Commander Fury

If you’ve been following the development of <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/amy/">Amy</a>, you probably know that we’re trying to make a unique survival-horror game for PSN. As explained in my <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/06/20/amy-is-survival-horror-evolved-coming-to-psn-this-summer/">previous post</a>, we’re working hard to bring a different gameplay based on a deep interaction between Lana, a young woman who is the lead character, and Amy, an eight year-old child, set in a horrific environment. Soon, we’ll give you many more details on some of the key elements of the gameplay. But for now, we wanted to show you that, even for a downloadable game, we’re trying our best to bring you real flesh-and-blood characters. You can meet two of them in the new videos below. First, a quick primer on the <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/06/20/amy-is-survival-horror-evolved-coming-to-psn-this-summer/">world of Amy</a>. It’s 2035, and global warming has intensified beyond mankind’s control. More...

As we lead up to <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/resistance-3/">Resistance 3</a>’s launch this Tuesday, we wanted to start your holiday weekend right with the two television commercials you will be seeing for Resistance 3 over the next few weeks. These commercials will be airing during NFL games and my personal favorite, college football, as well as series premieres of some of the biggest shows on TV. Why two commercials, you ask? Well, we have two great approaches for Resistance 3. One involves the story of Joseph Capelli’s journey. In some ways this ties us back to the very first <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/08/17/resistance-3-from-insomniac-games-coming-exclusively-to-ps3/">live-action prologue trailer</a> that showed us the first glimpse of Resistance 3’s grim new world. Here you get a glimpse of the emotions and story that make up our game. We really feel like this ad wonderfully captures and encapsulates Resistance 3. Take a look: More...

A few weeks ago, you may have noticed that Street Fighter IV’s venerable producer Yoshinori Ono said he was looking forward to a new game called <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/08/02/evo-ono-discusses-cole-in-street-fighter-x-tekken-ps-va-development/">“Skullgirls.â€</a> A lot of you probably hadn’t even heard of the game before, so I’m here to remedy that. Skullgirls is more than just a <a href="http://us.playstation.com/psn/">PSN</a> fighting game, it’s the realization of two peoples’ long-held dreams... seriously! Creative director Alex “o_8†Ahad has been working on the characters and story since he was in high school, and project lead Mike “Mike Z†Zaimont had been working on a fighting game engine in his free time since 2008. When mutual friends introduced them to each other, Skullgirls was born. Joining the recently founded <a href="http://revergelabs.com/">Reverge Labs</a> team in 2010, they signed with publisher <a href="http://www.autumngames.com/">Autumn games</a>, and at <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/e311/">E3</a> Konami announced that it will be distributing Skullgirls. More...

We’ve been working ridiculously hard on BloodRayne: Betrayal for quite some time now and I can’t tell you how stoked I am to tell you that it’s launching <em>next week</em>, on September 6th, as part of the annual <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/psn-play/">PSN PLAY</a> promotion. For those of you who might not know, <a href="http://www.wayforward.com/">WayForward</a> has been working on a full-on 2D re-imagining of the iconic BloodRayne franchise. BloodRayne: Betrayal is all about deep and varied combat, tough-as-nails platforming, smooth and fluid animations, and of course, buckets and buckets of blood! We’ve previously been fortunate enough to work with the game’s publisher, Majesco, on A Boy and His Blob. It was a great experience, so when they approached us with the opportunity to reboot BloodRayne, we jumped at it! With the power of the PS3 behind us, we have crafted our first HD side-scrolling game, and it looks frickin’ amazing! We’ve combined a rich fluid dynamic system that allows for superbly splattery blood, unique screen-distorting refraction effects for all of Rayne’s slicing and dicing, tons of layers of background parallax, and literally thousands of frames of character animations to make one of the prettiest digital HD games you’ll ever play. More...

