After learning about the existence of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception last week and seeing the first trailer for it during last weekend's Spike TV Video Game Awards, the first actual gameplay video has aired during the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon talk show in the USA.Uncharted fans have been really pampered in the last week, as development studio Naughty Dog finally admitted the existence of Uncharted 3, the next installment in its massively popular action adventure.

Now, after seeing an enigmatic trailer that sets up the main premise of the title, the first gameplay footage was shown during the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon talk show.

In the video linked below, you will see Fallon with Naughty Dog developers Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra play a brief portion of Uncharted 3.

The footage shows Drake and his longtime partner Victor "Sully" Sullivan try to escape a burning building in the French Alps.

The building, as you can imagine, is being ravaged by both the fire and a few mercenaries out to kill Drake and Sully.

The video showcases all of thetrademark elements of previous Uncharted games: a cover-based third person shooter mechanic, melee combat and a bit of environmental interaction.

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) today announced that its highly anticipated PlayStation Home Beta service for PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) will become available for all PS3 users around the world on December 11, 2008.

Following the completion of the closed beta service, PlayStation Home?s open beta service will continue to evolve with new features and functionality.PlayStation Home is a 3D social gaming community available on PS3 that allows users to interact, communicate and share gaming experiences. Within PlayStation Home, users can create and customize their own unique avatars and explore the virtual community in real time where they can communicate freely through text or voice chat. PlayStation Home users will beable to enjoy variety of entertainment content such as mini-games, videos and special events along with their friends, but will also be able to create their own community by using the "Club" feature to create clubs with other PlayStation Home users who share the same interests. PlayStation Home also allows groups of users to launch directly into their favourite online games together from PlayStation Home.

PlayStation Home, available as a free download starting December 11, will launch directly from the PlayStation Home icon on the PlayStation Network column of XMB (XrossMediaBar) on PS3. Sony said that the basic features and services of PlayStation Home will be free of charge although "some content and services are charged", according to the company's statement.

"PlayStation Home is truly a promising network community service on the PlayStation platform, made possible with the powerful combination of PS3's overwhelming computational power and PlayStation Network that covers many countries around the globe," said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, SCE.
For users accessing PlayStation Home in the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) regions, themed virtual environments will be available to explore. Starting with a themed Far Cry 2 space, PlayStation Home will offer game inspired environments that allow people to discuss the specific games, plan strategies and access content and clues that will enhance the gaming experience. The number of gaming environments such as this will regularly increase, with spaces for Uncharted: Drake?s Fortune, Warhawk, Motorstorm and SOCOM following very soon. SCEE is working with publishers such as: Electronic Arts, UBISOFT, Midway, Sega and Atari to create engaging environments.

SCEE also announced the first partnerships with fashion leader Diesel, contemporary furniture designers Ligne Roset, energy drink Red Bull, film studio Paramount Pictures and video content providers Hexus TV and Eurogamer are the first on board. They will offer resident?s virtual clothing for their avatar, virtual furniture for their PlayStation Home apartments, exclusive video content and a virtual flying challenge: the Red Bull Air Race.

Sony has launched a PlayStation Channel on YouTube, where gamers will be able to watch features on upcoming titles, game trailers, developer interviews etc. This is the first step towards their YouTube integration, and they'll eventually make it such that PS3 owners will be able to upload gameplay videos directly from their console, to the PlayStation Channel. This feature will be available with the upcoming title LittleBigPlanet, (which is due for an October 21 release), which will also get its own YouTube channel.Let's hope that they implement it in such a way that it works across all games, because as of now recording gameplay footage off consoles is a real pain in the backside. If this happens, you can even expect a lot of new machinima videos floating around!

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has announced that it will release its new 80GB PlayStation3 computer entertainment system with DualShock3 wireless controller on October 30. The new 80GB PS3 system will be available in three basic colors namely Clear Black, Ceramic White and Satin Silver.

