PlayStation Vita Message Board older than one year ago

Grab The Last of Us from Best Buy today and get its Season Pass for free, quick before GTAV comes out and you fall even further behind in your backlog. We've also got our first discount on Scribblenauts Unmasked for the 3DS, Diablo III, Rayman Legends, as well as $5 off today's release of Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate for the 360. We're surprised Amazon's Madden 25/NFL Sunday Ticket bundle is still around, so grab it while you can.Read more...

Get down and dirty with the 2013 edition of the long-running rally series.

At long last, Rayman Legends arrives this week, on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and, ahem, Wii U. Diablo III likewise ventures onto consoles, along with Total War: Rome 2 for PC.Read more...

Last night, Sony held an indie showcase event at Neumo's, a Seattle music venue that epitomized underground cool. PlayStation exec Adam Boyes took the stage to re-affirm the company's commitment to working with indies and third-party partners and announced a handful of new games. Whiles most of the games looked intriguing, it was Boyes' t-shirt that might have been the sassiest thing in the spotlight last night. Read more...

Capcom will publish Hitbox Team's lauded 2D clean-em-up platformer Dustforce on PS3 and PS Vita. The game will benefit from cross-play functionality on PS Vita and PS3, Sony's Adam Boyes mentioned during the PlayStation Indie Arcade event at PAX this evening, though no exact details on how that will work have been offered.

The Sony side of the publishing agreement was revealed during the PlayStation Indie Arcade event tonight at PAX, though a Capcom-Unity post notes the game is also coming to Xbox 360. Despite being widely praised and earning close to $700,000 for the developer, the game was ultimately a financial wash for Hitbox. Hopefully these new console ports will help tidy up Hitbox Team's bottom line.

Road Not Taken will come to PS4 and Vita, developer Spry Fox announced during Sony's PlayStation Indie Arcade event at PAX Prime. The developer behind Triple Town plans to launch the game in 2014.

Road Not Taken is described as a "puzzle roguelike," in which players set out to rescue children from forests and solve ever-changing puzzles along the way. The game includes permanent death upon failure, and with each entry into the forest, the woods will regenerate to keep the challenge going. Road Not Taken will also launch on Windows and Mac via Steam.

Sony created a new division with the purpose of bringing third party games to its platforms, Vice President of Third Parties Adam Boyes announced during the PlayStation Indie Arcade event at PAX Prime today. During the event, Boyes elaborated on how the division came about, and it started with the desire to bring Borderlands 2 to Vita. "We realized that we had to build an entire division in order to make Borderlands 2 on Vita happen," Boyes said.

To create the division, Sony hired Gio Corsi, former lead producer at LucasArts and executive producer of the now-halted Star Wars 1313. "The big vision there was for us to be able to take these IPs from publishers and famous IPs that people love and then let developers work with it," Boyes said. Iron Galaxy Studios, developers of the recently-released fighter Divekick, will develop Borderlands 2 on Vita.

Hi folks! It’s an honor to be posting here for the first time. I’m the co-founder of a studio called Spry Fox. We’ve made some well-known mobile and PC games such as Steambirds, Triple Town, and Realm of the Mad God. I’m super excited to announce that our next title — an original puzzle game called Road Not Taken — will be launching on PS4 and PS Vita in early 2014!

Road Not Taken is a game about life’s surprises, both positive and negative. In our take on Robert Frost’s poem of the same name, you wander through a mysterious forest in the aftermath of a large snowstorm. As you explore, you’ll come across wild animals, impassable barriers, and lost children. Road Not Taken explores the question: “What happens when life’s events throw you off the path you expected to take?” It’s been a lot of fun for us to try and stretch the ideas that games can tackle!

In terms of gameplay, you can think of Road Not Taken as a puzzle roguelike.

• You can play for dozens of hours, and no two sessions will ever be quite alike.
• Each game is full of unexpected surprises and dangers, and we’re not going to spell out how to play it. What does each creature do? Figure it out!
• You’re going to die many, many times.

But you won’t mind death in Road Not Taken, because each death teaches you something new about how the world works and how you might do better next time. The world unfolds and becomes more complex over time, as well; you’ll progressively unlock new things to encounter, and boosts that change the way you play the game.

There have been some really fantastic roguelikes that have been released in the past few years. Games like FTL and Don’t Starve, for example. We’re hoping that Road Not Taken appeals to the people who loved those games, but also to people who really enjoy thinking through a tricky puzzle without time pressure.

