Sony PlayStation 3

PSN Store Update: 27/08/09

This week’s update, as ever, via the EU Blog. No sign of the 3D Invincible Tiger, mind, must just be for the US Store. Remember Crash Commando is half price this week (so I’ll grab it, finally), and that’s the full Gamescom press conference to download too – nice work, SCEE.





Price Reduction

Crash Commando (£3.99/€4.99)
In celebration of all the extra Crash Commando goodness released this week, you can take advantage of this reduced price for the full game until the 10th of September.
PEGI 12+
Downloadable Games

Smash Cars (£11.99/€14.99)

Battle Tanks (£7.99/€9.99)

Topatoi – (AU$15.95, $18.90 NZD)
Demos (free)

NHL 10

F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn


Add-On Game Content

Fight Night Round 4

* Champions Pack (£7.99/€9.99)
* Content Pack 1 (free)

Batman: Arkham Asylum – Play As Joker (free)

Crash Commando

* Combo Pack (this combines the four packs below) (£3.99/€4.99)
* Heist Map Pack (£2.39/€2.99)
* Colonel Chaos and Army Chick Pack (£1.19/€1.49)
* Gangsta Rapper and Reggae Rasta Pack (£1.19/€1.49)
* Nukem Ninja and Maid Mayhem Pack (£1.19/€1.49)

Disgaea 3

* Action Prinny (£1.59/€1.99)
* Adell (£1.59/€1.99)
* Class World Command Attack (£3.19/€3.99)
* Curtis (£1.59/€1.99)
* Defender of Earth Set (£4.79/€5.99)
* Demon & Detective Set (£3.19/€3.99)
* Disgaea 2 Sacrebleu Set (£4.79/€5.99)
* Disgaea 2 Main Character Set
* Dragon (£0.79/€0.99)
* Fake Heroes Set (£3.99/€3.19)
* Gig (£1.59/€1.99)
* Gordon (£1.59/€1.99)
* Hanako (£1.59/€1.99)
* Item World Command Attack Mode (£3.19/€3.99)
* Item World Survival Attack (£3.19/€3.99)
* Jennifer (£1.59/€1.99)
* Kogure (£1.59/€1.99)
* Makai Kingdom Main Character Package (£3.19/€3.99)
* Marjoly (£1.59/€1.99)
* Mid-Boss (£1.59/€1.99)
* Nekomata (£1.59/€1.99)
* Pram (£1.59/€1.99)
* Pierre (£1.59/€1.99)
* Prinny Curtis (£1.59/€1.99)
* Raspberyl Chapter 1 (£2.39/€2.99)
* Raspberyl Chapter 2 (£2.39/€2.99)
* Raspberyl Chapter 3 (£2.39/€2.99)
* Raspberyl Chapter 4 (£2.39/€2.99)
* Raspberyl Chapters 1-4 (£8.99/€11.25)
* Revya (£1.59/€1.99)
* Rozalin (£1.59/€1.99)
* Soul Nomad Set (£3.19/€3.99)
* Taro (£1.59/€1.99)
* Thursday (£1.59/€1.99)
* Tink (£1.59/€1.99)
* Yukimaru (£1.59/€1.99)
* Zetta (£1.59/€1.99)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Character and Map Pack (£6.29/€7.99

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – Tatooine Mission Pack (£7.99/€9.99

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 – Wolf Creek Course (£3.19/€3.99 – Introductory price for one week only)

LittleBigPlanet – VeraBee Original Sticker Pack (£1.59/€1.99)

Rock Band

* Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac (£0.99/€1.49)
* I Won’t Back Down by Tom Petty (£0.99/€1.49)
* Mony Mony by Billy Idol (£0.99/€1.49)
* Rebel Yell by Billy Idol (£0.99/€1.49)
* Runnin’ Down A Dream by Tom Petty (£0.99/€1.49)
* She’s A Genius by Jet (£0.99/€1.49)
* World Turning by Fleetwood Mac (£0.99/€1.49)

Videos (free)

