PS3 production coming to an end

Retr0gamer

The japanese playstation website has announced the end of PS3 production. That brings an end to the production if the l at console of that generation.

So what are your PS3 memories?

For me the PS3 got off to a very bad start. The console was a joke and a very expensive one at that. A cock sure Sony with more arrogance than brains after coming off the back of the PS2 had to swallow a skip load of hubris. Ridiculous delays meant it launch well after the 360 had established a pretty decent library. It almost priced itself out of the market.

Still Sony provided some great unitentional comedy. Giant enemy crabs, telling people to get a second job to afford a PS3, the PS3 being 1% as powerful as the human brain, rumbke being a last gen feature and a desperate insomniac trying to convince people that Resistance didn't look awful because the grenades released shrapnel despite anyone with two eyes being able to see it looked awful compared to the likes of Gears of War.

The PS3 just seemed totally behind the times. The Xbox 360 was built with all functions built into the OS. The online functions and digital store were built into the is while the PS3 loaded a terrible html based shop that was slow. Updating the 360 involved downloading a tiny patch file while the PS3 had to download the entire OS and reflash the nand, something that caused bricked consoles due to bad flashing and also something Sony never owned up to. Online game performance also left a lot to be desired.

And after a poor launch.... well it continued. Third party games performed significantly worse on the PS3. Not exactly a great advertisement for a supposedly more powerful consolet that was significantly overpriced compared to the competition. While on paper the PS3 should have outperformed the 360 in practice it was a different ball game. The Edram setup of the 360 was complex just like the PS3 Cell chip but it apes the set up of the PS2 which developers had experience with. It also gave the 360 almost free antialiasing. The PS3 had to use a Quincunx solution, the same used by the N64 that gave it that disgusting vase line smeared blurry affect. The results on PS3 were not pretty. It also gave the 360 a big advantage in pumping out transparency effects. The unified memory if the 360 was also a massive advantage over the PS3.

I got a PS3 myself a year after launch and it gathered dust for a while year while I exclusively used the 360. Things did start to improve slowly. Good exclusives started to appear such as Uncharted and Vallyria Chronicles. Sony's ATG group dud some amazing work, first with MLAA on God of War 3 finally fixing the PS3's anti aliasing issue, then with the deferred rendering engine of Killzone 2 and adaptive resolution in Wipeout HD. Some third parties also started to improve their ports. Capcom Framework MT engine produced near identical ports while EA's Frostbite engine games ended up performing better on Sony hardware. Apparently a huge amount if effort and coding in assembly was required to get the mist out of the PS3 architecture. Sony PS3 exclusives finally began to show the advantages of the PS3 over the 360.

In the end Microsoft stopped caring about exclusives outside of mainstream shooters while the PS3 had a wide variety of exclusives covered a far broader range of tastes... and a lot if weirdness as well. My 360 was abandoned and I found myself using my PS3 a whole lot more. In the end it was the much better console.

Overall it's not even close to being one of the best consoles ever but it's a damn good one and pretty much essential. It's life cycle was also interesting a provided a lot of entertainment and unitentional comedy. I'd take that over the PS4 and One launch with both companies congratulating each other in a pleasant manner. Boring.

And to those early adopter fan boys, Resistance still looks like a bad PS2 game.

Doge

So does this mean the PS3 is now retro?

Retr0gamer

Doge wrote: »

So does this mean the PS3 is now retro?

It's over 10 years old so why not

God I feel old.

Retr0gamer

I think Demons Souls was the turning point for me. It was a game that was unlike anything on any other system and no 360 game could match it. Hunting down an elusive Asian copy of the game and being part of the community trying to figure out how the game worked was one of the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had.

