88w ago - Recently Sony's Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that PlayStation Vita will be region-free, and over the weekend GameSpot (linked above) did an interview with him discussing PS Vita's US / EU launch slated for early next year.

Previously, we reported that PS Vita is scheduled to hit Japan on December 17, 2011.

To quote: "Currently, with the PlayStation 3 and PSP, physical media is released region-free, allowing games published in one country to be played without hassle in another.

However, Sony's digital strategy restricts content to the region in which it is released, with access being determined by the region of a user's PlayStation Network profile.

As announced earlier this week, the PS Vita will launch alongside 26 games in Japan on December 17. Sony expects to release its newest gaming hardware in Europe and North America sometime in early 2012."

92w ago - SCEE's James Gallagher has shared a Gamescom 2011 interview today with writer Anthony Burch of Borderlands 2 for the PS3 entertainment system.

To quote: Gamescom 2011 is a hazy memory now that I'm back at my London desk, watching raindrops fall down the window and imagining they're racing each other, but that doesn't mean our coverage is over.

I still have a few interviews to bring you, starting with Anthony Burch, writer on the recently announced Borderlands 2.

What did you think of the original Borderlands and will you be picking up the sequel?

Check out the video interview below!

97w ago - Sony's Senior Social Media Manager Jeff Rubenstein has posted up an El Shaddai PS3 video interview today alongside details on the PlayStation 3 title, as follows:

With vibrant colors, buttery-smooth animation, and an uncluttered presentation (no HUD!), El Shaddai is a real head-turner.

The game's premise is as unusual as its visuals are striking. "This is a retelling of the Book of Enoch, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls," Ignition Entertainment's Shane Bettenhausen told me. "It's not meant to be a complete retelling - we've taken some liberties."

Liberties such as mobile phones, designer jeans, and a driving level which would be at home in a TRON or Final Fantasy title. Despite the biblical angle, I wouldn't consider El Shaddai a religious experience any more than I would Bayonetta a treatise on witchcraft. Instead, the source material offers up an interesting story and guides some of the gameplay elements.

"Enoch, as a character in the bible, is immortal," Bettenhausen told me. "He cannot die. So when you die in this game, you always have the chance to come back to life. If you jam on the four buttons that you use to play the game fast enough, you come back to life....

119w ago - Today Sony's Social Media Manager Jeff Rubenstein has shared a video interview with Bioware on Dragon Age II for the PlayStation 3 entertainment system.

To quote: Despite the fact that Dragon Age: Origins, Bioware's first ever PS3 game, scored very well with reviewers - it just didn't click for me. I loved the universe, enjoyed the story.

I even got hooked on the associated Web game Dragon Age: Journeys, which allows you to unlock special items in the PS3 version of Origins. I just never adapted to the battle system, and eventually abandoned the game.

After reading Tweeted adulation and hearing the raves of seemingly everyone else who loved Origins (Qore's Veronica Belmont chided me for quitting recently), and after hearting Bioware's Mass Effect 2 on PS3, I found myself all too ready to give the upcoming Dragon Age II another chance.





That chance came last week, as EA held a preview event featuring the upcoming Dragon Age II demo (which you'll be able to download from PSN and play on February 22nd).

To me, improvements were apparent and multiple. Visual upgrades (the game has a definitive style), technical polish (inconsistent frame rate begone!), and refined,...

126w ago - Naughty Dog Community Strategist Arne Meyer has shared a new video today which includes an Uncharted 3 Drake's Deception PS3 Interview and details alongside some fresh gameplay videos below.

To quote: We're not closing out 2010 quietly! I'm sure it's been hard to miss that another wave of information, interviews, screenshots and gameplay video for UNCHARTED 3: Drake's Deception hit the internets today.

You're just seeing the fruits of the nefarious plan we've had in the works for a couple of months now. Okay, that's not quite true, but it sure sounds way better if it's all dramatic, right?

A good part this wave comes from the event we held for the media just after the Spike VGA 2010 - you read about that here on the PlayStation.Blog a couple of weeks ago when the first batch of info on UNCHARTED 3 gameplay was released.





PlayStation Blog was there not only to check out UNCHARTED 3 with their very own eyes, but they got managed to snag Creative Director Amy Hennig and Game Director Justin Richmond to answer some questions in the video above.