PS3 Facts

[illegalprelude]

What is the system's official name?
PLAYSTATION 3. (Spelled with all capital letters.)

When was the system officially unveiled?
Sony officially revealed the PlayStation 3 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo during its press conference on May 16th, 2005. The system and a prototype controller were shown along with various tech demos and game trailers, though most of the trailers were CG "approximations" of what developers were aiming their gameplay experiences to be like.

When is the system launching?
Sony has promised a worldwide simultaneous launch for the PlayStation 3 across Japan, North America, Europe and Australasia. Japan will be first with a November 11, 2006 debut, while North America will see the system on shelves six days later on November 17. Europe and Australasia will have to wait until March of 2007 to pick up the system.

How much will the PlayStation 3 cost, and what configurations will be available?
There will be two different SKUs for the PlayStation 3. The "high-end" version will contain WiFi, various flash memory inputs (like Memory Stick and SD) and a 60GB hard drive while the cheaper version will include a 20GB hard drive. Here's a breakdown of the system prices for each territory/country:





What ports and external connections will the PlayStation 3 have?
On the 20GB system, you'll find four USB 2.0 ports on the front of the system. On the back there are connectors for gigabit Ethernet, an optical audio output, HDMI output and an AV multi-out (which appears to be exactly the same as on the PS2). The 60GB system will also include inputs for Memory Stick, SD and Compact Flash cards inside a flip-up door on the front.

What happened to the dual-HDMI ports and three gigabit Ethernet connections that Sony hyped at E3 2005?
Scratched! Dual-HDMI would be cool, but very, very few people would likely ever be able to use it, and most people never understood the triple-set of gigabit Ethernet ports to begin with, so as these were likely to be the least-used features, Sony cut them for cost reasons.

How is the SIXAXIS controller different from the PS2's Dual Shock 2 controller?
Its layout looks virtually identical to the Dual Shock 2, but there are some major differences. First, the SIXAXIS is wireless (via Bluetooth 2.0 technology) and the system will be able to support seven controllers at once. Next, the L2 and R2 buttons are now triggers, making the button layout similar to that of the Xbox 360's controller. The triggers are wider and don't have as long of a throw, but it's a definite improvement over simple buttons.

The biggest addition is that the SIXAXIS features tilt technology that works with six-axis of freedom (roll, pitch, yaw, X, Y, Z). This means that it'll recognize any angle the controller is situated in, allowing you full 3D control over the orientation of an onscreen object. The first game shown utilizing this technology was Warhawk -- where rather than using the analog sticks to fly the ship, its yaw and pitch were controlled by simply tilting the controller.


What sort of battery life can we expect, and how is the SIXAXIS recharged?
The controller is charged via a mini-USB cable, the kind that most digital cameras accept. The PlayStation 3 will ship with one of these cables in the box. The controller contains an internal, non-removable lithium-ion battery and is expected to last around 30 hours on a single charge.

How far is the controller's wireless range?
20 meters, or about 65 feet.


Will the PlayStation 3 come equipped with a hard drive? How big will it be?
Indeed. The system will come with either a 20GB or 60GB hard drive, allowing users to store downloaded content, saves, media and more. The drives will be 2.5" Serial ATA drives, like you'd find in most laptops.

What kind of disc drive will the system use?
Sony announced some time ago that the PlayStation 3 will make use of Blu-ray technology. Sony and Toshiba had been in talks to combine the competing Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats into a single standard, though those talks have been disbanded. The drive itself will be slot-loading.

How fast will the optical disc drive be?
Blu-ray technology transfers at 36Mbps at 1X speed, or about 4.5MB per second, and the PlayStation 3 will feature a 2X drive, so it will transfer data at 72Mbps or 9MB per second. It will read DVDs at 8X and CDs at 24X speeds.

Besides a hard disc and Blu-ray drive, what other sorts of storage options will be supported?
Memory Stick (standard and Duo), SD and CompactFlash. It's also likely (but unconfirmed) that the PlayStation 3 will further allow you to natively use USB flash drives.

