PlayStation Home Impressions (Verdict: Needs Content) [PS3]

In case you're curious as to the progress of the PS3's upcoming PlayStation Home, the 3D Second Lifeish world in which you can interact with others, watch movie trailers, play games or just decorate a virtual apartment, one of our own readers was invited to participate in Sony's closed beta program and then kindly drafted up his experience for the world to read. His account confirms our skepticism while painting a pretty clear picture of exactly how Home works. And if you've got a second and a PS3, read on for his account. Character Creation:

The first thing that I noticed when you go in is that the sliders for character customization move slow as shit. They move so slow that you can't really see the difference in the changes that you are making.

General Play

After you create your character, you jump right into your apartment. The controls are pretty intuitive and the integration of an in game psp is pretty cool (basically in game xmb with extra home options)...[you] really need a keyboard to communicate, but it is still functional with multiple emoticons and preprogrammed messages.

Zones

Each different zone you enter you need to download a new file they range from 18 to 33 MB (They should integrate this into the main download). From the main area you can visit the following places: 1. Movie Theater - A movie theater that you can walk around, sit enjoy...more lapdances, all while the trailer of the last guy is playing. Its kinda funny seeing the text bubbles pop up above peoples heads as they see the trailer. "Game Sucks Ass"...."cool music"..."soundz like bad porn tunez". 2. Shopping center - Visit store for more clothes, furniture, and "stuff". I bought everything I could within 2 mintues. Very limited suppy of "free" items, currently nothing for "sale" with actual dollars. 3. Music zone (no download required, part of the main area) - Listen to 1 of 3 tunes and dance appropriately for the style of music. Get made fun of by other dancers. 4. Game zone - Play crappy arcade, pool and bowling games (absolutely no motion integration, very crappy controls, meh all around)

Closing Thoughts

20 minutes and you get the full experience of Home. The only entertaining thing that keeps me logging back on is stalking other people and doing the twist dance maneuver while saying "grind me hard". I basically chase people around and shake my booty at them and they try to jog slowly away from me, its pretty amusing. Home just needs content. It is currently a 3d chat room.

It should be noted that the PlayStation Home beta does not include areas with PlayStation 3 title game integration as we'll see with games like Warhawk and Resistance 2. Thanks Randy!
[Via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog ]

Is Sony Ditching Ericsson For a PlayStation Branded Phone? [Gaming]

According to Marketing Week, Sony may be considering launching a PlayStation branded phone by Christmas 2009. Naturally that would raise some questions about the health of their relationship with Swedish mobile company Ericsson. The report goes on to say that Sony is leaning towards modifying the PSP to incorporate a phone—which would seem like the most logical route. Citing industry sources, Marketing Week heard that the relationship between the two companies has become "frosty" and that Sony would “never give its PlayStation branding” to a Sony Ericsson joint venture. If it were true, it could go a long way in explaining the recently released F305 which is certainly not PlayStation branded and seems to fall well short of a fabled PSP phone. Could it be that Sony is throwing Ericsson scraps while they keep the juicy ideas to themselves? There have been a lot of rumors thrown out there about a PSP phone, and so far nothing has materialized. We will just have to wait and see. [Marketing Week]

[Via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog ]

PSN Cards Are Just Hitting Stores Now [Playstation 3]

That PlayStation 3 with its PlayStation Network has been around for a while now, but Sony is juuusst getting their act together enough to produce and distribute PSN cards. To most of us with credit cards, these Sony gift cards (good for purchasing downloadable games from the PlayStation Network) are no big deal. But for the young masses who are still sneaking cigarettes out of mom's purse and wearing Groucho Marx mustaches to buy dirty magazines, this is pretty exciting news. Try PixelJunk Monsters if you haven't yet. [Kotaku]

[Via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog ]

PlayStation-Branded PS3 Bluetooth Headset Comes Free With SOCOM

The upcoming SOCOM Confrontation game for the PS3 will come with a free Bluetooth headset, much like the similar deal last year with Warhawk. This headset, however, looks very PlayStation-branded and neutral (unlike the Warhawk one, which just looked ugly), leading us to believe that it could serve as the "official" PlayStation 3 headset if Sony wanted. Why Sony still hasn't come out with an official Sony/PS3 branded one is a mystery to us. Maybe they don't like money? [PS3Fanboy]

[Via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog ]

Details of North American MGS4 PS3 Bundle Come to Light

Get your wallets ready, fanboys: the details for the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 Limited Edition PS3 have been announced. What do you get for your $600? Well, first and foremost you get a gunmetal 40GB PS3 with a new Dualshock 3 controller. You get the limited edition version of the game as well, and you also get a Blu-ray with two hours of bonus content about the making of the game.Personally, I'd be fine saving $100 and getting the standard edition bundle, as it has twice the hard drive space and all you have to give up is the fancy paintjob and Blu-ray disc you'll watch once, if ever. But hey, I'm not a fanboy, so what do I know? If you are a fanboy and are popping a tent just imaging having an OMG gray PS3, you'll be able to put in your preorder at Konami.com starting on Monday, May 19th.

 [Playstation Blog]

[Via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog ]

PlayStation 3 Surpasses Xbox 360 In Europe

With 5 million PS3s sold on the continent, Sony has announced that they've overtaken the 360 in Europe. And not only that, but Sony has been outselling Microsoft in the market since October.
While Sony's PlayStation 3 has gotten off to a shaky, late start, Sony has always claimed that the console was doing well through Europe (which includes many markets that don't have public sales figures available). And that makes sense, since the PlayStation brand is incredibly strong there—48 million PS2s have been sold there, along with 12 million PSPs. With this European data in hand, it's looking more and more like the Xbox 360 is an American trend (since their sales in Japan are virtually nonexistent). But Sony still has a good deal more ground to cover before they can claim second place in the console wars, even from the worldwide perspective. [BBC via Kotaku]

[Via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog ]

Microsoft Hits Fresh Blu-ray Xbox 360 Rumor With a Fresh Denial

Either Microsoft really isn't doing a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360, or Microsoft's PR are gonna be called out as gigantic liars in the near future. Their officials have just shot down the latest rumor saying that an Asus subsidiary was making Blu-ray hardware for Microsoft's console, saying "we have no plans to introduce a Blu-ray drive for Xbox 360." If this is true, Microsoft's really just letting the PS3 be the Blu-ray console, and shoving its stack of chips behind digital downloads. Is this smart? Consumers already half transitioned from CDs to digital music downloads, so we'll see in five years whether video will be the same. [Game Pro]

[Via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog ]