Vent?

Oz Gran Turismo 5 doesn’t work on Japanese systems.

Well… That was a welcome surprise. Consider me the luckiest lad on the face of the planet! I was hoping to get my hot little hands on a copy of GT5 Prologue, play the crap out of it, then review its nuts off on this page- all for you. Was gonna be a present. And oh, how I smiled when I got home, put it in my PS3, and got an error message- “You cannot play this game on the current video output setting.” Joy.

You see, it turns out that Japanese PS3’s are pretty selective. At first I thought it was the fact that the game was PAL and my PS3 is NTSC, but then I realised the case is the same for GH3 and Singstar- both of which are Australian versions, and both of which work PERFECTLY. Not a hiccup.

So I think what it actually boils down to is that the developer sets each game’s regional compatibility. In my experience, two games have given me this error- Jumping Flash (PS1 game downloaded from PSN) and GT5 Prologue. Both games provided by SCEE themselves. It’s likely that their adherence to the rules are far more strict than other companies. If only their “rules” weren’t outdated… Oz TVs have fairly effortlessly played NTSC videos/games for quite some time now.

To be fair though, the opposite exists in Japan, where I had to search high and low for a TV-signal converter- eventually I found one, of course in Akihabara, and it cost me ¥20,000… all so I could play my PAL Wii on my crappy NTSC TV… Yeah, laugh it up, Internet. Those things used to cost $20 back in the day…

But.. it’s not the PS3- that works fine on my TV. It’s not the fact the games are PAL- GH3 and Singstar both work fine, too. Must be the game itself. And that sucks. Lift your game, people. Or maybe I should upgrade to an HD TV… If only (drools on self).

Complaints aside, NTSC version to be ordered from good ol’ trusty Amazon very soon- for cheaper than I bought it, too! I keep forgetting I moved back to the country where gamers are charged top dollar to enjoy themselves… from a country where gaming is becoming a national past-time. Sigh…

Related posts

• Xbox 360 price drop (0)
• Too Human is too good (0)
• The Guitar Hero thot plickens… (0)
• Sony Press Conference (0)
• Rumoured Rock Band pricing? Not funny! (0)