so i bit

i couldn't resist. i had to do it.

i'm now the proud (?) owner of a PS3.

or at least i've put down the money, now all they have to do is ship it to me. estimated ship date is the end of the month, which i don't mind really since i'm not buying it to play any games on yet - well, PS2 games, but no PS3 games until August/September.

the deciding factors:

- $100 price drop, or liquidation of the 60GB models

- once the 60GB models are sold out, the new 80GB models will not include the emotion chip which is hardware that lets you play PS2 and PS1 games on your PS3 with relative ease

- Microsoft is pissing me off - my 360 broke after just 6 months of casual use and now i'm going to be without it for what looks like 2 months or more

- i'm not buying a Wii as i originally thought i would - no games i want to play on it, the control scheme isn't for me, and i don't want to support Nintendo right now just based on principle (what i feel they're doing to the game industry)

i went with the specific Amazon deal i went with because:

- free Sony-brand Blu-Ray remote (a $25 value)

- free Blu-Ray movie, Resident Evil: Apocalypse ($20 value)

- mail-in for 5 free Blu-Ray movies, from a list of so-so titles. i'll be picking up Blazing Saddles, Underworld Evolution, Babel, Hart's War, and Pearl Harbor or Chicken Little (i can't decide which... i heard Pearl Harbor is just awful, but it might look nice in Blu-Ray, while Chicken Little would probably be funny)

- ordered from Amazon, so free shipping and no tax

grand total of $500.

i'm going to see if i can resell some of the Blu-Rays i get for free. it might be tough since the market will be saturated with them from others that do this deal and want to get rid of them, but maybe i have an advantage since i'm out here in Hawaii, maybe i can resell them locally, recoup a bit of the cost for the system itself.

what am i going to do with the PS3 when it gets here since there's no PS3 games i want to play on it out at the moment? well there are plenty of game demos on the PlayStation Network (similar to Xbox Live for the 360) and there are even a few downloadable games i want as well - Calling all Cars, flOw, Stardust, etc.

otherwise i'm going to be playing my PS2 games on there, and hopefully they'll look a little better than they do on my HDTV right now. i heard there's some upscaling that the PS3 does, but we'll see... i'm not holding my breath.

now it's a race to see which console i receive in the mail first - my refurbished/replacement Xbox 360, or my brand-new PS3.

my money's on the PS3. i have more faith in Amazon than i do Microsoft.

- kawitchate