PlayStation.Blog » Jeff Rubenstein

PlayStation Around the Web: What We Read

Jeff Rubenstein — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:01:36 +0000

This week’s a short work/school week for most of you, including us at PlayStation. So, as it has gone down the past two Thanksgiving weeks, the PlayStation Store will update on Tuesday this week. So look for a (rather substantial) Store update on the afternoon of the 24th (PST). On Thursday, as we did last year, we’ll be posting the Black Friday Bulletin Board post, where you can share the best PlayStation deals and doorbusters to kick off the Holiday Shopping Season. I can tell you this much – there are some real steals to be had for those of you hoping to knock out the shopping list early this year.

Finally I wanted to give some early “Thanks” to our readers that voted in the Mashable Open Web Awards call for entries – we made it into the final list of nominees for Best Corporate Blog. Now, if you wouldn’t mind casting a final vote for us, we’ll have that much more to be thankful for this week.

The PS Blog weekly reading list (Week of November 16, 2009)

Vote today for PlayStation’s 17 VGA Nominees

Jeff Rubenstein — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:13:12 +0000

As the saying goes, “It’s an honor just to be nominated.” If that’s the case, then we here at PlayStation are pretty well honored; The 2009 Video Game Awards nominees have just been announced, and Sony Computer Entertainment is up for 17 awards, more than any other publisher! UNCHARTED 2 leads all games with a record eight nominations, including GAME OF THE YEAR. See below for the full list of SCE titles and what award they’re up for.

But going back to that saying – being honored is nice, but winning is better. Fortunately, the decision isn’t left up to a shadowy cabal of Illuminati; for the first time ever, gamers from around the world get to vote for the victors between now and Saturday, December 12th. Hat in hand, we kindly ask you to vote for your favorite PlayStation games on Spike’s VGAs site.

In honor of our record number of VGA nominations, we’re currently planning a viewing party near the LA studios where the VGAs will be broadcast live to the world. We might even be able to get some of you fine readers into the event itself… So vote now, and stay tuned for more details here on the PlayStation.Blog!

PlayStation’s 2009 Video Game Award Nominees

UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves (8)

Game of the Year
Studio of the Year (Naughty Dog)
Best Graphics
Best Action Adventure Game
Best PS3 Game
Best Original Score
Best Voice (Claudia Black as Chloe Frazer)
Best Voice (Nolan North as Nathan Drake)

Killzone 2 (3)

Best Shooter
Best Graphics
Best PS3 Game

Gran Turismo (PSP) (1)

Best Driving Game

inFAMOUS (1)

Best PS3 Game

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (1)

Best PS3 Game

Fat Princess (1)

Best Downloadable Game

Flower (1)

Best Independent Game Fueled by Dew

God of War III (1)

Most Anticipated Game

Also, don’t forget to vote for PS3-exclusive Demon’s Souls as Best RPG.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Beta launches tomorrow!

Jeff Rubenstein — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:01:54 +0000

So what can we expect from the PS3-exclusive Battlefield Bad Company 2 beta, exactly? DICE Producer Gordon van Dyke joined me via PlayStation Eye chat to talk about the Arica Harbor map, the destruction you can cause due to the game’s Frostbite engine, and how you can win your way into the beta. Oh and there are lots of explosions. Pretty, pretty explosions.

To elaborate on a few things – you can follow the Official Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter here, and one of those sites giving out beta codes is… this one.

We’ll be giving out beta vouchers starting Thursday afternoon (PST) via our Twitter and Facebook accounts. So start following!

Talking Super Street Fighter IV with Capcom’s Seth Killian

Jeff Rubenstein — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:01:29 +0000

Recently we were granted an hour to go hands on with the follow-up to Capcom’s Street Fighter IV. You may have seen some shots of new character Juri, or the resurrected (and redesigned) DeeJay and T. Hawk. You can see them in action in the video below.

Beyond that, Capcom Senior Community Manager Seth Killian (a SF player so good he can beat you with one hand) walks us through some of the new features and moves we’ll be seeing when Super Street Fighter IV drops in 2010. Better yet, he promises to try and get hands on time for some of you readers (like last year’s Street Fighter Club and game launch). Go on, watch.

PlayStation Around the Web: What We Read

Jeff Rubenstein — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:01:36 +0000

Presenting this week’s PlayStation reading list, including stories on Heavy Rain, LBP PSP, Uncharted 2, Valkyria Chronicles 2, and MW2, plus reviews of God of War Collection, Buzz! Quiz World, Locoroco Midnight Carnival, and Braid. Add your stories to the list, and we’ll pick up with the news again tomorrow.

