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Downloaded game from PSN. Excited to play. Patch detected.

They are true. PSN is often extraordinarily shitty. I don't know why. All I know is, I barely turn on my consoles anymore because this patch shit just puts me into a rage. The console experience these days just fucking blows.

I see you're not aware of PC gaming experience as well. It's okay to be naive.

That and you can always cancel patch installation on games. If you are playing online then of course you'll need a patch.
 

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
Wondered this a couple of times already.... Why are patches for PS3 often THAT huge? I've never had to download a 360 patch longer than 30 seconds. For PS3 it's always like 4 times 200 MB if you've haven't played a game for some time.

I swear to god when I bought Little Big Planet (long after release) I had to download patches for like 30 minutes or longer. I mean, what the hell is this for?

Because with LBP, you're downloading all of the bonus content/DLC/costumes. You can play all of the new content if you join a friend that has purchased it. Same deal with multiple costumes for fighting games.

360 patches are limited in size. It's the reason why you had to download the Burnout Paradise expansions on XBLM separately instead of it just auto-patching. It's also why they're much faster.

They both have their strengths and weaknesses.
 
Some games already come patched, I downloaded KoF XIII last week and the downloaded version was 1.02.
I think it's because KOFXIII wasn't available as a digital title until recently, thus the version submitted to certification was 1.02.

Anyways, treat the problem, not the symptoms. Pretty much all the suggestions in this thread would have been rendered moot if a sensible digital system had been implemented.
 

TheMan

Member
my question is this: why do ps3 games need such huge patches when 360 games are relegated to a few mb per patch? do multiplat ps3 games end up playing better in the long run because of superior patching?
 

bobbytkc

ADD New Gen Gamer
Wondered this a couple of times already.... Why are patches for PS3 often THAT huge? I've never had to download a 360 patch longer than 30 seconds. For PS3 it's always like 4 times 200 MB if you've haven't played a game for some time.

I swear to god when I bought Little Big Planet (long after release) I had to download patches for like 30 minutes or longer. I mean, what the hell is this for?

IIRC, on the 360 there are pretty strict limitations on the size of patches, but Sony allows developers more freedom in this respect.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
I see you're not aware of PC gaming experience as well.

Often when I want to play a game of NHL13 on my PS3, I will start the boot process up and then go over to my PC and play a few minutes of GW2. Yes I can load up an entire MMO and mess around in the AH before I can actually get into a game of NHL13. Although most of this is probably EAs fault since it has to connect to a different server every time you go into a fucking menu option, like the game is coming at you via Onlive or something.
 

Gravijah

Member
Often when I want to play a game of NHL13 on my PS3, I will start the boot process up and then go over to my PC and play a few minutes of GW2. Yes I can load up an entire MMO and mess around in the AH before I can actually get into a game of NHL13. Although most of this is probably EAs fault since it has to connect to a different server every time you go into a fucking menu option, like the game is coming at you via Onlive or something.

hey now, Onlive doesn't work that way.
 

Dragon

Banned
Often when I want to play a game of NHL13 on my PS3, I will start the boot process up and then go over to my PC and play a few minutes of GW2. Yes I can load up an entire MMO and mess around in the AH before I can actually get into a game of NHL13. Although most of this is probably EAs fault since it has to connect to a different server every time you go into a fucking menu option, like the game is coming at you via Onlive or something.

NHL 13's UI is completely dogshit. It takes forever to connect to EA's servers and even longer to load a franchise or online franchise. Coming from 11 it's jarring.
 
That's the question I'm askin myself every time the game downloads for 6 hours and deciding to patch afterwards, right when I'm full of anticipation for playing. Dudes really should learn from (at least) Valve how to execute D2D service.
 

LuchaShaq

Banned
I'll never understand these speed complaints. I don't get 7mb/s with PSN like I do with Steam, but it's still pretty fast. I was playing Tokyo Jungle (~2.5gb) within 30 minutes of starting the download.


As for OP, I'm sorry... that you were excited to play Sideways NY.

Have lived in 3 places with 2 different isps wired/wireless different modems different routers, even multiple ps3s forwarding specific ports etc etc.


Psn for me has consistently has had slower internet than any other internet enabled device I have used post dial up.

My vita seems to be slow but not NEARLY as slow as my ps3 when it comes to this thankfully.

Downloading/installing tokyo jungle took 7 hours from start to finish. Started the download went to a short 5 hour shift at work came home and it wasn't even close to done yet.

