10 reasons why the PS3 is still relevant

[Wesociety]

This is an interesting read for any PS3 owner:
http://www.ps3fanboy.com/photos/ten-rea ... nt/677507/

It's obvious that the console is still relevant, I took this article as more of a "10 reasons to be excited about the PS3".

Here's the list:
1) Blu-Ray won the Format War
2) High Quality PSN Games
3) Great DLC support for first party titles
4) DualShock 3
5) Value for money
6) Regular firmware updates
7) Remote Play
8 ) Metal Gear Solid 4
9) LittleBigPlanet
10) Home

Check the link above for more details on each item.

[dolphinius_rex]

My PS3 gets far more attention then my Wii in terms of gameplay even... I have to say of the 3 consoles, I really do prefer the PS3, and this came as a major surprise to me. Especially considering that when I bought my PS3, the clerk at the store asked if I wanted any games for it, and I snidely remarked "there aren't any games for the PS3" and meant it... and he didn't / couldn't disagree

So much has changed between that time and now!

[Grain]

The new Grand Turismo may convince me to finally invest. I bot both the PS1 & PS2 just for GT in the past, other games were bonuses. I've had good luck with Sony console hardware, my PS1 and both PS2's are still going strong. Now controllers.... Sony doesn't warranty anger damage

[dolphinius_rex]

The new Grand Turismo may convince me to finally invest. I bot both the PS1 & PS2 just for GT in the past, other games were bonuses. I've had good luck with Sony console hardware, my PS1 and both PS2's are still going strong. Now controllers.... Sony doesn't warranty anger damage

I've also had great experiences with Sony's PS's. My PS original is still working, and my PS2 is still going strong and used on a weekly basis for DDR. And my PS3 is the star of my entertainment system.

I really hate not being able to hate Sony products

[Ian]

I need to dig out my modded PS. I still have a huge collection of games from when I was in college.

[vinnie97]

What's with all this self-affirmation of the PS3 lately? As if the Warner decision and subsequent January NPD sales results weren't enough. There are still no standalones as good as the PS3 in the realm of processing power and being futureproof.

It's someone else's turn to have the console limelight now. As much as I hate Sony now, I shudder to think how I will react if Sony's domination and viral marketing causes MS to discontinue the 360 prematurely.

Kill off first gaming hardware competitor (Sega), check. Kill off a perfectly valid and capable optical format (HD DVD), check. Kill of gaming hardware competitor #2 (MS)? ....

[dolphinius_rex]

What's with all this self-affirmation of the PS3 lately? As if the Warner decision and subsequent January NPD sales results weren't enough. There are still no standalones as good as the PS3 in the realm of processing power and being futureproof.

It's someone else's turn to have the console limelight now. As much as I hate Sony now, I shudder to think how I will react if Sony's domination and viral marketing causes MS to discontinue the 360 prematurely.

Kill off first gaming hardware competitor (Sega), check. Kill off a perfectly valid and capable optical format (HD DVD), check. Kill of gaming hardware competitor #2 (MS)? ....

Well, a lot of people really bought into the anti-Sony/PS3 propaganda, including myself initially. The initial high price of the PS3 and the lack of big name exclusive games right off the bat gave rabid Sony haters plenty of material to get their hate-on. But now that the price has come down, and more and more features are being added to existing and new PS3 models (and unfortunately, backward compatability taken away), people are starting to see the PS3 for what it is, and furthermore, how much potential it still has (i.e. room to grow). This is simply a different strategy, Sony from day 1 intended the PS3 to last 2 generations from Microsoft, and possibly even 3 from Nintendo (at LEAST 2). It's the difference between cutting edge next gen technology, and pushing current technology to it's limits to get great results. One gives you huge amounts of room to grow, and the other has you starting off amazing, but requires you to retire the unit much sooner. There are pro's and con's to both of course, I wouldn't say that one strategy is neccissarily better then the other. Although I will say that the XBox 360 red ring of death fiasco certainly killed the XBox 360's chances of being profitable for MS in any real way, compared to expectations.

So why all the affirmation of the PS3? It's a great system, that is JUST coming into its' groove.

Will the PS3 kill the XBox 360? Probably not no, although it will force MS to put more thought and planning into their future system. Releasing the XBox 360 ahead of the Wii and PS3 meant that they completely missed out on the new big thing in gaming, which is motion sensativity. This mistake will NOT be repeated, that I'm sure of! Also, I have no doubt that the next MS console will use a new media type with higher capacity, or everything will be HDD based (downloads or installs required). More and more game developers are running into problems with space constraints when trying to make a proper high definition game that isn't really short.

