Sony just dropped the bomb at GDC this year! It’s time to turn your Playstation 3 into another platform, The Playstation Move platform!

The combination of the Playstation Eye, the motion controller and the ‘sub-controller’ you will be able to entertain yourself in 3D space in-front of your TV. You can now officially look like an absolute pillock on the PS3 at sometime this Christmas! – so buy some curtains until then.

The combination of the PS3 system and PlayStation Eye camera detects the precise movement, angle, and absolute position in 3D space of PlayStation Move motion controller, allowing users to intuitively play the game as if they themselves are within the game. PlayStation Move motion controller delivers unmatched accuracy through its advanced motion sensors, including a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, and a terrestrial magnetic field sensor, as well as a color-changing sphere that is tracked by PlayStation Eye camera. Through PlayStation Move system, both fast and subtle motion can be detected, whether the user is swinging a tennis racket, or painting with a brush. With PlayStation Move motion controller, users can provide direct input through action buttons and an analog trigger, while receiving physical feedback from rumble functionality and visual feedback from the sphere’s ability to display a variety of different colors. Furthermore, PlayStation Eye camera can capture the player’s voice or image, enabling augmented reality experiences.

The newly announced PlayStation Move sub-controller is a one-handed controller, developed to further expand the game play options that PlayStation Move games can offer^*2. PlayStation Move sub-controller features a sleek curved design that pairs with the motion controller and comes with an analog stick and directional buttons that allow users to easily control the game when moving characters or choosing a direction. Like all other Wireless Controllers for the PS3 system, it comes with a built in lithium-ion rechargeable battery as well as Bluetooth® technology, enabling the controller to transfer the input information wirelessly to the PS3 system without a cable. PlayStation Move motion controller and sub-controller will further broaden the gaming experience on the PS3 system for all genres, from games that use one motion controller to games that use both controllers.

We just can’t wait to “Move it!” – uh god.

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Xg News This Week: Are you suffering from Mapathy? Bad Servers, Portal 2 gets announced and we save F1.

Sam, Paul and John pull through once more for another entertaining podcast! Lots of new announcements this week, including debuts of new games, thoughts on: the current Blur Beta, Toy Soldiers, Final Fantasy XIII and this week’s Scrap Metal. How about we fix the sport of Formula 1 while we’re at it? Tracks + Fire will truly fix the sport!

Myself, Dave and Kieran headed down to HMV Oxford Street for yesterday’s launch of the latest Final Fantasy.

We watched Alex Zane hype the crowd, people who have amazing cos-play confidence oh and we spoke to the most important people at the event, you guys of course!

Available in High Def on the Tube!

Alex Zane ‘rocked the mic right’ last night at London’s Oxford Street hmv store, in front of 2,000 Final Fantasy fans! This making it the biggest game launch ever in hmv launch history!

Tim Ellis who is the head of the games department at HMV was thrilled:

“Last night’s Final Fantasy XIII signing at HMV’s flagship store on Oxford Street was the biggest game launch the store has ever seen. With thousands of fans queuing up round the block it even beats our stores previous best game launch event which was for World of Warcraft.

“They say games are the new rock and roll, and this incredible turnout certainly proves the point. We could organise album launches and DVD signings by major stars but I’m sure none would come close to attracting the size of crowd and enthusiastic response that we saw last night.

Well if they say games are the new rock and roll we truly rocked up! Our video coverage will be up sometime later today!

Formula One will be racing its way into High Def’ this September! Pitting in on the Xbox 360, PS3 and then later on it will be arriving on your Personal Computer!

For you guys who didn’t pick up the Formula 1 Wii-entertainment last year you are going to have to wait until September for a fully fledged high-def F1 experience! phwoah.

The September launch will see F1 2010 become the first official FORMULA ONE game to appear for Xbox 360 and marks the return of FORMULA ONE to PC after an eight year absence. The arrival of the HD editions of FORMULA ONE follows Codemasters’ extremely successful launch of F1 2009 for Wii and PSP, which became a top five best seller throughout the past holiday period.

In F1 2010 gamers will take on the full, expanded grid in a variety of game modes including GRAND PRIX, Championship, Time Trial and an extensive, innovative Career mode. F1 2010 will also feature a highly advanced damage model, fully dynamic weather system and extensive competitive multiplayer options.

The last time we saw an attempt at a decent looking F1 game was way back in 2007 – so hopefully 3 years has been a good lesson?

[Available Now for 1200 MSP – Xbox Live Marketplace]

Drift around corners with guns blazing and take out legendary competitors in the fast-paced, top-down racing game Scrap Metal™. Fight your way through explosive, action-packed missions and defeat cunning bosses to add their vehicles to your garage. Customize your newly-acquired cars and then return to the track to blast through more enemies. Jump online with Xbox LIVE ® to race against your friends and crush their cars with the wheels of your monster truck in pulse-pounding online multiplayer matches.

• Racing action: It’s fast-paced, top-down racing action with beautiful HD graphics and fantastic racing physics.
• Story mode: Take on all the cunning villains and defeat the tricky bosses.
• Awesome, customizable vehicles: Drive everything from muscle cars to monster trucks to air boats and even tanks.
• Multiplayer: Try split-screen or Xbox LIVE multiplayer modes.
• 3-D support: Scrap Metal has full anaglyph 3-D support.

Codemasters’ Guilford studio just announced their new shooter IP, Bodycount. 

Set to rip apart the genre Codemasters are to deliver a genre-defining gun play that you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else! It’s being designed by the Creative Director who brought us ‘Black’ so we expect big explosions and destruction.

We’re all massive FPS fans,” said Stuart Black, Creative Director on Bodycount “and believe that there’s room for a refresh of the shooter experience. If Race Driver: GRID™ was all about the purity of racing, then everything in Bodycount is absolutely centred on the bullet and its impact on the world. Our shredding tech enables us to create a different kind of gameplay, where players and AI can’t hide behind indestructible cover and rely on whack-a-mole mechanics. Here the environment is constantly changing as the game world is shot to hell; it’s going to be a huge amount of fun.”

The game will be the front cover of this month’s OXM – on-sale March 16th.

Game informer has got themselves the exclusive info on the upcoming Portal 2. The magazine features a good few page spreads which will be in the next issue. – We can’t go about showing them to you because, well that’s highly illegal.

Although featured in the article they do explain that Portal was seen as a “Trial” and that if all went well that they would have to make a game out of it all!

Details after the break!

- Portal was a ‘trial’. Size and assets specifically kept minimal. Had no idea it would be this popular.
- Portal was a ‘test bed’, Portal 2 is a ‘game’.
- GlaDOS returns as the antagonist.
- Chell returns, and we play as her.
- Portal 2 takes place a long time after the original. Hundreds of years, in fact. The complex has overgrown.
- Those orbs seen at the end of Portal are personality orbs. They’ve cornered off sections of the labs as their own, and are concerned about the decaying state of the complex.
- The opening sounds **** awesome. Im a bit **** I spoiled it for myself.
- Portal gun remains unchanged.
- Physics will now be part of portal puzzle solving. EG: A vent that sucks air in can be combined with a portal to ’suck’ from a different location.
- "Paint" mechanic, various liquid substances that cause some reaction. For example, in the demo shown a orange substance on the floor caused Chell to be propelled upwards. Using portals you can apply these ‘paints’ to other areas of the level for puzzle solving.
- Reflection cubes will allow Chell to reflect lazers for various puzzles.
- The co-op campaign will have you playing as two bipedal robots. The like to hold hands.
- Splitscreen for people playing on the console, and ‘picture in picture’ available for those playing remote co-op (eg: PC). This allows you to easily communicate with the other player and combine efforts for puzzle solving.

Also if the copy from the magazine (shown to the left) is correct then you can expect it to hit your Macintosh this Fall! Wicked Apple portals.

Ubisoft ruined some people’s weekends, no one could play Assassin’s Creed 2 or Silent Hunter 5 on the PC, all thanks to their DRM hammer.

For those readers who didn’t know about Ubisoft’s take on PC DRM basically they want to make sure that naughty criminals can’t go about playing their games if they have acquired them ‘illegally’. To do this they have you establish a constant connection to the Ubisoft U-Play servers so you can play-through the game. Oh and if you haven’t got an internet connection to do so, you can’t play.

Last weekend, the servers were down = no one could play either of the 2 games. Not good Ubisoft!

A rep stated on Ubisoft’s official forum that:

“clearly the extended downtime and lengthy login issues are unacceptable and that the downtime is due to exceptional demand”.

Not fun times.

On Gamestop’s website they just let slip that they have got Portal 2 in their upcoming release database.

Description:

Coming this holiday. Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007’s Game of the Year and draws from the award-winning formula of innovative game play, story, and music that earned the original over 70 industry accolades. Portal 2 introduces a cast of dynamic new characters, a host of fresh puzzle elements, and a much larger set of devious test chambers. Players will explore never-before-seen areas of the Aperture Science Labs and be reunited with GLaDOS, the occasionally murderous computer companion who guided them through the original game.