PlayStation 3 news, views, reviews and interviews from PS3 Attitude - a daily news site with bite! 100% philanthropic website - all revenues derived are donated to charity...
Friday, 11 July 2008
Trophy Whores rejoice; new T-Shirt and mug available
Been collecting those Trophies furiously?
Want to show off your new addiction to your friends, or even have you own little trophy cup to remind you of your achievements?
Then wait no more - order your Trophy Whore merchandise today! We have a T-Shirt and a drinks mug waiting for you!
Whilst you're there, check out our other popular designs...
All profits from PS3 Attitude Merchandise go to the PS3 Attitude Charity Fund, proud supporters of GamesAid and the people behind this year's big event - Jump 2008.
A comedy video from the fictional Indian development company that are producing the game, which comes across as something that Free Radical might produce.
In fact, the lead character looks, sounds and acts a little like an Hindustani Rob Yescombe!
There is another update promised for next Friday. Oh Sony - how you do tease us.
Charity widget launched for Jump 2008; please spread the word
Jump 2008 is our big charity event for this year.
The people behind PS3 Attitude are going to be leaping out of a plane at 13,000 feet in support of GamesAid, the videogame industry charity. Fortunately, each person will be connected to one of the Royal Marines at Aldershot that have graciously offered their time and experience to the cause.
GamesAid raises money for various children's charities, and it is our pleasure to be amongst the first industry websites to put on an event that we are hoping will raise thousands of pounds.
So how can you help?
Today, we are pleased to launch the PS3 Attitude Charity Widget. It's probably the most important thing we've done here at PS3 Attitude, and we really need your help.
The 'Donate Now' button will take you to a secure form that allows you to use your credit card, debit card or PayPal account to help our cause. Remember, our lives are at stake here, so please give generously!
After you have donated, please help spread the word.
Click the 'Share' button in the bottom corner of the widget and you can add it to your social networking profile (such as Facebook, MySpace, Friendster or Bebo), your social bookmarking page (for example, Tagged) or grab the code to embed it on your blog and website.
The widget supports dozens of sites, so flick through all the options and please embed it wherever you have a presence online.
We would like to thank you all in advance for your donations and your assistance in spreading the word. GamesAid will help us make a positive difference to many children's lives, so please dig deep.
Jump 2008 takes place on August 31st. Once we have drawn a close to donations at the end of September, the widget will automatically update to announce the final amount raised. The widget is below and in the left sidebar of the site.
If you can think of other ways you can help us spread the word and raise money, please contact us at jump2008 [at] ps3attitude [dot] com. Thank you.
Echochrome finally makes its way to the European store today, despite having been available in Japan and the US for a while.
Both the PS3 and PSP versions are available for your buying pleasure.
Other than that, it's a bit of a lacklustre update. Where, for example, is Elefunk, which has now appeared on the Japanese store? Why has Super Puzzle Fighter still not made an appearance, despite the fact that the US version now supports multiple languages?
We can't complain too much, given the massive improvement of late regarding EU Store updates, but sometimes we do wonder why the content gulf still exists between regions.
Here's the list:
Games
Echochrome for PS3 (£6.99) Echochrome for PSP (£4.99)
Demos (all free)
Top Spin 3
Add-ons
High Velocity Bowling - Amber Vorhees (£0.69)
Videos (all free)
Echochrome trailer Movement - 8 videos Kung Fu Panda movie trailer
Today is the day to get even more replay value out of Burnout Paradise.
Criterion have released their latest update, codename Cagney, and once again the update is completely free of charge. Gratis. No charge.
This particular update includes three new game modes, 70 new challenges (including lots of two-part challenges for the first time) and new vehicles. This version also supports custom soundtracks!
Want to know what else you'll find in Paradise after you update? Head over to the Criterion site for all the juicy details...
PS3 Attitude Anniversary Competition; win games and gear
As you may know, we turned one year old last Sunday.
During the past 12 months, we've met a lot of great people in the videogame industry.
