Platform Nation

My First Week With A PS3 – View From A 360 Owner

So I made the jump, after a year of holding it off I finally decided to buy a PS3. I don’t know why. Maybe it was the exclusives. Maybe it was the Blu-ray. Either way, I am now a proud owner of a PS3 Slim 250GB. I still of course have my 360 perched underneath my towering PS3 console. And together with my 1080p HDTV, I have truly entered the age of HD. This was my first PlayStation console that I have ever owned, or even played on. So fingers crossed that it is good.

Of course I decided to get the console bundle with Uncharted 2 in it. Because from what I have seen and heard from the reviews and the game of the year awards, this was the game to play on this console. So unpacking the box I was faced with the mighty console which I placed on top of my 360. I plugged it into my TV using my 360 HDMI wire. And booted it up. Plugged in my controller and it was already connected to the Internet, pretty nifty. I then began my adventure with my new PS3 console. And it goes a little like this.

Dashboard/XMB – After using both the 360 dashboard and the PS3 XMB, I can safely say that I am a fan of the 360 dashboard. Not that the XMB is bad, but with things such going to the settings section and having to scroll and scroll whereas with 360 its much more compact, it just feels like every section of the XMB is detached. With every feature such as Home or an advanced picture viewer requiring a download. Also it seems to have too much scrolling up and down with each menu. While I understand that the 360 has this horizontally, it just seemed smoother on the 360 than the XMB. But I do like the customizable themes and backgrounds much more on the XMB.

Games – Games, games. That’s the reason why people buy these consoles right?. Well the PS3 has plenty of exclusive games and that is one of the main reasons why I bought this console. I will still play all the multiplatform games on my 360 because that still is my primary console and I love to keep adding gamerscore to my 65000 at the moment.  I decided to put in Uncharted 2 and my goodness, what an amazing game. The first thing that I had to adhere to with the PS3 controller is the fact that the front two triggers are used as the main ones and the back two are the secondary ones. This wasn’t too hard to control because I can understand why from the way that the controller is shaped. But it sure is awkward at times. I loved Uncharted 2, and I’m still playing through it as we speak. I have completed Killzone 2, and I can say that I can see why people loved that game, even though I hated the zoom button being on the right stick. I have downloaded PixelJunk Shooter and am loving it. And very soon I will be getting Heavy Rain. But on the games front I love the exclusives, and can’t wait to catch up with the back catalog (MGS4, Ratchet and Clank etc..) in the coming months.

Blu-Ray – Nothing really needs to be said about this apart from DVD < Blu-Ray. Sorry Xbox 360. District 9 looked amazing!

Online – I played Killzone 2 online for a little bit, but in all honestly, out of 32 people about 3 had mics, and they weren’t speaking the same language as me. I don’t plan to buy a mic, and I really don’t plan to play the PS3 online. Fair enough the mics are better quality, but can you honestly say you have been in a match where everybody had mics and was using them? In this case I must say that the 360 online greatly trumps the PS3. By far. It all seems so detached on the PS3.

Achievements/Trophies – Achievements are better. I feel like the score with the achievements is better. I understand the way that the PS3 trophies work with the levels. But just the general whole achievements system is better. Sorry Trophies, but I don’t care if I get you and I certainly won’t go out of my way to get you.

Other - I found out the hard way not to take the disc out during a game, beep beep beep aah!. All is well though, that mistake will never be made again. Oh, and I love the disc tray that sucks in my discs. And Home sucks.

I humbly welcome the PS3 into my console collection and hope that it keeps me entertained for many years to come.

UPDATE – After a plethora of comments I do class some of the above points of view void. But I do believe that my points of view stand. Some of the people in the comments are obviously “fanboys” of the certain consoles and only own that sole console so they can’t really see what it is like from both sides. Yes, the XMB is innovative and a useful way to navigate, but from a neutral point of view, I would still class the 360 dash to be much more user friendly.

I know that you can buy triggers, I know that some people have use for Home. But I spent enough money on the console and I really don’t want to go out of my way to spend anymore.

Many of you have pointed out that online play on Killzone 2 is amazing, and after watching videos of it on youtube, I can see where you are coming from. The clan systems and in some cases the mic systems are used plenty. But in my eyes, it will never match the fun that you can get from loading up a match in any game on 360, knowing that at least 90% of the room will have a mic in any game (seen as though it ships with the console) and ignoring all the 12 year old’s screaming. You can get some genuine matches with strangers without having to arrange any clan aspect. Oh and I realize now that I could of customized the controls. Totally forgot.

I don’t have a problem with trophies, in fact I love trophies, they are just like achievements but shiny. But i just don’t feel that sense of achievement when I receive one, and although the ranking system is a valid system, I prefer seeing my ranks in numbers.

In the end, this article is titled, My First Week, so it is my first week with the console and here I am saying what I think, over time, I will come to loath or love the different features of the PS3, but this article is here describing my first week on it. And this is what I think.

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