What does a cheap Blu Ray player help?
You would need to be VERY stupid to waste your money on a BluRay or HD DVD player right now!
Hybrid disks as well as players for both formats are on their way and won't be much more expensive than the "single format" player and will definitely be the better choice.
On the graphics: Thats no surprise. As Carmack and other devs mentioned, the decision of Sony, creating a overcomplicated architecture once again, after the PS2 already suffered such problems, is not really understandable.
MS on the other side seems to have taken the more usefull path by using something that is at least known to most devs with multi core - multi proc experience. But asymetrical stuff like the Cell is something that will need years until it can be used usefully ... similar to how long it took to make PS2 look good thanks to its unintuitive graphics solution. (and thanks to the "capabilities" of the asym units, I'm not sure if the difference outside physics and AI will be that large, that the PS3 has only the slightest chance to come out as winner in the fight against the X360 ... We are talking of a tripple G5 like monster vs 1 core + 7 additional very cut down async units)
I for one won't buy either (I own a Wii, so the true winner is already in house :) ) unless their price and energy consumption is at an acceptable level.
Hell I play on 1680x1050 with 80W, so 300W+ is highly inacceptable for something that does not deliver better game content (content != eye candy crap)
You would need to be VERY stupid to waste your money on a BluRay or HD DVD player right now!
Hybrid disks as well as players for both formats are on their way and won't be much more expensive than the "single format" player and will definitely be the better choice.
On the graphics: Thats no surprise. As Carmack and other devs mentioned, the decision of Sony, creating a overcomplicated architecture once again, after the PS2 already suffered such problems, is not really understandable.
MS on the other side seems to have taken the more usefull path by using something that is at least known to most devs with multi core - multi proc experience. But asymetrical stuff like the Cell is something that will need years until it can be used usefully ... similar to how long it took to make PS2 look good thanks to its unintuitive graphics solution. (and thanks to the "capabilities" of the asym units, I'm not sure if the difference outside physics and AI will be that large, that the PS3 has only the slightest chance to come out as winner in the fight against the X360 ... We are talking of a tripple G5 like monster vs 1 core + 7 additional very cut down async units)
I for one won't buy either (I own a Wii, so the true winner is already in house :) ) unless their price and energy consumption is at an acceptable level.
Hell I play on 1680x1050 with 80W, so 300W+ is highly inacceptable for something that does not deliver better game content (content != eye candy crap)