The Velocity Racing League enters a new phase this Thursday with the Sodium 2 Nemesis Update. With the start of the Nemesis stage of the Velocity Racing League a new challenge awaits you in the form of a new track (complete with reverse mode) – Wasteland Spires!

New technological advances pioneered on Iridos have also paved the way for a new set of Velocity Racer upgrades, also releasing this week. New rocket boosters and hover engine upgrades will give you even more customizability options for your craft, allowing you to make the decisions that could see you sitting pretty at the top of the Sodium 2 leader boards.

Your hard-fought quest for bragging rights also gets a boost with the introduction of the Holo-rank system. When you enter the Launch Grid, your level will be displayed on the back of your avatar for all to see – wear it with pride! Also added are a range of smaller improvements to Sodium 2 based on your feedback such as the ability to quickly select new classes of vehicle in multiplayer, and removing chat bubbles during the race. Check out this huge update to Sodium 2 when it releases this Thursday!

The long-awaited Winter Vacation Villa personal space releases this week. Experience the frills and chills of winter in this ski chalet, nestled neatly in between a white-capped cliff and snow-dressed forest and overlooked by an icy cascading waterfall. Complete with its own outdoor Jacuzzi, indoor fireplace, and veranda bedroom, this is how the winter was meant to be spent! Don’t believe me? Take a tour by selecting the Winter Vacation Villa Personal Space Open House from the PlayStation Home Navigator and get up an up close and personal look at this luxurious abode. If you like what you see, you can easily add it to your collection for the low price of $4.99.

VeeMee is packing the shelves of the PlayStation Home Mall this week with its new line of Across All Arenas virtual items. Choose from a wide array of items from hit musical acts like The Wanted, White Lies and Florence + the Machine as well as designs from the popular clothing brand Star in the Hood. While you are in the Mall, be sure to pick up LOOT’s adorable schnauzer companions and the recently-released Deus Ex: Human Revolution costumes. Afterwards, head to the Central Plaza to receive an exclusive X-MEN: FIRST CLASS reward!

The PlayStation Home Community Theater receives an update this Thursday. This week, LittleBigPodcast covers the new Toy Story DLC for LBP2 while PSXextreme shares some Resistance 3 news and looks at upcoming HD game collections.

See you in Home!

Lockwood Publishing proudly presents the new Sodium Silicon Lounge personal space, available this Thursday. Set in a secret desert location, the Silicon Lounge is a visually-dazzling personal space that serves as a counterpart to the Sodium Hub. The Silicon Lounge personal space features:

• Ultra-cool after dark desert setting
• Colorful and stylish neon environment
• Animated interactive dance floor
• Integrated Lockwood Gift Machine
• Luxury underground hideaway snug
• Teleporters to Sodium2, SodiumOne and the Sodium Hub
• Animated raised stage area

The Silicon Lounge also comes in 3 excellent value bundles, so be sure to head to the Sodium store in the PlayStation Home Mall this Thursday to add this excellent personal space to your collection.

The PlayStation Home Mall will receive an update this week with the highly-anticipated Combat Armor Suits (as seen on last week’s post), Deus Ex costumes courtesy of our friends over at Square Enix, Lockwood’s Paintball items, and Konami’s new “gothic” collection. Add these awesome items to your collection when they hit the shelves this Thursday morning!

The PlayStation Home Community Theater receives yet another enormous update this Thursday. Watch as Hip Hop Gamer checks out the new Sony Bravia HX929 TV with its new blazing refresh rate. Next, PSTALENT.COM returns with the latest installment of The Spotlight. Afterwards, Replay with Doc takes a look at Payday: The Heist. Finally, HomeCast Rewind provides a special news report of the devastating zombie invasion in Central Plaza.

In case you haven’t heard, the next phase PlayStation Home’s evolution is coming this Fall. This renovation of PlayStation Home’s core experience integrates games, quests, community events and user-generated content, while providing players with additional navigation, shopping, socialization and entertainment options. You can read more about this exciting news HERE.

See you in Home!

Dead Island’s zombie epidemic has infested PlayStation Home for a gruesome limited-time game event. The latest in a series of on-going PlayStation Home “Total Game Integration” content offerings, this special event allows players to unlock an exclusive weapon for use in Dead Island by completing all 10 challenges in a PlayStation Home game based upon Deep Silver’s highly anticipated open-world horror action/adventure title. We’ve put together a list of challenges to help guide you through the undead mayhem as well as quick video that shows the gory and ghoulish action included in the Dead Island TGI event, available right now in PlayStation Home.

