The Road of Devastation DLC will feature a new more adaptable AI which means that enemy groups will come back at you in greater numbers after previous encounters and will treat the player more aggressively in successive engagements. As if this tweak to the AI wasn’t bad enough, Housemarque has also stated that zombies will not be the only problem you’ll have to face as you traipse about in the post-apocalyptic world of DN this time around. How about killer plants? How about killer plant people?! Yes that’s right….zombie plants are another deadly addition to the game’s world as it appears that the ambient fronds may no longer be friendly.

Of course, Housemarque isn’t going to leave you completely to the wolves. Details regarding some of the weapons have been released. Some of the weapons being detailed include an industrial cutting saw for close quarters fighting, and electrified fencing for those really huge mobs. Heavy weapons are also teased, but not talked about in detail at this time. Still its nice to see that the developers taking the environmental traps idea to another level with the addition of fences. I just hope they don’t get rid of cars, because the obvious place to find money in a pinch is always the trunk.

So how much would you pay for this incredible package?! $100? $10,000? $1,000,000?! Actually it will just cost you $3.99 and will be available September 27th. In the meantime though feel free to treat yourselves to the new screenshots below for your viewing pleasure:

Source: US PlayStation Blog

Eufloria is a strategy game that takes a very relaxed approach to the usual genre tropes such as unit production, base expansion, and resource management. In an earlier post from Suttner regarding the game “I promise that you haven’t played anything like it on PSN before; cull together bits and pieces of flOw, Mushroom Wars and Everyday Shooter and you’re on the right track…but still quite a ways off.” I would also probably add a hint on PixelJunk Eden to those titles and would still probably not come close. To hear the developers tell the tale, Eufloria is a game where players control asteroids which they use to then produce units to take more territories and expand. It does this in the confines of a game that has very relaxed music and gameplay mechanics that don’t penalize you for small mistakes or lapses in judgment in the same way that some more hardcore RTS games do. In fact the earlier US PS Blog post has this blurb from the developers at Omni-Labs:

Eufloria PSN isn’t really like other games. It has strategic gameplay, but no technology trees or complicated interface. It allows for exploration and expansion without being punished for small mistakes. It offers challenges that are fun, but in a style that can be described as “ambient gameplay”. There is conquest but there are no space marines in sight (sic). Instead, all of Eufloria’s gameplay is based on growing your strategic and colonising life forms on asteroids that you conquer throughout the game. That is right: you are basically playing a game of intergalactic guerrilla gardening (sic). Oh, and you engage in massive battles against enemy plant life.

There’s no price for Eufloria listed yet, but I would imagine in the interest of parity between platforms you can probably expect this one to cost $15 (with a possible rumored discount for PlayStation Plus members). Moreover, Eufloria is one of the first games to benefit from the $20 million dollar Pub Fund which Sony had previously announced. You can also check out the trailer for the game below:

Source: US PlayStation Blog 1, 2

An action-adventure, side-scrolling puzzle platformer, Rochard follows the story of the astro-miner John Rochard as he uses his wits and everyday mining tools to fend off space pirates, save his team of missing miners and solve the mystery behind the discovery of an ancient alien artifact.Rochard tests players’ coordination as they manipulate gravity to their advantage, changing it at will to solve environmental puzzles and advance through each level.

For those inclined to see more of Rochard, Giant Bomb has a Quick Look up of the game that can be found here. The trailer is also embedded below:

As for the other two, check out the links above for more information (Payday: The Heist is talked about at the end of Ben’s PSN Play article above and is accompanied by a trailer). There is no word yet on when these titles will be made available in the EU store nor any indication of price. The prices and release dates for all three games from the press release are listed below:

PAYDAY: The Heist – October 4 $19.99

Sideway: New York – October 11 $9.99

Rochard – September 27 $9.99

So what’s the verdict? Which of these games are you guys looking forward to?

