Hideo Kojima is passing on the torch for head honcho of the latest Metal Gear Solid title in the series. Mineshi Kimura is up for directing Metal Gear Sold: Rising, while Shigenobu Matsuyama is producing, leaving legendary designer Kojima as the Executive Producer. For hardcore fans of Hideo Kojima himself, he has recently stated that he will be working on more Metal Gear games in the future; whether he’ll act as producer, writer or director is still up in the air though. But if you fear that MGS isn’t quite what it is without Kojima in the director’s seat, fear not. Rising is not just another MGS; this one puts more emphasis on sword battles and action than it does on stealth, like the traditional Metal Gear titles.

Rising takes place between the events of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.  This is good news for all the fans who are just eager to find out what exactly happened to Raiden and why he is the way he is in MGS4. MGS2 suffered a lot of backlash after players realized that they will be playing most of their game as a character they have never heard of before and know absolutely nothing about.

Years after the release of MGS2 Kojima took note of the hate towards Raiden and vowed to make the fans eat their words, showing them Raiden in his ninja glory in MGS4. While many never minded the old Raiden, a majority of fans loved the changed made to his character, and wanted more.  You can call it fan service, because that’s basically what it is, but Rising has you playing a totally new Metal Gear that has you playing as Raiden in his ninja suit chopping to his heart’s content. Kimura hasn’t said too much about the story of the game, but the trailer did tell us a lot.

The opening of the trailer has a humanoid android with a cybernetic exoskeleton, similar to what the Beauty and the Beast Unit wore in MGS4. The machine looms inside what seems to be a dilapidated and dark factory, patrolling the area with a weapon ready in case any cyborg ninjas come sprawling by. The drone catches a glimpse of something above it and acts accordingly, unloading its weapon to no avail. Raiden then drops from the shadows and slices the foe in two, retrieving a glowing power cord from inside of it; he then absorbs the energy from the cord.  This is the primary example of one of the key elements of this game: “zan-datzu.” Which literally means “to cut” and “to take” in Japanese. This would heavily imply that strategic slicing on enemies will reward you with power-ups, key items or simply story progression.

Cutting this time around isn’t like any other hack and slash third person title, in fact it’s way more sophisticated than we had previously anticipated. Rising gives you the chance to pick and choose where you want to slice your enemy, and with the high probability of being compatible with Kinect, this will probably be way more fun then it should be. The gameplay trailer went on to show Raiden using his environment as a weapon when he slices away at the pillars of a building and watches debris crash down on the helpless PMC soldiers that stood below.

Although, your slashing of the environment is actually limited to pillars and walls, to better facilitate the gameplay and result in less complications. Raiden even sliced a van in three pieces in “free slicing” mode, and the trailer went on to show an awesome feature that demonstrated how precise your cutting can be. With a strategic twist added into the mix, it was nice to see Raiden throw a solider up in the air resulting in a bullet-time effect giving you time to outline where on the enemies body you want to slice. Raiden then went on ahead to cut the poor guy up in several pieces; this will prove useful for those items that you will need to retrieve from your robotic foes. Director Mineshi Kimura revealed that there will be an assortment of weapons and sub-weapons the player can choose from, and you are not just limited to your sword or other blade focused weaponry like knives and daggers, guns have been confirmed to be playable in Rising.

While creative producer Shigenobu Matsuyama has stated that this game is still a stealth game, it will in fact be more focused on sword-fighting action. Kimura has also said that despite the graphic nature of the trailer, this game will still encourage players to progress through the story without killing enemies, like all of the past Metal Gear Solid games have. As a huge MGS fan, I can truly say that even though the game is straying away from many of the traditional aspects of the past games, it seems to be in the right hands, and it’s still under the watchful eye of Metal Gear guru Hideo Kojima.

Here are the very first screens from the Legends and Killers Pack:

Speaking of suburbia, I also recently read a pretty decent editorial that makes the case that walled-garden services like the Apple App Store (and even though Virginia May doesn’t mention it, PSN fits the bill too) are the suburbia of the tubes. The weaklings that can’t hack it in the thick of the dirty, urban internet where malware is sitting on every corner, waiting to zombify the desktops of those who aren’t savvy enough to protect themselves, retreat to the suburbia of their safe little shiny iPads, lattes, and turtlenecks. And We Rule. And FarmVille.

