It was a big day in the US. After so many weeks of waiting, the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune demo finally hit the Store.

So everyone with a US account headed over to download the massive 1.2Gb file only to discover that if you were outside the US and Canada there was a little surprise waiting for you.

That doesn't take away from the awesome update given to the US Store. After two weeks of having better updates than the US, it seems the norm has been restored for the EU PSN.

Here's the full list of what is available:

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - demo (free; doesn't yet work outside of US and Canada - fix coming apparently)
College Hoops 2K8 - demo (free)
Motorstorm "Devil's Weekend" pack - add-on ($5.99)
Guitar Hero III "Velvet Revolver" pack - add-on($6.25)
Guitar Hero III "Foo Fighters" pack - add-on ($6.25)
Pink, Nature and Pixel - PS3 Themes (free)
Devil May Cry 4 Tokyo Game Show - trailer (free)
Motorstorm "Devil's Weekend" - trailer (free)
Ratchet and Clank launch - trailer (free)
WWE Smackdown vs RAW - trailer (free)
Burnout "Carson GT" - trailer (free)
Burnout "Manhatten" - trailer (free)
One Missed Call - movie trailer (free)
Sweeney Todd - movie trailer (free)
Hostel Part II - Blu-Ray movie trailer (free)
Call of Duty 4 - wallpapers (free)

Given we don't have Guitar Hero III in the UK yet, that doesn't bother me. It would have been nice to be playing the Uncharted demo but since Ratchet & Clank and Call of Duty 4 are released in the UK today, I think I'll be busy anyway.

In addition, the US got the Motorstorm v3.0 patch today as well. Launch Motorstorm's online mode to get it before you go downloading any of the add-ons.

What does still concern me is that content which clearly works everywhere, such as wallpapers, the new PS3 themes and trailers - for example - still arrive on separate stores at separate times (or sometimes not at all). I mean, what mad licensing issues have Sony created for themselves where they can't distribute a bunch of Call of Duty wallpapers worldwide?

If SCEE or SCEA are listening, would you care to explain?

Labels: Burnout Paradise, Guitar Hero, Motorstorm, news, Playstation 3, PS Store, PS3, PSN, Ratchet and Clank, themes, Uncharted

Another week, another store update. Will it be 'EU > US' three weeks in a row? No. But still a reasonable update anyhow.

If you're wondering why the US won again, it'll be down to a certain adventure title that just got it's demo début in the States.

Not that I'm complaining about the EU update. Have a look for yourself:

• Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online - full game (£14.99)
• Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online Upgrade - full game upgrade (£3.49)
• Cool Boarders - PS1 game (£3.49)
• NFS: PROSTREET - demo (free)
• Folklore "Bottom of the sea" pack - add-on (£1.49)
• Motorstorm "Devil's Weekend" pack - add-on (£3.99)
• Uncharted "Animation Overview" - trailer (free)
• PSP Shapes Your World - trailer (free)

A pretty good result I'd say. Highlights for us are the Tekken 5 Online upgrade/game finally, another PS1 title and two great add-ons.

The Motorstorm Devil's Weekend pack includes a new track, nine new races and five new vehicles. The Folklore add-on further extends the game, adds new folks to capture and has a new look for Keats.

The PSP Shapes Your World video is the same brilliant stop-motion piece we featured back in July, but it's great to see it in hi-def.

Labels: Folklore, Motorstorm, news, Playstation 3, PS Store, PS3, PSN, PSP, Tekken, Uncharted

You'll have heard by now that the demo for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on the US PS Store will only work in North America and Canada. If you've downloaded it for use on a PAL machine, for example, you may be faced with a black screen or a message asking you to insert a disk.

Was it deliberate? Was it a bug? Who knows. What's important is that PS3 owners in their droves headed over to the Official PlayStation Blog and voiced their concerns. Some of them even used ASCII pictures to illustrate their point!

No whilst the initial reaction from SCEA was 'sorry it has happened and you'll all get a localised version of the demo soon', they soon realised the furore that was building and - to be fair to them - have moved fast to change things around.

In a comment post at the PS blog, Sam Thompson says:

Hi guys and gals,

We hear you loud and clear. Wanted to chime in here and let you know that we have shared your frustration with the Naughty Dog team and we are going to see what we can do. I will be back tomorrow with an update, but in the meantime I hope you can be patient and bear with us. As you have learned through communicating with Evan and Amy on the blog, Naughty Dog is a studio that listens to gamers, so I hope to have good news for you soon.

So expect a new version of the demo, or maybe a patch for the existing one, soon. Will the patch come out before the demo is localised and released on our PS Store anyway? Again, who knows.

But since we're the voice of reason here at PS3 Attitude, we just wanted to ask everyone to chill out a little.

SCEA made a mistake. They realised it was a mistake. They're fixing the problem.

What? You never made a mistake in your lives, all you 'blue tongued' commenters? You're all perfect are you and you've never messed up once?

There's no problem with everyone heading over to the blog to say 'no fair Sony', but please could everyone keep it civil and explain in constructive terms why it was a bad idea, rather than just throwing your toys out of the pram. Remember that it could be worse - you could be paying a monthly subscription for all this!

[UPDATE]Christophe Balestra has added a post on the Official PlayStation Blog that apologises for the 'honest mistake'. The good news - the demo is now fixed. You will need to re-download it from the US store, but it should all be fine and dandy now.

