new PS3

[moonwise]

Last weekend, our 4-year-old 60GB PS3 decided that it didn't want to read games any more. It would play a game for a while, and then freeze up. Or, it wouldn't read games at all. Asking the almighty Internet about the problem pointed towards something unfixable for the amateur, so my husband and I bought a new slim PS3.

I thought that copying the saved games over would be an easy thing. Just plug in a memory stick, copy the games, and go, right? Wrong! Some saves would load, but then the game wouldn't let me save a new game from there; in other cases, like Gran Turismo 5, the system would flatly refuse to load data from another user. My husband was understandably distressed, as he has sunk a huge amount of time into GT5. I wasn't too happy either, because I did not want to start FFXIII over from the beginning.

Asking the almighty Internet oracle once again, I found a data transfer procedure that was supposed to move all data from one PS3 to another. Great! thought I. Easy peasy, and then we'd both have all our saves. I spent a fair amount of time plugging in cables and messing about with remote controls to get it to work, but for whatever reason, the two PS3s would not talk to one another no matter what I did.

As an aside, we have two methods of dealing with problems in our household. There is the Q method, which is preferred by my husband's family and amounts to "Do/Fix it yourself." This method has saved us quite a lot of money, because husband is very handy around the house and can do many advanced Homeowner Projects. Then there is the M method, which is preferred by my parents and boils down to "Throw money at it."

With all my Q options failing, I resorted in desperation to the M method and bought a three-month subscription to Playstation Plus, which brings 150 MB of online storage with it. Since you have to sign in to PSN to use it, I theorized that the problem of using save data that the new system interpreted as being from a different user would be circumvented. If not... well, I'd be out $17.99, and my husband would give up on Playstation gaming in disgust.

Thank the gods of pixels, it worked. Husband is downstairs right now, thrilled to death that signing into PSN before he played gave him the opportunity to purchase a GT5 Formula 1 car, and I don't have to start over from scratch in FFXIII. I don't think I can take a whole lot more of Snow as it is.

Comments

[toffeethesnob.livejournal.com]

Thank heavens that bullet was dodged. I've lost hard earned FF save data before (near the endgame boss for my only FFVI file, my level 80 something FFVII party, my right next door to Ultimecia FFVIII savefile and one or two hard worked FFIX files too), needless to say it's an experience that made me want to hurl the console through the window. If that had happened with FFXIII then I simply wouldn't have played the thing again. Even though I like Hope and Fang all those hours of slugging through corridors for the most tedious levelling system ever known to man... GAH!!! I would've foamed at the mouth and tried to gnaw my own hair off if I had to do it over.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can't say that I like this stat bonus thing with the weapons. It's a nuisance, and everyone says that you can't really level properly until much later in the game. We've seen that Crystarium thing before with FFX's Sphere Table, fine, and customizable weapons are nice, but constantly being gil-deprived and experience-poor is getting on my nerves!

[toffeethesnob.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind the crysarium or the customizable weapons if they just made it possible for us to earn cash/EXP without having to bust our chops EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER. I'm one of those players who likes to grind early on ingame (sort of after the first two dungeons) getting my characters about 10 levels higher than they need to be and setting up a nice little nest egg so I can make swift work of the newer enemies I come by and have enough cash to buy valuable equipment once it becomes available. With XIII you just can't do that. I tried. Believe me, I tried... Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgggh....

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Even with the Sphere Table, you could get pretty far before you hit a key sphere you couldn't unlock. I remember whining with other players about Lvl. 3 Key Spheres, which you couldn't find until you could access the Omega Ruins. But you could still overlevel, and you could get gil! With the Crystarium, there's no point in grinding, because you hit a wall after a while.

Also, can I take a moment to lament the SEVERE LACK OF AREA SPELLS/ATTACKS at least early on? Seven against two is manageable when you have area attacks. When you don't, it's frustrating!

[toffeethesnob.livejournal.com]

Exactly. You could have a back up black mage, white mage and tank with X by the time you got to the Omega Ruins (I also remember being able to swipe them from some mooks in the Zanarkand Ruins but I'd have to check) and you get all the cash you needed. With XIII it's as you said, you put all that effort in and you hit a wall. Not only that but said effort is pointless 2 chapters later.

