The PS3- in, out, and $599 later.

The Playstation 3 is one of the hottest items of the winter. Not only is the system a freaking beast when it comes to sheer power and might, but it also sports some of the most eye-popping visuals available to any gamer anywhere. That leaves little wonder why so many are grabbing for the system like it's some kind of bag of gold- eBay is still chock full of systems selling over their price (though the price has dropped since people who stole the systems are selling them underprice). It's like the gold rush, and Sony is the Yukon.

So, as we watch this holiday season as many people unwrap shiny new PS3s (from some insanely rich uncle who wants to get in your pants or something), I felt it necessary to break the system down for you and give you some of my first impression opinions on it- from the games to the movies to the system itself, and everything in between. And hopefully not ever mention ?$599?. Oh wait.

The System Itself

The Playstation 3 is, obviously, one singular system that ships in two versions- ?Basic? and ?Premium?. The former, ?Basic?, contains a 20 gigabyte hard drive and everything you need to get the system working on a wired Internet connection. The latter, the ?Premium?, comes with a wireless Internet function, as well as a sizable 60 gigabytes of space for whatever you may need. For the duration of this first look, I'll be talking about the latter.

Opening the box of the PS3 is much like opening the box of a computer. Not surprising, since the thing now weighs about the same as any given Laptop. At a muscle-straining 5kg, the Playstation 3 is full of little metal bits and such that make it the heavyweight when compared to lighter systems like the Wii and the XBOX 360. Built with a rather sturdy plastic shell that reminds one of an iPod, the system resembles a very tiny compact computer, complete with it's own computer-like packaging.

In the Premium box, everything is provided to kick start your foray into gaming. Obviously, a very basic RCA AV cable is included, along with an AC adapter, Ethernet cord, one wireless controller, and a USB cord to charge the controller for wireless play. As a bonus, the system also includes a veritable meter of paper (both in the instruction manual and advertisements supplied), as well as a free movie for your new Blu-Ray experience: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Someone shoot me already.

Not surprisingly, the system is a breeze to set up. Plug in the power cord, AV cord, and the controller (using the USB cord) and turn the system on. Immediately the system kicks into ?setup? mode, in which you choose your date, time, location, language, name, and other rather basic options. And that's it- the system automatically is configured for everything you would ever want. Of course, the normal gamer will end up spending a small amount of time configuring Internet settings, but that is neither here nor there.

Of course, there is a caveat to this ease of setup, and that comes in the Playstation updates. Because the system has already been established for a month now, many updates are quite literally forced on you before the system allows you access to the web browser or other online functions. This makes sense (as obviously the updates require Internet, and only hinder your use of Internet functions), but still ends up taking about ~15 minutes of your time while the system fixes itself, updates itself, and everything in between.

The system then is open like a book. Immediately off the bat, you are given basic options- browsing the Internet (Such as gametrash.com), viewing your photos, viewing movies and videos, listening to MP3s, playing games (PS3 games, as well as your back library of PS2 and PS1 games), and browsing the Playstation Shop. All of these functions work like described- music playing is always easy and basic, videos play nicely even on HD resolutions, and the web browsing is interesting, yet slightly buggy still.

One interesting thing about the system is how it handles your old library of Playstation titles. Instead of using the tried-and-true memory card slots (which now are quite dated), the system can create what it calls ?Virtual memory cards? on the hard disk which allow you to play your games and save them to the HDD. With a special adapter (~$15), you can also take your old memory cards and upload them to the system- perfect for those still grinding through Final Fantasy XII or Gran Turismo 4.

Gameplay

For the most part, Gameplay is what can be expected from this system. Much akin to the XBOX 360, the Playstation 3 handles games much like applications, instead of handling them as completely separate operations (as seen in many older consoles). What this translates into is that the system can stop and turn off any game at any time, usually even if it has crashed or bugged out, which is a nice feature. This also means you can turn off your system or remote wirelessly- which is even more badass.

Most games, even the older PS1/PS2 games, play much as they did on older systems. Unlike the Playstation 2, the Playstation 3 does not make any efforts to upscale/upgrade the graphics of any PS1/PS2 game it plays, which is done primarily to emulate the game in a perfect manner. This does, however, not mean that the power of the PS3 is not seen- many slow loading PS1 and PS2 games get a noticeable time upgrade in loading times.

As for the PS3 games themselves, most are a mixed bag, but all play very well on the system. Absolutely no lag was seen in any game (excepting the demo for Genji, which is simply a demo issue). All of the games are absolutely beautiful and cause absolutely no trouble on the PS3, and the heat levels put out by the system, though slightly high, have no weird effect on the games and simply mean your shelf will keep toasty while you play.

Downloading and playing demos and full games from the Playstation Store is insanely easy. Downloading any given game or demo is a speedy and efficient process that utilizes your full bandwidth (meaning even ~800 megabyte files download in about 20-30 minutes), and installing it is nothing but a button push. From then on, playing the games is the exact same affair as playing a Blu-ray or DVD based game- just press the icon on the ?Games? list and off you go.

The games themselves are well made and scream of quality. Everything on the Playstation 3 is being used efficiently. While there are obviously some issues that will take developers time to ?get used to?, there is obviously a good understanding of the system and how it works among the many developers who have put out games for this console already. The arguments made by many developers claiming this system will be hard to program for may be true, but seeing the games that have come out for it seems to scream a different story. No bugs, no crashes, no problems whatsoever. Just gameplay.

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