All Things Videogame Related: EXTREME VS!!

[Shadow]

Yeah my 60GB ate the YLOD many moons ago. I did the heat gun trick and got a couple weeks out of it. No DIY solution is going to be permanent. Reballing seems the only actual permanent "repair" and is not cheap. I still intend to send my original to Endless Electronics, who has a good rep on the reballing.

Definitly don't consider this a long term fix.

The only other question have is I picked up some Arctic Ceramique but have read that most people prefer Arctic Silver 5 for console repair. People have said the difference in cooling is very small but that the Ceramique is non-conductive as opposed to AS5 which played into my choice. Not sure if I should reconsider or if it'll make a difference period.

Edited November 29, 2012 by Shadow

[GU-11]

I've heard that your PS3 will last longer if you try to limit your average playtime to 2 - 2.5 hours per session, and let the machine idle for 10-15 minutes to allow the fan to cool the interior before switching it off. I've no idea how true this is, but I do it anyway to be safe.

Anyways, currently playing Hitman Absolution on normal.

Reminds me a lot of Splinter Cell, and in a good way. Uses more stealth than past Hitman games and doesn't discourage you from using your guns as much (headshots actually nab you points to lighten the penalty of non-target kills), and you can still salvage the situation in some cases after getting your cover blown.

That said, it's not without its flaws.

The inability to create your own checkpoints is annoying. Screw up too badly and you'll have to restart from the last checkpoint, which is usually the beginning of the level, if you couldn't find and activate some of the hidden checkpoints--yes, you actually have to find and activate your checkpoints now, kind of like an RPG savepoint. And you can only use the savepoint once, until you complete an objective.

I like the fact that there's less of a need for trial and error this time around, except if you're playing to get Silent Assassin rank. If someone blows your cover, you and still save the situation by strolling to an isolated corner as the guard follows you, feign surrender, and subdue him. Hiding the body will negate any penalties, unless you kill him. Of course, if other guards or NPC's see you subduing the guard, the whole place will be on alert. In which case, you either restart from the last checkpoint or kill them all.

The new disguise system and instict bar brings a new form of challenge to the game, but it can get frustrating at times, especially when you run out of instinct and the place is swarming with guards.

Either way, I'm currently halfway through the game, and there is still a ton of stuff to unlock and signature kills to try. Replayability seems promising, as Hitman games tend to be. I've still got my copy of Blood Money and Splinter Cell for an occasional replay.

Edited November 30, 2012 by GU-11

[David Hingtgen]

For my PS3, if I hear the fans go into "high" then it's definitely time to stop playing. Many games never trigger this, even after several hours. But MGS4 sure will, and most of the A. Creed series.

[anime52k8]

I've heard that your PS3 will last longer if you try to limit your average playtime to 2 - 2.5 hours per session, and let the machine idle for 10-15 minutes to allow the fan to cool the interior before switching it off. I've no idea how true this is, but I do it anyway to be safe.

see, that would be quite a problem for me because I don't get to play video games very often, but when I do I play for 6~9 hours strait.

[Uxi]

Is the ring supposed to light up on the pad? Mine never has either, I didn't know it was supposed to. Though looking at it now it's the type of button design that would feature such things.

It's supposed to do it with notifications, but I haven't seen it once.

[Shadow]

There were only two recent occasions where the fan went frighteningly high and that was during a longer than usual Battlefield 3 session and when I was playing Uncharted 2 which I know pushes the PS3.

[GU-11]

The sound of my air conditioner drowns out the sound of my PS3's fan, so I wouldn't know if it ever runs high. The problem with letting the machine idle is that you tend to forget it's still turned on. After finishing a game one night, I left the PS3 to cool while I went to brush my teeth. Ended up totally forgetting about it and went straight to bed. Only realized it when I woke up the next morning to the sound of my PS3's fan.

see, that would be quite a problem for me because I don't get to play video games very often, but when I do I play for 6~9 hours strait.

Couldn't you at least take 15-20 minute breaks every two hours to let the PS3 cool down? It's better than nothing. I mean if you're gping to be marathoning for so many hours, you'll still need a toilet break or take a few minutes to grab a sandwich, right?

[Uxi]

AFAIK the issue is limited to the fats. I used to play mine all the time for marathon sessions and still do with my Slim and so far, anyway, the Slim has lasted longer than the Fatty.

