Recently, I finally joined the antisocial revolution and got myself a smartphone to stare at so that I don’t have to speak to my friends. I also downloaded Foursquare (along with the official PlayStation app, of course) and have been checking in more often than a librarian.

I particularly like the Badges and the little cryptic clues that you have to figure out to find them. They’re a bit like Trophies, and as Wikipedia tells me that Foursquare will allow users to create custom Badges at some stage in the future, I thought we could join forces and start planning some PlayStation-specific examples.

Drake, looking for the ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ Badge.

Here’s the idea: think of a real world location that also appears in a video game and come up with a witty name for the badge and a clue to guide people to it. Here’s are some examples. Can you guess what they are?

Doin’ the Chimeran Walk. Oi! – This London Borough towers above the rest in Resistance: Fall of Man.

That Belongs in a Museum – Where Nathan Drake ‘borrowed’ Marco Polo’s oil lamp.

Real Nightlife Simulator – Where the Gran Turismo series first went urban with the headlights on.

Add them into the comments – it’s up to you whether you tell us the answers or leave us to figure them out; I’ll check in over the weekend and any add more that I think of. Of course, you could use fictional locations if you’re really stuck, but you get bonus points if you keep it real.

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I love monsters. I grew up watching movies like It Came From Beneath the Sea and The Thing and playing games like War of the Monsters and Resident Evil. I wanted to honor that spirit with this first edition of the PlayStation Monsterpedia, a collection of detailed artwork and in-depth specifications gleaned directly from the game developers that inspired it all.

For this edition, I selected monsters that have left a strong impact on me personally, whether it was Dead Nation‘s shudder-inducing Cutter or Sackboy’s new arch-nemesis the Negativitron. Expect to see future editions of the PlayStation Monsterpedia detailing more memorable monsters from PlayStation lore, both old and new. What beasts would you like to see in the next installment? Be sure to leave your suggestions in the comments.

Codename: “WIDOWMAKER”
Height: Varies; size difference assumed to be based on varying maturity
Weight: Varies
Natural habitat: Unknown; Chimeran in origin
Defensive mechanisms: Toxic, caustic saliva; barbed fore talons; thick, chitinous armor
Weaknesses: Heavy artillery
Appears in: Resistance: Fall of Man, Resistance 3

BEHAVIOR:
The Widowmaker is the largest known feral Chimera, a wild spider-like predator that spits caustic saliva at any foes it cannot stab with its razor-sharp tarsi. Its appearance on the battlefield requires immediately engagement by all nearby units, with high casualty rates reported for both human and Chimeran forces. Widowmakers are generally solitary creatures, though scattered reports have indicated the possible existence of clans of Widowmakers stampeding through the wilderness.

Unlike the young Widowmakers Nathan Hale fought in England, fully grown Widowmakers are nearly impossible to defeat with conventional weaponry, though high explosives can prove effective. Initial data suggests that combatants that focus on the creature’s face first, then its weak points as it reacts, suffer lower casualty rates.

Codename: “DEVOURER”
Height: Approximately 25 feet tall
Weight: 15,000 lbs (estimated)
Natural habitat: Marshlands surrounding New Marais
Defensive mechanisms: Powerful musculature; long, barbed tongue; thick armor plating
Weakness: Electricity; gaps between armor plates near the mouth and ribs
Appears in: inFAMOUS 2

BEHAVIOR:
The Devourer is part of The Corrupted, a race of mutant beings that have burrowed from the swamplands surrounding the city of New Marais. More precisely, The Corrupted comprise a hierarchy of organisms, including humanoids equipped with long bladed arm talons as well as smaller armored drones called Ravagers. The Devourer represents the pinnacle of The Corrupted’s unnatural evolution. Its long, barbed tongue is prehensile, which the Devourer uses to immobilize and ingest organic matter.