There aren't any Memory Card slots on the system. Will PS2 /PS One saves be compatible in any way, or will we have to start our games all over again?
Sony will release a peripheral that will allow users to copy their PS2/ PS One saves from a Memory Card to the hard drive, and back again if they wish. The hard drive will contain space for "Virtual Memory Cards" that will mimic a hard Memory Card, and users will save PS2 and PS One games here. The Memory Card adaptor will retail for $14.99.

What is the Cell?
The Cell processor was co-designed by IBM, Toshiba and Sony. Configurations can differ, but here's what the PS3's Cell chip will be like:

PowerPC-based Core @ 3.2GHz
7 SPEs @ 3.2GHz
512KB L2 Cache
7 x 256KB SRAM for SPEs
Basically, a single Cell processor is designed to act like multiple processors working together, or even independently. A Cell processor has a single PowerPC Architecture Unit (PAU) and multiple Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs). A Cell's PAU dolls out instructions to its various SPEs, which can then independently work on tasks. So for instance, one SPU might be programmed to run a game's AI while another handles physics. Since each one acts independently, multiple calculations can be done simultaneously. In other words, it's very powerful. In fact, it's powerful enough to perform 218 GFLOPS.

[illegalprelude]

Who is supplying the hardware?
IBM, Toshiba and Sony are supplying the Cell processors, while NVIDIA is handling the graphics processor.

Tell me about the graphics chip...
NVIDIA's chip is codenamed RSX. The chip runs at 550MHz and is capable of rendering video natively at 1080p, or 1920x1080 progressively (non-interlaced). It's touted to hit 1.8 TFLOPS of floating point performance and can perform 100 billion shader operations per second, or 136 shader operations per cycle. The RSX uses 128-bit precision for enhanced color definition, making the system capable of High Dynamic Range rendering. Programming-wise, it's based on OpenGL and NVIDIA's CG language.

NVIDIA recently released its GeForce 7900 series GPUs for the PC, which provides a reasonable real-world approximation of what sort of effects the RSX and PlayStation 3 can handle.

How much RAM will the PS3 have?
256MB of XDR Main RAM @ 3.2GHz and 256MB of GDDR3 VRAM @ 700MHz, or a total of 512MB for the entire system. The RSX graphics chip can actually use all 512MB of system RAM; it is not limited to the 256MB of GDDR3 RAM.

Will the PlayStation 3 output 16:9 or HD video?
Yes. In fact, the system will support resolutions up to and including 1080p. Yes, as in 1920x1080 progressive, not interlaced. 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i are, of course, also supported.

What sorts of video connections will be available?
Composite, S-Video and component are all possible via AV cables, but for the best image quality the system also employs a built-in HDMI connection.

What sort of surround sound support will the PlayStation 3 have?
For in-game audio, Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II and DTS are all supported and processed by the Cell. However, keep in mind that since all the audio processing is done by the Cell, developers could use or create whatever audio codecs they desire. 7.1 channel support is already announced, but again, given developers' ability to program their own codecs, this may only be a starting point.

What kind of audio connections will be available?
Analog stereo, optical audio and HDMI output.

Will the PlayStation 3 have camera functionality?
The PlayStation 3 will boast an HD IP (High-Definition Internet Protocol) Camera that's essentially the next generation of the EyeToy. The new camera will capture images that match the same screen output as the PlayStation 3 and will work off an Internet address so that it can be used anywhere in the world for use in independent web-cam broadcasts.

What sort of network connections will be available? Does it feature WiFi?
The PlayStation 3 features a gigabit Ethernet port, and the 60GB version will also have 802.11b/g wireless functionality.

What companies are confirmed to be developing and publishing games for the PS3?
A good rule of thumb is, that if they exist and they aren't Microsoft or Nintendo, they're onboard to create or publish PlayStation 3 games.

How much will games retail for?
Sony has announced that its first-party titles will carry an MSRP of $59.99. Third parties have yet to announce pricing plans, but they're expected to follow the same pricing scheme.

Will the PlayStation 3 use the same network setup as the PlayStation 2?
No, Sony confirmed at an E3 2004 press conference that it is currently working towards a new universal networking hub, which in no uncertain terms is similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live. Sony has recently unveiled more details on this connectivity earlier this year and at E3 2006, which has no official name yet.

