My Experience With The PS3 - Part 1

In late April, I did something that I had never done as a gamer.

I became the owner of all the consoles of the current generation. Last generation I owned the Gamecube and the Xbox, but I did not get a PS2. Yes I missed out on some great games. There is no question about that, but I am just setting up the review as someone who in this generation mainly used his Xbox 360. (Also worth noting that I did not own a PSP at all either)

Since purchasing my 360 in February of 2007, I have logged a number of hours and even got the RRoD. Yes, the 360 is not perfect, but it is what I was used to.

Now I was planning to eventually get the system. There were some games that I wanted to play and now the the war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray was over, (and still to this date the Xbox has no plans of having an add-on Blu-ray player like they did with HD-DVD) I figured that a PS3 would cover my want for both.

Now came the excuse that I needed.

I got a free copy of God of War 3. With this, I justified a purchase of a PS3 slim. (Yeah, I was really just looking for an excuse).

It took me a couple weeks to find one in a store. Eventually, I got a 250GB PS3 Slim.

Unpacking

I have said it before and I have said it again that the lack of HD cables being included with the PS3 is a mistake. Lucky I had a HDMI cable handy. (Seriously go to Amazon, you can find low prices on cables there. Mine was about $7)

Though they did one-up the 360. Not only is the controller rechargeable, but they give you the cable to charge it. Microsoft want to charge you another twenty bucks for that, and for this fact I was willing to give the PS3 a chance.

Setup was easy enough, I just had to tweak a few settings for my TV but I was up and running with WiFi in 15 minutes. After the console update, I was ready to play, but before I get to this, it is a good thing to point out.

Xbox 360 WiFi Adaptor and Play and Charge Kit = $120.00
Playstation 3 = Included

The UI and OS

There is a love/hate relationship here. I love some of the features that the XMB provides. However the lack of it being intuitive is... for lack of a better work... stupid.

I use my 360 to play video, view photos, and listen to music. I expected the PS3 to be as good as the 360, if not better. Sadly, it comes up short.

Streaming Content
I was able to find a great free program for my Macbook that streams over the network. A quick Google search popped up the PS3 Media Server software and it is good, except when trying to playback HD content over WiFi, but that is really to be expected. It still works great though.

Moving Files Through USB Thumbdrive
I only have one issue with this. The fact that Sony wants you to use their file structure on the thumbdrive annoyed me... That is until Porter told me that all I had to do was hit triangle and select “View All”. I like this way better and wish I could set that to default.

I love the fact that I can just copy the files to the PS3 and not be worried about it. It is just there. Absolutely love this! Though wish I could make my own folders on the PS3.

Other Devices Through USB
The keyboard and mouse combo worked well, but I am sad that my iPhone is not supported at all. Comparatively the 360 allows me to view my pictures from my iPhone. While that is not fully functioning, it is still more than the PS3 recognizes.

This brings me to the one thing I HATE HATE HATE about the PS3.

Music
I got used to having custom soundtracks going all the way back to the Xbox. There are some games, albeit mainly sports games, that would be better with the inclusion of my own music. I am only allowed to do this by a game by game basis, and 90% of the games that I have played on the PS3 have not allowed me to play my music.

I know that I might be overreacting, but what is stopping this from happening? Not the game makers, otherwise you would see the same problems on the 360. So this is one thing that I think Sony screwed the pooch on. I want my music while playing some of these games.

This is going to conclude part one. Part two is going to focus on the Playstation Network, Games, and Blu-ray.

--Keith