via ign

When Diddy Kong Racing ships in early February, it will support a whole slew of multiplayer options, including full-on six player online racing via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service. Late last week Nintendo hosted a batch of online sessions so gaming editorial could zoom around the courses against other (competing) publications to see how well the game can handle the load. And pre-release, so far so good.

We'll give the nod to Nintendo's NST team for Metroid Prime Hunters still having the most elaborate online experience, but Rare's Diddy Kong Racing team comes a close second. The game has a "smiley face" system that's actually quite helpful: if a friend is online, for example, a smiley face will show up on the "Friend Roster" option of the menu. Clicking on this selection will take you to the list of friends you've entered into your game, where you can see what that friend's status is: offline, online, starting a game, or in a game. This is also where you can check out the statistics of how many times you've won or lost against this individual in the game's races and battles.

If a friend has set up a game, a smiley face will show up on the "Join Friend" option. This is a pseudo lobby system where you can host a match-up; anyone who's in your friends list can join in, but you can't restrict and lock your match-up to specific friends. You can, however, decide to cut off your list to less than the chosen amount as friends come in, which is really handy since many online games will sit and wait until the match-up times out before starting.

For random competition, you can choose two player, four player or six player races from the menu and the game will play "matchmaker" with random folk also seeking out that style of racing. This does require that whole "critical mass" thing of thousands of people owning the game, which won't start for another week...so we couldn't really do much of that whole random match-up thing in our early playtest. But from what we've experienced, it's much like Mario Kart DS: players pick a track and a type of race, and the most selected track and type of race is the one players will compete within.

Once a game's set up in the friend match-up, the host chooses the tracks and the type of race, whether it's in plane, car, or hovercraft. If the host hasn't unlocked the track, mode, or character in single player mode they won't be available in multiplayer...which will definitely encourage players to play through as much of the adventure as they can before jumping online.

Lag and dropped connections hasn't been much of an issue, but again -- we're playing Diddy Kong Racing a week before it ships. Once people start buying the game next week all that can (and will) change. And we're also playing against people we trust...we haven't experienced *******s who love to drop out of a race mid-session because they're losing, so we haven't seen how Rare handles this in-game. We did test out dropping out in the middle of a connection ourselves, and it seems that the game will continue if there's still at least two players connected. Good to know.

Diddy Kong Racing ships next Tuesday. We'll have our full review around that time. ...

via ign

The start of the college basketball season starts in early November, just as gridirons are starting to cool down and bowl futures are becoming clear. It picks up speed through Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, taking over campuses with buzzer beating shots and Cinderella story teams that upset nationally ranked squads on its way to the Big Dance. So why would 2K Sports decide to release their upcoming College Hoops 2K7 for the PS3 in February, at the tail end of the season, instead of in November for the launch of the system?

The answer is simple -- rather than rush a simple port, 2K Sports wanted to polish up the game, tweaking some elements and fixing issues that cropped up in the 360 version. As a result, players that picked up the 360 version will want to check out the PS3 title to check out the differences between the two games. For example, it's a tad bit easier to make layups now in the PS3 version of the game, even with a defender contesting you for the shot. Similarly, attention was paid to cleaning up the awkward animations that occurred during transition play or low post passes. Other features, such as the SIXAXIS controller support for free throw shooting (which made its debut in NBA 2K7) have been integrated into College Hoops 2K7.

These features join up with an already strong lineup of modes for College Hoops 2K7. Team Unity is the largest adjustment made this year, which tracks the up and down nature of the game itself. Just about every facet of the game has an impact on the Team Unity meter, such as ball distribution on the court, shot selection, and substitutions. Depending on just how well you happen to be managing the influence of these factors on your team, your Unity will rise or fall. When it's low, you'll see your players miss a lot more shots and make bad passes. When it's high, you'll notice your team play tighter defense and sink just about every shot they make. Just as the Team's Unity rises and falls, so will player's confidence meters, so if your team is starting to slump, you may need to call a timeout and get their heads back into the game.

