After spending much of the night with the Wii, and Twilight Princess, we woke this morning to a special treat: a retail PS3! We moved the Wii from the projector screen -- a display option that the system just doesn't agree with (at least in our configuration) -- to the far more manageable 24" Dell flat panel (as seen here). That means the PS3 could stretch its legs on the projector with 720p or 1080i over HDMI.
The system, as we all know by now, is on the large side, is very shiny, and (your opinion may vary) a very attractive piece of machinery. After being hooked up and running for some time, it remains completely cool to the touch, with a large amount of hot air being quietly evacuated out of the back of the unit. It reminds us that Sony can engineer just about anything.
The system required several quick updates when we popped in Resistance. First, a patch from 1.0 to 1.02. After a couple quick levels, we were back out in the XMB interface trying to connect to various network services (none of which will be online until the 17th). The system informed us we needed a software upgrade, this time to the more recent 1.10. After a lengthy download (our connection may have been slow), the system issued us the obligatory firmware-upgrade warning: turn it off or do anything else stupid and you'll brick your box ... in so many words. So it was with great dismay that we greeted a blank, black screen. The same black screen we stared at for the next thirty minutes.
"Is it upgrading?"
"Shouldn't there be a progress bar?"
We stared and stared. And stared. Do we dare turn it off, hoping to break whatever infinite loop the system was stuck in at the risk of bricking our very shiny, and barely broken-in, PS3? After about twenty minutes, my hand gingerly trembled its way to the soft power button and the system refused to recognize my command.
"Don't turn me off, idiot! Didn't you read the message? You'll brick me!"
"Bbbbut, you're not doing anything!"
"How do you know? Are you a Sony engineer? Look, I won't let you turn me off, therefore, I must be working."
"Fine."
We waited for another ten minutes before our duty was clear. Our PS3 needed to be put down turned off. I walked around behind the unit, pausing at the power switch. Flick. Is it dead? Did we brick our brand new PS3? We flipped the switch back on, and activated the soft power switch on the front and were greeted with ...
...
...
...
... a firmware upgrade screen! We followed the instructions (again) and a progress bar informed us of the firmware upgrade's progress.
Phew! After a few short (this time!) minutes, the box was running wonderfully at version 1.10.
The contents of the retail box: p ower cable (just like a computer's ... maybe they were right!); a USB-to-USB mini cable for connecting and charging the Sixaxis; AV multi-out (PSone/PS2 owners should be familiar with this); a rather generous Ethernet cord (we do have the wireless model after all); and, lastly, the Sixaxis.
Anything you want us to check out?
