August 26
Another GRID patch is on the wayAnother GRID patch is on the way after the 1.2 patch fixed quite a few things. Here are the details of the next GRID patch.
- The chat window, to be reworked to make it less disturbing for the parties online and networked
- The flight assistance, which can be enabled or disabled during the creation of parties
- All events available in the single player mode which will now also for courses online (from racing head-to-heads “and the mode touge)
- The additional experience points to be awarded for pilots making courses longer (read: having many laps)
- And the additional experience points to be awarded for returning pilots do not collide with their opponents during races online (provided that the damage be activated in full or just in front)
No release date has been stated, the patch is in testing mode.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe boss David Reeves has revealed that getting things last (Europe get most things last like games and hardware) is an advantage.
“People say, ‘Well, why do we always get things last? Why can’t we say things?’ Well, I’ve said this many times before: sometimes it’s an advantage to be last in Europe, you know, when everything’s ironed out.”
“This time, we do have things to say in the European [market]. We have the music service, and we’re doing great things on SingStar and there’s more to come. These are global announcements.”
“They recognize that the show’s in Europe, whether it’s in Leipzig, Cologne or London: we can do the announcements wherever. So they said to us in Tokyo, ‘Do you want to do it here?’ And we said, ‘Yeah, we’d love to do it here.’”
Europe don’t mind waiting a few weeks but waiting months on end is quite dissapointing. Hopefully now, this will be sorted for Europe.
The latest rumor surrounding Crytek planning to release their first person shooter Crysis has just got bigger. PSU’s source explains that Crytek is focusing on each system’s threading core, the team is taking their time with the Playstation 3 version of the game, learning to utilise the Cell processor to push higher quality textures and imrpoved A.I.
We will have to wait for an official announcement if this is true.
At the private Square Enix party three weeks ago (DKΣ3713) the compant announced a tie-up with fashion brand Roen. The unnamed protagonist of Final Fantasy Versus XIII is wearing a suit modelled after a real-life Roen-branded suit.
The scene depicted in this newest trailer highlights what apparently is the first meeting between the protagonist and the heroine.
The chance meeting takes place at a reception commemorating the signing of a treaty about the peaceful use of the Crystal. The protagonist is taking part in the reception as the heir to his country’s throne. Since he doesn’t like crowded places, he decides to look for a place where he can take a breath. One floor above the reception venue, he sees the heroine standing in front of a painting depicting, of all things, the god of death.
No release date has been stated for Versus XIII.
It’s looking like Street Fighter IV won’t be released anytime soon after recently stating that it will be released in 2009 in conjunction with the movie.
Bulbous – yet agile – Rufus has the moves and the cajoles to bring heat to the competition.
The new BIKES pack for Burnout Paradise is pretty much complete according to Criterion Games. The pack will add another 9 to 10 hours of gameplay time to the already massive game. News details are available about the bike pack.
- We’ve built another 70 Challenges.
- Half of the 70 new challenges are regular Freeburn Challenges.
- With bikes, you also get a fresh new map of the city.
- And if that’s not enough, you can whip through the city breaking new bike-specific fast times set for all 64 streets.
- every new pack we build for Burnout Paradise is grander than the last.
Check out the awesome screenshots of the new bike pack.
August 26
Insomniac Needs Your HelpTed Price just asked everybody to help Insomniac choose the cover of their upcoming title Resistance 2: Collector’s Edition. There are three covers that they have narrowed down, and asked of the community to choose.
“Now, we turn to the community with an even bigger question: Which image do you want to see on your Resistance 2 Collector’s Edition cover? While you may think developing the game is our biggest challenge at Insomniac, we agonize almost equally over important details like creating and choosing the box art. And this time, we’ve got three solid images that are making the decision especially difficult. We’re torn, and want to know what you think. So vote! We’ll be eagerly awaiting your feedback, as always.”
Resistance 2 is the second installment in the Resistance franchise, and Insomniac’s third title for the PlayStation 3 platform. Resistance 2 takes place on US soil, and Nathan Hale has to fend the invasion off, while he only has 19 hours left to live. Click this link to place your vote. Place a comment below on which cover you voted for. Also the vote is only lasting for a limited time.
August 26
Madden NFL 2009 patch 2The second patch is underway for Madden 2009. It wasn’t that long ago when we were speaking about the first patch that fixed a fair few things.
The massive list of details are below, click through to see the list for patch 2.
1. Kicking play disconnect: If two opponents play a game with two different camera angles, in any situation where a game winning or tying kick was to be made, a disconnect could occur. “ActionCam” forces the game to go into slow-motion to add drama to these late kicks, but unfortunately the Classic camera does not, thus forcing the “disconnect”. This has been fixed…all cameras can still be used as well.
Workaround until the patch: If possible, ensure that you and your opponent have the same camera type chosen before starting an online game.
2. Stability issues in the play call / halftime highlights / postgame highlights screens (especially in Franchise mode after training games): This was a hard one to track down as not everyone was seeing it , we did find the issue however with some Instant Replay / cache corruption, and have a fix ready for patch 2.
Workaround until the patch: Save and re-boot after any point where you have entered the game. We learned that the likelihood of this issue appearing is magnified after multiple loads into and out of the game engine. From what we’ve seen so far, people that have tried playing only one game at a time (or even one Franchise training session at a time), and saving/rebooting afterwards, have had zero crashes.
3. Stability issues with Madden IQ end of game popup: This has been fixed.
Workaround until the patch: Always choose “No” at the Madden IQ end of game popup.
4. “WR direct snap” exploit: Cheesers found an exploit to direct snap to a WR for easy short yardage gain. Not only are we fixing this play (i.e. we aren’t removing it), we are also going to be re-setting records for anyone with a winning record that has been found to be using this play.
5. Franchise Progression / Regression (or lack thereof): The lack of higher numbers was a tuning value that I think everyone agreed was just too low. This has been juiced up so you should see more realistic progression now.
6. Edited players don’t progress: Players were not progressing after their jersey number (or pretty much any other attribute). This has been fixed.
7. Stability issue when exiting Madden ‘93 in CE version: This has been fixed.
8. Deep ball glitch: Some enterprising gamers found a way to throw a deep ball while crossing the LOS and hit a receiver wide open at a decent rate. We addressed this by making sure the DB will no longer break on the ball when the QB crosses the line while throwing.
9. CPU running out of bounds: This bug appears when the CPU tries to switch hands while running to the sidelines. This is fixed for patch 2.
10. Penalty sliders ineffective: A common complaint from the hardcore community was the lack of effect from the penalty sliders. We increased these substantially for patch 2.
11. Field degradation: Another common complaint was the lack of field degradation. Our effect was very subtle, which was also getting overshadowed by our lighting and post effects, so we increased this effect for the patch.
12. Stability issue with the Eagles and a full ring meter: We found and fixed a rare issue where the gamer could run into stability issues while using the Eagles in mini-game with a ring meter that was completely full.
13. Play call screen hitch: We found and fixed a bug that was causing a noticeable hitch when exiting the play call screen
14. Prevent Defense issue: We found and fixed an issue where defenders sharing a deep zone/prevent assignment would loosen their coverage (because they thought the other guy was covering for them), which allowed the receiver to get behind them even though they were in Prevent.
15. Brett Favre stats: With the late addition of Brett Favre, we were not able to get his Career and Season statistics into the game for the roster update. This has now been added for patch 2.
16. Defensive Preplay Mis-cue: We found and fixed an issue where defenders would leave their man wide open in a Cover 3.
17. CPU quick-snap: A very common complaint on the forums was the speed at which the CPU snapped the ball. We added a random length of time (no less than 5 seconds) for the CPU to wait and even make pre-play adjustments.
18. Online playbook switch: We found and fixed an issue where playbooks were re-setting to the defaults after the playbook select popup was closed.
The patch is currently being tested and no clue on when it will be released, but expect it shortly.
August 26
Rumor: PS3 Firmware 2.5 DetailsA source told CVG that the next firmware update is going to contain screen capture. This is yet to be known on how and if uploading them on a server is possible.
A development source has told CVG that PS3 firmware update 2.5 is rumoured to have screen grabbing built in.
