PS3 Rally

Playstation Home. What is it?
It is a virtual world, you may call it, on the Sony Playstation Network. It is similar to Second Life and some MMORPGs, where you have your own person (avatar) and you can do many things with it. You also have an apartment, where you can invite other people into your own apartment, and also add many improvements such as furniture. You can stream music or videos in your apartment, and these may be broadcast on virutal screens such as Sony Bravia TVs which you can put into your apartment. Pictures can also be shown, and placed in virtual picture frames.

As you saw in yesterday’s video of Playstation Home, you can do many other fun things, such as talk and socialise with other people, and also play games. You can play arcade games and also pool billiards, and in the future Sony will also install cinemas, where players will be able to watch and download new game trailers.

Live sport, concert and other events can also be broadcast in Home, and can be pre-paid using the Sony Wallet System.
Home will also host many fun events such as exclusive game previews and developer interviews. Though not yet confirmed, but these may also need to be paid for using the Sony Wallet System. Hope they don’t…

However, do not fret! It seems that users will also be able to make money in home, by using an auction service that will allow users to sell user-created content and their Home assests. This seems a lot like Second Life-you may indeed be able to make a fortune if you do it right!

It seems fun, doesn’t it! It is indeed a much richer online system than the Xbox 360, and continues to show how Sony and the Playstation series continues to dominate in providing luxurious high definition entertainment.

Playstation Home is slated for release in October, while all the time in between is for Beta tests, with a Closed beta (approx. 15 000 people) followed by an Open beta (approx. 50 000 people).

Want to join? Here’s the Home beta trial site, so check it often if you want to be a part of this magnificant experience.

Stay tuned for more Playstation 3 information on your favourite website, PS3 Rally!

Hey guys!
Today’s Sunday, and the start of an all new exciting week!
Well, here are some videos to briefly outline what I will be covering this week!
Fun indeed

Have fun!

Hey guys,

Time for some exciting news
As with nearly all of Namco’s Time Crisis games, if not all, they were also put on Playstations along with arcade machines.
Guess what - it may be happening again, with Time Crisis 4 for the PS3!

Taking a visit to the online EB shops and what do you find? Product pages for “Time Crisis 4 with Guncon” for the Playstation 3 from Namco!

This is indeed great news! As along with all of the exciting Time Crisis series, Time Crisis 4 will definately be more graphically appealing and more fun! Trust me, if it’s fun in the arcades, it’s fun at home

Time Crisis 4 features many new enhancements, including multi-screen hiding, where as in the Playstation 1 Time Crisis game Time Crisis:Project Titan you shot arrows pointing on the screen to pick where your character would hide. In TC4, it seems all you need to do is just move your gun outside the screen, and your character will pan across. As with Time Crisis 3, it will also feature many weapons to choose from, and TC4 will make you use them more strategically.

Indeed, Time Crisis 4 is a definite HOT game to buy, so keep an eye on the lookout, as it will definately be worth your money.

Oh and for that game hint listed a few days ago - that was Time Crisis:Crisis Zone, which featured an arcade port to the PS2 where the player used a riot shield as cover and a submachine gun instead of the normal pistol. Despite it’s harsh and rash comments, I actually enjoyed it, and would love to play it.

For more detail on the listings on the EB online store, check here.

Here’s the prologue for you guys

Have fun now, and stay tuned to your favourite website, PS3 Rally!

Got this in an email, seems like there’s a PS3 to be won every day this week!
Prizee is an online games company where you can play games free of charge, but can still redeem prizes with your won ‘Bubz’.
You have to buy a maxpack to be able to have a shot at winning a PS3, but you’ll always win something, maybe even more ‘Bubz’ to redeem for a PS3!

Give it a try if you want

Yep, it is indeed cross-linking day.

My fellow gaming friend over at Gaming MMO has called upon a very important question: Do games make people dumb?

My statement is yes, but no, but yes again.
You see, games sometimes do make people dumb. I am referring to those people who think all that matters is the gaming world. People who go on all day about how they owned in the gaming world, but struggle in the real world. (No, I am not talking about those guys who run around with laser pistols in the real world going BAM-that will be discussed later.) I don’t like addicts -addictions make us baaad. Though sometimes we are addicted, but we are fighting it.

