You may be familiar with Telltale’s episodic games like The Walking Dead or the recently announced series The Wolf Among Us, but I’m here today to discuss the latest game that we’ve been working on — Telltale Games’ Poker Night 2. We got some of the best characters from film, television and video games to sit down at our table to play a few hands of Hold ‘Em and Omaha. On top of that, the game is bursting with unlockable content: you can unlock new decks, chips and felts, which can cause the Inventory (the venue for the game’s chicanery) to take on a whole new look. You’ll even unlock items outside of the game.

But first, let’s talk about the characters you’ll be facing at the table. To your immediate left looms Brock Samson, the (former) bodyguard to the Venture Family from Adult Swim’s Venture Bros. This guy just oozes cool, but don’t think about stealing his chips, because he has a license to kill and he’s not afraid to use it. He literally plays his cards close the chest, so it’ll be tough to bluff him out of pot, but let him win a couple of hands and his overconfidence could be his downfall. If you manage to unlock the Venture Bros chips, deck, and felt and you’ll get to see Brock on a version of his home turf, clad in his favorite Hawaiian shirt.

Next to Brock we have Claptrap, from Borderlands. He may seem innocent and naïve to the world, but he’s secretly a very skilled poker player, and he’ll take your money if you give him the chance. Anyone on Pandora knows that you never head into combat alone, so Claptrap brought a couple of allies. Flanked by his best buddy Steve (Heyo!), you better hope that his infatuation with GLaDOS blinds him to your poker strategy. He even managed to drag Moxxi along to help serve as bartender. Unlock all of the Borderlands in-game items and the inventory will get the “Moxxxi’s” treatment, complete with music from Borderlands 2. Claptrap may even dress up for the occasion…

After Claptrap we have our next competitor, Ash Williams from Army of Darkness. The tournament almost started without him, but we were able to pull him away from killing Deadites to play a few hands of poker with us. He won’t go anywhere without his trusty boomstick and chainsaw, and luckily his prosthetic hand is working well enough (more or less) to handle his chips — and the occasional drink. Purchase the Army of Darkness poker chips, deck and felt, and step into a world of your worst nightmares… or that just might be a fog machine adding to the atmosphere.

Finally, on the far right of table sits Sam, from the Sam and Max series. Max was in the first Poker Night tournament, so Sam had to see what all the fuss was about. While Sam seems to be the calmer of the two, he’s not adverse to waving around his enormous revolver to get a reaction, or a totally inappropriately sized bet. And when he’s wracked with indecision, Max is right there with him at the Inventory, ready to give terrible advice at a moment’s notice. Unlock Sam’s poker items to give the Inventory a noir makeover, with Sam dressed in his best tuxedo to match.

New to Poker Night is the addition of the Inventory dealer: GLaDOS. Who knows how she was convinced to run the tournament, but she’s certainly making the most of it by insulting our players at every possible opportunity. When she’s not shrugging off Claptrap’s advances (and who knows if she can keep that up forever), GLaDOS is known for her incisive commentary and her strong tendencies towards murder. She may err on the side of evil from time to time, but she’ll still keep the game honest… no cheating here. If you’re a poker pro, you might just unlock all of her prizes, turning the Inventory into a test chamber right out of Portal.

So what were those out-of-game unlocks I was referring to earlier? Well, as soon you start your second tournament, you’ll see your first Bounty Challenges. Once you pass three challenges, one of your competitors will place a bounty item up for grabs in the next tournament. It could be the Orb from Venture Bros, or Claptrap’s Spike TV award, Ash’s Necronomicon, or Sam’s banjo. Even GLaDOS will throw a Personality Core into the mix if she feels the urge. Win the Bounty Tournament to secure your prize, and with it, you’ll not only earn a new Premium Theme for your PS3, but you’ll also unlock some cool gear in Borderlands 2. You haven’t lived until you’ve played as a Berzerker with Brock’s mullet, or the Asssassin Portal skin.

As this is a single-player game, some of my favorite moments occur when our characters are interacting with each other during a hand. We’ve made sure that Poker Night 2 has even more content than the first game, including storylines that extend not only from hand to hand, but across multiple tournaments as well. I’ve been playing the game for months and I still get surprised by new conversations and reactions I haven’t seen before. If you’ve ever played in a regular poker game with your friends, you’ll recognize the type of ribbing banter we have in Poker Night 2, except in this case your friends are celebrities with a taste for violent weaponry.

With all of the new content available in Poker Night 2, we’re very excited for you all to get your hands on it and let us know what you think! The game will be $9.99 when it launches on PSN — we’ll have an official release date soon, so stay tuned!

(Spoiler) Sad to say that Kenny won’t be joining me on the final journey, though. What about you? Who are you taking with you?

Congratulations. You’ve made it. You’ve survived. This far.

If you’re reading this blog, that means you’ve probably already played the first three installments of Telltale Games’ episodic video game adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s never-ending zombie epic The Walking Dead. And you’ve been put through an emotional meat grinder unparalleled in interactive storytelling. You’ve had to deal not just with the dead rising up, but with the living brought low as the scattered and desperate survivors of the zombie apocalypse have struggled to hold onto their humanity under impossible pressure. You’ve seen murder, cannibalism, fear, paranoia, insanity, betrayal, and even the tragic death of an innocent child. And all I can say to you after all that is, I’m sorry. Because it’s about to get worse. Much worse.

At the close of Episode 3, Lee Everett and his fellow survivors were just about to arrive by train in Savannah, where Kenny, distraught after the recent loss of his wife and son, has pinned all his hopes on finding a boat that can carry the group to safety. Clementine still holds out hope that she might find her parents there — driven in part by a sinister voice on her walkie-talkie who seems to be trying to lure her away from Lee. Meanwhile Ben is agonizing over the responsibility he feels for Duck and Katjaa’s deaths, and Lee is still figuring out what to make of the newest additions to the group – Christa, Omid, and the enigmatic boxcar hobo Chuck.

Episode 4 opens after the group arrives in Savannah – but this being The Walking Dead, Georgia’s First City might not be the salvation our survivors have been hoping for. In fact, it might just be the most horrifying place they’ve visited on their travels so far. For somewhere deep inside Savannah lurks a dark secret, the result of the unspeakable acts that some people have been willing to resort to in order to survive within a militarized enclave known as Crawford. But our group will have to confront the horror of that place up close if they are to have any hope of making it out of Savannah alive.

As the only writer outside of Telltale Games invited to contribute an episode to this incredible series, I’ve felt a great responsibility for this one to live up to the expectations of Walking Dead fans — particularly after the preceding three episodes have been so incredibly well received. But I think you’re going to like it. I was very fortunate that the overall narrative structure of this first season placed a lot of what I think are the most dramatically intense parts of the story in this chapter. It’s undoubtedly the biggest and most ambitious episode so far in terms of action, and the choices — well, if we’ve done our job right you’re going to hate us for some of the decisions this episode forces you to make. Episode 4 also introduces some brand new characters who should shake things up a bit, including one in particular that I’m very keen for you all to meet. Let’s just say that Lee’s group hasn’t encountered anyone quite like her before now.

While I think it’s a riveting chapter in its own right, Episode 4 is also designed to tee up the big season finale that follows. In that regard I think we’ve succeeded; the climactic events of Episode 4 should make the wait for Episode 5 even more agonizing. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer and screenshots which give a few other hints of what’s to come. Once you’ve had a chance to play the new episode, be sure to head to Telltale Games’ new The Walking Dead stats page on the official website to see how your choices stack up with everyone else’s. Then share your choices with friends and talk about it on the Telltale Games forums! And feel free to tweet me directly with your reactions to the episode – I’m @garywhitta, and I’ll be listening!

And remember. In the end, the dead always win.

Photo by Megan Mack

PlayStation.Blog: Why did you choose Telltale Games to adapt the world of your comic to a video game series?
Robert Kirkman: The Walking Dead is a lot of things, but at its core it’s a dramatic human story that’s very emotional. Telltale came in with a proposal that involved doing a very different kind of video game. A video game that didn’t focus on shooting zombies or hiding from zombies or being chased by zombies…they focused on the emotional, dramatic component. It was a very keen focus on decision making and how that affects your characters, and also how those characters evolved over the course of a narrative. Telltale wanted to focus on the storytelling as opposed to the action, which I thought was really cool. They really got The Walking Dead, and they’ve done it justice.