-Costume Quest (Full Game) – $7.49

-Costume Quest: Grubbins on Ice DLC – $2.49

-Stacking (Full Game) – $7.49

-Stacking: The Lost Hobo King DLC – $2.49

-Red Faction: Guerrilla (Full Game) – $9.99

-Red Faction: Guerrilla – Demons of the Badlands DLC – $4.99

-Red Faction: Guerrilla – Multiplayer Pack DLC – $3.49

-Red Faction: Guerrilla – Smasher Pack DLC – $2.49

-WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 PSP (Full Game) – $19.99

-UFC Undisputed 2010 PSP (Full Game) – $19.99

-MX vs. ATV: Reflex PSP (Full Game) – $14.99

-MX vs. ATV: Untamed PSP (Full Game) – $9.99

-WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 PS3 – WWE Discount Pack 1 DLC – $3.49

-WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 PS3 – WWE Discount Pack 2 DLC – $1.49

-WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 PS3 -Fan Axxess DLC – $4.99

-MX vs. ATV: Reflex PS3 – Track Pack 1 – $0.99

-MX vs. ATV: Reflex PS3 – Track Pack 2 – $0.99

-Red Faction: Battlegrounds (Full Game) – $4.99

-Red Faction: Battlegrounds Armageddon Pack DLC – $1.49

-Red Faction: Battlegrounds Origin Pack DLC – $1.49

-Saints Row 2: Ultor Exposed DLC – $4.99

-Saints Row 2: Corporate Warfare DLC – $3.49

-UFC Undisputed 2010 PS3 TUF Pack DLC – $0.99

-You Don’t Know Jack: Jack Pack 1 DLC – $2.49

-You Don’t Know Jack: Jack Pack 2 DLC – $2.49

-You Don’t Know Jack: Jack Pack 3 DLC – $2.49

-You Don’t Know Jack: Jack Pack 4 DLC – $2.49

So get crackin’…..it’ll be August before you know it!

The post also goes on to state that this means that gamers will have access to more innovative and fun titles that will be exclusive to the console. Here’s hoping that’s true, especially because more games like the upcoming Papo & Yo wouldn’t be a terrible thing at all.

Source: US PlayStation Blog

According to Spanish police, one of the men had a computer server in his apartment in the northern city of Gijón. Using this server the group launched attacks on PSN as well as two Spanish banks, BBVA and Bankia. The list of hacks also includes the Italian energy company Enel, and government sites in Spain, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia, and New Zealand.

Police also stated that their investigation lead them to analyze more than 2 million lines of chat logs since October in an attempt to identify Anonymous’s leadership in Spain. At this time there is no information regarding whether these three guys are tied to the group known as Lulz Security, which is responsible for the Sony Pictures site hack that occurred this month.

If these accusations prove to be true, these three are looking at some serious jail time and a mountain of fines. More on this as it develops.

Source: New York Times

StarDrone is a physics based game where the player controls a space ship in a zero gravity environment. You can anchor the ship to points in the environment to generate momentum and velocity to move around and collect pieces of Equilibrix to restore balance to the universe. The press release describes it as “pinball-meets-Breakout-meets-shoot-em-up.”

For those of you that missed it, the trailer is posted below. Also, check out Eric’s review of the PS3 version.

Grip is calling One Epic Game an action platformer where players take control of the main protagonist, Alpha Dog. The mini, which has now been given the release window of July 2011, is a side-scrolling, perpetual motion game where Mr. Dog will be tasked with dealing with enemies. What enemies? Well the enemies are as diverse as the settings according to Grip. “There are aliens, zombies, fantasy, nuclear wasteland and World War II in this game, effectively making it the “most epic game” ever made.” said Grip in their fact sheet.

The story is also outlined in the same document. According to Grip Games, “Alpha Dog, a typical muscle action hero, chases the main villain across all the game’s levels, while they exchange dialogues full of humor, referencing other popular games, movies and clichés and breaking of the “fourth wall” between the game and the player.” One Epic Game also uses randomly generated levels to keep the player guessing each time.

