About to buy a PS3

13855 Views 72 Replies 25 Participants Last post by Gord Lacey, Feb 16, 2012

mr.steevo

Discussion Starter · Feb 15, 2011

We're planning on purchasing a PS3 this week. It's primary use will be for watching discs and streaming video with some gaming. Now that I started looking at what the big box stores offer I am not sure what it is I am suppose to focus in on.

The game titles mean nothing to me. I don't mean that I am not interested, it just is that I have no idea what to expect or what is good. I've played Halo on a friend's xbox back in 2005 and arcade games in the 80's.

There are different hard drive sizes. I don't know if this is important or not but I do know there are different prices depending on the hdd size.

Some come packaged with a remote but it doesn't appear to function with TV's (I have an LG LCD). Is a remote needed?

They appear to come with one controller. I would prefer two. Do these packages come sealed from the factory or do the stores make their own bundles that they would be willing to swap a game for a controller?

Thanks for the input.

41 - 60 of 73 Posts

WarrenC12

· #41 · Sep 20, 2011

I have both, although I've had the 360 for much longer than the PS3. I was really impressed with the PS3, the 360 has had numerous HW problems. Although comparing today's new 360 with the slim PS3, I suppose they are pretty equal.

The PS3 is more versatile, with Blu-Ray support, and it handles more media better if you are streaming from a PC or media server. DVDs also look fantastic on the PS3, it does a great job of up scaling.

However the 360 blows away anything in one area: Kinect. I have the Move and the Kinect. Move is fun, like a more precise version of the Wii with some neat extensions, but the Kinect is something else entirely. If you have the proper space for it, its tons of fun.

They both have their particular strengths, it all depends what you want.

Biggles

· #42 · Oct 3, 2011

I finally broke down and picked up a PS3 last week (on sale at FS).I also picked up GT5 .
I used to play earlier versions of GT on a PS2 for untold hours. Then I got married ! I've only had a chance to set up the PS3 , run through the updates,and play GT5 for a few hours.So far I'm enjoying it a lot !
I have an old Logitech wheel buried somewhere that I will dig out and see if it works with the PS3.I barely checked out GT5.There's a lot to go through compared to the old games !
I'm not sure what to do with my BD player.I like being able to use my universal remote for the BD , but I'm not sure if the PS3 will fit in my Entertainment Centre with all the other components.I'm sure my wife will
help with the decision !

Steve604

· #43 · Oct 28, 2011

Maximo said:
I prefer to buy PS due to some reasons
1. Home & Little Big Planet
2. Free Online
3. 50 GB games
4. HDMI
5. Standard HDD
6. PS3 Has a Major CPU Advantage

xbox has had hdmi for a very long time

Blintok

· #44 · Nov 2, 2011

interesting thread. last week i decided to get a gaming system. Always been a pc gamer and keep upgrading the pc every year. But lately the pc game selection seems to be shrinking and or same games available to all 3 (xbox-ps3-pc) and seems that the pc version is a port from the consoles....the only thing pc seems to have it over the console is mmorpg.

so off to the store i went. wasnt sure which to get. xbox or ps3. both had decent bundle deals and same price. In the end i went with the ps3. Decided i wanted something different and to me the xbox is just a dumbed down pc. Since i already have a decent pc. (in which my video card cost more than the whole ps3

)

overall i am very pleased with the ps3. still get a bit of the buyers remorse. (maybe xbox would have been better?) but looking at both game selections both pretty much had the same games i would have been interested in. Should have done this years ago.

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Biggles

· #45 · Nov 2, 2011

I really like my PS3! My logitech wheel works great with it for GT5.I built a really cheap stand using a TV tray table and few bits of plywood,and clamped the wheel to it.I still haven't tried any other games yet,but i'm going to pick up F1 2011 soon.

Eluder

· #46 · Nov 3, 2011

Blintok said:
interesting thread. last week i decided to get a gaming system. Always been a pc gamer and keep upgrading the pc every year. But lately the pc game selection seems to be shrinking and or same games available to all 3 (xbox-ps3-pc) and seems that the pc version is a port from the consoles....the only thing pc seems to have it over the console is mmorpg.

so off to the store i went. wasnt sure which to get. xbox or ps3. both had decent bundle deals and same price. In the end i went with the ps3. Decided i wanted something different and to me the xbox is just a dumbed down pc. Since i already have a decent pc. (in which my video card cost more than the whole ps3 )

overall i am very pleased with the ps3. still get a bit of the buyers remorse. (maybe xbox would have been better?) but looking at both game selections both pretty much had the same games i would have been interested in. Should have done this years ago.

