May 06, 2011 :: Posted by - admin :: Category - PS view
Please see below for a letter from Howard Stringer:
Dear Friends,
I know this has been a frustrating time for all of you.
Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyber-attack we’ve all experienced and on fixing it. We are absolutely dedicated to restoring full and safe service as soon as possible and rewarding you for your patience. We will settle for nothing less.
To date, there is no confirmed evidence any credit card or personal information has been misused, and we continue to monitor the situation closely. We are also moving ahead with plans to help protect our customers from identity theft around the world. A program for U.S. PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers that includes a $1 million identity theft insurance policy per user was launched earlier today and announcements for other regions will be coming soon.
As we have announced, we will be offering a “Welcome Back” package to our customers once our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are up and running. This will include, among other benefits, a month of free PlayStation Plus membership for all PSN customers, as well as an extension of subscriptions for PlayStation Plus and Music Unlimited customers to make up for time lost.
As a company we — and I — apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack. Under the leadership of Kazuo Hirai, we have teams working around the clock and around the world to restore your access to those services as quickly, and as safely, as possible.
I know some believe we should have notified our customers earlier than we did. It’s a fair question. As soon as we discovered the potential scope of the intrusion, we shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services and hired some of the best technical experts in the field to determine what happened. I wish we could have gotten the answers we needed sooner, but forensic analysis is a complex, time-consuming process. Hackers, after all, do their best to cover their tracks, and it took some time for our experts to find those tracks and begin to identify what personal information had — or had not — been taken.
As a result of what we discovered we notified you of the breach. Our investigation is ongoing, and we are upgrading our security so that if attacks like this happen again, our defenses will be even stronger.
In the last few months, Sony has faced a terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But now we are facing a very man-made event – a criminal attack on us — and on you — and we are working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies around the world to apprehend those responsible.
In the coming days, we will restore service to the networks and welcome you back to the fun. I wanted to personally reach out and let you know that we are committed to serving you to the very best of our ability, protecting your information better than ever, and getting you back to what you signed up for – all the games and great entertainment experiences that you expect from Sony.
April 06, 2011 :: Posted by - admin :: Category - PS view
The fifth installment of MLB 11 The Show’s Challenge of the Week features a match-up with the leagues’ best catcher, Joe Mauer, against the Oakland A’s ace!
Climb the leaderboard and get as many hits as you can for a chance to win the Nike Huarache TR Low “The Show” Pack! The pack includes:
Nike Huarache Trainer Low “The Show”
Well Played Mauer Dri Fit Cotton Tee
Joe Mauer player edition Diamond Elite cleat
Week #5 begins on Monday, April 4th at 5:30am Pacific Time and ends Monday April 11th at 4:30am Pacific Time.
To play, simply select the “Challenge of the Week” option in the main menu of MLB 11 The Show.
This week kicks off a new monthly prize period for April. The new monthly prize is $2000, cold hard cash for the winner. Every four weeks, a monthly prize will be awarded to the player with the most Challenge of the Week points. Weekly scores will also be added from launch until May 30th 4:30am PST for a chance to win Grand Prize #1, a trip for two to the 2011 MLB All-Star Game!
Leaderboards for Weekly, Monthly and Grand Prizing, along with the official rules can be found at the NEW home of MLB The Show at TheShowNation.com.
Stay tuned to the comments section of the weekly Challenge of the Week blog posts, as we will be giving away some free voucher codes for Challenge of the Week!
March 07, 2011 :: Posted by - admin :: Category - PS view
What an outstanding event it was for PlayStation at the Game Developers Conference last week. With big reveals and news on Resistance 3, SOCOM 4, inFamous 2, Mortal Kombat and UNCHARTED 3, the media and community alike didn’t walk away disappointed. Look for a collection of GDC video coverage and interviews this week on the PlayStation.Blog.
Our PlayStation first party titles keep on coming and delivering our distinctive brand of gaming when MLB 11 The Show arrives this week, featuring pure analog controls, 3D and PS Move support. Looking better and hitting harder, Dragon Age II (you may of heard of it,) also drops this week, introducing fans of the series to a whole new story spanning 10 years in the Dragon Age universe.
