PlayStation Retro Discussion (inc. PS3, digital PS1 & PS2 Classics & PS Plus Premium)

Ok, so I tried last night to buy a bunch of games on my PS3, using my UK PSN account - a mix of PS3 DLC and stand-alone Vita titles. During the payment process it asked me to verify my stored debit card end date and security code then it completely froze and I had to reboot the console.

My digital banking says the £62 payment for these items is “pending” but the games do not show up on my download list on either my PS3 or my Vita. It won’t let me try to re-purchase the games due to some kind of error. When I try to buy a different game on PS3 or Vita it won’t let me use this card any more. There is nothing wrong with this debit card, I used it at the supermarket today.

Also the PS3 store kept crashing so I deleted and reinstalled it but that didn‘t help. Do Sony just really not want my money? I did a cursory google search and found various potential explanations, including that due to some kind of EU data protection laws, debit and credit card purchases don’t work any more on PSN via Vita or PS3. If this is the case, why not remove these as payment options?

There are a lot of games I want to buy from PSN UK and US, but I’m not going to bother until this nonsense is sorted out. I’m aware that the PS3 store has been a mess for years, and the vita store is little better. Is it any wonder that folks turn to pirating when the official method for purchasing games is so broken?

And it’s not like we can use the PSN website via PC anymore, and to add insult to injury when I try to check my transaction history on the website it just crashes. So incompetent.

Anyone else had similar issues?
 
I believe there's been reports of a number of folks having similar issues, but mainly cases where they bought stuff but can't download them. I think its a specific error code but I can't remember which.

Personally due to Sony's hacking incident (and the fact that the idea of getting your account hacked out of nowhere is something I'm always concerned about anyway) I don't use my actual card or PayPal details on the console and thus I mainly acquire pre-paid PSN funds instead which breezes through the checkout process pretty easily so I don't get any issues whatsoever.
 
@Doctorkev
All I can say is that I was able to pay using my credit card on PS3 a couple of days ago, so the functionality is still there. I was surprised that it didn't crash on me this time, as I'd become accustomed to the PS Store crashing at least a couple of times while trying to buy things on PS3.

One problem I did run into was when I tried to transfer the newly purchased PS1 games from the PS3 to the Vita. It kept spitting out an error code and wouldn't do it. Then when I tried accessing the PS Store on the Vita to try and download them directly, it spat out more error codes and wouldn't even let me onto the store's homepage. Apparently it's a problem with 2-step verification not being supported properly on those systems, but I haven't felt like messing around with the settings for that yet.
 
Updated the thread with a list of PS3 retail games available on PSN, there's a fair amount of PS3 exclusives that are not downloadable (examples: Folklore, Heavenly Sword, Killzone 2 & 3, Ridge Racer 7, White Knight Chronicles I & II) so if it's not in the list then you'll have to try and find a physical copy.
 
Dai said:
@Doctorkev
All I can say is that I was able to pay using my credit card on PS3 a couple of days ago, so the functionality is still there. I was surprised that it didn't crash on me this time, as I'd become accustomed to the PS Store crashing at least a couple of times while trying to buy things on PS3.

One problem I did run into was when I tried to transfer the newly purchased PS1 games from the PS3 to the Vita. It kept spitting out an error code and wouldn't do it. Then when I tried accessing the PS Store on the Vita to try and download them directly, it spat out more error codes and wouldn't even let me onto the store's homepage. Apparently it's a problem with 2-step verification not being supported properly on those systems, but I haven't felt like messing around with the settings for that yet.
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So the weird PSN payment issue seems to have been resolved because the things I bought now appear on my download list.

Unfortunately my Vita has now decided it's going to stop reading memory cards. I've tried 3 different cards (1x 4gb and 2x 16gb) and it doesn't recognise any of them. No idea why - my Vita has been sitting in a dark, dry drawer for months, with a card in the slot. It's not like it got dusty or damp or anything.

I tried going into safe mode to do a database rebuild, that worked ok, but made no difference, though now I can't get back into safe mode again no matter how hard I try. Is my Vita broken? 😭

I'd really like to get one of those Vita/SD card adapter things but I need to install custom firmware first and I don't think you can do that without a functioning Vita memory card in a Vita 1000 model like I have.

Also I hope this doesn't mean I've lost my Persona 4 Golden and Muv Luv saves. I think I have them backed up on PS+ but I'm not sure...

Why does everything have to be so goddamn difficult?

At least i still have a functional PSTV (got it from my local ASDA for under £30 in a clearout sale a few years ago - should have bought a few and flogged them later for a tidy profit). Looks like I'll be using it to experiment with jailbreaking and hope that some good old isopropyl alcohol makes my vita memory card slot functional again...
 
