27 replies to this topic

[xg4bx]

http://blog.eu.plays...-its-all-about/

The first thing to note is that PlayStation Network is still free to join and all the current features will remain free.  PlayStation Plus will be offering you a service above and beyond this, including loads of content and exclusive, member-only, PSN features.

As a member you can expect to get your hands on at least four games a month at no extra charge.  Each month there will be a selection of one PSN game, two minis and one PS one classics available on PlayStation Store for you to download. You also get premium avatars and dynamic themes each month, many of which are exclusive to members. 

Full Game Trial: This premium feature gives you the chance to try PSN and Blu-ray disc titles before you buy them in a whole new way.  We are not talking normal demos of selected parts of a game here.  With Full Game Trial, you can download the full game and play it as if you owned it for approximately one hour, depending on the game, before you decide if you want to buy it or not. So you can check out the online modes, play against friends or anything else you?d normally do with a game. The other great thing is that your progress and trophies from the trial will all be unlocked if you buy the game so no need to go back and start again.



edit-it's gonna be $50 a year. imo for the ability to try full games and free games each month it's worth it. it's like $25 worth of games free each month and avatars/themes are usually $1-$4 each. the first free game will be wipeout hd.

and online gameplay is still FREE for everyone.

Edited by xg4bx, Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:50 PM.

[HammR25]

So basically you have to pay $50 a year to finally get everything people get on Xbox Live get plus a few extras.

[xg4bx]

HammR25, on Tue Jun 15, 2010 6:30 PM, said:

So basically you have to pay $50 a year to finally get everything people get on Xbox Live get plus a few extras.

you need to pay $50 to even play online on xbl period. what free games does ms give you? can you download FULL games to try? does ms give xbl subscribeers discounts on games? no, you pay $50 to just play a game online and use apps that are available for free everywhere else.

online play on psn is still free. this is a bonus. sorry if $200 or so of free games a year isn't as good as the ummm.... whatever it is you pay to do on xbl.

[HammR25]

xg4bx, on Tue Jun 15, 2010 6:45 PM, said:

HammR25, on Tue Jun 15, 2010 6:30 PM, said:

So basically you have to pay $50 a year to finally get everything people get on Xbox Live get plus a few extras.

you need to pay $50 to even play online on xbl period. what free games does ms give you? can you download FULL games to try? does ms give xbl subscribers discounts on games? no, you pay $50 to just play a game online and use apps that are available for free everywhere else.

online play on psn is still free. this is a bonus. sorry if $200 or so of free games a year isn't as good as the ummm.... whatever it is you pay to do on xbl.

I don't play online. Xbox Live gives a demo of every downloadable Indie and Live Arcade game regardless of whether a person pays for a gold membership or not. That's something Sony still doesn't do and something that really irritates me. It's pathetic that they can't give us a trial of every single game regardless of whether we pay them extra money or not.

Xbox Live doesn't allow a person to download full disc based games to demo but that's another thing I don't care about.

Yes people with a gold membership get discounts on games and a few demos early.

I've never paid more than $40 for a yearly membership and the last two years were only $30.

Getting a free download of games I never wanted to begin with every month doesn't really impress me either.

Edited by HammR25, Tue Jun 15, 2010 7:15 PM.

[xenomorpher]

I actually might try this out when it's available. I really like the PSN games idea and the PSOne classics since I will be able to play those on my PSP. The game and movie trial is pretty cool too. I think you'd get a better feel of the game instead of a short demo that may last ten minutes. I like this idea more than LIVE, with LIVE you have to be a Gold member to even use Netflix and the early access to demos is kind of crummy. Early demos shouldn't be a premium thing I think.

Edited by xenomorpher, Tue Jun 15, 2010 7:19 PM.

[HammR25]

Sony is going to do the same thing with early access to demos.

Quote

Finally, wherever possible we’ll be making sure that members are included in some selected demos and beta trials before they go live to the public so you can be the one to tell all your mates about the next big game they ‘must’ get.

I actually think it's cool enough to get but not at $50. Then again I think the same thing of an Xbox Live Gold membership.

