Not too mention that the thumbsticks appear to be made from a material so harsh that I don’t believe it is of this Earth.

The Xbox One’s thumbsticks can wear your thumbs through to the bone. They are also very, very robust and capable of handling a lot of abuse.

The PlayStation 4 wireless controllers are a lot less brutal. Their thumbsticks lovingly caress your thumbs in a soft embrace as you grind them around and around.

The downside of having this lovely soft under-thumb experience is that, unfortunately, the rubber on PS4 controllers can wear out really quickly.

I was reviewing EA Sports UFC on the PS4, having a spot of bother of trouble controlling a clinch. I was grinding those thumbsticks around and around trying to get my opponent into the Muay Thai position. As I struggled with the game I started noticing loads of tiny black bits on my desk. I swept them away and continued.

A few bouts of UFC later and the little black bits were back. Examining them closer I could see that they were tiny little bits of rubber.

I checked my PS4 controller’s thumbsticks and, to my horror, I could see that the rubber on the right stick was losing definition. The rubber was wearing out.

Checking on the Internet I found many tales of woes, whereby the rubber on many gamers PS4 sticks had worn out after on a few weeks play.

A new PS4 controller will set you back the best part of AU$80, so you really don’t want to be continuously replacing them (or swapping out thumbstick as I did with my Xbox 360 controller a few weeks ago).

Thankfully there’s a cheap and very effective solution.

For only a few bucks on Ebay you can buy a pack of Orb Analogue Thumbstick Covers and get years of enjoyment out of your PS4 controllers.

Not only do they protect the ends of the thumbsticks, the textured surface also provided some extra grip. As they are just covers, they require no technical ability to put on.

To ensure a snug fit turn the cover inside out and position over the end of the thumbstick. Push down and as you do pull the cover over the thumbstick.

It should snap into place. If part of the cover has got caught, carefully untuck it.

If you are not happy with the fit, just take it off and try again.

Repeat on the other stick and there you go.

You’ll now have a PS4 controller that should last you a lifetime (or until the battery fails- check back in a couple of years for THAT DIY tutorial).

The post DIY: Extend the life of your PS4 Dualshock Wireless Controller – Feature appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

As we are not replacing anything on the Xbox One, increasing the Microsoft’s console’s storage capacity is a lot easier than with the PS4.

First, unpack your 2.5 inch USB 3.0 HDD enclosure. As I mentioned earlier in the PS4 upgrade, I’m using a Vantec NexStar RX. If you are using another brand, the following process may be slightly different.

The NexStart RX consist of 3 pieces: the black aluminum chassis, a front panel with a SATA and power connector and a USB 3.0 cable.

Get your new hard drive (1TB) and carefully connect it to the front panel.

It needs to be pushed right in.

Next, carefully slot the drive and the front panel into enclosure chassis.

This particular enclosure is held together with two screws that fix the panel to the chassis.

Now plug the USB cable in and that’s it, all done.

Plug the other end of the USB cable into the USB slot at the back of the Xbox One and start the console.

The Xbox One should recognise the new drive and a message should appear inviting you to format it. This will remove all files / data from the drive, or if it is a new drive it will format for use. Make sure that you are not about to erase anything that you intended to keep if this is not a new hard drive.

Choose a name for the drive. I think that the recommended “External” is as good a name as any and it complements the default name of the console’s built in drive called “Internal”.

A quick format and with that you are done. You’ve doubled your space.

You have the option of using your external drive space as the default location for all your future storage needs.

So there you go. Both your PlayStation 4 and Xbox One upgraded to one terabyte of storage. Going by the size of the average game install, you should have enough space to store 40 games on each.

As hard drive prices continue to fall and their capacity increases, you’ll probably be able to double it again in a couple of years for the same price.

Before I sign off, I just like to point out that I’m doing this on a budget. I’m trying to spend as close to AU$100 on the project as I can, so there’s going to be some compromises.

First off the stock PS4 Samsung HDD is not particularly quick, so don’t expect any amazing performance gains when wiring it up to your Xbox One.

Secondly, the 1TB Western Digital WD10JPVX hard drive is only going to increase storage capacity. Depending on where you look, the drive’s read/write speed is not far off that of the stock drive so, again, there’s not going to be any performance gain.

