Co-hosts Brian Crecente and I take your calls every Wednesday at 11am Mountain Time, 1pm Eastern. If you missed us this time, call in next week!

Kotaku Talk Radio: GTA At A Crossroads [Blog Talk Radio]
Kotaku Talk Radio: GTA At A Crossroads [iTunes]

Both games are available as of, well, right now, and both will sell for $30. If you haven't managed to pick up a copy of Uncharted yet, and like the looks of Uncharted 2, this news is of particular relevance.

The patch fixes a problem with Game Launching, which caused crashes when you opened the list of game sessions available and then tried to launch one. Most of the clothes are generic items — both free and for-purchase — but there are two complete Watchmen-themed outfits and some black-and-white shirts to celebrate the film's release next week. Sounds like not all of them are up yet, so keep checking back.

Beyond that, we have some game-themed content to look forward to:

Street Fighter IV
The unlockable items are already available in Home and are rewarded for winning online matches in the game.
Purchasable outfits will be available within a few weeks.

Home Square
A slightly updated Home Square will arrive in early March, possibly as early as the 5th.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Space
This is currently being worked on and we hope to release this for you within a few weeks

SOCOM: CONFRONTATION Space
This Space is also nearly ready but a specific date for its release is not yet available, but we are expecting it within a few weeks.

Siren: Blood Curse & Resident Evil 5, Warhawk
Content for all of these have arrived here and are being prepared for SCEE's audience now. We will bring you more information on these as it becomes available.

Game Launching
Many titles are preparing support for Game Launching but this often requires a patch to their title. It is not our intention to be announcing new releases and patches to other titles here in the Home community but hope to bring you news in the coming weeks.

Music within Home
Playing your own music to others within Home is an extremely complex licensing issue that will take time to solve, if it is at all possible.
In the meantime we are investigating various ways of allowing you to play your own music to yourself. We are also talking to other 3rd parties about making their music available to you in various ways.

Having seen an early version of the Uncharted space in Home's beta, I think I'm looking forward to it the most. The Watchmen clothes might also be cool, but I'm still out of sorts over the $20 price tag confirmation for End is Nigh PSN and Xbox Live. (The remedy? This webcomic.)

News update - 26th Feb [PlayStation Forums via CVG]

Coming five months after the American release, SOCOM Confrontation will be out in Australia on March 18, and in Europe on March 13. It should be an all-around improved experience from the US launch, too, with a series of much-needed patches that have been released for the game in the intervening months helping fix most of the game's more notorious online glitches.

CONFIRMED SOCOM RELEASE DATE [PlayStation, thanks Brett!]

Full statement after the jump:

We will be performing server maintenance and rolling out a new patch on September 9th at 5am PDT, 1200 GMT. The SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation game servers will be unavailable during the maintenance. The server maintenance is not expected to last longer than 1 1/2 hours.

SOCOM: Confrontation Public Beta 1.10 Patch

* Adds support for European EULAs.
* Adds support for dedicated servers located in Europe and Australia.
* Addresses a number of stability and late joining issues.
* Reduce the volume of the proximity chat by 50%.

The server maintenance and patch are not meant to address all issues. We will have more updates to both the server and client in the future.

Regards,
SOCOM Confrontation Online Team

SOCOM: Confrontation Public Beta 1.10 Patch and Server update [Official Site via PS3 Fanboy]

Official Bluetooth Headset for the PLAYSTATION 3 [PlayStation.Blog]

Gamers can land entry to the public beta by preodering a copy of the game at GameStop, which will also give them two keys to the beta to share. They can also get in by downloading the June issue of Playstation Network video show QORE. GameStop beta keys go live on September 1, while the Qore when start on September 8.

Unfortunately, this is only for North American gamers. Other regions will have to wait to see what their local Sony tells them.

Public Beta Info No Really! [SOCOM]

It seems like every online shooter coming out nowadays is held to a much higher standard than before when it comes to features and modes. Everyone is trying to outdo each other by having larger multiplayer maps, better cover systems, or smarter AI bots. So it was refreshing to see that SOCOM: Confrontation went the simple route and included none of these.

SOCOM is strictly multiplayer-only (read: no bots) and consists of seven maps. Five are for 32 players and the other two are for only 16. The level I was shown was for 32 players and we played against the QA testers back in Foster City. The game was a little laggy, but nothing that broke the gamplay.

