To help build excitement for the November 3 launch, GamesTrailers.com has provided an exclusive first look at the new trailer for Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier. Check it out!

My name is Ronnie and I am the Community Manager here at 2K Sports. Many of you know me as Ronnie2K. I am the guy that gets to take part in the ridiculous stunts that we pull off here at 2K Sports. I attend all the athlete motion capture sessions (my buddy Andre Iguodala), put on events for fans across the country (Alex Ovechkin greeting fans from a Zamboni in the heart of Manhattan), interview the brightest stars that represent our company (shout out to James White, expecting a big year out of you sir!), and bring together and distribute the most exclusive 2K Sports swag. Being a huge basketball player in my time and getting to work for the best NBA simulation on this planet is truly out of this world. Do I really get paid for this stuff? But don’t get me wrong, I am the guy that’s just like any of you: a huge fan of our video games and our company and I want to give you guys a voice here at 2K Sports. Feel free at anytime to drop me a line, ask a question, or challenge me to a game. I am a pretty challenging NBA 2K10 match-up if I do say so myself.

I wanted to discuss why NBA 2K10 is going to be the most realistic, simulation basketball experience to date. Our team has added all-new gameplay components, out-of-this-world graphics, even more realistic Signature Style animations, all-new presentation elements, and an unrivalled online system. The demo for PlayStation 3 will be out October 8th 15th. It will feature a one quarter match-up between last year’s NBA Finals opponents: pitting the Orlando Magic at the Los Angeles Lakers.

You will get four of the most intense game play minutes to become familiar with the game and get a taste of why NBA 2K10 will be unrivaled in the basketball arena. It still amazes me how all ten of the players on the court match their real life counterparts, both physically and in their tendencies. I probably shouldn’t be surprised after watching all the development team’s motion capture efforts from the past few months. It is no surprise that the game’s artificial intelligence is more intelligent than ever and will give you the freedom to have complete control of the actual outcome and actions of your player and match-up. This season you won’t just play the NBA, you’ll TAKE OVER.

I also want to take the opportunity to explain modes that you won’t see in the demo, but are among the finest features within the full game that hits stores everywhere October 6th. My favorite one is the new NBA Today integration. My biggest gripe over the years is that when it came to commentary, presentation, and overlays, a regular exhibition game was happening in a vacuum. There was nothing “real” about it. It was a fantasy matchup that had no real-world context and no impact. I had the pleasure of meeting both Kevin Harlan and Clark Kellogg and talked to them about this issue. It amazed me how deep their knowledge of the game was and how we didn’t capture that fully before. They could talk about what was happening in that particular game and they could talk about what happened last season. That was pretty much it.

Now that your game and the NBA are in sync, the door is thrown open for dynamic commentary that’s based on what’s really happening in the real NBA. During the action, the play-by-play commentary is interspersed with real-life facts that touch on how the players and teams are doing during the season and how they played in their last outing. We spent hours recording thousands of lines of audio with Kevin & Clark, so that in game they can discuss a team’s previous real life win or loss, and what the determining factors were in that game. The commentary and presentation will constantly be changing throughout the season to coincide with the real league and transition from pre-season to regular season, and finally, to the postseason based on what is happening in real life.

Obviously with no previous game context going into the demo game, there is no audio in the demo, but something that you should look for in the full version of NBA 2K10 that will bring your experience to a new level. Another great mode is My Player. You will get to build a budding NBA player and make a ton of decisions in his career that will influence him in his transformation to potential star. You will get to create and customize your player, both in terms of looks and play style, put him through intense drills to increase his skills and attributes, and play in games where he must fit within the team flow, while completing both Offensive and Defensive objectives and achieving career milestones. Doing so will put him on course to becoming the next icon in the NBA. In brief, My Player brings role-playing to basketball and allows you to create any type of player at any position. Should be great fun to see what you guys come up with!

I am looking forward to how impressive I can make my 6’7” Athletic Small Forward that I built in the pre-release NBA 2K10: Draft Combine. I hope many of you got an early start on your career by grabbing the Draft Combine SKU. You will only get to take part in the NBA Draft if you work hard and go through the Combine. It’s available to download from the PlayStation Store if you want that early boost. I am partial to those two features because a career mode and realistic commentary/presentation have been my biggest gripes over my ten years playing NBA 2K basketball, but there are so many more cool features I didn’t even get into in NBA 2K10. Feel free to drop a question if you have one below. But grab the demo on October 8th 15th and make sure to get your copy of NBA 2K10!

- Ronnie

Hi and welcome to what is sadly going to be my last SingStore update post for you guys across the big pond.

