Not long ago…  (Ok, quite long ago judging by the apparent death of this blog in recent months.)

I’ll start again…

A while back Giles raised the point of fanboyism. I responded to this post with the story of my resisting the PS3 and how i went from being a Sony fanboy to a hater.

My resistance to the PS3 was pretty much one part feeling of betrayal and two parts baulking at the price tag, with the second definitely contributing to the first. This meant that when the PS3 Slim came along, what was once stubborn refusal soon gave way to a nerdish desire. I had always coveted Little Big Planet and have been a big fan of the Sony exclusive God of War series, so having an opportunity to acquire these, or at least the console that would let me play them, and at a more palatable price, got me down to Game and putting down a preorder.

In the time after getting it, i’ve restricted myself to PS3 exclusives, favouring the Xbox for the cross-platform games due to having more Xbox owning friends. I’ve not done the maths but it strikes me that there aren’t that many must have PS3 exclusives. I picked up Little Big Planet and Killzone 2 immediately, and have regretted neither. Shortly after i also got Uncharted : Drakes Fortune, Infamous and Ratchet and Clank : Tools of Destruction. Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank have had considerable play time, Infamous considerably less (due mostly to the outstanding quality of the other games when compared to it!)

It didn’t take me long to get reacquainted with the PS3 controller, very familiar, light and a good rumble pack, but let down by stubby lower shoulder buttons – i guess i’m spoilt by the great big triggers of the Xbox 360 controllers.  I did find that for £3  handy plastic extenders could be bought that made them a lot more user friendly.

Getting online was pretty easy and completely free, and the online store uses real money, so no guessing how much you’re actually spending when using it. The web interface is usable and allows access to both iPlayer and Youtube, which is nice.

It’s also practically whisper quiet which means little to no distracting whirring when playing a stealthy part of a game – i always find that a bit of a mood breaker on the Xbox, even when i think i’ve got used to it.

All this said, i’m quite aware that it doesn’t appear to be an essential purchase. If you’ve got an Xbox and are focussed on the games available for it, then you can happily live in ignorance. However, if, like me, you’ve looked at the world of games and seen several gems that will always be out of your reach and find it hard to live with that, then i would say go for it. There’s very little comparable to Little Big Planet and the upcoming Uncharted 2 on the Xbox. It’s also free to go online, but with sparse to non-existent party and comms support. (Surprisingly a mixed blessing as i’m also yet to experience the pain of an annoying 12 year old screeching abuse at me when playing online.)

(Note : It’s yet to be seen whether Playstations other big steps towards game types outside of the Xbox’s scope (MAG and DC Universe) will be additions to the list of must-haves, but the potential i’ve seen and the lack of lag i’ve experienced in other games bodes well for both of them.  That and i’m a massive DC comics fan. )