Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. (SCEA) announced today the North American release of the highly anticipated title Warhawk™, available exclusively for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™). In Warhawk, players experience fast and dynamic multi-modal warfare, featuring white-knuckle aerial combat, armored vehicle assaults and frantic infantry combat in a massive war fought both in the skies and on the ground. In a first for the game industry, Warhawk is available to consumers both in retail stores on Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) and as a downloadable title via PLAYSTATION®Network.

An eagerly-awaited remake to the original PlayStation® hit of the same name, Warhawk was developed by Incognito Entertainment Inc., the acclaimed studio behind the Twisted Metal® franchise and cult-favorite War of the Monsters™. Warhawk is a multi-player only title, supporting up to 32 players battling at once for both online and offline play. Furthermore, Warhawk’s QuickSplit technology allows up to four players to battle simultaneously on a single PS3 – either online or offline - with the press of a button. Featuring various multiplayer gameplay modes such as Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and a new Zone Mode designed specifically for Warhawk, players can engage in strategic team play or fend for themselves against a barrage of enemies from around the globe. Offering a full online feature set, players can also join teams or maintain clans within the Warhawk online community. Full stats, rankings, leaderboards, badges and other awards are supported and reward players for success on the battlefield. Players can also stay organized online with user-friendly communication tools.

“Warhawk’s furious action-combat gameplay and brilliantly detailed landscapes demonstrate PS3’s many capabilities,” said Jeff Reese, Director, Software Marketing, SCEA. “Players will move seamlessly from the fierce aerial dogfights to the heated armed assaults and vehicular attacks on the ground. Warhawk is an exhilarating addition to the PS3 line-up this fall.”

Warhawk takes advantage of PS3’s immense processing power in a variety of unique ways. For example, the Cell Broadband Engine™ - the digital heart of PS3 - provides the player an enhanced visual scope by rendering long viewing distances when in flight mode, resulting in a level of feature density unmatched in the genre. Furthermore, unlike the traditional server model, Warhawk allows players to use PS3s in their homes as global servers to host online games. This helps ensure that along with the SCEA servers, players can access consumer-hosted, community servers that are available to players around the world.

Adding to the thrill of piloting the most advanced fighter in the fleet, players can opt to use the SIXAXIS™ wireless controller’s motion sensing technology to directly control their warhawk in flight, or “steer” their moving vehicle on land using the roll, pitch and yaw motion controls.

Warhawk is available for download directly from PLAYSTATION®Network for $39.99, and on BD through select retailers for $59.99. The retail version of Warhawk includes a Jabra Bluetooth® headset that comes in an exclusive piano black color and emphasizes the fun and strategic element of communication during gameplay. The BD version also includes bonus video content.

The independent Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rates Warhawk “T” for “Teen”. For more information about the ESRB, visit www.esrb.org.

Via Press Release: http://www.us.playstation.com/News/PressReleases/415

As a PS3 owner I find many people asking me, “Why should I buy a PS3?” They talk about price, they talk about media formats, talk about exclusive games. Well that whole exclusive games things is about to go right out the window! After playing the DEMO of Heavenly Sword I was absolutely blown away. It is almost impossible to tell where the cut scenes end and where the game begins. The game controls are super cool and the fighting sequences are truly amazing! Honestly as a PS3 and Xbox 360 owner I feel very comfortable is saying that there is nothing that looks or plays like this on the Xbox 360 and certainly nothing on the Nintendo Wii.

Two things about the game that I am a little disappointed with are, first no multi player. Second a little bit of a disturbing trend in video games is this button sequence pressing during cut scenes. But this is not limited to just Heavenly Sword, I have seen this on many new games. With this being the next generation in gaming I was really hoping this would be replaced with real live action play, instead of this rhythm button pressing while watching a cut scene.

Watch for this game in September 2007, and by all means try out the demo!

The guys over at Pixel Perfect put together a list of all the things that suck about each of the consoles. It is a fairly common list of complaints that you will see on any blog, forum, or website. But it is interesting to read through their thoughts.

