Lupin

Ok so I got myself a PS3 (Gota love free stuff) Now I have had a interesting time with it.

The playstation has always been the easiest of all the consoles to use. Take out the disk put it in and play. Even a four year old could do it.
My question is with the changes to the PS3 have they killed the ease of using it or made the greatest console ever.

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So here’s how it went down.
Get the console home and get it out of the box. Nice and easy to set up due to HDMI. So all that’s plug and play. Ok there’s a little configuring to do on initial start up, date time and the like, then I’m greeted with the giant PSP screen. Ok Sony you want all your stuff to have the same feel but common the PS3 must deserve a little better. Once I got it connected to my network ( I forgot the ip of my router which was interesting) I figure may as well sign up for the online gaming. Now here come the first major change to the PS3. I have to download a patch to update my console. So I start it off. It seems that its all the rage now to just release a half compete console and fix things on the go. So I star it and go have some tea. I come back and its up to 5%. First thought is what else have I got running. Have a check shut down a few things and leave it for a little more. Then I look after a bit of TV watching and it up to 8%. A quick check of the Sony site and I realize this is a 100mg + patch. So I think fuck this I’ll do it later.
So I stick in a game. And the first thing I find is the game needs access to the hard drive. So I allow it and it then spends the next 5 minutes loading whatever on. Now the whole point of a console has always been that you can just put the disk in a play. The way this thing feels I thought I had grabbed the wrong console and ended up with a MS product. So any way I get some gaming done and head to bed.
Next day I decided to download the update patch to my PC and do it via a USB stick.
So I down load the patch put it on the stick and put it in the PS3. And guess what….nothing happens. It would appear that after a bit of searching there is a tiny bit of text on the sony site that tells you that you need to create a UPDAT/PS3/ folder and put the update in that. So I do that and then after another five minutes its all done.
So I then sign up for the online stuff (that took another 10 mins) and start to have a look around. Now I must say, Sony have got it right here with the Sony shop. Its full of demos, wallpapers, themes and all sorts of decent stuff. So I fire up a few downloads and start to make it feel more like MY PS3 rather than a off the shelf one. It also has the feature to download most stuff why your doing other things which is good. I also noticed that there are quite a few ps one and PSP titles on there. So yes Sony you have that one right.
So then I figure its time for some GTA4. The whole reason I got the thing in the first place, and before I even get to a loading screen I have to download a patch for the game. Its about now that I’m stating to thing a 360 would have been better, but I wanted blue ray so I guess I have to suffer.

So after much GTA4’ing I decide that I do like the thing.
Then I started with the fun part of the PS3. Installing a whole new operating system. After a quick format of the drive, its all good to go. So the first thing I try is a live Linux CD. And IT WORKS. Ok it didn’t pick up on the wireless but this was just a generic version not one with the PS3 binaries in it. So I currently have a download going of a version with all the correct binaries in it. So we will see how that goes.

Now one thing that is working well is the media player. Once I set my vista machine to allow the PS3 access, then everything that was in my media library was shared to the PS3. And everything worked straight out of the box. The other fun part is remote play. Turn it on connect my PSP and I have a mini PS3 I can carry around the house. I would like to see a little more with the feature as it could make a excellent remote.

So what have Sony done here. They have taken away some of the instant usability that the palysations of past were known for and replaced it with what looks like a highly tweak able box. Inclusions like Folding at home, the PS shop and the ability to load a whole new OS on is are things that have never been seen in a console before. Sony you could be on a winner with this one.