* Gamescom Sony Press Conference Part 1
* Gamescom Sony Press Conference Part 2
* Gamescom Sony Press Conference Part 3
* Gamescom Sony Press Conference Part 4
* Gamescom Sony Press Conference Part 5
* Batman: Arkham Asylum Villains Trailer
* IL2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Launch Trailer
* Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Gamescom 2009 Trailer
* Mini Ninjas Futo Vignette
* Mini Ninjas Shun Vignette
* Mini Ninjas Suzume Vignette
* Mini Ninjas Tora Vignette
* Crash Commando Characters Trailer
* Crash Commando Heist Map Pack Trailer
* Content Amendments (additions to other countries)

PlayStation Store via PSP and Media Go Downloadable Games

* Dynasty Warriors (£13.99/€17.99)

Add-On Game Content (also available via the PS3 store)

Rock Band Unplugged

* Black Sunshine by White Zombie (£0.99/€1.49)
* She’s Not There by The Zombies (£0.99/€1.49)

Themes (free)

* Dissidia Final Fantasy Theme 12
Click to expand...

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2009/08/27/‘heads-up’-playstation-store-update-27th-august-2009/
 
[Rumour] EA prevented universal in-game music, and now voice chat?


I promised you all an update on Cross-Game chat, so here it is. And you're not going to like it. As I told you before, Cross-game voice chat has been in the works for a while now. I mentioned last time that it was on target for 3.0 providing that we didn't hit any snags. Well guess what, we hit a snag! An all too familiar snag. Time for a history lesson. How many of you remember what it was like before FW 2.4? That's right - no in-game XMB. No custom soundtracks. In-game XMB was the most heavily requested feature at the time and we worked tirelessly in order to get it in (By "we", I mean Sony Japan - as I said before, FW isn't my department). It very nearly didn't happen, you have no idea how difficult it is to backport a feature like that onto a system (the game) that doesn't even know its there, but somehow we managed it. Well, for most titles. There are still the odd few titles out there that don't support in-game XMB ("black" titles). Custom soundtracks was another one we had working in nearly every title. Obviously it was never going to work in black titles, but about 95% of the titles that worked well with the in-game XMB, had custom soundtracks working as well. So what happened? Why is it that titles HAVE to be developed specifically with custom soundtrack support when it was working more or less just fine? Is it because Microsoft owns the patent on custom soundtracks in games? This is something that makes me laugh every time I see one of the less educated ones spouting it off. That's an absolute fabrication. Patents don't matter, Sony as a whole infringes upon thousands of patents through the whole company, both hardware and software. If you infringe a patent, you pay royalties to the owner or find a different way of doing the same thing that doesn't infringe. That's it. Microsoft infringes upon all kinds of patents we own but that's up to legal to sort out. No, the reason we had to drop Custom soundtrack support like that has nothing to do with Microsoft. It does, however, involve a different company. A rather large company. You see, one of their games happened to fall into the 5% that didn't support in-game custom soundtracks. And they did not like this. When they found out that a new firmware update was going to suddenly make one of their games look inferior to just about every other game released, they protested. A lot. They threatened everything, from legal action to dropping support for the PS3 all together. What could we do? There was almost no way of getting it to work correctly due to the way their game was made (i.e. Poorly) and we certainly couldn't leave a broken implementation in there. That's when the hard decision was made to remove all support for older titles and instead adopt the "opt-in" approach that, to this day, most developers simply ignore. I have to hand this to Microsoft - they did their system right from the beginning and by completely separating it from the developers, they have universal support. Its very unlikely that you'll ever see mandatory support for custom soundtracks in games on our system, I'm afraid. So yeah, lets nail this on the head: The next time someone starts blaming Microsoft for something the PS3 doesn't have, tell them they're an idiot, they don't know what they're talking about. Are we clear on this? This is a pet peeve of mine because while everyone's happy to go around blaming Microsoft, the real culprits are getting off scott-free. Of course, I can't actually name them directly or, should I get caught, I might even get done for slander (you can never be too careful), but you can figure it out - it's not Activision and they have a poor history with the PS3. So what has this got to do with Cross-game voice chat? Guess. I warned you that we might hit a snag and we did. We've found a couple of titles that just don't like it. Similar to the custom soundtrack fiasco, it can cause lag, crashes, desyncronisation (very very bad when this happens), you name it. It can't be used in these games and it just so happens that some of these games are owned by the same company I've been talking about above. So we're in a predicament: Cross-game chat is useless if only certain games support it. It's not too bad if its just the odd one that doesn't like it, but at this rate we'd have to drop support for the ENTIRE back catalogue, which would (As I said) make the whole thing useless. Furthermore, we can't rely on developers to implement direct support for it. It didn't work with Custom Soundtracks, so why would it work here? So right now, we're trying every little trick in the book to find a solution that works for everyone, but don't hold your breath on this one, so far it looks like the best you're going to get is a gimped implementation of it that only works with a handful of new games. Now as I said, FW isn't actually my department and even I'm not supposed to know some of this stuff, but this is actually where we are right now. It sucks majorly, but there you have it. Depending on the end result, it could come in FW 3.1 or it could come in FW 4.0, hell it might not even come at all but rest assured they are working very hard on it. And if it doesn't come, you know who to blame.





Some of you people could really do with learning to read. I specifically said it was NOT Activision. I thought I gave enough hints as to who it was without directly stating it, but I guess not, so lets try this again, except we'll make it interesting. Here lies the answers, lets see who is clever enough to figure it out? SXQncyBub3QgQWN0aXZpc2lvbi4NCkl0J3Mgbm90IFViaXNvZnQuDQpJdCdzIG5vdCBDYXBjb20uDQpJdCdzIG5vdCBJbnNvbW5pYWMuDQpJdCdzIG5vdCBL b25hbWkuDQpJdCdzIG5vdCBUYWtlIDIuDQpJdCdzIG5vdCBNaWR3YXkuDQpJdCdzIG5vdCBTcXVhcmVzb2Z0Lg0KDQphcmUgd0UgQWxsIGdldHRpbmcgdGhlI HBpY3R1cmUgeWV0Pw0KDQpPbmUgcG9pbnQgSSB3YW50IHRvIHJlaXRlcmF0ZSAtIHRoZXJlJ3MgYSBkaWZmZXJlbmNlIGJldHdlZW4gdGhlIGdhbWVzIHRoYX QgZGlkbid0IHdvcmsgd2l0aCBpbi1nYW1lIFhNQiBhbmQgdGhlIGdhbWVzIHRoYXQgRElEIHdvcmsgd2l0aCBpbi1nYW1lIFhNQiBidXQgRElETidUIHdvcms gd2VsbCB3aXRoIGN1c3RvbSBzb3VuZHRyYWNrcywgc28gc3RvcCBwaWNraW5nIG91dCB0aGUgb25lcyB0aGF0IHNpbXBseSBkaWRuJ3QgZG8gaW4tZ2FtZSBY TUIuDQoNCkFsc28sIGl0IHdhc24ndCBqdXN0IE9ORSBnYW1lIHRoYXQgY2F1c2VkIHRoaXMsIGVpdGhlci4gQWx0aG91Z2ggb25lIHRpdGxlIGRvZXMgY29tZ SB0byBtaW5kIGFuZCBpdCB3YXNuJ3QgZXZlbiB3aGF0IHlvdSBvciBJIHdvdWxkIGNhbGwgYSAiQmlnIiBnYW1lLiBJJ2xsIGdpdmUgeW91IGEgaGludDogSF BhdE9vZlAu As for those curious as to why I would call the whistle on this, tell me good sir, what would you do? You have a vested interest in the company you work for and you see this other company constantly getting in the way. Oh sure, on the outside everyone's all buddy-buddy, but that's just good business. And that's what it boils down to - business. Why fix something that doesn't need to be fixed when you can just **** over everyone else and get away with it? You know Sony isn't going to make a huge fuss, they can't afford to alienate publishers and developers (especially HUGE ones), not when Microsoft and Nintendo are happy to welcome them with open arms. Still, all our hard work and it just gets ****ed down the drain because one company can't be bothered doing some support? I ask you again - what would you do? Oh and I appreciate all of you guys trying to spread this around, I hope that they'll back track and enable that feature for as many titles as they can eventually, but don't be surprised if Sony themselves denies this, after all their priority is to maintain good ties with publishers and developers.





Code above translates to



It's not Activision. It's not Ubisoft. It's not Capcom. It's not Insomniac. It's not Konami. It's not Take 2. It's not Midway. It's not Squaresoft. are wE All getting the picture yet? One point I want to reiterate - there's a difference between the games that didn't work with in-game XMB and the games that DID work with in-game XMB but DIDN'T work well with custom soundtracks, so stop picking out the ones that simply didn't do in-game XMB. Also, it wasn't just ONE game that caused this, either. Although one title does come to mind and it wasn't even what you or I would call a "Big" game. I'll give you a hint: HPatOofP.



Game above is - Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
Click to expand...



Source: http://forums.n4g.com/Cross-game-chat-and-why-it39s-currently-MIA-m700070.aspx



Before anyone torches the source, it's the same guy who called the PS3 slim months before it came out and detailed how OtherOS support was being removed.
 
Because a lot of people like myself would like to talk to their friends even if they are in a different game/activity on the PS3. Im going to grab that NHL 10 demo today for sure.
 
I think PS3 owners just want what the 360 has without the hardware problems.

I remember we used the text chat when playing fifa clubs and it was better than using the in game Fifa chat with a low character limit. Being able to talk would be much better especially as talking through Fifa while in game is hit and miss.

I don't think cross game chat is a huge deal though and isn't what... £510 000 000 worth of good feature. (Number of XBL gold subscribers (was 17 million in jan 09) multiplied by average cost of subscription £30?)
 
The text chat is awesome, especially during BAP.

The last FW update increased the text limit.
 
I managed to download the NHL 10 demo from the PlayStation Store even thought its technically not updated yet. You can get it by using the search feature on the store and typing in NHL. I dont know if it would work for other content that was due to today as I wasnt really interested in anything else. Im slightly worried by the late update. I remember last year, when the FIFA 09 demo was due the store update got delayed. I hope the same does not occur on September 10th for the FIFA 10 demo. Also the NHL 10 demo is awesome! :)
 
I noticed BillyBoy playing the NHL demo, I did a search for it and downloaded it along the Joker DLC. The rest hasn't shown up yet.
 
Its a lot easier to get to grips with than last years demo, might warrant a purchase down the line.
 
Sony’s Satoshi Hashimoto, in an interview with Impress Watch, has revealed a few of the new features in Firmware 3.0 that haven’t yet made the full change log we reported on earlier in the week. There’s quite a few new snippets of information to be gained from the interview which the AndriaSang blog has translated for us below – note that in addition to the bulletpoints Firmware 3.0 will not be enforcing a removal of any installed Other OS systems, that’s just for the new slimline PS3s and not any that have Linux already running.

* Version 3.0 of the the firmware will add the ability to upconvert audio from hard disc and USB sources to 88.2KHz or 176.4KHz. This is something that was added with version 1.8 exclusively for CDs.

* The right analogue stick functionality during video playback looks like it will be pretty powerful. When you push the stick in any direction, the video will pause. You can then rotate the stick for speeds ranging between slow motion and four times. Rotate clockwise, and you’ll advance the video. Counterclockwise will backtrack. The speed can be adjusted at a precision of 0.01 times. Let go of the stick, and the playback will continue at normal speed.

* The web browser’s print screen functionality can output to a printer connected via USB and over LAN. Only certain printers are compatible though.

* This is something you might have not noticed before (I certainly never gave much thought to it). Currently, when you start up your PS3, the XMB interface begins by pointing at the games section. Starting with firmware 3.0, the interface will default to pointing at the newly added What’s New section of the network column. This is true even if you have a disc in the system. You can go into the settings menu to switch back to the original behavior if you like.

* The analogue clock display in the upper right side corner of the screen has been switched to a busy indicator. When the system is working, you’ll see the clock spinning.

* The font size and icon size for the main interface have become a bit bigger. This was implemented in order to better show what area is in focus.

