Call of Duty: Black Ops II players on the PlayStation 3 and PC, today is the day. You can finally get your headshot-loving thumbs on first downloadable content pack for Treyarch’s first-person shooter.

Activision released the Revolution map pack on PlayStation Network and Steam today for $14.99. Gamers can also get it as part of a $49.99 Season Pass, which guarantees access to the four planned expansion packs.

Revolution includes four maps, a new gun, a Zombies map, and a fresh Zombies mode.

Check out Activision’s PlayStation launch trailer below:

I’ve had some time with the map pack on Xbox 360, and I can say that the new maps are a good time.

• “Hydro” takes place at a hydroelectric plant in Pakistan. At set intervals, certain parts of the map flood and will kill anyone who’s standing in the water’s path.
• “Grind” is in a Venice Beach skate park. It doesn’t have many corners to hide behind, which is very different for a Call of Duty map.
• “Downhill” takes players to a ski resort in the French Alps. This is my favorite of the new maps. It offers a few great sniping locations and plenty of ways to flank said locations.
• “Mirage” is a luxury resort in China’s Gobi Desert. This is another great map, which offers ample pathways to attack the enemy or set up ambushes.

In addition to the maps, Revolution is the first time that Call of Duty has a new DLC weapon. The Peacemaker submachine gun is very similar to the M27 assault rifle. If you like the M27 but also want to run around like a mad man, the Peacemaker might fit your playstyle.

As for Zombies, Treyarch added the “Turned” mode, which gives players the chance to play as the undead. The DLC also has a new Zombies level called “Die Rise.” Treyarch set the stage in a skyscraper in a destroyed Chinese city.

Activision still isn’t saying anything about when (or if) the DLC will arrive on Nintendo’s Wii U. That’s not a good sign for Nintendo. If one of the biggest games in the world can’t figure out delivering its popular add-on packs, then what chance do any smaller games have of doing the same?

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Sony reached a new deal with streaming video service Epix that will bring the network’s library of movies to both PlayStation 3 and PS Vita, the company announced today via the PlayStation blog.

Epix provides tons of relatively new movies (about 90 days after they release on DVD) like The Avengers, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, The Hunger Games, and more. You may remember hearing about Epix when the service signed licensing deals with major streaming video services Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video — meaning if you subscribe to either of those services, you already have access to the Epix movie library. And now, anyone who already subscribes to a movie package through their cable or satellite TV service can access it on the PlayStation Network.

This is a good move for Sony’s PlayStation 3 and one that will allow it to remain competitive with Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which currently doesn’t support Epix.

The PS3 Epix app will be available for free via PSN soon with a PS Vita app to follow later in the spring, according to the blog post.

Sony announced today on the PlayStation blog that the PS3 is the number one home entertainment device people use to watch Netflix on their TVs. That’s impressive.

Almost any device, it seems, can stream Netflix these days. Netflix is available on the Wii (and the new Wii U), Apple TV, Tivo, Boxee, numerous Blu-ray players, Roku digital players, smart TV platforms from multiple vendors, and, of course, the Xbox 360.

To lead that pack is quite an accomplishment.

“PS3 is our largest TV-connected platform in terms of Netflix viewing, and this year, at times, even surpassed the PC in hours of Netflix enjoyment to become our number one platform overall,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in a statement.

Part of that lead is because PS3 is a very successful mass-market console despite the fact that Xbox has outsold it for 23 consecutive months. Part of it is because PS3 had Netflix early, in 2009, was the first console with 1080p and 5.1 surround sound, and has consistently been on the cutting edge of what’s available, technologically, to control your Netflix viewing.

But part of it is probably also because the Xbox 360, while it offers Netflix, has a wider range of entertainment possibilities, with Microsoft working on original video content, major network TV, YouTube, live TV, and more.

Two newer innovations that Sony has brought to PS3 and Netflix include a new voice user interface system, dubbed “Max,” that is currently in testing, and the ability to pause a Netflix movie on your PS3-equipped TV, and restart it seamlessly on another device, such as your PlayStation Vita.

Innovations like that — and perhaps a breakthrough new console for the coming 2013 updates — might keep PS3 in the lead.

photo credit: CowGummy via photopin cc

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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GamingBolt reported that a hacker Hector Martin, who goes by the name Marcan, discovered that the Wii U’s IBM PowerPC central processing unit runs at 1.24 gigahertz per core, with a total of three cores. By comparison, the PS3′s Cell processor and the Xbox 360′s Xenon run at 3 gigahertz per core.

Martin said that the Wii U is not so hard to hack. He says the security processor is dubbed Starbuck, versus the Starlet on the Wii, and it “seems to be about equally vulnerable, too.” He also said “clock for clock” comparisons with the older Xbox 360 chip aren’t strictly valid.

The Wii U’s graphics processing unit (GPU) is made by Advanced Micro Devices. Marcan says it runs at 549 megahertz. [Update: Rob Wyatt of Otoy points out that the PS3's graphics chip runs at 550 megahertz (which is effectively the same clock) and the Xbox 360's GPU runs at 500 megahertz.]

Of course, clock speeds are only one measure of performance. The number of cores is also relevant as is the processor’s architecture. But for the most part, this means that the Wii U is underpowered compared to the 7-year-old Xbox 360 and the 6-year-old PS3.

In a statement, Nintendo said, “We understand that people like to dissect graphics and processing power, but the experience of playing will always be more important than raw numbers.”

Expanding on that, I think Nintendo’s natural comeback is that the innovation lies in the Wii U’s tablet game controller and the new asynchronous gameplay it enables. The Wii U also has sufficient processing power to display games in high-definition.

But clearly Nintendo has made sacrifices. One of the big drawbacks is that the processor/GPU combination is too slow to power the displays for a TV and for two tablets at the same time when running high-speed games. Right now, Wii U games make use of only a single tablet controller played with a TV. To run a game with two tablets used at the same time, Nintendo will reportedly have to scale back the framerate of a game, running it at perhaps 30 frames per second instead of 60 frames per second.

That certainly means that the Wii U performance leaves something to be desired. But Nintendo has been able to keep the cost of the console relatively low. The Wii U debuted with a high-end model price of $349, compared to $399 for the Xbox 360 and $599 for the PS3.

When Microsoft and Sony launch their new consoles soon, it won’t be very hard for them to include hardware that runs circles around the performance of the Wii U.

[Wii U board image from AnandTech]

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Sony just released its fifth iteration of the PlayStation 3 game console (affectionately named the “Super Slim.”) This new version is basically the same as the original PS3 that debuted in 2006 and is almost technologically identical to the Slim that hit stores in 2009, though it is not backwards compatible for PlayStation 2 titles. Sony will offer three models of the Super Slim: the 250GB (of internal storage) model ($270, tested in this review), the 500GB model ($300, due out Oct. 30 in North America, and currently available in Europe and Japan), and a 12GB Flash memory-only model that’s only available in Europe.

So, how is the Super Slim? It’s ugly and clunky, but it might have a redeeming quality or two.

What’s different

I’ve found only two good reasons to buy the Super Slim. Either you don’t actually own a PS3 and decided that this holiday is the special one, or you have one of the original “fat” models and want to upgrade. But the few additional features in the Super Slim don’t warrant a new purchase for those with older PS3s. And since any PS3 allows for simple hard drive upgrades, it’s much cheaper to buy a new drive than buying a whole new console if you want more space.

The biggest difference between the Super Slim and previous PS3 models is the power supply (PSU, or power supply unit). The 190W PSU uses half the power of the original PS3, which besides being one of the largest game consoles in history also has a massive 380W PSU. You won’t see a major difference in your electric bill if you own the PS3 Slim. Depending on which model, the Slim already thinned out with either a 250W, 230W, or 200W PSU.

The Super Slim does offer one major improvement: quiet fans. The Super Slim is the quietest home console I’ve ever used. It’s silent compared to the jumbo jet Xbox 360 Slim and even a whisper side-by-side with the Wii. You can leave it on by accident and not notice because it’s so quiet. This is where the 190W PSU really comes in handy.

It’s all downhill from there. The new look is as drastic a change from the past models as it can be without becoming a 360. It’s glossy on the front and back and with a ridged, matte finish on the Blu-ray tray; I haven’t seen an uglier home console in over 10 years. Just take a look at the gallery below and judge for yourself. It can stand upright, but I wouldn’t recommend it without a stand; the featherweight 4.62 pound console is easy to tip over with a gentle push.

What makes the Super Slim the ugly duckling of the PS3 family is the new Blu-ray tray, which opens with a spring-release button. You know, instead of a mechanical or touch-sensitive button like most Blu-ray, DVD, and CD-ROM drives have had years. The Super Slim has an actual spring-action lock to open up the try. Press a button and the top of the tray flings open to reveal the disc tray.

Compared to the original PS3 — which uses touch sensors for the power and disc removal buttons — the Super Slim looks and feels like Sony spent millions of dollars to build a device that would look futuristic … in the ’80s.

I understand that Sony wants to keep costs down, but the Super Slim is actually more expensive than the past Slim model, which still sells for $250. It may be lighter and thinner, and it may sell as a bundle with a year-old game (Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception — Game of the Year Edition, a popular third person action-adventure), $30 of in-game currency for the upcoming free-to-play online first-person shooter Dust 514, and a month of PlayStation Plus. But a cheaper-looking and -feeling console that’s more expensive? That’s ridiculous.

All that additional $20 really pays for is the step up from a 120GB hard drive to 250GB one, which doubles the storage capacity but doesn’t increase speed. That makes it great for downloading movies, TV shows, and storing all of your game installs while rarely worrying about running out of space. Anyone who uses their PS3 as a media center or who takes full advantage of Sony’s initiative to make new games available for direct download upon release will love the bigger drive. But it’s nothing that any current PS3 owner can’t already get for just $50, a screwdriver, and half hour or so to switch out hard drives.

The other issue for those moving from an older PS3 to this model: Transferring your data from an older PS3 to a newer one is both a painful and awfully slow process.

What’s the same

The Super Slim still comes with built-in Wi-Fi, only two USB 2.0 ports (compared to the first two models’ four ports), and ships without an HDMI cable. It’s actually amazing that Sony is shipping a game console in 2012 without any HD cables. Thankfully, they’re as quite affordable (as long as you avoid retailers such as Best Buy).

All of the software is identical across all PS3 models. Applications and games run and load at the same speed on all iterations of the PS3. Games download and install just as fast.

Conclusion: Ugly but quiet

The Super Slim is not worth upgrading to for those who already own a PS3. It’s more expensive than past Slim models, and today you can find older model PlayStation 3 units for less than $150. The Slim models (that’s the last generation PS3 models) are still available for $250 and $300, and frankly are better deals than the new Super Slim.

The Super Slim does have two reasons that make it worthy of a recommendation for potential first-time buyers PS3 or would-be upgraders. The first is if you use your PS3 to stream a lot of Internet video services like Hulu or Amazon Prime (or if you live in Europe or Japan and stream TV through the console), then you probably have some dark, quiet hole that the Super Slim can hide away in and never be seen. Sure, the disc tray will be a pain to use, but for all of your streaming content, a growing list of PS3 games that are fully downloadable, and a PlayStation Plus account, who needs discs?

The second is for the peace and quiet that the Super Slim affords. It’s not competitively priced with older models, but if you hate hearing anything except your speakers when playing, then the Super Slim is for you. No other PS3 — or any other home console — is as quiet as the Super Slim, so you won’t need to anger your neighbors with obnoxiously loud audio to drown out jet engine fan in the living room. But if you’re seriously considering the Super Slim, I recommend that you wait for the 500GB Assassin’s Creed 3 bundle. It’s $300 but crams double the capacity and a new game we’re actually excited about in the same machine for just $30 more.

The PlayStation 3 Super Slim unit tested was provided by Sony.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Online retail giant Amazon has launched a new streaming video app for Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console, the company announced today.

As part of the agreement between Sony and Amazon, the Amazon Instant Video App will be prominently featured on all consoles in the U.S. It also makes the PS3 the sole gaming console to integrate with Amazon’s streaming video service, which includes over 17,000 TV shows and movies available for free to Amazon Prime members.

An Amazon Prime membership will run you $79 per year but also offers you free two-day shipping through Amazon’s website and access to the Kindle e-book lending library. To celebrate the launch of its PS3 app, Amazon is offering the first episode of more than 100 TV shows for free to both Prime and non-Prime customers. (And of course, you can always buy or rent tons of movies and TV shows.)

This is a big win for the PS3 and one that was definitely needed to compete with the Xbox. Last week, the Xbox debuted a handful of new apps, including MLB.tv, Comcast’s Xfinity TV, and HBO Go.

Below are some additional details about the new Amazon PS3 app from the press release:

• Instant streaming of nearly 25,000 high-definition movies and TV shows that start and resume in just seconds.
• New smart lists such as Recently Watched, Next Episode and Personal Recommendations. These lists appear on the home screen of the PS3 system app and update dynamically based on what customers watch and buy. They make it easy for customers to find the next thing they want to watch. They can start watching an episode where they left off or watch the next episode in a series. It introduces them to new TV shows and movies that they will love.
• Whispersync lets customers seamlessly switch from one device to another. Start streaming a movie on Kindle Fire, then pick up right where you left off on your PS3 system — avoid the frustration of having to find your spot.
• Your Video Library gives customers access to purchases from Amazon Instant Video on the PlayStation 3 system or any of the hundreds of other devices enabled for Amazon Instant Video.

The new multiplayer maps, Liberation and Piazza, are the first of 20 DLC drops scheduled during Call of Duty’s 9-month-long Content Season. However, due to an exclusivity deal with Microsoft, PS3 owners have been left waiting for an entire month to access the content, even if they’ve paid for an Elite Premium membership.

Many CoD fans have voiced their displeasure over the situation on the game’s official community site. Some say the delay isn’t fair, while others say paying for Elite and not getting promised DLC at the same time as Xbox users is a scam. One member called Creeker writes, “I play on PlayStation and I paid just as much for my Elite as anyone on Xbox so I don’t see why they should get their map packs a month before I do.”

Patrickrh7 adds, “What I don’t get is, why the eff did you guys sell this Elite with the promise of not waiting so long for new content! When PS3 users are pretty much now waiting almost four months for two maps that we already know all about!!! This Elite package is a joke!!!“

Community site member D3TON1C sums it up with a simple, “this is bull ****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -_- [sic]“

The latest Call of Duty Elite content drop, a multiplayer map called Overwatch, is scheduled to land on the PlayStation Network on March 29.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Battlefield 3 launched in Oct 2011, and voice chat for most PS3 users has been consistently choppy and unusable, until now. With over 4 million PS3 copies of the game having been sold worldwide, this issue has affected a lot of gamers, who will be pleased to now see it resolved.

