PS3 News

Starhawk Beta Starts Nov 22nd

Anyone who owns a copy of Warhawk and opted in to the sequel’s upcoming beta might get a chance to check it out next week.  

The closed beta for Starhawk begins on Tuesday ,November 22^nd.   To get access, you’ll need to have signed up for PlayStation’s emails (done via your PSN account) and naturally be one of several people who spent some time with the previous game.  Being a closed beta, not everyone gains access, as Sony is randomly selecting people and sending out emails with codes. SCEA Senior Producer Harvard Bonin also informed fans via the PlayStation blog that the closed beta will be rolled out in stages, gradually allowing more people access.  So, don’t worry if you don’t get a code next week, as the beta has no set end date at the moment.

People who also happen to have got themselves an early copy of Uncharted 3 can look forward to getting into the beta in January next year.  While I never played Warhawk myself, I’m very interested in the sequel, as it’s certainly looking like a fun time, what with all the cool looking sci-fi vehicles and utter madness that only comes from large scale multiplayer action titles.

New Dead Island DLC to Launch on November 22nd

Deep Silver (the creators of the surprise hit Dead Island), just announced that the new DLC for Dead Island will be titled “Bloodbath Arena” and will be released on November 22^nd.  It sounds like the DLC will add a hoard-type mode, with the addition of four new arenas and a new weapon.  News that Dead Island is doing this shouldn’t be much of a surprise, as many of the holiday games that are coming out or have already been released in the past weeks have had a similar type of mode (Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3, Modern Warfare 3, etc.), and with Dead Island’s success, it seems natural that they would follow suit. 

The DLC will be released at the lower DLC price of $9.99, but the question that I want to ask is not whether people are still playing Dead Island or not (because the replayability is there), but whether or not this is something that players would want to purchase?  At least in recent memory, Gears of War 2 (an exceptional game) brought the idea of Horde mode to prominence, and with all of the other triple-A titles releasing equivalent wave based modes, is 10 dollars the right price to charge for this mode?

Infamous: Festival of Blood Makes PSN History

Infamous: Festival of Blood is a stand-alone PSN game that utilizes the Infamous 2 engine.  Festival of Blood
is an alternate chapter in the Infamous series where Cole McGrath
becomes a vampire.  The game takes place in New Marais, the same venue
for Infamous 2.

Need for Speed: The Run Exclusive Supercars Revealed

November has been a crazy month with the games that have already launched, and we’re not out of the woods yet.  Need for Speed: The Run, the latest installment in the Need for Speed series is just a few days away and thanks to the PlayStation blog, we now know the seven, yes that’s seven, PS3 bonus supercars.

Saints Row the Third Also Has a DLC Season Pass

Just like Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3 and many other current and future games, Saints Row the Third is getting a DLC season pass.

Buying the pass for $19.99 US will get you all three of the first few DLC mission packs and the Nyte Blayde vampire hunter content, which includes some vehicles and costumes, all of which look like they belong in some kind of awesome (and stupid) 90s comic book. In total, you’ll be saving 15% on each piece of DLC which is already pretty cheap. While the DLC mission packs haven’t been detailed, they’ve all been named and you can probably guess what kind of insanity will ensue with each of them.

The PlayStation Card

I knew it was only a matter of time until we had a gaming-centric credit card.

Sony has just debuted the PlayStation Card.  While it appears to be a standard Visa, it comes with specific bonuses for those who use it on Sony’s online services.  Ginger Kraus, SCEA’s Sr. Director of Promotions detailed what people can look forward to via the PlayStation blog:

Modern Warfare 3 causing Mass Hysteria Amongst Bootleggers

Over the weekend, a few men in France crashed their car into a truck that was carrying video game-related cargo (which was later figured out to be Infinity Ward’s latest title, Modern Warfare 3), and upon breaking into the truck, attacked the driver and passenger with tear gas.  In similar fashion, another heist was conducted, in which a car was used to block the road which a truck was traveling, allowing the assailants to steal the truck with the games in it.

The second attack was not monetized, but the number of copies stolen from the first heist cost somewhere around €400,000, and the physical number of copies stolen was in the range of 6,000.  While this may seem like a fairly large-scale crime, bootlegged copies of Modern Warfare 3 are being leaked all over the place.  With such a wide-scale release, the number of copies produced is massive, so if some low level worker at Wal-Mart decides to go into the back and cut into the palette, he or she could sell the copies of the game for massive profit (in fact, the most expensive copy of the game on eBay reached 1,700 dollars).  If you’re one who can wait though, MW3 comes out later tonight at a much more reasonable price.

New Bioware Game, Alan Wake Sequel and MGS Rising to Be Shown at VGA’

It has been confirmed that at the upcoming VGA’s, Bioware, makers of Dragon Age and Mass Effect, will be showing off their next big game for the first time that surprisingly is an entirely new IP.  It could very well be their first big title to release on the next wave of consoles, which would be very cool to see. Though I can only assume it will be a pre-rendered teaser of some kind.

We will also be seeing Alan Wake’s sequel in some form. And the third big game to be confirmed is none other than Metal Gear Rising, which Konami has been silent about since E3 2010, so this could finally be some proper gameplay and perhaps even a solid date announcement.  Many speculated it might have been cancelled due to being quiet for so long, so it’s awesome to know this isn’t the case.  I can’t wait to slice some watermelons.

PSN Policies are a Changin’

Changes are coming to the PlayStation Network and they are set to ruin your life… if you’re a pirate.  As of November 18th, downloaded game content will only be accessible to two activated systems for PlayStation Network users.  However, this does not affect any games purchased before the 18th.  In case you didn’t know, PlayStation Network has always allowed you access to your purchased digital game content on up to five systems. 

This policy change affects both PS3 and PSP digital content.  The good news is, Sony is adding some convenience along with the changes.  Sony plans on providing a dedicated website for PSN users to activate or deactivate systems tied to their PSN account via the PC.  This is great news, as previously, deactivating a system required a call into the Sony PlayStation customer service group.  If you’d like to know more about deactivating/activating a system, you can go here.  Thank you to the PlayStation blog for providing the details for this story.

Heavy Rain: Director’s Cut coming November 8th

PS3 exclusive Heavy Rain is getting a director’s cut re-release on November 8th. People who’ve yet to check out the highly successful murder mystery thriller can look forward to a bunch of nifty extras if they decide to pick it up next week including:

• Heavy Rain Chronicles – The Taxidermist DLC
• The complete game soundtrack
• 8 making-of bonus videos
• Three dynamic themes for their PS3
• Some concept art and trailers
• Updated user interface and menus that now fully support PlayStation Move