Fuck that.

So let’s be real. This topic is good Google-bait, because people love them some pr0n. But to just write-up a couple factual paragraphs and throw it out into the tubes is missing a much larger issue in the world of gaming right now. For a few decades, a lot of gamers have taken it for granted that there’s this industry that revolves around fulfilling a relatively niche need. But the end of that era is fast approaching. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m definitely not the guy who hates something just because it’s popular. I enjoyed the hell out of Avatar, and I am prepared at a moment’s notice to go on at length about why Armageddon was actually a bitchin’ flick.

But as a gamer, it breaks my heart to see the popularity of these stripped down social networking Skinner boxes being referred to as the future of casual gaming. I wish they didn’t exist, but they do. Because even though I’d love to see my hobby supplant Baseball as the national pastime, that’s just not realistic.

So what, really, does that have to do with PSN laughing off Vivid’s request to put up some HD pr0n on their service? Well, it comes back to the idea of the walled-garden suburbia I was talking about a few paragraphs ago. As for the Apple App Store, I definitely get the reason they fit into that model. Steve Jobs has made a fortune selling himself off as a non-threatening gadget Messiah to the easily swayed suburbanite masses of America. It only makes sense that the virtual environment surrounding those gadgets reflect their target demographic.

But PSN has no real excuse. The only reason I could think of to reject Vivid’s proposal that makes any sense at all is that there’s not much use for a paid porn delivery mechanism in a world where Google is the ultimate free porn delivery mechanism. But even then, Vivid is hurting because of that fact on all fronts, and if they want to try another way to keep signing Katie Morgan’s paychecks, then more power to them. And let’s not forget that On Demand porn is doing pretty well for cable and satellite providers.

Ultimately, PSN is missing the boat here. They’re allowing the stigma attached to pornography by the vocal moral minority of Americans to block them from fulfilling a fairly large consumer demand. Is it too much of a stretch to say that this type of thinking could lead to them one day making the decision that highly profitable but skill-deprived Skinner boxes like FarmVille and We Rule deserve the place that was once held by games like Noby Noby Boy and PixelJunk Shooter? I don’t know. I know I hope to hell it is, but something tells me it’s not.

Its been just about about 5 years since the Xbox 360 was released and 4 years since Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii have been on store shelves.  Some are already talking about the announcement of the eighth generation console(s) coming as soon as this E3; some say it’ll happen next year and few say it might not even happen anytime soon.  Either way — new consoles or not — change is always coming.  With Sony repeating the idea that they are “future proof”, and as expensive as their console is (or ‘was’ depending on your preference) you can count on it lasting you for at least a decade. I think it’s safe to say there won’t be an announcement from Sony anytime soon for a Playstation 4 and Nintendo seems to be content with their stance in the market at the moment.  So if there was an announcement of a new console coming soon most will suspect it will be Microsoft; while many beg to differ with the approach of the “Natal”  release and some speculate that it wouldn’t be that far-fetched of an idea if Microsoft was already planning on a next-gen console to release as soon as 2011 or 2012 with Natal compatibility.

More Moving and Less Buttons

Since last E3 we have all known that Sony was coming out with their own motion control peripheral to compete against 360’s Natal and Wii.  That being said– it’s only fair to believe that the next generation of consoles will come out with motion controls just as Nintendo did right off the bat.  Though Sony took the copy-cat approach and did exactly what the Wii has been doing for 4 years –albeit in HD– Microsoft has taken an interesting idea and reiterated on it by taking away the peripheral and making your body itself the controller. Right now game developers are scrambling to think up ideas to make the controls intuitive and fun, but not feel forced. (See those few PS3 of those games that tried to use the Sixaxis a lot)  Soon after Microsoft’s announcement of the Natal Sony retorts by telling us that it’s important for the player to have a button to press while we control our games, and  I agree with this sentiment as I’m sure many others do. Which is why I’m sort of worried about the direction we are going in terms of controlling our video games. While I’m interested to see the type of hardcore titles developers can think up that can go along with motion controlling and still have button mashing I would think that a console that came out with no hands-on controller whatsoever would be an utter failure.  Which is why if Xbox wanted to release a new console they should just release one with a regular controller we’ve all grown accustom to playing with and have Natal compatible with the new gaming console.

