Archive for the ‘Sony’ Category
November 8, 2007
Russian hackers Memento have finally done away with the DOS command line version of their hack for the PS2 memory card Memor 32 and have released a windows interface version. This software will allow you to turn the standard Memor 32 memory card into a fully featured mod chip device within a few seconds. The Memor 32 is available to buy from Divineo.de / Divineo.fr / Divineo.es and Divineo.it.
November 8, 2007
PS3 and 360: Scene for scene, screen for screen. Can you spot a difference?
November 8, 2007
Dark_Alex yesterday let members of the MaxConsole forums know that he will soon be releasing custom firmware v3.71 M33-3 for the PSP along with the new popsloader. However, he notes that v3.72 is almost the same as v3.71 so there is no point in a full reflash. He let us know here (Post 63).
November 8, 2007
Target has confirmed that it has stopped sales of Manhunt 2 in its stores due to the uncensor hack found for the game. A statement read that they wish to make guests comfortable with purchasing decisions in Target and while this title does carry an ESRB rating, the hack pushed them into a decision not to carry the title.
November 8, 2007
Speaking to Famitsu, Playstation supremo Kaz Hirai discussed a variety of juicy PS3 issues including further price drops, the lack of backwards compatibility in newer models and Monster Hunter\’s move to the Wii. Hirai commented that as far as pricing goes, the more games thare are and the higher the amount of PS3 units shiped, the more they are able to lower the price. He also noted that there were many discussions about backwards compatibility although it was removed as the top riority is for owners to play Blu-ray games and have access to downloadable content. Moving onto the loss of Monster Hunter 3 to the Wii, Hirai stated that he hopes Sony can continue partnership with Capcom in this capacity.
November 8, 2007
Can\’t wait until tomorrow for firmware version 2.0? Check out the following video to see what it looks like.
November 8, 2007
Three weeks of improved sales for the PS3 have came to an end last week according to VG Chartz estimates. PS3 sales last week plummeted back to where they were before the price cuts and the launch of the 40GB model. In contrast sales of the 360, have been steady in the last few months selling around 11,000 each week. Now the PS3 has nestled back into its former position in the sub-10,000 group. One tech site claims that this must be due to a lack of games since the price of the PS3 can be found cheaply now. On play.com the PS3 is now retailing for
November 8, 2007
Below are some screenshots of the PS3 firmware 2.0 features. SCEA representatives have said that in-game XMB support is still in the works, and that additional video support is \”almost definitely\” happening. No dates have yet been announced. The features you will be seeing in firmware version 2.0\’s release tomorrow are: Remote start, Information board, Custom Themes, XMB color selector, Music & Photo Playlists, Additional Music Sorting Options, DualShock 3 support, PLAYSTATION Network XMB group icon and Cannon printer support.
November 8, 2007
A gaming site has complied a list of 20 cool things you can do to get the most out of your PS3. Want to change your PS3\’s background, convert avi, divx, mpg and other video formats to run on your PS3, Stream content from your PC? Click read more to see the full list and find out how.
November 7, 2007
Today in Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment confirmed rumors by officially unveiling a new version the PlayStation 2. The latest iteration of the hardware–which has sold over 120 million units internationally in its seven-plus years on the market–will be available in three colors (black, white, and silver) and have a built-in AC adaptor. Officially announced for Japan, the PS2, model #SCPH-90000, has also been confirmed for release in the EU by Sony Europe. In Japan, it will retail for ¥16,000 (approx. $139), the same price as the old model, which is also the same size. No European pricing is yet available for the SCPH-90000 PS2.
Sony also announced today a new “Deep Red” edition of its PlayStation Portable will go on sale in Japan. As the name implies, the new PSP will be red in color, a hue Sony said was chosen for its appeal to holiday shoppers. In Japan, it will arrive on December 13 in two versions. The ¥22,800 (about $199) “PSP Deep Red Value Pack” includes a pouch, handstrap, cleaning cloth, and 32MB Memory Stick Duo for game data. The ¥29,800 (around $260) “PSP Deep Red 1 Seg Pack” includes the handheld’s 1 Seg TV tuner, a 1GB Memory Stick Duo, and a viewing stand, as well as the aforementioned pouch, handstrap, and cloth.