The one thing on the list I do not agree with is the comment about non standard PS3 headset support. I like the idea of having a simple Blue Tooth headset. It is easy to work with and it allows the user some flexibility.Via Pixel Perfect

Via Pixel Perfect

Joytiq is reporting that EA plans to shut down 42 servers as of September 1st, 2007, and another 7 as of November 1st, 2007. As a gamer who has not completed all of Madden 2006 yet this is a little disturbing. Not to mention that this is clearly EA’s way of pushing gamers into purchasing the latest sports game expansion pack …… excuse me I mean latest versions of all their roster changes for sports games …. Whoops slip of the tongue I mean latest full version their sports games line up and other games that have newer versions out.

Microsoft seems to be able to keep the servers up for the Xbox version 1? And it has always been a Mystery to me why exactly EA needs to maintain servers aside from the Xbox LIVE servers? It always seemed like a great way to obtain email address to send advertisements (Cough, SPAM, Cough) about their new products not to mention data mine the other information they force you to enter. Aside from Square Enix, it seems that EA is the only other company that needs to maintain redundant servers to allow online game play. Since Square Enix does this to charge extra and allow cross platform play it leaves one to wonder what EA has up their sleeve in the future, and I doubt it is cross platform game play.

I am sure there are a pages of statistics and an army of bean counters over at EA that can tell you that hardly anyone is using those servers, and that it costs truck loads of money to keep them running. But here is the deal, if we as gamers can only use these sports games for a year or two maybe we should not have to clean out our wallets to buy your game. Maybe games that require EA servers to be maintained should only cost $30.00 or $40.00 to buy. I also think that EA should be much more forth coming about the fact that you will only be able to play these games for two years or probably less in the future. I would bet that within a few years they will shut off their servers the day that the next versions are released. I honestly hope that Microsoft and Sony step in and do something about this, because I think it is really a black eye to both platforms that EA can swindle money from customers using their respect platforms. I would encourage anyone who has purchased games that are affected to send emails to EA, Microsoft, and Sony about your feelings on this matter. I hope this makes everyone think twice about buying EA games and additional EA content. Lets all hope that 2K Sports can step up to the plate and give us all a true online gaming experience.

Check out what the guys at Penny Arcade think about EA, I definitely agree! Click here!

Here is the schedule for the mass unplugging

September 1, 2007 Online Service Shutdown
Arena Football for PlayStation 2
Arena Football for Xbox
FIFA Soccer 06 for Xbox 360
FIFA Soccer 06 for PC
FIFA06 for PC
FIFA Soccer 06 for PlayStation 2
FIFA Soccer 06 for PlayStation Portable
FIFA Soccer 06 for Xbox
FIFA World Cup 2006 for PC
FIFA World Cup 2006 for PlayStation 2
FIFA World Cup 2006 for PlayStation Portable
FIFA World Cup 2006 for Xbox
Fight Night Round 3 for PlayStation Portable
Fight Night Round 3 for Xbox
Madden NFL 06 for Xbox 360
Madden NFL 06 for PC
Madden NFL 06 for PlayStation 2
Madden NFL 06 for PlayStation Portable
Madden NFL 06 for Xbox
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects for PlayStation 2
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects for Xbox
MVP 07 NCAA Baseball for PlayStation 2
MVP 07 NCAA Baseball for Xbox
NASCAR 06 Total Team Control for PlayStation 2
NASCAR 06 Total Team Control for Xbox
NBA Live 06 for Xbox 360
NBA Live 06 for PC
NBA Live 06 for PlayStation 2
NBA Live 06 for PlayStation Portable
NCAA Football 2005 for Xbox
NCAA Football 2006 for PlayStation 2
NCAA Football 2006 for Xbox
NCAA March Madness 06 for PlayStation 2
NCAA March Madness 06 for Xbox
NFL Head Coach for PC
NFL Head Coach for Xbox
NFL Head Coach for PlayStation 2
NHL 06 for PC
NHL 06 for PlayStation 2
NHL 06 for Xbox
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 for Xbox 360
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 for Xbox

November 1, 2007 Online Service Shutdown
Burnout Revenge for Xbox
Burnout Revenge for PlayStation 2
Need for Speed Underground for PlayStation 2
Need for Speed Underground 2 for PC
Need for Speed Underground 2 for PlayStation 2
Need for Speed Most Wanted for PlayStation Portable
Need for Speed Most Wanted for Xbox

Via Joystiq

I had another chance today to spend some time with my new PS3. Yesterday, after setting up all of the connections, I downloaded a few game demos and trailers and went to bed. I turned on the unit and immediately decided to download the ‘Folding @ Home” program, so I spend my first 15 minutes downloading and installing the software.