The Natal will probably be something pretty hard to adapt to as many of us are so used to pressing a button rather than actually having to move ourselves around, and not hold anything in our hands to reinforce our actions. Those who are looking forward to using the Natal are either very curious gamers or just people who don’t play video games period, but then again those who don’t even play video games at all are already looking at the Nintendo Wii and probably have no clue at all what the Natal is by the time it’s released a majority wouldn’t care to spend more money on the Xbox 360 just to try it out.  Natal will not sell well at first, but as time goes by and developers have time to think up new and fun ideas to utilize the interesting feature it might do well later on.  That being said system hardware rarely sells well this far into the console generation.  Sony’s Move and the Natal will have to suffer a few beatings in the sales department before they ever become a success.

DLC For All!

DLC has become somewhat ubiquitous. It’s kind of rare these days for a big AAA title to release and no downloadable content to follow it within the next year.  Developers see this as an opportunity — other than adding mulitplayer which sometimes feels forced — to keep consumers interested in their product and make sure they keep their hands on it.  Too many people opt out to just rent a game in order to save money; so instead of the developers just giving you tacked on multiplayer you’re promised a chance to play a “missing chapter”, prequel, or side quests that was not in the original title for a small fee or sometimes even free.  In the future it’s pretty obvious developers will keep this up since many of their fans and buyers are finding DLC to be quite enthralling either because it’s totally different and fun or because it adds quality to the 60 dollar game they just purchased.

It’s odd that there have been a number of iterations released of the Nintendo DS recently.  You might say they could be releasing all of them within a certain window so they can finally reveal their next handheld that doesn’t support DS games, but that’s just a thought– after all Shigeru Miyamoto himself did recently confirm that Nintendo is working on a new hardware. Many are saying that the PSP Go was sent out to die, and that might be true right now if you look at the sales numbers.  But the fact of the matter is that what Sony is doing with its handheld right now is probably the right direction portable gaming need to go and with due time the public will get used to it. I support the idea of giving us the chance to download games for our handhelds on the go, and Apple shows us that it can happen and be profitable (See Mac part below).  Many developers are thinking about just dropping their sequels and making their games subscription based for instance instead of a new Madden or Fifa every year you can choose to download the patch with new updated players and teams. Same can be said about music titles like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. And while you’re downloading games to purchase you will probably be given the chance to rent games online and stream them to your handheld or home console; which brings me to my next point.

More support for Streaming Games

OnLive is a lot like watching movies on demand; only it’s games. You get a little console called the “MicroConsole” that can be connected to your television giving you access to OnLive; so it’s quite possible to make use of this product without ever using your computer. Gaming-on-demand is something we can all look forward to as an easier and faster way to get a hold of our entertainment, and not to mention a cheaper way too.  A lot of people choose to get a GameFly subscription rather than actually buying video games because they would rather pay 15 or 22 dollars than the usual 60 or 160 bucks that they would pay for one or two new games a month.  As an added note if OnLive catches the attention of many developers and becomes something big GameFly will see it as somewhat of a competitor and probably launch their own GameFly Instant Streaming service that will give you access to rent titles and directly stream them on to your home consoles.  And unless they want to sink you better be sure that GameStop will jump into the mix to save themselves.

The other group that can really benefit from this would be the growing group of independent game developers that release their content for cheap on XBL, PSN, and PC. And right now what they’re trying to do is really get their products out into the public eye.  They’ll use as many outlets as they can to get noticed by as many people as they could get — this means putting their products online, on as many consoles as they can and possibly on OnLive if they can.  A lot of people argue that graphical upgrade isn’t enough for next-gen; we’re through with that point and time, and we are already at motion control.  We’ll find ourselves having more fun with games that seem dated then just AAA titles from big named developers.  This is already happening and the market for indie gaming is only growing larger.

Continued support for outside Products

Netflix, Last.fm, Facebook, and Twitter; these are all on Microsoft’s list of reasons why their customers should renew their Xbox Live subscriptions and why you should get one now if you don’t have one.  When Netflix and Facebook was first announced for Live there was an outcry of “Why should I care”. As time went by many started to use their Netflix Instant Streaming on Xbox 360 and now it’s on Playstation 3 and come Spring you’ll be able to use Netflix on your Nintendo Wii too.  It would be a smart move for the big three to continue their support of this service as a way to give their customers another reason to turn their console on.

