Spinoff360

I doubt anybody is actually going to read what I am about to post but oh well.

First I will admit I am not great at putting my thoughts into words so don’t expect this to be a great write up.

Second let me just clear up that at points I obviously will be making reference to graphics or picture quality. Keep in mind that this is with me using a HDTV that is fine for both 720p and 1080i. So if you have a 1080p set expect games that support it and obviously Blu-Ray movies to look better. If you have a 1080i native set that won’t convert a signal to 720p by itself then expect issues with certain games or the opposite with a 720p set not converting to 1080i for Blu-Ray movies. Then obviously if you have an SDTV just basically ignore any comment I make about graphics or picture quality.

Also keep in mind with any pictures I post that my camera isn't the greatest and also that they are resized to make them smaller so it looks a little better in person.

Now let me begin this long post nobody will probably bother to read……

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I hate to start this off with a Wii praise but as far as hardware design goes that sure is a nice looking dust collector (Ok so it wasn’t totally a praise). But speaking of dust collector’s the PS3 literally is that. While the glossy finish looks nice just like PSP it is a dust and fingerprint magnet. Not that Wii and 360 don’t do the same thing. You just don’t see all the fingerprints you leave with the slightest touch unless you have something on your fingers obviously. Also if you were to ever buy one, if you were to ever decide to sell it used on EBAY………… DO NOT SIT IN FRONT OF IT NAKED WHILE TAKING THE PICTURE! I really do think it is just a matter of time before this happens.

But while it is a dust and fingerprint magnet and while I have been guilty of breadbox jokes it is a pretty nice looking console. Really all the consoles this gen look nice on the outside to me.

Really surprised and still shocked about how little noise the PS3 makes. With the Cell supposedly being more complex than the CPU in the 360 and how loud the kiosk units are I was really expecting this thing to sound like an airplane. But it makes much less than a 360 or my PC and well even the Wii makes more noise when reading discs and stuff. The kiosk consoles are apparently not the actual consoles making the noise but the fans they have inside the kiosks to try to keep the PS3 cool.

The console does get hot but it is to be expected with a console like this and it is never what I would consider overheating since it never has any impact on the performance and is simply hot to touch. And even consoles that are a lot less powerful will get hot to touch so this is of no concern to me.

So far it has been running very well and I have yet to have any freezing, disc read problems etc. Also have not had an image resolution issues or anything like that. So far it seems like Sony might have actually made a reliable console for a change. *Knocks on wood*

Load times are much better than I thought they would be. As a first gen Blu-Ray drive I was expecting some really bad loads but load times are no worse than 360 and with games that support HDD installs it really helps load times.

Now something I have really noticed is PS3 seems to have a better contrast or something. I really don’t know for sure what it is but there is something about the PS3 picture that makes it look a little better to me than 360 does. But while I prefer the contrast or whatever it doesn’t mean PS3 is more powerful or weaker than 360. They are both equal in terms of power and both are great looking next gen consoles.


You have pretty much used it before and if you have not then you are either a diehard Nintendo fan that has entered this thread to bash the PS3, a newborn that can amazingly use a computer and read this thread or a PC gamer that hates consoles and came into this thread just to bash consoles.

But there are a couple of changes.

First the tilt features. Well I hate the Wii so why the hell would I care about this? Next! Ok fine I have had to use it for flOw while I turn it off in the retail games since they thankfully don’t force you into using it so I will comment a little further. With Wii the remote as you should know is far less limited in terms of the motion sensing and is much better and fine I will say it is fun for some things like bowling but my praise for Wii ends there. The tilt in the PS3 controller on the other hand is basically what you would have found in something like the Microsoft Sidewinder and is very limited and nothing special and it just isn’t something that interests me at all with PS3. Also doesn’t seem all that responsive.


The triggers are not great but still they are better than the previous shoulder buttons which does make this a little better for racing games and as a big racing fan that is great for me.

The home button really doesn’t serve much purpose other than a quick press (Thanks to the recent firmware update since before it had to be held down for a couple of seconds) to open up a menu and quit games and check the battery level.

Speaking of the battery life it is much better than the battery life of the 360 controller which is great because the charge cable is pathetically short and I can’t play games while it is charging. But also seems to charge fast which is also good.

