Nicely put. And no trace of bias... how refreshing!

Looks like you're now set to enjoy the best each console has to offer.

@ kn

Nice review.

With regard to the negatives I agree with regard to the install process being more of a hassle compared to on the 360, luckily when the PSN game or demo is installed it's just fine.

I did a review of the PS3 when it launched, apart from the still immature (but fully functional) launch firmware at the time, my main complaints with regard to the hardware was no DVR functions out of the box (would be nice if a future version would include the PlayTV hardware internally) and IMO there should have been some USB ports at the back of the console, instead of only at the front (nicer for attaching some peripheral like a webcam, PlayTV or USB extension cords), now I open the cabinet to connect stuff.

Apart from the above minor complaints, overall it's of course by far the best specced console, super powerful, silent, sturdy, a lot of room for OS improvements (256 MB vs 16 MB flash memory on the 360), Blu-Ray drive (for both games and movies), default easily upgradeable harddrive (which is technically better than optional with regard to potential), Wi-Fi, HDMI 1.3, Gigabit Ethernet, BlueTooth, etc all out of the box!

I hope Playstation Home will fully live up to expectations and becomes hugely successful, it could become a very important distinguishing feature. It looks extremely promising so far, just like upcoming games and I like the new trophy system so far.

great forum...enjoyed reading it :)

Yeah, sadly all of the games you have picked so far force you to install, with the smallest install being Heavenly Sword's 2gbs, if I recall correctly.

But don't worry! This is not the case for ALL games, or even most of them.   Resistance, Ratchet & Clank, and Uncharted all have no installs, with the latter having no visible in-game loading as well.

So far, it seems to me that Japanese devs generally go the install route (DMC4, MGS4, GT5P, etc.) with the exception being Sega, who has allowed optional installs for games like Valkyria Chronicles and Initial D. Games developed by Western developers, in comparison, generally have no installs, such as the aforementioned Uncharted, Resistance, and Ratchet & Clank, in addition to other games like Army of Two, Madden, etc. Of course, there are exceptions on this side as well, the most notable being GTAIV and Heavenly Sword.

@ makingmusic476

Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune are stunning games and shining technical examples of games which use the harddrive correctly. They use the primarily for cached streaming from Blu-Ray disc.

Motorstorm and Resistance: Fall of Man don't need a harddrive install at all, but they don't perform advanced streaming and load everything in memory at once.

Motorstorm and Resistance: Fall of Man however did receive good online updates and add-on packs which take some space on the harddrive.

Games I own and have installed:

Blu-Ray:

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - 0 MB (!), just save games take 256 KB.
Resistance: Fall of Man - latest multiplayer update / multi-player pack - 303 MB, the save game takes 124 KB.
Heavenly Sword with update v1.10 - 2 GB, save game takes less than 4 MB.
Grand Theft Auto IV - 3.3 GB, save games take 737 KB.
Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction 417 MB, save games take less than 1.4 MB.
Motorstorm update 3.1 plus PSN extras - 233 MB, save data takes 857 KB.
Warhawk version 1.31 with additional Maps - 956 MB.

PSN games (completely HD installed games):

Super Stardust HD - 292 MB
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection - 603 MB
Snakeball - 78 MB
Calling All Cars - 192 MB
Super Rub'a'Dub - 185 MB
Blast Factor Advanced Research -179 MB
Lemmings - 229 MB
Eveyday shooter - 38 MB

PS2 games, total 8 MB reserved for virtual memory card save games:

God of War
God of War 2
Ape Escape 2
Ape Escape 3

So about ~9 GB of data on the harddisk dedicated to 19 games! This plus Home (stated it will use about 500 MB upon release) is going to fit even the long ago discontinued 20 GB PS3 easily!

P.S. Many already released games will however receive updates which will take a little space on the harddrive, like Uncharted: Drake's Fortune will take advantage of the new trophy system. Luckily update installs are usually pretty straight forward.

Nice unbiased review. I really want to buy a PS3 (won´t be able for a while) and it´s nice to see such a detailed, non - fanboy review.

Thats A good unbiased review hope you enjoy your ps3.
It will be next year for me I,m afraid.

Nice review. I Hope you keep enjoying all of your consoles.

Wow, I can't believe I forgot built-in Wifi on the PS3. That is one good feature that the Wii and the PS3 have and frankly, the 360 should have. It does add value (even if it is purely perceived value) because MS charges so much for theirs. I bought a Logitech Play wireless adapter from Ebay for 20 bucks and it gave we wireless for me 360 at a fraction of the cost of the built-in one.

@cyclone 87: I would agree that the PS3 and 360 are equal in terms of graphics at this point and I suspect it will pretty much remain that way through the end of the generation on MANY multi-plats. There is no question the cell is a powerful CPU -- much more so than the 360 CPU-- but it is quite a bit more complex to design programs to truly take advantage of the many SPEs than it is to take advantage of PC-based processors that have a much more mature development library. It could be that very few of the third party Devs ever reach a point of mastering it while only First and Second take advantage. The Sega Saturn is a shining example of what happens when too much tech is introduced. It was the first console (that I know of) that used twin identical CPUs (Hitachi's). Few developers really knew how to create parallel code and take advantage of the architecture so they just used one or marginally used both. Virtua Fighter 2 was a graphical leap over everything else at the time because Sega really pushed the twin CPU architecture. Sadly, the Saturn died. That said, I don't believe the Playstation 3 will die which means eventually developers will master the SPEs. Consider also there are 8 rather than two and clearly there is a large learning curve. I don't think the 360, as much as I like the console, is going to be able to compete graphically in the coming couple of years.

@Makingmusic: As far as installs, I downloaded about a dozen demos and have 5 full games that I took out to play all at once. Pretty much everything required an install and some a significant download of an additional update (sizeable ones at that). I spent a LOT of time in total waiting but now that the initial rush is over it won't be as bad because I won't be getting my hands on 5-10 games a week, lol. Also, I don't get the license agreement on every game I play. That's new and came out of nowhere. I don't like the ones that forced me to scroll through before clicking accept. It's not really a dealbreaker, but it is a nuisance as I've never had to do that before on any other console. I think I have ADD, lol.

@Bokal: I don't hate the OS. It is fine, but I don't like the processes above. It is very good that they keep releasing updates as it upgrades the blu-ray player to the latest features and adds great stuff to the XMB.

Very well spoken and no traceable bias. How many posts should be made.