Australian Gamer Feature :: Playstation 3 First Impressions

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Playstation 3 First Impressions

This article will comprise of the first impressions of Yug, Matt, and Rob on a new imported Playstation 3

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While the Sony Playstation 3 has already been released in the U.S. and in Japan, we here in Australia are, as per usual, left waiting until next year before they hit our shores.

The upside to this of course is that by the time it finally does get released in Australia, we will have a fair indication of what the �must have� games will be, a lot of the initial software problems will be addressed with ready to download updates, and our selection of launch titles should be a lot more wide and varied.

The downside is that we want it now but we can�t have it. At least, the people who aren�t buying a Wii want one right now :)

With this in mind, we here at AustralianGamer.com managed to secure ourselves an imported Japanese Playstation 3 console. Pre-ordered and bought for around $900 Australian, it�s worth noting that you won�t have any power or game compatibility issues, as the only power cable required for the Playstation 3 is the same one that�s plugged into the back of your computer right now, and the Playstation 3 games are region free, meaning you can buy a game from anywhere and it will work on any system.

That�s not to say importing is recommended, as chasing up the warranty for the system would be quite difficult, and it�s worth nothing that although Playstation 3 games are region free, Playstation 1 and 2 games are not, and neither are DVD�s. So we couldn�t test any backwards compatibility or DVD player functionality I�m afraid.

We took the system around to the apartment of our good mate Rob from SpectreWorld.com.au. Mainly, because he has a lot of big shiny plasma and LCD screens for us to test things on :)

This article will comprise of the opinions of me (Yug), Matt, and Rob. If you have any questions which we have not addressed, or want more videos or photos of a certain element of the Playstation 3 that we didn�t cover, please hit us up in the forums and ask us there.

I also thought it funny and relevant to include an msn conversation that I, Matt and Rob had during the day in preparation for the Playstation 3 playtest that night. You can read it in the forums here. Also, don't forget you can view all our videos of the experience on our YouTube page

Out of the box

Yug: Well it only required a normal PC cable to power it, no big brick outside of it, which is cool � I guess. Although it does make the console itself very heavy and dense, maybe around about the same as an original Xbox.

Matt: I�m not joking when I say that it is very very shiny. It only seems to come with standard AV cables out of the box and a USB cable that doesn�t fit into anything.

Rob: Very big, bigger than the 360, if people in Japan complained about the size of the Xbox, it�s a wonder they are fine with the significantly larger Playstation 3.

At this point we realized what we sort of knew all along, that we wouldn�t be able to get any component cables for the Playstation 3 down at our local EB, and that we didn�t have access to a TV that accepted HDMI. So unfortunately we were left with the standard AV cables, which it�s important to note puts us in the same position as most people who bought a Playstation 3 expecting a high definition experience right out of the box.

Turning it On

Yug: Turning the Playstation 3 on requires pushing where the light is. There�s no real discernable �button� that clicks on or off with satisfaction. When the system did come on, there�s no loading screen, no logo, it just goes straight to the menu with a nice little musical intro piece.

Matt: Seriously, what�s with the Spiderman text? It isn't in widescreen; and there doesn't seem to be a way to switch to widescreen. It�s almost the exact same interface as the PSP, which might work there but not on the Playstation 3. Looks kind of... bland.

We had to stop again briefly while we tried to figure out how to actually get the controller to work. The controller itself is much much lighter than your standard Playstation 2 dual shock, and the only other noticeable difference is the L2 and R2 buttons are now soft triggers, feeling similar to a Dreamcast controller more than anything. The Japanese instruction manual doesn�t really help us figure any of this out, but eventually we figure out that to connect the wireless controller, you press and hold the �P� button in the middle of the controller. It�s a lot smaller then the Xbox 360�s middle button mind you, but you can still see where they got the idea from.

The Interface

Yug: It isn�t true widescreen, although this is probably just because we are using AV cables. What�s weird though is that we couldn�t find any options or settings that would allow us to manually change this. Display options only allowed you to change the video input style, not screen ratio options.

Matt: It might just be because this is a Japanese import, but the buttons are completely different. The circle button is �accept� for example. It takes a bit of getting used to. It�s cool how when you move over a game icon, the entire screen changes to be themed to that particular game, but it's very inconsistent. 1 game changed nothing, two changed the background, and the third had background AND loud music.

Rob: You can�t use the joysticks to navigate the menu system; you have to use the control pad. There doesn�t seem to be much user customization.

It�s also worth noting that we didn�t try at this point to connect online or to the online shop either. We had a bit of difficulty connecting the Playstation 3 to our wireless network, and since we were more interested with the games at this point, we figured we would leave it until later. It�s worth noting however, that my mate Simon had already connected the Playstation 3 to the net, and had downloaded the 4 demos which we proceeded to test.

Motor Storm

Yug: A really good solid feel to the cars, the control feels very tight, and the graphics look like they are rendered, not like they are just textured. The boost effects are a lot of fun, although crashes go for about as long as they do when you crash in Burnout, except you can�t �do� anything when you are watching the destruction.