PlayStation Plus members get to enjoy the taste of lush and succulent fatalities when the demo for Mortal Kombat arrives on PSN exclusively for PS Plus members, in 3D (optional.) Finally, ladies and gentlebugs, larvae of all stages, PSone Classic launches a new category on PSN when Disney opens their vault to their collection of PSone gaming classics.
This week’s The Drop is nothing short of a Flawless Victory!
PlayStation 3
MLB 11 The Show (PlayStation Move & 3D Enabled) (Also on PSP) – MLB 11 The Show is set again to provide fans with an unparalleled baseball experience with even more features and modes destined to quicken the heart, raise the stakes, and hurl you further into the true MLB baseball experience. Leading off on the new features set for PS3 is the addition of the Pure Analog Control System, which includes analog controls for hitting, pitching, and throwing, adding more precision and accuracy to all three disciplines.
Next up is the newly added Co-op Mode, which allows up to four-player offline or online cooperative play where gamers can split duties covering either the infield or outfield. The fifth generation of Road to The Show returns in version 5.0 bringing a new interactive slider set to the Create Player process, new training modes triggered by the Player Performance Evaluator, Minor League substitution logic improvements, advancement system improvements that now compare your stats versus your competition in the organization, and the new No Assist Fielding option to make the fielding experience even more realistic.
And for the fully immersive big league experience, Additional new features MLB 11 offers options for stereoscopic 3D functionality in all modes and PlayStation Move motion controller support in the Home Run Derby mode.
Dragon Age II – Dragon Age II thrusts players into the role of Hawke, a penniless refugee who rises to power to become the single most important character in the world of Dragon Age. Known to be a survivor of the Blight and the Champion of Kirkwall, the legend around Hawke’s rise to power is shrouded in myth and rumor.
Featuring an all-new story spanning 10 years, players will help tell that tale by making tough moral choices, gathering the deadliest of allies, amassing fame and fortune, and sealing their place in history. The way you play will write the story of how the world is changed forever.
Yoostar 2 (PlayStation Move Enabled) — Yoostar 2 allows players to perform in hundreds of famous movie scenes, record their performances, and share them with friends and family online. Using the sensor of Playstation Eye, Yoostar2 achieves Hollywood green screen style effects without the use of a green screen. In an instant, players can literally step into well-known movie scenes and play the roles of the world’s most famous actors.
Major League Baseball 2K11 (Also on PSP) – This year’s edition offers improvements in the fielding system to ensure better control of the ball against the advancing runners. Each player has been re-created in the game down to the last detail, with performance stats based on live data to match the realistic looks. And with My Player Mode, gamers can look beyond the league and their team to focus on just one player that they guide through a Minor League career all the way through the ranks to step out on the field as a big league star.
PlayStation Network
TestYourself: Psychology – The goal of TestYourself: Psychology is to provide users with an affordable, professional assessment of various aspects of their personalities and psychological abilities. After the release of the initial pack, new blocks of tests will be available for download on a monthly basis, each focusing on different elements of psychological health. Users who complete all 12 blocks will receive a full psychological portrait and will understand the complex characteristics of their states of mind.
Ultimate Board Game Collection – This portable game is the ultimate collection of classic board games! Play against a computer-controlled opponent, or up to five others either through wireless gameplay or shared on a single system.
PSN Demos
Mortal Kombat (PS Plus Only)
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2
Explodemon!
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12
TNT Racers (PSP)
PlayStation Portable
Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle (Also on PSN) — Phantom Brave is a free-roaming, turn-based strategy RPG that incorporates unique battle styles and a hardcore character customization system. The game uses a unique ally summoning system called “Confine” and a deep customization system for the hardcore!
PSone Classics
R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 – R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 keeps the arcade style intact with all of the powerslides and spinouts fans of the series have come to expect. You take the role of a professional driver in the Grand Prix mode. Pick one of four teams and one of four car manufacturers, and then race on eight tracks. Each team has its own storyline that plays out between races in conversations with your team liaison, and how well you finish changes what the liaison says to you.
New Disney Category
Hercules
Peter Pan
Lilo Stitch
Toy Story Racer
Monsters, Inc.
