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I’ve had the pleasure of trying almost every game console that has been on the market since 1995. Some consoles were obviously better than others. But you would expect that from a console (For example, we all know that Nintendo’s game systems will never be a hardcore gaming device, although it is a good family gaming console). The PS3 however was somewhat unpredictable, which in this case is a bad thing. I got my first PS3 in the summer of 2009. I was eager to get the most powerful game system on the market. The PS3 then seemed so advanced, so beautiful, and so high tech with it’s wireless controller with motion sensors, and especially the wifi. The free playstation network was also an excitement for me. No more would I ever have to pay to play online again. I also like the idea of browsing the web on my PS3. And at first glance, the PS3 was beautiful. From the design of the console to the user interface. Everything about it was simply magnificent. The wallpaper even changed to fit the time of day! The PS3 was amazing back then. But things aren’t always as they seem. Sony only showed you the good things the PS3 had, and never once disclosed the bad. If I only knew the issues with the PS3 then, I would have never gotten one. To start, the whole reason I wanted a PS3 is because I though the games would be so much better than the ones on the Xbox 360. After all, since it was a more powerful console, it would only be logical to assume that the games would be better. At first, the games did seem better. The graphics were amazing! Nothing like anything you would ever see from the Xbox 360. But one very importance element in the games did not excel as well, gameplay. It sucked! Sure the graphics were better, but the games were boring. For example, the first PS3 game I bought was Resistance 2. I had read a bunch of positive reviews and after reading the review that said the game could easily be on par with Call of Duty, I decided that was the first game I would get for my PS3. In no way was it anything like Call of Duty. The gameplay was very basic, you ran around and shot at things. Thats It! Literally, there was no fun gameplay elements at all. It was such a boring experience. Another hyped thing about Resistance was its Halo like storyline. No! There was barely a storyline at all. The game had no thrilling story aspects at all like Halo did. It was just a short cutscene and then you started fighting. This happened over and over again until the game finally ended. I was hoping the multiplayer would be a better experience than the campaign. But unfortunately, this never happened. Sure the game could support 60 players at a time (which was amazing to me). But once again the gameplay fell short. Actually, you would be lucky if you even got into a multiplayer match. Rarely would I ever get into a game due to network problems. Resistance 2 was a huge disappointment to me. And what’s worse, these same issues existed across every PS3 game I ever had the misfortune of playing. The Playstation Network was also stricken with major issues. It seemed from the point of view of an Xbox user that the Playstation Network would be Sony’s version of Xbox Live. But this definitely wasn’t the case. Sure, the Playstation Network gave users free access to multiplayer and other features. But that actually is a misdiminor. the Playstation Network lacked many of the features that were found on Xbox Live and even on the Wii. One such feature that didn’t exist is cross platform chat (this would be the chat system that Xbox users have taken for granted since the console first came out). Yes, you could chat with others in the multiplayer game you were in. But if you wanted to chat with your friend that’s playing Call of Duty while you were playing GTA IV, yeah good luck with that. You couldn’t even invite your friend to join your game if you wanted to. Seriously, there is no way you could communicate with other players outside your game. You could however send them text message, but that’s it. You can’t even send your friend a voice message. And what else is missing from the Playstation Network? Well let’s see: no gamer card, no voice chat, no parties, no in-game purchases, no reliable network… The list goes on and on. Even the Playstation Store is trash. Actually, the Playstation Store use to be a webpage PS3 users went to when they wanted to get media contents. Now it’s this half complete looking store interface with a lack of entertainment. Playstation Store always got map packs, mini games, and other content last when comparing the Xbox, the Wii, and the PS3. Sometimes, The Playstation Store won’t get content at all. It took three years for all of the game add-ons for GTA IV to come to PSN (short for Playstation Network), and I never saw the map pack for Call of Duty Modern Warfare come to PSN. the video store was also a huge letdown as well. There are very few movie studios that are found on the storefront, and many current tv shows still are not on the Playstation Store. The whole Playstation Store experience is a big disappointment and a huge waste of money. The last thing about PS3 (and also the worst) was how the thing appeared. Like I said before, the PS3 was a beautiful machine, from the hardware to the user interface… yeah no! After owning the PS3 for only two months, Sony decide it was about time to release a new version of the PS3, the PS3 slim. With it’s new slimmer design and charcoal black design, it was definitely a great looking machine. But it made the PS3 I already had look like junk. Sony dropped the old logo for the PS3, and even had the logo on the games box arts changed. It didn’t take long for my PS3 to feel obsolete. Sony even ruins their user interface, which actually wasn’t too great to begin with. They called their user interface the Xross Media Bar (or XMB for short). Its suppose to be a beautiful and easy to use interface that had no hassle and could be accessed no matter what you were doing. But it was completely the opposite. The XMB was unorganized and cluttered with dull looking icons that led to apps that were useless. For example, the XMB had a app on it that was similar to google earth, sorta. I don’t really know what it did. All I know is that it allowed you to get access to news and weather information on a 3D map. It was completely useless. The XMB was cluttered with apps of similarity, and you couldn’t take them off. Even the much hyped web browser was useless. Why? Because it didn’t work! Many of the web pages rendered oddly and sometimes didn’t render at all. Animated content loaded slowly, and the user interface was difficult to grasp. It was completely frustrating browsing the web on the PS3. The XMB didn’t like multitasking either. Let’s say your in a game and want to listen to some music stored on your hard drive. All you had to do was press the pretty looking Playstation Button on your controller to bring up the XMB, then scroll to music and choose a song, right? Wrong! First off, when your press that Playstation Button you end up getting a sloppy looking, slow XMB cousin that could barely get through loading the icons on it’s current page. It took forever to get to your friends list and send them a message (too bad you can’t voice chat) And if you wanted to play music in game, your out of luck. Only certain games will allow you to listen to music on your hard drive, and those are rare. The overall experience with the XMB was completely horrible. It definitely was not like what I had pictured before I got my PS3. There are some relatively good feature that the PS3 does have. Most notably, a Blu Ray Drive. The PS3 actually was the first and the the best Blu Ray Player on the market. It could display images at full 1080p resolution and made game look beautiful. The PS3 also support stereoscopic 3D for a more realistic experience. It too bad though that the disk format it dying off and nobody is buying those super expensive 3D TVs. The PS3 definitely isn’t worth the $300 dollar price tag. Xbox 360 has the same price and has far more feature, far better games, and a better overall experience. Sure there isn’t no Blu Ray and no 3D. But nobody is going to buy disks anymore and 3D is too expensive. The PS3 is a Huge waste of money and a huge disappointment. Your better off skipping this console.