Have not done a pointless range test. Yeah it is fun to know I can run upstairs, run all the way to the back of the house and still control the 360 but what is the point when I can’t see the TV? The range is fine from where I sit and will be no problem for anybody. The signal does seem a little easier (Actually I have never even had this problem at all on 360) to interfere with sometime though as there have been a couple of times where a friend has walked past only to have the controller not work for a second. Not a big issue though.

As for the same old stuff the D-Buttons do feel a little better but still hate that it is not a D-Pad. But a little better for fighting games at least and it isn’t like the 360 D-Pad is perfect either.

Now why have I yet to comment on the rumble issue? Well I turn it off on all consoles so it doesn’t bug me to not have it and has never been factor for me.



At first I hated the cases but they have grown on me. The clear blue cases Blu-Ray movies use would have looked better but I guess they wanted to go with a similar look that they have with PSP. The clear cases are great when a game like Genji has a double sided sleeve. But the best thing is they are a similar size to the Viva Piñata case so putting PS3 games directly under it on the racks makes it not look as out of place.


*Realizes everybody is looking at him weird wondering why he is commenting on the cases and decides to move on.*


Well I have only tried God of War 2 briefly and it scared me back to the normal PS2 on a smaller SDTV. PS2 games + 50” HDTV = Nightmare. Even if PS3 upconverted PS2 and PS1 games they still wouldn’t look that great. Sometime a bigger TV can just end up making faults of certain things like PS2 even more obvious.


One thing I also don’t like is that if it didn’t look bad and I did want to use it you can’t just save to the HDD using as much space as you want. It makes you create PS1 and PS2 memory cards and then you save to them so you still end up with limited space and having to constantly change what the active “card” is. But I won’t be playing PS2 games on this so not something that is important to me and probably couldn’t be avoided. Unlike Xbox games that were designed to save to a HDD PS2 games were not designed that way so it would have required a lot of work probably.


Well if you have used a PSP you pretty much know what to expect for most of the interface since it is basically the same thing. With music you can add a custom picture as the image to go with it which is nice and easy so when you go to your music it can be customized to look how you want. Then with videos you can select a point where it will start recording a 15 second preview image so when you go to the videos you can see all the previews. I did a test and uploaded a bunch of videos and with all the videos showing the previews it never slowed down the interface. Overall the 360 dashboard is better but at times can be a little sluggish so PS3 has the advantage in interface speed. The Playstation Store has a nice interface and is much better looking than the marketplace.

Like I said if you have used the PSP it is mostly the same interface and if not then I will just let the pictures explain it.


Picture looks great and like mentioned the PS3 doesn’t make a lot of noise like 360 so it is much more ideal for movie viewing. I have not used a standalone player to compare but from what I have read the Blu-Ray player in the PS3 is supposed to be better than a lot of the standalone players. So you not only get a cheap Blu-Ray player but you get a good Blu-Ray player. In 1080i which is what I am using since 720p doesn’t work for Blu-Ray movies with PS3 (Could be that they don’t even support it though…. Not sure) and it is an obvious upgrade over DVD. The difference isn’t as huge as it is with games in HD but still you would have to be blind not to notice it. Also for people with 1080p sets you will see an even larger difference since unlike games every Blu-Ray movie supports 1080p.

Only negative is that most standalone Blu-Ray players also upconvert DVD movies while PS3 doesn’t. But they recently said it is planned so in the future it will have that as well.

Still a very good Blu-Ray player and probably the main reason Blu-Ray movie sales have recently turned the tide and started to dominate HD-DVD. I for one will be using this feature a lot.

Also for games while I don’t have a problem changing DVD’s it will still be nice having one disc for games on PS3 instead of three for a game like Blue Dragon on 360.


Basically it is Xbox Live Lite. So it isn’t all bad but not all good either. First the friends list is good because it is not annoying like the Wii online games having friend codes for every game. And like XBL only one person needs to add somebody and the other just needs to accept. With Wii’s online stupidity people can try to add you and you wouldn’t even know. But the friends list isn’t as good as XBL. There are limits as to when you can send game invites and stuff which hold it back from being as good.

But the big negative and also positive is Sony not hosting servers for games. Obviously Virtua Tennis 3 is an example of why this is a big negative with no online play on PS3. Leaving server costs to developers will hurt the online support. And there is always the risk of monthly fees for something like a FPS that usually wouldn’t have them. Now the positive that still obviously doesn’t make the negative worth it is that the servers can be a little better with PS3 online games since games can have dedicated servers while XBL is running on one huge network and also seems to rely a little more on personal connections of hosts which can create problems.

