Kmeaw CFW that has Dual Boot for OFW and CFW Coming Soon

This is just a small update but Kmeaw who is known for his custom firmwares and lv2 patcher is planning his own dual boot CFW along with Graf_Chokolo, but Kmeaw's CFW will not be for linux it will allow the ability to switch between OFW GameOS and cfwOS. This is just a small update as Kmeaw only announced he wants to do it but it seems really cool to be able to switch between CFW and OFW.

Graf_Chokolo Publishes Petitboot Tools for Linux

After Graf_Chokolo announced that he successfully installed Gentoo Linux onto his internal hard drive, he said that he would create a petitboot which he did. This petitboot will allow for dual boot of GameOS and Linux which is pretty awesome. To create the petitboot yourself is very involved and waiting for a dual-boot custom firmware seems like the easiest option for most.

A guide for creating a petitboot can be found at here, and it seems very complicated so I will personally wait for a dual-boot custom firmware.

Possibility for 3.60 CFW

Today a hacker by the name of Mathieulh revealed that he has recently exploited and dumped the LV0 on 3.60 firmwares. Mathieulh has been known for not revealing much information about his exploits but this time he has been kind to help some people out. With this a twitter user by the name of Ps3WeOwnYoU has claimed to have reproduces Mathieulh's trick. He says that he has the decrypted LV0 from 3.60 after using this trick, but Ps3WeOwnYoU's claims have not been substantiated and this is still largely a rumor.

Basically this exploit will allow access to the 3.60 keys which will then lead to CFW and homebrew on 3.60. Basically this will allow PSN access once more and make it so games do not have to be patched to run from an outdated firmware.While 3.60 doesn't seem all that necessary it would still be nice and I waiting for some more good news.

Graf_Chokolo

Graf_Chokolo continues his contributions to the PS3 scene now allows for Linux to be installed on the internal hard drive of Slim PS3s. He was able to increase the FLASH region on the PS3s hard drive from 256MB to 40GB, and installed Gentoo Linux to this location. PS3 owners can even have their PlayStations format their hard drives and the Linux will still remain and be usable. Hopefully a version for the Fat PS3 comes out so I can try it out.

Graf_Chokolo's plans for the future just makes things sound even better. These plans are to compile and install (to the vFLASH) petiboot and then after that he plans for the creation of a HV CFW which can also boot GameOS or petitboot which can either boot Linux or GameOS.

Great things will come from Graf_Chokolo's hypervisor and I am exited for the future.

Dragon Age 2 Review

My first review will be on Dragon Age 2 which in my opinion sucked pretty badly being a horribly dumbed down game compared to Dragon Age: Origins

The first aspect of the game I will touch is the new combat system which is actually quite nice and a step forward from Origins. It looks nice and the characters of different attack animations depending on where you are initiating you attack which is kinds cool. The only flaw to the combat system is that you just mash the X button the whole battle which can become annoying.

The Story is terrible I don't even know if I encountered a story and I am at act 2 with around 15 hours put into the game I would expect a story by now. The only thing this game has me doing is collecting money via boring quest and then collecting more money.

The quest I mentioned are incredibly bad and after a few hours I was getting this feeling as if I had been to these places before... which I had because in Dragon Age 2 the creators just kept reusing the same maps and designs for all of the locations. The actual quest are just as bad as where they take place and only involve talking to ALOT of people and then a little fighting at the end after the fighting you get to talk to some more people to finish them.

The characters in this game are mediocre at best and have no development what so ever. In Origins the character development was amazing and there was changes between characters in just idle talk which was humorous and interesting as well as being able to talk to the characters individually. In Dragon Age 2 you barley get to talk to the characters and they all have very uninteresting personalities. The only character that I somewhat liked was Merril with her naive out look but I wish I could talk to her more than they let me. Romance with the characters is barley noticeable and the few times you can use it just appear very strangely in conversation.

The skill system is the only part of the game that benefited from being dumbed down and is very easy to use.

