Gamernode: Latest PlayStation 3 News

Insomniac says no loading screens in Resistance 2

If I may modify an old saying, there are THREE things in life that can't be avoided--death, taxes, and loading screens.

Loading screens are as common as the noonday sun. But according to Ted Price, boss over at Insomniac, he says that we won't see a single loading screen in Resistance 2 during the entire game.

"We do have streaming of textures and other assets now. Not only does this improve the overall look but it cuts down on load times. In fact, you shouldn't notice any loading screens in R2. We've also added a lot more tech-wise - detail maps, new lighting system, new effects system, better normal mapping, better specular response, redone shaders and lots of behind-the-scenes stuff that makes the game really stand out aesthetically."But just in case Insomniac's plan doesn't work, Price ...

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PlayStation 3 could go 3D

While still in the works with the major movie studios, TDVision Systems is hoping that their 3D viewing technology will be adopted by the PlayStation 3, offering the first 3D movie experience for home entertainment.

Why the PlayStation 3 is able to take advantage of this technology is because it is imbued with the BD2.0 firmware upgrade for Blu-Ray. It isn't a stretch then to think other Blu-ray players with the BD2.0 could also run these 3D movies.

What sets TDVision apart from other companies that are trying to create a 3D movie experience is that its tech allows both a 2D and 3D version of the movie to be put onto one disk. Other 3D tech out there is not compatible with the 2D format so those companies would have to release seperate 2D and 3D versions of a movie.

Beyond movies though, ima...

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Sony wants to know if you are hard Qore

One of the major benefits that Sony likes to mention about its PS3 is that online multiplayer is totally free as opposed to Microsoft's Xbox Live, which charges an annual fee of $50 for a one-year membership.

While multiplayer will continue to be free of charge over PSN, there will be a charge for "premium" downloadable content.

The new subscription-based service is called Qore and will offer "monthly lifestyle gaming" exclusive content such as news, exclusive demos, beta invites, behind-the-scenes specials, previews and more. Think of Qore as the online version of a PS3 demo disk magazine.

How much will Qore set you back? The cost will be $24.99 for thirteen "episodes." The first edition will feature SOCOM: Confrontation and will give subscribers the opportunity to join in on the game's bet...

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Sony not denying possible 'Sony Wiimote'

Sony steals right? Their systems include rumble technology, motion-sensors, wifi, but is it really stealing or borrowing good ideas? Now what if Sony started to make a controller that was exactly like the Nintendo Wii-mote?

Would that be stealing or utilizing an idea? Either way, Sony has declined to comment on speculation that it is making its very own Wiimote-style controller for PS3.

Reports suggest Sony ran secret focus groups in the US at the beginning of the year--console owners were shown the motion-sensing device. According to PlaystationLife the remote was "incredibly responsive and accurate." Some of the titles that were shown using this new controller featured tennis, fencing, and paintball, all with pinpoint accuracy.

Even though Sony is no real stranger to motion-sensing (SIXAX...

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EGM won't score MGS4 because of Konami restriction...

Big name franchises like to be hush hush before they release a new finshed product, whether that be movie or videogame franchises. The recent Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull kept Harrison Ford from showing any footage when he went on different talk shows to promote the film.

Why? Well it's kind of obvious when a studio doesn't want any of the story revealed for many different purposes. Metal Gear Solid 4 seems to be having the same kind of treatment as well.

Konami doesn't want reviewers to talk about the game's lengthy cutscenes, major story plot points and install times. Even though many other pubilcations will have their review up in the next couple of days, EGM will not.

Due to "limitations Konami wanted to impose on our comments," the whole editorial team decided to ...

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Kaz wants more exclusive content, PS3 owners agree...

I remember days where exclusives were all the rage. It was almost a surprise when games came out for two consoles, instead of a surprise when they went exclusive. These were days before the Internet, if you can even fathom such a time. I believe we rode mules to get around the village in those days as well.

Sony has had a strict 'we won't pay for exclusive content/games' policy for some time. That policy came down from former exec and current bald man Phil Harrison. But now that he's gone, Sony may be rethinking their standpoint on exclusivity especially since their competition is doing what Sony won't.

When asked about the current standpoint on paying for exclusives, Kaz Hirai replied, "That's something that we can re-evaluate, but it's also something that the publishers need to make a ...

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Bioshock for PS3 will be "genetically enhanced"

Bioshock, the critically acclaimed horror/sci-fi adventure game will have its day on the PS3 as early as this October, but not only that, the PS3 version of Bioshock will be "genetically enhanced." Well, they do it to cows, plants, and chickens, so why not video games too?

What this means to PS3 gamers are that they'll either be treated to more powerful plasmids in the game or see new ones added.

