I used to have a 360, and I remember Microsoft rolling out various 360 dash updates etc. But you were never forced to accept them - worse case scenario, you weren't allowed on Live till you updated.
Sony, on the other hand, force you to apply an update before you can play a game if your system has the lower version of the game. This has always bugged me - they're actually stopping you playing games you legally buy unless you let them modify the functionality of your console. And that's what they are doing - granted, every update may not remove a feature like OtherOS, but they're still altering a product that you legally own.
What happens if you say no to the update's licence terms anyway? Has anyone tried returning a game because they refused to accept/apply the update? It seems kind of a drastic thing to do, but I'd like to see this get tested - I can't see many stores accepting an opened return on the grounds of not accepting the licence/update.
Yes, some of the claims that various firmwares have crashed the PS3 that turn up when the firmware is updated are likely a result of coincidence. However, in this case, the problem is definitely real. Here are a few points.
This problem occurs whether you have the update on memory stick, or HDD. The update is also in the correct directory, which is PS3\Update - and I've swapped my HD before, with no problem.
I myself did use Sony's backup facility. However, how do you get 2 HDs in a PS3? You can't - you have to put a new one in, and then use restore to put the old data back. However, the problem occurs before the PS3 even gets as far as the main menu. The PS3 requires the firmware to prepare the new HD to be used, and this is where the problem crops up.
It's not clear if this affects only Slims or Slims and fats. There have at least been one or two apparent reports people with Fat PS3s having the issue.
Putting the old HDD back in does mean the PS3 works - but I put the 3.41 firmware on just before I upgraded the HDD. I could kick myself.
Also, Kotaku goes on to say 'the solution it (Capcom) is working on with Sony Computer Entertainment America involves providing notice of the DRM in the game's description page on the PlayStation Store in North America and Asia, not removing or altering the DRM.' But that doesn't really help people who've already bought the game. I wonder if anyone will be applying for refunds on that basis?
.. and further information can be found [url="http://kotaku.com/5523238/capcom-apologizes-for-not-telling-users-of-final-fight-drm"]here[/url]. The statement from Capcom reads...
"Capcom would like to formally apologize for the issues consumers are having with the PS3 version of Final Fight: Double Impact. Typically, the notification for a required PlayStation Network connection appears in the full game description when a game is downloaded from the PlayStation Store. Unfortunately when populating this content this detail was overlooked and wasn't included in the versions of the game that released in North America and Asia. It was included in the release for Europe. Capcom should have checked to make sure the notification was included when the final game was made available and we sincerely apologize for this oversight.
The DRM requirements for Final Fight: Double Impact are not unique to this release. This protection mechanism has been implemented in numerous games offered on the PlayStation Store before. When it was brought to our attention that the notification was missing, we acted quickly with Sony Computer Entertainment America and a fix is on the Way.
We would like to thank our vigilant fans for bringing this to our attention and we will exercise better scrutiny on future Capcom releases."
Hang on a mo... not unique? So there are other PSN games that require you to be logged in to fire them up? I don't remember hearing about any. Kotaku asked Capcom to tell them which other games used a similar system, and were greeted with silence.
The general attitude at least two electrical places I've worked at, with some managers there has been that once we've got the customers money, sod it. If something bad happens, they have to do all the waiting around and pissing about till the item gets fixed. They think there's plenty of other fish in the sea. And they used to be right, but now they're losing money hand over fist, they need to realise that customer service matters, or die like the dinosaurs they are. I'm not saying to bend to every customers demand, because the customer sure as heck isn't always right. But just stonewalling/messing them about is no good any more.
At last I know I'm not the only person to realise what a mediocre game Dead Space is. It really is survival horror by the numbers. In fact, it heavily rips off Event Horizon. I remember wandering back to the ship at the beginning of the game just knowing it was going to blow up. And it did. And then there was the stupid way you were conveniently separated from your fellow crewmen again and again.
No matter how odd producing DLC so soon after the game's release may seem, it can't beat the Beautiful Katamari DLC for sheer audacity. Which actually unlocked levels that were already there in the game.
.. or would anyone else doubt the supposed claim of a person's death. I know there's been several cases where someone online has supposedly posted their death, just to create drama and attention, only for it to be later revealed they're alive and well? Certainly on networking sites, at least.
