Check out these sample questions to see if your space trivia skills are up to snuff:

WHICH PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM IS THE SMALLEST?

• PLUTO
• MERCURY
• VENUS
• MARS

A MASSIVE, GRAVITATIONALLY BOUND SYSTEM THAT CONSISTS OF STARS, STELLAR REMNANTS, GAS AND DUST IS BETTER KNOWN AS WHAT?

• A GALAXY
• A SOLAR SYSTEM
• A NEBULA
• A STAR SYSTEM

THE THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE IS KNOWN AS THE…WHAT?

• BIG BOOM
• BIG BLAST
• BIG BEN
• BIG BANG

OUR SUN IS ONE OF THE BRIGHTEST STARS IN THE GALAXY BUT BY WHAT PROCESS DOES IT GENERATE ITS ENERGY?

• NUCLEAR FISSION
• KINETIC DISCHARGE
• NUCLEAR FUSION
• KINETIC FRICTION

WHICH OF THESE GEOGRAPHIC FEATURES DOES MARS SHARE WITH EARTH?

• SALTWATER OCEANS
• SMOG
• POLAR ICE CAPS
• CIVILIZATION

Great news for all of you who have been diligently downloading new quiz packs and can’t wait to get your hands on BUZZ!: Quiz World for PS3 this November. All PS3 quiz packs will be interoperable between BUZZ!: Quiz TV and BUZZ!: Quiz World for PS3! Not only does that mean that any future quiz packs will work with both PS3 games, it means that all of the quiz packs that you have already downloaded for BUZZ!: Quiz TV will automatically show up in your quiz bank when you pop in BUZZ!: Quiz World for PS3.

The BUZZ! DLC news doesn’t stop there. Just for those of you who like to test your trivia talent on the go, we’re gearing up to make downloadable quiz packs available for BUZZ!: Quiz World for PSP as well. Just access the PlayStation Network via your PSP and you’ll have access to downloadable quizzes from any wireless hotspot. That, combined with the fact that you’ll have access to MyBUZZQuiz.com content on PSP for the first time ever, means that you will never run out of questions for BUZZ!: Quiz World for PSP!

That’s all for now! Keep visiting the PlayStation Blog to stay up-to-date on the latest BUZZ! news.

I’d like to thank everyone that came out to our NBA 10: THE INSIDE launch event this past Saturday with special guest and cover athlete, Brandon Roy. The Trail Blazers faithful certainly did not disappoint, showing up in full force with many arriving hours before to guarantee some face time with the All-Star guard. For more than an hour and a half, Brandon signed autographs, took pictures and chatted with the hundreds of fans that attended. But the highlight definitely came when he played a little one-on-one with a lucky fan, our raffle winner, 10-yr old Kyle Martini, who got to play a game of NBA 10: THE INSIDE with the NBA superstar…SCORE!

Thanks again for supporting NBA 10: THE INSIDE! Here a few pics from Saturday’s party:

Portland fans lined up at the Game Crazy store hours before the event!

Brandon doin’ his thing for the Blazers faithful.

Brandon dukes it out on NBA 10: THE INSIDE with a lucky fan.

So 3, 2, 1, START!

Half-Minute Hero is NOT the title of a porno with a very small budget. It actually had a modest budget and most characters stayed clothed.

The Exception:

What Half-Minute Hero is, is a speed RPG/RTS (Real Time Strategy)/Shooter/exercise in affectionate satire. It’s a frantic, multi-mode, 8-bit foray into a seemingly stereotypical RPG that will test your skills against the clock and probably make you wonder how wearing a “Charisma Wig” and “Swimming Goggles” can possibly help you save the world.

Only 30 seconds, huh…?

30 seconds may not seem like enough time to save the world, let alone play an entire game, but Half-Minute Hero promises to deliver a true time challenge…over the course of many-many stages, modes, bosses and maps. (Over 20 hours of gameplay and each mode contains 30-50 distinct stages to be exact.) So fear not, brave player. For a 30 second game it’s decidedly more meaty than the title implies.

