Some further comment on the PS3...

Well so far I've figured out that the Playstation Network is a complete shambles, and cannot even remotely compare to the Xbox side of things.

And I'm not talking about the gaming even, just the system in general.

Firstly the often touted supposed "local support" seems to go no further than a built-in currency converter.

There isn't even a link to PSN on the local website, I had to search for it on Google and then login on the UK site.

The trophies system is a major cop out, and there's no listing of games that you actually own or have played, so anyone else who wants to research your profile will only see the games that you have received trophies for.

Clearly this is an Offline console, with online extensions, and it's no bloody wonder it's free.

I would gladly pay my Xbox Live membership for the SILVER benefits, which still amounts to a whole lot more than I've seen of PSN so far.

Really not very impressed, and the fact that it's free actually shows off exactly why it's rubbish.

Further comment when I've actually done some multiplayer, but I doubt it would make any difference, since the sense of "community" is completely absent on this platform.

***

And then while I was typing the above I left the console to update Little Big Planet, which I initially thought was quite clever, since it actually told me what size it was (which the Xbox doesn't) and it also appeared that it download it in four chunks, which I presume would mean I could resume my download from which chunk finished last.

A nice touch, until I just went to check up on it after posting the above, to find out that now it was on chunk 3/4 but the size had now gone up to 80Mb, which leads me to believe the first chunk was 26Mb, not the entire update.

So what the hell is that all about? I knew the firmware updates basically re-downloads the entire software every time, but is it necessary for games as well?

Xbox360 seems a whole lot more friendly for us bandwidth starved South Africans in comparison.