LittleBigPlanet - Hands-On Impressions

LittleBigPlanet is an enigma of a game. So much of its curiously self-contradictory identity is summed up in that oxymoronic title: it's either a little game which feels big or a big game that feels little, an oddball experiment from a untested studio that's become the great white hope for an entire platform. It's a game that takes the frothiest fripperies of the casual games market and the most tangled technicalities of the hardcore, and embraces both in one unique package. It's near-indescribable, impossible to pigeon-hole, and it wouldn't have it any other way; whether developers Media Molecule can spread the distinctive message of its PS3 platformer to the public at large, however, remains the six-million dollar question.

Sony have gone on record in describing LBP as a game whose target audience is "everyone", and at a glance, it's easy to see why: from its dreamy, soft-focus cinematography and cardboard-fabric textures, to its cute-deranged toast monsters, gentle music and wryly reassuring Stephen Fry narration, it's difficult to conceive of a game with a more arrestingly and forcefully charming frontend. Key to this irresistibility is, of course, the inimitable Sackboy and his many colourful, flamboyantly-dressed variants; in the context of a market going crazy for Miis and Nintendogs, it's not hard to see the intent behind LBP's burlap-bodied avatars, kitted out in skirts and afros and nodding their bulbous heads to the swing of your Sixaxis, challenging you not to fall in love.

EIF 2008: IGA Worldwide co-founder explains why his in-game ad agency is not spyware, not evil, and not an ad agency

Speaking at the ongoing Edinburgh Interactive Festival, IGA Worldwide co-founder and Vice President for publisher relations, Ed Bartlett, explained to attendees that he is not "a big evil corporate guy". IGA owns advertising space in video games; it has recently signed a deal with Sony that will put advertising into PSN games - the reason you might suspect him of being big, evil and corporate is that he's the one who plans market to you while you play games online, an area which until now has been delightfully free of Gillette adverts and anti-smoking campaigns.

The problem IGA faces is that people are very sceptical about in-game advertising. It's hard to get round the idea of giant Burger King ads suddenly hogging up a chunks of sky or plastering the once gloomy back allies of your online playground.

Intrusive ads, popping up right in the way of what you're doing sounds very much like spyware. And we definitely don't like spyware. "We are not spyware," Bartlett stated. "We're not evil," he then added. In truth, in-game ad agencies probably can't afford to risk driving people away by spoiling their game immersion, or at least not at this extremely early point in the concept's life.

Immersion was a point Bartlett soon touched on: ""We're not looking to have billboards everywhere. We want to make sure they work in context," he said.

He was also keen to point out his gaming credentials - an impressive list ranging from Sega to Acclaim and The Bitmap Brothers. "We don't represent brands; we work with them," Bartlett explained after denying IGA was even an ad agency. "We are gaming experts -- we know games from the ground up. ...We are pioneers." A pioneering ad agency though, basically.

(via Gamasutra)

Related posts: This isn't the first time Ed has talked in-game ads before | Double Fusion will also bring in-game ads to PS3

EIF 2008 : EyeToy Play: PomPom Party and EyeToy Play: Hero showcased

The Wiimote and Xbox Live Vision Camera may have muscled in on the "gesticulation gaming" craze in recent times, but Sony and their EyeToy development team at SCE Studios London are out to prove that they're not about to give up on the flail-em-up genre just yet, with the release of two new EyeToy Play titles for PlayStation 2, due out this Christmas.

Perhaps taking the lead from current arm-waving kings Nintendo, the focus this time around is on peripherals, with each game arriving bundled with garish accessories designed to take advantage of the software's new colour-tracking technology, and on breadth of appeal, with a game for each end of the gender spectrum.

Konami's grand MGS4 launch in Japan cancelled following Akihabara tragedy

Did you enjoy the London leg of Kojima Production's world tour? It turns out Kojima's visit was just a little more unique than we first thought now that the Japanese end of the timetable has been put on hold.

Although this is good for us in the sense that we here in Europe have benefitted more than the Japanese for a very rare change, there's unfortunately a tragic reason for the change in the schedule.

On Sunday, a 25 year old man was arrested following an incident in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, an area widely noted for its role in the Japanese video games and anime cultures. Tomohiro Kato drove a rented truck into a crowd before leaving the vehicle to begin stabbing passersby at random. Seven were killed and ten injured in the attack.

Konami has stated that the cancellation of three key launch events has been made with the "safety of participants in mind", however it seems likely that the decision was also made out of respect for the victims.

