So I landed a new job so to celebrate I went out and bought a PS3. Target has them for 399 (same price as everyone else) but with 2 free games and 2 free blu-ray movies. The games are Motor Storm and Resistance: Fall of Man. The movies I got were Hancock and some other crap (there were only 4 to choose from).

First we watched Hancock. I was really surprised at how long it took to "boot up" the disk. I think it takes longer to read the disk and start playing than it takes to boot my 6-year-old computer. The picture/sound was fine, but honestly it wasn't all that much better than the upconverting DVD player on the xbox (it's certainly much better than straight DVDs on a non-upconverting player) or the HD streaming I get over netflix (I have read that although it's HD, Blu-ray still looks better - sure, maybe a little). Blu-ray was the main reason I got this, I just figured I could pay a bit more than a straight blu-ray player and get some good games, too.

I heard Resistance rocked and all the reviews online say how great it is. First of all, the graphics aren't good. I realize it was a launch title and everything but games on xbox 360 like Halo3, Gears of War, Frontlines, etc., all have much better graphics. I like the fact that the player moves quickly but I'm on the first level and I keep dying. There are literally no health packs in the entire level anywhere. At all. So I basically go through checkpoint-to-checkpoint and each time I make it to the next one, I'm 1/2 or more dead so I have not gotten past 2 in a row at all. The reviews say after the first level they start putting health packs and you can regenerate some, so I guess I'll play some more later. I probably just suck but I've had no problems going through the other games I mentioned on normal difficulty. Maybe their health systems just spoiled me.

Motor Storm is okay but same sorts of issues, if you crash off a little bit or hit a truck bigger than yours or even jump too high, your truck explodes. wtf? seriously? Yeah. And every time it explodes you have to sit there for what seems like eons waiting for the slow-motion animation to finish. It's not hard to win the tracks I've played so far, it's just that the exploding really gets on my nerves.

It seems that there is no rumble in the PS3 controller. I could have sworn they announced that and then everyone threw hissyfits so they announced that rumble was coming back? Maybe I dreamed it all.

Also, I am not a big fan of the xbox ui but holy **** the ps3 one is really lame.

Overall, not sure it was worth 400 bucks but I added blu-ray access to my netflix account so we'll see.

Go get Ratchet and Clank:Future:(Othersubtitle I forget).

Well, can't you return it?

Dude, I urge you to NOT base your opinion of the games on Resistance (the most mediocre game ever made) and Motor Storm.

The blu-ray issue sounds weird, mine doesn't do that.

Btw, rumble has been back for over a year. Sounds like you got yourself an outdated system.

Make sure you've got a Dualshock 3 controller, not merely a six-axis one.

If you want to enjoy your PS3, get Rachet and Clank: Future, Killzone2, Uncharted, MGS4 (I didn't like this one but you might), and of course a few multiplats since you might as well.

Oh and download the Red Faction 3 demo, I have wasted hours on it.
Damn whoever thought of timelimiting it to hell.

Imagine how you would feel if you spent $600 on it.

I did enjoy Resistance, but overall I'm dissappointed with it as a gaming system. I'll stick with PC gaming. Now it runs Folding@Home 24/7 except for when its used to watch the occasional movie.

I am impressed with the quality of the hardware, it has been Folding 24/7 for more than 2 years now.

I think anyone here could have told you the PS3 isn't worth the purchase, especially if you didn't like the 360.

Also, do you have an HDTV? If you don't, you're obviously not going to see a benefit from bluray.

PS3 totally replaced my DVD player.

The batteries in my Dual Shock 3s have been dead for months. No plan to charge them for the foreseeable future.

I *do* like the xbox 360. Like... a lot. We liked Halo 3, loved Gears of War 1&2, am thoroughly enjoying Frontlines: Fuel of War, have been playing SFII Turbo HD Remix, etc. I use it to watch netflix streaming as well (for SD movies, it looks a lot better than the Roku [both look good on HD movies]). I also use it to play regular DVDs because it upconverts and they look a lot better than using my old-school DVD player.

Yes, we have a 50" 1080p HDTV.

Regarding the rumble, the controller says it's a "Dualshock III" and then under it it says "sixaxis" or something. So you're saying it should have rumble? I wonder if I have to turn it on in settings or something. Or maybe those two older games just don't support rumble?

I'll hook up to Playstation network later and try to download the red faction demo as well.

