E3: Up close with PS3

When we first caught a glimpse of the PS3 at the unveiling on Monday night, my first thought was: um, it's a bit ugly. Certainly, compared with the last redesign of the PS2, the new machine looked a bit clunky.

Today, when Log On was the only Irish journalist to see PS3 in the flesh (it's not on public display here at E3 - by appointment only), the sleek curves and shiny casing were a little more apparent. The gleaming black model gave off the best vibes but, even so, for me the off-white and concave lines of the Xbox 360 pips the PS3 at the post.

Was there anything even inside the box? I couldn't say - but I doubt it. The hardware is not even finalised yet. Microsoft has been quite open about the fact there's nothing inside their machines. Any of the game demos we saw have actually been running off a couple of dual-processor Macs - cooled by pairs of household fans! This is because the Macs use the same family of PowerPC processors the 360 will eventually employ.