If you want to give your PS4 a little shot in the arm as well as a storage capacity boost you may want to consider a hybrid drive. Don’t bother with an SSD (unless you are minted and/or mental) as there’s just not the benefit for the cost.

I’d consider a Seagate SSHD as good buy. At the moment you can pick up a 1TB Seagate 2.5” SSHD ST1000LM014 for AU$130. The drive is 6.0Gb/s with an 8G SSD cache. You will really see an improvement with loading time using this drive.

Like all upgrades there’s an offset to be made between performance and cost. I think, for most users, swapping out the stock 500GB PS4 drive for a regular 1TB 2.5” drive will do the job. With 1TB in each machine you should be well positioned to enjoy what promises to be an exciting gaming future.

And as always, if you are not confident to do this hard drive upgrade on your beloved console(s), then DO NOT attempt it.

While this tutorial shows you how and that it can be done we do not recommend that you try this if you are unsure, unfamiliar with hard drives or anything remotely technical. As with all electronic devices, when parts are swapped out, things can go wrong.

The post DIY: Double Your Xbox One Storage Space on a Minimal Budget – Feature appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

If you have a moderately large gaming budget or, like me, you review a lot of games your console hard drive(s) may be starting to bulge a bit with all those games installed on them.

If they are not bulging now, they soon will be. I can count almost twenty absolutely must-have games between the Xbox One and the PS4 coming out between now and Christmas. Even if you only pick up a few games between now and then, that drive capacity of yours isn’t going cope for long into the New Year. Soon you will start getting warnings like this on your PS4.

In real terms what does this mean? Well, I’ve got about 22 games installed- some of which are only relatively small PSN games. If I record a few game clips I usually get a warning. The lack of hard drive space also means I can’t update games.

Even my Xbox One with its twelve games is getting close. Being mindful of the likes of the Xbox One exclusive Halo: Master Chief Collection, Sunset Overdrive and Forza Horizon 2 rapidly approaching, that last thirty gigabytes of space isn’t going to stretch far beyond Christmas.

What can you do about this? Well, there is a way to double both your PS4 and Xbox One hard drive capacity to 1TB each for just over AU$100.

And here’s how.

Whilst the Xbox One’s hard drive is locked away from end-user access, the folks at Sony- in a similar way that they did with the PS3, have designed the PlayStation 4 in such a way that the hard drive can be easily replaced.

You may not be able to swap out the hard drive in an Xbox One, with the recent June 2014 firmware update you can now use an external USB 3.0 hard drive for storage.

In order to efficiently upgrade both machines we are going to replace the PlayStation 4’s 500GB 2.5” HDD with a 1TB drive.

We are then going to place the old 500GB PS4 drive in a USB 3.0 HDD enclosure and attach it to our Xbox One. The end result will be to double the storage in both machines for just over AU$100.

First we need to prepare the PS4 for the upgrade and gather all the tools to do the job.

Replacing the PS4 hard drive is going result in your PS4 being reset to its factory settings. All your installed and downloaded games will be gone, as will your saved games. Any videos and screenshot that you’ve not uploaded to Twitter or Facebook will also be lost.

Whilst, unfortunately there’s nothing that you can do about your installed games, your game saves can be backed up. Even your videos and screenshots, if you are particularly attached to them, can be backed up as well.

I wasn’t fussed about my saved videos or screenshots and just got rid of them, but if you are they can easily be transferred to a connected USB memory stick or external drive.

You can locate your stored videos and screens for the PS4 menu by going to [Settings] > [System Storage Management] > [Capture Gallery] then select the game and highlight the video/screen you wish to keep. Press the Select button on the PS4 controller and then [Copy to USB Storage Drive] from the menu on the right. You’ll need to do this for each individual file.

Backing up saved games to USB isn’t quite so laborious. First plug your USB stick or drive into the PS4. Then, from the Ps4 menu, go to [Settings] > [Application Data Management] > [Saved Data in System Storage] > [Copy to USB Storage]. You then select your game select [Select All] and [Copy]. Do this for each game.

