With the release of the PS Vita set for February 22nd, more and more Vita games are starting to show up at retail (and on PSN) for all new buyers to get their game on. While not as crazy packed as last week, we do have eight PS Vita releases as well as two PS3 retail releases and two “now on PSN” formerly retail-only games. Not only that, but we are also getting two minis releases with Hungry Giraffe (for which we’ll have a review soon!) and Touchdown Fever, as well as one PS2 Classics release thanks to Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers. Overall, this is a good week for all PS fans and especially for PS Vita fans since we have to remember that all Vita games you buy directly at the PSN Store will give you access to a 10%+ discount! Full list of games after the break. PS3 Retail Releases You Can Buy Asura’s Wrath Right Here! You Can Buy Syndicate Right Here! PSN Releases You Can Buy Mafia II Right Here! You Can Buy Star Wars The Force Unleashed II Right Here! PS Vita Releases You Can Buy Shibobi 2: Revenge of Zen Right Here! You Can Buy Touch My Katamari Right Here! You Can Buy Ben 10 Galactic Racing Right Here! You Can Buy Army Corps of Hell Right Here! You Can Buy Dynasty Warriors NEXT Right Here! minis Releases PS2 Classics

Originally posted here:
Releases for the Week (February 20th-26th)

It’s good to be back after taking last week off due to the holidays, and I’m sure you all missed us! So plop down in that chair and lean back while you listen to this episode of the PS3BlogCast! With us as always is FooBear408, and I Jcmdaddy, and you’ll hear us ramble on about what’s happening in the world of video games as well as list off our favorite games from the year. Quick reminder to those who might have missed out, but I still have a few extra codes for Uncharted 3 multiplayer, and if you’d like one just send me a message on the PSN at Jcmdaddy of course. Well enough talk, on to the show! Enter the secret word(s) mentioned in the PS3BlogCast to earn 75 points. The first 10 people to enter it correctly get double points! As always, we want to remind you that the PS3BlogCast is listed on iTunes! So please subscribe and rate/review us there. You can also leave a voicemail for us by calling PS3-888-BLOG or if you want to contact us via email for us you can do so here . We have a dedicated forum for the PS3BlogCast so you can leave your questions and feedback there as well. Here’s a list of some things (or everything) we discussed: New on PSN Twisted Metal gets a little extra Stores in Japan discount Vita Our 2011 picks Secret Word

The rest is here:
PS3BlogCast Episode 31

SPIKE TV’s “VIDEO GAME AWARDS 2011” will be coming to you live from Paul and myself (Oly), right here on PS3blog.net. Watch it live, and blog along side us right here!! We will be starting the live blog about 9am, as we head from San Diego to the show in L.A. It will be the slow occasional tweet up until 2:30 PM, when the Red Carpet will begin to get busy. You can also tweet questions to @ps3blogdotnet and it will show up in the live blog automatically. Paul and I will be interviewing celebrities from both the entertainment and gaming fields, so we are sure to be very busy, but will live blog here as much as possible. Make sure to join in on all the fun!! Also, don’t forget to bet your points here , on what will win game of the year!! Hosted by Zachery Levi, Spike TV’s 9th Annual “Video Game Awards 2011 will feature some of the most notable names in video games, Hollywood, music, sports and more to pay tribute to the outstanding achievements within the video game industry during the past year. The show will feature 13 world premieres of the most anticipated games of 2012 and beyond. Broadcasting in over 100 countries, the VGAs will be a global celebration of all things gaming as it premieres LIVE on Spike TV, MTV 2 and on SpikeTV.com Saturday, December 10 at 8:00pm, ET / 5:00 p.m. PT from the Sony Studios. Hit the jump to see who all is scheduled to attend as well as the live blog! Host: ZACHARY LEVI Live Musical Performers: THE BLACK KEYS DEADMAU5 Presenters/Attendees: JASON BIGGS FELICIA DAY BROOKLYN DECKER SETH GREEN TONY HAWK HULK HOGAN LL COOL J KEVIN JONAS STACY KEIBLER JERRY RICE SEANN WILLIAM SCOTT CHARLIE SHEEN WILL.I.AM “WORKAHOLICS” cast BLAKE ANDERSON ADAM DEVINE ANDERS HOLM “BELLATOR” fighters EDDIE ALVAREZ MICHAEL CHANDLER “Gamer God” Recipients – BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT ALLEN ADHAM MICHAEL MORHAIME FRANK PEARCE Gaming Designers CLIFF BLESZINSKI – EPIC GAMES HIDEO KOJIMA – KONAMI -More names to come/Names subject to change- 2011 Video Game Awards

