PS3 finalmente lançada...

[Nuno Guerreiro]

Bom, fiquei uma semana sem vir aqui ao forum e pensei que ja tivesse uma catrefada de comentarios ao lançamento da PS3. Bem sei que so foi ainda no japão, mas pensei que alguem tivesse comentado alguma coisa.

Bom, acho q fiquei decididamente capturado pela PS3, e quase decerteza vou ter uma. Isto se sair em Março e depois conseguir uma com os 10% de aderente da fnac e com uns 100 e pouco euros de descontos em vales que tenho.

De resto, no avsforums, http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre ... ge=1&pp=30 , dizem maravilhas da leitura de Bluerays, batendo inclusive outros leitores. Gostei ler que se pode instalar Linux na PS3, tipo dualboot, e da para comprar /trocar de disco rigido sem que isso ponha em causa a garantia. Espero sinceramente que aumentem mas é o tipo de ficheiros de video/audio que a PS3 possa ler, pq por agora ta fraquito...
Tirando o preço e o alguns graficos dos jogos, pelas specs está me a agradar mais a PS3 do que a Xbox. So espero é a sony n se atrasar para março.

[Tojal City]

O que me surpreendeu mais foi o facto de ser silenciosa. Sem dúvida uma grande mais valia que ninguém esperava. Mas vamos lá ver se é em Março que sai por aqui.
Quanto a leitura, é neste momento o melhor leitor do momento de BR. Rápida a ler, boa imagem em relação aos leitores mais caros (é as vantagens de ser tudo digital) e o facto de descodificar os novos sons (mas só através de HDMI óbvio) coloca-lhe a frente ao nível de vídeo e som (até lê SACD vejam lá). Vamos lá a ver os jogos.

[Joe-Fagundes]

Review da PS3

PlayStation 3 Zero-Day Hands On
We get our PS3 unboxed and running, and report on the initial experience of Sony's new console.
By VG Staff
14 Nov 2006

By the time you read this, the Japanese PlayStation 3 launch will be well under way, with the North American launch only days away. We've received our PS3s, and have been playing fast and furious to get all the games covered in time for launch. While we wait for embargoes to lift on the full game reviews, here's a quick tour of the PS3, still fresh from the factory packaging.

Out of the Box
Photos of the console have been floating around for a while now, but there's a lot to be said for stacking it up physically against the Xbox 360 and the Wii. Compared to the 360, the PS3 is slightly larger, although against our black shelves, the glossy black machine almost disappears, if not for the silver bezel that houses the disc drive.

Two much more practical things differentiate the PS3 from the 360, however. For one, there's no large power brick, only a single power cord that's slightly thicker than a PC power cord, and much thinner than the 360's. That made finding space for the unit easier than expected.

And the PS3 is far more quiet than the 360. No jet engine roar from this thing. Without a disc in the drive it's barely perceptible, and with a disc it's not only more quiet than the 360, but quieter even than the PS2. That means watching movies using the Blu-Ray player might be an acceptable experience, since the console won't be making noise to compete with the soundtrack. We'll report more soon, if we notice the sound ramping up during extended play sessions.

Cables, cables, cables
As previously reported, the box contains only a composite A/V cable, though our review unit also came supplied with a 2-meter HDMI cable. But we quickly realized that the A/V connector on the back of the PS3 is the same as the one carried by the PlayStation2. So if you've got PS2 component cables already wound into your home theater spaghetti, just plug that connector into the PS3 to get instant high-def gaming, with or without HDMI.

Speaking of cables, the first thing we did was plug the included USB cable into the Sixaxis controller and console. The cable is short -- a couple of feet shorter than a Dual Shock cable -- but it's a standard USB cable, so procuring a longer one (for playing from the couch while charging the controller) won't require significant expense. The controller charged fully in about 90 minutes, though we'll run that down and charge it again to be sure, since there was likely some factory charge when it came out of the box.

While the main power button is on the rear left corner of the console, just like the PS2 (if it's laying horizontally) the reset and eject buttons are touch sensitive, located on the front right in the silver bezel. The console responds quickly to both switches -- we hit the reset button and were good to go.

The Xross Media Bar
On the initial setup, the first thing that comes up is a prompt to connect the controller via USB, and press the center PS button. Later on, while in game, holding down the PS button acts a lot like pressing the 'Home' key on a PSP -- it gives the option to quit your current game and go back to the Xross Media Bar (yeah, we don't like the spelling either), to turn off the controller, or turn off the console entirely. There's also an indicator showing the controller's charge level, and which port it's connected to.

