PlayStation 3 80 GB

Buying PlayStation 3 80GB

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 by Migo | Posted in Best PlayStation 3 80 GB, Buy PlayStation 3 80 GB, Cheap PlayStation 3 80 GB, Discount PlayStation 3 80 GB, Looking for PlayStation 3 80 GB, PlayStation 3 80GB

I've been a tad perplexed that some people find the Sony PS3 a bit of a disappointment. As a gaming platform I'm not blown away simply because there are so very, very few games made for the PS3 that I'm even the slightest bit tempted to play. Next week Fallout 3 comes out (I was a huge, huge fan of the original Fallout and its sequel on PC), which doubles the number of games that I am interested in playing on a PS3. I am almost exclusively interested in RPGs, and so far PCs (with an Internet connection) remains the platform of choice. Even the one game I have been playing on the PS3 I originally played on PC, Oblivion. I would rather scrub a floor than play a 3D shooter or a sports sim, so if it had been only a gaming platform, a PS3 would have been a pretty tawdry purchase.

Luckily there is a great deal more to the PS3 than its capacity to run games. From the menu I can see that there is a great deal more than I have not yet discovered. For instance, I'm not quite certain why it has built in wi-fi. Maybe one day I'll find out; more likely I won't. But there are several uses to which I've put my PS3 that has made it well worth the purchase price.

My main reason for getting a PS3 was to play Blu-ray discs. Like a huge number of people, I held off going high def until the format wars were resolved. Once Blu-ray won, however, it was time for me to get off the sideline. I waited until I moved in August to get my first high def television and in September I got my PS3. There was no great rush because I had no Blu-ray discs. But I ordered the PS3, Seasons One of both TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES and PUSHING DAISIES, IRON MAN, and the PS3 version of Oblivion all at the same time. I got TSCC and the PS3 on the same day. I came home, set up the Sony, popped in a disc, figured out how to use the remote (with some trouble -- the PS3 remote is not very intuitive for someone who has never played a console game), and was instantly happy that I had a Blu-ray player. The picture was if anything better than what I was expecting, and I was expecting a lot. I still don't have many Blu-rays, but with movies like WALL-E and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS coming out soon, and switching from DVD to Blu-ray on some of the shows I watch (LOST will now be purchased on Blu-ray), my small collection will grow.

My rationale for getting a PS3 rather than a unit that could only play Blu-ray discs was that the $80 difference in price would be justified by being able to play games, even if I never found anything to play other than Oblivion, would be a safe gamble. Especially with Fallout 3 coming out, I think I would that gamble. I have really enjoyed playing on a large screen. At first I had a lot of trouble adjusting to the controls after years of playing on a computer and using a keyboard, but I've really come to enjoy it. My only caveat is that sometimes I get slightly nauseous because of the movement on the larger screen. I've talked to a few other people and they've had similar problems. It isn't anything that I can't cope with, but it does cut into how much I enjoy playing.

There are two other uses I've been able to put the PS3 to use that make me even happier with it. First, like with my Philips Up-Conversion DVD player, the PS3 will play my older DVDs at a near 1080 resolution. Actually, some DVDs look absolutely as good as Blu-ray discs do. Battlestar Galactica, for instance, looks spectacular on my PS3. Sadly, Buffy, my other all time favorite show, doesn't look very good at all. I'm hoping that there will be a release of Buffy at some point on Blu-ray with a much higher resolution (though this should NOT be letterboxed -- though it was filmed with a wider angle camera so that you can actually show wider shots than what you got on TV, the shots were planned for 4:3 perspective, so that it is the more canonical frame). There is talk of bringing BSG out on Blu-ray, but I'm so happy with the resolution of my current discs, I'm not 100% sure I'll upgrade. I'll probably buy Season One on Blu-ray just to see.

The second thing I enjoy is the ability to play DIVX encoded .avi files using a flash drive. I can do this on my Philips Up-Conversion player as well, but with a major difference. The Philips gives a highly cropped menu. The PS3 gives a very large amount of info about each file. In other words, while neither really beats the other in terms of quality in playing the .avi files, the Sony makes it much easier to figure out what file you want to play.

So all in all I've been very happy with my PS3. Yes, I wish there were more games that interested me on this platform. But since I primarily got this for use as a Blu-ray player, any gameplay is just a nice bonus. If someone knows for dead certain that they would never play a game on it, they should probably consider getting a Blu-ray player only unit. But I enjoy the versatility of the PS3.Get more detail about PlayStation 3 80GB.