Playstation Home

Playstation 3's social networking/virtual game lobby application, Home is now online in the form of a free public beta.

My first impressions of home are a very pretty, but much more locked down and small scale version of Second Life, crossed with the lobbies from Phantasy Star Online. Those familiar with second life will probably feel a bit frustrated at just how restrictive the world of Home is. you won't be jumping over the rail of your balcony and exploring the marina any time soon.

The graphics are quite beautiful. The avatars are very customizable and well made, though the editor is much less useful than the one in Saints Row 2. Of the few places currently available to go, I like the bowling alley best. It is a good place to socialize, play pool, and bowl. The Movie Theater is also pretty cool, but it reeks of marketing, and sitting watching trailers of crappy vampire romance movies aimed at tweens is not very thrilling.

The Mall is pretty empty at the moment which is too bad because I want to get a TV and some furniture that doesn't suck for my apartment. The real potential for Home is a meeting place for things like virtual anime/sci-fi clubs, who can hang out and watch the latest episode of Soul Eater, or Torchwood off of one of the member's Hard drive on the virtual TV.

I already met my first Griefer, and most of the people around were acting like idiots, but I still see that home has some potential. Sony really needs to get content in there fast though.