Hello folks! James here from FuturLab, creators of the hit PlayStation minis game Coconut Dodge! Our newest game is quite different than Coconut Dodge, but there are some strong similarities:

1. A tried-and-tested game mechanic with a new twist
2. Extremely addictive gameplay
3. Quality throughout and value for money

These things have made Coconut Dodge one of the best scoring minis games so far. We learned a whole bunch of tricks making Coconut Dodge, and we’re applying the same level of care and attention to gameplay addictiveness on this project!

If that sounds good to you, read on! :-)

September 7th, 2210

Vilio — the beating heart of the Toron nebula — exploded last September, becoming an ominous red giant in the process. Luckily, and somewhat miraculously, no one was hurt, though a galaxy wide electromagnetic pulse shuddered through our fleets, nullifying mining ships and colony vessels as well as our Special Forces fighters. Power and communication ceased instantly; those ships now survive on fossil fuels, remote and helpless. A rescue mission was launched in October; those craft are now expected to reach Toron in approximately ten months time. This much you know.

However, close monitoring has revealed that Villo has begun to collapse in on itself, the spectral red light bending inwards to form the beginnings of a black hole. The speed of collapse is debatable, but at best we expect Vilio to be a full-blown black hole within a matter of months.

As we expected, our director of operations was invited this morning to brief the government on the current state of our Quarp Drive project. It was concluded that all resources necessary for the completion of our testing period should be redirected as appropriate; their intention being to use our prototype Quarp Jet as the basis for an immediate rescue mission.

Being the lead test pilot, you are the obvious choice to take the lead on this mission. Since we only have one prototype craft, you’ll have to go it alone, and we’ll provide support as soon as possible.

I would like to end the brief there, but unfortunately the situation has become even more complicated. Our warring neighbours have seen potential reward from our misfortune, and have deployed a fleet of ships to prey upon our helpless drifters for precious minerals and our coveted technologies.

You’ll begin your mission in the relatively safe zone of the Toron outer rim. Once there you will locate and rescue any drifters you find, protecting them from scavenger attacks. Good luck.

What you see above is some concept artwork and the back story for a vertical scrolling space shoot ‘em up!

The game is in development now, and features a unique teleport mechanic, allowing you to teleport around the screen and throughout a level in order to evade enemy attacks and solve action based logic puzzles!

Exciting huh? However, you may have noticed that we don’t have a name for the game yet, and that’s where you come in!

We’d like you to give the game a title, and suggest a name for the test pilot lead character!

To help you get in the mood, you can play the game’s theme tune — Teleport Rescue — and some tasty wallpaper artwork to share in the vision we have for the game. People who make suggestions that are shortlisted will be credited in the game, and will each win a copy of the game when it is released!

The lucky people whose suggestions we actually use for the game will also win a copy of the game, and a bunch of other goodies so awesome we haven’t even thought of them yet!

So head on over to http://www.futurlab.co.uk/nameourgame/ to take part, find out more about the game, and have a look around to see if there’s any other cool stuff you can find ;)

PlayStation fans can also put their hockey and MMA skills to the test when they’re given the chance to body check or guillotine their opponents in the rink or the octagon. The PlayStation Network and PlayStation minis also have some neat releases in the second dimension of gaming with galactic and terrain exploration. Come hither Keyblade Masters for this week’s The Drop.

PlayStation 3

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions – Blending together the many alternate universes of the world-famous webslinger with four unique take on Spider-Man’s history in comics. Spider-Man attempts to retrieve a piece of a tablet that’s been scattered across multiple parallel dimensions, and in doing so he crosses over to storylines famous to comic book aficionados as variant tellings of the Spider-Man mythology.

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 – Plunge into explosive environments where you can become elite aerial soldiers in control of the world’s most technologically advanced aircraft. You will have the chance to control pilots trained to use cutting edge technology in aerial warfare missions.

R.U.S.E. – This is a one-of-a-kind real-time strategy game, allows players to bluff their enemies to lead their nation to victory. Controlling the action using views that range seamlessly from the heart of the battlefield to the full theatre of war, players will be plunged into the action thanks to the exclusive IRISZOOMTM Engine which offers an intuitive interface.

NHL 11 – Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the franchise, NHL 11 aims to to raise the bar yet again for hockey fans. With a real-time physics engine that brings a realism to the franchise, gameplay innovations — like broken sticks and a revamped face-off system — as well as the addition of the Canadian Hockey League, NHL 11 promises to be the most complete hockey videogame ever created.

