PlayStation Network

Editorial: What PSN Outage?

by Sohrab Osati | Apr 23, 2011 | 6 comments

If you are a PlayStation 3 user, you might noted that we have now entered the 3rd day of the PSN outage. For those not aware PSN (PlayStation Network) is Sony’s free service which allows users access to the PlayStation Store, PlayStation Home and to play online games. The official reasoning from Sony is:

An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.

Now many of you fellow internets people have slowly begun freaking out, pointing out that you cant play games now. Although I get what you’re saying, I actually don’t. You see, the last two weeks, I’ve been working on beating the single player campaign of RUSE and once I’m done with that, I still have Gran Turismo 5, Killzone 3 and LittleBigPlanet 2 to name a few of the games I’ve yet to beat. Outside of those, plenty of games are not only worth repeating like Uncharted 2, but there is still many trophies to be collected as well (which yes, they will sync once PSN is backup). So I don’t know about you but all my single player games have been playing just fine, I was able to last night watch TRON: Legacy on Blu-ray via my PS3 just fine and yea, those music files on my PS3 still play as well. I know, I know, you can’t play your Call of Duty online but come on people, there is still plenty to experience and do on your PS3. It’s not like I’m asking you to go outside. So how about you guys and gals? What are you doing with the lack of PSN?

[Via PlayStation Blog]

SOCOM 4 Release Date News & Killzone 3 will have SOCOM 4 Beta

by Jenni Petot | Jan 19, 2011 | 7 comments

SOCOM 4 news has been pretty quiet ever since we heard that the game was delayed back in July of last year. However, the Wall Street Journal said this third-person shooter game will be arriving in April. A specific date has not been set but we have a month and it’s getting there. SOCOM 4 will also be Playstation Move compatible.

Other exciting news for fans was announced today from Sony. When buying Killzone 3, players will receive a code to access the SOCOM 4 Beta. Killzone 3 arrives in just over a month, (February 22) and this definitely adds to the excitement and anticipation for this game . The beta will test the online multiplayer portion of the game, offering up to 32-player firefights. Zipper Interactive’s Chris Roper described the details:

To get early access to the beta, look for the SOCOM 4 callout on the front of all eligible copies of Killzone 3 (including both the standalone and Helghast Editions). Inside the box you’ll find a PSN code that you’ll be able to redeem for your early access as soon as the beta goes live. To find out when the SOCOM 4 multiplayer beta begins, be sure to check back at SOCOM.com once you pick up your copy of Killzone 3, hitting shelves on February 22nd.

We’ll have more information on the SOCOM 4 multiplayer beta itself in the near future. For now, take a look at the callout for the beta on the awesome Killzone 3 box art!

There’s no word as to when the SOCOM 4 beta will kick off but details should come shortly. The beta code will only be available at participating retailers. Pre-order Killzone 3 now at GameStop, Amazon or Best Buy to receive the SOCOM 4 Beta.

[via Playstation Blog]

SOCOM 4 Release Date News & Killzone 3 will have SOCOM 4 Beta

by Jenni Petot | Jan 19, 2011 | 14 comments

To get early access to the beta, look for the SOCOM 4 callout on the front of all eligible copies of Killzone 3 (including both the standalone and Helghast Editions). Inside the box you’ll find a PSN code that you’ll be able to redeem for your early access as soon as the beta goes live. To find out when the SOCOM 4 multiplayer beta begins, be sure to check back at SOCOM.com once you pick up your copy of Killzone 3, hitting shelves on February 22nd.

We’ll have more information on the SOCOM 4 multiplayer beta itself in the near future. For now, take a look at the callout for the beta on the awesome Killzone 3 box art!

[via Playstation Blog]

Editorial: Why Every Playstation 3 Owner Needs Playstation Plus

by Sohrab Osati | Jan 16, 2011 | 4 comments

Ok, let me scale back: Maybe not every Playstation 3 owner needs this subscription offering from Sony but if you play your system on a regular basis or like a variety of games for your PS3 and PSP, Playstation Plus is an offering you cannot pass on. So first, let’s break down what Playstation Plus is.

Playstation Plus is a monthly or yearly subscription service from Sony for the Playstation 3. Members of the service recieve the following:

Full Game Trials
Automatic Downloads
PS Store Discounts
Exclusive Offers
Free Games and Add-ons
Early Demos
Priority Beta Access

This is a kind of bulleted list of what exactly the service offers but that’s nothing more than just words. So why is this service so compelling? First, if you like to play games, this service gives you access to so many games you might not have played, whether it be from discounts on PSN games or entirely free games. I own so many new titles now for my PS3 and at least 15 titles for my PSP, including Mini Games and the PSone Classics. These are games I honestly would not have normally paid for, not because they are not worth the value, but because I have so many other titles I want to play. But now, I’m getting all of these games to own. If betas are your thing, since the release, I’ve been in the Killzone 3, MAG, and Assassins Creed: Brotherhood betas to name a few. I’ve truly never had access to so many games before and my Trophies collection is loving it too! So again, if you game and you want your gaming experience to be fresh and diverse, Playstation Plus is for you.

