PlayStation 3 Rocks man !!

There’s no denying that Sony is slightly late to the table with its next generation gaming console. With Nintendo launching its fun filled Wii at the beginning of December 2006 and Microsoft unveiling the Xbox 360 almost a year and a half ago, Sony has managed to gift no less than two Christmas periods to Microsoft and one to Nintendo. It’s fair to say that the Wii was the big hit of the recent festive season, while the year before getting your paws on an Xbox 360 was nigh on impossible.

Sony is keen to push the fact that the PlayStation 3 can play Blu-ray movie discs, and when you consider how much a dedicated Blu-ray player costs, that’s hardly surprising. To be honest, I’ve never been one for watching movies on games consoles – if I want to watch movies, I’ll watch them on a high-end player for the best results. That said, the PS3 makes a very good case for itself as a Blu-ray movie player, not least because it’s one of the only HDMI 1.3 equipped devices on the market right now.

The PlayStation 3 also has one major advantage over the Xbox 360 and HD DVD drive combination – it’s very quiet in operation. While the X360 and HD DVD drive produce very good results when watching a movie, the setup makes a significant amount of noise, which can be very intrusive during quiet scenes. The PlayStation 3 on the other hand, while not silent, is quiet as a mouse compared to its main competitor in this area. Less positive is the fact that if you’re using a component video cable to connect your PS3 to your HDTV, all your Blu-ray movies will be downscaled to 480i – the only way to get them to play at full resolution is over an HDCP compliant HDMI connection.

It’s a real shame that Sony has managed to mess up the European launch of the PlayStation 3 so badly. We’re getting the console late, we’re paying through the nose for it and we’re not even getting the same hardware as Japan and America – with that in mind it’s tough for me to recommend that anyone buy one at this point in time.

But like I said, it’s a shame, because the PlayStation 3 really is an impressive piece of kit. This really is so much more than just a games console, and it really could be that digital entertainment hub that Sony would have you believe it is. And it really does have the potential to be a truly great gaming platform. As things stand though, Sony has managed to make the PlayStation 3 look like the least attractive next generation console, when it really shouldn’t be.

PS3. Go for the ultimate Gaming Experience !