Today only Amazon.com are selling Playstation 3 Blu Wave Remote for $9.99, reduced from $19.99 with free shipping if you add another $15.01 to your order.

Not much to say here, it controls your PS3 playback, but as one reviewer warns, it does not allow you to turn on and off your system.

Spending more time with the PS3 I am beginning to form a very bittersweet relationship with it. I have already expressed my disappointment with the lack of rumble in the controller, however I have found one additional factor with the PS3 that I find absurd. That factor is the PS3’s complete backwards design of their online system. Now I understand that anyone who reads gaming blogs most likely has heard this complaint numerous times, however I just cannot understand why the executives at Sony are not pounding their fists over the way their online gaming is handled. Jim and I decided to take a stab at playing some online PS3 games. Our experience was nothing short of horrific. On two separate occasions, we tried three different games and when it was all said an done, we only played together on one lap of Motorstorm.

The first game we tried was Resistance: Fall of Man. Being a Xbox gold subscriber, I was disappointed in the fact that I was not allowed to chat with an individual on my fiends list while I was playing a game (single player), or even while I was browsing the XMB on my PS3. I had to be locked in a chat session, now what is the point of this? So Jim and I found a solution, we fired up Skype on our PC’s and communicated using Skype’s VOIP service. I had also read on another site that Resistance offered an online campaign co-op, however we discovered while we were online that playing cooperatively through the campaign was not possible. Since we were not in the mood for a deathmatch, we decided to play something else.

The next game we attempted was Motorstorm, only this time we decided to use our Bluetooth headsets to communicate in-game. After figuring out how to setup the game session, I told Jim that I would set up the room and told him to join my session. On the first attempt our voice chat never connected and when the game launched, I was the only one sitting on the starting grid. Ok, let’s give it another go… when Jim joined the room on the second attempt, our voice chat kicked right in. I launched the game and we both selected our vehicles, when the green flag dropped, we both took off. During the first lap, all was well, however as we entered our second lap of racing Jim got dropped form the game. After making another lap and realizing I was the only one there, I exited the game to find Jim waiting in the lobby. We made one additional failed attempt before deciding to try a different game, this time we tried Madden 08.

We both figured Madden would have to allow you to easily play a game with your friends, however once again we were proven wrong. Perhaps the issues were a result of the fact that neither of us have played many online games on the PSN, perhaps it is the fact that both of us are Xbox live gold subscribers and we are just used to having online gaming be easy. Regardless of the reason, this day in age, there is no reason that Sony could not make online gaming as easy as online gaming is on the Xbox.

Needless to say both of us were disappointed with our experiences online. I am very hopeful that Sony can evolve their online gaming component overtime. With the gaming industry becoming more of a ‘social’ means of entertainment the PlayStations online component is going to need a major overhaul if they expect to stay competitive.

I had another chance today to spend some time with my new PS3. Yesterday, after setting up all of the connections, I downloaded a few game demos and trailers and went to bed. I turned on the unit and immediately decided to download the ‘Folding @ Home” program, so I spend my first 15 minutes downloading and installing the software.

As I stated before, I have been a fan of PlayStation ever since the PSone so naturally I have a couple memory cards with saved games for my PS2 and PSone. Earlier that day I picked up a PS3 memory card adaptor. ($14.99 USD) The unit is simply a small box that connects to the PS3 via a USB cable and allows you to download content from a PSone or PS2 memory card, to the PS3’s hard drive. The process is simple as long as you follow the instructions.

Once you plug in the adaptor and plug in a memory card in the slot, the card and its contents will appear on the cross media bar. You must select the card and chose the option to copy. You will then be prompted for a name to save the data as. I simply named my ‘PS2 data’ and clicked ok. Once the data was copied to the hard drive, you must select the file on your hard drive and indicate which slot on the PSone/PS2 your memory card was in. Do this by selecting the folder on your hard drive that contains the files and follow the onscreen prompts to select which card slot. It’s as easy as that, the only problem is not I have a memory card adaptor that I don’t need anymore.

Now that I had completed all of the setup and have content on the hard drive to play with, I was ready to begin playing games. Instead of pulling a PS3 game off my shelf however, I decided to attack some of the downloaded content I had on the hard drive. I picked up my controller and was ready to play.

Being that I have played predominantly 360 games for the past five months, the first thing I noticed with the PS3 was the extreme lightness to the controller. While the controller felt familiar in my hands, I am having a difficult time getting used to the lightness of it. Also, I realize that by now individuals from all over the world have expressed there disappointment on the lack of rumble; however I have to join in. I am a believer that rumble adds to an individuals immersion into the play of the game. Sony needs to add this back into their controllers. If Sony got with the program and added rumble to the controller, it would likely add weight to the controller and I would be a happy camper.