Of the various publishers and PR people we have worked with in order to bring you previews, reviews and information, two have stood out due to their attention, assistance and involvement - Ubisoft and Vivendi Games.
In addition to being all-round good eggs, the guys and gals at both Ubisoft and Vivendi have offered PS3 Attitude a bumper crop of goodies to give away this week by way of saying 'thank you' to all our loyal readers.
Could you be one of the lucky five people to win these great gift packs?
From Ubisoft, we have 2 gift packs containing the following:
A copy of Haze for the PS3 A Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 steel drinks mug A Haze mini torch A Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 poker set A Haze notebook
From Vivendi, we have 3 gift packs containing the following:
A copy of Timeshift for the PS3 A copy of FEAR for the PS3 A copy of The Bourne Conspiracy for the PS3 A Bourne Conspiracy t-shirt
Our special thanks go to Pete, Korina and Lucy for all their help this year, and for offering these brilliant prizes.
Here's the FAQs:
How do I enter the competition?
Simple. All you have to do to for a chance of winning is sign up for our email update. Click the 'Email' button on the left sidebar (or you can click here also), enter your details and then confirm you want to sign up in the verification email that you'll receive.
Then, when you get your next email update (which goes out at around 11:00 a.m. UK time each day) you'll see confirmation that you have entered.
Only 'verified' email subscribers will be entered. That means if you sign up and don't see a verification email appear soon after in your inbox, check your spam folder. Adding news [at] ps3attitude [dot] com to your 'whitelist' or contact list will also help.
What if I'm an RSS subscriber?
That's fine - please continue to subscribe to our RSS feed. It is your way of staying in touch with the news as it happens, since the RSS feed updates each time we send out a story.
But to enter the competition, you need to subscribe to our daily email summary by following the instructions above.
What if I already subscribe via email?
You are automatically entered into this and all future PS3 Attitude competitions! If you stay subscribed, you'll gain a place in every future giveaway.
What is the prize?
Five lucky email subscribers (picked at random by our 'supercomputer') will win one of the Ubisoft or Vivendi gift packs detailed above. The packs will be allocated at random.
Who is the competition open to?
All PS3 Attitude email subscribers worldwide.
When will the winner be chosen?
We'll be picking a single winner from the current list of email subscribers on Saturday, 19th July 2008. The prizes will be sent out within 28 days of the 19th July 2008. Once chosen, we contact all winners to ask if we can use their name on the site. If we cannot contact you via email after two weeks, we reserve the right to allocate your prize to another randomly chosen winner.
Good luck, and look out for more anniversary news and announcements this week.
A while back, some trademark spotters saw that Sony had secured the title 'The Last Guy', and everyone assumed it was for a forthcoming game.
Sony Japan have now launched a teaser site for the aforementioned game. What do we know right now?
It involves a lot of red stickmen.
The teaser site soundtrack seems to be a direct rip-off - sorry - homage to 'Popcorn' by Hot Butter. You may remember this track from the old ZX Spectrum game, Pyjamarama (a sort of Manic Miner rip-off - honestly, I mean homage).
A launch-party image from GameSpot Japan (below) tells us that the United Rescue Force are, in some way, involved in all this.
We'll all know more on the 11th July (this Friday).
Thankfully, we can fill in some of the gaps for you.
Our man in Japan tells us to expect a 'rescue game', with a top-down view of a city and the task of leading civilians to the 'Escape Zone'. Apparently, you'll need to save V.I.Ps too for extra bonus points.
Where do the red stickmen come in? Don't worry - the graphics are apparently top-notch as you'd expect, but in the status screen after each level everyone you have saved is represented by one of the stickmen. The V.I.P stickmen are bigger and carry more points, naturally.
We've been told the city itself looks like Google Earth on steroids, as if the satellites they were using had 20 megapixel cameras and were hovering from just a mile up. Whether The Last Guy uses actual cityscape photos or a 3D representation is up for grabs.
