But I can honestly say that Hustle Kings gets it completely right! I wasn’t yet assigned to the project when a couple of my colleagues and I got our hands on it here around the office. I was initially quite skeptical given my history of video billiard disappointments, thinking it was going to be just another pool game, but after hitting a few shots I was sold. The amount of ball control is simply astounding, giving the player any and every shot option in the book…from masse shots to subtle swerves and tricky English, you can do anything to the cue ball in Hustle Kings that you can do around a real table. So the realism was there, but how would the game fare for a more casual gamer? Turns out everyone around the office, from the hardcore to the weekend warrior, to people I’ve rarely seen play games, found something to absolutely love about Hustle Kings.

I’ll save elaboration on all the game modes and technical ins and outs now. I can assure you there’s A TON of stuff in Hustle Kings that we’ll be announcing in the next few months. In the meantime, please visit our game details page, and check out the what the PlayStation.Blog.Europe has to say about it. And continue checking back here on the PlayStation Blog for the latest updates on Hustle Kings.

• (You Drive Me) Crazy
• Born To Make You Happy
• I Love Rock n’ Roll
• Oops! I Did It Again
• Stronger

In addition to the Britney Spears song pack, 18 new songs have been added to the SingStore. Here’s a highlight of songs that went live in the recent update:

• MGMT – ‘Youth’
• Vanilla Ice – ‘Ice Ice Baby’
• Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder – ‘Ebony & Ivory’
• Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris – ‘Dance Wiv Me’

We’ve got a lot in the pipeline for the SingStar franchise in the months ahead. Please stay tuned for new releases and updates in the coming weeks.

We’ve been listening to your feedback over the last few months and wanted to let you know that we will be adding 60+ songs to the North American SingStore over the next few months. We’ll be sure to keep you all posted as we begin rolling out new songs to the SingStore. In the meantime, here’s a highlight of songs to appear in the coming weeks:

• UB40 – ‘Red Red Wine’
• Billy Joel – ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’
• Chumbawamba- ‘Tubthumping’
• David Bowie- ‘Let’s Dance’
• Pink – ‘Get the Party Started’
• Queen- ‘The Show Must Go On’
• New Order- ‘Blue Monday 88′
• Men at Work – ‘Down Under’
• Starship – ‘We Built This City’

Just in time for the holidays we will also be releasing a Christmas song pack to the SingStore in mid-December featuring popular Christmas carols from top artists such as Toni Braxton, Celine Dion and Paul McCartney. The pack will be available for $6.99 and will include the following tracks:

• Toni Braxton – ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Xmas’
• Babyface – ‘Sleigh Ride’
• Shakin’ Stevens – ‘Merry Christmas’
• Paul McCartney – “Wonderful Christmastime’
• Celine Dion – ‘Christmas Eve’

For all you SingStar fans with an extensive PS2 SingStar Library, a free game update will be made available by Christmas which will let you play your existing PS2 SingStar titles on your PS3. The new feature will work with all current PS3 systems and will not require a system software update. Just note, this feature is only compatible with SingStar discs.

Thank you all very much for your support and feedback. We’re committed to improving the North American SingStore and will keep you posted with new releases and updates.

Also, don’t forget that we’ve got several new SingStar games coming to you this Holiday season: SingStar Pop vol. 2 which launched last week, SingStar Legends, SingStar PS3 Vol.2, and SingStar Country. SingStar Legends features all of your favorite classics such as “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers, “What’s Goin On” by the great Marvin Gaye, and “Blue Suede Shoes” by the incomparable Elvis Presley. SingStar PS3 Vol.2 continues hot on the heels of Vol. 1 with all-new songs and of course access to the ever popular SingStore and My SingStar online. And with SingStar Country, we’ve really listened to all you fans and decided to carry the franchise into the popular world of country music. The track list on SingStar Country reads like a roster of who’s who in country music: Alan Jackson, Big & Rich, Brooks & Dunn, Jessica Simpson, Willie Nelson, and even Johnny Cash! Other tracks you’ll find on SingStar Country include Trace Adkins’ “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk,” Miranda Lambert’s “Kerosene,” and Kenny Chesney’s “Big Star.”

On another note, there’s been a lot of feedback from you guys on the US SingStore. In particular, you’ve been asking for more of the popular US-centric songs we all want to sing. We’re definitely listening to your feedback and are taking great strides towards making the SingStore much more robust and full of the songs you want to sing. We are also making considerable progress, in coordination with Sony London Studios, in trying to ensure that the content updates stay steady and simultaneously released worldwide. Thank you all very much for your feedback and continued generous support, and keep your eyes right here for the latest and greatest SingStar news!

Yes, SingStar PS3 is finally coming to the US and Canada on May 20 and includes full access to the SingStore and, most importantly, My SingStar Online.

In addition to the 30 songs on the disc, the US SingStore will have approximately 200 downloadable songs priced each at $1.49. When you think that you’re getting the song PLUS the video by the original artist PLUS it’s all fully playable via SingStar, it’s a great value. And, the cool thing is, our goal is to add 25 to 50 new songs to the SingStore every month. Initial feedback on the songlist has been pretty positive, and we’re definitely interested in hearing from you guys on what you’d like to see on the SingStore.

And then there’s My SingStar Online for those that aren’t camera shy…My SingStar Online houses your global SingStar identity, and by using the PlayStation Eye you can view, rate, and even post favorite videos, audio recordings, and snapshots to the global SingStar community. Believe me, you can have a lot of fun checking out videos from all over the globe and coming up with your own creative ideas. Over 20,000 videos already have been uploaded to the community since the European launch this past December.

One last bit of news I wanted to share is that we’ll be adding new features day 1 of launch via a free patch for the US, Canada, and Europe. Cool new features include enhanced harmony duets, separate Battle mode difficulty selections, a lag calibration feature for different TV types, and even PSP remote play.

You may be thinking, “what’s the deal with remote play?” Well, with remote play you can browse, stream and remotely launch downloads from the SingStore so you’ve got your party list ready to go by the time you arrive home. You also can check out your profile on My SingStar Online and view other performances shared in the online community.

Look forward to seeing you all online come May 20 and check out the pics from our weekend at Coachella. More to come shortly, guys…so stay tuned…