A litle rant, off topic console

[Tap In]

Right now the hottest games on the PS3 are racers, FPS, and sports games. These are the same genres that people complained about on the Xbox.

agreed.

apart from a few titles here and there both systems this gen will have pretty much the same type of content.

that OLD "Xbox gamer" persona is dead and gone with Xbox1.

Both systems are/will be very diverse this gen. To perpetuate that they will not is to have not read the development lists of both consoles.

 

[Dr. Nick]

As for FPS I would blame PC like parts being on both systems for this. FPS creators seem to like both systems for the GPUs kind of like the Xbox 1 with the exception of X86. If Sony had chose to do thier own thing I think PC devs would have a very different opinion of the system.

Back on topic I look forward to playing the JRPGs coming to the Xbox 360. JRPGs are really the only thing from Japan that the Xbox 1 lacked that I really wanted.

 

[Nesh]

As for FPS I would blame PC like parts being on both systems for this. FPS creators seem to like both systems for the GPUs kind of like the Xbox 1 with the exception of X86. If Sony had chose to do thier own thing I think PC devs would have a very different opinion of the system.

Back on topic I look forward to playing the JRPGs coming to the Xbox 360. JRPGs are really the only thing from Japan that the Xbox 1 lacked that I really wanted.

PC devs would have hated it I am sure

And the PS3 would have gotten less support from them.

 

[Deepak]

I shudder to think of a PS1 FPS , are there any btw? Can't remember any of the top of my head. PS2 wasn't so hot for FPS either. So I think it's only logical PS3 would have more, since it's actually capable of, you know, running them decently.

I played Medal of Honour Series and Quake II on PS1 and they rocked.

 

[crazygambit]

agreed.

apart from a few titles here and there both systems this gen will have pretty much the same type of content.

that OLD "Xbox gamer" persona is dead and gone with Xbox1.

Both systems are/will be very diverse this gen. To perpetuate that they will not is to have not read the development lists of both consoles.

I kind of agree with this, although I'm not terribly sure yet about the 360. It's probably because it's only been out a year. What I think it's most important though is the perception of people on this issue. Do people perceive the 360 as having/getting in the future the same content variety as say something like the PS2? I don't think it's quite there yet in terms of public perception (and at the end of the day that's all that matters) even if they've actually managed to even the field.

 

[Graham]

A new interface you say??? That I didn't know! That's excellent news, I went out to try and find a couple screens, it looks pretty nice:

the new media centre uses a custom variant of WPF for it's UI interface (with features removed, eg 3D, and features added, eg easier transitions), so it's all XML UI being transmitted, whereas previously, from what I can remember, the UI was sent as a video stream with the old version. So the 360 basically has partial support for WPF

It means the MCE mode when running via vista is very, very smooth. I was quite impressed how well it worked.


The problem with graphics is that everything is a gradual improvement. You don't get the massive jumps in visuals you saw in the old days, simply because it's harder to exploit the systems full potential (since there is so much more to exploit). And once you are seeing that system really shine, boom, the next one arrives.

And art too..

Look back at PGR1, or Halo1, and they look quite average today from a technical standpoint. They look somewhat dated. However their art style and art quality is comparable to PGR3 or what we have seen of Halo3, it's simply the technical side is leaps and bounds ahead.


At the end of the day, I don't care too much if a game doesn't look as good as gears. Just that it doesn't have any annoying visual flaws (TDUs backwards reflections!!! argh). I'm more interested in the experience. The other night, I started talking to some fella from england (while driving about in TDU). Long story short I eventually realised it was 5am, I'd been talking nearly 4 hours. About all sorts of stuff. The graphics didn't mean a thing during that time (although they were very pretty at times

 

[oi]

I shudder to think of a PS1 FPS , are there any btw? Can't remember any of the top of my head. PS2 wasn't so hot for FPS either. So I think it's only logical PS3 would have more, since it's actually capable of, you know, running them decently.

Alien Trilogy on the PS1 ruled! And to keep it that way, I have absolutely no intentions whatsoever to dig up any screenshots of how horrible it most likely looked. :smile:

 

[pakotlar]

Hey guys, just a brief update. I got sick this weekend, and had to stay in on sat and sun. I basically spent the whole time playing X360. My god is it addicting. If I knew it was going to be like this I would've gotten it sooner FN3 demo I've been having a blast with, and PGR3 is an amazing looking game. Once you get past the aliasing, you release how absolutely close to photorealistic it looks (or at least how much closer we are getting).

On another note, I just hooked up my system to my FW900 and 5.1 surround sound system. WOW what an improvement over my mom's 1907FP. Looks stunning. The only thing that I'm dissapointed with is that there is pretty poor resolution support for this monitor. 1080P does not work (crops, has artifacting on left side of screen) and games do not automatically scale. Also there is no 16:10 resolution. So basically I am using 1360*768 in a psuedo 16:9 window. Doesn't look very bad, just the small black bars on the top and bottom. But I do miss automatic scaling with HD movies. Oh well, not a huge deal.

