Sims 3 Heading Over To Consoles This Fall

Last years best-selling PC franchise is heading over to consoles later this year. The game will becoming to the Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, and the Ds, all of which are scheduled for a fall release.
 Skimming through EA's press release tells us that The Sims 3 for consoles will include all-new features make it easier than ever to mess with life as players can unlock the ultimate “Karma Powers” for instant control and unleash them on their Sims. Players can help their Sim “get lucky,” bless them with “instant beauty” or be deviant and curse them with an “epic fail.”

Now this isn't the first Sims game to make it onto consoles, but it defiantly seems like this is going to be one of the most complete "Sim experiences". Keeping with The Sim's casual appeal, the Xbox 360 and PS3 version will come with a "single-use serial code" that will allow gamers to share achievements with friends through Facebook.

About Last Night: Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake Event

You might be wondering what I did last night at Sony's Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake event, well, that's what I'm here to tell you!

The event was in the top floor of a bar/restaurant in San Fransisco called Orson. There were multiple PSP's set up each with their own game. Some games were older such as Echoshift, Patchwork Heroes, and Eye of Judgment Legends. However, there were also a few unreleased PSP games to check out, such as ModNation Racers PSP, Invizimals, Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip, and Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake. I was able to play almost every game there aside from Hot Shots Tennis, which had some technical difficulties throughout the night.

I'll start with ModNation Racers PSP becuase it was the first game I played last night. Right from the start ModNation PSP ModNation PSP experience is that it's an extremely well done "port" of the PS3 version. looks exactly like it's "older brother" on the PS3, which is defiantly a good thing. Actually, the best way I can describe the entire

I'm not fully aware if it is an actual 100% port, although I can imagine the track creator must be tweaked a bit differently for a single analog control scheme. One thing about the single analog controls is that I felt your racer would "over-turn" very easily, and so I used the D-pad for most of my racing, which worked out great. Overall I'd say its a very well put together game, but I'd have to play with the track editor first to really see how good or bad it's put together.

After playing with ModNation for a bit I played with Invizimals, which is already out in Europe, and it will be coming to North America later this year. Invizimals is a really interesting "augmented reality" game that uses the PSP's camera attachment so that you can see "invisible monsters" around your house. The gameplay is very similar to Pokemon in the sense that you take turns attacking each other, and after fights your monster can level-up/evolve. There's also various monsters you can catch during different times of day, and each monster has their own type of weakness.

The battle system is turn based, but disguised very cleverly with lots of action on the screen all the time. You'll have to keep an eye on stamina and health bars, while also trying to time defensive and offensives moves in order to max/min as much as possible. The premise of the game seems to work best when put into the hands of an 8-14 year old who doesn't  fully understand how augmented reality works. Once you try to look "behind the curtain" of how these monsters are generated, it takes a lot of the game's "magic" away.

I played several other games throughout the night, some of which I will write about later, but for now I think this leaves you with a pretty good idea...About last night.

P.S. I'm deciding whether or not I should write one of these "About last night" features every time I go an event or expo. If you hated or liked it, I'd love for you!

Contest: Fat Princess: Fistful Of Cake

Last night I was unable to write my daily set of blog posts becuase I was at Sony's Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake event. Although you had to to miss out on a day of blog posts, there is a good side to this story, and that is free games!

This time I'll be giving away 3 codes to download Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake for the PSP. On top of this being a free game, you'll also be able to download the game a week before it's actual release!
The rules are pretty simple:
*Every follower gets 1 entry
*Every insightful comment on a post gets you 1 entry (multiple comments on one post won't count)
That's it!
The contest will run from now until Sunday at 12:01am PST

The Characters Of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Last week Konami and Kojima Productions released a trailer for their upcoming game, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. This PSP exclusive will be hitting stores April 28 in Japan, June 8 in North America, and June 17 in Europe. To feed your Metal Gear Solid need however, here's a new trailer to keep you busy.

I really like how this trailer not only introduces each individual game character, but it also gives the voice actors a bit a of the spotlight. Most people know that it takes an entire team to make a game, not just one producer, and so I'm always happy to see people get credit for their hard work in more than just the game's ending credits list.

More Rumors That Resistance 3 Is In Development

Last year in October, a picture of a Resistance 3 billboard hit the web. The billboard was supposedly placed for an advertisement in a movie shoot for, Battle: Los Angeles, scheduled to come 18 February 2011.

Its been a while since that picture, and the Resistance 3 rumors have died down a bit...until now. Sony recently sent a pretty strange survey to it's PlayStation fans, one that "hypothetically" brings up Resistance 3.
 "Do you think that there is a future version of Resistance, Resistance 3 being developed?" was one of the questions, the second asked, how likely the reader would be to purchase this hypothetical game.
It's a bit strange for Sony to ask for this kind of information, as I don't see any real benefits to it. If it's already in development, which it probably is, then it seems a bit late to see if people actually want one.
I guess this kind of info could be used to see how much money Sony should put into the marketing for this game, but something like that might be better judged after a trailer of some sorts.

In any case, when you look at Insomniac's track record of releasing a Resistance game one holiday season and a Ratchet and Clank game the next holiday season, I think its pretty certain that we'll see Resistance 3 later this year.

3D Dot Game Heroes Full Trailer

Do you like comedy? Are you into Retro games? Do you love the original Zelda? Then here's your new favorite game: 3D Dot Game Heroes!
Atlus and From Software have been promoting bits of this game for a while, and now they have released the game's full trailer.


I can't wait to get my hands on 3D Dot Game Heroes, the game just looks like pure fun. It doesn't seem to try too hard with inventing new battle systems, or complicated ways to level, and that's something you don't see very often any more.

3D Dot Game Heroes will be out on Sony's PS3 May 11.

Killzone 3 Coming...Sometime

GTTV's Geoff Keighley sure knows how to get information out of people. As seen on last night's episode Keighly got SCEA president, Jack Tretton, to come forth with some Killzone 3 info.
"You know, we own Guerrilla Studios, and uh, they did a great job on Killzone 1 and 2 ... I don't know when you'll see announcements about it, but I can promise you a Killzone 3."

Well there you have it folks, Killzone 3 will be released...sometime...
I enjoyed Killzone 2 quite a lot, but with a third iteration, I think Guerrilla could heavily improve on the series.
I'll be sure to keep you all posted on more Killzone 3 news as it rolls in...maybe during E3...

Secret Announcement Of A New God Of War Title?

God of War 3 only came out last Tuesday, but it seems that some people already have the platinum trophy for it. For those of you that don't know, the Playstation 3 uses trophies instead of achievements. When you get all the trophies from a single game, you get that game's platinum trophy.
Apart from the usual bragging rights to a platinum trophy, God of War 3 also gives you something a little extra, a link to a hidden page on the God of War 3 website.

 There's nothing on this page, other than some falling rain and a shield with an upside down "V" on it, but my guess is that its going to announce a new PSP title.
We've heard multiple times from Sony execs that the story of Kratos ended with God of War 3, but there's always possibility to re-visit the God of War universe from a different perspective. From the url hint, Spartans Stand Tall might be the game's title.
All of this is still pure speculation, I'm probably competely wrong about all this but regardless, its always fun to speculate :)

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Hits North America Soon(ish)

I know you're probably still working on Final Fantasy XIII (I am), but Square Enix has already planned for another major RPG to hit the US market, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. This PSP exclusive title hit the Japanese market on January 9 of 2010, and today we were told that North America will get the title during the "Summer of 2010".

I got into the Kingdom Hearts series last year, and instantly became a huge fan. Although I've only finished the first one (slowly working my way through the second), I'm really excited to see that a new Kingdom Hearts game will be coming our way. All of this is bound to lead up to the highly anticipated release of Kingdom Hearts 3, but that will have wait until another time.

Sony's Motion Controller Now Named Playstation Move

Shuehei Yoshida,Sony's president of Worldwide Studios, is on stage at GDC right now, talking about the Playstation Move.

 Sony's motion controller was first announced last year at E3, but until now the name (or much else) has been known about it.
This news is constantly flowing in as I'm typing this, so I'll make sure to update this post as more information gets released.

Update: There will be multiple bundles, including a bundle that includes a PlayStation 3 console, the PlayStation Move and the PlayStation Eye. Furthermore, the company will launch a starter pack, which includes a PlayStation Move, a PlayStation Eye and an unnamed game all for under $100.

Update 2: Sony has now announced some of the games which will has some motion control functions. Aside from the SOCOM 4, Little Big Planet, and Resident Evil 5, there will also be some brand new games for the Playstation Move. Here's the list we know of right now:

*Slider
*The Shoot
*Sports Champion
*TV Superstarts
*Move Party
*Motion Fighter

I don't know any of the details for each game yet, but once that info gets out, I'll be sure to let you all know.

