PS3 – Page 9 – Los Havros

Developers affirm undeniable potential of PS3

Developers affirm undeniable potential of PS3– damn right, the PS3 has a very bright future ahead in 2008. Let the good times commence.

Criterion defend their new baby

I thought I’d give my own take on this story as I have played Burnout right from the beginning and have some good memories from past games in the series. I’d just like to mention before I go any further, that I have 1) read Criterion’s response, and 2) played the demo in question.

The gist is that players have taken the Burnout Paradise demo for a spin (on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 I believe) and (more or less) universally condemned it. Kokatu’s rather nicely-worded article ‘Criterion Responds To Burnout Paradise Criticism‘ reveals a rather more accurate summery:

‘The Burnout Team have written a rather grumbly Christmas card to fans who have found one too many things to complain about in the demo version of Burnout Paradise.’

I still think that’s putting it mildly. The Burnout Team are probably hacked off that they’ve spent so much time and effort on Burnout Paradise, only to have a fair amount of criticism levelled at their beloved. When reading Criterion’s response I get the overwhelming feeling of despise for the critical gamer out there. People have good reason- as consumers (in the UK anyway), next gen games cost £40-50 which is no pocket change. Gamers are more critical than ever these days with good reason.

Next you will see how Criterion gets this totally wrong, and so here’s a choice quote from the Burnout Team themselves:

As to those who can proclaim from a taste of the demo that Burnout 2 was the best game (always nice to see all those Gamecube owners on the internet who haven’t played the game since B2! ) or that B3 is the better game – again, I can only smile. Those of us who have made the games dearly love those games but we’re confident that if you love those games too then you will love Paradise.

And therein I think, lies the problem. All the Burnout games that have preceded Paradise have gone along the path of evolution- creating a better game with minor changes for the best. Burnout was the ultimate in arcade racing in my opinion. However Paradise seems to have taken the revolution approach- starting from scratch, and offering a completely revamped experience. Whilst this is no bad thing, gamers that have followed the series from the beginning do not like such a great change.

I also totally agree with what Matt Brett has to say on this matter in his post ‘Burnout Paridise, a great franchise ruined‘. Whilst gamers brand-new to the franchise will love it, it is fundamentally different to what most of us have known and enjoyed playing.

SingStar Humilitation

Happy New Year! I had the recent misfortune of being humiliated on SingStar for the PS3. The task was simple; do a duet with a mate on a variety of tracks and try to sing reasonably. However I encountered quite a fundamental obstacle to achieving my goal- I really can’t sing! Instead of a sublime rendition with dulcet tones, my voice was like an untuned guitar… with possibly a few strings broken for good measure.

This begs the question- do I actually buy SingStar for myself and get some much needed practice? Or do I admit defeat and vow never to (attempt to) sing again?

My Assassin’s Bane

After having a fair time to get acquainted with Assassin’s Creed and the various ins and outs of the game, I find myself particularly irritated with a teensy but (in my mind), crucial detail. If I draw the attention of a guard and speed off into the distance on my trusty steed, then calmly walk about miles away; a random guard where I now am will somehow know what that other guard did, and proceed to attack me. Are these guards psychic or something?!

Meh, it’s a minor detail I just thought I’d mention. I’d like to make clear though that it does not in any way alter my actual enjoyment of the game. It has to be one of the best action games I have played for quite some time. It is quite an achievement considering there are no guns- which makes a refreshing change.

Assassin's Creed

PSP Firmware 3.70 in-depth

Forget firmware 3.60, this is the real deal! You may recall a while back now, I recommended that firmware update 3.51 was pointless. Therefore, I have now upgraded my system from 3.50 to 3.70, and I’m expecting a large number of new features with such a version jump in the firmware. What’s going to make a look at this firmware interesting, is that I’ll be looking at the changes on an original PSP (PSP-1000). Let’s get cracking…

When updating, you’re presented with the following change log:

You can now set custom themes in [Theme Settings] under [Settings].
Support has been added for assigning buttons in [Remote Play].
A scene search feature has been added under [Video].
Sequential playback is now supported under [Video].
Simultaneous playback of content under [Music] and [Photo] is now supported.

However I want to see exactly how this works, and whether there’s more features (as I never installed 3.60). I’ll start from right-to-left, beginning with [Network]. The 1st thing I notice is a new funky orange and black logo for PlayStation Spot. What is PlayStation Spot? It’s a wifi spot set up by Sony in certain public locations for you to download game demos, trailers etc. Anyhow, on the PSP, clicking on PlayStation Spot creates a new wifi connection: ‘PS Spot’. Apparently, if you are in range of a PlayStation Spot, you will also be able to access the Internet for free and browse the web, and even play multiplayer games in infrastructure mode. So that’s the PSP Spot.

