The reason for the delay of WipEout HD on PS3 has been due to the many improvements we have been making and the numerous features we've added to the game. These include: 8 reverse tracks, 4 extra ships, 2 alternative HUDS, 2 Player offline split screen and XMB Trophy support. We look forward to sharing WipEout HD with you very soon.

Regarding the speculation about health issues, we can assure you that we take consumer safety very seriously and monitor it very carefully.

That last line doesn’t entirely rule out the epilepsy stuff, but that first paragraph is making the wait sound worth it regardless.

Wipeout HD Delay Response Confirms Trophies & Splitscreen News [TVG]

The rule change comes after new prison directives hit that prevent taxpayers' money from being used to buy games or consoles.

The change in rules come after the Government revealed that they spent more than £10,000 on 80 PlayStations and 15 XBoxes for youth offender institutions.

In a document including the rule changes, Michael Spurr, the Prison Service's director of operations, wrote: "These changes will ensure that prisoners may only earn access to games consoles by a positive demonstration of good behaviour and commitment to the requirements of their sentence plan.

"This is in line with government policy flowing from the Prison Policy Update paper of January 2008."

Prisoners Have Their Playstations Taken Away [Telegraph]

Midway says Mortal Kombat: Kollection is due out this September for $30.

"Mortal Kombat has been a pinnacle fighting franchise for well over a decade now and this is an ideal package for fans and collectors in terms of content and price point," said Mona Hamilton, vice president of marketing, Midway Home Entertainment. "With the PlayStation 2 still holding the highest market share of any home console, we saw this as the perfect opportunity to offer an incredible value to our consumers as we ramp up for the highly anticipated launch of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe."

Don't know your Mortal Kombat: Deception from your Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks? You will in a second.

Mortal Kombat: Deception
Mortal Kombat: Deception takes martial arts-style fighting and the Mortal Kombat franchise to new heights with an innovative fighting system, unparalleled depth and brutally intense action that will appeal to long-time Mortal Kombat fans as well as current-generation gamers. The game features lightning-fast, hand-to-hand and special weapons combat; secret and returning characters; new moves and combinations with death-dealing battles, and all-new life-threatening environments.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is an Action/Adventure title driven by intense single- and multi-player gameplay that is set in the period between the franchise's original title, Mortal Kombat, and Mortal Kombat II. As in Mortal Kombat: Deception, background interactions e.g. acid pits, spiked ceilings, etc., multiple new fatalities, and action-based puzzles play an important role in the player's quest for an "outstanding" victory as they maneuver through remodeled, classic Mortal Kombat environments. In franchise tradition, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks also features an impressive line-up of well-known characters that make frequent appearances as enemies, in boss battles and during several additional in-game interactions.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is the latest chapter in the award-winning and Midway's best-selling video game fighting franchise. With the most complete character roster ever, including every character from the Mortal Kombat fighting universe, revolutionary create-a-fighter and create-a-fatality modes, plus a brand-new Konquest mode, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is the most complete, intensely lethal, fighting experience ever!

Putting aside the fact Yahoo are a few weeks late on the last time this story did the rounds, and seem to be running the story solely to take delight in linking a gaming console with human rights abuses, the fact the original Toward Freedom article repeatedly points the finger at Sony - and in particular the PlayStation 2 - is more than a little, well, strange.

To give you some background, the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Central Africa, is sitting on a reserve of a metallic ore known as coltan. From coltan, we are able to extract tantalum, which is used in all kinds of modern consumer electronics products, from PCs to mobile phones to DVD players to, yes, games consoles. Specifically, it's used to make resistors and capacitors. The DRC's coltan supplies constitute around 1% of the world's total, with the bulk coming from Brazil, Canada and Australia.

During the late 90s and early 00s, as war engulfed most of Central Africa, people also fought over the DRC's coltan supply. Just as they fought over diamonds, over people, over ideals, over religion and over land. It was during this fighting that, aside from the theft of coltan by the DRC's neighbouring states, some terrible atrocities took place in the DRC, including the enslavement of local children, who were sent into dangerous mines to extract coltan, which was then sold to overseas buyers to help further fuel the conflict.

These human rights violations took place. There's no doubt about this, nor is there any doubt that it was Western and Asian demand for consumer electronics that helped sustain the battles over the DRC's coltan. This isn't some political think-piece, however. We're just curious as to why someone would call this a "PlayStation War", when really, PlayStations had very little to do with it.

See, it's believed that the war was at its worst when the price of tantalum spiked between 1998 and 2001, due to "increased demand". Yes, that timeline coincides with the roll-out of the PS2. But come on. Tantalum is used to make personal computers and mobile phones and DVD players, the sales of which dwarf those of games consoles. 1998-2001 happens to be the time when DVD players first hit the market, when mobile phones first became common place and the internet hit the big time, bringing increased PC usage with it. It was those market conditions that increased demand, not the building of a few million PlayStation consoles.

