Hello everybody! We’ve been hard at work since we first unveiled Papo & Yo last summer, and the game has come a long way in the past few months. As we get ready to (finally!) show off more of the game next week at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you all a little bit about how Monster – a character very important to both the story and to me personally – has evolved since my initial concept into the Monster you see today.

If you’ve been following Papo & Yo, you may remember that Monster represents my father, a man I had a difficult relationship with. To tell the story I wanted to tell – my story – I knew that this character had to show the positive aspects of the man I loved… and the negative aspects of the man I feared. This turned out to be challenging – I knew who Monster was, but not what he looked like. Luckily, I’m extremely fortunate to have friends like Nilo Rodis, a man who has worked on the art for movies ranging from Pixar titles to Star Wars, and the man who helped me find my father in Monster.

Nilo and I met during my time at EA, and when I started Minority as a way to make more personal games, he was one of the first people I started talking to. After I came to Nilo with the concept of Papo & Yo, we didn’t talk for a while – I basically buried myself in developing the game. When I finally had a prototype ready, Nilo liked it but saw problems with the way Monster looked – too much like a puppy, he thought. He asked me, “Do you see your father in that character?” and I honestly couldn’t say I did.

Nilo agreed to help us redesign our characters, and our final Monster, which you can see below, is big and powerful. He’s scary, but there is something that attracts you to him – something that makes you want to play with him, help him, even though he’s a beast who could fly into a rage and kill you.

Can’t wait to show you more of Monster and the game in the coming months!

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Yo….PlayStation Blogosphere!

As most of you know Starhawk is a frenetic 3rd person shooter with a ton of toys to play with. Its got a strong solo story campaign, deep 32 player head-to-head and even co-op! You can run, fly and drive almost anywhere you want. Its vehicular combat at its finest. The most popular question we get from players unfamiliar with the game is “What is this thing called Build & Battle?” Simply put its a dead simple way to build up a base all around you while staying in the middle of a fierce battle. Its not block building and its not slow. We’re not making Sim City. To show you, here is a nifty trailer!

In Starhawk we have one simple slogan…”Kill to build, build to kill.”

It’s not a gimmick. Its a really easy way for players to change the battlefield on the fly, in an instant straightforward manner. Its about dropping gigantic crates from orbit, having them smash down in front of you and having a big laser or bunker build right in front of you. You can even drop them on enemies (“Dorothy’d”).

So other than dropping massive structures from the sky….why is this fun? Because each one of these structures does something unique. Something tactical. Think of them nearly like firing a gun. They all mean something and they can all help your team. Just collect enough energy and spend it wisely. The Build & Battle system will change the battlefield every time you play. No map is ever the same. It’s not about memorizing a camping spot. Its about shaping the map the way you want, and making your enemy react to it. It’s about having options you didn’t have before, giving you deeper and smarter gameplay. Knowing how to shoot pretty well helps, too.

If you’re tired of playing the same old shooters with nothing but a skin change then you might want to give our Beta test a try. It’s free on PSN!

So how are you going to Build & Battle? Let us know below or visit us on www.starhawkthegame.com!

PS. For you Starhawk vets, Update 1.3 is right around the corner. If you think you know what this game is about, then you’re about to get your learn on.

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A lot of you have been wondering about a European release date for Gravity Rush on PS Vita, which released to critical acclaim in Japan on February 9th.

We’re therefore hugely excited to confirm today that Gravity Rush will come to PAL markets both as a digital release on the PS Store AND a Game Card release at retail from 13th June this year.

For those of you who are not yet familiar with this epic new action adventure, here’s a quick overview:
A futuristic world is under attack from unknown forces. So-called gravity storms appear in the sky out of no-where and wreak havoc while strange creatures terrorise the population. Amidst all this mayhem, a young girl named Kat wakes up, struggling to regain her lost memories – but with a newfound phenomenal ability … to control gravity.

Playing as Kat, you set out to stop the world around you from disintegrating, to piece together your memories and to uncover the truth behind it all. There is a huge open world to explore and this is only amplified by Kat’s ability to control the forces of gravity. Before you know it, you’ll be walking on any surface imaginable, throwing kicks and learning to perform special attacks in a gravity-free state to defeat your enemies. Just be careful who you’re standing next to lest unsuspecting civilians be caught up in your Gravity Power!

Brought to life by beautiful cel-shaded graphics, the PS VITA functionalities of twin sticks, motion sensor and front touch let you navigate the rich narrative of Gravity Rush. If you’re wondering by now what this looks like in action, check out the brand new trailer at the top of this post. For those of you who haven’t seen the Japanese launch trailer, here it is again:

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WipEout 2048 on PlayStation Vita takes us 36 years into the future and offers a glimpse at the birth of anti-grav racing, a fictional sport that has become synonymous with PlayStation. Take a look at this new trailer and pay close attention at the start for an impression of what two WipEout ships squaring up on the streets of Britain might look like.

In keeping with the theme, here are a few words from Mick Hocking, Vice President for Liverpool, Evolution and London studios, on where he thinks gaming will be in 2048. Mick is largely responsible for the creation and development of such series as WipEout, MotorStorm and SingStar, and is well placed discuss where we have been and, crucially, where we are heading.

At gamescom you appeared as part of a panel looking at the shape of gaming in 2021. The latest WipEout game is set in 2048; what will gaming be like then?

Well the pace of change is already so fast. Just look at the advances from PSP to PS Vita. In just seven years we have added touch screens, cross play, next-gen graphics, dual analogue sticks. I mean seriously; that’s pretty incredible.

At gamescom I talked about the potential of mixing stereoscopic 3D with augmented reality. I can see a point where home headsets will become a real possibility. They’ll be lightweight, with high resolution screens and tracking sensors too. Possibly even these headsets’ screens will be transparent, so players can see the real world as well as augmented reality stereoscopic 3D at the same time. So you can have a fully immersive experience, a partially immersive one, or an augmented reality experience with this one device.

And what about portable gaming?

Well if we stick with the headset idea, I see no reason why once such technology became established in the home, it couldn’t be modified for portable use. I was playing Heavy Rain recently and thought that the AR technology that Norman Jayden uses to solve cases could be amazing if applied to gaming. Everyone who has played that game remembers the scene when he gets given that pokey office and uses the AR glasses to completely modify the way he sees the world around him. One minute he’s underwater, the next he’s on the surface of Mars, then he’s above the clouds in a stunning mountain vista. Imagine if, by wearing a set of similar glasses, or even some kind of contact lens you could completely transform wherever you are – on the bus, in the park, wherever – into a completely immersive and interactive game world.

What will 2048 bring in terms of software rather than hardware? What types of games will we be experiencing on the portable consoles of the future?

Well, I really hope that we’ll still be making WipEout games!

What I do think you’ll see are games that increasingly blur the lines between the gaming and real-world environments. PS Vita is already doing this in a few ways. The front and rear cameras are used to put game objects in a real world setting on-screen, Reality Fighters is a launch title that really shows off this capability. Also the NEAR functionality allows you to collect virtual items by passing by real-world locations where PS Vita users are, or have been. Fast-forward thirty years and think back to the ‘AR’ style technology we discussed and imagine the possibilities. Even when not actively playing a game you could look around you and spot gaming items, characters, perhaps even entire ‘levels’ to interact with.

I see it this way: Thirty years ago when the only real handhelds were the Game & Watch kind, the kind of power and gaming experience that PS Vita is offering would have seemed impossible. In the future, technology is going to allow game designers to create experiences that are limited only by our imaginations.

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Update: Sadly Killzone 3 Multiplayer will only release as a Trial today. We’re working hard to get the unlock available as soon as possible.

And so, we reach a new Wednesday which only means some more updates to the PS Store. Have you guys been keeping busy with your new Vita, or has your PS3 seen a little bit of lovin’, too? So long as some gaming is being done, that is what I want to hear.

This week you’ll notice some changes in the list of updates. Instead of the previous list that we used to run with we’re now listing the information in a table format, which I hope is clearer to our readers. You’ll also notice Australian pricing has now been added as some of you had requested this a few times. There may be some occasional changes to the layout so we can get things just right, but hopefully this will be what you’ll be seeing from now on.

So, down to the nitty gritty!

Choplifter HD, Bioshock 2 and the Jak and Daxter Trilogy all make their way to the store this week. Choplifter HD has been asked about a fair bit so I’m glad this is now out. I also know some of you had to wait an extra week to get your paws on Jak and Daxter and that too is also now available to purchase off the PS Store.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations gets a demo today. Continuing the awesomeness of the Ultimate Ninja Storm series, Generations now makes it possible to play as
the various characters of the series pre and post time-skip. Can’t wait to try out little Kakashi and younger Yondaime, myself!

After what probably seems like forever, Resident Evil 2 and 3 now rear their beautiful zombie heads. PS Plus members also receive this for one week at no additional cost. Sadly, we aren’t able to bring Resident Evil 2 out to our German gamers. As such, we’ve gone with Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix that we all hope makes it up somehow.

To end with, there’s more DLC this week, particularly Final Fantasy XIII-2′s new episode for Sazh and Lost Archive for Assassin’s Creed Revelations.

Hope you all have another week of fun, gaming or not. Return next week for another round of updates to the PS Store.

Adios!

(more…)

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