(via Spong)

Ubisoft takes a trial run of PlayStation Home's Media and Events Space

Sony made its new Media and Events Space - a dedicated portion of PlayStationHome - public just the other day and now Ubisoft is taking it for a test ride to coincide with its own Ubidays event.

Because Home is still very closed to the public, only those with closed beta access actually have the chance to go in and take a look at what they've got on offer> However, it is definitely encouraging to see that companies are already seeing potential in it to help ordinary users get up close and personal with major gaming events.

Over the next five days, the Media and Events Space (God, I hope that gets a catchier name) will be showing previews of the many new titles Ubisoft has on show, including Prince of Persia, Tom Clancy's HAWX and Soul Calibur IV.

With a bit of luck, when it comes to GDC, E3, TGS, Leipzig of 2009, maybe we'll all be right in there, getting the news first hand from virtual mock ups of the events themselves, and without the need to suffer budget airlines and even more budget hotel rooms.

(via Joystiq)

Related posts: News from Ubidays 08 | More news from Ubidays 08

PlayStation Home's latest addition: the Media and Events Space

Things have been mighty quiet on the Home front for a while, except for the bits where Sony occasionally pops up and says "Sit tight, it's delayed again". Just what has Sony really been doing to it behind the screen to turn it into the smooth, sleek experience Kaz envisioned? Adding a new PlayStation Media and Events Space, for one.

An official press reveals that last week, Sony ran a test run of the new service on Home, inviting 10,000 closed beta testers along to an in-game re-creation of the PlayStation Day event earlier in the month. Users were able to wander about looking at various photo galleries and watching the various speeches, but all from within Home.

Kojima coming to London to sign copies of MGS4 - excitement overload

If the excitement of getting your hands on Metal Gear Solid 4 isn't enough, 300 lucky gamers are going to get their copies of what's undoubtedly going to be a classic signed by none other than Hideo Kojima himself.

Yep, that huge HMV store on Oxford Street is offering the chance for a number of gamers to get their launch day copies scribbled on by the gaming genius himself, though apparently "access to meet Mr Kojima will be strictly limited."

Brilliant stuff, and hope those 300 of you have a great time. But why the bloody hell is EVERY event of this nature in London? Can't we toss a few major events like this up to the Scottish capital every once in a while, just to keep us sweet? Bloody London centric media. No wonder we all despise the bloody place.

Oh, yeah. PS3 blog this one isn't it? Erm, if anyone wants to purchase me a signed copy of the PS3 EXCLSIVE Metal Gear Solid 4 I'll be forever grateful. I keep being tempted to add Kojima as a friend on Facebook, but I've not the balls. What if he rejects me?

Source: Kojima
Related posts: No special MGS4 PS3 for us, Life for MGS after Kojima

Siren - first look at new sightjacking mechanic

At the Nordic Game conference today, Keiichiro Toyama was part of a panel discussing disruptive game design. To the delight of the attendant audience (including yours truly), he then proceeded to play a brief section of the game's second level.

Mindful of the original demo (available on the Japanese PSN) leaning more towards an action game than one might expect from a Siren game, Toyama-san described the stage as being "more horror focused". He took control of a young girl - who is featured at the end of the Japanese demo - named Bella Monroe. Beginning Chapter Two, you're given one instruction - escape the hospital.

Hospitals are naturally quite unnerving places anyway, so obviously a Siren take on one is going to be even worse. Even in a large auditorium with several delegates around, the atmosphere was intense and creepy, as Bella crept around, with shibito nurses cackling horribly, one of them just out of sight, but with her lurching, twitching shadow cast against the wall in front of Bella. It was here that Toyama showed off the new split-screen sightjacking system, tuning in to the views of the nurse and another unseen foe, while still retaining control of Bella on the left-hand side of the screen. (If you remember the previous games, you couldn't move while sightjacking, nor see your own character.) Sneaking into another room, Toyama alerted another nurse, who suddenly staggered forward, making a horrific strangled yelping noise as she ran towards the cowering Bella. A scream, and the mission failed screen appears. Evidently, just getting caught on this stage means you need to start from the nearest checkpoint.

As Toyama-san finished his presentation, the session host Tom said "well, I'm scared shitless". Quite. Siren will be released over here at some point this Summer, in episodic form under the title Siren: Blood Curse. Siren: New Translation is the Japanese title and will be released in July as a boxed retail release.

