Sony's PS3 "Home."

[Fathom Zero]

In efforts to connect players with one another, Sony's jumped on the online/interactive bandwagon with something that might give it the edge over Xbox Live. Home is a free download that is accessable from the PS3's XMB (what I call the cross menu bar, duh) and is reminiscent of Second Life and The Sims Online. You create an avatar using a multitude of combinations and run around in virtual environments. You can communicate via virtual keyboard on the PS3, through a USB keyboard, or with a bluetooth headset. When you meet people, you have options of doing things like playing pool, bowling, (which is all handled within Home), or jumping into a PS3 game online.

However, the coolest thing in my opinion is the virtual objects. You can create your own stylish pad with a variety of furniture, some of which you can buy at Playstation Store, and have stereos running and television sets on. What is broadcasting out of the radios and TVs is not generic muzak and garble, however, it's music and videos set on the PS3's hard drive. Like I said, very much like Second Life.

Also, in an attempt to shut out Xbox Live's achievement system, there will be a gigantic virual trophy room with video clips playing of when you achieved something on huge screens. There will be other locations, too, like malls (no doubt a virtual front-end to Playstation Store) and a movie theater where one can download movies.

Seriously, the pictures do not do the trophy room justice, you have to see it in motion in the trailer.

All in all, it looks pretty smooth and should be coming out soon. It also looks less furry-laden than Second Life, a big plus.

Meanwhile, here's some screens and a trailer to satiate your thirst.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=17559&type=mov&pl=game

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/9113/20070307153531kk8.jpg

A day in the park.

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/8151/20070307153643ue9.jpg

Body customization.

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/3918/20070307153712ut3.jpg

Clothing customization. What a tool, gay ass hair.

http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/951/20070307153752ep2.jpg

Shit happening, people talking. (Note Motor Storm playing on the screen in the background.)

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7122/20070307153842wz6.jpg

Some effeminate man's house.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/4033/20070307153902of8.jpg

I bet he lives with his mom. He won't get the girl that way, I'll tell you.

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/3374/20070307153922ys1.jpg

Home: Fully Backed by Pier 1 Imports

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/3971/20070307153946rt1.jpg

Wierd cubed chairs and modular furniture are in these days.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/2548/20070307154103ip2.jpg

The upcoming movie theater, sans the sticky, broken springed chairs and gum on the floor.

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1527/20070307154541qe8.jpg

And the best part of Home, the Achievement Area. Note the scrolling bar at around the top of the room. It moves. Also looks a lot like a lazer tag arena, don't it?

[Grislygus]

That shit'll get trolled by /b/.

[Microshock]

it actually is a good idea. seems like ppl wont be on it for it to work tho.

[Fathom Zero]

That shit'll get trolled by /b/.

Like they can afford a PS3.

it actually is a good idea. seems like ppl wont be on it for it to work tho.

I think as soon as the PS3 kicks into high gear, this'll too. Just waiting for that killer app to come along, though.
It'd be rather ironic if Home itself was the killer app, but I just don't see that happening.

[Dr. Boogie]

What do you mean? I'm positively wetting my pants at the thought of being able to drop $600 plus dollars on a new console, and then spend even more money buying fake furniture! Oh, the wait is too much!!!

[James]

sdfasfasdfsa

[Fathom Zero]

I don't think all furniture has to be bought. Just the "designer" shit.

Achievement points as payment does sound cool. Maybe it'll happen.

[GADZOOKS]

Really people, it's fucking virtual furniture.

You want to do that gay shit get Animal Crossing or the Sims.

or Coke Music

[Fathom Zero]

I wanted to forget about Coke Music and here you bring it up.

Bastard.

[Chojin]

What is it with all REALISTIC games these days having this baby shit green/brown filter over EVERYTHING?

COMPARE:

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7122/20070307153842wz6.jpg

TO:

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/images/070119.jpg

That aside, it does look nice otherwise and has the potential to be fun. If no-one plays it, though, I imagine it'll be the CREEPIEST THING EVER walking through those brown bloomed vacant hills.

[Chojin]

Some new info on Home: http://kotaku.com/gaming/ps3/details-from-the-playstation-home-faq-243120.php

So, uh, only 64 people in a 'lobby'. I'm going to assume that 'lobby' means 'game world', due to there being no in-home lobby for playing games (see later comments). Add that to a max of 50 people on your friends list, and the fact that your home ONLY EXISTS WHILE YOU'RE ONLINE AND PLAYING HOME, and you have an extreme disappointment.

Seriously, what the hell? At launch (late this year) it won't even let you play games directly from Home, though Sony helpfully suggests that you can MEET UP in home, then log out and reorganize in that game's lobby, play the game, then log out and back into home to talk about it. So, that's all there is to it - tell your friends on your computer to go meet you in home on the ps3, where you can then agree to go play games with another service. SIMPLE AND FUN.

Without the match networking and without the total userbase online simultaneously, WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT OF THIS? It's EXACTLY like CokeMusic, only THERE'S NOTHING TO DO AND AT LEAST YOUR APARTMENT DIDN'T VANISH FROM EXISTENCE IN COKEMUSIC WHEN YOU WEREN'T THERE ARARAJRHJRHJGHAGHGHGHGH

[Chojin]

Warhawk is looking pretty good though, I must say.

[Fathom Zero]

"Currently Home is not a persistent world, so when you leave Home, all of your possessions go with you. For instance, it is not currently possible for other users to visit your apartment while you're not there. We are working on the persistent aspect of Home, and expect to implement it in the long term."

Well, at least it's nice to know they're going to get it right sometime.

I find it hard to nit-pick at this, partly because of my love of Sony and partly because the whole kit-and-kaboodle is free.

Time will tell.