I wonder if I should have gotten the one with Uncharted: drakes fortune instead of motor storm & resistance.

upconverting players do not add detail... you can't add back detail that's not in the source a non-upconverting player on a decent TV would look the same as an upconverting player

also your bluray loading slowness is odd... i have the same movie and never experienced any slow loading



IIRC the only way to actually explode is if you constantly boost... it's actually mentioned in the manual (RTFM and see page 13)



did you get the updates for the games? (should pop up with a message when you load the game) they have to be updated to support rumble



i feel the XMB is insanely better than the 360's UI what's so lame about it? everything is well organized and easy to find without slow loading 3d avatars when you want to check the friends list and it's far easier to access your downloaded games/demos (which you can also organize into folders)

games to check out
Little Big Planet
Uncharted
Killzone 2 (much better than the first)
Resistance 2 (has some bugs including things like online stats getting reset, save files getting corrupted, among others)
Warhawk (online only... definitely try the demo first)


also two games to avoid
Lair (the controls are horrible even with the patch enabling analog stick control)
Haze (not as much of a steaming pile as lair but it's a very generic FPS with bad AI and horrible voice acting... at least the controls are good)

Although this is true, I remember the game after my username, Onimusha, being a launch title for PS2 and it had kickass graphics for its time.

There's some quality titles, but I agree, the system has so far failed to deliver.

that's because the backgrounds were prerendered

I realize upconverting dvd players don't add detail. What it seems to do is remove a lot of the JPG-like compression artifacts that are visible and annoying on the regular dvd player. I can tell that it takes a few frames for them to disappear but it's a lot better.

Also, hancock was pretty lame.

Yeah, pretty much what everyone else here said.

Don't base your opinion on Motorstorm or Resistance. They're both 2 years old for one thing.
Resistance was not a great game, it just happened to be the best that the PS3 offered like 2 years ago. It got fairly good reviews at the time because it was a fairly good shooter, but it's not on par with HALO or anything like that.

Games to play on it:
MGS4
LittlebigPlanet
Killzone 2 (ok I've only played the demo but the graphics are AMAZING)
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Probably resistance 2, but I haven't had a chance to play that either.

And then there's other games that I tend to buy that are on both systems.
GTA4
Resident Evil 5
Others...

OMG

You've been playing HDR and haven't friended me? Shame you Brian

(seriously though, if you want to play against a fairly decent Vega (Claw) you can do worse than adding me - gamertag = martynpie)

I am happy to hear I'm not the only one that thought the first resistance was just mediocre and typical.

I remember when you made a rant thread about the 360...well actually a few of them. Maybe you should avoid consoles, Brian, and come back to the PC world.

Oh and before you even try, the PS3s ability to play video files is... absolutely ****ing terrible.

I tried to watch a couple episodes of TNG from my computer, 1-3 worked fine, but 4 and beyond won't work. Why? I have no idea, it's in the same format.

The hardware is great, but it was programmed by a bunch of dyslexic drug addled 5 year olds.

Exactly what is there to "come back to" today in PC gaming...

Metal Gear Solid 4...........'nuff said

This man is wise.

Oh yes, get RE5. It's been sucking my life away.

Theres also WipeoutHD on the playstation store, which is Wipeout Pulse and Pure [the PSP games] + other elements remade in HD and combined.

And its absolutely fantastic.

Hey Brian, when you feel like messing around with the playstation network and/or Playstation home, give us your Playstation ID por favor.

Just got the platinum trophy (hides in shame)

edit nevermind ps3

What?

I can even play MKV files on it, it's that good.

I've been able to play any and every video file I throw at it. It's quite impressive, especially compared to the 360.

Killzone2 was great. Definite buy. It's online is where it's at. SP was great too, but Rico's voice was just... god no.

Don't get Killzone 2, at least not just for the single player. It's brutal.

In difficulty?

Well yeah, if you run out and run-and-gun than it's the most brutal game you'll ever play.

Some of the characters were annoying, but it was fine.

Personally I'd like that, games are just far too easy these days.

Especially the SQUAREJAWEDSPACEMARINEBROWNVISIONYEAAAAAAAAHHHHHH types of games.

The quality of any game or movie that is given away free with purchase of a console should be questioned. There's a reason it's being given away for free, after all.

I got Gears 1+2 free with my 360.

maybe 4 and beyond were encoded wrong... just because the CONTAINER FORMAT was the same doesn't mean the encoded video streams were



this is BS the PS3 has never directly supported mkv

Agreed. There was a deal not too long ago where you could buy a new PS3 for $300 or so.

Everyone already recommended the exclusives games I would recommend, but I'll add in a few more.

Valkyrie Chronicles - if you don't mind strategy RPGs.
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm - A fun simple fighting game

Upcoming games
Infamous
Uncharted 2
MAG

Sonic is still the best bundled game ever.

tetris is the best bundled game ever

i still break out my original gameboy version of tetris on occasion

My grandpa plays Tetris to this day. It's the only video game he's ever played (since the SNES days, that is). It's the original gameboy cart.

When I used to carry it around, I think it went through the wash like 5 times. Still works!

It doesn't mean it can't play MKVs though.

Oh right, and I can mod UT3 on my PS3... and I've a few tools for my PS3 here on my PC to convert any files that might not play.

Either way, it's easy as hell..