Moving to [Game], I thought I could delete the 3.70 file, and quickly move onto exploring what else is new. However, on hitting [triangle] to bring up the menu…something has changed. On the menu, I can either start the update, delete it, or find out information about it. However, on the ’start’ option, there is a graphical PSP ’start’ button. I’m guessing the aim of this change is to expose extra functionality, and different, perhaps easier ways of doing things. Anyhow, there’s nothing else new under [Game].

Onto [Video], as I hover over a particular video for a while, a little guide pops up in the bottom-right corner of the screen saying ‘[triangle] options’. Which again, is exposing functionality that may not be obvious to a new PSP owner. On hitting [triangle], there is again another graphical PSP ’start’ button next to ‘play’. So, I hit ‘play’ and immediately as the video started another pop up guide says ‘[triangle] control panel’. Looking at the control panel, the PSP system again exposes secondary button options that you can operate without using the control panel such as play/pause, next scene etc…

THE coolest new feature under video is ‘Scene Search’. It is a revelation; simplicity itself to use, and very very useful. It appears as a new icon top-right of the control panel, or alternatively you can hit [square]. What it does is dynamically create scenes into the videos you’re watching which is very, very handy. You can press up or down to select anything from 15 second intervals to 5 minutes (on a short video), and left and right to ’scene search’. I’ll now try the same with a UMD film. Unfortunately, it doesn’t, which is a shame because some UMD films don’t have a chapter menu, meaning you have to keep hitting [R] once you’re watching the film. Anyhow, the ’scene search’ still undoubtedly a very nifty feature.

I’ll now cover both [Music] and [Photo] together, as they now share a new, very cool feature. Now, I’ve known for sometime now that if you hit the ‘home’ button, you can jump out of the current track you’re playing, and you can view other songs you might have, and even browse the main XMB menu. However, the moment you tried to access anything else other than music, the music would stop playing. That is still the case, but now if you go into [Photo] the music keeps on playing! I have noticed one thing though, if you want to view a set of photos with the music playing, it is best to use the slideshow mode at its default setting as my system was unable to cache both the thumbnails and pictures if quickly flicking through them. Maybe that’s just because I’m using a PSP-1000? With the added RAM of the PSP-2000, those users may not experience this minor thing. Again, the pop up guide and secondary button options are present throughout.

Onto the big one- [Settings]. I find myself both disappointed and intrigued by what has changed. Under [Theme Settings] there is now ‘themes’ where you can set background, colour and most importantly… icon design! At the moment, there is only ‘original’ theme, which shows a screenshot of the XMB with a mysterious new icon between [Video] and [Game]. It could be something to do with the Japanese TV tuner, and the screenshot has got left in other regional firmware OR it could be something to do with the upcoming TV tuner for the PS3. My guesses though, are only speculative at best. And now for the disappointment- PSP-2000 users get new colour backgrounds, but it seems like we PSP-1000 users do not, which is a shame.

Under [Video Settings] there is the new ‘Sequential Playback’ feature that was mentioned- useful, but nothing spectacular. And that, my friends… is it!

If you spot any mistakes, please let me know, and remember- I have only looked at this update with the PSP-1000.

New slim line PSP info-splurge(tm) and critique

This post was originally written on the City In The Clouds blog.

It is slimmer, lighter, loads games faster (due doubling the RAM) and outputs video to TV screens etc..

But what about the owners of existing PSPs though? Sure, you had the PSone redesign and the PS2 redesign but this is a substantial change. All’s the PS2 redesign did was slim the unit down, add networking and get rid of the (mostly) unused hard drive expansion bay.

So, what makes the PSP so different? Well, this time Sony makes software updates as well to its systems. Take Sony’s upcoming 3.60 firmware upgrade for the PSP- all the features I’ve seen so far are just for the slimmer PSP (mainly due to the new hardware) like UMD-caching, and options for outputting video. I suppose my argument is what if Sony only creates more firmware updates for the slimmer PSP or possibly even hardware that is only compatible with the new PSP? Maybe unthinkable, but surely possible.

In the past, hardware revisions weren’t much of a problem, but now major new features are being incorporated into software updates (via firmware). Is it really fair to (pardon my upcoming language) shaft current hardware owners in this way? I think Microsoft has done well in this regard with its Xbox 360 revisions.