In the end it is a big upgrade over the PS2 online services and with stuff like Home in the future looks like it will get better so while it is nowhere near XBL it does get the job done.


Well like mentioned the PS Store interface is great but the store itself is not so great. Very lacking in content and while new the XBL Marketplace was new when 360 launched as well and by this point had way more downloads. But this will improve with time.

I have been getting very slow downloads with my router that is fine for 360 and Wii downloads which is the one big negative and have heard of others with the same problems. So I have had to move my modem and use a direct connection when I download. The weird thing is my connection is fine for playing online games and the internet browser when I tested it was only slightly slower than browsing the internet on my computer.

With the recent firmware update it now has backward downloading and you can queue up to six downloads. Was awful the first couple of weeks having to sit through one download at a time while being able to do nothing on the PS3 so this was the best part of the update. Just a shame that nothing worth downloading was released for the PS Store this week to try this out.

The biggest problem is that while it has support to add Playstation Cards Sony has not commented on these in a long time and obviously they are not out yet so who knows if they will even release them. Which will be a big mistake if they never release them and hurt profits from the Playstation Store. Especially in Europe based on what I have seen posted on other forums where people with credit cards isn’t as common as North America.


Well it is a much better browser than Wii has but still pointless to me. If I am going to browse the internet I am going to do it on the computer. But like I said much better than the Wii browser. Why? Well USB keyboard support is an obvious advantage but for HDTV owners the Wii browser looks like complete crap. The recent firmware updates zoom options have also made it so you can zoom into what you feel is the perfect level. Things just all around look much nicer because of the console running in HD formats. But like I said I still


Well there is a little bit of a competitive side to it since you can form teams and compete to see who can contribute the most but not really meant to be a game or anything. Really it is just something you run when you are not using your PS3 if you want to take part in this project that has been going on since 2000 on PC mostly. Interesting to see how many people around the world are using this at the same time though.


Well it plays music so not much to say here other than what I said in the interface part of this post. Custom soundtracks with PS3 would be nice but from what I have seen there are no custom soundtracks in anything so far. Would also be better if you could stream music like you can with the 360.


It is still good for movies you download from the PS Store and has a view more options than the 360 video player but for your own movies 360 is the way to go. PS3 can look a little better picture quality wise with the videos and while limited does support a little more video modes than 360. But the huge advantage for 360 is what I mentioned with music and that is being able to stream movies. Also media center or Vista would take away the PS3 advantage of supporting more video modes.


Again a lack of being able to view any pictures from your PC is a negative but the positive is that unlike 360 it has a zoom option. Not like PSP which has a much zoom feature for pictures but still at least you can fill the screen instead of having an image only taking up part of the screen. Why is this nice? Well it really doesn’t matter all that much right now. But it will be nice to be able to adjust a picture to fit the screen how I want and then set it as a custom background which is supposed to be coming in a future firmware update. For now you can just press the home button and have a temporary custom background that will reset the second you do anything like play a game or watch a movie. Also not as good as the Wii picture viewer since even though the lack of HD means you get awful looking pictures on Wii you can at least make the picture a puzzle, draw on it etc.

Has some good slideshow modes for anybody that cares about that because you have people over and do slideshow presentations or something but if you are going to buy a PS3 for that then you really need help.


I have only used this to transfer files to the PS3 and well at least my PSP is getting use. Like mentioned I would still much rather stream or transfer from a PC but still an easy and fast way to transfer files.

I am not sure if any games have PSP support integrated yet and if any do then I have yet to try that out. But I doubt if any games have PSP support integrated I will really care to use it.

Have also yet to try any of the PS1 games from the Playstation Store but eventually will probably purchase something like Tekken 2.

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Gameplay: The gameplay engine is good and I find that while I am still not a fan of Sony controllers for fighting games that the controls in this are much more fluid than I found them to be in VF4 on PS2. But while the gameplay engine is good I always find VF5 games lacking which will always keep it from being one of my favorite fighters. Obviously one of the big issues is the decision to not include online play but even then that hasn’t kept me from liking games like Tekken.

My personal big problem is that outside of the manual you don’t even know VF games have any storylines. Instead of some nice CGI endings for every character you get boring credits. Some might not mind that but for me it is a big issue since I like playing and unlocking all the endings in fighting games like Tekken and DOA. Then it also lacks modes to make up for that like a survival mode and quest mode is far from being like some of the quest mode kind of modes you would find in a game like Soul Calibur.

Basically you are stuck just playing your basic fights over and over again to increase your rank and earn gold to buy some costume parts. Which brings me to another problem I am having with this game. The gold seems a little glitched. I can go through a ton of fights winning every one of them and not get any gold even though there are points where I would see the icon that I had won some gold from a fight. Also after I won a tournament with the first prize being gold I saved the game but the next time I played the gold was gone. Hopefully a patch is on the way.

While I probably sound really negative I do like the game. It is just that there are things like I mentioned that will always keep this out of the group of my favorite fighters like Soul Calibur, Tekken and Dead or Alive.

Graphics: It is a great looking game but I would say DOA4 is still the better looking game. The positive is that VF5 goes for a much more realistic look so character models are better. They do have a slight plastic look to them but nowhere near as bad as what you would see in a game like NBA 07. The negative is the environments. While they do look really nice I just can’t help but feel I am stuck in a little square with some pre-rendered backgrounds like you would find in old Resident Evil games. The environments in DOA4 on the other hand not only look nice but with the multi-tiered levels play a much bigger role in the game and don’t get that pre-rendered feeling.

But like I said this is still a great looking game and some people will prefer this graphic style more while some will be like me and prefer DOA4.


Gameplay: Well I can’t say I have been impressed by NBA 2K since the Dreamcast days and NBA Live has looked nice on 360 but gameplay is a disaster which left me with very low hopes for another NBA game. But to my surprise I actually really like this one. Not to say it is perfect still but my personal favorite NBA game out of the recent NBA games. Now first the biggest negative with this being a PS3 launch game is also a problem that plagued 360 sports launch games and that is removed content over the last gen. The biggest loss would be franchise which basically ends up leaving you with the modes you would find in a 90’s sports game. For me that isn’t as bad as for some people since NHL and NFL games are the only games I really seem to play multiple seasons in while MLB and NBA games are usually just one season games for me due to less interest in the sport. Not to say the season mode is great either since there is lack of depth in trading and stuff but it is fine enough for me. It also makes up for it a little with stuff like the NBA Replay mode where you can download the games of the week and replay certain situations that really happened. The three point shootout and skills competition are also in but a dunk contest would be nice.

With the gameplay overall I like it but there are some odd foul calls where as an example you can swat at nothing but air nowhere near the player with the ball and end up getting a reach in foul. But other than that I don’t have any big issues with the gameplay engine.

Graphics: During the gameplay it looks nice and unlike NBA Live 07 it looks nice while not having a complete garbage camera. The only problem is during replays and stuff where similar to the other next gen NBA games the sweat system makes players look like they are made of plastic. But NBA 07 is the worst case of players looking like they are plastic. But like I said it is just during replays and stuff so really not a big deal IMO.


Gameplay: Not only do I find this to be a really great game but I think that what they have done with it is a great idea for racing games because it makes it more accessible to a larger range of people. For instance for me the default settings were far too easy with the driving aids they had on. On those settings I could even see a really young kid being able to play this without any problems. But for more experienced racing fans you can turn off the driving aids, turn on tire damage and stuff like that and you have yourself a challenging simulation where one crash will lead to the end of your race. Now while that is great that it makes it more accessible in that aspect I do think that the F1 aspect ends up hurting that since while a young kid could play it I don’t exactly see them caring about the F1 circuit. Not that I would say you have to care about the F1 circuit either but you at least have to have a slight interest in racing games similar to this and not be a Mario Kart fan and expect to love this.

Modes are about what you would expect in F1 games. You have your basic time trial modes and stuff like that and then your career mode where you start off having to earn a spot on a racing team. Once you get a contract you get certain goals you have to complete during the racing season and eventually as you progress in rank and your contract is over you can get offers from the big racing teams. Every racing event has practice sessions, qualifying sessions and of course the race. There is also a racing evolution thing where you drive around the course and based on your driving style it automatically tunes the best settings for you based on the test of that week. For instance one week it will be a break test and the next a transmission test. If you stay with a racing team long enough you won’t have these anymore but whenever you change racing teams you get these. But nothing is required so you have the choice to skip through anything you don’t want to do. Personally I don’t find much need to use the racing evolution or practice sessions so I just do the qualifying sessions and the race.

The races can be set to a minimum of three laps or set to a much longer race like a real F1 race. Obviously depending on your settings for tire damage the longer the race the more the depth of the game. Some might get bored with really long races and prefer short three lap races which while still great does take away from the game since three laps won’t really require you to replace tires, make a fuel stop etc.

