From Amazon:

• Resistance 2 video game and Bonus DVD with Behind the Scenes video, video commentary by Insomniac Games, and “Twisted History” chronology video.
• Exclusive in-game HVAP Wraith multiplayer skin
• Sneak peek at the upcoming Resistance novel, “Resistance: The Gathering Storm”
• Exclusive 5.5″ Chimera Hybrid action figure with Bullseye weapon
• Double-sided Resistance art book covering a war-torn America from two unique perspectives.

Is this worth the extra $20?

What Type of Game is This?

This game clearly fits into the strategy RPG genre: It’s like a regular RPG but there is more focus on the combat system and almost none of the exploration and adventure elements. All the item collection, character building, and stat building typically found in regular RPGs are here. There is plenty of story and narrative in between battles as well.

Who Will Like This?

This is an elaborate, chess-like strategy game that demands a large time investment to appreciate. Does that sound appealing? This genre of game has a definite niche audience, and it is easiest to explain this way:

I would have loved this when I was 8-18 years old and I had no other outlet for making strategic and tactical decisions. As an adult, I don’t want to play this for the same reason that I don’t want to play chess: I’d simply rather spend the type of effort and brain power that these games require on something more productive like work projects, or taking a night class at the university, or learning a real skill of some kind. Now when I play games, I seek either relaxation, inspiration, or type of excitement that I don’t get in my regular life such as gun fights and car chases.

Technology

The screenshots and videos give a good idea of exactly what to expect. This does not have flashy graphics or fancy technology and it clearly wasn’t supposed to. This title does look a little bit nicer than PS2/PSP games of this sort, but don’t expect anything huge.

Compared to other SRPGs

This is one of the more highly regarded series in the genre, but I don’t know this genre very well, so I can’t add much. Anyone else care to comment?

Sony says it’s on it’s way, but it seems it won’t be August any more. It will be accessed directly from the XMB and it will be combined with Folding@home. So you check the news, weather, etc. and use Folding@home all at once.

While I’m talking about Folding@home be sure to join our team 55054, at the moment we only have 14 active members. But we are currently ranked 359, not bad, keep it up

Life with PlayStation is on its way

Wow, and just in time for the long weekend The Last Guy & the Warhawk Fallen Star Pack are insta-buys! I’ve been wanting to try out Soul Calibur 4 too.

Games:

The Last Guy ($9.99)

DLC:

Warhawk Fallen Star Pack ($7.99)
Warhawk Booster Combo ($15.99)

Rock Bank

* “She Does” - Locksley ($0.99)
* “Don’t Make Me Wait” - Locksley ($0.99)
* “Don’t Make Me Wait” - Locksley ($0.99)
* “All Over Again” - Locksley ($0.99)
* Locksley Pack 1 ($2.99) - includes: “All Over Again,” “Don’t Make Me Wait,” and “She Does” by Locksley.

Demos:

NHL 09
SOULCALIBUR IV

Game/Movie Trailers:

SOCOM Confrontation Extraction trailer
LittleBigPlanet Leipzig “Sackzilla” Trailer
Motorstorm Pacific Rift Leipzig Trailer
PAIN Trauma Mode Trailer
GT5 Prologue Play the Pros with Tanner Foust!
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway Machine Gun & Bazooka Video
Facebreaker Audition Video #1
Facebreaker Audition Video #2
Facebreaker Audition Video #3
Madden NFL 09 Gameplay Trailer
Madden NFL 09 Madden Moments Trailer
Madden NFL 09 Play Call Trailer
Top Spin 3 Player Creator Trailer
Quantum Of Solace Trailer
Prom Night Trailer
The Last Guy Wallpaper (x2)

Game
Buzz!™ Junior Jungle Party, £3.49
The Last Guy, £4.99

Demo
The Last Guy Asakusa Level, FREE
NHL 09, FREE

Packs
Warhawk - Operation Fallen Star Pack, £3.99

Videos
HAWX Trailer, FREE
Far Cry 2 - E3 trailer, FREE
The Last Guy Launch Trailer, FREE
PS3 Platinum TV Ad, FREE
Super Stardust HD top tips solo trailer, FREE
Super Stardust HD™ top tips arcade trailer, FREE

Wallpapers
The Last Guy, FREE

Theme
Graffiti, FREE

PSP content available to download via PS3 Console store

Game
Medal of Honor Heros 2, £14.99

Demo
Pipe Mania, FREE

Demo :
Soul Calibur IV

Add-on :

Guitar Hero: 16 music pack (already on others PSS)
Vampire Rain 1 & 2 (¥300)

Jeux PS1 :

* G-Darius (PSP Compatible; ¥600)
* Blockids (PS3 et PSP Compatible; ¥600)
* Bomberman Fantasy Race (PS3 et PSP Compatible; ¥600)
* Yamasa digital slot world (PS3 et PSP Compatible; ¥600)

It has been a LONG wait for Home, it’s been delayed again and again. But the wait is almost over. It “should” be coming sometime in 2008. The expanded private Home beta should be available this week, or at least more info on it. I’m guessing Friday or maybe in today’s PSN update. In fact Asia will be getting some details on the expanded Home beta tomorrow. See here.

