PS3 Impressions

First impression: Damn that's a big, heavy box. Second impression: Damn, that's a big, heavy system. Third impression: Oooh, shiny.

So after I had removed the system from the box and marveled at how shiny it was (seriously, black gloss finish with chrome trim? Very nice touch, Sony), I set to hooking it up. I think I've mentioned this before, but you spend 500 bloody dollars on the gorram thing, and they can't include an HDMI cable? Not even a component cable. No, they stick you with a composite cable. Fantastic. I tried hooking it up to my system selector, but I either did something wrong with the initial setup, or it's just too awesome to accept a composite hookup, so the PS3 didn't work. Luckily, my PC monitor has the necessary connections, so I just plugged it in there for the time being. I ordered an HDMI cable from these fine folks last week, should be arriving any day now.

Since I didn't get any games, I busied myself with some downloaded demos. First up was Motorstorm. Maybe you need HDMI to really experience this game, but what I saw was pretty standard arcade rally racing. Yawn. Nice soundtrack, though. Can't go wrong with Nirvana.

Next, I fired up Resistance: Fall of Man. This game was (and still is, apparently) the PS3's killer app. Seems like a fairly decent shooter. Nothing special from the demo. I'll have to rent it and play it from the beginning, get the story and all that. The demo certainly doesn't make me want to buy the game.

The Darkness piqued my interest the most out of the available demos, so I saved it for last. Pretty good stuff. Definitely going to rent it, although I probably won't buy, since the reviews say it's over in about 10 hours.

I really wanted an actual game, though, so I hit up my local Game Crazy. $54 later, I had a copy of Splinter Cell: Double Agent. I've been a Splinter Cell fan since the first game, so I figured a cold buy of the new edition in the series was a safe bet. The first level kind of pissed me off, but after that I got into the groove. Definitely a worthy purchase.

The only other game out right now that I really want to try out is Rainbow Six Vegas. Being a huge football fan, the temptation to play NCAA and Madden 08 is strong, but I'm going to resist since they're fucking terrible every single year. In the next 6 weeks alone, a veritable storm of titles hit: Warhawk, Lair, Heavenly Sword, Stranglehold, Stuntman Ignition, and skate. I think I'm going to be very glad I got a PS3.

I haven't rented or bought any BD movies, since I don't have the HDMI hookup yet. I think I'm going to start with either 300 or TMNT, though. Amazon's got em both for 24 bucks each, which is only a few dollars more than the DVD versions.

Folding@Home is also extremely cool. People on the interwebs are all freaked out about bricking their boxes with it, but I scoff at them for two reasons. One, the PS3 is not a 360, and two, if this doesn't brick it, nothing will.