the ps3

[bobtheturkey]

been reading various reports since its release and the general feeling is that it is sensational and makes the xbox graphics look like someone drawing pictures on an egg carton can this be true? and that it is the most powerful games console on earth

[tracy6697]

false. The difference in power is tiny. This has been confimed by numerous developers including ID Software (Doom, Quake etc). They said the PS3 has a slighty higher top end but the 360 is much easier to develop for.
The 'reports' you've been reading must be coming from Sony fanboys because at present the games on 360 look better. All reviewers have said Call Of Duty 3 looks better on the 360 and I guarantee there is nothing anywhere near as good looking as Gears Of War on PS3 yet.
If you had just paid that amount of money for a games console wouldn't you try to convince yourself it was the best thing in the world ever?!
I'm also surprised that anyone has fallen for Sonys' ridiculous hype this time. It worked for the PS2 (and helped in killing off the Dreamcast), but I can't see it working this time!

[furrycheeky]

The PS3 is slightly more powerful than the 360, however its going to take a couple of years to get the most out of a PS3, so there is little difference at the moment.

[Mattk]

there is very little difference apart from the price of course !

[johntheplamf]

Bob, as you know by now, Sony have exclusive rights to The Metal Gear solid games and of course the final fantasy games. Don't believe what people say that the graphics on X Box 360 are better, take a look at the screenshots below for Final Fantasy XIII, which BTW.
http://uk.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/finalfantasy13/ screenindex.html?sid=6149455

[johntheplamf]

The other thing Tracey didn't mention is the fact that by using the new Blu Ray format, developers will be able to utilise 50GB of space for one game. Put into perspective, one of the top games on show for the PS3 at the moment, and getting rave reviews is Resistance:Fall of man. This game fills almost 20 GB of the disc. Put plainly, the developers are only just touching the surface of what's possible with the PS3, the mind boggles at what it'll be like when they get everything right.
Add this to exclusive games like i mentioned before to the fact you get a Blu Ray player built in(A stand alone player sells for at least a grand), Wheres if you want the one Microsoft are touting, The HD DVD, you'll have to but it seperate, and as it was in the Live Magazine with the Sunday Mirror, it looks like it's the same size as the 360. So imagine those under your telly as opposed to one nice sleek machine.
Already putting their full weight behind Blu Ray are Warner, Paramount, Fox, Disney and one of the biggest movie makers in the world, Sony.
Putting their weight behind HD DVD? At the moment it's Microsoft and Toshiba.
You'll also be able to surf the entire internet with the PS3 and download to your 60 GB memory, what exactly can you surf with the 360?
Back to you Tracey M'Dear :)

[tracy6697]

Then how come Resistance is nowhere near as good looking as Gears Of war or is getting lower review scores? More space doesn't equal a better game, that's down to the talent of the developers. You seem to have fallen for the Sony lie regarding Blu Ray. It's not in PS3 for the advantage of gamers, it's there so Sony can try and get it's new format in as many homes as possible.
Also what everyone seems to overlook is that Blu Ray only opens up the possibility of bigger games on one disc. Do you really think that the average games deleloper is going to spend tons of extra money & time making a bigger game just to fill a disc on one console? Don't kid yourself.
And Resistance may take up about 20GB of space but you do realise thats because the data isn't compressed?
Oblivion on 360 is a great example. It's a massive game yet takes up less than half of a dual layered DVD.
Something else that everyone seems to have forgotten - whats to stop delelopers putting games on more than one disc? No one complained when Final Fantasy VII came on 3 discs on the original Playstation did they?

[tracy6697]

As for HD DVD, the 360 add-on is much smaller than the 360 console, only costs �129.99, and I've a lot of reviews saying that HD DVD gives a better picture quality than Blu Ray. And I'll say it again, the disc format has absolutley nothing at all to do with the quality of the games.
Also why on earth would you want to surf the internet on a console? It was pointless on the Dreamcast and it's pointless now. I have a PC for that (as do you I presume).
Metal Gear & Final Fantasy are not exclusive to Sony. There is no contract between the publishers and Sony. If Konami or Sqaure Enix want to put these games on 360 (or any other format for that matter) they can. Did you miss the online Final Fantasy game released for 360 earlier this year?
Besides which these games are only any good if the individual likes them. Personally I like to play a game, not watch endless hours of characters talking rubbish to each other,and yes I have played previous games in the series so don't try to say that isn't true ;o)
Microsoft has plenty of exclusives titles for 360 - look up these games:
Gears of War (out now), Lost Planet (Capcoms next big game), BioShock (was coming to PS3 - now cancelled!), Mass Effect, Too Human, Halo 3, the next Splinter Cell game.....
Notice something about 360 exclusives? A lot of original titles in there. I'm sorry but Ridge Racer 7 doesn't have the same effect does it?

[johntheplamf]

For exclusives, you only have to look at heavenly sword, The next God Of war and the next Devil May Cry. Add to that the mighty Gran Tourismo, and although not a PS3 exclusive, the next GTA will have PS3 only levels for download.

