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PuPPeT · 04-09-2003, 11:55 AM

Price and release
There are many factors to mull over, then, and lots of issues for interested gamers still to resolve. As for an accurate cost and definitive release date, these things have become blurred by Sony's recently announced soft launch. As of the March 31 you'll be able to pick up an ENA from the official Web site (www.uk.playstation.com) for £40 plus £5 P&P – providing you own a PS2 and already have broadband connection to your home. In the Network Starter's Pack, alongside with the hardware, you'll receive an online-only copy of SOCOM US Navy Seals (you'll get the full version free of charge once it's released) plus a USB headset for use with the game. Which is good news for those lucky enough to be signed up for the trials. For everyone else, though, it means yet more waiting for a finalised launch line-up, a high street release date and further information on how the HDD will fit into this increasingly complex equation. What Equip can tell you now is that SOCOM has a confirmed UK release date of May 30, which, when coupled with Midnight Club 2's arrival by April 11, gives a reasonably tight launch window for things kicking off in the UK.

The future online
And so Equip comes away, sauntering back towards Paddington caught somewhere between excitement and a sense of disappointment that the out-of-the-box scenario is, ultimately, a fiction in these broadband-lean times. The incentive is still building with each newly confirmed online title, the ways and means on the cusp of being a reality. The only real hurdle Sony's online plans will face in the coming 12 months is how effectively this new way of doing things, what Shah calls this new 'mentality', is conveyed to the gamer casually thumbing a copy of Tribes Aerial Assault in HMV. It all centres around that Field of Dreams belief of 'build it and they will come'. And, inevitably, a proportion of the four million PS2 owners in the UK will.
See, it only takes a fraction of this massive installed base to be tempted by its burgeoning catalogue of online titles, to ensure the Ethernet seed falls on fertile ground. Initially what will grow from this conception won't be some illusory Eden, rather a barren, sparsely vegetated land that will require tools for cultivation – the ENA, the PC, the ADSL modem, the broadband cable guy's drill… But it will become fruitful, there is no doubt about that. And if all of this sounds like too much hard work, don't get involved. The early adopters will carry on regardless. They'll fill up the message boards with fault notifications and suggestions for improvement, while the boys in the back rooms perfect their craft and eventually bring about a new iteration of networked technology for the next generation of consoles. The ultimate question then in this struggle to get online is a personal one. How do you want to be remembered? As a frontiersman or a tourist?

Equip PS2, Edge's look at the future of PlayStation 2, is on sale now.

Got something to say about this story? Heard any top gaming news that we should know about? Then email gamesradar@futurenet.co.uk

04-09-2003, 11:55 AM	#6
PuPPeT Duke PuPPeT is offline Now Playing: Posts: 230	Price and release There are many factors to mull over, then, and lots of issues for interested gamers still to resolve. As for an accurate cost and definitive release date, these things have become blurred by Sony's recently announced soft launch. As of the March 31 you'll be able to pick up an ENA from the official Web site (www.uk.playstation.com) for £40 plus £5 P&P – providing you own a PS2 and already have broadband connection to your home. In the Network Starter's Pack, alongside with the hardware, you'll receive an online-only copy of SOCOM US Navy Seals (you'll get the full version free of charge once it's released) plus a USB headset for use with the game. Which is good news for those lucky enough to be signed up for the trials. For everyone else, though, it means yet more waiting for a finalised launch line-up, a high street release date and further information on how the HDD will fit into this increasingly complex equation. What Equip can tell you now is that SOCOM has a confirmed UK release date of May 30, which, when coupled with Midnight Club 2's arrival by April 11, gives a reasonably tight launch window for things kicking off in the UK. The future online And so Equip comes away, sauntering back towards Paddington caught somewhere between excitement and a sense of disappointment that the out-of-the-box scenario is, ultimately, a fiction in these broadband-lean times. The incentive is still building with each newly confirmed online title, the ways and means on the cusp of being a reality. The only real hurdle Sony's online plans will face in the coming 12 months is how effectively this new way of doing things, what Shah calls this new 'mentality', is conveyed to the gamer casually thumbing a copy of Tribes Aerial Assault in HMV. It all centres around that Field of Dreams belief of 'build it and they will come'. And, inevitably, a proportion of the four million PS2 owners in the UK will. See, it only takes a fraction of this massive installed base to be tempted by its burgeoning catalogue of online titles, to ensure the Ethernet seed falls on fertile ground. Initially what will grow from this conception won't be some illusory Eden, rather a barren, sparsely vegetated land that will require tools for cultivation – the ENA, the PC, the ADSL modem, the broadband cable guy's drill… But it will become fruitful, there is no doubt about that. And if all of this sounds like too much hard work, don't get involved. The early adopters will carry on regardless. They'll fill up the message boards with fault notifications and suggestions for improvement, while the boys in the back rooms perfect their craft and eventually bring about a new iteration of networked technology for the next generation of consoles. The ultimate question then in this struggle to get online is a personal one. How do you want to be remembered? As a frontiersman or a tourist? Equip PS2, Edge's look at the future of PlayStation 2, is on sale now. Got something to say about this story? Heard any top gaming news that we should know about? Then email gamesradar@futurenet.co.uk __________________ It's true what they say "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance".