PS3

[schild]

Good point, you can use any old jpg as a background.  Pictures of the family can make it hard to find the icons, but if you want to whip up something in a editor and use it, easy easy easy.  Also there are quite a few decent themes for free.  Currently I have the inFamous icons with the standard wavy background.

Or you can use high quality PNGs and not have artifacts.

[Ard]

Have the multiplayer connectivity issues in Fat Princess been successfully fixed?

Yes.

[SnakeCharmer]

So. Um.  Does anyone make a better PS3 controller than Sony?

Really, really hate the PS3 controller.

[CaptainNapkin]

So my slim showed up the other day and I must say I was impressed out of the box. It's got a good footprint, it's quiet and I didn't have to spend an extra hour during setup to figure out how to hide a monstrous power brick since there is none, yay! My copy of Demon's Souls hasn't showed up yet so I picked up a used copy of the original Uncharted on the cheap and it's a fun little game. I think I'm most excited about the silence of this thing though, as my 360 has been my main DVD system it's nice to not need to crank the volume up to overcome the noise of the system. I probably need to poke around more, but my initial opinion is that 360 still wins on the interface and online integration fronts. I'm one of the wacky ones that prefered the switch to the new 360 UI. Not to mention, jumping on the PS3 bandwagon now gives me a few of the now classic early releases on the cheap, which is a bonus.

I also haven't figured out if there's a setting to allow downloads to continue after powering the unit off, still waiting for 3 demos to finish DL and show up as playable.

[Mrbloodworth]

I also haven't figured out if there's a setting to allow downloads to continue after powering the unit off, still waiting for 3 demos to finish DL and show up as playable.

IIRCC, just go to "shut down" over the profile names, and you will get the option.

[Trippy]

If I wanted to upgrade the HD on the PS3 (slim) after I had a bunch of saves and other data on it, would this method work?:

* Take out existing drive

* Install new drive (using firmware on flash drive)

* Hook up old drive via USB (i.e. installed in an external case)

* Copy files from old drive to new drive

Basically I'm trying to decide if I get a PS3 soon whether or not to upgrade the HD immediately or wait a while until I fill the original drive.

[Tannhauser]

I didn't investigate, but at BB earlier I saw the slim was sold out.  However they had a 80gp unit for $299 right beside it.  Why would you buy the slim in this case?

[Trippy]

40 GB more space and about half the power usage (if you care about such things).

[fuser]

40 GB more space and about half the power usage (if you care about such things).

Technically it should work. I lost all my saves swapping consoles tho 

[Trippy]

Technically it should work. I lost all my saves swapping consoles tho 

What happened?

[Yegolev]

I copied my PS3 data to my PC via 4GB flash drive.  It's just normal files in folders, nothing magical.  This includes the PS2 and PS1 saves I carry around.  I'm suppose your method would work but if it was me, I'd copy the files to an external that wasn't part of the swap process.

[fuser]

What happened?

It said the data was secure content written for the previous console. Where the chip/id/mac whatever it uses to prevent copying of data, it wouldn't restore the saved data.

[fuser]

Firmware 3.0 just went live.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/08/31/playstation-3-firmware-v3-00-update-imminent/

Edit:

• Wtf is with this sparkles bullshit
• Old UI gone(you can use classic but the colors etc are definitely not "original")
• The icons scaled up huge and unchangeable
• Friends list now has bars which are pointless besides a jarring experience
• Message center is organized now
• Menu's/trophies seem a bit faster
• OS install is still there on my phat(confirming the news from before)

[Trippy]

You are required to update to 3.00 if you want to access the store now

Couple things missing from the above plus link but mentioned in the release notes:

Audio can now be output to multiple connectors simultaneously

During video playback the right stick can now control the speed and direction

[Trippy]

Holy shit those sparkles are annoying.

[Trippy]

FUCK you can't turn off the scrolling ticker now FUCK

[schild]

FUCK you can't turn off the scrolling ticker now FUCK

You'll live.

[Trippy]

Maybe. They better have a panda avatar soon, though!

[fuser]

The network file access is way faster, and generating thumbnails isn't bogging down as much. Also a new slider indicator when your scrolling down a lot of content to show how far from top and to the bottom you are.

Also i think they did something with the media control. Unless its new to me you can hold on the circle right to fast forward and release to go to play. So a tap + hold sets you up at 10x speed and then release to jump right into play.

