Playstation 3 discussion thread

[Chris D]

Dougie, that's kinda cool. I have a couple Sixaxis, so I have no need for a dualshock unless I wanted to replace one of them for a pure upgrade. Haven't had many problems with the Sixaxis.

Ken, there's a whole stack of MGS4 editions sitting in the Anchorage Best Buy. Probably too late, but I can grab one for anyone.

[Hdale85]

Well the Sixaxis's are supposed to have issues staying connected and stuff I hear. Also sixaxis doesn't have rumble I guess to some thats not important. I only have one controller currently so I'll probably grab a Dualshock 3.

[Ken49r]

Thanks Chris. I'm happy with my setup so probably best I didn't know sooner.

[impala454]

Dougie, that's pretty cool, are you going to install the laser yourself? Would be interesting to see a few pics of that process.

[Hdale85]

Yeah I'll be installing the laser my self along with swapping the drive with a 160gb drive I have. I've been repairing consoles lately and then reselling them I have about 3 broken Xbox 360's right now waiting on a few lasers to come sometime next week. The PS3 won't be here until end of the week probably.

[Chris D]

For all, the new software is back out now. Sony says that they've fixed the problems that some people were having with the upgrade, so it's now version 2.41. Looks pretty sweet. In the middle of a game, or even a video, I can press the PS button and bring up the XMB.

[Hdale85]

Well I get my PS3 tomorrow and should have the new laser sometime middle to end of the week After that if anyone wants to play GT5 Prologue let me know

[Hdale85]

Didn't someone make an HTG folding team? If not we should

[Chris D]

Yeah, that'd be cool. I leave my PS3 on all the time, so it auto-starts the Folding program. I'm up to 620 or so folding units.

[Hdale85]

Well I guess I'll make one then and post up the number for it here.

[Hdale85]

Ok the HTguide folding team is 137901. So anyone wanting to join the HTguide folding team just put that in the team box. You can use this on the PS3 or on a PC that you running folding on.

http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=137901

The PS3 sure is faster then my mini.... Going to take 12 hours to do a set on my mini takes like 4-5 hours on the PS3.

[Chris D]

Cool, dude. I'll see if I can figure out how to join. You should probably post a dedicated thread about it, so that everybody can learn about the Folding @ Home program, (lots may not know about it) and join, regardless of what platform they use it on.

[Hdale85]

Someone add me...lol I still have no friends Dougie085 on PSN. I'll have my new laser tomorrow so should be able to play games. Although currently all I have is GT5.

[Alloroc]

Someone add me...lol I still have no friends Dougie085 on PSN. I'll have my new laser tomorrow so should be able to play games. Although currently all I have is GT5.

Dougie, was away! I'll add you the weekend when I get the chance to turn the thing on. I'ver heard some great reviews about Ferrari Challenge, by the way. I'll try the demo first.

[Hdale85]

I just got the new laser installed and all is working well Reilly is watching happy feet on BD on it right now

[PewterTA]

No more PS2 on PS3. Looks like they are dropping backwards compatibility... I think that's a big shocker for a lot of people that were considering getting one and still being able to play their older PS2 games...

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/24978

[Hdale85]

I don't have a problem with it. I have a hard time playing old games on new consoles. Especially when it went from SD to HD and what not.

[dyazdani]

I think that is a bad move, but it doesn't matter to me, mine already plays PS2 games. It is nice to play some of the better PS2 games not available on the PS3 - e.g. God of War I/II. It's also nice to be able to buy some decent games for less than $60.

[PewterTA]

Yeah I think it could end up hurting Sony in the long run...but I'd really like to know is why take it out and what for...

[Hdale85]

Probably adds some kind of larger expense and they are trying to make room to drop the price or something.

[dyazdani]

Production costs are higher with BC functionality... they are banking that the marginal cost reduction will outweigh lost revenue due to the elimination.

[M.Roberts8]

Yeah backwards compatibility was high on my list at first but the truth is with the exception of God of War II I have yet to play a ps2 title on my ps3. I figure why bother at this point.
I remember the same thing when the ps2 came out it was a big deal at first then a couple months later, meh who cares.
Fact is I still got a ps2 so I can still use it if needed, I don't need it having a OG 60gb ps3.

[Allegiance]

The only PS2 games I use on my PS3 are GTA III and Vice City 8)

[Allegiance]

Someone add me...lol I still have no friends Dougie085 on PSN. I'll have my new laser tomorrow so should be able to play games. Although currently all I have is GT5.

I have added you :P What is this laser you are getting installed?

[Hdale85]

Ah I got a PS3 off ebay with disc read errors which 90% of the time means new laser assembly in the BD drive. Replaced it and works perfect

[Hdale85]

I picked up Grid today also found a used DS3 controller which shocked me So saved about 20 bucks on that. So if anyone else has Grid (awesome game) let me know we can play sometime.

[Allegiance]

I have Grid but on PC Its a good game! I am waiting until I get ADSL2+ next tuesday before I do much online gaming anyway! :B

[audioqueso]

It's still retarded that they cut on BC. They advertised the PS3 being able to do this, that, AND still play legacy Playstation games. Now they're going back on their word because it's costing too much. It's not like they aren't making profit. I've seen their real numbers. I still play a LOT of my PS1 and PS2 games cause I play multiplayer games when friends come over.

