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Dead Rising 2 Tales of Terror Developer Diary [HD]

bigdaddyellis — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:46:54 +0000

Minutes of Sept 4ths Club BIG Meeting

bigdaddyellis — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:00:48 +0000

Hay ya’ll, your Daddy’s here. I just wanted to give everyone that couldn’t make to the meeting the low down on what went down in the clubhouse this week. The meeting started at about 7 minutes after 6pm est, and ran about two hours. CaptainBIG started off the meet with a brief description of the club. Talked about what kind of club it is, how it started, and what the club is trying to do in Home.Like supporting all the official and un-official events in Home, as well as hosting some unique and fun events of our own. Here’s a list of a few events that are planned for this weekend.

PlayStation Move Event in the Presentation Podium. Make sure you make it to this event this weekend. In my opinion this is one of PlayStation Home’s best Events to date. First you wave to a friend to get the first of six free Move Controller outfits, then you put it on and go checkout the mini games in this space. Heres all the info on the event.

Every week Team RHO hosts the update party. 3pm Est on Thursday’s come have some fun with everyone that’s showing off all the new gear released in Home this week. And you just might get lucky and win a PSN card so you too can get some of homes latest gear. Heres a link.
RHOs weekly forum parties are always a fun time and a great way to make new friends in Home. Click this for all the info.

Bacon Day celebrations will Begin Sept 4th 2010 at 11pm Est/8pm PST. Come to the Central Plaza in your best bacon honoring outfit and remember your meat stick or subway sub. Click here for all the details.
BLURS of BLUE Is Club BIGs signature community gathering. Everyone dress in your favorite blues and come party with the BIG Boys. Info link.

CaptainBIG talked about the website (clubbigathome.net), and the recent changes that have been made to the site. For example, its not just strictly covering the news and events in PlayStation Home. The site now covers pretty much everything going on in the PlayStation Universe. There’s a video section for game trailers, tech demos, and the latest commercials from PlayStation. We added a Machinima section t0 showcase PS Home Machinimas, and we are working on creating a review show recorded entirely in Home. The website is definitely growing into something something like nothing else. But its not easy and we need help so anyone interested send CaptainBIG or bigaddyellis40 a message. You don’t have to be in the club to work on the website. You just have to be active PlayStation user.

Next we talked about Sept 3rds content update. There wasn’t much excitement about this weeks update. The only thing that anyone really seemed to care about was the Brimstone poker tables. We all agreed that having to buy another Move Controller outfit to use the extra emotes outside of the event is pretty lame. Using the emotes should of been a part of the last costume rewarded for completing the events mini game. But anyways, here’s what we got Thursday in NA.

Kane & Lynch 2 costumes and furniture
PlayStation Move controllers costumes
New Top Gun costumes
New SVER soldier costume and gun rack
Brimstone Poker Table (6-player Texas Hold em)
Lockwood Trance Lights

We spent the last 45 minutes talking about Home and things we think would greatly improve this virtual community of ours. We discussed PlayStation Plus. What it offers and what it may become in the future. Then we talked about a few games we are excited for (DC Universe, and FFXIV). Then the meeting closed with the “A Place Called Home” song, and decided to end every meeting with that song. It really is a great song.

Well there you go, that was the meeting. If you missed it, We all hope you can make the next one. It will be the same time next Saturday. Don’t forget Blurs of Blue tomorrow, 8pm est/5pm pst at the Playground. Till next time.

Daddy out

New Years On PlayStation Home (09/10)

bigdaddyellis — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 18:48:26 +0000

Yo kiddies its your Daddy, and I have a gift for you. Heres a few of the new years eve 2009 vids. One was a offical trailer ans the others are user made. Enjoy

New Years On PlayStation Home (2010 Ball drop in Central Plaza)

Playstation@Home New years ball falling (and reward items)

Bacon Day 2010

bigdaddyellis — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:05:30 +0000

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Blurs of Blue

bigdaddyellis — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 16:55:46 +0000

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Hay everyone. Its your Daddy, and I am inviting the entire Home community to be apart of this revamped version of the Home Appreciation Day.
Club BIG will be hosting this event and we want everyone to help support it. See awhile back the community used to wear their home logo shirt on Thursdays to support the home staff, and it has since died off. But Club BIG is bringing it back! This event will be held monthly in one of the newest spaces to be released in PlayStation Home. Depending on how well this is received, we might do it weekly. The next Blurs of Blue gathering will be Sunday Sept 5th at 8pm EST/5pm PST. So get your favorite Blues on and lets turn Home into a Beautiful Blue Blur.

