With the North American release of Saints Row 2 today, we were eager to try the game out. After popping in the disc, were surprised to see a patch already available for the game. Patch v1.10 is 33MB in size but unfortunately trophy support is not included.
Dead Space Trophies
Gamers step into a third-person sci-fi survival horror experience that promises to deliver the ultimate in psychological thrills and gruesome action. Set in the cold blackness of deep space, the atmosphere is soaked with a feeling of tension, dread and sheer terror.
PlayStation Network downtime today
The PlayStation network will be down for maintenance tonight between 9:00PM and 2:00AM. The announcement was made on the SCEE forums but the post did not state why maintenance was being carried out. We speculate that the network is being prepared for the upcoming PSP and PS3 firmware updates, which are said to be released soon. During the downtime, you will not be able to sign-in to the network.
However, if you sign-on before, you will have no problems playing online. As you may have read, the PSP will be getting access to the PlayStation Store in firmware v5.00, and new features will be added to the PS3 PlayStation Store.
Blitz: The League II Trophies
As the sequel to the more than one million unit selling and award-winning football experience, Blitz: The League II, continues the franchise legacy as the ultimate alternative to the watered-down, licensed competition.
PSP Firmware 5.00 officially announced
Eric Lempel, over at the PlayStation.Blog has confirmed that PSP Firmware 5.00 will be released soon. Lempel also confirmes that Firmware v5.00 will include PlayStation Store support, adding a new menu to the XMB. The PlayStation Store will allow users to download games directly to their PSPs instead of using a PC or PS3. You will be able to use your existing PlayStation Network login (whether PC or PS3) and you will be able to manage your account directly on the PSP.
With the PlayStation Store coming to the PSP, the PC PlayStation Store will be down for a while to revamp the store. You can use your existing PlayStation Wallets to purchase items from the store too. A video demo of the store will be released by Sony soon. In other changes, a sleep times has been added to the music player and a full screen keyboard option has been added. The XMB background has also been redesigned.
More details on the new features will be available once the firmware update goes live.
PS3 Firmware 2.5 details
PlayStation 3 Firmware update v2.50 in coming soon and with it comes several improvements and new features. With the release of the official bluetooth headset this month, the firmware update will add new features to support High Quality audio mode. Also, the trophy system will be getting an interface enhancement to make it easier to compare trophies. As for new features, the firmware update will add in-game screenshot support, power save settings for wireless controllers and background downloading features.
Changelog:
- Support for the PS3 Official Bluetooth Headset – enables High-Quality (HQ) mode, which delivers clear and wide-band online voice chat. Plus, on-screen indicator shows battery status, volume level and use of HQ mode.
- PlayStation Trophies interface enhancements – This update makes sharing and comparing your trophies with your friends even easier. On 1st part of the profile page you?ll see a symbol under level that represents level and the actual percentage towards the next level along with the existing level meter. The level symbol carries over to the trophy comparison screen where you will now be able to see your level, your friend?s level and the percentage towards the next level for both users along with all of the game by game comparison information you see today.
- Friend status – Offline friends on your Friends list will have information below their avatars that will indicate how long it has been since they were last online.
- Video – This update adds the Scene Search feature similar to the feature on the PSP. Activating this feature while viewing a video on the PS3 will break the video up into scenes that you can quickly access by pressing the X button. You can break the videos into one, two or five minute intervals. In addition, you can now choose to have all of the videos under the video section of the XMB play in sequence. Go to Settings then Video Settings to turn this option on.
- PlayStation Store – The redeem codes option has been added to the store to make it easier to redeem your PlayStation Network Cards and promotion codes. In addition, PlayStation Network Sign Up and Account Management have been redesigned.
- Power Save Settings – You can now set your PS3 and wireless controllers to turn off automatically after set periods of inactivity. Go to Settings then Power Save Settings to turn on these features.
- Background Downloading – You now have the option to set the PS3 to turn off automatically after a background download or installation of content has completed. This option is available when you turn off the system from the button under [Users] while content is being downloaded or installed.
- In-game Screenshots – this tool will allow everyone to capture, share and in other words, immortalize their favorite gameplay moments. This will be supported on a game by game basis. Please check back to find out which games will support this feature.
TGS 2008: PlayStation Home to launch on Nov 19th 2008
At the Tokyo Games Show 2008, Sony has announced that PlayStation Home will be released to the public on November 19th 2008. Home has already been delayed twice since it was announced almost two years ago. The extended closed beta of PlayStation Home is currently under way but in just over a months time, everyone will be able to enjoy Sony’s virtual world. On launch, a variety of third-party content will be available from many game design companies.
Ryoji Akagawa of Sony said that around 24 game design companies would provide the content needed for Home – but didn’t give much else away. Xbox 360 is developing a similar virtual community called "New Xbox Experience". Microsoft’s John Schappert said:
"Our goal is to make the Xbox experience more visual, easier to use, more fun to use and more social…We focused a lot on friends and other experiences outside just playing games."
PlayStation Video Store update for Oct 10th 2008
This week content for four television series and over 30 new movies have been added to the PlayStation Video Store. New TV content includes It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Star Trek VIII: First Contact. As for new movies, a few that stand out from the list of over 30 include King Kong, The Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxy and Con Air. As for this week’s top 20 movie downloads, Iron Man is on top followed by Grandma’s Boy in second place and Speed Racer in third.
Television:
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
- Star Trek VIII: First Contact
- Superjail!, Season 1
- Watchmen Motion Comic, Chapter One & Two
Movies:
- Charlotte?s Web 2
- Cobra
- Con Air
- Crocodile Dundee II
- Curly Sue
- Date Movie (Unrated)
- Doctor Zhivago
- Domestic Disturbance
- Extreme Ops
- Grandma?s Boy
- He Said, She Said
- High Crimes
- Joy Ride
- Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead
- Keeping Up with the Steins
- King Kong
- Mean Girls
- Open Water
- Return from Witch Mountain
- Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
- The Abyss
- The Addams Family
- The Happening
- The Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxy
- The Hunt for Red October
- The Little Prince
- The Sandlot
- The Siege
- Transporter 2
- Untouchables
- Vanilla Sky
- World Trade Center
- Wrong Turn
PlayStation Portable firmware 5.00 has been confirmed
It’s been confirmed on the Japanese PlayStation website. PlayStation Portable firmware 5.00 will be released some time next week and feature PlayStation Store access as we previously reported. The launch date for other regions is not yet known but it is expected to hit the US and Europe around the same time. Firmware 5.00 will be required in order to access the PlayStation Store. Estimated launch for firmware 5.00 is October 15th 2008, when the PlayStation Store for PSP goes live in Japan.
The image above shows the new PlayStation Network icon on the XMB, similar to the PlayStation 3. It is not yet known if the PlayStation Store can be accessed on older PSP models, but our guess is that it will definitely be compatible with the PSP-2000 model.
WipEout HD patch now available in Europe
A patch for WipEout HD is now available to download in Europe. Patch v1.1 solves some of the bugs that were reported with the game. Unfortunately, if you played the game while having more than 50 friends, then it is possible that your game savedata has been corrupted and will need to be deleted. Once the update is installed, users should delete any savedata and then launch the game to create a new profile. Luckly, any trophies that you have unlocked will remain on your PSN profile.
The patch is currently available in Europe only, but one for North America will most likely be released soon. The official comment on the update is:
"If at any time you have had over 50 users in your friends list whilst playing Wipeout it is possible that your saved data has become corrupted.
If this situation applies to you, we strongly recommend once this update has installed you quit the game and delete your saved data using the saved data utility in the XMB, then relaunch the game to create a new profile."