SOCOM was a great game. It set PS2 online, on fire. Well, for a bit anyway. SOCOM I and SOCOM II were great but subsequent sequels for me, failed to keep the simplicity of the first two.
It's good to hear that a PS3 version of the series is in the works, SOCOM: Confrontation had it's first screens and footage released today from the Sony Gamers Day in the States. It's set to be online only, which probably won't be a bad thing. In an interview on Gamespot it was made clear that at this years E3 there will be big announcements about the game. But some beans were spilled: Expansion packs will be available on the PSN and will include maps, characters, weapons, bonus content and will often be 'themed'. This immediately makes me think of Battlefield 2 and it's themed add on packs like Special Forces and Euro Force. A release date of Christmas 2007 is also hinted at, though no date has been set.
It's looking very good and they've obviously decided to take SOCOM back to its roots, it looks alot like SOCOM II gameplay...
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Still looks beautiful. Carboard box dude ftw.
Oh, sorry - and the trailer (complete with typo):
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A Community Team Coordinator over at the Official PlayStation Forums posted fresh news today about a forthcoming MotorStorm update, v1.2.
Set to arrive mid-May, it will automatically pop up to download and install, once you choose ‘Online’ from the MotorStorm main menu. There are no new maps or anything too exciting, but the patch looks set to fix the major bugs experienced when playing MotorStorm online. Though some might question why things as simple as being able to tell who the host is - were not in there from the start.
Unfortunately, the update will wipe all the current rankings, and although this might upset a few players, it’ll at least mean everyone can start off on the same foot this time round. No more boost exploits!
- Game List Improvement - ‘Game Status’ is now displayed with the game list in the online lobby making it easier to find a session where you’ll be able to join and race promptly.
- Host Identification Within the game lobby the host is now clearly identified by a ‘host’ icon visible to all players and updated during host migration.
- Boost Exploit A bug involving the boost system that allowed a player to use boost in an exploitative manner has been resolved.
- Buddy List Size This has been updated to support up to 50 friends.
- Text Cut-off When playing in standard definition all messages will now display as intended.
- Improved Stability Online Online gameplay stability has been improved.
- Audio issues All known issues with 5.1 / 7.1 surround have been fixed. Audio issues within the front-end have been resolved.
- Player Ranking Players were found to be ranked incorrectly due to a bug. Because of this all online rankings will be reset and the ranking system should now function correctly. Evolution and Sony apologise for this measure but it will result in a fairer and more stable ranking system for all players.
- Auto-Start Races will be forced to start after a fixed countdown which should dramatically reduce the waiting times in lobbies. Hosts may delay this countdown up to three times.
- Save Data Corruption When quitting the game using the PS button it was possible to corrupt the save game data. This will no longer occur.
- Lobby Information Upcoming track and current lap details will be displayed in lobbies.
- Vehicle Damage When restarting a single player race during a death camera the damage wasn’t always reset at the start of the next race. This has now been resolved.
- Missing Audio Audio effects were missing from the death camera, these have now been reinstated.
- Name Tags Added ability to switch the player name tags on / off during online races using a single button press (L1).
Previously, I posted my 100% EU MotorStorm game save for those poor souls, who like me, had spent so many hours completing the Japanese version of the game. But then had to complete the game again to unlock the juicy cars on the E.U version.
Sonys 'unofficial' blog, ThreeSpeech.com has just announced a summer launch date for PlayStation 3's much anticipated EyeToy.
PlayStation 3 is very good at being compatable with any plug and play USB webcam, including the XBox 360's own special camera.
So? What can we expect from the shiny new camera, designed specifically for PlayStation 3 and it's future apps such as Home.
Here are the key features of the new EyeToy:
- A sophisticated microphone with the ability to reduce background noise and focus on the spoken word for smoother, more accurate speech recognition and transfer
- The ability to capture videos and audio clips directly to your PS3’s hard disk drive
- Engineered to perform well even in low-light conditions
- A range of different capturing modes, including slow motion and time-lapse
- Faster frame rate for improved tracking, responsiveness and smoothness
- Two position zoom lens for close-up and full body options
- A range of eye-catching visual effects to apply to photos and videos
- Bundled with EyeCreate™ editing software, which allows users to save and edit photos, video and audio clips
I've many happy memories of playing with the original EyeToy, I even had my Dad waving his arms around trying to play EyeToy once. It was prone to the novelty wearing off after a while though. With Wii and social gaming now more popular than ever, many people have some high hopes for Sony's next generation Eye Toy.
Features such as the better performance in low light conditions are much needed. Capturing photos and video is also a good feature (which makes me wonder about the extent to which SingStar might take advantage of these capabilities).
ThreeSpeech goes on to say more about the software included, and some of the functionality in the New PlayStation Eye...
EyeCreate software
EyeCreate editing software, bundled free with PLAYSTATION Eye allows you to save photos, video and audio clips to your PS3 hard disk drive and apply eye-catching visual effects to your images. Different capture modes like time-lapse and slow motion open up a world of possibilities to be explored further in EyeCreate’s editing suite, where you can turn your media into professional looking movies.
New microphone functions
An all-new four microphone array, incorporating multidirectional voice location tracking, enhanced echo cancelling and background noise suppression allows for clear audio chat in even the most noisy of environments, without the need to hold or wear a headset.
Next-generation camera features
A frame rate of up to 120 frames per second allows for super-smooth video and sophisticated low-light operation means that the room doesn’t have to be brightly lit for the camera to deliver crisp, perfectly exposed video. The adjustable zoom lens features a 56º field of view to capture head and shoulders action for close-in audio-visual chat, and a 75º field of view to capture the whole body for a fully physical gaming experience.
