you really should consider trying it. It is free so why not?

If there are kinks to work out of the wonky BETA, I will wait until the final version is released. I will then contemplate downloading it.

The Mall

First thing I notice is a poster for the PS3 chatpad.  I run up to it and booyah!  It's not busy!  I enjoy a minute of poster time but I notice there's this weird sound going on.  It sounded like someone was throwing change or something like that but I couldn't figure out what it was.  Weird.

Anyways, I visit the stores, scoff at the microtransactions, ponder at the shops with nothing in them, and decide I'm done with the mall since I have no plans to spend money at the moment.

One thing though before I'm done with the mall-- to back out of anything that is anything Playstion, I press the back button and keep pressing it until I'm where I want to be.  To get out of a store I press the back button and then the confirm button.  Bad Sony.  Bad!

It's no secret that I haven't been the most hyped person for Home but I have been perfectly willing to give it a chance.  So here's my Home experience so far:

Trying to download and start Home

I go home for lunch today hoping Home was already released to everyone but no luck.  Oh well.  So I get home about 6 and lo and behold Home is ready.  To my surprise, the download is only something like 30 megs and it downloads just fine!  Awesome!

So I open it up...and problem after problem.  I keep getting connection issues but that was actually expected since there are probably a good 10+ million people trying to get it.  I turn off my PS3 and do something else for about an hour.

After finishing a few shows I try again and still no dice.  I keep getting the little error (forgive me, I forget the error) trying to connect.  To make things worse it even froze my PS3 twice and had to manually reset it.  At about this point the wife had gotten home so I gave up again and we went to dinner.

I get back and try one more time and it works great!  Woohoo!  It wasn't really slow connecting or anything so things were looking up.  I start making my character and it gets slow as fuck again.  Oh well, again, to be expected.

Now about the character creator, I quickly noticed two things:

1. too many options
2. you can't make a character that doesn't look like a douche

Now I know too many options may not sound like a bad things, but when customizing your face there are just too many things to fiddle with.  I'm sure if I took my time I could make something that looked exactly like me but most people (myself included) would rather just have something close and be done with it and not have to deal with really deep options on every little thing.  I didn't want to bring Mii's or Avatars into this, but those work because they're simple.

As for the characters looking like douchebags, I just don't believe you can make one that doesn't look like a douche.  This assumption was later confirmed when I got into the game.

So here's my experience going through each of the areas:

Tutorial

I like a good tutorial and this tutorial wasn't bad.  Good tutorial-- point for Home. 

So I finish the tutorial and it wants me to go to the Plaza, sure thing!  Wait, what?  You want me to download it?  You couldn't have asked me to do that earlier?  Really?  So I start downloading the plaza and it's going slow as fuck (even though I have a *very* fast connection).  I take the chance to wander around my empty apartment...and be bored out of my mind.

A good five minutes later I finally download the plaza and continue my journey!

Plaza

First thing I notice when entering the plaza is I was right: everyone looks like a douche.  And that is actually a little fitting because reading what people are saying and people sound just like the 12 year olds on Live.  I guess at least now I can put a face on the foul mouthed 12 year olds I hate.  Another point to Home.

So I wander around the plaza, notice frame rate issues, and find someplace to enter.  Fun!  Wait, gotta download again.  Walk around some more, and gotta download some more.  I spend another five or so minutes just exploring the plaza, dance a few times (what is their obsession with dancing?  did they spend all that delay time just making dancing animations?), and the areas download so I go on my way to the bowling alley!

Lets play some games and experience the fun in Home!

Bowling Alley

First thing I notice when I enter the bowling alley are the many pool tables.  I like pool, that could be fun!  I click on one...occupied.  I click on another...occupied.  I try all the rest of them...occupied.

Ugh, fine, I see an arcade so I'll play a game.

Same thing, they are all freaking occupied.

Fuck, whatever, I'll bowl.  Oh, wait, no, all freaking occupied!

What the fuck Sony?  I don't want to wait to play games.  It's not fun to sit and watch people play pool, ice breakers, and bowl.  It's fun to play pool, play ice breakers (I assume), and bowl.

Fuck off bowling alley, I'm done here for now.  But wait!  I see a TV screen with nobody around.  I quickly run my barefoot self over there, click the TV screen, go full screen, and watch a blank screen.

Home, I'm taking away the previous two points I gave you.

Back to the plaza!

So I wander around and find another building and get a scene download error.  What?  I try again, same thing.  I see a few people go into the building so it tells me it is possible to get in there, it just doesn't want me.  As I sit there and think about this for a moment I notice another person try to go in and seems to have the same problem I do.  I laugh at his misfortune and try to leave.

...

And then I try to leave.

...

The Hell?  I'm stuck!  I'm stuck on the other guy trying to enter the same place I am.  I try everything I can to move.  Press all the buttons I can think of, use all sorts of different emotions (the guy probably though I was coming on to him), and nothing.  It was like he was stuck following me or something.

I try to load the plaza again and it tells me I can't (expected) so I just load the mall.

The Mall

First thing I notice is a poster for the PS3 chatpad.  I run up to it and booyah!  It's not busy!  I enjoy a minute of poster time but I notice there's this weird sound going on.  It sounded like someone was throwing change or something like that but I couldn't figure out what it was.  Weird.

Anyways, I visit the stores, scoff at the microtransactions, ponder at the shops with nothing in them, and decide I'm done with the mall since I have no plans to spend money at the moment.

One thing though before I'm done with the mall-- to back out of anything that is anything Playstion, I press the back button and keep pressing it until I'm where I want to be.  To get out of a store I press the back button and then the confirm button.  Bad Sony.  Bad!

The Theater

This time I don't take chances with getting stuck and I just warp to the theater.  Haha!  Apparently my character is just as lazy as I am!

Anyways, I get in and I'm relieved that all the seats aren't occupied so I quickly take a seat near the back. And guess what I see?  A slow moving download bar-- fuck this shit.

Immediatly I hear some kid running around yelling do you want to know about Jesus?  God I hate people.  I couldn't figure out who was saying it since everyone hadn't finished loading in yet so I was forced to listen to the little twat.  Didn't really matter since I don't know how to mute people anyways.

At about this time the wife is getting angry that I'm using the computer (I was taking notes while playing) and the TV at the same time so one thing had to give.  I fiddle around the menus for a minute, can't figure out how to quit Home so I just turn off my PS3 and come here. 

I like this home so much better than Home