He’s the most ancient and powerful opponent they’ve ever faced, a hairy, bloated, pagan God – Santa Claus! With Christmas presents on the attack and carols of gunshots drowning out the bells, Sam & Max must storm the North Pole to bring down a less-than-jolly foe. Can the Freelance Police make sense of this Christmas conundrum in time to save the world’s children from a holiday tainted by tears, turmoil, and Torture-Me-Elmer? After already playing Sam and Max Save The World (Season One) on Wii, Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space (Season 2 on PC) and Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse (Season 3) on PS3, I find myself asking… myself: how fun is the Season Two release on PS3? Let’s find out, one episode at a time! Things are off to a good start. Right outside of the Freelance Police office, the Maimtron 9000 is breaking all hell loose (figuratively speaking, as hell doesn’t play a part until much later). He’ll try to tear everything apart but never loose style points thanks to the awesome, awesome lyrics he presents to us. Gotta love the Maimtron 9000. Now, let’s take a small break to remind you about how you’re supposed to control the dynamic duo: You move with the analog stick. Use the X button you must to interact. L1 and R1 to cycle between items or spots you can interact with for some examination tactics. Square is for inventory, don’t you forget! Now that you know, let’s join in the fun. Let’s waltz in the air. Let’s possum for life. After you’ve defeated the Maimtron 9000, you find out that Santa has gone crazy! He has sheltered himself at his office and just keeps shooting at anyone that comes near him. If this keeps on, there won’t be a Christmas this year! Sam and Max MUST save Christmas at all cost… will they suceed? That’s all the story details I can give you without making this a spoiler extravaganza. What I CAN tell you about are the two minigames you’ll run into in Episode 1: There’s a boxing minigame at one point and Telltale Games pays tribute to a Nintendo franchise (ok, it pays tribute to Punch- Out!, a game about boxing) by referencing said franchise with a small egg (can you spot it?). It’s not an easter egg because easter isn’t here yet. The other minigame involves driving… and if you’re a trophy hunter you’ll absolutely HATE this mini game. The regular challenge you need to pass to carry on with the story is easy enough, but the requirements for the trophy are crazy. You’re supposed to hit random objects that randomly show up from the random netherworld. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, the problem is that the random objects… are too random. They don’t show up as much as we’d like, and you can spend one or two hours driving withou ever finding the whole set. Hope you have a lot of patience! Sam and Max Episode 1: Space Station Santa is a fun ride into the stars with our favorite Freelance Police pals. You’ll ride a rocket to the moon. You’ll smile, you’ll cry. You’ll… what? Its actually ICE Station Santa? Ah, yeah, that makes more sense. Didn’t see any rockets or stars in this episode so I was wondering why it was a bit crazier than usual. Anyway, game is fun-fun. Buy the whole season right now! Review Pros Cons Season 2 is finally available on PSN The revolution will be televised! Some frame rate issues here and there. The driving trophy.. Rating 83% Published by Telltale Games Cost – $19.99 (Full Season) Disclaimer Total amount of time played: 3 hours Love me some Sam and Max. Own all 3 seasons, the Anniversary DVD Boxset AND the limited edition Hardcover signed by Steve Purcell. This review is based on a copy of Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space provided by Telltale Games.

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[Review] Sam and Max Season 2: Episode 1

It is time for Slow Start to the Year: Part Deux. This week, we get more digital releases for previosly retail-only games, two new PSN games (one of which is a PSN exclusive), no minis and no PsOne Classics. The highlights for the week will be Amy and Zack Zero. We’ll definitely have a review for you on Amy, and we’re currently working in securing a copy of Zack Zero. Now, from the digital releases for retail games, I would recommend either half of the Shadow of the Colossus/ICO collection since they’re only $20 each. You’ll get a great HD remaster of two of the best games from the PS2 era, lots of trophies (platinum included!) and some nice arguments for the “Are games art?” discussion. Remember, we’re also getting a LOT of discounted games on PSN when the store updates tomorrow, so that’s something you should consider so you can make sure you have enough funds in your account! PSN Releases You Can Buy ICO/Shadow of the Colossus Collection Right Here! You Can Buy Cars 2: The Game Right Here! You Can Buy Crysis 2 Right Here! You Can Buy Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas Right Here! You Can Buy Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent Right Here!

