Customer Reviews

Playstation 2 Action Replay Max Evo Edition

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This product has received a lot of negative reviews due to its tendency to corrupt memory card data. Does it corrupt it? Yes, and no.

ARMAX is good for the very purpose it was originally created: cheating in games. All the extra junk they slapped on it, that's the problem. You see, the disc is loaded with cheats, and so long as you simply pick cheats for your game and then launch the game, you'll be fine.

The troubles begin when you try to use the much-advertised online updating feature (via either the Ethernet connection directly, or via the USB module that comes with the EVO edition) to get more codes. Most of the time, this is precisely what corrupts the existing data on your memory card. Either all of it, or some of it.

What happened to me was that I used ARMAX for over 6 months without any problems or corrupted data. I was playing titles like Final Fantasy X and X-2, which the disc already had lots of codes for, so updating wasn't needed. Then I purchased a newer game, and wanted to download updates for it via my Ethernet connection. Downloading was easy, and installing was automatic. Then I rebooted the ARMAX disc, and it started crashing at the point where it reads codes into memory.

I examined the memory card with the memory card manager in order to try and remove the new codes, so that perhaps ARMAX would at least work with the old ones. However, some data slots had been corrupted, and the memory manager could only remove some of the corrupted data, but not all.

However, not all of my dozens of saves were gone. In fact, it seemed as if only ARMAX-specific data (probably the new code lists) had been corrupted. I had some saves on the memory card that I had put serious hours into, and didn't want to start the games all over again, so I purchased a backup memory card, slid it into slot 2, and handpicked the non-corrupted data slots (the ones with the saves I wanted to keep) and used the copy feature to copy them to the backup card.

Then I formatted the slot 1 card and restarted ARMAX. It is working fine again, and both memory cards are fine. My memory card wasn't rendered unusable, nor were my dozens of saves.

I can always add codes by hand, which is a pain, but you have to think of it this way... This is a good product, when used solely for its bare bones purpose: to allow you to cheat in PS2 games. I can punch in the codes myself for the latest games, or just not cheat at all. In the end, complaining about the product's obvious design flaws doesn't accomplish anything.

Forget about the much-advertised extras, focus on its huge cheat collection, and don't buy the expensive EVO version with the USB module you won't want to use. As for me, I find that ARMAX was worth every cent.

it wont glich your sytem like game shark. the web site has the best codes

Do not purchase. I have bought 2 copies of this and in both instances, it worked for the first 3 months and then wouldn't go online to download codes nor would it even load the codes already stored on the flash card. This rendered both copies useless. Customer service is non-existent both on their website and by phone. When you call them (not toll free), you get an answering maching asking to leave your name and number for someone to call you back. So far, no one has returned my call and I have two $40 coasters now. Stay away, stay very far away from this product or any of their other AR products since I've had similar problems with all of their products.

I have not had any problems with this product. It works fine on my PS2 and my PS3(for PS2 games obviously), for all games I have used. The only thing that did not work on my PS3 was the internet function (can't when them all).

I can't say that the negative reviews are inaccurate, but I know that I haven't gone through any problems with this thing. I guess it depends on what you're using it for. I mainly use it to get complete rosters for my sports game (NCAA Football, NBA Live, Madden, MVP Baseball, etc...). I recently bought NCAA Football 07 and I use this gadget to download the COMPLETE rosters of all 119 Division 1A schools. If I did it myself, it would cost me about 2 weeks of headache before I had all the names. Instead, I go to a gaming site, download the rosters and I'm playing my game within 5 minutes.

If you use this for the cheats, then be advised that it can corrupt your memory card when you try to update your codes. I won't write a paragraph on it, the previous reviewer (M. Salakka "Restless Soul") hit the bullseye with his review. I recommend reading it if you're buying this for the codes/cheats.

As I said before, for what I use it for (rosters) it's an excellent piece of hardware. It is a little fragile, so it can easily be broken (I really don't see it being that big of an issue though). Otherwise, go ahead and get this, you won't be sorry.

This is the industry leader in CHEAT SOFTWARE.

