Our first week of private beta testing for SOCOM: Special Forces has been incredibly helpful. Though the participants were limited to the “invite only” crowd, their feedback has been phenomenal — with tens of thousands of posts filled with opinions, suggestions, comments and more pouring into our beta forum. Starting today, it’s time for PlayStation Plus members to get their turn as they join the existing testers for the next phase of our pre-release examination.

Though similar to last week’s schedule, this week’s agenda is a bit different from what we had before. Here’s what game-types you can expect to see starting today:

• Wednesday (3/23) – Uplink, Classic Uplink, Suppression, Classic Suppression
• Thursday (3/24) – Last Defense, Classic Last Defense, Uplink, Classic Uplink
• Friday (3/25) – Bomb Squad, Classic Bomb Squad, Last Defense, Classic Last Defense
• Saturday (3/26) – Sniper Alley (Custom), Last Defense Run ‘n Gun (Custom), Bomb Squad, Classic Bomb Squad
• Sunday (3/27) – Scrum (Custom), Community Day Classic (Custom), Sniper Alley (Custom), Last Defense Run ‘n Gun (Custom)
• Monday (3/28) – Suppression, Classic Suppression, Scrum (Custom), Community Day Classic (Custom)

If you missed last week’s post, the multiplayer beta includes two maps, Port Authority and Assault & Battery, and offers a variety of built-in game-types and custom game-types:

• Suppression: The SOCOM take on team deathmatch.
• Last Defense: Capture controls points, discover the enemy base and destroy it.
• Uplink: Steal enemy data and deliver it to your base.
• Bomb Squad: Defend your bomb technician while he disarms enemy explosives.
• Sniper Alley (Custom): An 8 vs. 8 version of Classic Suppression with higher damage. Weapons are limited to sniper rifles, shotguns, smoke grenades and poison gas.
• Last Defense Run ‘n Gun (Custom): Faster movement speed and reduced damage are applied to 16 vs. 16 Last Defense with weapons restricted to only shotguns and SMGs.
• Scrum (Custom): Suppression is given rule tweaks of no respawn, faster movement and higher damage, while sniper rifles, frag grenades, concussion grenades and poison gas are disallowed.
• Community Day Classic (Custom): A medley featuring Classic versions of all four game types (Suppression, Last Defense, Uplink and Bomb Squad) with increased speed and weapon restrictions placed on ranged explosives. Each game type is played over 11 five-minute rounds.

All built-in game-types (re: not “Custom”) will be playable in both the Standard and Classic variations. Standard mode closely mimics the single-player experience, while Classic harkens back to older SOCOM titles with increased movement speeds, round-based play, no player respawns and the lack of health regeneration. Our Custom types mix and match a number of game settings, delivering fresh takes on our core rule sets.

As before, after you’ve had a chance to play the beta, we’d love to hear your feedback! Once you’ve downloaded the beta and played a complete match, you’ll then gain access to our private beta forums on SOCOM.com where you can share your stories with other players and leave us your feedback. SOCOM has always been a very player-driven franchise and your opinions are very important to us, so please let us know what you think!

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We’d like players around the world to know that we’ve created a new game mode for Super Stardust HD that’ll be out on PSN at the end of the month – it’s called the “Impact” mode.

We want to thank all the fans around the world for your continued support – it has made Super Stardust HD a top selling PSN exclusive and enabled us to keep creating new content for the game even now over three years after its release.

2008 saw the release of the “Solo Pack”, offering new game modes such as Endless, Survival, Bomber, and Time Attack. That was followed by the multiplayer “Team Pack” featuring split-screen co-op and deathmatch modes for up to 4 players.

Additionally, the game then broke new ground by becoming the first ever PlayStation 3 game to feature Trophies.

In 2010 we gave players the exciting option to experience the game in real 3D, one of the few of its kind as it creates 120 unique frames per second.

Now in 2011 with the new Impact mode add-on, Super Stardust HD continues to be the most comprehensive shooter experience available.

The Impact mode plays on and twists the game rules – in place of the weapon system your ship is now fitted with an experimental new matter-to-energy boost engine technology, which means once you activate the boost, you can stay in boost as long as you can hit meteors and enemies with it!

This mode also features much higher score multipliers – as long as you boost the multiplier keeps growing and growing! This is the most fast-paced and adrenaline inducing add-on to the game yet.

Look out for the Impact mode on the PlayStation Store on March 30th for €1.99/£1.59 and, if you’ve never tried Super Stardust HD before, there has never been a better time to join the action!