Toy Story 2
The Emperor’s New Groove
A Bug’s Life
PSone Japan Imports
Mega Man 3 – The bad news is that the evil Dr. Wily is back in town, but the good news is that so is the blue bomber Mega Man! Take the controls and make Mega Man run, jump, slide, and blast his way through two massive sections with four stages each.
[Editor’s Note: The following dates are subject to change. Game details are gathered from Press Releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]
February 05, 2011 :: Posted by - admin :: Category - PS view
Fans of 2009’s PS3-exclusive RPG Demon’s Souls are sure to have questions about Dark Souls, which is being produced under the watchful eye of Demon’s Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki. Though the game was formally revealed just days ago, I had a rare opportunity to speak directly with Miyazaki about his plans for Dark Souls. We discussed the game’s soul-crushing difficulty (it’s going to get harder, not easier), his favorite new feature (a new form of “emotional communication” via Beacon Fires), and the games he’s most excited to play in 2011 (hint: UNCHARTED 3).
Sid Shuman: Would you describe Dark Souls as a sequel to Demon’s Souls, or a spiritual successor? Does Dark Souls reside in the same universe as Demon’s Souls?
Hidetaka Miyazaki, director, Dark Souls: Dark Souls is not a sequel to Demon’s Souls by any means. However, it’s created by the same producers and director and so the ideologies, concepts, and themes have carried over and are similar. It’s a totally new game with similar concepts.
SS: Demon’s Souls is infamous for its difficulty. Will Dark Souls be as difficult?
HM: Yes, Demon’s Souls was known for its incredible difficulty [laughter]. With Dark Souls, there is no intention to decrease the difficulty at all. Actually, we intend to increase the difficulty of the game. (Sid: !!!) But not simply by making the game more difficult, but by giving players the freedom to strategize freely and conquer that difficulty, and to be rewarded accordingly.
This is an analogy we often use: We are trying to create a game that is spicy. And we want to make it as spicy as possible. But it’s edible and tastes good and leaves you wanting more.
SS: How do you keep a difficult game from becoming punishing, and drive the player to quit in frustration?
HM: Good question. We can’t tell you all of our secrets, but there are a few ways we prevent users from drifting away. Number one, the difficulty is not dependent on the skill level of the user. We have not created a game where players who react faster or press buttons faster are better than others. Second, when a player dies, we try to leave a sense of “maybe if I try a different strategy I can succeed.” Things that you lose in death can be outweighed by what you gain by trying again. We try to give players lots of freedom to design their own gameplay style, and we’ve implemented enough content to enable users to continue challenging themselves and continue making progress.
One more aspect is the difficulty based on repetitiveness. We don’t want users to have to constantly carve away health from enemies. We’ve created all characters — including enemies and the player — to have high attack power but low defense. We don’t want users to hack and hack and hack away to defeat an enemy. It’s more strategic. We want users to think, “if I avoid this enemy, maybe I can overcome him.” We don’t want players to be frustrated by doing the same things over and over.
SS: Death was a part of life in Demon’s Souls. But it required that you replay the entire level from scratch with enemies in identical locations. Will Dark Souls force players to restart levels? Will levels be less repetitious to replay?
HM: The main concept has not changed: You try something, die, learn from your mistakes, and eventually overcome those mistakes. In Dark Souls, we’ve added the ability to players to choose their recovery point — essentially respawn points. If you die, you won’t be taken back to the beginning of the level. And as you explore the world, you can carve out your own territory and retry quests you failed. That’s a big difference. It’s an aspect that we want players to use to strategize their approach to the game.
SS: Will Dark Souls have a less intimidating control scheme than Demon’s Souls?
HM: In Demon’s Souls, when you finally get used to the controls, it feels pretty good. So for Dark Souls, the controls and feel won’t change too much. However, we are adding a tutorial so players don’t have to fight to learn how to play. We don’t want to take the players step-by-step, we just want them to get past the first step.
But generally, for Dark Souls, learning commands and controlling your character is probably a little bit easier. But to counter that, we’ve added a lot of aspects that users must learn beyond the controls. The amount of magic, the number of weapons, the types of weapons, the moves attached to the weapons…there is a lot more that players must learn in order to conquer the challenges.
