Fiddler, you're not alone...

[melancholy]

I also gave into the call of the PS3.

Here's how it happened. This weekend was me and my wife's very first anniversary, and we had a whole trip planned around it. We scheduled the weekend off, we saved up our money over the last month, and we had a whole plan of where we were going to go. There was only one problem; we both came down with severe colds. Going through box after box of Tylenol and Kleenex, we both decided to just call off the trip. So instead, yesterday we decided to just take a nice walk to the local park and have a nice picnic lunch, then later that night we went shopping. We decided that we might as well just spend the vacation money since we wouldn't have a chance of going on vacation again for quite a while. That decision would later work to my benefit, because upon arrival at a local video store, I discover that they had a 60GB PS3 priced at $325. Although it had been opened, the system had never even been turned on (all the cables and the power cord were still sealed in the bag). They said something about the guy buying it to replace his 20GB, but ultimately decided he didn't need the 60GB and instead just did a straight trade for a used 360. I converse with my wife and she said as long as I bought her a couple of movies for it, I could get it.

So we bought it, went home, hooked it up, and spent the rest of our anniversary watching Corpse Bride in glorious HD. Best anniversary ever.

[|darc|]

fucking idiot.

[DaMadFiddler]

Let me updated you on your question.

When I posted before, I was using component cables. I had an Xbox/360/Playstation universal component cable lying around, so that's what I initially hooked the system up with. However, I read somewhere that Sony (as part of their asshole copy protection practices) won't upscale content over an analog connection, so I bought a cheap HDMI cable through a third-party seller on Amazon.

What a WORLD of difference! DVDs are upscaled now, and PS2 games look a hell of a lot better. They really do look much better than they do on PS2 hardware...which looks about the same as the PS3 on component. I think it only upscales if you're using HDMI.

I do have one downloaded PSone game, though, and it doesn't seem to show any difference. (Castlevania)

Just thought you might like to know.

(and for the record: I got my HDTV a few years ago, so it does 720p and 1080i, but not 1080p)

[DaMadFiddler]

Congrats, though...$325?! You lucked out!

I was not too happy about paying $500 for the damn thing...but I wanted to be sure to get one of the 60GB ones, because if I were going to get one at all, I wanted one that had the full hardware PS2 support. I actually wouldn't have bought it if I couldn't play PS2 games on it...and based on what I've seen with Microsoft and the 360 situation, I don't exactly trust them to stay on top of software emulation.

[Specially Cork]

I still doubt I'll be getting one for a while due to money issues and moving countries. Once GTA4, MGS4 and FF13 are all out I doubt I'll resist the pull of next-gen gaming anymore and it'll be a PS3 for me. 360 just doesn't have the key franchises that I want.

[Skynet]

I have no doubt what so ever that I will be getting one eventually, but I would imagine that I would want to get a new tv first.

[DaMadFiddler]

I still doubt I'll be getting one for a while due to money issues and moving countries. Once GTA4, MGS4 and FF13 are all out I doubt I'll resist the pull of next-gen gaming anymore and it'll be a PS3 for me. 360 just doesn't have the key franchises that I want.

Indeed. The big titles associated with the Xbox brand are mostly FPS games, of which I'm not particularly fond. (Besides, they've had so many hardware issues with that thing...kinda wary of it). This is also why I will likely continue to own Nintendo consoles: about half of my favorite games are Nintendo series. Zelda, Mario, Metroid, MarioKart, Smash Bros., Pikmin, etc. I'd love nothing more than to consolidate everything on one console...but Nintendo doesn't really get a lot of third-party love, and most of my favorite games that aren't owned by Nintendo tend to end up on PlayStation--especially the really quirky ones like Rez and Katamari and Amplitude. I'm nearly through Space Channel 5 right now.

Now, I just need to find a convenient way to move my iTunes library over to the PS3, so I can start using it as a proper set-top box. I spent a week ripping everything onto my computer, and I don't exactly relish the thought of re-ripping it all. Ripping the DVDs won't be fun, either.



On an unrelated note: Time to make a sticky for PS3 contact info?

[abydos1000]

While I wish I could get a 60 gig one just for the hardware PS2 support alone (I pretty much assume the 80 gig one uses software emulation??), there is no way that is going to happen anytime in the near future. Fortunately, there is quite a ways to go before FF XIII is actually out, but I know I am going to miss out on the PS2 support.

$325 is a really good deal though. You got lucky finding that one.

[Veggita2099]

Yea that last patch for the PS3 was actually pretty good. PS2 games actually don't look like crap anymore, and it plays DVD's better then my normal DVD player. Even with component cables Ps2 games looked kinda crappy on a hdtv, but now they look quite nice.

