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It’s all about the games – at least that’s what they used to say.
In fact, the Playstation 3 (PS3) may well be the first games console where the games themselves take a back seat to many of the other multimedia features on offer.
After all, there’s no doubt that its £425 price tag makes the PS3 a very expensive games machine, but once you start thinking about it as a Blu-ray movie player and it suddenly seems pretty good value (compared to other dedicated Blu-ray devices such as the Samsung BD1000, at least).
On top of Blu-ray support, the PS3 can play music and movie files from memory card and external USB devices, browse the web and download yet more media from the Playstation online store. But for some it will still be all about the games, so we gave Sony’s first-party software line-up a test drive.
And test drive is probably the best way to describe it, given that the majority of titles on offer focus firmly on racing or driving simulations of one type or another.
Indeed out of Sony’s five home-grown UK launch releases, only two – Resistance: Fall of Man and Genji: Days of the Blade – can’t be categorised as racers.
From the looks of it, Resistance was probably the game Sony intended to be the ‘must-have’ launch release for the US and European markets.
A gritty first-person shooter, Fall of Man has all the hallmarks of a western blockbuster title, fusing the Halo-type alien invasion scenario with a World War II setting (in fact, the game is set in a parallel version of the 1950s), and featuring staples such as online play and lots of big guns.
But somehow the actual gameplay experience is a strangely empty one. Graphically it looks somewhat unfinished too and, though there are some good set pieces, the run-and-shoot sections can be pretty samey.
That said, Resistance is an awful lot better than Genji: Days of the Blade, a third-person action title with a medieval Japanese setting. The sequel to a fairly enjoyable Playstation 2 title, Days of the Blade is amazing to look at, but frustrating to play thanks to a crippling fixed-camera system and over-sensitive controls.
For long-term fans of Sony consoles it won’t be much of a surprise to find a Ridge Racer 7 game amongst the PS3’s launch games. There’s been a new Ridge Racer for every new PlayStation that’s been released, from the original Playstation 1 to the more recent Playstation Portable (PSP).
Well, we say ‘new’, but Ridge Racer 7 is very similar to Ridge Racer 6, which came out on the Xbox 360 more than a year ago. That said, it’s pretty good fun in an arcade racer sort of a way. Graphically it shows off the PS3’s power pretty nicely, with lots of glistening metalwork and fast-moving scenery.
But, like all its predecessors, Ridge Racer is a fundamentally shallow experience – even if you buy into the game’s whole mechanical tinkering element.
Not due for release until December, we get a sneak peak of Nintendo's Wii console 13 Oct 2006
All Arcade GamesTags: PS3 Games
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