Club BIG Meeting

bigdaddyellis — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:42:56 +0000

Hey Kids.Your Daddy’s here

To let you know its that time of the week again. Time for another Club BIG meeting. This week we will be talking about Thursday’s content update, and all the goodies we got to play with, like the poker tables for instance. We’re going to get every-one’s opinions on the PlayStation’s Move Event that’s going on right now in the Presentation Podium. Also we will be talking about Club BIG and the other community sponsored events. At the end of the meet we are gonna give those poker tables a try by having the first Club BIG poker tournament. So I hope to see all you BIG Dawgs at the meet.

Daddy out.

This Week in PlayStation Home: Brimstone Poker, PlayStation Move Event, Kane and Lynch 2 and More

bigdaddyellis — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:24:51 +0000

Posted by Locust_Star // PlayStation Home Online Community Specialist

This week we bring yet another classic game into the ever-evolving world of PlayStation Home. Brimstone Poker — a devilishly fun version of Texas Hold ‘Em, plucked from the deepest, darkest depths of Sin City — is the newest addition to the line of games custom-made to be placed in the personal spaces of your choice. Invite your friends over for poker night, throw some cards, and unlock special rewards. Brimstone Poker is available Thursday, September 2nd from the Exclusives store in the PlayStation Home Mall, and will be receiving additional updates in the near future (including a tournament mode).

Also coming to PlayStation Home this week is the hotly-anticipated PlayStation Move event space. Come in first thing tomorrow morning and step up to the PlayStation Move team challenge. Play games, unlock exclusive rewards, and gear up for the release of the PlayStation Move motion controller – all in the special PlayStation Move event space, available only in PlayStation Home.

We’re pleased to announce that IO Interactive’s gritty third-person shooter — Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days — is coming into PlayStation Home. Pick up the heap of Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days clothing and furniture items from the PlayStation Home Mall when they release this Thursday. While you are at it, head to the Sodium store to load up on the Lockwood “trance lights” (which are sure to turn your personal space into the premier party pad) then shoot over to Threads to pick up the brand new Top Gun gear (including Maverick’s bomber jacket) and the MAG SVER items (costumes and furniture — stay tuned for items for the Raven and Valor factions).

See you in Home!

PlayStation Home: Hudson Gate Arrives!

bigdaddyellis — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:23:37 +0000

Posted on 1 September by Alex Weekes

Who here loves Bomberman? Well, you’ll be glad to hear that the Hudson Gate public space arrives in PlayStation Home this week! Each disc of this futuristic space offers something new, from information on Hudson Soft games, to a store selling Bomberman outfits and Hudson Soft games. Stick around for the regular Dolphy races – correctly vote for winner of this sky race to win rewards!

If watching the Dolphy races isn’t enough for you, drop into the store and purchase the Dolphy Apartment, where you can raise your very own Dolphy to take part in races. Raise your young Dolphy to adulthood (takes 5 days), feed it with special digital fish to improve its stats, and enter it into the Dolphy race!

Kane and Lynch items arrive in the stores this week, with a range of clothing and furniture items from Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days.

See you in Home!

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 PlayStation 3 Trailer – Ultimate Edition Trailer

bigdaddyellis — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:30:03 +0000

PlayStation Move review: The hardware and experience

bigdaddyellis — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:27:59 +0000

by Randy Nelson on Sep 1st 2010 3:02AM

Four years after the arrival of Wii, Sony’s take on motion controlled gaming is finally here. Well, at least it’s here at Joystiq, where we got our hands on the final hardware and initial lineup of games a couple of weeks in advance of the peripheral’s September 19 North American debut.

