And some games, like Street Fighter IV, Resistance 2, MotorStorm and Far Cry 2 will include another level of Home integration, bringing along some multiplayer options.

Other Home improvements include clothing and furniture previewing (try before you buy), portable objects (like bubble machines) and an in-Home first or third-person camera (take a shot of that pretty girl you see so that you can dry hump her later rather than in the square).

So…any PS3ers in the audience use Home lately? I loaded it 2 weeks ago, but it was completely by accident. [PlayStation Blog via Kotaku]

* Note: The lead shot was provided by Sony. And even in its marketing veneer, the inhabitants of Home look completely miserable.

According to a translation from Gpara.com:

The Idol Master for SP is in the Home, and “Rewards” are supported, depending on the progress of the game, the Home can be used to obtain the item.

As we understand it, as you advance in Idol Master, you’ll unlock clothing (and even whole avatars according to this shot) in PSHome—probably through the virtual Idol Master vending machine seen in our lead photo.

Still, precisely how this unlocking will occur is unclear. It could involve a PSP to PS3 sync, an online server or just a redeemable code. That said, this is certainly a much-needed step in connecting these various PlayStation properties to form a cohesive network. [Gpara via PlayStation Lifestyle]

PlayStation Home update 1.05 is scheduled to be released on December 22. With this new update, users will be able to use the voice chat within their personal space and clubhouses to communicate and share with friends online.

By clicking on their PlayStation Home icon on the PlayStation Network column of XMB, users will be able to update PlayStation Home to 1.05. Users who are online with PlayStation Home will need to log-off and click on PlayStation Home icon.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Unlike most women in PlayStation Home, Abigail Murphy is a real female. [Playstation Blog via Gamepro]

The virtual city, or “Virtual Decatur” as the fine elected officials of Decatur are calling it, would be a networking hub for the city as part of a greater overall effort to boost the economy.

Virtual Decatur is only in the planning stages, but designers have already listed a number of MMO-type qualities they’d like to see implemented. There would be custom avatars and chatting, like there is in any number of MMOs today, but in Virtual Decatur the residents, non-residents and government officials would bear certain marks, so that they’d be easily distinguishable from one another. Business owners would have the option of a virtual storefront if they donated to the city.

The virtual world would also boast achievements (GovBlago2213, You’ve unlocked a senate seat!). Back in the real world, these achievement points could be turned into coupons or discounts for participating businesses.

Other Virtual Decatur features could include:

• Opportunities to gather citizen input on policies, topics of interest, city services, and happenings
• A Virtual City Hall Tour with multimedia capabilities.
• Streaming video of public meetings, ideally with a chat room feature that allows viewers to comment.
• Access to visitors information (store hours, directions, weather, etc.)

We eagerly await the first griefer-induced lawsuit. [Decatur, Georgia via Game Politics]

The launch of Sony’s long awaited Second-Life-alike has not been without its problems. Although it’s been in closed beta for almost six months now, it’s never had a true stress test. Tonight may prove to be that night as tons of G4 fans log into the newly opened virtual world all at once, all in the same place, while the G4 folks broadcast it live on TV. It all goes down at the “Mall” area–wear your finest unisex virtual t-shirt. [G4 Forums via Binge Gamer via MAXCONSOLE]

It’s technically an “Open Beta,” but PlayStation Home features major security vulnerabilities that hackers have already exploited. The first, seen here in blurry video, allows you to play, say, Pineapple Express on Home screens.

Using Apache and DNS redirection (simple stuff), you can point your own version of PS Home to display movies, text and music of your choosing. That’s fun, but fairly harmless.

Another hack allows for the downloading of any file you want, like someone’s user profile or avatar, while the final two, and most worrisome vulnerabilities include uploading any file to the Home server or deleting any file from the Home server. That’s about as bad as security can get. [StreetSkaterFU and PS3Hax via Engadget]

Here’s some uplifting video from the trainwreck Sony Home. In it, we see two female avatars being surrounded by male avatars doing little dances. Apparently this is happening all over the service. A lot.

This next video, however, is hilarious. Called a “Quincy,” the act lures in desperate males, and then pulls te ol’ bait and switch. Classic.

Be sue to check out Mark’s initial thoughts on Sony Home, which went live earlier this week. [YouTube via Alley Insider CrunchGear]

1) PlayStation Home is out, but in Open Beta status. If the world of Home feels sparse or buggy, Sony wants you to remember that it’s not really out yet, even though it’s actually been released to the public. The final version of PlayStation Home with all of the features Sony has teased is promised for next year.

2) It’s not a firmware update. So to download PlayStation Home, don’t go searching around System Update for the software. The option to download Home is built right in to the XMB under Network. And while the initial download is just 77MB, each area takes another 10-20MB. The system requires that you reserve 3077MB of storage for all of Home.

3) Chatting has mixed results. Talking to others is fairly mediocre in quality but is interestingly proximity-based, just like in real life. So if someone is speaking near you, you hear it, whether you want to or not. (Luckily, I was able to mute the idiot shouting “I’m a venereal disease” over and over.) Also of note, if you have friends in a different territory than you live, they won’t be seen in public spaces, but you can invite them to your apartment to “chat.”

4) There will be microtransactions, lots of ‘em. Diesel is the partner Sony has been most vocal about for the time being, with pieces of their branded clothing available for $US1-$US2. And if you want to expand beyond your base apartment, a Summer House will be available for $US5.

5) There are lots of dudes. Lots of them.

6) Free Games! PS Home features free bowling and billiards along with a few choices in arcade games. Your avatar actually walks up to a particular arcade cabinet before playing games like a Breakout clone or a gimped version of Echochrome. Interesting in theory, so-so in execution. And only one guy on a machine at a time.

7) Game Spaces will be limited for now, but available in the Open Beta. These are the themed areas for your group to meet before loading a game. The only two spaces accessible at launch will be ‘Far Cry 2′ and ‘Uncharted.’ Each also features puzzle-like objects to interact with and strategic objects like maps for strategic pre-planning.

8) Video sharing is not yet available. The Open Beta will be missing one of Home’s potentially coolest features, the option to share your media with others to enjoy virtually. Whether it’s technical or licensing issues that are holding Sony back on this feature is unknown.

9) The theatre works great…for an ad. You can sit down to watch a movie…if there were a movie. For now, you can watch a loop of a preview for Twilight and an accompanying music video. The quality is that of typical flash video, though the video screen does render smoothly into the 3D background.


10) PlayStation Home is not Second Life. You cannot create anything in PlayStation Home. You can only buy it. Sure, you have your apartment to decorate as you see fit and you can choose the clothes your avatar wears, but these options are based upon preselections—preselections that Sony has complete control over. There are five shirts available to men in Home and you can’t change the colour. If Home were Second Life, not only would there be more shirts, but those shirts would be covered in animated dildos dancing to the beat of a live vocalist.

Home could be a great platform one day, but Sony needs to provide the content to back it up. And right now, anything short of more advertising is lacking. In Home, I feel like a prisoner—my uniform matches all the other inmates as I walk around beside the other inmates endlessly with nothing to do.

[Additional sources: Wired and MTV]