The UK PlayStation Store has been updated with a few new items, including a playable demo of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 and a few new game trailers. The full list of additions can be found below. This time around, there wasn’t much content added to the PSN Store, however, we should soon see the Home Public Beta appear on the PSN Store.
If you hate sweaty, greasy hands on your precious SIXAXIS controllers, then the SIXAXIS body glove is the ideal accessory for you. Officially endorsed by Sony, the body glove is heat sensitive and changes colour depending on body heat. The glove retail for just over $10 and are available in a range of colours. The SIXAXIS body glove is the ideal in preventing grease and dirt from getting into the gaps of the controller, plus, it also acts as a grip, keeping the controller firmly in your hands.
The body glove comes with at 10ft USB cable. The body glove retails for between $10 and $15. Everyone knows that grease and dirt accumulates over time in between the hard-to-clean places, so this is perfect for keeping the pad nice and clean. The skin can be a pain to get on but its worth it in the end. One problem to note is that pressing the “START” and “SELECT” are slightly harder to press, since the skin covers the sides of the buttons.
[Via: PS3 FanBoy]
Sony has developed a prototype computer board based on the Cell processor, the same high-power chip used in the PlayStation 3 (PS3), and will be revealed at a conference in the US next week. The ‘Cell Computing Board’ prototype, which is small enough to be mounted into a 1U-size server for a 19in rack mount, combines the Cell Broadband Engine microprocessor and RSX graphics processor. This pairing results in a high-power computing platform that goes beyond the power of the Cell chip alone, said Sony. The company did not disclose precise performance data for the board.
It will be unveiled at the SIGGRAPH show that will take place from August 7 to 9 at the San Diego Convention Center. The event is focused on the computer graphics industry and Sony will make a number of related demonstrations, it said. These will include real-time processing of ‘4K images’, which are digital cinema pictures with a resolution of four times that of HDTV, computer graphics rendering and a multi-threaded physics simulation.
[Via: PC Advisor]
Several new bits of information about the rumble enabled SIXAXIS controller have emerged, according to Inner Bits. Inner Bits states that prototypes of the new SIXAXIS controller with rumble have made their way into the hands of various Sony developers, however, there is still no official announcement from Sony. An official announcement is expected within the next two to three months.
“We can confirm that prototypes of the new rumble-enabled controllers have made their way to various Sony developers. Information on these controllers is still closely held by Sony and their partners, but an official announcement and unveiling is expected in the next two to three months.”
Also, new SIXAXIS controllers are quitely replacing the original controllers launched with the console. Hardware changes occur regularly, and so far, Sony has improved the fidelity of motion sensing in the controller.
UPDATE (4th August 2007 at 16:50):
Sony denied recent reports in speaking to GamePro that rumble-enabled PS3 controllers are on the way. Sony did, however, acknowledge motion-sensing enhancements for the SIXAXIS controller.
“We have not added rumble [to PS3], and have no announcements regarding this feature,” said Dave Karraker, Sony’s Cirector of Corporate Communications.
Karraker did confirm that developers are receiving better motion-sensing controllers, though he downplayed the news.
Sony is planning to release a digital tuner for the PlayStation 3 in 2008 turning it into a programmable TV recorder, according to Sony Computer Entertainment New Zealand boss Warwick Light. The device is scheduled for release in March 2008. The information was revealed at a interview with The Press. It is currently unclear exactly how the functionality will work and whether it will be available outside of New Zealand.
“We’re also hoping next year – about the same time that Freeview launches its terrestrial broadcasting service (expected to be in March) – to release a digital tuner for the PS3, turning it into a programmable TV recorder.”
Our guess is a USB device similar to the PSP TV Tuner will be use along with a firmware update. The hard drive will be used to allow digital recording. Freeview is already available in the UK, so it is likely to reach there.
Team M33 has updated their Custom Firmware 3.52 to version 2. This update addresses some major issues in the firmware and fixes several bugs in the software. The previous versions did not support both Chinese and Korean languages in XMB and caused the both the homebrew and recovery to crash, this issue has now been resolved. In addition, the no-umd driver has been updated once again to offer better compatibility and the recovery menu has been updated. See below for a full list of changes.
General Changes:
Changes in recovery:
The Blast Factor expansion pack, Advanced Research, will be available to download from the PlayStation Network Store soon, along with a playable demo for those who want to try before they buy. A lot of additions have been made to the game including new enemies, new modes and new music. The game is said to run at 60fps at 1080p. See below for a full list of additions to the game.
The gameplay has also been improved taking the enemy and player interactions to a whole new level. There are new enemies that suppress chaining and enemies that create huge explosions for big combo scores. Check out the PlayStation Blog post.
Check out the gameplay video here.
Problems with the PlayStation title MediEvil have led to it being pulled out of the European PlayStation Network Store. This was confirmed by Sony to European video game news website Eurogamer.
MediEvil was suffering from a bug that caused the game to crash during the third level. The game will be returned to the PSN Store once the bug has been fixed. Those who downloaded the buggy version of the game will be able to download the new version for free. A date has yet to be set for MediEvil’s reappearance.
According to Eurogamer, Spyro 2 is also being checked by Sony after reports of audio problems in the game surfaced. For now, though, Spyro 2 is still on the PSN Store. Both Spyro 2 and MediEvil were released on the European PSN Store last week.
Sony is always getting intro trouble, especially with patent infringment. This time, Parallel Processing Corporation (PPC), a California-based company, has sued Sony and accused the creators of the PlayStation for infringing on its patent of Synchronized Parallel Processing with Shared Memory (Patent no. 5,056,000), and using the said patent on its Cell processors. What does this mean for Sony? Impounding and destruction of all Sony products that infringe on the same patent – which means destroying all PS3 consoles.
The five-page complaint that PPC filed against Sony claims that Sony’s powerful Cell processors used the company’s patented technology, enabling Sony’s Cell chips to breakdown processes into smaller ones, all running at the same time and in different parallel processors for faster computing.
The patent was signed and approved on October 8, 1991, and was awarded to International Parallel Machines. Parallel Processing Corporation claims to be the exclusive licensee of the patent, and is seeking damages and attorney’s fees.
UPDATE (1st August 2007 at 12:22):
Sony’s own patent, filed in 2001 and issued in 2007, actually lists the 1991 patent as a citation. In other words, Sony’s own patent lawyers have already seen the old patent and deemed it not to be a threat, and the U.S. Patent Office apparently agreed when it issued Sony the patent in June. This could mean that Sony may escape the lawsuit, but there is no guarantee.
At E3, Phil Harrison announced that more than 80 PlayStation Network Titles are in development and will be released between now and March 2008. Three of the PSN titles will be unveiled at Games Convention 2007 (GC) in Leipzig, Germany (see below). The games will most likely be arcade style games and will be available exclusively from the PlayStation Network Store. More information on the three titles should be available next month.
The three titles to be unveiled are:
Games Convention takes place between 23rd – 26th August 2007, in Leipzig, Germany. Day Tickets are available from EUR 8.50. The Developers Conference will take place between 20th – 22nd August 2007.
