Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta is Live

The Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta is now available to play for owners of Infamous 2. If you don't own a copy of Infamous 2 but, are a Playstation Plus member (Which you should be if you've activated your "Welcome Back" Playstation Plus trial. ) you can join in the fray today as well. Don't have either of those things? Well, the wait is just a bit longer for you then. The Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta is avalible for non Playstation Plus members on Tuesday, July 5th. The multiplayer beta will end for everyone on Thursday July 14th.

The maps and gametypes avalible will vary from week to week as follows:

June 28 to July 3	Gametypes: Team Deathmatch, Plunder, Three Team Deathmatch, Hardcore, Co-op Arena Maps: Airstrip, Chateau
July 4 to July 9	Gametypes: Team Deathmatch, Free For All, Team Objective, Hardcore, Co-op Hunter Maps: Airstrip, Chateau
July 10 to July 14	Gametypes: Team Deathmatch, Plunder, Three Team Deathmatch, Hardcore, Co-op Adventure, Co-op Arena Maps: Airstrip, Yemen

Hands on With: The Hitbox

The Hitbox features an eight button layout similar to the Madcatz and high end Hori arcade sticks. Unlike those sticks, or any other stick for that matter, the Hitbox features four direction buttons rather than an actual stick.

The placement of the directional buttons are quite unique also. On the upper left are the "left"," down", and "right" buttons. The "up" button is towards the bottom of the stick and is considerably bigger than all of the other buttons. The placement of the" down" button alongside the" left" and "right" buttons shows some serious thought from the stick's designers as most fighting games use a quarter circle or half circle motion that runs along the bottom of the stick.

Playing Tekken 6 on this stick felt really fresh. Usually I have trouble landing the Electric Wind God Fist , a difficult yet vital move for Kazuya, Heihachi, Jin and Devil Jin, but the Hitbox made doing it simple. There is an initial learning curve but after you get used to it, you'll be amazed at how easy it becomes to perform more advance movements.

Now for the big question. Is it worth the $150 price tag? Not so much for the casual fighting game enthusiast but for those that want to shave some travel time off of their standing 720's it's definitely worth considering.

Call the banners!

With my primary window to the world out of commission this last week, I've brought on a new well trained individual to help run this ship!  Only one was man enough to answer the call.

A round of applause and big welcome for Austin!

You can follow him on Twitter at @SuddenVillainy and be sure to check back for more frequent updates!


P.S.

Bonus points if you've been watching Game of Thrones, read the title, and read it in Robb Starks voice.

'Twas the night before E3

As part of Sony's big apology to us, the loyal consumer, they are giving away free games on the PSN!  In case you hadn't heard, you can select 2 out of a choice of 5 different games that will download directly on to your PS3.

The games are:
Super Stardust HD
Wipeout HD
inFamous
Little Big Planet
Dead Nation


Out of these games, I already owned and beat inFamous, which was awesome - and I await the sequel on tuesday -, I picked up Super Stardust HD as my first game and have yet to pick up a second.  How can I even think of picking a second yet when Super Stardust HD seems to consume my free time in it's entirety?


Think Asteroids if it was made today with todays graphics and full, glorious 1080p resolution.  I'm stuck on level 4 right now out of 5.  I'd love to finish this article but I have planets to save!


If your PSN account was made before April 20th, 2011 you are entitled to this reward package among others, including 30 free days of PS+, a free dynamic theme (which is pretty cool), and also two PSP games if you own a PSP as well.

My recommendations? Super Stardust HD and inFamous if you haven't played them yet, otherwise Wipeout and Dead Nation, a pretty nifty zombie survival game, are great choices as well.

The PSP Game choices are:
Killzone Liberation
ModNation Racers
Little Big Planet
Pursuit Force


For PSP I can only recommend Killzone Liberation and ModNation Racers. Everything else is about as meh as being a PSP game would suggest it would be, although if you enjoyed Little Big Planet on the PS3 you'll probably enjoy it more as a portable title.