PlayStation Vita is Region Free


PlayStation Vita, the upcoming handheld by Sony has been announced as region free. The president of Sony Computer Entertainment, Shuhei Yoshida replied to a tweet on Twitter asking him if the PlayStation Vita is region free with “Yes”.

This means that the handheld is able to play games from any county, so games can easily be imported or bought on holiday without having to worry.

The console will be released in Japan on December 17th. It’s now possible to buy the console early and buy games from your country.

2011
09/17
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Gaming
Playstation
PlayStation Vita
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3DS Second Analog Stick Confirmed


In a previous article I wrote about a rumour for a second analog stick for the Nintendo 3DS.
The device has now been revealed in Famitsu, a Japanese gaming magazine.
The console sits inside the peripheral, rather like the charging cradle and features an analog stick that appears to be slightly smaller than the original one.
The right shoulder button will be covered up, so a new one is on the device. There is also an R2 button, but a L2 button has not been added.
3DS is now capable of playing FPS games and in fact, a lot more games from other consoles.
Monster Hunter will be coming to 3DS soon and will make use of the second analog stick.
It is not clear wether the extra analog stick will work with existing titles or not, but the feature could be added in future updates.
There probably won’t be a new 3DS console.

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2011
09/10
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3DS
Gaming
Nintendo
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PlayStation Home to become “the ultimate social game platform on consoles”


PlayStation Home, Sony’s social world available exclusively on PS3 was originally created to connect gamers, let them chat and play multiplayer games together. Users are able to go shopping for clothes and furniture to show off to others.

None of this really happened, however. Many people got put off by the extremely slow loading times and the amount of times everything needed loading. Currently, you’ll see a very empty PlayStation Home with hardly any real people. A lot of the people you’ll see are fakes.

The new PlayStation Home promises that the problems will be fixed and make playing games easier. You go to a designated area to play a certain game, and providing the disc is in the PS3 or it is installed on the system, the game will start, most likely in multiplayer, with the people that you met in PlayStation Home.

The Hub links to these areas or districts. It will now feature an ‘Activity Board’ that has lots of games to play. It will also let you go on quests to earn rewards and view community events and user-generated content. Sony says that this will transform Home into a game.

The districts, mentioned earlier, are all designed differently to look like a particular genre of game so that players can go to the district that suits their mood. Each district features plenty of games with navigation points to send you to the stuff that you are in the mood for.

The Action District looks a lot like inFamous crossed with a first-person shooter level and caters for the needs of gamers feeling like a bit of action, horror and shooter games.

Sportswalk will feature recent sports scores and highlights of games, with sports games available to play. It is meant to feel like you are outside a stadium.

A jungle-themed world, called the Adventure District, will feature adventure games.

Pier Park features carnival, outdoor, arcade and puzzle games and has a boardwalk, Ferris wheel and party zone dedicated to indie and arcade games.

Sony are going to make sure that Home is faster and getting into games is faster so that they can deliver “the ultimate social game platform on consoles”.
This update will be out in autumn this year.

2011
08/25
CATEGORY
Playstation
PlayStation Home
PlayStation Network
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New 3DS on the way?


According to a French website, which has previously announced several leaked facts about the Wii U and Vita, has now revealed a new Nintendo 3DS console.

The handheld will still sport a 3D display, however the 3D effect will be reduced. They will not make the main focus for the console 3D. This is probably because many consumers are worried that the 3D will harm their eyes. The 3D display can be uncomfortable and can hurt your eyes if it is set up to your requirements. However, the 3D does not permanently harm your eyes.

The main design flaw on the 3DS was that it did not have a second analog stick. It can be quite a pain moving around and hoping the camera moves where you want it. (A prime example of this is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D)
Nintendo have apparently selected certain developers to make games especially for the new console with the right analogue stick in mind. Nintendo could be mimicking PlayStation Vita’s twin analog sticks.
Currently, a lot of developers are not receiving development packs for the 3DS. This suggests that a lot of this could be true.
Engineers are said to be working ‘day and night’ to work on a peripheral for the existing 3DS to give it a second analogue stick. Looking at the 3DS, there is nowhere to plug in anything like this.
As for the 3D on the existing console, it could possibly be lowered with a system update.