Hiss-assin's Creed? Snake's Altair costume confirmed

Hideo Kojima must love Ubisoft's love it/hate it stealth-and-murder-em-up. After what seemed like an April Fool's joke which saw a section of Metal Gear Solid 4 with Snake dressed in an Altair-like hooded robe, today Kojima-san confirmed that said clobber will be an unlockable outfit in the game.

We're not entirely sure why Snake's creator is so keen to garb the old fella in a hoodie. Perhaps so he's more 'down wid da kidz', perhaps? Or maybe it's a subtle reference to Snake going quite literally medieval on his enemies' asses?

Rumours that Kojima and Jade Raymond were spotted together in a lip-locking session while perched atop a high branch belonging to a mighty oak have yet to be substantiated.

Kotaku

PlayStation Day - KillZone 2 delayed until Feb and more

KillZone 2 - Feb 2009, LittleBigPlanet - October, Home - "end of the year". Sony's PlayStation Day seemed to be all about delays to interesting stuff. Bah.

Fortunately, it wasn't all bad news. DICE's FPP (first-person parkour-er) Mirror's Edge looked bright, breezy and brilliant, and the trailer for Guerrilla's much-awaited shooter sequel did at least look the part, even though it's been put back. Weirdly, the footage of Resistance 2 showed a game which looked far less complete, though perhaps KillZone 2 only has one level so far. Either way: spiffy destruction.

Other stuff - PS3 has outsold 360 in Europe already (completely, or just over the same relative timespan? We don't know) and Motorstorm Pacific Rift looks like being the game the original promised to be. Loads of other media-related nonsense - BD LIVE will allow you to do strange things with compatible films (changing viewpoint in rewind-a-thriller Vantage Point; playing quizzes during Men In Black), PlayTV digital recording service will be £99, Go! View (June 30th release) is Sky on your PSP. Echochrome is ace, but we know that already - just give us the bloody thing, Sony.

Not the world's most exciting conference then - but attendees thereafter got the chance to go hands-on with all the games mentioned above and plenty more, like Buzz, Crisis Core, Space Invaders Extreme, Siren: Blood Curse (new name!) and, er, EyeToy: Pom Pom Party.

Sony is still clearly pushing the PS3 as an all-encompassing multimedia device, but its interest in user-generated content and more casual-focussed titles could see it take giant strides towards attracting a mainstream audience this year. Though for core gamers there might not have been too much excitement in the words of Hirai and Reeves, Sony has set down a solid foundation for the rest of the year. A potential killer FPS in the first quarter of next year won't do any harm, either.

Eurogamer

Sony PlayStation Day next week to reveal 'key content' for 2008

A week today, Sony is set to reveal some of its forthcoming titles at a special PlayStation day for the press in London village. We're currently trying to wangle an invite, so hopefully next week you'll be reading a bit about the games shown.

SCEI boss and Ridge Racer fan Kaz Hirai will be there, as will president of SCEE David Reeves, and they'll be making keynote speeches about the titles featured and Sony's plans for the rest of the year.

Someone has posted on the official US PlayStation forums that the games shown will be as follows:

Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII [PSP]
Resistance 2 [PS3]
Secret Agent Clank [PSP]
SingStar Vol. 2 [PS3]

Which isn't as exciting as we'd hoped, though we're not sure where said forumite has got his info from, because it's not on the 'event page' that he mentions in the post. Certainly, we think the forthcoming PSP and PS3 iterations of Buzz are likely to make an appearance. And would it be too much to ask to get another glimpse of KillZone 2? Four games isn't really a lot for a press event, particularly as one of them isn't actually a Sony title (the Square-Enix published Crisis Core).

Still, like I say, hopefully all will be revealed in a week's time - or a week and a day. Give us a chance to write it up, eh?

US PS boards | SCEE page

All Battlefield: Bad Company weapons to be available for FREE. Gamer campaign proves a success?

Major credit should go to Sarcastic Gamer because it looks like its extremely vocal criticism of the EA and DICE's plans to charge players for additional weaponry has been axed after the uproar it inspired.

Clarifying its position on paid-for downloadable weaponry with IGN, a DICE spokesman said

"No, there's no charge for any of the guns in the game. All of the guns in the game can be achieved without purchasing them. All guns are available to everyone."

