27w ago - Foddy Founder and Head Honcho Bennett Foddy has shared a Sportsfriends: Super Pole Riders video today spotlighting the building of a better Pole Riders for the PlayStation 3 entertainment system.

To quote: In 2010, when I started making Pole Riders, my original plan was to make a straight pole-vaulting game, like the ones in Summer Games or Daley Thompson's Decathlon, both games that were super-popular when I was six years old. Back in 1984, local multiplayer games were nearing the peak of their popularity.

In the arcades, there were games like Joust and Track & Field, but at home, and in the public libraries, the Epyx compilations ruled the roost: not just Summer Games but Winter Games and the immortal California Games too. I was absolutely obsessed with the pole-vault event in Summer Games and for the longest time, I wanted to make my own version of it.

Perhaps it's no coincidence, then, that I'm now involved in Sportsfriends, which is a spiritual successor to Summer Games - a compilation of four sports-themed games, to be played by up to four friends on the one couch.

But unlike the old Epyx compilations, none of the Sportsfriends games play it straight. Hokra is a hockey game with no goals and no sticks. BaraBariBall is a volleyball game with no net, where the...

62w ago - Sony Senior Producer Matt McEnerney at 345 Games has outlined Bellator MMA Onslaught details on building a more accessible MMA fighting game.

To quote: You may or may not heard of 345 Games, but we are part of Viacom Entertainment Group, which also houses cable TV channels like Spike TV and Comedy Central.

We've also launched a few recent PSN games such as Deadliest Warrior and Ugly Americans. I wanted to take some time and let you all know that our next title Bellator MMA Onslaught will be arriving to PSN this summer.

Bellator MMA Onslaught is an arcade-style fighting game grounded in the reality of an established MMA brand. If you've never heard of the Bellator Fighting Championships, it's an MMA organization that currently airs on MTV2 but will be moving to Spike TV starting in 2013.

Bellator is unique compared to other MMA leagues in that tournaments are held to determine who fights for the championship belt rather than having promoters select the fighter for a championship match. If you win, you move on.

If you lose, you go home. This philosophy works well in the video game space, where we are used to tournament-style progression...

66w ago - Today CCP Community Manager CmdrWang has revealed the future of war - building DUST 514's PS3 arsenal below!

To quote: In this post, I wanted to pick a few weapons that changed the way that the development team played when we added them to the game.

Gamers don't always realize how long it can take for a weapon to make the leap from the drawing board to being fully functional and kicking ass in the game. It needs to be concepted, built, textured, animated, weapon logic needs to be engineered, sounds created, various values set up, tested, debugged, and tweaked.

As you can imagine, all this takes quite a while, which means you spend a lot of time playing your game with a limited set of gear. Over time, we add new weapons to the game and they can radically alter the balance of play because they open up new possibilities in combat. Below are some examples.

Heavy Weapons for Heavy Armor...

Let's start with the Minmatar MH82-BCR Personal Autocannon. This is a heavy weapon and, as such, restricted to the heavy dropsuit. As well as being simply devastating in its own right, this weapon really opened up the heavy dropsuit class once we added it to the game.

For some time, the heavy dropsuit wasn't very popular with our internal dev team. It may have...

94w ago - Sony Senior Social Media Specialist Sid Shuman has shared a Starhawk PlayStation 3 Q&A interview today entitled Building Better Worlds for fans.

To quote: Starhawk is a rare beast - a big-budget shooter with a story to tell. That tale centers squarely on Emmett Graves, a reluctant protagonist saddled with some serious baggage.

I spoke with Harvard Bonin, Sony Santa Monica Studios' Senior Producer on Starhawk, to try and get a grip on what makes Emmett Graves tick.

PSB: A gigantic multiplayer shooter that includes RTS elements has been seen as something of a gaming Holy Grail. Which part did you conceptualize first -- shooter, or RTS?

Harvard Bonin, Senior producer, Sony Santa Monica Studios: At first, we just wanted to do a sequel to Warhawk and set it in space - just bring a new setting, story, and a solo campaign. But we realized that we needed to bring something extra, so when LittleBigPlanet came out, we thought, "wouldn't it be cool to make your own shooter?"

So, we tried it, and we actually have test levels back at the office. Instead of LittleBigPlanet giving you these macro tools, we gave you these almost jigsaw puzzle pieces -- anything that you saw in a level, you could've built in this early prototype.

It had...

212w ago - Verizon Wireless is reportedly working with software giant Microsoft Corp. to develop a new smart phone device that could rival the popular iPhone.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Microsoft and Verizon are in talks to develop a touch-screen mobile phone that would run on Window's Mobile, Microsoft's mobile device operating system that has seen its position come under attack from devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry, which use competing software platforms.

To quote: According to the report, Microsoft's new smart phone project is code-named "Pink" and could include the Windows Marketplace for Mobile - a mobile application store similar to Apple's popular App Store, which just saw its 1 billionth download last week.

Representatives for Verizon refused to comment on the latest rumors. A spokesman for Microsoft said the company's strategy to provide a software platform for the mobile industry has not changed, but decline to offer further specifics.