Early impressions of the PS3

[Haly]

Thanks to the impending doom feeling at the realisation that I'm mostly immobile for the next 6-8 weeks (broken foot for those who didn't know), finding a good deal and the fact I worked bloody hard for the last few weeks and also ebayed quite a few games, I bought myself a PS3 to keep me sane for a while.

So I thought in my typical, 'I can't stop writing about something' nature, I'd list up some early impressions of it. Do bear in mind this is coming from someone used to a 360 so I'm looking at it from a slightly different perspective than people who have it as their first console of this generation.

As soon as I opened it, I have to admit to being most impressed by the PS3 in terms of looks. I know it's a very personal thing, but it looked like I'd spent money on it. I love my 360, but the off white plastic style just looks cheap imo. Perhaps hypocritically I liked the Wii's looks upon opening the box but I think a lot of that was down to its size. The PS3 is huge! Which is not good for me at the moment as I was having to rely on my Mum with her bad back and permanent neck injury to lift it for me, in the end the box got dragged into the living room and dumped by the TV. It's now residing on the floor at least until I can switch casts and be able to move it.

I did have to laugh that as soon as I opened it, I thought 'ooh shiny' and within a nanosecond a fingerprint and a bit of dust landed on it, ruining it forever Reminded me of first getting my iPhone I love the buttons though, I've not had a proper look (as it's now near impossible for me to get to!) but I like touch sensitive buttons. My TV has the same so I guess I'm biased. Slot loading disc drive is nice too, purely a looks thing again but I like it.

Having wireless built in is brilliant at the moment. No ethernet cables go to that room so I wouldn't have been able to go online on it until I got it upstairs in weeks to come, so it was very handy.

I'm still a little unsure about the controller. It is the perfect size for me and I like the weight of it and not needing a play n charge kit because it comes with its own way of doing it, but I'm mostly unsure about the L2 and R2 buttons. The triggers feel wrong and a little flimsy, after 2 days use I seem to have adjusted though. I was worried the controller was a bit flimsy overall, but after resting it on the armrest then accidentally elbowing it halfway across the room (meaning I had to go call my Mum from upstairs to retrieve it for me, oops ), I'll forgive its flimsiness as it can't be that bad

Installing games and updates is a bit irritating. The first game I installed was Ghostbusters and it took forever! System updates take a while too and I know it has the iTunes way of 'patching' things so it'll just get bigger.

I've only watched one blu-ray yet (X-Men: The Last Stand) but the picture seemed very crisp, even my Mum noticed it. Really quite impressed with the picture, even the menus on the PS3 look crisper than I expected! It's not even on the better TV as my TV is better than the living room one, so be interesting to see what it looks like on there.

I've only played two games so far. I have the lovely problem of not being able to get down to the PS3 to switch discs, so once one disc goes in, I commit to it I got Ghostbusters with the console so that went first. Really enjoyed it, it is flawed in places, but it kept me hooked to the end (it is a bit short, only took 6-7hrs if that), and has a great charm to it. Ghostbusters fans will love it.

Just started Uncharted and it's fun so far. Not quite what I expected, I expected it to be more like Tomb Raider, which it is in places; but there is also a lot more combat than I anticipated. Still good though, and the graphics are sublime.

So overall, I'm very impressed so far. Be interesting to see what happens when the 360 and PS3 are side by side but that's going to be a fair while yet till it happens, and admittedly once I can walk again, I think I might not go near a game for a while

Oh and huge thanks to Nokkon for lending me loads of his blu-rays and games, really great of you
Any suggestions for PS3 exclusives that I should check out, please let me know people. I currently only have Uncharted and Killzone 2, although borrowed Nokkon's Ratchet and Clank, Heavenly Sword and Little Big Planet.

I really want Valkyrie Chronicles but I'm restricted to my local Blockbuster (both financially and physically, got credit there and I can't hop far!) and they don't have it. Bah!

And finally, sorry for the length. You can tell I have nothing better to do