Sony made good on its promise to develop the PSN Store this month by assuring UK gamers that future PSN games will be released on the same day here as on the US Store.
There'll be more PSone games too, to bring us more in line with the Japanese Store. Here are 10 new PSN downloads you have to try:
1: Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty Continuing the story of Tools Of Destruction in a download game, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty is a brave step forward. The game uses all the tricks you'll have learned in the original PS3 release and adds light-based gameplay while an add-on to Ratchet's wrench enables you to interact remotely with the environment. Read the full review on page 98.
2: Flower If you're a fan of trippy, atmospheric games like Rez, LocoRoco and Ico then Flower will blossom in your games collection. The aim is to guide a petal around a field using Sixaxis, every time you float over a blade of grass more petals are added to your trail and the level begins to erupt with colour.
There's a story of sorts about merging the urban and natural worlds, and each level begins with your petal floating off an apartment window ledge. But that's not the point, Flower, like the dev's other PSN game flOw is about relaxation and experimentation.
3: Siren: Blood Curse You can buy each episode of Sony's horror romp seperately, or pick up the full game at a cheaper price. The concept is intriguing and should encourage other publishers to release games episodically over PSN at a cheaper cost. Luckily Siren is good too and will tide you over until Dead Space arrives. Reviewed page 94.
4: Fat Princess A hack 'n' slash strategy game that could overtake PixelJunk Monsters on PSN as the cute game of choice, Fat Princess has more going for it than the zesty name. The aim of each level is to rescue the princess, each team (the game supports 32 players) heads to the opposing castle - but her majesty is a bit of a porker, so at least four players must carry her.
Add in upgrades, perks and character classes (Builders can create watchtowers and Archers can fire from them) that offer tactical ways to prevent your Princess from being snatched, and Fat Princess is one cute and cuddly royal we'd like to see much more of.
5: Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists Of Plastic The team behind LittleBigPlanet are stretching their legs with Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists Of Plastic - a novelty beat-'em-up that manages to mix Nintendo's Smash Brothers with the classic IK+ and come out looking good.
The draw is an art style that makes its characters look like action figures and sets them against one another on a 2D platform plain. The LBP comparisons are evident, but Rag Doll Kung Fu's wealth of combo moves and four-player online mode has an appeal and originality all of its own.
6: PixelJunk Eden The PixelJunk brand is fast becoming a badge of quality on PSN, and PixelJunk Eden is quickly shaping into the label's best game yet. This beautiful platform-puzzler is a unique blend of LocoRoco and Xbox 360's ninja puzzler - N+.
Eden is a game that challenges you to navigate levels collecting pollen and zapping enemies. The twist is that you can swing from tree to tree and also grow branches to latch onto, ensuring tactical planning is needed to scoop up all the pollen. Eden is an imaginative puzzler that could prove addictive. Read the review on page 100.
7: SOCOM: Confrontation The team that successfully reinvented Sony's squad-shooter on PSP is making a fist of bringing the series bang up to date on PSN. This will be a download only blast, in a similar vein to Warhawk. SOCOM will support the online community in full from the off with Clan Ladders, Leaderboards and regular Tournaments. Gameplay will support 32-player matches; offering classes, customisation and multi-mode maps. Don't disguard SOCOM for its PSN status - this is a quality shooter.
8: Crash Commando Resurrecting gameplay that went out of fashion with the phrases 'lush', 'wicked' and 'skill', Crash Commando is a true Eighties throwback. This is a side-scrolling multiplayer shooter that has coin-op hits like Quartet and Xenophobe tattooed on its bulging pixel biceps and pits two teams of rival commandos against each other in a battle for points and bragging rights.
You'll have vehicles at your disposal, including jet-packs, jeeps and tanks, while portals enable you to flip to a second 'layer' of the level to get the drop on your rival. Not the most original game on this list, but retroheads will lap it up. Recommended.