I generally felt having the NTSC version is more of a complete/functional product than PAL
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This part is actually going to shoot you in the foot for some things I'll point out, like the PAL version of Final Fantasy 6 for example runs so much better than the NTSC version.
 
Vincentdante said:
This part is actually going to shoot you in the foot for some things I'll point out, like the PAL version of Final Fantasy 6 for example runs so much better than the NTSC version.
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I guess it depends on the title as I know some games were localised for Europe first (like Vib-Ribbon) so they should run fine.

The Final Fantasy titles in general, outside of Tactics since it doesn't have a re-release outside of the PSP remake, is best acquired via the other releases tbh.
 
NormanicGrav said:
I guess it depends on the title as I know some games were localised for Europe first (like Vib-Ribbon) so they should run fine.

The Final Fantasy titles in general, outside of Tactics since it doesn't have a re-release outside of the PSP remake, is best acquired via the other releases tbh.
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Tbh personally speaking the Konami and Square titles are actually the major ones I would buy the PAL over NTSC releases for in general since we always got cool extras. Just off the top of my head FF7 has a more accurate translation, FF10 we got the international version with all the enhancements over the US version. Then from Konami, games like MGS have a PAL exclusive difficulty mode etc.
 
A little bit of trivia I found was that with the Gex franchise the PAL versions had different voice actors for the second and third games when compared to the NTSC releases (Leslie Phillips & Danny John-Jules respectively as opposed to Dana Gould).
 
Got some more funds so I have acquired a $100 PSN card from Play-Asia (using Monzo rather than PayPal which saves a bit of cash due to the conversion rate).
 
Chosen my second batch of retro PS1/PS2 games:
PlayStation:
  • Arc the Lad
  • Dino Crisis
  • Jumping Flash!
  • Mega Man Legends
  • Mega Man Legends 2
  • Parasite Eve
  • Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
  • Suikoden II
  • Tomba!
  • Vagrant Story
PlayStation 2:
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
Quite a lot of PlayStation games this time around than expected, but this is mainly myself getting most of the $9.99 PS1 games out of the way. This batch focuses on a mixture of games that are super rare but also titles that are out of my 'comfort' zone to say the least - those being Dino Crisis and Parasite Eve.

There's also platformer type games with Jumping Flash! and Tomba! as well as action/platformer/shooter Mega Man Legends 1 & 2. And of course we have more JRPGs with Arc the Lad, Persona 2, Suikoden II and Vagrant Story.

As for the PlayStation 2 catalogue, honestly I struggled to choose what I would really want to own on the console, so I decided to stick with the remaining Shin Megami Tensei games that I had yet to download which were the Action RPG Devil Summoner games.
 
RaeDra said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1384190230354223110

So, this is something I guess.

Basically, PS3 & Vita will remain online, the PSP store will shut down as planned.
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It's good news regardless, but this thread will remain as intended because I expect this to be more of a 'delay' in planning than scheduled. For instance Nintendo offered folks 6 months to top-up their Wii points and an additional 10 months after that before closing their Wii Shop Channel. Sony closing the PSN stores for PS3 & Vita in the middle of a pandemic with only 3-4 months left wasn't the brightest of ideas.

Now the real question is whether the panic buying will cease or continue as planned.
 
NormanicGrav said:
It's good news regardless, but this thread will remain as intended because I expect this to be more of a 'delay' in planning than scheduled. For instance Nintendo offered folks 6 months to top-up their Wii points and an additional 10 months after that before closing their Wii Shop Channel. Sony closing the PSN stores for PS3 & Vita in the middle of a pandemic with only 3-4 months left wasn't the brightest of ideas.

Now the real question is whether the panic buying will cease or continue as planned.
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Yea, there's no reason to think that they won't do this again within 12/24 months, just gives me time to get to the games I want to play on the platform at least once.

What few I need to pick up, i'll likely go digital if the panic buying doesn't simmer down. The Ratchet games are like that and while I own Quest for Booty, No way would I pay the £49.99+ current price tag on ebay. Just wacky.
 
RaeDra said:
Yea, there's no reason to think that they won't do this again within 12/24 months, just gives me time to get to the games I want to play on the platform at least once.

What few I need to pick up, i'll likely go digital if the panic buying doesn't simmer down. The Ratchet games are like that and while I own Quest for Booty, No way would I pay the £49.99+ current price tag on ebay. Just wacky.
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If it helps, I look to CeX where they have copies available for regular prices ;)
 
NormanicGrav said:
This batch focuses on a mixture of games that are super rare but also titles that are out of my 'comfort' zone to say the least - those being Dino Crisis and Parasite Eve.
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If Dino Crisis 2 is on there, make sure you grab that. The first one is decent Resident Evil-style game, but the sequel is an absolute classic combo-based shooter that I still replay once every couple of years.

