Hello everyone,

We’re teaming up with Immersive Games to give you the mini Beam’em Up for free!

It comes gratis with episode 34 of FirstPlay, which hits the PlayStation Store this Wednesday. You can pick up the episode for 99p, or enjoy a 90-day subscription for £8.99, and make sure you never miss out!

As well as a free mini, we’ve also got reviews of incredible new racer Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, along with our verdicts on PlayStation Move titles TV Superstars, The Fight: Lights Out, Time Crisis: Razing Storm, and The Shoot.

In the Network Highlights section this week, we’ve got a personal take on the pleasures and pitfalls of scoring games, and a review of FIFA 11‘s online offering. We’re also putting another trio of minis through their downloadable paces, and watching Nicholas Cage lose the plot in Bad Lieutenant, as part of our Video Store round-up.

We’ve also got screenshots from the shooter nipping at COD’s heels in our Homefront gallery, as well as the latest from Dungeon Siege 3, Operation Flashpoint: Red River, and sexy new petrol-headed racing sim, Test Drive Unlimited 2.

If you have any feedback for us, or want to make any suggestions, then please get in touch! You can find us on Facebook, on Twitter @firstplay_uk, on email FirstPlay@futurenet.com, or the interweb official EU forums.

See the Future of PS3. First.

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Hello again, zombie hunters.

In the last Dead Nation post on this blog many of you asked me about plans for Dead Nation and PlayStation Plus.

I am happy to announce that Dead Nation will be available with a 20% discount to Plus members from day one.

The surprises don’t end here guys: from 8 December, Plus subscribers will also be able to download two free awesome (or fearsome?) Dead Nation zombie avatars: the hero and the heroine.

Here’s a sneak peek:

And by the way, if you are a Plus subscriber and you didn’t download your free Dead Nation dynamic theme yet, make sure you do it before the offer ends on 4 January 2011.

Enjoy!

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Hi everyone, I just wanted to share our new trailer with you for LORD of ARCANA, which is coming out early next year for PSP. Set in the world of Horodyn, players take on the role of slayers trying to get their hands on the incredible power of Arcana.

We’ve also updated the game website at www.lordofarcana.com with more info on the game, the monsters you’ll face and the arsenal of weapons at your disposal. Take a look if you’d like to find out more.

We’ll have lots more news to share with you very soon about LORD of ARCANA, so stay tuned to the blog in the coming weeks!

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Hi everyone, I’m Envisager (or Vissy as some like to call me!) one of the MVPs from the Official PlayStation Forums, some of you might already know me from events I host for the community!
Follow me on twitter (@Envisager_) to hear more about those!

A few weeks ago, I was invited to London Studios to see first hand how the new SingStar titles, SingStar Dance and SingStar Guitar, were shaping up, and chat with some of the awesome team who bring us the ultimate party game!

During my time at London Studios on the wet and soggy Thursday afternoon, I was given the opportunity to chat and pose questions to Mike Rouse, Senior Producer of SingStar and was shown how the new versions of the game functioned by Charlie Hasdell, Principal Designer of SingStar. This was before being given the chance to prove my worth against Charlie and some of the developers of the game!

Of course, this was all captured on video for your enjoyment, and my embarrassment

What can I say about the new versions of the game? Well I have been a fan of SingStar from the first instalment, and having been lucky enough to get a sneak preview of the new titles; it’s made me even more impatient to get hold of them on release! They both bring exciting new elements to the game, which is brilliant if singing isn’t your bag, you now have the option to have a little boogie or pick up your guitar controller and strum along! I for one am looking forward to seeing the community uploaded dancing videos on SingStar online!

Now let’s all sit back, watch the nice video and let the mocking of my dancing and singing skills commence!

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If you haven’t already seen something similar from a popular UK retailer *shakes fist* then here is a sneak peek of what you can expect from that glorious moment, seconds after the postman has arrived on 24 November, when you lift the lid on your GT5 Signature Edition.

We shot this video as soon as the first delivery of Signature Editions arrived at SCEE HQ and, before you ask, no I haven’t played the game yet. I argued that I should get to keep it, seeing as I’ve already taken the box out of its plastic and breathed my DNA all over it, but that didn’t seem to work.

If anybody else thinks that I should keep that Signature Edition, fight for me in the comments.

YES WE CAN!

Edit: as FULLMETAL56 pointed out in the comments, you can win your own Signature Edition by entering the competition at eu.playstation.com/psn/competitions.

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