Make sure to return at 9am (PST) for an interview with Capcom’s Seth Killian on Super Street Fighter IV; you’ll want to see Deejay, Juri, and T. Hawk’s new Ultras in action.

The PS Blog weekly reading list (Week of November 9, 2009)

PlayStation Eye Chat: Assassin’s Creed II

Jeff Rubenstein — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:59:52 +0000

With Assassin’s Creed II just days from hitting stores, there’s still quite a few unanswered questions about the game (some of which you sent us via Twitter). Earlier this week, I spoke with Ubisoft’s Lead Game Designer Patrick Plourde, from his home in Montreal via PlayStation Eye.

Even if you’re not interested in hearing new details about Assassin’s Creed II, including Ezio’s Villa, customization, new features not present in the original, and PSP interoperability, you’ll want to stick around to find out your task for the Live By The Creed mission. Hint: it’s near the end of the video.

PlayStation Around the Web: What We Read

Jeff Rubenstein — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:01:48 +0000

To answer what many of you have asked about in recent months: yes, we are working on a podcast. What we’d like to know now is – how important is the “pod” in the podcast? i.e. Do you actually listen on an iPod via iTunes? Do you download and listen on some other device (like a PSP)? Stream directly from your desktop/laptop? Something else entirely?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

We wanna make sure we get the syndication right… if we’re not making it available the way you want to hear it, what’s the point, right?

The PS Blog weekly reading list (Week of November 2, 2009)

PlayStation Around the Web: What We Read

Jeff Rubenstein — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:01:49 +0000

Here are this week’s PlayStation links, presented one hour later than usual.
Please share with the group, putting any of your favorite links in the comments area below. And if you saw any good PlayStation-relevant Halloween costumes last night, go ahead and share those as well.

The PS Blog weekly reading list (Week of October 26, 2009)

Please Nominate PlayStation.Blog for the Mashable Open Web Awards!

Jeff Rubenstein — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:01:15 +0000

I love mashable things: potatoes, music, monsters. Especially with gravy.

Why bring this up? Because, as some of you more social-media-savvy readers might already know, Mashable has opened its 3rd annual Open Web Awards. If you don’t know what these awards are about, there’s an international voting competition where major online communities (blogs, Twitter, Facebook fanpages, etc.) duke it out for the top spot. I think the winner gets cookies or something.

First round in the competition is the nominations period (NOW – November 15th). The top 5 nominees in each category will move forward to the voting round (November 18th – December 13th). Winners for each category will be announced on December 15th.

Here’s where you come in: please help nominate PlayStation.Blog in the “Best Corporate Blog” category! PlayStation fans are undoubtedly the most vocal on the Internet, so show your PlayStation love and nominate the blog, and we’ll win this thing for sure.

Nominating is as simple as a few easy steps:

Go to http://mashable.com/owa/votes
Sign in with your Twitter or Facebook account
Once logged in, enter http://blog.us.playstation.com/ in the “Nominate Name or URL” section
Select the “Best Corporate Blog” category
Hit submit

…and you’re done! You can nominate once per day per category, so vote early and vote often. The nominations period ends on November 15th. Hopefully with your help, we’ll make it to the voting round. Then we can ask you for a bit more help :-)

We don’t ask for much, right?

PlayStation Around the Web: What We Read

Jeff Rubenstein — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:01:56 +0000

We’re not even through Holiday 09 (Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time hits Tuesday!), but we on the Blog team are starting to look towards 2010. For the new decade, we’re thinking the ol’ Blog could use a new look. We’ve got quite a few ideas for what we’d like to see in PSB 2.0. But since we’re here for you – anything you’d like to see us do next year?

In the meantime, please feel free to share your favorite links of the week.

PlayStation.Blog » Jeff Rubenstein

PlayStation Around the Web: What We Read

The PS Blog weekly reading list (Week of November 16, 2009)

Vote today for PlayStation’s 17 VGA Nominees

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Beta launches tomorrow!

Talking Super Street Fighter IV with Capcom’s Seth Killian

PlayStation Around the Web: What We Read

The PS Blog weekly reading list (Week of November 9, 2009)

PlayStation Eye Chat: Assassin’s Creed II

PlayStation Around the Web: What We Read

The PS Blog weekly reading list (Week of November 2, 2009)

PlayStation Around the Web: What We Read

The PS Blog weekly reading list (Week of October 26, 2009)

Please Nominate PlayStation.Blog for the Mashable Open Web Awards!

PlayStation Around the Web: What We Read

The PS Blog weekly reading list (Week of October 19, 2009)