The first thing I did was to fire up a couple of video trailers I had downloaded the night before. Immediately, even with a SD television, the potential of this graphical powerhouse was immediately apparent. The rendering of the video as well as the audio was incredible. After viewing the first video, I had to try a game, so I grabbed the first one on my stack, Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Once I got into the game, I was not disappointed. The graphics and visuals were everything I would expect from a next generation console.

Complaints? Well there are a few quirks that the PS3 has that I am not incredibly fond of. The first, as I stated previously, is the weight of the controller and the lack of rumble. I am confidant that Sony has realized the error of their decision to not include rumble, and they will release a new model this fall. And since the controller will have motors for the rumble, naturally the controller will be heavier. The other complaint I have is the opening screen on the games and demos I had played. Each one has a text screen at the beginning that requires you to accept their terms and conditions. Shouldn’t this be part of purchasing a game and/or downloading it? Personally I don’t want to see this when I want to play a game. Finally, I understand that the PlayStation Store and the PlayStation Network are a little behind when compared to Microsoft’s Xbox Live, however Sony needs to make this area of user interaction a focus in the future, if they want to stay competitive. One good example of an area Sony could improve is with their downloads. Why is it necessary to download a game or a demo and then once it is downloaded, install it to the system? The Installation process should be a part of the download.

Again, my gaming adventures took me late into the night, and the length of time I had to play was limited. I look forward to writing more about the games I have played in the near future. Stay tuned to www.liveforplaystation.com and www.whatweareplaying.com for more updates. I have great deal of confidence in Sony and their ability to become a major contender with their PS3. Sony has had a late start, yet their future is bright. Mark my words, if Sony plays their card right and listens to the feedback the public is providing, Sony will enjoy the same success with this powerhouse console as they did with the PS2.

The past week has been a glorious week in my gaming life. As a fan of the PS2 and a recent Xbox 360 owner, I have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to get my hands on the controversial PS3. This week I was presented with an opportunity to obtain a 20GB PS3, and I jumped at the opportunity. I received my PS3 in the mail on Tuesday and cleared a spot on my entertainment center that night.

I plugged in the unit and fired up the TV. Immediately I was greeted with the bright, symphonic opening music… and a blank screen. The PS3 I received was a used unit and was not packed at the factory, so immediately I became concerned that perhaps there was damage that occurred during shipping. I shut down everything and checked all of my connections, everything was fine. So once again, I fired it up, and again no picture. As I dug through the massive knot of cables behind my entertainment center, I began to curse the fact that I didn’t have a HDMI port on my TV. At that moment – it clicked! I have not purchased a HDTV yet and am currently using a Sanyo 36” standard definition TV. I assumed that the unit was previously used with a HDTV, so I figured that all I had to do was reset the unit to its default 480p settings. With a little research, I discovered that the display setting can be reset by turning off the unit then touching and holding down the touch sensitive switch on the front of the unit until you hear two audible beeps. (The first beep will happen immediately, the second beep will follow about six seconds later.) Once the second beep was heard I removed my finger from the switch and the display flashed to life.

As a PSP user, I was immediately on familiar ground. The navigation menus are setup just like the PSP, yet with more options and better graphics. Since my unit had settings still in place from the previous user, I decided to restore all the default settings and format the hard drive. Once everything was clear, I rebooted and instantly was taken to a series of questions asking for my language, time zone, etc…

Setting up the network connection was a snap and in no time at all I was creating my ID for the PlayStation Network. Once I was all up and running I began exploring more of the menus on the PS3, I decided to check if there were any system updates, and with no surprise, there was one. So I downloaded and installed the update. I also grabbed my PSP and decided to try to connect the two units using the Remote Play capability. Creating the connection between the two units was quick and easy. All it took was connection the two units via a USB cable and pushing a few buttons. In no time at all I was able to establish a connection to my PS3 using the PSP.

About 40 minutes after I pulled the PS3 out of the box, I had my system up and running. Since it was getting late I decided to select a few demos and trailers to download onto the PS3 and call it a night. While I had not even put a game disk into the drive yet, I am all set up and good to go. Overall, my initial experience with the PS3 was a good one. I look forward to spending more time with the unit, and will continue to post my impressions, so stay tuned for part II.

Today only Amazon.com are selling Sony Playstation 2 8MB Memory Card (Black) for the Playstation 2 for $14.99, reduced from $24.99 with free shipping if you add another $10.01 to your cart

Still kickin’ it old skool with the PS2? Games are cheap aye? I always find myself with more games than I have the storage space to hold ‘em, so grabbing one of these for a few $ might save me a little hassle