Gamer's Perspective

Does the PS3 live up to all the hype it got from its initial mention in E3 a few years back? I remember sitting on my coach to hear the news roll into my ears. Needless to say I was ecstatic, “Another PS3 with an experimental processor called the Cell Processor…. Hurray…!” I thought. Sadly, it trips a little short in my expectations, but that doesn’t mean it’s utterly a horrid system.

THE SYSTEM:

Sony’s Playstation 3 isn’t that bad by itself, if you can get past the $600 price tag (for the complete package) it carries. The system is built really solid it doesn’t feel flimsy or easily broken. There isn’t anything that feels like it would break off if you accidentally or intentional hit it. Plus it looks really sleek and designs extremely nicely, but that’s not why you are buying it are you? At least I hope you aren’t. Setting it up is a breeze and getting into the interface is simple.

The interface itself looks very similar to the one the PSP uses. Simply pressing the d-pad left or right will move you to each of the categories. From there you can use the up or down buttons on the d-pad to view the options under each category.

THE GAMING:

The guts of the system are made of the famous cell processor and RXS. During gaming it performs extremely well and yet experienced any lag while gaming. As far as the graphics are concerned, I can’t really say for sure because of the first generation of games released for it, simply, they aren’t very impressive. They feel too much like the xbox 360’s graphics in essence.

One of the biggest problems I see with the console is that for the price tag it has the launch titles are sub par at best. Many of them don’t let the true potential of the system shine. I find myself playing Playstation 2 titles more then the Playstation 3’s launch titles. Is that entirely Sony’s fault, no, but an effort could have been made to refine the games.

This brings me to another problem I have with the consoles. It doesn’t come with a slot for your old memory cards which pretty much forces you to buy the adapter. I may be speaking for myself, but when I pay $600 for the bundle I expect the adapter to be included along with the HDMI cabal, which is sadly missing too.

THE NETWORKING:

The Playstation Online Store uses the wallet system allowing a “master account” to provide funds for the wallet and allow every account to spend the funds in the store buying games. However, be advised when downloading demos it takes a long long time for it to complete.

The really glory of networking with the Playstation is the Bluetooth the console comes enabled with allowing you to connect to your PSP system or a Bluetooth headset or keyboard and mouse. In addition, it picked up several of the USB devices I plugged into it even my MP3 player, unfortunately not all of them work and for some the data can’t be read even though the console knows what it is.

THE SIXAXIS CONTOLLER:

These controllers are pretty nice compared to my original belief. They are exactly like the dual-shock controller of the PS2 generation. I haven’t been able to play with its motion activity yet, but the thing I love about the controller is it comes with a rechargeable internal battery. That can be charged via plugging the controller into the console with the USB cable that comes included. You can still use the Sixaxis why’ll its still charging. The biggest problem with the controller is that Sony took out the rumble feature, which is disappointing.

REVIEWER'S FINAL IMPRESSIONS:

The PS3 has had a lot of problems because of system’s horrible launch. I feel however that it is still worth a buy in time when we can see what the true potential for the system will be in the future. It has a lot of potential I feel, but Sony got a little too greedy and tripped themselves up during this generation cycle.

The System…… 7 / 10

The Gaming…....5 / 10

The Networking…….7.5 / 10

The Sixaxis Controller……..8.7 / 10

My Final Score is a 7.0

Scott Peek Contributing Writer Gamer's Perspective