Review: Sony Playstation 3 console

Sony’s much-hyped third-generation games console is here at last, but is it actually any good?

It has been a long wait – especially for those of us in Europe – but the Playstation 3 (PS3) is finally set to arrive in the UK on 23 March 2007, almost a year after it was first scheduled for release and more than four months after its Japanese and US launch.

We were able to test drive the PS3 in our labs and, while the console we were given by Sony was a US retail unit, it won’t differ greatly from the version that will eventually be released on this side of the Atlantic, barring some region coding issues and online registration procedures.

In the flesh, the PS3 is certainly quite a force to be reckoned with. It weighs in at 5kg, which is the equivalent of precisely five-and-a-half PS2s. It certainly looks the business though, with shiny black casing and silver trim and ‘Playstation 3’ emblazoned across the top (or its side, if you stand the console vertically) in what appears to be the same font that’s used in the Spider-man movies.

There’s a lot of up-to-date technology packed into the big black box too, including a Blu-ray drive and full 1080p HD output. Interestingly, while buyers are being offered two slightly different editions of the console in other territories, the Euro-PS3 will only be available in its slightly more expensive form.

See our PS3 video preview

In many ways, this is good news, as it means desperate gamers won’t wind up settling for the cut-down version of the console (which only has a 20Gb hard disk and doesn’t feature built-in Wifi or memory card slots) when the inevitable stock shortages kick in. The cost, however, is not so rosy, since the ‘full’ console’s £425 official UK price tag makes the PS3 one expensive gaming machine.

The larger 60GB internal hard drive is going to come in handy, since the extended media centre functions of the PS3 make it the perfect repository for ripped music files, photos for slideshows and dowloadable content like movies, demos and trailers.

The internal hard disk drive is upgradeable. An access panel on the side allows you to remove the existing disk and instructions on replacing it are included in the manual (at least they are in the US manual). It’s also possible to play back and store media on external USB drives, so storage need never be an issue.

While the console itself is a little on the heavy side, the controllers feel too light. Anyone who has picked up a Playstation controller will notice the distinctive design hasn’t changed a great deal since the original Dual Shock – and that’s a good thing.

The new pad is called the Sixaxis, since it features motion sensing on six axes (see what they did there?). In one of the games we tried out we were able to use the Sixaxis as a steering wheel to drive a car (badly), but we’ve yet to see any software that takes advantage of the technology in quite the same way as the similarly motion-sensing Nintendo Wii Remote.

The PS3 is an undeniably impressive system on paper. It features the much-vaunted IBM/Toshiba/Sony-developed Cell processor and Sony is more than happy to tell you all about the 1.8 teraflops floating point performance of its RSX GPU or the 25.6GB per second bandwidth of its system Ram.

In practice, the console comes off looking like a slightly less accomplished Xbox 360. The interface (borrowed from Sony’s handheld, the Playstation Portable) is pretty straightforward but nowhere near as intuitive as the 360’s dashboard.

Many other aspects of the console, from the instant access PS button in the middle of the controller to Sony’s online services, seem like imitations of ideas we’ve already seen on Microsoft’s 15-month-old console.

These are only minor criticisms, however. Less forgivable is the fact that for all Sony’s talk of ‘true’ HD, the console doesn’t come with an HDMI or even a component cable. The only connector you’ll find in the box is a composite video/analogue audio ‘multi-out’ cable – the same one that came with the PS1.

Speaking of which, while it’s good that the PS3 is backwards compatible with virtually every PS1 and PS2 game, it’s a shame the system can’t upscale the graphics to HD or at least smooth over the jaggies a little with some on-the-fly anti-aliasing.

Update: Since writing this review, Sony decided to remove the Emotion Engine (the chip that makes it backwards compatible with PS2 games) from the UK version of the PS3. Sony still plans to make around 1,000 PS2 games available when the PS3 launches in the UK and has set up a site that will detail new announcements.

It won’t even upscale DVD movies in the way that many of the better standalone DVD players will do these days. Upscaling is well within the powers of the Cell processor, so perhaps issues like these will be addresses in forthcoming software updates.

As a Blu-ray player, on the other hand, we were pretty impressed, especially when we hooked the console up to a 46-inch 1080p-ready Sony Bravia screen. With rich colours, sharp edges and incredible detail, it beats many of the dedicated high-def disc players and PC-based Blu-ray options we have experienced – and for a fraction of the price. Until the outcome of the current HD movie format wars has been decided, however, the real benefit of having Blu-ray on board will remain a moot point.

As always, it’s the games that will make or break the system. And, while the launch titles (or the ones we played at any rate) are unlikely to blow you away, the Playstation 3 has a release schedule that both Nintendo and Microsoft would be envious of, with key exclusive titles like Metal Gear Solid 4, Heavenly Sword, Devil May Cry 4 and Gran Turismo HD looking particularly promising at this stage.

See our video preview of the PlayStation 3

Also consider:
Nintendo Wii games console
The easy-to-pick-up controller system could well win console gaming a fresh following, but only a steady stream of strong software will get everyone bursting for a Wii

Microsoft Xbox 360
Fantastic gaming machine, but you need a lot of supporting hardware to get the most out of it

Sony Playstation Portable
Great for gaming, but a few niggles keep it from scoring top marks