Down, Right, Fierce – Discovering the PS3, the Adventure So Far…

Down, Right, Fierce is a weekly column about the video games, television shows, movies, and books that geeks care about. But mostly it’s a soapbox for Chris Holzworth to stand on and bark out his unwarranted, unwanted, and unwelcome opinions.

Like a lot of gamers, I decided it was time to buy a PS3 when Sony (officially) announced the PS3 Slim and the $100 price-drop during Gamecom. But, like a lot of writers, I’m pretty poor. Honestly, I only make enough money to pay my rent, cell phone bill, and GameFly account, so I decided to take on some side-work in order to earn the cash for a PS3 Slim. Fortunately for me, my father’s house, purchased three years ago, was still in disarray so I volunteered to do some manual labor for him. Specifically, I agreed to tear down the metal siding on his house. It was my naïve assumption that this task would take no longer than a week to complete. Unfortunately, thanks to New Jersey’s persistent rain this season, it took me a few weeks before I finally finished.

What I learned from this experience is that it’s easier to just go out, apply for a job, and earn a paycheck. This is the wisdom I impart to anyone reading this column.

Two weeks ago, on Friday morning, I woke, went for a run, showered, dressed, picked up my 5-year-old sister Elizabeth – who shares my love for video games – and headed to the local GameStop. Once there, she and I went straight to the PS3 wall and began to sift through the games, judging them, mostly, by cover art. My sister quickly became my consultant, offering suggestions on what games I should buy. As appealing as Bolt and Spongebob were, I wound up disregarding her suggestions completely and walked out of GameStop with Resistance: Fall of Man, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, and Folklore along with my shiny new PS3 Slim.

The best part about adopting a new video game console is the games. Everything that came out the same year as the console tends to be pretty cheap, so I wound up paying the same amount of money I would for a brand new game – sixty dollars – for all three games I picked up.

Back home, I let Elizabeth decide which game I’d play first. Considering I had rejected all her suggestions back at GameStop I felt I owed it to her. Between Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, and Folklore she selected Ratchet & Clank. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, though, since the game looks so much like a Saturday Morning Cartoon. In fact, Ratchet’s adorableness may have been the key factor in her decision. However she came to choose Ratchet & Clank, I’m glad she did.

Kicking off my PS3 experience with Ratchet & Clank set the console apart from Xbox 360 in the best way possible. See, in the weeks leading up to the actual purchase, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what my first PS3 game would be. In the process, I discovered that there’s very little out there that truly separates Xbox 360 from PS3. The vast majority of their respective libraries are shared games. And while I think it’s great that people can just choose one console or the other and not really miss out on much, it makes buying both consoles more complicated.

Had I slid the Resistance disc in right off the bat, my first moments playing PS3 wouldn’t have felt like much of a departure from gaming on the 360. Within minutes of booting up Ratchet & Clank, however, I was reminded of how varied and delightfully diverse PS2 games were. Not that Microsoft hasn’t made terrific strides with Xbox 360 – I love the console to pieces, but while it isn’t nearly as shooter-heavy as some people make it out to be, it sometimes feels that way. Ratchet & Clank is vibrant in ways that not enough Xbox 360 games are, though. The game is just so goddamn colorful and so unashamed to embrace video gameness.

I had to flex a bit of will power, but I was able to pry myself away from Ratchet & Clank eventually, and I did go on to sample a taste of both Resistance and Folklore. I even played a little Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which is easily one of my favorite games ever. But for me, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is what sets Sony’s gaming rig apart from its Microsoft equivalent.

A few days ago I beat Tools of Destruction, and within moments of the credit screen fading to black I had logged onto the PlayStation Network and forked over 16 smackaroos for Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty. Like a bad drug habit, I needed another fix – and soon. Chances are I’ll drop the money for Crack in Time as soon as I finish Quest for Booty because the series is just that charming. But it’s that charm that reminds me how glad I am for picking up a PS3.