Has the PS3 met your expectations?

[Jason]

Let's be honest, the PS3 is expensive. It cost a lot to manufacture (some reports state that Sony sold early models at a loss per unit), and it's not cheap to buy either. But with that price comes a lot of hardware and a lot of power.

Now that sales of the PS3 are starting to pick up a little in comparison to rivals, how do you feel about the machine? Has it fulfilled what you expected of it so far? Did the disappointing launch catalogue hurt the console as badly as some have said? Have big-name games like Killzone 2, Metal Gear Solid 4 and the Uncharted series managed to finally deliver on the potential of the system? And how soon do you think the PS3 will be pushed to its limits?

[BannanoPeel]

At first I thought that the PS3 was a terrible console. What with the high price, no backward compatibility, and no good exclusive games. But now with the recent price cuts I am starting to change my mind. The blu-ray capability is good along with free online and some recently good exclusive games (uncharted 2).

[Jason]

I think Sony have done the polar opposite of Nintendo - Sony started poorly with an expensive unit and nothing to recommend it above its rivals. However, the unit has the technological edge to keep it going for a couple of years yet and a diverse catalogue is helping its userbase expand.

The Wii started well thanks to a cheap unit and some genuine innovation, but with the poor graphics capability compared to its rivals and a very limited catalogue mean it's started to look distinctly dated in comparison to the others, hence Nintendo having to look at releasing a WiiHD so soon.

[nilihanth]

Oh I kept meaning to reply to this thread....

YES!! And more! I honestly can say that I purchased the PS3 not knowing some of the features that surprised me. The hard drive swap, for instance. Just the fact that Sony not only made it easy to do but they even had instructions for doing it. Here are the non-gaming features that really impressed me:

USB - Not USB itself, but the fact that so many 3rd party, unrelated accessories are compatible. Example: I can shoot video on my little digital camcorder and hook it straight into my PS3 to copy the videos off. I can hook my old wireless keyboard/mouse into it and play Unreal Tournament III or surf the internet just like on a computer. Better yet, I keep my 500GB hard drive hooked into one of the ports so I can always access my photos and videos. Best part? This is all my own stuff, not some Sony-proprietary piece that is way overpriced compared to similar items unrelated to video games. Take a hint, Microsoft. Let your users put their own hard drive in, hook their own keyboard up, etc.

Wireless - built in wireless 802.11g/b support. Why wouldn't you put it in there? PS3 and the Wii both have it in by default, yet only the PS3 has both options, WLAN and LAN. The 360 makes you buy a wireless adaptor *laughs* and the Wii makes you buy a LAN adapter *laughs harder*

Free Online - Yes, not quite as feature-rich as XBL but still, free. I don't have to pay Sony to play games online.

Media ease - XVid support for videos makes it very easy to watch 90% of the videos I download since most are .avi and some form of XVid codec. Match that with the previously mentioned 500GB hard drive I have attached and watching downloaded TV shows and Anime is a breeze. I've also used my PS3 to show family home videos of my twin boys and pictures as well. It is all very easy.

I think that's all other than the obvious gaming experience I've had with the PS3. It's made me pretty much box up my Wii. 1080p gaming just makes 480i gaming seem last-gen. Oh wait, it is! (Don't get me wrong. I'm not a graphics whore, just upset about the Wii's lack of effort)

[LegendaryJJP]

agree with all the above, except i swapped the internal 80gb drive with a 500gb drive so i can keep all my movies/music/photos on the one system and with the optical port i hooked up the surround sound and turned into a full media center. when you think how much all the kit would be to have a media center with the features the PS3 has i have gotten myself a bargain

however i only play certain games on it like the exclusives (metal gear etc..) so cant comment on the online features except the iplayer which gets used alot so i can catch up on the stuff ive missed because of work and that. would love to see the skyplayer get release on it in the future. for the simple reason of i still dont feel 100% comfortable running my 360 for a prolonged length of time

[Knighto]

@LegendaryJJp

I hear ya, since my 8 months old X-360 got an e73 red light last year and I lived for half a year without gaming (they were hard times :() I feel very uncomfortable operating it for more than a couple of hours.

When it broke I had Fable 2 on for about 4 hours.. I never finished that game.

[CemeteryGates]

So far, it has exceeded my expectations; very much so.

Blu-ray, wi-fi, free online playing, some great exclusives, gorgeous graphics, all the options and configurations for sound and video display, the huge HDD; everything is amazing.
The only "complaints" I have is that the Store is a bit awkward and doesn't have a lot of stuff, but I rarely used Xbox Live Marketplace when I was living in my old house and had a connection, and the lack of backwards compatibility.