Game Review – Borderlands

Developer: Gearbox Software (Feral Interactive for OS X version)
Engine: Unreal 3
Platforms: OS X, Playstation 3, Windows, and Xbox
Released: 2009 (2010 OS X version)
ERSB rating: M for mature

In honor of the recent release of Borderlands 2, I have decided to write a review of the original Borderlands. Right now some of you are going, "why would you write a review of a 16-bit game that came out in 1989?" No. I'm talking about the REAL original Borderlands that came out in 2009. The "original" 16-bit The Border Lands that supposedly came out in 1989 is a "demake" of Bordelands 2, a marketing gimmick created by Gearbox to promote the release of Borderlands 2. Don't feel bad, they had me fooled too.

So now some are asking, "why do a review of a game that came out in 2009?" Well, because a) I've played through it several times and on multiple platforms and b) I personally know people out there who have not played it yet, but would love it. For those people this review will provide the information they would need to decide if they want to play it or not. For those who have played it, this review might provide some tidbits that you might have missed.

PREMISE

The story of Borderlands revolves around four playable characters searching for a vault of treasure on a planet called Pandora. The characters had grown up hearing stories of this vault and became "Vault Hunters" when they matured. As the player, you can chose one of these four characters to play and are guided through the game by a mysterious woman via some strange psychic/video transmission.

Although the storyline is pretty linear, the four playable characters offer a good variety of gameplay mechanics to fit just about any style of gameplay, from the mystical/magical to the racing in with guns-a-blazin'.

There is Lilith, the Siren, who can Phasewalk (turn invisible); Mordecai, the Hunter, who has a bird that he can send to attack his enemies; Roland, the Soldier, who can place turrets to help him rip his enemies to shreds; and Brick, the Berserker, who can go into a fit of rage killing everything with his bare hands. It's important that this game have this variety otherwise you would have little reason to play the game again once you completed the story.

In addition to the four character classes, each has a skill tree with three specialties. Lilith has Controller, Elemental, and Assassin skills; Mordecai has Sniper, Rogue, and Gunslinger skills; Roland has Infantry, Support, and Medic skills; and Brick has Brawler, Tank, and Blaster skills.

What is nice about the skill tree is that you are not locked into one specific specialty once you choose a skill like so many other games that use this mechanic. Rather you can mix and match skills from different specialties to suit how you would prefer to play. This allows each character to be played in numerous unique ways, rather than just three. Couple that with the fact that once you finish the game you can select Playthrough 2 from the main menu to play the game with your leveled up character and harder enemies and, you have a recipe for a game with absolutely phenomenal replay value. I am currently on my seventh playthrough, but am afraid that I'm starting to get sidetracked by Borderlands 2.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay consists of missions that you complete for money, equipment, and most importantly experience points. The missions can be a bit repetitive (go there and kill/retrieve/destroy that), but nonetheless are fun. There is no little amount of killing in this game. It's not like Metal Gear Solid, where (if you choose), you can sneak through the entire game without killing a single enemy or like Grand Theft Auto where you can spend hours or days doing things that don't involve killing. Oh no. You will kill in this game . . . A LOT. Even though the game is somewhat open like GTA (you can go where you want and complete the available missions in whatever order you choose), there is not much else to do but kill things and practically all of the missions involve combat. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing. While it can seem like it would get repetitive, it is executed (pun intended) nicely and the repetitiveness is tolerable. However, it does keep one tightly tied to the storyline. There's not much chance of getting sidetracked from the main missions in this game. Even if you do the side missions as they come up, you are forced back to the main missions to open up more of them. There's just not much else to do to keep it interesting in this respect, so if you are looking for a GTA clone, look elsewhere.

Battles can get a little boring if you level up too fast, but each mission has a threat level associated with it ranging from Trivial to Impossible based on your character's experience level, so you can easily gauge the difficulty of the mission you are about to attempt. If the difficulty is too high, there are plenty of side missions that you can complete to level up your character to make things a bit easier. However, there are some mission that even though they might be labeled as Trivial, are still quite challenging, especially if the mission involves fighting a boss.