Though the Deep Red PSP isn’t yet officially headed for Europe, unconfirmed reports have the continent getting its own cherry-hued version of the console. The PlayStation.com forums briefly displayed packaging for a bundle containing a new bright red PSP and UMD movie discs of the Spider-Man 2, which was packed in with the PSP at launch, and Spider-Man 3, which is currently bundled with the $399 40GB PlayStation 3 in Blu-ray disc form. (The post displaying the packaging has since been deleted by PlayStation.com administrators.)
Sony Computer Entertainment America would not confirm nor deny the Spider-Man PSP bundle’s existence, let alone whether or not it would be available outside Europe. SCEA reps also would not confirm whether or not the Deep Red PSP or the new PS2 would ever land on North American shores.
“We haven’t announced anything, the only new PS2 we’ve announced is the new limited edition SingStar bundle that started shipping this week,” a rep said, referencing the white PS2 package deal, which went on sale today in the US and Canada.
November 7, 2007
If you played any of the Full Spectrum Warrior titles, you probably have a good idea of what to expect from the awkwardly titled SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike. That is to say, this isn’t a typical shooter in the vein of most SOCOM titles. Rather, it’s a strategy game in which you stealthily maneuver a team of four Navy SEALs through sprawling, labyrinthine levels. You don’t control any of the squadmates directly; rather, you issue abstract commands to shoot, throw grenades, snipe, move, and more–and the artificial intelligence handles the rest with surprising efficiency. It’s a tight, satisfying gameplay model that’s fundamentally enjoyable. You will have to overcome some obstacles to fully enjoy it, though, in the form of a cumbersome camera, lengthy loading times, and often unbearably laggy online play. These aren’t ruinous factors by any stretch, but they do impact the overall experience.
In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.
The finely paced campaign is the game’s best facet, though the political narrative that holds it together is far from intriguing. In its defense, the simple setup concerning a kidnapped ambassador does get a bit more involved in the later missions, but it’s really just an excuse to throw your team into expansive, cluttered environments littered with evildoing gunmen. Fortunately, there are a lot of opportunities to hide and sneak, since Tactical Strike requires as much stealth as it does strategy. You’ll spend a good deal of the game moving your team behind various objects and taking potshots at enemies from behind them.
You can move your team as a whole, or separate it into two squads of two SEALs each. Either way, you hold down the circle button to bring up a movement reticle, move it to the desired location with the analog button, and your squad sneakily makes its way to its destination. This works pretty well, but in corridors and tighter areas, it takes some maneuvering. Sometimes, aiming your main view at a relatively distant location and pressing the move button will cause the movement indicator to appear more or less where you wanted it to. When it doesn’t, you need to position it manually. Since the targeting reticle is glued to the ground, you’ll sometimes need to push it around corners or down a flight of steps. That’s not a big deal in theory, but since the game camera is always pointed at any given squadmate, it takes a bit of micromanagement to move around twisty, confined spaces. It’s a particular nuisance when turning corners, since you may not know if there is an enemy hiding there, nor can you tell if there’s any cover to hide behind. In the end, you’ll often be commanding your squad around corners blindly, which is a shame, since the rest of the stealth mechanics are quite good.
Those mechanics will have you sniping distant foes, throwing grenades, firing weapons, breaching doors, and more. Regardless of which choice you make, you select your action from a menu and the artificial intelligence takes care of the rest. The friendly AI does a bang-up job for the most part, and the game nicely walks that tightrope between player involvement and automated actions. You can command your squadmates, but they’ll also follow your lead, and intelligently respond to enemy attacks. They’ll duck when fired upon, run away from grenades, wait for enemies to emerge from cover before firing, and, when breaching, will take appropriate cover whenever possible.
