PS3

ps3....can it play old games?

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:17:30 GMT

i want ppl that have a ps3 or ppl that know for a flat fact by playing the damn thing itself....

Can the ps3 play ps2 and ps1 games?

i keep getting told it can and others that say it cant....
so i come to you...the gamers that own a ps3 and want to know from you the flat fact.....

i've also been told that the ps3's that cant play a ps2 or ps1 game out of the box can
download a programe that will let it but that dont sound right at all....

so begine your typeing....

p.s. any bad spelling is an acsent...>_> <_< >_> ya......

The Format War isOver. WINNER: Blu Ray

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:25:28 GMT

pAs Toshiba Corp. prepares to formally surrender to Sony Corp. in a long and brutal format war over high-definition DVDs, the movie studios and consumers who backed the losing side are about to make the painful linguistic journey from "early adopters" to "collateral damage."

Toshiba is expected to drop its HD DVD format as early as today, people familiar with the situation said, leaving Sony's Blu-ray as the winner of perhaps the most expensive format battle since the VHS videocassette format trumped Sony's Betamax in the 1980s. For Toshiba -- and the movie studios that backed HD DVD, such as Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. and General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures -- the question now is how to extricate themselves from the format without suffering further damage.

Consumers who bought HD DVD players, or who purchased pricey high-definition movies in the format, may still be able to add to their collections for a while. But the remaining studios still issuing titles in HD DVD are likely to end their agreements to do so as soon as possible and make the switch to Blu-ray.

That is likely to leave some angry customers, given that, until very recently, HD DVD players cost several hundred dollars. Movie titles in the format often cost about $35 each.

"Your main impact could be consumers souring on your brand, because you're selling them a format that's going away," says Tom Adams, a consultant at Adams Media Research in Carmel, Calif.

Some consumers who own HD DVD technology are already ticked off. "Thanks a lot guys, I hope you rot in h-," wrote customer Alex Atkin in a forum on gadget Web site SlashGear.

After a years-long heated battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray, Blu-ray began rapidly pulling away in recent weeks. The biggest momentum switch came in early January, when Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., which had been backing both formats, said that after May, it would publish high-definition titles only on Blu-ray. Since then, retailers from Best Buy Co. to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have said they would throw their weight exclusively behind the Sony-backed technology.

Consumer efforts to fight back -- like an online petition to keep HD DVD alive that has attracted more than 30,000 signatures -- have had little impact. Only a few hundred thousand consumers across the globe actually have purchased HD DVD players.

For the past few weeks, Toshiba has been trying to prepare its remaining consumers for the possibility it could drop the format. When Warner Bros. abandoned the format in January, Toshiba said it was "discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps." When movie-rental company Netflix Inc. and Best Buy said last week they, too, were dropping the format, Toshiba said it would "continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players."

For Sony, the apparent victory of Blu-ray represents an opportunity. After spending a lot of time trying to sell the technology as superior to HD DVD, David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, says Blu-ray supporters already have shifted the focus to increasing sales. Now, the message is "upgrade your collection to Blu-ray," he says.

As a result of a clear victor emerging, Mr. Bishop expects buyers to stop fence-sitting and move from regular DVDs to high-definition. Of potential buyers, Sony research shows some 40% have been holding back because "no one wanted to get stuck with a format that was obsolete," he says.

But the payoff won't be immediate. For starters, DVD-replication factories that stamp out high-definition discs aren't quite ready for Blu-ray's victory. Just a handful of the plants exist -- not enough to handle the high-definition movie demands of all the major studios. That could mean the studios now backing HD DVD exclusively face delays moving to Blu-ray. Those studios also are trying to negotiate favorable terms, similar to what the studios already committed to Blu-ray got.

Meanwhile, Mr. Adams, the consultant, says that high-definition movie sales will remain somewhat weak this year, if only because HD DVD purchases will tail off sharply. He projects that U.S. consumers will spend about $1.1 billion on high-definition movies this year, compared with the $1.4 billion they spent on regular DVDs in 1999 -- their third year on the market. Last year, U.S. consumers spent $280 million on high-definition movies, with similar trends internationally.

