PS3 in the US press...

J

Jon Brittan

Newcomer
Reviews are in from both the New York Times and TIME magazine, neither exactly hardcore gaming publications, but both widely read by the standard population outside the gaming hardcore...

It's these kinds of reviews that will sway the people not already indoctrinated into the console market. They are also the only two I've immediately found, so maybe some of the US residents who know their publications better would like to find more and post links.

Anyway, it's not positive so far, as far as these two publications go at least...

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/arts/20game.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

"Howard Stringer, you have a problem. Your company’s new video game system just isn’t that great."


TIME Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1560635,00.html

"Sony's Playstation 3 is Not Worth the Hype"


So, as I said, anyone care to post more general public articles from the US and are they more positive?
 
I didn't understand this statement:

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.
Click to expand...

MS never developed PCs. They developed software to make the PC easy to use. The entire article essentially comes down to the shock that the software on the 360 is vastly superior to that of the PS3. I don't understand the "shock". That's what was to be expected, from the GUI of the consoles themselves, to the online integration. These are the exact selling points for the system that highlight's MS's strengths. (That and the development tools which are invisible to the consumer.)
 
Sort of odd. Can't say I agree with either of them, obviously =p It does pretty much everything I expected at launch and I imagine the rest will be added later if PSP is anything to go by, so I wouldn't call it lacking in any way (from my perspective at least).

I can't read the NYT article (because I don't want to sign up for more shit), but the TIME article didn't exactly give any new reason for not buying it -- it's the same old price and launch titles stuff that has been said for months. The Time article is more of a "it's not worth it right now" situation and if they are talking to the masses, that might not be so far off (and can be said for every console in the first year) -- of course, I still don't agree, but I don't exactly think Time was targetting me with that article, because they basically just called me an idiot because I bought one and like hd movies and told me I can play all the good games on other systems (which is odd, because I'd say none those games listed are all that good -- I'd rather have Genji than any of them =o).

The only part of the Time article I could read they stated it was clunky to use and I'm curious what basic functionality is missing... It's far from clunky to use -- the UI is probably the cleanest and most straight forward console OS I've seen so far (including 360's -- which is far from bad!).
 

...

The PS3, which was introduced in North America on Friday with a hefty $599 price tag for the top version, certainly delivers gorgeous graphics. But they are not discernibly prettier than the Xbox 360’s. More important, the whole PlayStation 3 system is surprisingly clunky to use and simply does not provide many basic functions that users have come to expect, especially online.

I have spent more than 30 hours using the PlayStation 3 over the last week or so and may have played more different games on the system — 13 — than probably anyone outside of Sony itself. Sony did not activate the PS3’s online service until just before the Friday debut. Over the weekend a clear sense of disappointment with the PlayStation 3 emerged from many gamers.

“What’s weird is that the PS3 was originally supposed to come out in the spring, and here it came out in the fall, and it still doesn’t feel finished,” Christopher Grant, managing editor of Joystiq, one of the world’s biggest video-game blogs, said on the telephone Saturday night. “ It’s really not the all-star showing they should have had at launch. Sony is playing catch-up in a lot of ways now, not just in terms of sales but in terms of the basic functionality and usability of the system.”

...


In that sense it often feels as if the PlayStation 3 can’t walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. In the PS3’s online store (which feels like a slow Web page) you can access movie trailers and trial versions of new games, but when you actually download the 600-megabyte files, you’ll be stuck watching a progress bar crawl across the screen for 20 or 40 minutes. Astonishingly, you can’t download in the background while you go do something that’s more fun (like play a game). On the Xbox 360, not only are files downloaded seamlessly in the background, but you can also shut off the machine, turn it on later, and the download will resume automatically.
..

Through the decades of the Walkman and the Trinitron television, Sony was renowned as the global master of easy-to-use, seamlessly powerful consumer electronics. But recently Sony seems to have lost its way, first in digital music players, in which it ceded the ergonomic high ground to Apple’s iPod, and now in home-game consoles. For now Sony’s technologists seem to have won out over the people who study fun.

As a practical matter, given the limited quantities Sony has been able to manufacture, the PlayStation 3 will surely remain sold out throughout the holiday season. If you can’t find one, don’t fret. Sony still has a lot of work to do. As Mr. Grant of Joystiq put it: “Maybe in six months it’ll be finished. Maybe by next fall I’ll be able to do all the cool stuff. I’m still kind of waiting.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/arts/20game.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
 
Jon Brittan said:
Reviews are in from both the New York Times and TIME magazine, neither exactly hardcore gaming publications, but both widely read by the standard population outside the gaming hardcore...