I try not to think about Home much anymore to make the wait less painful. But I think for it to be really popular it needs to be continually updated with new info.

Home Producer Van der Meulen told IGN “without hesitation” that there is a “100 percent guarantee” that the oft-delayed Home will be released by “the end of this calendar year.” Not 2009. Not 2010. This year. “He has absolutely no doubt that this will be the case.”

You are ‘100 percent’ going Home this year

Hey everyone! Time for a bit of editorializing!

I’d like to announce Trevor has joined our team here at PS3Blog.net. He expressed interest in contributing to this site, and I’ve been enjoying his comments (under a different name, you can ask him what!). To make a short story even shorter, he’s now an author here.

Well, supposedly. I haven’t seen him post an article yet…

:P

So welcome Trev aboard. He’s our second UK-based author!

Warhawk 1.50 - It’s out in Europe and North America. I just downloaded it a few minutes ago. The main things it added are a training mode, custom soundtracks and trophies.

They changed the following below, it’s all server side so you don’t have to download anything. Nice that they added reward points to something other than survival (which only open from 8 - 11 p.m. Fri - Sun for me). But only 5 points?? Some things in the reward store cost 10,000!

1)Players will gain 5 reward points when they have finished a round in the automatching lobbies “SNAKE:EX”, “LIQUID:EX” and “SOLIDUS:EX”.

*The lobbies “SNAKE:EX”, “LIQUID:EX” and “SOLIDUS:EX” are only available for users who have bought the “MGO GENE EXPANSION”.

2)A new Survival Lobby “MK2″ has been added.

Konami.jp

LittleBigPlanet will feature its own “copyright” feature for user-generated items. I think this is a cool feature. Because some items you create will take quite some time I’m sure. This way your own level will be unique to you if you want. You can even create items that are collectible by people who beat your level.

I actually just pre-ordered LittleBigPlanet today, so I’m all set

LittleBigPlanet to feature personal ‘copyright’ system

PlayFactory - This will bundle six PlayStation Eye games. Hopefully they are new games and not existing ones.

Some guys over at CVG said a “source” told them the firmware 2.5 will included a screen capture feature. Which a couple games have already, like Resistance 1 & Metal Gear Online. Hopefully this is truely built into the firmware unlike the youtube video upload feature which is up to the developer to implement. Anything else you want to see the in the next firmware update?

I would like the following:

* Option for a custom PSN ID image
* IM type feature for communication instead of “e-mailing” back and forth basically.
* In Game Voice chat
* Display Profile quicker
* Be able to save different wireless access points, the psp can.
* Register multiple bluetooth devices like keyboards or headsets and store them so you can switch between them. Cell phones can even do this.

First PS3 firmware 2.5 details

Wow, tons of Blu-ray titles to pick from and Heroes is finally on Blu-ray. Anything for you?

* Action Starter Pack (Miami Vice / End of Days / U-571)
* The Adventures of Robin Hood
* Afro Samurai: Season One - Director’s Cut
* Blue Man Group: How to Be a Megastar Live!
* Dude, Where’s My Car?
* End of Days
* Guge: The Lost Kingdom of Tibet
* Heroes: Season 1
* Heroes: Season 2
* Miami Vice (Unrated Director’s Edition)
* The Nightmare Before Christmas
* Ocean Oasis (IMAX)
* Pale Rider
* Postal
* Redbelt
* The Secret
* U-571
* What Happens in Vegas

Blu-ray.com

You know, i’s cool that there are widgets and apps and iPhone apps and whatnot revolving around keeping you up to date with your Xbox Live friends. Say you want to do some gaming online, and you want to know if any of your friends are there already. Do you need to turn on your 360? No? Just pull your iPhone out of your pocket and see if any of your friends online. Then you can decide whether you want to get the 360 machine up and humming.

This is all possible through the fact that Microsoft puts gamer information online for people to consume. Anyone can write an app that’ll poll the status of an Xbox gamer. It's a shame that Sony doesn’t do the same thing. The closest they have is a PSN - PSU link that requires logging in TWICE before you can see your friends online. Even then, you can’t send them messages or anything.

Man, if Sony made this kind of thing available, I'd boot up my Mac an make an iPhone app just for this purpose.

Mmmmm… two great tastes in one: PS3 and iPhone! Wouldn’t that be chewy!

The free roaming part looks great. I’m going to be picking this up later this year. Just a reminder you can choose Japanese or English voices. But who in there right mind would want to listen to the English voices!