Hi everyone, here is your weekly comics update!

New publisher alert! We are delighted to welcome digital publisher Zallag on board this week. Dedicated to the production of digital-only games & comics, Zallag brings us three fun independent comics this week. In the first one, Gods vs Humans: The Odyssey, humans from diverse civilisations set to build a gigantic tower to take their Gods’ place, with hilarious consequences. The second one, Racers’ Island, follows an eventful car race organised by a powerful media mogul, who will stop at nothing to gain complete control of the media… And last but not least, the hilarious Super OOrs World, a wonderful-looking pixel-art comic about a lazy, ferocious and seriously grumpy bear with superpowers – what’s not to love there! If you liked Happy Tree friends, you’ll like this one.

Next is the very topical comic True Grit, available here for FREE. This 24-page comic explores a subplot from the major motion picture by the Coen Brothers and introduces Rooster Cogburn, the tougher than tough bounty hunter played by Jeff Bridges in the film.

Locke & Keys: Keys to the Kingdom continues with issue #4, where our heroes find out that working with a dead man can have some terrifying consequences as they embark on their most perilous raid ever… For those who haven’t given it a try, Locke & Key is a truly great series mixing horror, a gripping thriller storyline by Joe Hill, and beautiful art by Gabriel Rodriguez.

Other highlights include #2 of DC Online Universe Legends, not to be confused with Legends of DC Universe #4 also out this week, more Ratchet & Clank, Green Lantern Corps, Y: The Last Man and many more:

• Batman Beyond Vol.1 #6 DC Comics
• The Boy Who Made Silence #3 Markosia
• DC Online Universe Legends #2 DC Comics
• Devil’s Wake #2 DC Comics
• Domo #6 TOKYOPOP
• The Dreaming #15 TOKYOPOP
• Ex Machina #30 DC Comics
• Fables #45-46 DC Comics
• Gods vs Humans: The Odyssey Zallag
• Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1 #9 DC Comics
• Hack/Slash #1-4 Devil’s Due Digital
• I Luv Halloween #14 TOKYOPOP
• JLA #38 DC Comics
• Lamorte Sisters #2 DC Comics
• Legends of the Dark Crystal #8 TOKYOPOP
• Legends of the DC Universe #4 DC Comics
• Locke & Key: Keys to the Kingdom #4 IDW Publishing
• Promethea #3 DC Comics
• Racers’ Island #1 Zallag
• Ratchet & Clank #6 DC Comics
• Return to Labyrinth #4 TOKYOPOP
• Sandman #22 DC Comics
• Silent Hill: Past Life #3 IDW Publishing
• Star Trek: The Manga #14 TOKYOPOP
• Super OOrs World #1-2 Zallag
• Superman/Batman #49 DC Comics
• Supernatural: Rising Son #6 DC Comics
• Tom Strong #3 DC Comics
• Tranformers: Prime #3 IDW Publishing
• Transformers: Sector 7 #5 IDW Publishing
• True Grit Read Books
• Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #6-7 Marvel
• Undertown #7 TOKYOPOP
• Van Von Hunter #5 TOKYOPOP
• Wonder Woman Vol. 3 #21 DC Comics
• Y: The Last Man #28 DC Comics
• Young Avengers (2005) #4-6 Marvel
• Young Justice Vol.2 #1 DC Comics

Please visit www.playstationcomics.com for prices and to see the whole catalogue.
Enjoy and see you in the comments!

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Hello all – I’m not around this week, I’m off learning all about the products coming to the PSN Store over the next calendar year, so I’m afraid you’ll be without my replies today. If I can hop on tomorrow for a bit, I’ll do so.

So what’s on the menu this week? New offers hit, with both Alien Breed titles reduced in preparation for the launch of the third outing, Sky Fighter, a selection of Split/Second unlocks and a few choice PSone titles – plus let’s not forget the second round of minis from our February Mega minis Sale.

Dragon’s Lair bursts onto the scene, heading up our new PSN releases this week, and in polar contrast, Acceleration of Suguri brings the fast paced robot destruction.

TNT Racers arrives for both PS3 and PSP, but the PS3 version is a FirstPlay exclusive this week. The rest of you can grab it from the 23rd.

New PSP games arrive (Final Fantasy!), we’ve got more of those Flag themes you guys love so much and there are new minis, including the iOS hit, Zenonia.

Of course we’ve also got the single player KillZone 3 demo for you, which comes in both regular and 3D flavour for you early adopters. Not long to wait for the full game! If you’re a fan of the genre, it’ll blow your hat off. Replace hat with whatever word you feel most comfortable with.

And worthy of note, but not listed here in the content update (although it’ll be back in Latest) is the FIFA Ultimate Team 11 title update, which adds some new functionality and some tweaks to the Ultimate team add-on. It’s still free, so if you’re an Ultimate team fan you can grab this today.

