We know you’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of DiRT 3 and now that wait is finally over, DiRT 3 is finally here and we’ve packed it to the rafters full of amazing content! Feeding off the fantastic community feedback we had on DiRT 2 the studio has crafted a masterpiece. To coincide with today’s global launch we’ve just released an all-new trailer. The ‘World of Racing’ trailer features DiRT 3′s wide range of game modes, from traditional Rally to innovative freestyle Gymkhana events, plus Trailblazer, and multi-car Head 2 Head, Land Rush and Rallycross stages, with all of these available online as well. Why not take a look to get yourself in the mood for some intense racing action.

DiRT 3′s extensive online gameplay features are enabled with something we’ve termed the VIP Pass, the access code for which is included in each retail box. This one-time use code includes competitive multiplayer modes, allows players to upload gameplay videos direct to YouTube and comes with five additional cars for use in the game.

The VIP Pass for PS3 will be redeemable shortly, pending the restoration of PlayStation Store. The VIP Pass will also be available separately from the Store for £6.29 / €7.99 / $9.99. Each in-pack VIP Code is one-time use.

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As the release of White Knight Chronicles II, exclusively on PS3, draws closer, we got in touch with the game’s director Yoshiaki Kusuda to talk about the story behind WKC II and the future of the series.

Tell us about the story in White Knight Chronicles II

The game takes place one year after the events of the original White Knight Chronicles. A year after the return of the Yshrenian Empire, Leonard and his companions come back together to protect the Kingdom of Balandor, the Archduchy of Faria and the Free City of Greede from the Yshrenian Empire, and end up having to save the entire world.

Two new characters will also play key parts in the story: Miu, the daughter of Archduke Dalam; and the mysterious Scardigne. There is civil unrest in the Archduchy of Faria, with one faction trying to protect Miu and another militant faction trying to spark a revolution. Scardigne belongs to the former, but you’ll need to play the actual game to fully understand the role he takes in the story.

White Knight Chronicles II will bring a satisfying conclusion to the conflict between Yshrenia and the other powers, and to the stories of Grazel, Leonard, and Princess Cisna.

What influenced the original White Knight Chronicles?

We wanted it to be a sort of majestic fantasy, with heroic elements that would appeal to RPG fans. In the original White Knight Chronicles you saved a princess, and in the sequel you have to save the whole world.

Along the way, players will transform into a Knight to do battle with gigantic enemies, and there may even be a little love story in amongst all of the fighting. During their adventures, the players will gradually solve mysteries such as the origin of the Knights and the effects they have on the world. I think the game will help both children and adults remember some things that we tend to forget in our modern lives.

What gameplay improvements have been made to the sequel?

We made a number of changes to improve the game’s pacing, such as better response time in battles and having gauges fill up while a special move is being performed, which allows you to transition to the next move more quickly. However, just doing that would turn the game into a mindless button masher, so we also added elements where the player has to attack his opponent just at the right time. This adds element of strategy has slightly increased the difficulty of battles.

For example, since you can now guard whenever you want, you can avoid getting stunned when an enemy makes a powerful attack by guarding at just the right time. Or, you might use an area-of-effect attack the instant an enemy summons a group of smaller enemies. Strategy is definitely more important in this game.

Why did you decide to include the original game with its sequel on the same Blu-ray Disc?

When we were creating White Knight Chronicles II, the first thing we thought about was what form the product would take. A sequel would usually be sold as a separate package that you could buy on its own and play without the original game if you wanted. However, in the case of a game like White Knight Chronicle,s you also have the online gaming side which means it’s difficult to keep the sequel completely separate from the original. We considered a number of possibilities, like making an expansion that would require the original game.

But that would limit our audience to people who had purchased the first game and wanted to play more. The number of PS3 owners has increased since the first White Knight Chronicles was released, which gives us a chance to attract new players, so we decided that including the original game on the disc was the best solution.

Will there be more WKC games in the future?

