As I’ve now managed to kill two original fat PS3s in a little over 15 months, I’m stuck with the arduous and painfully-long process of redoing everything. Last night, I tossed firmware 4.21 on a flash drive and formatted my awesome 320Gb drive full of everything I loved. All my games, patches and many of my save games are lost forever. Oh yeah…again!
So, last night, around 11pm, I started doing it all. I queued up my old downloads, things I grabbed back in 2008 or so. Overnight, my PS+ auto updater finished those and synched my trophies. I later grabbed whatever save games I had backed up online. This morning, I started grabbing bigger games. Söldner-X and its sequel tallied about 2Gb. Things are going to get big soon.
The next step, (well, I’m still in my 2009 downloads, mostly) will be to plug in each game disc and start it up, downloading patches along the way. The game that killed my system (it was a coincidence), Arkham Asylum, is a Game of the Year edition, so fortunately everything was there. However, about 275Mb went to Brütal Legend, a game I will likely never get around to. I’m going to need to grab the three Borderlands DLCs I purchased and I fear Skyrim will be large as well. How big was Arcade Edition for Super Street Fighter IV again?
Ultimately, all games are dwarfed by Burnout Paradise and Heavy Rain. The former has a series of seven updates. I know this because I did this reformat/re-download/re-install nonsense just last June. As I write this, I’m just finishing up the first of those seven updates. You know, the 385Mb one. That is followed by a 154Mb update. Then, just five more after that.
I can’t recall the precise size (turns out it’s 1.15Gb) but huge is the Heavy Rain update that included the much-sought-after Move controls (/sarcasm). I always wanted to go back to that game. The problem with these updates is that I can’t let them go overnight. I have to sit there and let them run. I’ve got a good connection, but a gig is still a gig of waiting. And better yet is when you download a big PSN title, install it, boot the sucker up just to find out a patch larger than the original install is waiting for you.
Burnout’s third patch was only 35Mb; its fourth a meaty 250.
I should’ve just gotten a slim last spring when my original launch model died. And I shouldn’t complain too much, as I have a functional PS3 here, a nice 320Gb drive, a good connection and a Sunday where traffic is always faster than weekdays. Note to self…Back your shit up next time. This is your fault.
Burnout Patch Updates:
Patch #5 – 133Mb
Patch #6 – 176Mb
Patch #7 – 413Mb
Burnout Paradise Total Patch Size = 1.26Gb
Oh, and before I sign off here, I really wonder/fear how this will all work in 10 years. I can still play any PS1 or PS2 game I own, any NES or SNES game. Not being able to play your stuff or missing out b/c of patches is just going to be strange. Will there even be a PSN? I LOVE me my PS3 as you should know…but how things are going really bothers me. Knowing my copy of Final Fight on the PSN won’t let me play it at all w/out being connected is insane. And don’t get me going on digital distribution. I don’t like it and that’s not gonna change.