Over on the EU blog, Sony finally respond to some of the complaints / concerns that many people have had about Firmware 3.0. Perhaps you've read it already but here's my opinion on it. It's a well-written response (from Mark Bowles, PS3 Brand Manager no less) starting with an apology for not responding to the complaints sooner. I think he makes a good effort to address some of the biggest concerns. The most interesting thing he said is in response to the question of the larger font sizes and whether it will be possible to customise their size in the future - "Based on your feedback, we are looking at the possibility of making the changes optional". Great news. He fails to mention anything about the new look of the Friends list though (sounds like the grey boxes are here to stay but perhaps we can't have everything our way!).
Mark explains the reason why we've not seen the dynamic themes on the EU Store yet despite them being available in USA and Japan already. It's the usual excuse - multiple languages in Europe, localisation, blah, blah. He does promise that they'll be with us this week though, plus I'm intrigued to find out what the "little surprise" for PAL readers will be! Please Mark, let it be a free dynamic theme - and not the Afrika one as we've already leeched that from the Japan store already. Talking of dynamic themes, apparently a devkit is needed to produce these. This means that only licensed developers will be releasing them so don't expect many free ones.
A couple of Mike's answers address issues that people have kind of had to figure out for themselves. For example, "you need to set audio outputs as 48Khz to enjoy music and net surfing [at the same time]"
I never had that many gripes with FW 3.0. If the font sizes are made customisable in a future update then I'll be happy.
[reakt]
Glad they are going to give us the font/icon resizing option, maybe i can stop using that mini icon set then.
ReplyDeletegrey boxes look damn ugly and really need them removed, i'm guessing they are going to put a gamer card or something in them, i hope they make showing it optional too at a later date.
Theme localisation? srsly! i'm not going for that.
a little surprise? for us? a dynamic theme from Condemned 2: Bloodshot showing Ethan Thomas beating an attack dog to death with a length of metal pipe -muhahhha- i can but dream.
the BBCiPlayer thing.. "2) A PS3 console sold in the UK." the one my friends bought one new a couple of weeks back from a major highstreet store, didn't show the iPlayer icon, so i checked his serial number and it turned out to be an 04 Euro model. bad Sony.
The surprise for Europe is a dynamic theme for WipeOut HD and it's free!!!!!!
ReplyDelete@ reakt - that sounds pretty sweet.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm, no sign of it on the Store yet though! Was it some kind of cruel joke, Sony?
ReplyDeleteMy new Macbook was supposed to be here today as well (it's now coming mid-next-week!) So not a very good day really. Oh well.
got the new themes, that Wip3out one is damn nice, all pewpewpewvrooooosh! the motorstorm one is a buggy rotating in a garage, and LBP is run run run.
ReplyDeleteamazon haven't dispatched my Dirt2 yet either, gits. probably won't get it until mon/tues, that's if the posties stop having random strikes :(
@ reakt - which macbook are you getting old bean? I have one of the latest revisions of the pro. It is an absolute delight!
ReplyDeleteAlso, whilst I welcome the idea of dynamic themes (and free ones at that), I don't think my tiny mind can cope with all the pew, pew, wrrrr, k-chnk, movey camera stuff whilst I'm scrolling through the XMB.
Nice though it is to look at, the Wipeout theme had my head spinning after a few minutes. :(
@Pablo - I bought a 13.3 inch macbook pro (I really wanted the 15 but it's 400 quid more). I bought it with my "education discount" :) plus I got a free ipod touch with it. I've bought some books to help me get into Iphone and Ipod touch application development and will give that a shot in my spare time. Spare time is limited at the moment though as I'm getting married soon and have a lot to organise.
ReplyDeleteRegarding themes - whilst I'm grateful to the guys a Studio Liverpool for providing the WipeOut theme to us, and for free, I'm not all that impressed with it. Yes, it's too much going on - I agree with that. It's also a bit dull colourwise. One of the good things in the WipeOut presentation is the use of fresh, bright colours. I'd rather the background was lighter, brighter, and the crafts just slowly drifted around so as not to interfere too much with the menus in the foreground. The Afrika theme is perfect. I've not tried out the other dynamic themes but would like to.
@reakt
ReplyDeletesounds like the one I have mate. I would love the 17" jobba but my bank balance started weeping at the very thought of it.
What do you think of the new ipod nanos with the crappy cameras in them? 0.3 megapixels!
ReplyDelete