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| News: Movies and TV on your PS3 and PSP Created: 17-07-2008 05:37 |
Movies and TV on your PS3 and PSPAs I mentioned a few days ago (see here) Sony have been working on a video-on-demand service to let us buy and rent movies and TV episodes through the PS3. Well, its now been launched in the US after an announcement at the E3 event.They currently have nearly 300 full length movies and more than 1200 TV episodes available with many in both SD (standard definition) and HD (high definition) formats. They allow renting or purchasing of videos from studios including Sony Pictures Entertainment (no surprise there), 20th Century Fox, MGM Studios, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Disney Studios, Lionsgate Entertainment and a variety of television partners. And to think the Internet scaremongers were worried the studios weren't signing up! If you rent a movie you get 14 days to view it, but once you start viewing it you get 24 hours to watch it as many times as you like. Renting movies costs between $2.99 (£1.50) and $5.99 (£3.00) and buying movies costs between $9.99 (£5.00) and $14.99 (£7.50). They are using the Marlin Digital Rights Management system to protect the video content which also allows you to copy your video to your PSP to watch on the move too - a brilliant feature if you have one. The whole thing ties in with your PSN (Playstation Network) login account and is integrated into the PSN Store so each video can be categorised and searched. The progressive download feature of the PS3 means you can start viewing video as its downloading too so you don't have to wait until its completely finished, or you can download it in the background while you play games or do other things. The only sad thing so far is that there is no timeframe for when this service is coming to Europe or the rest of the world. I wouldn't have thought the video format would be a major problem (PAL and NTSC etc. aren't really that relevant when talking of digital video downloads although users of non-HD televisions may need a specific format) but I expect the worldwide licensing and distribution rights probably need to be sorted out. Lets hope its soon. |
| View: Pain update - free and painless Created: 27-06-2008 08:17 |
Pain Update - Free and PainlessAs you may know from my previous experience with the game "Pain" from Idol Minds, I am a big fan. It might not be big, complex or a cerebral challenge, but its 'fun factor' is off the chart. Its the kind of casual game which the PS3 needs more of. Update v1.67 was released yesterday which adds some excellent new features, and best of all its FREE! Starting the game as normal checks for updates and it will download and install the 45MB (approx) update automatically.As expected since news of the update was released on 15th May, there are two new locations for the catapult which can be unlocked. What was unexpected was the fact that they have changed the location quite considerably turning these new positions into a different game. Its still set in the 'Downtown' locale, but the objects, vehicles and people have been changed/moved around creating loads more stuff to fling your player at. I unlocked the 'Block Party' location quite quickly (with a little skill and a lot of luck) where the catapult is now on the opposite side of town, but have yet to unlock the 'Demolition' location with the catapult in the centre between the massage parlour and the cafe. I think I know what to do but actually doing it is another story. Thats part of the joy of 'Pain' - it keeps you wanting to play to unlock new features and trophies. Speaking of 'trophies', they have added new ones for the new locations and a whole new skill level for those who have gained all the existing medals (certainly not me... yet). The boot up time has been improved as you can skip the intro screens, you can now each have a different character in multiplayer games, and you can turn off the HUD while watching replays. One thing lacking from the original release was music during the game. It had music on the title screen, and odd bits of music while flying past certainly locations in the town, but nothing else while playing. I suppose this put more emphasis on the atmospherics along with the crunches, crashes and screams but it still seemed a little lacking. This has now been fixed with access to your PS3's music collection. If you have playlists set up or music in artist or album categories, you can access them from inside 'Pain'. There is nothing better than having 'Ride of the Valkyries' playing while you majestically fly through the air, being flung from one exploding crate to another. Or stick on a bit of Annie Lennox with "Walking on Broken Glass" as you shatter several windows with your face. Marvellous stuff. This update makes the game even more worth buying through the PSN Store. |
| News: Movies and Weather without leaving your seat Created: 27-06-2008 07:26 |
