Joost have created a player optimized for PS3.

What’s Joost? Taken directly from their “About Us” page

It’s a way to watch videos – music, TV, movies and more – over the Internet. We could just call it a website … with videos … but that’s not the whole story.

We’re giving you new ways to find what you’d like to watch. You can search in “traditional” ways – by title or category – or you can find suggestions from other people on Joost. They may be your friends, or they may just be people who have something in common with you – but either way, they can direct you to great things to watch.

The player for PS3 is currently in beta, or in laboratatory as Joost call it. That means that the experience you have with the player right now, probably won’t be the same as the end result.

How do I browse videos on Joost with my PlayStation 3, then? You simply open up the network browser on your PS3, found under Network in the XMB. Then you press the Start button on your PS3 controller to open up the adress bar and write http://labs.joost.com/tv and press the Cross button.

You’ll be greeted by a page that explains you the controls within Joost on the PS3

Joost Control Scheme – Click the image for a larger version

Press the cross button to continue and you’ll experience the optimized Joost player. From my experience there’s currently just featured videos as well as some music videos to be found within the player, it might have something to do with my geographical location (Norway). Or it might be that this player is still in beta. Either way, I find this service nice, it’s good to see that large video-communities like YouTube and Joost are optimizing their platforms for consoles.

Here’s how the user interface looks

Joost User Interface – Click the image for a larger version

Patch-notes for Home version 1.21.

General

Threads will have another relatively small influx of fun and varied clothing for those of you who like to mix and match, and you’ll also find a few more hairstyles available to you in the wardrobe. And we can’t resist listing them: Sleek Crop, Crop, Forward Spikes, Short Hair, Spiky Hair and last but not least, Shaggy Sleek.

Home Square

Some elements of Home Square have been updated behind the scenes and as a result you’ll need to download the new version of the space. We are assured you will not notice the changes but for those of you interested the elements updated are Draughts, Chess and Helicopter Hit.

EA Sports Complex

The EA Sports complex is receiving an update to add the following:

Poker

• Leader Boards – The two screens attached to the roof support pillars in the space will now have leaderboard information for daily winners, and season leaders

• Ranking – The top 100 players for the season and for the day will be ranked and you can see if you have a ranking by looking at the bottom of the leader board

• Red Tournament Table – The middle table will now become the Red Tournament table. You will need to have a positive bankroll to play on this table which means having at least 1000 points in your bankroll

• Point Rewards for Winning – On the tables your rewards will vary based on the number of players and how you finish. Green payouts for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Red tables pays out more than Green.

• Improved camera system (L1 to change, L2 to reset) – You now have 4 different views of the table you play on – standard, over head, table top view 1, table top view 2. You can look at the leader board to see how many point the daily and season winners have posted. Watch 1 of 3 video screens, View the Scoreboard slide show, Check the Ticker for updated event information.

• Table placement – By moving the location of the tables we will be able to reduce the cross chatter between tables that occurs while texting. This change should also eliminate the annoying “video screen in my ear effect” that occurs on certain seats

• Music (R2 to change volume) – We have added a music track to the Poker game to make things a little more interesting. Volume control will also be added so you can toggle between 3 volume levels or turn it off completely (R2)

• Blind Timers – Now increment based on the number of people remaining at the table

• Blind Time on Status board – When you walk up to a table you now see how high the blind is and when it will double

Bug reporting

As a point of interest we are investigating ways of gathering bug reports from you in the future. Forum threads simply don’t work for this as duplicate reports and general chat complicate and greatly increase the amount of work involved in simply finding the facts. In the meantime we will continue to look to our long term beta testers to report through our existing process. We hope to have something usable by all by the next patch.

Patch v1.21

And now onto v1.21 of the Home core client and the changes it brings. The major difference between ourselves and SCEA is that they will be releasing Picture Frames with 1.21. Whilst the moderation hurdles have been overcome our senior management (for better or worse!) are still reassessing their approach to user owned or generated content.

Until these concerns can be tackled we will hold back on releasing Picture Frames here in SCEE. However, our intention is to release this feature as soon as possible and we will let you know how things progress behind the scenes from time to time.

And now onto the lists of changes and fixes:

Improvements

• The chat log has been updated with a number of new enhancements:
- By clicking the left stick you can toggle the chat log between three modes: normal, expanded and minimised.

• It is also possible to switch the chat log directly into expanded mode by pressing up or down on the controller d-pad.
- While minimised the chat log is reduced to a small icon in the corner of the screen. This icon will still fade in and out to indicate whether new chat is being received.
- While expanded you can scroll through individual lines of text in the chat log. By pressing [CROSS] with a line highlighted they are able to open an options menu for the user who spoke.
- Lines of text are coloured in the chat log to reflect the colour choice of the user who typed them.
- Your friends will now have an icon placed beside their ID in the chat log.

• Emotes are now available when text communication has been disabled.
• It is possible to target things while sat on the floor.
• The process of moving between spaces has been streamlined which should make relocating a bit faster.
• The loading time for smaller images, such as thumbnails, posters and map chips, has been reduced.

