March 23, 2007. I was waiting out in the freezing cold, with a cold, at 9pm for the midnight launch of the Playstation 3. I got home finally, downloaded the firmware update (Torture; it look ages) and played a bit of Genji: Days of the Blade. Sadly, I had to work the next morning so i stopped, went to bed, went to work, came home and I have barely stopped playing since. I can safely say that the Playstation 3 is one of the most expensive things i’ve ever bought and im 100% pleased with it. Though, obviously it does have a few flaws. Not massive ones but some. This review will look at the PS3 in an un-biased (I’ll try) manor.

The Playstation 3 Console itself

There’s no denying it. It’s huge. The thing is a massive finger-print, dust-attracting cinder block.
Its dramatic size is because of the new technology of course and the size is reduced if you stick it on its side. It features a nice black finish with the beautiful metallic shiny strip which runs down the front. Complete with heat-sensitive buttons this machine sure is a sexy thing.

When I got it home and released how big it was, I thought about the heat output. I thought that it was going to be drastically loud and boil over as you’d expect a new, bulky console to do. This, however, wasn’t the case. The turn on “rev” is about as loud as its going to get. It has a nice smooth, quiet hum when its idle and even during game play it remains a gentle hum. In my experience (4 days of gameplay) the system doesn’t get any louder than its idle state. I was playing two in a room at the time and both idle with no music or sound effects hardly made any noise and I was pretty impressed. As for the heat issue, much like the noise, it isn’t one. Of course the Playstation 3 does get a little warm which is expected, it is no where near an overheat or, in comparison to the Xbox 360, a blaze of fiery hell. Touching the exhaust vent is a strange feeling. The plastic feels cool but the air coming out of it feels warm. This is because instead of using fans to blow air around to cool it down, it sucks in cold air and ejects hot air, which contributes to the noise deduction. The combo of the two is very successful at keeping the machine nice and cool and reading to pump out those stunning visuals. I have left mine on for 3 of the 4 nights I’ve had it and its either been downloading or folding, and yes, it remained the same temperature for the whole 3 days.

At the bottom of the front of the console below where the on/off button and Blu-Ray eject button are is a little plastic door which can be opened to reveal 3 memory card slots. Memory Stick Duo Pro, SD/Mini SD and CF slots. These are really useful for getting data from your PC like music, pictures and MPEG-4 videos onto your Playstation 3. Personally I use my PSP to put the Memory stick in, set it to USB mode, chuck the stuff on the card, take it out the PSP and put it in the PS3 again and copy over the files. It’s quite a simple, easy way of getting data from your computer to your Playstation, so the ports are quite useful. It also has 4 standard USB ports on the front for connecting your Controller to charge, your PSP to register/transfer files and anything else you might want to use on your PS3 via USB like a webcam.

The Interface

As you may, or may not know, the PSP works directly with the PS3. This is the reason behind the PS3 using the XMB (Xross media bar) which looks almost exactly like the PSP’s. I, personally, really like the system. I think it can hold alot of different files and options, in a easy to understand and use, navigation bar. There’s alot of things you can do like the friends list, PLAYSTATION(R)Store, music, video, settings, Folding@Home and a load of other stuff. The whole system looks nice, clean and tidy and makes it impossible for you to misplace a file.

Playstation Network

The Playstation Network offers you a variety of things to do. You can use remote play, sign into your Playstation Network account which allows you to Voice Chat/message your contacts, view the Playstation store and download free (where available) content, or buy extra content. It also offers Folding@Home which we reported earlier, a protein folding process powered by everyone’s PS3 to help look for a cure for diseases such as cancers. The only thing really wrong with this is that there’s no in-game chat which I would have liked. Maybe pause the game and have a quick chat with your friend or answer a message instead of having to quit altogether and loosing your progress if you’re no where near a save point. (I speak from experience)