PlayStation Network

TerRover – TerRover’s gameplay is based on navigating a terrain rover through over forty stages of puzzling arcade levels in five different 2-D art styles including the icy vistas of Congelata. TerRover features three local multiplayer modes for up to four people, leaderboards and PlayStation Network trophies.

PlayStation Portable

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep – A tale of a new trio of heroes, told across three scenarios utilizing the technology of the PSP. With new features introduced on top of the traditional controls, game system, and visual style of its predecessors. Before Sora took up the Keyblade, there were other Keyblade masters. One of these masters, Xehanort, disappeared one day along with his apprentice. This event proved to be a foreshadowing of great disaster to come. Aware of the threat, another master ordered his three apprentices to seek out Xehanort and his cohort.

UFC Undisputed 2010 – Players manage Octagon control with a variety of strikes, submissions, transitions, cage positions and more. In addition, players will have customizable freedom with created fighters by combining move sets from numerous MMA disciplines to become true mixed martial artists.

PlayStation minis

Ace Armstrong vs. the Alien Scumbags! – This is a fast-paced horizontally scrolling shooter with a unique, slapstick take on the best of 50s and 60s sci-fi movies and cartoons. The game features a unique weapons system: instead of collecting power-ups, Ace must down enemies using the incredible power of the Recyl-o-Ray! before turning the Scumbags’ own weapons against them!

The PS.Blog weekly reading list (Week of August 30, 2010)

• Enough to forget the Wii? A week with the PlayStation Move – ars technica
• Sony PlayStation Move Review & Rating – PCMag.com
• Review: Ace Combat: Joint Assault – VGBlogger
• IGN Video: PlayStation Move Gear Review
• PlayStation Move review – Engadget
• Tech Watch: Better than the Wii – msnbc
• PS3 Interview: Alex Evans (LittleBigPlanet 2) – ComputerAndVideoGames.com
• EyePet Review – PlayStation 3 Review at IGN
• First living room impressions: PlayStation Move – Destructoid
• Valkyria Chronicles 2 review: big strategy, war and drama in a handheld package – Joystiq
• Start The Party Review: Reality Improved, Ridiculously – Kotaku
• Move Is A Great Addition To Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 – Kotaku
• How To Mount That PlayStation Eye Camera With Minimal Fuss – Kotaku
• Tumble for PlayStation 3 – Reviews – G4tv.com
• Move Sports Champions Review: A Cut, A Spike, A Toss Above the Rest – Kotaku
• Playstation Move Review: The Motion Controller Wars Start Now – Kotaku
• Valkyria Chronicles II Review – IGN
• New Move for Sony PlayStation – CNN.com
• Sony: Expect game discs for at least 10 years – CNET
• The God Of Sneakers – Kotaku
• Sony Move to compete with Wii system – ESPN
• Trapped Chilean Miners Get Sony PSPs to Escape Reality – DailyTech

Though my trip to Seattle was a short one, I was able to prowl the PAX floors for a few hours to soak in the avalanche of upcoming games. I’ll be sharing some of my gameplay encounters next week, so stay tuned.

• I’m playing: Castle Crashers; Hoard, TRON Evolution, and Mortal Kombat (at PAX)
• I’m watching: True Blood Season 3, eagerly awaiting Fringe Season 3
• I’m reading: A Week with the PlayStation Move on ArsTechnica.com, Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future by Dougal Dixon

God of War: Ghost of Sparta Demo for Spartan Army, God of War Live Recap – God of War fans who couldn’t make it to our PAX meetup got another shot at the new PSP demo.

Courtesy of Jeremy Dunham

Courtesy of Arne Meyer

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Among Nariko and Sackboy cosplayers, you’ll also spot The Fight: Lights Out, Gran Turismo 5, LittleBigPlanet 2, Dead Nation and MotorStorm: Apocalypse on the show floor. Instead of sitting There and attempting to conjure an image in your head of Helghast soldiers patrolling endless lines of fans patiently waiting hours for PlayStation gaming — I’ll show it to you.

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The TerRover is a cute little robot buggy with a big smile and warm heart in need of your help to find a new planetary home for him and his friends. You get weapons and tools and a chassis equipped with rocket launchers, magnet cables and more to assist in collecting all the mechanical parts scattered about and discovering the secret areas and hidden passages.

Now, the new stuff: TerRover features over 40 stages of puzzling arcade levels on five strange and different planets, each with its own physics and funky, eye-popping 2D art style. All pose unique threats and their own version of fun! The icy vistas of Congelata let you dig through snow and glide along stretches of ice. The all-tech surfaces of Mechanica toss you about its gears and motorized hazards. Robot-eating plants, underground rivers, and strange vegetation on the terrains of Acor and Aura will keep you and your TerRover on your toes (er… wheels?) The treacherous volcanoes and lava of Volcanus can thrust you high into the air or melt you on contact.

