On Wednesday, March 2nd the Dead Space development team will be bringing an all new experience to your PS3 with Dead Space 2: Severed! Dead Space 2: Severed will follow the story of Gabe Weller, one of the characters from Dead Space: Extraction, as he travels through the Sprawl on a mission to find and rescue his wife, Lexine. Gabe, who is a security officer by trade, will fight his way through the Titan Mines & the Hospital in a journey that will offer lots of new and exciting game-play for the Dead Space Community.

Given that Gabe Weller is a security officer by trade, we wanted to create an experience that focused on his skill-set through pacing, game-play mechanics, as well as combat & level design. Gabe Weller will start off with a Pulse Rifle & a Seeker Rifle as his default weapons which will give players a new way to approach combat – he’s equipped to take the action to the Necromorph forces. From the beginning of the Severed experience players should notice the difference in game-play, and there will definitely be a number of curve balls for players throughout the chapters. One of the most exciting additions to the game is the “Twitcher” which was a character from the original Dead Space game who has returned in Severed – he’s extremely fast, eerie, sporadic, and difficult to dismember.

The development team has definitely worked long and hard on Severed in order to create an experience that’s frightening, packed full of action, and a ton of fun to play. We really hope that you enjoy playing Severed, and we’re looking forward to seeing how many people can earn all of the new trophies within Severed!

Thank you for your continued support!

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Following the recent announcement of the imminent start of GT Academy 2011, I am pleased to confirm the release of a new functionality update that you need to download if you want your shot at becoming a real racing driver.

It’s worth also mentioning that this update now enables the option to set up mini- leaderboards within time trials and drift events. What this means for the GT Academy is that even if you don’t make it to the finals at Silverstone – you’re going to have clear proof of just how much better than your mates you are at the real driving simulator.

Here’s the full rundown of what’s in this update.

Major Changes and New Features

GT Academy 2011
From 09.00 GMT on 4/03/2011 you will be able to enter GT Academy. To be able to do so, you will first have to register your details on gran-turismo.com and then fire up GT5. Full instructions will be posted here on PlayStation.Blog and gran-turismo.com. Terms and conditions apply, e.g. you must be aged 18+, a resident of FR/CH/AT/DE/ES/PT/NL/IT/UK and hold a full driving licence.You can view full terms on www.gran-turismo.com from the opening date.

Friend Rankings
In Drift Trials and Time Trials, you can now display leaderboards that shows only your friends. While it was difficult before to locate your friends in the general leaderboards, this now makes it easier to compare laptimes with them, allowing you to compete just between your friends for the best laps and scores.

Correction of Known Issues
The calculation of performance points (PP) which is an index of a car’s performance is now calculated without taking into account the tyre selection. You can now combine the performance point restriction and the tire restriction when setting the regulations for a lounge.

Other Changes
Cars worth over 1,000,000 Cr. (Including those in a gift car coupon form) are now prohibited from being traded to prevent troubles during the trading process. When lending and borrowing cars between friends, please utilize the rental car system.

To Check Your Current Version
To check the version of your software, press the “Manual” button at the bottom of the main menu screen. The version number will be located on the upper left of the index page in this manual.

If the number starts with “Ver. 1.07″, you are playing the latest version of the game.

If not, please press PS button and quit the game. The game will be updated automatically when you restart it with your PS3 connected to internet.

There will be a lot more news to come on GT Academy 2011 and Gran Turismo 5 so keep your eyes peeled for more information.

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Whatup SingStar fans?

I’m glad to be back. What have I missed? Any crazy, funny, lovely, amazing videos you’ve uploaded? Maybe some romantic and soppy declarations of love through song on Valentine’s Day?

Come on, send me some links to your videos or any others you have seen that you are impressed with on the singstar.com website or post them on twitter/SingStarHQ. Can’t wait!

On the store this week you can get hold of the singles from our first ever musicals song pack which was released a few months ago. Just in case five songs from Oklahoma! at once was a bit much for you. Also available are the five wonderfully dark tracks from the Alternative 80s song pack.

As a fan of a certain football team over here, my download list will definately include Gerry & The Pacemakers. Also on the list are the fantastic ‘Linger’ by The Cranberries and for good ‘punk’ measure a bit of Iggy Pop needs to wander into the basket, too.

Oh, and that Lady Gaga needs to watch her back once I have had a go at the dance for ‘Bad Romance’! ☺

The Bon Jovi competition has now finished. Ah, how I wish I had been allowed to enter. Well, good luck to all you entrants. I hope you have fun with the prizes!

Watch out for another great competiton popping up on your TV screens very soon. Maybe a early as next week, who knows?

See ya soon,

Nina xx

In English

In Spanish

Guitar add-ons

Dance add-ons

All of the above are released worldwide.

*Tracks have previously been released on a disc.

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VidZonians are you ready?! Riot Squad are you ready!? No this isn’t a protest rally (VidZone does not condone violence people), this is my call to anyone who’s a fan of rock or more specifically the six-man Welsh rock machine that is The Blackout. Their mammoth latest single “Higher And Higher” featuring America’s newest hip-hop prodigy, Hyro Da Hero was released on Feb 14th. And VidZone is proud to announce that we have the VIDEO EXCLUSIVE!

