Guardian Unlimited UK called up Leo Cubbin, "the Sony bod in charge of the forthcoming social network/game design platform," to ask a bunch of stuff about LittleBigPlanet. For this post, we'll focus on one of the questions which refers to customization in the game, because Leo's answer is highly suggestive of the game's future features.

The essence of the answers revolving around this topic is that creating content for LittleBigPlanet doesn't, or might not, even need to be limited to the PS3 at all, thanks to the Sony Memory Stick. For example, saith Leo:

The SixAxis PlayStation3 controller is amazingly sophisticated, but there are also other ways to input into PlayStation3. For example, you can take your Sony Ericsson phone, whiz out memory stick and put it into the PlayStation3, so anything contained on memory stick can be imported into the game. I can take a photo of you on my phone, pop it in and put the photo onto a character's face.

So it is possible to turn someone into a sock puppet, thanks to Sony Ericsson camera phones. And maybe not even just Sony Ericsson phones, for Leo mentions elsewhere:

If it becomes apparent (after the game has been launched) that they really want some type of offline experience other than on a PlayStation3, like on a PSP or other device, then we'd think about that for the community.

And then, Leo says "you can use your PC as well," and use either the MemStick or Bluetooth to get that to the PS3. (No standalone PC version of the game, though.)

Dear deity. LittleBigPLanet could unleash an explosion of creativity among the community it will nurture, and based on the laws of statistics, there's a very good chance someone's going to be (pardon the crudity) a d**k and create some age-inappropriate content, Guardian Unlimited fears.

Leo's response was to (a) note that the PS3 has built-in parental controls, and (b) bring up the YouTube analogy common to "Game 3.0" approaches. He speaks of "post-moderation" of content created by players, where the community themselves will judge and rate these user-created content for, again pardon the crudity, levels of age-inappropriate d**kness.

At the same time, he also mentions that Sony will be taking a sort of active role in content management. "There are tools which allow moderation very quickly, allowing Sony to scan a level for images and other content that's appropriate or inappropriate." They don't want to "nip" someone's creative bud, but they are also fully committed to "protect the users".

So far, the 80GB PS3 model seems limited to the southern half of the Korean peninsula only (for now, anyway). People must be asking why. And why there, to begin with. GamePro might have a theory, based on reports from South Korea that there are plans by Korean media companies to launch video-on-demand services installed to the PS3 there.

The decision to go 80GB in Korea, based on comments made by a Sony spokesperson, "was based on the assumption that the average Korean PS3 user would be able to take full advantage of the nation's 'pervasive broadband Internet network'," GamePro reports (or hypothesizes).

Well, it IS South Korea. Where the density of networks-per-area rivals the density of depleted uranium. Where video games are a way of life. Where Blizzard gave the world its first look at Starcraft 2 (grumbles).

Hanaro Telecom is in negotiations with Sony to bring their HanaTV to the PS3 for a software download and a monthly fee of the SK Won equivalent of US$ 10.75. The other company, KT, is willing to admit talks with Sony but is unable to comment any further.

Out of Ubidays 2007 is the latest trailer to Splinter Ce Assassin's Creed (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) (sorry for the Conviction segue, but it was too tempting, with all the stuff coming out of Ubidays). Welcome to more videos of Altair in glorious action, c/o GameTrailers. Actually, the Conviction segue might have been fortuitous - compare this and the latest trailer to Conviction and you see the same kind of elements: crowds and a**-kicking.

(Not meant to fuel those debates regarding the direction Conviction has taken, but just the observation that both titles are what I guess I could call "stealth-in-plain-sight" games.)

And is it just me, or did you find the trailer BGM anachronistic?

Buy: [Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Assassin's Creed (PS3)]

 

She may be too much to be contented remaining in the shadows of Freeman; Valve's Gabe Newell revealed to IGN that they might be thinking about a Half-Life spin-off revolving around Half-Life 2 (PS3, PC, Xbox 360) sidekick Alyx Vance. And Dog.

We'd like to do games that are about Alyx. We'd like to do games that are about Dog. I don't think we've made this decision that it's always going to be you playing Gordon in the first-person with Alyx as a companion...

Obviously having Alyx as the player character breaks the "silent protagonist" mold of Half-Life - unless Valve mutes her, of course - but it does allow the devs to explore other parts of the Half-Life universe. A lot of the Half-Life universe. Like, what the heck really happened in that Seven-Hour War?

Of course, this might still be in the future; Valve's just begun with Episode Three after all.

Although Tommi Pisto's email tip, represented by the JPEG you're looking at stage right, makes the case perfectly clear, why it's happening that the PS3's playback of larger-than-4GB MPEG-2 video files is rather shot. Although the menu language isn't English, the running commentary and the results are still perfectly understood.

In those test cases, the PS3 can't properly read files larger than 4GB, leading to a screwy inability to track (rewind/fast forward) through the video. As Tommi notes, this bug makes the PS3 ineffective as a home media center "for those who wants to watch their own captured (Sony HDV digital camcorder) files (one hour cassette = 10GB)." In short, it could spark home video issues.

Well thanks, Tommi, for bringing this to light. Now we wonder if this is a firmware thing, possibly encouraging a future update to correct it. Too bad we don't know what firmware Tommi experimented on. We wonder if Sony's aware of this and if this is an isolated case or not.

Just click the pic for a closer look.

