Playstation 2 slim

5. I should have been more specific. My point was more about the straight forward part. The number is meaningless IMO because there is no context to measure against. Is 1,000,000 points good? However everyone immediately understands the gradients of a trophy and the fact that you have 0 Gold and 4,000 Bronze. I guess it depends on your definition of straight forward .

6. Playstation folks have officially stated at the highest levels everything that is currently free will remain so. I think storage services for game saves and other stuff would be pay wall types of things. It is quite ridiculous that MS charges for basic gameplay when you bought a gaming console. If you don’t pay for Live then those very expensive games your buying are single player only but your paying for the multi-player development costs.

I really haven’t seen a cynical attitude from the Playstation folks so far so I don’t see the leopard changing it’s spots at this point.

1) Good spot – I missed voice out there and have now amended so cheers for the heads up.

4) Absolutely people shouldn’t just subscribe to that idea. My point was rather that people might do better to play the games in question rather than faff around in the Home spaces for them. I do disagree with you about its usefulness though: if you want that social element of gaming you’d be better off with Second Life or even World Of Warcraft. Or as you suggest, Facebook.

5) It’s a simplicity thing here though: both come down to a pissing contest, and Xbox Live’s inspires more addiction through just one number you rack up. You’re right that trophies show your skill off, but I’ve never seen people get competitive over it in quite the same way. Not that that’s a bad thing in anyway – I have no interest in either to be honest.

6) Absolutely, a very good point. It’s a major put off for me, and I *really* object to Microsoft adding services which would otherwise be free on any other platform into its Gold package – Twitter and Facebook for instance. I’ve asked execs at the company to justify this before and I’m always told it’s about delivering a quality service. This is nonsense of course, since they know the BBC would do all the heavy lifting for iPlayer, say. It’s a cynical move and I just hope that if the rumours of a pay wall for the PSN in future are true, Sony thinks very carefully about how it handles it.

1. Does allow for cross game chat. It has text chat with chat rooms and you can have 16 people per room interacting. Doesn’t currently have cross game voice chat.

2. PSN allows more players in a game. 32 players is pretty common and 60 and 256 are possible. 16 players is the common limit on Live.

3. More PSN games use dedicated servers. Much better stability.

4. Home has lots of stuff for people. They should try it out for themselves instead of subscribing to the idea everyone has to be on a hardcore shooter instead. It’s pretty arrogant to tell people not to even bother. I don’t use it a lot but know several people that spend more time in there than they do gaming. Facebook is pretty bland as well so I think your missing the point of Home.

5. Personally I find Trophies a lot more straight forward. How many Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum people have provides far more insight to another gamers actual ability than an overall number that provides little indication of how good they are.

6. To expand on the cost. Live is a cost for EVERY member of your family if you want them to have their own account and friends lists instead of messing up your stats. Every year. For many many families that cost alone will be more than the cost of a console over the years.

7. If you have the Eye then up you can video chat with 5 other PS3 systems across the world for free. It’s something our kids use with their cousins all the time. Doing it on a big screen telly is much nicer than them hunching around a PC.

Nonsense. I have no problems streaming MP4 over Wifi. Get a decent mediaserver software, and no some random free rubbish you found on the internet and you will be fine…

I suggest TwonkyMedia.