10th October 2016, 9:12 PM
... So um, I wasn't really planning on getting another console now and definitely didn't think I'd get one of these things, but after seeing this price a few days ago, I just couldn't resist. Well, I did resist at first, only to return later that day and bought it. Heh. (Note that I posted most of this in the 'games I bought' thread too, but this version is like twice as long as that one since it has lots more detail.)
Hardware
--
Playstation 3 (12GB black Super Slim model) - $60, with power cord, HDMI cable, a (micro?) USB charging cable, and a Dual Shock 3 controller. Yes, really. This system doesn't have a hard drive in it now, which is why it was so cheap, so I'll definitely need to get a HDD... but this is a really good price for a PS3 I actually got locally, I don't think I've seen one this cheap from an actual store. The Super Slim is kind of weird in that it has a top-load drive, a definite step down in some ways from the slot-load drive of the earlier models, but it's probably more reliable so that's fine. I will definitely need a hard drive though, far more games require large installs o nthe PS3 than the 360 so I won't be able to get away with just the internal memory for a year or more like I did on the 360. Too bad. Is this because the Blu-Ray drive reads slower than a DVD does? Lots of multiplatform titles have multi-gig installs on PS3 but read straight off the disc on 360! I know a few 360 games install (GTA5, NFS Rivals, a few more), but not many But whatever the reason for this on the PS3, it's kind of annoying. On the other hand though, I didn't even think of this until after I'd bought it, but I finally have a Blu-Ray player now. I only have a couple of Blu-Rays and don't want to spend bunches of money on them, DVD quality is mostly fine... still though, I guess it's nice to have, even if Blu-Ray is almost outdated now, with 4K Blu-Ray out now.
Additionally I got a Playstation Move camera, two Playstation Move controllers, and a Move Navigation controller for $7 each, because motion controls are fun. Gamestop's prices for these things are so high, but fortunately a local chain is much cheaper.
PS3 Games (complete unless noted)
--
MLB 12 The Show - $2, disc only (this is the only disc only game, all others are complete)
Puppeteer - $9
LittleBigPlanet 2 - $10 - These games are okay, but it's a shame they aren't more fun to play... the physics and controls are just not quite right.
Lair - $4 - Good or bad, as a Factor 5 fan I definitely had to get this game!
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - $3
Resistance: Fall of Man - $1
Motorstorm - $1 - I've played some of this one now and it seems pretty good. Good graphics, fun gameplay.
Motorstorm: Pacific Rift - $9
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom - $4.50
Sports Champions - $3 - The original Move game. Seems quite solid, with some fun sports minigames.
Genji: Days of the Blade -$4 - Had to get the infamous "giant enemy crab" game!
Sorcery - $3 - A Move game I've wanted to play. I know this got mediocre reviews, but for some reason I've always really wanted to try this game, so I made sure to get it.
The Shoot - $3 - A Move light gun style shooter.
Tales of Xillia - $18 - I definitely wanted to get one of the three PS3-exclusive Tales games (well, PS3-exclusive in the US), so I got this one. It doesn't have a manual, but I don't think there is one.
Dragon's Crown - $18 - This is a quite good beat 'em up. It got some bad press for the sexualized characters, but the gameplay's very fun and the graphics are good 2d stuff.
Download games - I did not buy any now, but I have five games I got for the PSP that are also PS3 compatible -- the four PS Minis I have (Trailblazer, Fortix, Retro Cave Flier, ), and my one PS1 Classics game, Crash Bandicoot.
Additionally I have one PS3-only download game that I got some time back, After Burner Climax. The games' licensing rights ran out some time back so the gaqme was removed from sale (and it is still gone, you can't buy this game anymore). Unfortunately I didn't hear about it in time to buy it for the 360... or the US PS3 either. But the game was available on the European PS3 store for some days longer than the other systems and I really wanted to have this game, so I made a EU PSN account, found a website to buy some UK PSN points from, and bought this game. It runs just fine on a US PS3; you need multiple accounts, but don't need to switch them to run other-account games, which is nice. And yeah the game is great fun, and it's really unfortunate that it is now impossible to buy!
