Sony Politics

[Xavien]

Well i wasnt sure what to call this thread tbh hopefully i will manage to explain a little issue without confusing anyone reading this to much.

Im not what you would call a console fan boy as i buy and play and use my PC the most, mainly because i can use it for my business as well as playing games and listening to music etc... i also find the freedom of being able to have player made dlc, game trainers, cheats and all sorts of mods and addons for games and being able to play games the way i want to.

However since owning a PS3 ive noticed that you can only play games (the ones that you cant get on the pc like FF13, Heavy rain etc...) the way they want you to play. Ie games dont have cheats (for the most part) and you cant use other peoples saved games etc... so unless you have unlimited amount of patience and time you miss out on alot of the stuff in games as the save games are encrypted and they are non editable.

Normally i wouldnt really be bothered but all this comes down to playing FF13 where ive spent dozens of hours trying to get rare drops for the ultimate weapons and i cant even get one to drop, ive tried every trick on the net in players guides and using my own methods to. Ive tried other peoples saves which wont work because they were done on another persons ps3 (i understand trophies should be disabled! but why cant you even save the game etc... it just seems overly harsh). Ive heard of a program called xploder which helps you to edit games but it seems that alot of people cant get it to work with the PS3 (especially with ff13) so im not willing to spend the money to find out ive wasted my time and money. I also know you can use custom firmware but the thing that bothers me about that is i know it can ruin your system if its got a virus in it or if you get a problem installing it and that everything is tied to your PS account. Ive also heard that if your PS3 dies and you get it repaired that none of your save games will work either, every time i turn on my PS3 i get the same word pop into my mind "limited" as in what im able to do, its probably just me i daresay everyone else is happy or maybe ive just been so use to the PCs freedom to much.

Ive noticed that even the xbox 360 has game editors and seems alot less strict with game editing. I just wondered how other PS3 users have managed over the years with sonys "Totalitarian" type attitude to its console and our hobby. It feels like they are saying you can play games but only the way we want you to play them, i mean im a control freak but this takes it to extremes.

I would like to hear other TOGers thoughts both PS3 users on everything above like does this bother you or not? and also i would like to hear Xbox 360 users with regards to editing save games\using other peoples saves and general game cheats etc... is it any better then the PS3 etc.....

[Chief]

Doesn't bother me in the slightest, never had a need to use anyone elses saves, edit saves or use cheats.

[Xavien]

Originally Posted by Chief

Doesn't bother me in the slightest, never had a need to use anyone elses saves, edit saves or use cheats.

Just as well because otherwise you would be disapointed if you have a PS3, its the reply i expected though, i guess if someone is happy with a BMW they dont want to swap to an Audi. I like a little more freedom to do things my way.

Im just glad it only really effects FF13, so i will just have to try and dedicate a little time here and there and cross my fingers that my farming isnt fruitless, at least the next one isnt out until next year. Thankfully most other games are on the PC like GTAs etc... i find it fun to mess about with games, edit weapons, damage meters etc... having to play games just as they are seems so mundane.

[FunkyJ]

Xbox doesn't allow transfer of saves between xboxes easily - they have to be attached to your gamertag, and that tag has to be recovered on both boxes.

I've nearly completed Brutal Legend, but you won't find it on my achievements list because I played it on a borrowed Xbox, and can't transfer the save.

I can, however, take my Assassins Creed 2 save and continue it on another PS3 without having to log in to my account.

Also, there are far more games on the PS3 which allow modding - Mod Racers, Little Big Planet 1 & 2, and Gran Turismo, spring to mind.

I do understand where you are coming from, but one of the biggest reasons is Sony and Microsoft (and indeed Nintendo) are committed to providing people with an experience which is the same for everyone - safe and fun.

Modding essentially undermines that. To allow saves to be modified would allow all kinds of hacks to be run, and given the online connectivity the consoles all have, it's better to lock it down than be unsafe.

(And before anyone says it, the Sony PS3 breach was a concerted effort by scores of people and wasn't accessed through the PS3 systems, but through webservers, so it IS a different matter)

[Xavien]

I guess its a little like online gaming everyone knows and excepts that you just dont cheat or try to exploit when online and i can definately see why they wont allow us to have trophies or achievements done by others as thats just not fair. I guess they have incorporated that into single player gaming as well on the consoles.

Its a shame that some saved games are really encrypted like ff13 but owing to the problems that even the consoles had in one of the gta's with the hot coffee mod and all the trouble that caused i understand how problems can arise, especially since probably every under aged teenager probably owns one of the consoles.

I feel a bit happier about all this now because as you said although im happy to stop at making my games a little easier to play it does open the path to others who would want to hack the entire system and cause problems. If the system isnt modifiable at all then there cant be any issues on a bigger scale.

[Drac]

Games are games because they have rules that stop you from instantly winning.

Not sure why you'd prefer to circumvent that aspect of it - may as well just watch a youtube video of someone else getting drop x/y/z - wouldn't the satisfaction of that be more or less the same?

I mean, once you remove the effort and skill of playing all that's left is going though the motions so may as well just sit back and watch what happens.

If the game isn't fun for you as-is, then it's a bad game, you should vent your frustrations at the developers and move on to something else. When the devs release the next game/patch maybe they'll have addressed some of the things that didn't work for you in the previous game/patch.

[Bort]

I'm not into achievements much, but my thought is that its good that Sony/developers are protecting them. They should be only done by completing the game/task properly - not cheating.

It reminds me of servers setup just to get achievements - whats the point if you cheated/exploited to do it?

Stick to pc if you want to play with trainers and the like.

[Xavien]

Its not that i want to circumvent playing the game just the awful grinding that some games have, theres a difference between cheating games and finishing them in no time at all and just making them a little easier and less consuming on time. I mean whats the point in grinding for hours on end to get rare drops when its so boring, i think some of you are missing the point of this post.

Also Bort im not talking about cheating to get trophies and achievements, i think its also good that you cant cheat to get those, achievements are just that, something you achieve rather then get for nothing couldnt agree with you more. Also i would have been very happy indeed to stick to the PC only games like FF13 dont get released for it, i would never ever by a console game that i could get on the PC, for one thing PC games are alot cheaper. Also i managed to get my rare drop in the end in FF13 it took over 48 solid hours of grinding to get it, if i was suppose to get a sense of achievement out of that.... well i didnt but at least im able to make the ultimate weapons now.

[Bort]

But whats the point of a rare weapon if its easy to get?

The grind IS the game. You probably dont HAVE to do (I dont know the game myself) - so thats your choice. Grind and get the weapon, dont grind and do without.

Personally, I'm way too lazy...

[Bort]

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