Gamers I need help! PS3 game! SOLVED thanks!

[Beldarna]

I can't post this on any gamer sites because my boyfriend follows and reads on them.

He wished for Metal Gear Solid 4 - Guns of the Patriots - Platinum for Christmas and I found a Swedish webstore which had it and bought it. Delivery within a day and what do I get? Metal Gear Solid 4 -Guns for of the Patriots - Greatest Hits! I've been googling for an hour trying to find out if there are any differences between these two versions except the cover and come up with nothing so far. All I get is plot and gameplays. Also, on the cover it says :"Licensed for distribution in North America on the Playstation 3 computer entertainment system". Does this means it's generally for the North American region and not for our part of Europe? I don't get it. Why did they send me this instead of what I payed for?

I play games on the PS3 but I have never bought any for myself before and I am such a noob when it comes to this.  I am gonna contact the store, I just want some information so it sounds like I know what I'm talking about.

Anyone know about the game? Are there any differences? Heelp!!!

[barbgirl1999]

Just looking around a few forums, it looks like the only differences that are pointed out are that there's a red stripe on one of the boxes, and the manual may not be in color on the one you bought.  There was also a patch released for the original that is probably already part of the Greatest Hits version....Sorry I couldn't find anything more concrete!  ^_^

[Majesty]

I'm a metal gear solid series fan.  I have all the games, and some action figures, etc.  I checked online for you.  I have the limited edition so it's different than standard or platinum.  Platinum they released only in Europe and the only difference is the cover.  I don't know if they released platinum in the US too or not but there's no difference, just the cover.  If your bf really wants the platinum he would only want it for the cover.  From what I read, most people didn't like the cover.

Here is where I got my info on standard versus platinum.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=77209

As far as the greatest hits, I think it might only be for North America.  But, I found a website where someone asks basically the same question.  Someone said all PS3's are region free so you should be able to play your north american game on your PS3.

Here's the link to the website:

https://forums.playfire.com/general-discussion/thread/85733


I hope this helps. /color]

[Beldarna]

Thank you so much for the information! I knew I could count on you guys! *squishy hugs*

I looked at the link you provided Majesty, and there seems to be some differences in opinions on regions and someone posted this:

"PS3 games are NOT region free.  Neither are the save files or most of the DLC. The PS3 console itself can play any region of game."

which kind of makes sense. But I'm still confused because I vaguley remember John talking about a friend who has both an European and American account to play all kinds of games..  God.. I have some reading up to do.


Edited for typos and changed some text to make more sense.. I so need to sleep.

[DoctorMowinckel]

It should work. I Sverige du använder PAL-TV, ja? Så det bör i PAL, det bör av alla bra. Den PS3 bör render in PAL, och dët vill inte problem.

I think the PS3's output overrides the NTSC/PAL of the game, but I'm not sure.

I also speak Swedish, poorly, so, y'know. Hallå. Du gallar pönyer? Man I don't know how to spell pony in Swedish. I know how to say it!

[kaoskat]

Good luck with your boyfriend's game!

[Eviecorn]

Man, if this was an older console I'd be all over this, but when it comes to PS3 stuff I'm useless.  :O

[RAMChYLD]

Afaik, PS3 games are region-optional. The developer may ask for Sony to put a region lock on the game, but to date the only region-locked game released is Persona 4 Arena (which, as you can guess, is already creating a major uproar in Europe after the European version has been announced to be delayed indefinitely). Most games are simply region free to date- Sony does not prohibit, but discourages the use of region locking.

However, the DLC must match the region of the game. For example, if you have a US game, only DLC bought from the US PSN will be usable with the game.

I myself own a North American PS3, even though the proper version for Malaysia is The Hong Kong version (i opted for the US version mainly because I want Region-1 DVD support). I've run both Local and North American games on it without issues. I am able to log in to the Malaysian PSN and download DLCs for Locally released games and purchase downloadable games. I have not tried Persona 4 Arena, but I'm not interested in supporting greedy companies who give regions the finger just because they can.

Footnote: the locally released games are all Japanese and Chinese versions of games.

[Beldarna]

THANK YOU RAMChYLD! I happen to ask my bf about DLC in another context and it's nothing he uses so I'm off the hook. I'm keeping the game but dropping a note to the store that they might change their add a bit.

DoctorMowinckel, I have to say, honestly, that I have no idea what PAL-TV is. I have never heard of it before. Pony spells ponny .

[RAMChYLD]

THANK YOU RAMChYLD! I happen to ask my bf about DLC in another context and it's nothing he uses so I'm off the hook. I'm keeping the game but dropping a note to the store that they might change their add a bit.

Glad to be of help.

Btw, if your boyfriend changes his mind, his option would be to create a US PSN account using some fake address (or use the address of a US accomplice) and try to get US gift cards. This is a grey market action - Sony usually won't bother checking, but it's not really ethical to do so.

As for DoctorMowinckel's PAL and NTSC thing, well, they're TV specifications, the former used almost everywhere in the world while the latter used mostly only in the Americas, American Territories, and certain parts of Asia (Namely Japan, South Korea, The Philippines and Myanmar) where video game consoles are concerned. Using a NTSC output on a PAL TV and vice-versa will result in an unviewable image, normally observed to be rolling and lacking color, or worse, black screen with an error message from the TV saying that the image format is unsupported. Usually, this can be worked around by having a World-Multi TV (a commonplace in certain countries, like Malaysia, because for some reason the TV broadcast standard is PAL, but all the game consoles, DVD and Blu-Ray players sold in the country is NTSC). Using a HDMI connection from the console to a HDTV should also alleviate the problem, since most HDTVs should accept NTSC (i60, p30 and p60) HDMI input because it's universal for computers to output HDMI in that format, and it would do TV manufacturers good to implement support for the format unless they want bushels of complaints from people trying to connect their TV to a PC or laptop and failing.

[Beldarna]

You are better than Google! Thank you so much for all this information! I greatly appreciate it!

As I said earlier, a friend of my boyfriend has a US account as well and if I remember correctly, they used to share it somehow but I don't think they do now. The friend is a throphiehunter so he uses it to get all trophies he can get. John is more into playing the commercial games that always get released everywhere so I don't think he's interested. He is considering getting PSN+ tho.

Now I understand the TV thing as well. We have a pretty new TV and the PS3 is connected to it through HDMI so I guess we're good! I love learning new stuff! Thanks again for making me wiser.