@Trezzer
Then it is indeed going to be very interesting to see which version ends up being looking and running best.

@Tomas

Quote:

Has anyone checked out the screenshots for the coming xbox 360 racing game Dirt? I think the graphics on this images looks superior to motorstorm, as there is less jaggies and the textures seems sharper. link

Actually, this doesn't look very good at all. No jaggies and the car models are very detailed but the backgrounds are all over blurred and grossly under detailed, the rock models look as if they're out of Opposing Force, not to mention the wall in the first shot on your link.

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@AMiGR
Did you look at all screenshots and then looked at screenshots of motorstorm? The motorstorm ones have actually less details on the background.

Example: examplepic
Are you honestly suggesting that these pictures have less details?
1
2
3
The only thing i am unsure about is how the draw distance compares.

Last edited by Tomas on 22-Mar-2007 at 09:18 PM.
Last edited by Tomas on 22-Mar-2007 at 09:14 PM.

@Tomas

Well, I didn't say whether I like one over the other, I just didn't like the screenshots on that website.

Maybe I'm expecting too much from these new consoles, dunno.

Last edited by AMiGR on 22-Mar-2007 at 09:19 PM.

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@Tomas

Not "less details", "not enough details", I'm not comparing, I'm just stating opinion. These last 3 grabs look better though.

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@AMiGR
Ah, then i completely agree with you. Both titles use way too much motion blurring in my opinion.
And people who are used to high end pc gaming is definitely not going to be very impressed, considering that pcs already have better gpu than both of these consoles.

@jorkany

Quote:

jorkany wrote: @T_Bone Quote: Wow. inflation. Is it me or did people make more back then? I dunno T_Bone - or should I say Alan Greenspan?!

Shhhh! Atheist thinks that's me! I'm waiting for him to see me on TV, it'll blow his mind!

Last edited by T_Bone on 22-Mar-2007 at 10:51 PM.

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"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you." - Oscar Wilde

A nice marketing stunt in the UK:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6167940.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;2

Reports from Australia:

http://au.gamespot.com/news/6167868.html?tag=topslot;title;1&om_act=convert&om_clk=topslot
http://www.angry-gamer.net/ag/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=450&Itemid=2

In Finland at least Verkkokauppa.com seems to have a tens of machines free in stock. Let's see how this plays out.

Last edited by jtsiren on 23-Mar-2007 at 05:55 AM.

@jtsiren

Verkkokauppa.com still shows over non-reserved 50 units available in Helsinki and Tampere. That could mean way above 50, since they only show 25+ per store. The store has now been open today for two and a half hours so it seems everyone who wants one can get it.

I visited couple of smaller stores as well on the way to a meeting and the machine is readily available at least where I live. If queues formed up, I didn't see any but then I wasn't there in the earliest morning. Notable is that same stores sold out Xbox 360 Premium and Wii in a matter of minutes back during their launches. Games and accessories were also available in what seemed to be pristine piles.

Obviously the better launch volume is showing. Good for those who want one.

@Tomas

I think those Dirt images compared to Motorstorm really underline how good anti-aliasing is in removing jaggies. Dirt looks far better from a jag-free-stand-point.

More reports:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/playstation-launch-is-a-muted-affair/2007/03/23/1174153291466.html

http://www.journaldugamer.com/index.php?2007/03/23/4926-lancement-de-la-ps3-en-france-chroniques-d-un-fiasco

As for Finland, I read online that Helsinki's largest department store Stockmann had only mild queues in the morning. The weren't able to get enough people to participate in a queue-raffle and were handing out raffle tickets to other bystanders to get enough participants for the raffle. Apparently they have plenty of machines available still.

The midnight launch in one store apparently attracted 40+ people here in Helsinki, so I guess many hardcore gamers got theirs then. Another poster wrote from Oulu, that local Prisma had six PS3's available this morning when it opened for launch and he was the only one there to purchase it. Same place had huge queues for Wii December, absolutely no queues this time around.

Maybe pre-orders have muted queues, but still 50+ non-reserverd units available at Verkkokauppa.com. I guess no problem securing one later today, supplies are good.

This is just plain comical in France:

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5001&Itemid=2

Please read the whole article but here's a quote:
Quote:

At 10 pm, a majority of smiling journalists received on their mobile phones a written message wishing them a good evening from “Team Xbox”. Later, a large illuminated and trumpeting boat passed by with Xbox 360 logos all over. Microsoft became the instantaneous uninvited star of the evening. At midnight no more than 50 people were actually queuing for a PS3. More than 100 media people were trying to get an image or a worthwhile interview. They were the crowd. The first official buyer’s Visa Card didn’t work. His moment in the media glared swiftly passed to another. The second buyer was overwhelmed by cameras. He didn’t have much to say either. All in all, maybe 50 PS3s. 950 were not.