Additionally, downloading from the Playstation Store to PSPs directly via the internet was shut down a year or more ago, so you can't download games to a PSP from the system itself anymore, you need to do that via another Playstation console. Last year I tried to figure out if you can download games to a PSP from the web, but had no luck, at least not for US-region titles. So, I had a couple of PSP games that I had bought over a year ago but hadn't been able to play until now -- I had not previously been able to play Z.H.P., Black Rock Shooter, or Guilty Gear Accent Core + (Plus). Now I can, since I downloaded them to PS3 then copied them over to PSP via USB, and that's great.
As for my thoughts on the hardware, I made a thread about my first (bad!) impressions of the interface. The few games I've played so far do seem good though, so it does feel like it was worth getting. If the PS3 was fully backwards compatible on the PS4 I wouldn't have bought this I think, but it's not, so it is something worth having...
(Oh, I do not currently have a PS Plus subscription, never have, and don't plan on getting one soon unless there's something essential that needs it. I already pay for Xbox Live...)
So what do I think of the hardware? Well, the Move works pretty well, it's responsive. It's unfortunate that you can't use it with a pointer in menus though, that'd be a nice option -- the PS3 menu interface is terrible compared to the 360's! Seriously, here's a list:
- Gamepad only in menus, no PS Move pointer support. This is the opposite issue from the Wii, where I wish it had both gamepad and pointer support in the system menus instead of only pointer.
- It's slow, doing anything takes longer (loading...)
- There is no simple list of how much space games/apps take up for example, unlike the 360, you need to go into each games' page separately. This means that if you do start running out of space, figuring out what's big could be tedious.
- The store is not integrated into the OS but instead is a completely separate application
- You cannot view the download list while in the store and cannot view the menu in the store either (you need to quit the store to view what you're downloading, then wait for the store to load again to go back in if you needed to...)
- After downloading a game you need to install them and this must be done on the interface, not in the background. On the 360 the whole download and install process is seamless and runs in the background, but that doesn't work here.
- And why is the download and install separate anyway? On PS3 and Wii you don't need to install things, that's just a part of the download! This serves to slow things down even more, installs are slow. And on a related note, deleting things on this system takes FAR longer than it does on 360 or Wii. Why does everything in the interface take so long?
- For any titles on multiple Sony platforms (PS3/PSP, PS3/PSP/Vita, or such), it seems that their installers stay permanently in the Games list... above all actual games. So to find your downloaded games you need to scroll past these useless installers to get down to the games below, which is completely stupid. The PSP does not have this issue, you don't have to scroll past useless installers to get to actual games, etc. This is worse because...
- Sorting functions in your downloaded games list are minimal, and it's harder to find a game here than it is on the Wii or 360. You cannot create custom folders or re-organize the games' order yourself as you could on the Wii, and there are fewer sorting options than the 360 has. There isn't a fast scroll option like using the L/R buttons to scroll pages on 360 game lists either. And while the 360 has a nice built-in search function, the PS3 doesn't; you just need to scroll down this stupid list until you find the game in question. The only folders option just sorts them into three categories -- PS1 Classics, PS3 games, and PS Minis. Sure I only have a handful of downloadable games right now, but with more stuff I can see this being awful!
As for the hardware itself, for a Sony system it looks okay, but while as I said earlier the top-loading drive probably is less prone to failure than slot-load drives are, it makes switching games takes slightly longer and doesn't look as nice. While I have the second version of the 360, not the last, MS kept a slot-load drive in the last 360 (the E).
- The Super Slim has only two USB ports, both on the front only, and you'll need one of those for the PS Move camera... which I really wish I could plug into the back. The controller is okay, but of course I've never liked Sony controllers much. I like the triggers on this pad a lot more than PS1 or PS2 shoulder buttons though, for sure! They're nice. The surface on the analog stick feels a little nicer than the PS1 or PS2 ones as well I think. Still though, I'd have liked to see the boomerang controller...
Once you finally get into a game the system works fine, but seriously this interface is not very good. I have heard that the Xbox One's interface is slow and the PS4's is actually better, that'd be an unfortunate reversal. As for comparing it to the Wii there are plusses and minuses; the Wii's interface is easier and quicker to use and is more customizable, but the Wii does also have a separate store app and you can't download/install games you bought in the background.
