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Tag Archives: PlayStation Store

Gran Turismo HD Concept

One of the coolest things going on the PlayStation 3′s PlayStation Store right now and for the last three weeks or so is the limited-time offer to download Gran Turismo HD Concept for free. Sure, the game is limited right now to about a dozen cars and only one track, but as a “play it now” glimpse into one of Sony’s most-cherished racing franchises and what the PS3 could hold for fans of the game, Gran Turismo HD Concept is an addicting teaser.

Now, it’s not a completely original-for-PS3 build. The game is based on Gran Turismo 4, with an extensive port-up makeover for PS3. And early rumors had it that you’d have to buy 100s of extra cars and dozens of extra tracks to race on via PlayStation Store “microtransactions.” Otherwise known as literally “nickle-and-diming you to death.”

The prospect had some people with dollar signs in their eyes scheming to find ways to make similar micro-transaction schemes involving everything from unofficial game mods to business card printing. Yikes!

So far, that doesn’t appear to be the case. The game is limited, seems to be little more than a tech demo, but is addictive fun for all of that. And it’s free. That’s nice. Now, back to our regularly scheduled time trial.

Not bad for $2.99

My wife is a big Sudoku fan. Loves the stuff. I’ve never much cared for it. But today we downloaded the demo of Go! Sudoku from the PlayStation Store and darned if the game didn’t hook me, too.

The free “starter pack” offers up four matrices each of four different difficulty levels. I let my wife try it out, because I want thinking Sudoku was about as fun as writing out a bunch of return address labels. My wife was skeptical she’d like it because she prefers to work things out on paper when she does Sudoku.

But soon she was having a decent amount of fun and when I tried it later on, it hooked me, too. We checked into the PlayStation Store again and there are four booster packs available for $2.99 each. I was hoping each pack would offer maybe 50 extra puzzles at that price.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. The first booster pack weighs in at well over 500 “easy” level matrices, and by the time you buy all four booster packs at $2.99 each, you have over 1,400 matrices in all.

Some folks have been skeptical the PlayStation 3′s PlayStation Store can succeed. But with low-cost, high-entertainment stuff like this available, I think once they work out the kinks (like no background downloading), PS3 and their online store could give Xbox Live some competition this time out in the world of online gaming.