Enemy AI does a semidecent job of keeping up. Adversaries will reposition themselves for better shots, duck behind cover, and take other actions to avoid slaughter. It does some dumb things here and there, however. Foes will sometimes run out into the open for no obvious reason, get stuck in one spot and jitter around, or pay no attention when a teammate falls over dead right in front of them. There are also some annoying escort operations in which civilians will accompany you. The game apparently classifies them as squadmates when they join you, so the weaponless friendlies will often move ahead of your team and right into harm’s way. Luckily, you can order them to stay put.
Yet in spite of all these nitpicks, Tactical Strike is an enjoyable game that rewards your patience with a good bit of tense, tricky gameplay. Levels are strikingly vast, so most mission objectives can be reached in a variety of ways. You can fight your way through, one enemy at a time, using standard weapons. Or, you can get to a balcony for a good vantage point for sniping. You can also sneak past completely unnoticed (a particular joy in the nighttime missions). Other times, you’ll need to separate your two squads for maximum effectiveness. You’ll fight in a number of great environments, from urban warehouses to rural fields, and all of them provide plenty of opportunities to find cover, scout for enemies, and generally be a nuisance to your foes. Don’t assume this means the game is easy, though. You need to take care with every move and every positioning, lest you leave yourself open to enemy gunfire, and some objectives will require a little trial and error until you find the best way to accomplish them.
The missions are long, sometimes taking over an hour to complete, yet the maps are so open-ended that the campaign never wears out its welcome. Once you’re done, you can try out the multiplayer options, which allows up to four players to battle it out either locally or online. It’s an excellent suite of multiplayer features, featuring five total modes and a host of personalization options. Free for all and suppression are your standard deathmatch and team deathmatch modes, respectively. In extract, the special forces team attempts to escort a VIP to safety, while the mercs try to eliminate him. The two best modes, however, are collateral damage and demolition. Demolition is an attack-and-defend mode, in which one team defends an object (such as a helicopter) while the other team tries to destroy it. The result is often an intense standoff that hinges on smart use of grenades and teammate revival. Even better is collateral damage, which is like demolition on steroids. Here, one team tries to destroy a number of vehicles, and the defending team must protect them. It requires more movement and more teamwork than the other modes, and adds a degree of urgency sometimes missing from the single-player game.
You can further tailor matches by disallowing certain weapons, or prohibiting players from reviving downed squadmates. Tactical Strike even supports voice chat, and it seems to work pretty well. What wasn’t so grand is how laggy most of our online matches were, both when hosting and joining other players’ games. At times, it took several seconds for our squad to respond to our command. Other times, the game would completely freeze for three or four seconds at a time. Even in ad hoc play, there were annoying moments of instability where squads took two or three seconds before responding to orders while the UMD spun madly. Without these issues, Tactical Strike could have been as good as any other online game for the PSP.
The environments are simply gorgeous.
Tactical Strike looks and sounds fantastic. The levels are enormous and detailed, filled with lush foliage and decrepit vehicles. Buildings like mansions and churches are rendered beautifully, with clean textures and nice lighting effects. The splendor comes at a price, though, in the form of frustratingly long load times. They’re most annoying when you fail a mission and have to restart from the last checkpoint, which requires you to go back to a mission select menu (which takes a while to load) and then return to the level (which takes even longer to load). The impressive visuals are accompanied by solid sound effects and great voice acting, both in English and in other languages. It’s sincerely a treat to use a Korean or Spanish team in multiplayer matches, simply to hear the enthusiastic cries of squadmates in their respective languages.
Tactical Strike is a departure from the standard SOCOM gunplay, but it’s still worthy of consideration, both from those who enjoy the series and those who like measured tactical gameplay. A few frustrations get in the way of the fun from time to time, but this is still a good strategy/action hybrid that delivers on multiple fronts.
November 7, 2007
LucasArts and Traveller’s Tales happened upon an alchemical combination of nostalgia with the 2005 release of Lego Star Wars, a jovial action adventure game that mined a pan-generational affection for both George Lucas’ space opera and those colorful Danish building blocks. Its 2006 sequel was better, largely because it was based on the original trilogy rather than the prequels. Now Traveller’s Tales has wrapped the contents of both games into a single package with Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. That’s a great deal of content, and if you haven’t played either Lego Star Wars games, this is a solid package made even better by improved graphics, new levels, and online cooperative play. If you have played either Lego Star Wars games, though, you’ll be getting a lot of recycled content here, which makes The Complete Saga harder to recommend.
The Lego re-creation of the famous scene where Darth Vader says ‘Sit on it, Potsie!’
The basic appeal of Lego Star Wars is that it lets you act out some of the more memorable Star Wars moments with cute little Lego people, a concept that hits so many different nostalgia triggers with such precision that it almost seems sinister. The game itself is an action adventure with a heavy focus on puzzle-solving and cooperative play, often at the same time. You’ll make your way through the Naboo palace, the cloning facility on Kamino, the streets of Mos Eisley, the corridors of the Death Star, and other distinct locales, with a small party of various characters in tow. While there are literally dozens of characters that you can unlock and play as, they all fit neatly into a few different character classes, each with unique and appropriate abilities.
Though you can control only one character at a time, you can switch between which character you’re controlling on the fly, and much of the game is deliberately designed to force you to switch back and forth between characters often, making full use of their various abilities. Of course, all the characters and vehicles, and large portions of the environments, are made out of Legos, which creates a surreal, playful kind of aesthetic. It also figures into the gameplay pretty often, as you often have to build objects to progress. The game breaks away from the action adventure format on occasion for a vehicle sequence, such as the pod race from The Phantom Menace or the attacks on the Death Star. They’re rarely as polished or intuitive as the action when you’re on foot, but they work well enough and break up the action nicely.
The group-based format has always made Lego Star Wars ideal for playing with another person, and in The Complete Saga for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, you can finally play the game cooperatively over the Internet. This is far and away the most significant addition to this package, and it’s been nicely integrated, making it easy for another player to jump into the game at almost any point. In addition to online play, The Complete Saga features a number of other upgrades, mostly pretty minor. A few new gameplay sequences, such as the pursuit of bounty hunter Zam Wessell through Coruscant from the beginning of Attack of the Clones, have been added. Other sequences have been changed, such as the gunship cavalry chapter near the end of Attack of the Clones, which now has less of a gun-blazing shooter feel and features some puzzle elements.
If you’ve played a Lego Star Wars game before, be prepared for some d
November 7, 2007
Last week, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello announced in a quarterly earnings conference call that the publisher would be weathering a round of layoffs and studio closures. At the time, the only operation confirmed for closure was the EA Chertsey studio in the UK. Today, If Its Games has obtained an internal EA memo stating that EA Chicago is also being closed.
EA Chicago is best known for its work on the Def Jam and Fight Night franchises. It had been working on a new licensed Marvel fighting game, as well as a second fighting game based on a new intellectual property. The Fight Night series has already been moved to an EA Sports studio, and an EA representative said that announcements would be made regarding EA Chicago’s other projects in the future.
The memo, sent by EA Games president Frank Gibeau, states that EA will announce the closure today, and calls it “the toughest decision I’ve made in my career–one that in no way reflects on the talent and dedication of the people who work there.” Gibeau singled out studio general manager Kudo Tsunoda as one of the best creative minds in the industry, and said that many of the affected employees will be offered jobs at other EA locations, with those leaving the company receiving severance and outplacement assistance.
“We’re willing to take risks, make long-term investments, and to support teams and individuals between launches,” Gibeau said. “But each team is responsible for staying on a reasonable path to profitability. Sticking to that strategy is what gives us the financial resources and flexibility to take risks on new projects.
“Unfortunately, EA Chicago hasn’t been able to meet that standard. The location has grown dramatically in the past three years while revenue from the games developed there has not. The number of employees has grown from 49 in 2004 to 146 people currently in the new facility in downtown Chicago. As it stands, EA Chicago has no expectation of hitting our profitability targets until FY2011 or later.”
Gibeau stressed again that the company was willing to take risks and make long-term investments, but added every game must “be committed to delivering a reasonable expectation of profitability” if the company’s corporate philosophy is going to work.