My lovely colleagues at SCEA will be updating you about everything SingStar and SingStore from now onwards, which is great because they are actually not finishing work when you get up so responses will be much faster than me having to catch up with you the next day in London! Exciting news all around!

Moving on to this week’s update, which boasts great tracks from the likes of Kool & the Gang, Celine Dion, Cheap Trick and The Specials. My personal favorite however will have to be ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds because it’s just brilliant and featured in the equally brilliant movie ‘The Breakfast Club’.

That’s it from me. Thanks for all your support on here over past few months, I’ll miss y’all. And should you really have the urge to get in contact with me again, you can always stop by on the EU Blog to say ‘Hi’.

Keep on singin’,

Nina x

PS: I would still love a ‘Save Nina’ T-Shirt :-)

In English

• Blind – “Break Away”
• Sanne Salomonsen – “Everybody’s Eyes On You”
• 1990s – “You’re Supposed To Be My Friend”
• Aleksander With – “A Little Too Perfect”
• Badly Drawn Boy – “Once Around The Block”
• Celine Dion – “Love Can Move Mountains”
• Cheap Trick – “The Flame”
• Kajagoogoo – “Too Shy”
• Kool And The Gang – “Ladies Night”
• Koop Arponen – “Every Song I Hear”
• Spandau Ballet – “Lifeline”
• Superfamily – “The Radio Has Expressed Concerns About What You Did Last Night”
• The Specials – “Ghost Town”
• Vampire Weekend – “A Punk”
• Senses Fail – “Can’t be Saved”
• Fools Garden – “Lemon Tree”
• Simple Minds – “Don’t You Forget About Me”
• Lovin’ Spoonful – “Summer In The City”
• Chris Brown – “With You”
• Neverstore – “Rejected All Along”

Some great tracks this week from Blondie with ‘Rapture’, Spandau Ballet’s ‘Through The Barricades’ and ‘Here Comes your Man’ by The Pixies. Please check out the whole list of tracks and artists below.

The SongPack this week comes courtesy of the amazingly talented Dizzee Rascal including ‘Dance Wiv Me’, ‘Fix Up, Look Sharp’ and his latest hit single with Armand van Helden, ‘Bonkers’.

To everybody who downloaded the Coldplay 2 SongPack: If you could delete and re-download it, the medley should definitely be working now! Sorry for the delay with fixing this one.

Also a big thanks to Erin for filling in for me two weeks ago!

Keep on singing and see you soon,

Nina x

In English

• Eoghan Quigg — “28,000 Friends”
• The Libertines — “Can’t Stand Me Now”
• Pixies — “Here Comes Your Man”
• The Sounds — “Painted by Numbers”
• Friendly Fires — “Paris”
• Blondie — “Rapture”
• September — “Satellites”
• Spandau Ballet — “Through the Barricades”
• I’m From Barcelona — “We’re From Barcelona”

In Spanish

• Sidonie Los Olvidados

SongPack

• Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome — “Dance Wiv Me,” “Flex,” and “Holiday”
• Armand van Helden – “Bonkers,” and ” Fix Up, Look Sharp”

Hi all!

Welcome to the SingStore blog post! Nina is on vacation this week, so I’ll be updating you on the new downloads on the store. My name is Erin and I am the Associate Product Marketing Manager here in the U.S. for SingStar.

If you didn’t crave all of the songs in the exclusive Coldplay 2 SongPack a couple of months ago, here’s your chance to pick your favourites and get a hold of them individually. You can see the full tracklisting of the update below.

We have also put together a Blondie SongPack including classics such as ‘Call Me’ and ‘Heart Of Glass’ plus ‘Rapture’ which is an exclusive track for the SingStore.

Enjoy and until next time,

Erin

In English

• Coldplay – Don’t Panic
• Coldplay – In My Place
• Coldplay – Lost
• Coldplay – Trouble
• Coldplay – Violet Hill
• Lisa Mitchell – Neopolitan Dreams
• Rednex – Old Pop In An Oak
• Spandau Ballet – To Cut A Long Story Short
• Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma

In Spanish

• Los Delinquentes Y Bebe – Después

In Portuguese

• 4TASTE – Diz Mais Uma Vez
• Sir Giant – Doce Cereja

Blondie SongPack

• Atomic
• Call Me
• Hanging On The Telephone
• Heart of Glass
• Rapture

This week, we have a real surprise for all Spanish and Portuguese language singers amongst you: over forty Spanish and Portuguese language tracks previously unavailable in the US store are now available for download. You can see the full track listing below and I hope you like what you see.