Some of you may be wondering why a few purchasable weapons would be such a bad thing, especially in a console world where paid-for content such as maps, characters and tracks are common place. SG's complaint was that for something so fundamental to the game experience as weapons, there is no way that restricting this content isn't reducing the quality of the basic game (for which you are still paying full price) and therefore ripping you off and/or giving customers who pay more and advantage over the rest.

Massive in-store Gran Turismo 5: Prologue compo starts on Monday

Looking forward to GT5: Prologue? Of course you are. No doubt that long wait until the game's launch on March 27/28th is going to be hard to bear. Don't worry though; from Monday (17th March) you'll have a shot at playing the game and even winning yourself a free copy. Or if you really kick some serious Prologue ass, you could be invited to a special launch event showdown in London on the 27th.

Stores across the nation are going to be hosting the event. I know for a fact that two Edinburgh ones both boast rather comfy sofas so you can probably get away with holing up in there for a few hours to get some practise in.

At each store, the holder of the fastest lap time will win a free copy of the game, and the winners of the three fastest regions will be invited to grand launch event. Other prizes include a GT5 branded console bundle, a GT5 racing helmet, GT5 Nike trainers, GT5 Hoodies and GT5 keyrings. These will be decided from a random prize draw - so even if you don't have time to practise enough to out do all those truant young punks, you could still walk away with some schwag.

Check out the full list for participating stores in your area on the turn.

Analyst: EA could make GTA without Rockstar. Dear. God. No.

Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan’s lead prophet when it comes to all things videogames has pointed out some worry things. Not only is he convinced that EA will be successful in its turbulent courtship of Take2, but he reckons that even if it the whole of Rockstar abandon ship, the publishing behemoth could still make a pack of money off the GTA IP and its related technology.

As usual, the scarily accurate future gazer is probably spot on. The reasoning behind EA’s inevitable buyout of Take2 makes sense. Basically EA stands to gain a lot more from ownership of Take2 than other would be buyers – i.e. a monopoly on sports related video games – and thus can afford to stump up a lot more cash for the company.

As far as GTA goes, that fancy looking next-gen engine has definitely wowed us with its screenshots and if it lives up to the hype it will be a powerful force when it comes to building more games, not even GTA-related ones necessarily, further down the line.

But the really sad part is this – with the GTA IP under its belt, EA could quite easily set one of its own development teams on the task and just allow them to do as they please with it, safe in the knowledge that it will sell entirely off the back of the GTA logo. If that were to happen I’d hope the publisher would be met with a serious backlash from gamers, but there’s no doubting that it’s very much a possibility.

Source
GamesIndustry.biz and GameDaily

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EA: first Take2, now Ubisoft... next the stop, THE WORLD!

Biting the hand that feeds - Harrison gets narky with Sony Japan

Head of worldwide studios for Sony, the lovely Phil Harrison, has expressed his annoyance at Sony Japan's ignorance to his constant pushing of social gaming, citing the success of Nintendo's Wii as proof that he was right.

Talking about EyeToy, Singstar and Buzz, evidently Harrison repeatedly attempted (and failed) to get the company's Japanese executives interested in more massmarket-oriented products which were already a proven success in the West. Sadly, said execs seemed to think that Japanese audiences wouldn't be interested in playing games socially. "And then out comes the Wii" sighed Harrison.

The slight "told you so" smugness aside, it's unusual to hear Harrison talk so candidly about such an experience, not to mention his praise for Nintendo and how the Kyoto giant has marketed its products. It will certainly be interesting to see if Sony's marketing changes tack accordingly in 2008.

Source: Gamesindustry

Starfox creator unveils two more PixelJunk titles

Fans of the awesomely addictive PixelJunk Monsters rejoice - Q-Games head honcho (and creator of Nintendo classic Starfox) Dylan Cuthbert announced two new games in the series at the Independent Games Summit in Kyoto yesterday.

PixelJunk Dungeons is currently at the concept art stage, but looks to be a top-down dungeon crawler (Gauntlet in HD, perhaps?), while PixelJunk Eden is much further along - Cuthbert showcasing a short video of its intriguing physics-based gameplay. Its unusual visuals apparently drew much praise from attendees, while Cuthbert described it as akin to "an organic Mario".

It's not the first time Q-Games has done something so gloriously abstract - if little-known Japanese-only GBA title Bit Generations: Digidrive is anything to go by, it could well be a cracker.

