Kinect hacked to work with PlayStation 3, plays Killzone 3 badly

Microsoft's Kinect, the fastest-selling gadget ever, has now been hacked to work with the PlayStation 3.

The Kinect isn't directly plugged into a PS3, though (that would be too awesome). Instead, it's plugged into a conventional PC laptop, where PrimeSense's first-party drivers are used to interface with Kinect. The data from Kinect is then converted into a format that the PS3 can understand, and output directly to the console using using diyps3controller, which lets the laptop USB controller interface with the PS3.

There's a video of the developer logging in and playing Killzone 3 on his PS3 using the Kinect after the break. Well, attempting to play Killzon 3, we should say. It seems like the hack has a little way to go before it's actually usable...

Report: PS3 getting cloud saving in firmware update 3.60

According to a recent report from Kotaku, unnamed sources in the game development community have received notifications from Sony telling of a feature which will be incorporated into PS3 firmware update 3.60: Cloud storage for saved games. According to the report, the feature (called "Online Saving") gives developers the opportunity to let players set up their save files on a remote server, preserving the precious, precious space on their own hard drives, and allowing players to access save data from multiple consoles.

These developers also reportedly explained that the feature will only be made available to PlayStation Plus subscribers, or, as they'll henceforth be called, the "Save File Insured." This report sounds fairly believable -- remote storage was one of the rumored features of PlayStation Plus before its reveal, and there was also that Sony trademark for "PS Cloud" back in 2009. We've contacted Sony for a comment on this report

Source: Kotaku

LittleBigPlanet 2 online players report 'infinite loading' glitch

Much like its predecessor, LittleBigPlanet 2 is experiencing some technical difficulties during its first few days in the would-be capable hands of its creative community. Some players havereported that when they attempt to connect with other players online, they hit what's being colloquially referred to as the "Infinite Loading" glitch, which freezes the game on a neverending loading screen. (And that, as you might imagine, is kind of a bummer.)

The exact cause of the issue is unknown, though there's a quick and dirty workaround (which worked for us, when we experienced the glitch): If you get stuck on the loading screen, turn your controller off, and the level should actually load. Once you're in the level, you can turn your controller back on and get back to whatever it was you had set out to do -- probably slapping around your fellow players and being generally unhelpful, you jerk.

Media Molecule had not responded to our request for comment as of publishing, but a recent tweet from the developer seems to indicate that a freezing glitch has been cornered and a fix is in the works.

Source: LittleBigWorkshop

Homefront dev explains the importance of dedicated servers

Following the wildly negative reaction to Modern Warfare 2's lack of dedicated servers on PC, one of the marketing bullet points for THQ's FPS Homefront has been its promise of suchdedicated servers -- not only on PC, but on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, as well. But how important are they?

"You have to think about your constraints when you're making a game," Homefront senior designer Brian Holinka, of developer Kaos Studios, explained to us at a recent press event for the game. "If we host a server on a console, all of a sudden, that console is both server and it's playing the game. That really lowers everything: player count, the number of vehicles, everything. Dedicated servers allow us to offload all that work and basically all the client has to worry about is running the game."

Through dedicated servers, Homefront will support a chaotic 16-versus-16 online mode, whereevery player can summon a vehicle at will. "It means everything is bigger -- there's more players, more vehicles, more targets, more airstrikes," Holinka hyped.

"It really helps us offload a lot of work," he reiterated about the servers, "and now our scope is a lot bigger." But can you really call a 32-player match "a lot," when a game like MAG has littered the virtual battlefield with 256 players? We asked Holinka why Kaos wasn't using the dedicated servers to expand the number of players per match even further, and he reminded us that "we had more in Frontlines," the studio's previous game. Apparently, the team tested out larger battles for Homefront, but "it just didn't work," Holinka said. "We just found it wasn't fun. It just plays better at 32."

"If you played a level with 50 or 60 people in there," the developer found, "every time you turn around, you'd get shot."

Via:Joystiq

Digital Foundry pits PS3 Mass Effect 2 against Xbox 360 original

Not satisfied with its analysis of the PS3 Mass Effect 2 demo -- which was apparently based on old code -- Digital Foundry has posted a lengthy comparison of the PS3 and Xbox 360 retail editions of Mass Effect 2. There's a lot of information to digest in the article, including several videos and screenshots. The upshot: Most gamers won't notice the differences between the two games, though it seems the 360 version barely edges out the PS3 one in terms of a consistent frame-rate.

The only significant difference, which boils down to personal preference, is the lighting in the two games. DF notes that the PS3 version's lighting is generally brighter than the 360 game, though not necessarily improved from a technical standpoint. The article also examines the effectiveness of the PS3's "Genesis" comic intro, as opposed to actually playing the original Mass Effect on 360.

In the end, if you just have to own the most technically impressive version, DF suggests you choose ... the PC version, of course.

Source: Eurogamer

Via:Joystiq

Marvel vs. Capcom 3's alternate costumes' comic book origins explored

 

Apparently, a little bit more thought went into the alternate costumes of Marvel vs. Capcom 3than just "hey, this outfit would probably look cool in red and black." IGN recently explored the canonical comic book origins of a handful of Marvel fighters' extra duds, including Storm's crimson X-Treme X-Men get-up, Dormammu's Strange Tales green-and-yellow armor, and Captain America's Red Guardian costume, which, as you probably sussed out, is pretty red.

It looks like Capcom (with a lot of help from Marvel, of course) is taking these character skins pretty seriously. We're happy to see that so much consideration went into these outfits -- but we can't wait to see how they explain all the different additional costumes for Capcom's fighters. "Oh, you don't remember that time that Haggar wore a bright purple chest-belt? That was a real thing that happened, we promise."

Source: IGN

Killzone 3 includes admission into SOCOM 4 multiplayer beta

Yo, readers: Sony heard you like shooting, so it put a shooter in your shooter so you can shoot while you're shooting. More specifically, the publisher has announced that both regular andHelghast Edition copies of Killzone 3 will include vouchers which give early access to the SOCOM 4 multiplayer beta. 

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the beta will arrive at the same time as Killzone 3's launch -- Zipper Interactive's Chris Roper explained on PlayStation Blog, "To find out when the SOCOM 4multiplayer beta begins, be sure to check back at SOCOM.com once you pick up your copy ofKillzone 3, hitting shelves on February 22nd." Perfect; so we'll have some time to get really used to Killzone 3's control scheme before switching over to SOCOM 4's presumably wildly different control scheme. We anticipate that we'll be eating quite a few of our own accidentally-thrown frag grenades.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Via:Joystiq

ModNation Racers for-pay cheat unlocks everything, coming tomorrow

The latest of what we like to call "lazy gamer" cheats -- downloadable unlocks that open up entire games, for a price -- is actually inbound from Sony for ModNation Racers. It's called the "Career Unlock All Key" and, for $3 tomorrow on the PlayStation Store, evidently does what its name suggests. 

Given the ultra-creative nature of the game, we can't really knock the idea of having access to all of the stickers, karts, tracks, themes and other various parts on the disc (and those added by DLC, if you've already bought it). Then again, if you've already sunk $60 into the retail release and more into DLC, you'd think the least Sony could do is throw in some seat covers a code.

• Source: PlayStation Blog

Sounds like Chime is headed for US PSN, too

Originally developed for Xbox Live Arcade as the first of OneBigGame's for-charity titles, music-based puzzler Chime is one step closer to release on PS3 via PlayStation Network. Already rated by classification boards in Australia and Germany, the game has now received an "E" rating from the ESRB.

Now this PS3 version of the game just needs to be, y'know, announced. (Hopefully with Portal's "Still Alive" included.)

Source: ESRB

THQ and Mattel enter game deal, includes Masters of the Universe rights

THQ will target kids with a new multi-year, multiplatform "alliance" with Mattel -- that's for sure. What we're not so sure about is whether those targets are intended to be kids of the 80s or their kids of today. A news announcement reads like a who's who of garage-sale name drops: Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Masters of the Universe, and even Polly Pocket (who's apparently still going strong these days).

While the deal with Mattel encompasses games that could appear on any platform imaginable, THQ did specifically note the potential in re-introducing the toy maker's brands through the uDraw GameTablet for Wii. "As we have shown with the combination of uDraw and Pictionary, there is enormous potential for the strategic relationship between THQ and Mattel," said Martin Good, executive veep of THQ's Kids, Family and Casual Games division.

The brilliant part about all this is that when you hand over THQ's Tablet and a copy of the He-Man: By the Power of Grayscale drawing game to the GameStop clerk, you simply say, "It's for my kid" -- and he sort of has to believe you.
[Image source: Madman Entertainment; credit: Mattel]
Source: THQ
Via:Joystiq

Red Dead and Limbo lead nominees for 2011 GDC Awards

It's almost time once again for the industry's premier awards show that doesn't feature regular appearances by Jersey Shore cast members: the 11th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The event's organizers have released the mercifully Mountain Dew-based-category-free list of nominees, which includes a number of potential merits for Limbo, Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Check out the full list of nominees after the jump and discuss your favorites in the comments! (Oh, that's your pick for Best Visual Arts? Well, we can't say we agree with you, there.)

