Sunday, I purchased Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit for the PlayStation 3. Although the game still sells for $60 new, I picked up a used copy for $40. Here’s how things have gone so far.
7pm: Arrive home with used copy of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. Put game into PS3.
PS3: I’m sorry, but you need to update the firmware on your PlayStation 3 before you can play this game. You are running firmware 3.41 and you need 3.50 to play Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. Would you like to download and update your firmware now?
Not really, but okay. The new firmware takes approximately 20 minutes to copy over and install (I’m rounding here). Finally, I’m ready to play.
7:20pm: I re-launch NFS:HP.
PS3: I’m sorry, but you need to update the firmware on your PlayStation 3 before you can play this game online. You are running firmware 3.50 and you need 3.55 to play Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit online. Would you like to download and update your firmware now?
Sigh. Yes, I guess. This update takes 15 minutes to download and another 10 to install.
7:45pm: I re-launch NFS:HP. Again.
NFS:HS: Would you like to play online? Because this is an online game. Please create an online account, and then enter your online code from the offline piece of paper included inside the game’s package.
7:50pm: I spend five minutes digging out the code and punching it into the game via the PS3 controller.
NFS:HS: I’m sorry, but this must be a used game because somebody already used that code. If you would like to play the game online, please go to our website and pay $10 for new code.
Not bloody likely. An hour into the experience and the game has the audacity to ask me for more money before I’ve yet to race a car!
The next ten minutes are a lot like this:
7:51pm: You could do that … if you were online!
7:52pm: New tracks available … for online players!
7:53pm: Share your times with other online racers!
7:54pm: Those cars are for online players only.
7:55pm: Race against your friends … online!
7:56pm: That mode is only available online.
7:57pm: Seriously. Everyone else is playing online but you.
7:58pm: Online online, online online (you’re offline) online.
7:59pm: It’s only ten more bucks, you tight ass.
…
8:00pm: Turned off PlayStation 3, went out to arcade, played Pole Position for about an hour.
Wow! That’s insane!
I don’t understand why updates always take so long on the PS3. For comparison, updates only take a moment on the 360.
And it really sucks that the supposedly free online component is no longer free if you buy the game used from somene who used that code already. Meh.
I got the same thing on the 360. “Hey, you’re not a gold subscriber. You need to be otherwise you can play these cool parts of the game”.
I hate online stuff-everything about it rubs me the wrong way. What ever happened to letting people play games on their own?
I bought the game for my PC via Steam during the big holiday sale a couple of weeks back and, trust me, the online experience isn’t any better on the PC. I’ve yet to get the damn thing to talk to its proprietary online service and their support is no help, insisting it’s my router configs. Listen, kid, I’m running a custom DD-WRT based router, I know more than enough about how packets fly around to be dangerous, and I’ve Wire-Sharked the connection. It’s not me, it’s you. Sigh.
Rant aside, a lot of games now are making their online codes one time only and require you to purchase a new one when using a used game. I’ve run into it on the xbox 360 as well.
I like (not really) how you’ve got to patch the firmware to 3.5 before you can update to 3.51. That’s so dodgy…
@Zeno: Yeah, it’s dumb that the game requires one minimum firmware, and playing online requires another.
Everybody who has posted here so far is someone I know who loves video games. Sony, are you listening? You are alienating people who love video games!!
I rented it from blockbuster and took it back and demanded a refund after i told them it was worthless since someone else had allready rented it.
i dont think the kid understood what i was talking about, but i think its a scam to stop game rentals…
and those theiving bastards at game Stop.