As I stated before, I have been a fan of PlayStation ever since the PSone so naturally I have a couple memory cards with saved games for my PS2 and PSone. Earlier that day I picked up a PS3 memory card adaptor. ($14.99 USD) The unit is simply a small box that connects to the PS3 via a USB cable and allows you to download content from a PSone or PS2 memory card, to the PS3’s hard drive. The process is simple as long as you follow the instructions.

Once you plug in the adaptor and plug in a memory card in the slot, the card and its contents will appear on the cross media bar. You must select the card and chose the option to copy. You will then be prompted for a name to save the data as. I simply named my ‘PS2 data’ and clicked ok. Once the data was copied to the hard drive, you must select the file on your hard drive and indicate which slot on the PSone/PS2 your memory card was in. Do this by selecting the folder on your hard drive that contains the files and follow the onscreen prompts to select which card slot. It’s as easy as that, the only problem is not I have a memory card adaptor that I don’t need anymore.

Now that I had completed all of the setup and have content on the hard drive to play with, I was ready to begin playing games. Instead of pulling a PS3 game off my shelf however, I decided to attack some of the downloaded content I had on the hard drive. I picked up my controller and was ready to play.

Being that I have played predominantly 360 games for the past five months, the first thing I noticed with the PS3 was the extreme lightness to the controller. While the controller felt familiar in my hands, I am having a difficult time getting used to the lightness of it. Also, I realize that by now individuals from all over the world have expressed there disappointment on the lack of rumble; however I have to join in. I am a believer that rumble adds to an individuals immersion into the play of the game. Sony needs to add this back into their controllers. If Sony got with the program and added rumble to the controller, it would likely add weight to the controller and I would be a happy camper.

The first thing I did was to fire up a couple of video trailers I had downloaded the night before. Immediately, even with a SD television, the potential of this graphical powerhouse was immediately apparent. The rendering of the video as well as the audio was incredible. After viewing the first video, I had to try a game, so I grabbed the first one on my stack, Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Once I got into the game, I was not disappointed. The graphics and visuals were everything I would expect from a next generation console.

Complaints? Well there are a few quirks that the PS3 has that I am not incredibly fond of. The first, as I stated previously, is the weight of the controller and the lack of rumble. I am confidant that Sony has realized the error of their decision to not include rumble, and they will release a new model this fall. And since the controller will have motors for the rumble, naturally the controller will be heavier. The other complaint I have is the opening screen on the games and demos I had played. Each one has a text screen at the beginning that requires you to accept their terms and conditions. Shouldn’t this be part of purchasing a game and/or downloading it? Personally I don’t want to see this when I want to play a game. Finally, I understand that the PlayStation Store and the PlayStation Network are a little behind when compared to Microsoft’s Xbox Live, however Sony needs to make this area of user interaction a focus in the future, if they want to stay competitive. One good example of an area Sony could improve is with their downloads. Why is it necessary to download a game or a demo and then once it is downloaded, install it to the system? The Installation process should be a part of the download.

Again, my gaming adventures took me late into the night, and the length of time I had to play was limited. I look forward to writing more about the games I have played in the near future. Stay tuned to www.liveforplaystation.com and www.whatweareplaying.com for more updates. I have great deal of confidence in Sony and their ability to become a major contender with their PS3. Sony has had a late start, yet their future is bright. Mark my words, if Sony plays their card right and listens to the feedback the public is providing, Sony will enjoy the same success with this powerhouse console as they did with the PS2.

Those guys over at Engadget seem to have the inside scoop on everyone in the tech and gaming world. From the people that leaked the first photos of the XBox Elite now comes rumors that developers already have prototypes of SIXAXIS controllers with the rumble feature included. They further perpetuate rumors that we the regular joe consumer will see these shaking controllers on store shelves in two to three months.

Check out the full article over at Engadget. And hey you guys at Sony feel free to shout from the roof when you have rumble packaged inside that sexy black controller, so that I can go out and buy three more of these controllers.

Via Engadget

Ryan Hamlyn is reporting on the Official Sony Blog is reporting that Lair is going to through a more detailed quality testing. It seems some over sights were made and a little more work is going to be needed to work with offline portion of the game as well as leaderboards and medal systems. Lair was suppose to hit shelves on August 14th, but is now being pushed back to September 14th.

