On Thursday 1st December from 8AM BST PlayStation Home will be briefly offline for scheduled maintenance. Here is what to expect after the update…

Covering the full range of emotions this week we have MadBlocker, the latest arcade cabinet to land in Home. This fast and frantic match-4 game may make you laugh or may make you cry but either way it never fails to please, get it now in Stuff or Indie Park!

It’s not Christmas without sales – even in PlayStation Home! nDreams are joining in the Christmas frenzy and dropping the price of many fantastic items. You can get up to 50% off items such as Thing in a Box, Funkster ’74 clothing bundles and the hugely popular Apartment UFO. nDreams wishes you all a very merry Christmas! The sale can be found at nDreams’ store and will run from 1st December 2011 until the 12th January 2012.
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Massive apologies for being so late with the Store post this week. Andy is sadly ill today so I have ducked out of my meetings to put the list together as quickly as I could. I’m personally very excited about a new season of Sam and Max and I highly recommend you check out Pan-Man CE Dx. It’s a fantastic update to one of the true classics and it is bundled with Galaga Legions Dx, which sounds like my surname.

Apologies again for the lateness – blame bacteria.
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You may have heard that Yakuza: Dead Souls is coming to PlayStation 3 in March 2012. Like Yakuza 4, the game will let you play as four characters, including two never-before-played fan favorites: Goro Majima and Ryuji Goda. It’s a Yakuza experience like none other, because this time, you’ll be fighting a horde of blood-thirsty zombies.

The undead are multiplying and filling the streets of Tokyo’s red light district. The area is quarantined quickly, but degenerates into a district full of terror, panic and devastation. Survivors try to flee the city, but four men rise up to protect those they care most about. If you think zombies are bad, meet the Yakuza.

Playable for the first time in Yakuza: Dead Souls, Goro Majima is nuts about zombie movies. He’s so excited to be killing off zombies that when you’re playing as Majima, you’ll be picking fights with zombies, instead of just merely defending yourself. Now that’s bad ass.

You probably thought Ryuji Goda was dead after Yakuza 2. But you’d be wrong, and not because he’s a reanimated zombie back to munch your brains. He’s more interested in cooking you some takoyaki at a street stall. In case mysteriously reappearing from the presumed-dead for some yummy fried octopus is not ridiculous enough for you, you should know that his prosthetic arm can transform into a gatling gun. You’ve never been able to play as Goda before, and it’s not something you’ll soon forget.

Your returning Yakuza favorites, Shun Akiyama and Kazuma Kiryu, will also be packing some heat: Akiyama specializes in dual handguns to protect himself, and Kiryu, not one to skimp when it comes to strength, will have a very special gun of his own.

Play as your favorite character, grab an attractive hostess to be your butt-kicking sidekick and arm yourself with your favorite gun or whatever item is within reach – chainsaws, bicycles, fire extinguishers, desks or anything else you can pick up. It’s time to fight some zombies!

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A new system software update (v4.00) will be released this week. In preparation for the launch of PS Vita in Japan, this update will prepare the PS3 to serve as a content management device. It will allow users to copy their media content such as games, music, photos, and videos between PS Vita and PS3, back up PS Vita save data to your PS3 hard drive, and update the system software for your PS Vita system using the network features of your PS3.

Other changes to take effect with this update include:

PlayStation Plus members can now choose to enable or disable each automatic update feature

• Game patches
• System software
• Recommended games and videos
• Sync trophy information

New PSN privacy settings for filtering friend requests and messages

You can find more details at eu.playstation.com

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With Christmas just around the corner, ’tis the season to be jolly! And now you have 12 extra special reasons to be jolly as the 12 Deals of Christmas come to PlayStation Store.

During the month of December – up until Christmas Day – PlayStation Store will feature 12 amazing deals for you to unwrap. However, each deal will only be available to redeem from PlayStation Store for 48 hours, before – like Santa on Christmas morning – it vanishes…

Each of the 12 Deals of Christmas will start and stop at 12:00pm (GMT) on the following dates:

• Christmas Deal 1 – 1st to 3rd December

LittleBigPlanet 2 + 10 free DLC packs (Jak and Daxter Costume Kit, Festive Goodies Level Kit, God of War Level Kit, Heavenly Sword Level Kit, inFAMOUS Costume, Killzone Costume Kit, Kratos Costume, Sackboy On The Run Dynamic Theme, MotorStorm Costume, Animals Costume) – €34.99/£24.99 (extra 10% discount for PlayStation Plus members)

• Christmas Deal 2 – 3rd to 5th December

Up to 50% Driver: San Francisco with an additional 10% discount for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

• Christmas Deal 3 – 5th to 7th December

Get up to 50% off Child of Eden in PlayStation Store.

• Christmas Deal 4 – 7th to 9th December

Up to 31% off Section 8: Prejudice + free DLC.

• Christmas Deal 5 – 9th to 11th December

Up to 55% off Warhammer 40k: Space Marines

• Christmas Deal 6 – 11th to 13th December

Up to 55% off Payday: The Heist

• Christmas Deal 7 – 13th to 15th December

Up to 33% off Micky’s Wild Adventure

• Christmas Deal 8 – 15th to 17th December

Up to 42% off Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition

• Christmas Deal 9 – 17th to 19th December

Up to 31% off Deus EX: Human Revolution Complete Edition (Including the full game and the Explosive mission, Tactical Enhancement and Missing Link DLC packs)

• Christmas Deal 10 – 19th to 21st December

Up to 55% off Renegade Ops

• Christmas Deal 11 – 21st to 23rd December

• Christmas Deal 12 – 23rd to 25th December

So don’t miss out on some great one time offers – take a sleigh ride over to PlayStation Store for the 12 Deals of Christmas.

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