Oh, happy days….  And what a great start to Christmas. SONY have made Christmas come truly early, by a day, by placing the much awaited and feted Gran Turismo HD Concept as a FREE download from their online store.

That’s right. It’s FREE and it’s available NOW so get behind the wheel of your console and start downloading. Allow for a couple of hours or so as it is 625MB !!!  Eek.

It’s the very latest version of the wildly successful Gran Turismo series, a bespoke PS3 game that no other console will be able to enjoy. It makes full use of HD technology and has an all new driving physics engine that will genuinely move the game on.

You will have a selection of cars and a couple of tracks initially. You will be able to unlock new cars and goodies by completing Time Trial races.

Over time and probably forever more (!) SONY will be releasing new GT HD content. Some of it may be free but most content will be at a cost available as a further download from the Store.

You may want to leave it downloading over night or certainly leave it till late in the day. Given the size of the file  and the fact that Tom, Dick, Harry, Harry’s friends, relatives and cousin’s dogs will all be wanting to download it !!

This game will be a huge hit and may pave the way for similarly FREE games that then ask the consumer to download further content thereby providing us with more choice..

Yippee! 

www.ps3news.eu

Tony Hawk’s Project 8….

Well, what can I say. It has come as a surprise!

Can an Old Dog like me be taught some new tricks ?!

Ollies, Grabs, Flips, Grinds, Lips, Manuals, Reverts, No Comply, Boneless, Sick, Nollie, Switches, fakies, Wallrides, Wallplants, Spine transfers, Skitching, Acid Drops, Bailing, Natas Spins, Stalls………..

Now if you’re reading those terms above with a creased furrow on your forehead then you’re in good company. It also probably means that you are not a teenager and you are not into grunge band music. 

They are all terms used within the great game that is the latest in the Tony Hawk SKATEBOARDING series, Tony Hawk’s Project 8. A few of their meanings will be pretty obvious whilst a few of the terms actually bear no resemblance to how we use it in the world outside of skateboarding…

Now, I’ve always been into Shooting games such as Rainbow 6, Hitman, Halo, Doom, etc, and also quite fond of the odd car racing game. Purchasing a game that is street cool, requires the finger dexterity of a magician and takes one into a whole new world is not something I would usually lend myself to!

BUT.. What a great game! The game only supports 760p but the graphics are easily the chunkiest and most real-world realistic of the several PS3 games that I own. The gameplay is sublime and the controller actions as smooth an ollied 360 tailgrab-flipped jump onto a grinded rail leading to a revert manual landing… Sorry… Got carried away there.

The faces on the game’s star players are superb and the interaction with other characters throughout the game lend a real sense of community and comradery to the proceedings. One can start a Career where you have to complete missions at different locations or simply just sit back and enjoy skating around the neighborhood performing some tricks and getting a bit of practice in. The whole gameplay area is open to investigation, every street object can be utilised. If you cannot reach a place on your skateboard then simply jump off it and walk, run or climb on it. You can climb up onto a roof of a building, skate down the inclined roof, jump onto a phone or electricity cable and ‘grind’ along the rooftops before jumping off onto a fence or into a swimming pool… magic stuff.

Tony Hawk is the most famous of International skateboarders mostly thanks to the success of this series of games. Skateboarding officianados were a little peeved with the last couple of incarnations but this PS3 version has fulfilled a promise of getting back to its roots.

Fans will definately not be disappointed if an Old Dog like me can be turned on to it’s brilliance. I haven’t even got to grips with the excellent online play yet which promises to be another heap of fun.  I think I will wait until I have had a lot of practice and the youngsters don’t totally embarrass me!

Now, where are my pads, board and helmet…

www.ps3news.eu

 

I have no doubt in my mind that consoles will be a lot different in the next generation. Certainly, all games and future game content will be downloadable.

Let’s look at Gran Turismo – It will be a FREE download for everyone but extra content such as cars and tracks will come at a cost.
I think Gran Turismo HD has opened a lot of eyes to the fact that this is happening NOW not in the future.