Toshiba most likely will keep supporting HD DVD players by making spare parts and providing other services, and it will try to apply its technology to other areas, such as the downloading of high-definition movies online, people familiar with the matter say. But any payoff in that area is far down the line; right now, downloading even regular movies in quality that is inferior to DVDs takes a couple of hours, even on high-speed connections.

A person familiar with the situation says the company has no intention of making Blu-ray players. Analysts speculate that Toshiba might eventually buy Blu-ray disc drives from another manufacturer to install in its computers, which is a big business for the company.

Toshiba's presence in the market has helped consumers in one respect: bringing down prices for Blu-ray players owing to competition from its much less expensive HD DVD players. Even today, prices for Toshiba players are between $149.99 and $199.99, compared with around $399.99 for the least-expensive Blu-ray players. A year ago, Blu-ray players cost $500 or more.

Though Blu-ray manufacturers may be reluctant to cut prices further on their players after a brutal battle, analysts believe that Blu-ray won't take off in earnest until prices for players are closer to so-called upconverting DVD players -- which include technology that enhances the images from regular DVDs on high-definition television sets. These players are available for less than $100.

"They're going to have to get the prices of these [Blu-Ray] players down to [those upconverting] DVD players relatively soon," says Tim Bajarin, president of industry-consulting firm Creative Strategies Inc. Mr. Bajarin says he believes prices will begin falling naturally as more manufacturers decide to enter the Blu-ray-player business.

Some HD DVD loyalists are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

In Saginaw, Mich., auto-systems administrator Robert Crawford is stocking up on titles for his two HD DVD players. "They're having great sales," he says of online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. and Infinity Resources Inc.'s Deepdiscount.com. "Buy one, get one free." He has picked up about a dozen since Christmas. Although he regrets HD DVD's downfall, he says it comes with the territory. "If you are an early adopter, that is the risk you run," he says.

As printed in today's Wall Street Journal

New Online Gaming Community!

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:26:39 GMT

The Question Online Gaming Community!

Come check us out!

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 03:08:11 GMT

to anyone who has Assassin's Creed:

any idea what getting all 20 flags in Masyaf does?

i've been running all over the town trying to find the last one and am now wondering if it's even worth it!

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 05:04:12 GMT

how the hell is it possible to have an internet connection with your PS3, and be able to go on the internet browser to whatever site you want, but not be able to sign in to the playstation store?!

Warhawk and Lair

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:32:06 GMT

Warhawk

I was waffling for some time about picking this one up. You see, I mostly don't like online multiplayer play with strangers. I don't have the time to play for hours every day, so I tend to get smoked by the obsessive people who do nothing but play these games. However, when I discovered that the retail package of the game, which comes with a Jabra bluetooth headset, was the same price as the Jabra bluetooth headset by itself, I decided to go for it.

I'm so glad that I did! This game is incredibly fun. Even as a relatively unskilled player, I can get a few kills here and there, and it's even fun when I'm being smoked. I haven't played *that* much yet, but I have played on session on a dogfight server, and then a few sessions of deathmatch. (I haven't tried team deathmatch, capture the flag or nodes yet.) The game is incredibly fluid, the action constant, and the different vehicles, weapons and modes of operation are fantastic. The only really unbalanced thing that I find in deathmatch is that Jeeps are kind of useless (but plentiful and can help you get around on a large map) because you don't have three people working together, by and large. However, in team modes, where one person could drive, one person could operate the gun and one person could be a passenger, I imagine that they'd be really cool.

The server listing is okay. It doesn't update its stats frequently enough, so finding a game to join can be tough, as quite often ones that say they have 20 out of 24 slots full will be full by the time you try to join. Also, the "Sort" function doesn't really give you a lot of information about *how* it's sorting it. Other than that, it's totally functional.

Although there's no single-player game really since there are no bots and there's no plot, you can start a local, password-protected network game to just wander about and get the hang of the controls before jumping on to a server. I found it only took a couple of mintues to figure most of it out, though.

There's some reasoanble chatter on the deathmatch servers, the usual trash talking. Although one person did once swear, someone else told them that there's "no call for vulgar language," and that was it. I don't know how typical that is. I didn't try the included Jabra bluetooth headset, myself, beyond just pairing it with the PS3, which worked according to the instructions. I did try it with my Mac and found it pretty low-quality, but I don't have any other bluetooth headsets to compare it with. I think in team games, the headset would be a huge plus.

