Playstation Move

NOTE: This is an old post I wrote about a year ago that I never got around finishing up and posting.  But I figure I would just go ahead and post it as is.

So I picked a move bundle, 3 extra move controller (got two of them for $37.50 each with a gamestop coupon), and one navigation controller.

- Cheap bastards continue the tradition of not including any usb cables for charging.
- Setup was easy enough. I positioned the camera right below my HDTV.
- The controls feel good in the hands but the big glowing ball in different colors makes you look rather comical.

Sports Champions
- The pointer tracked very smoothly and precisely on the screen. It has a nice calibration screen before each sport that shows you where to stand and has you move the wand to shoulder height, down at your side, and belt height.
- Archery is pretty fun and works pretty well. I finished the bronze level and my arms were pretty tired by now. Fun, but didn't seem that much different than wii sports resort with motion plus at least from a performance perspective.
- Next up was Gladiator. Now THIS was fun. Playing solo with two move controllers is rather awesome. One controls the shield and the other the weapon. The buttons let you dodge, jump back, shield bash, or activate a super attack once you charge up the meter from successfully blocking attacks. Location of your attacks and blocks is pretty key. There's actually a bit of depth. Dodging too much makes you stumble and leaves you open. The only way to avoid a shield bash is a dodge. A missed shield bash opens you up for attack. You can thrust and the speed and strength of the swing seems at least partially taken into account. It's not perfect but it's a marked improvement over what I've seen on Wii. Next, I let my kids at it. In single move controller mode you have to use the trigger to toggle between weapon/shield controls. Other than that it still works pretty well. They had a blast flailing around.
- Table tennis felt off to me. I've played quite a bit in real life and this still doesn't feel right. Placement of the ball is difficult. You can't slice. Spinning is hit and miss. It was pretty disappointing overall.
- Kids played some beach volleyball which had a nice co-op option. It seemed fun but I didn't get a chance to try it.

Time Crisis: Razing Storm
- The calibration is more accurate than the demo. Tracking and aiming is pretty smooth.
- After some time the tracking tends to drift. If you aim too far out of the screen then the crosshair no longer lines up with where you are point and is off center. You can try nudging it back by aiming way off screen in the other direction or you can recalibrate but this is really annoying and needs to be fixed.
- Having to press the move button on TOP of the controller to control going behind shield cover/reload is retarded feeling. At least support using a separate ps3 controller or the navigation controller. Come on Namco!
- Graphics are pretty good and it's nice having 2 players share the same screen vs the horrible tiny 2 screens in time crisis 4 during co-op.
- The game is really short but as a bonus you get some sort of pirate game and a complete copy of Time Crisis 4 on the same disc. As far as I can tell there have been no updates to this version of time crisis 4 except adding move support.
- Guncon 3 is also supported.
- Let me rant a bit about light gun games in general. I love this genre ever since Virtua Cop (which is still one of my all time favorites). For those of you who have played paintball, air soft, gone to a firing range you know what it feels like to fire a gun, how to at least line up your sights and aim properly. If you have an accurate light gun that mimics a semi automatic pistol that requires reloading, with actual sights on the plastic gun that work and NO crosshair on screen you actually have a semi realistic simulation that requires actual aiming and some skill to play. What the current genre of light gun games have become are fully automatic guns with a crosshair on screen where you just wave your controller around and literally hose down everything that moves. Just sit back and enjoy the chaotic display of graphical effects with almost no gameplay involved. Younger kids might enjoy this but I find this experience extremely shallow. I really do miss Virtua Cop on Sega Saturn and Virtua Cop 2 on dreamcast. Those were nearly arcade perfect ports with a great gun peripheral. I think I still have all that stuff but they don't work with LCD TV's.

The Shoot
- Now this is a nice contrast compared to where the Time Crisis series is heading. This game actually rewards accuracy with a multiplier and earning power ups. It's all about making accurate single shots. I still don't have real iron sights on my plastic gun, and there is still a crosshair painted on the screen, but it's a step in the right direction.
- So the premise is a movie shoot and you are shooting these popup fake wooden bad guys (think Hogan's Alley). I actually like this change of pace in presentation. You want to make accurate consecutive shots without missing to increase your multiplier and earn you special moves. To pull off these moves you have to either shoot at the ground, sky, or spin around (this last one does slow motion bullet time). Here's the problem. It has the EXACT same issue as time crisis. If you spin around it completely throws the calibration off and the crosshair is no longer centered where the gun is pointing. This issue needs to be fixed or move is essentially dead for light gun games. I can't tell you how annoying this is.
- You actually have to move your body left/right to dodge some attacks or duck to avoid others.
- Occasionally you have some scripted moments where you have a quick draw showdown with a boss or something.
- Out of the two light gun games I would probably go with The Shoot. It uses more features of move and actually requires a bit more interaction than your typical light gun game.

PlayStation Move Shooting Attachment
- It's $20 from amazon.
- It feels pretty good in your hands.
- The move controller is easy to get in and out without having to remove the wrist strap.
- The trigger action feels pretty good.
- There are no sights.
- Looks like stubby gun with a big glowing ball on the end.

PS3 Move Quad Charger
- So this old Nyko ps3 controller charger that works great for my dual shock 3 doesn't seem to work with playstation move.
- So I picked up this PS3 Move charger for $20. It will charge up to two 2 controllers, 2 navigation controllers, and has 2 additional usb ports to charge whatever you want (dual shock 3, more move controllers, etc).
- It has clear LED lights to indicate if it is charging or if charging has completed and an on/off switch on the back. I kind of like to leave the controllers in the charger with it off and use it like a stand.
- Highly Recommended. It's only $20 from amazon with free shipping. It works very well and charges all my ps3 accessories.