Eyewitness accounts from New Marais are scarce, but the Devourer is reportedly aggressive and territorial, making it exceedingly dangerous. With its vast size, enormous strength and armored exoskeleton, the Devourer presents a persistent threat to the citizens of New Marais — particularly as The Corrupted make increasingly bold incursions into inhabited urban centers. Attempts to subdue The Corrupted by local law enforcement have proven unsuccessful, sparking a small-scale arms race as mutant and human alike position for control of New Marais. A local anti-mutant vigilante group called the Militia has reported some success in keeping The Corrupted at bay, and have peddled these achievements into a local protection racket.

Speculation that The Corrupted and the Devourer were mutated as a result of local Ray Sphere experimentation warrants further investigation.

Codename: “CUTTER”
Height: Over 11 feet tall
Weight: Over 700 pounds
Natural habitat: Bioengineered, designed for urban environments
Defensive mechanisms: Thick, hardened carapace; machete-like talons
Weaknesses: Very few, though tactically inept and tends to charge mindlessly at prey
Appears in: Dead Nation

BEHAVIOR:
This undead construct patrols large areas and can survive for months, even years, on very little physical sustenance. The Cutter’s behavioral patterns are simple and primal, a testament to its lab-grown origins. Alarmingly nimble despite its towering physique, the Cutter often surprises its unlucky targets. Upon seeing human prey, the Cutter immediately charges and attempts to cleave the victim in two using its massive, bladed talons. The cutting power of the Cutter’s machete-like hands can’t be overstated; they can easily cut through cars, fences, and Kevlar armor with one swipe.

The Cutter shows little discrimination in choosing targets, and won’t hesitate to carve through pockets of infected if they stand between it and living prey. Resourceful survivors have been known to exploit this fact as a way of negotiating the countless infected that now prowl the streets of major urban centers worldwide.

Codename: “VERANIDATOR”
Height: Approximately 50 feet
Weight: 5.98 tons
Natural habitat: Any large scale urban environment
Defensive mechanisms: Multi-shot rocket launcher; hydraulic claw; immobilizing acoustic eruption
Weaknesses: Easily distracted
Appears in: Eat Them!

BEHAVIOR:
One of over five million variations of monster built from components in the lab of noted monster scientist and madman Dr. Wilder, the Veranidator is equipped for maximum destruction in urban environments. Its rocket launcher can be used to take out ground-based and aerial attackers, and the patented ROAR acoustic system will immobilize unprotected human foes. Its hydraulic claw is just as useful for smashing through structures as it is grabbing improvised weaponry from the ground.

Like all of Dr. Wilder’s creations, the Veranidator is powered by disposable fuel units commonly used in vehicles, cafes, street corners, and anywhere else civilians congregate.

Codename: “NEGATIVITRON”
Height: 2.6 miles, or approximately 42,000 Sackboys
Weight: The Sun
Natural Habitat: The cold, empty reaches of the Cosmos; the cupboard under the stairs
Defensive Mechanisms: Sucking; Creating Meanies and infecting the Cosmos; Telling jokes at funerals
Weaknesses: Metal toy soldiers, bits of string, Sackboy
Appears in: LittleBigPlanet 2

BEHAVIOR:
Deep in the exquisite cold of the interstellar Cosmos, the skilled Negativitron hunter must know when to hunt and when to flee. Wherever there is silence, wherever there is serenity, calm or peace, that is when the tracker must be his most wary.

With infinite patience, the Negativitron waits in the darkest corners of the Cosmos with one terrible eye always open. The hunter will receive but one warning that his quarry has turned: THE UNMISTAKABLE DEATH WOOSH OF AN 1800W BAGLESS INTERSTELLAR VACUUM CLEANER! Snarling, thrashing, sucking, The Negativitron attacks with nothing but vengeance and fury on its mind. In the vast blackness of space, a Vacuum within a vacuum. Feeding on fear, on doubt, on all those times you were told you were worthless and grew to believe it. The Negativitron will read you, search you. The more you fear it, the stronger it becomes.

And what of the hunter? For most, eternal silence and blackness. Perhaps one in a hundred will escape with his life intact, and one in a thousand with his sanity. The Negativitron is a ruthless foe, filled with cunning and empty of remorse. It will lure you, trick you, seduce you and destroy you. Yours will be but another forgotten story, a speck of dust in the nebula of forgotten heroes.

