13 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
Latest and Greatest Console
Date of Review: Dec 31, 2007
The Bottom Line: Buy it, play it hard when you get it in case of failure. Most electronics fail early in their life if they fail at all.
I waited a little over a year to dive in to Next Gen consoles. Now that I have it's been an interesting experience.
Lets start with comparing the various PS3 consoles on the market.
Right now you can buy an 80GB version that comes with Motorstorm, a 40GB version that comes with the movie Spiderman 3, or (if you can find it) a 60GB version.
The 40GB does not play PS2 games. It will play PS1 games though. It has the obvious smaller hard drive, and only 2 USB ports on the front. This system costs $399.99.
The 60GB and the 80GB both cost $499.99, but only the 80GB comes with Motorstorm. The 60GB is being discontinued, so theres not much reason to get one. The ONLY reason to get one is that the PS2 compatibility is said to be better on the 60GB and it supports more PS2 games.
http://www.us.playstation.com/Support/CompatibleStatus
Use that link above to see if your PS2 games are compatible with the PS3.
The games I have for PS2 all work with the 80GB so the choice seemed simple enough. Plus for 100 bucks you get a good game, PS2 playability, a few more USB and media ports, and of course 40GB more storage space. Also it allows me to sell my old PS2 and put that money towards the PS3 purchase.
The PS3 does more than just play games. You can use to watch Blu-Ray movies, DVD's, listen to music, view pictures, and other odds and ends. All that is well and good, but ultimately this thing is supposed to play games right? Some people will buy this for the Blu-Ray player just as much as a gaming system. Which helps Sony out I guess.
The Blu-Ray discs can hold 50GB on a dual layer disc. That's a lot of room for games and should prove useful for games coming out years to come.
The controllers look very much like the PS2 Dual Shock controllers. Except that they are wireless which is extremely useful. They work off of Bluetooth and the system supports up to 7 controllers at once. So far the controller has functioned perfectly and has not lost signal at any distance in my house. I believe the range is supposed to be 20 meters. I've tested it to about 10 meters which is plenty more than I'll ever need. The controller does not have rumble at launch. There is supposed to be a Dual Shock 3 controller to be released in 2008, and you can order one from Japan now if you hunt one down on the internet.
The controller is called a sixaxis which gets it's name from the ability to tilt the controller in six ways for input. I've found the tilt feature interesting, and I tried to steer the vehicles in Motorstorm with it. However, I think this feature is probably best used for secondary control and not for your main method of input. I turned it off and went back to the standard controller setup in Motorstorm. The right game with some practice could yield better results.
The battery on the controller is supposed to last 30 hours between need for charges. I played for about 20 hours with it before charging as I didn't want to have to charge it mid game. It charges with a USB cable, and you can charge it with your computer. My only issue with the controller is really with the cable. You get about a 4 ft cable which isn't really long enough to play with on a big tv. I wish it came with a 10ft cable then if I did have to charge mid game, it would not be much of an issue. You can check the battery power status at any time by pausing a game and going to the controller menu. I'll probably charge it from my PC so I don't have to leave the PS3 on just to charge a controller.
The system supports HDMI and 1080P. It doesn't come with a HDMI cable so you'll have to pick one up if you need it. I got one from Amazon for about 10 bucks. HDMI is a digital signal, don't waste a ton of cash on one. Just get one for $20 or less it'll do the job just as well as the $100 ones.
I'm using an optical out for sound to my 5.1 receiver. Games come off sounding awesome in full 5.1 surround. You'll have to enable this from the system menu or the PS3 will try to send sound out over the HDMI straight to your tv. Which is fine if that's the way you want it.
The system took less than 5 minutes to setup, and only a couple minutes to get through setup menus. You'll enter a profile name and do all the little audio and video settings that you need. It's all easy to understand and shouldn't take you long at all.
All your saved games can be saved right on the hard drive so no more memory cards to keep up with. You can also save games on to a USB drive if you want to back them up (you should) or want to take them over to a friends house. My USB drive was recognized right away and the process is as simple of copying and pasting the file to the device.
All PS3's have built in wireless internet capabilities, except for the discontinued 20GB version. This feature is big for me as it would have been a major hassle to run an ethernet cable to the system. Unfortunately I haven't gotten to use this feature yet due to the system being returned for a new PS3.
Yes I had to take it back. Apparently there is an issue that some people are having with the system failing to read discs. I bought Uncharted and put it in like every other game I've played. I didn't get to the games start menu before I got a message to insert the Uncharted disc. I thought this was odd, but I ejected it, and put it back in. This time nothing happened. I can hear the PS3 spinning up and a small clunking noise. However it doesn't recognize any disc. No dvd, no games, nothing. After reformatting, updating, and searching the internet I ultimately settled on the cold hard fact that my new baby was about to go back in a box and back to the fiery chasm from whence it came. I have no hobbits to do this for me, so UPS will have to do.
Thankfully I'm within my 30 days of purchase from Amazon so I'm getting a totally new system. I was annoyed that if I send it to Sony I'll get a refurbished replacement. That might be ok a year from now, but this thing is to new to be replaced by a handmedown.
There is a problem with PS3's that is not apparently getting major attention. The failure rate on these is supposed to be well under 1%. My personal opinion is that the laser can't recover from trying to read a dirty or smudged disc. The disc I tried came from gamestop and was a used copy. It had some fingerprints on it, but nothing really bad, and definitely nothing that should kill a machine. Other people have had this issue after playing movies and other games so who knows.
Perhaps it was going to fail anyway. I'll never know. Unless you get a great deal online on the PS3, I'd strongly recommend you buy locally from some place where you can quickly take it back and exchange it for a new one if you get the same issue. I paid $515.00 for the System, Oblivion, and Eye of Judgment from Amazon. With no tax and free shipping I got an outstanding deal. I also got to mail it back for a new one.
That deal aside I didn't get an extended warranty because this system is supposed to be so reliable. Walmart sells extended warranties for very cheap. I almost wish I went with them. Hopefully when my new system arrives I'll see the end of my problems.
While it worked the system was great. With a bright future ahead of it, the PS3 has the potential to be a great system.
I went with it over the 360 for the Blu-Ray player, and the fact that nearly every game that interests me on the 360 I can get for my computer. The cost difference isn't all that great between the PS3 and the 360 so I'd really look at the games and extra options between the two (such as wireless that comes standard on the PS3). The 360 has a much higher failure rate than the PS3, but Microsoft has extended their warranty over it.
Let the games be the deciding factor.
