Super Stardust HD received its first expansion pack last month, to much praise from the Stardust community. The Solo Pack added several different modes, and the upcoming multiplayer add-on promises to do the same. We had an opportunity to try it out during PlayStation Day and we loved what we saw.
The "Team Pack" adds a Co-op split-screen mode, as well as the incredible Versus Mode. Within Versus Mode, you can partake in a number of different challenges, similar to the offering found in many other multiplayer games: there's Deathmatch, King of the Hill, and Grab and Run. This whole mode has been built specifically with party gaming in mind.
Up to four players can play against each other on the same planet, but the "layout" of the planet can be changed before the game commences. This allows you to overlay a maze of rocks onto the planet's surface in various shapes which players will need to navigate through. These rocks can be destroyed and, depending on the options settings, can or cannot harm players who come too close. For people who prefer a less restricted battlefield, there's an option for a clear level layout too.
Buzz! Quiz TV isn't the only game of the franchise heading to the PS3 this year. This Summer a new downloadable title will be made available on the PSN "at pocket money prices." Buzz! Junior Jungle Party will utilise the Buzz! controllers, but with "wacky mini-games of skill and speed" instead of quiz-style gameplay. Obviously this is aimed at the wee nippers and will feature five mini-games from the original PS2 version. Jungle Party is the first of many, with Buzz! Junior: RoboJam and Buzz! Junior: Monster Rumble following at a later date.
Check out our gallery below to see what sort of thing you can expect from the game when it arrives this Summer.
We can never get enough WipEout HD media and we're certain you're the same. New assets from PlayStation Day show off some of the vehicles in their full HD detail as well as some very snazzy artwork and screenshots from the game. We've been drooling over WipEout HD for almost a year now and we can't wait for its release, sometime in the next two months. In the meantime, grab a bib and start leering at our gallery, below.
Speaking to Paulina Bozek, Producer of SingStar, at the PlayStation Day event we were able to gather a few details about the development team's plans for the year. High on their list is the integration of My SingStar Online, the game's online community service, with the official SingStar website. This will allow people who don't have a copy of the game to view the videos which have been uploaded by the community. Obviously this will be a huge boon, marketing-wise, as it will allow videos from the game to go viral, potentially scoring more customers.
Privacy is very important and with My SingStar Online being such a closed service right now (only accessible via the game) people see it as a safe place to put videos. When the integration with the we occurs later this year players will be given the choice to upload their videos only to the closed SingStar network or the internet. The details have yet to be ironed out, but this is a service we're very much looking forward to.
We also asked Bozek about region-specific content for Europe and the US. The SingStar team has "no interest" in exclusive content for any particular regions. Tracks will be made available worldwide as much as possible. The only thing that would prevent this is for licensing issues or censorship to get in the way. The team is committed to delivering at least 50 songs per month in Europe and America, with a SingStore update occurring every two weeks.
If you hadn't read about this from the live blogging earlier today, then better put on the seatbelts GT fans -- this one is going to be quite a ride. The PlayStation brand and Nissan car manufacturer are giving racing enthusiasts a chance to live out a dream with the introduction of GT Academy. GT Academy is a competition that'll earn two lucky gamers a four-month training program for a real racing license, and using it to race for team Nissan at the January 2009 24-hour endurance race in Dubai. Yes, you heard that right, a chance to race a real car (a Nissan 350Z) in a real competition. That doesn't come often. So, want to know how you can enter?
Well, to get into the Academy you'll have to register via the PSN with your copy of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. You'll be first entering into a special online tourney qualifier before going into real cars for a "series of elimination-based competitions on and off the racetrack" starting at the nation level. This will go on for eight months all across Europe (sorry, not for any other region). You'll be able to sign-up at the end of May when GT Academy goes live. Good luck! Godspeed!
Are things finally looking up for the Japanese electronics giant? Sony, plagued by a slowing US economy and weakening US dollar, has struggled to meet its financial targets. However, things aren't all gloom and doom. A report by the Nikkei (via Reuters) shows that Sony's video game division is starting to turn around. The fiscal year, ending in March 2007, was a disastrous affair for the company, with an operating loss of 232 billion yen. The high cost of PS3 production and development bled money from the department.
However, due to improving sales and smaller manufacturing costs, Sony's game division will see its operating loss shrink by 100 billion yen in its March 2008 fiscal year. While that means it will still have lost 132 billion yen, it's certainly a turnaround from the previous year. Overall profitability of Sony has improved thanks to the game division's smaller losses.
PlayStation, once the leading brand of video games, has been struggling since the launch of the PS3. In the latest console generation, Nintendo has been posting incredible profits (much to the happiness of investors). Microsoft's game division has historically posted loss after loss, but has finally started to become profitable in recent months.
Attention all aspiring game developers within the Hong Kong-Southeast Asia region, you have the chance to get schooled by some highly knowledgeable industry veterans. Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong (SCEH) and a company called Cyberport are jointly organizing Asia's first PS3 game production program outside of Japan, and it'll be dubbed "Digital Content Creation Camp."
Taking place in Hong Kong, the "camp" is aimed at enhancing techniques for both students and working professionals in game programming, design, production, and of course specifically on PlayStation 3 game development. Classes start on May 10, 2008 and will continue every Saturday after that for the next nine months. Lectures are taught by game experts from Premium Agency Inc. -- a CG animation production studio that has worked on games like Folklore, Genji: Days of the Blade, Shadow of the Colossus, and Killer7. All classes are taught in Japanese, but of course will have English translation.
