Many of us monkeys are new(er) to Guitar Hero. It started with one or two of us picking it up, and the game was so amazing that it prompted me to finally get a PS2 (which I had put off till it was only $129. Go me!) and now it is prompting nearly everyone we know to get one. Did I mention the Hero-ecue scheduled for this weekend, (thing Burgers and Big Hair Bands) as well as the many hours of drinking and playing we’ve already spent? Oh.. and we’re all also well into guitar p1mp1ng.

This news could not make us happier. And not least because Red Octane is a local development house!

Go Red Octane!

Guitar Hero publisher RedOctane tells Next-Gen.Biz that non-guitar “Hero” games are “very, very likely,” and online will play a “huge” role in the company’s future software; also, higher-end guitar controllers possible.

Next Generation - Non-Guitar ‘Hero’ Games ‘Very Likely’

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This Slashdot story seems to indicate there is a problem with the PS3’s Cell processor!

They remain skeptical, but there are reports that the memory read speed for the Cell processor is very very slow. If these turn out to be true this could be a major blow to Sony and the PS3.

Back in November we posted a story that Sony filed for a patent that would burn a code into PS 3 disks coupling them from to only that console. Smartly enough, we named the article “Sony Files a Patent to End Used Games“. Damn, that’s to the point. But at that time everything was purely speculation - we all know that corporations patent every idea under the sun, even if they don’t intend on using it, and there wasn’t anything that matched this crazy patent to the PS3.

But now we’re seeing some ripple effects that link this crappy patent to the PS3. From Games Radar:

High street games shops have been told by Sony that there will be no PS3 pre-owned sections in their stores as it will be illegal for customers to sell any next-gen PlayStation games that they’ve bought, retail sources have revealed to GamesRadar.

Why would Sony do such a thing? Because Sony Entertinament makes zero dollars on used games sales, and they see that as a huge hole of lost profits.

This patent also means that you won’t be able to rent games (unless they make a specific format for rental companies), and you won’t be able to bring a game to a friend’s house for gaming-night. Well you can if you lug your PS3 with you - which is rumored to be 11 pounds.

Yikes.

Today on /. there is some scary news related to the PS3’s future.
It appears that Sony has yet to send out the final Dev kits talked about at E3 this year. What this could mean for the PS3 when it is launched in November, is there may not be a lot of titles to choose from.
From what was seen last week the only games Sony may be able to launch with are MGS4, Resistance: Fall of Man (by Insomniac) and Gran Turismo. There most likely will be a few other 3rd party games at launch.

“A lot of developers have not gotten the kits,’ said Sega of America president Simon Jeffrey while attending E3 last week. ‘There certainly will not be a lot of titles available.’ The result is that publishers that do want to take part in the PS3 launch will have to release games that don’t fully take advantage of the power of the Cell processor, added Jeffrey.”

This post also goes into the most costly of consoles over the years ” inflation-adjusted” . The PS3 by no means “win’s” that title is still goes to the NEO . GEO.

Rockstar officially announced GTA4 today.
The game will come out on October 16th 2007 in the US, and be out first on the 360.
Once GTA4 proper is released, Rockstar is planning on create episodic content that will be available on the Xbox Marketplace.

Gamebrink has some screen shots posted today for the new PSP Metal Gear Solid game. So far its looking good.

This morning on Kotaku they posted a scan from the Sony press release last night. It in fact appears that the scaled down (500.00) console will have users missing out on a lot of functionality when compared to its “full featured” brother.
The 500.00 console will be missing HDMI Support, Media Card reading, and Wireless functionality.
I am not exactly sure what Sony is thinking at the moment, but it appears that this will be one of the most “interesting” console launches to date.

