The Look-Back: PlayStation 3
- MC Wright
- Feb 16, 2019
- 6 min read
("The Look-Back"is a monthly retrospective on a single topic. Discussing it's history, and my time spent with it.)
For my first Look-Back story I wanted to talk about the PlayStation 3. My love for it, the games, & the experiences I had with the PlayStation Network.
but first, some history..
The PlayStation 3 was revealed to the world at E3 2005 on May 16th. Kaz Hirai & Ken Kutaragi took the stage to present the world what we were all eagerly awaiting for, with the design of a piece of furniture from the 60’s and a much joked about controller design that has since lovingly been referred to as, “The Dildo Boomerang”. But it wasn’t the console’s design we were there to check out, it was the games.
What was shown that day, arguably was all "what-if" scenarios. What if, the PlayStation 3 could actually render all this stuff real-time, which it could, but what if, it could do that with gameplay input? Which it could not. We saw CGI versions of Fight Night, Motorstorm, the infamous Killzone 2 “In-Engine Footage” trailer, and a teaser for something that was never meant to be an actual game, that made every fan around the world collectively lose their shit; the Final Fantasy VII Remake.
I could write an entire article about that “game”, but let’s not lose focus, we’re here to talk about the PS3. I believe it was at that same E3 show, or maybe it was the year later, that the price point was announced.
Six-Hundred Dollars. (For the 60gb version)
This was crazy. The Xbox 360 had launched in November of 2005 at the highest cost of $400 that included a 20gb Hard Drive (The PS3 also had a 20gb model for $500 at launch, sans media card readers (which I totally forgot was a thing with the 60gb model)). Supposedly though, the inclusion of the blu-ray and the potential of the system was worth the price tag, something that’s still arguable to this day.
I waited in-line outside a Target store for 2 and a half days (first in line suckaaaas), to get my launch 60gb PS3. I had picked up Tony Hawk’s Project 8 a couple weeks before launch, raring to go and play that game. You read that right, Project 8 was my only game at launch. Which speaking of, the PS3’s launch catalog was probably the most divisive launch catalog of any system ever. Let’s break it down.
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (WWII Air Shooter)
Call of Duty 3 (The first Call of Duty not made by Infinity Ward)
Genji: Days of the Blade (Giant Crab Monsters!!)
Madden NFL 07
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire (I actually forgot this was part of the lineup)
NBA 2K7
NHL 2K7 (Oooohhhh, RIP)
Resistance: Fall of Man (My second PS3 title)
Ridge Racer 7 (Riiiiiiiiiiiidge RACER!!)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (I can still hear that Kasabian song)
Now this actually doesn't look or sound all that bad, but there’s one thing about early (read: Launch through ‘08/09) PS3 titles that were multi-platform games, they were terrible.
The PS3 had a processor that should have never been used for games, in fact the US Military bought PS3’s in bulk to run computing something or other, because the Cell Processor was a fantastic chip. Just, really not made for games. Because of this, studios that weren’t making games solely for PS3, having done most of the work on these titles for 360/PC and were porting them over, we’re not the favorites of PS3 players. These titles had varying degrees of looking & running poorly, and cost the same amount as the 360 counterpart.
I was there though, day 1 and proud(ish) of it. I was in the trenches in real life and online fighting for the system against the haters. Console wars began in the 90’s with Sega & Nintendo, I would like to think was a more nuanced war. The console war between PS3 & 360 however, was the ugliest, longest war we had. “Fanboy” was a term thrown out nearly every single day if you were talking proudly about one console over another. But if I’m honest, PS3 lovers were few and far between those early days, or rather until the release of MGS4.
It wasn’t until IGN started a podcast aimed solely for PlayStation fans (Podcast Beyond), that we were the unheard few. The crew of the podcast were our bastion of hope, every week I waited for the next episode to drop so I could listen to my “friends” in the trenches talk about PlayStation games and defend our underdog system. Jeremy Dunham, Chris Roper, Greg Miller, and Jeff Haynes. They were our de facto leaders in the campaign for the PlayStation 3.
In the middle of the lifespan it was neck and neck with the 360 in terms of sales, but also game performance wasn’t a glaring issue anymore. For the most part multi-platform games were now developed for PS3 first, and then ported over to 360. The way the architecture worked made it easier and didn’t end up making a sloppy game for 360 either. To be biased, if I could go back and choose one console or another, I would still choose the PlayStation 3.
PlayStation Network (which I swear I called PSN before anyone else) was free compared to Xbox Live, even when PS+ was introduced, you could still play games online for free (something that was changed for the better (better servers) with PS4). The Store went through 3 different lifestyle changes, and if I’m honest I think the second one was the best out of the three. The current store front works on PS4, but is waaaaay too graphically intensive for the PS3. Flashy, but laggy.
It had a lot of firsts, and never agains. PlayStation Home, speaking of a "Never Again", was for the most part, fine. It was a digital living space that you, your friends, & thousands (Read; hundreds) others could occupy. Meet in game spaces to talk about shared interests, play a game of bowling or shoot some pool. Deck out your house & avatar with micro-transactions & rewards from playing select games at the time. Ultimately though, it took forever to load into, and also made launching games a chore.
A big(at the time) missing feature for the system, was custom soundtracks. Something the original Xbox had ushered in, allowing a user to play their own music from the hard drive with certain games. The 360 took it a step further and allowed anyone to play music over any game. Sadly even later in the consoles lifetime, only certain games allowed this feature.
It would be a disservice to discuss the system and not talk about it's UI: The XMB, or Xross Media Bar. This UI, to this day, is still my favorite and preferred one to use. If it was available for the PS4 I would switch in a second. Photos, Videos, Music, Games, all had they're own sections. A user would only have to press "Left" or "Right" on the D-Pad to switch to another section, and then select from there. It wasn't until the 2.40 update on July 2nd, 2008, that allowed access to the XMB while playing a game, without closing said game.
PlayStation 3 was home to some of my favorite titles. It showed me Indie love with the PixelJunk series of games. It gave me the closing chapter of a beloved war hero with Metal Gear Solid 4. It made me a fan of Naughty Dog once again with their Uncharted series. It let me rock out on plastic instruments with the Rock Band games. It also, sadly, gave me the death-gasp of my favorite PS2 series of games, SOCOM US Navy Seals.
Looking back, I have very fond memories with the system. Even though I didn’t have an HDTV until 2009, and was playing games on a 13” Commodore 64 Monitor. Even though I experienced the dreaded “YLOD” (Yellow-Light of Death), in 2010, just after hours of installing all (read; ALL) of my physical and digital games onto the 500gb hard drive I had installed myself. Even though some games still had atrocious load times, and games were arguably much buggier than any generation before it.
It was a magical time, PlayStation 3 and the Network was something special to me.
It’s a console I still defend to this day when/if someone mentions not wanting to play a game on PS3 because it was never ported to a newer console. I still have mine hooked up to my TV and occasionally play it from time to time. Even on a 4K TV, games that outputted to 720p look just fine on it, & I loved going back to replay, and finish games I still haven’t yet.
Also the biggest get of the PS3 (or PSTV if you own one of those as well), is the PS1/2 classics you can play on that machine. A big library of classic titles at your disposal. A system you can play Final Fantasy 1-10 on (save for 3), Fatal Frame 1-3, Resident Evil 1-6, Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross. A place you won’t have to spend $21 on Final Fantasy IX too…..
Long story short.
Long live the PlayStation 3, Play B3yond.
-MC Wright
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