PS3 console

[Luseth 1,961]

I just wanted to give the PS3 a bit of praise, I have been playing game of thrones on it the past couple of days, (not the telltale game) and really enjoying it. Just going back to the PS3 and yes the system itself is a bit ropey in that the dashboard is a bit sluggish and it can be prone to the odd slowdown I just wanted to praise that generation of gaming.

 

I think for most people on here it is an era where you were playing xbox 360 games and generally it was the better console but I have quite the fondness for the PS3 and was the era where I actually had a love in with call of duty (back when we could end a game with a nuke).

 

That said I have a red PS3 (the one below is just a generic image off the tinterweb) and sitting alongside the ps5 the design of the physical console is so much nicer -

 

 

It's a hell of a lot smaller but just looks lovely.

 

But yeah I thought this era brought about some of our best franchises to date, it's where the last of us started, demons souls turned up, we saw mass effect, uncharted, gears of war and the assassins creed games turn up as well.

[phil bottle 9,767]

PS3 used to be the console everyone on this forum played CoD.

As you say, the 360 was the better console, but as far as I recall there was no monthly fee to play games online with the PS3, which is definitely a tick in its favour.

[slamminbones 1,796]

1 hour ago, phil bottle said:

PS3 used to be the console everyone on this forum played CoD.

As you say, the 360 was the better console, but as far as I recall there was no monthly fee to play games online with the PS3, which is definitely a tick in its favour.

There use ro be free games as I recall but it was ps plus where you had to subscribe.

 

Love how the ps3 was free to play online but I think the only hame I played the shit out of was BoP 2 l.

[cyberninja2601 1,106]

2 hours ago, slamminbones said:

There use ro be free games as I recall but it was ps plus where you had to subscribe.

 

Love how the ps3 was free to play online but I think the only hame I played the shit out of was BoP 2 l.

 

 

Agreed. You needed PSN+ for multiplayer games. That was the only reason I would get it. Same with PS4.

 

I believe with PSN the "free to play" games no longer require PSN+. So warzone, overwatch, destiny should be free. Call of duty (MP) however still requires the PSN+

 

On XBOX you need to pay. However my experience is that its totally worth it.  If I play cod from house on XBOX, the network is flawless. If I play on my PS4, same game same maps it sketchy as hell which is why I'm on XBOX all the time now. 

 

 

[J4MES OX4D 10,037]

3 minutes ago, cyberninja2601 said:

Agreed. You needed PSN+ for multiplayer games. That was the only reason I would get it. Same with PS4.

You could play any PS3 multiplayer game without PS+. Only since the PS4 was PS+ a requirement to play games online against other users. I didn't have to pay Sony a penny from COD4 to MW3 and every other online game in between. 

[Luseth 1,961]

3 minutes ago, J4MES OX4D said:

You could play any PS3 multiplayer game without PS+. Only since the PS4 was PS+ a requirement to play games online against other users. I didn't have to pay Sony a penny from COD4 to MW3 and every other online game in between. 

 

Second this, you never had to pay for ps+ for ps3, in fact PS+ came out in 2010 whilst the PS3 came out in 2006 ^_^

 

10 minutes ago, cyberninja2601 said:

On XBOX you need to pay. However my experience is that its totally worth it.  If I play cod from house on XBOX, the network is flawless. If I play on my PS4, same game same maps it sketchy as hell which is why I'm on XBOX all the time now. 

 

 

Someone correct me if I am wrong here but I am not sure how being on XBOX would mean a better connection than playstation? Surely the COD servers are run by Activision so aside from connecting to the PSN or XBOX server for your account details it would be purely down to Activision servers?

 

That said I think there was a study in the last couple of years that also confirmed that XBOX live has gone down more in the past few years than PSN so reliability is not necessarily better (not by much from memory but even so it somewhat disputes the xbox network being flawless comment).

[J4MES OX4D 10,037]

Just now, Luseth said:

Someone correct me if I am wrong here but I am not sure how being on XBOX would mean a better connection than playstation? Surely the COD servers are run by Activision so aside from connecting to the PSN or XBOX server for your account details it would be purely down to Activision servers?

