The New PS3 Slim

What’s up Home-bodies?!?!

This week brings more of what you’ve come to expect from our weekly updates over at PlayStation Home. And by “more of what you’ve come to expect” I mean “awesome game content, compelling community events, and free media, all served up in a dynamic social environment that is only possible on the PS3.” To start, we are celebrating the arrival of spring in the only way we know how – by throwing a huge event smattered with the irreverent humor you’ve come to know and love. This Friday, April 2, all of you action movie fans will want to log into PlayStation Home to partake in our Easter City Huntdown event. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and movies are worth a million pictures, so I’ll let the clip below speak for itself. Needless to say, you won’t want to miss out on this one.

The PlayStation Home Mall will also be seeing quite an update this week, with a host of Anime-themed virtual items (to complement the Anime personal space we released last week) and MAG costumes being released. And if you head to the updated UNCHARTED 2 space or the Irem Carnival you can pick up new costumes (a Sark costume and a host of Western-themed items, respectively). Check the pics below for a sample of what is coming into PlayStation Home tomorrow, April 1.

Be sure to visit the PlayStation Home Theater this week for tons of Tester-related goodness. Tonight at 6:00pm – 7:30pm PT (9:00pm – 10:30pm EST) we will be hosting yet another meet-and-greet with the cast of the PlayStation Network exclusive reality series The Tester (this week we will be bringing in two of the strongest contestants from this season – Amped and Cyrus).

Come tomorrow, we will air the newest episode, Killer Memory, as well as release two new commemorative The Tester items (including the Blue Surgical Scrubs, pictured below). And if that’s not enough for you, we’ll even be airing The Tester Marathon (episodes 1-6) throughout the weekend, so you can catch up on any of the episodes you may have missed in preparation for the season finale, which will screen on April 8 in PlayStation Home!

Just a reminder for you valiant souls who, like me, can never get enough Warhawk: LightBox Interactive will be hosting a month-long Capture the Flag tournament starting Friday, April 2. Winners will be awarded the super-rare Champions Blade in-game weapon as well as exclusive Warhawk t-shirts to sport in PlayStation Home as a sign of your general radness and badness.

See you in Home!

Shatter is easily one of my favorite PSN games from last year. So when we heard rumblings of multiplayer and other modes/features coming to the game, we went to go straight to the source for all the details.

So I’d like to welcome back Mario Wynands, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Sidhe, whom you originally met here. If you still haven’t downloaded Shatter on PSN/PS3, you’ll get a nice intro to the game in this video. But beyond that, Mario talks about some in-the-works stuff including Home integration, the inclusion of multiplayer modes and even the release of the game’s soundtrack. And if you make it to the end of the video, you’ll get a close-up of the physical CD version of the soundtrack, which you can snag by paying close attention to our Twitter feed today.

Yep Monty Python on PS3! No not a game or a round of Buzz questions but in Playstation Home. With costumes, furniture and a space. All of it is themed on the ace Holy Grail movie. Alex Weekes, the Home Community Lead of SCEE had this to say;

Next in this week’s line up are some iconic costumes from Monty Python. I have to mention what is probably my favourite costume in Home first: The Black Knight, complete with missing arms! You can also purchase Sir Bedevere, Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot and Sir Robin either individually or all four in a bundle pack. The final item in our Monty Python haul is an unusual item of furniture: the iconic Foot. Even better, it’s a chair!

There are also some other additions coming to Home like the awesome Ghostbuster HQ. My mom would never buy me that toy, I still haven’t forgiven her for this…

There also some other Star Wars and Siren stuff which I shall just link you to the blog post to check out. Yeah I’m lazy, so what? I’ll challenge you to a duel, I’ll bite your legs off. Come on then!

PlayStation Home: Star Wars, Ghostbusters Firehouse, Monty Python and more! [blog.eu.playstation.com]

In an action/shooter game, what could be more exciting than big guns? Thats right. Bigger Enemies. In this gameplay video of Lost Planet 2, you are being chased by a giant sandworm,  only a few feet away from going nom nom on your flesh and bones.

Also check out some screens for the multiplayer map, “Turbulent Jungle”

Source

Sony introduced the PlayStation Portable to the world back in 2005, and many agree that activity on the scene has died down. Due to piracy and a lack of  “being in touch with the community” from Sony, this seems like the end of the road for the PSP. I’m not saying there has not been enough software but rather, I believe Sony does not know what to do with the system at the time. With the PlayStation 3 striding forward in sales and gaining more support from 3rd parties, and these such parties are even porting these games to the PSP, such as Dante’s Inferno, Modnation Racers, and LittleBigPlanet.

Sony tried to bring back interest to the PSP by doing a complete overhaul. This overhaul included in removing the disk drive and forcing digital distribution down consumers throats.This bite sized PSP is called the PSPGo. For this system to work, games on PlayStation Network needed to be cheaper and download speeds needed to be faster. That is where this fails to achieve. Games are not any cheaper than their retail counterparts and Sony chose to keep the same B wireless in the previous iterations of the PSP. I never quite understood the argument about the system being overpriced. The price seems right for what it is worth.

Another step Sony could take is by announcing the new generation of PSP’s, or as the rumor states, Sony is planning to have a “relaunch” with the PSPGo. I do not know what that entails but, it could mean one of two things. One, they are going to reduce the price to 200$ or lower and include a game and memory card. Two, the farthest from the likeliest, they add a second nub on the PSPGo.

I believe Sony should come out and say that the next iteration for the PSP is in works, and that it will blow my mind. I am fine with having one nub, but if they are going to add another one, they need it to make where it does not feel cramped. Another thing is that digital distribution is fine as long as that it is cheap, and easy. Since I am going on and on about what I want, I want a friends list like its big brother.

So what do you believe Sony should do with the PSP franchise?

Hi everyone, my name is Matt Morton, and I’m the SCEA Producer for Fat Princess on the PS3 and the soon-to-be-released Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake for the PSP.

The entire Fat Princess team loves your response to the recent patch for Fat Princess on the PS3! We love our fans and we are hard at work to make sure Fat Princess is as fun as it can be. We have a very special request for fans of Fat Princess on the PS3 who are living in the Los Angeles / Santa Monica area. We value your input so much that we are looking for a select few to help us test some new features for Fat Princess PS3.

We are looking for people who can give us two hours of their time and let us know what you think. We need people for this Friday, April 2nd in any one of the following sessions:

Session 1: 10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Session 2: 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Session 3: 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Session 4: 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

Requirements for the Playtest are as follows:

• Be at least 18 years or older.
• Be willing to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement, because what you will be testing is a BIG Cake-of-a-secret!
• Be familiar with Fat Princess on the PS3.
• Live in the LA area with reliable transportation to the playtest.

Mastery of the game is NOT a requirement!

For your time and valuable input, we will give you a free copy of God of War III for your PS3 enjoyment!

If you are interested and meet the above requirements, please send an email to FPLAPlaytest@gmail.com with your name, address, contact phone number and your preference of which session you would be willing to join. If you don’t have a session preference, please state “any available session”.

Selected members will be emailed back with a confirmation email with a location and time for check-in.

Seats are VERY limited!

Thank you very much, and we look forward to hearing from you!