Fan Reviews

[Sir_Gunnalot]

Okay, so this is a review board, and I couldn't find a review of PlayStation Home. Hell, Home seems to be largely ignored/despised among these very forums. So I have decided to give you my thoughts on Home. Be gentle, it's my first ever review

I review things on a basis of 4 different things:  Gameplay, Story, Graphics and sound. Unfortunately, the first two do not exist in a social networking application.

Sound: Licensed music in Home is often seen as a problem, caused mostly by laws and various legalities surrounding the music, songwriting and composing. Mere seconds can be caught close to video screens advertising various games and services. In the Singstar space, you can be offered various 30-second clips based on popular songs from a variety of eras (that's right, you can be Rickrolled in Home ). Outside of music, sound effects can be heard in various spaces. In the Infamous space you can hear the sound of a dock, including seagulls. If you stand in the Home Square and stand outside the bowling alley, you can hear the insides of a bowling alley.

As Home is not a 'Game' and therefore cannot be switched off, some of the sounds and music in Home can be, and can often feel repetitive. The quality of the sound is very high, but I feel there is not enough variety in Home.

I give sound 6/10.

Graphics: Home can support 1080p, and textures are of a very high quality. While the spaces themselves are immaculately designed and built (I have even found high quality textures on some areas even the designers didn't think you would probably take the effort to look at), the loading time of the avatars, the real people begins to let home down graphically. While I am in a high resolution, it takes a short while for others in the space, including my friends, to load up to a high enough resolution that i can see the details on their costumes.

That, combined with the 'ghosting' effect is what lets the application down graphically.

I give graphics 7/10

Gameplay (the overall feel of Home): Home is not a game, let's get that straight for a second. But what it does contain, are games, and characters (you and me). You can win prizes. You can customise your avatar to a very high degree. You can buy clothes, furniture and ornaments for yourself and your own personal space. If you choose the level of your own participation, you can either have an absorbing time in Home, or you can have a dull one.

The smoothness of Home, however, leaves a lot to be desired. A startup sequence can take from 30 seconds to 5 minutes, depending on the number of items you have bought. Should a console accessible social network do such a thing? Plus there's the time taken in transition from space to space, and infrequent lag issues on top of that.

I shall be marking this up a point, as it is possible to launch straight into your games from Home, quit, and then come right back into what you were doing before.

I give 'Game'play 7/10

Support: Whilst I do not doubt the moderators of Home do their job well and effectively, a lot more is needed to be done. Reporting someone is half the problem. You can't expect the Home Police (if there were such a thing) to be there on the spot at the drop of a coin. But in certain situations, that is what's needed. Someone can harass you, someone can be rude, annoying and so on. But muting them is half a soultion. They will still be there. Just because someone has been muted does not mean they can't be annoying. With the large number of poses available to Home users, people can be made to look like they are in a compromising position with little chance of being forcibly removed. The only solution in this case would be to block access to the visual side of someone's avatar as well.

I shall not be marking this out of 10, as this is a moderation issue, not a review issue.

Extras: Every Thursday, Home is given downtime for maintenance and the addition of more and new items. This includes public spaces, private spaces, furniture, ornaments and new clothes, along with new content added to the Home cinema area.

This reviewer, however, believes that while the addition of personal and public spaces (more often than not game related) is a good thing, it is still a long way from becoming more than just an 'add-on' to the PSN. Clothes in the stores are generic jumpers, tshirts, trousers, whilst game content and costumes are minimal in comparison. It is possible to dress yourself up as Altair/Ezio from Assassin's Creed 1 and 2, Nathan Hale from Resistance 2, and as Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar from Resident Evil 5, as well as various Street Fighter 4 and Tekken 6 outfits. Plus you can buy branded tshirts of several games. However, with the Playstation 3's massively expanding library of games, such as Fallout, Bayonetta, Dante's Inferno, Sonic, Metal Gear Solid, Call Of Duty, just to name but a few, and that's just the retail games. There's a whole library of downloadable content on the PSN store. This is a market that, in my opinion, hasn't been explored to it's fullest potential.

As a result, I give this 7/10 with room for expansion.

Don't get me wrong, I love Home. I adore Home, and I spend a lot of my time, emotions, money and wellbeing in home. It's just that Home, in it's current state still has it's flaws. I can only review what I have seen. Based on previews, you can expect picture frames, televisions streaming content, and a few more interesting features. But none of these have arrived yet.

In addition, Home is split into four regions, each with their own seperate teams in charge of adding content, moderating, and generally running their own version of Home. As is to be expected, all is not the same in each of these regions, and you will often see the community from various regions crying out for other regions' content, even if said content has nothing to do with their culture or their gaming habits. That, however is a community issue, and is frequently discussed at arms length in the Home forums.

On average, I have rated PlayStation Home 6.5/10

There is definitely room for improvement. There are a hundred things they could improve on, but there's a hundred ways it could be much much worse. Your experience in Home is what you make of it.

[nerdlegend]

It a good review covers all it needs to.

Think it a good review for home, as it not like games so harder to do. If home was a game , i would view it underrated with large potential.

[cee_cee610]

I cant get on my ps3 home I down loaded new update now wont let me on

it says network error Z(9-2)

[inkspot_76]

same problem here.....anyone have a clue?

[chickenwing46]

I give it 3/10 .......There's nothing to do in it ...

[Spidie_Pig_Rules]

good revie Gunnie and it covers what its supposed to i think we can say home realy is lacking as of ate it just seems to still be taking baby steps although the recent update brought a good change so heres hoping it can get fixed soon