Hello, my fellow MotorStormers! The racing party at the end of the world recently introduced a hot new track and fresh Weekly Challenges for you to play. Now, I’m excited to be able to bring you news of another larger-than-life update, which will empower you to create, share and get much more out of your action racing experience than ever before.

To get this latest update, simply fire up MotorStorm Apocalypse while connected to PSN and you’ll be prompted to download the update.

Design Your Own Game Modes

The new Mode Editor allows you to create your own fun game modes within the MotorStorm template and then play them straight away with other players (online and offline).

The possibilities are vast: Tweak the standard Race mode so that vehicle attacks are disabled…or set-up a five-round Eliminator mode, on mirrored tracks, for 15 Monster Trucks and 1 Buggy, with moon gravity, infinite boost and no brakes…or do something completely unexpected – we can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Share Your Customized Vehicle

Customize and share your proudest vehicle designs with your friends via motorstorm.com, and download any that you like the look of from the website to apply to any of the vehicles in your collection – they automatically work across all vehicle types.

Sharing your personalized vehicles is simple: upload them from MotorStorm Apocalypse to your personal Profile area on motorstorm.com and other players can view them immediately. Downloading shared vehicles from other players is just as easy: find one you like the look of on motorstorm.com, sign in with your PSN Online ID and download it – it will be waiting for you when you next go into Customization in the game!

Up Your Game With a PS3 Steering Wheel or PlayStation Move

PlayStation Move controllers and certain PS3 steering wheels are now fully supported in MotorStorm Apocalypse (including customizable configurability options), so you can get even closer to the racing action with a more tactile and realistic control set-up.

I’ve been lucky enough to experience the game using a Logitech G27 force feedback wheel, on a 3DTV with surround sound set-up, and I can honestly say it’s the most exhilarating gaming experience I’ve ever had. Pumping the accelerator and gripping the wheel as you drift your muscle car through a tight city corner at break neck speeds feels incredible, and when an apocalyptic earthquake aftershocks kick in and tears open the ground beneath your wheels – while you’re trying to avoid gangs of crazy looters and rivals throwing their weight around in monster trucks – it ups the ante even more. If you can, you absolutely must experience MotorStorm Apocalypse like this. Words just don’t do it justice.

Supported steering wheels include: Logitech G25, Logitech G27, Logitech Driving Force GT and Logitech Driving Force Pro.

Further Improvements to Online Play

In response to continued feedback from MotorStorm players, the update also includes additions and improvements such as; new racer ‘clan tags’, changes to gambling (bets are now won when a rival is disconnected or disqualified), and changes to lobby privacy (so that private rooms can only be joined by invitation).

Stay Up to Speed With MotorStorm Wherever You Are

The community website has also been updated to include player profiles which show off player activity, stats, performance over the last 10 races and shared vehicle designs. The update also includes a mobile version of the website which lets you use an internet enabled mobile device to keep up to speed with the latest MotorStorm activity (and your friends) wherever you are.

There’s a lot here to keep you rocking the party at the end of the world! If you’d like to keep up with the latest on Apocalypse, or learn more about the game, make sure to keep tabs on motorstorm.com. Thanks for your time – Cheers!

A storm is coming to PlayStation Network! The MotorStorm Apocalypse multiplayer demo arrives on PlayStation.Store in today’s Store update and will be available to everyone for one week only. Here’s an overview of what you can expect from the demo of Evolution Studios’ latest adrenaline-fuelled action racer, which is out now on the PlayStation Store.

Seven days of intense action racing

Get ready to experience the simultaneous challenge and excitement that comes from trying to win races while a city comes crashing down around you! You’ve only got from Tuesday, June 28th until Tuesday July 5th to get in on the action, so make the most of the opportunity by taking part in this special week-long demo event while you can.

Incredible visuals

The action looks stunning, especially in high definition if you have the set up. To really bring every race, crash and explosion right into your living room, try to experience the game with a mind-blowing stereoscopic 3D setup!

16-player online races, including two-player split screen

Face down the competition in brutal races against up to 15 players world-wide. Go in alone, take a split-screen buddy into the action with you or meet up with your friends to form a party online.

