Those hoping for full web browsing capabilities on their Xbox 360 Media system will be left wanting. So while PS3 and Wii owners continue to log into Facebook and Twitter, in addition to every other web page, the Xbox 360 continues to tease only portions of true online. Is anyone else bummed? In a way I’m happy as this keeps my Wii in constant use with its excellent Internet Channel.
Is anyone else out there baffled as to why Microsoft of all companies continues to sit out on a basic media application? Go nuts!
DenOfGeek.com has a great look at 10 upcoming games that will be exclusive to the PS3. Enjoy:
10. Agent
Currently being developed by Rockstar North, in Edinburgh, and being touted as the ultimate action game. Few details are known apart from Agent will take players into the shadowy world of 1970s espionage and assassination during the cold war. Scheduled for release in 2010, Rockstar are hoping that Agent will achieve similar levels of success enjoyed by their flagship franchise, Grand Theft Auto.
9. The Last Guardian
From Team ICO, who brought you the highly acclaimed ICO and Shadow Of The Colossus, comes The Last Guardian. The game is a third person action adventure and will focus on a young boy and his friendship with a creature called Trico. The player will take control of the unarmed boy and is responsible for guiding the creature that’s driven by animal instincts.
8. ModNation Racers
This kart racing game will focus heavily on user-created content with customisable racetracks that players will be able to share online and fully customisable characters and vehicles using Urban Vinyl stylings. It’s similar to Little Big Planet with the level of customisation available (a beta demo of ModNation Racers is included in the Little Big Planet game of the year edition in the US) and the emphasis on user-created content. The single player mode will, apparently, boast 30 tracks designed by the development team using the tools that will be available to players of the game. Gameplay will be similar to that of other Kart racing games as power ups and weapons will be available to collect to give racers an advantage.
7. Gran Turismo 5
The highly anticipated and much delayed racer will, apparently, according to Polyphony Digital’s Kazunori Yamuchi, look “better than reality”. The game will support online racing, which is a first for the series. Another first is that some of the vehicles will suffer damage. The game will feature over 900 cars and 20 courses with 70 course variations. At the time of writing, the game is set for release on the 31st March in Japan, but no solid release date is set for Europe or the US, despite the developers annoyingly stating that they can release it any time they want.
6. Eight Days
Up until recently, it appeared that development of Eight Days was cancelled, along with The Getaway 3. However, it appears that it was merely on hold and it will finally get a release. Footage of Eight Days was shown as far back as 2005, in the form of a scene showing a petrol station exploding, to show the PS3’s capabilities of handling visual effects and physics. The following year, at E3, another video was released showcasing stunning graphics, but in 2008, Sony Computer Entertainment London announced that they cancelled the development of the game.
Since then they have worked on Eye Pet, which is scheduled for release at the end of October in the UK and 2010 in the US. Eight Days will be set, as the title suggests, over the course of eight days and will include a real life clock so if you’re playing during the day this will be reflected in the game. The game is also set in eight different US states, one of which is Arizona, so the potential size of the game map is rather large. Players will be able to choose between a good and an evil character, both of which are going after an organised crime syndicate for different reasons.
5. White Knight Chronicles
This fantasy RPG about two rival kingdoms at war has already enjoyed considerable success and acclaim in Japan. So much so that Sony has already got a sequel in development despite not being available in the US or Europe. European and US PS3 owners can expect to be able to get their hands on WKC in April 2010. Players will be able to customise their avatar and enjoy an immersive single player campaign as well as a real-time online multiplayer quest mode with up to four other players.
4. Demon’s Souls
Here’s another intriguing RPG prospect that’s been available elsewhere for sometime. It has been released in the US recently, but it’s unclear when it will be available in Europe. The game offers severe punishment if their character dies in combat, as all of their experience and equipment up to that point will be lost. No problem, just load your last save game, right? Afraid not! The game autosaves frequently, meaning that you can’t just reload an old game save if something bad happens to your character. Oh, and the more your character dies, the more powerful the enemies get. Rather than detracting from the game, reviews indicate that this aspect of the game makes it an incredibly rewarding experience. With still no European date yet, if you want to play this any time in the near future you’ll have to import it.
3. God Of War III
Ex-Spartan warrior Kratos finally makes his appearance on the PS3 next year, in what will be the final chapter of the God Of War series. This chapter will take advantage of a new purpose built game engine adding levels of realism and interaction to Kratos’ adventure. God Of War 3 is scheduled for release at the end of March next year, so there’s still a bit of a wait for this. For those of you who can’t wait, a God Of War collection containing parts 1 and 2 will be released on PS3 in time for Christmas and will include a demo of God Of War 3. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, this is only scheduled for a US release.
