How do I turn off this crappy "feature" on my PS3?

[ZenBeam]

We got a PS3 for Christmas, and it has this insanely crappy and frustrating behavior. When playing a game which has an update available, it interrupts the game to ask to download an update.

EVERY. TEN. FUCKING. MINUTES.

This occurs for multiple games,and it seems to be the PS3 doing this, not the individual game.

These are not little wait-ten-minutes-to-download-and-install updates. These are hundreds of MB updates, and usually several of them. For example, Modnation racers had six updates, and the ones I saw were about 130, 200, and 350 Mbytes. That's an overnight download for me, and it seems every game has a bunch of updates.

The only work-around I've found is to disable the internet, but if you forget, you have to quit the game to turn it off, which is a pain in the ass. And of course, that means you can't use any online features of the game.

What the fuck were they thinking? Is this the out-of-box experience they were shooting for?

[Least Original User Name Ever]

Update your shit.

[Drunky Smurf]

Yeah what LOUNE said. You just got it less than a week ago and it's been out for four years so there are probably updates on every single game. Just let it do it's thing and eventually you'll be up to date and they will stop.

The same thing happened to me when I got my Wii, which has also been out for four years, earlier this year. It hasn't wanted to update in a long time.

[Miller]

Originally Posted by ZenBeam

The only work-around I've found is to disable the internet, but if you forget, you have to quit the game to turn it off, which is a pain in the ass. And of course, that means you can't use any online features of the game.

What the fuck were they thinking? Is this the out-of-box experience they were shooting for?

The whole point of the automatic updates is to make sure everyone online is using the same version of the game, because it's an enormous pain in the ass to try to get all the different versions of one game to play nice with each other. So, yeah, if you're not going to update your game, you shouldn't expect to be able to use any of its online features. Any online console game you play these days (and, I suspect, virtually anyone online PC game) is going to require you to fully update before you can use the online features. So as far as that goes, that is indeed the out-of-the-box experience they were shooting for.

As to how to get around it, you already know that: disable your internet connection.

[ZenBeam]

Originally Posted by Least Original User Name Ever

Update your shit.

Yeah, no fucking shit. I'm working on it. As I said in the OP, these are overnight downloads for me. That means one game per night.

Originally Posted by Tahssa

The same thing happened to me when I got my Wii

Really? The Wii interrupts your games to ask you to update the games while you're playing them? Over and over? For updates of hundreds of Mbytes? I don't think the Wii even updates games, only the system. I have a Wii, I've never seen this. Frankly, I don't believe you.

Originally Posted by miller

The whole point of the automatic updates is to make sure everyone online is using the same version of the game.
...
As to how to get around it, you already know that: disable your internet connection.

This happens whether I'm using the online features or not. And it's a pain to have to remember to to check the internet enabled setting every time I start game, and if I forget, I've got to quit the game to change it, and start all over..

Look people, I'm not complaining about having to update the games. I'm working on it, but gigabytes of updates spread over multiple games takes a while.

The problem is it interrupts my game repeatedly if I forget to turn off the internet.

[Munch]

Is it really interrupting in the middle of the game? It shouldn't do that except right when you load the game up. I'd first make sure you've updated the system software itself (which should be current, otherwise it wouldn't go online at all). If that's not it, I'd try resetting the system. That really seems off from my experience. Each download should be ONE download, not multiple separate ones.

[Randy Seltzer]

Originally Posted by ZenBeam

The problem is it interrupts my game repeatedly if I forget to turn off the internet.

I suspect that they intended for this to be a problem.

Lots of games hit the market with bugs. Some bugs allow people to cheat. Some bugs make the game use too much of the network's resources. Some bugs make the game unbalanced. So they fix these bugs, and annoy you until you download the updates. Because until you get the update, you could cheat, you could use too much processing power on the network, or you could have an unfair advantage over other players. I'm surprised you can use any online features of your games without using the current version. Most games I know will not allow you to play them at all online until you update them. It's only fair: I don't want to play against you if your version still allows you to glitch off the map.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

Originally Posted by ZenBeam

Yeah, no fucking shit. I'm working on it. As I said in the OP, these are overnight downloads for me. That means one game per night.

Really? The Wii interrupts your games to ask you to update the games while you're playing them? Over and over? For updates of hundreds of Mbytes? I don't think the Wii even updates games, only the system. I have a Wii, I've never seen this. Frankly, I don't believe you.

This happens whether I'm using the online features or not. And it's a pain to have to remember to to check the internet enabled setting every time I start game, and if I forget, I've got to quit the game to change it, and start all over..

Look people, I'm not complaining about having to update the games. I'm working on it, but gigabytes of updates spread over multiple games takes a while.

The problem is it interrupts my game repeatedly if I forget to turn off the internet.

Then update a title every night. How many titles do you have?

[ZenBeam]

Originally Posted by Munch

Is it really interrupting in the middle of the game? It shouldn't do that except right when you load the game up. I'd first make sure you've updated the system software itself (which should be current, otherwise it wouldn't go online at all). If that's not it, I'd try resetting the system. That really seems off from my experience. Each download should be ONE download, not multiple separate ones.

Yes, in the middle of games, over and over. I did update the system. I think you're right that I couldn't go online at all until I did.

It is multiple separate downloads. For Little Big Planet, for example, when it wanted to update, it said 32 MB, 1/11, and I said OK. It downloaded the first part, installed it, and then began a second part. I quit out of that and turned off the internet so I could play the game. I still need to finish updating that one. For Modnation Racers, I was checking in on it while I was playing another game on the Wii. 1/6 was a 132 MB download, 4/6 was 349, and 5/6 was 200. I missed 2 and 3, and went to bed before 5 finished.