See the original post: 
[Live Blog] 2011 Video Game Awards | Dec. 10, 2011

Loyal minions! Thought I’d contribute a bit more to this quality website than my weekly effort of our award winning podcast. Get off my rump and type another page-turner of an article for you to read and then tell all your friends about. Something Mr. Andy Rooney would be proud of. Articles usually take me about 10 minutes to write, this one has taken me over a week. Let’s begin! Variety. People have been known to say that it’s the spice of life. Variety is a good thing in many aspects. It can make you grow, life and smile…which is fantastic in itself. People, and even the community you live in – loyal reader -, is made up entirely of variety. Different kinds of people, doing different kinds of things – all of whom are trying to live their lives the way they seem fit. And then there’s the other end of the spectrum: Repetition. Repetition can make people’s lives possible and bearable. And that’s where the comparisons end, although in itself, it’s boring and drab. It’s a black and white photograph of the underside of a bridge, and placed on a wall in a dentist’s office. Repetition is having the same meal over and over again, because you’re too afraid to try anything else. It serves no point and has no drive, no ambition, and no fortitude. Repetition is actually Variety’s arch nemesis. The two are not even close. It’s not the same sport, it’s not even the same league. The team has picked up, relocated and moved away to another country. Get my drift? Pertaining to video games though? Variety isn’t always the best policy. Variety is hardly recognized – except for when a development company receives the coveted, and highly sought after, game of the year award. The GOTY doesn’t always go to the most deserving development company, but the development company that shows it has the insight to be different. To be courageous enough to step across that blurred line of reality and gaming and say,” This is ours. This is out best effort. This is what we have created and would like to share with the world.” Who would’ve thought a game about a renegade outlaw, gun-wielding, horse riding, cowboy – would’ve won the prestigious GOTY award? And it did. I, of course, am talking about “Red Dead Redemption”. The developer, Rockstar Games, is known for making a line in the sand and double-dog daring you, as a gamer, to blindly step over it. With recent releases like L.A. Noire and newly announced GTA5. Using far beyond tech like face motion capture and implementing a riveting music process that goes along with everything they touch. One would agree that every step Rockstar has taken has only furthered game technology. They won it last year in 2010. How about a game that looks like a movie? A game that features a brash man with sweet tooth for treasures and rare artifacts? A man that runs towards gunfire and welcomes a fist fight with a gritty smile? Nathan Drake is the name and Uncharted is the game. Developer Naughty Dog is no stranger to the GOTY award, winning it for Uncharted 2 back in 2009. Naughty Dog, being a small Santa Monica based company, employs the gamers’ imagination not to take hold and grow roots when any gamer picks up and plays any of the Uncharted series. And they make the main character not only dear to any PS3 gamers heart – but relatable. A hero you can relate to? A game with a riveting story and even more impressive gameplay? An exclusive only to the PlayStation console? Naughty Dog sets their own rules and outshines in their latest effort, Uncharted 3 – which is one of the GOTY nominees. Everybody loves a dark horse. Everybody loves the underdog. Everyone roots for the not so lucky guy to get the girl and get that happy ending and go riding off into the sunset. This year, there’s: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Now believe me when I tell you. My friends list always seems to be full, a minimum of at least 20 people online at any one time. And over half of those fine folks are playing Skyrim. And not for 20 minutes or an hour. We’re talking for a non stop session of 12-16 hours. Any game that can wrap you up and say “have a seat” should be worthy of contention, and, personally, Skyrim is my pick for the dark horse for the 2011 GOTY award ceremonies this year. I’ve seen gameplay, I’ve seen peoples’ lives consumed. I’ve seen their rabid love of this game develop into its own thing. Something unexplainable, something so fevered and yet so revered at same time. To even try and badmouth this game – makes my legs shake with fear. People are in love with this game and the game loves them back with fascinating gameplay and jaw dropping visuals. Bethesda, the development company behind this title, knew exactly what they were doing when they unleashed this game to the hordes. They, as well, are in contention for this years 2011 GOTY award. The other three games on the 2011 GOTY nominee list, whereas, are not blockbuster material. They, indeed, have their own cult following and each of their own respected developer company’s sat up and refused to not go quietly into the night. They wanted to make a game for all to enjoy. For all to talk about, for all to try and come to their own conclusions. I want to take this moment to congratulate all the developers for their effort and their hard work for crossing that line in the sand and making this the new standard in video games. Thank you for all your sacrifice and hard work to give the entertainment that we know and had come to love. Thank you for not being cookie cutter and churning out another piece of garbage that’ll be in Gamestop’s bargain bin in a month and when we see it – it’ll instantly make us regret buying it new for $60. Thank you, most of all, for the one thing all video games need these days…variety.

