There it was, finally within my the reach of my meager spending power, a Piano Black PS3 40GB. It just launched in a day of my landing in Hong Kong and there were some sweet offers to be had.

"Wait a minute", i here the denizens of D-toid say, "you can't even possibly considering to buy this version of the PS3 over its better equipped 60GB and 80GB cousins could you?"

Well if the 60GB versions are no where to be found and the 80GB variant costing twice as much, it makes me a sad panda. Besides i still have my PS2 and PSOne lying around, ready to be brought out if need be.

So after resolving all of the above in my head, i headed out to the store to make my purchase. Little did i know that it was the day Assassin's Creed for the Xbox 360 was out. It gets tragic from here...

In a place like Hong Kong, bargaining is always advised as the storekeepers like to pull one over unsuspecting customers, tourists or otherwise. But today nothing short of offering my left nut would've got them to agree to my price. With Assassin's Creed selling by the boatloads they were cocky enough not to bother with a single customer looking to purchase a 40GB PS3 and a few games.

There was a serpentine line of folks of all ages looking to purchase Assassin's Creed on the day. It was like being at a PS2 camp out a few hours before stores would open. Considering that Sony is pumping a lot of money into Hong Kong i was surprised to see so many people lining up for an Xbox 360 game. And that too most of them picking up multiple copies (for Ebay i guess).

In spite of my best efforts at jedi mind tricks, force levitation and other bargaining tactics, i was getting a price that was slightly more expensive that what i would've paid from a place like Toys R Us. Plus i was getting an HDMI cable who's quality can be only described as craptacular and i had to purchase 2 games with the console at the time at which, they only had one game worth buying (Rachet & Clank). Stupid bundles.

After what seemed like ages, i made my way to Toys R Us and finally got my PS3, Rachet & Clank and an official Sony HDMI cable for a steal of a price ($50 cheaper than my Wii and half of what i would have paid if i got it from where i live, Bombay).

And three weeks into owning a PS3 hooked up to a 32" LCD TV, having played the Uncharted demo apart from extended sessions of Rachet & Clank and Folklore it still feels like...