Lights, Cameras, Cameras and more Cameras
When you visit Sony’s new official European Playstation 3 website, one of the first things you see is an explanation of how to navigate the site. Never a good sign.
The site looks relatively simple at first glance. It is entirely flash-based and features a white room plastered with screen shots pulled from future games, a few plasma screens tossed in for effect (they don’t do anything) and 21 quasi creepy cameras scattered throughout. Click on one of the cameras and you are transported to another page containing either screenshots and brief overviews of games or facts and explanations about the new system. If you share the same distaste for solely flash-based sites that we do, there are pulldown links to everything at the top of the screen – making all of the flash content completely unnecessary.
I spent about an hour navigating the site only about 20 minutes of which was spent viewing actual content. The other 40 was spent contemplating the concept of infinity, making a sandwhich, eating it and staring at an almost blank screen (I say “almost” because there was ever-promising “loading” text on the top right corner for the majority of my stay there.)
There are no new shocking revelations or announcements on the site. The screen shots from some of the games are worth taking a look at and so are the pictures and information about the system itself.
There is also a short movie entitled “Real Time” under the “PS3 Stories” section of the site that was interesting. The trailer akins the experience of playing against the computer on older generation consoles to boxing with a sandbag, whereas the Playstation 3’s AI will be like fighting a real opponent. I’m skeptical, but the trailer itself is well done and offers a simple message. There is promise of more videos to come on the site, so check back for future updates.