Recommended but you might want to wait. You'll definitely want at least 2 of the move controllers but consider getting 4. I don't have any games that use the navigation controller but you apparently can use a regular ps3 controller instead if you want. Remember, the navigation controller is basically just a dual shock 3 chopped in half and made to fit in one hand. It has no motion/move technology in it. It's a lot of money to spend for very little content right now. But if you've got the money to blow it was better than expected (for non light gun games). As soon as my arm heals I'll be playing more of that gladiator game. Also, don't let sony fool you into thinking this is cheaper than Kinect. The bundle is $100, move is $50 each, and navigation is $30. So for just two players you will spend at least $150. For my setup with 4 move controllers and a navigation controller that is already over $250 even with discounts. Add the charger and shooting attachements (I picked up 2) and I'm now looking at $315 and this is before buying games.

Killzone 2 (PS3)

I just finished the first level on the default difficulty setting.

- Aiming feels sluggish to me. Something is off. Maybe I just need to fiddle with the sensitivity settings but the acceleration or the auto aim or the combination of both just makes everything feel sluggish and imprecise. Basically just the opposite of COD4 where everything felt fast, snappy, fluid, and precise.
- The little hitches when loading the next area are a bit annoying but not that big of a deal.
- Save points seem pretty frequent so far.
- Graphics are very nice but didn't make my heart stop or anything. Framerate seems solid.
- Why does it take what seems like 30 seconds of animation to toss a grenade????
- You're pretty tough. A rocket in your face from about 4 ft doesn't kill you....wtf. I guess it does cut down on frustration.
- Can't hit crap without zooming in. I mean it's pretty ridiculous. I would expect a bit better accuracy if you are crouched and sitting still. The crosshairs expand very rapidly.
- Cover system works pretty well I guess but I still think r6 did it better.
- It seems the game can't decide if it wants to be a twitch shooter or a slower more methodical one.
- What is up with having only ONE main weapon at a time. That's kind of annoying.
- I found controlling the tank awkward.
- I get the midget thing now. Even the tables come up to your armpits while you are standing. It is rather distracting.

Man I think I bought into the hype a bit too much so I was bound to be a bit disappointed. Still, I'm enjoying it for the most part though it's definitely no system seller. I'll post more as I get further into the game.

UPDATE: 3/2/09
I've put in a few more hours into the single player.

You know there is different and then there is just bad. I think the controls for the most part are just bad. Having finished resistance and uncharted I had none of the control issues I'm feeling with KZ2.

Take the following scenario: You are hiding behind a corner healing up. Some dude comes running around the corner. He is too close for the scope view so you leave it on the expanding crosshair view. You swivel to line up your target but since the acceleration is all screwed up (takes too long to get going, maybe too big of a dead zone, and then once it does get going it accelerates way too fast, maybe some auto aim assist that impacts acceleration when the crosshairs are near a target would help like in halo) so you over shoot and swing back the other way and over compensate. Combine that with the wacky accuracy model/bullet spread when not scoped just compounds the issue. I don't call this different. I call it sucky and frustrating. I think I've actually resorted more to melee in these situations because of the controls.

And for the argument that they feel more weighty and meaty well that would be fine except a small light SMG feels almost the same as the big heavy machine gun.

I'll still finish the game. I think the game gets better after the first level with more intense set piece battles and defend bits which I quite enjoyed.

UPDATE: 3/24/09
- Finished the single player. No real desire to try multiplayer though I hear it's pretty good. The controls were still frustrating throughout which gives me even less desire to try the multiplayer.

- Not much plot, didn't really ever care much about the characters.

- The battles do get better and more epic in the last third of the game which was really exciting.
- Final boss is a bit cheap but not too bad once you learn the pattern.

Overall, a beautiful if a bit derivative looking, mostly solid shooter with some pretty flawed controls. Only recommended for the die hard shooter fan though it is still one of the better ones on the PS3.

Playstation Home (PS3)

- I gave the open beta a try. Here are some early impressions after playing around with it for a couple of hours.
- First you download it from the cross media bar and let it install. Upon launching, it wants to reserve 3gb of space.
- I ran into several connection issues. After multiple tries I was finally in and created my avatar.
- Next, you are dropped into your home which then runs through the tutorial.
- The graphics are pretty impressive if a bit sterile.
- I like all the animations that are included though the dancing still isn't as good as guild wars.
- There are a LOT of download progress bars: go to a new location for the first time - download (though you can do this in the background), play bowling - download, play an arcade game - download, watch a video at the theater - download, etc. I wish there was an option to just download everything at once so I could just walk away and try it all later.
- First was the main lounge/hub. Not much to do there. I walked around a bit and did some dancing. Hitting start lets you quickly jump to any location.
- Next I tried the theater. You can walk around while the big screen in there is downloading the movie (you see a progress bar on the screen). It turned out to be the Twilight trailer followed by the related Paramore music video which just then loops. You can walk up to most video screens, advertisements to go full screen (which isn't quite full screen but close, you are always in the 3D world). Video quality was ok (think xvid).
- Next up was the bowling alley. I bowled a 144 in my first game. It's all timing meter based (like golf games)....so yeah not all that exciting.
- Next, I tried the arcade in there: there was some lame arkanoid/breakout clone, echochrome, and some crappy puzzle game.
- I played a bit of pool which was ok.
- Oh yeah and it's like in real life. If all the lanes, arcade machines, pool tables, etc are taken you have just wait around until one frees up.
- I decided to try some of the themed areas. First was far cry 2 which looked quite impressive. It felt like you were in the game. There is an office and a train station. There are few points of interest like an interactive map and something that looked like a board game which I didn't try since they were all full.
- I then hopped over to Sully's bar from uncharted. There was a crappy pitfall looking game and some doors with locks on them which I didn't get to try because again they were all full.
- Finally I went to the mall where you can buy furniture at $1 a piece to decorate your virtual home, buy a new home for $5, or some clothing and accessories at 50 cents each. This is almost as bad as buying icons (gamer pics) on 360. I watched another video on the wall which had some Asian girl (I think from Qore) that went over what was new on PSN. I sat down and played some chess with a random stranger.
- There is voice communication and text. The communication stuff seems to be proximity based so there is no need to "start a conversation" with somebody. Just walk up to them and start talking.
- It seems like there are some party system game launching features which I didn't try.