For the holiday season it bundles up a limited edition of Blu-ray Disc version of the best-selling racing and online car life simulator, GRAN TURISMO 5 Prologue Spec III for PS3 which is developed by Polyphony Digital and published by SCE. Concurrently with the release of the new 80GB PS3 system, this exciting new game will also hit the stores at a 4,980 yen (approx Rs. 2,434).Well this is not all, the long awaited LittleBigPlanet for PS3 will also become available on October 30. Especially for the Holiday Season, PlayStation3 “LittleBigPlanet Dream Box” consisting an 80GB PS3 with DualShock 3 wireless controller, LittleBigPlanet game and an additional DualShock wireless controller will be introduced at a RRP of 44,980 yen (approx Rs. 21,952). For the ones who already own a PS3, “LittleBigPlanet DualShock 3 Bundle Pack” featuring LittleBigPlanet game and a DualShocK 3 wireless controller will become available at 7,980 yen (approx Rs. 3,895). Both these offers are available only in a limited edition.

The new 80GB PS3 console will include all the features and functionalities of the current 40GB model. To meet the ever increasing demand, PlayStation Network now offers about 300 games, 40 anime titles and free playable demos.

Logitech has launched its Driving Force EX wheel for PS2 and PS3 gaming consoles in the Indian market. The EX wheel is claimed to be a one-wheel-fits-all solution for PlayStation gaming systems.

The Driving Force EX wheel comes with two interface plugs: the standard PlayStation controller plug that ensures the wheel will work with any PlayStation game; and the USB plug that makes for realistic force feedback. It is force feedback that offers realistic resistance as drivers encounter bumps, ridges, or potholes along their way to victory. It is over the USB connection that players feel curbs, weight transfer, and opponents' fenders as they try to hold a racing line at 150 MPH. Even in case of games that don't support USB, the EX wheel promises a comfortable, precision driving experience along with standard vibration feedback.As far as ergonomics go, the EX wheel features two rubber grips that completely encircle the rim; two wheel-mounted paddle shifters; brake pedals on a weighted base; plus functional acceleration. Standard controller buttons and the D-pad allow players easy access to in-game set-up and menus.

The Logitech Driving Force EX Wheel for PS2 and PS3 is available for Rs 7,490 and enjoys a 2-years warranty.

The football fever is in the air. Football is the most popular sport in the world and in terms of excitement, no other game comes close to it. I was among the millions of viewers before Scholes shattered my dreams recently (damn you petite Red Devil, damn you). And since I am an avid gamer, I decided to try out the latest in the Fifa Street Series. Released some time back, the new game called Fifa Street 3 is based on street football and features some of the biggest footballers in the world. The game focuses on tricks and style more than accuracy; it's a game that is meant to bend the rules of the sport and give the gamer an exaggerated experience. Read on to know more about it.
If you are new to the series, let me tell you that this is football in a new avatar. This is a quick and fast-paced version of the otherwise tactical sport. You won't find any major set-ups here; no star player will wait for the right opportunity to kick a ball through and give it to the striker. This time, it's a little more glamorous. Every player has the ability to unleash a range of tricks. The tricks are to keep possession of the ball before lobbing it to the teammate who does a mid-air summersault to kick it in to the goal at blazing speed and accuracy.
This unreal form of football was a major hit when the first Fifa Street game came out. This time around with its third iteration, the game is weak in a few key areas. As always, EA has presented the game very well and made sure that you take notice. However, at its core, the game lacks depth and gets repetitive very early. The concept is very simple: the best footballers in the world battle it out in a small field and produce goals that defy the laws of gravity. The rest is pure football; you score goals and win, but only in Fifa Street 3, you do it with style.
There are a few game modes. You can start a quick match or take up a challenge or go online, head to head on the PSN. Let's start with Quick-Match. You choose from a number teams including Germany, England, France, featuring the likes of Peter Crouch, Rooney, Henry, and Gattuso. Choose the goal limit, arena, and the ball type (a new way to advertise) and you are off to go. The controls are simple: you perform aerial flicks and ground drags. There are 5 players with different abilities: Playmakers, Tricksters, Enforcers, and Finishers.
Playmakers: These are the best passers in the game and come in handy when it comes to long passes from wings and taking long shots.

Enforcers: These are the best defenders.

Tricksters: These are the most skillful players in the team who perform the most amazing tricks.

Finishers: The best goal scorers in the game, they can shoot from pretty much anywhere.

