Sony PS3: 'Reality Synthesiser'

PlayStation 3. Spring 2006. Fully high-definition capable. That was Crave's take away from Sony's PlayStation 3 announcement, which took place last night at E3 in LA.

Just last week, you couldn't get a word in edgeways at Crave due to the Xbox 360, but already we're drooling over the latest supermodel in town. We were eager to see what the current king of the console world would come up with. After all, Sony is the first console manufacturer in history to lead the market for two successive generations.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the PS3 are the new controllers. The DualShock2 was so good it was probably crafted by God (or Ken Kuturagi as he's known at Sony), so will the elongated handles on the PS3 model alienate the mainstream audience which it so successfully courted? Only time will tell, but we're pretty sure this is the joypad Captain Picard would use if he set up a gaming sesh on the Starship Enterprise.

Round the back of the console things also look rather impressive. Two HDMI outputs will offer full high-definition compatibility for games and Blu-Ray movies, plus the six USB 2.0 ports and Memory Stick Duo, SecureDigital and CompactFlash slots will allow photo and music connectivity.

Sony has also supplied the requisite hilarious marketing-speak, with the 'Emotion Engine' moniker of the PS2 replaced with a 'Reality Synthesiser' for the PS3. The latter is being worked out with PC graphics company NVidia, and essentially means 'movie quality' graphics running in high definition at 60 frames per second.

Due to the new console's release last night, we wanted to dance naked around our roaring PlayStation 2 pyre as part of a ritualistic rite of passage for the PS3. However, we still haven't finished GTA: San Andreas, so we put our clothes back on and played away until the wee hours of the morning. Now that's dedication, or borderline obsession. Either way, we do it all for you. -GC