The main reason you bought a Playstation 3 was probably due to Killzone 2 or Playstation Home, Sony’s new online service that’s supposed to be something like Xbox Live meets Second Life. You and your friends can meet up with your avatars, talk, chat, shoot the shit and so on. Oh, and more importantly, you can play games together too.

As of today, Sony is accepting applications for the closed beta test of the Home service. Right now it only looks like Japan is lucking out but the US market could soon follow:

Applications are initially being accepted from Thursday until Aug. 11 from users in Japan only. Sony expects to offer access to about 10,000 gamers during the beta, which will begin in late August.

During the beta stage users will be able to play the games that make up Bandai Namco’s “Namco Museum” package, which include PacMan, in the service’s “Game Space.”

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Can’t wait to play the upcoming expansion Wrath Of The Lich King for World Of Warcraft? Blizzard understands and has offered a chance win an invitation to the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King beta on their website. Unlike the Burning Crusade beta invite process, Blizzard wants to limit their invitations. Only players who have expressed active interest in participating and actually testing the game as opposed to other beta testers who neglect to report bugs.

When the time comes, the beta will be open for many. But until then, this is your one and only chance at playing the expansion to get the one-up on all of your buddies who desperately want in on the beta as well.

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Sony has launched their beta of the social virtual world, PS3 Home. Home seems to be a lot more serious and developed then I ever thought it would be. Some things you can do while cruising around home is interact with your PSP, play mini-games, interact with other gamers, and of course, check out the view of a whole new world.

Is this an attempt by Sony to beat Nintendo at their own Mii game? You bet it is. The leaked screenshots from the Home beta are looking really good. Nintendo, we love you, but Sony may have you beat with this one. (more…)

So what if Gears of War has taken over the Xbox360 scene as of late. The name of Halo still holds a warm and fuzzy place in every die-hard Xbox fan out there. That is the main reason why the upcoming installment Halo 3 is receiving so much attention right now. The newest and coolest thing in Halo world? Getting into Halo 3 beta games. How would one go about doing so, you might ask. Good question. Luckily, these instructions have been released by Microsoft. Apparently they aren’t too worried about too many people getting a hold of the beta invite.

Beginning Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007, at 12:01 a.m. EST, all gamers need to do is participate in at least three hours of “Halo 2� multiplayer sessions, via Xbox Live, before Feb. 3, 2007, at 11:59 p.m. EST and then be among the first 13,333 to register at halo3.com. The “Rule of Three� program is currently planned for gamers in the 50 United States (includes District of Columbia) age 17 years and older who have access to an Xbox 360 Pro console or an Xbox 360 Core console with hard drive, a valid Xbox Live Gold subscription and the “Halo 2� game. Gamers around the world are encouraged to visit halo3.com in the coming weeks for more information on the “Rule of Three� program in their region.

Read the full press release after the jump.

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The networking capabilities of the Wii are slowly falling into place. The Opera browser specially designed for the Nintendo Wii has been released in public beta. You can now download the browser for free (because it’s beta), and later it will cost you some Wii points. Opera seems to be making some excellent business decisions lately, with removing the cost of the browser and the adaptation of the mobile version of the browser. Firefox is still taking market share away from Internet Explorer, but Opera users seem to be different than Firefox users. Opera has focuses more on the social networking aspect of the browser rather than the way that Mozilla has gone with Firefox: extensions. Opera is doing better, but more will be needed to remove Firefox from millions of users desktops.

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