Hi there, if you have recently bought a PS3, we would love to hear your views on what you think of it... here is mine:

if you are teetering on the edge of buying a PS3, then I would say that after spending a weekend with it, that I am very impressed with the build quality, huge amount of functionality and the fact that I will spend most of my time playing games with other 'real' people online, rather than hours on the single player mode, kind of negates the fact that you can tell that most of the games really needed more time spent on them.

So far I have only spent about 50% of my time playing games, the rest has been downloading stuff from the playstation store (most of the games are about £3.50... full version of Tekken DR is £6.99).

Surfing the internet is a whole new experience when connected to a HDTV (using HDMI) and a £5 USB keyboard from Tesco's... jeez, the TV becomes a massive monitor and everything is razor sharp. Sites like YouTube and our very own flash game arcade work on the browser too.

Not sure if DVD's are upscaled by my TV or the PS3, but suddenly they look almost high definition.

These days most of my TV watching is done via the internet so I have been converting them to mp4's and watching them on the playstation 3... again its amazing seeing them in such high quality on the HDTV, and I can watch stuff in comfort, rather than sat at my computer screen.

In terms of availability, while I was still so mad that Sony delayed the system that I went out of my may NOT to buy a Sony Bravia HDTV, I must admit to loving the fact that you can walk into a store a few days after launch and buy a console. Sony could so easily have manufactured a shortage by simply delivering 10 times less consoles to the UK.

Its an expensive games machine, but like me, I think you will end up using it for so much more...

here's a quick round up of the games I have played so far...

Resistance - doesnt live up to the hype - good but not great

F1 - closest thing to racing in a real car I have ever played, online multiplayer is great too

Fight Night - playing with mates is a real blast

NFS Carbon - zzzz

Motorstom - very shallow in terms of single player lastability, but online multiplayer is great fun

Ridge Racer - only played the demo, but visually its nothing special and although I LOVE the series, this one didnt impress me enough to go and buy the full version

I had HUGE problems trying to play games online using the inbuilt PS3 wireless connection (92% signal strength, it would allow me to connect to the internet, download games and movie clips from the playstation store, but would not let me download game updates from within games, or allow me to play games online). I switched off the wireless, plugged an ethernet cable into my PS3 and immediately everything worked fine.

Love how it connects to my PS3 and allows me to watch movies stored on the Playstation3 on my PSP (it streams them over the wireless connection) - great quality too !

I have not tried voice-chat, but text chat works fine and you get a little message box in the top-right of games you are playing to let you know a new message has arrived.

I have also not played a blu-ray movie yet.

I like how it is so much smaller than it looked on the photos I have seen in magazines, I love how quiet it is, I love that there is no external power supply, I love how it matches my Samsung HDTV, I love the touch sensitive controls, I love how many diffent things you can plug into it and I love the menu system (same as PSP) as its SO easy to use.

phew... thats everything I can think of so far.

Lets hear what you think !

First impression for me is wowwwww!!!!

Firstly the look it is much smaller than you see in the pictures and it is shiny very shiny. My samsung hdtv is shiny aswell and they really suit each other
i also love the way you restart and control discs at the front (by just tapping the icons) what a great feature.

As of yet i still have no access to the internet and playstation network also no firmware update yet , as wireless connection wont work so hope to switch to ethernet very soon.

The XMB control panel thing is great and really easy to use aswell...

The graphics are amazing especially now i got myself a HDMI cable...

I still really want to get online and will get it sorted really soon, just hope there is no more problems, what a hassle though???

Blu-ray discs are really something special and yes everything seems to be in hi-def now great!!!

I am really surprised about the availability of the PS3 no where i have seen has sold out its really annoyed me actually, but it seems people just dont no what there getting for their money, a hell of a lot more than a games console i agree!!!

To sum up the PS3 has made a great impression on me so far not exactly amazing but i do have moments when i am just made breathless.. whoever said single player is boring is wrong btw.....

Well that problem is easily solved. Got to the PS3 downloads section on the main forum homepage and you can download the firmware from there. It's all explained for you.

You can download Lyndon's zip file but the firmware is the US one, which may, or may not, damage your UK PS3.
A safer way would be to download from the link I put up. It's direct download so no going off to other sites.
Just follow the help on where to put the file so that your PS3 recognises the file.
I downloaded the file the same way onto my USB Pen Drive and my PS3 recognised the file straight away.
Once saved to your pen drive (or you could use something like an SD disk or memory stick pro duo [just make sure you've got about 105MB free on whatever you use]) just insert the pen drive or whatever into your PS3, go to System Update and select the second option. I think it's Memory Stick or something, I forget exactly what it says, you'll know which one when you see what the two options are.
Then just follow the on screen prompts.

The topic with the download is PS3 Firmware v 1.6

o right i thought i heard you had it on this site

thanks a lot this makes it so much easier its download from storage media nd already done it

thanks for the tip

my pleasure

why keep the wii scart connector in ?? change it thats what i would do and hopefully it will not be in black and white...but other wise i dont have a clue.

ive been planning to go and get rr7 for a couple of days now as ive heard so much about it but still havent got it been occupied with motorstorm and resistance so far... i will get it soon though and expect that it will be a great game...

and yes 'normal teles' look fine to me aswell even though mines hd my mates still looks great on his 'normal tele'....

The blu ray actually blows me out of the water - much better than I could have ever expected. I need a new tv

http://www.ps3films.com/storage.htm
http://www.ps3films.com/cinematic.htm

tru tru blu-rays do look more amazing dan i cud av expected

good luck wid da new tv

I honestly have to say that the PS3 was money spent well in my opinion. When paired with the LCD HD TV and HDMI cables, games seem to take on a new life, even older ones. Also I like the fact that it is almost an extension of this site, when members here are on their PS3, I can see immediately.

I haven't tried the Blu-Ray yet, but in all honesty that's not why I bought the system. Not having to use mem-cards is also a plus. The internet seems slower than my puter, but having a 32" monitor is definately cool !!!!

I'm certain that as time goes by I will find more things to make the purchase well worth it. My tried and true friend ( PS2 ) has been relegated to the spare bedroom.

Only complaint is I want an adapter that lets me connect a dual-shock or Guitar Hero controller. They must have one if the 1.7 update enables shock for PS2 games.

Anyway, I guess that's it for now.