Other features are definitely making their way into the PS3 version of the game. Players can design their own taunts, jeers and rallying cries with the Chant Creator. While it'll still outlaw you from outright telling an opponent that they suck, players that are creative with their spelling and word choice can express how horrible the other team is. You'll also have access to an expanded Legacy mode, which includes the new HoopCast simulator which lets you send in plays and manage the game from the sidelines. There's even a new weekly highlight show, College Hoops Tonight, which is hosted by Greg Gumbel and Clark Kellogg, which recaps the events that occur across the NCAA.

We'll have more on College Hoops 2K7 soon, but for now, check out the latest videos of the game in action. ...

via ign

First there was the PlayStation Portable, and with it came PlayStation Spot, a retail download service offering game demo downloads for PSP owners.

Next came the PlayStation 3, and with it came PlayStation TV, a retail kiosk designed to let Japanese audiences sample the PS3's games and multimedia capabilities.

If you were one of the three people in America wondering if Sony would ever combine these two promotions into one, wonder no more! Starting 1/30, Sony has started making PlayStation TV terminals function as PlayStation Spot terminals. This means demo and item downloads for your PSP from the same place where you can sample upcoming PS3 games. That's, like, totally radical and cool!

Currently, Sony has 70 PlayStation TV locations set up for PlayStation Spot functionality. The company plans on eventually expanding to the full 1,035 network of PS3 kiosks. ...

via ign

First there was the PlayStation Portable, and with it came PlayStation Spot, a retail download service offering game demo downloads for PSP owners.

Next came the PlayStation 3, and with it came PlayStation TV, a retail kiosk designed to let Japanese audiences sample the PS3's games and multimedia capabilities.

If you were one of the three people in America wondering if Sony would ever combine these two promotions into one, wonder no more! Starting 1/30, Sony has started making PlayStation TV terminals function as PlayStation Spot terminals. This means demo and item downloads for your PSP from the same place where you can sample upcoming PS3 games. That's, like, totally radical and cool!

Currently, Sony has 70 PlayStation TV locations set up for PlayStation Spot functionality. The company plans on eventually expanding to the full 1,035 network of PS3 kiosks. ...

via ign

Everyone and their DS-playing mom knew this already, but Sony has at last admitted to not making its worldwide shipment targets for the PlayStation 3 in 2006. As part of its third quarter financial report covering 10/2006 to 12/2006, the company announced today that worldwide shipments in 2006 for the new hardware capped off at 1.84 million units, short of the promised 2 million.

North America got most of those units, at 1.03 million. Japan got 810,000 units, with numbers climbing up past a million in the first few weeks of January.

The company is still aiming for 6 million units shipped by the end of March. By then, the PS3 will have launched in Europe.

Other Sony gaming hardware saw declines compared to the same period in the previous year. The PS2 shipped 4.11 million units, down by 23% from last year's 5.36 million units. The PSP shipped 1.76 million units, down by 72% from last year's 6.22 million units.

In software, PS3 saw shipments of 5.2 million units for the year. PSP saw an increase of 24% over the previous year, hitting 21.2 million game titles. PS2 dropped 16% from the previous year, with 78 million games shipped.

All the lowered shipments along with the PS3 launch caused some dark figures for Sony's games division. While sales for the quarter rose 5.6% from the same period last year to 442.8 trillion yen, operating profits dropped sharply from a gain of 67.8 trillion yen last year to a loss of 122.0 trillion yen this year.

The company expects to stop taking losses on PS3 hardware in the next term, Sony CFO (chief financial officer) Nobuyuki Oneda announced at the financial briefing. One means of doing this will be through smaller chip sizes. The company has already started manufacturing CELL chips using a 65 nanometer process, Japan's IT Media reports.

Even with a turn in fortunes on Sony's hardware losses, don't expect a price drop any time soon. Oneda said that Sony is not consdering a price drop right now, although something could be possible in 2 or 3 years.

In response to that massive drop in PSP shipments for the quarter, Oneda said that Sony will not be giving on the platform, repeating past promises that a number of ideas are under consideration. ...

via ps3fanboy

If you can't get enough of the lovable (if difficult to understand!) Katamari Damacy franchise, you might just have your prayers answered. According to 4Gamer, a Japanese gaming website, the next game is getting hauled over to the PC thanks to publisher WindySoft. Dubbed Katamari Damacy Online, it's due out by late 2007.

