Category: Video Games

PS4 Error Code (CE-34878-0)

Grrrrrr Playstation Grrrrrrr !!

I was 80% through Tomb Raider (Definitive Edition) when I was prevented from loading the game. An error code of CE-34878-0 came up and I tried everything to fix it – including all of the numerous fixes suggested on line.

But nothing worked.

In the end I had to do a factory reset (Initialization) AND, even though I first moved my saved games to an external drive, I still lost all of my saves. After the reset, which I might add took a couple of hours, I moved the saved games back to the PS4 hard drive. The error had been fixed and Tomb Raider loaded without a problem, but it would not pick up where I had left it at 80%. I will have to start over – GRRRRRR !!

This is the first time I have had a problem with the PS4 – but I am still complaining.

As stated in previous posts, to keep occupied during lockdown,  I have been replaying video games. So far I have completed the Far Cry series (X Box) and Uncharted (PS4) and, although lockdown is all but lifted in Queensland, I have enjoyed replaying these games so much that I have continued working through them.

I have “Tomb Raider (Definitive Edition)” on PS4 and the subsequent games, “Rise of the Tomb Raider” and “Shadow of the Tomb Raider”, on X Box.

So it is back to the beginning for Lara Croft. To make matters worse, I had been obsessive in fully completing each section before moving on, (not counting the items you can’t get at until you unlock the shotgun & rope pulley etc.), and some of those GPS things are hard to find!

I suppose it is not the end of the world but I had a bit of trouble with the part where Lara falls out of a crashed plane on a cliff and she grabs a parachute. Naturally the main chute fails and you have to guide her through the tops of trees with her reserve chute. One misjudgement and she clips a tree and gets impaled – it took me about 4 or 5 goes to get it. Poor Lara looks so bad when she gets impaled and I feel guilty for causing it.

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CARE! Further comments on this subject at https://whysun.com/ps4/ps4-error-code-ce-34878-0-continued/

Lockdown Video Games–Far Cry 3

Please refer to my previous two posts about how I am spending my time under lockdown replaying old favourite video games.

I have completed Far Cry 3 – or at least climbed all the radio towers, captured all the outposts and finished the campaign. I did not do many of the side missions as, from this weekend, the lockdown is being partially lifted in Queensland and I want to get onto Far Cry 4 and 5.

I had forgotten what a great game Far Cry 3 is! Although it is an X Box 360 game, it plays very well on X Box One.

There are no fortresses in Far Cry 3 but the outposts get more difficult to capture as you explore the map, particularly the ones on the second island with multiple alarms and “Heavies” among the defenders. Also, unlike the subsequent games, you don’t get told how many alarms there are and the difficulty rating of an outpost.

My method is to find an observation position and tag as many defenders as I can see and note the number of alarms and the positions of the alarm boxes. My next task is to shoot out the alarm boxes with a silenced sniper rifle so that they cannot call for back up. Then, still with the silenced sniper rifle, I pick off as many defenders as I can before they become aware that they are under attack. Although, in cases where it is not possible to get a clear shot at each alarm box, I resort to the easier method of sneaking in and disabling all the alarms at once via interaction with one box.

But it is now onto Far Cry 4 with one of the best villains in any game – Pagan Min.

Video Games : Far Cry – Controller Sensitivity Problems – X Box One Backwards Compatible

Refer to my last post “Lockdown-Video Games”.

I finished playing the Uncharted series and decided to start the Far Cry series.

I have the disks for 5 Far Cry games and a digital version of “Far Cry New Dawn”. I started with the first game “Far Cry Instincts Predator” but I did not buy “Far Cry Primal”.

The disks for the first 3 are for X Box 360 but all are on the list of Xbox One backwards compatible games.

However, the first two (Far Cry Instincts Predator and Far Cry 2) are almost impossible to play on X Box One due to issues with controller sensitivity. I set sensitivity at the lowest point but it does not make any difference. An internet search revealed that this is a well known problem with no solution.

I was really looking forward to playing these games again, but I have no choice but to start at Far Cry 3. Luckily I kept my old X Box 360, so I will have to get it out and set it up if I want to play the first two.

