The PlayStation 3 Thread!

[Keith]

And yet July 11th IGN also has E3 pic's of PS3 Beautiful Katamari

http://media.ps3.ign.com/media/894/894962/imgs_1.html right after they're July 9th cancellation announcement.

I wouldn't make too much of this until something more official is announced.

[yellowlightman]

And yet July 11th IGN also has E3 pic's of PS3 Beautiful Katamari

http://media.ps3.ign.com/media/894/894962/imgs_1.html right after they're July 9th cancellation announcement.

I wouldn't make too much of this until something more official is announced.

Identical pictures are up on IGN's 360 site: http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/894/894217/imgs_1.html Probably just an f' up, IGN isn't exactly known for their consistency or quality reporting.

[mikeszekely]

That is why I asked about the PS3, because the XBox 360 HD DVD player WILL NOT upconvert standard definition DVDs past 480p because it is traveling over component cables.

I don't know about that. I absolutely swear that DVDs look better on my 360 than my PS3. My 360's a launch-day unit (maybe the only one left that hasn't had the red ring of death), and I have it hooked up via component. My PS3, well, I picked it up after the price drop. Firmware 1.82, hooked up via HDMI. In the BD/DVD Settings, I have DVD Upscale set to Normal. A DVD looks noticeably better on either console than my stand-alone DVD player (so I mainly use it for watching Divx). But I still swear that the same DVD will look just slightly better on the 360. Little details like Anakin's scar in Episode III are more clear.

The TV's a 52", so the difference between ED and HD is pretty easy to notice.

[Gaijin]

Here's an odd one: there will be a Megazone 23 game for the PS3 in Japan. Import friendly of course. Expect to see it at TGS.

And a shot of Soul Caliber IV for PS3 as well: Why the butt shot I do not know, but I guess it makes fans happy.

Edited July 18, 2007 by Gaijin

[GutsAndCasca]

Although I plan on buying it, my wife sure didn't like the new soul calibur pics in the new EGM. I uh... hm... how can I put this. I think there's a... a breaking point (?) where boobs are just a tad too big to be considered attractive anymore. And uh, the Soul Calibur team has transcended that point. I'm glad you posted the butt-shot, because once she turns around you can see her massive tumor-like potato sacks trying to bust out and touch her shins.

Okay, maybe if I played Katarami I'd think it's the greatest thing ever to grace people's consoles. I consider myself fortunate enough to not have played, and therefore avoided addiction to, what to me appears to be extremely weird - too weird. I dig strategy (love Warhammer, Rome, Comand and Conquer, LOTR) but pretty much only on PC.

It has nothing to do with me being a playstation "fanboy," as I bought an xbox 360 after both systems had already been released. It red-ringed me into giving the bird to Microsoft afer barely touching it for a few months, and then having to pay for the shipping costs instead of getting a "coffin" like everybody else. So I sold my 360, with it's ton of extras and TWO games, for much MUCH less than I paid. Now I have a playstation 3. If in 3 months my ps3 poops out on me too, then I'll hate Sony almost as much. I say almost, because I've never had a Sony system crap out on me, unlike my last-gen Xbox. Do I feel the sting of so many cool games (Bioshock, amidst others) going only to the 360? Hell yeah. But I'm hoping games like FF13 and Heavenly Sword will make up for it. I already think Resistance is about 60% as cool as Gears of war. For a launch game, that's really good.

I'll tell you what I am a fanboy of; Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. I also love Sengoku Basara. If someone can get a medieval version of these to work right and look next-gen, I'll be a very happy customer. Oh I also loved those what the hell do you call'ems for Xbox. They were sort of like Dynasty but it was all D&D'd out, and you controlled units instead of an individual, unless you got into melee. They weren't quite done right, but they were fun enough to waste my time. Nothing though, has ever wasted my time like Dynasty Warriors 3 did when it was brand-new. But it was a really good waste of time.