Source: Gamasutra
Related post: PixelJunk Monsters expansion pack landing soon

CES 2008: Final thoughts

CES is over and I’ve finally finished an epic journey spanning four airports, three train stations, a mountain of emails, a wedding and a considerable amount of jetlag. Ordinary PSPSPS service now resumes. Before I bother to start actually looking for things to write about though, I have the luxury of being able to share some CES thoughts plucked from the cobwebbed confines of my memory.

Sony’s PlayStation division had a great outing in Vegas this year. The word ‘division’ seems very appropriate because at the proper Sony press conference, there was zero mention of the PS3 and even the PSP, which garnered a healthy amount of attention from show-goers for its new Skype functionality, was left unmentioned in the hour long spiel. It’s as though Sony is still treating the gaming side like a wayward teenage offspring that no one wants to sit next to at a polite dinner party.

In spite of this, the PS3 was making itself known in the Sony booth, with the Metal Gear Solid 4 demo attracting a sizeable crowd. As far as I can tell, this was the very same demo originally shown off at TGS 2007. But given that we didn’t make it Tokyo to see it the first time it was good to gets ome first hand impressions.

See. MGS4 IS indeed a PS3 exclusive

Though the rumours won’t ever slink away, surely this picture from CES 2008 proves once and for all that Metal Gear Solid 4 is a PS3 exclusive

Surely it doesn’t get much clearer than that? It explicitly says that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots is an “exclusive title for the Playstation 3.” I mean, what else can they do to get us all (and those pesky 360 fanboys) to finally accept that if you want some MGS4 action, then a PS3 is required.

Kind of intrigued if there’s to be some Dual Shock 3 specific features to use in game too. What about us SixAxis owners? Will we be missing out on some of the MGS4 fun?

Source: Kotaku
Related posts: Fancy a play at MGS4? Then you'd better buy yourself a PS3... Another round of Metal Gear Solid 4 360 rumours

One last chance – win a trip to Barcelona, free LG Viewty and a job with Shiny Media

By popular demand, we’ve now extended the deadline on the LG Video Media Talent Award competition until January 1st, just because we’re full of Christmas cheer and want to give you a few extra days to put the spit and polish on your entries.

And if you haven’t heard of the compo yet, no need to panic. There’s still plenty of time to get something together and we really want to see what you can come up with. This is your chance to soar to internet stardom, sporting a brand new LG Viewty mobile, jetsetting your way on an all expense paid trip to 3GSM in Barcelona, and kick starting your career with a six month internship here at Shiny Media in our swanky Covent Garden offices. We’re looking for one presenter and one editor to join our team of blogging wizards, and to enter all you need to do is show us your skills either in front of the camera or behind the scenes with some clips we’ve provided.

We’ve already had a ton of entries, which have been the source of much furious debate and analysis in Shiny Towers and the standard is already getting very high. But we won’t be relying on our giant egos alone to decide the final victors; we’d love to hear what you guys think as well – after all, you’ll be the ones watching the final products in action. Head on over to our Official You Tube page. to check out your rivals and to leave your opinions on the current entries.

If you want to enter, this video will give you all the instructions you need. Make sure you also check out the Terms and Conditions too.

In the meantime here’s just one of our many promising hopefuls in action. Can you do better?

Six days to go: fame, fortune, free gadgets – all could still be yours

Let’s recap: you, dear reader, could be jet-setting your way to stardom thanks to our friends at the LG Video Media Talent Award. You’ll win an LG Viewty – for keepsies! You’ll be flown on an expense-paid trip to Barcelona for 3GSM! You’ll get to spend six glorious months working for US, Shiny Media, in our superduper Covent Garden offices!

And it’s all so laughably easy to enter too. We just need a presenter to get in front of the camera AND we need someone behind the scenes to orchestrate the on-screen efforts like a digital puppet-master.

Check out this video for full instructions, check out the competition page here and scope out your rivals on our Official You Tube page. In the meantime, here’s one of our hopefuls in action, explaining what ‘style’ means, via the medium of The Neverending Story. You, sir, are a giant amongst men.

Compo: Fill in survey, win iPod Touch!

How would you fancy a FREE iPod Touch? 16GB of memory to store your tunes on, touch screen display; it even looks like an iPhone when you’ve had a few and without all that getting saddled into an 18 month phone contract.

Our friends at Play.com have given us one and we’re not going to be auctioning it off at the office Xmas party, oh no. It’s going to YOU GUYS. All you have to do is fill in our incredibly simple survey to tell us what you think about PSPSPS and all the many other blogs Shiny Media produces for your reading pleasure.

