PlayStation App Heading to iphones & Android Phones

You have to give Sony a little credit for acting quickly. Microsoft recently released their Windows Phone 7 cell phones with Xbox Live integration and Sony responds by announcing the imminent release of the PlayStation App for both iOS (iphone) and Android cell phones. Unfortunately the App will only being available in Europe initially and only a few countries at that. Strangely, there's no word on a North American release.

The PlayStation App will allow you to:

* Check out your PlayStation Network trophies and keep up to date with your friends’ games and online status.
* Discover all the latest games, news and hardware for your PlayStation 3, PSP and PlayStation 2.
* Read all the announcements on the European PlayStation.Blog.
* Share your favourite products or news with your friends on Facebook, Twitter or via e-mail.

It will only be available for cell phones running iOS 4 or Android 1.6 and above

Classics HD Collections - PS2 Remastered Games

It was really disappointing to see Sony drop PlayStation 2 backward compatibility support on the PS3. The PS2 had an incredible library of great games, but not everyone had the chance to play a lot of them and backwards compatibility would have allowed anyone with a PS3 to play or relive some PS2 classics. The high cost of putting in the PS2 hardware into the PS3 along with the already high cost of the PS3 hardware created a system which was just not commercially viable. But at least now we have some sort of compromise.

Although the idea of backward compatibility coming back is an impossibility, the success of the God of War collection showed that there was a viable market for Blu-Ray disc collection of PS2 classics, upscaled in HD. Apart from the higher resolution and widescreen support, the collection also featured 60fps gameplay, anti-aliasing and trophy support.

The next collection to be released will be the Sly Racoon trilogy. Three PS2 games on one disc in HD with also some 3D and Move support for $39.99. I think that's great value, especially if, like me, you've never played the games before. You may also notice in the picture that there is a new "Classics HD" tag on the box. Hopefully, this will mean many more collections will be released. Here are just some of the collections I would like to see:

Devil May Cry Collection - Dante's trilogy needs a collection asap.

Ico & Shadow of the Colossus - The most requested PS2 collection. Need I say more?

Jak & Daxter Collection - Naughty Dog may have moved onto Uncharted, but this fantastic platform series needs a place on the PS3.

Metal Gear Solid Collection - This one would require some extra work, but Konami could port the updated Metal Gear Solid from the Gamecube to go along with MGS2 and MGS3. I'm sure it would sell plenty of copies.

Onimusha Collection - Another bunch of games by Capcom, which would be great to have on one disc.

Ratchet & Clank Collection - A no-brainer really, Ratchet & Clank are some of the best platform games around.

E3: Sony Conference

Killzone 3 in 3D was the first game trailer to take the spotlight. The audience put on their 3D glasses to enjoy the arctic theme of the new game, along with jetpacks for some first-person platforming. Killzone fans won't be dissapointed.

The PlayStation Move was demoed with a new game called Sorcery. A third-person magic game basically. You cast spells with your Move and the Wand ingame follows your movements. One of the cool aspects of the game is the ability to combine your spells to create some real havok. The Move seemed to work really well. Another game shown had various characters from popular Sony games such as Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank and Sly Racoon in one game called Heroes on the Move. Use the Move as your weapon in this platformer. Looking good. The Move controller will cost $49.99, but that's if you already own the PlayStation Eye. So no, it's not cheap. Other Move titles announced include Time Crises: Raging Storm (yay!), SingStar Dance and Echochrome 2. All these titles will be $39.99 when launched.
EA came on stage to show off Medal of Honor. The trailer certainly doesn't dissapoint and the PS3 limited edition version will include a bonus game of Medal of Honor: Frontline. EA also showed off the new Tiger Woods game with the Move, again it seems to work really well. A patch update off PSN will add the Move functionality. Finally, with Dead Space 2, the PS3 version will also include a PS3 port of the Wii game, Dead Space Extraction.

This time their was no new hardware unveiled on the PSP front. Though with the 3DS being shown this year, you can bet Sony will be showing the PSP2 at E3 2011. A trailer with new games was shown, such as the exclusive God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Gravity Crash Portable, 3rd Birthday, EyePet and Invizimals. 70 new games for the PSP are coming this year.

LittleBigPlanet 2 gameplay was shown. It pretty much lets you create any kind of game you want instead of just a platformer. Very impressive showing.

A subscription based model for PSN known as PlayStation Plus was unveiled. for a $50USD a year fee, gamers can access exclusive content for the PS3, download some games for free that would normally incur a charge and get a discount on downloads. Apparently you can only keep the content as long as you are subscribed to the service. Not sure how this works.

Having bashed the PS3 console for a long time, it was a surprise to see Gabe Newell show up and announce that Portal 2 is coming to PS3 as well as Steam. Not only that, it's also going to be the best version apparently. For someone who once said the PS3 is a "waste of time", I found it quite amusing.

Next up was Final Fantasy XIV, the only MMO. The trailer didn't show much, it looks pretty sure and there will be exclusive content for the PS3. Speaking of exclusive content, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, will also have content for the PS3 only.

Gran Turismo 5...again. Yes, another trailer. But this time, finally, we get a release date. Set your calenders for November 2.

Now we have Infamous 2, Cole will have more powers, not just lightning and will be in a new city. More of the same, should be great.

After many denials David Jaffe shamelessly unveiled a new Twisted Metal game for PS3. A Sweet Tooth van rolled on the stage with Sweet Tooth himself leering at the crowd to much applause. Only a bit of the multiplayer game was shown, but it's looking to be quite a blast with 16 players battling it out. Graphics were still pretty rough for a PS3 game, but this should improve by them time the game is released in 2011. A nice way to end Sony's E3 showing and certainly made Microsoft's show the worst by far in comparison.

Optional Installs the Mandatory Standard?

Isn't it strange that both Microsoft and Sony don't have any rules when it comes to installations of game data on the hard drive? And isn't it even stanger that all games don't let you play the game with and without installations on the PS3, just like the Xbox 360? Why is it mandatory in some games on the PS3 to install usually GB's of data?

I can understand if for multiplayer the data isn't installed, then everyones game will load differently and require synching, but there's no excuse for the single player part of the game. I'm on the 40GB HDD PS3 and it's definately not much space to work with, I know that 80GB is the standard now, but even that can get filled up quick when many games install more than 4GB onto the HDD. Add in downloadables from the PSN store, some, like the ones you buy which take up permanent space on your hard drive and it will fill up quick. Bought a new game with a mandatory install and your hard drive not have enough space? Tough, you'll have to delete something to play it. Then wait while it installs and finally get to play the game. It reminds me back to the old days when I used to play PC games and the waiting for the new game to install...

So what if it takes longer to load? Let me install the game data if/when I want to. Then there's the opposite end of the spectrum, being unable to install any data to make the experience more enjoyable. Let's take Killzone 2 for example, what the hell is up with that? There's no manual install option and what's the result? When playing the single player game, the checkpoints often stutter and the game needs to load the next section off the disc. If installing data on the hard drive would have made it a seamless experience (which I'm sure it would!), then why wasn't the option there? I think this is even worse than a mandatory install. At least let us have the option, if we want faster install times.