PSB: Did you intend The Walking Dead game to be serialized from the start? If so, why?
RK: The serialization model Telltale does they do very well. The comic book is a serialized story, and I think it’s a cool thing to transition into a game. Being able to play a two-hour chunk of game and end it on a cliffhanger, with a period of time between chapters that builds anticipation for the next story is a cool aspect for the comic. I don’t think there was any “plan” to be serialized, but I think it was a cool carryover to Telltale’s business model.

PSB: So how much input did you provide into the type of game Telltale made? Did you have key creative mandates?
RK: We had a lot of macro meetings early on about what this game would be. In the very early stages, it was very important to me that this game would be something that mattered to the fans. So this game very much takes place in the world of The Walking Dead comic book, and it deals with things that exist there. And you can’t really tell a story like that if Rick Grimes is the main character. Because [the implication would be], “if this story is so important, how come we never saw it or talked about it in the comic? This is clearly a side thing!”

So very early on we decided to focus on a different character and a different story that would weave in and out of the comic book story in interesting and meaningful ways. But we also wanted it to be a standalone story so that the comic and game can complement each other without contradicting each other. We wanted you to experience them both and get a fuller, richer experience. So yeah, those meetings were something I was very involved with.

Talking with the guys at Telltale, I said, “The Walking Dead is sad. If you can make players sad, that’s really what we’re after here. You want to drive the emotional impact of what it would be like to live in this world, and if you can achieve that in a game, that would be amazing.” And that was something the Telltale team was already striving for — making this a really emotional experience, not just scary or exciting. Those were the kinds of decisions we made very early on. But the type of game it is, and the way the gameplay works, is all Telltale.

PSB: Did you have a broad vision for this game, story-speaking? Did you help write any of it?
RK: A lot of it was stuff Telltale came to the table with. They had Lee Everett, they had the storylines and other things. They were working with Gary Whitta — who’s a friend of mine and wrote The Book of Eli, as well as being a huge The Walking Dead fan — to craft this story. One of the things I’m so proud of as The Walking Dead expands is that I’m able to say, “okay, the comic book is mine.” I can make a good comic book, I’m a comic book writer.

But when it comes to making a television show, I don’t know anything about television. So I’ll work with someone like Glen Mazzara, who is our showrunner and knows TV, to make the best the best show possible. I’m not a novelist, so if I want to work on a novel I’ll work with someone like Jay Bonansinga to write it so I know it’ll be good. I like to work with people who know what they’re doing.

So I’m able to step back and say, “Telltale knows how to make good video games.” I’m not going to come in and say, “we should do this and that” because I don’t make video games. Allowing an expert to come in and do what they do best, I think, is the secret to The Walking Dead becoming as big as it is.

PSB: Speaking of the novels, I recently finished The Rise of the Governor. And I understand the next book Road to Woodbury will focus on Lili, an infamous character from the comics. Will there be any tie-in to the game? Is there any chance Lili appear in future episodes of the game, for example?

RK: There will definitely be a character named Lili in the game. Whether or not that ends up being the same character we know and love from the comic and the upcoming novel remains to be seen. But yeah, the new novel comes out in October and I’m excited about it. The novel series, the comic series, and the video game all are intertwined in the same universe. Keeping that continuity straight is something that’s been very important to me, and yeah, we’ll definitely see them continue to connect in a lot of interesting ways moving forward.

PSB: Here’s a question from @iLLeGaL_sKiLLz: on Twitter: “I wish they would delve into the backstory of how the infection happened.” What’s your take on that? Is that a good idea?

RK: Well, I don’t ever really plan on doing that just because I feel like The Walking Dead is set in a very real, grounded world. Once you go past the fact that zombies are walking around trying to eat people, you’re gonna get more and more into the realm of science fiction. Any kind of explanation for why the zombies are walking around, to me, is just going to make it less grounded, less dramatic, and less real for the readers. I like keeping that as an unknown backstory that is really completely unimportant to our characters as the story moves forward. It’s not something that I definitively want to tackle.

