furyk
11-30-2006, 04:18 PM
1up's Top Ten PS3 Complaints:
Sixaxis Syncing
Maybe it's naive to think that a wireless controller would let us dispense with the wires, but it's what we've come to expect and not what we got. Where other system owners tap a button, PS3 owners and friends have to go through a jack-in, jack-out ritual whenever coming by with their controllers. A marginal pain in the ass, but there's really no reason to have to screw with it at all.
No Multitasking
The sucker has eight freaking processors and is apparently capable of flinging eggs around with its mind, but it can't do more than one thing at a time. What's up with that? We have to quit out of a game to access the Cross Media Bar? Downloading something means your entertainment options are confined to the load-bar watching minigame. The 360 got this wrong at first too, and it was fixed with a firmware update. Hopefully we'll see the same happen on PS3, and quickly.
Not Quite HD Ready
The PS3 comes only with your standard composite video cables, period. No component, no S-video, no HDMI. With all Sony's insistence that the next generation begins when it says so and that you're going to have a Blu-ray player whether you want one or not, you'd think they would have given us what we'd need to appreciate the difference. With all that the Blu-ray drive added to the manufacturing cost, the cables we'd need to make it anywhere near worth the price would have seemingly been a drop in the bucket. Even a single branching connection cable like the Xbox 360's would have been swell.
PS1/PS2 Save Transfer
Want to use those hundreds of hours of PS1 and PS2 saved games you have piled up when playing your old games on your curvy new space heater? Strangely, you can't. Well, not yet anyway. Sony's FAQ says, "To use saved data on a PlayStation 2 Memory Card, you must copy the data onto a internal memory card within the hard disk on the PlayStation 3. This requires a PS2/PSone Memory Card adaptor (sold separately) to copy the data to your PlayStation 3." The adaptor is currently listed on PlayStation.com, but there's no indication of when it will be available. EB Games has the adaptor listed for $14.99, but again, there's no indication of availability.
PS1 Downloads Only Play on PSP
Hey, it's almost like the answer to the Virtual Console. Except you can't, you know, play those PS1 games on the console you downloaded them to. An emulator will be available to play the downloads on PS3 early next year - but again, we have to wait.
Controller Screwups
At the moment the Sixaxis is apparently vulnerable to random demonic possession. It probably has something to do with all that psychic egg flinging. From time to time it just wigs out and drives your car into a wall, or makes your soldier wander round in circles. Depending on whether it's a software or hardware problem this could be a quick fix or a full on recall situation. Either way, it's becoming the topic of some discussion. If it's simply a wireless sync problem, shouldn't the fact that you pair the controller using a USB cable solve that?
No System Level Custom Soundtracks
Kind of a symptom of the whole no multitasking thing, you can't run your own music while you play. At least, you can only do it in games that specifically allow for it. If you're wondering how many of those there are, the answer is not freaking very. Maybe not so important for everyone, but some of us like to listen to Enya while headshotting our friends.
Setting Up a Wi-Fi Connection
One of the reasons for dropping the extra $100 for 60GB PS3 is the inclusion of Wi-Fi support. Sadly, it's not as easy to set up as you might hope. Try punching in a 26-digit WEP code with that telephone interface. Now try it when every time you enter a character an asterisk replaces it so you can't keep track of what you've done. If it's busted, count on informative error messages like "A connection error has occurred (8013013E)" and a manual with helpful hints like "Follow the onscreen instructions." It's only topped by the aid offered on PlayStation.com: "We're working hard to improve our Support section. Check back soon to see our full selection of support topics and resources." Thanks!
Being Online
Your reward for all that dicking around is a virtual desert. The free for all, do it yourself nature of this thing isn't getting much developer support, and we're not too crazy about it, either. No unified buddy lists? No mid-game messaging? Hell, no pretty much anything we've been taking for granted after more than a year of Xbox Live. Even a little thing like collecting gamer points has practically become some kind of bizarre meta-MMO in its own right. At this point you can probably pay Koreans to farm NBA Live for you. It's a lot to say goodbye to all at once.
