I hope you all enjoyed the holidays, and the first 36+ hours of 2008 so far. We’re back to business as usual here at SCEA, meaning a PLAYSTATION Store update tomorrow, and regular postings resuming here on the ol’ PlayStation.Blog.
While the last couple of weeks have been kinda slow video game-news-wise, there’s still been plenty of fine reading. Everyone with a Web site or blog seems to have written up a Best Games of 2007 feature, and here are some highlights and emergent themes:
IGN may have put together the most in-depth “Best of” series, with separate listings for PSP and PS3. Lot to read there.
Gamasutra went beyond just the Top 10 Games of the Year for various systems (though Persona 3 and Ratchet & Clank Future: ToD were both honored), the site also highlighted its Top 5 Trends (#2 “Indies Going Major” – “two of the most significant games released to the console download market this year: Everyday Shooter and flOw.”), and God of War II‘s Kratos checking in as one of the “Top 5 Most Affecting Characters.”
Another nod to Persona 3, and another somewhat-lower-profile gem (Folklore) made Susan’s Top 10 on Wired’s Game|Life blog.
I found myself nodding vigorously in agreement with MTV Multiplayer writer Stephen Totilo’s “Great Gaming Moments of 2007.” Sniping soldiers on the bridge with Heavenly Sword‘s Kai and God of War II’s opening battle with the Colossus of Rhodes are two of my favorite gaming moments of 2007, and probably of all time.
Yet more love for Kratos, who not only ran away with multiple PlayStation 2 Game of the Year awards, but also received a number of cross-platform nods in GoW II.
For a more PlayStation-centric view (nothing wrong with that!), the PS3 Fanboy/PSP Fanboy sites dug really deep into every category that you could probably imagine.
And while New Years is traditionally a time to look back, I love the way Game Informer looked forward on this list. Plenty to get excited about, no?
OK, back to work on what will be an exciting 2008 for you PlayStation fans! I hope your holidays were somewhere near as exciting as it was for these kids!
will there be a ps store update this week? better be, since they skipped last week.
Cool, just picked up GOW2 on boxing day….Loved GOW1…
I Think We Found a New Video to Replace the N64 Kids :D
@alex_dlc (#1) – store update tomorrow!
@Jeff
any insite on the things to come tomorrow? please
wow, thanks Jeff Rubenstein, didnt think id get an official answer, any way you could tell us what to expect in tomorows update?
Happy New Year to SCEA!
GoW for the PSP is definately looking like a great game. The demo disc is awesome so the game should be in the top 10 for 2008.
R&C F:TOD was my game of the year for 2007.
Thanks for all of the updates in 2007 and I am looking forward to another great year for PS fans everywhere in 2008!
Hi, Jeff-
Sorry about the off-topic nature of this, but you’re the only guy who actually replies (thanks for that, by the way). Just want to know if I can expect my PS3 to ever recognize my Mac-formatted iPod, and if I can ever hope for a Mac-based Theme Compiler. Boycotting Microsoft shouldn’t work against me with my PS3!
@ChaseHammer (#5) – among other things, fans of games involving guitars will have more things to play…
Jeff,
A bit off-topic, but I downloaded the full game of Toy Home and there appears to be no way of loading your saved game progress. An e-mail to Game Republic has gone unanswered. Can you look into that? Thanks and happy new year.
Jeff thaT video is the first classic of 08 :D
Lets make This year Great!! sony You end the year great!!! and lets hope it starts that way and beyond!!! Go sony Go!!!
But Put Mexico on the PSN.
@post 3
i think they are the same kids.
common Jeff, what demos are comming tomorow? cant wait
yea im curious about tomorrows update, its been awhile since the last once so it should be good
jeff rules
I’m getting so tired of waiting to for all the Sony PS3 goodies to be released. I cant remember the last time I got excited about delivered Sony news.
Sorry to say, but its the truth!
@Jeff
You probably have no say in this but could you tell us about GameStop’s Release date for MGS4? is it really real or is gamestop just messing with us?
a LOT of people want a dmc4 demo. EVERYONE wants HOME and Little Big Planet betas.
@19
we also want the killzone 2 multiplayer beta :D
also, people really want that Haze demo that the spanish Playstation site sayd was commin
@18, 19 & 20
I hope you all are ready to be disappointed. I seriously doubt we will be seeing any of these goodies. Wish we had home already. 360 are walking all over our PS3 butts when it comes to online.
When will come firmware to play DTS HD on PS3?
best online game for me is Warhawk.
oooo and God of War 3 will be awesome. too bad we have to wait a few years so it’s great.
lol, by now almost everyone has CoD 4 though. it’s awesome. just buy it. and Haze demo would be likely soon.
back on topic MGS4 will be THE best game of 08.
@22 – atleast we dont have to pay for PSN. lol. as if XBL wasnt dissapointing sometimes
oh, and VERY off-topic; i would like an update that allows dual audio settings. as in having BOTH HDMI and Stereo audio at once. i know it’s possible. :)
@25
That wasn’t exactly my point… Look how long we’ve been begging for in-game XMB and Home? A whole freaking year man! It’s absolutely ridiculous.
How much longer do we have to wait to get quality?
You cant even tell me that.
Oh, can someone please tell me why do we always get the stupid warnings when I launch The Eye of Judgment? There’s not even any updates for the damn game.
Not to mention, the damn game have one song. Aside from those little problems, its my favorite game right now. My girl and I love playing this game after dinner.
@25
why do people beg forever about in-game XMB? it’s not really needed IMO. i mean almost everybody by now has a headset for communications and a ipod or stereo for music.
Home? well i’m with you there…
@Ghostm
They said that they’re working on it.
If it was super easy, they’d have given it to us already.
You see that horse over there? It’s dead. It’s been dead for some time. Why must you insist on beating it some more?
And if you’re so disappointed at every announcement, have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, your expectations are too high? Have the Star Wars prequels taught us nothing about having high hopes?
Great to see some love for Folklore, it’s a shame that love isn’t more well spread as the game really is quite the gem and the most welcome surprise of all the games of last year.
Sounds like hyperbole and I’m sorry but as a developer myself I was quite impressed by their unique and successful take on story telling as well successfully putting you in a fairy realm.
And there are all the lovely Folks obviously, I was impressed with the diversity and great design.
oops, i meant @ 27 my bad.
@Jeff Rubenstein so what going 2 be added
in the store this week
Still need to buy Folklore and Uncharted. I Swear. I’m so slacking and it’s 2008.
I need to pick up EoJ as well. Way to start off the year.
Speaking of the store update. can we expect a big update? Since no update last week during holiday and I know there will be double the love for Rock Band! OH speaking of that. Can we have a New Year Special if possible. XBLM got a $.99/Song deal. ;(
and speaking about Ps1 games for the ps3/psp is there talk about multiple disc games to ever hit the store? [and let’s not say “it’s a possiblity” that was so last year :P]
anyways. Bring on 2008! Going to be like no other! :D
Can Sony give a nudge to Capcom and request that they release RE 1, 2, 3. :) I’m sure you guys can work an agreement once they get a request. ^_^
Release date for Grand Theft Auto IV is set at Amazon!! April 30th!! Get your reserved now. The book is on sale on march 15th, and is 13.95 today!!
Folklore was certainly my suprise hit of the year for myself. Although, I simply loved Heavenly Sword and Uncharted’s dramatic movie game experience. More of the same please. I’ve heard Sony reps and PR talk about new up and coming games that are supposed to bring tears to the eyes (whether through joy or sadness?). When will be hearing about some new titles.
2008 is the year that will hopefully see the following come to the table and I can’t wait to get stuck into all of them;
Gran Turismo 5, Grand Theft Auto IV, Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid IV, Killzone 2, LittleBigPlanet, Home, Devil May Cry IV, Wipeout HD, Hot Shots Golf 5, Infamous.