You’ll earn new Ranks and rewards for surviving the carnage, beating opponents and racing with style. Boost your rewards from every race by wagering on any rival you think you can beat; There’s a healthy bonus awarded if you beat them and you can choose whether to add it to your career earnings or risk it all on the next race for an even bigger reward!

Three of the full game’s 35 online races to survive

You’ve never seen races like these…

The Mile High Club
Smash through offices and across the sides of downed skyscrapers in a lunatic adventure over the breathtaking rooftops.

Off the Rails
A gigantic rift has ripped the subway system open…and MotorStorm is holding races in it! Barrel through the fiery subway tunnels and into the rifts themselves as crazy looters attack and trains bail straight into the station.

Ship Shape
An abandoned shipyard is the perfect playground for intense, high-speed action-racing, where there’s little room (but plenty of opportunity) for costly mistakes.

Five of the 13 vehicle types from MotorStorm Apocalypse to customize and race

Stamp your unique identity on the Superbike, Buggy, Supercar, Racing Truck and Big Rig and then equip your preferred performance boosting perks to give you an edge when you go out to battle in the concrete jungle.

You’ll earn better body parts, customization designs and perks as you race and improve with each vehicle. Make use of the kit you are awarded to modify your vehicle so that you stand out from the crowd!

…only Seven Days?

The demo will be available for download on PlayStation.Store for 7-days only, however online play will be possible until Thursday July 7 at 02:00 PDT, so you will have extra time to run a few more races before the free demo runs out.

If you didn’t already know, the full game is available now and has just been updated and expanded with the free After Party update, which introduces an all new day-and-night track, Weekly Challenges, multiplayer playlist updates and more. There are also regular community events taking place in MotorStorm Apocalypse: check the MotorStorm community space to see what’s taking place right now.

Any Questions?

If you have any questions about the demo, please visit the MotorStorm community space on playstation.com.

To keep up to speed with the latest MotorStorm news, keep it locked to the blog, follow @PhenomEvolution on twitter.com and follow the official MotorStorm Apocalypse page on facebook.

We want to thank all the fans around the world for your continued support – it has made Super Stardust HD a top selling PSN exclusive and enabled us to keep creating new content for the game even now over three years after its release.

2008 saw the release of the “Solo Pack,” offering new game modes such as Endless, Survival, Bomber and Time Attack. That was followed by the multiplayer “Team Pack” featuring split-screen co-op and deathmatch modes for up to four players.

Additionally, the game then broke new ground by becoming the first ever PlayStation 3 game to feature Trophies.

In 2010 we gave players the exciting option to experience the game in real 3D, one of the few of its kind as it creates 120 unique frames per second.

Now in 2011 with the new Impact mode add-on, Super Stardust HD continues to be the most comprehensive shooter experience available.

The Impact mode plays on and twists the game rules – in place of the weapon system your ship is now fitted with an experimental new matter-to-energy boost engine technology, which means once you activate the boost, you can stay in boost as long as you can hit meteors and enemies with it!

This mode also features much higher score multipliers – as long as you boost the multiplier keeps growing and growing! This is the most fast-paced and adrenaline inducing add-on to the game yet.

Look out for the Impact mode on the PlayStation Store this Spring and, if you’ve never tried Super Stardust HD before, there has never been a better time to join the action!

Stardust pilots, start boosting your way to the top of the worldwide leaderboards!

We know some Dead Nation online co-op players have requested voice chat functionality. I’m here to tell you that we’ve listened to the fans and are taking steps to add voice chat for online co-op in the near future. To reiterate this point, here’s a note from the team at Housemarque:

We know some of you are frustrated by the lack of voice chat support in Dead Nation’s online co-op mode. We realize many players have been very eager to join up and start taking care of the zombie nation and we greatly appreciate the continued support. Therefore, the team is currently working on the addition of voice chat capability and hope to introduce it as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, we’re keen to get as much feedback on the game as possible so we can further improve what we think is a great zombie game. We’ll be sure to keep everyone posted via the PlayStation.Blog and our Dead Nation Facebook page on when they can expect the voice chat update. We at Housemarque put our hearts and souls into the development of our games with the goal in mind to create thrilling gaming moments for players, so our hope is that everyone enjoys the finished product.

On that note, what are your favorite weapons so far? What upgrade path have you taken? Have you been able to conquer the Grim difficulty mode yet? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll have more to share with you soon about Dead Nation!