Yet no PC manufacturers are named by Toward Freedom. Or by Yahoo, or by any other mainstream media outlet which reported this story. No mobile phone companies. Or any other consumer electronics manufacturers. They're not called the "Nokia Wars", or the "Samsung DVD Player Wars". They're called the "PlayStation Wars", regardless of how minuscule a contribution the PS2 actually made, because that's sexier, and will help get your story picked up by a game-fearing mainstream media.

Yes we are aware of the episodes and seasons that are available. We are working closely with our studio partners to add movie content, individual TV episodes (for rounding out seasons) and also adding whole new seasons. We have already published new content twice since launch last week and will continue to add more on a regular basis.

In other words, they're adding the episodes as they go, not uploading them as a single block. I know, if you're up to Buffy episode 4 and episode 5 is missing this must be simply infuriating, but you're going to have to be patient.

In addition to the new games, some older titles are going on sale. For one week only, purchase PAIN, PixelJunk Monsters, High Velocity Bowling, High Stakes on the Vegas Strip: Poker Edition, or Rocketmen: Axis of Evil for only $4.99.

Topping it all off is a PixelJunk Eden demo, Guitar Hero and Rock Band DLC, and a fine assortment of themes, videos, and wallpapers, including entries in each category for Capcom's Street Fighter IV. Definitely a good week to own a PS3!

PlayStation Store Update [Official PlayStation Blog]

Dylan Cuthbert, president and executive producer, of Q-Games, says this new ability will revolutionize how people talk about games.

The YouTube upload feature is going to revolutionize how people share tips. Up until now it has been limited to people with video capture equipment, but from now on, anyone can record their game and upload it directly to YouTube from within the game! It is as simple as pushing one button to start and one button to stop and upload, and there is no affect on the gameplay thanks to the power of the PS3 and its abundance of SPU processors.

The YouTube people are pretty excited too, pointing out that this is likely just the first Playstation 3 game to do this.

We've already seen the significant positive impact for games like Spore and Mainichi Issho and how gamers share & show off their creations. We look forward to the day when having YouTube upload support in games will be a standard feature.

As Q-Games President Dylan Cuthbert said on the Playstation Blog, "The YouTube upload feature is going to revolutionize how people share tips". We wholeheartedly agree!

I hope more, bigger games will start to include this amazing feature.

PixelJunk Eden Now Fortified With YouTube APIs [APIBlog]

Mark Cale: We're really impressed with what Sony are doing with Trophies, and we'll be making an update available very soon to allow the game to support these features in the future.

Ferrari Challenge joins titles like PixelJunk Eden, BioShock and Uncharted in adding support for the achievement-esque trophies.

Cale was also asked, incidentally, about whether the PS3 and DS title (no license for the Xbox 360) might make a PC debut, and he was tongue-in-cheek:

Mugwum asks: Just to follow up on the earlier question about Xbox 360, is there anything to stop you doing a PC version, and do you have any plans to do so?

Mark Cale: Watch this space!

Ferrari Challenge's Mark Cale [Eurogamer]

Developers know they have to amortize that investment over a global marketplace and the best place to do that is on a PlayStation format. Because if you look at the global footprint, PlayStation 3 dominates in Japan where the 360 is really irrelevant. In Europe, the PlayStation 3 is already past the 360. And in the United States you have a dogfight...So back to the third-party community, they’re looking at what’s going on, they’re realigning their development resources to exploit PS3 and I think they understand that if they want to have a global return on their investment, PlayStation 3 is the only place they’re going to get it.

Man's got a point, a point that - as the PS3 begins to slowly, inevitably pull away from the 360 in Europe - will only get sharper!

Sony: ‘Final Fantasy XIII’ Going To XBox 360 Creates ‘Jump Ball’ [MTV]

We sat down with DC Comics executive creator Jim Lee earlier today to talk about the SOE-developed, DC-branded game. Lee told me that he was the one who had approached SOE after catching wind of the project, an effort which had experienced multiple starts and stops.

As a fairly serious EverQuest player — Lee played Paladin, for the record — the artist turned exec knew his stuff. He dropped MMO-isms (LFG, instances, the grind) like it was his natural language, and with a working knowledge of the DC universe, fans of the genre and the brand should feel confident that it's creatively in good hands.

Players will be given the option of creating a good or evil character in DCUO, each with a possible dozen unique characteristics, such as power type (ice, fire, mental, sonic), power source (ring, elemental), and movement type (flying, speed). Given Lee's background as a serious MMO player, I had to ask what he was planning on playing in DC Universe Online when it shipped.

