PLAYSTATION NEWS AND REVIEWS
June 9th, 2010

Video: ModNation Racers, Fat Princess, MotorStorm, WipEout in Pinball Heroes Bundle 2

PlayStation Fans and pinball lovers! Pinball Heroes Bundle 2 for PSP recently hit the PSN Store, and it’s packed with tables based on ModNation Racers, Fat Princess, MotorStorm and WipEout HD Fury.

Today, we’re showing you these tables in action for the first time!

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ModNation Racers
Just like in ModNation Racers, this pinball table allows you to alter the look of your Kart, Mod and Track Props. Plus, there are opponents to knock past, and six different ramp entrances to hit. Each ramp entrance corresponds to a move that is available in ModNation Racers on the PSP or PS3. Combo-ing those moves will raise your Boost meter and increase your score!

Fat Princess
The Fat Princess pinball table channels the spirit of competitive princess capturing. Knock down the walls of the castle to rescue the damsel, feed your captive princess, and build bridges and catapults and upgrade hat machines using the wood and ore that you collect. Just be quick and accurate, because the enemy advances with each missed shot!

WipEout HD Fury
WipEout HD Fury plays like an exciting race in the grand WipEout tradition! There are multiple challenging courses, boosters to hit, and powerups to collect. Just be careful not to fall off of one of the ramps, or you will crash and lose a position! Win a race in first place to earn the most points.

MotorStorm
The MotorStorm table features branching ramps which have eight different variations, each one representing one of the courses in MotorStorm. This pinball table also features 3 different multipliers from Tires, Vehicles and Boost. Just be careful not to boost too much and lose your multiplier in an explosion…

The Pinball Heroes Team and myself would really like to give our fans a mighty big “thank you” for all of your support and interest. As part of our thanks and appreciation, please be on the lookout for two new FREE Pinball Heroes themes available beginning June 8th. We will be bringing you two more on June 22nd.

Additionally, to any fans who are experiencing any issues with your in-game Trophy shelf please do the following to patch the game so that you chase down and acquire each of the tables’ awards. Highlight the Pinball Heroes game in your PSP’s XMB. Then, press the Triangle button to bring up the “Options.” Select “Update” from the “Options” Menu. At this point, your PSP should connect to the network and find the patch. Finally, just download and install it. We have also resolved the issues with the Online Leaderboards. Note: anyone who purchases the game AFTER the June 8th, 2010 PSN Store Update does not need to patch.

Well, that’s it folks. We hope that you are all enjoying the new tables!

May 21st, 2010

Coming Tuesday to PSN: Pinball Heroes Bundle 2 for PSP

Greetings PlayStation fans and pinball lovers of all ages! I am an assistant producer and designer for the (very) soon-to-be-released Pinball Heroes Bundle 2. This is a set of four all-new pinball tables available this Tuesday, May 25th exclusively from the PlayStation Store for your PSP.

Pinball Heroes Bundle 2 for PSP

So what are the new tables?

ModNation Racers table

ModNation Racers

This table features three ramps, each of which is reversible and represents different moves available in the brand new PS3 and PSP kart racing champion. Try to combo the moves/ramps into each other to build up a huge Boost Combo. Hit each ramp direction at least once to activate the four-ball multiball! Just be wary of your opponents and the rotating platform in the upper part of the playfield. You can also alter your table’s appearance as well as your Mod and Kart!

Fat Princess table

Fat Princess

You’ve got their princess, and they’ve got yours. Prove yourself to be a true and brave Pinball Hero by rescuing your Red Princess! You’ll have to chop wood and mine ore to collect the resources you need to build or upgrade your Hat Machines, a Bridge or even a Catapult. Bash down the enemy’s doors to enter their castle and save your fair lady! But be sure to be accurate; missed shots will advance the blue fiends towards your castle where they will steal your prisoner.

