Available this week from the LOOT store in the PlayStation Home Mall, the Ameratsu Yacht personal space is a full-on luxury party vessel that allows you to cruise the high seas while watching select videos with your friends. Take advantage of LOOT’s Entertainment on Demand (EOD) system to watch tons of great new content with your friends. As the Amaterasu glides through the crystal blue tropical waters, catch sight of the sea life that plays in the waves. Sharks are included, but other sea life can be unlocked as well. Watch the video below to learn more and then shoot on over to the LOOT store on Thursday and spoil yourself with the new Ameratsu Yacht.

Head to the delightfully festive Central Plaza this week and kick off your Holiday celebration by approaching the teleporter that leads to the Winter Wonderland event space. A snowy location filled with games and rewards galore, the Winter Wonderland serves as Santa’s home base. Help the elves with their holiday tasks in exchange for presents (duties change often, so be sure to visit the Winter Wonderland every day between now and the 25th). And while you are there, be sure to check out the Winter Market and get your picture taken (the photo elf will even throw in a free picture frame!)

In other news, we will be putting the mega-popular Dragon’s Green on sale in celebration of the winter holidays beginning Thursday, December 9th. Visit the Dragon’s Green space via the Featured Games section on your Navigator and pick up the Golden Ticket at a reduced price of $2.99 (or grab the 30-Day Voucher for the low price of $0.99)!

This Thursday, December 9th, in celebration of the recent release of Tron: Evolution, we are launching a truly awesome Tron personal space – a highly interactive environment full of Tron-themed games that is exclusive to PlayStation Home. In addition to this special space, we will also be releasing a host of Tron clothing and virtual items in the PlayStation Home Mall. So be sure to visit PlayStationHome this Thursday to pick up this exclusive personal space and complete your Tron collection!

We have an epic event scheduled for this Friday, December 10th. Members of the creative team behind the hit Adult Swim show Robot Chicken will be in the Gamer’s Lounge between the hours of 3:00pm and 5:00pm PST (5:00pm and 7:00pm EST) playing games of Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planewalkers with the PlayStation Home community. Come out and meet Doug Goldstein (co-writer and co-executive producer), Mike Fasolo (Writer, Voice Actor, and Creative Director), Hugh Sterbakov (Writer of the Emmy-nominated Star Wars: Robot Chicken special), and the one and only Clare Grant (Voice Actress for Robot Chicken and star of Black Snake Moan and Showtime’s Masters of Horror series). Challenge members of the team to a duel in Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planewalkers and try to be one of the first to earn the limited Spellslinger trophy!

Starting this Thursday, December 9th, you will be able travel around PlayStationHome with a brand new companion – Steve, the lovable pet monkey from Columbia Pictures’ Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Pick up the Steve companion from the LOOT store (just remember to keep him far away from your stash of Gummy Bears…)

Speaking of new items, the PlayStation Home Mall gets an update this week with new furniture items from the LOOT store (including new items for your Ghostbusters personal space), additional Spelunker HD and Dragon’s Lair items, rock star costumes, festive musical stockings for your personal space, and brand new Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 costumes.

Last but certainly not least, the PlayStation Home Community Theater debuts the new HomeCast Rewind series this week. In the premiere episode, host HearItWow tells you how to get the most out of the 1.4 client update – offering a “How To” focused on the new Chat and Storage features – and takes a look at some must-have items. Also playing this week in the Community Theater is episode 6 of the legendary GamerIndepth “Shout Outs” (which includes an interview with our very own GlassWalls). Visit the PlayStation Home Theater this week to watch these fantastic new videos, and while you are there be sure to catch up on the latest episodes of The Tester 2 and Replay with Doc: Cast Offs.

See you in Home!

With TRON Legacy bringing the uncanny valley to theaters nationwide on December 17th in IMAX 3D and Disney Digital 3D, the pressure’s on TRON: Evolution to serve up some bleeding-edge hardware of its own. Luckily, TRON: Evolution on the PS3 is locked and loaded with state-of-the-art stereoscopic 3D as well as PlayStation Move support. We spoke with Game Director Darren Hedges for the full skinny on TRON: Evolution and grabbed first video of PlayStation Move controls in action for the epic lightcycle sequences in the campaign.

