May 16th, 3pm PST: PS3 Launches. May 16th, 6pm PST: Xbox2 Launches

[Imran Siddiqui]

Want virus and spyware free computing? Sorry...

I thought you said you had an Apple... hardly virus free, with huge security flaws in the new Dashboard program I've posted before.

At least Gatekeeper is intelligent, he has admited that the reason Apple has less viruses and spyware is because of its miniscule market share. Who cares to virus 4% of computers?

[Kuciwalker]

Moreover, they're STUPID security holes, from design flaws based on the reasoning "it's Apple; it CAN'T have spyware or viruses!"

[Atahualpa]

Originally posted by Asher
That's the stock one it'll come with -- the reason? Cost.

They said it was upgradable.

They must be calculating pretty tight then... I also heard the initial price will be $299, but I cannot really believe that... and probably only in the US... in the EU they always think they can **** with the customers and demand unbelievable prices... bastards!

20 GB should be decent enough size for most people anyway.

It's certainly too small for my d1ck

[Atahualpa]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
At least Gatekeeper is intelligent, he has admited that the reason Apple has less viruses and spyware is because of its miniscule market share. Who cares to virus 4% of computers?

They increased their marketshare again

[Nostromo]

Back on topic. Unsurprisingly, Halo 3 will not be a launch title. Instead, it will come out at the same time as the PS3, or so claims Bill Gates. But they'll need more than Master Chief to beat Sony, with their huge following. Maybe Final Fantasy, Splinter Cell and Grand Theft Auto exclusives would do the trick, who knows? But needless to say, that would be very expensive...

That Bill Gates is a cunning one. In a Time Magazine article, the chief of Microsoft issued a stark war plan to take on rival Sony in the next-generation video game wars. Besides launching the Xbox 360 earlier than the next Playstation, Microsoft plans to use Halo's Master Chief to put up a second front against the impending juggernaut.

Gates told Time Magazine that Sony would "walk in" on the blockbuster Halo franchise when it decides to debut its next Playstation.

"It's perfect," Gates said. "The day Sony launches [the new PlayStation], and they walk right into Halo 3."

The threat is an admirable one considering Halo 2 has sold over 6.7 million copies since it was released on November 9th.

Microsoft owes its success to a one man army known as the Master Chief, the lead character in Halo. Bungie's Halo for the Xbox is largely credited for driving the Xbox into homes across America. It's sequel, Halo 2, amassed over $125 million dollars in 24 hours, marking it as one of the biggest entertainment successes to date.

Sony, expected to launch the next Playstation in 2006, is a force to be reckoned with. In 1995, the company's Playstation dominated the video game market with over 100 million consoles sold worlwide. The sequel, Playstation 2 repeated the success and has sold about 88 million units worldwide.

Microsoft recently debuted the Xbox 360, the second coming of the Xbox, to MTV Networks worldwide on May 12. The system is expected to collide head on with Sony's next Playstation and Nintendo's next system, code-named Revoltion. All three companies will detail more information about their war strategies at this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.

[Kuciwalker]

I heard Perfect Dark was going to be a/the launch title.

[Nostromo]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
I heard Perfect Dark was going to be a/the launch title.

Yes, but we know Bungee delivers the goods. Rare, otoh, we don't know. Their last game, the ghoul game, wasn't exactly a must-have. Perfect Dark could well be a mediocre shooter. But I hope not.

[Asher]

PS3 details officially confirmed:

It was rumoured to have 4 Cell processors, each with 8 "SPE" (vector) units and a PowerPC core.

It turns out, it'll have 1 Cell Processor, with 6 usable "SPE" (vector) units and a PowerPC core.

The Cell has access to 256MB of 25GB/s RAMBUS RAM.

The GPU will be a variant of Nvidia's "G70" chip (mostly identical), which is itself a speedbumped version of the GeForce 6800. This means it is a "4th" generation variant of the NV40. This is in contrast to the Xbox 360's GPU, which is the "R500" (5th generation), and won't show up in PCs for a couple years yet due to its radically different architecture.

From a featureset perspective, the Xbox 360's GPU is quite a bit superior, in particular supporting the next-generationg shader architecture, while the PS3's GPU uses the same shader version in today's PC cards. The PS3 GPU is using 256MB of GDDR3 (22.5GB/s) RAM.

The general consensus so far is the PS3 GPU is a rushjob. Nvidia didn't even have time to adapt the memory interface to RAMBUS. I predicted this quite a while ago on these very forums...Sony/Toshiba were working on their graphics chip and got scared by the Xbox's surprise performance and rumours of a similar technique of ATI/Nvidia GPUs in the Xbox2, so Sony desperately tried to grab one as well.

Competition.

[Asher]

PS3.

[Tassadar500]

It certainly looks much nicer.

[Asher]

Than the PS2? Yes.

Than the Xbox 360? Not IMO.

It looks like a mini-fridge with the "Spiderman" font showing the name...

And the fact that the only available image is from that angle is a bit telling about the size of the device.

[Asher]

CPU: PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz with 1 VMX (AltiVec) unit, single-threaded and 512KB L2 cache
7 x SPE @3.2GHz with 256KB L2 cache each and 128 128-bit SIMD registers each

GPU:
Nvidia G70-derived GPU @550MHz

Memory:
256MB XDR CPU RAM @ 3.2GHz (25.6GB/s)
256MB GDDR3 GPU RAM @700MHz (22.4GB/s)

Storage:
Detachable 2.5" HDD

I/O:
USB 2.0: Front x 4, Rear x 2
Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1
SD standard/mini x 1
CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1
Communication Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T)
Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g

Controller:
Bluetooth wireless (up to 7)

Can read CDs, DVDs, SACDs, and HD-DVDs (BluRay).

[Asher]

Another Pic:

[Asher]

And last pic.

[Drake Tungsten]

Yeah, that definitely looks cooler than the X-box 360. Both are nice, though.