Patching games after release has become standard practice for developers in recent years, but this is not always of benefit to the gaming community. Often games appear to be rushed out to meet release dates, while still containing potentially game-breaking bugs and glitches. In the case of BF3, many players feel that DICE and publisher Electronic Arts pushed the game out too early, in an attempt to better compete with rival first person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

I can personally testify that the 11MB patch, v1.03, has cleared up the voice chat issues with the game. This has also been confirmed by various players who have posted on the EA forums. Both squad and team chat now seem to be working well.

There are other gameplay balancing issues that are expected to be addressed by DICE this month, but the patch released today seems to only be a voice chat fix.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Activision has outlined its downloadable content (DLC) schedule for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 during 2012. There are 20 pieces of DLC due in total, which will be made available to Elite Premium subscribers over a nine month ‘content season’.

The DLC is key to Activision Blizzard’s ability to charge a monthly fee for its new Call of Duty Elite service. Premium members who pay $4.99 a month can get the “content drops” for free. Getting players engaged in year-round playing, rather than just buying a game once a year, is key to shifting the games to a service-based business model.

In addition to the Liberation and Piazza maps, released on Xbox 360 this week, there will be ten further multiplayer maps added to the game during the year. Activision has also revealed that there will be two new game modes appearing, one in June and one in August, along with a total of six new Special Ops missions.

This content will be released in 20 ‘drops’ for subscribers to the paid Elite Premium service, which costs $50 a year. Non-Elite customers will also be able to purchase the maps, which are being developed by Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Raven Software, at a later date. The price for the standalone DLC has not yet been announced, but map packs, typically containing five maps, have previously cost $15, or 1200 MS Points.

The 2012 DLC calendar, at least for Xbox 360 Elite subscribers, is as follows:

• January: Two new maps (Liberation and Piazza)
• February: New map
• March: New map, two new Spec Ops missions
• April: Two new maps
• May: New map, new Spec Ops mission
• June: New map, new Spec Ops mission, new game mode
• July: Two new maps
• August: New map, new Spec Ops mission, new game mode
• September: New map, new Spec Ops mission

While many PS3 and PC players are also signed up to the Elite service, there has been no official word on when they will receive their DLC. Microsoft and Activision signed an agreement in 2010, which gave all Call of Duty DLC timed exclusivity on the Xbox 360 platform, and this agreement is still in place.

When questioned on Twitter about DLC timing, Robert Bowling, Creative Strategist at Infinity Ward said, “I don’t control release dates, however I can assure [you] that every platform will get the same amount of content and months of content.” This lack of clarity hasn’t helped diffuse the anger of many PS3 and PC players, whose Elite membership has left them feeling anything but elite.

Dean gave his hands-on impressions of the new Piazza and Liberation maps yesterday. The official trailer for the two maps is embedded below.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Playstation 3 gamers can breath a sigh of relief today, as Electronic Arts’ DICE officially confirmed that a patch to fix long running Battlefield 3 voice chat problems is incoming.

PS3 users have been reporting issues with the voice chat functionality in Battlefield 3 since the Beta rolled out, back in September 2011. The full game saw the same problems occurring, but despite developer DICE saying that looking at the issue was a top priority, there had been no official confirmation of a fix, until now.

Speaking on the Battlefield 3 Battlelog forum earlier today , DICE Junior Product Manager Tommy Rydling confirmed that, “We have a fix on its way for the VOIP [voice over internet protocol] issue that some Battlefield 3 players have experienced on PS3.”

Rydling said to expect the patch that will clear up this problem “soon”, and told BF3 players to stay tuned for the exact timing.

There had been talk in various quarters that the voice chat problems on PS3, which manifest themselves as broken, stuttered speech, especially when more than two people are communicating at once, would be unfixable. The small amount of RAM (512MB) on board the PS3 had been cited as a possible cause for the problem, especially given that this is the reason cross game chat has never been implemented on the console.

This official confirmation from DICE that the voice chat fixing patch is finally on its way, should be a great relief to the huge numbers of PS3 gamers that have been affected. It will certainly be a lot easier to play a team based first person shooter, when the team can effectively communicate.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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LittleBigPlanet was a revelation among console games when the first instalment launched in 2008. Giving PS3 owners the tools to create and share their own levels, LBP had the potential to create a large, resilient community from the start. While some gamers may have found the creation aspect of the game a little daunting, others have revelled in it, and the number of levels currently sat on the Little Big Planet servers is certainly impressive.

Media Molecule announced last year that it is stepping away from Little Big Planet. Development of the Vita edition of the game, due to launch in 2012, has instead been entrusted to Tarsier Studios and Double Eleven.

Media Molecule’s recent financial report explained that its main business risks were “largely as a result of the company’s heavy reliance on the one LittleBigPlanet brand.” The company spent about £4.1M ($6.29M) on research and development in the twelve months to March 2011, saying, “it is vital for Media Molecule to focus a high proportion of its resources on R&D to allow it to maintain its world leading position as a developer of innovative games.”

Whatever is next on the cards for Media Molecule, this six million level milestone provides a great opportunity to look at some of the most interesting content that has been created by the LBP community. Not all of these videos are of playable game levels, but they all showcase the creative potential of the LittleBigPlanet series, and its users.

Little Big Computer

One of the earliest LBP creations, dating back to Oct 2008, this is a working ‘electronic’ calculator. The calculator can perform decimal to binary conversions, and can add and subtract. It has been built from an incredible 610 magnetic switches, 500 wires, 430 pistons and 70 emitters, amongst other parts.

The Most Useless Machine Ever

In direct contrast to the calculator, this LittleBigPlanet creation certainly lives up to its title. Switch it on and…..well, just take a look.

Plants vs Little Big Zombies

The release of LittleBigPlanet 2 brought with it more powerful creation tools, that enabled users to create their own original games in a variety of genres. Or just remake games that already exist. The zombie Sackboys on display here are surely deserving of their own plush toy range.

Daft Punk Concert

This level sadly remains unfinished, but the quality of work is incredible. With a full laser show, and Sackboy reigning supreme, to the tune of ‘Around the World’, it is a visual and audio treat. The complex logic behind this level only becomes apparent when watching the backstage tour, which starts at 3:20 minutes. Amazing stuff.

Back To The Future Recreated

As well as level creation, LBP 2 enabled users to create video cut-scenes, using the in game tools. This one is one of the best on offer, being a recreation of Doc and Marty McFly’s efforts to get Back the The Future, in the famous time-travelling DeLorean.

[more videos on Page 2]

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Sony kicked off its CES press conference today with a stunning montage of 3D projected footage, which not only set the tone for the electronics giant’s presentation, but also made this writer desperately want a new 3D projector.

Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer didn’t waste any time with bold proclamations when he stepped on stage. He said that Sony will deliver more than 300 million connected devices to consumers in the next three years, which includes everything from smart TVs to the upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld.

Kaz Hirai, Sony’s PlayStation boss (and potential replacement for Stringer), discussed how the company is intertwined with the connected media world, starting with its Video Unlimited and Music Unlimited streaming media services. Hirai announced today that music unlimited now covers 13 countries, including recent additions like Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Shockingly, Hirai also said the Music Unlimited will be available at launch for the PlayStation Vita in the U.S.