Graphically the game is stunning. Although there is plenty of graphic violence and blood, the game's cell-shaded graphical style makes it all very cartoonish. This is a nice change from the realistic blood and guts that is usually associated with this genre of shooter. The environment and character textures are detailed and really pull you into the game despite it's cartoon-like appearance. Being a first-person shooter, you don't often see your character except for his or her hands and guns. However, the camera angle changes when you get into a vehicle, so you do frequently see your character model and of course you see your character in the status screen menu as well. As such, the design team gave us the ability to customize our characters' outfit color. Not much else changes with the model (i.e. no guns strapped to the back or anything), but it is nice to dress your goon up to suit your mood.

Speaking of vehicles . . . there are two types of vehicles in the game. A buggy that you can access early in the game and a Hummer-like vehicle that you gain access to later. Both vehicles require you to complete some missions before you can use them. In addition each vehicle is equipped with machine guns on the front that shoot straight ahead and a turret that can shoot wherever you point the camera. The turret will be either a heavy machine gun or a rocket launcher depending on what you choose when you spawn the vehicle. Vehicular combat is pretty intuitive and easy to get the hang of. Unlike the vehicles in most other games, you do not actively steer these beasts. Instead they steer to wherever you have the camera pointed. this part takes a little getting used to, but is not too hard and actually makes the battling much easier since you can always keep your eye on the enemy.

There is no shortage of armament in this game. In fact, one of the selling points that Gearbox made when they released the game was that there are over 17,750,000 variations of guns in this game. For an old-school hoarder like me, this was not good news. Many times I was faced with giving up a killer gun for one that was even more killer. The guns are randomly generated from various parts and with various characteristics like damage, accuracy, fire rate, zoom capabilities, elemental effects, and several other factors. They are also level contingent, meaning that occasionally you will find a powerful weapon that you have to wait to use. As you level up, so do the guns you find. Don't even bother trying to be a collector. You will never have enough space to keep even a fraction of the coolest weapons that you find, even if you have the storage chest that you can get if you have the Mad Moxxi's Underdome downloadable content. Just be happy with what you have and know that the next really cool weapon is right around the corner. There are also vending machines which you can use to buy new weapons, ammo, and armor, but I found that most of the time I had something better than what the machine had to offer. That said, it does not hurt to look when you come across a weapon vendor, because I have found a few gems being sold as well. The ammo vendors are nice especially if you find one fairly near or right in your battle ground. Fighting hordes of enemies can expend a lot of ammo, and while many enemies drop ammo, you will often find yourself wanting to top off your supply, especially going into a heavy boss battle. Don't be afraid to spend your dough on ammo . . . EVER. There is plenty of money to be had both by completing missions and by selling excess gear to the vendors.

The time it takes to complete the game can vary depending on how many side missions you do and whether or not you have any of the downloadable content (DLC) available. Doing all the side missions, I completed the main game in roughly 40 hours. The DLC added about another 35-45 hours on top of that. So be prepared to spend some time getting through this game. It will take more than a day in most cases.

Speaking of downloadable content, there are four add-on packs available for Borderlands; The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, and Claptrap's New Robot Revolution. All of these add-ons except for Mad Moxxi, have a new story arc and plenty of missions. In Zombie Island you fight zombies and other diabolical creatures including a wereskag (you'll see) trying to find the reason why everybody on the island has been turning into zombies. In General Knoxx, you fight an army of Crimson Lance soldiers (remember the baddies in Old Haven) to find and loot General Knoxx's armory which contains a boat-load of weapons which you have very little chance of getting all of unless you cheat. In Robot Revolution you will fight a ton of fanatical CL4P-TP (Claptrap) robots and Hyperion soldiers in an attempt to defeat Interplanetary Ninja Assassin, Claptrap and quell his robot rebellion.

