SOCOM Confrontation Public Beta 1.40 Patch Incoming

We are happy to announce that the SOCOM Confrontation Public Beta 1.40 Patch will be released on Friday, September 26th, at 1200 GMT/UTC (8am EDT, 5am PDT, 1pm BST, 9pm JST).The SOCOM Confrontation 1.40 patch addresses the following issues:
Fixed an issue which was causing an abnormally large number of simultaneous kills.
Optimized the Armory so that selecting weapons, attachments and general menu navigation are much faster.
Fixed another issue where you could get stuck in spectator cam when late joining a game.
Fixed an issue where occasionally late joiners would have very low framerate and crash when exiting a game.
Fixed an issue where occasionally late joiners would have no audio.
Statistics improvements. Statistics are now being tracked at the team level and not the player level. This will ensure stats are tracked for dropped and late joining players.
Further improved load times for late joiners.
Fixed several stability issues. The following changes were made based on user feedback:
Added new burst firing accuracy tuning when moving. You are now more accurate for the initial burst while moving but accuracy deteriorates as you continue to fire more shots.
Scopes are now accurate.
The select screen scoreboard is now exited by pressing the select button.
Improved tiebreaker rules.
New HUD animation to indicate when you are reloading.
Crosshairs now turn grey when your magazine is empty. We are actively looking into the following issues which are known to exist in the 1.40 patch. These issues will be fixed in a future update.
The select screen scoreboard, round complete and game complete screens appear blank.
Infrequently, some users loose controller functionality for a couple of seconds.
Please note, this patch also adds game logic to limit the number of people who can late join a game to 5 at a time. If more than 5 people attempt to late join the game you receive a "Game Full" error even though there are still slots in the game. This will be improved in a future update.Also note, the network latency detection has been added back in. We believe that we have now worked out most of the issues with this. Please report in the SOCOM Confrontation PlayStation.com forums if you are seeing the "red X" disconnect icon under normal gameplay conditions

LittleBigPlanet: Public Beta Madness!

As you may or may not have heard, the burning question recently has been - “HOW THE HECK DO I GET ON THE LITTLEBIGPLANET PUBLIC BETA!?!?”

Some of our friends in Europe found out this week and are still recovering. If you have been frequenting sites like GameInformer.com, GamePro, and GameSpot you might have scored a key already or are waiting to hear back. Even our friends at G4 are in the mix.
Where will this elusive beta strike next?
If I were a betting man, (and I am) I’d say it would be sure to hit more of your favorite gaming sites in the next few days. I’d be looking for sites that have been covering games for years. Staking out passionate gaming communities or locations online where you can view the latest gaming videos. Of course I would be surprised if the Public Beta didn’t show up in places where you’d expect to get all the latest LBP info and updates.
All I can say is we are super happy to give some of you a chance to get a sneak peak at what LittleBigPlanet is all about. I have officially stopped doing office work for the next few weeks in anticipation of all the levels you all are going to make. (I’m going to be too busy playing and building.) If you are one of the lucky ones who score a key, thank you in advance for participating and helping us get our servers ready for our launch on October 21st!
Be sure to refer to the details below once you get your Beta key. Good luck to all and happy hunting!
ps- Quick question, I know we announced all the cool pre-order goodies already but I’m wondering which one you are all going for….let’s say we have an on-going bet in the office. (Told you I was a betting man.)
Please note the following instructions below which will help you install the Public Beta voucher:
1) Public Beta Ends October 11th, 2008
2) You must use a consumer PLAYSTATION® 3 system that is connected to the internet.
3) You must have a PLAYSTATION®Network Account.
4) If you have previously redeemed a LBP voucher code, you must delete any old LBP data (along with save data and game data) and download this version(go to Download History and redownload the new code).
5) This version does not require a DNS redirect and levels created here will be available for consumers at launch of the full title.
6) Please refrain from creating anything inappropriate, as we do have moderation in place and it may result in your account being suspended or banned.
Downloading the LittleBigPlanet Public Beta.After you have signed in with your PLAYSTATION Network Account, select [Account Management] on the XMB interface located under the ‘PLAYSTATION Network’ tab, then select [Transaction Management] and click on the option ‘Redeem PLAYSTATION Network Card or Promotion Code’. Enter the following unique code to start the download of LittleBigPlanet.

NXE – What You Want to Know: Themes 2.0 and Friends Channel

Ahhh Themes - There's been a lot of chatter about whether or not you can keep what you have, how they will look and how the new stuff will be different. We'll be tackling all of that today so pay attention! Also in this week’s Developer Diaries, we’re going to show you more on the new Friends Channel - another area we got a lot of questions about after we first showed it to you at E3.
This fall, themes are getting even more detailed with the New Xbox Experience. Themes will take over more than just the background of your Dashboard – they will be present on every channel in cool, dynamic ways. Yes, I said, "DYNAMIC." Check out the screens below that show the Underground Theme on the Dashboard and the Friends Channel. (Remember, to see the images more clearly, click on them and you will be sent to our flickr feed.)


Every graphic on each channel will tie into your theme and change if you choose a different one. You can really see this on the Friends Channel – each of your friends' Avatars will stand next to a different graphic or environment. These graphics will match the theme you choose and will change dynamically as you navigate from channel to channel. But that’s not all; the themes will be subtly animated. This is some pretty cool stuff when you see it.
This is what your Dashboard and Friends Channel would look like with the Signature Theme – picture the bubbles in the background moving, shrinking, growing – you get the idea.


Also on the Friends Channel, you’ll be able to see your friends’ Avatars rally when you host a LIVE party. You can see who is online and offline by what their Avatars are doing, too. Online? Your friends will emote and be able to wave you over to jump into their party. Offline? Well, they’re snoozing, of course.

Finally (and many of you have asked us about this) don’t worry – you can still use the themes you previously purchased with the New Xbox Experience. They’ll look even better over the new UI, especially in high-definition. Below is what a current “Gears of War” theme would look like:


That’s it for this week’s Developer Diaries. We hope you like what you’ve seen so far, and check back next week for more details on the New Xbox Experience.

Want the MotorStorm Pacific Rift Demo?

There is now an alternative to QORE for those who want to try out the MotorStorm: Pacific Rift Demo. Simply make a preorder over at Gamestop, or EB Games, and you can try the game before it comes out. It seems that the demo is the same as the one in QORE, so if you already have the build from QORE, then don’t worry. However, those looking out to try the game out - make a preorder, and if you don’t like it you can always pull out of the preorder. However, you have our word, MotorStorm Pacific Rift is going to be a huge title for the PS3.