Gaijin

So, you're saying that because the PS2 could never come close to FF:TSW graphics (and by this time we're all well aware that it can't), that Sony could not make boastful claims about their system using FF:TSW test shots in with their game "demos" to hype the power of their console? The same people that said "Yes yes, this demo is running on an actual PS2!" about the FF8 demo, when it turned out that it was running on a beefed up PS2 chipset connected an SGI machine? The same people that said the Killzone 2 trailer was actual in-game footage, when the people who made the trailer were saying it was FMV? I'd like to introduce you to a man named Ken Katsuragi. Sony executive and part time stand up comic. 406164[/snapback] A tech demo is simply that. A tech demo. The Dreamcast could do amazing hair and facial expressions on the hardware proven in Shenmue but only if it was a close up of a head....the actual game of course consists of more than a stationary head. As for the "smoke and mirrors"....isn't grumbling about company boastings getting old? It's gonna happen, and I doubt people expected PS2 games to look like the CGI in FF8, or the XBox to give them a nice "Woody" from Toy Story 2 in real time. You know and I know and hell, even Joe Six pack knows what the games look like when they start up a game.

Different people have different hands. The Dual Shock may be uncomfortable for some, but fine for others. The D-Pad has got to go though. I hate the D-pad on the dual shocks but I'm pretty much fine with the rest of it. Logitech's Cordless Action for the PS2 is the most comfortable one I've used in a long time with a usabe D-Pad. Only the weight of the batteries holds it back.

16-bit? Try 8-bit. They weren't anywhere NEAR as ruthless on the SNES as the NES. Admittedly it was largely because Sega got their footing in the US before the SNES was ready, but still... 405906[/snapback] True, but we all got that cool coupon from the class action lawsuit good for more stuff from Nintendo so it's all good!

PS2 hardware and games make money for Sony...they will not be abandoning that anytime soon...I'll give it a couple more years of good titles before we get the bargain developer titles only trickling into the stores.

You should check out "The Kid with the Golden Arm". It's like Crippled Avengers in that the Venoms return. The story is that the head of escort service hires some of the best martial artists to protect this gold shipment for these famine victims. Lo Meng (Toad from the Venoms and the deaf mute from Crippled Avengers) is Golden Arm leader of Chi Sa gang & the Seven Hooks who plans to steal the gold and eliminate the heroes. Golden Arm is very similar to the Toad where his arms can destroy any weapon. Agent Hi To (Phillip Kwok, Lizard from the Venoms and the blind man from Crippled Avengers) is enlisted by the gov't to destroy the gang and protect the gold. He has a very unusual style of kung fu where he really gets drunk and is unbeatable.kidwiththegoldenarm 405860[/snapback] That's also one of my faves along with Master Killer. Gordon Liu baby!!

