All the other stuff it does EXCEPT games...
Right then, let’s have a look at what the PlayStation 3 can actually do. We’ll come to games shortly but for now we’re going to have a look at the ‘other’ stuff, as in media, online and the like as this is an area where the Xbox 360 excels as a dual function machine.
So just to explain, I have a fully wired home network which I stream media across using a mix of Vista, XP MCE and XP Pro. My Xbox 360 is used as a media extender allowing me to view Vista MCE through my TV and do all that music, TV and photo viewing in the lounge. Using the Xbox 360 media remote I can navigate around and find what I want easily, without getting my fat bum out of the sofa. As an ‘extra’ to the Xbox 360’s main role as a games console, this is not so much an extra as a whole new use for the Xbox 360. Throw in Xbox Live and all the downloadable stuff on there and all you’ve got to worry about is the rather diminutive and increasingly full 20 Gig hard drive the Xbox 360 sports... if only there was a way to transfer stuff from there to the network...
Click for larger imageSo, what does the PlayStation 3 have to go up against this?
Sadly, not much. Sure, you can hook you PlayStation 3 up to the network and get internet access, but that’s as far as it goes. There’s no hint of any media connectivity over the network. You can’t stream any video or TV nor access any photos or music from any other machine on the network. To all intents and purposes, your PlayStation 3 might as well be on its own connection.
Now I can understand why this is, as to enable an Xbox 360 style experience through the PlayStation 3 Sony would have had to work with their competitors Microsoft. It could be that Microsoft told them to bugger off or perhaps Sony weren’t prepared to write the enormous cheque Microsoft would’ve probably asked for but the fact remains that 99.9% of homes run a Microsoft operating system on their PCs and pretty much 100% of homes with a media PC will be running either XP MCE or Vista... all of which, including standard XP with the free Media Connect download, will connect and stream to an Xbox 360.
Click for larger imageSo, to get media on your telly in all its HD glory, you need to make extensive use of the memory card and USB slots in the front of the PlayStation 3. This is less than ideal as USB sticks and memory cards are hardly the biggest things on the planet so if you’re looking at running some HD content from them, you’d better keep it brief.
That’s not to say things won’t change in the future though. Sony are regularly updating the PlayStation 3’s firmware, adding new features and improving upon what’s already there. We can but hope that Sony have had a look at how Microsoft have developed the Xbox 360 experience and take a few leaves out of that book... after all, why not copy it if it works well?
So let’s look at the online side of the PlayStation 3 which is another area where the Xbox 360 is doing very well and has been developing for some while.
Click for larger imageCentral to any web based content browsed through a console is ease of navigation. It’s need to be mainly GUI driven with big bold buttons to navigate to, leading to sub menus and content. Want to know how an online GUI site designed for a console user should look? Yeah, you know the answer is Xbox Live. Sure it had its flaws when the Xbox 360 launched and it’s still got flaws now, but if my Mum can navigate through it then Microsoft are doing something right.
Sony’s PlayStation Network is still very much in its infancy. Over the last few months they have certainly made massive strides forwards from what was essentially a text driven webpage that was a bloody nightmare to navigate the PlayStation Network is now a smoother, more graphically driven place to be.
For sure there’s not even a fraction of the content you’ll find on Xbox Live but that has been going far longer. What you will find here is a range of demos, videos and games to download onto the PlayStation 3. Now, if any Xbox 360 users are reading this and have themselves a PlayStation 3 lined up, you really will notice a difference. The real problem is that the PlayStation Network never stops felling like a heavily modified webpage... and even though Sony have dumped the masses of text and started using plenty of icons, still having to jump that ‘pointy finger’cursor pointer around a bunch of hyperlinks feels clunky. But hey, at least Sony have sorted out simultaneous downloading for the UK launch (remember those Xbox 360 days of waiting for a download to complete before being able to do anything else?).