PS3 Fanboy

Sorry this post is a bit late but SingStar has been, quite frankly, the last thing on our mind over the last day or say. Regardless, the SingStore has been updated with another eclectic collection of songs -- most of which we've never heard of. Business as usual, then. Again, Europe has bragging rights over the number of new tracks when compared to America. That's 25 versus 16 this week, for those keeping score at home. From the looks of things, Americans aren't missing out on much this week except, sadly, another Queen song. Check after the break for the full release list; tracks are available in Europe only, unless stated otherwise.

Plenty of new songs for you Singaholics today in the latest SingStar SingStore update. We're happy to finally see Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" on the list, not to mention our surprise at the inclusion of The Dandy Warhol's "We Used To Be Friends." There's plenty more to see after the break in the full list of releases. Unfortunately, it seems that the American SingStore has fewer new songs than are available in Europe. Unless stated otherwise all songs in the following list are on the European SingStore only. Which ones will you be buying today?

If your vocal chords simply can't get enough exercise from singing stuff on SingStar, you might love to know what's new on their SingStore. We'll list the songs in English below, but if you're interested in other languages, we'll add those after the cut. This is a good update for those who love ... uh ... Avril Lavigne? It's a fairly varied batch of choices, so watch your wallets carefully.

• Avril Lavigne - Complicated
• Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack - Tonight I Celebrate My Love
• Good Charlotte - I Just Wanna Live
• The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
• Shocking Blue - Venus
• Golden Earring - Radar Love
• The Hives - Hate To Say I Told You So
• Hard-Fi - Hard To Beat
• Avril Lavigne - My Happy Ending
• Erik Faber - Not Over
• Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died In Your Arms
• R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts
• Wilson Phillips - Hold On
• Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You shouldn't've)?
• Alphabeat - Fantastic 6
• The Vines - Get Free
• Roy Orbison - Only The Lonely (Know The Way I Feel)
• Westlife - Queen Of My Heart
• The Hoosiers - Cops N Robbers
• Coldplay - Shiver
• Coldplay - The Scientist
• Duran Duran - The Reflex
• Moloko - Sing It Back
• Aslan - This Is

As we said before, songs from other lands or in other languages are after the cut. It would probably be fun to try them out at least once ... of course, it would be an easier choice to make if they were free.

As mentioned earlier, the US SingStore launch is something to get excited about. The Blu-ray disc (available alone for $40, or bundled with mics for $60), contains 30 tracks to get the party started. Afterwards, you can access the SingStore and download new tracks for only $1.49 each. Check out the entire song list, after the cut. And don't forget to enjoy our brand new screens from the game:

SingStar is finally coming to American PS3 systems next month. On May 20th, PS3 fans will be able to pick up the game in either a standalone SKU or one that includes two microphones. The microphone and game combo will be $59.99, while the standalone disc will be $39.99. PS2 SingStar microphones will work with the PS3 game. The disc will feature 30 different songs. As usual for the franchise, each song includes the music video (in HD, if available).

The American SingStore will feature over 200 songs for the US launch. However, it will be slightly different than the European Store."It's because of different broadcasting standards," a SCEA producer told us. Some content that's appropriate in Europe may not be accepted here in the States. The plan is to update each month with 25-50 new songs.

An exciting direction for the US SingStore is a new focus on independent music. Indie bands can create videos for distribution in the SingStore, with Sony taking care of rights and clearance. The SingStore will also expand to include support for song packs in the future. Like Rock Band, song packs may include discounts. Full albums are being considered as well.

ThreeSpeech has conducted an interview with Paulina Bozek, Producer of SingStar, in order to find out what's going on with SingStar vol 2 and the SingStore. Thankfully, the interview answers a lot of pending questions we had after vol 2's announcement. For starters, the "Harmony Mode" will be made available for SingStar vol 1 owners who don't want to buy another disc as a free update.

