The PlayStation 3 Video Store is now live in the US. The Store will allow gamers to purchase and download movies and TV shows in SD or HD quality. SD content has no expiry period but renting HD content gives you only 14 days to watch it and a 24 hour period after the video is played for the first time. So far, there are over 300 movies already available for download and over 1,200 TV shows. You can download videos for the PSP via the PlayStation Store for PC.

Rentals are $2.99 to $3.99 in SD and can be upscaled using the latest 2.41 firmware. HD rentals are $5.99. SD copies can be purchased for $9.99 to $14.99. You can transfer purchases from the PS3 to the PSP, so you can take your movies with you but the same restrictions will apply. In addition, remote playing rented videos on the PSP via the PS3 is not allowed. Shows must be downloaded to the internal PS3 hard drive and cannot be copied over to an external device.

The Video Store will be available in Europe and Japan later this year.

The video-on-demand service, Go!View, is now live for PSP owners in the UK and Ireland. Go!View is a online download service operated by SCEE and Sky, allowing you to download TV, movies and sport content to your PSPs. Subscribing to the service gives you access to TV shows like Weeds, Hustle, and Little Britain, plus access to the latest movies and sport content. You also get one month free subscription when you subscribe to three entertainment packs.

Entertainment Packs:

• Entertainment
• Comedy
• Sports

Pricing:

• Buy 1 pack for £5/?7 per month
• Buy 2 packs for £8/?11 per month
• Buy 3 packs for £10/?14

[Via: Go!View]

The new Warhawk patch (v1.4) will be able to download in July 16th 2008 at 10:00 AM GMT according to Dylan Jobe. The new patch will come with two new game modes for every map (including the booster packs), and will be available for free. The two game modes are Hero and Collection (details below). The update also includes several improvements including "Quick Join", lower Rank and Reward restrictions, minimum rank hosting option, select respawn area, new "Winning Team" ribbon and more.

Hero:

This is a team-based game mode in which one member of each team is randomly selected to be their team’s Epic Hero. Players score points for their team by killing the enemy Hero or by killing enemies while they’re the Hero. The team that reaches the score limit first (or has the most points when time runs out) wins the game.

Really what it all boils down to is a huge battle between 2 armies that are being lead by 2 Epic Heroes!

While you’re the Hero, you get some pretty incredible buffs…the mode’s called Hero after all so you’ve gotta be tough!

You get crazy high damage resistance which is like having 500% health. All of your weapons do twice the damage. And the armor-piercing values for your weapons are increased so that some weapons that normally can’t hurt vehicles like Tanks and Turrets, now can!

Now you aren’t the Hero for the entire game. Once you are selected as the Hero, you have a limited amount of time to go on your berserker-blitz-rampage-of-carnage-awesomeness. See the shots above for the Hero meter in the upper left-hand corner. Also note the crazy visuals that are rendered when you’re the Hero. You glow your team color, you emit light the same color as your team, you growl a scary sound that strikes fear in you’re your foes, and of course, energy sparks…must….have…energy sparks!!!

Scoring is simple: If a Hero kills a player, he scores 1 point for his team. If a normal player, or more commonly, a group of players, kills the Hero, 1 point is granted for the team. If a Hero kills the other enemy Hero, then 2 points are scored for the team.

Oh…but here’s the downside for the Hero…everyone is gunning for you! If you die, then a new Hero on you team is given the chance for Epic Hero Greatness!!!

Did I mention that Heroes are always displayed on the mini-map!?!?…and with a star no less!

Simply stated…this mode is wicked intense!

Collection:

This new gameplay mode is like multi-flag CTF. There are 4 energy cores scattered around the map, generally positioned in the center or between the 2 team’s main bases. Each team has a Reactor where Energy Cores are taken to score points.

In the screen shot above you can see 2 Energy Cores positioned on a Eucadian bridge. Bringing these Cores back to your team’s reactor will score points for your team…and you can carry more than 1 Core at a time.

The scoring system is progressive, so if you score just 1 Core, your team gets just 1 point. 2 Cores will score 3 points. 3 Cores are good for 6 points…and if you manage to work as a team and bring all 4 Cores back to the Reactor at once, then your team scores a whopping 10 points!

As you can see in the screenshot below, the Cores are displayed on your character and the more you are carrying, the more you see whirling and orbiting around you. You’ll also see them on the mini-map as pulsing energy symbols. The score is displayed in the upper right corner as usual, but there is a new display there for Collection mode. It’s the little yellow number that shows you how many Cores your team currently is currently carrying. This ends up being critical for knowing where your focus should be; Offense or Defense.

