PS3 Beta Event in Birmingham

Gt5 with the wheel.is immense, I just got the fastest time of 1:15:119 :D

I couldn't disagree with that more.

Me and my brother have just got back from it and while I will admit I am extremely out of practice when it comes to GT I just felt extremely disapointed with it. The wheel felt so disonnected from the car never really felt like the forces it was transmitted related to what the car was doing in regards to the track.

GT5:3D was a bit meh too. The cockpit view was a nice touch and it really did feel like having something in front of you but the feeling as a whole was rather distracting and didn't add that much overall I felt.

In regards to the event as a whole it was pretty underwhelming. They even need to up the amount of consoles to play on by quite a bit or reduce the numbers of entrants down as a lot of it was queuing for games that were over before you really seem to get started. It also didn't help what felt like half of the systems they did have were all running the Motorstorm game which I had no interest with in the first place. :(

Think I can safely say the event has not made me want to dust off the ol' PS3 and get gaming on it again. For now it's destined to gather dust and play the occasional Blu-Ray :)
 
Managed a rather poor 1:50 on MSA. Liking the Move games I've tried so far. Unbeaten at Table Tennis. Waiting for a shot on KZ3 3D ATM. Then onto GT5 3D.
 
I enjoyed today so here are a few things about it:

The Venue: It was a fairly small venue and maybe a slightly odd choice but it was OK and using a bit of streetview, I managed to find a car park 30 seconds walk from it. It wasn't too over-crowded but I think even 20-30 less people would have made it more comfortable.

The free stuff: All I saw for free was badges and postcards. They came round with trays of hotdogs, chips, cakes etc and there was plenty of bottles of water and red bull.

The equipment: All Sony as you would imagine but a few different TVs. Some 3D, some 2D and one screen that must have been 70" All fat PS3's as well, not a slim in sight. They were "PS3 test" models which I didn't know existed. I have seen the PS2 test model with the HDD etc.

Games:

GT5: This looked pretty much as expected but I'm not sure what to make of the 3D. The first thing I noticed when I put the glasses on was how dark everything looked. I only played a few minutes but apart from the in-game text being clearly on a different layer to the game, there wasn't much to it. You did get a sense of distance when there was a line of cars in front of you.

LB2: This seemed pretty good. Basically more of the same but seems a faster paced game with lots of grappling turrets and then bouncing off walls to spin about 300 degrees over a wall before letting go of the turret. I only played one level so it might not mean much against the full game.

Motorsport Apocalypse: This was probably my favourite game of the day. I've heard Motorstorm games being recommended but have never played one. I'll be getting this once it's out. The only thing I can fault it on was the frame-rate was a bit low but it was consistant without really slowing down much. It was a lot of fun and actually took the edge of GT5 for me.

Oh I might add some more in a bit.
 
I agree with the 3d gt5 it really doesn't add much to the game at all. Kz3 was very good though, certainly impressed with that in 3d.

Maybe I was just blown away by the fact I used a wheel with gt for the first time and it was the experience over how it functioned caught my attention more but it makes me want a wheel for gt 5.

Agreed though the amount of time queing was over the top.
 
Any of you play Heavy Rain Move? I'm not sure it's because the controller wasn't properly calibrated or not but when my brother tried it, it didn't seem to read the movements very well. He ended up giving up as it was just a futile experience lol.

Little Big Planet 2 on the other hand was pretty awesome :D

KZ:3d made me feel a bit funny in the head once we stopped with that.
 
...it didn't seem to read the movements very well. He ended up giving up as it was just a futile experience lol.

Yes, to quote your signature, it was pants on head retarded! I can only assume it wasn't correctly calibrated, as when it prompted me to "point the motion controller to direct your character's focus/vision", I had to point the controller literally 90 degrees to make him look at the beggar to his right. Move won't be getting any interest from me - but then again I don't think any of the games I enjoy playing on the wii actually incorporate much in the way of motion sensor game play!

