So, my debate for you all today is:

If you could invite five game characters to a dinner party who would they be?

My first invite would have to go to Nathan Drake. His charm appeal and stories of unimaginable near death experiences would have me captured in adventure bliss (whilst also naively arranging to join him on his next journey).

Get your thinking caps on and I’ll look forward to my invite!

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The Weekend Debate – Would You Dine With Daxter Or Cook For Kratos

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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Foosball 2012 Developer Diary #1 – PlayStation Move Controls

Racing fans have got it alright this week too, as the Access TV crew head to Wimbledon Stadium for some banger racing fun. Access TV cameraman and video editor Dave Jackson gets behind the wheel and, after being shunted across the track, catches up with Codemasters’ Iain Smith and Mike Chapman.

From cars to planes, Access TV go wing walking with competition winner Martin Tester, who got his wish of standing on top of a flying plane well and truly granted. See all the footage first hand.

To finish off, there’s all the latest PS3 news to enjoy, plus a roundup of all the week’s best content from the digital realm of the PlayStation Store. Enjoy the episode!

Don’t forget, we’re being lovely and giving you 2 free minis games for squat-all pennies. We may bribe you into liking our page, but you can cope with that when we bring you SO MUCH AWESOME each week – right?!

Access TV is available every Friday on YouTube – head to youtube.com/playstationaccess to subscribe and never miss an episode.

To sign up for future Access events or to hang out and chat with other members of the Access community, then visit us on Facebook at facebook.com/PlaystationAccess, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/PSAccess.

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Access Episode 34

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!

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.

Carmelita is of course radiant on the PlayStation 3, the new hardware allowed us to make her much more detailed and expressive than in the past. She is of course back as a fully playable character in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and so we also spent a lot of time evolving her gameplay. We have gone with a more precise over-the-shoulder aiming technique that allows players to lock on the targets quickly and easily.

Ok and now for another piece of really big news; a lot of people have been asking me about the PlayStation Vita, they feel that Sly would be a great game to take on the go. And I completely agree! SO that being said I can now announce that Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time will be available soon on BOTH the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Vita!

The portable version will contain all the same awesome Sly Cooper action you will find on the PlayStation 3 along with some very cool Vita specific features that incorporate the front and rear touch screens and motion controls. The game will also feature cross save capability; players will be able to save the game from either machine to the cloud and then pick up right where they left off at home or on the go.

And there we have it! We are all really excited to finally show Carmelita in action, she is a big fan favourite and I know everyone will love how she looks and plays in the latest instalment of the series. And we are also very psyched to be announcing the Vita version of the game, it’s been a crazy ride over the last few months bringing it over but when we see the results we know it was worth it. So, stay tuned for more Vita details including date and price coming very soon.

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Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time Coming To PS Vita

Mortal Kombat for PS Vita has come out of the gate strong after shipping on May 1st. In just two weeks, players have clashed in hundreds of thousands of online matches across the world. With the PS Vita system players can access a complete Mortal Kombat experience on the go, whether you’re on the bus, in the library, or hanging out with friends.

There are quite a few unique features with this Vita version of Mortal Kombat. While preserving the core gameplay elements, we’ve implemented a ton of new functionalities, such as touchscreen Fatalities and X-Rays, as well as an all-new Challenge Tower II that takes advantage of the diversity of features that the PS Vita system provides.

One question that we continue to see on our official @MK_MortalKombat Twitter is: “Netherrealm, I can’t beat Mission XXX in the new Challenge Tower! Can you help?” Why, yes we can! To answer, we decided to put together some Tips and Tricks videos to outline strategies for some of the more difficult missions within the Challenge Tower II (it’s not called Easy Tower!).

Check out our video here to see our design team spill some secrets on how to master new, exclusive characters and use the new PS Vita system features to their maximum potential. Once you’re done, please share your tips in the comments section below!

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Mastering Mortal Kombat for PS Vita

It is with immense pleasure that we are announcing our involvement with a video game project known as Sound Shapes. We are extra excited to be contributing alongside sworcery maestro Jim Guthrie. This represents the latest in a series of Superbrothers X Jim Guthrie a/v collaborations dating back to 2005′s musical film Children of the Clone and 2008′s Dot Matrix Revolution, but this will be our first a/v collaboration since 2011′s cult classic videogame Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.

Much like Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Sound Shapes is a made-in-Toronto DIY videogame that is unusually collaborative and has a heavy emphasis on synesthetic audiovisual style. What’s more, the people making Sound Shapes are all basically our very best pals – they’re the folks with whom we play board games, drink the beers, go skating and play hockey. On every level it’s an honor and a thrill to be involved.

The Superbrothers + Jim Guthrie collaboration will take the form of a Sound Shapes ‘album’ – a series of thematically connected & musically-linked levels known as CORPOREAL.

Sound Shapes is coming to PlayStation Vita, and it’ll be available before too long. Get psyched!!!

