The Drop: Week of September 5th 2011 New Releases

Arm yourself with the PlayStation Move and a pair of 3D glasses and join the resistance when Insomniac Games drops Resistance 3 on PS3 this week. Naughty Dog combines their award winning greatest hits titles; UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune and UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves, on a single blu-ray, to help all new (and current) Nathan Drake fans catch up on his previous two adventures before they embark on UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception.

Greek mythology’s man in white and lover of war, gets ahead of himself and dishes out a PSN demo for God of War: Origins, continuing our first party domination this week. Dead Island, Driver: San Francisco, Bloodrayne: Betrayal, a quintuple of minis and a PSone Japan import, is the barbecue sauce on your succulent PlayStation ribs this Labor Day weekend. Enjoy this week’s The Drop.

PlayStation 3

Resistance 3 (3D and PS Move Support) — America is lost. Four years after the epic conclusion of Resistance 2, dishonorably discharged Sentinel Joseph Capelli is in hiding from the invading Chimeran menace with a pocket of survivors, including his new wife and young son. But when Dr. Fyodor Malikov arrives with a desperate plan, he sets into motions the events of Resistance 3, the third installment in the popular full-featured first-person shooter series. Resistance 3 is created by critically-acclaimed developer Insomniac Games exclusively for the PlayStation 3 system.

Set in a brutal, alternate 1950s universe, America has been successfully conquered and destroyed by the deadly Chimeran race, forcing the last remaining human survivors to seek refuge in hiding. Players must take on the role of Joseph Capelli, the last surviving Sentinel from a clandestine military program, as he comes out of hiding to journey across a land of ruin in a heroic fight for survival against the merciless Chimera. In addition to an epic single-player campaign, Resistance 3 offers two-player online or split-screen co-op through the single-player campaign, and a new, focused progression-based multiplayer experience.

PS.Blog Dev Diary Series

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone of Insomniac Games, specifically Ted Price, Marcus Smith, Drew Murray, Adam Moonchester, Grant Hollis, Cameron Christian, James Stevenson, Paul Featherstone, Brandon Winfry and Ryan Schneider for giving Jeff, Sid and myself the fantastic opportunity to go behind-the-scenes and showcase a great team, behind a great title like Resistance 3. It has always been a personal dream to video document what it takes to write, engineer and design a game like Resistance 3, and thanks to my friends at Sony Computer Entertainment and Insomniac Games, that dream became a reality. Thank you!

1. Resistance 3 Story & Environments: “Cold New World”
2. The New Faces of the Chimera: “Creeping Death”
3. Returning to Classic Resistance: “Full Circle”
4. Resistance 3 Multiplayer: “Global Infestation”
5. Human Weapons: “Tools for Resistance”
6. Chimera Weapons: “Enemy Munitions”

UNCHARTED: Dual Pack (Greatest Hits) — Developer Naughty Dog and Sony Computer Entertainment invite you to take an adventure with fortune hunter Nathan Drake in this dual pack of games in the Uncharted franchise. Included in this two-disc set are Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

• UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune — A 400-year-old clue in the coffin of Sir Francis Drake sets a modern-day fortune hunter on an exploration for the fabled treasure of El Dorado, leading to the discovery of a forgotten island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The search turns deadly when Nathan Drake becomes stranded on the island and hunted by mercenaries. Outnumbered and outgunned, Drake and his companions must fight to survive as they begin to unravel the terrible secrets hidden on the Island.
• UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves — Drake embarks on a journey that will push him to his physical, emotional and intellectual limits to discover the real truth behind the lost fleet of Marco Polo and the legendary Himalayan valley of Shambhala.

Driver: San Francisco — With crime lord Charles Jericho now on the loose San Francisco faces a terrible threat. Only one man can stand against him. He has driven the streets of a hundred cities, spent his whole life putting criminals behind bars. But to take Jericho down, there can be no turning back, and he knows that this may very well be his last ride. His name is John Tanner. He is the Driver.

Driver: San Francisco marks the return of the blockbuster driving franchise. Gamers play John Tanner, a hardened detective involved in a relentless manhunt throughout the City by the Bay. Thanks to a groundbreaking gameplay feature, players can now seamlessly shift between more than a hundred licensed vehicles, keeping them constantly in the heart of the action. With its timeless atmosphere, unique car handling and renewed playability, Driver: San Francisco offers the free-roaming, classic, cinematic car chase experience.