Stardust pilots, start boosting your way to the top of the worldwide leaderboards!

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I’m sure at the moment you are knee-deep in the Yakuza 4 story, so I’ll keep this fairly brief; I’m just here to post the winning entries for our recent ‘Like A Dragon’ competition then I’ll be on my way.

Firstly, I want to thank everyone who made the effort to take part, it certainly was fun looking through all the entries…though I was personally upset there were no dried macaroni pictures. Never mind, maybe next time.

We have three winners altogether, two runners-up and a grand prize winner, and those entries and the prizes they have won are listed below:

RUNNERS-UP
(Each win a limited Kuro Edition steelbook along with the Ichiban box, normally only available in Australia, which contains a variety of other goodies such as a Yakuza bowl and chopsticks set)

Chris Wray

Chris’s entry was designed with simplicity in mind, and the fire effect really stands out against the black background, this has since been dubbed ‘firepants’ in the office, and we think Chris produced a really nice design.

Gurpreet Bathoa

Gurpreet designed both a poster and wallpaper, and whilst I’m sure you will appreciate how the iconic PlayStation face buttons were used in the poster design, we also loved that Kazuma’s tattoo made its way into the design too.

WINNER
(Who receives a Yakuza licensed Japanese zip up sweatshirt, as well as the Kuro Edition steelbook and Ichiban box)

MP Ritvola

Whilst we saw some really strong designs, we were very impressed with this entry… taking cues from the brawling nature of the Yakuza series, we see here an arcade stick given a new lease of life courtesy of that tattoo design again. We loved how two iconic images have collided to create such a great piece of design; especially a design which allows you to dish out some damage too (in the game world only… obviously)!

Again, congratulations to the winners, and for those of you who have yet to experience Yakuza 4 for yourself, don’t forget the game is out now.

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Over the last six months we’ve taken Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One to London, San Francisco, Seattle and Austin. Everywhere we go, people love playing in the Ratchet & Clank universe with three of their friends. The co-operative gameplay, combined with a dash of competition, has really resonated with players.

One thing we’ve heard a lot of our hardcore Ratchet & Clank fans and journalists (which is a group that intersects a lot!) is “this is awesome, but does it have a story?” Our answer: absolutely! All 4 One is a full Ratchet & Clank game with everything you know and love: story, cutscenes, humor, and weapons!

We’re excited to give you the first glimpse of that story, with our first big trailer for the game.

Please let us know what you think in the comments! I’m probably sleeping as this is posted in the middle of the night, but I will answer your questions in the morning (California time) when we get into the office. For more Ratchet & Clank information please keep an eye on eu.playstation.com.

Thanks for watching.

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The Ghostbusters universe already has lots of cool characters and a huge interdimensional lore. However, here at Behavior Santiago, we still wanted to add something new to the brand that would lure new people to the world of Ghostbusters and also excite the fans of the old.

One of the goals when writing the story was to keep true to the world of Ghostbusters. Make it funny yet smart and sarcastic. To do this we had the help of someone with some experience on this. The story script was written by Tom Waltz, scriptwriter of the Ghostbusters comics by IDW. He took our story line and turned it into an amazing comic sequence that flows between the levels to tell the player what is happening in NYC and to introduce them to the new rookies’ personalities.

This new chapter in the Ghostbusters’ story not only introduces the new rookie team, but links them to some of the classic characters, like Janosz Poha for example, the wacky curator of the Museum in Ghostbusters 2.

Other iconic characters like Slimer and Stay Puft have their own cameos, but the core of the story is focused on the first adventures of the rookie team dealing with a strange menace overcoming New York City.

The story starts 4000 years ago, with a strange cult mourning the death of Dumazu, an ancient demon of death and destruction. Fast forward to 1989, poor old Janosz is sent to a mental institution after the events at the museum. There he meets Ismael, a self-claimed last member of the cult of Dumazu. Ismael tells Janosz that if he gets a Shard of the Relic of Nilhe (needed to bring back Dumazu to life), he would make sure that he would get his fair reward: Dana.

Some years later, around the time when Janosz was released from the mental institution, a wave of unusual paranormal manifestations start appearing all over NYC. The Ghostbusters can’t handle all the heat so they decided to hire a young group of paranormal studies enthusiasts to help them out.

And here is where you come into play, guiding the rookie team into their first adventure to find the truth behind Ismael, the Relic of Nilhe and Dumazu the Destroyer!

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime will be available from PlayStation Store on 30 March for £6.99/€7.99.

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