In fact, much of the early setup is just like your first minutes with a PSP. Setting the language, time, and date are all identical, as is the initial prompt to create and enter a username. After each data is entered, you'll tap right on the analog stick or d-pad to proceed to the next time.

After creating your identity and accepting all the basic data, you'll be given the symphonic PlayStation 3 main logo screen, and then to the XMB. The first trip to the XMB will automatically plop you on the "Sign Up For The PlayStation Network" item. But that's pretty hard to do if you haven't already set up a network. A firmware update might want to put new users in the Network Setup area, instead.

Fortunately the network setup is a breeze, and after grabbing the latest System Update (regrettable, but easy enough to do) we also set up our video and audio outputs. The PS3 has an optical line out for digital audio, which we selected, and we set our cable connection (component video) and maximum resolution -- 1080i, sadly.

Later, when we picked up an HDMI to DVI converter, we sent the video signal out over HDMI, which looked much better. Be careful if you're planning to cart your PS3 to a friend's house, though -- the OS doesn't detect when you step down from HDMI, and you won't be able to bring up a picture to reset it to another output. A firmware update definitely needs to implement a cable and resolution auto-detect feature.

The launch lineup so far
We're still waiting on copies of quite a few launch titles, but we do have Sony's first-party titles on hand, as well as Ridge Racer.

Resistance: Fall of Man
Is this the PS3's Gears of War or (hopefully not!) Perfect Dark Zero? Our first trip through the final build of Resistance has been promising. This seems like a shooter in the Call of Duty mold, upgraded with Insomniac's signature weapons, which leads to interesting multiplayer. The solo game is pretty straightforward in our experience so far, but we enjoyed our foray into split-screen multiplayer -- the difficulty is much higher, and racing to revive a downed comrade is as dangerous as in Gears of War. And in multiplayer, which we've also only played split-screen so far, the variety of weapons leads to the same feeling we got from old-school Unreal Tournament, where everyone had their favorite weapon, and associated tactics. Can't wait to get through the whole game and see how it really plays out. We were only seeing it in 480P, and it still looked good, especially since we'd jumped in straight from GoW.

Genji: Days of the Blade
Prettier than Resistance, but slower, too. So far we enjoy the speed of Yoshitsune a lot more than the sluggish force of Benkei, who seems like he's in a different game altogether. As has been the case with DVD players, where people use content-free films like Armageddon to demo their A/V setup, Genji is a graphics powerhouse and features a soundtrack that moves from subtle to brutal in a flash, but the gameplay isn't all there. We're hoping to uncover more promising moves and depth past the first few levels, but this one looks like style over substance so far.

NBA 07
Without a 1080P display you'll have a hard time appreciating the full value of NBA, the only first-party title out of the gate to support the 'true HD' resolution. Even so, we like the tilt-sensitive moves we've pulled off to juke and spin much more than the clumsy dodge rolls we tilted our way to in Genji. The tilt controls have been our primary focus so far, since no other game in hand makes such extensive use of the Sixaxis function, but we like the way NBA plays and looks, too, and since we don't have to split time between it and NBA Live this year after all, we'll have full coverage soon.

Ridge Racer:
It's hard to find anything new to say about Ridge Racer, which gets more beautiful every year, but otherwise doesn't change much from one release to the next. While we've begun to play with the new slipstream controls and love the differentiation between cars based on drift-ability, not just horsepower, we've only started to get the drift controls under command -- the more drift-prone vehicles in the game tend to spend the entire race fishtailing when under our control so far, and we'll get more practice in soon. But as a showcase title, the only other game we've seen that comes close is Genji -- Ridge Racer is absolutely gorgeous.

Going Backwards
Of course, after the botched attempt at backwards compatibility by Microsoft, one of the first things we did was throw in a few PS2 games (and even Castlevania: Symphony of the Night from the PSONE) to make sure everything worked smoothly. To use either a PS2 or PSONE game, we had to create an 'internal memory card' using the memory card utility under the Games option, then assign it either to slot 1 or 2.

Having done that, most of the games we tried loaded quickly, looking and playing much as you'd expect. There is a problem with screen aspect ratio, though -- the PSOne games and many older PS2 games are fullscreen support only, and the PS3 stretches the picture on widescreen displays, instead of offering an option to place black sidebars.

There are a couple of other tweaks needed when using older games -- until we get a memory card adaptor, there's no easy way to transfer your old saved games. And games like Guitar Hero that use specific peripherals will be out of bounds until a PS2 to USB adaptor is on hand. (Third-party adaptors are available, designed to make PS2 accessories usable on a PC. We'll see if those work soon.) We also noticed that our controller was becoming disconnected when starting PS2 and PSOne games, but pressing the center PS button got it back online once we were in the main menu.

