We are excited to announce a captivating new addition to the Augmented Reality (AR) Play line-up next month with the release of PulzAR for PS Vita. PulzAR is a mind boggling, potentially Earth-shattering puzzle game that turns nearly any flat surface into an epic battle against time and a looming celestial event with the use of your AR Play cards.

You see, in PulzAR, the Earth is in grave danger. Somewhere just beyond our planet’s outer atmosphere, a series of colossal asteroids are spinning ever closer on a deadly collision course to wipe out humankind. So far, all attempts to divert their trajectory have failed. Now, in mankind’s desperate last stand against certain catastrophe, it’s up to you to command a network of explosive rockets and try to blast the asteroids into a harmless meteor shower before they reach Earth.

Using precision laser technology, you have only a limited time to program the guidance system using a series of reflectors, splitters, and filters that activate the nodes that will launch the rockets towards their targets. Once launched, you are able to follow the rocket, looking up with your PS Vita as it reaches beyond the atmosphere and into the vastness of space with only one purpose…to destroy some serious space rock! The fate of planet Earth rests with you. Good luck!

Score:

• 12 Comments
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

As I announced in the last blog post, Retro City Rampage is coming to PS3 and PS Vita! But wait, I have even more great news…

Last week in Toronto, we held an amazing event called PlayStation <3 Canada to promote and support Canadian indie game developers. In attendance were us here at Vblank Entertainment, Drinkbox Studios (Tales From Space: About a Blob), Queasy Games (Sound Shapes), ][ Games (Dyad) and more. It was a blast! For me, the highlight was finally giving fans a chance to see and play the PS Vita version of Retro City Rampage for the first time. I’ve been going on for a while about how amazing it looks on the PS Vita, and now you can see what it looks like for yourself.

While the PS Vita version of Retro City Rampage boasts everything that its PS3 counterpart does, I had fun making a few tweaks to tailor the experience to the handheld. While the PS3 version supports tube TV simulation filters which curve the screen and add scanlines (allowing you to play on an LCD TV with the feel of an old CRT), the PS Vita version supports classic dot-matrix simulation filters giving it a heavy dose of Game Boy/Game Gear nostalgia. I absolutely love it and it’s my filter of choice when playing the game. If the LCD grid simulation alone isn’t retro enough for you, you can also change the colour mode. The colour modes let you make Retro City Rampage even more retro with options such as “Brick Handheld” (yellow-green monochrome) and “Virtual Burn” (all red), “Blurst Processor,” “SEE=64,” “PC DOS EGA” and a dozen more (also available in the PS3 version).

Those of you who are worried that the characters might be too small on the PS Vita screen needn’t be! It supports two screen modes. The standard mode designed specifically for the PS Vita scales everything up and ensures that the characters and everything else are easy to see. Alternatively, the second mode uses smaller pixels but displays the entire 16:9 widescreen image and supports the TV/arcade screen borders of the PS3 counterpart, so it’s entirely up to you.

The PS Vita’s touchscreen also adds a nice…touch. RCR is a love letter to the days of the d-pad, for core gamers who grew up with controllers and buttons – but that doesn’t mean that the touchscreen can’t be used where it makes sense. It really makes the menus, minigames and shops faster and more convenient to navigate, going hand in hand with RCR’s overall design philosophy, which is to emit nostalgia while still catering to our evolved expectations of games. This extends from the added touchscreen functionality to the game design and tutorials. For example, you won’t need to flip through a manual or call a tips hotline to figure out what to do. But if you’re an absolute purist, you can still play the game 100% with the buttons.

I’m willing to bet that if you have a PS Vita, you also have a PS3. Well, you’re going to be exceptionally excited to hear about just how good friends the PS3 and PS Vita versions are. If you’re like me, you want the best of both worlds. You want to be able to play your favourite games on your nice TV from the sofa, but still take them with you everywhere you go. With Retro City Rampage, your dreams have come true! It supports continuous play so you can play the game on your sofa, save it, and continue where you left off from your PS Vita (and vice versa).

One question you’re going to ask is “WHEN!?” I don’t have a fixed release date just yet, but it’ll be out as soon as possible. I’m fixing the final bugs and working around the clock to get it into your hands as soon as I can. Keep your eyes peeled here on the PlayStation.Blog!

Score:

• 38 Comments
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

As the Chimeran virus prepares to unleash its formidable force on PlayStation Vita users later this month, Frank Simon, Senior Managing Producer at Sony Computer America – recently paid Australia a visit to talk all things Resistance: Burning Skies. He took time out of his busy schedule to speak exclusively to us on camera about an exciting new social feature using the PlayStation Vita’s social and location based service, ‘near’.

“With new hardware comes an exciting new scope of uncompromised gameplay capabilities for the first FPS on PlayStation Vita” said Frank. “Taking further advantage of the unique social connectivity of PlayStation Vita, while playing Resistance: Burning Skies in the dynamic new multiplayer mode, ‘near’ will enable players to become infected with the Chimeran virus for multiplayer bonuses – and ‘gift’ these to other PS Vita users”.

Resistance Burning Skies launches across Europe on May 30th and UK June 1st.

Score:

• 16 Comments
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

Mortal Kombat for PS Vita has come out of the gate strong after shipping on May 4th. In just two weeks, players have clashed in hundreds of thousands of online matches across the world. With the PS Vita system players can access a complete Mortal Kombat experience on the go, whether you’re on the bus, in the library, or hanging out with friends.

There are quite a few unique features with this Vita version of Mortal Kombat. While preserving the core gameplay elements, we’ve implemented a ton of new functionalities, such as touchscreen Fatalities and X-Rays, as well as an all-new Challenge Tower II that takes advantage of the diversity of features that the PS Vita system provides.

One question that we continue to see on our official @MK_MortalKombat Twitter is: “Netherrealm, I can’t beat Mission XXX in the new Challenge Tower! Can you help?” Why, yes we can! To answer, we decided to put together some Tips and Tricks videos to outline strategies for some of the more difficult missions within the Challenge Tower II (it’s not called Easy Tower!).

Check out our video below to see our design team spill some secrets on how to master new, exclusive characters and use the new PS Vita system features to their maximum potential. Once you’re done, please share your tips in the comments section below!

Score:

• 6 Comments
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

A message from a representative at Superbrothers, written in the midst of a spring thunderstorm in the hill country at the Quebec/Vermont border.

It is with immense pleasure that we are announcing our involvement with a videogame project known as Sound Shapes. We are extra excited to be contributing alongside sworcery maestro Jim Guthrie. This represents the latest in a series of Superbrothers  X Jim Guthrie  a/v collaborations dating back to 2005′s musical film Children of the Clone and 2008′s Dot Matrix Revolution, but this will be our first a/v collaboration since 2011′s cult classic videogame Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.
(more…)

Score:

• 8 Comments
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook