If you want to see what the PS3 menu will look like there’s a video of it being demoed by Phil Harrison for your viewing pleasure at GameTrailers.

He asked that nobody took any pics or recordings of it as it’s not the finished version. Obviously he was obeyed.

It’s practically the same as the PSP menu bar just darker & with a lot more icons.

It looks as if your $600 will be well spent if you want to show your family & friends your photo collection…

I like the way you can send instant messages to your online contacts, maybe challenging them to a game of Resistance?

The web browser is also a good addition aswell. What are the chances of you being able to install Firefox?

I’ve seen a few rumors running the rounds that I’d like to debunk:

• 360 version of Assassin’s Creed has better AI than the PS3 version

Nonsense. If this were actually true, I would suspect someone, somewhere would be able to cite an actual Ubisoft rep saying something like this. But they don’t. I can’t find anyone from Ubisoft saying anything remotely close to this. I watched the whole Assassin’s Creed video clip from X06 and didn’t hear anything like this either.

• Sega confirms no online play for PS3 Virtua Tennis

The actual quote they cite from a Sega rep is, “Virtua Tennis 3 PS3 does not have an online mode confirmed at this time,”. There’s a big difference between saying that online isn’t confirmed at this time vs. confirming that there will definitely not be an online. Basically, it’s up in the air, and they aren’t saying (and possibly they just aren’t sure themselves) whether online will be present or not.

• GTA4 will only offer their downloadable episodes on the 360

Rockstar never said this. There will be GTA4 downloadable episodes exclusively for the 360. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be other downloadable episodes or other exclusive content for the PS3 or the PC. Rockstar creative VP Dan Houser has been a strong proponent of next gen consoles supporting more storage than regular DVD, so this is a real possibility.

These are just some rumors that caught my attention in the past two days. Normally, I try to ignore this stuff, but sometimes you have to ask? Why are there so many of these completely unfounded rumors blasting Sony, Blu-Ray, and PS3? Whey don’t we see similar rumors blasting other platforms? Why is the media so one-sided on this issue?

The PS3 seems to be exactly what I want, the games seem to be lining up perfectly, and PS3 demo kiosks are rumored to hit Best Buy stores on October 20. I’m really excited about all of this. But sometimes the raw intensity and frequency of these rumors, even if they are wildly unfounded, can really dampen the PS3 excitement.

Sega confirms no online play for PS3 Virtua Tennis
Assassin’s Creed: Better AI on the 360
2004 Interview with Rockstar’s Dan Houser

For anybody lucky enough to be in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, & more specifically the Yodobashi Camera outlet, you will be able to see a PS3 behind bullet proof glass (possibly) running trailers for Afrika, Heavenly Sword, Eye of Judgement & Genji 2.

Nobody can play it but it’s the first known PS3 found in a shop. Possibly.

PS3 On Display

PS3 Getting Personal

There’s a very short article on MCV that has two very brief comments from the Ken Kutaragi & Phil Harrison that you may find interesting.

Firstly Kutaragi-san was asked if he was concerned that the 360 or Wii would outsell the PS3 he replied with “We don’t care“.

I bet the shareholders at Sony corp will care!

Then Phil Harrison responded to the question about which games will be ready for the imminent November launch, Harrison replied with “Resistance: Fall of Man and Genji (2) are definite PS3 launch titles.”

He also stated that the other rumoured launch games are at the final stages saying “We’re at a fluid time when games are in final QA but not out of final QA. But we’re close.”

Sonic & Ridge Racer 7 are also definite launch games as is Call of Duty 3. It will be interesting to see the final launch day list whenever it’s announced.

Resistance & Genji 2 on track for launch

I don’t know if you want to watch a video of someone opening and closing the PS3’s lid a couple times, but that’s what this video of the PS3. Some dude took a video camera and basically took some up-close footage of the PS3.

Again we can see that the case of the PS3 is actually transparent. I’m not so sure I like that. I think a nice opaque finish would be best, at least for the top.

What do you guys think?

5 Min Video of PS3 Test Unit.

For those of you who many not have noticed, or for those of you who read only the RSS headlines, I thought I’d point out that recently I’ve added some new features to PS3Blog.net.

1. First, I added something in the sidebar which shows the top commenters. The plugin documentation for that says that you have to be logged in for the comments to register, but Segitz says that he found his comments were registered even without being a member. Ah well. I don’t know what to say. Except that if you want to make sure your comments are registered in the “top commenters” contest, I suggest you get an account here. You don’t need to log in every time - we have cookies for that! As a matter of fact, I rarely have to log in at all, so it’s easy!
2. Speaking of having to log in, the new Live Shoutbox in the sidebar definitely requires you to log in before using it. That’s to prevent spammers from making a mess of it, but I’m sure that eventually they’ll get to it anyway. Anyway, the Live Shoutbox is a lot of fun - give it a try!
3. Lastly, I added a star rating system. You can give your opinion on every post by giving it a star rating from one to five. This is done on the individual post’s page (won’t show up on the main page) to help speed up rendering of the main page. With this feature, you can have a say about what we write! While you’re at it, you can click here to rate this article!

I hope you enjoy the new features, I spend a a lot of seconds installing them! Don’t forget that we also have a poll in the PS3Blog.net sidebar, so please vote! Not enough of you are doing that! Tsk tsk. Now, back to your previously scheduled PS3 programming.