One Girl, Two Pads

Two years ago I won a really fantastic competition. It included a television, surround sound system, bottles of champagne, pink Marc de Champagne truffles (which I shouldn’t have eaten because they’re divine but hugely expensive so I can never buy myself any. I’d also like to point out that my birthday is coming up in a few weeks, that’s not at all a massive hint), beauty potions and, most importantly, a Playstation 3.  I have always wanted a PS3. I know there’s talk of it being able to play Blu-rays and how it has BBC iplayer (recently joined by ITV and 4oD) but all I wanted was to play Ratchet and Clank and God of War again, or try Little Big Planet.

I’d had a Playstation 1 and progressed onto the Playstation 2, so naturally wanted the next in line, however when it came down to the crunch they were bloody expensive and after a friend lured me to ‘the other side’ I picked up an Xbox 360 which was a much better deal. It introduced me to online multiplayer and exclusives that I’d never experienced such as Halo, Gears of War and the recently released Left 4 Dead, not to mention a whole raft of gaming buddies.  About a month later I received the call about winning the competition and a few days after the haul arrived. For financial reasons I had to sell almost everything, truffles aside, getting to touch the PS3 briefly and then it was gone from my life.

All this has changed because last month, thanks to Christmas money, I was able to head to Gamestation and lovingly pick out my very own PS3 console. It was a happy day in the Kat household. The setup was time consuming – all those murmurings of updates and downloads are true.  The first game I started was Little Big Planet which has thirteen, yes THIRTEEN, updates.  We sat and waited impatiently before eventually getting to play with our little Sackboy. Against all advice I then ventured into Playstation Home, which I believe is Sony’s attempt to make the Playstation more sociable? After creating my avatar I walked her out into what looked like a ‘trendy’ shopping centre square created in the early 90s which was mostly filled with adverts for new releases.  I went to get a drink (in real life) and returned to find my poor avatar lady surrounded by a group of boys all trying to say hello.  I shut it down and have never gone back since.

It is not a social machine. I realise others may disagree and, yes, I know the PS3 still offers all the delights of multiplayer but in my opinion if you want a social gaming console then the 360 is where it’s at. The fact that the PS3 still does not offer a party chat equivalent is shocking to me, the interface seems cluttered to navigate and there’s limited info for those that like stalking friends’ profiles like I do.  Before I get fanboys overheating with rage, I do think the PS3 is great though and I’ve spent a lot of time on it so far, despite the winter festivities intruding.  Seeing Ratchet and Clank again in Tools of Destruction is fantastic – I missed those guys.  When I was told the upcoming new release has four player co-op I squealed inside with excitement.

Pottering about in Little Big Planet is a pleasurable experience and it is a sweet, gentle-ish game for the children to enjoy too. Most of my time however has been invested in something I’d forgotten was out for the Playstation 3. Plenty of my friends plough many hours of their time into a favourite game.  I hear talk of over 120 hours spent on Fallout, others playing Oblivion through several times, those who have played thousands of Call of Duty matches, but for me? My weakness?… Rolling Katamari.  Since purchasing a copy of Katamari Forever, little else has been played on my PS3.  There is no game more infuriating and, in equal measures, satisfying for me than the Katamari franchise.

I contemplated doing an “I <3 Katamari” article for Gaming Lives until realising I didn’t have enough to say as it’s essentially the same thing over and over and over. It’s all wacky nonsense, but little beats getting the Katamari to the stage where you’re rolling up entire cities, hearing the screams of terror from the civilians. The game is almost identical to Beautiful Katamari for the Xbox 360 but I don’t care, all I need is a slightly different layout and slightly different challenges.  Once I hear the plinky-plonky music start up, I’m in a little slice of geek heaven. My gaming dream came true in 2010 and I’m a dual-console owner. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to ignore all these God of War and Uncharted titles to get back to my Katamari.




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12 Comments

  1. Ste says:

    ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ;)

    I’m also a dual console owner, but I’m the opposite to you in that the PS3 is my main console. However as I’ve probably said before this is mainly due to alot of my family and friends all being PS3 owners. Saying that, since finding GamingLives and meeting you lot I’m seriously thinking about re-subbing to Live and joining in with a game night sometime. We’ll see!

    Additionally, I couldnt agree more that the lack of party chat on the PS3 is a farce. I live in hope that Sony will one day rectify this oversight. I’m not going to hold my breath though!