Originally Posted by Randy Seltzer

I suspect that they intended for this to be a problem.

Lots of games hit the market with bugs. Some bugs allow people to cheat. Some bugs make the game use too much of the network's resources. Some bugs make the game unbalanced. So they fix these bugs, and annoy you until you download the updates. Because until you get the update, you could cheat, you could use too much processing power on the network, or you could have an unfair advantage over other players. I'm surprised you can use any online features of your games without using the current version. Most games I know will not allow you to play them at all online until you update them. It's only fair: I don't want to play against you if your version still allows you to glitch off the map.

Are they trying to out-Microsoft Microsoft? If they really intend to make their system annoying for their newest purchasers, they need to rethink that.

I could understand asking me to update each time I started a game, and not letting me compete online until I did. Ideally, I'd still be able to download content, just not be able to play. But I could deal with it if I couldn't go online for that game at all.

[ZenBeam]

Six titles, plus the system. The system update took a few tries, but that was probably their system being overloaded by the new Christmas PS3s. There's also a day of getting the system to see the network (probably my error), and other things going on that I can't feed the PS3 every night.

I think I've got two left to go that need updates. Plus every time I buy a new game in the future, I've got to deal with this again. Plus if some game pushes out another update and the auto-update hasn't run yet (or if it doesn't download individual game updates).

[DKW]

I've had my PS3 for a little less than 3 years now, and have since performed vastly more online activity than I ever imagined doing. (Note: If you saw some ridiculous Rock Band 3 setlist named "Because I Said So, I did that one.) I've had to install updates for nearly every game I've owned, as well as a number of system updates. Typically they take anwhere from 2-6 minutes.

It's my opinion that this is something a modern gamer just has to deal with. These things are complicated now, and Sony's hardware, especially, has always been notoriously difficult to program for. Even a diligent software teams can let a few cheats, glitches, and outright bugs through the cracks. The chance increases if there's a deadline to meet (say, earlier this month?). As long as it's playable and won't corrupt the hard drive or anything, the usual procedure is to release the slightly flawed software, then fix the problems as they show up. Most serious gamers would rather put up with a few months of glitching than not have any game at all for that duration.

The PS3 cannot download and run a game at the same time (found out the hard way while downloading my Assassin's Creed 2 expansions), which is why it has to ask you first.

I've never had a download request come up during gameplay. This sounds very weird to me. It's possible that your hardware got corrupted somehow. If this keeps happening, you might want to have someone take a look at it.

[enalzi]

Originally Posted by ZenBeam

It is multiple separate downloads. For Little Big Planet, for example, when it wanted to update, it said 32 MB, 1/11, and I said OK. It downloaded the first part, installed it, and then began a second part. I quit out of that and turned off the internet so I could play the game. I still need to finish updating that one. For Modnation Racers, I was checking in on it while I was playing another game on the Wii. 1/6 was a 132 MB download, 4/6 was 349, and 5/6 was 200. I missed 2 and 3, and went to bed before 5 finished.

I'm guessing (I don't have a PS3) that the problem comes from the fact that you've started the updates but you haven't finished them. If you had left them alone, it probably wouldn't keep bugging you.

[ZenBeam]

Originally Posted by DKW

Typically they take anywhere from 2-6 minutes.

A few minutes I could handle. The Modnation Racers one took several hours.

I've never had a download request come up during gameplay. This sounds very weird to me. It's possible that your hardware got corrupted somehow. If this keeps happening, you might want to have someone take a look at it.

That reminds me that Munch suggested "resetting the system" and I meant to ask about it. What is that, how do I do it, and what will it do? Will it leave saved game files alone? I won't have to re-download all those updates again, will I?

Originally Posted by enalzi

I'm guessing (I don't have a PS3) that the problem comes from the fact that you've started the updates but you haven't finished them. If you had left them alone, it probably wouldn't keep bugging you.

It was only the one game that I started and didn't let finish, and it's multiple games with the issue. But it's possible you're onto something. I'll finish updating LBP tonight.

ETA: I think we had the problem before any game updates were done.

[pricciar]

I have never had it ask me to download while playing. I always have a screen that pops up when I start the game. It says there is an update available and if I want to start playing I need to download. I usually leave the room while it does it's thing and it doesn't take long. It's annoying, but I guess at least the bugs are getting patched.

If these downloads are taking so long. Perhaps your WiFi connection is slow? Maybe it would be worthwhile to connect your PS3 to the internet with an ethernet cable. That might speed up things for the update, and you can go back to normal after you have everything downloaded.

[Munch]

Originally Posted by ZenBeam

It is multiple separate downloads. For Little Big Planet, for example, when it wanted to update, it said 32 MB, 1/11, and I said OK. It downloaded the first part, installed it, and then began a second part. I quit out of that and turned off the internet so I could play the game.

Okay - that I've seen before. Yeah, it's really annoying, and doesn't have much to do with how long you've put it off. Some games will invariably run into a patch that is bad like that. LBP and ModNation are pretty similar games, so I think their patches covered kind of the same issues (I talking out of my ass here).

As for resetting the system - I wouldn't do it. The updates seem normal enough. The only thing that'd speed things up would be an internet upgrade (or going wired).

[ZipperJJ]

This is a reminder for you to update your system.