The online network will be, just as was the case with the PlayStation 2, an open and free network, meaning that companies will be able to connect their own servers and run their own hosted games. This time around however, Sony will implement a greatly extended hub system, which is how all of the PlayStation 3's community features will work across each and every game.

The PS3's online network will allow for friends lists, downloadable content (free and purchased via micropayments), voice and video chat (including in-game) and more. Games and demos will be able to be downloaded to the hard drive, and the PSP will interface with the PS3 in order to download content for the handheld. Not only that, but using the Remote Play option, you'll be able to stream video, music and images to your PSP from the PS3.

The entire service will be free of charge, including general online play. The only things you'll have to pay for is some premium downloadable content and subscriptions to select games, like MMOs.

?compatible backwards be it Will
Yes. Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will be almost entirely compatible with PlayStation 2 and PSOne software. Games that do not work have not been disclosed.

Will PlayStation 3 be compatible with the PSP?
Sony has stated on numerous occasions that its PlayStation Portable will connect to the PlayStation 3 via USB and wireless connections. You'll be able to use the PS3 to download content for the PSP, and Sony showed a connectivity demo at E3 2006 where its Formula 1 title used the PSP as a rearview mirror in real-time.

Sony has also confirmed that video, music and pictures that are stored on the system's hard drive can be viewed/played by the PSP. This will require the 60GB model at launch and will only work if you are in range of your PS3. It might be possible to use the 20GB model for this if you connect the PS3 to an external WiFi device. Some time after launch Sony has said that they want people to be able to access the media that is on their PS3's hard drive from anywhere in the world that has a WiFi connection using their PSP. This functionally will NOT allow you to watch Blu-ray movies remotely or allow you to play PS3 games remotely with your PSP.

At launch PlayStation 1 games will be downloadable and you will be able to play those games on the PSP. Sometime after launch you will be able to play these PlayStation 1 games on your PS3 as well.

What will ship with the package?
The packaging will contain:

1. PlayStation 3 console
2. SIXAXIS wireless controller
3. AC cord
4. USB mini-cable (for charging the SIXAXIS controller)
5. Ethernet cable
6. Multi-AV cable with composite connectors (Note that the PlayStation 3 does not come with HD cables of any sort, be it component or HDMI. The main reason for this is obviously a matter of cost, but as the PlayStation 3 uses the same cables as the PlayStation 2, if you already have component cables for the PS2 they'll work with the PS3.
7. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby on Blu-ray (Interestingly, the movie won't be released for sale until December 12th, nearly a month after the system's launch.)

What official accessories will be available, and how much will they cost?
Additional SIXAXIS controllers will be available for $49.99. The Memory Card adapter for transferring PSone/PS2 saves to the PlayStation 3 will sell for $14.99, and will be available at launch. In December, Sony will release a remote designed for playing Blu-ray content, which will sell for $24.99.

Will Linux still come pre-installed on the hard drive as Sony has previously stated?
No, but it will be available. Terra Soft recently announced that it will release its Yellow Dog Linux v5.0 in mid-November to coincide with the system's launch. While it will only be made available for members of its development network for a few weeks, anyone will be able to order a disc two weeks after release or download the OS for free and burn their own copy two weeks after that.

It's unsure how users will boot into Linux, but it's likely the option will be added to the PlayStation 3's menu system. Terra Soft has said that along with its standard, fully-customizable installer, Yellow Dog Linux v5.0 will ship with a one-click installer so that any PS3 owner will be able to install it with ease.

Is the PS3 region-locked?
Technically speaking, yes, though Sony has said that it doesn't plan on region-locking games. It's possible that third-party developers may choose to do so, in which case they'll flag the disc as so in software, but it sounds like most games will be region-free. Movies, however, will be region-specific.

Will the PS3 upscale DVDs and/or PSone and PS2 games?
Sony has officially stated that the PlayStation 3 will not upscale DVDs. As far as PSone and PS2 games are concerned, Kaz Hirai has stated in an interview with IGN that they will play "in their original form". We would take this to mean that they won't be upscaled either, but Sony has not made an official statement either way.

[illegalprelude]

Sony is clearly intent on making the PS3 the all-in-one hub for your home entertainment. A new list of media formats supported by the system right out of the box includes a variety of hard and digital formats, and should satisfy the needs of just about everyone.



