PS3 Impressions
This arrived yesterday. And as a result, I didn’t get to sleep until 1am. But not because I was playing games.
So there’s the box. I open it. No power brick, good. Plain old video cable. Not great. One controller with an absurdly short USB cable for charging.
The next challenge is getting anywhere for it to fit. It’s too tall to sit on its end the way they do in all the pictures. Taller than a shelf. Since I have to fit it next to the PS2 (because I won’t give up Guitar Hero, and the guitar controllers do not work on the PS3), the Xbox 360, the Wii, the Dreamcast, the cable box, the component switcher, and the XBox I also cannot give up because 1/4 of my games for it do not work on the 360, I have a lot of juggling to do.
Yes, I am annoyed that with three backwards compatible consoles, I still have to leave all the old ones hooked up. 😛 I did punt on the Gamecube, but the kids aren’t happy about losing their GameBoy Player…
Anyway, so I rearrange. After I rearrange, I have to try to get a picture.
Hmm, the whole reason to buy a component switcher was so that I could avoid having to flip through inputs on the TV. But with the PS3 on regular composite video (so much for 1080p!), I have to flip through three: component, S-Video, and A/V 1. Argh.
Plus, I hav zero software for the damn thing. Time to hit a store. It’s now 8:54pm. I figure, I’ll try to find a nunchuk while there, and maybe also grab something other than Wii Sports to play on the Wii.
Off I got to Circuit City, closest big box store. None of their PS3 or Wii stuff is in the aisles. You have to ask for it at the counter. OK, so I ask for the component video cable for PS3. They have them — but only ones with digital audio. Urgh. The component switcher does handle digital audio. But my old stereo only has one digital audio input, and we use it for DVDs. So I pass on the cable.
I try to find a PS3 game that looks good. Resistance: Fall Of Man looks good, but it’s in the mail separately. I settle on Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom because it’s literally the only other game they have that supports more than one player and isn’t a sports game. And a little bt of supporting the old team.
I get a second controller. It does not come with a ridiculously short USB cable. it comes with no USB cable at all.
I ask for the memory card adapter. They don’t have it.
I ask for a nunchuk. They don’t have it.
I grab Excite Truck for the Wii, (because again, there are a few games on order already, so I have to pick from what’s not already on order and that is multiplayer to keep the kids from fighting).
Then I go across the street to the GameStop. They have piles and piles of Memory Card Adaptors. So I pay the $15 for this one-time use device that you use to copy save files from the PS1 and PS2 memory cards to the PS3 hard drive and then never use again.
I get home and attempt to get a picture. All the cables are too short. I am out of power plugs. No, you can’t unplug the cable box/DVR because something is taping! Argh.
I check the Internet for component cables. The closest physically available component cable for PS3 that has standard audio outputs is located 15 miles away, and they have one in stock. All Internet order sites are out of stock, Some bizzarely list it as not yet available. I notice that there are no Sony-branded ones even listed anywhere. Hmm. I ponder the HDMI option, but again, I want all video games to run through the switcher. I notice that the prices on the component cables vary from $5 if you order them from China, to $90. Good God.
Finally I notice that the PS2 cable (which is an S-Video cable) uses the same jack on the console side. Hurray! I swap cables. and settle for having low-end video for just Guitar Hero. There was comedy of errors making sure everything worked. One cable or another kept popping out. We discovered the archaeological remains of the VCR’s cables.
Finally, at 12am, I get the picture working. The interface that was cozy on the PSP is kind of vague and spacey on a 50″ screen. Hmm.
No network. I find the option for wireless and turn it on. It goes to try to acquire an IP. It fails. We try multiple times, it still fails. it’s after midnight. I don’t care.
I set the controller to charging. I look at copying memory cards over, but the adapter does not come with a USB cable either. I could dig for another one in a drawer, or I could stop charging the controller. I decide against copying memory cards, and give up on charging the other controller either. USB to mini-USB cables in our house live in specific places from which they are not to be moved: hooked to the computers where we download pictures from our cameras, one in my laptop, and the rest in a vicinity located midway between Davy Jones’ Locker and the Bermuda Triangle.
So, finally, I put in Dark Kingdom. At S-Video resolution (hey, at least I found the option to change the settings to widescreen!).
At this resolution, well, it looks like a PS2 game. ANY game would, without component. It plays fine — straightforward hack n slash, just like the other ones (I wrote a fair amount of dialogue and story text for the first one). But I’m not getting the next gen experience, in large part because I can see the pixels quite clearly on my 50″ HDTV.
