164w ago - Today Content Manager Alex Jakubczyk has unveiled news of the most recent VidZone PS3 patch update along with the addition of a new Sub Focus TV channel.

To quote: Unless you have been living under a stone for the past week, you should have realised we have released a brand new VidZone patch!

As a quick recap, this includes improved search function, in-store game purchasing, a snazzy new main menu carousel and 100s of brand new TV channels including Artist TV, Genre TV, Label TV and Year TV!

Is your favorite artist there? Are you missing a specific Genre? Or do you have any great playlists you remember us featuring that we can create a channel for?

You may have also noticed a new channel magically appearing earlier this week - Sub Focus TV! We've had one of the first plays of brand new Sub Focus video 'Splash' featuring Coco who is tipped for big things this year and is Sting's talented daughter - if you've not checked it out yet, then we suggest you do!

Enough of that... on to this week's update:

FEATURED

VidZone Recommends

Check out our list of favourite TV Channels this week, hand-picked by the wonderful VidZone pixies inside your PlayStation 3.

Music...

201w ago - Future Publishing has confirmed that it is closing PSW Magazine due to decreasing demand.

The company now plans to focus their efforts on the official PlayStation Magazine and PSM3.

To quote: "It's always incredibly sad when we close a title as established as PSW, but the decision was taken in response to decreasing demand," games portfolio publishing director James Binns explained.

"By focusing our efforts on Official PlayStation Magazine and a single independent PlayStation title in PSM3, we can strengthen our position in delivering the number one and number two print titles in the sector.

"We continue to invest in our traditional print brands, but games is a rapidly changing sector, so our portfolio needs to constantly evolve to meet the needs of consumers in a vibrant and diverse market."

212w ago - As a follow-up from speculation earlier today, the countdown timer on Kojima's Web site finally counted down and revealed a picture of a boss (pictured below).

It could be Raiden, but no one is sure of who it is yet... but his hat does have a strange symbol that would seem to point to Metal Gear 5.

It does appear the recent rumor of the NEXT title being Lords of Shadow may have just been that, a rumor, though.

More details to come as they are available, and feel free to share your comments below.

218w ago - With the advent of the latest generation of video game consoles and PCs that are almost infinitely expandable, developers are being pushed to their limit to create the latest and greatest game of all time.

There's no doubt that some developers have been delivering: games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto 4, Killzone 2, etc. With games like these nowadays, it's hard to imagine that there was a time when people were crazy over games like Pong and Pacman.

My worry is that because of such hits, many fun games have been overlooked. Note that I said "fun", not "quality" or "good". Games of such epic proportions in today's world have raised people's expectations of what a game should be like.

When a new first person shooter is released, people start comparing it with other games like Killzone 2. When an open world game is released, it's immediately compared to GTA 4.

My worry is that people often forget what games are meant to be in the end: fun for the person who's playing it. Let's face it, everyone has individual taste. A game that might seem horrendous for one person (eg. Cooking Mama for me) might provide endless amounts of fun for another person (eg. many girls out there).

The first thing a casual gamer does when playing a game is...

230w ago - Earlier this month that David Jaffe, the brain behind the Twisted Metal and God of War franchises, had a big 'dog and pony show' with Sony.

Since then, it was revealed that this green light showing will take place Thursday morning. Jaffe and his studio are trying to get Sony's approval for the game at this meeting, so it's an important showing for Jaffe's fledgling studio.

Jaffe also said they were running a few nights of focus groups for the new title, one just about the concepts of the game, and the other actually showing the title off. Jaffe may have also accidentally slipped up and revealed the title of his game.

During his video blog, he shows a sheet of paper with questions for the focus group. Some people are saying with an image processing program you can read the title off the top of the page and it says Twisted Metal.





Perhaps if the moons align and the planets collide in the right way, you might be able to read it, otherwise we're stumped, but feel free to speculate and comment below!