PS3 Not a waste of money but no return yet

Like I did in my review of the Wii I will forgo the tech talk and concentrate on the first impressions and initial gaming experience. Short answer. Overall not a waste of money but no return yet.

(*** Please read all the way through for the Post GTA 4 Updates. ***)

Lets face it the Sony PS3 was hyped big time. And maybe they just could not quite get it up to that hype fast enough. Now Sony is seeing the pitfalls of a system that may be "all that" but who can tell?

We got this about 3 weeks after we bought the Wii because my wife just really wanted to play The Darkness and I wanted to see what the graphics were like. Originally I was waiting for the new GTA to come out but its been pushed back so many times I decided why bother? And that may be the big stumbling block for the PS3. But more on that in a moment.

I usually start first impressions with the opening of the box but this time Im going to start with picking it up at the store. Literally. Picking up the box was a big shock. This thing is heavy. Really heavy. I was really not ready for it and had to set it down and readjust my grip on the, thankfully, sturdy handle that's basically imbedded in the box. Shock aside I did manage to lug the thing home and opened it up.

Set up was straight forward. All the connectors are self explanatory with one notable exception I will touch on in a moment. In a matter of 2 to 3 minutes I had everything set up. Then 10 minutes later I had to start over again. The cheap Ikea cabinet I have for a TV stand was just not up to the task of holding that beast and the shelf was threatening to give way under it. No joke. The plastic pins that held up the shelf were actually starting to bend out of the holes in the sides of the cabinet. Make sure you have a well made cabinet before dropping this thing in. In retrospect Im glad I was forced to bring it up to the top of the cabinet because it heats up a lot and Im just not so sure about its safety in a small closed space. Maybe Im paranoid but after dropping a big chunk of cash, why take chances?

The one thing that did cause us some set up issues was the controller. My wife and I plugged it in and immediately began to complain about how short the cord was for it and how were we supposed to play from 3 feet away from the TV. It was only after going deep into the instruction book that we realized it was wireless and the cord was just to charge it. Dooh! Sony please make these things clear so your more technically challenged consumers wont have to feel like idiots.

So on to the software side of the configurations. As with the Wii there was a fair bit of configuration setup that needed to be done before you could play a game but it went faster than the Wii so we were happy. For a minute. When we popped in the first game. Wham! System update required. Downloading. After several minutes (Maybe 5 to 10) the thing was actually ready to begin playing. Seriously is this just the way of the future? Configure this. Download update. Configure that. Well at least there are no annoying pop up warnings about wearing a PS3 strap. One small complaint. Our PS3 is still not on line because unlike the Wii the PS3 LAN is not wireless. Come on Sony you couldn't toss that in for us? We don't have a convenient way to run a wire from our router in the basement to the PS3 upstairs. This leaves us out of any online play for a wile until we get some aftermarket wireless adapter. More money. Ack!

So what about those PS3 graphics? I was not blown away by the graphics. Granted my TV is not a high def but still I expected them to be better than what I was seeing. The textures on the walls and doors were great but the people still looked kinda PS2 level, maybe with a bit more curve to them. Sorta smoother but not significantly better. But maybe that's just because the game maker has not caught up to the PS3s full potential. Which brings me to that stumbling block I mentioned earlier. Game makers take note.

This is the PS3 not the 360 or Wii. Make it Rock! At least visually. Im not a tech nut but the way Im hearing it this thing can blow the doors off any gaming system to date at least from a graphics standpoint. But will the game makers live up to it? Here is the problem as I see it. The games for this will take years to develop and well into the $10 million mark to produce and market. If the PS3 is so much greater I suspect the game makers might dumb most of their games down to be able to release them on both the PS3 and the 360. More of a market, more of chance to make back all that cash. But where does that leave our PS3 potential? With most of the big franchises going away from the exclusive deals they once had I suspect we may not see the PS3 potential being really pushed for a wile. This is just my speculation and only time will tell.

So what about the game play? This is the big "whatever" point. I really don't have anything to rave about. At least not yet. The gaming was smooth and there were no issues with freezing or crashing. Like I said the graphics in some ways were awesome and in others just so so. I was surprised to see so many load screens but then I suspect that's just this game. Maybe when the game makers figure out how to fully utilize the PS3 it will be less of an issue. Crossing fingers for GTA. I know that launch games are never up to spec with the potential of the machine but I really did want/expect more. All in all neither my wife nor I were "Wowed" by any aspect of the PS3. Except maybe the weight.

