My thoughts on the PS3 after one week...

well i certainly ended up getting a PS3 a lot sooner than i expected. i really thought i'd wait for another price drop but alas, even though this will upset some microsoft fanboys, my 360 died for the 2nd time and being told i wouldn't get it back for a month, and blu-ray taking over, i figured now would be a good time to pick one up. i bought unreal and warhawk for my online craze and downloaded my fair share of demos and what have you - and here's the likes and dislikes i can tell you all about it.

LIKES

-hands down, blu-ray is the reason why i bought it and it doesn't disappoint at all. spider-man 3 sucks yes, but i still watched half of it just from admiring the picture and sound. bought 3:10 to yuma and was blown away by how perfect the film looked.

-it's been said before, and true, the system is quite sexy and looks great in the middle of my setup.

-when i first hooked it up with HDMI with 1080p, i was stunned at how disappointed i was at the graphics. needless to say, after waiting for a download to finish, i saw there were some settings that were turned off originally that made a huge difference. now i can say that, yes, this system does have some striking looking games that have impressed me.

-free online is nice... (don't get too excited sony fanboys, i'll bring this up again in dislikes) and connection during games is pretty good.

-of the demos i played - i really enjoyed ratchet & clank a lot. uncharted is fun as well although i hope the game is actually challenging, i was able to breeze through the demo on hard and despite it's good looks, make me think it's only worth a rental.

DISLIKES

-sony fans have got to be kidding me when it comes to some of these exclusives. heavenly sword bored me to tears - get passed the eye candy and there's nothing here worth mentioning. and please don't even argue it anymore, ninja gaiden sigma is so far away from a "exclusive" it should never be debated again. (yeah yeah, i know there's added chapters... IT'S STILL THE EXACT SAME GAME!). i played through about 50% of resistance and, while it is fun, the multiplayer is the only real reason why i'd consider purchasing it. NBA 08 and lair... hehe, i won't even go there.

-PSN is a real serious letdown even for free. how is this so slow when i can play games at a reasonable speed? it takes almost 10 seconds to download 1 meg. i'm so lost by this and i had to leave the system on for hours to download games like R&C - i can't even imagine getting warhawk this way. i'm glad some of you have accepted it but xbox live literally drop kicks this into oblivion. i seriously hope they are prepared to speed this up with home on the horizon.

-installing can be a bit of a pain. i know some will look at this only as a poor statement, but lets face it - we buy console games to sit down and play them - not stare at a install screen forever. it's even more of a pain with demos since u waited for them so long to download, and then sit around for another 5-10 minutes to play the game.

-having trouble with blue-tooth. my harmony remote won't work with the PS3 because of it, the headset that came with warhawk won't connect to it, and the six-axis controller seems to act up from time to time (especially during warhawk).

-i'm still annoyed as hell at the fact that sony is really going to make me spend another $50 on a controller with rumble. it does make a difference to not have it.

overall, i think it's worth the $400 price tag and imagine it'll stay at that point unless they fall behind even more (which i really don't see happening now). i have enough games to check out to last me until some of the heavy hitters start rolling in later this year, and i think then i'll be truly happy with my purchase. the exclusives are really what will make or break this system for me, as i already miss the hell out of my 360 and can't wait to have it back to get through all the games still waiting for me to play from christmas - but it's nice to own both and not miss out on any big titles and just enjoy them all. and of course, it's going to be real nice to build up my blu-ray collection and drool over the picture and sound.

The sticky says to blog things like this but you did a lot of work, good job.

-PSN is a real serious letdown even for free. how is this so slow when i can play games at a reasonable speed? it takes almost 10 seconds to download 1 meg. i'm so lost by this and i had to leave the system on for hours to download games like R&C - i can't even imagine getting warhawk this way. i'm glad some of you have accepted it but xbox live literally drop kicks this into oblivion. i seriously hope they are prepared to speed this up with home on the horizon.

phantas777

i dont think thats fair, mine downloads at about 1mb every 2.5 secs, and its wireless

I have no problems with the bluetooth headset. Did you "pair" it with the system?

Also the download speed sounds like your issue. I download about 1mb every couple seconds.

Anyway congrats on your PS3, if your having issues with it write a quick note in the PS3 forum, people are pretty cool over there and will help you out.