We interrupt this review to bring you the following special report: a mini-review of the Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot DLC . . . 

Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot departs from the mission based go-here-do-that routine and offers up arena style battles. In each arena you battle wave after wave of enemies increasing in difficulty with each wave. I swear, some of the levels are simply impossible to get through even with a high level character, but maybe you'll have better luck. The arena style battle is nice once in a while for a change of pace, or to take a break from the regular game, but it does not really offer much to me in the way of fun. However, Mad Moxxi's does offer the Bank of Marcus (or Marcus Bank, something like that). This is a place where you can "store your crap", as the bank menu says. The bank is not unlimited though. At character level 1 you get a level 1 bank account with 12 slots at no cost. At level 3 you get a level 2 bank account with 15 slots, but it costs you around $12,000. This progression of bank levels tops out at level ten, which provides 42 slots and requires the character to be level 48, having completed Playthrough 2, and costs $9,999,143. This is all fine and good, and I was excited about it at first until I realized that by the time you can really store any significant crap, you've already thrown away (read: sold) more than 42 great pieces of equipment. In addition, since the weapon drops level up as you do, why hold on to that old used-to-be-killer-but-now-it's-a-piece-of-crap (literally) level 10 rifle when you are now level 40? If you can get Mad Moxxi's for free go for it, but otherwise spend your money on the other DLC. This ends the mini Mad Moxxi review. Now back to our regularly scheduled review already in progress.

The soundtrack for the most part is typical shoot-'em-up fair. Music is actiony during actiony (I know I made that word up, so shut up) parts, moody while exploring caves, etc. The highlight in the music soundtrack though is Cage the Elephant's Ain't No Rest for the Wicked blaring in the opening sequence. Awesome! The sound effects and voice overs are quality as well. A repeater does not sound like a revolver does not sound like an assault rifle does not sound like a sniper rifle. You can hear the caliber of each gun distinctly with your eyes closed. You can also distinguish when that weapon has additional effects such as acid or flame by the sound it makes. There was a very high-level of detail given to the sound effects.

The dialog and voice acting is also top-notch. The voices fit the characters well and the actors behind those voices do a great job of giving the characters life (Scooter is my favorite character). The dialog that these non-player characters carry out is downright hilarious at times. One of my favorite soundbites is in the mission sequence that unlocks the Catch-a-Ride system and gives you access to the buggy. Scooter says, "Hey, you the one killin' all the crap when people ask? The Catch-a-Ride near Fyrestone is more busted than my momma's girl parts. Really appreciate you takin' a poke at that. The uh, system, not my mom. Hot dog down a Skag den, know what I'm sayin'?" If you don't get the hot dog down a skag den comment, you will after you play.

The only shortfall in the dialog is in regard to the player characters. The canned one-liners of the player characters are a bit lack luster and get repetitive over time. The voices don't quite seem to fit the character you are playing, but this could be in part due to the fact that we really aren't given much background info on each character to imagine how they should talk. That said, this is a very small flaw and does not degrade from the game much.

MULTIPLAYER

Another area where Borderlands shines is multiplayer mode. I don't feel that I can give the multiplayer mode a thorough review since until recently my gaming has been in short burst and I don't think it's polite to jump into a multiplayer game and then say, "See ya guys," in the middle of a battle. However, from the little time I did get to play in multiplayer mode, I loved it.

Multiplayer is co-op primarily. With you and up to four other players running through the story missions. Any combo of characters is allowed, in other words if all four of you want to be the siren, go for it. However, since the enemies are stronger and each character class has strengths and weaknesses, the best way to go about it is to get on or create a diverse team.. Having a couple of brutes that can take the foes head on with a long range sniper and medic for support, makes for a great multiplayer session. Even if you are just pairing up with someone it can be fun as long as your characters are complementary.

Vehicle combat takes on a whole new shine when two or more players get together. One player drives and the other mans the turret. This works surprisingly well. If you ever played the 1980's vector graphics game Tail Gunner, you'll have an idea of what it is like to man the turret while someone else drives.