Come back in two days and we'll have more for you.
Ubisoft acquisition brings movies and games closer together
Today, Ubisoft announced the acquisition of Hybride Technologies.
Hybride, based in Montreal, are an 80-strong team that provide special effects and film techniques used in such movies as 300 and Sin City.
Ubisoft will be working with their new team to share technology and develop new tools that will bring video games and visual effects closer than ever.
"This alliance is a true first for the industry. Ubisoft and Hybride share the same vision of entertainment convergence and a common passion for innovation and creativity.” - Yannis Mallat, CEO - Ubisoft Montreal
"It is the quality and innovation of our artists that made Hybride into one of the most successful studios in cinema and the most important visual effects producer on the North American East Coast. The sharing of technological and creative expertise between Ubisoft and Hybride will position the two companies at the head of the pack in an entertainment industry in rapid evolution." - Pierre Raymond, Founder and CEO - Hybride Technologies
As the divide between games and movies shortens, we expect to see more collaborations and acquisitions of this type over the next few years.
Firmware v2.41 is now available for download, so for those of you who didn't manage to get 2.40 before it was removed from circulation, here's your first chance to try out the new in-game XMB and Trophy systems.
We're happy to report that the download speed is good at present too, although once word gets out that may change!
"As many of you know, we released PS3 firmware update v2.40 last week, but had to take it offline temporarily because, for a limited number of users, the XMB wouldn't display after the update was installed.
We want to extend our apologies to the PlayStation community for any inconvenience. Now we'll be looking forward to seeing everyone online and racking up those trophies!" - Eric Lempel, SCEA
PS3 Attitude has created a MyBuzz quiz for all your Buzz! Quiz TV owners out there, which challenges you to answer questions on major (and minor) PS3 news events over the last year.
Naturally, the quiz covers the events of the last 365 in conjunction with our one year anniversary.
You'll find the quiz in the 'Latest' quizzes section, or in 'Lifestyle...Gadgets' once it drops out of that particular area. It's called "PS3 Attitude: PS3 News '07-08".
We'll see whether you like it or not using the online rating system, but do drop by and tell us how you got on in the comments section.
Since releasing - then retracting - firmware 2.40, Sony have been quiet on exactly when the reported bugs would be fixed.
Whilst the problem was never as widespread as some would have us believe (recently confirmed in a PS3 Fanboy poll), it certainly was bad enough for the affected few that Sony had to pull the plug on the much-anticipated release.
Rumours starting floating around this morning that the replacement, Firmware 2.41, would arrive tomorrow. We are awaiting confirmation of this, so watch this space.
This is, of course, great news for those of us (me included) that weren't in front of their PS3s when 2.40 hit, and so haven't been able to form that all-important trophy collection habit.
The site originally began because I felt so many websites were being unnecessarily negative about video games, consoles and specifically Sony and the PS3. The brief was a simple one - report PS3 news daily with honesty and a balanced opinion.
Along the way we've met some great people from the development community, publishers, PR agencies, other websites and - most importantly - the PlayStation 3 user base. We've reached virtual hands across oceans, valleys and mountains, and it has been a real pleasure.
What does one year in the life of a website look like? We've put together an interactive timeline below of some of the defining moments in the first 365 days of PS3 Attitude. You might even spot details of a future event when you are clicking through all the milestones.
Through the rest of the week we'll have more from our anniversary celebrations, including an announcement that is more important to the future direction of PS3 Attitude than anything else we have done, so keep on visiting.
We'll be calling out some key individuals during the week, but for now we'd just like to say a big 'Thank You' to everyone who has been involved with PS3 Attitude in the last year - you know who you are...
One final thing - we can reveal that now would be a very good time to be one of our daily email summary subscribers, so if you're not already in that club, join by clicking the 'Email' link in the left sidebar now.
PlayStation 3 news, views, reviews and interviews from PS3 Attitude - a daily news site with bite! 100% philanthropic website - all revenues derived are donated to charity...
