PS3, the abbreviated version of PlayStation 3, is one of the latest developments made by Sony Computer Entertainment in the field of home video gaming consoles. Sony now promises free PS3 games, which then completes the 7th generation of video game consoles.
One of the major features that distinguish the PS3 from its predecessors is that it has a unified gaming service or the PlayStation Network which contradicts Sony’s former policy of depending on video game developers for online gaming. Moreover, PS3 comes with robust multimedia capabilities, a high definition optical disc format – the Blu-ray disc, and connectivity with the PlayStation Portable. This really beats the Xbox and even the Xbox Kinect with any of the games for Kinect.
In fact, the players at Sony expect to dish out an online service which rivals the launching of Microsoft’s console in North America and Japan. The online network of the PS3 seeks to target live service soon. The PS3 is geared to be a design from the ground up as an online device, unlike its predecessor the PS2, which suffered a number of problems. The PS3 seeks to update your operating system so that with the addition of features or differences from the offline box, you can incorporate these in the dashboard of the console.
The fully upgradeable system of the PS3 is able to download patches over the network and apply them to its system. However, this is no groundbreaking technology for Sony which had done the same thing for the PlayStation Portable. Ever since the Portable has been launched, Sony has kept adding ample online features with the help of network updates, such as a fully operational web browser with RSS and Flash support.
The PS3 has a hard drive which is available even in a low specific configuration. Unlike the PS2 that depended on small and expensive memory cards which could easily be moved from one machine to another or be entirely lost, this console can store its configuration. At the same time, it can maintain the capacity of storing and downloading ample content. This was not possible with the PS2 which thus became crippled from an online perspective.
The System Software of PS3 is equipped with an active internet connection so that the updates are directly downloaded from the PlayStation Network to the PS3 for installation. With an active internet connection, players can check automatically for software updates every time the console is started.
With the help of an external PC, the user is able to download the update from the official website, have it transferred to portable storage media and install it in the system. Some of the game discs are available with software updates due to the requirement of a game update for running. In this case, the game can be installed from the disc.
The PS3 uses a graphical user interface with 9 diverse options such as settings, users, video, game, music, photo, network, PlayStation Network and friends. This is somewhat identical to the PlayStation media bar.
With the above features, online gaming buffs will definitely find the PS3 from Sony a console to try out.
