My Review of the Ps3 after a month and a half

[JamesJ]

Well I will keep this as short as possible-straight and to the point. I will not review the Blu ray aspect, as this is the video games forum, but if people want my opinon of that I will give it later.

I was fortunate enough to find the Ps3 on Ebay at a really really good price, a couple weeks after it had been released. The gentleman I had bought it off of had mislisted it, and it wasnt getting that many hits, anyways he had sold another 60 gig earlier for 1200, and instead of fighting me for a couple hundred bucks, he just sent it to me. I was excited, I thought it would blow me away. and for the most part I was pretty happy, I bought resistance, which looked just okay (I will explain later) and Nba 2k7 which was ALOT of fun. I set up the ps3, and felt the heat being kicked out, which is better then being in the system I guess....so here comes my review

setup:easy as pie, Walks you through everything, and went farily quickly, after I had downloaded the first firmware update, I was at the (dashboard?). It was the same as what was in the Psp, which is good as it was fairly easy to navagaite, except, they really threw big terms which I had no idea what they meant. There was cross color reduction, and a whole bunch of other options which I wasnt sure if I should turn on or off, or what....so they could have done a little better job there, but like i said everything was fairly easy to find.

Controller-Okay I will be Honest I LOVE the Dual shock controller, I think it is a very nice controller, and the sixaxis being the same is a nice one as well...many people complaining it was too light, well in my opinion are wrong as I found it very comfortable, and easy to use. I was very happy with this controller, until Playing NBA 2k7 and my player just keep running with the ball, not responding to anything. My controller dosent always disconnect like that but it does happen, and I will say this, I would be very upset if I was in a hot game of Halo and my controller became disconnected as I am very very competitive. Also since the last update I havent notice it do it, wether its fixed or I just havent noticed is two seperate things, as we have played Madden and my friend said he kept pressing the buttong and nothing happen allowing me to get a sack .

Games-selection is too small right now, but resistance is a blast, and I love my Madden.

Overall experience. Everything has been pretty positive so far, but I am going to tell you why I want to chuck this thing out the window, and i have been very vocal about this lately....NO FREAKING SCALER. I want to see resistance in all its glory as that game has a lot to offer, but nope not going to happen. Sony has stated that they are looking into it, but they are going to push developers to offer full HD, so Motorstorm comes out next month, and guess what 720p, I am afraid alot of games are going to be like that. Also when I pop in a dvd it changes resoloution like 3-4 times, its annoying as I am going to go the menu, it changes res. start to play the DVD, change the res. Now how do I know it changes the res. because it makes my screen go blurry for 2-3 seconds while it does it. I do enjoy the Ps3, but this will be the reason I will not be owning it for very much longer, I thought for sure at Ces they would announce something but they didnt, so I called the support line and they tell me its my tvs fault and to get a new one. anyways, The Ps3 is a good system, and will be a great system if you have a 1080p tv, or one that supports 720p, other then that I would say go with the 360 unless you have to have metal gear solid, if you dont as of right now you wont be able to get the true HD experience that gaming has to offer this generation.



EDIT:

Sound- What can I say the Ps3 has GREAT sound quality-and sounds great coming through my Onkyo system. Sound levels are a little off for a game, or dvd or Blu ray (they are all louder or softer without me touching a button between them) but my guess is its because they are all coded different. This is def. one of the better sounding machines I have had. But again all is not rosy in this area, you either have sound coming from your tv, or sound from your system, not both. wish they could have two active outputs, but again no big deal aas it takes 10-15 seconds to change (but I shouldnt have to change this).


Online:NO Lag palying on resistance was ALOT of fun, didnt play anything else, but Resistance had a fairly easy setup, and we were ready to play, with ALOT of people in a room, I am not sure how many but it was a blast kudos to Sony here. Now their store will be better once it gets filled with a little more stuff, but Overall Sony did a great job with what they had.

 

[mwgiii]

Excellent review.

I was very excited about MotorStorm, Lair, & Warhawk but the scaler issue is a killer for me. I have no intention of getting a new HDTV for at least another year or two.

 

[JamesJ]

I think the scaler issue affects alot more people then sony realize....its just funny their answer is go buy another HDTV....mine is only 3 years old, and guess what its a sony.

 

[jgantert]

That sucks about the scaler issue. I have a non-720p TV as well.

Just for reference, do you own the 360 as well?

-John

 

[JamesJ]

I did, and will again, I sold it to pay for the Ps3, that scaling issue is just too important to me though...as well as my friends all having the 360-man I cant wait for some rainbow six vegas or gears of war again!!!!

