Author: Adam

Hands-on with the new PLAYSTATION Store

This is just going to be a quick and short ‘hands-on’ with the Store; much more succinct than my ‘in-depth’ articles on City In The Clouds (I hope). I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to get to grips with the new Store for quite some time now. Now that I’m back home for a couple of days I can test the Store for myself and ask: was the update worth it? Well, yea; it looks visually impressive, it’s lightning fast and it just works, really. Just the way you’d expect.

The new style of the Store is visually gorgeous; great colour scheme, clear and simplified layout and new artwork for all of the content. Due to the Store now being an application built into the PS3‘s operating system, rather than being a website, the speed improvement is phenomenal.  Also the whole structure looks a lot cleaner; everything is laid out exactly where you’d expect it, making what you want easy to find.  There’s also a red PLAYSTATION Store bag showing you any purchases you’ve already made.

New-look PLAYSTATION Store

The big question though- any faults or failings with the new Store? Not really, jut minor niggles you could say. The first thing I noticed (after being impressed by the new visual design) was that the Store was a bit small on the screen. I have a 32 inch HD widescreen TV and the Store only used about two thirds of it, and so the Store felt a bit squashed and could do with taking up a bit more screen real estate in my opinion. As I say- minor niggle.

Onto a couple of other things; some of the text is a bit small, like the instructions on the PSP downloads page of how to transfer games to your PSP, however the text size problem is an issue on the PS3 in general. Lastly, each game/video/piece of content has a little square icon, but whilst navigating about for what I wanted and then waiting for quite some time, most would not load. Now I don’t know if this is a problem on the Store’s part, or whether it is my internet connection (though at 8Mbps I’d be surprised).

Overall conclusions? The new-look PLAYSTATION Store is a fantastic update over the original Store, but possibly there’s a few minor niggles that need ironing out. Does this detract from the user experience? Possibly, but if everything works as intended it’ll make getting games, updates and videos etc a lightning fast, seamless, and painless experience.

NB: The PLAYSTATION Store (PC) for PSP also got a similar visual refresh, and of course, remains in website form.

Matt Brett on DualShock 3

Matt Brett on DualShock 3– An interesting read, and another perspective on the implementation of vibration in consoles. As this is an aside I won’t go into too much detail but as for the Wii selling like hot cakes; it’s not aimed at a gamer like me. If a console has to sacrifice graphics and depth to that extent in order to appeal to such a wide (non-gaming?) audience, then count me out.

PS3 Fan Noise Controversy

Updated December 2008

I’ve been reading an interesting article in PS3 Fanboy entitled ‘Clean your PS3 fan with quick-n-easy test‘ which is for 40Gb PS3s and works by running a fan test, which speeds up the fan and also supposedly ‘blows out the dust…essentially cleaning it up’. Fair enough.

What is interesting though is the controversy and misinformation about PS3 fan noise in the comments section at the end of the article. To be honest, it looks like it has turned into a bit of a flame war so let’s try and rationalise things a little bit.

Some people are saying that the 40Gb PS3 sounds really loud, and the 60Gb version doesn’t (who knows about the 80Gb version, whatever) and they use examples such as this on YouTube. Now, I have a 40Gb PS3 and let me tell you it doesn’t sound like that at all; in fact, I can barely hear it. So I’m thinking that with the YouTube example given, and what such people are saying, I can infer two conclusions: either a faulty PS3, or a PS3 being run with the fan test. It’s as simple as that.

Other people have been saying that the 60Gb is louder than the 40Gb, although I couldn’t possibly comment on that. However I’ve been gaming with a mate who has a 60Gb PS3 and it sounds comparable to mine; I believe any difference will be negligible.

So what on earth is the point I am trying to make? Once they’ve started up PS3s are very quiet, I mean sometimes it doesn’t even sound like they’re turned on (although the lights are lit up of course). In general, PS3s are made to a very high quality; they keep very cool and the sound is kept to a minimum so if you have a particularly loud PS3 then there is a good possibility that there might be something wrong with it.

December 2008 update: I now find myself in possession of an 80GB PS3.  As to why this is the case, I direct you here for more information.  It is my observation that the fan noise on this model is slightly louder than my old 40GB model.  Why is this the case?  I honestly don’t know, and can only speculate.  Still though, the noise is not really that noticable and nothing for concern.

If your PS3 sounds very loud, then my advice above still stands.  There might be something wrong with your PS3, so get it checked out.  The people to call are the Sony care line.  In addition, you may want to check out the comprehensive PS3 fan guide.

Firmware (v.2.30) Details and Store Walkthrough

Firmware (v.2.30) Details and Store Walkthrough– Posted on the PlayStation.Blog, showing off a video demo of the store by Grace Chen.  Worth a watch of the store in action, it looks very fast and responsive.  Top sneak peek of the week (wow, I’m so awesome at rhyming).

The Mystery Behind PlayStation 3’s Sometimes Mandatory Installations

The Mystery Behind PlayStation 3’s Sometimes Mandatory Installations– I know this isn’t recent news exactly, but I find the article to be a fascinating read.  If you’ve ever wanted a bit of insight into PS3 architecture, disc speeds or streaming optimization then this is for you!  If not, then just nod your head and pretend you understood :p

GamePro interview with Scott Steinberg, marketing VP of Sony

GamePro interview with Scott Steinberg, marketing VP of Sony– Interesting read.  There’s discussion of the Blu-ray victory, Microsoft’s 2008 game line-up, and possibilities for new PS3 downloads (including the possibility of movies, music, and PS2 games).

Sony’s marketing VP tells GamePro that Microsoft may have “already leveraged all of their big assets” for the Xbox 360 in 2007, leaving 2008 wide open for the PlayStation 3.