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Heavy Rain Trailer

Here's a Heavy Rain Trailer to go with the info posted up earlier.



via Joystiq

Here's the Slim, It's Sexy!

Here's a pic of the PS3 Slim from Joystiq!

The Price Drop

The price drop did in fact effect the 160GB, it is now $399 so go get one!

PSP Getting Some New Things

The PSP and PSPGo! are getting some fantastic new additions this fall. Some are Europe only, most are global. I will talk about both because different people read here so I want them to get their info as well.

The biggest announcement for me was the digital reader coming to the PSP, and it will read books and comics. In addition it will be coming with comics at launch, including the entire Marvel catalog(down the line) and will be launching in the UK and in North America this November. Marvel also thinks that this could be one of the most significant for Marvel, and it will be. I used to be a rabid comic reader and got out of it for awhile and have been wanting to jump back in, not only with new releases but back issues that used to be in my collection. Old comics can be a a pain to track down and with the entire Marvel catalog(and DC I'm sure) I will be massively consuming comics. My wife loves e-reading books now so this will be a big thing for sure, I may have to get her, her own PSP!

There will be new mini games coming to the PSP that are not allowed to exceed 1mb in size, so they have definitely thrown the gauntlet at Apple. It will be a direct competitor to the app store for sure. Though apps weren't specifically mentioned you would be hard pressed to say they won't make an appearance on the store. A new LocoRoco game and Eye of Judgment for the PSP is playable on the floor. Don't know how they are doing EoJ on the PSP, but I don't care because I hated the one on PS3. Fifteen games will be available at launch of the PSPGo!, and 50 will be ready by year end this year. Alien Havoc, Puzzle Scrape, Sparta, Tetris(yay!) were shown so hopefully I can get some video's later.

There will be three new colors for the PSP, Turquoise Green, Pink Blossom, and Lilac Purple. I think these are going to be global and it definitely shows they are trying to capture the tween girl demographic for PSP consumption. Some will be available in bundles, all will be available by themselves.

The last big thing is great for European PSP owners and a great incentive to buy since Gran Turismo has the largest user base in EU. If you purchase and register your PSP product between the 1st and 10th of October, you will get a voucher for Gran Turismo PSP! The whole game for free, that's a great deal that should move loads of PSP's and PSPGo's this fall.

[UPDATE] Pink and Green are Euro only.

Heavy Rain Notes, Brief PS Wand Info

David Cage took the stage at Sony's Gamescom presser to briefly talk up one of the most amazing games that will ever come out and that game is Heavy Rain. He posed one question to the crowd at the presser and that was, "How far are you willing to go for love?" A question that we have no doubt asked ourselves at some point in our lives, I know I have.

The game will contain four characters that will weave their own stories and attempt to answer that very question. Two characters had been kept secret until now and they were revealed at the show. The first is Curt Shelby, a private investigator looking into the Origami Killer. The second is Ethan Mars an architect that has lost his son and has four days to find the kid and redemption. It appears they will be working the bond between a man and his son to pull the emotional strings in his story. Finally, every single scene in the entire game is completely interactive which should help with the immersive factor this game is supposed to have, and sounds like it will achieve.

The new motion controller being developed by Sony was not shown in a live demo at the presser but they did show a video and dropped some notes on it. If they put the video up, I will embed it here later so check back. Anyway, the 'wand' will not just have you waving your hands and arms around. The controller will be anything you want it to be a torch, sword, shield, etc. It responds to the player through light and sound, and is precise down to sub-pixel levels. Sounds pretty impressive on paper, but since I am not a fan of motion control I will reserve my judgment until TGS next month. We will see how well it does against the Wiimote when it hits next Spring....

Thanks Kotaku for the live blog!

Short Conference, Epic Re-Launch of PS3

All I can say is wow, I couldn't watch the conference live, no one could unless you were there but I took my notes(thanks Kotaku's live blog) and have some info drops and a video from the store. First the major things.

The PS3 gets a new price effective tomorrow for $299, as far as I know that is the 80GB model. There was no mention of what they are doing with the 160, I would venture a guess and say it will be $399, and there's a possibility that it could be $299 to clear out stock if they are only going to sell the new PS3 Slim's 120GB model only. That is purely SPECULATION on my part, not a fact. If it does shake out that way then they will sell the remaining stock out extremely fast. I imagine the PS3 is already selling gangbusters through online retailers. I will definitely be picking up a slim next month, sorry fat, we have fond memories but I want a skinnier model. Jack Tretton explains below with pics!



