Fans of the hack ‘n’ slash aspect of God of War III will be happy to hear that the game’s Director successfully fended off the idea of changing the franchise into a first person shooter.

The idea for an FPS God of War came from SCEA Art Director Ken Feldman who said the following:

“I tried unsuccessfully to convince [Director] Stig to make ‘God of War III’ a first-person shooter. Unfortunately he didn’t see the genius in the idea.”

The genius in the idea? Perhaps you are working on the wrong game, Mr. Feldman.

via thatvideogameblog

First announced back in April, SCEA has announced via the Playstation Blog that SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 will be released exclusively for the PSP on November 24th.

If you’ve been paying attention you’ll know that Fireteam Bravo 3 is set to be the first SOCOM PSP title to feature multiplayer co-op over both Ad-Hoc and Infrastructure modes. This means you’ll be able to link up with 2-4 players and progress through the game’s campaign wirelessly.

Considering the community behind the SOCOM franchise this most likely won’t be the last Fireteam Bravo PSP title we’ll be seeing.

Sony has recently made it known that the 3.01 firmware update for their Playstation 3 is now live on the Playstation Network and available for download. This minor patch will reportedly fix the issues some gamers were facing after updating to version 3.00 such as bugs in Uncharted and the DualShock controller malfunctioning.

SCEA spokesperson Patrick Seybold comments;

SCEA is aware of reports that PS3 owners are experiencing isolated issues with their PS3 system since installing the most recent system software update. Rest assured that we are looking into the matter and will provide an update here as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience, as it’s our mission to deliver the best consumer experience on all PlayStation platforms.

Over at the Penny Arcade Expo panel for Uncharted 2 comes word of the rare Fortune Hunter Edition package for the game. The reason why it’s so rare is that it cannot be bought, but only won through Sony endorsed contests.

In the package includes a retail copy of the game, an autographed copy of the Collectible Art Book and Collector case, and even exact in-game replica of the Phurba Dagger Artifact and stand. Unspecific downloads are also thrown into the mix.

More news about how one can obtain this collectible will be revealed soon.

Read (PlayStation.Blog)

Players have been reporting several issues since updating to the current 3.0 firmware for the PlayStation 3. Problems range from DualShock 3 controllers not functioning correctly, inability to access trophies, and even game freezing. No fix for these technical problems have been detailed yet, however, Sony has responded to the issues:

SCEA is aware of reports that PS3 owners are experiencing isolated issues with their PS3 system since installing the most recent system software update (v3.00). Rest assured that we are looking into the matter and will provide an update here as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience, as it’s our mission to deliver the best consumer experience on all PlayStation platforms.

It’s not much, but at least we are assured that they are trying to do something about it. Many players have not been seeing any problems at all, so if you’re fortunate enough to be one of those people, congratulations.

Read (PlayStation.Blog)

SOCOM has long been one of my favorite game franchises ever since I first played it on the PS2. It seems that a large community of people share my interest as SCEA senior producer Mark Rogers recently went on record as saying that SOCOM Confrontation currently holds the top spot on the PSN with the most simultaneous online connections at any given time. That means it beats out the PS3′s supposed killer app, Killzone 2.

Rogers also went on to say that in reward for the community’s loyalty to the franchise they will be greeted with a patch at some point in the near future. Exactly what the patch entails, we’ll have to wait to find out.

via Joystiq

Sony’s E3 presention of its new Playstation Motion Control was nothing short of spectacular; being able to track a user’s movement in real-time holds endless possibilites for new games. But waht about existing PS3 games? Will they be left in the dust?

Well according to SCEA President, Jack Tretton, using the new controller with old games is definitly possible:

Personally, it’s very difficult for me to perceive God of War 3 being played with the Wii controller, it’s a different experience that doesn’t lend itself to certain types of games. [But] I think our [motion] controller can be used with every game that’s on the system now – and every game we’re working on.

Well Mr. Tretton, we’ll have to see it before we believe it. Let’s just hope they tweak the look of the controller before it hits the market cause in it’s current state it looks a bit ridiculous.

Read (Joystiq)

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single peice of hardware that gets as many firmware updates as the PSP. Unfortunately those updates tend to, well, never really add anything cool so don’t hold your breath about 5.51.

To further confirm nothing cool is to come from these updates is Sony’s Eric Lempel who says that the update will provide nothing more than tweaks to the hardware’s software stability.

Common Sony, let’s get some cool features already. I mean I can’t think of anything I would want my PSP to do (besides have good games) but I’m sure someone at Sony can!

Read (Destructoid)

Sony’s John Koller, head of SCEA’s hardware marking division, says that it’s “frustrating”, when leaks of new hardware occur, specifically pointing out the PS3 Slim, which was rumored a while ago.

But since Koller used the word “leak” and not “rumor”, and since he didn’t actually deny the “rumor” that a PS3 Slim would be released this Fall, it’s easy to assume that, in fact, a PS3 Slim is coming this Fall. That, and the fact that it shares the very same box art as the newly announced PSP Go.

If you’re an avid PSP user, when Sony announced the PSP Go you probably thought to yourself, “how am I going to play my old games on this new console?”

Well, Gizmodo recently caught up with Sony’s John Koller who explained that they will offer some sort of service that will allow gamers to obtain digitized versions of their old UMD games. Exactly how much this service will cost (if anything) and when it will go live, we don’t know, but we’ll keep you updated.

The PSP Go is set to drop on October 1st of this year for $249