and not shoe-horned in just so that they can boast its prominence on back of the box. I really don’t want to see another ‘waggle pad to shake off Chimera’ episode that I discovered in Resistance: Fall of Man. I don’t think we’ll be able to tell for another couple of years just how much of a successful feature it has turned out to be.

Blu-ray
Yes, I know it’s for hi-def movies, but until the pricing comes down I really can’t see myself buying many blu-ray discs at all, especially when I can get three-to-four DVDs for the same price. I need incentive to take the plunge, and a slightly better picture isn’t enough that it changes the movie watching experience that drastically for me.

Trophies
Sony’s belated answer to achievements and I fear that the system is a little too convoluted to be any fun. It’s still a nice feeling when the message pops up saying you’ve unlocked a trophy, however the tiered system takes a little of the fun out of trying to get them for me. The impact of these will probably be lessened even further considering I’m generally only planning on buying exclusives for my PS3, so again it leaves me with a feeling of apathy about the subject.

So that’s me, what about you? Take exception to anything I’ve listed? Get me told in the comments!

Tagged Andy, Impressions, PS3, PS3 VS 360