Major Update to High Velocity Bowling

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Hello everyone! Team RamRod here, the developers of High Velocity Bowling. Today we break our long silence with an equally long blog post.

To give you some background on the HVB development team, we are a small team who works on several projects. As some of you know, Big Ern has left our neck of the woods (we still miss him). But, the team has since picked up the reins and is now leading a new charge for HVB.

A lot of you have been asking about HVB, and we are here to deliver great news. We are pleased to announce that we putting the finishing touches on a new update for HVB, which will hit the PlayStation Network TOMORROW! Excited? Well, the best part of this is that the new update – all new features included – is FREE! For our brothers and sisters in the north, that means FREE for you, too.

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HEAD-TO-HEAD ONLINE PLAY! VOICE CHAT COMMUNICATION! WEEKLY ONLINE LEADERBOARDS!

MainMenu_Online

We can hear you now … “Wait, what? Really? I get online play in the update? Will it support my Playstation Friends List?” YES to all of the above. You will now be able to play with your friends online AND be able to chat with them using a PS3 headset or microphone. Feel free to chat and talk smack after comparing your stats and rankings on the online leaderboards that will be updated weekly.

PSN TROPHIES!

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Yup! PSN Trophies – 12 new shiny and purty trophies (7 bronze, 4 silver and 1 gold trophy). The only way to earn these is to play online (fortunately, we added that too, ‘cause we’re awesome!). If you’re worried you don’t have the skills, don’t stress — if you’re persistent enough, you will still be able to earn most, if not all, of these as well. Here’s the list:

BRONZE:

  • Score 180 or higher in an online game.
  • Achieve an online rating of 1600 or more.
  • Knock down a total of 500 pins in online games.
  • Get 10 strikes in online games.
  • Get 15 spares in online games.
  • Win an online game.
  • Play 3 online games.

SILVER:

  • Score 250 or higher in an online game.
  • Knock down a total of 5000 pins in online games.
  • Get 25 wins in online games.
  • Get 75 strikes in online games.

GOLD:

  • Get 150 strikes in online games.

PLAYLISTS WITH IMPROVED AUDIO!

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You can access the XMB while in-game for your own custom soundtracks, with support for playlists. We had custom music before, but were not able to incorporate playlists. Now with the new XMB custom music feature, you can bowl while listening to a mix of Beethoven, Frank Zappa, Britney Spears, Weird Al Yankovic, Gregorian Chants and Nirvana! And with the improved audio options, you’ll be able to crank up your tunes, character voices, and ambient sounds, OR turn them off altogether!

MORE TRICK SHOTS!

That’s right, we’ve included a section on the menu to start posting additional trick shot challenges. You’ll be given two new challenges with your update, and additional trick shots will be created for download in the future. These challenges will not only help you earn patches that you missed out on during your normal gameplay, but get you more stars for the leaderboards!

NEW BALL BAGS!

We’ve added a new and more realistic Ball Bag system in HVB. You can only bring four balls with you onto the lane in each bag, so you’ll have to choose wisely. You can name and save up to 24 different ball bags so you don’t have to individually choose four balls every time that you want to play. Be sure to mix and match so that there are some good hooking balls and some good straight rollers in your bag. This way, you’ll be prepared for any oil pattern or pin leave!

ALLEY SELECTION!

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You can now choose which lane to play on (as long as you’re not in a tournament). This means that you can play in Spider’s Garage, Tiffany’s Toybox, the Zen Garden, or wherever you want!

NEW ADD-ON CONTENT

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We are going to continue to provide new content for HVB. This content will include more sinister Trick Shots, more wacky characters, cool bowling balls and quirkier costumes.

Anxious to get your game on and strike it up? These exciting new features for HVB will truly make your bowling experience fun. We made the extra efforts to make sure we delivered a lot of fun into a whole lot of FREE for our devoted fans! Please make sure you continue to check back here for future updates on HVB. You’ve all waited so patiently for more – we’ll be sure to make it worth your wait!

Until next time!

Team RamRod

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246 Comments

11 Author Replies

  • well the idea with online trophies is better so people wouldn’t have to replay the game all over and delete save files. But I’m glad they added online to it. That was my only grief with the game when i got it. Plus trophies for all you junkies out there.

  • I have this game and the controls are what is great about it. There needs to be more charecters. I can do without the angry les*ian charecter as well.

  • OMG!!! A NEW UPDATE!!! Nice!

