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.

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Every so often the team at San Diego Studio allow me up from the basement, favorite red stapler in hand, to take a peek at the upcoming week’s new features. I’ve learned to “extend” my gameplay sessions with “coincidental” occurrences of…

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!

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We love to be scared. There’s something so primal and universal about fear, and a good horror story can really bring out the best of it, making our hearts race and our minds veer toward the darkest recesses of the human psyche. And we just keep going back for more!

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.

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