I was surprised when I was told there’s no cover system of any kind. Moving the analog stick slightly forward will allow you to crouch-run, like in Metal Gear Solid 4. Also, for you Sixaxis fans out there, tilting the controller left and right when immobile will allow for peaking around corners. It worked pretty well, but I didn’t think it was all that useful since the gunfire can get hectic at times.

Graphically, the game looks phenomenal. While certain areas look better than others, the overall scope of the map I saw was impressive. In terms of destructibility, there isn’t a lot to blow up. You can blow up cars and barrels, but don’t expect to blow away pieces of buildings or terrain.

While I wasn’t given specific details on trophies, and since there’s no single player campaign, it appears they’ll be tied to your online stats. I assume that means there will be trophies for number of kills, accuracy, victories etc…

There’s also a great deal of customization for your character. You can select from a variety of armor pieces and weapons to bring into a fight, each affecting your overall movement speed and accuracy. There’s also an option to make your own badge if you’re hardcore enough to start making clans.

For a $40 PSN game, this is looking like a title online shooter fans will have a hard to passing up.

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.

Character growth will be accomplished through an advancement tree, which allows players to fine tune their players throughout massive campaigns. "MAG will deliver an intense and long lasting shooter experience," said Beaudoin, who also described the game as "a workout even for the PS3 architecture."

More on this title as it develops. No release date was specified. Gallery below.

Check out the jump for details on some of the screens taking from the Crossroads and Urban Wasteland maps. I can't wait till this game hits, looks like it's going to be a total blast.

On the Crossroads map:

Three on one? All’s fair in love and war.

I’m a huge fan of architecture and the way cities look. I took a trip to New York City a couple weeks ago and came home with more pictures of random buildings and streets than I did of the actual thing I went there to see.

So, there’s a lot for me to like in this one screen. The way that the tile gives way to basic dirt, the street lamps, and the brick work are all pushing my buttons over here. It’s pretty cool, isn’t it?

Do you see that lion in the background, just to the left of center?

If you wanted to, you could travel all the way over there. Same thing with the tall building in the center, and the rooftops to the left, front, and center.

Two more bits. First, if you have a proper weapon, you can snipe from this position and pick people off from across the map. Second, do you see the birds flying in the air? You can shoot them. We don’t encourage that sort of thing, and you’re really better off shooting at the enemy, but hey... you can shoot them.

This is an image from the same angle as the post from the other day, but a bit lower to the ground and more detailed. You can see some things that were blocked or covered before. The bicycle, the garbage bags (there are two), and the fuel can, for example. There’s even a transformer on the electrical tower.

For those of you who don’t speak French, “Bain pour hommes" translates to, “Men’s Bath.”

On the Urban Wasteland map:

This is a shot from Urban Wasteland. We can get a good look at the wrecked building, and can probably figure out some decent working strategies for this specific point. There are pretty clearly four levels at work here— the beginning of the stairs (off-screen), the first landing, the second landing (off-screen to the left and top), and then the walkway in the top right.

It seems like it’d be pretty easy to pick people off from any level of the staircase, which means that you’ve got to stay on your toes when ascending or descending. The real question is what’s in the rooms that the staircase comes from and goes to?

The team just announced the release of a new downloadable map pack for SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Combined Assault. This third downloadable map pack includes SOCOM and SOCOM II maps Crossroads, Fishhook, Frostfire and Guidance.

Crossroads is a SOCOM II urban map based in North Africa. Crossroads consistently ranks as the most popular classic SOCOM map and a next generation version of Crossroads will be featured in SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation. It is playable in a day or night setting with up to 16 players in Suppression, Demolition and Control gametypes.

Fishhook is a SOCOM II map based on a seaside North African village. It is playable with up to 16 players in a day or night setting in Suppression, Extraction, Control and Breach gametypes.

Frostfire is a SOCOM map which features an oil drilling platform off of the coast of Alaska. It is playable in a day or night setting with up to 16 players in Suppression, Control and Demolition gametypes.

Guidance is a SOCOM II map which features an ex-soviet military base in Russia. It is playable in a day or night setting with up to 16 players in Suppression, Demolition and Control gametypes.

The best part, the new map pack is totally free. Sounds like just the thing to hold me over until SOCOM Confrontations hits in September.

NEW SOCOM 3 AND SOCOM CA MAP PACK RELEASED... FOR FREE! [SOCOM, thanks txshurricane]

[www.ps3fanboy.com] New First-Party Bluetooth headset unveiled, to be included in SOCOM: Confrontation bundle?