The game looks fantastic in HD. It supports 720p and 1080i, and launches in 720p when I try it on my 1080p set. The animation is consistently smooth with no noticable drops in frame rate, and it keeps you constantly in the action.

Overall, I'm giving Warhawk two hearty thumbs up. If you don't want the headset or already have one (the game supports USB headsets as well), then by all means the PSN download version is a great deal and will help support the idea of full PSN releases. I have heard that it's a bit shy on documentation, and I did refer to the manual a few times, but you should be able to figure everything out by just fiddling on your own server as mentioned above.

Lair

At the same time, I picked up Lair, which is what I'd actually gone to the store to get. I love aerial combat games, and have really enjoyed Blazing Angels on the PS3 and Secret Weapons over Normandy on the PS2. I was hoping that this would be a similar kind of experience, but with a fantasy theme.

The first thing to note is that the game has a ridiculous number of cut-scenes. That's actually the majority of my objection to it, but it can't really be understated. The frequency of cut-scenes is absolutely ridiculous. Not only are there long cut-scenes in between missions, but there are cut scenes tossed into the missions themselves. If you're told to fly out to the harbour to engage some enemies, even though the harbour is actually in sight, you'll fly about twenty feet and then there will be a cut-scene, and then you'll be there. While you could argue that this keeps you in the action and makes it so that you don't have to do a ton of boring flying to get from A to B, it's also really disorienting and prevents you from getting a great grasp of the land. It also is a continual reminder that you're playing a video game, and it's just plain annoying to have the game grab control away from you constantly. The worst, however, are the in-battle cut-scenes, which are constant. I can recall on several occasions that someone would direct me to destroy a given target, and I'd be swooping down to attack it, then it would give me a cut-scene where they'd stress that I had to destroy it and show a pointless 60-second animation of the target in question, and when I came out of the cut-scene, I'd have already missed it or would have lost my bearings or would have moved the controller. Lastly, even when there aren't cut-scenes, there's constant manipulation of time, bullet-time effects, dramatic camera zooms, etc. The net effect of this is to thoroughly ruin the immersiveness of the game and continually throw you off-balance.

Graphically, it doesn't look as amazing as I expected it to, I think primarily due to the limited colour palette they chose to work with. It's often very hard to distinguish targets from the background that they're sitting on, which gives the game a sort of cheesy "video gamey" feel at times. On the other hand, the dragons themselves are gorgeous, and there are a fair amount of really nice touches, like the selection rings for training, and the way that things move in the air. It's a pretty mixed bag in terms of visuals. I don't think that anything made me think, "Oh geez, I have to show this to my wife!" the way older fantasy games like Oblivion did, but much of it was reasonably pretty and servicable. With a more varied palette and more attention to making distinct items stand out from each other, it could have been a really great looking game.

The controls are the part that I was most worried about, and to be honest, they were the biggest surprise in that they work quite well. The game is controlled almost entirely using the six-axis aspect of the controllers. You tilt the controller to control the tilt of your dragon. There's a flap button and buttons for left and right brakes. Holding the brakes for a few seconds causes your dragon to hover in place, which can be handy. You can also land and wander around on the ground using the sticks, which can be fun for wreaking havoc among the ground troops. Attacking is mostly simple, although there is a mode of air combat where you tilt up and down to try to align your dragon with another and then bump the controller to one side to crash into the other dragon. That feels goofy and awkward to do, and mostly doesn't work that well. You'll find yourself a little frustrated there in that your success in that mode depends less on your skill and timing and more on if you get lucky with it reading the six-axis control movements. The only thing that I found *really* frustrating about the control scheme is that you can bump the controller up (like you do in Super Rub-a-Dub to flip the sharks) to execute a quick 180° turn, but about 25% of the time it misreads that as some turbo-boost-forward action instead, which can have pretty annoying consequences if you're doing it to avoid a sudden obstacle. The dragonrider-to-dragonrider combat is ridiculously and pointlessly complex, but the game generally seems to step you through it, and I've found that you can mostly avoid it. I'm sure for folks who are used to memorizing combos for fighting games, none of the controls in Lair will be difficult to master, and the flight controls for gliding around genuinely feel really good.