I'm sorry I cannot say more about the multiplayer mode, like if you can use headsets to communicate (I assume so), or various other questions you might have about it. I just didn't get to play around with it enough. perhaps if I get some more multiplayer time in, I'll revisit this review and update it. Until then, here's my assessment:

SUMMARY

Overall, I think that Borderlands is a great game. It's got a bit of the first-person shooter, and bit of the RPG, and a bit of the vehicular combat genres, which are balanced just right, meaning that there is no one aspect that makes you go, "Wow. There is way too much of that!" All the pieces come together and work like a well oiled machine. It works so well in fact that you don't mind picking it up again and again to see what other directions you can take it. In total game time and replay value, the game is well worth the $39.99 (free for the Playstation 3 if you are a Plus member) you will shell out for the main game. The downloadable content is also worth the price, except for Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, and adds a significant amount of gameplay to the game.

PROS

Enough variety to suit any preferred style of gameplay.
Beautifully detailed cell-shaded graphics
High attention to detail graphically and acoustically
40+ hours of gameplay
Good voice acting
Good downloadable content to extend gameplay
Millions of guns

CONS

Linear storyline
Repetitive missions
Too easy if leveling up too fast
Not enough inventory slots to store millions of guns

RATING

Graphics        - ★★★★☆
Sound            - ★★★★☆
Gameplay      - ★★★☆☆
Replay Value - ★★★★★

Tech Tip Tuesday - Pushing Media to Your Playstation 3

I have recently purchased another Playstation 3 (PS3). My first one gave up the ghost quite some time ago with the Yellow Light of Death (YLOD). It was one of the first generation PS3's, so it was a bit bulkier, but could play my extensive collection of PS2 games, which was nice. While I do miss that capability, I've decided that it's something I can live without since I do still have a PS2.

In any case, things have changed a lot since then, not just regarding the PS3's firmware, but also in my home. I now own an iMac and my PC laptop I rarely use at home anymore since I graduated (I primarily used it for school). In regard to the PS3 firmware, there is now a media server option under the Video  and Music categories on the XrossMediaBar (XMB). This was not there when my original PS3 bit the dust.

Always curious about new features, I consulted the PS3 user's guide (found here: http://bit.ly/QwMJsk) and learned that you can set up a PC to push media content to the PS3 where it can be played. This is very cool if you have movies or music on your computer and want to watch or listen to it on the devices connected to your PS3 (HDTV, surround sound system). The guide is very thorough in regard to how to get your PC running as a DLNA media server and it appears pretty straight forward as long as your PC has Windows Media Player 11 installed, so I'm not going to cover that here.

However, there were no instructions on how to set up a Mac to do this. Setting up a Mac is not that hard, but you need to have DLNA software to make it work, which OS X does not have natively. Never fear. After a quick Google search I found there are tons of third-party DLNA apps out there for the Mac. So with that said, here is how to set up your Mac as a media server.

Now I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that you have a computer running OS X, a Playstation 3, and are connected to the Internet (via wireless router preferably). If you don't and you are still reading, congratulations on your decision to expand your tech knowledge.

The first thing you need to do is download the DLNA software. Here is a good one that seems to have a focus on PS3 compatibility: http://cnet.co/QwPfz0. This software is written in Java and as such requires the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to be installed. It's likely that you already have it installed, but in case you don't, you can find instructions here: http://bit.ly/QwPV7u.

After you have downloaded the DLNA software open the file. In the window that opens, drag the the PS3 Media Server icon and drop it on the Applications folder icon. Now that the DLNA software is installed, turn on your PS3, but don't do anything with it just yet.

Now go back to your Mac and open the media server software you just installed (it'll be in your applications folder). After a few seconds the software should detect your PS3 and throw up a picture of it on the screen. If it does not do this after about a minute or so, go back to the PS3, go to the Video category and select Search for Media Servers.

