It all started on Christmas day of 2010. While most families were enjoying the holiday(s), I decided I would go and play a game on my PS3. Sure, I didn’t get anything new that day, but Gran Turismo 5 was calling my name, and I had to get ready for a tournament we were going to hold the following day. Well, upon hitting the power button, the worst case scenario had happened. I received the tone of death, followed by that dreaded flashing yellow light. Keep in mind, I was way out of warranty by this point, as I own an original 60GB model (but I had upgraded to a 500GB hard drive by the time this happened) and had it for a few years already. This was most disheartening. I researched potential causes of the issue, and soon drew the conclusion that it had to deal with some of the solder joints on the RSX (the graphics processor) essentially melting away, because Sony had used a lower quality solder to mate the RSX to the circuit board. I looked around for any services that would deal with this. There were a few on eBay that would do it for, I believe, $90, but people were complaining that they had the money taken out, but never received their console back. I wouldn’t trust that kind of service posting anyway. It sounded way too shady. That’s when I discovered Gophermods . After having read a number of their reviews (and how Tosh had gotten some success by having service done to his console, albeit it was just reflowing the solder joints with the old solder). At the time, among other services, this was the most popular, though, and you get a free 6 month warranty. Looking at the services they were providing, upon suggestions from some forum posts I read online, a reballing with higher grade solder was the solution. Unfortunately, at the time, the reballing service from Gophermods had been announced in August of that year, but it was still unavailable (some people even question whether it ever would be). Still, I had faith in them, and decided to wait, especially with the promise that they would have a 1 year warranty on the service. Instead of a simple resoldering (which was cheaper at $70 and is often called just a temporary fix), I opted to wait for the reballing service to become available (which was $140). And wait I did. The service wasn’t available until, I believe, February of 2011. Keep in mind, the $140 is a little pricier than the “fix” Sony provided, but you get to keep your system (they will also send you your game back if you had one stuck inside; they’ll also replace it if it does, for some reason, get lost), hard drive, everything. The only bad part about the service becoming available was the fact that so many other people were wanting it, they had a waiting list. I was still one of the first to receive the service, though, so it wasn’t long after they had the service go live that they contacted me and I sent the system out for repairs (usually, the turnaround for their services is 24 hours; reballing the RSX had an up to 72 hour turnaround if I recall correctly). Between shipping my console out and getting it back, it was relatively quick. Quite similar to the turnaround you get when you ship out your 360 for a replacement after receiving the Red Ring of Death (I had dealt with a couple of those so I know). It might have been even quicker. Anyway, after getting the console back, I plugged everything back in, started it up, and it ran like new again Here it is, April 2012. More than a year after I had my PS3 service performed. How did it hold up? Well, the system still runs perfectly. Sure, it often gets dust buildup on the vents (since there’s a lot of dust out here), but that’s besides the point (heck, Gophermods will even clean the system when they receive it). I would get an occasional game freeze, but that’s totally unrelated. I haven’t had any hardware failures or anything of that sort at all since the repair. Was it worth the investment? Definitely. Was it worth holding out until the service was available? I think so. Now I get to sit here and enjoy my 60GB the same way I did when I got the system. Yes, I sometimes get the urge to play old PS2 and PS1 games. That is what makes this repair worth the cost. That, and I don’t particularly trust myself enough to be able to do it myself. If you ever need your PS3 serviced, I would definitely recommend checking these guys out.

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[Service Review] Gophermods RSX Reballing – 1 Year Later