And that's pretty much all there is in the Home Beta currently. It's not bad for free but I'm not sure if I'll be spending much time in there. I would have much preferred if Sony had spent the money, time, and effort on something more useful like the NXE party system.

Little Big Planet (PS3)

- I've only spent about 4-5 hrs with the game so far.
- I don't think I've seen a console game this hyped in a long time. In a lot of way it reminds me of Spore. Not the game itself but how it was perceived and received. There is this huge hype machine surrounding it, how the user created content was going to change the world, make the platform really take off, etc. Then, when it came out it was a good solid game but not nearly as ground breaking as we expected.
- At it's core it's a very capable pretty physics based mostly 2D platformer with some nice 3d graphics. It does have a certain quirky charm about it thanks to the narrator.
- It's very family friendly as far as not having anything offensive in the game. The game play itself is a different story.
- The difficulty ramps up and rather quickly. It didn't take long before my 6yr old was having problems keeping up. It wasn't soon after before I found I was having problems finishing a level. It uses the old lives system. What's worse are the lives pool is shared among all the players. So if you are playing with players with a large range of skills, it's possible that the less skilled players could drain all the lives rather quickly. When you run out of lives you have to start the whole level over again. So even though there are ample number of continue points, the whole lives thing kind of ruins things.
- I also found the camera kind of troublesome. I tries to focus on the player ahead. If another player lags too far behind, they will warp to the lead player when they cross the next check point. The problem is sometimes the camera would focus on the lagging player instead of the leader. I think I would have preferred a zoom in/out and dynamically split the screen when needed. I guess it would get pretty busy if the screen had to split 4 ways and then merge again when the players came together.
- I didn't mess with the content creating side of things yet. I really don't have the time right now but it does seem interesting.
- Browsing user levels seemed a bit cumbersome with levels arranged on planets that you zoom in and out of. I played a few that would earn you 7 trophies in 30 seconds or whatever. I did find a few original "real" levels that were quite fun.
- I'm a bit burnt out on traditional 2d platformers. OK, I was never really that much into them in the first place.
- My kids still really like this game. So it might be ok if you don't mind sticking to easier user generated content or the first few easier levels included in the game.

This game kind of reminds me of the first Viva Pinata. It was a cutesy game tied to a kids cartoon with pretty deep game play. Here you have what a appears to be a very family friendly cutesy platformer but with a punishing difficulty curve and lives system. Add to that a very deep and elaborate creation system that I'm sure the hard core will gobble up. Who are they targeting with this title? I can see myself having some co-op fun with it but I can't recommend it at full price as a family game (maybe <= $30). It will probably be worth full price if you are really interested in creating levels.

Dualshock 3 (PS3)

Dualshock 3 compared to the original six axis:



- I had pre-ordered it from amazon and got it for $50
- It's pretty much exactly the same as the original six axis except it has a bit more weight. I like that since it does feel more substantial in your hands.
- Tried it out with Lair with the new analog control/rumble patch. The rumble effects were pretty subtle. The analog control makes Lair suck less. Unskipable cut scenes even when you are repeating a mission because you just failed it really does suck. Uncharted has rumble support already built it and feels nice.
- It's also fully compatible with your PS2 games. I gave devil may cry 3 SE a try and the rumble effects felt fine.

Recommended if you feel like paying $50-55 for fixing Sony's "mistake" (can we say Immersion patent infringement) in the first place. I really missed rumble so I guess it was worth it to me but the price does seem kind of high.

IR2BT (Playstation 3)

- $55 from ir2bt.com. It takes IR signals from your universal remote (or the original ps2 remote if you have one), converts it to bluetooth (RF) and sends those commands to the ps3 mimicking the official sony bluetooth remote perfectly. As far as the ps3 is concerned it thinks you are using the actual official sony bluetooth remote control.
- I went ahead and picked up a usb cable and usb power supply. You can power it with 2XAA or mini usb to usb cable and connect it to almost anything that supplies usb power (dedicated usb power supply, powered usb hub, most cable/satellite set top boxes).
- Setup was quick and painless. Here is a nice youtube video that walks you through it.
Basically you have to first pair it with your ps3. You only need to do this step once. Turn on your ps3 and navigate to settings, accessories settings, register BD remote control.
You have to disconnect all power from the ir2bt since it only goes into pairing mode on the first 15 seconds of powering up. Power up the IR2BT then press and hold the #2 button on the remote. Which means it's probably a good idea to setup your harmony remote first.