The hard media has been known for some time, but here's the full list.

BD-ROM
BD-R
BD-RE
DVD-ROM
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD+R
DVD+RW
CD-ROM
CD-R
CD-RW
Super Audio CD

The PS3 will also allow you to access a variety of media file formats from the video, music and photo menus of the Cross Media Bar. We're assuming these files can be stored anywhere, including the hard disk and memory cards.

VIDEO
MPEG-1
MPEG-2 (PS,TS)
H.264/MEPG-4 AVC
MPEG-4 SP

MUSIC
ATRAC (.oma .msa .aa3)
AAC (.3gp .mp4)
MP3 (.mp3)
WAV (.wav)

IMAGES
JPEG
GIF
PNG
TIFF
BMP

[illegalprelude]

Some PS3 Online Store Menues:

http://media.1up.com/media?id=3067215

http://media.1up.com/media?id=3067219

http://media.1up.com/media?id=3067209

http://media.1up.com/media?id=3067212

[Tejstar]

Nice write up. I'll make this a sticky for now as I think there's some very useful information here!

Please feel free to continue adding anything you think will be useful here.

[Elder]

Not to sound like an a-hole or anything but you should really link to the source, IGN: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/636/636848p1.html

Great job with the post though.

[illegalprelude]

ahh yea, I didnt mean to make it sound like I had written it, ive just been taking all their different articles and putting them together so there is one long list. They had 1 on just the system, then one on the media it took, then they have a seperate one just about their menus so im attempting to create one long article with all the relevent info

[Tejstar]

Lol - well it is still useful and now we have the proper accreditation too.

Let’s keep all the relevant info in this thread which will help any newbies.

[Elder]

I managed to play with the PS3 for around 8 hours yesterday. The system is really coming along now. They just have to up the firmware and the system will be ready to go.

[Tejstar]

Have you got a debug version Elder? If so, it would be good to hear your initial thoughts!

[Elder]

Here's what I wrote to my staff, since they couldn't attend. Let me start off by saying, this was a truly fantastic 8 hours. Remember I wrote this post on my message boards so it hasn't been tweaked for you guys just yet. If you have further questions, please let me know and I'll answer them here.

"What a couple of days this has been. Yesterday I wrote up my impressions on the final version of the Wii and today I’ve got impressions for the final version of the PS3. Much like the Wii, the PS3 I played was a debug unit and as such there were a few things missing. The online component is still being tweaked so there were a few aspects to it which I still don’t know.

Since I’ve talked a lot about various aspects of the PS3 already, I’m not going to go over every little detail again. You all know that the system uses the cross media bar for its interface, which is now running at version 0.95. So with that out of the way, let’s begin shall we?

As soon as you see the PS3 the very first thing that you’ll think of is “wow, this looks expensive.” The machine is curved and shiny as sin. It’s made of a similar plastic to that of the Wii and the PSP and as such will keep your fingerprints, should you touch it. The good news is that you’ll never have to touch the system. I played the machine on Sony’s new Bravia line LCD screens which was about 50”. The screen was running native in 1080p. Anyways, putting the PS3 next to the Blu-ray player, DVD player and various other electronics, looked perfect. As a matter of fact the PS3 itself looked nicer than I originally thought it would. The chrome platting on the front of the 60GB version was a really nice touch.

I asked if I could inspect the system and the reps there told me, yes I could. When you first lift the system up, it feels heavy. The various ports we’ve all known about look fine where they are. The only hitch I found on the PS3 itself was the flap that hides the memory card slots. It wasn’t made cheap or anything like that but it just didn’t mold into the system as nicely as I thought it would.

There was a surprise with the hardware however; parts of the machine are actually translucent. When light is shined directly on the PS3, the system is solid black but as soon as you begin to dim the lights and the TV reflects off the system, you start to notice the innards of the system. I’m not entirely sure what Sony did here but it looks very cool. Forget what you may have heard about “the grill” because of all three next generation systems, this one is by far the most expensive looking piece of hardware and it will fit very nicely within anyone’s home entertainment setup.

Next up is the controller. For anyone that’s hated the PS controller throughout the years, sorry to say this but you’re screwed. The controller is virtually identical. People complaining the controller is too light are going out of their way to give the PS3 a bad rap. The system’s controller weighs more than the wiimote but far less than the 360’s. The new padded triggers work surprisingly well but for old timers like me, you’ll have to get used to them. Other than that, the controller works pretty much exactly like the other PS controllers worked minus the rumble. In everything I played I didn’t even notice the rumble had been removed. You can thank Nintendo for that and their incredible WaveBird. The analogs have been adjusted somewhat so they have better depth to them and the PS button works well. You simply press the button to turn on the system and then you press and hold the button to bring up the controller’s battery life, options to shut down the system and the cross media bar. Overall, I’m not entirely sure why people are being so harsh on the controller.

Cruising the cross media bar has been discussed to death already so I’m not going to go over it again here. One surprise I found was that you could adjust the power of the system’s audio settings. Let’s say your surround sound setup was X KHz, you can actually set the system to match that setting. That’s fairly hardcore. Other than that the interface looks sleek and tidy. When you first boot up the system you hear an orchestrated sound effect and then bam, you’re on the interface. It takes something like two seconds to load the machine, which was something I wasn’t expecting. If you want to turn the system on by going up to the console itself, it has touch panels on it. There’s no buttons on the system itself at all, which again helps solidify the fact that this is a “cool” machine. I guess I should also mention that the machine is indeed quiet, like omega-quiet. If you own a slim PS2 then you know how loud the PS3 is. I was highly impressed by this even though I had read about it for ages now. Another surprise was the lack of heat the system gave off. I played the machine for hours on end and the air coming out of the system’s fans was warm but the system itself wasn’t boiling or anything.

Anyways, so here I am on the cross media bar. I created a profile, which is done in about two seconds. I shove in the Ethernet cable and the PS3 automatically takes care of everything else. This is to be expected in this day and age of consoles. From there I headed straight to the PS Store, which is now partially available. The last time I played with the system the online store wasn’t up yet. I have to say, this is one fine looking online store. Everything is done in tabs and looks very similar to iTunes. Another very cool feature is the “My Store” option. You can customize your downloads into very specific genres. Let’s say you like shooters, well you can go ahead and make shooters your number one choice of download. This will alter the list so that you are told immediately when shooters are put anywhere in the store, be it new shooters or older ones from the PS1 catalogue. There were so many different options here I could have been there for ages but instead I simply selected Resident Evil and MotorStorm to download and went on my way. You download items in a similar manner to buying goods from Amazon.com. Basically you select the demo you want and add it to your cart. You can add as many or as few items as you want. I just added those two items and left the store. It continues to download the items while you leave the store and enter a game. I assume this is in the final version because the firmware here is 0.95 and it is in place so I see no reason for them to remove it. Currently the titles available online are extremely basic and the arcade titles have yet to be added, thus why I didn’t download them. Resident Evil was $4.99US for those curious. Prices were not final however, so keep that in mind.

Ok so I exited the store and decided to check in on my friends. Since I’m a loser I don’t have any friends so the list was completely empty. Remember this system was completely new so obviously I don’t have any friends. Currently you can send text messages via a keyboard and mouse or you can use a head set to send voice messages. All PS2 headsets will work and so does the original EyeToy for video messages. One hiccup I noticed was you couldn’t send messages unless your friend were online or perhaps this was because I had no friends. Not entirely sure at this point.

So the game of choice for today’s demonstration was Resistance: Fall of Man. I have to say, this game has the potential to become the next great shooter. The story is excellent, the graphics are far beyond what I thought early PS3 titles would be like and the online mode is perhaps the best ever done in a console game. No, I’m not exaggerating. Most of my time was spent online playing Breach. Before I begin, I was using a Bluetooth wireless headset to chat with everyone else online. Here’s the objective of Breach, you have special nods scattered around these massive environments and by shooting the nods for a period of time will turn them your team’s color. The bullets you fire are also of matching color, which is good because when battles break out you could be looking at 28 different characters all huddled around one another so these color codes work very well. Once the entire reactor has been turned to your color, it belongs to you. Capture the greatest number of reactors and you win. Simple enough right? Well how about having 40 players think differently. You can customize every last detail of the levels to their layout to the weapon types you want to use. You can even alter your re-spawn points. The teams can be broken down in several different types but if you want the real deal, have the teams be humans against the Chimera. The weapons and abilities for these two types are drastically different and after each round you switch so everyone gets the chance to be both sides. I must have spent a good four hours playing this online mode and during that entire time the framerate never dropped a single frame! It was a truly amazing experience.

