It's not easy (nor wise) to be an early adopter of next gen...

[MadScience2006]

I've no intentions on picking up the PS4. Word is that the successor to the Xbox will have a requirement for a persistent internet connection (true or not, it remains to be seen) to use. I will refuse anything to do with this requirement & I have a suspicion that if Microsoft does this, Sony may indeed follow suit. Of course this remains to be seen...

That being said, I got my PS3 60GB (fat) maybe one year or so after launch and it's still going strong. I do yearly maintenance on it by replacing the thermal paste on the cooled chips and cleaning out dust and the fan. I also have a PS3 Slim 120GB as well (again, a year or so after launch). I'm NOT an early adopter and likely never will be. I've done all my early adoption on the PC side since the early 80's and the Atari 800 and Apple IIe computers. I don't spend anywhere near the money I used to on these things and the PS4 holds nothing advantageous for myself, personally...especially if they follow Xbox with a persistent internet requirement.

 

[Jim]

I was an early adopter of the PS3, and I think I'm the only one who doesn't regret it. I got the original 60GB "Chrome" model, with four USB ports, the card readers and full hardware backwards compatibility. And I couldn't be happier.

Even though the launch titles were less than stellar, I still had a huge backlog of great PS2 titles to play (most for substantial discounts) many of which I'm still enjoying today.
In contrast, I have no interest at all in the PS4, and I will be enjoying my PS3 for years to come. I'm not on Facebook, nor do I want to Twitter about my latest achievements or game purchases; so the social networking features mean nothing to me. And if the rumors about PS4 having no backwards compatibility are true, that will further seal the deal for me never getting one. Not when I have a library of Ps1, 2 and 3 games which I'm still enjoying.

That's just me though, TPA looks just fine on my PS3, and I really don't see it looking much better on PS4.

P.S. My original unit has never had even the slightest hiccup, still running like a champ. And I like the lighter Six-Axis controllers with longer battery life and no vibration.

--Jim

 

[Tabe]

Going by the pre-views of soon to be released PS4 or next gen games, I am not impressed with the graphics. They don't look any better than PS3.

You must have seen different videos than I did. Killzone, Infamous, and the Capcom dungeon crawler were all significantly better than PS3 graphics.

 

[Worf]

I got a launch PS3.

It played no games until a year later when I bought one just to play a game on it (I could've bought it for PC or Xbox or Wii or... I just wanted to play SOMETHING on it). However, for most of the year it didn't sit idle, it just played blu-ray movies as it was the cheapest blu-ray player on the market (they were normally going for $1000. The PS3 was better and cheaper and upgradable.)

The only bad thing was the )@(#&% bluetooth remote that was incompatible with everything else you had.

 

[Gord Lacey]

You must have seen different videos than I did. Killzone, Infamous, and the Capcom dungeon crawler were all significantly better than PS3 graphics.

I'm not sure about the others, but the Capcom game was a "target" for what they hope to achieve.

 

[brakel]

I bought my first PS3 a few months after launch. I bought it primarily as a blu-ray player. At that time the PS3 was the best and most inexpensive PS3 player. It also had the best chance of continually being updated with new and sometimes required BD updates.

I knew that games would follow but was fine with just using it as a BD player.

Right now I don't see a feature of the PS4 that is a must have for me. There's a chance that I may buy one just for TPA but with no killer feature it will come down to games. There will need to be some games that will drive the purchase. Purchase price doesn't make too much difference to me. I usually spend about $1k a year on gaming and audio/video stuff and the PS4 should fit into that budget.

 

[Sinistar]

Hmm let's see if I had kept that PS3 I had obtained back when it came out instead of selling it on Ebay , I'd have a desirable Fat model with Ps2 emulation and small HD I could easily upgrade to a bigger size. So good things and bad about early adopting . Older versions prone to heating issues , yet have better features and construction .

 

[Mark W**a]

Awesome to see all the responses!

I've read everything.

Yes I was there Dreamcast, my favorite launch ever. But that was a different case... we had a full year of software developement (the system really launched in Japan on November 1998). So that meant we had Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Power Stone, House of the Dead 2, Sega Rally, and a bunch of other great software at launch. I never had so many goosebumps as I did with Dreamcast. That system was just absolutely mind-blowing. And inviting mates over to show it off, I converted 5 of my friends over to Dreamcast all of whom were PlayStation/N64 gamers who did not own Saturn.

360 launch did not give me those chills in fact, I was there lambasting the console at launch, believe it or not. I was firmly of the mindset that, the console was too soon. Xbox 1 was only 4 years old at that point, and when I saw software like Kameo I said "nice textures, but 30 frames per second? Bleh" Call of Duty 2 I said "looks not much better than current gen". I was in the "this is Xbox 1.5 lol" camp, the only thing I liked about the 360 at launch was the controller, which I said was the most comfortable I have ever held.