I just wanted to write this to say, yes its a great system, but it has some flaws that need to be taken care of, also I just read an article about the controllers stating its the consumers fault because they have too many bluetooth devices around causing interfernce-huh???? I didnt have any inside my house and my headset was off..

 

[mikley28]

I think the scaler issue affects alot more people then sony realize....its just funny their answer is go buy another HDTV....mine is only 3 years old, and guess what its a sony.

Wow, looks like we actually agree on something here. And honestly thats all they told with all the other broken Sony stuff I had. THIS was the exact reason I really dislike Sony as a company. All their answer to fix something is "Buy a new one".

Me: My PS2 wont read any disc.
Sony: I'm sorry, it's out of warranty, get a new one. They are cheap enough.

Me: My receiver screeches when I turn the volume up more than 25%.
Sony: Buy a better model.

Me: My TV won't save any settings if its powered off.
Sony: It was designed that way to utilize the power management features.

Me: My Dual layer DVD writer wont write dual layer dvds with ANY software.
Sony: Its too old, get a new one.
(I bought a Samsung SATA dual layer writer and it works flawlessly with the same software.)

My father bought a computer and the video chip fried for whatever reason. They said the same answer. "you need to buy a new computer". Instead I just went out and bought a cheap video card to fix it myself.

 

[Digital Dude]

Sony makes some good products but their arrogance is starting to catch up with them.

 

[Heavie]

mikley28, I guess you and sony is not compatible. The only thing I have that broke from sony is my mini disc car receiver and I was to lazy to pull it out of my car. Then it start working again on it's own for atleast 6-8 months and then it died again. Boy did I love the mini disc when it first came out. I thought I was the man to have one in the car. I still have my sony and kenwood home mini disc recorder.


I have a very good friend, who is not compatible with electronics at all. No matter what he buys, it breaks. He always buying warranties, when he buy electronics. It's not like he's hard with it. In fact he never use his things at all, once he buys it. But, as soon as he use it. DONE. I have fix his computer and his wife computer so many times. His computer runs great, until he touches it.

 

[Digital Dude]

I have a very good friend, who is not compatible with electronics at all. No matter what he buys, it breaks. He always buying warranties, when he buy electronics. It's not like he's hard with it. In fact he never use his things at all, once he buys it. But, as soon as he use it. DONE. I have fix his computer and his wife computer so many times. His computer runs great, until he touches it.

AACK! I've known people like that. Is he blacklisted by insurance companies yet?

 

[Heavie]

AACK! I've known people like that. Is he blacklisted by insurance companies yet?

No, he's ok with everything else. Just don't let him buy electronics.

 

[The Big Wood]

I've had my PS3 controller freak out on me several times, and as recent as two days ago. I have no other Bluetooth device in the whole house (that is if the Wii remotes are not Bluetooth?), so I don't know what the issue could be. The Wii remotes have given my family (me included) more problems than the PS3 controllers with supposedly missed button mashes or swings, but that's probably because the Wii is played more.

Luckily, my 4 year old TV can accept a 720p signal, but it will convert to either 540p or 1080i so I've had no problem with the scaler issue. I do think it is a blunder on Sony's part to not include a scaler or software alternative (if even possible).

One of the most annoying things of the PS3 to me is the resolution changes it does when starting a DVD. We started watching a regular DVD last night, and the PS3 kept changing resolutions after inserting the DVD and then again at the start of the movie. My TV displays the resolution when it has changed, and the thing flashes between several resolutions many times. This can't be good for the TV to be switching around that many times! Is Sony's goal to fry your TV faster so that you need to buy a new one every two years?

This may be totally unrelated and just be a coincidence, but my 7 year old Sony AV receiver has been giving me problems in the past two weeks. It won't switch on the audio when turning it on, even with its internal radio. As an act of desperation, I tried giving it one of those "Fonzie smacking the jukebox to turn it on"...and it came on. Now, when the receiver is first turned on I have to smack it several times to get the audio to switch on! Did the PS3 fry my receiver?

 

[Ramy]

I did, and will again, I sold it to pay for the Ps3, that scaling issue is just too important to me though...as well as my friends all having the 360-man I cant wait for some rainbow six vegas or gears of war again!!!!

I just wanted to write this to say, yes its a great system, but it has some flaws that need to be taken care of, also I just read an article about the controllers stating its the consumers fault because they have too many bluetooth devices around causing interfernce-huh???? I didnt have any inside my house and my headset was off..

