So the other day I ended up buying the PS3 due to all those JRPGs that I've been missing being on the 360.

First question: So I put my brand new copy of Tales of Graces f in and it started installing a crap ton of game data (its still going at the time of writing). So I wanted to know, is it required for you to install game data for every game or is it possible to play the games without having installed game data? Seeing how long its taking I'd imagine the installed data itself will be about 3-4 gigs. I personally never bothered installing any data on the 360 since it never made that big of a difference to me.

Its not a problem but more of a curious question I had. Hope someone can answer.

Second question: So this one is related to downloading on PSN. I started dwnloading the Killzone 3 Multiplayer and I pressed the "Download in background". I went about browsing the PSN, playing offline games, customising my PS3 settings and after about an hour I come back and the download is still at 0%. I didn't play anything online since I don't have any MP games atm. So this time I stayed on the download screen for a few seconds and sure enough the bar started to fill and I got a few percent downloaded. It was time for me to get to my lecture, so I turned off my PS3 to resume the download when I came back, but when I opened up my PS3 this morning to resume the download, it went back to 0%. So now I have to sit on the download screen for the whole 4GB download since if I leave it restarts the whole thing from 0% next time. Mind you my internet is fibre optic with 30 Mb/s (3.9 Megabyte/s down and 1.8 Megabyte/s up as stated by the PSN test) download speed. So that's not the issue.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong here. I'm used to just letting games download in the back ground on my 360 and it just finished it at its own pace whenever the console was on and I wasn't playing online. Perhaps the PS3 does something different or there is a way to change the settings. Maybe one of you PS3 masters can help me out here.

Some games have mandatory installs, but most don't. Some have optional ones which improve loading times. I own aboutr 150 ps3 games and have only installed about 12.

Btw, congrats one your purchase. I wish I could afford Tales of Graces f

It depends on the game. Most games nowadays have optional or no installs at all. Others have small mandatory installs. And some (MGS4) have very lengthy installs.
It can add up pretty quickly so I recommend you get a new HDD. It'll be completely worth it. Just make sure it's a 2.5 inch Sata HDD, preferably by Seagate.

Thanks. Got the game on offer for almost half price and it's also the special edition with the artbook, ost and all that nice stuff. Just started playing and it feels like classic Tales games. Loved Vesperia, so I'm sure I'll love this too.

Oh wow, you can put any 2.5 inch HDD on there? I just have a spare one lying around from my last PC build. Does the PS3 have it's own proprietory  format or can I just keep it as FAT32?

^ it has it's own format

as long as its a 2.5 inch. you can put a 1TB in there.

The PS3 only supports FAT32

edit:

Welcome to the Dark Side

Yes you can use any 2.5 inch HDD, some may not fit but I doubt there is anything that big. PS3 uses FAT32, though if I remember correctly it will reformat it at first so don't keep anything on it.

I use WD Blue Scorpio 750 GB, no problems. Due to PS+, it is nearly half full.

Awesome if it autoformats itself. I do have a few partitions in there so hopefully that won't be a problem.

Nub