131w ago - PlayStation: The Official Magazine Editor in Chief Gary Steinman has revealed today that Mortal Kombat PS3 kicks off PTOM's list of biggest 2011 video games.

To quote: We knew it would make the cut. How could it not? After all, Mortal Kombat isn't just destined to be one of the biggest fighting franchises of 2011, but it's one of the best we've played in a long time.

It's fast, it's fun, it's brutal, and it harkens back to the series' gory glory days. The move to a 2D plane, the giddy celebration of everything that's great about the Mortal Kombat franchise, the mix of faithful fan-service with future-looking gameplay upgrades: It's exactly what we at PlayStation: The Official Magazine crave in our heavy hitters.

Then we found out Kratos would be in the game, and that's all it took for Mortal Kombat to kick, punch, impale, and maim its way to the tippy top of our Hugest Games of 2011 issue.

Not only did we get a sneak peek at Kratos' in-game model, but we've got the first-ever screenshots of the God of War in action--along with this unbelievably gorgeous cover. On stands Dec. 21, the January issue of PTOM has our hands-on...

176w ago - PlayStation: The Official Magazine (PTOM) has confirmed in their March, 2010 issue that no Indy cars will be appearing in Gran Turismo 5 for PS3.

However, the article found by RAZORBACK2015 of GTPlanet.net (linked above) does leave open the possibility still exists via DLC.

To quote: "In our February 2010 cover story on Gran Turismo 5, we incorrectly stated that Indy (IRL) racing cars and tracks would appear in the game.

While the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will indeed appear in GT5, Indy cars currently will not."

Does this mean that there's still room for a later (DLC) release? Only time will tell for sure...

180w ago - Forum user Digital-Nitrate of GTPlanet.net (linked above) has posted a few scans from the latest PlayStation: The Official Magazine (PTOM) which reveals both Gran Turismo 5 Night Racing and GT5 PS3 box art.

Apparently the game will have over 1,000 vehicles including Indy cars. All of which has modeled interiors, external visual deformation and mechanical damage.

170 "premium" cars also feature internal deformation. The magazine also confirms that the racing tracks will be supporting weather effects and day/night cycles.

From the gameplay perspective, Gran Turismo 5 will be using the PlayStation Eye for head-tracking. Moreover, you can set up the game to be displayed on three screens for multi-display if you have three PlayStation 3 systems lying around. Finally, the game will have Youtube HD uploading and 16-players online support.

Gran Turismo 5 is slated for a summer release on the PlayStation 3.

188w ago - During a recent interview with PlayStation: The Official Magazine (PTOM) in the Holiday '09 issue, PSN Director Eric Lempel discusses how Firmware update features are planned and released for the PlayStation 3 and PSP consoles and touches on cross-game voice chat.

To quote: "We go about doing that in a few different ways. We do consumer research in addition to following our roadmap.

We've had a very long roadmap that we've wanted to roll out, and clearly all of them couldn't be rolled out day one when the PS3 launched. So we've been implementing these features as we go along and some of them, and some of them take longer than others."

Lempel continued: "Of course time and manpower always factor in because there aren't limitless resources. And are sometimes key features that must go out in Firmware updates. For example, you saw on September 1, we released a 120GB PS3 and we did a Firmware update, and there were some enhancements in that specifically to bring on the new hardware."

The director of the PlayStation Network further explained: "We absolutely read all the feedback that we see on our blog when we do firmware updates. We have people who look across different forums and different sites. And we also do our own testing - some very extensive testing.."

202w ago - According to GamesThirst (linked above), the September Issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine (PTOM, formerly known as PSM - PlayStation Magazine) has a few new details about Team ICO's newest game, The Last Guardian for PS3.

To quote: "The game being the third from Team ICO, will center on the evolving relationship between a boy and his large mythical creature, (we already knew that), that creature is called "Trico" in the Japanese version.

At first the creature will be hostile towards the boy, but as the boy cares for the creature, cleaning it, playing with it and feeding it, that relationship, or bond will grow.

Overtime, the boy will use the creature to solve platforming puzzles, but the creature is alive and acts naturally, as if it were a real animal. Persuading it to do what you need will take patience and guile, not force."

That being said, The Last Guardian is looking to be another graphical masterpiece from the creators of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.

For those wondering, The Last Guardian has no official release date yet but is likely to be released in 2010.