Yesterday my 250GB PS3 Slim arrived safely from Walmart.com via FedEx. Compared to Amazon, I did have to pay more for shipping and sales tax, but Amazon did not have a 250GB Slim in stock, so this was something I decided to absorb. Besides the two game bundle will allow me to dump something on eBay to make up for this modest amount that I would not have paid via Amazon.
Before setting up the new Slim, I used my USB HDD to back up my save data files and media. While I could have setup up both systems and tried to do a system transfer, the USB backup process was a fairly quick and not too painless of a process. Besides, I have been backing up regularly because I figure my original PS3 will die sooner or later. I have the process down; as I said, quick and painless.
My HVB and Heavy Rain save data were locked, and would not copy. I am not sure why these games are setup this way. In the case of HVB it sucks because I have to spend several hours re-unlocking content that I had previously unlocked. I like the game, but I am going to have to decide if I like it enough to unlock some of the decent content again. I am not as concerned about Heavy Rain because I did not get too far into the game before getting distracted with something else (and my PS3 suffering YLoD). With that said, I really do not want to play the opening chapters again; tedious and as a father, not something that I consider very fun.
I also decided to take a few minutes to write down some of my settings. It took me a long time to get wireless working correctly for Remote Play, so I figured it was worth a few extra minutes of effort. Probably wasted effort; I bet the Slim does not have any of the Remote Play issues (PS3 randomly turning on) I ran into with my original system.
Setup of the new Slim was straight forward, as was to be expected. I was quickly in the PlayStation Store looking at my previous downloads to re-download all my paid content and games. I am not sure why, but downloads are noticeably quicker with the Slim. While I was watching Game 4 of the Celtics/Lakers Finals, I quickly downloaded a slew of games and add-on content.
I did not see an option to re-download my MLB 10: The Show classic stadiums content, which was a pre-order bonus. I was surprised to see that this DLC sells for $9.99. Ouch! Talk about price gouging. For that price I would expect to see a whole slew of extras, not just classic stadiums, but I digress. I figured I was out of luck because the Heavy Rain Taxidermist preorder bonus chapter did show up in my cart as being previous downloaded. Since they were both entered via DLC codes, I am not sure why these are considered different.
I decided to put in MLB 10 to see if there was some sort of in-game option to reapply the coded. After the long update and install process, I jumped into an exhibition game and saw the classic stadiums listed as unlocked. Not sure how the game knew, but I am thankful it did realize that I had previously applied this DLC code. Now that the Braves are rolling, I hope the new roster updates have the “improved” first place in the NL East Braves, and not the sorry start of the season Braves. Sorry; another digression.
My kids seemed somewhat concerned that the Slim does not play PS2 games, however these days PS2 games rarely if ever get played. The PS2 has a great library, and I own plenty of classics, but there are just not enough hours in the day. When I am PS3 gaming, it is almost always with a PSN or PS3 title. I have been dumping a few PS2 titles on eBay in anticipation of getting a Slim, so I think I am “over” this major difference in the new Slim, which obviously does not “do everything” as the ads would imply. My personality may drive me to really miss PS2 compatibility (“want what I cannot have”), but in a pinch, I do still have my original PS3; if it comes to that extreme.
I’ll also probably miss the front loading memory slots; plugging in a camera memory card or PSP memory stick was a nice convenience on the original PS3. I can see why Sony removed these to save money; the Slim has two USB slots (original system has four) and of course the Slim can connect to a media server.
I will not miss the extra noise, heat, and constant worry about when my original PS3 is going to blow up. The PS3 is mouse fart quiet, and after several hours of being on, there was very little noticeable heat. My original PS3 would have been blazing hot and annoyingly loud. So that is a worthwhile improvement.
As they say, Slim is in. It’s Friday! Happy Gaming!
Congratulations on the new toy.
I’m tempted by the quieter, cooler-running Slim but my original 60 GB seems to be fine and I’ve never bought more than one console a generation, either the same console or different ones and I don’t want to break that pattern.
$600 is plenty enough too for one generation. Going to hope it survives another couple of years and we get new hardware. Of course, the first generation always produces noisy, hotter consoles, as they have faster chips in them.
Thanks for reminding me that I have spent ~ $1000 on this generation of hardware. Who knows why my PS3 60GB system had multiple issues. I think I ended up with two PSXs and two PS2 systems, so this is par for the course. Really makes you wonder if they do not build them to last on purpose; probably just the cons of moving parts – my original NES is still going strong!
You better hope your PS3 keeps going for a while longer because I think we are in this generation for at least 18 more months.