It’s 1am. I go to check email. DNS is down for all cable Internet in our area.
Bedtime.
14 Responses to “PS3 Impressions”
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[…] […]
You know, I have to actually switch a digital audio cable from console to console because I don’t have enough inputs for everything either, but it is completely worth the 10 seconds of hassle (takes longer for the console to power up). I actually though I had digital audio until a tech was here looking at my tv once and remarked that I was wasting the potential by not using digital audio. Once I got digital audio, I was astounded at the difference. Suddenly, the game was alive and surrounding me.
I think I’d give up HD before digital audio at this point.
–matt
All I can say is…
Good times!
Wow. I’ve been saying it on ArsTechnica for a while now, Sony screwed the pooch on this one. Is there really an excuse to advertise the 1080p greatness of your machine and then hand the purchaser of your brand spanking new $600 technology a composite video cable? Who was their market here? Even the Wii comes with better than composite video from what I understand and it sports a 480p widescreen maximum resolution. I’m hoping that the majority of people did not fare like you did in your first impression. You didn’t even have the pleasure of staring at a download screen while you wait for a demo to slowly crawl down to your console from the overwhelmed Sony servers.
Meanwhile on the 360 side of the house, I’m enjoying HD movies, gobs of arcade downloads, a slick user interface, media center connectivity and more. I just don’t get how BluRay is supposed to solve the PS3’s woes.
Kressilac
[…] Original post by Raph […]
Wow, good times indeed.
Sounds like, your main issues was because of your Frankensteins entertainment system. lol. (we all have one, some parts New and up to date, some very old..i have a beta).
Couldn’t you have just used an AV cable? Why the s-video on your PS2?
Actually, I had to hunt down Wii component cables too. In that case, I knew they were hard to get, so I ordered them off of Nintendo’s site two weeks early but with ovenright shipping, and they actually arrived the same day the Wii did.
What was the phrase? “The pot calling the kettle black,” or something.
Your PS3 experience is analogous to typical player’s MMORPG-installation experience, hours of frustration to install, download patches, enter 20-digit passwords, etc.
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie-pop? (old 70’s commercial) How many clicks does it take to get to gameplay in a MMORPG?
Fair point, Mike. 🙂
I had a similar experience today. I made it even worse by refusing to suffer the lame-ass composite cable. I went to Circuit City and purchased a royal rogering…er… I mean a HMDI cable for $60. Silly rabbit! Just because the TV has a HMDI port doesn’t mean that the PS3 will actually talk to the TV over it. Apparently the TV in question lacks the required encryption so the PS3 prefers to display its contents via a video interface previously occupied by a Magnavox Odyssey.
I’m still excited about what the PS3 can do. Don’t get me wrong. It’s just a bit of a shame that the most expensive console provides the least amount of satisfaction at the point of unboxing. On the flip-side the Wii was nothing but pure Jooky. Tear the box open and ten minutes later you’ve got friends you didn’t even know you had. Sony sure knows how to punch my tech-lust buttons but I sure wish they’d let me get to first base on the first date.
as an avid mmo fan, and multiple console owner…i’ll say this tho…
when you are installing a 4gig+ game, with a monthly subscription, you EXPECT there to be a long install, download of patches, and an account setup process.
The ONLY time this seemed seriously frustrating to me was when I tried ffxi after playing a number of other mmo’s, and SE seems to have regressed to the least usable process…
(that being said, I am a launch day player of swg, and a beta/launch player of eq2…and there is always that SOE first day pain in the ass, with server stability problems, launcher/login problems, etc – but again, that is expected to play on launch day)
With a console, you expect a quick and easy hardware installation – plug in power, plug in a/v, plug in controller, insert disc, and play.
Sony, with the PS3, has seemed to do EVERYTHING they can to make the process as unbearable as possible.
I think consoles are taking this “be like a PC thing” a little too far. What’s next, PS3 spyware?
FINALLY, a PS3 review that actually reviews the experience versus merely attacking Sony.
And a good story, too. I think you should rename it, “The Trials of Early Adoption”.
[…] Read his painfully hilarious blow-by-blow tale of personal PS3 woe here and here. His smart and chatty blog is extremely popular with game industry folks, so a lot of his fellow developers already have. (You have to think his observations will have a subterranean influence on them, when they wonder if their studio should create a PS3 version of their latest game.) […]