Enjoy your one last weekend of summer with hit flicks and great deals. Disney’s latest musical movie smash <strong>Prom</strong> hits <em>New Releases</em> this week. Get into the back to school vibe with this tale of class presidents, bad boys, jocks and smart kids. Who will ask who? Will she say yes? Catch all the fun in HD or SD with your choice to rent or own. Robert Redford directs <strong>The Conspirator</strong>, now available in the <em>Movies</em> section. In the wake of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Mary Surratt is the only female implicated in the crime and becomes the first woman ever to be executed by the United States government. The cast includes James McAvoy (X-Men: First Class), Robin Wright (State of Play), Danny Huston (Robin Hood), Evan Rachel Wood (True Blood) and Tom Wilkinson (The Green Hornet). <em>Rent Now</em> features the digital exclusive <strong>Red State</strong> directed by Kevin Smith available before it’s released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 18. This film sees three teenagers lured into a horrific trap by a fundamentalist priest with a deadly agenda. More...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gjR-pkH1QU&feature=youtube_gdata

When we set out to make <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/resistance-3/">Resistance 3</a>, we wanted to make it an emotional, personal story of Joseph Capelli’s harrowing journey to New York City in the face of certain death. It’s a brutal game, showing how humanity struggles to survive under the crushing weight of the Chimera. A big element of that was making sure that our score and soundtrack represented this new emotional payload. It was a sincere pleasure on the part of <a href="http://www.insomniacgames.com/">Insomniac Games</a> to work with Composer Boris Salchow on the score for <a href="http://us.playstation.com/games-and-media/games/resistance-3-ps3.html">Resistance 3</a>. Boris was here constantly, seeing the game and talking to our team. He wanted to be invested in the story and create a truly great score, and we’re confident that he’s done just that. It was also a pleasure to have the score for <a href="http://www.insomniacgames.com/games/resistance-series/resistance-3/">Resistance 3</a> recorded by an orchestra at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London, aka the very same studio that The Beatles famously used to record their final album. Our colleagues in Europe were there to give you this behind-the-scenes look at the Resistance 3 score and orchestra recording session at Abbey Road - watch it above. More...

Greetings from the deck here at <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/sucker-punch/">Sucker Punch</a> Productions! As many of you may have heard we had an excellent panel at <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/pax11/">PAX Prime</a> last weekend about creating our 2D cutscenes. Those lucky enough to attend got a sneak preview of a cutscene from inFAMOUS 2: Festival of Blood, and a free <a href="http://i.imgur.com/UVedO.jpg">inFAMOUS 2: Festival of Blood t-shirt</a> to boot. We can’t wait to share more details about Festival of Blood, so here’s the sneak peek. Let us know what you think in the comments! If you want to know how we created these sequences you can read our detailed summary of our PAX Prime panel, <strong>A Panel on Panels: Creating the Comic-Inspired Cutscenes of <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/infamous-2/">inFAMOUS 2</a></strong>, over on <a href="http://www.suckerpunch.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=269:pax-prime-2011-report&catid=62:infamous2-game-page&Itemid=115">SuckerPunch.com</a>. For more updates, be sure to follow us on Twitter, <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/suckerpunchprod">@SuckerPunchProd</a>, and ‘Like’ us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/suckerpunchproductions">Facebook</a>. More...

Hi there everyone! Our new game, Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon, is <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/08/30/playstation-store-update-202/">live now on PSN</a> and well worth checking out. It’s got everything you could possibly want: co-op, zombies, demons, tons of weapons, RPG elements, hilariously rude and crude humor, and enough action to keep you going longer than a cockroach could survive a true apocalypse! For those of you that haven’t been following our development, Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon is a four-player, co-op, dual-analog arcade shooter (think Robotron on crack…with plenty of raving zombies and delinquent man-birds, of course). What’s really fantastic about the game is that we’ve been lucky enough to work extremely closely with the über-talented staff over at the <a href="http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/ugly_americans/index.jhtml">Ugly Americans</a>. All of the voice actors from the show lent their talents to their characters, the writers created a completely new story for the game, and Devin Clark (animator and series creator) came up with all the character design including some insanely twisted end-level bosses. As a result it really feels like you are playing inside an episode of the show, every element from the world of Ugly Americans forms a crucial part of this game experience. More...

Story by Nemesis. Here is a new video interview of Robert Bowling telling us a little more about Spec-Ops Survival Mode and the various Perks, Armory, and Weapon Upgrades that you can purchase with the COD Dollars that you get within the game mode instead of ranking up. Modern Warfare 3 will be out on November 8, 2011 for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and the Wii. Thanks to GamerSpawn for the video. Score: 0 (0 votes cast) More...

