Lara Croft is back, and this time she’s joined by a fierce Mayan warrior named Totec. The Guardian of Light is a new, multiplayer co-op title coming to the PlayStation Network. Qore Host Veronica Belmont visited developer Crystal Dynamics to bring you up-to-date on Lara’s action-packed, puzzle-solving adventure…a departure from the Tomb Raider series.

It’s hard to believe 16 years ago Green Day achieved mainstream success with the release of Dookie, and today they’ve got a Broadway musical and their own version of Rock Band. Qore caught up with Billie Joe, Tre, and Mike in advance of the release of Harmonix’s Green Day Rock Band, which features — for the first time — new motion-capture technology of the power punk trio to bring their live stage performances to life.

Kyoto-based Q-Games is famous for its PixelJunk series of PSN exclusives, which includes PixelJunk Racers, PixelJunk Monsters, PixelJunk Eden, and PixelJunk Shooter. Veronica previews the upcoming PixelJunk Shooter 2 and PixelJunk Racers: 2nd Lap, and talks with company president Dylan Cuthbert about their special brand of 2D creative magic.

With Greek mythology popping up everywhere in pop culture, Audrey Cleo visits Game Republic in Japan for a preview of Clash of the Titans. This is the studio behind the PS3 games Folklore and Genji: Days of the Blade, and they’re looking to recreate the look and feel of the film while adding all-new creatures and environments.

All subscribers can download the demoscene title “detuned” for free, and all purchasers will have access to a Clash of the Titans PS3 theme. As usual, Audrey has a rundown of the latest Blu-ray releases, and this month we spotlight our first “Geek Hero”, Gary Whitta—a PC magazine editor turned Hollywood screenwriter. Green Day fans can test their knowledge in the “Name That Tune” mini-game, and don’t forget to try the Lara Croft-themed memory match puzzles to unlock Veronica’s outtake videos.

Look for Episode 25 tomorrow on the PlayStation Store update.

Starting tomorrow, December 17th until Tuesday, December 22nd, all of you Trekkies that rent or buy Star Trek (2009) or purchase Star Trek: D-A-C from PlayStation Store will be given voucher codes that unlock special Star Trek virtual items in PlayStation Home. The voucher for the Star Trek movie will include the male yellow and female red uniforms, and the voucher for Star Trek D-A-C will include the male navy blue uniform – collect all three!

The only way to get these highly-coveted outfits is to head to PlayStation Store (vouchers for these costumes will be e-mailed to your PlayStation Network registered e-mail address within 10 days of your purchase or rental of Star Trek or Star Trek D-A-C). If you snooze, you lose, and short of building your own version of the Enterprise and breaking the space-time continuum, you may not have another chance to procure these items again. So act now!

If you dance whene’er you are able, impersonate Clark Gable, eat ham, jam, and Spam a lot (or even push the pram a lot), then you’ll be positively stoked to see Monty Python and the Holy Grail coming into PlayStation Home this week. Sir Bedevere, Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot, Sir Robin and even the Black Knight costumes will be available come this Thursday. Pick them up at the Costumes store in the PlayStation Home Mall either as individual outfits or together as a Monty Python Knights bundle (includes Bedevere, Galahad, Lancelot, and Robin outfits complete with chainmail coifs).

This Thursday marks the arrival of LittleBigPlanet in PlayStation Home. Visit the Threads and Furniture stores in the PlayStation Home Mall to pick up an array of LBP-themed virtual items – including t-shirts, hoodies, sofas, rugs, and tons more. And, believe me, this is just the start when it comes to LittleBigPlanet in PlayStation Home, so keep your eyes on this blog for more details.

If you visit the SingStar Rooms this week, you’ll find the doors to ultra-exclusive VIP space have reopened for an ongoing holiday bash. Fully decorated for the seasonal festivities, the SingStar VIP room includes a brand-new game (hint: watch the newly-installed spotlights) that will unlock a special reward item for all who can overcome the challenge. As always, the VIP space will only be available for a (super) limited time, so get into PlayStation Home this week or risk missing out on this special event forever.