Far Cry 3 (also on a 360 disk) works as it should.

In the meantime I am getting back into Far Cry 3 and, if memory serves me correctly, the best weapon for me is a silenced sniper rifle. So far,  I have climbed 3 radio towers to earn the sniper rifle but I need to get a silencer and additional weapons slots before I venture out further in the map.

These are great games and, as with the Uncharted series, the on-going improvement in the quality of the graphics is dramatic. The same thing applies for the Artificial Intelligence (AI). The enemies in the first games are really dumb, but AI continually improves so that by the time you get to Far Cry 5, I recall that the enemies are really smart and don’t give up easily in chasing you down.

Lockdown–Video Games

I haven’t posted about video games for a long time but with the current lockdown, I have had the time to play a lot more.

I have progressed through the Uncharted series from the beginning and am now well into the last release – “Uncharted: The Lost Legacy”.

The first in the series “Uncharted: Drakes Fortune” was released in 2007 and the most recent (The Lost Legacy) in 2017.

The one thing that really stands out is the improvement in the graphics with each release. In fact, with The Lost Legacy, it is easy to forget that you are not viewing real actors on film, particularly in the cutscenes. It is the same for most new games.

I can easily see a time in the near future when actors will not be needed with only a much smaller number relegated to off screen motion capture tasks.

I now play these action adventure type games almost exclusively rather than first person shooters. I’m not as agile as I used to be and this makes it hard to get kill streaks in the shooter games. On the other hand, I enjoy solving the puzzles and other things required in the action adventure games. Also, Nathan, Chloe, Lara etc still get to kill plenty of baddies and there is no end to the wanton vandalism and destruction of valuable ancient artifacts and buildings. Naturally, the aforementioned Nathans, Chloes and Laras are trying to save this stuff and defeat the baddies but still, they leave a trail of destruction (and dead bodies).

As I have played these games a number of times previously, I don’t have too much difficulty remembering the solutions to the puzzles and (for Lara Croft) the locations of the tombs.

But the one I still have a problem with is in The Lost Legacy. To release the Queen’s ruby, Chloe has to collect tokens scattered around the map. To retrieve one of the tokens, she has to climb up on a ruin to activate 7 fountains located on top of 7 different elevated structures. Then she uses her rope to swing from structure to structure to deactivate each fountain before returning to the starting point to get the token. She only has a limited time to do this and I always fail by making her jump too early and miss the next target. The tension is made worse with a clock ticking down the seconds and increasing in volume as time runs out.

However, I managed to get it on the 4th try this time, so I’m improving.

Leaving aside the many real and serious problems caused by the lockdown, I have to say that I don’t mind being “forced” to play video games.

X Box One and PS4

I have been using my X Box One for a few months now and frankly, I think that it has a lot of issues that need urgent attention.

It has nice graphics and the voice control works OK, but the graphics are not that much better than the 360 and the novelty of voice control has, at least as far as I am concerned, worn off.

These are a list of the things that I find most disappointing in order from most disappointing to less disappointing:

1. No voice messages

2. Game install times – it takes forever to install the disk to the Hard Drive and I have problems with freezing during the install. (See Also 3 & 6)

3. Having no choice about installing the game to the Hard Drive (See also 2 & 6)

4. Not working as a media extender for Windows Media Centre

5. Not playing videos on external drives

6. Small Hard Drive and no ability to attach an external drive to store games. My drive is already almost half full and this means that I will soon have to start deleting stuff (See No 2 and 3)

7. Not being able to access files (pictures videos) on computers on my home network

At this time there are many annoyances both big and small that tend to sour the Xbox One experience and I am so glad that I kept my 360.

I had intended to delay purchase of a PS4 until the PS4 supported 3D Blu-ray. However in view the issues with the Xbox One, I decided to buy a PS4 now to compare the 2 consoles.

I bought 2 games for the PS4 – Tomb Raider Definitive Edition that I have also played on X Box One and Killzone Shadowfall (because it was bundled in a deal at EB Games).

Now that I have been using the PS4 for about 2 weeks this is my opinion of both the new consoles.

Controllers:

As I have mentioned in previous posts, one of the main reasons I have favoured the X Box is because I liked the X Box Controller better than the PS3 controller.

