Alright, time to do a little venting onto Sony in particular in this blog. My distress lies with the controller design of the new "PS3 controller."

WTF... alright I don't want to sound like a total knit pick here, but I mean c'mon!! this is suppose to be the next best thing of "next-gen gaming" and all we get is a second-rate rehashed Dualshock?!

What happend to the sleek and sexy design style that Sony was once famous for? Everything from TVs, DVD players, Walkman, VAIOs, right down to the PS2 are all the pinnacle of Sony's awesome industrial design team. I hate to say it but even the PS3's design itself is a bit questionable.

Ok, I can understand Sony if they want to go with the same design style for the new controller because it will be familiar to 100% of the gaming population from day 1.. but I mean c'mon what happened to the "welcome change" modo or the "batarang" conceptual design??? Did you just give up, Sony?

I understand there must have been tons of negative feedback on the banana design, but that doesn't mean you should just give up and revert back to the same old Dualshock shell. Put some effort into the damn thing and design it how the people want it. Give it some pezzaz, something that looks and feels different and next-gen. Maybe even give it a new means of control other then 12 buttons and 2 analog sticks. Sure the motion sensing is nice, but probably won't be a huge benefactor for most games if used at all.

To be honest, I love the Dualshock layout how it is, and am okay with the PS3 using it, but just wish Sony would give it a little more of a next-gen look. For example, it would look more modern if they kept the clear-face /OX[_] buttons that the batarang and PSP sport.

Sony knows what they are doing people. Anyone who is complaining about the PS3's launch price is either still living with mom & dad or doesn't have a job. As for the $600 price tag -let's think about this shall we? You will be getting quite the beefy computer entertainment system packed with the most powerful hardware of any CE device on the planet to date. Sony is the only player who remains to be the most forward thinking with the consumer electronics business as a whole in mind for the PS3.

What are these specs you ask? First you have none other then Blu-ray; the most important piece. Now you ask yourself, "Oh, that whopping new format that isn't even established yet, what do I care?" Funny, you probably said the same about DVDs when you were boasting your bulky VHS collection. Fact is, DVD has come and passed, it's now time for the future; HD. Blu-ray is backed by the majority of film studios plus the leading PC manufactures, so one would be hard pressed to say Blu-ray will fail. And if you're thinking, "Ok, that's great, but if I don't want it, then I shouldn't have to shell out the extra $100 for it." Then you're mistaken. Blu-ray isn't just simply a next-gen movie format amenity; it also plays a major role as the format medium advantage for all game software developers. The storage capacities of Blu-ray are unprecedented, and for that, you can expect much richer gaming experiences in many forms.

Next up is the Cell + RSX. These two processors combined will change gaming forever period. As it currently stands, these two chips fall into the supercomputer range on the PC front. The Cell Broadband Engine is a force to be reckoned with. The sheer amount of raw multimedia computing power Cell chip possesses alone is stunning. Add the RSX to the mix -the world's current most powerful GPU, and you've got one heck of a silicon powerhouse that will easily last you 10 years.

To further emphasize on Sony's forward thinking, I give you HDMI. This little cable called HDMI is intended for pure High Definition output all the way to 1080p. I say pure, because it is essentially that; capable of transferring full uncompressed HD video and audio data providing the highest quality picture possible. If you are ever planning on buying an HDTV in the not-so-distant future, you better be sure it has HDMI jacks. If you're one of the unlucky early adopters who ran out and bought an HDTV without an HDMI jack, I'm deeply sorry. HDMI will be the leading digital interface going forward in the HD era.

Last, but certainly not least- Bluetooth, Wifi, and Linux. Bluetooth provides a more secure, lower-cost, globally available short range radio frequency then traditional RF. It will also offer many opportunities in the future for other BT peripherals to be connected to PS3. Devices such as wireless BT headsets/earpieces, mice, keyboards, cell phones, laptops, etc. Wifi is a nice added touch thrown in which will serve useful for wireless internet access as well as PSP connectivity (another list of features surfaces with this, I won't get into that to save time). Sony also continues to support Linux for Playstation which is great news for indie game devs around the world. If Linux is to flourish even more with the next gen of Playstation, expect to see hundreds of creative homebrewed games running on PS3 and maybe even openly distributed across the newly announced Playstation Network Platform.

But the real deal behind the $600 price tag has to do with Sony's launch strategy. Sony knows demand will be greater then supply for the PS3 and that only the hard core gamer crowd who must have the latest and greatest will fork over the six hundred bucks in November into December. These core gamers will carry Sony along slowly but surely in sales this holiday season which will pretty much take care of the 1st shipment of PS3s. By this time next year, Sony will be right where they want to be, and may even surprise the world with a swift price drop to coincide with the release of much anticipated titles like Heavenly Sword and UT2K7.