Happy belated New Year to all our friends and fans on PlayStation Network! This is Tatyana from Creat Studios here but I speak for the whole team when I say that we are incredibly excited to announce our latest game, the minis title Mecho Wars, is coming to the PlayStation Store for €4.99 on January 25th as well as to PlayStation Plus on February 1st at a discounted price. Based on the characters, world, and distinctive visual style crafted by Luc Bernard, Mecho Wars is a turn-based strategy game where you command your troops to expand into enemy territory, control and collect resources, and conquer your enemy’s structures.

Jump into an exciting war between the Winged Crusade and the Landians! The story of Mecho Wars details the rise of the Winged Crusade in the distant land of Divination Deserts. This is not your typical desert, however, as there is plenty of water that separates land masses. To sustain your army capture factories to expand your maximum army support, take-over cities to earn gold from the rich economic hubs, and defeat the enemy by capturing their HQ building while simultaneously defending your own. Don’t forget strategic unit composition and troop positioning as each unit type has its own strengths and weaknesses. The game even features a day/night cycle where the water that normally restricts your movement paths during the day freezes at night, allowing for unexpected skirmishes and ambushes. In addition to the rich, story-driven campaign, the Mecho Wars minis title features a new and extended soundtrack, a special set of individual challenge maps, and remarkable local multiplayer support on a single device for both the PS3 and PSP!

Mecho Wars achieves the perfect balance between the intense competitive strategy of army composition and troop placement and the invitingly casual and leisurely gaming experience lent by its turn-based combat system. The beauty of Mecho Wars is you can spend hours on end formulating the perfect strategy, unit composition, and battle placement tactics to best defeat your foe, or you can take your time and casually complete a turn every once in a while as you eat lunch or watch the news.

Everyone here at Creat absolutely loves playing Mecho Wars and we believe that, if given a chance, it can become one of your favorites as well. Thank you for the continued support you all have given us and we will continue to work our hardest to deliver awesome and ridiculously fun games to you guys. We always value fan feedback so leave us a comment below or get in contact with us on Facebook or through Twitter for all of our latest news and announcements.

It’s Christmas!!… (almost) and to celebrate the festive season, the PlayStation Store brings you some outstanding offers on over 100 titles for the Festive Sale which starts on the 23rd December and runs all the way to the 11th January 2012. With Blu-ray Disc games and PlayStation Network games, PS3 add-ons and PS one Classics, PSP games and minis: there’s something here for everyone.

Here are some titles to give you a taste of what delights we have on offer:

PS3 Games

• Premier Manager 2012 – Save up to 66%
• Playstation Move Heroes – Save up to 60%
• Rayman Origins – Save up to 33%
• Midnight Club LA Complete – Save up to 28%
• Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken – Save up to 30%
• The Baconing – Save up to 54%
• Zombie Apocalypse – Never Die Alone – Save up to 50%
• Castlevania: Harmony of Despair – Save up to 47%
• L.A. Noire Complete Edition – Save up to 10%

PSP Games

• Metal Slug XX – save up to 73%
• Worms Battle Islands – save up to 65%
• Blazeblue Calamity Trigger Portable – save up to 57%

And much, much more…….

But that’s not all!!

For all you minis fans out there, we have the Minis Pick and Mix. This is your chance to grab five fantastic minis of your choosing from a range of 50 popular titles: all for one low price of €3.99/£3.19!

Here are some of the games that are on offer:

• Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter

• ME Monster: Here Me Roar!

• The 2D Adventures of Rotating Octopus

• I Must Run!

• Fighting Fantasy: Talisman of Death

• OMG-Z

• Pix’n Love Rush

How does this work??

Simply purchase the mini Pick & Mix ticket, once purchased you will be taken to a screen to pick which five games you want, its that simple!

However if you leave the PSN Store before you decide what games you wish to purchase, you can go back at any time by following the below procedure:

1. Go to Playstation Network on the XMB
2. Go to Account Management
3. Go to Transaction Management
4. Go to your Services List
5. select the minis Pick & Mix title
6. Select the minis Pick & Mix entitlement again
7. You will then view how many picks you have remaining on screen
8. Click on ‘Select Content’ – this will take you back to the minis Pick & Mix catalogue where you can browse 50 minis
9. Make your minis selection

So don’t miss out on some great one time offers – take a sleigh ride over to PlayStation Store for the Festive Sale.

Are you new the Playstation Network?

If you are new to the Playstation Network and want to understand how our store works better, visit us today on your PS3 and look out for the above banners for guidance.

Before I tell you a bit more about the game, why not take a look at our newly released announcement trailer to give you an idea of the kind of high-octane action you can expect to see in the game.

DiRT Showdown is due out on PS3 in May 2012, and is brought to you by the same team that brought you the other titles in the award winning DiRT series. The game combines pick up and play controls with electrifying events, frenzied crowds and stunning graphics to deliver high octane, dive in and drive thrills straight from the first event.

The game’s going to feature 3 main disciplines, built around the pillars of speed, style and destruction. To help illustrate what I’m talking about here’s a broad breakdown of the 3 disciplines in question.

NO HOLDS BARRED RACING EVENTS – Trade paint and use nitrous to blast past rivals in DiRT Showdown’s  racing modes. Courses are littered with obstacles, pinch points, multiple-routes and ramps to deliver adrenaline-fuelled racing across spectacular courses, where players are encouraged to do whatever it takes to get over the finish line in first place.

BONE CRUNCHING DEMOLITION DERBY EVENTS (My personal favourite!) – Crash, smash and bash your way through a range of demolition derby events, pushing our stunning damage engine to its spectacular limits.

EDGE OF CONTROL HOONIGAN EVENTS – A new accessible trick mechanic lets you go wild in free-roaming, freestyle stunt parks. Gymkhana has been taken to the next level in our Joyride compounds flooded with obstacles and challenges. Hoon your car around trick runs, competitive stunt events and exploration challenges.

When designing DiRT Showdown the team researched in great detail what players look for most in racing games. What the team discovered is the things that a lot of racers look for is the rush of going at high speed, pulling off slick and stylish moves, and the thrill of the crash and the resultant destruction on your car.  To give gamers what they want in DiRT Showdown, we’re offering Race modes, Hoonigan modes and Demolition Derby modes. However these modes don’t run in isolation from one another, we want you to feel as though you’re part of an action sports extravaganza, putting on the best show in town. We’ve taken to calling it a ‘Theatre of Racing’ if you will, with YOU as the star driver and main attraction.

Well I hope that’s informed you a little regarding what DiRT Showdown is all about, and I’ll be back at some point in the near future to let you know more about the game. However if anyone has any questions then please just let me know in the comments. Where possible I’ll try to reply, but obviously at this stage in the games developement I won’t be able to answer everything about the game!

Finally, if you like what you saw and want to follow the development of the game more closely and get access to exclusive DiRT Showdown related competitions and giveaways, then you can either ‘like’ us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

1. Free highly-caffeinated energy drinks and donuts in the break room.
2. A sudden rash of car alarms blaring from the parking lot like a jet plane just grazed the roof top.
3. A bogus announcement over the company P.A. system that Kevin Butler has arrived on campus.

These events usually buy me an additional hour or so with the game. This is a purely selfish endeavor as it really only takes a few minutes with the game to see and understand the brilliant, creative, and subtle, yet powerful features of ModNation Racers: Road Trip. I have yet to (voluntarily) set the game down and not walk away saying, “now that was just flat out fun!”. Indeed when it comes right down to it that’s what ModNation Racers: Road Trip for PS Vita is… a flat out fun kart racing game!
Let me share with you a little of what I experienced…

1. Controlled Drifting
An essential element of any great kart racing game is the drift mechanic. In ModNation Racers: Road Trip drifting is no longer solely about building up your boost meter to gain acceleration or as a cache for shielding from weapons or hazards. Though these abilities are still a large asset of drifting in the game, we have made many improvements allowing players more complete control of their racing lines. In a correctly-executed drift your forward momentum is increased while your outward momentum (inertia) can be managed (or decreased). You will find your kart easier to hold a desired line by being able to carve and progressively link drifts together without over- or under-steering into walls, guardrails or flying off the track. This refinement allows veteran racers to rely more on their racing skills as well as allows newbies a greater sense of control.

2. More Forgiving Collisions
Now racers will notice fewer if any “dead stops” brought on from an opponent’s attacks. Racers will also find it easier to get back into the pack if they happen to land a jump a little off kilter or accidentally slam into a wall with the new auto-correct feature built into the racing controls. It can be frustrating in any racing game to have the slightest error result in what seems like an eternity of reverse Y-turn after Y-turn to get you back in the race. ModNation Racers: Road Trip = problem solved.

3. Refined Braking
Braking? What’s braking? I don’t need no stinking braking!
Sure you can still go all out and avoid your helpful little friend (the brake button) but if you truly desire to master the art of racing in ModNation Racers: Road Trip you will appreciate the ability to finesse your level of control with the a reworked braking system. Players can now use the brakes to adjust steering controls while drifting and this does not stop or cancel the drift.

4. The Best For Last!
These “tweaks, changes, and improvements” not only improve the experience for all Vita-centric tracks but also insure that all PS3 user-generated tracks played on Vita would enjoy the same enhancements. This means a brand new exciting racing experience on all your favorite PS3 tracks. That ModNation is quite frankly awesome! We hope you’ll agree!

Have a great week everyone!

We have partnered with Studio Output, one of the world’s most tuned-in creative design and production companies, to help us curate The Studio collection and ensure only the finest offerings in everything from urban street art to illustration are included.

Here is an update of the latest Themes from The Studio that on the PlayStation Store.

Finnish born Kustaa Saksi started the month with ‘The Outer Woods’, a syrupy, psychedelic vision that draws on both organic and digital worlds for inspiration. Having worked across fashion, entertainment and music, Kustaa’s wide diversity of clients and interests are all represented in this strangely captivating theme, with its creepy characters and surrealist landscape.

Joining Kustaa in this first November release was Studio Output with Totem. Towering, turning totems loom in the background of this theme, which like an eternal game of consequences, throws strange together characters, shapes and colours creating something the like of which has never been seen behind an XMB before!

Next up, The Studio welcomes the mighty Luke Insect. Luke’s neo-psychadelic illustrations have donned many a record sleeve, magazine cover and advertising billboard (fans of The Prodigy will know his work well) but never before have they been transported into the world of animation. Using his trademark eye-scorching colour schemes and out-of-this-world imagery, ‘Collide o’ Scope’ transports you from the comfort of your living room into a time tunnel of other-worldly lights, colours and patterns.

And lastly but by no means least, we wrap up November with ‘Amphenge’ by Michael Gillette. A man who needs no introduction, Swansea-born, San Fran resident Gillette has been creating iconic, pop-art inspired art since the early 1990s – including the iconic ‘To The 5 Boroughs’ sleeve for the Beastie Boys and the cover art for the reissues of the complete James Bond collection of books. Instinctively threaded with a British mod aesthetic and inspired by his musical heroes, the same influences can be seen in this new piece for PlayStation. ‘Amphenge’ a mystical place hewn out of Solid ROCK, Rolled by ancient roadies and turned way up to Eleven. Gillette also claims repeated visits to Amphenge can supernaturally improve your gaming scores. What’s not to lose!