"I haven't decided," he said. "I'll probably have one public character and one private character — a villain."

I asked Jim if he was partial to any particular DC mainstays, if he'd lobbied for the inclusion of anyone in particular.

"I kind of have to be impartial," he said, noting that it was more important to ensure that DC's classic characters and classic designs were integrated accurately into the massive multiplayer world.

Sadly, that doesn't include some of the more off-kilter characters, non-humanoids like Krypto the Super Dog, Bat-Mite or various multi-limbed things from the Green Lantern Corps. They may appear in the game in some form, but if you're looking to create a super monkey that can ally with the Superman family or even Gorilla Grodd, you might have to wait for the expansion.

One surprise that Lee mentioned is that alter-egos will play a role in the game. You may have to spend some time as a lowly photographer, for example, one who walks among the regular citizens, preserving your secret identity. "We have to have it be meaningful," Lee said of superhero alter-egos. This aspect of the gameplay, Lee hinted, may address the dreaded "grind", something he says players won't spend much time worrying about.

As far as the look of the game, for which Lee is largely responsible, we learned that some characters that we've already seen are undergoing visual refinements. "The Joker is one character I wanted to tweak," he said, noting that the Heath Ledger/Christopher Nolan take on the Joker from The Dark Knight may have been part of the catalyst for the change. Part of the reason for the change, however, was that the current model of the Joker simply didn't fit with the rest of the game's non-playable DC heroes and villains.

We'll be going hands-on with the game soon and will report our impressions of DC Universe Online later this week.

Atlus loves to talk about how its upcoming PS2/Wii "party RPG," Dokapon Kingdom, is going to make you and all of your friends hate each other as you fight one another to be the best kingdom-defender and win the hand of Princess Penny.

But man, how can there be hostility when these screens look so damn adorable and hilarious, seriously? Fist-in-teeth, girl-squealing adorable?

You're looking at the official box art for Wii. Release date is October 14th, new screens after the jump!

The playable demo will give gamers a chance to check out what looks to be a pretty stylistic fighter based on the Samuel L. Jackson executive produced anime series. There will also be an Afro Samurai panel on Thursday featuring the creators behind the show. Panelist members will include Samuel "Snakes on a Plane" Jackson, THe RZA, Takashi Okazaki and Leo Chu. The group plan to talk about the development process, dish on some behind-the-scenes anecdotes and explain the inspiration behind the characters, music and story.

NAMCO BANDAI GAMES ANNOUNCES PUBLIC DEBUT OF AFRO SAMURAI® AT COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL: SAN DIEGO

Santa Clara, Calif., (July 23, 2008) – NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., announced today that the battle to become #1 begins at Comic-Con International: San Diego (July 23-27, San Diego Convention Center) with sneak-peak demos of the Afro Samurai® video game. Based on Spike TV’s critically-acclaimed anime series starring and executive- produced by Samuel L. Jackson, Afro Samurai the game blends urban hip hop culture with traditional Japanese aesthetics to create a brutally fresh cinematic, interactive experience. The playable demos (located in booth# 5037) will provide attendees an early glimpse at this high-style action adventure game before its Q1 2009 release for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. The Afro Samurai anime series is produced by Japanese studio GONZO in association/partnership with GDH K.K. and FUNimation Entertainment.

Adding to the Comic-Con excitement, an Afro Samurai panel will be conducted on Thursday, July 24 (4:15pm – 5:15pm; Room 6B) featuring the creators behind the hit series including star and executive producer Samuel L. Jackson (The Spirit), musical artist The RZA, (Kill Bill), original creator Takashi Okazaki, and executive producer Leo Chu (Spike TV). This will be a rare opportunity to hear from the talent behind the Afro Samurai franchise and how it translates to different platforms such as video games and the anime series. Hear first-hand about their experiences in the development process, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and their inspiration for the characters, music and the story. Be the first to see the worldwide premiere of the exclusive Comic-Con trailer, dazzling artwork from the manga, and never-before-seen demos of the pulse-pounding video game.

More about the Afro Samurai video game

In Afro Samurai, follow Afro in his tale of revenge as he searches for his father’s murderer and the holder of the coveted number one headband. The game follows the plot of the original anime series with added material and background for fans and new comers alike.

Blood is beautiful™ in this hip hop infused action adventure as Samuel L. Jackson reprises his role as Afro and Ninja Ninja, his wisecracking sidekick. A striking cross-hatch art style gives Afro Samurai a truly unique look and feel across beautifully animated open environments as he wages war against his adversaries to become number one. Using an innovative gameplay system, enemy A.I. is affected by the beat of the musical score supervised by The RZA of Wu-Tang Clan fame. These dynamic battles ensure stylized encounters throughout the game that affect the overall tone of gameplay. Slice and dismember opponents as Afro acrobatically leaps from one location to the next, interacting with anything and everything in the environment to help him on his journey.

