From the Diary of Jim Squires: So it turns out I like Super Stardust HD...

Written by Jim Squires

Wednesday, 02 July 2008 05:25

It was like Christmas morning around here this morning. I woke up, opened my eyes, eagerly ran out to the living room and fired up the PS3 -- Santa had already been, firmware 2.40 was ready for download! After a few minutes of downloading and installing I was ready to go. So now that it's here what did I think of the long awaited two-four-O?

In-game XMB, trophies, custom soundtracks -- what's not to love? A few things actually. In-game XMB is just that -- in game. Doesn't pop up during DVD's, blu-ray movies, or PS1/PS2 games. Just PS3 games. A weird decision that I hope they'll rectify down the road. As well, custom soundtracks need to A) be on the PS3 HDD (no streaming from PC like on the 360) and B) be supported by each individual title. That means that custom soundtracks are a feature built into the game, rather than into the system. If a developer doesn't want to add support for it, they're not going to.

Now that my complaints are out of the way, let me just go on record as saying I love 2.40. Here's why;

I can check on my downloads in game

there's a clock available at all times (seriously -- that's huge to me)

google search is available form the XMB -- this will actually get me using the browser

...and then there's the trophies

Trophies are going to become a real problem for me. My traditionally dickish nature leads to an unacceptably competitive spirit that I have trouble keeping in check. It took me more than a year to accept that gamerscore didn't matter, and in that year I was brutal in my attempt to be the king of my friends list. Now that I've kicked the habit, Sony has to go and dangle sweet lady H T in front of my face -- and I'm giving in. Although I still don't fully understand their system yet (rather than being a numerical point value to each trophy your combined successes somehow level you up), I'm looking forward to figuring it all out.

And again -- the introduction of trophies has proved something that I had said long ago. The big benefit to a achievement/trophy system is that it might get you trying games you otherwise wouldn't have played. Example: Super Stardust HD. I had purchased it quite some time ago, couldn't really get into it, and it has sat there on my HDD gathering dust ever since. But now that it's the only game to support trophies? I fired it up this morning and can't stop playing -- not just because of the trophies, but because I had the incentive to give this game more of a fair shake. It turns out it's really good. I loves me my twin stick shooters (I still say Blast Factor is the best of the bunch) and this definitely ranks up there.

On a side note, who doesn't think that sales of Super Stardust HD are going to go through the roof this week?

So, in summary -- clocks, google, downloads, trophies, soundtracks, awesome.

Comments (11) Add Comment

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written by Ryan, July 02, 2008

I do think its sort of interesting, the "metagame" they have made with this system... don't know how much you guys know about it...

basically they assign hidden point values to bronze, silver, and gold... and then you get a platinum for collecting ALL the other medals... each of these adds to your "level" which is like gamerscore but more abstracted. So its less like a Pac Man score (gamerscore) and more like an RPG character level. Which makes me wonder if they're going to tie that into Home somehow. "You can buy a Level 3 skateboard" or somesuch.

It sounds like a bunch of arbitrary nonsense (and it is) but there is some heavy duty psychological theory going into these things, i kid you not. Look at that FireFox extension that turns your real life to-do list into Warcraft-style quests for you, people really react to that sort of thing, even though its just the same shit presented in a different way.

I've never felt any particular desire for the digital pat-on-the-head/fortune cookie but I do admit the individual achievements are often interesting, and I'm sort of fascinated by the whole achievement phenomenon.

People will happily play through titles again just to get those dumb little icons, games they otherwise wouldn't (or even better, when they grind whole titles they never would have even put in their machines.. Avatar for 360).

But the competition is fun, and I suppose I need to go put Jim down like the mangy cur that he is.

((My biggest niggle - Sony, could you have moved the controller battery icon down 10 pixels so it didn't cover the freaking clock for a second when you pull up the XMB? Sheesh!))

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written by Ryan, July 02, 2008

Also SSHD is freaking amazing, arguably the best downloadable game on PSN.

It's like Caligula for particle effects.

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written by Xav, July 02, 2008

Achieving points through a meta-game? Why didn't anyone think of this before!

I kid, I kid.

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written by Ryan, July 02, 2008

Xav you'll get yours when you have to defend Mii Toos at E3. smilies/wink.gif

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written by Xav, July 02, 2008

Yeah, cuz Home is different.

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written by Santos Gonzalez, July 02, 2008

I am quite underwhelmed with the 2.40 firmware but i guess it's a start.

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written by Ryan Hewson, July 02, 2008

No you're right Xav, a Mii Parade and Home are virtually indistinguishable. smilies/wink.gif

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written by Xav, July 03, 2008

Home = Animal Crossing that had a baby with Mii's and Second Life.

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written by Jim Squires, July 03, 2008

Your mom's vagina = Tom Nook's face. WHATYOUGOTSOMETHINGTOSAYTOMENOWBIGMAN??

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written by TheBBPS.com » What’, July 04, 2008

[...] And of course, Super Stardust HD. [...]

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written by TheBBPS.com » Review: Ge, July 30, 2008

[...] release and twin stick shooter fans have been itching for a sequel. Sure we’ve had games like Super Stardust HD and Everyday Shooter to tide us over, but what about a follow up to the granddaddy of them all? [...]