More Salt in the Wound. NY Times PS3 review.

[DrunkenThumbmaster]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/arts/20game.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

A Weekend Full of Quality Time With PlayStation 3
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.

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.”


And I sit here wondering who has the "thelastword".

[Gadfly2317]

It seems like the big complaints here are ease of use and online functionality. And no HD cable. And lack of great games at launch. And price. And the need to plug in the wireless controllers first (even the Ps2 doesn't require that!) And complete unavailability of units. And problems with music.

But other than that, great launch!

They'd better get a handful of killer games out in the next twelve months; and Lair and Heavenly Sword better deliver big-time.

Otherwise, the less expensive 360 just keeps looking better and better, even to a skeptic like myself. XBLA, Dead Rising, Forza2, Viva Pinata, GoW. . .the tipping point isn't too far off before I flip-flop again and get sick of waiting for a hi-def gaming console and just pull the damn trigger already.

Ps3, $599; there's a lot about the hardware to love. The handful of cool looking titles that are supposed to be out in the next three or four months better kick serious ass.

[DrunkenThumbmaster]

It seems like the big complaints here are ease of use and online functionality. And no HD cable. And lack of great games at launch. And price. And the need to plug in the wireless controllers first (even the Ps2 doesn't require that!) And complete unavailability of units. And problems with music.

But other than that, great launch!

They'd better get a handful of killer games out in the next twelve months; and Lair and Heavenly Sword better deliver big-time.

Otherwise, the less expensive 360 just keeps looking better and better, even to a skeptic like myself. XBLA, Dead Rising, Forza2, Viva Pinata, GoW. . .the tipping point isn't too far off before I flip-flop again and get sick of waiting for a hi-def gaming console and just pull the damn trigger already.

Ps3, $599; there's a lot about the hardware to love. The handful of cool looking titles that are supposed to be out in the next three or four months better kick serious ass.

Takes off system wars cap for a second.

Most of the problems in this review seem like they can be fixed by the time I get one (June July) my main issue is that they are charging $200 dollars more than the competition and the games don't really look worth it. Xbox360 early line up looks a lot better imo. Bioshock and Mass Effect alone could carry the first 6 months of the year.

[ilnadmy]

If that's your worry, don't sweat it. The PS3 is $200 more expensive because it can play high-def movies out of the box. For the 360 you need to drop $200 to purchase a peripheral that looks like the 360 took a dump. And regarding those ease of use issues, it's nothing that can't be fixed in future firmware upgrades. Comparing the graphics to the 360 is also a little unfair considering developers have had a year to work with the 360 hardware.

If you wait until June/July as you say, then you should have absolutely no problems whatsoever finding great games to buy.

[Glockstar]

It's $200 more because Sony is desperate to get one of their invented media formats to (finally) take off. So desperate that they've taken to force-feeding it down consumer's throats!

There was never any indication from the gaming public that they wanted their gaming machine(s) to be equal part movie-player! Because they never did. I think 9 out of 10 households that own a dvd-playing console (PS2, Xbox, 360) own a separate dvd-player that they use as their main movie-watching device. If it was free, or if the cost was negligible, then fine, most gamers will take it; why not. And that goes for any of the other multi-media functions that the three companies feel like tacking on. But there's really only thing gamers want their gaming machines to do. And yet clearly, the PS3 is so expensive because of the Blu-ray. They're giving it to you, but this time they're charging you for it. (To Sony's way of thinking, this somehow makes sense.)

Sony has built an expensive machine that appeals to a very, very small percentage of people. And mark my words, it's going to cost them. Big time. It's (obviously) going to cost them money. (The PS3 is going to bleed red ink it's entire life.) And it's going to cost them market share. (The PS3 is no longer a console for gamers, it's a hybrid thingie - and the weird thing about hybrid thingies is that the more functions they sport, the less people they appeal to.)

Anybody remember the PSX? Not the console aka "PS1", but that expensive azz combination PS2/dvd-recorder/home-media-center hybrid thingie that Sony hyped up but ended up only releasing in Japan? No? (http://money.cnn.com/2003/05/28/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm)

Technically, the PS3 is a great value - as most all-in-one machines are. I suppose. But see, value is a relative thing. And I, and so many others, do not see the PS3 as a value. Analogously: it's like one of those printer/scanner/fax/copiers; most people who just want a printer for their home end up buying just a printer!

Sony is fracking up big-time for forcing this blu-ray issue, and for not allowing people a choice. For one thing, from a company standpoint, they're putting all their eggs in one basket, so to speak; they are not covering their butts/hedging their bets just in case blu-ray fails. But more importantly, from a consumer standpoint, I think the Playstation brand has just started to tilt towards the unappealing side of scale, largely due to the fact that Sony refused to offer a true second sku: one totally devoid of this blu-ray nonsense; a simple(r) down-to-earth gaming console. One that would have been/could have been affordable to those who interested in it for what it used to be renowned for: it's gaming. That's what the Playstation used to be about.