Labels: news, opinion, Playstation 3, PS Store, PS3, PSN, Uncharted

So, you've got firmware 2.00 now - right?

And you've played around with the XMB customisation, yeah?

So by now you're already sick of just flipping between the original and Air Paint themes, aren't you?

PS3 Attitude comes to the rescue with these three official themes from the land of the rising sun. You can download them and put them on a USB stick, Memory Stick or other external media in a folder called PS3-->THEME and then Install them from the Themes menu.

Or you can browse PS3 Attitude on your PS3 and click on the theme of your choice below. This route is simpler as it will Install the new PS3 themes for you.

Just click the preview picture of the theme you'd like and off you go!

More themes will follow soon...

If you're more adventurous and want to create your own theme, PlayStation Australia now have the Theme Compiler with English instructions.

[UPDATE] Some people are experiencing an issue when trying to download these via the PS3 browser. If you have a problem, hope over to the Japanese PlayStation website and try there instead whilst I fix things here...




Pixel







Nature







Classy Pink

Labels: firmware, news, Playstation 3, PS3, themes

Head on over to our friends at PS3 Fanboy, where they managed to score the exclusive first screens of the new PS3 2.00 firmware.

First impressions? Nice. Everything looks so crisp and fresh, like unwrapping the PS3 for the very first time.

Can't wait to get back to my black monolith and start the download, which apparently will arrive tomorrow along with some nice PS Store content.

Labels: firmware, news, Playstation 3, PS3

Just received the official word from SCEE; PS3 firmware 2.00 is upon us.

I can't verify whether it has actually arrived on the PSN as yet (can you?), but the press release says that it is out now.

New features include:

• Support for PSP remote start - switch the PS3 on with your PSP and go into a Remote Play session
• Build playlists in the music and photo sections of the XMB
• Customisation of the XMB - change colour and brightness of the icons (useful for when you have a bright wallpaper) and apply custom icon themes, very much like the PSP custom theme capability
• Information Board - a new addition to the XMB providing you with the latest PlayStation news (well, it would do if it showed you the PS3 Attitude feed of course!)
• New PlayStation Network category on the XMB, with the much discussed new logo taking centre stage
• Trend Micro Web Security - a free security application for your PS3 web browser, providing parental controls amongst other things (free until end of April 2008, when pay options will be made available to keep it up to date)

All in all, a pretty good update. Of course, many will start shouting "what - 2.00 without custom soundtracks and no in-game XMB?", but the fact is that we're sure these things will be coming in a future update.

SCEA, for example, recently asked the following question in a survey of their Gamer Advisory Panel members:

Choose which XMB feature would be most important to you in a possible
PLAYSTATION Network update:

A) In-game access to PSN messaging
B) Ability to play my own music from the XMB while in-game
C) Larger buddy list and buddy-list features such as categorizing

This is a clear indication of what they're thinking of adding to 2.x.

Some games, of course, already support access to the XMB and PSN messaging (Resistance, for example) so surely this is just a case of the developers making use of the feature set that ships with the current development kit?

Whatever way I look at this, it's still positive news. The XMB customisation is welcome (and reasonably fun on the PSP) but the ability to switch on the PS3 remotely is a must, especially with PlayTV coming early 2008. And how on earth did we get along without music playlists?!

Thanks Sony!

Labels: firmware, news, Playstation 3, PlayTV, PS3, PSN, PSP, Resistance

Labels: God of War, news, Playstation 3, PS3

Some of you might think we're just being a little tardy of late, but other than the obvious and regular 'new retail/PS Store releases' news it's been a little slow lately.

I think it's the calm before the storm, which starts this Friday when all those great games hit the streets (and by all I mean specifically Ratchet & Clank and Call of Duty 4).

If you're hankering for PS3 tidbits, have a look at what's happening over at our friends' websites:

PS3 Fanboy
The Sixth Axis

And remember, if you subscribe to our feed in a reader or subscribe by email, you'll also get our Digg feed as well, just in case you're still news hungry.

Labels: news, Playstation 3, PS3

I can't stop myself. There I was, trying to think of some way to describe this week's PS3 releases without making some sort of reference to Mr. Fawkes, but I just can't pass up the opportunity.

The fireworks are really flying this week. Yes, European PS3 releases are about to go with a bang as the titles you've been burning to play finally explode onto our shelves.

There. I've got it out of my system now.

If you can't find something to play in this lot, there's something wrong with you. By 'something to play', I mean Ratchet & Clank, which is PS3 gaming perfection. And if that doesn't float your boat one of the standout titles of E3 is here - Call of Duty 4.

Here's the list:

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2008
Lair (finally hits our shores - is it as bad as the reviews say?)
Dynasty Warriors: Gundam
The Simpsons
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

This week's 'Colon Index' is 57%.

Seriously, is it law now that your game has to have a colon in the title? I would like to see more semi-colon action. Those guys are underated; never getting the attention they deserve.

Will Lair ship with tweaks and fixes to make it a better experience? Who knows. I'll probably be too busy playing R&C to even know.

Pre-order any of the above by clicking the links.

Labels: Call of Duty, Lair, news, Playstation 3, PS3, Ratchet and Clank