PSB: Here’s a question from a Twitter user whose handle I misplaced: “Why do you hate us so? Why must you build up our love only to tear it down? Did someone hurt you?” I think he’s referring to the fact that you have not been shy about killing characters in this series.

RK: [laughs] I don’t know, I’m really just trying to entertain! I understand that it can be frustrating at times. I love the readers and I love the fact that they’re as invested in the characters as they are. I’m just trying to write a compelling and interesting story. When people are upset that a fictional character dies, it’s just telling me that I’m doing my job.

July 31st PlayStation Plus Update

The Expendables 2 Video game

20% off for PlayStation Plus Members (PSN Price: $14.99, PS+ Price: $11.99)
The 2012 PSN PLAY event kicks off with a first week discount on one of the most intense co-op shooters on PSN. Grab a friend (or three) and join four of the Expendables (Barney, Gunner, Caesar and Yin Yang) in a mission to rescue akidnapped billionaire. Featuring vehicular combat, four-player co-op story and challenge modes, and a wealth stages set in exotic locales, The Expendables 2 Videogame is a fantastic experience for gamers that dig hardcore shoot em up action.

Also, don’t forget that starting this week PlayStation Plus members can pre-order SoundShapes from the PlayStation Store and get 20% off boththe PS3 and PS Vita versions of the game (of which come bundled together for one price) as well as an exclusive PS3 theme. Note: Pre-orders for SoundShapes will only take place on the PS3 store as the gift with purchase theme is only useable for PS3 systems. Vita only owners don’t worry as you can still snag the 20% Plus discount on the store the 1st week the releases.

August 7th PlayStation Plus Update

The Walking Dead Episode 1: A New Day

Free for PlayStation Plus Members (PSN Price: $4.99)
The first episode from Telltale Games’ universally-acclaimed series The Walking Dead by will be available to all PlayStation Plus members as part of the Instant Game Collection! Follow a set of unique characters as they fight for survival amongst the ever-growing “walker” population, and encounter threats from both undead and human enemies.

The Walking Dead Episode 2: Starved for Help

Free for PlayStation Plus Members (PSN Price: $4.99)
We’re also delivering PlayStation Plus members the second episode in The Walking Dead series as part of the Instant Game Collection! Following the decisions you made in A New Day, you’ll be confronted with even more gut-wrenching scenarios and thrilling action sequences with your fellow survivors. Like Episode 1, Starved for Help was adored by critics for its riveting gameplay and dramatic storyline, where players need to make harrowing decisions on the fly.

SoundShapes

20% off for PlayStation Plus Members (PSN Price: $14.99, PS+ Price: $11.99)
This week marks the release of the highly-anticipated PSN exclusive SoundShapes. Marrying brilliant side-scrolling 2D gameplay with unique musical compositions, you’ll be hooked by the incredible landscapes you’ll see and hear in SoundShapes. Available for both PS3 and PS Vita systems together for one special price, PlayStation Plus members will be getting the absolute best deal with a 20% discount. If you already had your pre-order locked in, you’re all set! Make sure to check out the trailer above, which introduces musicians Beck and Pyramid Attack into the lineup of amazing levels in SoundShapes.

With the August 7th update, you’ll also be able to pre-order the next PSN PLAY game Papo & Yo, which will also have a 20% discount for all PlayStation Plus members. Everyone that pre-orders the game will get an exclusive Papo & Yo theme, so don’t sleep on it!

We’ll be coming at you with another update on August 13th, with more additions to the Instant Game Collection and additional awesome sauce. Until then, watch the PS.Blog for our weekly PlayStation Store Updates to see what additional content is added for PlayStation Plus members. Please leave us your feedback in the comments, and help us by rating the Instant Game Collection lineup on a scale from 1 – 10. If there was one thing you could change about PlayStation Plus, what would it be?

The Walking Dead, Telltale Games’ continuing story of adventure horror based on Robert Kirkman’s Eisner Award-winning comic book series, continues this week for PS3! Episode Two – Starved for Help tears through flesh and bone and onto the PlayStation Network this Friday for $4.99 or will be available as a download from within the game’s menu for existing season pass owners!