Streaming video to the PSP
Sure, it's not the most essential feature in the world - but this is a case of the device not completely delivering on one of its many, many promises. In short, the results look terrible. The sound is out of sync and the visuals are choppier than a coked up samurai. If there's a television usage conflict or you feel absolutely compelled to watch video clips while on the pot it'd be nice if they didn't look worse than what you're squeezing out.
1up's Top Ten Wii Complaints:
VC Games Tied to Individual Wiis
Want to play a little Bomberman at your friend's house? He's going to have to buy it, or you're going to have to lug your Wii over. No pop-outable hard drive. No logging on to your account from over there. No iTunes-like keying of your game library to your SD card. We can see wanting to avoid piracy, but the Wii is something Nintendo could update to kill freeloading tricks when and if they came up, and most anyone with that mentality already has all these games for their emulators, anyway. Pretty much the only reason this doesn't rank higher is compared to lugging around any other system moving a Wii is like carrying a memory card.
Getting Online
The Wii's got a great little online backend and interface, but to get on there you have to go wireless. If you're one of those stone age bastards who doesn't have everything from your PC to your coffeemaker linked up through a cloud of magic computer rays, well, tough. You can't plug the little bastard into a wall. If you won't join the wireless age then Nintendo just doesn't want you playing their online games. You know, if they had any.
Being Online
Where the PS3 has a lousy, all-over-the-place online scheme with a handful of games trying to make it work, Nintendo seems to have a potentially great online setup with absolutely no games whatsoever taking advantage of it. For now and the immediate future there just isn't any point to even hooking the thing up other than downloading VC games or trading your Miis around. Which can get old after about the fifteenth Jesus or Michael Jackson wanders into your Mii parade.
20 Hour Battery Life
Yeah, it beeps and shakes and stuff, but still, that's pretty damn short for a wireless controller. Worse, it's the only one this generation that you can't just plug in to a USB port to recharge. You're either going to have to buy a battery charger, or stockpile an assload of AAs. Whee.
Classic Controller
You have to buy one for an awful damn lot of the Virtual Console games. That's fine. In fact, it's such a nice little controller that we rather wish we could use it instead of the GameCube controller for Cube games. Which we freaking can't. What also bugs us is that it's required at all for some of the VC games - there really isn't any reason someone who wanted to skip yet another optional purchase shouldn't be able to play Mario 64 with a Wiimote and 'chuck. Worse, you have to plug the bastard into your Wiimote, further contributing to the flood of AAs going to battery heaven.
No Pack-in Component Cables
At this point we're still just relieved that Wii even supports it, but it's yet another expense on top of an already big pile of stuff. Yeah, the Wii is cheap, but we're getting nickel and dimed to death on stuff that really should have been in the box. We're even less impressed that the ones we already got for the Gamecube don't work.
Not Region Free
We're not just feeling petulant because Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan promised us and we didn't get a pony. Once upon a time this might have been a lot to ask, but after the DS, PSP, PS3 and to some extent the 360 all let us play imports it's something we've come to expect.
Weak Wrist Strap
Considering all the warnings in the user manual and the constant in-game reminders to only use the Wii-mote with the strap lest you accidentally destroy everyone and everything you ever loved, you'd think they'd have made one that wouldn't break if you stare at it too hard.
Short Sensor Bar Cord
This won't be any kind of problem for most. For those with front projection TVs, however, this can amount to a monumental pain in the ass. All you can really do about it is cut the damn thing and splice in an extra length of wire, or maybe you could cobble together something else as a surrogate sensor -- it's just a light emitter, after all. It's just a shame that there isn't a longer cord, a wireless option, or hell, if the thing isn't actually communicating with the Wii why can't we just plug it into the wall?
Mii Shortcomings
They don't have ears! How the hell are we supposed to make unflattering caricatures of the president? Alright, we're just being assholes there. It's actually kind of a compliment that we couldn't think of anything worse.