Hirai showed off a new service called PlayMemories that will work across multiple Sony device to share photos and video. Basically, it looks like Sony’s version of Apple’s iCloud Photostream, with the big benefit of being accessible on the PlayStation 3.

On the topic of games, Hirai said that 6.5 million units of all PlayStation systems were sold to users worldwide. As of January 5th, the PlayStation Vita has sold more than 500,000 units since its December 16, 2010 launch in Japan. Hirai also assured the audience that Netflix is working to support the Vita when it launches in the U.S.

Following Sony’s buyout of Ericsson from their joint mobile venture, the company is now renaming its mobile arm Sony Mobile Communications, Hirai announced. Future smartphones and tablets from the company will bear the Sony brand, not surprisingly.

Hirai unveiled two of the company’s new smartphones: the Xperia Ion, its first 4G phone (which AT&T announced this morning as an exclusive), and the thin Xperia S. The Ion will be available on AT&T in Spring, and the Xperia S will launch globally in March.

On the TV front, the company has a new Google TV set-top box with Blu-ray capabilities in the works, as well as a stylish new Google TV remote with a built-in mic for voice commands. To make Internet content look better on big screens, Sony’s new Xreality Pro engine will process web video to get rid of compression artifacts. The company also has new ultra-light 1.3 ounce 3D glasses on the way made out of titanium.

Changing gears yet again (this happens a lot in big company press conferences), Sony discussed 4K technology, which it touts as having “more than four times” the resolution of 1080p HD content. The company’s projectors are powering 4K screens in over 10,000 theaters worldwide.

Sony then trotted out Men in Black III star Will Smith and director Barry Sonnenfeld. (Putting on my movie critic hat for a second, this movie doesn’t have a chance folks.)

For more gadget news, be sure to check out VentureBeat’s live coverage from CES 2012.

Andrew House, new head of Sony Computer Entertainment, told reporters on Thursday that, if anything, PS3 sales were slightly ahead of target for the financial year to date. House declined to comment on Playstation Vita sales estimates, with the new handheld device due to launch in Japan on Saturday.

SCE made its first profit since the Playstation 3’s 2006 launch during the 2010-2011 financial year, as it managed to sell 14.3 million PS3 units, while squeezing production costs of the console. Worldwide hardware sales of the PS3 console stood at 55.5M as of September 2011, compared to 57.6M worldwide sales of the rival Xbox 360 console. The PS3 has consistently performed better than its closest rival in Asia and Europe, making these regions highly valuable markets for Sony, but it still plays second fiddle to the 360 in the US.

While the PS3 is finally helping SCE to turn a profit, the impending launch of the Playstation Vita will be another big test for the company. Some industry voices doubt the sustainability of dedicated handheld consoles, given the increasingly robust challenge of smartphones and tablets as viable options for gaming on the move.

House still believes that the Vita will find a market though, through its “truly unique gaming experience” that he hopes will attract both hardcore and casual gamers. Vita sales in Japan are expected to be brisk, but Sony may face a tougher challenge when its launches the device in the US and Europe in February 2012.

The Wi-Fi only version of the Playstation Vita will cost $249 when it hits the US, which was the same price attached to the Nintendo 3DS when it launched this March. The Nintendo handheld got off to a slow start and was slashed in price to $169 within five months to help boost sales. Whether the Vita will be seen as a desirable gaming option by consumers, despite its relatively high price tag, remains to be seen.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Who do you want to be today?

Following the game’s first mission, you arrive at the character customization screen, and get to create the leader of the Saints, whom you will play as for the duration of the story. The range of customization options available invites you to be creative, with a generic action hero type being one of the least attractive options. Everything from permanent tattoos to double chin height is definable, and there is a range of skin tones that can make your character look more like something from a comic book, than a traditional action game.

In the custom settings, there is a cheeky option to alter ‘sex appeal’, which essentially reduces something that psychologists have argued about for decades, to the simple act of enlarging a man’s manhood, or a woman’s breasts. While that particular option is not subtle, there is no doubting the overall depth of the effects on offer, when you see some of the creations that the Saints Row community have come up with. (THQ released the avatar creator early to get the community stoked) As well as new unique characters, users have managed to craft realistic models of Marlon Brando in The Godfather, Lara Croft, and Peter Griffin from Family Guy, to name but a few. Personally, I was quite happy with the Mohawk-touting cross between Tony Soprano and the Silver Surfer that I managed to piece together in about ten minutes.

Dressing your character is also a mini-adventure in its own right, with a basic range of clothes available to begin with, plus more that can be unlocked through completing missions or shopping in the Saints stores. From wristbands and glasses, through to giant monkey masks and gimp suits, there is literally something there for everyone. If you don’t wish to show off your sartorial elegance, however, you can always choose to run around Steelport in the buff, with some carefully placed pixelation hiding the more personal details. In true Saints Row style, Volition has even built-in a side mission that requires you to shock passers-by, by streaking near them.

Anything but dull

While playing through the first few missions in Saints Row: The Third, you soon come to realize that the game won’t be forcing you to do anything dull. Barring a few more low-key events, the missions are generally bold, brash, funny, and chock full of gun-fights and explosions. As you progress further through the story, the missions get exponentially more insane, along with the weapons and vehicles that you can use to complete them.

Volition has certainly taken a refreshing approach in the making of Saints Row: The Third. While some games are striving to reach new levels of realism and immersion, Saints Row is quite content just to be a game, and in doing so it offers some really crazy experiences, that simply could not be reproduced in any other medium. Without wishing to proffer too many spoilers, some of my personal highlights included parachuting into a nuclear reactor, beating a masked wrestler around the head with a giant shark, causing waves of ‘infected’ citizens to explode with a gun ripped from a virtual reality game, and a gloriously inappropriate use of the Joe Esposito song “You’re The Best Around”.

Third person shooting

Whilst you start Saints Row: The Third with a limited arsenal of weapons, over the course of the game you accumulate some incredible pieces of technology, and can also upgrade some very basic weapons to be devastatingly effective. I found nothing more satisfying than sending a room full of enemies into a coughing frenzy with a casually tossed ‘fart in a jar’, before mowing then down with a pyrotechnic sub machine gun. Other personal weapons of choice included the RC Gun, which allows you to take remote control of any vehicle and explode it at will, and the sex toy bat, a giant purple dildo which is a particularly effective means of bludgeoning people around the head.

The gunplay in Saints Row feels pretty tight, with the third-person view working no better or worse than it generally does for shooting. There is no cover system in place, which is quite rare to see in a third person shooter these days. Whilst it is nice to be free of the problems a cover system sometimes brings with it, it does sometime feel like you are a sitting duck at a carnival sideshow, with nowhere to hide and bullets flying at you from all sides. Having said that, Saints Row is anything but a stealth game, and the best form or defence is usually attack, something which is eminently satisfying here, as bodies and vehicles fly around, amidst seas of explosions.

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After experiencing high level of backlash, including a lawsuit filed against the company,  Electronic Arts has finally responded to public pressure by delivering the extra content promised to Playstation 3 owners of Battlefield 3.

“There have been some misunderstandings around Battlefield 1943 and Battlefield 3″, EA said in a statement on its website, which also explains what gamers must do to get their downloadable copy of Battlefield 1943.

In June, the company announced that PS3 versions of Battlefield 3 would ship with the Playstation Network game Battlefield 1943 on the Blu-ray disc, which didn’t happen. The only explanation for the missing content was sent via a lone tweet from the official @Battlefield Twitter account: “In lieu of 1943 being available on disk for PS3 customers, EA has made all BF3 expansions available early to PS3 customers.”

As we reported earlier this week, disgruntled PS3 gamers then decided to pursue the matter through legal channels — a move that seems to have nudged EA into action. So, the moral of this particular incident is that sometimes it’s worth complaining when big companies like EA don’t keep their promises.

Beginning November 26, European PS3 owners of Battlefield 3 can claim their free, full-game voucher for Battlefield 1943, while U.S. game owners can begin claiming December 10, followed by Asian and Japanese owners December 17.

To claim and redeem your game voucher, you’ll need to jump through a few hoops. But, it should be worth the extra effort. With a Metacritic rating of 84, Battlefield 1943 is one of the best PSN games out there.

To claim your copy of Battlefield 1943, you will need to follow the steps detailed on the EA.com help pages:

1. Activate your Battlefield 3 Online Pass for the PlayStation 3 using the voucher included in the game (see step #5 for additional instructions).
2. Visit 1943redemption.battlefield.com on, or after the dates outlined above for your region and log in with your Origin ID and password.
3. Select your territory. (Note: vouchers do not work across regions.)
4. You will then receive a PlayStation 3 voucher for Battlefield 1943.
5. Input your voucher into the PlayStation Network store. (Instructions below)

Voucher Input Instructions

• From the XMB (cross media-bar) of the PlayStation 3 connected to a network, choose [account management] under the [PlayStation Network].
• From the menu select redeem codes.
• Enter voucher and select continue.
• Download Battlefield 1943.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Earlier this month, we revealed that DC Universe Online had seen one million new players sign up following its transition to a free-to-play business model. What wasn’t clear was whether these new players would stick around, and whether they would actually support the title financially, through micro-transactions and optional premium subscriptions.

According to John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, we needn’t have been worried, as 85 percent of daily log-ins are now by returning players, and the user base continues to grow at a rate of 6 percent per day. On top of that, daily revenue for the game has increased by 700 percent, thanks in part to players purchasing additional character slots and new skins for their in-game characters.

It is interesting to note that 53 percent of this revenue is being generated by the Playstation 3 version of the game, with the remainder coming from the PC version. Whilst micro-transactions are certainly not new to console users, these figures suggest that we might see more developers coming to this market with monetised free-to-play games in the future.

Sony Online Entertainment has had a lot of experience with free-to-play games. Even as it operated subscription games, it launched its Free Realms free-to-play online game in 2009. That game now has more than 20 million registered users.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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A class action lawsuit has been filed against Electronic Arts by disgruntled Playstation 3 owners, unhappy that the company failed to provide the extra content with Battlefield 3 that had been promised. Battlefield 1943, the best-selling Playstation Network title, was supposed to have been included with PS3 copies of Battlefield 3, but it failed to materialize, leaving many gamers frustrated and disappointed.

Many publishers are now bundling copies of earlier games with their most recent titles, in order to help boost sales. THQ recently announced that Saints Row 2 is being made available with purchases of Saints Row The Third, and EA themselves have included extra games with their latest titles on more than one occasion.

In the case of Battlefield 3, Patrick Bach, Executive Producer at DICE, announced at the E3 video game conference in June, that the PS3 version of Battlefield 3 would also include the full Battlefield 1943 game on the Blu-ray disc. Fast forward to the launch of Battlefield 3 in October, however, and this promised PS3 exclusive content was missing, with no formal announcement explaining the omission.

The first acknowledgement of the issue came from the official @Battlefield Twitter account, on October 25, in response to a customer inquiry. The tweet stated that “In lieu of 1943 being available on disk for PS3 customers, EA has made all BF3 expansions available early to PS3 customers”, despite the fact that this exclusivity had already been announced back in September. Whilst some customers may have been happy with this explanation, and some may never have known about the Battlefield 1943 offer, others are still feeling aggrieved enough to try and take EA to court over the matter.

The lawsuit, which has been filed by law firm Edelson McGuire, alleges that EA “misled and profited from thousands of their customers by making a promise that they could not, and never intended, to keep.” Kotaku  report that the individuals involved in filing the law suit are simply looking to receive the free copy of Battlefield 1943 that they had been promised.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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1. Fight Night Champion: Champion Mode – EA Sports – $4.99 (PS3)

This is an interesting move from EA Sports, which has just released the Champion story mode, sliced off from the full retail game as a downloadable product. Featuring a good few hours of solid boxing game play, and a Rocky-style story of redemption and success, presented like a movie, this game represents great value for the money. If you like the story mode, you can also upgrade by purchasing the online and legacy components of the game separately. It is novel to see a publisher taking this approach and I am sure it is something we will see more of in the future.

2. Mini Squadron – Grip Digital – $1.99 (PS3/PSP)

Offering great value for money, at under two dollars, Mini Squadron features eight worlds of dog-fighting action, with a variety of weapons and enemies, and over 50 planes to unlock along the way. It’s a great game to play in short bursts, either lounging on the couch, or on the daily commute. Despite also appearing on the Android and iOS platforms, to my mind Mini Squadron works best on the PS3 and PSP, with the accuracy provided by playing with a real analog stick.

3. Mercury HG – Ignition Entertainment – $4.99 (PS3)

This is a slick and stylish puzzle game, that will bring back memories of Marble Madness, for gamers of a certain age. Presented beautifully, and with very intuitive controls, you must move a blob of mercury through increasingly difficult mazes, simply by using the left analog stick. The high-definition visuals and great soundtrack lend Mercury HG a very polished feel. As an added bonus, you can also choose to listen to your own music files whilst playing the game.

4. DC Universe Online – Sony Online Entertainment – free (PS3)

For those gamers who don’t want to spend a single cent on a game, DC Universe Online may well be the title for you. Initially released on a pay-to play basis, this massive multiplayer online superhero game is now completely free to download and play, on the Playstation Network. Create your own superhero or villain, and play alongside other gamers from around the world. There are some benefits to be had by choosing to pay a fee, but for casual users, the non-subscription features should provide more than enough fun. Just make sure you have some room on your hard drive, as the game takes up 18GB of space!

5. A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks – Frima Studio – $1.99 (PS3/PSP)

The numbers for this one are telling. A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks has been downloaded more than 150,000 times from the PSN Store. With a humorous presentation style, and some very challenging old school shooting action, A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks certainly lives up to its title. This game is also available on the iOS and Android platforms, but shines brightest here, with the precision of an analogue stick giving this version the edge over its mobile equivalents.

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These kinds of promotions are becoming increasingly common as game publishers look for ways to maximize the revenue on their new games by bundling titles from their older libraries.

Speaking on the Playstation Blog, Jon Miller, spokesman at THQ said “At long last, THQ and our friends at PlayStation are proud to unveil additional content for Saints Row: The Third owners on PS3. For all players that purchase Saints Row: The Third on Playstation 3 and redeem their online pass codes within the next 90 days, they will receive a digital copy of Saints Row 2 (a $19.99 value)… absolutely free!”

In the ongoing fight against the pre-owned games market, many publishers are now making online game modes available only by purchasing a brand new game, or buying an online pass from the Playstation Network and XBox Live stores. Saints Row The Third is no exception, with the co-operative functionality of the game relying on an online pass to enable it. This offer from THQ sweetens the deal somewhat though, particularly coming weeks after Electronic Arts withdrew its offer to include the downloadable title Battlefield 1943 with the PS3 version of Battlefield 3.