I spent several days with Move, from the initial unboxing to putting my thoughts on the hardware together for you in this review. I also played the Move launch games from Sony and one from Ubisoft, which I’ve reviewed in the companion piece to this article.

PlayStation Move, as you’ve no doubt read on the site, comes in a variety of configurations. There’s the Move controller itself, the Move controller bundled with the required PlayStation Eye camera and Sports Champions and a system bundle that includes the latter plus a PS3 console. There’s also the Move’s “nunchuk” Navigation Controller, which isn’t actually used by any of the Move-specific launch titles (but will be supported by future games and current titles, such as Heavy Rain, via patches).

I received two Move controllers, one Navigation Controller and a PS Eye camera. The Navigation Controller arrived in packaging styled to match other PS3 accessories, such as the DualShock 3. The Move controllers themselves were already unboxed, though it stands to reason that they come in similarly difficult-to-open-without-spilling-blood plastic packaging.

Anyway, enough background — let’s get on with the review.

The Hardware

The Move controller itself is smaller than any photos you’ve seen of it convey. Larger, though, than a Wiimote, it is incredibly comfortable to grip and neither too light nor too heavy. The orb on top, which changes color for both PS Eye tracking purposes and to provide visual feedback, isn’t the hard “ping pong ball” you’d expect – it’s soft and squishy, like a dog toy. The top of the controller features a PS button, Triangle, Circle, X and Square buttons, and the primary “Move” button.

On its left side is the Select button; on the right, Start. The placement of these two buttons is pretty questionable – they’re not very easy to reach. Finally, the underside is home to the T button, actually a trigger a little larger and with more play than the R2/L2 buttons on a DualShock pad.

The Start/Select button placement bugs me, but that’s really the only gripe I have with the controller’s actual construction. It feels great, with a solid build reflective of the engineering that’s gone into the DualShock controllers.

The design of the Navigation Controller (pictured above) — or “pickle,” as its referred to internally at Sony) — follows that of the main Move controller, only smaller. It felt just as good in my hand, with perfectly-sized L1/L2 buttons, D-pad and standard-sized analog stick (it clicks in, just like those on the DualShock pad). Of the PlayStation standards, it only features an X and Circle button. It’s odd since it seems to me that there’s room above and to the side of either to comfortably fit the other two face buttons rather than the “cancel” and “confirm” that reside on the NavCon (let’s just call it that, eh?). Given all of the tech in the actual Move controller, the fact that the NavCon costs $30 seems downright silly. $20, maybe. Maybe. (Plus, while kinda wonky feeling, you can use the left side of a DualShock 3 as a stand-in for the NavCon should you want or need.)

Oh, and lest I forget: The Move controller has its own vibration motor that’s not simply an on/off buzzer — it’s capable of generating feedback just as nuanced as the DualShock 3, from my experience with it.

Although the Move controllers shipped with some degree of battery charge, I opted to plug them into my PS3 via the mini-USB ports at their base (the same port as found on the DualShock 3). It took around an hour to fully charge them — same with the NavCon. Once that was done, the setup process commenced.

Setup

Calling getting the PlayStation Move up-and-running a “setup process” is like calling starting your car a “startup process” – it’s far simpler than the name makes it sound.

It feels great, with a solid build reflective of the engineering that’s gone into the DualShock controllers.

The Move controllers and NavCon are synched up just like a DualShock pad, by plugging them into your PS3 with a USB-to-mini-USB cable and pressing the PS button on them. (Guess we now know why the PS3 supports seven Bluetooth devices at once, eh?) So, that’s a snap!

Plugging in the PS Eye – if you don’t have one set up already – is stupid-simple, too. Just place the camera either dead-center above or below your screen, point it straight ahead and plug it into a free USB port on the PS3. Oh, and for PS Move, you need to switch its lens to wide angle mode by turning it clockwise to match the white dot on it with the blue dot on the Eye’s housing. Don’t worry if you forget this step – you’re reminded to do so before every Move game you play.

And that’s the setup process.