We’ve put together a little trailer to give you a taste of what Road Not Taken is all about, which you can find above. And if you want more information about us, you can visit our website!

We here at the two-man development studio known as Zeboyd Games are pleased to announce that our next RPG, Cosmic Star Heroine, will be coming out on PS4 and PS Vita next year! And to go along with that announcement, here’s our Sega-CD inspired opening video for our game! Enjoy!

A very special thanks to Dean Dodrill (Dust: An Elysian Tail) who helped out with effects and animation, as well as Chris Geehan and Dan Byrne-McCullough over at Hyperduck (who did the music for our last RPG) for helping make that video go to 11! And of course, our own Bill Stiernberg, who handled the brunt of the work!

Cosmic Star Heroine is our latest attempt to recapture the feel of some of the classic RPGs of the 90s, while putting our own unique spin on the whole experience. Inspired by games like Chrono Trigger (visual style, on-map battles, combo techniques), the Phantasy Star series (overall feel of the worlds and characters), and the Suikoden series (political intrigue, expandable player headquarters), we can’t wait to share Cosmic Star Heroine with you!

So who is the titular Cosmic Star Heroine?

Alyssa L’Salle! She’s one of the galactic government’s top agents, and has saved the galaxy more than once! But when she accidentally uncovers a dark conspiracy, her own government outs her as a legendary spy and the people’s champion! Sure, now she has hordes of adoring fans, but every villainous organization she’s ever crossed in her career knows who she is and is out for her blood! Can she save the day once more while she faces her greatest challenge… everyone!?

But she won’t have to go it alone! No, she’ll be leading a bizarre group of “heroes” into battle.

We’ve made several RPGs in the past (Cthulhu Saves the World, Breath of Death VII, Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 & 4), but we’re really stepping up our ambition with Cosmic Star Heroine. A deeper story, meticulously balanced play, a brain-melting soundtrack from Hyperduck, glorious 16-bit-esque pixel art, and much more await you!

And that means we need your help! We’ll be running a Kickstarter to raise needed development funds to make Cosmic Star Heroine the best “Shoulda been released in the 90s” RPG ever! And thanks to the good people at Sony, we’ll be able to offer cross-buy (buy once, get both versions!) PS4/Vita PSN codes for Cosmic Star Heroine at the low reward tier of $10! And of course, there’ll be plenty of other cool rewards if you choose to donate more!

Look for more news, screenshots, and the Cosmic Star Heroine kickstarter in the coming weeks! In the meantime, feel free to ask us questions in the comments!

Hello fellow Sony fans! Tyrone Rodriguez with Nicalis, Inc., here. I’ve been given some time to introduce you to something vvvvvvery awesome. When last I posted on the official PlayStation.Blog, I told you a bit about 1001 Spikes on PS Vita. Today I’m going to introduce you to the incredible world of VVVVVV (pronounced like the letter “V” six times etc), coming to PS VVVVVVita!

What’s this VVVVVV I speak of? Thought up by professional nice guy and game designer Terry Cavanagh, VVVVVV is a game where you’ll die a lot. Yes, I know it sounds like 1001 Spikes, and I know that it has lots of spikes, but it’s a totally different game. Stick with me, I promise this will be awesome.

So VVVVVV. I’ve never been one for spoilers, but the story goes something like this: you’re Captain Viridian (like the color) and you, your ship, and your crew are stranded in some crazy alternate dimension that, of course, is in the process of imploding. Of course it is. Your crew has been lost in this weird dimension and you’re the leader; it’s your job to go find them and maybe save the dimension. Maybe. That’s all I’m going to give you as far as the story.

The play is where VVVVVV will really trap you and keep you hooked. There’s no shooting, and there’s not even a real jump button. Instead, you can move left or right, and you can invert Captain Viridian’s gravity. This is the main play mechanic, and also how you’ll solve puzzles and navigate through the game world. Pressing the X button while on the ground or ceiling will cause Viridian to spontaneously ascend or descend. While airborne, Viridian can move left and right as well. It might sound like a jump, but it’s not. You’ll literally stick to ceilings, which will technically become the floor.

