Last night we received word of the initial
USB Extreme GUI release which is, in most aspects, better than the
Command-Line Tools previously available for
USB Extreme. The GUI allows you to Delete, ReName, and Copy your images on the USB HDD, however, this initial GUI release is still "buggy" for formatting the drive with it. We have
updated our
USB Extreme F.A.Q. page to include a complete Tutorial on using BOTH versions for those interested.
After spending a few hours experimenting with
USB Extreme (the software solution for PSTwo v12+ console owners who wish to store and run their games from a USB HDD) courtesy of
Linker4U.com, here are our results thus far in comparison to HD Advance:
USB Extreme seems more compatable initially with a broad range of PS2 titles, whereas HD Advance requires you to enable "modes" for many to work. However, according to the manufacturer
USB Extreme still has an overall
lower compatability percentage than its predecessor. If you are strictly seeking increased game loading
speed, then we recommend you seek a v1-11 PS2 console and use HD Advance, but if you do not mind the loading times derived from playing games via CD/DVD then
USB Extreme may be for you! On some titles (King's Field: The Ancient City, for example) we tested, the FMV scenes were a bit choppy so we had to skip through them... but others such as GTA: San Andreas played the FMVs smoothly despite occasional (but brief) lag prior to loading them. Feel free to use our
USB Extreme Forum thread to discuss your own experiences with it as well.
One nice feature of the
USB Extreme is that it works with both IDE HDDs (we're using a 120GB Maxtor 7200RPM) in a http://www.linker4u.com/pp/item_detail.asp?itemID={95854A54-45FB-4490-B268-BC3AC235ECC5} (
only $18.47) or with standalone USB drives of course. This makes it
really convenient, as you can just plug the drive into your PC, transfer games to it, and then plug it into your PSTwo to play them! Another thing we like about the
USB Extreme is that it transfers games to the PSTwo HDD
VERY fast. For example, a 2.66GB (2,867,822,592 bytes) PS2 DVD game transfers in
under 4 minutes via PC- cool indeed!
Finally, we're told those who purchase a
USB Extreme from
USBExtreme.com will receive a
discount off of
future upgrades of the software as stated http://www.hdadvance.com/upgrade simply by cutting out and saving the Upgrade Coupon located on the package. Our opinion: there simply isn't an easier way to play PS2 games from a Hard Disk Drive on a PSTwo console than the
USB Extreme software to date- so go for it if you own a v12+ PSTwo!
Linear Mode
