More impressions

The demo was less than 500 MB in size; unfortunately we found out that the Playstation Store suffers a flaw that the Xbox 360 originally had with its download support; you can only download one thing at a time and until that download is finished that’s all the PS3 can do. Microsoft released an update to the Xbox 360 several months after launch that let people do other tasks on the console while also downloading a demo or content update; let’s hope Sony does the same thing down the road for the PS3. Also, you have to wait a little longer after the download ends for the demo to actually install on the hard drive. Playable demos for NBA 07, Resistance: Fall of Man, and Formula One Championship Edition are also available as are free demos for the two full downloadable games currently available; Blast Factor and Cash Guns Chaos (more on those later).

There are also a number of HD trailers for current Blu-Ray movies for download in MPEG4 format. Ultraviolet, Stealth, Underworld: Evolution, Click, Talladega Nights, Silent Hill, Black Hawk Down, and House of Flying Daggers are currently available (why Casino Royale, a Sony made movie that’s coming out on the same day as the PS3, doesn’t get any PS3 downloadable love is a mystery). However, with Microsoft now set to support full movie and TV episode downloads for the Xbox 360 later this week, the fact that Sony’s Playstation Store has only a few movie trailers available says a lot about Sony’s current commitment to having that kind of content for PS3 owners. A number of PS3 game trailers are also available for download including upcoming games like Lair and Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom.

Like the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Arcade you can also download simple and small games for the PS3. Unlike Xbox Live Arcade, there doesn’t appear to be size limits to how large a PS3 downloadable game can be (Xbox Live Arcade games have to fit inside a Xbox 360 64 MB memory card). Blast Factor comes in at 79 MB and Cash Guns Chaos is well over 300 MB. We briefly played the free demos of both games. Blast Factor is basically a far prettier version of Bizzare Creations’ Geometry Wars and the few free levels available in the demo version suggest it will be a solid and fun game to play (currently the game has a price of $7.99 to get the full game, but apparently that price will go up to $9.99 at some point). Cash Guns Chaos is a Total Carnage clone set in a circus that was developed by Sony Online (yep, the folks that make Everquest). The game is rated “M” and its easy to see why while playing the demo version; even though the game has a cartoony art style the blood flows freely as your character shoots the various monsters that come after him. The full version of Cash Guns Chaos costs $9.99. Unlike the Xbox 360 or the Wii which make you pay for points that are then used to pay for online content for those consoles, the PS3 uses an online wallet that you put in money from a pre-set selection of amounts; from $5 all the way up to $150. Sony apparently is also planning to let people pay for Playstation Store content via a Playstation Card; presumably similar to the Xbox Live Microsoft Points card that are sold in retail stores.


Of course, the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live service had a few growing pains before getting up to where it is now but we have to say we were much more impressed with the Xbox 360’s online content selection at its launch than we currently are with Sony’s Playstation Store (only two downloadable games?) We also are not a fan of the store’s online interface; we prefer the larger typeface and selections of Xbox Live. However, the nice thing about having a console that has a built in hard drive is that perfect for updates and we suspect that Sony will be listening to feedback and putting in improvements.