Changes

• We have reduced loading times when using the virtual stores to browse and purchase items.
• We have changed the way furniture is saved in a Club house. This should stop furniture going missing if the player placing the furniture exits Home immediately after changing the layout.
• When you log in to Home, if there is a problem retrieving your commerce information then you will be returned to the welcome screen with an error message.
• When you attempt to telephone a friend that has voice chat disabled you will now see the warning in an alert message instead of a pop-up.
• If you choose not to download an update patch for Home and then attempt to log on you will be returned to the welcome screen with an appropriate error message.
• We’ve swapped the dark grey and dark blue pop-up colours for magenta and turquoise to make text easier to read in the chat log.
• Club ownership is now indicated by a crown icon instead of a star.
• We’ve slowed down the speed at which you can rotate furniture.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that could cause items of furniture placed in the Club house to go missing (this is separate from the change to make saving the layout more robust).
• Fixed a problem that could cause Home rewards to be lost after a network error.
• Fixed a bug that would cause a crash when the user is signed out of the PSN while logging on to Home.
• Fixed a bug that would send users to the wrong place if they accepted an invitation to a Personal Space just as its owner relocated elsewhere.
• The option to make cross regional telephone calls from public spaces is no longer greyed out.
• Fixed a bug where spawning inside the trigger radius of certain mini-games would result in the user automatically joining them.
• Fixed a bug that would result in a “typing” chat bubble being displayed permanently if the user muted someone while they were typing.
• Changed Game Launching error messages so that line breaks show up correctly in them now.
• Fixed a bug that would cause alert messages to remain on screen after being disconnected.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a crash if the user was disconnected while making a purchase in Home.
• The furniture placement camera will now respect the control inversion settings specified in the Menu Pad.
• Adjusted the way characters get up from seating to make them less prone to popping in and out of seats that are close together.
• Fixed a bug that would result in characters standing on top of certain types of seating after standing.
• Fixed a bug that would cause certain parts of some animations to “stick” if the character stood up while playing them (for example if the user stood up while yawning, their mouth would be stuck open).
• Fixed a bug that would allow the character to run or slide while performing spot idle animations.

As well as a new space called “Presentation Podium” and it’s described as “Equipped with a jumbo screen and an attractive lounge area. The beating heart of the PlayStation Events Space”. I smell preparations for E3 streaming and events.

Here’s how you can get a little taste of Red Faction: Guerrilla. (Limited to EU)

Taken from THQ

Lured by the rich veins of Martian ore, miner Alec Mason arrives on Mars hungry for a new life. But the promise of a brighter future for Mason quickly fades. The Earth Defence Force, once protectors of Martian colonists, have adopted heavy-handed checkpoints and omnipresent armed patrols. As violence escalates, an underground resistance known as the Red Faction is swiftly gathering strength to combat the EDF. Mason’s quest for a new life has become a battle for survival, and the fate of the planet now rests with him and the Red Faction.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is coming to Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION®3 this summer – but you can get your hands on the single player demo today and experience the most realistic destruction engine ever seen – Geo-Mod 2.0 – for yourself.

The Red Faction: Guerrilla Single Player Demo is not open to the general public, but we’re offering myTHQ members exclusive access right now – there are a limited number of places available, so sign up today.

To claim your early access key, follow the instructions below.

Please note, these keys are region-locked to European Xbox LIVE and PSN accounts – they are not valid in North America or any other country outside the EU.

Register on THQ-games and click this link to get your game-code.

Up for grabs today; here’s the changelog.

The 2.70 update introduces a new Text Chat feature that enables you to communicate online with your PlayStation Network friends in a new way – through a instant-message/IRC type of interface. You’ll be able to chat with up to 15 online friends (16 including yourself) using the Wireless Keypad for Sixaxis or DualShock 3, on-screen keyboard, or other compatible keyboard peripherals. Not only can you chat with your friends instantly, but you can also access Text Chat while playing PS3 games and even participate in up to three chat rooms at once. The Text Chat also saves the previous session.

In addition to Text Chat, we’ve added a few more enhancements:

Friends list on the XMB (XrossMediaBar)

• Sort your friends via their online status
• Attach larger files to the messages you send to your friends (file size will increase from 1MB to 3MB)

Video delivery service on PlayStation Store

• Video files you’ve purchased from the PlayStation Store can be backed up to an external storage device and then restored to PS3’s internal hard drive for playback – so you can clear up space on your hard drive and then restore the video anytime in the future
• Videos you’ve purchased for PSP (PlayStation Portable) system can now be transferred to PS3 for playback

Released today, on the European PlayStation Store.

If you don’t have a European PlayStation Network account -> Create a new XMB user, create a new PSN account (Set your country to one in Europe, for example Norway) and insert any address in Norway, I think it can be quite random as well so it doesn’t really matter much. Note: You might need another e-mail account as well, use Google’s gmail for example.

