You forget that the PS3 is also offering a Blu-ray player and HDMI 1.3 support (which is needed if you're even serious about HDMI in your home theatre for future proofing anyway) in their BASE model that's around the price of the Elite. It's a really good deal for WHAT YOU GET. Everyone says that Sony needs to simply drop the price to 299 and 399 but that's not going to happen any time soon while you're including Blu-ray tech in it.
The PS3 and the Wii are pretty much on the same level of reliability, and that is rock solid. Whether cost cuts will effect this I have no idea, but I'm pretty sure it's just a well designed machine. The 360 issues are related to a bad initial system design they still haven't fixed. (Well, until now.) Sony hasn't had that problem with PS3s.
Er, what original content? It's all old games via VC unless something has changed lately. The PS3 has had downloadable games/demos/trailers/etc ala Xbox Live from the start, and in fact the most recently released original PS3-only game (Super Stardust HD) is quite awesome.
If anything, the Wii has the worst downloadable content experience of any of the consoles.
Yes, it does come down to the games, no doubt about it. I've been considering a 360 for a long time now because of the games. And you know what? Microsoft would've made a 360 sale by now if it weren't for this pretty terrible issue. I don't want to buy a 360 and have to put up with shipping it back and waiting a month later because of bad design. I don't want to live in fear of wondering when I'll get the hardware failure or wondering if I can safely move it without it scratching disks.
So I'm waiting until they come out with a major revision. Maybe the 65nm series 360s? I don't know, but until this is resolved I'd rather not spend $500 CDN on a Premium just to see it continually shipping back to Microsoft.
(I recall how easy it was to accidentally cause my 3rd gen iPod to skip tracks when I only intended to pick it up; very annoying on the long audiobooks I typically used it for since that model wouldn't remember your place in the book if you skipped off of it).
I don't know what 3rd Gen iPod you had, but the one I have (and still currently use) does this fine.
Sony's philosophy tends toward large amounts of pre-rendered video, which eats up their extra capacity quickly on an HD platform
You mean SquareEnix's philosophy.
It's easy to just say "oh it's the prerendered video that's taking up the space, DVD is fine" but when top developers like Kojima come out and say they want to use a 50GB Blu-ray disc for their game all while using 100% real-time rendered cutscenes, that argument falls flat.
Sony doesn't really have a proper online marketplace to sell downloadable content the way Microsoft does, so the "exclusivity" is pretty much academic.
Yes they do. It's been in place since launch and has actually had no limits on the size of the downloadable content. Microsoft has since upped their limits, but still, Sony has a system in place that is more than suitable.
I didn't say it wasn't. I'm saying that the assertion that it only has tilt sensors is wrong. It doesn't take much for the Wii-lovers/Sony-haters to come out of the woodwork, ready to battle an argue of semantics over what six axes it operates on.
Hint: there was a reason it was in quotes. I don't even know why you brought the Wiimote into this, as it really had nothing to do with what I was correcting. Makes you come off as a fanboy.
There was a reason I put the six in quotes. I guess that doesn't seem to register past you people as I still got a bunch of pundits looking for a semantics battle replying. What you were supposed to take away from my post is that it can detect more than tilt, it can detect sliding movement in a direction. One studio is in the process of making a bowling game ala Wii Sports Bowling, and correct me if I'm wrong but this does indeed require accelerometers.
Right, because you can fit the same amount and quality of 50GB ~30mbit MPEG2 video onto a 9GB DVD disc. Even if MPEG4 looked just as good at 10mbit it would still be quite the feat.
Second, MPEG2 was mainly used for the initial Blu-ray releases. Casino Royale used AVC at around the same bitrate (~30mbit) and it looks fantastic. I don't even have a 1080p set. I highly doubt it would be possible to get even close to the same quality on DVD (in one disc mind you).
Finally, since it's not in the DVD spec, people would have to go out and buy new players even if DVD w/ MPEG4 was chosen as the new next gen format (and would also have to clear out their shelves to support the 5 disc movie releases in HD resolutions)
Because it was developed for and integrated into the standard Blu-ray spec, while HD-DVD chose not to?