We’re really excited to continue the story of Lee Everett; players will have to deal with the repercussions of the choices they made in Episode One and they’ll be confronted by more difficult and sometimes gut-wrenching choices in Episode Two. Remember, the decisions you make means that your story of The Walking Dead could be substantially different from someone else’s – this is what we call ‘tailored narrative’.Our game engine has been tracking every choice players made in Episode One – A New Day. From course-altering life-and-death decisions to seemingly banal actions and conversations, we’re keeping tabs on all of it.

**(Spoilers: Don’t watch this if you haven’t played Episode One!)**

This video is just a sampling of some of the choices players made in Episode One. Those choices might have an effect in the scene you’re playing, later in the episode, later in the season or not at all. Think about what you do and say — the game and the characters in the game are watching! The information recorded by the game helps the team devise aspects of the ongoing story of The Walking Dead, making this episodic gaming at its best!

Hopefully by now, you’re hungry for more information about Episode Two – Starved for Help. Let’s just say that if you thought Episode One – ‘A New Day’ had some nasty, stomach-churning moments, you’re probably going to need a bucket at hand (and perhaps a box of tissues for tears; this episode made our PR manager cry) for episode two!

The Telltale team is thrilled that you’re getting your hands on The Walking Dead: Episode Two – Starved for Help soon, and we can’t wait to see all the choices you make as you sink your teeth into it!

Sit back and watch as my good friend Harrison Pink explains how different each outcome can be for each individual player throughout the season. There are more juicy The Walking Dead details to come, so stay tuned here and look (listen?) for me later this week on the Official PlayStation Blogcast! On behalf of the whole team here at Telltale Games, thanks again for all of your support, and we hope you enjoy the first episode!

I’m Jake from Telltale Games and I’m clawing my way onto PlayStation.Blog to bring you up to speed with our latest game series. While some of our previous games like Back to the Future: The Game have been pretty light-hearted, we couldn’t have gone darker than our next project, a five part episodic series based on Robert Kirkman’s Eisner award-winning comic book series, The Walking Dead.

First, the good news: The first episode of The Walking Dead, ‘A New Day,’ will arrive on PSN this Tuesday, April 24th. Each episode will cost $4.99 on the PlayStation Store, and you’ll be able to pre-purchase the entire five-episode season for $19.99 to save $4.99 off of the total season price and nab an exclusive PS3 premium theme (head to the bottom of the post for more details).

Not only is The Walking Dead game darker and more violent than anything the studio has done before, but it also provides a very different gameplay experience compared to our previous games. One major way that the game differs from previous Telltale offerings is that your decisions, through action and dialog that you choose, will have huge repercussions on how you experience the story of the game, but more on that later.

Chances are that you’ve either read the original The Walking Dead comic books (if you haven’t, what are you waiting for?!) or you’ve seen the TV show. One thing you should know from the start is that our game series is based strictly on the world seen in the comics; in fact, the story seen in our game is officially canon to the comic books. That means you’ll find out more about characters and locations seen in the comic book and have a better understanding of their lives at the outset of the zombie apocalypse. Fans of Glenn (seen in the picture above) will get to know his backstory before he heads to Atlanta. And, for a certain character in particular (one who goes on to have a huge impact on Rick Grimes’ life) you’ll get an understanding of what drove them to become the person you’ll see in the comics.

However, rather than retelling the story of Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes, the game tells the story of a new character – Lee Everett – who exists in the same world and roughly the same geographical location as Rick. In terms of comic book timeline, our story begins when Rick is still in a coma. The decision to tell a new story was made by Telltale and Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead. We felt that re-telling Rick’s story didn’t make much sense because most people will know what would come next. Beyond that, it wouldn’t make sense to create a new story for Rick because we’d be off into new territory, making stuff up that really has nothing to do with The Walking Dead. A new story, with a new lead character, means that we’re free to create new and exciting scenarios and that we can add to the backstory of characters and locations seen in the comics.

You’ll play as Lee Everett (holding the axe in the image above), who has been sentenced to life in prison for killing a man who was “romantically” involved with his wife. Whether Lee killed in cold blood or perhaps in self-defense is something we’ll let you decide.

If you’ve never played a game from Telltale before, you should know that we don’t make open-world shooters; that’s not our thing. While we love and admire games like that, we come from an adventure game background where storytelling and sympathetic characters are the most important thing. It’s for these reasons that Robert Kirkman chose us to make a game based on The Walking Dead. Robert (and Telltale) wanted to use the videogame medium to focus on the characters and the emotions of The Walking Dead universe, allowing players to experience the horror and tension of the walker-infested world. It’s a much more personal experience than many other zombie-based games have offered. Taking down a gigantic zombie horde with ridiculous firepower is not what The Walking Dead is about. In fact, we want you to be repulsed by the true horror of killing a walker. The zombies in our game are not just fleshy targets for your high-powered weapon, and you might be forced to finish someone who was a friend or a relative before they turned. On top of that, resources in our world are limited and noise attracts the wrong kind of attention, so you’ll have to get up close and use hand tools and weapons. We want people who think they’re desensitized to zombie violence to find that, in truth, they’re not.

Unlike any other previous Telltale game, The Walking Dead tailors the story based on the decisions that you make. Your decisions or actions might have an effect in the episode you’re playing or might affect the entire season. You could answer a question in a certain way and have a character become suspicious of your motives, or you could be forced to choose who to save when two people are in mortal peril but only one can be yanked back from the zombie horde. Your decisions will stay with you throughout the series, and their repercussions could mean that you and a friend have a very different game experience. Writing for a game with content that “branches” in this way certainly has its challenges. Instead of a normal linear script, we have to take into account each possible branch and how it affects the game you’ll play. It’ll be fun to backtrack when playing to see what would happen if you’d made a different decision and our save system supports that with our rewind feature.

Beyond the huge impact of choice and the tailored experience, we’re giving players full control of Lee to explore the environment and think their way through both action sequences and survival-oriented puzzle arcs that are signature to a Telltale gaming experience. Unlike Monkey Island style games, we won’t be ‘using the pie on the gerbil to open the trapdoor’ or anything remotely comedic or illogical; instead, we’ve implemented much more serious concepts that are both logical and completely in-keeping with figuring out how to survive in a zombie apocalypse.

Given that this game is episodic, players can expect a summer-long continuing story of adventure horror that will begin with our first episode ‘A New Day’, followed by four additional episodes, each landing about each month after the previous one. Each episode will cost $4.99 on the PlayStation Store – but fans can also pre-purchase the entire five episode season for $19.99 to save $4.99 off of the total season price and nab an exclusive PlayStation 3 premium theme (images below).

There’s much more to talk about, and aside from more frequent posts here on the PlayStation Blog, fans can also stay tuned to our site or our Facebook page for episodes of ‘Playing Dead,’ a web series dedicated to covering the production of The Walking Dead, with special guests including Robert Kirkman and the writer of episode four, Gary Whitta (whom you might recognize as the screenwriter of post-apocalyptic story The Book of Eli).

Working with Robert, Gary and everyone involved has been awesome, and as a fan, it’s completely unreal to work on hugely collaborative projects like this.

We can’t wait for you to play the game and we aim to bring you news and updates all summer long. Look for me here again, or with any luck… maybe on an upcoming Official PlayStation Blogcast! If you have any questions or comments – feel free to fire away in the section below.

Tyrannosaurus Rex

The frightening Tyrannosaurus Rex, often known as the king of the dinosaurs, stands over 13 feet tall and is 40 feet from its snout to the tip of its tail. With Jurassic Park’s T-Rex having been clocked at 32 miles per hour, this carnivore is not one you’d want to come face-to-face with. Especially not while searching for a lost can of Barbasol shaving cream filled with stolen embryos! This deadly dino is never more than a few colossal footsteps away from the heroes of Jurassic Park: The Game. Park veterinarian, Gerry Harding, and his young daughter Jess have the first run-in with the T-Rex as they attempt to coax a Triceratops out of the road. This meeting results in an epic battle between two of the most famous dinosaurs known to man.

Velociraptor

The Velociraptor, gifted with uncanny intelligence, razor-sharp talons, and cheetah-like speed, is a fatal addition to Jurassic Park. These creatures proved so difficult to contain that they had to be moved to a remote pen. With the raptors roaming free due to Dennis Nedry’s meddling with the park’s security systems, the heroes of Jurassic Park: The Game are never out of danger’s grasp. Normal escape tactics like bunkering down inside a building are futile while avoiding a pack of Velociraptors, so try to stay safe from these lethal dinosaurs. However, their smarts and ability to open doors renders anything less than a securely locked entrance ineffectual!

