And Heavy Rain of course

I wouldnt say that uncharted 2 locked up on me and froze a couple times.

Sony must be a little dissapointed at rockstar right now... the last thing they needed was bad rumours about a firmware which is suppossed to fix an issue that has caused them tremendous bad publicity these past few weeks.

Technically, any game that has either the CBE or the RSX running on full load for extended periods of time should have a higher probability of causing thermal overload related hardware failure; it's irrelevant whether it was a first party or third party game.

If anything, a first party game that makes full use of all SPEs in the CBE (in other words, games that are optimized to take advantage of the architecture) should theoretically cause PS3s to overheat more readily.

Of course no one seems to know whether it's the RSX or the CBE overheating that typically causes YLoD.

I'm not worried about it. 19 blade fan and AS5 in my 60GB model. If and when it overheats, I'll just replace it since it's already a two and half year old factory refurb. Preferably after we see a $199 model.

This is a Rockstar issue and it causing problems with all consoles. 

I know that you are such a concerned citizen when it comes to all things PS3 and PSN going back up has stolen much of your thunder . . . wait . . . It is actually rather disturbing how much time and energy you spend obsessing over Sony and the PS3. 

Probably a mix of the following:

- Sony and Microsoft don't seem to have as good QA as Nintendo (RROD, crappy security, more games launched with bugs and needing patches)

- More complicated software architecture. Games running on the Wii seem to have almost full control of the hardware, 360/PS3 games have to share it with the host OS. Game installs add more complication, especially when they're optional, etc.

- Power hungry hardware making overheating more likely.

If you think about it many of those reasons wouldn't be such a problem if the 360 / PS3 weren't trying hard to be more like PCs than any other console ever did.

They're like laptops, only since their primary purpose is playing high end games (high duty cycle for CPU/GPU) they should have failure rates worse than even laptops that are used as primary computers.

For laptops, on average that's 7.2% total failure rate within 12 months, 19.7% within 24, and 31% within 36.

http://cf.blogetery.com/33745/files/2010/01/squaretrade-analysis-2.jpg

Doesn't look so bad taken into consideration.

Last generation, consoles were so relatively underpowered that they were cooled by passive cooling systems.

I had only heard this happening on 360 so far, but after reading this it looks like it's happening across the board. No problems here thus far, about 35% into the game. 

Oh there were a few complaints about it.

Most of these options offered up are actually worse then the problem. Which can be solved by returning the obviously defective game. Using alternate machines, and creating bogus accounts at least on the 360 should result in the same thing. My achievement score getting cock blocked. I am not very conversant with the system on the PS3, but shouldn't this block obtaining trophies. Why would anyone want to play a game that demands you play in stand alone mode.

The other options are basically standard practice anyway. You shouldn't need to be told to look for dirt, or to make sure that it isn't their system at fault. I am kind of shocked that they didn't list the number one recommendation on almost all such lists. Say it with me unplug the machine, and plug it back in. Everyone knows that is the only sure fire way to kill a Gremlin. Hey it is a little better then the older recommendation hit the damn thing till it works right.