2011 GDCA Nominees

Best Game Design

• Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
• God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)

Innovation

• Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
• Kirby's Epic Yarn (Good-Feel & HAL Laboratory)
• Minecraft (Mojang)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Dance Central (Harmonix)

Best Technology

• Starcraft II (Blizzard)
• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
• Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
• God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)

Best Handheld Game

• God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Ready At Dawn/SCE Santa Monica)
• Cut the Rope (ZeptoLab)
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Kojima Productions)
• Game Dev Story (Kairosoft)
• Dragon Quest IX (Level 5)

Best Audio

• Limbo (Playdead)
• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
• Halo: Reach (Bungie)
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (DICE)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)

Best Downloadable Game

• Costume Quest (Double Fine)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)
• Minecraft (Mojang)
• Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment)

Best Writing

• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
• Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
• Costume Quest (Double Fine)
• Fallout: New Vegas (Obsidian)

Best Debut Game

• Limbo (Playdead)
• Darksiders (Vigil Games)
• Minecraft (Mojang)
• Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment)
• Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)

Best Visual Arts

• God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)
• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)

Game of the Year

• Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
• Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
• Limbo (Playdead)
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)

PlayStation Move strategy to focus on 'more core titles,' says Sony's Koller

John Koller, director of hardware marketing for PlayStation, acknowledged to the Wall Street Journal that Microsoft's 8 million shipped Kinect units amount to a "very impressive" figure, though he assured that his company is still "happy where we are in the market" with Move. As of the end of November, Sony had shipped 4.1 million units of its motion controller and believes it has an edge over Microsoft in the race to earn the hard-won affections of the "hardcore" consumer. That's you, right?

"The limitations are such that you can't create all the games you want to do," Koller suggested of Kinect, implying that Microsoft's controller-less technoloy lacks the precision control necessary to support so-called "core" titles -- just what Sony has in mind for Move in the coming months.

The apparent strategy involves "layering on more and more core titles," Koller explained, and there are at least two Sony titles around the corner that fit the bill.

While Move was intended to launch with core support in SOCOM 4, that game's delay to April, coupled with Killzone 3 in late February, means that Sony will have two of its core franchises equipped with Move support in the market within a few months. Microsoft and Kinect? Still zero.

In a recent preview of Killzone 3's Move controls, our own Rany Nelson concluded, "I am now committed to using the Move for my first full playthrough of the game. Not only does its integration seem justified to me, but I'm sold on its improved accuracy and greater sense of immersion over the DualShock controller." Koller and Sony sure hope a lot more of us core-types will be sold, too.

[Thanks, Devin]
Source: WSJ

PlayStation Move Heroes come to rescue March

PlayStation Move Heroes is coming out on March 22nd and, unsurprisingly, comes with pre-order bonuses. A reservation at Amazon or GameStop will unlock a skin pack, which includes Pirate Sly, Freedom League Jak and Trillium Armor Ratchet (pictured above).

More surprising than the requisite pre-order bonus must be this tidbit from Cristian Cardona, the game's marketing manager: "There's actually a full story surrounding the game and why they're all together." Our guess? It's somehow all Captain Qwarks's fault.

Capcom Store offers free shirt with Marvel vs. Capcom 3 pre-order

Are you looking for a fashion statement which will inform passersby that you could air juggle their pathetic frame for entire days with little to no effort? Good news: The Capcom Store is offering just such a shirt with pre-orders for Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Special Edition.

The deal is only available to North American shoppers -- fortunately, this regional exclusivity means shipping for both the game and shirt is on the house. We're not sure how long the pre-order offer will be available, so you might want to strike while the iron is still hot.
Source: Capcom Store

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow DLC named ‘Reverie’

Konami have just left on their facebook page a mysterious note detailing one of the newly announced DLC.

“Tick tock… It’s time for another glimpse into the upcoming Castlevania: Lords of Shadow ‘Reverie’ DLC. What might Gabriel try to change with this time machine?”

The answer to that is obvious, bring his Marie back by preventing her demise in the first place. But how? Where is this time machine coming from?

Two DLC packs are set for launch this year. Both remain mysterious.

Check out our review of Lords of Shadow to see what all the brouhaha is abouthere.

Thanks,  PushSquare.

