The complete entertainment system

Author's Rating:

Pros: Blu-Ray Player
Most Powerful System
Free Online Play
Complete Multi-media center

Cons: Cost
Only 2 USB ports

The Bottom Line: 
Sony relased the most complete entertainment system to date. Strongly recommend to the competition.

Author's Review
There are currently two seventh generation consoles. On one hand, you have the XBox 360; the other, the Sony Playstation 3 (PS3). While the Xbox 360 was first to the market, the PS3 is a complete package.

The PS3 has a nice, slim design. It's slightly smaller than most Blu-Ray players I've seen, but larger than DVD players. The system can be layed on its side (vertical positioning) or flat (the more traditional setup). Regardless of setting it up on its side or flat, the system still functions without issues. When inserting discs, the system has an auto feed. Past systems (like the SEGA CD and Sony DVD-Rom drives I've installed in computers) can break over time. I have concerns that later down the line, games and discs may be stuck in the drive. The PS3 features two USB ports on the front side (the original model featured 4 ports). Video outputs include both Component (RGB and YUV) as well as HDMI. The PS3 supports an optical audio output for high quality surround sound. From a basic design standpoint, the exterior of the PS3 is a decent system.

The PS3 controllers are just as I recall PS2 controllers. The major difference is the Playstation button. This sends you to the PS3's system menu. From here, you can access features and sign players in under their console bounded ID's. The R2 and L2 triggers are now pressure sensitive. Racing games like Burnout Paradice force players to use the triggers as opposed to the old dual analog control for racing. According to the designers, the PS3's controls are much more sensitive than the PS2's; however, I haven't noticed much difference. The controllers are just as comfortable as before. The standard PS3 controller is now wireless using Bluetooth technology. This works well and does not require frequent charging unless you use the rumble/force feedback. Just like the Wii controller, the first party Sony controllers have a built-in accelerometer. While most games do not use this feature, Little Big Planet can be amusing when twisting and turning your controller to manipulate your character.

What matters most about the PS3 isn't the outside, but the capabilities. The PS3 is a multimedia hub for your living room.

Audio
The PS3 features MP3, WMA, and other common audio format compatibility. Just like the XBox and XBox 360, CD music can be ripped to your internal Hard Drive (HDD). If you are using Windows Vista or later, you can transfer your music from your PC to your PS3 through your local ethernet. I found this very useful and preferable to ripping each CD to my system. Playback works just like the PSP, where you select the Music option from the home screen, then play the music. Sadly, unlike Windows Media Player, the PS3 does not sort by album/song in easy to read groupings. The PS3 forces a tree view, so to find an album by Aqua, you'd need to go under A when sorting by artist. If the song is someone else featuring Aqua, you'll have to know who the other group was to find it. Sorting by genre isn't as useful either; especially since genres can vary. One of my CD's is a single artist, but broken down into 3 different genres. The PS3 doesn't handle sorting this very well.

Video
The PS3 supports a number of Video formats (including DivX). Like music, you can transfer videos from your computer to your PS3 across your local network. The video playback depends on the source file. I have managed to transfer DVD's to my PS3's HDD. This means less time searching for movies I want to see. Storing movies on the PS3 can be space consuming. Especially HD videos. The PS3 supports playback of videos with chapters. This means that a properly segmented video can be played and users can skip to scenes.

To enhance the experience, the Playstation Store sells movies for rent or to own. Most movies are $15 for the Standard Definintion (SD) version and $20 for the High Definition (HD) version. PS3 owners can also rent movies through the Playstation Network (PSN) for $3 (SD) or $4 (HD). I find the local grocery store is cheaper than renting through PSN; however, for those out in the country without a local store, it may be the preferrable choice to driving an hour into town. As far as purchasing films through PSN, I would rather own the Blu-Ray or DVD version of the film. This way, I'm not limited to playback on my PS3 only and can watch the films in my laptop or other media playing devices.

The video library is sorted by alphabetical order or jumbled together. Because I generally store less movies on my PS3 than music, their lack of enhanced sorting doesn't bother me much. It works for what it is, while doing the least amount possible.

Blu-Ray Playback
Unlike the XBox 360, the PS3 plays both DVDs and Blu-Rays. Just like the PS2, you can use the controller for playback. It takes a little getting used to, but once you have it down, the standard control pad works just fine for playback. You an purchase a separate remove for using the PS3 as a Blu-Ray Player; however, I can't merit spending $25 for this product. The PS3 supports Blu-Ray 2.0 format. This includes web content and youtube videos. I find that the PS3 has significantly less loading time than most other Blu-Ray players I've seen. Swift loading makes watching movies slightly less of a process.