First impressions:

Pros 

• “Realistic” Artificial Intelligence, your enemies are aware of you and afraid of you – they’ll take cover when you shoot and run away from grenades (Or at least try to) and will also move against your position and if outnumbering you will try to flank your position.
• Great graphics, it looks sharp and very post-apocalyptic, vivid display of surroundings – dust flying through the air, bloodsplatter when you take damage, motion blur when you move and shaking when explosions hit near you.
• Good sound effects, both effects and character sounds.
• Control scheme, with possibility to remap more or less any button (As well for a switch to either trigger-scope or click > scope > click > unscope. This was discussed heavily during my time as a beta-tester in the multiplayer as well, glad Guerilla listened).

Cons

• Nothing negative came to my mind during the first playthrough, if anything the sensitivity and movement is a bit sluggish unless you change it before starting up.

YouTube has released a special feature for PS3 and Wii.

The channel, or feature, is meant to ease the browsing of videos on YouTube when watching content from YouTube on Sony PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii. The UI has been scaled up and there’s large buttons and clear, larger fonts on the text to make it easier for the user. Most other objects or features seen on YouTube in normal mode is also removed, to maximize the content on screen.

You can only browse the specialized version of YouTube within the browser on PlayStation 3 or Wii, if you try browsing the channel on a computer you’ll simply be redirected to www.youtube.com.

How do you use the feature, and how does it look?

So, basically you turn on your PS3 or Wii -> Start the browser -> Open up the adress-bar -> Type “youtube.com/tv” and go.

Great UPnP media streamer for PlayStation 3.

You can find the newest version of PS3 Media Server here, here’s the project page and here’s the blog.

Download for Windows (.exe), Mac (.dmg) or Linux (.tgz). I’ve tested myself on following OSes: Windows XP SP3 (Works), Windows 7 Build 7000 (Works) and Ubuntu 8.10 (Works).

What is PS3 Media Server?
It’s an open source media server, mainly developed by one person who wanted an easy UPnP streaming server for his PlayStation 3. The application is based on Java, which basically means it runs on any computer-platform you throw it on (Windows and Linux).
It’s a small application (Newest version 1.02 has a automated setup, this feature is supported for Windows) that streams media; Pictures, Music and Video, from your computer through UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) to your PS3. It consists of several codecs to for example transcode .MKV files to your PS3 so you can watch it as any other fileformat the PS3 support natively.  Most of the settings you’ll need are configured by default, so everything you throw at it will most likely run the first time you try.

What needs configuring
Basically, nothing needs to be configured since this is done by default (The most usual features). The only thing you need to tell the application is where to find your files if you have them mounted through an external disk, for example.

By default the application lists up [All Drives], you may not want this so just add the drive (Or spesific folder/file you want) and delete the [All Drives] input. Click Restart HTTP server and Save. You can now turn on your PlayStation 3 and check under Status that the media server has found your PS3 trace (May have to disable your firewall or alternatively allow your PS3’s IP-adress through the firewall on your computer).

Other bits and bobs
Version 1.02, general additions

• Support for running the application as a Windows service, which on Windows XP is found under Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Scroll down until you find PS3 Media Server > Right-click > Properties > Startup > Automatic. This allows PS3 Media Server to start up when you start your computer.
• Finally possible to maximize the GUI window, which is great for users like me sitting on a netbook with limited screen space

And here are the features

• Ready to launch and play. No codec packs to install. No codec packs to install. No folder configuration and pre-parsing or this kind of annoying thing. No leaflet configuration and pre-parsing or this kind of annoying thing. All your folders are directly browsed by the PS3, there’s an automatic refresh also. All your folders åre browsed directly by the PS3, there’s an automatic refresh also.
• Real-time video transcoding via MEncoder, tsMuxer or Avisynth Real-time video transcoding using mencoder, tsMuxer or Avisynth
• DVD ISOs images / VIDEO_TS Folder transcoder DVD ISOs images / VIDEO_TS Folder transcoder
• OGG/FLAC/MPC/APE audio transcoding OGG / FLAC / MPC / APE audio transcoding
• Thumbnail generation for Videos Thumbnail generation for Videos
• You can choose with a virtual folder system your audio/subtitle language on the PS3! You can choose a virtual folder system with your audio / subtitle language on the PS3!
• All formats PS3 natively supports: MP3/WMA, JPG/PNG/GIF/TIFF, and all kind of videos (AVI, MP4, TS, M2TS, MPEG) the ps3 is willing to play PS3 natively supports all formats: MP3/WMA, JPG / PNG / POISON / TIFF, and all kind of videos (AVI, MP4, TS, M2TS, MPEG) the PS3 is willing to play
• ZIP/RAR files as browsable folders for pictures/audio files ZIP / RAR files as folders for browseable pictures / audio files
• Preliminary support for pictures based feeds, such as Flickr and Picasaweb Preliminary support for pictures based feeds, such as Flickr and Picasaweb
• Preliminary Internet TV / Web Radio support with VLC, MEncoder or MPlayer Preliminary Internet TV / Radio Web support with VLC, or MPlayer mencoder

You heard right, tomorrow, thursday 11/12/2008.

