Sony PlayStation 3 Slim 120GB Review

smc: And now the other side of that coin:

I used to be exclusively a PC gamer, but have been won over by the current generation of consoles (by which I mean the PS3 and 360). I agree that you can certainly get a fairly powerful gaming PC for a very reasonable price, which can shame any console in terms of graphics detail and framerate. The games are of course cheaper. Finally, PC games tend to be more "flexible" for example the ability to create or use mods, and you have more options when it comes to setting up or joining multiplayer games.

BUT... as someone who spends far too much time playing games, I have come to realise that life is too short to sit around waiting for a PC to boot up... or to download one patch for a game and another for the anti-cheat software because it's not properly integrated... or to swear at the screen in frustration because of ridiculously excessive anti-piracy/DRM measures... Or to be distracted by the many issues that are likely to pop up in XP or Vista before I can even begin playing (This may not be a problem with Windows 7). For me, consoles take the pain out of gaming. Yes, there are drawbacks: For example playing online with my PS3, the less-than-perfect network will often bugger about trying to find a decent game and I will wish I could choose the server. And the reliability advantage over a PC is not so clear with a 360. But still, consoles make my life easier, and to me that more than compensates for the drawbacks. As for the technology in consoles being outdated - true, but then I don't really care. Games like Uncharted 2 look more than good enough, and when the gameplay is excellent, the fact that they might look or sound a bit better on a PC doesn't really bother me.

@MrGodfrey - I guess for me it's just a case of the benefits outweighing the drawbacks. Besides, I seem to get some strange sort of satisfaction of getting everything to run optimally before I can even play the game.

Unfortunately with the addition of annoying DRM like SecuROM and GFWL things are becoming increasingly difficult, but then on the flip side you have Steam, which in general makes life a lot easier (especially with things like patches and updates), so I would hope that's the template most companies will follow in the future rather than the more draconian measures the likes of EA have attempted so far.

Having bought a PS3 to replace an XP media centre PC, this machine for £266 inc remote and 2 movies and a game is an absolute bargain. To upgrade the PC with a new player, graphics card, wind dvd, more memory would have cost as much. Then there is all of the PC problems, and unreliability. I am surprised that Trusted reviews don't list the PS3 under 'Sony Blu Ray players'. Where else can you get music, and blu ray under one roof, i.e not lots of boxes and then separate remotes such as the Popcorn thingy etc. You can't. Then it upscales SD DVD's as well. Oh yes it plays games apparently if that's what you want. Sony really need to address my market of wanting a media player that does everything most people want, and does it extremely well. Sony should re align this product as a media player as well, and market it in those markets. I have now recommended this to two other people who would not have considered a games console. Thats a missed opportunity for Sony, because its not just a games console. Alternatively Sony could put the guts inside one of their other boxes and make it look like a piece of hifi and re badge it and sell it for a higher price. It would work.
The only real niggle is the inability of not being able to look at other tracks when playing music. That is very annoying.