My PS3 Experience - Two Jobs, Stolen Debit Card and JASON!!!!

It’s really funny looking back at the PS3, because when it originally came out in 2007 (Australia) it was an object of hate. The only thing people hated more than the PS3 was North Korea. Mainly because of its high price compared to the competition and lackluster line-up of software. Publishers were redrawing their support and analysts were predicting the Playstation brand would soon be dead and Sony would become a third party publisher like Sega.

But regardless of how much my co-workers or high school chums told me the PS3 was “gay” or “sucked”. I still wanted one, because I already owned and loved all the previous Playstation hardware, PS1, PS2 and PSP. Playstation blood was running through my veins and I needed the PS3 to complete my life. Of course the big obstacle was that huge price. The RRP for the 80GB model in 2008 was $699 Australian. CEO Kaz Hirai said you would need two jobs to afford this thing and he wanted to make you feel like you earned the PS3 - Arrogant, but surprisingly true. Back then I was only earning $10 an hour at a Chinese Restaurant and if you do that maths. I worked a total of 70 hours to afford the PS3, although I brought it at JB Hi-Fi for $650. God bless JB Hi-Fi, what would I do without you?

It was July 2008 and the PS3 was mine. Boy did I feel like I was on top of the world, Kaz Hirai was absolutely right. I felt like I’d earned it, those hard days slaving at that Chinese Restaurant had finally produced the rewards. The first games I got for the system was Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Both of them were incredible games that blew me away with their visuals and attention to detail. I would soon expand that library with games like Resistance 2, which at one point had the highest player count for an online shooter; over 60 players could fight each other at the same time. Little Big Planet was the first platformer from Sony that almost made me forget about Super Mario, mainly because of its robust level editor and strong online community. Valkyria Chronicles showed me that a game about war could treat the subject matter with maturity and human emotion. Alone in the Dark was well.....a mistake.

Of course in September 2009 Sony would bring out the Slim PS3 with a cheaper, more attractive price. Key titles like Uncharted 2, Killzone 2, God of War III and Infamous made people finally want a PS3 and the system would eventually overtake the Xbox 360 in sales, but still hasn’t reach the same sales as the almighty Nintendo Wii. People now loved the PS3 and it’s hard to think at one point Activison was threatening to redraw support and key franchises like Call of Duty if sales didn’t improve.

But even with a bright future, there were still dark moments. In March 2010, the PS3 clock bug made the system think it was a leap year and reset the clock to the end of 1999. This made any digital software or games that support trophies unplayable. Which was annoying because I was nearly towards the end of Heavy Rain and almost about to discover the identity of the Origami Killer (to my surprise, it wasn't that scary clown with the balloons). Fortunately a patch corrected those issues with the Operating System.

Of course let’s not forget the big one, the Playstation Network hacking. I will always remember April 2011 and how the world went crazy when it became apparent that hackers had broken into the Playstation Network servers and had stolen all our personal information including our credit/debit cards. I immediately cancelled my Debit Card and the woman at the bank even said they had several victims of the Playstation Network cancelling their cards as well. But I’ll never forget how my co-workers and friends had a meltdown over losing the ability to play their online games for 3 weeks and you have to remember the Playstation hacking happened the day before Australia had a long 5 day weekend. One of my co-workers said he was planning to run out and trade his PS3 towards a Xbox 360. Which seemed like failed logic since Xbox Live could go down at any time, in fact it did during 2007 and people were denied service for 2 whole weeks. I was more annoyed about the fact I had purchased Portal 2 and promised a friend who owned a PC. I would redeem the free PC version that came with Portal 2 and give it to him. But with the network down, I couldn’t do it until service resumed 3 weeks later. Although because I had 3 Playstation accounts before the hacking, I scored myself not 4 but 12 free games with the Welcome Back package. Victory!!!

So looking back at the PS3, was it a good or bad console? I believe it was a great system and the positives usually get buried by uninformed trolls. Obviously people complain about Sony removing PS2 backwards compatibility early in its life, but what they forget this was done to bring the price of the system down and having two different models on the market at the same time (one that plays PS2 games and one that doesn’t), could really confuse consumers and lead to a lot of unhappy buyers realising they have a unit that doesn’t play PS2 games. Of course ironically the only next gen console with backwards compatibility, the Wii U is the system that’s getting all the hate. Ironnnyyy!!!! The PS3 introduced us to Blu-Ray which allowed for more data in our games and of course HD movies which look incredible. I honestly don’t know why people are still torturing their eyes with fuzzy DVDs, when Blu-Ray movies come out at almost the same price. But my favourite part about the PS3 was being 100% region free with the exception of two games, Persona 4 Arena and Stranglehold. I love the luxury of being to play any game from any part of the globe. Since it increases my buying options and lets me to play certain games before their release in Australia (like Catherine and Back To The Future) or play games that never got a PAL release (MLB The Show).

So that was my experience with the Playstation 3 over the last 5 years. It has been fun seeing the black box go from being the most hated thing on the Earth to a force to be reckoned with. Of course the system isn’t dead yet, unlike other console makers Sony doesn’t abandon their platforms (another plus for Sony) as soon as they announce the successor. I can’t wait to pick up The Puppeteer this week, Beyond Two Souls in October and of course Gran Turismo 6 in December. Plus there will be tonnes of games coming out in 2014. Honestly why are people worried about the PS4 shortage and not getting one until 2014? When the PS3 is still pumping out these incredible titles.