New Home Beta details

by Daniel Tuff - 2008/03/12 5:44am

If you look close enough, YouTube is jammed packed with the latest Home Beta videos from the Beta testers themselves. Sony last week released the 0.83 Version of the Beta, showing off what we have all been waiting for. New mall is open, with a clothes store dubbed as Threads with about 20 items for Beta testers to dress up with. As of now, those items are free, but it looks seriously like most premium items will cost money.

Many videos on YouTube show off a few new places in Home as well as the in-Home game Chess and finally entering a store currently called Home Stuff, where at this time no items are available. Our guess is that it will be the store where gamers can purchase specialty items like the recently revealed bubble machine. In-Home PSP has had a quick refresh with the following features...

• Community (Message of the Day, News, Handy Links, etc)
• Help (First time in Home, Character Customization, Moving to new locations, Your Home Space, and other step-by-step guides)
• Communication (phone a friend, accept call, reject call, etc)
• Game Launching (Create a game, Join a game, View Player List, Cancel game)
• Locations (My Home Space, Home Square, Game Space, Home Theatre, Market Place, Owned Spaces)
• Settings (Themes (skins), Pop-Up Color, sound, chat window, controls, communication)
• Personal (Go to Wardrobe, Redecorate Home Space, My Inventory, My Purchases, My Profile)

One thing that's interesting about the Create-A-Game menu is that when selected it seems to pull up a list of games that the player may own. Are games already using Home integration or can Home use any game you own for the PS3?

It's now 4 months since Home should have been sitting on our PS3s. With rumours of the Home Public Beta launching this month, it shouldn't be too long until everyone can get their hands on this spectacular multiplayer world.

Larsa: I sure hope it doesn't get released from the 16th-23rd because I'm not going to be in the country, let alone in front of my PS3.