Story by oferrar1o @ SFX-360.com. The list of Hardened Edition extras in the photo that Wired.com (See Pic Below) received includes: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 game with unique disc art. One year of membership in Call of Duty Elite. “Founder status†on Elite with exclusive in-game emblem, player card, camouflage, clan XP boost and other exclusive benefits. SteelBook case. PlayStation Network exclusive: “Animated Timeline Theme.†Xbox 360 exclusive: “Special Ops Juggernaut Xbox Live Outfit.†Limited-edition “field journal†with more than 100 pages of “authentic military sketches, diagrams and written entries.†Score: 0 (0 votes cast) More...

Hi there Lombax fans! It was great to have so many of you swing by the PlayStation booth at <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/pax11/">PAX</a> this last weekend and get your hands on <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/ratchet-clank-all-4-one/">Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One</a>. Those we did speak to seemed to have a great time playing around with the incredible weapons shown in the PAX demo. If you didn’t get a chance to make it to PAX and are curious about just what other unique weapons can be found in All 4 One, you’re in luck, because today we’re detailing the weapons specific to each of the four characters. Take a look at this final video in the series and see how the character-specific weapons of All 4 One work. Watch as Ratchet uses his Dopplebanger to distract enemies before he blasts them with his Warmonger rocket launcher, Qwark uses his Quantum Deflector to protect his teammates and run through enemies, Nefarious gets sneaky with his Cloaker, and Clank slows down time and space with the Zoni Ray. More...

The Dead Island Total Game Integration continues in <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/playstation-home">PlayStation Home</a> as the third and final wave of the zombie horde is unleashed this week. Head to the Central Plaza this Thursday, September 1st and get to slaughtering swarms of zombies with the new Sawblade Mace weapon. Survive a series of bloody, hyper-violent challenges that allow you unlock a host of unique rewards – including the exclusive “Exploding Zombie Meat†weapon for use in Dead Island. Can you help the community exterminate 20 million zombies? Get your hands bloody this week in PlayStation Home. The Velocity Racing League enters a new phase this Thursday with the Sodium 2 Nemesis Update. With the start of the Nemesis stage of the Velocity Racing League a new challenge awaits you in the form of a new track (complete with reverse mode) – Wasteland Spires! More...

GameSpot has posted a new interview with Bear McCreary, composer for SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs as well as numerous television series, including Battlestar Galactica and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The interview touches on his inspirations for the SOCOM 4 score and how he worked to create something unique for the game. Here's an excerpt on his experience creating the music for SOCOM 4: "We scored the game with a live orchestra at Skywalker Ranch in Northern California, but the orchestra is not the primary focus of the music. The primary focus of the music is actually the Southeast Asian instrumentation, such as the gamelan orchestra. You hear taiko drums, you hear the shamisen, the biwa, the koto, bansuri, shakuhachi, just a wide array of instrumentation that has a really distinct Asian sound. And that was really exciting to me." The full interview can be found right here. More...

It’s hard to believe that <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/resistance-3/">Resistance 3</a> is coming out next week! It’s been an amazing journey for those of us at <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/insomniac/">Insomniac Games</a>, we’ve spent the last three years ensuring this is our most polished, focused, and consistent entry in the Resistance franchise. We’re very excited to share it with you. As we get close to release, it’s time to show you our very last Dev Diary – this one focused on the high-tech weapons created or influenced by the Chimeran invaders. We were extremely pleased to work in collaboration with the PlayStation.Blog on these diaries, and we hope you love them as much as we do. As you may know by now, the Resistance 3 Multiplayer Beta is winding down on September 4th, but we wanted to get one last blast of testing on our servers, so we’ve made the beta available to all on the PlayStation Store. We also wanted to acknowledge that while the R3 beta wasn’t always smooth sailing, we totally appreciated those of you who helped us test the game and stuck with us through the rough patches. We’ve announced a Beta Player Appreciation program – if you download and play a few rounds of the Resistance 3 Beta before it ends on September 4th, you’ll receive a couple of cool rewards for the final game. More...

We’re about two months away from the release of <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/uncharted-3-drakes-deception/">UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception</a> and what better way to get caught up with the series than to play Nathan Drake’s first two adventures – <a href="http://www.naughtydog.com/games/uncharted_drakes_fortune/">UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune</a> and <a href="http://www.naughtydog.com/games/uncharted2_among_thieves/">UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves</a>. To help you do just that, we’re announcing the UNCHARTED Greatest Hits Dual Pack. Launching in North America on September 6th (that’s less than a week away!), the pack includes the Greatest Hits versions of both UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune and UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves - Game of the Year Edition for only $39.99. The Dual Pack is also packed to the brim with bonus content, including a “Super Voucher†containing all of the DLC content from the UNCHARTED 2 GOTY Edition, as well as two DLC items from UNCHARTED 3 - the UNCHARTED 3 Announcement Nathan Drake <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/category/psn/">PSN</a> Avatar and the UNCHARTED 3 Announcement Dynamic Theme! More...

