Has the PS3 Evolved?
There’s an interesting article over at Ars Technica, where they basically re-review the PS3 as it is now, compared to how it was when it was launched back in November 2006.
To cut a long story short, Ars Technica originally gave the PS3 a 6. Now, however, after Sony have updated the PS3 with Firmware update after Firmware update which has resulted in improved Blu-ray player thanks to Blu-ray profile 2.0 (amongst other things), a new and improved PS Store, the release of the Dual Shock 3 (STILL not available in Europe BTW) and most importantly of all; a more varied line up of quality games (both Blu-ray and via PSN).
As a result, Ars Technica have given the PS3 a 9.
If I had to do a review of the PS3 as it is in it’s current form, I’d probably give it an 8 (which is what I would give it if I had reviewed it when I got it back in March 2007).
Now, I’m not saying the PS3 hasn’t improved since I’ve had it but my issue is with what areas has the PS3 improved upon and their relevance to me.
A lot of the improvements that Ars Technica point out hold little relevance to me as a PS3 owner. Blu-ray profile 2.0? Meh. I don’t own many Blu-ray films (Spider-man Trilogy, Casino Royale and Planet Earth are all that I own) so my interest in the PS3 as a Blu-ray player is lukewarm at best.
Dual Shock 3? I would buy one but Sony haven’t released it in Europe yet. Awesome. And no, I’m not willing to import it, I shouldn’t have to.
The PS Store has a new look but the content is still lacking. I love Super Stardust: HD and PixelJunk Monsters, they are two of my favourite PS3 games, but Sony still falls short in providing meaningful content on a weekly basis, especially on the UK/EU Stores.
Where is Shivering Isles? Where is Commandos 3? Where is WipEout? Elephunk? Where are all the PSOne games that Sony could make a killing from if they bothered to make them available? Why can’t Sony combine the US and UK Stores, we both speak the same language (of sorts 
)! Localisation should not be an issue in that sense.
My main issue with PS3 games in the past was with the crappy ports that we were fed but that situation is less of an issue (although not totally eradicated) at this present time.
The areas where I feel Sony has failed to improve upon (aside from what I’ve already mentioned) are PSN related, such as the lack of in-game XMB access, customisable soundtracks and the ability to chat to your friends regardless of what you are doing or what games you are playing.
The forthcoming release of Firmware 2.40 should solve some of those issues but Sony still has a lot of work to do to realise the PS3’s full potential.
I’m very happy with my PS3 but I can see where Sony needs to make improvements and I haven’t even touched upon the backwards compatibility issue, various HDD sizes for different regions, their PR shenanigans and the need for price cuts etc.
To answer my own question of whether I think the PS3 has evolved since I got it, my answer would have to be no, not in the areas that matter to me.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with Ars Technica and my views?
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I sadly can't grow a real beard^^
June 7th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I don’t agree with either of you^^
Well, BD 2.0 is a somewhat idiotic thing (as of now). I recently got Rambo (or John Rambo in Europe) on BD from the US, which is 2.0… The 2.0 functionality is just plain dumb, and from what I’ve read, on some BDs you can !! DOWNLOAD TRAILERS !! WHO f*cking cares about that?
As a media station, the PS3 now is nigh on perfect (there are still some issues with codecs and containers, but mostly, everything works as fine as it gets).
PSN is crap though… The European PSN is a “no go area” where everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is delayed and nothing of the interesting stuff EVERY gets released in Germany, as it gets rated 16 or above…
Dualshock is not a problem for me. I imported it from Yesasia, where it was cheaper than the Sixaxis is HERE (38€ vs. ~45€), and shipping took just a week. (and I got a white one, which surely won’t be released anytime soon over here either)
And finally, games for ME are starting to come out… Come Thursday, I will have bought my third game THIS year, against ONE last year (GT5P, GTA4 and MGS4LE!!! against MS).
For me, when the DLNA update hit (and Divx later) the PS3 was a 10/10 (except the quite high energy usage), before that, I’d say 8/10. I just hope, that there’ll be a full RSX access in Linux some time.