Tech details aside, Hedges explains how TRON: Evolution’s persistent character customization across all modes means your progress and upgrades (roughly 60 in all) in the single-player campaign will transfer to online multiplayer, and vice-versa. Hedges also details how the TRON: Evolution team worked closely with the film team on TRON: Legacy, sharing assets, motion-capture data, and 3D techniques. Rey’s new video is fascinating, so give it a watch and let us know what you think in the comments.

With the holiday calendar flying by faster than Ezio Auditore free running across rooftops in Firenze, November’s Episode 30 focuses on the fantastic fun you don’t want to miss this holiday season.

Of course, first up, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is this episode’s lead story and in our preview Veronica Belmont spends some hands-on time with the game and talks to Ubisoft Missions Director, Gaelic Simard about this vastly expanded environment including vistas of Renaissance Rome in High Def along with the very cool game mode allowing players to recruit and deploy a posse of up and coming assassins.

With Kratos coming back to your PSP system in the new God of War: Ghost of Sparta tomorrow, Veronica sharpens her Blades of Athena to slice and dice her way through another larger-than-life God of War adventure. Game Director Dana Jan explains the development team’s approach to maintaining the grand scale and epic gameplay of a God of War title on the PSP system.

And, yes, it does play large.

Qore also went behind-the-scenes of the ‘God of War: Game Directors Live’ production. This historic event brought together the development leads of the five God of War titles for a roundtable covering the evolution of the franchise. Audrey Cleo’s reports from the event with interviews of David Jaffe, Cory Barlog, Ru Weerasuriya, Stig Asmussen, and, again, Dana Jan along with a sneak peek of the finished discussion. Very cool.

“Planetary (Go!)”, a track from the upcoming album by My Chemical Romance has been selected as the opening song for Gran Turismo 5. Audrey Cleo hangs with the band as they get their hands on the game and they talk about making the new album, driving fast cars and the thrill of having their song chosen for the game!

With the new TRON: Legacy, the motion picture, and TRON: Evolution, the video game, rolling out during this holiday season, Qore catches up with Steven Lisberger the writer/director of the original movie along with Legacy Producer, Sean Bailey and Game Director, Darren Hedges to explore how the movie and game work together to expand (and maybe explain?) the full sci-fi universe of TRON.

In this month’s Download Center – Qore subscribers can pick up the Mousetrap Mod and Kart pack for ModNation Racers. In case you haven’t checked these games out yet, all Qore viewers have access to the ModNation Racers demo and the Vanquish Official Demo.

Look for Episode 30 tomorrow.

I spoke with TRON: Evolution’s design director, Chris Whiteside, to learn more about the scope of multiplayer and how stereoscopic 3D support will add to the experience (and possibly improve your aim). And though details on PlayStation Move support are still scarce — sadly, it wasn’t playable at the event — I was able to tease out a few details about how it will work when the final game ships this December.

Sid Shuman: Visually, TRON: Evolution looks to be showing many new visual effects since its last appearance. What have you done to enhance the visuals?

Chris Whiteside, Design Director, Propaganda Games: Prior to E3, we didn’t have proper reflection maps. The lighting passes weren’t complete, the visual effects were revamped after E3, and the camera was completely redone after E3 based on feedback that it was too fast and wasn’t framing the action well enough. We’re very receptive to criticism and commentary, so we spent a lot of time getting it up to scratch. We’re making this game for the fans of TRON, so we want to make sure it’s tip-top.

SS: Why is stereoscopic 3D a good fit for TRON: Evolution?

CW: From a technical standpoint, the reason 3D works so well is the contrast of the colors in the environment, and the lines in the environment and the architecture style we use. It’s not a messy world, you know? There are no trees with leaves on them, that kind of thing. The environments are very angular, which creates an advantage with depth of field and super-advanced parallax effects when we render in 3D. We had to mess with the art style a bit. We went mental with the lighting to bring out the definition of the buildings, for instance.

SS: Will 3D be supported in both single-player and multiplayer?

CW: It totally does, yeah. 3D is awesome for combat because you get a sense of depth with the characters. The normal targeting system is based on the angle of the analog stick, and very minute aiming adjustments, so the 3D helps with targeting. We invested a lot of money in the 3D technology and we’re hoping that TRON: Evolution is the pinnacle 3D gaming experience this year.

SS: We’re seeing TRON: Evolution’s multiplayer for the first time today. What’s the scale of the multiplayer experience?

