October 11th, 2007. Sony Drops their price on the Playstation 3, taking away its "1000 dollar console" status. Whats interesting is by how much it got dropped. From AU$999 to AU$699...an amazing 300 dollar difference. Whats the catch? Some may hate it and some may feel indifferent. The major difference is the removal of the backward compatability with PS2 games. For a strange reason PS1 games can be played without a hassle. Personally, I think this PS2 compatability was removed in order to have an "excuse" for initially pricing the PS3 at AU$1000. Im quite sure the removal of the backward compatability and a few memory slots would not decrease the price that much...Will this kick PS3 back on its feet? Maybe. This could very well be the starting point of PS3's return! With killer apps such as Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo comming soon, the price drop sure is temptin! It definately is not up to Xbox360 standards yet...but like I said in my previos article, dont underestimate the power of Playstation!

I'm gonna go play some Wii now

Franchize

A lot of Americans have been asking themselves, what is the future of the PS3? Many Americans have a pessimistic view after seeing how horrible the launch has been. Many people ask me, why do you think the PS3 is doing so poorly? The average person wouldnt understand why, but many gamers will. To an average person, the Playstation 3 is a revolutionary console that combines Blueray funcionality, motion sensored controllers and crystal clear graphics. Reading the specs will tell people that PS3 is the ultimate machine. It essentially incorporates the positive aspects of what made its competing consoles succeed. The six axis controller has an inbuilt motion sensor that plays a role similar to the wii remote. The graphics of the PS3 can reach an extremely high level capable of surpassing xbox360's. The blueray player allows for Blueray videos to be played in HDmi at 1080p resolution. All these facts make it difficult for people to see why the PS3 is not CURRENTLY doing well. The truth is, the playstation 3 has taken on more then it can handle. It has tried to incorporate a bit of everything into its new console and by doing so, the console doesnt really excel in any of its features. The remote for example. Sure it has sensor motion devices but it isnt as accurate or as useful and a wii remote is in wii games. The graphics are another thing Sony is struggling with. Sony had promised graphics that surpass the XB360 by a longshot and at the moment I am not convinced. Third party games thus far have all looked much better on the XB360 while the PS3 versions look a little unfinished and ususally deal with framerate problems. It is known that PS3 games are much harder to make then Xb360 and Wii games and so it is obvious that when third party producers are making games for both consoles, they arent going to spend more time on the PS3 version just to make it look its best. So what? Atleast the first party exclusive games will look sweet right? Well this may be so but games like Ressistance still manage to have many bugs and framerate problems. Maybe these will be dealt with in the future when producers get the hang of producing PS3 games? I hope so. Another thing i have noticed is the fact that more and more games that were originally set out to be PS3 exclusive are now being produced on the XB360. This will create even more problems for the future.

 Now lets talk about the Blueray funcionality. Yes, it is the cheapest blueray player on the market to date, but so was the PS2 at one point, that doesnt mean that it was neccesarily the best DVD player available. Im sure the same thing applies with the PS3. The decision to incorporate a blueray player in the PS3 is very risky. Are we ready for blueray. I dont think we are when DVD is still selling at incredible rates and is much more economical. Will people spend thousands of dollars just to watch a movie in HDmi rather then its usual 520p. People dont understand how difficult it is to take over DVD, specially when DVD is still doing well. The fact is, Blueray is not needed now. Maybe in the future? People will have to spend thousands of dollars on the blueray player, a new TV that allows for blueray to use 1080p, more expensive movie titles, etc...Dont get me wrong, I think that HD-DVD is also not neccesary at the moment and was probably just an add on to compete with the blueray. As you can see, the PS3 has delivered everything it promised, just not as well as people thought it would. The psx and ps2 playback is shocking, the online play is frustrating, the games are still to show off their potential and the pricetage is extremely high. For now I have to say Im dissapointed in Sony. It approached this generation of gaming in a very arrogant way stating that "people will want to work more hours to buy a ps3". No, losers will. Old school playstation fans that are in denial will, but the smarter community will not. Sony, get a new manager and begin making decisions that will satisfy both the gamers and the corporation. As for the future, well, if PS3 miraculously gets back on its feet, delivering quality games with a lwoered price tag, then I'll buy one. As for now, save your money people and buy an Xbox360 or a nintendo Wii!

peace

I continue to play Final Fantasy 7 hoping that i will complete it before the movie hits shelves here in Australia. At the moment Im about halfway through disc two which means I dont have much to go! Unfortunately the holidays are now over which leaves me little time to spend long hard hours at the game. Will i triumph? Only time can tell.