Oh and Geometry Wars is intense Better than the ripoff on PC, graphics wise.

Oh and one more thing. Lost Planet looks and feels absolutely stunning. I have to say that with the extra screen real estate I get a much better look at the graphics. And this monitor is amazing for games. I am much more appreciative of how good the games look now. IMO Lost Planet is even more stunning than GOW (from the 720P gameplay trailer I saw), and is a very cinematic experience (reminds me of RE4). The first time you step into that cave (anyone whose played the demo knows what I'm talking about) you are in for a treat.

 

[Darkon]

Alien Trilogy on the PS1 ruled! And to keep it that way, I have absolutely no intentions whatsoever to dig up any screenshots of how horrible it most likely looked. :smile:

Don´t forget Lifeforce Tenka

 

[swanlee]

"XB360's MCE is only of use if you have a (Media) PC,"

I'm streaming videos wirelessly to my 360 by just using WMP11 which is free.

I can stream the 1080P trailer for Alexander in perfect quality 5.1 sound and display the full 1080P image on my 42 inch 1080P LCD without a single stutter wirelessly. That to me was the ultimate test and it worked perfectly.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

"XB360's MCE is only of use if you have a (Media) PC,"

A number of people seem to have issed the Media being in brackets. I didn't mean an MCE PC, but a PC to feed media. XB360 doesn't work as a standalone box. For a lot of technical people which likely includes the early adopters and innovators for XB360, their ordinary PC probably fits the bill. For most folks, it becomes a lot more doubtful. My PC certainly isn't up to the job. It also adds complexity to the media functions, in that you need a network, the other PC to be on, and if you use the PC for more than just media servings, you have the aggro of running an OS that eventually cludges up.

As a single box, PS3 seems poised to be the only real one-box solution, if all the promised and expected functions make it. In the total package department, PS3 is less relient on outside hardware. It'll be a unit that offers HD movies, TiVo, download content, music playback of most formats, communications with video, audio and text messaging, and internet browsing. Oh, and games . I agree with paklotar that PS3 hasn't caught up with the total package yet, but the prospects to supercede XB360 in that department and high, IMO.

 

[mrcorbo]

A number of people seem to have issed the Media being in brackets. I didn't mean an MCE PC, but a PC to feed media. XB360 doesn't work as a standalone box. For a lot of technical people which likely includes the early adopters and innovators for XB360, their ordinary PC probably fits the bill. For most folks, it becomes a lot more doubtful. My PC certainly isn't up to the job. It also adds complexity to the media functions, in that you need a network, the other PC to be on, and if you use the PC for more than just media servings, you have the aggro of running an OS that eventually cludges up.

As a single box, PS3 seems poised to be the only real one-box solution, if all the promised and expected functions make it. In the total package department, PS3 is less relient on outside hardware. It'll be a unit that offers HD movies, TiVo, download content, music playback of most formats, communications with video, audio and text messaging, and internet browsing. Oh, and games . I agree with paklotar that PS3 hasn't caught up with the total package yet, but the prospects to supercede XB360 in that department and high, IMO.

I understand the spirit of what you are saying, but in practice it sounds better than it really is. PS3 is NOT an adequate replacement for a media PC. It's just too limited. No ability to archive by burning to media. No ability to rip DVDs. This just off the top of my head.

The PS3's ability to playback many different types of media is certainly a plus, but minus a PC to acquire a lot of that media it is a lot less useful. And if you have the PC anyway....

 

[scooby_dooby]

It'll be a unit that offers HD movies, TiVo, download content, music playback of most formats, communications with video, audio and text messaging, and internet browsing. Oh, and games . I agree with paklotar that PS3 hasn't caught up with the total package yet, but the prospects to supercede XB360 in that department and high, IMO.

Not sure what you are referring to, other the the possiblity of TiVO like support, x360 matches all those features currently. You can already download HD and SD television programming for 360, music downloads are definately on the way, video/text/audio messaging is there. I guess there's internet browsing as well...

Basically the only thing it brings to the table as a standalone is internet browsing, TiVO functionality would require the pirchase of a much larger HDD as well as an external HW encoder w/ built-in tuner (CELL can't handle the encoding if it's supposed to be running game code, and it won't be a very effective PVR if it can't record things while you're playing games.) so you're not really talking all-in-one standalone box at that point.

 

[pakotlar]

Yeah scooby, but the PS3 does have (as far as I know) an easy mechanism for connecting larger hard drives and allowing full functionality. So I can see shifty's point there. Yeah, but neither systems are really that practical for DVR, at least until we get a firmware that provides a nice TV recording front end, and accessory updates (at least for x360) that give us larger hard drives. But if you're planning on recording HD content, its a waste unless you're encoding in something like VC-1. I'm not sure how Comcast DVR HD works, but I'm pretty sure it just captures a MPEG-2 stream. I bet X360/PS3 would be powerful enough for real time encoding with a little work. Any thoughts?

