I just got a 46" LCD TV and the desire to play video games has returned. I’ve only owned the original Playstation and PS2, and after a bit of investigating, I’ve settled on looking for a PS3. And they’re expensive.
Until I found this deal:
I have excellent credit, and truth be told, I would probably never use the Sony card again (unless they offer cash back deals like my Amazon Visa card does). Presently I have one Visa and one MasterCard, and that’s it.
I’d be especially interested in gamer and financially savvy Dopers think about this. Is opening a new Visa account worth it for $100? What would be the impact on my credit rating? Is there another place I should look for a good deal, or should I suck it up and just pay full retail for a PS3? (Not interested in eBay deals.)
PS For those interested in the deal mentioned it’s here.
Yeah, that’s a pretty good deal. The only downside would be if you are already a PS2 owner and are looking for a machine that can play all your existing PS2 titles, as the 40GB version doesn’t play PS2 titles currently (only PS1). In that case, you’ll want to hold out for the 60 or 80 GB versions, which have higher degrees of backwards compatibility (60 plays everything, 80 almost everything).
But the PS3 does such an incredible amount of cool things and its been getting such awesome games in the last few months especially, that you’ll probably be very happy with this machine. I know I am, I bought one at launch and currently can’t find the time to play all the good stuff. If you have kids, you’ll also be off very cheap - a colleague of mine has discovered that the downloadable demos are more than sufficient to keep his kids busy, so he hasn’t bought them any games just yet.
In terms of BluRay playback, the latest firmware has just upgraded it to Profile 1.1, which shows two things: it’s still one of the best BluRay players out there (great start-up times, too), and it has the best upgrade options of all of them. There’s also no reason to doubt that it will be able to be upgraded to the 2.0 profile in the near future.
It also supports the RGB Full Color spectrum option that makes some of these new LCD tvs shine even more (ours included, I was pretty amazed to see how much better the color contrast became), as well as 24hz playback, 1.3 HDMI etc. etc. etc. And its DVD upscaling is amazing too.
If you have any other questions here let me know, I (that is, my husband ) am a bit of an expert on this subject.
thanks, Maastricht. I’m convinced on the hardware - and as you note, I would opt for the 80GB version for $100 more. I guess I’m more curious about what impact, if any, opening a new Visa account would have on my credit rating. Granted, I’ve made all of the big purchases this year - mortgage, car and I’m paying back my student loans, but I’m trying to gauge if there will be a hit on my credit rating or not.
Thanks for the the great info, especially about the profile updates… didn’t know about that!
be forewarned when buying a ps3. the 40g ps3 doesnt play ps2 games but plays ps1 games. the 80g however does play most ps2 games aswell as ps1 games. i was kinda disapointed when i learned that the 40gig doesnt play ps2 games:( but if you dont mind switching consoles if you want to play a ps2 game then go for the 40 gig. im personally waiting for another price drop and for more games to come out like GTA4 and MGS4.
It doesn’t. One of the ways that Sony cut costs with the new model was to drop the PS2 emulator chip. They also included a smaller hard drive, but the two are unrelated.
What Pochacco said. Essentially, the best PS3 out there is the discontinued 60GB model with actually has the “Emotion Engine” chip in it for 100% backward compatibility. The 80GB uses a chip and software for emulation and thus doesn’t give complete backward compatibility.
I always go through this when I buy a new console. Seeing as I played my PS2 up until last summer when I had to do some serious dissertation writing, I got about 5 years of good playing out of it… so if the past is any indication (and I have so much less free time now with a job and a kid) I think I’m going to get the PS3 on Amazon and avoid any credit dealings. Over time, it’s $20/year for no headaches with the credit report.
The 40GB doesn’t have all downsides though eh? If you don’t mind the PS2 games, then you do have the added benefit of more 65nm chips, meaning significantly less power consumption. which pays off on your electricity bill. Also, it’s even quieter because of it.
As far as the credit card goes, what I’ve done for another purchase (TV) is just simply not activate the card once you get it.
I’m very confused. Between this thread and the one on the “NFL in LA”, that’s two sports/game-related threads that have been moved to IMHO instead of (what I thought was) the more appropriate Cafe Society.