I'm a keen Singstar player and have played since getting hooked by the PS2 version more years ago than I care to mention.

Was very impressed by the PS3 version in particular they fact that you can buy and download your favourite tracks to the PS3 and have hundreds of songs available to play.

I recently applied for and was accepted into the Singstar Beta and its been a few weeks so I thought I'd share my thoughts about the beta.

First thing about the beta is that its a separate program and it makes a copy of all your Singstore tracks which I assume is so a bug doesn't take out your library. This is great because I now don't need to put a Singstar disk into the PS3 to play. Now whilst I doubt this standalone version of Singstar will be released in a update It is a great feature so take note Sony this is a good thing

Secondly the game play.. really the only thing I can report on with the feature set is that you can now take part in online-battles. This is quite restrictive in the version I had because you could only play against friends running Singstar beta (so I had to post on Gamespot so I've been playing against some interesting opponents).Everybody seems to have a Playstation eye so you get to see/hear your opponent who is playing in their living room.

However the real gem is the PSP remote, which allows you to create a queue of songs to be played whilst Singstar is active. This is great you can choose the game mode (solo, battle, duet etc.) and the player names and it even tells you how long it before you have to play. Very neat feature I wish other games would have this "extra interface" via the PSP.

Choosing a track is a drag if you initiate the online battle you pick the track, however you can only choose tracks you both have so its a little limiting.

My suggestion would be that you should just say I want to Sing one of a series of tracks and then anyone (not just friends) can play against you.

Conclusion.

Would I pay for inline battle? I guess I might be convinced to pay up to a tenner for it, although I wish I had more (real) friends that play Singstar online:-)

Nice work hope to see other new innovations in the future.

Had these on pre-order as soon as they appeared on Amazon who dispatched the day before their release so I had them on day one. Firstly install is as simple as plugging in the new USB microphone receiver and putting the batteries in the microphones and turning them on. No new software is needed and according to the blurb they will work as will with the PS2 version of Singstar as well (untested).

The microphones are slightly larger than the wired versions however they feel lighter or better balanced. IMHO they do feel better in the hand than the wired versions.

The power switch needs to be slid forwards and held for a few seconds to turn the mic on and off and sliding down puts it into a locked position. I was a little concerned about this switch as its position is under my hand whilst singing but after 50 or so songs we've still yet to have a accidental deactivation so I think this is me being overly worried.

Quality wise they work as well as the wired version, no white noise, sound distortion or problems playing the game. Range wise they work everywhere in our large living within 15-20 feet of the PS3 receiver.

I was hoping got the voice song selection feature that I'd heard about but apparently its a feature that's built into the latest versions of the PS3 Singstar disks (unconfirmed). With luck this feature will appear in the Singstar update in due course I doubt that they will want to support different branches of software.

So my conclusion is that they do what they say on the side of the tin, no extra bells or whistles (e.g. flashing lights etc.) which is a good thing. They do the job well and are uncomplicated.

My only gripe that they Sony should have made these available from day one.

Well like so many other registered PSN users I was invited to take part in the PlayStation Home beta..

I only noticed the email around about 11pm so it was a late night as I got to grips with Sony's much delayed avatar based system..

So here's my pennies worth on my initaly feelings..

Having downloaded the rarther small Home software (25 megs) I ran it and was greated by small ammount of eye candy (Home logo's fading in and out) and finaly was left in my Avatar creation/modification interface. The interface is very detailed and after about 10 mins I decided that I'd give my self a nice red hair do (complete with red eyebrows I might add) this was pretty easy as there were lots of predefined options and I didn't have to really get stuck into the (What looked like to me) some very complex body/face shape colouring menus. Come back to that later I thought.. (Right!)

