[PS3] PlayStation 3 Discussion Thread

Originally Posted by Slayer X

The new PS3 update also enables dualshock controller use for PS2 and PS1 games via USB with NEW rumble support.

Clarify, please. I've not seen one on the market, but there is a device that lets you use a PS1/2 controller through a USB connection?

Additional Spam:
I was under the impression that the new force feedback update was for the wireless steering wheel and basically nothin' else.

Edit: Seems I was largely mistaken. A link in a GameSpot article pointed out numerous such devices I asked about earlier.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Since we're kinda on the topic of games, any word on White Knight Story? I haven't heard anything since it's initial reveal and that first trailer.

FELIPE NO

Oh snap. Signed up, thanks for the link Bomber.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Yeah, I just got done with Dynasty Warriors: Gundam. Here's a once-over:

The title pretty much spells out the game play. It's Dynasty Warriors hack 'n slash with Gundams instead of Chinese warriors.

Positives: The tried and true DW game play works fairly well with Gundams in it. In the demo, you're given control of the highly recognizable Wing Zero, piloted by an improperly voiced Heero Yuy. I'll come back to that in a minute. Wing Zero's attacks are pretty much kept intact -- his beam rifle(s) is present as is his dual Vulcan Cannons and the token beam saber. Yes, you can transform and briefly fly in WZ's jet mode, but it's mostly for aesthetics as far as the demo goes. Still fun though.

Camera control is handled well, as the player is given full control. The minimap can be zoomed in and out with R2 from full-field view to area view, which can be helpful in combat. No need to see the rest of the playing field then right?

Negatives: Hoo boy. Let's start with visuals.

That tried and true DW formula I mentioned earlier? It also applies visually -- the environment is fucking bland. C'mon guys, you're working the PlayStation 3. At least put a little more effort into it! It's a scorched planet, granted, but maybe some pillars of fire or explosions in the background, anything!

The game play is still, at best, slightly below average. You hack, you slash, you fire, oh and when the Musou gau....I mean you're Gundam's energy fills up, you can unleash a Gundam-specific attack, which in the demo meant you fired a controllable blast from your beam rifle.* The AI leaves something to be desired, as I caught Master Asia (he's on your side in the demo, and Domon from the same series tried to kill you -- strange huh?) trying repeatedly to run through a locked door. He just kept running into it, along with a platoon of easily deceived NPC Gundams.

*In the intro sequence, they showed Wing Zero doing his famous "spin around with my dual beam rifles and fire a beam that destroys stuff" trick from the anime. God, that's the most overused animation in anything ever.

Speaking of combat, there are "field commanders" (same thing as Gate Captains from DW) you have to destroy per field to essentially move your troops forward. Occasionally you can pick up an item and it'll say "Acquired Parts!" but I've no idea what that does. Probably something post-battle.

In the demo you encounter some familiar faces and some not-so-familiar. So far I've played as Heero Yuy and seen Zechs Marquis (in the Wing Zero and Gundam Epyon, respectively), both from Gundam Wing, joined in battle with Master Asia and fought against Domon Kasshu (in Master Gundam and Burning Gundam, respectively), both from G Gundam, and seen some familiar gundams such as the GunTank, GunCannon, and your typical Zakus and those other expendable Gundams that're colored orange.

While we're in discussion about characters, let's go back to that voices thing I mentioned earlier. Master Asia's and Zechs's voices are played by their original English cast, which is a nice touch. Heero's voice is not the same actor, but the guy gets decently close enough -- he's got the whole monotone thing pretty down pat and his voice carries the same "emocity" that Heero's original had, so that's an A for effort. Domon's voice, however, was fucking retarded. The actor did a god-awful job of mimicking the original English voice, and ended up making Domon actually sound evil. That's a shame.

I haven't beaten the demo yet though. Played it a couple times but goddamn either I suck at this game, or it's fairly difficult. No, it's retardly difficult, and this is by far my biggest gripe. There's a point where you can fight a commander or what have you, and it's slashing combo knocks you down and the AI will follow you (as well it should) to continue its attack. Unfortunately, if you don't rebound after getting knocked down, it takes forever to get off the ground and guard thus leaving you wide open for slaughter once again. I probably just need more playtime with it to get past that, but still. Bad first impression.

Would I buy it? Maybe, actually, if only for novelty's sake. In my opinion, this is probably the mos accurate representation of what a Gundam game should be, since it's far more large scale than any of the other Gundam games. Players be warned though: you must be either a huge Gundam fan or a huge Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors fiend to wanna play this game. The rest of you go find something else to do.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Anyone run out and grab Ninja Gaiden Sigma yet?

I did, and it's awesome. You're given the option to install to the HDD, which I did, but it takes about 13 minutes, so find somethin' else to do. The game rocks though -- anyone whose played the demo will find some familiarity.

Spoiler:

One thing I did notice -- when I started the game, Ryu was wearing a different costume. This because I beat the demo and te game read that from the HDD? Pretty cool, if true.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Son'y following a strategy they've used twice now, one two previous consoles.

Introduce a machine whose primary playback capabilities rely on a new type of digital storage format. Price it conveniently lower than the average device that uses said format, and sell away!

The PS1 was, at the time, pretty damn cool for a CD player. For people that didn't have a big stereo system at the house, hey they could buy a PS1 and play it through their TV! Viva la revolution!

The PS2 followed the same policy. DVDs had just hit the market, and they were outrageously expensive. Upwards of $400 and the DVD selection was sparse. I think every DVD owner had at least one copy of The Matrix. But then the PS2 came along, priced $100 cheaper, and it played games! Not only that, it played PS1 games too!

