I’m Neall Jones, Lead Designer for the next great addition to the PS Vita AR games, PulzAR.

So, what’s PulzAR all about then? Well the Earth is in grave danger, somewhere just beyond our planet’s outer atmosphere five giant asteroids are heading on a deadly collision course with the planet. It’s up to you, the player, to command a network of laser powered rockets to try and blast the asteroids into a harmless meteor shower before they hit the Earth. The first Play Card placed is used as the Arena card and draws the level out, then the puzzles use up to 5 Play Cards to place the three types of objects in the game; Reflectors, Splitters and Color Filters. There have been other laser and light based games before, but none of them have let you see the game world and play it on your table top, something that can only be done with the PS Vita. The original iteration of the puzzles just used Reflectors with the Splitters and Color Filters part of the Arena; we expanded that to allow the other objects to be placed by the player too.

Moving the PS Vita around the play area will let you visualize the world in true 3D, you may see a solution you previously hadn’t thought of. Tilt the PS Vita up to the sky to view the asteroids bearing down on you. We hope you enjoy PulzAR and manage to solve all of the puzzles. If you need to get the AR Play Cards or want create a huge arena to play in (by scaling up the cards) then you can download them from here.

Table Top Tanks – Toy Tanks Pack

We’re also happy to announce the brand new DLC for Table Top Tanks – the “Toy Tank Pack.” For only $0.99, players can outfit their tanks and jets with a more whimsical, toy-inspired look – perfect for fooling your opponents into underestimating your power before you seize victory on the battlefield!

We hope you’re enjoying blasting your friends in the addictive Ad-Hoc battle mode too! It’s a wild multiplayer experience that is intensely fun.

That’s all for now, but stay tuned as we’ll have more announcements in the near future regarding AR Play, DLC, and much more.

We are excited to announce a captivating new addition to the Augmented Reality (AR) Play line-up next month with the release of PulzAR. PulzAR is a mind boggling, potentially Earth-shattering puzzle game that turns nearly any flat surface into an epic battle against time and a looming celestial event with the use of your AR Play cards.

You see, in PulzAR, the Earth is in grave danger. Somewhere just beyond our planet’s outer atmosphere, a series of colossal asteroids are spinning ever closer on a deadly collision course to wipe out humankind. So far, all attempts to divert their trajectory have failed. Now, in mankind’s desperate last stand against certain catastrophe, it’s up to you to command a network of explosive rockets and try to blast the asteroids into a harmless meteor shower before they reach Earth.

Using precision laser technology, you have only a limited time to program the guidance system using a series of reflectors, splitters, and filters that activate the nodes that will launch the rockets towards their targets. Once launched, you are able to follow the rocket, looking up with your PS Vita as it reaches beyond the atmosphere and into the vastness of space with only one purpose… to destroy some serious space rock! The fate of planet Earth rests with you. Good luck!

Today, Sony Santa Monica Sr. Manager Dave Thach returns with two new augmented reality games, Fireworks and Cliff Diving. Both are part of the Augmented Reality Suite coming exclusively to PS Vita on Feb 22nd on PSN for free. Also, packaged with your PS Vita will be six AR cards which will also work with Reality Fighters, and other great AR experiences.

Fireworks transforms the world around you into a firework display where you’ll literally touch the apex of the firework for multipliers, combos and points. Cliff Diving introduces you to diver Dave, where you’ll have him diving off your coffee table into a virtual body of water.

Before you check out this video, make sure you watch our very first tour with Table Soccer which completes the AR Suite on PS Vita.

Instead of telling you more, I’ll let Dave Thach show you!

Backstage, Sony Santa Monica Sr. Manager Dave Thach dealt the AR Play Cards on a table, and a soccer pitch sprung to life through the window of the PS Vita’s luscious OLED display. The actual game is kind of like a turn-based soccer match – it reminded me of a 2012 version of paper football. But enough talk, let’s see it in action:

Bonus points if you spotted the Men in Black 3 alien who walked through the frame. Vegas is weird.

Table Soccer is just one of the augmented-reality games you’ll be able to play for free if you pick up a new PS Vita on February 22nd. We’ll highlight more closer to launch right here on the PlayStation.Blog.

Augmented reality is a concept that’s starting to get a lot of buzz so we wanted to take a minute to break down our history with the technology and provide a sneak peak at what could be next. There’s a popular misconception that augmented reality is just “kid’s stuff,” but with more than eight years of experience under our belt, we’ve found there’s a wide variety of compelling and cool AR experiences that everyone can enjoy. We spoke to some of our resident experts from Sony Computer Entertainment R&D and Product Development to get their take on augmented reality through our platforms.

Back in 2003, when smartphones, tablet PCs, and even decent webcams were far from mainstream, we launched EyeToy on PlayStation 2, which included our first foray into augmented reality. Back then it was the only way to see yourself on-screen interacting with virtual objects in real-time. We then brought that unique experience to a portable level on PSP. With games such as Invizimals or EyePet , mobility was a key element as the PSP camera turned the entire world around you into a game.

PlayStation 3 gave us a significant leap in image processing and, coupled with PlayStation Eye, enabled AR games such as The Eye of Judgment. Last year’s launch of PlayStation Move on PS3 brought titles like EyePet and Start the Party, which added ultra-precise movement recognition to the augmented reality experience, enabling you to interact with virtual objects on-screen using the PS Move motion controller.

We’re no stranger to innovation and every so often we’re able to create an experience that changes the way you think about games. At this year’s Game Developers Conference , we showed off demos of augmented reality on NGP—our Next Generation Portable device . NGP builds on our experience with augmented reality over the years with PlayStation 2/EyeToy, PSP, and PS3/PlayStation Move. With front and rear cameras that combine real-time images of you and your environment, a brilliant 5-inch multi-touch OLED screen and rear multi-touch pad, internal motion sensors, and dual analog sticks, NGP offers new ways to interact that will change the way you think about augmented reality games… and possibly even change the way you think about reality.

What do you think about augmented reality? Do you have an idea for the next killer app for augmented reality? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

]]> http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/08/from-eyetoy-to-ngp-playstations-augmented-reality-legacy-2/feed/ 89 http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/04/AG-Lead-Image1.jpg 4.63Sr. PR Manager, SCEA 89 5