Discrete Vector

In one of the earlier editions I had hinted at the fact that I would love to get my hands on a console… well, that happened a little earlier than expected. Remember The one ring in Lord of the Rings? How people who see it have a fatal attraction towards it? Well.. its the same with me and shiny gadgets. Good for my ego… not so great for my wallet.

I had more or less made up my mind that if I was to ever get a console in the foreseeable future, it would be an Xbox 360. My primary incentive being the relatively larger number of game titles available for it as compared to the PS3. In fact I was so sure of it that I even stopped researching the PS3! I am the kind of person who digs the grave before making a purchase.

But you the reader would have guessed by now (no small thanks to the title) that things didn’t go quite as planned.

PS: If you don’t want listen to me ranting about my buying experience, click here to skip the section. It’s ok. I understand.

This is what happened:

I was out window shopping with a friend on sunny Saturday afternoon and I was at one of my regular shops where they know me on the first name basis. I happened to be at the electronics section and I decided to ask (for the 10th time this month) the price of the Xbox.

To my surprise the price was 27K (INR)! A week back it was 24K and they were giving 4 games free along with it. "That offer is closed Sir", the sales guy told me politely. I cursed myself. He smiled sympathetically. "But there a new PS3 edition hitting the market soon. Why don’t you leave your number with me and I’ll ensure that you get the first piece when we get the stock? And what’s more, it seems they are giving a game away with it for free!" The guy sounded so enthusiastic that I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I wasn’t interested in a PS3. I gave him my cell number and left, my friend shaking her head all the way out.

Once outside she said: "Look if you really want it why don’t you buy it? Makes no sense coming here every week and ogling at it." And with that simple encouragement, the decision was made. I would buy a console today! We headed out to another store just to check whether I could get a better deal. And we did! We found a store that was still running the Xbox promotion: The Pro console @ 24K with 4 games thrown in. "Great", my friend said picking up the box. "Which way is the billing counter?"

"Uh.. now that we are here anyway, why don’t we checkout the Playstation too? " I found myself asking.

"WHAT?! I thought you had decided…." and her voice trailed off. She knew there was no point in arguing with me. At the PS counter, the sales guy showed off a demo in all it HD glory… on a Sony Bravia.

I was awestruck…. and confused. The Xbox 360 for all its games… or the PS3 for all its HD glory (among several other things). And while I was ticking away the pros and cons in my mind, my phone rang. It was the guy from the store where I had left my number. "We expected the stock to come in next week but the company sent it over today. They usually don’t do that but hey we cant complain. We got like … 5 and as promised I am holding on to yours. Come over anytime. See ya". Click.

Divine intervention you say? Maybe.

And that’s how I became the proud owner of a Playstation 3 console.

Opening the Box

I have checked all over the net but I couldn’t find this bundling anywhere. An India exclusive? What are the chances of that happening! This bundle is basically PS3 with the Gran Turismo 5 Prologue thrown in. That’s it. Oh, the box has Gran Turismo images on it. And guess what, when you open the box, you get ANOTHER box inside, the regular PS3 box. They just dropped an PS3 box into a new box! lol !

And that’s not all. There are discrepancies is the information too. The outer box lists the Euro AV converter as one of the contents, the inner box doesn’t and of course, no converter inside the box. The outer box lists the DVD and BD region codes as 2 and B respectively. The inner box? 5 and C!

The Experience:

You wont believe how heavy the damn thing is. 5 Kgs! I almost slipped a disc carrying it home.

The XMB menu is easy to use and even more so if you already own a PSP. All my PS3 experience till now was on my 17" computer LCD monitor. I have seen the PS3 on a Sony HD TV and I definitely know what I am missing. Buy hey, got to face the facts. Not enough moolah to buy one (yet).

I previewed a movie (Open season – Blu-ray) and a game (GT) at the store and they were nothing short of breath taking. Seriously, this is no exaggeration. I call ‘em as I see ‘em.

RemotePlay works like a charm and I had it setup in a jiffy. You can stream video and audio off to your PSP. No games support yet although I have read somewhere that one of the driving games allow you to use the PSP as a rearview mirror.

As I was used to the Xbox controller on my PC, the sixaxis felt awfully light in my hand. No complaints on the performance although they could have placed the analog sticks at different heights. The system comes with the USB cable that can be used to charge the controller. An additional use of the USB is to connect your PSP to the PS3. I immediately tried to use it to connect the PSP to my PC and guess what? It works! Some Playstation store downloads require your PSP to be connected to your PC to start the download. Now I can have them all.

Got the PS3 connected to the net, albeit, with a few trial and errors. The browser works on most of the sites. I was able to check my mail on Gmail and even the youtube videos played fine.

The GT 5 prologue comes in a Blu-ray disk. One of the things I hate about the PS3 is that it requires the game to be installed on the HDD before playing. But I guess its helps in faster loading times and less time spent in loading between levels. The GT installation shaved off a cool 6 GB of my hard disk. Standard DVD games wont take this much space of course. By the way the user space available on the PS3 is 37Gb (of 40GB); just like a PC.

Oh, did you know that you could install Linux on your PS3? From firmware 1.60 onwards, Sony lets you install a third party OS on the PS3. Read more here. I wonder what this means for homebrew. Hmmm.