[fuser]

Oh rewinding streaming content way more fluid @10x

[apocrypha]

I don't mind the sparklies, there seems to be no enforced scrolling ticker on the EU version and I do like the better media streaming a lot.

Not keen on the giant icons though 

[Cyrrex]

Audio can now be output to multiple connectors simultaneously

Cool.  Now only if they could do the same thing for the video, that'd be golden.

[Yegolev]

I didn't even know you could turn off the ticker.  Didn't look, though.  I will have to update this afternoon, didn't know it was up.

[Trippy]

That's like the first thing I did when setting up my PS3. I hate those sorts of animated visual distractions.

[bhodi]

Same. Fuck I don't need to be thrown advertisements the instant I turn on my ps3.

[fuser]

The whole store under every menu is pretty much crap when regions like canada cannot buy videos 

[Yegolev]

I don't spend enough time staring at the XMB for it to bother me, I guess.  Or I spend too much time having the 360 Dashboard inflicted upon me to feel any nag from the ticker. vOv  I'm suspicious of the new store thingy, integrating it more tightly into the XMB could pass my annoyance threshold.  I can't wait to find out how angry this update makes me!

[Segoris]

On the old version I was having issues with downloading demos in the background, even if only 1 was in process it wouldn't work. This update fixed that issue so I'm happy with it overall.

I didn't mind the sparkles or ticker that much since I was able to pay no mind to them. I don't like them, but it's not troublesome or going to make me want to punt my ps3 or anything.

[Mrbloodworth]

Change your background theme to remove sparkles.

[Trippy]

First thing I did after installing the update was switch back to the classic theme.

[Yegolev]

I just switched the background to Classic, the oh-so-slightly-larger icons are fine.  The new font is also just a tiny bit larger, which is good for me and my setup.  That ticker is a bit more distracting, though.

I found a few new options, or I think I did since I don't remember seeing them, such as the option to turn the controller off after 10 minutes of inactivity.

[Trippy]

I found a few new options, or I think I did since I don't remember seeing them, such as the option to turn the controller off after 10 minutes of inactivity.

That was in there before 3.00. My Slim which came with 2.72 or something like that had that in there already.

[Yegolev]

I have an active imagination.

[Jain Zar]

The price on 20GB won't go down unless BC comes back.

It did, and so did the 60 I bought from Gamestop.  Schild wrong?  HOW CAN THIS BE?  :P

Too bad I didn't get any manuals or boxes or anything.  Just a massive ass clamshell that threatened to cut me.

Thankfully my upscale DVD player's HDMI cable works on the things so no need to compete with the 360 and Wii for the component/composite slots.

Opening cinematic to Cross Edge looks purdy.  Wish I could put the Sixaxis LR 2 Triggers on the 360 controller, and the Wii's Classic Controller D Pad.  I would then have a damned perfect controller.

I plan on getting a Madcatz SF4 TE stick since I can use it on 3 generations of PS games, plus on my iMac for Mame and Commodore 64 titles.  H.E.R.O. would be    with a fearsome beast like that.

I have Warhammer 40K to play so more thoughts and questions will wait.  (And speaking of expensive shit I don't need I preordered the new badass Space Hulk boardgame. )

Mock away fanboys.

(Oh yeah, Operation Darkness is pretty kickass, outside of it being on the abusive side of the SRPG difficulty curve.  Its no Fire Emblem or X Com Terror From the Deep mind you, but it sure as hell isn't Shining Force either.  One mission ended up taking 2 weeks of casual play to beat and it required grinding France, a little Energon, and a lot of luck.)

I currently have cheap ebay bids (hell, selling crap I don't need on ebay is financing this economically retarded purchase!) on LBP, Disgaea 3, and Valkyria Chronicles.  Outside of Demon's Souls though there aren't many games I absolutely must have, though I will probably get Virtua Fighter 5, SF4, and Soul Calibur 4 since I will have a stupidly expensive/awesome joystick.

[schild]

It did, and so did the 60 I bought from Gamestop.  Schild wrong?  HOW CAN THIS BE?  :P

Gamestop had them used for $200 and $299 respectively when I got my second 60GB. Are you telling me they went down further from there? If so, I can't be blamed for them being idiots.