PS3 now officially a kick ass unit

[g~man]

Slightly off topic but I disagree with you here, Natal is a gimmick just like the Wii is. It certainly has a "wow" factor, but it's not going to be as immersive. True motion controls has not only superior accuracy but force feedback too, which Sony's motion controllers will have.

So unless Natal comes with electrodes you tape to your brain to simulate force feedback, Sony's controllers will capture the hardcore demographic much more than the 360 has. And we'd be kidding ourselves if we say that the 360 has been the primary catalyst to turning non-gamers into casual gamers. Those that already have a 360 will (and should) buy Natal, but IMO Sony's controllers have the bigger chance of being a system seller due to the fact that, say, an RPG where you have free reign over the sword and board and can actually feel when your shield blocks and sword strikes is a lot more immersive than arm flailing.

Back on topic though: I might need to get a Slim for my future HD setup, especially considering my 60GB Phat is sort of loud :p

did u know that there will be a motion controller for natal like the wii-remote and sonys upcoming motion controller? only it will sync with natals superior twin cameras instead of sonys eye toy and nintedo's sensor bar

natal is going to blow wii and ps3's motion out the water... imagine playing a fps... with head and body tracking (natal) and gun aiming (motion remote)

its no comparison really... only thing that could potentially hold it back is the pricing

[Antaris Veteran]

I'm glad they are upping their game. I think my PS3 is great, but I've always felt is lagged somewhat by what the XBox360 offers. Frankly, PSN still can't touch Xbox Live for what it offers, but they are making great strides. Not sure if I am gonna get a Slim straight away because I can't warrant buying another one when my current one still works fine. Liking the 3.00 Firmware update that is coming soon.

I heard you cant install custom operating systems on ps3 slim anymore? true?

Looks like they took that ability away, as well as PS2 compatability (Audio will correct me if I'm wrong ;)).

[AbandonedTrolley]

did u know that there will be a motion controller for natal like the wii-remote and sonys upcoming motion controller? only it will sync with natals superior twin cameras instead of sonys eye toy and nintedo's sensor bar

natal is going to blow wii and ps3's motion out the water... imagine playing a fps... with head and body tracking (natal) and gun aiming (motion remote)

its no comparison really... only thing that could potentially hold it back is the pricing

Being honest I still feel that motion control still has it's limits and will not become mainstream within games anytime soon.

Also looks like the PS3 is beating 360 in terms of bring head tracking to the generation with GT5, although again I see little point in it.... surely when you look around for it to register your head has moved you're no longer looking at the screen? :)

[g~man]

I'm glad they are upping their game. I think my PS3 is great, but I've always felt is lagged somewhat by what the XBox360 offers. Frankly, PSN still can't touch Xbox Live for what it offers, but they are making great strides. Not sure if I am gonna get a Slim straight away because I can't warrant buying another one when my current one still works fine. Liking the 3.00 Firmware update that is coming soon.

Looks like they took that ability away, as well as PS2 compatability (Audio will correct me if I'm wrong ;)).

yes.. as an allround machine ps3 is good, $300 is a nice price... but here in the uk i think its still too expensive -494.984 for todays conversion rate, and thats with the pound being very weak at the moment

they have also taken out usb ports, made the touch sensitive buttons into cheap plastic click buttons

[g~man]

Being honest I still feel that motion control still has it's limits and will not become mainstream within games anytime soon.

Also looks like the PS3 is beating 360 in terms of bring head tracking to the generation with GT5, although again I see little point in it.... surely when you look around for it to register your head has moved you're no longer looking at the screen? :)

agreed... it has its limits for competitive gaming as there will always be a hint of lag (although cod5 plays suprisingly well on the wii). but imagine if microsoft bring out a fitness game to rival wii fit... only with full body tracking. it will be a joke to compare the 2 really

yes sony will bring headtracking 1st with the release of gt5 in 2012 :laugh: , just kidding. head tracking for a car game does seem silly tho. which reminds me, does gt5 still support the psp being used as a rear view mirror? now that is a awesome idea

[SnoopZ]

yes.. as an allround machine ps3 is good, $300 is a nice price... but here in the uk i think its still too expensive -494.984 for todays conversion rate, and thats with the pound being very weak at the moment

they have also taken out usb ports, made the touch sensitive buttons into cheap plastic click buttons

You got your conversions wrong, $300 = ?182

You can buy the slim in the UK for ?250.