One thing I didn't look at though is the price of blueray movies. I can't bring myself to pay $10 or $15 more for a movie just to get it in blueray. Thing is a lot of the current blueray movies don't' seem to look any better then a normal DVD (Talladega Nights for example). I guess its because a lot of them was not actually filmed in HD.

[Thomas]

Fiddler, I too only have a 720p/1080i TV. Do all games and setting have the option for just 720p, or are there certain features you can only use with 1080p?

Caongrats on the great deal Mel. I'm hoping to get one around Christmas time.

[DaMadFiddler]

Fiddler, I too only have a 720p/1080i TV. Do all games and setting have the option for just 720p, or are there certain features you can only use with 1080p?

Caongrats on the great deal Mel. I'm hoping to get one around Christmas time.

So far, I haven't noticed anything. Most PS3 games run in either 720p or 1080i (though typically not both), the interface runs in whatever the highest resolution is that your TV supports, and as long as you're using HDMI it'll scale up your content. The only thing I *don't* think it does is upscale PS2 games that run in progressive scan. I tried God of War in its progressive scan mode, and it was running in 480p. So either leave progressive scan turned off for your PS2 games, or deal with the jaggies.

There used to be a problem if you only had one or the other--it would scale 1080p content (like BluRay movies) all the way down to 480p--but they fixed that in the most recent firmware update.

[Joestar]

Welcome to the club

Make sure you get Super Stardust

[Lartrak]

There still isn't a single exclusive on PS3 I really want. Guess I won't get one anytime soon...

[DaMadFiddler]

There still isn't a single exclusive on PS3 I really want. Guess I won't get one anytime soon...

I understand...the vast majority of PS3 titles I want are also on 360. But I'd rather have a PS3 than a 360...and I was going to wait, but like I said earlier, I wanted to be sure to get one with PS2 hardware (which are being phased out). Another incentive for me (though it probably won't apply to most people) is that I don't have a PS2, so that's a whole huge catalog of games I'm playing for the first time.

[stagg]

I want a PS3 just for this sexy piece.

[Juan]

You got yourself a personal smiley right there.

[melancholy]

Alright, I've been messing with it tonight, and here are my impressions:

-The Blu-Ray player is worth it. In fact, just HD movies in general are amazing. I didn't know what I was missing until I watched a Blu-Ray movie on my new TV. But of course I only have one movie at the moment to watch (Corpse Bride), so I don't know how older movies will look.

-The menu is way, way better than the 360. One thing that always bothered me about the 360 is how complicated the entire thing looks. I mean, it's not necessarily hard to find what you're looking for, but it's quite intrusive. The PS3, however, is simple. In fact, the PSP and PS3 have perhaps the best menu layout I have seen for a console.

-It's way more quiet than the 360, by a significant amount. One of the major reasons I didn't want to get an HD-DVD add-on was because the 360 is so loud. Not a problem with the PS3.

-On the flipside, it has to be the ugliest console I've ever owned. I actually buried it at the bottom of my TV stand just so I didn't have to look at it. And I was lucky it even fit, too, because the thing is huge.

-PS2 upscaling is not as nice as I was hoping. Granted it looks better than the PS2, but I guess I was kinda hoping for some higher resolutions, which I'm not going to get. It is nice to be able to have it all on one system, though, which is also why I like the Wii.

-There's also the unfortunate fact that there really isn't a single game I want for the PS3. I have MotorStorm which is cool, but I'm already getting bored with it since I'm not much of a racing game fan. I love Burnout, which is why I thought I might like this game too, but it's just not doing it for me the same way Burnout does. Beyond that, though, the only other game I plan on getting is Tony Hawk: Project 8, which is also on 360. There's just really no games I want at the moment. But to be fair, Oblivion was the only 360 game I even played for the entire first year it was out. Spring will bring me MGS4, and all will be well. Plus Folklore sounds quite interesting too.

So right now, I'm having fun messing around with the system, and I added a few Blu-Ray movies to my Netflix, so it will definitely get plenty of use. Perhaps not the intended use for a PS3, but that will come when Metal Gear comes.

[politoe]

fucking idiot.

[stagg]

Snip.

So you bought a gaming system, for movies. Nice.

[Specially Cork]

Snip.

So you bought a gaming system, for movies. Nice.

No, he bought it for games. It's just that the games he wants aren't out yet. He had the opputunity to get the console at a low price, so bought it anyway.

fucking idiot.

The Sony hate on this board is a joke at times. He already owns a 360 and a Wii and bought the PS3 last, and at a good low price. I don't see anything idiotic about it. Or are you saying it's better to deprive yourself of certain games you want just because "SONY SUX!11"? It's like chatting with a bunch of 13-year-olds again.