There's still some time left to register if you're interested. You can register and find additional information at Cyberport's website.
Sony continues its voyage into Web 2.0 with a dedicated Facebook page. An announcement on the PlayStation.Blog alerts users to its existence and points out exactly what's involved. In short, the Facebook page offers everything the PlayStation.Blog does, with a few little extras thrown in. Namely, an events service which lets people know where and when Sony will be representing the PS3 at various shows. Currently this only shows American events.
So show everyone on Facebook that you're a PS3 fan by clicking over to the PlayStation.Blog Facebook page. We have. On a sidenote -- this new Facebook Chat feature that appeared on the site today promises to make Facebook even more of a productivity drain. Students with impending deadlines, beware.
SCEE has confirmed the existence of the Grand Theft Auto IV PS3 bundle that we've been seeing around the net for a little while. The bundle will be available, seemingly, across Europe at a price of £319.99 or €439 on April 29th, day and date with the game itself. Inside you will find a 40GB PS3 along with a SIXAXIS controller and a copy of the game. For the price, it's not a bad deal. Nothing special, but good enough to be tempting.
We're certainly intrigued to see how many PS3s GTAIV will push and a bundle like this can only be a good thing. So if you haven't got a PS3 yet and are thinking of picking one up for what is, arguably, the biggest game release of the year, you know what to go for.
Amazon.co.uk has caused some confusion today when it listed a release date and price for the Digital TV recording peripheral, PlayTV. With a date of July 31st and a price of £59.99, it was looking like a good deal for UK PS3 owners. Until Sony refused to confirm both details and Amazon pulled all the information on their site, that is. Instead, the release date is now set for October and there's not a price in sight. Weird.
We're sure you're as excited as us about PlayTV, so we'll be sure to keep you up to date with any developments.
PS3's long-awaited video service may debut this summer, according to the LA Times. The newspaper has been in touch with a variety of executives, who have been in negotiations over the past few weeks. Due to the "sensitivity" of continuing negotiations, the executives had to remain anonymous.
Unlike previous efforts of Sony's, the upcoming service is looking towards using "open standards" and will work on a number of computers and portable devices, PSP included. Primary competitors, such as Apple's iTunes service and Microsoft's Xbox Live Video Marketplace, both adopt fairly restrictive DRM policies.
Sony's video service has been a long time coming, as it was originally planned for PSP many years ago. However, mismanagement at the company had pretty much stalled development until recently. PS3 has been vital to the success of Blu-ray -- if implemented correctly, PS3 can be the starting point of a very successful video downloads service.
Nikko Citigroup upgraded its rating on Sony's stock this morning, predicting it will break even on PS3 costs much earlier than expected. With a Blu-ray drive, Cell chip and RSX graphics technology, the PS3 is an incredibly expensive system to manufacture: one that Sony currently sells at a loss to customers.
Analysts are now predicting August will be when the smaller chips will be used in the PS3. There are no details as to why August has been chosen as the date, but switching over to a smaller Cell processor and RSX graphics chip will undoubtedly lower costs for the Japanese electronics giant.
Sony has released a statement regarding yesterday's European PSN update-that-never-was. "Due to last minute technical difficulties" the Store wasn't able to be updated (and still hasn't been), but they "are working to resolve these issues and will let you know as soon as new content is posted." Normally, this wouldn't really be an issue, considering the European updates are so poor, but yesterday was meant to be the PSN release of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. Considering the game has already gone platinum on European pre-releases alone, we expect there are quite a few annoyed people out there who were planning on grabbing the download a day early.
Other expected releases include the Eye of Judgment expansion. Obviously, we'll let you know as soon as we hear anything. If you're feeling really impatient, however, feel free to go pick up the Blu-Ray version. With no idea about when the store update is coming, It could be a long day of waiting.
Posted Mar 24th 2008 11:30PM by Nick Doerr Filed under: Rants
It seems more and more often this year, press and publicity are acting kindly towards Sony and the PlayStation 3. In a recent opinion piece about the current generation of gaming hardware, BusinessWeek writer Matt Vella posed an interesting question: is Sony the Apple of gaming? He breaks down each console with their respective strengths and concludes Sony's console is the "Media Master".
He said the PS3 has "a facility with media that translates into sleek user interfaces more polished than either Microsoft's or Nintendo's. Both [Apple and Sony] have also had a propensity for tenaciously backing media formats with mixed results, most recently AAC and Blu-ray successfully." He goes on to say that Microsoft and Nintendo also have Apple-like strengths, citing them as the "Ecosystem Expert" and "Disruptive Innovator", respectively. What do you guys think? Is this even an appropriate comparison to make?
Excuse us if this post has a bit of a tone, but this whole thing is a bit ridiculous. Other sites are reporting that their sources are saying that Sony "has something huge to announce at E3 this year." We should hope so, too! Saying that Sony has announcements to make at the world's most prominent video game show of the year is a little bit like saying a dog will win "Best in Show" at Crufts next year.
With the lack of any big news coming out of GDC, and no word yet on when Sony will be hosting their next Gamer's Day, all eyes are on E3 for the big news of the year. Sure we know quite a lot of what's coming in 2008, but if you think Sony doesn't have anything up their sleeves then you're crazy. Likewise, Nintendo and Microsoft will be making some big announcements at the event that will "give [them] a boost heading into the holidays." That's kind of the point of E3.
