NY Times review of PS3 20 .11.06

[kesey]

Oops Sony. Looks like you made a major boo-boo on the games usage/UI front:

"A Weekend Full of Quality Time With PlayStation 3"

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/arts/20game.html

"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. "

As explicit a review on the PS3 BD abilities or lack thereof would be useful.

[zAndy1]

Excellent unbiased article

[DanDT]

(Sony is even telling users to wait for future software patches to fix some of the PS3’s deficiencies.)

Heh... Cause that doesn't happen on X360?

The thing is, if people want to use a computer, they’ll use a computer.

And that was the same stance people had when camera phones came out ("if people wanted to take pics, they'd use a camera"), and a whole lot of other examples. It's about moving forward and trying to convince the people that they don't need to use a computer, when PS3 can do that, and play games, and play Bluray and DVD movies, all in one box, which will always be much easier to use and cheaper than PCs with Bluray drives and as much processing power than PS3.

[rover2002]

ouch !

[Noggin1980]

Heh... Cause that doesn't happen on X360?

yes it does. In fact some of their criticisms about the ps3 were problems with the 360 at the beginning, ie no background downloading.

However imo they are right to compare the ps3 now to the 360 now as thats the choice you face when you go to spend your money.

[BenchyUK]

None of these reviews are surprising and because of all the bad press and problems at the moment i wouldn't consider buying a PS3 for a year or so. By then i bet it will be a quite decent console

[Dr Force]

This does not surprise me.

I have always played Playstation consoles and marvelled at thier technical innovation, but they just seemed to have forgotten about simplicity in the next gen wars.

I have a 360 and find it so easy to operate yet at the same time find the graphical capabilities superb-a brilliant combination when it comes to multi tasking.

Sony have had almost a year on MS and I feel that they have somewhat changed thier strategy according to the success of the 360, especially online, and in doing so have produced, what appears to be a product that does not sit very well with any of its functions.

As far as gaming is concerened, look at Gears Of Wars and tell me the PS3 is slightly more powerful, look at the HD-DVD drive and tell me that the picture quality is superior on blue-ray.

The same can be said for online support,music and video storage etc,etc.

The truth is that MS have stolen a march on Sony who have taken a gamble combining a games machine with an unproven next gen DVD storage device, without giving peeps a choice with an (imo justified) expensive price tag.

I would love to get a PS3 but I know it is not going to meet my expectations now I have a 360-The benefit of launching first.

By the sounds of the review, it seems Sony has done little to win over its own fans let alone the 10million odd current XBOX users.

[gazzaputt]

I agree with the review where it is said that Sony did use to be a simple company with it's walkmans and trinitron.

Look at the mess Sony has made with their MP3 players. Still they don't learn and what should have been a great product is at least one generation behind Apple and the iPod.

I didn't like the PSP menu setup was way ott.

The PS3 will sell but is it really another generation step over the Xbox 360?

[Tejstar]

Another reasonable article here give their thoughts on the video side of the PS3.

[MI55ION]

One thing for a fact, it does seem very well built as demonstrated

[andythescientis]

Originally Posted by Tejstar

Another reasonable article here give their thoughts on the video side of the PS3.

"Second, the PS3 offers 1080p60 (where the 60 refers to frames per second) playback, which is less optimal than 1080p24 for filmed content. Few displays support 1080p24 output today, but if your HD set and your BD player do so, you should see higher-quality images than you'd get from 1080p60 output. Since movies are filmed at 24 frames per second, you'd want to use an even multiple of 24 (such as 72 frames per second) to avoid motion artifacts in slow-panning scenes. If you display 24-fps content at an uneven multiple, like the commonly used 60 fps, you'll end up with those artifacts."

Does this mean if you have a TV capable of handling 24fps without judder like pioneers, the PS3's 60fps output will mean you get juddery output the TV can't get rid off? Or will the euro version output only in 1080p50?

[Avi]

Originally Posted by andythescientis

"Second, the PS3 offers 1080p60 (where the 60 refers to frames per second) playback, which is less optimal than 1080p24 for filmed content. Few displays support 1080p24 output today, but if your HD set and your BD player do so, you should see higher-quality images than you'd get from 1080p60 output. Since movies are filmed at 24 frames per second, you'd want to use an even multiple of 24 (such as 72 frames per second) to avoid motion artifacts in slow-panning scenes. If you display 24-fps content at an uneven multiple, like the commonly used 60 fps, you'll end up with those artifacts."

Does this mean if you have a TV capable of handling 24fps without judder like pioneers, the PS3's 60fps output will mean you get juddery output the TV can't get rid off?

If the display can do proper inverse telecine and can change its internal refresh rate to 72,96,120hz etc then you should get a smooth judder free image from film material even output ay 60hz.

AVI

[Avi]

Originally Posted by andythescientis

Or will the euro version output only in 1080p50?

I think this would cause issues with audio ouput/sync on BD titles encoded at 24fps.

AVI

[AgentCool]

If anyone has managed to get hold of the latest issue of Edge (Issue 170 - Christmas 2006) you'll find they've got a big article inside about the PS3 and Wii and also a free booklet about the PS3. I was surprised to find that both are clearly biased towards the PS3, particularly the booklet, and feature some questionable "facts".

For example, in the booklet there's an interview with Phil 'Speculation' Harrison which should set alarm bells off straight away. Apart from pretty much saying "PS3 can do this, that and the other" in essentially every answer he gives, he throws a few more ridiculous comments in. At one point he even says that PS3 wouldn't be able to have an external power brick like the 360 because the Cell and RSX chips need to have the power near them!?! Next he'll be saying that it has its own next-gen fusion reactor built-in.

Also, earlier in the booklet Edge claim that Lair wouldn't be possible like-for-like on the 360 which I find very hard to believe especially since the preview version I saw at the Stuff exhibition wasn't particularly impressive. In fact, it looked like it was barely possible on the PS3 anyway given the appalling frame rate on the preview build.

Edge's conclusion in their PS3/Wii article is that the PS3 and Wii are offering something totally different from past games consoles and that the 360 is the last in the line of traditional games consoles. Well, in the case of the PS3 the new things they talk about such as 'You can run Linux on it' and 'There's a cool photo slideshow feature' have little to do with gaming so it could hardly be called 'revolutionary' instead of 'evolutionary'.

Basically, I was disappointed that the magazine seemed to totally dismiss the 360 altogether as being, without actually saying it, 'last gen' which is not the brightest of conclusions to make. Not what I'd expect from Edge at all though they'd clearly only just got their new toy so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

[Tony Hoyle]

They say what their advertisers tell them to say. I bet Sony promised to take out a few full page ads.