Hey folks, guess what? I recently got a PS3! So here’s a blog about my initial impressions of it, what games I got, and what I plan to get.

Last weekend we decided to upgrade our two TVs that are in the living room and in one of the bedrooms. We had been using our standard bulky regular TVs in those rooms for nearly 15 years now, and they were getting kind of old. I think the sound was going out on one of them, and the brightness on the screen was becoming dimmer and dimmer. So it was time to enter the 21st century.

Of course, I’m not completely new to the HDTV scene. A couple of years ago, I got myself a 49 incher for my game room/office nook, which is now a popular place for teenage brother Jeff and his friends to hang out! Anyway, for the new TVs we got, we also wanted Netflix enabled Blu-Ray players. So for the TV in the living room, we decided to spend the extra 50 bucks and get a PS3 for in there!

Now, just because we just bought a bunch of new fancy electronics, don’t go thinking I’m super rich or anything. We had been planning and saving money to do this for a long time. And also, just because I haven’t gotten a PS3 up until now, don’t go thinking I’m some anti-Sony fanboy or anything. I LOVED the PSOne and PS2, and I’ve owned a PSP for several years (I don’t play it as much as the DS, but I always keep it handy). It’s just that, for the price, the PS3 wasn’t the right fit for me for a while.

So what do I think of the PS3 so far? Well, it’s a little early to say since I’ve only had it for a week and don’t have any big games for it. But so far I’m a little underwhelmed. Sure, it looks great and plays our movies just fine, but right now I’m more impressed with my 360 and Wii. I never really liked the PSP menu, and the PS3 menu is just an extension of that, so it was hard for me to get into that at first. And the trophies are such an obvious rip-off of the Xbox achievements it’s not even funny.

It’s nice to have free online, but I didn’t mind paying for it on the Xbox because in the grand scheme of things, a Gold LIVE membership really isn’t that expensive if you think about it. But like I said before, I’ll give myself more time to warm up to the PS3. And it’s still really only going to be our primary Blu-Ray player in that room anyway. It’ll just be nice to have a PS3 in there just in case I need to review a game for it.

PS3 Downloaded Games

Technically, I don’t have any PS3 games yet. But I did download a couple of things just to try it out. So here are some impressions on what I downloaded:

Loco Roco Cocoreccho

I LOVE the Loco Roco games on PSP. So when I saw this, I had to have it. I always call Loco Roco “The Best Game Nintendo Never Made” because it seems like such a good fit for the Wii. On the PSP you use the L and R buttons to tilt a world to guide some singing blobs to safety. But this PS3 game is a little different. Instead of tilting the world, you guide the Loco Roco blobs around with a cursor that looks like a butterfly. Press the button and the butterfly will make a farting noise and the Loco Roco will hop toward it. Yeah, nothing gets my attention like a farting butterfly. As you travel around, you’ll find other sleeping Loco Roco, and if you pass by them, you’ll wake them up and they’ll join you, too. There are gates that will only open when you have so many Loco Rocos with you, so you want to collect as many as you can.

And that’s all there is to it, really. Honestly I’m rather disappointed with it. Not near as much fun as the main games. The blobs sing the same title screen song over and over. And there are parts here where you can use the Sixaxis controller to tilt sections of the world around, so why couldn’t they do that with the whole package and make it be more like the main games?

Well, at any rate, I’m glad I got to finally tried it. I’ve played all the other Loco Roco games, even the Halloween and Christmas demos. Well, I haven’t tried Loco Roco: Midnight Carnival yet, but I hear that one’s not very good and way too hard.

Namco Museum Essentials

Yeah, I know, I have a problem. I can play any of these classics on any of my other game systems, but I downloaded them here, too. Part of the reason why I’m such a big Namco fan isn’t for what they do now (in fact, since the Bandai merger they’ve kind of sucked), but more so what they did back in the 80’s. I never get tired of playing Namco’s arcade games.

This one lets you play Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga, Xevious, and the super hard Dragon Spirit all in one package. There’s also a new updated Xevious Resurrection game with new levels and graphics. It’s OK, but not near as good as past Xevious updates like Xevious Arrangement and Xevious 3-D/G+.

By doing well in the games, you’ll earn stamps that are the exact same things you do for the Achievements in the Xbox LIVE versions of these arcade classics! Get enough stamps and you can unlock goodies. One time while playing Pac-Man on the PS3, I unlocked a goodie to use for the PlayStation Home. What is PlayStation Home anyway? Is that something I should look into? At any rate, while I love arcade classics, they certainly aren’t what you want to have to showcase the power of the PS3.

