Unlike Xbox Live, PlayStation Network - the online service for the PS2 and 3 - is free. A good job too as it simply doesn't compare to Xbox Live's slick offering. But that may change in the future, particularly when Home launches. The avatar-based community - Second Life on PlayStation if you're feeling lazy - looks mightily impressive, finally adding some soul to the patchy Network offering. Home has just gone into closed beta but the rest of us can get involved when the beta process proper launches in the summer.