- Setting up my harmony 676 was really easy. I removed my existing PS3 device (nyko blu-wave) and then added IR2BT which is already in the harmony database (add device, game console with dvd, mfg: IR2BT, model: IR2BT). I then proceeded to map the keys the way I wanted to for my activity. Everything is there including all 4 color buttons (red,blue,green,yellow) and "powerToggle" is the PS button. Power on/off macros (here is the 6 button power off sequence used if you are curious) are already part of the IR2BT harmony device database so I didn't have to do a single thing to get ps3 power on/off to work with my harmony. It worked PERFECTLY the very first time after updating my harmony remote.
- There is ZERO lag (unlike the horribly laggy nyko blu-wave). You can hold down buttons, press buttons as fast as you want, and it's all very quick and responsive. I repeat there is NO LAG!!!!
- Nice that you can just put this little box anywhere IR can get to. It doesn't need to be near your ps3 since since it's all bluetooth (RF) between ir2bt and the ps3. Here you can see the ir2bt is located more centrally in my cabinet near my usbuirt (for my htpc) and the ps3 is on the far right:


Anybody using a PS3 as their primary home theater blu-ray player NEEDS this device (especially if there is a WAF consideration). It is well worth the $55. This product has far exceeded my expectations in performance and ease of setup. I think I'm going to need to buy a second one for my other ps3.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE: 7/2/08
Looks like the 2.40 firmware update kind of breaks the IR2BT:
http://www.ir2bt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=185&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Basically don't turn on the ps3 with the ir2bt. If you do, it won't accept any more commands until you power cycle the ps3. So for now either don't upgrade the firmware or turn on the ps3 by some other means (insert a disc, power button on the console, or a ps3 controller). Bruce is looking into the issue.

UPDATE: 7/7/08
Luckily I didn't apply the update before 2.40 was pulled. Either way I'll probably be sending both my units in to Bruce for the update when it is available.

UPDATE: 7/21/08
I went ahead and shipped both of mine back for the free update to work with ps3 firmware 2.41. Just follow the instructions here:
http://ir2bt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=205

UPDATE: 7/26/08
Just received my updated ir2bt's back (both of them). They work great now with 2.41. That's just 6 days since I shipped them out so Bruce is doing a great job turning them around quick. Note: I did have to go through the paring process again.

UPDATE: 10/29/08
Both of my updated IR2BT's work fine with ps3 firmware 2.50.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)

- Finished in around 12 hrs on normal. I found only 35/60 treasures. Length was just about perfect.
- Graphics are amazing for any system. This is hands down one of the best looking games I've seen. I love the texture work, wet/water effects, foliage that moves, incredible draw distances, lighting and fire, all with a rock steady smooth framerate.
- Overall I liked the art direction for the most part except for the character designs. They did grow on me over time though.
- Animations are nice and smooth with some really great work in the facial animations during cut scenes.
- Game play is basically gears of war combat with a very good cover system + prince of Persia/tomb raider platforming/environmental puzzles. Toss in some rail shooter parts, some drivable vehicles, a few short quick time battle segments, and you've got probably every action adventure/3rd person shooter innovation in the last half decade all combined into something truly great. It's incredibly polished. The controls are pretty spot on. Everything just feels responsive and right. You never get stuck too long since after a while they will usually throw you a hint telling you to hit L2, and the camera will focus on where/what you should do next.
- Pacing is excellent. This is all high quality dense content. There is no fluff. Checkpoints were plentiful and were mostly fine. I think I only had some difficulties maybe 3 times. The game does quite a bit to reduce frustration. It's like the designers actually want you to finish this game. Nice ending too.
- I loved the story and the characters. They did a great job developing them where you really cared what happened to them. I thought this was some of the best writing in any game (and better than a lot of movies). The main character personality reminds me a lot of Malcom (Nathan Fillion) from Firefly. If you like that sarcastic wit kind of humor then you'll love this game. The other two principal characters are great too. All the voice acting is top notch. There are a lot of cut scenes to help further the story which I always looked forward to watching.
- All the level design/architecture is top notch too.
- AI is pretty impressive. You'll often see squads work together advancing on you trying to flank. They take cover all the time. When they do pop out to take a shot at you, it's not always in the same place. Sometimes they roll out or peak around a corner or stand up.
- Music fits the game perfectly. I think it was in fact composed by the same guy who did Firefly's music.
- When you spin around quickly the game adds this motion blur effect. I found it really annoying.
- Pretty good weapon selection but I wish I could hold more than 2 weapons. If you could always have a pistol as backup + 2 primary weapons would have been much better. Greater max ammo would have been nice too.
- Motions controls are used a bit: shaking, balance, grenade toss distance. I just wish they made the grenade distance motion thing optional. It would have worked much better if you could just use the right analog stick.
- Wireless controller cut out a few times especially after doing a manual save.
- I've read this game supports rumble if you have one of the new Dual Shock 3 controllers. Importing one runs around $60.
- There's some nice bonus content. You can re-watch any of the cut scenes. Also, there are several making of videos that I'm working my way through.

Hands down the best PS3 game so far and easily one of the best games on any platform. If you own a PS3 you NEED to get this game.

Highly recommended!