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Releases for the Week (January 16th-22nd)

The story takes place in Sumaru City, Japan, population 1,280,000. Its protagonist attends Seven Sisters High School (“Sevens” for short), whose emblem is considered a status symbol even amongst students from other schools. Soon, though, a rumor that Sevens emblem was actually cursed, and that wearing it would disfigure one’s face, had spread around the city. Even worse, the rumor came true… And it was only the beginning of a string of rumors becoming reality, one after another… Before long, the protagonist discover the power to summon another side of them called “Personas”, which they use to investigate the strange incidents around the city, all while facing their own personal demons as well. Time is once again on the march… Personas are the manifestation of power from one’s other selves lurking within them. These Personas with otherworldly abilities and appearances of gods from worldwide mythos are drawn from the unconsciousness of of Persona-users to appear in the real world, lending their power to the wielder. The “you” that others recognize is only one of the countless selves that exist, and of these innumerable selves, there are those with the compassion of gods, the cruelty of demons, and even those with the capacity to wield swords or guns. Personas are no more or less than “another you”. Up until this point the game was a Japan-only release (12 years had to pass for it to see a release outside of that wonderful island). We DID get the second half of Persona 2 (Eternal Punishment), and back in the day we had no idea we were missing out on a huge part of the picture. How has this game aged during all this time? Let’s find out! There’s a lot of great anime cut scenes in all the game, as you’ll immediately notice right after booting up the game. Animated cutscenes are always a nice extra, and you can watch them in original, medium or widescreen format. Isn’t technology wonderful? There’s also an updated and remixed soundtrack you can choose in case you don’t like the original one. All in all, it’s great music that truly brings this experience to life. The remixed music really shines. The original tracks were taken in for a tune-up and all its intricate elements and nuisances really pop (there’s a limited edition available at retail comes with a soundtrack CD so track down that one!). You also have the option of installing a 200 MB+ portion of the game to the memory stick to reduce load times. Since there’s A LOT of random battles (oh, happy days!) and the install time is only 1-5 minutes at most…the install is time well spent. Before getting started, players have the option of picking between easy, normal or hard difficulty. The higher the difficulty, the harder it will be to defeat the many, many, maaaaany demon’s you’ll run into. But Easy isn’t really THAT easy, as it will still require the player to carefully plan their approach to every fight. Unless they want to die a LOT. This isn’t a simple game, but it is just what we needed. Controls are easy to understand. You can use the analog stick or the D pad to move around. L and R are used to move the camera around (very important since most of the time the camera plays tricks on you and blocks NPCs or items on purpose). X confirms choices and O cancels them. Oh, and the triangle button activates the auto-battle feature during fights, which takes into consideration the last set of actions performed by your party and replicates them until you cancel out of it. You can move around a Town Map to select the next location to visit. You can even talk to people (represented by green arrows) in the town map to obtain new info. You can travel between different zones by exiting the world map and selecting another area you’ve already opened up in the new menu that will pop out. Now, with that out of the way, let’s take a moment to meet our party of intrepid youngsters that will save the world this time around: Tatsuya Suou An 18-year-old young man attending Seven Sisters High. He is tall, handsome, and has a mature, cool demeanor which has won him the admiration of female and male classmates alike. He’s a loner who does his best to avoid getting involved with anyone. Initial Persona: Vulcanus Lisa Silverman A 17-year-old girl nicknamed “Ginko” who also attends Seven Sisters High. She has beautiful blonde hair, blue eyes, and a figure that’s the envy of other girls her age. Because she was born to parents who were naturalized as Japanese citizens, she looks Caucasian, but she speaks fluent Japanese. Initial Persona: Eros Yukino Mayuzumi An active twenty-year-old student at vocational school for photography. She’s grown out her hair and settled down a little since her days at St. Hermelin High. Her goal is to become a professional photographer and she’s now working as an apprentice to a freelancer. Initial Persona: Vesta Maya Amano A 23-year-old reporter for a teen magazine. She’s a beautiful, cheerful woman who naturally draws others to her with her considerateness and affable nature. Initial Persona: Maia Eikichi Mishina A 16-year-old and second-year at Kasugayama High, less flatteringly known as Cuss High, who refers to himself as “Michel.” He is the Boss of a gang of delinquents at Cuss High and also front man in his band. He tends to take what people say too personally, is easily swayed, and is often a bit too taken with himself. Initial Persona: Rhadamanthus Jun Kurosu A 17-year old young man with slender, feminine looks. He transfered to Kasugayama High, but hasn’t been seen attending classes for some time. He loves flowers and always wears fresh blossoms such as an iris or iceland poppy. Initial Persona: Hermes As usual, you can change the name of the characters