[Archer]

My fat PS3 (from the Motorstorm release bundle, 80GB), is still kicking after all these years, and I've left it on for weeks on end (Went on a month long vacation, forgot to turn off PS3).

Somehow, although all my friends who bought one at around the same time have had to upgrade to a slim, my model is still functioning *knock on wood*. I don't know, but it might be because my system is located in my basement, which tends to be fairly cool throughout the day, and fairly well ventilated as well.

[Uxi]

Thinking of trading in my 360 to Gamestop and picking up ZombiU and another Wiimote Plus and nunchuck, probably black to match my deluxe Wii U. Thoughts?

[Keith]

YLOD seems to be more random than anything. I've seen plenty of first gen PS3's run for many hours on end with no problem, aside from the fan kicking into high. Obviously ventalation is an issue, as is maintenance. I try to vacuum mine out at least once a month. Replacming the HDD may also be a good idea, mine was acking a little funky years ago until I upgraded the HDD from 60 to 500gb. After that, it's been fine..

Edited December 2, 2012 by Keith

[Shadow]

I went through the whole heat gun and repasting process. Pain in the butt since it was first time. Turned it on, came on fine initially and died after about 15 seconds. Did more research and the power supply may have went bad for my PS3 or I need to reflow again and use no clean flux. I don't know now. May just sell it as parts and look into getting a slim.

It's just strange because the original thermal paste wasn't dried out like I expected it to be and I usually always kept it in the basement which is dry and relatively cool.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Shadow

[dizman]

Thinking of trading in my 360 to Gamestop and picking up ZombiU and another Wiimote Plus and nunchuck, probably black to match my deluxe Wii U. Thoughts?

Well it all depends on a few things like how many games you have for 360 vs Wii and do you like motion control over a classic controller? Honestly I'd wait six months to see how the Wii U does and see what the next console generation is going to look like (assuming they announce anything at E3 2013).

[mikeszekely]

Thinking of trading in my 360 to Gamestop and picking up ZombiU and another Wiimote Plus and nunchuck, probably black to match my deluxe Wii U. Thoughts?

It's not much of an upgrade... like dizman said, I'd wait and see. Unless you never use your 360? I'm thinking about selling my 360 too, but that's more because it's one of the last-run of regular 360s (120GB) before they went to the S, and when my wife decided she wanted Kinect for her birthday I wound up getting a 250GB Kinect holiday bundle. Don't really need two Xboxes...

[mikeszekely]

Aside from the greater amount of internal storage (which seems irrelevant in light of the fact that you can use external hard drives with it) and Nintendoland (which I'm pretty sure I have zero interest in) is there any compelling reason to buy the Deluxe Wii U over the Basic? Honestly, I haven't been actively hunting for one, but the last time I was at Target that had a whole pile of Basic units. At the moment, the only game I'm really interested in is New Super Mario Bros. Wii U, and the only announced game that has me really considering a Wii U is Bayonetta 2. I don't need console stands or Gamepad stands or anything like that, and I've got at least two external hard drives I can give up to the Wii U and still have three left over for backups.

[Uxi]

Deluxe also Includes the charging cradle and stand for the gamepad is the main difference, which is a $20 accessory in addition to the $50 game or so. Nintendo will also have their Digital Deluxe Promotion (ddp.nintendo.com) which is supposedly 10% back on online purchases (through eShop I'm guessing). NSMBU is pretty cool but if you have the New Super Mario Bros Wii it's pretty much the same thing except HD graphics and slightly different power ups (winged squirrel suit instead of the helicopter hat, etc) and levels unless you have an extra person using the Gamepad for Boost Mode (which is pretty fun. My friend, kid, and I were playing and wife was using the gampead to boost us).

I haven't been using my 360 much the last couple years at all. My 360 was actually still a Xenon so I was afraid it was going to fail sooner or later which discouraged me from using it further. I kept my HDD since it wasn't worth anything and I may want to transfer my stuff to either a 360S or a 720 if/when it comes out.

Had to go to three separate gamestops to find a black Wiimote Plus, but for that reason went ahead with the trade.

[mikeszekely]

Deluxe also Includes the charging cradle and stand for the gamepad is the main difference, which is a $20 accessory in addition to the $50 game or so. Nintendo will also have their Digital Deluxe Promotion (ddp.nintendo.com) which is supposedly 10% back on online purchases (through eShop I'm guessing). NSMBU is pretty cool but if you have the New Super Mario Bros Wii it's pretty much the same thing except HD graphics and slightly different power ups (winged squirrel suit instead of the helicopter hat, etc) and levels unless you have an extra person using the Gamepad for Boost Mode (which is pretty fun. My friend, kid, and I were playing and wife was using the gampead to boost us).