The big three will do what Nintendo pointed out was important to gain consumers years ago.  Make your home console something that can be used by just about anyone in the family.  Wii has a feature to check your news and weather, and Sony has also showed interest with “Life with Playstation” feature found on the PS3 XMB.  While Playstation Home hasn’t garnered the attention Sony had hoped for that might change in the near future when they begin to give you more options to play around in the cyber-space of gamers.  As of right now you can watch film previews in the theater packed with other avatars in real-time play a game with someone and go to the arcade as well as bowl with other players.  XBL users are able to watch a film with anyone on their friends list in real-time and chat with each other too; as soon as Home gives you this option it will become more popular.  While you can use Home to start up multiplayer match it doesn’t work as efficiently as one would hope, and this feature isn’t compatible with all games. While Sony fixes what same may call and broken concept they can certainly add in a few new things like the ability to also watch movies or shows with friends on your PSN buddy list.

Apple Joins In the hoopla

No, this isn’t a prediction of an Apple console… that’s just ridiculous.  Anyway, with the growing number of games you can find in the app store for your iPod, iPhone and (soon) iPad it’s obvious that Apple is noticing that these things sell, gaming is relevant!  Recently Valve has announced that Mac will be able to support Steam which is great news for Mac gamers who don’t have the patience for Windows (or should I say the money for a good PC).  The first titles to be ported over to the Mac this April with be those of Valve property including Half Life 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike.  Its been rumored moths prior and now confirmed; Apple knows it can make good money off gaming and this is only the beginning.  This might just be the beginning of hardcore gaming on the Mac; if it picks up it’ll be a matter of time when you’ll see Games for Windows and Mac Games competing like many of today’s console exclusives.  With a new phone coming from Microsoft it’s a clear competitor for the iPhone and if it wants to compete it better do what the iPhone lets you do; including playing your favorite portable games.

Video games can be pretty capricious in terms of how it will evolve.  It’s still a young industry compared to all of our other entertainment out there.  The community is still rapidly growing and there are great games releasing every year. I’m curious to see what the next big step will be as far as controlling your video games.  What will come after motion control?  Controlling a video game with brain waves?  Ridiculousness! You’d say… but then again; who saw the Wii or Natal coming ten years ago?

The new generation of FORMULA ONE games will come to high definition consoles and PC later this year as Codemasters  announced that F1 2010 will be released this September for Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and PC Games For Windows.

As the official game of the 2010 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP™, F1 2010 will include all of the official teams, drivers and circuits from the coming season. F1 2010 will feature the return of seven times FORMULA 1 Drivers’ World Champion Michael Schumacher, the introduction of several new teams, and the brand new Korean International Circuit that will host the 2010 FORMULA 1 KOREAN GRAND PRIX.

The September launch will see F1 2010 become the first official FORMULA ONE game to appear for Xbox 360 and marks the return of FORMULA ONE to PC after an eight year absence. The arrival of the HD editions of FORMULA ONE follows Codemasters’ extremely successful launch of F1 2009 for Wii and PSP, which became a top five best seller throughout the past holiday period.

In F1 2010 gamers will take on the full, expanded grid in a variety of game modes including GRAND PRIX, Championship, Time Trial and an extensive, innovative Career mode. F1 2010 will also feature a highly advanced damage model, fully dynamic weather system and extensive competitive multiplayer options.

Here’s the Dev Diary Video:

…on that note, I’ll just say “Gamers,start your engines” wroooooommmm!

