Joystiq [PlayStation]

Colin M. asks: When will the ceramic white and silver DualShock3 controllers be available in North America? Is it worth the wait or should I just pay the extra shipping?
PS3F answers: That wait might be forever, Colin. Last we heard, Sony has no plans to bring the white or silver controllers (and their respective consoles) out in North America. We reported on that sometime early this year. Since then, we haven't heard much about anything in that regard. With all the new peripheral Sony is focusing on lately (such as the official Bluetooth headset and the wireless keypad), it looks like these specialty DualShock controllers are not on Sony's agenda at the moment -- or it's somewhere at the very bottom. Import them if you really want them.

x3r9g6 asks: There have been some conflicting opinions on which is better: a PS3 game on Blu-ray disc or the same game downloaded off the PlayStation Store. All I wanna know is if I download the full game of WipEout HD, it would be the exact same thing as having the disc except it uses hard drive memory and I don't have a disc to carry around, right? It might even load faster than the disc. I read some other comments about how the graphics look better when running the disc.
PS3F answers: You really shouldn't compare the two in terms of "what is better" because neither is a better option over the other. They both serve their purposes and have their own benefits. In the case of WipEout HD, it's a rather small game. It only takes up 1GB. Putting it on a single-layered Blu-ray with storage capacity of 25GB seems a wee impractical, doesn't it? It also doesn't seem practical to put Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PS Store as a 50GB downloadable title -- even for those who have massive HDDs installed in their PS3s. Is a 50GB download worth the extra few seconds shave off load times? Is it really that much more of a convenience than carrying a plastic case around?

If we were to talk about UMDs and PSP, however, that's a different story. The benefits of having digitally distributed PSP games greatly outweighs those of having UMDs -- considering that most games will not take up much space, will load faster, and the ease of mobility is better felt.


Ricardo S. asks: So, I have an American PS3 and PSN account. Why can't I access the Movie Store?
PS3F answers: The region of your console does not matter. While you may have an American PSN account, there is one more additional thing you will need. You must be physically in the United States to gain access to the movies section. The store scans for your IP Address as you login.

Buzz W. asks: If I stop a movie during playback on my PS3 it won't resume from where I left off when I hit play again. How come my regular DVD players does this and the PS3 won't?
PS3F answers: Buzz, you probably don't have the latest firmware on your system since this feature was added in a few updates ago. You can stop playback, return to the XMB, pop out the disc, put in a game, and play for awhile. Then when you return to your movie, it'll continue play exactly where it previously left off. Now how's that for you?

Rolo V asks: At exactly what time of day does the PlayStation Store update on Thursdays? Does it depend on my timezone? I'm in the Central timezone if you were wondering.
PS3F answers: There is no fixed time; however, expect North American content to appear as early as 4pm Eastern time, 1pm Pacific. Content can appear late into the evening as well. Also, keep in mind that not all content will appear on the store in full right away -- you may see an item that's in our weekly update, but it won't appear in the Store until a little while later.