What Is It?
The PS3 is a video games console. It is not a handheld one and it requires a television and connection to electricity to play on it. There are two versions of the console, the regular one and the slim line. The slim line is slightly smaller than the regular one and has buttons on it instead of a touch panel.
Who Makes It?
The PS3 is made by Sony, the name PS3 stands for PlayStation 3. Sony also made the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2, as well as the PSP or PlayStation Portable. There are rumours that Sony is working on the PlayStation 4 in order to keep up with its competitors. Sony’s main competitors are Nintendo and Microsoft who make the Wii and Xbox Series respectively.
What's In The Box?
The box itself is smaller than you would expect it to be. It is a white box with a picture of the PS3 on the front. Inside the box is the console itself, one controller, a power cable, a USB cable, printed materials, an AV cable and a Euro AV connector plug.
Features
The PS3 has many new features, one of which is that it is also a Blu-ray player, which is great if you have a HDTV.
There is the PlayStation Store, where you can buy a variety of things, including PS1 games, they have been made available for the PS3 so you just buy them, download them onto your hard drive and play them. This is brilliant news for anyone that loves the old PS1 games but no longer has a working PS1, or cannot get hold of the games they like. Not all PS1 games are available, but there are a lot that are. You can also buy add-ons for some games, as well as things like themes and avatars to customise your actual console.
There is also a friends list where you can add friends and send them messages, in your friends list you can see who is online, what game they are playing and what trophies they have.
Trophies are another new PS3 feature, not all games have trophies but a lot of them do. There are Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum trophies in each game, the Bronze ones being the easiest to get. You get a Platinum trophy for completing every other trophy in the game. Some trophies are very easy, for example in Fifa 11 you get a trophy simply for going into the EA store. Other trophies are harder, such as in Assassins Creed II you get a trophy for collecting all one hundred feathers in the game, and they can be very hard to find and acquire. Most trophies you get simply by playing the game, others you need to specifically work on to receive them.
The PS3 also streams from a media server, for example if you have your laptop set up to share files then you can connect the PS3 to it and watch a movie that is on your laptop, if your internet connection is a bit slow for streaming then with the click of a button on the PS3 controller you can copy the film onto your PS3, then if you want you can delete it once you have watched it. You can also access photos and music in this manner.
The PS3 is very easy to use and doesn’t take very long to figure out. The menus are laid out nicely and everything is clear to understand.
Being able to customise your profile, and add other profiles for friends and family makes this console so much better than its predecessors.
How Much Does It Cost?
The PS3 does have a rather steep price tag, but it is not any more expensive than any other console. We bought ours from a catalogue, which of course makes it even more expensive. They weren’t doing a bundle that we liked so we ordered the bits we wanted separately and created our own “bundle”. Our console is the 160GB Slim line and it costs £315 in our catalogue, we also ordered an extra controller which costs £44 and three games which vary in price. With the extended warranty and the typical interest that the catalogues add on it all came to around £700, however if you choose the interest free option it is significantly less than that, and it is also cheaper to buy a bundle and to buy outright rather than from a catalogue. If you can find a bundle that suits your needs then they are definitely a good deal, personally I just couldn’t find a bundle with the games I wanted. One thing you should definitely invest in if you do buy a PS3 is a second controller as the console itself only comes with one which means you won’t be able to play multiplayer games until you get a second controller, you can have up to four players on multiplayer games, but you don’t need to rush out and spend money on an extra three controllers right away. Start off with two controllers, then add more as you need too.
The PS3 is definitely worth the price tag, it provides you with hours of fun and the best thing about it in my opinion is that you can play games against other people over the PlayStation Network free of charge, unlike with the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live which you have to pay for.
My Thoughts
Personally I think my decision to get a PS3 was a good one. I’ve never been that interested in games consoles before, aside from the Nintendo DS series, I prefer playing games on Facebook or on my laptop. The thing that made me want this console was the fact that you could buy and download the old PS1 games, in fact that is the only reason I bought the PS3 in the beginning. I like playing the old Final Fantasy games but they are hard to find on PS1 these days. Since I have had it however I have barely played the PS1 games I downloaded onto it and have spent more time playing PS3 games. The games are expensive if you don’t have a lot of disposable income and if you are not sure whether or not you would like a game then making the choice to buy a game is hard, but I combatted that problem by getting an account with Love Film. I get two games a month (one at a time) and can keep them as long as I want providing I keep up the payments. It has allowed me to try out games I am interested in and make a list of ones I want to buy which will save me from buying a game I like the look of, then hating it once I actually play it. This is something I would definitely recommend to people that are unsure what games they would like.
Now and again I have a problem where the PS3 gets disconnected from the PlayStation Network, but it is not a massive problem and it usually resolves itself if you restart the system or simply tell it to log in again.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I think that if you have been thinking about getting a PS3 but are struggling to make a decision then I would say go for it, get one you won’t regret it. If you know someone who has one then ask them if you can have a play around on it. If you have already played on one then you already have an idea whether or not you like the console. If you are trying to decide between the PS3 and the Xbox 360 then I would say go for the PS3 and in my opinion the controls are easier to use, the layout of the menus are easier to navigate and of course PlayStation Network is free, Xbox Live is not. I hope this review has been helpful to you and if you do decide to buy the PS3 then I hope you enjoy it!
Hours Of Fun! 