[yellowlightman]

Okay, maybe if I played Katarami I'd think it's the greatest thing ever to grace people's consoles. I consider myself fortunate enough to not have played, and therefore avoided addiction to, what to me appears to be extremely weird - too weird. I dig strategy (love Warhammer, Rome, Comand and Conquer, LOTR) but pretty much only on PC.

Katamari isn't a strategy game, nor is it really all that weird. You're farting nuts, though.

[the white drew carey]

Katamari isn't a strategy game, nor is it really all that weird. You're farting nuts, though.

Actually, it kind of is. At least We Love Katamari is. You really have to judge when you move to a new area and what to go for in order to open up secret/special stuff.

Like I said, I really don't want to get an X-box 360 because I don't care too much about most of the games on it, but Katamari IS a major selling point for me. I think those games are a frakking blast!!!

[Gaijin]

I'm hoping Katamari will make it's way back to the PS3 because, honestly, I doubt the majority of 360 owners in the US would even bother.

Edited July 19, 2007 by Gaijin

[Keith]

It is kinda weird that a mysteirous production problem would prevent a PS3 release of Katamari, especially in Japan where the PS3 would almost assuredly be more popular than the 360. Of course it's also weird that Ace Combat 6 would skip the PS3 as well, so perhaps Microsoft is just tossing mony Bamco's way to get a couple semi-exclusives, or even more likely, perhaps the release schedule got mixed up in translation.

[GutsAndCasca]

I'm especially farting nuts when I have the flu.

[yellowlightman]

It has more to do with the lessening importance of Japan as a market. Granted, the PS3 is outselling the 360 in Japan but worldwide the 360 still has a nice lead and ultimately companies stand a better chance of making money aiming for the larger global install base.

[Keith]

It's not so much that they're on 360, as the more access to games the better, it's the exclusivity that bugs me. Hell, if there were a way to set it up so that there would be grand Ace Combat 6 multi-platform multi-player online matches, that'd be awesome.

Edited July 19, 2007 by Keith

[GutsAndCasca]

Oooh, I gotta' add this: I think Microsoft has an unfair advantage in this next-gen battle, seeing as there are games going to the Xbox 360 AND "Games for Windows."

[Gaijin]

It's not so much that they're on 360, as the more access to games the better, it's the exclusivity that bugs me. Hell, if there were a way to set it up so that there would be grand Ace Combat 6 multi-platform multi-player online matches, that'd be awesome.

That would be. We can dream.

[Black Valkyrie]

Lets see what other surprises are in store for it especially after TGS. I bet PS3 will get AC-7 in the near future as smack for X360, you never know. I wonder what happen to Afterburner Climax, wasn`t it suppose to be for the PS3 ?

Edited July 19, 2007 by Black Valkyrie

[Gaijin]

Castlevania Symphony of the Night appeared on the PSN today, playable for both PS3 and PSP. Not a bad deal for $9.99

[Keith]

Lets see what other surprises are in store for it especially after TGS. I bet PS3 will get AC-7 in the near future as smack for X360, you never know. I wonder what happen to Afterburner Climax, wasn`t it suppose to be for the PS3 ?

That'd be pretty interesting, especially with the ease of imports. An interesting note, I write Bamco about Beautiful Katamari, and AC 6. I got a pretty speedy reply too, though it totally ignored by question about Katamari, and as far as AC 6:

"Thank you for contacting Namco Bandai's Customer Support Department.

Thank you for your interest in our games. With regards to Ace Combat 6 being developed for the Xbox 360 - this was a business decision for the company. While it is true we published the previous Ace Combat titles for Playstation platforms, delivering Ace Combat 6 for one platform allowed us to focus on one technology to deliver a strong, robust game. We hope that you get a chance to play Ace Combat 6 on the Xbox 360, and thanks for your continued support.

Please feel free to contact us again in the future as the need arises."

Which is coorperate speak for "no," bastards!

