As a pseudo-birthday present combined with an unbeatable owner I am now in possession of a Playstation 3. It had been dumped unceremoniously in a local pawn shop by either an irate parent or a petty criminal due to discrepancies regarding its hard drive. At $180 a 2-usb port PS3 with an 80GB hard drive with a Dualshock 3 controller is pretty appealing. I am a damned softie for a good sale and with the assurance of a full refund if it was defective I figured it was a good opportunity.

It turns out the system is a fully functional 160GB PS3. Even if its origins were slightly shady it is comforting to know that its owner was a typical male of poor taste lacking an internet connection. It had never known the warmth of an update, a trophy supporting game or even a theme change from the standard piss-yellow background. Now it gets to suffer through Katamari Forever, Lair and eventually Demon's Souls once I find a nice deal on it.

The PS3 has a very competent web browser unlike the gimp edition utilized by the PSP. If my PC exploded the PS3 would provide a fairly suitable substitute. While something is configured incorrectly and the PSPs cannot connect directly to the PS3 they still can communicate using either the USB cable or the internet. While remote play doesn't actually let you play PS3 games in a hilarious butchered and laggy way it's worth using to access media servers around the house or away from home. The only minor irritant is that the PS3 can only stream content to a single PSP at a time.

The only truly awful thing about the PS3 is how it handles downloadable data. Rather than just downloading a title and being able to play immediately on the 360 the PS3 uses a two-part system wherein it downloads an installation program and THEN installs the game. This was especially irritating when attempting to download a demo of Toy Home, having it install, installing an update and then not being able to play at all because some part of the process failed to function properly. I also dislike how either most downloadable games seem to lack a demo. I'm not spending money on Rampart if it isn't obvious what version it it! Most games install data to the hard drive but for the few titles I have it hasn't been excessive.

As far as exclusive content the PS3 is decent. Lair is interesting once the basic controls are understood. I've been having a good time with Folklore. There is a fair amount of exclusive DLC though the only one which truly stood out to me was Soldner-X. I love shmups so it was a no-brainer. Zen Pinball is also awesome with its attention to physics and details like multi-layered table art.

So far I'm quite happy with the system. The XBox 360 still enjoys its place as the primary console due to it most multi-platform titles being built to suit it. I was given The Orange Box to test the unit before I invested in games of my own and it was less than impressive. Both machines can produce impressive content but the PS3 tends to get the short end of the stick due to its more unique hardware. Shortcuts are usually taken and result in the PS3 games having lower resolution textures or other graphical anomalies.

NIS recently had a sale on some of its downloadable titles including Holy Invasion of Privacy for half off. $10 is a much easier price to swallow for such a small game bereft of bonus materials. Interestingly a poll cropped up to gauge interest in a UMD release on Playstation Blog and NIS's website.With Badman 2 being localized shortly I have reconsidered my stance on the UMD issue in favor of a 'special edition' UMD with both games and possibly bonus filler like concept art. It could be justifiably sold at a higher price point and might still be of interest to those who downloaded the first title.