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..

;)