What I loved about the PS3:

Remote Play: The ability to stream videos and music wirelessly from the PS3 to your PSP is really cool. You can also connect the PSP to the net using your PS3

Blu-Ray: I have to admit, this is probably THE feature that changed my mind. The next gen format war has ended with Blu-ray declared the winner. Microsoft who was in the HD-DVD camp (May its disturbed soul rest in peace.) decided to stop making HD-DVD players for the XBOX. And to add insult to injury, it tried to put up a bold front that they wont be considering Blu-ray players for the Xbox. Microsoft believes that HD downloads are the way to go in the future. All the best guys. 5 GB download. Hmmm sounds tempting. Come on guys, whom are you kidding? The PS3, on the other hand, has a really good Blu-ray player that comes inbuilt. Instant HD movies and games anyone?

Wireless: The PS3 has wireless (Wi-Fi) connectivity built in. The XBOX requires a separate adapter.

Impressive hardware: When you come to sheer hardware spec, the PS3 beats all other consoles in the market hands down. Now if only Sony could get developers to take advantage of that power. All that untapped power also means that your PS3 is a bit more future proof than your XBOX.

No region protection for games: Two thumbs up for Sony for taking that decision. Now I can tell my cuz in the US to send me a game and it would simply work on my machine. A good way of cutting down on the piracy too.

Reliability: I can see the XBOX fan boys leave the room when this word is mentioned. Cooling issues have been the bane of Xbox consoles. And with the ring of death it got a real bad name. Though you have to hand it to Microsoft; they agreed to replace all the broken consoles for free. And they have made real good progress in ensuring that it doesn’t happen again. But it comes no where near the PS3 when it comes to reliability. Read this article to see what I mean.

Slot loading drive: Not exactly a ground breaking feature. But its there and I love slot loading drives. No trays to break and it looks so suave.

Bigger hard disk: The Xbox, even at 25 grand comes only with a 20 GB hard disk. For a mere thousand bucks more, the PS3 gives you 40.

Silence: Whether you are watching a movie or playing a game, that’s all you would want to hear. The PS3 is quiet. The same cannot be said for the Xbox though.

User replaceable HDD: You can upgrade your PS3 HDD with a standard 3.5" SATA HDD that’s available in the market. Its pretty simple actually. Watch this video to find out how. You can upgrade the XBOX HDD too but they are proprietary so you have to depend on Microsoft to release the capacity you want.

What I didn’t quite like about the PS3:

The Controller: The Sixaxis that comes with the console has no rumble. All Xbox controllers have rumble by default. Of course you can buy a DualShock 3 controller which has the rumble functionality, separately. But hey, rumble is old news. We really don’t want to pay extra for it. Wake up guys! I personally like the Xbox controller better (I use it on my PC). The weight is just about right, the buttons feels sturdy and the analog controllers are placed at sensibly different heights. Not to mention the fact that you can hookup the wired headset directly to the controller. The Sixaxis feels cheap and light (not to mention the boring design) but gets the job done though.

No backward compatibility: The 60 GB version had BC with PS2 games but they are no longer available around here. The 40 GB version has nothing, not even emulation. How do I play God of War 2? Simple. I cant.

Title list not as long as Xbox’s: All right, All right, they don’t have Halo and Gears of war. Sigh! The one of the greatest games for the Playstation, God of War, is not available for the PS3 yet. But Sony is catching up, albeit, slowly. Heavenly sword is fantastic. And the DMC4 trailer looks great. Of all the drawbacks I have mentioned, this is the only one worth caring about. Sony better do something, and quick.

Online Play: What online play? The Xbox wins in this section unchallenged, no questions asked.

Untapped potential: The PS3 is technically superior but the games are yet to show it. Some games seem to look/run worse on the PS3 even though it has a better graphics sub system. Lost Planet is a classical example. Check out this review on Gamespot.

[Author's note: Added May 6th 2008]

The Playstation 3 Vs Xbox 360 Question

You want an unbiased short answer? Here it is: if you want to play some really neat games TODAY and you don’t care a hoot about anything else except games then an Xbox is your best bet. If you want an all in one entertainment solution which supports the next gen video format and you are willing to count on Sony to deliver on the untapped potential of their console then get a Playstation 3. Ok, that was not exactly short but you get the point. Of course its not as simple as how I put it but then again it never is and never will be. Prioritize on what you want and the choice will be a lot simpler. Oh and it would really help if you stayed away from the comments section of certain game sites where fan boys fight it out day in and day out without reaching any conclusion. (Some are real fun to read though). And you should definitely avoid them once you have made a purchase because no matter what console you bought, they will end up making you feel bad about it. Choose your console, buy couple of the best games on it, get a beer and start playing like there is no tomorrow.

[End note]

Conclusion

Just one complaint. Not enough games. And considering the fact its a gaming console before anything else, that’s one hell of a complaint. Now that I have one, the only thing I can do is cross my fingers and pray.

If its an all round reliable home entertainment system you are looking for, well, look no further. If you are choosy about the games you play and the names of those games happen to be Halo and Gears of war (among others) then XBOX 360 is your best bet.

Oh I almost forgot, if you get a PS3, update your firmware first before doing anything else.

CW Rating: 4 Widgets

Box Contents

• The Playstation 3 console system
• Sixaxis wireless controller (x1)
• USB Cable for the Controller
• HDMI to AV cable
• Power Cable
• Instruction Manuals
• Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Blu-ray Disc

Specs: http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/About/Specs
Price: INR 24,990
Date: 19-April-2008

Images

PS3 – Gran Turismo Edition Box – Front	PS3 – Gran Turismo Edition Box – Back	The original PS3 box inside the GT box!
The PS3 in all its shiny glory	Playstation 3. Oh yeah!	Box contents

Happy Gaming
Alex