[Black Valkyrie]

Hmm...... well at least the PS3 has an advantage over X360 and that its open region.

[the white drew carey]

Hmm...... well at least the PS3 has an advantage over X360 and that its open region.

True. Most people seem to be ignoring that feature, but I think that it's an important one to keep in mind... as soon as there are games released only in Japan that I want to play!!!!

[bandit29]

Finally got a PS3. Amazon had a good deal(free remote plus RE Apocalypse Bluray and 5 Bluray movies) plus with price reduction..why the hell not. The movies I'll probably ebay lol

I got Ninja Gaiden Sigma and the Darkness. Both are pretty cool. I'm surprised I liked the Darkness since I suck at FPS's. Never had an Xbox, so NG is a new experience for me.

Downloaded a few things, Tekken 5 DR, Castlevania SOTN , and a few demos. Suprisingly Tekken 5 DR didn't take too long to download. 555 MB file, 1-1/2 hours over DSL. Granted I plugged right into my DSL modem instead of my router(which I think is fried lol)

So far, me likey. Except for the light controller and lack of rumble. Playing Burnout Revenge or Dominator without rumble is lame. I'll have to get one of those PS2/PS3 USB adapters.

Also thoughts on the intercooler? Yay or nay? Would I be better off with just a small fan? My PS3 is in a entertainment center.

[mikeszekely]

Castlevania Symphony of the Night appeared on the PSN today, playable for both PS3 and PSP. Not a bad deal for $9.99

It's definitely a good deal... unless you already bought in on XBLA. And even then, as great as the game is, I think I played it one too many times.

As far as playing it on the PSP goes, I think I can wait until Dracula X comes out on PSP.

[GutsAndCasca]

Also thoughts on the intercooler? Yay or nay? Would I be better off with just a small fan? My PS3 is in a entertainment center.

Gawd, and here I bought a ps3 at full price literally 3 days before they dropped the price and threw in all the extras. Oh well. C'est la vie.

I bought a dual-fan from Intec that attaches to the front of the ps3, just to be safe. That system has a loooot of really hot air blowin' out the sides, even though the machine itself stays reasonably cool. The downside of the fan, is that it turns a normally quiet system into a louder-quiet system. And who knows if it'll help? I had a cooling fan hooked up to my 360 almost from day one and it still bottomed out.

Just for the f' of it, I'll throw in a list of games I own now: Rainbow Six Vegas, Resistance FOM, Virtua Fighter 5, Motor Storm, Marvel Super Heroes, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Motor storm, Resistance, and Virtua are just gorgeous. I need to pop in that Marvel game though, I haven't played it yet.

[Black Valkyrie]

PS3 Fanboy interview: Udon Comics and Street Fighter.

[Dangard Ace]

I just wish Pixar would hurry up and poop out their movies on Blu Ray already... it would make this decision soooooooo much easier for me. Also seeing something like Blade Runner or Aliens or Indiana Jones on Blu Ray would also seal the deal. So many promises but so little delivery. About all I see that I would buy right now would be Casino Royale, BHD and the new re-release of Fifth Element when it shows up. After that comes Surfs Up (October) and then whatever Pixar finally releases combined with whatever Fox finally releases... Seems like such a waste to spend so much for so little in the present...

Hey Js,

better get a BluRay player by Nov. because Cars is going Blu!

http://www.hollywoodinhighdef.com/blog_detail.php?id=95

July 18, 2007

Cars to Make DeBlu on Nov. 6

Comments: 6

"Cars" will debut in Blu on Nov. 6, according to a Disney exec with whom I was just chatting.

This sounds like it will be a pretty special Blu-ray Disc release with director John Lasseter taking a very hands-on approach to every nuance of the entire Blu-ray edition from the transfer to the Blu bonus features (in addition to all the extras from last year's DVD).