This offer will be available until midnight on February 13, 2012, but is only valid for customers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. There is no word from THQ as to whether this bonus content will be made available in any other regions.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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As a result, the service will be down from 8am to 10pm PST on Nov. 17. According to Patrick Seybold, spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment America, users will be unable to use the PlayStation Store on their PS3s and PSPs. Account management and registration for PSN will also be down. Furthermore, sign-in from us.playstation.com will also be disabled.

The good news? Some players will still be able to play online, so that should ease the pain a bit for some our PS3 owners.

Trophy collectors will be happy to know that those will still be working, and will update once PSN is back online.

Maintenance isn’t uncommon for online networks such as PSN and Xbox LIVE. The difference here is that in the past PSN maintenance typically lasts a few, short hours, such as the scheduled maintenance the network underwent in September of this year. Ever since Sony had a six-week outage due to a hacker attack, everyone watches Sony’s downtime closely.

We’ve contacted SCEA to ask about the extra-long downtime, and will update accordingly.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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DC Universe Online, for PC and PS3, originally required a paid monthly subscription when it launched in January this year. But Sony announced in September that the game was becoming free-to-play, with income being generated through micro-transactions and an optional subscription package. It was a gutsy maneuver, given the potential change in revenues for the title.

This move seems to have paid off, certainly in terms of player numbers. “DC Universe Online’s transition to free-to-play has been welcomed by the community and gamers with heroic enthusiasm. In just one week alone, 1 million new players have joined DCUO, with a 50/50 split between PC and PS3” Lorin Jameson, executive director of entertainment at Sony Online Entertainment Austin, said today.

Under the free-to-play business model, DC Universe Online now boasts a three tier access structure, as detailed below:

Free Access: New players have access to the base game content in DC Universe Online, including Gotham City, Metropolis, and all current raids and alerts outside of dowloadable content (DLC) packs. Free Access lets players create two characters and join a League, among other benefits. Free-level players can also purchase DLC packs, additional character slots and more in-game.

Premium Access: Any player who has spent at least $5 qualifies for the Premium Access level. Premium-level players get additional character slots, additional inventory slots, and higher cash limits. DLC packs, additional character slots, and more can be purchased in-game. All previous subscribers are automatically granted Premium Access.

Legendary Access: Legendary Access provides the most content, features and benefits of the three access levels. Loaded with enhanced features, Legendary Access is available for a $14.99 monthly fee (multi-month discounts available) and includes access to all DLC packs at no extra cost, more than 16 character slots, over 60 inventory slots, the ability to form Leagues, and many other benefits.

With SOE’s solid record of creating world-renowned MMO games, such as Everquest and Free Realms, it will be interesting to see whether this move pays off in the long-term. Getting gamers to sign up for a free-to-play MMO is one thing, but making sure they stick around and spend some money is another challenge altogether.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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It is dark. I have spent the last two hours stumbling and falling down a seemingly endless series of wooden platforms, facing off against attack dogs and ghouls, and being shot with poison darts. Finally reaching the ground, I find myself in a poisonous swamp, surrounded by giant mosquitoes and spiders. Somehow, I manage to cut a swathe through my enemies, only to be invaded by a dual-cleaver wielding phantom. Standing knee deep in swamp water, and barely able to move, I just manage to defeat this new foe. I struggle on, now poisoned and losing health fast. In the darkness, I see a tunnel, and inside is a bonfire. A safe haven in the gloom. A chance to replenish my health, and most importantly, a checkpoint of sorts. I am yards from the fire when, in a cruel twist of fate, I am invaded again, in retaliation for a previous transgression. This time there is no surviving. The phantom is upon me, and cuts me down where I stand. I must start my descent again. Welcome to the cruel and beautiful world of Dark Souls, one of the year’s big budget fantasy role-playing games created by From Software and published by Namco Bandai Games. While other blockbuster games are getting a lot of attention, this one could well be worth your time.

Dark beginnings

The spiritual successor to the 2009 PlayStation 3 exclusive Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls makes its way onto both Xbox 360 and PS3, bringing with it much of the twisted fantasy look and feel of the previous title. With an understated approach to storytelling, Dark Souls greets the player with a brief and suitably dour cut scene (like a short animated film), followed by a tutorial level of sorts, during which you are pitted against an Asylum Demon the size of house, whilst armed only with a broken sword. This initial encounter sets the tone well for the game, with the realization that it is best to run, and resume battle when in a better position to put up a fight.

As you progress through the first few hours of the game, small hints are provided to help cope with the bleak world in which you find yourself, but the game never overtly extends a helping hand. In many ways this is the antithesis of popular trends in modern video games. Dark Souls doesn’t provide invisible walls to stop you falling to your death, it doesn’t throw constantly respawning enemies at you, until you reach a checkpoint, and it doesn’t present you with glowing platforms, that will light your passage through the game. Instead Dark Souls is gaming in perhaps its purest form, where a minor mistake can cost you your life, and even the weakest enemy can be a threat, if you approach it without due diligence.

Character Creation

The underlying mechanics to Dark Souls are those of a role-playing game (RPG). Your character, which is initially defined by one of the pre-existing characters at first, can be developed in any number of ways, by investing the souls that you reap when defeating enemies into various categories, such as strength, vitality, intelligence and dexterity. By leveling up certain characteristics, you can design your character to excel at any combat style that you choose, including melee combat, magic or pyromancy.

Running in parallel to this character development is the huge range of equipment that can be found, bought or earned during the game, which will play a huge part in defining your playing style. Most of the weapons in the game can also be upgraded along certain paths, with the use of Titanite, and the kind assistance of blacksmiths. Towards the end of the game, I was regularly swapping the weapons, armor and rings that my character had equipped, to deal with different situations and enemies. This freedom to experiment and develop your in-game character plays a huge part in making them feel like a personal creation, rather than just a generic action-hero. It also helps heighten the emotional impact of the heartbreaking failure and very occasional sublime success that you will experience during the game.

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Editor’s note: This review contains some story spoilers.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is one of the best video games of the year. In fact, it is one of the best I’ve ever played. But it will also go down as one of the most annoying.

On the good side, developer Naughty Dog has perfected the art of building a video game experience that mimics the thrills of a blockbuster summer action movie. But that description doesn’t do the game justice, as its story, dialogue, voice-acting, humor and character development are just so much better than anything you’ll ever see in an Indiana Jones movie.

Within Sony’s arsenal of exclusives for its PlayStation 3 business, Uncharted is the crown jewel, the game that could keep Sony fans loyal no matter how many Halo or Mario games come out from the other guys. I just wish that Naughty Dog would polish this jewel a little bit more. The game comes out on Tuesday.

The dreamers of the day

No flaws are evident in the beginning. From a starting quote by T. E. Lawrence (“the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible”), author of Lawrence of Arabia, to the beginning of the real action nearly four chapters later, the introductory sequence is impeccably done. The dramatic pace yields maximum tension and mystery. Humor offsets epic events. You don’t even pick up a gun and start shooting until a long introductory sequence has played out. This beginning, told with skillful flashbacks and flash forwards to the present day, shows that the developers would be in good company among master filmmakers like the Coen brothers.

