Bungie Day ‘08: Cold Storage for free, Legendary maps 600 MS Points!

Yep, it’ll be a very happy Bungie Day indeed! For those of you who DON’T know what Bungie Day is, every July 7th (due to Bungie’s fetish with the number 7) is celebrated by Bungie making some sort of special announcement, or offering up some great free stuff for their fans. This July 7th will be no exception, as Bungie’s newest Halo 3 map, Cold Storage, will release for FREE on July 7th. Also, July 7th will see the pricing of the Legendary map pack for Halo 3 drop from 800 to 600 Microsoft points. The best news coming out of all this is that these prices will NOT be a one day deal. Rather, Cold Storage will always be free, and the Legendary Map Pack will cost 600 Microsoft points from July 7th until doomsday.

More info, along with some other announcements about a special 48 hour playlist through July 7th, can be found at Bungie.net.

 

2.40 has been removed!

PS3 firmware update 2.40 has been removed from update servers. It is currently impossible to update to 2.40 if you have not already, but I’ll post back when 2.40 goes live again.

People have been complaining about 2.40 bricking their PS3s, which is probably the main reason why the update has been pulled. 2.41 coming soon, I bet!

 

Super Stardust HD update 4.00 is LIVE, adds trophy support EDIT: Some insight

You read correctly, the first game to actually support trophies is Super Stardust HD, with it’s 255 MB 4.00 patch going live just a few minutes ago. The list of trophies acquirable is as follows:

Bronze Trophies

• Hero of Lave – Complete planet Lave
• Hero of Coventina – Complete planet Coventina
• Hero of Nemain – Complete planet Nemain
• Hero of Taranis – Complete planet Taranis
• Hero of Segomo – Complete planet Segomo
• The Tokenizer – Collect 5 tokens with a single boost in Arcade
• Scrooge MacBoom – Get 10 bombs in Arcade
• Extra Ships Optional – Survive 7 minutes without dying in Endless*
• Close Encounters – Survive 45 seconds without shooting or using bombs in Survival*

Silver Trophies

• Token Hoarder – Collect 15 tokens with a single boost in Arcade
• Well Prepared – Get 20 bombs in Arcade
• Shield Blaster – Collect 5 shield tokens while already having a shield
• Scenic Route – Complete a planet without using boost
• Late Boomer – Get 15 bombs in Bomber*
• Shock and Awe – Destroy 10 nukes in Endless*

Gold Trophies

• Multiplier Hero – Get 10x multiplier
• Split screen Co-op – Get 3 minutes of continuous Co-Op weapon boost on Segomo*

Note that the Trophies marked with an * require the purchase of the SSHD expansion pack that hit the PSN last year. Also know that getting this update may not be so easy…I had to retry once to get it after the game failed to download the update the first time, while others on PS3Fanboy.com have been reporting even worse luck with this update. Busy servers = problems, but it’s all worth it!

Thanks, PS3F!

EDIT: Hey all, I’ve been noticing the search terms that have been coming into my site, and it seems that quite a few of you have been having issues with this update. I’d like to direct your attention to the fact that PS3s are not being instructed to download update 2.40 at this time, so I would assume that even if you manage to get the 4.00 update for SSDHD, you won’t likely be able to use it, as the firmware 2.40 would be required for the trophy functionality to be useful. That’s just how I see it anyway. So if you’re having trouble with this update, I’d leave it alone if you don’t have the 2.40 update for your PS3 yet, as the SSDHD update won’t be very useful without 2.40.

 

The Man, the Myth, the Update: 2.40 Has Landed!

For all of you nighthawks out there, Firmware v2.40 for the PS3 has been live for over a half hour now. Go download as soon as possible! Mine downloaded within the time it took me to shower (I take long showers though). If you get in quick, you might be able to get the update in under a half hour. Happy in game XMBing!

 

New Resistance 2 trailer! Get it before it’s gone! EDIT: It’s Gone. :(

I don’t have a ton of time, since I”m headed off to work in about five minutes or so, but I ran across a PS3 Fanboy post about there being a new Resistance 2 trailer that leaked. I’ll link to the youtube video and the PS3F post.

