GGL Wire

Sony announced today that the PlayStation Home beta is expanding its U.S. user base. In order to apply, PlayStation 3 owners must check out the PlayStation Store later tonight. A new PlayStation Home theme will be released. All you have to do is download the theme and bingo, you applied.

If you live in Europe and want to get into the Home beta, Sony has good news for you. They will be adding new users by selecting people who are the most active on the PlayStation Network. So if you want in, start playing online more.

Read: How To Apply To The U.S. Home Beta.

Today the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Beta, on Xbox Live Arcade began. In order to get into the beta, gamers must purchase Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 on Xbox Live Arcade. From the main menu of Commando 3, there should be a option that says “SFII HD Remix Beta.” Once you select that, you will be taken to a blade that asks for confirmation of download. Agree to that and the SFII HD Beta is yours.

What’s in the beta? Well, unfortunately, not much. Players will have the option (or lack thereof) to play as Ryu or Ken. The lack of choice is OK though, the reason for the beta is to stress test the net code for multiplayer. We all know that the reason you decided to participate in the beta was to help out Capcom, not get early access to a highly anticipated game.

Right?

Read: Super Street Fighter II XBLA beta begins today.

Today Ubisoft released a patch for the Xbox 360 version Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Most of the changes only affect multiplayer. A similar patch for PS3 and PC are in the work and will be out shortly. The list of changes goes:

• Swapping to & from Pistols are now faster in Multiplayer.
• Optimized sound bank to improve weapon firing and helicopter sound clips that loop over and over.
• Servers now update their pings more often so that players have a more accurate value of server performance.
• Spawn Shield is shorter when respawning with the Leader.
• When there are more people on a team than the other, there is an overall XP modifier applied to all XP gained during the game.
• By pressing the start button, players now have access to the outfitting menu in observer mode.
• Respawning in Team Deathmatch now work like regular Deathmatch (random points throughout the map) which intensifies gameplay and minimizes spawn camping/trapping.
• Faster respawns for Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. You no longer have to wait a full 10 seconds!
• Players who enter a room using custom search then exit will be brought back to an automatic search with the same criteria.

For the rest of the changes hit the jump. Continued…

Today PS3 gamers were let down by Sony when they announced that the Home Closed Beta will be extended to Summer 2008. Originally slated for Fall 07, Home was pushed back to Spring 08. Now gamers can only hope that Summer 08 bears some fruit.

According to Sony: “We understand that we are asking PS3 and prospective PS3 users to wait a bit longer, but we have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today. Our overarching objective is to provide users with new gaming experiences that are available only on PLAYSTATION Home. Spending more time on the development and on the Closed Beta testing reaffirms our commitment to bringing a quality service, maintaining the PlayStation tradition.”

Let’s hope that this is the last delay.

The full press release is after the jump. Continued…