It takes very little time to complete and all your feedback will go towards making the blogs bigger and better. Click here to take the survey. Check out the Terms and Conditions here.

Come work for Shiny! Win free gadgets, jet-setter lifestyles!

Haven’t seen our earlier posts? Still deciding whether to enter? Seriously, do it. This is your chance to come and work for us, Shiny Media – Home of the BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE™. You don’t need a high definition video camera, a pirated copy of Final Cut Pro or even particularly steady hands to enter. If you’re a budding presenter, we just need to see your mug in front of a camera. If you’re a brilliant editor or production maestro, we only need to see the product of your majestic brain in action.

What’s at stake? Only a six month internship with Shiny Media - publisher of this and another forty-odd top notch blogs – AND a free LG Viewty Phone AND an all expense paid trip to 3GSM in Barcelona, all thanks to our friends at the LG Video Media Talent Award. So why exactly are you waiting? Get those entries in to us pronto. If you need more instructions, check out Susi’s handy guide. If you want to checkout your competition, see our official YouTube page. In the meantime, here’s a promising production entry. Can YOU do better? Hop to it.

Double points weekend for Call of Duty 4 PS3! Woot.

This weekend – starting Friday 7th, 1800 GMT, and wrapping up on Monday 11th, 1800 GMT – Infinity Ward will be making the arduous process of ranking up on Call of Duty 4 that little bit easier. All your online combat will count for twice as much XP, meaning you’ll be rocketing up to Commander rank in no time, only to piss all your hard fought achievements up the wall as you succumb to the lure of Prestige mode and its tempting, tempting medal graphic.

Still, at least then you’ll be able to shoot back through the ranks again to emerge exactly where you left off, bleary eyed on Monday morning. Wondering how much XP you’ll be needing to hit the various ranks? Here’s a handy guide to all the ranks and perks.

Source
VideoGamer

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UK Warhawk compo announced

Even though we consider Warhawk to be amongst the finest multiplayer gaming fare the PS3 has to offer – we’re still deciding whether CoD4 is better – there hasn’t been anything like enough organised events to keep things interesting. Even if there was one, you could practically guarantee it would be for the US only. Luckily though, ThreeSpeech is stepping up to the plate to provide some properly orchestrated Warhawk chaos as of next week.

The tournie will run on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of next week at 5pm GMT – the first two will use deathmatches to warm up and a dogfight round will decide the 4 players making it through to the final. The Friday event will be an eight player dogfight finale to decide the victors.

The main disappointment is that it’s all down bloody dogfights. Last time I checked there were tanks and jeeps and gun turrets and flags to steal and bases to capture and basically a whole lot of other merits to Warhawk beyond just dogfighting. But what the hell; it’s a chance to win a Warhawk trophy of some sort.

Check the ThreeSpeech website for details on how to enter.

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Come work for us at Shiny Media – with the LG Media Talent Award

If you’ve missed our previous posts, here’s the deal: Shiny Media, publisher is this here website, is giving away the chance for you to come work with us, thanks to the LG Media Talent Awards. You’ll get a six month internship, a flashy new LG Viewty Mobile and an expense paid trip to the 3GSM conference in sunny Barcelona.

And what do you have to do to win this prestigious prize? Well, that’s the easy part. If you think you’re the business at presenting, we need to see you in front of the mic. If you’d prefer to be the brains behind the camera, we still want you. Whip up a brilliant cut of the provided clips and show us your mad editing skills.

Entries are already flowing in, so check out your rivals on the official YouTube site. Here’s an example for you in the meantime. For more instructions, visit the LG Media Talent Award website.

Ten years of games being BETTER than art

All has been quiet on the games art debate for some time so, following the Turner Prize winner announcement, it’s about bloody time to bring it all back to the surface again.

There’s always a sense of urgency for games to be recognised as a mature art form, but what does art actually have to offer video games, other than the chance to churn out half finished muck entirely devoid of entertainment value? Frankly, if you judge from the shite churned out annually from Turner Prize, art hasn’t got a patch on the achievements made in terms of narrative, immersion, emotionality and long-term benefits to the industry that video games have made over the past ten years. Allow me to demonstrate:

1997

Turner Prize winner: Gillian Wearing – 60 Minutes of Silence. There’s really nothing I can add to that title to make it any more priceless. Oh no, wait, the actors in the video were all dressed as police men. They stood around for an hour scratching themselves. God, this piece is writing itself.