You actually have it backwards, the PS3 is more of a dumbed down PC than the 360 is, but anyway, enjoy your new console.

audacity

· #47 · Nov 3, 2011

the only thing pc seems to have it over the console is mmorpg

And real time strategy games, and FPS games, and any other game that benefits from precision control.

cannon_fodder

· #48 · Nov 4, 2011

Can the PS3 be connected to a digital cable receiver and act as a PVR? I'm with Costco if that makes a difference. Right now It is a standard resolution box - not hidef.

eimaj

· #49 · Nov 4, 2011

Eluder said:
You actually have it backwards, the PS3 is more of a dumbed down PC than the 360 is, but anyway, enjoy your new console.

Great way to start another flame war but...

OMFG!!! I almost fell over in my chair laughing so hard. I enjoy both systems and both have their pluses and minuses, but WOW! What a statement from left field!

All the 360 has in it is (now very old) pc parts whereas the ps3 was pretty much a custom build, but is kinda showing its age but still puts out the most graphically stunning games for a console.

pinner62

· #50 · Nov 4, 2011

I laughed as well ,eluder is keen to his 360 till the bitter end lol!!!Little off target but I.m still awaiting uncharted 3 ,preordered it months ago ,am I the only one still waiting?

audacity

· #51 · Nov 4, 2011

eimaj said:
All the 360 has in it is (now very old) pc parts whereas the ps3 was pretty much a custom build, but is kinda showing its age but still puts out the most graphically stunning games for a console.

eimaj,

You're wrong, and here is why:

- The PS3 has a GPU in it that is literally a off-the-shelf GeForce 7800 GTX - a PC video card. The GPU in the XBOX 360 was never shipped by ATi for PCs.

- The PS3 has a segmented memory architecture (separate memory for the CPU and GPU) which is just like a PC with a discrete GPU. The XBOX has a unified memory architecture which is unlike what you find in PCs.

- The "main" CPU in both the PS3 and the XBOX CPU are both PowerPCs, so they are both the same technology "distance" from a modern PC.

dezzpayne

· #52 · Nov 4, 2011

Err yeah the 360 has a very similar architecture to the PC. Just about all 360 games are also on the PC because it's so simple to port. To not release it on the PC is like leaving money on the table. I don't think anyone has ever released a PS3/PC game. Yes PS3/360/PC but never just PS3/PC.

It's should be one of the deciding factors on which console to get. If you are a casual gamer who isn't FPS obsessed the PS3 has the better exclusive library. Personally, the 2 360 series that had my interest were Mass Effect and Fable. Both of which are available for the PC which meant I had no need of a 360.

Gord Lacey

· #53 · Nov 4, 2011

pinner62 said:
I.m still awaiting uncharted 3 ,preordered it months ago ,am I the only one still waiting?

*sigh* No... you're not the only one. I ordered it from Amazon.ca in April, and got an email saying it was shipped on Nov 1, with scheduled delivery of Nov 4 (today). Unfortunately when I look at the UPS tracking, it shows that a shipping label has been created, but they aren't in possession of the actual package. While I'm annoyed, I have a ton of other games I haven't played yet.

audacity

· #54 · Nov 4, 2011

Err yeah the 360 has a very similar architecture to the PC. Just about all 360 games are also on the PC because it's so simple to port.

It may be true that there are a lot of games that are on both the XBOX 360 and the PC, but you simply assert it is because the hardware is similar. It could be for many other reasons. I'll list two reasons that are much more likely than hardware architecture to be the root cause of the situation you are observing.

1. Licensing. Console vendors give better licensing terms to games that are only released on one platform than games that are released on all three. I'd suspect that Microsoft, because they own Windows, would give the same favorable licensing terms to a company that has a XBOX 360 exclusive to a company that a XBOX 360 and a Windows version of a game.

2. APIs. Software APIs allow developers to write their code in a way that abstracts significant differences in hardware architecture away from the developer - so they can "write once" and have their software survive many hardware generations. XBOX games use the DirectX API which also conveniently work for Windows. In fact, most games are developed using PCs in the first place, so even games that only get released on the XBOX 360 and not for the PC probably have a internal version of the game that does run on a PC.

The statement that "the XBOX hardware architecture is made up of a bunch of old PC parts" was very true for the original XBOX, but it is no longer true for the 360. The 360 is not "more like a PC" than the PS3 either, as my previous post outlined.

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Eluder

· #55 · Nov 6, 2011

Thanks audacity for being intelligent enough to provide real hard facts as to why the PS3 is more of a dumbed down PC than the 360 is.

You can also tell by the way the PS3 acts for their patches and updates, download, reboot, then install, then reboot again. Xbox is a much more streamlined process, unlike a PC.

I never said there was anything wrong with that, and I do own both consoles, but it's pretty obvious which console is built and feels more like a PC of the two.

dezzpayne

· #56 · Nov 6, 2011

Eluder said:
Thanks audacity for being intelligent enough to provide real hard facts as to why the PS3 is more of a dumbed down PC than the 360 is.

You can also tell by the way the PS3 acts for their patches and updates, download, reboot, then install, then reboot again. Xbox is a much more streamlined process, unlike a PC.

