Playstation 3 Rumors (1 Viewer)

[Michael G Jones]

Is there any rumors on a new playstation 3 or other units going into production? ie. the 60gb.....

? Just curious, What are ppl storing on the harddrives?

 

[pitchman]

I'm a PS3 newbie. I bought an 80 gig MGS4 bundle. I only have 4 games at this point installed on the hard drive (MGS4, GTAIV, Rock Band and Uncharted) and I was rather shocked to see that I currently only have around 56 gig free. If these games are "typical," even with 80 gig, I can see me running out of space sooner than I would like.

 

[Michael G Jones]

does part or most of the game install itself on the harddrive to speed up gameplay?

 

[BrianB]

That's often the case, Michael, yes. It's easy to remove the installed space and the next time you play the game you'll have to install it again. Some games handle it without really telling you what it's doing, others explicitly say they're installing to the harddrive etc.

 

[Michael G Jones]

interesting....I'll have to do a little more research on the PS3. For one, since I have a good little library of PS2 games, should I go for the 80gb and have some backward playback or just settle for the 40gb and keep the ps2 hooked up. I would like to keep my av setup relatively clean, just the satellite receiver and the ps3. I figure from time to time I can just hook up the ps2 and xbox when the need arises to play.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

You can look up the game compatibility somewhere online since I don't think the 80 gb machine is 100% backwards compatible. If your PS2 games aren't all compatible then you might want to keep the PS2 hooked up either way.

 

[Michael G Jones]

I had heard that even with the backward compatibility not all games will work. I have a decent length component cable for the ps2 so I'll fish that down through the wall and use the ps2....whenever I get a chance to play games. The wife is in favour of the ps3 as we'll have a blu ray player, and I can use it for games and transfer movies & videos from the computer or use the ext. hd.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Backward compatibility is done through software emulation for PS2 games, thus the reason why they don't all work.

Also, you can switch out the HDD on the PS3 for a larger one. The instruction manual gives you instructions on how to do this.

 

[BrianB]

Not quite. The 60GB has a PS2 chipset basically inside, making it 100% compatible. The 80GB has part of the PS2 chipset included, but not all of it - it relies on software emulation for the missing chipset, which is why it's not 100%. It's not a pure software emulation - if Sony had that, the 40GB would likely be BC too, and it's not.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

The 60 and 20 GB SKUs were the launch ones. They are no longer available unless they are refurbished or being sold by the owner.

When I said the PS3 was doing software emulation, I meant the SKUs that are on store shelves right now are doing that. (Specifically, the 80 GB model.) The older PS3 models had a couple issues with playing PS2 games properly, (minor video issues) but those were fixed with a firmware update and I believe are 100% backwards compatible.

 

[Michael G Jones]

hmm....for $100 difference between the 40gb & 80gb - i can have 2 extra usb ports, flash card reader & ps2 playback.

the only thing i can think of with the usb ports is my external hd where I store movies/tv/music & my psp

The Ps3 for me will be like a media server then for the occassional games. With wifi, can I stream divx movies for playback? It will be in the same room so hopefully won't experience any lag and if I do I can just run ethernet back to the router.

 

[BrianB]

This feels like a blast from the past.

There are two models currently available for the PS3. The 40GB has no backwards compatibility whatsoever at this time. The 80GB has some compatibility which is done via software and hardware. There is some of the PS2 chipsets physically present on the motherboard of the 80GB PS3. It's disingenuous to say it's "software emulation" because that's not the whole story - it relies on hardware on the motherboard. If Sony had a 100% software solution (note, I mean emulation all done in software, not a perfect emulation rate), they'd have rolled it out to all models. They do not have such a solution right now.

Again, the 80GB has backwards compatibility that's not 100% and is done in a mixture of software and hardware emulation.

Emulating the PS2 is a f'ing hard job.