The controller does feel a bit flimsy. Especially with the lower trigger buttons. They extend past the main case and feel as if one good panic shot at the bad guy and the thing would break right off. Probably not but that's what it feels like. So far we have no games that utilize the 6 axis aspect of the controller but given that we have a Wii sitting right next to the PS3 I don't expect it to Wow me. It just does not seem to have the full potential for animated movement as the Wii has. I do hope to see it well utilized but I suspect it will come into play mostly for the racing and flying games. If that turnes out to be the case I may invest in a set of aftermarket controllers that have a more sturdy feel. I have seen that none of them have the 6 axis function (yet?) but if none of the games I like to play utilizes that then who cares?

All in all I hold out hope that the game makers will step up to the task of pushing this PS3 to its limits but so far its just a really cool looking replacement to my PS2. Nothing to rave about nothing to be disappointed in. As the coming months bring us bigger and better games I will add to my review. For now if you're wondering if your budget can afford this beast I would say hold off. Let some better games hit the market before going on the Top Raman diet for a few months. It will get better for the PS3 but its going to be a wile. Maybe a year or more before it really hits its stride. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: June 15, 2008
Well Grand Theft Auto (GTA) came out. I have finely finished the main story line and had a chance to really get in touch with the PS3’s full potential. OK maybe not its full potential but at least see what it can do.

Starting with the negative. The 6 axis function. Weak. GTA allows you to use this feature for driving, boating and flying. Now I have no means of discerning if the problems are due to pore programming by Rockstar or inherent to the 6 axis functionality but it simply was a total letdown. Early in the game you have the option to test the functionality of the 6 axis features and I of course gave it a try. The tutorial was fun to play but the controls were sloppy at best and down right non existent more often than not. As an example the motorcycles can be controlled by leaning with the controller left or right. At least in theory. In reality sometimes a small lean will cause a major turn and other times a large lean will have little or no effect on your direction. Adding to this problem is that in order to use the 6 axis function you have to calibrate the controller to a specific position and keep it in that position all the time. I played GTA for several hours in one sitting and in order to prevent arm cramping had to change positions often. If I had decided to use the 6 axis function this would have required that I re-calibrate the controller each time I changed positions. In the end I simply chose to leave the function off. No real loss the game was too good to be brought down but “Old School” controlling.

That’s it for the bad. The graphics were awesome. The PS3 can really do a number on the scenery. I have not seen the Xbox 360 version but from what I have heard on line it just failed to reach the level of texture and realism that the PS3 had. Maybe someone out there with both can give us a definitive answer on this.

Adding to the experience was the fact that the PS3 is capable of having so much going on at one time on the screen. In the past with the GTA games for the PS2 if you put too many cars in one place or had too much action and people on the screen there could be some frame issues. After really trying to get the PS3 to start failing by bringing many cars into the scene and blowing them all up I was unable to cause even a little frame rate issues. The PS3 has definitely lived up to the expectations in terms of processing prowess.

So much of the gaming experience in any game is based on total immersion into the environment. No story line or great game play will compensate fully if the gaming universe is bland and uninteresting. Many solutions in the past have required compromises to allow for great game play, detailed characters and interesting environmental elements. Often the solution was to limit the field of view for the player to a small but detailed area (Think Silent Hill with the fixed camera angles) or simply making the area your character can be in a confined area (Think Mortal Combat with the limited arena.) With GTA 4 on the PS3 those limits seemed to be gone entirely. The city was detailed as far as you could see. Multiple cars and a huge assortment of passers by on the streets could be seen at any time. Yes this is to the credit of Rockstar for creating a great gaming experience but they could not have created this full and truly impressive landscape without the PS3’s massive processing power.

My wife and I have just sat and wondered around the GTA 4 world like tourists taking in the “Big City” its just that detailed. This is truly what this was all about and has proven to me that if the gaming companies truly step up to the bat and push the PS3 to its very limits we will see games that not only give us great action but also please us with immersive environments. With GTA 4 come and gone, at least for me, I hope that someone out there will develop further games for just the PS3 platform that push it beyond what we have already seen and loved.

All that said I must admit that there are still only a few games for the PS3 that truly push it like GTA 4 and therefore my opinion stands still. If your budget is tight hold off on the PS3 purchase. I think we are still quite a bit away from the point where many great games will be coming out for the PS3. Maybe by Christmas we will see a change but I don’t see it just yet.