The gravity switch is an insanely awesome concept that allows for hundreds upon hundreds of clever puzzles. What you’ll find after a few minutes of playing is that you need to change and redefine your perception of a platformer, and how you think and find solutions to the challenges in front of you.

You’ll probably die a lot. Because of that, checkpoints are strategically placed throughout the world. And there are no lives. You basically will keep going as long as you can, as long as it takes to save Dimension VVVVVV.

While you’re doing your best avoiding death and saving your companions, you can appreciate the chiptune music by Magnus Palsson.

Hello Gamers,

Moments ago, Adam Boyes introduced the latest addition to the Third Party Relations family at Playstation, a new group that I get to captain called Third Party Production. The Third Party Relations team at PlayStation is well known for developing solid relationships across this industry, and this new group will work closely with our publishing partners to bring their beloved IPs to some new places. This means you’ll see even more great games on PlayStation platforms, including new IP’s, ports, and localized products. In addition, our partners who are currently in production will have us as a resource to strengthen their development process, ensuring quality and consistency on all Third Party projects.

I’m really excited for our team to explore new opportunities on behalf of PlayStation. Even though we’re brand new to PlayStation, we’ve got years of experience in this industry already under our belt. We already have a project underway, the recently announced PS Vita version of Borderlands 2. We are extremely excited to work with Iron Galaxy Studios on this project and I cannot wait to show and tell you more down the road.

I will share more with you as our adventures continue and new games are made available. In the meantime, let me know in the comments what you want to see on PlayStation (PS3, PS4, PS Vita). Or contact me on Twitter through the ingenious and mesmerizing handle of @giocorsi — original I know, but man is it solid.

Talk soon guys and keep on playing!

This roaming ronin of a game has been many places during development, but now its sanguine sword rests in place. And if the sleek, black samurai shoe fits, wear it.

And why are PS4 and PS Vita a perfect fit for Samurai Gunn? Well, that’s a dumb question.

• Samurai Gunn brings people closer together through tight controls, deadly matches, and commonly occurring bouts of friendly rivalry.
• PS4 actually brings people closer together. With magnets.
• Only PS4 and Vita have enough power to run these intense pixel graphics at ludicrous speed.
• The PS4 and Vita versions emit sounds at sub-sonic frequencies which trigger endorphins in your brain that make the incomparably smooth plastic of the square button actually feel like the worn cloth binding of a samurai sword. Combining that with the unique way PS4 pumps color into your television, you will actually believe that you are a samurai.
• Sony is not responsible for any damage caused by you fighting your way out of the soft center of battle — or to your television, home furnishings, pets, close friends, and relatives. Teknopants Ltd. might be, but will be in Hong Kong at the time.
• By using the PS4 microphone alongside Doseone’s phat beats, this game will make you better at freestyling.
• The microphone doesn’t have to be on or anything, you just get better with practice.

If you find that after one round with Samurai Gunn your heart beats passionately for it, Sony will happily cover the cost of getting a neck tattoo of the Samurai Gunn logo.*
*Not really but do it anyway.

Technical Requirements:
Samurai Gunn on PS Vita plays best when installed alongside Luftrausers, Hotline Miami, Spelunky, Hohokum, and Lone Survivor.

If you have any questions about Samurai Gunn or where to find the right tattoo parlor for you, feel free to comment below.

In addition to credit cards, pre-paid giftcards and PayPal, the PlayStation Store and Sony Entertainment Network now support a "mobile billing" option for buying Hatsune Miku DLC, episodes of Teen Wolf, Music Unlimited subscriptions and whatever else the kids are into these days.

When adding funds to your virtual wallet through either the PS3's PlayStation Store or SEN's Account Management site, selecting the "Use Mobile" option will initiate the procedure. After receiving and confirming a text message (standard carrier rates apply, natch), the amount added to your wallet will either be tacked onto your phone bill, or deducted from your pre-paid phone account if that's how your plan swings.

We're still holding out for a poultry-based bartering system. How many chickens do you think Battlefield 4 DLC is going to cost?

Two samurai, two swords, three bullets. No power-ups or special characters are necessary to make Samurai Gunn one of the best fighting games I've ever played.Read more...

Sony has announced the lineup of free PlayStation 3, PSP and Vita games it'll be gifting to PlayStation Plus subscribers over the month of September, and the list is full of both moving experiences and Move-ing experiences. Get it? See, because there's a PlayStation Move-enabled game in here. Anyway!

