When you first pop Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma into your PlayStation 3 this fall, get comfortable -- there's going to be a wait before you can play. But don't worry, Tecmo and Team Ninja plan on making it as entertaining and painless as possible.
Speaking to a Tecmo rep at a recent Sony Holiday Preview event in New York City, we were told that Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma would require the dreaded "mandatory install." While it's unclear how much space it would eat up on your hard drive, we were told it could take up to seven minutes.
But here's the cool part -- Team Ninja plans to keep you entertained the entire time. While the game is installing, you'll be treated to a digital version of a Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma comic book, complete with sound effects. Written by Team Ninja, the comic book acts as a prequel to the game, and should mask the seven minute wait nicely. Could this trump Metal Gear Solid 4's "Let's watch Snake smoke" install screens?
The comic book is the digital version of the physical book that ships with GameStop's exclusive Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma Collector's Edition, which should run about 30 pages. Oh, and if you get up to make a sandwich and miss the install, don't worry -- you'll be able to go back and view the digital comic book at any time.
Contest:
9:40 AM on 07.30.2009
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Mind you on a C64 cassette, you had 20 minutes to play Space invaders before the actual game loaded!
Mandatory Installs with a bonus are awesome.
DMC4's slideshow of 4 screens ? Not so awesome.
I used Snake's "smoking breaks" to roll a joint.
What's also exciting to hear is how useless some of the additional swag is in the GameStop collector's edition! Occasionally I feel bummed that I miss out on their monopolized incentives, but this is not one of those occasions.
Hey Nick, can you post that image by itself in higher rez or without the header?
When MGS4 required this, you'd think by gamers comments that Konami had clubbed baby seals on a crowded children's playground. Personally I wasn't bothered, I just got up and made a sandwich. However, it would have been more suitable had there been something similar to this--it was a little unbelievable that the best idea that had was Snake blissfully inhaling carcinogens.
Mine was originally a 60gb, I upgraded it to a 320gb. It cost about $60. Low HDD space should not be a problem for PS3 owners.
You can transfer your saves onto a flash drive (a 2gb or 4gb should be more than enough to hold save files), then when you put in the new HDD, the PS3 will format it for you. You'll have to reinstall all of the games that required installs, but that's not really as bad as it sounds.
You can find a guide here: http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/127009/how-to-swap-out-and-upgrade-a-ps3-hard-drive/
I did this about a year ago, so the prices have probably gone down since then. I ordered my HDD off of the internet (newegg)... I didn't realize prices were different in different places.
Anyway, if HDD space is a problem for you, there's really no reason not to do this.