Today sees the most sparse PSN Store Update for years. There aren’t any PS3 demos, the PSP Essentials are unchanged and there isn’t even a premium theme to buy for £1.99. Ordinarily, we’d wail and cry about the US Store Update being so much better but they didn’t get anything new either. Finally, region equality from SCE!
In fact, the only thing we got from Sony this week was an email to let us know they’d left the key under the mat and someone had strolled in and nicked their filing cabinet. I’ll be honest, that’s not as fun to play with as the latest LittleBigPlanet level pack.
So, what are we to do with this downtime when we can’t spend our hard earned cash on new digital distractions? Well, joking aside for a moment, it’s probably best you keep an eye out for someone else spending your hard earned cash with the details Sony may (or may not) have lost. We’re all doing that though, right? Good, then let’s talk about some alternatives.
You can’t connect to the store today and buy the latest pinball table or sticker pack. That’s a shame. You can get it in a few weeks instead. Today, you could start another play through of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves so that you’re all excited and receptive to the info and demonstrations that we’re all expecting at E3. Instead of adding to your rapidly filling hard drive, spend some time getting really excited about what’s on the horizon for PlayStation 3.
You’re missing out on that 20p avatar that would make your online presence roughly 3 percent cooler. Well, how about you press on with Motorstorm: Apocalypse and earn some trophies for when the PSN whirs back into life. An extra cabinet full of trophies is cooler than a new avatar anyway. I’ve heard reports that Motorstorm: Apocalypse is already being quite well discounted by certain retailers so if you don’t already own it, you might consider buying it for the exhilarating single player races.
You won’t be able to save a couple of pounds/dollars/euro/spacebucks on whatever slipped into the Special Offers section. Perhaps, instead, you could get yourself down to your local games store and see what they have in the bargain bin. I’ve seen Vanquish at some very low prices recently, that’s probably worth a punt. There’s even a thread in our forums for spotting great deals, you could trawl that for inspiration.
While you’re in our forums, why not start a high score leaderboard battle with some fellow TSA-ers? Just because the network is down, that’s no reason to stop showing your gaming prowess. Photograph high score boards and post to the forum, encourage others to beat your score and get some rivalry going! Get creative about how you play with others.
There won’t be any new demos or trailer videos to whet your appetite for upcoming games. We’re only just over a month away from E3 though, soon you’ll have more trailer videos than you know what to do with. I suggest you spend the time, not looking forward to the games you might enjoy in a few months time but looking back through your collection at the games you’ve already enjoyed. The release schedule over the past year has been relentless and included a large number of fantastic PlayStation exclusive games which you might not have had the chance to get everything out of before you moved on to the next big blockbuster title. Why not return to them and remind yourself what was fantastic about them.
Today is the first day in a long time that there hasn’t been at least something delivered during the regular Store Update schedule. That’s not ideal and the network being down is quite an inconvenience. But we can still enjoy so much about the platform while we wait for the online functionality to come back on.
I encourage you all to take steps to make sure your data is as safe as it can be. Use different passwords, don’t store credit card details online, keep an eye on card transactions and shred anything with your name and address on it before you put it in the recycling bins. But once that’s all being done, there’s no excuse for wallowing in the current situation: PlayStation is still an amazing way to play and there’s plenty you can do that doesn’t require online connectivity or a Store Update every week. Get creative and let us know how you’re spending the down time!
jimmy-google
I’ve been going back through lots of the PSN games I bought but never played (like Critter Crunch, Guardian of Light, Gravity Crash, Tales of Monkey Island etc…), notching up some extra trophies of Fifa 11 and F1 2010 and starting off a couple of new games (SOCOM, Motorstorm and Top Spin).
The PSN being has been quite good for me, but even better for my wallet.
Phil_E
Yakuza 4. on adventure plus run after playing the story once on normal. going for 100% game completion before playing again on hard and extra hard for the platinum.
TURRICAN-808
On Yakuza 3 if you beat all the substories (101) you can get a gun with infinite bullets, I hope its the same on Yakuza 4!
Mr-Flame-Head
well aside from playing mortal kombat offline i have been using my ps3 for its dvd/ bluray movie playing capabilities, though i have just started playing disgaea 3 again, im currently at roughly 170 hours game time and now have 50% of the trophies as well, and i have god of war 3 to play through
Winkle
I realise people aren’t liking the network being down and all but this past week has been very nostalgic. It has reminded me of the days before online when it was all about getting your mates round for some split screen multiplayer or just trying to best their high scores.
Hopefully it has also gave a lot of people a reality check as to how much we take a network and its security for granted.
I have never read so much whinging, raging, arguing on forums and websites in my life over such a service outage.
Sometimes it makes me ashamed to read some of these comments on the net. People really do need to have a good look at themselves.
I’m afraid what it all boils down to is the biggest problem of them all and there is no getting away from it. The human element.
For every good that someone out there comes up with, there is always some idiot that will undo it just because they can.
colmshan1990
Haha.
I bought a DSi and 6 games.
Might as well have bought only Pokemon Black though. :P
dude90
I think I’ll just try getting some trophies for GT5 and maybe someother games. Yep I might just turn into a trophy hunter.
Moakesice
I`ve just got Operation Flashpoint: Red River and about to start 007: Blood Stone :)
Dan Lee
I’ll be playing Outland, then Conduit 2!
tatoemonkey
Red Dead Redemption and Motorstorm Pacific Rift as I have to at least get near the end of it before I go buy the next one, had a go on super rubber dub esterday too I had forgotten how brilliant that game is :)
tatoemonkey
*yesterday*
stueeeee
Yes! I still have super rub a dub on my hard drive. Right at the bottom lol. I had good fun with that. Shame they didn’t do trophies for it tho, they could’ve been quite creative.
sanmartinez
Going for some Mortal Kombat character mastering, currently 7 or 8 hours done off the 24 hours I need to play with Scorpion, the other 4 already done
Roynaldo
how do you master a character. Always wondered what those trophies meant.
sanmartinez
Well if you look at Extra’s -> Nekropolis you can check the stats of every character, you need to get all those milestones. Out of top of my head they are: 100 Victories, 100 -alities (fatalities, babalities) 150 Xrays landed, 10000 pints of blood and 24 hours gametime with character