The Stupid Gamer

I was completely determined to hold out. I wasn’t going to do it. I was not going to buy a PlayStation 3 until they were under $400. Well, just last week I stumbled into an unlikely deal on a PS3 and I had to take it. In the end, my PS3 cost me my old PS2, Guitar Hero, Okami, the GH guitar, and an extra controller. That’s it. It was a straight across trade for a brand new PS3 and copy of Resistance: Fall of Man. I went through the setup process and gave the console a pretty long play session and here are my preliminary complaints and praises. What? You’ve heard these all before elsewhere? Whatever, I’m still posting this. Note: these impressions are based on the current 60GB model.

Pros:

• Shiny!
• The hardware feels very solid
• Nice interface
• Backwards compatibility looks great (mine has the EE)
• HDMI is easy, it looks great, and it sounds great
• Online play is free
• SD, Memory Stick, Compact Flash, USB support
• A promising lineup
• Built-in WiFi and Blu-Ray are great perks
• Can buy games/content in the PSN without leaving leftover funds

Cons:

• Shininess attracts dust/fingerprints like crazy
• XMB dashboard isn’t as intuitive as the 360 dashboard
• It’s HUGE and heavy
• No HDMI cable in the box (old and tired complaint, I know)
• Sixaxis feels impossibly cheap, charging cable is stupidly short (pics soon)
• PSN is much slower and harder to navigate than Xbox Marketplace
• Triggers on Sixaxis are terrible, still has bad analog sticks with dead zones
• Weak current lineup

Overall I’m pretty impressed with the PlayStation 3. The console is definitely a powerhouse and a beautiful piece of hardware, but Sony still has made some silly mistakes. I don’t get why the Sixaxis couldn’t have been an improvement over the Dual Shock. It’s time that Sony puts the d-pad in its proper place and places the left analog stick where it belongs. Proper triggers would be great as well.

As mentioned above, the current lineup is weak. Outside of Resistance, nothing besides maybe Ninja Gaiden Sigma have me all that excited. There is, however, a slew of must-haves coming in time for the holidays…so I can be patient and wait that out. Hopefully by having a PS3 in my home I’ll be able to improve my coverage of the console here on the site; I will do my best. Look for the next podcast to shed more light on my specific praises and complaints on the console as a whole and how I see the PS3 performing from here going forward.

Sony confirmed today that a demo for the much anticipated Heavenly Sword from Ninja Theory will hit PSN this Thursday. The game was one of the standout titles at E3 (last year as well), and has a pretty significant hype train driving it.

Since I picked up a PS3 last week in a sly trade, I’ll be eagerly awaiting the demo. I haven’t played the game since last E3, so it should be nice to get some more time with the action brawler.

In a recent interview with Game Informer, Shane Kim provided some unintentional (but quality!) comedy. The following exchange is an excerpt from the piece that can be found on the GI website:

Kim: Yeah, but here’s the thing: I think one of the most important, subtle announcements at the Xbox 360 briefing is that Resident Evil is coming to Xbox 360. Yes, it’s from Capcom, who’s been a great supporter of us.

GI: But we knew that two years ago.

Kim: What?

GI: Resident Evil. It was shown at TGS two years ago.

Kim: No, but coming to Xbox 360.

GI: Yeah. It was at the press event.

Kim: I don’t think so.

GI: I’m positive. I was there.

Kim: Really?

GI: It was shown at both press conferences.

Kim: That RE5 was coming to…?

GI: Yep.

Kim: I’m going to have to confirm that. That was supposed to be the big announcement

Wow, you’d think that somebody that’s heading up first-party software at Microsoft would be at least a little clued in on the 3rd party happenings. Kim is a pretty active mouthpiece for the Xbox PR machine, so it would probably be a good idea if he, you know, was at least up to date with things.

The entire interview, which is quite good, can be found here: Game Informer Online

It’s a pretty lame week for next-gen releases while the PS2 picks up a couple of gems. It’s a holiday tomorrow for me, so I’ll probably ignore the new stuff and work on my backlog a bit.

Consoles/Handhelds

I’ll be out of town starting today until Sunday and won’t have access to the Internet. Please try to live on without me.