Resistance also uses the motion controller is smart ways which some will consider gimmicks but whatever you call it, it works. Let’s say you can’t remember where the damn melee button is, not a problem, simply move flick the controller forward to deliver the strike on the foe facing you. Another cool aspect is when you get grabbed. When this happens, simply shake the controller and you’ll break free. There’s a deadly weapon in multiplayer called the Bullseye which locks on to the player or any other object (the nods if you’re smart) and then sends each and every bullet from your gun to that locked on player/object, regardless of where you’re aiming. When this happens to you it will likely mean your death but if you’re smart enough to shake the controller vigorously, you can break the lock and save your life. Again, these aren’t revolutionary controls or anything but they work surprisingly well.

...

[Elder]

After the few hours I spent with Resistance, it has become clear that this is the AAA launch title for the PS3. Anyone that even remotely likes FPSs would do well in picking this up at some point down the road because it truly is a blast to play. It’s not the most stunning game in the world or the best FPS of all time but I think the reason I liked it so much was because it was just fun. Insomniac seems to have focused the entire experience on delivering an amazingly storyline for the single player campaign and delivering a truly incredible online experience that when coupled together makes Resistance one of the most pure-fun games I’ve played in a very long time.

After Resistance I went back to the interface and ejected the disc. These transparent discs are bloody cool to look at, which I showed you all before. I checked my downloaded goods and sure enough both Resident Evil and MotorStorm had been downloaded. I took out my PSP and decided to see exactly how this would work. Low and behold, nothing happened. Why did nothing happen, because Elder’s an idiot that’s why. My PSP isn’t running on firmware 3.0 so naturally I couldn’t transfer the game to my PSP and the PS3 currently can't run the games natively but that will be fixed within 6 week’s after the system’s launch, according to Sony. One thing I did notice was you could send attachments to your friends and the rep confirmed you would be able to send full games, saved files and so much more over the network. Full games can be given out to 5 different people, much like iTunes songs. I couldn’t really test this out and for the life of me I can’t remember the size of the Resident Evil file. I’m certain it was something like 500MB but I can’t be sure. Sorry about that. Anyways, after that I decided to try the MotorStorm demo next.

MotorStorm will likely be the showcase title for the power of the PS3. Of all the games showcased at E3 2005 that were considered FMV, MotorStorm looks just as good as that video. Actually playing the game is a rather serial experience simply because of the way it looks. The game itself is a blast but damn hard. You see depending on which vehicle you select, you might be completely out powered by someone else. I decided to select the motorcycle and because of that, if a car or truck even touched me I was completely finished. The cool thing was I could actually veer off the track and find hidden paths. Some of these paths aren’t even hidden; I just created them for the very first time, which was pretty cool. In front of me there was a massive car accident that caused one car to fly off the edge of the track and smash through one of the huge metal signs telling the racers which direction to go. You’ll never believe what happened next; the sign fell far below and actually created a bridge of sorts to an entirely new area of the environment. Since I was on a bike I decided to fly off the track and see what happened. Low and behold I survived and used the sign as a bridge to gain a 17 second lead ahead of my competitors! I loved the fact that you can alter the actual environment in order to win your races. I can’t even begin to imagine how insane this will be online.

Not everything about MotorStorm was godly. First off while the graphics looked amazing and the game was running fairly smooth, there were framerate issues here and there and the game didn’t really have a great sense of speed. The rep said this was the demo from TGS and that new demos would be making their way to the network after the PS3 launched. Whatever the case may be, MotorStorm has the potential to be a truly revolutionary racing game simply because it allows players to manipulate their surroundings in order to better suit them. The potential here is staggering; they just need to get the sense of speed higher.