Fatshark announces Hamilton's Great Adventure

Fatshark, the studio behind class-based shooter, Lead & Gold, has announced its next project: Hamilton's Great Adventure. A pretty stark departure from shooting up the ol' west, Hamilton's Great Adventure is an action puzzle game featuring an Indiana Jones-esque protagonist. Together with his bird Sasha, he must "crack crafty conundrums and challenges." The game is scheduled to arrive this April, with versions planned for consoles (we're guessing PS3 and 360) and PC.
Source: Fatshark

Sony Will Ban Jailbroken PS3s from Network

The PlayStation 3 console has been jailbroken with George Hotz's hack on the console, but what aside from the moral repercussions of hacking your PS3 and pirating software, what will Sony enforce in this new era.  It is being rumored that Sony will begin to ban jailbroken PlayStation 3 consoles much like Microsoft did with the Xbox 360 in the Fall of 2009.

Upon booting up your PlayStation 3 console, the machine communicates with Sony's servers.  And chances are that if you try to run games from an unauthorized source like back-up manager this will be associated with your PSN account and ultimately the console you are playing on via your console identification number.  Using this information, Sony could ultimately use this with a periodic banning tool much like Microsoft does with the Xbox 360.

So despite the possibility of breaking your PS3, and the fact that it is against the Terms of Service of the console, and the opinion that it is morally wrong, you have one more reason not to jailbreak your PS3.  That reason is the banhammer.

Update: Sony has now filed a lawsuit against George Hotz for more information HERE

Via

Gran Turismo 5 moves 560,500 units in December, 1.14 million sold between Nov. and Dec.

Despite not making December's NPD top 10 list, Gran Turismo 5 sold 560,500 units last month in the US and Canada. IndustryGamers got the number straight from the NPD Group -- a number which looks like an apparent dropoff from Sony's late November launch numbers, which heralded 5.5 million units shipped worldwide, 1.25 million of which were in North America alone.

And hey, let's not kid ourselves: a good amount of December's "sales" figures are also accounted for in November's "shipped" figures. All of them, in fact -- 1.14 million copies of Gran Turismo 5 have been sold in the US and Canada thus far, a representative from NPD told us this afternoon, leaving approximately 110K copies from the initial shipment still on store shelves.

That said, plans for periodic support in GT5 were highlighted by developer Polyphony Digital as recently as last month. Add that to the fact that the 2011 Formula One season is just around the corner, and we'd say it's likely that racing fans will continue to pick up the game as early 2011 progresses.
Source: IndustryGamers

Massive co-founder worries effects of PS3 piracy could be worse than handhelds' plight

Wondering why there's such a hullabaloo over that PS3 security breach? According to Martin Walfisz, who co-founded Massive Entertainment (but left the company shortly after its purchase by Ubisoft to focus on development of new DRM strategies), it's because it's the end of the world. Well, okay, maybe it's not that bad -- but Walfisz paints a pretty grim picture for Sony, telling GamesIndustry.biz, "If that hack works as reported, I don't believe that Sony can regain any control."

Walfisz predicts that Sony could employ a system similar to Microsoft's anti-piracy measures through Xbox Live, blocking hacked PS3s from connecting to the PlayStation Network; though if the hack works as reported, and doesn't require a mod chip to function, Walfisz worries Sony won't be able to detect which users are playing pirated games -- though Sony claims it can and will shut down "jailbroken" consoles. What's worse, Walfisz adds, "I would assume that pirated copies can be stored on the HDD as well, making it so easy to use that PS3 piracy, given time, might even surpass the handhelds." Piracy is pernicious enough on exposed systems, but super convenient piracy? Yikes.
Source: GamesIndustry

PS3 trophies threatened by jailbreak tool

The PS3 jailbreak threatens to wreck havoc on the PlayStation ecosystem in ways beyond just piracy. The integrity of the PS3 trophy system hangs in the balance, as hackers have supposedly created an app that unlocks trophies in games automatically. CVG reports that the tool has been used to unlock trophies in BUZZ! and the notoriously challenging PAIN. Oddly, the tool apparently doesn't work in games like Resident Evil 5 and Batman: Arkham Asylum, meaning it isn't quite foolproof yet.

Obviously, a compromise like this undermines the entire point of the trophy system. Sony's Eric Lempel explained to us that the PSP couldn't support trophies due to the unsecured nature of that platform. "If people can artificially inflate their rankings ... it kills the whole [Trophy] system," he explained. Unfortunately, it appears Sony now faces the same issue on the PS3.

"We are aware of this, and are currently looking into it," a SCEE representative commented. "We will fix the issues through network updates, but because this is a security issue, we are not able to provide you with any more details."
Source: CVG