Long anticipated Home (Open Beta*) is coming out for Sony’s PlayStation 3 tomorrow. It will be available for download to anyone being a PlayStation Network member  through PlayStation Store, free of charge.

You might be thinking “What is Home?” right now, or you might be jumping up and down in front of your computer. Either way, I’ll give you a quote from Sony themself as to what they see their new service being, and eventually evolving into.

And I quote -

PlayStation®Home is a 3D social gaming community that allows PLAYSTATION®3 users to meet, chat, plan, and launch into games together. You can create your own custom avatar, decorate your personal apartment, play mini-games, shop, watch videos, attend special events, and much more – it’s all part of PlayStation®Home.

At first glance, Home may seem like a virtual XMB (CrossMediaBar), but as soon as you delve further into Home you’ll come to realise that this service is and can be so, so much more than just a virtual display of the PlayStation network.

Here’s a few keynotes on what Home is, through Sony’s eyes -

Expand your network - Meet up with friends and other gamers to discuss games, get new content or team up for online gameplay, and then come back into PlayStation®Home to analyze your performance and highlights.

Set up clubhouses for your biggest interests or games, making it easier for both you, friends and strangers to meet up and discuss anything involving that special interest or game of your liking.

Be the explorer - Explore all the locations within Home, including the Central Plaza, the game spaces, your personal apartments, and much, much more!

Ever wanted to throw a huge barbeque party for your fellow PlayStation Network buddies? Now’s the time, get that apron on and grill me some burgers!

Aspiring designer - Gamers will customize their avatar’s appearance and clothing with an almost limitless combination of styles and characteristics offering a more personalized experience in PlayStation®Home.

You can, more or less, be whatever you want to be in this fun, relaxing and totally customizable virtual world. Did anyone say Second Life 2?

Sony have also brought in a heap of third part developers and publishers who will work close with the integration of their games; demos, trailers, game reviews, gameplay videos and a lot more into Home. Sony will also integrate their movie feature into the theatres in Home – watching TV on a TV, the new definition of picture in picture?

Through the grapevine; Sony have hinted to upcoming rewards from trophies, perhaps we’ll see special features in Home for those users willing enough to gather up certain amounts of trophies. Who knows? The sky is the limit for this service.

*Open Beta – It’s not yet a final build, but phasing into it’s open beta phase Home will be open to anyone wanting a test-drive.

Sources – Official Home site

Mini-review on the Gioteck Real triggers for the PlayStation 3 controller.

Most of Sony’s fans, and more so haters, are fully aware of the misfit scheme for their game-controllers. Do you ever get tired of your fingertip slipping off the L2/R2 shoulder-buttons when you’re about to frag someone in Resistance 2, or when you’re onto an awesome Burnout? I know I do.

I’ve found the solution to this, and it has been out for a while. The “flick” started out to only have intentions to be a “little extra” for the PlayStation Magazine UK’ trusty readers – but has turned out to be one of the best gadgets/mods for your PS3 (pressure on controller) to hit earth this far.

What the Gioteck triggers does is adding grip on the shoulder-buttons, the mod may look horribly cheap (and it is); but it works wonders! It makes your shoulder-button arch out under your fingers and actually supporting them as they struggle to keep onto the surface of the shoulder-button itself. In addition the Gioteck triggers makes the controller feel more compact and adult-friendly as a whole, it’s just great.

Product – Gioteck Real Triggers

The package itself isn’t anything fancy (It comes in a grey/black/red-designed cardboard box). I live in Norway, so I bought them from a Norwegian netshop called Gamezone, I am sure GioTeck have their products in a lot of other shops around the world as well though!

They costed 60,- NOK, which is like 8$ USD or 7£ GBP. Not a lot and I can tell you right now: It’s so worth it if you’re annoyed by the fingerslipping problem.

Before applying the mod

R2 and L2 shoulder buttons tend to slip “out” of your grip whenever you rely on them – This is annoying and should never have been added to the final design, even if Sony has stayed with the same scheme since PlayStation 1.

After applying the mod

Shoulder buttons now curving out from your fingers instead of “into” like the old shoulder buttons did – Resulting in a much tighter grip and a more compact feel overall. The way a controller should sit and feel in your hand.

The good

+ Relatively cheap
+ Makes the controller feel so more comfortable and compact
+ Your shoulder-button fingers won’t slip no more
+ Easy to attach, just clip them on and go

The bad
- Looks cheap (It is cheap, so not really that much of a minus)

How to get PlayStation Eye (PS3) working on a Windows computer.

Here’s a simple and fairly quick (and easy) way to get your PlayStation Eye working with your Windows computer. I am not sure about compability on other platforms, may do some testing under Linux (Ubuntu) later on.

Here’s the post from the guy developing.

Installation steps:

• Unplug the PS3Eye camera from your computer. if any
• Uninstall any previous version of PS3Eye software. If any
• Download and run the latest PS3EyeSetup file.
• Click ‘Install’ and follow the setup process.
• Plug in the camera.

