@jtsiren

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jtsiren wrote: @wegster Thank you for the report. Interesting read. How would you compare it to Xbox 360 (if you have experience of that)?

Sorry, no 360 exposure of consequence to do a real comparison to. I generally game on my PS2 (now PS3) and on my workstation booted into Windows on occasion. I'm not a hardcore gamer any more, as there simply is never enough time to really dedicate to everything I'd like to.

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@Toaks

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thanks for your view on things, but , i wonder if you have a ps2 review from the rev1 and up to latest rev times? , why i ask is because i found the ps2 to be painfully ackward to get online and far more bad games and niggles than the PS3... sure its evolved but it would be fun to see how they really compare.

Sadly, I don't. I have the rev 1 PS1, and was tempted a time or two to pick up one of the newer ones, but haven't done so. I don't game nearly as much as I used to, and tend to generally NOT use the online gaming features, except for an occasional online game among friends, but not for the 'open games' in general- 13 year olds that have endless amounts of time to play and/or find cheats generally smoke most 'occasional gamers,' even in games I used to consider myself quite good at like Age of Empires or Total Annihilation.

Getting the PS3 online is nearly foolproof. I'm sure it could be improved in some ways over time, but having ethernet and/or wireless standard goes a long way towards getting it used.

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As for the WIFI stuff, i found both the ps3 and psp to be slow via WIFI (transfer) but i also found out that the PS3 is much faster once i set it up vertically..might be my room design or something blocking or whatever.

Weird. I noticed I don't get as strong a signal on the PS3 from my wireless as I do on my Macbook or Dell laptops, but it's reasonable, just seems to not be fast. That may well be because so far, it's really been hitting remote servers for the most part versus any of my local systems with known performance...browsing generally seems OK.

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btw on the PS2 and PSP: sick of seeing tons of french people playing online and no english ones....especially after playing games with headset :D

I bet. When I was in the Miami airport coming back from Costa Rica, someone kept repeating some message over and over in Frnech on the PA system. Sheesh, _some_ French people speaking really grate on my nerves...not sure why, but the airport message had me looking for the speaker to contemplate ripping out of the wall

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@clebin

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The question on pre-owned PS2 prices, if that's not off-topic? Can I expect much of a drop when the PS3 comes out here? I'm probably quibbling over a few quid, but it just seems too high to me right now.

PS2 at Circuit City shows at $129.99 USD currently. Bearing in mind the real outlay is generally in accessories and games, doesn't seem too bad a deal..?

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@wegster

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I am having an odd time getting the second controller to pair, however. Can't find the directions from the controller itself, and the PS3 manual says 'turn it on.' Ok, and that does nada, and there's no 'pair controllers and set IDs' anywhere in the menu system, or at least not easily found. Not annoying yet, but...

I'm not sure about this, but I think I heard that you need to hook it up physically to the console to pair it.

@wegster

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Interesting about Full Auto- it's the kind of game I generally like, just saw several less than favorable reviews, so figured I'd skip it for the $$$.

Oh right, sorry. Didn't keep in mind that it would be $60. I just grabbed it at £18 and at that price point it was well worth the money.

@Trezzer

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Trezzer wrote: @wegster Quote: I am having an odd time getting the second controller to pair, however. Can't find the directions from the controller itself, and the PS3 manual says 'turn it on.' Ok, and that does nada, and there's no 'pair controllers and set IDs' anywhere in the menu system, or at least not easily found. Not annoying yet, but... I'm not sure about this, but I think I heard that you need to hook it up physically to the console to pair it.

Yep, did that, nada. I haven't spent a lot of time on it, just kinda writing bits as I experience them. Tried power off/on with only it connected, nothing. Looked through menu system, nothing but basically re-assign IDs, yet no function for 'scan for new devices' in an easy to find (or possibly any) location.

Yep, $60 for Full Auto...I'll probably pick it up once pricing on it drops, but for that amount, it really needs to be good to get me to go for it. Lemmings is a $6 download, may grab that too

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@wegster

Yeah, if I had a PS3 and not a PSP I'd grab GripShift and Tekken:DR for sure. They're solid games at a reasonable price.

Edit to add mini-review:

The best way to describe Gripshift is that it's a bit like Stunt Car Racer mixed with platforming. You have the regular racing, but you can break and accelerate while in the air. While this doesn't make it realistic, it makes it a whole lot of fun. You still have gravity and a lot of time pressure, so at the end of the day it plays a bit like Stunt Car Racer mixed with Super Monkey Ball mixed with a platformer. I think it's one of the best games on the PSP.

Last edited by Trezzer on 15-Jan-2007 at 10:39 PM.

@wegster

No, not bad at all. Equivalent UK price would be $180-190, and I've got the games & accessories from my dead one, remember.

