Kratos has finally come to the PS3! Just in time for the holidays, fans can now enjoy the award-winning God of War and God of War II in stunning HD. To give you a refresher on specifics, God of War Collection includes both critically acclaimed games remastered in full HD resolution complete with 2X anti-aliased graphics running at 60 frames per second — all on a single Blu-ray disc. And if this ultra smooth gameplay wasn’t enough, we’ve also added PlayStation Network (PSN) trophy support to the franchise for the first time (included for both games).

Our team did an exceptional job supporting the release of God of War Collection while at the same time tending their work on God of War III. It’s inspirational for us to see the critical acclaim and the overall positive reception we’re receiving for this package. We take pride in everything we do and it’s cool to see that our fans appreciate the effort. An Olympic-sized thank you goes out to the entire Santa Monica Studio, as well as Bluepoint Games, for this momentous accomplishment. With the God of War III launch getting closer everyday, we’re hoping the God of War Collection will get you fired up to reconnect with Kratos!

Here’s another look at our trailer, as well as some of the reviews that have hit so far. In the end there will be only chaos!

God of War Collection Reviews

• IGN
• 1UP
• GamePro
• Examiner
• PlaystationLifestyle

Joining me via PlayStation Eye is developer Bluepoint Games President Andy O’Neil and CTO Marco Thrush, along with Santa Monica Studios Director of Technology Tim Moss. The trio dishes over five brand-new minutes of HD footage, revealing some great info on the development of God of War Collection and how they made the magic happen.

Erin English here with this week’s SingStore update.

This week’s update includes a special Duran Duran song pack featuring five chart-topping tracks from the 80’s super group such as “Hungry Like The Wolf,” “Ordinary World” and “Girls On Film.”

Also included in the update are some great new tracks from Everclear including “Everything to Everyone” and “Santa Monica” as well as “Holiday” and “Bonkers” courtesy of the excellent Mr. Dizzee Rascal.

In addition to new songs, there will also be a brand new download available from the ‘Extras’ section of the SingStore on Thursday. The Wallpaper Creator lets you create your very own in-game wallpapers using images from your hard drive, plus you can change the menu colors and music to suit your style. You can download the Wallpaper Creator for $2.99. Existing SingStar wallpapers are now available for $.75.

Enjoy!

Duran Duran Song Pack

• Hungry Like The Wolf
• Rio
• Ordinary World
• Save A Prayer
• Girls On Film

In English

• Slice of Heaven – Dave Dobbyn
• Hungry For Love – Di-rect
• Holiday – Dizzee Rascal
• Bonkers – Dizzee Rascal
• Everything To Everyone – Everclear
• Santa Monica – Everclear
• Our Lips Are Sealed – Fun Boy Three
• Belly Up – Maria Mena
• Walk On Water – Milk Inc
• Whisper – Milk Inc
• Are You The One I’ve Been Waiting For? – Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
• I Am The Resurrection – The Stone Roses

In Spanish

• Amores De Barra – Ella Baila Sola

And don’t forget, the God of War Collection will also include a PSN voucher code for the God of War III E3 2009 Demo. So don’t miss your chance to check out God of War III before it hits store shelves in March 2010.

Erin English here with this week’s SingStore update.

The SingStore update this week features new tracks to expand your song libraries with, including “Cotton Eye Joe” by Rednex, “You’re The Voice” by John Farnham and “You Were Right” by Badly Drawn Boy.

Best,
Erin

In English

• Badly Drawn Boy – “You Were Right”
• John Farnham – “You’re The Voice”
• Rednex – “Cotton Eye Joe”
• Superfamily – “I Could Be A Winner”
• The Stone Roses – “I Wanna Be Adored”

In Spanish

• Héroes del Silencio – “La Herida”

In French

• Alain Souchon – “L’Amour À La Machine”

To help build excitement for the November 3 launch, GamesTrailers.com has provided an exclusive first look at the new trailer for Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier. Check it out!

My name is Ronnie and I am the Community Manager here at 2K Sports. Many of you know me as Ronnie2K. I am the guy that gets to take part in the ridiculous stunts that we pull off here at 2K Sports. I attend all the athlete motion capture sessions (my buddy Andre Iguodala), put on events for fans across the country (Alex Ovechkin greeting fans from a Zamboni in the heart of Manhattan), interview the brightest stars that represent our company (shout out to James White, expecting a big year out of you sir!), and bring together and distribute the most exclusive 2K Sports swag. Being a huge basketball player in my time and getting to work for the best NBA simulation on this planet is truly out of this world. Do I really get paid for this stuff? But don’t get me wrong, I am the guy that’s just like any of you: a huge fan of our video games and our company and I want to give you guys a voice here at 2K Sports. Feel free at anytime to drop me a line, ask a question, or challenge me to a game. I am a pretty challenging NBA 2K10 match-up if I do say so myself.

I wanted to discuss why NBA 2K10 is going to be the most realistic, simulation basketball experience to date. Our team has added all-new gameplay components, out-of-this-world graphics, even more realistic Signature Style animations, all-new presentation elements, and an unrivalled online system. The demo for PlayStation 3 will be out October 8th 15th. It will feature a one quarter match-up between last year’s NBA Finals opponents: pitting the Orlando Magic at the Los Angeles Lakers.

You will get four of the most intense game play minutes to become familiar with the game and get a taste of why NBA 2K10 will be unrivaled in the basketball arena. It still amazes me how all ten of the players on the court match their real life counterparts, both physically and in their tendencies. I probably shouldn’t be surprised after watching all the development team’s motion capture efforts from the past few months. It is no surprise that the game’s artificial intelligence is more intelligent than ever and will give you the freedom to have complete control of the actual outcome and actions of your player and match-up. This season you won’t just play the NBA, you’ll TAKE OVER.