The original Parasite Eve is one of the best from Square's golden age. It's a shame that we only ever got the inferior sequels in the UK.
 
Dai said:
If Dino Crisis 2 is on there, make sure you grab that. The first one is decent Resident Evil-style game, but the sequel is an absolute classic combo-based shooter that I still replay once every couple of years.

The original Parasite Eve is one of the best from Square's golden age. It's a shame that we only ever got the inferior sequels in the UK.
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Yep both sequels are also on PSN, which I plan to save for later down the line.

Pretty much the remaining PS1 games (not including Japanese imports) that I had planned to get before the store closure (and now can be expanded upon thanks to the news yay) were thus far:
  • Arc the Lad II & Arc Arena (two games in one bundle)
  • Arc the Lad III
  • Breath of Fire IV
  • Chrono Cross
  • Dino Crisis 2
  • Disney & Pixar's Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue
  • Disney & Pixar's Toy Story Racer
  • Jumping Flash! 2
  • The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
  • Parasite Eve 2
  • Silent Hill
  • Tekken 2
  • Tomba! 2
  • Vib-Ribbon
  • Wild Arms
  • Wild Arms 2
 
It's been a while since this thread has been active but with the recent news that regular payments will be disabled on the PS3 & Vita store later this month, I decided to do another batch of digital purchases just in case the store closes officially next year or so.

This batch focuses on both PlayStation and PlayStation 2 titles from the North American PSN store for NTSC versions (and some games weren't released or available in the UK/EU side).

PlayStation:
  • Arc the Lad II
  • Arc the Lad III
  • Breath of Fire IV
  • Dino Crisis 2
  • The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
  • Parasite Eve 2
PlayStation 2:
  • The Adventures of Cookie & Cream
  • Chulip
  • Grandia III
  • Growlanser: Heritage of War
  • Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity
  • Tokobot Plus: Mysteries of the Karakuri
Now I have actually played one of these before a long time ago. When I was younger, around the early 2000s, I played a game where you controlled two bunnies on the same screen in a puzzle setup which also had a timer. It was called Kuri Kuri Mix. At the time I thought it was a co-op only game, but when I got access to a PlayStation 3 and looked in-depth at the Classics selection, I rediscovered the game under its North American name The Adventures of Cookie & Cream - and here's the funnier part, the game was developed by FROM SOFTWARE aka the Soulsborne developers.

As for the rest of the catalogue, blind purchases but they all looked interesting for different reasons. Arc the Lad II & III were released as a trilogy collection in the west so I decided to get the rest to complete that batch. Breath of Fire I have heard great things about and it's a Capcom JRPG franchise left untouched in the west for years (as Japan kept getting more sequels in mobile format instead). Dino Crisis 2 from what I have heard is basically the film Aliens with Dinosaurs (i.e. going from horror to action) and Parasite Eve 2 is Square Enix's horror JRPG.

The rest of the PlayStation 2 pickups are actually random, but I wanted to explore different type of games for the collection. I'll start off with the most recognisable one Grandia III, which is the third instalment in the JRPG franchise and one of the last games released for the PS2 Classics on PS3, but I recall many preferring the first two though. Chulip is a unique game developed by Natsume so I figured it would fit in the collection. Growlanser is a Tactical JRPG developed by Langrisser developers Career Soft and published by Atlus so that had my interest. Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity was developed and published by Atlus, also a Tactical JRPG and has character designs done by Shigenori Soejima (Shin Megami Tensei & Persona). Last but not least, a updated version of a PSP puzzle game with Koei Tecmo's Tokobot Plus: Mysteries of the Karakuri.

