Welcome Back PlayStation

As this month’s blog focus is on Channel Optimisation we thought to send a shout out to PlayStation for turning around their crisis, after announcing in early May that hackers accessed the 10 Sony Servers obtaining personal details of their users. There was criticism at the time, that PlayStation took around 2 weeks, to tell its users the servers had been breached. This really wasn’t “best practice” !

However as news spread (as it does in social media) they quickly apologised and optimised / turned their channel around by taking Playstation Network offline for 3 weeks, whilst server security was reviewed. They then announced that they would be offering their users with a “Welcome back compensation package”. Note the welcome back package was very timely indeed as it was released in time for one of the biggest gaming shows in the year E3 Expo.

The PlayStation Network Welcome Back package includes free games, movie rentals and in game content. The games available are free until July the 3rd, so if you haven’t got yours yet there is still time. The games are pretty good and include:

• Dead Nation
• inFAMOUS
• LittleBigPlanet
• Super Stardust HD / Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty
  
• Wipeout HD + Fury

If you are a gamer, like many of us here at Rocktime, please find further details on the PlayStation Network Welcome Back on the official Playstation Blog.

You can only download two games, as a team we would recommend inFamous and LittleBigPlanet and Wipeout HD.

View more opinions of which free PS3 games you should download over at this post on Yahoo Searching for Answers.

Have fun ;)


Author: Sarah Griffiths

Geek Video of the month

Motion sensing is probably one of the big modern fads of the moment in console gaming. First off the starting line we had the Nintendo Wii in 2006, a few months ago saw the release of the Playstation Move - a similiar concept to the Wii as an addition to the Playstation 3 console. Most recently last month we had the release of the Kinect for the Xbox 360. Possibly one of the most interesting of the three;



So what can the Kinect really do? Aside from having us dance and flail around in front of our TVs like maniacs that is. Well around the time of it's release, The Open Kinect Project was set up, offering a $3,000 reward for an open source driver for the Kinect on PC.

Within hours of going on sale, software engineer Hector Martin had cracked it, opening the doors for all kinds of playing around with Kinect's ability to calculate depth as well as movement. From drawing and recording in 3D space to gesture recognition... or maybe just playing some Mario on your PC.




Author: Alice Cheetham

Geek Video of the month

As we are big fans of gaming here at Rocktime, we thought to share with you this new and bordering on ridiculous (health and safety!!) but cool way of turning your chair into a gaming experience with motion. I wonder whether Alex will allow us to build one of these in the office? This video is playing a F1 game, makes me feel quite queasy but wins Geek Video of the month.

Geek Video of the month

This video is a definite winner this month. Parrot AR Drone has developed a Wi-Fi helicopter with 2 cameras!! The Wi-Fi helicopter can be controlled by the iPhone and IPod Touch, allowing you to play the augmented reality game indoors or outdoors. Depending on the applications the user downloaded, it will open up a whole new world to the user, they can take part in wild races or discover aliens hidden in their living room. Pretty cool. Watch the video and to find out more about this new concept of video gaming using augmented reality, then visit the developers site here: http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/en or follow their conversations over at Twitter @ardrone.

Geek Video of the month:

Its official Sony have announced the arrival of Little Big Planet 2 on PlayStation 3!

Being a fan of Little Big Planet, I am so (oooooo) excited about the announcement, especially the news that Little Big Planet fans can now create their own games, not just levels.

The attached video (which wins Geek Video of the month) shows an awe inspiring trailer of the new game.

Sony said:

"Now, LittleBigPlanet 2 will explode the concept of Creative Gaming, offering exciting and unprecedented new possibilities - as well as backwards-compatibility with all of the existing LittleBigPlanet community levels and content."

Watch the video or view the Little Big Planet 2 website here for more details:
http://www.littlebigplanet.com/en-gb/2/

Or keep upto date on the news (as we do) over at CVG, computer and video games website.

Author: Sarah Griffiths @sarahgriffiths