Not too long after I got my new Xbox 360, another friend told me that he had a PlayStation 3 lying around that he wasn’t using anymore. He didn’t give it to me, but he did offer to lend it to me for a while. How could I pass up the opportunity? And so, in 2024, I find myself with a PS3 in my living room. Let’s see if it holds up as well as the Xbox 360, shall we?
Maybe it’s because I’m used to Nintendo consoles with their compact designs, but the PS3 feels egregiously big. It’s the biggest machine in my living room (besides my TV of course), sitting slightly taller than my Xbox 360. Now when I line up all of the Gen 7 consoles, it looks like my Wii hired two beefy bodyguards. And this PS3 is the technically the Slim model. I can’t imagine how big the original design must’ve been.
My user experience on the PS3 was much easier than the Xbox 360. It probably helped that this console came with a hard drive and didn’t have a parental lock on it. Setting up my account took only 15 minutes. The PS3’s UI, which Sony called the “XrossMediaBar,” is sleek and minimalistic. When I turn the system on, I feel like I’m floating on an ocean’s surface. It’s a work of art — no, I’m not kidding. It’s a welcome reprieve from the Xbox 360 constantly reminding me to play Call of Duty. However, maybe it’s because I’ve used PCs for so long, but the menu navigation took me a while to get used to. To me, the folders should move vertically, not horizontally. Complaints about UI may seem like a nitpick, but you spend much more time in the menus on PS3 and Xbox 360 than you do on a PC or a Nintendo console. On Steam and Nintendo, all of your games are immediately visible upon startup — it takes maybe 10 seconds before you’re in a game. Sony and Microsoft, on the other hand, want their consoles to feel like miniature ecosystems for your media. And between the PS3 and the Xbox 360, I prefer Sony’s XrossMediaBar better.
That’s not the only thing I prefer over the 360. Sony’s DualShock 3 is leagues better than the 360’s controller. The D-Pad actually works, and the face buttons click, the way buttons are supposed to. My biggest gripe with the DualShock 3 is that the triggers hang off of the controller precariously. When I press on them, they swing downward at an awkward angle, and they feel almost too loose, like they’ll break off if I press too hard. I’ve never had a controller give me anxiety like this before. The strangest part is that the 360’s triggers were its one redeeming quality. It’s as if the PS3 and 360 controllers are in a Yin-Yang formation, with opposing Pros and Cons. I’m sure I have some bias thanks to growing up with the original DualShock, but I like the PS3 controller overall, wobbly triggers notwithstanding.
The PS3 is thankfully backwards compatible with the PS1, and while this Slim model can’t accept PS2 discs, some PS2 games are available to buy digitally, including the mysterious Shin Megami Tensei spinoffs I’ve heard so much about. I already bought several PS1 games on the Vita, including classics like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and I’m happy that they can be downloaded for free on the PS3. Even at the height of Nintendo’s Virtual Console offerings, they never provided free cross-buy of their legacy games.
Speaking of the Vita, the PS3 offers a very limited Remote Play feature with the handheld. If you connect the two consoles over the internet, the PS3 will stream gameplay to the Vita. However, not every PS3 game allows you to use this feature. In fact, of all the games I’m interested in, only Tokyo Jungle supports Remote Play. As a Vita fan, I wanted to try Remote Play, but it’s hardly worth the trouble setting it up.
On paper, the PS3’s exclusive library seems just as robust as the Xbox 360’s. However, the PS3 has less games that interest me. If PS3 games were people, they’d be a pack of ’00s Edgelords wearing black trench coats in the summer. Killzone, Resistance, Infamous, God of War, and even The Last of Us fail to entice me. I still want to try them, because I want to be an open-minded critic, but it’s hard to be excited about these kinds of games. As for games that I really want to play, my list includes: the Uncharted trilogy, the LittleBigPlanet trilogy, Wipeout HD, Tokyo Jungle, Metal Gear Solid 4, Folklore, Puppeteer, Tales of Xillia, Trails of Cold Steel, and the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection. It’s still a good list of games, but it’s not as long as my 360 list or even my 3DS list. The PS3 shares a problem with my Xbox 360, where I can play 80% of its games on the PC and Switch, so I don’t feel much urgency to collect for it. With time, I hope I end up loving the PS3’s library as much as I do with other gaming consoles. I want this system to change my mind.
As far as collecting goes, PS3 games seem to be rising up in price. The deeper cuts that interest me go for around $40 to $60 each, a dollar range that starts to discourage me. The more popular games are definitely more affordable, but I’m already getting most of those on the Xbox 360 or the PC for pennies. Unless Uncharted and Infamous somehow blow me away, I’ll limit my collection to just a handful of RPGs. And I’m okay with that.
Overall, the PS3 is in a strange place in 2024. It’s a superior console to the Xbox 360 in almost every way. The controller feels better, the UI is easier on the eyes, and the digital store is still open for the foreseeable future. I really like the PS3. I’m looking forward to playing on it. I just don’t think there are enough colorful and unique games for me to play it for very long.
Hookshot, Charge Beam, Revive 