For me the biggest factor why I haven't bought a PS3 is no region crack on PS2 and PS1 games. I have just as many US games as I do Japanese games. I didn't like have two Playstation 2's. And I don't want to own two Playstation 3's.

[Allegiance]

It's still retarded that they cut on BC. They advertised the PS3 being able to do this, that, AND still play legacy Playstation games. Now they're going back on their word because it's costing too much. It's not like they aren't making profit. I've seen their real numbers. I still play a LOT of my PS1 and PS2 games cause I play multiplayer games when friends come over.

For me the biggest factor why I haven't bought a PS3 is no region crack on PS2 and PS1 games. I have just as many US games as I do Japanese games. I didn't like have two Playstation 2's. And I don't want to own two Playstation 3's.

Its a sacrifice really, I am sure most people would rather the lower price than the backward compatibility. It is currently $699AUD in australia, now I bought one of the original 60GB units for $999AUD. The backward compatibility isn't worth $300AUD to me...

[audioqueso]

For me it is cause I don't want to have 3 consoles all around. But more than anything, Sony should not have flaunted how the PS3 can do this and that and is backwards compatiable if they couldn't afford it.

[Allegiance]

For me it is cause I don't want to have 3 consoles all around. But more than anything, Sony should not have flaunted how the PS3 can do this and that and is backwards compatiable if they couldn't afford it.

I don't think its about Sony not being able to afford it, its one of the ways they were able to make the console cheaper. Hence better for the consumer, remember they still lose money on every unit.

[Pez]

I may not use the BC much but I think its a big selling point. Since the PS3 is lacking in games the BC gave it a huge selection right from the start. I am just glad mine has the feature.

[Hdale85]

There are a lot of big titles coming out soon though. There are already quite a few like Bad Company and Grid and I think there are a few others. But Sony finally has some huge titles coming to the PS3 so I don't think its going to be a huge deal.

[Ovation]

BC matters not to me (the only video game I've played in the last 5 years was on a PS3 about 10 days ago), so a lower price trumps that feature for me (especially as I plan to use it primarily as a BD player, if I get one, a music server and then, occasionally, a few games). I do understand the frustration though, since the one feature some models had that I DO want, but probably won't get, is SACD playback. But with the lower price, I can get an Oppo (still room on my rack).

[impala454]

I don't really understand how the technical aspect of making the thing play PS2 games is so expensive. How does it drive the price of a PS3 up more than the cost of a brand new standalone PS2!??

[M.Roberts8]

I don't really understand how the technical aspect of making the thing play PS2 games is so expensive. How does it drive the price of a PS3 up more than the cost of a brand new standalone PS2!??

In the first ps3's (60gb) the consoles actually have the ps2 "emotion engine" chipsets on the motherboard. The increase in cost wasn't limited to the cost of the chipsets but the entire motherboard was more costly as well. They later opted to drop this because of cost and go the software emulation route (80gb) also the price dropped. That has been hit or miss from what I understand (emulation working).
What I find strange is how put out people get about it not being 100% backwards compatible and now not being BC at all. When MS dropped the xbox altogether and the 360 isn't 100% BC either but there isn't many complaining about it.
The simple fact is the ps3 does so much who cares about the BC. Just between the games and built-in blu-ray playback. Besides ps2 games don't look that good on a HDTV. God of War II wasn't too bad and is still the only one I have played on my ps3.

[impala454]

ah so the BC on a PS3 is software emulation? that's cool, was just curious, makes more sense that way anyhow.

[audioqueso]

No, the BC on the 80GB was software emulation. The 60GB was hardware emulation.
The 60GB has been discontinued for some while now. Then it was just the 40GB and 80GB version left. So the only version (80GB) that had BC was using software emulation.
How is not including a SOFTWARE PROGRAM on the PS3 helping in lowering the cost to manufacture a unit? The program's already written. It's not like it cost more to write the program into the unit. They will still lose money with or without it. But they're still profitting a LOT more with the sale of games.

[Hdale85]

Someone mentioned there have been problems with the software BC so maybe they are having to continually rewrite and update the code and what not and that costs money. Everything costs money someway or another. Honestly its already going to happen no sense in complaining about it. Probably something like 90% of the people that own a PS3 could care less.

[impala454]

makes sense. as someone who's worked in software development for several years, i can speak that maintinence is often very expensive, often times even moreso than the initial development.

[Hdale85]

Looks like another update. Seems pretty large as its taking me a couple minutes to download.

[Chris D]

Yeah, but the thing is, people can't really figure out if it does anything. Just supposed to be more stable.

http://www.psu.com/[UPDATE]-Mysterio...0004377-p0.php

[Hdale85]

Yeah probably just a stability thing. I did have my PS3 freeze up once when playing GT5. That was the only time and I've played many hours since and not had it happen again.

[dyazdani]

I've never had anything become unstable, always been like a tank.

I've been playing Call of Duty 4 now, pretty good game if you're into that type.

[Chris D]

I keep playing the "Civilization" demo over and over again. Looks like it would be a fun game--first time on a game console. But I've really had a hard time trying to justify paying $60 for the full game. Maybe if I wait a few months, it will come down.