My shiny new PlayStation 3 is all hooked up and happy in it's little cubby. I still feel dirty for having bought the ultra glossy black beauty, but a new feeling has joined the party: frustration.
The unpacking experience held no unpleasant surprises, other than the fact that no HDMI cable is included. Let's not forget that Sony has been touting the PS3 as the ultimate high definition experience, which would lead you to believe that they'd provide an HDMI cable. You'd think that wouldn't you? But you'd be wrong.
In any case, I plugged in all of the cables and pressed the touch sensitive power button (a very nice touch by the way). Moments later I was busy setting up my PS3 account while sitting a mere 5 feet from my television set. Not a lot of fun when you're sitting on the floor in front of a large HDTV. The sixaxis controller needs to be plugged into the PS3 with the included six foot USB cable for two reasons: 1) to pair the bluetooth controller with the PS3, and 2) to charge itself. It's bad enough that Sony doesn't include an HDMI cable, but they don't include a long enough USB cable to sit on your couch while the controller charges. And before anyone starts saying "six feet is plenty," no it's not. The Xbox 360 includes charging cables for the wireless controllers that reach 8 - 10 feet.
However, the biggest issue I ran into with my initial setup was getting the PS3 online. Just to give a little perspective on my networking knowledge, I have a gigabit ethernet wired throughout my home. I have an AppleTV, TiVo Series 3, several computers and gaming consoles all plugged into my network. Setting up every device was as simple as plugging it into the ethernet jack, except for the PS3.
It took over 25 minutes of trying automatic settings, manual settings, and a combination of automatic & manual settings before I finally got everything working. Where every device I've ever plugged into my network has discovered the network settings automagically (gotta love DHCP), the PS3 needed to be told IP addresses explicitly. Horrible.
I've still got a growing list of negatives about the device, mainly with the user interface design, but first impressions aren't always everything. After playing a game of Super Stardust HD, my frustrations started to feel like a distant memory.
Is it possible that the cord is only 6 feet long because Japanese designers live in Japanese apartments which are very, very, very small? Maybe they said, "6 feet?! THAT'S HUGE!!!"
And this: "I've still got a growing list of negatives about the device, mainly with the user interface design, but first impressions aren't always everything. After playing a game of Super Stardust HD, my frustrations started to feel like a distant memory." That, is the sign of a junkie.