Just got my first PS3! Initial comments, questions

[NoahsMyBro]

I've just hooked up my first PS3.

I'm sure I'll post more later, but my very first thoughts and questions are:
1) The controller - a lot lighter than I expected, and I think I'd prefer it to be a touch heavier. I'm surprised I didn't already know the weight from holding the controller at NAVAs, but I guess I haven't used the PS3 much at all.

2) Online ID -- AARRGGGHHH! A little over a year ago I created a PSN account for myself when I had a few hours with a cousin's PS3. Tonight I entered that same account into my new console, and I don't recognize the Online ID at all. No idea what it is, where it came from, or what it means. ( 'DrKantor' -- ??? ) And I've just learned that there is no way to change the Online ID. I've got no data at all associated with the current account, and I don't care if I have to start over with a new account if that will permit me to use a new Online ID. BUT, will I be able to create a new account using the same email address as the original account? If no, what if I change the email address of the original account first?

3) Otherwise the system looks really cool. I can't wait to play with the media server capabilities.

[exit]

BUT, will I be able to create a new account using the same email address as the original account? If no, what if I change the email address of the original account first?

Probably not. I'd say try completely deactivating your account and maybe even contact Sony to see if they can delete the account, but if it's still active on your cousins PS3, it may pose a problem.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

...are you sure that you didn't somehow register your COUSIN'S PSN ID to YOUR email address? Is that his ID?

Maybe he somehow had a PSN ID that wasn't registered to an email address and you accidentally makde that happen? Not sure if that's possible, but it's also not possible to change usernames AFAIK.

[NoahsMyBro]

No, my cousin is 9, and I don't believe he's ever gone online with the console. My guess is I heard the Online ID somewhere (random tv show/movie or something) and just plugged it in while messing around with the system.

I think my best bet is to just delete the existing account and create a new account from scratch, but I'm concerned the PSN system won't let me re-use my email address for a new account.

I've sent the question to Sony's PSN online support. I'm not optimistic they'll provide a useful answer, but within a couple of days I should have a response.

[NoahsMyBro]

As promised, I've got more to say about the new PS3.

The media center capabilities are awesome. I love this thing.

I haven't revealed the PS3 to my kids yet, so I haven't yet opened any of my games or Blu-ray discs yet. I spent a lot of time tonight playing around with the media center functions though.

For about a year I've had a home NAS, and trying to view pictures from it or listen to music on it, on various PCs has been frustrating. File access to content on the NAS has been painfully slow from Windows 7 and XP machines. (Haven't tried from any Mac or Linux boxes.)

The PS3 found and accessed the media share on the NAS immediately with no trouble at all, and I was listening to all of my music quickly & effortlessly. I then backed out to the main menu and the system let me continue listening to the music. While the music was playing I moved over to the picture viewer and was able to watch slideshows of my pictures on the NAS. This thing is so cool I want to do the Chandler dance. I want to wake up my wife and show everything to her. ( But I know better than to do that! :) )

[Cornelius]

Want to add another layer of cool (and expense)? Grab a PSP and you can then remotely power on your PS3 and listen to your NAS music and view pictures from anywhere you have an internet connection. Stream video, too. I find this incredibly neato, but don't actually have much use for it.

[NoahsMyBro]

Want to add another layer of cool (and expense)? Grab a PSP and you can then remotely power on your PS3 and listen to your NAS music and view pictures from anywhere you have an internet connection. Stream video, too. I find this incredibly neato, but don't actually have much use for it.

That does sound fantastically cool, but I've spent more on toys over the last month than I normally do all year long. A PSP isn't in my immediate future.

[exit]

Want to add another layer of cool (and expense)? Grab a PSP and you can then remotely power on your PS3 and listen to your NAS music and view pictures from anywhere you have an internet connection. Stream video, too. I find this incredibly neato, but don't actually have much use for it.

So they've improved on the remote play? Last time I tried to use it, it didn't work that great and experienced all kinds of lag.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

So they've improved on the remote play? Last time I tried to use it, it didn't work that great and experienced all kinds of lag.

Remote play is fine for music and movies, and games of a turn-based nature.

It's a visual novelty for any game that requires direct input controls, as in - hey look what I can do, I'm playing a game that's on my PS3 - but it's still just shy of being completely playable even on the best settings.

It's very neat that you can remote play ANY PS1 game that's sitting in the disc drive.

It's also cool that you can remotely log in to the PSN and set up downloads so that when you get home they're all finished.

Of course having to have your PS3 sit in "standby" mode has always been a no-go for me since I have a 60 Gig launch unit and I don't want any unnecessary slow-cooking of the thermal stuff on the motherboard.

[Jaruff]

If you need some games, go to your local Wal-Mart. They should have some decent $10-15 titles remaining. Today I grabbed a couple (MAG, Alpha Protocol, Dead To Rights Retribution, 007 Quantum of Solace) and they had some others that I had played already.

[poloplayr]

....

3) Otherwise the system looks really cool. I can't wait to play with the media server capabilities.

I've LOVED my PS3 (just replaced my launch one with a slim) since day 1. Especially for the media hub qualities. I've got my huge TV series HDs hooked up to it. Pure bliss.

[NoahsMyBro]

I'm running into a big (to me, anyway) problem.

I'm getting SICK from my new toy!

Many years ago I tried out Halo on a large screen TV, and got queasy. At the time I wasn't sure if the cause was the game. I'd never suffered motion sickness prior to that, and it never happened again until last night.

Last night I tried out Bioshock. After a short time I started feeling sick and went to bed. I woke up this morning feeling fine. I just spent another 30-40 minutes playing Bioshock and I feel very queasy and weak.

I'm convinced I'm getting motion sickness from playing the game. But the game seems really cool and I don't want to abandon it.

This is really annoying. I love car trips, I love cruises, I love riding on sailboats. I've never suffered during any sort of travel. I can read in a moving car/plane/boat, no problem.

If it matters, I'm playing on a 1080p 50" plasma.

Have any of you experienced this? What did you do to counter the effects?

[kupomogli]

Have any of you experienced this? What did you do to counter the effects?

I get motion sickness on certain games. When it happens my body just feels really weak, back hurts like I can't support myself standing up, etc. I usually have to go lie down for awhile. The most recent game I've gotten motion sickness from is the first Uncharted because the camera wobbles when following you around. Uncharted 2 has the exact same gameplay but it's got a fixed player rotated camera so I don't get motion sickness.(thankfully, because it's an amazing game.)

Mainly the only time I'll get motion sickness is if there's a lot of movement on the screen shaking back and forth, etc. I can get motion sickness on FPS games, but it happens less often if the weapons are static. Doom and Goldeneye are two examples because the weapons move back and forth when walking. Obviously there's the first person view, but the weapons when moving back and forth are probably the main cause.

I don't think it's the size of the tv because like how I mentioned Doom and Goldeneye. I've only played those on either an old CRT computer monitor or a CRT tv. Neither of which exceeded 20" I'm sure. Certain games will do it though, and it's usually just shooters.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I'm running into a big (to me, anyway) problem.

I'm getting SICK from my new toy!

Many years ago I tried out Halo on a large screen TV, and got queasy. At the time I wasn't sure if the cause was the game. I'd never suffered motion sickness prior to that, and it never happened again until last night.

Last night I tried out Bioshock. After a short time I started feeling sick and went to bed. I woke up this morning feeling fine. I just spent another 30-40 minutes playing Bioshock and I feel very queasy and weak.

I'm convinced I'm getting motion sickness from playing the game. But the game seems really cool and I don't want to abandon it.

This is really annoying. I love car trips, I love cruises, I love riding on sailboats. I've never suffered during any sort of travel. I can read in a moving car/plane/boat, no problem.

If it matters, I'm playing on a 1080p 50" plasma.

Have any of you experienced this? What did you do to counter the effects?

As far as motion sickness goes, here are a few things that may help ...

If you're prone to motion sickness, don't play in a low-light environment with the TV being the only light source. Make sure your brain can understand that what you're seeing isn't real depth of space and motion.

Unless you feel like taking Dramamine before each gaming session - get some powdered ginger root tablets (you can get a huge bottle at any vitamin store for a few bucks) they are really really great for reducing the effects of motion sickness and vertigo. I suffered from intense vertigo for close to a year from some minor damage to my inner ear from an infection and I found ginger was more helpful than most of the prescription medicine I had taken for the motion sickness. And it's effectively harmless otherwise (and even has some beneficial effects on digestion and circulation).

http://www.discounthealthshop.co.uk/images/gegni1.jpg

But, most importantly don't give up on it. If you keep exposing your brain to the effect it should eventually program itself that the end effect is not harmful to you and shut down that reflex ... that may take a while though. The ginger can absolutely help with the dizziness and nausea.

[NayusDante]

When I was a kid, Quake 2 gave me serious motion sickness. Within about 30 minutes, I'd have to stop. Unreal Tournament, however, I could play all day. I think it helped that UT is a lot more colorful and less claustrophobic.

If you're not used to FPS and you're getting nausea from playing, Bioshock isn't the best one to start with. I'd acclimate yourself with something like Oblivion, which is great for its indoor-outdoor balance. Some of the dungeons in Oblivion made me sick, but I felt better once I got outside. You can also switch to 3rd person...

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I see you cleared up your username issue.

Did you just register it to a different email address?

I can delete DrKantor from my list now, right?

[NoahsMyBro]

Yes, please delete the other. It's embarrassing - the sooner it's forgotten, the better.

I didn't care too much about losing any progress associated with the old name, but couldn't figure out how to associate a new account with my old email address. I even went so far as to create an additional alias for my current email - "ps3@...".

Turns out, the error I was encountering was due to the email address already being associated *with a user on the PS3 system itself*. It had nothing to do with PSN.

Once I figured that out I was able to use my preferred Online ID with my preferred email.

The last trouble-spot was that I couldn't find how to change the name of my user on the local PS3. I finally figured that out last night and felt really stupid for not figuring that one out immediately.

So I'm all-good now, once I muster the courage to take another crack at Bioshock, now that I've bought Seabands. :)

[NoahsMyBro]

I played Bioshock tonight for a little over an hour. Wore Seabands the whole time, and suffered almost no discomfort at all.

The Seabands may be effective, or this may be my imagination (placebo effect), but either way I was able to play the game and I'm happy.

[Jaruff]

I don't suffer from any motion issues. I guess playing Duke Nukem 3D as a kid really paid off for me.

The only thing that's ever made me sick in a game is music. Seriously, the music in MVP Baseball 2005 made me sick after playing the game for an hour or so. Muted the music and I was fine. I blame EA.

If you have the money, I'd suggest dropping a Solid State HD in your PS3. Worked wonders for my friend and I plan on getting one next year. Really helps on loading times for HD games and disc games that use the HD a lot.

[G-Boobie]

That motion sickness thing sucks. I've had it happen on one or two games, and it's always a FOV issue: Marathon Durandal on XBL is the example that springs to mind. It really, REALLY sucks. Glad you figured out a solution.

Have you messed around with the games available on PSN yet? There are some FANTASTIC games on the service: Pixeljunk Shooter/Eden/Monsters, Echochrome, Joe Danger, and Flower are all worth investigating when you have the time.

[NoahsMyBro]

Yeah - I have Shooter, Flower, and Gravity Crash on the system right now.

In fact, Gravity Crash was the 'killer app' for me that made me want the system in the first place. Sort of like Star Raiders back when the Atari 800 & 5200 were Kings of the Hill.

A while ago I described Gravity Crash and Gravitar (arcade game) to a friend of mine who'd never seen them. He said I'd really like Pixel Junk Shooter. My PS3 bundle included a voucher for Shooter, I installed it, and he's right - Shooter is right up my alley.

[Kid Ice]

Try Shatter (the Arkanoid style game)

Since you're just getting into PS3 I would recommend Playstation Plus. It wasn't worth it for me since I already owned most of the "free" games, but for someone getting into the system I think it's worth it. You might want to consider the protection plan too.