Original post: 
2011 GOTY VGA Awards – My Two Cents

A lot of people contacted me about my last post on Sony’s development tool choice for the upcoming PlayStation Suite. Many people agreed with me, but many others did not and honestly believe that Microosft/C#/Visual Studio is really the best, easiest, and most popular way to program software. I can summarize my rebuttal to that in three words: The Strange Loop . This is one of the best, if not the best, programming conference that covers the most cutting edge programming concepts, applied technology, and paradigms. There are lots of programmer conferences and meetups, but this is the main event. This really gives you a feel for what the brightest programmers of today are really passionate about. (BTW, this is a yearly event, going on right now, and my current manager, and several coworkers flew to St. Louis on their own dime becuase it is that good). Skim through their session list . You can see lots of excitement and use of the JVM (Java Virtual Machine), which you will notice almost no one is using for the Java language but the newer more elegant languages such as Scala, Clojure, and Groovy. There’s also lots of excitement about Git, monads, cloud computing, iPhone/Android, HTML5, etc. The number of sessions that are interested in Microsoft developer tools are very few. Absolutely zero mention C# or Visual Studio. There’s one speaker from Microsoft (speaking on category theory and monads) and another session about F# (which is Microsoft’s more elegant, cutting edge language), but that’s it. Secondly, most of the recent success stories in software don’t use Microsoft development tools. The developers at Twitter are fanatical about Scala. The Facebook devs write lots of PHP but their core fancy massively parallel database (Cassandra, which they open sourced) is completely written in Java. Mint and Pandora were created on Java/JVM development stacks. Amazon has a heavy investment in Java and a few other non-Microsoft infrastructure pieces (going by their job postings and past Amazon developer speakers). Most people think Netflix is all Microsoft tech, becasue they have an exclusivity deal with Microsoft on the web client to only use Silverlight and that’s the piece that people see, but internally, Netflix predominantly uses Java and some C. Talk to most of the programmers working with university academics in the natural science, and Python is prevalent (see the SciPy conference). Even look at Microsoft’s Bing: you think it’s built in C# or .NET or Visual Studio? Nope, it’s all Java and Hadoop on the server-side (well they basically acquired it from Yahoo). I will say this. In the English speaking video gaming blogosphere, particularly among the non-programmers or very light programmers, Microsoft’s developer brands have by far the most brand awareness influence. This is for a few reasons: The big video game competitors, Nintendo and Sony, don’t have a stake in software development tools and brands. They don’t have their own IDEs, languages, and VMs, and don’t have interest in that field either. The other big players in development tools don’t have such a large consumer presence as Microsoft. There are tons of smaller companies pushing game development kits for hobbyists. Adobe Flash has probably been the most successful at making game developer tools that are successfully used by hobbyist and entry level developers. But Microsoft is really the only company with both a large consumer presence and a large investment in developer tool brands that is heavily advocating to the hobbyist game developers. This may change in the near future with Google who is under strong lawsuit pressure to move away from Java, has serious interest in video games on the web and on Android, and has two large programming language projects (Dart and Spot) rumored to be near unveiling. The Microsoft fan culture, among adult managers, is generally all Microsoft all the time. Even if 99% of people think that the Microsoft web browser is ridiculously inferior compared to the competition, Microsoft fan mangers enforce it’s adoption rigorously just because it’s Microsoft. Somehow, they mentally equate using Microsoft software with maturity, and anyone who prefers another product for any reason is being childish, silly, and just being a hater. Go to a SharePoint Saturday conference: you will see seemingly normal looking adults who obsess about pushing obscure bits of Microsoft tech on others for no apparent reason. Contrast that with the Java/JVM community or the Python community. The Python community has a heart of its own and isn’t centrally driven at all, which you can tell by the general refusal to adopt Python 3.x. Most of the people who are writing amazing software in Java, actually hate Oracle, and have zero loyalty to Java as a language or the corporate backers. I’m talking about the guys who wrote Scala or Clojure or Fantom or Hadoop or Cassandra or Lucene or all of the other big success software projects that use Java internally. The great part about this, is that technologies and paradigms generally don’t gain traction because the corporate backer says so and spent a bunch of money on developer advocacy and expensive media circus keynote speeches, but instead because the stuff is actually good. The downside is that you don’t have a strong central voice to do the consumer style advocacy that are needed to win over the more consumer driven minds of the video gaming crowd.