From the video game world: Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix). An RPG adventure that truly defined ‘epic’ both in terms of physical scale but also in its depth of characters, and the mature, engaging plot. Graphically – possibly the best the PlayStation had to offer. FF7’s sheer wow factor at the time is still something that modern games struggle to compete with.

Fancy a trip to Barcelona, with a new mobile and internship at Shiny Media?

How would you like to work in the fast paced world of online publishing, jet-setting across the globe, reporting, filming, editing or directing the most up to the minute news coverage and clutching a fistful of sexy gadgets in hand? Well then, we want you to work for us. Shiny Media, publisher of PSPSPS.tv, is offering two people the chance to win a six month internship with us, all thanks to our friends at LG Video Media Talent Award.

The competition is dead easy – if you’re great in front of the camera, that’s where we want to see you, adlibbing your way to video stardom. Prefer pulling the strings from behind the scenes? No problem; we’re even giving you some clips to cobble together into a cinematic gold.

If you win, you’ll not only be working for us here at the ultra-swish Covent Garden office, but LG Video Media Talent Award will be sorting you out with a rather flash LG Viewty phone and an all-expense paid trip to the 3GSM conference in Barcelona. Any further questions? Check out the official competition website here or let Susi fill you in on the rest of the details here.

Win a video blogging internship at Shiny Media with the LG Video Media Talent Award

Are you a budding journalist, TV presenter, editor or director? If you’ve got what it takes to get in front of the camera and flash your pearly whites or seamlessly mastermind the action from behind the scenes, then Shiny Media wants you! This is your chance to win a six month internship at Shiny Media, the publisher of PSPSPS.tv, working as a video presenter or producer, thanks to our friends at the LG Video Media Talent Award.

If that’s not enough for you, the LG Video Media Talent Award winners will be taken on an all expense paid trip to the 3GSM mobile conference in Barcelona and will be kitted out with a brand spanking new LG Viewty phone.

How do you enter? Easy – if you’re up for some presenting, we want to see you in action. If you fancy trying your hand at editing, we’ve got some sample clips for you to turn into a video masterpiece.

The compo runs until the December 16th. Full entry instructions and details are on the LG Video Media Talent Awards website and the official YouTube channel.

Father of PlayStation to receive Lifetime Achievement award

Today's the day that Ken Kutaragi, father of the PlayStationKen Kutaragi, former SCE Chairman and CEO, has been revealed as the winner of this year’s AIAS Lifetime Achievement Award. He joins former Nintendo execs Howard Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa who received the award last year in receiving the prestigious accolade. He will be receiving his award on February 7th at the D.I.C.E Summit 2008 in Las Vegas.

"Ken Kutaragi's passion, innovative thinking and business savvy sparked a monumental movement that was unstoppable. If it wasn't for Ken and his concept of the original PlayStation, there wouldn't be the billion dollar industry there is today,” said AIAS president Joseph Olin.

Ken Kutaragi earned his title as ‘Father of the PlayStation’ after an abortive attempt between Sony and Nintendo to team up and make CD version of the SNES. As the deal fell through, Sony then took the bold step of developing its own console, the PlayStation, which eventually went on to successfully challenge both Nintendo and Sega for dominance in the console market.

However, despite the success of the original PlayStation and the ongoing dominance of its successor, the PS2, Kutaragi had a bit of roller coaster ride in Sony’s ranks.

Win a video blogging internship at Shiny Media with the LG Video Media Talent Award

Are you a budding journalist, TV presenter, editor or director? If you’ve got what it takes to get in front of the camera and flash your pearly whites or seamlessly mastermind the action from behind the scenes, then Shiny Media wants you! This is your chance to win a six month internship at Shiny Media, the publisher of PSPSPS.tv, working as a video presenter or producer, thanks to our friends at the LG Video Media Talent Award.

If that’s not enough for you, the LG Video Media Talent Award winners will be taken on an all expense paid trip to the 3GSM mobile conference in Barcelona and will be kitted out with a brand spanking new LG Viewty phone.

How do you enter? Easy – if you’re up for some presenting, we want to see you in action. If you fancy trying your hand at editing, we’ve got some sample clips for you to turn into a video masterpiece. And we’ll be showcasing our favourite efforts every week too, so get cracking!

The compo runs until the December 14th. Full entry instructions and details are on the LG Video Media Talent Awards website and the official YouTube channel.

