Well, it's not long now until the PS3 will be released here in Australia.  In fact, the midnight release is happening in just under three hours now.  Unfortunately, I won't be picking my pre-order up tonight.  When I was budgetting everything, I forgot to factor in that even though in theory I get paid today, the money won't hit my bank account much before the weekend, so I'll just have to go pick it up Saturday morning.  *shrug*

(On an aside, has Gamespot improved the Journal entry screen or something?  This looks a bit different from what I recall...)

I've just had a look at the Sony PS3 backwards compatibility website thingy, in preparation for some serious Sony goodness on the weekend, and I'm kinda disappointed.  I mean, after all the hype with the 360 not being fully backwards compatible with X-Box Games, I thought Sony might actually do the right thing for us Gamers.  It appears I was wrong.  I mean, I've read that we in Australia are being given the short end of the stick by Sony, as our PS3's don't have the PS2 Emotion Engine chip in 'em, so we don't have hardware compatibility for our PSOne and PS2 Games.  (Kinda sucks that)

We're lucky enough to have Software Emulation for our Games, which seems to be a cheaper option for the great Gods of Sony, and unfortunately translates into "Your older Games just won't work" and ensures that I'll be holding onto my PS2 for a bit longer yet.  Sure, they'll update that list in due course - hopefully faster than Microsoft is updating the 360's BC list - but when's that gonna be?  I mean, the Wii is the only next-gen Console that seems to be fully backwards compatible, and there's nowhere near the selection available in Gamecube titles compared to Playstation or X-Box Games.  It's kinda annoying...

Actually, to be clear (having just gone through my entire PSOne and PS2 collections and comparing them with the current list on the Sony website), here are the stats I have with regards to the playability of my Gaming collection:

• Playable Games (No Issues)
  • PSOne - 3
  • PS2 - 24
• Playable Games (Issues)
  • PSOne - 3
  • PS2 - 15
• Unplayable Games
  • PSOne - 6
  • PS2 - 22

The big problem is that some of the Games that either have issues on the PS3 - or are just not playable - are actually really good Games!  I mean, Guitar Hero (either version) isn't playable at all, neither are any of the Ratchet and Clank Games, or half of the Final Fantasy Games from the PSone.  Sure, Final Fantasy XII is playable - but with some issues - and the same applies for the awesome Game of Okami.  Where's the justice in that?

Now sure, I can just hang onto my PS2 for a while and hope they update the list so that issues are fixed, and that new Games are made playable, but that's somewhere near 50 titles.  Yeah, I'm sure some of you out there (particularly if you're in America with a fully chipped up PS3) are saying "Just hold onto your old Console and don't worry about it - then you can play your older Games whenever you want".  OK sure, that's kinda true - but it's not the POINT here!  The PS2 was backwards-compatible with the PSOne - big selling point, as you didn't have to hold onto the other Console unless you wanted to - and Nintendo has gone to the effort with the Wii, but the other Console companies don't seem as interested in meeting that specific need. 

Yeah, I know I'm kinda ranting about it all, and I'll prolly be happier once I've got the PS3 hooked up and am fiddling around with it and checking out exactly what sort of Issues that my PSOne and PS2 Games will have on the Console.  Guess I'll just have to wait until Saturday to find out what's what, eh?  *shrug*

OK, I'm done ranting.  We now return you to your regular scheduled programming...

(Oh, and while I'm at it...  GAME ON!  :D)