I think that everyone should think again when they play, that is there something I should do first before I indulge in this 3 hour long fun run of Battlefield 2/Counter Strike/Hello Kitty’s Island Adventure? (Yes I know that was lame..but funny nonetheless-from that South Park WoW episode)
People should re-evaluate their tasks and put better use of time management in, not keeping things off until the last minute, whereas all the time in between is spent playing games (sometimes it does happen, it happened to me yesterday, and I sure am trying to figure out my time management).

Next, no, games do not make people dumb. Ever heard about RTS games? (Real Time Strategy games) RTS games make people think. Think a lot. RTS games, such as Starcraft and Company of Heroes have been praised for their thinking element. Real Time Strategy use the mind to the max - players have to think about what to do, when to do, and how to do things at all points in a game.
There are also other games that use games to make people smart- educational games, and to a certain degree RPG games (as Brandon from commented on, being a nice alternative to reading) and also FPS games.
Now your thinking, “blasphemy! FPS games? All they do is rot the mind!” but think again - Battlefield 2 requires you to work in a team, to complete objectives as a whole team. The commander issues what people do and where to go, at what time, with what to use. Players also have to react and respond in a hostile situation, and have to think what to do if they are cornered, or how to advance into an enemy fortress which is heavily guarded.

Now, I come to the final ‘yes’. This is the ‘yes’ I am proud to say I am..part of. Think of paintball, if you’ve ever played it. You go around with guns, and as I’ve said with Battlefield 2 earlier, you work in a team to complete objectives.
Now, the ‘yes, games do make people dumb’ is the ‘fun’ statement. As in, people running around going bam bam bam with a child’s laser toy gun. Sometimes you just go high, and start doing crazy things. As you probably have played games, you will most likely put those ‘gaming moments’ into real life.

Which would of course, result in 5 people running down the street in fantasy costumes with wands and swords saying ‘buff me please, we’re going to kill the big dragon in that den over there’.

But, Brandon has also said that eight out of ten FPS players are assholes! Well, let’s see…
I was playing Battlefield 2:Desert Conflict last night…and no one was acting as an asshole! Which means…0 out of 40 I think?
But yes, there are ‘A-holes’ in games, as Bungie put it. 1PStart or Xbox360Rally mentioned it this week I think, how Bungie gives YOU the power to mute that A-hole in the new Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta.

Sorry for not giving that awesome review today, but be assured - many awesome reviews will come in the future!

As always, have fun, and stay tuned, as always, to your favourite website, PS3 Rally!

Hey guys,
Wondering what games Playstation 3 has left that are exclusive?
This list might help you clarify the exclusives left, from PS3 center:
Afrika
Angel Rings
Coded Arms: Assault
DC Universe
Driver 5
Eight Days
Eye of Judgment
Eyedentify
Fifth Phantom Saga
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy Versus XIII
God of War III
Gradius 6
Gran Turismo 5
Heavenly Sword
Hot Shots Golf 5
Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier
Killzone
L.A. Noire
Lair
LittleBigPlanet
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Monster Kingdom
Ni-Oh
Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction
SingStar
SOCOM
Tekken 6
The Getaway 3
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
Warhawk
White Knight Story
WipeOut

That sounds an awesome list, eh?
Unfortunately, Warhawk seems to have been cut in production, and will only be available as a multiplayer download in the Playstation Online Network. Warhawk’s singler player was not up to shape, and thus, it was scrapped.

However, there is a slight chance that Warhawk may be on the shelves, however, time will only tell.
Tomorrow, be prepared for another fun review!

Here’s a past game that resembles it, think it’ll give it away this time..love this series

Don’t cheat now!

Revealed in today’s post, in ANOTHER video

Yep, it’s:

Frontlines:Fuel of War!

Developed by THQ’s Kaos Studios, Frontlines:Fuel of War is an exciting new action game in the near future based on today’s headlines. It pits the Western Coalition against the Red Star Alliance battling for global resources.

Players can choose to support the Western Coalition or the Red Star Alliance, and also choose a role! Players will be able to grow into their character by choosing their weapon loadout and their technical specialization, such as Ground Support, Air Support or Drone Tech specialist. As Ground Support, you can set up turrets, while Air Support can call in artillery strikes and Drone Tech can call in various ‘drone’ (radio-controlled) vehicles. Drones, for short.

If you’ve ever played Battlefield 2, you may recognize this, which is some of the classes available to the player at spawn:

Assault - assault rifle, handgun and frag grenades
Heavy Weapon - heavy assault rifle, handgun and frag grenades
Sniper - sniper rifle, handgun and proximity mine
Anti-tank - rocket launcher, handgun and landmine
Spec-ops - sub-machine gun, handgun and C4 explosive
Close combat - shotgun, handgun and frag grenade

Looks a LOT like Battlefield 2, eh? Well, the developers did help on making Battlefield 2 in the first place..which means Frontlines should be just as good! It sure is, graphically..