So anyway, overall, the PS3 has some good games but a bad interface. I'm sure everyone knew this 9-10 years ago, but it is kind of surprising that over the course of the very long 7th generation this was the best Sony could come up with...
Hardware
--
Playstation 3 (12GB black Super Slim model) - $60, with power cord, HDMI cable, a (micro?) USB charging cable, and a Dual Shock 3 controller. Yes, really. This system doesn't have a hard drive in it now, which is why it was so cheap, so I'll definitely need to get a HDD... but this is a really good price for a PS3 I actually got locally, I don't think I've seen one this cheap from an actual store. The Super Slim is kind of weird in that it has a top-load drive, a definite step down in some ways from the slot-load drive of the earlier models, but it's probably more reliable so that's fine. I will definitely need a hard drive though, far more games require large installs o nthe PS3 than the 360 so I won't be able to get away with just the internal memory for a year or more like I did on the 360. Too bad. Is this because the Blu-Ray drive reads slower than a DVD does? Lots of multiplatform titles have multi-gig installs on PS3 but read straight off the disc on 360! I know a few 360 games install (GTA5, NFS Rivals, a few more), but not many But whatever the reason for this on the PS3, it's kind of annoying. On the other hand though, I didn't even think of this until after I'd bought it, but I finally have a Blu-Ray player now. I only have a couple of Blu-Rays and don't want to spend bunches of money on them, DVD quality is mostly fine... still though, I guess it's nice to have, even if Blu-Ray is almost outdated now, with 4K Blu-Ray out now.
Additionally I got a Playstation Move camera, two Playstation Move controllers, and a Move Navigation controller for $7 each, because motion controls are fun. Gamestop's prices for these things are so high, but fortunately a local chain is much cheaper.
PS3 Games (complete unless noted)
--
MLB 12 The Show - $2, disc only (this is the only disc only game, all others are complete)
Puppeteer - $9
LittleBigPlanet 2 - $10 - These games are okay, but it's a shame they aren't more fun to play... the physics and controls are just not quite right.
Lair - $4 - Good or bad, as a Factor 5 fan I definitely had to get this game!
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - $3
Resistance: Fall of Man - $1
Motorstorm - $1 - I've played some of this one now and it seems pretty good. Good graphics, fun gameplay.
Motorstorm: Pacific Rift - $9
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom - $4.50
Sports Champions - $3 - The original Move game. Seems quite solid, with some fun sports minigames.
Genji: Days of the Blade -$4 - Had to get the infamous "giant enemy crab" game!
Sorcery - $3 - A Move game I've wanted to play. I know this got mediocre reviews, but for some reason I've always really wanted to try this game, so I made sure to get it.
The Shoot - $3 - A Move light gun style shooter.
Tales of Xillia - $18 - I definitely wanted to get one of the three PS3-exclusive Tales games (well, PS3-exclusive in the US), so I got this one. It doesn't have a manual, but I don't think there is one.
Dragon's Crown - $18 - This is a quite good beat 'em up. It got some bad press for the sexualized characters, but the gameplay's very fun and the graphics are good 2d stuff.
Download games - I did not buy any now, but I have five games I got for the PSP that are also PS3 compatible -- the four PS Minis I have (Trailblazer, Fortix, Retro Cave Flier, ), and my one PS1 Classics game, Crash Bandicoot.
Additionally I have one PS3-only download game that I got some time back, After Burner Climax. The games' licensing rights ran out some time back so the gaqme was removed from sale (and it is still gone, you can't buy this game anymore). Unfortunately I didn't hear about it in time to buy it for the 360... or the US PS3 either. But the game was available on the European PS3 store for some days longer than the other systems and I really wanted to have this game, so I made a EU PSN account, found a website to buy some UK PSN points from, and bought this game. It runs just fine on a US PS3; you need multiple accounts, but don't need to switch them to run other-account games, which is nice. And yeah the game is great fun, and it's really unfortunate that it is now impossible to buy!
