xmbAs much fun as I've had lately with my PS3 and Metal Gear Solid 4, there was one area that I always found extremely aggravating.  Because (as I mentioned in my review) MGS4 was a megaton release I've found that a lot more of my friends have been using their PS3's lately.  That's all well and good, except for when you're "stuck" playing your game and you can't interact with them in any way.  For example, until this week if I was going through the paces as Old Snake and one of my friends logged in I would be notified.  "So and so has logged in," my screen would say.  Going a step further sometimes that user would send me a message, "New message from so and so."  The only problem was in order to hook up with this person in a game, or read my messages, or send a reply back I would have to quit the game and go back to the PS3's home screen.

That's why for a long time an in-game Cross Media Bar (also referred to as the XMB - the PS3's user interface) has been at the top of the list of requested features for most PS3 users.  A little over a week ago it seemed as if our prayers had finally been answered, with firmware version 2.4 not only did we finally get access to the XMB from inside of games simply by pushing the PS button on the controller, but trophies (read achievements for my Xbox Live buddies out there) were finally unlocked.  I was pretty excited for that obviously, so sometime last Wednesday afternoon I turned my PS3 on to grab the update but was saddened to see that there was no update.  I checked the news sites to confirm that 2.4 was supposed to be out that day, and was doubly saddened to see that the update had to be pulled because it was bricking a select few user's consoles.

psn_trophy_list Let's not dwell on the negative part of this story though!  This past Tuesday the update was re-released as version 2.41, completely brick-free, and I have to say I'm already wondering how I was able to get around without it.  As I said the most important change is that you can finally interact with your friends list from inside of a game, which includes viewing your friends list and reading/replying to messages.  There's also support for in-game soundtracks in select games which is cool, plus you can change all of your settings.  That doesn't sound too important but if you've ever been trying to get into a multiplayer game and your bluetooth headset wasn't activated you'll appreciate it.

There's still some neglected features.  For example if you try to view photos or videos in-game (some people would ask why?) you'll be asked to exit the game first.  The same is true for features like the Playstation Store and the PS3's web browser.  Being able to pop into a game and then pull up the browser to hit a fan site or something would be cool, not to mention being able to download expansion packs for whatever game you're playing if the inspiration strikes.  On a related note you can also manage your Playstation Store downloads from the in-game XMB.

So really, as the title of this post denotes, there's nothing revolutionary about this update.  It brings the PS3 almost up to speed with where the Xbox 360 was at launch in 2005.  This functionality should have been introduced much earlier I think, but at least it's finally here.  My favorite part is that I get to interact with the PS3's dashboard UI a little more frequently.  The more I use it the more I realize that it's both easier to use and prettier than the Xbox 360's guide.  That's true of the Playstation Store as well...for a free service PSN has really stepped it up on the aesthetic front.

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