GameOnYou UK

Earlier today, I (ed: Read: someone at Kotaku) stumbled upon a post over at the N4G Forums which basically included the picture above which shows that PS2 Games May be coming to The PSN store in the near future….

From what I can gather using my incredibly large brain, Sony may possibly be unveiling this at E3 which isn’t so far off… Even though the picture could quite easily have been Photoshopped, it is starting to seem like an exciting prospect and is also a way to work around the problem of the non-backward compatible PS3s. I guess We will just have to wait and see…

Ed: It’s also nice to know that Metal Gear Solid 2 (ie. not the one where you lie in grass and get shot like a tit) will be available for the very-much-competitive price of £12.99!)

It has been heavily rumoured that PS3 owners can hope to see in-game XMB and trophies (Xbox 360-style achievements) in the next firmware update…

At the moment, Sony have only announced that it will be out this summer and have not announced an official release date yet, but “unnamed sources” from Holland say it will be here on the 18th of this month (June).

I will now run through some features we should expect to see in this highly anticipated update:

• Full In game-XMB
• Custom In Game Soundtracks
• Trophies
• Improved Audio/Video Communication

Videogaming247 Has also acquired some information on how compatible current/old games will be with the new in-game XMB feature amongst other things…

• Sony’s currently going through PS3’s library to check whether or not in-game XMB’s full compatible. While it’s expected that the the new menu system, in-game messaging, and so forth, will work with virtually all games, for a minority of titles the current black menu screen will be retained. It’s not known yet which games, if any, won’t be able to use in-game XMB.
• The user-music functionality is only included in the new development tools, which have now gone out to coders. This means that existing games won’t support it unless they’re patched. That’s right: you won’t be able to play GTA IV with your own music unless Rockstar updates the game, if what we’ve been told this morning is true.
• Same for Trophies. They tools required to add these are only just in the hands of developers, which means it’s going to be some time before you see the feature appear in a major game.
• Some aspects of the XMB, such as the photo viewer, won’t be available in-game after the 2.40 Firmware update. If you select these features in-game, you’ll be asked if you want to drop out of your game to access them.

Yes, you guessed it… It’s Thursday, also known as New PSN Store Content Day. This week they’re pulling out all the stops and are spewing gloopy, gaming goodness all over our unsuspecting faces.

Read on as we dissect the towering update and pull out the new content and my personal recommendations…
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Do you remember a time when release dates actually meant something?

Nope, me neither…

I don’t think I can actually remember Home having an official release date but I do know that Sony is one to make exaggerated claims. This time around, Sony has released a statement detailing that Home won’t be open to public beta testing until some time this Autumn. Here is what they had to say:

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) announced today that it will expand the Closed Beta testing for PLAYSTATION®Home in Summer 2008, inviting a further number of registrants from the PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3®) users. Following completion of the Expanded Closed Beta test, the PLAYSTATION Home Open Beta service will commence in Fall 2008.

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Today at 10 AM it was finally announced in an official Sony Press Release that the new PSN Store revamp will bring with it the Metal Gear Online Beta and the long awaited Lair patch…

Not only will we be seeing these two fantastic features but Warhawk Operation: Broken Mirror and two Lair add-ons will also be released. The New PSN Store’s release date is the 15th and the new exciting selection of content is to be released on the 17th of April.

With all these new features and the revamp, I’m eagerly anticipating how the competition will retaliate. Well, we shall just have to wait and see…