Here’s the latest PS3EyeSetup file.

After the driver is successfully installed it should appear under both “AlexP Devices” and “Sound, video and game controllers” in the device manager.

To test the camera’s functionality you can execute the test application under Start > PSEye > PSEyeTest. You can also capture video by executing the AMCAP application under the same directory, this requires the Direct Show Video Source to be installed (It’s included in the PSEyeSetup).

How to delete older files and the application itself

• Close any program that are using PS3Eye camera.
• Press Windows Key + R on your keyboard or alternatively go to Start > Run
• Type the following – regsvr32 /u “C:\Program Files\AlexP\PS3Eye.ax”
• You will see the following dialog box confirming successful un-registration of the PS3Eye.ax file.
• “DLLUnregisterServer in C:\Program Files\AlexP\PS3Eye.ax succeeded”
• You can now safely delete PS3Eye.ax and PS3EyeLib.dll from your machine.

If this fails, try doing the same procedure under Window’s safe mode.

That’s it, you’re done and now you can enjoy your PlayStation Eye camera on your computer as well as your PlayStation 3!

Thanks to Alex Popovich (Support the project here, through PayPal) for making this possible, he’s the author.

Update: LittleBigPlanet servers online, again.

With no more information than exactly just that out yet, or to be honest that’s not released information either. I’ve been trying to log on for one to two hours now, getting the angry little pop up saying

A problem occurred when attempting to connect to the LittleBigPlanet servers.

The log in window takes it’s time trying to connect until finally giving up and returning above error-message. I’ll try surfing the web for some accurate and relevant information around this problem and what’s causing it, but my intuition tells me that this is related to the European launch of LittleBIgPlanet.

Update: The LittleBigPlanet servers are now online again, rejoice and make those juicy brains ooze out creativity!

Preparation for the European launch of LittleBigPlanet.

In preparation for European launch this week, the LittleBigPlanet servers will be temporarily down due to maintanance on Tuesday, 11/4 starting at 1:30am (PST).  We’ll be sure to post here again once ther server is back up.  Our apologies for any inconvenience this maintenance will cause.

Taken from LittleBigWorkshop.

What? When? Who? It’s Deus Ex 3!

Yes, you heard right!

Deus Ex 3 is in the concept-phase. Working on the third installment of this franchise is Eidos Montreal, a branch from Eidos that will concentrate on developing upcoming follow-up games. Deus Ex 3 is one of those games. There’s very little information about the game out yet, so this is mostly just an introduction for those who are not familiar with Deus Ex. I myself think it is one of the best games out there in it’s genre.

Deus Ex is very briefly a Sci-Fi Action First/Third Person Shooter with roleplay elements (Leveling up, customization etc.) blended into it, one of the first doing that mix as good as it did. If you want to compare gameplay think “Fallout 3″ set in a live city.

Here’s a quick incrementation of the plot in Deus Ex, the first game

Set in a dystopian world during the 2050s, the central plot follows rookie United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition agent JC Denton, as he sets out to combat terrorist forces, which have become increasingly prevalent in a world slipping ever further into chaos. As the plot unfolds, Denton becomes entangled in a deep and ancient conspiracy, encountering fictional recreations of organizations such as Majestic 12, the Illuminati, and the Hong Kong Triads throughout his journey.

I’m sure most computer-gamers enjoyed Deus Ex when it was released in 2000 for PC, though the second release in the series was quite disappointing in comparison. Let’s hope the development team have gathered feedback and will make a worthy sequel to the Deus Ex series this time.

Eidos have confirmed that they currently are bringing out ideas and concepts for the next installment in the series. They’re aiming for a development schedule from between 18-24 months.

Here’s a small list of currently known gameplay and design ideas, brought to the community by Rene

RPG
Deus Ex 3 is an RPG. An action/RPG like the first one (Deus Ex).

FIRST PERSON OR THIRD PERSON
The game is FIRST person, but automatically switches to third person for some contextual actions.
You, as the player, do not have the ability to swap between views…it’s a first person game but there are times where we want you to see Adam doing cool things.

AUTO HEALTH
Deus Ex 3 will use auto-health regeneration. This is a departure from the original but the industry as a whole has grown up and changed quite a bit in the last eight years and the designers didn’t want people exploring levels just for health packs or having to reload to an old save game because they messed up a scenario and couldn’t advance. I know some people actually liked the exact scenario I just described but this is a decision the team made.

COVER SYSTEM
The design has been updated to utilize a cover system should you choose to engage it. As the game is still 1st person, it’s only if you press a key when up against a wall that the view changes to a 3rd person perspective. As soon as you move away from the wall, the game returns to 1st person automatically.
So it’s just an option if you want to play that way. If you like the good ‘ol DX1 style, you don’t have to engage the cover system if you don’t want to, so you’ll see even less of the contextual 3rd person elements. You can just as easily walk up to that same wall in 1st person and never see the 3rd person cover. It’s just an option if you want to see the way Adam looks with augmentations you’ve chosen throughout the game.

STEALTH SYSTEM
Stealth in DX3 is based off line-of-sight and sound propagation. You can hide everywhere you see fit as long as you’re hidden by an obstacle and you don’t produce too much noise. Think MGS1&2. In the first DX an enemy could be three feet in front of you but as long as you were in darkness he would not detect you. I mean, graphically in DX3, you still have light and shadows but the shadows are no longer used as the primary stealth element; it’s line-of-sight.

STORY/PLOTLINE
The story and conspiracy elements are every bit a Deus Ex game. It’s awesome.
The writing team at EM is made up of many talented and experienced people. And did you notice the Sheldon reference…?

MULTIPATH/NON LINEAR
It’s still based around making decisions which have consequences, selecting from a multi-path, multi-solution approach in a non-linear space (think DX1 not Invisible War), and you’re able to customize your character (Adam) as well as your weapons. DX3 is an action/RPG just like the first game.
When it comes to freedom, having space to search and roam in, and to run the streets and sewers, don’t worry – we have that.
This was just a magazine first look. That stuff will come next time.

AUGMENTATION & TIMELINE
Adam has mechanical augmentations. Paul and JC were the first of the nano augmented. That’s why it makes sense as a Prequel…remember Anna and Gunther were mechanically augmented. And with mechanical augmentations, you will actually be able to see Adam look awesome whereas JC looked pretty normal.

LOADING/LEVEL CHANGE
Our tech supports streaming of data so the transition from indoors to outdoors will be seamless.

FETUS IN TRAILER
I don’t think it’s a character in the game. I think it has hidden meaning…

HACKING
Hacking is a major pillar of gameplay and is certainly not a mini game. (Sorry Bioshock)
Hacking in Deus Ex 3 is a significant gameplay option which you can modify with augmentations if that’s the way you develop your character.
Our hacking is well beyond a “mini game” and is really freaking cool.

CHOICE & CONSEQUENCE
The social aspect of the game is extremely important. Do not fear.
Choice and consequence is a major design influence. This is still a Deus Ex game.

GLOBAL/LOCAL/SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
Don’t worry – we know that traveling the world is one of the core values for Deus Ex…
You have city hubs to explore in a non-linear fashion.
There are different routes and different ways to complete an objective.
The social element is huge. There are tonnes of characters to interact with and the story is massive with a global conspiracy.

CHARACTER/AUGMENTATION DEVELOPMENT
You do gain experience points throughout the game which you can use to either upgrade yourself or your weapons. It’s a choice.
There are many augmentations in the game so like the first one, you can choose how your character (Adam) develops.

Head over to Eidos Deus Ex forum for much more information from the team itself.

Here’s a very early trailer from the game, not really explaining anything

Here, have some concept art!

Outdoor environment

Indoor environment

Characters

Here I come! Chickens be afraid, be very afraid.

Finally got my hands on the chicken costume. What’s that you say? It’s a costume for your sackgirl/boy in LittleBigPlanet. You can achieve the three individual parts from completing the Indian temple levels (Second last world, “The Temples” by “The Great Magician”) without dieing, or so called “Ace”-rewards in the game. The costume is free, hidden inside the game and consists of a tail-, head- and arm-costume.

I did also get the “Lion Dance” Chinese dragon look-a-like head a few days ago, finally! It’s kept around the middle of “Collector’s Lair” in “The Wilderness” stage (Last stage in the story mode, made by “The Collector”), requiring four people to cooperate, it’s a easy thing to do if you and three others manage to reach the place. Press the buttons and rejoice as a Chinese dragon.

It’s arguably a hard feat to pull off, the completion of the not dieing part, but it’s also well worth it in form of new customization possibilities both for your cute sackperson and your level creating needs. Be passionate, patient, have some skills and a bit of luck along with manuevering know abouts and you will receive great accomplishments. Don’t give up, eventually that shining Platinum trophy, if you do care, will be yours. Collecting all prize-bubbles and not dieing where it’s not completely impossible not to do are truly hard trophies to get, but it is so possible.

I’ll try to get a picture of the whole costume uploaded. It’s just a white chicken with a cute little beak though, honestly!

I may put up a costume or walkthrough thread for some of the best hidden goodies in the game if the need arise, although I doubt that as several LittleBigPlanet fansites and even a publisher have created astonishing walkthrough and trophyguides for the game. For now I’m enjoying the world of both small and big planets along with my trustworthy sackboy.

Here’s the chicken costume in all it’s glory

Update: PlayStation Network is back online and working.

There’s no official information about this problem out yet, but I as for many other PlayStation Network (PSN) users am having trouble both with signing on, going into PlayStation Store and edit my account information. I’ll update this post whenever I can get online and browse.

Please comment, as far as I know this is afflicting several users, but it might just be local so would be nice with more input.

Error-code

An error has occured.
(80023017)

Update
Around one hour later the problem is sorted out, still no input from Sony as for what caused the trouble, although I can imagine it’s a quite local or at least limited problem. Services afflicted by the downtime was PlayStation Store and Account Management.