In case you are new to The Studio or missed the latest releases here is a quick video showcasing the Themes from cutting edge graphic and digital artists, illustrators and graphic designers around the world that have released onto The Studio over the last few weeks.

In a world where art and gaming continue to converge, the digital creations on offer at The Studio are the ultimate design accessories allowing you to turn your PS3 or PSP into a personalised digital gallery.. Available to download from just €0.99 to €2.99* each, you can choose from a wide range of Static and Dynamic themes for the XMB.

For all the latest on the gallery, don’t forget to check eu.playstation.com/thestudio and PlayStation.Blog at blog.eu.playstation.com or find out more, ‘Like’ at http://www.facebook.com/SOTheStudio.

Well we’re a few months into our new venture and we’ve put out a lot of gaming in that time. Dezaemon Plus! and Blockids will mark the fifth and sixth additions to the MonkeyPaw classic European game portfolio on the PlayStation Network. And we have a lot more surprises planned for our retro-gaming fans.

But we’d like to ask your assistance. We need you to tell your friends about what we’re doing and get the word out. We know our core fans are dedicated gamers and that you’ve picked up some titles already. But we need a bigger response so that we can influence more Japanese companies. We need to show them there is a viable market in Europe and that licensing is worth their effort. It is like voting with Euros. Spend more on the candidates of your choice!

Here’s a good choice for shooting fans. Dezaemon Plus! is a chance to play game god. You get to create a game using a robust game editor that allows you to form sprites, level designs, boss characters, music and more. Use parallax scrolling and other game design techniques to create a completely original game. Then play or trade with friends using a memory stick on the PlayStation 3 and PSP (PlayStation Portable) systems.

For puzzle fans, we have a new title as well. It is hard to put a premium on a game mechanic that keeps on giving but surely the Breakout mechanic (to give it a name) is one of the most enduring in all gaming. There is something so retro to sliding your paddle along that horizontal plane. Just about anyone could pick up a joystick and play.

So how can you improve on the mechanic? Gather some great game minds, throw in a little Japanese spice and you can actually pull it off. Japanese industry has a penchant for copying (does your Lexus look like a BMW?). But they manage to make improvements so that the copy becomes better than the original. So two games might look similar but the play of the new and improved version is quite remarkable when you sit down and play. And that is what you get when you play Blockids.

Dezaemon Plus! and Blockids are now both available for the low price of €4.99/£3.99 on the PlayStation Network under the Import banner. Pick them up today and support our efforts to bring you the best lost treasures from the Land of the Rising Yen.

Rumble Trucks is not your classic racing game. Playing it feels like a rollercoaster ride: high speed, steep hills, huge jumps.

Big jumps allow for big tricks, perform them and you’ll gain a speed boost, use it wisely and reach the end of level as fast as possible to win a medal. On the way to the finish line don’t forget to collect the stars scattered around the levels as they give you a time bonus.

You’ll be able to choose between nine vehicles with different stats and then race on one of the twenty four levels divided in three worlds. Obviously you will need to unlock the trucks and the levels before being able to play on them.

Reaching the final level in each world unlocks the next world, but those final levels are so tricky that it’s hard enough just trying to get a gold medal and collecting all the stars. It’s a real challenge, but you will enjoy it.

Hi – I’m a game designer at Die Gute Fabrik, a small Indie Studio based in Denmark. We are just about to release our debut on PlayStation Network minis (PS3 and PSP). It’s called “Where is my Heart?”, and it’s about a family of monsters lost in the woods. In the game you have help them find a way back to their home – a mysterious tree with a heart in its branches. The whole story is set in an 8-bit style environment made up of woods, mushroom caves, crystal rock pools, fern fringed creeks and waterfalls.

Nils, our artist, is going to talk more about the concept art and environment design of the game below. As for the game mechanics: the basics play just like a usual platform game, but the world is visually sliced into rectangular fragments (or panels) which are placed on the screen at unexpected locations. With this game mechanic – the messed up way of representation – I attempted to evoke the sensation of being lost. On top of that, the visual slicing also allowed us to add further mechanics to the game. These mechanics make use and build upon the visual confusion caused by the panels. One of these game-play elements is the ‘panel rotation’.

The Rainbow Spirit -one of the monsters- can use this mechanic to its advantage. When the player presses the L and R shoulder buttons of the game controller the Spirit can make the panels spin around the screen center. This allows the Spirit to hop from frame to frame, outside of the physical game world. It’s a bit hard to describe. Looking at the trailer above will fix this – it’s easier to grasp when seen in action. Playing around with the Spirit Rotation was a very satisfying experience to our testers. We spent a lot of effort into making it feel just right. It’ll make the puzzle muscles in your brain as sore as legs after a marathon.

The game is loosely based on an experience I had with my parents three summers ago. We were hiking in the woods near our home. And guess what – we lost our bearings, got really frustrated, and started bickering with each other. That’s the short version of it. The long version entails family issues and the dark sides of personalities. If you’re interested in reading more about the game’s source of inspiration, please go here.

By the way we also had our first review by eurogamer and they gave us 8 out of 10.

I’ll pass on to Nils now, our artist.”

Nils Deneken: Hi, I’m the graphic artist here at Die Gute Fabrik. In 2009, after the first Where is my Heart? prototype was displayed at the Independent Games Festival, Bernhard asked me if I wanted to do the artwork for the game. Already the prototype that Bernhard had submitted to the IGF 2009 had a very distinct art style. Obviously it’s a game that uses pixel graphics and thus refers to games from the creator’s childhood, but it has some aesthetic twists that sets itself apart from the games of yore (and just as much from the games of today).

One visual twist is the representation of the game levels as comic panels. It is one of the basic mechanics of the game which has both a strong influence on the level designs and the visuals of the game. The other distinctive visual element is the bold choice of colors, which is quite unusual for games in general.