“It’s a performance commitment that binds us together and ensures we have the resources we need to invest back into our people and creative output,” Gibeau said.
November 7, 2007
This holiday season’s rhythm game rumble will see original Guitar Hero publisher RedOctane competing against original Guitar Hero developer Harmonix at the behest of their new parent companies, as Activision’s Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and MTV Games’ Rock Band vie for headliner status.
With Guitar Hero III released in North American stores late last month and Rock Band not set to arrive until November 20, simExchange analyst Jesse Divnich today summarized the prediction market’s expectations for each title’s performance.
The simExchange allows users to invest fake money in games and consoles based upon their sales expectations compared to a market expectation that is based on other users’ investments. Talented prognosticators are rewarded with more money to put back into the market, which means their analysis is given more weight in determining what the market expectation for each game will be.
According to the simExchange’s numbers and Divnich’s analysis, the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero III will trounce Rock Band for Microsoft’s console, which has seen its stock drop in recent weeks. Divnich noted that the simExchange had been projecting Rock Band for the Xbox 360 to sell as many as 250,000 copies in the US during the month of November, nearly on par with the 287,000 sales first-month sales figure expected of Guitar Hero III for the 360.
However, when news broke that individual Rock Band instruments would not be available at launch, forcing consumers to either buy the game on its own or with every instrument in a $169.99 bundle, simExchange users began lowballing their estimates. Since then, the market expectation of first-month sales for the Xbox 360 edition of Rock Band has fallen to 150,000. Lifetime sales of Guitar Hero III are also expected to beat those of Rock Band, with the Xbox 360 versions of each pegged to move and 2.23 million and 880,000, respectively.
As for other platforms, the simExchange lists a cross-section of titles based on demand from its userbase, and as a result had no data for Rock Band on the PlayStation 3 or the PlayStation 2. On the other hand, the market is currently expecting Guitar Hero III to sell lifetime totals of 1.76 million copies on the Wii, 2.11 million on the PS2, and 799,000 on the PS3. Divnich said the performance expected of the Wii edition is particularly impressive, noting that Wii editions of multiplatform titles–especially those from American publishers–have met with little success.
Yesterday, Activision released its quarterly financial figures and discussed the early success of Guitar Hero III. While it didn’t talk about the number of copies each version sold, it did say that the title accounted for more than $115 million in first-week sales on all platforms.
November 7, 2007
In March, Sony Computer Entertainment America held a lavish launch party in San Francisco for God of War II. In the course of the celebrations, Cory Barlog, the game’s outspoken director, dropped
some none-too-subtle hints that the series would be coming to the PlayStation 3 along with force feedback.
“If we were to do a God of War III on the PS3,” Barlog told the enthusiastic crowd. “We’re excited about the potential–maybe, no commitment, no announcement or anything like that–to maybe have [God of War hero] Kratos in 1080p with the Sixaxis and vibration. Vibration is coming back to the PS3, that’s pretty cool, huh?”
At the time of Barlog’s outburst, SCEA reps would comment on neither a rumble-enabled Sixaxis nor God of War III coming to the PS3. Now, less than two months after the Dual Shock 3 was unveiled at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, Sony has officially confirmed that God of War III is indeed in development exclusively for the PS3 at SCEA’s Santa Monica studio. It provided no further details on the game.
Unfortunately, the God of War III announcement was tempered by some bittersweet news. SCEA has confirmed Barlog himself no longer works at the company’s Santa Monica studio. “We are grateful for his work and creative vision for the critically acclaimed God of War franchise,” the company said in a brief statement in which it expressed faith in the remaining members of the GOWIII and God of War: Chains of Olympus teams.
Barlog’s departure remains shrouded in mystery. So far, he has shared no information about his future plans on his personal blog, where he last posted in mid-October. His exit comes just under four months after God of War series creative director,
David Jaffe announced he was leaving SCEA’s employ after 14 years. Jaffe maintains close ties with Sony, and his indie studio Eat Sleep Play’s first project is a PS2 port of the PSP game Twisted Metal: Head On.
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