Games on PlayStation platforms are renowned for their rich and vibrant artistic history. This is reinforced by PlayStation’s repeated inclusion in Into the Pixel, a videogame-themed art show that runs during E3 annually.

This year sees the induction of two new pieces from PlayStation’s ever-growing pantheon. Remembering, from Naughty Dog’s impending survival epic The Last of Us, portrays a young, reflecting survivor in a post-pandemic world.

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Media Molecule has proven itself the master of cuteness and community creativity, constructing a passionate fanbase worldwide through the madly successful LittleBigPlanet series. But what happens when the house that built a Planet sets out to create something completely new?

Maybe I should rephrase that. Their new project, Tearaway, isn’t completely outside the studio’s comfort zone. It’s still adorable, inventive, and a true showcase of its platform’s capabilities. Built with PS Vita in mind, Tearaway makes impressive (but not excessive!) use of the integrated camera and rear touchpad to craft a more tactile and immersive world. (more…)

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If you follow the fighting game community, you probably already know all about Divekick. If not, take a moment to read this intro post from Iron Galaxy to get up to speed.

Talk of Divekick at GDC last week was impossible to ignore, but how does it actually play? The game’s minimalist design invites scepticism, but rest assured Divekick is a deeper, more addictive experience that you might imagine. It shrugs off the fighting game genre’s longstanding barriers, creating a sleek, streamlined competitive experience — Divekick is the primordial essence of what makes fighting games fun.

This is a game about outsmarting and out-manoeuvring your opponent. Gone are complex input commands, phalangeal acrobatics and super-human timing windows. There are only two buttons: Dive and Kick. You won’t be using the D-pad or analogue stick. You can’t block. You can’t even move… at least, not traditionally. To advance towards your opponent you tap Dive (a vertical leap), then Kick to propel your fighter feet-first. A tap of the Kick button while on the ground results an evasive hop backward. Connecting with a single divekick is a one-hit knockout, and the first player to score five knockouts wins. That’s it.

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Naughty Dog, purveyors of fine action-adventure games including the upcoming survival action game The Last of Us, made a bold move yesterday. They decided to make the core multiplayer component of their most recent game, the globetrotting epic UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception free.

In a world of microtransactions and freemium stigmas, gamers naturally had questions about this decision. Why free-to-play? How will this affect the game’s community? We caught up with UNCHARTED 3 Game Director Justin Richmond, who gave us an inside look at the company’s thought process behind giving away the core multiplayer mode of one of Naughty Dog’s most popular games.

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