But fast forward throughout that year, I played stuff like Lost Planet, Fight Night Round 2, ChromeHounds, and Dead Rising, I was absolutely sold on the machine. But I was still expecting PS3 to blow it out of the water. Then we discovered that the demo's were all CG, the actual games that were multiplatform looked and ran worse on PS3.. I still camped out for my PS3, but I gave into the Ebay frenzy and ended up selling mine for a cool 2 grand. Long story short the false Ebay market fell out so quickly due to not enough demand, the guy who won my auction actually threatened to not pay me because 2 days after he won the auction PS3's were going for 900...

Anyways I did get paid, and I used that money to buy a 360, Dead Rising, ChromeHounds, Gears of War collectors edition, an extra controller, a wireless headset, a year of Xbox Live, and a points card with money to spare lol. That was an epic Christmas, and my best buddy did the same, probably up their with Dreamcast as far as gaming memories.

But again, the 360 was a full year old. If I had kept the PS3 my memories would have been horrible! The online was piss poor at launch, and the software was lacking. Same had you gotten a 360 in 2005 with Kameo and Call of Duty 2. Bleh. Now these games aren't horrible, but contrast that with the stuff you get a year later. That's the point here; 360 in 2006 and Dreamcast in 1999 were amazing but only because they were both a year old by this time.

 

[Mark W**a]

Hmm let's see if I had kept that PS3 I had obtained back when it came out instead of selling it on Ebay , I'd have a desirable Fat model with Ps2 emulation and small HD I could easily upgrade to a bigger size. So good things and bad about early adopting . Older versions prone to heating issues , yet have better features and construction .

The PS2 emulation has input lag; you're better off with just keeping a cheap PS2 around.

They are very prone to ylod. It's really almost as bad as rrod with these early units.

Better construction? Certainly better than the new 'ultra slims' but the regular slim? Not sure plus it's a massive, massive system and somewhat unattractive (especially the Spider-Man font imo).

Plus: 599$.

250$ is still a hard pill for me to swallow. The only stuff I want on PS3 is House of the Dead 4, and Pinball Arcade. Quite literally I mean this, that is it. And to get House of the Dead, I will need to buy move controllers, costing even more! Rumors now suggest a 99$ Xbox 360 super slim, to launch this fall. I might just go that route, Pinball Arcade will most certainly be on 360 by that time, and I have to get another 360 anyway regardless... I have 100+ Xbox Live Arcade and Games on Demand games just sitting in cyber space attatched to my Apharmd Striker account... no way I'm just forgetting about that...

 

[Tabe]

I'm not sure about the others, but the Capcom game was a "target" for what they hope to achieve.

It's actually an announced title now, with that being in-game footage.

The other two were gameplay footage as announced during the launch event.

 

[Jim]

The PS2 emulation has input lag

I know you weren't responding to me, but I must add that I still play my PS2 games on my PS3, including some control-sensitive games like Tekken Tag Tournament, and I have never noticed any input lag. I can pull off King's Multi chain throws without any problems.

Now this could be that you meant the newer model PS3's that do not have the PS2 hardware chips, in which case then I wouldn't be certain, but as for an original launch system, I notice zero input lag on mine.


--Jim

 

[brakel]

I know you weren't responding to me, but I must add that I still play my PS2 games on my PS3, including some control-sensitive games like Tekken Tag Tournament, and I have never noticed any input lag. I can pull off King's Multi chain throws without any problems.

Now this could be that you meant the newer model PS3's that do not have the PS2 hardware chips, in which case then I wouldn't be certain, but as for an original launch system, I notice zero input lag on mine.


--Jim

I'm not familiar with fighting games but would that require responding within a fraction of a second to a visual that is seen at a precise point?

 

[Heretic]

Some street fighter players actually count frames

 

[superballs]

The PS2 emulation has input lag; you're better off with just keeping a cheap PS2 around.

I blame Farsight for input lag. Then again it could be an issue with TV settings...sorry couldn't resist.

That said...every time someone mentions the Dreamcast, i get almost as emotional as the day my daughter was born.
To me, that was the pinnacle of gaming, the golden age. When creativity and technology together had reached a zenith. Compounded now that Sega is barely a ghost of the company that they were. The 2k series of sports games have all risen and fell (save for basketball) and we may never ever ever ever ever know the fate of one Ryo Hazuki. 9/9/99 was a great day to be a gamer in North America and that was one early adoption that I do not regret.

The year and a half that that system was alive put out more quality games than some systems have had in their entire lifetime.

 

[dtown8532]

I blame Farsight for input lag. Then again it could be an issue with TV settings...sorry couldn't resist.

That said...every time someone mentions the Dreamcast, i get almost as emotional as the day my daughter was born.
To me, that was the pinnacle of gaming, the golden age. When creativity and technology together had reached a zenith. Compounded now that Sega is barely a ghost of the company that they were. The 2k series of sports games have all risen and fell (save for basketball) and we may never ever ever ever ever know the fate of one Ryo Hazuki. 9/9/99 was a great day to be a gamer in North America and that was one early adoption that I do not regret.

The year and a half that that system was alive put out more quality games than some systems have had in their entire lifetime.

Ah, the Sega Dreamcast. The only game console I ever pre-ordered. Sonic Adventure, Soul Caliber, Hydro Thunder and Power Stone on day one for me. Greatest launch title selection of all time. Beautiful memories.