Tekken 6 fans will be pleased to find a bunch of new outfits available this week in the Tekken 6 game space. We have full Jin, King, Raven, Christie, and Lili costumes available, all at a killer price. So be sure to add these awesome items to your collection come this Thursday.

Those of you that enter the PixelJunk Museum this week will find a new PixelJunk Shooter Exhibition area where you can unlock a PixelJunk Flight Suit through in-game achievements. You can access this new PixelJunk area through the World Map in Central Plaza or in your Menu Pad. Simply press Start > Locations > World Map and then select the PixelJunk tile.

Ring in the new decade in PlayStation Home this year by picking up the New Year’s Eve items, available this Thursday in the PlayStation Home Mall. We are releasing everything from animated sparklers to party wear to animated disco rigs, ice sculptures, and light up flooring for your personal spaces. Basically, we’re giving you everything you need to throw a proper New Year’s bash with all your friends.

Also coming to PlayStation Home this week is our first set of evolving virtual items. Here’s the premise: Users that pick these items up during the very-limited time frame that they will be made available (one month) will get to witness a surprising evolution as these items morph into items completely different from their original states. To start, we will be releasing 5 different evolving items for your personal space – an aquarium, flower, snow globe, toys, and fortune cookie. Check these items out and then let us know if you’d like to see more of these by posting your thoughts in the official PlayStation Home General forum.

This Friday marks the final chance to win a copy of the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Fortune Hunter Edition. Those of you that wish to enter this contest should head to the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves game space in PlayStation Home between the hours of 8:00am PT on Friday, December 18th and 12:00pm PT on Monday, December 21st to play the Torch Race mini-game. The user who places first on the game’s leaderboard will win this extremely limited prize. Included in the Fortune Hunter Edition is a copy of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves, the Phurba Dagger ornamental replica (plus stand), a special “book case” with art book autographed by the Naughty Dog team, a ton of downloads, and the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Strategy Guide. So read the official rules and regulations below and then head into PlayStation Home at 8:00am PT on Friday morning. We’ll be wiping the leaderboards clean right then.

The following promotion is intended for viewing in the 50 United States and the District of Columbia only and will be construed and evaluated according to United States law. Do not enter this contest if you are not a legal resident of, and located in, the 50 United States or District of Columbia at the time of entry.

PLAYSTATION®HOME UNCHARTED 2 TORCH RACE CONTEST
OFFICIAL RULES

Void outside the 50 United States and District of Columbia and where prohibited.

1. Eligibility. The UNCHARTED 2 TORCH RACE Contest (the “Promotion”) is open only to legal residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry and hold a PlayStation Network account in good standing as determined by Sponsor. Employees of the Sponsor and its parent, subsidiaries and affiliated companies and their immediate families are not eligible to participate in this Promotion.

2. Sponsor. Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., 919 East Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City, CA 94404 (“Sponsor”).

3. Timing. The Promotion begins on December 18th 2009 at 8:00AM PST and ends on December 21st 2009 at 12:00PM PST (the “Promotion Period”).

4. How to Enter. No purchase necessary. Internet access, a PlayStation Network account, and a PlayStation3 computer entertainment system are required. Using the PlayStation3 system, go to the PlayStation Network and access PlayStation Home. Users who wish to enter (the “Entrants”) must use their avatars to enter the Uncharted 2 Among Thieves Nepalese Village Space (the “Event Space”) (accessible via the World Map on the Entrant’s Menu Pad). Instructions for playing three preliminary races and a “6 torch race” will be presented to Entrants in the Message of the Day which will appear on December 18th at 9:00AM PST and remain until December 21st at 12:00PM PST. To start the first race, Entrant should navigate to the torch located to the left of the Uncharted Nepalese Village Global Leaderboard and light the torch by touching the torch. Once the torch is lit, Entrant will automatically start the first of three preliminary torch races: first, a “3 torch race”, second, a “4 torch race” and lastly, a “5 torch race”, which Entrant must participate in and successfully complete before he/she can advance to the final “6 torch race”. The “6 torch race” is the only timed section of the Promotion. Entrants must complete all of the preliminary torch races only once for the entire Promotion Period and races must be completed in consecutive order.