in your party. You can even decide what nickname to give them. Me? I just leave then as is since it’s how the story was written. No need to add my own name to the mix as I’m pretty sure I’ll remember I’m the one that is playing the game. Want to make something become a reality? Spread a rumor about it and see how it goes! First one is free (mmm, where have we heard that before?) but the others will cost you dearly. Also, you must first HEAR a rumor straight from a rumormonger’s mouth before you can pay the Head of the Detective Agency to start the rumor machine. Rumors play a big part in our adventure, even more so when we remember that this whole thing started because of one single rumor. You’ll be able to decide the type of items sold at each store, how awesome a prize you can get from the lottery, open up new areas to progress the story, etc. Rumors are what makes the world go round! Your first shopping experience will be at the Kameya Alley. Each store has an icon next to their name and this can help you identify at first glance what each one of them deals in. A sword means its a weapon store. A jacket identifies an armor store. A fork and knife means its a restaurant or a food store. A little silhouetto of a man (Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the fandango?) is there to let you know there’s gossip to be heard, learned or spread. A red cross sign is for places you can heal your wounds at (HP and SP restore and all status ailments dissapear for the whole party). The characters in your party get hungry from time to time. Buying something to eat will give them a temporary boost to one of their stats which will last until they’re hungry again. Gotta try them all! And you must also remember that some armor is gender specific (a hairpin, for example, is female-only) before you go purchase crazy, and start spending all of your hard-earned money. And yes, hard-earned is definitely the way to describe this. Your Personas grow with every use (even more when using fusion spells), increasing their abilities and unlocking new ones. They go up in rank from 1 till 8. Each character has different compatibilities with the various Personas. If their compatibility is bad, it will cost more SP to invoke the Persona, and especially bad compatibility may prevent the Persona from being assumed at all. Conversely, if their compatibility is good, it will cost less SP to invoke, and especially good compatibility may cause the Persona to occasionally demonstrate special powers. After you complete one of the demonic battles you’ll wage against… demons that are demonic, you’ll be rewarded with experience points and money you can use to upgrade your equipment or for items that can help you in battle. The currency is expressed in Yen and, I don’t know about you, but for me, a Japanese game that uses Y as the in game currency is just crazy and completely goes against the atmosphere and feeling of this adventure. A very intersting element in Persona 2 is the Pacts you can make with Demon’s. You start things of by making Contact (talk) with them while in a fight (and, sometimes, the Demon’s are the ones that initiate things) to try and convince them to give you items, info, tarot cards, money or to heal you. They have for attributes (eager, happy, scared and angry) that increase from each action you select once contact has started (Tetsuya can, for example, do impressions), OR from the answer you give a demon to the question they’ve presented to you. Get them to full eager or happy and they might ask you if you want to enter into a pact… and this is how you get better items, money and other extras from them once you find them again in battle AND fill their eager or happy metes during the new encounter. Should you make them angry they will break the pact (if one existed) and attack you. Tarot Cards, demons, and Personas all have an associated Arcana. A Persona’s Arcana indicates which Arcana of Tarot Cards is necessary to summon it. Negotiating with demons can earn you Tarot Cards of the same Arcana that the demon belongs to. The higher a demon’s level, the more Tarot Cards you’ll receive through negotiation with it. More cards are necessary to summon high-level Personas. Negotiate with strong demons to quickly gather enough cards to summon the better Personas. As is always the case with old-school RPGs, grinding is not an option, it IS a requirement. I grew up with random fight, turn-based RPGs back in the day and I’m very happy to finally get a chance to play Innocent Sin. I own Persona 3, P3 FES and 4 on PS2 as well as the first Persona that was also released on PSP. Thus, I was only missing Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment (the second released in the Persona 2 world) to have a complete set. Grinding for money and experience, while also increasing my Personas, is just part of the fun experience you can enjoy in this game. Persona 2 has been a long time coming, and we should be happy about finally having it officially released over here. A solid combat system, the crazy but interesting story, the remixed soundtrack, the great 16:9 cutscenes and overall presentation, all contribute to make this a very welcome addition to the still growing number library of the PSP. Any Persona fan should run to buy this right now to tell Atlus that we want more Persona games! Review Pros Cons The game we’ve been waiting for during the last 12 years It’s an Old School JRPG for our portable needs! It’s an Old School JRPG, which some people really, really, really don’t like, for some reason Rating 92% Published by Atlus Cost – $29.99 Disclaimer Total amount of time played: 30 hours (and counting!). This review is based on a retail copy of the PSP version of Persona 2 – Innocent Sin provided by Atlus.

