The European PlayStation.Blog will be down for maintenance from approximately 5pm on Monday, 14 May. This is because we are moving the blog to a new server and our IP address is changing. The exact period of disruption will vary based on each individual’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) and how long they cache our old IP address.

If you are able to access the blog as normal at this time, bear in mind that, while you are free to browse and comment as normal, you may encounter issues, such as comments not saving correctly or not appearing at all.

Please bear with us, and we will do everything we can to ensure the disruption as small as possible. Be aware that this is not related to PlayStation Network and none of your gaming services will be affected.

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It’s time to sit back and enjoy the weekend – a Bank Holiday one for those of us living in the UK – and I hope you all find the time to get some games in. I’m going to be playing Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (going for the last few gold medals) and watching a lot of sport. How about you?

Here’s your recap.

• SCEE Staff Designs For The Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time Competition – PlayStation people show you that you really don’t need to be Picasso to win this competition.
• God of War: Ascension Live Stream; Online Multiplayer Confirmed – More info on Kratos’ next PS3 epic and the news that the game will include online multiplayer for the first time in the series’ history.
• The SingStore On 2nd May 2012 With Lana, Matt Cardle And More… – Featuring two more tracks by the fantastic Lana Del Rey and another Essentials song pack from Blur.
• Sack It To Me: LittleBigPlanet – A Community Across The Globe! – Celebrate! The Mariachi Costume Returns!
• Free Realms Is Three – Join In The Celebrations – Yes, that’s right folks – Free Realms officially turned three this weekend. Time flies when you’re having fun!
• ModNation Racers: Two Year Anniversary Palooza! – Wow! Two years? Really? Celebrate with us…
• Mortal Kombat Hits PS Vita On 4th May, Our Favorite New Missions – Long-awaited opportunity to create challenges based around the DLC characters that released after the launch of the PS3 version.
• PlayStation Store Royale Contenders Sale – Great discounts on games and downloadable content for characters featured in this game!
• PlayStation Home: Good Guys Dress In Black – On May 2nd, 2012, the Men in Black are coming to PS Home!
• All Starhawk Beta Players Will Receive Free Gifts – Gone gold and will be on store shelves in PAL regions from 9th May.
• The Unfinished Swan Is Coming To PSN – If you’ve been wondering “whatever happened to that weird black and white painting game?” Thanks for waiting…
• Frobisher Says! Now Available To Everyone For Free – A surreal party game, where players must obey the whims of a strange little man called Frobisher.
• ‘Heads-Up’ PlayStation Plus Update – 2nd May 2012 – You will find naught but awesome in May’s PS Plus update!
• ‘Heads-Up’ Game Store Update 2 May 2012 – Gran Turismo fans, start your engines!
• The Art Of Gravity Rush On PS Vita – See how the artwork of this game came together.
• Designing Charismatic Characters For Alien Spidy, Coming To PSN In June – A key factor for a game to be successful revolves around the charisma and empathy of the lead character… in this case a spider!
• VIDZONE UPDATE: March On May, The Month Of Metal Madness – Iron, Copper, Zinc?… or Slayer, Marilyn Manson and Demon Hunter?
• Access Episode 32 – If you’re into your shooters, you’re in for a treat with this week’s episode of Access TV.
• Sony Entertainment Network Sponsors Sundance Festival In London – All the latest highlights from the Sony Entertainment Network Sundance Festival in London.
• The Making Of Sorcery: Technology – This is the first post in a four-part series from the development team about the making of Sorcery.
• Rainbow Moon: Watch The New Trailer Now – Be one of the first to watch the new Rainbow Moon trailer!

• Weekend Essentials 124
• The Characters of Gravity Rush
• First look: Lost Planet 3
• The best downloadable soundtracks on PlayStation
• Go from gamer to racer in GT Academy 2012

• Get all the Black Ops 2 info there is here.
• Ten developers offer their advice on how to get into the games industry.
• Bethesda have finally revealed the first Skyrim DLC info and release date.
• Find all about God Of War Ascension’s multiplayer.
• Boost your library with the 10 best PS3 games of 2012. So far…

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For Gran Turismo fans and hopefully a few soon to be fans, I’m delighted to confirm that today is the day: at 5pm BST / 6pm CET GT Academy 2012 will go live.

GT Academy, as some of you will be aware, is a special competition that PlayStation and Nissan created to turn PlayStation gamers into real drivers. Over the last three years, we have unearthed some real genuine racing talent and now this could be your chance to make those racing fantasies a reality or, failing that, earn some bragging rights against your mates.

The first stage of Academy is an online qualification event and, this year Yamauchi-san and the Polyphony team have created an exclusive, feature packed new piece of Gran Turismo content that promises to be a lot of fun. What’s even more exciting is that the content is free to download and you don’t need to have a copy of Gran Turismo to play the game.

Here’s how everything works – the exclusive Gran Turismo content will be available to download from PlayStation Store, free of charge, from 17.00BST / 18.00CEST on May 1 until 23.59BST / 00.59CEST on 24 June. You can download and take part at any time during this period, so even if you miss the start you can still play catch up and get involved.

