This Union will focus on the Ps2/PS3 and their games. This union was made entirely for the sony consoles and the greatness of sony's games for those consoles, feel free to chat anything sony. We Welcome all members.
-Union Tags-
*New tags coming soon*
Latest Updates
A racing sim that features a high-powered line-up of Ferraris.
- Activision
- Eutechnyx
- Racing
- Release: Aug 26, 2008 »
- ESRB: Everyone
The venerable golf sim is back for the new year.
- Electronic Arts
- EA Tiburon
- Golf Sim
- Release: Aug 26, 2008 »
The latest entry in the Digaea series will feature 3 dimensional battles courtesy of the new Geo Block feature.
- NIS America
- Nippon Ichi Soft.
- Fantasy Turn-Based...
- Release: Aug 26, 2008 »
- ESRB: Teen
Vampire Rain takes place in a suburban west coast city, and the player assumes the role of a Special Forces member named John Lloyd, a government assigned vampire...
Built from the ground up, this next-gen sequel to Mercenaries features a host of new features, vehicles, and weapons.
Though Microsoft still hasn't made it official, every media outlet from Kotaku to the Wall Street Journal has confirmed that the Xbox 360 Pro will soon cost just $299. The move lops $50 off the price of the console and--once in effect--will make it just $50 more than the Nintendo Wii and $100 cheaper than the $399 40GB PlayStation 3.
In the past, such moves have sparked tit-for-tat price wars. In 2004, Microsoft dropped the cost of the original Xbox to $149, only to see Sony do the same to the PlayStation 2 weeks later. Last summer, Sony discontinued the 60GB PS3 by pricing it to sell at $499--a move that was quickly followed by Microsoft discounting its Xbox 360 models to $279 (HDD-less Arcade), $349 (20GB Pro), and $449 (120GB Elite).
Four months later, Sony introduced the $399 40GB PS3, a move that has put the PS3 and 360 neck-and-neck in sales ever since. Though the June US sales numbers are not yet out, many expect the introduction of the $499 80GB Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle to further boost the platform at retail.
So will Microsoft's latest move spark a response from Sony? No, according to Nobuyuki Oneda, the electronics giant's chief financial officer. "Our plan is not to reduce the price," the executive told the Nomura Asia Equity forum in Singapore, reports Dow Jones. "Our strategy is not to sell more quantity for PS3 but to concentrate on profitability."
Sony's emphasis on making the PS3 profitable has greatly lessened the console's drag on the company's finances. In an annual earnings report issued in May, Sony reported that the ¥124.5 billion ($1.1 billion) loss for its games division was down ¥107.8 billion ($954 million) from the previous year's record $2 billion loss.
Activision and Treyarch are developing the next James Bond game, timed for release with the new film Quantum of Solace.
Compete in over 35 Olympic events and try to win gold and glory.
Genre: Olympic Sports
Release Date: Jul 8, 2008
Players: 4 Online (Game Details)
Sid Meier's legendary Civilization franchise ventures beyond its PC roots with this title, designed specifically for consoles and handhelds.
Genre: Historic Turn-Based Strategy
Release Date: Jul 8, 2008 (Game Details)
Third-person shooter series' PS3 debut pushed back one month after quality concerns force developer Slant Six to "re-evaluate schedule."
*Read More Inside*
As was announced Monday, today saw the launch of the v2.40 firmware update for the PlayStation 3. The long-awaited update--previewed by GameSpot Hardware--adds the ability to access the console's XrossMediaBar (XMB) and use select features from it in-game. (Players can also access other XMB features directly, but will have to quit gameplay.) It also came alongside a slight tweak to the PlayStation Store, which adds list views and caches images, preventing the need to load previously viewed art assets each time one visits the store.
The v2.40 update will also launch the long-awaited trophy system, the PS3's answer to Xbox 360 Achievements. Though every game for Microsoft's console bestows awards, only three already-released first-party PS3 games--PAIN, Warhawk, and Super Stardust HD--will get the feature this week in the form of patches.
Sony also announced this week that a spate of upcoming titles will sport trophies from the get-go, including LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm Pacific Rift, NBA 09, PixelJunk Eden, Resistance 2, and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation. Speaking with GameSpot, director of PlayStation Network Eric Lempel also said that eventually, all new releases for the PS3--both first-party and third-party--would have trophies.
However, Sony today refuted a spate of online reports claiming all past, present, and future PS3 games would one day get trophies, dashing hopes that Lair completionists would be rewarded for revisiting their efforts. As Sony previously stated, it is putting the onus onto both third-party publishers and its own internal studios as to whether they want to take the time to add trophies to games already on the market.
While Konami hasn't said whether or not it will add trophies to its multiplatinum Metal Gear Solid 4, Sony today confirmed that a pair of PS3 hits--Electronic Arts' Burnout Paradise and Sony's own Uncharted Drake's Fortune--would soon be patched with their own awards. No date for either update has yet been set, with Sony saying both will get patched "soon."