CiDeRmAn

Wow, the PS3!
Remember how the high price was justified as due to the console being exclusive and premium...
It took a while to catch up with the 360, and I only had to replace mine once, while I've had a series of 360 consoles through the door.
Some of the ports to it left a lot to be desired too, with Bayonetta and Bioshock faring poorly by comparison.
Demon's Souls was a wake up call alright, it rewrote the rule book and gave other so called challenging games a boot in the backside, especially the likes of God of War, I don't think I played another one after Demon's Souls, just felt lightweight.
Gran Turismo never floated my boat on the PS3 at all, perhaps due to the range of titles that offered high speed thrills elsewhere, with the PGR games continuing on the 360, Test Drive Unlimited and Burnout Paradise adding some fun alternatives to the typical track day sim.
Sony certainly seemed to be attached to the colour brown in their efforts, Motorstorm, Resistance and Killzone 2 seemed to be stuck on the dun part of the colour spectrum, though Motorstorm Pacific Rift and Killzone 3 went out of their way to spice it up a bit, but in the case of the latter at least, the Modern Warfare series outclassed Killzone at every turn.
The 60Gb version was the one to own, at least here in PAL land, you could get back to the greats from your PS2 library, and then the bloody thing died, and Sony stopped including backwards compatibility as a feature, PS games still work though.
I think the PS3 represented the start of the HD remaster, a tradition proudly continued by pretty much everyone now, with the likes of SotC/Ico HD being incredible value and presenting the games in a much improved form, not terribly certain about the other collections, I have the Jak&Daxter one and only the original is still fun for me to play, my son has had a lot of fun with the Sly Cooper trilogy pack but I've not bothered with the God of War collections as the games were spoiled by the likes of Demon's/Dark Souls!

RobbingBandit

Ico/shadow of colossus hd and Atelier Rorona probably my favorites.

Sonics2k

With the exception of a Nintendo Wii which has been used all of 5 times since it was bought, the PS3 was the last console I bought and I got it about 3 months after it's release.

I'd loved both the Playstation and PS2 so I had quite a bit of faith in Sony and that the console would prove to be worth it.

The sad fact is that it's actually the console that further pushed me toward PC gaming over consoles.

These days I only use my PS3 to play older games like Crash Bandicoot, Medevil, and some Final Fantasy Games. The last game I bought for it was GTA 5 back at its release.

Honestly, I think it's had more use for playing DVD's and I used to use it as a media streamer from my PC to the TV many years ago.

Robert ninja

It's funny that they should shut down production just now considering Metal Gear Online 2 (revived by fans) won't need you to mod your PS3 anymore to play. First time in over a year I've actually considered taking the old thing out of storage.

Damien360

My PS3 is still here unloved. Since I bought the PS4 on its launch, the PS3 was resigned to gathering dust.

I would echo retrogamers post on its initial price. I had a PS1 and PS2 and Xbox but the PS3 was too much. I waited a year, bought the 360 (hence the username) for price reasons. But that damn thing broke my heart with red ring of death. It went back and forth to MS many times before I finally gave up. Went down town in frustration and bought the PS3.

It had its time, was very reliable but I like my visuals, so even with tinted sunglasses, I can't say I will miss it. Onwards and upwards to next iteration.

SirLemonhead

I bought one for €300 or so in 2008 and used it exclusively as a blu ray player. I feel I got my money's worth

I had an Xbox 360 since 2006 which saw tons of use but the PS3 did see games occasionally with Skylanders at Christmas time when my nephews would be visiting but I didn't really investigate games on it until recently. Played through the last of us last year which was brilliant, and finally got around to trying Heavy Rain which was something I wanted to try for years - I think I was put off by the thought of having to use that controller which I still really don't like.

I have Ico/Shadow of the colossus and metal gear solid 4 to play through next

OptimusTractor

Going through the emotional rollercoaster that was The Last of Us.

Noveight

I'll never forget Uncharted 2 on the PS3. I was absolutely hooked from the opening scenes. Loved every minute of it, what a game that was.

Retr0gamer

SirLemonhead wrote: »

I have Ico/Shadow of the colossus and metal gear solid 4 to play through next

I'd say don't bother. I hated it at the time and I feel opinions about the game have shifted in recent years to it being kind of crap... although you'll probably be curious enough to give it a go anyway just to see how much of a bizarre trainwreck the game is at times.

gimli2112

Modern Warfare 2, COD in general but mostly Modern Warfare 2 on a crappy internet.
Special mention to The Last of Us.

chopperbyrne

It was the best console of that generation for Single Player, but for Multiplayer, the 360 was better because of Party Chat.

Controller debate is all down to preference.

Overall, I feel the PS3 was better, particularly because of how good PS+ was after the monthly games were introduced.

kunst nugget

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'd say don't bother. I hated it at the time and I feel opinions about the game have shifted in recent years to it being kind of crap... although you'll probably be curious enough to give it a go anyway just to see how much of a bizarre trainwreck the game is at times.

I tried playing it there recently and it really is a load of poo. I enjoyed the preceding three games but the interminable cutscenes filled with absolute bollocks in 4 were a step too far. I felt like I aged about six months sitting through one of them.