Once your PS3 has been detected, you will be ready to select the folders that you want the PS3 to have access to. Obviously, you will want these to be folders containing videos or music. To do this click on the Navigation/Share Settings (in the server software) and click on the green plus (+) icon in the lower left corner of the window. Choose any folders that you want to access from the PS3.

Now go back to the PS3 and look under the Video or the Music category and look for the PS3 Media Server icon. Your shared folders will be listed here. Now all you have to do is select the file that you want to play and the PS3's media player will load it up and play it.

I'm still playing with this at the moment, so I don't have any bugs or problems to report about it, but if I come across any I'll update this post with what I find. If you have any questions or problems, feel free to leave a comment. I'll address it promptly.

— WTF? YouTube Snake? – Speed Post — — Tech goodness in under 5 seconds! —

Check this little gem out!

For this to be the most meaningful, you have to know what the game Snake is first. If you have never played any version of Snake, check out this version: http://bit.ly/RaoZJv  That is a very nice version of Snake both graphically and control-wise, but this game comes in all shapes and sizes from simple and crude to very advanced.

Now here is the cool thing. In every YouTube videos there is a very simple and crude version of Snake. Here's how to access it:

1. Start any YouTube video, it doesn't matter which one, so here's one for you: http://bit.ly/RapZgF
2. Once the video starts playing pause it.
3. With the video paused hold down the left arrow key and then tap the up arrow key.
4. The game will start immediately, so be ready to control the snake with the arrow keys so you don't hit the wall.
5. Look carefully for the little dots and eat them.
6. If you hit the wall, repeat step 3 to restart the game.

This is one of the crudest versions of Snake out there, but the fact that it is hidden in every YouTube video makes it cooler than Ranch dressing.

To all the techs out there who are just about to flame me: Yes I do realize that the game is embedded in the player and NOT the videos. It's just more dramatic to describe it as being included in every video. ;)

— How Many Squares – Speed Post — — Tech goodness in under 5 seconds! —

So I saw this puzzler on Facebook:

How many squares are in the diagram below.

All the answers I saw at the time were way off, so I thought I'd post the solution. I put an X through each square in several pictures so you can see them easier. The intersection of the X is the center of the square.

First Set 

Total so far: 1

Second Set

Total so far: 1 + 1 = 2

Third Set

Total so far: 2 + 4 = 6

Fourth Set

Total so far: 6 + 4 = 10

Fifth Set

Total so far: 10 + 4 = 14

Sixth Set

Total so far: 14 + 16 = 30

At this point all of the squares are counted except for those that make up the two small inner squares, so let's continue with those.

Seventh Set

Total so far: 30 + 2 = 32

Eighth Set

Total so far: 32 + 8 = 40

And that's all of them for a total of 40 squares. With over a million comments, I'm certain many have answered it correctly by now, but I doubt they explained it as well. :) And, yes, I know this Speed Post was longer than 10 seconds.

Tech Tip Tuesday - Bookmarks Anywhere

Where was that page again? I know it has happened to you. You are on a different computer than you normally use and you want to go to that site that you bookmarked the other day, but have no idea what the URL was. Sure, you could google the general topic of the site and maybe find it that way, but this does not always work. For example, type tech tips OR even better type the name of my blog (tips from the tech) into Google and see if you can find my site listed. I know I need to work on my SEO.

HINT: Put quotes around my blog name and you will find it as the second listing (how the hell did a pdf of an animal control newsletter get ranked before me?).

In any case, searching for the site you want is just inconvenient. Wouldn't it be easier to just have access to your bookmarks wherever you might be and on whatever computer you are using? Now some of you might already use Google Bookmarks (GB for brevity), but don't stop reading. There is plenty of good information in this tip that you can benefit from even if you already know all about GB.

To benefit from Google bookmarks, you need to have a Google account. Any Google account (Gmail, Blogger, Plus, Docs, etc.) will do since they are all linked. Gmail is a good choice since it is one of the best email service providers out there in my opinion, but take your pick. After you have a Google account you can go here, www.google.com/bookmarks to access and manage your bookmarks from anywhere.