Technical Specifications:
- 4 channel audio input:16 bits/channel, 48kHz, SNR 90db
- 56º to 75º Field of View zoom lens
- 2.1 F-stop, <1% distortion, fixed focus (25cm to 8 at 75º FOV)
- 640 x 480 at 60 frames/second
- 320 x 240 at 120 frames/second
- USB2 high-speed data transfer
- Uncompressed video or optional JPEG compression
Previous rumours of the new EyeToy were all touting 'HD' but it appears as if HD has been left out of the equation for the EyeToys video capture. Just VGA resolution? Pffft. They could've least have given us a widescreen format. The 120fps is at a mere 320x240. Whilst this may have little or no compression, it's the same physical dimensions that my mobile phone captures video at.
The original EyeToy had a maximum resolution of 640x480, so I'm guessing that the 60fps is a big improvement (though I can't find technical specifications about it's framerate).
So, perhaps not the revolution we were hoping for, but a nice little accessory none the less. Now - on to the games!
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The new trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Not normally my cup of tea (other than dressing up as a Pirate), but then I do love the films and this game is looking very nice. The swagger of Capt' Jack Sparrow as he walks up the sun-drenched mooring is really quite good.
Coming to 360 & PlayStation 3 sometime in the future.
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The new Ninja Gaiden Sigma trailer hit the web recently and it's not looking too bad. Re-developed for PlayStation 3 and apparently running at a smooth 60fps @ 720p, it's no ugly duckling. Mind you, it's not quite Heavenly Sword...
The HD version is worth checking out if you're picky about these things...
I'll be checking out the demo which is touted as hitting the Jap & U.S PS Stores by the end of April, so watch out for those updates.
The new Grand Theft Auto IV trailer went out this evening with a bang. It looks, well, exactly like Grand Theft Auto but prettier. Much prettier. Nice bloom effects, dynamic lighting etc, lots of things going on at once - a hell of a lot more people and cars. Oh, and not to mention New York city. Lovely.
Here are some screens from the HD trailer.
I purchased Motorstorm for the PlayStation 3 back in January, completed it and just yesterday I got the PAL/UK version of the game. I was gutted to see my game save wouldn’t work. Not wanting to spend the same number of hours completing it a second time (despite it being an awesome game), I wanted to find a game save, so I could unlock the cars I had so rightfully earned, for online play.
Well, I managed to simply combine the U.S save with the E.U one and vóila! Done.
You’ll need to copy it on to a memory device, and put it in the following folder structure: /PS3/SAVEDATA/BCES00006.
You can then import it under the PlayStation 3’s Game Data Utility under Game in the XMB.
Last night I got the chance to go along to ThreeSpeech’s event at the PlayStation ThreeRooms in London.
It’s basically a massive swanky pad, crammed with ubercoolische interior design, a big free bar, Piles of Blu Ray movies littering shelves, PSPs in toilets that play music at you, oh - and lots of 52” 1080P Bravia TVs. And of course, PlayStation3s.
Kind of like Sonys vision for the digitally connected future home (perhaps without the PSPs in the loo, mind...)
They invite lots of people along to come play games and see PlayStation3s functionality. There are lots of photos on the wall of various people who’ve been and gone - Celebrities, Magazines, Humble gamers and even local primary school kids. It’s quite a good bit of PR.
During the evening there was an exclusive demo session with Phil Harrison, followed by a brief Q&A session. He showed everyone a live demo of Home, and talked extensively about the features available to users and developers. The demos of media sharing were very cool. He took a photo of us sitting in the room, popped the memory stick in and within seconds the photo was in a picture frame placed in his ‘Home apartment’. In another room, he placed a bravia TV on the wall, then made a Casino Royale trailer play on it (it has proximity related audio which was very nice too) and then picked up the TV and threw it down some stairs - with the video continually playing. Looked very silly but everything worked fine.
After that he demoed with 3 other SCEE peeps the rather awesome LittleBigPlanet. Which really was great. It’s so cute! And so much fun to watch, let alone play. Phil pointed out that it's "one of the few games that's as good to watch as it is to play". I took some video.
During the Q & A - which was quite short, I managed to get two questions in.
Is the lobby size of 64 users in Home ever likely to be increased?
He pretty much answered no, saying that if a lobby gets full, new lobbies are, rather obviously, just spawned to cope with extra users. He also said that physically, existing lobbies appear rather crowded when you’ve got 64 people walking around talking to each other. Although in an answer to another question, he did say that it may be possible to increase the user cap on rooms where media sharing is not enabled.
When will the PS3’s remote play functionality be available from outside the home?
This was one question I had to ask - and one of the major reasons I wanted a PS3 in the first place, it's a really great piece of media functionality. I missed this question in the Q&A but managed to ask him afterwards. He said "Remote Play from wireless hotspots? It’s included in the 1.6 update". It’s an awesome feature - allowing you to access any photo, video or audio media stored on your PS3 at home, using your PSP, from anywhere in the world. Nice.
There was lots of other interesting information revealed too, probably a bit too much to take in but Phil did state that the number of working BC titles on the newer PS3 hardware is now at 1200 and rising steadily.
I managed to take some pics and some video, although for some reason my camera decided to tell me my brand new batteries were flat. Typical…
Well, there’s now a Home Beta Trial site for anyone with a PlayStation 3 hoping to get involved with a beta trial for the recently announced PlayStation Home.