To play preliminary torch races: To start each preliminary race, Entrants should navigate to the torch located to the left of the Uncharted Nepalese Village Global Leaderboard and light the torch. Entrants must navigate their avatars in the Nepalese Village Space to find torches which are discretely hidden and light the available torches by touching each one as quickly as possible. Torches will only light in a predetermined order, and Entrant is responsible for determining the order in which the torches are lit. When a torch has been found and correctly lit, a torch icon will appear on the right side of the screen. Once all the torches have been found and correctly lit in each race, a popup menu will appear indicating that the race has been successfully completed and the next consecutive race will be unlocked for play. When Entrant has correctly completed all three preliminary torch races, a “6 torch race” will be unlocked for play and will remain open for the remainder of the Promotion Period.

To play timed “6 torch race”: The “6 torch race” starts and ends in the Nepalese Village Space and can only be accessed after the preliminary torch races have been completed. To start each 6 torch race, Entrants should navigate to the torch located to the left of the Uncharted Nepalese Village Global Leaderboard and light the torch. Gameplay for the “6 torch race” is the same as that of the preliminary torch races except the “6 torch race” is timed, it contains 6 torches, and Entrants can play an unlimited number of 6 torch races within the Promotion Period to attempt to better their time. Entrant must find 6 torches which are discretely hidden in the Nepalese Village Space and light the 6 torches in the correct order as quickly as possible. Timing begins when the first torch has been correctly lit. Once all 6 torches have been correctly lit, timing stops and Entrant’s time is recorded. The 10 lowest times in the “6 torch race” and the online IDs of the Entrants who earned them in an individual race, from all correctly completed races played during the Promotion Period in all instances of the Uncharted Nepalese Village Space, will be posted on the Global Leaderboard located in the Uncharted Nepalese Village Space. (An instance is a new event space that is created when the number of users in the original space has reached its maximum capacity. The “6 Torch Race” can support multiple instances of the same Event Space so that Entrants will be able to access the space.)

5. Entry Conditions and Release. Entrants may participate as many times as they like during the Promotion Period. Sponsor is not responsible for technical, hardware or software failures, malfunctions, lost or unavailable network connections or failed, incomplete, garbled or delayed computer transmissions or unforeseen schedule changes that may limit an Entrant’s ability to participate in the Promotion, even if caused by Sponsor’s negligence. Sponsor is not responsible for changes to Entrant’s contact information. Entries not satisfying these Official Rules are automatically disqualified. Sponsor has the sole discretion to modify, cancel or suspend this Promotion should virus, bugs or other causes beyond Sponsor’s control corrupt, change or adversely affect the Promotion’s administration, security or proper play and to award prizes from among all eligible entries received prior to Sponsor’s action. Automated entries are prohibited and any use of automated devices will cause disqualification. Sponsor has the sole discretion to disqualify any Entrant who tampers with the contest.

6. Winner Selection. One (1) Grand Prize winner will be selected during the Promotion Period. Winner will be determined as follows: The Entrant who has the lowest time in an individual 6 torch race from all correctly completed 6 torch races played during the Promotion Period will be declared the Grand Prize winner. In the event of a tie in winning times, Entrants with the tied winning times will have a tiebreaker rematch of the “6 torch race” in the Uncharted Nepalese Village Space on December 23rd 2009. Time and details of tiebreaker will be determined by Sponsor. Entrants will be notified at approximately 9:00 A.M. PST on December 22nd, 2009 via the email address associated with their PSN account. The Entrant with the lowest time in the tiebreaker rematch will be declared the Grand Prize winner. If the winning tiebreaker time is tied, additional tiebreaker rematch games will be held from among the remaining tied Entrants with the fastest time until one Entrant has the fastest time, who will be declared the Grand Prize winner. The times of the 10 Entrants with the lowest times and their online IDs will be posted on the global leaderboard located in the Uncharted Nepalese Village Space beginning on December 18th, 2009 at approximately 8:00AM A.M. PST until December 21st, 2009 at approximately 12:00PM PST. Winner will also be notified by Sponsor via the email address associated with Winner’s PSN account on or about December 21st, 2009. Grand Prize winner must claim his or her prize within 48 hours from Sponsor’s notification. If Grand Prize winner does not respond within 48 hours from Sponsor’s outreach, an alternate winner will be selected by Sponsor based on the Entrant who has the next lowest time from all games played during the Promotion Period, (or if a tie exists, the next lowest time from the tiebreaker) which will be posted on the global leaderboard. This method will continue until a Grand Prize winner has responded within the required time period.

