GT Fans will be glad to hear that a new update is now available to download. The update adds three new vehicles to the game’s line-up, plus a number of gameplay and performance enhancements. The new vehicles are GT by Citreon, Ferrari California and Lotus Evora (screenshots below). As for the gameplay ehancements, the penalty system has been tweaked for Time Trial events, and you now receive more money when finishing in top place in race events. The responsiveness of using the wireless controller has also been improved. See below for more details.

GT by Citreon:

Ferrari California and Lotus Evora:

Gameplay Enhancements:

• Penalty System tweaked – specifically, during Time Trial events, speed penalties have been removed, and instead incurring such a penalty now invalidates the lap time for that particular lap.
• Difficulty level tweaked for Race Events and increased earnings for winning top spot
• Improved responsiveness when using the wireless controller
• Improved sound volume balance for sound effects and music for a better racing experience
• Drift Trial races have also been changed to feature a rolling start.

Notes:

Rankings, arcade time trial times, drift trial records, as well as vehicle-specific quick tune settings and custom key layouts will all be reset with the new update. Replay data created before the second update will no longer be viewable after this update. To confirm the version you have before updating the game, check the in-game manual.

Last month, we reported that PlayStation Home Community Manager "TedtheDog " on the US PlayStation Forums suggested that PlayStation Home was to be released along side Firmware 2.50. TedtheDog has now clarified his statement indicating that Firmware 2.50 will be released later this month but Home Open Beta will not be released until later this year. Once again, the exact release date is still is a mystery.

An announcement regarding firmware 2.50 is expected later this month so be sure to look out for that. As for PlayStation Home, a firm release date has not been given for the Open Beta. However, weekly invites are being sent out by Sony inviting users to join the extended closed beta.

According to a reliable source over at the Rlu-Ray.com forums, the beta version of LittleBigPlanet may be released as a demo prior to release of the game later this month. The beta is due to end on October 12th 2008 and and the full game won’t be available to buy until week commencing October 21st. This leaves plent of time to enjoy the demo before the full release. If you haven’t been able to get your hands on a beta key, luck may still be on your side to play the game before release.

Until an official announcement, this is currently considered as a rumor. Be sure to check back for what’s new on the PlayStation Store over the next couple of weeks in case this turns out to be true.

Grand Theft Auto is one of the latest games to support the trophy system. The game will be getting patched soon to include over 50 unlockable trophies – all of which match the Xbox 360 achievement list. However, is it likely that you will need to play the entire game again in order to unlock these shiny rewards, as we speculate that trophies will not be retroactive. An official announcement regarding retroactive trophies has not been made yet so keep an eye out for that. See below for the complete trophy list.

Trophies:

