I've played the PS3 and it's INSANE!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 17 November 2006 07:28

Your IT - Entertainment

The PS3 is yet to launch in the US, but I’m one of the lucky few that’s had the chance to actually play the PS3. And you know what? It’s freakin’ insane! The next-gen high-def gaming war is ON.

I can’t wait to get one of these babies in my living room, hooked up to my big screen TV. Of course, I love the Xbox 360, and love how it has been delivering true next-gen, high-def gaming for over a year, shaming Sony somewhat in making us all wait so long for their version.

Of course, Sony are no slouches when it comes to gaming, with the PS2 still flying off the shelves, especially thanks to their incredible range of ‘social games’, as Michael Ephraim, Chief of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia calls them.

At the special pre-launch for gaming journalists in Australia, he spoke of the massive number of sales games like SingStar, Buzz and others have generated for Sony, and they’re all optimized for the PS2 platform. He also expressed Sony’s regret that there weren’t any PS3 consoles until next year for Australia, but explained that unfortunately production issues had caused the situation to happen.

It’s what had happened with the PS1, PS2 and PSP in Australia, said he, and while Sony really did want a global launch, these things were always a challenge for any company. So while the focus is on the PS3 in Japan and the US, with a special previews and other PS3 activities leading up to the March 2007 launch for us here in Australia, the PS2 is the Australian focus for Sony this Christmas

This is incredibly important for Sony, as they still want to sell huge numbers of PS2 consoles this Christmas, and they full believe they have the software library of family oriented games to do this successfully, not just the classic shooters, car racing and action games.

Couple this with the PS2 at a record low price of AUD $199 (and even cheaper in stores), it’s these social games which Ephraim explained that anyone in the family could play, from the youngsters to grandparents. Is Sony taking a leaf out of Nintendo’s playbook with the claim of gaming for anyone, or has Nintendo copied Sony?

Perhaps it is Nintendo copying Sony, for games like Buzz, SingStar and others have been out for some time now, with updates to those games already on shelves and more planned, while the Wii is still yet to be on sale in any country.

So, what is it actually like to play with a PS3? Read onto the next page for much more!