If you’ve got a PlayStation Plus subscription you will see another option if you go, from the PS4 menu, [Settings] > [Application Data Management]. PS Plus subscribers can have the PS4 copy game saves to the PlayStation cloud storage servers. The option [Upload to Online Storage] allows you to select local saves and back them up in the cloud.

With a bit of luck, if you have a PlayStation Plus subscription your PS4 has been dutifully uploading copies of your saves to the cloud server automatically. To check if this is the case got to [Settings] > [System] > [Automatic Downloads and Uploads]. If the box next to [Save Data and Upload Files is ticked then the chances are your save files are already backed up for you.

It’s also worth checking [Settings] > [Power Saving Settings] > [Set Functions Available in Standby Mode] to see if [Connect to the Internet] is ticked. Make a note to check all this again when the new HDD has been installed.

Even if you have got a PS Plus subscription, it’s best to be on the safe size and just check that the cloud saves are there. From the menu go to [Settings] > [Application Data Management] > [Saved data in Online Storage].

Select a few games, one-by-one, and check the files and the dates (choose games you have played recently to check that they are being updated). There’s no need to transfer the file, we are just looking in the cloud storage to check that the saves are there.

Be mindful that when restoring backed up saves you must be signed in with the same PSN account used when you copied the data.

If you are happy that you’ve backed up what you want to keep and/or your saved games are safely stored online we can proceed.

With the housekeeping out of the way, we are going to need a few things to successfully replace the PS4 hard drive and upgrade the storage.

The new hard drive is going to be blank when you install it in your PS4, so you are going to need to download the system software from the internet and put it on a USB memory stick.

You can download the PS4 system software from here: PlayStation Australia or here PlayStation New Zealand.

They may be the same file, but just to be on the safe side use the software for your country. If you PS4 isn’t an Australian or New Zealand model go onto your country’s PlayStation site and search for “upgrading PS4 hard drive” you should find the corresponding file for your machine.

After downloading the file you need to create a couple of folders on your USB memory stick.

First create a folder named PS4. Inside that folder, create another folder named UPDATE. Be sure to use capitals otherwise it will not work. Save the downloaded system software, which should have the name “PS4UPDATE.PUP” in the UPDATE folder.

It’s really important to make sure that the system software is in the right, correctly labelled folders otherwise you won’t be able to get your PS4 running again after you put the new drive in.

As a replacement hard drive I’ve chosen a 2.5 inch Western Digital 1TB SATA drive (WD10JPVX). It cost me eighty-five bucks from MSY in Sydney. There are some considerations to take into account when choosing a replacement hard drive, which I’ll go into later. For now, this hard drive gives us a decent storage capacity increase for a good price.

Once we get the stock 500GB drive out of the PS4 we are going stick it in a USB 3.0 enclosure and plug it into the console. I’ve picked a nice-looking black aluminum 2.5” HDD enclosure, a NexStar RX, from Vantec. I also picked this up from MSY, for a whopping AU$23.

The only actual tool that you are going to need is a Phillips (cross-head) screwdriver.

It’s important, before you replace the PlayStation 4 hard disk drive, to ensure that it is completely switched off. When the power indicator is off, the system is completely off. If the power indicator is lit up in orange, the system is in standby mode.

Make sure the PS4 is completely switched off and unplug the AC power cord. Then disconnect the other cables from the system.

It is a good idea to move the unit to a clean flat surface that gives you a bit of room. Don’t try and change the hard drive with the unit balanced on your knee or sitting on the carpet. Whilst the console was designed to have the hard drive swapped out, you’ve still got to be sensible about it.

With the PlayStation 4 disconnected now’s a good time to give it a clean. The vents have likely sucked up a bit of dust. If you are careful, you can vacuum the dust out. If you are a bit mental or suffer from the shakes, please don’t put your vacuum cleaner anywhere near your console. You can also wipe the PS4 down with a damp cloth. And by damp I mean barely wet.

It’s now time to open the thing up. The PlayStation 4’s hard drive is located under the shiny panel on the left side of the console.

The panel is easily removed by sliding it to the left. Be firm, but careful and it should come off relatively easily.

With the cover off, look for the lone screw with the PlayStation triangle, circle, cross and square on it. Unscrew it and put it somewhere safe.

Carefully pull out the metal mounting bracket containing the hard drive.

