So I finally got a beta code on Friday after waiting for months and months.  Anyone else lucky enough to get one?  I'm liking it so far.  It seems a little bare as far as content goes but everything that's there is pretty fun.  The bowling especially, even though they only have five lanes open right now (virtual waiting ftw).  Even still, it's pretty neat to be able to bowl and watch your friends roll the ball in real time all while talking to them via either keyboard or headset.  You can even watch and talk to people bowling in the lanes next to you at the same time which I thought was pretty impressive.  As far as unlockables go, again, pretty slim right now due to it being beta but I actually unlocked some new clothing by playing the Ice Breaker game in the arcade (yes, it's a real arcade room with actual cabinets, in the bowling alley).  My avatar now sports an Ice Breaker shirt and beanie, you know you're jealous.  They're not allowing you to pimp out your apartment yet either, you just have a few basic pieces of furniture and wallpaper to choose from.  The mall is open but none of the stores have anything for sale yet.  Once that's all up and running, it looks like you can buy new clothes, a new apartment, furniture, decorations, etc.

But yeah, if any of you PS3 owners have access to the Home beta, let me know, I'm always up for some bowling.

-Mike

How much HD space does it take up?

When it's up and open to the public, I'll throw down a couple of games with ya   That is, if I"m not still playing Valkyria Chronicles!

The initial download is only about 80mb but it reserves like 4 gigs for itself on your hard drive as soon as you boot it up.  It basically leaves that space available so it can cache all the environments, character models, sounds, music, games, etc.

allyourbaseare, as soon as you get it then, you're on!!

-Mike

Good to know.  Thanks.

FYI, the open beta starts tomorrow so I better see all you PS3 owners on there.  If enough people get into it, we should do some kind of STC gathering.  At the very least though, I wanna bowl with all of you.

-Mike

That is, if there's an open lane

Yeah, bowling does indeed sound like a good idea. I'm in, whenever I find time.

I'll probably be on it later tonight. My PSN handle is Nekobo1.

In case others didn't see it in the official thread, my PSN ID is herrkotowski.

I'll add you both.  I'll be on later tonight for the "dance party" and I'll be talkin' it up on my bluetooth headset!  My PSN ID is the_miker (big surprise) for anybody who hasn't added me.

-Mike

I'll try and get on tonight to hang with you wankers   Most likely it'll be around 8:00 PST.

Is anyone else having problems connecting to the server? :<

Yeah, Nekobo, I'm constantly getting connection errors as well.

I did manage to get on eventually, and what's there looks really promising.

My tag is Zolbrod (for both PSN and Live)
I'll add you guys as soon as I get online again.

The only connection issues I had last night were related to actually signing into Home.  It took a little longer than usual but I'm sure that was just because Sony finally opening the flood gates.  Once in though, everything was functioning pretty well.  I ended up talking to Nekobo for about three seconds and then he had to leave, heh.  A couple guys from #gamemp3s I haven't talked to in a long time showed up too though, and we bowled a few rounds together which was pretty awesome.  I'm sure I'll be on again sometime over the weekend and I hope to see some STC people there!

-Mike

I tried it out for a bit on friday.  Interesting, but nothing too special (yet).  My avatar looks like a caveman, and everyone dresses the same.  I was on for less than 5 minutes and someone comes up to me and says "I HAVE DIARRHEA". 

Probably about what I expected, but it wasn't like Home was going to be the OMG moment of video gaming.  I'll hop on if any of you guys are there but that's about it.

Home is a pretty slick interface, I'll grant it that, but there's not enough customizability yet.  Plus the bowling alley and arcade seems too limited for being an online thing.  And as for the diarrhea comment, I give you this if you haven't seen it yet:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/12/12/

There should be an infinite number bowling lanes available.  I can't say I'll be spending any money on clothes or a different pad or anything like that.