[Starscream]

xg4bx, on Tue Jun 15, 2010 6:45 PM, said:

HammR25, on Tue Jun 15, 2010 6:30 PM, said:

So basically you have to pay $50 a year to finally get everything people get on Xbox Live get plus a few extras.

you need to pay $50 to even play online on xbl period. what free games does ms give you? can you download FULL games to try? does ms give xbl subscribeers discounts on games? no, you pay $50 to just play a game online and use apps that are available for free everywhere else.

online play on psn is still free. this is a bonus. sorry if $200 or so of free games a year isn't as good as the ummm.... whatever it is you pay to do on xbl.

Full download games are playable for 1 hour. Yay. And still no cross game chat. Way to go Sony!! Sorry, but I'll buy another year of Live instead.

Edited by Starscream, Tue Jun 15, 2010 8:40 PM.

[DaytonaUSA]

Where did you get your facts, Starscream? One of the features (they just said it today at E3) IS cross game chat. Also, you get free downloadable games (not just the 1 hour thing).. Live doesn't give you that.




Anywho, what I don't like is that when your service is canceled, you don't keep the games you got for "free" with your membership. So if Playstation ever goes away, or more like Live on Xbox and the service stops for PS3, would I lose those games? Plus I can't choose the "free" games I want, even if they're the same price. That adds up to disappointment. I don't chat with people online anyway, I just play the game, so this isn't really a service meant for me. However, I can see people liking it.

When I had my 360, I had Gold just to play online, but all the other features I could have cared less about. So free PSN works for me!

[Atariboy]

xg4bx, on Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:43 PM, said:

Full Game Trial: This premium feature gives you the chance to try PSN and Blu-ray disc titles before you buy them in a whole new way.  We are not talking normal demos of selected parts of a game here.  With Full Game Trial, you can download the full game and play it as if you owned it for approximately one hour, depending on the game, before you decide if you want to buy it or not.

I don't see how this is a good thing. I'd much rather be downloading a 600mb or so demo that's representative of the final product then having to download an entire PS3 game just to try it out.

[xenomorpher]

Atariboy, on Wed Jun 16, 2010 12:17 AM, said:

xg4bx, on Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:43 PM, said:

Full Game Trial: This premium feature gives you the chance to try PSN and Blu-ray disc titles before you buy them in a whole new way.  We are not talking normal demos of selected parts of a game here.  With Full Game Trial, you can download the full game and play it as if you owned it for approximately one hour, depending on the game, before you decide if you want to buy it or not.

I don't see how this is a good thing. I'd much rather be downloading a 600mb or so demo that's representative of the final product then having to download an entire PS3 game just to try it out.

I don't think most PSN games exceed 600mb except maybe that one Battlefield game and Warhawk. I don't think they'll have the download option for disc based games like LIVE has if that's what you were thinking.

[Bilnick]

xenomorpher, on Wed Jun 16, 2010 9:36 AM, said:

Atariboy, on Wed Jun 16, 2010 12:17 AM, said:

xg4bx, on Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:43 PM, said:

Full Game Trial: This premium feature gives you the chance to try PSN and Blu-ray disc titles before you buy them in a whole new way.  We are not talking normal demos of selected parts of a game here.  With Full Game Trial, you can download the full game and play it as if you owned it for approximately one hour, depending on the game, before you decide if you want to buy it or not.

I don't see how this is a good thing. I'd much rather be downloading a 600mb or so demo that's representative of the final product then having to download an entire PS3 game just to try it out.

I don't think most PSN games exceed 600mb except maybe that one Battlefield game and Warhawk. I don't think they'll have the download option for disc based games like LIVE has if that's what you were thinking.

If the original quote is accurate it says PSN and Blue Ray games. I would imagine that Blue Ray games are equivalent in size to their Xbox 360 counterparts (or can be). A DVD is what.... 8-9 gigabytes max?

It sounds like Sony is finally getting serious about challenging Xbox Live. For $50 I will definitely try it for a year. As an owner of multiple copies of all three consoles I will still buy the 360 version of a multiplatform title though.

[HammR25]

xenomorpher, on Wed Jun 16, 2010 9:36 AM, said:

I don't think most PSN games exceed 600mb except maybe that one Battlefield game and Warhawk. I don't think they'll have the download option for disc based games like LIVE has if that's what you were thinking.