The Experience

Provided you’re running the latest PS3 firmware, the Move controller (and NavCon) can be used to navigate the XMB interface right away. This doesn’t use the PS Eye to track the Move’s orb – just the controller’s internal tilt sensors (or the analog stick/D-pad in the case of the NavCon).

You have to hold down T on the Move controller in order to flick through the XMB. Doing so with any degree of precision takes a little practice, and if you’ve trying to scroll through long lists of videos (for example) you’ll find yourself aiming the controller at the floor, only to have the list stop scrolling. What I found is that you actually have to use the Move controller for navigating the XMB as if you were “pinching” things. So you “pinch” or “grab” the list in this case, and once you can’t scroll any further, release T, point the controller up again and pinch again to scroll more.

It’s kind of awkward feeling, and really had me wondering why Sony didn’t (or hasn’t) created a Move-specific menu that runs on top of the XMB.

In terms of the play environment – a.k.a. your room – I found that the Move worked well in low light (my usual lighting) and didn’t seem to have any problem keeping a rock-solid lock on my position no matter what was behind me, or what I was wearing.

The definition of “too close” or “too far” changed on a game-by-game basis.

I did run into a couple of issues, however. The first being the fact that I have a coffee table in front of my couch. This is a problem (as is anything on top of a coffee table) in that, should you wish to play a game that tracks the Move’s colorful orb while sitting, a table will prevent the PS Eye from seeing the orb – which is a problem in games like Tumble that have you placing the controller near the floor at times. Something as small as a sake set on my table was enough to create a “blind spot,” actually.

Standing up should help, right? Well, it did – although pretty much all of the games’ calibration screens (you usually have to point the Move controller at the PS Eye like a flashlight and hold the T or Move button) displayed an “ideal position” box for me to stand in, which had me moving roughly eight feet back from my TV. Basically, this is right to the limit of my “play environment” and, again in my case, meant that I couldn’t reach down and to the right without bonking my coffee table with the controller. Of course, I tried moving within five feet of the PS Eye – in front of said table – and was told that I was too close.

The definition of “too close” or “too far” changed on a game-by-game basis, too. One would say eight feet, another five and yet another 3.3 (one meter). Playing Move games in my den – a small room where I sit maybe four feet from the TV – was hit or miss.

This said, when I met the proper line-of-sight and distance needs of the hardware and software, the tracking and accuracy of the Move was astounding. I talk about these things more in my individual game reviews, but highlights for me came in the form of Sports Champions‘ table tennis (which replicated my every wrist flick perfectly) and archery (grabbing an arrow from my quiver with one Move controller, then touching it to the other acting as a bow and pulling back feels totally natural); and I was blown away by Tumble’s super-precise placement of differently shaped blocks, down to complete 1:1 tracking into and out of the screen. It basically feels like you’re reaching into your TV (and I wasn’t even playing in 3-D).

The Verdict

Issues with line-of-site and play distance aside, I can’t help but declare PlayStation Move a resounding success as a piece of consumer technology and general way of interacting with games. Yes, it’s the natural evolution of the Wii Remote, but it trumps Nintendo’s creation in every respect, from its accuracy (even MotionPlus can’t match it) to the quality of its vibration feedback.

The hardware’s great, and I can see it being used in a multitude of really cool ways, but of course it’s only as cool as the games that use it. I’ve mentioned Sports Champions and Tumble, two great games that make excellent showcases for Move’s potential. But considering everything on offer, it’s hard not to classify Move as anything more than a “cool toy” at launch. The best of Move is worth experiencing, but is it worthy of a day-one purchase – not to mention the full set of two controllers and a NavCon? No.

Fortunately, though, Sony actually seems to have a roadmap for Move that includes support for the hardware in its biggest titles – Killzone 3 and SOCOM 4 to name a couple – as well as patches for existing games, both first- and third-party (RUSE works great with it, as do Heavy Rain and PSN’s High Velocity Bowling).

I believe that, if you ask me in late 2010 or especially early 2011 whether I think Move is a must-have for PlayStation 3 owners, my answer will have changed to “Yes.” Move doesn’t seem like a passing fad, but as is often the case with new hardware, those games that tip you from “wait and see” to “purchase” just aren’t there from the start.