Now look at you: the only good things you can find to say about the PS3 is that it plays Blu-ray movies.(!)


And you're wrong about the 360 and the HD-DVD peripheral: you don't need to buy anything. The movie player does not affect the 360, or it's adopters, in any way. It's just something there for 360 owners... if they want it. As in, you spent $400 on just a gaming device (well, okay, not "just", but you know what I mean), well here's a little extra something we're offering that can add to it's functionality - something that would normally cost you $500 plus dollars... again, if you want it. Then it's up each individual 360 owner to decide if it's something that sounds worthwhile to them or not. Makes sense, doesn't it?!

For me personally, HD-DVD does not sense (neither does Blu-ray - in fact, I think UMD makes more sense than either of these two), so this peripheral is not something that I'm going to open up my wallet for. Thanks, but no thanks.

[Renzatic Gear]

Technically, the PS3 is a great value - as most all-in-one machines are. I suppose. But see, value is a relative thing. And I, and so many others, do not see the PS3 as a value. Analogously: it's like one of those printer/scanner/fax/copiers; most people who just want a printer for their home end up buying just a printer!

One thing I've always noticed about the hybrid do-everything dealies are never as good as the standalone products. None of the last gen consoles can do the DVD thing as well as an actual DVD player, and I'm sure the same will apply to the PS3 and Blu-Ray.

You just have to look at the price to know it's quality. I grabbed a Lexmark hybrid printer/scanner/fax machines for about 80 at Wal-Mart, and the quality of the scans doesn't come anywhere near my $250 HP 4890. That doesn't mean the PS3 will have crap games because it's trying to be a jack of all trades, the games will be fine. But everything else is just subpar fluff features that are there mainly to jack up the price and get Sony's propritiary format in your home.

[Gadfly2317]

Takes off system wars cap for a second.

Most of the problems in this review seem like they can be fixed by the time I get one (June July) my main issue is that they are charging $200 dollars more than the competition and the games don't really look worth it. Xbox360 early line up looks a lot better imo. Bioshock and Mass Effect alone could carry the first 6 months of the year.

Many problems should be able to be fixed via updates and patches, but damn, this is looking really amateurish, and I saw that with my Sys Wars cap off.

Right now, I just want some hi-def gaming in addition to some Wii stuff. And I say, again with Sys War cap off, I do like traditional games like racers. It might be a couple years before Ps3 is truly ideal in price and quality games. If that's the case, despite my disdain for the 360's limits, it is still a decent gaming system with some good games that I'm interested in playing.

[theWacoKid]

Yeah, the ps3 is one ace bluray player. If you have a swanky 1080p sony XBR display. If not, what were you thinking?

http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2006/11/20/6034

PS3 having issues with Blu-ray playback in 720p

We've posted about the issues the PS3 has with sets that don't support 720p as an available resolution, but it looks like you may have issues with Blu-ray movies if your set doesn't support 1080p resolutions. While most HDTVs support 720p—making that a limited problem—there are a ton of televisions that don't support 1080p, including mine. IGN.com weighs in on the subject:

While IGN has previously reported about the 1080i-only problem, we are receiving word of a problem with 720p-only sets as well, as the Blu-Ray player does not seem to be set to kick up to 1080i or kick down to 480p when set to play in 720p. IGN had previously listed 720p amongst the formats playable in BD Video settings since our test TVs did not run into this problem (and also, because we didn't think thrice that Sony would mess something as basic as 720p video playback up since lack of 1080i is made clear on game boxes, and also, we wanted the internet to be even more mad at us...) and we are currently investigating the situation. We are hearing conflicting reports from readers about the situation -- some that have not had troubles (but whose sets may be auto-upscaling where the PS3 fails it), some that have configured the system as usual and have been clearly been limited to only 480p Blu-Ray playback...

My set runs at 720p native, but can upscale to 1080i. I have all resolutions except 1080p selected as available with the PS3. While the Blu-ray image looks pretty nice on my display, I do suffer from an annoying amount of grain on the screen. I'm not sure what's happening here—it's possible that the PS3 is scaling the image down only to have my television scale the image up—but it's very annoying. I thought it was just an issue with my set or something wrong with the disc until I read about other people having issues with grain on 720p sets.

Offered as more evidence that something is wrong with the playback, here is a snippet from a review of the Talladega Nights Blu-Ray disc:

It doesn't seem like there is anything wrong with the source material, which looks as clean as a whistle. Grain is almost absent from the transfer, with solid blacks and consistent color saturation.

The disc is noted for not having grain and a solid transfer. There is something wrong with how it's showing the image on my television. Isn't beta testing new hardware fun?



