With the holiday shopping season counting down, Christina Lee takes a look at some of the must-have custom PlayStation 3 peripherals perfect for gift giving (to yourself). From the new official Media/ Blu-ray Disc Remote Control to the much talked about PlayStation 3D Display, use today’s show to pass along any last minute shopping hints to the ones you love.

This edition also takes a look at two new full game downloads available from the PlayStation Store with Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit and Dragon Age II. Both, now part of the growing line up of full games on the store. Also covered, for Battlefield 3 fans, don’t miss the Return to Karkand Expansion Pack coming later today (first on PS3) and a preview of action/puzzle/platformer fairytale of Trine 2.

The Top 10 features holiday songs from Music Unlimited and new videos feature big summer releases The Hangover Part 2 and Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford playing Cowboys & Aliens.

Remember to watch PULSE right from the “What’s New” section under the PlayStation Network icon on your PS3 later today when the PlayStation Store updates.

December’s episode of Qore features highly anticipated games that span a wide range of video game genres. From the extensive new playground that is LittleBigPlanet 2 to strategic dismemberment of Dead Space 2, December’s Episode 31 is stuffed with hit titles for your holiday enjoyment presented in full 720p.

Spanning the Globe

An extensive tour of LittleBigPlanet 2 leads off Episode 31. The developers at Media Molecule have filled the LBP2 sandbox full of lots of sweet new toys and Veronica takes a close up look at several of our favorites. Watch. Enjoy. Repeat.

Freaking Veronica

Veronica is so not a fan of survival horror. That’s why the Qore team sent her to cover Dead Space 2 because nothing is more fun than watching your host get creeped out by just the idea of Necromorphs. DS2 Art Director Ian Milham dissects the gory details behind their ever-evolving technique to find new ways to shock and horrify Ms. Belmont (and the rest of us).

Cliffy B’s Reign

Crazy guns, a high tech lasso and extra style points for creative kills make Bulletstorm a must-play choice for folks who like their shooters on the extreme side. Along with sweet-looking gameplay, Epic Games’ Design Director Cliff Bleszinski talks about “putting the fun back into the first person shooter.”

Chase ‘em Down

Audrey Cleo takes us through Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. The Electronic Arts racer returns with the cops geared up in exotic high-performance rides to chase down the speedsters in Seacrest County.

As for DLC, we were hoping to announce a highly anticipated demo in time for this week’s episode release, but we are not able to reveal this yet. We’ll have more details later this month, sorry for the delay.

Look for Episode 31 later today.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit PlayStation 3 players will experience the thrill of the chase and the rush of the escape as they play through full careers as both a cop and a racer solo or connected. The blistering speeds, brutal busts and heart-stopping getaways are all connected via Need for Speed Autolog.

This network not only connects friends for epic head-to head pursuits and races, but also enables players to compare performances and stats, thereby setting the stage for the ultimate in friendly competition. I can tell you from playing here in the office that Autolog will bring out the competition in you – even if you’re not a competitive person. Every day we’re amazed at the new times people set on each of the events. You think it can’t be beaten…until it is. Finding the right combination of shortcuts, nitrous useage, and bust strategies is the key to achieving the best time.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit also provides you with exciting online game modes: Hot Pursuit is the exciting hunter vs. hunted mode where players can play as cops or racers. Interceptor mode is the ultimate head to head battle as one racer faces off against one cop. Finally, you have the traditional race mode. Pick your racetrack and car and win the race!

In addition to your racing and chasing skills, you’ll have access to weapons to help you including: spike strips, jammers, EMPs, helicopters, road blocks and more.

With its vast open-world, Seacrest County is the perfect place to get your fix for high-speed racing (or chasing) action. There are several diverse locales throughout coast, desert, forest, and mountain with unique features to provide each side of the law with certain benefits and challenges. One strong suggestion we would make is to drive around the county a few times on your own before taking part in any pursuits. Get familiar with the beautiful scenery and its many hidden shortcuts.

Please join us for a Game with Developer session on Saturday, November 20th from 11AM – 1PM PST. Put your driving skills to the test against the Criterion developers and see how you match up! Visit the Hot Pursuit website for more details.

