B3yond the Report 08.12.08

Posted by Dan Owen on 08.12.2008

This week we've got news on how to get into the SOCOM: Confrontation beta! And have we even come close to seeing the best the PS3 has to offer? All of that plus trailers from LittleBigPlanet, Madden 09, and Call of Duty: World at War!




Hey everyone, expecting someone else? Well, probably not, since Mark told you I'd be filling in last week. I'm here to help out this week while new weekly writer Derek Robbins prepares to take over the column next week. I've been here before way back when, while Mark was taking a week off, and I didn't do bad enough to be banished from the column forever. And on the off chance one of you guys were blown away by my work and wondering where I went, I left 411 awhile back as I moved on up in the writing world, but I still like to stop by every now and then.



B3yond the News of the Week~!

Details on SOCOM: Confrontation beta revealed!



News on the upcoming SOCOM: Confrontation beta have been revealed, starting with its dates. The beta will be running from September 1 to September 30. So how does one gain entry into what could turn into the Call of Duty 4 of 2008? It's simple, actually, so long as you live in the west of the Atlantic (my heart goes out to you Euro gamers, but the beta is for North America only). There are two (actually three, but two go hand in hand). First, you could go and preorder the game from GameStop. Just by doing that you'll not only gain entry into the beta, you'll also be able to invite two of your friends in. So if you can't scrape together the money to preorder (even though it's only $5), just have a friend do it and then pick up one of his two invites. Your other option is to download the June issue of QORE, though this is not the recommended route, as you will not be allowed into the beta for a week until September 8.

This has all the makings of the Call of Duty 4 beta last year, and we all know how good that game turned out. I can't wait for this, and I look forward to seeing you boys on the battlefield!


We ain't seen nothing yet!



According to Naughty Dog, the developers of acclaimed game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, they believe there is still a whole lot of improving to be done before we get to see the PS3's full potential. They estimated that Uncharted used roughly 30 to 40 percent of the console's full potential. Said co-lead designer Richard Lemarchand, "Part of the skill of developing for the PlayStation 3 is getting the GPU to farm jobs out to the six SPUs – seeing which SPUs are idling and can take up some of the slack in a frame-by-frame kind of way."

This should be extremely exciting for PS3 gamers of all kinds. If we truly are only seeing games like Uncharted being run at less than half of the console's potential…well, the future is looking extremely bright for Sony faithful.


PSN Weekly Update

This weeks PSN update does…little for me. No new demos, a bunch of videos is all we got, actually. Some of the highlights from the list are a new Star Wars: The Force Unleashed trailer (I wanted to find this one, but minimal effort revealed nothing, so I gave up), the Madden 09 E3 Trailer, a TNA Impact! Head to Head trailer, and the PlayStation Home E3 Trailer.

Other than that, we've got a few NASCAR 09 Skin Packs and a new track for the game, Snakeball Team Mode, and Rock Band songs Toxicity and B.Y.O.B by System of a Down, Rescue Me by Buckcherry, Face Down in the Dirt by Motley Crue, and Life is Beautiful by Sixx:A.M. I have only one word for all of this…weak.



B3yond the Tabloids!

Some Guitar Hero: World Tour news came across the wire recently, as Activision announced that Ozzy Osbourne and Zakk Wylde will be playable characters in the game. In addition to the new characters, it was announced that OZZFest will be one of the performance venues. But that's not really what has me excited. No, I'm excited for the 5 new songs announced: Mr. Crowley by Ozzy Osbourne, Stillborn by Black Label Society, Trapped Under Ice by Metallica, B.Y.O.B. by System of a Down and, most exciting for me, Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne! Crazy Train is a song I've been dying to play in Guitar Hero for some time, and it looks like my dreams are finally coming true.

InvenSense, who manufactured the MotionPlus accessory that went along with the recent Wii release Wii Sports Resort, has been quoted saying that other companies have been in touch with the company about their technology. While they weren't naming names, it would be reasonable to suspect that Sony and Microsoft were involved in these discussions, which could be a telling sign of what is to come in the next generation of gaming.

I hope you didn't get your hopes up about Left 4 Dead coming to the PS3. Developer Valve has been quoted as saying that the game will not be coming to the PS3, contrary to a rumor that has been circulating recently. No real surprise their, as Valve has been publicly critical of the PS3 and their last release on the PS3, Orange Box, left something to be desired compared to its 360 counterpart.

Be sure to hold on to some of the old save files from Resistance: Fall of Man for Resistance 2! Developer James Stevenson of Insomniac Games, a company known for giving gamers rewards for loading old saves (see Ratchet & Clank), was quoted as saying that gamers may be rewarded with a medal or something if they load one of their old save files.

Madden 09 already has it's first patch completed, and should be available by the time you pop the game in your PS3 for the first time. Not to worry, though, the patch fixes some minor things that most normal gamers would not have even noticed were in need of fixing. EA also says they are already working on more minor fixes, and that free downloadable content should be on it's way soon. It really looks like EA is dedicated to making the 20th anniversary of the franchise something special and this may be the year to pull the trigger and buy it. I've got a trailer below for you guys to enjoy, specifically talking about the graphics.

The VP of Bethesda Softworks, Pete Hines, believes that Fallout 3 will be a better game than the company's last mega-hit, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. While that could very well just be a comment to help boost excitement for the game, it certainly sounds even more promising than before!


B3yond the Cinema!



Our first trailer is from Little Big Planet, and I'm more than a little excited for this game right now.




Our second trailer here is in commemoration of the release of Madden 09, as a developer talks us through some of the graphical improvements in this years edition. I'm not going to lie, this year may actually feel "next-gen" by the looks of things.




Our final video of the column is the one that gets me the most excited, coming from Call of Duty: World at War. The franchise has been a favorite of mine. I even enjoyed Call of Duty 3, which was truly a piece of crap. And by the way, that flamethrower looks awesome.



B3yond the Wallpaper!

Well I have a special treat for everyone, as I am here to present to you the official B3yond the Report wallpaper. I recently tricked all of my fellow 411games comrades into giving me a little description of themselves, and it has led to the next strike in my war against the other news writers. A huge thanks to B3yond the Super fan Eric for the submission, and without further adieu, here's the official B3yond the Report wallpaper.

Download the official B3yond the Wallpaper here. It's available in many awesome resolutions. Here's a downsized version of the wallpaper.



B3yond the Report for life!



Signing Off!

Well, it's been fun, guys. It was a pretty slow news week, and I'm sorry I couldn't come up with anything for the opinion piece. Literally, I came up with nothing to talk about. I guess that's why they made me the Editor of Sports and not Games :P . Anywho, thanks to Mark for letting me take over for a week, and next week you'll get to meet the brand new weekly writer for the column, young Mr. Robbins (who I hired to write in sports, by the way...so it all comes full circle (that wasn't supposed to be some sort of hidden 360 reference, just so you know)). I'm sure I'll be back here sometime, probably in about two weeks. What'll it be??? Well, I guess you'll just have to wait to find out!