Sana

I don't know how many people will actually see this, as this blog seems to have very few comments on it compared to most (even WoW Insider has more...what does that say about the PSP?)

Anyway. Forcing people to have a PS3 to buy PS1 games you may already own your PSP is just plain stupid. I love the design and potential of the PSP (there's that word again) but Sony just doesn't seem to be capable of marketing anything successfully anymore.

If it wasn't for Dark_Alex, I honestly don't think my PSP would ever get used, except for when I go away. 360 & DS vs PS3 and PSP? Look at the games, and wonder what happened to the giant that was SCE.

It was mentioned briefly already, but next time you go to EB, have a look at the Logitech FF wheels. The force feedback is licensed from Immersion.

So does Sony not being willing to settle mean that the PS3 cant use the tech at ALL (so the article is correct) or just Sony hardware cant use it (so GT with Logitech wheel would be OK).

Does anybody know if FF works fine with GT4 when played on a PS3?

I'm not too sure about the idea of not being able to use game names. I changed my motto to "Kingdom Hearts 2 ;)" for about 2 weeks while I was trying to playing it, and ignoring my 360 in the process. No problems there...

Living down in Australia, most people don't even have a HD tele, let alone know what Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are. Although we do tend to follow America's trends, there are currently no plans to release the 360 HD-DVD drive over here and we won't see the PS3 until Europe gets it...maybe even later.

I speak to idiots every day who have purchased flat panel displays, saying they have HD displays (or even funnier 1080p displays) when infact they have a monitor that accepts component and HDMI, but has a native res of MAYBE 720p. Include the shitty electronics for rendering the image to the pixels and the majority of Aussies will see ZERO difference in resolution quality between a good DVD player (like the 360's upscaling) and real HD images.

Sure, some people have displays that will display 720P, 1080i and maybe even 1080p (though I'm yet to see a displays advertised anywhere that can actually do 1080p properly. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough). But screen sizes are generally under 50" and certainly under 60" for all but the most wealthy.

IF we get the 360 HD service in Australia, it will get really interesting. Most people I know with decent HD or 480p equipment (projectors and such) already have 360s and have gotten so used to seeing games in PC style quality, playing a PS2 or XBOX can be downright painful. On a side note I hope the Wii on component looks nice enough ;)

With 20mbit ADSL becoming more and more available, I really think this will take off. Sure you don't have a backup "for all time". MS has a record if your purchases so you can download them again when you watch to watch them. Didn't somebody say that 480P stuff will start playing almost instantly?

And I'd certainly prefer to pay MS $5-6 to watch a 480P movie for a day, than go down to the video store and spent the same.

Lastly, with the PS3 taking normal hard drives, MS will HAVE to come up with a decent solution if they want to compete. Sure Media Center Extender is pretty sweet on Vista, but I'd prefer to be able to plug in a card reader (or my PSP lol) and just watch MP4 stuff. I've got an idea too so the whole sharing experience could be beautiful :)

Sorry for the rant ;)

Thanks for clearing up the contacts issue...it's hard to tell from the picture...but as I mentioned before the costume with incredible.

Congrats again to both of you, and double congrats to Julia for having the skill to make such a wonderful costume.

P.S. Julia - You do look a lot like the actress that plays Lana Lang. Of course, this be a good thing :)

P.P.S. HORDE FTW!

Look at the Warlock's eyes. I'm pretty sure that's not just flash red-eye and digital pixel stuttering; that guy is wearing contacts.

And his costume is incredibly well made. It actually looks comfortable.

OK, and she is....well the Goddess doesn't make them much better than that ;)

Well done to both of them. I'm always amazed and what some with creative talent can do.

This is EXACTLY what I was expecting. With the price being confirmed at no more than US$250 a while ago, us Aussies have been expecting $399. At least those who pass through where I work.

Admittedly I was expecting it a bit sooner, but pre-Christmas is good. The next question is with the PS3 gaming experience really not much better than the 360 (assumption I know, but a fair one I think), the PS3 at $1000...in March...maybe. And a $400 Wii?

Parents buy at Christmas. And parents buy what the sales dude suggests. Especially at Christmas. With no PS3 in sight, a SOOOO fun looking Wii (wait til you see it being demo'd at shopping centers), a powerhouse 360 and a dirt cheap PS2....can PS3 ever hope to regain the loses of TWO Christmas seasons against MS and one against a far cheaper Nintendo?

Somehow. I doubt it.

I know I've posted this before...but..

http://www.neogotham.net/ForTheHorde.jpg

HORDE FTW!

@18 (or rather with 18)

A remember from a previous Joystiq article that in reference to the HD drive, someone from Microsoft has been quoted as saying that it would be the cheapest HD player on the market. Now at the time I thought, yeah of course, at $200 (or whatever) of course it will be the cheapest player, but you still need a 360 to make it work.

Having read yours and the above posts, I'm thinking what they meant is this:

$299 CORE + $100 HD Drive = $399 HD Player
Vs
$499 Toshiba HD Player.

Thus the 360 solution becomes the cheapest HD player on the market. Even against a $500 PS3, HD still has the price advantage.

Add this to the real AV geeks saying that HD looks better, and there still not being dual layer BlueRay discs, and there goes any advantage BR had.

HD is cheaper, looks better and can store more. The 360 with a TON on awesome games, along a $100 HD driver, plus summer's movies on HDDVD plus the Wii all for Christmas.

An overpriced PS3 sells out due to the high number of fanboys, but once stock settles, they stop selling. With over 10 million 360's against 6 million PS3, plus Cell development costs and publisher support for Sony gets worse...not better. And Christmas has given HD a huge lead over BR.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Sony doesn't exist (at least the way we know her now) in another 5 years. They are digging their own graves, and smiling while they do it!

@Common Sense

Halo 2 currently stands as the fastest selling console game ever. Please don't make me Google a reference, but I believe I remember reading something along the lines that it was the first game to push 2 million units so quickly. In many places in Australia and the USA, Halo 2 sales beat out box office takings for some several movies at the time across opening weekend.

At many, many stores across Australia, imagine 140-200+ people all there at Midnight at a shop designed to hold maybe, 20-30 people max?

Halo 2 was insane. The 360 launch went well, the PSP launch was OK, Gran Turismo 4, very good. Nintendo stuff....slow for but always good, when you can get it. MGS? Forget it...really not much at all. PS2? OK...THAT was insane...but that was 6 years ago and at lot has changed.

My question is if the PS3 Hype Machine does work as well as the PS2 one (though I seriously doubt it) can Sony keep production up? If there are 2 million units at launch, plus 1 million a month from there, and it's going worldwide? Japan/USA/Canada/Europe(don't know how many countries there) and this time Australia and I think New Zealand as well? The 360 has what, 1.8 million units for just the first 4 countries, us Aussies and NZ ppl had to wait months. 1.8 million when Japan didn't care vs 2 million when Japan DOES care AND you add in Aus and NZ?!? Those numbers don't add up.

@ Darcrequiem
Although even recently some publishers have been crying that their games don't run on the Wii...this is like the DX10 arguement. Sure games look F#@king awesome, but the hardware, and development price is staggering...and the pay off in sales just isn't there when it's only 4 million odd 360's and PC gamers holding the line. DX9 games look great and are cheaper too make (compartively, we are still talking millions), DX8 still looks good and is cheaper again.

From what I understand, because the Wii doesn't have to worry about HD (it maxs at 480p, yes?) then it's CPU/GPU combo can handle DX9 style stuff no problems.

The 360 does 720p and 1080i. That's a lot of extra load. And Sony says they can do BETTER animation, lighting and texturing (graphics) and physics, AI, OS, UI (gameplay) at 1080p? I'll believe it when I see it. Assuming I can FIND a 1080p display to see it on.

So by Feb next year, when there are 10 million 360s, 4 million PS3s (if production can cope) and maybe 4-10 million Wii's (again, if Nintendo can market this right, and make enough of em...DS Lite problem seems to be under control now) will companies see the profit in releasing DX9 style games on the Wii...I hope so. HL2 with the Wiimote is enough for me to require a box of tissues. That a the light sabre concept, but let's not start that again.

The real question is what about physics? Do we need a seperate chip for real next gen envirnoment interaction? Does this mean the 360 and PS3 are incapable of TRUE next gen compared to what the PC will bring in the next 4-6 years? Or can a multi-core PowerPC feed the physics off to one of it's cores and do the rest of the game on the other two? Can a Cell programmer work out how to get the main Cell to feed off the physics info at the required speed (along side graphics, sounds, AI, net connection, OS, etc) to all it's baby cells? I'm no programmer...so I have no idea. Ask Carmack ;)