IGN (linked above) has posted its review of the official Sony wireless keypad for the PlayStation 3, and seems to have a problem with its general design more than anything.
They note that the biggest issue is the top mounted nature of it, but essentially QWERTY keypads for game controllers don't really work that well and its probably best to pick up a microphone and talk.
To quote: But regardless of the poor touch support and ill-advised key design, the biggest issue I had with the Wireless Keypad is that Sony opted to design it as a top mounted add-on. I don't want to seem partial one way or another, but I definitely think Microsoft had it right when they made their keypad attachable between the handles of the Xbox 360 remote.
The keys seem much easier to view and access when they are located just below your thumbs on the thumbsticks. To be fair, the choice in top versus bottom attachment may have been out of Sony's hands. It's possible that Mi... More »
Sony's Director of Hardware Marketing John Koller announced via PS Blog today the following:
I wanted to give you some details on the two PSP ad campaigns that also kicked off recently. One campaign focuses on the new PSP-3000 and the other on the big games that are available this holiday season (or coming soon after), including Resistance: Retribution, God of War: Chains of Olympus, Madden NFL ’09 and more favorites.
This campaign is one of my favorites because not only does it gives a nod to the awesome ‘POV’ TV spot that we aired when the PSP first launched back in March 2005, but it places the PSP within a colorful and diverse blur of urban activity. As someone who spends a lot of time in San Francisco and travels the country often, I see the way that people in different cities use their PSPs and I think we’ve captured that in a fun and interesting way.
There's general agreement that Sony stumbled out of the gate with the PlayStation 3. Months of intense hype were followed by a late launch (fully a year after the Xbox 360) and a staggering $600 price tag for the deluxe model.
Even worse, the PS3 didn't initially have any real must-have exclusive titles, and despite the power of its vaunted Cell processor, multiplatform games from third-party developers didn't look appreciably better than the respective titles on the Xbox 360.
Since then, the company's been modifying the PlayStation product line to better fit the competitive market landscape. As of August 2008, a new "bargain" PS3 is available with a larger, 80GB hard drive, and a "deluxe" model is due in November, doubling the capacity to 160GB.
Both, however, lack backward compatibility with PS2 games and do not come with flash card readers. If those features are a must, it might be best to pick up the 80GB "Metal Gear" bundle version on eBay w... More »
Some of you may have already caught a glimpse of it, but here it is anyway: the official design for the Killzone 2 box cover!
Please note that this design is intended for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) territories, and that the age rating applies to all PAL markets that adopt the PEGI system for rating games.
Designs for other territories and rating systems will be unveiled soon.
Expect those trademark Helghast goggles to glare at you from the shelves of your local game store in February 2009!
Capcom's John Diamonon shared the following today via PS Blog:
Hey PS Fam! Long time no blog. It’s my pleasure to announce that Age of Booty will finally become available today on the PSN for only $9.99. I know there was a delay bringing this title to you, but we had to make sure we fixed all the bugs before we deliver one of the most original digital games on this platform.
Anyway, Max Hoberman, the President of Certain Affinity and the developer of Age of Booty, wanted to give you some insights into this critically acclaimed game. He’ll also answer any questions you have about the game. Without further ado, heeeere’s Max!
This is a follow-up to my previous post, where I described the genesis of our upcoming downloadable pirate action RTS, Age of Booty. I left off with us signing a publishing deal with Capcom and beginning production. That was a year ago, and since then we’ve had a lot of time to improve upon the original design.... More »
A few weeks ago, I made my way to Ubisoft's Montreal studio to interview a pair of team members working on the latest Prince of Persia, and it turned out to be one of those interviews where we kept talking longer than we probably should have.
Below is an excerpt from that interview as follows:
1UP: Were you guys disappointed when those first couple of screenshots leaked out and everyone assumed it was going to be a two-player game?
BM: [Laughs] Disappointed? No, it was to be expected, really. I think if you see two characters on the screen, some people are going to assume one of their friends can control one of those two characters. So it didn't really disappoint me to see people saying, "Oh, oh, I think this is going to be a co-op game."
But we really haven't had much negative backlash about the fact that it's single-player. I've been reading the forums, I get e-mails, I get Facebook messages and that sort of stuff, and no one ever... More »
KitsuneNoYume of the official PS boards (linked above) has shared both pics and a video of his PlayStation 3 'Jack Adaptive' Controller today, which has allowed a disable gamer to game once again.
To quote: Here is my adaptive ps3 controller that I use to play. Please leave questions and feedback! Design by me, and built via BroadenedHorizons.com by Mark Felling, who deserves 75% credit for building. Please let other disabled gamers know about us.
The infamous Xbox 360 "red ring of death" (indicating a failed unit) has caused Microsoft - and its customers - untold pain in the three years since the console's launch in 2005, and cost it $1.15bn (£738m) last year.
Microsoft has never said publicly why the console was plagued with faults: it seems that poor production quality was at the heart of the failures - an all-round problem with no single cause except impatience on the company's part as it tried to become the leader in videogame consoles.
It was an ambitious attack. Microsoft's engineers started working on the Xbox 360 at least a year after Sony's engineers began work on the PlayStation 3, yet wound up shipping a year earlier. With the first Xbox, the company lost $3.7bn (£2.3bn) over four years, mostly because costs of the box - particularly its hard drive - were too high.
Bill Gates didn't really care about the losses; that was simply the ante for getting into an exciting ne... More »
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