Playstation 3. Any good.

[Disgruntled Goat]

I'm thinking of a Blu-ray player and everyone raves about these. But are they any good as a player or a game console? The games look very butch, macho and violent - something that doesn't appeal to me and not something I want to introduce to my 9 y.o.

I'm not a 'gamer' and personally Wii looks a lot more fun. But of course Wii is not a Blu-ray player.

So, PS3 and Wii
Or player and Wii?

 

[marinyork]

PS3
Blu-ray player, not bad but vastly overhyped (plays back better than a PC which is what most people are cf to).
Upscaling capabilities surprisingly good so big thumbs up there (doesn't compare with specialist ones).
Games, absolutely crap, virtually nothing there.
Sound is substantially above average and generally good at playing back various media - music, videos etc.
The menus are frigging annoying.

Wii is vastly more fun even if you just get Wii sports and mess around on Bowling all day.

Personally I'd get a player and a Wii. The Wii doesn't look anywhere near as good graphics but is vastly more playable. Some of the Wii games where they did go a bit nuts with the graphics turned out disappointments anyway.

 

[domtyler]

You can get family type games for the PS3 DG, in fact you can download lots from the PlayStation store which is an online extension available on the console itself. Many are even free.

The machine itself is a great buy, looks and feels like quality kit and does everything you could wish for. It is especially good for playing photo slideshows on your TV in very high quality, whilst playing your music at the same time.

It is a great spinner of disks, DVDs are beautifully upscaled, you have to look closely to tell it is not HD quality. BluRays are great as expected and obviously you can play your CDs in it too.

It has BlueTooth too so you can wirelessly link to accessories, your phone etc, has wifi and gigabit ethernet built in, a full range of connectivity features and options.

Certainly gets the domtyler seal of approval and a big thumbs up.

 

[marinyork]

Oh yeah one other major plus for the PS3 that I completely forgot about, it's quiet, so other than looking like a George Foreman Grill it won't annoy you humming away. Sony seem to have succeeded in building a generalised home entertainment system that is actually good but completely arsed up on the games side, unfortunately their film format is still expensive.

If you get blu-rays remember some studios pretty much release region ABC as standard. DVD.co.uk and axelmusic are sometimes much cheaper than amazon and play which are generally much cheaper than the high st.

 

[marinyork]

The PS3 has a freeview ad on coming out which could be highly interesting - PlayTV. I just don't rate PSN at all, I think they've got a hell of a lot to work at but at some future time it will probably be good.

 

[domtyler]

Yeah, I love the violent shooting games so I have no complaints at all on that front, you just can't beat pumping Germans/Arabs/Cyclists full of lead on a Friday night imo.

 

[marinyork]

What sort of films do you watch Disgruntled Goat? Play are normally good on future uk releases of blu-ray. The schedule has started to be cranked up a bit, some bigger titles coming out of the old catalogue variety

Shawshank redemption
Kill Bill 1&2 (already out in america and region ABC )
Batman Films
Godfather trilogy
A large chunk of Arnie/Sly/Clint films (some only come out in america)
A few beeb docs
The Goonies
Disney have released their list of classics for the next couple of years.
Zulu
Cabaret (other classics like Casablanca, Doctor Strangelove and Gone with the Wind are getting prepared for BD).

The other point about the Wii is brand new games tend to be cheaper. Some of them are a lot cheaper but there are second hand markets.

Wii games that are a good laugh in my opinion
Wii Sports (bowling, baseball good, not so keen on the golf).
Mario Kart
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
Carnival: Fun Fair games
Wii Fit is a bit on the crazy price side
Super Monkey Ball
Big Brain Academy
Lego games a good laugh on all platforms
Super Mario Galaxy
Zelda
Winter Sports