The Movie Experience
One of Sony's big talking points on the PS3 has obviously been the Blu-Ray DVD player, and we checked out a few films to see how things looked. First off, we were concerned that full Blu-Ray functionality wouldn't be available without the HDMI cable connected -- that's why we've used component cables so far. But the copy of Mission: impossible III we picked up looked fantastic, and noticeably more crisp and detailed than the regular DVD. Sony included copies of Kung-Fu Hustle and Talladega Nights with the machine, and those played fine and looked excellent as well.

Online...soon.
The sad thing about being directed to the Playstation Network in the first moments of PS3 ownership is that the network isn't yet available. We can't get any farther than the license agreement page. That means no online features in games or the OS are available to test; we can't evaluate matchmaking or the online store. All those features will have to wait another week, for the offical North American retail date of November 17.

Media Manager
The first thing we tried was popping in some music CDs. They rip quickly, and with full track data downloaded from the GraceNote CD Database.

We found that, unlike the PSP, we could leave a song playing and browse the XMB by hitting the center PS button. And we were pleased to see that when plugging in several media devices at once via USB -- an iPod, Cowon iAudio X5, and the PSP -- all came up immediately, and the iPod and PSP were recognized as such. Not all media folders on the iPod and Cowon were properly browsable at first glance, but by highlighting the devide under the Music, Photo, or Video tab, then hitting triangle to access the 'Display All' prompt, we could browse and play all the media on each device. Files copied quickly from devices to the PS3 drive, as well.

To check card compatibility, we popped in another memory stick with photos and music, as well as the SD card from our digital camera, and those were handled fine, too. Even the JPGs sized for wallpaper display on the PSP looked decent blown up to our 42-inch display. Video clips stored on the PSP played fine, as well.

The Remote Browse feature that wirelessly links the PSP and PS3 won't be available for a while yet, since it requires the PSP firmware version 3.0, which has yet to be released. But otherwise the PS3 seems quite adept at recognizing media, devices and card formats.

[Skywatcher]

Considerações sobre jogos/consola é favor seguirem no off-topic.
Considerações enquanto leitor de Blu-Ray podem ir seguindo aqui, para já.

[Grande Guru]

Qt custa ou custará a PS3? Eu n percebo nada de PS's pq n tenho gosto por jogos, mas se lê Blu-ray, pode-me interessar...

[Rui Santos]

Considerações sobre jogos/consola é favor seguirem no off-topic.
Considerações enquanto leitor de Blu-Ray podem ir seguindo aqui, para já.

Dei uma limpeza neste tópico, copiando as participações para o tópico no off-topic.
Lançamento PS3 nos States

[Edward Brock]

Qt custa ou custará a PS3? Eu n percebo nada de PS's pq n tenho gosto por jogos, mas se lê Blu-ray, pode-me interessar...

Os preços indicados pela Sony são de €499 ou €599, consoante o modelo.

http://www.scee.presscentre.com/content ... aseID=4198

Em comparação, o leitor da Samsong está na FNAC a cerca de €1300. Curiosamente dando uma vista de olhos rápida pelo AVSForum, a qualidade de imagem da PS3 parece ser pelo menos igual ou melhor do que a do BD-P1000.

[mega-]

Sony Losing Big Money on PS3 Hardware

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,12790 ... ticle.html

[Giribi]

Isso é normal. A microsoft também perde com a Xbox, A toshiba e a Sony, e todos os outros também perdem com os leitores dos novos formatos. Fazem-se grandes esforços para conquistar quota de mercado.

[Edward Brock]

Bem, no artigo é dito isto:

By comparison, the materials and manufacturing costs for the hard-drive version of Microsoft's rival device, the Xbox 360 are $323, iSuppli estimated. That's less than the suggested retail price of $399.

Agora resta saber quais os custos do add-on.

[GarfieldKas]

Normal? Não é lá muito já que a perda é bem significativa.

Já sabemos que eles perdem sempre qualquer coisa e que depois "vingam-se" nos jogos. Mas perdas tão avultadas?

[DarkPhoenix]

A Micro$oft andou ( ainda andará? ) a perder com a XBox desde que foi lançada.
Não estou a falar da X360, mas da XBox mesmo...

Coisas bombásticas como disco rígido de série ( UAAUUU!!! ), Dolby Digital ( verdadeiro, nada de surrounds de treta ) e resoluções ED e HD ( 480p, 720p e 1080i ) já a XBox proporciona desde o seu lançamento...
Mesmo assim, a esmagadora maioria dos consumidores preferiu abdicar de toda essa tecnologia - ao preço da chuva - em prol de outro sistema muito mais fraco ( P$2 ), devido à qualidade dos seus exclusivos e ao passa-palavra mainstream.


