PlayStation News, Articles and Information for the UK and Europe

This week’s store update brings some of the first non-game Dynamic Themes for the XMB, with a particularly splendid Beach scene among others. Also new this week are three PSN games including the long-awaited remake Afterburner Climax. The Lost Planet 2 Multiplayer demo is now available for everyone to download now, rather than just selected beta testers.

The only PSOne Classic this week is Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire, though quite whether it deserves the title of classic is a matter of opinion! The Uncharted 2 Siege Expansion Pack is worth checking out if you’re a fan of the game; it adds a new co-op multiplayer mode, which is a welcome addition. Check out the full list of this week’s Store Update below: Read more

For those of you who haven’t already gone online today, you’ll be prompted to download system software update 3.30 today. It’s nothing too exciting, but it doesn’t take away any features either. The new features are as follows:

• Added ‘Sort’ option to trophy collection to allow sorts of: Alphabetical, Recently Updated, Last Updated. And then in the actual trophy menus you’ll have sorts of: Original Order, Alphabetical, Last Earned, First Earned, Trophy Grade. (Note: The ‘Sort’ feature applies to ‘Trophy Collection’ and ‘Compare Trophies’)
• Preparation for future updates including support for 3D Bravia TVs and Games.

Like I said, nothing to get too excited about but the new sort option could come in useful.

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Again another fantastic line-up this week continuing the high standard we have come to expect from the team at OPM. Last week saw you getting a free mini as well as some nice snapshots of upcoming games, and this week is no different (well except from the mini). This week’s headline game is 2010 FIFA World Cup which is set to be reviewed, whilst including some previews of Blur and Mafia II. There are a whole load of screenshots for you to look through this week (spanning 5 games) as well as a good deal of network highlights, however the Features Downloads section looks a bit bare.

As always, there is a list of the full content below – which is now fully updated – so have fun reading and leave your feedback on the episode by commenting. Oh and don’t forget to check the site on Saturday 24th April to find the follow-up to this article featuring a full analysis of the episode.

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For the second week running GTA: Episodes from Liberty City takes the top spot, holding off the newcomer Demon’s Souls which was finally confirmed to be released on UK shores just last week. Another new entry at number three is 2010 FIFA World Cup whilst God of War 3 drops four places down to number six.

Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Assassin’s Creed II all hold on to the top ten for another week  whilst Red Dead Redemption drops to fourth. In number ten is the Dualshock 3 Controller but as this is a list of the top PS3 Games, Heavy Rain takes the tenth place on our list whilst relinquishing the top ten for eleventh place in the chart.

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Yet another great update this week, full of little trinkets that you won’t resist the urge to buy. This week sees the Skate 3 Demo on the store as well as the debut episode of Sam and Max, which also comes with a trial. A new PSOne classic makes its way to the store in the form of Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssee and you’ll find the long awaited GTA IV DLC – oh, and don’t forget Section 8! And just to top the whole pile off, we have FirstPlay Episode 2 featuring a free mini, so that’s also worth a download.

For the full content listing, see below: Read more

After last week’s bombshell of an episode, with a round-up of the best of PSN as well as an exclusive parachute for Just Cause 2; you might think that the FirstPlay team would be hard pressed for more content, but it seems that they’ve pulled off yet another stunner. In this weeks episode, dive into the Super Street Fighter IV review, or watch the exclusive preview for Split/Second: Velocity. Read below for a full content listing of this week’s episode… Read more

The first quarter of 2010 was a fantastic line-up involving some of the best games and sequels being released. The likes of MAG, God of War III, Heavy Rain, Bioshock 2, White Knight Chronicles, Final Fantasy XIII were all highly anticipated in the gaming world, and it’s safe to say that some of them rose to the challenge (with some major candidates for Game of the Year) whilst others didn’t quite live up to their hype. But that was last quarter, we’re nearly two weeks into the second quarter of 2010, so what does Sony have lined up for us now? And can Spring live up to what the first few months set us up for? Read more

Epic Games, People Can Fly and Electronic Arts have today confirmed that they have a new FPS game in development called Bulletstorm, an original intellectual property from the people behind the hugely successful Gears of War, Unreal Tournament and Painkiller franchises. The President of Epic Games, Michael Capps,  had the following to say about Bulletstorm:

 “Bulletstorm is the kind of game we love to make because it’s pure, unadulterated entertainment. ‘People Can Fly’ has created a wildly fun first-person shooter that looks gorgeous running on the latest Unreal Engine 3 technology, and the skillshot system is a welcome addition to the genre. We can’t wait to see how everyone reacts to seeing Bulletstorm.”

Bulletstorm is currently set for release in 2011 and will be released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC. Judging by their past games from the studios, Bulletstorm will have very high expectations from gamers. We’ll hopefully hear more at E3 in June but until then you can check out the official Facebook and Twitter pages for more information.

Another re-shuffling this week with not much in the way of new games in the top 10. The most surprising re-entry is Dragon Age: Origins which, thanks to a new price cut, has jumped back up to number 8. If you like RPGs but haven’t played it, it’s well worth the asking price £14.98. It makes the £31.99 price of the expansion on the PSN Store seem even more over-priced than it already is!

It’s interesting to see that sales for Episodes from Liberty City have increased again as we enter the week of release and it finally takes the number 1 spot. Take 2 must be hoping that the huge delay in releasing this DLC for PlayStation 3 won’t hurt their sales too much – from the disc version sales it appears that they don’t need to worry too much.

Red Dead Redemption makes its debut in the top 10 by jumping in at number 3 – with a release date of May 21st there’s still plenty of time for the hype machine to get going but judging by Rockstar’s success with Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption could be one of the biggest games of the year. Read more

Despite the recent call for applicants to the Final Fantasy XIV beta on PS3 it looks like Sony gamers may not be getting access to the first stage of the beta, which will be for PC gamers only. According to Connected Consoles, Hiromichi Tanaka, who was interviewed in the latest issue of Dengeki Magazine, had the following to say:

“We may not make it in time for phase 1 of the beta, but around phase 2 of the beta we believe we will be able to support PS3.”

That’s not definite but makes sense that Square Enix would want to test out everything on PC first – bug reporting and troubleshooting could be much easier on a computer than on a console. Still, it looks likely that everything’s going ahead for the second phase of the beta – just keep your fingers crossed until then!