Surprise! It's 1.5 Time!
Sony releases a surprise firmware update for PS3s that you MUST get.
Published: January 23, 2007
Sony Computer Entertainment has seen its fare share of bad press -- both for things that execs have mouthed off with and some strategic blunders, and thanks to absolutely rabid anti-Sony sentiment among the more vocal parts of the internet. Not a week has gone by that something has been nitpicked and added to the fires of hate against the guys that have been on top for the past two generations, and more often than not, it's a non-issue.
The fact that the PS3 completely screwed the pooch on the visual output of PS2 games, rendering them with wildly exaggerated stair-stepping thanks to what was apparently a flipped pixel, was enough to turn some (like us here in the office) off from even using the PS3's PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility. Of course, Sony couldn't admit that their system was rendering in-game visuals and pre-rendered cinematics alike with an extra helping of jag-o-vision, so it's not really surprising that the 1.5 firmware update, released quietly last night, bears no news that this little bug was fixed.
But it's fixed. PS2 games not only don't look like crap, in some cases they actually seem to look better, and some folks are going as far as to say the load times for games are improved and, in extreme examples we aren't ready to corroborate, the framerates of some games are better. Hooray! The 1.5 update doesn't fix all of the nagging problems, but this is a fairly major update, and one that addresses one of the biggest fan concerns about the system (the other being 720p Blu-ray movie playback, apparently).
That means, yes -- gasp -- Sony actually... listens to consumers. Go figure!
The other updates are far more minor and snore-inducingly boring, but since we're lazy and love our cut-n-paste, here's the official list:
[Users]
* You can now select an image to use as the User icon from [Photo].
Settings
* [Key Tone] has been added as an option under [Sound Settings].
* [Delete Backup Data] has been added as an option under [System Settings] > [Backup Utility].
WEP 128, WPA-PSK (TKIP) and WPA-PSK (AES) have been added as security methods that can be used with [AOSS™] under [Automatic].*
* If you have already set up for AOSS using an earlier version of the system software, you must perform AOSS setup again to use the security methods listed above.
* When [Automatic] is selected, the security method to be used is automatically set.
* AOSS is a trademark of Buffalo, Inc.
[Friends]
*The method for saving your password / signing in automatically under PLAYSTATION®Network has been changed. There are now two separate options.
[Other]
You can now enter text in Korean using the on-screen keyboard.
Riveting. The update weighs in at 99 megs, and you can fetch it either by going to the Update option in your System Settings on your PS3, or by clicking right here. Yeah, we try to be helpful like that.
The fact that the PS3 completely screwed the pooch on the visual output of PS2 games, rendering them with wildly exaggerated stair-stepping thanks to what was apparently a flipped pixel, was enough to turn some (like us here in the office) off from even using the PS3's PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility. Of course, Sony couldn't admit that their system was rendering in-game visuals and pre-rendered cinematics alike with an extra helping of jag-o-vision, so it's not really surprising that the 1.5 firmware update, released quietly last night, bears no news that this little bug was fixed.
But it's fixed. PS2 games not only don't look like crap, in some cases they actually seem to look better, and some folks are going as far as to say the load times for games are improved and, in extreme examples we aren't ready to corroborate, the framerates of some games are better. Hooray! The 1.5 update doesn't fix all of the nagging problems, but this is a fairly major update, and one that addresses one of the biggest fan concerns about the system (the other being 720p Blu-ray movie playback, apparently).
That means, yes -- gasp -- Sony actually... listens to consumers. Go figure!
The other updates are far more minor and snore-inducingly boring, but since we're lazy and love our cut-n-paste, here's the official list:
[Users]
* You can now select an image to use as the User icon from [Photo].
Settings
* [Key Tone] has been added as an option under [Sound Settings].
* [Delete Backup Data] has been added as an option under [System Settings] > [Backup Utility].
WEP 128, WPA-PSK (TKIP) and WPA-PSK (AES) have been added as security methods that can be used with [AOSS™] under [Automatic].*
* If you have already set up for AOSS using an earlier version of the system software, you must perform AOSS setup again to use the security methods listed above.
* When [Automatic] is selected, the security method to be used is automatically set.
* AOSS is a trademark of Buffalo, Inc.
[Friends]
*The method for saving your password / signing in automatically under PLAYSTATION®Network has been changed. There are now two separate options.
[Other]
You can now enter text in Korean using the on-screen keyboard.
Riveting. The update weighs in at 99 megs, and you can fetch it either by going to the Update option in your System Settings on your PS3, or by clicking right here. Yeah, we try to be helpful like that.
