Is that the black DS Lite? I'll trade you, I wanted a black one so badly, but I couldn't wait for it to be released, when the white one was just sitting there on the shelf, begging for me to take it home...
OK. Here's the full story. Which we hope that THIS TIME will clear up any confusion or questions.
On September 29th Sony we kind enough to bring a finished PS3 test machine to the PSM3 office. We played it for a few hours that day, then it went back in a bag and back to Sony HQ. I'm lead to believe that the machine had been in the possession of Sony Europe (or at least the guys at Sony HQ in London) for two days. Taking it out on the road for a visit to us in Bath wasn't a decision they took lightly and we're eternally grateful for them bringing it to us. Thanks guys.
We ran pics of our time with PS3 (see previous blog) and a movie too. We were subsequently asked to remove the movie as it contained info that Sony would rather not broadcast yet. The guys at Sony are our mates so we've done as they and their bosses have asked. Nothing mysterious or bent about this. They wanted to help us out by letting us play a final PS3 and we want to do the right thing by them.
The guys from Sony were very helpful and answered all of our questions but weren't Phil Harrison or Ken Kutaragi - hence our inability to answer lots of your technical questions. Expect the words "to the best of our knowledge" to feature a lot in the coming text.
So… "to the best of our knowledge" that IS the finished menu and start-up noise. We like it. (For those of you that missed the video, the start up sound is the sound of an orchestra tuning up - a single, haunting, smooth string and brass note.)
We played MotorStorm and Resistance. While this isn't the time to start writing a review of both games we will say that both were VERY impressive. Pretty much the whole building crammed into the games room here to see and play - and that's a lot of people from a lot of 'rival' games mags. Yes, the Xbox mag guys did take the piss and think it looked rubbish. But what else are they going to do? Fact is it's too early to successfully draw any 'better than 360' conclusions here. However Resistance looked like a great 360 game while MotorStorm had a certain 'PS3 magic' about it. We're talking texture detail, draw distance and realistic lighting rather than 'gameplay' or 'course design' here. We'll leave the proper review until we've played the finished game for longer than a couple of hours, thanks. That said, within thirty seconds you can 'see the PlayStation 3 difference' in this game.
Are we Sony fanboys? Well, we produce a mag all about PlayStation so you can draw your own conclusions. Are we paid by Sony to say good things? No way. I think that Sony's request to remove our video of PS3 starting up is proof of our unofficial status (and I suspect we're very naughty boys at Sony HQ right now). Do we hate 360 and Wii? No, we own 360s and will definitely be buying Wiis this Christmas. That said we'll DEFINITELY be buying PS3 in March.
We, unfortunately, don't know what video resolution it was running at. Suffice to say that the TV is an off the shelf UK Samsung 32" model which handles a 720p image. We plugged in power to one end of the PS3, HDMI to the other and switched on the TV and the PS3. It worked first time (of course) and looked pin-sharp and brilliant. I'm guessing that the guys from Sony would have already been using it at Sony HQ London and would have done the setting up stuff there, with the default resolution setting most likely being 720p. PLEASE NOTE that this in no way means that PS3 can't do 1080p or other BS. It just means we used a 720p TV with it and it looked superb.
There is no power brick with PS3. Unlike 360 the PS3's power supply is built into the machine. So before anyone gloats about 360 being smaller and lighter please consider the combined mass of 360 and that almighty power brick…
Overheating problem? It was 'warm at the back' I'm told but nothing to speak about.
Yes, it was quiet. Yes, it is heavy. And yes it is shiny!
We joked in a previous post about Sony being undecided as to what to call the 'PS' button on the joypad. What we meant to say is that there has been no official announcement as to what the button is called. So there is no official answer to the question "What is the name of that button." There is no confusion about this issue, they just haven't publicly christened it as yet. (Jeez, stifling internet rumours is a real pain in the ass!)
Linux? Can it run Linux? Does it run Linux? Hmm, we forgot to ask about Linux… But, let's be brutally frank here - we're not Linux programmers here on PSM3. We're here to play brilliant PS3 games. We'll leave the operating system innards of PS3 to the experts (and people who like to tinker). Soon as Sony divulge more on this, we'll let you know.
Did we play any PS2 or PS1 games on the PS3… We chose to use our time with the machine to play PS3 games. Next time you can BET we'll take the time to check it out for you. Same goes for every setting in the settings menu and what happens when you try and take it online, suffice to say that "to the best of our knowledge" it would have played PS2 and PS1 games and that if we'd have pressed 'online' it would have gone precisely nowhere. THAT'S NOT TO SAY that Sony haven't implemented online on PS3 yet or that they haven't spent millions and hundreds of hours perfecting their online PS3 site ready for the machine's launch. (Another rumour throttled at birth, there…)
Where is the PS3 now? Back at Sony HQ in London, we assume. When will we get one to keep? We've been told "in a fortnight" - which is two weeks (durr….)
Is it really see through? Yes it is. And we hope that at least one of our pics below shows this. Bear in mind that - as discussed previously - it's a swine to take a picture of because it's soooo shiny.
I think that answers everything that we know right now. By all means post your questions below and we'll do our best to answer them.
More pics? Here you go. PLEASE bear in mind that these are taken on mobile phones etc by non-professional photographers. Quality is sufficiently low to ensure that they'd never make it into the mag but we thought you blog readers might like to see them anyway!
Yes, it's see through. This is the liftable flap that covers the memory card slots. You can see through it with the camera's bright flash.
And here's an ambitious close up shot of the flap up. Yes, it’s blurred. Yes, we're sorry. Note the hard drive bay cover at the bottom left.
Rich playing MotorStorm. Two points of interest: One, the draw distance and textures. Two, Rich can play games with his eyes shut.
Rich tilting the pad. Note: blurred hands NOT due to crap photography.
Dan D driving a bike up a massive ramp in MotorStorm.
Nathan playing Resistance. Note: the red light on the top of the PS3 pad shows that he's connected to PS3 as 'player one'. Different lights show different player numbers, see.
The network port on the back of the PS3 features a green light. Green… That's got to be a good thing, right?…
Thanks for reading.
Dan G.
Let me correct this so you can understand.