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(The new 3DS would be capable of playing games such as Uncharted 3, but it is only available on PlayStation 3 and Vita)

2011
08/24
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3DS
Gaming
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Nintendo 3DS Price Drop


Nintendo have previously announced a price drop on their Nintendo 3DS console. The price will drop by 40% tomorrow, meaning the price will be around £140 in most shops.
Nintendo announced this price drop because their handheld was not selling. Consumers didn’t want to buy a 3DS because they already have a DS of some sort and don’t want to pay lots for a 3D screen.
The 3DS does offer a lot more than this, but many people would not know this without researching the console first, so maybe Nintendo need to do more to market their product without focusing on the 3D too much.

Sony will not be reducing the price of their PlayStation Vita.

2011
08/11
CATEGORY
3DS
Gaming
Nintendo
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PlayStation Vita coming in October?


The PlayStation Vita has been rumoured to come out in October according to a flyer.
Blockbuster have made a flyer showing the latest games and consoles available for pre-order. The flyer was not put up or handed out and it is unclear wether it is a mistake or if it will be put up on the wall of the shops eventually.
The flyer looks genuine, however it could still have been faked because the Vita was meant to come out in December in Japan, and by March 2012 in all regions.
Hopefully for gamers, it will be released soon, even though it probably won’t happen!

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2011
08/02
CATEGORY
Gaming
Playstation
PlayStation Vita
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PlayStation 4 Rumours and News


It seems that there has been a lot of talk about the PlayStation 4 recently. The internet has been alive with blog posts, forum posts and whatever on the subject of the PlayStation 4. Lots of these rumours have made it into popular gaming magazines.
I’ll start off with the news. Avalanche, a Swedish developer, have opened up a a new studio in New York. They say that their first project will be a MMO that will appear on ‘next gen’.
Johan Andersson, a rendering developer from DICE, says that the company wants the next generation of consoles to come soon. The company is ready to develop for the PS4
Rumours have it that Media Molecule, creators of LittleBigPlanet, are making a ‘user-generated’ game for PlayStation 4.

Websites and blogs say that a PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720 won’t be available until at least 2014. However, a Taiwanese component manufacturing company claim that the PlayStation 4 will be released in 2012.

With the PlayStation 4, I would like to see larger disk space with a better use of PlayStation Move. A higher quality version of the PlayStation Eye would be good. The controller could be more comfortable, although that doesn’t matter much. The games would be of higher quality because of the hardware capabilities. More titles available on the PlayStation Store with full backwards compatability.

Leave a comment, saying what you would like to see in the PlayStation 4.

2011
07/31
CATEGORY
Gaming
Playstation
PlayStation 4
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Music Unlimited free trial


From 22nd June, people have been able to get a free 180-day subscription to Sony’s Music Unlimited service.
You will be able to listen to and download songs and music videos, as well as get suggestions as to what to download next. All 7 million songs are available for free.
Music Unlimited is available on several Sony platforms including PS3.

2011
06/28
CATEGORY
Playstation 3
Technology
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NGP becomes PlayStation Vita


At E3 in LA, Sony announced that their handheld console, the NGP, will be known as the PlayStation Vita. Vita is Latin for life.
The release date was not revealed, although it will be released around Christmas in Japan.
The Vita is the successor to the popular PSP handheld console.

2011
06/19
CATEGORY
Gaming
Playstation
PlayStation Vita
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Welcome Back to PSN


The PlayStation Network was recently restored, along with the Store. Today, the Welcome Back programme was put into action. You will be able to download two free games on PS3 and two on PSP per PSN account. If you are over 18, you will be able to get PlayStation Plus for free for 30 days.
Further details are available in a previous blog post.

2011
06/04
CATEGORY
Gaming
Playstation
Playstation 3
PlayStation Network
PlayStation Portable
Technology
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