I can't remember the last time and XBL or steam game took more than an hour and most it's less than half of that.
 
Seems like a reasonable complaint to me. Playing without patching isn't always a good idea. Hopefully, they get it right next time around because I don't think anything is going to change with the current system. Is it handled the same way in with the Vita?
 

Jack_AG

Banned
So I downloaded Sideways: New York (via PS Plus) from PSN last night and I was excited to play it today after work but after I launched the game, a mandatory patch/update was detected and it was 700+ MB. Pissed off, I decided not to play.

And this also happened with games I actually bought. Scott Pilgrim I think, when I bought earlier this year, had a patch after I downloaded it.

Why doesn't Sony just replace the versions of games on PSN with the most updated versions when a patch is released? This way, those who purchase the games will be able to download the latest versions and won't have to patch the games before being able to play.

Edit: Yeah, I know about hitting circle and continuing to play.

Still, these games aren't being patched for nothing. Bugs are fixed, stability improved, etc. so it would be nice to buy the most updated version of a game.
My first guess is certification. Patches are faster and less expensive to certify than an entire game all over again. No need to have to re-cert the entire game for a patch.

Second guess would be recompiling - unless you jump versions (1.0 - 2.0) you usually don't recompile code especially something heavy like a video game.

Patches are also easier to maintain when that patch introduces more bugs... saving developers time from recompiling the entire game all over again for version 1.02

Its a much more cost/time efficient to patch. Even with an up-to-date downloader - the developer will STILL have to maintain several versions of code at once. For the people who downloaded day 1 - they have patches from there out. For those who downloaded an updated version - all those patches that follow afterwards.

So say there were 2 patches before an updated downloader. Those 4 (original, patch, patch, updated) versions will have to be maintained through every change since you'd need to make sure your patch can work with every version out in the wild. That is a time dump like no other. More time and money need to be spent to maintain.

Its not just PS3 games - a rather large majority of programs and applications on any operating system do the same.

Some of the only times you will find up-to-date versions are when those versions are released on open systems that do not have certification processes every time someone sneezes and when developer bandwidth allows. Some environments don't do this - but regularly force a re-download of the entire package - wasting bandwith which means - wasting money.

Sucks but "oh well". This is nothing new nor is it indicative of any single platform.

At least these patches aren't hidden behind a paywall.
 
mine doesn't always patch all the games i have installed. it probably goes through each and checks, but if there's a server timeout while it's going through the list it skips over those games.

seriously. i start up some of my games and they aren't patched despite just seeing my Automatic Download message come up during startup saying it did things overnight.

Sony needs to have these patches applied to the games on the servers themselves so when we download a game we know it's already got the current patches. (within a reasonable time frame. we can't expect them to instantly apply a patch that came out within a few days, especially when some patches apparently break games and need followup patches...)

I find that it only patches a few games at a time. I'll turn on the PS3, it'll say "the following were patched". Then I'll turn it off and turn it on the next day, and another set of 2-3 games were patched. And so on.

I guess it limits itself?
 

KalBalboa

Banned
Do XBLA games combine patches to original game downloads, or are they exactly like PSN games where you download the game and then get a prompt if patches exist?
 

Trogdor1123

Gold Member
Ive always wonder this myself as well why the game is not patched on the server side before it is even sent out in teh first place.
 

X05

Upside, inside out he's livin la vida loca, He'll push and pull you down, livin la vida loca
mine doesn't always patch all the games i have installed. it probably goes through each and checks, but if there's a server timeout while it's going through the list it skips over those games.

seriously. i start up some of my games and they aren't patched despite just seeing my Automatic Download message come up during startup saying it did things overnight.

Sony needs to have these patches applied to the games on the servers themselves so when we download a game we know it's already got the current patches. (within a reasonable time frame. we can't expect them to instantly apply a patch that came out within a few days, especially when some patches apparently break games and need followup patches...)
It checks if any patches are available for the last 10 or so played games.
I hadn't played GT5 in a while, and it prompted me to update to 2.08 yesterday :(
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
You just have to prepare yourself for it emotionally. Always expect the worse. I usually buy games later on so I just assume the ps3 is gonna find a couple patches adding up to a gig or so.
 

Carl

Member
patches already go through QA and cert, no?

see: every dev complaining about cost to certify patches (thanks sony, EA, and double fine for making an unfinishable version of brutal legend)

Even so, i'm 99% sure the whole thing has to go through QA again.
 