In other news, two new writers have been given access to the blog, so when you see one of them post, make sure to give them a nice welcome.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

According to an interview conducted by GameIndustry.biz, SCEE President David Reeves thinks that the PlayStation 3 will be the leader in the console race by March 2008. A few choice cuts include:

“PlayStation 3, you will see, will be far and away the winner when you look at it by March ‘08. They really, really will,” he predicted.

“It’s something that is going to be a slow burner, and suddenly it’s like a tsunami; it will just overtake you.”

“I honestly don’t think that just having the games on Xbox 360 is enough.”

Say what you want, but this is gutsy talk. To actually go out and claim that it’s not enough to have the games to win…well, I don’t know how to react to that. If it’s not the games, then what wins a war? While I do think Sony is poised to make strides in the marketshare battle, I don’t think that they are in a position to overtake Microsoft or Nintendo any time soon (if at all this generation). Until they can compete from a pricing standpoint, they will continue to struggle.

Here are the releases coming this week. Some will be available today, but most will be Tuesday or later. There’s nothing on the DS or Wii, but next week will see more releases. Not many winners this week…

Consoles/Handhelds

• All-Pro Football 2k8 (360, PS3)
• NCAA Football 2008 (360, PS3, Xbox, PS2)
• Hot Shots Tennis (PS2)
• Rugby 2008 (PS2)
• Smash Court Tennis 3 (PSP)
• PaRappa the Rapper (PSP)
• Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology (PSP)

Live Arcade

• Bomberman Live
• Yie Ar Kung Fu

Virtual Console

• Silent Debuggers
• Paper Mario
• Balloon Fight

Just after dropping the price of the 60GB PS3 to $499 in the US and Canada, Sony has announced that they’ll stop offering the 60GB model after July. Once the stock runs out of the 60GB machine, only the $599 model will be available to consumers; which will effectively cancel out the price drop.

Way to go Sony. You get some positive buzz and you have to go off and kill it. You deserve your third place in this console race. Until you get that console down to $400, I’m not touching it. I don’t care what software you have, I’m not paying that much for any console. Ever. I’m going to have to invent a “stupid stamp” of some sort so that I can properly label this sort of news.
Source: GameIndustry.biz

Our E3 Podcast is here, and it’s our longest podcast yet! I don’t know if I should apologize or tell you to be excited.

• Snacks!
• Conference reaction
• Games
• Not much more!

Download the show here, or listen to it in your browser. Right click to save, left click for a new window: The Stupid Gamer Podcast #6

Sony came out strong this year at E3 showing, by far, the most software. While much of it overlapped with Microsoft’s lineup, the PS3 is starting to justify its place in the console race. Sony’s executives were stiff as cardboard on stage, but there were enough big “ooh” and “ahh” moments to keep the old eyelids from closing. Highlights include:

• Games, games, games. Sony showed tons of games in back-to-back trailers
• Echochrome could be a sleeper hit, or at least the next LocoRoco type of game for Sony
• Slimmer PSP announced - coming in September
• Metal Gear Solid 4 still exclusive (for now) - another great trailer shown with the claim for an “early 2008″ release
• Unreal Tournament 3 gets timed exclusive
• Grand Turismo 5: Prologue coming to PSN
• PlayStation Home features showcased (yawn)
• Heavenly Sword is still one of the best looking games on the way
• Killzone 2 trailer looked great graphically, gameplay actually looks kinda stale
• Uncharted from Naughty Dog seems to be doing great
• Haze is PS3 exclusive
• Ratchet and Clank on the PS3 trailer unveiled more of the story, graphically the game is very solid

Sony’s conference was great for those that wanted to see games, but I fear that it wasn’t really enough to differentiate themselves from Microsoft. That $100 price difference, which will grow as soon as MS drops the 360 price, will probably continue to hurt Sony due to the similarity in libraries with the 360. It doesn’t help that the EA Sports line is running at twice the framerate on the 360. EA has always been critical for Sony. Still, instead of doom and gloom for Sony, PS3 fans should be singing praises. It finally looks like Sony is ready to enjoy some good times, even if they are going to need to get that PS3 price down a bit more before they can catch up to Microsoft.