Mr.Saturn

Got gifted a PS3 during its launch window and my main memories of the time was:

1. Lads, you really went overboard on the auld present.

2. Golly whiz, this is the fanciest PS2 I ever done owned.

Outside of Resistance, which had exactly a 0% traction rate with yours truly, the first few months of my PS3 gaming were taken up with PS2 exclusives. It got much better, where Sony mixed a solid line of exclusives with nailing their online with the PSN, but it was still a considerable come-down from the absolute world-beater that was the PS2. My launch PS3 is still going strong and gets plenty of use, as I do most of my PS and PS2 gaming on it too.

gimli2112

Should have mentioned Hotshots Gold World Tour considering the weeks and weeks of time I put into it.

K.O.Kiki

I was really surprised when I moved out of my dad's house and realised I'd bought ~40 full-price retail discs over its lifecycle, despite switching to digital halfway into its lifecycle & being late to the party.

It obviously got outpaced by gaming PCs, and outsold by the Wii (different market) and Xbox 360 (shíte IMHO), but I don't think I'll be able to get rid of my SuperSlim anytime soon.

super_furry

A distant second to the 360 for me in that generation. Got some really good games late in it's life and their PS+ offerings were great, but I never enjoyed using the controller and always felt it lagged way behind in terms of online infrastructure.

SeantheMan

The thing that helped with it's original price , was that even considering it was expensive....it was also touted as the cheapest available Blu-Ray player.

I got a PS3 at the latter end of it's life, just to play the exclusives I never got around to (Uncharted, Last of Us, God of War3 etc) ...as I was a 360 man and felt that was a much better console.

kunst nugget

Was the Blu Ray player and its ability to have bigger games on one disk much of an advantage for the PS3 over the Xbox360? Never had the Xbox but were games like Mass Effect 2 a pain in the arse on the 360 in terms of disk swapping?

heebusjeebus

kunst nugget wrote: »

Was the Blu Ray player and its ability to have bigger games on one disk much of an advantage for the PS3 over the Xbox360? Never had the Xbox but were games like Mass Effect 2 a pain in the arse on the 360 in terms of disk swapping?

The sizes of the latter Uncharted games were huge, especially 3 as it had to contain the 3D cut scenes too.

Retr0gamer

heebusjeebus wrote: »

The sizes of the latter Uncharted games were huge, especially 3 as it had to contain the 3D cut scenes too.

The cuts cents weren't 3d they were 2D.

The blue ray disk drive wasn't that big an advantage. Most PS3 games that took up massive amounts of memory were because they had so much they could put uncompressed audio of multiple languages and less compressed video than on the equivalent 360 game. Audio and video is what took up the most memory.

It gave slight advantages like the naughty dog games disguising load times behind engine cutscenes videos and making people think those games looked better than they did since they ramp up the detail in those videos.

There's a few 360 games on multiple discs due to video. Most 360 games dud in engine cutscenes.

heebusjeebus

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The cuts cents weren't 3d they were 2D.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-vs-uncharted-3?page=2

10GB of 3D movies (pre-rendered cut-scenes are stored both in 2D and 3D versions)

ShadowHearth

I got my ps3 when they introduced cheaper 40gb ones. It was a push for me to get proper 60gb version as it was really new to see console being chopped down to be worse and not improved.

I think my first game was heavenly sword and I loved it to bits. What can I say, I have a thing for red heads.

I always bought all consoles. Never had preference. Though I never played a lot of them due to pc. I pretty much used them for exclusives. I can admit that the only reason I bought Xboxes was forza series as gran turismo on ps3 was just ****.

I liked my ps3, but it was mainly netflix box in the end. Maybe thats the reason my old 60gb one is still strong and kicking. It would always be in bedrooms, but last month I retired it in to cup board and it was replaced by ps4 as my bedroom netflix box with some light gaming or when playing with misses. Xbox one has enough dust collecting as is, it does not need ps4 buddy.

Still, great console, which had really really rocky start. You have to give it to sony, they pulled out from all that crap starting with ps3 launch and now we got ps4 as a very popular console.

Retr0gamer

heebusjeebus wrote: »

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-vs-uncharted-3?page=2

Sorry, I was taking 2D to mean prerendered and 3D as in engine. I forgot the PS3's foray into 3D TVs.