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December 18th PlayStation Plus Update

Anomaly Warzone Earth (PS3)

Free for Plus members

Anomaly Warzone Earth is an extraordinary mixture of action and strategy in a reversed tower defense formula. Call it tower offense, if that’s a bit easier. The game tasks you with saving a near-future Earth from an alien onslaught. The invaders have captured world’s major cities, building huge turrets that destroy everything in their path. It’s up to you to lead an armor squad through the streets of cities like Baghdad and Tokyo, planning the route and strategically choosing which units to deploy in order to crush the opposition. Download it today and experience this fantastic twist on strategy gaming.

Holiday Essentials Sale

Various discounts for Plus members

You may have seen the announcement already, but this week marks the first week of the PSN Holiday Sale! You can check out the full announcement here, but here’s the breakdown of all the games that you’ll be able to get an amazing sale price on for this week:

SEGA Holiday Sale

Various discounts for Plus members

Our friends at SEGA are also bringing more great games to all of PSN at some truly great prices to celebrate the holidays as well. Just like the PSN Holiday Sale, all PSN gamers get to enjoy some price breaks here, but Plus members get the best deals on the following content:

That’s it for this week’s update, and remember that the above updates will be in effect once the PlayStation Store updates tomorrow. See you next week for more on PlayStation Plus!

While we definitely want you to let us know your thoughts in the comments below, make sure you’re digging in to the PlayStation Community Forums in the Plus space where you’ll find great new information and perspectives from your fellow gamer. Enjoy the update, and see you in the comments.

Hello everyone, Paweł Miechowski from 11 bit studios here to tell you about our original strategy game Anomaly: Warzone Earth, which is due on PlayStation Network before the end of summer.

Anomaly is truly… an anomaly. It’s a strategy game perfectly suited for console gaming. Let me explain how that works. In the near future, an alien spaceship crashes on Earth and splits into two separate parts. One falls to Baghdad, while the other lands in Tokyo. A huge dome emerges above each site, separating the cities from the outside world. No one knows what’s going on inside, so the domes become known as Anomalies.

You play as the Commander, sent on a mission to investigate what’s happened at the Baghdad Anomaly. Once inside, you discover alien war machines destroying everything in their path.

Essentially, Anomaly: Warzone Earth is a “tower offense” game, tipping the tower defense genre on its head. Rather than managing units to fight off invading forces, you take control of the attackers, creating and controlling your armored troops. The game will be familiar to fans of the top-down RTS genre, but it also adds its own unique features, like a Tactical View where you plan for upcoming assaults.

To make a strategy game work well on console, we’ve put you — the Commander — straight into the thick of the conflict to emphasize the action element. You control him directly, supporting the squad in battle with a variety of abilities. For example, Repair lets you heal units, while Smoke Screen lays down cover for them.

One really cool feature in the PS3 version is an exclusive local co-op mode which allows two Commanders to support each other in battle. One is responsible for controlling the armor units while the other plans the strategy. Both get into the action and are able to boost their abilities in the battle. This new feature increases the pace of the game, making it even more frantic.

We hope to share the price and release date for Anomaly: Warzone Earth soon — stay with us on Facebook and Twitter for more details as they are released.