GTA V

[Justin Leego]

One of the fixes going around (top comment on that vid and mentioned in this reddit thread) is to start up in safe mode, restore the PS3's file system, and rebuild its database.

 

Works for some people but not others, independent of whether they have a slim or phat PS3, so yeah it sounds very much like  an issue with certain models of hard drive.

 

Kinda wonder if Rockstar will be using this dual streaming method on the PC and next gen console builds.

[clyde]

On the xbox version, I get a "restart mission" button when I fail.

[toblix]

On the xbox version, I get a "restart mission" button when I fail.

Yeah, I was thinking of the cases where you start a race and then fudge it right off the bat, and then to restart you have to flip your car or run away or something. Seems weird that there isn't an option for this anywhere in the menus.

 

Oh, and I'll try the file system thing.

[Justin Leego]

Be warned, it can take an absolute age.

[elmuerte]

"Optimized for optical media" sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. If you optimize for optical media you reduce random seek times by duplicating content so that this content is closer to the other content that needs to be loaded from slow media. If this "optical media optimized" version is also used for the "downloaded" version of the game it should perform at least equally well (unless you harddrive is starting to fail).

[Dewar]

It's "optimized for optical media" because it's bypassing the bottleneck of the hard drive speed by offloading some of the load to the DVD drive. It makes sense, it's just a shame that they didn't think ahead about downloadable versions.

[Salacious Snake]

Also, I bet that becasue shit sucks, if I got the Blu-ray version of the game, I wouldn't be able to continue where I left off with the PSN one. 

 

In my experience, saves are compatible across disc and download versions of games on the PS3. I'm not 100% sure it'll work in this case, so I don't want to put my awesome reputation on the line or anything. 

 

But I've totally downloaded psn versions of games I already had on disc (usually because it came up as a freebie on PS+) and was able to pick up where I left off. They don't seem to be treated as separate titles when it comes to game data.

[toblix]

Okay, so restoring the file system and rebuilding the database took like ten minutes, and I noticed maybe a slight improvement. It makes total sense that the streaming engine works best when it can read from both disc and disk simultaneously, so I'll take Wikipedia on his word and look for the physical version tomorrow. Of course, it would be interesting to know if it would be even faster with a super-fast SSD, but I'm guessing my old PS3 wouldn't be able to take enough advantage of modern disks to compensate. It's cool that console gaming is so simple!

[Flynn]

"Optimized for optical media" sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. If you optimize for optical media you reduce random seek times by duplicating content so that this content is closer to the other content that needs to be loaded from slow media. If this "optical media optimized" version is also used for the "downloaded" version of the game it should perform at least equally well (unless you harddrive is starting to fail).

 

It's optimized to use both disc and hard drive at the same time, so using just one of them will never be as fast.  Pretty neat trick to push these 8 year old systems too.

[clyde]

Here's how to get past the torture scene:

So I picked up the wrench and muted the television, then I closed my eyes and hit the A-button and the right trigger until my controller stopped vibrating. You have to do that three times, but you go to another character between each of those times. It's pretty much safe to look after the controller stops vibrating.

[Argobot]

Here's how to get past the torture scene:

So I picked up the wrench and muted the television, then I closed my eyes and hit the A-button and the right trigger until my controller stopped vibrating. You have to do that three times, but you go to another character between each of those times. It's pretty much safe to look after the controller stops vibrating.

 

Wow, I'm sorry, but that sounds horrible. I can't believe that this scene adds that much value to the overall story, even given the context that the main protagonists are torturing against their will (seems like a lazy way to get around the issue).

 

Simon Parker had an excellent article about this at the New Yorker. Just the question of how evil a video game should allow you to be: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/09/grand-theft-auto-v-how-evil-should-a-video-game-allow-you-to-be.html

 

It's so callous to include an intense torture scene in a game that for the 99% of the time is encouraging you to commit indiscriminate murder.

[clyde]

While I was searching for a way to skip the scene, I came across this Neogaf thread that discusses reactions to the scene's requirements of the player. Some of you may enjoy browsing.

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=679669&page=1

[Irishjohn]

Wow, I'm sorry, but that sounds horrible. I can't believe that this scene adds that much value to the overall story, even given the context that the main protagonists are torturing against their will (seems like a lazy way to get around the issue).

 

Simon Parker had an excellent article about this at the New Yorker. Just the question of how evil a video game should allow you to be: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/09/grand-theft-auto-v-how-evil-should-a-video-game-allow-you-to-be.html

 

It's so callous to include an intense torture scene in a game that for the 99% of the time is encouraging you to commit indiscriminate murder.

 

Thanks for the link; there's an excellent article on NPR about the topic of evil in the show Breaking Bad, linked below. Be aware, there are SIGNIFICANT SPOILERS in that article. I think it's interesting to look at how another medium approaches the topic. Although the whole issue here is that Breaking Bad breaks ground, it's something that's playing on my mind a lot as I wait for the game to arrive in the post tomorrow.

 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/09/16/223049000/breaking-bad-presents-ozymandias-the-great-and-terrible

[elmuerte]

It's optimized to use both disc and hard drive at the same time, so using just one of them will never be as fast.  Pretty neat trick to push these 8 year old systems too.

