Before Kojima Productions and Konami get Hideo Kojima that editor he so desperately needs, perhaps the company should hire someone who knows how to launch an online multiplayer game. The Metal Gear Online "Gene Expansion" was released yesterday and promptly melted Konami's servers, resulting in the closure of the game's MGO Shop and Reward Shop and difficulty logging in to the service. Some MGO players have reported paying for the new expansion and getting nothing in return.

Konami's solution to some of these issues was to restrict random IP ranges from accessing the shops, in an effort to lighten the load.

The company has also cancelled all Metal Gear Online "Survival" battles planned for this weekend, promising to have a new hamster wheel installed to power the servers as soon as is technically possible.

Metal Gear Online Support [Konami - thanks, Shakir!]

Speaking with a group of game writers earlier this week SCEA head Jack Tretton talked briefly about how Sony Computer Entertainment has benefited under the shift from Ken Kutaragi to Kaz Hirai.

Specifically, he talked about the promise that Sony's regions would be a bit more antonymous under Hirai.

"There is no question that Kutaragi-san ruled with an iron fist, but it was his vision," Tretton said. "In terms of how we went to market in region, that was anonymous."

Miyamoto Caught on Film Checking Out Killzone 2

As with previous E3s, Nintendo tastemaker Shigeru Miyamoto swung by a few booths to check out the action. In this vid we get a glimpse of Miyamoto getting a glimpse of hardcore shooter Killzone 2. What I don't get is why he keeps looking at these big-name shooters. He's been pretty clear in the past about how he feels about them.

[Thanks Runandgun]

How Power Outages and WTO Protests Influenced inFamous

Sucker Punch Productions' anti-hero action game inFamous looks to deliver the sort of everyman superhero found in Hancock, just without all that alcohol and attitude.

The game, due out next year on the Playstation 3, starts off with an explosion tearing through Empire City, killing everyone in a six square block, everyone but Cole. As he recovers from the blast the city starts to fall apart with people rioting, then a plague strike and finally all of Empire City is quarantined from the mainland. A television broadcast links Cole to the scene of the bomb blast and he becomes a wanted man, but he also recovers to find himself with super electrical abilities.

inFamous has players battling through the now crime-infested city working to solve the mystery behind the blast while also learning Cole's new super powers.

Sucker Punch's Brian Flemming told us that before the blast Cole was an urban explorer, a guy who liked to climb around and explore the city. So there's a taste of parkour.

Britain, Your PS3s Will Stream TV As Of September 10 (Everyone Else, Little Later)

Europe's PlayTV service for the PS3 is looking very nice. We already knew SCEE were looking at a release window of around September, but yesterday Sony's David Reeves started handing out actual dates and actual info. The UK will be the first country to get PlayTV, with it due to start up on September 10, with a staggered roll-out across Europe in the weeks after. As a bonus treat, he also confirmed that you'll be able to record TV onto your HDD at the same time you're playing a game, with the necessary code having been quietly slipped into the 2.41 update. Oh, and before anyone not up to speed on PlayTV asks, no, there are no plans to bring it to the US.

PlayTV dated, will record TV while gaming [Eurogamer]

Yup, You're Getting Eternal Sonata On The PS3

inFamous (no, spell checker, it's not my fault), for the PS3, looks to be Crackdown tied together with better graphics and a healthy dose of Deus Ex Machina. And while the game's tone and colour palette could probably do with a little lightening up, the nuts and bolts - you know, the parts where you electrify a car before throwing it off a train track at somebody - seem to be doing a good job of getting folks excited.

WipEout HD Has "A Specific Technical Problem"

One of the best PS3 games we've laid our hands on over the past 12 months has been the PSN version of classic PlayStation racer WipEout. It was playable all the way back at TGS, and has been playable at various events since, and yet at E3 this year, it was nowhere. No mention of it, no mention of a release date. So what gives? Looks as if while most of the game simply sings, some of it doesn't, with the game plagued by a "really, really tricky technical problem" that nobody at Sony has been able to fix. As a result, they're hoping the game will be out by Christmas, but just can't guarantee it. Bummer.

WipEout HD delayed due to technical issue [Eurogamer]

Resident Evil 5. An eagerly awaited game awash in a sea of racial controversy that seems silly when every morning for the past week I woke up, look out the window, and was greeted by a 200 foot tall advertisement for Tropic Thunder featuring Robert Downey Jr. with his face painted black. I think the gaming public has pretty much moved on at this point, which is nice, because I don't want my hands-on impressions of Capcom's E3 demo for the game sullied by conflict.