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[Review] Persona 2 – Innocent Sin (PSP)

Tomorrow, we’ll be able to get our hands on this old school-style helicopter shoot-em-up, which is best described as Nostalgia having “a baby with Awesome…” The original released years ago in 1982, but has been updated to today’s standards, while still keeping the familiar feel of these types of games. And it has zombies for those who like killing off the undead (ignore the oxymoron in that statement). You will be able to pick this one up for $15.

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Choplifter Coming to PSN Tomorrow

Here are the winners of the US Bundle: SubMonkey, Maplesniper, dragon290513, mowmow, Insomniac_24_7. We only had 1 person (wolfkin) enter to win the UK Bundle. So that leaves 4 UK codes. I already posted the extra 4 UK PSN Carnivores Bundle codes on our Google+ page , Facebook & Twitter. First come, first serve.

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Winners Of The US/UK Carnivores (minis) Bundle

Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain revisits the iconic first entry in Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone’s 16m selling Fighting Fantasy saga. Your quest is to find the Warlock’s treasure, hidden deep within a dungeon populated with a multitude of terrifying monsters. You will need courage, determination and a fair amount of luck if you are to survive all the traps and battles, and reach your goal… This PSN-exclusive version of Fighting Fantasy: Warlock of Firetop Mountain features a Tarot Card character generation system and choice of classic dice-rolling or all-new Battle and Luck systems. With an intuitive Inventory system and Log Book to aid you in your endeavour, this is the perfect way to relive the classic adventure that started it all. May your Stamina never fail! I got to review the first minis release in the Fighting Fantasy series, Talisman of Death , so be sure to follow the link to get an idea of how this game series (we WILL get more, right?) works. Once you’re done, be sure to rush back to THIS review so you can see what Warlock of Firetop Mountain is all about. All done? Great! Fighting Fantasy: Warlock of Firetop Mountain is actually the first book created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone and now we have a chance to enjoy it on our PSP or our PS3. Reading is ALWAYS fun! The wikis of the pedias brings us this information on the series, EXCLUSIVELY tailored for your entertainment: But Will It Blend Genres? The Fighting Fantasy gamebooks were created by British writers Steve Jackson (not to be confused with the US-based game designer of the same name) and Ian Livingstone, co-founders of Games Workshop, and provide an original twist on traditional fiction in that the reader takes control of the story’s protagonist, being required to make choices that will affect the outcome. The text does not progress in a linear fashion but rather is divided into a series of numbered sections (usually between 300-400). Beginning at the first section, the reader chooses a non-sequential option (e.g. Section 1 to Section 180) which in turn provides an outcome for the decision and advances the story. The story continues in this fashion, the player continuing to choose other numbered sections, until their character is either stopped/killed or completes the quest. Fighting Fantasy books typically feature a system whereby the protagonist is randomly assigned scores in three statistics (named Skill, Stamina, and Luck) which, in conjunction with the player rolling a six-sided die, are used to resolve combats and test the protagonist’s success in certain situations. Some titles use additional statistics or additional conflict resolution mechanics. A typical Fighting Fantasy gamebook tasks players with completing