Shu Yoshida, President of SCE Worldwide Studios has just confirmed that The Legend of Dragoon will be available on PSN when the store updates on May 1st! He talks about the game, and gives us some insight as to how big this project really was: The Legend of Dragoon was one of the last projects I worked on as a producer in Japan Studio and by far the biggest team I managed hands-on. We started the project in 1996 with only a handful of people, hired one by one as we were building up teams for Ape Escape, The Legend of Dragoon, and Ico simultaneously. During the peak of the game’s development, we had well over 100 people working internally in the studio on The Legend of Dragoon — for a PSone game! We had roughly 10 artists dedicated just to drawing concept art for this gigantic RPG. As the game contained lots of pre-rendered maps and full-motion videos, we were forced to spread the content over four CDs, which was the maximum number of discs that the fattest PSone game case could hold. It took nearly three years to build the team and develop the game, which was released in December 1999 in Japan and June 2000 in the US. As I moved from Japan to the US in March 2000, I was able to personally handle the game’s release in both Japan and the US. Following the game’s launch in Japan, we learned from players that certain parts of the game were too difficult. The team re-balanced the gameplay for the release outside of Japan, so the US version was the complete version of the game that we were all proud of. No price has been revealed but, considering the size of the game, I expect it to be $9.99 (and well worth it).

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The Legend of Dragoon will FINALLY be released on PSN!

Alawar Entertainment has just announced that Treasures of Montezuma Blitz, the first ever free-to-play release for PlayStation Vita, is now available for all to enjoy. Vita owners can download and play the game free of charge. You can use several power-ups (which can be earned in game or bought through the in-game store), which will allow players of all skill levels to have as much fun as possible out of this game. “Treasures of Montezuma Blitz is the one game that every Vita owner should own, not just because it’s completely free, but because it’s really fun,” said Dmitri Bourkovski, VP, New Platforms of Alawar Entertainment. “The Power-ups are totally optional, but a very fun way to be competitive with your friends if you don’t have as much time to earn them in game.” Treasures of Montezuma Blitz is a classic Match 3 game set in the Aztec universe of Montezuma. Offering fast-paced gameplay, fun level progression and unlimited replayability as players beat their friends scores on the leaderboards and the first free game for PlayStation Vita owners.

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Treasures of Montezuma Blitz: New FREE Puzzle Game for PS Vita!

Over the last week, we have been running a giveaway where we gave you the chance to win a COMM-PLAY Performance Gaming Kit – courtesy of 4Gamers , whom are a UK based PlayStation Approved accessory brand. We received a stonking 183 entries, which were all a mixture of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube subscription, and Lottery entries. I have to admit I’m not very good with recording videos, and as we have in the past recorded videos of winners being selected etc, I for this occasion pressed a rather important button on our customised giveaway system where the site itself chooses some lucky individual at random. So, you want to know who won? Can I have a drum roll please? FrogmanTM – congratulations go out to you. I will send you a PM to confirm your prize. I’d like to thank 4Gamers for their huge support with this giveaway, and for donating the prize to us, and a very big thank you goes out to everyone that entered this giveaway. Keep your eyes on the site – there may more prizes like this to come

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[Giveaway Winner] 4Gamers COMM-PLAY Performance Gaming Kit

