Sony PS3 Overview

The PS3, Sony's much anticipated addition to the world of next-generation videogame consoles. It boasts impressive specs, and will surely please anyone who is willing to drop over $1,000 (for the 20GB) on one in order to get it by the upcoming holiday season.

Specs

The PS3 boasts some very impressive specs, including an Intel Cell Processor PowerPC base, running at 3.2GHz, 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz, and a 1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance Full HD (up to 1080p) 2 channel output GPU. All in all, for those of you who may not understand what exactly that means, it is a very powerful console, with a CPU, and GPU that tops both the Microsoft Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii.

Extra Note

Unfortunately, what advantage it has in specs, is quickly negated by the hefty pricetag, along with the fact that aside from the people who pre-ordered half a year in advance, you can be pretty sure that you wont be getting one any time soon. Sony shipped a very limited amount of consoles, so if you want to grab one for under $1,000 you will most definately have to wait until sometime 2007.

The Good!

Ok, so to start out with a little more in-depth look at the specs of the PS3, and how they will relate to your experience. The first, and most noticeable is the addition of a Blu-ray drive. All of the PS3's games are currently being placed on to Blu-ray drives (very appropriate considering the average PS3 game is over 25GB). This currently is an advantage over both the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii, however as of this holiday season, Microsoft is planning on releasing an HD-DVD drive as an add on to the Xbox 360, which will bring the game content to a level relatively equal to that of the PS3. A couple other nice features of the PS3, are the built in Wi-Fi (For the Xbox 360, you need an external accessory), and the built in 60GB HD (Once again, for the Xbox 360, the HD is an external accessory and is only 20GB although Microsoft is planning on releasing an 80GB this holiday season). As claimed by Sony, the PS3 should be able to play all other PS titles, however there are increasing reports that there have been errors when attempting to play certain PS1 and PS2 games. As for Online gameplay, this is one huge leap over Microsoft, and Nintendo. The PS3 features FREE online gameplay, meaning no subscriptions to pricey services such as Xbox Live. Even better, the PS3 boasts a 1080p HDMI output, so you can enjoy the top-notch graphics of your games and movies in HD on compatible TVs.

The Bad

You would think that wiht such a large pricetag, the PS3 would be nearly perfect, however like all the other Next Generation game consoles, it is not without its share of flaws. One of the largest mistakes made by Sony, is that selection of launch titles is quite un-impressive. Also, a small yet persistent flaw in the console, is that it doesn't upscale DVDs to HD. As for the controller, it is in many ways similar to that of the PS2, however a large flaw that has upset many users is the lack of force feedback (known more commonly as "Rumble").

Overall Impression

As I have said before, and I will say again, if your hopes are to get one by this holiday season, don't expect to do anything short of selling your car. Currently, nearly every store worldwide is sold out, and the people who did already get one will not be willing to let it go, for anything less than almost 4 times what they paid for it. Compared to the Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii, this console contains the most "Raw power," and ultimately the most potential for the future. Another notable fact, is that unlike most other game consoles, it looks quite nice sitting among your DVR, DVD Player, and Home Theater system. It's a device that you will actually want to display prominently in your living room (make sure your friends don't swipe it though). The overall consensus, is that if you're a serious gamer, and have a lot of extra money to blow, this is probably the most appealing console currently on the market, and even with its few flaws, it is very hard to resist.