  2. Victor Victor says:

    I was *this* close to picking up a PS3 myself last month. But then looked at my pile of unplayed 360 games and I didn’t think it was right to get another console. And I still have issues with the PS3 pad. Bought a Sony Blu-Ray player with internet access instead and am very satisfied.

    Although I still have a hankering to play God of War III and Uncharted 1& 2. Maybe in the future I will still evolve into a one geek, two pads type of person.

    Good article.

    P.S. I love the title

  3. Michael Author says:

    My housemate has a PS3, and I’ve only played God of War III on it. I think it is a terrible machine. I’ve seen him use HOME, and it looked like a horrible version of Second Life, except with even more guys attempting to chat up the women. The PS3s version of the the marketplace is too clunky in my opinion, and the menus are way to cluttered.
    I’ll stick with my 360.

  4. Adam R AdamR says:

    Havent spent alot of time with a PS3, And if wasnt for God Of War or LBP, i never would be tempted to either. But thats just me, Im odd

  5. The Sonic Mole says:

    I’ve ummed and ahhed about getting a PS3 for a while. Ultimately I am happy with my 360. Saying that, when they release The Last Guardian, and if they announce a new Shin Megami Tensei game, I’ll have to umm and ahh again…

  6. Greg Greg says:

    I’ve probably mentioned this beforee, but I can’t really see the point in a PS3 for myself to be honest. My gaming time is limited as it is and Iwhen I’m online I like to kic k back with some mates and have a chat whilst we play whatever, either together or separately. There are only a handful of games that I would like to play that are ONLY available on the PS3, and its just not enought to justify the expenditure for me yet. Plus I only have one HDMI port on my current telly and its got my telly box plugged into it.

    I was only saying to Rich last month, when I got my news of my Christmas bonus, which was fairly enormous, my first thought was ‘ooh I could get a PS3 now’ which was followed about 2 seconds later by ‘but I can’t be arsed’ which said it all for me. Ironically, back in the day I was a huge Sony fanboy – I remember mocking M$ for releasing the 360 so early in a panic to beat the surely unbeatable Sony juggernaut. Oh how times change….

    Great article Kat :)

  7. Lorna Lorna says:

    I think our PS3 has sat there for ages, unused, however, I keep meaning to get stuck in and play the game which made me want to get one in the first place – namely Uncharted. I also picked up Heavy Rain for nothing before Christmas, so I’m looking forward to playing it, given all the positive things that I have read about it. Can’t believe that it doesn’t have party chat :/

  8. Lauren says:

    Oh Katamari…that game……..lol. My husband loves it but I can’t play it without getting frustrated like no other. >.> I do love the music, though! haha

  9. Edward Edward says:

    To be fair to the PS3, it may be able to do a lot, but it can’t keep me hooked on it.
    Even though it’s my dad’s, as soon as he bought it I went out and bought MGS4 and never got around to finishing it, annoyingly. However, I beat Arkham Asylum on the PS3 when my dad got it but otherwise only play exclusives on there. Though Killzone 2 bored me into a stupor and Uncharted wasn’t that great but engrossed me for an afternoon. I still need to finish both, and borrow Heavy Rain from someone at one point.

  10. Rook says:

    There are a number of games I have played on both the PS3 and the Wii but both pale in comparision to the number of games I have played and own for the Xbox 360. I spent alot of gaming time on Sony and Nintendo past consoles and put not playing the PS3 down to not having my HDTV so I wasn’t getting the benefit of the pretty graphics. Even if I did have the HDTV is would only be the exclusive titles I would play on the PS3 and otherwise use it as a blu-ray player, but my Xbox 360 is the main console of choice when it comes to playing games.

  11. Jace says:

    PS3 is the most infuriating console for updates though. If you haven’t been back to it for a month or so, you’re stuck updating the console and any software you return to, which can literally take an hour. GT5 has been a nightmare for this. Also, as one of those dim witted early adopters I got a US machine before the UK one was released, and infuriatingly had to set up my PSN account as if I was in the USA. These days I use a UK machine, but because I set up my original account as USA, it won’t let me update my credit card, so I can never buy items from the PSN store. It’s a bone of contention for many, if you emigrate, you have to erase your whole PS3 account and start again with a new user name, losing all your trophys in the process. Grrrr.

  12. Lee says:

    Can’t believe you skipped all the good games and went straight to katamari – you could of played Uncharted 2

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