  • Amazing, I love this game.

    Thank-you Mike !

    One think that would make me really happy, is to have this game in Home.

    They have bowling there now, but nothing like HVB..

    Could there possibly be a HVB room in the near future of Home ?

    • Hello GGCAN,

      Glad you love the game, we love it too!

      As far as I know, there are no plans to bring High Velocity Bowling into the world of PlayStation HOME.

      Mike

  • think = thing.

  • Nice update, i am stoked on this one, i can bowl with my buddies in Nebraska.

  • Cool update i might download this

  • this is just what the doctor ordered! HVB now justifies my purchase. thank you so sooo much guys. and terrific job on the update, keep em coming.

    peace,
    Lh

  • Thats awesome…Online and in-game voice WOW!!! I’m sure I will play this more because of that..

    Can’t wait to try it out….

  • YES, HVB IS ALIVE AGAIN!

  • Wow, this update is so awesome, it’s almost orgasmic! I moved far away from my friends, so it’s awesome we can play this game together again but online, lol.

    I bought this game about a year ago (I can’t believe it’s been that long now,) and I think it’s my favorite *casual game* on my ps3- I love bowling in real life, yet prices at bowling alleys could be a bit pricey when you have a bunch of friends with ya. Ten dollars to play bowling whenever? I was in.

    I loved the custom soundtrack option on the game (just hit R1,) but switching to In-Game XMB controls ain’t bad. Trophy support will be awesome, good thing you get them while playing against other people instead of bots, etc. Alley selection was something that I wanted, I’m sure that other people would agree that you don’t wanna bowl at your character’s place everytime. Of course, Online play is the biggest part of the game for me, with mic support and whatnot.

    Well, I’d like to give a big thanks to Team Ramrod for updating the game, I’ll be continuing to play it for quite a while now…

  • All right guys, you convinced me, I’ll purchase the game.

    Geeezzz… you guys are ruining my savings

    lol

  • Thank you so much for not ditching this game! This is my absolute favorite PSN game to date and I am so amped to see this news today! Take Resistance 2, Little big Planet and all the other good Ps3 news and toss it aside for a bit, HVB is a huge selling point for sony and one they need to back this holiday through advertising it more. Awesome party /family game.

  • Thats BIGGGG I still play this game from time to time and adding online play will just be krazy can’t wait for this one

  • So awesome. Will definitely start playing this game again.

  • OMG! This is awesome! Now I feel bad about paying only $5 for this (summer sale).

    Anyway, I hope more people get your game. $10 for this is totally justified and more.

    Keep up the great work!

  • Very AWESOME to hear…! It’s been great to see the PSN and its games receive so much support within the last couple of days! I appreciate all the hard work done over there at Team Ramrod, keep it up…

    Yea, and farewell to Big_Ern, it’s clear many of our complaints had been answered through his board on the PSU Forums… thanks again Mr. Skinner…!

  • I’m loving this, first we get the system update 2.50 which in turn basically fixed a lot of problems.. Then we have an update for an excellent game that a lot of people turned away from, due to the fact that we were getting no responses from the developers; about what was happening with the game, and now its even better. thanks team ramrod its an awesome update. :)

  • What a great time to be a PS3 owner. With LBP/SOCOM and PSN titles there just so much great content…

    Also looking forward to the keypad addon.

  • Awesome update. Can’t wait to try out the online tomorrow.

  • I’ve played this game a bit, but now with on-line I might have to go with it more. I’m buying/playing way too many games, if that’s possible!

  • how about updates for poker……

  • SWEET!
    This is the best update EVER!

    WOW! New Sony headset new awesome firmware and now HVB ONLINE update for FREE! All in ONE week!
    Hell YES!

  • Can’t wait for the update. I’ve enjoyed the game and the previous update. This looks to be glorious for my bowling needs.

  • Awesome update! Great job! I’m also glad to see that I don’t have to replay anything to get the trophies, they are all based on the new online content, I like that!

  • Excellent surprise!!! Top marks guys, I was only thinking the other day that HVB was a great concept that never lived up to it’s true potentional. Online bowling is a great and much needed addition, and the trophies are the cherry on the cake! And free too!!!

    First a great firmware update (loving being able to view Gametrailers.com on my TV and the new Account Management UI is pretty nifty too), now a great free HVB update, Sony are really on a roll this week. All they need to do now is confirm the rumour that HOME is launching on the 19th Nov (same day as the MS NXE update)…

  • And to all the whiners…try enjoying this game and all the new features we got on PS3 this week. ENJOY IT! t’s really awesome!

