Oh yeah... I just picked up a PS3. I've been waiting for the day Sony would force my hand by removing the Emotion Engine hardware from the US models, leaving backwards compability up inferior software emulation. While the 60gb PS3 hasn't been discontinued or anything yet, the new 80gb model Sony has announced is very obviously the beginning of the end for hardware BC. Since this week Circuit City is offering an additional free sixaxis with the purchase of a PS3 and there's a 5-free-movie promo, I decided that now was the time to jump in. I figure the 60gb model won't be getting any cheaper before the EE is stripped from all PS3's, so I might as well get the extra freebies.

Of course, I didn't go to Circuit City. While I could care less about Microsoft's Gamerscore concept, I am a "point-whore" in a different sense--for Best Buy Reward Zone points. This is because I've gotten a lot of Reward Certificates (basically gift certificates) for stuff I would have bought at that price anyway. So I got Best Buy to match CC's deal, picked up a memory card adapter and the Best Buy service plan to the tune of $607.32--after a $20 Reward Certificate.

Wait... something's missing, isn't it? That's right, I didn't buy any games. That's not because I don't think there's anything good out for the PS3, but because I haven't made up my mind yet about what to get yet. Usually, by the time I pick up a console there's a good crop of older, bargain-priced games for it. Even when I picked up the 360 considerably ahead of my usual schedule, I was able to find quite a few bargains. The PS3 just hasn't been out that long yet, so there aren't as many deals to grab. I thought about VF5, but I want to see how well the 360 version's online works before I decide which version to get. Until I decide, I'm hoping to just borrow games off of friends (you know who you are) and enjoy the upscaling of PS2 games I'd be playing anyway.

My first impression on taking the system out of the box: holy hell is this thing heavy! Consult your structural engineer before purchasing; you may need to add some flying butresses to your media center to hold this thing. It's convenient that Sony didn't change their A/V connector; I was able to just swap my PS2's component cable to the PS3 for easy setup. It also stuck out to me that the PS3 uses a standard PC power cable and standard USB connectors on its controllers, while MS uses propriatary connectors in both instances. Sony seems to have finally learned their lesson about all that proprietary nonsense... now if MS would just catch on. The controller feels good, like its Dual Shock ancestors, but I'm not yet used to how light it is or the action on the triggers. Navigating the XMB felt less annoying than the XBL blades, but that might just be because of the functional d-pad on the sixaxis. I like the lack of in-your-face advertising on the XMB, too.

Sony still has some catching up to do in the online services depatment, though. I tried to set up my profile online to save doing it with the PS3's onscreen keyboard, but it appears you can only sign up from your console. Even after I did that, I couldn't manage my account online, which frankly sucks after using xbox.com. At least the smaller userbase of PSN at the moment meant that Shifty_Pete was available, so I didn't have to start reaching for a username.

Now... time to play some games on it!