I haven't been using my 360 much the last couple years at all. My 360 was actually still a Xenon so I was afraid it was going to fail sooner or later which discouraged me from using it further. I kept my HDD since it wasn't worth anything and I may want to transfer my stuff to either a 360S or a 720 if/when it comes out.

Had to go to three separate gamestops to find a black Wiimote Plus, but for that reason went ahead with the trade.

Actually, I have a 3DS so I figure that not only will NSMBU be similar to the NSMBW, but also NSMB and NSMB2. Strangely, that's actually a draw for me.

According to Target's product description, the Gamepad in the Basic set still has an AC Adapter. As long as the thing charges, I don't really care if it's a cradle or not. I've already got a power strip sitting on table piled with my phone, my wife's phone, my 3DS, my Vita, her MP3 player, and so on. So I'm leaning toward saving the $50 and just getting a basic.

[Uxi]

Right, gamepad has it's own brick and power cable regardless. I have been using the charging cradle a bunch and like it but don't really get the point of the regular non-charging stand.

[mikeszekely]

Ok, I bought a Wii U last night. My initial impression is that it's slow... it boots up slowly, when you pick to load settings or whatever it loads slowly, it's slow going back to the main menu, etc. It took a little over an hour to do the initial system update, then about another hour or so to transfer my stuff from the Wii to the Wii U (during which it froze). The setup process took so long I didn't actually play a game on it until this morning. I'm also a little disappointed that the Gamepad can't go further from the Wii U.

On the plus side, the graphics are nice and crisp. I actually quit playing after the release of New Super Mario Bros Wii (yes, I totally skipped playing Skyward Sword) just because the Wii looked awful on my TV. And while the Gamepad is pretty large, it's pretty comfortable to hold, so I already like the Wii U a lot more than the Wii. Now I just wish there were more games for it that I don't already own on PC. It's not that the Wii U doesn't have good games... it's just that I already own Arkham City and Darksiders II, and if I buy Black Ops 2 you can bet it'll be on PC.

[Benson13]

For those who care Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC released today for $19.99/1600 Microsoft points

[Shadow]

Finished Legend of Dragoon last night. Awesome game despite some long-winded storytelling at times. I remember hearing rumors of a sequel but Sony quickly dropped the hammer on that much to the fans disappointment which is a shame. This was probably one of the best looking games on the PSX.

Edited December 6, 2012 by Shadow

[CoreyD]

Has anyone on here ever played that DayZ mod for Arma2? Fun? Frustrating? Impossible without a guid/clan?

[Archer]

Finished Legend of Dragoon last night. Awesome game despite some long-winded storytelling at times. I remember hearing rumors of a sequel but Sony quickly dropped the hammer on that much to the fans disappointment which is a shame. This was probably one of the best looking games on the PSX.

I played that game on my PS1, but I was too young at the time to really get into it. I'm hoping they'll allow a classics download on Vita, so I can play it on the go...

[mikeszekely]

Finished Persona 4 Golden. Didn't have a social link high enough to get the Golden exclusive dungeon, but otherwise played it to the true ending. Far and away the best game on the Vita. If you have a Vita, get the game. If you don't have a Vita and never played Persona 4 on the PS2, buy a Vita and get the game.

[Benson13]

Finished Legend of Dragoon last night. Awesome game despite some long-winded storytelling at times. I remember hearing rumors of a sequel but Sony quickly dropped the hammer on that much to the fans disappointment which is a shame. This was probably one of the best looking games on the PSX.

I remember playing that as a kid. You're right about the long windedness of it, but I really enjoyed it. Getting the timing down on the attacks was difficult at first.

[David Hingtgen]

I remember playing that as a kid. You're right about the long windedness of it, but I really enjoyed it. Getting the timing down on the attacks was difficult at first.

I swear they'd sometimes randomly change the timing. I could do 100+ in a row--then miss like 20 or 30 in a row (for the SAME attack)--I'd just have to quit and take a break/reset, because it's hard to keep battling in an RPG when every attack fails. Plus some of them were just really, really picky. Spear. Damn spear.

Love the soundtrack, especially the boss music. I own the OST. (yes, a real actual copy of the actual official CD soundtrack) Annoyingly the battle music doesn't loop at all.

