Australian Gamer Feature :: Playstation 3 Media Launch

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Playstation 3 Media Launch

Yug, Matt and Oracle attend the Australian Sony Playstation 3 Media Launch in Sydney and discuss their thoughts and impressions.

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On Thursday, 22nd of February, myself and Matt flew down to Sydney and joined Oracle to attend the Sony Playstation 3 Australian Media Launch. It’s basically Sony letting all the industry and media publications know that their system is on the way, and explaining to them why it’s awesome.

Having to wake-up at an unnatural hour in order to catch the flight, myself and Matt left Brisbane at 6am and arrived in Sydney at 8am, where we were greeted by the constantly strange and entertaining Oracle. The event itself started at 10:30am at the Sydney Theatre, and none of us knew where it was, so we decided to cruise back to Oracle house to prepare and get organised. Or in Matt’s case, sit around playing the PSP while Oracle and myself did all the work :)

Even though we had clear directions, Oracle still managed to get lost, plus the Queen Mary II had decided to pull into port while we were there, causing some major traffic hassles. Very inconsiderate of her.

We arrived to a foyer full of mostly industry and media people, none that we really recognised, with the exception of the PALGN boys James and Luke, Chad from Ubisoft, Hep from MyGen, and Peter from eGames. There were also plenty of assorted finger foods and drinks (yes, I had orange juice. 4 weeks and no booze, still going strong!) to keep us all happy until we needed to fill into the main auditorium.

When seated, the lights went down and Michael Ephraim (Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia) took to the main stage. He took us through the history of the Playstation and its evolution over the years, and talked a bit about the features of the Playstation 3.

The big news at this point was some of the Australian specific details that we hadn’t heard before. First, the system will retail for exactly $999.95 at launch. Of course, for most of us that figure will be closer to $1059.95, because honestly, you’re going to want cables other then the default AV provided out of the box (read all about our issues with that here). Also announced was that there will be over 30 games available for the Australian launch on March 23, and the first-party Sony titles will retail for $99.95. If you want another Sixaxis controller it will set you back $79.97, and for a Blu-Ray remote you’ll be looking at $49.95.

Also, the first 200,000 gamers who pick up the console and register it online will get a free copy of the James Bond flick Casino Royale, which is pretty cool. Lastly, Grand Turismo: HD will be available to all PS3 buyers as a free download from the Playstation Network in time for the Aussie launch.

Once Michael left the stage, we were introduced to Ted Price, the CEO of Insomniac, who took us through a tour of his game Resistance: Fall of Man. Explaining and showing why the game wouldn’t be able to work on any other system except the Playstation 3, he talked in length about the complex AI structure, the individual physics of every object in a level, and showcased some of the different weapons. His presentation was a highlight of the event, especially when he paused the game mid-action and flew around the scene, explaining how much was going on in the level.

After Ted, Adrian Christie (SCEA Public Relations Manager) took the stage to go through all the other features the Playstation 3 had to offer. Showing how easy it is to copy music, download images from memory sticks, making photo slide shows (which look surprisingly cool actually), renaming files, etc, he did a great job of explaining all these great features. The highlight of course was when he explained that you could even download podcasts to the Playstation 3, by showing the AustralianGamer.com podcast which he had downloaded earlier.

One of the cooler features included being able to wirelessly sync your PSP to the PS3 and access all the content, such as files and music. Handy if you’re too lazy to get out of bed to play your PS3.

Adrian finished up and two “celebrities” from the MTV Video Music Awards jumped up on stage to plug their shows and mention the fact that Sony is sponsoring the awards this year. Um, great, I guess. The real treat was shown after they left the stage however, when the curtains were raised to show the 58 piece Eminence Symphony Orchestra, all setup and ready to play two songs – one from Final Fantasy XII and another from Shadow of the Colossus. It was extremely entertaining and really finished the whole presentation on a high note (no pun intended).

When the lights came up, we were invited to get our hands dirty with a selection of the launch games. Although there were about 20 booths available where we could play, they were initially packed, but we didn’t really mind standing back for a bit and consuming massive amounts of the canapés that were on offer. None of us had any idea of what was in them, but that’s probably a good thing.