2. MAG (Massive Action Game)
Set for release in January 2010, this massive multiplayer online shooter is set to be something quite special as it will support battles of up to 256 players! Players will be divided into squads of 8. Four squads will form a platoon and 4 platoons will form a company. Players can advance through the game’s ranking system and the player with the highest rank will lead their squad and, potentially, an army. The game is set in 2025 amidst a global crisis where natural resources have diminished. Three private military companies recruited members aggressively to battle for control of what resources are available in a shadow war. Players will have three PMC’s to choose from: S.V.E.R ,a faction of war torn countries, Raven, who utilise high tech armor and weaponry and Valor company, who use standard equipment. Players will be able to customise a number of aspects of their character including facial features, voice, armor and equipment.
1. Heavy Rain
The game I’m looking forward to the most by some considerable margin. Renowned games designer David Cage is directing the game that’s being developed by Quantic Dream studios. Having directed acclaimed titles Farenheit and Omrikon: The Nomad Soul previously, it’s unsurprising that there’s a high level of anticipation around Heavy Rain. This dark thriller in a film noir style carries the tagline: “How far are you willing to go to save someone you love?” Players will control one of four playable characters that are all said to be on the hunt for The Origami Killer. The game will adopt a unique control system that will involve players having to perform actions such as tilting their pad or pressing buttons as they appear on the screen. Failure to do so will lead to their character’s reactions being performed incorrectly or their character saying something in the wrong way and take the story in a different direction. If the events lead to your character dying, they will no longer be a part of the story. The game won’t end, though, as players will take control of another character to continue the hunt. This is a fantastic prospect for replay value as there’s the distinct possibility that the game will be different every time you play it. Heavy Rain is set for release in the first quarter of 2010.
from Bloomberg.com:
Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 video-game console outsold Nintendo Co.’s Wii for the first time on a monthly basis in Japan in September, after a price cut, according to market researcher Enterbrain Inc.
From Aug. 31 to Sept. 27, 309,939 PS3s were sold, a monthly record for the console in Japan since it became available in November 2006, the Tokyo-based research firm said in a faxed statement today. Nintendo’s DS Lite and DSi handheld players sold a combined 297,060 units.
Sony cut the price of the PS3 in Japan on Sept. 3 by 25 percent to 29,980 yen ($335) and introduced a model that is one- third the size of the original and consumes 34 percent less power. A similar price cut in the U.S. helped the Tokyo-based company sell more than 1 million units worldwide in three weeks, bringing it closer to its annual sales target of 13 million, Kazuo Hirai, head of Sony’s games business said last month.
The company also said last month that it will lower the price of its PlayStation Portable handheld player 15 percent in Japan to 16,800 yen from October. The PSP was the third-best selling hardware in Japan in September with 83,887 units, followed by Nintendo’s Wii with 61,691 units.
Rival Microsoft Corp. followed with a $100 reduction for its most expensive Xbox 360 player to $300 in the U.S. and 29,800 yen in Japan. Nintendo was the last of the major console makers to weigh in, cutting the price of its motion-sensing Wii 20 percent to $200 in the U.S. from Sept. 27 and to 20,000 yen in Japan from Oct. 1.
Sony fell 5 percent to close at 2,450 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange today. Nintendo slipped 0.4 percent to 22,530 yen in Osaka trading, while Microsoft declined 3.3 percent to $24.88 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading yesterday.
Should be interesting to see if PS can capture the same type of audience with this type of gaming that Nintendo did. Read more from Joystiq.com:
We just got our first brief taste of some of the retrofitted PS3 titles which would support Sony’s new, tentatively-named PlayStation Motion Controller during Sony’s TGS 2009 keynote. However, a piping hot press release gave us some of the most detailed info on the peripheral to date — most notable of which is the re-confirmation that the hardware is still on track for a Spring 2010 release.
Equally as titillating is a comprehensive list of first-party “Motion Controller dedicated and compatible titles” which are set to drop (or in the case of the pre-existing titles, receive the new functionality via a patch) throughout 2010:
Software Titles for Motion Controller from SCE Worldwide Studios
Ape Escape (Working Title)
Echochrome 2 (Working Title)
Eccentric Slider (Working Title)
Sing and Draw (Working Title)
Champions of Time (Working Title)
Motion Party (Working Title)
The Shoot (Working Title)
Tower (Working Title)
PAIN*
Flower*
Hustle Kings*
High Velocity Bowling*
EyePet*
From T3.com:
Gone are the days of the console being ‘just’ a games machine. These days, your average console gives you access to everything from the net to the latest movie trailers, not to mention your own virtual world. Indeed, Sony is so pleased with its PlayStation Network for the PS3, that it wants to extend it to other devices.
