Install PS3 games on hard drive

Selected PS3 games will offer the option to install, PC-style, on to the console's hard drive to allow faster in-game loading times, it was revealed at last Friday's Gamer's Day conference.

Slash-'em-up Genji: Days of the Blade allows a 4GB install that will drastically reduce the wait between scenes,MTV has reported - although that's not the entire contents of the game, as playing without the disc in the drive provides no music.

It's rumored that two other PS3 launch titles shown at Gamer's Day - Resistance: Fall of Man and Ridge Racer 7 - also have this feature, in which casethose with the 20GB PS3 may find that these three alone would fill up their hard drive.

The more cynical among us might wonder if that means we can expect lengthy loading times from PS3 titles that aren't borrowing a chunk of our hard drive space - it's certainly been the case with our experience of games running off disc at E3 and the Tokyo Game Show. But it's still a welcome choice, and with some form of hard drive guaranteed in every PS3, no one will be left out of the option.

October 23, 2006