While other games tend to use fairly realistic colors to represent their environments, Bernhard chose a strange palette of pastel colors. The grass wasn’t a saturated green, like it is in most game graphics, but a very light green, which seemed to glow almost neon-like in front of the browns and grays of the rocks. The sky was light purple instead of sky-blue and sprinkled with yellow stars that would fade in and out. Then there were the three little monster characters and a big tree with a face, whose emotions were ranging from grumpy to sad. The old tree, the Heartboxes, which the player has to unlock to progress, and Antler Ancestor, which the Brown Monster turns into, seem all to be taken straight from the traditional German fairy tales. The heart boxes remind us of the gingerbread house from Grimm’s “Hänsel und Gretel”, while the Antler is clearly derived from a Bavarian mythical creature called the Wolpertinger. Their representation, however, is more inspired by Japanese anime, games and pictogram culture. The whole strangely coloured mix of Japanese cuteness with German fairytales distinguished it as something very contemporary.

I was excited. It was liberating not having to do world and character concepts from scratch, but to work with the constraints that came with Bernhard’s prototype level concepts, to refine them and build new worlds with that feel and colour palette that he had introduced.

The locations the levels are taking place in are all tied to the overall topic of getting lost in the woods. The environments, even though fantastic with flying platforms and such, are rooted in a moderate climate. They are believable settings for the fiction we created around the three monsters. Besides the forest, I added different kinds of caves to the environments, since they would bring variation to the levels without breaking the overall theme of the game.

Some environment designs required night settings. We decided to have the scenery change into night time, when the Brown Monster transformed into the Antler Ancestor. We aimed for the most satisfying feedback that comes with his transformation, where he would literally step into “the Land of Fireflies”.

When the grey monster transformed, he would open a window into a dark parallel world, the “Land of the Bat”, where he could use different platforms and secret passages, which meant that some levels needed a land-of-the-bat version as well.

The three family characters Bernhard created in his IGF prototype were interesting and had a lot of personality already, but I took the liberty of changing some of them a little to make them more distinguishable from each other and more coherent with the game style at the same time.

For more information about the Artwork of Where is my Heart and other projects, feel free to visit http://gutefabrik.com/.

In my last blog I mentioned that there had been a few changes to Persona 2: Innocent Sin since coming to the PlayStation Portable and so I thought I’d tell you a bit more about the improvements that have been made to this classic JRPG. Persona 2: Innocent Sin now features:

• Improved visuals
• A new soundtrack in addition to the original’s soundtrack
• A new intro in addition to the original intro

• The interface has been improved to take advantage of the PSP’s wider display space

You now have the ability to switch between difficulty settings freely within the game.
The new Climax Theatre which includes lots of new optional dungeons and events for players to enjoy.

Of course we can’t forget about the other part of this amazing package

The North American release of Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky has been receiving rave reviews and, at the time of writing, has a rating of 80 on MetaCritic.

Trails in the Sky also features in 1UP.com’s Top 10 PSP games of 2011, with the site commenting that: “Trails in the Sky has a reputation among importers for being a huge, well told tale full of meaty combat and great characters” and on Joystiq Jason Schreier called it the best JRPG you haven’t played yet.

One of the more enjoyable systems in the game is the orbment system which, as well as improving your character’s abilities, is what controls which spells you have access to. Each character has a certain number of slots which are divided into rows, with each character having a different formation. In exchange for quartz you can get orbment fitted in an open slot where the most obvious effect for that an orbment will be listed. These effects range from an improvement to your stats, to gaining special abilities or gaining addition bonuses in battle. However, each orbment also has an elemental value. To decide your spell list, the game works out the total elemental value for an element on each line before using the highest value to decide which spells you can use. To make things slightly more complex, some slots are only able to hold certain types of orbment. I had a lot of fun playing around with various combinations to try and get the bonuses and skills I wanted, while trying to give myself access to the best spells as well.

There’s a lot of gameplay in Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and my completed save time the first time I played through it was 54 hours 30 minutes and 29 seconds, however I did manage to miss out a few areas and sidequests in that playthrough, so you could easily spend more time in the game than that.

Please head over to our website to find out more about both of these fantastic games.

The Studio brings to PlayStation a collection of Static and Dynamic Themes for PS3 and PSP from some of the world’s greatest artists to create one of the best showcases of digital art anywhere in the world and they are all available for you to download.

We have partnered with Studio Output, one of the world’s most tuned-in creative design and production companies, to help us curate The Studio collection and ensure only the finest offerings in everything from urban street art to illustration are included.

To get you in the mood before Halloween next week, this week’s release celebrates all things dark and creepy, with wondering zombies, looming monster heads and eerie ghouls ready to haunt your XMB.

Zombies in the City is a Dynamic Theme by KOA. Behind the name KOA hides Olivier Cramm, an illustrator drawing incessantly, feeding on ink, paint and of course the Japanese food that he loves to cook.

Sometimes juggling with references such as Durer and Bosch, sometimes using the very bright colours of 70s comic books, Oliver has created his universe – sultry, poetic, funny and strange. His forthcoming book Sang Noir should be released later this year.

Up next is The Riotus Rumpus Dynamic Theme by Gary Card, a shifting psychedelic world of strange floating heads. Having studied theatre design at Central St Martins, Gary has gone on to work as an illustrator, graphic designer, comic artist, costume, set and props designer.

Ranging from his cartoon and videogame inspired dayglo graphics for Cassette Playa, to the darker and more surreal-landscapes and characters in his work with Jacob Sutton, London-based Card draws his inspiration from a range of sources including Ren & Stimpy, Swamp Thing and the work of artists Hans Bellmer, Paul McCarthy and Gottfried Helnwin, record covers and cereal boxes. Gary’s work has appeared in POP, Another Man, Dazed & Confused, V Man and iD. His installations have also appeared in Dover Street Market, Liberty and Uniqlo.

