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The Playstation Online system is down today for “maintenance”, but it seems it’s really to prep the system for the first four stereoscopic games for the platform, which come out tomorrow!

* WipEout HD (full game): Experience the adrenalin rush of navigating the twists and turns of futuristic racetracks at breathtaking speeds like never before.

* Super Stardust HD (full game): Experience asteroids fly past you as you navigate the deadly battleground — only a battle on a cosmic level will save the indigenous life below from destruction.

* PAIN: The stereoscopic 3D content will include the Downtown area and tutorial along with three modes, including two new modes created specifically with stereoscopic 3D in mind, Alien Toss and Ice Breaker.

* MotorStorm Pacific Rift (demo): MotorStorm Pacific Rift in stereoscopic 3D puts you in the driver’s seat of a buggy for a one track, single player race around the deadly Kanaloa Bay for a dangerously real battle against ruthless opponents.

They also mention at the upcoming “The Fight: Lights Out” will be available in stereoscopic 3D and combined with the Playstation Move.

via The Ultimate 3D Gaming Experience: Stereoscopic 3D Gaming on PlayStation 3 Available Tomorrow – PlayStation Blog.

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Impressive visuals, although I personally know nothing of the game.

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While no games are out (yet) that support it, Sony is pushing a new firmware update for their PS3 gaming console that brings stereoscopic 3D support to the masses.

In addition, this update preps the PS3 system for some upcoming new features, including 3D stereoscopic gaming, which is coming soon to PS3, in time for the launch of Sony’s 3D BRAVIA TVs.

Of course there are other updates, but who cares about those :)

The 3D They are supporting seems to be active-shutter based, and they claim that eventually it will be retroactively available to all games (presumably via a driver-tweak, similar to how NVidia implements it now via OpenGL & DirectX hooks).

via PS3 3.30 System Software Update – PlayStation Blog.

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A few videos have emerged of the new “White Knight Chronicles” multiplayer RPG from game studio Level-5 for the Sony PS3.  Released in Japan back in 2008, the game will finally come to the english speaking world on February 26th making it the first cooperative multiplayer online RPG for the PS3.   The videos show some multiplayer combat scenes.

See the second video after the break.
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engadget has the scoop from Sony that they plan to release a firmware upgrade for the PS3 in 2010 that will enable support for 3D television in all existing games. Of course, you’ll need the special 3D glasses and a TV with a high refresh rate (probably 120hz minimum).

In many ways, 3D just seems to make more sense in a video game than for a movie, and the whole problem of finding content to deliver in the format has already been solved: a software update for the PS3 sometime in 2010 will enable it to provide a 3D viewing experience to “all” existing games on the system. We’re sure there will be some exceptions, but it sounds very promising. The console itself pumps out a quite regular signal over HDMI, which the TV syncs up with your 3D glasses. A 200Hz TV, for instance, alternates 1080p frames, with 100Hz for each eye.

Could this finally be what brings 3D into the home?

via PS3′s new 3D mode captured on video, coming in 2010 to all existing games.

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The Xbox360 and PS3 have both been around for a few years now, and have really raised the bar on gaming consoles.  But now that they’ve been out and developers have had a chance to get down-and-dirty with the details, what do they think?  The examiner compiles some numbers on the graphics capabilities and finds the PS3 lacking in several areas, but the most damning parts come from developer statements:

I think [PS3 is] a waste of everybody’s time. Investing in the Cell, investing in the SPE gives you no long-term benefits. There’s nothing there that you’re going to apply to anything else. You’re not going to gain anything except a hatred of the architecture they’ve created. I don’t think they’re going to make money off their box.

I’ve heard rumors in HPC circles that the Cell chip is dead, maybe they’re right?

via Xbox 360 better than PS3? Part one: hardware.

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Sucker Punch Productions’ ‘inFamous” for the Playstation 3 is out and getting rave reviews for not only the complex storytelling, but the amazing graphics.  CGSociety takes an in-depth look at some of the technology behind the game.

inFamous uses an outstanding real-time rendering system which results in the solid frame-rate that moves at a very consistent pace and will very rarely chop. Given the right circumstance, the game will actually run at a perfect 60 frames per second for a short time provided that the camera is not viewing a part of the game with heavy polygon geometry. The camera is freely controlled with the right stick and normally never presents a problem but every now and again will decide to have a mind of it’s own.

CGSociety – inFamous.

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We’ve mentioned EyePet here before, Sony’s augmented reality pet game for the PS3 and Eyetoy.  Over at Kotaku, they’ve got a short review of the game up and some video of it in action.

These two videos show the beta version of the game which is being shown off today in New York. The game is set for a holiday release, Sony Computer Entertainment told Kotaku. The game will be sold both as a bundle with the camera and on its own. Both versions will come with a card used to interact with the virtual pet.

See the video after the break.. Warning: Shakycam in action.

via PS3′s EyePet Hits This Holiday, We Take It For a Virtual Walk – Eyepet – Kotaku.

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CGSociety has a great article up about the PS3′s newest hit, Killzone 2.  Announced long ago (Back in 2005 at E3), the game has been widely panned because of the long development time.  While the trailers showed some amazing visuals, everyone was pretty sure they were heavily doctored to look more impressive.  Now that the game is out, however, everyone is backtracking as the visuals far surpass anything out.  How did they make it so impressive?

Lead Tech Artist at Guerrilla Games, Paulus Bannink, tells us that all of the animation was done in Maya 8.5 – with only some of the motion capture being cleaned up a little in MotionBuilder which – right off the bat – is out of the ordinary considering that most 3D games have been developed using Autodesk’s 3ds Max.

That’s a big step right there.  But there’s more….

via CGSociety – Killzone 2.

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NVidia today has announced that they’ve sealed an agreement with Sony to put their PhysX engine into the PS3 SDK, making it the standard for hardware accelerated physics simulation on the console.

“NVIDIA is proud to support PLAYSTATION 3 as an approved middleware provider,” said Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of content and technology at NVIDIA. “Games developed for the PLAYSTATION 3 using PhysX technology offer a more realistic and lifelike interaction between the games characters and other objects within the game. We look forward to the new games that will redefine reality for a new generation of gamers.”

via NVidia Press Release

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