Home Beta v.1.01 impressess

As one of the lucky gamers to receive the code to test out PlayStation Home Beta, I really had a wonderful time! Home is a 3D social space for the PS3-similar to SecondLife for the PC. The graphics is top-notch, everything is perfect! Although there were a few glitches, like some squatting gamers were floating mid-air! everything else was fine! 

I was able to check out the 'Central Plaza'-the central hub of Home, my own apartment(it was rather empty) and the Home Theater-a theater where game trailers and stuff are showcased. When I visited the Home Theater-there was a game trailer of SOCOM:Confrontation being played, and since I have a really dead slow connection, it took like 20 mins to load the video! 

At first; you start off in your apartment(known as 'HomeSpace')...customising your character. Afterwards you can explore your HomeSpace...but there isn't much in it at first, so you would rather be wise to head out elsewhere. I decided to immediately visit the Central Plaza, and so I had to download a 30MB odd file which was the Central Plaza scene. Then I just walked right through the door...and I am at Central Plaza! 

Overall the expereince was really fun, and I had a really great time! I was also able to interact with some gamers, listen to some songs, boo some gamers, and dance! It was awesome!

Ubisoft is working on a sequel-syas Ubisoft

Assassin's Creed was a wonderful game-technically and gameplay-wise. So, it wouldn't much of a surprise to hear that Ubisoft is working on a sequel. The game which had an abrupt ending left many gamers dissatisfied, and Ubisoft isn't going to make any mistakes with the sequel. Who knows, the game may be even more technically brilliant than the original! It may be released between the timeframe of April 2009 to April 2010. Only time will tell.

Killzone wont feature pre-game installations

Run out of hard drive space on your PS3? Like Killzone2 but scared that the game will feature gigantic pre-installation files that will consume your PS3's remaining hard drive space altogether? Then rest assured my friend, for at PlayStation Official Forums, Seb Downie, Guerilla's testing manager reported that the game will NOT feature installation-optional or otherwise! So, Rest.In.Peace until then!

Google adds colour to Gmail...

Gmail users rejoice, as Google in a recent move to popularise Gmail, has added a new 'Themes' feature. The feature enables all users to select a theme from a choice of many, which will then be applied to your account! There are some pretty cool themes like 'Bubblegum', 'Cold shower', 'Pebbles', 'candy','Desk','Ninja' and many more! There's also a picture attached.  Now checking emails has become more fun and colourful!

PS3 turned two!

Yesterday, on the 17 of November 2006, Sony's stronghold PS3 turned two years old! Sony did celebrate, by posting a PlayStation.Blog! And so did I! Although I got my PS3 on the 14 of July 2007, it's a feat that Sony has achieved for which all PS3 users ought to celebrate! The mean, shiny PS3-powered by a Cell Processor has a large install base, an install base which helped Sony make it to the Guinness World Records-for Folding@Home's achievement! The PS3 is sure going strong!

THREE CHEERS FOR SONY AND THE PS3! HIP-HIP-HURRAY! HIP-HIP-HURRAY! HIP-HIP-HURRAY!

The PlayStation Experience...

The experience at PlayStation Experience was really wonderful! It was houseful! The event started at around 11:45AM and went on till around 7:30PM. There were a lot of games on display including Killzone2! Among others were FIFA09, Mirror's Edge, Resistance2, MotorStorm Pacific Rift and many more including Buzz! and SingStar. 

I got a hands-on experience with Killzone2 and I must say I was really satisfied! The textures were just amazingly detailed, and the physics was very well indeed! Although there was a glitch with the shadows, the player moved very realistically and fluidly! The lighting and the environment was just perfect! 

Although I couldn't try out Resistance2 due to the swarming crowd waiting to play the game, just by watching it, it sure looks like a next-gen FPS! Especially, since the first instalment sold pretty well, I believe this one will be welcomed by all PS3 gamers. Insomniac has yet again come out with a attractive for the PS3 gamers! 

LittleBigPlanet took the spotlight, with people in numbers more than you could imagine waiting to play the game! Anyways, I could play the game for nearly 2 hours! Although the graphics isn't state of the art, the physics and the soothing background music was the most enriching element in the game! I played offline multiplayer with my Brother, and we had loads of fun! Although my Brother isn't a regular gamer at all, he took little less than 10 minutes to learn the controls! The 'Pop-It' element was good as expected! Being able to flip, scale and rotate stickers we had lots of fun decorating the level  by oursleves!

I also got to try out Mirror's Edge-the game which took the gaming industry by storm! I was satisfied with the graphics particularly, as there were jagged edges everywhere-and that too the display was a Sony 46-inch Full HD TV! Yet, Faith's hand was amazingly detailed, with even the finger-nails looking realistic! Due to  the controls being a bit clumsy, I couldn't even do a proper jump! Alwasy jumping off the towers only to fall with a thud on the road way below, and re-spawning again, I personally didn't like the game-although the 2-D flash version was ridiculously good!

MotorStom Pacific Rift was nothing like what the original MotorStorm was! The gameplay was a little choppy, and the environment was that richly detailed or textured unlike Uncharted:Drake's Fortune.

Sony India announced that  LittleBigPlanet would be launching soon in India, and so will a 80GB version of the PS3 which is selling like hot-cakes in the U.S.!

