Though it was up and down more than an acrophobic yo-yo last night, I had a few good chances to log into the new Playstation…
Though it was up and down more than an acrophobic yo-yo last night, I had a few good chances to log into the new Playstation 3 Home, SCEA’s new virtual world for Playstation 3 owners. It would be natural to see this as an answer to Microsoft’s New Xbox Experience, but it really isn’t. NXE is just a reskinning of the old UI, with avatars and groups. Home is a world.
It’s an absolutely gorgeous world, too. My harbor apartment reminded me so much of Monterey that I felt incredibly homesick. The Central Plaza that serves as a hub for Home was clean, elegant, and high-tech, like a modern theme park.
Which, now that I think of it, would be a better description for Home. It’s a theme park.
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I ran around and started all the shops downloading – you download the areas you visit the first time you try to enter, and you can download in the background. The Bowling Alley loaded first, so I accepted Home’s offer to teleport me there when it had finished loading, and there it was.
Just like in real bowling alleys, I headed for the game room first. I played a penguin-themed Arkanoid clone for awhile, but if they really wanted to sell me, they’d have arcade games like Xevious or Galaga or Omega Race or Star Wars. Maybe they do.
I got bored with Arkanoid after awhile and got in line for a bowling game. When my turn came up, Home waited fifteen seconds for other people to join in, and off we went.
The bowling game looks very, very good. The play itself is horrible. You might expect, in a bowling game, to set the direction, speed, and curve to your ball. You can set all these things in Home’s bowling, too. Each one, though, is a mini game. A ghost track for your ball waves quickly side to side like a windshield wiped; hit X at the correct spot to set your direction, if you’re lucky. Force is a gauge that jumps up and down; again, hit X. Curve is the same thing. I can see why they did it – if you could easily do the same throw every frame, you’d just do that every time, and all games would be nothing but strikes.
I guess I like the Wii’s bowling better.
I haven’t been to the other places I downloaded – the Theater and the Mall. There are also special worlds for people who play certain games, like Far Cry 2. I don’t know if these game-specific worlds serve as lobbies for their games, but I imagine they do. Still waiting for the Rock Band one :)
The avatars, unfortunately, are not the best, and here I have to give the nod to Microsoft’s NXE. NXE avatars may not be the most accurate or lifelike, but at least they look reasonably attractive. My avatar, the closest I could come to one that looked vaguely like me, looks nothing like me. And that sweat-stained tank top needs washing.
I haven’t been sold on the idea of Home because it doesn’t fill a need I have. I have a hard drive FULL of games more fun than bowling.
But if they put accurate ports of classic arcarde games in the arcade, heck yeah, I’d play.
Home requires that you play with Controller 1. On my PS3, the first two controllers are allocated to Rock Band instruments. Once I unplugged those and restarted the controller, I had no problems. But. That was my clue as to why the Valkyrie Chronicles demo would never start for me – it ALSO required Controller 1. So I went straight to the demo and fell in love. Valkyrie Chronicles is AWESOME!
