Home 1.3 update freezing systems, workaround offered

via Joystiq – ULTRAFEED by Andrew Yoon on 10/2/09

The biggest update to PlayStation Home since its public beta debut went live not too long ago. However, the transition hasn’t been as smooth as many hoped. There are sporadic reports of system hangs during the initialization screen, post 1.3 update. While EndSights says "many systems" are affected, it seems likely the problem is isolated to a minority of PlayStation Home users.

According to Home Manager Locust_Star, a few items in the virtual world may be causing the hiccups. Items like the Namco Bandai Love Seat, Fat Princess Throne and Ghostbusters Bagel are amongst the few suspected to be causing crashes. Until a proper patch is implemented, the PlayStation team recommends deleting and reinstalling PlayStation Home. Erasing Home data from the Save Data Utility may also help PlayStation gamers that are desperate to log into the virtual world.
Let us know if you’ve been affected by the latest Home update, and if these workarounds, um, work.

Home 1.3 update freezing systems, workaround offered originally appeared on Joystiq Playstation on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Holiday BS is already starting…

I’ve seen on a few sites today that Sony is talking PS3 shortages for the holiday season.    To me this seems like a load of BS a mile and 1/2 long.   the PS3 has been out for 3 years and the Slim has been released.  What does this mean?    It means that Sony has figured out all the manufacturing of the system to allow for high speed production which is what allows a price drop in the first place.  (well and someone playing with the numbers saying that it’s OK now to drop the price.)

So saying NOW there’s going to be a shortage is complete BS.   What this really means is that Sony wants to see a better holiday season so they are telling the public that they can’t get one in order to jack up the ‘want’ and ‘desire’ of the gamer  to entice them to buy.

So don’t say tell the public that there is going to be a shortage.  tell them the truth.

“In order to get you to want to buy a PS3 we are going to hold back some of our inventory this holiday season.  Feel free to beat up the grandma buying an X-Station for her grandson.”

Though I think Sony should come up with their own marketing.. first they where pulling an ‘Apple’ with the PS3.. now they are pulling a Nintendo with the Wii.   And M$.. well they are just sitting back saying HA!  We’ve got HALO.

Marketing sucks!

Sony to drop the Blu-ray from a PS3?

I was talking with one of my gaming friends over the weekend and somebody set up us the bomb on this one. According to this rumor, Sony is working on a new marketing strategy and system.

In order to get the PS3 more market saturation and order to compete in the casual gaming [PogoWolf: Nintendo, Natal, and that whole motion controller thing] market Sony is working on a new SKU for the slim PS3 that removes the Blu-Ray player itself.

This new SKU removes the most expensive part of the PS3 allowing Sony to drop the price to around $150 and still leave most of the standard PS3 hardware.    I was informed that this new version will also be available in an array of colors and what are being called “tattoos” (skins) for the system and that the first release model will be in white to differentiate the system from the full PS3 SKUs.
It was also been stated that Sony will release a piggy-back Blu-ray player for this new SKU sometime after launch.  It will connect to the system via the USB port and will offer a full Blu-ray movies and gaming experience. [PogoWolf:  Think of the HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360]

This ‘arcade’ version of the PS3 will connect to the PSN, using the built in Wi-Fi in order to download games and demos.  Some of the smaller PS3 games might even show up on the PSN for these ‘Arcade’ users.  I was also informed that Sony is looking into allowing users, using a code, to ’store’ their digital copy of a movie they have bought for streaming from the PSN.

However in order to cover the costs of the bandwidth needed to download Blu-Ray based games Sony is to create a new ‘Platinum’ pay for version of the PSN for Arcade customers    The standard PSN will still be free but the Platinum version will offer premium content and exclusives not available to the free PSN customers and will cost about $49.99 for a full year.
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PogoWolf:
Most likely this is complete BS…

But it’s really not a bad idea. It would be the first console to go to a complete digital delivery way of distributing its games and content. Granted downloading full 25gig games would be a bit of a bitch. However, it’s known that a lot of space on the Blu-Rays are duplicate files to help load times and no compression on audio and textures because there’s all that extra room. Remove the redundant files and compress not only the audio and textures (lossless mind you) but then ‘ZIP’ the package.. and even the downloads shouldn’t be too bad. Hell Sony might even be able to stream the games to the system the same way sites like GameTap does.

