OMG Sony this could not be really 3.0. Please bring back the PS2 team. As a soon to be college graduate in computing i must say 3.0 is awful. I cannot believe you pay people to create such interface nonsense. what a waste of space and a lack of creativity... I still love you guys but seriously i hope there are surprises beneath 3.0 that out weighs the GUI nonsense. - [stennex]there is a few things that kinda suck:
1. Friends list looks like balls.
2. Please give me an option to turn off the annoying ticker.
3. PS Store logo in each column is annoying
4. Make the notifications replace the ticker instead of covering the whole ticker thing. Like make the ticker say ‘new message from -blank’
5. Delete ‘Whats New’ - [schmeidenkamp]
wow … friends-list is ugly and the massive text is ugly, i’m hoping there will be a firmware update allowing you to revert back to the old look. please Sony wtf is with this forced ugliness, who the heck sanctioned the friends-list changes, its atrocious to look at! - [singjeet29]
there are a few things that are bothersome about this update:
1)Grey Boxes in Friend’s list
2)Starting on What’s New
3)Information Bar is now part of the status, and unremovable
4)Playstation Store icons everywhere. - [skywalker6705]
You have to quit playback of music if you want to enter the XMB now? wtf, that is crap. I mostly use the ps3 for music and chatting, now its one or the other, what a waste! - [MegadethAndy]
3.0 ruins XMB, it’s a complete mess. - [KnightNZ]
/// So there we have it, the public has spoken out on Sony's new Firmware 3.0, is it really that bloody awful or is it a case of you just can't please everyone all the time? personally i think some of the design choices are rather questionable and am not overly impressed with the damn thing. We laughed at XBL getting adverts but in someways what Sony are pushing on us in our XBM menus is rather more intrusive.
[mobiletone]
s'all about the dollar billz y'all...
ReplyDeletemo money, mo problemz...
etc...
will check it out tonight.
anyone bought a slim yet?
ReplyDeleteI quite fancy one but shirley the missus will thwart my dastardly plan!
I might pop down to HMV after work to get a look at the SLIM in all it's glory. Yeh, I'm sad like that! As for 3.0. It's great that Sony release it on the same day as the slim - remember we'll be welcoming a lot of new people to the PS3 scene - and what a good way to welcome them! I guess it doesn't actually do all that much new. The thing that I thought was cool about it was the possibility to have animated backgrounds in custom themes. This will be pretty awesome - especially after some of the top theme-makers have worked their magic - watch neogaf closely - there's a semi-pro graphics guy called m0dus who will no doubt make some excellent XMB themes (or animated updates to his existing themes).
ReplyDeleteAwesome - the first "dynamic themes" for firmware 3.0 are available, including a free one for the safari-type game, Afrika (and one for Little Big Planet that we have to pay for - no thanks!). See this thread for the deets!
ReplyDeleteHad a poke around 3.0:
ReplyDelete- firstly the store is NOT present in all the sub menus YET, so that doesn't annoy - YET
- the Whats New is more of a 'recent' list with noise in it, it's OK
- the speckles on the standard theme are annoying and don't look good - need a kill option
- the multi channel audio works perfectly and has been a pain for me when whiching from TV and cinema system - best update for me for AGES just for this
-the fonts are rendered bigger=wierd and the friends list=wierd too, but cmon its no biggie
-I can still play PS3 games so on balance it's fine!
@MrJ
ReplyDeleteI reckon there is a classic option which turns off the sparkly bits somewhere in theme settings.
May have to grab the free Afrika theme. Hope there are a few free avatar/themes available on Thursday. Like reakt mentioned - hopefully lots of new ps3ers this week so would be a great time to roll out some big guns in the store update.
Some great deals on the slim + couple of games at shopto.net
http://www.shopto.net/PS3/BUNDLE/PS3SLIM02-PS3%20SLIM%20120GB%20%2B%20Battlefield%3A%20Bad%20Company%20%26%20Fallout%203.html
http://www.shopto.net/PS3/BUNDLE/PS3SLIM01-PS3%20SLIM%20120GB%20%2B%20Fuel%2C%20Damnation%20%26%20Dead%20Space.html
Good deals you found on ShopTo but don't they have a nasty reputation for losing people's card details? The Afrika theme is only on the Japanese PSN store at the moment (time to create me a JPN account - just for this!) Have a look at the video on youtube.
ReplyDelete@reakt
ReplyDeleteBeen using them for past 2 years (I bought my PS3 from them no less) and never had a problem.
Yeh, it's probably only a few instances, blown out of proportion on the forums. I should support local businesses anyway - they are based just up the road from me.
ReplyDeletehaha reduce your ps3 miles mate!
ReplyDeleteOK, here's my take on the New 3.0.. where to start..?
ReplyDeleteFONT SIZE!! holy zombie jebus, it was too big IMHO before the update, now it just takes the piss.
The new boot up logo/screen! not as posh as the past one but does use the new font, hmmmph.
THOSE grey boxes on the friends list, just so so horrible and pointless. WHY do they need to be so big?
NO message notification on your friends icon anymore, you have to check inbox now instead of just clicking on the friends icon. wrong.
Still no 'black' under the theme background colour, why? people have been after this since, well, day one.
The TV icon and subsequent BBC iPLAYER, it's just a link to their website and not an application.
PStore under games! it has no right being there and under Network, just looks stupid and out of place.
System starts up on the 'what's New' section unless you turn the damn thing off under your System Settings (thank grud you can do that!)
i guess there are SOME positives.. erm... i like the info bar top right of screen. i like the sparkles on the swirly smoke effect behind the menus. i like the fading out menus items that are not currently being looked at, and the option to output audio to two different sources, my TV and Amp, but it does cut down the quality -boo!-
overall the negatives outweight the positives here. there seriously need to fix the grey box thing though, that's gonna get right on my moobs.
