Sony PlayStation 3 (80 GB) Silver Console

I got a PS3 console (after having used a PS2 very happily for ages) as a "self-serve Christmas present," since I was visiting my parents in a location at which there was a Sony outlet store and they had the 40 and 80 GB models on sale at respectable (but not magnificent) prices. I also bought Madden '09 for the PS3 at the same time, since I'm not into shoot-em-up type games in the least-- I prefer the multi-turn strategy-style games that used to be so popular on the PC before everyone started making "Doom" and "DnD" clones and the gaming market decided that everyone over about 20-22 could just get used to what the market was producing or go... well... to an uncomfortably warm place. :)

The exception to that rule was sports games, ONE in particular that has more or less monopolized my PS2 for the last few years-- NCAA Football by EA Sports. I figured Madden was close enough, and I later demo'ed the PS3's NCAA Football '09 (downloaded from Sony Store- more on that in a moment), so I saw and played what the PS3 had to offer.

Among the other features that made me think the PS3 would be a nice unit for our master bedroom HDTV-- (1) the wireless network accessibility, which would be able to connect to our home network for internet connectivity instead of having to bring the laptop downstairs constantly to use in the bedroom; (2) the internet browser, largely for facilitating the reasons mentioned in item (1), above; (3) didn't know much about it at the time, but I kind of liked the idea of being able to download movies and such from the 'net and watch them on the bedroom TV, when we can't be bothered to trapse upstairs to the big set; (4) the Blu-Ray disc player, now that DVD-HD has gone the way of the horse and carriage. Might as well, for a similar price (I reasoned), get something that does more than just play DVDs.

After about a month's experience with the PS3, my results have been mixed: (1) wireless networking works fine with my home system, and has come in handy-- particularly for downloading media like movies (see below). It has NOT been all that great for (2) internet browsing, because in all honesty, the browser software cuts off the page, runs slowly and clumsily and even with a Logitech keyboard with built-in mouse, is more trouble than it's worth to use. The browser, in fact, looks every bit as good as our old WebTV setup from the mid-late 1990s.... and that is NOT a compliment. We simply don't use the PS3 browser any more because it is, quite simply, BAD. (3) We've been pleasantly surprised by the Sony Shop or whatevertheheck it calls itself and the availability of HD and regular movies there; if I remember from last night's browsing, they have something like 1215 films online right now and I suspect they're adding more every day-- new releases, old classics, etc. It's ALMOST like having a Blockbuster franchise at home (laugh), and the rental prices ($3.99 for X-Files Movie, last night's fare) are respectable. I think we'd still use Pay-Per-View from our cable provider all other things being equal, but our cable provider didn't HAVE X-Files yet, so score another one for the Sony Store! We haven't tried (4) a Blu-Ray disc in the player yet, but because of the neat downloadable media thingy, we may simply NOT in the future.

Here's my only other issue about downloading movies, though this probably has to do with our learning curve on the "finer points" of the PS3 than anything else-- if you rent a movie, LET THE DARNED THING DOWNLOAD at least 2/3rds of the way through or something before you try "watch while downloading." If not, you get lots of stops, buffers and other annoying interruptions-- particularly, I assume, if your wireless connection is weak or busy, though I didn't have any reason to believe last evening that anything was wrong with the connection.

I appreciate the HDMI connectors on the back of this unit, as well as at least SOME USB ports, though I agree that more than the two it comes with would have been a good idea. I would have loved SD card capability, which this model does not appear to support. I found out too late for my own good that this PS3 is NOT backward-compatible with PS2 games, which would have included my beloved NCAA Football '08. As noted above, I've tried both Madden and NCAA for the PS3, but the layout is confusing and stupid, and the players all run around looking very neanderthalish-- albeit perhaps at a slightly higher resolution than their PS2 counterparts. I just can't do gaming on the PS3 right now, 'cause I have yet to find a game that involves a modicum of brainwork and little-to-no homicidal tendencies that I like on it. Maybe one day I will, so I live in hope. In the meantime, it's back upstairs to the trusty PS2 every morning with coffee for a football game. :)

Wireless controllers are an OK idea, but my experience has been that the one that came with my PS3 doesn't hold a charge all that well, AND they only recharge when the unit is on. Otherwise, I like the "wireless" idea as well as Bluetooth compatibility that allows me to do things like connect my Logitech Bluetooth keyboard. The "wired" controller will also work on a USB-to-mini-USB connection, which is better than a proprietary plug as on early Playstations. I dislike the mechanism for turning the machine OFF; if you don't use the "power off" command from the PS3 menu (sometimes it's on and I've already changed video source back to cable), you just have to use the hard-toggle-switch on the back of the unit-- touching the futuristic "touch pad" button on the front, which is easier to use, only turns the darned thing ON as best I can tell.


My (adult) brother in law has a PS3 and adores the daylights out of it. Of course, he's also a shoot-em-up graphics-oriented type and very, very games intensive as a user. At the end of the day, I can understand why many PS3 aficianados love their machines, and as best I can tell from comparison shopping, the PS3 (for my tastes) is probably a wee bit preferable to the XBox. It may or may not be preferable to Wii, depending on what you want to do with the unit (we've considered a Wii for all of the activities you can do with them-- that was brilliant thinking on Nintendo's part that caught Sony and Microsoft short).

As for us and what we wanted the unit to do (and HOW we wanted it to do it, particularly with respect to giving us a reasonably fast and completely functional web browser), however, I've gotta admit that I'm a little disappointed in the PS3. We'll keep it around for movie downloads, which I think are its greatest strength, and who knows? MAYBE in a pinch I could bring myself to suffer that web browser again. I also live in eternal hope that more games and simple apps might be developed for it that consider an adult audience that doesn't want to kill things constantly (or at the other end of the spectrum, find and adopt "Hello Kitty" while funny music plays and bright-colored backgrounds spin around).  At that point, I might be more charitable toward PS3. For now, I think I'd rate it overall about middle-of-the-scale. You might rate it higher if you already know from previous experience that your favorite games are available for PS3 and you like the way they look/play.... OR you're not that bothered about using the machine's browser, which bites.