Weakness
December 04 2008 12:01 Filed in: Games
I bought a Playstation 3. This is something that I've
have sworn I would not do for a long time. I've
always thought that Sony went the wrong direction
with that one by setting too high a price and
throwing in too many features. They want to edge the
game system over into the realm of general home
entertainment system so they have stuck everything
and the kitchen sink into it. It's trying to be the
end all be all of entertainment systems when most of
that stuff, at least in my case, is just totally
unnecessary. Just make a good game system.
So two things finally dragged me in. One is Wipeout HD. I love Wipeout. More specifically I love the old Wipeouts and XL in particular. The PSP version was nice, but I didn't enjoy playing it on the PSP so much, cramped hands and all. HD however, is fantastic. It's a downloadable game for ¥1800 ($20) and took maybe 20 minutes total to download and install. It may not be graphically up to par with a lot of other modern games, but it's still pretty. (EDIT: Having seen all of the tracks now, I revise this opinion. It's very pretty.) They've basically taken various tracks from previous games and given them all a facelift. Game runs in 1080p with a nice high framerate. Big win.
The other is Little Big Planet. I'd seen gameplay movies for a long time, and the graphics were always the standout. A very solid, physical game. My wife and I have played through the first four or five levels together now, and it definitely shines as a multiplayer game. The mechanics of the game are not all that complicated. Sort of a Mario type thing, but with more emphasis on finding stuff hidden around the level. No clock or any pressure to progress, so you end up just kind of wandering around playing with things and exploring. It's a nice pace. It is possible to die too many times and get bumped out of the level, so the element of danger is there. The style of the game is very creative. It actually seems like the makers of this game enjoyed the process of making it. Colorful and fun. Big win.
I still think the PS3 is burdened with too many features. Maybe there will be a video I will download someday, but I can't see me hooking the PSP up to it, or installing Linux on it, or using it as a music player. I have other devices that do all of that jazz better. But, it is a quality piece of hardware. In general it seems like a better build than my (now RRODed) XBox 360. I could never use that thing for movies because it was too loud. Fans and disc spinning. The PS3 is very quiet on the other hand. I like it. Ya, I'll give it a whirl.
So two things finally dragged me in. One is Wipeout HD. I love Wipeout. More specifically I love the old Wipeouts and XL in particular. The PSP version was nice, but I didn't enjoy playing it on the PSP so much, cramped hands and all. HD however, is fantastic. It's a downloadable game for ¥1800 ($20) and took maybe 20 minutes total to download and install. It may not be graphically up to par with a lot of other modern games, but it's still pretty. (EDIT: Having seen all of the tracks now, I revise this opinion. It's very pretty.) They've basically taken various tracks from previous games and given them all a facelift. Game runs in 1080p with a nice high framerate. Big win.
The other is Little Big Planet. I'd seen gameplay movies for a long time, and the graphics were always the standout. A very solid, physical game. My wife and I have played through the first four or five levels together now, and it definitely shines as a multiplayer game. The mechanics of the game are not all that complicated. Sort of a Mario type thing, but with more emphasis on finding stuff hidden around the level. No clock or any pressure to progress, so you end up just kind of wandering around playing with things and exploring. It's a nice pace. It is possible to die too many times and get bumped out of the level, so the element of danger is there. The style of the game is very creative. It actually seems like the makers of this game enjoyed the process of making it. Colorful and fun. Big win.
I still think the PS3 is burdened with too many features. Maybe there will be a video I will download someday, but I can't see me hooking the PSP up to it, or installing Linux on it, or using it as a music player. I have other devices that do all of that jazz better. But, it is a quality piece of hardware. In general it seems like a better build than my (now RRODed) XBox 360. I could never use that thing for movies because it was too loud. Fans and disc spinning. The PS3 is very quiet on the other hand. I like it. Ya, I'll give it a whirl.