Skeletons are the inspiration for our next theme by Jules Julien. Entitled Play or Die, this collection of statics showcase Jules unique style and are perfect for this Halloween release. Jules Julien is a French illustrator. After studying art in Toulouse, he worked for 10 years as an artistic director. Now he’s working in France, United States and Japan.

You’ve seen Hydro 74 before, now he is back with another set of intricate static backgrounds in this new collection Skulls. Hydro74 is an Orlando-based designer, otherwise known as Joshua M. Smith. The sole purpose of his career is to push boundaries, take trends and rework them into his own unique style.

Finally this week sees the return of SKWAK, in a sequel to his brilliant ‘The Maniac’s Dream’, Halloween sees the release of ‘The Monster Maniac’, a Theme about a strange spirit living in your PS3; he looks you when you play, he eats your wins and your game over, he protects you, he’s the maniac god of the gamers! Follow him! SKWAK is a French artist specialising in illustration, character design and graphic design.

Derek Riggs is an illustrator working in the sci-fi and horror genres. He is most famous for his work for the band Iron Maiden, having created their iconic mascot ‘Eddie’ and numerous album covers.

Little Wikkam is a village that gets invaded by monsters in a novel Derek is currently trying to write (it’s not a good place to live – don’t move there, you’d be happier somewhere else…)

http://www.derekriggs.com/

We hope you enjoy our Halloween special at The Studio on PlayStation Store, visit to download these and all the latest themes for your PlayStation 3 and PSP systems. For all the latest on the gallery, don’t forget to check eu.playstation.com/thestudio and PlayStation.Blog at blog.eu.playstation.com.

Yet by the same token, horror has become so passe that we barely even react when we encounter imagery of skeletons, zombies, witches, bats, vampires and ghouls. True primal fear is hard to come by in the modern world, and this applies to video games as well. When you hear the term “horror game,” what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? Probably “zombies” since that seems to characterize much of the horror genre nowadays. Most modern horror games assault you with wave after wave of zombies, and you can typically one-shot them back to their graves. They may look scary, but when’s the last time you were actually frightened in a zombie shooter game? Maybe you had an exciting time playing one, and jumped at a handful of startling moments, but the mere fact that you’re able to defend yourself – that you have a means of fighting back – makes just about every entry in the genre less horror than action.

In many ways, classic Japanese horror is much purer. For movies, think The Ring or The Grudge. For games, think Clock Tower or Haunting Ground. They’re all about unavoidable, inevitable death. You can run, but you can’t not die. You have no weapons. Your foes are immortal. All you can do is struggle in vain to survive, and pray that each door you open – each corridor you traverse – isn’t your last.

Most of each of the aforementioned movies and games achieve true terror through sheer anticipation. You know something horrible is lurking nearby… but you have no idea when or where it will strike. When nothing happens for an extended period of time, your anxiety grows until you reach that point where you begin to think you’re out of the woods. And then — BAM! — that’s when it hits you.

Corpse Party is one such horror experience. It plays out like the best of Japanese horror films, locking your nine main protagonists in an inescapable, otherworldly school building where vengeful spirits seek to end their lives in the most grisly, inhuman ways imaginable – all the while directly infiltrating their minds to drive them to paranoia, madness and suicide. The longer your characters stay in Heavenly Host Elementary School, the more utterly exhausted, certifiably insane and ravenously hungry they become, causing students to turn against one another, resort to cannibalism, hang themselves or simply suffer nervous breakdowns.
Death is inevitable.

Any hope of rescue becomes less and less likely with each passing second, causing some to resign themselves to their fates and simply accept the first chances at sweet release that come their way – which usually take very unpleasant and deeply disturbing forms.

Make no mistake, there is a way out – for some, anyway. But finding it takes more time than you have, and more effort than you can reasonably expect most high schoolers to muster under such ludicrously taxing circumstances. There will be casualties, no matter what choices you make. The question is, how many will live, and how many will die? With over 20 endings (most of which are aptly-named “wrong ends”), you can expect to see (and hear) every single character in the game suffer greater cruelty than you’d ever considered possible… and try as you might to be disgusted, you will be morbidly intrigued. These deaths are so creatively sadistic, so drawn-out and convincingly acted, that you’ll hang on your unfortunate protagonists’ every knell – and will never forget the horrors to which you are subjected.

Oddly enough, Corpse Party’s 16-bit-style 2D visuals contribute to the terror. This visual style provides a sense of distance between you and the characters under your control, which has a rather chilling consequence. Effectively, you’re given more than adequate visual feedback to comprehend the exact situation that’s occurring, but since most everything is shown through animated character sprites, you’re left with the task of envisioning the gory minutiae on your own. And as any true horror fan can tell you, the human mind is capable of imagining pain and torment far more potent than anything a screen can display.

Sound plays a major role in this as well. Every line of dialogue is expertly voice-acted in Japanese, and many of these lines were recorded binaurally – using two microphones instead of one, to create the illusion of a 3D soundscape. Play with headphones, and you may suddenly hear the spirits of long-dead children whispering directly into your ear. Some scenes relish in killing the lights, too, playing out entirely through squishy, unsettling noises and screams of indescribable agony that sound all too believable.

Corpse Party is scheduled for release on the PlayStation Store later this year as a PSP download. We’re sorry to have missed Halloween, but we wanted to make certain everything was perfect before unleashing this demon upon the English-speaking world.

If you’re a fan of true horror, Corpse Party will most definitely be worth the wait. But do prepare yourself: This is no hayride.

