Killzone 2 Held Back Until 2009

We have been talking about Killzone 2 having to go up against Resistance 2 on the podcast, wondering why Sony would have both of these FPS games go up against each other this fall. Well, we have to wonder no longer as it seems that Killzone 2 has been delayed for a 2009 launch. The announcement was made at the Sony Playstation Day, so it only applies to Europe at this point, but it will most likely become a worldwide date.

Several podcasts back, I said that if this game had to be pushed back to 2009, it would be disastrous. I still stand by this, because the game has been uner developemnt now for some time, and more delays just make gamers more jaded and skeptical for a release. One only has to look at Daikatana or Duke Nukem Forever to see what happens when a title gets consistently delayed.

CONFIRMED: Blu-ray Equipped Xbox 360

Just saw this on Slashdot.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer had admitted that Microsoft had been working on support for Blu-ray under Windows during this year’s Mix08 conference. Rumors began to swirl and many began to expect Microsoft to announce a Blu-ray peripheral for the Xbox 360. However, Microsoft came out and denied all rumors, stating that they were not exploring any kind of Blu-ray add-on or in talks with Sony about integrating Blu-ray into the Xbox experience. After months of rumors and denials, the Xbox 360 with a Blu-ray disc drive is due to be manufactured soon and shipped in Q3 of 2008. Pegatron Technology, an OEM subsidiary of Asustek Computer, is reported to have received the winning order from Microsoft for a Blu-ray equipped Xbox 360.

I think we all expected Blu-ray support for the 360, but I was expecting a Blu-ray add-on, not an actual Blu-ray equipped console. Very interesting, indeed. Now, if Sony were really smart, they’d pull a Microsoft and include some compatibility bugs to handicap Blu-ray support on the 360.

For example, they could make the 360 version not upgradeable, so that as new versions of the Blu-ray standard are released, the 360 will not be able to keep up with the updates, as the PS3 is now able to do.

I know for myself, though, I can’t imagine buying another 360 just for Blu-ray support, so a PS3 would still be the way to go.

Now, if there WERE a Blu-ray addon, I would probably be more inclined to pick up the cheaper alternative.

You Can’t Go Home Until 2009

Forget about trying to go home again, try going home once. Sony has delayed PlayStation Home’s open beta until the fall of 2008. In case you haven’t been paying attention — and with this many delays I wouldn’t blame you for dozing off — that puts the open beta a full year later than they’d promised to deliver the final code following its unveiling at the 2007 GDC. With the Home beta in the fall that means to me a final release won’t happen until 2009. All that blather about Sony having toyed with online virtual spaces since the PlayStation One hasn’t helped their engineers over in SCEE a tiny little bit, now has it.

I fully expect we won’t see in-game XMB this summer either. They just rolled out firmware 2.20 and have said 2.5 will contain in-game XMB. That’s three more firmware updates to go, and at roughly 30-45 days between updates it all fits in for a Fall release. The firmware engineers aren’t the same people working on Home, so I’m not saying they’re related, I’m just saying that Sony’s recent statements about in-game XMB showing up “in 2008″ don’t say “Summer 2008″ like they used to.

The big loss here is actually very painfully highlighted by the brand new PlayStation Store. By remaking the old Store in a fast, slick new interface Sony has proven that the PS3 can have native apps within the XMB that greatly extend the power of the system and can handle things that they’ve squirreled away into Home. I’m talking about cross-game accomplishments/achievements/trophies/whatevers and group chats to launch games from together. The marketing decisions to do this don’t look so smart when Home lags this far behind.

I’m still in the beta for Home, but nobody on my friends list is. Like many participants I was hoping we’d see the Home open beta happen at E3 this year so I could at least have friends around to kick the tires with.

Via PS3Fanboy

Stor3d: A New Beginning for Lair, Gran Turismo, and the Store.

The new PlayStation Store showed up on tax day this week (that’s April 15th for folks outside of the United States), bringing a “native app” feel to it instead of the sluggish Store we had in the browser. Its browser roots weren’t left behind entirely, unfortunately, with icons loading into the UI a little slower than some would have liked during the first few days. The content that hit this week gives some nice new goodies for games I either like already or have been interested in.
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New Playstation Store Video Tour

Playstation Store’s Senior Manager shows off the new Playstation Store. Looks better than the original! Heck, it looks more user friendly than Xbox Live Marketplace. Look for this store update in a couple of weeks.

