It's getting really cold here, which means it seems that Hell is probably freezing over. In fact that must be true because Home is finally out. Yes, Sony's virtual hangout city is finally upon us, having been unleashed to the masses this week. After being in beta testing for pretty much ever, it's now widely available to everyone. In beta form, that is.

So how is the public release? Has it lived up to the promise of being your one-stop place to chat about games, play mini-games and make new friends? Is there even anything to do? Here's what the IGN PlayStation Team has to say about the matter.If I had to describe Home in one word, it would be "boring". Yep, I'm bored to death with Home. I've only found two things that are entertaining for more than about 30 seconds: griefing and trying to enter the Matrix (read: break the game).Other than screwing with people or trying to break out of the intended space of my apartment, I haven't found a single thing that keeps my interest for more than about a minute. The theater just shows the same videos over and over, and it's just stuff that I can find online in a much higher resolution. The games in the arcade cabinets aren't very good and are only worth checking out for a second - they're not entertaining enough to really sink any time into. Pool is about as basic as can be. The billiards game in GTAIV was quite a bit better than what you'll find here, and any number of free Flash pool games online are leaps and bounds better than it. Bowling is just OK, but it's certainly not enough for me to come home from work and say to myself, "I really feel like some Home bowling. That would be much more fun than Dead Space."I understand that the point of these games is to help encourage people to talk while playing them, but that won't happen at an arcade machine unless you're waiting to play. And who is going to stand around to wait to play Carriage Return?The problem here is that while the experience on the whole is supposed to be there to incite conversation, you only really exist while you're logged in. If you're not currently in Home, there's not an easy way for people to interact with you outside of sending you a message, which you can just do from the Cross Media Bar anyway.What it really needs is some sort of messaging space where you can leave gifts for people, write on a whiteboard, put stickers on their apartment door, etc. It should act more like a college dorm, where people leave notes for each other and can decorate their doors, which other people can still check out if you're not home. As it is, if you're not currently logged on in Home, you don't really exist.Really, if I felt like having conversations with people I don't know, I would much rather do it on a message board somewhere. At least you're then capable of stepping away for a bit and can come back to where you were and see what others were saying when you have time.I know that a whole lot more stuff is coming, like the Red Bull flying game, which looks like it could be OK, but what's here now is, to be perfectly honest, a giant waste of time.