* From version 3.0, all versions of the PS3 — old and new — will have a change to their startup sequences. When booting up the system for the firts time, PlayStation family logo, PS3 logo, and PlayStation 3 logo will all display simultaneously. When you start up a game, the PS3 logo will no longer be shown, giving a slight boost in speed to startup time. Note that this does not apply to original PlayStation games, as they run on an emulator.

* Version 3.0 adds support for more dynamic themes using videos and other elements. The system’s base “wave” theme has also been changed to a display of fine particles. Backgrounds for such themes are created by the same SDK that’s used to make games. There’s a slight bit of interaction with the particle effects. If you’re scrolling down, the particles will flow down. If you’re scrolling left, the particles will flow left.
Click to expand...

Link

Good stuff.
 
Dags - you tried to use the US Store recently? Just went to get the Tom Petty RB tracks, and it says card is invalid. Checked all my details and everything is set up fine.

Bit worried if I've lost US access with the amount of money I've spent on DLC!

===========

Still cannot get it working, so gonna kick Entropay into touch.

Come across these guys www.hdmoviesource.com - who sell $20 and $50 US PSN cards and they (apparantly!) email you the code. If you buy any from them, remember to change your DELIVERY country to "CARDS" in the checkout and there will be no shipping.

Paid £14.67 for a $20 card - will update later once(/if!) code comes through and if it works.
 
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Haven't tried, PBB. Did you update your address with Entropay though? I left mine as it was, haven't had an email since. No internet access at home so can't try unfortunately.

That PSN card sounds interesting!
 
PSN card worked a treat! Got the email a few hours later (would have been early morning in US when I ordered) and put the code in and instantly credited $20. No need to mess around with addresses etc.

Will definitely use that in future now! £14, cannae go wrong!
 
Vids of some animated XMB themes

This Killzone one looks awesome

YouTube - XMB PS3 Firmware 3.0 (Killzone 2 animated wallpaper)
YouTube - New video demonstrating additions in Firmware 3 0 PS3

-

The bottom videos shows the 'whats hot' menu and they say that you can use that to jump back into the last 3 games you played at the exact point you were at when you quit. It also shows Wipeout HD working with this loading right into the game. I'm just wondering if that's been edited to skip all of the loading screens and legal mumbo jumbo.


===

Heavy Rain
How would you deal with a hold-up?

Heavy Rain Video Game, GC 09: Developer Walkthrough Pt. 2 HD | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com

Heavy Rain Video Game, GC 09: Developer Walkthrough Pt. 3 | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com
 
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Those themes look amazing (Killzone one especially). Hopefully we get some unofficial ones which would be awesome.
 
The Wipeout HD bit looks suspicious, looks like the video was edited.
 
Radiation said:
Because?
Click to expand...
no cross game invites, cross game chat, no .mkv support and no party system. Basicly NO useful features that many ps3 users have been begging to have on a firmware update that can impact the way we communicate and play games.

what does this fancy animated BG do for us? nothing.
 
jonneymendoza said:
no cross game invites, cross game chat, no .mkv support and no party system. Basicly NO useful features that many ps3 users have been begging to have on a firmware update that can impact the way we communicate and play games.

what does this fancy animated BG do for us? nothing.
Click to expand...

But they can't get to any of that without tweaking the firmware elsewhere behind the scenes. Every update we've had has tweaked it all around allowing us to get future features. Before we had in game XMB they had to release countless firmware updates to shift the memory around and make sure all games worked still. If they didn't do this update then whatever is planned for the next one in 2010 can't be done.

This update is supposed to lay the foundations to allow game launching within home with ALL titles. Something you've asked for time and time again but yet now they're stepping towards it, it's pointless?
 
why not wait until the features are ready before releasing a firmware update then?

this update is pointless for the user. what can a user do with foundations layed out for the feature they asked for? users WANT the feature not some hidden Class object that just lay out the framework to use these features. create the framework, code the features and then release it has a x. feature.

imagine in fifa 10 they created just the framework for 360 dribbling and not the actual feature.
 
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