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By the time you read this, the Japanese PlayStation 3 launch will be well under way, with the North American launch only days away. We've received our PS3s, and have been playing fast and furious to get all the games covered in time for launch. While we wait for embargoes to lift on the full game reviews, here's a quick tour of the PS3, still fresh from the factory packaging.
Out of the Box

Photos of the console have been floating around for a while now, but there's a lot to be said for stacking it up physically against the Xbox 360 and the Wii. Compared to the 360, the PS3 is slightly larger, although against our black shelves, the glossy black machine almost disappears, if not for the silver bezel that houses the disc drive.



Two much more practical things differentiate the PS3 from the 360, however. For one, there's no large power brick, only a single power cord that's slightly thicker than a PC power cord, and much thinner than the 360's. That made finding space for the unit easier than expected.
And the PS3 is far more quiet than the 360. No jet engine roar from this thing. Without a disc in the drive it's barely perceptible, and with a disc it's not only more quiet than the 360, but quieter even than the PS2. That means watching movies using the Blu-Ray player might be an acceptable experience, since the console won't be making noise to compete with the soundtrack. We'll report more soon, if we notice the sound ramping up during extended play sessions.
Cables, cables, cables

As previously reported, the box contains only a composite A/V cable, though our review unit also came supplied with a 2-meter HDMI cable. But we quickly realized that the A/V connector on the back of the PS3 is the same as the one carried by the PlayStation2. So if you've got PS2 component cables already wound into your home theater spaghetti, just plug that connector into the PS3 to get instant high-def gaming, with or without HDMI.



Speaking of cables, the first thing we did was plug the included USB cable into the Sixaxis controller and console. The cable is short -- a couple of feet shorter than a Dual Shock cable -- but it's a standard USB cable, so procuring a longer one (for playing from the couch while charging the controller) won't require significant expense. The controller charged fully in about 90 minutes, though we'll run that down and charge it again to be sure, since there was likely some factory charge when it came out of the box.
While the main power button is on the rear left corner of the console, just like the PS2 (if it's laying horizontally) the reset and eject buttons are touch sensitive, located on the front right in the silver bezel. The console responds quickly to both switches -- we hit the reset button and were good to go.
The Xross Media Bar

On the initial setup, the first thing that comes up is a prompt to connect the controller via USB, and press the center PS button. Later on, while in game, holding down the PS button acts a lot like pressing the 'Home' key on a PSP -- it gives the option to quit your current game and go back to the Xross Media Bar (yeah, we don't like the spelling either), to turn off the controller, or turn off the console entirely. There's also an indicator showing the controller's charge level, and which port it's connected to.
In fact, much of the early setup is just like your first minutes with a PSP. Setting the language, time, and date are all identical, as is the initial prompt to create and enter a username. After each data is entered, you'll tap right on the analog stick or d-pad to proceed to the next time.



After creating your identity and accepting all the basic data, you'll be given the symphonic PlayStation 3 main logo screen, and then to the XMB. The first trip to the XMB will automatically plop you on the "Sign Up For The PlayStation Network" item. But that's pretty hard to do if you haven't already set up a network. A firmware update might want to put new users in the Network Setup area, instead.
Fortunately the network setup is a breeze, and after grabbing the latest System Update (regrettable, but easy enough to do) we also set up our video and audio outputs. The PS3 has an optical line out for digital audio, which we selected, and we set our cable connection (component video) and maximum resolution -- 1080i, sadly.
Later, when we picked up an HDMI to DVI converter, we sent the video signal out over HDMI, which looked much better. Be careful if you're planning to cart your PS3 to a friend's house, though -- the OS doesn't detect when you step down from HDMI, and you won't be able to bring up a picture to reset it to another output. A firmware update definitely needs to implement a cable and resolution auto-detect feature.
The launch lineup so far