 

That said I think there was a study in the last couple of years that also confirmed that XBOX live has gone down more in the past few years than PSN so reliability is not necessarily better (not by much from memory but even so it somewhat disputes the xbox network being flawless comment).

Xbox Live servers were far better in terms of stability, lower latency and capacity. COD games ran strictly peer-to-peer in those days so things like this were key. This is what Xbox customers were paying for with their monthly/annual live subscription. The difference between Black Ops on the 360 and PS3 was night and day for example. The platform itself was far more fleshed out and polished compared to PSN's clunky, slow and rather bland interface. There was also the infamous PSN hack which caused a 6 week outage back in 2011. Can't complain though as getting all these services for free was brilliant value so compromises and a lack of quality had to be expected. 

 

PS+ on the PS4 was absolute dire value for money though but it's something Sony had to do to remain sustainable. 

[Luseth 1,961]

10 minutes ago, J4MES OX4D said:

Xbox Live servers were far better in terms of stability, lower latency and capacity. COD games ran strictly peer-to-peer in those days so things like this were key. This is what Xbox customers were paying for with their monthly/annual live subscription. The difference between Black Ops on the 360 and PS3 was night and day for example. The platform itself was far more fleshed out and polished compared to PSN's clunky, slow and rather bland interface. There was also the infamous PSN hack which caused a 6 week outage back in 2011. Can't complain though as getting all these services for free was brilliant value so compromises and a lack of quality had to be expected. 

 

PS+ on the PS4 was absolute dire value for money though but it's something Sony had to do to remain sustainable. 

 

Ah fair enough, I did not realise that was how COD worked back then and explains it ^_^ Agreed on the PS3 interface, going back to it this week and it really is the consoles biggest flaw. It is not smooth at all.

[cyberninja2601 1,106]

1 hour ago, J4MES OX4D said:

You could play any PS3 multiplayer game without PS+. Only since the PS4 was PS+ a requirement to play games online against other users. I didn't have to pay Sony a penny from COD4 to MW3 and every other online game in between. 

 

 

Been a while.  Did they just start the pay for Multiplayer in PS4 only? I wouldn't have gotten PS+ for anything else than that and I seem to recall having it for PS3. Was there any other reason to get it?  I was entirely PSN before moving to California. 

 

 

[J4MES OX4D 10,037]

19 minutes ago, cyberninja2601 said:

Been a while.  Did they just start the pay for Multiplayer in PS4 only? I wouldn't have gotten PS+ for anything else than that and I seem to recall having it for PS3. Was there any other reason to get it?  I was entirely PSN before moving to California. 

Yeah basically when the PS4 dropped, PS+ was required to play online games against other players on that system. You could still connect to the internet and access features designed for the single player without it, but for anything PvP or co-op you then needed a PS+ subscription. PS3 you could access any online title without an attached subscription or restrictions. I was actually able to play the original Destiny without needing a PS+ subscription on PS4 but I couldn't access PvE/P events - if I tried to join one, it would bring up the Store Homepage. 

 

PS+ on the PS3 from what I remember was very limited and different to what it is now - it was more surrounding exclusivity bonus discounts, free trials of paid games and access to some PS1 classics. I'm not sure if there was any additional features bundled in since the PS4 launched and prior to the PS3 support getting pulled about 4 years ago but it was a very barebones service back in the day from what I remember.  

 

I've managed to dig up an old article with their reasoning for the charge

Sony explains why PS Plus is required for PS4 online play - GameSpot

WWW.GAMESPOT.COM

---

Shuhei Yoshida says due to "large investment of resources" for online play, keeping service free would have been "absurd."

 

[GazzaGarratt 11,056]

Nice that you've given the PS3 some loving of late @Luseth. I have very little playtime on mine as I never had it growing up, I bought one off a mate so I've played a little with a couple of games. Back then, I had Xbox 360 which really was superior with exclusive games and also the UI/UX experience coupled with their online service offering just seemed to be something that felt lke it would never be beat. Weird how we've come full circle and back on Playstations as I feel their offering is better now but mainly down to the UI/UX experience.