They already do offer games like on Xbox Live. Burnout Paradise, and Record of Agarest War, are both available for purchase in the store as are several others. They're also including a downloadable copy of Little Big Planet if a person signs up between June 29th and August 3rd for people in Europe. The US site only mentions getting an extra 3 months free when purchasing a 1 year plan (so far).

The 1 hour play is a great marketing tool though. Let someone get an hour into the game and then hit them with a time expired thing....if you wish to continue do a few small clicks to pay for it and proceed onward.

Blu-ray games can actually be up to 50GB but I doubt that's going to happen any time soon, especially with cross platform games that are stuck with the DVD limit of the 360.

[moycon]

HammR25, on Wed Jun 16, 2010 11:43 AM, said:

Blu-ray games can actually be up to 50GB but I doubt that's going to happen any time soon, especially with cross platform games that are stuck with the DVD limit of the 360.

That and the games don't benefit much by having all that extra space. Your example doesn't apply to exclusive titles. Metal Gear was one of the largest PS3 games, but from what I recall it had nothing to do with anything related to actual game code. It had to do with 1080p cut-scenes and the biggest chunk of space was dedicated to uncompressed 7.1 sound, hours of it. As a gamer I can live without either of those things.
It would be cool if game makers included extras on their disks though. Maybe a "making of the game" video, soundtracks, heck even a standard def copy of a movie if you're buying a game based on that movie. They have all that extra space might as well use it.

[cimerians]

I think this service is pretty cool and it still remains optional. Some things are still vague but who cares. I won't be signing up any time too soon. I let my Gold account expire too. I don't need anything.

[BydoEmpire]

Quote

“You own that content for the duration of your subscription.”

Uh… no, thanks. I do like that PSN+ is optional, though. If you want it, cool, you can buy extra stuff. If you don't, you can still play online. I like that model.

[Starscream]

DaytonaUSA, on Tue Jun 15, 2010 11:22 PM, said:

Where did you get your facts, Starscream? One of the features (they just said it today at E3) IS cross game chat. Also, you get free downloadable games (not just the 1 hour thing).. Live doesn't give you that.

Sony has been promising cross game chat for about 3 years now. I can google it and find statements from back then. It's not real until it happens. Secondly, you are paying for your "free games". And only Plus members can cross game chat. So Live won't give me some cheap "free" game that I can only play as long as I subscribe, but I do get the most perfect ( to date) online console service, that has much better features, better servers, less chance of cheaters, cross game chat, party chat, and is 100% more organized and optimized for a great online experience. I've been able to enjoy many of those features for about 8 years now, and the newer ones for about 5. And almost forgot, downloads don't take hours on Live, more like minutes. PSN has been too frusterating to bother with. So yeah, I didn't have to wait for Sony and surely see no attraction at all for their "service". Unimpressed.

Edited by Starscream, Wed Jun 16, 2010 3:29 PM.

[HammR25]

I just noticed this:

Quote

Automatic Downloads

PlayStation®Plus downloads select demos, patches and firmware updates automatically, so you don’t have to think about it.

Of course I want my PS3 to automatically download demos regardless of whether I might actually want to play them.

Surely that can be disabled.

[DaytonaUSA]

Starscream, on Wed Jun 16, 2010 3:26 PM, said:

DaytonaUSA, on Tue Jun 15, 2010 11:22 PM, said:

Where did you get your facts, Starscream? One of the features (they just said it today at E3) IS cross game chat. Also, you get free downloadable games (not just the 1 hour thing).. Live doesn't give you that.

Sony has been promising cross game chat for about 3 years now. I can google it and find statements from back then. It's not real until it happens. Secondly, you are paying for your "free games". And only Plus members can cross game chat. So Live won't give me some cheap "free" game that I can only play as long as I subscribe, but I do get the most perfect ( to date) online console service, that has much better features, better servers, less chance of cheaters, cross game chat, party chat, and is 100% more organized and optimized for a great online experience. I've been able to enjoy many of those features for about 8 years now, and the newer ones for about 5. And almost forgot, downloads don't take hours on Live, more like minutes. PSN has been too frusterating to bother with. So yeah, I didn't have to wait for Sony and surely see no attraction at all for their "service". Unimpressed.

It's real now. They just created a whole service that's main feature is this. I'm sure they wouldn't have come this far and then went "oh nevermind!" They said it's coming.. now it's here... now we pay for it.

