Sony PlayStation 3

Like all the newest consoles of its generation, it promises ground-breaking new graphical detail, and puts unprecedented processing and memory resources at the feet of eager game developers. Everything is bigger, brighter, and more detailed... so detailed, in fact, that it outstrips the visual output of the Xbox 360 (delivering a rare 1080p, or flicker-free 1920 x 1080 resolution, to the Xbox 360’s half-as-detailed 1080i) and may induce some gamers to buy new HDTVs to replace the relatively new ones they thought would satisfy them for years.

The PS3 is scheduled for a “Spring 2006” release, which some have postulated means a worldwide March 2006 launch.

We Want Brains

According to published specifications, the PlayStation 3 clocks in at 218 GFLOPs. This is a measure of the sheer number of floating-point (non-whole-number) mathematical operations it can pull off in a set space of time. If this is true, it will be almost twice as powerful as the Xbox 360 and 35 times mas macho than the PlayStation 2.

A Picture Can Define The Worth Of A Thousand Games

As with the CPU, the GPU comparison is murky... terribly murky. Microsoft’s using an ATI chip with a brand-new Unified Shader Architecture that is difficult to compare with traditional video technology. The PS3 uses the Nvidia RSX, which Sony says is more powerful than two GeForce 6800 strapped together. Our conclusion: the consoles will be comparable in graphical power.

Speaking of moving pictures, the PS3 is also participating in the next Beta vs. VHS battle, this time being waged over the successor to DVD. The two contenders are HD-DVD and Blu-ray, and Sony has come down firmly in the latter camp. The PS3 will be able to play movies in the new high-capacity format, and games as well.

The Controller

The PS3 controller is a revelation... and in this writer’s eyes, an ugly one. The tried-and-true PS2 controller has been unceremoniously ousted, and the usurper is a nasty looking silver batarang with a narrow, curving face. The button layout is largely similar to the old controller, but the entire setup stinks of form over function. Will next-generation gaming mean next-generation orthopedic surgery?

Linkin’ Up

There’s a lot of speculation about what Sony will do to compete with Microsoft’s fully-featured Xbox Live internet multiplayer-matching system. Sony claims they’ll have a unified solution. At the same time, in early 2005, they announced they’ll leave a lot of it up to the market, keeping it “open platform” so that publishers can create opportunities directly with gamers rather than forcing everything to go through one single channel, a la Xbox Live.

Both the 360 and the PS3 will support USB devices, wireless communication, home networking, and wireless controllers.

Storage

The PS3 won’t come with a hard drive, but it’ll have a slot for a notebook-sized (2.5”) hard drive. It will also support the Memory Stick, SD, and CompactFlash storage formats.

Makin’ It Happen

At the Game Developers Conference-Europe, the head of Sony Europe announced that the PS3 SDK will boast sophisticated “middleware” - software that makes developing the full games easier - such as the popular Havok physics engine, Ageia's Novodex, and Epic's well-known Unreal Engine 3, as well as numerous ready-to-use code libraries.

The platform will also be fully downward-compatible, playing both PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 games. This is good news for gamers who have sunk - and for many, are still sinking - hundreds of dollars into their game libraries.

The Sum Of Its Parts

The PS3 is looking like a formidable gaming powerhouse. With its strong established lineup of game publishers and proud franchises, the Sony console tradition will make gamers very happy in 2006.