Source: Playstation Blog

What Microsoft Got Right

While the reliability of the Xbox 360 hardware is sub par, Microsoft should be applauded for the general stability of their online service when compared to the PS3 and the Wii. Upon reading the previous statement, Sony and Nintendo fanboys will instinctively reach for their, “yeah but at least the PS3/Wii online experience is free” argument. True enough, but in my experience with all three consoles, I’ve gotten what I’ve paid for.

Most recently with the Wii, I’ve been trying to play Super Smash Brothers Brawl online with strangers. This experience has been painful. More often than not, I’m left lingering in the lobby beating up a punching bag for several minutes only to get the following message:

As for the PS3, often times I’m signed in for no more than a minute or so before the service dumps me with the following error message:

And this happens almost every time I’m online. Thankfully, once I get into an online game on the PS3 it is usually pretty stable.

So is fifty dollars a year worth it to me to just be able to play games online without these headaches? Absolutely yes.

New Playstation Home Screens

It seems that some new screen captures of Home have spawned into the wild and I have to say that the game is looking pretty good. That being said, Home is looking less like a way to interface with games, and more of a way for Sony to start making more on microtransactions. Recently, it was mentioned that there will most likely be premium Home features that, surprise surprise, will cost money. Also, Home is meshing more and more social networking features that seems to get more and more away from gaming, which should be the main focus of a gaming console. I hope I am wrong and it becomes a big success, but from the look of these screens, Home still comes off as a highly detailed version of Second Life, albeit, without the sex toys.

Check out the new screens here.

Lair To Possibly Get New Control Scheme

Most people that have sat down to play Lair have come away either liking the game or just hating it with a passion. It was a game that was suppose to be a home run for Sony and a possible game of the year candidate by the fans. But one thing that everyone seemed to agree on was that the game had horrible motion controls. All hoped for a patch, but it was to never come as the game was forgotten by all within the next month.

Fast forward several months and now it seems that the developers have had a mea culpa of sorts, saying that it might be possible to make a patch to add a more traditional style of play for those that did not enjoy the motion sensing controls. While this is a nice gesture, am I the only one that feels that Factor 5 has missed the boat, and that most have forgotten, or have no plans to go back to this game. Maybe it will get a few to play it, but it probably is not worth putting the effort into making this patch.

Also See:

Lair Development Team Plays the Blame Game

Lair Gets First Reviews….not so good!

via FiringSquad

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Officially Coming to the US

There has been rumor and speculation from the PS3 community over whether the Gran Turismo 5 Prologue demo would come to the US, after its release in Japan and annouced release in Europe. Well, the rumors can be put to rest as Sony has officially announced that the demo will be coming to the States on April 17th, 2008. The demo is an extended demo as it is suppose to include roughly 60 cars and several tracks. It will also have some form on online play included for the $40 price tag.

The game will ship via a Blu-ray disc or you will have the option of downloading it from the Playstation Store. One has to wonder if there will be a price break if you get the game from the store, but nothing has been said as of yet. While I know this is bigger than a normal demo, I have to wonder how many people are willing to pay $40 for stress test version of the game (rumor is that this was released in the US to test the network code). It is a possibility, as we saw Crackdown get huge numbers due to inclusion of the ability to get into the Halo 3 beta. I just don’t know if Gran Turismo carries as much weight as it has in the past, as the last GT definitely witnessed depressed sales when compared to GT3.

via Sony Playstation Blog

LittleBigPlanet Impressions from CES 2008

Sony had a huge booth at this year’s CES event in Las Vegas. It was enormous, rivaling the Microsoft booth in size and scope. However, the one thing that was lacking was a showing of games for the PS3. Here is this huge consumer event and Sony only had one games showing on the main floor. Good thing that the game was one of the most anticipated games for the PS3 this fall. The game is LittleBigPlanet and I have to say that this game will either be received open arms or kill gamers with frustrating controls.

First off, I do want to preface this by mentioning that I used a floor demo unit that was on its second day of use, so some of the control issues I had may be related to that, so I just wanted to put that up front, because it might of been an issue.

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