Noby Noby Boy

This other downloadable from Namco was designed by the same guy who did the first two Katamari Damacy games, so I HAD to have it. Like Katamari, this one’s quirky and weird. You play as Boy, a tube-like critter who can stretch himself when you pull the left and right sticks in opposite directions. There’s also another character, named Girl who lives out in space and is super long, and gets longer every time Boy reports how long he’s gotten. When Girl reaches another planet in the solar system, you’ll be able to take Boy there to tromp around on. Everyone on the PlayStation Network contributes to Girl’s length. When I first started playing Noby Noby Boy, Jupiter was immediately unlocked, so I don’t know if it was like that before, or if something I did helped unlock it for everyone.

The planets are pretty small, flat areas where you can make Boy stretch out, eat things, give others a ride on his back, etc. But there aren’t any real goals, you just mess around. And that’s where Noby Noby Boy fails as a game because it gets boring pretty quickly. I guess one good thing about this game is that if you have very young kids, they can play this game and not get frustrated at it. I do like all the classic Namco arcade references. One mini-game plays a weird version of the Metro-Cross theme song, Mappy and Nyamco are in one of the worlds, and there are Pac-Man icons and Dig Dug arcade sound effects.

One good thing is that even though these three games were kind of disappointing to me, they only cost about five bucks each, so that wasn’t too bad.

PS3 Games I Want to Get

One of the reasons why I haven’t gotten a PS3 yet is there’s only a handful of exclusive games I’d want to get for it. But now that I have one, here are the games I’m on the lookout to buy. One problem with the PS3 is that while the games start out at the same price, they rarely get to the 20 dollar mark like 360 and Wii games do. I loved it when I got my 360 because it had already been out a couple of years, so I had a lot of cheap, fun games I could get for it that had been out for a while. That doesn’t seem to be the case with the PS3, unfortunately. But anyway, here are some PS3 games I’ve got my eye on.

Ridge Racer 7

When it comes to racing games, I usually just stick to the silly kart racers. But Ridge Racer is one of the few ‘realistic’ racing games I’ve really gotten into. I don’t really have much reason to get RR7, though, because I hear it’s not much different from RR6 on 360, which I already have. Plus, I can’t find RR7 for a good price anywhere, even though it was a PS3 launch title! So even though I want to get it, I probably won’t for a while. Oh well.

LittleBigPlanet

I actually can play this game right now. Brother Jeff has a PS3 at his dad’s house, so he brought this game over to my house so I could try it. I haven’t yet because I’m knee-deep in Mario Galaxy 2 and having too much fun with that. But I’ll get to LBP eventually. The platforming looks like simple fun and the characters are certainly cute enough. I don’t know if I’ll have enough time to invest in making my own levels, as I have enough of a hard time finding chances to make my own mini-games in WarioWare D.I.Y. Brother Jeff says I should wait until LBP 2 comes out. What do you all think?

Ratchet & Clank Games

I love the Ratchet & Clank series and I felt they were the best 3-D platformers of the past generation of game consoles. They were what a 3-D Mega Man game SHOULD HAVE been (no offense to Mega Man Legends, that was a decent spin-off). But the R&C games, like Mega Man, are a perfect mix of platform jumping and shooting action. I have played the first PS3 R&C title at a friend’s, but I didn’t rush out to buy a PS3 for it because it’s really just more of the same. But I’ve seen good deals for both Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time, so I’ll probably get those soon. Might not play them right away, but they’ll be nice to have when the slow summer months roll in. Not sure if I’ll download the Quest for Booty expansion or not.

Katamari Forever

I’m not planning on getting this right away, as it’s still 40 bucks and has the same levels from the other Katamari games. But as you know, I love everything Katamari and I’ll probably break down and get it someday eventually. I’m weak like that.

3-D Dot Game Heroes

This’ll probably be the first ‘official’ full PS3 game I get. Everything is 3-D, but made from blocky pixel dots. It spoofs classic games, so I’ll eat that right up. Everyone says it’s a Zelda clone, but that’s OK because I like Zelda games! And it’s only 35 bucks new, so I’ll probably get it very soon. I’d better get it quick also because it’s an Atlus game and those can be hard to find if you wait too long!

PS3 Conclusions and Your Recommendations and Help

And those are all the games I want to get right now. There are some other titles I’m eyeing, like the new creation racing game ModNation Racers (how is that?). And while usually I play cartoony, silly, cutesy games, sometimes I enjoy more ‘serious’ action games. So how is that early PS3 title Heavenly Sword? (the main character on the box looks cool anyway)

So anyway, in the comments section, if there are any good PS3 game recommendations you could give me, I would appreciate it. Are there any downloadable gems that I may not know about either? And since I’m still learning the ropes on how to use the PS3, if any of you have any advice on how to get the most out of it, I would appreciate any help in that matter as well. And what is PlayStation Home? Should I mess with that?

My PSN account name is CaryWoodham, in case you want to add me to your PS3 friends list. I’m not sure how to do that myself, so any help with that is welcome, too. But that’s all for now! Later! –Cary

Tags: Game Reviews