Sony PlayStation 3 160GB Slim Console with DualShock Wireless Controller

for years i have bin a loyal xbox 360 customer till a few months ago i found a grate deal on a ps3 from here and took the chance to buy it and boy was i happy i did this is such a well rounded media tool its amazing but i wont go on il say what u want to here whats good and whats bad so here they are the good 1 a slim console making it easy to slot into small spaces 2 super quiet 3 no clunky power brick 4 looks sexy is sexy 5 has a choice of colors 6 has blue ray 7 comes with a large memory 8 the sixaxis pad is fun 9 feels like you get what you pay for 10 its free to play online 11 has a large choice of games to download and play from the ps3 store that should do the good for now the bad... 1 can be very tricky to use there are lots of settings and takes a while to find some things your looking for 2 every game you play has to be installed this can take upto 5 mins and more resistance 3 need i say more 3 lacking in a choice of good games 4 the price tag is abit hefty 5 the online is free but..some games can be very laggy leading to a unhappy online experience 6 updates are slow painfully slow 7 there is no fast way to open your mail to send a massage or read one 8 the trophy system sucks i am a achievement kinda man and sadly allways will be =p 9 most games dont use sixaxis leading me to wonder whats the point in it 10 i carnt really state on the life time of it and what i have read its mixed 11 the pad feels wired to me the fact they have not changed it in any way is abit of a let down its bin the same from the days of the ps1 cmon even xbox changed theres not by much but they did =p my final result if you want to save money and still have a power full console buy this the money you safe from free online is grate however if your more of a hard core game fan and moneys not a problem i say buy the xbox 360 it has more games and better titles not to mention the online side is 10x better down side you drop your pants and bend over for microsoft while they plow you =p

