Product Review: Playstation 3

After delaying the newest Playstation, Sony finally released their Playstation 3 in November 2006. There has been a lot to talk about with the new console and a lot of anticipation. What is in this system? Does it have overheating and other issues like Xbox 360?

Let's start with the basics. For the hefty price of $600 ps3 has a lot of features. It comes with a 60 gigabyte hard drive, the cell processor, built-in blu-ray disc player, RSX image processor, Ethernet port, and Bluetooth. It is also compatible with Memory Stick, SD Memory Cards, and CompactFlash. The box contains the system, a wireless controller, AC power cord, AV cable, Ethernet cable, USB cable, and printed material.

You can play both ps1 and ps2 games on the ps3 system. Other things that the system can play are: audio CDs, CD-R/-RW, Super Audio CDs, DVDs, DVD-R/-RW, DVD+R/+RW, BDs, BD-ROM, BD-R, and BD-RE. BD is Blu-ray discs. While it does play the original ps1 and ps2 games, there is no slot for the controllers and memory cards for the ps1 and ps2 system. If you want to get your saved games onto the ps3 hard drive then there is an adapter that costs $14.99.

When the ps3 box is first opened one noticeable thing is how big the ps3 system is. It is bigger and heavier than the ps2. This is a lot more powerful machine with more in it than the previous Playstation.

Unlike the Xbox 360, I have yet to have any problems with my Playstation 3. There has not been any overheating. Also, there has not been any problem with the older Playstation games playing properly on the new system.

The original Playstation play CDs. Playstation 2 came out and used DVDs which old about 8 gigabytes of data. Playstation 3 uses blu-ray discs. Blu-ray stores about 25 gigabytes of data. The newer ps2 games looked pretty good with games like Final Fantasy 12 and God of War. Those games were on DVD. The possibilities for how well the next installment of games is endless. Programmers will be able to put so much more into the game and make the graphics look very realistic. The games are also high definition for ps3s.

The ps3 controller is a wireless Sixaxis controller that uses Bluetooth technology. The only time you need to plug the controller in is when the battery gets low. Up to 7 controllers can be connected at one time to ps3. The Sixaxis also has to motion capabilities. For example, Madden 07 uses this technology so that you can move the controller to fake a snap. The downside is that there is no dual shock with this controller.

Online play for Playstation 3 is free. You can hop on and play games somebody whenever you want and not have to pay a monthly fee. Coming in the fall of 2007 will be Home. Home will be an online community that will let you create a virtual person that can interact with other people that are online. Home is something that a lot of people will be looking forward to seeing.

While the price tag is expensive, I recommend the purchase of this system. This is a good system that is going to have a lot of good games for it. If your thinking about buying a different system, save up the extra money and buy this one instead.