Now if you are new to GB, then there is likely nothing there yet. You can add bookmarks directly on this page by clicking the Add Bookmark link. This is okay, but it's not the best way to bookmark a site. After all, to bookmark a site in your browser, it only requires clicking a bookmark icon or hitting Ctrl-B. Having to go to GB every time you want to save a bookmark is not going to sell you on using this great service. However, never fear. I would not waste my time telling you about it if I did not have an easier way of going about things. Enter the Google Bookmarklet.

The Google Bookmarklet is a small piece of JavaScript that you can use to save sites you visit to GB. This is what the code looks like if you are interested:

javascript:(function(){var a=window,b=document,c=encodeURIComponent,d=a.open("http://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=edit&output=popup&bkmk="+c(b.location)+"&title="+c(b.title),"bkmk_popup","left="+((a.screenX||a.screenLeft)+10)+",top="+((a.screenY||a.screenTop)+10)+",height=420px,width=550px,resizable=1,alwaysRaised=1");a.setTimeout(function(){d.focus()},300)})();

"Well, that's just great," you say, "but isn't JavaScript part of a website? How can I use it without yet going to another website?" Well, here is the thing. You can actually save JavaScript as a bookmark! If you already know how to create a bookmark from scratch, then do so and then copy and paste the above code into the URL place for the bookmark and label it Bookmarklet or something. If you don't know how to create a bookmark from scratch, or if you just want an easier way, be sure your Bookmark Bar (Chrome), Bookmark Toolbar (Firefox), or Favorites Bar (Internet Explorer) is set to visible then drag the icon below to it.

This icon should now be sitting in your Bookmarks or Favorites. Now whenever you visit a site that you want to bookmark click this icon. When you do a small window to Google Bookmarks will pop up with the address of the site entered. You can alter any of the information in this window and when you are ready to add it to you bookmarks click the Add Bookmark button. The site will be added to your Google Bookmarks and you can then access them anywhere. You don't have to bookmark GB in your browser and here is why. When you click on the bookmarklet and the window pops up you will notice there is a button in the bottom left-hand corner that says See All Bookmarks. If you click it GB will open in a new tab and you can browse or select the bookmark you want to go to.

"Man, this is just not simple enough," some of you say. Well there is another method of remote accessing your bookmarks. First of all, if you are not using Google Chrome download and install it from here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/. Believe me it's worth it. It's tons faster and more reliable than Internet Explorer and I have found it to be more reliable than Firefox as well, but that's just my experience. In any case, it is definitely worth a try if you haven't used it yet. Once you have Chrome installed go to http://bit.ly/qlbBRo and install The Incredible Start Page. 

The Incredible Start Page (TISP) is . . . well an incredible start page for the Chrome browser. I'm not going to get into all the details of this extension, but I'll show you what it looks like:

Now the part I want to draw your attention to is the big pane with the beautiful cloud picture. This is your main pane and it will house any bookmarks you choose. By default it shows the bookmarks that are on the bookmark bar, but you can change this and perhaps in the future I will explain the ins and outs of this great extension. What I want to say now though is that you can sync the Chrome browser with your Google account and so have uniform access to your bookmarks from any computer that has the Chrome browser. This is especially nice for homes with multiple computers or for syncing between your dektop and your laptop. 

Please note that The Incredible Start Page is not a necessary extension to sync your bookmarks in Chrome. It's just a nice way to display them. If you try this extension out for even a short period I'm certain you'll be hooked. If you choose not to use TISP you can still sync your Chrome bookmarks. Simply click on the wrench icon in the upper right-hand corner. Click settings and at the top you will see a place to sign-in to your Google account. Do this on each computer and your bookmarks will automatically sync between them.

And that's it. If you have any questions or comments about bookmarks, leave them in the comments section and I'll get to them shortly.