When you do complete a challenging level and feel the need to show the world just how you did it, you can! TerRover offers YouTube support to upload your latest escapade to the internet and crown yourself as TerRover champion. That’s not enough? Well, then you’ll have to rack up the multitude of Trophies available and make your status official to everyone.

And if you need a break from all that pressure of trying to relocate the TerRover population to safety, there’s great local multiplayer action, too! Up to four players can compete in a number of different modes and races in different locations. While the multiplayer is competitive, it occasionally takes a cooperative turn, and forces you and your opponent to briefly work together.

Our team at Creat Studios frequently gets asked about the inspiration for TerRover’s expressing emotions. To better explain it, let’s hear from TerRover’s producer, Olga Solokova:

“We discussed it at the very beginning, based on our experience of making an inanimate character come to life on previous project, Digger HD. We thought it was cool, so we set out to push it further and make TerRover smile, gasp and frown, get angry or frustrated, to make him feel and express emotion. Early into production, TerRover was alive due to the amazing work of our art director, Anastasia Vasilieva. She’s a master of perfecting small and cute things, like she did on Mushroom Wars. We laughed a lot while working on TerRover, and I hope that we’ll make the players feel that and smile at TerRover’s funny faces, too.”

Everyone at Creat Studios really hopes you enjoy our newest game, and we want to hear from you. Please drop by our website, check us out on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter, and tell us what you think. As always… thank you again to all of our fans out there. We can’t do what we love without you.

Last month, we unveiled elements of Killzone 3’s stellar new multiplayer at gamescom and revealed new vehicles.

Today, on behalf of Guerrilla Games, we are happy to announce the official release date of Killzone 3 in North America is February 22nd, 2011!

We’re at PAX today so if you’re at the show, please stop by the Killzone booth and check out multiplayer for yourself.

Hey everyone, James Stevenson from Insomniac Games here. We’re very excited to see you at PAX this weekend, where we have a couple of panels that we are very excited about. This will be your first opportunity to get a look at the never-before-seen extended demo of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One:

Saturday, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM, Serpent Theatre
Insomniac Games: Behind the Scenes on Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One Insomniac Games, the development team behind the critically-acclaimed Ratchet & Clank and Resistance franchises, discuss their next Playstation 3 project, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One.
Attendees will be treated to the first official U.S. demo of Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One and will also have the opportunity to ask questions during a Q&A with Insomniac.

G4TV’s Adam Sessler will be moderating a panel featuring Insomniac Games North Carolina Studio Director Chad Dezern, and Production Director Shaun McCabe. In addition, you can look forward to hearing Insomniac Games Senior Writer TJ Fixman’s wit and Jersey-accent, as he discusses not only All 4 One, but the upcoming comic series as well!

For those of you who are fans of the Full Moon Show – please join us for a live taping of our next episode on Sunday:

Sunday, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM, Unicorn Theatre
The Insomniac Games Full Moon Show LIVE

One of gaming’s most beloved and long-time developer podcasts brings the show live to PAX Prime. Join host James Stevenson (Senior Community Manager, Insomniac Games) and key leaders from Insomniac Games as they record the next episode of the Full Moon Show. Also on tap will be a special mystery guest, and a new Behind the Scenes look at Insomniac Games. The live show will also feature a segment of “I Want Your Job!” as well as plenty of time for you to ask questions – and perhaps even win some rare swag!

We are very much looking forward to seeing you in Seattle this weekend, so please make sure to drop by and say hello!

JS

Unable to attend the PAX PlayStation.Blog Beyond meetup in Seattle yesterday?

No worries! We’ve got you covered on the God of War: Ghost of Sparta Demo.

We know our Spartan Army members are true die-hard God of War fans, so it only makes sense for us to grant our opted-in registrants all premiums and first access. As part of a ‘thank you’ to our hardcore Spartan Army members, we are emailing out demo voucher codes to each and every GodofWar.com and SpartansStandTall.com registrants today, Friday, September 3rd at 2:00pm Pacific time.

So be sure to check your email inbox for your own access to the God of War: Ghost of Sparta demo experience.

All we ask is that you’re within the United States, Canada or Mexico. You must also be a GodofWar.com or SpartansStandTall.com registrant on or before 08/01/2010. For European residence, please check with PlayStation.Blog.Europe for more information.

