At only $79.99, the Collector’s Edition offers a ton of content at a great price. A beautifully crafted 6” statue of Kratos—a one-of-a-kind collectible that won’t be sold anywhere else—accompanies a premium Steelbook case with the iconic God of War Omega design. Also included is a wealth of digital content: an exclusive PS3 dynamic theme, a PSN Avatar pack, a 48-hour multiplayer mode XP boost, and a Season Pass for all future DLC released for the game. Also included is a voucher to download the official game soundtrack featuring Tyler Bates’ thrilling score to the game, recorded with a full orchestra and choir at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London.

The Collector’s Edition is nearly sold-out, so be sure to pre-order yours before it’s too late (and to claim your bonus DLC as well).

I’m also excited to share the final “Behind the Scenes” video from our captivating live-action “From Ashes” trailer and TV commercial. This latest installment of our Unchained BTS series offers insight into the full-scale Hollywood production behind bringing Kratos to life, featuring interviews with the minds behind both the game and the trailer.

If you missed the first two BTS videos, be sure to check out the work that went into bringing Kratos and his Spartan army to life.

If you can’t wait until March 12th to get your hands on Kratos’ latest adventure, head to the PlayStation Store right now to download the single-player demo and experience the intense opening of the game. The demo also features bonus video content from the game and more.

I have exciting news for God of War fans revolving around a new show coming to HISTORY very soon. God of War is steeped in the rich world of ancient Greek mythology, and soon you’ll be able to immerse yourself in the epic world of the Vikings and Norse mythology with HISTORY’s new original scripted series Vikings.

In a special limited time offer, if you purchase God of War: Ascension at Best Buy, you can bring Vikings into the realm of Kratos with an exclusive multiplayer weapon inspired by the series. While supplies last, every game copy will come with a voucher for the DLC weapon “Mjölnir,” or Hammer of Thor, for use in Ascension’s multiplayer mode. The voucher code will also unlock the Mythological Heroes Multiplayer Pack, which includes four unique armor sets for four of ancient Greece’s greatest mythological heroes: Achilles, Perseus, Orion and Odysseus.

The show follows the story of Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel), the rumored direct descendant of the Norse god, Odin. Check out the trailer here, and watch the series Sunday nights at 10/9c starting March 3rd. To catch a sneak peek of Vikings, be sure to download the God of War: Ascension demo when it hits the PlayStation Store for exclusive bonus content from the show and from God of War: Ascension.

If you have been following Journey, then you’re probably as excited as I am about its release next week on March 13, as the first game in our Spring Fever event this year. The reviews so far have been fantastic, and I can’t wait to get online and experience the game online with other Journey fans.

If you caught Friday’s update from Kellee, the last line of her post about big news coming Monday probably had you wondering what sort of news might be coming. Well, earlier this morning I’m sure you saw this month’s PS Plus blog post revealing that Journey will be available this week for all PS Plus members, one week ahead of the normal release date. What’s more, this early access purchase comes with a bonus, an exclusive PS3 dynamic theme featuring some concept art from the game.

And if you’re not a Plus member, we are also launching a special pre-order program as well. You’ll be able to put your money down for the game and get hold of the same concept art dynamic theme as Plus members for doing so. Then when the game hits on March 13 during the normal Tuesday publish, just head to the store and download the game for free.

Watch the Blog and PS Store, because we’ll have a few more videos for Journey, an additional dynamic theme (free for Plus members) that will showcase some of the beautiful vistas in the game, and more. We’re also launching a dedicated tab for Journey on the PlayStation Facebook page where you can get an exclusive Journey PSN Avatar starting today, so head on over to check it out.

And don’t forget to head over to the Journey live dev chat page to sign up for a reminder, and come back this coming Friday at 10 AM PST to chat live with Jenova Chen (Creative Director) and Robin Hunicke (Executive Producer) from the Journey dev team.

The first piece of content is Car Pack 3 for $5.99, featuring six new cars from both past and present. Download Car Pack 3 to get your hands on Lamborghini’s latest flagship model, the Aventador, along with the Jaguar XJR-9 LM racecar, Aston Martin V12 Vantage, the 66′ Volkswagen 1200, Mini Cooper S Countryman, and the new Nissan Leaf.

The second piece of new DLC is the Speed Test Course Pack featuring the Route X test course, which will be available for $3.99. If you caught the PDI-made promotional trailer for the new Acura NSX Concept vehicle (that’s right, the NSX is back!!), you’ve already seen a sneak peek of this new track. Route X is a massive oval with giant banking corners, allowing you to test your vehicles’ maximum speed and performance, plus some beautiful vistas to rush by at 200mph. You’ll be able to use this track online, and in Arcade and Practice modes.

And since the Speed Test Course Route X is the perfect proving ground to test the performance of your vehicles and all of the custom tuning and modification you’ve done, we’ve gone one step further and made that even easier for you. You’ll be able to track things like your mile and quarter-mile time, acceleration and g-force.

Also coming next week is the XL Edition of GT5 for $39.99, along with a minor update to Gran Turismo 5 via free downloadable patch. Check here for more details on the new improvements coming in next week’s patch.

If you’ve missed the first two DLC drops in October and December, check here for more information about all the great new content available for Gran Turismo 5, including the new car and track packs.

Finally, GT Academy USA winner Bryan Heitkotter is gearing up to take on the 24H Dubai endurance race this weekend, taking turns with fellow GT Academy Europe winners. Follow GT Academy on Facebook to find out how they do in this grueling 24-hour race.

Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition Contents

• Original Gran Turismo 5 game, featuring more than 1,000 cars, 20+ locations with 70+ track layouts, diverse racing styles including rally, track, karting, NASCAR, and more, deep online community features and online racing, plus Gran Turismo TV, Course Maker and more.
• All of the new and improved features and functionality from all free downloadable game updates up through Spec 2.0 included on the disc.
• Voucher good for over $20 worth of DLC content, including the Racing Car Pack, Car Pack 2, Course Pack, Racing Gear Pack, and Paint Pack.

The XL Edition will also feature a new reversible inside coversheet featuring the new Red Bull X2011 supercar, to add a different look to your game library shelf.

You’ll be able to pick up the XL Edition of Gran Turismo 5 after January 17 for just $39.99. Watch the blog and the official GT website for more news about Gran Turismo, DLC, and new Gran Turismo TV content available exclusively within the game.

There’s more good news, because as a special gift anyone who purchased anything from the first batch of DLC will get unlock the Gran Turismo Racing Kart 125 SP and five New Car Refresh cards in the game for free. The refresh cards will take any car back to being ‘as good as new’ while maintaining any modifications or paint jobs you have given your motors. To take advantage of this offer, you’ll need to install the new downloadable update hitting next week.

The free downloadable update coming next week will also add several new enhancements to GT5 as well as correcting some reported issues. A few examples of the benefits of update 2.02 include:

• Users can now change wheels on Standard cars
• The settings sheets will include a new ‘copy’ feature
• In GT Auto, players will be able to see how the oil changes, aerodynamic parts, engine overhauls, and racing modifications will affect performance points and engine power, before and after their application
• Free coupons have been added that allow you to wash cars, change oil, overhaul your engine, or refresh the car body in GT Auto (10 coupons will be distributed for free to each of those who have downloaded the 2.02 update)
• Pressing the Square button in the car coupon selection screen of the Car Delivery will now allow you to exchange all car coupons at once, rather than doing one at a time
• In screens where the [Garage] and [Driver List] buttons are displayed in the A/B Spec events, Special Events, and Seasonal Events, pressing the Square button will now show the [Garage], and pressing the Triangle button will bring up the drivers list
• In My Lounge, the room settings will feature a new ‘Max. number of participants’ setting
• In the event selection screen of seasonal events, there are now ☆(star) marks that show the number of Gold Trophies attained in each event
• Improved racing sound effects
• Elements of the steering assist controls (used when using certain controllers on Racing Karts) have been tweaked

As an additional gift to players this holiday season, everyone who downloads the 2.02 update will also receive the stunning Toyota FT-86 2012 to add to their in-game collection.

One more note: Those who purchased the course and/or vehicle DLC that was released in October will be able to download Family Upgrade unlocks for free from the store. This means that if you bought the Racing Car Pack, Course Pack, or the ‘Complete Pack’ that contained both of these, by downloading the free Family Upgrade items, the content will now be accessible to more than just the user account that purchased the content. Family members or friends using the same PS3 can all use the courses and cars. Note that the upgrade doesn’t apply to the Racing Gear Pack or Special Paint Pack, and starting next week, new purchases will not have the restriction in place.