Four screws hold the drive in the metal drawer. Unscrew them and put them somewhere safe.

When removing the screws feel how tight they were. Remember this to ensure that you don’t over tighten them when you put it back together. Like when you play with the innards of any technology you must never over tighten screws.

Be careful not to remove the rubber inserts from the screw holes.

Place the replacement HDD on the mounting bracket and then attach using the screws.

Push the mounting bracket with the new hard drive attached back into the PS4. Be sure to fully insert the drive into the HDD bay.

Secure the mounting bracket in the PS4 with the screw with the PlayStation symbols on it.

Replace the shiny panel and reconnect the PS4 cables, leaving the power cable until last.

Now that the hard drive has been replaced we need to reinstall the system software. With the PS4 still switched off insert the USB Stick with the software (in the correct labelled folders) into the console. Also, connect a Dualshock controller to the machine via USB cable.

Press and hold the power button for about seven seconds. Release it after the second beep. It’ll ask you to press the PlayStation button on your controller and then your PS4 should boot to the Safe Mode Menu.

Select the last option on the screen [Initialise PS4 (Reinstall System Software)]. You’ll get a warning telling you that this action will delete everything. Well, there’s nothing on the drive to delete and you backed up everything that you wanted. You did, didn’t you?

It’ll take a little while as the PS4 formats the new drive and installs the operating system. If everything goes well your PS4 will boot with factory settings.

You are going to need to sign in to the PlayStation Network with the same account that you used to backup you data.

You’ll go through a whole host of initial setup things, like setting the time zone and screen area, that you probably remember from when you first switched on the console.

If you suffered from that annoying flicker post-update 1.7 you are going to need to change the Deep Colour Output setting from auto to off in the video output settings.

If you go to [Settings] > [System Storage Management] you’ll see your new hard drive capacity in all its glory. Unfortunately, due to a 1TB drive not actually being 1TB (1TB equals 10x1024MB and not the 10x1000MB that HDD manufacturers use in their marketing) and the PS4 system data taking up a fair amount of space we are only left with around 860GB. Still, it’s much better than it was.

Now it’s time to re-install your stuff. First you are going to need to install your games. You can’t download saves from the cloud for games that you don’t have installed.

As you know, the reason that we are having to swap out our PS4 hard drive is because the machine copies the games from the disk to the hard drive. Whilst it seems to only take a matter of seconds to install and get into the game, it can actually take quite a while.

The PS4 installs while you are playing the game. It does the same thing when downloading digital copies via the store. The console makes sure that the first part of the game is installed and ready to play right away. But in the background the rest of the game is still installing. FIFA 14 gives you a quick match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona to play whilst the console completes the install.

For most new games you never notice that this is happening. When you reinstall a game that you are already some way into, you are likely to get a message telling you that the content isn’t ready yet and that particular part has yet to finish installing.

If you do get a message like that, nothing has gone wrong. It’s perfectly normal. Go away and make a cup of coffee or something. You game will be ready soon.

Reinstalling your games is likely to take longer than anything else in this process. The most efficient way of doing it, that I found, was to take it one game at a time.

Stick the game disk in the drive to get the initial few seconds of install done. Don’t start the game. Whilst that’s doing you can download your backed up game save from the PlayStation cloud.

From the PS4 Menu go to [Application Data Management] > [Saved Data in Online Storage] > [Download to System Storage]. You then select your game [Select All] and [Download]. Do this for each game. If you backed your game saves to a USB stick select [Saved Data on USB Storage] from the [Application Data Management] page.

If you install your games like this you will avoid duplicate save files and it will all get confusing. Be mindful that most games have had an update or two since release. You are likely to get an update added to your download queue the first time you start a game. Until the update is finished and installed you are not likely to be able to use any online features within the gameplay.

Also, don’t forget to re-download any DLC that you’ve purchased for your games. You can check this by highlighting the game on the PS4 menu, moving down and clicking “Related Items” and then clicking “My Add-Ons” panel to the right.

Don’t forget to re-register your portable devices such as your tablet and/or PlayStation Vita if you want to use them with your PS4.

And there you have it. All done.

And as always, if you are not confident to do this hard drive upgrade on your beloved console, then DO NOT attempt it.