Before I begin, let me explain that I have been fortunate to own both this and an xbox 360. I dont know about you, but I get tired of all the tribal product bashing surrounding the so called 'console wars'. I am old enough to have been an owner of the Sega Megadrive and Super Nintendo and frankly the war back then was tiring! Having been an owner of the two consoles I figured that a good review would be to compare this to its main competitor which, if you are reading this, you have either considered buying instead of this or own it and are considering changing to this one. First off let's summarise at the beginning. This is a good console but not a great one. It, like it's Sony predecessor, has a number of flaws that frankly are too severe to ever get it a five star rating. In fact the only console in history worth a five star rating is the first PS1 which was game changing (excuse the pun), brilliant in design and simply awesome. Since then however, it seems Sony have regressed and have failed to match it in terms of impact. The PROS AND CONS 1) The six axis controller. no matter how you want to re brand something, the fact remains that when it comes to ergonomics and design, the xbox 360 controller blows this one right out of the water. Some say don't try to fix what ain't broke, the reality is that the design of this controller has not changed for over 15 years. It was brilliant in the mid nineties when upgrading from the Sega Megadrive 3 button flat blister maker, but in 2012 this controller simply sucks in every way. I am biased, I think the xbox 360 controller is an excellent well thought out design and the most comfortable controller I have ever used. This one feels 15 years old. Oh yeah it is! The six axis motion is a fad. Yes it can be fun and add something to a few games that support it, but overall most people will be wanting to play call of duty and simply put, this controller is not up to the task! There I said it. Before the PS3 was released, Sony had designed a brand new controller which apparently was dropped after 'fanboys' complained...word of advice, Apple didn't become the biggest company in the world because they listened to their fans... i rest my case. On the plus side, it does recharge instead of using batteries but I would take the xbox controller every time. 2) The looks Although a massive improvement over the 'fat' version it still looks like a George Forman grill and overall not very impressive. Much better than the old one though which looked like a breval sandwich maker on acid. 3) Loading times. back in 1987 I used to go to a friend's house and play on his Spectrum ZX-1. We used to play Outrun. Back then you had to put a tape in to load the game and the time it took was enough for a quick game of 90 minute football in the garden. In 2012, you put a game into the PS3 and you are given the delight of re living your childhood. Loading times, although not massively intrusive, are simply giving the PS3 a bad impression from the get go and frankly in this day of age are ridiculous. Terrible Sony. just terrible. 4) Trophy system. Looks and feels in PS3 gaming like an after thought. Because it was. The xbox achievements were new and innovative which surprisingly became very addictive for gamers. Sony, like the Wii motion controller, didn't want to be the game changer and so copied the design resulting in a half hearted trophy celebration. 5) Game conversions Some older games have no trophies at all, but the real crime is that some of the conversions are just terrible. I'm basing this solely on my favourite game Half Life 2 which was converted over from EA for the Orange Box edition. It's simply terrible and buggy and ruins the game experience entirely. I know other games have also failed to hit the mark too but generally all new releases are bug free thankfully. You can blame this on Sony's decision to wait out for blu ray wars and cheaper parts which delayed the release date of the ps3 by a year. Also they developed their own cell processor for the PS3 which games companies struggled with after release. 6) Exclusive games OK the reason we own a console... the games. It's true the exclusive games that PS3 have are simply awesome. Gran Turismo, Unchartered, Resistance series, Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone series etc are simply brilliant. Nuff said. 7) Graphics In full HD 1080p i struggle to see any major differences with the xbox. I would say there tends to be less screen pop with the PS3 and it generally runs smoother and looks just a little shinier and better. So the PS3 tops it. 8) Online The PS3 is free online multiplayer with a host of things to buy, download, message, etc. Much better than xbox paid subsciption which ironically has more users. But being an old school gamer, i rarely play online multiplayer based on the fact that the general public online are generally rubberhead morons. The times I have ventured online for the PS3 has been ok. People tend to be less rubberheadish and moronic. So this is a plus point. 9) Blu Ray Undoubtabely better than DVD and holds more info meaning 4 disc games on xbox are just one disc for PS3 (however the time spend installing it means you save no real time!) The blu ray player itself is surprisingly good and has better frame rates than my dedicated panasonic player after performing like for like tests. Interestingly the PS3 blu ray player is one of a few players that has firmware updates available due to it being connected to the internet. Worth getting just for the player then? well no but if you want blu ray and love games then it is a no brainer. 10) Multimedia Yes it has it, i never use it. Frankly if i want to play music i listen to my stereo. If i want to stream iplayer i stream it online or off BT Television. I dont get the whole 'one for all thing' but if you're young or on a budget its a nice perk. Netflix and lovefilm are good editions also. Playstation store is good. Photos? really? no thanks but you have the option if you want it. 11) noise "The PS3 is so quiet" you will read. Yes and no. It's quiet compared to the xbox fans blowing a constant hum but try playing LA Noire on it. The internal mechanisms trying to keep up with the processing make the PS3 sound like R2D2 having an eplipetic fit thus much more intrusive than a fan blowing constantly. Skyrim however is silent. Go figure? 12) lack of backward compatibility for the slim PS3. "Wah! Wah! I cant play resident evil 2 on this slim one! Wah! Wah! I love final fantasy 7 and want to play it! wah! Wah!" Just get over it!!! Blimey if you want to play old games from yesteryear buy the original console, dowload the old games available on the store or shut up and play modern ones. Note to whingers: games in the old days were not better (although some definitely had more charm!) It's like watching The A Team now, you realise they were always right for their time and rubbish now. Morrowind or Skyrim? Goldenaxe in 2 hours or Kingdoms of Amular in 40? get over it! I rarely play old games and so do most people hence why Sony made the decision, If there was demand for it then it would have stayed. But frankly most people have sense and realise Modern Warfare is actually better than Medal of Honour for the PS1. 13) Summary... again. Overall a good console but far from perfect. Very much like the xbox 360. The perfect console would be the hybrid of the two taking the best features of both. A PSBox3 if you will. rumours about that PS4 will be using an AMD chip and already in line with a planned release date of 2013 so it looks like Sony have learnt from their lazy mistakes. Let's hope they re design that awful controller.