Hi everyone! Shawn here <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/06/20/introducing-dyad-for-psn/">again</a>, and I brought along <a href="http://www.dyadgame.com">Dyad</a>'s composer, David Kanaga. We're going to talk a bit about Dyad's interactive music system, how it works and what makes it unique. We're also treating you to a free 3 song EP consisting of linear mixes of Dyad's interactive music and some new screenshots! When you hear the term "interactive music" you might think of "rhythm games" such as <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/guitar-hero/">Guitar Hero</a>, <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/rock-band/">Rock Band</a>, Frequency, or others of that nature. Dyad's music system is very different from those games. There's no beat matching or imposed rhythm in the game. The music doesn't dictate play, nor does it judge you. Dyad's music is reactive, meaning it's mixed dynamically on the fly, based on the current game state and how you're interacting with it. Each time you play a level, the music is different -- playing Dyad can be viewed as a "performance" in a sense. More...

Hi all! Having just come back from a great <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/gamescom11/">gamescom</a> show in Germany, here’s your chance to learn all about the co-op campaign in <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/battlefield-3/">Battlefield 3</a> that we showed off on PS3. We designed co-op to be the perfect blend between the strong narrative from single player and the open-ended action from multiplayer. We are fusing the replayability of multiplayer with a pick up-and-play mentality to create a totally new flavor of Battlefield. Co-op follows the same philosophy as our award-winning multiplayer game mechanics. Teamwork is practically never <em>forced</em> upon you, but working together will make things much easier and -- more importantly -- lead to victory. For the most part, the missions in the co-op campaign are asymmetric. This means that one mission can have you piloting a helicopter while your friend is the gunner, for example. Other situations have one player disarming a bomb and the other one defending him. Or (as you could see in our press conference playthrough at gamescom) you can do tandem kills to avoid detection. There are also other mechanics requiring teamwork, such as spotting enemies to make large firefights easier, or the essential concept of reviving one another to avoid ending up at the game over screen. More...

Have you ever played <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/uncharted-3-drakes-deception/">UNCHARTED</a> and thought, “Hey, I could be a better adventurer than Nathan Drake!†Here’s your chance to prove it. This Fall, Spike TV in partnership with Naughty Dog and Sony Computer Entertainment, are celebrating the breathtaking cinematic action in UNCHARTED 3: Drake's Deception with a blockbuster TV special that brings the game to life. And it might just star you as a contestant! The winner will receive an incredible UNCHARTED-themed prize package including the ultimate Sony home theater system valued at over $12,000. If you're a die-hard UNCHARTED fan who wants to prove your adventuring skills both in the game and in the real world, head on over to <a href="http://unchartedcasting.gametrailers.com">unchartedcasting.gametrailers.com</a> to download the casting application for the show. We're looking for real gamers who can prove why they should be selected as the ultimate UNCHARTED fan. More...

The second week of PlayStation Network PLAY is upon us with the release of <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/08/12/the-baconing-sizzles-on-psn-play-august-30th/">The Baconing</a>! This comical action RPG continues the story of Deathspank, this time with a sci-fi twist. As part of PSN PLAY, if you purchase The Baconing before 9/19/2011, you’ll receive a free DLC co-op character in the form of Roesha – One Bad Mutha. If you’re on the fence, download The Baconing demo which is also in today’s Store update. The following week’s PSN PLAY titles are still available for pre-ordering on the Store including <a href="http://bloodraynebetrayal.com/">BloodRayne: Betrayal</a> and <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/08/15/renegade-ops-lets-talk-about-upgrades/">Renegade Ops</a>. For fighting game fans, you’ll want to check out the <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/08/26/mortal-kombat-memories-development-tales-from-netherrealm-studios/">Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection</a>. Experience the original trilogy in an entirely new light featuring online play, leaderboards, and trophies. While the visuals have come a long way, the gameplay in these classics (klassics?) is still razor sharp and fun as ever. More...