I'm playing NEED FOR SPEED UNDERGROUND 2 and NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED simultaneously. (NFSU 2 is a better game by the way. Better graphics and car physics.) In NFSU 2 I have one car souped up almost to the max and 16 bucks in my BANK. I need those race tires and I need more money to get just one more car tuned up. And I don't have it.

My GAMESHARK is an outdated VERSION 1 that I bought a few years back. I used it once for unlimited BANK in GRAN TURISMO 3. I haven't used it since. The NFS codes don't work for my version. Now, isn't the point of adding more CODES something the GAMESHARK is designed for? You would think so. But, no. They want me to buy another VERSION. They''re up to VERSION 4 now. And new CODES can only be downloaded with BROADBAND. FORGET IT.

I bought the ACTION REPLAY because it stores it's data on your MEMORY CARD. You don't need BROADBAND (which I don't have) to access and download new CODES. You can grab new CODES from the official website CODEJUNKIES.COM and manually enter them into your ACTION REPLAY save. Or pull the whole list of CODES off the internet with the FLASH DRIVE. (You don't need BROADBAND. You can use your dial-up.) Then transfer the data to your Playstation the via the USB port. ONLY BUY THE VERSION WITH THE FLASH DRIVE IF YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED IT. I found the download on the website to be a whole list of CODES that had not been updated since 2004. But, separate NEW CODES are updated daily. It's not necessary that you buy this VERSION w/the FLASH DRIVE. It's 20 dollars more than the regular VERSION and any new CODES can just be entered manually with your controller.

For those people who are corrupting MEMORY CARDS, they could be using the software wrong. The only time I've ever corrupted a MEMORY CARD is when I've made a mistake and pulled a card out too fast or shut my game system down too fast while it was saving. ACTION REPLAY HAS VERY SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT PROCEDURES TO FOLLOW. For example, they tell you in one instance to go back to the ACTION REPLAY MAIN MENU before shutting off your Playstation. It's probably to keep your data from being corrupted. Now, how many people read that in the manual? MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS TO THE LETTER. After all, this is a hacking device and things can go wrong.

Here's a hint to keep your VALUED GAME DATA from being corrupted if something does go wrong. I've heard the stories about this product corrupting cards and I'm very cautious about data I've spent a long time acquiring. Buy a separate MEMORY CARD. Copy the data for the game you want to hack onto the new card. Load up the ACTION REPLAY software and start the game with this new card. If the card gets corrupted you don't lose your other game saves. You only lose the card. If everything goes well, play the game with the hacked data and make sure it plays right. Sometimes they don't. If it plays right, copy the new data from the new card back to your original card and overwrite the data on the original save. Delete the data from the new card and you can use it again. This might save you a lot of aggravation and some of your VALUABLE GAME DATA.

I'm stoked because, NOW, I'm racing instead of managing money.

It works great for me.

ENJOY.

I did not originally buy this for the DVD region or the cheating. I had bought this for it's homebrew capabilities, more specifically SMS, the (only) media player that can play DivX/XviD on the PS2, and it works wonderfully. But now that FreeMCBoot has been released, I do not use it much, execpt for the occasional codes.

I bought this product thinking that I will get the code for a specific game and is not in the disc, is in their website and I did try to upload it to the usb that comes with the disc and is impossible, and Id try to call the company that sales it and is just a big mess, I also email it 3 times and still waiting for their answer. NO BUENO

I bought this product intending to use it for transferring game saves from PC to PS2. Low behold it worked great. Everytime I tried it worked and the USB drive that comes with it works great too. Downloading PS2 saves was never easier!

I had this product with 3 different ps2s . I never had a product with it . If you always back up your files on your pc. You never have any problems with anything. It does not corrupt the memory card. It creates a blue box which is a corrupt save . This only happens when you download or transfer a save from the pc . It simply means the save was bad not the ar max . The good part is it does nothing but take away 5 blocks . If you don't like it . you can format the memory card via the saves part of the disc. Just go to the memory card picture and press square . The worst memory card on the market for ps2 is the nyko cards. These cards don't tell how memory is on the card. So you imagine the problems with it. If you don't believe me then try to transfer a save from one memory to a nyko card. The memory will be blank on it.