The subtitle about deception is a theme that is woven into many threads in this story. As the game begins, a cinematic — or a pre-scripted film-like sequence — volleys us into that theme. Drake stages a ruse to figure out who is pursuing his family ring, which belonged to explorer Sir Francis Drake. Nathan thus stumbles upon his old nemesis Katherine Marlowe, and some kind of secret society that has been pursuing Drake’s secrets for 400 years, and we meet a new character, Charlie Cutter (pictured right), a likable con artist and thief with a thick English accent and a proclivity to switch sides. That sets the game in motion.

As the deceptions multiply, you as Drake have to consider whether you can really trust those close to you, and if you can trust your own mind from deceiving you. I also had the added experience of being sick with the flu for most of the time that I played the game, and I had to deal with my mind playing tricks on me. As Drake struggled through his own journey of delirium in the game, so did I, in a heavily medicated state.

I imagined, for instance, that I played the game for more than 20 hours, when it was more like 15. As I played the game over multiple days and nights, images from Uncharted 3 invaded my dreams and nightmares. Like Drake, I couldn’t get those damn spiders out of my head. Still, I didn’t mind that, as I could do worse than to ingrain my brain with imagery from Uncharted 3.

Visual arrest

As with Uncharted 2, the art style is artificially vibrant. All of the images are fairly realistic. But the colors of the environment are sharper and brighter than you would ordinarily see in real life, as if you were looking at life through the lenses of the best nature photographers. This effect is so well done that you’ll spend time just marveling at the detailed objects that are part of every colorful scene. Like when you jump to a wire and a pigeon flutters off of it.

Drake has an uncanny, parkour-like ability to climb walls as if he were a monkey, a skill that we learn in this game goes back to his childhood. The colors, pipes, and bars always give away the parts of the environment that offer a path for Drake to climb his way out of a tough spot. It also allows you to study the environment and pick out clues that stick out like a sore thumb, like yellow bricks or pipes for climbing. In this way, the colors affect the game play.

They can also bring game play to a momentary standstill. When you’re on a city rooftop, you can pause for a moment and see a gorgeous skyline for miles and miles. Uncharted 3 is simply one of the prettiest games you’ll ever see. There are so many beautiful moments in this game, like sand billowing through the desert, light breaking through a green forest in France, gun battles in the middle of a sandstorm, light coming through the stained glass of a French château, and that château going down in flames as Drake and his body Sully try to escape a conflagration. You haven’t seen bright orange until it fills your entire screen as you look down while Drake is dangling by one arm from a staircase, looking down on the maelstrom below.

Some of the most strikingly memorable images are the sparkling eyes of the characters as they stare directly into the camera. That’s where you begin to wonder if these video game characters have their own souls, as they can deliver so much emotion through their eyes. Some of these moments are cinematic, and some occur in live game play. The cool thing is that they blur into one, so you can’t tell if you are playing a game or watching a movie. Naughty Dog creates lots of tiny little animations that lend realism to Drake’s motions, and it usually finds a way to view any scene in the most cinematic way, like when you’re trailing Sully from above and can still see his movements on the street and your own moves on a balcony high above him.

The uncanny graphics were one of the attractions that got my eldest daughter to play the game with me. She would never otherwise play a shooter game, but Uncharted is so much more than that and its many temptations drew her in. Her presence helped me get through it. When I conked out from the flu, she took over. On our first run through, she handled the puzzles that my addled brain couldn’t, while I handled the twitch-based shooting battles that were too much for her. But on the second run, she made me into the passenger.

A sense of humor

Besides the visual senses, the other sense that Uncharted 3 tickles is humor. The game retains that wonderful deadpan sense of humor that Uncharted 2 had. The enemies never joke around. They exist only to be mean and to be shot. But humor is what sets apart our band of thieves, and it distinguishes the game from most other overly serious games in the industry.

Early on, Sully says, “Then we track them back to their hole.” And Drake responds, “You do realize you make everything seem so dirty?” At one point in an abandoned French château, Drake sees an ornate red cabinet and asks, “Is that a popcorn machine?”

The game’s self-referential humor is always there. Drake always has to ask Sully for a light, as they pass through tunnels and caverns. Sully says, “You know, one of these days you’re going to have to start carrying your own matches.”

Drake banters with the other characters like Charlie and Chloe. The previous game dwelled upon some rivalry between Chloe, who looks more like a typical buxom video game heroine from the industry’s traditionally sexist view of women, and Elena (pictured above), who is uniquely normal (non-busty) female character but pretty in a Jennifer Aniston sort of way.

But the banter with Sully (pictured above, left) is always the best. And the story makes it clear early on that Drake’s relationship with Sully is one of the main story paths in the game. The story takes you back in time to a point where they both developed a mutual respect for each other, which continues to be the foundation for their father-son-like relationship. Together, they’re always seeking treasure.

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Studio Ghibli, the animation film studio behind “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle,” is leading the animation for the game. It has the studio’s trademark animated style written all over it, down to crazy-looking creatures and vibrant, green worlds. The whole game evokes the same kind of style Hayao Miyazaki imbued in his best animated films, such as “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.”

Level-5, a Japanese developer responsible for the Nintendo DS puzzle series Professor Layton and the Dark Cloud, is developing the game. It’s an action-oriented role-playing game that features the main character using a magic book to draw spells. Studio Ghibli began working on animation for the game back in 2008.

Ni No Kuni, or “Another World,” came out on the Nintendo DS last year in Japan, but a localized version never made it to the United States. The Nintendo DS game was well-received in Japan and picked up a 38 out of 40 from Weekly Famitsu, a popular game review magazine in the country. It was one of the best-selling games in Japan when it first came out.

It’s rare that a game like this — which is geared toward an audience that likes shows with stylized Japanese animation — makes it to the United States. But Studio Ghibli has experienced a lot of success with its movies, which often end up as theatrical releases with top-billed voice actors. Liam Neesan, nominated for best actor for his role in Schindler’s List, was a voice actor for Studio Ghibli’s latest film “Ponyo.”

You can check out a video of the playable demo at the Tokyo Game Show below:

Thanks RedSunGamer

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The “Pub Fund” will give Sony the money to seek out talented developers and fund the development of their games, which will appear exclusively on the company’s online gaming network, the PlayStation Network (PSN).

The group responsible for handling Pub Fund investments will behave more like a venture capital firm than a typical development outreach group, said Brandon Stander, director of marketing for Sony’s PSN.

“We see the Pub Fund relationship as kind of a venture capital arm investing in really good enterprising developers with clear visions and the ability to deliver great gaming experiences with a difference, with an edge,” Stander said.

The fund has already injected money into four developers for games that will be exclusive to the PSN. One, a 3D puzzle game maker, was an award winner at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Stander said.

Sony has to compete with other online distribution services for independent game developers like the Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade and Steam, Valve’s game distribution service on computers.

The Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network regularly vie for original content. For example, Microsoft was able to secure Shadow Complex — a high-profile downloadable title by the Gears of War developers — as an exclusive for the Xbox Live Arcade. Likewise, Sony has been able to snatch games like Flower and Journey, both artistically beautiful and innovative games, from the Xbox Live Arcade.

There are 948 games now available in the PlayStation Network store, as well as 4,000 pieces of add-on content for games. Sony experienced a black eye recently when hackers broke into the network and stole sensitive information about more than 100 million PSN and Station.com users.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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It’s part of Kojima’s vision of a future in gaming that is not segmented by multiple consoles — where the same game works on any device, like a PlayStation 3 or a PlayStation Portable (PSP) device, or on any of the newest consoles coming out, like Sony’s Next Generation Portable (NGP). Gamers can plug their PSP device into their PS3 and transfer a save game seamlessly to the portable device. The “Transfarring” service, which still uses a physical cable, is likely a precursor to Sony’s expected cloud-based save game storage system — which could make transferring save games between the PSP and PS3 even easier.

