Walkthrough vid of PS3 2.4 firmware

LookingFor

At the link:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/

Shows the in-game XMB - friends list access, messaging, going to another game without exiting, bluetooth device setup, custom soundtracks, download management..

It looks a lot smoother than I expected.

They're going to do a video explaining trophies shortly, they're also coming in 2.4.

Though it's a fairly small thing, I actually think one of the most useful bits is being able to switch into another game without exiting.

gloobag

One thing that I found a bit strange. He implies that the game doesn't automatically pause when you hit the PS button??? That's just commen sense to have that in there

McDermotX

Very, very slick..
Looks excellent for the first real attempt to incorporate features

LookingFor

Part 2 is up about Trophies:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/

The basic gist is that there's a new playstation profile where each gamer has a level (think RPG), and as you earn trophies your level increases. You can compare trophies with friends aswell.

Oh, and 2.4 is out on Wednesday!

FreeOSCAR

Its about time they put a flipping clock up, also roll on wednesday!

eddhorse

So you know how long you have been gaming for?
Time and reality disappears when gaming i find alright!

Cant wait for this update.....:D

steviec

gloobag wrote: »

One thing that I found a bit strange. He implies that the game doesn't automatically pause when you hit the PS button??? That's just commen sense to have that in there

It depends on the game. It doesn't always make sense - for one thing you can't pause a multiplayer game, but there may be other instances like in GTA you could be waiting for a certain time of day in game and go and browse your music while you do, so you don't want it to pause.

I don' get why Gran Turismo doesn't pause, probably because the game was out before this stuff was implemented. It's hardly the end of the world.

The bigger worry is how he only mentions a couple of games that will support trophies. I know he says the tools are available to developers but how many third parties will bother to go and patch their games. At the very least I hope the likes of GTA and MGS get patches.

superweld

what exactly will trophies add to peoples enjoyment?

it seems like a pointless gimmick to me but is there more to it?

Mossy Monk

LookingFor wrote: »

Oh, and 2.4 is out on Wednesday!

:mad: I wont see my playstation for a week after today :mad:

McDermotX

steviec wrote: »

It depends on the game......................I don' get why Gran Turismo doesn't pause, probably because the game was out before this stuff was implemented. It's hardly the end of the world.

I would surmise that that is the exact reasoning behind this..
Games in dev and newer ones will be coded to pause when the PS button is pressed (MGS does this already....I think ?)................its probably unreasonable to expect older games to include the function (could easily lead to problems in-game if the system had to simulate a Start button press along with XMB enable if not specifically programmed within the game itself)..

Not even close to being a real problem..

Creamy Goodness

superweld wrote: »

what exactly will trophies add to peoples enjoyment?

it seems like a pointless gimmick to me but is there more to it?

they won't add a single thing for me.

actually they will take away from the gaming experience as people will be playing more for stats now than the actual playing the game.

the releases of firmware are getting very regular now, which is always a good thing.

gloobag

gloobag wrote: »

One thing that I found a bit strange. He implies that the game doesn't automatically pause when you hit the PS button??? That's just commen sense to have that in there

Not really no, is it that hard for you to hit the pause button?

Niall0

Cremo wrote: »

actually they will take away from the gaming experience as people will be playing more for stats now than the actual playing the game.

ah come on now , thats a bit negative. Itll add replay value to most games and give you a bunch of shiny trophys when home comes out.

Kintarō Hattori

Mossy Monk wrote: »

:mad: I wont see my playstation for a week after today :mad:

How so Mossy?

The guy

LookingFor wrote: »

Part 2 is up about Trophies:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/

The basic gist is that there's a new playstation profile where each gamer has a level (think RPG), and as you earn trophies your level increases. You can compare trophies with friends aswell.

Oh, and 2.4 is out on Wednesday!

It's not about doing well, it's about showing my friends online I did.


This is a really good step towards a better online system.

TinCool

superweld wrote: »

what exactly will trophies add to peoples enjoyment?

it seems like a pointless gimmick to me but is there more to it?