For those of you who don’t already know, Persona 2: Innocent Sin is an enhanced PSP remake of the classic PSOne game (which sadly never made it to these shores) and is the prequel to the fantastic Persona 3 Portable. Amongst its many additions and improvements, the remake features a new user interface, new character portraits, an extra difficulty level and the ability to switch between the original soundtrack and a brand new soundtrack. Like the other games in the Persona series, it uses compelling storytelling and a fantastic soundtrack to create a dark twisted atmosphere, where nothing is quite as it seems.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin is set in Sumaru City, which is suffering under a curse that causes any rumour that’s heard by enough people to come true.

One rumour that has spread across the city is regarding the existence of “Joker”, a mysterious being who grants the wishes of anyone who dials their own mobile phone number. Anyone who fails to tell Joker their wish, either because they lack one or refuse to tell, has their “ideal energy” stolen, reducing them to ambition-less shells called Shadow Selves.

The game also allows you to take advantage of this curse, and any rumour that you craft may inexplicably come true. In addition to this, Persona 2: Innocent Sin features a system where the player can choose either to fight or negotiate with (most) demons and even forge contracts with them.

Working on Persona 2: Innocent Sin has been really fascinating from the perspective of a Persona fan that initially discovered the series on PlayStation 2. Persona 2: Innocent Sin is an awesome game, featuring not only brilliantly executed traditional JRPG mechanics, but also the aforementioned ‘rumours’ system which still feels fresh and innovative today.

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is the first game in a trilogy of Legend of Heroes games. The story follows the adventures of Estelle Bright, the daughter of Cassius Bright, and his adopted son Joshua, both of whom are junior members of the Bracers Guild, a mercenary group sworn to protect the people of the world.

When their father Cassius, a war hero, leaves on a mission, Estelle and Joshua must take over his work in their hometown. The game’s fantastic dialogue makes this a charming prologue and this charm never disappears as the scope of the story gradually expands from simple beginnings into a tense climax, as the young Bracers must uncover a conspiracy to overthrow the government of Liberl.

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is set in a fantasy world where the combustion engine never caught on due to the Orbal Revolution. Instead, Orbments provide power for everything from magic to telephones and airships.

The game boasts a fascinating combat system where the key to victory is strategically managing the Turn Order using buffs, debuffs and – should you have sufficient SP – interrupts.

The game also features an amazing soundtrack which is available on CD as part of the Collector’s Edition. But, more than anything else, it’s the characters you meet and the sheer quality of the writing and dialogue which have really impressed me.

Despite telling a serious story, Trails in the Sky manages to be the funniest game I’ve played all year, which reminds me…

A little hint before I go: make sure to check every treasure chest twice – you’ll be glad that you did.

The Studio brings to PlayStation a collection of Static and Dynamic Themes for PS3 and PSP from some of the world’s greatest artists to create one of the best showcases of digital art anywhere in the world and they are all available for you to download.

We have partnered with Studio Output, one of the world’s most tuned-in creative design and production companies, to help us curate The Studio collection and ensure only the finest offerings in everything from urban street art to illustration are included.

In case you are new to The Studio or missed the latest releases here is a quick video showcasing the Themes from cutting edge graphic and digital artists, illustrators and graphic designers around the world that have released onto The Studio over the last few weeks.

With more Themes being added each month The Studio is an ever expanding collection of the world’s most cutting-edge art allowing you to turn your PS3 or PSP into a personalised digital gallery.

Check out the Themes that are releasing today below. First up here are2 very different Dynamic Theme for PS3 launching this week:

‘Typescape’ Dynamic Theme by Wallzo

‘Typescape’ is an exclusive theme for The Studio created by London-based designer Wallzo. This immersive artwork features 26 custom-built landscapes that are explored in real time 3D.

The piece is inspired by the aesthetics of classic 3D games like Virus, Sentinel and Frontier, where blocky vectors and bold colours created distinctive, beautiful worlds. Each letter landscape was individually modelled for the project by Wallzo, who invented the concept especially for the PlayStation and The Studio.

Check out more of his work at www.wallzo.com

‘Deep Down’ Dynamic Theme by Merijn Hos

Merijn Hos, known under his alias Bfree, is an artist and illustrator from Utrecht, the Netherlands.
He divides his time between working as a commercial illustrator and working on his own personal projects, exhibitions and independent publishing.

In this dynamic theme the Dutch Illustrator takes you to a world miles below see level. Deep Down the ocean is a dark but colorful world full of weird shaped plants, psychedelic fish, tropical shells and bubbles that blow your mind.

Check out more of his work at www.bfreeone.com.

‘Retrovolution’ Static Theme by Romain

‘Static Mist’ Static Theme by OTwo

In a world where art and gaming continue to converge, the digital creations on offer at The Studio are the ultimate design accessories for your PS3 or PSP. Available to download from just €0.99 to €2.99* each, you can choose from a wide range of Static and Dynamic themes for the XMB.

First, the super-sharp summary for those amongst us who are too busy to read a WHOLE rambling blog from some guy at some games company ‘somewhere’ (and who could blame you?):

Your LEGENDARY sky-pirate crew may have been responsible for unleashing an apocalyptic curse of giant insects upon the world – and now there’s only 24 hours to save their necks from the hangman’s noose…

Despite protestations that ‘dangerously cursed islands’ should REALLY be more clearly sign-posted, First Mate Rana sets out to SMASH her way through the relentless scuttling horde in a sword-swinging arcade battler set against an epic backdrop of sky-islands and piracy!

Can YOU survive against overwhelming odds? Deploy combo attacks and running swipes, blocks and dodges, then use DEVASTATING special moves to turn the tables on the SWARM and send the bugs spiralling into the clouds. Just make sure you keep solid ground beneath your own feet at the same time…

Join Rana, Captain Bluebell and Mr Yoho as they DEAL OUT sky-pirate justice! Make BARELY COHERENT plans! ENJOY celebratory fruit cocktails!