Tech Tip Tuesday - Hard Drive Installation For Playstation 3

Perhaps you want a larger hard drive for your Playstation 3, or maybe you bought a new one and want to swap out the new ones drive so you can use the older one. In this week's tech tip I'll show you how to do this.

Most of the time when one buys a new PS3 swapping the hard drives is not necessary because it is likely that the newer drive is bigger or has less wear and tear. In this case, simply backing up your old drive to an external hard drive and then restoring it to the new drive is sufficient. However, my old PS3 had a 500 GB drive, so a swap was called for in my case.

Regardless of why you need to swap your PS3's hard drive, you will need a few things before you start. Here is what you will need:

1. One SATA hard drive (preferably larger than the one your PS3 currently has)
2. One external hard drive large enough to store a back up of your current PS3 hard drive
3. One Phillips screwdriver
4. One USB thumb drive (250 MB should be sufficient)

Before getting started, back up your current PS3 hard drive to the external hard drive. If you do not know how to do this consult your PS3 User's Manual. Also, download a copy of the current PS3 firmware to the thumb drive. You can find a dowmload of the firmware here: http://bit.ly/NdoxNR. Be sure that you follow the instructions on that page EXACTLY or the installation of the firmware will fail.

Now you are ready to install the new (swap out the old) hard drive. 

Start by disconnecting all the cords and cables from your PS3. Place the PS3 on the table you are working on with the bottom facing up. You will see a small square on the bottom of the PS3 toward the front. It looks like this:

Carefully pry this little square up and swivel it to the side. You should be able to do this with your fingernail, but if you are having trouble, use a small flathead screwdriver. Just be careful not to break it in the process. Once swiveled away it will look like this:

This is the hard drive holding screw. Using your Phillips screwdriver, remove the holding screw.

Now turn your PS3 up so that the back (where the cables connect) is on the table and the front (where you slide in the discs) is facing up. Just under the power button you will see a panel with the logos for various components (HDMI, DVD, Blu-ray, etc.) 

Slide this panel to the right and then lift it off.

This will reveal the hard drive. On the front of it you will see a small wire handle. Lift this handle and pull out the hard drive. The hard drive will be connected to a drive tray. The two parts together look like this:

Tray bottom 

Drive top

The tray is part of the Playstation and will have to be removed from the old hard drive. To do this use the Phillips screwdriver to remove the four tray screws seen in the top picture (Tray bottom). With the screws removed flip it over as seen in the bottom picture (Drive top). Carefully lift the drive from the tray, holding bracket side first as shown below.

Drive separated from the drive tray

Now place the new drive in the tray and reverse the previous steps to install it in the PS3.

After you have the new hard drive installed in the drive bay, connect the cords and cables and fire up the PS3. If you were doing a swap AND if the old PS3 drive had a current firmware, all should be good and you should not have to do anything else. However, if this is a new hard drive OR if the old PS3 drive did not have a current firmware, you may get a message telling you such. Now, when this happens regardless of whether you are installing a fresh drive or the previous drive, you will be prompted to format the hard drive and install the firmware that you downloaded to the thumb drive. just follow the prompts and you will be up and running in no time.

If your old drive did not have the current firmware and you have to format and intall new firmware, you will have to restore the backup you saved to the external hard drive. Please note that often times when you do this you will lose installed games that you purchased through the Playstation Network (PSN). All your media such as music, videos, and so forth will be restored, but the games will likely have to be re-downloaded and installed. This will not cost you anything since PSN keeps track of all your purchases on their servers. This can be a hassle, but I have found that it is nice to have all the extra space that was taken up by games that I haven't played in ages. Those games are still there if you want to download them, but I find it only necessary to re-download those games that I really played often.

Also note that the above instructions are specific to the Playstation 3 Slim. For older models the instructions are the same except that the drive bay is located on the side of the unit (left side if you are looking at it from the front and the holding tray screws are located and screw into the sides of the hard drive, not the bottom. Other than that, it's pretty much the same procedure.

Once again, please post any questions regarding this tip in the comments and I will address them as soon as possible.