Starhawk: Multi-Version PSN Release Incoming

As many of you know, the team here at Lightbox Interactive has been hard at work developing all of the Starhawk Updates to help support the Starhawk Community. With today’s announcement, we’ll help grow that community even more with something that a ton of players from around the world have asked for – a digital-download version of Starhawk, and not just the original version, but one that has is packed with all of our the awesome updates we’ve made since our initial release!

Yeah, you read that right: we now have three, three, THHRREEEEEEEE ways for you to download the exact type of Starhawk experience you’re looking for on 26th September.

First you can get the complete Starhawk experience by downloading the Full version for €34.99/£28.49. Another option for you – and this is an INSANE deal – is the Starhawk: Multiplayer-Edition for just €19.99/£15.99! This includes one of the best PlayStation 3 multiplayer experiences and all of the updates we’ve released since the game originally launched.

Last, but certainly not least, is another killer deal for all PlayStation Plus Members. You guys get the Starhawk: Singleplayer Campaign at no additional cost!

Starhawk is another great addition to the Instant Game Collection that PS Plus members already know and love! If you haven’t gotten a chance to read Stephen Totilo’s article on Kotaku about just how awesome the benefits of PS Plus are, you totally should. PS Plus is by far the best value out there!

And because I’m a tease, I’ll leave you with this… We have something else *VERY* tasty in store for all the PS Plus Members, so keep your eyes on the blog for another announcement very soon. *tickle-tickle*

But wait… there’s more ’cause I’m not *JUST* a tease! As you know, about a month ago we released the Starhawk 1.03 Update that had a ton of great new features including two completely new maps on the Planet of Cypress. The team and I were so stoked to see how happy the Starhawk community received it, that we’re excited to release our Starhawk 1.04 Update on 26th September with even more awesome-sauce, including three brand-new gameplay modes!

Ok, so those are the new hella-fun gameplay modes but there is a ton of other stuff in the Starhawk 1.04 Update as well. We’ve been following all of the community feedback and we’ve made a large number of changes. Check it out.

In my last blog post I wrote this massive wall of text covering all the various new things we added. So this time, I’m going to try and be more efficient on what should matter to you most.

Three new gameplay modes: Assault, Deathmatch Arena, Gatekeeper.
Five new “small” maps: Cypress Glade, Space Relay, Scourge Junction, Space Flotilla, Scourge Breaker.
Updated preplaced pickups on all maps (just like we did in Cypress) as well as updated Rift Barrel placement.
Three new Build & Battle loadouts: Trooper, Lightweight and Speeder.
New ToolTips are displayed on various options and buttons in the Uplink, including a display of all the units in each LoadOut and recommended player counts when you create a new game.
MAW Rocket Launcher now can lockon to the Sidewinder Jet Bike.
Added four new national clan banners for our players in the Middle East: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the UAE.
Quit Penalty for players that quit during a game you get a loss posted and SkillScore hit.
New “Up Next” display at the intermission screen of what map, mode and loadout is coming up in the next round.
More scorelimit and timelimit options when creating a game.
All three new game modes are added to QuickMatch for matchmaking.
CoOp Prospector is now supported in QuickMatch for matchmaking into public CoOp games.
New CoOp Prospector options for creating Private or Public games, difficulty, and game name.
Public CoOp Prospector games now are supported in the serverlist.
Bug fix that ensures that only Clan Leaders/Officers can edit the clan tag field.
Added a PlayStation Store button to the Uplink for accessing Starhawk DLC.
Increased starting RiftEnergy in Homeworlds.
Slightly increased the Galloway Pistol’s headshot damage.
Removed the “Bruiser” Skill.
Added a “Grinder” Skill that allows you to start with a Grinder in your weapon inventory.
Grinder windup time has been reduced.
Max range for the Grinder has been increased.
In the serverlist, the easy “Cake” and medium “Fist” game icons have been removed. You will still see the hard “Skull” game icons.
Refined difficulty tuning on all CoOp Prospector Missions (slightly easier).
Increased XP payouts for all CoOp Prospector Missions.
XP payouts for capturing Tier2 and Tier3 bases in the Zones gameplay mode.
Integrated Starhawk specific network scan to help players resolve port issues.
Added ingame scoreboard HUD for Dogfight & Arena Deathmatch gameplay modes.

Blurg! Even with my super-effective condensing, the list of new stuff is still looooong – but that’s a good thing for the Starhawk community! If you want the extended version of this list with all the juicy details, head on over to our LightBox Interactive Dev-Blog or the official website at Starhawkthegame.com.

Oh man, still so much to talk about. Focus, Dylan. FOCUS! “But Dylan…what about Starhawk DLC?” Don’t worry! While we have been focusing on making sure we get you guys all of the FREE content first, we certainly didn’t forget about the DLC! Boy, do we have a truck load of it ready to go LIVE for all of you on 26th September as well!

However, as I’ve already established in this blog post, I am sometimes a tease (you can ping me on Twitter @DylanJobe). So….I’m not going to list any of the DLC just yet. We’ll make another blog post about it very soon! Let me leave y’all with this one DLC hint. Here’s a piece of concept art showing a couple different design ideas for our new DLC Build & Battle structure.

I’m not going to tell you what it does but I *CAN* say it’s awesome. I mean so ridiculously awesome and fun. I wonder what it could be? ;-) And yes, I typed “y’all” because I’ve been living in Austin, Texas for three years!