[GU-11]

Completed Hitman Absolution. Going for different challenges and kills. Surprisingly the last stage turned out to be the easiest. Just sniped them from cover--never knew what hit them.

Some of the challenges are so damn cryptic that half the challenge is figuring out WTF I have to do to unlock them.

Lots of fun, though. Despite its few flaws and quirks, it's a worthy addition to the Hitman series, and a awesome game in its own right.

Edited December 7, 2012 by GU-11

[Benson13]

Completed Hitman Absolution. Going for different challenges and kills. Surprisingly the last stage turned out to be the easiest. Just sniped them from cover--never knew what hit them.

Some of the challenges are so damn cryptic that half the challenge is figuring out WTF I have to do to unlock them.

Lots of fun, though. Despite its few flaws and quirks, it's a worthy addition to the Hitman series, and a awesome game in its own right.

Any time I have problems like that I go to trueachievements.com. Lots of good walkthroughs.

My friends and I had a retro gaming night today. Played a lot of old SNES games like Cronotrigger and Final Fantasy 3/6. After that we dabbled in some Halo 4 and Rainbow 6 Vegas 2. Good times.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Benson13

[Major Focker]

cautiously optimistic about this one: http://uk.gamespot.c...railer-6394011/ (Strike Suit Zero)

music sounds like a mishmash of Zone of Enders and Homeworld. gameplay a cross between wing commander and the macross frontier games, but more wing commander since you actually get to aim and lead your targets and not constrained to flying circles around a target. multi-missile lock seems to borrow from ZoE homing laser implementation, which to me is the closest approximation to how Ozma would do a missile salvo.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Major Focker

[GU-11]

Any time I have problems like that I go to trueachievements.com. Lots of good walkthroughs.

Thanks for the link! Found all the challenge descriptions I need. Some of these challenges are ridiculously difficult, but at least you don't need to complete the level for them to register.

cautiously optimistic about this one: http://uk.gamespot.c...railer-6394011/ (Strike Suit Zero)

music sounds like a mishmash of Zone of Enders and Homeworld. gameplay a cross between wing commander and the macross frontier games, but more wing commander since you actually get to aim and lead your targets and not constrained to flying circles around a target. multi-missile lock seems to borrow from ZoE homing laser implementation, which to me is the closest approximation to how Ozma would do a missile salvo.

Not a PC gamer myself, but it looks tempting. Is this game set completely in space? If so, the setting might get repetitive and bland after a while.

[renegadeleader1]

I've been playing a game I picked up on cheap during the black Friday sales, Sniper Elite V2. Its a pretty fun game with some pretty realistic ballistic physics to it. It also has a xray camera feature similar to mortal kombat that slows time down and shows in gruesome detail the damage your bullet inflicts as it travels through the human body. The worst I've seen so far was when I shot a german lying prone. The bullet entered the top of his head, through his stomach, and out his... um taint?

If there's anything I don't like its the close combat/stealth parts you undertake to get in position. It would be fine if the secondary weapons you have could actually kill someone without emptying the entire clip(thompson), or were even realistically accurate(missing a bodyshot with the welrod at less than two feet). There's also booby traps like mines and trip wires you can set that I haven't been able to effectively use yet. More often than not you are moving around too much to set up proper ambushes, and seldom do you get attacked from behind from areas you already cleared.

I still give it props for its unique trick shots like riccohets, two for one bullet kills, and shooting grenades. I also liked the free DLC I got for it... Assassinate der Furher.

[Benson13]

I also liked that game when I played it. I wasn't expecting the slow mo bullet penetration thing when it happened so it gave me quite a laugh. I only played the demo (accessible on the XBL dashboard) but I may pick it up used or on sale. It was a lot better than I expected that's for sure.

I didn't have the same problem with the bullet collision detection. They went down pretty easily. I spent most of my time in the sniper rifle thought even if they were 3 meters in from of me. What system did you play it on renegadeleader1?

[renegadeleader1]

I have it for the xbox 360.

[renegadeleader1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJgyoe_BvNk Edited December 10, 2012 by renegadeleader1

[Archer]

It hurt to just watch that.

In other news, after being kept away from mass effect having had a PS3 (I wanted to play number one before tackling the other two), I picked up the trilogy on PS3.

I'll have to wait a couple more days to get the chance to play it, but I can't wait to experience this series. Hopefully, it's as good as everyone says it is.