If you're around the O2 Arena (formerly know as the 'big white tent that somehow cost us £860m', or Millennium Dome by any other name) between now and the 18th December it might be worth your while popping in, even if you already have a PS3.

Why?

Well as part of the PlayStation 3 UK Tour the O2 Arena is also host to a live demo of Singstar. Following on from the success of the Singtar Studios earlier this year SCEE have repeated the exercise in Greenwich.

Budding X-Factor wannabes should stump up the ridiculous O2 Arena parking fee now for their chance to shine. You can always go watch a movie there to get your parking fee back anyhow!

The SingStar Studios are open from 16:00 to 22:00 weekdays and 12:00 to 22:00 weekends.

Labels: news, Playstation 3, PS3, SingStar

Another week, another update. It's great that SCEE continues to update the store every week and if you don't have a US account, this is a great week for you.

Not only do you get the Uncharted and Blazing Angels 2 demos but there's a PS1 game and some additional content for both Folklore and Motorstorm. In addition there's a bunch of trailers and some wallpapers (at last).

If you do have a US account you've already seen or played pretty much everything here. And that's the big issue with the store in general. If we could get to the point of simultaneous worldwide release of major content and keep the peripheral stuff local then people would be much happier.

Anyhow - here's the list:

• G-Police - PS1 game (£3.49)
• Uncharted - demo (free)
• Blazing Angels 2 - demo (free)
• "Rascal & Governer" - Motorstorm add-on pack (£1.49)
• "The Alchemist Pack" - Folklore add-on pack (£1.49)
• Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection - wallpapers (free)
• Ratchet & Clank - trailer (free)
• Motorstorm "Devil's Weekend" - trailer (free)
• Uncharted "Lifelike Facial Animation" - trailer (free)
• Uncharted "Hunting El Dorado" - trailer (free)
• PSN Showcase - trailer (free)
• Blazing Angels 2 - trailers (free)
• Battlefield: Bad Company - trailer (free)
• Beowulf: The Game - trailer (free)

Labels: Folklore, Motorstorm, news, Playstation 3, PS Store, PS3, PSN, Ratchet and Clank, Tekken, Uncharted

You may remember we featured the Folklore 'Design-a-Folk' competition some time ago.

Well, the winner has been announced and you can view that entry plus all 180 of the other designs at the official PlayStation site.

The winner was the enigmatically named 'Jeff R' with his 'Malion' creation which will feature in a future downloadable content pack for Folklore.

Labels: Folklore, news, Playstation 3, PS3

Sony have launched a PC based PlayStation Store primarily for PSP owners so they can download demos, games, PS1 titles, videos and all the other content you'd expect without the need for the PS3.

This store links with your current PS3 Store account which means you can log in using the email address and password you use for your Master Account. You can then click on 'Account Management' and access your full details.

This means you can administer your wallet preferences, add funds and generally make sure everything is ok with your account via your PC.

You can also gain access to your download list any time in case you need to audit your PS Store purchases. It will list all purchases across platforms but you can, of course, only download PS3 content via the black monolith. PSP downloads you've paid for can be re-downloaded to the same PSP any time.

I've tried the Store out and found that initially it was not obvious you had to download an extra application in order to follow any of the links. You'll find the application you need in the 'instructions' area. Silly me - when do I ever read any instructions?!

Labels: news, Playstation 3, PS Store, PS3, PSN, PSP

Firmware 2.01 has arrived as expected and is a bugfix release.

However it appears that as well as the network issues 2.00 created, this fix also improves the stability of some games. After a serious gaming session with Assassin's Creed combined with reports from friends and colleagues, it appears nobody is experiencing the 'white screen of death' at all now.

Whether this is a global fix is yet to be seen but I can report that in the UK at least, we are no longer seeing problems with AC and other titles. Good news!

[UPDATE] After more testing and a couple of additional reports, I'm afraid to say Assassin's Creed still freezes under 2.01. There is a quick fix though - it hasn't yet frozen whilst signed in to the PSN. So before you play AC sign out and all should be well. I expect a further update by either Sony or Ubisoft will fix the issue for good in the future.

Labels: Assassin's Creed, firmware, news, Playstation 3, PS3

We were seriously thinking about adding a PS3 theme area here at PS3 Attitude. And then the guys at PS3-Themes.com came along and did such a good job, we really don't feel the need any more.

So if you want PS3 themes that you can download either via your PC or directly with your PS3 browser head on over there and grab whatever you like.

Some of theme are a bit hit-and-miss but generally the themes people are creating are of a high calibre. I got the 'Half Life 2 #2' theme today and it's very well done.

Labels: news, Playstation 3, PS3, themes

It appears some people are having issues with Assassin's Creed on the PS3. The title is sometimes freezing - becoming known as the 'white screen of death' - and there are various glitches along the way.

We know that firmware 2.01 is coming along soon and there is a possibility that this will include a fix for Assassin's Creed.

In the meantime there is a suggestion that if you're running 2.00 you only need to disable the new Information Bar to stop AC from freezing. It has also been suggested that signing out of the PSN before starting the game helps as well.

So if you're having issues, and since there's no on-line multiplayer element in AC, you may as well sign out of the PSN before playing to ensure a seamless experience until 2.01 comes out.

Labels: Assassin's Creed, news, Playstation 3, PS3