It is nice to see Bully / Canis Canem Edit selling well on PS2 after initial reports of poor sales and follow-ups being unlikely. I don't know if anyone on here has played it, but it looks fun.

Stunt Car Racer - now that really was a game! It's rather sad that Geoff Crammond had a new version in the works but, like Alien Breed, publishers weren't sufficiently interested. I'd get GripShift on the strength of the comparison.

Chris

Last edited by clebin on 16-Jan-2007 at 12:20 AM.

@clebin

Canis Canem Edit is highly enjoyable. I'm still a bit miffed that the Xbox 1 port was canned, because it would have been even more enjoyable with a better frame rate. It's playable enough though and if you're used to Grand Theft Auto on PS2 it shouldn't be a problem.

It feels a lot like a mix between Skooldaze and GTA - with the themes on the Skooldaze side of things and a lot of the mechanics from GTA. It works surprisingly well - in fact I enjoy it more than the GTA-series. It's a nice bonus that there are lots of mini games and even little arcade machines hidden around town

It's much more than that though and definitely feels like it stands on its own two legs rather than lean too much on its spiritual predecessors. I too hope there'll be a sequel - preferably on the next-gen consoles.

Oh, and so that's what happened to Alien Breed I saw the PS2 screenshots which looked promising, but then nothing...

Been playing Marvel: Ultimate Alliance lately. A mini-review, followed by other PS3 comments, after having it for a bit..

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
MUA gives you access to play 20 or so Marvel superheroes through a fairly long campaign. I haven't checked if there's an online mode or not, but I believe there is. Some heroes need to be unlocked by performing different actions in the game, while at least half are immediately playable.

You control a team of 4 heroes at a time, able to select which ones you use from the available roster, and switch between your 4 at will during gameplay. Each can get and use individual items, and has skills, that can be improved over time as characters level, as well as spending some $ on them, collected throughout the game by kills and smashing crates. You can allow characters to 'auto-spend' their XP/skills, or select only individual ones to train...the latter being most effective, as you can leave some of the less used powers alone...I generally train up at least one projectile (throwing Caps sheild or Thors hammer..), one 'help the entire party' (Ms Marvel can slow down time for a bit, others), and one 'aggressive/attack' skill, along with upping everyone's defense. Crates and 'breakables' or kills can also give health or 'energy' replenishment, where energy is used by each hero for their 'special' powers. Specail powers can have 3 'instantly available' at a time via the controls, and you can cycle in additional ones to use during play pretty easily. There are sidequests in the game which can give different items, experience, or unlock characters. You can also find one-time/use items that gives body, skill, or trait (strength, striking, etc) upgrade to a single character, so you can tailor and improve the characters as you see fit, and the system works pretty well. Other items found unlock artwork, or 'training missions' for all of the characters, on an individual basis, which you can play from SHIELD HQ. Oh, and some of the chars can fly, others can't..

Some of the artwork/models are great (Captain America, Spidey, Spider-Woman, Ghostrider), while others have gone drastically downhill...unsure if it's the 'latest look' as I don't follow comics all that much any more, but Iron Man and Thor look like total dorks, and the 'loading artwork' for Human Torch and a few others is quite bad, while others are great.

In a nutshell, Dr Doom has assembled a bunch of supervillians together, for a specific purpose, which you don't know at the start. He plans attacks on several locations- a SHIELD supercarrier/airborne base, Asgard, Murderworld, Mephisto's realm, and others, and you jump in to try to save the day. You can save games only at SHIELD HQ, or a few designated locations, some of which are blocked off until you perform certain actions or solve puzzles.

The game has RPG elements to it, although it IS a fighting game, and in a very few cases, special dialog depending on who you use to talk to someone. There are some 'mini-games' embedded into it, like playing Pitfall with your controlled character.

Enemies are fairly varied, but could be moreso. There are trolls that regenerate, Viking warriors, Dark Elves, and a fair number of others, which act differently from one another..and some that have shields, making a frontal attack difficult. You fight a Kracken at one point (sort of), and a decent number of 'special creatures.' Most of the puzzles are pretty decent, if not all seriously challenging, and generally add to the game.

There are no graphic stutters during gameplay, and hero actions and powers are pretty cool to watch/play. Graphics are overall good, some areas better than others, but some things do pop into sight on short notice, which is a slight detractor to the experience. Also, some skills could be differentiated a bit more, as to the effect of some skills being ineffective against some enemies, while others may have additional damage...this generally isn't the case, although for some creatures, you do need to perform a special attack on them.