The demo starts off with my character (Chris) holed up in a shack with Rosario Dawson.

Killzone 2 Online Multiplayer: 'Fast Action! Lots of Explosions!'

D3 Publisher: Boobs, Sheep, and Aliens, Oh My!

Man, LittleBigPlanet looks great. So, so, so great. In yesterday's LBP breakout session, Media Molecule's Alex Evans walked us through the game, pointing out all sorts of fun facts. Like? Well....
• The game will feature trophies.
• If two players of different levels play co-op together and one falls behind, that player will instantly die and respawn so the two players can keep up.
• There are over 60 tutorials that focus on creating.
• Because the Sony E3 press conference showed it was possible to embed text on objects, it will now be possible to do that in-game. (Media Molecule wants to make sure everything it's now showing with LBP is actually possible for users to make.
Hit the jump for the rest.

Sony Video Service Not Hitting Europe, Australia Until 2009 (At Least)

That new Sony video download service sure looks neat! I wouldn't know, though. Not American, you see. Seems I might not know for a while yet, either, with Sony's David Reeves announcing that PAL territories won't be downloading movies on their PS3s in 2008.

This will not come to the PAL markets this year, but Sir Howard Stringer has made the commitment that non-games will come to all regions in due course and it will. The dates for video content will come later this year. For us, and I think you appreciate most of you European, that local content is important, and that's what working on right now.

A shame, but not a surprise, given the legal issues Microsoft faced with their service (which, incidentally, Australia still doesn't have).

80GB PS3 coming to Europe, Australia on August 27 [GameSpot]

PS3 BioShock Gets Exclusive DLC

80GB PS3 To Hit "All PAL Territories" On August 27

Chatting at a secret Europeans-only gig in Santa Monica, SCEE boss David Reeves has announced that the 80GB PlayStation 3 - unveiled at Sony's E3 address yesterday - will be released simultaneously "across all PAL territories" (yes, that includes Australia) on August 27. It'll be priced at £299/€400, and as in the US, it'll be straight-up replacing the 40GB unit (which Reeves says is almost out of stock, and will not be seeing a temporary price cut).

E3 08: 80GB PS3 coming to Europe [MCV]

Resistance 2 Bringing 44 Magnum Bombs

Just out of of a Resistance 2 session with Insomniac boss Ted Price. Showed the game's intro, which picks up where Resistance 1 left off. The sequel features new lighting and new motion capture along with more detailed textures. The game kicks off in Iceland and then by the second level takes players through the streets of San Francisco. Players are joined by three sentinels who help fight and tell the story since the voice over narration from Resistance 1 has been dropped. That should help players learn more about main character Nathan Hale.

"We've really upped the gore," says Price. It's possible to blow off arms, legs and heads. What's more, new weapons include a 44 Magnum, which fires bullets that you can detonate by remote. So, you could fire a buncha bullets in the wall and then detonate them. It's even possible to detonate those bullets that you've shot into Chimera. Instead of a health bar, when players are shoot, the screen goes reddish like Call of Duty. Should make the game much more immersive.

When asked about cross platform PSP remote play, Price said that was something they would not be addressing now. Maybe later? Maybe not? Who knows! Not me.

PS3 Press Conference Rehearsal Crashed By Mystery Blogger

Shrine auditorium security grabbed an overly eager blogger from his third-floor balcony perch during a recent Sony E3 press conference dress rehearsal, SCEA head Jack Tretton said.

Sony was working their way through a dry run of the upcoming Playstation press conference when someone noticed that what they were saying and doing was showing up on an unnamed site.

Tretton Says No 360 Final Fantasy XIII Coming to Japan

Microsoft's announcement of an Xbox 360 Final Fantasy XIII wasn't a surprise to SCEA head Jack Tretton, but it was a disappointment.

"Am I disappointed by it? Yes," he said at a recent meeting with game writers. "Am I surprised? No."

The loss of such a prestigious exclusive wasn't probably unavailable in the current state of the games industry, he added.

"It's going to be harder and harder to hold on to franchises," he said, adding that Final Fantasy XIII will remain a Playstation exclusive in Japan.