I can see more publishers doing the online thing instead of producing and selling disks. The cost saving should be substantial as well.
Like GT, it is a way of building a long term relationship with the customer and most likley managing to eek out more money from them over time.

There will probably always be a case for controllers as they are so intuitive. As for memory and storage. Well, I guess people can store information online and download where necessary.

Maybe the first step will be consoles that are a lot smaller or even that the controller IS the console and access the web on a wireless network.
Alternatively and possibly more likely, consoles may merge and be built into future TV / Entertainment Centers. Each ‘console publisher’ like Microsoft, SONY or Nintendo willl simply control the online content on their own servers.

In fact, thinking about it. One could then have the choice of which company’s server to use as they will undoubtedly have different things to offer the consumer. This way, nobody has to be stuck with their original choice such as buying a PS3 or Xbox console.

As start-up costs will be lower, this will inevitably open up the market to other media providers such as ABC, SKY, BBC, even larger online entertainment sites and movie companies. Let’s face it, its pretty much what the PC offers now anyway. There will just be more choice and once you get to your intended ‘media supplier’ you will have a huge array of games, other media and experiences to download. Each ‘media supplier’ will have to make money. They could do this by charging subscriptions and having low-cost downloads on the majority of games. This is the only way game publishers will get money (well, apart from in-game advertising which will get worse!)

Physical consoles will not be needed. Sure, there will be people looking to play their old HD-DVDs on their old consoles/players but it will gradually become the norm to download ALL content. TV companies do it so its just a logical progression. Xbox Live is offering games, TV , films and music already anyway. This is more anbout opening up the market and giving the consumer a much greater choice.

Of course, in the recent past many homeowners would not have had an internet connectoin or maybe just a small PC but technology and internet speed are growing so rapidly all this is now becoming a standard feature in a lot of homes.

Its all out there already then, so maybe the real question is, given SONY’s expertise in bringing groundbreaking ideas to the public, why did they not do the Gran Turismo thing for ALL games and at least get a jump on the rest. Especially as they are losing so much on each console sold.

Could it be that they were purely intending to get their new Blu-Ray in as many households as possible…?

If so , what’s the long term prospects in that given all that I mentioned above. People wont go out and pay $$ for a disk when they can download it for pocket change whenever they want……

www.ps3news.eu

SONY is a world leader in home electronics and in fact SONY won acclaim as the most recognised brand in the US even beating the likes of Coca Cola and McDonalds…

As leaders, they are always being attacked by people who dont understand the ethos of the company. They always bring out super, grund breaking products and all the critics come out of the woodwork. Often SONY is more expensive but when it comes down to it they do make better products, on the whole.

The PS3 has been attacked by just about everyone without actually criticizing it directly.. This utter nonsense about the graphics engine and how it works on TVs is complete drivel.

Ok, the PS3 is limited in supply, there are not many games, there are hardly any games with full HD capability..

However, give it until Fall/Autumn of next year and the picture will be much clearer: The PS3 is heads and shoulders above the competition.

Statements saying ‘The Wii trounces the PS3′… ‘Wii wins the console wars’..

What a load of complete and utter nonsense. Can somebody please explain to these bored people that the PS3 sold less for two reasons; Lack of supply and twice the price, well four times the price on average sales figures! What does that tell you.. Yes.. The console was in HUGE demand. If SONY had made 2 million more they still would have sold.

The Playstation 3 is so superior to the Wii there is little poinyt comparing. Sure the Will will always have more sales than the PS3! The Wii is perfect for kids and new gamers whereas the PS3 is perfect for PS2 owners, experienced gamers and thosse demanding machinery at the forefront of technology….

The PS3 is the only console to run in full HD! That will be the industry standard within 18 months. Wii and Xbox owners please start queing now.

Oh, and the console has a FREE multiplayer online service…

Oh, and it includes a HD movie player called Blu-Ray which is would retail for $1000…

What is there REALLY to complain about !?

www.ps3news.eu

….You refuse to leave your online multiplayer Resistance Fall of Man ‘Capture the Flag’ game until the game is over….

