I’m sure you’ve seen the PS3 launch info over at IGN and other places by now. Unfortunately we weren’t able to be at the launch because, well, we all have jobs 
Nevertheless, we’re interested: what do you think? So far I have to say it looks very impressive. The appearance of the console is, much more attractive than the Xbox 360, though I suspect that some of their performance estimates are a bit dubious given the specs of the machine itself (which is typical of Sony: they overstated performance on both previous Playstations purely in order to market against their competition, truth be damned), but on the whole it does look decent.
I am a bit disappointed that all of their games announcements are just sequels to already existing properties. Yes, they look incredible, but still it’s a bit depressing. I’m certain I’ll buy a PS3 (maybe at launch, maybe not, it depends what is available. The Metal Gear series has been console gaming’s best storytelling for a couple of years now, so if MGS4 is available at launch it could be a clincher for me).
I can’t say I’ve got any faith in their ability to deliver an online networking experience similar to Xbox live at launch. They’ve been promising such a thing since prior to the PS2 launch and haven’t even begun to deliver. However, I’m open to the idea that they COULD pull it off.
On the whole, PS3 and Xbox 360 seem very close in capability and even in specs (though Sony did not announce whether PS3 will have a hard drive. They specifically said a “Hard drive slot”, which is reminiscent of PS2), so I expect some good things from both. I have to admit I’m surprised that they’ve officially labeled the Cell as a PowerPC architecture piece, but at the least it does go to illustrate the underlying similarity of the XBox 360 and PS3 architecture.
Now all we need is to see what Nintendo has in store for us. As per usual, it looks like any innovation and new kinds of gaming will be coming primarily from their work.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the coming generation of consoles (I’m not going to call it a “Console War”. By now we’ve all realized that there’s no war of any kind going on, and the only real winners and losers are gamers), and invite you to visit the Forums to talk about the future of gaming!
