buying a gaming system

Is there any type of online game for Playstation 3 that's maybe similar to Grand Theft Auto but has more subtlety to it.

Like, GTA4 is great, but you can't plan anything ahead of time and you lose all of your weapons every time you get killed.
Or if you park a car somewhere to block a guy's exit, by the time you drive around the block, it's disappeared.

I'd like to be able to move cars around and set up traps, go into buildings, climb up on stuff and do more stalking with the sniper rifle than just slamming cars into each other and shooting everybody as soon as they appear on the screen.

Another question:

I have to keep unplugging my computer and plugging in the Playstation to play online.
What the heck do you use so you can leave both of them plugged in without affecting the speed or performance?

You have to buy a router. You go from the modem to the router, then the router splits it (usually up to 4 or 6 ways.) It won't slow it down unless your downloading on your computer.

Now I guess the question is whether I'm going to have a hassle cause I'm using a Mac.
I vaguely remember buying something called a D-Link off eBay a few years ago but never got it working cause it only came with Windows software for setting it up.

Hopefully all I'll have to do now is just plug my cable line into the router..plug the PS3 and my Mac into two of the inputs and have it work straight away.
ie, no screwing around with passwords or visiting web sites that require authorization..no specialized software or 20 page manuals to read through.

Well, I've got a simple NetGear router which cost me about £40... and it's more or less plug it in and watch it go.... with default settings anyway.

Any config you did want to do would be via a webpage running on the router itself... very simple and platform independant so your Mac won't make any difference. Once set up, the devices have a direct connection just as they did before...

Seriously it should work out of the box with a cable to your modem in the right connection point, and a couple of cables for your MAc and PS3... unless your ISP does MAC address filtering...

Ok, groovy.
Thanks guys..i appreciate the help.
Time to visit FutureShop again.