And no offense, but when was the last time you played your PS3? The download speed problem was fixed quite a long time ago. My downloads go quite fast. PSN is all but a Live clone, and I'm $50 dollars richer every year. For my uses, PSN is everything and more than I could ever need.

[moycon]

DaytonaUSA, on Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:36 PM, said:

The download speed problem was fixed quite a long time ago. My downloads go quite fast.

A month ago you posted some speed issue tied to a specific ISP in a specific area that people found a way to work around. Is that what you mean by fixed? That issue had nothing to do with the Sony network at all. If you're talking about something else, can you elaborate what was fixed?

My Sony store downloads still pale compared to downloads from Live. (And then I get to wait while it installs *yawn*) Same local network. Two different PS3s, one hardwired. I used a speed test from my PS3s and determined the problem has nothing to do with speed of my network or the speed of my connection from the PS3 out to the internet. You've mentioned before PSN is now fixed and super fast and great and I don't get it, other than maybe you don't have anything to compare it to?
You know what they say, ignorance is bliss.
Can't complain though, its just mildly annoying especially when you are just wanting to pick up and play a game and have to wait, but hey...it's free. They can keep PSN+.

[HammR25]

Downloading movies on PSN still takes me significantly longer than it does on Xbox Live. It's not enough to stop me from renting movies on PSN though.

[DaytonaUSA]

moycon, on Wed Jun 16, 2010 11:24 PM, said:

DaytonaUSA, on Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:36 PM, said:

The download speed problem was fixed quite a long time ago. My downloads go quite fast.

A month ago you posted some speed issue tied to a specific ISP in a specific area that people found a way to work around. Is that what you mean by fixed? That issue had nothing to do with the Sony network at all. If you're talking about something else, can you elaborate what was fixed?

My Sony store downloads still pale compared to downloads from Live. (And then I get to wait while it installs *yawn*) Same local network. Two different PS3s, one hardwired. I used a speed test from my PS3s and determined the problem has nothing to do with speed of my network or the speed of my connection from the PS3 out to the internet. You've mentioned before PSN is now fixed and super fast and great and I don't get it, other than maybe you don't have anything to compare it to?
You know what they say, ignorance is bliss.
Can't complain though, its just mildly annoying especially when you are just wanting to pick up and play a game and have to wait, but hey...it's free. They can keep PSN+.

I had a 360, so I have something to compare to. Trust me, I remember how fast those download speeds were. The trick I posted before didn't really do it. It was right after that, I just noticed my download speeds just didn't suck balls anymore. It used to take me several hours for a game download, or especially a system update (ughh). Now the most I wait is a few minutes.

I used to hate turning on the PS3 in fear that when I started a game, it would ask to update and I'd sit there till I didn't want to play anymore. Now, I honestly don't mind it.

Don't know if it's just me, or a large group or what.. haven't talked to other ps3 users to know. Also, I think that was longer than a month ago.. I don't remember it being that recent.

[moycon]

DaytonaUSA, on Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:08 AM, said:

It used to take me several hours for a game download, or especially a system update (ughh).

Several hours!? That's a local issue or an issue with your ISP throttling bandwidth and explains why your trick worked. I've never waited that long for any download from the PSN!
In my book 15-20+ minutes for a $5 PSN game to update is too long when I just want to play a couple quick games with my friends. You obviously completely forgot about Live game updates. When a game prompts you that it needs an update. It usually take less than 60 seconds (Maybe your confused because your ISP was throttling your 360 traffic as well?) and here's the kicker, when it's done downloading, you don't have to wait for it to install. I've never had a PS3 update take such a short amount of time. 10-15 minutes is about the norm.

I can send you video's or take pictures of my download from both the PS3 and the 360 if you would like, that way you won't just have to 'trust me" and you won't be able to say "All my friends PS3 downloads are just as fast as downloads from Live", because I'll let you see for yourself. Either that or just buy a 360 Slim and try it now that you have your fix in place.

[DaytonaUSA]

moycon, on Thu Jun 17, 2010 8:56 AM, said:

DaytonaUSA, on Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:08 AM, said:

It used to take me several hours for a game download, or especially a system update (ughh).

