PlayStationSpot

Hey everyone, just wanted to give you a quick update on some recent SingStar news. Yesterday we announced that SingStar PS3 Vol. 2 will be coming to the U.S. this October. You can check out the full details on SingStar PS3 Vol.2, as well get the latest on today’s SingStore update at IGN.

Coming out of Leipzig, you may have read about a cool new SingStar PS3 disc swap feature which incorporates the SingStar PS2 library. We wanted to make sure everyone was up to speed on what the disc feature entailed, so here’s the lowdown from the SingStar development team:

SingStar track compatibility across PS2 & PS3 is enabled via the Disc Swap feature.

The feature has previously been available on SingStar games for both PlayStation 2 and PLAYSTATION 3, but for the first time owners of SingStar for PS3 will be able to play songs from PS2 discs in their collection.

While playing a SingStar PS3 disc, at the song select screen, hit the [select] button to swap discs and play the songs from the inserted disc. The songs are not saved to the hard drive.

This is a unique feature for SingStar and makes it possible for fans who have already built up their PS2 SingStar collection to continue enjoying it on PS3. It will be delivered via a free game update later this year and will work with all current SingStar PS3 discs. It will also be included on future SingStar PS3 discs releasing next year.

This new feature will work with all current PS3 system models and does not require a system software update.

The games industry is always on the look-out for new, talented engineers and programmers who understand how the hardware works under the hood. However, it isn’t possible to buy a PlayStation development kit at your local computer store and development for the PlayStation has remained a mystery, even to very interested individuals. It gives me great pleasure to unveil the mystery and announce the PlayStation-edu program! We expect this program to be a great tool to teach students about the PlayStation platforms.

PlayStation-edu is a program for universities and colleges to get access to PS2 and PSP development kits…the same ones that professional developers use to make the games you love to play. You get the development software, the hardware, and the SDK to learn and experiment with. SCEA wants to make sure that students who are graduating from college are ready to program on PlayStation hardware and that means getting it into your hands.

PlayStation-edu is not a general game creation program (sorry artists and designers). It is for computer science and engineering students who want to understand how the hardware works in the PlayStation consoles. Schools which teach game programming or computer architecture can use the development kits in their classes. Participants will get demo code and samples, as well as documentation about how things work. We want the dev kits used in the classroom! Students in PlayStation-edu will have access to our support web site where they can talk with other students in the program on our forums.

Of course, there are a couple caveats (aren’t there always?): Yes, your school will need to sign some legal agreements with us and yes, “get access to” means that your school will need to purchase the hardware.

For more information and application information, educators may contact me (Mark Danks) at applications@psp-edu.scedev.net. Only requests for applications from qualified school representatives will be responded to, so any students reading this should have their teacher submit the request. Also, this is only for universities and colleges, so high school students will need to wait a few years.

We are looking forward to hearing from you and seeing what you can create!

We here at High Impact Games have taken the multiplayer mode you know and love from the PSP version of Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters and retooled to let you take advantage of playing it at home on your PlayStation 2 with your friends. After you pick up your copy next week, don’t forget to grab a friend and get sucked into some intense split-screen multiplayer action!

In addition to Capture the Flag mode, Iron Lombax challenges players to complete different sets of unique goals depending on which of the multiplayer maps they are playing on. All maps can be played in co-op or versus mode:

• Island Escape - Players race to collect radioactive cores and use them to be the first to launch their rocket to freedom. Be careful not to hold onto the core for too long though! Prolonged exposure may result in mutations.
• Danger Valley - Players must find radio homing beacons and place them on enemy force field transmitters in order to guide a collection of volatile hover mines in to their target. Once the shields are down, place the homing beacon on the enemy’s base and let the mines finish the job.
• Mega Cannons - Players must gather the missing pieces to their Mega Cannon and then struggle for dominance of the power relays necessary to charge their cannons main gun. Once the gun is fully charged, jump in and turn your enemies into radioactive waste.
• Moon Cow Disease - The fate of the universe once again hangs in the balance! The supply of galactic burgers is dangerously low, and only the players have the skill required to gather this precious resource! Hunt down the space cows, deliver them to the processing vendor, and then avoid enemy attacks as you make your way to the delivery trucks. First person to fill the orders wins.

Look for Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters PS2 in stores March 11.

The grass is cut, the infield’s manicured and the lines are chalked. The boys of summer are back and it’s time to “PLAY BALL!” MLB 08: The Show officially hits store shelves today for the PS3, PS2 and PSP.

In celebration of the start of the 2008 baseball season, we’ve got a new Opening Day trailer for you:

If that wasn’t enough for you, or if you haven’t seen what all the hype is all about, be sure to click to www.mlb08theshow.com and check out recent vids from what ESPN The Magazine says is “the most realistic baseball game ever created.” MLB 08 The Show: Nothing gets you closer.