Sincerely,

Housemarque Team

November 30th isn’t far off, but stay tuned to the PlayStation.Blog as we reveal even more information in the final days before Dead Nation’s PSN release. We’ll be giving you an up-close look at Dead Nation’s metagame that will pit country versus country in a global battle for high score dominance and the ultimate bragging rights. Also, keep your eyeballs peeled for an upcoming video that will show you how crazed Dead Nation’s gameplay gets when it reaches fever pitch – you’ll be surrounded by more onscreen zombies than you can count complete with per-pixel shadows and lighting, particle effects galore, and realistic ragdoll physics all happening at the same time. Once you’ve seen the worst scenarios Dead Nation has to throw at you, there’s no going back.

Dead Nation features online and offline two-player cooperative play, a lengthy campaign littered with hidden treasures, hugely upgradeable weapons and armor, and tremendous replay value thanks to a host of difficulty levels. The fifth and final difficulty level — “Undead” — will leave you breathless!

Look for Dead Nation on PSN this November 30th for $14.99. Thanks for your support, PS3 fans!

For those of you who don’t have a 3D TV yet and want to sample MotorStorm Pacific Rift, I can assure you that 3D Rift is still wicked fun on a 2D TV! Check out this video of the adrenaline-soaked MotorStorm Pacific Rift in action.

In 3D Rift you’ll have 10 unique events to compete in (one for each track) with the full range of competitor difficulty levels through the races, so you can enjoy the brutal off-road racing at your leisure or take on the toughest and most competitive rivals.

With 3D you can naturally judge your speed and proximity, which will be extremely helpful when trying to avoid being side-swiped by a rampaging Racing Truck, ramming a rival Buggy into a cave wall, or timing when to get back on the accelerator as you take a tricky corner. When you are riding a Bike, 3D makes it obvious what you can and can’t duck under — even at high speeds! And you can feel just how monstrous a Monster Truck is when looking down at a rival Buggy just before it disappears under your super-sized wheels. If you’ve played the 3D Collection demo then you’ve already gotten a taste of how awesome MotorStorm is in 3D. Check out MotorStorm 3D Rift for more tracks and greater challenges. If you haven’t, you’ll be blown away by the sense of speed as you fight through the tropical island setting and RIP it up in 3D paradise.

MotorStorm 3D Rift includes 10 tracks, 10 race events, multiple playable vehicles, and is playable in both 2D and 3D. You can get it on PSN for $9.99.

We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as the team here has enjoyed working on it. We look forward to bringing you more breathtaking 3D racing action with MotorStorm Apocalypse next year!

Dead Nation features a large variety of zombie types that reflect the locales and show the transformation of ordinary people into merciless undead killers. Check out the new screens, and stay tuned to the PlayStation.Blog as we reveal more Dead Nation details in the coming months.

Oh, and if you’re in town, check out Dead Nation at Comic-Con this week!

Many of you guessed it, but here’s the official word: the upcoming PSN exclusive in production is DEAD NATION!

Your help was monumental in putting together our trailer. Below is an introduction from the SCEE and Housemarque teams giving you a little bit of information for our upcoming zombie game. Look out for future updates from myself and the team, as we get closer to the game’s launch later this year.

From Robert Karp, SCEE Producer:

Following the original announcement of Dead Nation at Gamescom in Cologne last year we’ve kept purposefully quiet about what we’ve got in store for you, but at this year’s E3 we’ll be bringing you right up to speed with the game and what you can expect from Housemarque and Sony Computer Entertainment’s PSN-exclusive zombie game. We’ve been pulling out all the stops over the past year to make this game a nerve shredding, atmospheric and action packed experience, and to whet your appetite for what we’ve got coming up at E3, try this on for size…

We’ve got a lot more to show off over the coming weeks and months so keep your eyes peeled, stock up on water and canned goods because you never know when you might need to secure your position and fight off the Dead Nation.

Hello – I’m Ana, the producer of Savage Moon here at Fluffy Logic in Bristol, UK. We’re really excited by the PSP version of the game and myself and the rest of the development team has spent the last few months pouring our energy into the game and we’re very pleased with the result – and we hope you will be too!

