PS3 through the eyes of a 360 fanboy...
No, this isn't another article trying to explain the PS3's price, nor a rip on Sony. The article at Gaming Nexus, written by a guy who admits to being a Micro$oft fanboy, takes an objective analysis of Sony's new machine. If only other XBox fanatics could take such a calm approach to their competition. Now, since the price point and Blu-Ray stuff has been beaten well beyond death, some other points are worth mentioning.
About the controller: it's not a Wii ripoff, says Charles Husemann, the author of the article. He says "the technology has been around in one form or another for years" and Nintendo is packaging it in a consumer friendly way, while Sony is just dusting it off and tossing it on. Another advantage is the ability to turn the PS3 controller's tilt feature off (then why can't a rumble feature be turned on when the tilt is off?! We can dream...) while the Wiimote is fairly, well, standard. Backwards compatibility is a good reason for keeping the same controller scheme. There's no learning curve to getting back into PS2 or PSX games, which is great for those of us with extensive game libraries.
About ripping off XBox Live ...
The author has this to say about XBox Live and Sony's online service: "Aggregating demos, online content (like game trailers and videos), setting up multiplayer matches, and micro transactions is nothing new as to a degree America Online and other content providers have been doing it for years if longer. All Microsoft has done is to create a successful service that brings a concepts together in a customized interface for the Xbox 360. I'm also curious why people aren't saying that Nintendo's virtual concept isn't just a knock-off of Xbox Live arcade, it's the same concept right?" He has a point. Saying anyone is copying anyone else in the console world is just wrong -- the technology was just moved from computers to consoles. It was inevitable. Microsoft just did it first, which sort of makes sense. It's Microsoft.
Sony isn't going to charge for multiplayer matchmaking, which is a step in the right direction, really. Also of note for Sony's online system is the fact Sony has the corner on audio and video. As in, movie studios support Sony more than they would Nintendo or Microsoft. As such, what's to stop these studios from releasing content available only on Sony's online network? Or Blu-Ray specific features of a movie release (included game demos, etc).
The article brings up a lot of great points, but these are the only ones that deserved a good explanation. From a 360 fanboy, no less! Check out the article for the other bits.
[Kudos to Charles for this article!]