Honestly I am happy to see companies trying to produce a quality product, and I would much rather wait a couple of weeks to make sure I do not have in game problems.

Via Sony Blog

Kaz Harai the new captain of the Playstation ship is out promoting the Playstation 3.  Many consumers and gaming enthusisansts are saying that one of the major reasons for not purchasing the PS3 is fact there are not allot of games, and there is a sever shortage of exculsive gaming titles for the console.  Hirai stated that there is a major effort to bring new content to the PS3 platform, to the tune of 380 new offerings.  Kaz is talking about having 180 PSN titles, and 200 retail games available to consumers by March of 2008.  While this sounds like an almost impossible feat, we will have to sit back and wait to see if Sony can make good on Kaz’s promises.

While churning out hundreds of crappy movie based games and cookie cutter RPG’s may not be exactly difficult, I would actually be more excited to seem the produce a smaller amount of high quality games like Resistance: Fall of Man, MotorStorm, Heavenly Sword. I would actually be more excited if Sony were to concentrate on producting 20 to 50 unquie new games that were very high quality, instead of the possiblity of hundreds of average games with only a few spectacular games.

If Sony wants to sell more consoles I agree that getting more great games out there is key, but getting rumble incorprated back into the Playstation platform, and maybe a little price drop would also huge factors in getting those sales numbers up. PSSST, Sony look what happened when you dropped the price of the PSP? The price goes down the sales go up!

Via Play.tm

At first when I read this article I thought this was going to be a game about the current American President. But it turns out it is about the an animal kingdom political race. So basically it will help you to see if you have what it takes to be the King of the Jungle.

”No one has attempted to bring an over-the-top party game like Hail to the Chimp to next-gen consoles, much less one with biting political satire,” said Rick Stults, Console Chief for Gamecock Media Group. ”Keeping with its reputation, Wideload is going to give gamers something truly original.”

Hail to the Chimp begins after the Lion is deposed as King following a series of embarrassing scandals. The rest of the animals decide it’s time to give democracy a try and hold an election for the next King giving even the lowliest of animals (the Clams) a say in things. The election quickly becomes a chaotic multiplayer free-for-all, with each candidate using a combination of brute force and dirty tricks to turn out the Clam vote. Ten animals will compete to become the next King. During the game, all ten candidates will need to form, and break, alliances with their rivals to gain the upper hand. Multiple game types and hazard-filled arenas keep the action flowing nonstop as the shifting loyalties, truces and vendettas build up to epic proportions.

Look for this Spring of 2008, this promises to be a much more interesting political race then the United States Presidential Election.

Via Press Release

So when was the last time you saw a game released on every gaming console, every hand held, even the PC and MAC that was not some cheap crappy movie based game?  Well best selling author Darren Reid is about to release a point and click fantasy adventure with MMO and RPG community elements to every next generation console, handhelds, PCs and Macs.  Darren with NextGenBooks.com today announced that they are brining an all new point and click fantasy adventure to PCs and consoles. Darren Reid’s The Half Broken Crown: The Broken Kingdoms is an all new game based upon the best selling author’s upcoming novel The Half Broken Crown. The game is a point and click style adventure which incorporates MMO elements which allow all online players to communicate and solve puzzles through collaboration and cooperation.

 “Of all my upcoming projects this is perhaps the one I am most excited about,” admitted Reid, “It is a unique opportunity for me to expand upon the [upcoming] book and to tell new stories.”

Look for The Broken Kingdoms this June and will be free to play with optional micro-transactions available to enhance the player’s experience. The main game will feature over 100 unique screens.  Additional in-game purchases will open up episodic content that add hours of game play will become available over the course of the year.  Each episode prices ranging from $2.50-$5.00, depending upon the depth of the content being purchased.

The game will be launched exclusively on www.NextGenBooks.com and be playable through internet web browsers with specific and individual versions designed for Wii, DS, PS3, PSP, PC and Mac. All console and computer versions of the game will be fully featured however the DS and PSP users will have to wait for multiplayer support.

If you want to learn more about the game pick one of the following ways check Darren’s MySpace Page, or Next Gen Books Website.
www.myspace.com/darrenreidcell
www.NextGenBooks.com

For more information about Darren Reid’s books The Half Broken Crown: The Broken Kingdoms visit www.DarrenReid.co.uk.