PlayStation 3 Backward Compatibility update

A small update regarding a couple of games I had not listed before and one which stops working a short period into the game. You can access the full list using the 360 PS3 BC link at the top of the page.

Key

• The game is new to this list because I have purchased or borrowed it or it has been added to the Xbox 360 BC list.
• The game was already on my list but its status has changed.

 

Backwards Compatibility Lists

 

 

PlayStation 3 (PS3) 60Gb PAL:

No known issues

Title	Product Code	Widescreen	System
Viewtiful Joe 2	SLES 52868		2.42

 

Should play on PLAYSTATION®3 with some minor issues

Title	Product Code	Widescreen	System
Killzone Very minor audio distortion during pre-rendered sequences.	SCES 52004		2.50

 

Not Compatible with PlayStation 3

Title	Product Code	Widescreen	System
Aeon Flux Controller stops functioning inside the game after a certain time after a certain point in the first, non-training, level. PS button and menu still work.	SLES 53956		2.50

PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility Update

My complete BC list.

 

 

Key

• The game is new to this list because I have purchased or borrowed it or it has been added to the Xbox 360 BC list.
• The game was already on my list but its status has changed.

 

Backwards Compatibility Lists

Xbox 360

 

No known issues

Title	Widescreen	Tested
BLiNX 2: Matters of Time & Space		Sep 2008
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King		Sep 2008

Should play on Xbox 360 with minor issues

Title	Widescreen	Tested
BLiNX: The Time Sweeper Ironically, seems to run a little slowly.		Sep 2008
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age Coming across treasures chests makes the whole screen flash white.		Sep 2008

 

Should play on Xbox 360 with noticeable issues

Title	Widescreen	Tested
Blood Omen 2: The Legacy of Kain Series Game does not run in widescreen as it should.		Sep 2008
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Game does not run in widescreen as it should.		Sep 2008

 

PlayStation 3 (PS3)

Note: this is a list of games tested by me and is not entirely in tune with the official list which tends to be more cautious and somewhat behind the latest software version.

No known issues

Title	Product Code	Widescreen	System
Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer	SCES 51635		2.42
Conflict: Desert Storm II	SLES 51523		2.42
Disney’s Donald Duck PK	SLES 50773		2.42
Kingdom Hearts	SCES 50967		2.42
Okami	SLES 54439		2.42
Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction	SLES 50572		2.42
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3	SLES 55018		2.42
Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy	SLES 51831		2.42

 

Should play on Playstation 3 with minor issues

Title	Product Code	Widescreen	System
Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil Minor wibbling on some menus (for example, the 50Hz / 60Hz / Test menu) and dialog boxes. Has no effect on gameplay and game looks fantastic.	SCES 50354		2.42
Kya: Dark Lineage Minor sound distortion in movies.	SLES 51473		2.42
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Occasional minor slowdown, most noticeable during The Fury boss battle.	SLES 82013		2.42
Xenosaga Episode II Optical digital output Dolby Digital 5.1 causes audio crackling.	SCES 82034		2.42

 

Should play on Playstation 3 with noticeable issues

Title	Product Code	Widescreen	System
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers No video (audio only) on deliberately (!) unskippable movie clips.	SLES 51252		2.42

Stranglehold (2007, PS3) – 8/10

Producer: John Woo Chow Yun-Fat: Tequila Producer: Terence Chang Director: Brian Eddy John Woo:

Stranglehold (2007) When a lone cop is summoned to a meet, everyone knows it’s a trap but Inspector Tequila goes anyway (with two little friends; one for the left hand, one for the right) not knowing what a terrible personal cost this druglord turf war will exact. 8/10 Frequently the thing with movie tie-in’s is that they don’t get the feel of the movie, the swagger, the bravado, the cool. While Stranglehold is really a six or seven star game, the feel is absolutely spot-on with the whole game genuinely feeling like the greatest, coolest, most spectacular, most over-the-top John Woo shootout in history. Which it is, and you are very much the star. By the time you get to the final level and doors simply shatter in your presence, the smile of satisfaction will be from ear-to-ear. Aside from technical issues on PS3 (frame-rate and it has that horrible PS3 Unreal Engine 3 look), the game’s only significant failing is a lack of gameplay breathers meaning you might have stop playing after a fairly short session in order not to become irritated. Special mention for a super touch where you can place your own ammo and health spawns (in guitar cases) anywhere on the Mega Restaurant level. This game contains mild swear words and extended extreme, graphic and extremely gory gun violence. Classified 18 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 18 years and over.