Before I begin, I’d just like to briefly introduce 4Gamers – a UK based PlayStation Approved accessory brand. 4Gamers have been developing quality console accessories for over 6 years, and have since established themselves as a quality brand whose products can be found in every gaming establishment, supermarkets and online stores within the UK. 4Gamers are an Official PlayStation Approved Accessory developer, so you can have the peace of mind that you are buying a product which has been carefully designed and pieced together, and has met the seal of approval from the big cheeses within the Sony corporation. Their products range from affordable PS3 and the more recent PS Vita cases to headsets and packaged kits which appeal to the more prominent gamer. Currently their products are not available in the US, however this is about to change very soon! I was recently invited to the 4Gamers UKHQ to see their products first hand, and I’m still wondering how I can share with you everything that I saw and had the opportunity to play with. I met with Tony Walton, Product Development Manager for 4Gamers – the genius behind the product design. We sat down in the main board room, where the walls were covered in numerous accessories they’ve developed over the years. After a brief introduction, Tony advised me that I was about to see products which currently are in the public domain, and some which have only just been approved by Sony themselves and haven’t yet been revealed to the outside world. Although I would love to share with you everything that was presented to me, today I’m going to focus on one particular piece of kit which I feel is the must-have kit for any PS3 gamer, new or old. so, without delay – let me present to you, the COMM-PLAY Performance Gaming Kit! What’s Included In The Box Presented in a very sleek box, the package includes the following products: – 4Gamers Stereo Gaming Headset – Dual Charge ‘N’ Stand, with 2 lengthy USB cables – High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet 4Gamers Stereo Gaming Headset The headset looks VERY sleek – it sports a leather strap across the headband, it’s extremely light, comes packed with some nice and tidy cables – and the major plus for me, a noise cancelling microphone. Before I go into specifics I’d like to mention that I currently own a set of Turtle Beach P11′s – and I couldn’t help myself but compare the 4Gamers’ headset to the P11′s – due to both being very similarly priced. The first and most obvious difference I noticed between both headsets were the volume controls. Whilst the P11′s controls aren’t all that bad, the 4Gamers’ headset’s controls just look and feel far superior – with the solid sliders giving you more control over the volume levels. The headset’s controls were very robust, and had a solid feel to them. Whilst playing with the P11′s controls, I felt like I’m 8 years old again, back in the 80′s playing around with the volume control dial on my Sony cassette player/Walkman. We’re in the 21st Century and to be honest, we should be moving away from circular dials regardless of the feature it controls. The other noticeable difference was the shape of the earcups. The P11′s consists of oval/eggshaped earcups, whilst the 4Gamers’ headset consists of round earcups – with both headset’s cups nicely padded, making them very comfortable to wear. Next up was the noise cancelling microphone offered by 4Gamers. This is a mega plus point, whereas my P11s unfortunately do not offer a NC mic. If you’re wondering what noise cancelling is all about, here’s a quickie from the Wiki: “A noise-canceling microphone is a microphone designed to filter out ambient noise from the desired sound, especially useful in noisy environments.” The mics on both headsets are different in length – with the 4Gamers’ mic being shorter. When testing the 4Gamers headset via an online session of Battlefield, although I hadn’t told my friends I was donning a different headset, they had obviously noticed the difference by telling me I actually sound much clearer. Both headsets sport a metal adjustable arm on the mic, making it nice and sturdy and ensure the mic doesn’t drop from it’s adjusted position. How often do you feel that there’s just too much cabling between you, your headset and your PS3? I get this all the time with my P11s. Although the P11s offer a generous 3.7m of cabling, it quite annoys me that I have to interconnect quite a few cables to then connect upto my PS3 – making the floorspace in front of me look like a mess. OK – so sue me, I’m complaining about the wiring in front of me. Let me put it this way, I have my P11 headset, connect the headset to the USB slot in your PS3 and then to the audio splitter cable. You then connect the audio splitter cable to your PS3 A/V cable which is then plugged into the back of the PS3. So, all in all you have to connect multiple cables each time you want to use your headset – it can be a pain when you’re trying to get online quickly. I thought this was one of the better features of the 4Gamers’ headset. No extra cables to interconnect, the headset had one 4m cable, consisting of a USB and A/V plug – which were adequately spaced out and seperated, which. All that was required was to plug the headset into your PS3 and got on with your gaming. Easy peasy! Finally, the most important feature of any headset – the audio quality. I must say my ears have been put through quite a lot over the years and although this is the case I can confidently say they are still in mint condition. Although I tend to tune out of my wife’s nagging – that’s a special skill that doesn’t take long to learn, my ears were picking up all the little sounds you would normally miss when you’re playing your games on your 42″ TV! I noticed very little difference in terms of audio quality. The P11′s had a slightly higher level of bass, but this for me wasn’t the dealbreaker. The 4Gamers’ headset on the other hand, was crystal clear! I was exceptionally happy with the sound quality generated by the 4Gamers headset. Once I was involved in my game, I didn’t really care about the bass levels – I was more bothered about whether I could hear opposition creeping up behind me, or the tank taking me out from my right hand side – and it didn’t let me down in that department. Dual Charge ‘N’ Stand I’ve occasionally found myself with 2 USB cables just dangling out of my PS3 with 2 gamepads lying in the middle of the room, charging whilst my wife gets her daily dose of Come Dine With Me. For folks across the Atlantic, Come Dine With Me is a reality show where 4 or 5 individuals cook for each other over a span of 5 days and they then score each other on how good the food was and how their evening went – it is quite amusing! The winner takes away with them £1000 GBP. However, the 4Gamers Dual Charge ‘N’ Stand doesn’t have any functional features. Although there’s no major added value to it, I love the way it adds a little style to your TV unit/PS3/room. To charge your pads, if not already done so, simply sit your pads onto the stand, plug your USB cables into your pads and let them recharge themselves without worrying about someone tripping over the wires! High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet If you’ve not yet switched over to HDMI, then you’re missing out on a fantastic trick. Once you’ve played your PS3 in HD, you will never go back to A/V! The HDMI cable included in this pack offers the following: – Support for 3D games and movies – 4K resolution – Gold plated connectors – Nickel plated cable heads – High quality triple shielded 2 metre cable The cable itself consists of a robust build. The one feature that stood out for me was the triple shielded covering – it looks solid! When a few of my friends saw the cable, they instantly wanted one as they do look very nice, and like they will last for a loooong time. Overall Verdict I’m VERY impressed with the quality of the goods developed by 4Gamers. It’s no surprise they’re receiving raving reviews for their products. If I need another headset, this package would definitely be on top of my shopping list. The package itself is certainly value for money. The quality and build of each of the products is of a high standard, and as they’re PlayStation Approved – that gives me peace of mind and comfort knowing they will have been through some thorough testing before Sony will have rubber stamped their approval for mass production. For those that reside in the US, although these products are currently not on sale within the States, 4Gamers are working very hard behind the scenes to bring their products to you very soon. The next time you’re in a games store – keep an eye out for some 4Gamers gear – you may just find a 4Gamers COMM-PLAY Performance Gaming Kit sitting on that shelf! Last but not least, keep your eyes on this site – we’re going to be giving one of these packages away to ONE lucky winner! Please note: Dualshock Wireless Controllers are not included in the package. 4Gamers Website: www.4gamers.net Twitter: @4GamersElite