Wipeout table

WipEout HD Fury

In this exciting and fast-paced table, players will advance along one of six different tracks by shooting the flashing arrows. However, opposing racers are also involved and they need to be dealt with by acquiring various powerups. After 3 laps, hit the Checkered Flag ball lock to complete the race and receive bonus points for finishing in first, second, or third. Finish all six races and you’ll enter the Time Trial jackpot mode! Spell out F-U-R-Y and you can add a ball to your game, for up to four-ball multiball!

Motorstorm table

MotorStorm

This table features the eight race courses in the original MotorStorm, represented as branching ramps. Shoot the ball into the appropriate ramp and use the flippers to operate the track switches. Make sure that the ball follows the correct path to complete a race. Once you complete all of the tracks, then the Apocalypse Race Ticket is activated! Hitting the drop targets on the right and left will increase your Vehicle multiplier to really “ramp up” your score (see what I did there?). Finally, there is the Boost orbit. Hitting this will increase your boost multiplier, but if it gets too high it will explode unless you can cool it down in time.

If you haven’t played Pinball Heroes before, then there are some things that you should know about it. We’ve focused on making a fun, portable game experience. Something that you can just pick up and play if you want, but that also has more depth for anyone interested in going deeper. We’ve made the table nudge/tilt feature very forgiving to give players more control over the ball and prevent some frustration. Additionally, every table can be played in either horizontal or vertical mode. Pinball Heroes also features its own in-game goals and awards, as well as online leaderboards so that you can compare your scores to the rest of the world! For more info, head here to find out more.

Way back in November of ‘09 my partner in crime, Jason Coker, detailed our initial four tables. You DO NOT have to own any of the previous Pinball Heroes tables to purchase and enjoy the new bundle. If you have any previous tables, the new bundle will fit right into your existing game. If you don’t have any of our earlier pinball tables (what are you waitin’ for?) then this bundle will still be playable. You can buy Pinball Heroes Bundle 2 and then add additional Pinball Heroes tables if you like. The order in which you choose to purchase the tables is all up to you! Feel that rush of consumer power!

Well folks, that’s a lot of reading. In closing, let me just say that you can get all four awesome, portable and fun tables for just $9.99!! Check the PlayStation Store on May 25th, and have fun!

December 9th, 2009

Holiday Celebrations Come to PlayStation Home + MotorStorm, Dead Space 2, and Diner Dash

Happy holidays Home-people!

We here on the PlayStation Home team are pleased to announce that we are kicking off the holiday season in a big way come this Thursday, December 10th. We have quite a few surprises lined up for you, and I don’t want to give away too much too soon, but it’s safe to say that this year’s festivities will run for the remainder of the month and will include some very surprising developments.

That is, of course, assuming the entire community works together to solve the puzzles (and collect the rewards) associated with the huge Festive Tree, coming to Central Plaza this week. Peep the picture below (smuggled out of the developers’ offices by yours truly) for a sneak peek of what’s in store for you. And make sure you log in every day throughout the holiday season to solve puzzles, unlock rewards, and help transform PlayStation Home into the premier party destination for the New Year.

PlayStation Home Holiday Tree

In other holiday-related news: We are releasing a ton of additional festive items that will help you celebrate the holidays properly in PlayStation Home, no matter what your personal style may be. Included in this new batch of items is a free menorah, for all of our community members that want to celebrate Chanukah in-world (free items for those of you who want to celebrate Christmas, Xmas, Kwanzaa, and even that holiday “for the rest of us” are currently available in the Mall). You’ll also find the Dead Space 2 Miner outfit (for guys and gals) in the Costumes store, along with a heap of other costumes bundled at prices that simply can’t be beat.

MotorStorm fanatics will find yet another addition to their collection awaiting them in the Estates store this week. The MotorStorm: Pacific Rift personal space is a perfect retreat for you and your friends after a day (or night) or racing around the 16 destructible tracks that make up the off-road mayhem of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. Show the world that you are a true road warrior by customizing this unique beachfront locale with the MotorStorm-themed virtual items available in the Furniture store, and then invite your friends over to launch into multiplayer matches of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. Check out this hot new personal space in the pics below.