This would be a nice feature if it turns out to be true. Capture the greatest gaming moment you have, and share it across your friends on the PSN, or even submit it too a dedicated server, and have people around the globe comment and or rate it. Some games have youtube direct upload support, for example PixelJunk Eden.
August 26
PSN Down For MaintenanceIf you can’t sign in today during the hours of 8 am- 1 pm Pacific Time, then it means the PSN is undergoing a scheduled maintenance. People are probably thinking that this is meant to be for the rumored Extended Beta of Home. But little to nothing is known if the rumor is true. What would be better is if the maintenance means that PS3 users are finally getting Life With PlayStation. Here at the TalkPlayStation, we’ll keep you updated if anything is spotted out of the ordinary.
[25-08-2008 11:00] PSN Maintenance 26.08.2008 Maintenance will be undertaken on the “PLAYSTATION(R) NETWORK” between August 26th 16:00-21:00 (BST). During these times, customers may be momentarily unable to connect to the PLAYSTATION(R) Network . Please try after some time should this happen.
LittleBigPlanet is going to be a massive game, most likely the biggest game this year. Here’s a gameplay video of Sackboy trying to build one.
Sackboys roasting on an open fire, custom built.
LittleBigPlanet GC 2008: Fiery Ferris Wheel Gameplay HD (Cam)
On the official Playstation blog of SCEA, Game Director Dylan Jobe of the Warhawk game announced that the next expansion will hit the Playstation Store on August 28th worldwide.
But first the game will get the 1.5 update on the 27th which is free. This update will include Custom In-Game Music, XMB Trophies, Training Tutorials among several new features to the game.
The price for this new expansion will be $7.99. Sony is also planning to set up a new Booster Combo Pack which includes all 3 of the expansions for only $15.99.
Check the trailer we posted up earlier if you missed it.
This is how the full map will look like.
The map has 10 lay-outs to play on plus the full map shown above.
Another ‘important’ addition is the jetback. The developers saw this as a way to freshen up the game. Time will tell if this plan succeeded.
You can grab them from this tractor machine
Were not going into detail on how you can use this, best to check the blog post as we haven’t been able to play with it ourselves.
One good thing about the jetpack is that you can mount other vehicle while having it on and use it like a ejector seat. I myself am very excited and looking forward to it and hopefully this will increase my PSN activity for that Home beta invite.
Check the whole post over at the Playstation blog which inclused several more images.
Linger in Shadows is coming to the PSN this week, according to the PlayStation UK website, and we wanted to reintroduce this unique piece of “interactive art” with a video demo.
Linger in Shadows is a demo created by Polish demogroup Plastic. It was first shown at Breakpoint 2008 in Germany.
August 25
Metal Gear Acid on PSN is possibleHideo Kojima has told Eurogamer that it’s possible that the Metal Gear Acid games could be released on the Playstation Network. Nothing is in production yet.
Hideo Kojima said at the Games Convention 2008:
“I’ll say yes to that idea, but not because it is already running or anything,” Kojima told Eurogamer when asked about the possibility of porting the turn-based strategy titles to PSN.”
“I’ll say yes to that idea, but not because it is already running or anything,” Kojima told Eurogamer when asked about the possibility of porting the turn-based strategy titles to PSN”
It will most likely happen but not anytime soon.
August 25
PS3 Keypad gets price and date on AmazonProbably one of the most wanted peripherals for the Playstation 3 is the newly announced wireless keypad.
Kotaku showed us the full spec sheet for this handy little gadget.
Wireless Keypad Product Overview
Product Name: Wireless Keypad
Product Code: CECHZK1JP (For Japanese market)
Product Color: Black
Hardware Specification
Weight: Approx 60g
Voltage: DC 3.7V
Operating Temperature: 5 degrees C ~ 35 degrees C
Built-in Bluetooth(R) Ver.2.0
Keypad Layout: QWERTY layout
Battery Specification
Built-in Rechargeable Lithium-Ion
Battery Capacity: 610mAh
But now Amazon has given us a price and release date as well. According to their site the keypad will cost $49,99 and is set to be released on November 30th (in NA). Europe should expect it before the end of the year according to the according to the press release of SCEI