Sixaxis Syncing
Maybe it's naive to think that a wireless controller would let us dispense with the wires, but it's what we've come to expect and not what we got. Where other system owners tap a button, PS3 owners and friends have to go through a jack-in, jack-out ritual whenever coming by with their controllers. A marginal pain in the ass, but there's really no reason to have to screw with it at all.
No Multitasking
The sucker has eight freaking processors and is apparently capable of flinging eggs around with its mind, but it can't do more than one thing at a time. What's up with that? We have to quit out of a game to access the Cross Media Bar? Downloading something means your entertainment options are confined to the load-bar watching minigame. The 360 got this wrong at first too, and it was fixed with a firmware update. Hopefully we'll see the same happen on PS3, and quickly.
Not Quite HD Ready
The PS3 comes only with your standard composite video cables, period. No component, no S-video, no HDMI. With all Sony's insistence that the next generation begins when it says so and that you're going to have a Blu-ray player whether you want one or not, you'd think they would have given us what we'd need to appreciate the difference. With all that the Blu-ray drive added to the manufacturing cost, the cables we'd need to make it anywhere near worth the price would have seemingly been a drop in the bucket. Even a single branching connection cable like the Xbox 360's would have been swell.
PS1/PS2 Save Transfer
Want to use those hundreds of hours of PS1 and PS2 saved games you have piled up when playing your old games on your curvy new space heater? Strangely, you can't. Well, not yet anyway. Sony's FAQ says, "To use saved data on a PlayStation 2 Memory Card, you must copy the data onto a internal memory card within the hard disk on the PlayStation 3. This requires a PS2/PSone Memory Card adaptor (sold separately) to copy the data to your PlayStation 3." The adaptor is currently listed on PlayStation.com, but there's no indication of when it will be available. EB Games has the adaptor listed for $14.99, but again, there's no indication of availability.
PS1 Downloads Only Play on PSP
Hey, it's almost like the answer to the Virtual Console. Except you can't, you know, play those PS1 games on the console you downloaded them to. An emulator will be available to play the downloads on PS3 early next year - but again, we have to wait.
Controller Screwups
At the moment the Sixaxis is apparently vulnerable to random demonic possession. It probably has something to do with all that psychic egg flinging. From time to time it just wigs out and drives your car into a wall, or makes your soldier wander round in circles. Depending on whether it's a software or hardware problem this could be a quick fix or a full on recall situation. Either way, it's becoming the topic of some discussion. If it's simply a wireless sync problem, shouldn't the fact that you pair the controller using a USB cable solve that?
No System Level Custom Soundtracks
Kind of a symptom of the whole no multitasking thing, you can't run your own music while you play. At least, you can only do it in games that specifically allow for it. If you're wondering how many of those there are, the answer is not freaking very. Maybe not so important for everyone, but some of us like to listen to Enya while headshotting our friends.
Setting Up a Wi-Fi Connection
One of the reasons for dropping the extra $100 for 60GB PS3 is the inclusion of Wi-Fi support. Sadly, it's not as easy to set up as you might hope. Try punching in a 26-digit WEP code with that telephone interface. Now try it when every time you enter a character an asterisk replaces it so you can't keep track of what you've done. If it's busted, count on informative error messages like "A connection error has occurred (8013013E)" and a manual with helpful hints like "Follow the onscreen instructions." It's only topped by the aid offered on PlayStation.com: "We're working hard to improve our Support section. Check back soon to see our full selection of support topics and resources." Thanks!
Being Online
Your reward for all that dicking around is a virtual desert. The free for all, do it yourself nature of this thing isn't getting much developer support, and we're not too crazy about it, either. No unified buddy lists? No mid-game messaging? Hell, no pretty much anything we've been taking for granted after more than a year of Xbox Live. Even a little thing like collecting gamer points has practically become some kind of bizarre meta-MMO in its own right. At this point you can probably pay Koreans to farm NBA Live for you. It's a lot to say goodbye to all at once.