MAG Public Beta enrollment begins

MAG Public Beta enrollment begins

via Joystiq – ULTRAFEED by Andrew Yoon on 8/12/09

A lucky few individuals will discover this invite for the MAG beta in their inboxes. The e-mail includes a unique code used to access a closed application form. According to the beta enrollment page, Sony “will be adding people in waves.” If you don’t see an invite in your inbox right now, don’t worry: you may be invited later. “If you do not receive an invite for the first wave you may still be invited in a following MAG Public Beta wave.”

Sony has already conducted a closed beta for MAG for over a month. The expansion of the beta to the public gives us hope that maybe — just maybe — we’ll be able to see MAG’s 256-player online battles hitting the PS3 sooner rather than later.

MAG Public Beta enrollment begins originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Top tip for female Home users bothered by creepy stalkers :: PlayStation Universe (PSU)

So this is what is fun in Sony’s ‘flagship’ title Home?

more about “Top tip for female Home users bothere…“, posted with vodpod

Playstation Day 2008..

[Gameaxis] has posted a cute article about what new games are coming to the PS3.  The Article was posted by Mr. Toffee on Thursday May 8th 2008.  Playstation day (as I’m understanding it) was a Sony event held in London this month to show off and showcase the PS3.  To make people happy about all the cash they spent on the machine. Now the article does say that there was a “boatload of AAA titles up for show” So the first game show is “Little Big Planet”, which is due to be released in 2008. Now I must admit this is a cool looking game and does have some interesting tidbits of game play. LIke the user created content, and since 2D platform games are a dying breed, it could be a pretty cool game.

However, WTF is up with the next set of games?  We’ve got ‘Killzone 2′ which really isn’t saying much.  The first game wasn’t that good and even this one has the whole markings of ‘our art department can make anything look good’ problem just like the first game had.  For a ‘blockbuster’ it was lackluster and the sale numbers support the theory.     Then you’ve got Resistance 2.  The so called Halo killer the pretty much left games saying ‘Meh’.  But then 60 man multiplayer sounds cool, along with a standard 8 player mode.  But still.. another game sequel in the works?     Motorstorm 2, sure.. why not.  let’s add another sequel into the mix of a ‘meh’ titles.  Granted the first one wasn’t THAT bad, but still slow loads and graphics that really wheren’t any better then games seen on the PC or Xbox 360. But this at least looks like the graphics have been updated, and double the amount of tracks from Motorstorm 1, 16 man multiplayer (online and split screen) let’s just hope the controls have been turned and something has been done about the load times.

*WHINE* the Xbox 360 sucks!

So I read something this afternoon that just pissed me off.  James Rivington [submitted an article] to TechRadar.com with a different view (vue?) on the Xbox 360 sales press release that Microsoft posted a little while ago.

The press release from Microsoft UK stats:

“Gamers have voted with their wallets, and the results are in. The Xbox 360 version of ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ has sold more than 100,000 copies, or 20 per cent more than the PlayStation 3 version in the UK since the game’s release last Tuesday 29 April.”

The article is filled with negative wording like:

• “Microsoft is attempting to use GTA as a PR exercise to boast (and lie) about the Xbox 360 console”
• “We received an unbelievable and outrageous press release today from Microsoft UK”
• “Lies, all lies!”
• “The release then sees Microsoft rambling on and on, mostly just patting itself on the back about selling more copies”
• “Please excuse me briefly while I pause to be sick.”
• “It’s all a load of smoke and mirrors nonsense.”
• “This is an absolutely textbook example of a big company spouting a load of dingo’s kidneys in order to promote itself.”