However when I went up to play Heavy Rain, the lad playing it was stood with a pensioner (who I HOPE wasn't related to him, else that'll be one awkward car journey home!) and was really struggling with the controls. Basically, the lass in the game had just got out the and was in the process of drying off...... But he couldn't quite grasp the motion (due to the above paragraph I hope!), and as a result, it kept showing her **** time and time again, at least 15 times! Bet he was getting some dodgy looks :p

Killzone 3 however has made me want to get the 2nd one. I played the 1st but didn't complete it (sold my PS2 before I finished it I think), but thoroughly enjoyed it despite the slating it got. Loved the demo of the 2nd one, but couldn't justify paying £40 for a console I seldom play. May see if I can pick it and Heavy Rain up for cheap this week, seeing as I've just finished Alan Wake and got Metro 2033 to trade in!

LBP2 was immense though, really enjoyed that.

As for the event, little bit disappointed; but that may be largely influenced by the fact we had a 6hr round trip! I was hoping there'd be demonstrations or presentations, but literally just "here you are, have a drink and muck in"! Other than that, one of the lasses working there had cracking **** :) But her tshirt was sadly not suitable :(
 
Loved Motorsport Apocalypse and Killzone 3 but the found that tennis game with the Move controller difficult to play.
 
I posted this on "GT Planet" however it might get some generous scores thier being a fansite for GT5.

If you attended Id appreciate your views on the following and be honest.

Anyone want to give their scores/answers on the 1-8 below?
Give your scores in 1-10 and YES/NO were applicable. As audio was aparently hard to hear maybe best to leave it out.

1. Graphics
2. Handling
3. FFB
4. Day to night cycle
5. Sense of Speed
6. How good was the 3DTV version
7. Did graphics in 3DTV mode appear more jaggied YES/NO
8. Noticable framerate difference between 3D/2D version YES/NO


1. =
2. =
3. =
4. =
5. =
6. =
7. =
8. =
 
Any of you play Heavy Rain Move? I'm not sure it's because the controller wasn't properly calibrated or not but when my brother tried it, it didn't seem to read the movements very well. He ended up giving up as it was just a futile experience lol.

The first time I played it I didn't get along with it. Towards the end when a lot of people had left I was able to play it straight for at least half an hour and I became much more use to the controls. I find it's just better to mimic movements like you would in real-life. i.e. when knocking on doors just knock as you normally would instead of trying to perform some weird directional positioning in an attempt to copy the exact direction of the arrows.

I found that Kung-fu shopping cart game pretty awful with the Move controllers though.
 
I find it's just better to mimic movements like you would in real-life. i.e. when knocking on doors just knock as you normally would instead of trying to perform some weird directional positioning in an attempt to copy the exact direction of the arrows.

I would've tried doing this, but when playing the game for the first time there's ne chance of knowing what action your character actually wants to do. I had ne idea that my fat detective wanted to give the homeless guy a dollar - so I was swashbuckling with the TV for a couple of minutes until eventually, the Move sensor picked up my tripple cartwheel to splits as a "give dollar" movement :p
 
I posted this on "GT Planet" however it might get some generous scores thier being a fansite for GT5.

If you attended Id appreciate your views on the following and be honest.

Anyone want to give their scores/answers on the 1-8 below?
Give your scores in 1-10 and YES/NO were applicable. As audio was aparently hard to hear maybe best to leave it out.

1. Graphics
2. Handling
3. FFB
4. Day to night cycle
5. Sense of Speed
6. How good was the 3DTV version
7. Did graphics in 3DTV mode appear more jaggied YES/NO
8. Noticable framerate difference between 3D/2D version YES/NO


1. = 8
2. = 8
3. = 6
4. = non existent in demo
5. = 5
6. = 5
7. = No
8. = No
 
1. Graphics
2. Handling
3. FFB
4. Day to night cycle
5. Sense of Speed
6. How good was the 3DTV version
7. Did graphics in 3DTV mode appear more jaggied YES/NO
8. Noticable framerate difference between 3D/2D version YES/NO

1. = 6. Sparks didn't necessarily come out of the right part of the car when crashes occur, and the lack of damage really takes the realism away from it, á mon avis! It's not that it doesn't look exceptional, because it does. But personally, it doesn't trump Forza 3 and the lack of damage really narks me off.

