That Time Of Year

Well its finally that time of year: no, Christmas is over and done with, its Nerdy Tech Show Week. That's right, because neither of the events organisers will back down from their 'first working week of January' schedule, the rabid Mac fanboys will be off to San Francisco for the Macworld Expo which starts on Tuesday, and the Windows crowd (and anyone thats not a Mac fanboy, really) will be heading to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, kicking off on Thursday.

This year, the shows will really be competing. Its Apple's last appearance at Macworld this year, and although it isn't Steve Jobs giving the keynote, there is likely to be lots of discussion of the upcoming Mac OS release (Snow Leopard) on top of the usual hardware announcements. At CES, Microsoft is largely expected to be plugging its own new system, Windows 7, which is expected to launch around the same time as Snow Leopard in the first half of this year. You'll likely hear more on both of these later this week from me.

But what has this week really got to do with games? Okay, so Macworld isn't at all relevant (Hey, make some decent gaming Macs, Apple; we might be nice! Also, when you do, send me one.). But CES is usually full of gaming related stuff, and at the very least there are always sexy new Bravias to drool over.

Well last year, on top of the Bravias and Vaios and Walkmans etc, Sony announced plans for a Digital Copy program (Blu-Ray films copied to PSP via PS3), which came into force late last year with Sony Pictures movies like Hancock, and should expand more this year; Skype got announced and added to PSP, and (ha!) Blu-Ray killed the hell out of HD-DVD. Teasers already released for this year's show suggest a massive coming-out party for the long silent Prototype for PS3 and 360, and there are rumours that the Movie Store will be coming to the EU, as well as a Music Store for everyone. Don't blame us if it doesn't happen that way btw, that's how rumours work.

See you later in the week for the latest from the two shows.

Comic: Racist Undertones

It's our second week or so in the world of Home, and as you've heard from all of us, we're having a ball. But this ball isn't without it's spikes. Or holes. Or whatever irregularity that would cause the ball to become faulty, yet retain it's spherical shape.

...

Home is full of people who do not have the Sony chatpad, a USB keyboard, or a headset of some kind. Thankfully the nice people at SCE have gifted these chaps with pre-set phrases to really get to know whoever you want to. Phrases include "Hello" and "I have no keyboard".
Now, this is a great idea in theory but since there's about 10 phrases, once they've been used up, conversation ceases and it just become awkward. Here's a scene that's happened to me countless times, causing me to surmise the entire population of Home is racist.



First ever webcomic, so go easy!

-AW

Reward Unlocked: Home

So I've been in Home for about 6 solid hours now, and (so long NDA) I'm liking what I see.

Out there, in the vast expanse of the Internet, a lot of negative attitude has been generated for Home, from the long long production schedule, lack of content in the beta, or a combination of both*. Which is fair enough, and they're valid points, but you all forget that this is not only a beta, but a closed beta. Sony aren't going to show give us all the content they've got planned for Home, are they? It's not a test to see whether the users like what they see (well it is, but to a lesser extent) but instead a test on whether their servers can take the strain that Home will bring.

I will happily put my reputation as a semi-committed blogger on the line when I say that Sony will have a bunch of stuff ready for us on the release of the open beta, if not before.

And that sounds like there's not anything in there already; there is, surprisingly, you just have to know where to look. Unlockables have been hinted at (clothing, furniture, trophies, etc) but there are tasters of them already chucked in.

Echochrome Unlockables:

There's a bunch of unlockables that you get from playing the arcade game echochrome in the Bowling Alley. You can unlock gloves, shirt, trousers and shoes that make you look like the white mannequin character (echoing footsteps not included). To do this, just achieve a score of about 4000 in the game. My approximate settings were about 20 shadows, 4 minutes and a score of 4200, which unlocked everything for me.

Icebreaker Unlockables:

I don't know much about these, but after completing every 4th level (4th, 8th and 12th) you are awarded 2 unlockables. I don't know how long this goes on for, since I died on the 12th level, but I unlocked a penguin hat, icebreaker shirt, and 2 more things I have yet to identify. I will be playing more and finding out later.

But again, let me re-iterate; Home is awesome. Whether you're judging it's potential or the service as it is, it is awesome, and I fully forgive Sony for all their delays. *twitch*

*(And what is strange, is that everyone that I've spoken to on the beta say that they're really enjoying it. I suppose you could argue that I only found them because the rest are off expressing their hatred on some blog, but still, I should've found one Scrooge at least?)

AW

Arriving Home

So, you know that bunch of Home invites that were recently sent out?

Guess what tumbled into my inbox at 11:24pm, seconds after I'd gone to sleep?

That's right. I'll see you all in Home.

(Rumour has it the NDA has been lifted, but I don't know the details about that yet. Will find out, then report as much as I possibly can about it.)

AW