[johntheplamf]

P.S. Tracey could you possibly post the reviews you've been reading? Any ones i post about are from the likes of Edge or Games TM which deal with all consoles, not just the PS3 :O)

[tracy6697]

The next Gran Turismo (the HD version of GT4) is worth buying a PS3 for?. Is that the one where all the content (cars, tracks etc) have to be downloaded for a small charge for each and would end up costing as much as the PS3 itself if you purchased everything?? And don't forget Forza Motorsport 2 on 360 which could blow GT5 away!
As for GTA IV, you do realise that Microsoft has a signed contract for exclusive extra downloadable content?
God of War? How about Ninja Gaiden 2 on 360? (the PS3 Ninja Gaiden coming out is an upgraded port of the old Xbox game, not a sequel)
Devil May Cry? I'm sure it will be a good game, but this may come to 360 in the future.

[johntheplamf]

Take a look at the answer to the question a bit further up :O)

[johntheplamf]

It basically points to proof that you weren't telling the entire truth :O)

[tracy6697]

I just answered that!. As for you other question:

HD DVD / Blu Ray comparison:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/feature_blurayvsh ddvd_firstcomparison.html

Game reviews:

www.gamerankings.com

Btw, do you trust reviews in Edge? I've always thought that they have their heads a bit too far up their own ass for my liking?!

[johntheplamf]

Lol, i just buy it to make myself look intelligent, i mean more intelligent.....ahem :O)

[Sooper]

I have to agree with Tracy on this one John and i think you have been a little brainwashed and dazzled by the mighty Sony marketing men!There is very little difference between the two consoles dont believe the hype that the PS3 is like a Ferrari and the 360 is a Robin Reliant that aint so and if you read any independant reviews you will see this. Yes the PS3 has a blu ray player, big deal it will be a bottom end player (the same as Microsofts one will be) not a high spec one like the ones that are on sale for �1000 and by all the reviews that i have read they aint much cop and really like HD itself isnt really working properly and is a bit of a con at the moment. As Tracy has pointed out there will be just as much if not more exclusive titles on the 360 shall i just say Halo 3? There is not one title that PS3 has that will be able to rival that release and Sony know this which is why it has rumoured for a while that it could just be released when the PS3 is on sale just to kick Sony while it is down. I think the PS3 will be a very good machine if Sony can sort out their appalling on-line problems that they had with the PS2 (and according to reports they have?) so i guess we will have to see wont we! exciting stuff!

[johntheplamf]

All very good points, but the main reason i'm excited about the Blu Ray isn't for the films, it's the games that will be able to utilise the power, I mean the 360 uses DVD's with a capacity of 8.5GB whereas Blu Ray Discs at the moment have a capacity of 50 GB and as i pointed out TDK have just made a working 200 GB Blu Ray disc. I have no doubts that developers will take a while to get used to this technology, but Sony have come out and said the PS3 will be their machine for the next 10 years, and won't bring out another, so developers have plenty of time to try to fill that 200 GB.

[tracy6697]

Yes, but as I've said before whats to stop developers putting games on more than one disc for 360? Nothing!
I do think though that Microsoft made a mistake not putting a HD DVD drive in the 360 as standard though. It's not needed now, but could prove costly in the future if developers are put off having to put games on multiple discs. But don't think that all developers will start making extra big games to fill a Blu Ray disc, that would cost a lot of extra money for them and it just isn't going to happen any time soon.

[Sooper]

Another thing that i am not sure is widely known yet is that according to an article i read i think in Which magazine they think they have solved the whole compatablity issue with Blu Ray/ Hd Dvd and some bright spark has come up with some way of configuring machines and the discs to play on either format? Now just how true this is or when it would actually be ready im not sure about but it would be good if it were true and did happen? I would hate for consumers to have to go down the same dark road as Betamax vs VHS all over again its just not fair on us.

[FrancisB]

I agree with a lot of Tracy's points.

To me, and many others, Sony seem more intent on making the PS3 a marketing tool for their Blue-Ray DVD. They seem to have games as a secondary concern. People say that a stand-alone Blue-Ray DVD player would cost more than a grand - but who wants to pay for something they're not going to really use? At least with the 360, one has the option of buying an HD-DVD player; with the PS3, there is none.

To me at least, most people have a normal DVD player and seem content with it, for the time being anyway. The PS3 is way over-priced and people who buy it on launch day will be setting an unwanted precendent.

[The Mack]

Sony sold a lot of PS2's on the strength of its a cheap DVD player + is a console it had a notoriously bad software dvd effort.
For some time the DC was producing much better software even though it dropped a year before.

The Sony hype machine demo'ed stuff that was never running on ps2 hardware (much like the ultra 64 arcade machines) people waited over a year being fed on 66 million polys etc.
Not a lot worth talking about on launch even Gt3 had pop up graphics, however people still kept buying them Sega gave up and Microsoft stepped in apparently Xbox could do 300 million polys etc etc.
Last time I looked the PS2 still sells for slightly more money than the Xbox despite being the older machine.

The ps3 claims to be able to do 1080p (1920�1080) vs. the Xbox360's highest res 720p(1280�720) would imply graphical superiority whether they are at that stage yet or not.
developers also seemed to persevere more with Sony hardware than they did with Xbox.
With regard to the HD DVD The past tells us that if its not supported out of the box developers are not keen to support it (32x, mega cd etc) console owners are generally so tight they think twice about buying a second joy pad or hi def cable so I wouldn't expect them to rush out and spend �130 on HD DVD player.