Home MotorStorm Apartment 1 Home MotorStorm Apartment 2

This Friday, December 11th, we will be throwing a scavenger hunt event to celebrate the release of Hudson Entertainment’s Diner Dash. Those of you that log in between the hours of 12:00pm and 5:00pm PST (3:00pm and 8:00pm EST) will find segments of a voucher code scattered throughout PlayStation Home. The first 50 users that assemble and redeem the code will receive one free download of Diner Dash on the PlayStation Network. So if you’re reading this now, it’s time you get into PlayStation Home and start searching high and low. These codes are guaranteed to go fast!

Last but certainly not least, our development team has managed to resolve the Z(7,-104) error that a small number of users had been encountering when logging in to PlayStation Home. In order to resolve this problem we will be rolling back the last reward item received on all affected accounts. This will fix will be deployed during this week’s regularly scheduled downtime (please note that due to the extra work required this week, the maintenance period will be extended).

Once this rollback is complete, users previously affected will once again be able to log into PlayStation Home with all of their other rewards and items intact. Of those previously affected, a very small number of users may find that their rewards have been rolled back further than the previous item in order to permanently fix this issue. This was done on a case-by-case basis, to ensure that all of you could get back into Home.

As always, stay tuned to this blog for more info about the season’s upcoming content and events (including another chance to win the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Fortune Hunter Edition. There’s so much cool stuff set to release over the coming weeks and months that we are sure you will keep coming Home time and time again.

Home MotorStorm Apartment 3

October 7th, 2009

NFL Comes to PlayStation Home + Dethklok, PixelJunk Museum and MotorStorm Personal Space

Hold on to your seats, Home-people, because I have some news that is going to blow you away. To start, EA SPORTS has brought the NFL into PlayStation Home. That’s right – you’ll now be able to represent your favorite franchises (Go Steelers!) by sporting your favorite team’s jersey while in-world. These jerseys are now available in the EA Sports Complex (and the Home Mall) and cover every team in the entire league (32 jerseys total). With v1.3 now live on your PlayStation 3s and sporting universal game launching functionality, PlayStation Home has truly become the destination for all of you football fans. Log in, toss on your favorite jersey to let your fellow man knows what’s up, launch into online co-op games of Madden NFL 10, and then return to Home to do it again and again. Never before has finding a friend to sack the ‘back with been easier. Bring the wood!

Home - Pittsbrugh Steelers Male Home - San Diego Chargers Female Home - Green Bay Packers Male

You’ve all been waiting since last Thursday’s v1.3 core client update for the highly-anticipated camera item, and that’s why we’re happy to announce that every one of you devoted PlayStation Home community members will now have a free camera. You heard me – free! This camera will automatically appear in your inventory today and will allow you to take photos from the 1st and 3rd person perspective. Any pictures you take will immediately be saved to the “Photo” section of your XMB where you can then share these photos both in-world and out, whether it is in the Picture Frames that decorate your personal spaces or on Flickr, Twitpic, or Photobucket accounts.

You’ll also find two new spaces have been released in PlayStation Home today– the PixelJunk Museum and the MotorStorm Monument Valley Campsite. The PixelJunk Museum is a sleekly designed public area dedicated to the PixelJunk series where you can explore and collect content related to the PixelJunk Eden, PixelJunk Racers, PixelJunk Monsters and PixelJunk Shooter titles. The MotorStorm Monument Valley Campsite is a mesa-top personal space with its own MotorStorm caravan and an amazing vista of the MotorStorm festival across the Valley. There’s also a ton of MotorStorm-themed furniture available to customize this exclusive hideaway. Check out the pics below.

Home - MotorStorm Apt

Dethklok – the death metal super group from Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse cartoon – is pleased to announce that their never-ending quest for intergalactic domination has extended into the world of PlayStation Home. Show your support for all things evil (and metal…but mostly metal) and pick up the new Dethklok merch, available in the Mall, and check out the Dethklok video, now live in the Theater. Raise high the horns and rock out in a manner most deadly with Dethklok in Home!