According to Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K games:

"Since BioShock for Xbox 360 and Games for Windows won countless 2007 Game of the Year awards, we are excited to see the impact of this stellar title for the PLAYSTATION 3 system when it debuts this fall. Over the coming months we look forward to revealing the new features and content that will make this a must-have game for its new audience, a...

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MGS4 has 90 minute cutscenes

Have a comfy chair? Good. How about extra bags of popcorn and pop? Excellent. Because once June 12th hits, and MGS4 is spinning snuggly inside the drive of happy PS3's across the world, gamers are going to have to endure cut scenes which reach a mind boggling ninety minute mark; feature film length.

Yes, that is a plural. There is more than one cutscene of this duration.

PSW Magazine said of the scenes, "MGS4's story is massive. The videogame equivalent of all three Godfather movies on one disc. As you'd expect, you'll spend a lot of time watching cut-scenes, so if you found previous games' story exposition laborious, then you'd better find yourself a nice cushion and plenty of teabags in readiness for MGS4's." "They can be skipped, but you'll be missing out on some of the finely crafted e...

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BioShock Confirmed for PS3

Well PlayStation 3 owners, today is your day. After all the constantly denied rumors, rumblings on message boards, and jabs by the Xbox 360 crowd, BioShock is finally coming to the PlayStation 3. Rejoice, parades, confetti! Unfortunately, this is all we do know except that Jordan Thomas is spearheading project and it should release in time for the holidays.

Can we rule out exclusive content? Not entirely. Obviously, the PlayStation 3 version is going to have to give some incentive as to why we should fork over another sixty-plus dollars on a game from last year. Being bundled with the DLC from XBL would be a good start, but some unique levels, weapons, enemies; something is going to have to surface to appease the PS3 fan base. And there is also the issue of an install on the hard drive. Wil...

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Metal Gear franchise to continue

With Metal Gear Solid 4 soon to be released, some believed the Metal Gear franchise was coming to an end. They thankfully were wrong. Solid Snake's story will be concluded, but the Metal Gear titles are going to keep being produced. What Metal Gear Solid 4 signifies is the end of Solid Snake's story. June 12th will be the last day we all get to rush to our local game store and pick up Snake's latest adventure. Yes, this is sad but think of the possibilities the Metal Gear franchise can head now.

If Hideo Kojima is still involved with the future Metal Gear projects he has a clean slate to tell his new story. There are no questions he has to answer, or rules he has to follow. The world is open to him once again, and that is exciting.

Solid Snake was one of the most baddass characters to ever ...

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How Konami and Sony f*cked up the release of the L...

The most powerful form of marketing is word-of-mouth. Given this commonly known bit of advertising 101 splendor, who better to act as herald to one of the biggest games of the year sold only for a console in desperate need of any kind of content; let alone the highly marketable system-selling triple-A blockbuster kind; than the die-hard fans; the people who have had the next entry in the series at the top of their "most anticipated" list since they were forced to pull the trigger on their virtual mentor in a sea of white flowers over four years ago. These people, of which I'm a proud card-carrying member, are arguably any series greatest asset, and expanding their numbers must be made a top priority. Unfortunately, just the opposite has happened. Konami and Sony have just pissed them off.

C...

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Are MMOs Sony's trump card?

Consoles are known for the genre they do the best at. Currently, the Xbox 360 could be considered the shooter console, while it wouldn't be a stretch to call the Nintendo Wii the party platform. The PlayStation 3, like the PlayStation 2, has it the best since there is no definite genre the console excels at.

In reality it has or will have good games across all genres. This is something both Microsoft and Nintendo wish they had, and the only reason the PlayStation 3 is sitting in such a nice spot is thanks to the immense success of the PlayStation 2.

The president of Sony Online Entertainment, John Smedley, would like the PlayStation 3 to be known specifically for MMOs. Like anyone these days, thanks to World of Warcraft, the MMO market is opening up, and Mr. Smedley believes the PS3 sits in...

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Metal Gear Solid movie will have Kojima as produce...

Metal Gear Solid 4 is releasing later in June, but talks are already ongoing for the Metal Gear Solid movie. Everyone can take a sigh of relief since no one is interested in having Uwe Boll direct the film (except Ewe, of course).

What is interesting is Metal Gear Solid games play very much like movies themselves. Their cinematography, action scenes, and dialogue, at times, rival that of some action flicks. Some fans are ever considering the release of MGS4 to be the blockbuster of the summer regardless of the movies versions of Iron Man, Speed Racer, Indiana Jones, and even The Dark Knight. I'd have to agree with them. MGS4 is going to have some major payoffs.

So the question remains, how does one make a Metal Gear Solid movie without making it feel like we, the gamers, are just watching a ...

