Special Holiday Update For PlayStation Home

The Winter Holiday celebration continues this week in PlayStation Home, with tons of awesome new content scheduled to arrive on your PlayStation 3 this Thursday, December 22nd. This week will see the release of some seriously spectacular personal spaces that are packed to the brim with goodies, as well as a massive overload of new items on the shelves in the PlayStation Home Mall (along with some sales you will not want to miss out on). From updates to the popular Winter Holiday Hullabaloo event to a multitude of new videos in the Community Theater (complete with special rewards), PlayStation Home is truly the place to be this Holiday season!

Forget snow and ice, mittens, scarves, and frigid weather. Lockwood Publishing’s new Board Figment Dream Yacht will help you get away from the cold of winter. Spend your holidays like the Home elite, basking in the sun on the deck of your private yacht, or soothe your cares away in one of the two on-board hot tubs. It’s the perfect place to entertain guests, with several lounge areas and exquisite views of your own private tropical hideaway.

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DICE has announced that a fix is coming to the PS3 version of ‘Back to Karkand’ for ‘Battlefield 3.’ At issue are two weapons that aren’t working properly

Now that the Back to Karkand map pack for Battlefield 3 is available to everyone, fans are rejoicing to revisit some of their favorite maps from Battlefield 2. Unfortunately, two weapons are not acting properly for PlayStation 3 users. Namely, the QBU-88 sniper rifle and the MG36 LMG. DICE has identified the problems and is working on a fix right now.Battlefield 3 is still finding its way into many people’s consoles. Even though it has not reached the top three played games on Xbox LIVE, the community is still very much behind the game. DICE is working to ensure that everyone’s BF3 experience is as good as it can be.

There is no current date set for the weapons fix to release, but given that DICE has released the information, it should be coming relatively soon. In comparison, the weapon fixes seem very secondary to the voice chat problems PS3 users are experiencing, which DICE is also continuing to work on. Obviously, larger problems should be the focus of the company, but the fact DICE is pretty steady on patching the game shouldn’t be discounted.
While the main priority of DICE is still Battlefield 3, there is also the matter of the Battlefield 2143 Easter egg. Unfortunately, this could simply be an Easter egg. However, considering the popularity of the future-based FPS game, there can be little doubt that some ideas have been kicked around the office. Combined with the powerful Frostbite 2 engine, shouldBattlefield 2143 come out, it would be more than amazing looking. Not to mention, DICE is also teasing the fact that gamers are ready to experience Mirror’s Edge 2, a sequel to DICE’s ambitious first person free running game.
Aside from the obvious VOIP issues, what would you want to see fixed in Battlefield 3?

Obama goes with Just Dance 3 over Dance Central, shames a nation

Socialist US President Barack Obama was caught purchasing French-developedJust Dance 3 for the Japanese-designed Nintendo Wii console this past week. Thankfully, the desperate last-minute shopping trip to a local Best Buy for his daughters, Malia and Sasha, kept him away from putting more Americans out of work.

"In case you all are wondering, Just Dance for the Wii," Obama said, having a member of the proletariat hold up the game. "The girls beat me every time on these various dance games. And you'll never get a picture of me [playing] because I get graded F every time."

Clearly an agent of foreign leaders, Mr. Obama could have chosen the Boston-developed Dance Central 2 for the Seattle-designed Xbox 360. But no. Shame on you, sir. Shame on you! As if we needed our political leaders supporting Just Dance's continued foreign profits.

Disclaimer: This was all in good fun. Do not take anything here seriously. Laugh it off, hug someone you love. Kisses and hugs.

PlayStation Vita's 25-game North American launch lineup, pricing laid bare

When PlayStation Vita arrives in North America on February 22, 2012, it's bringing the cavalry. More specifically, 25 games will launch alongside the console in late February, with another 10 filling out the "launch window" from both Sony internal and third party studios.

Sony says the games will range in price from $9.99 to $49.99, though the company isn't pinning specific prices to any of the titles. Interestingly, several titles are listed as "PSN Only," including Escape Plan, Plants vs. Zombies, andHustle Kings - we've reached out to Sony for clarification on how that will affect pricing. The full list is available after the break, as well as an enormous list of accessories that you'll be able to pick up on or near launch.

PS Vita's interface, background downloading, and Getting Started video

The PlayStation Vita's interface shows a strong iPhone influence, from its touch-only navigation to its stylized unlock screen. In the above video, I provide a quick overview of the UI and touch interface the new handheld system uses, including its multitasking capabilities and "LiveArea" loading screens.

I also lie, a bit -- after recording the video, I discovered the obvious fact that you can rearrange your icons, simply by holding a finger on the screen for a few seconds. Just slightly longer than I did in the video. Again, just like an iPhone. From there, you can move or delete items, or change the color of the background. Apologies for the error in the video.

After the break, in another video, I use a quick jaunt to the PlayStation Store to demonstrate the background downloading features. I didn't go too in-depth into the PS Store because it's basically lists of Japanese text at this point.

Finally, you can see the unskippable introductory video that greets every new Vita user upon starting up the system for the first time.

Closed beta sign-ups begin for DUST 514

The time has come! CCP has announced earlier today that sign-ups are now open for DUST 514's closed beta.

Dubbed Mordu's Private Trials, this closed beta test is currently only open to active EVE Onlinesubscribers, and is only available on the Playstation 3, as the game will be exclusive to that platform.

If you're an active EVE Online subscriber and you'd like to sign up, head on over to the sign-up page for your chance.

How the PS Vita and PS3 connect to transfer data

You have two choices for transferring and backing up Vita content, including photos, music, game saves, and downloaded games. You can either connect it to a PC (and, later, Mac -- the app isn't available as of the Japanese launch, to my irritation) with the "Content Manager Assistant" installed, which just enables the computer to read the Vita like a hard drive, or you can connect it to a PS3. The USB adapter is the same cable that goes from the Vita to the AC adapter.

In both cases, the actual movement of data is done from the Vita, in its own "Content Manager Assistant" app. The PS3 displays only the above screen. I plugged the handheld into the PS3, moved some photos around (the Shadows of the Damned and ... Hot Pockets promotional backgrounds, and 3D Dot Game Heroes screens being all I had), and otherwise looked around the menu, capturing screens of the process in the gallery below. Enjoy looking at pictures of menus!

You'll notice that the "music" and "photos" pages look slightly different. When you open up those areas to browse, it actually opens up the Vita's separate "Photo" and "Music" apps, leaving the Content Manager running in the background.

PS3/Vita 'Content Manager Assistant'

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