[Chojin]

Seriously, can you tell me what the point of this is? It doesn't integrate anything, it's just an optional middleman in an outdated and convoluted process.

It's like how in Quake you had to run down various hallways and navigate treacherous terrain in order to select your difficulty.

[Fathom Zero]

Just a place where people can network and stuff, I guess.

But THE ACHIEVEMENTS! THE ACHIEVEMENTS! mrmhrhrhrh

[Zomboid]

But THE ACHIEVEMENTS! THE ACHIEVEMENTS! mrmhrhrhrh
Are ripped off from 360.

[Chojin]

But there's the thing. The only people that can 'network' are people that have PREVIOUSLY AGREED AND CONSENTED TO SAID NETWORKING.

"Let's talk."
"Okay."
"No, not here. Over in that room."
"There's a lot of furniture in front of the door."
"It's okay, we're going to remove it later. Just climb over it."
"Okay, now that we're here, what did you want to talk about?"
"Dicks, mostly."

[Schimid]

That's funny, I remember doing the exact same thing in CokeMusic.

[DistantJ]

It seems like a pretty good idea, though don't people do the same thing with online RPGs anyway, but have a purpose in them?

Quite a good idea, though I'd never use it, even if I had the money or the incentive to get a PS3. I prefer to go out and actually do the socializing for real.

Looks like this is the final nail in the coffin for some people's social lives!

[Fathom Zero]

Are ripped off from 360.

So one can only acheive something when using an Xbox console and not any other.
I assume that Sony and Nintendo and Microsoft copied the Dreamcast because they all made consoles that could access the internet, as well.

The thing is that there isn't anything wrong with taking the logical step forward that someone else has already taken in terms of content and technology. Otherwise there would be monopolies everywhere.


And as far as it wasting social lives away, DistantJ, I'm holding my fingers crossed for the City of Heroes/Villians' Team developing the superhero MMORPG for the Xbox 360 and/or PS3. They gots financial backing from Marvel, which is odd considering Marvel tried to sue them because of the likenesses and whatnot.

[Fathom Zero]

Well here's an odd twist of events:

http://psp.ign.com/articles/771/771822p1.html

Sony intends to incorporate Home functions into the PSP.

Will it be full-fledged one day? The world may never know.

[Zomboid]

Yeah, cause that's the same thing as internet access. 360 was the only system so far to do that, and then the ps3 comes out later on and does the exact same thing. It's not something you can really patent, but it's still quite obviously a rip off. I'm surprised it took so long to come out with something like that.

[Supafly345]

360 kinda blends every single game into that though.

[GADZOOKS]

I remember back in the WINDOWS 3.1 ERA, Packard Bell released this GUI with their Windows 3.1 called the NAVIGATOR, and basically you had this very nice house with all icons and programs arranged in this house. YOU HAD THE GAMES ON A GAMES SHELF, your computer sat on a COMPUTER DESK. And you clicked on a globe for NETWORKING. And let's not forget e-mail, but after all the hubub of it all it just wasn't worth the trouble to have a virtual reality world and we decided to just stick with the normal windows interface.

Now I know this is an a lot more advanced and a lot more customizable then that, but I'm sure people will tire of this eventually.

[MrAdventure]

it's pretty weird with the vibe of forced positivity a lot of people seem to have towards this announcement, kinda like getting school supplies for christmas (oh look it's a slide-rule with santa in a mortarboard on it). it's not necessarily a bad thing (hey it's, uh, something), but it's almost a painful opposite of what people really want. give that damn console some exclusive games that people actually give a shit about, for starters. i mean, really, when something like little big planet (which is probably what home should have been) steals the show it's a bit disappointing compared to what you expect of a company with such resources

[the_dudefather]

agreed, littlebigplanet must be one of the greatest things coming to ps3 so far, this on the other hand, looks a bit crap.

LBP as now made me want to get a PS3 , and seeing as I can get one from the US with free shipping for over 200 USD less than its RRP here, the temptation to do so is rather high

[darkvare]

i prefer talking in games more than in stupid chats like that i can brag about something or bitch about it depending on the circumstances

[noob3]

omg a video game.. that i play video games. with? uh, beforE? i live in a video game world? where i play video games?

hey, fuck this shit, why don't i just go play the fucking game i paid for goddamn

fuck sony

[Chojin]

LIVE IN YOUR WORLD, LIVE IN OURS TOO. I GUESS.

[Fathom Zero]

So I'm in the beta, and while the NDA isn't so strict, I don't want Sony to come and break my hands. That said, it's a subject-to-change "meh." There's still a lot of announced functionality that they haven't implemented yet, but when they do, it'll probably be righteous. I'm interested in seeing how they incorperate trophies and appliances.

But then, I just downloaded it two hours ago, so I dunno.

[Guitar Woman]

http://www.secondlife.com/

[WhiteRat]

This is probably the only time i'll ever agree with GW on anything.

[Fathom Zero]

But the thing is that it's not a game. It's basically Sony's NXE.

Or will be, rather.

[pac-man]

It's a minigame.

[Chojin]

So your argument is that second life IS a game?

[Fathom Zero]

Yes, actually. That's why I said it. Then again, they're all social-networking interfaces. But Second Life never crossed my mind.

And man, I was dumber than I thought a year and a half ago.

[Nick]

My PS3 is lacking exclusive games that make me want to play it. I hate my PS3. :(

[Chojin]

Yeah I don't know why I was so worked up over something I still don't give a shit about.

Also if you think Second Life is a game, you've clearly never run Second Life.

[Sam]

IT'S NOT A GAME, IT'S REAL MOTHERFURFUCKING LIFE

[Fathom Zero]

What the fuck ever. Home or Second Life, it's all stoopid.

I'm off to watch the Jerky Boys and play UT3.