  • Great news.

    A side note, is that bunny character a nod to Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf from the Howard Stern show?

  • I sold my Xbox 360 to get a PS3 because of Blu-Ray and the sixaxis controller. High Velocity Bowling is the best use of the sixaxis controller by far. I like wii bowling, but the graphics and overall playability of HVB put wii bowling to shame.

    I agree 100% that this game needs to be advertised more. It could seriously bring over so many people that have wiis that yearn for actual HD graphics.

    With this update, it’s the perfect time!

  • Thanks for the update me and my wife love this game but is difficult at times to come together and play this game do to work schedule and our son,now I can play with friends online so……mike the strike is back baby.

  • awesome! i haven’t played HVB in quite some time.
    thanks!

  • Great! I thought you guys forgot about HVB. This update is great.

    By the way. You guys got your name (Team Ramrod) from “Super Troopers”, didn’t you?

  • thats sweet, although I suck at the game. I’ll give it another go. thanks guys

  • It’s a great update, and it’s free which is awesome. Unfortunately it’s still to hard to spin the ball accurately and the annoying, cliched characters and play lag (between physical swing and on-screen delivery) still make me want to throw my DS3 through my BRAVIA. Not sure I’ll bother. Sorry.

    (BTW, given that the Wii uses very basic accelerometers is there any reason why the HVB controls should feel so more detached from the game than Wii Sports bowling does?)

  • Thanks for the awesome, ongoing support for this great game. Can’t wait to play my friends.

  • Awesome friggin update. I was surprised when I bought this game at how solid the controls were. This will definitely have me revisit the title for some online shenanigans.

    This is a whole lot of win!

  • I wish there was a way to dumb down the controls, using the L2 and R2 is such a horrible design. It alienates players that are not game savy. The spin should be placed on how the controller is tilted not on the button, it’s hard to get it right.

  • Hooray, I was in love with this game before I met Warhawk, Burnout Paradise, and WipEout HD.

    Online play and Trophies shall bring me back! :)

  • HOOOOLLY!!!

    NICE!!! Hey I was just about to ask Jeff about this game yesterday.. Before I saw him playing LBP and got jealous.

    Thanks a bunch for this.. I really have been hoping to see this game get an update. It’s a REALLY!! fun game… I CAN NOT WAIT!!!

    Holla at cha boy…

  • Hahaha Travis WAS right! (PAIN dev for those who don’t know).

    This is great, I always loved this game but I dropped it after a while, glad its getting a facelift and everything else.

    Man where is gamesblow, he is going to go ape [DELETED] over this.

  • Hey Travis your next baby… PAIN Online… will be great…

  • I never bought this game. Lack of a demo and knowing how you use SIXAXIS to bowl. With this online play and added content ,I may just take the plunge.

  • Will be buying the game now. See how easily Trophies help me decide purchasing decisions?

  • One thing you guys need to change, DON’T LOCK THIS GAME!

    I had unlocked a ton of characters and balls, and then I had to send in my PS3 for service. This data wouldn’t copy on to a flash card, and couldn’t be recovered by a full system back up. Please change that.

  • Free huge update for a game I have?

    Thank you
    Thank you
    Thank you!

  • This is great news, I love this game and can’t wait to get some trophies for it. Quick question though, just to clarify. The trophy for 10 strikes in online games, that’s cumulative right?

  • This is great, thanks so much! Free is almost always good. And trophies are a great incentive to play the game again!

  • Bronze Trophy – Achieve an online rating of 1600 or more.

    What exactly does this mean? Is it rank on the leaderboard?

    • Hi wolverine81,

      Everyone that plays HVB online will be given both a rank and a rating. Your Rating is a number that can be best described as your HVB Online Skill as compared to other players. Everyone will start with a rating of 1500. As you play other people online, your rating will go up and down as you win and lose games. At first your rating might jump around a bit, but after you play a handful of games, it will begin to settle into a fairly accurate assessment of your bowling skill. It\’s a great way to find players online that should be closely matched to your personal skill level.
      Everybody\’s rating is then sorted from highest to lowest, which determines your rank.

      Mike

  • off topic is any1 havin problem downloadin socom game data gettin a error tryin to download

  • AWESOME I’ve been waiting for this update! You guys truly rock!!!! Good work guys!!!

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