[PS3] Home Beta Hands On

May 28th, 2007, 20:16 Posted By: Triv1um

Via PSU

It's been called the ace up Sony's sleeve. The secret weapon behind closed doors. Others simply know it as Home.

It's very real, and it's here now in beta form. We've had plenty of time to sit down and try it out, so here are our in-depth hands-on impressions of the Home Beta.

When Home first booted up, after logging into our appropriate server, we were given the option to create our character. First came the simple choices - male or female, skin color, and so on. Next came shaping our character's nose, eyes, ears, mouth, chin, and everything possible in-between. Then the accessories came, and we spent even more time choosing between major and minor items. The character creation rivals some of the most in-depth systems in any game (the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion comes to mind). Also, you can change your character at any point should you grow bored of your look (or even gender!). All in all, everyone will be able to have a unique appearance should they so wish, with dozens of very adjustable options (with zero lag, unlike one certain EA boxing game) creating limitless opportunities.

Then we decided to take a look around. We were standing in a very bare, very boring apartment, so we played with the interior decorator. We added an interesting wallpaper, threw in some chairs, a coffee table with a centerpiece, a couple of couches and tada! A cool (if not somewhat small) Home Space. The options here were less impressive than the character creation, but still in-depth enough to create a unique home. The ability to upload pictures from your hard drive and display them on the wall of your home isn't yet available, but should be implemented by the official launch of Home. Not available yet are any purchasable items or spaces, so we couldn't try out any of the bigger apartments and hook up some virtual 70" Bravias, but oh well.

The graphics are top-notch. As you may have seen from recent screenshots, characters look quite realistic, as do their environments. Camera control is simple and effective, while animations although not incredibly diverse do pull off their proper roll. Physics are accurate as well from dropping a chair from ten feet to hitting a pool ball.

Walking out of the apartment leads you to the Central Lounge (or for those too lazy to (virtual) walk, you can teleport with your Virtual PSP). This area has a very outdoorsy feel (despite it actually being indoors). Streaming HD trailers displayed GT:HD along with a few other titles in all their hi-def glory. This is clearly the place made just to mingle with other users. L1 accesses pre-written phrases such as "How do I get to ______", while R1 allows users to make a fool of themselves by dancing and using various other less embarrassing emotes. Square allows you to use a virtual keyboard and makes proper use of predictive text, while holding triangle opens your mic. An interesting thing about this is that your voice isn't directed at a single person, but is emanated throughout a radius around your avatar.

Next we headed over to the Home Theatre. We were immediately greeted by a streaming trailer of Spider-Man 3 and movie ads just as they would appear in a real movie theater. After walking upstairs one finds ten different theatres (each for a different video) consisting of movie trailers (Resident Evil, Surfs Up, Casino Royale), game trailers (MotorStorm, NBA '07, GT:HD, God of War II and more) and random videos (Sony football event). It's a pretty straightforward place that's fun to check out, but at the moment it's lacking content-wise (though that should change before Home's release).

Finally we come to the GameSpace. As of now, there are 3 different types of games to try out. Bowling is our particular favorite - it uses a tried and successful formula that still remains fun today. First position your ball at the top of the lane, then quickly push X at the spin level and direction you want, finally again pushing X at the top of a power meter for maximum speed. It's quite satisfying to get a strike then to give a demeaning emote to the opposing player. Pool comes in a close second for the fun factor. It's pretty simple - just aim and adjust the power.

Finally, there are various different arcade cabinets. The different games include a simple top down racer; a puzzle game in which pieces drop down and the goal is to get 3 colors in a row; a helicopter game in which you rescue stranded men; and "Rubber Bob", the action-packed puzzler that's all about color swapping. Nothing here will hold your attention for long, but they can be quite fun in short bursts. Proper recognition must be given to Home's developers, as they managed to create a seamless experience in which there are no load times between walking around and playing games within GameSpace.

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Screenshots can be found here

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