Hi everyone! I’m Simon Benson, Senior Development Manager in the SCEE 3D Team, and I’m excited to reveal that we’re bringing our favourite MotorStorm Pacific Rift races to life in true stereoscopic 3D. You may already be aware that the jaw dropping 3D racing in MotorStorm Apocalypse is coming in 2011, but to fill the gap with equally stunning 3D racing right now, MotorStorm 3D Rift is coming to PlayStation Store next week!

MotorStorm 3D Rift lets you experience 10 MotorStorm Pacific Rift tracks in stunning 3D and features a selection of festival-favourite off-road vehicles: Bikes, Buggies, Racing Trucks and Monster Trucks – the latter being my personal weapon of choice when racing across the dangerously unpredictable jungles, beaches, waterfalls and volcanic wastelands served up by this particular tropical island.

There are 10 unique events to compete in (one for each track) and we have included the full range of competitor difficulty levels through the races so you can enjoy the brutal off-road racing at your leisure, or take on the challenge of the toughest and most competitive rivals. With 3D gaming though, you’ll have the edge.

Through stereoscopic 3D you can naturally judge your speed and proximity, which is extremely useful when trying to avoid being side-swiped by a rampaging Racing Truck, ramming a rival Buggy into a cave wall, or timing when to get back on the accelerator as you take a tricky corner. When you are riding a Bike, it’s obvious what you can and can’t duck under – even at high speeds. When you are sitting behind the wheel of a Monster Truck, you get to feel just how monstrous it is – looking down on a rival Buggy just before they disappear under your super-sized wheels.

If you’ve played the 3D Collection demo and wanted more tracks and a greater challenge, you need to pick up MotorStorm 3D Rift. If you haven’t, you’ll be blown away by the sense of speed as you fight through the sublime tropical island setting and RIP it up in 3D paradise.

Nothing beats the 3D gaming experience, but if you don’t yet own a 3D TV and you want to get a taste of MotorStorm Pacific Rift, then I can assure you that 3D Rift is still wicked fun on a ‘normal’ TV. Check out this video of the adrenaline fuelled MotorStorm Pacific Rift in action…

MotorStorm 3D Rift is due to be released exclusively on PlayStation Store on 25th August 2010.

We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as the team here has enjoyed working on it and look forward to bringing you more breath-taking 3D racing action your way with MotorStorm Apocalypse next year!

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Guten Tag und Willkommen!

Apologies, I must think I am still at gamescom in Cologne where some of our team spent a few days last week demoing SingStar Dance and Guitar to the world’s media and gamers. I even got to meet some of you and it was nice to be able to put faces to comments, if you know what I mean !

So, here’s what we have in the SingStore update for you this week: Rock your socks off with ‘Dude (Looks Like Lady)’, a classic from Aerosmith, ‘Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through’ by Meat Loaf or, if you like it even heavier, there’s always Korn with ‘Coming Undone’.

Also on the ‘menu’ are songs from Carrie Underwood, Nik Kershaw, Kate Nash, Julian Cope and Metro Station to name a few.

Sing on! Until next time…

Nina x

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A party with PlayStation is like Christmas come early, which we got to prove all over again yesterday, when the bass was shaking up the entire exhibition hall 7.

In the evening, after most visitors have left gamescom, managers, journalists and promoters got together at the lavish PlayStation booth to celebrate another gamescom coming to an end. It couldn’t have been more spectacular.

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Hello all,

Both of FirstPlay’s other writers are on holiday this week, so as well as the power of games and HD video this blog post is brought to you by the emotions panic, loneliness and fast typing. Which isn’t really an emotion.

None of which has stopped us making another packed episode this week. Coming up in episode 21 of FirstPlay this Wednesday we have a review of scuzzy crime sequel Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, as well as a Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow hands-on with all-new footage, and a preview of the PlayStation Move’s launch line-up.

On top of that we’ve got a review of super-addictive PSN car-scrapper TNT Racers, a look at Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company’s recent DLC, a round-up of the latest PSP comics releases and a look back at what made the original Dead Space so scary. Oh, and we’ve also got our regular selection of screenshots, this week including Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock, Operation Flashpoint: Red River, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2011.

All of this comes at our regular price of 99p per episode, which works out at less than 75p if you take out a 90-day subscription for £8.99.

We’d love to hear all your feedback, suggestions for content, and hair loss remedies, and you can get in touch with us on Twitter at @firstplay_uk, FirstPlay@futurenet.com, or the official EU forums. And don’t forget you can sign up for the FirstPlay newsletter at http://www.firstplay.co.uk/register to have regular news and content updates delivered directly to your inbox.

See the Future of PS3. First.

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Last week, Irrational Games introduced BioShock Infinite to the world with a startling cinematic trailer set in the clouds far above Earth. Since then, I’ve seen BioShock Infinite in action, and the first-person gameplay featured numerous hallmarks of BioShock as well as intriguing new elements.

In the gameplay scenario I saw, protagonist Booker DeWitt explored the floating city of Columbia before battling a large mob of murderous Columbian citizens using shotguns and hunting rifles. Booker wielded supernatural powers as well, projecting lightning, telekinesis, and flesh-eating crows ala Hitchcock’s The Birds. After locating Elizabeth, the mysterious young woman at the heart of Columbia’s mysterious internal conflict, Booker’s powers grew exponentially. Channeled through Elizabeth, lightning bolts became swirling thunderstorms and telekinesis ripped the environment to tatters.

I spoke with Irrational Games creative director Ken Levine to learn more about BioShock Infinite’s gameplay, similarities and differences compared to the original BioShock, and how the midair city of Columbia presents new opportunities for first-person combat.

Sid Shuman: You often described BioShock as a shooter first and foremost. Do you consider BioShock Infinite to be a pure shooter? Has it evolved?

Ken Levine, Creative Director, Irrational Games: One of the reasons we were so specific about defining BioShock as a shooter was because it was so strange. It was such an odd beast that we thought [defining it as a shooter] helped ground people’s understanding of what they’d be doing. But I think people now understand what BioShock is, so I’m less focused on that now. People understand that it’s a shooter, but that it’s a particular kind of shooter that’s unique to what Irrational Games and what we do. It’s a shooter that has quite a lot of expressiveness outside of the shooting as well.

SS: On the combat side, will you be keeping somewhat consistent with the ground rules and basic mechanics of BioShock?

KL: The previous games gave players a lot of tools, but there was a tendency for encounters to have a lot of similarities: narrow corridors and one or two enemies. So the tendency was for tools like the Electro-Bolt and shotgun to be commonly used because they were extremely effective. So the sniper rifle weapon (the crossbow) and the area-of-effect attacks were less effective and less used.

We wanted to make sure we had a broad range of weapons and powers [for BioShock Infinite], and that the environments and challenges demanded those weapons and powers. So there are a ton of interior spaces in the game that will feel like a traditional BioShock spaces, very intimate. But we also focus on spaces that are quite different from what you’ve seen in a BioShock game: huge, open, outdoor spaces with broad ranges. And instead of one or two enemies, you might fight 15 enemies at one point.

We’re using an entirely new graphics engine — there’s no shared code or assets with any previous BioShock game, though it’s based on Unreal 3.0 technology. The reason we had to go with a new engine, and one of the reasons development has taken awhile, is because we couldn’t do what we wanted to do otherwise. We couldn’t do this kind of scale, or the scenes on the Skylines where you’re in combat while traveling at 60 miles per hour, or scenes where you’re fighting 15 enemies at once.

And something like a sniper rifle now make a lot of sense! It becomes meaningful now that we’ve changed the dynamics of the environment. Vertical movement across big, broad spaces and multiple enemies who work together against you — these are things you haven’t seen in a BioShock game before.

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