North American PSN Store:
  • Disney Pixar's Toy Story 2
  • Disney Pixar's Toy Story Racer
  • Jumping Flash! 2
  • Silent Hill
  • Tekken
  • Tekken 2
  • Tomba! 2
  • Vib-Ribbon
  • Wild Arms
  • Wild Arms 2
UK PSN Store:
  • Intelligent Qube
  • Kula World
  • Vib-Ribbon
Japanese PSN Store - Fighting games:
  • Advanced V.G.
  • Angel Eyes: Tōki Denshō
  • Blue Breaker Burst: Bishō o Anata to
  • Bushido Blade 2
  • Ehrgeiz
  • Project Gaiaray
  • Psychic Force 2
  • Shiritsu Justice Gakuen 2
Japanese PSN Store - Party / Puzzle games:
  • ACID
  • Arkanoid Returns
  • Athena no Kateiban: Family Game
  • Battle Athletess: Daiundōkai GTO
  • Block Kuzushi Kowashite Help!
  • Blockids
  • The Bombing Islands: Kid Klown no Krazy Puzzle
  • Dragon Beat: Legend of Pinball
  • Geom Cube
  • LandMaker
  • Pukunpa: Joshikouki no Houkago
  • Puzzle Mania
  • Tall Twins Tower
  • Tall Unlimited
  • XI [sai]
Japanese PSN Store - Racing games:
  • Chocobo Racing: Genkai e no Rōdo
  • Deadheat Road
  • Hashiriya: Ookamitachi no Densetsu
  • Ray Tracers
  • Touge MAX: Saisoku Drift Master
Japanese PSN Store - Rhythm games:
  • Paca Paca Passion
Japanese PSN Store - Shooter / Shoot em' Up games:
  • Chō Aniki: Kyūkyoku Muteki Ginga Saikyō Otoko
  • Crime Crackers
  • Dezaemon Plus
  • Einhänder
  • GaiaSeed: Project Seed Trap
  • Gunners Heaven
  • Harmful Park
Japanese PSN Store - WTF games:
  • LSD: Dream Emulator
North American PSN Store:
  • Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (Remaster chances are probably high)
  • DOA2: Hardcore (Rumoured to be Backwards Compatible on Xbox Series X)
  • Dynasty Tactics 2
  • GrimGrimoire (Remaster chances are probably high)
  • Suikoden III
  • Suikoden IV
Japanese PSN Store:
  • Bravo Music (Mad Maestro!)
  • Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Marz
  • Disaster Report
  • Dynasty Warriors 2
  • Fu-un Bakumatsu-den
  • Gacharoku
  • Ikusagami (Demon Chaos)
  • Ka 2: Let's Go Hawaii
  • Kengo: Master of Bushido
  • Ninkyouden: Toseinin Ichidaiki
 
This thread will be revived in preparation for Sony's new PlayStation Plus revamp that's starting this month in Region 3 Asia territories and then in June for Japan, North America and Europe.

Today they revealed more information on what's to come but the biggest news is for the PlayStation and PlayStation Portable games:
PlayStation Plus Premium/Deluxe members will have a selection of popular classic games to play, with some titles that will show improved frame rates and higher-quality resolution compared to their original launch versions. For select original PlayStation and PSP classic games, members will also enjoy a new user interface with menus that allow you to save your game at any time, or even rewind the game if you want a do-over.

Also, players who have previously purchased the digital version of select games from the original PlayStation and PSP generation will not have to make a separate purchase or sign up to PlayStation Plus to play these titles on PS4 or PS5. When these titles are released for PS4 and PS5, players can head to PlayStation Store and download a version for the consoles at no extra cost if they already own the digital version of the title. Some of the titles will also be available for individual purchase.

Additionally, some remastered classics from previous console generations will be added to the PlayStation Plus Premium/Deluxe plan.
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TL;DR:
  • New user interface
  • Option to save state & rewind your game at any point.
  • Digital purchases done from previous platforms (i.e. PS3, PSP/Vita) will carry over if the game is included in the line-up at no extra cost for download.
  • Select games will also be available without the need to have the membership.
So far the line-up for PlayStation includes the following - highlighted are those previously released on PS3:
  • Ape Escape*
  • Everybody's Golf (Hot Shots Golf)
  • Kurushi Final (I.Q. Intelligent Qube)**
  • Jumping Flash!
  • Mr. Driller
  • Syphon Filter
  • Tekken 2
  • Worms Armageddon
  • Worms World Party
*Japanese version was released on PS3's PSN store.
**European version was released on PS3's PSN store.

The line-up for PlayStation Portable includes the following:
  • Ridge Racers 2
  • Super Stardust Portable
For PlayStation 2 they are re-using the titles from their PS2 on PS4 initiative however it's not yet confirmed if they will be patching the games to fix the technical issues affecting most of the catalog (for instance many of them are technically unplayable on PS5).

For the PlayStation 3, the cloud streaming line-up includes the following:
  • Crash Commando
  • Demon’s Souls
  • echochrome
  • Everybody's Golf: World Tour (Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds)
  • Everybody's Golf 6 (Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational)
  • Ico HD
  • Infamous
  • Infamous 2
  • Infamous: Festival of Blood
  • LocoRoco Cocoreccho!
  • MotorStorm Apocalypse
  • MotorStorm RC
  • Puppeteer
  • rain
  • Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty
  • Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
  • Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus
  • Resistance 3
  • Super Stardust HD
  • Tokyo Jungle
  • When Vikings Attack
To recap, due to technical limitations, the PlayStation 3 games are cloud-streaming only and cannot be downloaded.
 
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