Collection mode is fun as &#@%! and really helps promote teamwork and yield some truly fantastic risk-vs-reward moments!…and you can press the TRIANGLE button to throw the Cores you are carrying! Passing Cores among your team is “super-effective” 🙂

So that’s a quick run down of the new modes and we can’t wait to have our player around the world start playing 2 completely new ways to enjoy the fast-paced world of Warhawk!

After an announcement over at the PlayStation Blog by Eric Lempel, director of PlayStation Network Operations, PSP Firmware 4.05 is now available for download. This minor update adds new music visualizations: the XMB wave and wallpaper movement. For Japanese PSPs, some minor changes to the One-Seg player are included too. Until the official English changelog is included, we have included the Japanese translated one below.

Japanese Changelog:

• TV
  • Record Book can be multiple.
  • Specifying the date and time are now booking.
  • Book and repeatedly set to allow automatic extension.
  • Silent can now record. Video and audio output without recording.
• Music
  • Visual types have been increased.
    • Wallpaper in the country to choose. Wallpaper on the play of the music in a move like have a rough surface.
    • A time has not been set. Playing the music in a move like a wave swinger.

The US has received a big update this week with four new playable demos while Europe has only received one new demo. The US has also received some new game add-on content, videos and trailers. Echochrome is now available to download from the European PlayStation Store for both the PS3 and PSP, and there is also a new character for High Velocity Bowling available for purchase.

European Additions:

• Playable Demos
  • Top Spin 3 demo
• Downloadable Games
  • Echochrome (£6.99)
• PSP Demos
  • Echochrome Micro (£4.99)
• Game Add-ons Content
  • High Velocity Bowling – Amber Vorgees (£0.69)
• Videos and Trailers:
  • Echochrome trailer
  • Kung Fu Panda trailer
  • Movement (Paris) videos (x8)

US Additions:

• Playable Demos
  • Siren: Blood Curse Demo
  • Monster Madness: Grave Danger Demo
  • WALL-E Demo
  • The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Demo
• Game Add-on Content
  • Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 – Gift Pack DLC
  • Rock Band
    • "Working Man (Vault Edition)" – Rush ($1.99)
    • "Closer to the Heart" – Rush ($1.99)
    • "Snow (Hey Oh)" – Red Hot Chili Peppers ($1.99)
    • "Tell Me Baby" – Red Hot Chili Peppers ($1.99)
• Game Videos
  • SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation – Assault Trailer
  • Elefunk Official Trailer
  • Siren: Blood Curse Story Trailer
  • Super Stardust HD Add-on Intro
  • AST Dew Tour – PlayStation Pro Moments
  • AST Dew Tour – Behind the Scenes with Spinner
  • AST Dew Tour – Bilko’s Road to Finals
  • AST Dew Tour – Burnquist Talks
  • Civilization Revolution Launch Trailer
  • Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway Destructible Cover Gameplay Video
  • Dead Space Dev Diary #1: Greenlight
• Movie and Blu-ray Trailers
  • Quarantine

PlayStation Firmware 2.41 is now available to download. The new update fixes the issues in Firmware 2.40 that bricked PS3s when it was released last week. The update includes all the features in firmware 2.40 including Trophy Support and in-game XMB. Hopefully, this also means that the Super Stardust HD v4.0 patch will also be available to download soon.

The update has added a new tab to the Profile screen which shows your last game played along with the date and time, and the Platinum Trophy image has changed from "Crown" to an actual trophy with a crystal globe inside. Both of these changes were not mentioned in the official change log.

­Original Article:

Eric Lempel, Director of PlayStation Network Operations, has posted a message on the PlayStation.Blog announcing that firmware 2.41 is coming soon. He confirms that the problems in firmware 2.40 have been fixed and gamers will be able to update their console without worrying about bricking it. Lempel didn’t mention a specific release date but you can expect the update within the next day or two.

Eric Lempel:

"Hi, everyone. As many of you know, we released PS3 firmware update v2.40 last week, but had to take it offline temporarily because, for a limited number of users, the XMB wouldn’t display after the update was installed. We’ve been able to fix the problem, and I’m happy to report that firmware update v2.41 will be released shortly.

We want to extend our apologies to the PlayStation community for any inconvenience. Now we’ll be looking forward to seeing everyone online and racking up those trophies!"­

[Originally Posted On: 08/07/08 08:52 AM]

Gamers currently enjoying their summer vacation may want to take this notice into account. The European PlayStation Network will be undergoing scheduled maintainance this Wednesday (July 9th 2008) between 7:00 AM and 1:00 PM BST. During the maintainence period, some gamers will not be able to sign-in to the PlayStation Network and you may experience frequent disconnects from the network. It is therefore best to avoid any online games during this period.

The announcement was made on the European PlayStation Board.