But in playing Hustle Kings for NGP, I was struck by how much more satisfying the pool hall action becomes with the integration of touchscreen controls. After choosing my game type and table, I used a combo of touch- and analog stick-controls to set my shot using a customizable guide-line. Then I pulled the cue stick back with my index finger on the screen and fired. The result: a straight, solid shot with a satisfying “clack!” I did it again and again. Sure, you can use the analog stick to shoot, but touch is the way to go with the NGP version of Hustle Kings. It makes the game more immersive, and, dare I say, a lot more fun.

The difficulty of taking a shot is widely variable. You can set a guide that will tell you exactly where your ball will go, or just eyeball it. Cueing methods vary from a pinball-like pull-and-release motion to the traditional poolhall motion. But Hustle Kings NGP takes advantage of more than just the NGP’s touch screen. On the PS3 you can chalk your cue by shaking the DualShock 3. Here you can apply chalk by “rubbing the cue” via the backtouch panel. Instead of selecting a pre-made avatar, you can snap a photo of yourself using the built-in camera. Other functionality abounds: You can use your NGP’s screen as a window into the pool hall by rotating around the ball with the six axis motion sensing, and chat in-game using the NGP’s built-in microphone.

Things get even more creative on the multiplayer side. Yes, you can compete live via Wifi against other NGP-equipped players. Hustle Kings also features interoperable cross-play with the PS3 version of the game, ensuring plenty of built-in competition on day one. None of your friends online right now? Here’s something I think you’ll see a lot of moving forward: asynchronous multiplayer. You take your shots, then the NGP messages your friend. When they pick up the game next, they view your last turn, then take their shots. It’s kind of like playing via text message, or Words With Friends on a smartphone.

I was also informed that all DLC presently available for Hustle Kings PS3 (like the ever-popular snooker) will be made available on NGP as well. I thought I knew what to expect before going hands-on with Hustle Kings NGP, but I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. A new interface can make a big difference.

When PlayStation Move was first publicly announced, we noticed that many of you suggested that Hustle Kings would be a game to make the most of this new control method.

It was a sentiment everyone on the team agreed with, and even as we started the development process, we could see from early tests that it would elevate the virtual pool experience to a whole new level. PlayStation Move enables you to take shots using a real-life cueing action, which feels natural and fun! There have been some heated hustle matches in the office recently, resulting in some very amusing forfeits. Suffice to say, the added realism Move provides is immense and we can’t wait to hear what you all think!

To continue our assault on your senses, I’m delighted to say that Hustle Kings now supports stereoscopic 3D, and while the visuals of the game have often been praised, 3D has taken the graphics and sense of immersion to a whole new level. It feels like you can reach out and pick up a ball! When combined with the PlayStation Move, the experience is pretty incredible.

Since launching Hustle Kings several months ago, we have been astounded by the ongoing support that we’ve received from the PlayStation community. After carefully listening to your feedback we have worked hard to provide tweaks and improvements, along with some very cool new game content. Here’s a quick list of the goodies we have coming up for you:

AVAILABLE VIA FREE TITLE UPDATE THIS WEEK ON PSN:

• PlayStation Move and Stereoscopic 3D support

COMING VERY SOON TO THE PLAYSTATION STORE:

• Carom & U.K. Billiards Pack
• Ball & Cue Pack
• Trickshot Pack

As a closing note, I’d just like to say a big thanks from myself and the rest of the team – Hustle Kings wouldn’t be the game it is without your contributions and feedback. Feel free to let us know what you think by e-mail, or just keep up to date with VooFoo and Hustle Kings via our blog and Twitter page!

As you can see the folks at VooFoo are really excited about your huge support and great response to their game and are working hard to continue supporting it with a lot of very cool content! I’ll be watching below for any questions, and in the meantime, here are a few new screens from the upcoming “Carom and U.K. Billiards Pack.”

Thanks!

Firstly, on May 19th a new patch will be made available which contains the following features and changes:

• Improved Breaking! Instead of the rack being perfectly spaced every time, a very slight variance has been introduced between the balls which causes almost every break to be different.
• You can now replay the shots that are played in attract mode.
• You’ll see more stats during loading screens.
• Game options can be modified in online rooms.
• You can watch other people’s matches in the all new Spectator Mode!
• Plus a new loading icon, viewing player’s profiles during an online match, and more.

But that’s not all, there is a brand new chalk coming to the in-game store: The Second Sight chalk allows you to see the path of an additional ball… really helpful on those tough trickshots and plants.