For more information about Afro Samurai, please visit: http://www.namcobandaigames.com or www.afrosamurai.com.

The blog also says it'll offer three hints on Saturday, July 26th, stressing that it is a "new" PlayStation 3 "exclusive." In this case, it's the author, not I, who put those words in quotes — does that make anyone else a little leery?

Right now, all that's up in the post is a reminder that the announcement is unrelated to Square Enix's event over the same August date. Uh, oo-kay? Oh yeah, and they've got three words listed, all of them crossed out with strikethrough:

RPG
FPS
Next gen Twisted metal

Real? Hoax? Guess we'll find out.

Announcing MAJOR new PS3 exclusive on 3 August [PlayStation Lifestyle]

We had started to work on Metal Gear Solid 4 four years ago after finishing Metal Gear Solid 3. At that time, we really didn't know what the PS3 was going to be like. So the first two years was all about experimenting, developing and trail and error. In the last two years, we've known what the PS3 is capable of, the specifications of it and how we can use utlitilize it. We finished the plot and built the game. The PS3 is a monster machine. That is why it's taken so much time to create MGS4... Since we were developing only for the Sony format, of course Sony has given up lots of advantages before the official release of the hardware. So we had many meetings with them to discuss the specifications, and we analyzed this black box quite a lot before it was released, and we experimented with it. And we gave Sony a lot of feedback, like "Can we do this?" or "Can we do that?"

See? The two are totally linked. Hit the link below for the full interview clip, where Kojima says how he thinks the game controller, keyboard and mouse and the Wii-mote-type controller will all be around for a long time. And what does the future hold? Better backgrounds, says Kojima.

Hideo Kojima's future of gaming [BBC Thanks, Mel!]

Consumers responded to “GTA” on the PS3 just as they did on the 360. And it becomes a bit of a jump ball. But it didn’t rise the tide for them. And I think if you fast forward to when “Final Fantasy XIII” comes out I think you’re going to have millions of people who grew up playing “Final Fantasy” on the PlayStation playing it on a PlayStation 3. They spent a lot of money, I’m sure, to get “Final Fantasy” onto the 360 but at the end of the day it’s on our platform as well. Which is why we focus on, “Let’s look at what happens when you have “Metal Gear Solid” on your platform … when the NPD numbers come out … I think you’ll see the value of what a real exclusive title does and how it raised the bar for PS3 versus 360.

So...exclusives don't really matter, yet exclusives like MGS4 bring "value" and "raise the bar" for the PS3? You seem confused, Peter.

Sony: ‘Final Fantasy XIII’ Going To XBox 360 Creates ‘Jump Ball’ [MTV]

Site Feminist Gamer writes that the Darkstar Industries developed title may "reinforce nasty stereotypes about women and the obese," calling the mechanic of excessively feeding the portly, titular princess "fat-bashing."

Friend of the site, Melissa "Shakes" McEwan is also pissed, implying that the game will spawn a "new generation of fat-hating, heteronormative assholes." Clearly, this is one powerful game!

As we tend not to be pre-offended by these types of things — probably due to caveman like ignorance — we were a bit surprised to see such a loud reaction. Just kidding, it's the internet. We were, however, genuinely surprised to be so disappointed by the results of a Google Image Search for "fat princess."

We won't make that mistake again.

As for the Fat Princess "controversy," we have little faith that the game will change its content in any way as to make it inoffensive for all interested parties.

Fat Princess [Feminist Gamers]

Fortunately, on the official PlayStation.blog, we get a look at how MAG will run in real-time, thanks to Rade Stojsavljevic, the game's senior producer. Stojsavljevic notes in the comments that the official still of MAG is "an actual screenshot running on a PS3," one "cropped to center on the action."

Impressive? Hard to tell at 500 x 281 resolution, but we're willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

First look at MAG [PlayStation.Blog - thanks, Stephen!]

The game will be set on a terraformed Mars, 50 years after the events of the original Red Faction game. Now the Earth Defense Force folks are in control and have turned bad. Players will take on the roll of a man caught up in the struggle against the EDF. The game will play out in third-person perspective and the entire world will be destructible.

You can, I was told, bring down an entire three-story building piece by piece. The multi-platform game's open world will also allow you to steal vehicles, swipe weapons even recruit other people to join your band of guerrillas.

While I didn't have a chance to play around with the single player campaign, Volition did give me time, lots and lots of time, to play matches of multiplayer.