There are four main adventures in all, each starring their own unique protagonist with similarly unique, story-driven goals and final bonus modes that can be unlocked if you manage not to sprain your fingers trying to keep up. Players can enjoy a solo adventure along the lines of the main story, challenge each other to a one on one battle, or engage in a multi-player free for all against the clock.

The main mode, Hero Mode, is a speed RPG complete with leveling up, weapon/armor collecting and saving the world, all in 30 second episodes. In this mode you play as the unlucky traveler who strives valiantly to vanquish evil before the world is destroyed…and before the Time Goddess REPOs everything but your undies.

Evil Lord Mode is an RTS game that employs a ‘chain-system’ of summoning monsters to complete stages. Similar to paper-rock-scissors, the chain-system allows monsters summoned by the player to tackle enemies based on their characteristics. In this mode the player will take control of an evil lord so gorgeous that all are driven to madness at a single glance of his perfect ivory skin.

Princess Mode features fast shoot-em-up-style gameplay and the heartwarming tale of a girl and a crossbow that can punch holes in a mammoth. Several mammoths even.

Knight Mode puts the player in the position of a less-than-bright (but ever so earnest) bodyguard who must protect a character known as the Sage until a special spell that destroys all evil can be cast. As we like to say, “He tries a lot…and dies a lot.”

Each mode utilizes a “half-minute” rule where certain tasks must be completed before 30 seconds go by. There are additional even more punishing unlockable modes, but only the most skilled of time managers will get this far…

Half-Minute Hero also has a lot rocking music, grandiose villains and bat-umbrellas. What to know more? Ask and ye shall receive!

Half-Minute Hero will be shipping in North America tomorrow, October 13, 2009 for $29.99 exclusively for the PSP.

Hello – this is Ana (the producer) and Tom (the designer) from FluffyLogic again (you can read our last blog-post’s for Sony here & here). We would like to tell you about the latest developments in the Savage Moon universe: the Insectocytes have invaded the PSP! For the last few months FluffyLogic personnel have been toiling away in an underground bunker to produce the mobile incarnation of the game: Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign – featuring new weapons, new bugs, news maps and new gameplay.

For those new to the game, Savage Moon is a tower defense strategy game which launched on PS3 last winter. The game pits the player (humans), who is trying to mine valuable minerals from sentient asteroids or Imoons, against massive chitinous, armoured bugs called ‘Insectocytes’. As the humans burrow into the ground, the Imoon produces its own auto-immune response in much the same way that the human body produces white-blood cells in response to an infection; this is when the killing starts!

We have seen the humans encounter the Insectocytes before. There has been two explosive campaigns set in deep space in the Shathak sector (the original game) and the Waldgeist nebula (the expansion pack). What we discovered is that the enemy evolves in response to attack – what does not kill them, makes them stronger! They grow resilient and mutate into diverse new forms with each mission and Imoon contested.

The next step is to colonise the PSP with Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign, named with reference to the Aegophagus: the goat eating aspect of the Greek goddess. This huge gathering of Imoons, the Hera Cluster, drifted into human space a few months ago. Preliminary intelligence suggests that it consists of 20 Imoons populated by a rich variety of Insectocyte forms, some of which have been encountered before and some of which are new. An example of a new form is the Drainer – evolved in response to our rapidly advancing military capability, this Insectocyte emits a bio-magnetic pulse-field that temporarily incapacitates any human technology within its range – rendering it vulnerable to rapacious Tank or Stinger Insectocytes. Other forms encountered include the regenerator sub-species that heals any damage it has taken, making them doubly-hard to kill.

But the human military forces have not stood still either. We are going to make new technologies available for the Hera Campaign, with pride of place going to the Sniper Tower – a deadly new combat tower that seeks the most deadly prey within range. We have also separated the blocking towers from the rest of the tower-tech to give the player both drop-pods (that land a new combat or support tower) and block-pods (that land a blocking tower).

In addition you now play as the Supreme Commander of the entire armada. The player controls events for the whole campaign as well as each individual Imoon mission. The player chooses which Imoon to concentrate their resources of drop-pods, block-pods and credits into via the new Tactical Layer interface. Success on a mission results in more resources and the unlocking of new technologies.

Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign brings the best of the action-strategy gameplay from the PS3 onto the PSP. It continues the relentless assaults by very large bugs but re-works the overall strategy, adding key aspects to make the game a truly mobile, gaming experience:

• 20 New Imoons
• 2 new species plus 2 new sub-species of Insectocyte
• New interface allowing the player to plan the whole campaign
• Unlock vengeance mode version of each Imoon
• Unlock hidden alternative music soundtracks by Parasite & special guests
• Designed specifically for PSP
• Tactical Skills menu – adds new gameplay controls in addition to Command Skills

Continue to check back here soon for more updates and details for Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign – we’re definitely excited and hope that you are too!

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

Now you have more options for where you purchase your PSN content whether it’s for yourself or a gift. At launch there will be 200 PlayStation games and game related content available, including titles such as Flower, PAIN, Pixel Junk Eden, Fat Princess, Super Stardust HD and classics such as Twisted Metal: Head-On, Loco Roco, SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo and WipEout Pure. Many more PlayStation Network game titles will become available on Amazon.com as well as the PlayStation Store over the coming months.

Digital access works on a code redemption system. If you purchase PlayStation Network content through Amazon.com, you will receive a code immediately after purchase or you can choose to email the code to yourself or send directly as a gift. Perfect timing for the Holidays! The code will reside in your Games & Software Library so you can retrieve it at anytime. Check it out and let us know what you think.

With training camps starting up and the regular season only weeks away, the smell of basketball is in the air. To get you fired up for hoops on the (virtual) hardwood, our PSP exclusive NBA 10: THE INSIDE will be hitting stores tomorrow, October 6th. As part of the launch festivities, our cover athlete, Brandon Roy, will be stopping by the Game Crazy store in Tigard, OR (right outside Portland) this Saturday, October 10th, to sign copies of the new game and meet with fans. PlayStation will also give one lucky fan a chance to play NBA 10: THE INSIDE with the All-Star guard on-site, so make sure to get their early to test your PSP skills against B-Roy.

Here are the event details. Hope to see you there!

WHEN:
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

WHERE:
Game Crazy
15660 SW Pacific Hwy, Ste. 100
Tigard, OR 97224

RSVP via our Facebook event page!

It’s been four months since we officially took off the car cover on Gran Turismo for PSP at E3 back in June, and Gran Turismo makes its big debut on the PSP today. Thanks to all the dedicated GT fans for the support!

Those of you who have already downloaded it from PSN or bought it at your local retailer already know that Gran Turismo delivers an unrivaled and authentic racing experience on the PSP, not to mention a massive collection of 800+ cars. Polyphony Digital specifically designed the game for the PSP, with more accessible gameplay modes and more social gaming-oriented multiplayer racing. Gran Turismo breaks a lot of new ground, both technologically in terms of hardware performance, as well as in terms of bringing innovative new features to the Gran Turismo series that are tailored for gaming on the go.

By the way, thanks for your positive feedback on our Gran Turismo TV commercial. The TV shoot itself was so exciting that we just had to create a Behind the Scenes video to show you how we captured the competition between the Corvette ZR1 and Gran Turismo on the PSP at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The video features interviews with director Jeff Zwart, as well as Rhys Millen, driver of the ZR1, and Tanner Foust, passenger playing the PSP. Tanner is used to driving at fast speeds as a famed drift and rally champion, but had to adjust to playing the PSP while being thrown around by Rhys’ driving. My favorite part of the day was driving in that camera car you see in the video, especially down the corkscrew!

I hope you enjoy the behind the scenes video and the TV commercial as much as we all enjoyed making them.

Don’t forget that you can get a red Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren to add to your in-game car collection in this month’s episode of Qore, for a limited time only. One car down, more than 800 left to go! And all the cars you unlock in the PSP version can be transferred over to Gran Turismo 5 when it comes out.

Happy racing!

Alien Syndrome
Alien Syndrome is a sequel to an old arcade game of the same name and takes place some 20 years after the original. Featuring over 80 different weapons, hundreds of armors and items, 3 difficulty modes, ad hoc multiplayer, and over 40 levels, Alien Syndrome will keep any dungeon crawler busy for a while. The game is probably best described as a top down shooter with added RPG elements.

Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars
Are you ready to make some crazy money? Crazy Taxi for PSP is actually a collection containing the original Crazy Taxi and the sequel, Crazy Taxi 2. In Fare Wars, you’ve got access to all the original crazy moves, over 30 crazy mini-games, and crazy modes you remembered from the original games. Added bonuses include a customizable soundtrack based on your own music from the memory stick and local multiplayer games in head to head battles. We’ve had some fun replaying this in the office and it’s a welcome addition to anyone that’s been looking for a Crazy Taxi fix.

Crush
I’m a huge fan of Crush and think that every PSP owner and puzzle fan should check out this game, it’s just that good. Crush uses a unique concept, taking 3D environments and “crushing” them into a 2D plane. Since the environment is in 3D, you’ll have to rotate game world to find the best places to crush and gain access to different areas of the level. Need to get atop a ledge, but can’t jump to it? Simply look top down, Crush, walk over to the ledge, unCrush and you’re where you need to be. The challenge then comes in working with the basic rules of the game – for example, some blocks you can or cannot traverse in the 2D plane, but can’t get across in 3D, or vice versa. If you missed Crush before or just want to replay it, now’s an excellent time to pick it up.

Full Auto: Battlelines
If Crazy Taxi is a bit too tame for your racing needs, Full Auto Battlelines might be the fix you need. Full Auto is all about car combat, destructible environments and an ‘unwreck’ ability that allows you to create opportunities out of mistakes. Unwreck is, like it sounds, an ability that allows you to escape a bad decision and rewind time to avoid that bad turn or unexpected hazard.

Sega Genesis Collection
If you are a Sega fan and want some game to satisfy your classic game lust, this is the title for you. The Genesis Collection features 28 games and 5 unlockables, including favorites such as Sonic 1 & 2, Phantasy Star series, Shinobi, Vectorman 1 & 2, and the Golden Axe series.

Iron Man
Based on the blockbuster, Iron Man PSP gives you the chance to head into battle as Tony Stark within the Iron Man suit. If you are familiar with the basic plot of the Iron Man movie, the game is essentially the same with a few additions, including new encounters from other Marvel villains within the Iron Man universe.

Sonic Rivals & Sonic Rivals 2
Sonic Rivals is a different take on the normal Sonic the Hedgehog experience you might be used to. Rivals is best described as racer, you compete against other characters from within the Sonic world, pick up powerups, tackle bosses, and fight to stay at the front of the pack. Bosses? Yes, there are some unique play ideas at here that have you competitively and cooperatively downing bigger enemies. On top of a solid game, you’ll also find unlockables cards that give you some insight into the past Sonic series.

Super Monkey Ball Adventure
Monkey Ball for the PSP actually comes in a different style of game than the previous series additions. You play not only Monkey Ball puzzle stages you are familiar with, but also play in larger open world areas with platforming, missions, and mini-game, hence the Adventure name.

As noted, back at the Sega Blog, we’re doing a bit of additional coverage on the PSPgo titles. Some of us are revisiting old games we enjoyed; others are picking them up for the first time. Head on over and read my write up on Crush and look for new blogs about some of our other games in the days to come.