GamingSteve.com and Playstation 3 (40GB)

- So I've been listening to the Gaming Steve Podcast for over 2 years now. He's in the industry and runs a casual games studio. He also is pretty well connected especially with Blizzard and Spore information. Anyways, I've always found his meaty podcasts (warning they are pretty long) informative and entertaining. I think we are in the same age bracket (mid 30's), is a family man like me, and seem to have similar tastes in games so I found him easy to relate to. I especially like his retro reviews since I've played many of those games in my youth. Well, a few months ago he kind of stopped the podcasts temporarily since real life got in the way as it often does. He recently started podcasting again and decided to have a contest where all you had to do was email him with your game of the year and explain why. I decided why not. This time the prizes were much bigger. Usually he gives away gaming swag. But this time to celebrate his podcast come back he was also giving away a free game of your choice and the first place prize of a game system of your choice. I've never won anything on a podcast before so you can imaging how excited I was when I heard him start reading the email from the winner in this podcast episode. FYI my GOTY is Crysis. I highly recommend you give his site a look and his podcast a listen. He also runs a pretty active forum.
Anyways a BIG THANKS goes out to Gaming Steve for the free Playstation 3 and for shipping it to me so quickly!

- Got it in last night. Shipped from amazon.
- It's very similar to the 60gb I got near launch. It's missing 2 usb ports, only has a 40gb hdd, no backwards compatibility at all with ps1/ps2, and no card reader. The 60/20gb models had both ps2 cpu and gpu for nearly perfect 100% backwards compatibility (and nice upscaling to make your ps2 games look better than ever). The 80gb dropped the cpu but still had the gpu so they did the cpu using software emulation. Emulation isn't perfect so compatibility wasn't as good. Now to further reduce cost the 40gb drops both the ps2 cpu and gpu and therefore no backwards compatibility of any sort. Interesting that the flap on the top left which usually conceals the card reader slots is locked down so you can't flip it open. The back IO ports doesn't seem to have changed at all. The face plate around the optical drive is now a flat silver vs the chrome finish on my 60gb. Also, this unit is practically silent (not that my 60gb was all that loud to begin with). It still has wifi which I didn't use since my house is fully cat5 wired.
- Since upgrading the downstairs home theater the original 60gb ps3 has pretty much permanently relocated there for blu-ray duties and some gaming. So this 40gb fits nicely upstairs in the game room where my 60gb use to sit. It's hooked up via hdmi to my 40" samsung 720p LCD HDTV and optical for the 5.1 sound. No backwards compatibility isn't as big of a deal upstairs since my ps2 is still hooked up to that tv.
- I have another Nyko Blu Wave remote control on order for integration with my harmony.
- After initial setup, upgrading to latest 2.10 firmware (it came with 2.0 installed) and a few quick tests I decided to swap out the hard drive. I had upgraded my original 60gb to a 160gb so I still had the original 60gb pretty much just sitting around. So I went ahead and took out the 40gb and stuck in the 60gb.
The original 40gb hard drive:

- Next, I decided to go ahead and install yellowdog linux on it. I reformatted the hard drive with 50gb to ps3 game os and 10gb for other os.
- There is a newer version of YDL since I installed on the 60gb. They are up to 5.02. Go DL the image from one of the mirrors.
The file you need is yellowdog-5.0.2-20070711.iso.
Follow this install guide.
It's even easier than before. All the files you need, even the boot loader, are in the dvd image. So you no longer need a usb key drive.
- I tested it briefly, fired up firefox, it seemed to work fine. OK back to the game os. I tested out the sample blu ray disc that was included that has a bunch of game and movie trailers.

It also came with Spiderman 3 on blu-ray though I had already bought the trilogy on blu-ray. I guess I'll give it away to somebody as a gift.
- Multiple console experience: On the 360 I ended up getting a 512MB MU and putting my profile on there and all my save games. This works pretty well except to login to live I had to always go grab my MU and move it from system to system. The PS3 makes it really easy to enter login credentials for PSN on multiple consoles and have yit automatically login (none of this profile file crap that can only exist in one place like on the 360). Save games are always saved to the hard drive so you have to copy them to a usb key drive to move them between ps3's.
- Re-downloading my PSN games was a snap. In the top right corner of the playstation store is a download list. After downloading my payed for content again and installing I was up and running the full version of the games.
- Setup the media streaming from windows media player 11. It worked fine. I tested an xvid file which played fine.

Overall it's a great system. The lack of usb and card reader is no big deal since you can grab a usb hub and a usb card reader for next to nothing. As long as you don't need ps1/ps2 backwards compatibility this is still the best blu-ray player (and upscaling dvd player) out there (now even better with profile 1.1 support), and it is starting to get better as a game machine (Uncharted is really great).

Time Crisis 4 with Guncon 3 (PS3)

A LOT of screen real estate is wasted in two player mode:





Actually, It's better if you put the weight right behind the sensor. That way you can tilt the sensor to angle downward.


