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Whether you're into the whole social networking scene or not, chances are, you are into chat clients online. In fact, I'd say pretty much all of us use one. So the question becomes: Would you want an advanced version in your video game console?
Sony says yes. And, after finally getting my hands on their answer with Home, I can say that as an addition to the already free PlayStation Network, it's a welcome distraction to the constant chaos of the usual gaming world.
As I walked around and talked with the various European types already immersed in this virtual world, I found myself already just losing myself in the application itself. It's almost hypnotizing in the way it just feels like a soothing place to be.
Besides, doing the robot in front of an Irishman always means a good time in my book.
OVERVIEW
Available this Fall, Home is an online, 3D networked community for the PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system and the PLAYSTATION®Network. Home provides a highly interactive environment that aims to broaden the online community market in the same way that the PlayStation brand has broadened the gaming market. By accessing Home, PS3 users around the world will be able to interact, communicate, join online games, shop, share private content, and even build and show off their own personal spaces to others in real time. Available as a free download from the PLAYSTATION® Store, Home provides a unique blend of community, user-generated content, collaboration, and commerce that will serve as a pillar for PlayStation Network services and help drive the future of computer entertainment.
KEY FEATURES
The first application of its kind on a computer entertainment console, Home is a unique 3D service allowing PS3 users to control how they look, where they live, and how they interact with others. Socialize in public spaces with custom-created avatars and personalize your world by building custom apartments, game lobbies, trophy rooms, movie theaters, and other spaces that will become available as the Home universe expands. Specific features will include: Home Space – Design, decorate, and build a customized living space. Users will be able to purchase add-ons including landscapes and home interiors. World of Home – Purchase avatar accessories, pets, and other functional items to add personal value to the Home experience. Entertainment – Share photos, movies, and music from the PS3 with others in the Home universe. Gaming – Meet with others in game-specific lobbies to discuss games, obtain new content, or team up for online play. Lobbies – First and third party-created lobbies will be available for user interaction and resource sharing.
KEY FEATURES
Balances the creativity of user created content with the sophisticated control and moderation structure of the PlayStation Network to provide a safe and secure experience for all users. Full support from professional quality, licensed first and third party content providers. Able to support multiple languages including Japanese, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish with functionality to extend language support in the future.
i was iffy at first when it was announced and hesitant when the first shots of it came out. 2nd Life ain't got shit on this. it's like 2nd Life but actually entertaining -- all that from just watching the little trailer. i hate 2nd Life passionately but this just feels ... different. it appears to be a freer environment.
Completely agree. It maybe a nice extra but 'bleh' to it. I couldn;t care less what my machine does as extra. I just want to STFUAJPG. Games you hear me, GAMES!
Seem like I have to join the collective meh/bleh to Home. Dan Gale said it best, I just wanna play games! If I wanna chat with someone I'll use my computer or *gasp* cell phone. Consoles are for games, GAMES I SEZ!.
You guys can really hate all you want on the PS3 and Sony, but you aren't there at these events, seeing these NEW games and ideas in person, with explanations and everything. It's really hard to get across just how good some things are to people who are so ready to hate something without fully knowing what they are hating.
I see even my own writers here bashing things they've never even seen or touched in person. It's depressing to see this kind of biased reaction. You may say I'm biased against the Wii, but I'm out there, seeing what's coming out next for all the systems and my views merely reflect the landscape I am seeing with my own eyes and touching with my own hands.
Besides the really really hardcore haters here who just love to hate and do nothing else, I bet if I took one of you complaining about this PS3 stuff to this Gamers Day event, you'd change your tune real quick.
It was a Sony Gamers Day, what do you expect? If it were Nintendo, then it'd be all Nintendo stuff. The embargo lifted at 12:01 a.m. for everyone, and I wanted to make sure you all got the goods here. That is all.
With that said, there are a few more impressions coming that I just didn't get to last night.
Home seems pointless to me, why would I want to play a crappy version of the Sims just to see what trophies somebody else has? That is dumb, and everything else, pointless, I shouldn't have to do all that.
Oh and you can "download" new cloths and so fourth, I bet you ANYTHING that will cost you money.
yeah, well hating on the Wii seems pretty fashionable aroudn these parts too, to be fair. My defense would read the same way, Summa, in that playing it is rediculously fun. Though there seems to be lots of stories as to why it sucks in your eyes.
Am I the only one leery of standing around a public room and shouting, "Anyone wanna play Gran Turismo?".... Anyone wanna play LittleBigPlanet??? Anyone...?
It sort of smells like standing around a city in some MMO trying to get a party together... by far the worst part of MMOs.
Not that I think Home itself is a pointless waste of time or anything... seems cool.. but selecting my friends from a list for multiplayer games just seems easier.
-> uptonogood: The purpose of second life is customisation. Everything in the game is user created, that's pretty much the entire appeal. So unless you're a scripter or a pervert, there's nothing really there for you. Home has a different point. I'm not entirely sure what that point is, but it's certainly not the same.
-> Summa: I understand where you're coming from, but the overwhelming positivity(particularly to something like pain, which to me looks quite unexceptional) about everything posted so far is a little hard to have complete confidence in. What you have to understand is that we're not there, you are. The thrill of getting to play something before everyone else cannot be discounted, and while I don't mean to accuse you of intentional bias, I think you are trying to justify the ps3 being a good console to a (understandably) fairly negative crowd. I'm trying to look at these games from an unbiased viewpoint, but there's been nothing so far that I've been blown away by, and a few games I've thought just looked terrible. Ignore the constant haters. If you made a post saying how awesome cookies are, there'd be people saying how much cookies suck and how brownies rule. Most of us are sensible enough to like both brownies and cookies though, but not all individual snacks are of the same quality. Hrn, kind of hungry...
Here's the thing: No matter what you guys may see in video or screenshots, you really can't understand how good these things are unless you have the controller in your hand and are actually playing it.
I just wish I could bring maybe two or so of you constant PS3 bashers with me to things like this so you could fully see what the hell I'm talking about.
It's frustrating. I've seen so much PS3 stuff that is coming up, but because of the current situation now, it's easy for people to dismiss the console as an overpriced media machine with no games.
Sorry summa, defending the ps3 is a losing battle. But I am glad that you are at least doing it. There are too many "experts" giving criticizm before experiencing anything. The M$ fanboys are just way more into bashing other consoles then they are into gaming. I've been on here saying this shit all fucking year. That is why when you go onto user reviews on a site like IGN and get a lot of "this game is not as good as gears, it totally sucks" before the game even launches.
I am a self proclaimed ps fanboy, but I don't criticize on 360 news. I don't own a 360, so why would i go onto the Halo 3 beta review and bash it when I wouldn't be reading it in the first place.
@amalgamut00
"I shouldn't have to do all that."
You don't have to do anything. You will be able to access the "achievement" information outside of the home universe. Don't be such a tool
-> Summa: I would argue that you don't really know how good these things are until you get them to your own environment, and are free to spend a few hours with them without marketing people and booth babes. The gamer's day is a controlled environment for sony. You're only seeing exactly what they want you to see. That doesn't make your impressions invalid, but it also doesn't invalidate rational criticisms people have about their own, non-interactive, experiences of the games(irrational hate can safely be ignored).
I do hate the ps3, for a lot of reasons, but I still want it to have good games for when I inevitably do get one(a plague upon fumito ueda for working for sony). Not all criticisers are haters. Some us are just argumentative bastards.
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4:31 AM on 05.17.2007, 
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