After you’ve taken the “Zombie Survivor Quiz” and unlocked Dead Island-inspired clothing items and snapped photos of yourself posing with the walking dead in the hilarious “Zombie Photo Shoot” game, approach the tiki bar in PlayStation Home’s Central Plaza to play the Dead Island-themed “Zombie Survivor Game.” Hack, slash, bludgeon, shoot, decapitate, and dismember swarms of zombies in a series of bloody, hyper-violent challenges that reward survivors with special Dead Island content – including the “Exploding Zombie Bait,” a mega-powerful weapon for use in Dead Island that can only be acquired by surviving the onslaught in PlayStation Home. Here’s a list of all the challenges (and what you’ll win for completing them):

• One Man Army – Survive all three waves of zombies in single player.
• Iron Will – Survive an entire wave in multiplayer without being downed.
• Nobody Left Behind – Survive an entire wave in multiplayer with all four players.

*Reward for completing challenges 1-3: Dead Island Deck Chair furniture item.

• “A” for Style – Kill zombies using every available finishing move in single or multiplayer.
• You Got Red on You – Stack up 100 kills in single or multiplayer.
• They Belong to Me Now – Cut off 200 limbs in single or multiplayer.

*Reward for completing challenges 4-6: Dead Island Suitcase furniture item.

• Handyman – Craft 10 different weapons.
• Here, Have Some Random Stuff – Craft and donate 10 items to the community.
• Smorgasbord of Stuff – Craft and donate every type of item to the community.

*Reward for completing challenges 7-9: Dead Island Electrical Machete furniture item.

• Completionist – Complete all nine challenges.

*Reward for completing challenge 10: Exploding Meat weapon for use in Dead Island.

After you football kick the head off of a twitching, dismantled corpse (yes, that’s a real finishing move) be sure to pre-order Dead Island directly from PlayStation Home’s Central Plaza and receive an exclusive “Exploding Zombie Outfit” for your avatar. Do you have what it takes to decimate the ranks of the undead menace or are you just another meal in waiting? Log in to PlayStation Home today and show the reanimated hordes of the walking dead what you are made of.

Lockwood is releasing a whole range of rockabilly wear so you can rock your PlayStation Home avatar in true 1950s style. Guys can sport the classic greaser look (complete with a cool leather jacket and slicked-back pompadour) or opt for a preppy style; the girls will have the choice of a sassy day look with tie-up blouses and cropped pants, or a breezy evening dress and sweeping over-the-shoulder hairstyle. Head to the Sodium store in the PlayStation Home Mall this Thursday to pick up these hot new rockabilly items; while you are at it, be sure to pick up the ever-popular Lockwood Gift Machine, which is being updated with a ton of new gift items this week!

In other news, the PlayStation Home Mall will receive an update this week with new Wild West items from nDreams, new Peeps from our friends at Heavy Water, and new hairstyles, companions, and furniture items – highlights of this week’s update can be seen in the latest installment of our Virtual Items Showcase video.

Of course, the PlayStation Home Community Theater receives a huge update this Thursday. Watch as GamerIndepth ShoutOuts returns with coverage from the recent LoadingReadyRun event. Next up, PS Nation offers up more of their E3 2011 coverage focusing on titles like Rage, Journey, and Uncharted 3. Finally, Urgent Fury gathers some intel on the soon-to-be-released Resistance 3 and then presents a special inFAMOUS 2 trophy tour.

Lastly, I wanted to take this moment to give you all a quick preview of some awesome costumes that will be released within a couple weeks in PlayStation Home. Behold – the CAS Combat Armor System! Watch this quick teaser trailer and then let us know your thoughts on the official PlayStation Home forums.

Phase two of the ongoing Dead Island total game integration will begin this Thursday. Log into PlayStation Home this week to take part in the ghoulish Zombie Photo Shoot game, where you can snap some pictures of yourself posing with the flesh-eating denizens of Central Plaza. And if you haven’t yet had the chance, be sure to take our Zombie Survivor Quiz to find out how well you will fare in the impending zombie apocalypse (all participants will unlock up to four Dead Island-inspired virtual items). While you are at it be sure to pick up the new Dead Island costumes – like the Decapitated Zombie, Zombie Policeman, and Zombie in a Bikini (ooh-la-la). We’d show you pictures, but they are too graphic to print here. Also, don’t forget to pre-order Dead Island directly from Central Plaza to receive the special Exploding Zombie suit for your PlayStation Home avatar. This ultra-limited item is not available anywhere else, so be sure to pre-order your copy of Dead Island from PlayStation Home today!

The PlayStation Home Mall will receive an update this week with new items from VeeMee (including the awesome TOVs animal items), Lockwood Publishing (be sure to check out the new Legends Baseball costumes), Konami (Gladiator costumes and Retro Collection clothing items) and new items in our Exclusives category (animated ruby tables, diamond sunglasses, and more). Head to the PlayStation Home Mall this Thursday and scoop up these hot new items!