The Negativitron shall live on! Brooding, resting, waiting.

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As they’ve already released two Resistance games and are working on their third Ratchet and Clank title on PS3, I can see where Insomniac Games gets its name. At E3 last week, I sat down with Bryan Bernal, Project Manager of Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time to take a look at the latest instalment in one of my favourite series (just look at my avatar).

The demo started in a massive new area – the biggest ever seen in a R&C game – where Ratchet is fighting alongside General Azimuth. I got to see a hilarious new weapon called the Sonic Eruptor, which is a giant, belching frog on the end of a gun. There is a constant animation of it breathing in and out and if you fire when it’s at its fullest, you get a more vociferous burp resulting in more damage. The graphics are sumptuous and represent yet another leap forward for the series.

“Technology wise, we’re building on Resistance 2,” explains Bernal, “so we have soft shadowing; our own water technology, which just went open source so other developers can use it in their projects; and the biggest, most open environments we have ever built.”

“In order to get around, we’ve given Ratchet a pair of hover boots that let you zoom across the levels and do some acrobatic stuff like going off ramps. They also open up some great new platforming possibilities.”

We then see another new weapon, the Cryomine Glove, which lets you temporarily freeze enmies. Bernal blasted a huge mounted rider and then used a crossbow called the Plasma Striker, which also reveals each baddies’ weak point, to finish him off.

My favourite part of the demonstration was when we moved to a level from later in the game and were controlling Clank as he faced a puzzle which makes use of the game’s new time mechanics. In front of us was the familiar set-up of two floor switches and a closed door, and there are no prizes (I sold them) for guessing that you need to somehow stand on the two switches to open the door.

The way around it is to use the three Time Record Pads in the centre of the room. When you stand on one you are able to start a recording, lasting up to a minute, of your movements. When you stand on a second pad and start recording, your first Clank jumps to life and also interacts with the environment. So, (can you guess what it is yet?) you can create two recordings and sync their movements to stand on the switches together, while the third you runs through the open door.

I won’t even try and explain the other two puzzles of this kind shown to me as I was scratching my head after a few steps, but they involve up to five Time Record Pads, multiple doors and elevators (lifts, to you and me). It kind of reminded me of Portal; the gameplay mechanic is completely different but the thought processes required seemed similar.

“There are going to be a lot of these puzzles,” Bernal said, “and we’re trying to appeal to the hardcore audience as well as the more casual. They’re also optional and will unlock new areas and rewards, so we’re able to have some really challenging levels for those who want them without putting off anyone who struggles with them. We love this kind of cerebral gameplay so we’re really happy to have this in the new Ratchet and Clank.”

What was interesting for me at E3, as I was playing so many games each day, was seeing which ones I found myself thinking about in the car on the way back to the hotel. On the first day it was EyePet with the odd glimpse of that helicopter fight from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves  (and my inability to know the difference between Chloe and Elena!) After the second day, it was the time gameplay in Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time.

Actually, there are so many things I could talk about from Bryan’s great presentation, but I don’t want to keep you scrolling here all day, so if you have any questions, let me know in the comments or check out Jeff’s walkthrough video from PlayStation.Blog.US.

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Hi. I’m Dan, the Producer for Resistance 2 in Europe. I just wanted to post a follow-up to last Thursday’s US blog update from Bryan Intihar (he of Insomniac Games fame!) about the two new free Resistance 2 multiplayer skins.

Originally, these were scheduled to launch on June 11th in the SCEE region but I’m now pleased to announce that, thanks to the good people in the Store team, we’ve brought that date forward to this Thursday, June 04! Not quite a simultaneous launch I know, but as close as we could get. Hope you enjoy them! Hoping to see lots of Grims and Dr Malikovs facing off online on Thursday night.

If you haven’t already, check out the new Resistance Space in PlayStation Home - this went live a couple of weeks back and check out this video of the game!

Don’t forget that game launching is now supported for Resistance 2 from PS Home, so it’s a good way to meet up with your friends and party up for multiplayer.

Cheers,
Dan

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