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation. This year’s  BAFTA’s awards for the gaming industry “GAME British Academy Video Games Awards” just ended few minutes ago and here are the winners and nominations of the prestigious game awards night. The games with the are the winners of their respective categories . Fellowship Shigeru Miyamoto, General Manager of Nintendo Entertainment, Analysis & Development GAME Award of 2009

Assassin’s Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft Entertainment)

Batman Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios/Eidos)

The Beatles: Rockband (MTV Games/Apple Corp/Harmonix Music Systems/Electronic Arts)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward/Activision)

FIFA 10 (EA Canada/Electronic Arts)

GTA China Town Wars (Rockstar Leeds/Rockstar North/Rockstar Games)

Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks (Nintendo/Nintendo)

Street Fighter IV (Capcom/Capcom)

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment)

Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo/Nintendo) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Action

Artistic Achievement

Assassin’s Creed II Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman: Arkham Asylum Development Team Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development team Activision/Infinity Ward

Flower Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/ThatGameCompany and SCE Santa Monica Studio

Streetfighter IV Yoshinori Ono Capcom/Capcom

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio Best Game Assassin’s Creed II Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal Batman: Arkham Asylum Development Team Eidos/Rocksteady Studios Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development Team Activision/Infinity Ward FIFA 10 Andrew Wilson, David Rutter, Gary Paterson Electronic Arts/EA Canada Left 4 Dead 2 Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard Valve/EA Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio Family & Social The Beatles: Rock Band Alex Rigopulos, Paul DeGooyer, Josh Randall Electronic Arts/MTV Games/Apple Corp/Harmonix Music Systems Buzz! Quiz World David Amor, Andrew Eades, Lee Clare Sony Computer Entertainment/Relentless Software & XDEV Studio Europe EyePet Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE London Studio Guitar Hero 5 Brian Bright, Paul Robinson, Allen Freese Activision/Neversoft Entertainment/Vicarious Visions/Budcat New Super Mario Bros Wii Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Hiroyuki Kimura Nintendo/Nintendo Wii Sports Resort Katsuya Eguchi, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshikazu Yamashita Nintendo/Nintendo Gameplay Assassin’s Creed II Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal Batman: Arkham Asylum Development Team Eidos/Rocksteady Studios Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development Team Activision/Infinity Ward New Super Mario Bros Wii Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Hiroyuki Kimura Nintendo/Nintendo PixelJunk Shooter Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Q-Games & SCE Santa Monica Studio Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio Handheld Gran Turismo Kazunori Yamauchi, Yuji Yasuhara, Hiroki Imanishi Sony Computer Entertainment/Polphony Digital Inc LittleBigPlanet (PSP) Team Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Cambridge Studio & XDEV Studio Europe LocoRoco Midnight Carnival Kenji Sakai, Saeka Horikoshi, Hiroya Matsugami Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Japan Studio Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Hiroyuki Kubota Nintendo/Nintendo Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box Akira Tago, Akihiro Hino, Tatsuya Shinkai Nintendo/Nintendo Scribblenauts Jeremiah Slaczka, Marius Fahlbusch Warner Bros Interactive Entertainmnent/5th Cell Multiplayer Battlefield 1943 Patrick Liu, Gordon Van Dyke Electronic Arts/EA DICE The Beatles: Rock Band Alex Rigopulos, Paul DeGooyer, Josh Randall Electronic Arts/MTV Games/Apple Corp/Harmonix Music Systems Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development team Activision/Infinity Ward Halo 3 ODST Development Team Microsoft Game Studios/Microsoft Left 4 Dead 2 Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard Valve/EA Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio Original Score Assassin’s Creed II Jesper Kyd Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd/Ubisoft Montreal Batman: Arkham Asylum Ron Fish, Nick Arundel Eidos/Rocksteady Studios Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe Activision/Infinity Ward Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince James Hannigan Electronic Arts/EA Bright Light PixelJunk Shooter Dom Beken, Alex Paterson Sony Computer Entertainment/Q-Games and SCE Santa Monica Studio Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Greg Edmonson, Clint Bajakian, Jonathan Mayer Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio Sports Colin McRae: DiRT 2 Matt Horsman, Clive Moody, Guy Pearce Codemasters/Codemasters Studios FIFA 10 Andrew Wilson, David Rutter, Gary Paterson Electronic Arts/EA Canada Football Manager 2010 Development Team Sega/Sports Interactive Forza 3 Development Team Microsoft/Turn 10 Wii Fit Plus Shigeru Miyamoto, Tadashi Sugiyama, Hiroshi Matsunaga Nintendo/Nintendo Wii Sports Resort Katsuya Eguchi, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshikazu Yamashita Nintendo/Nintendo Story Assassin’s Creed II Corey May, Joshua Rubin, Jeffrey Yohalem Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal Batman: Arkham Asylum Development Team Eidos/Rocksteady Studios Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: The Director’s Cut Charles Cecil, Neil Richards, Tony Warriner Ubisoft Entertainment/Revolution Software Brutal Legend Tim Schafer Electronic Arts/Double Fine Productions Dragon Age: Origins Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, Mike Laidlaw Electronic Arts/BioWare Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio Strategy Command and Conquer 3: Uprising Development team Electronic Arts/EA Los Angeles Empire: Total War Development Team Sega/Creative Assembly FIFA Manager 10 Gerald Köhler, Cord Westhoff, Bernhard Maiberg EA Sports/Bright Future Football Manager 2010 Development Team Sega/Sports Interactive Halo Wars Development Team Microsoft/Ensemble Studios Plants vs Zombies George Fan, Tod Semple, Rich Werner Popcap Games/PopCap Games Use of Audio Batman: Arkham Asylum Development Team Eidos/Rocksteady Studios Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development team Activision/Infinity Ward DJ Hero Jamie Jackson, Dan Neil, Tim Riley Activision/Freestyle Games Flower Vincent Diamante, Steve Johnson, Jenova Chen Sony Computer Entertainment/ThatGameCompany and SCE Santa Monica Studios Left 4 Dead 2 Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard Valve/EA Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Amy Hennig, Bruce Swanson, Greg Edmonson Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio Use of Online Battlefield 1943 Patrick Liu, Gordon Van Dyke Electronic Arts/EA DICE Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Development Team Activision/Infinity Ward FIFA 10 Andrew Wilson, David Rutter, Gary Paterson Electronic Arts/ EA Canada LittleBigPlanet (PSP) Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Cambridge Studio and XDEV Studio Europe Singstar TakeThat Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE London Studio Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Development Team Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio BAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital Colour Coded Murray Sinclair, Faye Wright, Liam Wong, Sean Donnelly, Nnanna Kama (PixelPirates) Quick as Thieves William Wright, Michael Doig, Andrew Knight, Jamie MacKinnon, Lee Cresswell (Gentleman of Fortune) Shrunk! Vykintas Kazdailis, Andrew Macdonald, Michael Cummings, Jacek Wernikowski, Stuart Kemp (The Butterflyers)