Along with that, vehicles are included! Many, many vehicles, jeeps, tanks, choppers, you name it! Over 60 vehicles are at your disposal.

Ready the army…

All set up!

Run!

I wouldn’t want to be in this jeep..

Frontlines:Fuel of War is currently in development, but should be released soon (early next year, perhaps). This game is definately worth your money, and I’ll keep this as updated as possible. Be on a lookout for it, I certainly will.

As always, have fun, and stay tuned for more Playstation 3 information at your favourite website, www.ps3rally.com!

Starting off with an Easter Monday surprise: Guess the GAME!

Here’s a video Don’t cheat now!

Mmm, it’s the Easter Weekend and it must feel very relaxing to just lie there on the couch (and hopefully) be lounging around playing the PS3.

I was just playing the PS2 just then, and played a game I remembered was so good gameplay wise and graphically - Burnout.
It was a demo, but nonetheless, great.

Started playing it and well..it was all so fuzzy..the models were all so low detail and such..
Why did this happen? It was on a new HDTV too, not an old CRT display.
As with all 3d games, the better they get, the more worse the old games get. Games we’ve played for years start looking worse than those new high definition games, but we can’t help it-it’s a trick of the mind, I swear.

Now, games on the PS3 should not ‘wither away’ in our minds for a long time now. Why, you ask? With the massive detail aside, you can now use HDMI to make that video and audio clearer and sharper.

!

What is HDMI?
HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface. If you’ve ever bought or owned a console, you should know that whenever you’re hooking it up to the TV there were 3 holes in the TV to plug into. The console would have something which would plug into it’s back, and have 3 cables to plug into the TV. That was the AV (Audio-Visual) input.

HDMI is a new all-digital audio/visual interface capable of transmitting uncompressed streams. You’ve probably played a video file on your computer, and these may have been MPEG video, Quicktime video and even Windows Media video. These are all decoders - they compress the video file to save space but also retain quality. If you uncompressed a video, it could be double, even triple the file size of the compressed video. Maybe even a lot more, if the compressor was very good.

Uncompressed video is usually referred to as raw video, where there is no compression. The image here is usually the best - it has not been altered or tampered with. HDMI is a revolutionary concept designed so that it can transfer uncompressed video without any image loss.

You can see here that with HDMI, all detail can be seen. If used in AV format, or any other format, the video would have some detail blurry, as it would be compressed.

So if your playing games, or watching video, and you think the image quality is really bad, so bad that it’s hurting your eyes, you know what to get

To round it all of here’s a Playstation 3 ad showing it’s ‘Blue Ray Graphics’:

Have a happy Easter weekend, and as always, stay tuned for more Playstation 3 news and information, on your favourite website, www.ps3rally.com!

Hey guys!
Well, contrary to most of you, each and every month I have a download limit. I went over it a lot last month, resulting in me having a download rate slower than dial-up…just to let you guys know

Anyway, it’s Easter Friday! Hope everyone is having fun eating chocolate and pigging out. Mmm…
Well, just to let you PS3 gamers note, if you haven’t tried it out already, that USB Mouse and Keyboard is available! Yes, that means all you FPS addicts can finally use those skills requiring massive amounts of dexterity on the PS3.

The PSP will also come in use too, as it will be able to interact nicely with the PS3!

Quoted from Playstation 3 News:

Sony has also announced that its Playstation Portable (PSP) handheld gaming device will connect to the PS3 via Bluetooth. The PSP will function as a remote control for the next-generation console, allowing PS3 users to browse files and folders without leaving the sofa. It will also be possible to transfer photos and films between the two devices. The PSP will not, however, function as a controller for the PS3.

Awesome, eh? It will be extremely useful serving as a hub to showcase your photos and videos on a large TV-providing you DO have a High Definition TV, right?

If you do not, do not fret, but keep in mind that it may well be an essential purchase in the near future, along with HDMI cables if needed.

Games such as Metal Gear Solid 4:Guns of the Patriots and Battlefield:Bad Company sure will need it!

As there is not much news today, be expected for a massive review of an upcoming game to kick start your easter weekend.

As always, have fun and stay tuned for more Playstation 3 news at your favourite website, www.ps3rally.com!