MotorStorm Apocalypse Release Dates Announced!

by Sohrab Osati | Jan 13, 2011 | 3 comments

Along with the release date, the retail box art was revealed. Quite strangely, the European and US release dates are a month apart. For once, Europe gets something first. Although, it’s obviously best when release dates are as close as possible. The game will be released on March 16th in Europe, and April 12th in the US.

Follow the links for the official announcements:

[Via PlayStation Blog – US / Europe]

VUDU 2.0 Interface is Now Live for the PlayStation 3

by Sohrab Osati | Jan 13, 2011 | 1 comment

Just a little heads up to those who are using or are planning on using the recently announced PlayStation video delivery system VUDU. If you navigate over to the app (available in the video section of PSN), and launch it, you will notice the new 2.0 interface with 1080p HDX streaming and 5.1 surround sound. Other features include a much more streamlined interface and PlayStation Move support. Remember, new users to the service are currently eligible for one free HD rental.

As always, hit the jump for some more screen shots of the service.

More PlayStation Phone Images Appear

by Sohrab Osati | Jan 9, 2011 | 2 comments

The Chinese website, TGbus, has published a preview of Sony’s – still officially unannounced – PlayStation phone. It features a plethora of images, comparing it with other popular devices. Engadget’s translator, Richard Lai, interpreted the article, highlighting the statement that, ‘…a third-party emulator was downloaded and tested, with 70 percent success.’ The emulator being referred to is unknown at the moment.

The consistent inability to prevent information from being revealed must not have a considerable impact on sales and proficiency in making a profit, because if it did, Sony would be history. In other words, it’s difficult to keep secrets when information now naturally flows so freely. I for one am glad that Sony is doing okay despite its marked information security deficiency.

Follow the link to TGbus to check out all the comparison images.

[Via Engadget]

[Original Chinese Preview – TGbus]

LittleBigPlanet 2 Release Date Announced & Demo Available

by Sohrab Osati | Dec 23, 2010 | 35 comments

The release dates for LittleBigPlanet 2 have been revealed – January 18th for North America, January 19th for Europe, January 20th for Australia and New Zealand and January 21st for the UK and Ireland. The date marks an important time in the PlayStation brand’s release calendar, with the franchise being one of the most critically successful in the PS3 first party lineup. Its delay, which resulted in it missing a holiday release, accentuated the arguably lacklustre selection of games exclusive to the PS3 this Christmas.

The team even made a quick card that can be printed out and placed under any would-be-buyers’ christmas tree, stating ‘I bought you LittleBigPlanet 2, and it’s coming on January 18th, but here’s a card for you to open now!’, pleasantly conforming to the quirky LittleBigPlanet brand of humour.

Also, a demo is now available for download on the US and UK PSN Stores.

[Via PlayStation Blog – Europe / US]

Top 10 PS3 Games…so far.

by Sohrab Osati | Sep 16, 2010 | 7 comments

IGN.com is a great site and have made numerous “top ____ lists” but recently they had their top PS3 editors get together to create the ultimate PS3 games list. I thought this was a great list that I wanted to share with our readers at SonyRumors (they made a top 25 list but I will share their top 10). This inspired me to make my own top 10 list of my favorite PS3 games so far. I say that because for the rest of 2010 there’s a bunch of new games coming out, some of which I’m sure will replace games on my list right now. So here you go; my top 10 followed by IGN’s. I would love to see what games would make your list. Share and comment away.

10. Warhawk

9. Pixel Junk Monsters

8. God of War III

7. Uncharted

6. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

5. LittleBigPlanet

4. Batman Arkham Asylum

3. Modern Warfare 2

2. Modern Warfare

1. Uncharted 2

I just want to talk a little bit about my number 2 and 3 choices. I know both games are ‘similar’ in the type and in the same series but they are my favorite to play on PS3. Uncharted 2 became number one for the unique and action-packed story which I will explain further down. I must admit though, I’m in love with the Modern Warfare franchise and what it did for FPS games. Modern Warfare 2 is the second top selling game of all time. The story mode is amazing, realistic and challenging. As for the online gameplay…I’m hooked. I think it’s so entertaining, intense and just the best, especially when I’m online with friends dominating matches. To those not a fan of the games, I bet I sound lame but that’s all I have to say about that. I have yet to find another FPS game that keeps my attention and interest like MW; I always come back to it.

Now moving on to IGN’s top 10 list, with a little bit about each game. Some of these made my top 10 list, but I wish Star Wars was on here.