September's stable of complimentary entertainment includes Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection, Ico and Galaga Legions DX for PS3, Rayman Origins for Vita and GTA: Liberty City Stories for Vita and PSP. Sony's announcement doesn't specify what order these games will be delivered in, so keep an eye on our weekly PSN Tuesday posts for ever-vigilant coverage of when new free stuff is available. In the meantime, allow us to apologize for that PS Move joke.

The discount's pull, the discount's pull, click click click 'till the cart is full. The cart is full, the deals are new, and all the games are waiting, waiting on you, and you've got Pri-i-iime.Read more...

Assassin's Creed 3 makes a graceful landing in Europe's PlayStation Plus haystack today, headlining September's round of Instant Game Collection entries for the subscription service. The latest entry in Ubisoft's super-selling historical adventure series is joined on continental PS3s by sneaky platformer Stealth Inc: A Clone in the Dark and the Jak & Daxter Collection, suffixed Trilogy in Europe and comprising The Precursor Legacy, Jak 2 and Jak 3.

Two Vita freebies arrive today too: motorbike puzzle-platformer Urban Trial Freestyle and New Little King's Story, the portable follow-up to the Wii original and Joystiq Top 10 of 2009 entry. If you fancy a detour from the traditional silly season flurry of major new releases, this round is another solid offering from the subscription service.

As summer inevitably becomes autumn, so does this round of games see some oldies leaf PS Plus. So long Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Ico & Shadow of the Colossus HD, Demon's Souls, Lego Lord of the Rings, and When Vikings Attack, and fare thee well.PS Plus Europe gets Assassin's Creed 3, Jak & Daxter Trilogy, more today

PSN is bursting at the seams with new games: For PS3 we have Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn and its Collector's Edition, Lost Planet 3, Hatsune Miku Project Diva F, Killer is Dead and Madden NFL 25. Spelunky is a Cross-Buy title, running $15 for PS3 and Vita.

Vita also gets the Killzone Mercenary public beta, Floating Cloud God Saves The Pilgrims in HD and The HD Adventures of Rotating Octopus Character (not to be confused with that other Octopus game coming to PS4). PSP lands Sweet Fuse: At Your Side, the dating sim starring Keiji Inafune's fictional niece.

PlayStation Plus members get Machinarium for free this week, Spelunky for $12 and a lineup of indie games on the cheap. Check out the long list of this week's deals on the PlayStation Blog, but before you click the buy button, read our reviews of Lost Planet 3 and Killer is Dead to see what you're really getting into.

Samurai Gunn, the local multiplayer, precision-based Bushido brawler from developer Teknopants, was nominated for Excellence in Design at the 2013 IGF awards, is one of the eight Spotlight games at this year's Fantastic Arcade, was a featured title in the EVO 2013 Indie Showcase and it has a spot in the PAX Prime Indie Megabooth, among other accolades. People seem to like this game. People like Cards Against Humanity designer Max Temkin.

Under his company, Maxistentialism, Temkin provided an angel investment to Teknopants, insuring Blyth and his team can finish the game on time and to its full potential.

"I first got to play Samurai Gunn at GDC and I was immediately hooked," Temkin says. "Beau shared a build with me and I started taking it around to parties .... Whenever I brought it out the party would grind to a halt and everyone would gather around the laptop. I want to share that experience with everyone."

"The conventional wisdom is that you need to have online multiplayer for a game to sell, but I guarantee that getting a bunch of your friends in a room together will always be more fun," Samurai Gunn designer Beau Blyth says in a press release.

Samurai Gunn is on its way to PC this holiday, via Steam and direct purchase. It's also (be)headed to PS4 and Vita in 2014.

The PlayStation Vita version of Amanita Design's acclaimed point-and-click adventure game Machinarium is available as a free download this week for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

Following up on Amanita's Samorost series, Machinarium chronicles a scrapped robot's quest to save his robotic girlfriend from the Black Cap Brotherhood. The PlayStation 3 port of Machinarium was featured in a previous PlayStation Plus giveaway.

This week's PlayStation Plus update also hosts a members-only discount for the newly launched Vita version of Spelunky, along with steep price drops on select indie games. Many are half-off or more, including Retro City Rampage for $5, Limbo for $7.50, Tokyo Jungle for $7.50, Journey for $7.50 and Retro/Grade for $5.