As for whether vol 2's songs will be placed on the SingStore, Bozek was a little more vague, saying that "licensing music for digital distribution is a different process to that of the disc-based product. When Vol 2 is released a number of tracks from the disc-based product will also be available to buy in the SingStore." This probably means that if you want all the songs on the disc, you'll probably have to pick it up off the shelf. Unfortunately, this means there will be some disc swapping involved as Bozek states that "SingStar tracks from the disc cannot be stored on the PS3 hard drive."

As far as new songs for the SingStore goes, Sony's London Studio are aiming to add "approximately 50 songs a month to the SingStore." A decent number, but we're looking for quality over quantity, which means fewer updates like today's, please. Check out the full interview for more info on Remote Play, the SingStore and wireless mics.

Another huge update of multi-European-language tracks will be hitting the Euro SingStore this Friday. SingStar fans will be getting quite a huge selection of songs -- those which will be used in sustaining the will to shatter friends' eardrums in a drunken haze. If you've been looking for more songs to shriek sing to, then this update will keep you comfortable for a while.

Now, this blogger is not too familiar with a lot of these songs, so you'll have to forgive him if he's only really happy to see Placebo's "Every You Every Me" on that list. To check the whole thing out, hit the jump. For the English tracks, just look below:

English Language

• GANGgajang - Sounds Of Then (This Is Australia)
• Placebo - Every You Every Me
• Corinne Bailey Rae - I'd Like To
  
• Dover - Serenade
  
• The Gift - Ok! Do You Want Something Simple?
  
• The Gift - Question Of Love
  
• Jackie Wilson - Reet Petite
  
• The Pipettes - Pull Shapes
  
• The Magic Numbers - Forever Lost
  
• Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)
  
• Roy Orbison - Crying
  
• Duran Duran - Ordinary World
  
• Maximo Park - Girls Who Play Guitars
  
• Natasha Bedingfield - These Words
  
• Billy Joel - Piano Man
  
• Billy Joel - It's Still Rock And Roll To Me
  
• Bic Runga - Sway

Last Friday saw yet another SingStar SingStore update. While it was a really rather large update, not many of the songs are in English and even fewer are worth getting (The Clash and The Flaming Lips being our top choices). Instead there are plenty of songs from countries such as Sweden, Spain and Portugal to grab if you're up for a challenge. We've listed the English language songs below and all others after the break.

• Ash - Goldfinger
• A-ha - I've Been Losing You
• Andreas Johnson - Glorious
• Billy Joel - Just The Way You Are
• Billy Joel - I go to extremes
• Guano Apes - You Can't Stop Me
• Jill Johnson - Crazy In Love
• Mark Medlock - Now Or Never
• Mark Medlock & Dieter Bohlen - You Can Get It
• Maximo Park - Apply some pressure
• Maximo Park - Books From Boxes
• Roxy Music - Jealous Guy
• Roy Orbison - Oh Pretty Woman
• Steriogram - Walkie Talkie Man
• Terence Trent D'Arby - Wishing Well
• Terence Trent D'Arby - If You Let Me Stay
• The Bees - Chicken Payback
• The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go
• The Flaming Lips - Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
• Wesftlife - World of Our Own
  

Twice monthly. That's how often Sony promised to deliver SingStar SingStore updates. Despite previous disappointments, it seems that this promise may end up being kept. Another twenty four tracks will be added to the SingStore this Friday, March 21st. The full list of songs can be seen after the break.

It looks like Sony will be making another fiver out of us, as there are a number of songs on the list that we'd love to grab. Recent hits such as the two Scouting For Girls tracks along with older tunes like Ash and the classic Divinyls song "I Touch Myself" show that the SingStar team are trying to hit as many demographics as possible -- and succeeding. Which tracks will you be grabbing this Friday?

A second PS3 Singstar game is in the works? This speculation started when a June 2008 listing for Singstar Vol.2 popped up at an Australian retail listing site. According to Kotaku, a SCE Australia rep couldn't confirm the title, but did hint at the possibility of SCEE's London Studio expanding the franchise via another disc-based update.

