As a new PSP owner, I'm actually really, really disappointed with UMDs from a scratching point of view. Would it really have killed them to spend a few extra pennies putting a sliding cover over that hole, just as they did with Minidisc? The format does bear more than a passing resemblance to MD generally.
October 2007, same date for both XBox 360 and PS3. Moore worded it as "Day One" in the conference speech, and some misinterpreted his comments to mean that it was going to have a period of exclusivity, but Rockstar later cleared it up with a seperate press release.
There will be exclusive add-on content available to purchase through the Live Marketplace, but on the other hand Sony plan a marketplace equivalent (or "ripoff" if you listen to 360 owners), and I expect to see seperate exclusive content there, too. Because there are plenty enough GTA fanboys out there who would buy both versions just to get it all.
Neither, hopefully. The PS1 game I'm most looking forward to is WipEout 3: Special Edition, which under ePSXe (at least when I tried it) hangs at the first turn of the first track, because there is a clever live video screen effect. A real PS1 shows it just fine, but ePSXe gets caught in an infinite loop rendering the screen looking at itself.
"In a related note, the Sony PSP plays AAC from it's memory card slot."
Really? Thanks for that. I coincidentally bought a PSP at the weekend (because they've finally launched the white one in the UK) and while the manual mentions ATRAC-3 and MP3, and the system menu has an option referring to WMA, there's nothing about AAC playback at all.
Since I rip everything to AAC through iTunes (I also have an iPod, as my liking for the white PSP makes fairly predictable) I might actually stick some music on my memory stick after all.
Oops. I forgot about S-Video, it could at least do that. But in Europe, until we started getting HD-ready TVs in the last year or two, 99% of TVs take RGB through a SCART connector, rather than component. Sony deliberately made the DVD playing part of the machine output only the Green part of the RGB signal; if you look at most 3rd-party PS2 SCART leads they actually have a switch on them to flip between RGB for the best possible image quality in games, or Composite so you can watch films in colour.
You could compromise and use S-Video for both, but the PS2's S-Video picture is horribly soft in comparison to the crystal sharp RGB signal.
I've never had a huge problem with 60Hz refresh on CRTs (though PAL's 50Hz is painful once you get up to big sets). But DLP, even though I don't see rainbowing, gives me an enormous headache after about 30 seconds or so. I can't see the refresh, but obviously part of my head knows it's there, or it wouldn't feel like someone is trying to stick needles in my temples.
"I bought a PS2 because I wanted to play games, but also because I wanted to play DVDs. The PS2 does that well enough, right?"
In a word, no. At least in the UK, they deliberately crippled the player by only allowing it to output DVDs in composite. By quite a large margin, the PS2 is the worst DVD player I've ever had the misfortune to watch.
Now, having discovered this last time, why would I hand over £425 (£425!!!) for the follow-up on the grounds that will output BluRay images. We already know that they've crippled the audio output to DVD quality, why expect the picture to be any better?
Why yes, I can. However, I can also say "The previous quarter was the one with Thanksgiving and Christmas in, and the one in which they sold more players than the other three quarters of 2005 put together" and so calm down again.
Meanwhile, cellphones continue to be absolutely hideous for music playing due to their interface.
5th Amendment? That's nice for you. However, since the UK Government has already destroyed the Right To Remain Silent on arrest (the very fact that you refused to disclose something can be presented in court as evidence), that doesn't really help us.
Except that, in practice, BluRay isn't better tech after all. They still haven't cracked commercial replication of dual-layer discs, and there's no prospect of it happening at an affordable price in the next twelve months.
Which leaves at least the first gen of discs stuck at 25Gb, wheras every HD-DVD film I've checked so far has been on a 30Gb disc. Also, DD+ hi-def or TrueHD lossless audio is only optional on BluRay (and Sony don't plan to use them, due to lack of space) wheras at hi-def audio support is mandatory.
BluRay has the theoretical design capability to catch up and overtake HD-DVD, but it's got to make itself look like the winner first, or it won't even get the chance. Meanwhile, nowhere I've checked has any Toshiba A1 players in stock, because they're selling out as fast as they can make them.
Yes it has, and Phil Harrison has been desperately trying to spin that as a perfectly reasonable thing, while his boss pisses off the other studios in BluRay by telling the world that the $500 PS3 isn't really designed for playing BluRay movies.
The GTA series is _HUGE_. I bought my PS2 to play GTA 3, back before all this 'wait six months and port it to PC' thing was announced. Given that a 360 is so much cheaper than a PS3 (and I have no interest in buying into BluRay, so the extra features don't sway me), I'll be passing Sony by this time.
Watching the actual press conference, Gates walked on stage carrying the phone he was showing it off with, before Major Nelson sent him a Forza 2 car template to customize on the phone and send back, so it was abundantly clear at the time.