To me, the game looks like a mashup of Contra and Tetris with elements of Mario thrown in (you can jump on dudes to kill them). At the same time, if the game stays true to its description and pays homage to previous games and movies it could be pretty funny in the same way that Super Meat Boy was. As the July release draws nearer Grip has promised to keep us posted. Personally, I’m not sure what to make of it at this point. More importantly, I’m not sure we’ll still have a website in July if Chris’s trip to Atlantic City should go south.

This new AC game takes place in Constantinople (not Istanbul!) and will feature Ezio on a quest to find 5 ancient seals to secure the future of the assassin brotherhood and following in the footsteps of Altaïr. The new chapter in the Assassin’s Creed series will no doubt be full of huge reveals and plot twists galore. One thing that we can confirm is that dudes are going to get stabbed in the face and neck. Did that require a spoiler? Anyway while I figure that out have a look at the new trailer and the screenshots below. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is currently scheduled to release in November.

Of course the news isn’t all bad for Sony, as the company has recently stated that its projected profits for fiscal year 2012 will be $975 million. Sony has also reported that the Japanese earthquake has resulted in $274 million in charges with an additional $63 million in sales also lost during that period. Some of those costs will be covered by insurance says Sony.

Even with these hard numbers its still difficult to say what will happen to Sony long term with respect to consumer confidence in the brand. While Sony is expecting a downturn over the next year, how severe that slide is remains to be seen.

Source: Mashable

The article also provides some behind the scenes details regarding this next title. Previously, the past two games in the franchise were praised for their humor and art style, but were almost universally criticised for their gameplay which got repetitive very quickly. Hothead has stated to Kotaku that this game will be different and will encourage tactical thinking when dealing with enemies. Hothead said ”…player’s will now feel compelled to use tactics and strategy to defeat their opponent.”  Further to this, Hothead also disclosed that this will be the first title in the franchise to not feature the lead character’s creator, Ron Gilbert. Currently the game is set for a summer release for both consoles and PC. Hothead has also released a teaser trailer embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

Source: Kotaku

Sky racing is a sport for adrenaline junkies. If you have ever seen a Red Bull Air Race, SkyDrift is taking that to the extreme. Up to 8 players battle it out for air dominance, using items along the way like in Mario Kart. There are a slew of different locales for you to “sky drift” around.

Players can also customize their planes, there are 8 different models of aircraft, with over 30 skins. Since this is a game about “drifting”, I totally am expecting a Fujiwara Tofu skin…

SkyDrift will be coming out sometime in the near future, we don’t have a firm window as of yet. Check out this trailer below if you were liking what you saw in the screens.

Rather than summarize these I’ve decided to reprint them in full because I think you’ll all be able to better appreciate the impact they’re going for:

-          The game will be released in July 2011.

-          An original Grip Games’title, exclusive to the PlayStation® Network.

-          As epic game as minis games can get.

You know I hate to say it, but Grip is certainly leaving a lot of room for disappointment here. I mean, with such gratuitous use of the word epic in this context this game had better be nothing short of spectacular. Man, had to prevent myself from saying epic there and using ellipses. We’ll update you as we find out more.

I’m not sure that I can speak for all of the editors of the site, but as for myself there are definitely some gaming journalists who I aspire to be like. The guys over at Giant Bomb are definitely near the top of a very short list of people. Moreover, I think it would be unrealistic to believe that we are the only gaming website that some of you read. So I thought that I would plug this because it just happens to be pretty cool.

As some of you are probably aware, the fine folks over at Giant Bomb have a weekly segment called Thursday Night Throwdown where they pick a recently released game and play online with both their 360 and PS3 fans. However, the last few weeks have been all 360 due to PSN being down. So in celebration of the fact that PSN is back up and the fact that its Thursday, Giant Bomb will be hosting its usual TNT event, but this week will be nothing but PSN games!

For those of you reading this that are looking for some cool people to play online with you might want to check this out. In order to take part in TNT you should send a friend request to GBTNT from your PS3 and wait until 4 PM PDT for them to start up. Currently Ryan Davis has been tweeting what some of the games on tap for tonight could be including Uncharted 2, Tetris, Warhawk, Wipeout, Mortal Kombat, and Critter Crunch just to name a few. You can also tune into TNT on Giant Bomb itself by clicking on a link which will be on the main page around 4 PM PDT, or you can watch it from their channel at Justin.tv. However, if you want to chat in either of those you’ll need an account on Giant Bomb or Justin.tv which are both free to sign up.