Although I for one will never own a MS game system, I am happy that the system exists to fill the #2 or #3 position in the game system wars. It keeps Nintendo and Sony on their toes, and really brings out the best in them. If Sony and Nintendo were left alone, I think they would become a little too complacent. MS has a LOT of money to throw at projects like this, and it makes both Nintendo and Sony compete with their brains a lot more. This is particularily important with Sony, who is not exactly prone to intelligent thought (yeah, I said it).

As for Sony killing off the DreamCast, I won't argue that. And I'll agree it sucks. Regarding Sony killing off HD DVD, I will say that Sony was just one part of the entire industry which came together under a single format to kill HD DVD. I also disagree about HD DVD being a viable format... but then again, I'm picky, and care about things like the lifespan of the media I work with, as well as the technical details. I'm also not afraid of buying products supported by Sony, even if they're a crappy company. Heck, I even own a copy of WinXP, and I hate MS much more then I dislike Sony.

Really, in the end, Brand bias and brand fanboyism, only serves to limit your options and hurt you in the long run. No company is perfect, and no company is actually run by the devil himself to specifically hunt you down and torture you.

[vinnie97]

I will only contend that the burning capabilities of HD DVD were lacking (okay, that's half the battle, I suppose) but as a movie format, it was more than capable and I would be surprised if the personal disc authoring/burning issues could not be resolved in time. The lesser capacity certainly impeded it as a storage medium but I didn't find its lesser specs (slower transfer rate) to be especially detrimental in any way.

As you will never own a MS console, I will say the same about Sony (I own a receiver from a few years ago that I'm trying to pawn off admittedly...and their portable MD player/recorder is tempting me). If it were only Nintendo and Sony fighting it out, we'd be seeing a much more complacent Sony at this stage.

[dolphinius_rex]

I will only contend that the burning capabilities of HD DVD were lacking (okay, that's half the battle, I suppose) but as a movie format, it was more than capable and I would be surprised if the personal disc authoring/burning issues could not be resolved in time. The lesser capacity certainly impeded it as a storage medium but I didn't find its lesser specs (slower transfer rate) to be especially detrimental in any way.

The flaws in the recording side of the media are just one of the technical problems I had with HD DVD. And while I'm sure that Pioneer could have helped resolve at least SOME of the problems, with a perfectly good (not to mention superior) recordable product already supported by them, they really had no incentive.

I'm sorry though, even without the significant technical flaws in HD DVD I just don't believe that we should innundate ourselves with formats for no reason. HD DVD was never needed, and never had a real point outside of giving Toshiba more royalties. The fact that Toshiba is more interested in producing Super Up-Converters, rather then work with Samsung to provide proper High Definition players, pretty much prooves this. And although I'm sure that Super Up-Converters will sell, they will never offer High Definition sound, or advanced features like Blu-Ray, nor online interactivity, nor any of the other nifty features that Toshiba was so quick to toot about HD DVD not too long ago.

[Wesociety]

This so-called "Super Upconversion" should be interesting to test out at the least... But yes, I think that Toshiba is being particularly devious here by competing against Blu-ray in this way. On the other hand, they are a corporation after all and their primary goal is to make as much money as possible, with or without the rest of the 'industry'.

[Grain]

I'm incredibly impressed with the upconversion abilities of the Reon chip in the Toshiba HD-XA2. While it's not equivilant to a good HD 1080p encode, it is good enough that I've changed my mind about upgrading many SD DVD's I've got, and I've actually got excited about seeing how some movies will look on it, not unlike getting a new HD disc. Unfortunately, it's a rather expensive option in a player, and probably the cheapest way to get one is in a ebay XA2. I rather doubt that Toshiba will be putting $400 DVD players out there, expecting them to sell in any volume. I plan on buying Oppo's HD-983 SD DVD player, which is hitting the street next week for the lofty sum of $399, but I bet I'm in a minority in willing to fork out that much for "older technology" hardware.

[Wesociety]

I'll be keeping an eye on Toshiba and their rumored upcoming Super Upconverters. If they sell em for cheap (<100), I'll probably pick one up. The only reason I won't grab a clearance HD DVD player for upscaling purposes is the long boot up times...

[vinnie97]

Dolph, Toshiba is doing exactly what any revenue-loving corporation would, plan B. Suffice to say, that didn't and doesn't include Blu-ray because they effectively shut themselves out many years ago (and I don't necessarily put all the blame on them).