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Now that, for the first time in about a decade, I am no longer getting loads of reviewable games for free, I’ve found I’ve become a much more frugal and reluctant game purchaser. Simply because a game has a fascinating murder scene in a series of walk in tubs is no longer enough to pique my interest.

Overall excellence is what does it for me now, and even that, sparingly.

Of course, it’s not that I intended to fall out of touch with how spendy a habit videogames can be; it just happened because I was, by and large, not paying for many games. Even among those I received, I would often use many of them as trade-in credit towards games I really wanted.

I suppose it’s a good thing to get back in touch with how seldom most people can afford to invest in a new videogame. Still, I do miss my frequent freebies!

Sony’s PlayStation3 is an advanced piece of hardware, no doubt about it, but sometimes they are too brainy for their own good. Take the HD/1080p thing as an example.

We recently bought a Sony Bravia 1080p HDTV to complement our PS3, as well as everything else we own on our entertainment stand. That includes an Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 was easy to move to 1080p resolution; you just click it in a video preferences box and, if the source goes that high, so does the picture. Simple, right? Don’t even need an HDMI cable for it.

The PS3 wasn’t so easy. We bought an HDMI cable for it, but for some reason our 1080p games like Prince of Persia were displaying in 720p only. It’s like expecting to go to Valley Fair and all you get is a trip to a neighbor’s back yard swing sets.

So I read the Prince of Persia box. The text clarified the matter… kinda. “Full 1080p display,” the box read, “is possible only when your PS3 is connected with an HDMI cable to a display with HDCP.”

What?

Turns out HDCP is some copy-protection scheme for high-def. OK, whatever, but the Bravia should fit that bill, right? Certainly! It’s made by the PS3 makers, after all… Sony!

So I called Sony’s Bravia customer service. They blamed the PS3. I contacted Sony’s PS3 customer service. They tried to blame the Bravia and the HDMI cables. Finally they admitted they weren’t sure why it wasn’t working.

After many hours of email exchanges, a Sony rep’s misunderstanding of my problem gave me the clue to solving it. “Don’t turn off 720p,” he advised, and then went on to some useless blather.

Turn off 720p? I scoured my Cross Media Bar and found the display control for my HDMI cable. Sure enough, if I chose “Custom,” I was able to turn off 720p. I popped in Prince of Persia. Voila! 1080p Prince of Persia began to display flawlessly!

So, now, that’s my adventure in PS3’s maze of “high tech high def” adventures. Now I know that to get 1080p to display… using all Sony equipment, no less… all I need to do is turn off 720p as an option and all those games that are 1080p via HDMI with an HDCP monitor will indeed display in true 1080p glory on my Bravia.

Nice to know.

Of course, if I want to pop in a PS3 game that doesn’t support 1080p, I have to go back in and re-check 720p, or the game will only display 480p.

Yeesh. Ever heard of plug-n-play as a concept, Sony?

Clearly not.