PlayStation 3
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The PlayStation 3 (PS3 for short) is a game console released in 2006 by Sony Computer Entertainment as the successor to the PlayStation 2. It was succeeded by the PlayStation 4 in 2013. It was discontinued in PAL regions in March 2016, North America in October 2016, and in Japan in May 2017.
Why It Rocks
- All models are backwards compatible with PlayStation 1 games, and early models were also compatible with PlayStation 2 games, increasing the library of games dramatically to over 7,000 or 10,000 and thus expanding the number of games one can play on the console.
- Lots of additional features besides gaming, while still focusing on being a gaming device.
- Large number of extremely awesome games, such as:
- Lots of great games on the PS2 were ported to the PS3 such as:
- One of the first major consoles capable of playing Blu-Ray discs. Following a 2010 update, it was the first console to play 3D Blu-Ray discs if connected to a 3D TV.
- Upscales DVD movies and TV shows to up to 1080p quality.
- Doesn't use memory cards like the PS1 and PS2, but instead, you can save on the console itself via a HDD (Hard Drive Disk).
- Introduces digital gaming (not the first console to do this though), which it'd help in getting games that you can no longer find physically, including some PS1 games, PS2 games and also games that were released on older non-Playstation consoles.
- A second "slim" model was also released. It takes less shelf space and is less prone to breaking than the original model and doesn't use a huge power cable. It also costed $299 which was a great improvement as the price of the PlayStation 3 original models were $499 or $599.
- It has the Playstation Move and Playstation Eye, a motion controller and motion camera that unlike the Xbox's Kinect, detects your movement well, and unlike the Wii, doesn't fully focus on motion gameplay.
- Controllers don't require batteries, instead, they are recharged by plugging them into the console.
- It introduced Trophies in 2008, the Award System for the PlayStation. This carried over to the PlayStation Vita and the PS4.
- Has some apps like Netflix, Hulu, Facebook (shutdown), Crunchyroll, Funimation, and YouTube that actually work great on the console, especially the YouTube app.
- Unlike on the Xbox 360, PSN (which is equivalent to Xbox Live Silver) was free.
- The Air Force made a super computer out of 1,760 PlayStation 3's making it 50,000 times faster then the average laptop at the time.
- There is no region locking for PS3 games (except Persona 4 Arena and a Japanese game about karaoke) which means you can play games in any region.
- PlayStation 2 controllers can work via a USB adapter but there are only two USB ports on the Slim and Super Slim models.
- The original/fat model has a sleek and stylish exterior.
- The PlayStation Store has extremely good sales for the PS3 that you can't say no to buying a new game that's on sale.
- It's the only console so far that allows the user to play games in 3D.
- The PS3 Controller has a very long battery life!
- Unlike Xbox LIve PlayStation network doesn't ban you for no reason.
- The PS3 has cool features that some modern day consoles still don't have! (Even the PS5 doesn't have a browser)
Bad Qualities
- The original model of the system was prone to having hardware failures such as the "Yellow Light of Death".
- Only models produced during the system's first year or so support PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility; later original models and all Slim and Super Slim models lack support for PS2 games due to the removal of the Emotion Engine CPU and Graphics Synthesizer GPU to make the PS3 cheaper. Through jailbreaking, it's possible to play PS2 games on the Slim but due to the lack of the above, some PS2 games (such as Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank) do not run well at all and can cause crashes, freezing issues, and slow downs.
- Some multiplatform games run worse on the PS3 due to the strange architecture of the system (e.g Bayonetta). Due to said architecture, some developers stated that it was hard to develop games for it, even by top-notch developers like Naughty Dog.
- The PS3 had one of the worst console launches in gaming history and it cost $600 at launch with barely any games worth buying, leading to the unfortunate "PS3 has no games"-meme for three years and many people calling it a Blu-Ray player with a gaming function. This launch also gave a big advantage for its main competition, Xbox 360 in the early days of the seventh generation due its cheaper price and better quality games. Only by the end of 2009 the PS3 had finally caught up and had a fair share of quality exclusives.
- Very few games allowed remote play on the PSP.
- The fat model has a very annoying power button and disc eject button that don't press, but are motion activated. These motion sensors can be quite faulty, often leading to discs either not ejecting at all or ejecting completely at random.
- When the console first came out, the controller was only Sixaxis because back then, Sony had just lost a lawsuit over the first two DualShock controllers. In 2007, the DualShock 3 controller came out for the console, though a lot of the system's early games never got rumble support (a few, including Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Motorstorm, later had it patched back in).
- DVD playback isn't so great. Especially if you fast-forward, the DVD is prone to scratching.
- The original model had the capability of using a PowerPC-based operating system; however, firmware revision 3.21 removed the "OtherOS" feature, and the feature was never available for the Slim or Super Slim models.
- Despite being the first console to include an HDMI port, not a single model came with an HDMI cable, forcing you to get one yourself. While this was probably because of how rare and expensive HDMI cables were at the time, it was just another cost for the user to have to absorb on top of the already-high price of the console. Thankfully this problem was fixed for the PS4 where HDMI cables are included with each console.
- Some of the older commercials of this console were disturbing and creepy.
- The PS3 controller doesn't have a headphone jack this means if you want to use headphone's you either have to get Bluetooth headphones or plug in a Sound card or headphone cable or a headset designed specifically for the ps3 to plug it in the console itself.
- The downloads are slow and you can't go to the menu and wait for them either Thankfully PS plus fixes this by downloading things right away
- The Blu-Ray drive is prone to breaking. Playing the physical versions of some games with very high graphic requirements can cause the lens to work too hard to read the disc, which can make it unable to read PS3 discs or even any DVD or Blu-Ray disc (game, movie, or otherwise).
- Unlike 3D and 2D Blu-Rays, DVDs are still region-locked.
- The console's web browser is extremely limited and slow, it doesn't load the page properly, sometimes, other websites like wikis, Capcom ID or even Sony's official website, doesn't even work.
Trivia
- In April 2011, The PS3's PlayStation Network was hacked by an unknown group of hackers and 77 million accounts were compromised and couldn't log in to the server. The incident made international headlines and caused outrage among gamers. For more information, read the article here.
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