-=DVF=- Gaming Community

PS3 is out.

And Manchester says

Awesome, had to go and have a look at that myself

Haha.

I'm sure http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/ would like that pic.

Send it them then

The pic was taken out side HMV in piccadilly stashon

Done

That website is a fantastic read and really cemented my hatred for Sony's console division.

Could have taken an almost identical pic to that one in Camberley this weekend. I was shocked to be honest - it was late afternoon and they had a sign saying they still had some left.

Well lads, I hate to say it but a terrible bout of spending - started in the bargain forums has resulted in me buying a PS3 (but for 300 quid) - for the reason Sony touted and I flamed.

Its by far the cheapest Blu Ray DVD player out there, I bought a shit hot massive TV bastard thing and DVD's just looked crapola on it - the PS3 is one hell of a HD media player.

Bundled with it came resistence (yes I've played Gears of War) - and I really really wanted to hate the gaming experience, but holy shit if it isnt fantastic.

That said, its the only good game.

Gary's mini Review:

Blu-Ray
Value for Money as a Blu Ray player 10/10
Quality of Blu Ray (hard to benchmark, but better quality than the 750 quid samsung 1080p)
Media Centre Options - 7/10 - better than Wii, but not brilliant still (for mp3's etc)

Cosmetics
Looks - 4/10 - its a brick with a stupidly shiny grease attracting sheen
Heat - 4/10 - runs hotter than the hottest thing in hot land
Weight - 4/10 - try carrying this for 4 miles with its shitty plastic handle
Presentation of Box 3/10 - really crappy quality manuals etc, too many flyers

Games Machine
PS3 - Remains to be seen Resistance is brill though
PS2 - backwards compatibility is a sham, The EU PS3 does not contain the emulation chip and does it badly in software (I've got Final Fantasy XII, being a fan, and its a nasty jagged , interlaced, skippy mess of an emulation)
PS1 - Havent tested.

Big Let Downs
No HDMI cable supplied, another 20 quid there - No DVD Remote bundled as planned , another 20 quid (I spent this, having bought it for blu-ray) - really cheap feeling controller (you have to hold it to believe how shitty it feels)
No Game Bundled, or demo even - said you got Casino Royale on Blu Ray for free when you buy it, but you have to register and then its only the first 450,000 - SCAM!

Big Pluses.
Blu Ray is incredible, for the Bond film anyway, really really crisp - like tape to CD and thinking how the hell did i not notice that noise before.
Miles cheaper than any other Blu Ray player of its calibre (1080p)
Plays all other media, out of the box - including some rare formats like ogg.
The Ability to create a secondary partition and use it as a Linux Box , as a supported configuration by Sony (yellow dog linux etc). Media centre tastic


Hereth ends my shocking defence of the PS3.

Hate to tell you this, but one of the HD consortiums have just sold the licenses for manufacture to the Chinese, so the market will soon be flooded with hidef players for tuppence ha'penny.

A quick google gives this: http://technabob.com/blog/tag/high-definition

Thats HD DVD not blu ray (not that that really matters)- , this kind of product does not interest me.

I mean seriously, they sell LCD tv's at Asda made from similar sources and no one says "Im buying that over an established brand" , because you know in 18 months its going to be in the bin.

For example, a "Durabrand" LCD 32" TV will set you back 150 quid, over the 300 quid closest competitior (the AOC) - I can't see anyone making a sensible decision to buy Durabrand, even if it is 150 quid cheaper , as the quality is terrible.

Now a PS3 has not got this quality issue, you know you are getting a Sony Blu Ray DVD Player for (in my case) 300 quid. It's unbeatable, no matter which continental factory decides to knock out poor quality gear (although China manufacturing quality is getting better, Walmart stocking decisions certainly aren't).

Is this fanboyism ?

That's not the point I was making though.
In the format wars, the most popular generally wins, irrespective of the capability of the device. See VHS, the IBM PC, Windows etc.

So - my point is that HDDVD might just have made a coup by getting millions of cheap HDDVD players on the market in advance of Blueray. HDDVD could be the winner in this format*





*Although my personal opinion is that this is yet another format too soon. We've seen it with DVD Audio and the Sony one. I'd bet that aside from geeks, most people don't give a crap about the extra resolution you get with the HD formats and in any case, we're moving away from physical media.
In fact, I read somewhere that the overwhelming majority of users didn't realise that their HD tellys weren't doing HD when they just plugged them into their normal broadcast supplier. I certainly know of at least 3 of my non-geek friends who think they have a better picture just by replacing their SD telly with an HD set and not changing the source at all.

Had my first go of a ps3 last week. The game looked great, some f1 type game. The joypad however, what a bunch of wank that is. Felt like a cheap 3rd party knock off, cheap and tacky and hollow. Would be well miffed if I bought one for 500 quid with some games and had to play using that.

Firstly Jamie, I can't agree more on that front (I mentioned it in the bad points above). I have to admit to being even more impressed with the console now though, after playing a couple more games - Motorstorm in particular is just brilliant (and I hate driving games)

Woz wrote: I'd bet that aside from geeks, most people don't give a crap about the extra resolution you get with the HD formats and in any case, we're moving away from physical media.

Now that's interesting to me, because the whole driver behind me getting the PS3 was Blu-ray. When I watch normal DVD's on my HD TV, or my cable box for that matter - it looks HORRIBLY, in fact unbearably blocky or grainy. I figured it was because the image was getting stretched so much or something..... I bought my new TV, got rid of the old and had nothing but crappy picture.

Blu-Ray DVD's have solved this when watching films, but I worry now that if I order HDTV its going to be crappy still.

Are you saying that normal stuff should play on my 37" without looking so bad? I keep repeating myself, but I thought conned when I bought the telly as the HD TV made regular broadcasts look miles worse.

I watched a few Blu-Ray movies on my friends PS3 and I have to say that my HD WMV trailers watched through my X360 were so much better quality.

I was REALLY VERY disappointed with the Blu Ray picture

Thats got to be down to the TV surely?

I was expecting a huge difference between Blu-Ray and HD due to the extra space, but saw nothing , either in bitrate or noticable quality between the 2 of them.

DE-G@vnor wrote:Thats got to be down to the TV surely?

No, they were both playing on my Panasonic 42PX60 - XBox was much better - Blu Ray was comparable to watching my upscaling DVD Player from Aldi.

Hmm you have me worried that I've made the wrong technology choice between HD and Blu Ray now (PS3 aside, remember that the DVD player was the buying decision).

Thing is, I've watched March of the Penguins, which for me isnt a showcase of HD /Blu Ray as its filmed in the arctic with real life setting - not a CGI fest. Other than that I've watched Closer - which looked brilliant, but seemed a bit jerky on pan scans.

Now, my question is - which titles are available on both HD and Blu-Ray ? I can probably still get a decent amount for my PS3 (considering how little I paid) - but only feel a comparison between identical source material would be fair.

Things that I love about Blu Ray so far, are the menu system and instant loading times for scenes - so thats not too serious a thing to give up for HD-DVD format.

HD DVD is dropped so I picked a winner - do I win a prize Woz? Or can I have a "Woz is wrong" stifficate?

DE-G@vnor wrote:HD DVD is dropped so I picked a winner - do I win a prize Woz? Or can I have a "Woz is wrong" stifficate?

God I wish you were wrong.

I hate Sony with a passion reserved only for people who don't thank me when I let them pull out at junctions.