Sorry, man, you come across like a fanboy pulling crap like that, and I expect more from TechRadar then to listen to fanboy rant.

You can prove anything you want with statistics.    It’s all load of ‘Dog Kidneys’

Besides that all the numbers are skewed because  no one tracks the number of units out the door of a store (IE the number really BOUGHT.. not given away or promos and such).  It’s the number of units shipped from the publisher.  So there’s no way to tell really HOW many PS3’s or 360’s are really out in the market.. let alone how many games have really been sold. 

The only thing those numbers really show is that the PS3 version and 360 are both selling well, and Rockstar is making a killing.

Beyond that, we’re all used to that kind of marketing.  It’s the same crap that Sony has been pulling all along with the PS3.  But it doesn’t matter, the PS3 has RIDGE RACER!!!!!!!!   

12/25/08 – Update:
——————————————————————-
When did this little rant turn into a PS3 VS Xbox debate?  The point was the article sounded like a FanBoy using the site to dog on the 360 (which, no matter how you look at, it blows the crap outta the PS3 in the market place) and how I dispise the ‘evil’ marketing Sony has used to convince people there shit doesn’t stink.   

This wasn’t about how the 360 is/isn’t better than the PS3.   In my replys below I’ve tried to just point out facts. 
and not step on one side or the other.

GTA IV backlash already…

*sigh*  what’s a gamer to do when ‘news’ channels start knifing gamers in the back by preying on the fear (and stupidity) of the the non-gamer human?

So here’s a story (it’s FOX.. what do you expect?) with the nice bold headline of: [Cop Killing Video Game Makes Big Debut], by Sharita Hutton posted just this morning for the Kansas City News.

Where as nothing was said about the record sales, nor about the spammers trying to steal your pre-order copy, or anything about store (like EB) funking up your pre-order and store sale-outs… Nope this is all got to be about the violence of the GTA series.

The whole news story starts off with such a negative overtone that you wouldn’t like the game before you even knew anything about it.  However, even WAL-MART the king of ‘you will like what we give you’ is selling the game.  I guess money does talk. 

Though a couple of things about this article struck me as funny: “An online preview of the game describes the game, saying its as violent as the past three versions and more realistic, with 1080p resolution.”   

So this tells me Sharita got all her information by looking at the web site.  Didn’t FOX already get into trouble for pulling this kind of BS?   And if 1080p makes pixels look more realistic, then watch out Microsoft paperclip!  you’re heading into the real world!!!  (you know since, Computers can produce higher resolutions then the Xbox 360, or the PS3)

She also states: “the game is only for X-Box 360 and PlayStation 3 games. “

Well we know they are games.. perhaps you mean CONSOLES?    So what’s this also tells me is that Ms. Sharita doesn’t know her ass from a C Prompt.   My advice? report on what you know. You obviously don’t understand Gaming.

And reporting on a 3 year old bill, where as there have been multiple attempts on the same type of bill across America ALL of which have failed, is moot, a waste of space, and just prays on the peoples un-founded fear of technology.  

Some of the latest news…

News around the wire are saying that BioShock is coming to the PS3 (duh) and looks to be a new Castlevania game heading to the system as well.

Tecmo Bowl is heading to the Wii and even some rumors of Halo 4

Rainbow 6: Vegas – PS3 Case mod

Now this is definitely one of the cooler case mods to have graced our pages, especially one that does not involve a PC of any sort but Sony’s PS3 console instead. This case mo was inspired by the Rainbow Six Vegas game, disguised to be a casino tower that one might actually mistake it to be the Wynn. I wonder whether anyone is going to come up a different variation considering that the Wynn’s second tower is nearly complete. This PS3 comes with colorful, bright LEDs along with a tiny Eiffel Tower to signify Paris, a pyramid for Luxor, and little folk to complete the setup.

Source: Technabob

[Via CoolestGadgets]