While you’re in the Mall, you can also grab the new Neptune Suite furniture and other assorted virtual items and the new Jon Burgerman line of virtual goods. World-renowned for his hand drawn cartoon characters (which have been shown in galleries around the world), Mr. Burgerman has lent his talents to Home and has produced a special line of animated clothing for the guys and the gals. If you ever wanted a tattoo for your avatar, it’s high time you check out some of Burgerman’s patented designs.

We here at PlayStation Home are all about spreading the love around and supporting important charities. This is why we have partnered with EA SPORTS to produce and distribute exclusive virtual items that serve to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 100% of proceeds for these items will go to the Brees Dream Foundation in support of breast cancer research and awareness programs, so please pick up these items and show your solidarity with all the breast cancer patients around the world. Remember, together we can fight this deadly disease.

September 22nd, 2009

MotorStorm Arctic Edge — A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Making Of: Part 3

Hi again, and welcome back to all the MotorStorm fans out there. We hope you’ve been enjoying our series of behind-the-scenes videos that give some exclusive insight into the development of MotorStorm Arctic Edge for PSP (If you missed them, be sure to check out parts one and two!). For part three, Bigbig Studios takes a trip to Alaska to get the snowy scenery just right on the PSP — see how the different types of weather influence gameplay in Arctic Edge. Also, see how you can customize your experience, how the game integrates into PlayStation Home, and get details on the Ad-Hoc and Infrastructure multiplayer features.

July 30th, 2009

The Curtain Rises on the 10-Screen Movie Theater in PlayStation Home, MotorStorm Game Launching Crashes In, and Fat Princess Needs Cake!

Greetings Home-boys and Home-girls! It’s time for another PlayStation Home update

We’re proud to announce another major core space update. The Movie Theater brings you ten times as much exciting content [including from the PS.Blog! -Jeff] with a brand-new 10-screen layout, a new lobby, and the ability to unlock rewards in select screening rooms. Be sure to check out the screening rooms often – you never know when one of them will be giving something away. Stay tuned for lots of exclusive new videos over the coming months, including the future possibility of full-length TV shows or movies, with new features debuting on a regular basis.

But that’s not all! The Burn Zombie Burn space brings its classic cartoony graveyard style to PlayStation Home with a crypt for lounging in while you watch Burn Zombie Burn videos, a zombie-infested maze mini-game where you’ll be challenged to find your way out before you get zombified, and as always, an exclusive reward. Don’t get lost in the graveyard!

Next, the first wave of MotorStorm content will be swerving into PlayStation Home with MotorStorm Pacific Rift Game Launching functionality topping the bill. If you’re new to Game Launching, click here for more info on how this great functionality works.

There will be more MotorStorm news coming your way very soon; in the meantime, check out the screenshots below for a tantalizing snippet of some of the great MotorStorm content coming to PlayStation Home over the coming weeks.

MotorStorm in PlayStation HomeMotorStorm in PlayStation Home

Next (and this is very exciting) as of tomorrow, we will be launching a new event in PlayStation Home – the Fat Princess “Quest for Cake.” Based upon the brilliant PSN title which launches today, all you have to do is click on the PlayStation Events Space chip on your World Map to join in this very special confectionary quest.

In the fully redecorated space you will find eight pieces of cake, locked away in cages. To unlock the cake and feed your Princess you need to search the space high and low for clues. If you do manage to unlock all eight pieces of cake, and feed the Princess, a special reward will be yours – the Fat Princess’ very own throne for your personal apartment. Here are a few screenshots of the space to whet your appetite…

Fat Princess in PlayStation HomeFat Princess in PlayStation Home

Fat Princess in PlayStation HomeFat Princess in PlayStation Home

Finally, be sure to cruise through the Mall to check out still more updates to our lovely new stores…sources say there will be some cool new items to pick up to show your friends, both free and for sale!

See you in Home!

