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Johnny Minkley is a games expert for BBC Radio 1, editor of Eurogamer TV and former editor of the industry trade weekly MCV. He's played games for more than 20 years and has been writing about them for more than seven. Here he picks the top games consoles. Click to view Top 5 Video Game Consoles.
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Best For High-Def Entertainment (PlayStation 3) |
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 High-definition, we’re repeatedly told, is the future of home entertainment. But for those who want to grasp that future now, the formidably powerful, catwalk-cool PlayStation 3 delivers a peerless gaming and multimedia experience for the discerning technophile – with a price to match. |
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PlayStation 3 is focused on delivering the ultimate in high-definition (HD) entertainment. What does this actually mean? Without getting too bogged down in the technicalities, HD is the next major evolutionary step up from the entertainment experience on regular TVs and DVDs. HD video has a far greater resolution than standard definition which, when displayed on an HD screen, offers greater clarity, detail and richness of colour – on a large screen the results can be amazing. Like Xbox 360, all PlayStation 3’s games run in HD, offering a dramatic improvement in visual quality over PS2.
But for the connoisseur, PS3’s native 1080p output (the highest resolution currently supported by HD TVs), an HDMI port for optimum image quality and built-in next-generation movie player puts the Sony system firmly at the cutting edge of entertainment technology. (Annoyingly, however, an HDMI cable is not included in the box and costs around £15 extra unless included in a special bundle offer).
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Movies, music and much more |
PS3’s beating heart is the much-vaunted Cell processor – an advanced chip created in conjunction with IBM and Toshiba – which, again avoiding techno-babble, makes Sony’s console the most powerful gaming system ever created, at least on paper.
A word you’ll hear used a lot in the context of PS3 is "potential". On the gaming side, such is the complexity of the hardware, it’s going to take some time for developers to hit their stride and begin to deliver on this huge potential. But at a sizeable £145 more than its closest rival, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, it’s a big ask for a games console. Or, at least it would be if that’s all that PS3 was about.
At £425, PlayStation 3 costs a hell of a lot more than the average games console; but it offers a lot more than just a games console. Exploited fully, Sony’s highly capable system is a versatile home entertainment hub for your hi-tech living space. In addition to 1080p output, PS3 supports Dolby 7.1 and 5.1 surround sound. Meanwhile, an array of USB ports and card readers allows you to plug in everything from your digital camera, to your iPod, to your PSP (more on that later) and pump it all through your HD TV, manipulating media as you please.
And a hefty 60Gb hard drive gives you ample room to store photos, music, movies, games and demos downloaded from PlayStation Network. “PS3 is a versatile and impressive piece of home entertainment equipment that lives up to the hype,” says CNN. And then, of course, there’s next-generation movie playback…
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Ray of hope |
 Two competing formats are currently tussling to be the true successor to DVD. HD-DVD is backed by Toshiba, while Blu-ray is Sony’s storage medium of choice. Unhelpfully, the movie studios are divided, although Blu-ray can count the support of the most majors. For those with long memories, it’s VHS versus Betamax all over again and, frankly, while the battle is still raging, it’s a rubbish situation for consumers. Do you invest a small fortune in a player now for a format that could be obsolete within a few years?
Sony is banking on – or more accurately betting the farm on – PlayStation 3 giving its format the boost it needs to ensure longevity. Every PS3 is not just a top-spec gaming machine, but also a high-end next-gen movie player with Blu-ray technology wired into to its core (which will also play your entire DVD collection). Xbox 360 can also play next-gen DVDs, but PlayStation 3 is the only system to enable it out of the box. 360 movie buffs must fork out an eextra £129 for an HD-DVD add-on, which makes the price difference between the two largely redundant.
It’s also important to note that, where 360’s noisy fan can ruin the mood of a quiet movie, PS3’s barely perceptible purr will never intrude. And for the style and space conscious, while PS3 is the largest of home consoles, there is no external power supply unit to worry about – unlike the massive grey brick you get with Xbox 360.
Early evidence from the US, where standalone HD-DVD and Blu-ray players have been available for some time and where PS3 was launched last November, suggests that Sony’s format is winning the early skirmishes in terms of movie sales - by a factor of over two to one and growing. But it’s still too early to call.
Crucial to the PlayStation 3 debate, though, is Sony’s insistence that Blu-ray is also absolutely essential to gaming. Blu-ray holds up to 50Gb of data, a third more than HD-DVD and over fives times as much as a normal DVD. For Sony extra space means greater scope for developers to cram in more content, more complex artificial intelligence. Cynics, meanwhile, claim PS3 is merely a Trojan horse to establish Blu-ray as a movie format.
At this stage PlayStation 3 is in its infancy and superficially there is little to choose between its software and that of main rival Xbox 360. But Sony’s console is the more powerful on paper so over the next few years, as game makers begin to harness the full potential of the hardware, we’ll see exactly what kind of difference this makes in real terms. Once again, for the tech-head with an insatiable lust for the ultimate in gadgetry, that ‘potential’ word is the key lure. “Sony's PlayStation 3 may be the most expensive next-gen game console,” explains CNET, “but its swanky design and bevy of features, including a Blu-ray drive, make it hard to resist.”
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Reinventing the feel |
 PlayStation 3’s wireless, rechargeable controller is known as ‘Sixaxis’ and is the evolution of the classic DualShock pad familiar to anyone who’s ever played on the original PlayStation or PS2. Two features of Sixaxis have proved controversial: one, the exclusion of an in-built rumble feature, an industry standard, whose omission is more likely owing to a patent-related legal wrangle with US tech firm Immersion than any idealogical manoeuvring. And two, the inclusion of motion-sensing.
Having settled its lawsuit with Immersion, rumble may return in the future. Sony has hinted as much, and there’s no doubt that action games benefit from the sensation of a vibrating joypad. Assuming that does happen, existing PS3 owners will have to pay for the privilege, of course.
Motion-sensing, meanwhile, isn’t as advanced as that offered by Nintendo’s Wii, but it does provide developers with a fresh opportunity to add some fun extra features into a game – e.g. tilting the pad to fly a plane or steer a car.
PlayStation 3 comes with a single Sixaxis controller. For multiplayer titles, you’ll need to invest in extra controllers at around £34.99 each. |
Heading online |
PlayStation Network (PSN) via PS3 represents Sony’s first serious attempt at true online gaming, after a rather clumsy and half-hearted approach with PlayStation 2. As a result, it’s playing catch up to Microsoft’s superb Xbox Live service which, firmly established on Xbox 1, has now reached maturity on 360 as a compelling, self-contained environment that’s a joy to use.
PSN offers the features gamers now demand, like messaging, live voice and video chat and online gaming and web browsing. Crucially, this is all free of charge if you already have a broadband subscription, compared with the £40 fee for a year’s worth of Xbox Live Gold membership. The PlayStation Store also lets you buy downloadable arcade-style games, classic PSOne titles (which can also be played on PSP) and check out demos of upcoming PS3 titles.
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No place like Home |
 Doubtless aware that a simple copycat approach to Microsoft’s successful and established online model wouldn’t suffice, the recently announced Home service is Sony’s effortlessly cool stab at enticing the MySpace generation onto PS3. Simply put, Home is a 3D online environment in which every connected PS3 owner can create their own virtual space - think Second Life meets MySpace.
You create the look of your avatar, furnish your gaffe with a Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen-like flourish, and invite your friends over to visit. The free service doesn’t launch until later this year, but, again, the "potential" is vast. User-generated content, in particular, will be the cornerstone of Sony’s online ambitions. |
'Station to 'Station |
 The real ace up PS3’s sleeve could, however, turn out to be its interoperability with PlayStation Portable: PS3 has been designed specifically to link up with the handheld device. Currently, remote play allows you to use a PSP to access content on your PS3’s hard drive via a Wi-Fi connection. In the future, Sony intends to allow you to do this anywhere in the world with a connection – so you could take your PSP on holiday and watch movies on it that are stored thousands of miles away in your home. For gadget freaks this could be a real killer app. |
Don’t forget the games! |
Notwithstanding PlayStation 3’s media-straddling, polymath credentials it is, fundamentally, a games machine. And while it always takes a little while before developers hit their stride with new tech, the first wave contains a few gems. Leading the charge is superb off-road racer Motorstorm, brilliant fun to play and sensational to see in all its HD glory. Coming up, expect major new editions of stalwart Sony brands like SingStar, EyeToy and Gran Turismo, plus third-party giants like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII.
If you’re an existing PlayStation owner, PS3 is backwards-compatible with some, but not all, PS2 and PSOne titles. For a full list of compatible titles, check out the official Sony website.
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Why buy now? |
 As CNN notes: “The PS3's media features are extensive - enough so that the console could be a worthwhile purchase even for people who never deign to even fire up a game.”
The staggering success of the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2, and the support that commands from game developers, is reason enough to believe that PS3 is well positioned to deliver on its potential as a gaming system in the future. However, looked at purely in terms of games, PlayStation 3 cannot yet compete with the breadth and quality of titles available on Xbox 360.
But while gamers might be content to sit tight and wait for the price to come down, if you’re desperate to upgrade to the HD experience for all your home entertainment, once you factor in the Blu-ray movie player, PlayStation 3 becomes a good value proposition. And for consumer who has to own the best first, that’s priceless.
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Recommended retail price: £425/$599.99
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