Wow…the Sony press conference is finally over.
This afternoon (PST) Sony was the first out of the gate with their press conference outlining the companies highlights for E3.
Here are the high points:

The Playstation 3 will ship this November as part of a world wide launch. The Playstation 3 will support full backwards compatibility with PS1 and PS2 Titles. The consoles specs remained the same for the most part; Cell processor, Blue-ray media and gigabyte Ethernet. Big missing piece of the Puzzle NO PRICE (to be fair not even Sony knows what the PS3 will cost yet, as they are still pricing out components) .
Sony also went into details about the online features for the Playstation 3. The online network for the PS3 (think Xbox live…no really think xbox live) will use, appears to have two levels of service. The first level will be a free (lets call it) “Silver” membership for users, followed buy what appears to be a “Gold” level user may have to pay for.
The Sony online service will also make use of a type of “marketplace” where users can download content for games, including levels and other extras. The PS3 will also have connectivity to an online music service (think iTunes) where users can download music and HD-Videos to the internal 60gig HDD.
Users will need to buy Sony “content” cards that appear to come in denominations of 25, 50 and 100.
I will say this while the presenters showed all the “features” on Sony online I have to admit I Dig the UI.
Now lets talk about the games, (well the few that were playable at least). Sony lead the charge into the Next Generation Console wars with a Re-skinned demo of Gran Turismo 4…It was mildly impressive that Gran Turismo HD was running at 1920 x 1080p and the fram rate remained smooth. From there the cracks started to appear, the demo was a pre-rendered replay of someone running through various courses seen in GT4. There were lots of elements missing from this demo like dirt particles on off-road tracks, and there were massive draw in issues.
The next game was kind of cool, one of the Sony developers showed off a camera that was over a 3 x 3 grid. On this grid he placed “Magic” cards that the camera recognized. Each card that was layed out then spawned a monster, and attacked the other cards! its was really cool.
Other game demos were shown, and Heavenly Sword looked cool.
A few of the games shown at the press conference will be “playable” at the Sony booth
On the PSP front in relation to the PS3 to quote Kaz ” We are aggressively seeing ways to incorporate the PSP into the P3″ rough translation they don’t have any major integration ideas yet.
The big announcement with the PSP was that you soon will be able to play PS1 games in emulation on the PSP!
All in all the Sony press conference was a letdown. Mainly because of the lack of real time game play, and those games that they showed were not all that impressive. Crowd reaction during the entire presentation ranged form mildly excited to luke warm at best. If it was Sony intent to show the gaming world they are ready to take on MSFT and Nintendo then they fell short. Sony press conference seemed dis-jointed. The hope is that there are major announcements during E3 proper.

**Update**
According to Gamespot the PS3 will come in two configurations:
“The PlayStation 3 will come in two configurations, one will have a 20GB hard drive and the other will have a 60GB hard drive. However, losing 40GB isn’t the only downgrade with the 20GB version. The 20GB version, priced at $499, will not have Memory Stick, SD, or Compact Flash inputs, Wi-Fi capabilities, or any HDMI output.”

The “downgraded” version is 499.00, and the 60gig version will cost 599.00.

According to Hideo Kojima’s latest radio blog, there will be a new Metal Gear Solid sequel coming to the PSP in 2007.
Details are slim at the moment, but it appears that you will play as Big Boss during the 1970’s. The game is to be set after the events in MGS3: Snake Eater, and will be a full blown MGS game (not a Metal Gear Ac!d card game).
Some small details on game play show that Big Boss will control a small squads of troops, and once they die they are gone!

Well its official Virtua Fighter 5 has been announced as a PS3 exclusive. VF5 is scheduled to come out in the spring of 2007.
Two new char’s will be added to the roster this time around El Blaze the Lucha Libre specialist, and Eileen, the monkey-style kung-fu master (go go monkey-style).
One big scary rumor at the moment is that Sega is not planning on adding online play to VF5!
Virtua Fighter 5 for the PS3 will also include a lot of the customization found on the Arcade Machines in Japan. This will allow players to customise clothing and accessories, all the way to customizable fighter introductions and background animations.
No PS3 demo of VF5 is planned for the show floor (BIG SURPRISE) but Sony/Sega will be showing footage on the show floor.