On another notice, LittleBigPlanet seem to once again have trouble with the communication between PSN and the game itself.

30 minute public presentation of the upcoming PS3 game Heavy Rain.

In this demo the player takes part in a young journalist’s investigation on several girls disappearance. Starting in a scene where the journalist investigates the home of a taxi-driver suspected for the murdering.

Video presentation
Video is found here.
The demo and presentation was played through and done at Micromania Games Show 2008 in Paris.

Parts of the gameplay and design

Taken from Gamekyo.

- Multiple view camera system, not always behind the girl.

- The demo is fully playable, no cut-scenes, the player can control the girl at any time.

- The Sixaxis motion sensor is used in the game to make different moves (open a window, raise or hit on an object, etc.).

- It is possible to hear what is happening in the mind of the character, so the player knows the different choices that are available.

- No loadings in the game!

- Backgrounds are fully interactive (all objects can be used, all doors can be opened, etc.).

- Very interesting Split Screen System to keep an eye on the murderer, control the character at the same time.

- The player has to maintain several buttons to stay hidden, uncomfortable situation for the player to reproduce the same stress in the game.

- Quick time events for some action scenes.

I must say this game looks very interesting, it’s so realistic and photographic. Just look at the way they’ve managed to capture feelings and expressions, it’s a extraordinary and not often seen feat in a game, feelings are one of the hardest human senses to visualize.

I like the split-screen system idea, having a live split-screen between the player and the target will surely add extra tension, use of the controller’s sixaxis function does also seem to work well and finally being properly baked into gameplay.

Looks like Sony are finally catching up in the next-gen game market, considering “exclusive” (Mind you, they say exclusive but there’s often just a time-limited exclusive, which does not really make it all that exclusive after all. It’s a mad world.). With highly anticipated games like God of War 3, Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 coming out over the next few months Heavy Rain will surely be a nice addition.

Finally, I got myself a beta code!

I received a beta code for the LittleBigPlanet beta from a very kind user who had gotten more than he needed over at the Norwegian gaming community gamer.no.

Right now I’m on my way to create a level in the game, popping throughout the various tutorials to enable options. There’s hilarious voice-acting by Stephen Fry, he is also the English narrator (Language is possible to adjust. For us Norwegians I’ve heard rumors about Harald Eia narrating) throughout the game.

I’ve played through a few of the single-player maps and I must say I already like this game a lot. It’s fresh, original and quite fascinating, not to forget about all those things you can create and share, either by yourself or together with up to 4 players both online and offline. Think about the possibilities, cooperative maps where you need more sackpeople than yourself to get through with your mission!

I can’t wait to get my hands on the retail version of LittleBigPlanet, and this I am saying after having tried the beta build for 40 minutes.

Keep your eyes open, I may receive more than one key and if I do, this blog will be where I’m giving them away. More about that if I do receive an extra code or two, or more.

Let the hunt begin!

LittleBigPlanet is a videogame released exclusively for Playstation 3 the 21th October 2008.

The goal and concept of this game is basically to complete the level you’ve chosen. It’s a platform type of game (Think Super Mario, very basic) and you’re a sackboy, or a sackgirl. Beyond that the game lets you do and create pretty much anything that can come into your mind, it’s a very, very open-minded game and I can foresee a lot of fun and cool stuff coming up! I’m so excited personally, and I doubt the Playstation 3 community will deny that feeling.

Media Molecule, the developers and creators behind LBP, are handing out a large bucket of beta invitations these days. They’re publishing the keys on most of the large gaming community sites, so keep your eyes open and treasure hunt instinct up.

I myself have been spending the day mostly around at home with my netbook EEE 1000 PC, spam refreshing said sites, forums and RSS-feeds to try my luck. It seems that none are available yet though, seeing most of the large sites are based in the US and I am Norwegian, tough luck.

Wish me luck, and let those creativity juices flow if you’re lucky enough to be in the beta!

I’ll update the post about my hunt, it will hopefully succeed, perhaps I’ll even get more than one invitation, I will hand out any leftovers to the best comment.

Where to hunt
Well, it’s been a while since the early opening and rush of possible beta giveaways for LittleBigPlanet. Hope is not over for those of you without a code yet though, a few pages are still handing out keys to people being lucky enough.

Here is a quick list of sources I know about
http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3170103 - You need to be a member. They add a question every day until friday 3rd October, handing out 500 codes each day to the winners.

http://www.ign.com - You need to be a member. IGN will probably update their launch-page when the beta giveaways go live. Though to be sure you can keep refreshing http://ps3.ign.com/articles/915/915932p1.html they are handing out 20.000 codes.

Expired http://www.gametrailers.com – You need to be a member. They’ll keep the giveaways up for around 3-4 hours, it’s ongoing right now. Send a PM to “SackboyBetaMan”, you can use this link for the PM http://sackboybetaman.gametrailers.com/sendmsg.php?id=1374227

Expired http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/10/02/life-in-littlebigplanet-episode-2-plus-some-beta-keys-for-you/ – Send an email to playstationbloglbp2000@gmail.com, you don’t need to be a member. The contest is ongoing right now and will last for 2-3 hours more.