.. but what it's missing is the ability to easily uninstall it. It's not the only distro not to be easily uninstallable, but it seems daft that you have to start messing about restoring the boot record via Windows boot disk if you want to take it off.
The thing is, even if we were living in some parallel universe where Bush wasn't about to leave office, and this kind of thing could happen, it wouldn't be that great a loss for him. In the UK, at lot of politicians who leave their office for whatever reason end up either working on the board of some big company, or making loads of money on the speaking circuit.
.. because once you've downloaded your music, you can't get it again unless you badger Apple. Couple that with the fact that iTunes doesn't officially support taking music off your iPod back onto iTunes and you've got a system that's a real pain in the arse.
Ask a Ninja has already peaked...
on
The Ninja Handbook
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Sure, this book sounds cool, but for my money, Ask A Ninja can't get any better than this segment where the Ninja interviewed Jon Heder and Will Ferrell about 'Blades of Glory'. While they do try to get in the joke, they're just so fantastically bewildered. You can imagine how the day was going.. journalist asking tedious questions 1, journalist asking tedious questions 2. Etc.. etc.. then all of a sudden.. Ninja out of nowhere!
Why? Because half the tracks that come with Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Rock Band 2 et al, I have no interest in. In fact, I'd say there's only maybe one in five I consider really good tracks. And I suspect a lot of folks feel the same. What I'd like to see, in addition to the standard Rock Band disc, would be a Rock Band track-less disc. You could put it in your console, but it wouldn't come with any tracks. Instead, you'd pay to download the individual tracks you wanted from Rock Band's store.
So my by reckoning, it'll only be a few years before the stuff featured in CSI and similar shows isn't *total* bollocks. A lot of people see photos and stuff being magically enhanced to perfect resolution, revealing the identity of some suspect, and think that can be done in real life.
Slashdot Mirror
I used to have a 360, and I remember Microsoft rolling out various 360 dash updates etc. But you were never forced to accept them - worse case scenario, you weren't allowed on Live till you updated.
Sony, on the other hand, force you to apply an update before you can play a game if your system has the lower version of the game. This has always bugged me - they're actually stopping you playing games you legally buy unless you let them modify the functionality of your console. And that's what they are doing - granted, every update may not remove a feature like OtherOS, but they're still altering a product that you legally own.
What happens if you say no to the update's licence terms anyway? Has anyone tried returning a game because they refused to accept/apply the update? It seems kind of a drastic thing to do, but I'd like to see this get tested - I can't see many stores accepting an opened return on the grounds of not accepting the licence/update.
Apparently not, no.
... which is highly unlikely, I'd suggest Magicgate.
Yes, some of the claims that various firmwares have crashed the PS3 that turn up when the firmware is updated are likely a result of coincidence. However, in this case, the problem is definitely real. Here are a few points. This problem occurs whether you have the update on memory stick, or HDD. The update is also in the correct directory, which is PS3\Update - and I've swapped my HD before, with no problem. I myself did use Sony's backup facility. However, how do you get 2 HDs in a PS3? You can't - you have to put a new one in, and then use restore to put the old data back. However, the problem occurs before the PS3 even gets as far as the main menu. The PS3 requires the firmware to prepare the new HD to be used, and this is where the problem crops up. It's not clear if this affects only Slims or Slims and fats. There have at least been one or two apparent reports people with Fat PS3s having the issue. Putting the old HDD back in does mean the PS3 works - but I put the 3.41 firmware on just before I upgraded the HDD. I could kick myself.
Also, Kotaku goes on to say 'the solution it (Capcom) is working on with Sony Computer Entertainment America involves providing notice of the DRM in the game's description page on the PlayStation Store in North America and Asia, not removing or altering the DRM.' But that doesn't really help people who've already bought the game. I wonder if anyone will be applying for refunds on that basis?
.. and further information can be found [url="http://kotaku.com/5523238/capcom-apologizes-for-not-telling-users-of-final-fight-drm"]here[/url]. The statement from Capcom reads...
"Capcom would like to formally apologize for the issues consumers are having with the PS3 version of Final Fight: Double Impact. Typically, the notification for a required PlayStation Network connection appears in the full game description when a game is downloaded from the PlayStation Store. Unfortunately when populating this content this detail was overlooked and wasn't included in the versions of the game that released in North America and Asia. It was included in the release for Europe. Capcom should have checked to make sure the notification was included when the final game was made available and we sincerely apologize for this oversight.
