Playstation 3 (Sony Playstation 3 60 GB)

Member Name: jonny_bolton

Product:	Sony Playstation 3 60 GB
Date:	02/02/09 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: blu-ray player built in, built in harddrive, wifi built in, free online play, media playback

Disadvantages: none

The Playstation 3, as you may guess, is the third console release from manufacturer Sony and their entry into this generations set of consoles. The Playstation 3 is the main competitor to Microsoft's XBox 360, released one whole year before the Playstation 3.

The Playstation 3 has a 60gb harddrive, 4 USB ports, HDMI 1080i HD output, WiFi and Ethernet connections, Blu-Ray movie player, online gaming and the ability to play old Playstation 2 games.

To properly review the Playstation 3 I will break it down into seperate categories; Media, Online, Software & Hardware and Games.

Media:
First off, the Playstation 3 is the only console on the market that sports the next generation of High Definition DVD playback, Bly-Ray. After fending off the competition from the HD-DVD format, Blu-Ray is slowly saturating the market with most DVD's now being ported to Blu-Ray format with added features.

The Blu-Ray discs themselves sport a huge 50gb of space, 10 times more than most standard DVD's. This means that Blu-Ray can support True HD output of 1080i and HD output of 720p. Many blockbuster Blu-Ray movies also come packaged with features that support "BD Live" technology. The BD Live features often involve a game on the disc, or the ability to download exclusive content from the internet. BD Live can only work though if the player is connected to the internet.

This is where the PS3, as a Blu-Ray player, trumps most other Blu-Ray players at the moment. The PS3's internet connection allows for the full use of BD Live, something which many Blu-Ray players cannot do yet. The PS3 is also the only fully upgradable Blu-Ray player on the market. Blu-Ray is already in its 2.0 stage, and only the PS3's software fully supports downloable upgrades to the Blu-Ray player. Coupled with that the PS3 is still the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market. So for roughly £300 you are getting the best Blu-Ray player on the market and, a games console to boot.

Sticking with the media, the PS3 also allows for "Media Server" capabilities. In practice, this means that if you have music, movies or photos on your PC you will be able to share them with your PS3 over your home network. This allows you to listen to music or watch movies from your PC on your PS3, which can be useful if you have a HD movie on your PC but don't have HD output on your monitor.

The built in harddrive also allows you to store movies, music and photos on your PS3. The music player comes with the ability to create Playlists, but best of all, in certain games you can actually listen to your own music in-game. However as the feature is relatively new, it is not supported in too many games at the moment.

Sony have also released a Photo Gallery for the PS3. The software is a free download and allows the user to organise their photos into albums, and view them in ways they want.

Online:
One of the features that puts the PS3 ahead of the XBox 360 is its online capabilities. Last generation the Xbox Live online feature far outstripped the Playstation 2's online gaming. However this generation Sony have pulled out all the stops to produce an online experience that rivals the XBox 360's XBox Live. There is though one big difference between the Playstation Network and Xbox Live, the Playstation Network is FREE! That's right everything you can do on the XBox online, you can do on the Playstation 3 completely free. This means you can play great games online such as Call of Duty, or surf the interent, or browse the Playstation store without paying a fee.

One of the main things you will do online will be online gaming. There are plenty of online games out there and now, if a game supports multiplayer, then it is almost certain that it will have online play. Last year Call of Duty 4 was the best online game by far and this year Killzone 2, a Playstation exclusive, is set to rival that. I'll get into Killzone 2 a little more later on.

The online feature also allows you to make purchases off of the Playstation Store. The store is a place where you can download items either for free, or at a cost. The Store is updated every Thursday and features game trailers, mp3s, wallpapers, all of which are usually free, as well as add-ons for games, or whole games themselves. LittleBigPlanet is one of the most updated games with free costumes at least once or twice a month aswell as complete game packs and premium costumes at a cost. From the Playstation Store you could also download new map packs and such like for games including Call of Duty 4.

The latest addition to the Playstation online package is Playstation Home. Home is a free piece of software that is like Sims or Second Life. In Home you create your own character and are free to roam a world filled with other Playstation 3 owners. Home has many free games, such as Bowling, Pool and little arcade games. There is also a movie theatre and there are plans for other "spaces" to be included, that are specific to certain games. In Home you also have an apartment which you can decorate. Unfortunately there are not many free items you can put into your apartment nor are there many free clothes for you Avatar. There is a mall in Home where you can shop for items and clothes, inlcuding clothes from the likes of Diesel, but these are at a cost, and in my opinion they are not worth the money.

