Warhawk enters PlayStation Home

By Tom Bramwell Published 18 February, 2008

Patch 1.3 to add other new stuff, too.

Warhawk game director Dylan Jobe has announced some PlayStation Home functionality for Incog's online war-game, and promises much more to come. Handy for those of you on the beta.

First up is the ability to form groups, meet in Home apartments, discuss tactics and then launch games. Games launched from Home "show up in the global games list in an attractive gold colour". Nice one, Dylan. All this is going into patch 1.3, coming soon at no extra cost to consumers.

PlayStation Home is Sony's upcoming online world, in which players will be able to communicate with one another, set up houses and apartments and show off their in-game achievements, as well - obviously - as coordinating game sessions. It's been likened to Second Life and is due out this year.

"Now this is just the beginning of what we're gonna to be doing with Home and there's some really neat stuff on the horizon," Jobe says in a Sony US blog post. "I'd love to show you more of the cool Home stuff that we're working on but I suspect I'd get a PR-shank to the spine...or possibly a lung."

Also coming in the 1.3 patch, which is in testing right now, are two new troop items to help rebalance the on-foot stuff. The Bio-field Generator produces a healing field and can be attached to walls, vehicles and so on, while the Mechanic's Field Wrench is for repairing vehicles by whacking them repeatedly.

Other new bits include expanded voice-over-IP support, some new paint schemes and insignias, and possibly some new server options if they test well.

Jobe says he'll post an update on the Sony blog when he can talk about the patch release timing, and the Sony blog is where you should go for all the minute details and images about what's going into the free download.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Dizzy #1 4 years ago

    And people are excited by this?

    Meeting up in a virtual home (probably complete with otaku posters and pink textures), waiting for all to arrive, doing emotes and starting a game by picking up your virtual PSP?

  • mcwildcard #2 4 years ago

    Better that than swapping penis-sizes via gamerscores.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #3 4 years ago

    new game upgrades sound good, im sure all games will require Home integration as standard fairly soon, but its nice to know warhawk is being retrofitted for it.

  • CrumpledPaper #4 4 years ago

    "Meeting up in a virtual home (probably complete with otaku posters and pink textures), waiting for all to arrive, doing emotes and starting a game by picking up your virtual PSP?"

    Err...yes?

    I wish XBL had a universal lobby system from which you could coordinate groups of friends playing across different online game e.g. hop from Warhawk to GT5, to Wipeout etc. all with the same group of mates. Like the party system in Halo3, but for all games.

  • Sneerk #5 4 years ago

    Reckon ill make a warhawk comeback when 1.3 hits..

  • sabreman #6 4 years ago

    So when is Home actually due to land now then?

  • DonnieDarko333 #7 4 years ago

    Home is released in June is it not?
    Edited by 1 at 18/02/08 @ 15:09

  • DrDamn #8 4 years ago

    @Dizzy
    The non-game specific lobby is a very nice idea. Whether it is through Home or an extended Live service. It's a natural extension of the Party system in games like CoD4 and Halo. That's what's exciting. It's like a virtual games night with friends, dropping in and out of games together without having to set up the group each time.

    The dev also made a couple of other nice comments which hint at better things and provide some reassurances that Home isn't just for the Sims crowd, but for gamers as well...

    "So I gotta say that I’m actually super relieved that we’re putting in *REAL* legit value for players and *NOT* making HOME a portal for SONY to jam branding and marketing schwag down player’s throats! As a gamer, I’m excited *and* relieved to see the direction HOME is taking."

  • dadrester #9 4 years ago

    how will this work with warhawk on bluray, in terms of launching it? just the same? the new patch works just fine so i expect so... hmmm... never mind.

  • Dizzy #10 4 years ago

    "The non-game specific lobby is a very nice idea. Whether it is through Home or an extended Live service. It's a natural extension of the Party system in games like CoD4 and Halo."

    K.. I agree... but why in a 3D interface. That is just plain silly. I do not want to walk around to a friends "House". I wanne click, join and play.

  • DrDamn #11 4 years ago

    Why a 3D interface? It can be just as slick but provide something for people to do while they wait. Provide some talking points. I supoose they are aiming for a greater sense of community. I agree to a certain extent that it could be a little shoe horned, but I'm willing to give them a chance first. See how it feels first hand. It could be quite fun.

  • LOLLERS #12 4 years ago

    It talks more like this is functionality specific to Warhawk, not to Home. So if your group wants to play a different game, you can't. This is the problem with Home and PSN in general, it's up to each game whether they support specific features or not. Like a friends list.

  • DrDamn #13 4 years ago

    @LOLLERS
    I think that remains to be seen. The lack of consistent implementation in current games is down to large footprint requirements and I think the incomingness of home. There does need to be more consistency in Home integration.

  • monkie_king #14 4 years ago

    But home is an application that you need to launch, right? Not a pervasive, instantly-accessible thing like a regular friends-list? The persistent lobby is a fine idea, but are people really going to want to quit out of their game and wait to boot up some nasty looking 3D chatroom software to access it?

    In terms of user experience, surely a web-like interface is far superior for searching through friend lists and sending invites etc?

