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!

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Starhawk Minipack Coming Soon!

Next week we will be releasing a brand new Starhawk Minipack containing a trio of costumes from the amazing game by our friends at LightBox Interactive.

To celebrate this release we have put together a cool new wallpaper for you all to enjoy!

Eagled-eyed blog readers will have noticed that there are only two characters on this wallpaper…

So make sure you stay tuned for more news on this upcoming pack to find out just who the third character coming to LittleBigPlanet is!

Mm Picks

This week’s Mm Picks include a delve into the platforming fun that is Water Caverns, the chance for Sackboy to have an out of body experience as he becomes a spirit in Ghosting and a few awesome mini-games for you to challenge your friends against!

Watery Caverns by ThePurpleWaffle

Ghosting (1Player Only) by PacJonno

Tiles by tevlon1

Bricker by DJD2010

Colortrain NEO [1-4 Player] by DeKa1357

Community Highlight – The Weekly Planetarium

Every week the incredibly dedicated folks over on LittleBigPlanetarium.com work hard to release a newsletter updating the community on absolutely everything that has been happening on LittleBigPlanet throughout the week!

There’s not a single news post, video or quote that they miss from the week’s news and they even have time to put together their own features and articles to make this awesome newsletter truly unique.

So head on over to LittleBigPlanetarium.com to read the latest scoop on LittleBigPlanet!

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Hi everybody, it’s Jakub here from Grip Games.

In March, we announced our upcoming PS3 and PS Vita game Foosball 2012. Now, we’re back with a series of short developer diaries. We’ll introduce you to some of the game’s coolest features, like PlayStation Move support, full cross-platform compatibility between PS3 and PS Vita and also the online multiplayer mode.

The first video you can watch today demonstrates Foosball 2012 and PlayStation Move controllers in action, showing that you can play this game exactly the way you’re used to when playing on real table football!

Thanks to the precision and zero lag of PlayStation Move, even the slightest movements of your hands can be properly translated into the game, allowing you to precisely control everything from shot power to the positions of your foosmen.

One or two Move controllers can be used by a single player, or you can ignore Move controls completely and play with the good old DualShock 3 controller. Using the DualShock 3, the left stick controls the poles and movements of the ball and the right stick is used to shoot; allowing you to accurately aim and control the shot power.

We hope you enjoyed the video. Watch out for next week’s episode where we will be showing you how cross play and game continuation will work.

Foosball 2012 will be released soon on PlayStation Store where you’ll have both the PS3 and PS Vita versions together for a single price.

If you want to know more about Foosball 2012, visit www.foosball2012.com.

See you next week

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So it has once again been a while since I have posted to the PlayStation.Blog, BUT from the content of this blog entry you will all get to see exactly why!

First off we have some cool new gameplay to show off and talk about. As every Sly fan knows Sly Cooper and Carmelita Fox have a long and torrid history, which is destined to continue in the latest instalment. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time picks up the relationship where Sly 3 left off, Sly is feigning amnesia so he can be with the love of his life, Carmelita. But when he re-joins the Cooper Gang on their time-travelling escapade to restore his family’s legacy, you can be sure Carmelita will quickly become embroiled in their wild adventure. (more…)

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This is the final installment in our four-part series detailing the making of Sorcery. In this video we discuss what went into the invention of this vast, magical universe to which players are transported in the game. There were quite a few creative decisions that had to be made, so we give you a bit of insight into the process of how we came up with the look and feel of the different environments/realms and the dangerous creatures that inhabit them. You’ll hear from the development team on how we went about making a fantasy world feel fresh (and strange), details on the backstory behind places like the Endless Stair and the Faerie Forest, and some anecdotes on why the prettiest character in Sorcery is also one of the most dangerous!

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