it's not just the manual ship. it's everything sony related. the manual is just an example of how critical you guys are of sony's playstation platforms. yeah, there are certain things about the playstation that I don't like, but I guarantee that if there was an xbox game that shipped with no manual in it, you guys would probably mention it, but it WON'T get snide remarks. manuals are overrated and nobody looks at them (nobody meaning the majority of people don't give the manual a thought). it's not like it was back in the day when you paid for a game and actually read the manual. Nowadays, just about every game has an in game tutorial that shows you how to play, so nobody even takes out the manual. the way the gaming landscape is going, i think manuals are going to be a thing of the past because of in game tutorials. if you want a manual, that's fine, to each his own ya know, but my point is that this is a small example of how sony is sort of the joke console for you guys and it gets ragged on more than any other product you guys talk about.
and you guys mention the slow download times (i agree), but gigs is gigs and it takes just as long on the xbox as it does on the ps3 in my experience. the difference comes with the updates. the actual initial game download takes a while, but when it comes time to update, the 360 does seem to update faster than a ps3 does. but you say you have playstation plus (which i think is excellent btw), then why don't you and cheapy just set it to update automatically? i never wait for an update of a game because it's already done when i get ready to play. playstation plus has been an absolute joy and they should have released this service earlier. i imagine it's because you guys don't hardly play your ps3's, which is fine. but don't complain when you turn it on after you haven't used it in months (years maybe?) and have to download a firmware update or something. they don't come around as often as you think and since i've had playstation plus, i haven't had to worry about it.