From a site called Loot Ninja

PS3 HD Scaling Issues, Other Annoyances

So I’ve found pretty quickly that the PS3 has some MAJOR High Definition scaling issues. It’s affecting almost everyone in both games and movies. Many games made for 1080p won’t scale properly to 1080i, and sometimes 720p. I’m having a huge issue with Blu-Ray movies. It shows as 1080i (even though I have my HDTV setup as 720p in the Media Bar), but it’s very grainy and looks like standard DVD. I spent 2 hours on the phone tonight with Sony Customer Support trying to troubleshoot the issue. The first guy I spoke with for 45 minutes, and he was about as smart as a retarded monkey. He was basically telling me that my HDTV was broken because it can’t display 720p, even though I told him some games and all downloaded content displays fine at 720p. He wanted me to try a few things and call back. So 20 minutes later, I called back and spoke to a fairly helpful woman. After reading what happened in the last phone conversation, she put me on hold for 2 minutes, and came back and said it’s a known issue that is being looked into. I told her how angry I was about spending a ****load of money on a PS3 and Blu-Ray movies for it all not to work as it should (and highly advertised by Sony). She said a firmware update should be available “in the next couple days” and that their team is “aware it’s a major issue and will be fixing it quickly.” Yeah, I’m sure that means 2 months before we see anything.

It’s pretty sad how broken the PS3 is. There’s tons of issues people are coming up. You’d think they’d do some better QA. I also found that it will completely freeze up if you try to reply to any messages you have on the system. Aside from that, there’s a ton of annoyances that could be fixed fairly easily. For instance, getting notifications of messages and when friends come online, like on 360, background downloading and queuing of downloads in the PlayStation Store, like on 360, a more unified online presence (same friends list in the XMB and across all games), like on 360. Sony has seen Microsoft make all these huge advances that people have come to expect and love, and haven’t done a thing to incorporate any of it into their system. Hopefully we’ll see it soon.

Another annoyance regarding downloads. If you cancel a download, you have to restart from the very beginning. With the 360, you could always pick up from where the download ended.

[ilnadmy]

Again, all fixable problems with firmware updates. Not saying it's excusable, because for a $600 machine you shouldn't have to put up with this crap, especially with the 360 already out doing this stuff well. However, in a few months when (hopefully) Sony fixes these problems, no one will even remember these problems. It's nothing console-breaking.

[theWacoKid]

Again, all fixable problems with firmware updates. Not saying it's excusable, because for a $600 machine you shouldn't have to put up with this crap, especially with the 360 already out doing this stuff well. However, in a few months when (hopefully) Sony fixes these problems, no one will even remember these problems. It's nothing console-breaking.

Why should they fix it? After all this is the company that bragged, "We can sell the first five million ps3s with no games." You think they're going to care what a few cranky ps3 owners are screaming at them over a telephone.

It took over 4 years and a class action lawsuit to get them to admit the optical drive on launch ps2s were in fact, defective. And you think, all these problems will magically vanish in a few months. Hope you're not holding your breath.

[ilnadmy]

Well I'm not buying a PS3 for at least the next year, so to me as long as they fix those problems within the next year it's cool. What I was saying was, these problems are not inherent to the hardware, they can be fixed by firmware updates. Therefore, if Sony know what's good for them, they'll fix it.

Of course, Sony is going to sell PS3's by the truckload whether or not they give a damn about fixing these problems. My guess, though, is if they want to be market leader, then they'll do just that.

[BaneNWN]

well im leaning more towards the wii now anyways.hell i may just skip this genrations of consoles alltogether and get a DS.Im sure the 360 is a good buy and all just not for me being a PC gamer.Im not planning to get a console for another 3-6 months but at this point i dont see me buying a PS 3 now.

[PapaSmurf]

Why should they fix it? After all this is the company that bragged, "We can sell the first five million ps3s with no games." You think they're going to care what a few cranky ps3 owners are screaming at them over a telephone.

It took over 4 years and a class action lawsuit to get them to admit the optical drive on launch ps2s were in fact, defective. And you think, all these problems will magically vanish in a few months. Hope you're not holding your breath.

They update the PSP firmware every couple a months and I must say it is vastly improved then when it first came out. With that in mind, if Sony is willing to put the time and effort into fixing their handhelf which doens't have half the console population, I would imagine that they'll fix the problems with the PS3 too.

IMO, Sony didn't want to release the PS3 just yet, but they had to because they couldn't give MS to holiday seasons without competition. Despite that, I still think they should've probably waited until at least next spring, preferably the 07 holiday season, because as it looks, the battle between MS and Nintendo would have benefited Sony imo, with Nintendo showing a strong performance. Also the PS2 is still going very strong, so in theory Sony could have rode that till next year.