Possibly. I'd reckon it's an equivalent to Xbox's "Achievements". I'd say it'll add re-playability and competitiveness between players. Personally, I wouldn't be all that bothered by it. All the other changes sound great though, being able to listen to your own tunes whilst playing and being able to see what time it is is definitely good features to have.

TC

Mossy Monk

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

How so Mossy?

Vacation.

James Forde

finally, i can kick ass on cod4 whilst listening to some mozart

LookingFor

bryanjf wrote: »

finally, i can kick ass on cod4 whilst listening to some mozart

If they patch it!

Games still need to explicitly allow for custom music, I think. So previously released games will need patching.

IGN has their impressions of it from a presentation last week. They make a good point about the leveling system with trophies - it might make even the smaller trophies more meaningful than say a 10-point achievement, because those small trophies might be the little push you need to level up (same way I've often leveled up from tiny kills in WoW )

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/885/885177p1.html

Creamy Goodness

Niall0 wrote: »

ah come on now , thats a bit negative. Itll add replay value to most games and give you a bunch of shiny trophys when home comes out.

might for people under 15, definitely not for me.

i'm not a stats whore i don't need a shiny little trophy to tell me i'm good at a game, if i'm good i know i'm good, if i'm not good i know i'm not good.

LookingFor

Nothing's to everyone's taste, but achievements on 360 have proven their popularity.

RPGs are pretty popular too, and this basically turns PS3 into a big meta-RPG..kind of!;)

Creamy Goodness

LookingFor wrote: »

Nothing's to everyone's taste, but achievements on 360 have proven their popularity.

RPGs are pretty popular too, and this basically turns PS3 into a big meta-RPG..kind of!;)

yeh i mean obviously they've seen the success it's had on the xbox and want a slice of that pie to bring in sales, i'd just be worried that it will get to a stage where you're ranked on how good you're playing online that's when all the little kiddies will disconnect and ruin the actual gameplay experience to save their precious e-cock points.

steviec

Achievements are pretty much the best thing on the 360, they're the one thing that make me think about multiplatform purchases against the PS3 which has a controller and hardware that I prefer.

And they're really not just about how good you are at the game. The best achievements are in games like Crackdown where you get points for doing things you'd never have thought of otherwise, like doing crazy stunts or climbing to secret areas or blowing up 10 cars at once and that kind of thing. They encourage you to try new things and can make for a more rewarding game.

Another example - I've completed Mass Effect, but there's a bunch of achievements in there like "get x kills with this weapon" or "complete the game with this character as your sidekick" which mean I'm likely to come back to the game in future and play it in a different way. MGS4 is absolutely ripe for this, wonderful game with dozens of different approaches, if there's trophies for completing the game using only tranquilisers, or without getting spotted at all, or killing every single soldier, then they make for good reasons to get more out of the game. Obviously you can set these sort of challenges for yourself anyway, but the added structure encourages it.

There's certainly bad types of achievements too, and there's the weird tendancy some people have of buying crap games just to score points, but at worst you can ignore them and at best they can add to the game. I've heard they can cause problems with online games (eg in TF2 people ignoring team work and trying to win the game in favour of gaining specific achievements) but it's up to developers to make sure this doesn't happen by making sensible trophies.

As a mostly offline player, this is the one and only area where I preferred the 360 to the PS3, so it's nice to see Sony catching up.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Cremo wrote: »

that's when all the little kiddies will disconnect and ruin the actual gameplay experience to save their precious e-cock points.

Yeah I've seen this sort of thing time and time again... enable stats on any online game and see how quickly people start looking out for number one at the expense of everyone else.
I've already seen this selfish crap with Metal Gear Online, people joining the winning team, leaving their own team to get raped 8 v 4.
As for trophies and the like, this about sums it up for me.

Niall0

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote: »

Yeah I've seen this sort of thing time and time again... enable stats on any online game and see how quickly people start looking out for number one at the expense of everyone else.
I've already seen this selfish crap with Metal Gear Online, people joining the winning team, leaving their own team to get raped 8 v 4.
As for trophies and the like, this about sums it up for me.

The same guy says this in his previous entry:
"The second part of this new PS3 2.4 firmware video. I wonder just how many companies are going to patch their existing titles to support the new trophy system? I've gotten gold for almost all of the Motor Storm tracks so it'd be nice to flaunt it! I guess we'll find out on July 2nd when the update is released!"
.
I think the with the trophys the good outweighs the bad.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Niall0 wrote: »

The same guy says this in his previous entry:

Huh, yeah what a schizo. :eek:

Niall0 wrote: »

I think the with the trophys the good outweighs the bad.

Yeah, I dunno if I'd call them bad anyway, just pointless at best.

eggplantman

im happy that you can have more friends because my list is almost full being in a clan and all

kmart6

''I can drill down''

Jesus, that got annoying!

Thrill

TinCool wrote: »

being able to listen to your own tunes whilst playing

One of the first things I do is switch off the music on any game I play so I can listen to my own tunes on the auld hi-fi. I find playing games while listing to my favourite music much better.

EDIT: I'm looking forward to this update though. It sounds like a good one.


.

Balfa

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Not really no, is it that hard for you to hit the pause button?

I disagree. The PS button is my safety button. If the phone/doorbell rings and I'm in the middle of a cutscene, I want to be able to do a "hard" pause and make sure I don't miss anything. MGS is good about it, but a lot of developers assume if you press start during a cut scene it means you want to skip it. Very disappointing. The PS button is like a universal pause, it works in every game and it's very comforting. Except from wednesday onwards, they've broken it

FreeOSCAR

I agee balfa, its bad usability and design but I dont think all games will be like that. I know that certain Xbox games pause when you hit the big X button but certain other ones dont. I think its down to the developers to make the decision.

Creamy Goodness

yup it's shocking that it doesn't pause the game,

they done this to keep continuity with going to the XMB whilst watching video.

it's all well in good for the video to continue playing but not a game.

samsamson

Do you think TVersity (which streams music, videos, pictures to the PS3) will be accessable (sp) from the in-game XMB? In the video he says you can play music from your hard drive, but I don't know if TVersity can get around that...

Blazer

Finally going over to the dark side
Flogging my xbox and getting a PS3 in return.
Not sure I like the idea of achievements as in the 360..and I'm a stat whore..
What I found online is that it takes away from the whole gaming experience..
eg..FIFA08 online stats..every little prick plays with either Barca or Man U because they're simply unbeatable. I even played against a Liverpool fan the other night and I was playing Newcastle (****e by the way but they're my club) and he picked Man U the scumbag...why ? because he only wanted to win the game and not actually enjoy playing it..
Same issue with BF2/BF2142. There should definitely more points if you're in a squad and performing like a squad should rather than lone wolf. I'm not against Lone wolf players..I do itself myself on occasion but I pride myself on focussing on the overall game not just my score.

Nick_oliveri

Alright, from looking at the video one would think that all games can use the in game XMB mp3 thing. He doesn't explain this properly.

samsamson wrote:

Do you think TVersity (which streams music, videos, pictures to the PS3) will be accessable (sp) from the in-game XMB? In the video he says you can play music from your hard drive, but I don't know if TVersity can get around that...

Currently only music stored on the HDD is accessible in games that support this feature. We’d also like to reiterate that Firmware v2.40 merely enables custom soundtracks. It’s up to developers to include this feature in upcoming games (or to patch existing ones).

Taken from here:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/06/30/firmware-v240-faq/

Edit: i still dont get it. Does this mean that we can play music like the 360 can over games? I assume when they mention custom soundtrack this refers to games like GTA possibly (not likely) having that custom radio station.

Kintarō Hattori

So this is due Wednesday. What time do you think we'll see it? Hardly after midnight, perhaps early morning?

311

I must get my receipt ready for the the blu-ray failure:pac::D

Gonzovision

Update is up now guys.

NotorietyH

Balfa wrote: »

I disagree. The PS button is my safety button. If the phone/doorbell rings and I'm in the middle of a cutscene, I want to be able to do a "hard" pause and make sure I don't miss anything. MGS is good about it, but a lot of developers assume if you press start during a cut scene it means you want to skip it. Very disappointing. The PS button is like a universal pause, it works in every game and it's very comforting. Except from wednesday onwards, they've broken it

No they haven't. If you hold down the PS button the old screen pops up as normal. A quick press brings up the In-Game XMB.

eddhorse

The games will still need to add updates to use this feature !
So each game will take some time to get an update to access your music on your PS3 hard drive.

NotorietyH

eddhorse wrote: »

The games will still need to add updates to use this feature !
So each game will take some time to get an update to access your music on your PS3 hard drive.

Well yeah, shame on the developers for not programming compatibility for something that didn't exist when they were making their games in the first place.

Otacon

Kinda disappointed that the Trophy system won't update your account retrospectively. In other words, you'll have to do all the achiev... trophies again to get them, it won't scan your existing save files.

weeder

some of the warhawk trophies are retroactive

NotorietyH

When Burnout Paradise is updated all the trophies will be retroactive too, because the already existing achievements or whatever you call them in the game are tied into your PSN account.

weeder

"music playback is not availible during this game"

ah what the fvck sony

NotorietyH

Was just playing Super Stardust HD and that pauses automatically when you access in-game XMB, so I'd imagine most games will have it. I've heard people sayign that Gran Turismo prologue didn't pause when you hit the PS button before the 2.40 update, so I'm guessing most games will pause automatically.

mthd

Yep GTA pauses automatically

Thrill

I just downloaded it there. It's a pretty good update, especially being able to access the xmb without switching off the game. Being able to see other peoples trophy is good as well.

eddhorse

In-Game XMB

* In-Game XMB displays everything that's in the XMB, some functions (playing a video, slideshow, voice chat, etc.) require the you to exit the In Game XMB and use the regular XMB
* Custom Soundtracks for supported games (released games must be patched to support the feature)
* Music player controls for Custom Soundtracks
* Full access to the Friend List/Inbox
* Access to the Accessory Settings
* Ability to launch into a different game while playing a game
* Runs as smooth as the regular XMB
* The old PS button menu (Controller Settings, Shut Off System/Controller) can be accessed by holding the PS button for a couple of seconds instead of tapping the button.


Trophies

* 4 Trophy types: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum
* Bronze trophies are the easiest to get, Silver is harder to get, Gold is the hardest, Platinum is only awarded when you have obtained all the other trophies in a game
* Each user will have a PSN "Profile" that keeps track of your trophies
* Each trophy type has a different value that goes towards your Profile's gamer "level" (Bronze adds less points than Silver, Silver adds less points than Gold, Platinum adds a significant amount of points towards reaching the next gamer level)
* All games will have restrictions on how many trophies they can offer (small scale games will offer less trophies than large scale games) and some games will have restrictions on what type of trophies they can offer (no Platinum Trophies in small scale games)
* Trophies can be viewed in the XMB
* Trophies can be locked by the developer just like Secret Achievements
* Trophies can be compared to friends trophies via the XMB
* Games will need to be patched to support Trophies (SSHD will have a patch hours after 2.4 is released)
* Games will not award Trophies retroactively based on saved data
* First party games confirmed to include Trophy support:
* BUZZ! Quiz TV
* LittleBigPlanet
* MotorStorm Pacific Rift
* NBA 09 - PS3
* PAIN
* PixelJunk Eden
* Resistance 2
* SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation
* Warhawk

Misc.

* Google Search added to XMB
* Music player controls added to XMB
* Date & Clock added to XMB

Ourlad

Mathew Reilly wrote: »

I even played against a Liverpool fan the other night and I was playing Newcastle (****e by the way but they're my club) and he picked Man U the scumbag

No self respecting Liverpool fan would ever pick Man U. Def a scumbag.

On topic cant wait for this update.

whiterebel

Its seems to be really good on first use, anyway.