Merthyr Tydfil has been put on the rock radar since the lads emerged from the humble town in 2003. Fast-forward to 2011 and their highly-anticipated 3rd album “Hope” is set to explode on 4th April. Back at the beginning of Jan the first single “Ambition Is Critical” was announced (and is still available) as a FREE download on theblackout.net, and members of the Riot Squad (or HUGE fans of The Blackout to you and I) lapped it up. Now, “Higher And Higher” is set to well, take them higher… and higher! So if you want to check out the high-speed, highly intense and highly awesome new video then boot up VidZone now!! What are you waiting for?!

Plus if you haven’t seen The Blackout at their best, which is rocking out Welsh style (whatever that is…!) on stage, then you can catch them on tour through March and April with support from Hyro Da Hero and US punk-rockers The Swellers. Tour dates are as follows

Tues- Mar-29 Oxford O2 Academy 2
Wed-Mar-30 Liverpool O2 Academy 2
Fri-Apr-1 Cork Ireland Cyprus Avenue
Sat-Apr-2 Dublin Ireland Academy
Sun-Apr-3 Belfast N.Ireland Speakeasy, Queens Student Union
Tue-Apr-5 Glasgow Garage
Wed-Apr-6 Edinburgh Liquid Rooms
Thu-Apr-7 Northumbria University
Fri-Apr-8 Manchester Academy 2 (SOLD OUT)
Sat-Apr-9 Birmingham HMV Institute
Sun-Apr-10 Norwich Waterfront
Tue-Apr-12 London Koko
Wed-Apr-13 Bournemouth Old Firestation
Thu-Apr-14 Plymouth White Rabbit
Fri-Apr-15 Falmouth Princess Pavillion
Sat-Apr-16 Cardiff Solus

www.theblackout.net

Hey! Ben here, Content team employee Candice is a gold plated, diamond encrusted, 5 star fan of The Blackout and also a bit of a writer so we thought it best she write this one this week… Thanks Candice, good job

I’m off to look for another job!

Candice (featuring Ben)

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As you know from my post on 8th February, to show our appreciation for the early players in DC Universe Online, we’re offering you the chance to lock in a promotional rate of only €24.99 for the 90-day DC Universe Online subscription. That is over 25% OFF the regular 90-day subscription plan price of €34.99. You’ll be able to keep that rate for as long as you are actively subscribed and watch the savings pile up.

This offer went live on Feb 8, 2011 and has now been extended. It will now expire at 23.59 (GMT) March 15th, 2011. If you purchase your subscription during the offer period, you can keep that pricing for the duration of your subscription.

Below are the prices in local currencies:

Already Subscribed?

Good news: If you have already subscribed to a 90-day subscription, and it is due to renew between midday (GMT) on February 8th and 23.59 (GMT) on March 15th, you will automatically be charged Legend Plan pricing of €24.99 when your next payment is taken! Just make sure that you have enough funds in your wallet or that auto-top up is set to on and your credit card details are registered to ensure your payment is successful. To check the renewal date of your existing 90-day subscription, sign in to PSN and go to Account Management, Transaction Management, Services List and select DC Universe Online Subscription. If your 90-day subscription does not expire during the offer period, don’t worry you can upgrade as described below.

How to upgrade your subscription:

If you redeemed the 30-day subscription voucher that came in your DCUO disc box you are already subscribed to the 30-day subscription plan, which will renew automatically soon. To take advantage of this 90-day subscription offer you will need to upgrade to the 90-day plan. You can do that by following these instructions:

1. Go to the PlayStation Store and look up DC Universe Online.
2. The subscription is available in 30, 90 and 180 day periods. If you purchase the 90-day one between midday (GMT) on February 8th and 23.59 (GMT) on March 15th, you’ll get the special offer pricing. (But the 180-day subscription offers great value too – check out which is best for you.)
3. When you purchase your new DCUO subscription, you will be charged immediately but your existing subscription will continue until the end of its current period and then lapse. Your new subscription will take over and will renew in accordance with the Terms of Service and User Agreement.

If you have any other DCUO subscription and would like to change to the 90-day subscription to benefit from the promotional pricing you can do that too. Just follow the same instructions as to upgrade, detailed above.

Terms and Conditions

Special offer price now €24.99, usually €34.99. Offer opened midday (GMT) on February 8th 2011 and ends 23.59 (GMT) on 15th March 2011. If you purchase a 90-day subscription during the offer period, you’ll pay a special offer price of €24.99 per 90 days for the duration of that subscription. If you already have a subscription, you will be charged on purchase but your new subscription will start to run from the end of the current subscription and will renew automatically at the end of the subscription period in accordance with the Terms of Service/User Agreement. Renewals will be charged at €24.99 per 90-day subscription but, if you cancel the subscription or it terminates for any reason, purchases after 15th March 2011 will be at the usual recurring price of €34.99 per 90-day subscription.

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