PlayStation Perfection

Last Friday I got my hands on a brand new 80GB PlayStation 3, having traded in my troublesome Xbox 360. As well as the PS3, I bought GRID, Metal Gear Solid 4, Gran Tourismo 5: Prologue, an extra rumble controller, HDMI cable and a rented BluRay Movie. Here’s how I got on:

Setup

Setup was quick and very simple. Unlike the 360, the PS3 has WiFi built-in, so no expensive WiFi adapter to add-on! I simply plugged it in and hooked it up to my TV with a HDMI cable. It was just a matter of setting the clock, my username, personal info, password and network settings. I didn’t add billing information. Then I had to get the latest system update before I could register with PSN (PlayStation Network). PSN is the PS3’s online community, like XBLA (XBox Live Arcade), and allows you to play online, chat with friends, receive updates and purchase extra content. Again, unlike XBLA’s expensive annual subscription, PSN is free!

PS3 Menu

While I initially liked XBLA’s bladed menu system. It eventually became cluttered, slow and frustrating to use, though they are revamping it in time for Christmas. I wasn’t a fan of the PSP menu and so this was something I wasn’t looking forward to using. However, on first impression, it seems to be straight forward and well organised. I havent really spent enough time to judge the menu or PSN fairly just yet.

Gaming

I played GT5 initially as I am a big driving sim fan. For some reason it had to be installed on my HDD, which took a while. Once you get over the beauty of the intro movie, the game itself was a bit disappointing. I knew not to expect a completed game, but I had expected good graphics and realistic driving. Sadly, the in-game graphics were nothing special and the driving experience felt a bit dull. The collision detection is terrible. There seems to be an invisible barrier around the cars. If you hit one, you get gently bumped away. It makes for a sterile and detached driving experience.

GRID on the other hand is much more fun and looks much better. It has a lot of great looking, cool race cars and street/racing tracks from around the world. The idea is to build up your race team by competing for money for other teams and investing it into your own. There are lots of different race types (Formua 3 is especially fun). One great thing about GRID is that you get the chance to drive really nice, fast cars from the start. This breaks up the monotony of most race games, where you start with a slow car and work your way up. The driving is more arcade-like than simulation but that just adds to the fun.

I haven’t had a chance to play MGS4 just yet. More on that when I do. One thing that is worth noting is just how quiet the PS3 is. It is almost inaudible even when reading from disk, which is a major win over the vacuum cleaner that is the XBox 360.

BluRay/DVD playback

I watched a BluRay movie for the first time. My PC is also a BRD player but I never got round to renting one. The HD visuals were excellent and the playback was faultless. There was almost no noise from the PS3 itself, which is a must have feature for any DVD player.  I had rented HD movies from XBLA but even though the Disk Drive was not is use, it was still so loud as to spoil the quieter moments of the movie (not that there are many in 300).The PS3 will apparently also upscale SD DVDs, but I haven’t had the chance to try one out yet.

The PS3 controller works surprisingly well as a remote control (even in the dark). If you press a button, the menu appears on screen showing all options.

Accessories

I had always preferred the Xbox controllers over the PS controllers, but the new DualShock 3 rumble controller is very comfortable. It feels sturdy and light but the real test will be after an hour or 2 of furious game play. One disappoinment is that the USB cable that comes with it PS3 is tiny (about 4 feet). So if you run out of juice while playing, you have to sit right in front of the TV. Also, the extra controller doesn’t even come with a spare cable, which when it costs £40 is the least Sony could do. Luckily I got mine for £25 with the PS3. I bought a cheap HDMI cable as this apparently has little impact on the quality of the digital signal. As I have now replaced my standalone DVD player with the PS3, the official DVD remote control may be a worthwhile purchase.

One other point is that it is much more suited to a living room than the XBox was. It looks much better under my TV than the old beige XBox did, with its shiny black and silver good looks and it feels like a much higher quality product.

So as you can see, my first impressions are very positive. Let’s just hope it doesn’t let my down like my cruddy old XBox did.