Comments on: New Toy Update, 9/10

By: Steve Burnap

Steve Burnap — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:43:55 +0000

Other Bill@63: It is a dual boot situation. You can’t run Linux and play PS3 games at the same time. Honestly, Linux is a bit gimped on the PS3 as they disabled access to the graphics cheap. (To avoid giving people a platform for writing PS3 games that didn’t require a PS3 development kit.) As such, what you end up with is a Linux box with only 256 MB of RAM and slow graphics.

The only real reason to put Linux on the thing is to have a development platform for playing with the Cell chip and asymmetric multi-processing. That is obviously pretty esoteric for the average user, and this is one of the reasons they ditched the Linux support for the newer models.

By: Other Bill

Other Bill — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:39:38 +0000

Steve @ 62 – Does running Linux on it slow down it’s performance at all when playing games?

By: Steve Burnap

Steve Burnap — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:28:47 +0000

You can only run Linux on your PS3 if it is a full-sized one, not a slim.

By: Alex S.

Alex S. — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:24:51 +0000

@54: GTA 1&2 (and the London expansions) were pc-only... They can be downloaded for free direct from Rockstar, if you sign up to the mailing list. Also, you can run linux on your PS3 if desired. ;)

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:37:27 +0000

Download the demo for Valkyria Chronicles, then pray you can find a copy (okay, it’s not that bad, I know they’re available on eBay if nowhere else).

Oh, and maybe turn on the original (Japanese) dialogue and the subs.

By: Norman

Norman — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:10:35 +0000

Mr. Scalzi. If you have a PS3, for whatever purpose, you have to play Uncharted 2. Really, it’s worth every penny.
Best game that lil’ console has.

By: Diondi Tan

Diondi Tan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:27:17 +0000

John, speaking of PC FPS – have you played Modern Warfare 2 yet?

I dislike playing FPS on consoles, but I will make an exception for the Halo series. I’ll muddle through in order to play for the great story.

However, MW2 is moving PC players to a more console-like experience in multiplayer, with matchmaking done with with no dedicated servers. :(

By: Steve Burnap

Steve Burnap — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:44:53 +0000

WizaDru@56: These days, cross-platform rules. I’d guess three quarters of what I play on PS3 are cross-platform and I see very XBox 360 exclusives that attract me that don’t eventually make it across. That’s not really meant to slag on XBox 360…I suspect if I had one of those the situation would be about the same. These days, it doesn’t seem to me that it is really worthwhile to own both systems.

(Though I think that a lot of “XBox exclusives” are actually also on PC.)

By: WizarDru

WizarDru — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:31:13 +0000

Steve Burnap @ 54: Oh, agreed. But I was limiting the discussion to only First Person Shooters, as that was what Umfundsii was specifically referring to in his post. If we were to expand beyond that genre, you’d find an incredible variety of games that allow quite a bit of freedom.

Infamous is, in fact, a fantastic game. I generally find that the PS3 has fewer really compelling exclusives…but when it gets one, it’s usually worth the price of admission.

By: JimR

JimR — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:53:03 +0000

I’ve never been a huge FPS player, but Bioshock on the PS3 is FREAKING AWESOME.

Damn.