2. = 6. Could've just been the cars I had to use, but they felt more like barges than highly tuned supercars. I mean, yes the nose of a car will dip when you apply the brakes, but would it really be that noticable in a ferrari? In the Citreon prototype? No idea what car it was I was driving when using the steering wheel as I couldn't figure out how to change the view, but it felt like I was driving a 1.4 standard Civic!

3. = 6/7. Didn't really have the opportunity to test it properly in the 1:50 minute slots we were given! On the steering wheel both, I think a lack of force feedback in pedals is always going to ruin the experience. There should be resistance in the brake and accelerator! But that's not GT5's fault per sé really, rather the controller manufacturer.

4. = Didn't experience any.

5. = 4 in the steering wheel car, 5 in the 3D version. But that may be largely down to the cars we were given; the 3D version being the Citreon prototype.

6. = 4. Fine in the 3rd person view, altho you have to wonder what it actually adds. I don't feel 3D effects suit racing games as it takes the focus away from the race, which isn't what you want when you're fighting for milliseconds per lap. And in the internal cockpit view, it was extremely disorientating for me - and I don't usually suffer with such things when viewing 3D media. Everything you see, from the HUD, dashboard, speed-o, barriers and other cars are all fighting to be on a seperate layer/plane, and it was really doing my head in. Killzone 3 however, didn't.

7. = Not that I noticed; more blurry if anything? But that could be due to the technology not being entirely refined yet. I noticed simply by sitting slightly off-center (ie with someone sat watching it in 3D as well) and by looking away from the exact center of the screen, the 3D effect started losing quality rapidly.

8. = Negatory.
 
I wasn't blown away by 3D like I thought I would be if I am honest, KZ3 was good in 3D but it wouldn't make me want to spalsh out £1500+ on a new TV and glasses.
 
Thanks for some comments guys.
3D coments seem to be just like Avatar in the cinema.
Ive read reports invarious places that vary from rubbish, to its' okay but not worth rushing out and buying a TV for to some people saying its fantastic. I guess with 3DTV the only way to know is to check it out for ourselves.

One thing to remember is that indeed these "playabe demos" are "beta" so the code is going to be several months old.
I wonder what was the favourite game of the show, KZ3?



I wasn't blown away by 3D like I thought I would be if I am honest, KZ3 was good in 3D but it wouldn't make me want to spalsh out £1500+ on a new TV and glasses.

Yeah but to put an example to that. Were so called 1080p games worth buying a 1080p TV for?
Do you get what Im saying here as apart from Blu Ray's how many of us actually get full benifit of 1080p? What percentage of or viewing is in 1080p? Well certainy not from TV programmes and most 1080p games are not FULL HD so you could say thousands of people bought into the hardware but only with a PC running full HD res or via Blu Ray movies do they ever get to see the display at its best.

Although many will not rush out to get a 3DTV, many in the market now or in the near future probably wont have much problem spending approx £300 premium to get one with 3D functionality. TVs will sell with 3D technology and sales will increase as value/content is more of a factor. Of course the premium will also reduce over current prices however like 1080p sources how often will people actually care to use the 3D functionality, thats the question.
 
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That's the reason I am happy with my 720p set and why I will hold off spending the money out on a full HD/3D set.

For me the game of the show was KZ3 followed closely by MSA with GT5 a close third. I think a lot of the games had pre-alpha content splashed all over it so it wasn't even Beta stuff.
 
3D surely has to be more impressive on a big screen and up close though.
Also reflections from the lights must have been annoying or distracting? I take it those tellys at the show were Sonys HX 803 40" sets?
I think a 720p Projector with HDMI 1.4 support at sub £1000 would be excellent for gamers. Maybe Panasonics next 720p model will go 3D?
Anyways thanks, oh and Windle how you get on my friend?
 
I can't remember the type of sets used, my mate who is the manager of a Sony Centre (and a right tech geek) was going on about all the TV's but I wasn't really listening.

The lighting didn't have any impact on KZ3 or GT5 in 3D.

The lack of time you got to play the games though was infuriating, I think they severely sold it short with under 2 minutes on GT5, it didn't give enough time to do anything or take things in.

The only one that did, was as it happens, KZ3, which for me was the most impressive......coincidence? I think not. The snow on the third playable level, the blood spatter son the screen, everything was great.
 
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