Make sure you follow us on Twitter, fan us on Facebook, and visit us at the official website for up-to-the-date Need for Speed Hot Pursuit news and information.

With the game only about 2 months away, the team from EA was eager to talk about the social elements of Hot Pursuit. Watch this video, then read my conversation with Need for Speed producer Jesse Abney, who not only answered my questions, but yours as well.

Jeff Rubenstein, PlayStation.Blog: How did Criterion end up at the wheel on Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit?

Jesse Abney, EA: Criterion’s a AAA developer of action-racing games, with many years of doing great designs, great innovations, and platform technologies – especially for PlayStation 3 and online connectivity. And they kind of just waited patiently for their turn to get the keys to develop their favorite Need for Speed – and revive Hot Pursuit. Hot Pursuit really is a milestone in the Need For Speed ethos of “grab an exotic car, pick an exotic location, and hit the pavement.” And that really is a core tenet of Criterion’s expertise. It was really their interest and their call to revive Hot Pursuit.

PSB: What fundamentally makes NFS NFS, as opposed to say, Burnout? Will elements of NFS: Hot Pursuit look familiar to Burnout vets?

EA: Need for Speed’s always been about licensed vehicles. Criterion made the call to throw back to Hot Pursuit… no distractions, no customization, no real performance tweaking. It’s all about car, pavement, location, the competition of the race, and in this particular game, it’s all about social connectivity.

Autolog is an innovation, really a step up from what we saw in Burnout [Paradise]. It’s a total social experience. Always connected, always exchanging information, and always establishing where you’re at in the product versus your friends.

And instead of the Blacklist like you saw in Most Wanted, Criterion has brought in the Blacklisted Speed Wall. Autolog Recommends is a facet of that, whereby it’s always listing where your friends are in their career versus your career, event for event, and giving you recommendations based on the scores you’re laying down both online and offline.

PSB: Criterion won over a lot of fans with its community involvement, and the feeling that the game stayed alive long, long after if came out, thanks to its “Year of Paradise” DLC and update rollout. Will that happen with NFS: HP?

EA: Absolutely. We give all the credit in the world to Criterion for really proving out this model at EA; doing telemetry gathering, and establishing which core features people are really attached to, what things we can go bigger on, and dedicating people to work on that 3, 6, even 12 months into a product’s life cycle. It’s no longer “ship and forget” for us; we really want the product to have a life, we want it to evolve, we want to continue to improve it. With such short development cycles, we really want that post-launch development to not only address potential problems, but also to improve gameplay features and modes. It’s an absolute commitment from the NFS franchise.

PSB: What have you learned about player behavior – especially in the multiplayer arena – that we’ll see in NFS: Hot Pursuit?

EA: They’ve been taking a ton of lessons from online telemetry gathering: what people love to play, how they compete, and how that metadata is conveyed online. We have a very in-your-face approach to the connected generation. And that is multiple points of data, always streaming in information, always giving the player updates through messaging. “I’m going to throw down the best time I can and all my friends are going to get this message,” and it’s going to challenge them to do it.

That’s the lessons, like the refinement of the experience, that Burnout really paved the way for. And Criterion has really been at the forefront for all of EA in a lot of ways in how they turn that data into actual gameplay feature sets. Hot Pursuit is really a culmination of all those lessons over the past 2 or 3 years, especially for the connected platforms.

PSB: Do you see the reach of NFS Hot Pursuit extending beyond those times when you’re on the PS3 to places like Facebook or Twitter?

EA: Absolutely, there’s interactivity based on Facebook Connect and other elements that they’ll be working on. You have a ton of connectivity through the web and then back to your platform. Don’t discount any medium that Criterion has at their disposal. They’re supporting the PlayStation Eye to do in-game captures of player profiles; fans of Burnout will remember that. Every action point in the race is capturable and uploadable via Autolog.