Is a second Singstar volume really ready to hit retailers so soon? It wouldn't be too surprising seeing as these titles get churned out over in PAL territories every six months on average. Then again, shouldn't the PS3 Singstar have better longevity than its predecessors due to the addition of the SingStore? Also, hasn't the SingStore just recently been updated with a sizable amount of tracks? Color us negative, but if we see more huge updates like the one on March 7th, then why would there even be a need for a second volume so soon?

[Via Kotaku]

Rejoice, karaoke fans! Sony has come through on its promise to add an extra 67 songs to the SingStar SingStore. The new songs are up right now, ready for you to spend your hard earned cash on. We've plonked the full list of songs after the break for you to check out in case you didn't see them before. Also, you might be prompted to update SingStar to version 1.10. We don't know what it does, or how long it's been out, but it seems to have cleared up our connection problems with the game. Score two for SCEE!

It's about time. Finally, the first worthwhile Singstar Singstore update is on its way. On March 7th the Singstore will be updated with 67 new songs, almost doubling the amount of content that's available today. It's true that a lot of songs included in this update are from previous Singstar iterations on the PS2, but if these updates (which should be occurring twice monthly, now) keep looking similar to this, we'll be impressed.

The song list is really rather good, actually. We're quite looking forward to grabbing some ourselves. Particularly, some Bowie, The Darkness, Feeder and Lordi. To see the full list of songs due to be up on the Singstore on the 7th or March, check past the jump.

We've been a bit down on Singstar recently, even though the game is tremendous fun and My Singstar Online allows a level of scary efficiency when humiliating yourself in front of the entire world. Despite that we can't help but feel disappointed at the current level of the Singstore. Sony promised a certain amount of songs by launch and they missed the target - by about 80%. Having said that, the online server problems seem to be over - the whole system is much smoother with, for now, fewer timeouts.

Today's SingStore update marks the first since mid-January, though Sony has promised two updates per month from here on in. Hopefully, they won't all be as dire as today's is. Here are the song titles, all of which cost 99p each:

• Amistades Peligrosas' "Estoy Por Ti"
• Bryan Ferry's "Let's Stick Together"
• Doves' "Black and White Town"
• Editors' "Munich"
• Ejecutivos Agresivos' "Mari Pili"
• Gabinete Caligari's "La Culpa Fue Del Cha-Cha-Cha"
• Loquillo y Trogloditas' "Cadillac Solitario"
• Marrilion's "Incommunicado"
• MC Hammer's "You Can't Touch This"
• Los Ronaldos' "Adios Papa"
• UB40's "Red Red Wine"
• Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love Of All"
• Wir Sind Helden's "Denkmal"
• Wir Sind Helden's "Nur Ein Wort"
• Wir Sind Helden's "Von Hier An Blind"

We were promised an update to the SingStore and now we've got it. But wait, weren't we supposed to get eighteen new songs? We can only count 14. Where are the other four? Also, the next update that was promised on ThreeSpeech on the 4th of February seems to have been pushed back to the six, if the in-game news feed is to be believed (but when has that ever been the case?).

The update isn't a complete failure, however. There are a few tracks that we're tempted to nab. Namely, David Bowie's "Life On Mars" and The Fray's "How To Save A Life". For the full list of new songs check after the break.

We posted earlier about various complaints people were having their Singstar experience. Namely, that the SingStore was practically empty and the online servers were buggy, at best. While they haven't said anything about the server troubles, the developers of Singstar have responded with regards to the SingStore.

On the 18th (that's tomorrow - or today, by the time you're reading this) another 18 songs will be added to the store. Artists include David Bowie, Blur and KT Tunstall. Does this bring the total anywhere near the 350+ that was promised for launch? No, it doesn't. Then how about the update after that? During the week of February 4th (hmmm, that's three weeks away) there will be another update, but they don't say with how many songs. After that the store will be updated twice monthly.

We wonder how long it will take to reach that magic figure of 350 songs that was promised. These 18 new songs coming tomorrow are certainly a start, but we're still not very impressed.