 

[scooby_dooby]

Yeah scooby, but the PS3 does have (as far as I know) an easy mechanism for connecting larger hard drives and allowing full functionality. So I can see shifty's point there.

Both systems will have upgradeable HDD's, PS3's will be cheaper than the 360 first party HDD, but that's just a cost difference, not functionality.

Yeah, but neither systems are really that practical for DVR, at least until we get a firmware that provides a nice TV recording front end, and accessory updates (at least for x360) that give us larger hard drives. But if you're planning on recording HD content, its a waste unless you're encoding in something like VC-1. I'm not sure how Comcast DVR HD works, but I'm pretty sure it just captures a MPEG-2 stream. I bet X360/PS3 would be powerful enough for real time encoding with a little work. Any thoughts?

Like I say, the encoding will have to be done by an external device for it to be an effective DVR. There's no point in having a DVR if it can only record stuff while you're not playing games, the functionality would be completely gimped.

I'm sure both systems could encode video on the fly, but I can't see how they'll be able to do it while running a game.

btw: MS already has the TV front end built into 360 using Vista and MC Extender. Full TV guide, browse, scheduling etc etc, I use it daily.

 

[scooby_dooby]

the new media centre uses a custom variant of WPF for it's UI interface (with features removed, eg 3D, and features added, eg easier transitions), so it's all XML UI being transmitted, whereas previously, from what I can remember, the UI was sent as a video stream with the old version. So the 360 basically has partial support for WPF

That's excellent, my main complaint was the general slowness of the interface. I hope they've added better sorting options, as well as a 'list' view. Some skins would also be nice...

 

[expletive]

As a single box, PS3 seems poised to be the only real one-box solution, if all the promised and expected functions make it. In the total package department, PS3 is less relient on outside hardware. It'll be a unit that offers HD movies, TiVo, download content, music playback of most formats, communications with video, audio and text messaging, and internet browsing. Oh, and games . I agree with paklotar that PS3 hasn't caught up with the total package yet, but the prospects to supercede XB360 in that department and high, IMO.

With the exception of a larger hard drive, at the moment, i'm not sure i understand how the PS3 is better 'equipped' to do these things than a 360?

 

[superNoid]

Graphics matter a lot to me, but as does the entire package. The 360 is far and wide the best console experience I have ever had and I've been gaming since 1984. I seriously cannot think of another system and is so useful, complete and near perfection.

I was an avid pc gamer for 15 years, and the 360 has single handily stolen my heart. I havn't touched any pc games in months, and its funny because the same thing has occured to about 5 co-workers.

360. To those who do not own one, one day you'll understand. When you buy one.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

With the exception of a larger hard drive, at the moment, i'm not sure i understand how the PS3 is better 'equipped' to do these things than a 360?

Well, as things move on, technically not a lot. At this point most of what's missing in either platform can be made up for in software, and XB360 isn't dependent on an external machine as seemed more the case at launch. What has struck me is Sony's support of the iTunes format, which is quite a big deal I think. But then PS3 won't support the MS formats. I'd say Sony are in a better position to support alternative formats though, because they don't have a software codec agenda. MS obviously want to promote their own standards. WMV is a given, but are they ever likely to let you watch QuickTime movies?

Also PS3's more open support of peripherals is quite the plus-point I think. How do you read a MemoryStick on XB360? Do they have a MemStick reader peripheral? The included card slots in PS3's Supremo model make it a better device in that respect, and on the cheaper side, in theory I guess you can chuck in any USB card reader.

Like I say, the encoding will have to be done by an external device for it to be an effective DVR. There's no point in having a DVR if it can only record stuff while you're not playing games, the functionality would be completely gimped.

Isn't that what a reserved SPE is supposed to do? It needn't encode to MPEG2 or VC-1, but could use a proprietary compression that fits neatly into the SPE, and which can be converted for export if wanted. Given DRM, I wouldn't be surprised if that was frowned upon. Recording HD content off TV and being able to rip it and burn it and distribute it, much as we consumers want to do that, is something the content providers want to stop.

 

[mrcorbo]

Also PS3's more open support of peripherals is quite the plus-point I think. How do you read a MemoryStick on XB360? Do they have a MemStick reader peripheral? The included card slots in PS3's Supremo model make it a better device in that respect, and on the cheaper side, in theory I guess you can chuck in any USB card reader.

A memory card reader or just connect the device that normally hosts the storage device (camera, mp3 player, etc.) via USB. That seems to be the most convenient way. Is there any reason people prefer to remove the storage media from the original device and plug it into the second device instead providing both options are available?

Isn't that what a reserved SPE is supposed to do? It needn't encode to MPEG2 or VC-1, but could use a proprietary compression that fits neatly into the SPE, and which can be converted for export if wanted. Given DRM, I wouldn't be surprised if that was frowned upon. Recording HD content off TV and being able to rip it and burn it and distribute it, much as we consumers want to do that, is something the content providers want to stop.

If the GameOS is going to be managing all this in the background all the time it's no wonder Phil Harrison is saying that devs will never be able to utilize the PS3 to 100%.