Several hours!? That's a local issue or an issue with your ISP throttling bandwidth and explains why your trick worked. I've never waited that long for any download from the PSN!
In my book 15-20+ minutes for a $5 PSN game to update is too long when I just want to play a couple quick games with my friends. You obviously completely forgot about Live game updates. When a game prompts you that it needs an update. It usually take less than 60 seconds (Maybe your confused because your ISP was throttling your 360 traffic as well?) and here's the kicker, when it's done downloading, you don't have to wait for it to install. I've never had a PS3 update take such a short amount of time. 10-15 minutes is about the norm.

I can send you video's or take pictures of my download from both the PS3 and the 360 if you would like, that way you won't just have to 'trust me" and you won't be able to say "All my friends PS3 downloads are just as fast as downloads from Live", because I'll let you see for yourself. Either that or just buy a 360 Slim and try it now that you have your fix in place.

Well, I had issues with the wifi adapters on the xbox 360. What really confuses me is that my download speeds were alright, but if I ever played ANY game online, my ping would be so bad I could probably write the code and ship it to the server via Parcel Post faster haha. I could never play online with my friends at all. Also, each of the 4 (yes.. 4) wifi adapters died on me after a short time of horribly slow use.

Now, with my PS3, playing online is smooth. In fact, I was so giddy and excited with how online gameplay was so fast. I never knew that it could feel like I was playing a single player game on the disk.. it was that fast for me.

But then again, my download speeds for games and what not were what I described.. hours upon hours. Sometimes I'd leave the PS3 on OVER NIGHT to get an update to a game. I'd wake up after 8 hours of sleep, go to work, come home, and it would still be at below 50%... yea. And I have roadrunner internet with Time Warner, which is pretty fast stuff.



So here's the thing.. with my Xbox, I had great download speeds but impossible to play online gaming ping. And with my PS3 I had horrible download speeds, but great online gaming ping.

Now that my issues with download speed are fixed, I only hope that 360 gaming would be fast online... but honestly, I have been too scared to try again since the wifi adapters were built so badly. It's one major reason why I enjoyed my PS3 so much, because as far as faulty hardware goes, I've had none. Where has with my 360.. unlike most people.. my system was fine, but the wifi adapters, headsets, and even my hdd went horribly wrong in just the few months of use I had with it. And all those parts were brand new. I'd be more apt to try the new slim 360, because the built in wifi I'd assume would be as reliable as the PS3. I'd do a hard connection, but we have no internet jacks in our media room, and everything is sent through my modded out Apple Time Capsule from downstairs that's connected to our cable modem.


If you have vids that would be cool. Obviously, in the beginning I had very weird situations for both systems. Once again though, now that the PS3 is working properly, maybe I'd have much better luck with the 360 (speed wise, not hardware wise per say).


As of right now, there's not too much I want on the 360, but in the future I think there's at least a system (the slim) that I wouldn't have to worry about spotty peripherals.

[moycon]

DaytonaUSA, on Thu Jun 17, 2010 10:43 AM, said:

If you have vids that would be cool.

Ok what I did what put in two popular games for each system I hadn't played in awhile that i figured would have updates. Got a Call of Duty 4 update for the 360. And a LBP update. Not sure how to post them though. I might need to email it to you.

To sum up the video's.

The COD4 one is around 43 seconds long. The actual update took around 5 seconds.
The LBP vid is 2 minutes long, I didn't bother keeping the vid going because after 2 minutes, at that point I was at 2%. I had to insert the disk, choose to load it from my game list and wait for it to boot up, so some of that 2 minutes is me doing all that.

I can try with some other games no problem...but this is about the norm.

[HammR25]

To play the Infamous trial I need to download 6.90 GB. That's several hours for me. No thanks. I was under the impression that the full game trial would be all games in the store but it looks like it's just the select games they choose. I have zero interest in playing any of the free games either. I already own Wipeout HD and I'm still even if it was a game I hadn't purchased but might have liked it's only "free" as long as you keep your Plus subscription. I'm actually a bit disappointed. I thought this would be more than it actually is.

edit: I can't find Wipeout HD for sale anywhere. It's not in the Plus section either. A few addons are there but that's it.

Edited by HammR25, Wed Jun 30, 2010 5:57 AM.