Bah, Microsoft (or any other company)is no better...Gates said "Toy Story 2 Level detail " and unlimited graphical visuals before the XBox launch (commonly an urban myth as Sony's quotes by Microsoft fans): Toy Story quality graphics "We're approaching the level of detail seen in Toy Story 2," he said, referring to the computer-generated kids film from Disney/Pixar. "Game developers will finally be able to develop games as they can visualize it in their minds, without having restrictions placed on them due to performance." Sound familar each generation? I never bought into the PS2 boasting at launch (anyone that owned a Dreamcast were playing stronger games at launch than PS2 games. Take any graphics boasting with a grain of salt. If they achieve it be happy. E3 '05...all 3 made boasts and ahem...weird statements...PS3= awesome visuals...360= backwards compatibilty with best selling XBox titles and non gamers will buy 360 so they can sell stuff they designed to gamers on Live (why would a non gamer buy a game system?) Nintendo= Graphics on Rev will make you say "Wow". One year later E3' 06 Yes, Wii's controller is innovative but, graphically the Wii games look exactly like Gamecube titles (Which would explain why Zelda is being released day and date for both). Wii= impressive controller that will be a hot new fad...cool but not sure if it will truly win over the people in sustaining power after a couple years (Only Nintendo could sell you basically a Gamecube 1.5 with a new controller and get away with praise..if MS or Sony did that with a PS2 or XBox, people would say it's just a gimmick). MS= Umm...I guess they showed Halo 3 so all's well in 360 owner land Sony= Shocks the world with price and sell your sister financing on PS3. Heavenly Sword demonstration indistinguishable from last year's trailer...but they don't even touch on it much..in fact their press conference was boring as hell). These reputations are taken to the nth level on the internet...all companies make absurd claims. All of them. Nintendo is the most kiddie friendly company in the world it would seem but behind the curtains, they have done a lot of nasty things in the industry (16 bit wars cough...cough). MS does the same, and Sony...welll just does some really stupid things sometimes. Take it all with a grain of salt but I think the "sony lies and your in PS2 is really a bomb waiting to go off so you have to buy a new one"!!! or "MS is the devil incarnate evil"!!! things you hear online is mostly exagerrated fanboy ranting. And to make one last point: did anyone really think the PS2, Xbox, or whatever have you would produce the level of details in a demo from everyday games? A couple might. The power might be there...real world usage always dictates a drop in highest specs. Ever had once a year car wax actually stay on for a year (sprayed with water 52 times in a day long test does not equal one year in the real world) ? My search gloves are "sharps proof" including needles...for about 2 months. Cell phone batteries talk time....any battery operated device's operating time (always at the lowest power setting doing nothing so CE companies can give the highest number available). Ever get a Big Mac that looks like one on TV? Just smile and play the games you like. These reputations mean nothing to the mass market.

They aren't planning on staying at $600 for too long. Just to take as least of a loss as possible (as well as to appease the other CE companies making Blu-ray players) since honestly, they don't have to release at $400 this season and let scalpers make an actual profit on the hardware. And I know the Saturn story all too well. That said, I still have two of them (but none of the original gray ones anymore).

"Centipede, don't be dumb!" Best Black Belt Theather movie ever. Our local ABC used to have "Black Belt Theater" every friday at just before midnight in the 80's and they played a different kung fu flick every week. That was my fave back then. I have the DVD too. Classic.

Which is most likely how it will turn out again. Not saying it's right...just practically written on the wall. The PS2 had no library at launch compared to the Dreamcast and noticably inferior games for nearly a year until Sega finally closedu p shop on Hardware since PS2 sales (yes, on name and DVD alone) trounced them. They didn't "Mis-lead" people.....people wanted it...they got it...they seemed to be happy. Welcome to the mass market. And, to this day, average joe six pack honestly can't tell the difference between the 3 current consoles especially when they hooked them up through RF or composite connections. Sony does make some odd choices in their hardware design...but like the PS2, if the mass market accepts it (which will most likely happen in 2007), developer support will be there and thus the game library. BTW, OT, but some tidbits: the PS3's PS2 backwards compatibility will be hardware based and not software. Warhawk will support 32 players online, 60 FPS, up to 800 enemies on screen (I dunno about that one), seamless worlds, as well as land and other vehicle support. 360 Backwards compatibility update is supposedly coming...though Moore was quoted in an interview saying backwards compatibility wasn't what people were concerned about. Methinks they're giving it up soon.

Yes, because so far, MGS4, Lair, Heavenly Sword, Warhawk, FF XIII, and all the others look significantly worse than 1st gen 360 titles. Inquirer is extremely anti Nvidia and anti Sony so this "article" comes as no surprise. Time will tell...if the system is really that bad, then all the blogs and articles of internet know-be's won't be needed...the games will tell the story. PS2 was horrible and yet....

There is one adult UMD that was blessed with the OK from Sony in the US that I know of.

What would that be?

Someone who deserves to get scammed.

Mac OS X. Safari usually sometimes Firefox.

Yes, games have no region coding.

The movie region thing is about the only thing hasn't been cracked...until now I guess.

I was figuring that maybe there was someone that wanted that one and if I should have sold it and bought another. That's all. Does that modchip disable UMD movie regions?

