Topic: So, I played a PS3...

[Ian Sane]

These installations sound pretty annoying if you want to play this game RIGHT FUCKING NOW DAMMIT!  Though personally I can't imagine that being a huge issue for me.  When I buy a new game it is usually after work.  So I'll get home with the new game but will probably eat dinner first.  If I remembered, and I probably would get in the habit of this if I had a PS3, I could just let the installation start right when I got home and by the time I was finished dinner the game would be ready.

But that's me.  The only thing I ever truly have a "right now DAMMIT" attitude is something with a clear time limit.  Like on Friday game seven of the Stanley Cup finals starts at 5pm PT but that's the same time I get off work so I have to miss the beginning of it.  Obviously I'm going to have a "RIGHT NOW DAMMIT" attitude towards that when I get home and turn the TV on right away (and likely be irritated by that second or so a TV takes to turn on).  My Dad goes to bed much earlier than I do so if the family rents a movie we're going to take into account how long the film is and what time it is to determine how late we can start the film before my Dad will fall asleep.  So in that case sometimes from the video store there's a rush to get started.

But if I own the game I don't necessary need it to start up instantly the very first time I play it.  Not that a long installation is fun to deal with but as a one time thing I don't think it's that big of a hassle.  At worse you will be affected by it ONCE and then every other time the game will just load up like you expect it to.

[D_Average]

When those updates come up, just hit 0 if you want to play right away, they are NOT always necessary.  And it sounds like you had a connection update issue.  I've done tons of updates, longest I had was maybe 7 mins.

And DAMN!  20 for Buzz, I'm going to have to go to my local slop shop to see if I can grab one.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Sony is never gonna get the cost of a PS3 down if now they have to upgrade to faster Blu-ray drives.
I guess its not always the best option to go with bleeding edge tech before it draws first blood.

*goes back to sitting under bridge and demanding toll to cross*

[D_Average]

The price will drop in the fall.  Its a sacrifice they'll have to make to get long term sustainability.  If they don't do it now, MS/Wii owners will just wait for the next console rather than waiting around another year.  To not drop the price this holiday, would be financial suicide. 

But then again, so is charging the same price for the PSP five years later.

[Morari]

Seriously, though, if you think that update/install times are bad on the PS3 never play a PC game.

Even your largest PC game will clock in at less than ten minutes to FULLY install. That is, you never have to put the disc in again. Or, assuming you do, it's strictly as a security check and can easily be disabled. There were exceptions back in the day, with slow CD-Roms and games that spanned a few discs, but it was rare. Updating a game is even easier. Even in the most archaic of games, you simply download the patch and double-click. At 20mbps down, even those gigantic Unreal patches don't stand a chance.

Seriously though, if you're going to waste time installing games, forgo the PS3 and spend a few hundred dollars on a good PC instead. Hell, it'll even run Linux better than your PS3!

[S-U-P-E-R]

so I take it Morari hasn't installed any MMOs lately!

[Ian Sane]

The price will drop in the fall.  Its a sacrifice they'll have to make to get long term sustainability.  If they don't do it now, MS/Wii owners will just wait for the next console rather than waiting around another year.  To not drop the price this holiday, would be financial suicide.

I hope you're right.  Realistically that's the deciding factor for me regarding getting a second console or not.  Anytime I consider getting a PS3 I look at the price I just go "ehhhhh... nah."

Much like Atari and Nintendo before, self-sabotage was probably the greatest factor in Sony's fall from number one.  The pricing of the PS3 is just plain STUPID and, hey look, Sony went from first to last in the span of like a year.

[D_Average]

The price will drop in the fall.  Its a sacrifice they'll have to make to get long term sustainability.  If they don't do it now, MS/Wii owners will just wait for the next console rather than waiting around another year.  To not drop the price this holiday, would be financial suicide.

I hope you're right.  Realistically that's the deciding factor for me regarding getting a second console or not.  Anytime I consider getting a PS3 I look at the price I just go "ehhhhh... nah."

Much like Atari and Nintendo before, self-sabotage was probably the greatest factor in Sony's fall from number one.  The pricing of the PS3 is just plain STUPID and, hey look, Sony went from first to last in the span of like a year.

Even DUMBER when you consider the clear evidence they had before them.  How many technically superior consoles have dies in the past due to price?

NeoGeo
3D0
32X
Jaguar
Turbo 16
etc....

[Morari]

so I take it Morari hasn't installed any MMOs lately!

MMOs aren't real games.

[broodwars]

Seriously, though, if you think that update/install times are bad on the PS3 never play a PC game.

Updating a game is even easier.

Yep, it's as easy going to my auto-update program and telling it to search for patches.  Oh wait, no it's not because the damn Auto-update program never works, forcing me to go onto the internet; run a search for the patch; go to the place that has the patch; download the patch; install the patch; and then restart everything so that I can use the patch.  Yeah, patching in PC games works great, at least if my last batch of PC games (EA's Command & Conquer 3 and Red Alert 3 titles) are any indication.  Apparently there's some issue with auto-patching programs and firewalls.

That is, of course, assuming that your computer is even compatible with the patch.  I remember "patching" Mechwarrior 3 on my PC to enable play on Windows XP, and the game still didn't work (there's an issue in the second level where on later versions of Windows enemy trucks would jump into the stratosphere as you approached them and a mission critical target became invulnerable and invisible).

[TJ Spyke]

Much like Atari and Nintendo before, self-sabotage was probably the greatest factor in Sony's fall from number one.  The pricing of the PS3 is just plain STUPID and, hey look, Sony went from first to last in the span of like a year.

More like a day. The PlayStation 3 has been in third place since it launched and has been there ever since. I agree with you that a large part of this was Sony's fault. I think that the moment Sony announced the $600 pricepoint most people realized the PS3 wasn't gonna win. It didn't help Sony's public image that they became very cocky (like saying that people would want to get a second job to afford a PS3 and stating that they could sell 5 million PS3's without even releasing any games based on brand name).

[D_Average]

Yeah, 399 is still too much for me.  I got lucky, I needed a new credit card, and Sony had an offer to get an 80gig PS3 for $250.  What a steal.  And I've earned tons of points with it since Sept, enough to get three free games.

[Morari]

Seriously, though, if you think that update/install times are bad on the PS3 never play a PC game.

Updating a game is even easier.

Yep, it's as easy going to my auto-update program and telling it to search for patches.  Oh wait, no it's not because the damn Auto-update program never works, forcing me to go onto the internet; run a search for the patch; go to the place that has the patch; download the patch; install the patch; and then restart everything so that I can use the patch.  Yeah, patching in PC games works great, at least if my last batch of PC games (EA's Command & Conquer 3 and Red Alert 3 titles) are any indication.  Apparently there's some issue with auto-patching programs and firewalls.

That is, of course, assuming that your computer is even compatible with the patch.  I remember "patching" Mechwarrior 3 on my PC to enable play on Windows XP, and the game still didn't work (there's an issue in the second level where on later versions of Windows enemy trucks would jump into the stratosphere as you approached them and a mission critical target became invulnerable and invisible).

Your problem sounds two-fold.

One; you need to properly setup your firewall. Alternatively, you could come to the realization that EA-backed games are among the buggiest in the world.

Two; you mustn't expect older games to always work perfectly on newer systems. Usually they do no have full support, or at least in an official capacity, for such. Even though a little tinkering can always yield results, never assume. Such would be akin to thinking that you could pop an N64 cartridge in your Wii and have it"just work".

[NWR_Lindy]

PS3 updates never, ever bothered me.  The only time I felt inconvenienced was when I first bought it, and that was because I had to turn off WEP encryption on my router because it wasn't supported out of the box, download the update with WEP support, then get online and download another update.  It was pretty silly.  But since then, no issues...I actually like the fact that developers constantly patch their games.  I'm a big MMO guy so I'm used to that and actually appreciate it.  They always fix bugs and add new features, which I have no problem with.  It's all gravy to me, and most of the updates only take a few seconds to download (granted, I have a pretty fast connection, but I have that for the purpose of online gaming anyways).

There's only a few games with silly initial downloads, like Hot Shots Golf.  But that's all I can really recall.  I think all of the positives far outweigh the negatives.

[broodwars]

Seriously, though, if you think that update/install times are bad on the PS3 never play a PC game.

Updating a game is even easier.

Yep, it's as easy going to my auto-update program and telling it to search for patches.  Oh wait, no it's not because the damn Auto-update program never works, forcing me to go onto the internet; run a search for the patch; go to the place that has the patch; download the patch; install the patch; and then restart everything so that I can use the patch.  Yeah, patching in PC games works great, at least if my last batch of PC games (EA's Command & Conquer 3 and Red Alert 3 titles) are any indication.  Apparently there's some issue with auto-patching programs and firewalls.

That is, of course, assuming that your computer is even compatible with the patch.  I remember "patching" Mechwarrior 3 on my PC to enable play on Windows XP, and the game still didn't work (there's an issue in the second level where on later versions of Windows enemy trucks would jump into the stratosphere as you approached them and a mission critical target became invulnerable and invisible).

Alternatively, you could come to the realization that EA-backed games are among the buggiest in the world.

Given what I do for a living, I have a feeling I should be offended by that statement. 

Two; you mustn't expect older games to always work perfectly on newer systems. Usually they do no have full support, or at least in an official capacity, for such. Even though a little tinkering can always yield results, never assume. Such would be akin to thinking that you could pop an N64 cartridge in your Wii and have it"just work".