Dig in and swing for the fences…

Calling on all aspiring actors, producers and film directors … get your star studded trivia hat on cause it’s time to get buzzing! This is Rob Alvarez, Product Marketing Manager for the Buzz franchise. Hopefully, you had a chance to check out the 80th Academy Awards last night, which took place at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. In celebration of the awards and the upcoming March release of Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz, we’ve had some pretty cool stuff going on within the Buzz world.

Last week at GDC, we held a Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz charity challenge where 16 players from a number of different media outlets including Joystiq, Destructiod, GamesRadar, CNet, TotalPlayStation.com and others competed for a donation to the charity of their choice. Sam Bishop of TotalPlayStation.com took home the prize with his ultimate Buzz skills and made his donation to the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).

Thanks to everyone who participated in the quiz contest a couple of weeks back. Answers are below to the Hollywood Quiz questions featured in the contest.

Winners have been notified, so congrats to those who took home prizes! As soon as all the necessary paperwork is complete, we’ll go ahead and post the names of the winners. Last but not least, we wanted to share with you a new game trailer for Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz. We hope you enjoy it. On March 11th get ready to experience the ultimate game show, live in your living room: “Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz.” Stay tuned!

1. IN WHICH MOVIE DOES HONOR BLACKMAN PLAY A BOND GIRL?
Answer: GOLDFINGER

2. WHO DOES THE ‘TRUFFLE SHUFFLE’?
Answer: CHUNK

3. WHICH BLOCKBUSTER RECEIVED THE MOST ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINATIONS?
Answer: TITANIC

4. WE ARE TOLD THAT THE ‘STAR WARS’ SAGA TAKES PLACE A LONG TIME AGO, BUT WHERE?
Answer: A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY

5. ON WHICH CLASSIC NOVEL IS THE 2001 MOVIE ‘BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY’ LOOSELY BASED?
Answer: PRIDE & PREJUDICE

6. WHICH ‘60S CLASSIC ENDS ON A SWISS MOUNTAIN ROAD, LITERALLY WITH A CLIFF-HANGER?
Answer: THE ITALIAN JOB

7. WHICH NEW YORK CITY FIREFIGHTER WENT ON TO BECOME A ‘RESERVOIR DOG’?
Answer: STEVE BUSCEMI

8. WHICH SONG DOES THE SULTRY SCARLETT JOHANSSON PERFORM AT THE KARAOKE BAR IN ‘LOST IN TRANSLATION’?
Answer: BRASS IN POCKET

9. HOW IS THE INEXORABLE T-1000 FINALLY DEFEATED AT THE END OF ‘TERMINATOR 2′?
Answer: MELTED

10. WHICH CHARACTER’S MAKE UP WAS SO CONVINCING IT PROMPTED A NEW ACADEMY AWARD CATEGORY FOR ‘BEST MAKE-UP’?
Answer: THE ELEPHANT MAN

Hi all, it’s time to get buzzing! The Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz contest is on, so the first person to get all 10 answers correct will be the proud winner of a new 37” BRAVIA M series HDTV. If you didn’t see my post yesterday, below is a quick rundown of the contest and full details on the rules are listed below. Winners will be announced here on the blog. The contest lowdown:

• The contest kicks-off today on Tuesday, February 12th beginning at 12:00 PM PST and will last until 11:59 PM PST on Tuesday, February 12th.
• 10 questions from the game will be featured.
• The first person that gets all 10 questions correct will be the Grand Prize Winner and will receive a 37” BRAVIA M series HDTV.
• The second person to get all 10 questions right will receive the limited edition white PlayStation 2 SingStar bundle, along with a copy of Buzz! Hollywood and SingStar ’90s.
• The third person to get all the answers correct will receive a copy of Buzz! Hollywood and SingStar ’90s for PlayStation 2.

And here are the questions…..

1. IN WHICH MOVIE DOES HONOR BLACKMAN PLAY A BOND GIRL?
2. WHO DOES THE “TRUFFLE SHUFFLE”?
3. WHICH BLOCKBUSTER RECEIVED THE MOST ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS?
4. WE ARE TOLD THAT THE “STAR WARS” SAGA TAKES PLACE A LONG TIME AGO, BUT WHERE?
5. ON WHICH CLASSIC NOVEL IS THE 2001 MOVIE “BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY” LOOSELY BASED?
6. WHICH ‘60S CLASSIC ENDS ON A SWISS MOUNTAIN ROAD, LITERALLY WITH A CLIFF-HANGER?
7. WHICH NEW YORK CITY FIREFIGHTER WENT ON TO BECOME A “RESERVOIR DOG?”
8. WHICH SONG DOES THE SULTRY SCARLETT JOHANSSON PERFORM AT THE KARAOKE BAR IN “LOST IN TRANSLATION?”
9. HOW IS THE INEXORABLE T-1000 FINALLY DEFEATED AT THE END OF “TERMINATOR 2?”
10. WHICH CHARACTER’S MAKE UP WAS SO CONVINCING IT PROMPTED A NEW ACADEMY AWARD CATEGORY FOR “BEST MAKE-UP?”

Answers must be sent to buzzthehollywoodquizcontest@gmail.com

Have fun and good luck!

