A funny thing happened to me while shopping for my kids for Easter. I went in for a new Mario game for my son, and came out with a PS3. Perhaps I should explain this, being that I've been pretty adamant on not buying the PS3 until they show me something that's truly worth the money they're asking. So here goes...

Well, upon not finding a Mario game for my son, I decided to check the used bins infront of the store, (which I really never do...as I know by now that the only titles they have in there are GTA III and countless Syphon Filters), when lo and behold, attatched to the used bin was a little slip of paper. But this was no ordinary slip of paper my friends...this slip of paper would be the deciding factor in me buying the one system I was holding out on. I think I've made my opinion clear on the whole PS3 matter, so I won't rehash my reasons for not jumping on the Sony bandwagon right away here. Instead, let me just get straight to the point...this slip of paper informed me that I could trade in any 10 games, and receive a 60Gig PS3 for $399.99 CDN. For the record, that's the price of a Core 360...the one with no hard drive...

So after some serious thought and discussion with the clerk, I decide to run home and pick ten games that I knew I would never finish, nor even play again for more than 10 minutes. Now the ad said 10 games, but what can I say, I'm an overacheiver and brought in 21, just to see how much more I could take off that price, which all things considered, was a much better price than the $659.99 the system retails for without trades. The final amount I paid, including a copy a Fight Night Rd. 3, ended up being $219.87...

Now some people might say that I had to make some sacrifices by trading in some games to get this, and therefore the price I paid is equal to what I would have paid anyway....but in truth, I doubt that Monsters Inc. Scream Arena is going to be missed by anyone in my family...It also helps to be married to someone who has a pretty extensive gaming collection, which holds more than a few doubles in there...(oddly enough, Scream Arena was in his collection before we had kids...a fact that I didn't find out until after I had come home from the store with a brand new copy...)

First impressions? From the moment I started the console up, I was impressed. Though pretty basic, the menu screen is still pretty cool to look at...yes, the PSP had it first, but I like it just as much on my tv. Upon popping Fight Night Rd. 3 into the system, I immediately sat up and took notice (after the incredibly long load time...in which time I thought the system had frozen...). I've owned Fight Night Rd. 3 on every console...Xbox, PS2, 360...and I've been impressed with each versions graphical display...but when compared to the PS3, not even the 360 version can compare. The amount of detail on the boxers is quite incredible. They seem more defined...less soft, like they appeared in the 360 version. Admittedly, they did have more time to work on the PS3 version, but I can't help but be impressed with it nonetheless. Unfortunately, for right now, Fight Night is the only game I've got, which means I can't formulate much more of an opinion regarding its shortcomings and successes. I will say one thing, the load times on Fight Night are outright ridiculous, so I'm hoping that the first party stuff will be a little better.

Now, all that being said, the question remains...is the console worth $700? If you aren't at all interested in Blu-ray players, my answer would be a firm no. A great step up from the PS2...yes, but not worth a $500 + price increase to get to that next step. Everyone's got their own opinion on the matter, but for me, I have to say that if it weren't for EB having this deal on, I would most definitely not have bought the PS3..at least not until a major price drop happened. Now I've just gotta get through until September when Heavenly Sword supposedly comes out. Until then, I have a slightly less expensive paper weight than I expected.