The Blu-Tooth controller has never given me a real problem. The biggest thing with the controller is when the charge gets low it will act-up. But if you yurn the controller off when your not playing games for a while the fully charged controller will hold a charge for about 30 hours. The nice thing about the comtroller is it can be charged via just about any USB port (I sometimes use a USB port on my LCD TV that's used for firmware updates). Or you can just leave the system on for as long as you want F@H because now there is a feature that allows you to have the PS3 to shut down after a certain amount of time or when it finishes a work unit (this can also be used as a way of charging the controller). And with updates there seem to be more features added from time to time, many that no one expects.

well i certainly ended up getting a PS3 a lot sooner than i expected. i really thought i'd wait for another price drop but alas, even though this will upset some microsoft fanboys, my 360 died for the 2nd time and being told i wouldn't get it back for a month, and blu-ray taking over, i figured now would be a good time to pick one up. i bought unreal and warhawk for my online craze and downloaded my fair share of demos and what have you - and here's the likes and dislikes i can tell you all about it.

LIKES

-hands down, blu-ray is the reason why i bought it and it doesn't disappoint at all. spider-man 3 sucks yes, but i still watched half of it just from admiring the picture and sound. bought 3:10 to yuma and was blown away by how perfect the film looked.

-it's been said before, and true, the system is quite sexy and looks great in the middle of my setup.

-when i first hooked it up with HDMI with 1080p, i was stunned at how disappointed i was at the graphics. needless to say, after waiting for a download to finish, i saw there were some settings that were turned off originally that made a huge difference. now i can say that, yes, this system does have some striking looking games that have impressed me.

-free online is nice... (don't get too excited sony fanboys, i'll bring this up again in dislikes) and connection during games is pretty good.

-of the demos i played - i really enjoyed ratchet & clank a lot. uncharted is fun as well although i hope the game is actually challenging, i was able to breeze through the demo on hard and despite it's good looks, make me think it's only worth a rental.

DISLIKES

-sony fans have got to be kidding me when it comes to some of these exclusives. heavenly sword bored me to tears - get passed the eye candy and there's nothing here worth mentioning. and please don't even argue it anymore, ninja gaiden sigma is so far away from a "exclusive" it should never be debated again. (yeah yeah, i know there's added chapters... IT'S STILL THE EXACT SAME GAME!). i played through about 50% of resistance and, while it is fun, the multiplayer is the only real reason why i'd consider purchasing it. NBA 08 and lair... hehe, i won't even go there.

-PSN is a real serious letdown even for free. how is this so slow when i can play games at a reasonable speed? it takes almost 10 seconds to download 1 meg. i'm so lost by this and i had to leave the system on for hours to download games like R&C - i can't even imagine getting warhawk this way. i'm glad some of you have accepted it but xbox live literally drop kicks this into oblivion. i seriously hope they are prepared to speed this up with home on the horizon.

-installing can be a bit of a pain. i know some will look at this only as a poor statement, but lets face it - we buy console games to sit down and play them - not stare at a install screen forever. it's even more of a pain with demos since u waited for them so long to download, and then sit around for another 5-10 minutes to play the game.

-having trouble with blue-tooth. my harmony remote won't work with the PS3 because of it, the headset that came with warhawk won't connect to it, and the six-axis controller seems to act up from time to time (especially during warhawk).

-i'm still annoyed as hell at the fact that sony is really going to make me spend another $50 on a controller with rumble. it does make a difference to not have it.

overall, i think it's worth the $400 price tag and imagine it'll stay at that point unless they fall behind even more (which i really don't see happening now). i have enough games to check out to last me until some of the heavy hitters start rolling in later this year, and i think then i'll be truly happy with my purchase. the exclusives are really what will make or break this system for me, as i already miss the hell out of my 360 and can't wait to have it back to get through all the games still waiting for me to play from christmas - but it's nice to own both and not miss out on any big titles and just enjoy them all. and of course, it's going to be real nice to build up my blu-ray collection and drool over the picture and sound.

phantas777

Had a 360 for a year before buying a PS3, your post is perfect, only thing I'd add is the controllers suck compared to 360's IMO, have to back out to home screen to switch users, and no mute for online games. Well said.

[QUOTE="phantas777"]

well i certainly ended up getting a PS3 a lot sooner than i expected. i really thought i'd wait for another price drop but alas, even though this will upset some microsoft fanboys, my 360 died for the 2nd time and being told i wouldn't get it back for a month, and blu-ray taking over, i figured now would be a good time to pick one up. i bought unreal and warhawk for my online craze and downloaded my fair share of demos and what have you - and here's the likes and dislikes i can tell you all about it.

LIKES

-hands down, blu-ray is the reason why i bought it and it doesn't disappoint at all. spider-man 3 sucks yes, but i still watched half of it just from admiring the picture and sound. bought 3:10 to yuma and was blown away by how perfect the film looked.

-it's been said before, and true, the system is quite sexy and looks great in the middle of my setup.

