~ {warcadia} ~ War is Peace

Sony’s Home service for the PS3 is currently in private beta, but looks like it will be for longer than expected. The reasons for this are pretty clear, as PS3F details:

* So far, the beta just has four areas: your apartment, a lobby, the movie theater (with 10 rooms), and the game room (6 pool tables, 4 bowling lanes, 10 arcade machines).
* As of yet, no support has been utilized for in-Home game launches — that is, you can’t invite people to play games from Home yet.
* Facial creation is the most detailed, but hair and clothing is still limited. Recently, body size was added, but it’s not as detailed as the facial features.
* No music, movie, or photo integration with your apartment made it into the beta. There are some generic samples, but nothing you can upload yourself. Heck, TVs and stereos aren’t even available as pieces of furniture.
* You can walk into your apartment, but you need to get invited and warp into a friends’ place. That’s the only way to get into another player’s pad.
* Even though a lot of things are missing that are promised in the “final” build upon public release, what is there works wonderfully. The arcade games promote communication and placing furniture is simple. Physics work well.
* Home supports headsets and keyboard — you press/hold R2 to talk. Instead of having one standard volume, your voice is loud relative to the people around you. So if you’re in a crowded lobby, you can still have a one-on-one conversation while everyone else sounds like a murmuring crowd.

Home’s public beta has been slated for an October release for a while. But now, i wouldn’t be shocked if it gets pushed back a little to avoid too many negative impressions. Kotaku recently declared that the date of release would be the 11th of October, but Sony has vehemently denied this. Honestly, i’m not dying for it, but once they let you launch games from it, it could be great. God knows i love voice chat — and in turn, Warhawk. And thusly, Home.