The Recycle Bin

More PS3 backup and recovery woes.

I did a bit of searching tonight and the best I can gather is that each PS3 HDD is encrypted in a unique fashion. I am not sure if this is tied to the actual PS3 system, the HDD, or something else, but it is painfully apparent that there is some form of anti-piracy. Honest I can understand that part – Sony does not want you backing up your PS3 HDD, posting the backup on the internet, and then letting thousands of folks download goodies for free.

The best I can tell is that I actually have the same PS3 unit – at least the SN is the same. Or is it? The PlayStation support folks said it was the say, but why did my PS3 system say that my 250GB HDD was from a different PS3? Is it possible that whatever keys the HDD encryption to a matching PS3 was replaced? Kind of like keeping the shell, but the internals are all different? That is my guess.

So it looks like I am SOL. I still cannot get over losing my PSX, PS2, and PS3 game saves and data. The PSX and PS2 saves are priceless. The PS3 game saves are really more of an annoyance because I have not had them as long, but I have put in a decent amount of time with games like Super Star Dust HD, Oblivion, Pixel Junk Monsters and Eden, and F1. I hate that all of that is just gone. Well actually the data is on my Pass Port, but I cannot get the sum bitch to load.

Another real pisser is that I have to download all this shit all over again – all the PSN games and Qore downloads will probably take hours and hours to download. I would gladly accept that if I could just recover my data.

Here is the real kicker from the online manual

In some cases, you may not be able to use the Backup Utility feature to back up or restore the system correctly. It is recommended that you always copy or move important data to storage media in order to independently back up your data.

Cheese and crackers! Now you tell me. WTF is the backup and restore utility worth if you cannot use it to restore your f’ing data onto a repaired PS3? I am so f’ing despondent over this one. I do not even have the stomach to turn on my PS3 and start over.

NCAA Football 10 Dynasty Issues.

I have been pretty good this football season. I have only purchased three annuals, I have not visited a single forum, and I have only stopped by a few sites to look for news, notes, and impressions on NCAA Football 10. What I have seen so far as not been too outstanding.

Bill Abner of The Nut and the Feisty Weasel has a great write-up called NCAA 10: How Important is Dynasty Mode? And How Can EA Fix It?

Currently, progression works like this — kids come in inside a certain ratings range depending on their star value during recruiting. Then, each off season, everyone gets better by anywhere from 3 to 12 points (or so). So basically every team’s players get better each season and in a few years your Dynasty is littered with 90+ rated players on damn near every school.

It’s a player ratings orgasm. In one preseason top 25 poll 20 teams were rated at least an “A” overall. It’s bonkers.

It represents real college football like my daughter’s soccer games represent Fifa. It’s technically soccer.

Not so good. At a minimum I want the simulation aspects of dynasty and franchise modes to produce realistic statistics. Some abnormalities are ok, as long as they are consistent. I want to gameplay experience to be fun, believable, and at the same time I do not want to see the CPU do spectacular things that I could never manager (i.e. cheat).

Another good article is at Dubious Quality by Bill Harris titled NCAA 10 (360): A Brown, Gelatinous Mass That Is Only Vaguely Shaped Like A Football. Because sliders were not working, which seems oddly reminiscent of last year’s release, while waiting for a patch to fix the problem, Mr. Harris did some very detailed work on player progression.

The summarized version: there were 14 players in the entire game (any position) with an overall rating of 95 or higher on the default rosters. After five years, there were 75! Also, there were an additional 112 players with overall ratings of 90-94, and after five years, there were 270.

That’s kind of a shitty mess, really, and some positions are just mind-boggling. There were originally two centers at 95+ and 8 more from 90-94, but after five years, there were 18 at 95+ and 36 from 90-94!

You either enjoy this type of stuff or you don’t. I love looking inside the numbers, so this is a great read. Unlike Mr. Harris, for the first time in a long time, I am not going to run up to the ball and hope that Lucy will not pull it away from me at the last minute. No thanks. As I previously wrote, this year I am going to pass on NCAA Football 10.

Taking the day off to regroup.

I think after yesterday’s epic failure with the PS3 backup and recovery of my old data, I may have to take a day or two off from videogame blogging.

For what it is worth, I called the Sony support number and after a few minutes (waited less than 5) I got a person on the phone. He confirmed that I have the same system; I did not receive a replacement unit. I walked through the system restore functions with the guy on the phone, and when I got to the warning message about this being a different system I was told that some of the content must have been copyrighted or illegal. WTF? I told the guy that I did not have one illegal game, video, or otherwise on my system. Ridiculous.

I was able to restore, but the restore only took 7 minutes vs. 120 minutes that it took pre-repair. It looks like the only data recovered were some videos, which to be honest I think I could do without.

I think my only option is to see if I can look inside the backup/restore file and pull out individual files. I have no idea how the file is put together; maybe it is a zip or tar ball file?

It sucks that I lost Oblivion, F1, and other PS3 game data and saves. I can always download all my purchased content again; of course it takes forever to pull anything off of the PSN, but I can recover that part of my PS3. I cannot get over the fact that I have lost years of PSX and PS2 saves. Once I transferred the data to my PS3, the memory cards were discarded, sold, etc. It just plain sucks ass that years of gaming history are gone, and the sad thing is that I tried to do everything right – I actually backed up my f’ing system.

PS3 comes home to bitter disappointment.

My PS3 arrived today fresh from a factory repair. The first thing I checked was the model number and serial number to see if I got a refurbished unit. The good news is that the system looks like it is my system. Strangle enough my service repair number still does not show up on the online system, and the service receipt that came with the repair does not show what was actually repaired although it does say this “document is a description of the work performed on your unit …”

First the good news. I placed the repair order on June 25, so end-to-end repair time was under 30 days, which is not all that bad. But the bad news is bitterly disappointing.

Straight away I pulled out the original 60GB HDD and replaced it with my 250GB upgrade. This was another confirmation that this is actually my system. I actually almost stripped one of the screws on the HDD harness and it is plainly obvious that this one is mine.

After powering on the system, I got a HDMI device detected, followed by you must format this HDD. Not so good. I chose “no, I really do not want to format my HDD” and the PS3 told me that this HDD was from a different PS3 system. Huh? WTF does that mean? It cannot mean anything good.

So I decided to put the original 60GB HDD back in the system, and everything started correctly. Of course I previously formatted the drive, per the repair order instructions, so everything was basically as good as new. Only without the good part.

I figured I would put my 250GB HDD back in the system to see what would happen. I got the f’ing different system notice again. This time, with my Pass Port in hand, I told the PS3 to format the shit out of my HDD. After all, why should I care? I have this handy little USB HDD with a backup of my 250GB HDD prior to sending it in for repair.

Without any other options, I format. I then go to the system restore option and cannot restore the backup because option, but guess what? I am told that the backup is from another PS3 system, so it cannot be used for a restore. Holy, f’ing shit. You have to be kidding me.

Of course when I backed up the HDD, I did the full backup option. I did not backup individual files, games, game data, etc. Years and years of PSX and PS2 memory card data is gone. Goodbye. F-you later. Screwed. Not to mention all my PS3 downloads, game saves, game data, etc. All gone in a blink of the eye.

Words cannot fully describe my disappointment.

Madden 10 franchise news at IGN.

I am a little disappointed in this Madden 10 franchise article from IGN, but it is hard to complain too much because there is no other f’ing news worth posting.

I haven’t had the time to get all the way to the draft in my franchise just yet, but EA Sports is saying that they’ve crafted more than 8,000 rookies for use in the draft and that there’s new AI logic governing moves made by you and the CPU. Hopefully that means that you won’t be able to swindle teams out of all of their first-round picks this year.

I wonder how long this bird has had the game? It is nice and all to write about the new improved presentation, but as a Falcons season ticket holder, I already know all about going into the Dome and standing in the concession lines. How about the statistics? Did the author simulate any seasons? Did writer actually try to swindle the CPU teams?

I wish someone would post something that was PS3 specific. I understand that the 360 is dominating the world, but you would think with all the extra nuts and bolts under the PS3’s hood, something worth mentioning would pop out. Except for the price point, the PS3 really does have shades of Dreamcast written all over it. If I have to explain, you wouldn’t understand.

I have nothing. Dog days of summer continue.

It is like a gaming vortex has sucked all the news dry. There is just not much going on right now. Maybe the biggest story is that Xbox 360 Live Gold subscribers will get the Madden 10 demo July 23, a week or so before anyone else. No idea when us poor saps with a PS3 will get to take on some demo-goodness.

In other news, my PS3 is due to arrive today.

Lazy days of summer.

This morning I was looking around at my usual stops and did not really find anything worth posting. IGN [good for news; not reviews] posted another not so flattering op-ed on the PSP Go, but I have done enough of those over the last couple of weeks.

Even N4G did not have much that I felt like posting. I guess we are just in the dog days of summer; somewhere between waiting for the next Madden installment and the holiday sales cycles.

Happy Monday!

In search of the perfect tailgating grill.

As we inch ever so close to football season, I am now in search of the perfect tailgating grill. Right now the Weber Q220 is leading the way. I like the size, and the various accessories. I can stick with the small propane tanks or for about $30 I can buy an adaptor and use one of the bigger 20 pound tanks, which would make this grill a little less than portable. I can also get one of the folding carts, which will make this puppy nice and manageable in the Falcons parking lot. Throw in the griddle accessory and I could have breakfast, but that would probably not go so well with my beer.

If I am even considering a larger propane tank, I may as well go with the Weber Q300 or Q320, but those just do not seem practicable to throw in the back of the Sienna.

Unless something else strikes my fancy, I think the Q220 is the way to go. I would love to hear any other thoughts and opinions on best options for tailgating grills.

Some reasons not to PSP Go.

After finding that forgettable PS2 NCAA Football 10 I was cursing around G4TV looking for something else fun to read. This G4TV Feed editorial laments on the fact that Sony should have skipped the PSP Go and went straight to the PSP2. Never mind alienating the current 50 million or so PSP owners.

While Sony has released a number of new models improving on the screen, battery life, size and weight of the PSP, the company is planning on releasing their most radical PSP design this Fall –PSP go The smallest and lightest version of the PSP, PSP go forgoes the UMD drive for downloadable games but adds 16GB of internal storage, Bluetooth support, and more.

But, does anyone care? I sure as hell don’t.

Like a lot of posts these days, the comments are actually more interesting than the full article content. In the case of the PSP Go, consider it as a sort of PSP-4000 that will hold everyone over for 12-18 months until the PSP2 is ready for launch. If Sony does the needful and launches the PSP2 in 6-9 months, there are going to be some seriously pissed PSP Go owners.

Is there honor in third place?

I ran across this article via N4G and thought it was a bit ridiculous. The author is claiming that the PS3 is really not doing that bad. Huh?

In their lifetimes, the Gamecube sold 21.74 million units, and the original Xbox 24 million. With the PS3 at 23 million, that means that it has sold the same amount as the Gamecube and Xbox in about half the time.

Ooh! Ooh! I know the answer to this one. Dreamcast! I am sure Sony never saw the day coming where their shiny new Blu-ray of wonder would get compared to the Gamecube. Good grief. There are silver linings and then there are dark clouds of mumbo-jumbo.

Lastly, there’s the issue of cost. Sony lose money on every PS3 sold. In 2006 when the PS3 launched, Sony were losing approximately $250 on every PS3 sold. But now with Blu-Ray development costs dropping (as well as Sony taking a few features out of the console), the development costs are (as of January last year) about $450. 80 GB PS3s currently cost about $400, which means that Sony is now only losing $50 per PS3. The development costs of Blu-Ray will continue to drop, which means eventually Sony will start making money off of the PS3. Until then, though, they still have sales from the PS2, PSP, and other electronics (such as TVs and standalone Blu-Ray players) to help recover their losses.

But mom! I am only a little pregnant. Something like that. The author can spin the numbers any which way they darn well please, but the simple fact of the matter is that Sony has had it handed to them the last few years.

How is this current generation going to play out? Will a $50 price cut [you know we all want to see $100, but predictably Sony will do the wrong thing] actually salvage things for Sony? Will Sony attempt to keep the PS3 on a 10 year cycle similar to the PSX and PS2? Will Sony abandon the PS3 in hopes of competing with Microsoft by simultaneously launching the next PlayStation with the next Xbox?