BD+ is basically a virtual machine inside the player that can be used by the content distributors. More info at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BD%2B#BD.2B
In the UK, it costs £381.96 on Amazon for a 360 Premium + HD-DVD player...381.96 GBP = 755.107 USD
It costs £399.99 for a PS3...399.99 GBP = 790.754 USD
Hardly $100. The 360 is slightly discounted on Amazon at the moment as well, otherwise they'd turn out to be the same. And that's with a 360 that lacks an HDMI port..if you wanted one it'd end up costing you more than the PS3.
I don't get it. If the movie is available on both HD-DVD as well as DVD, then why would you pick up the DVD for rental because it "still looks good"? They may still look good, but if you've spent $200 on the player and have an HDTV to take advantage of, why not get something that looks better?
Obviously some movies are still only available on DVD, but I assume you're not talking about that.
And you would be wrong. It can detect motion along the "six" axes, including x, y, and z. It's pretty much the same tech as the Wii controller in a differently shaped package.
I doubt it, it's probably the exact same code. At least they appear to be getting better though; Lost Planet looks promising as a port, even if it did get average reviews. The demo is quite cool (no pun intended).
It's not as simple as worldwide sales. The largest FF market has always been Japan BY FAR, the market where the 360 trails the PS3 by a very very large margin. Even a new designed-for-japan JRPG IP from a legendary designer, Blue Dragon, barely moved 360 units. Square knows that FFXIII will move PS3s like there's no tomorrow when it's released in Japan. They don't have that guarantee for the 360, and judging from it's still poor reception in Japan, it's not as simple as you suggest.
Honestly, unless you can cite some sources here, it sounds like an AC just making up facts. For example, your pass at the PS3 with regards to load times is baseless, because due to the HDD Oblivion actually loads faster than the 360 version. (if you would like a source for this, just check out any Oblivion PS3 review) Not to mention the fact that if anything, it would be 360 games that are forced to work without the hard drive because there are a bunch of 360s that dont have one. It doesn't make sense for you to use the mythical "PS3 without the hard drive" argument and then go on to say that the 360 gets more use out of it when support isn't even guaranteed.
I can see where you're coming from in terms of the user replacable drive being an issue of performance, but to throw out facts that aren't facts doesn't make you look very credible.
It's obvious what parallels you're drawing here, but really they're two completely different systems. For example, leaving an HD optical storage option out of the picture (or even offering it as a choice as Microsoft has done) works for the Wii, because it's not hugely powerful, doesn't support HD resolutions, and doesn't need all that space in the first place.
However, once you offer something as a choice to the consumer, it means that you for the most part cannot use that to enhance the gaming experience for the consumer. In the case of the optional 360 hard drive vs. the PS3's built in hard drive, many games on the PS3 use the HD for streaming data to for optimizing load times, like Oblivion or some upcoming games like Uncharted (which, due to the hard drive, will have no load times). They can do that because it's standard. Likewise, when Microsoft chose to keep DVD as the standard format for game delivery, I have a feeling that they'll be coming to regret that decision in a year or two. It's not going to be a dealbreaker, but it will definitely become more apparent as time goes on that with all the space assets take up in HD games, you really do need a higher capacity storage medium. They left consumers the option of the HD-DVD drive addon in case they wanted to watch HD movies, but that approach doesn't let them take advantage of the superior storage those discs have to offer.
What does this have to do with the Wii? Well, the tone of your post seems to be touting the Wii as the superior choice because you think Nintendo is doing you a favor. For the Wii, the exclusion of the hard drive and HD/DVD playback works, because it's not an HD system and there isn't enough content to really support the inclusion of a hard drive. But to try and draw parallels to the other systems which frankly are offering completely different experiences just reeks of fanboyism to me.
Parent insightful? Maybe. But as a previous poster said, it's sad when the majority of the EVE player base is inclined to believe what the parent described above over CCP. Shows how much the community trusts them.
There is a Black package, but not in retail stores. If you want to buy a boxed copy, you'll need to spend the $50 and buy the full Orange Box. You'll still be able to buy a bundle of EP2, TF2, and Portal through Steam.
Slashdot Mirror
All that effort to make a post and you didn't even bother making it semi-useful by including a link..
This is why talking out of your ass is bad. Personally, I'm not a fan of that approach.
