Borderlands, by Zero Punctuation

This was my wife just now....

My phone rang, it's my missus:

"Jim, I'm in Toys R Us, they've got the PS3 120GB for 229, shall I get it for you..."

YEAH GEDDIT!

"OK babes see you in a bit"

Happy days! She knows what GB are!

[MrJimmy, happily married with a beautiful 9 year old gamer daughter]

We're In The Pipe 5x5

To celebrate nuking Moxies Underdome challenges in a beer and kebab fueled LAN session we give you probably the best Aliens video on the interwebs.

Play the Heavy Rain demo early!

Just read over on Kotaku that it's possible to get the demo for Heavy Rain early. It involves playing a website based game - the one Sony advertised over on the eww blog. Anyway if you solve the puzzle (and the solution is provided for your convenience) then you're rewarded with a PSN code to download the demo at your leisure. By the way it's not available on the US store. That means that a whole nation of yankee doodle "hell yeah" sayers are right now stealing our bandwidth and it's a race against time people so go, go, go!

http://kotaku.com/5464839/want-the-heavy-rain-demo-right-now-heres-how

[reakt]

YLOD

Yep, me too, last night my Launch Day purchased upgraded full fat 60GB baby switched off when watching a video on it - I knew I'd be looking at a yellow LED after two presses of the power switch - gutted.

Sulked. My missus said "you can't afford a new one". Ignored. I could sell the car, a kidney or something, but hadn't Googled yet. Sulked some more, poured a nice glass of rum out.

Went to bed and dreamt of controlling a flying robot frog, work that one out. The tongue action was pretty cool, to catch the fly you had to anticipate.

Very busy day, loads of work to do, started in front of Outlook at 9:00, it's 10:37 now and guess what I've been Googling..

Phillips & Torx drivers, check. Heat Gun - I've got a paint stripper, no heat control - scary. Thermal Grease - hmmm Maplins must have that. More Googling..

Chap in Aus sells videos showing how to fix it with toothpaste - WTF? Less risk though. Realise haven't brushed my teeth yet, this happens when you work from home.

U3S homies - pointers please! I've gotta put this out of my head and get on with my work - I'll see what you've got for me this eve - I know you won't let me down.

[Mr Jimmy]

GT5, Sometime before Xmas!? The Bastards!

Gran Turismo 5 looks like being delayed once more according to the latest from Sony. Word is it won’t now be arriving until this autumn.

Sony Entertainment Portugal CEO James Armstrong told Canarias Al Dia (via GT Planet) that the long-awaited-many-times-delayed racer looks like arriving this “fall”, though Sony has “not yet decided.”

By “not yet decided” it appears that Sony’s planning to give it the best chance of doing well by releasing it at a later date. The translation (below) is a little sketchy, mind.

“GT 5 is a great hope for Sony, a very important game for the company, which generates much income. We would have wanted him out before but we think the priority we are giving it our best,” he said adding that he hopes it’ll give the PS3 fresh momentum.

“I’m very confident in this game that we launch this year and help us consolidate PS3 as the console that is large.” He must not have the PS3 Slim yet. :)

[mobiletone]

i'll also mention OPM is running a massive GT5 review of the full game this month, hits the shelves 16th Feb... 'Full Game, Driven To Distruction' that tells me it's finished and ready to roll and Sony are just jerking our fucking chains by delaying it.

Fumito Ueda Discusses Last Guardian

We haven't heard much about The Last Guardian since the Tokyo Game Show. But that all changed today as Famitsu published a short interview in which director Fumito Ueda spilled a few additional precious details on the game and its development process.

At present, the development staff is pouring its efforts on the eagle-like creature that serves as the centerpiece of the game. This is because giving the creature a feeling of life and actual existence is of the utmost importance, explained Ueda.

In addition to the eagle, Ueda asked that players pay attention to the movements of the little boy you control. They've tied the character in greatly to the game's physics engine, allowing for in-depth motion.