The collaborative process

After some initial discussion with Queasy, we chose to explore some of the concepts in prior Superbrothers films including Children of the Clone and Dot Matrix Revolution, so our levels are populated by computers, mainframes, office workers and water coolers. My mom was one of the first female computer programmers in Canada and my father worked as a mainframe computer salesman for decades, so it was nice to set aside the skeletons & space babies of sworcey and get to work on 20th century visual concepts. Meanwhile, the video game design takes the friendly platforming mechanics of Sound Shapes and stretches them in the direction of something like Impossible Mission for C-64 & Spectrum.

With this new collaboration the configuration is quite different. The game design, level design and sound integration are being handled by the Sound Shapes experts at Queasy. The order of operations was a little different this time around too. On S:S&S EP, many of the songs predated the project and I was able to create the world & concepts by listening to specific songs, many of them pre-existing compositions from Jim. In this case, the art assets were created without a specific soundtrack, and then it was up to Jim to craft his sounds to fit the look and concept.

Of course, the real work took place at Queasy & Capy, where a wide-ranging assortment of designers & creators – the Sound Shapes experts – put all the pieces together. Thanks so much for all your hard work folks, it has been a pleasure contributing to your efforts!

So, super excited to share this collaboration and can’t wait for you folks to check it out yourselves. If you’re going to be at E3, be sure to swing by the PlayStation booth for some hands-on time!

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Superbrothers + Jim Guthrie X Sound Shapes

In March, we announced our upcoming PS3 and PS Vita game Foosball 2012. And now we’ve returned to PlayStation.Blog to showcase a series of short developer diaries where we 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.

Our first video demonstrates Foosball 2012 and PlayStation Move motion controllers in action, showing that you can play this game exactly the way you are used from a real table football (“foosball”) game. 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 the shot power, positions of your foosmen, and so on.

One or two PS Move controllers can be used by one player, or you can ignore motion controls and play with the time-tested DualShock 3 controller, where 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.

In our next video, we will show you how PS3-to-PS Vita crossplay and game continuation will work. Foosball 2012 will be released soon on the PlayStation Store, and both the PS3 and PS Vita versions will come together for a single price. If you want to know more about Foosball 2012, visit our official website here.

…

View the full post:
Foosball 2012 Dev Diary: PlayStation Move Motion Controls

First off, a look at new gameplay. As every Sly fan knows, Sly Cooper and Carmelita Fox have a long and torrid history — a history that’s destined to continue in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. The game picks up where Sly 3 left off, and Sly is feigning amnesia so he can be with the love of his life, Carmelita. But when he rejoins the Cooper Gang on their time-traveling escapade to restore his family’s legacy, you can be sure Carmelita will quickly become embroiled in their wild adventure.

Carmelita is radiant on the PS3, and the powerful graphics hardware allowed us to make her much more detailed and expressive than in the past titles on PS2. She is, of course, a fully playable character in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and so we also spent a lot of time evolving her gameplay. We have gone with a more precise over-the-shoulder aiming technique that allows players to lock on the targets quickly and easily. You can see how this can be put to good use in the multi-layered boss battle.

Now for more big news! Ever since we revealed the game, fans have been asking me about PS Vita, arguing that Sly would be a great game to take on the go. I completely agree…and I can now confirm that Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time will be shipping this fall on BOTH the PS3 and the PS Vita, on the same day.

The portable version will contain all the same awesome Sly Cooper action you will find on the PS3 along with cool Vita-specific features that incorporate the front and rear touchscreens and motion controls. The game will also feature cross-save capability, so you’ll be able to save the game from either machine and then pick up right where you left off — whether you’re at home or on the go.

So there you go! We are thrilled to finally show Carmelita in action — she’s a big fan favorite and I know everyone will love how she looks and plays in the latest installment of the series — and to be announcing the PS Vita version of the game. It’s been a crazy ride over the last few months, but when we see the results we know it was worth it. So stay tuned for more PS Vita details including date and price coming very soon.

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PS Vita and Carmelita Revealed for Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

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With Jeff and Rey in L.A. for pre-E3 activities, and Nick still wandering his ancestral homelands in Africa, I preside over today’s somewhat more intimate show. Luckily, I roped in PSN Sr. Community Manager Matthew Harper to share his eye-opening Origin Story, which provides some helpful tips for those of you who have wondered how to break into game development.

We kick off with a late-breaking interview featuring Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley from Naughty Dog, the creative director and game director of upcoming PS3 survival epic The Last of Us. If you’ve wondered how the game will play compared to UNCHARTED, or how Naughty Dog is handling the game’s decidedly mature themes, today’s shows will provide the answers you need.

Then we shift gears for a detailed discussion with Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning and Just Add Water CEO Stewart Gilray. The pair provide insight into the upcoming PS Vita version of Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath HD, discuss how PSN’s indie-minded model has reinvigorated the seminal series, and lay out their plans for world domination.

And as always, we reveal next week’s PSN game lineup, share a selection of new user questions and tips, and provide a head-scratching new Mystery Theme.

Stuff We Talked About

• The Last of Us – new in-game cutscene
• Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD

The Cast

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game
details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating
descriptions.]

• Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. Special thanks to Astro Gaming headsets for providing audio gear.

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PlayStation Blogcast 025: The Last of Us Explore the Future of Oddworld

We’ll also be able to tell you more about some great downloadable items soon, including our first free map…Cypress. Stay tuned for details!

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Starhawk’s Final Days of Development