Sony launched the first episode of Qore late last night on the PlayStation Network. If you’re not aware, Qore is a new “digital magazine” produced by Sony to be released monthly for $2.99. You can subscribe annually for $24.99, which will also net you a free copy of Calling All Cars (which is a good game if you haven’t picked it up already). I opted for the annual subscription since it saves money in the long run.

After the 1.5GB download completes and you install Qore, it shows up under Games in the XMB. Upon launching, you see a preview trailer of The Incredible Hulk movie, which looks damn good. Just about everything in Qore is presented in HD. After the preview, you get an intro video from Veronica Belmont descibing just what you can expect from Qore.

The interface is very nicely done. Everything within Qore is fully interactive. You can watch what you want, when you want and how you want. The first episode is broken down into five sections. The first is all about SOCOM Confrontation, followed by a section with Soul Caliber IV and Afro Samurai, a section on Secret Agent Clank, a section for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, The Incredible Hulk trailer, and finally the Download Center. Each of the game related sections is filled with some really cool developer interviews, behind the scenes features, trailers, screenshots, graphic novels, etc. The content there is all very well produced and well done. A lot of people have criticized Qore for making you pay for what should be free, but all of this content goes above and beyond anything we’ve ever seen on either the PlayStation Store or the Xbox Live Marketplace. Think all the cool extras on Limited Edition versions of games, and that’s about what you get with Qore.

The content is great, but Qore has some “features” that I take major issue with. First off is advertisements. I just spent good money to subscribe to this digital magazine and I have to look at advertisements? I can understand having some of the videos for sponsored games, but why not put them into their own section? People will watch them and this way they aren’t forced down your throat when you fire up each section of Qore. The advertisement I take most issue with is for Burger King, who sponsored the Download Center. I do not need to see ads for the Whopper in something I just shelled out $3 to watch. These types of ads need to go. Even after being forced to watch a Burger King ad (which you can’t skip), you have to look at the Burger King logo and an image ad in the Download Center. Poor choice by Sony and I hope this gets fixed by next month’s edition.

One other thing in Qore bothers me, but it’s not a deal breaker. When you fire up any downloads, Qore uses the old PlayStation Store interface. Why not piggy-back onto the new PlayStation Store? The webpage look didn’t work before, why bring it back in Qore?

The last thing that disappointed me was the lack of introductions and segues with Veronica Belmont. You get the initial intro and brief intros for SOCOM and The Force Unleashed, but that’s in. I expected more host-related content.

All-in-all, Qore is a very good value for your money. You get a lot of great game content as well as access to betas and some exclusive themes and such. It’s a good start, but hopefully Sony can iron out the ads and PlayStation Store access for the next edition in a month.