They have the gimped version for people like you. They arguably should have gimped it even more. They should have the price on the gimped version at least to $399 but that may not have been possible. If you don't want need Blu-Ray, etc then don't bother bringing up $599 as $499 is for you. If $599 bothers, you most likely don't give a lick about HDMI, etc and 20GB is more than enough. You don't need to worry about memory cards or any such, either. Even so, I'll be very surprised if the $599 price point remains for very long. Certainly for the initial run, which is about guaranteed to sell out (I'm very interested in anyone thinks it WON'T). I'll bet by Christmas 2007, PS3 is at $499/$399. Prices that people are willing to pay HAVE come up. I never thought the PSP would have been successful due to it's price point and feature set versus something like the DS... but it has been. The XBOX did not make a significant imprint in Asia and the 360 has been lackluster. This shows with development and PS3 is going to have more wow titles sooner. I enjoy my 360 premium but there are still no MUST HAVE titles and except for Oblivion and GRAW I haven't been playing it so much recently... 402786[/snapback] Actually, my TV does have HDMI, and HDMI isn't just some fancy input for Blu-Ray players, it's a digital step up from component video. Not to mention that the $500 PS2 is also missing slots for memory cards, doesn't support wireless networks, has a smaller hard drive, and still costs more than I'm willing to pay for a console? The gimped version isn't for "people like me." No one in their right mind should be considering the gimped one. Remember that the $500 PS3 doesn't have wi-fi either. And that the actual technical superiority of the PS3 is still debatable, or that developers aren't planning on making PS3 games look any better than 360 games. $500 is no bargain. I think this is actually the crux of the issue. Sony isn't all that interested in next-generation console gaming. They're more interested in using the PlayStation brand and the naivity of the masses as a trojan horse to get Blu-Ray into more household. If I was in Sony's shoes, I'd probably be doing the same thing... their consumer electronics division has been hurting bad. Sony is gambling the future of the company on the success of Blu-Ray, and the PS3 is their ace in the hole. But if Sony's not interested in gamers beyond using us as a means to establish Blu-Ray in the marketplace, why should be we interested in their product? 402845[/snapback] Because they still are holding most of the cards. They could lose a lot of them at the end of this generation but for now, they still have the titles I want to play.

My dates have been secretly recording us and broadcasting it on the net? Well, the jig is up....Now all you frakking bitches better start paying to watch me and my girls all the time.

I'm not actually AGAINST extra features, but they shouldn't come at the cost of game functionality or drive the price up past a certain point. The fundamental problem with building up game consoles is that once the price rises to where they're competing with PCs, they get stomped by the PCs. Consoles can't fight with PCs on an even footing. They're far lower-end, but they're far cheaper because of it. That price is what makes them a viable option. I've already got a PC that can do more than a PS3 or XBox 360. The fact that it can't do BluRay right now is a minor issue, given that a BR drive takes about 5 minutes to add. If they want to blur the lines, they should just make a PlayStation Vaio and be done with it. Put a keyboard on the system case like the old Commodore64 and company, ship with a Vaio-branded USB gamepad, and just call it a day. Competing with PCs isn't a winnable fight. 402706[/snapback] Right now...but the line is thinning. And as an entertainment medium, Sony wants the Playstation to spearhead all forms of media entertainment in the future. And on one hand, while the cost is great to add up all the tech, the fastest way to bring down the prices of new tech is to sell a boatload. The PC argument ...sure technically a PC can do any console game...but they don't. You get FPS's MMO's, and some strategy and simulation titles. Plus...I use my computer for what it is...I don't bother playing games on it...so I guess I'm in the opposite end of where you are. I want a console that will do more but don't really want a full on PC to do it.