Also included in the update are great tunes from Roxette, Deep Purple and The Bangles plus two Song Packs: SingStar Sizzlers a perfect addition to any BBQ party in your back yard and a special Vagrant Records pack including The Hold Steady, Dashboard Confessional and Senses Fail.

For all your Queen fans, we’re also happy to announce that SingStar Queen for PS3 and PS2 will be available for purchase as a standalone disc starting tomorrow.

Enjoy! Until next time…

Nina X.

In English

• Strange Kind Of Woman (A side remix 96) – Deep Purple
• Chariot – Gavin DeGraw
• Flowers & Football Tops – Glasvegas
• Dressed For Success – Roxette
• Fading Like A Flower – Roxette
• It Must Have Been Love – Roxette
• Joyride – Roxette
• Listen To Your Heart – Roxette
• Run To You – Roxette
• Sleeping In My Car – Roxette
• Spending My Time – Roxette
• The Look – Roxette
• Tell Me It’s Not Over – Starsailor
• Walk Like An Egyptian – The Bangles
• On The Radio _ The Concretes
• Happy Birthday Helen – Things Of Stone and Wood
• Just A Friend of Mine – Vaya Con Dios

In Spanish

• Cada Golpe – Melocos

Additional tracks in Spanish and Portuguese:

• Ahí Estás Tú – Chambao
• Asas Na Mão – Lúcia Moniz
• Besos – El Canto Del Loco
• Búscate un hombre que te quiera – El Arrebato
• Cadillac Solitario – Loquillo y Trogloditas
• Chuva – Lúcia Moniz
• Con La Mano Levantá – Macaco
• Con sólo una sonrisa – Melendi
• Cuídate – La Oreja de Van Gogh
• Depende – Jarabe de Palo
• Devuélveme A Mi Chica – Hombres G
• Dile Al Sol – La Oreja de Van Gogh
• El Último Vals – La Oreja de Van Gogh
• Fala-me de Amor – Santos e Pecadores
• Fantasminha Brincalhão – Avô Cantigas
• Geografia – La Oreja de Van Gogh
• Hablando En Plata – Melendi
• La Casa Por El Tejado – Fito & Fitipaldis
• La Costa Del Silencio – Mago De Oz
• Lola – Pastora
• Manos vacías – Miguel Bosé con Rafa Sánchez
• Maria Albertina – Humanos
• Nada – Jorge Cruz
• Nada que perder – Conchita
• Não Voltarei a Ser Fiel – Santos e Pecadores
• No sé qué me das – Fangoria
• Noche en vela – Guaraná
• Novia A La Fuga – Melendi
• Pokito a poko – Chambao
• Princesa (Beija-me Outra Vez) – Boss AC
• Que no – Deluxe
• Quiéreme – Andy Y Lucas
• Si quieres bailamos – Pereza
• Sideral – Macaco
• Sin Documentos – Los Rodríguez
• So Payaso – Extremoduro
• Soldadito marinero – Fito & Fitipaldis
• Soñaré – La Oreja de Van Gogh
• Una Noche Con Arte – El Arrebato
• Ya nada volverá a ser como antes – El Canto Del Loco

SingStar Sizzler Song Pack

• LDN – Lily Allen
• Summertime – DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
• Sing It Back – Moloko
• Barbara Ann – Beach Boys
• Daydream Believer – The Monkees

Vagrant Records Song Pack

• Screaming Infidelities – Dashboard Confessional
• At Your Funeral – Saves The Day
• A Fact of Life – FACT
• Can’t Be Saved – Senses Fail
• Stay Positive – The Hold Steady

I woke up on Monday morning having felt like I’d been in a car wreck. My joints ached, I had bruises on my shoulders and the world felt slightly muted. In all actuality, I’d been in Las Vegas for the EVO fighting game championships. The only wreckage I experienced was the carnage of watching some poor souls get absolutely wrecked in the biggest fighting games of today. This is the result of getting hype for an entire weekend of world class competition. Quite honestly, it feels fantastic.

As Capcom’s Seth Killian succinctly put it on this very blog, EVO is the world’s largest and longest-running fighting game tournament, and this year it was bigger than ever. Largely thanks to the incredible success of Street Fighter IV, EVO’s overall attendance positively exploded compared to recent years, with over 1,000 die-hard players entering for it alone. This was my third EVO event and I was simply blown away by the endless waves of people making their way through the convention hall. While Street Fighter IV was most definitely the main event, it shared center stage with fellow Capcom favorites Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Super Street Fighter II HD Remix and Marvel vs Capcom 2 (its last year running on Sega’s Dreamcast), along with Soulcalibur IV and Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core.

With thousands in attendance, six games are simply not enough and as the fighting-game mecca of the world, there is a ton to experience every year. Capcom set up shop and showed off the latest builds of Marvel vs Capcom 2 for PlayStation Network, as well as Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Codes for the PSP. Likewise, Namco was on-hand running a side-tournament for the extremely impressive looking Tekken 6 for PLAYSTATION 3, which has to be seen to be believed (seriously, screenshots do not do this baby justice). Not to be outdone was Aksys who brought their increasingly popular 2D fighter BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, which found its way onto the main stage as well. These titles don’t even begin to scratch the surface of EVO as the bring-your-own-console space had everything from King of Fighters 98: Ultimate Match to cult favorites like Breaker’s Revenge. If you can name a fighting game, chances are, it was played during EVO at some point (yes, even Primal Rage).

But it’s not the games that makes EVO so incredibly special, it’s the people who play them. It’s an event that truly brings the world community together and over this weekend I met dozens, possibly hundreds of incredibly welcoming, talented players from all over the world. It didn’t matter if they came from as far away as the UK like Ryan Hart or were as close as Southern California like Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez, everyone who comes to EVO is there for the same reason: to keep the community strong, and with so many new faces these days, I’d say it was definitely a successful year.

Personally speaking, this was by far the most enjoyable year at EVO I’ve ever had, for a multitude of reasons. I had a ton of fantastic people greet me during the weekend to either thank me for running the weekly online stream of San Francisco tournaments (Keystone Light represent!), my work in a previous life as a member of the gaming press who actually covered the arcade scene, and hey, even a couple of you folks recognized me from PlayStation Home! A great big thank you goes out to the PlayStation community for coming out in full-force at EVO this year, especially considering that three of the main games were run exclusively on the PS3!

It’s also safe to say that my custom PS3 arcade stick, affectionately known as the “LittleBigThigh” is now certified famous! If it wasn’t fellow competitors asking for pictures of it or Northern California legend Graham Wolfe borrowing it for his amazing Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix performance in which he completely dismantled Japan’s Daigo Umehara, I got a huge kick out of seeing the response! Even Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono wanted to check it out, taking the time to pose for a picture and sign the back of it after our interview. If the LittleBigThigh isn’t somehow composed entirely of magic now, nothing short of leprechauns would do the trick.

Of course, it’s just not EVO unless people aren’t getting mad hype and this year was nuts. Trash talk was in abundance as usual (The Beast Coast is salty, what can you say?), but it’s always the positive moments that shine, like someone’s pizza getting totally shoryuken’d out of their hands as the Northern California section of the crowd exploded during Crackfiend’s insane run during the 5 on 5 Street Fighter IV regional exhibition. Speaking of the regional exhibition, did anyone else catch that topless streaker who ran on stage with “SOCAL RULES” written across his chest? It’s just not EVO unless some dude loses his shirt after all!

Other memorable moments include Sanford Kelly of the East Coast finally claiming the Marvel vs Capcom 2 throne after years of defeat at the hands of his fellow region-mate, the world renowned Justin Wong. Of course, Justin went on to face the beast from Japan, Daigo Umehara, in the grand finals of Street Fighter IV, but eventually succumbed to his flawless Ryu play. People can say whatever they want, but in what was truly an epic finale to an incredible event, that night, we were all Justin Wong fans.

As I pop a few Advil and prepare for another year without EVO (And this upcoming Comic-Con trip. Stop by the PlayStation Home booth and say hello!), I can’t help but get excited over next year. For you, the reader, there’s no excuse: if you love fighting games, you absolutely, positively must make the journey to EVO. You will not regret it. Thank you so much to everyone in EVO staff, especially the amazing volunteers for making it such an incredibly memorable event.

It’s time for the SingStore update and without further ado, let me introduce you to this week’s brand new tracks.

SingStar must-haves this week include ‘Smooth Operator’ by Sade, Gloria Estefan’s ‘Dr. Beat’ and Roy Orbison with ‘I Drove All Night’. For all fans of the hottest tunes of the moment there’s Kasabian’s recent single ‘Fire’ plus some great tracks by Coldplay, The Hold Steady and P!nk.

We’ve recently had some reports from the community about ‘Charmless Man’ by Blur being slightly out-of-synch. I’m glad to say that this has been fixed so if you have previously downloaded this track, please delete it from your hard drive and re-download it from the store anytime after Thursday and everything should be ‘nanananananananaaananaanaaaaa’ again.

Also, for those of you eagerly awaiting the release of SingStar Queen, we’re happy to announce that the release date for the standalone disc has been pushed up and SingStar Queen will now be available for purchase on August 4.