Fire effects are a bit average, lens flare effect is nice, there�s a long curve along the side of a cliff edge that looks similar to one of the tracks in Excite Truck on the Wii, and that really emphasizes the difference in graphics between the Wii and PS3.

Matt: Sixaxes does nothing when leaning left and right (an option that needs to be turned on perhaps?). Cool soundtrack � Foo Fighters? You need to be able to skip the crash sequences, although the game is fun and fast. I worry about the lack of variety, since it seems to all be set in the desert. The truck feels slow and clumsy compared to the bike, which is too touchy; the dune buggy probably would have been a nice balance.

Actually getting the hang of it very quickly, the new triggers feel really good, probably the best thing about the controller. I really like them.

Rob: I chose the level with the bike, found the thumb stick is very difficult for fine movements, crashes are quite violent with the rider flying off the bike. Good fun, although I keep crashing too easily :)

Resistance Fall of Man

Yug: What is this, Call of Duty 3 but with a fancy sci-fi shield? Very harsh, easy to die, rushing doesn�t really work. Shotgun, some pulse rifle thingy, grenades, the usual fare. The only initial difference being a force field which is actually kinda cool. The L2 button, when tapped changes your weapon, but when held brings up a weapons selection screen. I ended up bringing up the weapons selection screen a lot by accident. Level detail is cool � plants, trees and smoke are nicely done. Textures seem pretty average though.

Matt: As an observer the change weapons pause screen is really jarring. Some of the weapons are interesting but intricate to get the hang of quickly. The WW2 with futuristic weapons is jarring, don�t really like it, I don�t think it works that well. Weapons are either old and crap or new and weird. Might help more if the atmosphere was in context, but the bad guys are just ugly. Don�t like the fact that you can�t have friendly fire, makes it stupid.

Actually, after playing it for a while by myself I started getting into it a bit more. Learning the weapons and stuff. I can see that some people would like it. NOT my sort of game. FPS on a console is teh ghey.

Rob: Don�t like L1 being shoot and L2 being �choose your weapon�. The bad guys� guns spray of bullets looks like the original needler from Halo. As an FPS, coming off Call of Duty 3 and Gears of War, it doesn�t have that �zing� or �zazz� that the other games have, that element that puts me on the edge of my seat. Having left trigger as duck and right trigger as weapons scroll feels counter intuitive. Wouldn�t you have the trigger as your main firing buttons?

F1 Championship Edition

Yug: It froze while �waiting for race completion� ??!

Matt: Graphics are nice and crisp, but it seems to have a bland flat feel to it, strangely common in racing games. Some really nice sheen effects on the car body, really looks like carbon fibre. Why is accelerator and brake NOT using the bottom triggers? Why does it use the x button or joysticks? The rain effect is really impressive. Looks very convincing and actually fills in the textures a fair bit.

No wonder you didn't suck at this you cheating shit! You've got autobraking on!

Rob: The car �floats� above the ground, quite noticeably, in some views it looks like it�s about a food above the ground, others about half that. The tires and suspension give NO movement on the ripple strip. Tires pick up debris from the kitty litter and grass, a nice effect. As an F1 fan the tracks are good representations of the real thing. Didn�t find it massively more enjoyable than F1 on the Xbox in 2002 though. Reflections on the cars themselves were nice though.

NBA 07

Yug: The crowd is individually rendered, with great movement. Don�t really know basketball games to know whether it�s that good or not (I loved NBA Jam back on the SNES, but that�s about it). The foot movement is quite good, but hardly the revolution Sony were going on about, as they still look like they are �floating� when you move them in different directions. A few nice slow motion dunking movies look cool.

Matt: X to �accept� for NBA 07. Shitloads of options. You can actually select which one of the characters to throw to, by holding down L2, which brings up a corresponding button above your team mates which you then press to throw it to them. Couldn�t figure out how to shoot for awhile, not initially intuitive. Also, I am partially colorblind, so the whole �green to shoot, red is too far� concept is shit.

I'm not great at sports games (or sports) but after playing this game for a while I found myself really enjoying it. I could certainly see the appeal, especially multi-player. (embarrassingly I couldn't remember instinctivly where the buttons were).

Rob: Dallas vs. Miami. Press the circle button to dunk, and then when it goes green you shoot to score. Not really a basketball fan though.

Verdict

Yug: I�m more impressed with it then I thought I would be, Motor Storm gave a good indication of how good the games can look graphically, although overall the entire interface feels too much like the PSP, which I�m not a fan of. I think there is potential, and I�m finally a bit excited about that, but it�s definitely not realized with the games we played.

Matt: Not as �next-gen� as I expected, I think the interface for the console is a real letdown. It's clumsy and kind of ugly, when you compare to the Xbox360 dash, especially. The games themselves are fun, but nothing we couldn't see on the 360 either. Personally I doubt anyone who wants one and buys one will be disappointed. Unless they expect HD, of course. :D Yug is a fag.

Rob: Overall I feel very disappointed with the Playstation 3 experience, from its initial user interface, to its general operation, I don�t feel it�s a console for the next generation, it�s more of a nice PC, which kind of makes it miss the point.

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