Sony's Big Week

[kak]

closed Home beta e-mails were sent out today for NA. check your mailboxes.

Got my e-mail.. time to see what this is all about.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Got my e-mail.. time to see what this is all about.

Same here. Downloading now.

[popisdead uk]

Dont forget to let us know how it is :)

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

One of these days I'll be accepted into something.

If it's LBP, that's fine Sony.

[kak]

I thought my PS3 froze when I first started it. Takes forever to load.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

I thought my PS3 froze when I first started it. Takes forever to load.

I thought the same exact thing.

My first impression is I have come across a character creator that for some reason I cannot get a perfect likeness of me, which is weird as I always am able to.

My second impression, is it is still a Beta, no mistaking that.

[Nightz]

i'm still homeless. :(

the end of the week should be fun for me though...socom beta, motorstorm demo (if qore comes out this week), and of course...girl with a stick.

[kak]

Is it taking forever to download the maps for you too? This is painfully slow. Also, what is your PSN? I'm kakwvu.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

I'm guessing everyone new is trying to log in at once?

At least the servers are being stress tested :laugh:

Don't want day 1 of home open beta to be anything like the disaster that MGO beta was or GT5P update day.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Nope, maps for me downloaded quick as can be, but I also have a blazing fast connection...

So lets see, it is way past my bedtime and I need to go to bed, but some initial impressions...

I have always said I could care less about Home, and my initial run through more or less has solidified those feelings but I do not feel as against it as I initially did...

I can see how people could be interested in the social aspect of it all, but I personally could care less. I actually had someone come up to me and tell me my Avatar was Fat!!! (and I barely made myself fat which is funny). I am not even kidding though, so that gives you an idea of the level of maturity that can be found throughout. I also witnessed first hand some guy hitting on what was the only women avatar to be seen. That was quite amusing. I also saw someone talking about how his hair "looked badass." So ummm, yeah, not much else I can say to that.

I would have pimped out my apartment, but there is not much furniture to do anything with. I even went to the mall and got the free furniture they are currently offering, and not much was actually real furniture, so I did not even bother.

So the best time I had, and I was cracking myself up (and my wife I might add) as I was smack dab in the center of the town underneath the big movie screen, and I was dancing with no music. I also look like a true character with my Army Jacket, Shorts, Wingtoed Black And White Shoes, and a Mustache (for some reason no goatees or beards are available yet), so I truly looked like some deviant dancing to nothing, and I found a lot of people had a good sense of humor about it. I had several people come up and try to do whatever dance move I decided to do, and I literally did this for a good half an hour. It was amusing, and part of me wants to leave my PS3 on 24 hours a day with just me dancing in the center of town to no music just so I become that crazy old bald man who dances in town, but it was not that amusing I would actually do it, and the novelty eventually wore off.

Bringing up the PSP is an incredibly cool feature, and I can see the inviting people to play games through Home being BY FAR the most used aspect of it all, truly and sincerely it seems like it is going to be very useful for getting parties together, so that was cool.

Finally, since it is very late, I am concerned that they plan on launching it this year, as it seemed EXTREMELY buggy. I know it could be because of the extremely huge influx of people signing on for the first time, but the first time I ever had my PS3 freeze on me, was today, and all I was trying to do was take off the sunglasses I had on. Sound also skipped like every 10 seconds, literally, so that got annoying fast. I also thought it was HILARIOUS that they had canned background voices everywhere you went, and the most prominent voices were women that were nowhere to be seen. As many said as I was walking through the environment, and I am not kidding I saw it at least 20 times, it was indeed a Sausage Fest, so why pretend women are there with fake background voices??

Overall though, and this is coming from someone who had little to no interest in Home itself, I was left with a feeling that it was not so Bad, but I also could not help but feel if this is the big Ace Sony has been hiding up their sleeve, it could be very tough times ahead, as I see it amusing people for awhile, then getting old quickly, and the services that are actually very useful, should have just been trimmed down to their own entities, and not part of this entire social network.

Please keep in mind, I am going to be extra critical on Home as I was not and never was a huge fan of the concept to begin with, I just need to be able to play games, and play them easily with other people. With that said, I can definitely see people getting completely wrapped up in this whole virtual world, as I did walk past several conversations (all text based mics were not working) where it was people who had obviously met or known each other prior to today. So that aspect of it all is interesting indeed, it really is just of no interest to me. Even with no real interest, I can see myself spending hours doing literally nothing except cracking myself up dancing when I am not supposed to be, as that was damn funny, so I think that does say something positive about it, I honestly do.

