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As the New Year approaches and some of you are making your resolutions, it's a natural time to reflect on who you are and who you would like to be. Two years ago when I brought home my Wii and was sculpting a likeness of myself in Mii form, I was doing just that sort of reflecting.

Recently, Sony opened up their new Playstation Home service to public beta and Microsoft unrolled the New Xbox Experience. With these additions, it has become possible to create an effigy of ourselves across each platform, so I'd like to give you my impressions of my own three representations. I can tell you right now, a couple of these ain't pretty.

Though PlayStation Home seems forever out of reach, this hasn't stopped Atari's Phil Harrison, one of the original architects of Sony's much-anticipated virtual landscape, from singing its praises. The former Sony exec was one of Home's chief evangelists, and, according to Eurogamer, believes Sony has "brilliantly realised their ambitions."

While also "quite impressed" with Microsoft's efforts around the social networking buzzword, Harrison noted that he feels his former employer "will have a very successful platform." We just hope that when he gives Home a congratulatory slap on the back, he does so with enough gusto to actually push it out the door.

Puzzling through Sony's reasons for throwing money at PlayStation Home is not a task for weak of heart, but for long, sleepless hours spent burning the midnight oil. Thankfully we now have Red Bull, the online service's first major third-party partner, on tap to help energize our search for enlightenment.

Details remain scant, though UK site Brand Republic notes that the energy drink company will have its own caffeinated island space in Home featuring "an aeroplane racing game based on Red Bull's real world Red Bull Air Race series." As Home does anything but race to release, we can't help but wonder if someday we'll take in Sony's advertisement-laden virtual landscape from the air, rather than while wandering aimlessly on the ground.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Those who continue to experience PlayStation Home from the outside-looking-in have another outlet to fuel their desire to traipse about in Sony's social bowling experiment. The oft-delayed service has been given its own home on the official PlayStation website, though like Home itself at present the site is sparse in both content and purpose.

Currently visitors can wow themselves by reading a description of Home, as well as watch a video tour, look at a handful of screenshots ... and that's about it. Even so, pressing your face up against the screen is nearly as much fun as wandering aimlessly though the virtual world's vapid halls. Nearly.

There are a number of negative traits associated with video game press events and conventions, the most obvious of which being the time and expense required to haul one's widely dispersed blogging crew to the west coast (or in some cases, overseas). However, not many know about a phenomenon known widely in our circle as "Blogger Stench", a condition brought on by packing a convention hall with tired, sweaty, uncomfortably close gaming writers. Luckily, Ubisoft is taking measures to avoid this putrid odor -- simply by bringing one of their events into an odorless space.

Okay, they're still holding their Ubidays press event in Paris today -- but for the next five days, the PlayStation Home's Media and Events space will be dedicated to previewing new Ubisoft titles, such as Prince of Persia, Tom Clancy's HAWX, and Soul Calibur IV. Those blessed with a closed beta account can check out these new titles from the comfort of their own homes -- those who attended the brick-and-mortar Ubidays event will likely spend the next five days replacing their overseas wardrobe and attempting to remove their outermost layer of skin with a Brillo pad.

Worried that game integration with Playstation Home will just be trophies, trailers and t-shirts? Well, so were we, actually. Luckily, Kotaku's learned some interesting details about the Home integration of Warhawk, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and Resistance: Fall of Man. Turns out its way cooler than we thought.

Warhawk will reportedly allow up to eight players to meet in a "war room" prior to a match, mapping out strategies on "sand table" replicas of each level. Once they're ready to go, players can jump right into an online Warhawk match from the Home interface. A nice touch, indeed.

Resistance and Uncharted, meanwhile, will give Home users access to full unpopulated levels from the games, allowing players to casually walk through battlefields with their Home avatars. In addition to this killer feature, Resistance will allow players to explore unseen portions of the game, and locate radio transmissions that further explain the storyline. Uncharted will feature a Contra-style 2D shooter that launches from Home. Consider us floored. We can't wait to see these features in action.

Read - How Resistance makes Home really, really cool [Kotaku]
Read - How Uncharted makes Home really, really cool [Kotaku]
Read - How Warhawk makes Home really, really cool [Kotaku]

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Our BFFs over at PS3 Fanboy have noticed something interesting about the "Accomplishments" received while playing the PS3 version of Devil May Cry 4. Though it's not the first game to copy and paste the in-game achievements from the 360 version, DMC4 is the first title to recognize the accomplishments with a PS3 system screen, rather than an in-game notice.

This could possibly mean nothing, but it's equally possible that Devil May Cry 4 may be one of the first games to send accomplishment information to the PS3 system, for integration with services like the upcoming Playstation Home. We've already seen that Home will feature trophies collected from various accomplishments in games. Perhaps this could be the key to that feature.

As drab as the accomplishments notice is, it'll be interesting to see what it portends, if anything.

Sony's Playstation Home virtual world has undergone a few cosmetic changes since we last took a look at it. At the IMAGINA 08 event in Monaco, a session led by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe introduced the changes, which were largely the result of user feedback culled from the beta version.

Rather than entering the world via an enclosed lobby, the Playstation Home experience will now begin in a large outdoor space. Entrances to areas like the Theatre and Bowling Alley have been redesigned to be more easily spotted, and the Theatre's screening rooms have been moved closer together, as testers were complaining about the long walks (lazy gamers).