Speak soon,
Nina

Today, I wanted to remind you that Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This? will be available on PSN this Thursday, 7/16!

As I mentioned before, we have a website for you guys to share Badman strategies with each other, called Dungeon Strategies. There are some pretty good strategies on the site already. If you are stuck playing the full version of Badman, you can check out others’ strategies. And, don’t be afraid to ask any questions on the site, either. We made this site to give you all a place to help each other to beat Badman!

Also, we have posted Badman gameplay videos on the official Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! website. Just click the “Specials” icon, and you’ll see video clips for stages 1 to 5. Just reading about Badman’s gameplay might make it hard to picture what exactly this game is all about, so I hope you take a moment to watch this video for a better idea! And, believe me, watching how Badman plays and playing it yourself are totally different stories!

Let’s talk about Mana Khemia 2 now!

I won’t make this too long, so please stick with me.

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy will be released on August 25th for the PlayStation 2 system. Because of the huge support from our fans, we decided to make a premium box for this title. It will come with a soundtrack and a poster (dual print). The back of the poster contains 2 different works of art, so it’s like getting 3 posters in 1!

Mana Khemia 2 contains 2 different main stories. There are two main characters, Raze (male) and Ulrika (female). When you start the game, you’ll have the option of choosing which story you want to play with first. And after playing your first pick, you can play the other story, carrying all the items you collected in the previous story. That’s pretty sweet, right?

The basic story line is — The setting is about 15 years after “Mana Khemia.” Al-Revis Academy has been known for producing most of the world’s greatest alchemists. However, it’s been having a difficult time lately. The number of Mana is decreasing for unknown reasons in the world. As an alchemic school, Al-Revis Academy has been decaying because of this phenomenon. In order to survive as a reputable school, the Academy has added new curriculum, such as combat, government and law. Even though some people had negative feelings about this change at first, the number of applicants has increased each year. And because of the amount of time that has passed, there is a new cast of characters for you to meet and interact with, along with a few returning characters in faculty roles.

The story revolves around two characters, Raze and Ulrika. Raze is a combat student, who was dragged into enrolling at the Academy by Lily. Raze’s parents died when he was young, so he had lived with his grandfather. After a few years, Raze’s grandfather could no longer take care of him, so Raze moved in with Lily’s family as their servant. Raze doesn’t really like Manas because something bad happened in his past which involved a Mana. His blade skill is very advanced, thanks to his grandfather’s teachings.

Ulrika is an alchemy student. She was given a Mana egg by an old man a long time ago, and that egg hatched into Uryu. Ulrika is always optimistic, cheerful, and happy, however she has trouble getting along with Raze because of his dislike of Manas.

Whether you choose Raze or Ulrika at the beginning of the game, you still interact with the other characters throughout the story. Sometimes Raze and Ulrika are rivals, and sometimes they will work as a team.

Here is the promotional trailer!

Thank you very much for reading as always!

Have a great day.

Best regards,
Nao

Here’s the cool part of making the best baseball game out there: You’re invited to the MLB All-Star Game, and all the related festivities. Just in my day or so here in Missouri, it’s very clear that St. Louis is a Baseball Town; everyone’s decked out in Cardinal Red, and fans are flooding the All-Star events such as FanFest, where you can find PlayStation on full display. We’ve got dozens of hi-def Bravia stations for players to go one-on-one with each other in MLB 09: The Show (oftentimes for prizes), but even better, we’re putting this Baseball Town’s extensive knowledge of the sport to good use.

Around the FanFest area at America’s Center, you’ll find kiosks set up with Buzz! Quiz TV (near the Chevy, Sharp, and Reebok “bases”). We’ve set up a special set of baseball quizzes, and the top scores are competing for a PS3 with a copy of MLB 09: The Show. If you’re in the area (through Tuesday), I highly recommend that you drop by and take a crack at it (after studying your baseball trivia first, natch).

So what does this have to do with you if you’re *not* in St. Louis this week? Well, through the power of Buzz! Quiz TV, you can play the same Play Around the Bases quiz, either through Buzz! Quiz TV on your PS3, or right on the web.

Here’s a link to the “Around the Bases” MyBuzzQuiz.

Think you got them all right? Hit us up with the correct answers to the *last* 3 questions with an @reply on Twitter. Randomly, one participant will win whatever schwag I pick up at the All-Star Game :-)

Continuing with the All-Star Festivities, today we’re going to hold a cool exhibition, where US troops stationed overseas will compete with soldiers back here in St. Louis in some MLB 09: The Show. Who knows, maybe some All-Stars will show up in person?

More on that tomorrow…