You forget that the PS3 is also offering a Blu-ray player and HDMI 1.3 support (which is needed if you're even serious about HDMI in your home theatre for future proofing anyway) in their BASE model that's around the price of the Elite. It's a really good deal for WHAT YOU GET. Everyone says that Sony needs to simply drop the price to 299 and 399 but that's not going to happen any time soon while you're including Blu-ray tech in it.
The PS3 and the Wii are pretty much on the same level of reliability, and that is rock solid. Whether cost cuts will effect this I have no idea, but I'm pretty sure it's just a well designed machine. The 360 issues are related to a bad initial system design they still haven't fixed. (Well, until now.) Sony hasn't had that problem with PS3s.
Er, what original content? It's all old games via VC unless something has changed lately. The PS3 has had downloadable games/demos/trailers/etc ala Xbox Live from the start, and in fact the most recently released original PS3-only game (Super Stardust HD) is quite awesome.
If anything, the Wii has the worst downloadable content experience of any of the consoles.
Yes, it does come down to the games, no doubt about it. I've been considering a 360 for a long time now because of the games. And you know what? Microsoft would've made a 360 sale by now if it weren't for this pretty terrible issue. I don't want to buy a 360 and have to put up with shipping it back and waiting a month later because of bad design. I don't want to live in fear of wondering when I'll get the hardware failure or wondering if I can safely move it without it scratching disks.
So I'm waiting until they come out with a major revision. Maybe the 65nm series 360s? I don't know, but until this is resolved I'd rather not spend $500 CDN on a Premium just to see it continually shipping back to Microsoft.
(I recall how easy it was to accidentally cause my 3rd gen iPod to skip tracks when I only intended to pick it up; very annoying on the long audiobooks I typically used it for since that model wouldn't remember your place in the book if you skipped off of it).
I don't know what 3rd Gen iPod you had, but the one I have (and still currently use) does this fine.
You must've missed this part:
If you do any home video decoding, the difference is huge.
That's about one of the only sections where overclocking does make a huge difference. It's a big time saver.
Sony's philosophy tends toward large amounts of pre-rendered video, which eats up their extra capacity quickly on an HD platform You mean SquareEnix's philosophy.
It's easy to just say "oh it's the prerendered video that's taking up the space, DVD is fine" but when top developers like Kojima come out and say they want to use a 50GB Blu-ray disc for their game all while using 100% real-time rendered cutscenes, that argument falls flat.
Sony doesn't really have a proper online marketplace to sell downloadable content the way Microsoft does, so the "exclusivity" is pretty much academic.
Yes they do. It's been in place since launch and has actually had no limits on the size of the downloadable content. Microsoft has since upped their limits, but still, Sony has a system in place that is more than suitable.
I didn't say it wasn't. I'm saying that the assertion that it only has tilt sensors is wrong. It doesn't take much for the Wii-lovers/Sony-haters to come out of the woodwork, ready to battle an argue of semantics over what six axes it operates on.
Hint: there was a reason it was in quotes. I don't even know why you brought the Wiimote into this, as it really had nothing to do with what I was correcting. Makes you come off as a fanboy.
There was a reason I put the six in quotes. I guess that doesn't seem to register past you people as I still got a bunch of pundits looking for a semantics battle replying. What you were supposed to take away from my post is that it can detect more than tilt, it can detect sliding movement in a direction. One studio is in the process of making a bowling game ala Wii Sports Bowling, and correct me if I'm wrong but this does indeed require accelerometers.
Right, because you can fit the same amount and quality of 50GB ~30mbit MPEG2 video onto a 9GB DVD disc. Even if MPEG4 looked just as good at 10mbit it would still be quite the feat.
Second, MPEG2 was mainly used for the initial Blu-ray releases. Casino Royale used AVC at around the same bitrate (~30mbit) and it looks fantastic. I don't even have a 1080p set. I highly doubt it would be possible to get even close to the same quality on DVD (in one disc mind you).
Finally, since it's not in the DVD spec, people would have to go out and buy new players even if DVD w/ MPEG4 was chosen as the new next gen format (and would also have to clear out their shelves to support the 5 disc movie releases in HD resolutions)
Because it was developed for and integrated into the standard Blu-ray spec, while HD-DVD chose not to? BD+ is basically a virtual machine inside the player that can be used by the content distributors. More info at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BD%2B#BD.2B
Or perhaps you missed the internet debunking of that rumor.
c ts-299-wal-mart-hd-dvd-statement/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/26/fuh-yuan-retra
Our memory isn't short, we just read more than you do.