We're still waiting on copies of quite a few launch titles, but we do have Sony's first-party titles on hand, as well as Ridge Racer.
Resistance: Fall of Man
Is this the PS3's Gears of War or (hopefully not!) Perfect Dark Zero? Our first trip through the final build of Resistance has been promising. This seems like a shooter in the Call of Duty mold, upgraded with Insomniac's signature weapons, which leads to interesting multiplayer. The solo game is pretty straightforward in our experience so far, but we enjoyed our foray into split-screen multiplayer -- the difficulty is much higher, and racing to revive a downed comrade is as dangerous as in Gears of War. And in multiplayer, which we've also only played split-screen so far, the variety of weapons leads to the same feeling we got from old-school Unreal Tournament, where everyone had their favorite weapon, and associated tactics. Can't wait to get through the whole game and see how it really plays out. We were only seeing it in 480P, and it still looked good, especially since we'd jumped in straight from GoW.
Genji: Days of the Blade
Prettier than Resistance, but slower, too. So far we enjoy the speed of Yoshitsune a lot more than the sluggish force of Benkei, who seems like he's in a different game altogether. As has been the case with DVD players, where people use content-free films like Armageddon to demo their A/V setup, Genji is a graphics powerhouse and features a soundtrack that moves from subtle to brutal in a flash, but the gameplay isn't all there. We're hoping to uncover more promising moves and depth past the first few levels, but this one looks like style over substance so far.
NBA 07
Without a 1080P display you'll have a hard time appreciating the full value of NBA, the only first-party title out of the gate to support the 'true HD' resolution. Even so, we like the tilt-sensitive moves we've pulled off to juke and spin much more than the clumsy dodge rolls we tilted our way to in Genji. The tilt controls have been our primary focus so far, since no other game in hand makes such extensive use of the Sixaxis function, but we like the way NBA plays and looks, too, and since we don't have to split time between it and NBA Live this year after all, we'll have full coverage soon.
Ridge Racer:
It's hard to find anything new to say about Ridge Racer, which gets more beautiful every year, but otherwise doesn't change much from one release to the next. While we've begun to play with the new slipstream controls and love the differentiation between cars based on drift-ability, not just horsepower, we've only started to get the drift controls under command -- the more drift-prone vehicles in the game tend to spend the entire race fishtailing when under our control so far, and we'll get more practice in soon. But as a showcase title, the only other game we've seen that comes close is Genji -- Ridge Racer is absolutely gorgeous.
Going Backwards

Of course, after the botched attempt at backwards compatibility by Microsoft, one of the first things we did was throw in a few PS2 games (and even Castlevania: Symphony of the Night from the PSONE) to make sure everything worked smoothly. To use either a PS2 or PSONE game, we had to create an 'internal memory card' using the memory card utility under the Games option, then assign it either to slot 1 or 2.



Having done that, most of the games we tried loaded quickly, looking and playing much as you'd expect. There is a problem with screen aspect ratio, though -- the PSOne games and many older PS2 games are fullscreen support only, and the PS3 stretches the picture on widescreen displays, instead of offering an option to place black sidebars.
There are a couple of other tweaks needed when using older games -- until we get a memory card adaptor, there's no easy way to transfer your old saved games. And games like Guitar Hero that use specific peripherals will be out of bounds until a PS2 to USB adaptor is on hand. (Third-party adaptors are available, designed to make PS2 accessories usable on a PC. We'll see if those work soon.) We also noticed that our controller was becoming disconnected when starting PS2 and PSOne games, but pressing the center PS button got it back online once we were in the main menu.
The Movie Experience

One of Sony's big talking points on the PS3 has obviously been the Blu-Ray DVD player, and we checked out a few films to see how things looked. First off, we were concerned that full Blu-Ray functionality wouldn't be available without the HDMI cable connected -- that's why we've used component cables so far. But the copy of Mission: impossible III we picked up looked fantastic, and noticeably more crisp and detailed than the regular DVD. Sony included copies of Kung-Fu Hustle and Talladega Nights with the machine, and those played fine and looked excellent as well.
Online...soon.

The sad thing about being directed to the Playstation Network in the first moments of PS3 ownership is that the network isn't yet available. We can't get any farther than the license agreement page. That means no online features in games or the OS are available to test; we can't evaluate matchmaking or the online store. All those features will have to wait another week, for the offical North American retail date of November 17.



Media Manager

The first thing we tried was popping in some music CDs. They rip quickly, and with full track data downloaded from the GraceNote CD Database.
We found that, unlike the PSP, we could leave a song playing and browse the XMB by hitting the center PS button. And we were pleased to see that when plugging in several media devices at once via USB -- an iPod, Cowon iAudio X5, and the PSP -- all came up immediately, and the iPod and PSP were recognized as such. Not all media folders on the iPod and Cowon were properly browsable at first glance, but by highlighting the devide under the Music, Photo, or Video tab, then hitting triangle to access the 'Display All' prompt, we could browse and play all the media on each device. Files copied quickly from devices to the PS3 drive, as well.



To check card compatibility, we popped in another memory stick with photos and music, as well as the SD card from our digital camera, and those were handled fine, too. Even the JPGs sized for wallpaper display on the PSP looked decent blown up to our 42-inch display. Video clips stored on the PSP played fine, as well.
The Remote Browse feature that wirelessly links the PSP and PS3 won't be available for a while yet, since it requires the PSP firmware version 3.0, which has yet to be released. But otherwise the PS3 seems quite adept at recognizing media, devices and card formats.