There are lots of questions to ponder, but no real answers right now. Maybe I will start a rumor or two later. Until then, happy Sunday!

NCAA Football 10: Where did all the good sports games reviews go?

This afternoon my wife was shopping, my youngest son was taking a nap, my two older sons were watching some Sponge Bob, and my PS3 was on a UPS truck. I decided to look for some good NCAA Football 10 reviews.

Based on a few tid bits that I have read, I strongly suspect that PS3 version is just a minor upgrade over the NCAA Football 09. What about the PSP version? That could give me some quality football time until Madden gets here in a few short weeks.

First stop was metacritic – the PS3 release only has 7 reviews listed, for an average score of 82%, while no reviews [in case I stuttered, that is zero, zip, nil] were listed for the PSP version. WTF? Don’t bother us; waiting for Madden!

The disturbing trend here is that for the PS3 reviews, none of them are sports gaming centric. This is disappointing. I know reviewers, especially sports game reviewers, are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If you review too quickly you may miss some obscure flaw that ruins everyone’s fun. If you review too late, no one cares. What is the poor reviewer to do?

Next I went to gamerankings – they had the same PS3 reviews and of course no PSP reviews. This sucks monkey nuts. No reviews? What is wrong with the kids these days? I figured someone would have slapped up a couple hundred words on their blog and called it a day. Cheese and crackers.

Finally I headed to IGN. I bet they had a review, but maybe the tracking sites just did not get around to listing it? Not so much. At least IGN pointed me to something called gamestats that at least had a couple of worthless reviews. This is is more or less worthless, because the next link is actually for a PS2 game, not a PSP game, but I am desperate at this point, so here goes nothing! At least G4TV is going to try to throw me a bone and give me some fun with a mediocre review.

On the field, the game is a solid football title. Kudos to the dev team for adding some new animations that not only enhance the realism of gameplay, but look cool as well.

Huh? Love me a dash of coolness with my gameplay. How exactly does this improve upon last year’s gameplay?

Receivers and DBs jostle as they run routes, pass protection actually forms a pocket that QBs can step into, and it’s also possible to throw out of sacks — though players are advised to it at their own discretion; it’s embarrassing to get picked off twice in one game by a sure-handed defensive end.

No doubt. Embarrassing. I thought this was heading somewhere important.

It’s a shame that all these new tweaks are just that: tweaks. The gameplay jump from NCAA Football 09 to this year is quite minimal, and the fact that NCAA 10 will be a full price game should make gamers think long and hard about whether or not they can just make do with 09 for another year. NCAA Football 11 will need some additions, most notably some better on-field presentation (no rivalry game trophy celebrations? C’mon, EA) and the development team needs more creativity when they decide to add new modes.

How dare those bastards at EA leave out the all important rivalry game trophy celebrations? My gameplay is just not complete. Screw it. I give up. I guess I need to go back to writing my own reviews because this dribble sucks.

What kind of Street Fighter fan are you anyway?

When the hottest N4G story of the day is one for nude Street Fighter IV skins, you know it is a seriously slow news day. Dog days of summer? Maybe. Seriously, WTF is wrong with these people? By these people, I mean the ones making this story red hot, not the folks that wasted time and energy trying to make SF characters show in the buff.

PSP Go Cash Cow for Ports?

So now that Sony is going down the digital download only route with the PSP Go, how does Sony fill up PSN with suitable content? Ports, baby, ports. ThePortableGamer has an great article advising Sony not to throw caution to the wind.

What Sony doesn’t need to do is start pulling existing developers and tell them to port their games to the PSP Go. It would be nice to see a dedicated Sony-brand application store rather than having to go through PSN or the PC to get games on the new system. Given the number of applications on iTunes, Sony could be relatively successful in grabbing the best of the bunch to port their games. But there lies some honest truth, Sony wants quick cash.

There are many gamers, this one included, that would be happy to have a full back catalog of PSX titles available for download, along with a steady stream of original IP, assuming the price per download is reasonable. With that said, I also know that we are going to see a rash of iPod ports; not such a happy situation. Hopefully PSN does not get flooded with a bunch of crap, because the PSP Go should be for real gaming experiences, not some nickel and dime store iPod crap.