See more here:
Programming Tools Part 2

The number of video games featuring undead enemies is becoming as common place as TV shows and movies starring vampires. Eradicating zombies became popular with Capcom’s Resident Evil games, but as that series moves away from the traditional brain dead opponents in favor for the “infected”; it’s been up to other titles to share their take on the zombie apocalypse. Dead Rising, Dead Island, Dead Nation, Yakuza of The End, and now, Lollipop Chainsaw, all put gamers in the hands of protagonists more than capable of defeating zombies with their eyes closed. Sadly, just like Resident Evil, all of those games lack the one element I’ve been looking for in a zombie oriented action game, and that’s the scare factor . Fortunately, Telltale Games’ upcoming episodic game, based on Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel “The Walking Dead”, seems to fit the bill in that department and more. Though little is known about the The Walking Dead game right now, according to previews, gamers will play the role of average citizens faced with the horrible circumstances of a world crippled by the zombie outbreak. The human element the The Walking Dead will offer separates it from the crowded pack of zombie games, and that’s what appeals to me. As far as playable characters go, in the first episode of The Walking Dead, gamers won’t be in control of the usual individuals armed to the teeth with enough weaponry to level a small city. Instead, we can expect to play the part of a criminal and a young girl as they try to find other survivors and seek shelter from the apocalypse. One of the features in the The Walking Dead won’t be about simply choosing which firearm will be best to use against your opponents. Rather, players will be faced with making life or death conscious choices. Choices in which one will have to decide who, amongst said friends, will live and who is going to become zombie food. The fact that I’m a big fan of the comic and the TV series is another reason why I’m looking forward to The Walking Dead. However, if you’re looking for a new approach to a played out video game setting, then knowledge of the series the game is based on isn’t required, but it helps. So far, compared to other zombie titles releasing this year and beyond, The Walking Dead is shaping up to be the kind of horror game I’ve been waiting a very long time for.

