Canadian PlayStation 3 Launch Event

Higher uptown in Toronto yesterday, Sony held a press launch event for their PlayStation 3 console which was packed with media personnel. The event took place at the very classy looking Six Degrees night club. Security was tight and bouncers were guarding the gates heightening our anticipation of what awaited inside. Of course you had to be recognizable enough as media to receive this classy invite, the presence of bouncers proved just how serious Sony was. Luckily, we got in and saw the goods.

Sony’s Ian Jackson addressed the press with some good news regarding the PlayStation 3, Sony is promising a backup supply of units to arrive next week “in-case” gamers don't get their hands on a PS3 on launch day. Exact numbers were not provided and a date was not mentioned.

I have been to Xbox 360 events, the Wii Launch, and finally Sony's PlayStation 3. It was disappointing to see there were the same third party titles everywhere and very few exclusive titles dedicated to the PlayStation 3 alone. One reporter I bumped into had this to say, “These games are already out on the Xbox 360 why would I buy a PlayStation for them?” I'm sure the dedicated Sony fan-boy would immediately say, “Duh! Coz they're like 100x better looking...” Umm, yes they might look a bit better but nothing the Xbox 360 was not already close to displaying, at least the first set of titles didn’t seem graphically superior to the Xbox 360 versions, some were slightly sharper but that was essentially the only difference noted.

The only first party titles being released on launch day are Resistance: Fall of Man, NBA 07, and Genji: Days of the Blade. All three were on the event floor. For initial impressions: NBA 07 showed intense realism and texture detail through realistic reflections and refractions. Genji was a major disappointment in gameplay. Sure it looked beautiful as all games did but I found myself just running around in the game continuously hacking and slashing away, nothing next-gen about that. The characters also appeared as if they were sliding across the floor as they ran, it totally threw off any experience of realism. Resistance: Fall of Man was a well looking FPS game although some explosions sort of looked like poorly generated volume clouds. Once again, it looked great but nothing felt different about it from any other FPS game. Xbox 360’s Gears of War definitely takes precedence over Resistance: Fall of Man in challenging and enjoyable gameplay. Of course these were Sony’s first attempts for launch, I’m sure they will use more potential of the PS3 on upcoming titles.

Some of the third party titles that I saw at X’06 were here as well. Such as Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Call of Duty 3. Overall I felt they looked sharper on the PS3 compared to their Xbox 360 versions but aside from that I saw no other difference. Some reporters on the event floor saw no difference between the titles on either console.

Sadly there was no demonstration of movie playback using the Blu-ray technology or any of the other features on the PS3. None of the games seemed to have been set-up using the wireless controller's motion sensitivity feature so it was impossible to experience the SIXAXIS controller completely.

Nonetheless, Sony has released a promising console but it has definitely been over hyped. It will stand in great competition with the Xbox 360 as long as Sony brings out some exclusive innovative games that make great use of the technology onboard the PS3.