June 7th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Maybe it just shows ars were so short-sighted they couldn’t see it’s potential. Everyone knew they were rushing to get it out. That it had upgradable firmware. That it had the capabilities for any potential BD profile changes. That the XMB, the store, and any firmware features could change with time. Oh, and that launch titles aren’t remotely representable of the capabilities of the machine, and that games would improve in leaps and bounds during it’s lifetime - just like they have for every machine since the atari 2600.
The dualshock 3 is nice i guess - but at $100/pop here in Australia I think i’ll keep the sixaxis - i’m one who loves the light weight anyway. And it’s just ‘nice’, it isn’t a system seller.
Ars were probably just caught up in all the Sony hate at the time, at least they’ve had the guts to admit they were wrong (even if they may not see it that way).
June 7th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
It most certainly has (evolved), and this is just the beginning !!! Remember how many years it took for the PS2 to get some of it’s best titles out ?? Well, not only will the same thing happen with the PS3, but this time around there is a built in hdd, plus an online network which means never ending updates and tweaks. In another year or 2, people will really start to know how to use the PS3, and the games will truly outshine all others on diff. consoles…not to mention that the systems functionality will be enormous !
June 8th, 2008 at 5:02 am
For me it has evolved and i think with this generation us gamers are been asked to do something we dont do well, show patience. The PS3 is a far better machine then it was at launch, the firmware updates have continually improved small things and some major ones and i think once in-game xmb comes along there will be only be the games left to improve.
I always saw the PS3 as a home entertainment unit and after recently purchasing a HDTV the only thing sat underneath is the PS3. My wife and little girl use it to watch DVD’s on which it does a great job of, (the-up scaling is great and makes all the pixar Disney films look amazing), we also belong to a rental club and we have watched a lot of blu-rays via the PS3, my wife was really impressed with the picture and sound from the machine and could see a noticeable difference over standard def DVD’s. Later this year Play TV will be out and we can use the PS3 to record TV etc. So the big picture for me is coming together, yes it has taken about 18 months to realise it but the result is great, having one machine to handle all my needs is just great.
I haven’t even mentioned the games yet which we all know will continue to get better particularly i feel via the PSN as this is a great platform for Sony to launch new games with little investment. I would have give the PS3 a 10 at launch just because i am a fanboy, i would still give the PS3 a 10 now except i can provide 10 reasons why i would give it a 10 now! So lets continue to show some patience it will pay off in the end….
June 8th, 2008 at 5:19 am
You know what..I’ve been an Ars fan previously. Especially the really geeky bits about CPU architecture. But it seems to me he’s in microsoft’s pockets, so in recent year/two years it’s been very biased. Clearly something has changed but I don’t like it when such commercial sites review things…much prefer indie blogs etc for genuine feelings/attitudes.
June 8th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Lance, I agree 100%. Ars is strongly opinonated, and has a heavily pro-Microsoft angle, although posts like this show them softening up.
But yes, PS3 has clearly evolved. Mostly, IMO, with game selection. Every console is like that: launch games are weak, the great ones take time.
June 8th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I couldn’t wait for the DS3 pad to come out in the U.K(still hasn’t) So i got 1(got 3 now) from yesasia.com ;-P Why wait??? Using a non-dual shock pad makes games seem life-less to me. Your missing out!;) Get one now!;) +Only £30 from yesasia.com(think it’s going to cost £49.99 in the U.K when it comes out???) Sony are to slow bringing the DS3 pad to Europe.
+The only other thing i want in Europe is a ps2 B/C ps3??? Why oh why can’t we buy one in Europe for??? U.S has the 80GB Version! :-/
Apart from that the ps3 is BRILL!!! ;-P
June 8th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Smashing stuff G. I think there have been a few nice little improvements - things like customizable themes for the XMB, a nice shiny store, stuff like that - but agree that evolution is a bit of a stretch. I’ve been saying for about a year that in-game XMB is the biggest thing for me (outside of making good games). It’d be nice to have custom soundtracks and all that jazz, but the most important part is the in-game voice chat. Resistance got it right from day one but, since then, we’ve been plagued by games with atrocious comms (Warhawk with push to talk rather than a simple squad setup, COD 4 with open comms, Burnout with inaudible speech, plenty of games with no comms at all…). Having in-game voice chat would cure all those games overnight.
Other than that, things like Home and speedier updates would sort me out completely. If Shivering Isles is delayed more than another month, I’ll give up entirely and Sony will go down another notch in my (generally rather Sony-positive) opinion.
