175w ago - The MAG PS3 blog has unveiled Beta 5.0 statistics today, and PSNAtHome.com has spotted an official confirmation from Sony's Jeremy Dunham that the release later this month (January 26, 2010) will not have a mandatory PS3 HDD installation required.

To quote: "I have a question, will MAG require a Mandatory Install or will it run off the disc?

Jeremy Dunham replied on January 14, 2010 at 5:14 pm

Ye olde disc."

MAG Beta 5.0 Statistics

Here's what we have:

• Before the end of the beta on January 10, there were well over a million downloads (860,000 in North America alone) of the MAG beta client worldwide.
• Of the 619,000+ people who gained at least one point of experience, 52,846 of them qualified for Squad Leader, 10,249 people qualified for Platoon Leader, 3,181 warriors made it all the way to OIC, and a mere 143 diehard soldiers made it to the level 60 experience cap.
• The breakdown of PMC preference ended up like this: Valor - 38.7%, Raven - 37.2%, SVER - 24.1%
• Who won the Beta 5.0 Shadow War? Despite their smaller...

175w ago - A PS3 owner has revealed to Gizmodo (linked above) that his Sony PlayStation 3 console became a little burnt after plugging in a Psychlone HDMI cable.

The big fry up ended after around 10 seconds once the cord had eventually melted off, however, it still caused quite a bit of damage.

To quote: "He had his PS3 plugged into an electrical source although it wasn't running any games at the time of this. He plugged in his Psyclone HDMI cable from his Samsung 32-inch flatpanel TV to the PS3 when the sparks started flying.

A flame actually shot up out of the PS3, and sparks were firing out of both ends where the HDMI cable met with the ports. The mess ended in 10 seconds when the cord melted off. Pictures included.

We cannot figure out why/how this occurred. No breakers were tripped, no damage or discoloration to any wall outlets or other power sources. Only the HDMI ports."

181w ago - Today VG247.com (linked above) has snagged a copy of The Saboteur for PS3 a few days before its December 8, 2009 street date.

Upon firing it up on their PlayStation 3 system, they have confirmed that The Saboteur has a mandatory 7-minute PS3 HDD installation.

The video game's storyline goes as follows: The game's protagonist is an Irish man named Sean Devlin, a regular among the racing groups of Paris.

Although the German Army's grip over the area is becoming tighter everyday, he ignores their presence, until one by one his friends are killed by the Nazis.

This finally breaks Sean's tolerance of the German presence, and he takes up arms against them to gain his revenge. In his quest he is assisted by the French Resistance and the British Intelligence.

182w ago - Today Sony's Senior Vice President of Marketing & PlayStation Network Peter Dille has posted the latest video advert (below) for the PS3, as follows:

I hope you're all well recovered from a tryptophan-induced holiday and are getting ready for some exciting shopping ahead (this is of course, if you haven't already taken advantage of our great Black Friday promotions).

It's been a lot of fun rolling out the many creative executions of our "Dear PlayStation" ad campaign over the last few weeks. Kevin Butler has garnered legions of fans as he demonstrates how the PS3 "Only Does Everything" in his very unique style.

In fact, even our friends and partners at Best Buy have been impressed. So much so, they approached us about a unique collaboration featuring Best Buy's "blue shirt" campaign in which actual Best Buy employees solve customer needs. Of course, we loved the idea.

Our colleagues at Sony Electronics and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment also got involved with Best Buy to sweeten the deal by offering an amazing value bundle that showcases...

182w ago - Today UffSite.net (linked above) has posted a picture of the Final Fantasy 13 box that has leaked, which reveals that no mandatory PS3 HDD Installation is required to confirm previous reports.

Additionally, although the game naturally runs in 720P it includes 1080P full HD for CGI sequences and has no lossless audio for the PlayStation 3 version.

To quote: "Specifically, the back of the box states that the game has No Optional or Mandatory install, only using up 500kb of hard drive space for a save game. This is great news for PS3 owners, and indicates that the game will run as smoothly as the demo did.

The image also confirms that the PS3 version will have super high quality LPCM 5.1 audio and the CGI sequences will be in full 1080p HD rather than the 720p that was feared.

While the game itself does run in 720p, this means the FMVs on PS3 will be of the highest possible quality. This may be the advantage PS3 will have over Xbox 360, as fitting lossless audio and large FMVs on a DVD will prove difficult."