Oh finally, the biggest aspect I was concerned with, the actual games Space, was only okay. Bowling was a bit strange and took some getting used to, and I have played better Flash based Pool (Billiards) games, so that was a let down. The arcade games were just okay, and are free for a reason, nothing comes close to matching the quality of PSN titles (but that is what you get for free I would imagine).

I could keep going on and on, but I really need to go to bed, and I definitely plan on checking it out more over the next few days and weeks, I do, and I am left right now with a 50/50 feeling about it. I don't hate it anymore, but I do not really like it either, but I do think some of the aspects I mentioned have great potential, especially the ones that let you game with other people.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Fair review of Home (Y)

I'm someone who's interested in it, but I do have a niggling feeling it's not going to be GREAT for me on Launch, but more-so after some times passes and games ramp up support for it/developers ramp up support for it and we get a kick ass 3D trophy room :p

Unless I'm surprised and a decent amount of games have support out the door - I wouldn't actually be surprised with that. Even GTA4 before release was said to have Home support.

I'm actually quite glad I'm not beta testing it now, as it sounds a bit ugly in it's current state.

Is it graphically still looking good? One of the things I'd comment on from what I've seen in photos/videos - It does seem to look (Y)

[Sethos]

I'm actually quite glad I'm not beta testing it now

No your not, admit it :p

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Fair review of Home (Y)

I'm someone who's interested in it, but I do have a niggling feeling it's not going to be GREAT for me on Launch, but more-so after some times passes and games ramp up support for it/developers ramp up support for it and we get a kick ass 3D trophy room :p

Unless I'm surprised and a decent amount of games have support out the door - I wouldn't actually be surprised with that. Even GTA4 before release was said to have Home support.

I'm actually quite glad I'm not beta testing it now, as it sounds a bit ugly in it's current state.

Is it graphically still looking good? One of the things I'd comment on from what I've seen in photos/videos - It does seem to look (Y)

That is one thing I realized I forgot to post about, graphically it is right up there with the best visuals seen on the system, especially considering the scope of things, so it really is incredibly nice looking, no doubt about that.

Oh also I was thinking about it, and I want to start the first official Gang if there is not one already. It will not be a tough gang, instead we will do something funny, just not sure what it is yet. Naturally we all have to dress the same, etc., so let me know who is in when Home actually launches.

[popisdead uk]

The things you mention do ring true with what I read in the BETA section of the Playstation forums, I'm hoping that they are using slightly older builds to 'stress' test the network, it does appear that way.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Oh also I was thinking about it, and I want to start the first official Gang if there is not one already. It will not be a tough gang, instead we will do something funny, just not sure what it is yet. Naturally we all have to dress the same, etc., so let me know who is in when Home actually launches.

?

:laugh:

[Ricardo Gil]

?

:laugh:

He said "dress the same" not undress :p

[Cormier6083]

?

:laugh:

Mmmm...

:laugh: lol, jk

[soniqstylz]

He said "dress the same" not undress :p

Something more like this...

[Cormier6083]

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Something more like this...

What the absolute **** @ that guys face in the top pic, middle :laugh:

In fact, those pictures full stop just make me want to end myself hahaha.

[Dirk]

I hope they fix the speeds at some point. It look me 11 mins to download 17mb area.

[Cormier6083]

I hope they fix the speeds at some point. It look me 11 mins to download 17mb area.

Lucky you... it would have took me 35 minutes!

[popisdead uk]

I hope they fix the speeds at some point. It look me 11 mins to download 17mb area.

The speeds are fine for some, and not others. I don't think it's a problem at Sonys end.

[Ricardo Gil]

The speeds are fine for some, and not others. I don't think it's a problem at Sonys end.

There's not just one server at their end. Some can be handling the stress well, others might not.

[popisdead uk]

There's not just one server at their end. Some can be handling the stress well, others might not.

and there was me thinking it was all on one server! :laugh:

I know how these things work, I've been implementing them for the majority of my life. I still don't think the problem is at Sony's end. If they had servers that were bouncing off the roof with traffic they would reconfigure the routes etc.

I think it's more down to ISPs