• Off The Boat (Bronze Trophy) You have completed the first mission.
• One Hundred And Eighty (Bronze Trophy) You scored 180 with 3 darts.
• Pool Shark (Bronze Trophy) You beat a friend at pool.
• King of QUB3D (Bronze Trophy) You beat the high score in QUB3D.
• Finish Him (Bronze Trophy) You completed 10 melee counters in 4 minutes.
• Genetically Superior (Bronze Trophy) You came first in 20 singleplayer street races.
• Wheelie Rider (Bronze Trophy) You completed a 500 foot wheelie on a motorbike.
• Gobble Gobble (Bronze Trophy) You got a turkey in 10-pin bowling.
• Rolled Over (Bronze Trophy) You managed 5 car rolls in a row from one crash.
• Walk Free (Bronze Trophy) You successfully lost a 4 star wanted rating.
• Courier Service (Bronze Trophy) You completed all 10 package delivery jobs.
• Chain Reaction (Bronze Trophy) You exploded 10 vehicles in 10 seconds.
• Order Fulfilled (Bronze Trophy) You completed all 10 Exotic Export orders.
• Manhunt (Bronze Trophy) You completed the most wanted side mission.
• Cleaned The Mean Streets (Bronze Trophy) You caught 20 criminals through the police computer.
• It’ll Cost Ya (Bronze Trophy) You made a taxi trip from one island to another without skipping.
• Sightseer (Bronze Trophy) You have taken all variations of the helicopter tours of Liberty City.
• Warm Coffee (Bronze Trophy) You were invited into your girlfriend’s house.
• Half Million (Bronze Trophy) You have amassed a fortune of $500,000.
• Full Exploration (Bronze Trophy) You unlocked all the islands.
• You Got The Message (Bronze Trophy) You delivered all 30 cars ordered through text message.
• Assassin’s Greed (Bronze Trophy) You completed all 9 assassin missions.
• Under The Radar (Bronze Trophy) You flew under all the main bridges in the game.
• Teamplayer (Bronze Trophy) You killed 5 opposing team members.
• Cut Your Teeth (Bronze Trophy) You were successfully promoted up a rank in multiplayer.
• Join The Midnight Club (Bronze Trophy) You won a multiplayer race without damaging your vehicle too much.
• Fly The Co-op (Bronze Trophy) You completed "Deal Breaker", "Hangman’s NOOSE" and "Bomb da Base II" in time.
• Taking It For The Team (Bronze Trophy) You were on the winning team in all multiplayer team games.
• Top Of The Food Chain (Bronze Trophy) You successfully killed 20 players with a pistol in a deathmatch.
• Top The Midnight Club (Bronze Trophy) You won 20 different multiplayer standard races.
• Auf Wiedersehen Petrovic (Bronze Trophy) You won in all variations of multiplayer games.
• Let Sleeping Rockstars Lie (Bronze Trophy) You killed a Rockstar in multiplayer.
• One Man Army (Silver Trophy) You survived a 6 star wanted level for a full 5 minutes.
• Dare Devil (Silver Trophy) You completed all the unique stunt jumps.
• Endangered Species (Silver Trophy) You collected every hidden package in the game.
• Liberty City (5) (Silver Trophy) Your friends all like you above 90 .
• Liberty City Minute (Gold Trophy) You finished the story in less than 30 hours.
• Key To The City (Gold Trophy) You completed GTA IV to 100 .
• Wanted (Gold Trophy) You achieved the highest personal rank possible in multiplayer.

Secret Trophies:

• Driving Mr. Bellic (Bronze Trophy) You unlocked the special ability of Roman’s taxi.
• Retail Therapy (Bronze Trophy) You unlocked the special ability of buying guns from Little Jacob.
• Lowest Point (Bronze Trophy) You completed the mission "Roman’s Sorrow".
• Fed The Fish (Bronze Trophy) You completed the mission "Uncle Vlad".
• That’s How We Roll! (Bronze Trophy) You unlocked the special ability of Brucie’s helicopter ride.
• Impossible Trinity (Bronze Trophy) You completed the mission "Museum Piece".
• Dial B For Bomb (Bronze Trophy) You unlocked the special ability of Packie’s car bomb placement.
• Gracefully Taken (Bronze Trophy) You completed the mission "I’ll Take Her".
• No More Strangers (Bronze Trophy) You’ve met all the random characters.
• That Special Someone (Bronze Trophy) You completed the mission "That Special Someone".
• You Won! (Bronze Trophy) You have completed the story.
• Taking A Liberty (Bronze Trophy) Sorry for taking liberties with your time.

The new PSP M4M website is partially up usage. We are now starting a beta trial to help test and improve the website. Some users have already been invited to help with testing (emails have been sent out) – if you have not received one, you can apply to the beta here (Google account needed). Instructions on how to access the beta can be found on the group or in the email you have received.

Over the next few weeks, the beta will help to fix bugs, improve the website and generate feedback for us to evaluate. Once the website is ready to launch to the public, we will make another announcement here – so stay tuned.