That still sounds weird to me. Then the harddrive's performance is less than double the performance of the optical drive? (don't feel like doing the actual math).

[juv3nal]

That still sounds weird to me. Then the harddrive's performance is less than double the performance of the optical drive? (don't feel like doing the actual math).

Might it be a case where the the placement on hard drive can't be optimized in the same way the disc can because the other preexisting contents of the drive can cause fragmentation?

[KitGonzo]

I finally started playing GTA IV, thinking I should get it played before picking up V (much, much later). Then my amazing wife came home from the weekly trip to the supermarket with GTA V in her hand.

I've only played the first two or three missions, but I almost can’t deal with how amazing the game looks. It's hard to believe it's the same hardware as IV. I guess this really is the year of the PS3.

I’m kind of sad that I won’t ever get to experience IV now the way people did at the time (in truth, having played Red Dead, IV already felt a bit creaky by comparison). But for one of the few times in my life I’m experiencing a AAA release as it happens, and I am floored by what I’m seeing.

[clyde]

When I started driving over textured pavement and my controller started vibrating, I was like "such love!"

[jeremywc]

Might it be a case where the the placement on hard drive can't be optimized in the same way the disc can because the other preexisting contents of the drive can cause fragmentation?

 

This is my suspicion as well. When I read the suggestion by Justin Leego at the top of the page, my initial thought was "huh, they're trying simulate defragmenting the hard drive."

[Irishjohn]

I've only played the first two or three missions, but I almost can’t deal with how amazing the game looks. It's hard to believe it's the same hardware as IV. I guess this really is the year of the PS3.

 

I’m kind of sad that I won’t ever get to experience IV now the way people did at the time (in truth, having played Red Dead, IV already felt a bit creaky by comparison). But for one of the few times in my life I’m experiencing a AAA release as it happens, and I am floored by what I’m seeing.

 

My friend and I were discussing this on our podcast last night, talking about the thematic/stylistic choice issues in the game versus its sheer technical achievement. I'm looking forward to getting started tonight.

 

I know exactly what you mean about the "as it happens" vibe with a big game, though these days I almost never get to participate in that way. For what it's worth, I think GTA IV holds up and is well worth playing through at some point. Also the DLC. Excellent stuff.

[toblix]

Wikipedia Brown came through as usual! I started the Bluray version, and it installed itself and resumed my last save. I wonder if I'll actually see a performance difference, and if I do, was it the rebuilding or the Bluray?

[RubixsQube]

Last night I completed the first "heist". I won't go into details for fear of offending Der Spoiler Polizei, but it was such a well crafted mission. I am not super great at video games, and tend to fumble around when put under strict time constraints. Nevertheless, the lead up to the heist was exciting, offered variety, and then the actual event had me completely enthralled, without being frustrated. Yes, there were portions where it held your hand, but overall, I took cues from the environment and the other characters and it went swimmingly. While I think that potentially you can switch from character to character on your own, in the first heist it does swapping on the fly, and it was FANTASTIC. Video games, you can learn a lot from GTAV about swapping perspectives in a fluid manner while keeping the pace.

 

I do wish that the writing was less reliant on expletives, and it's still really disappointing how this game treats women. I don't understand how we are in The Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Thirteen and the Biggest Video Game on the Planet still has zero strong female characters. Literally every woman I've met in the game has been the biggest, most obvious caricature. 

 

At least the true star of the game, San Andreas, is superbly designed. It makes Liberty City look real dull by comparison. If you haven't gone up to Galileo Observatory at night to look out over the view of LA, you're missing out. It's almost as breathtaking as the real view. 

[Dewar]

That still sounds weird to me. Then the harddrive's performance is less than double the performance of the optical drive? (don't feel like doing the actual math).

 

The hard drive is a 5400 rpm drive running SATA 1, so yeah it's pretty slow, but that's not the point in the end. Say you have a scene with 10 different objects in it, whose textures range from 1 - 10 mb in size (made up numbers of course.) That's 45mb of data to transfer. Even if the DVD drive is five times slower, you can offload the first three of those textures (totaling 6mb) to the DVD drive instead, resulting in a 10% faster load over all, and those smaller textures loading at about the same time as the other, larger textures.

 

Now, let's say that you copy the disk to the hard drive. You'll be waiting a little longer (maybe not even enough to be noticable) but those three smaller textures are going to have to wait for all the rest of the data to be transferred first. They'll be noticably the last thing to load in, and you'll get pop-in like the videos showed up above.

[youmeyou]

I'm dying

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EB_XX_IM8io

[eot]

I thought Alexander's audio clip was actually pretty effective satire, poking fun not at the game itself but at how major reviewers reflexively use the language of the game's marketing in their writing. Her dictation instantly recalls this unnerving piece of marketing for the game that came out 2 months ago:

 

I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one who thought that video was creepy.

[Frenetic Pony]

I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one who thought that video was creepy.

 

What exactly was creepy about it? I'd never considered that anyone would even find it creepy, so I'd like to know what it is I'm missing.