Burnout: Paradise (2008, Game, PS3) – 9/10

General Manager EA Criterion Studio: Fiona Sperry Creative Director: Alex Ward Executive Producer: Pete Hawley Lead Designer: Craig Sullivan Senior Development Director: Jon Lawrence

Burnout Paradise (2008) 9/10 Though eight was the rating I wanted to give it because of handling foibles (your direction during low speed traction and jump landings are predictably unpredictable), that felt a little harsh. A game complete time of over 61 hours indicates the mammoth amount to do in Paradise City offline and online (integrated brilliantly) and the game has a feeling of tremendous polish and excellence. It is always completely thrilling and, when not being occasionally frustrating due to your own lack of amazingness, almost always a lot of fun. Available on PS3. Available on 360.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007, PlayStation 3) – 10/10

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) Single player: tackle terrorism in a contemporary battlefield as the world’s armed forces unite to remove a common enemy in a politically unstable country. Multiplayer: employ all your guile, skill and persistence and work your way up from a lowly private with stock weapons by partaking in various wargames against other people from around the world. 10/10 As good as first person shooters get whose only minor fault is that it sometimes feels like the action happens with or without you. This is utterly spectacular, beautifully paced, gorgeous to look at and listen to and, critically, features pitch-perfect controls and instant all-enveloping atmosphere. And who knew that being able to shoot through certain materials would be so rewarding? Even when the game is over, the goodness doesn’t end with a wry rap stressing the fact that Call of Duty 3 isn’t an Infinity Ward game, a bonus level set on an airplane (“Don’t call me Shirley.”) and a never-ending and worthwhile multiplayer component. This game contains a single sexual swear word, mild swear words and extended graphic war violence. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over. Classified 16+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 16 or over.. Classified Violence by PEGI. Game contains depictions of violence. Classified Bad Language by PEGI. Game contains bad language. Available on Xbox 360. Available on PC. Available on PS3. Available on Special Edition Xbox 360. Links gamedoctor

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (2007, PlayStation 3) – 8/10

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (2007) Ratchet and Clank embark on another galaxy spanning adventure as they attempt to help the hapless half-wait Captain Qwark out of the clutches of diminutive but evil Emperor Tachyon. Making things harder is Tachyon’s utter abhorence of Lombaxes, of which Ratchet is the only one in existence, and Tachyon doesn’t care who or what gets in his destructive line of sight. 8/10 Lots of fun and lots of it in this easy-to-play, very easy-to-recommend and wonderful-looking action platforming romp. There’s a minute lack of atmosphere but this won’t nag at the young ‘uns and the ending is slightly mishandled (it’s downbeat instead of an enthusiastic “let’s go!” to the next adventure) but there are so many things done right including the graphics, the voice-work, most of the Sixaxis stuff (didn’t like the Visicopter) and, bestest of all, ‘those wonderful toys’ at your disposal. This game contains extended fantasy violence. Classified 7+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 7 or over. Classified Violence by PEGI. Game contains depictions of violence. Available on PS3. Links gamedoctor

Ico (2002, Game, PS2 on PS3) – 10/10 review

Game Designer: Fumito Ueda Director: Fumito Ueda Kazuhiro Shindou: Ico

Ico (2002) Ico’s fate had been sealed since his birth, since that fateful day when he emerged with horn’s protruding from his tiny head. Now twelve-years-old, his family offer no resistance and weep none when the mysterious horsemen come and take him away to be imprisoned in an ancient fortress. The horsemen seal him inside a stone casket and Ico is sentenced to spend eternity in silent torment… 10/10 Without question, one of the most remarkable videogames ever made. Expressively animated and atmospherically presented, this gentle puzzle action game is full of gameplay goodness that would become touchstones in modern gaming (God of War is highly reminiscent of this). It also supplies one of the single most brilliant moments in videogame history when you take the hand of your companion Yorda and realise that you will be protecting this delicate, ethereal girl and tackling this adventure together literally hand-in-hand. Genius. This game contains fantasy violence, mild gory and unpleasant scenes. Classified OK 3+ by ELSPA. Content OK 3+. Available on PlayStation 2.

Enchanted Arms (aka Enchant Arm) (PlayStation 3) – 7/10

Daisuke Kishio: Atsuma (Japanese) Kana Ueda: Karin

Enchanted Arms (2006) Atsuma’s not the sharpest tool in the box, partially because of sleeping through most of his Enchant classes at Yokohama Universtiy, but he’s an endearing chap nonetheless. He, his best friend and all-round popular guy Toya (he even has an unofficial fan club) and their friend Makoto decide to play truant one afternoon and visit the Yokohama Festival where there will be plenty of pizza. While enjoying the afternoon something terrible happens at the University and the shockwave makes everyone except Atsuma, Toya and Makoto (who can all Enchant) unconscious. The trio rush back to the university but have no idea of the world-changing events that they are about to unleash. 7/10 While the PlayStation 3 has horrendous performance problems during field navigation on top of non-HD rendering and textures (this is yet another game where the PlayStation 3 version has been incompetently produced), this is, despite a grind spike or two, a thoroughly charming, highly entertaining and lengthy (my game clear play time was 52 hours 15 minutes) role-playing game with a strong battle system. Knock a star off if you use the English dub and another if you always skip through battles using the Auto battle option as both will reduce your involvement and interest in the characters and game. This game contains mild homosexual dialogue, mild adult dialogue and mild fantasy violence, unpleasant scenes. Classified 12+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 12 or over. Classified Violence by PEGI. Game contains depictions of violence. Available on PS3. Available on Xbox 360.

