CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Phil Smith · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 7717

I just got a PS3. Pretty cool! It does a nice job of playing Blu-ray movies. I've never been into games, but as long as I have a game console, I might as well play some, right? Very Happy

I'm not at all familiar with a game controller. What may seem natural to a lot of you is like juggling 7 bowling ball pins to me. Mr. Green

So I need games that do not require much controller skill. Mybe even non-action games would be best.

Any suggestions?

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

I do not have any suggestions, but since their online gaming service is free you might want to set that up and download some game demos and give them a try. This is something I've been meaning to do, but never got around to it.

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12088 Location: Fort Collins, CO

Phil, go borrow some kid's Wii. Very Happy

Many/most Wii games don't require the "hit 6 buttons at once" kind of interface.

dc_pilgrim · Joined: 31 Oct 2006 Posts: 225 Location: PA

Some of the cheap[er] download games on the PSN are like old style arcade games. They say "Everyday Shooter" and "Superstardust HD" are good ones, and there is some skiing game that uses the tilt/gyroscope features of the controller.

I have been meaning to try them, but my PS3 isn't on the net (just out of wifi range), so its kind of a process.

**kal** · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:43 pm Post subject:

Do I what I do: Just scroll on over to the right in your PS3 menu to the playstation store and download free demos. Most of them have enough 'meat' in them to keep you entertained for hours.

Just queue up a a couple of dozen and let them download overnight.

A couple of the more fun ones to hack around with when friends come over that don't take you hours to learn:

Motorstorm
Skate

Kal

Phil Smith · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 7717

**kal** · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:25 pm Post subject:

You don't need to go wireless. There's a LAN jack right in the PS3.

Either way, you'll need an internet router of some sort of if you want to share internet between multiple devices in your home. I recommend Linksys products and not the cheaper Dlink and others.

The Linksys manual and step-by-step stuff will walk you through how to hook things up.

Google "How to hook up a PS3 to the internet". Tons of info.

Kal

dc_pilgrim · Joined: 31 Oct 2006 Posts: 225 Location: PA

Moved my router and downloaded a few. "Everyday Shooter" is trippy. I really like "Super Stardust" Both use controls a lot like Robotron or SmashTV if you played arcade games in the 80s.

Phil Smith · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 7717

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

I noticed a bunch of refurbished Linksys MIMO wireless routers at Fry's Electronics selling for $45. Meant nothing to me in that I do not do wireless routing, but for those that do it seemed like a decent option.

If you are going to introduce a wireless router into your home network how will it enter the bigger networking picture?

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12088 Location: Fort Collins, CO

A router is a box that takes internet (or LAN) in, and makes it available to multiple outputs (LAN connections). There's more involved to it than that but that's the gist. With a wireless router, you may have 4-8 wired LAN ports on it, but you also have wireless "ports." Think of the wireless connections as exactly parallel to the wired ports. Only without wires. Smile

There's more involved with wireless connections, of course -- security, identification, things like that -- but conceptually the wirless connections are the same as the wired connections.

Phil Smith · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 7717

In a similar thread on AVS, I was told a Linksys WRT54GL would be a good choice, so I bought one from Newegg for $63.99.

I hope it arrives soon. I want to play some games! Thumbs Up

Z-Photo · Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 12:39 pm Post subject:

I got the Linksys54/PS3 - and have had no issues (even with WEP) hooking up to the net.

Not that I do it very much.

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

What neighborhood are you in? I want to wardrive it so I can show you exactly how easy it is to crack WEP. And if you use BellSouth DSL I'll make sure to send someone [important] a threatening email in your name. Evil or Very Mad

Its that simple. Its that dangerous. Its that out of date in terms of protecting yourself.

Z-Photo · Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:00 pm Post subject:

Yes - expect to see the cops when I catch you sitting in your car outside my house. Smile

"911 - state your emergency"

"I got a wierd guy sitting in a car outside my house"

"911 - OK we will bring the rope - you got a tree"

"Yep - or we could always burn him."

It is the #2 thing NOT to do in the south. Smile

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12088 Location: Fort Collins, CO

But he's right. Any tech-savvy 12-yr-old can crack WEP. Google "crack wep" for plenty of examples. If your hardware (computers) support it, you DEFINITELY want to change to WPA.

WPA rotates its security codes every N minutes, so even if somebody manages to crack it (unlikely), it'll change in a few minutes and they have to start all over again.

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

Pete, I do not have to be parked right outside your house. If anything, I'd be hiding in the bushes trying to watch you and the girls trying to get frisky. Very Happy

Phil Smith · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 7717

My router arrived today and I'm currently downloading a demo. Thumbs Up

I had a heck of a time getting the router to work with my modem/computer (the PS3 was a snap). Some obscure setting was wrong on the router and it took 1 1/2 hours on the phone with tech support to get it straightened out. Problem: Because I was having so much trouble getting it to work, I set it up with no encryption. I didn't want that variable in the mix. I already had enough stuff I didn't know anything about to deal with. Now that it's working, I need to do something about that. Being the idiot that I am, I sent my credit card number over the network while signing up at the PS3 store! I completely forgot about being on a network. Seconds after it was too late, I realized what I had done. D'oh!

What encryption scheme do you guys recommend? I guess WPA, right Gary? Is that difficult to setup?

Phil Smith · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 7717

Got it figured out! I found a tutorial that explained how to implement WPA.

Man, the demos take for ever to download. I got a shootem up game so far. I can see where I could eventually get proficient with the controller, but I don't think I'll ever get into it, at least not those kind of games. It just doesn't do anything for me. I have played a little Doom and Quake back in the day (on the easiest level because I sucked at it). All the maze based shootem ups seem the same to me.

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

FPS now encompasses a broad variety of games of which Doom and Quake are a part of. Other games like Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six are another, and completely different.