Playstation 3 – The lo down II

Alrighty people, next up in my system check we got the PS3, the ominous obelisk of tech. How will it pan in my judgmental eye, read on a find out.

Strengths: Ok first thing first this is one powerful machine (maybe the most powerful console on the market). Everything looks very real, it’s almost surreal; and of course if you got a HD-TV and surround sound system you’re golden. The next thing they got going for themselves is Blu ray capability. This may not seem like much now, but thanks to both Toshiba for discontinuing the production of HD DVD players and Time Warner for supporting only Blu ray disks (staring in June) for there movies, Blu ray will be the style of player in the future (or at least the majority in the world entertainment market). By buying a PS3 you would be killing two birds with one stone. In my opinion the best feature of this system it the backward compatibilities of the PS3; all you need to do is download the backward compatible data from the ‘PlayStation Network’ (The full online service which is free by the by, take that Xbox live) to your PS3 and play nearly any PS1 & 2 game you have. This blows the crap out of the 360’s backward compatibilities which is still behind even after 2 + years of life (again, take that).

Weakness: Despite having a legendary pedigree, the PS3 has not been popular for one reason and one reason only: pricing. Back when it first hit the stores they are priced at $600 a console ($500 for the ‘cheap’ one). Who has that kind of money just lying around?! Really! Now it would be almost worth it if they had well organized launch titles ready but no; 90% crap all that awaited those unfortunate enough to have bought PS3 during that time. Well I’m glad to say that the state of things improved for Sony and their cursed-mark console; if only slightly. They reduced the console’s price low enough($400 new) to be affordable to more people than just the Prince of Wales. Also the game line up has finally started to pick up steam with titles like: Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The last cross for PS3 to bear is that it’s online (although free) is lacking; a sort of stripped down version of Xbox live. Of course Sony swears up and down that ‘PlayStation Home’ will change all that (and should be ready in a couple of months) hopefully.

Overall: In my opinion the Playstation 3 is the machine of the future; it’s only a matter of time. However presently it’s still the low man on the totem poll; in fact I had to weight my options careful before deciding on buying one myself. In the end I did so three simple reasons:

1. I wouldn’t be a very good Game Pundit if I didn’t have the ability to review all major gaming platforms (Expect for PSP, don’t get me started).

2. The evidence above (plus more all over the web) show that Sony will not let its most profitable cash cow die; the games are coming, the (Playstation) network is improving, and the pricing will be adjusted accordantly (although not low enough to cause the Wii to sweat).

3. The Playstation 1 and 2 libraries as a whole is still playable; it even can play damage disks (some, not all).

So my advice to you all is this console will earn it’s keep in 2010 but you can afford to wait in 2008. Just make sure you keep an eye out for the good deals, you can get these systems cheap with patience and planning.