Chief among the things that Guerrilla adds to the Red Faction franchise is the fully destructible environment. This time around players get both weapons and special power backpacks as they shoot it out with each other. These packs give players different abilities they can use as they rampage through the stark Martian landscape. Some packs let you thruster hop around the map, other's give you a temporary shield or the ability to charge things and inflict massive amounts of melee damage. That last one, a Rhino Pack, was by far my favorite one to use, allowing me to charge right through a building's wall and take down people camped out inside... with a sledgehammer. That's right, you can run around smashing people with a two-handed sledgehammer. Great fun!

The game will feature five to six modes total including anarchy, team anarchy, capture the flag, bagman and siege. In that last mode, one team tries to defend a structure while the other team tries to dismantle it. In all of the modes teams can repair damaged buildings with a rifle that shoots out what appears to be a cross between flames and plasma.

From what I played through, it looks like the physics are pretty dead on. For instance, you can take out a few stabilizing beams on a very tall building and then watch the whole thing slowly buckle and eventually cave in on itself. Volition told me that the stress system in the game calculates by the second where the stress in a building is and how it should crumble depending on the weight. As buildings topple, debris showers down around you. Nice touch.

The game will support 20 to 25 multiplayer maps, all unique to multiplayer and Volition is toying around with the idea of allowing a third, unnamed, force to be unlockable for multiplayer. Unfortunately, the game won't support co-op multiplayer.

Finally, Volition said that Microsoft came to them back in May or so to talk to them about someone using the Xbox 360's recently unveiled avatar system.

"We are talking with Microsoft about their Mii thing, about maybe allowing you to link up with each other in that and then go into the game."

And we certainly don't do the consumer the disservice of basically saying that the consoles have gone by the wayside because we have a new one. Right now, a prime example? PS2 is nine years into it. Where's the Xbox? Where's the GameCube?

Same thing with the original PlayStation. At some point we looked around and asked what happened to the Saturn? Where's the N64? So if we're doing that, let's compare apples to apples, and for me, because we're on a ten year life cycle, unless we're talking ten years it doesn't really make that much sense to me.

The only way Kaz Hirai tracks time is with decades.

This is Living [GamesIndustry]

As can be seen in the picture above, the Home button on the original and current PSP models is now occupied by a PS button, similar to the one on the PlayStation 3 controller. One could assume that Sony would have made the Home to PS change in an attempt to prevent confusion with its Home service. The purported microphone is to the right of the volume buttons.

More pics after the jump.

Yes, that's a thinner metallic ring on the UMD door. Why that would possibly change, we have little idea. Below is what is said to be the back half of the PSP 3000's plastic casing.

Keep in mind these photos are not confirmed to be the real deal and that they should be considered rumor for now. We'll be following up with Sony to learn more about its PSP plans and get comment on the authenticity of the above photos.

Thanks to creamsuger and ZX for forwarding the pics.

Bioshock PS3 will be getting a robust collection of trophies, in three flavors.

Tynan Wales, designer for BioShock PS3, took the time to walk through some of the rewards you can grab up while playing through this amazing game on the Playstation 3. Reading through her description it sounds like the rewards are broken down into bronze trophies, for the more mundane stuff, silver and gold trophies. There's also a single Platinum Trophy that can be earned only by gathering up all of the other trophies in the game.

Wales even laid out a couple of example trophies.

Silver Trophy

For the true explorer, we present one of the more difficult Trophies to get in all of Rapture. The “Historian” Trophy is awarded for finding every single audio diary. This particular Trophy is Silver because we understand the rigor required for this endeavor. If you’re a true adventurer and seek to know the full story of the fall of Rapture, look under every desk and open every door. There are many to find.
As you may expect, several Trophies must remain secret. Giving this information away has the same effect as turning to the last page in a great book. We imagine you hate this as much as we do. The other silver Trophy must remain in our vault until you discover it for yourselves.

Gold Trophy

When considering how to use these Trophies to reward players, we chose to give a respectful nod to those few who desire a challenge. We believe that BioShock PS3 has a lot to offer in a single play through, but we wanted to emphasize and reward a player’s second or third descent into Rapture. This led us to create new Trophies that encourage more advanced tactics and enemies that provide a greater challenge.
As a result of this thinking the first Trophy bears the name, “Brass Balls”. If you desire to be among the few who have this prestigious award on their mantle, you must win BioShock on Hard difficulty with the Vita-Chambers turned off. A feat so daring that anyone even glimpsing this formidable Trophy in your glass case will be shaking with terror and respect.

BioShock PS3 Trophies Confirmed, Detailed [Playstation Blog]

It's not like Silent Hill has ever had an exemplary control set up. Homecoming at least gets some credit for making the experience feel a bit more intuitive, once one breaks old Silent Hill habits and allows for easier access to your inventory. After some grumbling — and a confused search for a quick turn button — it felt like a change for the best.

Visually, the game has gotten some flak for not feeling like much of a graphical leap. After the gorgeous Silent Hill 3 wowed PlayStation 2 owners with its lifelike characters and detailed textures, Silent Hill: Homecoming was (rightly) slammed for feeling like a step back.

