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As someone who has been gaming since 1995, I know a little bit about the industry in general.  Recently, I decided to transition from the Xbox 360 to the PS3 (it’s not worth the cost for me right now to have both, due to financial limitations).  There were a number of factors in my decision, some against the 360, but mostly in favor of the Playstation 3.  Don’t get me wrong, the Xbox 360 is a fantastic system, for now.

Here are the Xbox 360 factors:
-Rrod problems, even if the warranty was extended (after I sold it) a system should be reliable, and for that kind of investment, I don’t expect it to break on me, and go a month without a console, and loosing of preferences/etc.
-The system was designed for 2005.  The Xbox 360 has a great 2007, and maybe 2008 to go, but looking ahead, it’s dated, and its days will show its limitations.  The lack of a next-gen drive was a factor, because games will eventually utilize the space, and multi-disc games are never quite the same.  It also lacks wifi, and a hard drive standard, as well as it’s less powerful, it will eventually get blown away by the PS3’s offerings.
-Games.   The PS3 has some great games to come, and some nice exclusives, sure the 360 is king of exclusives, and the PS3 lost some, but most of the Xbox 360 is shooters, which are great, but I prefer on the PC, or at least the PS3 allows keyboard and mouse input.  The Xbox 360 does not, and a joystick is not great for shooters.  The PS3 has racers, RPGs, etc, a variety, which I like.

Here’s what I liked about the PS3:

-Blu-ray is winning the format war, and will almost certainly win the format war.  It’s also beneficial to quality games down the road.
-Powerful hardware, with HDD standard feature
-Sixaxis can potentially be a great use
-Great variety of 3rd party, 1st party, and exclusive 3rd party games.
So now let’s talk about the PS3 hardware.  
OUT OF THE BOX:
Everything is packed nicely, comes with nice manuals, and it keeps the system nice.  The box is designed nicely, and it is heavy.  Manuals and cables all are nice looking, was disappointed I needed to purchase component cables separately, but oh well.

Xross Media Bar/PSN/Setup:
The initial setup is quick and painless.  Setting up the system with your name, etc, takes about 5 minutes.  From there, you can navigate to the specifics, and then sign up for the free Playstation Network, which takes only about another 5 minutes in itself.

System operation:
Quiet Quiet Quiet!!!  So much quieter than Xbox 360, and quieter than my Wii, which is saying something.  It’s cool when it’s off, but gets warm on the bottom right near the Blu-ray drive when on, regardless of disc operation, which means there’s likely some type of microprocessor in that area.  Solid frame, solid controller, high quality, and the blu-ray drive is quiet, even when loading the disc.
Overall rating of the hardware:  A+

GAMES:
So far I’ve started with 4 games
-Motorstorm
-Resistance:  Fall of Man
-Spiderman 3
-Gran Turismo HD Concept

Motorstorm:
Great game.  The graphics in this game are absolutely stunning.  I was truly blown away at this game, even when it runs in just 720p.  Hell, I ran it on my 480i SDTV, and it looked great.  As most of you know, it’s an off-road racing game.  I can confirm the use of Sixaxis is stupid in this game, but with the joystick it’s fun.  When you increase in difficulty, it gets harder, and can get frustrating.  Online is pretty lame.  The loading times are slow, sometimes to the point of annoyance.  I give this game a B.

Resistance:  Fall of Man:
Great shooter.  Not Gears of war, but damn close.  Graphics are good, but not the best I’ve seen on the system.  Game play is highly addictive, however.  Online is insanely good, and no lag.  Parts of the game will seem difficult, here’s the catch, in a level where you think it’s getting hard, it’s not, the game is designed very well to the point where you need to use a different weapon accurately for different situations, simply to just be successful, I liked that a lot.  This game is a B

Spiderman 3:  
Installs data at beginning, loading times are nonexistent; graphics are good except for some occasion graphical popups.  The missions are fun, but can sometimes get long, and annoying when they expect you to find or do something ridiculous, and some bosses are simply mindless button mashing, or repeating the same sequence over and over, only to miss a few times, and then fall victim to a death, and need to restart.  Overall, this game is OK, B-

Gran Turismo HD concept:
Good game, short loading times, relatively small download, and nice graphics.  A little bit of unlockables, but a lot of replay value.  A nice free game that can offer a lot of entertainment.  Once again, B.