SS: Does that mean we can expect a lot of new weapons with unique functions?
HM: The simple answer is yes. But we’re not just increasing the number of weapons; we want to improve the uniqueness of each weapon. Each weapon will have characteristics that are vastly different from other weapons in the game. As an example, the player starts with a Long Sword. Eventually he might find a Holy Sword, which is far more powerful but is used very differently. Some players will choose to continue using the Long Sword simply because they’re more comfortable with it.
We want to give players many options, even if that means they use the sword that ‘fits best in the hand.’ We want you to become emotionally and physically attached to the weapon you’re using. Perhaps the Long Sword, after you’ve used it for so long and taken such good care of it, is the real Holy Sword. [laughter] The real Holy Sword, though, might be very hard to master despite its power. And some players will say, “This is difficult to use? Leave it to me, I’ll master it!” [laughter]. The mind games and strategizing — that’s the most fun aspect of the game to me.
SS: How will dual-wielding two weapons impact combat? Is dual-wielding a successful strategy, or more of an “expert’s mode”?
HM: Dual wielding is an option, but it’s a very difficult choice for novice players. The default fighting style is holding a shield in one hand, a weapon in the other. And the shield adds a lot of protection, it’s quite effective. If you see another player dual wielding, we want you to think, “Oh my god, this guy is special!” Dual wielding is a way to challenge yourself, but it has a lot of downsides and makes the game much harder. When you’re in trouble, you’ll want to return to your shield and sword.
We want to keep dual wielding special. It’s a very unique strategy that will hopefully give a new experience to the player as well as those watching him.
SS: Like Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls will include online co-op and competitive play. Are you planning any broad changes to the multiplayer?
HM: Yes. Throughout the game, there will be both cooperative and competitive play with other players. Each user will enjoy a unique single-player game; at times, they will cross paths with one another. Depending on the situation, the time, and the players’ goals, those players may cooperate or compete against each other. The multiplayer system we’re creating will envelop the single-player mode. Multiplayer will enhance single-player, make it more unique, compared to other games that emphasize traditional multiplayer co-op or competitive play.
SS: What’s the single addition to Dark Souls that you’re most excited by?
HM: Probably the Beacon Fire. It stands for a lot of things. It serves as a recovery point; when the player’s health is low, the Beacon Fire helps you recover. It serves as a respawn point as well. So it’s powerful from a gameplay perspective. Secondly, the Beacon Fire will be used to share experiences with other players. It’s a place where players can gather together and communicate — not verbally communicate, but emotionally communicate. Third, it’s probably the one place in Dark Souls where users can relax just for an instant. In this cold, dark world, the Beacon Fire is a place of warmth. It’s one of the few locations in the game that is heartwarming. It expresses this dark fantasy world I’m trying to create.
SS: How will character creation work? Are there still classes? How can I augment and customize my character?
HM: The basics are quite similar to Demon’s Souls, but you can customize the physical build of your character now in addition to his face. There’s a lot of customization in terms of gameplay styles and parameters. It’s very open, and there are many more options than in Demon’s Souls. You can create any type of character you’d like to create.
SS: What’s your philosophy regarding monsters in Dark Souls? Are you going for really grim, grotesque creatures?
HM: Calling it a “philosophy” is probably overstating it a bit [laughter]. I want to expand the range and variety of all the enemies, whether they’re hideous or beautiful or strong. I don’t lean towards any particular type, but [high-level enemies] will be pretty disgusting. And you might not believe this, but all the monsters I design — from Demon’s Souls to Dark Souls — are “beautiful” to me, no matter how gruesome their appearance.
SS: What games are you looking forward to playing in 2011?
HM: Politically this is sort of a difficult question to answer! [laughter] I’m a big gamer. But to be honest, right now I absolutely love Magic: The Gathering Online. For 2011, I’m really looking forward to UNCHARTED 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
UNCHARTED 2 came out around the same time as Demon’s Souls, so it was a big competitor for us at the time. But UNCHARTED has done so well, and now I’m really excited for UNCHARTED 3. I’m quite interested in Skyrim because the fantasy world is something I really look forward to in games.