It's these kinds of reviews that will sway the people not already indoctrinated into the console market. They are also the only two I've immediately found, so maybe some of the US residents who know their publications better would like to find more and post links.

Anyway, it's not positive so far, as far as these two publications go at least...

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/arts/20game.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Click to expand...

This is the fairest criticism of the two. Yes, the PS3 feels rushed and yes definitely with all the delays you'd have expected a lot of its features to be further along than they are now. Still, there are a lot of questionable points in the article ... Especially comparisons to the 360 sometimes seem unfair. For instance, the 360 has gone through a great number of updates, and features like being able to download in the background were fairly recent updates. Even universal buddy lists came to the Live service as an update. I also question that the SIXAXIS has to pair up to the PS3 through the USB cable - he just needed to hook it up to charge it. After that, you can even turn on the PS3 with the SIXAXIS, and pairing up is very fast, you don't need a separate charging kit, the included battery is rechargeable, and the SIXAXIS' motion-sensing features aren't even mentioned.

Even more disappointing is the lack of information on some of the system's plusses. If you are going to criticise it by comparing it to the 360, you might as well mention stuff like the built-in web browser, the various supported video playback formats, or the fact that the online service is free, or maybe that the PS3 actually supports a lot of your pre-existing devices including BluTooth headsets, PS2 peripherals like the EyeToy, wheels, Microphones, your old Headsets, and so on, or your PS2 and PS1 games - I don't have to list all that here as fortunately b3ders are generally better informed than this. Not to mention your old PS2 component cables, RGB cables, and so on.

TIME Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1560635,00.html

"Sony's Playstation 3 is Not Worth the Hype"
Click to expand...

This article isn't worthy of being called journalism.
 
Bobbler said:
I can't read the NYT article (because I don't want to sign up for more shit), but the TIME article didn't exactly give any new reason for not buying it --
Click to expand...

The TIME article was pathetic. They didn't even it have a PS3. The NYT article was far better, as they actually spent 13 hours using the system. I didn't have to sign up for anything, I just clicked on the link that was provided.

But if that doesn't work for you, you might want to try bugmenot.com, if you don't want to register yourself.
 
I don't think the first wave of buyers use these publications to get information on the console they are buying. It could hurt in the long run or when little "Bobby" is whining about how he wants a PS3 for Christmas. I think most people interested right now already know they want one ; will be going over somebody's house to check it out; or will get impressions from actual users. If I wanted to go by all the big publications they all love Wii and i'm hearing less than stellar user reviews for that console at least for the moment. Granted there aren't that many PS3's yet but i'm surprised I haven't heard a ton of hardware problems...YET.
 
Bobbler said:
That's about as far from the truth as can be.

It fixes the two main problems with the 360's OS design.
Click to expand...

Like what? I'm talking about:

- No streaming of music between dashboard and games (major drawback imo)
- Slow webpage like browsing of the online store
- No communicating with other people while in game
- No resuming downloads, or downloads in background
- Different friends list for every game
- Bad text messaging system
- Wireless controllers connection issues

This is just based on the NYT article though, it sure makes it sounds pretty bad.
 
22psi said:
These articles are very harsh.
Click to expand...

But true. An avid computer user or someone tech savy can forgive issues for a lunch product, but they make the point clear that paying all that money for what this currently gives simply is not worth it for the average user or for someone who thinks that going from their PS2 to a PS3 with all the added bells and whistles will be as friendly, and frankly i dont see how anyone can disagree. Short of using it as a stand-alone BR player its currently doing nothing groundbreaking for the console world, except for having one of the worst launches in the history of consoles in terms of availability. It needs time to mature.

I would of been more confused had it gotten a GOOD review for a lunch console, especially a rushed one.
 
scooby_dooby said:
This is just based on the NYT article though, it sure makes it sounds pretty bad.
Click to expand...

That seems to be the point of the article :rolleyes: If you just focus on flaws anything may seem 'horrible' - and let's remember that complaints are often heard louder than praise - but from what I've heard and read I don't think that's a fair descriptor. I haven't used it yet, so my own judgement is reserved for now, but that's just from what I know of it through others.