Finally (and the best bit in my opinion) is that the Hustle Kings Snooker Pack will be launched for PS3 on June 8th. Included in this great pack is a brand new environment, new ball set, with the full Snooker rules and scoring. As well as traditional Snooker, if you get this pack you will also get an offline tournament mode, more music, and a brand new game mode called “Snooker6” where there are only 6 red balls allowing for a much quicker game.

The Snooker Pack will be available for $2.99 and the full game of Hustle Kings is required prior to installing the Snooker Pack. Once you get the Snooker Pack there will also be a batch of new trophies for you to try and unlock. To help with this we have included a free pack of Eagle Eye chalk if you purchase the Snooker pack! Overall I have really enjoyed the time I have spent playing snooker and can’t wait to get online to pit my skills against the rest of the community!

Since the Snooker game type of billiards isn’t quite as popular here in the US, I wanted to give a very brief overview into the game. May I present, The Brief Intro into the World of Snooker!

Snooker is a completely different style of game from how a game of pool is traditionally thought of in the US. It has different balls placed in a new layout, is played on a different table, and the games last much longer. Snooker tables are much bigger (approximately 6ft by 12ft) and they have rounded pocket corners.

Each colored ball has a specific point value. Red (1 point), Yellow (2 points), Green (3 points), Brown (4 points), Blue (5 points), Pink (6 points), Black (7 points).

The ball placement is as shown in the following image:

How to score points in Snooker:
The player must first pocket a red ball for one point and the ball is then left off the table. Then you must pocket a ball colored other then red. The point value of that colored ball is awarded to you and then that ball is placed back on the table at its original placement point. Then you pocket a red ball and alternate pocketing between the two groups of colors (Reds and all the others) until all the red balls are pocketed. Now you must pocket the remaining balls in their point order so, Yellow followed by Green, Brown, Blue, Pink and finally Black. When you have more points than there are left on the table you can then call that frame.

In an ideal world with a perfectly skilled player (aka. someone besides myself) you would pocket a red followed by the black ball and continue that until all the red balls are off the table. That would give you 8 points each cycle (1 point for the red plus 7 for the Black).

Fouls:
The minimum penalty is always four points. So should you scratch the cue ball, then you concede 4 points to the other player. If you pocket a ball of the wrong color you concede at minimum four points to the other player. If you incorrectly pocket a ball with a point value greater than four then you concede the point value of that ball to the other player instead of the minimum four points. If you strike a ball of the wrong color first and pocket a different colored ball, you then concede the minimum penalty or the value of that ball.

That in a nutshell is the game of Snooker. It’s an extremely challenging type of game style in billiards. Although it is really rewarding to play due to the increased amount of strategy needed to play the game. A “give-away” hint for you… don’t hit a non-red ball if you are breaking. I learned that one the hard way and gave away 6 points to my opponent for striking the pink ball my first time playing. Oops.

We hope you enjoy the new features as much as we do and we’ll see you online!

• General improvements to game stability
• In-game Voice Chat
• In-game Video Chat
• Game Launching from PlayStation Home
• More stats for the loading screens
• The sound effect for the chalk has been turned down
• Chalk can now be used by pressing the R3 button as well as shaking your SIXAXIS
• Free Play mode
• Blue chalk only online rooms
• Online: Opponents are now allowed to change view while watching the player at the table
• Online: The player that breaks is now randomly chosen
• A new, “minimal” aim line
• Dampening effect on the pockets, to stop accurate high powered shots from always bouncing out of the pockets
• Small adjustments to the fine tune aiming to make it easier to use

Soon after this update is out and you’ve had a chance to experience it all, we have more features coming via the PSN Store. First up will be the Time Saver Pack which is aimed at the Hustle Kings player who wants to experience everything the game has to offer, but doesn’t have the time to unlock all the items. This pack unlocks all the cues, avatars, balls, and the unlock packs from the in-game Hustle Kings Store.

If that weren’t enough, we’ve then got not one, but two awesome freebies to give away! Two bizarre and challenging Crazy Tables Packs are heading your way soon, adding a whole new dimension to your game when you want a fun challenge aside from regular pool. To whet your appetite check out these pics of the tables.

Crazy Tables are coming soon and they’ll be absolutely free! We’re already hard at work on even more exciting content for Hustle Kings for release later this year. If you haven’t already downloaded Hustle Kings, be sure to grab it today and start enjoying first-ever billiards simulator made exclusively for the PlayStation 3.

But Hustle Kings isn’t just a straight sim. VooFoo and Sony have packed it full of fun and unique features and stimulating game modes. Features such as uploading your best shots to YouTube, XMB music so that you control the jukebox, and game modes such as Career, Tournament, Trick Shot modes, and even online and local Tournaments!