Esta avaliação recente do preço da P$3 é só para animar os desgraçados que vão mesmo dar mais de 500€ por uma máquina que no melhor dos casos, deixa os profissionais ainda algo cépticos quanto ao seu desempemho e real valor.
Se por um acaso, o HD-DVD acaba por ganhar esta guerra de formatos, muitos early adopters da P$3 vão ficar a arder...

[Oblivion]

Bom eu se comprar a PS3 não será pelo Blu-Ray, mas sim pelos jogos...

[Giribi]

Coisas bombásticas como disco rígido de série ( UAAUUU!!! ), Dolby Digital ( verdadeiro, nada de surrounds de treta ) e resoluções ED e HD ( 480p, 720p e 1080i ) já a XBox proporciona desde o seu lançamento...
Mesmo assim, a esmagadora maioria dos consumidores preferiu abdicar de toda essa tecnologia - ao preço da chuva - em prol de outro sistema muito mais fraco ( P$2 ), devido à qualidade dos seus exclusivos e ao passa-palavra mainstream.

Ao menos na PS3 podes usar qulquer disco sata quer 2.5" ou 3.5" com uma daptaçãop minima (se for 2.5" nem é preciso nenhuma) E não és xulado como nos discos de 20GB!! exclusivos da X360. Para além disso, tens de compreender que para quem tem um bom PC a Xbox não faz grande sentido. A Xbox original era muito inferior a um pc médio a nivel de Hardware, e apesar da X360 ser uma excelente consola a nivel de specs, também não faz nada que um bom pc não faça, excepto correr alguns titulos exclusivos, ou output em HD, mas as placas de pc com saida HDMI já chegaram e não são mais caras que as outras. Aliés dentro muito em breve já todas faram outup nativo em HD e todas mesmo terão sida HDMI.

Para um possuidor de um PC a PS3 é uma oferta mais aliciante, porque representa um tipo de hardware diferenciado do que já possuiu e a carteira de titulos, por norma, tem mais jogos que não existem para pc.

Esta avaliação recente do preço da P$3 é só para animar os desgraçados que vão mesmo dar mais de 500€ por uma máquina que no melhor dos casos, deixa os profissionais ainda algo cépticos quanto ao seu desempemho e real valor.
Se por um acaso, o HD-DVD acaba por ganhar esta guerra de formatos, muitos early adopters da P$3 vão ficar a arder...

Todas as primeiras reviews têm sido extremamente elogiosas. Mas o mercado é que acaba sempre por decidir. A qualidade dos jogos, e a velocidade a que as software houses tiram partido do novo hardware também. Mesmo que o HD-DVD acabe por se impor e depois??? Quem tiver uma PS3 fica com um leitor blu-ray à mesma (e ao que parece um muito bom mesmo).

[DarkPhoenix]

Que sorte...

A minha XBox tem um disco rígido de 120Gb desde 2003.
E desde quando um Pentium 3 733Mhz, Geforce 3 Ti, 64mb RAM eram "muito inferiores a um pc médio a nível de hardware", na altura do lançamento da XBox?

Ainda hoje há por aí muito pc inferior a tentar correr o NFS Carvão...



As primeiras reviews têm sido elogiosas, ainda bem.
Há relato de alguns problemas, mas nada que indicie uma fraqueza grave da consola.
Problemas na visualização a 720p em alguns displays, retro-compatibilidade a precisar de uns updates e uma qualidade inferior nos jogos, em comparação com a one-year-old X360.
No entanto, prevê-se que a PS3 vá melhorar gradualmente os seus serviços.

Mas o único trunfo da PS3 continua a ser o leitor Bluray, caso este vingue no mercado.

De outro modo, porquê pagar mais 200 a 300€ por uma consola cujos jogos serão iguais aos da X360?

Não esquecer que o leitor HD-DVD que está a ser lançado para a X360, poderá ser utilizado num vulgar pc, ou seja teremos HD-movies a uma fracção do preço da PS3, e com o "King Kong" incluído.

A isto some-se a crítica ainda insegura quanto às reais potencialidades do BluRay face ao HD-DVD, as vendas imparáveis da X360 nos states e Europa, e ficamos com a ideia precisa do quão frágil é a posição da Sony nesta guerra.

Eu continuo com a mesma ideia:
SE a PS3 se confirmar como uma boa máquina de jogos, ou o formato BluRay se mantiver pelo menos ao nível do HD-DVD, penso comprar uma em finais de 2007 ou 2008.

Só aí é que a consola poderá interessar.
Até lá, é conversa de gente com dinheiro para estourar, snobs ou hardcore-tech-lovers...