Famitsu asked Ueda if, as with past games, he's working on the story board and such artistic areas of the game himself. The answer is yes. However, the amount of work has decreased compared to ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. One of the reasons for this is due to an increase in capable staff who can be left to handle the work to a degree. Additionally, with the advance to PS3 level, there are many areas of expression that can be handled by the hardware. An example of this is that darn physics engine again (every Last Guardian interview seems to mention this). The physics engine actually ties in well with the game's realistic direction, said Ueda.

Once again, Ueda managed to do an interview without getting into the details of how Guardian will play. Asked about the game content, he simply said that he can't say too much at present, but that he'd like to share additional information this year. They've yet to decide on whether this information will come at E3 or at the Tokyo Game Show.

Ueda closed off his interview with a brief statement about release time frame. "We're at the stage where we're looking into the time frame. Once the time frame has been decided upon, it won't be long until release. With Last Guardian, we're working intently with the aim of making a game that offers a kind of fun that cannot be experienced elsewhere, so I'd like everyone to wait just a bit more."

Elsewhere in the interview, Ueda reflected upon the year 2009 (this interview was actually part of a feature in which Japan's biggest game designers shared their thoughts on the past year). The game industry as a whole did not leave much of an impression on Ueda in 2009, partly because he was working away at Guardian. While there were titles that game fans did look forward to, he feels that there wasn't a game that did the unexpected. He joked that this could be because he's getting old.

Famitsu asked Ueda for his opinion on foreign games, noting that Japanese players have become more accepting of overseas titles of late. Ueda admitted that he personally likes many foreign games and he's happy that other users are starting to accept those titles. He was actually wondering why they weren't being accepted. Sadly, he did not name names.

Of course, for Ueda, 2009 was the year that Last Guardian was announced, first at E3, followed by a video showing at the Tokyo Game Show. Ueda said that he was shocked to see such a big reaction from players. He was also happy with the strong reaction from overseas players. However, he's trying to ignore the reactions because he wants to avoid feeling too much pressure.

It's not just fan reactions that make him feel pressure. Explained Ueda, compared to ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, the development staff is getting greater backup this time around, further increasing the feeling of pressure.

[additional reporting by Ryan Winterhalter]

Official 500Gb External PS3 Drive, costs more.

 

PC hardware maker Buffalo is about to take new steps in official PlayStation licensing. The company announced today two external hard drives that have been granted official recognition from Sony. According to Buffalo, this is the first time Sony has granted licensing to hard drive peripherals, a move that comes in anticipation of March's release of PS3's "Torne" digital video recorder kit.

Both drives have 500GB capacity and connect to the PS3 via an included USB 2.0 cable. The ¥14,800 (£100)  Piano Black HD-AV500U2/SC sits horizontally and has a meter on its front showing remaining space. The ¥11,800 (£80) Black HD-CL500U2/SC stands vertically but lacks the meter.

Does that sound fair to you seeing as you can grab a 500Gb from Tesco Direct for a gnats cock under £50? i wouldn't mind that casing though, looks pretty sexy.

[mobiletone]

The Reality is far from Pretty

Reality TV Invades Our Consoles

Sony have announced that their new gaming-related reality series, "The Tester," is coming to the PlayStation Network very soon. The first episode will be available on the PSN Store on February 18th.

The show boasts several celebrity judges, including EatSleepPlay's David Jaffe, and God of War's John Hight.

The Tester is an original competitive reality series that PlayStation fans can really get into. Produced in partnership with one of the biggest names in reality TV (51 Minds), this is a program for gamers, about gamers who are competing to win a job as a game tester on PlayStation’s first party development team – the team that has introduced history-making franchises such as God of War, UNCHARTED, LittleBigPlanet and Gran Turismo.

PS3 and PSP owners can download The Tester from PlayStation Store starting February 18th for FREE. PlayStation Home users will also be able to watch the series with other PS3 owners in the PlayStation Home Theatre

But do we really care?