Playstation 3, the yellow light of death and scrabble.

Around two and a half month ago, yes that is some time ago indeed, my Playstation 3 decided to die on me. I am being blunt when I say I was pretty dissapointed, though it can of course happen anyone, even those who actually take care of their hardware and gadgets.

My Playstation 3’s error was what someone on the internet refer to as the tiny bit ironical “Yellow Light of Death” (Probably a parody of the “Red Ring of Death” for X-box 360). What this basically is, is a indication of hardware malfunction in your console.. put short, it means your console is pretty much dead and only possible to fix by changing the broken hardware/electronic.

This is how you know you have been struck by the yellow light:

1) Turn on your PS3.
2) You hear one beep and the indication-lamp goes red (This is normal).
3) The indication-lamp flickers and turn into a yellow light for 2-3 seconds followed by beep beep beep (three (3) times (This is not normal)).
4) The indication-lamp flickers on a interval of 0.5-1 seconds on and off until you shut your PS3 down.

I did actually try several methods on rescue before giving up:

1) Changing the harddrive (I had swapped the 40GB stock with a 160GB drive) back to the stock one, didn’t help at all.
2) Letting the PS3 cool down then trying to start it up again. No cigar, didn’t work.
3) The infamous “wrap-a-towel” X-box 360 method where you wrap the console into a few towels to overheat. This did not work either.
4) Turning the PS3 on by holding in the eject-button on the Blu Ray disc-tray. This did not work either, the console didn’t allow me to have it running for as long as the eject trick takes to boot up.

You’re free to go ahead and try these variants if you want to, if you have hear a “beep, beep beep beep”. *Smirks*

Anyhow! I have now, finally, ordered myself a new Playstation 3 80GB, gotten into a few betas and feeling pretty good about it all. Money from the old console did of course get refunded, I am still annoyed about the shop’s service and attitude towards me as a paying costumer, though.

Frequently asked questions from the readers of Playstation Blog.

Will voice-messaging/private chat be featured in 2.40 as well? If not, can we expect to see this feature added in the future?

We are evaluating the opportunity to offer voice chat, but for this update, we wanted to focus on text messaging as the key priority for communications that our users have asked for.

Can you use the web browser in game?

No, you must exit the game before browsing the internet.

Will In-Game XMB come up during playback of PS2 games, Blu-Ray discs, and DVDs?

The XMB is an exclusive feature for PS3 game titles. Accessing the XMB during gameplay was the top request from our users, which we focused on for this update. However, we continually engage PS3 owners for feedback and will evaluate the opportunity to offer XMB access during movie playback in the future.

Can we go to the display settings and change anything there in-game (resolution, input, etc)?

No, you must exit the game before changing these settings.

Will it be possible to change in-game the sound output?

Yes, sound output changes are supported.

Will we be able to access the PLAYSTATION Store while in-game?

No, but you can view your downloads in progress.

Will we be able to stream music (either via media server or USB drive) for custom soundtracks or is it relegated to music stored on the HDD?

Currently only music stored on the HDD is accessible in games that support this feature. We’d also like to reiterate that Firmware v2.40 merely enables custom soundtracks. It’s up to developers to include this feature in upcoming games (or to patch existing ones).

Does 2.4 enable cross game invites? Will it down the line?

No, cross-game invites are not available in this system software update. We are evaluating opportunities to expand on the new features delivered in 2.40.

Will trophies be mandatory for all games release here on out?

We are working with developers to ensure that Trophies are supported across the board in the future.

Where is each player’s trophy stat info held? I am going to upgrade my hard drive and I don’t know if the trophies will still be on my account if I earn some and then get a new hard drive.

Trophies will be attached to users’ PSN ID. Trophy data needs to be synchronized to the online account on PSN to be transferred to the new PS3 system.

Will the patch automatically allocate unlocked trophies according to your saved files or would you have to do it again?

No, Trophies aren’t retroactive.

Can we view PSN profiles/Trophies from a PC using a Web browser? Will there be an API for web developers to access the PSN data, so online profiles can be created?

We’re evaluating these opportunities to expand where Trophies can be experienced.

Can you only compare trophies with friends that are online?

As long as a friend has a PSN account, you can compare trophies with them regardless of their online status.

Is there a limit to how many trophies the devs can put set by Sony?

There’s not a limit on number of trophies, but there’s a value assigned to each trophy. Developers must balance out the trophies that are available to stay within an overall value based on whether the game is considered large-scope or small-scope. Essentially, a user that has unlocked every trophy in one game would have the same level as a user that unlocked every trophy in another title, all titles (depending on scope) have the same overall impact on a users’ level.

Will new games have a cool little icon on the back saying “trophy compatible?”

We’re currently working on how Trophy support will be messaged to the consumer on our software packaging.

When you get a trophy, does it make a noise?

Currently, no. How quickly things can change – there *will* be a sound effect when you unlock a Trophy.