PlayStation 3: First Look

No more buildings

With touch-sensitive buttons, even the gentlest brush of the finger ejects or turns on the console, with the same on/off behaviour as its predecessor. Naturally we're experts, so we just remained on the sofa and hit the button on the pad (well, I did, but only after waiting for somebody else to get up so I could correct them). Interestingly, inserting a disc will also turn the PS3 on, but sadly you can't delay loading by yelling, "Oi! The next generation starts when we say it does!"

The first thing that you see is a swirl of background colour, and then it all comes into view, with Ellie's podcast prediction of a choral start-up jingle not too far-off - in fact it's more like an orchestra tuning up, and quite serene. Then it's onto the familiar Cross Media Bar (XMB) - familiar to anyone who's ever used a PSP, anyway - where you can do things like manage multiple user accounts, change system settings and, in theory, access networked devices for photos, music and video, go on the Internet, browse the PS3 Store, and access games and game-related stored content.

Even as an unfinished UI though, it's very slick and easy to navigate, thanks in no small part to its similarity to the PSP, from which it borrows things like sound effects and the throbbing aura around each menu-selection. There's none of the clutter and confusing menu navigation of the Xbox 360's dashboard, but then of course there's relatively little to browse yet; it'll be interesting to see whether Sony can keep things this slick a year from now when users are trying to juggle hard disks full of content.

What's there now is responsive, however, and straightforward. Network set-up, for example, simply involved searching for a Wi-Fi access point, inputting some details and saving them. There's a surprising depth of options evident on the configuration side, in fact - for example, you can select keyboard-input language as English (UK) rather than English (US). Obviously that's a reference to the fact you can plug in a USB keyboard to take care of text entry, but you'll also be able to plug in a USB mouse (and select left- or right-handed in the System menu), to aid things like Internet browsing, and to help take advantage of the PS3's upcoming Yellow Dog Linux distribution. There are also camera configuration options evident, and of course the ability to change video resolutions, audio settings and other details in the menus.

For now though not much of the XMB is activated, because our debug unit is very much in a state of active development. Multimedia doesn't work yet (although Sony's explained much of how it will work already, and it's not hard to extrapolate from scouting out the PSP menus), online functionality is limited, and while it can see our PSPs when hooked up via USB, it doesn't know what to talk to them about. Of course, none of this will be true of the retail units - and we'll return to the subject soon to give you a more thorough explanation of what you can do with the finalised interface.

And, just so we're doubly clear, it's important at all times to hold up a big sign in your head bearing that "unfinished hardware" caveat. You might wonder, for example, whether you can use the UI to send those text messages with attachments that we've heard about to people while you're in the middle of a game. You doubtless have lots of questions. For now though, we can't answer all of them.

I think they get it

Good. Back in the lounge, the machine itself gets quite warm as we type, but remains quiet. Far from the wind tunnel roar we perhaps feared, it's actually one of the quietest consoles in the house - second only to the GameCube in the keeping it down stakes, by the sound of things. Another interesting note: our debug units have universal power supplies built in, with no need for a chunky brick hidden behind the scenes. Indeed, on many levels the PS3 is a more auspicious and eye-catching sight than we could have predicted.

More extensive hardware impressions, overviews of multimedia functionality and game impressions will be coming soon, as we get truly stuck into the console and its games. Like MotorStorm, whose wealth of effects as we cut through muddy terrain firing off boosters against backdrops of massive, detailed mountain ranges, certainly impress - and perform much more consistently than they did during E3 and the Tokyo Game Show. And whose tilt controls we still have to master. And like Resistance, whose mixtures of '50s, World War II-style settings and Chimera monster combat purr across the screen at 720p (our plasma, sadly, is unable to handle 1080p), as we struggle to find some health-packs.

Look forward to that, then, as you count down a few more of the days between now and March 2007. It's much too early to give you a verdict, or even a proper first impression, but we can say this: it's shiny, and we're fighting over it. So much so that it's just gone into a sort of screen-dimming power-save mode, which I haven't mentioned, and the only reason it's had a chance to do so is that I'm typing. Bye.