If the NYT article focusses predominantly on negatives, it's somewhat understandable given that it's just some journalist listening to what others have to say (not to mention people who stir controversy for a living aka bloggers), and people will speak most loudly about what ticks them off. But we don't have to be so naive here on B3D..if you have a genuine interest in the system and have been following things, none of what's in the article should be new - and neither should the things that it would seem one should be very happy about (yes, even relative to what other systems offer).

SugarCoat said:
But true.
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In a given context? I doubt it'll ring true to me, whatever about the 'average consumer'. I'm pretty sure I'll be very happy with the value I'll be getting out of it given what I'm looking forward to using it for. So that's a rather subjective thing..
 
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Titanio said:
In a given context? I doubt it'll ring true to me, whatever about the 'average consumer'. I'm pretty sure I'll be very happy with the value I'll be getting out of it given what I'm looking forward to using it for. So that's a rather subjective thing..
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Exactly, and most people are going to expect more of the same great innovation. All they're criticizing is that its not doing squat right now which is true. I dont see how anyone could recommend it as a gaming console right now even IF they could find one and not get ripped off. Does it have value as a BR player? Absolutly. Does it, in its current form, belong on the entertainment center shelves of hundreds of millions of peoples homes like the PS2, no.

If i was writing those peices though i would of made a point to mention that i'd go back for round 2 six months from now to see how its shaping up because many things will infact improve. I think the offensiveness most people here are taking is they're reading it like its a final review of the system.
 
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scooby_dooby said:
Like what? I'm talking about:

- No streaming of music between dashboard and games (major drawback imo)
- Slow webpage like browsing of the online store
- No communicating with other people while in game
- No resuming downloads, or downloads in background
- Different friends list for every game
- Bad text messaging system
- Wireless controllers connection issues

This is just based on the NYT article though, it sure makes it sounds pretty bad.
Click to expand...

Streaming of music is supported on a per game basis -- Never been an issue for me, to be honest. So I don't exactly consider it something I need. Others may have issue with it though, so who knows. Non-issue.

The online store wasn't slow -- it is a webpage though, from what I can tell, so if it's getting hammered (like at launch) you'll feel it. Even still (on launch day), it didn't feel any slower to load than 360's marketplace. Non-issue.

Communicating with other people while in game will be something that'll in a new firmware, no doubt, and I do consider that a bit of an issue at this point. Issue.

Downloading stuff is similar to how it original was on 360 (except for the continuing) -- I imagine this'll be updated to how it acts on the 360... at least I hope (another thing I agree is sort of lame at this point). Issue.

Different friends list for every game? That's not exactly true -- it's just that way for Resistance because, sadly, Sony was a bit slow to get online stuff to developers for launch titles. There is a unified login -- games should be able to read the friends lists of the OS (because it's all the same information), but I imagine Insomniac wasn't given the Libs to do it in time. Non-issue.

Text messaging system is actually rather nice -- if you've used a phone with T9 you'll probably appreciate it. I found it faster than the onscreen qwerty board that 360 provides (not much though, neither compare to a real keyboadr). Non-issue.

Wireless controller connecting issue seems like a non issue to me. It's only upon the first boot-up of the any given PS3 system (so you'll need to do it a whopping one time ever). If you buy a new controller or bring one to your friends you hit the PS button and it's linked (faster than the 360's controller linking, by far, actually). Extreme Non-issue.

The two issues I was talking about was basic UI design though (having only read the "clunky" part I figured it was talking about basic UI design) -- the two problems I was speaking of were cluttered screenspace and the need to switch screens so often to get places (instead of almost everything being in sight at once). But that's down to personal preference and I suppose doesn't matter, because it isn't what NYT was talking about, apparently.

PS: Thanks for posting the entire article, btw!
 
The NYT article is straightforward.
They were very profesional in giving their critique on the system.
They presented their views quite eloquently and supported it with their first-hand experience with the machine.
They have journalistic integrity, and I applaud them for it.


The article from TIME Magazine is quite the opposite.
It's a far cry from being called profesional.
I have honestly seen better writing from f*****s that post in B3D against the PS3 than that posted article.
Specially coming from a magazine with a very respectable pedigree,
I'm quite apalled that an article of this calibre, shrewdly leaked out of their site.
 
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