I appeared in an empty apartment and after taking in the the nice view I thought it would be nice to go look for some furniture etc. and found that if I walked out of the apartment door I could jump into another location. This process was very slow because before you can get to another area for the first time you have to download a large ammount of data before being able to enter. Having 5mb download broadband this wasn't a hassle but judging from the number of "transparent" avatars (which I assume are people with slow broadband speeds) this is a pain. Hopefully Sony will either reduce the size of these one off files or ship them out on a Blu-Ray disk to speed things up.

Hey its a BETA!

Still this is only a one off download so perhaps its not such a big deal, The speed of transfer between zones after the base data is installed is similar to webpage delay.. I'd prefer it to be seemless or with a couple of seconds delay but hey its a BETA!..

Note here most of the critical menu options are reached through a "virtual" PSP system (compelte with its own XMB) and its pretty easy to use. Quite a few (To be implemented options) but hey its a beta.

Checked out the Theatre and watched Pineapple trailler which was nice, Decided to go and look for my apartment furtanture..and soon after came across the marketplace. Couple of mins later I bought lots of free stuff (including some new clothes). Retired to my apartment and spend 15 mins positioning and setting up a rarther spartan layout. Another thing I'll get back to I'm sure..(Right!) I also got a free summer house and teleported to that and found it was much larger then the default apartment and seemed to be fully equiped. Very nice views.

Now I thought I'd go and find some people to talk to and teleported back to the market, after failing to get much of a response from a couple of other avatars (maybe it was my red haircut) I found a small gropup (3 people). I stood close to them to pick up the thread of conversation (PS Home and Avatar creation) and after saying hello talked about multi-game creation (apparently it only works with Warhawk at present) and basicly got into the swing of chatting to three other people on home. Which felt pretty good.

I've got a wireless keyboard so this was a breeze but I noticed that one of my group was very slow with responses and yes it turns out he didn't have a keyboard. Only downside to the keyboard is that the PS Joystick controls the emotes so switching between keyboard and joystick is a bit painfull. Hopefully I'll either find a way to use one device or it will be enhanced (hey its only a beta).

Seeing that it at gone 1am I decided to pull the plug.. Said my goodbyes, received a friend request from one of the group (seeing that they have Super Stardust HD) I accepted.

Conclusion..

I'm feeling positive about the experience, it was a reasonably painless expereiace and I'm looking forwards to decking out my houses with custom stuff and setting up my avatar to my tastes. I can also see it (in the future) a great way of meeting new friends and a great launchpad for multiplayer games and talking about old/new games.

On the downside, it has an unfinished quality about it, and the loading times between areas need to be reduced..

But hey its a !beta..

;)

Having just read the latest and greatest hands on review of soon to be announced PS3 PlayTV add-on for the PS3 I have to admint to mounting excitement on this product. I've runa Linux MythTV (Freeview) server for about 5 years and its been great and thought it has some very impressive strengths its frontend got replaced by the PS3 (using uPnP) ASAP.

Features I was concerned about with PlayTV was what would happen if it wasn't turned on or you where in the middle of a game when a recording schedule came up. According to the review it will turn itself on/off and alert you to the fact its starting a recording if your in game.

So now all I want to know is when will it become availble?

At this rate I'm going to need a USB hub for my PS3.. I've Microphones, Camera, two Joysticks already.. Think I'll go and visit ebuyer..

The news that HD-DVD lost the battle of the next-gen media should not have come as a surprise. Sony saturated the market with Blu-Ray players (PS3's) and I can only hope that Sony's loss leader was worth it for them in the long term.

Effect on the Xbox-360 is not so subtle.. Suddenly its a DVD based games console that is now dimished but the news that Bly-Ray is king. Of course Microsoft could release a Blu-Ray add-on or even create there own comparible format. Microsoft has taken this heavy handed approach with software before now but I doubt that it will try to domminate the market just yet. My personal few is that Microsoft will simply start work on a new version of the Xbox which improved specs and try to topple the PS3 the Xmas after next.

PS3 is now set to be "the" box under the TV and the Media center of media centers.. Just so long as Sony deliver on their promises. Something they seem to have a hard time doing.