The online aspect of the game basically seems to revolve around the versus mode battles from the previous titles and planting them in an online scenario. You've got "pet" and "house" stuff to collect and unlock, you can build your own island (perhaps from the very crap you roll into a ball) and get new clothing along your journey.

Now, you may be wondering, where does the PS3 tie into this? Isn't this about the PlayStation losing another game to a different platform? Not entirely. Apparently, this deal was struck so Namco-Bandai could get their feet wet in the Korean market, where this game is being developed. If you've been paying attention, Namco and Sony have formed Cellius, where "Cellius will use Sony's Cell chip, which powers PlayStation 3, to create games for the console and content for mobile phones and personal computers." Hmm, is anyone else connecting the dots? Sure, the dots aren't clearly black against a white background, but if the public of Japan and America demand it, perhaps this "Cellius" will distribute KDO to the rest of the world. Anyone agree, disagree, want to roll up some suburban neighborhood into a giant ball of doom? ...

Sony Computer Entertainment has started production on the previously announced 65nm CELL processor. All PlayStation 3 units so far have a 90nm processor inside, but this will change soon. As it seems Sony has started the massproduction of the 65nm processor, and this will have a few advantages.

First of all, this will mean a price cut for Sony on every PlayStation 3 sold. This is because the 65nm CELL processor is cheaper than the 90nm processor.

And second, this means a heatreduction for the PlayStation 3.

Also this 'new' processor is not only for the PlayStation 3, it's will also be used for more Sony or Toshiba products.

Whether this new 65nm processor will be in all PlayStation 3 units at the European launch is unknown. We expect Sony to announce this in the coming months. Don't expect a price drop though, because Sony will still lose a lot of money with this 'new' processor.

Via psu ...

via ps3blog

I just got Need for Speed: Carbon for the PS3. I put in the disc, booted up the game, selected “Quick Race”, and started playing with my Driving Force Pro. What did I notice?

Force Feedback!

Both the jarring rumble when you crash and the more subtle pulls on the wheel when you start to lose traction with the road. This is with a plain US PS3 and a plain US copy of NFS: Carbon. No special tricks or settings are required for this at all. And this isn’t me quoting someone else, or reading into something. I felt this with my own two hands.

Remember, earlier this month, when waves of web sites reported that the PS3 was uncapable of doing force feedback, even with third party steering wheels? Apparently, testing this out wasn’t hard at all, and this rumor is completely, 100%, categorically untrue.

Of course, none of those sites posted updates or tried to correct this error. Even today, you can Google “ps3 steering wheel force feedback” (no quotes in actual query string) and get links like this, all claiming that this is impossible and even officially confirmed as such by Sony themselves. ...

SplitFish GameWare Inc., a leader in video game hardware innovation, today announced it has developed a new dynamic force feedback system for use with the Sony Playstation 3 and other next-generation video game systems. Basic PS2 and Xbox versions are being considered.

The new SplitFish dynamic force feedback system was designed to insure compliant operation with the new tilt, motion and directional sensor technologies currently found in the next generation game consoles. The potential interference on the Sony PS3 SIXAXIS Controller caused by rotating mass force feedback systems such as Immersion's Rotating Mass Patent, required us to approach the solution from a completely new direction. While the SplitFish EdgeFX uses a mechanical feedback system, this new technology produces a whole new aspect of force and tactile feedback.

This low power consumption force feedback technology called "Sensor Effects -- SensorFX" uses no moving parts to produce meaningful sensory feedback. A broad range of intensity and sensation compliment the ability to derive feedback sensations from isolated areas on the controller, to isolate one side or the other, movement from front to back or all areas at the same time. As an example, a gamer playing a race game can feel variations in pulse, strength and collision location and to feel intensity differences between a smooth guardrail swipe and a full frontal slam into a wall.

The SensorFX feedback system can be sold as an add-on to existing controllers or as an imbedded feature that is part of a standard controller. The SensorFX PS3 add-on version is simply connected to the USB plug on the PS3 controller, similar to SplitFish's MotionFX.

The patent pending SensorFX has two modes, one for games that have force feedback support already built in and the other mode that relies on motion tilt sensing and button use and other actions to trigger the SensorFX tactile feedback. SplitFish will work with video game publishers and next-generation hardware manufacturers in an effort to establish standards for this directional force feedback technology. ...