…and BREAK the curse of 1000 TINY CLAWS!

• Story mode featuring 25 levels over 5 exotic stages
• 12 Unique enemies
• 3 Epic Boss battles
• 5 Survival Mode Stages
• 25 Challenge Mode Stages
• 16 Revealing Ship’s Log entries to discover
• 15 Awesome Awards to place in your Treasure Room
• 6 Animated Piratical cut-scenes

The integral game mechanic is Rana’s ability to send enemies scattering over the edge of the island, first by weakening them with sword swipes, and then using a huge swipe to eliminate them. We spent a lot of time making this as satisfying a possible – so you can also bounce the bugs off of scenery, or knock over big bugs and swipe them along the ground to clear a pathway when things start to step up!

All you have to do to survive is stay on the island, but with each variety of Swarm fighting back using their unique attacks, and the waves quickly ramping up in difficulty – you’ll soon need to use every trick at your disposal to stay on top of things.

The response to our previous games has been overwhelming and hugely appreciated – and as with those minis titles, we’ve tried to load as much of what you loved into 1000 Tiny Claws as humanly possible!

The Story Mode will feature animated cut-scenes, following the crew’s 24hr race against time to ‘reverse a curse’ (an approved witch-doctor term) over 25 action packed stages, and FIVE beautifully realized island regions – as well as throwing in some truly huge and pumped boss and hive island encounters in there!

The 25 stage Challenge Mode will require different strategies and approaches to get those gold medals – we played with the core mechanics here to create a real range of play styles for each type of challenge!

We’re very proud of 1000 Tiny Claws, it’s been a blast to make – and we can’t wait for you guys to play it and let us know what you think. We’re currently in QA, and if all goes well *crossing fingers/sacrificing our first-born to the gods of Sony QA* – the game should be hitting the PSN Store in October.

You’ll hear more from us before then – but check out the screens and let us know your first impressions.

Thanks!

As was the case with its predecessor, Arcade Essentials Evolution is a collection of 5 arcade games, remakes of the classic arcade hits of the 80s that we all know. Each game consists of 50 levels, so there is quite a lot of gameplay time here. We made minimalistic visuals with lots of special effects, so that they would feel like we are in real arcades. To get an idea of how it looks like and plays, please check the trailer:

First game is an enhanced version of a game about asteroids. In the beginning, levels are quite easy, however as you progress further, difficulty increases and new bonuses and asteroids types start to appear. For example, there is a bonus that allows you to fly through the planets destroying them as you move forward. There are indestructible asteroids that you cannot shoot. There are bonuses that make you fly faster and many other cool things.

In the next game called Toader, you need to cross the road safely and reach a safe zone. Once safe zone is reached, you need to jump over the floating islands into the top part of the screen. As usual, there are lots of bonuses that improve your characteristics and help you out.

In this game, you need to shoot the worm that is coming from the top of the screen. Each time you hit it – it divides into 2 parts that run in different directions. If any part of this worm comes to the bottom of the screen – that’s it, it’s a game over.

This game was inspired by brick-shooting games, such as Arkanoid and Breakout. The goal of this game is to destroy all the bricks across 50 levels.
And finally:

A Lunar Parking game, where you have to park your spacecraft on specially designated locations. You are challenged with gravitational forces and inhabitants of the planet that are running around.

And that’s all for today. Thanks for reading this and hope you will enjoy this game!

For more information on our games you can visit our website www.nordcurrent.com or our Facebook page on www.facebook.com/Nordcurrent

In Persona 3 Portable you play the part of an orphan who is returning to his home town for the first time in many years to attend high school.  As you travel between the train station and the dorms you are horrified at the sinister change that affects the town.

Upon your arrival at the dorm things only get weirder, as a strange boy offers you a contract to sign before you meet the first of the other inhabitants of the dorm – two girls – one of whom appears to be holding a gun.  Not only that, but neither of them appear to be aware of the strange boy’s existence.

From this beginning Persona 3 Portable creates a strange unsettling atmosphere and as the game advances the contrast between your everyday life and your time exploring the mysterious Dark Hour, and encountering the denizens of this hidden hour grows ever stranger.  As a member of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, you have the power to cross over to the Dark Hour where you can wield the power of your Persona.

It is this balance between your character’s ‘normal’ life and the need to explore the Dark Hour that drives P3P’s gameplay. Exploring Tartarus to find more of its secrets is crucial; but ignore your friends and you won’t have the power to protect yourself when the full moon gathers the most dangerous of the denizens of this shadowy realm.

During the Dark Hour everything takes on a more sinister aspect. Your school transforms into a menacing tower known as Tartarus and the luckiest of the inhabitants of Iwatodai transmogrify into coffins whilst the evil Shadow creatures prey on those who stumble into their realm. Using your unique power, you must find the cause of the Dark Hour and put a stop to it before its strange and terrible power grows.

I’ve really enjoyed my time working on Persona 3 Portable, the PSP version of one of the finest PlayStation 2 games, and it has been amazing seeing everyone’s reactions to this new and improved version. I am delighted that those of you who prefer to get your games digitally will now have the chance to see the massive improvements and great new features, including:

• The option to play the story as a new female protagonist, giving rise to new dialogue, special events and opportunities
• An improved turn-based battle system, which now allows direct control of your teammates in battle
• Five difficulty settings (from “beginner” to the hard-core choice of “maniac!”)
• The addition of rewards from new NPCs when they’re rescued from Tartarus.
• Part time jobs to raise player stats and earn wages
• New social links, new Persona, Skill Cards, new characters as well as a completely new dungeon to explore
• Improved system dynamics – one button menu short-cuts, quick equipment changes, and a whole lot more!