Trailer!

Source.

EDIT: Oh well, looks like Sony and Insomniac had to ruin the fun…the video has been taken down. It’s a shame really, since the trailer doesn’t really ruin anything that Insomniac hasn’t announced yet. It’ll probably be back up during E3.

 

Rumor: Are we finally getting a PS2 game download service for the PSN? EDIT: SCEA says no.

The title says it all, but according to a fellow on the N4G forums claims that he got a screenshot of the service from a friend who works for Sony London. This friend claims that the service is set to be announced at E3 and launch in late summer, with Europe seeing it first. Could be a fake, could be real….who knows? Here’s the source, and the screenshot follows:

EDIT: According to Patrick Seybold, the director of corporate communications & social media for SCEA, “I’m not sure where the image came from. At this point, we haven’t made any announcements, and there are no plans for PS2 downloadable titles on PS3.” Hmmm. Keep in mind that this man is from SCEA, and the image in question is said to have come from someone at SCEE. In my opinion, this isn’t quite debunked. Quote from Gamepro.

 

Rock Band 2 in September…for 360 owners

Yep, you read that right. Earlier today, IGN broke the story of Rock Band 2 coming to an Xbox 360 near you this September, with a release to follow on “all relevant platforms”. The best news to come out of this story is that all Rock Band 1 downloadable tracks will work on Rock Band 2! Also, all Rock Band 1 instruments will work with Rock Band 2. While there will be new versions of instruments shipping in a bundle for Rock Band 2, they will apparently be no more than cosmetic improvements to the existing instruments (read: no new features for the new instruments). Other information is teased, but still unconfirmed, in the interview, which can be found by clicking HERE.

 

2.40: In game XMB, Trophy support, and more all on July 2nd!

Here it is folks, the real deal for PS3 owners! A good chunk of the features that the PS3 is missing when compared to the Xbox 360 will be introduced in firmware update 2.40, coming on July 2nd! Two days away! I’ll throw out a quick list of the good stuff we’ll be seeing soon:

• In game XMB, akin to how the Xbox 360 can pop out its information blade. Not all features are usable while playing a game, but the XMB will inform you when you select a feature that isn’t usable while playing a game (for example, you can’t watch a movie or play a PSN game from an in-game XMB). You can’t start a voice chat from the in-game XMB either, unfortunately. You CAN check your friend list, add friends, check messages, and adjust Bluetooth headset settings all from the in-game XMB though.
• Trophies! While they are very similar to the Xbox 360’s achievement system, they are still a welcome addition. Each game has a certain allotment of Trophies, and these trophies are graded by difficulty: The easiest being Bronze, the next easiest Silver, and the hardest are Gold. If you were to get all of the trophies in a particular game, you’ll be awarded a Platinum trophy. Trophies also contribute to your “gamer level”, which is basically just there to give others an idea of how many trophies you have collected. Speaking of others, you will be able to look at the profiles of other gamers in much greater depth now, and be able to compare trophy scores and the trophy scores within individual games. Again, very similar to Xbox Live on the Xbox 360, but still a welcome addition.
• Unfortunately, games will need to be patched to take advantage of the trophy system. Games that are to be patched by the time firmware update 2.40 hits are PAIN, Warhawk, and Super Stardust HD. According to Sony, all games are patchable, and many new games will take advantage of the Trophy system when they ship/release, including Buzz!, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, LittleBigPlanet, NBA 2009, PixelJunk Eden, Resistance 2, and SOCOM: Confrontation, for example.
• Some small things have also been added, such as the persistent Google search feature on the XMB that was added for the PSP’s firmware 4.00 update will be added in 2.40 for the PS3. Our friend lists have also been upgraded to allow for 100 friends already. The friend upgrade apparently happened either in 2.36 or when the PSN servers were down for maintenence.

For more information, including walkthrough videos, check out the Playstation Blog for all the info. Links to both relevant posts:

In Game XMB

Trophies

 

Gears 2 multiplayer interview

1up.com just released their interview with Cliff “CliffyB” Blezinski, and it delivers some sweet multiplayer goodness. Nothing new is really unveiled, but it is nice to see that the game’s multiplayer content looks smoother, more polished, and more fun than the first.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/19602

Sorry I can’t do more than a link, but I can’t seem to get the embed code working. I’ll keep trying though.

 

What I want (and expect) to see from E3

I’m bored right now, so I’ll talk about something that we’ll be waiting another month for: E3. While it really is a shade of it’s former self, E3 is still the one of the best times of the year in terms of big video game-related news. I’m just gonna throw out some key bullet points of things I want to see from the 15th of July to the 17th of July.

• I expect to see Microsoft and Sony up the ante in terms of their XBL/PSN offerings. What I mean by this is that they should be announcing some big time upgrades in terms of types of content offered (bigger and longer XBLA games from Microsoft, movie and music download service from Sony), and some big announcements about Sony’s Home and some cool Home-like things from Microsoft as well (along the lines of their recent survey leaks). Also, a pipe dream of mine is that Sony will announce that they’ve figured out how to speed up download speeds for anything on the PSN. If you compare similarly sized files downloaded on the PSN and XBL, XBL is far superior. As a side note to that, I would like to see Sony announce that content will be going up on the PSN throughout each week, instead of forcing us to wait for one big update every week.
• I would LIKE to see Nintendo recommit themselves to the core gamer with some big game announcements, but I honestly don’t see it happening. I think we might see something about their new Kid Icarus game or a new Kirby, but besides that…Wii Sports 2: More Sports for the Wii Fit Board! edition wouldn’t shock me. And an external storage solution? Don’t hold your breath. They’re likely just starting to look into that.
• CliffyB is probably going to be seen demoing a battle of some sort in Gears 2, but I would really like to see him demo their improved online multiplayer in Gears 2. That may be what I’m looking forward to most this November.
• I want to be blown away by Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. I want to learn something about this game that makes me thing that it is one of the 360’s killer apps. I expect that, if anything, there might be some cool multiplayer info that we haven’t heard about yet.
• I expect Insomniac to show off some of the early work they are doing on their planned revamping of myresistance.net, and help us to see how they plan on making it a social networking website.
• I expect Square-Enix to announce a new RPG that will be PS3 exclusive. They owe it to Sony, considering all the good stuff they’re bringing to the Xbox 360.
• A new handheld announcement from Nintendo. I feel that Sony will wait a year longer before rolling out a PSP 2 of some sort, but Nintendo is due for a new version of the DS. Yes, that’s right, I don’t expect a new Nintendo handheld, just another revamped DS. DS Liter, if you will. I would expect it to have internal flash memory or a port for an SD card, in order to hold game demos downloaded from the Wii.
• Speaking of the Wii, expect to see some snazzy new colors for the console, controllers, and attachments. Gotta roll out that Hot Pink Wii to tap into the ten year old girl market, right?
• I expect a surprise announcement about Alan Wake from the Microsoft camp, and it won’t be as far off as we all thought it was. I feel like it really depends on when Capcom plans on rolling out Resident Evil 5. If RE5 gets a Q1 2009 release date, Microsoft will push Alan Wake into the summer of 2009, but if Capcom goes later than Q1 ‘09 with RE5, Alan Wake may just get a release date of Q1 2009.
• Speaking of big games that suddenly went quiet, Microsoft will turn E3 into a showcase for Halo Wars. I feel like we’ll get to see a good amount of what the game offers, and a solid release window. I don’t think we’ll get our hands on Halo Wars until next year, unfortunately. Microsoft just doesn’t need to push it out, considering all of their other triple-A games coming this Fall.
• To get back to some more PSN issues, I expect updates 2.40-the one with in game XMB and Trophy support-to hit by E3. Gotta drum up interest somehow!

That’s all I have for now, I’ll probably revisit the subject at some point before E3, but for now, I think those are some believable enough E3 predictions.