View post:
Why The Walking Dead Is My Most Anticipated Zombie Game

Pedro wrote a great post on the lack of innovation in games. I’ve heard this a lot lately. Here, I’d like to present the counter point to that general sentiment. Too Many Shooters, Too Many Sequels Are there too many songs on iTunes? Too many books on Amazon? I can name a dozen items at the grocery store that I don’t want to buy, but so what? Buy what you want, enjoy it, and don’t let the other options trigger any anger. Motion control sucks, pay-to-play sucks, stereoscopic 3D sucks, Blu-Ray sucks, DRM sucks, etc Same as the above. BTW, plenty of people like all of the above. Publishers are evil and destroy game developers Hey, if you want to fund game projects that publishers are finding unprofitable, go ahead. Game development doesn’t get government protection like education or health care, they are subject to the brutal whims of the consumer market, and realistically that will involve lots of good, talented, hard working people getting layed off and having miserable and frustrated careers. You can’t blame that on publishers, that’s how the system works. I’d give aspiring game developers the same advice I’d give aspiring musicians: no one wants to discourage your dream, but I’d consider a safer career track with a better likelihood of happy outcomes. For every success story, there are hundreds of miserable tales. Take a Break If you hadn’t been exposed to video games for the past five years and just got back into it, you’d be blown away by the progress. If you’ve been playing new releases constantly, and are just comparing this month’s new release to the dozens of other recent games you’ve experienced, you are more likely to be disappointed at the lack of progress. Real Innovation is Happening in Games and Entertainment If you take a step back, and look at the transformation of gaming throughout the past five years, it is phenomenal. Everyone who attempts to predict how the industry will evolve over the next five years also expects dramatic transformation going forward. Most other sectors of society are relatively stagnant compared to the constant innovation and transformation seen in game entertainment. The Fertile Field of Innovation For those who act champions of innovation, take a break from video game entertainment. Focus on Math, Science, and Engineering. When is the last time you took a science class at a local college? I’d argue that innovation in these areas is more important for humans as a species, and ultimately more exciting, than innovation in video game entertainment. Entertainment is still important and has an important role in life, but some people focus on it too much. I’d also argue that many talented game programmers would have happier and more satisfying careers in the traditional sciences.

See the rest here:
Lack of Innovation? A Counter Point…

The above image, taken directly from a German gaming forum , shows the Resistance 3/PS3 bundle box with what clearly is a PSN Pass logo. The PSN Pass will share the same concept of EA Pass introduced last year, however the logo mentions that the PSN Pass Network features will only be available in countries that have PlayStation Store. What this basically means is that you have to enter the code in order to access MP and some other features. A Sony spokesman responded to the fans questions with this comment: “We are always evaluating new programs for our online offering, and starting with Resistance 3 this September, we will be instituting a network pass program for PS3 games with online capabilities” What does this mean to us? Well, if you purchased a game with no code (used for example) then you have to purchase a code from the PlayStation Store in order to access the multiplayer. Sony haven’t announced how much that would cost you, but I’d say to expect something around $9.99. This will also mean that you have to get a PSN Pass every time you purchase a used game after this feature is enabled in the near future. What does this mean to Sony? I will just quote a Sony spokesman’s response : “This is an important initiative as it allows us to accelerate our commitment to enhancing premium online services across our first party game portfolio.” That means we should expect better online service (dedicated servers? hope so) and possibly more online features, which means that last week rumors we heard earlier about PSN getting a complete makeover (mostly to the PS store) could actually be true. Resistance 3 will be available in September 6th along with the new PSN Pass. Do you think paying extra cash will improve the service? Is this a counter measure to video games pirating? Or is it just smart marketing?