 

I need to get the Wonderbook of Spells out for the wife again as that was quite unique I felt for back in PS3 days. My son also wants to give a few God of War games a go at some stage. I tried to play some Mass Effect on them but I could be swayed by getting the remastered version of PS4/5 now.

 

How do you find the PS3 controllers? They felt like a step back from the PS2 although at least they were wireless. I think this was another key area they started to fall behind the Xbox 360. They have the annoying connections and most of my analog sticks are buggered! 😅

 

On 4/3/2023 at 10:45 AM, phil bottle said:

PS3 used to be the console everyone on this forum played CoD.

 

I forgot these days but only because it was just before my time. Its a real shame that people chose different consoles after this one, especially in the days long before crossplay.

[IRaMPaGe 3,246]

On 4/3/2023 at 10:45 AM, phil bottle said:

PS3 used to be the console everyone on this forum played CoD.

As you say, the 360 was the better console, but as far as I recall there was no monthly fee to play games online with the PS3, which is definitely a tick in its favour.

 

There was a few on us playing Cod on the 360 from here back in the day. 

Heavily outnumbered by PlayStation tho. 

Probably like an 80-20 split maybe. 

[phil bottle 9,767]

2 minutes ago, IRaMPaGe said:

 

There was a few on us playing Cod on the 360 from here back in the day. 

Heavily outnumbered by PlayStation tho. 

Probably like an 80-20 split maybe. 

 

Yeah, I much preferred the 360 for CoD, mostly because of the controller tbf

[IRaMPaGe 3,246]

8 minutes ago, phil bottle said:

 

Yeah, I much preferred the 360 for CoD, mostly because of the controller tbf

 

The controller was much more comfortable for sure. 

Eventho it was a paid service with the yearly live subscription, the experience so much smoother like others have mentioned as well. 

[Luseth 1,961]

49 minutes ago, GazzaGarratt said:

 

I need to get the Wonderbook of Spells out for the wife again as that was quite unique I felt for back in PS3 days. My son also wants to give a few God of War games a go at some stage. I tried to play some Mass Effect on them but I could be swayed by getting the remastered version of PS4/5 now.

 

How do you find the PS3 controllers? They felt like a step back from the PS2 although at least they were wireless. I think this was another key area they started to fall behind the Xbox 360. They have the annoying connections and most of my analog sticks are buggered! 😅

 

 

There were quite a few exclusives but I think it comes down to taste, being a fan of my jrpg games there were a lot of exclusives, enough to make it well worth choosing the PS3 over the 360. The controllers, I find fairly comfortable still, analog sticks are still fine, I think the only thing that's noticeable which may be an easy fix is some of the buttons stick a little bit. I suspect it is just dirt and grime build up though, I just don't have any compressed air to hand at the moment. Agreed that the 360 controllers were a lot better, that said it has led microsoft into a false sense of security and the modern controller isn't really much different whilst it has forced / encouraged Sony to innovate their's a little.

 

The other thing with the PS3 being less popular is that the exclusives are fewer, meaning when collectors get to that era they will go up in value more and quicker than xbox 360 games which I am always mindful of these days as it is so easy to get priced out of a game you might want in the current market.

[J4MES OX4D 10,037]

29 minutes ago, phil bottle said:

Yeah, I much preferred the 360 for CoD, mostly because of the controller tbf

The Xbox Live infrastructure was significantly better especially in terms of social features and the interface plus the exclusivity on content was quite important back then too. I used to play on both systems and Playstation was by no means all that inferior though and being free was pretty astonishing really. Also the PS3 offered a better resolution and cleaner image which was very noticeable chopping between both. 

 

PSN is absolutely horseshit value now though and although players will get their monies worth to play online, I think Sony have done a really poor job going forward for users. Failure to lay the groundwork during the PS3 era was pretty pivotal because going into the PS4 gen a decade ago, it was a culture shock having to suddenly stump up £50 for something you were getting for free a few weeks previous and there was very little benefit in comparison. The PS Now debacle, a lack of backward compatibility and now this convoluted tier system as they look to compete with game pass just persistently frustrates me personally. 

