The time is at hand, fellow PS3 owners. First, we saw a purported list of the v2.40 update’s features, and a proposal of a release date: three weeks. The very next day, a tip arose from the murky depths of NeoGAF; it said that we’d see an official announcement and a video walkthrough from Sony on June 30th. It’s funny just how true some rumors turn out to be. The forumite over at Le GAF was proven correct early this morning: shortly before 3 AM EDT, a five-and-a-half-minute video walkthrough of how in-game XMB will work was posted on the Official PlayStation Blog (see above). This is Part 1 of the walkthrough; the next video, which will demo the new Trophies feature, is coming “shortly.”
The walkthrough cautions that this isn’t necessarily the way it’s going to look or work in the release of the update, but the video was put up to give us “a good idea” of what to expect when the update hits. First, Lempel brings up the XMB while playing Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (an interesting note is that hitting the “Home” button to access the XMB doesn’t automatically pause the game, so you can have it running in the background). We’ll see the full XMB, as it would appear upon powering on the PS3. All the capabilities -- e.g., messaging/friends list, download manager, and settings -- are available.
As I predicted, having the Game tab of the XMB available means that you’ll be able to launch games directly from the XMB without having to manually quit out of the game you’re currently playing. Photo thumbnails show up, but if you want to view them fullscreen (e.g., in a slideshow), the system will ask you to quit out to the XMB. The great thing about having the Settings tab accessible is the ability to set up your Bluetooth headset from within a game. Sony has also added a clock, with date, to the in-game XMB.
The last major feature is a long-awaited one: music that’s on your PS3’s hard drive can be played instead of the in-game soundtrack. The playback tool offers standard functions (change tracks, stop, repeat, shuffle, volume control). Finally, v2.40 will bring a Google Search function to the XMB’s Network tab, just as in the PSP v4.00 firmware. Curiously, Lempel says that in-game XMB will “support the majority of games available for PS3,” but frankly, I’m not worried about that right now. All I know is that seeing v2.40 in action was so beautiful that it nearly brought a tear to my eye...
Samit Sarkar is a founding Destructoid editor and go-to Sports guy. Samit was the son of the Duke of Knees, rescued from a burning village in the afghan desert by a golden condor. He is an ace Backgammon player and lost both legs in a whaling tour. He lives for free in a nursery in Scotland where he teaches monks how to capture butterflies without hurting them.
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I'm actually impressed with Sony for once.
I didn't expect there to be so much available with the In game XMB.
Hopefully I'll be impressed with the Trophies system too.
Actually no Ichigo Style, While the 360 does have access to the XBL dashboard, it only can do Music and friends list. PS3 however will have access to every feature in the XMB. Friends list, Music, Settings, Video ect.
@The Wrath: Thanks for the heads-up! My post on the second video is now up.
@loki d20: Um, your PS3 already notifies you when you get a message from a friend while you’re doing anything (playing game, watching movie, etc.). You know, the little gray bubble that pops up in the top right-hand corner?
@melocholly point taken, but honestly, would it kill you to hit y than a to get to the dashboard to start a new game? Everything useful I need is accessed with the guide button.
I'm not saying it's a bad move for Sony, it'll be nice to finally access things from ingame with my PS3, but sadly, I don't play online with my PS3, so most of these features are moot, and we're good design from the beginning, begging the question why the PS3 never shipped with these to begin with, it's not that hard to implement.
In-game music FTW. Anyway, I don't know why but, it's not really what I pictured it to look like. Accessing the settings was a big deal for me, so I'm glad they added that in. Yay Sony!
i was also a little worried by the "support the majority of games available for PS3" comment. oh, and i guess this means it won't work for PS2 games huh... oh well. didn't think it would.
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Contest:
5:43 AM on 06.30.2008
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I didn't expect there to be so much available with the In game XMB.
Hopefully I'll be impressed with the Trophies system too.
my bet E3 week
Good work, probably nothing I'll ever use, but it seems to make those of you who aren't in an intimate relationship with your 360s happy.
@loki d20: Um, your PS3 already notifies you when you get a message from a friend while you’re doing anything (playing game, watching movie, etc.). You know, the little gray bubble that pops up in the top right-hand corner?
You better be right about that bro!
@Ichigo
And how many RROD's during that 2 years? Old news is old dude. Just like my comment.
@Loki
Sure, you can set it up anyway you like.
I'm not saying it's a bad move for Sony, it'll be nice to finally access things from ingame with my PS3, but sadly, I don't play online with my PS3, so most of these features are moot, and we're good design from the beginning, begging the question why the PS3 never shipped with these to begin with, it's not that hard to implement.
That being said, this update is a long time coming.