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

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

Your IT - Entertainment

The PS3’s controller is, of course, fully wireless. It’s very light in your hands when holding it, but not too light. It seemed just right, although many more hours of gameplay are needed to give a final verdict.

Of course we all know the rumble is missing, and for some this will be a major issue. Quite why Sony didn’t just bite the bullet and pay the license fee to use the technology is simply a shame, but that’s the way it is for now. Perhaps there’ll be a change in the future, or maybe third party manufacturers will create PS3 controllers with force feedback.

It all depends on whether or not the games still have force feedback coding within, for if they don’t, a force feedback controller will be useless. That said, if a force feedback controller does become available, games manufacturers could always write a patch which gamers could download to enable the rumble in games if it was taken out of PS3 versions.

The  SIXAXIS motion system works, and does add a new element to games that does make sense. It isn’t a full replacement for the lack of rumble – the Wii has both after all – but at least Sony can claim they have this too, blunting the Wii’s marketing push a little in this regard.

Of course the PS3 itself looks like a true 21st century device, all shiny and black. It’s also a fingerprint magnet too, so you’ll want a cleaning cloth handy to wipe away those prints from time to time.

We only had a couple of hours of gameplay, which is not enough to give a final verdict, and the playtime was shared amongst a range of journalists, but the general impression everyone had was that this is an amazing console, and a real challenger to the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.

Microsoft and Nintendo have a real fight on their hands, but gamers love this stuff: we wouldn’t have it any other way. Bring it on, FIGHT!