Ars Technica reviews the PS3 in 2008 (Verdict: has shown great improvement)

Sony's PlayStation 3 launch was a wonder to behold. With strutting arrogance and infinite contempt for the press, their consumers and their competitors, Sony — under the megalomaniacal leadership of Ken Kutaragi — managed to totally squander the market dominance they'd built up over the past two generations, becoming an also ran behind the 360 and the Wii. And when the PS3 launched, it was a deeply flawed and ugly system.

But how does it hold up over a year later? Ars Technica has taken the PS3 for another spin, and they really feel like Sony has learned from their mistakes and regrouped.

We didn't give the PS3 much love when it first launched. Parts of the system plain didn't work, the online play was all over the place, and the software support was limited, at best. Multiplatform games played noticeably worse than their Xbox 360 counterparts. So many of us had a bad taste in our mouths from all the claims that the PS3 was going to completely blow away the competition, and that the only real high-definition graphics were 1080p. Sony walked into this generation with a set of claims that their launch hardware and library simply couldn't back up, and the company took a bad beating for it.

To Sony's credit, though, they learned. They slowly, but surely, addressed every beef gamers had with the system: the software lineup improved; developers learned how to work with the system; the price went down; Blu-ray won the format war; and the firmware updates kept adding value to the system....

Today Sony isn't simply playing catch-up; the PS3 has grown into a capable system that does almost everything the Xbox 360 can do, and many things even better.

I still don't think the PS3's game library is very compelling compared to the 360 or even the Wii's, but there's no doubt that Sony has turned the system around in a way I would have thought impossible a year ago. Good on you, Sony!

A 2008 Review of the PS3 [Ars Technica]

[#1 posted by Enochrewt , June 5, 2008 2:02 PM]

I'm an avid gamer. Yes ladies, swoon now. Avid Gamer. I play a lot online (I was top 100 on the kills leaderboard legit in COD4 before I got distracted by GTA4). And in the end I still can't justify purchasing a PS3 quite yet. There's still no games for it. I'd like to play Drake's Fortune, Warhawk and Resistance look like they'd be fun on online, but until MSG4 and SOCOM:Confrontation hits the streets there's still not enough incentive to buy one on Sony's exclusive library, and even then I'll think hard on plunking down $600 for the system and some games.

I try and trick myself into thinking I could use one for the media capabilities (as this article attempts to) but the truth is there's only been two absolutely crazy old DivX/Xvid files that wouldn't stream due to format issue to my Xbox 360 out of probably 200. If the PS3 streamed H.264 without the use of transcoding that might push me to purchasing one, but it doesn't. The PS3 still requires the use of TVersity, Orb(Winamp Remote) or some other 3rd party software just like the Xbox 360. No luck there.

As for the online, meh, I don't need a Second Life clone to tie together multiplayer and online gaming. I want to be able to pull up the PS3 dashboard in game, invite/message a friend that's playing a different game, and get on with life. Couple that with the average PS3 user's lack of a headset, and you've got an online wasteland.

I want to like the PS3, and find a good reason to buy one, I really do, but they still have a long ways to go.

Oh and I can't believe this article is trying to say Eye of Judgement is a selling point for the PS3. *snort* It's a R.O.B. for the NES involving a CCG card game. Talk about niche.

[#2 posted by dculberson , June 6, 2008 12:50 PM]

I have a PS3 and love it, but will readily admit that the games are seriously lacking. Not enough out there yet.