• 7Nov 11

  Note on Uncharted 3 Stuttering Problems

  Spent a good few hours at the weekend with my mate trying to fix his problems with Uncharted 3.
  
  I have a PS3 40gb (upgraded to 250GB).
  
  He recently replaced his launch 60GB with a new PS3 Slim 160GB. He reused his 250GB Western Digital drive from his 60GB. I noticed from day 1 it was laggier and would stutter playing back video when downloading.
  
  I he recently had major problems with Uncharted 3. They ranged from music stuttering, audio not syncing and then breaking with cut scenes. Then game breaking levels of stutter.
  
  I mentioned that I never thought his new system was good (his 60GB was fine, he just wanted a warranty, urgh).
  
  So we tried my copy in case it was the disc, no luck.
  
  I suggested it might be the hard disk combined with the more budget internals of the slim.
  
  So we first backed up and deactivated the system. Then removed the 250GB HDD, reinstalled the 160GB (patching from the 3.73 firmware on Playstation.com). We tested video whilst downloading, no problems. We the tried Uncharted 3 it had the odd hickup, but was now an unbroken game. We then restored from his backup, reactivated the system. Tried the Video test and Uncharted 3 and it worked fine with only the very occasional stutter.
  
  I have to my knowledge noticed no stuttering at all on my 40GB.
  
  I am guessing that either the 250GB drive he had was badly set up or clashed with the cheaper components of the PS3 Slim.
  
  I hope this helps anyone with their Uncharted 3 stuttering. I can guarantee you I won't be 'upgrading' to a PS3 Slim any time soon. Although this is purely anecdotal evidence.

  • Posted Nov 7, 2011 7:17 am GMT
  • Category: Games
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 13Apr 11

  Entering the **** age of video games

  First Posted on my blog on Feb 2011

  Back in the day (like many early medias) video game platforms and content were extremely local. My UK background of the 80-90s is very different than those of my US friends and very different to those of Japan.
  
  The ZX Spectrum didn't happen in America, the early PC gaming days didn't happen in Japan. Around 1990 this slowly started changing. We ended up with Japanese Consoles and American PCs. The market massively combined and standardised on a few key platforms. That's how it stayed until around 2004.
  
  2004 started to see the dehomogenisation of the games market. Flash games and early mobile games gave way to large splits. Firstly the casual market broke off to a large degree from the core market. Certain platforms favoured one or the other, but there wasn't one unified winner any more. The other un-noticed (in the west) split is the public commuter / private commuter split. In Japan, with it's densely packed cities and long public commutes, fixed home consoles took a back seat and became the secondary consoles of choice. The DS and PSP are the successors to the GameCube and PS2 in Japan not the Wii and PS3. Cultures that don't have those space restrictions and commute by car find it hard to wrap their heads around this concept. Mobile gaming has further complicated things by bringing handheld games on a scale that even private commuters can take up.
  
  I think this break up has really confused many pundits who cut their teeth in the late 90s period where the PS1 ruled everywhere and the Gameboy was the only handheld to chose from.
  
  A lot of games now are for them, they can just about cope with that. However that an entire platform can reside outside of their world in some sort of parallel market is a hard pill to swallow.

  • Posted Apr 13, 2011 2:42 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 13Apr 11

  2011 Predictions: New Nintendo Console

  First Posted on Jan 2011 on my Website's Blog

  Nintendo has had great success with both the Wii and the DS. However the numbers don't lie. The DS has hit saturation in Japan and the Wii's star is on the wain. Everyone that wanted either of these consoles has bought one.
  
  Back when the DS and Wii launched Nintendo was in the worst position has been in a LONG time. The Gameboy Advance was looking awfully underpowered compared to Sony's rumoured PSP and the GameCube just failed to be mainstream in any sense. Money was tight. Nintendo couldn't afford a loss leader system in either bracket. In the home console arena things were even tougher, the twice crowned champion Sony looked like it would be on to an unstoppable third strike, Sega Nintendo's previous main revival had packed in the hardware game and Microsoft had started showing its old time 90s teeth. Things were grim and Nintendo realised that in a straight arms race they were going to loose big. So Nintendo decided to change the rules of engagement. They radically redesigned their handheld with a touch screen and completely changed the interface home consoles with the Wii.
  
  Times have changed. Nintendo understands this, the 3DS is not just a marginal update of the DS. This thing can output MGS3 (a top grade PS2 game) three times (once in 2D, and twice for each eye in 3D). It is a deceptively powerful system. Also they gave it a tech fan's dream, glasses free 3D. So really this update is all about the tech this time, the core interface has not changed, but resolution is up, 3D power is up and CPU power is up.
  
  So why this time? well Nintendo made a lot of money on both the DS and the Wii. They have the pockets to pay for powerful new hardware. Every year they delay they return to the thin times of 2003. I think the same update to the DS will happen to the Wii and it will not be the Wii HD.
  
  The Wii is a great party game system, but it has pissed off tech fans with its low horsepower and the perception that its a shovelware system. Nintendo can now easily create a system with power the PS3 and Xbox 360 can only dream of. The PS3 is hampered by low system memory (lower resolution textures) and the 360 by low frame buffer memory (Most games are upscaled to 720p because the 360 frame buffer can't do 720p and post process the frames). Slap a GTX 460 in there and a dual core ARM cpu freed of battery requirements and you can boast of true 1080P and 3D gaming without compromises. Give Miyamoto that kind of power and motion plus and you have an exciting proposition that could have a long shelf life.
  
  Another reason is that Nintendo did well last time because they went against the flow. In 2004 hard core games only mattered. Now everyone has motion controls, even ASUS. Everyone is headlong charging into the casual market, but their core technology isn't getting any newer. Oversaturation has already started affecting the earliest riser in the casual market; Music Rhythm games. Excellent releases like Rock Band 3 are not selling well. A lot of Wii owners won't by another or it's replacement in any great numbers. The market that will buy another is the tech fans and maybe after some momentum builds then the Wii owners will join it.
  
  So I recon that summer/autumn announced after the success of the 3DS we will see the new Nintendo console. NES 6 if you will.

  • Posted Apr 13, 2011 2:40 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg

See Previous Blog Posts »