-when i first hooked it up with HDMI with 1080p, i was stunned at how disappointed i was at the graphics. needless to say, after waiting for a download to finish, i saw there were some settings that were turned off originally that made a huge difference. now i can say that, yes, this system does have some striking looking games that have impressed me.

-free online is nice... (don't get too excited sony fanboys, i'll bring this up again in dislikes) and connection during games is pretty good.

-of the demos i played - i really enjoyed ratchet & clank a lot. uncharted is fun as well although i hope the game is actually challenging, i was able to breeze through the demo on hard and despite it's good looks, make me think it's only worth a rental.

DISLIKES

-sony fans have got to be kidding me when it comes to some of these exclusives. heavenly sword bored me to tears - get passed the eye candy and there's nothing here worth mentioning. and please don't even argue it anymore, ninja gaiden sigma is so far away from a "exclusive" it should never be debated again. (yeah yeah, i know there's added chapters... IT'S STILL THE EXACT SAME GAME!). i played through about 50% of resistance and, while it is fun, the multiplayer is the only real reason why i'd consider purchasing it. NBA 08 and lair... hehe, i won't even go there.

-PSN is a real serious letdown even for free. how is this so slow when i can play games at a reasonable speed? it takes almost 10 seconds to download 1 meg. i'm so lost by this and i had to leave the system on for hours to download games like R&C - i can't even imagine getting warhawk this way. i'm glad some of you have accepted it but xbox live literally drop kicks this into oblivion. i seriously hope they are prepared to speed this up with home on the horizon.

-installing can be a bit of a pain. i know some will look at this only as a poor statement, but lets face it - we buy console games to sit down and play them - not stare at a install screen forever. it's even more of a pain with demos since u waited for them so long to download, and then sit around for another 5-10 minutes to play the game.

-having trouble with blue-tooth. my harmony remote won't work with the PS3 because of it, the headset that came with warhawk won't connect to it, and the six-axis controller seems to act up from time to time (especially during warhawk).

-i'm still annoyed as hell at the fact that sony is really going to make me spend another $50 on a controller with rumble. it does make a difference to not have it.

overall, i think it's worth the $400 price tag and imagine it'll stay at that point unless they fall behind even more (which i really don't see happening now). i have enough games to check out to last me until some of the heavy hitters start rolling in later this year, and i think then i'll be truly happy with my purchase. the exclusives are really what will make or break this system for me, as i already miss the hell out of my 360 and can't wait to have it back to get through all the games still waiting for me to play from christmas - but it's nice to own both and not miss out on any big titles and just enjoy them all. and of course, it's going to be real nice to build up my blu-ray collection and drool over the picture and sound.

btaylor2404

Had a 360 for a year before buying a PS3, your post is perfect, only thing I'd add is the controllers suck compared to 360's IMO, have to back out to home screen to switch users, and no mute for online games. Well said.

I have no problems with the bluetooth headset. Did you "pair" it with the system?

Also the download speed sounds like your issue. I download about 1mb every couple seconds.

Anyway congrats on your PS3, if your having issues with it write a quick note in the PS3 forum, people are pretty cool over there and will help you out.

EmperorSupreme

geesh everyone seems to....What is everyones nets speed in this thread that say this? Mine is about 8 seconds a mb....about the samea sthe TCs....I have a 2mb dl and 2 mb upld connection. do u guys have like 10 mb dl speeds? O.o

good post, i agree, One thing Your gonna miss is being able to charge your controll and download while the system is off. even if you leave the ps3 on and download some demos overnight you still have to sit there adn wait for them to install. In the morning. wtf?

-PSN is a real serious letdown even for free. how is this so slow when i can play games at a reasonable speed? it takes almost 10 seconds to download 1 meg. i'm so lost by this and i had to leave the system on for hours to download games like R&C - i can't even imagine getting warhawk this way. i'm glad some of you have accepted it but xbox live literally drop kicks this into oblivion. i seriously hope they are prepared to speed this up with home on the horizon.phantas777

spiderman 3 does suck! I mean, venoms a nerd!

Transformers is a much better movie. But I hope you have fun with your ps3, I do. Mabey you can get another xbox when the price really drops and they give the thing a redesign.

Good choice on getting the thing for a movie player too! Have you ever seen how slow the stand alone players are? they are a joke.

Honestly you just might have gotten a defective PS3 if the Blue tooth is acting up, Ive never had problems with my controllers or blue tooth.xTHExJUICEx

No the controllers do have problems... Both of my controllers act up all of the time and everyone in my clan's controllers do too... and all of those people are from Holland... so it's not just the controllers near my house in Pennsylvania.