IGN’s top 1o:

#10 – God of War 3

Kratos returned this year in the final chapter of the series to defeat Zeus and the Olympian Gods for revenge. This highly anticipated game for PS3 received incredibly high ratings and reviews as did the others in the series. I would say GoW is one of the most loved and popular franchises of Playstation. I own the complete collection of GoW and can say the graphics on GoW 3 are phenomenal with challenging puzzles and great gameplay. We are also reintroduced to Pandora’s Box in the third game and it’s pretty wicked cool. I also really enjoyed the ending where….don’t worry, no spoilers. 🙂

#9 – Metal Gear Solid 4

I have only heard amazing things from the Metal Gear Solid franchise. I admit I have not played any of these games because I’m just not a fan of the stealthy gameplay. Clements from IGN said this about the game, “The Metal Gear Solid games were exceptional efforts that blended stealth gameplay with a gripping story. Action, intrigue, amazing boss battles and more — Guns of the Patriots had it all. And the amount of collectibles and customization included in MGS4 were the figurative cherries on top.”

If you like what you see please continue on for the rest of the best.

Xbox Live Gets More Expensive; PSN Still Free

by Sohrab Osati | Sep 6, 2010 | 1 comment

Click for a full sized comparison.

It’s really crazy how the internet works. Every few months, there are rumors that Sony might start to charge for PSN and the internet goes up in arms and gets crazy about it and starts to bash Sony for it. Well, four years into the cycle and you can still access all of this for free:

Online play
Web browser access
Playstation Store (Games, Movies [Buy and Rent]) & Comic Store
Video Chat
Social network via Playstation Home

There is then all the little things like Facebook and YouTube integration which are, of course, still free. Unfortunately for those on the Xbox side of life, Microsoft continues to take a different path and everybody just kind of shrugs and goes along with it. In the US, UK, Canada, and Mexico Microsoft will charge Xbox Live users starting November 1. A single month will go from $7.99 to $9.99, three months will go from $19.99 to $24.99, and the yearly sub will now be $59.99, up from $49.99. In terms of the business side, more power to Microsoft. Their setting up and maintaining those servers and services costs money and is a testament to how locked down they have their users. But from the users’ standpoint, there goes more money towards a service that is being offered for free from Sony.

Of course, for Sony, there are also plenty of costs in running PSN but they eat it internally, instead of passing on the costs to you. Don’t think for a minute that if they could charge you, they would, because that is not what their business strategy calls for. I just hope that Sony can turn this difference into more of a campaign and let others know of all the great things that PSN offers, like playing MAG online with 256 players, for free.

Sony Blasts Mobile Phone Gaming, Winks at Apple

by Sohrab Osati | Aug 17, 2010 | 33 comments

This new commercial from Sony pretty much says all it needs to say. Sony is no longer just concerned with Nintendo in the handheld gaming market but is very well aware of the fact that Apple has taken a big leap with the App Store and the cheap games it offers. The message here is simple: on the PSP, you can get high quality games starting at $9.99. Sony also offers the Mini games as well which have a starting price of $2, but those are more like the content and sometimes straight ports of games on the App Store. Being a lover of my iPhone, I have to say that although the games on the Apple platform are fun for a few minutes, they are nowhere near the quality of a game designed for the PSP, especially AAA titles like God of War, Final Fantasy and LittleBigPlanet which offer far superior graphics, depth, and storyline. Of course, price plays into all of this as well and I think Sony is on the right track. It needs to further increase the presence of the PSP and let gamers know of the variety of titles it has, including Minis. From there, Sony needs to reach to the small time publishers of the App Store and let them know that the content they create is welcomed on the Playstation platform and then formulate a delivery method so they can actually pass those games to Sony.

Click Me For Video Because I Can't Embed Flash On Here...

Can You Change Your PSN ID? Could Be Possible, Someday…

by Jenni Petot | Aug 13, 2010 | 2 comments

I’m sure there are many of you that would love to change or even tweak your current PSN ID name. I am one of them. Right now I am Domino_237 (feel free to add me) and would love to just be Domino or lose the underscore. Anyway, this is a requested feature PS3 users have wanted for a while. Last week it was reported/rumored that hackers found this feature “hidden inside the Playstation Plus”. Although Sony has never announced this, Jeff Rubenstein, Social Media Manager for the US Playstation Blog said:

It’s an idea that’s been brought up multiple times, and it’s something I’d like to see as well. I dont’ think there are any current plans to enact this, however, I’ll bring it up again.

So we can only hope something will be implemented by Sony from our requests and desires. Even if this feature is just for Playstation Plus users, it’ll be great. For now, people who REALLY need their ID changed will have to start a new account, start from scratch regardless of how high their ranking is on Modern Warfare is, how many friends they have or how many trophies they’ve earned. I personally don’t see too many people willing to do that.

Why the Playstation 3.41 Firmware Update is Important for Sony and You!