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We Introduce To You, 4Gamers

October is set to destroy your wallet, so hopefully these savings will come in handy for you. Don’t miss the Sony headset, which I recently reviewed , which comes with the God of War collection free! Check all the deals after the jump. Best Buy (10/2 – 10/5) PS3 Games Bodycount – $39.99 Catherine – $39.99 Dungeon Siege III – $29.99 F.E.A.R. 3 – $39.99 Supremacy MMA – $39.99 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters – $39.99 Warhammer 40k: Space Marine – $39.99 Fry’s Electronics (10/2 – 10/8) Hardware 160GB PS3 – $249.96 w/ free LittleBigPlanet and Sly Collection Gears of War 3 Limited Edition 320GB Xbox 360 – $399.99 w/ $40 PS3 Games Dark Souls – $49.96 Dead Island – $44.96 Deus Ex: Human Revolution – $44.96 Madden NFL 12 – $49.96 NBA 2K12 – $59.99 w/ Free Poster X-Men Destiny – $49.96 GameStop (9/28 – 10/4) PS3 Games Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts II w/ rifle – $29.99 Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions – $19.99 Kmart (10/2 – 10/8) Hardware Deals PSP 3000 Core Pack – $129.99 and get one PSP game free Dracula X Chronicles Liberation/Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow Dual Pack Medal of Honor: Heroes Need for Speed: Most Wanted Twisted Metal: Head On PS3 Games Dark Souls – $59.99 w/ $20 Gaming Coupon Deus Ex: Human Revolution – $44.99 Crysis 2 – $29.99 NBA 2K12 – $59.99 w/ $20 Gaming Coupon NCAA Football 12 – $44.99 NHL 12 – $44.99 RAGE – $59.99 w/ $20 Gaming Coupon Spider-Man: Edge of Time – $59.99 w/ $20 Gaming Coupon Warhammer 40K: Space Marine – $44.99 Sony Wireless Stereo Headset – $99.99 w/ free God of War Origins Collection( This is a must buy people! ) Target (10/2 – 10/8) PS3 Games Dark Souls – $59.99 w/ $10 Gift Card NBA 2K12 – $59.99 w/ $10 Gift Card RAGE – $59.99 w/ $10 Gift Card Toys R Us (10/2 – 10/8) Hardware Deals 160GB Playstation 3 – $249.99 w/ $25 Gift Card PS3 Games NBA 2K12 – $59.99 w/ $10 Gift Card (10/4 only) RAGE – $59.99 w/ $10 Gift Card and Free Game Guide (10/4 only) Spider-Man: Edge of Time – $49.99 X-Men Destiny – $49.99 That’s it folks. There is no reason to pay retail on any new title this month, so shop smart!

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Game Deals Galore!

At CES 2011, this was demoed as a mere concept, now it’s scheduled to be a real shipping product. Twin 720p OLED displays. Supposedly this provides higher image quality than traditional LCD displays. Optical lenses give the viewer a widescreen 45-degree horizontal viewing angle. The lenses simulate a 750-inch virtual screen with a virtual viewing distance of approximately 20m (quoted from Sony PR, yes they are mixing metric/English units). Stereoscopic 3D support that works at full brightness that is 100% crosstalk free. HDMI in and HDMI passthrough Requires wired connection to separate processing box. Integrated Virtual Surround Sound Audio. IGN has an excellent hands on preview . A few comments: This is a large advance over previous displays of this type. The obvious missing feature is head tracking. I assume the hold up is there are no game systems or other devices that currently use head tracking data. Ultimately, I’m hoping Sony creates a PlayStation platform dedicated to the VR input/output form factor. On PlayStation’s idea sharing site , where users can submit PlayStation wish list ideas and vote on them, I submitted this concept as an idea (with head tracking) several times in 2010. For some reason, the idea never made it through their audit process, never got published, and my support requests were ignored. Obviously, they were working on this exact idea as I was submitting it, so I wonder if they blocked it purposely.

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Sony’s Head Mounted Display: HMZ-V1

Well, the giveaway for the ethernet powerline kit has finally come to an end. We had a total of 33 entries. To see a video of me picking the winners, you can check that out here . So, a congratulations is in order, as the winner is Jason , a member who has, for a long time, been trying to win something from us. Happy now, Jason? Hope you enjoy! I’ll be contacting via either PM or chat system!

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Diamond Multimedia HP200AV Winner!

Now I do agree that the PS3 & Vita could do what the Wii U does. Question is will developers make it happen? My guess is probably not or very few games will do it. Because they need to rely on consumers to own a PS3 & Vita vs the Wii U where they just need to buy the Wii U console/controller. For that reason alone I don’t see very many Wii U type games using the PS3/Vita combo. Below is part of a interview that NowGamer did with Justin Richmond the Game Director at Naughty Dog. Obviously you won’t develop for Wii U, but I want to get your thoughts on the hardware. Does the console spark your imagination in any way? Justin Richmond: To be honest with you, the idea of it is very, very cool. But there’s nothing that the Wii U has that the Vita and PS3 doesn’t. You know, it’s an interesting piece of technology, and I’m interested to see how people use it. I’m not completely sold yet. That the screen isn’t multi-touch, that’s a little weird. It seems there are some very strange holes in it, but to be fair, last time I was sceptical of the original Wii, and look at how that did. I’m sure that he games they make for Wii U will be amazing. What are your thoughts on this?

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Naughty Dog Says PS3/Vita Can Do What Wii U Does

If you join us on a recording of the PS3BlogCast you can earn 200 points! Plus, you get a hidden PS3Blog.net trophy. I’ve awarded points to all those that have been on the PS3BlogCast in the past. If you guess the sound bite for each podcast, you get 150 points as well if you guessed first, but if you’re on the show, you can’t guess. Sorry. All you need to join us is Skype and a mic. Let us know if you want to join us. Or if you want to leave us a voicemail at PS3-888-BLOG we can play it live during the episode or email us here and we will address it. Subscribe & Rate us @ iTunes . See our latest episodes here or view the RSS feed here .

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