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Okay, so, here we go… the first blog post on Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock. I’m looking forward to writing more of these blog posts over the next couple of months as we move towards launch.

Developing anything for Doctor Who has to be done right. The show has such a following that we need to be certain that everything the game does fits with the expectations of the fans.

So far, we’ve said very, very little about the game. This trailer just has the barest hints about the core of this story. What is The Eternity Clock? How is it related to the Doctor? How is River involved in this?

I’m afraid this post isn’t going to answer any of these questions; we’ll leave that to future posts and the game itself.

We’re very excited to be working with Supermassive Games as they’ve already delivered some great titles for PlayStation, such as Tumble, Start The Party and Start The Party: Save the World. The team are huge fans of the show and they’ve been great at bringing the key essence of Doctor Who into the game.

Working on PlayStation Vita, as well as PS3, is a real privilege and its unique set of features has allowed our designers to cut loose and we’ll tell you a lot more detail about how we’re using those features in a future post.

So, I hope you enjoy the trailer and look forward to sharing more details with you in the future.

Tomorrow's PSN update will be notable for what it adds to the PlayStation Store, though you may be a little fonder of what it's set to remove: fifty percent from the price of 11 games in an "11 for 2011" sale.

Among the discounted games are Double's Fine enchanting Costume Quest for $7.49, hypnotic brick breaker Shatter for $3.99, and Hoard for $7.49 -- a fitting saving for a dragon looking to amass a boast-worthy pile of presents and a roast-worthy mass of peasants. Sony has also included other well-received games like Swords and Soldiers, Tumble and Space Invaders Infinity Gene in the sale (valid in the US, Canada and Mexico through January 31).

Have a peek at the full list after the break. Warning: Peggle is in there too.

Delivering a keynote speech -- entitled "Seeing is Believing: 3D a New Creative Medium for Games" -- at the Develop conference in Liverpool, Sony Computer Entertainment's Mick Hocking argued that 3D can give games more than just increased visual depth. The studio director of Sony's Liverpool studio, responsible for Wipeout HD, stated that the technology can make games seem more natural and thus more inviting to newcomers.

"Doing things like the way we've used Move combined with 3D in Tumble makes a game more natural and more accessible, which will be great for welcoming more people to your games," Hocking said. The ability to interact within a game's space makes the technology a new creative medium, he added, allowing creators to build on the player's enhanced sense of depth and spatial awareness.

Sony has claimed that over 50 3D games (20 internal) are currently in the works for PlayStation 3 -- and Hocking is willing to give developers a push if they're still on the fence. "I really would urge you to start converting your game into 3D now," he said. "We're here to help you and can help with training."

Of course, Sony's marketing department will have to train customers to make a significant investment first. Among console games, mainstream-friendly accessibility usually comes with a significant hardware cost (as with the Wii and Kinect), but even Hocking's Tumble example -- which requires a 3D television, appropriate glasses, a PlayStation Move set and a PlayStation 3 -- sticks out more than other offerings.

#review Playing with blocks never gets old, especially if you're using a motion-control enabled Playstation 3 to do it. More »

Once you get past that initial thrill of opening the packaging, setting it up and toying around with its settings, any platform is only as good - and as fun - as the games available for it. With the launch of PlayStation Move, the lineup of what's on offer is relatively limited and, as the hardware's all about getting people to, er move around, focuses on sports and party games, with a couple of notable exceptions.
Those would be EyePet, Kung Fu Rider and Tumble, all from Sony, with Tumble being a PSN game. EyePet is a virtual pet "game" that's been available as a PS Eye title in Europe for some time and has been reworked to incorporate Move. While charming, it falls under the category of a kid's title (though I've no doubt some adults will find it fun) and it won't be subject to review here; instead I'll be focusing on the more "core" games in the following pages. As for Kung Fu Rider, it's an odd creation out of SCE Studios Japan.
That leaves us with Sports Champions and Racquet Sports from Sony and Ubisoft, respectively. Sports Champions comes bundled with the $100 Move starter kit and the PS3 Move system bundle, but is also available separately ($40) for those who decide to buy their Move setups piecemeal.
With that out of the way - and without any further ado - it's on with the reviews:
Kung Fu Rider | Racquet Sports | Sports Champions
Start the Party | Tumble

Trips, tumbles, and falls flat on its face.

Jenga on CIA grade crack-cocaine.