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 27, 2010 | 9 comments

Last night, Sony released a new firmware update for the PlayStation 3. The now-live 3.41 update adds store recommendations to PSN store. From Sony:

Firmware update 3.41 will add recommendations for games and videos on PlayStation Store. When you’re browsing through the details of a particular title, you’ll see a new “You May Like” section on the right-hand side. This section lists additional items based on the purchases of other PlayStation Network members who have purchased the item you’re currently looking at.

I’ve heard on several sites, including Sony’s own Playstation blog where this was announced that this is such a useless update: why doesn’t Sony work on (insert your own craving) instead of these types of updates? While from the user’s end it might not be a very exciting update, these types of update are critical to the PlayStation Store for a few reasons. If anybody remembers when the store launched with the PS3, it was basically an HTML site. The speeds were slow, there was no video network on it, and the layout was hard to find content with. Fast forward to today, and we now have the capability to rent, buy, and transfer our movies to a PSP. The store has a ton of avatars, dynamic backgrounds, content is usually easy to find under the new structure, and as of recent, we can even rate content. For a lot of these updates, rating content and getting recommendations is important for a few key reasons. First, these options allow the user to more easily purchase content because they have more power in their hand. They won’t be afraid to purchase content because they will have an idea about if it’s good or not. Also, as the network expands and new users come on board, they don’t have to just scroll through categories to find content; they can see what others have purchased and discover new titles.

Playstation Store, early on.

So yes, this helps people navigate more easily and find content, but to those who are onboard with the brand already: why is this important to you? The more robust, functional and used the Playstation Store becomes, the more developers want to bring content over to it. Traditionally, unless you had a big budget for your game, you would not be featured on the store and now, we have access to all sorts of small and indie games. The Minis are a great example. This gives the players access to content that we didn’t have before unless we were on a iPhone or other type of device, and gives those developers a new audience and powerful platform to create content for. The same is also true for the big developers like EA and Activision. The more compelling a platform is, as in the more users interact with, purchase and use their content, the more likely they are to listen to your needs and wants and just offer more content in the future. This also means that Sony can have a greater leveraging power so we do get Demos at the same time as Xbox Live or when DLC is released, the PlayStation does not get it on a 6-month delay.

Last but not least, we have to remember that Sony is not just fighting Microsoft and the Xbox Live platform. There is the App Store from Apple, the Android Market, the Windows Marketplace coming soon on the Windows 7 phones which will have Live incorporated into them, and Steam on the PC. The more successful the PlayStation Store is, the more Sony can then invest in other area’s of its platform, like the (insert feature) that you want.

Last note: although the firmware is live, you won’t see the recommendations kick in until the end of this month, so in the next 4-5 days.

[Via Playstation Blog]

DC Universe Online Beta Registration has Started

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 21, 2010 | 26 comments

Domino here to talk about a game I’m very excited about- DC Universe Online. This game is only on PS3 and PC developed by Sony Online Entertainment. Yesterday the official website opened up registration to become a part of the beta but beta start date has not been confirmed.

DC comics has always had my favorite superheros and villains and to play a game where I enter the world of DC and play with all my favorite superheros excites me non the less. Jim Lee created the world for this game where you can play as a superhero or villain character that you create. For those of you not familiar with the game, it’s an online only multiplayer RPG action game that is fully story driven. I hope I’m chosen for this beta if not you (and I) can pick it up in stores November 2nd. Will you choose to save or conquer the DC Universe?

To register for the beta and check out more media go to the official DC Universe site.

Playstation Beats Everybody to Hulu

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 15, 2010 | 66 comments

The folks over at Sony have done it. The Playstation 3 tends to be the last one to the party with things like Netflix (and its still not built in, requires a disk) and a nice Store front (should have seen the PSN Store on launch). But Sony has finally one under its belt for firsts. Beating other platforms like the Xbox 360 which gets Hulu in 2011, Sony has launched Hulu Plus as of today.

Currently, Hulu Plus is only available to Playstation Plus members. Those who are members can log into the PSN Store and download the Hulu App (28mb). Once you’ve downloaded and installed the app, you can request to enter the trial period. If selected, you will be faced with the normal Hulu Plus membership of $9.99 a month and can have access to all of that content.

A few things to note on this. Currently, this is just for Playstation Plus members but once the feature fully rolls out and gets ironed out, all Playstation 3 users can download the app for free. With that, Hulu requires a $9.99 fee per month and not Sony. Also, some object that they can access Hulu from their computers for free. This is indeed true but consider a few things. First, chances are that your computer does not go up to a 60-inch, nor is it hooked up to surround sound as many PS3s are. Also, Hulu used to work on the Playstation 3, but the company blocked the PS3. So all platforms like the PS3, Xbox360, iPad and iPhone will have to be part of the Hulu Plus membership to have its service work.

[Via Playstation Blog]