[Sethos]

Yeah, I genuinly wish I could say the same :/

[Boz]

Also looks like the PS3 is beating 360 in terms of bring head tracking to the generation with GT5, although again I see little point in it.... surely when you look around for it to register your head has moved you're no longer looking at the screen? :)

You obviously never played ARMA 2 with TrackIR5. The experience is unbelievable.

Natal is simply an amazing technology. Not only it will bring revolution to some games as it is not meant to be used everywhere, but it will bring us a new way of interfacing with our consoles, computers and so on.

[g~man]

You got your conversions wrong, $300 = ?182

You can buy the slim in the UK for ?250.

yes

i was just showing how much it would cost for americans to buy it over here

?182 for a ps3 slim... i would pay for that just for bluray, being able to play uncharted 2 and the ability to chat to my friends who dont have the 360, everything else would be a bonus

[Antaris Veteran]

Why would an American buy it in the EU :p

We get rogerred for prices over here!

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

My receiver only supports True HD over PCM so this isn't that useful for me, my fatty passing PCM is my only option :p PS3MS will bitstream DTS though, that's how the DTS trick works, makes the PS3 pass a DTS track untouched to the receiver.

However I know how much you've wanted this feature Boz, so I'm happy you have it :p I doubt I'll ever be able to afford a sound setup that decodes True HD itself, so I'm quite happy with mine just accepting PCM.

Vice by the way, I don't know why you're being so harsh on the PS3s Media streaming, with PS3MS you can make it look fairly decent graphically, and there's some good plugins for that piece of software. Boz's own transparent movie covers make it look nicer, let alone the original thumbnails it makes look okay...

It's a simple navigation setup, but what matters more, the movies or having some ridiculously flash interface? The IMDB plugin makes PS3MS that bit better. Yes you can build a PC setup for around the same cost minus the high end audio options, but people will consider the ability to play games as well. Something you aren't doing on that media PC with a ?20 graphics card.

I use my PS3 more for streaming than playing games, but I don't think that's that surprising seeing as there's 10x more movies/tv shows out there than there is games. The only thing I like about the slim is hearing it uses a lot less power and is a lot quieter. Not enough to make me upgrade, my only hope is my parents finally decide to cash up for a Blu Ray player in the living room, but they said they wanted < ?200 before doing so.

[g~man]

We get rogerred for prices over here!

just highlighting the fact that this pricedrop does not have the same effect as it does in US

?20 off its original price is nothing too exciting... i think sonys strategy in europe is more of a rebranding excercise... new logo, new console look and 'slim' title, new game boxes etc

[Pharos]

I totally agree with you Boz. The PS3 all of sudden sounds great to me, I never even thought of owning a PS3 before this price cut. At the same price level, I can't help but think the Xbox is an inferior product (except for Live).

I am SOOOOOOOOOO buying a PS3 for Christmas :)

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

just highlighting the fact that this pricedrop does not have the same effect as it does in US

?20 off its original price is nothing too exciting>... i think sonys strategy in europe is more of a rebranding excercise... new logo, new console look and 'slim' title, new game boxes etc

It's ?50.

?300 to ?250 is not :p20 :p

[Antaris Veteran]

It's ?50.

?300 to ?250 is not ?:p0 :p

Which is quite a price difference, thats like, two weeks of food shopping for:)e :)

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Which is quite a price difference, thats like, two weeks of food shopping for me :)

It's not that great if you ask me, ?224.99 is what I wanted. ?199 was never happening, unrealistic expectation.

However the only positive is online retailers usually undercut RRP by a little, might get it for slightly less than ?250 after release, or at ?250 with a bundled game.