Lot’s more besides – take a look at the full list below – I’ll be back with you again as normal from next week, when we’ll have Alien Breed: Descent, The Undergarden and more for you. Cheerio.
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Hi Guys, hope you are all enjoying the Killzone 3 demo and Stacking, which were both added to Plus on the 9th.

Here are just a few extra treats coming your way today; we hope you like them.

First, there will be some exclusive ModNation Racers avatars for you to download and keep. We got these after quite a few requests here on the blog.

If you love first person shooters and haven’t tried Blacklight: Tango Down yet, then this is your chance to give it a go with an exclusive 25% discount.

Now we know how much you guys like to get your hands on new stuff before your friends, so you should like this next treat. We have managed to secure you an early demo of the new PS3 title, Yakuza 4.

Get your hands dirty in Kamurocho City a whole week before anyone else with the demo of this new SEGA title.

Speaking of SEGA, you will have seen that Sonic is coming up in March, but we wanted to let you know that we have managed to secure a few other SEGA classics for you. In the next few months, Plus members will be able to get their hands on these classics: Sonic 2, Streets of Rage 2, Golden Axe Digital, Comix Zone and Altered Beast.

Sonic is coming to you guys a month before everyone else on PSN and all the other titles will be available two weeks before general release. And with all the titles having added Trophy support, you will have a good head-start.

Finally, if you hadn’t seen this yet, PlayStation Plus wanted to wish you all a happy Valentines Day and give you a little treat. It’s not chocolate I’m afraid…

On the Plus section of the store from the 14th we have given you a free minis title ‘Flying Hamster‘ just as a little thank you for being members. This title is yours to download and keep forever (it will not expire with your membership).

Hope you enjoy these extra treats and I will speak to you next month when we will announce the full list of content for March.

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Because I still haven’t shown off my new green cardigan enough, here is the final video interview from the PlayStation Experience press event in London a couple of weeks ago. This time I caught up with Greg from Sucker Punch Productions to talk about how morality comes into play in inFAMOUS 2.

In case you missed them, here are the good and evil gameplay videos that we debuted last week.

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Fatalities are back and better than ever in the new Mortal Kombat! Ever since 1992′s Mortal Kombat, fatalities have gotten a HUGE fan reaction. The new game’s fatalities are the most lethal, elaborate, and quite simply the best we have ever made. We are sure that the fans are going to love what we have come up with in the new Mortal Kombat.

Ed Boon and the rest of the MK team knew that returning to a Mature game rating — PLUS the tremendous graphic improvement and new technologies we now have access to — would let us take fatalities to an unsurpassed level of unimaginable brutality. Additionally, we wanted to make sure there were a ton of fatalities for all of the iconic warriors in the game (with two fatalities, minimum, for every character) as well as fatalities for some of the dynamic environments. There is a looot of content for players to uncover — and we finally had plenty of time to build it all!

The fatality development process is extremely collaborative. In the past, we didn’t start designing and implementing fatalities until the majority of the game was finished. But with this game, the team began working on fatalities early in the development cycle in order to have the maximum amount of time to come up with ideas and polish them. Fatalities are born in the dark recesses of the designer’s minds — each fatality always starts with a general idea from [Mortal Kombat co-creator] Ed Boon and the designers. They basically lock themselves in a room for hours and lay out all of their ideas. Once the meeting begins, one brave soul is the first to share a sick and twisted way for the player to finish off their opponent, and the process begins.

Inspiration can come from anywhere – gruesome murder news stories, old horror movies, and actual nightmares have spawned more than a few of our most disturbing fatalities. There is a usually a lot of “You know what would be cool…” and “What if…” The designers pantomime many of the motions for that fatality and the reaction of the other team members in the room determine whether a fatality is good enough for inclusion in the game. Ideas with the strongest team reactions are the ones we all build on and polish into a final concept. Ed then goes on to storyboard each fatality for the motion-capture session.

The motion-capture sessions are a dynamic experience involving two people that act out each fatality over and over until they perfectly capture the movements needed to make the fatality look as realistic and awe-inspiring as possible. From there, our magicians in the animation and cinematics groups add the look, feel and special effects that take the fatalities from a motion-captured wire frame to a graphically intense piece of in-game content.

As a team, we review each step of the process many times in order to make sure each element looks as impactful as possible. Once the fatality meets our quality requirements, we pass it along to our audio group so that they can take the piece to the next level and create horrifying sounds to add the final touch of atmosphere to the piece. Finally, it is given back to the designers who embed the fatalities in the game in preparation for players around the world.

Fatalities are truly one of the most collaborative development efforts and are a great reflection of the vast amount of talent we have working on the game. We want to ensure that fans get the Mortal Kombat they have been waiting for come April 18th.

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