The coolest-sounding BD extra is maybe the most elaborate BD-J interactivity yet called "Car Finder," allowing users to search for the more than 200 different cars featured in the movie and even race the clock to find a specific car in a frozen frame of film. Details of the makes and models of each car will also be accessible. (Sounds like a feature devised by reported car-nut Lasseter, doesn't it?)

All the featurettes and audio commentaries of the DVD, plus a previously unreleased Traffic School scene, are presented in a "Cinemavision" dashboard interface that allows users to view them any way they want, popping up during relevant parts of the movie or stand-alone.

Several of the shorts on the original DVD will be in hi-def on the Blu-ray version, which, by the way, I'm told is encoded in AVC.

And Disney is pricing it at $34.99 suggested retail, only $5 higher than last year's DVD edition. That DVD version was the big winner last night at the Entertainment Merchants Association's Home Media Expo in Las Vegas with three Home Entertainment Awards -- family, children's and sell-through title of the year.

Disney already reported yesterday (see my Tuesday blog) that they will be offering demos and hands-on play of the "Cars" bonus features at their 18-city road show tour of malls starting soon, so maybe some of you can feed us your early first-hand reports about the bonus features!

[JsARCLIGHT]

I actually ordered my PS3 from Amazon last week, it should be here sometime this week. I saw that blurb about Cars on High Def Digest this morning.

I have also read recent rumors about the Aliens series, Blade Runner and Dawn of the Dead (78) coming to Blu Ray by Christmas.

[GutsAndCasca]

Aliens and Blade Runner? Aw hell yeah!

[Gaijin]

1.9 Update out. Custom backgrounds are here finally:

Sorry for the poor dark picture..used my phone to get a quick pic.

The full list

• Ability to rearrange games on the XMB

• Option menu now includes "eject disk"

• Press triangle to eject games/CDs/movies in the XMB

• XMB backgrounds

• Change the folder classification

• Emoticons

• Change CD output to 44.1/88.2/176.4kHz

• Force 24Hz output for Blu-ray over HDMI

• Change PS3 video settings in-game

• "Bit Mapping" in the "Music Setting"

• Save AVCHD type animations from a Memory Stick

• Change settings like upscaling while playing PS and PS2 games

• Add bookmarks

• Web browser security function in the browser's tool section

• Avatar moves during audio visual chat

Edited July 24, 2007 by Gaijin

[Ghadrack]

Thanks for the patch update I just got home from a road trip and will be patching today.

When I saw 20th Century Fox on the Blu-ray exclusive list I was immediately excited about the Alien/Alien's movies, two of my all time favoraites that I will rebuy even though I have them on Laserdisc and DVD (I just gave the VHS tapes to the Goodwill a few months ago), Let's hope the Christmas rumor is true and they put all the extra features from the various collections on there.

[bandit29]

Cool. I'll have to update when I get home.

So far, so good with PS3. I've been having a good time with it. Ninja Gaiden Sigma is really tough jeez..Might pick up NASCAR 08 this week.

I watched Pirates of the Carribean 1 & 2 on Blu-ray. I was really impressed. Until the prices come down, I will only rebuy movies that I really love. How is Sleepy Hollow on Blu-ray? I've read mixed reviews. 300 comes out next week yeah!!

The PS3 does a pretty good job upconverting regular DVDs. It does a much better job than my Samsung. If only the PS3 could be region hacked and display PAL DVDs too. One thing the PS3 doesn't do well is layer change. Every Sony DVD player I have owned has been bad at this. Oh well.

Edited July 24, 2007 by dejr8bud

[JsARCLIGHT]

Sleepy Hollow is another one of those movies that I may end up buying... but not right away. From all the reviews that I've been reading it seems there are two distinct camps of Blu Ray release on the market: The top tier, good codec HD mastered five star titles... and the crap "shovelware" ones that movie houses just seem to be pooping out just to get something on HD.

