PlayStation Home is offline from 8AM GMT on Wednesday 1st February for routine maintenance. Here is what to expect after the update…

To celebrate the recent launch of Novus Prime: Vindication in PlayStation Home, our friends at Hellfire Games are offering zero-gravity Spacewalking for FREE inside the Novus Prime space station through the end of this week! Simply warp to Novus Prime from the Action District, activate Spacewalk at the centre of the station, and float around weightlessly indoors (and outside in space!) for free until February 5th.

Be sure to check out all the fresh content and free rewards in the newly released Novus Prime: Vindication expansion while you’re there!

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Update: Sadly, we are now unable to publish The Simpsons Arcade until next week, Wednesday 8 February, and not today as listed. We apologise for getting you excited about playing it too early but, rest assured, it will still be available to PS Plus members at no extra cost for a full four weeks. By way of small compensation, we will extend the 100% discount on Back to the Future: The Game for an additional week, for those who might have missed it last month.

And so by popular demand, we update at the beginning of the month and bring you one of the best months yet for PlayStation Plus.

First of all, we have a brand new PSN title for you at no extra cost, The Simpsons Arcade. The year – 1991. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to chase down the nefarious Smithers, who has kidnapped Maggie! Play as either Homer, Bart, Marge or Lisa and track him down before it’s “too late”, (too late for what I’m not entirely sure…) and save the day! The Simpsons Arcade will be available until the 29th February, so make sure you grab it in the first 4 weeks of this refresh.

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Something magical recently happened in the world of LittleBigPlanet - thanks to our awesome community, the LBP franchise now has more than 6 million user-generated games and levels created by fans and uploaded online to the PlayStation Network! As always, we’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to everyone contributing, whether you’re creating, sharing, or just playing. Here are a few nuggets we found over the weekend:

SPEED CREATE by Mnniska

A new fan-created video series called SpeedCreate. Love the new approach and helpful tips/ideas passed along to the rest of us.

Thanks!

LittleBigPodcast – Episode 156 and Muppets DLC

Thanks for keeping us updated on the latest!

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Hi everyone.  I’m here to talk to you about our latest PlayStation minis game, Hungry Giraffe, which will be released tomorrow, exclusively and FREE for PlayStation Plus users.  Hungry Giraffe will then go on general release on the 15th of February for just £2.49/€3.49.

Hungry Giraffe is our first foray into the endless climbing genre and is based on the experiences* of one particular giraffe who – bored of the foliage of the acacia tree – decided to stretch out his neck to reach the burgers floating in the sky.  Using the calories from the burgers to make his neck even longer, he moved from burger to french fries, taco to sandwich, on a desperate quest to stuff his face.

Of course our giraffe friend had to be wary of several hazards floating in the sky. After all, an anvil to the head seldom does anyone any good and as for poison, well, would you want clean up when a 1200 kg giraffe loses its lunch?  Unprescribed drugs are also best avoided, as human medicine tends to have strange hallucinogenic properties when taken by giraffes.

Of course this is a game and not a documentary, so we’ve added a few special touches to this real life story**.  Hungry Giraffe features some touches of our own, such as stat tracking and achievements.  Even more amazingly, the technical wizards (hello Paul!) here at Laughing Jackal have come up with a clever system allowing the PS3 version of the game to run at a higher resolution than the PSP allows, so those of you who like to play your games on a nice big shiny screen are in for a visual treat!

Join us!

You can find out more about Laughing Jackal, or subscribe to our weekly Blog’s RSS feed at our website: www.laughingjackal.co.uk

You can also find us under @LaughingJackal on Twitter, under Laughing Jackal Ltd. on Facebook, under Laughing Jackal on Google + and watch cool vids on our LaughingJackalGames Youtube Channel.

*These experiences may not have occurred.
** This really, really didn’t happen.

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Here’s another week of PlayStation.Blog content gift wrapped in blue and delivered to your browsers; what has been your favourite announcement? I personally enjoyed the Beginner’s Guide to BlazBlue, a series I have never dipped my fist into. With that, the news that Mr. Miyagi appears in Reality fighters and the reveal of more exclusive PlayStation characters for Street Fighter X Tekken, it seems that the beat ‘em up genre is alive and well. That’s great news for the industry.