And now the PS3 is doing the same thing, except Sony jumped the gun on a new format. They helped to introduce Blu-Ray (this is a key point) as a selling point for the PS3, instead of waiting for Blu-Ray to gain an audience and use the PS3 as an alternative player and a gaming console.

Whereas before you might've gone into someone's house and said "Oh look, you have a $400 DVD player. Sweet. I've got a $300 PS2 and not only does it play DVDs, but I can play new games and my old PS1 games. OH SNAP MOTHER FUC-", now you say "Well I've got a PS3 and it's a Blu-Ray player as well as....OH SNAP MOTH-".

So yeah they changed their market entry strategy just a little bit. I don't think there's really a need to hock it down Sony's throat though. Almost every technology analyst has predicted that Sony will get off to a slow start, but will catch up and lead the trio into the next generation of consoles.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I will say this about the Blu-Ray discs and their capacity for damage.

I've seen a lot of nasty discs get traded in to my store, but the PS3 games that've come in have been as good and clean as new. The technology used to read discs is far more stable now than it was in the early days of the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube.

I think BR discs' lack of capacity for damage is offset by the increase in efficient hardware used to read those discs -- namely, the PS3 itself and BR players alike.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Maybe not, but the Killzone 2 in-game footage was amazing. It's too bad we're gonna have to wait until 2008 for some of those bigger titles. At least Heavenly Sword and Lair are still this year though, along with LBP and Home.

Sweet.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Agreed. This is likely very different from the final build. However, I didn't notice the slowdown Iwata claims to have seen after I stopped downloading other movies from the store.

I was downloading the MGS4 gameplay trailer, which was unbelievable and jaw-dropping, during my first playthrough of the demo, and after it finished any slowdown or frame skips were non-existent.

In any case, I'm going in to work tomorrow and since I've got it pre-ordered at my own store, I'll being paying it off in full.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Kairi Li

If it tastes like crap already, fat chance they wanna try it again, with a price. Not all of them are gonna be all "Well its just a demo, I'm sure it will improve." nor will they research why the demo sucked.

This line of logic is based on whether or not the demo actually sucked, which quite frankly it didn't. Just because it's a demo from a previous build and not the latest one doesn't mean the demo was horrible.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Megalith Prime

I played the demo again. I had no idea that the control screen elaborated on the counter system and other things, which was practically hidden in the menu.

If this is truly an older build with a slower framerate, then I will likely be very impressed with the final product. I'll get the game, based on the counter system alone....the counters were arguably the best aspect of the Ninja Gaiden games, and Heavenly Sword seems to completely revolve around it, which makes it fun.

Oh hell yeah. It took me a couple playthroughs (15 minutes max lolin') but I finally got the counter system nailed down. Are the cinematic ones just kinda...picked at random? I mean, sometimes the camera would zoom in and you'd get this nice close-up death scene and other times it would happen from the normal perspective. Either way, bonus.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

The frame rate is the last thing developers work on anyway. I don't know how many developer interview I've read who all say the same thing -- frame rates come last. The final build is a month and a half away barring any release date setbacks, so I wouldn't worry about frame rate being an issue.

Also, lolin' at the two called-out PS3 fanboys were the first two to respond.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Okay this is way off-topic, but I gotta ask this. What the hell is "GELB"? I noticed when I tried to quote Slayer it said Halo, so why the change?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Oh shi~ that's very cool. It'd be even cooler if those boxes weren't present though.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Qwarky

Well if we're talking decade, that's still Viewtiful Joe, sorry.

Truth. VJ wins above all, including the same studio's God Hand. VJ is the victor. Sylvia <3

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Because they're retarded, I suppose. GameStop has it listed as 09/04, if I remember right. It's somewhere in the first week of September though.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I can't imagine that's got anything to do with the PS3. However you obtained your early copy, I'd say you obviously got one that wasn't encoded or whatever correctly.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

There's all this discussion about a press kit? It's....just a press kit. It's a professional thing. Do you send an anaylst your company's financial reports paper-clipped and rubber-banded together, or do you send it in a nice portfolio to put forth the impression that you in fact are a professional business?

It's just a press kit, folks.

Edit: Gonna add a little more here.

Another way of looking at it. You're doing up your resume`, right? Do you supply it with your ssj47_dbzfan_678305@hotmail.com email address, or do you create a jsmith@gmail.com and use that instead? I like that metaphor better. Yeah.

FELIPE NO

MY PSN is my GFF nick -- SouthJag.

Are the Sony servers the only ranking servers? I play on a combination of SCEA servers and player-hosted servers, buuuut I don't really know which one's been giving me my rankings.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Got a tech question for you guys.

I bought a copy of the first Sly Cooper game today cuz I wanted to replay it, and I got it on teh ch34p. Put it in the PS3, played it for a bit, everything was fantabulous.

Started the game back up, and the PS3 locks up. The controller won't even switch off to be rebooted into PS2 mode. In fact, while I can eject the disc, holding my finger on the power button doesn't turn the system off -- I've had to flip the switch to turn the system off.

What's going on? I have the new 80 GB PS3 which, if I'm not mistaken, uses software emulation instead of the previous models' hardware emulation. Is that the problem? Of course I did start with the troubleshooting basics and tried another disc, one that my roommate had been playing earlier in the day. It caused the same problem.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

In far more positive news, an article from IGN has the list of playable PS3 games at this year's TGS, among them are the new LocoRoco screensaver and, more importantly, White Knight Story! Finally, a progress report.

Other notables include Devil May Cry 4, Echochrome, LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Ratchet and Clank Future, Time Crisis 4 and Assassin's Creed.

Should be a hell of a show. I'll be heading off to Las Vegas for a vendor show conference and I'll hopefully get the chance to play some of those games as well.

There's nowhere I can't reach.