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feature :: dissecta - playstation 3

Dissecta - Playstation 3

Dissecta is a Melbourne based series of game industry events. Samo attended their Playstation 3 event, where Adrian Christie, SCE's Public Relations Manager gave a guided tour of the PLAYSTATION 3.


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Last month I attended an event put together by Dissecta, a Melbourne based community who runs events designed to get game fans and game makers together to see and hear all about the latest happenings in the computer game industry. The event I went to was a free event with the offer of chips and more importantly, beer. I’d also heard that Sony was going to have some of its beautiful 1080p screens set up, so naturally, I couldn’t resist. There was also this other natty little device there; I think they were calling it a ‘Playstation 3’ or something.



The PR Manager for Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, Adrian Christie was kind enough to swing through the Academy of Interactive Entertainment in Melbourne where the event was held with 3 monster 1080p screens hooked via HDMI to 3 freshly minted Playstation 3 consoles. Being a PR guy, he had some PR stuff for us, so before the beer could be accessed, we were asked to sit down and have a listen to said PR stuff. Now you’d think being held off from beer would be something to lament, but as soon as Adrian switched on the shiny black box/elliptical thing at the front of the room, the thought of beer was quickly put on ice. For most of us, me included, this was our first time up close and personal with Sony’s much-maligned console, this was our chance to create our own impressions of it first hand.

My first impressions of the console were much the same as the PSP, although with a slightly different result. I like the design of the PSP interface but I hate the implementation. It’s all fiddly and somehow ungainly. Now that I’ve seen it on the PS3 though, I’m beginning to think that my criticism should be aimed more at the device rather than the software because it seems to work very well on a big screen with a comfortable controller that we all know and love. Is it as good as the xbox 360 dashboard? Hard to say really, I do wish I’d had a touch more time to explore it but first impressions are positive, which is encouraging. Podcasting capability is certainly a big feather in the PS3’s cap and Adrian had a podcast pre-downloaded to his PS3. Of course it was the best random conversation that vaguely resembles intelligent gaming discussion, AustralianGamer, which was met by rapturous cheering and applause from our forum members and friends from tehw00tshow who were at the back of the room.



Adrian had a few devices handy to demonstrate how good the PS3’s device compatibility is and it was all quite impressive. All devices were very smooth and very fast, the Cell processor really came into its own here, reading thumbnail libraries in less than an instant. I was suitably impressed. He also had a 1080p version of the 300 trailer, which at that point I still hadn’t seen and it was again, impressive. The sharpness and the quality of the 1080p HDMI output is just stunning, there’s no doubt the screen helped play a big part in the wow factor but we know what the PS3 is capable of: great things.

As a rabid Gran Turismo fan, I was delighted that Adrian had GT:HD downloaded and handy for use in his demo. Unfortunately, I came away with mixed feelings about it. GT has always been on the sharpest of the sharp edges for graphical realism, but I felt GT:HD was a bit off. It seemed too much like GT4 with a few more polys and higher res textures. Still, the changing sky effect and the finer details on the cars were welcome, as is the addition of the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. Maybe I’ve been living under a rock for the last 6 months but this was something that completely snuck in under my radar. Polyphony has finally licensed Ferrari, HUZZAH!!

After Adrian had concluded the PR stuff the drinks were served and we, the great unwashed, were set free to put our grubby mitts all over the shiny PS3s which were demonstrating Motorstorm, Ridge Racer and Resitance: Fall of Man. Unfortunately, after such a great technical showing, this is where the PS3 fell over. Motorstorm looked nice enough running in 720p, but it really is just an el-cheapo throwaway game. The sort of game that if it was released mid cycle, maybe one or two people would buy it then they’d try to sell it on eBay for 9 bucks just to get something back for the hours it stole from their life. After playing it, I truly feel that the only reason it’s generating any form of hype at all is simply the fact that it is a PS3 release game, nothing more. But we’ll leave any real opinions for the full review. On the upside, Resistance looks like an excellent launch game. It’s no console seller by any means, but it does seem like a solid, above average shooter that would be worthy of a release purchase. Ridge Racer was, well, Ridge Racer and the beer was VB.



All in all, Dissecta ran a superb event. Adrian stuck around after to have a chat, a beer and he answered all our questions. There was plenty of time to sample the PS3 after the presentation and a great friendly atmosphere to mingle with like-minded people. If you’re in Melbourne and are interested in what Dissecta does or attending their next event, you can check them out at www.dissecta.com.

So, the PS3 then. Admittedly, I have been the type to scour the net and other media channels to find any scrap of bad news I possibly can about it. A task that was far from difficult. I, like many others, loved my Playstation, adored my PS2 and when the media attacked the PS3 I was initially hurt. As time wore on I slowly came to a realisation that the PS3 would indeed be rubbish. The evening with the PS3 has allayed some of my doubts. The PS3 is indeed an amazing piece of hardware and I really don’t believe the software is as bad as the rest of the media seems to be painting it. If Sony continues to update it as much as they are and with the addition of Playstation Home, things may even be looking good. Does it really NEED a Blu-Ray drive though? Only time is going to answer that one.

The big question, has hands on time made me want one? The short answer is yes, I do now want a Playstation 3. Unfortunately there are two prohibitive factors preventing me from buying one. One is of course, cost. The other is the games library. The Playstation is a games console and while it may do other impressive stuff, I want to play games on a games console. Until Sony comes up with a game that makes me desire a PS3, then there’s no way I’ll be dropping a full GRAND on one. No, for a grand, there needs to be a rather large list of games that make me wet. Sure, Little Big Planet is just around the corner, but one game? Are they really serious about gaming? Maybe Sony could have forgotten about one or two features and concentrated on a decent launch game, because at the moment the line up is just far too thin. No, it’s not even thin, it’s practically non-existent. There is one conclusion that can be made from all this. There is little doubt that in the near future, the PS3 will be worth buying. How near that future is, at the moment, anyone’s guess.

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