It's kind of true. Our hero can look blurry, blocky and low-res under the right circumstances. The wee monitors at the Konami meeting room weren't doing the game any favors, but there are portions of the game's visual make up that look rather attractive. It won't knock your socks off, but it gets the job done.

Silent Hill: Homecoming's environments are definitely more interactive. You'll bump into chairs, knock over vases and feel like the world — while still barren and empty — is more live in.

The other big change to the series is its larger focus on action. During one brief set piece, we had to take on a demonic denizen, some spider-like humanoid thing, while riding an elevator. Pop in the head once with a bullet and it would scurry away. The experience felt familiar, but also added a bit of tension to the game. The very limited ammo made it felt more "survival horror" than psychological horror, as some refer to the series.

Hero Shepherd's expertise with swinging a pipe didn't do much to add to the gameplay — we didn't encounter much in the way of enemies — but the combo mechanic still feels a little out of place. Still, fewer deaths from average controls will be welcome in the final product, we assume.

We also solved a quick, if frustrating puzzle, one that involved rewiring an electrical box that allowed to ride said elevator. To call it uninspired would be... well, accurate.

Walking away from our brief time with Silent Hill: Homecoming, we weren't horribly impressed, but we certainly weren't willing to write it off yet. This kind of game does not demo well in E3-sized bites. It might not be such a visual treat for the eyes that some were expecting and we have our reservations about the direction, but it appears there's some of the game's spirit within.

Whether that's going to make it worthy enough of a successor or not remains to be seen.

A full report and apology for the problems surrounding the release of Metal Gear Online "Gene Expansion" expansion pack [Metal Gear Online]

Sony sets 150m sales target for PS3 [FT]

It’s not hard to imagine that Sony knew Microsoft would choose E3 to make its curtain-call announcement of Final Fantasy XIII for the 360. It’s likewise reasonable to believe they searched their catalog of works under development for the best candidate to generate any buzz. What we got was a mixed bag — the trailer of an incredibly expansive shooter, but it didn’t even have a title. It was just MAG: Massive Action Game. It sounded tempting, but very incomplete.

In fact it was shown to a focus group less than a month before E3. One among that group, after seeing the MAG E3 debut, reached out to me, under a promise of anonymity, to describe what was shown and asked of the group. Put simply, MAG — whatever title it comes out under — will be a mercenary combat MMO. We're told that it will more than likely carry SOCOM branding, as Zipper Interactive is behind it. And if so, it could be called SOCOM: Shadow War or SOCOM: Zero. Though Sony did stress it was a brand new IP at the press conference.

For purposes of identity protection, my source, who has experience in other video game focus groups, will be called Orange. Being identified could cost Orange, and others, future work.

“They gave us six options for taglines at the end,” said Orange, who could only remember four: MAG: Shadow War; MAG: Zero; MAG: Global Assault and MAG: Final Hour. Orange said the group liked Shadow War and Zero. Orange reasoned that Zipper Interactive's involvement means all signs would point to a repurposing of SOCOM IP for this one, rather than creating a new title outright. Indeed, when providing me visual examples of certain factions that he observed, Orange used images from SOCOM 3.

“We were all deliberating what sort of game it was similar to, and for the most part, SOCOM and Planetside (another Sony title) were the only names that came out, based on what we have heard and seen,” Orange said. The group members saw, or was described, gameplay but could not perform it themselves, which indicated it was in a far less complete stage than other games for which Orange had been in a focus group. All the group saw was a “touched up” version of the trailer that ran at E3, Orange said. Then they were asked questions, mostly regarding the game’s story and the scope of its battles.

SOCOM and Planetside were the closest cousins, Orange said, because the game involves “troop like gameplay with a 3rd person view. The game is set following catstrophic events in the near future — “2015 to 2020, around there,” said Orange — in which mercenaries, aligned with certain factions, are engaged in relentless secret wars for control of resources.

Orange saw three factions — Americans, based in Alaska (“I can assume a snow level,” Orange joked) Europeans and a Middle East faction. Orange provided two .jpgs from SOCOM 3 that were close analogues to the MAG Europe and Middle East factions. If Sony chooses to go forward like this, the obvious Middle East motif could cause some PR problems (although, “It was a black American soldier they showed us, if that makes up for it.”) To Anglo players, that kind of garb clearly says “terrorist,” and not mercenaries, especially considering the regular fatigues and high-tech suits worn by Americans and Europeans, respectively.

Orange said the presenters focused on two topics: Whether the story justifying the state of current events in the game was believable enough for gamers, and whether the scale of combat was appealing. MAG is promising multiplayer battles of up to 256 participants, broken down into 8-member units aligned to one of two sides. There will be no third-party intercessions on any battles, Orange said.