The new accessory was announced yesterday at the ongoing Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, this wand-like (or dildo-like, as some guys here call it) device uses motion controllers and the PlayStation eye-toy to track body movements, well that sounds like Wii-HD to me. But on the brighter side, enthuastic PS3 gamers wont need to wait for long because this baby is dropping Fall 2010, and it seems Sony is bringing sexy back where motion controls are concerned, but we are sure the PlayStation Move won’t come cheap – not as cheap as the Wii, anyways.

The Presentation Trailer

Well, some people are trying to compare this with Natal, the Microsoft answer to how motion controller should work. For me, I think for the moment the comparison should be limited to both Wii controller and the playstation move, simply because they both share a lot in common, except for the eye-toy of course.

Guy Cocker, UK editor of gaming site GameSpot said

“I was disappointed with the amount of real innovation we saw. In terms of ideas, it is very similar to what we have seen with the Wii and if you are Sony, you can’t help but want to ape that success,”

Dan Ackerman, who is a senior editor with the review site CNet.com, said it is unlikely that the Move will present much of a challenge to Nintendo initially.

“Nintendo has such a lead in this market that both Sony and Microsoft are competing to be the number two choice in the living room.

“PlayStation Move isn’t that innovative. It doesn’t do anything that differently than the Wii but everyone feels they need to get into this space,” said Mr Ackerman.

The good news is, Playstation Move is here and here to stay, how that pans out we’ll see in the near future. There are lots of titles listed already for the Playstation Move , titles including LittleBigPlanet, Eyepet, and so on.