Breaking the Silence - New SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation Screens! [PlayStation.Blog]

I told him I was surprised that such a strong franchise would make its PlayStation 3 debut in a form that didn't include a single-player campaign. Dille said Confrontation was a chance for the developers to focus on a specific type of play for a specific type of player and that it wouldn't be the only SOCOM game coming to the PS3.

"In the case of SOCOM: Confrontation, the SOCOM franchise has been around for awhile and (the developers) were focused on a style of play that hasn't been tapped yet," Dille said. "I don't think people should conclude that it will be the be all and end all of the SOCOM franchise."

The idea that SOCOM 4 or something like it will be coming to the PlayStation 3 is sort of a no-brainer, but it does the heart good to hear that coming straight from SCEA's mouth.

Instead, you'll find Sony Online Entertainment's hi-def port of Midway's Rampage World Tour (five bucks), and a trailer for the arcade classic Joust. That's it.

Hey, Sony, we'd love to see some of this stuff show up on the Store. Really. Can you make that happen? Michael McWhertor

The second season of SOCOM Hell Week, in which a bunch of SOCOM gamers get abused by real Navy Seals, is well underway. I've upped the first two vids here.

My favorite part? When the drill sergeant is forced to read off the idiotic gamer tags of his "recruits." Elvis, douce, President Pain. Yeah, you know that guy wanted to slap their faces off. Brian Crecente

Including Sony's recent price drop of the PSP Core Pack, a number of new initiatives, including the "Dude, Get Your Own" campaign, will attempt to reach young teens. That means more UMD movies aimed at kids as well as videogame content that focuses more on the younger market. That doesn't mean we won't get titles like God of War or SOCOM, of course, but don't be surprised if software like Konami's Brooktown High find a wider audience.

More details from Koller at Kohler's blog, including an interesting hint at how God of War PSP will play. Michael McWhertor

For PSP, a New Focus On Teen Market [Game|Life]

As we reported yesterday, Sony has officially dropped the price of the Playstation Pportable Core Pack today.

The PSP will now sell for $169.99. And in a very smart move, SCEA also dropped the price of two of the better PSP games, adding both Daxter and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror to the PSP Greatest Hits collection, making them both about $20 each. That, is three good reasons to buy a PSP.

"We have always been passionate about making great entertainment accessible to everyone, and the new price for PSP, as well as the continued growth of the 'Greatest Hits' library, reflect our ongoing commitment to supporting and expanding the PSP community," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America. "We are pleased that we are able to engineer savings for the consumer at this stage of PSP's lifecycle, allowing more individuals to experience PSP for the first time. In particular, we have recently seen a steady rise in the number of teens adopting PSP as their primary handheld entertainment system, and we expect the new price will accelerate that trend."

The press release goes on to say that gamers should expect new titles from the God of War, Ratchet & Clank, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs and Syphon Filter franchises.

"Ready At Dawn couldn't be more pleased with our success bringing Daxter to the PSP platform last year, and now we have another opportunity to blow away expectations of what a developer can accomplish on a portable when Kratos hits the 'small screen' in God of War," said Didier Malenfant, co-founder and president, Ready At Dawn Studios. "PSP is an ideal platform for us to work on because we have a high level of freedom to be creative, and we can deliver gameplay experiences that rival ones you'd get from a computer entertainment system."

The press release goes on to point out that SWAT, Monster Hunter Freedom 2, Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles and Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology are all headed to the PSP this year.

It all sounds good... until they hit my sore subject: Media.

"SCEA also continues to evaluate expanding PSP's entertainment options as more and more PSP owners use their system for watching movies, playing music, and viewing photos. SCEA remains committed to driving the development and distribution of entertainment content for PSP.

OMG, how can they still be evaluating a major function of their handheld more than two years after it launched? How! HOW! I actually sort of went off on the PSP development guy that was at the Sony Blogger Congress at GDC this year when he said something like this.

I can't remember exactly what I said, but it was something like: You guys keep saying the same thing, when the hell is it going to actually happen?

No answer, really.

The other big question is when is the PSP 2.0 coming out. Come on Sony, there's nothing wrong with releasing improved models shortly after you release the original. Just look at Nintendo, they screwed all of those DS fat owners over and no one seemed to care. Brian Crecente