The moment that everyone has been waiting for is finally upon us. With the release of firmware update 2.40, Sony will finally add features like in-game XrossMediaBar access, custom soundtracks and Trophies to the PlayStation 3. Greg and I had a chance to see the update in action a few days ago, and based on what we saw, you should be excited. Read on for details, and look for our personal impressions at the end.
Perhaps the biggest part of the update for some folks is the ability to access the XrossMediaBar while playing a game. We're not talking about a scaled-down version of the XMB here - the whole thing pops up when you hit the PS button. A fair number of features will ask you to quit the game to use them, like hitting up the PlayStation Store, starting a movie or changing your display settings, but everything is accessible. For stuff that does ask you to quit, the PS3 will take you right to the option when you choose to leave the game. So, if you choose to head into the PlayStation Store and do opt to quit the game you're playing, you won't have to scroll back over to the PS Store icon a second time; it'll take you there automatically after quitting.
You can view your Trophies under the Game category.
While that's cool, it's the stuff that does work in-game that's awesome. Your Friends list is fully accessible, be it for seeing who's online, checking or sending messages, adding friends or whatever else. You're also able to change accessory settings while in-game, so if you choose to hop online and want to turn on a headset, you no longer have to quit out of the game to do so.
Note that the in-game XMB access only works for PlayStation 3 titles (both downloadable and disc-based games). You can't do this stuff while playing a PSone or PS2 game, nor while watching a movie. It sounds like you may eventually be able to access the XMB while watching a movie at some point in the future, but this is still pending at this point, and will likely be based on user demand (so start sending letters to your local senator).
Accessing the XMB while in-game is done by tapping the PS button. Holding the button for a couple seconds will bring up the old menu, where you can change controllers or shut down the system. The 2.40 update will add a new option to the Game menu that lets you quit a game, so you'll be able to hop out of a title from either menu once the update hits, which is cool. One thing to note is that tapping the PS button to bring up the XMB doesn't always automatically pause whatever game you're playing. It's technically not a major issue and just requires that you hit Start before the PS button, but it's certainly worth noting as you can't use it to essentially pause cutscenes that otherwise wouldn't allow it.
There's a new mini control panel for music playback, helpful while in-game.
Along with being able to manipulate your Friends list, possibly the coolest ability with the in-game XMB access is the ability to play your own music. Yes, we're talking custom soundtracks here. Note that this ability has to be added to a game to enable it, so it won't work with existing stuff unless the games are patched, but it's an option that will likely hit many upcoming titles.
You can go in and play any track on your system, obviously. The cool part though is that Sony has added a compact control panel at the top of the Music category that gives you quick access to oft-used functions, like play, pause, skip and whatnot. You can also change the volume with the panel, so you can turn down your music a bit if it overpowers the game's audio effects. While there won't be any games to support this at 2.40's launch, we did see a demo of it working with PixelJunk Monsters Encore, so it's obviously a candidate for a patch down the line.
While all of the in-game XMB stuff is awesome, Trophies are what take the update's cake. Much like Achievements on the Xbox 360, you'll earn Trophies for completing specific tasks in a game (a notification will pop up in the corner of the screen to tell you when you've earned one). The difference though is that instead of being worth a rather arbitrary point total, you'll earn either a Bronze, Silver or Gold Trophy for each accomplishment. Each Trophy has a behind-the-scenes point value (that you probably won't ever see), with developers allotted a total number of points they can use per game. So devs could pop in only a handful of Gold Trophies, a ton of Bronze Trophies, or mix and match with a few Silver tossed in, up to the point limit for the game. There will be "large scale" and "small scale" Trophy amounts, likely split between downloadable and retail games. So, like on the 360, full-fledged titles should offer more Trophies than smaller downloadable games.
Each game will also have a single Platinum Trophy assigned to it, which is only unlocked once you've earned all of the other Trophies. This Platinum Trophy plays nicely into the new Level system that will be introduced in 2.40. Instead of simply having a total number of Trophies (which is also viewable), each PSN profile will also have a Level. Each Trophy takes you closer to the next Level, though like an RPG, you'll be required to gain more Trophies to advance to each successive Level (it'll take longer to get to Level 3 than Level 2, in other words). Platinum Trophies will give you a ton of "experience" towards your next Level, so if you have a game where you're missing just one Bronze Trophy, nabbing that last one will give you a huge Level boost as it'll also automatically earn you the Platinum Trophy. Though there's technically a Level cap on the server end, Sony will continue to up the cap so that gamers should never be able to hit the maximum. Level 1 billion, here we come.