The player can perform tricks by pressing the triangle key or by moving the right analog stick; he can fool the other players by dragging the ball below his feet or flicking it over his head. And doing all this earns the player style points. These styles points fill up the Game-Breaker meter. Once the meter is full, you can perform much better tricks and score goals with amazing accuracy. Thus, the better your tricks, the better your chances are of filling the bar fast and scoring more goals. The rest is fairly simple -- win by scoring 5 goals (this is the default target but can be increased). You can also raise the difficulty level by choosing another game mode which counts only 5 headers. A real big issue with the gameplay is that it is just too hard to defend. There's an aggressive tackle option as well, but still the game's defense is weak.

Doing things in high definition takes longer. We all know that. The average car in Gran Turismo 4 was made up of over 4,000 polygons. The figure for GT5 Prologue is meant to be higher than 200,000. Being pretty goes a long way, but with 71 cars and just six tracks (High Speed Ring, Daytona, Fuji Speedway, Eiger Nordwand from Gran Turismo HD Concept, Suzuka Circuit and a section of central London), it will have to go a very long way, right? That's not a lot of content, even when you factor in a second variation of each track. GT4 had 721 cars. GT5 Prologue launches in Europe with 71. We may be 11 million polygons ahead, but we're 650 cars behind.
Fortunately, Prologue does a lot with the means at its disposal. 30 race events are split evenly across three classes. Initially you're hauling cheap Suzukis and Hondas to the front of 8 to 12-car packs for two or three laps, reinvesting the prize purse in faster cars. As the field thickens with Skylines, Imprezas, Mustangs and Ford GTs, you're asked to go further, the AI pushing you harder.Complete A-Class and you unlock a Quick Tune feature - new for the European Prologue - that lets you adjust weight ratios, aerodynamics, ride heights, camber angles, torque balance, gear ratios and other performance-related settings, with your work graded against a performance index. You can make real-time performance adjustments during races by assigning custom configurations to buttons on the Sixaxis or Driving Force GT wheel, and a further run of ten S-Class events specifically for tuned cars pushes you harder still, penalising you for ramming or taking shortcuts, in a field of 16 cars just as if not more tricked out than yours. Even if you coast through A-Class, S-Class will force you to regroup and work out what all the dials do.
'Gran Turismo 5 Prologue' Screenshot 1

When you buy a car, it drives out of the dark toward you and brakes suddenly as threatening music plays. Nobody tell Audi's ads company.

To get that far takes over a dozen hours, and you probably have fewer cars than that in your garage when you do. You can also race in Manufacturer-specific races, hidden away in the Dealership screens, for extra credits. Then there's Arcade mode, where you can tackle any of the game's tracks in whichever configuration you like, with any vehicle, either as a one-off race, a Time Trial, or a Drift Trial. Drift Trial is what kept us picking away at Gran Turismo HD Concept for so long, throwing the back out around Eiger Nordwand and watching videos of scarily dedicated Japanese gamers doing the same thing more effectively on YouTube and trying to copy them. Now you can do it with far more cars, and a range of tuning options, on six tracks. Also new to the European Prologue is two-player, horizontal split-screen racing, which works without any obvious dip in performance.

On the track, those 200,000 polygons glide through turns at 60 frames-per-second, a few slight dips excepted, in the promised 1080p resolution. A lot of them must have gone into the car interior, from where you can now view the action if you prefer, watching your driver's gloved hands gently correcting slides and reaching for the gear-stick, and looking over your shoulder past stupidly accurate rear spoilers. The weather is consistently bright and cheery, limiting track conditions but allowing you to gawp at reflections crawling realistically over the bodywork of cars ahead of you and in your mirrors. As you steer and brake through the first corner at Suzuka, the shadows move across your dashboard and body, and as you exit the tunnel on High Speed Ring the sunshine blinds you until the detail emerges from the glare.
'Gran Turismo 5 Prologue' Screenshot 2

Event mode consists of races as well as the odd time trial or overlap challenge.

GT's visuals are sometimes accused of lacking personality - a perception reinforced by its robotic artificial intelligence. On the latter point, rolling starts do away with your ability to bully opponents out of the way on the first corner, although the cars remain completely invincible, so it's still an annoyingly useful tactic unless the foul-play penalties are active to throttle you back for a few seconds when you misbehave. On the whole though opposition defends the racing line more aggressively, and the combination of high speeds and unforgiving physics mean it's impractical to block using your rear-view. As for personality, few mainstream racing games - Forza now excepted - demand as much braking skill and obedience to the racing line.