"Episodic content" for a game is just a fancy way of saying "Expansion pack", though. I really enjoyed GTA London, so I'm perfectly prepared to believe that such a thing will be worthwhile with this GTA as well.
After all, it's hardly like San Andreas was a small game to start with.
Possibly, but I doubt it. This doesn't appear to be doing anything other than what the Microsoft Sidewinder pad did all those years back, before MS killed it off on the grounds that it was totally rubbish.
If I'm being fair, I do enjoy GT4 a fair bit, and the previous ones before that. But the PC sims come a lot closer to keeping me happy (parcularly GT Legends and Toca with a decent wheel) than most PS2-exclusives, so it's more about the convenience of playing in the living room than anything.
Because the difference in hard-drive space is only part of the difference in price (mind you, Microsoft sell their 20Gb drive at $100, so I can't say I'm surprised).
The more expensive model also has a memory card slot (yes, that's ziltch in the way of removable media for you $499 people, so don't ever have your machine die or you'll never see your premium downloads again), built-in Wi-Fi and an HDMI output so you can watch BluRay discs properly.
Sony are not. NOT. pushing 1080p down that component cable, however. You need the more expensive model to play at 1080p.
Also, you need the more expensive model if you want to transfer any data off the hard drive (like the £50 worth of SingStar songs I'll probably want, along with all my saved gamestates) in order to either upgrade it or send it back when it breaks.
Personally, I can live with the lack of wireless today, because my router is about 2 feet from my PS2. But that will change if I switch from cable to ADSL, and I plan to.
All in all, this is far worse than the 360 Core situation, where I'm just saving money in the short run by not getting optional bits (mainly the hard drive) that I might want to buy later. If you buy the shite version of the PS3 now, you need to start everything again from scratch (including re-buying all your downloads) if you want to upgrade.
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As a new PSP owner, I'm actually really, really disappointed with UMDs from a scratching point of view. Would it really have killed them to spend a few extra pennies putting a sliding cover over that hole, just as they did with Minidisc? The format does bear more than a passing resemblance to MD generally.
October 2007, same date for both XBox 360 and PS3. Moore worded it as "Day One" in the conference speech, and some misinterpreted his comments to mean that it was going to have a period of exclusivity, but Rockstar later cleared it up with a seperate press release.
There will be exclusive add-on content available to purchase through the Live Marketplace, but on the other hand Sony plan a marketplace equivalent (or "ripoff" if you listen to 360 owners), and I expect to see seperate exclusive content there, too. Because there are plenty enough GTA fanboys out there who would buy both versions just to get it all.
Neither, hopefully. The PS1 game I'm most looking forward to is WipEout 3: Special Edition, which under ePSXe (at least when I tried it) hangs at the first turn of the first track, because there is a clever live video screen effect. A real PS1 shows it just fine, but ePSXe gets caught in an infinite loop rendering the screen looking at itself.
"In a related note, the Sony PSP plays AAC from it's memory card slot."
Really? Thanks for that. I coincidentally bought a PSP at the weekend (because they've finally launched the white one in the UK) and while the manual mentions ATRAC-3 and MP3, and the system menu has an option referring to WMA, there's nothing about AAC playback at all.
Since I rip everything to AAC through iTunes (I also have an iPod, as my liking for the white PSP makes fairly predictable) I might actually stick some music on my memory stick after all.
Oops. I forgot about S-Video, it could at least do that. But in Europe, until we started getting HD-ready TVs in the last year or two, 99% of TVs take RGB through a SCART connector, rather than component. Sony deliberately made the DVD playing part of the machine output only the Green part of the RGB signal; if you look at most 3rd-party PS2 SCART leads they actually have a switch on them to flip between RGB for the best possible image quality in games, or Composite so you can watch films in colour.
You could compromise and use S-Video for both, but the PS2's S-Video picture is horribly soft in comparison to the crystal sharp RGB signal.
I've never had a huge problem with 60Hz refresh on CRTs (though PAL's 50Hz is painful once you get up to big sets). But DLP, even though I don't see rainbowing, gives me an enormous headache after about 30 seconds or so. I can't see the refresh, but obviously part of my head knows it's there, or it wouldn't feel like someone is trying to stick needles in my temples.
Maybe they should try being paranoid to notice that the laptops they DO source instead of Lenovo ones are also manufactured in China, then?
This is pure politicing.
"at least until i start seeing GTA4 screenshots"
Why would that persuade you? It comes out on the XBox 360 (a console already $200 cheaper, and I expect a price cut by then) on the same day.
"I bought a PS2 because I wanted to play games, but also because I wanted to play DVDs. The PS2 does that well enough, right?"
In a word, no. At least in the UK, they deliberately crippled the player by only allowing it to output DVDs in composite. By quite a large margin, the PS2 is the worst DVD player I've ever had the misfortune to watch.
