Home beta impressions

T

Technoob

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 21, 2006
Messages
5,641
Stolen from Gizmodo:

In case you're curious as to the progress of the PS3's upcoming PlayStation Home, the 3D Second Lifeish world in which you can interact with others, watch movie trailers, play games or just decorate a virtual apartment, one of our own readers was invited to participate in Sony's closed beta program and then kindly drafted up his experience for the world to read. His account confirms our skepticism while painting a pretty clear picture of exactly how Home works. And if you've got a second and a PS3, read on for his account.

Character Creation:

The first thing that I noticed when you go in is that the sliders for character customization move slow as shit. They move so slow that you can't really see the difference in the changes that you are making.

General Play

After you create your character, you jump right into your apartment. The controls are pretty intuitive and the integration of an in game psp is pretty cool (basically in game xmb with extra home options)...[you] really need a keyboard to communicate, but it is still functional with multiple emoticons and preprogrammed messages.

Zones

Each different zone you enter you need to download a new file they range from 18 to 33 MB (They should integrate this into the main download). From the main area you can visit the following places:

1. Movie Theater - A movie theater that you can walk around, sit enjoy...more lapdances, all while the trailer of the last guy is playing. Its kinda funny seeing the text bubbles pop up above peoples heads as they see the trailer. "Game Sucks Ass"...."cool music"..."soundz like bad porn tunez".

2. Shopping center - Visit store for more clothes, furniture, and "stuff". I bought everything I could within 2 mintues. Very limited suppy of "free" items, currently nothing for "sale" with actual dollars.

3. Music zone (no download required, part of the main area) - Listen to 1 of 3 tunes and dance appropriately for the style of music. Get made fun of by other dancers.

4. Game zone - Play crappy arcade, pool and bowling games (absolutely no motion integration, very crappy controls, meh all around)

Closing Thoughts

20 minutes and you get the full experience of Home. The only entertaining thing that keeps me logging back on is stalking other people and doing the twist dance maneuver while saying "grind me hard". I basically chase people around and shake my booty at them and they try to jog slowly away from me, its pretty amusing.

Home just needs content. It is currently a 3d chat room.

It should be noted that the PlayStation Home beta does not include areas with PlayStation 3 title game integration as we'll see with games like Warhawk and Resistance 2.

Thanks Randy!
 
I have a PS3 yet I still fail to see the hype of Sony SecondLife.. oops I mean Home. ;) What's the appeal?
 
arr4ws said:
home is free right?

then why all the hate?
Click to expand...
I don't think people are hating on Home so much as the way that Sony promoted it as the next best thing to come around. So far, it's looking like a disappointment. Too much hype, not enough delivery.
 
I've not heard many good things from those I know in the beta. Depressing really.
 
Many of the rooms and other features have not been released to those in the Beta. Sony has stated before that they have changed their focus and will cater to gamers first in Home. Once such thing is game launching. Creating a game in Home an icon is displayed over your head. Others can see this and come over to join your game. From there you can move from game to game together and when quitting a game it takes you back to your launching point in Home, whether you launched from the main square or your apartment. Once specific game rooms are available it would be much easier to finding specific people to play with and launching a game from there.
 
I'm in the beta, and all I'm going to say is that I don't know where the disappointment is stemming from.

It's exactly what was promised/advertised when they originally announced it, minus a few features that have yet to be worked in (game spaces, TVs in your apt... that's about it really).
Seems like people were expecting much more for some reason.
 
Surely this should be treated like a normal beta in that it doesn't represent the final build? Add millions of ppl and game specific areas, I'm guessing, would make the whole thing quite alot better addressing the two main complaints I've heard.....lack of ppl/lack of content.

It's like the complete fucktards slaying the Resistance 2 beta complaining it isn't as as polished as CoD4 :rolleyes:
 
Tigerblade said:
Surely this should be treated like a normal beta in that it doesn't represent the final build?
Click to expand...
It would be less concerning if it wasn't so close to release, and hadn't been in development for so long... plus those in the earlier betas have said it hasn't really moved on.
 
Psychotext said:
Because it's been hyped as the second coming? A system seller if you are to believe it.
Click to expand...
Yes, Sony did hype it as a reason to choose the PS3 over any other console...personally I never really cared one way or the other and still don't.
 
I don't get the infatuation with Home at all. It just seems like a complete waste of time. If you just bought into the hype created by Sony, then you clearly don't know the video game industry. These companies (not just Sony) try to hype EVERYTHING as the second coming.

As long as I can game with friends quickly and easily then I am happy (freely is nice too). I am not sure what people expected Home to be, but it basically is a 3d chat room. Obviously other features are included as well, but I have no idea why people thought Home would be "fun." It is simply a different interface.
 
The_Law said:
...but I have no idea why people thought Home would be "fun." It is simply a different interface.
Click to expand...

People thought Home would be "fun" because they kept calling it Sims or Second Life when it is nothing more than a 3d representation of yourself that can interact with others to launch games and play together.
 
even if home (the beta) was everything people thought it should be people would still bitch about it.
 
This thread reminds me of how users constantly bitched and moaned about Steam. Beggars can't be choosers. The basic services of HOME will be free.
 
Home has a lot of potential but the biggest thing I think it has going against it is ... its 3d. From what I've see and heard from friends in the beta, its ... well slower to get things done. There is/will be a 2d solution in place, but why even bother with the whole 3d thing to begin with?When I see it advertised it looks like Second Life, and something that will most certainly not catch on as a standard and something the average consumer is going to talk about. I think the competition has the right idea by keeping things simpler, if even in minimal 3d, mainly 2d format.

Thats just easier to pick up and play, learn and get what you need to get done.. done. I'm not sure how many people out there want to waste more time, idling someones apartment, dancing and using emotes to giggle? Most of us got tired of that by our first MMO.

I wish Home the best, but you will never hear it being an overwhelming failure even if it. There are too many brand loyalists on either console to ever admit such a thing. I'd love to see it take off, but I'm not sure Sony has the right idea.. even out of the gate.
 
It’s a free service, use it or don’t. I think what we have here, are some who quickly like to jump on the "lol sony" wagon. What I can say, is that I've seen the PS Store go from being "total shit" with "no content" to being something that is actually flashy looking and feasible with a decent amount of content. Most of home is going to be driven by content, content added over time. Sony has said that there will be "rooms" for new games coming out... how can we have rooms for games that we don't even know about yet. Some of you deserve this :rolleyes:
 
Bunch of mardy moaning bastards around here if you ask me!!
 
Psychotext said:
Quite a few people... plus it's been written on a ton of "reasons to buy the PS3" lists even around here.
Click to expand...

I mean, if the Miis and the MiiToo's are reasons to buy Wii's and 360's, respectively, then sure: Home is a reason to buy PS3s.

Otherwise, there's no way in hell.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top