While I can’t share everything I have planned for next week, you can look forward to February’s PlayStation Plus content list on Monday. We’ll also have updates on LBP, Virtua Tennis on PS Vita and the superb MotorStorm RC. I hope you’ll be with us for all that.

Here’s your recap:

• Action And Comedy On VideoStore Of PlayStation Store – We all love the thrill of watching a great action film… right!?
• Win The Ultimate PS Vita Gaming Bundle – Sign up to Inside PS Vita now and receive all the latest updates and developments, and maybe even win something!
• Online Features In ModNation Racers: Road Trip – An impressive list of online functionality to take advantage of the WiFi/3G and GPS functionality.
• Creating Monsters For Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock – Here’s some insight into the monsters that will be appearing in the game.
• SingStore 2012: The Next Update Is Here… – SingStore update No. 2 for this year! Time flies when you’re having fun.
• Mecho Wars Soars Onto PSN Tomorrow – minis title Mecho Wars, is coming to the PlayStation Store for €4.99 on January 25th!
• Everything You Wanted To Know About BlazBlue – But Were Afraid To Ask – Take a look at a series that’s built a reputation for itself among fighting aficionados over the last couple of years.
• Ubisoft PS Vita Week – Asphalt: Injection Fuels The Fire – Boasts ten game modes spanning the tried-and-true Race mode to more signature game modes!
• PlayStation Home: Yeti Sighting In Winter Event Space – Reports of a mysterious cave opening up down by the water in the Winter Event space
• The Jak And Daxter Trilogy Hits On Feb 22nd With Over 100 Trophies To Collect – Score the first three installments of the Jak and Daxter trilogy in one complete PS3 Blu-ray package for just €39.99 (RRP).
• Introducing Your Reality Fighters Sensei: Mr. Miyagi – Augmented Reailty beat ‘em up coming exclusively to PlayStation Vita!
• ‘Heads-Up’ Game Store Update 25th January 2012 – Check out the new PSN content and snap up a new batch of avatars ranging from Assassin’s Creed to King of Fighters!
• Ubisoft PS Vita Week: Building On A Classic With Lumines Electronic Symphony – Lumines still holds its place as one of the top five games currently available for PlayStation Portable.
• VidZone Update – VidZone’s Annual Alternate Video Awards 2012 – Encounter the winners and losers, the gracious and jealous, tears of joy and disappointment, the good the bad and the downright mental antics.
• Ubisoft PS Vita Week: Rayman Origins – On February 22, Rayman and his friends return to PS Vita!
• Armored Core V Preps PS3 Community For Deep Multiplayer Action – Hitting consoles across Europe on 23rd March, so check out this trailer with some ins and outs!
• Mega Man And Pac-Man Confirmed As PlayStation Exclusives For Street Fighter X Tekken – Two of videogaming’s most iconic characters are entering the ring and going toe to toe.
• Access TV Episode 18 – Episode 18 of Access is on YouTube now and it’s decidedly PlayStation Vita-shaped!
• The Weekend Debate: Crossing The Streams – What would be your dream gaming crossovers or cameos and why?

• Weekend Essentials 110 – Download The Duke, see Naughty Dog’s latest vision and win great prizes with PlayStation this weekend.
• “Top Tips: Gran Turismo 5″ – 2011 GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough gives us a driving masterclass in our exclusive video.
• Win the ultimate PS Vita gaming bundle – Be first in line to experience the handheld revolution thanks to Inside PS Vita.
• PS Vita connects with Vodafone – Sony Computer Entertainment Europe partners with Vodafone to provide 3G services for PlayStation Vita.
• Bundles of fun – Start your PS3 and PSP adventure with a great value hardware and software pack from PlayStation.

• What Uncharted 4-s million polygon characters will look like.
• Brendan McNamara interview: creating LA Noire and destroying Team Bondi.
• Resident Evil 6 trailer breakdown, 60 screens and horribly excited, zombified thoughts.
• Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock now PS3 exclusive.
• Official PlayStation Magazine UK: new issue on sale: The Last Of Us/Mass Effect 3.

Bonus OPSM link!

• What happens when you play Reality Fighters with a six foot AR card?

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