Dead Island — The island of Banoi is a lush, tropical paradise in the South Pacific where its flagship Royal Palms Resort serves as the ultimate getaway for vacationers with money to burn. However, all good things must soon come to an end – and the picturesque resort falls into madness, carnage and chaos after a mysterious and contagious zombie outbreak claims its once peaceful atmosphere. Cut off from the rest of the world, only four individuals who strangely find themselves immune to zombification have the power to protect the remaining survivors from the horrors of the island, to discover what’s really going on and find a way to escape before their own fatal ends.

Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten — This PS3 entry in the Disgaea continues the magical and mischievous storyline of the hardcore, turn-based, strategy RPG franchise. As the fourth installment in the series Disgaea4 adopts an all new graphic engine with a much more emphasis on a anime style graphics and also adopts many new game system for an exciting battle adventure.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine — Combining intense melee and ranged combat, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine puts players into the boots of one of humanity’s elite soldiers. You have undergone years of psycho-chemical conditioning and rigorous training, and there’s never been a time like right now when such training and conditioning were so desperately needed. One of the industrial ‘Forge World’ planets, where humanity creates its greatest weapons, has come under attack, and the thousands of imperial soldiers stationed there have been overwhelmed. The only thing standing between this planet and its total destruction is your Space Marine.

PlayStation Network

Bloodrayne Betrayal (Demo Available) — BloodRayne: Betrayal delivers stylish 2D side-scrolling action with a deadly dose of bloodshed. Players become Rayne, the sexy and dangerous dhampir born from the union of vampire and human, blessed with extraordinary strength, speed and agility, but cursed with a thirst for blood and weakness to sunlight. Begrudgingly recruited by the vampire hunting Brimstone Society for one final mission, Rayne teams up with a mysterious new friend to stop an evil vampire massacre.

Introducing new characters, gruesome environmental puzzles and a full arsenal of lethal weapons including Rayne’s signature arm blades, BloodRayne: Betrayal stays true to the fan-favorite vampire game franchise while incorporating challenging new enemies and surprises specifically designed for mature audiences.

Astro Tripper — Astro Tripper is a furious shoot-em-up experience inspired by the painful, knuckle busting experiences of years gone by. An evolution of PomPom’s 2001 award winning game, Space Tripper. Travel the surface of large horizontally-scrolling platforms, and pit your highly maneuverable craft against hoards of enemies eager to blow you to bits, eat you or worse.

Rugby World Cup 2011 (Demo Available) — Rugby World Cup 2011 will challenge players to pick from the 20 Rugby World Cup 2011 participating countries, and attempt to lead their team through the pool phase to progress to the Final and the opportunity to lift the prestigious Webb Ellis Cup.

Skydrift (Demo Available) — Skydrift is an intense, high-speed arcade racing game spiced with thrilling combat elements. Players will be taken closer than ever before to the world of adrenaline pumping sky-racing. Everybody can test and master their flying and combat skills against deadly opponents. Gain advantage using 6 different types of offensive and defensive power-ups and survive the infinite variety of extreme maneuvers often dangerously close to the ground. Unlock all 8 modern, state-of-the-art aircrafts tuned to the max. Single-player and online multiplayer modes let gamers play however they want in exhilarating, fast-paced style.

Demos

• God of War: Origins — This double-pack of carnage contains both origin chapters in the God of War franchise — God of War: Chains of Olympus & God of War: Ghost of Sparta. Both games are remade with high-definition graphics displayable on 3D HDTVs.
• Supremacy MMA

minis

• Alpha Mission
• Doodle Fit
• The Impossible Game
• T.N.K. III
• Vanguard II

PSone Japan Imports

Megaman 4 — For a year the city has been quiet, but a new robotic terror has gripped the city. That scheming scientist Dr. Cossack has arrived in town with eight new metal maniacs who are bigger and badder than anything Dr. Wily ever dreamed of. It’s going to be a cybernetic showdown as the streets of the city erupt with the sizzling sounds of molten metal! Armed with the new Mega Buster, Mega Man runs, jumps and dodges his way through mazes of metallic munchkins on his way to the Siberian citadel of Dr. Cossack for the findl cataclysmic clash!

[Editor’s Note: The following dates are subject to change. Game details are gathered from Press Releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]