Twisted Metal Goes For the Gore and the ‘Mature’ Rating, Passing on Public Beta

(Kotaku) – Most Twisted Metal games, despite their carnage, have been rated T for Teen. The lone exceptions are Twisted Metal: Black, the 10-year-old PlayStation 2 game with a darker bent, and this fall’s equally grisly PlayStation 3 reboot.

Eat Sleep Play co-founder and Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe told Comic-Con attendees this weekend that the PS3 game, originally designed with a T rating in mind. But the game’s live action cinematics, bloody vignettes based on the game’s key players, were too graphic for the ESRB’s lower rating.

Jaffe showed Comic-Con attendees an incomplete version of one of those live action sequences, this one based on the series’ iconic serial killer Sweet Tooth. Beforehand, Jaffe warned that it probably wasn’t appropriate for little kids, given the blood, violence and grim dialogue. While not excessively gory, the impressive live action cinematic did contain some very intense imagery, with a high body count, some nasty language and at least one eye-stabbing scene. The audience lapped it up, reacting positively to the promise of more graphically violent horror fare from Eat Sleep Play.

Better still, the cinematic did a very capable job of explaining why a serial killer was taking part in a car combat competition run by Twisted Metal’s Calypso.

What may disappoint fans of Twisted Metal were two thing Jaffe all-but shot down: a public multiplayer beta and a collector’s edition of the PlayStation 3 game. Jaffe said that Twisted Metal would see a private and semi-private beta, but that a wider beta test wouldn’t really be necessary. As for the collector’s edition, Jaffe poo-pooed the idea, implying that the game itself would comprise the complete package.

Twisted Metal is on the books for an October 4 release date on the PlayStation 3 in North America.

[Full article at Kotaku.com]

In no way did it happen like this, but it would be cool if it did.

(Reuters) – Spanish police arrested three suspected members of the so-called “Anonymous” group on Friday on charges of cyber attacks against targets including Sony’s PlayStation store, governments, businesses and banks.

The police said the accused, arrested in Almeria, Barcelona and Alicante, were guilty of coordinated computer attacks from a server set up in a house in Gijon in the north of Spain.

Spanish police alleged the three arrested “hacktivists” had been involved in cyber attacks on Spanish banks BBVA and Bankia and the Italian energy group Enel as well as Sony PlayStation stores.

Members of the loosely coordinated “Anonymous” group, known for wearing Guy Fawkes masks made popular by the graphic novel “V for Vendetta,” had also attacked government sites in Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand, police said.

“They are structured in independent cells and make thousands of simultaneous attacks using infected ‘zombie’ computers worldwide. This is why NATO considers them a threat to the military alliance,” the police said in a statement.

“They are even capable of collapsing a country’s administrative structure.”

The arrests are the first in Spain against members of the “Anonymous” group following similar legal proceedings in the United States and Britain.

The police did not rule out further arrests.

Here we have another one of Coin-Op TV’s installments of some E3 coverage with Hailey Bright (Busy Gamer’s Gamette of the Year 2009). Hailey talks with Toys For Bob’s executive producer Jeff Poffenbarger about Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure. Check it out!

Thanks to Coin-Op TV for sharing this video from E3 with us, you can check out more of their E3 coverage here at www.coin-op.tv.

Geohot makes a break for it!

(Ubergizmo) – Famed iPhone hacker turned PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz a.k.a Geohot, has reportedly fled to South America from his New Jersey home in an attempt to escape Sony in their ongoing court battle over hacking the video game console.

According to VGHQ, Hotz has not been complying with Sony’s requests to hand over hardware related to his PS3 hacking. Devices such as his computer hard drives were supposed to be forked over to Sony for inspection untouched, with all potential hacking tools in tact. In Sony’s defense, it wanted to search for any names and contacts of any co-hackers that worked with Hotz to break the system’s security and allow unsigned code to run on the machine.

Since then, Sony has apparently learned that Hotz had deleted “integral components??? from his hard drives and that the hacker lied to the Court about not having a PlayStation Network account.

[Full article at Ubergizmo.com]

Thor - God of Thunder

Last week out in California, most games press got the chance to fly out and check out the new Thor and Captain America video games. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fly out. In Chicago at C2E2, I was able to demo the final build of Thor: God of Thunder for the Xbox 360 and the Wii. The footage I was able to capture was off-screen with a Flip-like camera. With experiencing the controls on both consoles, I can clearly justify their port to each console. For once for a multi-platform game, I think the Wii version plays the best. Though the graphics look terrible comparing to the Xbox 360 version, the controls for god powers work so much better. The motion controls feel natural and don’t take much time getting used to. With the Xbox 360 version, all of the god powers are on the yellow Y button.

Without further delay, enjoy looking at some gameplay from my demo with the games executive producer:

(Gamespot) – Sony Online Entertainment’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game DC Universe Online is proving to be a massive success for its maker. According to the publisher, the title has used its superhuman strength to become SOE’s fastest-selling game ever.

The news comes via the Twitter post of SOE president John Smedley, who said the game is evaporating from store shelves.