3Rooms showcasing PS3’s vision of ‘digital-home-life’, free nibbles included

Not convinced by the PlayStation 3? Perhaps you are confused by the whole ‘it’s a Blu-ray player, music centre, digital photo storage device, remote controlled entertainment hub AND games console’ thing. Can’t really blame you, to be honest. Maybe you’ve seen some This Is Living adverts and are left wondering if it’s a piece of consumer technology or just some kind of illicit substance. Don’t worry, 3Rooms is a place where you can have all your fears allayed, questions answered and doubts assuaged.

Because all PS3 naturally own gigantic HDTVs to perfectly accompany their exquisite interior décor and wear only the finest tailored suits, 3Rooms is set in a swish London pad, designed by award winning designer Tom Dixon. To be fair, 3Rooms isn’t solely about bigging up a frankly ludicrous vision of PlayStation lifestyle (what happened to the good old days of pre-perforated Wipeout flyers?); it’s also being used to showcase creative and technological talent – including designers, photographers, artists and animators – in a range of workshops. For the moment though, it’s throwing its doors open to Joe Public (but you have to book) for a series of three hour sessions showcasing everything that PS3 has to offer, including some early glimpses of Home and some upcoming titles.

The converted East End apartment has its own cocktail bar, roof top terrace, DJ and pianist. Sessions are currently set for Saturday December 1st and will take for fifty people at a time. PlayStation people will be on scene to answer technical questions and stuff you full of free drinks and nibbles.

Source
3Rooms via MaxConsole

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UK: Resistance scoops Games Media Award

At the end of last week, the winners of the first ever Games Media Awards were announced and we’re extremely pleased to reveal that our very own Gary Cutlack, author of the fantastic UK: Resistance, was acknowledged for the best Non-commercial blog. UK:R saw off competition from the likes of Destructoid, Game Over, Yeah, Idle Thumbs and Wonderland. Gary, who magnanimously neglected to provide us with any photographic evidence of his victory or save us any free champagne, was only able to provide us with one quote for this post: "Just make it painless and date it for last Friday so it disappears as quickly as possible.” he said. Cheers Gary.

A big congratulations also goes to our editor-in-chief, Simon Munk who managed to win himself the award for Best Games Writer on a Lifestyle Magazine (FHM).

Want an orchestral rendition of Guitar Hero ditties? Check out Video Games Live

Personally I think this sounds a bit tacky, but having never experienced a concert such as this, I cannot pass judgement. However, for those that know of Video Games Live; the concert ‘tour’ that offers an evening of live orchestral renditions of in-game music, you’ll be happy to hear a number of events have been announced.

With a very US feel, poor old Europe only has a one off show in London (currently, at least), with Canada getting a few, and then the US getting a whopping 25 date tour. Rock n Roll baby!

The full list of venues can be found here, but for our European readers, the London event is at the Royal Festival Hall, on October 22nd. And, for those that’d like to know the ‘set list’, music will include recognizable tunes from games such as Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Guitar Hero (interesting..) and even Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (just odd).

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British Academy Video Games Awards shortlist announced - PS3 excels in Artistic Achievement sector

With the gaming BAFTAs ceremony set for October 23rd at Battersea Evolution, the shortlist for the awards has now been announced.

The line up should offer a mixed bag of emotions in the Sony camp, as only one PlayStation title made it into the coveted 'Best Game' shortlist, and that was Guitar Hero II. However a good mix of PS2 and PS3 games made it into other award shortlists, and well, four of the six games in the Artistic Achievement category are PS exclusives. Congratulations to the teams from Heavenly Sword, Okami, Ratchet and Clank and Skate, shame only one can walk away with the award!

The list of award nominees is a long one, but if you want to see what Sony's up against next month, then read on...

TGS 07: No imminent PS3 price cut

Though rumours prior to the Tokyo Game Show hinted towards a surprise PS3 price cut announcement, Sony boss Kaz Hirai has stated that there will be “no surprise in this regard this year.”

Instead, Hirai stated that “the urgent matter is to what extent we can further enrich the software titles.” Which, really, is a pretty fair point considering the still quite light number of titles available for the expensive console.

It’s a slight disappointment, and I’m sure that even a small slither chopped off the retail price of the console would have come close to stealing the show for Sony. Instead, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of bundle deals stores have on offer over the Christmas period. At present moment, you can easily bag yourselves a console, a couple of games, and an extra pad for the £425 price that the console retails for on its own.

Source: GamesIndustry
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