I got into the Fat Princess beta via the USA Today giveaway and I have to say I love the game so far. It’s a variation on the capture the flag gameplay type with class based battling going on from a near top down perspective and even has a bit of blood in the game to offset the cutesiness of it. Check out the video I made below and if you get in, post your thoughts in the comments.

The demo for Killzone 2 is out on the EU PSN store so create yourself an EU account and go grab it already! It weighs in at just over 1.2 gigs so you might want to go make a sandwich while it’s working on downloading. This is a relief for us in the US and other territories that were forced to either wait or pre-order it from certain outlets. I’ve got my copy reserved from Amazon so keep an eye out for me in Home with my super sweet Killzone 2 outfit on. Minus the pants.. I want to walk around with the top half but make it appear I forgot to put on my pants. My would that be an embarrassing day at work.

A new patch is out for Burnout Paradise, bringing the title to version 1.60. Check out the details of what’s included in the patch below:

In-Game Browser Site (PC and PS3-only)

The first change PS3 and PC-players will notice is that we’re now using an in-game browser to bring you something we’re calling the Criterion Games Network. More on this next week! (Players on all platforms can enjoy the rest of the features listed on this page.)

In-Game Store

The next major addition is our in-game store. You’ll be able to easily buy new content, like the Party Pack, without leaving the comfort of Burnout Paradise. Just head for either the Main Menu or the Easydrive Menu. We’ll add the Legendary Cars, Boost Specials, Toy Cars, Island and more (!), as they become available.

Vehicle dynamics overhaul

The vehicle handling has undergone it’s most substantial overhaul since Burnout Paradise was first released. We’ve tweaked the handling on the first available cars, like the Hunter Cavalry, to make the game easier and more accessible.

These cars are now slower, harder to crash and less likely to spin out at low speeds. This’ll help any newcomers get into the game, but it also delivers greater variety between the early cars to the faster, more challenging later ones.

Burnout Paradise – easy to play but hard to master!

We’ve changed the way we display the performance of the cars in the junkyard. You can now easily compare cars and see that with the rebalanced handling, they’re more varied across the whole range. Again, we’re aiming for a more fun and accessible experience. And on the subject of the junkyard, you can now filter what you see there. Pick between cars or bikes and when our Legendary Cars, Toy Cars and Boost Specials arrive in the near future they’ll also be easier to pick out.

Stunt Run Timer Reinvented

Fans of Stunt Run will now appreciate that the countdown timer now starts to count down more slowly. If you’ve never played before, it’ll be easier to pick up. For experts, it’ll counts down faster depending on how many multipliers you’ve earned.

Rebalanced Events

We’ve modified the difficulty of all events. The speeds of the rival cars and Burning Route times have been changed to accommodate new car speeds.

Road Rage Tweaked

We’ve changed the way the timer works in Road Rage– you no longer get time added when you’ve hit the target number of cars. This means the game has a clearer end point and restricts crazy scores to later Road Rages, making it more challenging for experts – see if you can reach 100+ now! It’s been streamlined.

Vibrant Visuals

Paradise City is filled with a whole world of objects waiting to be discovered. We wanted to make it a little easier to spot them, so we’ve modified the colours of the Billboards (red) and Smashes (yellow) and Super Jumps (blue). They also now pulse for added visibility.

We’ve also overhauled the lighting to bring you more vibrant visuals. We wanted to make it easier to see at night and give everything a more vibrant feel with brighter, more saturated Burnout color.

Restart is in

You ask – we deliver. Restart is in! You can now quit or fail an event and choose to restart it.

You’ll be transferred to the start location ready for action. We’ve always enjoyed the feeling of freedom that Paradise City’s open world delivers, but we appreciate that as you run low on events towards the end of the game, you can spend a little too long in transit.

Barrel Rolls for Beginners

And last but not least, we’ve transformed the way barrel rolls work in Burnout Paradise. Hit a split-ramp and barrel rolls now automatically right themselves. It means new players can pull off flash moves immediately, but nothing changes for all you experts out there. You can still risk multiple rolls by steering into the roll.

I’ve only played the demo of Battlefield: Bad Company but found it to be very impressive with it’s destructive environments and such. Get ready for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 as the first screen has been revealed and it’s looking nice. Nice and snowy.

Shamelessly taken from GamesAreEvil.com:

You’ll once again take control of ‘B’ company in a mission that promises to take you through a range of environments (snowy mountains, dense jungles and dusty villages, apparently) while feeding your destructive hunger with “a heavy arsenal of deadly weapons and a slew of vehicles”. As with the original, mayhem seems to the aim of the game.

