That’s right people, it’s literally freezing here. No, I’m not talking about the snow, although I am currently trapped in Galashiels with no transport home because it’s at least a foot thick. I mean much, much worse. Hell has frozen.
That’s right, I have accepted the PS3. I’ve been at my girlfriends flat, and she has a PS3 instead of a 360 or Wii. She never plays it; she describes it purely as “a glorified Blu-Ray player”; but I figured I needed to at least try it out.
I’ve been impressed with a couple of things, and disappointed in others, but on the whole it has done well enough for me to accept it. Not everything is how I’d like it, obviously, but I can’t expect everything. However, I have ended up comparing it to the 360.
The biggest comparison is the difference between Achievements and Trophies. I know, many people still argue the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD angle, but let’s face it – Blu-Ray won, and Sony were on the winning side. Granted, I personally expected HD-DVD to win, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, back to the point.
I have already given my opinions on the XBOX Achievement system, but Trophies are not exactly the same, although they do share many similarities.
The Trophy system was Sony’s answer to Achievements, and was not available at launch, but added on as a later update. I think it was a fantastic idea, but does leave the one major problem – not all games support Trophies, while I have yet to hear of an XBOX game without Achievements.
What the Trophies have done better however, is different levelling. While the XBOX gives an arbitrary points value to each Achieve, Trophies are done in Bronze, Silver and Gold varieties, which I think is much better. There is also a Platinum Trophy available if you manage to collect all the others: a feature I think is much better, as I have always thought every 360 game should have a 100% Achievement. The biggest failure of the PS Trophy system is that it requires manual syncs of Trophies, while the XBOX automatically syncs Achievement.
I’ve been very impressed with it. I am struggling a lot while trying to play through Prince of Persia, because the controls seem to be far more sensitive on the PS3 than the 360, but I can hardly count this as a flaw of the system. Quite the opposite in fact, it’s just that I am not adapted to the system properly, and that will likely change in the future.
Sadly, due to Microsofts money-grabbing tendencies, I have recently been put off the XBOX a bit more. My Live subscription ran out, and was automatically renewed – something which I had neither authorized nor been informed of. This has given me the very awkward situation of being completely unable to play my XBOX, as the £40 which was removed from my account was the only money in my bank, and so now I have no electric or internet at my flat. This alone has steered me more towards the PlayStation, as I have the chance to play it.