If you haven’t played Savage Moon before; it’s a real-time, tower defense game pitting you (the humans) against hordes of chitinous, carnivorous, bug-like creatures called Insectocytes who are the immune system of living planets (called Imoons) the humans are trying to mine. The Hera campaign is the third project we’ve done – following on from the PS3 release and the Waldgeist expansion pack for the PS3 version available for $9.99 and $4.99 respectively.

Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign (named after the Aegophagus or goat eating aspect of the Greek goddess of the same name) is set within a huge gathering of Imoons, the Hera Cluster, that drifted into human space. Preliminary intelligence suggests that it consists of, at least, 20 Imoons populated by a rich variety of Insectocyte forms, some of which we have encountered before and some of which are new.

We are extremely excited to have Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign available for the PSP, which in fact is not a port but specifically designed for the PSP. It also includes two new species, a new interface and the ability to unlock vengeance mode for each Imoon. You can also unlock alternative, specially commissioned soundtracks too.

To support the upcoming release, you can find the latest trailer which showcases some of the gameplay. Also, keep and eye on our Support Page as we’ll be posting links to hints, tips and help with the game.

The game is set to release on December 22nd and will be priced at $9.99 – enjoy! :)

Thanks!

Ana

Hello – this is Ana (the producer) and Tom (the designer) from FluffyLogic again (you can read our last blog-post’s for Sony here & here). We would like to tell you about the latest developments in the Savage Moon universe: the Insectocytes have invaded the PSP! For the last few months FluffyLogic personnel have been toiling away in an underground bunker to produce the mobile incarnation of the game: Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign – featuring new weapons, new bugs, news maps and new gameplay.

For those new to the game, Savage Moon is a tower defense strategy game which launched on PS3 last winter. The game pits the player (humans), who is trying to mine valuable minerals from sentient asteroids or Imoons, against massive chitinous, armoured bugs called ‘Insectocytes’. As the humans burrow into the ground, the Imoon produces its own auto-immune response in much the same way that the human body produces white-blood cells in response to an infection; this is when the killing starts!

We have seen the humans encounter the Insectocytes before. There has been two explosive campaigns set in deep space in the Shathak sector (the original game) and the Waldgeist nebula (the expansion pack). What we discovered is that the enemy evolves in response to attack – what does not kill them, makes them stronger! They grow resilient and mutate into diverse new forms with each mission and Imoon contested.

The next step is to colonise the PSP with Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign, named with reference to the Aegophagus: the goat eating aspect of the Greek goddess. This huge gathering of Imoons, the Hera Cluster, drifted into human space a few months ago. Preliminary intelligence suggests that it consists of 20 Imoons populated by a rich variety of Insectocyte forms, some of which have been encountered before and some of which are new. An example of a new form is the Drainer – evolved in response to our rapidly advancing military capability, this Insectocyte emits a bio-magnetic pulse-field that temporarily incapacitates any human technology within its range – rendering it vulnerable to rapacious Tank or Stinger Insectocytes. Other forms encountered include the regenerator sub-species that heals any damage it has taken, making them doubly-hard to kill.

But the human military forces have not stood still either. We are going to make new technologies available for the Hera Campaign, with pride of place going to the Sniper Tower – a deadly new combat tower that seeks the most deadly prey within range. We have also separated the blocking towers from the rest of the tower-tech to give the player both drop-pods (that land a new combat or support tower) and block-pods (that land a blocking tower).

In addition you now play as the Supreme Commander of the entire armada. The player controls events for the whole campaign as well as each individual Imoon mission. The player chooses which Imoon to concentrate their resources of drop-pods, block-pods and credits into via the new Tactical Layer interface. Success on a mission results in more resources and the unlocking of new technologies.

Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign brings the best of the action-strategy gameplay from the PS3 onto the PSP. It continues the relentless assaults by very large bugs but re-works the overall strategy, adding key aspects to make the game a truly mobile, gaming experience:

• 20 New Imoons
• 2 new species plus 2 new sub-species of Insectocyte
• New interface allowing the player to plan the whole campaign
• Unlock vengeance mode version of each Imoon
• Unlock hidden alternative music soundtracks by Parasite & special guests
• Designed specifically for PSP
• Tactical Skills menu – adds new gameplay controls in addition to Command Skills

Continue to check back here soon for more updates and details for Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign – we’re definitely excited and hope that you are too!