Microsoft's mouthiest blogger Ozymandias clacks out his his PS3 hands-on impressions. No real shockers, and surprisingly, he's actually easier on the console than some mainstream reviewers. We've gone through, selected the meaty bits for y'all to sink your teeth into after the j-u-m-p:

Console itself is a heavy, hot-running beast. Not "melt the TV" hot, but not as cool as some folks might have you believe. The heat coming off the vents was similar to the heat you feel coming from tabletop projectors. The box is, however, very silent - definitely beats the 360 there...

Controller is better than expected. It's very light, which threw me off at first, but it's also quite rigid. Doesn't flex or squeak, and as it's based on the classic PS2 design, is comfortable to hold. The analog triggers feel very cheap, though, and the lack of rumble just sucks. The motion sensing capability still feels like a gimmick to me, and the lack of rumble is very noticeable in games like Resistance...

Sony just needs to get over this Immersion lawsuit and pay up — they've definitely taken a step backwards here in my opinion... The dashboard is elegant, and I like the XMB interface. There are times when you can get lost for a minute, but in general it's quite clean and easy to get around. I do wish that a few more of the functions were more intuitive — it took me a moment to figure out that Triangle was often a hidden command I could use to pull up options. I suppose that's not that different than learning how the 360 Guide works, though...

Resistance was easily the best launch title — good story, fun shooter, and looked decent. It's not a Gears of War, but to be fair, it's a launch title... Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Call of Duty 3 were competent, but seemed pretty much identical to the 360 versions (with COD 3 having some framerate issues, but nothing unplayable). Genji surprised me as being a really good looking title — frankly, it's one of the best-looking (if not playing) launch titles I've ever seen. This title alone gives me hope that future PS3 games will have potential...

As expected, Sony's online network really isn't there yet. You can sign up and get a screenname, and associate that with an email address and password — that all works... Basic messaging is enabled, but no one I know was ever online or using it, and there's no way to communicate across games. Games have separate friends lists, and those lists aren't integrated into your PS3 friends list... One positive aspect that I liked, however, is that you can sign-in via your email address/password on any PS3 without having to move your account to a memory unit. This roaming is very cool, and feels more flexible than the 360's current model...

The Playstation Store is pretty empty at the moment. Some game demos, arcade games, and trailers are available, but you run out of things to explore pretty quickly. Not a criticism here, though — 360 had the same problem at launch, and I'm sure more content will start flowing. It was disappointing that I couldn't download any music however... It's easy enough to navigate, though using the controller as a mouse seemed a bit odd. I think I like the 360's Marketplace UI better for navigating with a controller — mostly because it feels like you can "snap" to locations more deterministically.

He does have some valid points, stuffed inside the standard rhetoric, but valid points nonetheless. Agree? Disagree? Don't give a crap anymore? Brian Ashcraft

Lippy Blogger Reviews PS3 [Ozymandias]