Over this past few days, we have notices some strange bugs on our PlayStation 3 which relate to the PlayStation Network. The network has been quite slow over the past few days with downloads taking longer than normal, but this could be due to the release of Burnout Paradise and WipEout HD. However, we have some screenshots below that show some of the bugs we’ve encountered online. These include duplicate names on the friends list, friends list visible when signed out of the network and errors when viewing profile information.

Duplicate Friends:

The below screenshot shows the user “hersi020” three times on the list, which is clearly a bug. The question is whether this a bug related to the PlayStation Firmware version or the network itself.

Online Profile Errors:

The screenshot below is a common occurrence when viewing someone’s profile information. We’ve noticed this error several times over the past month or so. The trophy information also takes far too long to load but this problem is likely to be addressed in a future firmware update.

Offline Friends List:

The strangest bug we’ve noticed so far is the ability to see your friends list when not being signed into the network. Normally, if you are logged in, the first user on the list (under the Message Box) will have a diamond on the side of the avatar indicating the current logged in user. However, when we signed out of the network, our friends list was still visible but our username had disappeared indicating that we had signed off.

When you first boot the PlayStation 3, the [Friends] menu only displays the [Message Box] option. We have not been able to replicate this problem after first encountering it. The two images below show the “before” and “after” shots. Note that the duplicate name problem is also present in both these photos.

If anyone has encountered similar problems, or anything completely different, post it below in the comments section. We are curious to know how many bugs exist and how widespread the problem is.

SOCOM: Confrontation has been patched once again. If you are taking part in the beta, simply boot up the game and wait for the update prompt. The patch addresses several bugs as well as change some aspects based on user feedback. The bug fixes include improved statistics for the team, improvements in load times for late joiners and improved game stability. Game improvements include better accuracy on the first shot, better tiebreaker rules and new HUD animation to indicate reloading. You can find a full list of changes below.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed an issue which was causing an abnormally large number of simultaneous kills.
• Optimized the Armory so that selecting weapons, attachments and general menu navigation are much faster.
• Fixed another issue where you could get stuck in spectator cam when late joining a game.
• Fixed an issue where occasionally late joiners would have very low framerate and crash when exiting a game.
• Fixed an issue where occasionally late joiners would have no audio.
• Statistics improvements. Statistics are now being tracked at the team level and not the player level. This will ensure stats are tracked for dropped and late joining players.
• Further improved load times for late joiners.
• Fixed several stability issues.

Changes based on user feedback:

• Added new burst firing accuracy tuning when moving. You are now more accurate for the initial burst while moving but accuracy deteriorates as you continue to fire more shots.
• Scopes are now accurate.
• The select screen scoreboard is now exited by pressing the select button.
• Improved tiebreaker rules.
• New HUD animation to indicate when you are reloading.
• Crosshairs now turn grey when your magazine is empty.

Existing issues in patch v1.4:

• The select screen scoreboard, round complete and game complete screens appear blank.
• Infrequently, some users loose controller functionality for a couple of seconds.

With the release of WipEout HD today, many gamers are busy playing the game and earning those shiny trophies. Unfortunately, there are problems present in the game that causes the PlayStation 3 to freeze occasionally. So far, the problem seems to be affecting only selected users but the problem is definitely wide spread. We have also experienced crashes with our copy of the game, but found that signing out of the PlayStation Network helps the game run better – but you won’t be able to play online.

Another theory is that if you have a large number of friends, then this also causes the game to crash. If you are experiencing different problems, please use the comment section below to describe them to other users. If you have a solution, please share that too.

Some users can play the game online while are unable to. There are many users on the Official European Forums complaining about similar issues with the game. It seems that WipEout HD has made a mess of things similar to when GTA IV was released earlier this year. So far there has been no official announcement from Sony but we speculate that it won’t be long now before a statement is released.

If you haven’t purchased the game yet you may want to hold off until the problem has been resolved. It is likely that a firmware update or patch for the game will be released within the next few days. If you don’t mind playing offline then go ahead and download the game – it’s great fun and there are lots of trophies to unlock.

[PlayStation Forum Thread on WipEout HD Problems]