So that’s it!  That’s my first entry into what’s hopefully a monthly, or maybe more frequently updated journal.  It’s been fun doing this, and I thank you for reading, and hope you enjoyed.  Should you have any questions, about anything, even not mentioned in this post, please, be no stranger, feel free to ask.
Regards,
sc7

Very nice indeed. It's one thing to go on a website and get the lowdown from someone you don't know, but when a member can speak openly about a system and it's games, then that means a lot more to me.

Good job with with your journal sc7.

sweet deal, cant wait for the next one

how can it be quieter than the Wii? My Wii doesn't make any noise at all...how loud is your Wii?

Are you serious about the component cables? That sucks.

Is the PS3 controller as hefty as the PS2 controller?

My wii has an ever so faint sound of the fan, about equivelent to the sound of the PS3 fan. However, the Wii drive, while almost quiet, is louder than the PS3 drive. Do you have a launch/close to launch Wii like me?

Yes, the component cable situation is unfortunate, considering this is supposed to be the Ultimate Hi-def machine, and the 360 had them a year before.

As far as the controller goes, it's the same feel, except for the triggers, but it's a little lighter to hold.

Keep the questions coming guys

question sc7...were there any particular games at E3 07, that looked like something you'd want to have for the PS3. I mean there are so many games we've heard so much about like MGS4, but were there any surprise games that sparked your interest?

i've decided later on in mid 2008 i'll get a PS3. reading this just made it concreate. nice job.

Well, I for one, am interested in Warhawk, but my interest in Socom, Killzone 3, and LittleBigPlanet definitely rose. I'm also far more excited about home. As for new titles, I'll have to do more reading, I really didn't watch too much E3 coverage yet.

@FELX

Thank you. It is a great system, and it will be a good decision.

Great journal! Quick question though; were there any aspects of the PS3 you found negative?

Yes, a few.

1. The Games selection is still a little anemic for AAA games, although not as bad as said, and still better than the Wii selection, IMO.
2. It does run warm, bothers me a little.
3. Scratches easy, and is a magnet for dust.
4. Media integration is not as tight with Windows Vista as Xbox 360 was, but I never really used it all that much.

That's all off the top of my head. If I think of more, I'll list them.

have you considered purchasing one of those PS3 Intercooler?

Not really, as I've read, and it seems personally that it's efficient enough in dispersing the heat. Additionally, I've heard of problems intercoolers have caused on other consoles. If in the future i see some evidence to suggest that it may help, I would definitely consider it though.

As it is with all systems, eventually the PS3 will get small components internally and chips will run cooler, so any kind of heat will be lessened. This might not help you out right now, but it will help out future PS3 owners.

Ah yes, but im deerly holding on to my PS3 which contains that precious EE.GS hybrid chip.

I rarely play PS2 games and never play PS1 games, so the chip doesn't mean much to me, but if I get a hankerin' for some GH I can always just plug in my PS2 and have at it

That's the thing, my PS2 went out right before I got my 360 (kept the games, but never planned on replacing it), so it's a treat. Plus the upscaling works very well.

Heavenly Sword demo in NA this week too/source

I can't wait for you to download this demo sc7 and give us your impressions of it.  

I will absolutely write a little up about that and the 1.9 firmware release. I'm playing catchup, went overnight to ride some rollercoasters at a theme park near me, and I came back to a whole bunch of cool tech/game news. I've been waiting for this demo.

do you have any local places where you can rent PS3 games?