Contest rules after the jump.
(more…)

Hi everyone! Thanks for taking the time to answer the Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz questions last week. You can find the answers listed below. While we gave you a small taste of what Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz was all about, we thought we’d challenge you a little further to see just how up to speed you really are on Hollywood culture. And this time prizes are involved! In celebration of the Oscars and the upcoming release of Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz, we’ll be hosting a contest on Tuesday (tomorrow) beginning at 12:00 PM PST. We’ll post full details of the contest tomorrow, but here’s a quick rundown:

• The contest will kick-off tomorrow, Tuesday, February 12th beginning at 12:00 PM PST and will last until 11:59 PM PST on Tuesday, February 12th.
• 10 questions from the game will be featured.
• The first person that gets all 10 questions correct will be the Grand Prize Winner and will receive a 37” BRAVIA M series HDTV.
• The second person to get all 10 questions right will receive the limited edition white PlayStation 2 SingStar bundle, along with a copy of Buzz! Hollywood and SingStar 90’s.
• The third person to get all the answers correct will receive a copy of Buzz! Hollywood and SingStar 90’s for PlayStation 2.

So, it’s lights, camera, action this tomorrow and one of you will be sitting pretty watching the Oscars on February 23 … happy buzzing!

Questions from last week:

WHICH BLOCKBUSTER HAS THE CHILLING TAGLINE “IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM”?

*Correct Answer: Alien

IN ‘THE MATRIX’, KEANU REEVES IS REVEALED AS ‘THE ONE’, BUT WHAT IS HIS CHARACTER’S NAME?

*Correct Answer: Neo

IN ‘THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE’, WHO IS THE ‘KING OF THE BEASTS’?

*Correct Answer: Aslan

The airplane has the Wright Brothers. The lightbulb and record player (and about a thousand other things) have Thomas Edison. So who holds a similarly lofty position, “Father of the PlayStation?” That would be Ken Kutaragi.

You’ve probably heard his name before - Kutaragi was the man who got the PlayStation ball rolling in 1994, and presided over Sony Computer Entertainment during the release of the PlayStation 2, the best-selling in-home game system in history (more than 120 million units shipped worldwide).

This week at the annual D.I.C.E. Summit, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), presented Ken Kutaragi with its coveted 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award.

It’s very safe to say that if not for Ken Kutaragi, you would not be enjoying Uncharted or God of War, looking forward to games like Metal Gear Solid 4 or LittleBigPlanet, or even reading this blog. For more information on this award, click here. Also, here’s the video about Kutaragi that played at the presentation.

Big thanks to GameSpot for the video!!

Hey Ya’ll! Jaffe here again! Just wanted to share some more footage from Twisted Metal: HEAD ON- Extra Twisted Edition with you. This is our Moscow level from the HEAD ON portion of the game and, as you can see, the graphics have been cleaned up and the game is running at a sleek, slick 60 frames/second! Check it out:

The game hits tomorrow and we’ll be back with more videos (both from gameplay and some cool behind the scenes bonus clips) to get you all as excited as we are about our latest game!

The ’90s! Yep, this disc is dropping on March 18. You’ll see from the full track list below, we’ve got a very eclectic mix of music, as we wanted to try and represent all of the major music movements that happened in the ’90s. There’s something for everyone, and some real classics to boot!

With all SingStar products, we start off the process by defining parameters for our song list, and SingStar ’90s was no exception. However, this proved to be more challenging than usual, as everybody we asked had their own idea about the ’90s — it wasn’t as clearly defined as if you asked them about the ’80s. But, that’s ultimately where we got our inspiration from. The decade was many different things to many different people, so our track list had to reflect that. Grunge, rap, pop, boy bands, hip hop, rock — it’s all in there, and we hope you like it.

How about you guys… What were the ’90s for you? What’s your favorite track on this list? And yes, all you wondering what’s up with SingStar PS3, click here to get the latest from our interview with IGN.

• Arrested Development - Tennessee
• Boyz II Men - Motownphilly
• Chumbawamba - Tubthumping
• Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up
• Divinyls - I Touch Myself
• En Vogue - Free Your Mind
• Extreme - More Than Words
• Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy
• Hootie And The Blowfish - Only Wanna Be With You
• Jesus Jones - Right Here Right Now
• Len - Steal My Sunshine
• MC Hammer - U Can’t Touch This
• Natalie Imbruglia - Torn
• New Kids On The Block - Step By Step
• Nirvana - Lithium
• Paula Abdul - Opposites Attract
• Poison - Unskinny Bop
• R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts
• Santana feat. Rob Thomas - Smooth
• Savage Garden - I Want You
• Seal - Kiss From A Rose
• Sir Mix A Lot - Baby Got Back
• Sixpence None The Richer - Kiss Me
• Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
• Spin Doctors - Two Princes
• Stone Temple Pilots - Plush
• Technotronic feat. Felly - Pump Up The Jam
• The Cranberries - Zombie
• Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby
• Wilson Phillips - Hold On