well, wee all knew they were doing something differently. i just confirmed that it's something different in addition to previous firmware checks...

downloaded the peace walker demo from IGN. tried running it without any editing. the gameboot didn't even load...instead i got the message that i needed at least Sony OFW 5.51 in order to run the demo.

so i went into the EBOOT and found the firmware check (!). in the opening lines of the file there is a very clear "551" string. changed it to 500. replaced the old eboot with my new one and...GAMEBOOT LOADS. then, heartbreak: still getting the error after the gameboot plays "The game could not be started". 2 firmware checks? guess it's easier to add a layer of security rather than to fix the old one :-P

<a href="http://www.us.playstation.com/PSN/Users/vinnydisilvio"><img src="http://pid.us.playstation.com//user/vinnydisilvio.jpg" width="235" height="149" border="0" /></a>