Kicking off the excitement of the Electronic Entertainment Expo in LA yesterday/last night, Sony was the first of the big three console manufacturers to make its speeches and reveal the PS3. Fortunately, this was no repeat of the closely veiled hints of last year – this time there was a hands on demo of the new controller in action, some games actually being played and no efforts to pass off pre-rendered footage as genuine.
The big news is, of course, the new controller. Since the previous version, christened the ‘batarang’ or ‘boomerang’ by cynical members of the press, was withdrawn, Sony has kept tight-lipped on the new design. Imagine our surprise when it turned out to look... exactly like the PS2 Dual Shock 2 controller. However, there’s a whole lot more to this next-gen edition as it supports all manner of motion detection, in fact it’s much more comparable to the Nintendo concept controller than the dull old Xbox 360 one. What ever will Microsoft do now?
The all-important High Definition abilities of the console were also made clearer. Some had said that 720p resolution in gaming was the limit of the new technology but Sony has obviously paid the naysayers no heed – on show was a demo of the new Gran Tourismo HD title, running in 1080i. Reports from the web haven’t been entirely sold on the quality of the early footage, but if anyone can get it right, it’s probably the Gran Tourismo team.
On to prices and specs: Sony has revealed the prices and launch dates of each region’s console. First of all every PS3 comes with a hard disk drive, although you get to choose between a 20 or 60GB version. The prices are, as expected, higher than that of the 20GB Xbox 360 coming to 499 Euro (around £340) for the 20GB and 599 Euro (around £410) for the 60GB version. Ouch – looks like I’ll have to be selling a kidney or two when they launch in November. Exact dates are the 11th November for Japan and the 17th for the US. I can’t find an exact European yet but will update you as soon as I do.
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