The PSB.Europe weekly reading list (week commencing the 25th of January)

A short, eclectic mix of links for you today, but expect a bunch of MAG reviews next week. The ones we’ve seen so far are looking very positive, and I’m hearing plenty of reports of people becoming addicted. Hopefully not so much so that prevents them from stopping long enough to try any of the other great games coming out in upcoming weeks, though!

As usual, let us know what your favourite stories of the week have been in the comments section.

• The PS3’s Top 100 Games For 2010 – TheSixthAxis
• Seattle Graphic Designer – Cory Repp – MAG Trainers
• Review: MAG – TheSixthAxis
• Hands-on: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 single-player | Joystiq
• Modnation Racers Beta impressions – Wonderwallweb.com
• M.A.G Review – Wonderwallweb.com
• MAG: First-Day Impressions of a Burgeoning War – Mag – Kotaku
• Review: MAG | Joystiq
• Destructoid – Capybara vomiting out a Critter Crunch patch today

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PlayStation.Blog.Europe Weekly Content Recap

Are you taking part in the Heavy Rain Four Days experience? We’re a week into it now, but that’s okay — it’s been designed so that you can jump in whenever. Besides, there are still two weeks left to go, so there’s plenty more to experience. Check out the Facebook Fan page to check out the latest news.

Other than that we’ve had quite a busy week, with new info on all our major upcoming PS3 titles: God of War III, Heavy Rain, White Knight Chronicles and ModNation Racers. Also, be sure to check out my roundup of last week’s MAG256 event — it includes a great video showing attendees and the event space itself.

• Happy Australia Day from VidZone! — The guys at VidZone wish their fans a happy Australia Day.
• UK Video Store Update — This week’s UK Video Store Update.
• This Week On The SingStore (28 January 2010) — This week’s SingStore update.
• Heavy Rain – ‘Four Days’ Begins — The Heavy Rain Four Days experience kicks off.
• HEAVY RAIN: Evidence Analysis Moves Into PlayStation Home — The Heavy Rain experience moves into Home.
• Blue Toad Murder Files, Episode 3 — Blue Toad Murder Files episode 3 will be available for FREE!
• Gravity Crash PSP Revealed — Take a look at Gravity Crash PSP, as well as the latest patch for the PS3 version.
• GT-PSP Free Car Download Pack — What’s better than a bunch of downloadable cars? How about free downloadable cars?
• ‘Heads-Up’ PlayStation Store Update (28th January 2010) — This week’s PSN Store update.
• Digital Comics Store Update (28th January 2010) — This week’s Digital Comics Store update.
• ModNation Racers Beta Update — A look at how you guys are doing with the ModNation beta, plus some of your creations.
• God of War III – Kratos is on His Way! — An update on the status of God of War III.
• White Knight Chronicles Goodies + Character Creation Video — A bunch of new info regarding Level 5′s upcoming epic RPG, White Knight Chronicles.
• MAG256 Event Roundup — Photos and video from last week’s massive MAG event in London.

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As you may have witnessed our MAG256 review event last week was a resounding success. If you were among the one hundred and twenty eight players who fought so valiantly against each other — and the developers in the US — then I wanted to personally thank you all very much for coming. We hope you had a great time and look forward to hearing all your thoughts of the experience in the comments below.

For those of you who weren’t able to make it, however, we’ve put together a little video and some photos to give you a feel of what it was like to attend. Extra points are awarded for those who manage to spot themselves in the video.

As you can see, the main attraction of the event was the 256 structure, which housed the 128 PS3s equipped with retail copies of MAG. Even when empty this was a pretty impressive set up, but it really gained a sense of gravitas when fully manned. Especially with the Voice Of MAG (who wasn’t lacking a sense of gravitas himself!) making some very loud announcements over the tannoy.

While I personally didn’t take part in the game (they probably wouldn’t have won if I had), I did spend a lot of time in the Blogger’s Lounge, which overlooked the combat arena, and took full advantage of the Twitter wall. This pulled in tweets tagged with the #MAG256 hashtag and displayed them on the wall, next to the spectator cam feed, above the combat arena. Your tweets from the event (from both attendees and non-attendees) were definitely one of the highlights of the day, and you can find some of our favourites below.

Speaking as an ex-games journalist, I can definitely say that this event had one of the buzziest vibes I’ve felt from a group of industry vets outside of E3, gamescom or TGS. It also helped that people seemed to really enjoy the game itself and we’re already seeing some healthy review scores popping up around the net. The nature of the game means it’s been a hard one to review before launch, but it looks like several outlets found our review event up to task.

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We’re only a month away from the European release of White Knight Chronicles and wanted to provide all of you with some updates on some of the great stuff we’ve got coming out in the next month to celebrate the pending game launch!

As many of you saw in the one-on-one with Tsubasa Inaba, White Knight Chronicles International Edition will be supporting Trophy and Home integration. As you play, through White Knight Chronicles, you’ll unlock certain trophies that will grant you some pretty cool stuff in Home. One trophy will grant you a White Knight costume, the other one will grant you a White Knight decoration for your personal space! Actually, one of the Home items only requires you to have WKC save data.

Oh there’s more! When the game launches, LittleBigPlanet fans will be able to pick up their very own White Knight Chronicles Costume & Sticker Pack! Now you too, will be able to Play, Create and Share using character skins for White Knight Chronicles! You’ll be able to choose from Leonard, the White Knight, the Black Knight and the Dragon Knight.

Also, we’d like to let you know a bit more about the In-Game Commerce featured in White Knight Chronicles. Those of you interested in getting ahead quickly in the Georama will have access to an Online Workshop. This is the place to purchase unique Georama parts you cannot otherwise create. These parts can then be used to upgrade your space even further!

Our last video on White Knight Chronicles’ character creation is available below. Take a look and learn more about how your avatar plays a role in the single player and online quests!

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Hi everyone,

You may have read that the God of War III U.S. release date has been confirmed today as the 16th March 2010. Whilst I can’t confirm the exact date for PAL, I wanted to let you know say that we are aiming to release God of War III across PAL regions during the same week. I will confirm this as soon as I can so watch this space, the wait will be over soon!

Some more news for you … on 11th February, I’m really excited to announce that we’ll be unveiling our brand new God of War III trailer here so look out for it then, you won’t be disappointed.

Meanwhile, for those of you who haven’t seen it, below is the official God of War III box art, hope you guys like it!

We are also currently finishing off the box art for our Ultimate Trilogy Edition and I will unveil it in my next post.

That’s it for now, stay tuned, more God of War III news to follow as we’re getting closer and closer to launch!

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