Additionally, downloading from the Playstation Store to PSPs directly via the internet was shut down a year or more ago, so you can't download games to a PSP from the system itself anymore, you need to do that via another Playstation console. Last year I tried to figure out if you can download games to a PSP from the web, but had no luck, at least not for US-region titles. So, I had a couple of PSP games that I had bought over a year ago but hadn't been able to play until now -- I had not previously been able to play Z.H.P., Black Rock Shooter, or Guilty Gear Accent Core + (Plus). Now I can, since I downloaded them to PS3 then copied them over to PSP via USB, and that's great.
As for my thoughts on the hardware, I made a thread about my first (bad!) impressions of the interface. The few games I've played so far do seem good though, so it does feel like it was worth getting. If the PS3 was fully backwards compatible on the PS4 I wouldn't have bought this I think, but it's not, so it is something worth having...
(Oh, I do not currently have a PS Plus subscription, never have, and don't plan on getting one soon unless there's something essential that needs it. I already pay for Xbox Live...)
So what do I think of the hardware? Well, the Move works pretty well, it's responsive. It's unfortunate that you can't use it with a pointer in menus though, that'd be a nice option -- the PS3 menu interface is terrible compared to the 360's! Seriously, here's a list:
- Gamepad only in menus, no PS Move pointer support. This is the opposite issue from the Wii, where I wish it had both gamepad and pointer support in the system menus instead of only pointer.
- It's slow, doing anything takes longer (loading...)
- There is no simple list of how much space games/apps take up for example, unlike the 360, you need to go into each games' page separately. This means that if you do start running out of space, figuring out what's big could be tedious.
- The store is not integrated into the OS but instead is a completely separate application
- You cannot view the download list while in the store and cannot view the menu in the store either (you need to quit the store to view what you're downloading, then wait for the store to load again to go back in if you needed to...)
- After downloading a game you need to install them and this must be done on the interface, not in the background. On the 360 the whole download and install process is seamless and runs in the background, but that doesn't work here.
- And why is the download and install separate anyway? On PS3 and Wii you don't need to install things, that's just a part of the download! This serves to slow things down even more, installs are slow. And on a related note, deleting things on this system takes FAR longer than it does on 360 or Wii. Why does everything in the interface take so long?
- For any titles on multiple Sony platforms (PS3/PSP, PS3/PSP/Vita, or such), it seems that their installers stay permanently in the Games list... above all actual games. So to find your downloaded games you need to scroll past these useless installers to get down to the games below, which is completely stupid. The PSP does not have this issue, you don't have to scroll past useless installers to get to actual games, etc. This is worse because...
- Sorting functions in your downloaded games list are minimal, and it's harder to find a game here than it is on the Wii or 360. You cannot create custom folders or re-organize the games' order yourself as you could on the Wii, and there are fewer sorting options than the 360 has. There isn't a fast scroll option like using the L/R buttons to scroll pages on 360 game lists either. And while the 360 has a nice built-in search function, the PS3 doesn't; you just need to scroll down this stupid list until you find the game in question. The only folders option just sorts them into three categories -- PS1 Classics, PS3 games, and PS Minis. Sure I only have a handful of downloadable games right now, but with more stuff I can see this being awful!
As for the hardware itself, for a Sony system it looks okay, but while as I said earlier the top-loading drive probably is less prone to failure than slot-load drives are, it makes switching games takes slightly longer and doesn't look as nice. While I have the second version of the 360, not the last, MS kept a slot-load drive in the last 360 (the E).
- The Super Slim has only two USB ports, both on the front only, and you'll need one of those for the PS Move camera... which I really wish I could plug into the back. The controller is okay, but of course I've never liked Sony controllers much. I like the triggers on this pad a lot more than PS1 or PS2 shoulder buttons though, for sure! They're nice. The surface on the analog stick feels a little nicer than the PS1 or PS2 ones as well I think. Still though, I'd have liked to see the boomerang controller...
Once you finally get into a game the system works fine, but seriously this interface is not very good. I have heard that the Xbox One's interface is slow and the PS4's is actually better, that'd be an unfortunate reversal. As for comparing it to the Wii there are plusses and minuses; the Wii's interface is easier and quicker to use and is more customizable, but the Wii does also have a separate store app and you can't download/install games you bought in the background.
So anyway, overall, the PS3 has some good games but a bad interface. I'm sure everyone knew this 9-10 years ago, but it is kind of surprising that over the course of the very long 7th generation this was the best Sony could come up with...