Streaming video to the PSP
Sure, it's not the most essential feature in the world - but this is a case of the device not completely delivering on one of its many, many promises. In short, the results look terrible. The sound is out of sync and the visuals are choppier than a coked up samurai. If there's a television usage conflict or you feel absolutely compelled to watch video clips while on the pot it'd be nice if they didn't look worse than what you're squeezing out.
1up's Top Ten Wii Complaints:
VC Games Tied to Individual Wiis
Want to play a little Bomberman at your friend's house? He's going to have to buy it, or you're going to have to lug your Wii over. No pop-outable hard drive. No logging on to your account from over there. No iTunes-like keying of your game library to your SD card. We can see wanting to avoid piracy, but the Wii is something Nintendo could update to kill freeloading tricks when and if they came up, and most anyone with that mentality already has all these games for their emulators, anyway. Pretty much the only reason this doesn't rank higher is compared to lugging around any other system moving a Wii is like carrying a memory card.
Getting Online
The Wii's got a great little online backend and interface, but to get on there you have to go wireless. If you're one of those stone age bastards who doesn't have everything from your PC to your coffeemaker linked up through a cloud of magic computer rays, well, tough. You can't plug the little bastard into a wall. If you won't join the wireless age then Nintendo just doesn't want you playing their online games. You know, if they had any.
Being Online
Where the PS3 has a lousy, all-over-the-place online scheme with a handful of games trying to make it work, Nintendo seems to have a potentially great online setup with absolutely no games whatsoever taking advantage of it. For now and the immediate future there just isn't any point to even hooking the thing up other than downloading VC games or trading your Miis around. Which can get old after about the fifteenth Jesus or Michael Jackson wanders into your Mii parade.
20 Hour Battery Life
Yeah, it beeps and shakes and stuff, but still, that's pretty damn short for a wireless controller. Worse, it's the only one this generation that you can't just plug in to a USB port to recharge. You're either going to have to buy a battery charger, or stockpile an assload of AAs. Whee.
Classic Controller
You have to buy one for an awful damn lot of the Virtual Console games. That's fine. In fact, it's such a nice little controller that we rather wish we could use it instead of the GameCube controller for Cube games. Which we freaking can't. What also bugs us is that it's required at all for some of the VC games - there really isn't any reason someone who wanted to skip yet another optional purchase shouldn't be able to play Mario 64 with a Wiimote and 'chuck. Worse, you have to plug the bastard into your Wiimote, further contributing to the flood of AAs going to battery heaven.
No Pack-in Component Cables
At this point we're still just relieved that Wii even supports it, but it's yet another expense on top of an already big pile of stuff. Yeah, the Wii is cheap, but we're getting nickel and dimed to death on stuff that really should have been in the box. We're even less impressed that the ones we already got for the Gamecube don't work.
Not Region Free
We're not just feeling petulant because Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan promised us and we didn't get a pony. Once upon a time this might have been a lot to ask, but after the DS, PSP, PS3 and to some extent the 360 all let us play imports it's something we've come to expect.
Weak Wrist Strap
Considering all the warnings in the user manual and the constant in-game reminders to only use the Wii-mote with the strap lest you accidentally destroy everyone and everything you ever loved, you'd think they'd have made one that wouldn't break if you stare at it too hard.
Short Sensor Bar Cord
This won't be any kind of problem for most. For those with front projection TVs, however, this can amount to a monumental pain in the ass. All you can really do about it is cut the damn thing and splice in an extra length of wire, or maybe you could cobble together something else as a surrogate sensor -- it's just a light emitter, after all. It's just a shame that there isn't a longer cord, a wireless option, or hell, if the thing isn't actually communicating with the Wii why can't we just plug it into the wall?
Mii Shortcomings
They don't have ears! How the hell are we supposed to make unflattering caricatures of the president? Alright, we're just being assholes there. It's actually kind of a compliment that we couldn't think of anything worse.