While most attendees to the SCEE press conference at gamescom will have anticipated some announcements around PlayStation Vita, our upcoming next generation portable, few would have predicted the unveil of the brand new PSP-E1000.

Value for money is the goal with this new model that will retail at just €99.99 (RRP), accompanied by an exciting range of PSP Essentials titles that will retail at only €9.99 (RRP) and will include Invizimals: Shadow Zone, EyePet and many more.

While PSP-E1000 does not include Wi-Fi, it will still provides access to the full catalogue of PSP games either on UMD or from PlayStation Store via Media Go. The design is also slightly different, with a Charcoal Black finish – the same as on the slimmer PS3 model – to give more of a matte feel.

PSP-E1000 will be available across PAL. But that’s not all that was announced at the SCEE gamescom press conference – be sure to read our posts on the PS3 price cut and announcements and the new social applications and games coming to PlayStation Vita. You can also watch the full press conference right here on PlayStation.Blog until 6pm BST / 7pm CET on Wednesday.

Re-mastering both of the God of War PSP games in full HD for the PS3 God of War: Collection Volume II definitely had its share of challenges for us. The first goal we had was simply the daunting task of up-rezing the engine and content authored on a PSP running at 480 x 272 resolution and 30 frames per second to 1920 x 1080p at a steady 60 fps on the PS3. This required a custom PS3 version of our engine, coded in-house exclusively for Collection II, as well as a painstaking process by art team. We ended up going through every single character in the game and doubling or tripling polygon count by hand, as well as up-rezing and re-painting every texture across both games at 4x resolution on both characters and environments.

Being gluttons for punishment, we also decided from the beginning of the project that just re-mastering content from PSP resolution to 1080p wasn’t necessarily challenging enough (as a quick aside…we were wrong), so we also wanted to take advantage of our custom PS3 engine and try to implement full stereoscopic 3D support. After a first pass of 3D implementation and careful playthroughs of both games in 3D, we identified certain trouble areas with and addressed them with techniques such gas near-screen fading on certain particles and camera focal plane compensation for a smooth and enjoyable 3D experience. The quality of the final result of the 3D on Collection II so surprised us that it actually sold myself and a number of others on the team 3D TVs in general. Personally I wouldn’t want to play the games any other way after being able to experience it firsthand.

Besides adding up-scaling in-game content and 3D support, there was one other challenge that is worth noting (and elicited groans of despair from both artists and programmers alike). Between Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta we had over an hour of pre-rendered cinematics, and the gap in video resolution between our PSP source footage and full HD was so extreme that no matter how many custom video up-scale solutions we tried, there was just a glaring quality difference between the 1080P real-time gameplay and the video. It was pretty demoralizing for us to play the game in beautiful HD and hit a cinematic trigger where Kratos looked like he was rendered through a dirty sock, so we realized we would just have to bite the bullet and properly re-render all cinematics in full 1080p. To do this we ported all of our cinematic scenes to the PS3 and, months and terabytes of data later, had every single frame re-rendered in HD through the new Collection’s engine. From there we had to up-rez all of the post production effects and re-composite every single cinematic again in HD, giving us a final result that blended seamlessly with the in-game quality.

Needless to say, all of the above made for quite a laborious process for us, but we were set on doing justice to the original games that we put so much blood, sweat, and tears into. We hope this effort really pays off for God of War fans able to experience both PSP games in glorious 1080p!

We have partnered with Studio Output, one of the world’s most tuned-in creative design and production companies, to help us curate The Studio collection and ensure only the finest offerings in everything from urban street art to illustration are included.

Since The Studio lunched in April we have released over 40 Themes from some of the most coveted and cutting edge graphic and digital artists, illustrators and graphic designers around the world. The Studio collection on PlayStation Store is now one of the greatest showcases of digital art anywhere in the world and they are all available for you to download.

Take a look at some of the amazing Themes that have launched on The Studio in the last month.

Today, we are launching 6 new Themes on PlayStation Store for PS3 ranging from 3D animation, street art to illustration. First up here are a few of my favourites from those launching this week:

Dazzle Eye Dynamic Theme by MVM
“Dazzle” refers to the graphic pattern. It was originally developed for the navy during World War 1 to bewilder the enemy and make it hard for the enemy to recognize ships by “erasing” the contours and the shapes. The whole Dazzle Eye concept is to mildly confuse the spectator.

Gimp Galaxy Dynamic Theme by Bob London
Bob London draws pictures for editorial, advertising and clothing clients on the Earth. He lives and works in a black hole. And this Theme is a view of a galaxy far, far away, where a field of living Gimp asteroids moves through the Universe, to boldly go where no field of living Gimp asteroids has gone before’

Big Bang P1 Static Theme by Mr Jago & Andrew McAttee P1
We asked 2 artists with alternative styles to liven up our office canteen wall. The result is a fantastic mash up of styles that we liked so much we turned it into a Theme. This is Part 1, with more to come. Take a look at the video to see how it was created.

Plus, we have 3 other great Themes available

Mobile Dynamic Theme by Sonbr

Beyond Reality Static Theme by Sicksystems

Eye See You Static Theme by Mago

In a world where art and gaming continue to converge, the digital creations on offer at The Studio are the ultimate design accessories for your PS3 or PSP. Available to download from just €0.99 to €2.99* each, you can choose from a wide range of Static and Dynamic themes for the XMB.

And don’t forget Subscribers to PlayStation Plus will be able to take advantage of a number of exclusive deals and offers, including six free themes a year and a 20% discount on all Themes in The Studio collection.

With more Themes being added each month The Studio is an ever expanding collection of the world’s most cutting-edge art allowing you to turn your PS3 or PSP into a personalised digital gallery.