 

If Sony made their units exclusively backward compatible and had a clear single tier of PS+ then it would be so much better. No matter how many games they giveaway each month, it's not good enough and them being very passive during the early days of PS+'s inception was the catalyst for the mess ever since. 

[J4MES OX4D 10,037]

Oh and this is the unit type I had but I can't for the life of me remember what model it was. There were several first generation releases with variable HDD differences (20gb up to 160gb or something) and a different number of USB slots. The other difference between the models was some had a grey trim and other ones (larger capacity and 4 USB slots) had a chrome/shiny silver trim. Mine was just grey but it looked less tacky than the shiny ones I felt although my system was inferior in terms of disk space and slots. Thankfully we didn't have to do complete installs back then or suffer huge updates. 

 

Here is an example of the high-end first generation ones with the chrome trim and I also believe they had off-disc backwards compatibility for most PS2 games whereas other units didn't.  

 

Safe to say it was quite a messy launch just like the Xbox 360 and their Arcade units which still had memory cards, no HDMI support and no built in wi-fi capabilities. Not sure how things changed with the Slim and Super Slim iterations though. I really liked the design of the original PS3's though! 

[Luseth 1,961]

Correct @J4MES OX4D, I had one of the shiny one's and they were limited in size to 60gb hard drives. The plus like you say is that they could play PS2 games and for that reason they are quite sought after today (being able to play PS2 games via hdmi without extra upscalers and whatnot). However the og fat ps3's also had issues with overheating over time and generally they have not lasted particularly well. The slim consoles however are incredibly robust and the super slim one's even moreso, though I have never owned one.

 

The slim and super slim variants are also where they started to introduce some custom colours i.e. the scarlet red that I have, I think there is a blue version too. Though the 360's win on that front, I do not have it anymore but I loved my Halo xbox 360, it sounded brilliant when it booted up

[J4MES OX4D 10,037]

2 hours ago, Luseth said:

Correct @J4MES OX4D, I had one of the shiny one's and they were limited in size to 60gb hard drives. The plus like you say is that they could play PS2 games and for that reason they are quite sought after today (being able to play PS2 games via hdmi without extra upscalers and whatnot). However the og fat ps3's also had issues with overheating over time and generally they have not lasted particularly well. The slim consoles however are incredibly robust and the super slim one's even moreso, though I have never owned one.

 

The slim and super slim variants are also where they started to introduce some custom colours i.e. the scarlet red that I have, I think there is a blue version too. Though the 360's win on that front, I do not have it anymore but I loved my Halo xbox 360, it sounded brilliant when it booted up

Those OG PS3's were bloody noisy too and were vacuums for dust! I think my unit must have been a 40gb one - it had the grey trim, no disc backward compatibility and 2 USB slots. From what I remember, I picked that one because it had a good deal - summat like saving £30 and getting MGS4 thrown in whereas the high-end units were still full-whack everywhere and in terms of the package, would've cost me almost £100 more. Don't think it was as low as 20gb though so I'm pretty sure it must have been 40gb and even then, that was more than enough but I certainly missed out on the backward compatibility aspect. I did buy a few PS1 games from the Store though and that's something Sony have really let people down with last gen and this with their PS Now and tiered PS+ framework. 

 

I had the awful Xbox 360 arcade to start with and then got a matte black slim 360 around 2011 which was an exceptional machine and about the 50th console iteration of its kind! Both the OG PS4 and XB1 were absolutely hideous in comparison to this gen of machines IMO. 

[Spacedeck 920]

I have and still play PS3 from time to time.  Got a black super slim myself and tonight was on Resistance Fall of Man multiplayer.  I tend to like playing on games where they are bringing back community servers to revive them.

[Luseth 1,961]

So Game Of Thrones really feels like game of thrones 😄 Important characters to the main character being killed off left, right and centre. There's a character put in the game who is essentially George Martin and it's flowing really well with lots going on now during the mid section of the game ^_^

 

I also discovered the other day that there was a PS3 version of San Andreas! I never knew that was a thing 😄 It also has trophies so I may, once I complete GoT move onto that next, it was such a brilliant game!