Tom's Trials

PS3 RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCED



It's official! The new PS3 will be available in North America in November. Many gamers have been anxiously awaiting this high-powered console. Originally scheduled for spring of 2006, technical problems pushed the release date back to fall. The price: $499 and $599. GULP!

Today at the Sony conference in L.A. the new revised controller was also unveiled. Goodbye boomerang. Hello Dualshock. The gaming community uttered a sigh of relief at the news. The proposed boomerang design left gamers with trepidation and loathing. Not only is the new controller more user friendly, but it will be wireless with the capability of re-charging as well as containing six motion sensitive gyroscopes that will respond to tilting of the controller. Imagine flying a plane simply by tilting the controller in the direction you want to go. I guess no more throwing the controller in disgust when you lose!

In addition to the new controller, each PS3 will come with it's own hard drive. There will be two versions: 20GB or 60GB. From what I've read it's worth the extra $100 to go with the 60GB version. A lot pricier than Microsoft's XBOX. The only advantage I see is that the PS3 is backward compatible and will play PS2 and PS1 games. In addition it is a HD Blu-ray disc player.

One cool feature is the ability to sync your PSP to the PS3 for use in games. Today in L.A. they demonstrated a racing game in which the PSP served as a rearview mirror to the car you are racing on the PS3. Holy Crap! How hard is that going to be for a 50 yr old like myself? I guess we'll find out.

I guess the guys from Microsoft said that there is no new innovation with the PS3 and that the XBOX has nothing to worry about. Not only is it cheaper, but it came out first and people are playing instead of waiting.

I think they're scared. The PS3 will dominate the console wars.

Guess what I want for Christmas?