7. Prize(s). One (1) Grand Prize will be awarded to qualifying Entrant. Grand Prize consists of one copy of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves™ Fortune Hunter Edition which includes a copy of the video game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, a phurba dagger replica and an artbook. The approximate retail value (“ARV”) of Grand Prize is $300.00. Prize fulfillment is based on availability. Sponsor reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value if a prize is unavailable. Sponsor may disqualify a winner and select an alternate winner if any prize notification or prize is returned undeliverable. If the player with the lowest time is under 18, the prize will be awarded to the qualifying Entrant with the next lowest time from all games played during the Promotion Period (or if a tie exists the next lowest time from the tiebreaker) which will be posted on the global leaderboard. Prizes are non-transferable and Sponsor need not substitute a prize based on winner’s request. Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery of the prize.

8. Odds of Winning. Odds of winning are determined by the number of eligible entries received.

9. Publicity. By accepting the prize, winner agrees to the use of his or her name and likeness for purposes of advertising, trade or promotion without further compensation, unless prohibited by law, and agrees to sign and return a notarized Affidavit of Eligibility and Release of Liability (the “Affidavit”) within Fourteen (14) business days of prize notification.

10. Limitations of Liability. By attempting to enter, entering a Promotion or accepting a Promotion prize, an Entrant or prize winner agrees to release Sponsor and its parent, subsidiaries, agencies, divisions and affiliates from liability, claims or actions or any kind for injuries, damages or losses to persons and property that may be sustained in connection with the receipt, ownership or use of the prize or while preparing for, participating in or traveling to or from the Promotion or any Promotion or prize-related activity. Sponsor’s employees, employees of Sponsor’s parent, subsidiaries, agencies, and affiliates and each of their related companies and their immediate families are not eligible. Neither the Sponsor nor its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, agencies, divisions or related companies are responsible for any damages, taxes or expenses that winners might incur as a result of this Promotion or receipt of prize.

11. Promotion Results. To obtain a winner’s list by mail, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to PlayStation Home Uncharted 2 Torch Race Contest Promotion, Attn: Promotions, 919 E. Hillsdale Blvd. 2nd Floor, Foster City, CA 94404. Sponsor will fulfill a winner’s list request within 4-6 weeks after it awards prizes. Requests for the winner’s list must be received by December 22nd, 2009.

12. Restrictions. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

Star Trek Copyright (c) 2009 Paramount Pictures. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Star Trek: D-A-C (c) 2009 Paramount Pictures Corporation. (r) & (c) 2009 CBS Studios Inc. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

We’ve been holding on to this video interview with SCEE‘s Jem Alexander and I until we were ready to announce PixelJunk Shooter‘s release date. With that out of the way, hit “play” below:

I was a bit tired during that interview, which is my excuse for the over-use of the adjective “cool” (the game *is* cool though! *Very* cool cool indeed)! Here’s the story behind that:

The time was 12am midnight and it was a warm early Autumn night and my heavily loaded car was waiting for me to drive it from Kyoto to Tokyo (estimated 8 hour drive).  This was the start of our journey to the Tokyo Game Show to set up our very own booth for the first time ever.  To cut costs wherever we could, I decided I would drive overnight, lugging the heavier stuff (big TVs, free give-aways, PS3s etc) and saving on train tickets too (by including a couple of Q-Gamers in the drive too).  The car was ram-packed full and weighed heavily down!  Luckily it is a Murano so fairly large and sturdy in the first place, but it’s a wonder the police didn’t pull us over during our trip.
 

 
In Japan the freeways aren’t “free” but recently there is this “ETC” deal which lets you drive on most of them for a single charge of ten bucks or so. Oh and some stretches of road are only 2 lanes (because of the mountainous nature of the country), so as you can imagine there were a few bottlenecks on the way, and one accident that had occurred only a few minutes before we passed it near Mt. Fuji just as it was getting light, that wasn’t the greatest thing to see in the wee hours!  We arrived in Tokyo safe and sound though!
 
