Archive for August, 2009
SOCOM Confrontation Patch 1.50 Available Tuesday
Posted by Jay in SOCOM Confrontation on August 21st, 2009

The long-time-coming patch for SOCOM Confrontation will become available Tuesday morning (Pacific time) and include features such as clan ladders, tournaments, private games, follow-a-friend and a calendar (among others). Here are some of the fixes and whatnot (from the Official PlayStation Blog):
Crashes, Freezes and Hangs Fixed
- Players being booted out of the game to the XMB while loading into gameplay.
- Players freezing on the loading screen going into and returning from gameplay.
- Loss of input issues that occurred when using the pause menu or scoreboard.
- Low frequency freezes when creating a clan.
- Players occasionally getting stuck on the Quick Match screen after selecting an invitation.
- Rare cases where players would become stuck in Spectator mode.
General Gameplay Updates
- Numerous improvements to lag and latency, as well as bandwidth optimizations.
- To eliminate exploits where players were escaping to outside of the playable space, many of the previously found routes are now blocked off. As a further measure, the playable areas are now surrounded by trigger volumes that will kill players attempting to find new exploits.
- Players are no longer able to plant claymores through pillars, walls and other objects.
- Target spotting will now default to OFF in all ranked games.
- Fixed characters occasionally getting stuck when planting flares in Control mode.
- Made the range players could plant the satchel more consistent between levels, in both Breach and Demolition modes.
- Commando reticles now turn green when targeting a VIP in Escort mode.
- Increased the priority of picking up the satchel so it can be picked up more easily when weapons and other objects are piled around it.
- Louder and improved footstep audio for characters that are out of view.
- Limited the angle that climb prompts appear at, character will no longer turn 90 degrees before climbing.
- VIPs no longer appear on the HUD Radar after being killed.
- Added the ability to plant Control flares and Demolition/Breach satchels while prone.
- Improved grenade throws, they now more closely follow the throw arc, added better wall detection to keep players from throwing grenades through walls and other objects.
- Fixed issues where different weapons would appear in characters hands to different players.
- Players can no longer take control of VIPs/Hostages through walls or other objects.
- Improved performance for the late joiner, host and all other players when joining a match in progress.
- The satchel will no longer appear in the incorrect location for players that late join Demolition and Breach matches.
- Fixed cases where the number of rounds won by each team could become out of sync.
- The death camera will stop following the character that killed your player after 5 seconds.
- In spectator mode, the button commands will fade out after 5 seconds.
- When selecting a weapon in-game the player’s custom loadout will not be overwritten, that can only be done in the Front End Armoury.
- Fixed cases where Detonators for Key Moments could become desynced, allowing them to be used twice.
- Multiple fixes for situations where characters could become invisible.
- Drastically cut down the Fade-In time at the start of the round.
- Fixed the jittering reticle when planting C4 and Claymores.
- Improved ability to plant the C4 on Breach walls.
- Resolved issues across all maps where players could become stuck when crouching or going prone in tight spaces.
- Closed an exploit where players could shoot through walls close to windows when using a scope.
Sultry video of the PS3 Slim and it’s removable hard drive
Engadget got there hands on a PS3 Slim, and they made a video showing how to replace the hard drive. I’m glad you can still replace the hard drive yourself with any 2.5-inch Serial ATA hard drive.
Beta for LittleBigWaterPlanet
Posted by Tosh in Beta, LittleBigPlanet, QuickNews on August 21st, 2009
Looks like Media Molecule wants test out the upcoming water game mechanic with a Beta. They are taking applications here.
Despite Price Cut and New Model, Sony’s Stocks Still on Decline
Posted by Jay in PS3, Sales Data on August 21st, 2009

So even after the news about a slim model coming in September and a price cut starting on Wednesday, Sony’s stocks are still sliding at a steady rate. Here are some of the details, from GamesIndustry.biz:
The stock closed down by 1.4 per cent today on the Tokyo Stock Exchange to sit at JPY 2445 (USD 26.02), declining yet further from its peak of over JPY 2770 (USD 29.48) on August 10 – a drop of around 12 per cent in total.
Investors took exception to the price cut announcement – despite the likelihood that the move will spur console sales for the company globally – with a 3.9 per cent fall in the price coming on Wednesday, the day after the press conference reveal in Cologne.
Is this bad news, though? Not exactly. Remember, the price cut, until the Slim model is released, is aimed toward any remaining stock to clear up shelves for the new model, thus they were already purchased from Sony by the retailers. Sony’s stock rates should climb within the next two weeks, especially with the demand of the Slim model being really high, and should be through, at least, the remainder of the year. Don’t forget all that overwhelming support Sony has received by many third party developers for the price cut, such as Ubisoft and EA. It takes a little time for things to turn around, but I’m sure once the Slim is in stores, the stock should climb.
Psyclone TouchCharge Kit for PS3 Review
Posted by Tosh in Accessories, Hardware, PS3, Reviews on August 21st, 2009
My friend told me this was on clearance at BestBuy for only $25. Which is a pretty good deal, normally they run $50 at Amazon. So I decided to try it out. It comes with 2 adapters which easily connect to the DualShock 3 / Sixaxis. But if you want extra adapters they are NOT sold separately so that kinda sucks.


Style wise it blends in pretty well if you have a black controller. You can fit 2 on the charge pad at once. They are slightly magnetic so they won’t slide around on the charge pad. It takes about 4 hours to charge completely. When your charging the controllers there is a blue light that turns on.


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Teases and nudges from Titan
Posted by No Kill Tayler in Fat Princess, PS3 on August 21st, 2009
From, Titan Studios’ blog you can see that either an upcoming patch or dlc is bringing 3 new classes to “pick up” from. Pirates, ninjas, and chef. So who’s going to win, pirate, ninja or….chef?



If its dlc, then 2 more classes will be announced and more maps. Patch, hopefully out of the 5 hat machines you get to pick and choose the classes you want, as a setting when you host. That, or they rework the maps to fit 3 more hat machines, which is unlikely. The only thing I want is clan support, and inviting friends into games. I wanna hear what you speculate from this tease.
New FFXIII info from GamesCom

- Final Fantasy XIII will ship simultaneously on PS3 and Xbox 360 in North America and Europe in Spring 2010
- PS3 version is 90% completed and the 360 version is 70% completed
- The Xbox 360 version will most likely fit on 3 DVDs
- The content and visuals between the two version will be almost identical, there maybe some subtle differences
- The English voice-over will be lip-synced, so no dual language track is planned
- Two brand new characters will be revealed soon in Japan. One is a young girl with silvery blond hair tied in a ponytail, and wear a sci-fi schoolgirl outfit, pink pleated skirt and lavish white top
- The second is Sazh’s little son, with an adorable afro and innocent smile
- The Paradigm Shift system was shown, in which your character’s setting can be modified. Available options are Overwhelm, Peacemaker and Aggression
- A new area called Lake Bilge: The Waters Stilled is unveiled
I’m more interested in FFXIII Versus and FFXIV but FFXIII sounds like it’s is shaping up pretty good. I hope it’s worth the wait for most fans, unlike that other FF game *cough FFXII cough*




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