Formerly the only way to look up game compatibility for the PS3 was a European site, which naturally focused on just the software compatibility issues since they got their 60GB PS3’s earlier this year with software-only backwards compatibility. There is now a US search engine available that will tell you any issues that exist for the 60GB PS3 or the 80GB PS3. This should be an interesting exercise to see just how close the software compatibility mode comes to the hardware compatibility mode, or if it can even exceed it in some special cases.

Apparently it’s not just for current problems either. I did a search for the cult classic Ico and found problems that had been fixed on the 60GB PS3 but no issues on the 80GB unit: “The following conditions have been confirmed on PS3 System Software Version 1.54: Throughout gameplay and FMA’s, the screen flickers. All conditions have been resolved on PS3 System Software Version 1.60. ”

In last week’s podcast I responded to Stephen’s assumption that the software-only backwards compatibility had big problems with a “we don’t know that”. This tool will shed quite a bit of light on that assumption.

One of Sony’s crown jewels, God of War (1) has a problem on the 80GB PS3 that it doesn’t have on the 60GB model: “During various FMV sequences throughout the title, the audio plays overlapped by static audio distortion.” Yucko.

Something else I noticed? Multiple re-spins of the same game with the same code number. Do a search for Burnout 3: Takedown and you’ll get no less than four results per console. I’m seeing different problems on one of the Greatest Hits versions of the game than the other.

Via EvilAvatar.