There has been a ton of news circulating regarding the battle between hackers and Sony. First, Geohot broke security behind the console in an effort to re-enable the ability to install Linux on the console. Following this malicious users did what they could with the hack to pirate games, cheat online and cause all sorts of havoc. Next came a law suit from Sony against Geohot which forced him to never distribute the already available hacking information which angered the online group dubbed Anonymous. Finally, Anonymous hacked Sony bringing down the PlayStation Network and stealing all sorts of user info.
Most of this other than Geohot’s initial intention to bring back the ability to install Linux is incredibly bad. However, it seems that the fruits of his labor have finally paid off as it was just made known today that hackers have managed to finally bring back the OtherOS functionality. If you’re not familiar with this feature it shipped with the original PS3 and allowed consumers to install and use Linux on the console. Unfortunately Sony removed the feature due to security concerns which obviously worked against what they were trying to accomplish.
Just yesterady we let you know that GeoHot, the iPhone hacker, was hard at work on a firmware that would combat the new PS3 update that will remove Linux. If, however, if you aren’t big on the whole Linux thing you’ll be happy to hear that the PS3 firmware version 3.21 has just been released to the Playstation Network.
Of course, if you are into Linux and don’t want to give up the Other OS features, you’re going to be disappointed to hear that in order to log into the Playstation Network, you’re going to need to update your console to version 3.21. Bummer.
You may have heard that Sony disabled the ability to run Linux on the PS3, a feature that had hackers everywhere jumping joy. Well, now that the feature has been removed hackers everywhere are screaming in agony. Luckily, the guy behind a number of iPhone jailbreaks, GeoHot, has posted on his PS3 blog encouraging users not to update.
He then goes on to say that he will attempt to develop a firmware that will allow users to upgrade their systems to 3.21 while retaining OtherOS support.
But honestly Sony, why did you put it in there in the first place if you were going to disable it down the line.
Developers and Linux fanboys aren’t exactly pleased with Sony’s decision to leave OtherOS support out of the PlayStation 3 slim. It was previously only speculated why it was left out, but today Sony gives a reason behind their move; money.
“The reasons are simple: The PS3 Slim is a major cost reduction involving many changes to hardware components in the PS3 design,” SCEE’s Sarah Ewen said. “In order to offer the OtherOS install, SCE would need to continue to maintain the OtherOS hypervisor drivers for any significant hardware changes – this costs SCE.”
Ewen continues on to say that the main objective behind the Slim is to offer a lower price, and the cost of OtherOS did not meet the standards to lower the price.
Be sure to read up on our review of the PlayStation 3 Slim in case you’re still on the fence about buying it.
Read (Exophase)
Steam has certainly been rolling out the updates today for games, haven’t they? Today, Team Fortress 2 was updated with a number of bug fixes and balance changes. Dedicated servers that run on Linux will be seeing an improved connection logic to help servers that aren’t automatically reconnecting to Steam, as well.
Here are all the detailed changes:
- Fixed seeing error dialogs if the “-nocrashdialog” command line parameter is present
- Added an optional per-map particle manifest called _particles.txt, which should be located in the maps directory, so map authors can load custom particle files
- Fixed minicrits resulting in reduced damage for weapons at close ranges
- Fixed the Cloak and Dagger not regenerating at the correct rate
- Fixed setinfo exploit that allowed restricted convars to be set while connected to a server
- Fixed tournament mode being interrupted if mp_timelimit hits before both stopwatch rounds have been played
- Fixed “jointeam unassigned” exploit
- Fixed being able to respawn during the chat time before a level change
- Fixed “sensitivity” ConVar not capping the upper value which sometimes caused a server crash
- Prevented some exploits based on mat_dxlevel being changed in-game
- Updated ripple effects for water drips to improve performance
The update can be installed just by restarting your Steam client.
A website for id Software’s upcoming first-person-shooter Rage has spawned. Players can navigate the site, hunting for subtle clues about the game’s storyline and such in a “Follow My Journey” theme. As shown by a Tweet by id, the site will be updated every day this week with new content.
The post-apocalyptic FPS will be out for the PC, Mac OS X, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Linux operating systems and will be out sometime next year.
Activision has finally given a date for the highly anticipated Wolfenstein. The science-fiction first person shooter will be hitting North American stores on August 4th, and Europe a bit earlier on June 26th.
If you’re impatient and need to kill some Nazis as soon as possible, the original Wolfenstein 3D will be making its way to both the Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network early June.
Wolfenstein is set to ship for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC systems.
Read (GameSpot)
On LinuxGames is word that CCP is dropping support for the Linux client of EVE Online as of March 10. This is due to the “low amount of users… did not justify the degree of additional complexity having three operating systems impose on our development and release schedules.”
CCP continues, adding that there is also the matter of maintaining the hardware infrastructure, as well as spending man-hours to refine and test the user client and more factors that have changed their minds on Linux support.
The studio was one of the very few developers who actually developed for Linux. Other notables include id Software and… well, no one comes to mind.
