Gearfuse

If you’re one of the lucky people who own a first-gen PS3 model (back when WiFi wasn’t standard and shit), your system has what’s called an Emotion Engine chip. Think of it as an extra heart for your PS3 that allows you to have a full Playstation 2 inside. Sony removed it a few years back to cut costs and now only a very limited number of titles are supported. To boot, Sony is also selling a lot of PSX games on the Playstation Network, so the incentive to add the EE back into the system is low.

But there is hope. According to a patent filing from last year (December, specifically), Sony is working on a way to compile and decompile the Emotion Engine. This will allow PS2 backwards-compatibility through software emulation, thus keeping us fanboys happier than ever.

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Apparently, a lot of people got pissed off about Sony’s little pay-to-play scheme that involved pre-ordering Killzone 2 in order to receive a code for the demo. Yes, the very same codes we gave out the other week. Sony is now trying to save face by offering up a “limited number of downloads” of the demo. The catch is, you’ll have to fire up Playstation Home (ugh) and look for a guy dressed up as a Helghast soldier. Ask him for a code and ye shall receive. This is US-only and the Helghast guy can be found anytime tonight after 9pm EST. Good luck!

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It’s February and you know what time it is: time to announce the winners of our latest contest! We had a lot of great entries from you and it looks like everyone with a PS3 is super-psyched about the Killzone 2 beta. We’ve picked the two best comments from people who wrote more than one sentence and followed the rules (email, PSN gamertag in comment, etc.).

Here are the winning comments:
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Note: This in-depth review of SOCOM: Confrontation was done by my brother, Dave.

Can you believe this shit?

Where does Sony get off selling an online game that doesn’t work online, let alone a game that sucks ass when the online does momentarily work. You know what the game box is good for? A plate for my pizza. That’s it. As for the disc, that’s resting somewhere under my bed after I winged it across the fucking room.

What a piece of shit.

I can’t wait thirty minutes to join a game. I’ve got other shit to do, like masturbate and play Dig Dug. I’m a busy man.

SOCOM: Confrontation has wasted my time and my money.

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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