A glaring example of that is the Fifth Element original Blu Ray release and the brand new re-release. The original Blu Ray of the Fifth Element is abysmal... terrible mastering and an old codec equal a really shitty picture not worthy of Blu Ray. Add to that a complete lack of any real extras or decent sound options and pretty much the DVD barfed onto a Blu Ray disc with no real concern over it being "HD" enough or even worth the upgrade. What should have been a system demo disc was a coaster... Fans everywhere complained so loud you'd think it was a freight train coming. They finally got around to re-mastering and re-releasing it with an upgraded picture, upgraded sound, decent transfer and a decent codec... but still no extra features. All they did was "fix" their original "mistake" and poop the disc back out onto the market.

That alone kind of makes me fearful to buy very many of the "early release" or "non bigtime" Blu Ray titles. If you dig through the reviews at HighDefDigest you'll see that many of the first releases and second tier shovel titles use the old MPEG2 codec, have sub par sound encoding and options and are generally not worth their inflated price tags. Movie companies just don't seem to want to put the effort into properly mastering and encoding their HD DVD and Blu Ray releases. Really only the brand new, just out of the theaters movies or the uber fanboi super digital hyper collector's editions of older movies seem to be getting worthwhile treatment in the HD media. Don't get me wrong though the overall quality IS improving, it's just that you still have to "read up" on the next gen titles you want to buy to make sure you are not purchasing a glorified upscaled DVD.

Now I just need to track down Universal Studios and punch them in the groin... it pains me to see movies like Streets of Fire, Hot Fuzz, Shawn of the Dead and others in HD... only on HD DVD. I have never in all my years wished for the death of a format so much.

[The Shade]

So, JS, it seems to me that BluRay & HD-DVD are following the same trend as DVD did when it first started becoming really popular. The first DVD's weren't that well encoded and featured few extras. Everyone was still adjusting to the new technology, from encoders to consumers.

IMO, it seems a waste of time & money to switch over to the new formats simply because most of the titles released now will be re-released with better transfers & extras later on.

[JsARCLIGHT]

That is really only true of the second tier titles and the "shovelware" movies. If you are buying a next gen player for the first tier five star titles like Pirates of the Caribbean, then you will not be disappointed... because those big bux titles get top flight treatment with the best picture and sound mastering for 1080p, the best codecs and a slew of bonus materials and extras. But if you are buying a next gen player for the second tier titles or older "drop and go" movies then you will most likely be very disappointed.

Just as an example, some of the ratings from HighDefDigest for Blu Ray movies are:

Pirates of the Caribbean 1 - four and a half stars, the second highest rated Blu Ray available

Casino Royale - three and a half stars, middle of the road average Blu Ray

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - a generous two stars, absolute crap.

But what are you doing buying a movie like Christmas Vacaiton on Blu Ray for? Or at least that is the thought most movie houses think so they don' spend the time in remastering the footage for this new media. They throw all their money into their glitzy, glamorous box office babies that they want to look spectacular in HD... but then they shovel the second tier stuff out with sub par quality.

I don't think it's a matter of them "not knowing how to handle the media" as much as it is just them not caring right now. Their bread and butter is still DVD as their bread and butter is still their big name first tier titles. That is were their time and money are spent... I just feel that people may feel "ripped off" by purchasing some of the lesser titles for Blu Ray and finding the video and audio quality is not much better than their old upscaled DVD.

Being an "early adopter" is not as bad as it sounds, you just have to be careful about what you buy. At the same time I think the studios have learned this lesson and that is why many of the "wanted" titles are taking so long to appear on Blu Ray, the studios are re-mastering and cleaning up their movies... taking the time to give people their monies' worth so the new format doesn't get written off as just a "more expensive DVD".

[F360°]

MGS4 gameplay revealed with English sub.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22703.html

[myk]

March 2008?

[Keith]

Oh my god, if I hadn't already just bought a PS3, I'd run out the door & buy one right now.....I fear the awesomenes of MGS4. I don't even want to think about what the Gekkou fight's will be like.

My favorite part, using porno mags to recover Snake's stamina after spinning in the drum.