We’d like players around the world to know that we’ve created a new game mode for Super Stardust HD that’ll be out on PSN at the end of the month – it’s called the “Impact” mode.

We want to thank all the fans around the world for your continued support – it has made Super Stardust HD a top selling PSN exclusive and enabled us to keep creating new content for the game even now over three years after its release.

2008 saw the release of the “Solo Pack”, offering new game modes such as Endless, Survival, Bomber, and Time Attack. That was followed by the multiplayer “Team Pack” featuring split-screen co-op and deathmatch modes for up to 4 players.

Additionally, the game then broke new ground by becoming the first ever PlayStation 3 game to feature Trophies.

In 2010 we gave players the exciting option to experience the game in real 3D, one of the few of its kind as it creates 120 unique frames per second.

Now in 2011 with the new Impact mode add-on, Super Stardust HD continues to be the most comprehensive shooter experience available.

The Impact mode plays on and twists the game rules – in place of the weapon system your ship is now fitted with an experimental new matter-to-energy boost engine technology, which means once you activate the boost, you can stay in boost as long as you can hit meteors and enemies with it!

This mode also features much higher score multipliers – as long as you boost the multiplier keeps growing and growing! This is the most fast-paced and adrenaline inducing add-on to the game yet.

Look out for the Impact mode on the PlayStation Store on March 30th for €1.99/£1.59 and, if you’ve never tried Super Stardust HD before, there has never been a better time to join the action!

Stardust pilots, start boosting your way to the top of the worldwide leaderboards!

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We have some exciting news to share with everyone about the game and our upcoming patch!

First, we’re extremely pleased to report that Dead Nation received the Editor’s Choice award by Gaming Nexus, Just Push Start, PlayStation Lifestyle, ZTGD, and Gamingbolt!

Not only that, but the game was also chosen as PSN game of the year 2010 by PS Nation, Gamingbolt, and Playstation Lifestyle! We’re most honored for these awards, we wish to thank everyone who voted; this means a lot!

Now, we’re excited to report that our upcoming patch is only days away (coming Monday, March 7) and will provide players with not only online Co-op Voice Chat, but also Checkpoint saves, the ability to copy saves, and some further surprises for all the Dead Nation players out there!

And finally, for those interested in seeing behind-the-scenes of the game’s development, we made a small development diary last year that shows just how the whole zombie pandemic really got started…

We want to thank all the Dead Nation players out there and let them know that they’re appreciated! Keep your eyes peeled and your wits about you, the apocalypse has only begun!

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We here at Housemarque sincerely apologise that Voice Chat is not available in Dead Nation‘s online co-op mode.

Following player demand for this feature, the team is currently working intensely to introduce it as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we’re keen to get as much feedback on the game as possible so we can further improve what we think is a great zombie game. We’ll keep you posted on the PlayStation blogs and other channels, such as facebook.com/DeadNation, when we have a firmer ETA for the Voice Chat patch.

It’s regrettable that Voice Chat did not make it into the final game straight away. We at Housemarque put our hearts and souls into our games and we hope that many people enjoy the fruits of our labour and that we are able to create thrilling gaming moments for all of our players. The game is currently missing this feature, which is a major issue for some players, but we think that releasing Dead Nation has been the right decision as the game is still great fun.

Yours Sincerely,

The Housemarque Team

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Today, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to confirm that Dead Nation does have an online co-op mode! You will be able to team up with your friends, either sharing the couch or via the PlayStation Network, and take on the undead invasion. Check out this new Know your Enemy trailer:

Originally, online co-op wasn’t going to be included as a launch feature as the schedule and resources didn’t allow it. However, after many late night testing sessions and long talks with Sony, we decided that this was a must-have feature and it would be unfair on you if we launched without it. At this point our coders went from 12 hour working days to 16 hour days, as well as weekends. Fortunately, I think what we came up works really well.

The online co-op fully matches the offline experience. Enjoy the no-compromise co-op experience with hundreds of on-screen zombies, huge explosions and bloody entrails scattered everywhere, if you’re good enough! In addition to the coders working non-stop, the designers and artists felt it was only fair to throw themselves into the mix to create big gameplay levels with tons of replay value, adding a weapon upgrade system and cool weapons to bring a new tactical dimension to the gameplay.

Dead Nation is released exclusively on the PSN later this year. Watch this space for further info…

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We first heard of Sony’s 3D plans when our producer, Phil Gaskell, asked us to think about a stereoscopic 3D version of our PSN hit Super Stardust HD (SSHD) in summer 2009.

Our first reaction was that it sounded interesting, but we were doubtful whether 3D would ever work or be even possible to do for SSHD for a couple of main reasons. The first one was that we were really concerned over whether we would be able to develop a proper 3D version of the game without compromising full 60 frames per second gameplay.

Also, we hadn’t personally seen proper 3D images in action and the premier of Avatar was half a year away. So, we got to work and thought about how on earth we are going to be able to render TWICE the amount of stuff than before as now we basically needed to get the refresh rate from 60fps to 120fps to produce stereoscopic pictures.

For the more technologically inclined people reading this blog, here’s some insight on what we had to do.

We had been working on our next version of our game engine for over a year and replaced the core engine with a newer one. As the engine is highly modular it was mainly a matter of adding stereoscopic cameras and configuring the engine to render everything twice. That was, of course, just the beginning: after that we had to optimize a lot, as we now had 8.3ms instead of 16.7ms to render a frame.

Luckily, we had 50 per cent of the SPU power left, so we tapped into that.

The main challenge of making stereoscopic SSHD was mainly drawcalls and

polygons – we have lots of objects with lots of polygons and massive particle effects. We solved the issue by moving vertex processing from GPU to SPU and merging as many objects as possible to one drawcall. Previously, every asteroid chunk and every enemy was in a separate drawcall; in the stereo version they go out in a few fell swoops.

We had the first 3D version of SSHD running in autumn 2009. We didn’t have a proper 3D television at that time and we had to use paper anaglyph red-and-green (or cyan to be exact) glasses to see the 3D image on our monitors. The images we could produce didn’t even have proper color in them, but it was still really impressive.

Even though we didn’t have a final 3D Bravia television during that time, we were able to produce a much talked version of the game for the CES 2010. When we finally got the final Sony Bravia 3D TV with active shutter glasses to our offices early in 2010, we were blown away. When playing our game, things were literally seen in a new dimension. This was REALLY cool stuff!

3D certainly has a bright future ahead and we are happy that we had a chance to develop the first 3D PS3 game that runs 720p resolution in 60fps for both eyes, meaning that we are actually having 3D SSHD running in 120fps! The improvements we did for our engine are also benefiting the gamers of 2D version as well. To summarize, the 3D version includes:

• 3D mode of the game running 720p at 120fps (60fps per eye)
• 2D mode of split screen co-op mode updated from 30fps to 60fps
• 4x antialiasing support in 720p and native 1920x1080p support in 2D mode

The 3D update is free to all existing SSHD gamers enhancing also the 2D mode, so don’t forget to update your game even though you haven’t got your 3D television (yet)!

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