- I bought two copies at $50 each on amazon that way I could have two guns. I then flipped one of the copies of the game to gamestop for $28 back.
- Sensors mount by the use of a rubber strip and a weight on the end. It just kind of sits on your tv. Nothing actually attaches the sensor to the TV. The usb cord is plenty long.
- The Guncon 3 is ok. It's a little bulky with the handle/control pod that sticks out the left side. It also throws the balance off a bit when playing with one hand. Overall it's ok and still pretty light. The usb cable on the gun itself is a tad short. I ended up using some 6ft usb extensions.
- Accuracy is pretty good with the five point calibration system (which you have to do for each gun every time you start the game). It's not quite as good as guncon 2 but acceptable. You can still aim pretty well using the actual gun sights.
- I finished the arcade mode in less than 2 hrs. This was after repeated plays by my son who unlocked free play for me. It's classic Time Crisis, and I really enjoyed it (especially those helicopter levels).
- Two player is ok but that split screen is horrible and puts big black borders around everything. It basically turned my 52" LCD into two tiny 20" screens. Still I guess it's better than nothing.
- It's not backwards compatible with the earlier ps2 Time Crisis games (2 & 3) which sucks.
- The new complete "fps" mode is another story. It's weird that you control it like a standard dual analog stick fps yet you can still aim separately with the light gun. This means you control the camera view (right analog stick) independently of where you shoot. It's a bit awkward to say the least. You end up moving, adjust camera, stop, then aim and shoot. The player walks really slowly. Your health recharges if you sit there not moving for a few seconds. It really is slow placed and kind of boring. Oh and yeah your hands will hurt after while. Still it's quite a bit of additional content.
- There's also some target shooting mini games.
- Graphics are 720p and pretty sharp though not all that impressive or next gen looking.

It's expensive but performs about as expected. If you like light gun games this is about the only next gen option available (Ghost Squad on the Wii isn't really the same with the lack of sights on the zapper). I guess you can always try a G1 or TopGun in back compatibility mode on the ps3 with Time Crisis 2 or 3 if you really want. I've read it works on the ps3 I haven't had time to personally test the G1 yet.

Recommended only to die hard light gun fans.

Logitech Cordless Mediaboard

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/gaming/playstation_3/devices/282&cl=us,en

Circuit City has it for $60
$50 shipped from buy.com

- Designed for ps3 but I'm primarily using this with my htpc.
- Light, thin, compact, good range, uses 2.4ghz
- Mouse touchpad works great with tapping to click and scrolling area on the right.
- No drivers needed (winxp).
- Keyboard has a good feel.
- There is a new more expensive "pro" model that is bluetooth based but this one is just fine for pc use. At $50 it's a bit more reasonable now vs when it first game out. It's a lot cheaper than the diNovo line.
- I actually found the mouse left/right click buttons on the keyboard quite handy and comfortable to use. Too bad it's missing the windows key. You might be able to remap one of the keys with something like this (haven't tested yet):
http://www.autohotkey.com/
- Has a manual on/off sliding switch. Not sure if it auto turns off (doesn't mention anything about it anywhere in the manual).
- It's also not bad for gaming once you add a dedicated wireless laser mouse like the logitech mx-610. I just prefer a single integrated key/mouse for surfing and general pc maintenance. It's just more comfortable, and I don't have to have a space next to me for the mouse.

Highly recommended for HTPC use.

NYKO Blu Wave IR Remote (PS3)

http://www.nyko.com/nyko/products/?i=113#

- Picked it up for $20 shipped from newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16879213018&Tpk=bluwave
- IR dongle is nice and small
- Still works by emulating a ps2 controller through usb. This means no PS button and no ability to turn the ps3 on/off.
- Also has the same drawback where if you leave the dongle plugged in, you turn on the ps3 with your wireless ps3 six axis controller, your six axis is controller #2 and your IR dongle/remote becomes controller #1. I find this quite annoying. Anybody know of a work around besides leaving the IR dongle unplugged when booting the ps3 to play games? UPDATE: If you hit the PS button you can reassign your real controller as controller #1. The assignment seems to stick between standby/on power cycles (sometimes...still seems a bit inconsistent).
- Programming into the Harmony remote is a snap. The learn function works just fine (no need for RAW mode).
- Nicely labeled buttons on the remote makes learning on the harmony that much easier.
- A much cleaner/nicer solution than the usb -> ps2 adapter + ps2 ir remote dongle. But it basically accomplishes the exact same thing.

Sony NEEDS to update the firmware to allow 3rd party usb IR dongles to have full access to the blu-ray player and power on/off capabilities so a proper IR remote can be created. This will do for now but it's far from perfect. It's times like these I really hate Sony. Amazing how by them cutting corners just to save a few bucks on an IR receiver has caused so much frustration.

Heavenly Sword (PS3)

I just played the demo several times.
- Flashed to 1.90. 1 GB download.
- Graphics are gorgeous, great sense of scale. I just love the character design.
- Framerates are very smooth
- Animations are really cool, there are lots of them.
- Could use a bit more blood.
- The dragon's lair rope scene still impresses (though these scenes seem very forgiving). Demo is pretty short which consists of the rope scene, a fight on the pillar, cut a rope, watch pillar fall, another quick time battle scene, and one final fight.
- Not quite Goddess of War. It's a bit less button mashy. The combo system is quite a bit deeper with the 3 fightings styles you can switch on the fly. Some combos require you to switch styles in the middle of your string of attacks.
- Aerial combos are nuts. They look awesome but I'm having trouble triggering them consistently. Looking at the help it seems they all start with L1 + triangle (range stance) with shaking. You have to hit a staggered enemy then move the six axis controller upward. It seems once the air animation starts you must immediately begin the rest of the combo. I can't quite get the timing down exactly. The timing doesn't seem very precise or repeatable and throwing in a six axis movement in there doesn't help. I can usually start the chain animation but I can't get them up into the air except maybe 1 out of every 5 tries. Why do the best and coolest looking combos have to require six axis movement as part of the combo?????

I hope it's just my lack of skill and understanding of the aerial combo system.

I love this game from what little I've played.
System seller!!!! (or it would be if I didn't already buy the ps3 back at launch).
Finally a ps3 game I'm excited about!

UPDATE: 7/27/07
- OK I went into the options and sure enough you can turn off motion controls for everything. After that the help screen substitutes X for where you would normally shake for aerial combos.
- Aerial combos are MUCH MUCH easier now. Basically stun an enemy, use L1 + triangle to get an enemy in the air, immediately hit X and that should start the aerial sequence, then go into your combo (easiest one to start with is square, square, square). I just pulled off 4 of these in a single demo play.
- Heavenly sword just got even more impressive for me. The learning curve is a bit steep but man once you start to get a feel for it, it's a blast. You actually feel like you accomplished something (and feel seriously bad ass) when you pull off one of these combos unlike in god of war where it practically does it by itself.
- Oh yeah the music is pretty awesome too!
- The detail on Nariko is really impressive especially in the opening scene. I feel like I need to apply some neosporin on the cut on her leg before it gets infected.

UPDATE: 9/14/07
- I just picked up the full game today. Finished the first chapter.
- Incredible graphics. They are some of the best I've seen.
- Framerate is fine. It's not a blazing 60fps but it's fast enough and pretty steady no matter how much is going on screen at once (and believe me they can draw a serious amount of enemies at once on screen).
- I love the art direction especially the character designs
- First chapter does a pretty good job at introducing all the different game play types and fighting techniques.
- There hasn't been a whole lot of exploration. Pretty much you are just running from one arena style battle to the next. Not that I mind because I really enjoy the combat.
- Turn off ALL motion controls. They really do suck. Even aftertouch works much better using the analog stick.

So far I'm loving this game. Finally a game worth buying on PS3!!!

UPDATE: 9/19/07
FINISHED!
- 8 hrs at most (and that's mostly because I had a bit of trouble with the last boss). There hasn't been a game this short since Max Payne 2.
- Incredible production values: art, animation (especially the face, really conveys emotion well), character design, voice acting, writing, story, music, and sound are all just top notch.
- Great pacing, no filler or back tracking.
- Some lame timed door puzzles.
- Not a whole lot of exploration.
- Combat is great and deeper than God of War. I like the combo/stance system more than gow (air combos never get old!). Counter system works well too. Countering projectiles is very similar to God of War 2.
- Camera is more fixed than most adventure games. You only have very limited control of the camera but that's ok. The placement is usually just fine and was never really a problem.
- Kai missions were a nice change of pace.
- Nice long epic final boss battle; pretty good ending.
- Very impressive in engine cut scenes with an occasional frame rate stutter.

In a lot of ways I enjoyed this more than the God of War series. The only problem is it is over too soon!
If you own a PS3 you NEED this game!

Dragon's Lair (Blu-ray)

I picked up a copy for $30 from Amazon.

- Played on the PS3 using the six axis controller.
- I also own the pc cd-rom, pc dvd-rom, dvd video versions of this game.
- Best video quality yet. They did a pretty good job restoring it.
- Gameplay is pretty smooth. The pauses between scene jumps/branches is pretty smooth. Occasionally I got some pop from the speakers when this happened (only happened maybe twice during the whole game).
- Lots of options and extras. You can set to infinite lives. There are a lot of nice HD extras like an entire pip commentary, interviews, watch mode, etc. There is this really nice comparison video (the last sequence) where they show you split screen all the different versions of dragon's lair compared to the blu-ray version. It really is quite staggering.
- 5.1 mix is fine. It doesn't really add a whole lot though.
- Don Bluth is looking pretty old there.
- Image is CROPPED!!!! To get it to fit a 16:9 aspect ratio the original 4:3 material has the top and bottom CUT OFF!!!! THERE IS NO OPTION TO CHOOSE 4:3 PILLAR BOX!!!! With all the space on blu-ray they really should have had both versions on there and let you choose. This really is inexcusable! Granted, most people might not care. It plays fine in 16:9. But for the purest and the collectors out there this is pretty inexcusable. Who else is going to spend $30 on a blu-ray version of a 24 year old game you can complete in like 30 minutes.

Overall I recommend it to the collector who can overlook the one grievous mistake. It is still by far the best looking and most playable Dragon's Lair yet. The extra content is a nice bonus too.

Now, bring me Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II but do it RIGHT!

Madcatz Wireless Thumbpad (PS3)

- $30 at gamestop
- With the new 360 dashboard release with IM support I figured I'd give this a try.
- Comes with a tiny usb 2.4ghz dongle, the thumbpad, and 2 clear clips (one for the standard six axis controller and another for the madcatz line of ps3 controllers).
- Tested and works on ps3, xbox360, and pc. No drivers needed. On pc it shows up as a standard human interface device (HID).
- Uses 2XAAA batteries (NIMH rechargables work just fine)
- Keyboard goes to sleep after 10min of inactivity. There is also a power on/off switch on the side.
- Standard QWERTY Layout.
- The thumbpad works pretty well. The individual keys have a bit of space between them. It has a full set of function keys. I wish the backspace was a dedicated key instead of a two button combo. No esc key which is a bit odd. It's comfortable in the hands when used standalone. Construction feels fine. No windows key so you can't use any of the messenger shortcuts like windows+M on 360. Also, if you plan to use this with a PC take note that there are NO alt or ctrl keys.
- The clip for the ps3 controller works ok. It's very easy and quick to snap on and is quite sturdy. You can still get to all the controller buttons but it completely throws off the balance. It feels quite awkward with all that weight above the controller. Also, the middle keys are a bit hard to reach with your thumbs since the controller itself kind of gets in the way. For web browsing or maybe an MMO this would work ok but I wouldn't want to leave the thumbpad clipped on for say a game of Resistance.