Game controls- Considering the large number of powers and abilities you have, I think they're pretty well done, and offer fast access to anything you need during gameplay, with every button being used, plus a few combos, and the ability to 'charge' some attacks or powers by holding buttons, others you can change the effect on once you launch it. Well done there. An annoyance is their use of 6-axis in some places. In most, it adds slightly to the game, as you have to match a sequence of moves displayed as you play...but in one, the frost giant Yimr, it seems highly 'questionable' as to whether or not, even after matching actions (the final action before you can strike him is to rotate the controller forward and back fast/many times), it seems hit or miss if it 'works.' In this case, quite annoying, as rotating the controller that many times over time makes my wrists aggravated, and ready to launch the controller after doing the same thing 38 times and only hitting 3x (need 4x to kill). Unsure if you can use the buttons instead, but that would be VERY welcome in that case, at least.

Overall, the game is fun to play. It's not a bad start to something that could become excellent, with a bit more RPG element to it, and some new 'worlds' to play in. I'd rate the game/enjoyment above Resistance, at least for single player/campaign mode. I'm close to finishing both games (last 30% or so for each), and it's taken longer with MUA, plus I can do all the training missions/simulations yet, which are really effectively normal additional 'levels' in the game, with a set of objectives for each character, each 'level'/training mission being different, or can opt for replay with an entirely different set of heroes...then there's I believe online play for both of them.

Overall summary:
graphics: 7.5
gameplay: 8.5
controls/variety of moves: 9
storyline: 8
Total Score/overall: 8.5 A good game, that even non comic fans will likely enjoy.

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@wegster

Some misc demo game notes:
I downloaded the GTHD, Motorstorm, lemmings, and gripshift demos.
GTHD:
isn't bad, but not great, IMO, compared to when for example, GT2 and GT3 came out...will have to see if it improves, along with the use of the Logitech GT25 wheel, and has force feedback or not.

Motorstorm:
reasonably fun, the demo let's you play either with a truck or a motorcycle/dirt bike. The physics aren't entirely real/could be improved (yeah, I've ridden off-road before), and for some annoying reason, you can't wheelie the motorcycle from what I can tell. They make a big deal over their 'destroyable parts' of vehicles etc, yet it doesn't always seem to work when you wreck, leaving the vehicle entirely unscathed (but of course, your player dies/resets). I haven't yet seen a case where the truck or dirt bike was damaged, but keeps going, with some effect on how it plays, unsure if that is able to happen or not. It IS kinda fun knocking people off their bikes, or ramming them off of cliffs, and the soundtrack is pretty good. I expect this will be a fun multi-player game, but I'm not seeing earth shattering features here...unsure I'd pay $60 retail for it, may wait for the price to drop.

Lemmings:
The trailer you can download is simply lame. And big. Spare yourself, and download the demo instead.
The demo gives you a half dozen or so levels, where you do what's expected- give the lemmings 'powers' to help them complete/escape the level without dying. If you liked the Lemmings games, you'll likely like this, and not bad deal at $5.99 for the full game!

GripShift:
Downloaded the demo, which gives you around 8 tracks or so, full download price is $9.99.
You have your choice between two cars in the demo, with different handling and acceleration characteristics, and have some very odd looking 'tracks,' suspended above a planet. (Yes, you can fall off). There are 3 goals for each track, which can be replayed, and you can compare your score to online players at the press of a button. (*sigh*, best so far was around 3000). You can go for best time, collect all the 'stars' or most, on a track, and/or get the 'GS symbol,' which at times is hard to find, at others, hard to figure out how to get there, and survive, as it may involve jumping across air, or leaving a loop track (like roller coaster) in the middle of the loop, in order to land on a plot of land in the middle of the air. You can still speed up or brake when airborne, so a 'physics real' racing game, this isn't. There are loops, ramps/jumps, nitrous bottles, and fans to help your car along. Pretty cool little game, with 120 or so tracks in the full version. Oh, and you can shoot missiles or drop TNT and other bits on the other cars as well during 'race mode' levels. Pretty cool to spend some time, or I expect likely to be a blast in multi-player or online play. For $10, a good deal, even if the graphics aren't stellar.

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@wegster
PS3 after a week or so with it.
1. The console is entirely quiet, except for the BR drive. It's not offensively loud by any means, but you can hear it when loading levels for a few seconds.

2. download speeds are insanely slow, period. It may well be the PS Store, but background and queued downloads are needed, NOW.

3. The console is stable. It's mostly been on 24x7 for a week, has never locked up, crashed, distorted graphics, etc.

4. The PS store has some issues. It times out at times, sometimes telling you while others just seems to 'not let you click through', so you get in the habit of exiting the store, then coming back to it sometimes. Annoying. No search feature for the store, as far as I can tell, which is certainly going to be needed over time.

5. 6 axis controllers - so far, meh. Mediocre. Battery time in wireless mode is good, no problems playing for 6 hours+ straight, but the controller shape doesn't lend itself to all actions repetitively over time (see my comment from Marvel review for an example), and at this point, feels more gimmicky than adding actual gameplay/interest. May change over time, as I can see it being a good option for flight type gaming without a yoke/flight pedals...probably works well for something like Lair. No problems in recognizing them if connected and disconnected, press the PS button and all is well.