 

[Jim]

I blame Farsight for input lag. Then again it could be an issue with TV settings...sorry couldn't resist.

That said...every time someone mentions the Dreamcast, i get almost as emotional as the day my daughter was born.
To me, that was the pinnacle of gaming, the golden age. When creativity and technology together had reached a zenith. Compounded now that Sega is barely a ghost of the company that they were. The 2k series of sports games have all risen and fell (save for basketball) and we may never ever ever ever ever know the fate of one Ryo Hazuki. 9/9/99 was a great day to be a gamer in North America and that was one early adoption that I do not regret.

The year and a half that that system was alive put out more quality games than some systems have had in their entire lifetime.

Funny you should mention that... I never owned a Dreamcast, but have always wanted one. Now that they've released many Dreamcast games on the PSN store, I'm enjoying all of those games for the first time. Crazy Taxi, Virtua Fighter 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 2. All great stuff.

I'm not familiar with fighting games but would that require responding within a fraction of a second to a visual that is seen at a precise point?

Yes, very much so. Heretic was absolutely right when he stated that pro-level fighting game players actually count and time individual frames for attacks and moves (I used to be one of them, a long, long time ago).

--Jim

 

[superballs]

The Dreamcast had a very special place for me. It helped me get through one of the worst parts of my life ever lived...I mean severe depression, drug addiction, very strange living circumstances. It really was something special as sometimes i held on to it as my reason to get up the next day. The roller coaster ride that was being a Dreamcast owner was really a cherished moment for me.

 

[brakel]

I was so oblivious to the Dreamcast. But then I've never been a hardcore gamer. My console ownership maps out pretty cleanly until recently. I went from Pong - Atari 2600 - NES - Sega Genesis - PlayStation - PS2 - PS3 - then it branches out to also include Game Cube, Wii, and Xbox 360, but none of those three were my main gaming console.

 

[Mark W**a]

I'm not familiar with fighting games but would that require responding within a fraction of a second to a visual that is seen at a precise point?

No it's Tekken and kings multithrows in particular have a very lax input window. I'm really not going to debate this, two minutes of google research will prove I'm correct.

As others have stated yes Street Fighter is extremely sensitive. You have what are called 1-frame links. I'm ParryAll btw in the fgc circles and Rufus my sf4 main, his bread and butter (read:most important combo) is a one frame link. So, yes, 1-60th of a second! PS3 version of SF4 either has 1 or 2 frames of input lag, or none at all, depending who you ask. For me I think it's one frame, and it's a simple adjustment. Two frames or more is when things get dicey and PS2 emulation on PS3 is two frames.

You can trick the game into making these links 2-frame by a method called plinking (now I'm getting uber nerdy), but me i raw dog it cause I'm just too cool for school. And I'm about 90% efficient but I have been out of the fgc circle for two years. Pinball took over as my hobby!

 

[Mark W**a]

The Dreamcast had a very special place for me. It helped me get through one of the worst parts of my life ever lived...I mean severe depression, drug addiction, very strange living circumstances. It really was something special as sometimes i held on to it as my reason to get up the next day. The roller coaster ride that was being a Dreamcast owner was really a cherished moment for me.

That's amazing and I'm happy to hear Dreamcast helped you through this time. Ill be honest I don't think it will ever get as good as DC and that era.

And I was just at System -16 the arcade museum website and was looking through Naomi games... The amount of stuff that released post 2001, Dreamcast could have been even more spectacular. Dynamite Cop 3, Wave Runner sequel, Toy Fighter, a Golden-Axe esque beat um up, 100 Swords, Propeller Arena just to name a few of the games that never saw the light of day.

I still believe Sega made the wrong call by discontinuing the hardware. The console was popular enough to maintain a niche market. Hell, in just two years they sold 10 million units, and many million sellers, like Sonic Adventure, the 2k sports line, Crazy Taxi to name a few. Considering Xbox and Gamecube only sold 20 million respectively in 4 years, suggests to me DC could have actually finished second had Sammy not pulled the plug.

Jet Set Radio Future, Gun Valkyrie, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Virtua Fighter 4, and Beach Spikers were also originally planned for Dreamcast as well. Sega has never been the same post Dreamcast and IMO gaming hasn't either.

Ah, the Sega Dreamcast. The only game console I ever pre-ordered. Sonic Adventure, Soul Caliber, Hydro Thunder and Power Stone on day one for me. Greatest launch title selection of all time. Beautiful memories.

I blame Farsight for input lag. Then again it could be an issue with TV settings...sorry couldn't resist.

That said...every time someone mentions the Dreamcast, i get almost as emotional as the day my daughter was born.
To me, that was the pinnacle of gaming, the golden age. When creativity and technology together had reached a zenith. Compounded now that Sega is barely a ghost of the company that they were. The 2k series of sports games have all risen and fell (save for basketball) and we may never ever ever ever ever know the fate of one Ryo Hazuki. 9/9/99 was a great day to be a gamer in North America and that was one early adoption that I do not regret.

The year and a half that that system was alive put out more quality games than some systems have had in their entire lifetime.

This thread is turning into a Dreamcast gushing thread and this makes me happy lol.