As you complete certain tasks in the game you can unlock some stuff mostly made up of classic F1 cars. You also have a trophy room where you can view all the trophies you have won.

I had seen some reviews complain about load times but personally I find that the loading is fine. If the game supported a HDD install then it would be even faster but still it isn’t any worse than some of the 360 racers or Motorstorm which I will get to soon.

Finally the online play is well done once you get past the poor menus. You can play other players obviously but can also choose to have a full grid of computer controlled cars in the race as well which is nice since if you only had a room with four people it wouldn’t exactly be a great race while the computer adds some needed cars to make it a much better experience. I have not really noticed myself lagging even in a race with a large group of human controlled players and large group of the computer controlled players. The online community isn’t awful but it isn’t amazing either. However, I think now that PS3 is out in Europe it will help this games online community a little more since there is a reason Sony hadn’t been releasing F1 games in North America while they released them in Europe and Japan.

Graphics: Well simply put what is there is great. Great lighting, good car detail, the rain effect is very nice, good track detail etc. So what do I mean by what is there is great? Well it isn’t a problem with the games graphics but a problem with F1 tracks. A lot of F1 tracks are just very, very boring to look at since a lot of them are just surrounded by a bunch of dead grass, some stands and parking areas. So when you race in one of the courses that take place on a track through a part of a city you can appreciate the graphics much more.


Gameplay: I am sure by now people know what to expect in a Ridge Racer game since it has seen very few changes over the years. Because of that some people are sick of the series but I still like it.

Game modes are similar to RR6 on 360 but it does change things up a little and is much more enjoyable in world tour since it adds stuff like needing to do a test race and to win a partnership with one of the car manufacturers. From there you get their worst car and race through some initial rookie races and as your progress you can buy better cars and obviously race harder races. But the best new aspect is all the upgrades and customization you can now do. In the past RR games have had a few options like adding a decal but now you have much more options including performance upgrades which is a much needed addition to this series. Like I said the gameplay engine is still what you expect but at least this is a nice change to the series to give it a little bit of new life.

Online play is also much smoother than it was in RR6 on 360 which I found to be very laggy. Especially when it is very common to end up with Japanese hosts in both games so it is nice to have it run much better on PSN.

Graphics: Well I am sure some of you have seen the graphic comparison to RR6 when PS3 was coming out. And I admit I had to shake my head that it appeared that RR7 looked far worse graphically. But now that I have played it those images just don’t tell the story. The road and a couple of things are better in RR6 but overall RR7 is a far better looking game. I also think that PS3 has much better contrast or something than 360 which really helps some games like this.


Gameplay: Well obviously the gameplay hasn’t seen any changes from other versions of Tekken 5 so there isn’t much to say here about the fighting engine. It is still great and thankfully they learned from the disaster that was Tekken 4. For people who have not played it on PSP or at the arcade and only on PS2 then there are a couple more characters for you to try out.

But keep in mind this is based on the arcade version so don’t expect stuff like Devil Within or CGI endings and story for all the characters. For obvious reasons because including all the CGI endings and needing them to support HD would mean a massive file size that just wouldn’t be realistic for a downloadable game.

So basically it is like VF5 where it comes down to ranking up and buying new customization parts for the characters. However, this is a much cheaper downloadable game so I am not going to be as hard on that. You can also unlock three of the characters endings and there is a lot of character art to unlock.

Graphics: You won’t mistake this for DOA4 or VF5 because it is just an enhanced game and not a game built for the next gen consoles. But still some of the stages look really nice and the hair is actually better than the hair in DOA4 which has constant clipping issues. Much better than I was expecting this to look but in the end it just makes me want to see Tekken 6 even more.


Gameplay: Well this will be brief. It isn’t awful but really there doesn’t seem to be much point to the game and it is more like an interactive screensaver than anything.

Graphics: Obviously not a game meant to blow you away graphically. Kind of has a similar look to Electroplankton but on a much bigger screen and in HD.


Gameplay: Nothing new here as far as the gameplay engine is concerned. You only get two modes and one course to play since it is basically just a tech demo. They still could add more tracks and stuff in the future though. The first mode is time trials and as you clear them you unlock new cars and once you complete all of them you can unlock a drift mode and some better versions of the 10 cars. So basically the only point is to compete for high scores but like I said this is just basically a tech demo so I don’t think anybody is expecting some massive content with it. Nice free download to play around with. Version 2.0 was just released for the European launch which adds some force feedback for racing wheels which I am sure some people will be happy about. Obviously new controllers will need to be made before they can support it so just racing wheels for now.

Graphics: Overall it looks really nice. Doesn’t impress me as some other racers on PS3 or 360 but still really nice overall. The jaggies on the car models do take a little away from the overall look of the game though. Just like Tekken this is basically just a slight taste of what to expect in the real next gen games.


Gameplay: I don’t care what people say I love the Genji games. Is it as good as God of War or Ninja Gaiden? Hell no but still not bad. It doesn’t do anything unique and does feel more like an early Onimusha game but I also love Onimusha so that doesn’t bug me. People are quick to bash a game like this if it doesn’t do anything new but when Halo is more like a mid 90’s FPS it is considered amazing. It is a pathetic double standard that goes on in this industry and I for one enjoy a game like Genji a lot more than I enjoy a game like Halo.

So it is your basic hack and slash action game for the most part but the boss battles do add a little bit of a mix to the game by having to find the weak spots. Yes feel free to make your crab jokes now. It is no Colossus battle from Shadow Of Colossus but still adds a little bit of a mix. You will get some moments where you need to switch to a certain character to do something but for the most part you can just use whatever character you like the most.

Graphics: First the HD CGI cutscenes are amazing! Some people claim CGI cutscenes are not important with how good in-game graphics are now but that is just stupidity that I think mostly 360 fans use as an excuse to defend DVD instead of 360 using HD-DVD for games since CGI has also advanced a lot since the CGI you would find on PS1 and in-game graphics can come nowhere near it.

The in-game engine also impresses right from the start as you start at Suzaku Gate and are treated with a very nice fire. The Japanese environments are what you would expect from any game set in ancient Japan but more detailed with the power of PS3 but still could look better. Character models are well designed but again could look better. Still this is a launch game for a console which never push the console to any limits and as far as launch games go this is better than most seen on 360 and PS3. I also really like how it incorporates Japanese art at times.


Gameplay: Again another game I really like that is supposed to be so awful. But I am liking this even more than Genji and it may even be my favorite PS3 game which I didn’t expect. Yes it has problems but they are genre problems that pretty much every hack and slash/point and click action RPG has suffered from including a game like Diablo. Some people will get bored of hacking and slashing their way through a game like this but it is what I expect from these games and something I don’t get sick of as long as the game is good. But even then I have only noticed very slight problems while I have yet to have the camera cause any problems for me like some reviews claimed it would.

This is only based on using the warrior though. I would assume the mage would add more ranged combat so that could mean less of the close combat hacking and slashing. But still the warrior has magic so if you get bored with the close combat you can take some breaks for long range spells.

Basically it is your typical action RPG game. If you hate the genre then yeah you will hate this but if you are fan of the genre there is no reason why you shouldn’t like this.

Honestly my only problem is the typical of launch game artwork cutscenes instead of some nice CGI cutscenes to tell the story.

Still have yet to try the online play but I think this would probably be one of the better online games for PS3 if the online community isn’t dead.

Graphics: Now this really has me confused. I have seen some reviews claim this looks like a PS2 game? WTF???? Maybe the graphics take a hit in dungeons or something but the game looks great from what I have played so far. Just look at my pictures. Does that really look like a PS2 game? Even if it takes a hit in the dungeons though which I can’t confirm yet then it still at points looks really nice so there is no reason this game should be compared to a PS2 game. Again CGI cutscenes instead of artwork cutscenes would be nice though.


Gameplay: Pretty good actually. I was expecting another average at best console FPS game like Halo or Killzone but this is so much better and while they are still really different if anything I would say it more resembles games like Call of Duty with the single player.

The enemy A.I. isn’t awful but can seem a little too scripted at times. While they will take cover and stuff they always seem to run to the same place to take cover and they really don’t seem to ever bother moving far from the area they are initially in. Your friendly squad A.I. is also almost too scripted and I find them to be pretty useless unlike COD where you can take cover and the friendly squad A.I. will not be great at killing enemies but still you can go through a whole level doing nothing but taking cover and it is much better than this. But still it isn’t like Halo where you can run up beside an enemy, read War and Peace to them, do a little dance and then have them finally attack you. The enemy A.I. will also focus on you and not care about the friendly squad A.I. I guess the computer A.I. in this game managed to figure out that the friendly squad A.I. is useless too. The friendly squad A.I. doesn’t matter to me since there could be no squad for all I care since I just do my own thing. The enemy A.I. seeming a little too scripted isn’t bugging me either because the first time through the game I won’t know where they will end up. Could hurt single player replay value though.