When I download an official patch that's supposed to make the game compatible with Windows XP, sorry but I do actually expect it to work on Windows XP.  This is why I can't stand PC games and avoid them like the plague when at all possible: when I get a game I expect it to just work.  It isn't my job as a consumer to have to waste my time fiddling with switches and dials on my end to make their games work.  My computer's been barraged with all sorts of nasty stuff over the years, so I have a pretty damn good firewall of various anti-Spyware programs set up to keep it out.  I'm not about to start messing with it just to allow a handful of programs to do their jobs.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Given what I do for a living, I have a feeling I should be offended by that statement. 

Good then you should be able to pass some complaints I have with GST on to those that should receive them.
There aren't bugs per se, but things that should be addressed. in the GST thread - Nintendo Forum

[KDR_11k]

The only game that I really felt needed the install on the 360 was EDF2017 since there are many short loads in the menu navigation that get cut down dramatically when you install it. Otherwise AFAIK installing rarely improves the load times much. Everything else can be popped in, usually wants to install an update, you hit okay, it takes maybe 5 seconds to download and install and then you can play. The games that cache on the harddrive AFAIK do that while the game is loading something so it doesn't have a visible delay. Also the system was only 200€ compared to the 400 a PS3 costs. Still not a very useful system for me though.

[D_Average]

Given what I do for a living, I have a feeling I should be offended by that statement. 

Woah, you work for EA?

[broodwars]

Given what I do for a living, I have a feeling I should be offended by that statement. 

Woah, you work for EA?

Apparently after next week that will likely no longer be the case.   Just not enough work for all of us.  Guess I'll be updating my resume 2 months ahead of schedule. 

[Morari]

Given what I do for a living, I have a feeling I should be offended by that statement. 

I am unaware of what you do for a living. While I stand by my statement, it was not meant to offend.

When I download an official patch that's supposed to make the game compatible with Windows XP, sorry but I do actually expect it to work on Windows XP.  This is why I can't stand PC games and avoid them like the plague when at all possible: when I get a game I expect it to just work.  It isn't my job as a consumer to have to waste my time fiddling with switches and dials on my end to make their games work.  My computer's been barraged with all sorts of nasty stuff over the years, so I have a pretty damn good firewall of various anti-Spyware programs set up to keep it out.  I'm not about to start messing with it just to allow a handful of programs to do their jobs.

You can certainly make that case in regards to an official patch. Again though, that says more about the developer than anything. Very rarely have I ever had an issue with a game where it won't "just work" if that's what I really want. In reality however, I like being able to customize my controls and possibly tweaking the settings to run on systems that are older than the game was really designed for. It's a fiaAs for your firewall, most nasty stuff is self-inflicted. Practice safe browsing habits and the liklihood of catching something drops sharply.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Given what I do for a living, I have a feeling I should be offended by that statement. 

Woah, you work for EA?

Apparently after next week that will likely no longer be the case.   Just not enough work for all of us.  Guess I'll be updating my resume 2 months ahead of schedule. 

Does that mean you can pass on our game related "concerns" through the appropriate channels so that they get seen by the people that need to see them for them to be addressed?

[broodwars]

Given what I do for a living, I have a feeling I should be offended by that statement. 

Woah, you work for EA?

Apparently after next week that will likely no longer be the case.   Just not enough work for all of us.  Guess I'll be updating my resume 2 months ahead of schedule. 

Does that mean you can pass on our game related "concerns" through the appropriate channels so that they get seen by the people that need to see them for them to be addressed?

I have to walk a fine line in answering this question...hmm...let's see...

I haven't seen your list of "concerns", but as like is not I can just say this: just from personal experience, probably 9/10 things that people complain about any given game are likely things that (the very competent) testers address with the development team during the project.  A lot more than you can ever imagine gets fixed, including things you'd never imagine any sane user would do.  Some do not, usually due to lack of time.  Trust me, they know about probably any issue you have with the game.  Maybe you'll get lucky and some stuff got Wish Listed or put on the list of known issues for future iterations to handle.  Otherwise, there's very little anyone at the level I work at can do or say on the matter.

[BranDonk Kong]

I've only used PS3 for one day (few weeks ago, borrowed it from a friend, played for an hour tops, then ripped that **** out of my living room and gave it back), but if that day was an accurate example, then downloading from PSN is a 56kbps modem to XBL's broadband. It took absolutely forever to download the Killzone 2 demo, which is about 1GB, IIRC, on 15Mb cable. Getting 1GB on XBL takes about 8 minutes.

[broodwars]

Sheesh, does no one else just go play a PS3 game or watch a movie or whatnot while they're waiting for downloads to complete?  That's what I do, and when the message comes up saying that the thing's downloaded, I just quit out of whatever I'm doing and go play the game that just downloaded.

[TJ Spyke]

It takes a long ass time, I have broadband but it took me about 8 hours to download just 1 part of the 3-part Sony press conference (each one was about 1.5 GB). I think the complaint is how slow downloading anything on the PS3 is, not whether you can do something else at the same time (although some downloads, like system updates and updates for Home and other programs, don't allow for background downloads).