Question via Twitter (@Y_AlAnsari): Is Hot Pursuit gonna be like “NFS Underground” style? The one with all the blacklist stuff :D

EA: There’s aspects of the Blacklist. Criterion really wanted to bring in elements of both Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted. Instead of the Blacklist being a grouping of AI players, our Blacklist is your friends list. You’re ranking up through the friends that you have via the Autolog, event for event, and knocking your friends off of the Blacklist. So you’re actually racing against real people, not just NPCs.

Question via Twitter (@RustyFirestar): What types of events are there? The gameplay seems fun, but not varied.

EA: Criterion is a great studio for creating dynamic game modes, and the introduction of cops and racers at high speeds, and exotic cars and exotic locations, for us it’s a playground. What we have are online modes where it’s 4 vs 4 where 4 of your friends are playing a career as a cop, and they’re entering into a Hot Pursuit with 4 of your friends who are running careers as racers.

General categorization of race events aside, Hot Pursuit is not about drag racing, it’s not about drift racing, it’s kind of a culmination of all those elements of driving within an action-driving design.

Question via Twitter (@BenSDixon): I’d like to know what games they would compare the handling to and whether it’s like Burnout Paradise. (does real cars = realistic handling?)

EA: Criterion is not a company to design a real-world physics simulator. One of the core tenets of Need for Speed is that action-driving experience. You don’t need a drivers license to play this game. That said, these are cars built upon a real-world-style physics simulator, and then amped up for arcade action. So this isn’t that you need to know how to drive, that you need to hit the apex of a corner, it’s much more in the vein of Burnout. It really is an action-arcade, pick-up-and-drive experience.

Question via Twitter (@DMax901): How many cars will there be? And what will the Racer’s equipment be like? Thanks PS!

EA: Over 65 top-end exotics, and maybe a few real key surprises. There are cars in our game you’ll never play anywhere else. And Criterion’s done a great job creating a career as a cop, so every car in the game comes in lovely cop colors. There’s always the idea that more cars can come via post launch development all the time.

Thanks go to those of you who asked us questions via Twitter, and to Jesse for answering them. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit comes to PS3 on November 16th.

One of the games attracting the most attention at E3 was EA’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit; the first title in the series developed by the people behind Burnout, Criterion Games.

James Deverill and Doug McConkey of that team gave me a demonstration of the game and it’s clear that they’re looking to return to the roots of a series that has gone through many changes since it first arrived way back in 1994.

“I remember playing Need for Speed even before working in the games industry,” said Deverill. “Three things stood out for me then: it had the coolest cars on the planet, it had amazing highways to drive them on and there were cops pursuing you. It’s these three active ingredients, in particular, that we want to bring back with our game.”

The playable demo at E3 was a game of Pursuit Mode, which is essentially cops and robbers with the old bill trying to ram the street racer’s sports car until it is totally wrecked. You can play as either a Cop or a Racer and both parties have their own weapons to add strategy. For example, a Cop can radio in a roadblock while a Racer can scramble his opponents radar and even send a decoy – a second blip on the Cop’s radar to throw them off the scent.

There are full career modes for both Cops and Racers that you can switch between at will, as well as an extensive suite of online modes.

“Online multiplayer supports eight players,” explains Deverill, “and one of the coolest things we’ve included, for me, is the way that you can have any combination of players; you can even have seven cops against one racer if you like and this adds a lot of variety.”

As you would expect from the brains behind Burnout, it is blisteringly fast and utterly gorgeous. It also boasts licensed supercars and a game world four times the size of Paradise City.

Unusually for game that features police chases at more than 250 miles per hour, the team seems most excited about Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit’s menu interface.

“We’re very excited about the way that Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit brings players together,” said Deverill. “Digital communication is at the heart of how people behave these days so, given that, we’ve included a social network in the game to connect, compare and compete. We call this the Need for Speed Autolog.”

In a nutshell, they’ve included everything you would expect from a basic social networking site and not only included it in the game, but also made it accessible via the web and mobile phones. Everything you do in the game is compared to what you’re friends are doing, whether they’re your PSN friends, your Facebook friends or just people you met playing the game.

“It can be a bit depressing to see a leaderboard and discover you’re ranked 10 millionth in the world, or something like that,” added McConkey “so we’re looking to drive rivalry between friends foremost.”

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is out on November 16, 2010.