 My PS3 Impressions
My impression with the Playstation 3, six hours of playing at my friends house.
Oh and for objectivity I should note i have owned only the Playstation 1 and 2.
Not that it really matters.
Just got up from last night, played to around 6 am from 12am. Sorry couldn't get any pics or vids in, but it definitely is a looker. Honestly i can say i do like the design of the PS3 more than the 360, it just seems more bad ass no lie. Does that make it a better console?: before we could even start playing we had to wait atleast 15 minutes for an update to download and install, then take the time to hold down on the joystick and read an extremely long license agreement. (It scrolls down fast enough so you can read it...) Then we try the internet browser, it's pretty cool but feels clunky, considering you have to scroll around to see the entire web page, you're constantly trying to find things. But, i must say it gets the job done. On to the Playstation store, it is about as easy as the market place to use, and all demos were free. Downloading the Motorstorm / Resistance demos took atleast an hour each, so we ended up hooking my 360 downstairs to play gears of war while we waited. Oh yes, i forgot, before we go on to the games, the menus. They just suck, you'll be reading and flipping through different text before you play any game, because in order to make an online account you must give them almost everything you know about yourself. And then some.
The menus just look ugly to, there isn't any color on the PS3 it seems, except for black and white, and along with the wierd web browser on the PS3 the 'keyboard text' program you have to use is just annoying to run through, because instead of giving you just the entire alphabet to run through instead they list say -abcde- in the same group and then you click that group, then pick wich letter you want from that group. Then go back to pick from another group, and so on. It's a hassle. Overall with menus/updates and even the starting menu all seem confusing and ugly, and it seems like the console REALLY wasn't made for kids under 13.
So we finally got the Resistance demo done after playing Gears of war, and, it sucked it comparison. The graphics were muddy (in most places) where the textures just weren't there, the controls on the PS3 controller were just bad, as i've heard that FPSs were on the playstation controllers, and the enemies were just stupid. I could shoot them from a distance and they wouldn't know what was going on, so'd they jump a bit and stand there again. Overall, Resistance felt clunky, terrible controls, average graphics, and bad AI. I don't know if the Online would be any better. The guns were pretty cool though. Resistance did run flawlessly, but with graphics only a bit better than last gens, and nothing quiet as good as Gears of war, i'd expect it to run good. Hell, i'd expect it to never drop in framerate under 60fps.
Motorstorm was a great, the gameplay was fun, and the graphics were amazing - really next gen. The controls felt right, and did i mention the graphics are really good? Still, nothing better than say PGR3. It really does seem like Motorstorm and Resistance would have been a little better with rumble though, you do blow up, jump off ledges, fire weapons, and expect to feel rumble. And it just wasn't there. The motion sensors did work well in Motorstorm though, and it did feel fun. Overall one of the better PS3 games, but still nothing really better than what the 360 offers.
So the Playstation 3 has an average or below average menu setup, the playstation store isn't anything better than the xbox live market place, or in some cases worse: you can't download something and flip around without canceling, or play a game. The graphics were a mixed bag, thers no doubt the PS3 can handle anything the 360 pushes out, but so far Resistance isn't showing off anything next gen, and when we played Genji (wich i forgot to say), it wasn't either, but Motorstorm looked amazing. The controller sucks, feel wierd without rumble and because it's light, and the controls for FPS (atleast with Resistance) were just bad. We didn't get to try the PS3 on an HDTV, wich i should note, but i don't think it would have helped, and we didn't get to see the Blue-ray player in action with the movie. The touch sensative start up button was cool. I'd give the PS3 a B for now, while i'd give the 360 an A in comparison. Wait for the PS3 for now, unless you really want the games.
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