The DRM requirements for Final Fight: Double Impact are not unique to this release. This protection mechanism has been implemented in numerous games offered on the PlayStation Store before. When it was brought to our attention that the notification was missing, we acted quickly with Sony Computer Entertainment America and a fix is on the Way.
We would like to thank our vigilant fans for bringing this to our attention and we will exercise better scrutiny on future Capcom releases."
Hang on a mo... not unique? So there are other PSN games that require you to be logged in to fire them up? I don't remember hearing about any. Kotaku asked Capcom to tell them which other games used a similar system, and were greeted with silence.
The general attitude at least two electrical places I've worked at, with some managers there has been that once we've got the customers money, sod it. If something bad happens, they have to do all the waiting around and pissing about till the item gets fixed. They think there's plenty of other fish in the sea. And they used to be right, but now they're losing money hand over fist, they need to realise that customer service matters, or die like the dinosaurs they are. I'm not saying to bend to every customers demand, because the customer sure as heck isn't always right. But just stonewalling/messing them about is no good any more.
At last I know I'm not the only person to realise what a mediocre game Dead Space is. It really is survival horror by the numbers. In fact, it heavily rips off Event Horizon. I remember wandering back to the ship at the beginning of the game just knowing it was going to blow up. And it did. And then there was the stupid way you were conveniently separated from your fellow crewmen again and again.
No matter how odd producing DLC so soon after the game's release may seem, it can't beat the Beautiful Katamari DLC for sheer audacity. Which actually unlocked levels that were already there in the game.
... the manufacturers only included a 16mb SD card.
.. or would anyone else doubt the supposed claim of a person's death. I know there's been several cases where someone online has supposedly posted their death, just to create drama and attention, only for it to be later revealed they're alive and well? Certainly on networking sites, at least.
'To who it may concern. Please use the below username and password to inform the other posters at AlbinoAmazonAmputeeLovers.com of my sad demise.'
.. but what it's missing is the ability to easily uninstall it. It's not the only distro not to be easily uninstallable, but it seems daft that you have to start messing about restoring the boot record via Windows boot disk if you want to take it off.
Though these days, I believe 'chav' is the proper name given to them.
'But it *is* piss, Buzz.' 'Oh good, so it's not just me.' Apologies to Austin Powers.
The thing is, even if we were living in some parallel universe where Bush wasn't about to leave office, and this kind of thing could happen, it wouldn't be that great a loss for him. In the UK, at lot of politicians who leave their office for whatever reason end up either working on the board of some big company, or making loads of money on the speaking circuit.
.. because once you've downloaded your music, you can't get it again unless you badger Apple. Couple that with the fact that iTunes doesn't officially support taking music off your iPod back onto iTunes and you've got a system that's a real pain in the arse.
Sure, this book sounds cool, but for my money, Ask A Ninja can't get any better than this segment where the Ninja interviewed Jon Heder and Will Ferrell about 'Blades of Glory'. While they do try to get in the joke, they're just so fantastically bewildered. You can imagine how the day was going.. journalist asking tedious questions 1, journalist asking tedious questions 2. Etc.. etc.. then all of a sudden.. Ninja out of nowhere!
It's a Diablo clone set in a post apocalyptic future. It's hardly innovative.
Why? Because half the tracks that come with Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Rock Band 2 et al, I have no interest in. In fact, I'd say there's only maybe one in five I consider really good tracks. And I suspect a lot of folks feel the same. What I'd like to see, in addition to the standard Rock Band disc, would be a Rock Band track-less disc. You could put it in your console, but it wouldn't come with any tracks. Instead, you'd pay to download the individual tracks you wanted from Rock Band's store.
.. maybe there should have been some Spielberg themed levels.. chucking balls at sharks or flattening Nazis with blocks would have helped boost sales.
So my by reckoning, it'll only be a few years before the stuff featured in CSI and similar shows isn't *total* bollocks. A lot of people see photos and stuff being magically enhanced to perfect resolution, revealing the identity of some suspect, and think that can be done in real life.
.. they're mutating. Into dong-faced monstrosities. Well, that's how it'd be if the movie was true to the game.
.. and your average starting line will look like they've been made in Spore's Creature Creator.
Uh oh.. it can only be a short time until we're under siege from an army of very small Cybermen.