CW: For me, the multiplayer mode is the jewel in the crown. We’ve got four modes in all: Disintegration is a Deathmatch-style mode, we have Team Deathmatch, Power Monger in which you can take over sections and control them, and Bit Runner is our take on Capture the Flag. The difference is you don’t take the “flag” back to the base, you have to hold onto it while everyone else tries to de-rez (kill) you.

We’re also launching new modes and maps in DLC. You’ll see new free maps at launch, and you’ll get new modes in DLC. You’ll also get upgrades to the player progression systems: new level caps, new vehicles, and so on.

SS: How do the lightcycles and tanks fit into the multiplayer ecosystem?

CW: We wanted to create this sort of sandbox cybersport, which meant that we needed players needed to be able to “rez” in and out of vehicles almost at will. The lightcycles are very fast and are a primary way for players to move around quickly. The tanks bring the heavy firepower, and on-foot provides protection for the tanks. It’s rock-paper-scissors design. The perception is that the tanks are the most powerful, but the reality is that you’re most powerful when you’re on foot.

SS: TRON’s characters are unusually maneuverable. How do you maintain balance in a multiplayer setting with characters that can run on walls and make these huge jumps?

CW: Awesome question. We knew this game was about mobility. We basically set rules for how we build the environments — the distance between jumps and so forth. We created basic, grey-textured blocks that were kind of like LEGO pieces. We knew that the distance between them was just right, so if we kept using the same blocks when we built multiplayer levels. This is a traditional tactic in this kind of game, but the difference is we have online multiplayer so it was even more important.

SS: How can players evolve and enhance their multiplayer characters?

CW: For starters, you can play the single-player game, level up, get vehicles and enhancements, specialize your character. Then you can take those upgrades with you when you go into online multiplayer, or vice-versa. Our player progression system allows you to customize a character to your own strengths, so when you start teaming up with people playing online, you’ll essentially be forming a party.

There are a huge number of upgrades — upgrades that increase your damage greatly but make you slower or weaker, upgrades that make you stealthy and scout-like, or other enhancements that will buff the team as a whole. There’s a ton of stuff in multiplayer: you can buy new bikes, augments for the different weapons, and more. But you can’t buy everything, and that’s really the secret. You have to specialize in what works for you.

SS: How will TRON: Evolution support PlayStation Move?

CW: PlayStation Move is used in vehicle segments, particularly the lightcycle segments. It gives players a more nuanced control over the lightcycle, and it’s fun to be able to hold it like it’s the actual control panel of the lightcycle. And yes, PlayStation Move support is included on the disc!

SS: Do you use one PlayStation Move controller to control vehicles, or two?

CW: You use one, though we experimented with using two. You hold it on its side and tilt it up or down to accelerate or slow down. Watch this space — I think PlayStation Move is something we’ll be doing a little more with going forward. We’ll see what happens with that.

And of course, games, games, games: From heavyweights like MotorStorm Apocalypse, LittleBigPlanet 2, Gran Turismo 5, SOCOM 4, inFAMOUS 2, and God of War: Ghost of Sparta to head-turning PSN titles like Dead Nation, Journey, and PixelJunk Shooter 2 — this year, the games did all the talking. And don’t get me started on the third-party lineup, with Dead Space 2, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Medal of Honor, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Crysis 2, Mafia II, Portal 2, Mortal Kombat, Scott Pilgrim…I could go on all day and I’d run out of breath before I named them all.

This is an excellent time to be a gamer. It’s also an excellent time to have access to a camera, as this year’s E3 booths were bigger and bolder than I’ve seen in years. I wanted to give PlayStation.Blog readers an inside look at some of the most inspired booth layouts we spotted on the show floor. It’s by no means a complete look, but I hope you enjoy the eye candy.

Enjoy the pics! And see more PlayStation E3 2010 photos on our Flickr Photostream.

Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 for PS3

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood for PS3

Homefront for PS3

Killzone 3 in stereoscopic 3D for PS3 (so popular it averaged a one-to-two hour line wait)

Left: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow for PS3; Right: Yakuza 4 for PS3

MAFIA II, coming to PS3 with exclusive bonus content

Mortal Kombat, coming to PS3 with Stereoscopic 3D

Red Faction Armageddon for PS3

Lord of the Rings: War in the North for PS3

TRON Evolution for PS3

Left: Marvel vs Capcom 3 for PS3; Right: DC Universe Online for PS3