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the product. If you need a nice generic/universal thumbpad for you consoles or maybe even an HTPC, this works out nicely. It's something nice and small that could sit on a corner table or something instead of having to lug out a full size wireless keyboard. I plan to just leave it unclipped for the most part so I can just quickly pick it up and do some quick text entry. I'm betting the 360 dedicated thumbpad will be better but it will probably only work on the 360.

UPDATE: 5/15/07
- I've been using it lately on the 360 for IM chat. It works quite well. Here's a tip. If your messenger name is not what you want it to be go here:
http://webmessenger.msn.com/
And change it there. Using the latest windows client doesn't work but logging in through the web client and changing your display name there works.

UPDATE: 4/8/08
- I purchased another one of these more recently, and I've noticed they changed the design a bit. It's now thinner and has some sort of built in rechargeable battery (usb charging). It doesn't look to be user replaceable. Personally, I liked the older design better.

Nyko Dual Charger AC (PS3)

- $25 from gamestop
- Normally, you can only charge your ps3 controllers while the ps3 is on. Nobody wants to leave a $600 machine on just to charge a controller. Powered USB hubs didn't work. You could always plug it into a pc or if you were lucky a cable set top box to charge your controller.
- Now there is a safe convenient way to do it. The charger works just fine. The prongs collapse for easy travel though the ac adapter is a bit big.
- Charge up to two controllers at the same time.
- A bit pricey but you do get two usb cables.

Works just fine. It's up to you if you think it's worth the $25.

PS3 Hard Drive Upgrade and Yellow Dog Linux

- Anything you do to your PS3 you do at your own risk!
- Upgraded my PS3 to a 160gb hard drive and installed yellow dog linux on it.
- I picked up a Hitachi 160gb 5400rpm sata 2.5" hd from newegg for $130.
- I also picked up a sata/usb 2.5" enclosure: Vantec NexStar 3 for $35. I stuck the original ps3 60gb into the enclosure for some handy portable storage (FYI the ps3 formatted hard disk is unreadable until you init/partition/format it). The enclosure works ok but is pretty picky about the usb ports. The manual states it might not work with front mounted usb ports due to lack of shielding on the internal cable. They weren't kidding. I tried it on 2 different pc's and the front usb ports wouldn't work with it. Plugging it directly into the motherboard ports does work. Plugging it into a powered usb hub (in this case a belkin) worked fine too.
- If you have issues formatting large drives (like your original ps3 60gb hd) in fat32 under winxp try this tool:
ftp://ftp.heise.de/pub/ct/ctsi/h2format.zip
Just be careful you format the right drive!
- Used my Logitech mx3000 wireless desktop. It works fine with the ps3.
- First run the backup utility from the system settings menu. It works even better than I thought. I used an external hard drive formatted to fat32 to backup to since it required 4gb of space. That's because it backed up everything into a few archive.dat files. This includes not only save games but all trailers, games, demos, and even ps1/2 memory cards I had.
- Swapping the hard drive was pretty easy. Just follow the directions carefully in the back of the ps3 manual. Be careful not to strip the 4 screws when removing the hd from the cage.
- Once you boot up the ps3 again you'll be asked to format it. After that go into the system settings and format it again. This format lets you allocate 10gb to other os. Kind of silly that you can't choose the amount of space.
- Now you can go restore that backup using the same backup utility. You should have everything pretty much exactly like it was before except you've got that 10gb partition ready for installing linux.
- Grab the two otheros files at the top of this page:
http://ps3wiki.qj.net/index.php/YDL_on_SDTV
- read through and follow this guide:
http://ps3wiki.qj.net/index.php/Partition_and_get_ready
and this one:
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/support/installation/ydl5.0_ps3_guide.pdf
- Toggling back to booting the gameos is easy: just type boot-game-os at the kboot prompt. To go back to booting linux just select system settings - default system - other os.
- I played around with firefox, open office, and a few other apps. It worked ok. The firefox browser sure is better than the built in ps3 browser. Too bad the flash support is kind of broken on it.
- Wired networking works fine on first boot. Wireless isn't supported yet.
- VNC viewer crashed on me when I tried to use it.
- Googling a bit I noticed you can install VLC or MPlayer to kind of use the ps3 to stream media. It looked a bit involved so I haven't tried it yet. Also, without some sort of port to use the cell SPU's it seems HD content kind of stutters.
- Other resources:
http://www.gamersreports.com/article/43/
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/748/748255p1.html

I recommend you don't upgrade the hard drive until you are near running out of space. Hard drive prices are always falling/increasing in capacity. I probably wouldn't have done it now if I knew the backup utility worked so well and complete. Just make sure you have an external hard drive formatted in fat32 handy. Linux is interesting in so far that you can actually officially do it. If a good native built media player comes out for ps3 then I think that could be the YDL killer app.

UPDATE: 3/14/08
- I also got a 40gb ps3 and installed a later version of yellow dog linux on it. You can read about it here.