Ladies and gentlemen, whether you have a dedicated Blu-ray player or a PS3 sitting in your living room, Blu-ray.com has unveiled the latest batch of releases-in-that-format for this Tuesday, May 22 - and the weeks after that, but we'll concentrate on this week for now. Big titles for this batch; big titles.

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Disney/Buena Vista)
  
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Disney/Buena Vista)
  
• And just in time for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, too.

• Mission: Impossible (Paramount)
  
• Mission: Impossible II (Paramount)
  
• You may want to buy a new couch as well.
  

• Freedom Writers (Paramount)
  
• Flags of Our Fathers (Paramount)
  
• Letters from Iwo Jima (Warner Bros.)
  
• Apocalypto (Disney/Buena Vista - who would have thought?)
  
• Perhaps you can use one of these in a history report?

• Closer (Sony Pictures)
  
• Okay, that's just your crush on Natalie Portman talking.

Apparently the dual-SKU model ain't just for Warhawk, too. Talking to PALGN, System 3 CEO Mark Cale mentioned that the Epyx title California Games rumored to come to the Wii, is coming to the Wii. Twice. "You'll be able to buy it online," he says, "and you'll be able to buy it as a retail product, too."

Dang. Someone reevaluate the economics of what Peter Dille said about this dual-SKU thing.

And speaking of Peter Dille, Mark also confirms that California Games will be coming to the PS3 as well. Twice. He says it can/will be bought on the PlayStation Network and as a physical retail copy. Mark doesn't mention about any extra goodies for buying a blob of optical plastic (either the Wii optical plastic or the PS3 optical plastic), however.

At this, we can also suspect that the California Games coming to the Wii and PS3 isn't just a simple port of the original, Amiga-era Epyx title, but potentially a full-blown new-gen revamp (or else why dedicate blobs of optical plastic to the title?). Potentially, it could mean motion-sensing controls, high-def graphics (depending on platform), yada yada, but no concrete details have surfaced yet.

Cale did mention that the Wii version would be "playable online through the Wii," though. So there's online multiplayer, too.

Granted, the video game console is rapidly becoming saturated with the same genres: shooters, action, sports, sandbox. Innovation did happen, but a lot of it was stove-piped, locked within the genre rather than in the greater world of console gaming itself.

Brave is a title that bucks conventions and is willing to take risks. One more recent development was bringing the traditionally PC-centric real-time strategy genre to consoles, which until games like Full Spectrum Warrior and Battle for Middle-Earth II, were rather clunky and painful affairs. But now, we have Command & Conquer 3, and Ensemble is spinning Halo Wars up to speed.

In the same vein I'm taking another PC-centric game genre and looking at its chances in console gaming. Except this time, unlike RTS games, I'm less confident about its chances - not because it can't be done, but out of the fear that just like innovation, interests in console gaming are rather stove-piped as well. And for the most part, the console is locked to shooters, action, sports, and sandbox.

Pity, really. Consoles could be a potential breakout ground for the submarine simulator.

Thar she blows up, Cap'n. Appreciation - and cynicism - for console subsims after the jump.

As more post-Gamers Day Warhawk goodies come rolling in, these, in turn, are screens and renders of "Nemesis."

"Neme-wha?" If it weren't for the renders being labeled "Nemesis," we'd still be wondering what the heckie is a Nemesis (aside from the dictionary definition, of course). Nemesis, in this case, is the name of one of the aircraft models you can hop on and fly in Warhawk - a rather sleek, gun-metal brute bristling with cannons and other armaments, aching to light up the skies with fireballs.

No fact sheets came with this batch of screens, so we can't speak of the definitive combat performance of this model - except probably to repeat that bromide "It's not the plane, it's the pilot." Still, if it looks good, it flies good. And if you fly good, well, the skies will definitely fill with the screams of the unlucky.

   

A few more screens after the jump.

PlayStation Home became a point of contention between Kotaku and Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) prior to its unveiling at GDC 2007. Even Peter Dille admitted in this interview with Game Informer during Gamers Day that Sony tends to "keep our cards a little close to the vest behind everything". Well, coy Sony aside, Dille was willing to talk about the paradigm of the PlayStation Network.

Let's start at Home.

I think Home really demonstrates the creativity and unique approach that we have to this business. When we were preparing to launch PS3 a lot of people said, "Okay, I guess they’re going to match Live feature by feature and we’ll just expect a derivative approach." That’s not Sony’s way of doing things.

Based on Dille's comments in this interview, one could take the impression that Sony will (take on the challenge to) prove that PlayStation Network could deliver unique, play-worthy, or otherwise attention-snapping content on the PS3. As Dille sees it, Sony first-party games will be the first to exploit some of PlayStation Home's features like the Hall of Fame and trophies, but he hopes that third-parties can implement those features "as soon as possible."

The other advantage of getting first-party titles up to speed with Network and Home: tech transfers. Dille calls it a "rolling approach." "We’ve got to build it first and make sure they know how to do it," he said. As he points out, you need a first-gen to get to second-gen and experiences and tools earned through the launch titles will benefit both first and third-party second-gen titles. Initiatives like PlayStation EDGE will help spread the wealth, Dille points out.

Dille can't answer if Hall of Fame will be a requirement for third-party PS3 titles to meet - he's not in charge of third-party requirements. He still believes that the big push for Hall of Fame will come from the third party. He thinks there's "a lot of self-motivation to do it because it's a great way to keep people interested in their games."