In an interview with Nikkei, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer said: ‘We will be expanding the PlayStation Network to hardware other than the PS3′ because limiting the Network to PS3 consoles ‘puts a limit on the scale of the network possible.’ It’s hardly surprising. After all, as he rightly points out, the more people use the network, the more money is made by both Sony and its partners. More users could also tempt more companies to sign up with Sony too - video rental company Netflix is just one that’s rumoured to be considering the Sony platform.
How and when this expansion takes place isn’t yet clear, with the company’s CEO suggesting that Sony’s ‘vertical structure for each product line’ doesn’t make expansion easy. But with rumours of a download-friendly PSP2 in the pipeline, that could be the opportunity Sony needs to get the ball rolling.
from the GlobeandMail.com:
People have long been able to watch YouTube videos on their televisions through media centre PCs, Apple TV, and the web browsers of certain game consoles, but the experience is less than ideal. YouTube was designed for the 18-inch viewing experience of someone sitting at a desk; its text and video thumbnails are just too small and unwieldy for the couch-bound.
Hence YouTube for Television, a new interface for the popular video sharing site designed specifically for the ten-foot living room viewing experience and optimized for web browsers available for the Wii and PlayStation 3 (plans are in place to roll it out for browser-equipped set-top boxes in the future).
I powered up my Wii this morning and headed over to www.youtube.com/tv to try it out. After spending almost a minute waiting for the site to load, I found myself on a simplified version of the YouTube home page that consisted of three tabs across the top allowing users to search, sort videos, and access their YouTube accounts, and four large video thumbnails below that showed the most viewed, top rated, currently featured, and most recent YouTube clips. The few words present were giant and easy to read.
As far as browsing content goes, YouTube’s new TV interface is just as powerful as its PC counterpart. Searching for videos was a snap, and all of the standard tools—including favourites, playlists, and subscriptions—were just a couple of clicks away. Plus, you can set video playback to auto-play, which starts up a new video the moment the current video stops playing, simulating to a degree the experience of watching one program after another on television.
However, there are a few missing features for which some avid YouTubers might pine, such as user comments and the ability to upload videos. It seems Google’s goal in developing the TV interface was to facilitate a better viewing experience, even if it came at the expense of community and contribution.
On the topic of viewing experience, the videos don’t appear to be of any higher resolution than what you’d find on your PC, which means when they’re blown up on a TV several times the size of a computer monitor they look grainy and splotchy. I was sitting about two metres back from my 42-inch set and I found many of the videos difficult to watch. The image quality was a bit more palatable when I moved back an additional metre, but I’m not about to move my couch just so I can better appreciate YouTube videos.
And that’s the crux of the streaming-web-video-on-television issue. It doesn’t matter how smart or simple the interface; until YouTube video resolution gets bumped up a few notches I won’t want to watch the site’s clips on my high-definition set.
Still, I’m happy I took the time to check out YouTube for Television, if for no other reason than that I stumbled across the video below—a machinima dance-off between a group of Halo Spartans and characters from Unreal Tournament. Bless nerds with time on their hands.
Check out this cool post on how certain game franchises, consoles, and gaming in general have changed from 1998 to 2008. From GamesRadar.com
How Gaming has Changed in 10 Years
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This should be badass, from TechRadar.com:
Sony’s PlayStation 3 is set to get fully three-dimensional games in 2009, according to a number of specialist developers.Neil Schneider, President and CEO of Meant to be Seen (described as the “world’s first and only stereoscopic 3D certification and advocacy group,”) told Game Informer that Sony “fully intends” on using stereoscopic 3D for their games and Blu-ray movies in 2009.
Blitz Games Studios is the UK developer creating and licensing the 3D engine, as TechRadar reported earlier this month.
Unique to PS3 in 2009?
“The best part is console support will only need a bios upgrade to work,” writes Neil Schneider.
“We are told that the ability to add this capability via bios may be unique to Sony PS3 versus the other console solutions.”
TechRadar has contacted Blitz Game Studios for further comment. Rest assured, we will be the first to get a demo of this intriguing-sounding gaming tech as soon as Blitz agrees to open its doors to us early in the new year.
from Engadget.com:
We knew it was coming this month, now we have the day: tomorrow. Yup, PlayStation Home will launch globally on December 11th. The 3D virtual on-line community is like Second Life, only with the risk of rootkit. Hot. All kidding aside, the new service gives PS3 owners a customizable place to chat (voice or text) and play games with other PlayStation Home users through personalized avatars. Just like real life except without acne and all your social shortcomings. Home will be available to download and “experience basic features” for free — some services (like creating a “club”) will require cash though, so be prepared.
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