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Rockstar releases patch for GTA IV. Needs work.

Rockstar has released a patch for the PS3 version of Grand Theft Auto IV to address crash bugs found in the game. That's the good news. The bad news is that it only fixes the online multiplayer server problems and not the main issues with the game hanging up and freezing during the offline game.

Rockstar said the fix ""prevents Gamespy's servers from being overloaded and therefore reduces the impact on those servers that were causing the game to stutter and lock up."

That's great, but the awful issue of not even being able to play the SP game is still alive and well. Rockstar says it is "monitoring" the offline and online portions of the game.

"We continue to monitor the performance of the game both on and offline and will provide further updates as necessary. We want to assure everyone that,...

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PS3 is going "pro-choice" for HDD configurations

Since the PS3 has debuted, we've seen a plethora of different HDD configurations for the machine in multiples of 20. Sony has released the 20GB, the 40GB, the 60GB, and 80GB PS3 models. What's next? The 100GB?

David Reeves, boss at Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe says he would like to see the gamer take control of this decision and choose their hard drive capacity instead of facing all the different PS3 HDD models.

"We launched with 60GB and to reduce the price we went to 40GB. We're not sure we want to stay with that configuration of hard drive, and I think what you're going to see in the future is maybe consumers can choose.

"The PlayStation will stay the same, but consumers can choose whichever size of hard drive they want. They can now, or course, because it's not a proprietary hard...

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LittleBigPlanet slips, Home taking its time

Anyone who is eager to play with a bunch of dolls made out of burlap sacks and design environments out of paper cut-outs will have to wait just a little bit longer than previously expected. The flagship PlayStation 3 title LittleBigPlanet has been officially pushed back from September to October, inching ever closer to the holiday hot zone.

Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai made the announced at Sony's PlayStation Day 2008 in London yesterday, where he asserted that the game will revolutionize the way gamers interact with videogames.

Additionally, Hirai told the gaming press on hand that Home, Sony's in-development community network, will be open to the public only when it is ready. Hopefully that means that the project will hit users' living rooms completely bug-free and fea...

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Sixty player online madness for Resistance 2

Insomniac Games just keep rolling out the good news. The latest comes from the next installment in Insominac's original FPS IP, Resistance. Having been the best launch title for the PlayStation 3, it is not surprising that the game has spawned a sequel.

Promising to be bigger and badder in everyway possible, Resistance 2 is going to sport 60 person multiplayer when it launches this Fall for the PlayStation 3.

The original Resistance also had a hefty player cap, and while the game ran smooth as butter some of the maps were too big or the battles too crazy for fun to set in. Let's hope that the experience Resistance provided makes Resistance 2's multiplayer the crowning achievement we know it can be. [Via Insomniac Games]

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Haze demo finally reaching release for PS3

Back when I attended the E3 convention in 2006, one of the games I saw on demo was Haze.

I have a small plastic box of "Haze" mints that were passed out as a promotional giveaway for my efforts of stepping into the Haze tent to see the game. Since that fateful day, I still have that box of Haze mints, shrink-wrapped and sitting on my desk, but not much more solid evidence that the game, indeed, exists.

But now, two years later, the Haze demo is coming out for the PS3, says SCEE.

"To mark the event, PLAYSTATION Store on PS3 will carry two updates instead of the usual one. Look out for great demos, including PS3 exclusive Haze, as well as a host of game trailers, expansion packs and videos of the press conference which will include a keynote speech by Kaz Hirai, President of Sony Computer Ente...

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GTA IV PS3 version resolution is sub-HD

It has recently been concluded that GTA IV on the PS3 runs at 640p, a resolution not considered to be hi-def. This is the same resolution that caused some console flaming by PlayStation fanboys when it was discovered that Halo 3 was not "hi-def."

The irony? GTA IV's home is the PS3--the console that has consistantly boasted of its superior graphics.

The man who found this out was Quaz51 from Beyon3d technical forums. Announcing his news prior to receiving a reliable screenshot, he stated that the PS3 ran at 640p with no anti-aliasing while the 360 ran at 720p with 2xAA.

Eurogamer, as usual, took the information from Quaz51 and ran with it, regardless of the absence of a reliable screenshot. When the game came out, IGN had a head to head, which revealed, surprisingly, that even though t...

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Valkyria Chronicles battle gameplay

For those of you who haven't heard of it, Valkyria Chronicles is an action-oriented RPG from the same people over at Sega who brought us Skies of Arcadia for the Dreamcast. This PS3 game looks like a 3D moving watercolor painting, and features a unique combat system that combines an overhead strategy view with real-time action.

Valkyria Chronicles has already been released in Japan, and will be hitting the US during Q3 of this year. It looks phenomenal. Check it out:

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