The handheld weapons are a key part of any MMOFPS and DUST 514 is no exception. There were a few things that were very important to us.

Firstly, we wanted to avoid the feeling of “Vietnam in space” that you sometimes see in sci-fi games. The goal was to create weapons that had recognizable roles but used more advanced technologies than the equivalent weapons of today. The power of these guns would tear apart a modern day battlefield. In DUST 514 the only way your mercenary can survive the power of these weapons is due to the advanced shielding and armor of the dropsuits they wear. Without them, simply firing these weapons would severely injure or even kill you!
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This week on MUBI we celebrate the work of the Swiss auteur Thomas Imbach in our series, Films by Thomas Imbach.

Right from the start, the films of Imbach are conceived as experiments with the reflective potential of cinema as a medium and a constructed reality. “They always came to me in a flash. It’s like being in love; you can’t really explain why,” says Imbach.

Well Done (1994) is an absurdist comedy about the all but uncontrollable flow of data and money through Switzerland. Augusteb “loved it.” In Ghetto (1997), we follow a group of teens through an anarchic class room, a basement disco and into the night. “Allow the film 15 minutes to start sinking into you,” advisesGiammiz, “and then you are going to love it.”

Happiness Is a Warm Gun (2001) offers “variations on a true story,” as the tagline goes, namely, that of Petra Kelly, a cofounder of the German Green Party who, in 1992, was shot dead while she slept by her partner, ex-general and Green politician Gert Bastian. Happiness screened in Berlin, Locarno and also won a Zurich Film Award.

Lenz (2006, image above) tells the story of a filmmaker researching Georg Büchner’s novel fragment Lenz. In August, Tsienni wrote: “Thanks to an empathetic show of sensitivity and personableness, this film manages to weave those little seemingly banal moments from one man’s quaint inner quest into a beautiful visual hymn of veritable life.”

Available in: Everywhere!

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This Thursday, December 8th, we will release the latest update to the PlayStation Home client. PlayStation Home version 1.60 delivers a wealth of improvements and updates to the core client, not the least of which is a doubling of the item placement limit in personal spaces! Here’s a look at what’s coming to you as part of PlayStation Home v1.60:

Application of the patch
If you are upgrading from an old version of Home (1.40 or earlier) then when you attempt to apply the 1.60 patch please wait for the orange “hard drive activity” light to stop flashing on your PS3 before commencing the patching process.

New features

Furniture placement limit

• We have doubled the furniture placement limit in Personal Spaces and Clubhouses from 50 to 100 items.
• This has been a regularly requested change and we’re eager to see what new layouts you come up with!
• Standard and active furniture limits have been merged into the same system. Currently all actives take up 22 furniture slots in the new system. Thus you can now place a variety of different combinations:
• 100 standard furniture items or…
• 78 standard furniture items and 1 active or…
• 56 standard furniture items and 2 actives or…
• 34 standard furniture items and 3 actives or…
• 12 standard furniture items and 4 actives.

Improvements

Targeting in Personal Spaces

• Targeting in Personal Spaces has been improved.
• This means you shouldn’t accidentally target furniture items through floors or ceilings any more.
• Although we have made exceptions for wall hangings and lights as these tend to be placed quite high up.
• If you find any items of furniture in places you can’t reach then you can always remove them through the furniture browser and place them somewhere else.

Portables

• We have changed the way that companion portables work so they will automatically re-activate after you enter and leave a mini-game or relocate between spaces. No more having to put your companion away and take them out again when you do this!

Help system

• There is a more proactive help system to aid new users outside of their Harbour Studio Personal Space as they explore PlayStation®Home for the first time.

Arcade games

• Arcade games are no longer subject to the 3 minute inactivity timeout when placed as furniture in Personal Spaces or Clubhouses.

Changes

Menu Pad

We have removed the “Community” section of the Menu Pad. The information that used to be contained in here is now communicated via the message of the day pop-up at login and the new loading screens.

Of course, there are plenty more bug fixes and enhancements that are part of v1.60 as well which will help improve your day-to-day experience in the wide world of PlayStation Home.

Content Update

So, on to this week’s new content. Put on your Winter warmers – it’s PS Home’s 3rd anniversary and it’s snowing outside! Gnome Curling makes an appearance in Home Square which has been blanketed in a crisp white layer of lovely snow! Fear not, fans of the mind-boggling Cogs game – you can now find this puzzler taking up residence in the Indie Park.

Novus Prime is also celebrating its 1st anniversary so for a limited time Nebulon and Experience boosters will be absolutely FREE and many of the items in the Novus Prime stores will be on sale for 50% off! This celebration will be over before you know it, so report to the Novus Prime station on the double and join the fight!

Hide in plain sight with Konami’s new Urban Camo line. Grab your friends and change the look of your environment or sneak up on unsuspecting people!

Granny Lockwood’s been hard at work again, and this time she’s taken her inspiration from the chilly extremes of the planet, the North and South Poles! Pumpkin Pie the Polar Bear and Popsicle the Penguin can’t wait to play with you. They both love to do tricks – be patient and they’re sure to show you what they can do. Also, their cousins are exclusively available via the Gift Machine – look out for them – they’re only available for a limited time!

Midwinter Angel or Burning Desire? This Winter Medusa brings you the latest styles, perfect for relaxing on a frosty afternoon or heading out to a glitzy evening party.

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I wanted to first thank you all for your patience, it’s been a long wait I guess, but at the same time it’s been even longer for us. We’ve been working on Stranger’s Wrath, one way or another for around 15 months now. From the initial discussions, to actually starting work on the project true, to then getting it done!

As most of you may know we originally planned to release the game around Easter, to be able to do that we were to have started full development in September last year, but as it transpired, we didn’t actually start until April 2011, which gave us our hoped late Summer release; but we ended up spending another couple of months on it, so here we are DONE AND DUSTED for release.

As such I’m extremely pleased to announce that Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD will release across PAL on 21 December.

We had planned on shipping with 3DTV support, PS Move support and a few other little things, but due to time limits we are not able to bring those features in this version. However, we WILL be bringing them in an update in a couple months, along with some other little extras we’ve got planned.

One of things we’ve been asked a lot over the past few months is if Stranger’s Wrath HD has a Platinum trophy – of course it does! This is a big game and it can easily take at least 12+hrs to complete.
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This is just a very short post to confirm that your eyes are not deceiving you – PlayStation.Blog now has a new colour scheme in line with the changes to PlayStation branding.

You may already have seen some of this new branding in action without realising it – for the last few weeks any game trailers we’ve posted have had a short blue intro instead of the old black ones. Similar changes have been made to TV and print advertising.

You’ll be seeing similar changes across all of our online channels over the coming weeks.

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