a quest, with players then making choices in an attempt to successfully finish the adventure. A successful play of a Fighting Fantasy gamebook usually ends with the player reaching the final numbered section of the book. Many of the titles only featuring one path to the solution, and in some cases this can only be achieved by obtaining various story items. What’s different this time around? Not much really… but not much needed to be changed. The book is blue this time around (it was red for the last book. Trust me, I checked to make sure). My only complaint about Talisman of Death was how the logbook would “reset” every time you went back to the game which meant that if you wanted to check if I you had already visited a particular page or if you’re repeating a previous action you’d have to change the logbook section to that you could browse the pages you’ve already “solved”. Now, the logbook remembers what section you browsed last time which considerably speeds up the whole process. For some reason, the whole game felt faster. Maybe some changes were made to the coding, or maybe I got used to how the game works after playing Talisman of Death for so many hours. But, unlike in the last game in the series which had more of a set path and you didn’t do any backtracking at all, in Warlock of Firetop Mountain you can end up going in circles if you’re not careful. This makes sense since you’re actually working your way through a dungeon and a maze, so maybe it was because of it that I felt a bit of an adrenaline rush every time I found the access to the next section, and that in turn made the game feel faster. Oh well. We might never know! Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a very fun game that brings us another release in the Gamebook series in a tight and well made digital package. There’s still a LOT of Fighting Fantasy games so I hope we get a chance to experience them all in this way. Do hurry and pick up this awesome game today! Review Pros Cons Another Fine Entry in the Gamebooks series available for your PS3 and PSP! Improvements to the Log Book Very Fun and Addictive We want all the other books as well! Rating 92% Developed and Published by Laughing Jackal Cost – $4.99 Available on PSN Other Information Disclaimer – A copy of the game was supplied by the publisher for this review. – Game was completed before writing this review. – Total amount of time played: 8.5 hours.

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[Review] Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (minis)

There’s a new game over at Facebook for all you Uncharted fans. While we’re a bit late to the party (it all started on the 6th) and your chances at a CE of UC3 and other reaaaally cool prizes are ZERO (first come, first serve) you can still win ALL of the DLC for UC3 (one piece at a time) OR a free copy of the game! Thanks to mowmow for letting us know about this… and an extra special fun-fun thanks since I won a free copy of UC3!

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Uncharted 3 Facebook Game (Win the Game, DLC and More!)

It’s time for our first official game night with Battlelfield 3! Maybe we could join a empty game so we are all together and wait for other to show up. Any game type you want to play let me know. You can get 100 points for joining us on game nights. So don’t miss it! When I invite you to the xmb text chat room. PLEASE JOIN IT! Makes it much easier to communicate quickly if we loose somebody. Enter the secret word sent to you on the PSN by the game host to get your 100 points! We will begin around 5 pm PST, 6 pm MST ( UTC -7 ), 8 pm EST; I can play for at least 2 1/2 – 3 hours. If you’d like to join us, leave your PSN ID below. My PSN ID is xBerserker, but mention “PS3Blog.net Game Night” in your PSN friend request message or I will NOT add you.