I never said there was anything wrong with that, and I do own both consoles, but it's pretty obvious which console is built and feels more like a PC of the two.

Passive aggressive much?

The Cell processor is much different than a PC processor. The 360 processor on the other hand is extremely similar.

http://www.devmaster.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14672

One PS3-specific issue is reorganizing threading to work on the Cell processor. With X360's triple PowerPC cores I would imagine a multithreaded PC game ports fairly well with little change in thread organization required. Threading for PS3/Cell is completely different due to the asymmetric multicore organization.

That's really the big difference between the consoles are far as compatibility with the PC architecture goes. A custom GPU wouldn't be much of a roadblock to porting unless it was really out of left field kind of different, eg a vector based GPU.

Recoding a game to use the Cell processor would be much more labor intensive than the PowerPC.

Audacity does bring up a point though in licensing. Microsoft has the "games for windows" platform as well as the 360. How would it be viewed if it chose to lock out Windows development? Kind of like having 2 kids and trying not to show favoritism even though the decision "may" be hurting them by not giving a subset of the populace (me) a real reason to buy their console.

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eimaj

· #57 · Nov 7, 2011

Thanks dezzpayne for being intelligent enough to provide real hard facts as to why the 360 is more of a dumbed down PC than the ps3 is.

You beat me by a few moments on the Cell argument.

audacity

· #58 · Nov 8, 2011

dezzpayne said:
The Cell processor is much different than a PC processor. The 360 processor on the other hand is extremely similar.

The XBOX 360 and PS3 chips are both from IBM, both PowerPC chips, and have a incredibly similar architecture. The difference is that Sony included a set of SPEs that are of dubious value for most game software.

I recommend you read the book "The Race for a New Game Machine" by David Shippy and Mickie Phipps.

The basic story is about how Microsoft was able to get IBM to sell them the chip that they designed for Sony before Sony got their hands on it.

From the book summary:

Now Chekib Akrout, IBM's senior vice president responsible for the PlayStation's chip team, told me another customer wanted our secret-weapon, record-smashing PowerPC microprocessor core. It was Microsoft.

"How did this happen?" I grumbled through gritted teeth.

"Let's just say it was a blockbuster, an offer IBM couldn't refuse," he answered. Over a billion dollars were involved, spanning the entire spectrum from development to chip manufacturing.

"There's more," Akrout said. "Microsoft wants something very similar to what you designed for Sony but with some unique enhancements, and they want it on the same schedule." He then described the design changes Microsoft needed for a super-aggressive, market-shaking Christmas launch.

Akrout didn't blink. It took me a second, but I got the message.

Let me give you the executive summary: the CPU in the PS3 and the CPU in the XBOX 360 is practically the same chip.

Sure, Microsoft went with a SMP design and Sony instead went with six "Synergistic Processing Elements" (well, eight, but one of them is unavailable to games and one is disabled for yield reasons). My point is that neither is very much like a x86 PC in the CPU department. Not even close, as I outlined before. Saying the XBOX 360's PowerPC chip is "just like a PC" and that the PS3 is somehow different in this department is comedy to anyone who is familiar with the details.

On the GPU front, the XBOX 360 has a custom GPU that never shipped for a PC. The PS3 has a NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX (NV47). Which one of those is more like a PC?

Finally, people say "being like a PC" as if it's a bad thing. The PS3 is like a PC in many ways that are great!

Here are two that come to mind:
- You can use off-the-shelf PC peripherals (keyboard, mouse, etc) on the PS3 and not the XBOX 360
- You can use off-the-shelf PC hard drives in the PS3 where Microsoft requires you buy their branded drives (boo!)

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dezzpayne

· #59 · Nov 8, 2011

There's little hope of me reading it unless a catastrophic power loss renders all my digital entertainment obsolete but I did read some articles on the book and it seems an intriguing read. Sony had IBM develop the Cell but did not have them sign a exclusivity contract which meant MS could use the design as long as they differentiated themselves enough from the patented features. This seems to be the elephant in the room. If the book paints an accurate picture, then that 1 decision was responsible for Sony being in "last" place. If they had an exclusive agreement there was no way in hell MS would have had the 360 out when it did. They were extremely late to the game for having someone design and fab a new chip so instead Bill Gates calls up Sam Palmisano and makes him an offer IBM can't refuse. The amount rumored is over 1 billion for the design.

IBM. Toshiba and Sony take 4 years to design the Cell with a budget of 400M

After a phonecall worth over 1B from Bill Gates, IBM delivers a Cell derived processor to Microsoft in 11 months.

Still though, in this lawsuit happy world, I'm surprised they didn't try. I'm also surprised that I had never read that the 360 processor was built from the Cell groundwork.

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eimaj

· #60 · Nov 8, 2011

Hmm, interesting and familiar at the same time in how MS has to pay a great sum and copy a great idea but still can't improve on it. Sony game developers are consistently besting MS game developers for eeking out more graphical power from their respective systems on similar exclusive games.

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