Although we’ve already had alot of hands on time with the Japanese versions of these games (read our Playstation 3 first impressions feature here), it was nice to see them all running at in all their high resolution glory. Most impressive for me personally was Gran Turismo HD, in which the backgrounds and car models looked significantly more impressive than the competition. Other playable games included Genji: Days of the Blade, F1 Championship Edition, Ridge Racer 7, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Virtual Fighter 5, Need for Speed Carbon, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Tony Hawk Project 8, F.E.A.R., Virtual Tennis 3, NBA 2K7, Blazing Angels, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, Call of Duty 3, Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as four of the downloadable games including Tekken: Dark Resurrection, Super Rub-a-Dub, Flow and Gran Turismo HD.

After the event we headed back to Oracles place to do a podcast with him and talk about the event in detail, which you can listen to here.

Oracle dropped us at the airport around 5:00pm, there were tears and gay goodbyes, and we promptly settled into some seats at the airport where our plane was delayed for 2 hours, eventually getting back into BrisVegas at around 8:00pm. We enjoyed our hectic little day trip, and we hope you did too.

Please don't forget, you can view all our the videos we took during our trip at the Official AustralianGamer.com YouTube Page here.

Oracle: After going to the Playstation 3 media press and partner conference launch I came out with slightly better thoughts than what I had walking in. I knew the hardware of the console would blow me away, this is one very sophisticated machine that is capable of performing the tasks we’ll need for many years to come. Some of my favourite features include the PSP connectivity by streaming movies, music and photos straight from the PS3 to your PSP. Or even the Internet browser, works fantastic and I love the tabbed browsing.

Although, I still think the game launch titles are a bit bland. Yes, we have another above average FPS title made especially for the PS3 and a fantastic racing game that looks unbelievably brilliant and does it without pumping a sweat from the PS3.. but we needed more to convince us to say ‘Hey! I’ll pick up this baby on launch day!’

This brings me to another topic which many people have been over and over again, the price. The PS3 will sell at a RRP of $999.95 and that’s a lot hard earned cash. I can easily see flatmates going 50/50 for it, or even hardcore gamers such as Yug going back to his bake bean for 2 weeks plan, but if you ask me.. give the PS3 6 months to a year before purchasing. By then Sony may have slashed the console price and brought out its $50 platinum titles.. but for now, I join all of you on our knees and hope for the best.

As for now, I’ll sit back and quietly enjoy my 360 and pretend to have fun with my Wii while I order my Big Mac through the Drive Thru at the Waterloo MacDonald’s in Sydney just so I can watch the automatic drink machine perform its magic again.

Matt: We've been long critical of the PS3. Its price, its performance, and Sony's marketing and overall attitude. The Playstation 3 media launch gave us a chance to really see the machine at its best, and basically for them to have a chance to change our minds.

Did they? No. Not really. My criticisms of the console remain the same. My opinion that Blu-ray is hurting more than it helps is still valid. My irritation that the console was delayed for four months here stands.

The fact is, though, I DO want one. I've had a PSP for more than a year, and have owned both a Playstation 1 and Playstation 2, which doesn't exactly put me into a rare category. The PSOne broke new ground for a home gaming console and that can't be disputed. The PS2 made gaming almost ubiquitous, not to mention giving us new ways of playing like SingStar, Guitar Hero, EyeToy and Buzz.

Will the PS3 blaze the same sort of trail? Will it change gaming to the same degree? Probably not. But over its lifespan it will get some absolutely killer exclusive titles, and really isn't that what it's all about?

Playstation 3 is going to be a hard sell for Sony. It's A THOUSAND DOLLARS. It's coming into a market that's chockers with competition, in the form of the cheap accessible fun of the Wii and the well established Xbox 360. Sony are making a big deal out of how teh orsm the power of the PS3 is, but gamers looking at Resistance: Fall of Man side by side with Gears of War or Lost Planet are going to be wondering where that extra $350 is going.

Fact is the PS3 has a higher performance ceiling. Later in its lifespan the PS3 will have games that pull ahead of the 360 in terms of graphics and features, but for now the launch titles aren't all stellar. Genji plays like Ninja Gaiden, but slow and clumsy. Motorstorm is impressive, but I worry how long it would be fun for, with all the tracks looking pretty much the same. Resistance actually looks pretty good, and I'm hoping we give that one more coverage. FEAR was embarrassingly bad. There are the usual F1 and racing games, though I personally thought GT:HD was surprisingly bland for its incredible real-time intro. If the graphics can be that good.. Why aren't they?

The Playstation 3 will hit its stride soon enough. Even as its most anticipated titles lose their exclusivity, there are still a solid bunch of them that will be must-haves. FFXIII, Devil May Cry 4 and Metal Gear Solid 4, to name just a few.

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