Much like a Hollywood starlet past her prime, Sony’s cross-breed social-gaming experience has been showing some major wrinkles. PlayStation Home started out as a destination for PS3 owning gamers to virtually hang out and play some casual games. The system became a splintered affair of downloadable “spaces”, usually inspired by a big budget game. The whole thing felt more like a busted transit line than an actual socializing meet up. Sony has taken notice of the lack of enthusiasm and has renovated Home, painting the walls and redoing the carpet.

First up is a central hub, a more stylish version of Home’s Central Plaza. Shooting off of that will be four distinct zones: the casual gaming boardwalk-ish Pier Park, The Action District, the Sports Walk arena and the soon-to-be-filled with Uncharted 3 goodness Adventure Zone. Also set to launch with the re-do is a handful of games set inside each of the zones to keep fans entertained. Hit the break to see more…

The Sports area will get a trivia game filled with over 10,000 questions. Players can test their knowledge against the community with the chance to snag some cool theme prizes. Also included in Sportswalk will be a cut throat Home Hold ‘Em card game, sure to make even the most laid back gamer a gambling junkie. Pier Park will host the remote control car customization and racing game, RC Rally. Race your friends through multiple courses to earn upgrades and bragging rights. The Adventure area will be home to an Uncharted 3 shooter, based off the Yemen level from the game. The Hub will have a machine building, tile sliding puzzler named Cogs.

The Action District looks to house the best and possibly biggest draw to the service: Bootleggers ’29. This Prohibition era shooter puts gamers in a cop and criminals game of Capture the Cask. Playing as their Home avatar, users engage each other in a multiplayer struggle using era-specific weapons and rewards. The game might just be what gets people coming back on a consistent basis.

Earlier today I tried to hop on Home to see how it was. After the rather quick for PlayStation update, I was greeted with a “Down for Maintenance” screen. Well that’s not so good. Most likely Sony wasn’t ready for the masses to be on at 6 a.m. PST. I’ll have to pop in later and see if the fuss is worth it. What about you geeks? Can Sony turn Home into a time drain or is it too little, too late?

Source: Kotaku

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