I guess I put questions here? I found the only 80GB bundle I've seen in almost a year yesterday at Target, so I picked it up. Probably shouldn't have as my backlog is huge again (went crazy at Toy's R Us), but oh well...
Tons of questions:
-Does the Dual Shock 3 keep it's bluetooth radio shut off when it's plugged in through USB? I'm thinking it probably does, as if I'm using it, and then pull the cord out, I lose control for several seconds while the controller flashes. I'm guessing that during that time, it's turning on bluetooth and establishing a connection with the PS3. If it was using bluetooth when plugged in, why would I lose control when I unplugged it?
I'm hoping it shuts bluetooth off, as wireless isn't especially safe (or at best the industry-rigged-jury is still out) and I try to avoid it if there's no reason for it.
-Can you now "deactivate/deauthorize" a PS3/PSP so new ones can be authorized, like iTunes? ie can you theoretically use content on 300,000 PS3s if you go through that process? I thought you COULDN'T do that, but while I was setting up my account last night, I found an option to authorize or deauthorize a PS3 or PSP. I don't see what else it could mean.
If you can do that, that's HUGE. Microsoft and especially Nintendo tie content to a single system, which is completely unacceptable. I may actually buy some stuff from the download store if I know I can move it to a future PS3 if I want/need to. (I still prefer retail, but I wouldn't mind Jumping Flash! or the Bionic Commando remake!) If this works as I think it does, Sony needs to advertise it, as that gives them the best online store of the three consoles by FAR.
-Regarding downloads...I'm confused. I tried downloading three game demos last night through the store. I'd click "background download" or whatever, and it would dump me back to the main store screen. I was downloading Haze, Condemned 2, and some "Live Arcade" style game that turned out to be another horrifically boring (and ugly) dual stick shooter.
So when I exited the store the first time and looked at the downloads in the main menu, it displayed the live arcade game, and Haze twice, but not Condemned. I deleted one of the instances of Haze, then went back to the store and tried to start Condemned, which again said it was going to background download. Exited, and it still didn't show up.
Once my other games had finished downloading, I tried again, and this time it downloaded. But...all three games are still showing up in the "download" list in the store. I can't figure out how to delete them off that list, or why they're even there.
So unless I'm missing something, the whole process is still pretty buggy compared to Microsoft's...although again, I'll take this any day if the DRM is more fair as it apparently is!
Random observations-after downloading those game demos, it has to "install" them? That's...different. Not used to that since the 360 they're ready to run (and the same file sizes). In the case of the lame shooter, it downloads 125MB, then I install it, which takes a few minutes, then it tells me I have to install an update, so it downloads ANOTHER 125MB, then I have to wait a few minutes AGAIN while it's installing. Kind of clunky there. Haze took forever to install, and half the time didn't even tell me it was doing anything.
I haven't played a disc based game yet, but so far while running Folding @ Home it idles fairly loud. I'm not 100% sure if it's louder than the 360 when not running from a disc or not, but it's louder than probably any other system (save the Dreamcast). Exhaust from it is pretty cold, though the case is warm up near the top/right side where the CPU must be. This would be with the CPU(s) pegged at probably close to 100% though versus the 360 running at close to 0%.
It's MUCH quieter than the 360 is when the 360's running a disc game. Not even in the same ball park. My TV's volume goes from 0-100, and on other systems I usually set it around 5-20, averaging around 10. On the 360 I have to set it to 30, just to HEAR it over the system. While playing Haze last night, I had it set to a normal "10" and that was enough to mostly drown out the system (in fact that was a "10" with the sound effects turned all the way down in Haze's menu)...although the real test will be with a disc based game *crosses fingers* as the 360 isn't that loud when running from the hard drive either.
Honestly, if the PS3 shuts down bluetooth when the controller is connected through USB, and it's significantly quieter than the 360, then it's probably going to be my main system, as the 360's noise really bothers me (to Mass Effect's credit, that game's so good it was the first time I could almost forget the sound).
I thought Haze seemed fairly good. Not some disaster like the reviews made out. It ran silky smooth, and controlled really well for a console FPS (and normally I've thought Playstation FPSs don't), and I thought the graphics were on par with a typical better quality 360 game, though without the hitching or texture popping I often see in 360 games. So at least so far the technical aspect of the system seems just fine! Can't believe I now think of a 7900 series GPU as low end! I keep reminding myself that plenty of Playstation 2 games look good (and even DS games), and the 7900 is about 10 trillion times more powerful than the PS2's GPU was, so really no problem there.
Oh, and one annoying thing was getting it to do 720p instead of 1080i. I guess the only way to do that is to unselect 1080i as an option in the video settings? Hopefully that won't screw something up in terms of games or Blu Ray discs only displaying at 480p or something, but so far that seems to keep the games I've tried at 720p. That's one area the 360 does better too, but hopefully unchecking that takes care of it. Not sure if the PS3 will work okay with a computer monitor like the 360 does (that can come in handy in various situations
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So generally the interface seems clunkier so far than 360, but less tacky. Not sure how to set the background color to change with the month like the Playstation Portable does. That's kind of fun IMO to have the interface change a bit with the month!
