So Playstation Home Open Beta launched today and here's a brief overview on what it brings:

The Central Plaza (main community hub of Home) has a pond where you can play a spaceship minigame which you collect stars and fuel while avoiding mines.  In this plaza there is also an area that plays music by some rather unknown artists (or at least to me), currently they are nine songs to listen to and if you can vote for the next song to be played in the song queue.  Throughout Home, here are a fair amount of screens on walls that basically advertise Playstation related content, which is to be expected.  You can travel to the Mall where you can buy various items that range form an awesome cowboy hat for $0.49 to a Summer Home for $5.00, and if you were part of the closed beta, you should have had the good sense to stock up on these things while they were free; other than that, there are chess tables on the top floor where you can play with others.  In the Bowling Alley you can play Bowl (duh), Pool or arcade games, which include, Echochrome (not the full game), Ice Breaker (basically brick breaker) and Carriage Return (a game where you line up three carriages of the same colour and send them on their way before the station is flooded with carriges).  In your Personal Space (basically your home), you can decorate your "Space" furniture you have; other furniture can be bought in the Mall or as prizes from playing the arcade games.  The Theatre is basically a room that loops a single video over and over, which right now is a trailer for Twilight and a related music video.

There are currently two videogame related spaces; an Uncharted Space and a Far Cry 2 Space.  The Uncharted Space basically looks like a club for hunter of various treasures with an arcade game where you traverse a maze of sorts to get o a treasure chest, all the while shooting dudes and snakes.  There is also a door on the second floor that requires you to enter a code in order to enter.  The Far Cry 2 Space has a board game  entitled Mancala which I have no idea how to play, but is played with bullet shells, which is awesome.  Other than this, there is an interactive map and dossiers with info on various characters.

There are also clubs that can be created (for a $5.00 fee) which gives you a clubhouse to decorate to your fancy.  You can recruit Home users and gather in you club and I dunno... have an awesome dance party?!

Speaking of dancing, you know who loves to do the robot?  Jeff Gerstmann.  So I ran into Jeff's avatar in the Bowling Alley while he was apparently playing some Ice Breaker, one thing led to the other, and pretty soon Jeff and a small band of Giant Bomb enthusiasts (myself included) began to dance.  While conversation was mostly based on amazing random nonsense, Jeff commanding various people to dance with us and discussions of dancing's deeper, philosophical meaning, "Dancing is obviously the answer, but what is the question?" - Jeff Gerstmann, we also talked a bit about Giant Bomb.  I asked if a couple reviews for games that apparently only I care about were in the works, and one of them seemed a possibility (Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm).  I also asked asked how the "Game of the Year stuff" was coming along and apparently nominees should be coming next week, so look out for those (this could have already been announced, I'm not too sure).

All in all, Home seems full of potential.  It seems like a hub for between gaming sessions where you can just socialize, play some minigames and maybe find some players for a game.  Once trophies are incorporated and stuff can be obtained through playing videogames, Home could be a very cool and casual place for player interaction.  Plus, dance parties that last about an hour with Jeff Gerstmann and Giant Bomb fans are pretty kick-ass.

Kick-ass story, unfortunatly the uncharted and far cry 2 rooms still arent available in europe and australia which is a pity but apparently the redbull stuff and some extra stores are coming out next week. Good to see that as promised griefer madness came to playstation home and none were spared.

Great write up, I've been saving up for PS3 for awhile now and I've been curious how Home is going to work. Seems like they have some good ideas lined up so far, the music voting sounds interesting to me, and I'm surprised that they already have some stuff up to buy. I was expecting having to pay for clothing, but it's weird that you have to pay for a house. I got the idea that everyone started off with their own space then just paid to decorate it. Also, what is the difference between a summer home and a club?
That Jeff dance party sounds hilarious though, and thanks for the tip about the nominations, I've been wondering when they're gonna start that stuff up!

"Great write up, I've been saving up for PS3 for awhile now and I've been curious how Home is going to work. Seems like they have some good ideas lined up so far, the music voting sounds interesting to me, and I'm surprised that they already have some stuff up to buy. I was expecting having to pay for clothing, but it's weird that you have to pay for a house. I got the idea that everyone started off with their own space then just paid to decorate it. Also, what is the difference between a summer home and a club?
That Jeff dance party sounds hilarious though, and thanks for the tip about the nominations, I've been wondering when they're gonna start that stuff up!"

I hear it was an Angry Dance Party.

I will be interested to hear jeff's thoughts on it. To begin with they didnt seem so positive, but maybe the angry dancing session changed everything.

"I hear it was an Angry Dance Party.

I will be interested to hear jeff's thoughts on it. To begin with they didnt seem so positive, but maybe the angry dancing session changed everything."

jeff gerstmanns exact words were

"Angry Dance Party"

Thats all i know.

Whatever man, an angry dance party with jeff gerstmann in playstation home sounds like the greatest thing ever.

"jeff gerstmanns exact words were

"Angry Dance Party"

Thats all i know.

Whatever man, an angry dance party with jeff gerstmann in playstation home sounds like the greatest thing ever."

Do you know what, now all this Home stuff has gone public and everyone is talking about it my definitive reaction is: potential.