Oh you certainly may. Gaaaaah...The impossibility of some of those battle set-ups... I mean I understand that with the stagger mechanic you're supposed to take them down one at a time but area spells/attacks are quicker in the long run and give you a chance to maintain the offensive while one character heals you up unlike the 'nick one at a time' system they've got going on. Ugggh.

[xi-feng.livejournal.com]

I hear you on Snow, oh I hear you on Snow...

Seriously though, phew! I'm glad that you finally came up with a workaround (and that's a rather clever bit of outside the box thinking, if you ask me -- go you!) You'd think The Powers That Be would make things like data-transfers simple to begin with, but I think you deserve a pat on the back for getting things to work in spite of them, really!

(I love the Q and M methods, by the way... I'm rather less handy than your husband sounds so I'm largely confined to M as well ^^)

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Maybe he redeems himself later, but so far Snow is a big lummox with stupid hair. OTOH, Fang and Lightning make up for a lot of less-than-satisfactory female FF characters.

I'd still like to know why the PS3 data transfer didn't work! Certainly having a system stop working isn't something a player should be penalized for, especially since Sony doesn't seem to support older units any more.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Holy shit, the PS3 has been out for FOUR YEARS?

[arafel.livejournal.com]

At least! Amazing, isn't it?

[jaina.livejournal.com]

I just know I'm going to buy one immediately before they announce the PS4. Sigh.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

I wonder whether there will be a PS4. XBox has really cut into Sony's market share.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Unless something goes horribly wrong, I'd be surprised. They don't seem to be in such a bad state that they're likely to be driven out of the console market. Plus there's the PSP Vita coming out, although I suppose if that tanked it would be a big problem for the future.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Didn't Sony try to make a download-only PSP that tanked? I remember Patapon 2 coming out as a download, and later on they caved and released a disk.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it did. They should've seen that coming. I don't think it was a huge financial investment the way a whole new console would be, though, since it was just a different version of a PSP.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it all worked out for the best, and also it's good to know that works, just in case :D

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Hope you don't have to go down that path, yourself!

[ladyofthesea.livejournal.com]

Kudos for it working again! :D Pas and I will get a PS3 one of these days. For now we're borrowing wynndfae's boyfriend's. I'm using it to play FFT. Haha the graphics are SO BAD. XD

[arafel.livejournal.com]

FFT is addicting, isn't it?

[ladyofthesea.livejournal.com]

Very much so. Pas has been watching me play and can't wait until August when he can download it for the iPad. Right now he's playing FF3. It's holding him over- for now. :p

[skurtchasor.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, by 3 year old 40GB model ate it's BluRay drive a few weeks ago. Even as a proponent of the "Q method, "I finally bit the bullet and sent it to a repair shop, total cost: about $160.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

How did you find a repair shop? I tried going through Sony with no luck. Our feeling was that for the cost of a repair, we might as well buy a new one with a larger hard drive. Used systems were no bargain.

[skurtchasor.livejournal.com]

The short answer: a lot of quality time with the Internet. Finally settled on videogame911.com.

The system is currently in transit back here, but I've been happy with their service up to this point. Here's hoping it stays that way.

[niqsta.livejournal.com]

Well the PS3 seems to be quite sucky recently. I'm having the same problem as you where my PS3 has decided it will acknolwedge every other FF8 disk except the third one - which just so happens to be the one I'm currently on. Every time I insert it, it reads 'Wrong Disk'. It's getting very annoying now and I'm contemplating getting FF8 off PSN even though I've heard the graphics are very shoddy.

The sad thing is my PS3 is the slim one (120gb), I've had it about a year and got it solely because I was told that PSOne games would work on it. Fat load of BS that was when the game I really want to play won't work.

I'm just hoping it will read the disk before I purchase FF8 off PSN, it did actually do that with the first disk for a bit before I upgraded the software and miraculously started working.

Glad you found a way in the end ;)