PS3 Gamers Unite

Just returned from the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle Washington. If you havent heard or havent been, check it out and go next year!

Go to: Penny Arcade Expo

The expo was set at the Washington State Convention Center. It had 4 jam packed levels of exhibitions, panel discussions, free play, etc. This is a gamers paradise. I had a chance to play all the latest and greatest from all companies. This includes Socom Confrontation, Little Big Planet, Fallout 3, Singstar, and Gears of War 2. I was also lucky enough to meet our favorite semi-PR guy from Sony, Jeff Rubenstein (Sony held a pre-PAX meeting at a local coffee and donut shop, also featuring a PSP tournament where a lucky individual won a limited edition Sony Playstation 3).

A word to the wise: Sign up early and get your hotel reservation in before everything is booked. This year everything was all sold out!

“We’ve realised that maybe we were too ambitious with the non-gaming applications within Home, getting sponsors and stuff like that,” he went on to confess.

-SCEE president David Reeves (Source)

When will people stop getting excited over Playstation Home? This is absolutely ridiculous. Fans claim this is the future of gaming…blah blah blah. No its not. Its the future of advertising. Look at the quote above. What do you think that means? They were so busy lining up sponsors and filling ad space, they completely forgot about the you, the gamer. All the meanwhile, PS3 gamers are still struggling without features such as in-game XMB. A feature that XBOX Live has had since day one. Listen, Playstation Home is a great idea. But how many delays will need to occur before this revolutionary idea just becomes a horrible one.

This isn’t the only way Sony has put gamers on the back burner. The Blu-ray drive itself, while very much needed in my opinion for larger scale games, has taken the PS3 steering wheel. It seems like we are getting more updates to the Blu-ray capabilities than to gaming features.

Just remember, Home was announced back in March of ‘07. Beta is scheduled for this fall. Meaning…possible full release around Winter vacation?? Eh, we’ll play it safe and say first quarter ‘09. Even then, just like any other online release, it will be riddled with bugs. My take on the situation? Sony should have kept quite early on so that we weren’t waiting almost 2 years for a bugged product.

I love you all, be safe.

NoSunlight.com
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Dylan Jobe has just announced the latest update features to Warhawk which will take place between 10AM and 12PM today. Check the feature listing below!

• By popular demand, playlists which include the largest layouts now include only the largest layouts. They will no longer occasionally rotate into medium layouts.
• By popular demand, respawn times have been set to 3 seconds.
  
• By popular demand, Broken Mirror servers now offer dedicated CTF and ZNS games in place of the mixed playlists.
• Dogfight servers were added back to the list. They were inadvertently omitted before.
• All games’ time limits were reduced to 15 minutes, and ZNS score limit was reduced to 5000, to combat complaints of prolonged base camping.
• “NEWBIE” servers were changed to “Rookie” to bring the nomenclature in line with upcoming changes in v1.4.
• “Pro” servers were changed to “Expert” to more obviously indicate a skill level rather than a player type. Some players incorrectly identified “Pro” servers as tournament games, a la MLG or GGL.
• “Casual” servers are essentially the same as before, but the “Casual” designator has been dropped. We now refer to these internally as just “standard” servers, and they are listed without any special identifier.
• The rank cap on Rookie servers was increased to Wingman, since players were getting kicked out of these servers too quickly and finding themselves unprepared to play on standard servers.
• A rank cap was imposed on standard servers at Command Marshall. This is rank 15/19 so it should not affect a lot of players. The intention is to pull some of the most elite players out into their own category, somewhat narrowing the rank gap on these servers.
• Many Omega Dawn exclusive servers were removed due to lack of use.

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How insane will this be once it gets more utilized in games? One thing I’m hoping for is a simple way to record. Hopefully we can hit the PS button and record directly from there rather than enabling it before a game in a sub menu or something. I really have to admit though, Halo 3 got it right. Record all the game data and make it viewable from any angle. Only thing that would have made the feature perfect is to export it somehow. Only way to get it off your XBOX 360 is to have a separate recording device.

We’ve uploaded some new Haze gameplay footage from the PS3 demo available now on the PSN store. I have to say, I wasnt that excited about the game the first time I played it. The voice acting, the controls and the weapons all felt kind of cheesy. I played it again last night to get some footage recorded and I actually I had a lot of fun.

Check out the footage below and decide for yourself. If you’d like anymore footage from the Haze demo just drop us a comment and let us know what you’d like to see!

If you’re looking to pre-order Haze before launch day, you’ll also find a few options in the link below.

Pre-order Haze, Gameplay Footage <- Click Here

Here’s a couple tips and techniques to get you started on pwning in COD4 (or any first person shooter for that matter).

1. FIRST and FOREMOST - Get good at working both thumbsticks. Start out by moving forward and backward with the left stick. Try not to use the right stick that much until you’re more comfortable with it. For the time being, if you need to turn, flick the stick left or right. Dont keep your thumb on it because you’re probably not coordinated enough at the moment. Try not to get too much up and down motion going either because you’ll probably end up shooting the heavens or the dirt below you.

COD4 Online Gameplay <- Click Here

2. KNOW YOUR SURROUNDINGS - Learn and MEMORIZE the maps that you will be playing on. There’s nothing worse than getting flanked by some noob because you didn’t know there was a back way into the room you were currently camping.

3. DONT CAMP - While you may get a kill or two from someone coming around a corner, sooner or later they’re going to figure out that you’re lame and kill you instead. Regardless of what you might think, staying on the move is the best deal. At the same time, be stealth, dont run out in the open. Remember, stay on the move.

4. OH SNAP - When you’re not under heavy fire, reload that gun. You dont want to run into battle with half a clip. Most likely your foe is ready to go and will light you up like a Christmas tree.

5. PRO TIP O’ THE DAY - If the heat is on and your clip is empty, rather than reloading…switch weapons. Now this also means you must keep both guns fully loaded. How horrible would it be if you switch weapons only to find out you need to reload that one too? Trust me, it happens. Keep both guns fully loaded and switch weapons to keep the bullets flying.

More tips are coming to you soon. Start out on these and I’ll be back with more.

COD4 Online Gameplay <- Click Here