Won't be $600 forever. In fact, won't be $600 for too long. And this is rather moot but if you add up what's in a PS3 and tried to do the same with a 360, a 360 would be in the same range or higher scenario: $399 360 $100 WiFi (yeah you could get a 3rd party one but for the sake of price comparison) $199 HD DVD *estimate only..even if the add on is $100(which won't happen), we're at $600 to match* which steals a USB port and no HDMI*. Add up and you're still 40 GB short, HDMI-less, USB port less and missing some media slots (I'll be the first to admit these shoulda gone), and no motion sensing control(rip off or not, it's there now),SACD supportless, blah blah. I'm not saying $600 PS3 is a gift from the heavens (far from it actually)...but it isn't exactly gouging you for what you get either. Even if MS cuts $100 off the 360, it still matches the PS3's price when you figure in the add ons. Disclaimer: Everything I mentioned the PS3 has doesn't interest me much so much as BD support. 402616[/snapback] Here's my problem. I don't see the PS3 as a 60GB media center with SACD playback, BluRay movie playback, etc. I see it as a game machine. The 360's 20GB hard drive is more than adequate for a game machine. High-density optical media isn't needed for a game machine. HDMI isn't needed for a game machine, since there's no HDCP on video games so you can output high-def through component video or standard DVI(which the 360 supports). WiFi is the one feature I think the 360 really needs from the PS3 and Wii, mainly because it makes it a lot easier to hook up to a network. But it's a fully functional game machine without it.* FlashRAM slots would be nice, just because they increase your options for portable storage(the 360 memory card needs to die, as do all proprietary cards). At least it supports USB mass storage devices, though I'm not sure if it allows more than media through them. Hypothetically, it should be possible to add DVDAudio playback to the 360 with a simple OS update. SACD likely requires a new drive due to some of the copy-protection features. DVDA is supposed to be the better standard anyways, though. The specs I'm seeing say the 360 only has 48KHz, 16-bit audio. That will limit the output quality from a DVDA source, though you'll still get better than CD-DA. And since part of the advantage of HDAudio formats is just a matter of how they were mastered(since they target audiophiles, HDAudio tends to have better mastering than CD-DA), you'll get another quality boost there. *WiFi is kind of complicated. The 360 will ONLY work with MS' 100$ WiFi adapter. BUT you can buy a wireless bridge, that will convert the wired ethernet to 802.11, and the 360 never knows it's there. Bridges start at 30$, as far as I know. These also work on XBox, PS2, GameCube, and anything else with ethernet ports. 402619[/snapback] No, I see where you're coming from. But the lines between game consoles and PC's are beginning to blur and it's not likely to stop anytime soon. The black box is one step closer to reality whether we like it or not. I didn't know that about the 360's WiFi...interesting. EDIT: and on an un-related note, I bought Guitar hero for my PS2 a few days ago but have yet to open it up. Anyone else here ever try it?

Won't be $600 forever. In fact, won't be $600 for too long. And this is rather moot but if you add up what's in a PS3 and tried to do the same with a 360, a 360 would be in the same range or higher scenario: $399 360 $100 WiFi (yeah you could get a 3rd party one but for the sake of price comparison) $199 HD DVD *estimate only..even if the add on is $100(which won't happen), we're at $600 to match* which steals a USB port and no HDMI*. Add up and you're still 40 GB short, HDMI-less, USB port less and missing some media slots (I'll be the first to admit these shoulda gone), and no motion sensing control(rip off or not, it's there now),SACD supportless, blah blah. I'm not saying $600 PS3 is a gift from the heavens (far from it actually)...but it isn't exactly gouging you for what you get either. Even if MS cuts $100 off the 360, it still matches the PS3's price when you figure in the add ons. Disclaimer: Everything I mentioned the PS3 has doesn't interest me much so much as BD support. Edit: And yes, I think $600 is a hella chunk of change for the mass market. Too much. But I've owned Neo cart AES' so I'm jaded. What bothers me most about price is PC gamers who justify $3000 gaming rigs to play a single game. Or $500 graphics cards.

The wording was in-correct. They don't mean illegal in the sense in a law is passed...they meant that the disc would only work on one PS3. But this is all moot since it isn't going to happen.

Not gonna happen. This is just a UK site rumor trying to strum up traffic...with an old rumor. You can rest easy and keep on selling and buying used PS3 software.

There's some security hole in GTA's savegame feature that you can utilize to run unsigned code, i.e. homebrew. I haven't used that though, since I stayed on 2.0. 401954[/snapback] I've no desire to use homebrew or anything like that.