http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant/remote-play---or-now-to-remote-control-your-ps3-with-your-psp I've had a PSP for a while now - probably a couple of years at least. I've been using the hacked firmware - and enjoying homebrew emulation fun with it up until now. I've also converted tv shows to it's format in the past too, but it just got too much of a hassle after a while so it's been sitting in a drawer unused for a while now. When I heard you could link the PSP up to your Playstation 3 I was a little worried that my hacked PSP wouldn't be able to do this (or would be blocked in some way), but I discovered that it worked just fine. I updated mine from 3.02-OA to the latest hacked firmware - 3.90M33 first to be sure I had the latest updates, then gave Remote Play a spin. Now the first thing you need to do is register the PSP with your PS3. Once you've done that you can turn a few extra options on in your PS3. Remote Start is one that I like - it means you can start your PS3 directly from your PSP - no matter where you might be. The nice thing about this is that it starts in Remote Play mode immediately when you do so. In Remote Play mode, the PSP is like a window into your PS3 desktop. You can listen to music, look at photos and even stream movies over wifi from your PS3. Some games even support Remote Play - any others will tell you if they support it (Burnout: Paradise doesn't unfortunately!) So you want to watch a movie in your bedroom, and the PS3 is in the lounge nearby - easy! Simply turn on your PSP, select remote play and within seconds you're connected to your PS3 and can stream a movie over wifi. And when you're finished you can close Remote Play and shut down the PS3 all remotely. Very cool, and very impressive Sony! Keep it up! :) http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant/remote-play---or-now-to-remote-control-your-ps3-with-your-psp Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:06:33 +0900 http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant/guitar-hero-iii-legends-of-rock-review So Ayliesh came over this weekend and we played the ps3 quite a lot. It didn't take long to realise we didn't have many games to play that we could both play together. So we went off to the shops and decided to see what other games were out there. Ratchet and Clank was one that we were interested in, though it was a tad expensive - EB/Gametraders/Target all had it for $109. We tried K-Mart next but they didn't have it at all. While I was there I remembered Guitar Hero III - and asked about it but they said it was sold out. We went to Toys R Us next, and they had Ratchet and Clank for $99 so we were about to get that when I asked about Guitar Hero III again. They did have it in stock, and it was $139. We decided this would be much more fun and you get a lot more out of it too (as you get the guitar as well) for only $40 more. So we took it home.. and much fun was had! Especially because it's so fricken hard! But then it's also a challenge I guess.. and will have much playability simply because I'm so hopeless at it - or at least I was when I first started. We had a couple of practice songs first.. then went into career mode - on easy of course! We're up to the 9th set now, after having battled Tony Morello and Slash and we're playing for the Lord of Rock himself now in the underworld. It's gotten pretty hard now, and I can't imagine anyone completing it on Medium let alone Hard difficulty, but we're slowly making our way through it. Great game tho! http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant/guitar-hero-iii-legends-of-rock-review Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:35:17 +0900 http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant/burnout-paradise-review So one of the first demo's I downloaded from the Playstation store was the Burnout: Paradise demo. Well it didn't take me long to fall in love with the game, so I picked it up last night from EB Games as yesterday was the official release date here in Australia. They had it for $99, but I got them to price-match JBHifi who has it for sale at $79, then used my 15% off EB Webmail signup voucher (for signing up to EB's webmail/spam list) and so got it for $67 in the end. Sweet price for a very sweet game! The graphics on Burnout are incredible - despite it only being at 720p - the cars are rich in detail, beautiful scenery and attention to detail on the city - and loads and loads of things you can do. Unlike previous Burnouts - this one is totally open - you can drive around freely and just smash stuff up willy nilly if you want. If you see a bit of traffic you can jump into ShowTime mode (where you smash other cars and collect points based on how many thousands of dollars of damage you caused (buses act as a multiplier). You can also stop at any street corner and jump into a race. There are a number of different kinds of races too - including your typical Race mode (6 cars racing for the destination), Marked Man races (where you are the marked man racing for the destination and the other cars try and take you out), Road Rage (where you just try and destroy as many other racers as you can before the time limit goes), and Stunt Races (where you try and do stunts/jumps/etc and get over a certain amount of points). There's also special races designed for specific vehicles and probably more races that I don't even know about yet. Plus there's lots for you to explore around the city itself - new places for you to find, plus secret shortcuts, secret jumps, ramps, stunt ramps, super