PS3 backwards compatibility issues

[Kid Ice]

I hate to break it to you, but it looks like you're done buying consoles.

No sale. And if this means no more consoles for me, that's that.

[Trebuken]

Amazed that people are so challenged in adapting to new ways of doing things. Espeacially when the new way is better.

In the past if a game was released buggy you were stuck with it. No fixes. It's not about bug testing. The games are released when the guy in charge decides they are, not the programmers. Ready or not they often are not. Now they can repair the issues after the fact and given the more advanced games and the longer developement times this benefits gamers greatly...even famiclones aren't 100% compatible.

The PS1/PS2/PS3 library, including all regions and variants clocks in at around 11,000 games. 10% of those are being reported as not 'fully' functional; I'd guess the 360 is still at about 60%.

The PS3 will likely see firmware updates for the Blu-Ray drive as well; another reason not to buy one...anyone want to give me their preorder yet?

What we are seeing a little of is the convergence of the PC with Consoles which extends to all home media equipment. In a couple decades you may have one unit that does it all...

Later,
Trebuken

[jajaja]

Is there really ~8000 games for PSX and PS2?

[Kid Ice]

In the past if a game was released buggy you were stuck with it. No fixes.

Yeah, that was a big problem in the past with all those buggy games were released. Such as....uhh....uhhh...oh yeah, Impossible Mission for the Atari 7800. Gee I wish I could have downloaded a patch for that.

[Lord_Magus]

In the past if a game was released buggy you were stuck with it. No fixes.

...and that's exactly why we rarely (if ever) had any buggy games to begin with.

[PapaStu]

All these updates\patches are doing is allowing developers\manufacturers to make (even more) half-assed products, since now they can just put out a patch some time down the track, and fix all the bugs that shouldn't have been there in the first place.

This is not the case. Upgrading the firmware will not fix a gamebug in <insert game here>. Patching a console game is yet to be done, but its not unrealistic that it will happend in the future. But for now, patching the games is not whats happening, its the console's firmware only.

I was under the impression that a few 360 titles were patched already and that some consider the Hurricane pack for Ninja Gaiden (Xbox) to be a sort of patch.

Anyone care to chime in?

Fixing glitchy games is nothing new for either the PS2 OR Xbox (i'm not talking the X360, the original XBox).

XBox Live forces updates on numerous online games before your even allowed to play them, primarily to fix glitches and exploits in online play, but they are patches none the less. Halo 2 has a patch for it. If you've played online at all in the last year+ you'll have the patch, notice that when you turn on Halo 2 and your at the main menu screen theres a small 1.1 on the lower right side of the screen, theres your patch!

Sony has forced updates for some of their online games as well (SOCOM 2/3 come to mind) to help try and combat cheating.

I live with them because I play these games online and for the most part enjoy the extra content and playability online gives me, be it downloadable content, or online mulitplayer.

[Xizer]

That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I suppose you never got around to downloading Windows Service Pack 2 either?

Hey, there's a good reason not to download Service Pack 2. I'm still using SP1; I'm afraid of trying to install SP2 again.

Last time I installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 my computer would only boot to a blue screen of death and give me an error. I tried everything such as the rebuild option and recovery console. In the end I had to install WinXP from my boot disc on a second hard drive, salvage as much data as possible from the first, reformat the first, and re-install Windows XP on it.

Summary: Microsoft fucked up with SP2.

[Trebuken]

It's goes against reason to compare Atari games with their 20 lines of code and the archaic updates that no one was made aware of to automatically downloaded updates and gigabytes of data on a modern console. You still have your Ataris and the homebrew community. The changes are realistic, your expectations from modern technologies are not.

I've owned virttually every console at launch and have never had issue with the hardware (Dreamcast had a bad pressing of some games). I believe that most launch failures are overblown and often the result of mishandling; though I don accept that they exist as is evident from the hardware revisions.

Later,
Trebuken

[jajaja]

Sony has forced updates for some of their online games as well (SOCOM 2/3 come to mind) to help try and combat cheating.

Does these fix in-game bugs or is it just anticheat like VAC and PB?

In the past if a game was released buggy you were stuck with it. No fixes.

Yeah, that was a big problem in the past with all those buggy games were released. Such as....uhh....uhhh...oh yeah, Impossible Mission for the Atari 7800. Gee I wish I could have downloaded a patch for that.

Anyone knows how many lines of code Impossible Mission has? Its not much compared to the new games, i can guarantee you that. More and complex code = bigger chance for bugs. Try Driver 3 for PS2

[Kid Ice]

It's goes against reason to compare Atari games with their 20 lines of code and the archaic updates that no one was made aware of to automatically downloaded updates and gigabytes of data on a modern console.

Fair enough. When you mentioned the utility of updates for bug fixes, my first thought was "But historically how many bugged games have we ever had". I guess now that games are becoming more technically complex (but not better for some reason), tolerance of technical glitches might be more reasonable. Or maybe not?

[Imstarryeyed]

Even the PS2 had at least one patched game. Star Wars Battlefront.. the only reason I know this is that I was working at IGN/GameSpy at the time and I was required to help the team setup the patching system.. the patch would patch itself into memory on every game boot and the patch copied itself to the memory card so you would only need to download it once.

I have to say however that in that games case it was a good thing cause it fixed some really ugly bugs that ruined the games play.

I am kinda a purist in that I would prefer not to see games patched like buggy PC software. I also realize that with agressive schedules and tons of people on boards complaining that something is late.. something is late.. something is late.. etc etc.. that companies push out games just to make release dates.

I have believed now for years that the game industry moves wayyy to fast.. games come out to fast that we players cant even enjoy them before something else is out. This hurry hurry schedule is what makes developers push out buggy stuff many times.

[PapaStu]

Sony has forced updates for some of their online games as well (SOCOM 2/3 come to mind) to help try and combat cheating.

Does these fix in-game bugs or is it just anticheat like VAC and PB?

Well SOCOM being as popular as it is, people look to no ends to exploit the game and once they find a weak point in the map they then clip themselves above/under the map causing chaos and are doing it pretty much untouchably. What they (Zipper who developed the games) did was fix points in the multi-player maps and try and fix other things that had become exploitable glitches like Infinite ammo and stuff that had come about by picking up and dropping weapons quickly.

Alot of the later fixes that i've seen have been via DNAS which is Sony's Anti Cheat system (which is almost impossible to uphold without an actual Hard drive built into the system like the XBox has) to combat people getting online and being able to use a GameShark or other cheat device.

[Leo_A]

Sounds more like you managed to screw up a simple procedure since millions of other people were able to install SP2 without problems, and it doesn't surprise me in the least that you weren't capable of doing it.

[GarrettCRW]

Actually, issues with the SP2 install are well known. Leo Laporte has discussed it numerous times on his KFI radio (and on Call For Help and the sea of podcasts he hosts).

[Leo_A]

Its more fun to blame Xizer for it though.

[jajaja]

I heard that PS2 games looks much worse on the PS3, is this true?

[Beefy Hits]

What about PS2 online games like Subsistence and Phantasy Star Universe? Can you go online with those with PS3?

[s1lence]

What about PS2 online games like Subsistence and Phantasy Star Universe? Can you go online with those with PS3?

I know MG3-S seems to work just fine.

[s1lence]

I heard that PS2 games looks much worse on the PS3, is this true?

I have mine hooked up with a HDMI cable and yes some of them look alittle bit funny. I blame that I put them stretched since I hate having the black on the sides. I played MMX Collection yesterday and it looked and played well.

The text in PS1 games looks terrible with the HDMI cable, imo. I was going to try the psychomantis battle on MGS and see how well that worked but I couldn't find my save file.

I will say that being able to put your memory card info on the HDD is pretty slick though.

[jajaja]

I have mine hooked up with a HDMI cable and yes some of them look alittle bit funny. I blame that I put them stretched since I hate having the black on the sides. I played MMX Collection yesterday and it looked and played well.

The text in PS1 games looks terrible with the HDMI cable, imo. I was going to try the psychomantis battle on MGS and see how well that worked but I couldn't find my save file.

I will say that being able to put your memory card info on the HDD is pretty slick though.

Ok, because i saw this movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoCD9TwLrVs&eurl=

Ignore the fanboy comments in the begining, but is the games really like this? Not that it matters, but i would like to know if its true or utter bullshit.