Hey folks, I’m Steve Stamatiadis the creator and guy to blame for Blade Kitten, a fantastic new side-scrolling action game for the PS3. No, seriously, it IS awesome. I know because it’s a story I’ve wanted to tell in game form for a great many years. So come with me and I’ll give you a little behind the scenes insight as to where this game comes from.

First up, Blade Kitten is the adventures of bounty hunter Kit Ballard, a pink haired catgirl (or Felion as they’re known in the universe). She travels around with her sidekick, Skiffy a feisty alien critter that is her companion and protector, and also her floating A.I. sword known as the Darque Blade. Her current bounty leads her to a synthetic planetoid on the outskirts of civilized space. There she’s ambushed by a rival and thus begin Kit’s adventures in the game.

Blade Kitten was born out of the need to bring together years of unused and unfinished ideas into a cool, fun universe that I could channel my creative energy into. These ideas feature all the geeky cool stuff that I loved like anime visuals, giant robots, big swords, aliens, cool fun science fiction and a serving of fun. This happened around 2001 while I was working on the first TY the Tasmanian Tiger game creating that universe. I had a lot of fun doing that but really wanted more sci-fi (though actually I ended up creeping a lot more Blade Kittenish robots into the TY universe).

You would have thought all of these different ideas wouldn’t have worked together but in fact they ended up fitting together like a big jigsaw puzzle. I guess all those projects were really just parts of the whole and maybe that’s why I could never work them out on their own. It was an exciting time realizing that it all fit together so nicely that I could proceed to the next stage, the protagonist.

So before Blade Kitten formed the previous two projects I was thinking about were at opposite ends of the spectrum – one was a too serious and the other was to silly but I really liked elements of both (they also had female leads) so I found the halfway point and that had pretty much the right amount of serious and playfulness. In the early days it was named “Kit-10″ because Kit had 10 robot gimmicks. That was a pretty dumb name but one of her robots Blade stuck around and became the Darque Blade. The idea of the robots became part of Kit’s personality; her “hobby” is mech spotting which comes in handy when you may need to fight them.

The ideas that led up to Blade Kitten. From the left Princess Pop Idol, Gun Gladiator, Kat Burglar, First Blade Kitten, Final Blade Kitten
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There are loads of fantastic new releases to rent and buy in the Video Store as well as a special Deal of the Week offer for you to check out. And as if that is not enough we have also created a special Clint Eastwood Collection, so heaps of choice to keep you entertained.

Enjoy!

New to Rent and Buy

• Prince of Persia (HD)
• After Life (HD)
• Kandahar Break:Fortess of War
• Kick-Ass (HD)
• Hot Tub Time Machine (HD)
• Clash of the Titans (HD)
• From Paris with Love (HD)
• The Blind Side (HD)
• Green Zone (HD)

New to Buy

• Exit Through the Gift Shop (HD)
• Basement
• The Joneses

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Locnville are the new electro hip hop duo that everyone is talking about, and they are now available on the SingStore. The band is made up of identical twin brothers Andrew and Brian Chaplin, who were born in New York and raised in Cape Town, South Africa.

After the success of their first album, which has now surpassed platinum status in South Africa, the pair have their first song available to download from the SingStore. Sun In My Pocket is available now!

Check out Locnville’s favourite artists and songs on the What’s Hot list and browse through My SingStar Online. You will find an uploaded video performance of them singing Sun In My Pocket just for you.

There are loads more great Locnville goodies to download from PlayStation Store, where you can learn more about the Locnville story in a free exclusive video and download a free XMB (XrossMediaBar) wallpaper. Head over to the SingStar section of PlayStation Store now to find out more about these future stars.

Keep and eye out for more exciting Locnville news coming soon.

Head over to eu.playstation.com/competitions now for the chance to win some great SingStar prizes with Locnville.

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Hello PlayStation community! The Dead Space 2 team is excited to bring you something for the first time in the history of the franchise — the ability to strategically dismember your friends in our all new multiplayer feature!

That’s right, Dead Space 2 will offer its own unique take on multiplayer, which is intensely gruesome and completely grounded in the Dead Space universe and fiction. Dead Space 2 will feature four-versus-four gameplay with an objective based multiplayer, across five unique locations throughout the Sprawl.

Not only will players have the chance to play as the Sprawl Security Team, but they will have a chance to see the other side of the coin and play as the evil Necromorph forces. Players will be able to play as four different Necromorph characters, each with its own unique gameplay style: The Pack, The Lurker, The Spitter, and the newly famous Puker.

In DS2 MP, the Sprawl Security Team will have specific, unique objectives across five different maps which will be focused on eradicating the Necromorph forces and restoring safety across the Sprawl. On the other hand, the Necromorphs must stalk, trap, and devour the Sprawl Security Team and prevent them from completing their mission.

Dead Space 2 multiplayer will also feature an entire level progression metagame in which players will unlock new weapons, suit skins, weapon upgrades, as well as gameplay characteristics that will build on the core mechanics of each Necromorph.

The Dead Space 2 team is hard at work right now, and we’re focused on shipping a phenomenal multiplayer experience for all of the fans. We’re really looking forward to getting it in your hands on 28 January.

Thanks for your support!

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It’s nearly Christmas! Sort of. Well, it’s near enough that loads of very big games are starting to trickle into the FirstPlay office, making it much harder to concentrate on work and telling you important stuff like…

…the fact that episode 24 will be on the Store this Wednesday, and comes with an exclusive Top Gun theme as well as a review of genre-twisting RPG sequel Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for PSP. We also have not one but two huge studio visits this week, the first to EA Sports‘ Vancouver lair to check up on FIFA 11, and the second to see Enslaved: Odyssey to the West at Ninja Theory, and a review of slacker superhero hit Kick-Ass on Blu-ray.

We’ve also got a packed Network Highlights section this week, including a review of side-scrolling slasher Shank, a look at the latest minis and a round-up of the best user-created ModNation Racers, and plenty more games stuffed like hi-res corpses into the trunk of our screenshot galleries, including sandy shooter Spec Ops: The Line, robo-suited blockbuster Vanquish, The Force Unleashed II and ‘The Modern Warfare Of The Skies’ (their words not ours) Ace Combat: Assault Horizons

Which, for just 99p, is loads – over half an hour’s HD game coverage and a pretty picture of a plane for your XMB. And if you subscribe it’s even cheaper – around 75p an episode if you take out a 90-day sub for £8.99.

As usual we’d love to hear all your feedback, suggestions for content, and excuses for spending large periods of time alone at Christmas to trophy whore Black Ops, 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 firstplay.co.uk/register to have regular news and content updates delivered directly.

See the Future of PS3. First.

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