Dilophosaurus

Dilophosaurus, easily identifiable by the crests atop their heads, are a beautiful but deadly addition to Jurassic Park. It was discovered that the “Dilos” hunt in packs, spitting venom at their prey’s eyes to cause blindness and disorientation before feasting on their incapacitated prey. In Jurassic Park: The Game, Nima Cruz and Miles Chadwick are sent to Jurassic Park to recover stolen dinosaur embryos, returning to the location where Dennis Nedry met his demise in the film. They encounter a pack of Dilophosaurs that are none-too-happy about their visit.

Pteranodon

The Pteranodon glides high above Isla Nublar. John Hammond originally planned an aviary containing the dinosaurs of the sky to be part of a tourist’s Jurassic Park experience. While these majestic animals are a wonder to see, an aircraft flying into a Pteranodon’s airspace would face certain peril. An InGen rescue team in a helicopter searching for Gerry Harding, his daughter, and other survivors of the Isla Nublar incident runs into a flock of Pteranodons. The high-flying reptiles cause their helicopter to spin out of control and make an emergency landing on the island.

Mosasaur

The Mosasaur, not on any of the official InGen dinosaur lists, calls the Jurassic Park Marine Facility its home. Fed to its satisfaction by an in-house fish farm, the Mosasaur is a terrifying beast best viewed from behind the reinforced glass of the Marine Facility. As the group of survivors, including Gerry Harding and his daughter, attempt to make their escape from Isla Nublar by heading north, they find themselves head-to-head with danger. As Ian Malcom’s Chaos Theory would dictate, ‘life finds a way’ – in this case, to drop the survivors right into the Mosasaur’s underwater enclosure!

Jurassic Park: The Game launches today on PS3 via PSN. If you pick up the game this afternoon on the PlayStation Store, let us know what you think in the comments below!

Hey PlayStation fans! Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last 65 million years, then you probably already know that we’ve been hard at work crafting Jurassic Park: The Game. But did you realize that it’s only a matter of days until you can find yourself back on the Isla Nublar?

On November 15th, you’ll be able to download all four episodes of Jurassic Park: The Game from PlayStation Network. That is, if you have what it takes to go face to giant toothy face with a massive T-Rex! We’ve created a game like nothing you’ve ever played before. Jurassic Park is about dinosaurs, but as fans of the movie know, it’s also about much more than that. It’s about the people that encounter the dinosaurs and how their lives change because of it. It’s about nature and what happens when we don’t respect it.

The story runs parallel to the movie and follows park veterinarian, Gerry Harding and his Daughter, as they get left behind on the island when the storm hits. They cross paths with a mysterious woman named Nima who was hired to retrieve Dennis Nedry’s fake Barbasol can full of stolen dinosaur embryos if anything went wrong (if, for example, the guy who was supposed to deliver it was eaten by poison-spitting dinosaurs!). Can they, and the team of mercenaries sent to rescue them, survive the jungles of Isla Nublar and escape the island before being eaten by hungry dinosaurs?

There are moments of horror and moments of wonder. Our story and our game-play reflect all those important elements of the movie. It’s truly a rollercoaster ride of action and emotion told in an interactive way that only video games can accomplish!

We have worked closely with Universal Studios to create a completely authentic experience. When you hear John Williams’ familiar music reaching a triumphant crescendo behind that icon T-Rex roar, you’ll know this is the real deal! We have studied the animation techniques used in the films, consulted with the same paleontologists, and even went out of our way to capture that Spielberg feel in the way we set up our camera angles!

I’m extremely proud of all the games I have worked on here at Telltale, but this has been such a great opportunity for me to help craft something that feels truly unique. We’ve created a game that blends storytelling and gameplay interaction in a way that explores what this medium can really do. I can’t wait for you guys to get your hands on it and hope that it leaves you as excited as I am! As Sam Jackson’s character said in the movie: “Hold on to your butts!”