Ok this seems like a fair assessment of the pros and cons of the PS3 and I have heard similar things from different sources. There are even pro-Sony SW regulars who agree 100% with the post. My only question is why on Earth is there so much bickering a denial between MS and Sony fanboys over which system is better when both systems have its fair share of issues?!?!?

Game On...

hmmm...

mmm I'll get one when they're $300 or less (like most of the world will)

There's a lot of things I agree with in the TCs post. I have noticed downloading demos, videos, etc on PSN are considerably slower than live. Then you have to install the demos, add-ons, updates, etc :(. I like my PS3, but it's pretty much just used as my exclusives console ala the gamecube last gen.

I would disagree about the blue tooth acting up, never really had any problems with it so far. But then again the only things I've used with it are the controllers & a motorolla headset.

The XMB is a mixed bag to me, parts of it are smooth and simplistic, while others are overly cluttered. They need a folder for demos instead of lining them all up under the game section. But then again there are things I like and hate about the 360 blades; they just seem overly cluttered. Lots of filler that I imagine could be made into one simple menu.

good post, i agree, One thing Your gonna miss is being able to charge your controll and download while the system is off. even if you leave the ps3 on and download some demos overnight you still have to sit there adn wait for them to install. In the morning. wtf?

carsales

Very good rundown on the ps3 ... just a couple of things though.

First and foremost, while initially there were tons of problems with my controllers (such as my characters would run in one direction for like 10 sec. then i would suddenly get control back), I havent run into these problems in months, so that may have been fixed via an update.

After the current issues with live, I wouldn't complain about dl's taking a bit longer (granted they are certainly longer, but not enough for me to pay to have them be faster, especially since so many people couldn't even log on to live last month). Other than that i have not had any issues with the psn (i can even surf the web and youtube it up ... woot). And the installs aren't terrible either, just a little annoying.

And, while currently the 360 does have more excellent titles, after this year that just won't be the case. Tons of awesome games coming to ps3 this year from mgs4 to resistance 2 to little big planet and everything in between.

Its a good time to own a ps3. (although ... 2007 was a GREAT time to own a working 360... key word working)

[QUOTE="xTHExJUICEx"]Honestly you just might have gotten a defective PS3 if the Blue tooth is acting up, Ive never had problems with my controllers or blue tooth.farrell2k

Defective? I thought PS3s were made of magic and are never defective, and never broke down.

only the 80 gigs

I have noticed downloading demos, videos, etc on PSN are considerably slower than live. Then you have to install the demos, add-ons, updates, etc :(

They need a folder for demos instead of lining them all up under the game section.

Kook18

There's a lot of things I agree with in the TCs post. I have noticed downloading demos, videos, etc on PSN are considerably slower than live. Then you have to install the demos, add-ons, updates, etc :(. I like my PS3, but it's pretty much just used as my exclusives console ala the gamecube last gen.

I would disagree about the blue tooth acting up, never really had any problems with it so far. But then again the only things I've used with it are the controllers & a motorolla headset.

The XMB is a mixed bag to me, parts of it are smooth and simplistic, while others are overly cluttered. They need a folder for demos instead of lining them all up under the game section. But then again there are things I like and hate about the 360 blades; they just seem overly cluttered. Lots of filler that I imagine could be made into one simple menu.

Kook18

in the one of the updates they added a folder for demos just go to games and press triange and select group in the menu and then u get a folder =]

Wtf r u guys talking about? How can you play something that's not installed or on a disc? And how can you dl anything while your console is off?

I dl 1 gig in 30 minutes. You can arrange all your games into sections, if you like... just hit triangle and select "sort by".

H8s2spooge

in the one of the updates they added a folder for demos just go to games and press triange and select group in the menu and then u get a folder =]

big_smoke_666

Yeah, PSN for me is very fast. ~1mb every 2-3 seconds. Might be your wifi strength or something.sts9kid

I'm lucky to get 1mb in about 20 seconds...I hate my internet...

[QUOTE="xTHExJUICEx"]Honestly you just might have gotten a defective PS3 if the Blue tooth is acting up, Ive never had problems with my controllers or blue tooth.D3monchicken

No the controllers do have problems... Both of my controllers act up all of the time and everyone in my clan's controllers do too... and all of those people are from Holland... so it's not just the controllers near my house in Pennsylvania.

The button are just really sensitive.

I bought a ps3 a few weeks ago to and i have to agree with every word u said about it.loudharley

Yeah I agree too. My love affair with my PS3 didn't really last very long and I was soon back on the 360 where everything just feels that little bit more finished.