For those that couldn’t attend, God of War Live on Wednesday was absolutely incredible! Thank you again for all that attended and making the event a huge success. Over 150 of our PlayStation.Blog community was treated to an unfiltered, non-censored, no-holds-barred discussions with the entire cast of God of War Game Directors. Those who attended could tell you that the responses given by David, Cory, Ru, Stig and Dan were honest and totally unscripted.

Three very fortunate attendees won our raffle prizing at the end of the night, including the God of War: Ghost of Sparta Entertainment Pack, Franchise Bundle, and the mystery prize… the first and only print of the official Art of God of War III from Ballistic Publishing — a 272-page book revealing more than 100 pieces of artwork that didn’t appear in the game. Best of all, it was signed by each of the five God of War game directors, and he took the ONLY public released copy home the same night. Visit Ballistic Publishing for more info.

To witness the recording of God of War Live, be sure to pre-order God of War: Ghost of Sparta at any of our participating retailers to secure your six-item pre-order bonuses.

Every End Must First Begin.

Get ready for back to school madness with our Deal of the Week collection where you can save on Fanboy and Chum Chum, Hey Arnold, SpongeBob SquarePants, Ned’s Declassified, True Jackson VP, Drake and Josh, and more!

Visit Campus Classics under Featured Collections to brush up on all time back to school classics including Accepted, Road Trip, Hoosiers, Revenge of the Nerds, Superbad! Check out the new release of UFC 118 packed solid with some of the sport’s best and fiercest in Ultimate Fighting. Also, check out incredible action sports films from WAX formally VAS Entertainment, their new page launches this week on PSN. Don’t forget to tune in to all exclusive, never before aired episodes of Better Off Ted. Can’t get enough of comedy’s greatest dynamic duo? The laughs last longer with Date Night Extended Edition, which includes a never-before-seen scenes and added footage. Last but not least, be sure to catch a pre-theatrical release of Freakonomics, available now on the PlayStation Store!

New TV and Film arrivals hit the US and Canada stores everyday! Here’s a taste of what’s hot this weekend:

Just in TV
US Store: Futurama: Season 7, Campus PD: Season 2, Sci Fi Science: Season 1, Man vs. Wild: Season 5, The Colony: Season 2, Weird True & Freak: Season 2, Rookie Blue: Season 1, Warren the Ape: Season 1, Better Off Ted: Season 2, Rescue Me: Season 6, Louie: Season 1, Unnatural History: Season 1, Warehouse 13: Season 2, Chasing Mummies: Season 1, Dark Blue: Season 2, Ghost Hunters: Season 6, High School of the Dead: Season 1, Psych: Season 5, Masterchef: Season 1, Saving Grace: Season 4, The Universe: Season 5, Stan Lee’s Superhumans: Season 1

Canada Store: Bleach: Season 10, Psych: Season 3, TNA: iMPACT!: Season 2009, High School of the Dead: Season 1, Comedy Central Presents: Stand-Up: Season 1, DEA: Season 2, Invincible: Season 1, The Ultimate Fighter: Season 10, The Ultimate Fighter: Season Team Liddell vs. Team Ortiz

Just in Movies
US Store: Marmaduke, Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too, Mother, Saidoweizu, George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead, Bring It On: Fight to the Finish, Calvin Marshall, Cemetery Junction, Happy Tears, Made: The Movie, Melali: The Drifter Sessions, Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison, The End: British Gangsters, The Lottery, Castles in the Sky

Canada Store: Marmaduke, Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too?, Melali: The Drifter Sessions, Hungry Hills, Barking Dogs Never Bite, Vampiro, City Island, City of Your Final Destination, The B Movie

And last but not least, be sure to check out the hilarious trailer for Marmaduke now available on both the US and Canada video store!

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Top Ten TV Downloads (US only)

• Futurama | Season 7 - Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences
• Jersey Shore | Season Miami - The Letter
• Naruto Shippuden Uncut | Season 1 – The Picture Book’s Story Vol. 4
• Futurama | Season 7 – The Prisoner of Benda
• The Boondocks | Season 3 – It’s Goin’ Down
• Burn Notice | Season 4 – Guilty as Charged
• Family Guy | Season 8 – Brian & Stewie  
• Mad Men | Season 4 – Waldorf Stories  
• Psych | Season 5 – Ferry Tale
• American Chopper – Senior vs. Junior – ESAB Bike  

Top Movie Downloads (US only)

• The Back-up Plan
• Date Night
• Death at a Funeral
• Kick-Ass
• Clash of the Titans (2010)
• Hot Tub Time Machine (Unrated Version
• Furry Vengeance
• The Last Song
• Cop Out
• Repo Men (Unrated)