Originally posted here:
PSN Pass Announced

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and the Entertainment Software Association have announced the winning pieces of the 2011 Into the Pixel collection. These seventeen works of art, which features notable artists from Valve Software, Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games, Bioware, and Big Fish Games, among others, will be unveiled and displayed at this year’s E3 Expo from June 7-9, 2011 in the Concourse Foyer. Four of the images come from PS3 Exclusive games: From God of War 3, “Cronos Battle” by Tyler Breon (seen above) From Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, “The Pelican Inn (Pub)” by Andrew Kim From Killzone 3, “Stahl Arms” by Jesse van Dijk From Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, “Oktonok Cay Cannery” by David Guertin “Now that public institutions have accepted video games as a legitimate form of art, there is no question that video game art has and will continue to have a place in the contemporary art scene,” said Martin Rae, president, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. “The AIAS is pleased to partner with the ESA in this celebration, and is looking forward to continue pushing the recognition of our artist members’ efforts.” “Into the Pixel is the industry’s premier showcase for the art of computer and video games and celebration of the artists whose talent creates these stunning images,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers and the owner of the E3 Expo. “ESA is proud to partner with AIAS to facilitate this valuable intersection between the traditional and digital art worlds.” “Into the Pixel showcases the incredible creativity, skill and artistic talent that pervades in the video game industry,” said Glenn Phillips, Senior Project Specialist & Consulting Curator, Department of Architecture and Contemporary Art, Getty Research Institute. “You really see that there are great artists working across every genre of video games, and at every stage of the production process.” The Into the Pixel 2011 Jurors were: Glenn Phillips, Getty Research Institute, Senior Project Specialist & Consulting Curator, Department of Architecture and Contemporary Art Nora Dolan – Independent Curator Ryan Wilkerson, Microsoft Game Studios, Senior Art Director Matt Hall, Timbuk2 Studios, Senior Partner Production Designer Brian Moore, Microsoft Game Studios, Art Director Into the Pixel 2011 Winners: Title of Artwork Artist(s) Game Company Amorphous Drake Lucas Graciano Legends of Norrath Sony Online Entertainment The Bridge Erik Zaring & Anders Gustafsson The Dream Machine Cockroach Inc. The Cottage Hamzah Kasom Osman Drawn 3 Big Fish Games Cronos Battle Tyler Breon God of War® III SCEA/Santa Monica Studio Dead Walking Chris Moffitt, Brad Crow, Nathan Stefan, Bart Tiongson Orcs Must Die! Robot Entertainment The Dragon Play Brian Thompson and Hamzah Kasom Osman Drawn: Dark Flight Big Fish Games Flemmeth Matt Rhodes Dragon Age 2 BioWare Good Friends Matthew Halpin, Andrew Matthews, Matthew Preece, Radek Walachnia, John Laws Kinectimals Frontier Developments Ltd Grim Exploits Colin Foran, Claire Hummel, Ryan Wilkerson Trenched Microsoft Game Studio/Doublefine Incident at the Workshop Ivan Simoncini Alien Swarm Valve Software Market Fire, Columbia (Shop Sweeper) Ben Lo BioShock Infinite Irrational Games Normandy Mikko Kinnunen Mass Effect 2 BioWare Oktonok Cay Cannery David Guertin Ratchet & Clank®: All 4 One Insomniac Games Paper World Say Oh and Damian Kim Paper World Namco Bandai Games The Pelican Inn (Pub) Andrew Kim UNCHARTED 3: Drake's Deception™ Naughty Dog, Inc. Stahl Arms Jesse van Dijk Killzone® 3 Guerrilla Swamp Skull Jeff Haynie Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull Big Fish Games You can see all the winning images at intothepixel.com , and if you’d like high res images to use as a background etc., please let me know and I’ll get you a copy! Source: Press Release

Here is the original:
The 2011 Into The Pixel Collection Winners

We’re finally getting our hands on MotorStorm Apocalypse tomorrow, along with Thor: God of Thunder. Thor is actually looking rather fun, to be completely honest. Thor will be $49.99, which is a steal. Then we have MotorStorm, finally. Check our review before rushing out to purchase this one. The biggest news is really that you will be able to enjoy your previously purchased games online this week, but a few releases never hurt anyone. We also have Streets of Rage 2 coming May 3rd to PSN if all is well. Can’t wait to play that old bad boy.

See the rest here: 
New Games Tuesday