Rod_S wrote:With Wii's distinct identity, and PS3's bottomless potential, both leave the 360 feeling like the last of the old breed. Despite Live and Arcade, the Ring of Light and achievement points, the 360 now looks like the pinnacle of a process of console evolution, finishing a line drawn from Playstation to Dreamcast to Xbox. And, despite the stark contrast between the two new consoles (Wii & PS3), this is the key they share. PS3 and Wii are simply too disruptive to belong to that lineage: there is no map for where Sony and Nintendo are about to take you.
This is going to sound like pissing on other peoples fun, but honestly I have no axe to gring and will no doubt own a PS3 at some point in the future, however...
I've been reading and hearing so many snippets and sound bytes like that recently that I just can't help but feel that Sony has been buying press coverage, and favourable press coverage for the PS3.
In the quoted article above, what does "bottomless potential" mean really? it can't really be talking about the physical processing and graphics performance of the system because from what I have seen and read in technical articles and technical observations from people who's views I respect, while the PS3 may have more raw power, maybe even significant more raw power, in real application currently it's pretty much level pegging with XBox360 and when they start to optimise the stink out of it and understand the platform they are not going to be achieving orders of magnitude difference over the Xbox360 are they? maybe they'll get twice the performance, which certainly isn't "Bottomless" in my view.
From what has been reported and demonstrated nothing in the online offering challenges XboxLive, and at best it could achieve slightly better maybe, but not "Bottomless"
As a media hub in your living room? I'm yet to be convinced, and certainly nothing leaps and bounds ahead of XBox360.
The only place I can see Bottomless Potential is in the area of Brand Loyalty.
In all honesty it sounds more like the journalists are being wowed by Sony selling up the whole power of the Cell etc. and not taking the time to research the situation. They are being blinded by the glare from their free "review" PS3s and simply quoting Sony's marketing literature and PR.
To highlight the situation I saw BBC Click on News 24 a couple of days ago where they were featuring the PS3 in the studio, it was like a 15 minute paid for segment from Sony with the presenters fauning over the machine and blowing compliments up it's arse left right and centre with no consideration of if they were genuinely needed or not. I could almost feel teh Sony PR representatibe just off camera holding the "reward" PS3 and evaluating whether this journalist deserved it or not. Terrible terrible reporting by the BBC.
The best information I took away from the BBC show was the following:
* It's a fucking HUGE machine. Even Elaine commented on this and she hasn't been following the buildup.
* I don't like the styling. This is just a personal thing.
* It really really does attract fingerprints. (The BBC unit on screen was only used for display purposes and was in the forgroiund of the shot with the reporters and TVs in the background, so you think they would have kept it clean, but there were quite a few finger prints and smudges visible - it looked terrible).
So in summary IMHO Sony is either buying coverage, or journalists are giving it anyway expecting either kickbacks or maybe hoping not to get blacklisted in the future.
It's a great time to be into video gaming, but I can't see PS3 justifying the praise it's getting right now. There's strengths in all three platforms and it's way to early to tell whether any one format will die, or kill off the competition.
