The event was packed with tons of PS3 games

SONY HOLIDAY PRESS EVENT 09: A casual analysis.

Ahsan  says:
So then,  let’s talk about the Sony holiday press event

April  says:
You really don’t care about my well being do you? >. < anyways, What did you think?

Ahsan says:
Where do I begin,  I loved the fact that the entire event was held in such an inconspicuous place and just felt like a modern art gallery.

April  says:
I know! It looked like an empty building and right on the upper floor was the event. Like some secret organization having a meeting or something!!! Read more…

Gaming has become quite the luxury these days. Some people have plenty of money to spare and some people don’t mind skipping meals and cutting down on haircuts but it seems to me that a person invests in only one system. Interestingly enough, rivalries between system owners are as heated as those between the developers themselves.

So now that the consoles of today are just about obsolete and new ones are on the way, who?s side are you going to be on?

Sure, there are people who have been loyal to Nintendo since the first Super Mario Brothers game, thus they are sure to buy their next system. Sure, there are people who love Halo so much they?re going to invest in Xbox 360, heck, I know someone who?s trying to pre-order it.

But for the most part I?m finding that from the people who play video games so much that they should seek medical attention to the people who buy a game once a year ? PS3 is the system of choice.

If you read my column last week about the Xbox 360 you know I went into a lot of detail with regards to its impressive hardware specs and PS3 is no exception. The key to the power of the PS3 is it?s exclusive Cell processor technology developed by IBM. The Cell processor is composed of a PowerPC processing element (PPE) and eight Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs). Basically, information flows from the PPE to the eight SPEs; as a result the PS3 is capable of concurrently processing eight threads at its full speed of 3.2Ghz.

Similar to the Xbox 360, to truly appreciate this kind of a CPU you?ll need a High Definition television but the PS3 will still operate just fine on any modern TV. The definitive difference between the Xbox 360 and PS3 has to be that while the Xbox 360 is sticking with a DVD drive, PS3 will boast a Blu-ray disc drive.

Blu-ray, which employs a blue-violet laser to read and write data technology, is apparently the format aimed at replacing DVDs. Once again, this all goes back to the push tech-developers are making towards HD television as Blu-ray is hoping to become the standard of high-def DVD flicks and consequently making us all jealous of the bourgeoisie.

A single-layer Blu-ray disc holds 25Gbs and a double-layer disc a whopping 50Gbs. Now first of all, if this is true, for all the people who invested thousands into building DVD collections ? I told you so. Second of all, although this technology will obviously make the PS3 a powerhouse it is still quite the gamble.

Blu-ray discs are very expensive to develop and consequently for this medium to pick up PS3 itself will have to do most of the work and frankly, nobody has been in a rush to buy minidisks so that they can watch movies on their PSPs so far. Sony is hoping that Blu-ray becomes the standard so that buying a PS3 becomes easier but has made sure that its compatible with CR-ROM, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R formats

As if the Blu-ray factor wasn?t dubious enough it also looks like you will have to purchase the hard drive separately. Now this right here is what I like to call the low-blow: to buy a system and then more for extras such as memory cards or RF switches is quite the annoyance, but just imagine how much hard drive is going to cost.

Now in terms of connectivity, the PS3 has built in Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet connections. In english, the PS3 will be able to connect at an incredible speed, ten times that of the Xbox 360?s. Speed is not as important to multiplayer gaming as people think so it?s likely PS3 has it?s site of expanding into other markets – rumours have it Sony plans to eventually distribute movies online. There hasn?t been an indication as to how much the online service will cost but I?m betting that it definitely won?t be free.

Making use of Bluetoooth technology the PS3 will have wireless controllers and will be able to interact with the PSP With the six USB ports you?ll be able to plug in anything from a camera to an mp3 player and likely a keyboard; similar to the Xbox 360, PS3 will operate as a multi-media centre.

In the end what really matters are the games and PS3 is going to have a solid selection such as the next instalments of Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy, Killzone, Metal Gear Solid, and Tekken.

Clearly these are examples of what made the PS2 a huge success: the very fact that Sony has always made sure to provide a selection of games that span such a wide range. On the contrary, catering mostly to a younger crowd is what led to the Nintendo Gamecube?s poor success in North America. How fitting it is that the title of their next console is exactly what Nintendo needs – a revolution. Come back next week to find out more.