Movies and Weather Without Leaving Your SeatIt was Sony's corporate strategy briefing in Tokyo yesterday, which of course had to include some info on upcoming features for the PS3. The high price of development in bringing the PS3 to market should be covered and profitable by March 2009 - which is pretty good going.Online movies for renting and purchase is something which has been rumoured for a while and is an inevitable step for the PS3 to take considering its multimedia strengths. Well, the service is going to be up and running in the US shortly and in Europe and Japan by the end of 2008. It should allow movies to be streamed or downloaded for playing on the PS3 and PSP, with both SD and HD movies available. Prices at the moment are looking like $5.99 for renting a HD movie and $12.99 for buying an SD movie (although this was just a demo so its not official). More concrete details will be released at E3 next month in LA. Some people have commented that Sony are a little late in coming to 'movie download' market with both Apple and Microsoft already up and running. This is true but then Sony own so many movie and TV studios that they should be able to blow away the competition with a huge choice of content - hopefully. A new network service called 'Life with PlayStation' is being launched to further expand the PS3's non-gaming functionality. It will include the delivery of information useful for day to day life. The first part of this shown is a very interesting weather and news reporting system based on an awesome looking virtual 3D globe (which looks a lot like the gorgeous 'Gaia' visualization introduces with firmware 2.10). By rotating the world you can get realtime news stories and weather reports from various locations. Other information, links, geo-tagged photos and services will be included as time goes on - all while you listen to your favourite tunes. It looks a great way to start the day. |
| News: Happy PlayStation Day! Some facts and figures Created: 07-05-2008 11:44 Edited: 16-05-2008 08:44 |
Happy PlayStation Day! Some Facts and FiguresSony hosted a special 'PlayStation Day' in London yesterday (6th May 2008) in order to inform European journalists on all things PlayStation related. This included recaps on what has happened, facts and figures and some insights into new things coming soon (like Resistance 2 - ooh yeah baby, LittleBigPlanet, Mirror's Edge and Killzone 2). Here is a cut down list of some interesting things mentioned during the event...
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| View: Pain and the new Playstation Store Created: 16-04-2008 08:25 Edited: 21-04-2008 05:51 |
Pain and the New Playstation StoreThe new firmware update 2.30 released yesterday (15th April 2008) not only brought us DTS-HD audio for Blu-Ray movies, but also a new Playstation Store. I have wanted to buy the game "PAIN" for a while now but thought I would hang on until the new PS Store was launched in order to try out the ordering process.The new store is no longer a Web site but an application. There are some benefits of this, such as faster and smoother navigation. It still has to load the thumbnail images and info via the network so there are slight pauses but you don't have to wait if you don't want to. You can still navigate around without waiting for the pictures to load. That's great. The only down side is that when you click on something you don't get a normal 'loading' type animation in the corner. Instead, whatever you clicked on pulses. Once you realise this it makes sense. Ordering "PAIN" from the store was incredibly easy, which was a very pleasant surprise. I hadn't given PSN my credit card details before so I had no credit in my 'wallet' (which is like a PSN bank you transfer money to in order to make purchases). It simply asked for my card details and informed me it needed to move £5 into my wallet before the purchase could continue. The game itself is only £4.99 but the minimum amount you can transfer to your wallet is £5, so I opted to purchase a couple of extra characters for "PAIN" too at 69p each so I didn't have to leave money in my account. Everything went through like a dream and the game and items started downloading just like anything else. I can't fault it. The game "PAIN" from Idol Minds is brilliant fun. I won't go into too much detail because there are lots of reviews online about it, but suffice it to say the idea is to catapult your character into objects, vehicles and explosive crates to create as much pain and damage as possible. I know some other people have complained that there is only one level (the city) but there are several game modes to choose from and lots to unlock by reaching targets. These might be score targets or having to performing certain actions a number of times. Its been called a mini-game but I think 'casual' game is more accurate as the unlockables give it quite a bit of longevity. Its one of those games which is a simple concept, and great for having a quick play but before you know it you have been playing for 3 hours desperately trying to get that gold medal in a certain event. There are already about 6 downloadable characters to add for a very small fee and it looks like there is an area to expand the locations too - which I can't wait for.     There is a bit of adult humour in the game (with modes such as 'Spank the Monkey' and bonuses for crippling your character in various embarrassing ways) but the violence is less graphic than a classic Loony Tunes cartoon - but its just as funny. For this reason I let my daughter have a go and she loves it. She has no problems controlling it and was in stitches when her favourite character 'Cookie' was flung face first into an oncoming train with the usual cartoon sound effects. If you sometimes like to pick up a game and play it for half an hour like I do (i.e. a casual gamer) without watching hours of pre-story or desperately trying to reach a save point, then I am sure you will love it. Highly recommended for under a fiver! |
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