Note: This was copy and pasted from an email. All spelling and grammar mistakes were made by the sender.
Greeting Barrel Rollers,
I write to you for your blatantly bias views on the Sony's Blu-Ray playing, George Foreman Grillish, juggernaut of a console, the Playstation 3. Now before you think “FANBOY OMGZ CLOSE NAO!!!” I would just like to state, that the last generation of consoles I owned, the Nintendo Gamecube, Mircosoft Xbox, and the Sony Playsation 2. I was pleased with all three of them despite having their ups and downs, but they ultimately helped me make my decision of what I wanted to purchase as my first “Next Generation Console”. The console I picked was the Playstation 3.
As I write I've had my PS3 for only half a year and so far I have no complaints other than the fact that I waited too long and therefore I didn't get an older model, one with the old Emotion Chip/Disc Drive that aloud it to play PS2 games, or the 4 usb ports,or the built in memory card reader that could read basically any kinda of card, or the shiny reflective face of the ON/OFF/Eject tray thing. Sure that model was $200 dollars more and I wouldn't pay more than I already have for my PS3 but it's just little things I wish I could have kept but, Sony tossed those versions because they screwed up hard on how much a single PS3 was costing to make. Sony was dumb about that as we all know despite what any Fanboy would say.
Anyways, GAMES. Games games games games. Sony didn't deliver upon it's release, except maybe for Four launch titles, Heavenly Sword, Motorstorm, Resistance, and Uncharted. Four games... that was it... and then? Nothing. Sure usually consoles have that track record of having a lack of good games in the beginning, but Sony kinda forgot about that and from there the PS3 was kinda just sitting there collecting dust with a very basic firmware and an empty PSN Store. Ok if your a gamer we all know the story blah blah blah and I'll spare you the details, but I just want to get that out.t.
The announcement for Metal Gear Solid 4: Gun's of the Patriots, as a PS3 exclusive was like Jesus coming back on earth for all the Sony Fanboys. I will admit, I too squealed like a little girl knowing that the last chapter in the Metal Gear series was coming and it certainly helped influence me into buy the PS3. I won't go into a big review on MGS 4, after all I am trying to avoid tangents (cough cough Cody). MGS 4 delivered and definitely help shine some light on the potential of the PS3, its a great game and is definitely a series that should be played through for its game play, graphics, story and online awesomeness.
Since Metal Gear, the PS3 HAS GAMES NOW! YAY, which is where it should have been two years ago :D. I wont go through an entire list but, the two most noticeable games in my opinion are LittleBigPlanet and Killzone 2. LittleBigPlanet revolutionized the platformer with it's entire physics engine andlevel creator. When an entire game is built by an ingame level designer that is easy to use and levels can be released online through the game and can play with people or friends you know it's something that you can't ignore. Killzone 2.... Killzone 2 is either on par or better looking than Crysis. If I get flamed for that you can't blame me. I would call Killzone 2 to be the most beautiful game I ever put my eyes on. To conclude, Sony DOES have a bunch of killer app games that does the system in justice. Even if it does not have the quantity of games like the Xbox 360 (The xbox has been out longer) it certainly has far more better quality games than the Wii (face it, majority of third party games for the Wii aren't that great.).
So, what about the software and hardware features the PS3 houses in it's sleek George Foreman Grill design? The Xross Menu Bar (aka the XMB) is by far the greatest menu I have ever seen in a console. Sure the the New Xbox Experience (aka the NXE) is shiny and much nicer to look at than the “Blades” the Xbox used to have but, the way the XMB works is far more convent and minimal. You can enjoy your background too and what not. The possibility to create your own icons and changing wallpaper is a plus too, something the Xbox won't let you do which is unfortunate. Another thing I would like to point out is that Sony gave a thumbs up on partitioning the hardrive and installing another OS like Linux or whatever! This itself is a sexy idea and just something that adds to the table. Is it practical, you ask? I don't have the answer I've never done it but I plan on it. PS3's can take laptop hdd too so, if the 80gb ain't big enough buy a 500gb one and your set. The PS3's XMB is constantly being updated too which is nice because the PS3 won't be hopelessly out of date and will able catch up on said missing features. (i.e. voice chat with friends while playing different games not only just in a chatroom hint, hint, nudge, nudge...)
For hardware, the PS3 likes just about anything that can be plugged into a usb port. Printers, Mice, Keyboards, crappy 1997 PC controller pad, you name it, it can probably handle it. Bluetooth is another nice feature, personally I don't find it all that necessary but it's a nice feature for your bluetooth headset, keyboards, mice whatever. I wont get into blu-ray because...face it..we know what it does.
The Sixaxis in PS3 controllers. It was a completely thrown in decision after Nintendo revealed motion control, theirs no doubt about it. While early attempts with the Sixaxis have been just laughable when it comes to full motion control, the way it's been utilized lately is (here it comes) almost perfect! More and more games for the PS3 have been using the motion controls as another button. For example, in Resistance 1 and 2, catching on fire is naturally bad, rather than pound a separate button while in a firefight, you can just shake the controller, it also was a way to melee which was kinda cool too. A new game Ragdoll Kung Fu: Fist of Plastic, Free for this week because Sprint was so kind to pay for my $10 game, forces you to flip over the controller to meditate, and regain health, it also has you shake the controller to create energy balls (yes you can do Kamehameha Wave). My point is, that the idea of adding motion controller to a “gaming controller (not a wiimote)” actually works if used properly.
Ok so Nintendo has Mii's, Mircrosoft has Avatars and Sony has...well I guess they really don't have a name...um...well either way you can create people in Sony's Playstation Home. If you really don't know what Playstation Home is (im calling it Home now) it's basically a virtual world that is MMOish in that you can walk around, talk to people, play minigames, and start game launches. It's a cool technology that keeps growing. Third Party developers have gotten in on it and its definitely expanding into something that is just really cool and new. Sure one of it's main purposes is advertisement but thats ok because it's hard to walk into any game now a days and not find advertisement. If you want clothe and such they usually cost about 50 cents which really isn't bad at all if you plan to use Home regularly like I do. So far I've only bought a snowman head and combined it with my echochrome costume that I unlocked in the bowling ally and now I am a legit walking Snowman. Talking to other gamers and doing things within Home is just a fun time waster and it's cool to talk to people about different topics. By creating fake Japanese Accounts and European Accounts you can enter their Homes, (which look completely different) and talk to the people there. I managed to talk to a Russian guy and French lady in the JPN Home and we talked about world politics and such. I have to say after that conversation with them I felt Home has potential regardless of what other people think. Some people see it as stupid or just a gimmick but I have to say I'm rather surprised how much content is poured into it.
Last but not Least.... This entire fricken' paper, was made to defend the PS3 from your constant bashing of the poor mishapped George Foreman Grill when neither of you have one. I'm not gonna scream in your face and say the exclusives on the PS3 are better or say that the Xbox sucks or anything like that.( I like the 360 D:) I just don't think it's fair to bash the PS3 the way you do. Sure it has it's problems but you basically ignore and refuse to look at the positive of what the PS3 is offering right now. I felt my 400 dollars I spent on my 80gb PS3 was completely worth it and I have not regretted it once.
-Tyler