And, of course, for all you trophy fans out there, we’ve got something special for you! There’s been a lot of discussion internally about how we can do something a little different with the trophy system, and we finally decided to make one of the silver trophies stand out from the rest of the bunch. This trophy can only be unlocked by playing online and beating someone else who already has it. Sounds simple enough, right? The catch is that the developers are the only ones who will start with it, and that means the only way to get it is by beating them at their own game!

So for all you pool fans out there, the wait is almost over! Stop by the PlayStation Store this Thursday and grab a copy for yourself. You won’t be disappointed!

Everyone who has seen and played Hustle Kings so far has been incredibly impressed, and one of the things that many people have commented on is how brilliantly the AI plays. We have such a comprehensive selection of online and multiplayer game modes in Hustle Kings, I was keen to ensure that our single player career campaign was just as challenging and enjoyable. I initially sat down and played a lot of other pool and snooker games, and it really struck me as to how tiresome and predictable the AI generally was. I found myself wanting to skip past the shots played by my computer controlled opponent as they just weren’t fun to watch. Hustle Kings needed something different, I thought, we needed to make our AI both challenging and entertaining.

Pool, and snooker probably even more so, are not games simply about potting balls. When lining up to pot a ball, you ideally want to leave the cue ball in a position that makes your next shot easier. Conversely, if you’re not able to pot a ball, you want to make the next shot difficult for your opponent, and in games such as Killer, this is even more important because the next shot will always be taken by your opponent. When a computer controlled opponent is lining up its shot in Hustle Kings, it can read where all the possible pots are within an instant, but instead of always opting for the easiest and most obvious shot, it will consider the alternatives, and how different shots will affect the table.

In Hustle Kings, bonus credits are also awarded for skillful shots that involve swerves or jumps, and pots that include plants or banks, so the AI is always trying to look for the best shot possible, to leave the cue ball in the best possible position, and earn as many bonus credits as possible along the way. But this is only the beginning. At the top end of our difficulty scale we are able to entice it to go much further, to attempt crazy and seemingly impossible shots. Try leaving the insane-level AI tight up against a cushion, awkwardly snookered on its only remaining ball, with no possible path of escape. Somehow, more often than not, it will manage an escape. It’s quite a sight to see the AI smash the cue-ball into the jaw of a pocket so hard that it bounces up along the rail, rolls past the obstructing balls, spins back down onto the table, pots the remaining ball and leaves itself perfectly positioned on the black – and you know that it was all planned. Some AI opponents will even show off and purposely leave themselves in these tricky situations, only to make the next shot appear just as trivial as the one before it.

There’s no cheating here – the AI is in no way defying the laws of physics and every single shot the AI pulls off is one that any human player could also pull off. When watching the AI play Hustle Kings, you get to see how much spin and power is being applied – trying the same shot yourself will yield exactly the same result.

There is one problem with this AI though: as it stands, it’s pretty unbeatable. It might be entertaining to watch, but if you can’t beat it, then where’s the fun in that? Thankfully we have a variety of AI characters in Hustle Kings, at various skill levels, all set to play in different ways. Some make occasional mistakes, others are fiendishly difficult, but whether you’re a beginner or an expert pool player, you’ll find a suitable opponent for an enjoyable game. Once you’ve conquered the easy, difficult and expert level career modes, you get to play against the incredibly challenging insane-level AI. Even the most hardcore pool players will have a tough time completing the insane career mode!

Keep your eyes peeled for more Hustle Kings news coming your way soon.

But I can honestly say that Hustle Kings gets it completely right! I wasn’t yet assigned to the project when a couple of my colleagues and I got our hands on it here around the office. I was initially quite skeptical given my history of video billiard disappointments, thinking it was going to be just another pool game, but after hitting a few shots I was sold. The amount of ball control is simply astounding, giving the player any and every shot option in the book…from masse shots to subtle swerves and tricky English, you can do anything to the cue ball in Hustle Kings that you can do around a real table. So the realism was there, but how would the game fare for a more casual gamer? Turns out everyone around the office, from the hardcore to the weekend warrior, to people I’ve rarely seen play games, found something to absolutely love about Hustle Kings.

I’ll save elaboration on all the game modes and technical ins and outs now. I can assure you there’s A TON of stuff in Hustle Kings that we’ll be announcing in the next few months. In the meantime, please visit our game details page, and check out the what the PlayStation.Blog.Europe has to say about it. And continue checking back here on the PlayStation Blog for the latest updates on Hustle Kings.

But if you haven’t had the chance, we’ve snagged a few of our favorites for you here. Enjoy!

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