The official Web site of Burnout Paradise's developer, EA-owned Criterion Games, also revealed the patch will be the first update to retroactively award trophies automatically. "Trophies will be awarded based on your progress in your existing save game," the developer said in a statement. "When the update arrives the trophies you have earned will reflect the progress you've made in the game at that time (so you won't have to replay the game again to earn trophies)."
Speaking to GameSpot last week, Lempel indicated no PS3 games would be awarded trophies retroactively, and no other such patches have been announced. It appears that Criterion was able to include the functionality by planning ahead for trophies' inclusion. "We can reveal that this is why your Burnout Paradise save game has always been locked to your PlayStation Network id--so we could guarantee that when PlayStation Trophies arrived that your save game would reflect your progress," the developer stated.
Unfortunately, it appears as if the v2.40 update wasn't available for long. A rash of complaints on the official PlayStation message boards claim the heavily anticipated update caused many PS3s to lock up when owners attempt to load a game. The problem does not appear to be exclusive to an individual hardware model, as owners of 40GB, 60GB, and 80GB consoles have all reported problems.
Sony has not yet responded to GameSpot's request for clarification or comment, but has apparently taken action by pulling the update from the PlayStation Network. Following reports from forum-goers, GameSpot attempted to download the v2.40 to a PS3 running v2.36 firmware--only to find the update is no longer available.
Following a spate of leaks last week, Sony has officially announced that the PlayStation 3's trophy system will arrive on July 2 as part of the 2.40 firmware update. As had been rumored, the system will eschew its Xbox Live-styIe cumulative numerical score, instead adopting a four-tiered approach that bestows four kinds of awards: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum.
The trophies will be assigned by each game's developer, not Sony, and will be associated with a task of relative difficulty; bronze medals will be doled out for easy feats, and gold for harder objectives. "The platinum medals will only be given when all other tasks are completed," Eric Lempel, director of PlayStation Network Operations, told GameSpot.
Each trophy will have a numeric value associated with it, and this value will contribute to an overall leveling system, much like those in role-playing games. However, the user will be unable to see how much each trophy is worth, and instead will see only a completion percentage for each game and each overall level. When asked why Sony was avoiding tying a visible score to the PS3's trophy system, Lempel said, "We don't know why our users would be interested in a numeric value... We think the medals best represent one's progress."
Although trophies will become standard in all games in the future, they will be added to only a few existing games, including Super Stardust and Warhawk. Other than BioShock, Sony said that it could not confirm trophies for any existing or future third-party PS3 games, including the wildly popular Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. However, it did announce a spate of upcoming first-party games that would include trophies, including LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, NBA 09, Resistance 2, and SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Confrontation.
Unfortunately, PS3 trophies will not be retroactive. For games that have already been released, players must first download a patch for said game, and will then have to perform the feats to receive the trophies as if they were playing the game for the first time.
Players' PS3 trophies will be viewable via a new profile window that will be accessible via the XrossMediaBar (XMB), which, as rumored, will be available in-game. The XMB will offer access to at-a-glance trophy tallies, a more detailed breakdown of medals, and a side-by-side comparison of a player's trophies and those of any friend.
The new in-game XMB will offer a host of other new features as well, including the ability to send text messages to friends in-game and to jump to other PS3 services. However, many of said services--including Web browsing and voice chat--will force players to quit their game and then access the XMB traditionally. The rumored customizable in-game background-music feature, which will let players stream music from their hard drives while playing a game, was also confirmed. However, the feature will be game-specific, which means that it is up to developers to enable the functionality or not.
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith features tracks from the legendary rock band, as well as songs by those who have played with or inspired them.
Genre: Rhythm / Music
Release Date: Jun 29, 2008 (Game Details)
This morning in Tokyo, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai spoke at a press conference held as part of a presentation titled "Sony's Sony Group Corporate Strategy Update FY2008-FY2010." The update outlined a corporate-wide initiative to "roll out video services across key Sony products" by the end of Sony's 2010 fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2011.
Luckily for gamers, Sony considers the PlayStation 3 to be especially key; the company announced that its video offensive is "starting with the summer 2008 launch on the PlayStation Network." According to most calendars, the first day of the northern hemisphere's warmest season begins on the summer solstice (June 20) and ends on the Autumnal equinox (September 20).
According to a Dengeki Online report filed from the conference, Hirai showed a slide that demonstrated a high-definition download of the film Ghost Rider for $5.99. Though the screen said "Purchase Confirmation," a subsequent slide confirmed that PlayStation Network films would only be rentals, as they are on Xbox Live Marketplace. (HD XBLM film rentals cost $5.99, and SD rentals cos $3.99.) The Dengeki report said that the PlayStation Network would also offer SD video, but did not say if television shows would be available. Hirai promised more details at next month's E3 Media & Business Summit.
