Ok guys, I have been inside the beta for about a week now, and I am loving it. So far, the beta is up to 0.98...I assume that when 1.0 comes out, it will be public.

If you have been watching videos on the internet, then you know that they are pretty good for a game like that... especially in HD. Surprisingly, the game runs VERY SMOOTHLY. I have yet to notice any lag at all, even though my connection is terrible. They give you a VERY BROAD range of customizable player options when you first enter the beta. They still do not have a great deal of clothes, but most of them are casual anyway. As of now, you can go to the mall and buy free stuff, like clothes and other housing assesories.

As of now, there are only 4 main areas that you can travel to: Central Plaza, Home Theatre, Game Room(forgot what it is called), and The Mall. Home theatre has potential to be great, nobody really hangs out there because they keep showing clips from Siren: Blood curse. You can sit down and talk to people about anything. If you are inactive for too long, your player goes to sleep...lol I remember one time when I came in the theatre and I saw 4 people in the back row KNOCKED OUT...lol I believe they update the trailers once a week.

Next up, is the mall. The mall is a pretty cool place to hang out, but there needs to be some updates in order to make it flawless. Right now, there are only a few stores that you can go to and buy free stuff. you can actually by a summer house for free and customize it, but not as well as your original living space. Also, once you have everything in the mall, theres really no need to come back until they update it...unless you want to play chess. They have about 4 chess tables set up in the upper level of the mall. I have met a lot of friends there...lol

Central Plaza- This is the main place in home. This is where you will find most of the users. As of now, they have a music spot where they play music (three songs as of now) and people generally go there to party and dance. It is generally packed with users. You have A LOT of dancing options, you can rock, rave hip hop, robot, and about 6 other main ones, which I cant remeber. Also, when you are dancing, you can do a bunch of other moves like twist, fold your arms, point your fingers, thumbs up/down and about 25 other sub-options. Also, in the plaza, they have poster of great games that are coming out soon (LBP) and many others. They also have a really big movie screen in the middle of it (only trailer I have seen so far is the force unleashed) which advertises future titles. When you come to the theatre, outside they always tell you whats playing inside on a big board, but so far I have only seen Siren:Blood curse...but on the left hand side before you walk in, they have a bunch of posters that tell you what will be showing.

Finally, the game room. The game room is pretty popular, thats where you will find a great deal of people. Right now, you can play pool, bowling, and a crapload of arcade games. when you first walk in, on the right hand side you will notice that there is a screen that is playing motorstorm: pacific rift, and if you walk close to any screen, you can zoom in and make it full screen (unless some butthole is standing right in front of the screen, kind of blocking the view...imagine you being in the movies and some guy just stands up right in front of you and stays there). You will meet a lot of friends here as well. I have actually met a girl in the plaza and took her out on a date to bowl with me...lol

I know I said there were four places, but you also have your main house. You can customize it by putting lamps, couches, plants, footstools, ornaments...pretty much anywhere in the house or on the patio. Also, you can customize your wallpaper of the house. It is really sweet.

Finally, the last thing I wanted to mention was that you do not have to walk around everywhere just to get places, you can uses the psp (didgital) to go everywhere. I mean that when you press start, you access the psp and you can can go to "change location" from the XMB and you will teleport anywhere you want. Also, if you can walk up to any group of people and party up with them for any game. You can also do this from the psp xmb...which is friggin awesome!! Also, you can customize your psp with the themes that are given to you, other than that this is all that I can think of that you can do so far.. The replay value is very high, I love it, the only reason I am not playing it is because I left my ps3 at home because I have school and I play on my friends ps3.

Bottom line is I am going to give it a 9.7/10

any questions, please ask

edit: just realized that they update the home theatre every few days...They are now playing wipeout HD

Great was really that good.

A very good analysis ,thank you.

I still have one more question though: What is it for exactly? Will Home ''avatars'' appear in other SCE titles?

hum :

- only 4 chess table ?
- a dancing room ? but what is the interest of this ?
- no unchartred place ? no warhawk place ?
- how many people do you find SIMULTANEOUSLY in 1 area ? 10 ? 100 ? 1000 ?

thx

also :

- do you find PNJ ?
- can you interact pysically with others (throw a ball ? punch someone ?) like u can do with LBP.
- what does it change in term of gameplay in the different games you are playing trought Home ?

They should really add the ability of viewing movies fullscreen (you should be able to stand close to the screen then press a button and view the movie fullscreen).

This way of centering the camera yourself and that people can block your view isn't really gonna work.Anyway that's the only complaint I have,other than it looks really amazing from all the previews,wish they don't delay it again.

And they should add 1st person view, to be able to view things in detail.

u shouldve taken the girl back to ur crib and sealed the deal XD LOL.

Looks very nice!