    /still failing to see any value in Home

  • CrumpledPaper #15 4 years ago

    @Dizzy

    You create and launch games via the 2D interface of the virtual PSP. I don't know how it works, but I'm guess you don't necessarily need to be in your mates apartment to join a game with them. Maybe if a friend creates a game and invites his friends, they'll get an alert no matter where they are in home. If you do need to be in their apartment..well..you can warp there easily. It's not like you have to walk to all these places.

    The 3D is just the representation of you and your friends, and your own customisable space if you want it. And also so it's easier to skip between activities like playing a game, watching video, listening to music, playing smaller games like chess etc., and to make things more intuitive (wanna watch video with your friends? Put it on the TV. Listen to music? Flick on the stereo. Etc.)

  • monkie_king #16 4 years ago

    but ... why?

    /clearly not in the demographic here

  • CrumpledPaper #17 4 years ago

    @monkie_king

    A game like Warhawk will leave you back in Home when you're finished playing - with the same group of friends you were in Warhawk with. So you won't have to keep exiting to the XMB and loading Home from there again, finding your mates again etc. There may be the option to boot into Home automatically when you turn on your PS3 if you want, also.

    And I said, the interface for creating and launching games is a 2D "web-like" one, just on your virtual PSP.
    Edited by 1 at 18/02/08 @ 16:08

  • drumbaby #18 4 years ago

    "Better that than swapping penis-sizes via gamerscores."

    What's wrong with using Eye Toy?

  • CrumpledPaper #19 4 years ago

    "but ... why?"

    So you, as a group of people with your friends, can do a variety of stuff online easily and more seamlessly?

    There currently is NO functionality for even easily getting your friends into a game on PS3. Not to speak of party management across games which even goes beyond what Live offers. Home will offer a huge improvement for PS3 in that regard. Not to mention the other stuff like media sharing, developer spaces, trophies etc.

  • CrumpledPaper #20 4 years ago

    double post!
    Edited by 1 at 18/02/08 @ 16:07

  • Res #21 4 years ago

    Sounds good to me, finally a meeting place for a clan that plays together across various games like I used to be in on my PC. Only I use MIRC on my PC, and would rather have that than a graphical chat room, but whatever, it's half way there.

  • Dizzy #22 4 years ago

    "The 3D is just the representation of you and your friends, and your own customisable space if you want it"

    I still fail to see the good thing about this.

    We play games to escape these real life situations. When I play, I wanne play. Not hand out with friends in some silly virtual space watching crappy YouTube movies and listening to their new emo CDs ;)

    A nice 2D matchmaking interface like Halo is perfect... and yes... ALL games should share an interface like that. I am shocked MS has not put it into the Live SDK.

  • CrumpledPaper #23 4 years ago

    "I still fail to see the good thing about this."

    Well, they want you to be able to share more of the functionality of the PS3 than just games, and this helps them do that. Plus it's flashy, it lets them give developers the freedom to make their own 3D spaces and events which adds a better sense of community and engagement..and perhaps most importantly for Sony, probably, is that if you sat a more casual gamer down in front of Home, and then sat them down in front of Xbox Live, they'd probably find Home a lot more attractive.

    And just, generally, virtual communities with personal 'spaces' of one kind or another, customisation, all those things..they're pretty hot right now.

  • penhalion #24 4 years ago

    most here I take it are not on the beta because a lot of you don't seem to know how home works. It's especially obvious when people try to take potshots at lives gamer score. Home has gamer trophies which are the 3d version of a gamer score! The join game functionality is via invites just like live except you can't simply jump into your mates game-in-progress.

    You may want to at least find out what home is before arguing about features you THINK it has but doesn't!

  • GamesConnoisseur #25 4 years ago

    I wonder how much of us would be prepared to 'virtually' go through teleport motion/walk and talk or take shortcuts via PSP menu? I mean virtual space is great in certain mode, for partying, talking and playing suitable games. But to be a fully fledged working lobby/stats compare/switching to different modes 2D works best.

    Still having said that I am keen to try out Home, but I never bothered with Second Life or similar as too lazy to do what I normally do in real life! Walk to PC and switch on, then walk to armchair with console and insert disk etc

  • LOLLERS #26 4 years ago

    I'm getting my groove on!

  • Gaol #27 4 years ago

    Fuck 2d, Home hopefully should have everything a Live dashboard offers and more. How involved you get with the sims crap is up to you, but as a meeting point and community building function PSN badly needs Home to be a success. Can't wait to try it out. And I doubt MS will rest on its laurels either. This is a clear example of where competition breeds innovation and progress, I doubt Sony would give a crap if Live hadn't shown it the way forward.

  • Ryze #28 4 years ago

    Not enough RAM, not enough RAM, this'll be interesting to see in action because there's not enough RAM...

    loading.........please wait......

  • AOFanboi #29 4 years ago

    "Ooh, I know! And 3D graphics won't add anything worthwhile to the far superior text-based interfaces of MUDs either! EverQuest is dead in the water."

  • Beano #30 4 years ago

    "Not enough RAM, not enough RAM, this'll be interesting to see in action because there's not enough RAM... "

    Home will just launch Warhawk (and enter the correct lobby/game) and not be running (= in memory) while the game is running.

  • Ryze #31 4 years ago

    ...and in between these two states?

    loading..................................................... ............................................................ ............................................................ ........

  • hoos30 #32 4 years ago

    What? Huh? Sony, I'm so confused. What is this?