My Bad Date With a PS3

[PurpleRain]

I have a friend who owns the PS3. Ever time I go over to play a game it always comes up with that 'update' thing or something he has to download. Whenever he puts a new game in it has to instal. I'm not sure why, but I personally hate it. Didn't we buy a consol to get away from the buffering and installing like you'd get on a PC and just jump straight into the game?

I bought my 360 for Dead Rising only but have lived to love it more. I've never bothered to download a movie from either system so I can't actually add much more onto the discussion. Just agreeing with your points.

 

[slyder35]

** makes Susie a strong yet creamy latte with lots of froth **

In the end Susan, coffee fixes everything.

 

[TheWickerPopstar]

Are all Americans as stupid as this writer? Please tell me you arn't....

I hope that the misspelling is a joke. Either way, a pretty harsh first post, especially considering how flame-free this thread has been. I hope that the high quality of content on The Escapist convinces you to change your tone for future posts, in which case, welcome.

With regard to Saint Waldo's questions regarding updating for other consoles, I personally only have a Wii besides my PS3 and I do find that the updates for Wii tend to be much quicker, though the frequency of these updates is quite similar. Also, I do find that PS3 updates tend to have a more drastic effect on the system, especially with the major changes to the PSN and undoubtedly due to the complex architecture of the cell processor, which might explain the longer update times.

Either way, I'm thankful for broadband.

Maybe I'll find out about XBL updates when Fable II comes out.

 

[Aihal]

What a dull read. Journalist has trouble with their internet connection and manages to stretch that into an entire article?

 

[shadow skill]

I fail to see how these are problems with the PS3. I have streaming issues with flash ocassionally and I just stop the video and wait for it to finish caching. If you have not turned on your machine in a long time is it really all that unreasonable that there would be a firmware update waiting for you once you did turn it on?

 

[Eagle Est1986]

Really, four days? Or is that hyperbole? If it takes too long you can stop and restart the download.

And I don't see why not being able to watch a movie prevents you from playing a game. Unless you're the kind of idiot (no offense) that thinks of computing devices as more than a highly complex machine, by which I mean something intelligent with a personality and emotions capable of having a grudge or being spiteful.

Four days, at least, left on for 24hrs a day.

It doesn't prevent me from playing a game, it was just the final straw for my 360, it was at that point where I had finally had enough with the machine. All of it's little niggles had built up and finally gotten to me, now my PS3 has more of my time. Of course, I still have all my old 360 games and some of those still see some action but I'll only be buying the exclusives in future. I found the entire experience quite odd, because before that I used my consoles in the opposite way, only playing exclusives on my PS3.

 

[DanOBrien]

thats amazing

 

[Gunter2]

" I just plain like my 360 better. The 360 has Achievements and a Gamerscore and faceplates and downloadable content and Xbox Live Arcade"

Totally ignorant article, and stinks of desperation to get web hits...

The PS3 has Trophies (like achievements, but better thought out), It's got Gamerscore too (again better thought out). OK it's not got stupid faceplates, but it's got free themes and the ability to make your own, which is MUCH cooler. It's got tonnes of downloadable content, of generally better quality than XBox Live.

The fact that it's all free on PS3, and costs the price of a full price game every year on 360, is pretty significant, You would have to clearly be a deluded fanboy/girl to post this tripe.

 

[SaintWaldo]

Folks, Susan explained that she gets a different speed from her PS3 than from her X360. There are many reasonable causes for this that do not involve Ms. Arendt being in the tank for Microsoft. To name one, it seems possible that a Live Gold account gets fast tracked into a content server with a high bandwidth, something that a Sony account has no subsidy to support. This may explain why some X360 users report slow DLs and others report fast ones. This is also a valid point of comparison on which to make an informed decision. There are other reasons, but that one should provide something other than bias to discuss as a cause of her slow downloads. Unless you are trying to help, and your tone will probably reflect that more than anything, lambasting her connection is a red herring and a non-starter. Let alone insulting her intelligence. I'd like to point out, she's the one who was smart enough to convince several folks to pay her to play video games and then write about it, and, further proof notwithstanding, you aren't.

There is nothing in the article or her responses that should give anyone cause to believe Susan is being intellectually dishonest. This actually happened to her, and she decided to tell people about it. If you don't like it, you will have to find another way of dealing with it than shooting the messenger. Piling on with abuse is certainly not going to change anyone's mind.

 

[zombielifecoach]

OOOO. I wanna jump in! Two days ago I went on PSN and bought Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty. I think it was roughly about a two gig download. Started the process. Five hours later(took my daily constitutional) came back and it was at a paltry 23% complete. I quit the download. So last night I stop by sister's house and my brother-in-law is in the process of downloading the game, literally at a blur! Now I don't know jack about the subtle science of internet connections and the lot. But, I DO know that we have different services, his being the "better" or at least the more known service carrier of the two. So maybe it does make a difference. As far as the Achievements/Gamerscore bit. Like Gunter2 said, your latest update should have added the 'Trophies' attribute to your PS3. Heralded as the response to the Achievement/Gamerscore on the 360. I dont really mind the updates. I enjoy the fact that the PS3 remains current by giving me the free upgrades. Who am I to complain about something that's free? You can buy skins for the PS3 too. I mean they cost an arm and a leg, but hey, if I want my PS3 canary yellow, I better have the loot. By comparison, I find that on my 360 I have to pay for EVERYTHING! The PS3 has quite a bit more freebies as well as an overall free service to game online. Guess I'm a cheap bastard...


All that to say, I had the slow download issue that you had. It sucked. But at this point, both systems are coming so close to being identical with their networks and availible wickets & doo-dads, it really has come down to just bouncing back and forth between systems whenever a new game or 'exclusive' drops. I do however believe that in the long run, with the continual upgrades, the PS3 will outshine the 360. I think SCEA called it a "10 year plan". Until that day though, I will love my systems equally, because they have both given me so much joy!

 

[sammyfreak]

Nice article, don't give in to the haters.

 

[zombielifecoach]

...oh yeah, and what's wrong with just plain liking one system, or at least playing one more than the other? Im pretty sure this nice Arendt lady isn't some freaky-deaky mutant octopi who can play two systems at once. I mean, I have a home theater system, but I generally 'game' with headphones on. Should I be branded as a "headphone-fanboy" because I wasnt lucky enough to be born with two heads, allowing me to simultaneously and EQUALLY use both availible sources?! I say "kudos" to Susan Arendt for shelling out the duckets to buy a PS3. For those of us who did, it gives us every right to say, what we want about it. Good OR bad.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Let me be clear on something else, folks. I am not for one moment suggesting that the PS3 is broken, or that you should avoid it like the plague, and I am very much aware of the fact that it offers very much the same experiences as a 360 (Trophies, etc.). In fact, that's all kind of my point.

Let me spell this out once more to the people who seem to think I'm just spouting some kind of fanboy rhetoric -- if I have two consoles that offer nearly identical services, but have a good experience with one and a bad experience with the other, which am I going to use?

I am telling a story about an experience that I personally had. No more, no less.

 

[zombielifecoach]

The article to me didn't seem like it was fishing for problems. I get irritated that we are all (for the most part) gamer's, geeks, and tech-weasels, and it gets harder and harder to write up an editorial response to an experience with a system without getting tied to the Fanboy-post and burned alive. I get that it's an open forum, and that anything you put out there is susceptible to a flogging. Just seems like lately posts instantly go for the throat.

 

[SaintWaldo]

To better answer another point raised by SaintWaldo. It's quite possible that future forays into the world of PSN video might be less frustrating, but what's my incentive to try? I can get virtually all of the same content on XBL with no hassle at all. I've never, ever had to wait for a movie I've downloaded from Xbox Live the way I had to wait for Spiderwick. If I have two video services offering the same content, and one is easy to use and one is not, what sense does it make to ever use the latter?

I agree, if one service gives faster DL for the same perceived quality and you only intend to rent, it doesn't make sense to try again. Choosing what works is a winning argument every time.

If you want to own the content, if I understand the two services correctly, that would be a different equation.

 

[zombielifecoach]

I mean if ya REALLY wanna go trolling for something that the 360 has to answer for you could start with those pesky red rings... Waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many gamers have been effected by them to say that it is EVEN anything less than a serious trend. But I think there are PLENTY of forums for the PS3/360 debate elsewhere. The article wasn't bashing the PS3 personally. Or singing the gospel of the 360. Just putting out an issue she had with some of the functionality of the PSN. In order to do that a comparison was made to the 360 system and its attributes.