~CydoniaX, PlayStation Home Community Manager

June 26th, 2009

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift – Speed Weekend, the Weekend Festival that Never Ends

While MotorStorm: Pacific Rift’s online fun is still the number one all-consuming passion for many of our players, we recognize that plenty of you out there have been waiting for a whole new Single Player festival to get your teeth into. We set the Agenda last year with our popular Revenge Weekend and Devils Weekend expansions for MotorStorm: Monument Valley, and now we’re continuing that tradition with our new Speed Weekend festival that features as part of our new Expansion: Speed pack!

MSPRDLC2

Make no mistake, this mode is HUGE…it’s packed with unlocks, rewards and trophies, and has been designed to keep challenging you for as long as you want it to. How? Buckle up and I’ll divulge some (but certainly not all) of its secrets!

We were very pleased that the speed race events in Pacific Rift were so fantastically popular – they provided a great change of focus and pace from the Eliminator and Race events, and had the scope for repeated play, and for beating your own best score. While we’ll be the first to admit the formula wasn’t yet perfected, we all felt we had taken the first steps here towards something that would be absolutely stellar as a dedicated single player game mode. We decreed early on though that if we were going to revisit it, we had a few ideas to improve it, and we wanted to make sure it more fully realised it’s potential.

So the basic idea has survived pretty much intact; Start off with a bank of time (10 seconds) that’s counting down from the race start, make your way from one gate to the next as quickly as possible, each gate adding further precious seconds to your ‘banked’ time. Try to record as high a final ‘banked’ time as possible when you fly through the finish gate. So far, so good.

MSPRDLC3


Well, in Speed Weekend, that’s become our qualifying race structure right there; You need to have at least 15 seconds remaining on your clock to qualify for one of the ‘easy’ races, 20 seconds for ‘medium’, and 25 seconds for the ‘hard’ race types. Beat that threshold, and that race is marked as complete on your race card. When you qualify on all 6 events for a vehicle class (2 easy, 2 medium, 2 hard) you’ll unlock a reward for that vehicle class. Work hard, get the unlocks for all 8 vehicle classes, and you’ll get a cool final pack of rewards. If you never play any further than this into the mode, you’ve just worked through 48 events! That’s probably 5-6 hours for the average MSPR player. But wait! For those willing to go the extra distance, that’s just the start…

Once you’ve qualified for an event, you unlock the Main Event version of that race. Now, as well as gates which add time, each race also features barrels strategically placed throughout the track. Any green barrels you hit are going to add extra time, 1 second per barrel. Any red barrels you hit are going to get deducted, 1 second per barrel, once you cross the finish line. This massively opens up the scoring opportunities, and the strategic decisions, facing the player. Do you straightline through those red barrels to save time now and take the penalty later? Do you veer off your racing line in pursuit of extra green barrels? Do you maybe ignore the barrels and concentrate instead on the quickest line between gates?

MSPRDLC1

On bikes and ATVs, there are green bonus time barriers to duck under and buried red barrels that need to be avoided or bunny-hopped over (and duck and hop controls are assigned to L1 and R1 for this mode to make life easier for everyone)! Chances are your moment-to-moment strategy is going to need to accommodate all of those options and more, because your focus now isn’t beating our pre-defined thresholds, it’s beating your friends.

Before each main event the game presents the player with a friends-focused leaderboard. These are the up-to-the-minute times set by people on your friends list; your target time to beat is always going to be the buddy who’s directly above you on the leaderboard. Maybe he got more green barrels than you managed, maybe he went penalty-free and avoided all the red barrels. Either way, you go in, you race, race, race, and when you beat his time, the system automatically sends an update to his machine and next time he turns on the game, he’s going to see that YOU’VE now beaten HIS time! The dreaded red helmet icon on your progress chart tells you that your time has been beaten by one of your mates – which means you’ve slid down your friends leaderboard, and he’s just climbed closer to the top! This is such a compulsive feature, and makes the mode massively addictive – the months of playtesting here in the office have seen friendships turn into bitter, swear-laden rivalries as day after day, week after week, someone pushes the top score that little bit higher – and everyone else gets notified of it, and gets to work trying to beat it. The office swear-box has never had so much cash in it!

