The upcoming release of PlayStation Home has been a strange ride filled with an odd mixture of hype, major delays, and jokes regarding its release that has only been surpassed by Duke Nukem Forever. However, the time has finally come, and with the impending release of PlayStation Home tomorrow, it’s time that we perform the public service no one else seems to have the balls to do yet and let you know what to expect with an honest review.
PlayStation Home was supposed to be the rival to Nintendo’s Mii and Microsoft’s NXE; an amazing online community which built on the foundation of the surprisingly popular Second Life and either matched the experience or brought it to the next level. After having spent weeks with the PlayStation Home closed beta, it’s safe to say that the home experience does neither; in fact, it completely underachieves.
After a quick download of about 70MB, along with the mandatory installation found in almost all PlayStation Store downloads, Home does not hesitate to disappoint. From the initial boot, you are notified that even though the download was only 70MB, PlayStation Home requires that you allow it to reserve 3 gigs of space for Home’s use. While this may not be an issue to some, we have to look at the fact that a good amount of the PS3 units sold thus far have been the discontinued 20GB and 40GB models. With the amount of games released this past year that have required an installation, can you imagine how an owner of one of these consoles feels when another 3GB’s is taken from the system as “Reserved” space that isn’t even in use?
After having committed your 3GB worth of space to Home, you’re greeted by the Home boot-up screen that will inform you on its login status. On the first day of my Closed Beta’s wave, logging in seemed to be hit or miss, which may have been due to the large volume of people anxiously waiting to log in. It easily took me about 30-45 minutes to finally log in, but hopefully Sony will have stress-tested their servers long enough to allow the flood of users logging in tomorrow to gain access with no hiccups in the system.
Upon login, the disappointment continues. The amount of options available for customizing your avatar are abysmal. The amount of hair, clothing, and accessories pale in comparison to the NXE and Mii’s, and will leave many users with an avatar that they are just deciding to settle for. Imagine my surprise when I settled for a certain haircut and set of clothes, only to find that I’d also have to settle for no facial hair since Sony apparently believed goatee’s and other such facial hair styles didn’t exist.
After having gone through another disappointment with the avatar creation, I was greeted to an empty apartment. Now that I was all set and ready to go, I anxiously awaited the opportunity to enter the Home world. I walked to the door and it turns out that instead of heading to the Home lobby, I was heading towards another disappointment… a MANDATORY DOWNLOAD! Upon selecting the door, you were now prompted to download the lobby for Home, which would take about another 2-5 minutes. I proceeded to accept the download and grab a drink while Home did its work.
Finally, after coming back to my controller I witnessed hundreds of people walking around this online community. I looked around and saw that there was nothing to do in this lobby, with the exception of a music listening station, so I proceeded to enter the bowling alley. Luckily, I wasn’t caught by surprise this time when I was prompted for another disappointing 2-5 minute download. In fact, at this point I decided to just visit the bowling alley, mall, and movie theater so that I could queue up the download that each of these requires just so that I could move on with my experience.
After completing about a 5-10 minute download, I proceeded to the bowling alley. With quite a number of users in the bowling alley, I figured that this should be a lot of fun. I immediately walked over to some of the arcades to witness my next major disappointment. It turns out that Sony believed PlayStation Home should imitate life. By having this imitation, it turns out that if you’re interested in playing a game that is currently occupied, you’ll have to just wait your turn. Imagine my surprise when I attempted to use one of the many arcades available only to find that it was either occupied, or that someone had beaten me to the unit.
At this point I decided to move forward and try to get a pickup game of bowling or pool going. I’ll have to say one of the bright spots of PlayStation Home is that finding a game is pretty easy and there always seems to be a few bowling lanes or pool tables available. Also, these games are simple and fun to play overall. My only fear is that once the flood gates open tomorrow, how many open tables and lanes will users find?
After giving the arcade a shot, I decided that I’d finally head over to the mall. Since most of world seems to go to the mall for entertainment, I figured the Home mall should be decent at the very least. It turns out the mall is just another dissapointment. Currently, there are only four stores available to shop from although only three of them have actual items to buy. There are also four more stores at the upper level of the mall, but those stores are just repeats of the stores found in the bottom level. You’ll also find that the only other form of entertainment available besides shopping in the mall are some chess tables. These chess tables also suffer from the same realistic syndrome that’s found in the bowling alley, meaning that if a table is occupied, you’ll just have to wait your turn.
Having given the mall a chance, there was only one more location left to visit… the movie theater. Without question the movie theater has to be the biggest disappointment of all. When I envisioned the movie theater, I expected a minor movie lobby with access to 2-3 movie theaters that would play different videos. Instead, I was treated to an immediate launch into a theater with the same movie trailer playing repeatedly (currently this trailer is the Watchmen trailer which looks like its going to be fantastic). The vision Sony has of a theater is far different than that of an actual theater. Where are the arcades, fake concession stands, and other nuances that make-up a movie theater? This bare resemblance leads me to wonder if anyone over at Sony has ever even been to a movie theater.
Though Home is mostly disappointing, it does have its bright spots. Graphically, most of Home has a nice stylish touch to it. Also, the sound aspect is very well done and the attention to detail can be seen when you walk into the arcade and hear all the fellow home users talking. Also, having big screens in the lobby that display trailers as you’re walking through is a very nice touch.
Overall, the impending release of PlayStation Home ends up being a huge dissapointment though it may have a bright future if Sony develops it correctly. At this point, most users may find themselves giving Home a shot for a day or two before abandoning it almost completely. Regardless, if you go into Home with some hype, you’re in for a dissapointment. It’s best to just go in with no expectations and enjoy what little there is to do at Home.
Recent Comments