ephoenix

Okay so I realize the PS3 has a web browser and you could just go to youtube, but what if you want to save those videos to your hard drive?

Enter vConvert.

I found this today via stumbleupon, and it allows you to convert youtube videos to many popular formats and then download them. You can convert to WMV, MOV, 3GP, MP4, get only the audio in MP3, or download the actual flash file in flv.

Considering how many TV shows and movies are available on the net in flash format, this site could do a lot more than just getting a skateboarding dog on your PS3.

Also check out my post on how to convert AVI files to PS3 readable video files.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Kongregate: Play Castlewars

This is an incredibly addictive strategy game. The object of the game is to grow your own castle while at the same time eliminating the opponent’s. There are various “cards” you can play (the game is set up like a card game) and each has a different strategic meaning. The single player is pretty easy, but the best feature of this game is the multiplayer, where you can play online against other people. I just finished about an hour long game with some random I met in the online play.

Fantastic webgame, go check it out!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Back in highschool I would spend almost all computer class playing webgames. Now I have better games to play, but those simply flash games will always be tons of time wasting fun. Here’s a roundup of my favorites.

KittenCannon makes it easy to realize just how much fun it is to shoot a cute kitten out of a cannon. http://www.addictinggames.com/kittencannon.html

Another classic addictinggames.com game, CurveBall is my favorite of the new takes on Pong. http://www.addictinggames.com/curveball.html

Helicopter was another popular one back in boring classes. You’re a helicopter and you have to avoid blocks in a cave. http://www.addictinggames.com/helicopter.html

TextTwist is one I still play today and is always pretty challenging. You get a scrambled word which you must unscramble as well as many other small words made out of the letters. Basically your newspaper’s jumble on steroids. http://www.shockwave.com/contentPlay/shockwave.jsp?id=texttwist

GROW is one of the best puzzle games I’ve come across on the internet. The object of the game is to place objects on the “World” in the correct order. Each time an object is placed it has an effect on some of the other already placed objects and causes them to “Level Up”. The correct order is the one that cuases all objects to reach their maximum level. THen something cool happens to reward you. Go play this one and clear your schedule for the next 6 hours.
http://www.eyezmaze.com/eyezblog_en/blog/2002/02/grow_ver3.html

Defend Your Castle is another great action game where your castle is being attack by stick men. You can pick them up and throw them, and eventually get upgrade such as archers and bigger walls. Lots of fun to play and you can save your progress as well.
http://www.xgenstudios.com/play/castle

Popularity: 2% [?]

UPDATE Aug-02-07: The following was my original post, but since then I’ve found a much better, and more importantly, FREE converter, see the bottom of this post for information.

I’ve been noticing a lot of people searching for information on whether the PS3 plays common video formats like AVI and MPEG. Well, it doesn’t… but there is a way to play you movies on your PS3.

One of my favorite things about the PS3 is attaching an external hard-drive with all your movies on it and being able to play them on a TV. However, the PS3 does not play avi and mpeg files natively. The PS3 only reads MPEG-4 AVC files, so it is possible to play your downloaded legally purchased movies, but you have to convert them first. A pain if you have a lot of movies I know, but that’s the only solution currently out there until an update brings avi and mpeg video support to the PS3.

It’s a pretty easy process however, head over to WinAVI and get their MP4 converter. This is the one I’ve been using and it works perfectly. All you have to do after this is place all the MP4 files in a folder called “VIDEO” on the hard drive you want to attach to the Playstation.

Now you can have your own video library right on your PS3!

UPDATE Jul-05-2007: I’ve found something over at sourceforge that sounds really promising. PS3 Media Center is a project that might solve the problem of having to convert files, making the PS3 play many media types natively. It is described on their site as follows:

PS3MediaCenter (PS3MC) is a free open source (GPL) multimedia player for the Playstation 3™ from Sony. PS3MC can be used to play/view most common video/audio/picture formats such as MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, XviD, MP3, AAC, JPG, GIF, etc.

They haven’t released any files yet, but the description sounds exciting! I’ll keep an eye on it and let you know what develops!

UPDATE Aug-02-07: Well until ps3mc releases some files, it appears you’re stuck converting video. The WinAVI program I linked to earlier in the post does a pretty good job converting video, but it’s not exactly free. I managed to get my hands on a copy, but I doubt many people will want to pay.

Just yesterday I found a better converter. It’s simpler, faster, and most importantly, completely FREE. It’s called PS3 Video 9 by Red Kawa. It’s designed for converting files to an MPEG-4 files that the PS3 can read. I’ve had some great results. WinAVI would sometimes corrupt my files, and that doesn’t happen with Video 9.

Download it now as I found it linked from a forum to a file-host service, and links to these file hosting services are notorious for breaking quite quickly. Just go here and click the first download link.

Enjoy!

Popularity: 48% [?]

The PS3 is great, I own a PS3, but there are a bunch of things that I would have thought a big corporation like Sony would have fixed. This is a list of my “most wanted” features for the PS3.

1. FIX THE WESTINGHOUSE 1080p HDMI-DVI PROBLEM. I can’t stress this enough. I have a sweet 37″ westinghouse 1080p monitor and can’t play anything on 1080p without un-plugging and plugging in the damn cable again. This really needs to be fixed. I want my 1080p…

2. Auto-shut-off for the wireless controllers. Maybe I’m just lazy, but I always forget to plug in the controllers when I’m not using them. I also leave my PS3 on for Folding@Home. The controllers sit there and waste battery power so the controller dies right in the middle of a heated resistance battle.

3. The video player should play AVI, MPEG, DivX, Xvid, etc etc. Right now you have to convert any movies to mp4 to play them, this is a timely process if you have lots of downloaded… uh… ‘trailers’.

4. LAUNCH HOME ALREADY. Fuck. I hate when companies announce something really cool then launch it almost a year later. Yes, I know you want people to buy your product because of these announcements, but it’s even better if when they buy your product, they don’t have to wait a year for what the want.

5. More 1080p games plz. Did you know even Resistance is only 720p? Yeah, laaaaame.

6. Keep PSN free. I’ve head rumors of PSN not always being free. I already payed $600 for the fucking PS3, how much money do you need to squeeze out of me assholes?

Features I really don’t care about:

1. Rumbling SIXAXIS controller. So completely unimportant, and if it kills the battery life, simply annoying. I’d rather my controller have power than rumble. Kthx.

2. ‘380 news games but the year’s end’. It’s great that more games are coming out for the PS3, but I’d rather have a few quality games than massive amounts of shitty games. With the majority of the games out for PS3 now being quite shitty, I fear the outlook for the 380 new games to be quite dim.

That’s my roundup. What features are you excited/indifferent about?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Is your childhood filled with creating sweet cities on the original Simcity? Did you realize the folly of building only condos in your SimTower? Did you play SimFarm till your fingers bled? Well, now all those Sim games are available on the internet for free! The Sim Abandonware site has a repository of all the classics: Original SimCity, SimCity 2000, SimAnt, SimTower, SimFarm, SimEarth, SimLife, SimIsle, and even a new one to me, SimHealth.

Now can someone please tell me how the hell to play SimIsle?! Most confusing game ever….

Sim Abandomware Resurrection

Popularity: 2% [?]