With the PS3 I feel like I am just constantly waiting for the next thing to arrive like Home and the trophy system and it feels like an unfinished system to me. Mine sits under my TV quitely waiting for something to happen to make it feel worthwhile.

Meanwhile my 360 gamerscore is increasing and a nice history of the games I have played and completed has built up on it and to move away from it in future would take something quite awesome to even make me concider it.

I honestly regret buying my PS3 when I did but with the backwards compatibility being phased out I felt I had to get one of the original ones before they were all gone. Feel like I was cheated a bit really.

When you download something on the 360, thats it, no installing. The difference is one the PS3, you have to DL it, then install the demo, add-on, game, etc. You act like I'm ruthlessly bashing the PS3. I love my system, but there are faults to it just like the 360. So stop acting like I'm picking on your system.
Kook18

Wow my PSN is always pretty quick.

I had no issues syncing new controllers or the headseat, maybe your a bit slow?

Boo hoo, you have to wait for installs =(

i acually just bought a ps3 too a little over a week ago, and i have to say, i feel the same way. i really like the system, it has a lot of plus's, but it does have its downfalls too. the graphics are really good, i havent hooked it up to hdmi yet, i just recieved the hdmi i ordered, so ill hook it up when i get home to check out, plus ill be messing with all the settings to get the best quality possible. but even on SD they look good.

ive had my 360 since day one, and love it. i got the ps3 mainly for the blu-ray and exclusives. im playing R&C right now and i like it. one thing i was most impressed with was the support of keyboard and mouse. i rented UT3 and the keyboard and mouse work great, once you spend about 10 minutes calibrating the settings and sensitivity, then it works great.

the free online is good, but it is very slow to download. its took damn near 1 and a half to download the Burnout demo. then it had to install it, which takes even more time. i dont like that very much, yes i know it helps with load times, but this is only the demo, i dont think thats necessary. it also took a while to install R&C the first time i popped it in.

the system is very quiet, but it is Huge and heavy. overall i like the system, i still prefer my 360 in many ways. but i do like it enough that i might get games that arent just ps3 exclusives for it, like gta4 since i think itll play better on the ps3 (i dont care about the downloadable content on 360 because i refuse to pay for it)

About Heavenly Sword. Did you play beyond the demo? The game itself is very good. You can complete some of the levels by button mashing but its more frustrating than learning the counters and the attack stances for different enemies. The boss battles are very memorable. Rent it if you can.De_Bears

With the reference to NG, I can see what the TC means, though. HS isn't the most challenging of gameplay. But it is one of the best stories told in a video game.

[QUOTE="Kook18"] When you download something on the 360, thats it, no installing. The difference is one the PS3, you have to DL it, then install the demo, add-on, game, etc. You act like I'm ruthlessly bashing the PS3. I love my system, but there are faults to it just like the 360. So stop acting like I'm picking on your system.
H8s2spooge

I don't care what it uses, it works and it works well. There is no delay when you download a game off of XBL. After the game is downloaded you click on it and it works. Whatever the system XBL uses, it is at the moment, better than the PSN way of downloading and then installing the game to disk. In fact they both install demos to the HD...

It's also better that I can start a download on live then shut the 360 off and it will continue to download the game in low power mode. You can even charge your PS3 controllers while it's doing that.

I have both systems and at the moment there are things that live does better than PSN and vice versa. Lets just accept that and move on. Both systems have issues that will hopefully be worked out in the future. To Sony and MSs credit, they do update on a regular basis. This is a good thing.

having to wait the extra 30 seconds for your demo to install instead of having it pre-cache the game data/install automatically, etc. And sweet opinion about the cluttered xmb.

H8s2spooge

I don't know what system you are playing but it takes around 20 minutes for me to install the demos I waited 30-45 minutes downloading. I have T1 internet connection and my PS3 is connecting through wifi. It is a lot slower and more frustrating to use after being spoiler by xbox live. Since you have never used live you really can't compare the two because you would understand the differences that others are talking about.

[QUOTE="H8s2spooge"] having to wait the extra 30 seconds for your demo to install instead of having it pre-cache the game data/install automatically, etc. And sweet opinion about the cluttered xmb.

spinecaton

I don't know what system you are playing but it takes around 20 minutes for me to install the demos I waited 30-45 minutes downloading. I have T1 internet connection and my PS3 is connecting through wifi. It is a lot slower and more frustrating to use after being spoiler by xbox live. Since you have never used live you really can't compare the two because you would understand the differences that others are talking about.

well it didnt take me 20 minutes, thats a lot. it did take about 5 or more minutes. i dont know about how quickly normal game disks take, since ive only installed R&C, but that took less than 5.