That’s another week over, folks and what a week it has been right here on the blog. There has been a lot of Killzone 3 chatter what with the unveiling of the Trophies and Strategy Guide. Oh, and let’s not forget you guys clocking up a massive 62 million kills in the Beta. In a word: spectacular. Thankfully you only have to wait a little longer to get your hands on the full game. However, what I really want to know is how many of you have been pulling your best Resistance battle poses in the hope of landing a role in Resistance 3? Remember – the more props, the better! Here’s your recap:

PlayStation.Blog.Europe Weekly Content Recap

• Win PlayStation Goodies In The Mushroom Wars Online Tournament
• Fire, Fistfights And £20 Notes: Uncharted 3 Interview
• Legend Pricing For Legendary DCUO Players
• FirstPlay Episode 44
• Can You Cut It As An ISA Recruit?
• Explodemon Blasts Onto PSN TOMORROW!
• Get In The Game With Resistance 3!
• MotorStorm Apocalypse Video Interview
• About A Blob Bounces Into PSN Tomorrow
• PlayStation Plus Update: Stacking And Killzone 3 Demo
• ‘Heads-Up’ Game Store Update 9th February 2011
• Digital Comics Store Update (9th February 2011)
• Killzone 3 Open Beta Update
• PlayStation Home: Fantasy Fun In February
• PlayStation Move Heroes Story Trailer
• Ryota Niitsuma Answers Our Questions On Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate Of Two Worlds
• MUBI Update: 10 February 2011
• Killzone 3 Trophies And Strategy Guide Unveiled
• PixelJunk Shooter 2 Will Be Released March 2nd!
• LittleBigPlanet 2 – New Community-Created Playable Theme Coming Soon!
• What Goes Around Comes Around: More On The Infamous 2 Karma System
• The Friday Debate – Star Xrossed Lovers
• Dead Space 2: Game With The Devs



• Killzone: The story so far - We trace the bitter, bloody history of the seminal PlayStation series.
• The People vs: Killzone 3 - Put your questions to the team behind one of the biggest games of 2011.
• Demo Guide: Killzone 3 - Download the Killzone 3 Single Player Demo today and get a head start in the desperate fight for mankind’s future.
• Get in the Game - Win the chance to appear as a survivor in Resistance 3 on PlayStation 3.
• Spare Parts - This week we got our hands on EA’s Spare Parts, which you can read all about here.
• Weekend Essentials 65 - Ben 10 returns on PSP and Test Drive Unlimited 2 races onto PS3 in our guide to what’s hot on PlayStation this weekend.

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Two lives, two fates, one legendary journey: the time is drawing nearer for you to experience the brand new cinematic adventure from Ninja Theory, the creators of Heavenly Sword. ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West features an original tale co-written by Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later), dramatic cutscenes co-directed by Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings, King Kong) and a haunting musical score composed by Nitin Sawhney.

Now you can find out everything you need to know about this epic journey by posing your questions to the game’s star and co-director, Andy Serkis. To get in on the action all you need to do is head over to the official PlayStation Forums and post your questions, or simply submit them via a blog comment. As always, the best ones will be chosen.

Check back to eu.playstation.com in the coming weeks to see if your questions were chosen and embark on a journey to the West.

Don’t forget to download the demo for ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West from PlayStation Store today to get a taste of the action.

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Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is shaping up to be pretty slick Spider-Man adventure, not just because it’s a wholly original game ripped from the pages of the Marvel comic, but because you get to play as four (count ‘em!) alternate Spider-Men.

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Read on for the skinny:

The finest example of a Spider-Man game to date – for me anyway – has been Spider-Man 2 The Game on PlayStation 2. It brilliantly fused the open world ideas behind Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto series with Marvel’s comic book crown jewel: Spider-Man. Developer Beenox looks set to match that spectacular combination on a whole new level with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.

While not entirely an open-world game (you can still explore the world and compete in up to 180 challenges, a large chunk of which will require repeated playthroughs), Shattered Dimensions thrusts you into a four alternate Spider-Man universe. They are: Amazing Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099 and Spider-Man Noir with each one housing its own unique attribute.

For example, Ultimate Spider-Man puts you in control of Spidey in the black Symbiote suit, which makes for furious tentacle based attacks, whereas Amazing Spider-Man is primarily based around forming your webbing into weapons such as hammers to smash enemies into submission.

My favourite so far is Spider-Man Noir, a section based entirely on stealth as you skulk in the shadows waiting for the perfect moment to pick off enemy stragglers as soon as they break free from a group – it’s Splinter Spidey. There are also a huge number of upgrades to work towards too including slick counter attacks. To nab them all, you need to build up your in-game currency by smashing enemies and defeating mission bosses that include Juggernaut, Carnage and The Vulture.

Beenox has also gone to great lengths to make this a Spider-Man fans dream by drafting in current Amazing Spider-Man scribe Dan Slott to write the story, as well as four different actors to voice the different Web Slingers including Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser!!) and Christopher Daniel Barnes, who voiced Spidey in the superb Spider-Man: The Animated Series back in the 90s.