Controls are my only big issue since I honestly don’t really care about the friendly squad A.I. and just do my own thing while playing. The Sony controllers are just not good for FPS game because the dual sticks are way too loose. The 360 controller still isn’t as good as a mouse and keyboard but still I have no problems adjusting to it for FPS games. But with a Sony controller I have a hard time playing FPS games. But far better than the Wii Remote and nunchuk have been for FPS games when that was going to change FPS games forever.

Online play ends up changing the feel of the game a little and it ends up feeling more like a Quake multiplayer style game. Which is kind of nice since it adds a little bit of a mixture to the single player and multiplayer. Have not noticed any lag so far.

Graphics: Graphically it isn’t that great outside of how the glass looks when you shoot it which is really nice. But that isn’t to say it looks bad. By no means could this be done on a last gen console or Wii but PS3 is capable of so much more. It also uses a very bland color scheme which I like but I can see a lot of people hating. So basically it does just enough to get the job done of looking like a next gen game but doesn’t push what next gen games can do.


Gameplay: Well I am really mixed here. It is a fun off-road arcade style game but it is really lacking. No single player modes like time trials? No offline multiplayer? In single player all you can do is race the ticket events and never have an option to just create your own race with settings you want. Very disappointed with this lack of effort for game modes and to think that when this game was released in Japan it didn’t even have online play just makes me sick.

Also the load times are not good at all. There is a fairly long load just when you switch between vehicles on the vehicle select screen which ends up getting really annoying. So obviously the load times for the actual race are really long as well. Why this game doesn’t support a HDD install that would really help this is beyond me.

But like I said the gameplay engine is good and if it wasn’t then I wouldn’t even care about the lack of modes simply because I wouldn’t want to play the game much. The best part is all the different types of vehicles and the fact that you don’t feel like you are driving the same thing with a different appearance. This adds some great variety to the races. But at the same time there is a part of me that would love to see this game turned into a little more realistic point to point Dakar Rally style game.

Course design is also done very well. They might all have a similar graphical look but don’t feel like the same tracks all the time. Then the multiple paths actually matter since depending on what vehicle type you chose your strategy needs to change since some paths are better for certain vehicles than others. Only 8 courses is just another letdown though.

So again it really is a great game as far as the gameplay engine is concerned and it is just a shame that there wasn’t more to do. So online is where this game ends up getting it’s play value and the game is fun online so that is good. Still lacks variety though and is just normal races.

Also I am simply basing this on what is currently in the game. There are some downloads coming with new modes and courses but still a very lacking effort that this shipped with such a lack of content which is why I am so mixed. I love and hate the game. It will get better once the content is released but they better not be planning to charge for it when they had more than enough time to ship it with a lot more modes.

Graphics: Well the gameplay modes might be lacking but the graphics are not as this is a great showcase game of what the PS3 can do. While you are always racing in the same environment the game still manages to impress no matter what the course. As far as racing games go from an all graphical flash standpoint there is no better looking racing game right now. From a technical standpoint TDU still impresses me more kind of like Oblivion technically impresses me more than Gears of War. But this is a very good looking game all around.


Gameplay: If you played the first on 360 you know what to expect. Some people loved both the demo and final build, some people played the demo and hated it but still have the final build a chance and loved that, some people played the demo and final build and hated both, some people played the demo which is nowhere near the final build and hated it and some people just didn’t bother playing it and decided it sucks. I would be one of the ones that hated the demo but liked the final build a lot. They really never should have released that demo because it was a great way to kill some sales. Full Auto 2 is more of the same but obviously the big change is the gladiator mode that is a mode that people often said the first one should have had. And of course it fits perfectly into the game.

For those that didn’t play the first one well picture Twisted Metal, Burnout and as stupid as it sounds a little bit of Blinx being formed together into one game and you will have a basic idea. Very fast, very arcadey and very destructive.

Now the unfortunate thing is that with the new gladiator mode this game would be even better for online play but the online community is dead and you are lucky if you can find a game.