Anyway, I’ve totally forgotten what I was talking about, so see ya later Gary! Catch you online soon!
June 8th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Totally agree Samus. The improvements that have been made have been nice but none of them have added anything major to our gaming experience, which is why I bought the PS3 in the first place.
I hope Firmware 2.40 delivers what we really want as gamers. Previous updates seem to have been aimed more at the PS3’s multi-media functionality, which is all well and good but I want my gaming experience enhanced and the way to do that is XMB access, ‘universal voice chat’ and customisable soundtracks.
If/when Sony delivers all 3 then I can say the PS3 has evolved. Until then, it’s pretty much the same machine that I bought back in March 2007 with a few nice touches that haven’t improved my gaming experience.
June 9th, 2008 at 1:56 am
I stopped caring about PSN, since there isn’t anything good on it… compared to the US shelves. Yes, I’m European too. Furthermore, they should cache the graphics for the store on the PS3 HD, push new data as it comes available. That way you can speed up the store a lot. It’s a pain waiting for the descriptions and thumbnails. I also miss a “Top downloaded” and “Top friends downloaded” section. I want to know what my buddies downloaded of PSN too.
In-game messaging, friend list with sorting and the possibility to put a group of friends in a self created folder.
RSS Feeds support like with the psp.
A new browser, the one they have in right now just doesn’t feel… how should I put this… It’s just not handy to use right now (maybe with a keyboard and mouse?)
A user friendly sdk to be the counterpart of Microsoft’s XNA
One SKU with 100% BW compatibility, I’m wondering if they already found a senior engineer to build the emu software for psOne, PS2, PS3 (to run on PS3 and PS4). I know they had a vacancy for that position last year.
I also want to see even more codec support. I still can’t see my weekly Naruto fix on the PS3
As you noticed, I have my gripes, but I still love my PS3.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Hey I agree with you ……..now since the launch of the the ps3 it has been slightly improving but not in most of the areas that everyones been looking to see get updated — Such As—
- The Ability to send Music & Videos to friends
- Also an updated Internet Browser with FLASH PLAYER 9 (maybe the opera browser)
- More Types of Fonts (if necessary)
- More Printers
- More Avatars or the ability to use your -Pictures saved on the HDD as your online avatar
- (If Necessary) or possible —-SKYPE or sometype of phone service
- ALSO whats up with the OTHEROS OPTION the ps3 needs something better than LINUX …………….What happened to the ability to install any OPERATING SYSTEM.
- The Ability to Download & Charge the controller in Standby
Also plenty more …C’mon this suppossed the be a next gen system
So actually i think the ps3 is not really evolving that much …because this is a powerful system that can give and do so much more than it has ….of it being a next gen system….so yeah I agree with you
June 9th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I just want to say this. I can’t understand why Europeans complain about PSN so much. I do understand that you guys get stuff less frequently for some reason. But if you guys want anything on the U.S. PSN, why don’t you guys just have a U.S. user profile on your PS3s? It’s incredibly easy. And to let you in on a little secret (that everyone knows), alot of U.S. PS3 users like myself have European PSN profiles cuz you guys get better stuff that we don’t get, and sometime you guys are the ones that get stuff early. I’ve been jealous of alot of video game related stuff throught the PlayStation franchise. You guys have had lots of exclusive betas like the original Killzone beta. On PS3 you had quite a few demos days or weeks before us. All I’m trying to say is the feelings about PSN content goes both ways. And there is a simple solution for all sides concerned. Just create a profile for that region. Even Japan, I got 3 or 4 really cool demos from there that were many weeks or months early, or that neither of us ever got period.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I have Japanese, Singapore, and US accounts to go alongside my UK account (had them all since launch).
The problem is when it comes to buying content from the US/Japanese Stores that aren’t out on the UK Store. Shivering Isles is a great example. My friend Phil has wanted that for ages yet it still hasn’t made it’s way to the UK Store after being on the US Store for ages.
June 9th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
the beauty of PS3. it will continually evolve and at quite a quick rate. especially when compared to rival platforms. looking forward to the update this month
June 10th, 2008 at 7:53 am
I was really hoping the PS3 would get remote volume access so that it could see my NAS attached to my LAN. Ah well, can’t have everything I guess.