I was one of the (un)lucky 100,000 people to get a Playstation Home beta key on Friday. I was pretty excited to try it out but when I got home and installed it out I quickly found out that it’s pretty boring. There isn’t much to do apart from running around and text chatting with other people. None of the stores had any items, the gaming area was pretty empty and the options for customizing your personal space were next to none. I really hope they do something to change all of this before launch because as of writing this all I can say about Playstation Home is that it’s an over-hyped version of the Sims.

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Got a Resistance 2 beta code in my email last night. It was a 2.2gig download and while it started fast ended up taking quite a while. A friend recieved one as well - both of ours came from the Playstation Underground.

2 maps available in the beta and the game runs multiplayer only. From the 30 minutes or so I put in last night it seems like a pretty fun game though I had it crash on me several times each requiring a hard reboot. The 40 player map that I played was pretty chaotic and I can tell that this will be a popular online shooter - though it will be interesting to see how it fairs against COD5.

Keep checking your email, maybe there is an invite waiting for you!

Why are people so bent out of shape about having to install games to the PS3’s hard drive? There has been a lot of uproar about install times for MGS4 as well as the other new games that require it (remember how pissy the fanbois were about the install for DMC4?). The install is there to IMPROVE the gaming experience by reducing load times!

I guess the arguement will be made that the PS3 is a console and that hard drive installations are for PC’s. I guess the argument is valid but I would like to point out one thing - the hard drive installation improves the way the game plays! No developer would ever make a player sit through an install if it did not contribute to the quality of the game. We should be happy that developers are starting to take advantage of the luxurys afforded by next gen systems and actually using the hardware tools made available to them.

Further to that the online play is down! From what I have been reading a lot of people are having problems with this. I dont understand how these issues are not worked out in beta testing before the game is launched. I’m not too impressed that I’ve twice now lost my mission progress due to a crash. A fix better come soon.

I downloaded Gran Turismo Prologue the other day and I have to say that I am blown away by how beautiful the graphics are. The menus are so smooth and the game graphics are exceptional. I was also really impressed with the vehicle sounds. It seems that wind noise has been introduced and adds a level of realism.

Other than that, this is standard Gran Turismo with souped up graphics. I find that the game is a little sparse and I am having issues downloading the update. I keep being told that I need to set my time and date but when I try to download the update it errors out and never completes. I will say that I am really looking forward to the full release.

Oh, the Dual Shock 3 works great with this game. I almost forgot what rumble felt like.

The first game I tried with my new Dual Shock 3 was  Half-Life 2 in The Orange Box. Much to my suprise and disappointment there was no rumble! There were no options that I could find to turn it on either. Looks like the PS3 version is without rumble and from what I can tell there are no plans to add it.

Found this today at Walmart. Paid $54.92 ($62.06 after tax) in good old Canadian dollars.

I am having some bad luck these days with my PS3. Over the last week or so someone broke one of my Rockband guitars. Either the thing was dropped or someone was too hard on the strum bar. Notes were not strumming properly and notes were randomly releasing even if the fret was being held down. Turns out that a piece of plastic broke off the strum mechanism and it was causing false strums.

I got Rockband back in January, so it really didn’t take that much regular (about every weekend) use to break it. Check out the pictures of the internals and broken part.

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Hot off the press, Gamepro presents their view of the PS3 and Xbox 360’s upcomming releases. Sure to ignite debate between the fanboys, the list does look good for both systems. I have to say, especially after the PS3 outselling the Xbox 360 in the United States this week, that I think things are really going to change.

Here are the games:

Xbox 360:

1. Ninja Gaiden 2
2. Left 4 Dead
3. Too Human
4. Gears of War 2 (SYSTEM SELLER)
5. Fable 2 (SYSTEM SELLER)
6. Halo Wars
7. Splinter Cell Conviction
8. Alan Wake
9. Banjo Kazooie
10. Halo Chronicles
PS3:

1. Gran Turismo 5 (SYSTEM SELLER)
2. Haze
3. Metal Gear Solid 4 (SYSTEM SELLER)
4. Metal Gear Online
5. Singstar
6. LittleBigPlanet
7. Resistance 2 (SYSTEM SELLER)
8. Killzone 2
9. Motorstorm 2
10. SOCOM Confrontation
11. InFamous
12. The Agency
13. Final Fantasy XIII (SYSTEM SELLER)
14. God of War III (SYSTEM SELLER)
15. Tekken 6
16. Twisted Metal

What do you think?