“Working on out-of-stock problems for DCUO,” he said. “It’s out [sic] fastest selling game ever. Should have more inventory in Monday.”

Smedley also used the social networking space to tout Steam sales figures. Smedley said DC Universe Online was #1 in sales on Steam last week. He did not offer further specifics as to how well the PS3 iteration is selling.

Set within the DC Comics world, DC Universe Online lets players create a superhero or villain and fight alongside or against iconic comic book characters, such as the Joker, Batman, Superman, and others. It was developed under the creative direction of famed comic book artist Jim Lee.

(Gamespot) – Recently, hackers proclaimed victory over the PlayStation 3′s security measures, releasing security keys allowing people to run unauthorized software on their consoles, including pirated games, homebrew programs, and even custom firmware. Sony Computer Entertainment America fired back yesterday, filing suit in US District Court against original iPhone jailbreaker George Hotz and multiple members of a hacking collective called fail0verflow.

The suit seeks injunctive relief and damages, accusing the hackers of breach of contract, tortuous interference with contractual relations, trespassing, common law misappropriation, and violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Copyright Act, and the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.

Additionally, Sony characterizes the hackers’ efforts as a conspiracy because they worked together to circumvent the PS3 security measures and encouraged others to build on those actions. As a result, Sony wants each of the defendants held liable for all acts committed in furtherance of the conspiracy by the other members.

“Unless this court enjoins defendants’ unlawful conduct, hackers will succeed in their attempts to ensure that pirated software can be run on the PS3 system, resulting in the destruction of SCEA’s business,” the suit states.

Sony is also seeking a temporary restraining order preventing the defendants from circumventing the PS3 security or assisting others in that act, as well as an evidentiary preservation order requiring them to preserve all hardware and files related to their hacking efforts. Those requests have not yet been ruled on by a judge.

[Full article at Gamespot.com]

Playstation Phone for 2011?

Engadget has photos of what it says is a prototype Sony Ericsson slide-out phone with PlayStation-PSP–style gaming controls. The phone has a multitouch trackpad and purportedly will appear sometime next year running Android 3.0.

Rumors of an Android 3 PlayStation Phone first emerged in August, and according to Engadget, the phone’s screen is “in the range of 3.7 to 4.1 inches??? — they have photos, but not a copy of the phone itself.

The phone is also reported to have a 1-GHz Qualcomm processor, 512 MB of RAM and 1 GB of ROM.

Engadget also claims there will be a special Sony Marketplace offering Android apps for the device. Custom Android app stores for custom Android devices seem to be the thing to do: Barnes & Noble is getting ready to do just that for its new Nook Color.

Kotaku reported earlier this week that Sony executives were showing off a slide-out widescreen gaming device that the company was calling the PSP2. The Wall Street Journal reported this summer that Sony was working on adding 3G networking to its gaming devices, and on handheld devices offering wireless communication, gaming and e-reading.

Sony’s European division stated that the leaked photos are fakes, but then changed its official response to “no comment.???

[Source]

(Gamespot) – Reports have been circulating since the beginning of June that on-demand TV show streaming service Hulu would be the latest multimedia addition to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Today, Hulu made it official. Along with formally unveiling its $10 premium service, the company confirmed that Hulu would be available through Sony’s and Microsoft’s console.

Hulu Plus is expected to debut on gaming consoles with the PlayStation 3. Though officially bearing a “coming soon” release window, a promotional video for Hulu Plus indicates that the service will be available on Sony’s console in July. For Sony’s part, the publisher would only verify the “coming soon” window. Xbox 360 gamers are expected to gain access to Hulu in early 2011. iPhone and iPad users who subscribe to Hulu Plus gain access to the service today.

Hulu did not indicate whether the free version of its on-demand content would be offered to console owners, and the company had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

As previously indicated, Hulu Plus is not a replacement for the TV show streaming content already available through Web browsers. Subscribers will gain access to full seasons of TV shows currently available through the service, instead of just the five most current episodes. Hulu Plus will also let subscribers access a range of TV shows, including The X-Files, Arrested Development, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Saturday Night Live.

Hulu is currently offering subscription plans to its premium service in limited quantities, and interested parties can apply for an invitation through the company’s Web site.

Uhhh, yeah were not sure either...

Disney has unleashed their first product shots of their massive Tron Legacy toy and electronics line, including mice, keyboards, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 controllers, and action figures with cutting-edge impulse light projection technology.

The 12 inch tall Ultimate Sam Flynn figure (right) arrives in stores in December ($40) which will be the first action figure incorporating impulse light projection technology. Like the characters in the movie, Sam’s face is projected onto the helmet of the action figure, where it appears somewhat large, and oddly misplaced. The face is animated, so when the figure spouts electronic phrases, it moves its mouth. Small children beware of this one under your bed!

Razer is doing up keyboards and mice for $79-$139, and PDP will have Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 controllers for $49.99 apiece. A bit pricey for a wired controller. The Wii version, also due out later this year, will be wireless, because thats how they roll.

[Source]