Once you have downloaded the content, Polyphony Digital will release new rounds approximately every two weeks; in total there are eight rounds and within each round there are five sections.

Here’s a list of the rounds and when they will be available:

Round 1 and 2:

1/5 (Tue) 17.00BST – 24/6 (Sun) 23:59 BST

Round 3 and 4:

14/5 (Mon) 00:00 – 24/6 (Sun) 23:59 BST

Round 5 and 6:

28/5 (Mon) 00:00 – 24/6 (Sun) 23:59 BST

Round 7 and 8 (ROUND 8 IS FINAL/QUALIFICATION EVENT):

11/6 (Mon) 00:00 – 24/6 (Sun) 23:59 BST

Each of the rounds features a different racing skill to learn and master. You will need to clear a round to be able to progress to the next one.
If you are able to complete all events in a round to Gold standard, you will receive the car from that round for use in GT5, but even if you manage to just get through at Bronze level, there are special in-game treats to unlock.

Throughout the May – June period you will be able to check how you are doing compared to your PSN friends and others from all over Europe – but you will not be competing at this point; you will, of course, be honing your skills though.

And you will need to have done some serious honing as things will get very interesting in the very final event of the eighth round.

This is where you will have to show your game face. Pull out all the stops in this final event and place within the top 16 places, then you’re in with a chance of progressing to the National Final event in July, the Silverstone Racecamp in July and the the Driver Development Programme from September to December, all culminating the starting grid for the Dubai 24HR race for one skilled driver.

More information on GT Academy will follow very soon so and you can read up at gran-turismo.com and also get involved with the Academy community at facebook.com/GTAcademy and over at the official PlayStation Forums in the following languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish.

It’s time to get your race face on!

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Another week, another PS3 game announced; I trust you all caught the announcement of PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale and are now wildly speculating about which characters should and will be included. I’m not going to tell you if you’re right or not (I’ll get locked in the SCEE dungeon if I do) but I’d love to read your dream match-ups.

Next week’s posts are taking shape nicely, including an unusual piece on Monday for which the likes of Jawad, Ross McGrath and I have had to dust off our pencil cases. You have been warned.

Here’s your recap.

• The Walking Dead Game Series Lurches To PSN on Wednesday – The first episode of The Walking Dead, ‘A New Day,’ arrived on PSN on Wednesday, April 25th. Each episode will cost €4.99/£3.99 on the PS Store.
• Resistance: Burning Skies Reveals Survival Mode – Pits the players against each other in a race to the finish where only the strong survive!
• ModNation Racers: Fun Never Goes Out Of Style – ModNation Racers Two-Year Anniversary Celebration Coming Soon!
• Sonic 4 Episode II Brings Metal Sonic To PSN From 16 May – Not only is Metal Sonic returning to wreak havoc in the boss battles of Sonic 4 Episode II, but he’s making a star appearance in exclusive content for owners of both Episodes I and II!
• Skype Coming To PlayStation Vita On 25 April – Now you can keep in touch with gamers around the globe while you’re on-the-go as Skype video calling is available for both the 3G and Wi-Fi models.
• ‘Heads-Up’ PlayStation Plus Update – 2nd May 2012 – If brand-new PSN title’s not enough for you, the lovely folks at TikGames and Creat Studios have awesome upcoming content!
• Gravity Rush Pre-order DLC Revealed – DLC will be available, at no extra cost, to those people who purchase the game from PlayStation Store for a limited time after launch.
• Awesomenauts is PS Plus Game of the Month for May – Blasting on to PS Store for PS3 on May 2nd and it will be PlayStation Plus game of the month!
• PlayStation Home 1.65 Update Arrives – 1.65 update is here, bringing improvements to speed and ease of use on the menu screen, graphical UI tweaks, clearer representation of furniture limits, and much more.
• MUD – FIM Motocross World Championship Demo launches Today – The demo packs up some of the best stuff you’ll find in the game… like a Quick Race on the Glen Helen track.
• ‘Heads-Up’ Game Store Update Wednesday 25th April 2012 – This week’s front runner is The Walking Dead, courtesy of Telltale Games, who previously brought you the much loved Back to the Future: The Game.
• Starhawk: It’s Got A Story, Baby – A tale of a game with hot multiplayer action yet, unbeknownst to most players, a fun-as-hell solo campaign as well.
• Ghostlight To Release Fate/EXTRA – An epic PSP title set in a parallel universe to that of the hugely popular Japanese visual novel Fate/Stay Night.
• How Dynamic Battlefields Take Shape In DUST 514 – Because of its sandbox nature, players have the freedom to change the battlefield through choices!
• Dishonored Preview: Cloak And Dagger – Some games have problems with bugs, but Dishonored has trouble with rats!
• PixelJunk 4am Beta Goes Live – Beta is now LIVE on PS Store!
• See PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale In Action – A celebration of a storied history of great characters and rich worlds brought together in one game.
• Your DiRT Showdown Questions Answered – With the release inching ever closer, we turned to twitter to find out what you guys need to know about the game!