White Knight Chronicles II concludes the story started in the first game, so for the moment we don’t have any plans for more games in the series. However, we will be releasing additional quests in the form of downloadable content. And you never know. If there’s strong support for another sequel…

What is your favourite RPG?

Tactics Ogre. It’s a fairly old game now but the story and game world were fantastic. It’s one of those games that I could just sit back and enjoy.

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As the blog manager, this week it felt good to get back to some kind of normality after the PSN outage that has dominated our thoughts for the past weeks. We had some great news to share, like the inFamous release date, a gorgeous Resistance 3 packshot and my favourite post of the week, an insight into Naughty Dog’s production techniques. I appreciate that some of you are still waiting to change your PSN passwords via PC and all I can say is please bear with us; I’ll be sure to personally know when I hear any new information over the weekend. Here’s your recap.

• Email Password Reset Notice – Updated information on resetting your password in the PlayStation Network.
• PSN FAQ – Restoration Questions Answered – Frequently Asked Questions on the PSN restoration process.
• Details Of The Welcome Back Programme For SCEE Users – Read more on the details of the Welcome Back program for SCEE users.
• inFamous 2 PAL Release Date Confirmed: 8th / 10th June – Details on the inFamous 2 PAL release date.
• Getting Back To Normal - Just a quick note that blog publishing will return to normal.
• Details of SNEE & SCEE’s Identity Theft Protection Programme – Get more information on the SNEE & SCEE Identity Theft Protection programme.
• Building And Battling: Dylan Jobe Discusses Starhawk – James Gallagher talks with Dylan Jobe about the newly-announced Starhawk.
• CAPCOM’s Asura’s Wrath Points To A 2012 Release – CAPCOM’s Asuras Wrath preview for 2012.
• Resistance 3 Box Art Revealed – Insomniac Games and Olly Moss team up for a packshot that has set tongues wagging in the game and design spheres.
• Update on PSN Password Reset Process - Update to the PSN Password Reset process.
• Twisted Metal Multiplayer Hands On: Jaffe’s Last Laugh – Behind the Scenes with David Jaffe on Twisted Metal.
• Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One Q&A — Co-op Chaos - Ratchet & Clank Co-op is as easy as CAKE.
• Rockstar Games And Sony Joint Statement On L.A. Noire – Rockstar and Sony address PS3 console concerns.
• VidZone Update: We Have So Much To Welcome You Back!! - VidZone Welcomes You Back with tonnes of amazing choons!
• Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One Box Art And Release Date Announced - SCEE and Insomniac Games are now proud to follow up with the official announce of the Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One packshot.
• Welcome Back To Killzone 3 With A Double XP Weekend! - Earn double XP this weekend on Killzone 3!

Tagged: playstation blog

Filed: PlayStation Community, Recap

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The blockbuster success of James Cameron’s Avatar proved what many gamers and game developers already knew: Motion capture is the future of performance. The film’s groundbreaking use of mocap technology caught the attention of Hollywood and the game industry, raising interest in perfecting the nascent craft with a combination of new technology, refined processes, and good old-fashioned acting chops.

“We’ve developed a unique process for motion capture and performance capture for games,” UNCHARTED 3 Creative Director Amy Hennig explained during a recent tour of Naughty Dog’s cutting-edge new mocap studio in Culver City, California. “We’re kind of ahead of the pack.” Hennig described the evolution of the UNCHARTED series’ motion capture technology, beginning with the humble stage used to record UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune. It was an outdated, uncomfortable place to perform, equipped with a camera array that painted the room with eye-searing red light. And its poor acoustics made dialog recording impossible, so in-game speech had to be added later.

