PS3 fanboys love to spout about how reliable the PS3 is compared to 360. Well guess what, nothing is rock solid. I got my PS3 Slim yesterday, got it all hooked up and initialized and was having a fine time exploring its features...until I actually tried to play a disc.
I started with the Coraline (Two-Disc Collector's Edition w/ 3D) Blu-Ray and was somewhat disturbed when I couldn't get it to play. So then I tried the DVD included in that combo package and it loaded and played immediately. Back to Coraline Blu-Ray, still no luck, so I thought I'd try a Blu-Ray from Sony: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete [Blu-ray]. Also didn't play. At this point, I was pretty sure there was a problem, so tried what's supposed to be the console's main purpose: a PS3 Blu-Ray game disc, namely Resistance: Fall Of Man. Didn't load. At all. And these were all brand new, just opened, never been played discs. Guess what's getting returned? And yes, I realize that Blu-Ray discs take quite a bit longer to load but I encountered very obvious disc drive glitching sounds and eventual timeouts.
I will admit that the form factor is much better now with the slimmer and lighter design, although it's not very pretty to look at. Surprisingly, it makes the 360 look large when they're side by side. I also like that it now has actual buttons for power and eject instead of those ridiculous touch-sensitive pads on the old system. However, its navigation just isn't as intuitive as the 360's. And don't believe that it runs "cool"; with the current chipset and the power supply inside instead of an external brick it's practically hand-burning temp underneath, which makes me very leery of its chances to avoid burning out over time.
Good to have a Dualshock force feedback wireless controller instead of the lame Sixaxis motion-sensitive non-force feedback one they launched with. However, it feels cheap and small compared to the 360 controller, even though additional controllers are roughly 50% higher than the current 360 controller prices on Amazon. Also, you can't just swap out its internal battery for off the rack AAs in a pinch like you can with the 360, so you're pretty tethered to its entirely too short USB charging cable even though it's wireless. And really, the basic design hasn't changed at all since the original Dualshock released what, 12 years ago? Might be time for a refresh, product designers.
Assuming I get a functional model in the future, I'm still concerned about the weak software library they've managed to build in the last three years I've been ignoring them. Aside from their key exclusive title Metal Gear Solid 4, they've got a whole lot of nothing from my perspective. I'll play Resistance and may get Uncharted eventually, but compared to the 360's vast library (which admittedly had an additional year head start), it's frankly a joke. So ask yourself if you really need to spend $300 for the opportunity to play a handful of worthwhile exclusive games. I'll ultimately use mine for Blu-Ray movies far more than games, which makes this a fairly expensive Blu-Ray player.
This is the system and the price that they should have launched with three years ago. Just hope that you get one that actually works. And remember, only one year warranty compared to Xbox's three year warranty. Get more detail about PlayStation 3 120 GB.
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