I don't know how, but this morning, I was able to connect to the internet with my PS3...in my bedroom! At first, I'd tried hooking the PS3 up downstairs to one of our standard def. TVs, but the A/V outlets on both seem to be full of fail these days. I really don't know what I'm going to do when I want to play my PS1, N64, or SNES. I can't imagine how awful the games would look on my HD screen. But I digress. The stupid A/V outlets were having none of it, no matter how much I wiggled, haggled, and toggled. So I thought, "You know what? Things can't get any worse. Let me try getting a connection upstairs in my room." Crazy thing is...it worked. Don't know why; I'm calling it a fluke and I'm just glad it happened.
The primary reason why I needed to connect was because after four solid hours of Uncharted goodness last night (I completely lost track of time and ended up staying up til 1am), I noticed I hadn't received a single trophy. I knew trophies in the Uncharted games were directly linked to in-game achievements, so I stopped to wonder what was up. And then I realized, "oh. I have to update the game." And thus, why I needed to get online. That part was easy. Uncharted got updated in no time at all, and now I can get trophies (I've already erased my savefile from last night and I'll be doing it all over again tonight, probably.). Yay!
On a side note: How the heck are enemies in Uncharted able to take over five bullets to their body, or more than one shot to the neck or head, and not die? I can't tell you how many times I ran out of ammo and had to run out in the open to get some more off dead guys in the midst of a firefight - and this is on EASY!!!
On another note: Any other owners of the first Uncharted ever experience screen tearing? I know that the sequel has none whatsoever, but this game definitely does. I'd never seen screen tearing before - though I'd heard of it - and now I know what it is for sure. I can live with it, especially if I'm not the only one who's experienced it with this game, but otherwise....sigh, no more technological drama, pleeeeease!
With the update downloaded and installed and my PS3 still connected, I wandered into the PS Store. There were a few add-on packs I wanted to check out. I ended up just buying the "More Animals" LBP costume kit, though. I was considering the Incredibles Level Kit, but I don't make levels. I was also considering the second Uncharted 2 MP Pack (Siege), but seeing as how I can't reliably get online, how would I play the multiplayer? And besides, I have so many other games to get to, soooooooo I passed on that one as well.
I was all about to leave the PS Store completely when a little voice inside my head said, "check out the demos!" So I did. With my connection still shockingly sturdy and only semi-sluggish, I downloaded and installed the demos for Mirror's Edge and Split/Second.
I tried out Mirror's Edge first (NeonNinja, maybe you were the voice in my head). I love the whole idea of running in and out of buildings and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. The way the tutorial taught me the controls, however, was a little too quick paced for me. I lost track of a lot of what each button did. The camera also gave me some trouble. I mean, I'm still trying to figure out the best camera scheme for Uncharted. In FFXII, I had no control over the camera, but it was set a certain way, mapped to the right analog stick. I'm used to that scheme. I still have to find it in Uncharted so I can stop failing at aiming (I also need to settle on a good aiming sensitivity...any suggestions?). In Mirror's Edge, I couldn't adjust the camera, so it was stuck in "correspondence" mode, as I'll call it. Left was left, right was right, up was up, and so on. I think the game is cool and I just might fool around with the demo a few more times; I don't think I've made up my mind just yet about whether or not I'll ever pick up a full copy of the game. Though, it is only like, $9 these days.
Split Second was interesting. First off, it sadly didn't look as awesome in person as it did in every trailer and gameplay vid I've viewed in the last two months. The controls took some getting used to. And even though I was in eighth place for the whole first lap, I somehow managed to get into second at race's end. I had gotten the hang of it by the end of my first race. I played again, got into third, but shaved a minute off my time (rubberbanding much?). All in all, I don't believe I'll be buying this one. Although it was fun, I feel like I'd grow tired of it pretty quick. I actually found myself thinking about Pacific Rift during the second race. That game is far more fun, in my opinion, and it's got far more content. So it's a no-go for Split Second, for me. But happy chaotic racing to those of you who do buy the game. :)