While this tutorial shows you how and that it can be done, we do not recommend that you try this if you are unsure, unfamiliar with hard drives or afraid of anything remotely technical. As with all electronic devices, when parts are swapped out, things can go wrong.

Next I’ll show you how to upgrade your Xbox One’s storage space.

The post DIY: Double Your PS4 Storage Space on a Minimal Budget – Feature appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

It’s crayon-encrusted shell protecting technology only good for entertaining children keen to play Dora the Explorer’s latest interactive adventure.

But what about you and I, die-hard Xbox 360 fans that have spent the best part of a decade amassing a game collection that rivals the stock in the local EB Games?

How are we, the faithful, going to continue to enjoy the likes of Gears of War, Red Dead Redemption, Halo ODST and Reach long into the next decade?

It was with the Xbox 360 that console gaming finally came of age. I think, more than any console games that have gone before, Xbox 360 games deserve to be played for years to come. If you feel the same way, you are going to have to realise that eventually it is going to be up to you to keep your machine going.

Fortunately that time isn’t now. If your old console fails you can pay a fortune and get Microsoft to fix it or just go and buy another. Same goes for peripherals.

Take your Xbox 360 controller. Have a look at it. Do you remember when it used to have those little four little bumps on the tops of the rubber thumbsticks?

If you play your Xbox 360 excessively, it’s likely that those little bumps have worn off. No problem, really, as I’m not sure that they did anything.

Unfortunately the next stage in Xbox 360 controller degradation is a bit more of a concern. What do you do when the rubber on your thumbstick wears right through to the plastic?

Well, you can ignore it for starters. You’ll soon stop feeling the lumpy bit under your thumb, but a long session on something like FIFA 14 is likely to send you thumb well on its way to a getting a game break blister. Nobody should get blisters on the end of their thumbs.

Another way of dealing with your split rubber thumbstick is to crack open the super-glue and try to patch it up. Believe me the result will be a bit rubbish and you are likely to get your glue your thumb to your thumbstick.

You could just throw the thing away (don’t forget to remove the battery) and buy a new controller for the best part of $100.

Or you could fix it yourself for under ten bucks (less than $2 if you already have to tool or have a bit more patience).

I took a PS3 controller apart once in an attempt at changing the dead rechargeable battery. The whole thing fell into a million pieces and refused to go back together. It all ended up in the bin.

Thankfully, the innards of an Xbox 360 controller are a little more robust.

Microsoft, it would seem, do not want you getting inside their Xbox 360 controllers. Not content with using the ever-so-awkward Torx screws (with the star-shaped heads), the screws holding the controller together are the security-style Torx screws with an extra-annoying peg in the end. This leaves the DIY controller repairer two options: go buy a security Torx screwdriver (a T9) or use a tiny flathead screwdriver to slowly coerce the screws out.

The actual replacement thumbsticks are easily obtained from eBay vendors. Shop around as there are loads of people selling the same thing for varying different prices.

The controller is held together by seven screws. Six are easy to find, one is not. The seventh screw is located under the rectangular bar-code sticker in the battery compartment.

The screws right at the ends of the controller’s handles are down a bit of a pit and you may find that your Torx screwdriver doesn’t reach. If this is the case you may have to use the flathead screwdriver to start things off until you can reach the screw with the end of the Torx.

With all the screws out, the casing should come apart easily. Be careful as the put it apart. Whilst there’s next to nothing inside an Xbox 360 controller, the two motors for the vibration are just sitting between the two halves of the casing. Just observe how the motors sit in the casing as it’ll make it easier for you to put the unit together later.

With the top off, the two thumbsticks are exposed and they can be simply pulled off and the replacement(s) pushed on.

Reassembling is the opposite of the above and should give you little problem.

And there you go, one Xbox controller as good as new and ready to keep you Xbox 360 gaming well into the future.

Of course, if you choose to pull your controller apart, you do it at your own risk. There’s always a chance that you’ll completely mess it up and as tools are pointy you are not really supposed to be opening up your controller, you could hurt yourself. If you are not sure about the above, don’t attempt to fix your own controller and instead go buy a new one from a retail store.

The post DIY: How to Replace your Xbox 360 Controller Thumbsticks – Feature appeared first on Shane the Gamer.