jumps, billboard smashes and more. As you progress and get more wins under your belt, you get more cars to play with. These cars work differently too - there's Stunt cars, Aggressive cars and Speed cars - each has benefits in certain areas - but all are fun. And when you get sick of playing by yourself - you can jump online and play against other people! In the online game the game creator can pick a challenge for all the players to compete against. This could be a race, or it could be a freestyle type of challenge - like power parking, doing spins, or just competing for takedowns. Awesome fun overall - and with the free roaming design it has a hell of a lot of playability - not to mention just being great fun smashing up your car and seeing how it crumples in slow-motion. My Score: A++ http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant/burnout-paradise-review Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:31:52 +0900 http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant/so-i-got-my-ps3-finally__ And it's a pretty awesome console so far. The interface for the PS3 is a little quirky - much like the PSP is really, but it's not too hard to find your way around it I guess. I had issues with my DLink DNS-323 NAS to start with - it kept on coming up with a DLNA Protocol Error 2113 to start with as soon as I hooked it up to the network. I had a quick google for it and discovered that some people had managed to get the DLink DNS-323 device working with Twonky UPNP Server - so I gave this a go - and sure enough - it worked. Then I came across a thread that said that the brand new 1.04 firmware (mine had 1.03) for the DLink DNS-323 solved the problem completely. So I gave this a shot and sure enough - it worked perfectly - no more DLNA errors, and can now browse the NAS via my PS3! Remote Play with the PSP is also awesome - being able to watch movies or tv shows on the PSP from anywhere in the house on my server is just too cool for words. I just wish it'd play x264 stuff properly with no file limits - but oh well. Hopefully someone will find the solution for the linux library/hardware issues that are preventing XBMC on the PS3 from proceeding further and then we'll get everything on it! So tried out the games I bought - a little unimpressed with Uncharted so far, but then I've always had two left thumbs when it came to shooting games with a console joystick. I also encountered some wierd graphics glitches in the opening scene that put me off. I suspect it might be my cheap US$10 DealExtreme HDMI cable that is causing it, but it's wierd because I haven't had any issues occur with any other game. I've tried out several other games so far - including Virtua Fighter 5, Burnout: Paradise (demo), Motorstorm (Demo), and GT: HD 2.0. I didn't experience any glitches with any of them. I really liked Burnout: Paradise - and suspect that will be my next game purchase - apparently JB-Hifi have it for $79 so might pick it up from them if I can. I really love the detail of the ps3 at 1080p though - it really is awesome to play with that high resolution on a big screen. http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant/so-i-got-my-ps3-finally__ Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:04:13 +0900 http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant/handy-links-to-interesting-ps3-articles I've been reading a lot about the PS3 lately. Below I've compiled a list of linked articles which I've found interesting or useful. If you're new to the Playstation 3, then you may find them useful too! DTVForum's Blu-ray Title Region Coding information - Pretty comprehensive list of Blu-ray movies that do and do not have region encoding - and links to reviews. Great for those wanting to buy Blu-ray movies from Amazon! PSUbuntu.com - Ubuntu on a Playstation 3 XBMC for Playstation3? - via Linux port. Not yet, but people are thinking about it! PS3 Tricks that Sony doesn't tell you More PS3 Tricks that Sony doesn't tell you Two PS3 Linux Performance Tweaks How to set up media servers for your PS3 or Xbox 360 Schmart Solutions for PS3 IR Control PS3 Remote Play - use your PSP to control your PS3! http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant/handy-links-to-interesting-ps3-articles Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:50:48 +0900 http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant/free-playstation-3 So I've sent off for my free PlayStation 3 console, and just waiting for it to arrive now. Of course I'm eager to get it, and in the meantime I'm tiding myself over by reading as much as I can about it and I will admit I've ordered a heap of stuff for it too. So far I've ordered the following... From Play-Asia.com: Black Dualshock 3 Controller - I know I'm going to want an additional controller - and Play-Asia's price (AUD$66) is quite a bit cheaper than I can get it locally in Australia (AUD$99 at EB and Gametraders). Virtua Fighter 5 - Classic fighting game - always fun. Sells for AUD$109 in EB and Gametraders, they had it for about AUD$33 - It's the Japanese version, but it supposedly has English menus too. No region protection, so will play for me. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - This game received rave reviews and is supposedly like Gears of War meets Indiana Jones. Sells for AUD$119 at EB games and the like - but PA have it for AUD$73. Shipping was another AUD$21 on top of that. So all up I saved myself AUD$134 over retail. http://www.juga.org/gadgets/ps3/ps3-rant/free-playstation-3 Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:36:55 +0900