The deals will be available as soon as PSN updates later today, and you can look at the full list of discounted games over on the PlayStation Blog.

Moneysaver means never having to tell your wallet you're sorry.Read more...

A cloth map, a guide book, a compass and three CDs — yum. Celebrating more than 25 years of mispronunciation, XSEED is bringing a special collector's edition of Ys: Memories of Celceta to the PlayStation Vita this holiday season. It'll be $59.99, and I bet it will smell amazing. Read more...

When it comes to designing games, a single good idea goes a long way. Just look at PopCap Games' Peggle. If has only a single button and is effectively just pachinko with a cartoon aesthetic and occasional power-ups. Despite this, it's one of the most addictive games in the history of the medium. Iron Galaxy's Divekick is likewise superficially a very simple title with huge aspirations, though unfortunately for those who bought into the game's pre-release hype, Divekick is less "quality game" and more "baffling proof of concept."

If you were to spend a few hours watching professional-level competitive fighting game players duke it out, you'd quickly notice that beyond all the spectacle of flashy super attacks and finger-melting combos, there's a metagame being played that is often more important than who can throw the bigger fireball. The key to success for really talented players lies in being able to read your opponent's intentions before he or she launches an assault, and then being able to set traps they might be likely to fall into.

At particularly high levels of play, fighting games evolve into battles of the mind. Yes, it's impressive to land a 100-hit super combo, but even more impressive is a player who can trick his or her foe into using the wrong attack, or frustrate their opponent until they begin to play foolishly. This is the real draw of the competitive fighting game scene but, unfortunately, with most games there's a pretty sizable learning curve to climb before one can attempt to screw with other people's heads.

That's where Divekick comes in.

Our weekly Quick Q&A series is only ever four questions long, which should make it the perfect format for a man who came up with a minimalist fighting game that requires only two buttons. Today, that man, Adam Heart answers our four questions and poses one to you.Read more...

Lots of heavy hitters in the lineup this week, as Madden NFL 25 is joined by Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and Lost Planet 3 on Tuesday. New Super Luigi U already is out today on Wii U and the Mac version of SimCity arrives Thursday. There's more on the jump.Read more...

Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse, the fifth entry in the long-running adventure game series, is coming to the PS Vita.

"The PS Vita is an ideal device for an adventure game - the combination of the front and rear touch screen, as well as the analog stick and shoulder buttons, gives us so much scope to create a really great user interface," Charles Cecil, Revolution Software co-founder, writes on the PlayStation Blog. Sadly, the majority of his post recounts the series' legacy and doesn't go into any specifics about the PS Vita port.

Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse, due later this year, is also coming to PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. The game was successfully funded through Kickstarter last year, earning $771, 560 - nearly twice its goal of $400,000.

Flash the readies,Wot's... uh the deal?Got to make it to the next meal,Try to keep up with the turning of the wheel. Read more...

Great name, great concept. The game is called Flame Over. It's a firefighting roguelike. Coming to PS Vita next year from the studio Laughing Jackal. Details at the PlayStation blog.Read more...

You might have gathered that it’s Gamescom week, so there have been lots of goodies coming in recently — like a lovely little trailer comparing some of the gameplay from the original Final Fantasy X with footage from the new HD Remaster version.

It shows off a sequence of battles, focusing on the Overdrive attacks. Check out the difference between SD and HD!

But the new thing we’re showing off here, is the arranged version of the battle music!

It’s worth pointing out that more than 60 tracks from the original Final Fantasy X soundtrack have been rearranged or remastered in HD audio in the new edition.

Excited much? The game’s currently slated for launch this year, and will be available for PS3 and PS Vita. We’ll have more soon, so keep checking back!

Don't ask these questions to Hotline Miami 2 developers Dennaton Games. Just don't. There's a sign that says you shouldn't and we all know that at conventions, it's important to obey signs. Besides, if you break these rules, there's no telling what the developers of Hotline Miami will break of yours.

The list of questions banned from Gamescom appointments for Hotline Miami 2, as posted by Dennaton, includes the following:

• Why is it so hard?
• Isn't it a bit violent?
• Do you like hurting people?
• Why do you call it a sequel when it's pretty much the same?
• Why is it in pixel graphics?
• Why are you drinking beer at 9:30 in the morning?

If these are really some of the questions people are asking, the answer to that last one is pretty clear. See the full picture below.