Getting ‘yer booty off PSN : A Huge Pain.. in ‘yer booty
I have been a big Ratchet and Clank fan ever since I first played the game. I always tried my best to get all the games ever released and play them (never cared for the Mobile ones though). You could say one of the biggest reasons I even bought a PS3 (and DS3) was Ratchet and Clank. So, yeah I think you got the picture.
Recently “Age of Booty” a small expansion pack to Tools of Destruction was released on PSN. I knew that I would get it the instant I saw the announcement at E3 ’08. But never did I imagine that getting it would be that difficult.
With my friend’s help I was able to get game from HK PSN store. After seeing its size was a whopping 2.8 GB, I told to myself “oh well, its only 24hrs of downloading“, I was casual about it,because I was (and AM) playing GTA IV, which I know will easily take me more than 24 hrs to play, so I can always have the game download in the BG, hence not wasting much electricity.
Realisation 1.0
So I start the download and then start playing GTA IV, what do I see after a 2hr session? the percentage had not increased at all. After a bit of googling, I found out that GTA IV on PS3 doesnt support background downloading (unlike MGS and many other games). What did this mean ? well, now I had only one option.. turn on the PS3 “not for gaming” and just leave it like that to download stuff. becasue GTA IV is the only game I will be playing till I finish it.
Whats the problem?
Well, first of all, leaving the PS3 turned on for hours together, with no A/C and that too in a closed room is just too risky. Also, it feels like unnecessary current waste.
What did I do?
Well, I started watching movies on the PS3 just so that I can download things while watching movies, so there is atleast something got from turning it on (also that I will be using A/C when there). This time I realize another thing..
You cannot BG download when you are watching DVDs/BDs on PS3..
WoW, just what I needed 
Luckily , I have a lot of Anime and movies burnt on DVDs, and luckily PS3 supports them, so I started watching them.
Problems for Developing nations
I am from India, and as you all might know India is still a “Developing Country” what does it mean? One thing is that, in many areas you have constant power cuts, most of all, these are Random. Because of this thing, I was first afraid that such abrupt power cuts would hurt the PS3, but even then I kept downloading because “I wanted to play it”
So after many hours of watching anime (and also leaving it on , just downloading) the download was finally done. With great happiness I started the installation. only to see
What is this you ask? well, its a fatal error, where “Re-Download” is the only option. I’ve googled for it earlier, while trying to solve the problems of people in forums, but never actually faced it. Why did it happen? well, it was because of the “power cuts” that were happening whenever I was downloading.
There is this problem in the PS3 where downloads get corrupt if there is a power cut when you are downloading the file. I remember very well having power cuts while downloading demos, months ago, but never faced the problem till this time. Maybe its one of those “new features” that the constant firmware updates bring up.
What did I do then?
Well, just like any other fan would do, without a moment’s thought, I started the download again..Not once, but 5 times!
Here is a small list of the downloads
- Complete Download – Corrupt
- PowerCut @ 400 MB
- PowerCut @ 700 MB
- PowerCut @ 200 MB
After observing all this, I started downloading only at nights, as per my friend’s recc. power cuts are almost null at night times (you know, cause everyone sleeps and uses nothing electric) After a few nights of atleast 4 hrs download each, I reached 1.5 GB..
But as fate would have it “Current Wala” always waits for the right moment. It being the time when you can feel sad the most. As there was once again a very unexpected powercut @ the 1.5GB mark late at night, where I practically went mad.
How much time was wasted?
In my 256K Internet speed (yeah, its another one of those “developing nation” thing) it takes me almost 50mins to download 100 MB. So thats around 4 GB of download that takes up easily 35+ hours of download.
So I’ve spent that much of time trying to get the thing working and its still not done, however, just in hope of current not going off again, I started downloading it again.
0.Keep Trying
I can always keep trying and maybe one day, like that scene from very other anime “I will believe” and then there will be no problems, or better yet.. I will believe so much that, even after powercuts the download will be work! ~the power of fandom~
1. Get a UPS
Well, First of all, people would say “buy a UPS”, The thing is that spending so much money on getting only this download done, is a pretty, non economical solution IMO. I would rather rely on my luck than to spend more money to get it. As for everything else I will download after this.. I am guessing it will be under 1 Gb which I think luck will allow me to download.
2.Wait for fix
Seeing how frequently we get PS3 Firmware upgrades, I can only sit and wish that in the next upgrade they fix this problem. I mean, Sony cares about its customers.. right? no matter how much of a minority they are. Seeing that it has not been fixed till now (it seems the problem was there since many months) I feel we are being ignored.
3.Buy the Retail Version
Oh yeah, definitely.. once it comes out in India, with a proper (i.e not Rs.1499/-) price tag, I will be first in line to buy it. Well, hope it happens sometime soon, seeing that the UK release has been cancelled and the EU release is not known right now.
4.Move to some other country
Nope, I dont think that is going to happen soon.