“For MAG they were all about scale,” Orange said. “That was the word they were going for. Massive (as in the scale of the level). With 256 players, they don’t want it to be a clusterfuck of deathmatch. They want vast levels where troops can approach from all angles.”

At that scale, you can be an independent operator assigned to one unit, knowing none of the others on your side, or you can gather up to seven of your friends and jump in as a squad, with other participants added in if your unit totals less than eight. Obviously, it’s not obligating you to find 127 of your closest friends if you want to see the largest scale of combat MAG will offer.

That said, mission objectives for these battles will definitely be in the hands of a few human players. We’ve reported on the concept of ranks in MAG, where players accumulate experience and ascend a shot-calling ladder within the game, such that they are either grunts, lieutenants, or generals in charge of the whole operation. You’ll ascend in rank according to a points accrual system that Orange was able to describe loosely.

“When they were describing it, it kept reminding me of Alterac Valley from World of Warcraft, if you are familiar,” Orange said. “What happens is: You get points for contributing with your troop/overall team. If you happen to win or do better than the rest of your team, you get more points. So the more you play, or the more points you get, the higher your rank goes.”

Some speculated/wished that at high command levels, the game moved back into some sort of top-down/RTS interface. That sort of happens. “Everyone is in the field,” Orange said, “but the person in charge is capable of looking at the map and commanding the overall group or individual troops. He is also capable of things like airstrikes and parachute drops. He could either control and babysit from far back, or jump right into the action [with a weapon himself.]”

Orange didn’t like the fact another human player could set all the mission parameters. “Why would I want someone telling me how to play the game?” Orange said. “Perhaps I know more about the certain terrain than they do, should they have the ability to penalize me if I don’t listen? Granted, penalizing and kicking were not mentioned but they’re always a possiblity.

While Orange did not see individual character classes or their abilities demonstrated, Orange came away with the understanding that all units could be comprised of a single class if they desired. Also, once a character achieved a certain point ranking, certain options became customizable, such as appearance and equipment/weaponry upgrades.

In all, Orange described an appealing game, and it’s a logical progression from MMOs set in fantasy contexts. After all, there are, at least for narrative purposes, kingdoms and heads of state in those worlds too, and adventurers set off on individual quests and find combat there. Given a good enough story to set it up, what should preclude that kind of experience in the modern world?

Don't forget that since this is all coming out of a focus test it could be very pie-in-the-sky stuff, though certainly ideas that are tickling Sony's collective grey matter.

PSP Out There, Go!Explore [Pocketgamer.co.uk]

• Sliders are borked. The CPU sliders do nothing. Human sliders affect both CPU and human. Level playing field!
• Online dynasty mode is borked. It sometimes simulates games that have been played by humans.
• Super-sim is borked: Using it to fast-forward through a blowout can add many more plays than would actually happen in the football game, and produce extremely lopsided final scores.
• Kick returns are borked.
• The new player speed model is causing huge problems with pursuit angles by CPU-controlled players.

I have the game but I have not played it intensively enough to discover these issues. But if these issues are on the level and, worse, if some gameplay mechanics are not patchable, then it's an almost unforgivable shame. Especially regarding sliders — how can something like that get through QA? How can the super-sim glitch go unnoticed?

And that's to say nothing of the rosters fiasco, for which EA says a patch is coming soon. The roster editing community is equal parts anxious and furious. Two for-profit sellers have put out files that they say are workable, but there is a good chance EA's patch could invalidate any file that predates it, screwing both the sellers and anyone who bought it.

While not Madden, I've always felt NCAA Football was in many ways a better game, because of the deeper catalog of teams and the richer offseason activity of recruiting. But on the next-gen titles it's been a wipeout, starting with versions that had fewer features than the Xbox and PS2 versions, and today still have nowhere near the level of cinematic detail that made it such an immersive game. Following that with a game that has this many bugs is, for devotees of the series, frustrating to no end.

NCAA 09 Plagued with Bugs [AOL Fanhouse]

The fact the text is available only as a screen capture (full version after the jump) leads me to be skeptical someone actually feels this way. But, if you're a Microsoft partisan and want to gloat, here you go. And if you are four-square for Sony and want to rage, here is a comrade-in-arms. And if you invest your emotions and identity in pro bono advocacy for multinational corporations with billions in market capitalization and brigades of PR professionals, you need some perspective. Like this guy.

Video Games are Fun to Play. I Enjoy Them [The Internet is Terrible]

Konami's solution to some of these issues was to restrict random IP ranges from accessing the shops, in an effort to lighten the load.

The company has also cancelled all Metal Gear Online "Survival" battles planned for this weekend, promising to have a new hamster wheel installed to power the servers as soon as is technically possible.

