March 12th, 2010

My First Thoughts Of My PlayStation 3, From An Xbox 360 User

This article was written by: Cameron Foster


The title for this article may seem familiar to you. Why? Well that’s because I nicked it from James Martin who wrote last month a popular and interest piece detailing his first week with a brand spanking new Xbox 360.

It’s always interesting to see how people get on with new consoles for the first time so I’ve seized this opportunity to write the story from the opposite side of the coin.

Last Friday I purchased with my hard earned money a lovely shiny black PlayStation 3 80 GB. Not a slim, I’m not cool enough for that.

A few weeks ago when Heavy Rain caught my eye I felt a strange burning desire to have a PS3 sitting comfortably on my desk ready to be played. I can’t describe why, maybe it’s the recent spat of amazing exclusive titles that seem to be storming through the floodgates. Maybe it’s because I already have an Xbox 360 and a Wii that’s made me want more, more as in MOAR! Or it could just be because I’m addicted to gaming.

PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Elite : BFF's FO LYFE

I arrived home that fateful afternoon with the beast caged inside it’s huge box. I could practically hear it roaring to come out. In a matter of minutes it was connected and switched on and the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was.

Here’s a re-enactment:

Cameron: Shhhh!

…..

Mum: What?

Cameron: You hear that?!

..

Mum: No..

Cameron: Nothing. Just nothing. It’s almost silent.

OK, so maybe it wasn’t that dramatic and the PS3 isn’t a silent assassin. It’s more of a friendly hum in the background. rather than when you turn on an Xbox 360 and welcomed back by an almighty SHOOOOOOM! You could compare it to an annoying dog that leaps on you in a fit hyper-activity because it’s so happy to see you. But you can’t blame the dog, you love it. Going off point now… So to summarize, the PlayStation 3 is much more quiet.

I entered the details for the time and date and blah blah blah. By this point I was just too excited to get stuck into the wonderful worlds of Little Big Planet, Uncharted and Heavy Rain. But to my utter dismay there appeared an update screen.

The sign of a long wait to come...

I was thinking at this point; “Oh well, I’m sure Sackboy, Nathan Drake and the Origami Killer can wait a few minutes more.”.

But oh boy was I wrong. It wasn’t just a few minutes. No. It was a few hours. The wait almost killed me. By the time the PlayStation had updated and I was connected to the PlayStation Network night was fast approaching. I hurriedly put in the Little Big Planet disc in, wanting to get as much play time out of it as I could possibly squeeze into one night.

Then my heart sunk more. Another update; another two hours.

Finally when it was complete I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sackboy, adorable and happy as ever, was there waiting for me.

After I had finished meeting the Curator Creator of the first level and played through the chuckle inducing tutorial by Stephen Fry I happily ejected the disc.

Awww! Ain

The next day I enjoyed browsing through the Playstation Store and seeing what goodies it had ready for me. The answer? Quite a fair bit. I downloaded PAIN, Warhawk, Flow, Crash Bandicoot 1 & 3 before I could stop myself.

And the winner for the most sexual innuendos in game? PAIN!

While they were downloading I took a trip to Home. PlayStation’s hub of activity full of user customized avatars and adverts screaming for attention left, right and center. Home is a great place to meet new friends with a common interest in the games you like, hobbies and general interests. I enjoyed playing bowling with my new found friends, having a chilled game of pool and then joining them in a frantic (and for me hopeless) game on Warhawk.

I love the simple and accessible cross-media bar of the PlayStation 3 dashboard, although it’s less visually dynamic and exciting it still does the job and the dynamic themes can spice it up a little.

The one major disappointment for me and something that I feel the Xbox 360 does far better is the length of time it takes for games to update. Granted my games need to be updated from the first to the newest but it still takes it’s dear sweet time. PAIN stands out as being the most ridiculous update time I’ve ever had to endure. From 4PM right the way through to 12PM the next day it was constantly churning away. With an Xbox 360 I’m used to updates taking a maximum of 10 minutes. I’m guessing some of you reading this might be thinking:

“N00b, internetz r slow that’s all.”

My answer to that is I know many people who have this problem with the PlayStation 3. BUT! With all the moaning I’ve done about the updates, apart from that everything is peachy. Like the new commercials say; “It only does everything.”.

It’s so good to watch The Dark Knight in glorious 1080p HD. Nothing beats that.

Now that I’m officially a PSWII60 or whatever, I can with all honesty say that each console has it’s merits and it’s downfalls. I’m glad I bought my PlayStation cause it’s allowed me to play a whole host of new games and has also given me the opportunity to get excited for God Of War 3.

The transition from Xbox 360 to PlayStation 3 was pretty revealing. Yeah the updates are slow but I have all the time in the world to enjoy these amazing machines of fun and their own individual advantages.

****Editors note due to a technical error the Author’s post was not shown in it’s entirety when first posted.****

Gaming . Playstation 3 . Sony