I think there is bags of potential but they have to keep the content flowing and not just leave it like it is for two months now before they add something new. They seriously need to go... "bam. Here's your new thing". "bam. Here's your new thing". Consistently.

If they realise that the sky is certainly the limit.

Home has alot of potential, and yes its free and i dont hold it to the same standards as a paid service, but maybe i got the wrong idea that sony was trying to add in the party system and quick game from dashboard stuff that xbox live has but with home.

No doubt the Internet will be full of "OMG THIS SUCKS" posts anyway. Just as anticipated for a free update.

"No doubt the Internet will be full of "OMG THIS SUCKS" posts anyway. Just as anticipated for a free update."

I havent tried it, i still dont own a ps3.

But from what i have read so far, im kind of wondering, Whats the point? What is this useful for? Why are people going to use this?

Practical Applications? I know for a fact, lounging on a virtual couch and virtual dancing are not things i will do. At least not more than once.

Yea, they have to bring out new stuff that people care about constantly.  Once they make it so you earn things for playing games that you can use in Home, it will really get interesting.  A trophy gallery would be cool cus you can see your accomplishments.  That would give you encouragement to finish a challenge for a trophy plus content to show off to people on Home so people will be like "OMG! Where did you get that??"; that always gets people interested, like in MMOs.

I am very interested in the trophy gallery idea too.

"I havent tried it, i still dont own a ps3.

But from what i have read so far, im kind of wondering, Whats the point? What is this useful for? Why are people going to use this?

Practical Applications? I know for a fact, lounging on a virtual couch and virtual dancing are not things i will do. At least not more than once."

hmm... why did my post get such a low score?

"hmm... why did my post get such a low score?"

"Rowr said:

"I havent tried it, i still dont own a ps3.

But from what i have read so far, im kind of wondering, Whats the point? What is this useful for? Why are people going to use this?

Practical Applications? I know for a fact, lounging on a virtual couch and virtual dancing are not things i will do. At least not more than once."

For me, essentially Home is a pretty awesome marketing tool. And not in a derogative sense of the word either, I know people think "marketing" is the devil but if you actually THINK about it the possibilities are endless. Walking around Sony's E3 show for example, is bound to happen. Going into the Uncharted space and talking with the developers. Flying Red Bull planes. Meeting Mickey Mouse.

It's nothing that, to me, is going to be particularly engaging and take up a lot of my time, and I TOTALLY understand why people think they wouldn't want to spend ANY time in it, but for me that's kinda the beauty of it. You load it when you want to and you never, ever, ever have to load it if you don't want to.

It's all going to depend on what Sony put into it; I can't say that from sitting here but like I've said already, literally the sky is the limit really. They could, potentially, do anything.

And while I agree that for most, the Home experience will not particularly convince them of anything at the moment, it's just going to be a case of waiting and seeing. If Sony keep the content flowing, I certainly will be taking regular trips to Home.

Plus, as someone whose first experience of the Internet was chatrooms, I personally think it's pretty neat going up to people and having a quick chat with them.

I think the misconception is that many, many people thought Home was meant to "challenge" the NXE or something, or be something to make the PS3 more saleable than the 360 or whatever. I still don't think some people who haven't tried Home really understand what it is, and the best way I can describe it to you is that it's just an EXTENSION of the Playstation Network experience. Of course the hype has taken it way out of proportion and we're naturally heading for the "crash" now."

Yea, they probably are going to come out punching.  They better have those big announcements early or hype is going to dwindle.  I'd have to imagine the trophy room coming soon.

Yeah Jeff was getting jiggy with the robot wasnt he?Home is like a dance, chat hybrid. very revolutionary. Its always cool chatting it up with Jeff. I suppose I ran into you there too.

I have yet to try it since it launched officially the other day, I played the beta last month, I'll probably get back in today sometime

"Yeah Jeff was getting jiggy with the robot wasnt he?Home is like a dance, chat hybrid. very revolutionary. Its always cool chatting it up with Jeff. I suppose I ran into you there too."

Now I want to get a PS3 just so I can do the robot with jeff and co. in Home

"super_machine said:

"Yeah Jeff was getting jiggy with the robot wasnt he?Home is like a dance, chat hybrid. very revolutionary. Its always cool chatting it up with Jeff. I suppose I ran into you there too."

Yea, probably.  The night a couple days ago was pretty crazy and fun, if that's the one you were at.  Last night was kinda not as crazy, plus my controller was frigged so, yea.  Need to buy a new one..."

"Tearhead said:

"super_machine said:

"Yeah Jeff was getting jiggy with the robot wasnt he?Home is like a dance, chat hybrid. very revolutionary. Its always cool chatting it up with Jeff. I suppose I ran into you there too."

Yea, probably.  The night a couple days ago was pretty crazy and fun, if that's the one you were at.  Last night was kinda not as crazy, plus my controller was frigged so, yea.  Need to buy a new one..."

Yeah, it was the first night of the open beta. Someone asked Jeff about the GOTY list, and if Tales of symphonia would get reviewed...etc. I'm pretty sure it was the same time/place."

"Dancing is obviously the answer, but what is the question?" - Jeff Gerstmann

someone should start up a giantbomb club