Coming with the creative for this space last year was a pretty exciting proposition. Guitar Hero is one of the few major gaming franchises that doesn’t revolve around a super soldier blasting stuff in a post apocalyptic future. Instead the style evokes the grunge and grit of a rock concert venue somewhere in America. Coming up with the concept for the Home space was the easier part… “backstage” at the type of venues you play in the game. But the trickier challenge was coming up with gameplay that felt like Guitar Hero without just mimicking the legendary video game mechanics. What resulted was a kind of simon says type rock challenge where players compete against each other to land the longest string of notes in their rock solo. Check out this video:

Creating this space was a pretty long and evolving process that went through quite a few iterations and different hands on its way to release. Happily though, I think the vision of Ubisoft’s gritty, war-torn African country mired in conflict is projected throughout the space.

Here’s the announcement from the official Playstation blog:

Far Cry 2 comes Home today

Posted by Bertrand Helias // Senior Producer, Far Cry 2

Hi All, the Far Cry 2 Space is launching in PlayStation Home’s closed beta as we speak!

The space will invite players to dig deeper into the game’s vast African landscape. Users will have the opportunity to investigate in-game environments, including a bombed-out train station that has been converted into the ad hoc office of Reuben Oluwagembi, a journalist caught in the middle of the propaganda conflict between the warring UFLL and APR factions.

In Reuben’s office, you’ll be able to analyze an interactive map of the game world to strengthen your knowledge of the Far Cry 2 environment to develop your strategy for future missions. Locate guard posts, safe houses to save the progress of your game, weapon shops to buy new weapons, and bus stations to expedite your travel across the expansive land.

Players will have access to Reuben’s files containing various pictures, articles, and dossiers that will delve deeper into the background of The Jackal, as well as that of the other warlords and opposing factions. And finally, multiplayer game of Mancala that uses bullets as game pieces will be fully playable.

Hope you enjoy it and be sure to look out for new features as we’ll be updating the space regularly.

Today we’re announcing the expansion of our closed beta test for PlayStation Home to begin at the end of the month. Later today, the PLAYSTATION Store will be updated with a PlayStation Home theme. By downloading the theme, users are submitting an application to join the PlayStation Home Beta test community. We will be using a variety of criteria including activity on the PLAYSTATION Network to determine eligibility for the Beta community. Existing beta testers have automatically qualified to be part of the expanded beta.

We’re really excited about this milestone and want our most loyal fans to be a part of the evolution of PlayStation Home.

In Europe, SCEE is also beginning their expanded closed beta, directly targeting consumers who have been most active on PLAYSTATION Network and PLAYSTATION Store. SCEE will be in email contact with their PSN audience very shortly.

We’re definitely excited too.

Yesterday at E3, some footage of this work was unveiled to the general public for the first time: