Mystery PS3 18mb Software Updates?

[Gamer From '78]

http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/2362.html

"Typically, we'd like to believe an "update" is a good thing. But when the reasons for the update and what that update actually does remain a mystery, we start to get a little concerned. Perhaps you didn't notice, but more than a few PS3 titles got recent and very unexpected updates...and some users are wondering what actually changed, and if it could potentially hurt the system.

Some updates are more public than others (most are aware of update 1.01 for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, designed to fix slowdown issues). But a few, like updates for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Heavenly Sword, pop up out of nowhere and request that you download the mysterious patch. The previous two updates were 18MB in size and we haven't yet concluded what has been fixed and/or changed in either game, but they must've been issued for a reason, correct? Normally, updates can't possibly hurt the machine, but one game that needs another of these un-detailed 18MB updates is Time Crisis 4. Now, according to several new reports, including one user at Siliconera, this has resulted in the PlayStation 3 not being able to recognize any discs.

Whether or not you have the latest firmware update seems irrelevant; these games need a 18MB update, and we don't know why. Furthermore, we're a little worried about these scattered reports of potentially bricked systems due to the download. Perhaps Sony can clear things up for us after New Year's, but for now, let's just hope any console issues associated with the updates are either isolated problems or unrelated."

Wow....sometimes when I boot up an Xbox 360 game, it tells me that an update is available and gives me the OPTION of updating it. It also takes no time at all and the reasons for the updates are public. Is it worth even bothering to turn the PS3 on when it has to do a damn update every time?

[Cuddly Knife]

I've had to do this a number of time for the 360, and if you refuse, you will not be able to play online, or so it says. Same goes for the PS3. When I played HS the other day(after I beat it once) though, I did have to do that 18mb update, and there was nothing in he game that showed me there was anything added or taken away. Hmmm.

[Mochan]

LOL updates hurt the system these PS3 morons are really paranoid. This is what happens when you turn your console into a PC. This is also no big news updates are a fact of life nowadays with the size and complexity of games coming out today and yes this applies to the 360 as well.

Bricked system? Unless you downloaded a firmware update there's no way a system will be bricked by a game patch.

I've covered this before in most cases you don't notice what updates do. Sometimes you will notice something (usually it's game balance issues that most people won't notice unless they play the game so much they know every nuance). Usually you only notice what patches do if a game is rushed out too early and has so many bugs/poor performance/incomplete that the patch is necessary to make it playable. This isn't happening yet in the console world though I wouldn't be surprised if it did a few years down the line.

[thelastword]

The Hsword update added rumble for the DS3, that was the focus of that patch, other optimizations may have been added as well, but that was not detailed and is not yet known. The keyword here is may, from all indications it's simply a rumble patch.


Usually you only notice what patches do if a game is rushed out too early and has so many bugs/poor performance/incomplete that the patch is necessary to make it playable. This isn't happening yet in the console world though I wouldn't be surprised if it did a few years down the line
Think of Assasins Creed, I spoke at length of how buggy and unoptimized that game was, and yet it was released with all these issues, just over a week or so after release, Ubisoft released a patch that improved the framerate and tearing in the PS3 version, it came in at 24mb. The patch for the 360 version was made available last week. In the case of Ubisoft, it was clear that they needed more time to get this game running at a solid clip without such massive tearing and console crashing features, performance issues did pop up at every event where UBI showed the game prior to release, that should be telling enough, but at the end of the day this game has had some massive sales, so it really doesn't matter to them, expect more unoptimized code from these guys, just like SC-DA and AC. If these guys and Bioware ever come together, I will pray to the gods...surely.

[Mochan]

Well I stand corrected, I didn't realize AC and ME were so bad that they fell into the great realm that only PC games used to go to.

[Cuddly Knife]

AC is bad enough so where there was no improvement to the game ater the patch was released. Wait, scrathc that, my game hasn't gotten the white screen of death anymore, although there is still a ton of tearing and framerate drops.

And why do they need 18 megs for a rumble patch?

[thelastword]

There was some improvement, the PS3 game doesn't tear that much anymore and the framerate is a bit better. It's still not perfect post patch, but some severe niggles were toned down.

Knife:18 megs for a rumble patch?

Yeah, that's the word for now, a performance patch would also be ideal though. I never denied that there's tearing in Hsword, sometimes I think it drops to 20fps with tearing, but the times when you'd think it would drop, that's when it really held up, (2000 soldiers on screen etc..). All in all, issues are a bit overstated imo, compared to other games out there receiving much more media love.

Still, a performance patch would be good news and serve as the recommended stimuli for fence sitters even now. Maybe another playthrough for lovers of the game.

[Mochan]

AC is bad enough so where there was no improvement to the game ater the patch was released. Wait, scrathc that, my game hasn't gotten the white screen of death anymore, although there is still a ton of tearing and framerate drops.

And why do they need 18 megs for a rumble patch?

Who knows how the programmers think, possibly the patch replaced the entire executable because you'd have to recode the executable to incorporate the rumble (it's not just a tweak) so maybe the executable is 18MB and they had to release a new one.

All I can say is I've seen far bigger patches where I wasn't really sure where it all went, like the whopping 1GB patches (I think the one for Company of Heroes, Medieval 2 and Two Worlds were that big). I mean really how big a patch can you possibly need?! That's like 1/8th of the game right there, and that's compressed who knows how much content that is uncompressed?! With that huge a patch you could have done a complete overhaul to make the game totally something else.