Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Tired of reading "review" after "review" from either Xbox fanboys that are just jealous or guys that don't even own a PS3? Me too. I actually OWN a PS3 and put it through it's paces for the past hour or so and decided to come on and write a review. First off my system: TV - Sony KDLXBR3 46" LCD 1080p AVR - Harman Kardon AVR635 5.1 speakers - Definitive Techonology ProCinema 100 system with sub PS3 - connected to TV via HDMI, connected to AVR via optical So understand I am putting out the best this thing can offer. Also understand people that review this are basing their opinions off of their system setup. Perhaps they are looking at a 13" crt, you never know, and without the equivilent of the system I have you aren't doing justice to the PS3 when you review it. My initial thoughts: 1. This is a great device with a quality game line up at launch. No there are no earth shattering games, but please tell me the last time a system launched with one? Nintendo 64? The games out now are fun to play, look better than anything on PS2 or xbox and are AT LEAST as good looking as the Xbox360 versions or those similar. So at the very least you are on an equal playing field in terms of games and variety of games at launch. 2. PS3 as an entertainment hub is a neat idea. I tested out the DVD playback and it's just as good as my sony upscaling (1080i) dvd player. I tested out Talladega Nights Blu-Ray movie that came with it, and my initial impression is that it looks slightly better than a good (video quality) dvd (Lord of the Rings, Terminator 2, etc.). I believe that as the technology becomes better used, movie studios will do better in the arena of mastering movies for blu-ray production and we'll see a clear gap between blu-ray and dvd performance. For now it is better but may dissappoint those that think the tv should explode with how good the picture should be. 3. Navigating and setup - It took a minute or so to update the firmware, no biggie. I use a wireless connection and it found it no problem. The speed is great, i'd recommend an 802.11n router. Account setup was a tad tiresome with the controller as the input device. I suppose i could have used a keyboard but i didn't want to take apart my computer for that. For non-tech people you may need to read the online help manual for better instructions on how to set it up. You can create multiple accounts so parents can restrict access to kids much like windows has administrator and general user accounts. After changing audio settings to optical output I was good to go. No other settings were necessary for me. 4. Game play - this depends upon a lot of variables. First is the game you have and the type of game you like. I play most games on my PC which I built myself and was top-of-the-line a year ago when i built it. So i have played Quake 4, Doom 3, etc. at the best visual settings and know what "pretty" graphics look like. I am not blown away by the quality of the game graphics because of this. HOWEVER, being able to play those same quality graphics on my 46" LCD TV makes a huge impression. My computer monitor is a 24" widescreen lcd so I am used to a big screen, but playing on such a huge screen is simply awesome. If you have an HDTV and don't play computer games and only have a PS2 I think you'll be blown away. 5. Buy or don't buy? I think if you have a setup like mine, buy it now. If you don't, wait until you do before you buy this because you won't see much improvement over your PS2 games. 6. Blu-Ray player - This was my main reason for buying this system. As I said, i do most gaming on my PC, so that wasn't a big draw for me. I want to watch movies in full 1080p as my tv can display. I like watching movies so having the best picture quality possible is key for me. And as far as technology goes, there is no better picture quality than what blu-ray and HD-DVD are pumping out. The alternative to a PS3 would then had to have been a stand-alone player which would have cost MORE than the PS3. So it makes perfect sense to buy one for me. Remember though, that the blu-ray player is included moreso for gaming than movie watching. In the future, games will require the available space blu-ray disks offer and you won't get that with Xbox 360 which still uses regular DVD's. I imagine games will take much longer to develop because they will include more, better, bigger, badder content. That's all good and something not possible with a DVD disk as your storage media. Xbox 360 is another quality item, but for my money you just get more with the PS3 (considering the added cost of an extra HD to match 60GB and a HD-DVD player addon for xbox360). Thank you for reading my review.