The service will initially launch with the Metal Gear Solid HD collection, which features Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, as well as a PS3 version of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The last game is already available on the PSP, and it will be the first device to feature the Transfarring feature — letting gamers take their game from a high-definition version of the game on a television to their portable consoles whenever they have to leave the house. The Metal Gear Solid HD collection will be available in November this year — and it’s also coming to the Xbox 360, but that collection won’t feature the Transfarring service.

The new service won’t cost gamers anything extra, and the new games won’t require users to purchase a game for both the PlayStation 3 and PSP — or, in a few months, Sony’s NGP. The Metal Gear Solid collection will, for example, come with a PSP version of the game. Future games will come with download codes that let NGP and PSP owners download the games and then play the games on either device.

The service will only be available on Konami’s games for now, even though Sony is launching a PlayStation 3 “remaster” program that encourages PSP game developers to recreate their games for the PlayStation 3 with high-definition graphics. Some PSP games have been criticized because they are limited by the device’s control scheme, so the PSP remaster games also give developers a chance to give gamers access to better controls.

Kojima said he will not make an appearance at E3 this year because he will be focusing on his next two projects, Metal Gear Solid Rising and an unnamed second project. Metal Gear Solid Rising will not come out until next year, he said. Kojima was tight-lipped about his next project, but he did demonstrate a brand-new engine that looks like a suped up version of the engine that powered Metal Gear Solid 4 with some spectacular graphics.

Transfarring will be available on most future Konami and Kojima titles, Kojima said. That includes a remastered version of Zone of the Enders and Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner — two cult classics in a franchise that has since gone into the shadows since the Metal Gear Solid series has exploded in popularity. Kojima revealed the Zone of the Enders HD collection, along with the Metal Gear Solid HD collection, at the pre-E3 event. The Zone of the Enders HD collection should be available sometime next year — and the games will appear on both the PlayStation 3 and NGP, which gives us a vague release window for Sony’s NGP.

You can see a full video of Kojima’s presentation for the new gaming service below.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Assuming he’s telling the truth (“I’m not crazy, and would prefer to not have the FBI knocking on my door,” he said), that leaves plenty of other suspects for Sony to consider, like the patchwork group of hackers calling themselves “Anonymous,” who have been known to cause distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Hotz clearly doesn’t have much sympathy for Sony. He says in the blog post that Sony invited the attack by making enemies of hackers: “The fault lies with the executives who declared a war on hackers, laughed at the idea of people penetrating the fortress that once was Sony, whined incessantly about piracy, and kept hiring more lawyers when they really needed to hire good security experts. Alienating the hacker community is not a good idea.”

He also makes sure to separate the sort of hacking that he does from the PSN attacks: “Running homebrew and exploring security on your devices is cool, hacking into someone else’s server and stealing databases of user info is not cool,” he said. “You make the hacking community look bad, even if it is aimed at douches like Sony.”

One potential project Hotz says he was working on was a PlayStation Network alternative that jailbroken (or hacked) PS3s could use to play multiplayer games and download homebrewed software. That project ultimately never happened once Sony set its legal hounds on him.

Hotz went on to say that he bets “Sony’s arrogance and misunderstanding of ownership put them in this position” — a common sentiment among the hacking community.

“Sony execs probably haughtily chuckled at the idea of threat modeling. Traditionally the trust boundary for a web service exists between the server and the client,” he said. “But Sony believes they own the client too, so if they just put a trust boundary between the consumer and the client (can’t trust those pesky consumers), everything is good. Since everyone knows the PS3 is unhackable, why waste money adding pointless security between the client and the server? This arrogance undermines a basic security principle, never trust the client.”

He suggests that the hacker shouldn’t sell the stolen private data (which includes credit card numbers and would likely fetch a high price in some circles), and that he’d love to see a breakdown of just how the hack was completed. But with Sony and law enforcement on red alert to find the culprit, I don’t suspect we’ll see a breakdown of the attack anytime soon.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Hulu Plus is heading to Sony Bravia HDTV’s today, and it will be available to all Playstation 3 users next week, the company announced today.

Previously, only paid subscribers to Sony’s Playstation Plus service could access Hulu Plus. The company has also added new titles to the premium service, including new shows like Raising Hope, No Ordinary Family, and The Event, as well as past seasons of shows like Monk and Battlestar Galactica.

Sony, in addition to producing consumer electronics, is also a major producer of movies and TV shows, some of which it has licensed to Hulu.

Hulu Plus will eventually make it was to other Bravia devices, like Sony’s Blu-ray players, home theater systems, and even the forgotten Sony Dash “Personal Internet Viewer.”

While it’s nice to see Hulu Plus on more devices, Hulu needs to be working double-time to actually make users want to pay $9.99 a month. The fact that Hulu Plus doesn’t play certain content on home theater devices is infuriating, and the company needs to land more content deals to justify the subscription price. If it can’t accomplish that, then Hulu may be better off making the rumors of a cheaper $4.99 Hulu Plus plan a reality.

Instead, Wii owners can download the free Netflix application from the Wii Shop Channel, and install the service directly on to their Wii Menu home screens. Nintendo also announced that more than 3 million Wii owners have already connected to Netflix — a number that will surely rise quickly thanks to the disc-free option.

The news follows Sony’s announcement last week that the Playstation 3 will also no longer require a disc to play Netflix streaming content. The new PS3 Netflix app, which is the first to bring 1080p high-definition video and Dolby 5.1 surround sound to the service, is available starting today. Many think that both consoles were forced to use the discs initially for streaming access because of an exclusivity deal between Netflix and Microsoft, which offered the service built in to the Xbox 360 since late 2008.

While the Wii’s Netflix experience is now more convenient for users, it’s still lagging behind other Netflix streaming offerings in terms of features. The Wii doesn’t output high-definition, for example, so viewers won’t be able to watch HD Netflix videos.

PS3 owners (and Wii owners) have been forced to use a disc to watch Netflix’s streaming content since they received the service in late 2009. In comparison, Microsoft has offered Netflix built-in to its Xbox 360 console since July 2008 — making it more convenient for users, since they never have to go searching for a disc. Now the PS3 will be able to offer the same level of convenience.

More interesting than the disc-free announcement, Sony also revealed that the PS3′s new Netflix app will be able to display 1080i 1080p (Sony updated to say it will support 1080p) high-definition video and Dolby 5.1 surround sound. The Xbox 360 and other Netflix streaming solutions for the living room currently only offer 720p high-definition video. And nothing at the moment offers surround sound for Netflix’s streaming video.

There’s no telling how long the features will remain exclusive to the PS3, but the promise of better video and audio quality is enough to make the PS3 my primary Netflix box for the near future. Eventually, both features will make it to other Netflix streaming devices.

The new PS3 Netflix app also brings with it a new user interface, faster video startup, as well as the ability to search for streaming content. As always, you’ll have to subscribe to Netflix’s $8.99 single disc plan at the bare minimum to gain access to streaming content.

Catch a glimpse of the new PS3 Netflix app below:
http://www.viddler.com/simple_on_site/526631bd