Games:
Now to the section that is arguably the most important for a next generation console, games. During 2008 Playstation 3 did not match XBox in terms of game exclusivity. Microsoft had heavy weight hitters such as Gears of War 2 and Halo 3, and managed to score exclusive downloadable content for huge games such as GTA IV, Fallout 3 and Tomb Raider. As if the leack of DLC wasn't badenough for Playstation 3 owners, there was also the loss of exclusivity in a lot of game franchises. This was the first time a Grand Theft Auto had been released on another system at the same time as Sony's machine and the same goes for Tomb Raider: Underworld. The biggest news however was the loss of Final Fantasy XIII exclusivity. Many believed this to be a bad move by Square-Enix (the Final Fantasy developers) as the XBox only had DVD based games as opposed to Blu-Ray, so the game would have to be made smaller to fit on the DVD. It wasn't all bad news though, Square-Enix though quickly came out and announced a simultaneous release of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, a game set in the same world as FFXIII, but with better graphics and bigger storyline and gameplay. FFV XIII is one of many games that many believe that will be an incredible 2009 for the Playstation 3, but I'll get onto that.

Back to 2008 though. As I said it was XBox's year, but there were many Playstation exclusives that got overlooked, and they were games to make Microsoft, and Nintendo, jealous. Firstly Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Possibly the greatest gaming series ever, created and directed by Hideo Kojima, came to it ultimate conclusion on the Playstation 3. The graphics were eye-poppingly gorgeous, the story mind blowing, and the gameplay miles ahead of anything else on the market. There were also Ratchet & Clank and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, both solid platformers well worth the money. Sony's trump card however came in the form of LittleBigPlant. LBP was hailed as the saviour of the Playstation, an innovative game that with the slogan "Play with everything". For a more depth look at LBP, check out my review on it, but I'll just sum up now why this game is a system seller. Firstly the game is incredibly original. There is nothing else like it on the market. Taking control of a Sackboy or Sackgirl you make your way across a 2D world in the story mode sporting roughly 60 levels. However this isn't what makes LBP so great. What stands LBP out from the crowd is the ability to create your own levels out of objects you've collected from the story mode, or downloaded from the Playstation store. You can then upload your levels to the LBP commuity for other people to play. There are some fantastic levels out there in the community such as a Metal Gear Solid level, and an Indiana Jones level! A key member of Nintendo's hierarchy claimed that he was absolutely gutted that Sony's machine was getting LBP.

Now 2009. This is where Sony believe they will win the console wars. As I mentioned before Sony have scored the exclusive Final Fantasy Versus XIII, but there is also Killzone 2. Killzone 2 has been toted as the best FPS ever made and Sony believe that it is better than Gears of War 2 and Halo 3. Now it is hard to tell whether that is the case, we will have to wait until the end of February to find out. But Sony are certainly making all the right noises about this game it is certain to cause quite a stir. 2009 also has the small matter of God of War III, the first, next generation release of one of Playstation 2's best selling franchises. We will also see a sequel to big selling Uncharted, in the form of Uncharted 2: Among Theives.

Also little note that on the 60gb model it is possible to play old Playstation 2 games on the PS3, but on the new machines the feature has been removed to drive down costs.

2009 certainly seems to be shaping up to be a great year for Playstation 3, considering the multitude of top quality games set for release. We should also see a big increase in the number of Blu-Ray movies purchased as well as households embracing HD viewing, perfect partners for the Playstation 3.

While many XBoxs suffer from the Red Ring of Death (RROD), where the Xbox dies and becomes completely broken beyond repair, Sony has kept the reliablity of thier system at a high, with very few problems that cannot be repaired. The Playstation 3 is the only console to boast HD output as standard as well as a built in Harddrive and WiFi. Microsoft may state that the XBox Arcade is half the price of the Playstation, which is correct, they fail to mention that is has much less than half of the features.

So long as Sony continue to provide software updates for their system such as Playstation Home and continue 2009 with quality games then Sony may well see their system top of the pile come 2010.

Summary: The best next generation console money can buy.