PlayStation 3 backwards compatibility update: v2.01

Seeing as Sony’s 40Gb PlayStation 3 dumped backwards compatibility like a diseased potato, I presumed that the firmware updates would no longer herald greater BC. However, I went through my non-compatible PS2 library and found that one had changed status and was now playable. Good news!

Links

My full BC list.

Backwards Compatibility Update

Should play on PLAYSTATION®3 with some minor issues

Title	Product Code	Widescreen	System
Headhunter: Redemption Very minor frame rate problems in movies and in gameplay but nothing that adversely affects the game.	SLES 51682		2.01

Sony announce ‘We’re making the PlayStation 3 worse. Now give us your money.’

From the official 40GB PlayStation 3 Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announcement:

The new model is no longer backwards compatible with PlayStation®2 titles, reflecting both the reduced emphasis placed on this feature amongst later purchasers of PS3, as well as the availability of a more extensive line-up of PS3 specific titles (a total of 65 titles across all genres by Christmas).

Isn’t that bizarre? I was under the impression that backwards compatibility was currently being executed via software emulation. This seemed to be borne out by the fact that the state of backwards compatibility changes with firmware releases (system updates).

For me backwards compatibility is important. For many it is not. So while the above seems a fair statement, it seems unfair and pretty stupid to remove a feature just because they can.

I note that few choose to use the tilt sensitive functions of the Sixaxis controller. As Sony say, that feature has “reduced emphasis” among purchasers of PS3’s. Does this mean that this feature will too be removed in a future hardware iteration?

I suspect that the vast majority of PS3’s are not connected to 5.1 surround sound amps and HD displays via HDMI. Will those be removed in a future iteration?

The removal of backward compatibility seems a bafflingly arbitrary decision.

According to the remainder of the press release, 2 USB ports, a card reader, 20GB of hard disk space and backwards compatibility cost the best part of €100. Yeah.

While you can nip down PC World and purchase a USB hub and a card reader if you need them for around €40 you cannot go and purchase backwards compatibility.

Sony really seem to be flailing around at the PlayStation division at this time. The announcement of a reduction in price (and let’s not forget that the standard PS3 has just dropped €100 in price) should be a cause for celebration. Instead Sony have managed to shoot themselves in the foot for the umpteenth time regarding PlayStation 3 and issue a press release detailing how their HD entertainment center is getting worse, not being improved.

Slimm Says

Sony should have just dropped the price of the standard PS3. Nothing else. This is a decision only an accountant would make, not a visionary or lover of the brand or videogames. Sony’s press relations division are idiots (we knew that anyway) and getting your company run by accountants is the beginning of the end. At this rate, PlayStation 3 will be the swansong of Sony as an videogame giant.

Hexic HD (2006, Game, 360) – 8/10 review

Game Designer: Alexy Pajitnov

Hexic HD (2006) 8/10 It’s difficult for a puzzle game to be simple enough to pick up and play, challenging enough to make you start formulating stratagem and fun enough that you complete even a single game and addictive enough that you keep coming back to it. A while ago I said that Gran Turismo HD (for PlayStation 3) was the best freebie ever delivered alongside a console but Hexic HD (for Xbox 360), though not original premium content or an audio-video system showcase, is just as good.

Custom video icons on your PlayStation 3

A completely cool feature I had not noticed on the PlayStation 3 allows you to create icons for the video files on your hard drive. These icons are, brilliantly, created from any fifteen seconds of your video file.

1. While playing a video find the start of a fifteen second clip you wish to use. You can fast scan and slow scan and pause, don’t forget. If it’s a trailer, it may be handy to bring up the video details by pressing the SELECT button and waiting for the last fifteen seconds.
2. When you’ve found the right moment press the (triangle) button to bring up video options and look for the Change Icon, er, icon on the top row. It looks like this:
3. Select it and confirm. The PS3 will whir away for a few seconds and next time you are in the Videos section of the Cross Media Bar (XMB) you will see the little animated icon in the list instead of the generic video file icon.

Here is the  entry in PS3 manual.

Resistance: Fall of Man PlayStation 3 review – 7/10

Resistance: Fall of Man (2006) 1951: as far as we know, the Chimaeran attack started in Russia but finally hit a pocket of resistance in Great Britain. The Americans send troops to assist but swarms of unexpected Chimaeran soldiers wipe out all but one: Sergeant Hale, you. 8/10 First impressions aren’t too great for this first person shooter that was generally hyped as being the PlayStation 3’s launch ‘killer app’. It looks and feels like a reasonably good-looking PC first-person shooter. It feels fine, appears to look only quite good and sounds, frankly, underwhelming. However, like the other hyped PS3 European launch title “MotorStorm“, it’s technical qualities shine through on the details and become more impressive as you immerse yourself in the entirely solid gameplay. I enjoyed this thoroughly and look forward to a sequel. This game contains mild swear words and graphic and extreme violence, unpleasant scenes. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over.

Gran Turismo HD Concept 2.0 PlayStation 3 video game review – 8/10

Gran Turismo Gran Turismo HD (2007) 8/10 A generous freebie letting PlayStation 3 owners see what they bought their console for. While it’s not exactly worth £425 (the price of a new console at launch), it is comfortably the most satisfying and impressive free download ever offered on any console.