I finally managed to set up my PS3 sometime around 10pm last night. I didn't play any games, but I did pop in Advent Children Complete to see how the Blu-ray player worked and performed; I'm not disappointed. This morning, however, I broke out LBP and from there, I was able to possess some first impressions of the console in general.

The PS3 looks great on my desk and as far as the XMB is concerned, it's just like the PSP's...so I already knew my way around and was glad to see things just about the same. Also, I'm loving the L2 and R2 buttons. That was an interesting discovery at first, lol! The only serious problem I'm having at the moment is my inability to connect wirelessly to the internet. Connecting to the internet from any location upstairs has typically been an ordeal full of frustration, simply because the router is all the way in the study, which is the room downstairs farthest from any location upstairs. No matter where I go, the signal must pass through at least a couple walls before it reaches me. Laptops, for whatever reason, seem to have no trouble at all getting a signal, albeit a "Poor" one, but you really wouldn't know that unless you looked; internet service on our laptops is really great...unless you try to use more than one simultaneously. Then it becomes a game of "internet signal strength tug of war". I could really go on and on about how much the internet generally sucks at my house, but suffice it to say, the desktop computer I have in my room has a very hot-cold relationship with the wireless internet and as I waited for the PS3 to arrive, I actually prayed that it too would have similar problems. Why? Because if it was just my computer having the issues, then I wouldn't know where to begin to try to remedy the problem. Thankfully, between the laptops' good but literally poor signal, my computer's hot-cold thing, the fact my DS lite can never connect to the internet, and my PSP can only connect to the internet from my room when it's pointing through my closet towards the study (and can only reliably download PSN media if it's sitting in the study, right next to the dang router), even if it was just my computer having the severe problems, I'd still go and call our internet provider. I've held off for a while because I've been able to just steal a laptop for internet use when my comp's been internet-dead and I don't download much onto my PSP. BUT, now that I've got the PS3 and there's boatloads of DLC I wish to download and much online gaming to be had (save for WoW, I've yet to experience online gaming. I'm kind of excited.), the time is now for action! I may call Verizon before the day is done.

Getting back to LBP, it really does feel like a proper sequel to me, since I experienced the PSP version before experiencing this one.

• There are three layered planes instead of two.
• Graphics, obviously, are greatly improved.
• You can see, both in the level select screen and in the pause menu, exactly which objects, decorations, stickers, and costume parts you've picked up in each level, in addition to specifically how many such items you've still got to try to find in each level. This feature does not exist in the PSP game and when I first discovered this in the PS3 game this morning, I screamed in elation. Media Molecule took this out for the portable version?! WHY?! At least now I'll know how much I still need to hunt down and, if I ever wish to, I can go back and check out where I found certain items.

I also earned my first four trophies and that was pretty neat. I like how when you win one, a very subtle gray box temporarily appears up in the top right corner. It doesn't tell you what you did to get the trophy, but you can learn that later. While I enjoyed getting the trophies, I really don't think I'm going to go crazy collecting trophies. I've experienced WoW achievements, you see, and after hunting obsessively to rack up a large achievement point score in that game (World Explorer, Loremaster, Seeker...just to name a few of the more ridiculously time-consuming ones), I really don't want to be like that again. I'll get the ones I can get and that's it. It's still fun that way. In the XMB, there's a way to check out your Trophy Collection by game. That is really cool. I can see the percentage of trophies earned in a game, the distribution of platinum to gold to silver to bronze, and more specifically, the name, caliber, and task of each trophy, along with the date and time you earned each. I knew there was going to be a place to check out your collection, but I honestly didn't think it was going to be this extensive.

I also noticed that it's possible to have different users. Is this how it's possible to have different people have different saves on games, since there's no such thing as a PS3 memory card? If so, that's neat. I can just make a new user when I want to replay a game from the beginning, I guess (am I right here?). Haven't found a way to delete a user yet, though.

Something else I haven't figured out yet is how to add people to my Friends List. All I have under Friends at the moment is something called the Message Box. I want to add all your IDs, but I don't know how! :? [Dur. Just did a little online research and found out I need to be signed into my PSN account in order to add friends. Makes sense. Looks like I'll have to wait a little while to add you all myself. But you can all go ahead and add me. The account is made, so you shouldn't get any "User does not exist" messages or whatever, heheh.]

Well, that's all I've got for now. I'm gonna check out Pacific Rift next. I'm stoked.

EDIT: So I'm at work now, but I did spend half an hour or so trying out Pacific Rift. My primary conclusion? I presently suck at the game. That's "suck", as in S-U-"couldn't get higher than 12th place out of 16"-"kept crashing into everything I could find to crash into"-C-K. But you know what? I'd be totally lying through my face if I said it wasn't an absolute blast. I don't care if I never earn a single trophy or ever make it to even Rank 5; this game is so much fun to play. Racers scattered on the course, taking all kinds of routes, never knowing if you're going to get smooshed by a monster truck coming down from a ramp or taken out by a fallen tree branch you never saw coming because you were keeping your eyes on the other racers for a split second too long. With no powerups whatsoever, all you haveare your skills as a driver to keep you on the track and inching ever closer towards first place. I love it. Bottom line: It only took half an hour (technically, less than that) to turn years of beloved Mario Kart racing into nothing but a series of colorful kiddie bumper car matches (how AWESOME would it be if crashing in MK caused your racer to be propelled out of their seat into the air like crashes do in MSPR! Now that would be an evolution in the series, heheheh.).