Though it was short on specifics, Sony was long on optimism about the PS3's video service. "In the Game segment, the two key drivers of new growth are non-game content and services in tandem with enhanced network capability," the company said in a statement. The company also said that in the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2009, it plans to "continue PS3 cost reduction initiatives," "accelerate PS3 sales through upcoming key franchise software titles, " and "continue to expand the PS3 customer base through the strength of Blu-ray Disc." Earlier this year, Blu-ray emerged victorious in the next-generation console war after Toshiba abruptly ceased HD DVD support.
As a result of the aforementioned efforts, Sony Computer Entertainment now reasserted its prediction that it will turn a profit for the current fiscal year. Hirai also reportedly told the conference that during the second half of Sony's previous fiscal year, which ended March 31, PS3 sales were up 200 percent, with PSP sales up 146 percent.
In addition to the video services and the financial details, Hirai's presentation also included the first details about a totally unexpected--but very familiar-looking--service, "Life with PlayStation." Outlined in a slide show snapped by Dengeki, the service looks like a more complex version of the Wii's news service, which lets users take a satellite's-eye view to literally spin the globe and peruse international news by clicking on dozens of cities. (Washington, DC was used as an example.) However, unlike Wii News, Life will PlayStation will also apparently have more general information about major cities, including photos of landmarks.
Check out GameSpot's coverage of Sony's E3 press conference at 11:30am on July 15 for the full US unveiling of the PlayStation Network video store and Life with PlayStation service.
Source: Gamespot
Source: UK gaming-news outlet Computer and Video Games, and gaming blog PS3Fanboy.
What we heard: It took a fair amount of rumor and speculation to get there, but Sony finally confirmed last week that the PlayStation 3's next firmware update would include the oft-requested and long-promised in-game cross media bar (XMB) and trophy achievements. Unfortunately, the console maker did not reveal the full contents of that update or when it would be available.
Cue rumor and speculation. Waving the "exclusive" banner today, CVG reports that an anonymous tipster has leaked the contents of PS3 firmware update v2.4. Making Sony's promise of "some other new enhancements" appear as a modest understatement, CVG's leak reveals a bevy of features that will allegedly be part of the in-game XMB, listed below:
Friend category
View, send, receive messages
Manage downloads
Set the vibration feature of the controller
Sign in to PlayStation Network
Register friends
Manage Bluetooth devices
Terminate the game
Music category
Use the system BGM
Work the system BGM operation panel
Settings category
Assign controllers
View profiles
Game category
Set audio devices
Use the voice changer
The "exciting new feature" that Sony alluded to last week may be the background music (BGM) functionality. According to CVG's tipster, the newly added BGM feature will let PS3 gamers play, stop, skip forward and backward, repeat, and shuffle tracks. When song playback is stopped, the game music will reportedly pick back up. A similar feature is available through the Xbox 360 dashboard, which also allows streaming from external MP3 players onto the console.
CVG's tipster believes that Sony will loose v2.4 on the masses in "around three weeks," which would put it smack-dab in the middle of the most heavily publicized event of the year: the E3 Media and Business Summit. However, given that v2.4 promises to deliver two of the most frequently requested features to the PS3's firmware, and considering the ides of June are well in the past, the three-week time frame makes sense.
As one more bit of secret sauce that Sony is allegedly pouring out with v2.4, CVG's tipster dropped a few details on the mystery-shrouded Trophy system. The trophies will reportedly be 2D images and will be awarded as bronze, silver, gold, and platinum, with the top-tier trophy apparently becoming available only after all other awards have been collected in any given game. More importantly, the system will not feature an overall gamerscore a la Xbox Live Achievements. Instead, it will award experience points as part of a leveling functionality that the tipster did not expound upon.
As for what those trophies will look like, PS3Fanboy may have the answer. Earlier this week, the gaming blog posted with a measure of skepticism shaky-cam photos (pictured, top) of what a tipster claims to be shots of the trophy system in action. That information was apparently verified by another informer, who sent in a follow-up shot of a prototype gamercard (pictured, bottom). According to PS3Fanboy's second informant, experience points will be awarded in relation to the level of the trophy, and gamers will level up as these points accumulate.
The official story: "We can't comment on rumors or speculation."--A Sony representative, clearly looking forward to E3.
Bogus or not bogus?: Looking not bogus on all counts.
Source: Gamespot
Choose to be evil...or really evil in Overlord: Raising Hell, which contains the original Overlord game, as well as the Raising Hell expansion content.
Genre: Fantasy Action Adventure
Release Date: Jun 24, 2008
Players: 1 Player; 2 Online (Game Details)
The third game in this tennis sim series will feature dynamic weather and online play.
Genre: Tennis
Release Date: Jun 23, 2008 (Game Details)
Battlefield: Bad Company puts you in control of a squad of renegade soldiers who infiltrate enemy territory for revenge and profit.
Genre: Modern First-Person Shooter
Release Date: Jun 23, 2008 (Game Details)
*No boxshot available*
X-Blades is an anime-inspired hack-and-slash action game, featuring a heroine armed with guns, blades, and magic.
Genre: Fantasy Shooter
Release Date: Q4 2008 (Game Details)
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}