The talk also revealed the inclusion of balconies in players' in-game apartments, and a choice of around eight different apartment styles at launch. Swanky premium apartments will also be made available, though of course not without a cost. Playstation Home is scheduled to launch on the PS3 in Spring 2008.

Information regarding the closed beta for PlayStation Home has been hard to come by, but thankfully IGN has managed to get a status update from an anonymous tester.

First off, let's talk about what's missing from the beta. "None of the new features or areas outlined at E3 have made it into the beta. None," said the tester. That includes transition from Home into other games (e.g. Resistance), no trophy room and no new lobby. "Sony also had a monthly roadmap of improvements/features/places they were going to implement but have not followed it," said the tester. "Home has had one update since launch."

On the positive side of things, voice chat is said to work very well, as do the game's physics and the variety of facial customization. "The features that are in home do work well. All the games are fun to play and promote communication," said the tester.

We don't know how indicative the report is, if at all, on Home's ability to launch this year, or if there is even another, even more exclusive beta with the new features included. What we saw at E3 looked good, but unfortunately we were unable to see it with multiple people in the same space.

A menu selection spotted during a demo of Unreal Tournament 3 seems to suggest that Sony is working on a player-identification system, perhaps similar to Xbox Live's Gamertag. After seeing the "Gamercard" option in a menu at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, Games Digest was reportedly told by Epic's Mark Rein "Oops, you shouldn't have seen that."

What's more, a member of the Evil Avatar forums put forth an image from PlayStation Home that also has the "gamer card" option, this time with a space in the middle. We know very little at this point, but thought you all would appreciate a head-start on speculation. By the way, if the phrase "gamer card" seems familiar to you, you aren't imagining things.

Read -- 'Gamercard' spotted in UT3 demo
Read -- Gamercard image from Evil Avatar

From a technological standpoint, PlayStation 3's social MMO Home will differentiate the console from its competitors, but it's not a system seller. Nothing against the title, but its primary purpose is only to supplement and show off the hardware itself. We had a chance to run through the (here rather empty) areas of the game and try out what each offers.

We first started out in our apartment, which was pretty barren except for a few pieces of furniture and a picture frame. We first grabbed the highlighted the couch and moved it high up into the air, rotated a few times, and dropped it (none of this is actually done by your avatar, mind you). It didn't break, but it did bounce slightly and land on its side. We sat down on another couch, but there's nothing else you can really do with it. We can reportedly expand our apartment size later -- for a price, of course.

After we sifted through a library of images to put in the wall frame, we activated our in-game PSP and viewed the options. You can teleport to the popular locations -- lobby, game room, theater -- as well as any of your friend's apartments if they are home. Calling your friends is also available, as are invites to your place. At this point, the front door in the apartment was locked and unusable, so we instead teleported down to the lobby.

One of the things we were most eager to do at Sony's Gamers Day was to transport ourselves inside of the PlayStation Home world, and see what was going on. We finally got our chance after the crowds dissipated on the last day. We swooped in, grabbed the Sixaxis, and tried to find our bearings.

While the PlayStation Home beta is going on right now, there weren't too many people wandering around, which is probably a good thing. For first timers, it sure would be hard to figure out what was happening with crowds walking through you, talking to you, and ... dancing. Yes, right now dancing is the most popular feature for groups to participate in, continuing the World of Warcraft phenomenon of cutting a rug when you encounter other players.

If you weren't one of the lucky few to have been selected for PlayStation Home's closed beta testing, we've got a shaky hand-cam surprise for you today! A user-made video over at GameTrailers details a lot of what's going on in PS Home, from what it looks like in general to what you can accomplish. The man's character walks over and watches the trailer for Gran Turismo (HD, we're about 110% certain). It's neat.

We chose this video because it was the longest -- it details the mini-games available for now, the movie theater, even a little announcement for the October 2007 public launch. However, the man is speaking Spanish. It's a different dialect than what I had been taught, so it might even be Italian. Don't worry, his narrative isn't necessary. Feel free to mute the video, but let us know what you think!

If we weren't excited enough about PlayStation Home before, we certainly are now. It's a week of leaked beta footage, and although you might not think it was possible ... this is even cooler looking than Bungie's baby (please don't kill us).

The graphics in this look pretty sweet, and make us believe that something like Snow Crash might actually be possible one day. The in-game PSP interface is pretty swanky as well, and we were able to glean a few things off of the tiny text, which required much squinting and gave us some Dead Rising flashbacks.

Besides the Evac arcade game seen being played in this footage (which looks new ... and reminiscent of Choplifter), we also noticed the following pieces of information on the in-game PSP:

• In-game phone calls will be featured
  
• Open Beta: July 2007
• Launch: October 2007
• There is possibly a chess game coming, if we're reading some of the text right

Eagle-eyed viewers are invited to try and glean other information from that text. Watch it quick before it gets yanked.

If you are like us and weren't lucky enough to be chosen for the closed beta of Sony's ambitious Home project, you're probably looking around for some great screenshots to at least imagine what's going on in there right now. We've found 40 screenshots. We don't have that much to say unless you're expecting us to describe what's happening in every screen.

You can get a pretty good glimpse of what the characters will look like -- it's not final, but it's a pretty good estimation of the final product. There are pictures of the games you can waste your time on (bowling, pool, etc), pictures of your personal space with bits of furniture, n' other stuff. Seems like some people were crowded around a big screen to watch a trailer for Spider-Man 3. Full movies upon release, perhaps? One dollar admission? That'd be pretty swanky. Watch out for the open beta, coming in July!