Metal Gear Online Support [Konami - thanks, Shakir!]

Nine Inch Nails 3-pack - $5.49 or 440 Microsoft Points
“Burn”
“Capital G”
“Last”

Shinedown - $1.99 or 160 Microsoft Points each
“Devour”
“Junkies For Fame”

Who's getting what?

Specifically, he talked about the promise that Sony's regions would be a bit more antonymous under Hirai.

"There is no question that Kutaragi-san ruled with an iron fist, but it was his vision," Tretton said. "In terms of how we went to market in region, that was anonymous."

But Tretton said that Hirai has a better understanding of the company's day-to-day operations and the challenges they face both in Japan and abroad.

"He's been in the regions. He's been in the trenches. He's been outside the towers in Tokyo," Tretton said. "I think there is a better understanding."

Tretton also touched on how SCEA and other regions had to struggle a bit with the perception of PS3 as a super computer created by Kutaragi and the reality that the console had to be a gaming platform first to sell.

"Kutaragi-san built the PS3 as a super computer for the home," he said. "We thought there was a risk of losing the game identity of the Playstaiton 3, so we tried to distance ourselves from that and we understand that credibility would be built with games."

See our other Tretton stories from E3:
Tretton Says No 360 Final Fantasy XIII Coming to Japan
Tretton Explains the Long Road to Home
Tretton: Sony Considering PSP with Harddrive

[Thanks Runandgun]

The game, due out next year on the Playstation 3, starts off with an explosion tearing through Empire City, killing everyone in a six square block, everyone but Cole. As he recovers from the blast the city starts to fall apart with people rioting, then a plague strike and finally all of Empire City is quarantined from the mainland. A television broadcast links Cole to the scene of the bomb blast and he becomes a wanted man, but he also recovers to find himself with super electrical abilities.

inFamous has players battling through the now crime-infested city working to solve the mystery behind the blast while also learning Cole's new super powers.

Sucker Punch's Brian Flemming told us that before the blast Cole was an urban explorer, a guy who liked to climb around and explore the city. So there's a taste of parkour.

"This is a modern super hero story," Flemming said. "It's different from traditional super hero games. We wanted to create a character from the ground up.

"Initially you go through this psychological side, 'Am I going crazy? Can I really control electricity?'"

While all of Cole's powers are meant to be based on the control of electricity, the developers got pretty creative with them. You can lock someone to the ground with bands of electricity around their ankles and wrists. You can heal people. You can kill people.

A huge element of inFamous is Cole making moral decisions about whether he wants to be famous as a super hero or infamous as a super villain. They declined to tell us how those decision would play out in the story, but one would assume it would change things. The did tell us that your powers grow as you make those moral choices.

The team pushed heavily on making the game feel more organic, specifically in the way people react to you and your choices. In other words, they want you to feel the love or hate of those trapped in the city with you.

The Sucker Punch folks told us that some of their inspirations for the game came from some real world events that happened in Seattle in the past years. One was the six days the city was without power and how that changed the way people had to live their lives for the week. The other was one of the developer's experiences participating in the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle that ended in pepper spray and riots.

"In the absence of law," Flemming said he discovered, "there is a new morality."

PlayTV dated, will record TV while gaming [Eurogamer]

Santa Clara, Calif – Leading video games publisher and developer NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., today announced Eternal Sonata™ for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. An award-winning role-playing game inspired by the life of legendary composer Frederic Chopin, Eternal Sonata is set to arrive on the PLAYSTATION 3 system this fall with new quests, new playable characters, new music and more.

A unique role-playing experience, Eternal Sonata lets gamers travel with 19th century composer Frederic Chopin as he explores a magical dream world during his final hours among the living. Utilizing a breathtaking cel-shaded graphics engine that gives form to the ethereal beauty of Chopin’s music, the game transports players to a vivid world inhabited by brave heroes, fearsome monsters and stunning environments. The game’s fast-paced battle system features an innovative“light and dark” mechanic which allows players to execute different special attacks depending on whether they stand in light or shadow, and transforms enemies into new and fearsome forms. Combining turn-based and real-time elements, this system allows for creative strategy and engaging action in each encounter, breaking new ground in the role-playing genre.

Critically acclaimed upon its original 2007 release, Eternal Sonata was selected as“Best Role-Playing Game” by GameTrailers.com and received“Best Artistic Design honors from IGN.com at E3 2007. The game was also chosen as a runner-up in the role-playing game category at the Spike TV 2007 Video Game Awards.

Eternal Sonata will launch for the PLAYSTATION 3 this fall and is currently available in stores for the Xbox 360. For more information, please visit eternalsonata.namcobandaigames.com.

WipEout HD delayed due to technical issue [Eurogamer]