So now we have a rushed system, but it's not like it's not going to be fixed. Hate it on it now all you want, it's only the first week. We'll see whats up when it's all said and done. We're only a minute and to the first quarter, it's not like there's not halftime adjustments, of course that also applies for all parties.

[Mochan]

It seems that the difference in OS expertise is showing, as the 360 is able to use Windows Media Center functions easily whereas the PS3 is still pretty much that: a game console that has multimedia functions attached.

Now the funny thing is, the article complaints only about the multimedia functions and doesn't really mention much on games. And as you can see, the games are there to deliver (what games are out) and the reviewer managed to not talk about games much, and rather focused on everything else -- this is ironic in that the PS3 is supposed to do everything and games, so there is a point.
But when it came down to it it's really still all about games -- these are gaming consoles. If people want to use a computer, they'll use a computer -- not an Xbox 360.

And guess what? That's what *I* do.

[Mochan]

(The PS3 is no longer a console for gamers, it's a hybrid thingie - and the weird thing about hybrid thingies is that the more functions they sport, the less people they appeal to.)

Ironic that you say that, because right now the Xbox 360 is doing more things than the PS3. I'm actually a big fan of convergence, to be honest (I threw celphones and MP3 players away and have been using a PocketPC almost exclusively)

I do agree though that the PS3's other functions are just there to be crammed down your throat. Let's not forget game consoles are about games.

And yeah, taking a nod from DTM, with my SysWars cap off I do agree that Sony's launch is less than desirable. Can it be that the real formula to succeeding in the console wars is launching first? (dreamcast aside) Probably not; it's just that Sony got a lot of things wrong in this launch. I don't think that anyone should put up with inconvenience when they are paying $600; especially when the competition offers more convenience at a lesser price point. It is a rushed launch, and one which could have been delayed to next year if Sony wanted to get things right. That's the problem with being a director and CEO and all that -- you just don't see the problems because your subordinates all tell you, "My division is doing well if something falls to crap it's that other division's fault!" So the higher ups will give the go signal when in fact many of their subordinates are not yet ready to go. That's the hard part of being a company-driving leader -- finding good suboridnates who tell you how it really is. The higher up you are in a company, the rosier the view looks like.

And still without the SysWars cap, what this reminds me of is that it's still all about the games. I'm not about to buy an Xbox 360 yet, that happens when I find that Sony's developer support really does dry up (ala N64) and they all migrate to the XBox. I've said before that this might actually be a good thing -- Xbox games tend to have English versions and I wouldn't mind seeing some Japanese-only franchises coming out in English on the 360. Once that happens (and all the other developer support is there) then I'll finally flip-flop to the XBox (as it will finally surpass the "PC derivative" function). That's not bringing the Wii into the equation though.

[thechieflives]

Yes PS3 sucks, and it makes me very happy that it is having all these problems. Too bad for the Gaystation fanboys when wijll they realize that their console sucks and that they need to buy a 360 or a Wii. I guess Ignorance is bliss.!!!!

[ThaMaskedGamer]

First of all no standard voice chat? No unified friend's list? What is so different about their online service from what they had on the PS2? Oh, you can download games!! So Sony get's theirs and screw you. I can tell you what, if they don't ever get online service up to snuff, I'll never buy the PS3. Funny how people thought this was gonna be better than LIVE. Well I guess you can't complain, it is free after all, and that's what really matters.

Sony is making asses out of a lot of people, but the people are willingly allowing Sony to do it. All the maintream media, aside from NYTimes, TV shows, etc., are airing segments about how powerful the PS3, how its online service is free and MS' isn't, how the games are going to be special, etc etc, it is as if the L.W. is producing these segments. They are all designed to do one thing, turn PS3 into the mainstream system it is destined to be. That's sad because this is doing a big disservice to gamers, but the word is being put out like its gospel. This article from NYTimes is just pissin' in the wind compared to the vast wealth of pro-sony crap that's out there. And those damn commercials, boy Sony is a great marketer(of the PS3 at least).

But the public want to believe and as stated previously, ignorance is bliss. Many mainstream people will get the PS3, hook it up improperly, and believe they are gaming "in HD!" And they will go on happily ever after living in blissful ignorance. Of course most of us, whether we lie to ourselves or accept the truth, are fully aware the PS3 is not the "beast" it is claimed to be, but our little site, even gaming media sites like IGN and Gamespot matter not compared to the CNNs and Today Shows. The mainstream media has declared PS3 the best and just about every mom and pop, aunt and uncle, will be trying to get lil' Timmy a PS3. That's cool, one less fool poppin' in my Rainbow6 room not knowin' the flavor of the kool-aid.

Still I would love to see the look on some people's faces as they try and figure out how to get this thing working lol..:mad2: Then call Sony support :idea: Then have to ship their unit back:aureola: And hear lil Timmy cry :cryin: Meanwhile on 360 it'll be smooth sailin' :thumbsup: