Sunday, August 31, 2008

Ask PS3 Fanboy: Backlog edition [Volume 7]


Yeah, backlog. We didn't think we'd amass such an amount of mail in such little time. It's great really; we love it. Keep sending in more, but also consider that it will be awhile before you get your questions answered. We've still got sacks full of mail to go through (some even having multiple questions). As usual, q's and a's are after the break.

Keep checking back every weekend -- we'll be sure to answer all intelligent, fun, and relevant questions that you may have. If you haven't asked us anything yet ... why haven't you? Send an e-mail to majed @ ps3fanboy.com with the subject "Ask PS3 Fanboy." We'd like to stress, if your e-mail doesn't include that subject heading, your question will not be answered. If you've got PSP-related questions, be sure to ask them on Ask PSP Fanboy.


Maxim GZ, Marcial G. ask: When will the trophy patch for the Asian/JPN version of Uncharted come out?
PS3F answers: The Japanese patch just hit Friday, August 29. As for the Asian Chinese/English version, your patch could be coming soon in the next few days or it might be ready right now. Try putting in your disc and test to see if there is a patch. Drop us a comment and let us know if it worked for you; there will probably be others who will want to know this as well.

Ryan asks: I have an (older model) 80GB PS3 and if my PS3 broke and I had to return it would I get the new 80GB PS3 or would I get the old one with the 4 USB slots and the backwards compatibility?
PS3F answers: That's a good question; however, it's one that's really suited for a Sony Customer Service rep. If you're looking to have your system repaired, you should get your system back the way it was before being broken. In doing this, we advise you to explicitly detail to the service center of your expectations and also confirm with them what exactly it is they plan to do. If you're looking to have it replaced, you'll probably get the same older model 80GB unit if you find yourself in this situation between now and, give or take, a few months. Anything beyond that timeframe, you'll probably get the newer one -- if you've still got a warranty by then.

Adnan A. asks: I live in South East Asia and our internet connection is extremely poor. We have to download big files like demos off PSN via background option for 2-3 days (not continuous download though). Anyways, I downloaded two demos: Bad Company and Hot Shots Golf, but installing them gives me an error. I heard that if you background download, there is a big chance you get this error, is this true? I can't download anything without background download option.
PS3Fanboy answers: The problem isn't the background download; the option is specifically there so you can do other things while you download and also so you can download at your own leisure by pausing/resuming as you please. This leaves us to ask you a question: While downloading huge files, are you making sure that you pause the download progress before shutting down the PS3? If you're not doing this, you might be corrupting your downloaded files. Second, your slow internet connection is also to blame. Since your PS3 is gathering information at a slower rate than normal, it may not be transferring the data properly.

Hiten P. asks: What happened to all the offline multiplayer games??? It seems we're lucky on PS3 to have lots of two player offline games, but isn't the system designed to have up to seven controllers at once?
PS3F answers: This is a great question. True, there are tons of two-player, three-player (PixelJunk Eden), and four-player (Calling All Cars!, Haze) multiplayer games, but there are none that we can think of that ever maxed out to seven. You hear that developers? There is room and demand for the first ever seven-controller multiplayer PS3 game.


David B. asks: I just paid for the yearly subscription to Qore. I was wondering if there is a way to look at the older editions from the last few months. I tried to download off the store but it tries to make me buy that episode. By the way I am in Canada, in case that makes a difference.
PS3F answers: David, your subscription begins the month that you bought it ... just like any other magazine subscription. A subscription doesn't mean you will get issues from January to December, it means if you purchase in August you'll get the full issues from August to July of next year. If you want to get the older issues, you'll have to pay for them.

Gerry M.: What is taking in-game music so long? Wasn't it suppose to come in patch 2.40?
PS3F answers: The games themselves need to be patched in order for custom soundtracks to work. Only a few games have been patched to utilize this new feature. Some games, most likely the majority of previously released PS3 titles, might never get patched.

Matthew R.: Does Castle Crashers have any chance of seeing a PSN release?
PS3F answers: From our perspective, it doesn't seem likely. We wouldn't want to get anyone's hopes up, so we'll have to go with a simple 'no' for now.

Gavin P. asks: As you may know Rock Band is only coming out for PS3 in Ireland in September, which means Rock Band 2 probably wont be out over here until way after Christmas, so instead of getting the first one when it comes out over here, I was wondering should I get Rock Band 2 from America?
PS3F answers: Keep in mind the DLC discrepancies if you do plan on importing Rock Band 2. If DLC is important to you, make sure you factor that in. Even then, if you plan to pick up the game-only version of Rock Band later, your North American RB2 and European RB probably won't work together if you're planning to transfer the disc data onto the HDD. Lastly, Rock Band 2 in Europe by December? We don't mean to burst your bubble, but the game hasn't been announced for Europe ... you could be waiting a whole entire year ... again. Sorry to say.

Miskat C. asks: Is it worth selling my PSP to buy a PS3, bearing in mind that I use my PSP for music, games and sometimes videos? I don't work. Also, is it worth getting a PS3 when I don't have an HDTV?
PS3F answers: Selling your PSP will not cover a significant amount of the cost for a PS3, so we'd suggest holding onto it. Also, since you don't have an HDTV, you're not really taking advantage of a newly purchased PS3. Graphics will still look great on a small flat-panel LCD screen (15-23 inches) but ... if you switch to an HDTV and hook up that PS3 beast with an HDMI cable, you'll see an amazing difference. It's like seeing in black in white all your life and then all of sudden everything is in color. It's that good.

Sarah C.: I was absolutely devastated to learn that Star Ocean 4 would be exclusive to the 360, and not too pleased to hear Tales of Vesperia would be a 360 exclusive too, considering I like both series and can only afford a PS3. Do you think that these two games will go the way of Eternal Sonata?
PS3F answers: Tales of Vesperia seems like it has a very good chance, given how Namco kept blundering whether it will be a PS3 game or not .... and then, there is the fact that Namco is also Eternal Sonata's publisher. We wouldn't be surprised at all if ToV went the route of Eternal Sonata. Star Ocean 4 on the other hand will most likely follow suit. Infinite Undiscovery was explicitly described as an XBOX 360 EXCLUSIVE in Square's press release -- Star Ocean simply said Xbox 360, without referring to an "exclusive." This language is intentionally tricky, folks.

Marino R.: In the last E3 conference, our friends of Square Enix talked about the multiplatform era. If that's the case, why are most of their games, at least between PS3 and 360, are going one way? Where is Lost Odyssey PS3? Where is Star Ocean PS3? Where is Infinite Undiscovery PS3?
PS3F answers: First, we'd like to point out that Lost Odyssey is not a Square Enix game; it was developed by Hironobu Sakaguchi's independent Mistwalker studio and was completely funded by Microsoft. It'll never be on PS3. Both Star Ocean 4 and Infinite Undiscovery (the worst name ever imagined) are developed by SE-owned tri-Ace, a team more familiar with the Xbox 360 architecture than the PS3. As for other Square Enix projects such as FFXIII and The Last Remnant -- yeah, they're both going multiplatform while Versus XIII will remain a PS3 exclusive. Anyways, you do bring up a good point on SE's multiplatform route -- instead of releasing the same game on multiple platforms to cut cost, they've instead spread out and made exclusive titles for all systems.


Sony: Music peripherals to work across games on PS3
Europe Invades Rock Band
Rock Band Invades Europe