The included extras

Wireless Bluetooth SIXAXIS controller

The Wireless Bluetooth SIXAXIS controller is a little strange at first sight. Its lighter (Though not all that much) has funny-lookin, and feeling, L2 and R2 buttons, and of course is wireless. It’s very easy to connect and setup and while it feels weird wondering where the wire has done for the first while, it gets easier. At first I wasn’t sure if I liked the new buttons. It was a bit annoying to fold down during Motorstorm and the weapon change system in Resistance: Fall of man uses its sensitivity to change weapons, so when you tap it you change gun, but if you hold it down you view information about the gun you currently have equipped… but if you tap it too hard, which is what i keep doing, you end up seeing a quick flash of the little paragraph about your current weapon instead of changing to the L.A.R.K Rocket Launcher, and you know you’re gunna want to get that out. I’m still not used to it in Resistance, and I dont know if I will be by the end of the game, but im used to it in Motorstorm. Again the sensitivity is used to control your speed in Motorstorm…wait…control your speed in Motorstorm…? Nah. Hold that button right down! As for SIXAXIS, its really good fun if its used properly. Motorstorm uses it to steer the car which is great fun. It’s hard and maybe left for Rally Cars and Big Rigs rather than Bikes which is nearly impossible, but it is good fun. It can be toggled on and off by simply pressing start in-race and setting motion sensing to “No” or changing it in the game settings to change the default setting. While it is used well in Motorstorm, other games don’t use it as well as they could have. While I can’t think of another reason of how to use the SIXAXIS, Genji: Days of the Blade doesn’t use it well at all. All it’s used for is dodging, rather than moving the much easier and more sensitive analogue stick you have to thrust the controller. So, the idea sounds cool, physically having to move out of the way of the drunken enemies who bombard you, but in reality it isn’t. The sensitivity must have been turned right down because you pretty much have to throw the controller out the window to get Benkei to move his ass out of the way of a samurai sword destined for his head. If the SIXAXIS motion was turned up for Genji: Days of the Blade maybe I would have turned it on, but after 5 mins of playing I turned it right off again.

60GB HDD

60 GB. Brilliant. Not much to say about the HDD really. It loads nice and quickly and has a lot of storage space. A cool feature I really liked was being able to “Install” games onto it. At the moment, I believe that only Genji: Days of the Blade uses this option and it works excellently. In the main menu you choose “Install” and it writes about 2GB of data onto your Hard Drive which is used to load alot of the game off the HDD rather than the slower loading disc. Doing this in Genji cuts the load times from around 10 seconds to a shocking 2-3 seconds. A very big jump and a very impressive one. I hope they use this feature again because it really did cut the load time extremely.

Built in Wi-Fi

Again, there isn’t much to say about this. Wireless internet is very easy to setup and should take you less than a minute. With no extras needed to be purchased like an adapter or a membership you can find your wireless internet connection simply and easily and be online straight away. The connection is nice and fast and im yet to see any lag while playing the two games I did play online. (Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm, which I have played quite a bit online.)

Built in Blu-Ray Player

As you may or may not know, Playstation 3 uses Blu-Ray discs, a Sony format, for its games and movies. This is because they can store huge quantities of data on a single disc. (up to 200GB, though a standard game/movie is 50GB) The Blu-Ray player on the Playstation 3 is of the highest quality. Casino Royale looked glorious in HD, as did Genji: Days of the Blade. Both sound and picture quality were superb and I cant wait to get an HD TV myself (Sadly, I tested this on my Grandad’s — rich bastard :P) and play all my games and watch all my movies in the stunning High Definition that the Playstation 3 provides. Blu-Ray players can retail from as “little” as £699.99 where the PS3 is a mere chuck of that (£425), and its more than a Blu-Ray player, in the same way that its more than a games console. I know I’d rather spend £699.99 on a PS3 and as many games as you can get for £700 than a standard Blu-Ray player for sure.

 SCORE

Appearance: 9/10 — While big and chucky, the shiny finish and beautiful solver stripe makes the console look damn sex.

 Interface: 9/10 — Very easy to sort and search through like the Playstation Portable. Only flaw with it really is that we can set our own backgrounds yet, when we can this will jump to a 10/10, I have no complains about it whatsoever.

Playstation Network: 9/10 — The Playstation Network is excellent, all we need now is a few more demos and in-game chat.

SIXAXIS controller: 9/10 — Defiantly and improvement, but no rumble (which I don’t mis too much, surprisingly but some people do) and odd R2 and L2 buttons make it different, but not bad by any means. It has a nice posh design with a long battery life and the motion support can be a good bit of fun where used correctly.

60GB HDD: 10/10 — Not one complaint. Lots of space, quick load times and install feature make this a great addition.

Wi-Fi: 10/10 — As good as Wi-Fi can be. Easy setup, nice a fast. (Depending on your connection, obviously)

Blu-Ray: 10/10 — Better than DVD in all areas. More disc space means more, longer graphics intense games. Bring them on.

Graphics: *Game varies* — From what ive played, the graphics have jumped from amazingly detailed with loads on screen and no slow-down (Genji: Days of the Blade, Motorstorm) to standard, nothing shockingly good but still with alot of motion on screen a big maps. (Resistance: Fall of man) However, as a whole, seeing the best graphics game ive played (Only in 720p sadly) the graphics were stunning and very next-gen. For seperate reviews of the graphics in each game, check out our game reviews for more information.

 OVERALL SCORE

I give the Playstation 3 as a whole: 9.5/10. It gets pretty much everything right. There are a few flaws which can easily be updated via Firmware updates, but thats no real issue. If you like gaming then what are you waiting for? This is the best console I have ever played (Yes, Ive played Xbox 360 and Wii) and im glad I got it. In my honest opinion it’s worth the money. Email me with your comments and questions, id like to hear about some of your experiences are your views.