Sony PS3 OS 3.0 Update First Impressions

Well, if you’ve got a PS3, and turned it on in the last 24 hours you will be greeted by the happy “Dude…there’s a software update, you know what to do…”..message.

What do you get I hear you say, well let me tell you.

The first thing I noticed was the new startup screen with the PS3 logo…looks kinda cool, and then was met by the “sparkly” new theme…looks kinda cool.

In the top right hand corner of the desktop you get your icon, number of friends online, date and time (digital and analogue ?)

Each time you start up the PS3, the it defaults to the What’s new icon (which has replaced the Information board), however instead of the feed ticker, you now get 9 rotating images of “What’s new” in the Playstation store.

Being an Xbox live user, I do really like the way your friends list is treated, clear, you know who’s online, and can quickly see which game they were playing last…..so what have Sony done…..well, they’ve but a HUGE border around each one of your friend, which is twice the width of everything else in the column !…not nice ! I wouldn’t mind if it provided you with more information, but it doesn’t it just looks ugly !

For some reason there are now 2 icons for the Playstation Store, one in the games section, and one in the usual Playstation Network “channel”….really? is there any need ? I could understand if there were more than 1% on the PSN Store that wasn’t a game that would be fine, but apart from the sat nav, the Eye Create, and the VidZone everything else in there are games….

1 Addition I did like was the integration of the BBC iPlayer, granted you could goto the website through the browser before and it worked, but now you can do this straight from the XMB. I don’t however like where they’ve positioned it, they’ve given it a channel of it’s own called TV (I’m assuming this is also used for the play TV, but……), I would have personally added it to the Video channel to reduce the size of the bar.

Another addition I do like, is the right thumbstick controller during video playback. If you rotate clockwise or anticlockwise, it will step backwards and forwards with very hight precision.

A “Save Screenshot” option has been added to the web browser, which is pretty cool, but not sure I’d ever use it..

Apart from that, it’s all I’ve noticed, I have read people complaining about the larger fonts…but I’m cool with this, my vision was starting to go anyway

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Halo 3 Finally beat !

As some of you may know, back in October I got a Xbox 360 Elite for my birthday, with Halo 3. Now before I could play Halo 3, I had to complete Halo 2 on the PC, as I’d done the first, but needed complete the play and complete the 2nd, to fill in the story arc.

The 2nd problem I had was that I’ve been a PC gamer for a long as I can remember, and playing a FPS (First Person Shooter) with a controller, it’s just not natural.

Over Christmas I spent a fair amount of time playing FarCry2 on the Xbox 360 and Resistance on the PS3. After many hours of practice I was able to take out my enemies without dying all the time.

This weekend, thought it was about time I got my butt in gear and played Halo 3. I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews, some people hated it, some loved it….me….I really enjoyed it !

It took me about 10 hours to beat on Normal setting, and that’s with me being a controller amateur, loved the story, the vehicles, and especially loved the way you can snap a gun turret off it’s stand, and go on a rampage with it

Personally I’d give it a 8 out of 10.

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LOGIC 3 SONY PSP MINI THEATRE SYSTEM DOCKING STATION

Got one of these puppies for Christmas, and until today I didn’t have anything to test it with. While I was in Game today, I stumbled across Family Guy: Blue Harvest for only £4.99 ! Bargin I know !!

So I’ve just fired it up, and OMG ! this thing sound fantastic !, comes with a little carrying case which holds the cables and dock.

The PSP sits good as well as charges as it docs.

Full spec below

Product Information

A ‘mini theatre’ to play movies or music. This SoundStation for PSP Slim & Lite produces astounding sound using a high class amplifier, deep bass sub-woofer and 3D surround-sound circuitry to pack a punch more powerful than its compact size suggests. Includes mains adaptor, carry-case and line-in cable

• 2.1 Sub-woofer Speaker System
• 12 Watts RMS
• Operates from AC Adaptor (included) or Batteries 4xAA (not included)
• Internal 3D surround sound processor
• Docking station for PSP re-charging
• Blue soft-light illumination
• 3.5mm Stereo line-in for playing other audio devices like MP3, MD, CD player. etc
• Dimensions: 104 x 278 x 38mm (H x W x D)
• Weight – 550g
• 3.5mm Stereo Line-in (Cable provided) to allow gameplay, or play back of other audio devices including MP3, CD player, MiniDisc etc.
• Carry Case for Sound System & PSP console.
• 1 x 2.5″ Sub Woofer 4ohm = 6 Watts RMS
• 2 x 30mm full range 4ohm Neodymium aluminum speaker cones = 6 Watts RMS
• PSP Slim & Lite not included

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