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[Game Night] Battlefield 3 | Dec 12, 2011

Starting Tomorrow November 30th and ending on December 7th , Ubisoft will be celebrating its 25th birthday on the PlayStation Network with a huge discount on their DLC packs and games . If you haven’t taken advantage of the PlayStation Fall promotion, then this is your chance to stack on great titles, such as Outland, From Dust and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Full list of discounts after the jump … Full Discounts List Additional content (DLC) Assassin’s Creed II DLC bundle -50% off Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood – The Da Vinci Disappearance DLC -25% off Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. – Air Supremacy -75% off Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 – all in one pack -50% off Haze – Destruction Pack – 60% off Michael Jackson – New track: Another Part of Me -50% off Ruse – All in one bundle DLC -50% off PS3 Games: Beyond Good & Evil HD – 50% off Might & Magic Clash of Heroes – 47% off Outland – 50% off Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – 60% off Prince of Persia Classic and Cell Factor bundle -75% off From Dust – 33% off Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood – 25% off Assassin’s Creed – 50% off Far Cry 2 – 66% off Tom Clancy’s G.R.A.W 2 – 66% off Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 – 66% off Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Trilogy HD – 40% off Prince of Persia Trilogy – 55% off PSone Classics: Driver – 40% off Rayman – 40% off Video Content: Assassin’s Creed Ascendance – 50% off

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Ubisoft’s 25th Anniversary PSN Sale

After the recent success of Motorstorm Apocalypse, Evolution studios has decided to release its second foray into the handheld genre, Motorstorm RC. The game has players controlling RC cars on sixteen tracks taken from all previous Motorstorm games. Its the best of both worlds, with an arcade-like racing experience, and modern day online compatibility. It will be released Spring 2012 as a PSN only downloadable title, but it will be playable on both the Vita and PS3, including a four-player split-screen mode on the PS3. Split-screen has slowly been dying over the years, so it’s good to know that split-screen is being included in this downloadable title. Cross-platform play has not been confirmed, but it has been strongly hinted at. Game developers should take a hint and start bringing back this feature. More details after the jump Off-Road Racing on a New Scale Conquer the most extreme racing environments in powerful radio-controlled vehicles, with hundreds of uniquely customized models to collect and performance based on 8 distinct racing categories: Buggies, Superminis, Rally Cars, Muscle Cars, Racing Trucks, Supercars, Big Rigs and Monster Trucks! – Four Classic Locations, 16 Unique Tracks Experience the simultaneous challenge and excitement of racing in the world’s most extreme environments, from the dusty desert mesa’s of Monument Valley, to the dangerous jungles of a Pacific island, to the icy tundra at the Arctic Edge, to the apocalyptic ruins of an urban city. – Settle Rivalries Anytime, Anyplace Challenge friends and the rest of the world to compete for the fastest times in every event – whether that’s on PS3 or PS Vita, or both. – Share Every Moment Share every moment with your friends and make new friends via the Pitwall. Keep tabs on their activity – so you always know when there’s a new challenge or a new leader – and you can always stay one step ahead of the competition. – Four-Player Multiplayer on PS3 Settle the score with your friends in person with 4 player split-screen races. – Pay Once, Get Both It’s the same experience on both PS3 and PS Vita, and picking up the game on PS3 will give you full access to the game on PS Vita (and vice versa) – so if you own both you can carry your progress between the two, and always pick up where you left off. Players in the US can look forward to the release of Motorstorm RC on the PS3 and PS Vita next spring. We definitely will have more details to share throughout the coming months, so continue to check back here in the PlayStation.Blog! Read more at the Official Playstation blog

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Evolution Studios announces Motorstorm RC