• Weekend Essentials 123 – Leap into a terrifying fight in PROTOTYPE 2 and survive the zombie apocalypse in The Walking Dead this weekend on PS3.
• Game On - Unleash your wild side this week with the epic PS3 trio of God of War: Ascension, Dishonored and Max Payne 3.
• The evolution of stereoscopic 3D on PS3 – Discover how a small team at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is making huge strides in stereoscopic 3D gaming.
• Hands on: Max Payne 3 – Discover why an angry ex-cop’s trip to Brazil will make you wish you were there on PlayStation 3.
• Hands on with DmC – Style, swords and a devil may care attitude – it can only be DmC. Take a look at the demon hunting action adventure which is blasting its way onto PS3.

• Here’s our Dishonored PS3 preview. We see the game in action and chat to creators Harvey Smith &Raphael Colantonio.
• Find out more about the Battlefield 3 Close Quarters DLC in this interivew with DICE’s Patrick Bach.
• Here are 8 vital survival tips guide for Prototype 2 to help you stay alive.
• Read out Crysis 3 PS3 preview to find out all about the nano-powered sequel.
• Here’s reasons Assassin’s Creed 3 will be amazing.

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The door closes on another week, one that is dominated by one piece of news. Yes, Kratos is returning to PS3 in a brand new game from Santa Monica Studios, and judging from the comments, many of you are getting excited. This is just the start and we’re looking forward to sharing more with you as the development process rages on. We think you’re going to be very happy with what the dev team is working on.

Here’s your recap.

• PlayStation Network Scheduled Maintenance – PSN was offline for scheduled maintenance from 14:00 on Monday 16 April 2012 until 02:00 on Tuesday 17 April 2012, BST.
• On Starters Orders For GT Academy 2012 – In just a few short weeks (May 1, to be precise), we will see the return of GT Academy!
• ModNation Racers Road Trip: Do You Mod? – Fingers crossed the term above has no impending underground or urban double-meaning.
• A Magical Tale Begins With This New Sorcery Trailer – Join legendary wizard Dash in a magical tale from deep within the Faerie Kingdom!
• LittleBigPlanet 2: Update 1.12! – Out this week, and it introduced a few nifty features to the game.
• The SingStore On April 18: Lana, Rihanna, Leona And More… – This week we have some brilliant tracks by equally brilliant women!
• PSP Price Drops In PlayStation Store – We have some more price dropped PSP games for your enjoyment.
• Bringing Collaborative Play To Sonic 4 Episode II – Sonic can now team up at any point in the game with Tails, by utilising one of three combo moves!
• Paint Park, Treasure Park And Wake-up Club Coming To PS Vita For Free – PlayStation Vita owners can look forward to a trio of free applications!
• PlayStation Home: Go Safari – Novus Prime gets its newest shipment of game-enhancing outfits and virtual items this week!
• FIFA Interactive World Cup Final Set For Dubai – The world’s largest online gaming tournament, has beaten its own Guinness World Record.
• ‘Heads-Up’ Game Store Update 18th April – Loads of new content, special offers and updates!
• Learn The Secrets Of PSN’s Dyad – Each of the game’s 27 different levels touch upon a variety of mechanics and goals.
• MUBI Update: 19 April 2012 – As we teased in our last update, we have an exciting, exclusive premiere run to announce…
• God of War: Ascension Announced – God of War: Ascension will be coming exclusively to PS 3!
• VIDZONE UPDATE: It’s Spring Cleaning Time, NEW PATCH ALERT! – The patch is available now so see here exactly what to look out for!
• Access Round Up – Episode 30! Win A PS Vita! – Mixed this up a bit this week to cover more of the stuff that PlayStation Access gets up to.
• Get Your Design in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time – How would you like to see your design become part of a real video game?
• PixelJunk 4am: A New Music Visualizer For Your PS3 – PixelJunk 4am and the free PixelJunk 4am – Viewer will be released and available for download on the PlayStation Store from May 15th.
• The Weekend Debate – Music To Your Thumbs – What does music add to the game experience and what does the future hold for game composition?

• Weekend Essentials 122 – Become a chess master on PS Vita, try your hand at rewriting sporting history and take to the skies on PS3 this weekend.
• Design the target of Sly Cooper’s greatest heist yet – Create a treasure and it could be brought to life in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, winning you a PS Vita system.
• Hands on with DmC – Style, swords and a devil may care attitude – it can only be DmC. Take a look at the demon hunting action adventure which is blasting its way onto PS3.

• Here’s a Dishonored PS3 trailer analysis packed full of interesting info.
• We’ve been thinking about E3 2012 PS3 games and here’s our wish list.
• So what is in the Skyrim PS3 DLC? We’ve been examining the evidence to date.
• We built a PS4 based on the rumored specs. What’s it capable of?
• PS3 gets Nasne, a 500GB TV tuner and recorder.

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