Friday Stuffs

Because it is Friday. And I have stuffs to discuss.

She’s a good hearted woman…
Happy b-day T! You’re still the best!

Many happy returns.
I never could get Sony’s online repair system to tell me squat about my PS3, but last night I received noticed that my PS3 just left Laredo, TX. It looks like it is due to arrive July 21. After going so long without playing, I am surprised how much I miss the little bastard. Cannot wait to play some more Ratchet & Clank.

That did’t take long.
July 4 I wrote a bit about the Braves making a bid for the NL East. So much for that. At the time of that article, the Braves were 2 GB, 1 under .500 (39-40). Today? Atlanta is still 1 under .500 (44-45), but they are now 6 GB. Sell, sell, sell!

Beckham madness over?
I never thought I would see the day that Beckham was ripped on ESPN, but it looks like that day has finally arrived.

In his first match since the Italian League’s season finale on May 31, Beckham was often behind the play and seemed winded. He had no free-kick chances near the goal, didn’t make any crosses that created threats and didn’t even take all the Galaxy corner kicks while he was in the match.

While this is not exactly a total bitch slap, the article was surprisingly overly negative towards Beckham. I agree with the overall assessment in the article. The Beckham buzz is done. Make of it what you will, but times, they are a changing.

Numbers game.
This article from EndSights (via N4G) contends that the latest NPD data shows that Microsoft is kicking Sony in the crown jewels. Actually, the author is trying to make a point that Sony fans are loyal, but the PS3 base is so much smaller than the 360 that the 360 will always have higher NPD numbers.

When you think about it, this is a bit of a head scratcher. I am not sure what loyalty has to do with it, right Sega fans?

Two of the biggest releases in June were Prototype and Fight Night Round 4, and both sold, in pure units, better on the Xbox 360. Prototype in particular was extremely pronounced, with the Activision published title selling 600,000 units between the two platforms, with the Xbox 360 accounting for close to 70 percent of those units — selling through close to 420,000 units. Fight Night Round 4 wasn’t as drastic. The title sold an impressive 471,100 units between the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, despite only being on retail shelves for five days. The Xbox 360 still represented the bulk of those sales, however, selling through 260,800 units — or 55.3 percent.

Despite the apparent dominance in the software sales chart by the Xbox 360, which, on one level, is an undeniable reality for Sony, also provides some rays of hope for the PlayStation 3 going forward. Conventional wisdom would say that Microsoft has a better hold on the hardcore gamer, as shown by their software sale dominance. Instead, if the June NPD numbers are any indication, it’s not software that Microsoft dominates — it’s hardware.

The whole system race (hardware game) is all about installed base. Grow your install base and make a cut off of each game sold. License fees and royalties rule.

All for now. Happy Friday!

NCAA Football 10: Reviews that suck.

I could not help myself; I had to go hunting for NCAA Football 10 reviews. Look on the bright side, you guys get a new, albeit short, blog entry.

I understand that gamedaily is not going to focus on a sports game, so it is expected that their NCAA Football 10 review would be rather short. Maybe even simple and to the point. I am not exactly expecting details on DB AI coverage patterns, QB accuracy rates, and how the AI performs in the closing minutes of the game. However, I was expecting just a little bit more than this …

Aside from those new features, this year’s NCAA offers the same gameplay and presentation from previous installments. Because of this, what could’ve been a five-star prospect quickly became a solid backup. Unless you’re a college football fanatic, we suggest waiting for Madden NFL 10.

For those keeping score at home, let’s recap this review. Opening paragraph about three new features: Coke Zero Season Showdown, Road To Glory and Team Builder modes. This is followed by a brief paragraph on each of the features. And the review finishes with the dribble I quoted above.

Seriously. That is the entire review, which awards the game a 7 out of 10. For what it is worth, their review from last year gave the game a 7 out of 10.

So nothing has changed? Are the bugs from last year still present? Does the CPU put up a decent challenge? Is the game fun? What is Madden 10 better? Good grief. Remind me not to go to gamedaily for sports game reviews.