DICE will once again be utilising the services of their - quite wonderful - Frostbite engine, so you can expect to be able to destroy pretty much anything you can lay your eyes on.

According to Karl Magnus Troedsson, Executive Producer Battlefield Franchise, DICE.”Bad Company 2 takes everything that players liked in the original and ups the ante - more vehicles, more destruction and more team play.”

“VERY NICE!!” - Borat

ATTENTION! The Playstation 3 Home service will be down starting at 12am, Pacific time, Thursday, February 5, 2009 so patch 1.10 can be put into full effect. Here’s a list of changes coming to the system, taken straight from the horses mouth:

New features

* We have added a new “Remove Player” function that allows the creator to remove people from a Game Launching session. This is complemented by the Block Player function, accessible via the Safe Screen, which can be used to stop people rejoining.

Changes and Improvements

We are constantly tweaking and enhancing various game elements to improve your experience in PlayStation®Home. Updates in 1.10 include:

* The speed of the initial log-on process has been improved and a progress bar has been added to provide you with more information about what is happening.
* Items that you have already purchased will now be loaded when you first log-in, reducing the loading time when you enter stores in the Mall.
* Other players’ avatars will now load faster when you enter a space.
* The names of Home reward items will now be shown when you obtain them.
* Download priorities have been changed so that certain graphics and images (like thumbnail images and World Map chips) will download more quickly.
* The inventory system (that stores Home Reward items) has been reworked and made more robust. We have also implemented additional safeguards to help ensure that you cannot inadvertently lose any of your items.
* The Chat log window will now always be displayed on top of any other on-screen graphics, except when zoomed in to a video or poster. When zoomed in, the chat window will no longer display.
* The size of the text box has been improved on message boards in Clubhouses.
* The option to “Block voice chat” has been changed to “Block chat,” which will allow you to block both voice chat and text chat at the same time. Players blocked with this feature will not be automatically added to the block list on your Friends list.
* The game camera will now go into attract mode once you have been idle for more than 3 minutes.
* The “Resign sub leader” command has been removed from the Menu Pad. Club leaders will now have to downgrade sub leaders if they wish.
* We have further improved the UI for a variety of systems including Game Launching, Clubhouses and the Store.
* We have made several memory optimizations to improve client stability
* We have made graphical improvements to particle systems and water effects.

Bug fixes

* Furniture in Personal Spaces will no longer occasionally vanish when you leave lights or lamps turned on.
* Single-seat chairs and sofas can no longer be occupied by more than one person at a time.
* You can now turn lighting objects on/off in your Personal Space.
* Furniture layout issues in Clubhouses have been resolved.
* The “Refresh Club Menus” option in the Menu Pad should now work as intended.
* Dates will now be displayed on Clubhouse bulletin board messages.
* A fix has been applied to the Home Safe Screen reporting process.
* Your screen will no longer freeze if you leave a game session with the game disc ejected.
* Item names and prices will now display correctly in the Mall.
* Wallpapers will now be displayed properly when you invite friends to your Harbour Studio.
* You will no longer be able to make a phone call to players who have deactivated voice chat.
* You should now be able to use two-seater sofas properly.

It doesn’t appear they will be fixing any of the Home Glitches found inside which is amusing. Stay tuned for more info and we can’t wait to see the patch and improvements live!

Have you played the Resident Evil 5 demo on the PSN Store yet? If not and you’re a fan of the RE series or the survival horror genre at all, you should definitely check it out. There is a storm brewing over the controls: will the full game include “run and gun” style controls or won’t they? At first Capcom said they would, now there is some question as if they really exist as they surely do not in the demo. Which may not be all bad for folks that particularly enjoy the controls from the past RE games as they haven’t changed much and will be very familiar.

Take part in our poll and discuss what you thought of the controls if you did get a chance to check them out.

A few new shots from Uncharted 2 have surfaced and this gallery at Playstation Universe has them all but I did snag a couple to show off below:

As good as Uncharted 1 looks, Uncharted 2 looks that much better. I’m a HUGE fan of the first game (*almost* got that Platinum trophy!) and will definitely be getting Uncharted 2 when it arrives.

Watch it in all of its 20 something minute glory below:

Hey a poll, why not, right? I’m curious as to how many of you guys and gals will be getting Killzone 2 as a day one purchase so take the poll below!

Check out the ad spot that will be running during the Super Bowl this week showing off Killzone 2. It’s a good start, Sony! Keep that “advertising” idea up!