A press release about Folding@Home from Sony:

Tokyo, April 25, 2007 – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that great progress has been made in the one month since PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment systems became part of Stanford University’s Folding@home™ program, a distributed computing project aimed at understanding protein folding, misfolding and related diseases. Since the program launched in March, participation by the PS3 user community has been phenomenal, providing Folding@home with immense computing power that is helping to fast forward its research. Furthermore, thanks to PS3’s powerful Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.), the Folding@home program has become one of the most powerful distributed computing networks in the world and is quickly approaching a level of computing power that is of historical proportions.

Exhibiting its continued commitment to the program, SCE also announced that starting tomorrow, it is providing a Folding@home application update that will further enhance the user experience. The updated software features an improvement in folding calculation speeds, increased visibility of user location (*1) on the globe and the ability for users to create longer donor or team names.

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A few people who write and contribute to this blog have been pretty vocal about the improvements they would like to see to the PS Store and XMB, and it seems the improvements we want to see are pretty much universal with most PS3 owners, myself included.

KILLZONE Unit had a Q&A with SCEA’s Dave Karraker and although not much was revealed other than the obligitary ‘coming soon’ comments, you might find some of his comments interesting, not least his comment regarding PS3 Killzone:

We got a really great reception to the Killzone video we showed at GDC this year. It was basically a tech demo that showed the particle lighting and other features, but I think it really showed where we are heading with Killzone. E3 will be the big coming out party, however.

A couple of months and Sony’s most hyped title will be on view for the world to see. At least the people at Sony are aware of the improvements we want to see with the PS Store and XMB, we just need to be a little patient until the improvements can be made. It is a free service after all.

Stolen from Dav at the GR Forums.

Q&A with Dave Karraker

I know this post over at PS3Forums is a little old (3 weeks or so), but I can’t get it out of my head when I think about the PS3 and what might be coming. The author mentions four PS3 promises that Sony has so far been unable (or unwilling?) to deliver on. The article includes screenshots and video, so check out this article over at PS3 forums if you need the eye candy. I’m too lazy to get it myself!

But I will mention the four promises. Some aren’t so important to me, while others would be very nice to have. What do you guys think about these missing features?

• In-game PSN store access.
  Remember that screenshot showing the ability to buy extra tracks in MotorStorm? Whatever happened to that? I admit that I won’t be the first one in line to shell out extra cash for games that I already bought, but I would think that the same interface could be used for extra free content as well. Which would be a lot nicer than trying to find it in the PSN store, where the idea of decent organization doesn’t seem to have caught on.
• The PLAYSTATION Card for PSN.
  Gotta admit - I don’t care about this one.
• In-game messaging.
  Now this is something that everyone has been clamouring for because it’s such a useful feature. I hope we get to see this one soon.
• In-game XMB.
  Closely related to in-game messaging is the in-game XMB for access to (hopefully) all sorts of stuff while in game. I think that this could be a really useful feature, depending on what they allow. But even simple access to friends would be good for a start.

Anything missing?

What are sony’s priorities? AKA the stuff we were told we were getting

Looks like PlayStation Home has launched a community website at PlayStationHome.com. There is a Social PlayStation Home & Forum. Still no word on a Home BETA yet. But the people that do get into the BETA will most likely post in those forums about there experience.

I bet you’re thinking that’s one of the most original and groundbreaking headlines you’re ever read, right? No?

Anyway, Phil Harrison answered some questions put to him by slashdot.org readers, and although there’s nothing that stands out to me I thought you guys would be interested in reading what he has to say. Here’s one of the questions (and answer) that caught my eye:

With a number of previously-PS3-exclusive titles having gone multiplatform, are there any efforts to prevent this from occurring in the future, or is it of little concern to SCE?

Phil Harrison: We have the widest selection of meaningful exclusives on PlayStation 3 - by virtue of our own investments in our development studios and strategic support of independent developers and publishers. I really don’t believe gamers mind who makes the game, so long as the games they buy on their system are the best games they can get anywhere - and that their system investment is secure in the knowledge that there are plenty more coming in future. Within SCE Worldwide Studios we have the largest platform-dedicated development resource in the industry - with more people, and more teams, dedicated to making games exclusively for PlayStation 3. So my main “concern” is to make sure those games are absolutely the best they can be.