PS3 Version Of Final Fantasy XIII Includes Some Extra Goodies

If you haven't heard yet, a little game called Final Fantasy XIII came out today. It avaliabe for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms, but the according to Sony, the PS3 title has something extra for its players.
If you go online to register the game with the Square Enix Members program, you'll be given a special item for use in Final Fantasy XIV. On top of that, you'll also get registered for the Final Fantasy XIV beta access which should start sometime later this year.

Since I only just started playing Final Fantasy XIII, I'm having a hard time trying to even think about a Final Fantasy game so soon. However, its still some pretty cool free stuff!
If you have FFXIII for the PS3, don't forget to register!

Sony Announces SOCOM 4

Sony had been teasing an announcement for a "big unexpected sequel" over the past weeks, and now we know what it is. SOCOM 4 has now been officially announced, and the guys at Zipper Interactive are developing it. Zipper Interactive was the studio who created the very first SOCOM game and so it seems fitting that they are back to develop the newest title.

 Your mission is to step into the well-worn boots of the Ops Com, a NATO Operations Commander of an elite, five-man squad. You must venture deep into inhospitable jungles, city streets and crumbling urban ruins to engage an army of rebel fighters and discover their plans. Although you’re vastly outnumbered, you’re armed with the latest weaponry and your men are second to none – but do you possess the stealth, speed and tactical thinking to lead them to victory? Time is not on your side: you have just six days to complete your mission. To emerge victorious, you must lead from the front, maintain control of the situation and fight with sheer intensity.


 You might also know Zipper from MAG, Sony's 256 people shooter. Zipper defiantly has a lot of experience with army style games, but I have to wonder, will developing SOCOM 4 slow down the support for MAG?
 SOCOM 4 is set to hit sometime this fall, and it will also include a full single-player campaign and 32 people online matches.

Here are some Xbox 360 Blur beta keys, as I promised yesterday. I'll be putting these into posts throughout the day, so stay tuned for more!

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Go here, to redeem the beta keys

Sony Buys Media Molecule

Here's some happier news for the day.
Media Molecule's extremely succsesfull debut title, Little Big Planet has gotten more than just fan attention.
Sony announced today that Media Molecule is now officially part of the "Sony family".

"Since Media Molecule's inception, we've had a uniquely close relationship with Sony. Over the years they have consistently shown their dedication to Creative Gaming and Media Molecule, not only through their support of the company, but their willingness to take risks and embrace our often unusual approach and ideas." said Alex Evans, co-founder of Media Molecule. "What we've achieved already with LittleBigPlanet has proved this to us and we're excited by this new chapter of innovation and creative gaming, for all involved."

It's not the world's biggest surprise, but its nice to know that Sony is backing Media Molecule for their creative efforts thus far. I'm sure we'll start to see even more Sackboy/Sackgirls on PSN soon, and maybe even something about the rumored Little Big Planet 2...who knows.

Little Big Planet Now Has Over 2 Million User Created Levels

Like many of you, when Little Big Planet (LBP) was first announced I immediately started to think of what kind of crazy stuff I could make with Media Molecule's creation/platformer game. However, when the game actually came out, I was too busy playing everyone levels rather than creating my own.

Although it seems that many of your level creation ideas never got translated into actual gameplay, there's still a lot of people out there making some very fun and innovative LBP levels.
Today LBP reached over 2 million custom level creations, which is a huge milestone for Sony, Media Molecule, and all of the LBP fans. It took about 9 months for LBP to have 1 million user created levels, and now they're already up to 2 million.









If your thinking of going to check out one of the these 2 million levels however, I'd highly suggest you wait a day for the "ApocolyPS3" to be over.

Some PSN Users Are Expericing Major Crashes

Sony's PSN (PlayStation Network) isn't doing too well today, as quite a few people are experiencing some pretty major crashes. The crash seems to be occurring for some when they try to start a game. Some quick forum searching shows that the error code 8001050F is the most common issue.
It's not completely clear as to what the internal problem is, but it prevents many users from playing their games.

On the brighter side however, Sony's official PlayStation Twitter account has recently tweeted that, "We're aware that many of you are having problems connecting to PSN, and yes, we're looking into it. Stay tuned for updates."
I checked to see if I was one of the unlucky ones, but the 8001050F error is no where to found on my system. If your having any trouble I'd recommend to check out Sony's official PlayStation forums here, and an update will probably come sooner than later.

Heavy Rain Might Become An Actual Movie

It seems that Heavy Rain has caught the eye of more than just some gamers. New Line Cinema is trying to figure out if they want to make a Heavy Rain movie. It's all just some speculation, but considering that Heavy Rain is more along the line of a movie than most other games, this might actually happen.
If they do happen to go through with this, I'd hope they get some actors who don't have the worlds biggest french accents.

In other news: The "Directors-Cut" of Heavy Rain: The Movie has been leaked onto store shelves around the world. Its on a Blu-Ray disc, and features additional "immersive controls which allow you to control the story"...sounds pretty neat.

Sony Finally Admits To Over Charging For The PSPgo

It seems that Sony was hit with a bit sense today when Rob Dyer, Senior Vice President of Publisher Relations at Sony, said that "charging more for a product that does less" might not have been the best business plan.

"We wanted to find a way to give the consumers what they want, so if they didn't want to go to a retailer they could stay at home and download [games and content]," says the publisher relations VP. "And we were hoping really to eliminate the piracy issue. Did the PSPgo confuse [consumers]? Yeah, I think the higher price point didn't help matters any either".

"So we're going back and re-communicating, and I'm sitting here looking at multiple decks on what we're going to do this year. You'll see a lot of things coming out from us to better educate and inform the consumer. All I can say is watch this space, because we'll have answers to those questions."

As someone who was genuanlly interested in picking up a PSPgo, but was stopped by the system's high price point. I'm happy to see that Sony isn't trying to cover up its mistake any more, and just cutting their losses in order to lower the system's price.
All of this seems to go along pretty well with the rumors of Sony preparing to "Re-launch" the system sometime later this year. Lets just hope they actually make it seems worth while to own one this time around.

God Of War 3 Fills Up 35GB On A Blu-Ray Disc

We all knew that God of War 3 would be a big game, both in a finicial and gameplay sense, but we've just found out that the game will take up 35GB on a Blu-Ray disc.
Sony Santa Monica's Director of Technology, Tim Moss, posted a tweet on his Twitter earlier today.
"35GB of goodness. Thank heavens for Dual Layer Blu-Rays".

There's no information on how much, if any, of God of War 3 we will be able to install on our PS3's, but come March 16th we'll find out.
I'll be sure to post more on God of War 3 as its release draws closer, I personally can't wait to rip some dudes in half as the ever lovable Kratos. :)

Motorstorm 3 Website Registered By Sony

How people find out about this kind of stuff is beyond me, but apparently the friendly fellows at The Gaming Liberty have found out that Sony has recently registered the domain name Motorstorm3.com. The website was created on 2-19-2010 and it expired on the same day. It isn't an official announcement by Sony, but I bet you'll see a Motorstorm 3 announcement in the near future, maybe at E3.
Considering the succsess that the motorstorm franchise has had on Sony's platforms its not a really big surprise that Motorstorm 3 might be coming our way, but I am glad that Sony's still thinking about expanding the franchise.
I loved both of the Motorstorm games on the PS3, and I'm a racing game fan in general, so this is great news for me. I'll be sure to post any new information I gather about Motorstorm 3 as it's unveiled...until then... Who's up for some Pacific Rift?

Vavle Is Seriously Considering PS3 Development

Since the PS3's launch multiple studios have been reluctant to develop on it due to a number of hurdles developers must jump in order to develop on it. Valve has been one of those companies. Over the years the only Valve game to make it on the PS3 was a crappy port of the Orange Box. The game suffered from bad frame rate issues, inconsistent multiplayer, and an overall lack of support from Valve themselves.
Several employees at Valve have poked fun at the PS3's lack of games supported by other 3rd parties. It seems today however, that Valve has changed their mind about Sony's system.

Chet Faliszek, writer for Left 4 Dead, said ""Before we do anything on the PS3 we need to be able to support it in the right way," explains the Left 4 Dead writer. "But we’ll look at it, and I’m sure down the road we’ll do it."
I hope Chet is right, PS3 owners should be able to experience some of Valve's great hits sooner rather than later.

Also, Valve had a writer for Left 4 Dead???