Its also worth noting that for a game like Mortal Kombat which features a lobby system there will probably just be a lobby called GBTNT.

The memo also lays out a tentative store update schedule. As you all are probably aware, PSN has missed a few weeks worth of store updates which also includes the release of content from developers. Rather than update the store with all of the content at once, Sony is going to be releasing that stuff in chunks with the first chunk to coincide with the re-opening of the store. Additionally, Sony is prioritizing the list based on the importance of the releases and is willing to do this on a “case by case basis” as stated by PSN content manager Jack Orsorno in the memo. According to the memo, the first content drop will send out everything that was originally scheduled for the April 26th store update. On May 27th the second batch of content will be uploaded to the store to make up for the May 3rd missed date.

I for one couldn’t be more excited to finally be able to redeem my online pass for MK and maybe also download some new characters for the game. Also we will probably all have our chance to go nuts on the Welcome Back stuff which Sony will release at somepoint. What have you guys been looking forward to buying once the store comes back online?

Source: Gamasutra

You know this whole PSN outage and hack incident is approaching the level of “Leave PSN Alone!!!” internet meme territory. Eurogamer has reported on a hack which was demonstrated to them live and first reported by gaming website, Nyleveia. The hack takes advantage of an exploit in Sony’s password recovery architecture. Basically, all a hacker would need is your email address and your date of birth in order to hijack your account. The good news is that Nyleveia has already contacted SCEE about the exploit and the account servers have been taken offline presumably to fix it. I must admit that this is actually a bit confusing so I’m going to link to both the Eurogamer and Nyleveia articles. Additionally, Nyleveia has posted several updates to the story with the most recent being a list of commonly asked questions.

UPDATE 5: Okay, due to the email response I felt i should answer some general common questions regarding the topic.

Q. If I already reset my password am I safe?
A. The exploit was possible on any account the email and date of birth was known for, regardless of if the password was changed or not, or what region the account was tied to.

Q. What if they don’t know my Date of Birth or Email account?
A. Then the average user would not be able to take your account, however due to the database being illegally accessed in April, it’s safe to assume that someone, somewhere, has access to a large number of users details, which include date of birth and email addresses, this alone should be reason enough to change your email.

Q. Are you sure this is real?
A. Yes, it was demonstrated to one of our empty accounts, then we were able to repeat the process ourselves after figuring out the method, this was additionally confirmed when a twitter user provided us with his data and requested that we change his password as proof.
We have since emailed him his new password, and no other data on his account was changed.

Q. Can Sony fix it?
A. Shortly after containing SCEE, the online forms connected to login and password recovery for the PlayStation and other linked networks was shut down and placed in a maintenance mode, I can only assume this is a direct response to our detailed reports to SCEE, with that said, I assume that when services resume the exploit will be patched and everyone’s data once again safe.

Q. If Sony fixes the hole should I worry?
A. I would suggest that everyone, regardless of if they have been affected or not, create a new password and change their account email to one they do not use anywhere else, and will not be sharing with anyone else just for additional security.

Q. Will you give us more details on the exploit?
A. Until we have confirmed that the security hole has been patched we will not release further details on how and why the exploit was possible.

Source: Nyleveia

According to Eurogamer’s follow-up with Sony, this exploit affects logins to PSN accounts via websites. Therefore, logging into your account on your PS3 or PSP should still work fine, but anyone trying to change their passwords via the web will be unable to do so as the servers are offline.

“Unfortunately this also means that those who are still trying to change their password via Playstation.com or Qriocity.com will be unable to do so for the time being,” Sony said. “This is due to essential maintenance and at present it is unclear how long this will take.”

The representative from Sony further added, “In the meantime you will still be able to sign into PSN via your PlayStation 3 and PSP devices to connect to game services and view Trophy/Friends information.”

More on this as it happens.