Top 10 PS3 complaints
Top 10 Playstation 3 complaints
Sony's been doing the whole games thing for over ten years now, and it's been working on the PS3 for well over three of those. It's had a full year on Microsoft to study what has and hasn't worked with the Xbox 360, yet it's surprising how few lessons have been learned. Sure, nobody's perfect, and Sony will no doubt get its act together over time, but what folks brought home after dropping $500 or $600 is prompting a surprising number of complaints. Some of it is simply not delivering on the (very ambitious) promise, but some of it is just plain annoying. Here's what gamers have been bitching about...
Sixaxis Syncing
Maybe it's naive to think that a wireless controller would let us dispense with the wires, but it's what we've come to expect and not what we got. Where other system owners tap a button, PS3 owners and friends have to go through a jack-in, jack-out ritual whenever coming by with their controllers. A marginal pain in the ass, but there's really no reason to have to screw with it at all.
No Multitasking
The sucker has eight freaking processors and is apparently capable of flinging eggs around with its mind, but it can't do more than one thing at a time. What's up with that? We have to quit out of a game to access the Cross Media Bar? Downloading something means your entertainment options are confined to the load-bar watching minigame. The 360 got this wrong at first too, and it was fixed with a firmware update. Hopefully we'll see the same happen on PS3, and quickly.
Not Quite HD Ready
The PS3 comes only with your standard composite video cables, period. No component, no S-video, no HDMI. With all Sony's insistence that the next generation begins when it says so and that you're going to have a Blu-ray player whether you want one or not, you'd think they would have given us what we'd need to appreciate the difference. With all that the Blu-ray drive added to the manufacturing cost, the cables we'd need to make it anywhere near worth the price would have seemingly been a drop in the bucket. Even a single branching connection cable like the Xbox 360's would have been swell.
PS1/PS2 Save Transfer
Want to use those hundreds of hours of PS1 and PS2 saved games you have piled up when playing your old games on your curvy new space heater? Strangely, you can't. Well, not yet anyway. Sony's FAQ says, "To use saved data on a PlayStation 2 Memory Card, you must copy the data onto a internal memory card within the hard disk on the PlayStation 3. This requires a PS2/PSone Memory Card adaptor (sold separately) to copy the data to your PlayStation 3." The adaptor is currently listed on PlayStation.com, but there's no indication of when it will be available. EB Games has the adaptor listed for $14.99, but again, there's no indication of availability.
PS1 Downloads Only Play on PSP
Hey, it's almost like the answer to the Virtual Console. Except you can't, you know, play those PS1 games on the console you downloaded them to. An emulator will be available to play the downloads on PS3 early next year - but again, we have to wait.
Controller Screwups
At the moment the Sixaxis is apparently vulnerable to random demonic possession. It probably has something to do with all that psychic egg flinging. From time to time it just wigs out and drives your car into a wall, or makes your soldier wander round in circles. Depending on whether it's a software or hardware problem this could be a quick fix or a full on recall situation. Either way, it's becoming the topic of some discussion. If it's simply a wireless sync problem, shouldn't the fact that you pair the controller using a USB cable solve that?
No System Level Custom Soundtracks
Kind of a symptom of the whole no multitasking thing, you can't run your own music while you play. At least, you can only do it in games that specifically allow for it. If you're wondering how many of those there are, the answer is not freaking very. Maybe not so important for everyone, but some of us like to listen to Enya while headshotting our friends.
Setting Up a Wi-Fi Connection
One of the reasons for dropping the extra $100 for 60GB PS3 is the inclusion of Wi-Fi support. Sadly, it's not as easy to set up as you might hope. Try punching in a 26-digit WEP code with that telephone interface. Now try it when every time you enter a character an asterisk replaces it so you can't keep track of what you've done. If it's busted, count on informative error messages like "A connection error has occurred (8013013E)" and a manual with helpful hints like "Follow the onscreen instructions." It's only topped by the aid offered on PlayStation.com: "We're working hard to improve our Support section. Check back soon to see our full selection of support topics and resources." Thanks!
Being Online
Your reward for all that dicking around is a virtual desert. The free for all, do it yourself nature of this thing isn't getting much developer support, and we're not too crazy about it, either. No unified buddy lists? No mid-game messaging? Hell, no pretty much anything we've been taking for granted after more than a year of Xbox Live. Even a little thing like collecting gamer points has practically become some kind of bizarre meta-MMO in its own right. At this point you can probably pay Koreans to farm NBA Live for you. It's a lot to say goodbye to all at once.
Streaming video to the PSP
Sure, it's not the most essential feature in the world - but this is a case of the device not completely delivering on one of its many, many promises. In short, the results look terrible. The sound is out of sync and the visuals are choppier than a coked up samurai. If there's a television usage conflict or you feel absolutely compelled to watch video clips while on the pot it'd be nice if they didn't look worse than what you're squeezing out.
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