Sendit were doing the Slim pre-orders with a 10% off coupon, so ?225, but I missed the deadline and couldn't post on Neowin. Keep your eyes pealed on sites like Hotukdeals for some more potential for Slim pre-order sales. I wouldn't preorder at ?250 unless you have the cash to chuck at it, give it a week or two after release and they'll probably be some deals.

[WaRRioR]

What codec does this new ps3 decode ? Will it do x264 ?

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

What codec does this new ps3 decode ? Will it do x264 ?

It's done H264 from release, which is codec x264 encodes to.

[Belazor]

did u know that there will be a motion controller for natal like the wii-remote and sonys upcoming motion controller? only it will sync with natals superior twin cameras instead of sonys eye toy and nintedo's sensor bar

natal is going to blow wii and ps3's motion out the water... imagine playing a fps... with head and body tracking (natal) and gun aiming (motion remote)

its no comparison really... only thing that could potentially hold it back is the pricing

Except for the fact that everything Natal does, the PS Eye can already do. It can already do facial recognition and voice recognition. Full body tracking is technically possible, Sony says, but they believe more in the usage of controllers. And as others have since said, it can at the least do head tracking, so there's your FPS argument blown out of the water.

The only thing I will grant Natal, if the pre-rendered promotional video they showed was correct, is that they will integrate it with the interface so that you don't need a controller to navigate the NXE. But that too has its problems (over- or undersensitive controls, objects blocking the way), so I'm not convinced.

You're right, there's no comparison - Natal is a "hey we can do this, cool beans huh?" and the Sony controllers are "we'd rather you be immersed in the gameplay and feel the result of your actions".

[Coldgunner]

Not to mention Natal obviously needs a relatively spacious room to play in. I reckon a fair majority have bedroom setups and simply don't have the space.

[t0mbi]

Not to mention Natal obviously needs a relatively spacious room to play in. I reckon a fair majority have bedroom setups and simply don't have the space.

true, true.. but so does the PSeye (when it starts getting games like the eyetoy did)

you'd think natal would need as much room as a wii?? to flail around, but this time, without holding something. come to think of it, so will Sony's device (PSwand?)

i suppose that's what a controller does...contains all the movement to your fingers and thumbs :p

[Boz]

Except for the fact that everything Natal does, the PS Eye can already do. It can already do facial recognition and voice recognition.

You are oversimplifying Natal for your argument. NATAL is years ahead of everything we've encountered so far. It has depth perception thanks to 2 cameras, it can also compensate for the parts of your body it cannot see and can also track multiple people in the room. Not only it has superior voice recognition by recognizing your emotion by different tones of voice so it can recognize different users it also has color distinguishing capability. It's nothing like Sony's Eye solution even though it might look like that at the first glance.

You're right, there's no comparison - Natal is a "hey we can do this, cool beans huh?" and the Sony controllers are "we'd rather you be immersed in the gameplay and feel the result of your actions".

How is flailing around a controller in your hand more immersive than completely manipulating the game or interface with your body?

Sony's "stick" is nothing more than a Wii ripoff only with higher resolution. While it will no doubt be used in some cool things, NATAL has so much more potential not only in games but in personal computing and various different things.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Wait until both come out and you see the software, I can't believe people are arguing about what 2010 technology is better right now :laugh: Both will require space to move around in for some software, other software will just be about hand movements.

Sony's "stick" is nothing more than a Wii ripoff only with higher resolution

That is wrong though, as the stick isn't used on it's own, it's used with the camera. The Wii doesn't do head tracking or 3D positioning, it can't without a camera.

Edited August 21, 2009 by Audioboxer

[Joel]

Thanks Boz, I've been looking for that confirmation that they did indeed upgrade the HDMI chip to allow bitstreaming. I was going to pick up the Slim anyway, but this is pure cream on top.

[g~man]

It's ?50.

?300 to ?250 is not ?:p0 :p

anyone who bought a ps3 for ?300 last month lost

u could walk into hmv or other stores and come out with a ps3 with a game for ?270

Edited August 21, 2009 by g~man