Home: No Country for Old Men?

Upon receiving my Home beta invite this week, I couldn’t wait to finally get a glimpse at what the Home experience was all about. After a quick install and a bit of trouble getting in, I got my first look into Sony’s new world. My first impression was that it was pretty unreal. I’ve pretty much played only console games my whole life so I’ve never played an MMO, I’ve also never been on Second Life, so this was my first time to see that many people in any online arena at once. The layout is somewhat of a Sony utopia where huge screens playing ads for video games dominate a very pleasing landscape. A theater, mall, and bowling alley all with fully interactive or soon to be fully interactive pieces give me the feeling that Home, while pretty cool now, has the potential to be great. They have made a cool online world where there inhabitants all have at least one thing in common, they all own a PS3, and are, therefore, easier to advertise games to than any other group in the world. I’m not at all saying that’s a bad thing, in fact, more power to them. If a company can come up with something that is beneficial to themselves and the consumer, then kudos. In short, I think Home will be huge for Sony and for many, many PS3 owners.

However, my initial jubilation was soon cut short by a sad realization for me. You see, with the NXE and my Home beta invite arriving in the same week, I realized something, I’m an anti-social gamer. It dawned on me that I had no interest in my friends’ Xbox Avatars and I tended to spend a lot of my time in Home running from people that might try to talk to me. It’s not that I’m an asshole, in fact, I think it’s the opposite, I just didn’t feel like talking and I didn’t want to be a dick to anyone by not responding when they tried to start a chat. And, then came another sad realization as I wondered why I didn’t want to talk to these people and thought, “Am I too old for this?”

Hit the jump for more »

GTA IV Will Have Exclusive Content for PSN Home

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It looks like the Xbox 360 is not the only console that will have some exclusive content. When Home launches for PSN, it will be the next big thing in interactive media for gamers. Rockstar has confirmed that Home will have something a step above achievements, it will have trophies that can be put on display in your house/apt/condo whatever in Home. Really cool. They will be there for all to see. No word on any interactive content, but this announcement makes deciding what version to get even harder.

[via fragcast]

DMC 4 First PS3 Game to Have Trackable Online Accomplishments

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PS3 owners everywhere have waited for an equivalent to the famed Xbox 360 Achievements. According to PS3fanboy, there WILL be the ability to track what you and your buddies have done in this an hopefully future games.

It’s not the first multiplatform game to include the Xbox 360 achievements inside the PS3 version, by any means, though it is the first to allow players to check out their online accomplishment rankings as well as check out exactly which individual accomplishment goals their friends have achieved.

This could also be the a major step in the development of Home as a viable competitor to the MS juggernaut that is Xbox Live.