The following publishers have also announced their intentions on releasing titles for Playstation Move:

• 505 Games U.S.
• Activision Publishing, Inc.
• AQ INTERACTIVE Inc.
• ARC SYSTEMS WORK CO.,LTD
• ATLUS Co., LTD.
• Bigben Interactive
• CAPCOM CO., LTD.
• CCP
• Crave Entertainment
• CYBERFRONT Corporation
• Disney Interactive Studios
• Electronic Arts Inc.
• FromSoftware, Inc.
• Game Republic, Inc.
• GUST CO., LTD.
• HUDSON SOFT CO., LTD.
• IREM SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INC.
• Koei Co., Ltd.
• Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.
• Majesco Entertainment
• Marvelous Entertainment Inc.
• NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.
• ONGAKUKAN Co., Ltd.
• Oxygen Games
• PAON CORPORATION
• Q Entertainment Inc.
• Q-GAMES, LTD.
• SEGA CORPORATION
• Sony Online Entertainment
• Spike Co., Ltd.
• SQUARE ENIX GROUP
• TECMO, LTD.
• THQ Inc.
• UBISOFT
• Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• Zoo Entertainment, Inc

There will be up to 20 titles coming up this year for Playstation Move, so be on the watch out and stay tuned…. and finally some pictures

[cincopa 10565480]

For those who are still encountering this weird bug, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below and share your thoughts about this resolved PSN error.

Update 03/01/10: Patrick Seybold released an official statement in the Playstation blog and he said that the error has been resolved.

We are aware that the internal clock functionality in the PS3 units other than the slim model, recognized the year 2010 as a leap year. Having the internal clock date change from February 29 to March 1 (both GMT), we have verified that the symptoms are now resolved and that users are able to use their PS3 normally.

If the time displayed on the XMB is still incorrect, users are able to adjust time settings manually or via the internet. If we have new information, we will update you through the PlayStation.Blog or PlayStation.com.

“We’re aware that many of you are having problems connecting to PSN, and yes, we’re looking into it,” the company said in a statement. “Stay tuned for updates.”

Possible Explanation:

The going theory is that the PS3 is storing some form of date in GMT, then modifying that to get whatever you see in the on-screen clock. That modification process seems to be fine–the system can take 2/28/2010, 9PM GMT, add four hours, and get 3/1/2010, 1AM random time zone.

What’s apparently effed, as speculation goes, is when the internal GMT-tracking rolls over to 3/1. It’s either not rolling, or rolling to 2/29, at which point a system tries to add/subtract from 2/29, which it can’t do because the front-end calendar doesn’t have a 2/29/2010, and shit explodes. Seemed to happen around 4PM PDT, which I think is 12AM GMT, so.

And the PS3 launched in 2006; it’s hit 4 2/28s so far. 2007 and 2009 were odd-numbered years; 2008 was an even, and a leap year. 2010 is the first even non-leap-year the system’s been around for. If some sort of base-level math is choking on itself, it may have ruled out the odd 2007 and 2009 successfully, but is convinced the even 2010 is a leap year (this part I’m less sure of, but is why leap year could theoretically come into play at some point.)

These are important notes from NeoGAF:

Here’s what’s going on right now: something with the PS3’s internal clock has borked in some pre-slim models. This is not a PSN issue; it has to do with your PS3’s clock. This clock is NOT related to the OS clock. It seems to be a leap year bug. Setting your clock ahead will do nothing. All PS3s around the world were affected at the exact same time.

Does this affect me?

-If you have a Slim PS3, you’re good to go. Continue playing it as normal.
-If you have a “fat” PS3, you may be affected. Some fat PS3s have worked ok, but it seems a good majority have been bugged.

What does this bug mean?

-If affected, your date and time has been set to a random past date. This prevents you from signing into PSN, playing any PSN games, or using any DLC. Your trophies will also not display correctly or be able to sync.

How do I fix it?

-You can’t. Even if you don’t sign into PSN, it won’t help. This is a hardware issue.

So, what do I do?

-Wait 24 hours. Other products that have had similar bugs have corrected themselves after the “bugged” day. On Monday around 8pm central time, all PS3s will automatically correct themselves…maybe.

-If that doesn’t work, we’ll need a firmware update from Sony, which should be a pretty important priority for them right now.

Did I lose my data/themes/etc?

Your save data/games/dlc/themes are fine. They’ll be fixed when the PS3 is fixed. Trophies are uncertain right now, but they’ll be fine if you’ve synced them before the PS3 was bugged. Unsynced trophies are an unknown right now.

If I have a bugged PS3, can I still use it?

It’s probably not a good idea, as I have no idea what will happen to the trophies you earn during the bugged time. Movies/media will work fine.

We’ll keep you updated on the developing stories………