Good Luck in 2008, look forward to the firmware updats and any new functionality that they bring. Perhaps the ability to record actual gameplay? I know you guys are trying to work at bringing it out in a firmware update. Really hope you manage to pull it off.
Happy New Year Sony. really market not just the PS3 for its hardware but the put more emphasis on the software. One important thing i would like to know is since the PS3 is using blu-ray disc to put games on and it has a larger capacity than our competitors, why is it that third parties not utilize higher texture, color and maybe even polygons and why not make the games in 1080p only for our version of the games. I know about frame rate issues but that should be no problem after trial and error. Why do they have to be the same. Is it that Sony would have to put money into the making of the game as well to get the true benefits of the blu-ray space. Burnout, DC4, etc, has got to be better on the PS3, there is know way they cannot be with all the processing power and space that the system has. If i was an investor in Sony this year would mean less mediocre quality from third parties and more true PS3 quality games. About 70 billion dollars in research went into the chip design, xbox360 cannot be better for long and PS3 needs to really start taking the market over.
Sony forever.
Great update! Can’t wait to see what’s new at the store since I just got my PS3 Dec 26th and loving it so far.
Here’s an off-topic question, how in the world do I get my GOW II to look like that pic!!!! 0_o Seriously Motorstorm and Ratchet look incredible at 720p, but when I pop in my GOW II it’s all low res and not even remotely close to the SDTV I originally played it on. I don’t even want to play it :( Tips?
~t
The Voice Changer. Please, please remove it.
For all the good things added to the PS3 in firmware, of which recently there have been many, the Voice Changer has been the single biggest stumble by the team at Playstation and gives the strong impression whoever was behind the concept does not play games on-line at all.
Many games do not have a mute function, and worse yet when no headset is present you are forced to hear chat through the TV/surround sound, which would be acceptable except now there is almost always someone with the voice pitch at maximum who are amusing themselves by knowingly ruining the game for the other players who have no method to ignore them.
The Voice Changer being accessible inside on-line games is so bad an option that it is actually counterbalancing the other usually superb options we have and personally I am starting to stop playing on-line because it is just so incredibly irritating.
I hope this will be taken seriously as a polite protest by someone who dearly wishes for PSN to grow and prosper.
PLEASE, please remove this function or add a universal Mute to firmware, please.
@Jeff
When is the next PS event? TheTGS and E3 kinda thing with new announcements and demos.
And it’s great to see this blog active again, cant wait for the new games to come out.
please make an option so that mexico has its own psn or at least let us download stuff
An off topic thing…
It’s good to know that you will implement the skype thing in the PSP but… why I had to view the video in pause and watch it frame by frame to see the video of “make calls with skype”.. why so fast? look like a subliminal massage lol…
To the people that doesn’t know what I’m talking about see the PSP video in the Sony CES website
heres the link
http://www.sony.com/ces/index.html
is in the part in the T-Mobile hotspot when they are playing a baseball game look all that frame by frame in pause
You guys cant give us just a little preview of what we gonna get the the PS store???=) Lol.
Hey Jeff tomorrow will we be getting the Rock Band content that we missed last week in addition to the content that was released this week on a certain inferior console? I’d hate to get behind.
@RobinNL (#41) – We’ll be at CES next week, and at February’s GDC which is more game-centric. That being said, we’ll have things to talk about here on the blog next week, stay tuned.
Downloadable PS2 games, it’s best for everybody. AND you can justify taking away the PS2 compatibility in the 40GB model. Hell, I’ll probably get some, ICO anyone? I am not paying $80 plus to get a new copy of ICO. You do that and you’ll be a great deal ahead of Xbox360.
Hint: You have a better back catalog.
http://www.maddigitalscientist.com
I awarded quite a few PS3 games as well, including exclusives Warhawk, Super Stardust HD, and Eye of Judgment.
JET
@47
Hey, genius – if they removed backwards compatibility, how is this making the games going to solve the problem?
EDIT – “how is making the games downloadable going to solve the problem?”
(note to self – always proofread before calling out someone for being an idiot…)