Driving through Tokyo on the express way is an interesting experience. You are in Shibuya and below is the ubiquitous maze of tiny streets but you are oblivious to all that as the express way is up above it all in a world of its own, lined by tall buildings.  One minute you are in Shibuya, and the next Roppongi, then you are passing Tokyo Tower and driving over the rainbow bridge, the speed at which it all flies by makes Tokyo seem so small! (It isn’t of course, not by a long shot).
 

 
We arrived 10 minutes later in Makuhari Messe where TGS is always held, grabbed a quick Denny’s breakfast as it was the only place open at 7am and then drove to the conference center.  They allowed us to drive right into the hall and park the car next to our half-finished booth (we employed a company to set up the walls and large prints).  It took us the rest of the day to set everything up, including DIY anti-theft locks for the PS3 controllers! (The problem with Bluetooth controllers is that people can easily walk away with them, and we didn’t want that to happen!)  Once everything was finished it really looked great for such a small booth!  We then went and got some much needed sleep because by that point we were totally knackered!!
 

I might as well use this blog entry as an excuse to talk a little bit about the response last month’s release of PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe has been getting – it has been awesome!  Metacritic currently has us at 88 and we’re in the top 10 of all-time best PSP games, which is absolutely incredible for us!  It seems most people are playing the game in offline 1p mode (which of course is engrossing to the extreme), but everyone should definitely try out the online play. It’s a lot of fun and there are lots of like-minded Monsters fans out there to “parlay” and boogie on down with.  It’s also surprisingly fun to simply hang out in a one of the lobbies and watch the blow-by-blow tickertape commentaries of other people’s games. Remember you don’t need a PSPgo to play Monsters Deluxe, it works fine on any PSP!  That’s something we’ve had a lot of mails about.
 
Anyway, I’ll sign off here and write up another blog once Shooter is out!  Remember to post comments!

You’ve all been waiting since last Thursday’s v1.3 core client update for the highly-anticipated camera item, and that’s why we’re happy to announce that every one of you devoted PlayStation Home community members will now have a free camera. You heard me – free! This camera will automatically appear in your inventory today and will allow you to take photos from the 1st and 3rd person perspective. Any pictures you take will immediately be saved to the “Photo” section of your XMB where you can then share these photos both in-world and out, whether it is in the Picture Frames that decorate your personal spaces or on Flickr, Twitpic, or Photobucket accounts.

You’ll also find two new spaces have been released in PlayStation Home today– the PixelJunk Museum and the MotorStorm Monument Valley Campsite. The PixelJunk Museum is a sleekly designed public area dedicated to the PixelJunk series where you can explore and collect content related to the PixelJunk Eden, PixelJunk Racers, PixelJunk Monsters and PixelJunk Shooter titles. The MotorStorm Monument Valley Campsite is a mesa-top personal space with its own MotorStorm caravan and an amazing vista of the MotorStorm festival across the Valley. There’s also a ton of MotorStorm-themed furniture available to customize this exclusive hideaway. Check out the pics below.

Dethklok – the death metal super group from Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse cartoon – is pleased to announce that their never-ending quest for intergalactic domination has extended into the world of PlayStation Home. Show your support for all things evil (and metal…but mostly metal) and pick up the new Dethklok merch, available in the Mall, and check out the Dethklok video, now live in the Theater. Raise high the horns and rock out in a manner most deadly with Dethklok in Home!

While you’re in the Mall, you can also grab the new Neptune Suite furniture and other assorted virtual items and the new Jon Burgerman line of virtual goods. World-renowned for his hand drawn cartoon characters (which have been shown in galleries around the world), Mr. Burgerman has lent his talents to Home and has produced a special line of animated clothing for the guys and the gals. If you ever wanted a tattoo for your avatar, it’s high time you check out some of Burgerman’s patented designs.

We here at PlayStation Home are all about spreading the love around and supporting important charities. This is why we have partnered with EA SPORTS to produce and distribute exclusive virtual items that serve to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 100% of proceeds for these items will go to the Brees Dream Foundation in support of breast cancer research and awareness programs, so please pick up these items and show your solidarity with all the breast cancer patients around the world. Remember, together we can fight this deadly disease.

