Playstation 3 advice
Saturday 19 January 2008 ◷ 14:14
I've got a Playstation 3 and people ask me for advice if it's a good decision to buy one. Here's some advice:
- The EUR 399 Playstation 3 isn't the issue: It's the Big Full HD TV to go with it when you want to enjoy 1080 games and Blu-ray movies. Throw in a nice surround set to enjoy the sound and you'll realize the Playstation 3 could be just a good Blu-ray player, costing less than 15% of your complete multimedia set. Sony shouldn't have marketed it as a game-console.
- It's a half-assed computer, so if you've got a fully-assed computer hooked up to your living room TV-screen anyway, why would you want to use a browser that is limited to Flash 7 and an operating system that can't run applications like Google Earth, Skype or MSN? On the other hand, it could be tricky for a non-technical person to set up a 1080 HDMI capable, 7.1 surround, Bluetooth and WiFi enabled PC or Mac that does what the Playstation 3 does out of the box. And would you buy a Blu-ray drive to put in that computer that costs about as much as a Playstation 3?
- Watching Spiderman 3 on Blu-ray in 1080 you realise the resolution is so high the director of the movie needs to be aware of that to make it an advantage instead of an annoyance. Preferably leave out close-ups altogether unless it's CGI. I don't think a lot of movies shot before the Blu-ray era will gain much by trying to make them fit in 1080. Also TV-shows that were meant to be seen on 20" SD screens don't get better by showing details that weren't meant to be noticed in the first place. So only new movies will start to benefit from 1080, and you could see those in a theater near you. Currently the Blu-ray collection isn't very interesting, and DVDs for movies that were meant to be seen on DVD are just as good.
- Games are still in development. Being able to use 1080 and SIXAXIS it would take some time for developers to come up with well balanced games that utilize these technologies in a way that makes it more than a gimmick. Just like movies aren't just made by pointing a camera at a stage-play, new concepts need to be developed, and that hasn't happened yet, so there is no need to hurry to buy a Playstation 3.
- As a Media Centre it feels cool to zoom and pan photo's in 1080 using the analog sticks of the SIXAXIS controller. The visualizers of the Music Player are brilliant, but you probably don't want to have a big TV screen and a noisy Playstation 3 switched on just to listen to some MP3s.
Conclusion: No need to buy it today. With prices of HD TV-sets dropping fast it pays to wait for the game you want to play to be actually released.