So whilst the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray is won the war still rages on..

Well the year is drawing to a close and I thought I'd have a rant on my blog about what's happened in my gaming year..

At the begining of the yeat the household had a PS2 and 2 PSP's, you'd think one would be enough buy apparently my wife tells me the Pink one is a "must have". Games wise we've played through Daxter, Ratchet and of course GTA on the PSP's but I have to say that the limited resolution and grating controls with games like Ratchet. Enjoyed Daxter more which was interesting..

PS2 was pretty much relegated to gathering dust and whilst I'd promised to myself that I would not buy a PS3 until Xmas 2007 I jumped the gun and bought one in April. TO be honest this is exactly what I'd done with the PS1 and the PS2.. So it was no great surprise that like in previous console purchases I was an early adopter and there wasn't much quality/choice games wise.

However the PS3 did prompt me to upgrade my TV to a 1080p HDTV beastie and the with the PS2 and the DVD player gone from under the TV the PS3 took pride of place in our living room. I've been running mythtv for 3-4 years and suddenly it was relegated as the PS3 could do a much smoother job of playing music and photo slideshows where a joy. Soon after came a Mythtv upgrade that meant that I could playback all of the recordings (I've three DVB tunners in a Linux box) and the quality was better than that of our very good quality setup box.

Games wise I'd discovered Oblivion which I'm still playing on and off after over 300+ hours of gameplay, still we looked forwards to our old favoraites Ratchet and Clank and SingStar. The later was delayed and slipped so many times we'd given up hope of every receiving it from Amazon. However we where not disapointed with Ratchet and Clank.. True its formula my wife and eye soon demolished it and when into Chalenge mode great game.. Wish they'd do a Jak and Daxter as well!!. (Hint Hint).

SingStar is not in residence and is a very smooth enjopyable game.. I just wished we could have had it 6 months ago.

Most happy with my PS3 and am looking forwards to playing Assasins Creed, The latest installment of Obivion (Elder Scrolls IV) and GTA in April.

Onto the compitition.. I was never tempted by the Xbox.. Although I suspect I would have been swung round if it had supported Linux, Microsoft is always funny about its "rights" in this area so I hope they choke on them. Very noisy box doesn't really help.. Sort of thing I might have in my home based offer along side my incredibly nosy Desktop system. As you may have gathered I'm not a MS fan and certainly not about to buy a 360.

The Wii on the otherhand was intreging.. New controlers, simple games.. Low spec and thus low cost console.. I was glad Nintendo has some not only the strength to continue but to come up with such a successful console. However having played with it I'm not sure it survives the hype.. I mean beyond Wii sports its all a little soft core.. Still I guess that's the point.. Its safe family fun.. Its not aimed at an adult market its aimed at familes and kids.. Oddly enough I think it hits that nail hard on its head.

Which got me to thinking about the PS3 and the 360.. It occurs to me that the 360 is a very PC oriented box (Hard core games or death and destruction) whereas the PS3 has a lot more "Party games" (Buzz, SingStar, etc.) plus its really a lot more at home under the telly. I get the implression the 360 would be best connected to a computer monitor .

So in conclusion I think 2007 was a very slow year for myself and the PS3.. but now with the first xmas out of the way I see great things ahead and I'm espcialy looking forwards to PlayTV. Could thius finaly mean the end to my MythTV?. I certainly hope so I'm fed up tweaking it..

Hope you had a great year and remember the futures bright..

Always a shame when a great game like SingStar is spoiled by a poor online service.

Glitches dropped connections and often quitepainfulto use. As a carrier grade software engineer I know why these things happen but am very disappointed that Sony has managed to create a sub-standard service.

I'm sure that in the future it will be fixed but I'm not impressed..

Lets hope that when Buzz for the PS3 comes out that a little more care and attention is made to the performance of its online presence.