For us, this has always been the main focus of Speed Weekend. This is what’s going to keep you playing time and time again, day after day, improving your scores, and beating the best efforts of your buddies. We’ve worked hard to tune the experience so that this inter-friend rivalry as heated and compelling as possible. It soon becomes all about the strategies you pursue in each race; once you realise that you can slam into one barrel and propel it into others to get a ‘domino’ effect going, the scoring possibilities are opened wide. Of course, this also means one green barrel can hit a whole mess of red ones and scupper your best laid plans – so at the highest levels of competition there are multiple factors to take into account and the angle you hit every barrel can make all the difference to whether you’ll be the Top Dog or just a Middling Mongrel amongst you and your buddies.

MSPRDLC4

So, be sure to grab a copy of Expansion: SPEED (coming soon), a couple of like-minded buddies, and warn your family and friends that you may soon be turning the air blue with foul language! Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines; the Speed Weekend is about to begin…

June 12th, 2009

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift – Making Tracks with the Speed and Adrenaline Expansions

As you’re probably already aware, we’ve got 2 massive new packs lining up on the start grid, in the shape of ‘Expansion: Speed’ and ‘Expansion: Adrenaline’. For most players, the biggest news with these packs is all those new tracks, of course! New tracks for the game is always on every player’s wishlist in the number one spot, and our track designers have been working non-stop since the completion of Pacific Rift last year on a whole clutch of fantastic new tracks. MotorStorm has always been critically lauded for its great track designs, and these new ones have all been designed by the same team who crafted Pacific Rift’s 16 original tracks, so they have a top-tier pedigree!

In each of the new expansions there are 3 brand new tracks, playable in all online modes, and offline in Time Attack, Free Play, and Split Screen. Let’s take in the holiday brochure descriptions of the new locations, pack by pack.

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First off, the Expansion: Speed tracks;

Quicksands

The sea breeze in your racing leathers, the sand in your face, crystal clear seawater in your gas tank…Quicksands isn’t just sun-kissed, it’s sun-smooched-on-the-doorstep-and-put-out-on-the-first-date. When ‘beautiful azure waters’ sits so close to ‘brutal, deadly crossovers’ in the brochure description, you’ll be saying, “Wish you were here,” while wishing you were somewhere else at the same time.

Quicksands1 Quicksands2

Darkfire Swamp

No sooner was this swamp-based track completed than Mother Nature decided to do some heavy handed redesign. With fissures opened up along its length, long-stagnant pools drained and dried, and deadly molten lava rolling in for some hot pool party action, the MotorStorm organizers decided it was the best redesign EVER.

Darkfire 1 Darkfire2


Engorged

Through an impossibly narrow chasm where sunlight rarely shines, natures torrents carve new, untamed-able routes for her disciples to follow. Big boulders, fast waters and epic vistas; this track satisfies every appetite. One to really gorge on, you’ll need a hunger for survival – get ready to jump to the main course.

<p class="center"Engorged01 Engorged02

Moving onto Expansion: Adrenaline;

Reef Runner – The world’s downright-prettiest boat graveyard, Reefrunner combines hard, fast sand flats, wide coastal shallows and a lightning-fast, foliage-packed jungle sprint. Lightweights should look to hop over the sand banks, heavyweights can tear through the shallows, and everyone else can stick to the middle routes while trying to apply the sunblock and get their swimming trunks on for the post-race beach party.

Reefrunner1 Reefrunner2

Brimstone – Spurred on by a love of all things stupid and deadly, the hardcore lunatics united and set up this battlefield of a racetrack. Located inside an unstable volcanic wasteland, Brimstone offers smoking craters, sulphurous lakes, and deadly underground lava tubes. Hell above and Hell below makes this a hell of a good place to stage a race.

Brimstone1 Brimstone2

Hollowed Earth – At the top of the Island lies the racetrack at the bottom of the world. Built in and around a cavernous and complex natural cave system, Hollowed Earth demands fast reactions, racing discipline, and the ability not to think about the millions of tons of unstable volcanic rock directly above your head. A torch and a mining helmet probably wouldn’t go amiss, either.