Despite Sony not having the exclusive rights to some major 3rd party titles (GTA IV, DMC4 etc), their first and second party titles are as good if not better than anything Nintendo or Microsoft can call on for their own consoles. Whether that’s going to be enough this gen for Sony is another thing all together.

If titles like LittleBigPlanet, Afrika (where’s that vanished to?) Ratchet & Clank Future, Unchartered: Drake’s Fortune, Lair, MotorStorm 2, Resistance 2, Killzone 2, God of War 3 and a whole bunch of stuff that we don’t know about, turns out to be half as good as they should/could be, then Sony really haven’t got too much to worry about in the software department. That’s not including stuff like Calling All Cars and other DLC which looks promising but is very sparse at the minute.

Anyway, it makes interesting reading and thanks go to Eighthours for the find.

Phil Harrison answers a bunch of questions

Some choice quotes:

“Simply put, the PS3 doesn’t hold a candle to the visuals found in the Xbox 360 version”

“the creeping load bar is going to upset folks who remember playing and loading F.E.A.R. seamlessly on the PC and the Xbox 360″

“compared to the PC and 360, this version is graphically dead in the water”

I was actually planning on buying the PS3 version of this game pending good reviews. Not any more. Really, who wants to get the substantially inferior version of the game? I’ll pass.

We have seen several poor PS3 ports, but I really think this isn’t very indicative of things to come. This game is a PC game first and a console game second. Monolith makes some amazing PC shooters and when I give my PC a major upgrade this summer that’s where I’ll be playing those titles.

The good news is that the PS3 looks like it will get the best versions of three really good games in the next two months: Spiderman 3, The Darkness, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Not inferior ports or even equal ports, but the best versions. That will be a great change and will more than make up for this.

IGN Review

Sony has announced Q2 titles (April through June) for the PlayStation platforms. Most of these we already knew about through other sources, but it’s still good to hear.

PS3 Blu-Ray Discs

• F.E.A.R.^TM
• Spider-Man 3
• Ninja Gaiden® Sigma
• MLB 07 The Show^TM
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
• The Darkness®
• The Bigs
• TRANSFORMERS: The Game

PlayStation Network Downloadable Titles

• Calling All Cars^TM
• Championship Sprint^TM
• Gauntlet II^TM
• Joust®
• Rampage^TM World Tour
• Super Puzzle Fighter^TM II HD Remix
• Rampart®

While many of these games are cross-platform, the PS3 will actually getting first-rate versions of many with exclusive features and content.

• Spider Man 3: The PS3 gets lots of exclusive content including a completely exclusive controllable character, “The New Goblin”, controllable via the sixaxis tilt functionality.
• The Darkness: The developers behind this game, Starbreeze Studios, also developed the Xbox shooter, “The Chronicles Of Riddick”. Many thought that that title was actually a better Xbox shooter than Halo 2. I can’t wait to see how this title turns out. Also, the developers have spoken very highly of the PS3 which suggests that we will actually get a high quality version (possibly the best) rather than a dumbed down port.
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma: This is a rather extensive remake of an extremely highly rated Xbox exclusive. It sounds like they are really delivering a dramatically improved remake that takes full advantage of the PS3 and not just giving us a quick port.

Anyway, great news! And the PS2 lineup looks pretty good as well (can’t wait for Manhunt 2).

BTW, where are Unisoft’s Tom Clancy games: Rainbow Six and GRAW 2? I thought those were supposed to be released in May-June? Also, why aren’t Nucleus and Super Stardust HD listed as PlayStation Network releases? I guess this isn’t 100% complete.

PR Article

Those zany folks over at gamerzines has released issue 2, featuring a review of Oblivion and more:

Our free PlayStation 3 magazine includes a huge GTA IV preview and massive The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion review, as well as an exclusive Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End interview, where we find out how the PS3 game is coming along and how it will fit with the film. We’ve also got full reviews of FEAR and Splinter Cell Double Agent among others, and previews of Colin McRae: DIRT and Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War. It’s your essential PS3 guide.

Like most sane people, I like free stuff, so as soon as I saw this, I started downloading it. As a matter of fact, it’s still downloading now!

Gamerzines: P3Zine Issue 2