I have had an Xbox 360 since it came out (had it replaced about 6 times though). I have never really wanted a PS3 because it has all of the same games really, but then I saw games like Killzone, God of War, Uncharted amongst a bunch of other PS3 exclusives. Needless to say I really liked the look of them and I had a bit of money to spare. Amazon's price was very fair compared to what it was when it came out. So I bought the PS3. It is fantastic. I still play my Xbox more than the PS3 because it's easier to communicate with people and it's easier to navigate. I bought a lot of PS3 exclusives like the ones I mentioned. They are all amazing and I can't believe I've been missing out on them for so long! I recommend this highly for anyone with a spare chunk of cash or maybe put on your birthday or Christmas list. This is a must-own for gamers. That game coming out next year called The Last of Us made by Naughty Dog is, in it's own right, a reason to get the PS3. Check that game out.

Not the same design as pictured . 3 controllers pictured not received. Games pictured not received Will keep as I needed one

I chose this product because of the good price for its value. The product -- though used -- works perfectly, I haven't found anything wrong about it -- except a couple of scratches maybe, which is not really a surprise. The only thing I do not like that much, it the ergonomics of the controller. I found XBOX 360 controllers more comfortable. Well, Sony has changed the design of the new PS4 controllers, so they are going to be better. :) Comparing to XBOX 360, I miss the option to install the game on the hard drive, making loading time (and streaming, etc) faster. Though The Last of Us plays without a glitch on the console, and I feel it has a stronger hardware than XBOX 360 does. The 160 GB hard drive shall be enough for me (at least for a while). I've been using it since last night (when it was delivered), was staying up quite late playing with it, and I'm am well satisfied with the quality in general. Worth buying (especially when used).

We ordered this item for our son's Christmas present, when it arrived it was a different model to the one pictured, it also didn't have a box like the images perceived it to have. On closer inspection, the PS3 was rather dirty and the controller was not like advertised either. we contacted the seller and they posted us a replacement controller, only after trying to charge us for the extra delivery. Anyway, when it was plugged in on Christmas day, the HDMI would not sit in the socket on the back of the PS3 and to top it off, it didn't switch on either. There you go, one very upset autistic 10-year-old boy having the worst Christmas. We had to venture out on boxing day to find a replacement. All in all, I wish I hadn't bothered and made a trip into town, putting myself out of pocket until the goods returned and refunded, but at least you can see what you are getting. Not a happy shopper.

Bought a PS3 for my son for doing well at school last year and bought myself Gran Turismo and Battlefield 2 for myself to play in the evenings. Thought I would spend most of my time on GT5 but so far have been bit disappointed as there doesn't seem to the same depth to it compared to GT4 on PS2 which I loved. Instead I became completely addicted to Battlefield 2, originally with the normal game which I think is much better than the 'story' in the 3rd instalment as it allows you much more freedom. Then I became completely obsessed once I started with the online game. Just had to purchased Battlefield 3 when it came out and although the story was rubbish, the online game was the best gaming experience I have had and its now taken over my life as I seem to spend every spare and not so spare minute playing on it. This got so bad, I had to buy my own PS3 so my son could play on his in his room. So the PS3 is an incredible gaming machine and Battlefield is one of the best games, I've played on! Happy Days.

I know people battle over whats better Xbox or PlayStation, the answer is they are pretty much the same, graphics are the same game play is the same, you just buy what yer pals have got, i got this solely so i could kick my girlfriends ass at black ops online as she has a PlayStation. From a developers point of view both consoles are heavily out of date, don't buy this thinking the graphics are going to blow your mind although in my opinion Uncharted 3 & Killzone 3 are very pretty. People moan about updates taking forever, they do take a while, much longer than Xbox updates but usually take less time than downloading and installing a game from Steam. The advantage however is that there are minimal loading times during game play. Was disappointed to see only 2 USB ports but that's a minor gripe plus extenders can be purchased online. File architecture is a pain, music, videos etc need to be saved in a certain way to be viewed on the system. However if you have a blank pen drive for example you can just format it to use this system. The controller is not quite as ergonomic as its Xbox counterpart but this is often a matter of taste or simply blind loyalty. You cannot just use PlayStation chat just to have a chat you must be in game, why? The real draw to the PlayStation is often overlooked, this system plays High Definition games in 3D, plays blu ray disks, has a cheeky wee internet browser, super light vibration & motion long life control pads, built in Wifi AND free online play, it is well worth the niggles, the 3D is outstanding for those of us lucky to have a 3D screen. £160 with Gran Turismo and a set of trigger extenders? Bargain.