[GuerillaBlack]

My feelings about the PlayStation 3 have definitely been a long for a massive rollercoaster ride since the system was officially revealed a few years ago. While I’m all about the HD capabilities, serious power of the system, and key titles that will be released for the PlayStation 3, there are a number of things that are keeping me from plunking the $600 down this year.

Any console purchasing decision always starts with what games you want, and for me, there are only a few exclusive games on PlayStation 3 that I want – Resistance: Fall Of Man and Ridge Racer 7. Since I already own a Xbox 360, most of the games that made our must have list are either also coming out for the Xbox 360, already in my Xbox 360 collection, or have additional features or properties that are better on the Xbox 360. Resistance is incredible, and Ridge Racer 7 is fun, but is it necessary for me to drop $600 right now just so I can play those two games?

I’ve spent quite a bit of time with our retail PlayStation 3, and while I’ve warmed up slowly to the interface and features of the PlayStation 3, overall the experience isn’t seamless and is quite clunky and frustrating. Just hooking up the console and getting it to work with my HDTV and receiver was a pain in the ass. Initially I thought that connecting the PlayStation 3 would be as simple as pulling out my PlayStation 2 and connecting the PS2 component cables, and then optical cable, and finally my internet connection, but this was not the case. First you need to connect using composite, change settings, and then you have 30 seconds to swap to component cables and change settings on TV. If you don’t work fast enough you’ll have to start the whole process over. After tossing in a game, I wasn’t getting any audio, and I had to go in and manually configure the settings for optical PCM. What happened to the days of simple plug and play console setup? I know this is the HD era and everything, but it wasn’t as time consuming with my Xbox 360 or Wii. After a few moments with those consoles they worked just fine.

I would have thought that playing games would be the least of my problems, but this also wasn’t the case. I’ve got a 1080i television, so I set my PlayStation 3 up for 1080i. Should be as simple as that, right? Nope. I put Resistance in and it tells me that I should switch it to 720p for optimal viewing. Does it ask me if I want to switch the settings? No. I have to quit the game, go switch to 720p, and then restart the game. I then put in Tiger Woods after going back to 1080i and everything looks squished -- not the HD experience I yearned for. I have no clue why and I get no warning or indication from the game as to why it’s not optimally displaying the game correctly. So, by chance, I look at the back of the game box and it says it supports up to 720p. I quit out of the game and switch to 720p and finally everything works. Why the PlayStation 3 can’t auto scale or be a little more user friendly is beyond me. This is reminding me of the setup process for gaming on my old 486 PC. But, then again, the PlayStation 3 is a computer, right?

My PlayStation 2 has been on its last legs for months. Its coughing and wheezing, and I was really hoping the PlayStation 3 would allow me to put the PlayStation 2 to rest. Since the PlayStation 3 basically houses the PS2 chipset, I thought that the backwards compatibility would be fine, but guess what. Not only do over 200 games not work correctly with the system, the ones that do don’t function as well as they would. A prime example is Final Fantasy XII. It’s probably the PlayStation 2’s premier title this year, and it looks like crap. There are scan lines everywhere, and it’s not half as crisp as it is on my PlayStation 2. So much for that.

A few other elements also don’t work on the PlayStation 3 as well including Bluetooth detection for wireless headsets, and remote play for the PSP. Granted Sony could have an update to download coming any day now, but for a new console I expect everything to work flawlessly out of the box. Especially when I just dropped $600 for this thing, it should hop out of the box, give me a big hug, and play games and function like I was in heaven.

Finally, Blu-ray. Talladega Nights, baby! First off, I have to say this movie is hilarious and well worth watching. While the movie looks great and I can tell to a point that it’s cleaner than DVD, it’s really not that much better in my opinion. DVDs already look incredible on my TV, and while Blu-ray does look better, I’m not quite yet convinced that I need to dive into either HD-DVD or Blu-ray. I’m old enough to have lived through the VHS / Beta war and I’m not going to do that until these companies figure this crap out. The included Talladega Nights disc doesn’t convey the experience that’s going to sell me on Blu-ray to begin with. Where the hell are all these super awesome special features that Blu-ray is supposed to have? There’s no commentary and no other special features at all. You get the movie, language options, and a Blu-ray preview of a bunch of old movies you probably own the DVDs for. So far, I’m not all that motivated to make the move.

With all that said, there are things I do like about the system. I love the cross media bar and think it’s a great way to access all of the options the console has quickly and easily. Especially if you’ve got a PSP, you’re completely comfortable with the layout. Media capability for photos and videos is fantastic, and accessing and scrolling through photos is quick and seamless. It’s just a shame that Sony hasn’t allowed for the streaming of pictures, music, and video from the PC. After Microsoft has done it so well, it should be a standard.

Finally, I love the controller. Thank God it’s wireless and thank God L2 and R2 are actual triggers instead of buttons. I’m not at all sold on the Sixaxis functionality with the above launch titles, but that’s Sony’s fault for not clueing in developers until too late in the development cycle. I look forward to seeing games like Lair and Warhawk work their inherent tilt functionality.

At the end of the day, the PlayStation 3 is an extremely powerful system with a ton of potential. Most of the games that are also available on the Xbox 360 look just as good, run smoother on the Xbox 360, and have been out for a while. The future game selection and the eventual working out the initial kinks will ultimately push me over the edge to get a PlayStation 3 sometime next year. There’s no denying Lair, Motorstorm, Metal Gear Solid 4: The Guns of the Patriots, Devil May Cry 4, or Final Fantasy XIII will be what will eventually force me to drain my wallet, but for now it’s just not in the cards.

For those who own a PS3, is this setup process this clunky?

I hope not.

That doesn't sound too good at all for the PS3. I have been hearing a lot of bad things about it.