Lastly, if you're pagan you may want to avoid this game for it's over-the-top anti-pagan storyline. I've only done a couple of missions, but the plot is essentially that there was a time when everybody shared a common monotheistic faith, and that that was a perfect, joyful and happy time. Then there was a time of geologic upheaval which brought volcanoes and dragons and frightened people and in their fear they turned away from their faith and paganism swept the land, bringing war, terror and suffering with it. You're a knight in a proudly anti-pagan state, trying to bring order to the land and protect your kingdom from evil pagan invaders. Lines like, "I'll burn all the pagans from the sky!" are pretty common.

Ultimately, the game is better than it might sound from this review. Flying your dragon is generally a pretty awesome and well-implemented experience, when you get to do it, and striking targets with your dragon's breath attack is fun and satisfying. The game would be pretty great despite its other flaws if it would just let you *play*. The constant interruptions, cut-scenes and time manipulation, though, really take a lot away from the experience and destroy the feeling of immersion. It's not a terrible game, but it's not the AAA gaming experience that I was expecting from this title, and it's worth noting that it's not an especially cheap game, to boot ($69.99 CAD at Electronic's Boutique). If you're a huge dragon fiend and have been itching to fly the flaming skies, then you'll still probably want this title. Everyone else... maybe rent it and see what you think. I'll give it one thumb up, one down.

Price drop, sooner than we thought?

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 17:58:32 GMT

From PSX Extreme:

"We're trying to get to the bottom of all these PS3 price drop rumors, and we've compiled several stories to help you keep track of it all: several sources are claiming the price drop is indeed real, and will occur on July 12. Circuit City has apparently leaked their plans to drop the price next week, but Sony says the opposite; "we have no plans" they say. But that was in an interview unrelated to the recent retail evidence, so it's not exactly an official rebuttal. In other news, the PS3 version of GTA IV absolutely should have downloadable content, according to the GameStop online listing. Sony has confirmed the Warhawk Blu-Ray details, and don't forget to check out all our new PSP videos!"

Also posted to: PS_3

Fri, 25 May 2007 16:06:56 GMT

While updating last night, our PS3 froze. No matter what we do, it is remaining frozen. We have attempted to shut it off, and we have even unplugged it, but it remains frozen on the update page.

Anyone know what we can do? We just tried to take it back to Best Buy to have it fixed, but it seems they changed their policy and won't take it from the shop, we have to ship it somewhere else. Even though our warranty said we could just bring it back to Best Buy...

PS2/PS3 Controllers?

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 15:12:49 GMT

I've seen a lot of PS2 -> PS3 controller adapters out there. I gather that they work reasonably well for the dual shocks -- you don't have a PS button, but that's not the end of the world, and you have to put the controller in analog mode. I'm not sure that I really get the compelling reason to buy a device to hook up a dual-shock (as opposed to just buying a new sixaxis), but whatever.

The big question for me is whether or not there's a way to use special controllers like the Guitar Hero guitars and the Taiko Drum Master drum. The reports that I've been reading have said that since there's no way to put those devices into analog mode, they don't work with the adapters. I've heard a rumour that Mad Catz put out a PS2 -> PS3 adapter that was really designed for the task and has a PS button on it. That makes me wonder if that one would work.

Has anybody actually tried any of this, and knows for sure if it works or not? Does anybody know of a way to get it to work?

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 01:27:22 GMT

http://www.rockstargames.com/IV/trailer_splash.html

grand theft auto 4 trailer out today!

x-posted

new shit 360

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 01:06:35 GMT

who here agrees that the new elite xbox 360 is going to be shit?

sorry but at the playstation universe.com i kept getting validation errors when posting my feelings on this. so i'm getting them off my chest here.

why do they have to copy the ps3's signitare black coat? fuckers. i mean MS and nintendo already had to copy sony with making all their consoles stand upright to.

you still get alot more out of paying $600 on a ps3. and also it sucks for everyone who owns a premium. so everyone with a premium has to pay for one all over again. 400 for the original 360+paying for xbox live+paying for the HD dvd player+the amount spent on batteries for the damn controllers+buying the "l33t-60" for another 400 something dollars= alot more than $600.

but yet it'll probably sell because people are morons. sony is very good with making good products and business strategies. but i think it's just that their sales pitch sucks. people don't read between the lines. all they see is the main price. never going over all the facts. it seems like only fans of sony know what i am talking about.

there, i'm happy now.