The downside with Blu-Ray playback is using SD composite cables (the Yellow, Red, and White cables). Because of the lower resolution, most Blu-Ray menus will be blurry. If you do not have an HD television, you won't see the full benefit from your PS3. Sadly, the PS3 comes with the SD cables and not HD cables. I recommend a quick shopping session on Amazon to pick up the HD cables (Red, Green, Blue plus Red and White) for 720p HD. To go full HD (1080p), you can purchase an HDMI for your PS3. This will cost a bit more, but the end resolution is noticable.

Internet
The PS3 features a built-in internet browser. If you want to view the web, use a computer. The internet browser works well with Youtube, but fails on other websites with flash video. Despite the 720p resolution on my display, the PS3 only displays a small portion of the website. Much smaller than my laptop which displays at 1400x700. This has been frustrating, so I generally don't use the web browser on the PS3.

Gaming (Blu-Ray)
The majority of PS3 titles are sold in Blu-Ray format. The first benefit is the amount of content that can fit on a Blu-Ray. Roughly 80 Gigabytes (GB) of data can be stored on Blu-Ray media as opposed to the 40GB of data on HD-DVD's. Initial release titles were rendered in 720p (low HD) while more recent titles are rendered in 1080p (full HD). The PS3's library ranges from family titles (like Buzz and High School Musical) to hard core games (like Unreal Tournament). Following in suite with the PS2, Sony continues to bring on new publishers and encourage games in every genre. Sony's Achilles heel is their late arrival in the market. Second place means that the XBox 360 has a much larger library. Despite this, the PS3 has the best of the ports and a few solid first party titles (like SOCOM and Gran Turismo). A major benefit of the PS3 over the XBox 360 is the no-cost PSN. Rather than shelling out $60 a year to play against others online, just hop on and play. Gaming (Downloadable Content)
The XBox 360 features a number of games that can simply be downloaded through Live. PSN offers quite a bit of Downloadable Content (DLC) for your system including many full version games. Many demos can be downloaded of both Blu-Ray titles and DLC titles. I rather enjoy this because it gives players a chance to try before you buy. I'm disappointed that you can't set items to download while you are playing a Blu-Ray game or watching a movie. To avoid waiting, I generally leave my PS3 on overnight to download applications.

The downloadable games range from old arcade titles (like Mortal Kombat II) to original games (like Zombie Apocalypse). Some of the games are fun, while others are marginal. I recommend downloading demos before you commit to purchasing a title from the PSN. Publishers are also rereleasing old titles with new graphics. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turties: Turtles in Time Reshelled is a remake of the old Arcade game with stylized 2D graphics and 3D characters. I thought about purchasing Capcom's Bionic Commando: Rearmed, but after playing the demo, I found the game to be much less appealing than the trailors made it look. Furthering the collection includes games like Dinner Dash, Street Fighter HD, and even Bomberman Ultra. There are more games than you'll have HDD space for on the PSN.

Random Features
I don't get it, but the PS3 features a Sims like game called Playstation Life. Walking around and meeting people in another Second Life style game just wasn't that appealing to me. Sony added the ability to let your PS3 donate compute cycles to a supercomputer researching a cure for cancer. I enjoyed "I Am Legend" as much as the next guy, but I don't really care to just leave my PS3 running and chewing up bandwidth for such a thing. There's a news and weather option on the PS3 that doesn't amount to much more than an "added value" feature. I looked at this, but don't expect to use it ever.

Other Comments
I like that the PS3 supports USB mouses and keyboards. This makes navigating the Playstation Store much easier.With only two USB ports, PS3 owners will have to purchase a USB hub to support more than 2 players when using wired controllers. The PS3 allows players to reassign controllers by using the Playstation button. This way, if I pick up a controller that assigns itself as player 4, I can reassign it to player 1 to ensure I am using the default profile for scoring.

Overall
I enjoy being a PS3 owner. The system still runs $300, but I lucked out on mine. While games run the standard $60, the DLC games off set this at an average of $10 each. The PS3 is the complete multimedia center for home users. I would strongly recommend owning one. I wasn't keen on enduring multiple updates when I first set up my PS3, but after those, it's a nice experience.

I strongly recommend the PS3 to the 360 or Wii. If you're looking for a complete entertainment center, here it is. If you want the best graphics and sound, PS3 has it. If you don't want to shell out money for a Blu-Ray player and a console, PS3 is the answer. With a built-in Wifi connection, you can take your system pretty much anywhere and connect for play.