My Bad Date With a PS3

[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.

 

[Susan Arendt]

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

Absolutely. You can't purchase movies on at 360, nor can you transfer them to your Zune -- a fact which has irritated the hell out of me for ages. Even odder still, the video marketplace for the Zune offers different content than that on the 360. I downloaded the first three episodes in a series to watch on a plane, figuring I could finish watching on my actual television. Nope. Stupid, really.

And for the record, my first 360 died the Red Ring Death. It was in the middle of an N3 session, though, so I'm not sure if it was a mechanical failure, or some kind of self-preservation.

 

[MrBliss]

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.

Agreed, can't PS3 and 360 owners just get along? Most of the big ticket games are on both systems with no discernible differences between them, and neither system is perfect. I own a 360 but i'm well aware that it has a tendancy to eat discs, crashes frequently and gets hotter than the Sun after an hour of playtime. So long as you are happy with the system you own, why care what anyone else thinks of it? If you don't like the system you bought, then trade it in for the other one.

 

[Digikid]

True article....hence why I only use my PS3 for BR and thats it. For gaming it is a failure and I will always get the 360 version of a game instead.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

I didn't choose the option that would cause the most problems -- that would've been the HD version, which I did not select. Also, why would I possibly think that my internet connection would be an issue, when performing the exact same function on my 360 had never caused a problem?

Internet is annoying thing, particularly Wi-Fi, if my PS3 is too far from the router than I get a 65% signal strength while my laptop is at 100, etc.

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.

Oh, doesn't matter, you should have know this would start a battle in the giant field of the online system war, even though you said this, way after your post:

True article....hence why I only use my PS3 for BR and thats it. For gaming it is a failure and I will always get the 360 version of a game instead.

We get a post like that.

I mean, your gripe was with PSN clearly, but nope, Digikid sees "gaming failure".

 

[Susan Arendt]

Then theres another factor: realistically, theres no way that your Ps3 should see that much inactivity. Even if you never play it, it would seem highly unconscionable in that situation to not get it out for the purpose of setting it to Fold.

Now that is a justifiable criticism. You are 100% correct.

 

[TheWickerPopstar]

Then theres another factor: realistically, theres no way that your Ps3 should see that much inactivity. Even if you never play it, it would seem highly unconscionable in that situation to not get it out for the purpose of setting it to Fold.

I've actually been living with a guilty conscience since I moved out of my apartment three months ago because I forgot about Folding@home. Does anyone know if there's a website dedicated to explaining the work that's been completed thanks to the additional workload carried by PS3 owners?

What a fantastic idea. There was a great article in Wired a while back that listed several similar programs like Fold and SETI. Including everything from particle physics to art, everyone can help out.

Here's another list. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects]

Sorry...a bit off topic.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

Yeah, my first experience with the Sony Video Store was very similar as well. I figured there was a buffer but my wife's non-techie perspective and the lack of any mention of a buffer made me a bit too optimisitc and I ended up watching the movie too early... it eventually took 3 hours to stutter and stop my way through a 1 and a half hour movie.

Now when I download a movie I look at the filesize and wait till it's 40% before I start a standard def movie and 70% before I start a HD movie.

Now that this fact is understood, the service is fine.