Question

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:53:36 GMT

Does anyone know if God of War 2 will work on the PS3? I wanted to know before I go spend the $50 on it.

spiderman 3 for ps3 site now open

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 22:06:45 GMT

check out the site. it has some info on the upcoming game.

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 05:35:26 GMT

Hey everybody, I recently got a the 60g PS3 and hooked it up to my HDTV with an HDMI/DVI cable. I'm having two problems. I'm wondering if anyone has experienced or heard about anything similar.

1. Every now and then (especially when first starting the system, or starting or quitting a game) the screen will go all wonky. I can fix it by unplugging the HDMI cable and plugging it back in, but it's a bit annoying to have to keep doing.

2. When the screen seems to be working, it looks like it's shifted to the right by one pixel. And the rightmost pixel has been wrapped around to the left side of the screen. This is REALLY noticeable when the right side of the screen is showing something bright (like sky) and the left side is showing something dark (like a shadow or the side of a building).

Both of the above problems only happen in 1080p mode. When I switch to 1080i mode, it doesn't happen. Though, to tell the truth, I switched back to 1080p. I bought a 1080p TV so I could use the full resolution, dangit!

I've already bought a nice new shielded Belkin HDMI/DVI cable, thinking that the somewhat shoddy-looking one that I was using before was having signal problems. But, no, the problem persisted.

I've hooked up my computer to the TV and had it output 1920x1080, and it doesn't display either of the problems the PS3 does.

So, any thoughts? Is this a problem with the PS3's 1080p output? Or did I just get a bum PS3? Might they update firmware to fix it?

(Cross-posted to _playstation3 and ps_3.)

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 03:50:18 GMT

Are the $49.99 PS3 HD cables necessary? I know that you can play without, however I want to know how much of a difference do they make? Someone answer please....

x-posted

PSP to PS3 Connectivity

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 14:13:43 GMT

Can anyone give me step by step instructions on how to get the PSP to talk to the PS3 wirelessly through remote play. I think I'm doing something wrong. I'd appreciate any help.

PS3 Reduces

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 15:07:49 GMT

Sony Playstation 3, 60GB (gift receipt included) not sure if it's a bundle or not...I do know that it comes w/a wireless remote controller

Bank check or funded paypal ONLY please. $770 shipped! Thanks for looking! =)
Happy holidays & happy shopping

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 20:08:35 GMT

i was wondering if you need a HDTV for the ps3 to work at all?

Question.

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 20:04:12 GMT

Is there any way to access saved files from old playstation 1 or 2 memory cards on the ps3? The internal memory card system is screwing me up entirely.

60 gig for sale

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 01:16:17 GMT

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=009&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=190060978429&rd=1&rd=1

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 05:54:18 GMT

I know $2000 is ridiculous to ask for a 20gb PS3 so shoot me your best offer! and I'll definately consider it!

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 17:50:51 GMT

Seven 60GB units in stock, get 'em before they go: http://www.retrothinking.com/store/barunit_51_12_playstation3

ps3 for sale by poor college student

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 02:36:41 GMT

http://cgi.ebay.com/PLAYSTATION-3-60-GB-FREE-SHIPPING_W0QQitemZ260054970043QQihZ016QQcategoryZ62054QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

^ e-bay link, college student who needs books more than a ps3. Check it out :)

1 60GB PS3 free shipping with reciept!

PS3 60 gig for sale to the world

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 06:07:00 GMT

So, I got a fancy pants 60gig ps3 for sale. I will ship to Europe, for all you poor Europeans who do not have access to the PS3 until next year.

All comments are screened, so let me know how to contact you if interested. Please note that this PS3 is already up for auction on ebay in the US: my ps3 on ebay

So you can grab it there if you're in the states. If you are NOT in the US (europeans) please contact me ASAP as I need to cancel the auction on ebay. The cost is $5000 USD for anyone outside of the United States, must be sent via paypal. If you think I'm shady, then don't bother buying from me. You can also see my website at masterslate.org. I'm a normal, reputable guy.

So, if you want this PS3, get back to me ASAP. I'll be up all night watching and waiting.

Please leave some way to contact you quickly (AIM, Yahoo, msn, icq)

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