PS3 controller dislikes for me are:

  • Small size;
  • No triggers;
  • No removable battery; and
  • Needs to be recharged frequently via USB cable to console.

The PS4 controller is much improved in regard to size and you could probably now say it has triggers (sort of). But the PS4 controller still has the problem of no removable batteries so that it has to be connected via USB cable to the console to recharge and I have found that re-charging seems to be needed more frequently than the Xbox One / 360.

Verdict – Improved but still not as good as X Box (but for me no longer a deal breaker)

ITEMS LISTED ABOVE FOR XBOX ONE COMPARED TO PS4

Item 1 Voice messages

I don’t have a head set for the PS4 and I don’t have a subscription to Play Station Plus. However, from what I can see it is similar to X Box One in that it has in game chat but no voice messages.

Item No 2 – Game Install Times. PS4 WINS hands down. Games install very quickly and this is in marked contrast to the X Box One.

Item No 3 – Compulsory install to Hard Drive. The PS4 is the same as the X Box One but this is greatly mitigated by the very quick install times.

Item 4 – Media Extender. The PS3 did have DLNA but I can’t see this on PS4.

Item 5 – Video on External Drives. I plugged 2 USB drives into the PS4, one formatted as FAT32 and the other as NTFS. It did not see either drive.

Item 6 – Hard Drive size. PS4 has the same size hard Drive as X Box One but the big difference in favour of PS4 is that, unlike the X Box One, the PS4 uses a standard SATA Hard Drive and you can self-install a bigger drive. There are plenty of “How To” guides on line. More importantly, it does not void the warranty and Sony has a place to download the recovery software if you swap in a bigger drive http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps4/new-install/

On the other hand the PS4, like X Box One does not yet support attached external drives.

Item 7 – Access to Home Network attached computers. From what I can see, the PS4 lacks this function as well. The Xbox one interacts with the iPad App and no doubt the PS4 does similar things but I want to be able to stream pictures, video, and music from my computer over my home network – just like X Box 360 and PS3.

GAME PLAY

Comparing Laura Croft Tomb Raider Definitive Edition on both consoles, the video quality, load times (apart from initial install) and general game play seem to me to be all but identical.

INITIAL SET UP

The PS4 was easier to set up and the initial update was smaller. But this is not important as you only do it once and the X Box One has a Kinect that adds to the set up.

X Box Live vs. PlayStation Plus

You now need to pay for on line gaming on both consoles but as I do not have PlayStation Plus I can’t really comment. Also, for obvious reasons, it is hard to get an unbiased opinion on line. I will assume that they are about equal.

CONCLUSION

This is my opinion only and it does not take into account the new non gaming things that the XBox One in particular can do (most of which don’t work in Australia in any case).

Both XBox One and PS4 need a number of updates to equal the functionality of the Xbox 360 and PS3.

However if you only want to play video games, at this stage, I am slightly in favour of the PS4 but not enough to make me switch my X Box Live subscription or pay for both.

It is just far too early to make any drastic decisions and whether or not I decide to pay for PlayStation Plus and / or continue to pay for X Box Live will depend on what updates are provided and how fast they are implemented.

If you are buying your very first console to play games only, and you do not have friends that are using a particular console that you might want to play with on line, and you don’t to want to wait to see what happens with updates/ improvements, I have to say that the PS4 seems a little bit better. (Note – this is based on the much slower initial game install times on X Box One. If XBox fixes this, then I would say they are about even.)

In other words, pick the console that your friends are using.Otherwise stick with your existing Xbox 360 or your PS3, particularly if you already have an Xbox Live / PlayStation Plus subscription and / or most of your friends remain on the old consoles.

Kinect

Finally, I should mention that at first I always used the Kinect voice commands but after a few weeks this became less frequent and about he only one I now use is  “snap / unsnap” and I don’t use this very much. The only other regular use of Kinect I make is the automatic face recognition to sign into X Box Live.  A cheaper XBox One without Kinect would not make much difference to the gaming experience but would make it price competitive with PS4. If games eventually come out that really require a Kinect, then you could buy one as an optional extra.