Tag: bbweblog

The new PS3 will provide backwards compatibility with the PS2 and PSOne by including the PS2’s main processors inside the PS3’s box. Even then some known incompatibilities have already been found. These will likely be ironed out in forthcoming Firmware upgrades.

Sony took this same approach with the PS2 to provide backwards compatibility with the PSOne, by taking the CPU of the original PSOne and using it as the I/O controller inside the PS2. Not only would this processor control all the I/O operations in the machine, but PSOne games could be run directly on this chip to provide backwards compatibility.

Two days before the US launch I played a demo version of Motorstorm on a PS3 last night, and it was awesome! Walking through Walmart I noticed they had a screen in their electronics area that looked like it had some PS3 demos running. I walked up to take a look and the screen was showing the ‘Crossbar’ menu – I pressed a few buttons on the controller and realized this was a live PS3! And there was no-one else around even interested in looking at it!

I scrolled through all the menus and it looked like it had several demo games on the harddrive, one of them including Motorstorm. This game looks pretty outstanding – the detail and complexity in the scenery and the cars is pretty amazing. If launch titles can look this good then I think we are in for a serious treat when the developers get the hang of the new hardware in the months to come. The game plays awesome too – this will definitely be one on my shopping list..

Sony have published an online version of the PS3 User Manual – if you’d like to have a flip through the pages before you get hold of your shiny new console this Friday (or maybe in lieu of actually managing to get one), the manual is online here.