To view your Trophies, you'll head under a new Trophy listing under the Game category in the XMB. Clicking on this will list all of the Trophy-supported games you've played in a descending list to the side, much like the saved games listing appears. Next to the icon and name for each game, you'll see the percentage of Trophies that you've earned for the game, and hovering over the title will also show you a visual percentage meter. Clicking on the game will then give you a list of all available Trophies, and tell you the time and date that you earned any of them.
Highlighting a Trophy will show you quick details.
It's important to note that while games can be patched to offer support for Trophies, the rewards can't be given out retroactively -- you'd have to go back and play through each game again. This makes sense given that someone could copy a completed save for a game that they've never played from a friend and automatically unlock all of the Trophies.
Super Stardust HD will be the first game to be patched and offer Trophy support. Sony is planning on releasing the patch within hours of 2.40 hitting the wire, so it won't take long for players to be able to start filling up their collection. Warhawk and Pain will also get updates at some point in the future, with numerous other titles on the TBD list. As far as upcoming titles go, Sony promises that every major first-party game slated for release later this summer and onward will have built-in Trophy support. SOCOM: Confrontation and Resistance 2 were called out as examples during our meeting, while the press release also mentions BUZZ! Quiz TV, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, NBA 09 and PixelJunk Eden. PixelJunk Eden will be the first game to have Trophy support upon its initial release.
For third-parties, Sony promises that many developers are working to add Trophies into their games for this fall and onward. For the near future, Sony will not require that developers feature Trophy support in their games as some titles may be too far along to easily add them. However, at an undisclosed point in the future, all PlayStation 3 releases will indeed be required to make use of Trophies. We're hoping that's sooner than later.
With regards to Home, we're told that Trophies will in fact have some sort of tie-in to the online universe, though perhaps not on a one-to-one basis. From the way it was put during the meeting, my guess is that not all Trophies will have Home representations, but that many of the bigger ones will. So, while you might not get a Home version of a "Complete Stage 1" Trophy, I'm guessing that you will get stuff for things like finishing a game or completing other major tasks. Again though, this bit is all educated guesswork on my end.
You can compare Trophies with others easily.
While viewing your own Trophy collection is fun, the whole thing would be moot if others couldn't see your rewards and vice-versa. This is where the new profiles come into play. Clicking on someone's name in either your Friends or recently played list, you'll be presented with one of the new profiles. Each profile has three pages that you can flip through with the L1 and R1 buttons. The first page displays their name, icon, visual representations of their eight most recently collected Trophies, their total number of Trophies earned and their current Level (along with a progress meter to show how close they are to their next Level).
The second page shows you a tiered list of how many Trophies they've earned, so you can see if they've stocked up solely on Bronze rewards or if they're also picking up Silver and Golds along the way. The third and last page is a personal information sheet, with their PSN ID, an information blurb where players can write whatever they want about themselves, and a list of the languages that they happen to speak.
At the bottom of someone's profile page, you'll find icons for performing one of three tasks -- you can send them a message, start a voice chat, or, best of all, compare your Trophies. When you pick this last option, the system will display all of the games you've played in a descending list with your Trophy percentages shown side-by-side. Clicking on any game will then change from showing all of your games to showing all of the specific Trophies for said game. If you've used the Achievement comparison system on Xbox Live, you'll have a good idea of how this works.
Sony promises that the 2.40 release serves only as the introduction of Trophies, and that more features will work their way out in the future. For instance, a web-based interface for viewing your Trophies is in the works, and Sony is also working on giving you a quick-glimpse at someone's progress by incorporating a Trophy count or something similar for inclusion next to their name on your Friends list, so that you don't need to click on everyone's profile to have an idea of how everyone stacks up to one another.
The overall Trophy list gives you a quick percentage of overall earnings.
While in-game XMB support, custom soundtracks and Trophies are certainly 2.40's biggest features, there are a handful of other nice additions on their way in the update. A clock has been added to the upper-right corner of the screen, for instance, while a quick Google search option has been added to the XMB, just like the one that recently hit the PSP. And, perhaps best of all, the Friends list cap has been doubled from 50 to 100.
Perhaps the best news is that you'll have access to all of this on July 2nd, a mere two days from now.
