It’s easy to forget that “tactical espionage action” is a relatively recent innovation in the videogame medium, with trailblazers like Metal Gear Solid and Syphon Filter emerging in the late ’90s to great acclaim and even greater influence.

A more realistic, open-ended philosophy towards combat soon spread through the action genre, permanently impacting the development of artificial intelligence, level design, and narrative – ultimately paving the way for everything from Sly Cooper to Assassin’s Creed.

Syphon Filter veered closer to the action-adventure end of this spectrum, though it too left a distinct mark on the genre with its more realistic approach to combat. Enemies ducked for cover behind objects, an array of memorable gadgets gave players more combat choice, and headshots dropped most combatants instantly. (more…)

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Corpse Party on PSP. What more can you say about it? In my previous PlayStation.Blog entries, I’ve likened it to horror classics such as Clock Tower and Fatal Frame. I’ve talked about how it’s one of the creepiest, most effective horror games I’ve ever played, and how its unique visuals, its 3D binaural audio and its storytelling methods help give it an uncomfortable, unforgettable atmosphere.

And you, fair players… you agreed with me. You played it late at night with headphones on, just as I suggested, and it kept you awake. It haunted your nightmares and made you jump every time your house creaked or your neighbor’s kids smacked the wall… until you realized, wait a minute, I don’t have any neighbors!

And then you were never heard from again… Presumably because you were too busy getting every wrong end in the game, of course. It’s hard to resist the charm of those horrible, horrible deaths, after all! Call it morbid curiosity if you will, but we all know you, like Morishige, get a certain sadistic thrill out of seeing (or, more often, hearing) these characters you’ve come to know and love get killed, slowly, in the most creatively twisted ways imaginable.

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If you have been a regular visitor to the PlayStation Store over the last two years, you will probably have noticed the various changes we have made. During that period we invited many people from the PlayStation community around the world to come and participate in focus groups and one-to-one user-testing sessions in order to help us understand what we were already doing well and, more importantly, where we could improve the PlayStation Store.

Thanks to the invaluable feedback and insight we gained from the community, we were able to make incremental improvements to the old store and, at the same time, develop a set of design principles which would help us create the all-new PlayStation Store that we’re launching later today.

So, what’s new? Almost everything! We’ve still got all the latest and greatest games and DLC for PlayStation 3, PS Vita and PSP. The biggest changes are to do with how you find the stuff you want. Whether you’re looking for the latest AAA release or a PSOne Classic, it’s now so much quicker and easier. (more…)

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Hi there! It’s Alexey Menshikov from Beatshapers and I’m pleased to reveal our next game – BreakQuest: Extra Evolution, coming this week to PlayStation minis, priced €3.99/£3.49.

This game has a long history: the original title was released back in 2004 on PC by Spain-based developers Felix Casablancas and Nurium Games. We were one of its biggest fans and when Sony announced PlayStation minis, we decided to bring this game to the platform with considerable success.

A year after the PSP minis release we started thinking about a sequel. We’d had feedback from players, so we decided to improve the gameplay and design. We took the best elements of the original game and rebuilt it from scratch, incorporating our vision and our inspiration from the original BreakQuest. As a result – we have a great game full of style, which really gives players a new experience.

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Hi Ghosts! I’m happy to announce that Khyber Strike is out today. This third downloadable content package for Ghost Recon Future Soldier features a new adversarial game type, three new multiplayer maps, a new Guerrilla Mode co-op map, new Trophies and an increased level cap.

Here’s a quick recap of what’s up for grabs:

A new adversarial game type

Our new game type is called Takeover and it’s playable on all 16 multiplayer maps. Similar to a classic Team Death Match, score points for your team by eliminating enemies. Tip the scales by taking control of the objective and earn a score multiplier to your team. Defend your team’s objective to prevent the enemy from gaining the same advantage. Choose to split your team to defend and attack at the same time, or move as a group and overwhelm your enemy. When the mission ends, the team with highest score wins.

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