My RSS reader, in a remarkable display of sentience this morning, deftly reached into the ether and plucked this morsel from Sony’s PR leafblower: the final details for the “prologue” of Gran Turismo 5 in North America. This version is expanded from the already-released Japanese GT5:P.

Some would say this is a Paid Demo; you can decide for yourself by perusing the full feature list after the jump. Some specifics:

• 60 vehicles and 14 additional tuned cars
• 6 tracks, each with 2 layouts
• Drift mode
• Car tuning mode
• In-car view; realistically rendered dashboards and gauges for every car
• 2-player split-screen
• 16-player online racing
• adjustable AI
• downloadable race events
• a dedicated “Gran Turismo TV” video channel (?!)
• some other touchy-feely MySpace-style web sharing features
• one thousand eighty P’s of resolution

Full press release below.

Continue Reading »

Sony came out with a veritable cornucopia of announcements today. The timing is a little odd, coming as it does just after GDC. The vagaries of Sony PR are confounding and mysterious.

First up is the news that there shall be an 80GB Playstation 3 bundle which includes Metal Gear Solid 4 and a Dual Shock 3 controller*. That is one mighty bundle of gaming bliss. Alongside that, we learn that MGS4 will be hitting our shores on June 12, and the DS3 controller will be available in April for (a slightly cringeworthy) $55 USD. Thankfully most of the big games for PS3 have already been patched to support the rumble features.

Furthermore, those who engage in that damnable custom of pre-ordering shall be reserved a guaranteed place in the upcoming beta trial of Metal Gear Online, the multiplayer-only title set in the MGS universe. (No word on how exactly one secures that valuable perk yet.)

And finally we have a pretty sweet new PSP bundle – the God of War: Chains of Olympus game, a copy of Superbad on (snicker) UMD, and a voucher for a free download of Syphon Filter: Combat Ops. Oh, and the unit itself has been tastefully dipped in the blood of your fallen enemies. Mr. Happy himself, Kratos, is silk-screened onto the back, in a manner similar to the white Star Wars PSP bundle with Darth.

* Where’d they get the idea that a special edition bundle shouldn’t be a puke green console, and actually include the game it’s named after? That’s just crazy.

PSP owners, your path is now clear. You are to proceed to the nearest internet-enabled PC or PS3 and download the Patapon demo when it becomes available sometime this afternoon. Please dress accordingly, ensure that you are properly hydrated, get your affairs in order and kiss your loved ones goodbye, goodbye. These tiny, rhythmically challenged warriors won’t fight themselves.

If you are completely bewildered, click here for a trailer. It won’t make any more sense. So get the demo!

On the last Playstation Nation podcast, David Jaffe mentioned that he had tucked a hint away in the dubiously-titled Twisted Metal: Head On Extra Twisted release for PS2. Head On is the new “semi-anniversay/special edition” release of Twisted Metal as remixed by Jaffe’s new dev house Eat Sleep Play.

The code was embedded in one of the videos contained on the disc, unlockable by beating the game on hard. All the nerdy details are on NeoGAF:

“ok, so the super gumshoes at Gamefaqs have cracked the code from the Dark Past video on the disc.

The code is displayed with random numbers throughout the video. If you put the numbers together, and match them to their alphabetic cousins, you get -

Twisted Metal is coming on PSTHREE”

It’s a nice little teaser. And it also gives me the perfect excuse to use this awesome clownsplosion picture.

I’ve been holding out for the PS3 version of Singstar for awhile now, but if any version was going to get me to break down and by a PS2 edition this would be it.

Singstar 90’s will be rolling out on March 18th, and in addition to the music that made the 90’s great it’s going to feature every cringe inducing moment the decade had to offer. Paula Abdul? Boyz II Men? MC Hammer? SIGN ME THE FUCK UP.

Senior Sony PR Manager Jennifer Clark summed it up on Playstation.blog nicely;

With all SingStar products, we start off the process by defining parameters for our song list, and SingStar ’90s was no exception. However, this proved to be more challenging than usual, as everybody we asked had their own idea about the ’90s — it wasn’t as clearly defined as if you asked them about the ’80s. But, that’s ultimately where we got our inspiration from. The decade was many different things to many different people, so our track list had to reflect that. Grunge, rap, pop, boy bands, hip hop, rock — it’s all in there, and we hope you like it.

Hit the jump for a complete track listing. Here’s to hoping we see all of these in the Singstore when the PS3 version rolls out;
Continue Reading »

It’s been out in Japan for awhile now, so the news that GT5 prologue has been given both a price and a date for North American release should get the mouths watering and engines revving of many a driving-sim fan.

Clocking in at only $39.99, GT5 Prologue will be available April 17th in both retail format and through the Playstation Store. The retail version will also include an HD making of video called “Beyond the Apex.” I’m a little surprised that they’re using this to try and create incentive for the retail version considering it’s the digital download that they need to push if they’re trying to make this the future of shopping.

It should be noted that GT5 Prologue isn’t the same this as GT5. That being said, I’ve heard it contains (or at least will via future downloads) a selection of cars and tracks on par with/greater than its predecessors.

If you can’t wait to get your hands on a little PS3 Gran Turismo action, don’t forgot that Gran Turismo HD is still a free download!

[via Playstation.blog]

A Great Lens, Lidless, Wreathed In Plastic

Sony’s sequel to the venerable PS2 EyeToy is the PLAYSTATION®Eye – a brand name so overbearing in it’s use of screaming caps that I shall refer to it simply as the Eye from this point on. Sony has always pitched a good game with their research into video-based physical-motion gaming – the EyeToy bundled software was a big hit late in the PS2’s lifecycle, particularly in Europe. The fact that the Eye has debuted in tandem with a more novel approach to the camera via the Eye of Judgment hybrid video/card game is telling. This is Sony hinting at a broader approach to use of the video peripheral that goes beyond body tracking alone.

(Full review after the jump.)

Continue Reading »