Difference in Opinion

The long awaited Playstation 3 video download service might be closer than expected. Kotaku.com recently found some information from the Sony mid-term company strategy meeting that shows the service might be hitting the Playstation 3 sometime in the summer of 08. The service will not only be a Playstation 3 thing, but it looks like the PSP will be getting the video download service around the same time. Sony is planning on bring this service to all its products through out the next couple of years, hoping to have everything incorporated into this by 2010.

Kotaku.com on Thursday reported about a new feature coming to the Playstation 3, “Life with Playstation”. The new feature will enable Playstation 3 users to check news and weather of any city in the world. When Life it loaded, a 3D representation of the Earth will be shown, giving the user the option of picking any city in the world and see what the headlines are there. While surfing the endless amounts of news articles the users will be able to load music to play in the background off their hard drive.

Over on the Playstation Blog Andrew Adams, the Marketing Program Manager, dropped in to let everyone know that the Playstation Experience and the Playstation Patrol will be out on the road again this summer traveling to different events giving a look at the hottest games coming this year to the Playstation 3.

The Playstation Experience is a new community-focused place for gamers to test out the Playstation 3. There will be themed rooms for each of the different games; LittleBigPlanet, SingStar and Rock Band. As well as an area for people to play all the hottest game out now for Playstation 3 including Metal Gear Solid 4, PAIN, PixelJunk Monsters and echochrome. In the Rock Band room players will be given the option to register their band for the “Take the Stage with Rock Band On Tour” contest that will give the winning band the chance to play on stage at a real concert!

The Playstation Patrol has been re-made into a battlefield with two 52-inch LCD TVs and lounge seating. Along with the 52-inch LCD TVs, there will be a Gran Turismo 5 Prologue area which will incluge the new Logitech Driving Force GT steering wheels. There will be 5 other 40-inch LCD TVs inside that will give people the chance to see the best games that the Playstation 3 has to offer.

A new trailer was just released today for the upcoming Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm game coming to Xbox Live Arcade next week. WARNING: The video is graphic. Such is the nature and humor of the show.

In recent days that Playstation Blog has been booming with information on the Playstation 3 system and games. Today was no different when Peter Dille, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Playstation Network, gave us a peek at the 2008 schedule for the PS3.

Starting off, he mentioned the new look of the Playstation Store will be able to advertise more of the content found within the store and for the new content that will be hitting the store soon. Sony is focusing on getting more games like Everyday Shooter, Super Stardust HD and PixelJunk Monsters that will showcase the technology of the Playstation 3. One of those highly anticipated games, echochrome, is due to hit the store in May. Dille re-enforced Sony’s mission to “quality over quantity” in providing fewer remakes of games and arcade games to more original and creative games.

As many of you Playstation 3 fans are aware of, Sony will be providing a video downloading service that will allow a Playstation 3 owner to download movies and television shows directly onto their hard drive. The service is promised to be like nothing seen before. It will give PS3 owners the ability “…to break through the overwhelming clutter of digital media to give you the TV, movies and gaming content you want.” New details will be available soon.

Dille then came to the topic that has all of the Playstation 3 world jumping up and down yelling for, in-game XMB. He confirmed that they are in the process of making in-game XMB as well as a variety of community based services throughout the year. He did not mention when the in-game XMB will be released, just that they are going to be releasing it this year. Along with the community based services he mentioned that there will be a way of recognizing accomplishments and reward the player for them. Along with the news of the rewarding the players for accomplishments, Delli reminded everyone of the 2008 release of Home.

To finish up the post Dille mentioned the Playstation Cards. The cards are being shipped to retailers nationwide now. There will be two denominations that will be available, $20 and $50.

So will 2008 be the year of Playstation 3? Only time will tell, but from the looks of things, it just may be.

Is your Spider Sense tingling? Well after today it should be, Spider-man is coming back. Activision announced today that a new Spider-man game is in production. The web swinging hero’s new game, “Spider-man: Web of Shadows” is being considered a release for the 3rd quarter of 2008 to the Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii and PC.

Activision won’t give many details on the game since it is still in production, but they did give us something to report to you. Web of Shadows will be a open-world, free-roaming game set in New York City. There were a few new features that they did mention like customizable superpowers. There will be the same old hand to hand fighting on the ground, but they also want to give the player a chance to fight vertically that will let you fight as Spidey in the sky. Everyone knows and loves the “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man”, but did you ever want a chance to make him into the neighbor everyone hates? Well in Web of Shadows, Activision promises that you can do just that. There will be cameo appearances with many Marvel superheros and villains which the player will be able to decide how to interact with them.

To the delight of all the Metal Gear Solid fans, yesterday the Playstation Blog revealed the details of the Metal Gear Online release. April 17th is the first day you will be able to log onto the Playstation Store and download the beta with the code you received with your pre-order. Even though it will appear on your Playstation 3, you will be unable to play it until April 21st. The beta will run from April 21st through May 5th. The code will only work with one Playstation 3 and Playstation 3 account.

After launching the game, you will traverse the menus and will be asked to enter your Konami ID. In order to obtain the Konami ID, you will have to go to Konami’s website, either through the game, or through your internet browser. You are able to register at Konami’s website right now for your Konami ID.

Once you have finished the Konami ID registration, you are able to log into the lobbies and into games. Enjoy an online experience that you can only experience with Metal Gear Online.

GameTrailers.com just released an exclusive Resistance 2 Debut Trailer to their site. Here is the trailer below. Go on and watch through it and let the salivating begin…

With Sony focusing more on online content with their Playstation 3, they stepped up to the plate with the Playstation Store. Since the release of the Playstation 3 in the Winter of 2006 Sony has been updating the content found within has been updated every Thursday. The new items are put onto the front page with a banner at the top showing their big story of the new update. With the new titles put onto the front page, the old items are sent to the small crevasses of the store and are very hard to find once they have been sent their.As the Playstation Store has grown in the content, gamers have been pleaing with Sony to make a new interface for the Store to make it easier to find older items.

Early in April Sony answered the gamer’s pleas. They released pictures showing the new interface of the Playstation Store. Along with the images were the promises of a more user-friendly way of…well, doing everything. Adding to the excitment of the Playstation Store facelift, the new firmware update will be released as well, version 2.3.

According to the Sony European Press Center, the firmware update which will include the new Playstation Store facelift will be released on April 15. There has been no word on the release date for the United States. Whiel there has been no offical release date for the United States, it can be safe to say that the facelift should hit America around the same time.

Bethesda recently released three new Fallout 3 screenshots. Here they are below, enjoy!

That last one is just so pretty looking. Definitely keep an eye out for more information on this game, it is sure to be a great title knowing Bethesda’s success in the past.