OH, and if there are any new PS3 Slim owners out there, Hello! *waves*
just been reading the Eeew.blog, the great unwashed masses are NOT happy with this FW3.0, another classic SONY launch strikes again.
ReplyDeletehave you seen the amount of comments on the US blog!?!?!?
ReplyDeleteLots of friends of mine have brought the new PS3 on launch, looks as if they see more games coming out over the next year that they want than on 360. That and they have had enough of sending their 360s back for repair.
ReplyDelete3.00 sucks, i never moan about something thats free, but seriously, that friends list is S**T
@ pablo - HOT PISS! 1,466 Comments and rising.
ReplyDelete@ e-role - i feel your pain, what are they thinking!?
my friend was 50/50 over a 360 or a ps3 but he sees the ps3 as the better option in the long run.
i got the Afrika theme, lots of zebras munching away.
ReplyDeleteI see zebera bolocks and then no zebras bollocks. Im amazed about the male/female modles that have been used in the theme.
ReplyDeletehaha maybe that's why the grey boxs are so big, to censor out the zebra bollocks :D
ReplyDeleteI too have the Afrika theme! It was well worth struggling through the interface in Japanese to create a JPN account, just for this - I like it!
ReplyDeleteMy 2 cents on fw 3.0. The font size increase is definitely a problem for me. Also, I found that it's not easy to get an overview of what my friends are up to as it doesn't show you the full details for each friend until you select the friend. So you kind of have to scroll through the entire list to see what your homies are up to. Hopefully these things can be cleaned up in an update - I've no doubt Sony will take on board our comments and make tweaks to the interface.
In the main I'm very happy with the changes because: the what's new / recently played looks great and is handy to jump back into what you last played; the animated themes was a great idea and I can see a lot of potential in this (360 dashboard-killer that's for sure!); the boot sequence look-and-feel is much more up-to-date than what we had before (the spiderman 2 font was over-exposed and played-out) and this look ties in nicely with the new image associated with the new slim console's whole rebranding thing.
I wonder how much of people's opinions on the new look and feel of the XMB is simply affected by nostalgia. OK, it's not that long ago that it launched but some people just don't like change. Take those on the forums complaining about the blurring effect for example. Remember that now we can have dynamic themes with animated backgrounds, there needs to be a way to make the active foreground items (trophies for example) more clear. If this feature was there from launch then nobody would moan about it anyway. In my opinion it's a good thing.
As for the grey boxes though...? FAIL!
i did some measuring and messing earlier and can only guess the HUGE FONT is for SDTVs as it and the fat icons look OK on a standard last-gen telly (576i over scart), but on a 32" 1080p they look plain stupid. the main menu header fonts are fine, but.. you've seen 'em. the old fonts were 7mm high - the new ones are 11mm tall, that's a 50% increase and looks tacky.
ReplyDeletesome of my video titles now span over half the screen width!
people say 'it's only a font, do you spend all your time staring at the XMB' well yes, when i'm not gaming i'm looking for tunes to play or message my friends or browse the web etc i do stare at the XMB, it's like the 5 second rule girls have, FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT FOR EVERYTHING and as it stands today the XMB is going home alone wrapped in a big grey badly fitting smelly raincoat.
heh, they've buried the 3.0 post on the US blog and are removing ALL comments to do with it.
ReplyDeletenot good sony, not good at all!!
the US blog was down for a long while as well
ReplyDeletelooks like i've been banned from making comments on the USA blog, for why? pointing out that the facebook 'news' was nothing more than an attempt to bury the backlash they had against 3.0
ReplyDeleteamericans don't like the truth.
I was trying to be mellow about the big fonts but they are annoying me now. Must change back.
ReplyDeleteIT'S SURPRISING HOW MUCH NICER THE XBM LOOKS WITH THE FRIENDS LIST TURNED OFF, THE BIG ICONS AND FONT STILL LOOK SPASTICATED THOUGH.
ReplyDeleteFOR THOSE NOT LIKING THE ICONS YOU CAN DOWNLOAD A MINIICON THEME FROM THE USUAL THEME SITES, I GOT VER3 MAKES THINGS MORE PLEASANT IN THE MENU.
Must admit that the update to 3.0 doesn't bother me too much. I don't usually spend too much time at the XMB, as it's usually switch on, log in, and insert game. I will say that the free Afrika theme looks amazing, though the white writing is a pain - I guess black would have killed the look of the theme though. Having said that, I have reverted to the classic theme for the sake of simplicity. I have also read elsewhere that some people are suffering game freezes since 3.0, most especially with Uncharted. Thankfully, this hasn't affected my playing KZ2 yet.
ReplyDelete@MM
ReplyDeleteYeah I heard a lot of people moaning about uncharted but I was playing it for about 2 hours last night with no problems.
From my own experience (various mates and acquaintances over the years), the first ones to moan are usually a)downloading the internetz whilst trying to play online, b)have a console covered in dust/food/lack of ventillation/upsidedown etc..., c)aged 11, d)morons.
Of course there are an unlucky minority who genuinely experience these problems through no fault of their own.
But I digress!
As a follow on to this, looks like some people are now suggesting that this update may have broken their controllers too! Quite a few people on the US playstation website forums complaining, especially those that have white controllers.
ReplyDeleteGuess I'm gonna stick with my basic black dualshock controllers.
@ MuggleMind - i have a white dualshock, imported from HK, that i use all the time and have not noticed any problems. one issue i have seen though is that the XMB stalls 50% of the time when i try to access my 'Themes' settings, it can take up to a couple of minutes to get into the sub-menu. curious. think i'll back-up the system just in case it's a hard drive issue *worries*
ReplyDelete