PS,
If you look at a prior MikeB PS3 thread when the launch day alotment was annouced, I predicted 500K sold, not the sell out everyone else predicted. Yay me! Me FTW! Me - justified.

Last edited by Lou on 23-Mar-2007 at 11:00 AM.

@Lou

Well, it is still early to predict final sales numbers. The pre-orders have affected numbers as well. But certainly it seems plenty of units are available for purchase and that has dampened some of excitement.

Actually I'm surprised at the reports of how tame or missing queues have been... But we'll see as the reporting goes on.

We pre-ordered a Wii and have never regretted it. The price was half that of the PS3, the console is immense fun, and for weeks after we bought ours - people were still struggling to find them.

The PS3 in contrast is double the price, STILL in stock everywhere (suggesting either a higher number were shipped, or a lower "must have" value for consumers,) whereas the Wii was out of stock within minutes of launch, and the games are nothing more than your usual PS1 + PS2 games re-hashed.

There's more to life than FPS + Racing games. I'm sure you realise that, but Sony don't.

@Thalos

Wii is super-fun, no doubt. I'm actually encouraged by some of the technical reports on Wii, hopefully future games will improve visuals as well even if only 480p still. The controls are cool.

Wii has been sold out for months here as well with shipments selling within a day. I haven't asked if it finally available now late March, maybe.

@jtsiren

From Australia:

Quote:

Today is tomorrow in Australia. Not just is it tomorrow, but it's coming on noon. According to The Sydney Morning Herald the PlayStation 3 launched last night with "officials, media and security outnumbering customers." The 500 retailers on the continent opened their doors for a midnight launch and despite the estimated 20,000 pre-orders "most stores were virtually deserted."

@Thalos and others

However the PS3 is selling at the moment, whatever deficits it has as a games console (though I can see none) and despite its initial high price, everybody seems to be missing the point, it is designed to run computer OSes.

The teenage market, is also the market where education is pressing that every child and their dog has to have a computer.

Put two and two together - when the price drops you have convergence, the love of games and the need for a computer, and as a bonus sans Windows.

A console-computer is a new market and slotted in very well to a demand that is already established - teenagers who need a computer for school work, plus those that need a computer occassionally and like playing games a lot.

My sons' PS3 came today, within a few minutes it was wireless linked into our home router, and I am very slowly downloading Yellow Dog at the moment.

A menu item on the PS3 is devoted to installing OSes, if it is as easy to use as the rest within a short time our console will also be a very reasonable computer.

Put the price of a computer to the price of the cheapest console and you will see it makes the PS3 a much cheaper option - that is the real market, are market that will not take long to form itself once the penny drops.

What after all was the Amiga?

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Greg Schofield, Perth Australia

@GregS

Quote:

The teenage market, is also the market where education is pressing that every child and their dog has to have a computer.

Windows is so dominating (Apple is a good second nowadays) that I have to wonder how well that market might turn out based on Linux... but it is certainly something PS3 does that Xbox 360 or Wii do not.

Last edited by jtsiren on 23-Mar-2007 at 11:52 AM.

@jtsiren

Thanks,

I have been banging on about the PS3 for a while, and not because I am over-enamoured by games (I like them but play only a handful, which besides Call of Duty are not likely to soon see the PS3).

It is the twining of console and computer that is interesting and I would argue critical. A computer piggy-backing on a console is a winning formula, I mean Amiga did it the other way round in a market less developed than today.

I would add another point, missed too often by tech-heads like ourselves, performance has outstripped the general capacity to make use of it. Middle range computers today deal effectively with video editing etc., in fact it is hardly the processing power but the relative slowness of the storage medium (plus the slowness of the OS - I mean windows) that makes things crawl.

In a practical way we have reached a technical plateau, the hardware is magnificent, when 3D graphics start looking like film (and this is true enough of all the consoles not just the PS3), how much better does it need to get until there is another real leap.

A fixed spec'ed system like PS3, or Xbox for arguments sake, running like a computer works for 99% of all computer use, plus reduces the maintenance issue and raises a reliability factor (which Mac has exploited for sometime now).

If PS3 comes down by just one quarter in price, the penny will drop. Mac could not reduce its price that far, but consoles will.

This is potentially a very big market and I wish OS4 was in on this.

_________________
Greg Schofield, Perth Australia

@GregS

All that is of course true. The only thing that puzzles me is Linux going to be widely accepted enough as an OS to make PS3 an alternative computer for a wider market. Or will other OS options be available that might.

Maybe?