I also want to take the opportunity to explain modes that you won’t see in the demo, but are among the finest features within the full game that hits stores everywhere October 6th. My favorite one is the new NBA Today integration. My biggest gripe over the years is that when it came to commentary, presentation, and overlays, a regular exhibition game was happening in a vacuum. There was nothing “real” about it. It was a fantasy matchup that had no real-world context and no impact. I had the pleasure of meeting both Kevin Harlan and Clark Kellogg and talked to them about this issue. It amazed me how deep their knowledge of the game was and how we didn’t capture that fully before. They could talk about what was happening in that particular game and they could talk about what happened last season. That was pretty much it.

Now that your game and the NBA are in sync, the door is thrown open for dynamic commentary that’s based on what’s really happening in the real NBA. During the action, the play-by-play commentary is interspersed with real-life facts that touch on how the players and teams are doing during the season and how they played in their last outing. We spent hours recording thousands of lines of audio with Kevin & Clark, so that in game they can discuss a team’s previous real life win or loss, and what the determining factors were in that game. The commentary and presentation will constantly be changing throughout the season to coincide with the real league and transition from pre-season to regular season, and finally, to the postseason based on what is happening in real life.

Obviously with no previous game context going into the demo game, there is no audio in the demo, but something that you should look for in the full version of NBA 2K10 that will bring your experience to a new level. Another great mode is My Player. You will get to build a budding NBA player and make a ton of decisions in his career that will influence him in his transformation to potential star. You will get to create and customize your player, both in terms of looks and play style, put him through intense drills to increase his skills and attributes, and play in games where he must fit within the team flow, while completing both Offensive and Defensive objectives and achieving career milestones. Doing so will put him on course to becoming the next icon in the NBA. In brief, My Player brings role-playing to basketball and allows you to create any type of player at any position. Should be great fun to see what you guys come up with!

I am looking forward to how impressive I can make my 6’7” Athletic Small Forward that I built in the pre-release NBA 2K10: Draft Combine. I hope many of you got an early start on your career by grabbing the Draft Combine SKU. You will only get to take part in the NBA Draft if you work hard and go through the Combine. It’s available to download from the PlayStation Store if you want that early boost. I am partial to those two features because a career mode and realistic commentary/presentation have been my biggest gripes over my ten years playing NBA 2K basketball, but there are so many more cool features I didn’t even get into in NBA 2K10. Feel free to drop a question if you have one below. But grab the demo on October 8th 15th and make sure to get your copy of NBA 2K10!

- Ronnie

Hi and welcome to what is sadly going to be my last SingStore update post for you guys across the big pond.

My lovely colleagues at SCEA will be updating you about everything SingStar and SingStore from now onwards, which is great because they are actually not finishing work when you get up so responses will be much faster than me having to catch up with you the next day in London! Exciting news all around!

Moving on to this week’s update, which boasts great tracks from the likes of Kool & the Gang, Celine Dion, Cheap Trick and The Specials. My personal favorite however will have to be ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds because it’s just brilliant and featured in the equally brilliant movie ‘The Breakfast Club’.

That’s it from me. Thanks for all your support on here over past few months, I’ll miss y’all. And should you really have the urge to get in contact with me again, you can always stop by on the EU Blog to say ‘Hi’.

Keep on singin’,

Nina x

PS: I would still love a ‘Save Nina’ T-Shirt :-)

In English

• Blind – “Break Away”
• Sanne Salomonsen – “Everybody’s Eyes On You”
• 1990s – “You’re Supposed To Be My Friend”
• Aleksander With – “A Little Too Perfect”
• Badly Drawn Boy – “Once Around The Block”
• Celine Dion – “Love Can Move Mountains”
• Cheap Trick – “The Flame”
• Kajagoogoo – “Too Shy”
• Kool And The Gang – “Ladies Night”
• Koop Arponen – “Every Song I Hear”
• Spandau Ballet – “Lifeline”
• Superfamily – “The Radio Has Expressed Concerns About What You Did Last Night”
• The Specials – “Ghost Town”
• Vampire Weekend – “A Punk”
• Senses Fail – “Can’t be Saved”
• Fools Garden – “Lemon Tree”
• Simple Minds – “Don’t You Forget About Me”
• Lovin’ Spoonful – “Summer In The City”
• Chris Brown – “With You”
• Neverstore – “Rejected All Along”

Some great tracks this week from Blondie with ‘Rapture’, Spandau Ballet’s ‘Through The Barricades’ and ‘Here Comes your Man’ by The Pixies. Please check out the whole list of tracks and artists below.

The SongPack this week comes courtesy of the amazingly talented Dizzee Rascal including ‘Dance Wiv Me’, ‘Fix Up, Look Sharp’ and his latest hit single with Armand van Helden, ‘Bonkers’.

To everybody who downloaded the Coldplay 2 SongPack: If you could delete and re-download it, the medley should definitely be working now! Sorry for the delay with fixing this one.

Also a big thanks to Erin for filling in for me two weeks ago!

Keep on singing and see you soon,

Nina x

In English

• Eoghan Quigg — “28,000 Friends”
• The Libertines — “Can’t Stand Me Now”
• Pixies — “Here Comes Your Man”
• The Sounds — “Painted by Numbers”
• Friendly Fires — “Paris”
• Blondie — “Rapture”
• September — “Satellites”
• Spandau Ballet — “Through the Barricades”
• I’m From Barcelona — “We’re From Barcelona”

In Spanish

• Sidonie Los Olvidados

SongPack

• Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome — “Dance Wiv Me,” “Flex,” and “Holiday”
• Armand van Helden – “Bonkers,” and ” Fix Up, Look Sharp”