“We cast very carefully, that’s step one in any project. If you cast hastily or badly, you’re screwed forever. If you cast well, you can write any piece of crap and they’ll make it sound wonderful. Trust me, I’ve done it!”
— Amy Hennig, Creative Director, UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception

Following UNCHARTED’s breakout success, Naughty Dog upgraded to the vastly more sophisticated facilities at the House of Moves for UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves, a game that further strained the boundaries of cinematic game storytelling. The House of Moves facilities featured an integrated sound stage that enabled Naughty Dog’s team to record dialog while simultaneously capturing the actor’s physical performances — a then-unheard of process that is quickly becoming the gold standard for video-game performances.

An array of 86 infra-red cameras capture the actors’ physical performances with eerie precision. The studio’s integrated soundstage lets the actors deliver their lines seamlessly along with their movements.

Now, with UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception, the team is shooting on its very own cutting-edge mocap set, the culmination of years of pioneering experimentation in game storytelling. Though the sets and props are largely virtual, Hennig and her team make frequent comparisons to shooting for television. “We don’t have the luxury of writing a big script in an ivory tower,” she explained. “We have an outline that we work from and we write the scenes as we go.” That looser approach gives Hennig and her storytelling team the flexibility to adapt to script changes or make tweaks based on a performer’s strengths. “As the writer, I get to learn the actor’s voices — their cadences, their idiosyncrasies, and I write them right in,” Hennig said. “Their characters become infused with their personalities.”

UNCHARTED 3′s high-tech motion capture process converts the actor’s movements into 3D datam which displays in real time over a simple approximation of the game environment. Later, animators and artists adjust the mocap data and drop it into the final game.

Actor Nolan North — who performs as series frontman Nathan Drake but also boasts an impressive resume of film, TV, animation and game performance work — raved about working with Hennig’s team on the UNCHARTED series. “I find that movie stars aren’t that interested in doing games, but actors are. There is a freedom and a beauty of doing this that’s like going back to the roots of black-box theater. It’s collaborative; it’s the true actor experience.” North also pointed out a rapid shift in the perception of video game performances among actors. “It’s changed. I know people who used to do video games and told me, ‘oh, eventually you’ll move on to animation.’ And now they’re trying to get back into games!”

“This might surprise some people, but we don’t just play Drake and Sully. Sometimes I’m mocapping the guy whose neck I’m breaking! Sometimes we play as the bad guys…in UNCHARTED 2′s train sequence, you’ll notice that one soldier runs with a bit of a limp. That’s me, chasing me, and getting blown up by propane tanks.”
— Nolan North (as Nathan Drake)

This humble array of sandbags and carpentry will be transformed into a realistic vehicle in the digital world of UNCHARTED 3. (Right) Naughty Dog pioneered the process of capturing motion and dialog simultaneously for video game performances, eliminating the disjointed feel found in some other game performances.

“Amy writes a great script. It’s like a strong tree, and we just branch from it,” Nolan North says. “If you let actors go too much with ad-libbing, when you don’t have a strong story structure, it becomes a mess. We do our thing, and then Naughty Dog takes it and makes magic.”

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To celebrate the return of the PlayStation Network and welcome you back to Killzone 3‘s online battlefield, we’ve got a Double XP Weekend lined up! Starting this Friday, May 20 at 17:00 PM UK time, and lasting until Monday, May 23 at 10:00 AM UK time, all XP you earn in Killzone 3‘s multiplayer matches will be doubled.

The upcoming Double XP Weekend isn’t the only Killzone-related goodie in the pipeline. As you may know, Sony has revealed that Killzone: Liberation is part of its Welcome Back Program for PSN members, meaning you’ll be able to download the critically acclaimed PlayStation Portable shooter absolutely free of charge. And there’s even more… But we’ll announce that at a later date.

So stay tuned to Killzone.com, and remember to brush up your Killzone 3 multiplayer skills. This weekend, you’ll have a chance to catch up on 3 weeks’ worth of rank progression!

P.S.: During the Double XP Weekend, the Score Screen will display the message “Fast Starter Bonus” instead of “Bonus Points” – this is a string error that will be fixed in future Bonus XP events.

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