Not content with simply revealing the <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/08/01/house-of-the-dead-overkill-naked-terror-revealed/">first exclusive level</a> for the PS3 release of <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/house-of-the-dead-overkill/">The House of the Dead: OVERKILL – Extended Cut</a>, I’m back to give you the scoop on the second one too. Set in the cosy confines of an slaughterhouse taken over by a meaty disease of sorts, Creeping Flesh delivers you more of the additional awesome content we’ve lovingly added to the extended, and definitive, edition of OVERKILL. We pick up the story with Varla and Candy again, and this time circumstances lead them to the local slaughterhouse. I’m not going to spoil any of the story or the details around what leads them there, but let’s just say it’s the standard House of the Dead fare; there are guns, motives of revenge and mutants galore, all wrapped up with grindhouse styling. As you can see from the above image, there is something of a meaty infestation starting to take hold inside the building, and internally we’ve affectionately referred to this as the meat wall (there is also a meat tunnel later in the level, so that’s something to look forward to). Varla and Candy find themselves fighting amongst this meat wall, and as they proceed through the ‘meat factory’ they’ll be forced to take action against the new mutants shown above too. These mutants take the expression ‘meat shield’ to a new level, seeing as the additional flesh they’re lugging around makes them slightly more impervious to gunfire than your standard mutants. More...

Story by Johnny Cullen @ VG247.com. Rockstar’s released two brand new screenshots of Max Payne 3, the first that have emerged since it started emerging from underground and a blowout from Edge earlier this year. You can get the two shots below. Rockstar says that it’ll begin dishing out more news on the game, being made by its Vancouver studio, in the “next few months.†It’ll launch on PS3, 360 and PC. Score: 0 (0 votes cast) More...

Story by Johnny Cullen @ VG247.com. Did you think it was the end? This is Kevin Butler we’re talking about here. SCEA’s launched a brand new marketing camapaign for PlayStation 3 following the $249 price-cut given to the machine at gamescom two weeks ago, seeing the return of Kevin Butler after taking up the presidency of his uncle’s flooring company.. According to VP of product marketing Scott Steinberg on the US PS Blog, Long Live Play is “designed to celebrate gamers from all walks of life and recognize you for making us who we are today.†You want to see the video, don’t you? Here it is. He still has his little man-crush on Tretton, for the record. Score: 0 (0 votes cast) More...

Combat Wings: The Great Battles of WWII lands on <a href="http://us.playstation.com/ps3/">PS3</a> this November with aerial combat campaigns set amidst the bloodiest air battles of World War II. Not long ago, I tried out a pre-release version of the game under the watchful eye of <a href="http://www.majewscy.net/jakub/about_jm.html">Creative Director Jakub Majewski</a>, focusing on the game’s use of the <a href="http://us.playstation.com/ps3/playstation-move/">PlayStation Move</a> motion controller. Before I grabbed the stick for a test flight, I was curious what made Majewski want to support PlayStation Move in the first place -- WWII air combat isn’t exactly a genre that leaps into my mind when I ponder the potential of motion-controlled gaming. “Move makes this game better,†Majewski said with conviction. “It’s a much more natural form of steering than using an analog stick and it makes a huge difference to the gameplay. Playing a flying game with a controller can be clunky; you have to make a lot of fine movements in order to change direction and aim. PlayStation Move is great - you just point where you want to go.†Based on just 30 minutes of play time, I’d have to agree. More...

I'm wicked excited to share some details about our new game, <strong><a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/the-baconing/">The Baconing</a></strong>, DeathSpank's greatest and most delicious adventure EVER! The game will be available to download today from <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/category/psn/">PlayStation Network</a>. <a href="http://us.playstation.com/games-and-media/games/the-baconing-ps3.html">The Baconing</a> is part of the <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/tag/psn-play/">PSN PLAY</a> promotion so if you purchase the game before September 19th you will also receive co-op character DLC, Roesha – One Bad Mutha. Also, if you are PlayStation Plus subscriber, you can still get 20% off the full game price! When we started developing <a href="http://www.thebaconing.com/">The Baconing</a> we didn't want gamers to feel like they HAD to play through the previous DeathSpank games before taking on The Baconing. We decided to make this game accessible for anyone to jump straight into, ensuring that new players and returning fans alike can both equally enjoy this game. Those familiar with DeathSpank will certainly experience just as much familiar fun plus a bucket-load of improvements too. More...