I actually play PS1 games even now yes. I will on the PS3 too. There are certain games I like playing on even OLDER systems but rely on emulation through PC (Amiga being an old fave). I recently played through Jumping Flash again and am currently having the odd play on N20 (try the bonus round whilst having a relaxing smoke on that one!!) and Tempest X. I still bring these games out between long bouts on Shadow of the Colossus. I still like playing Ridge Racer V and Rez and will do when PS3 arrives. I like replaying old games as well as brand new ones. Its the choice Sony give you and very important to me. With PS3 there are no worries on hidden costs or suprises, you get everything you need as far as I can see, including full backward compatibility.

If you look at the big picture now, how can Blu-Ray fail? I think only if the PS3 fails, but if thats the case I wont be stuck as such, I’ll just go out and buy a HD-DVD player if thats the winner, ok its more money, but thats life in the capitalist world. Look at how often you upgrade a pc, we are used to it, but really its not necessary. Its because we are made to believe we have to.

Sony have forced a format on us, but if the PS3 sells how we all expect it will then how can Blu-ray possibly fail at all? If anything HD-DVD is in a worse position. not as much backing for a start and the BIG pusher for it would be to be included in a mass market device such as Xbox 360… but its not in there as standard… Sony are smart, devious, but smart. People are angry because its forced on us, but I dont see it like that, I WANT a next gen drive in my next gen system so I dont feel pushed. When I bought my Xbox 360 I felt limited which to me is worse. Also, I was miffed at the price of all the extras I had to pay for to make the machine “complete”. All this forced cack has come about MS saying “we offer you a choice” BS!!!!! yeah a confusing array of overpriced addons. £70 for a 20Gig hdd that only has 13Gig accessable? whats the deal there? £35 for a 64MB memory card? that can almost buy me a 512MB Memory stick pro duo….

I remember the old Betamax/VHS format wars, I was there (Showing my age)… It took a good 5 years to really show through. Before that time you could easily go into a shop and rent VHS or Beta in the same quantitiy. I remember some times you had only a film on beta and had to wait for VHS and vice versa.. it was level for a long time. Slowly VHS took over and shelf space for beta declined… but it was a long time…. In my little world it was the player that decided it.. I remember the first front loading system.. it was VHS.. people around my area went mad for it. Finally you could stack the Video player underneath something! It was always an annoyance having to put your top loading video player somewhere where you could acces the loading mechanism. Little things like that made VHS more popular from my memory. I even remember some people thinking VHS must be better because the tape is bigger!!! Sounds really stupid but alot of the general public think like this!! People that arent technically minded make all sorts of mad stuff up.

I remember way back when MS announced Xbox 360 they said it would come in various flavours from a simple games system to a fully fledged HD Media Center/Games machine with a next generation optical drive (Much how PS3 seems to be). How disappointed was I to find that the difference is only cosmetic and with a saving on peripherals. The research they did means nothing because they wanted it out Nov 2005. They couldn’t provide any HD optical drive then even if their research said HD is good because there was no HD drive then. They had no choice, they wanted the system out, they rushed it with a cheap DVD drive and made a complete balls of supply to boot. You could argue and say the REAL release of Xbox 360 was mid March 2006. Thats when you could go in a shop and actually pay NORMAL money for one.

I actually bought my Xbox 360 with great enthusiasm, over the odds, and even a possible thought that I would not need a PS3. I had all sorts of ambition for it replacing all my clunky devices, but really its a half arsed media system, full on game system. So as a game system only it sits mainly gathering dust until something more interesting than whats being put out on the PS2 appears on it. Each month I am more drawn to PS2 games with my wage packet. Its always been like that for me ever since PS1 came out. Games on Sony’s machines are the best in my opinion, Im talking about the odd games here.. the little gems like Frequency, Fantavision, Rez, the katamari range, vib ripple N20, Parappa the Rappa, Sing star, Eye toy etc etc… not GTA GT and all the “Popular” games people keep on moaning about… its the other games that do it for me. The ones that get next to no attention at release like ICO. I bought that one when it was released and couldnt understand how it completely went unlooked… funny how now that very game is being re-released after nearly 5 years…. old games eh?

If bluray loses its still used for games and can still play and upscale DVD’s. The thing is bluray’s not going to lose.

People are buying hdtv’s in droves now, and its just going to accelerate. Thats pretty much all you can buy in the stores now. Right now the PS3 *is* actually ahead of its time but by November the PS3 will be arriving at just the right time as long as the economy holds up. I’m not really happy with the controller I was hoping they’d go along with a redesign.

All this bashing is nothing but an antimarketing campaign that will likely be silenced come October once all the final details are revealed.