I can't believe you sold your 360. There is no way I would sell mine to get a PS3. I have never been a fan of Playstation. I have played them but didn't care much for them. Heck the Dreamcast was a better system than the PS2, it was just marketed all wrong and too hard to program games for.

 

[FlyingJ]

Wow, hate bugs. No problems with DVD play here, controllers have been perfect, Wiis too for that matter. I consider myself lucky.

 

[Tom_P]

I can name all the Sony brand electronics that had failed in my house. The last thing just a couple of weeks ago on my Orlando Vacations. A Cybershot Digital Camera. That friking POS cost me all the photos on Magic Kindom a DSC-T#(can't recall the number). I was at the Jaguars/New England game with a friend, so find out after I returned to the Hotel, my wife had it. Was never dropped, adult used.

I bought it new back in Nov 06, so the warranty is over. Sony electronics are being designed to last 1 year. I just attack the root of the problem and bought a Cannon S3-IS Model and the picture difference is outstanding.

Man I can talk all day long about how the quality of Sony products had been degraded over the last 15 years. I work at Sears for 12 years until 2001. So I just see how many products failed during my last years there.
I have to give credit to them for the minidisc, I still used it everyday even though I have an Ipod. To me the minidisc was a revolutionary concept, just marketed incorrectly back on the mid -90's to replace the CD, instead of the regular cassette. I still have 5 portable models, two car stereos and a car 6 disc changer, plus a home recorder and all of them work.

Failed Equipments: 1 Ps1, 2-Ps2, DVD, 2 Wega-tvs, Ht-Receiver, Home CD Player, Rack Stereo(my parents all in one unit),Dig-Camera(off course), portable cd players, Portable cd-radio,a Notebook PC, DVD-writer, etc. You may asked why I bought so many Sony's?, because I trust them. Some Items can be repaired like the Wegas, but is so damn expensive.

I do take care of my electronics, I take pride on that.

I plan to get a PS3, I just going to make sure that I can get a replacement warranty where I buy it, why? because I love video games.

Quick note, I visited many stores in Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville and almost all of them had the PS3 with the image freezed, same as where Ilive in PR.

 

[Sapient]

So Stuart, do you have to play games set at 420i on your TV?

 

[JamesJ]

the Ps3 automatically scales the games to 480p, that is out of my control, if the game is coded for 720p, then it goes to 480p, nothing I can do about it, I have one game that supports 1080i-nba 2k7- the game I was after (motorstorm) is coming out in 720p.

 

[JamesJ]

Wow, hate bugs. No problems with DVD play here, controllers have been perfect, Wiis too for that matter. I consider myself lucky.

out of all of this where do you see that I hate the Ps3??? and what kind of tv do you have, does it display 720p?

 

[FlyingJ]

Stu, I didn't day anything like that...the Wow, hate bugs statement was just a reaction to the post. I then stated that I haven't had any problems with mine and considered myself lucky. I didn't even address the 720p part because mine does and I totally agree that it sucks for those that don't have 720p that the machine doesn't do what it needs to do for you. I don't think we are on opposite sides here, just considered myself lucky compared to you on this one. Okay?
Actually now that I read back it was Wood that I was commenting about, he posted his troubles with the controllers

 

[JamesJ]

We are on the same page flyingJ-sorry if that sounded short (where does the half an hour go for a break anymore?) I dont know if the Ps3 is bug Filled, just has some issues I am sure they will sort out, just a suggestion for sony, Dont try to blame your customers-actually take blame once a while, you will be better off with the public that way! by the way I edited my very first post and added Sound and Network.

 

[The Big Wood]

Hmmm, I forgot about the wireless issues I have with the PS3. I don't know if it is the PS Network, my wireless router, or my wireless capabilities of the PS3, but I constantly get messages saying an error occurred while logged in or my network setup is incorrect. The easy fix is to flip the switch in the back of the PS3 (after shutting down, of course), wait a few seconds, then turn it back on. It always connects strong with fast downloads at that point.

I've checked the signal strength on the PS3, always 90% or better. The Wii has no problems working wirelessly. The laptop has no issues and connects at Excellent signal anywhere in the house.

I haven't worked to hard to correct the problem because I plan on hardwiring it someday when I find my longer Cat5e cables.

As with anything new, I expect things to be buggy so I'm not too upset about it. I've learned to not be an early adopter, but I choose to ignore what I've learned!