BLUE MAG

Via [H]ard|OCP (try saying that 5x fast)…

Sony launched its PS3 console in Europe and Australia with somewhat mixed results. Some lucky gamers got a free 42” Sony TVs to go along with their new PS3 and free cab rides to avoid being mugged.

In the basement of Virgin Megastore’s flagship London outlet, hardcore video game fans who waited in line for more than a day for the midnight launch were rewarded by Sony, which gifted each of the first 125 a new 42-inch Sony TV. Virgin Megastore said it had booked extra security and free taxis to whisk gamers home and avoid them falling prey to muggers.

During today’s session of the 2007 GDC (that’s Game Developer’s Conference, for those of you not in the know), Sony announced its implementation of a 3-D virtual world coming to the PS3.

“Home,” as it’s being called, takes the core elements of “Second Life” and integrates them into the second-rate Sony Online service. “Home” will allow PS3 owners to create their own virtual avatar and exist in a virtual world, where each user will get a virtual apartment, to virtually entertain other virtual friends while virtually denying you any life at all. Virtually.

Check out the video after the break. Continue reading PS3 finally goes ‘Home’

In Bungie’s weekly blog-update developers discuss the joys of anonymous online multiplayer and the painful aural experience that accompanies it. Potentially as important as the yet-to-be-revealed function of the X-button, Bungie addresses the implementation of the “A-Hole Button” in ways that make it virtually impossible for a game journalist to write a better story than what’s already been presented:

“Anyone who’s played MP on Xbox Live knows the following is true: Teenagers, plus anonymity, plus microphone = idiot. Xbox Live already gives you powerful tools to mute, well, tools on a case by case basis. The “A-Hole Button” in Halo 3 lets you exact instant, silent vengeance. These kind of vocal buttmunches, as it turns out, are exactly as fun to play against as normal people, as long as you can’t hear them. So now, you simply press a button (back button, for the moment anyway) and up comes the score list with everyone’s tag on it. The right stick lets you highlight the miscreant and you can then instantly mute them for the rest of the game. These morons continue smacktalking anyway because they can’t help themselves, but if you don’t have to listen to it, you can simply enjoy killing them over and over again, knowing that as their Ritalin wears off and their frustration builds, it’s less and less fun for them. Aaaah. So satisfying.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Halo 3’s beta multiplayer begins soon- pick up your copy of “Crackdown” to guarantee your spot.