Hollowed01 Hollowed02

As you may well know by now, each expansion pack also re-introduces familiar tracks in entirely new ways. Dubbed as ‘Track Variants’, there are 8 in total, selected from the most popular online tracks, and all given the ‘Volcanic’ subtitle. Rather than just tweaking the tracks by adding a few routes here and closing a few others off there with barriers or fencing, we’ve chosen to theme these redesigns around the idea of the Island going fully volcanic! Imagine lava Bombs spattering the track, erupting volcanoes, ash falling in the air, lava spewing across racing lines, the whole works! Each of these tracks features different degrees of ‘natural interference’ ; at one end of the scale we have The Edge Volcanic, which as an Air track isn’t going to see too much direct Lava interference, but is going to have its racing lines significantly affected by huge chunks of molten rocks smashing all over the track. At the other extreme, Earth and Fire tracks like Rift Volcanic and Scorched Volcanic show just what can happen at ground zero when the fires of hell spill out over the raceways! Lava levels rise, mud fields bake and crack, standing water evaporates, and tracks you think you know all too well suddenly provide an altogether different racing experience! We’re hoping you’re going to love the variety and surprises these new tracks provide, and that you’ll all enjoy getting your head around the new strategic racing approaches they require!

Next time, we’re going to take an in-depth look at the massive new single/multiplayer experience that is Speed Weekend, debuting in the Expansion: Speed pack! Keep those motors running!

May 29th, 2009

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift Third Game Update: Speed and Adrenaline Rush

MotorStorm Pacific Rift Expansion - Speed MotorStorm Pacific Rift Expansion - Adrenaline

As ‘Stormers’ worldwide continue to collect their FREE Signature Liveries every week, all eyes are turning towards the coast of the setting sun to see what’s in store next. We’re well aware of what you’ve all been wishing for – Tracks, Modes, fresh Rides and a few surprises on the side. All wishes, we’re very happy to report, that we’re about to make come true.

If you’re one of the fortunate 40,000 attending E3 at the LA Convention Center on June 2-4, and you’re a MotorStorm fan, then you’ll be able to count yourself amongst the first in the world to witness our 2 new major downloadable content packs, ‘Expansion: SPEED’ and ‘Expansion: ADRENALINE’. Rammed bumper-to-bumper with new content, you’re going to need to set aside some serious time to investigate them both fully.

  • Expansion: SPEED will be the first off the start line, and screams into view fully tanked up with MotorStorm goodness; 3 brand new tracks (Quicksands, Engorged and Dark Fire Swamp), 3 brand new track variants, 4 sweet new vehicles (sporting 3 paint jobs each) and a whole brand new 48-event Mini-Festival, ‘Speed Weekend’, packed with unlockable rewards, trophies and Microbadges.
  • Expansion: ADRENALINE is racing along beside it, neck-and-neck, and bringing with it even MORE content! 3 MORE new tracks (Reefrunner, Brimstone and Hollowed Earth), 5 new track variants, 4 more exclusive new race machines (each with 3 liveries to choose from), 6 brand new characters (each sporting 3 different costumes), and a whole big fat stash of fresh new paint jobs for your existing vehicles.

Let’s look at those numbers for a moment - between these two packs, we’re almost DOUBLING the track count in the game, giving you plenty more locations for online races, plenty more Time Attack ghosts to chase, and plenty more settings for split screen fun with your buddies. And you’ve got to believe me guys, these new tracks and the new track variants are some of the best-looking, best-racing tracks we’ve ever made.

May 19th, 2009

MotorStorm Arctic Edge - Your Questions Answered

After two console-based racing adventures on PS3, MotorStorm finally goes portable this fall with MotorStorm Arctic Edge. You had questions about the environment, multiplayer, and how developer BigBig Studios (Pursuit Force) is going to shrink the game without compromising the action. Fortunately, Game Director Richard Ogden was up to the task.

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So, what do you think?

We’ve now shared all of our pre-E3 Q&A sessions, save for one. Look for our Heavy Rain interview next week.