You're applying American prices to UK prices.
In the UK, it costs £381.96 on Amazon for a 360 Premium + HD-DVD player...381.96 GBP = 755.107 USD
It costs £399.99 for a PS3...399.99 GBP = 790.754 USD
Hardly $100. The 360 is slightly discounted on Amazon at the moment as well, otherwise they'd turn out to be the same. And that's with a 360 that lacks an HDMI port..if you wanted one it'd end up costing you more than the PS3.
I don't get it. If the movie is available on both HD-DVD as well as DVD, then why would you pick up the DVD for rental because it "still looks good"? They may still look good, but if you've spent $200 on the player and have an HDTV to take advantage of, why not get something that looks better? Obviously some movies are still only available on DVD, but I assume you're not talking about that.
And you would be wrong. It can detect motion along the "six" axes, including x, y, and z. It's pretty much the same tech as the Wii controller in a differently shaped package.
I doubt it, it's probably the exact same code. At least they appear to be getting better though; Lost Planet looks promising as a port, even if it did get average reviews. The demo is quite cool (no pun intended).
It's not as simple as worldwide sales. The largest FF market has always been Japan BY FAR, the market where the 360 trails the PS3 by a very very large margin. Even a new designed-for-japan JRPG IP from a legendary designer, Blue Dragon, barely moved 360 units. Square knows that FFXIII will move PS3s like there's no tomorrow when it's released in Japan. They don't have that guarantee for the 360, and judging from it's still poor reception in Japan, it's not as simple as you suggest.
Honestly, unless you can cite some sources here, it sounds like an AC just making up facts. For example, your pass at the PS3 with regards to load times is baseless, because due to the HDD Oblivion actually loads faster than the 360 version. (if you would like a source for this, just check out any Oblivion PS3 review) Not to mention the fact that if anything, it would be 360 games that are forced to work without the hard drive because there are a bunch of 360s that dont have one. It doesn't make sense for you to use the mythical "PS3 without the hard drive" argument and then go on to say that the 360 gets more use out of it when support isn't even guaranteed.
I can see where you're coming from in terms of the user replacable drive being an issue of performance, but to throw out facts that aren't facts doesn't make you look very credible.
I can't speak for Fallout 3, but Blizzard has always released a native Mac version of their games on the same disc as the Windows release.
It's obvious what parallels you're drawing here, but really they're two completely different systems. For example, leaving an HD optical storage option out of the picture (or even offering it as a choice as Microsoft has done) works for the Wii, because it's not hugely powerful, doesn't support HD resolutions, and doesn't need all that space in the first place.
However, once you offer something as a choice to the consumer, it means that you for the most part cannot use that to enhance the gaming experience for the consumer. In the case of the optional 360 hard drive vs. the PS3's built in hard drive, many games on the PS3 use the HD for streaming data to for optimizing load times, like Oblivion or some upcoming games like Uncharted (which, due to the hard drive, will have no load times). They can do that because it's standard. Likewise, when Microsoft chose to keep DVD as the standard format for game delivery, I have a feeling that they'll be coming to regret that decision in a year or two. It's not going to be a dealbreaker, but it will definitely become more apparent as time goes on that with all the space assets take up in HD games, you really do need a higher capacity storage medium. They left consumers the option of the HD-DVD drive addon in case they wanted to watch HD movies, but that approach doesn't let them take advantage of the superior storage those discs have to offer.
What does this have to do with the Wii? Well, the tone of your post seems to be touting the Wii as the superior choice because you think Nintendo is doing you a favor. For the Wii, the exclusion of the hard drive and HD/DVD playback works, because it's not an HD system and there isn't enough content to really support the inclusion of a hard drive. But to try and draw parallels to the other systems which frankly are offering completely different experiences just reeks of fanboyism to me.
Parent insightful? Maybe. But as a previous poster said, it's sad when the majority of the EVE player base is inclined to believe what the parent described above over CCP. Shows how much the community trusts them.
There is a Black package, but not in retail stores. If you want to buy a boxed copy, you'll need to spend the $50 and buy the full Orange Box. You'll still be able to buy a bundle of EP2, TF2, and Portal through Steam.