The inventory was decent and with it being organized much better then in origins but the variety in items and armor took a hit. Hawke is the only character who can equip different armor and all the other characters have unchanging armor. It also seems that the weapons have less variety with no difference between choosing a great axe or great sword as long as they are both 2-haned.

The setting of the game sucks with all of the maps and scenery being copied as well as the main portion taking place in one city that you probably have been in 90% of the game being of all the going from person A to B quest in the game.

The last part of the game I would like to address is the dialog system which along with the rest of the game sucks. You only get 3 choices most of the times which are normally always good, humorous (which is a lie), and forceful . The actually conversations are not actually changed by choices as well with normally only a one line response to your choice and then back to being a record player.

At the end of the day I would give this game a 4/10 and suggest that if you are going to buy it have not yet played Origins go buy Origins and don't bother with the sequel.

Blog Update

I think I am going to do posts about actual video games along with my normal posts about whats happening with the PS3 scene. I will probably start reviews soon and they won't be too fancy or anything just what I think about the game and such and anybody can disagree if they want.

I will probably do Dragon Age 2 or Homefront as my first review.

PSN Maintenance Kicks Off All CFW Users for Now

Today, there was "sporadic PSN maintenance" which already has caused problems for all CFW users. It is claimed that Sony is finally enacting their hidden 3.60 PSN authentication system which has been discovered in the new 3.60 firmware released last week. The authentication system clearly will stop CFW from logging into the PSN, but I think that developers will make a bypass method before the week is over. The same thing happened with 3.56 firmware and the developers worked around it so I have hopes for a 3.60 bypass.

The message that appeared today stated that there would be sporadic PSN maintenance from approximately 9am to 3pm Pacific Standard Time. As the message states the maintenance is not yet over, but as of now many users are reporting they can not connect including myself. So if you can't live without PSN for a little OFW is your only choice. I am alright without PSN access so I will just wait it out.

3.60 + PSN Spoofer + No Video Response Fix

I have been a break for around a week and during this time quite a lot happened. The new firmware totally revamped the security of the PS3 so I would not be expecting a new CFW anytime soon so if you are still at 3.55 I would stay with it (plus 3.60 really doesn't have much improvements that directly effect you), and don't worry because along with the update many may think that PSN access is lost but on the same day that the update came out a useful version spoofer came out.
Team Rebug who has steadily been releasing homebrew for the PS3 devolved a version 3.60 spoofer which allows PSN access and extremely easy access as well. If you though fuckPSN was easy compared to the old methods then you will be shocked by the simplicity of this. All you need to do is install the pkg and run it and hit the X button to install the spoofer. It does take a while to install the spoofer and there is no sign at all when it is done so definitely wait a while so you know its done. When its done just exit the spoofer and sign in that easy.
3.60 version spoofer found here - http://rebug.me/?p=412

If you messed up the spoof install and your PS3 stops sending video input to your TV (this happened to me) you have to start your PS3 in recovery mode and your TV will receive input. Next you will have to reflash your PS3 to OFW 3.55 and then back to your preffered CFW. If you do this all your account info will be lost and saved files. If you want to avoid a loss in saved files you need a spare 2.5 inch SATA hard drive. Reflash your PS3 with the spare HD then after you are done put your old HD back in and your files will still be there, but your PSN account info will not but you can just enter that again.

New Games Requiring 3.56 Firmware

Two new games that have been leaked early both require Sony's latest 3.56 firmware. The first title is Dragon Age II which is a much anticipated game for many including me.Dragon Age II has been leaked onto the internet even though the release date is March 8th, which allowed hackers to figure out ways to run the game on 3.55 firmware. Apparently simple modifications to the PARAM.SFO and a repackaged EBOOT.BIN made the game compatible with 3.55. There is a fix available but to avoid encouraging piracy I won't lead to the download link.
The second game is MLB 11 The Show which also is scheduled to be released March 8th but was leaked online. MLB 11 obviously has not been looked at as much as Dragon Age II which is probably due to the popularity differences in the two games. I am pretty confident though that MLB 11 will be able to run on 3.55 with time though as amazing things can happen with time.