There was also a PSP section where gamers pit themselves against others in multiplayer modes in a variety of games. LocoRoco2 is to be launched soon , said Sony.

In the PS2 section, there was Cricket, and WWE fo course! Cricket was confusing, but WWE was good!

I was too sad to leave the stadium, expecially after being mesmerized by LittleBigPlanet...

PlayStation Expo to be held by Sony India during November

If you're living in the West, then you really are lucky-as gamers in the West can attend the never-ending mid-night launches of games and other Expos. But rarely has an Expo been held in India. Sony looked after that by holding India's first 'PlayStation Experience' last year. Although the Expo at Delhi and Mumbai are long gone, Bangalore still remains.

And this year is no exception! Sony India will be holding an Expo known as 'PlayStation Experience' in all the major cities of India-Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi. On the 15&16 of November, PlayStaton Experience wil be held in Bangalore at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium. Be sure to check it out, there will surely be loads to see!

AMD to refresh its Opteron processor line with new 'Shanghai'

AMD-rival to leading Intel-will release the long-awaited, next-gen processor version of Opteron known as 'Shanghai'. This might send AMD into taking the lead over rival Intel.

Shanghai-using the technogically advanced 45nm fabrication- will put AMD on par with Intel which has been manufacturing 45nm fabricated processor for nearly a year.

The first Shanghai models will be available for x86 sockets. The chips officially named as Opteron 8000 and 2000 series will be clocked at around 2.3GHz to 2.7GHz...consuming 75 watts of power. AMD also plans to release a low-power-consuming processor which consumes only 55 watts and also a powerful, faster chip consuming 105 watts of power by the first quarter of the coming year. Also, a code-named 'Deneb'-for desktops- will be released before the end of this year. 

Full-length TV shows to be broadcasted on YouTube

YouTube- the world's largest video sharing website in the world- stated that it would show full -length television shows and films from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's archive in a bid to boost advertising and increase revenue. YouTube, owned by Search giant-Google- will make the announcement on Monday.

MGM will set everything rolling by broadcasting its decade-old extravaganzas like:

• American Gladiators
• Bulletproof Monk
• Legally Blonde
  
• The Magnificent Seven

Until now, everybody has known YouTube as a video-sharing website among others like Metacafe which allows users to upload home videos and enjoy and online audience...but that can change now-YouTube is taking a giant step towards becoming the world's most popular video-sharing website...and in the process eradicating all the others. In a few years time, I don't think there will be anyone who wouldn't heard of the word 'YouTube' or even 'YouTube channel'. 

Two new demos! One of them includes MGS4!

Yup, you heard that right! Hideo Kojima's latest MetalGearSolid 4 or simply MGS4 is up at PSN in a new form-a demo! All of those who couldn't ge their hands on one of the best games of the millenium(or should I say, the best game of this millenia!) can simply head over to PSN and download the demo version! Once again the PlayStation Network is proving it's worth!

Fallout 3 tops UK charts!

Good news eh? Well, not if you're a PS3 fanboy! Surprisingly, Fallout 3 has sold more on the box(360) than on the PS3! The 360 accounts for 55% of the sales while the PS3 accounts for only a meagre 28%! 

I guess this was inevitable since many top reviewers like IGN have stated that the PS3 version has 'jagged edges' and 'washed out lighting'. So, obviously people would have a bought the game for the 360 which costs around half the price of the PS3 but has better graphics! 

Well, it seems Bethesda hasn't yet figured out the Cell processor's architecture and it's true potential!

Spark Unlimited's Legendary does not appeal

Legendary from Spark Unlimited, has, this time released in the UK first and yet to release in the U.S. Now, let's get to the point; it has NOT managed to create hype and stir up gamers... and in fact, has received an average score of 50 from Metacritic.

Here's the deal: you play as a jewel thief who accidentally unlocks demonic creatures during a burglary (ridiculously silly) and is tasked with cleaning aforementioned demonic mess up. To help you, you'll get an assortment of firearms as well as use of mystical powers that allow you to absorb magic power from defeated bad guys.

Sony recalls 100,000 laptop batteries

The Japanese Electronics giant-Sony-on Friday said that it was cooperating in a recall of 2.15Ah lithium-ion cell batteries made in Japan and sold around the world in laptops made by HP(Hewlett Packard), Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo and Acer . There have been 40 reports of overheating, in some cases involving smoke or flames, according to a company statement.

Sony-world's second largest Lithium-ion battery manufacturer after Sanyo- two years ago in a similar incident recalled nearly 9 million high-capacity batteries. The result? It affected the economy of all global competing PC manufacturers, and cost Sony close to $400 million! So, why hasn't Sony learned from its previous experiences? Beats me! That's the big question!

Sony stated that the faulty batteries were from the same subsidiary that made the batteries recalled two years ago, Sony Energy Devices in Tochigi, Japan. Sony said efforts to make manufacturing lines there more efficient appeared to have backfired, leading to substandard cells. A possible flaw in the metal foil for electrodes could also have led to overheating, the company said.

Dell and HP have taken immediate measures- HP has a website for its owners to check whether their batteries are defected, and Dell too has a similar website. This is definitely not good news for Sony.