The next firmware update to 3.00 is freaking incredible! They say it's not going to launch for another couple of weeks, but once Sony announces a firmware update it is usually up pretty quick, so hopefully it makes it here sooner. I will let the video explain the rest below, followed by the list from the PSBlog.

“What’s New” – The “Information Board” will be replaced with a “What’s New” section, which allows you to enjoy interactive PlayStation news every time you start the PS3 system. Located under the PlayStation Network icon, “What’s New” displays the latest and greatest game, video, PlayStation Network and PlayStation news and releases, as well as your recently played games, in a sleek, new animated format.

Status Indicator – In the top right corner we’ve added an indicator bar, which displays your user icon, friend icon, the number of friends you have online and a small message icon to let you know if you have any new messages. The indicator also includes a scrolling ticker that features the latest news from PlayStation Network. In addition, when you press the PS button, the battery life indicator will no longer cover up the clock.

Friends List – Now your PlayStation Network friends will appear in a slightly redesigned format on your Friends List. Also, messages will now be viewable from each of your friends’ respective profiles.
PlayStation Store Shortcuts – We’ve added a handy shortcut icon to the PlayStation Store under both the Game and Video categories so you can access the latest content quickly and easily.

Personalization – Personalize your PS3 with new dynamic custom themes and avatars. Dynamic themes as well as free and premium avatars will be available through PlayStation Store. A dynamic theme takes your screen to a whole new level as it incorporates animated objects into the background.

Trophies – Showcasing your hard earned trophies just got better. Update 3.00 gives game developers the ability to modify how they display trophies for add-on content. Base and add-on game trophies will continue to be combined into a single list so you can see where you stand in a game as a whole. Within that list, trophies will be broken out into subcategories—base trophies and add-on trophies—that way, you can easily view the percentage of your base game trophy collection, and separately track your trophy progress in add-on packs. Look for this enhancement to be included in upcoming games.

That's all for this post, I am trying to make them in shorter easier to handle bites. Up next is Heavy Rain, then the PSP. I want comments!

Thanks Kotaku, Playstation Blog

It's Legit Sony's Back Bitches

The Slim PS3 will be available the first week of Sept for $299, 299 EU, 29980 Yen and have a 120gb HDD, it's 33% smaller and 36% lighter! The price starts tomorrow though! Available everywhere by Sept. 11(?)

Twitter

Updates go through Twitter also, so if you want to follow me there it's twitter.com/makidian don't be shy I will talk back, also add me to your friend's list via PSN and soon XBL.

What A Presser!

EA's presser was hot! They are on a roll and I have some great highlights of the presser, I take fantastic notes and I have press releases to fill in any gaps. I will put the whole thing up later after I get all the screens and vids that were shown, Sony's conference starts in less than 40 minutes now and it's three hours long so I wouldn't expect anything up until I have compiled all my info and gotten all the media(or what I can get), so write ups will be up tonight. Sorry it takes longer when you are one person doing the work that the bigger places have teams dedicated too. Keep it here though, anything big that comes out of the Sony presser I will have up immediately, until feel free to comment.

At This Point It Must Be True

You would have to be living under a rock to not know that Sony is planning on dropping the prie of the PS3 at it's Gamescom conference, it begins in three hours(my time), and everyone has dropped the price of their stock of PS3 to clear space for a cheaper, sexier, PS3 console.

Well Kmart seems to have officially spilled the beans, and can you blame them for wanting to drum up traffic to their stores in advance of the announcement? It's Kmart, almost nobody shops there anymore, so let them have this win. Not only do they call out the rumors directly, they stop just short of showing the actual new
PS3. I am pumped for the conference, I will cull what news I can from live blogs since I can't find a live stream of the video, but you can count on a price cut for sure(it was almost a fo sho).

Anyway, if Sony doesn't drop the price of the PS3 today I think the interent and Bobby Kotick's head will explode. The cries of fanboys everywhere would be heard around the world. Don't drop the ball Sony, you need a win.

Kmart via Kotaku