Like clockwork, the PlayStation Home Community Theater receives yet another massive update this Thursday. Watch as Hip Hop Gamer interviews LightBox Interactive about the highly-anticipated Starhawk. Next, LittleBigPodcast crowns the winners of their Mind the Gap level-design contest. Afterwards, HomeCast Rewind looks at the new Sodium 2 reverse tracks, the ever-popular MechJet and B’Loons outfits, the new PlayStation Home bundles available on the PlayStation Store, and the one-and-only Homelings club. Finally, we present the season finale to Platinum’d. Will the nefarious BZBee win or will our hero D-Edge take home the grand prize? Find out this Thursday when the final “who will win?” nail-biter airs in the PlayStation Home Community Theater.

See you in Home!

The lead feature is Insomniac’s Resistance 3. The Chimera have really made a mess of planet Earth, but with a co-op partner, and the return of the weapon wheel loaded with some pretty cool editions, there just might be some hope left for mankind. Veronica Belmont travels back to an alternative mid-century USA to meet up with one Joseph Caplelli to preview his daunting adventure.

If you’re into the Mod-scene, as in cybernetic body Mod-ifications in the future, then you’ll enjoy Eidos’ prequel sequel Deus Ex: Human Revolution. From Montreal, the Qore team dives into this immersive world of the future to preview the ‘mod’ upgrades, variety of styles of play, and discuss creative decisions made by game director, Jean-Francois Dugas.

While in Montreal, Veronica also checks out the local geek hangouts such as the Biosphere and Foonzo in another installment of ‘On the Road with Qore.’ But, that story can’t compare to the holiday experience on the Island of Banoi – the setting for Dead Island.

Zombies in paradise prevail in this survival game and Qore learns about the character choices, story, and dynamic changes that occur as you try to survive another zombie nightmare.

And finally, annual Qore subscribers also receive an exclusive Resistance 3 theme as we begin to count down to the September 6th release date.

We hope you enjoy this month’s Qore.

“The trailer we released was mostly a blessing,” says Vincent Kummer, Dead Island’s brand manager at Deep Silver, “because when you put something out there you don’t expect to generate that much interest in the game, especially not for free. However, we are cautious that people might be expecting things from the game, based on that trailer, that simply aren’t there. We’re aiming to make it very clear, early on, what the game is actually about.”

…Which is why they’ve invited me to a warehouse in East London to crawl through underground passages, check out the game and eat pizza in a deckchair. Dead Island is a first-person action RPG set on a tropical holiday island during the zombie apocalypse. There’s a heavy reliance on melee combat using items found lying around and you can combine and upgrade weapons at workbenches. We’re told that guns will feature later on in the game.

There’s also four-player ‘drop in and drop out’ co-op, with different character classes to choose from. One of these is ‘The Tank,’ and this is the class demonstrated in our playthrough as we were introduced to Sam B, a rapper who wakes up after a night’s partying and discovers the undead epidemic first-hand.

“We have a mixture of gritty, emotional storytelling and over the top characters such as Sam B. He’s the one with the cheesy one-liners to the game but the others are far more serious,” explains Vincent. “You begin the game not knowing anything and you’re going to spend the first two hours figuring that out as people discover that you are immune to being turned into a zombie.”

Unlike other zombie games, and there have been many, what we have seen of Dead Island thus far has been set in bright sunlight. This makes me wonder what their approach to fear is.

“Our approach to fear is to have the player constantly worried for their life and that desperation that comes from having to survive using whatever you manage to pick up.”

“We’re saying that our environment is a paradise to die for and we’re building a full tropical island. It all starts at the beach hotel but you’re going to see jungle, city and some surprise locations that you won’t be expecting. There are also outdoor and indoor locations that are totally different and we manipulate the weather in certain ways to add a new level of fear.”

In the good old days, games used to take the time to explain how their zombies come into existence, like Resident Evil and the T-Virus; but, given that they are so ubiquitous these days, hardly anyone seems to bother. I finished by asking Victor how Dead Island’s neck-munchers came to be.

“Zombies are obviously a part of our story and there is of course going to be background to that – it’s not like they’re just going to fall from the heavens. There are so many zombies out there in different media and different ways to use zombies as a metaphor for some failing of human beings. I’ve always liked to think of them as humans reverted to their basic primal instincts, with no good left in there at all.”

I’ll be keeping an eye on Dead Island and will be inviting the developer, Techland, to come on the blog to talk about the four-player co-op, so look out for that.