Graphics: A definite improvement over the first Full Auto which already looked pretty good to begin with. While the cars are not real cars they are still well designed and look very nice. Environments for the most part look really nice and the best thing is they are not just a backdrop sitting around looking nice. They are there to be blown up.


Gameplay: Ummm it’s Sudoku. Nice free game to play around with if you like Sudoku and if you really like Sudoku some extra content downloads will add a lot more to the game.

Graphics: Ummm it’s Sudoku on a TV screen.


Gameplay: Nothing new here. Well maybe there is but I don’t know Japanese to read the Japanese controls to see if there is any new features but I don’t think there is. Either way how I have played the demo it is the same great Hot Shots Golf gameplay and still the king of these kind of golf games.

Graphics: A mixed bag. Character models are great and certain replay views make things look great but the course in the demo lacks detail and looks no better than a last gen golf course most of the time. But still very nice looking at times.


Gameplay: Only downloaded this because it is the only demo on the PS Store to compare to a game that is also on 360. Gameplay wise I hated this game at first when I tried this same demo on 360 but still decided to get the game and it grew on me. The PS3 version seems to control a little better with the grapple system being a lot faster to respond and while it is bad for some games the loose dual sticks are good for a game like this.

Graphics: But while I like the gameplay a little more the graphics are worse. Jaggies are far more evident and the screen color effects and stuff like that are not nearly as good. Still not a bad looking game though by any means. But it does confirm with me the constant stories of superior 360 versions. But I think it is just PS3 not being easy to port to and as developers get used to it ports will be much better. Because it isn’t the hardware when PS3 can handle much better looking games like Motorstorm with no problems.


Gameplay: Well if I knew Japanese and had a clue what was going on it would help. Don't ask me why I downloaded this.

Graphics: Looks decent for some free downloadable thing.

*Goes to learn Japanese*

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Final Verdict: To sum things up I am really impressed with PS3 and unlike the Wii it will be taking away from my 360 playing time and be a secondary console I get a lot of use out of. My use for it will only be exclusives or time exclusives which right now has left me a little limited for games which is a negative but as much as people like to act like PS3 will lose every single exclusive it won’t and there will still be a lot of exclusives. Actually PS3 has the same percent of exclusive games as 360 and there will be some great games like God of War to look forward to in the future. So would I recommend PS3 now? Well…. Yes and no. Basically if you have no use for the Blu-Ray but are interested in PS3 then wait. Unless for some reason you really don’t want 360 and want PS3 then I say go for it since not having 360 as your primary console of choice will really open up your choices including my personal pick for 2006 game of the year The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. But if you are trying to decide between 360 and PS3 then 360 is the way to go. While there are things I like about the PS3 more in the end XBL is a big factor that gives 360 an advantage over PS3. Also right now with the year head start there is obviously much more to pick from on 360 as far as games go. Then stuff like achievements and the controller are factors that will keep 360 as my primary console.

But eventually exclusive releases for PS3 will pick up and when they do maybe the price could end up dropping for people not so crazy about the price. And when the exclusive releases do pick up then I highly recommend this console and again if your use for it will be a primary console then by no means is it a bad choice for a primary console. And of course it is also great getting a cheap Blu-Ray player as well as a good gaming console.

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XBL: Spinoff90 | Xfire: spinoff90 | PSN: Hayabusa85 | Wii: 2666 8965 0459 0136

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Twist of lEMOn

Well, I read the whole thing sadly while its nice to hear its a consol for 700$ or so. I believe ill be waiting for it to come down in price lol

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DD

Yes. I tend to agree with Lemons.

I went to gamestop the other day to pick up a baseball game for my PSP and saw the 360 and PS3 boxes in the window.

PS3 was 699.99 and 360 was 399.99. My instant thought was "Why in the world would someone pay another 300 bucks for essentially the same thing?"

Personally if I had the time to play either one of them I wouldnt even consider the PS3. Not even for a minute. 360 seems just as good to me but a hella lot more cheaper.

Not to mention half of MonksDiner is online with the 360 haha.

Again. I LOVED this writeup Spinny. You did a fantastic job on it.

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Felix

Thats what I call a post. Great Job writting this up. I don't game, but my kids do, and we've got the Wii recently.... For 7 and 10 year olds.. this console was priced a little too high. The graphics do look amazing, much better than anything I ever had growing up!

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DD

Did they even have TV's when you were growing up?


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Felix

Haha, your not too far behind me Mr. Diamond. And yes, B/w
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