PlayStation 3 - Hardware and Online

Signing up to the PlayStation Network is straightforward though you need broadband at home, and ideally Wi-Fi to take advantage of PS3’s inbuilt Wi-Fi connectivity. Setting up the basic ‘Master Account’ unlocks all the network services for your PS3 – gaming, shopping and communications. Unlimited Sub Accounts can then be created, each with a unique user ID. Only the Master Account can change the settings such as parental control and adding a credit card to furnish each ‘Wallet’ for transactions taken directly from your account. Whereas Xbox Live and Nintendo’s Virtual Console use MS Points and Wii Points respectively, PS Network uses real currency.

Online communication is very similar to established services such as Yahoo! Messenger. You’ll need to know the exact user ID of a friend before adding them to your list. If you encounter somebody new while playing online their ID is added to your list of players (in theory anyway), but just like Messenger they need to accept your request before communicating. Friends can then be removed or blocked at will.

Video chat using the EyeToy camera and headset is free, allowing up to four-way conversations each with its own window on screen. Every time you log on to PS Network you can see who’s on there with you, and if they’re playing a game. Here’s where it gets awkward. After logging on and noting that a friend is online and playing a game it is possible to send them a message, but they cannot reply unless they quit out and return to the browser. As the person playing the game you can receive notification of messages and be informed that friends have joined the network, but again unable to say ‘hi’ unless quitting your game. Also, the idea of players being auto-added to your PS3 after online gaming seems patchy. Also, if you are holding a conversation and decide to play a different game you need to re-establish communication from the browser.

Shopping/browsing for games, game demos and game/movie trailers is good. The PlayStation Store is similar to the biggest online stores. There are lists of what’s new, what’s popular, and you can easily browse by category. You’ve even a shopping basket which again reflects the ‘real-world consumer experience’. This is all leagues ahead of the Xbox Live presentation.

Games are priced according to the product, and cost between €2.99 and €9.99 (£2 and £7 approx.). At the higher end of the scale are the likes of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, a high-def version of Namco’s most recent arcade fighter. Casual games that include flOw and Go! Sudoku are obviously cheaper. Eventually there will be additional content for existing PS3 games, music tracks for the upcoming version of SingStar for example will start as low as €0.99. Movie trailers, available in standard or high-def, are free.

In addition to download games such as Super Rub-A-Dub, the entire back catalogue of PSone games is being made available from PlayStation Store to save onto PSP. These cost roughly £2.50 each, are saved onto the PS3 HDD then up to five PSPs can save the downloaded game onto Memory Stick via USB.

PlayStation 3 has a function called Remote Play, which allows a PSP to access its hard drive and stream content such as photos, movie trailers and music. This is more impressive than downloading via Wi-Fi, by the way, because it means that music tracks, compatible movie files and all your photos load instantaneously from the PS3. The downside is that your PS3 must be switched on to allow the connection. This spoils the appeal of Remote Play from Wi-Fi hotspots while out and about, and especially while abroad because you either need somebody to switch on the console at home for you or, worse, leave it switched on while everybody is away on holiday.

Voice communications are handled using any USB microphone, USB or Bluetooth headset. If you need more storage space, any notebook standard hard disc can replace the 60GB HDD provided. The four USB2 ports offer further HDD options, in fact preferable because of superior access speeds.

Lastly we come to the big question of Blu-ray, the new high-definition video format responsible for bumping up the price of PS3. Microsoft gives Xbox 360 users the choice to connect an HD DVD player, the rival format offering broadly similar benefits of high-definition movie playback. Experts point to superior audio quality of Blu-ray as most studios are supporting Blu-ray discs with high-resolution formats such as DTS-HD and uncompressed PCM. Although HD DVD is capable of high-resolution audio, for some reason it isn’t getting the content. Meanwhile HD DVD leads the way with bonus extras out of the box. Visually there is nothing between them. When it comes to viewing movies the PlayStation 3 runs so much quieter than Xbox 360 but this has nothing to do with Blu-ray, just a better cooling system!

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