No surprise, given Q-Games‘ pedigree, but this game is going to be a fun one!

And… to top it all we are also launching a naming competition! Yes, you heard it right, instead of choosing the name ourselves for PixelJunk 1-4 we would like YOU to name the game for us. This is for those real PixelJunk fans out there, because your name will go into the credits of the game and be immortalized for all eternity (or for a few years at least).

Anyway, first things first, go to the site and look at the concept art, watch the work-in-progress video, and think up a name: http://pixeljunk.jp/namingcontest

It’s looking pretty nice so far we think. We’ve implemented a fluid simulation sandbox with lots of different fluids and interactions and it’s simply a lot of fun to play just by itself, but on top of that we have a really cool “thrust” based game where you can shoot at monsters and carry stuff around to solve the puzzles in each area. The goal is to save the survivors, but what are they survivors of? As you delve deeper into the caverns you’ll learn more about what their predicament is – yes, this time there will be a bit of a story; which is a first in the PixelJunk series so far.

Oh, and we’ll give out free t-shirts to the winner of the naming contest and also to the five runners up, so definitely submit an idea no matter how silly you think it might be, we might just use it. We will pick the winner from a hat containing the names of all the people who submitted the same idea, so send your ideas in by May 11th, which is the closing date for the competition. We will then choose 5 runner up ideas and do the same thing for each one. We’ll then design a logo for the name and announce the winner a few weeks afterwards.

Good luck!

“SCEA Is Not Responsible For Nor Is A Sponsor Of This Contest.”

When I was first messing around with the PS3 a couple of years back, one thing that really impressed me was the clarity of 1080p, so I decided I wanted to try and return to 2D games and use this HD clarity and resolution to re-energize the classic game play of my youth, not just Nintendo-style 2D games, but ZX Spectrum and Commodore-64 style games which were much more quirky. So, I took the nickname I use on a Japanese blog I post on, “PixelJunk,” and started up a whole team at Q-Games dedicated to thinking up cool 2D and HD concepts for a whole series using that moniker.

We knocked out about 30 concepts before deciding on three to move forward with in parallel (as each one finishes up we begin production on a new one, juggling three at any one time). The first one to be finished will be PixelJunk™ Racers, a quirky little slot car style racing game with lots of weird rules and conditions for finishing the races. Additional titles should appear at a pace of about one every 6-8 weeks. (That’s the plan anyway!)

For PixelJunk™ Racers, we’re working tightly with the production team inside Sony’s Santa Monica Studios to finalize all the last details and it’s looking to be a brilliant little game. One thing that fires me up is that even though there’s a huge party play side to the game, with up to 7 players racing simultaneously, the single-player experience is equally fun and really challenging! In fact, being more of a loner gamer, I actually prefer the single-player experience as I like to turn off the lights with a big TV glowing in front of me and fight through all the challenges by myself. Online rankings and such also add a lot of dimension to the single-player experience.

Until now, I’ve always gravitated toward big titles, so it’s been a very interesting process making a smaller title with just a handful of people; it really reminds me of how it was to make games back in the 80s when I was growing up. Back then, I would knock out a fairly good game working evenings after school (I didn’t get much homework done) and it would only take 6-8 weeks. Of course, in order to flesh out the HD aspect and give people simple but original gameplay, the games in the PixelJunk™ series are taking a touch longer to make than that, but it’s a stark difference to the 20-40 man team for two years type of affair that seems to have become the minimum requirement to make games in the current industry.

Shortening and simplifying game development, and opening up communication with the players through blogs like this, is really helping game developers become addicted to developing games again (like those homegrown developers in the past who would lock themselves in their bedrooms), and this is going to start affecting innovation enormously over the next 2-3 years. Of course, there is still plenty of room for the big projects and, fingers crossed, they never disappear, but cheaper price points, lower development costs and shorter work cycles are going to create a whole load of diversity and I am really looking forward to seeing what will be born from all that.

Anyway, I’ll sign off for now. Our team here will read all your comments, so fire away!

Yoroshiku!