Now, the problem is that it was best of three, so the first TEAM to capture 2 enemy flags and get them back safey to their base wins.
Well, I joined the blue team when the score  was 1 – 1.

I played and played and killed a lot and got killed a lot more but in the end, due to an aching arse and a nasty right thumbstick repetitve injury, I had to call it quits and leave the game. Everybody was so good, especially the Japanese, that I could not see a way that any team was going to get the flag and keep it long enough to get it back to base and win the game….

So, I turned off the machine and looked at the clock..

It was 04.00 am and I had been playing for 5 hours..
 :smt021 8O     

I need help….

I haven’t had time to get a lot of practise in the online mutliplayer parts but I definately improved  a lot..

However, I am still only a Private First Class whilst my 6 year old boy is a Corporal… Now, how did THAT happen ?

http://www.ps3news.eu/

Fancy winning a shiny new black 60GB Top of the Range Playstation 3 console ?!

Yes, I thought so….

What do yo have to do ?

Well, based on the popular pixel blocks your block can win you a playstation 3 with as little as $2.00 stake. You can increase your chances with buying more blocks.

As a bonus, its a cheap way to place an advertisement for a service or website you have or maybe you just want your names in lights!

First prize is a brand new, boxed PS3 console shipped to whereever you are in the world!

Second prize is any PS3 game of your choice and third prize is a PS3 controller.

What are you waiting for?  http://www.ps3competition.com/

…. and good luck !  It has to be worth a try !

http://www.ps3news.eu/

 

The Sony PS3 is creating headlines in the techie world. And, watchers all over the world are reviewing this much feted product. It should continue to storm the gaming world. The CNET Editor has awarded the PS3 8.8 out of 10 with 9/10 for design; 9/10 for features; and 8/10 for performance.

 

Another quick summary in case you didn’t know!
There are two versions of the PS3 and the 20GB version retails for USD 500 while the 60GB version for USD 600. According to gaming gurus it is too early to say what the PS3 will eventually achieve, the sane advice is to wait a year before passing any judgments.

The hardware is state-of-art and impressive. The PS3 has:

• A cell processor that is very advanced and is all set to support GenX computer entertainment. And instead of using off the shelf PC components the PS3’s 3.2 GHz Cell processor was built from scratch just for the PS3. A joint effort between IBM, Sony, and Toshiba the processor has a core with seven synergistic processing units. The power extended by the cell will provide spectacular realism to the games and realistic effects.

• Dolby sound of 5.1 ch with DTS and LPCM.

• Giga-bit Ethernet with a pre-installed hard disk drive. This will enable downloading of content from the World Wide Web and play online with competitors all over the world.

• Output and input ports support displays from NTSC, PAL, and HD relays.

• A noise level matches that of PS2 and is incredible.

• A cell processor that can play from a blue ray disc at bit rate of 48Mbps.

• Controllers that are high precision, with sensitive six-axis motion, and technologically perfect sensing. The controllers are wireless and as many as seven controllers can be connected to the PS3 via the blue tooth. What more the controllers have a range of 65 feet. The controllers can be recharged easily by connecting the USB cable. The player can continue to play while the controller recharges. The L2 and R2 buttons are larger giving greater game control. The increase in tilt of the analog joy sticks allow for greater control and wider range of motion. The most welcome feature is the six axis motion.

• An interface that is user friendly and aesthetic. However, certain features are hidden below several levels.

• A digital media hub with a Blu-Ray player. The 60GB PS3 can read digital photos from USB devices, digital cameras, CDS and more. The system has an impressive internal media reader, photo and album viewer. The hub supports an astounding variety of music files including MP3s. ATRAC, AAC, and WAV. What more the PS3 will play Blu-ray disc with high definition and clarity.

As far as first reviews go the PS3 is all set to be the greatest gaming and media entertainment console. It will take home entertainment to the next level of excitement and challenges.

PS3 is all set to make our dreams a reality. Imagine Metal Gear, Warhawk, Tekken, i-8, Gran Turismo, Killzone, and Dante among zillion other mind blowing games all coming alive! Whatever the whispers are about the reality will surface as more consumers get first hand experience.

http://www.ps3news.eu/