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@wegster

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The console is stable. It's mostly been on 24x7 for a week, has never locked up, crashed, distorted graphics, etc.

Speaking of 24/7 - do you have something you can measure watt use with? Since the PS3 can suck up to 380W I'm curious how much it uses in idle mode.

@wegster

Good to know you enjoy your PS3, BTW what level are you at in Resistance? After the first two levels the game starts to become increasingly impressive, IMO doing a well job at showing off some hardware potential. (Have you completed 'Gears of War', game of the year according to some, in the past for comparison?)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/109/305472267_1193b64306_b.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/110/305471694_6a51c9b6f7_b.jpg

BTW, Motorstorm has seen a lot of improvements compared to the demo you can download and in addition to visual improvements there will be the option of between 12 to 16 players players over the internet. And I wanted to note Marvel runs at 1080p (unlike other versions), maybe of interest if at some point you buy a new display along the way during the PS3's most likely long lifecycle.

The Formula One demo is also worth checking out, an early version of the game has already been released in Japan.

Last edited by MikeB on 20-Jan-2007 at 07:01 PM.

@Trezzer

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Trezzer wrote: @wegster Quote: The console is stable. It's mostly been on 24x7 for a week, has never locked up, crashed, distorted graphics, etc. Speaking of 24/7 - do you have something you can measure watt use with? Since the PS3 can suck up to 380W I'm curious how much it uses in idle mode.

Ouch! NOW it sounds like an (Intel, non Core Duo) PC!

I actually need to pick up an inductive ammeter in the near future, chasing some high power bills, will probably pick one up in the next month, and will certainly measure the draw of the PS3 then, and report back.

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@MikeB
I'd have to go into Resistance to find out, but I have seen the list of all scenarios...I've got one set of scenarios/levels to go I believe. Resistance still has some of the 'short draw range' issues I occasionally see in MUA, with items popping up at 'mid-range or short-range' versus slowly coming into view at long range...not a huge issue, most noticeable when you're driving the jeep for example, and moving quickly. It's still a good game, just not a _great_ game, IMO.

Online play should be pretty fun with Motorstorm.

RE: 'upgrading display.' Heh. I may have more 'disposable income' at the moment than many, but replacing a $2500 projector isn't high on my list I'll likely replace it when 1080p becomes a < $2500 possibility for an equivalent projector. Until then, I'm liking my 720p 100" display _just fine_, thanks

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@wegster

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Motorstorm: reasonably fun, the demo let's you play either with a truck or a motorcycle/dirt bike. The physics aren't entirely real/could be improved (yeah, I've ridden off-road before), and for some annoying reason, you can't wheelie the motorcycle from what I can tell. They make a big deal over their 'destroyable parts' of vehicles etc, yet it doesn't always seem to work when you wreck, leaving the vehicle entirely unscathed (but of course, your player dies/resets). I haven't yet seen a case where the truck or dirt bike was damaged, but keeps going, with some effect on how it plays, unsure if that is able to happen or not. It IS kinda fun knocking people off their bikes, or ramming them off of cliffs, and the soundtrack is pretty good. I expect this will be a fun multi-player game, but I'm not seeing earth shattering features here...unsure I'd pay $60 retail for it, may wait for the price to drop.

How is the feeling of speed? I have seen videos of motorstorm and it kinda looks like the whole game is going in slow motion.

@wegster

Quote:

Resistance still has some of the 'short draw range' issues I occasionally see in MUA, with items popping up at 'mid-range or short-range'

Everthing is relative and Resistance isn't perfect. But neither is the much more hyped 'Gears of War', Gears is far slower paced, offers far less varierty and pretty short, yet you see similar graphic imperfections, for instance at a crash site when you look at it from an angle the fires disappear, move you view back towards the crash site the fires reappear, textures taking a short while to be drawn on some occasions and such.

What I think is impressive about Resistance is that so much is going on simultaneously without dropping frames. The Half-Life 2 series are truly amazing, but they don't have this much going on at the same time.

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Online play should be pretty fun with Motorstorm

BTW, the Jap version looks like this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=L_QNZ2wwTqs

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. Until then, I'm liking my 720p 100" display _just fine_, thanks

I was more talking about a long term scenario, not specifically aimed at you.

Last edited by MikeB on 21-Jan-2007 at 07:37 PM.

@Tomas

The speed of Motorstorm is very highly paced. Maybe you looked at slow motion crashes. You will see your own vehicle crash in slow motion (you can rotate the viewing angle), but if other people crash that's of course not the case.

Last edited by MikeB on 21-Jan-2007 at 07:26 PM.

@wegster
Quote:

Until then, I'm liking my 720p 100" display _just fine_, thanks

I am paper, you are glue.[/Guybrush Threepwood]