J

Jotamide

Unconfirmed Member
I've been experiencing the same with Origin this weekend OP, I feel ya.
 

Lambtron

Unconfirmed Member
Slow speeds, bandwidth caps, etc. all exist, it's not a ridiculous point at all.
I have 3 Mbps internet at home. It sucks. With extremely limited time to play a game, it blows to sit down and have half the gaming time you have sucked up by downloading/installing patches. I have Plus now so it is a little better, but it's still a really poorly designed system. I know I could go "eat a sandwich" or whatever, but that doesn't make it any less shitty.
 

surly

Banned
Sony are shit at writing firmware/system software. The install and patching systems on the PS3 are a joke. It's like they thought "the beauty of a console is that you can just pop the game in and play, so how can we fuck that up as much as possible?".
 

Jay Sosa

Member
You just have to prepare yourself for it emotionally. Always expect the worse. I usually buy games later on so I just assume the ps3 is gonna find a couple patches adding up to a gig or so.

So true. When I put in a new game I'm not expecting to be able to play it in the next half an hour (system update, game update and whatnot). Kinda like PC gaming with all the official and unofficial patches. Does it so suck? No doubt. But knowing Sony I always expect the worst so I learned to live with it (well kinda, I don't own a PS3 personally but play a lot over at a friends house). Looking at the (old) PSN I'm amazed that downloading and installing patches even works.
 

stuminus3

Member
One of my biggest wishes for next gen consoles is that they handle patch management in a similar way to Steam does it - if you have a save for that game on your hard drive (or the actual game, in the case of Steam), the patch will get pushed out whether you're playing it or not. Ideally even when the system is in "sleep" mode.

Steam has me spoiled in this regard because I usually have the client running and even if I just have it launched to play something I don't have to load up some other game just to make sure I'm getting the updates. I know I'm not alone in the times I've wanted to play a PS3 game, been cock-blocked by an update, and just powered the system down and gone off to play something else instead.

I don't like the MS solution, either. It made more sense when the standard hard drive size was 20GB.
 

Miburou

Member
The solution would be for the service to automatically download all patches when you download a game, and install them when it's installing the game. Heck, it doesn't even have to be automatic; it can be like how when you purchase some games, you're given a list with a demo and an unlock key, and the option to download all. Just replace the key in this instance with the patch(es).
 

thelatestmodel

Junior, please.
Solution - have an "updates" section on the dashboard that lists when updates are available.

You can select which games you want to patch, if there's one listed and you want to play it now, just apply the patch later. Basically how the App Store works.

I don't know why Sony and MS insist on surprising you with patches only when you go to play the game that needs patching, it's stupid.
 
Actually, I secretly like the patch system. You can delete the updates if you want and play the game without patches. If only I could do something like that on PC, especially with GTA games that seem to limit modding functionality as time goes on.

Then again, I can't think of any practical reason for that on PS3, so yeah. lol
 

NeoRausch

Member
But someone need to explain to me why i need to install patches for a game that i just downloaded. Why isn't it included in the download?
PS+ helps a lot with overnight download and auto-patches. But still...
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
No, (PSN) Games are on the Games folder, patches/installations are in the Game Data Utility folder.
Not always. Again, this is the problem I had with I2. The patch wasn't in a separate folder, the whole thing was grouped in with the game file. I had to delete all 15 gbs. There is no ryhme or reason to it, seems utterly random.
 

giggas

Member
I've recently been skipping the patch updates for this very reason. I have no patience for this anymore. It never fails whenever you play a new PS3 game whether or not its off PSN or disc.
 

surly

Banned
I don't know why Sony and MS insist on surprising you with patches only when you go to play the game that needs patching, it's stupid.
Title updates on the 360 used to be limited to 8MB in size and they're cumulative, so the first time you played a game the worst you'd be faced with is 1 patch of 8MB that requires no separate install. Unless you're still using dial up, the 360 system worked fine compared to the PS3's.

Even now, the 360 system is far better than the PS3's cos it still uses delta patches that are cumulative, but they have increased the maximum size (or removed the limit perhaps). Still, the biggest title update I can find on the 360 (outside of ones that are basically a patch and DLC combined) is 47MB.

As the wonderful Charlie Brooker once said, "the PS3 is like a TV channel that only displays progress bars".
 
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