I tried a few of other games like Call of Duty 3 but they didn’t have the same feel as the titles I mentioned above. Ridge Racer 7 was fairly entertaining however, with its 1080p resolution made it look far beyond Ridge Racer 6. The game is classic Ridge Racer except there are tons of customization options available to the player. Namco Bandai is making the game something like GT in that you can change not only the engine parts and the brakes but you can change the look of the car and so much more. Most of the third party titles I tried weren’t anything amazing and most felt like Xbox 360 ports because in fact, they were. Standouts were clearly Ridge Racer and Gundam, both of which were entertaining in their own way. Gundam has some very cool effects in the game but I didn’t have enough time to go too far with it. Full Auto 2 was also better than I thought and ran smoothly at 1080p, which surprised me. I’ll have to spend more time with these games before I can pass my final judgment on them.

After the game sessions had ended, it was time to watch parts of a movie. I brought Click with me since it was the first BD-50 disc and I wanted to see if this was a good showcase for Blu-ray player. I was floored upon seeing just fast the PS3 booted the disc and also how detailed the disc itself was. I have a feeling many people are going to be buying HDTVs in the coming year after seeing what this machine can do.

We had to speed through this last portion because my time was running out and I had played Resistance for way too long lol. Regardless, I walked away extremely impressed with that title. I was also very impressed by the vast assortment of features the system comes shipped with and the system’s online plan. While free, it is almost identical to Xbox Live Gold. If third parties can get used to the system and deliver solid titles I’m certain the PS3 will be a monstrous success. It’s clear this machine has a ton of potential, now it’ll be up to developers to harness its power and keep the titles flowing. They promised a demo for Heavenly Sword would be online before February and based on what I played way back at E3 that title looks like it could very well turn into another God of War.

My first impressions with the system have been mostly positive but that didn’t really surprise me given how expensive this machine is. If I had been utterly displeased I think I would cry because $600 for a console is a lot of cash. After having played a couple of these PS3 titles, I can now walk into Toys R Us on November 17th and be pleased with my $600 purchase."

Should you have any questions/comments go ahead and ask and I'll do my best to answer them. If you want me to create another thread I can do that but I don't like crowding forums.

[illegalprelude]

omg. NNNOOO. You have now just hyped me beyond beliefe (and I didnt think it was possible). I think this is whats been lacking from the Sony camp. Their now showcasing and touting what makes the PS3, a PS3. Its not just "heres games". The PS3 can do so much more and I think there is a true market for this, beyond gamers and Sony needs to go after them hardcore.

Having said, thats for the fantastic review. I feel like IGN but mostly Gamestop has just gone retarded. Their reviews of the PS3 are just beyond retarded. I feel like their stationed in Redmond and possibly are using Nob Based TV's still

[Elder]

I simply report on what I'm playing. I should also let you know that when you shove in a PS1/2 game the PS3 will ask you if you'd like to create a virtual memory card on the HDD. By doing this you'll be able to save your games like you did originally. Now if you still have a memory card from either of those two platforms, you'll have to buy the accessory for $14.99 that allows you to transfer all your saved data onto a virtual memory card on the PS3's HDD.

When you insert a PS1/2 gmae, you'll see the disc appear within the "Game" tab. From there you simply click X and away you go. The game will boot just like it always did. Keep in mind that 90% of these games were formatted for 480i so they don't fit the screen, etc. I should also let you know that the PS3 will play every PS3 game from around the world but won't allow you to play import PS1/2 games. It's a good thing I have my import PS2 then

If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to ask. I've played with the PS3 more so than most and have grown rather fond of it. I think many people will be surprised by just how polished everything about this system is. What isn't perfect will be made perfect via firmware updates.

Also should you get one at launch, be sure to check up the Elder. I'll be in Resistance

[illegalprelude]

Oh god, ill have one on luanch date! Only reason Im getting the TV in the sig and the Surround is all for the PS3. I just wanna enjoy it for all it has to offer. Now, having said that, here is an interesting question.

For my setup, I also have left my Vaio laptop plugged to the TV and using a wireless Keyboard and Mouse so w00t for 60" Monitor lol. Having said that, the PS3 uses bluetooth. Does that then mean my phones Motorola Bluetooth headset will work? If so, does that mean, I should return my Keyboard and Mouse and get the Bluetooth Logitech? I didnt get that and got the Laser unit under but if I know the bluetooth will work with the PS3, i will gladly return it and pay the extra $50 or whatever so I can both use it on my laptop and the PS3