And don’t forget, there’s only one week left to compete in the special GT5 Time Trial Challenge and unlock a special edition Nissan GT-R for your garage. We hope you enjoy the free game updates, new cars and new batch of DLC. Drive safe!

The Spec 2.0 update enables you enjoy a new and improved GT5, including interior views for all standard cars, improved physics and AI, faster menus and load times, additional functionality and control in the online racing mode, updated 2011 NASCAR cars, a gorgeous new opening cinematic movie, and much more.

I mentioned last week that we also have a slew of downloadable content releasing on the PlayStation Store. Here’s an update on the content you can expect next week on October 18th.

Course Pack

The Course Pack ($4.99), will include two courses completely new to Gran Turismo. The first course is the world-famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps located in Spa, Belgium. At 7km long, this course is widely known as one of the most challenging race courses in the world due to its many twists and turns and elevation changes. And every inch of the track has been painstakingly recreated as only Polyphony can.

The second course is a flashy indoor karting arena designed by Polyphony Digital, and comes with two layouts to race. Lit with neon lighting, the kart arena not only showcases the beauty of GT5’s graphics and lighting engines, but also adds a crazy twist to the outdoor karting areas that shipped with GT5.

Racing Car Pack

The Racing Car Pack ($7.99) adds 11 custom PDI-designed custom touring editions of fan favorites like the Mazda RX-7, Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, Dodge Challenger SRT8, Nissan GT-R, Honda CR-Z, and even a race tuned Toyota Prius, among others. The pack also includes three new racing karts. But what makes the Racing Car Pack really cool is that it also features the never-before-seen Red Bull X2011 Prototype vehicle. The Red Bull X2010, a machine built for pure speed, was the ultimate prize in Gran Turismo 5, and the Red Bull X2011 Prototype is the next evolution in design. In other words, that’s 15 new vehicles to add to your collection and master.

Racing Gear Pack

Also available will be the Racing Gear Pack ($2.99), which features 90 pieces of racing gear, including racing suits and helmets, for your in-game drivers. Included are GT original design helmets and suits, white and black Alpinestars suits, the official 2010 and 2011 season racing suits and helmets of 4 top NASCAR drivers, and racing gear of 4 other celebrity race car drivers including Sebastien Loeb and Peter Solberg.

Paint Pack

And last but not least is the Paint Pack ($1.99), featuring 100 paint colors to customize your cars with. The pack includes new shades of matte, chrome and aluminum colors. It’s time to breathe some new life into your car collection.

While you can buy individual DLC packs, you can also buy it all at once as a bundle for just $11.99. PlayStation Plus subscribers will also get a nice discount on the bundle for the first month of release – more details on that soon.

And if you haven’t heard, this week is your chance to grab the Red Bull X2010, Sebastian Vettel model, which we are giving away for free this week to commemorate Vettel’s historic F1 championship win over the weekend. The Red Bull X2010 is a racing machine built for pure speed (up to 280mph, 0-60 in 1.4 seconds), built as a special partnership between Polyphony Digital and Red Bull Racing. If you haven’t completed all of the in-game challenges to unlock it in the game on your own yet, this is your chance to add this speed demon to your collection. See here for instructions on how to add it to your garage. This promotion is good this week only, so be sure to grab it before time runs out!

Finally, don’t forget to watch GT Academy Tuesdays on SPEED, and download full episodes from the Video Store side of PSN. Episode 4 debuts tonight at 7:00pm PST on SPEED and will be available this week on PSN, with the thrilling final episode premiering next week.

Now I’m here to share with you some very exciting news about the biggest FREE update yet, releasing in the next few weeks. It will add new features and even more functionality to your GT5 experience.

Polyphony learned that a lot of fans out there love driving using the game’s interior view, and has given some serious thought to it. With this new update, all cars in the game will now have interior views. Although the level of visual details will vary based on what car you choose, you can now race from behind the wheel of any car in the game. In addition, you’ll be able to get the 2011 season versions of the 11 NASCAR race cars for the first time.

Some of the other improvements introduced are greatly reduced load times when loading races, quicker menu response times, and adjustable opponent AI in Arcade Mode. Players will now have the option to save their progress during lengthy racing events so they can come back and finish at a later time, and can also adjust weather conditions for races using a slider function that goes from mild to severe.

The wildly popular Photo Mode has been updated to allow players to take pictures with their personalized driver avatars with customizable racing suits and helmets. You can even fast-forward and rewind race replays now to better capture that key moment in the race.

For those who enjoy racing online with your fellow gearheads, we’re expanding the shuffle race mode. As with the same feature in Gran Turismo PSP, this allows friendly competition between players of different skill levels. Players setting up online races will also have a host of new regulations available to customize their own events. New bonus incentives are introduced for players who log in and play on a consistent basis.

Truly hardcore racing fans will be stoked to hear that GT5 will now officially and fully support the Logitech G25 and G27 Racing Wheels.

The final piece of big news is that there will be a full batch of downloadable content for Gran Turismo 5 in the coming weeks. This DLC will of course include new vehicles and tracks, plus some additional surprises.

We’ll have more details very soon on the specifics of the DLC, so stay tuned, and check the blog and the official Gran Turismo website for further details.

I am ending this post with a comment from the man himself, Kazunori Yamauchi, president of Polyphony Digital and creator of the Gran Turismo franchise:

The coming Gran Turismo 5 Spec 2 update is an update that contains the feedback from the users playing GT5 online every day. We have added cars such as the newest NASCAR race cars, but many of the updates are those that improve usability and expand the field of game play. I believed from the initial release of Gran Turismo 5 that it would be the users that would make the game grow thereafter, and we added things like interior views for the standard models because there was a lot of request for it from our users. You could say that this update is the shape and form of GT5 that was created through the opinions of our fans.

And if you don’t have Gran Turismo 5 yet, now is the perfect time to get into the best-selling racing game. In addition to all of the great new content and free updates, as of this week you can pick GT5 up for only $39.99.

With the release of The ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection just a week away, I’m still in awe over how awesome the remastered games look and sound. If you’re on the fence about the collection, know that, so far, it has an average score of 91 out of 27 reviews. Game Informer gave it a 9.75, Destructoid a 9.5, Games Radar a 9.0, GamePro a 4.5 out of 5, and IGN an 8.5.

The games are fantastic in their own right, whether you’ll be playing them for the first time or have already played the originals. But I think you’re also really going to dig the fantastic bonus content we’ve packed onto the disc.

Not only do you get to enjoy seeing early concept and prototype footage of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, we’ve also included the original concept video for NICO. If you’ve never heard of NICO, it was the second game from Fumito Ueda and team, and was going to be an online game where groups of hunters tracked, scaled and slayed giant beasts together. That game was never made, but key ideas from it formed the basis for what would become Shadow of the Colossus.

In addition, there are two brand new original videos included on the disc. One is a 20+ minute round-table discussion between key members of the development team, Fumito Ueda (Lead Designer, Director), Kenji Kaido (Line producer) and Junichi Hosono (designer). They openly discuss what it was like to make these games, difficulties and challenges they faced, and even the original US packaging for ICO.

And last but not least is a 12-minute behind-the-scenes video filmed on location at the Sony Computer Entertainment JAPAN Studio offices in
Shinagawa. This video features interviews with key production staff members about the making of ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian, their thoughts on this new HD collection, as well as concept art and prototype footage from all the games. You’ll also watch some never-before-seen footage from The Last Guardian.

Above, you can watch a short sneak peek at some of the cool bonus video content you can look forward to next week when you pick up the game for yourself on September 27th. I hope you enjoy the bonus content on the disc as much as we did putting it all together for you. Don’t forget to check out the preview of the collection in this month’s episode of Qore as well.

Which game are you more excited to play in HD for the first time — ICO or Shadow of the Colossus?

It’s been a while since we’ve updated you on the remastered ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection, but we did want to remind you about its upcoming launch on September 27th! As a special treat, we’re proud to unveil the final box art and inside packaging for the collection, depicting stylized artwork from both titles. In addition to full 1080p HD, stereoscopic 3D support, and 7.1 surround sound, this re-release contains a ton of exclusive bonus footage and behind-the-scenes content that will await you on September 27th. Full details are available here.

Additionally, we wanted to confirm that The Last Guardian is not on the schedule for this year’s Tokyo Game Show. However we can assure you that Ueda-san and the rest of the development team are hard at work to bring his lofty vision to life and deliver the very best gaming experience possible.