I’ve been aching for a really great Spider-Man game since Spider-Man 2 The Game on PlayStation 2 and I’ve a feeling that Shattered Dimensions is going to deliver. What do you guys think, are your Spidey Senses tingling and which universe is your favourite of the four that Beenox has opted to go with? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll answer any other questions you might have too.

And when you’re done reading this, check out the interview with Beenox over on eu.playstation.com for loads more juicy bits.

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Activision and Bizarre Creations unveiled their latest Bond opus at a glittering event in London recently, so I thought I’d pop along for a peek at the latest – and very promising – 007outing. Dig in!

While we may have to wait a little longer for the next instalment in the James Bond series, gamers and Bond fans can take a quantity of solace in the fact that the suave super agent is getting the videogame treatment from blur developer, Bizarre Creations with James Bond: Blood Stone, a wholly original 007 epic pencilled in for release later in 2010.

While much of the plot – from a script by Bruce Feirstein, the writer behind GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough – is being kept under wraps for now, we do know that Blood Stone’s globe trotting thrills and spills are set against a backdrop that involves the diamond trade, a missing scientist and a new Bond Girl: Joss Stone. Yes, Joss Stone. The lovely Miss Stone, who was in attendance at the announcement, has also co-written and performed the games’ theme song ‘I’ll Take It All’ with former Eurythmics man, Dave Stewart; it’s a catchy one!

At the swanky event, Activision and developer Bizarre Creations showcased the game’s opening mission, a self-contained pre-credit sequence that owes much to the way the movies are structured. Consider it a whopping great teaser for the level of wanton destruction that’s about to ensue as you hunt the bad guys across a slew of gorgeously designed locations in true Bond style.

Set in Athens, this sequence sees the fledgling agent with a license to kill hot on the heels of a bad guy holed up on a yacht. Parachuting from the back of passing plane, Bond quickly descends to the yacht taking out a few henchmen in quick succession with a combination of hand-to-hand combat and pistol action. As the action ramps up the pursuit turns into a speedboat duel as Bond guns it towards his goal, shooting bad guys in slo-mo and dodging collapsing buildings, before switching once again into a high speed car chase through the streets of Athens.

Then BAM! It ends as Bond rams his target off the road and the theme song kicks in. Although it was only a ten minute demo, the intent of which was to highlight the varying gameplay elements, I was hugely impressed – it’s just a shame that I didn’t get to play it; strictly hands-off at the moment.

What I did glean from the event was this: it’s a 70/30 split between on-foot and driving missions (there are six according to the developer). By performing melee attacks through a simple button tap you can earn up to three Focus Kills, which allow you to mark and execute villains in quick succession – ideal for sticky situations, then!

There was no mention of multiplayer, but being that this is a Bond game, and Bizarre Creations are known for weaving superb multiplayer components (check out blur and The Club and you’ll see what I mean) into their titles, I’m assuming it’s a given. I’m definitely excited to see where this one goes, and what kind of missions Bizarre and Activision will reveal before the game arrives later in the year.

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Fans of epic open-world RPGs like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3 will want to keep their eyes peeled for Two Worlds II, an upcoming fantasy RPG that’s headed to the PS3 this fall from developer Reality Pump. I sat in on a demonstration at E3 to learn more about the game, but before I start yammering away, check out the trailer below to get a sense of the universe and visual style.

Set in a massive open world teeming with animal life, Two Worlds II is an RPG that’s intensely focused on player freedom. You won’t find rigid character classes like “Barbarian” or “Thief.” Instead, you’ll build a custom class by assigning skill points across a wide range of talents: assassination, melee combat, trade, lockpicking, and magic to name just a few. Want to combine the spell-casting acumen of a Wizard with the brute melee force of a Warrior? No problem: just assign your skill and stat points accordingly. You use the directional pad to swap quickly between your gear loadouts, so you could soften up an enemy with magic while wearing your spell-boosting equipment, then instantly swap to your heavy armor and axe to dash in and finish the job.

Magic spells are similarly dynamic and customizable (are you sensing a theme here?). Rather than find and assign a typical “Fireball” spell, for example, you can mix and match various magic traits (in the form of cards) to achieve a witches’ brew of effects. In my demonstration, I saw the player combine a fire card, a multi-shot card, a heat-seeking card, a summon card, and a reflection card to create a wicked spell that flung bouncing, splitting, heat-seeking, flaming projectiles that spawned demonic enemies on impact. Not bad, eh? Two Worlds II will contain a vast number of spell combinations – I overheard “10 to the 16th power” – and might draw comparisons to Borderlands’ similarly monstrous weapon arsenal.

The online mode is expansive, with eight-player PvP duels (ranging from 4v4 to free for all bloodbaths), a separate co-op campaign that supports eight players as well as a unique quest and environments, and a “Village” mode where you can grow and evolve your own fantasy-RPG city. In the Village mode, you’ll be able to invite your PSN friends to visit your town and share their specific talents with your townspeople, be it leather crafting or weaponsmithing. Guild support for online play is also a go.

Two Worlds II runs on the Grace engine, and is highly optimized for the PS3 hardware and DualShock 3 controls – a major departure from its predecessor’s PC focus. If you have questions about Two Worlds II, let me know in the comments and I’ll try to shed more light on my experiences with the game.

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