Now, having discovered this last time, why would I hand over £425 (£425!!!) for the follow-up on the grounds that will output BluRay images. We already know that they've crippled the audio output to DVD quality, why expect the picture to be any better?
"Can you say 'saturation point'?"
Why yes, I can. However, I can also say "The previous quarter was the one with Thanksgiving and Christmas in, and the one in which they sold more players than the other three quarters of 2005 put together" and so calm down again.
Meanwhile, cellphones continue to be absolutely hideous for music playing due to their interface.
5th Amendment? That's nice for you. However, since the UK Government has already destroyed the Right To Remain Silent on arrest (the very fact that you refused to disclose something can be presented in court as evidence), that doesn't really help us.
Except that, in practice, BluRay isn't better tech after all. They still haven't cracked commercial replication of dual-layer discs, and there's no prospect of it happening at an affordable price in the next twelve months.
Which leaves at least the first gen of discs stuck at 25Gb, wheras every HD-DVD film I've checked so far has been on a 30Gb disc. Also, DD+ hi-def or TrueHD lossless audio is only optional on BluRay (and Sony don't plan to use them, due to lack of space) wheras at hi-def audio support is mandatory.
BluRay has the theoretical design capability to catch up and overtake HD-DVD, but it's got to make itself look like the winner first, or it won't even get the chance. Meanwhile, nowhere I've checked has any Toshiba A1 players in stock, because they're selling out as fast as they can make them.
Yes, I remember the PS2 launch. The one with everyone bitching about the insanely high price.
Of exactly half what they're charging for the PS3. Ouch.
Yes it has, and Phil Harrison has been desperately trying to spin that as a perfectly reasonable thing, while his boss pisses off the other studios in BluRay by telling the world that the $500 PS3 isn't really designed for playing BluRay movies.
For the same reason that, despite finding karaoke generally quite dull, I really enjoy SingStar - it gives you points.
Sometimes, more points than your friends. Which is pretty much the case whether you have the ability to do these things properly or not.
The GTA series is _HUGE_. I bought my PS2 to play GTA 3, back before all this 'wait six months and port it to PC' thing was announced. Given that a 360 is so much cheaper than a PS3 (and I have no interest in buying into BluRay, so the extra features don't sway me), I'll be passing Sony by this time.
Watching the actual press conference, Gates walked on stage carrying the phone he was showing it off with, before Major Nelson sent him a Forza 2 car template to customize on the phone and send back, so it was abundantly clear at the time.
"Episodic content" for a game is just a fancy way of saying "Expansion pack", though. I really enjoyed GTA London, so I'm perfectly prepared to believe that such a thing will be worthwhile with this GTA as well.
After all, it's hardly like San Andreas was a small game to start with.
Moore didn't even say that GTA4 is an XBox 360 exclusive, though.
1) GTA4 will come out on 360 straight away, without the 6-9 month delay we experience the last two times.
2) There will be additional content (that is exclusive) available through the Live marketplace.
that's what he announced, and I have no reason to doubt him.
I fully expect there to be DIFFERENT exclusive content available for purchase through the PS3 equivalent of the Live Marketplace.
That doesn't make the stuff on the XBox one any less exclusive, mind you.
No, it's not seriously the PS3 logo, it's a two year old (if memory serves) fake. The real one just says "PlayStation 3" in the Spiderman typeface.
Possibly, but I doubt it. This doesn't appear to be doing anything other than what the Microsoft Sidewinder pad did all those years back, before MS killed it off on the grounds that it was totally rubbish.
If I'm being fair, I do enjoy GT4 a fair bit, and the previous ones before that. But the PC sims come a lot closer to keeping me happy (parcularly GT Legends and Toca with a decent wheel) than most PS2-exclusives, so it's more about the convenience of playing in the living room than anything.
Because the difference in hard-drive space is only part of the difference in price (mind you, Microsoft sell their 20Gb drive at $100, so I can't say I'm surprised).
The more expensive model also has a memory card slot (yes, that's ziltch in the way of removable media for you $499 people, so don't ever have your machine die or you'll never see your premium downloads again), built-in Wi-Fi and an HDMI output so you can watch BluRay discs properly.
Sony are not. NOT. pushing 1080p down that component cable, however. You need the more expensive model to play at 1080p.
Also, you need the more expensive model if you want to transfer any data off the hard drive (like the £50 worth of SingStar songs I'll probably want, along with all my saved gamestates) in order to either upgrade it or send it back when it breaks.
Personally, I can live with the lack of wireless today, because my router is about 2 feet from my PS2. But that will change if I switch from cable to ADSL, and I plan to.
All in all, this is far worse than the 360 Core situation, where I'm just saving money in the short run by not getting optional bits (mainly the hard drive) that I might want to buy later. If you buy the shite version of the PS3 now, you need to start everything again from scratch (including re-buying all your downloads) if you want to upgrade.