9: PAIN: Amusement Park This expansion to PAIN offers more of the same, including new online modes, events and online leaderboards. You'll need to already own the original PAIN, so unless you've bought into the game's mix of casual puzzling, this expansion could turn out to be an expensive ride.
Again, the aim is to fire your little man at various obstacles, this time attractions include the Tilt-A-Hurl, Booty Of The Sea and Duaces Wild - before employing aftertouch (using Sixaxis) to steer your hero into as many point- scoring and painful perils as possible.
10: Home Sony's ambitious virtual community space opened its doors this month and perfectly illustrated why Home will be an essential part of all future PS3 games. From the main Plaza - a central hub - the developer took us to a Naughty Dog room via a menu on a virtual PSP.
This room was modelled after the dream bar Victor Sullivan talks about in Uncharted. On the wall are pictures of Nathan and Victor, in the corner a Pitfall coin-op machine and in the back is a locked door likely to open once you achieve the required Trophy in Uncharted.
Home is a virtual space to meet friends, hang out, chat and launch multiplayer jaunts in your favourite PS3 games. The scope is vast and it's understandable why Home has been delayed for so long. An October release date is now on the cards.
its good to hear that we wont be forced to wait endless bloody months for the new stuff to hit the Euro store anymore. It would be great if Sony took the Nintendo Hanabi festival idea and put up rare or unreleased in this country PS1 games to download, Id love to get my mucky little hands on Strider 2, Chrono Cross and The Misadventures of Tron Bonne.
I do genuinely spend more time playing PSN games than full releases at the present time. I am currently enjoying Warhawk, Siren, The last guy, PJ:Eden and Bionic Commando - all top games in my book.
It is great news that Sony are now going to release new games at the same time worldwide. I am especially looking forward to WipeoutHD, Flower, Socom and HOME (Pitfall in the Uncharted lobby is inspired - and I'd love to know what's behind that secret door - and I'm fairly close to getting my platinum trophy!)
And can I just say that MS and Nintendo could learn something from Sony's pricing policy. That is one thing that Sony gets right.
Super Stardust HD is still the best PSN game, in my opinion anyway.
Some of those trophies are fecking hard!
PS, *waits for the inevitable "What? I got all the trophies withing five minutes, it's p**s-easy" reply*
No, some of those SSHD trophies are real hard to get. Especially the bomb hoarder trophy - it must have taken me hours to get that one. But it does feel good to be in the 100% club!
Ive got more psn games than ps3 games, downloaded about 15 in total. Im very surprised that flower and home got mentioned above pixel junk minsters and the last guy. Both are excellent titles.
I really like the psn service, it may be lacking in content but overall I think it has more stuff on there that I like compared to xbla. PJ Monsters, the last guy, Tekken dark resurrection, PJ Eden are excellent. Im waiting for the blu ray version of siren, dont have the harddrive space.
Microsoft spokeperson: "but...but..but....we have private chat"
And more games that are updated weekly
But it's good to see the psn network getting a lot better. It was crap at the start but they seem to be getting their act together. Now if only every game could support trophies from the start(like achievements on the 360), that would improve things further.
Super stardust hd and the last guy should be in that list as well. Both fun titles.
Playing the "limited" Socom demo right now, needs some work to fix some issues, (in terms of online lag/connection and menu/stats issues), but the core gameplay is solid and good fun.
Ive got more psn games than ps3 games, downloaded about 15 in total. Im very surprised that flower and home got mentioned above pixel junk minsters and the last guy. Both are excellent titles.
I really like the psn service, it may be lacking in content but overall I think it has more stuff on there that I like compared to xbla. PJ Monsters, the last guy, Tekken dark resurrection, PJ Eden are excellent. Im waiting for the blu ray version of siren, dont have the harddrive space.
I wish that I had waited for the Blu-ray version of Siren as it does take up a lot of space - but it is a great horror game and well worth the money. I especially like the episodic nature of the game - allowing you to progress in nice bite-size chunks.
As for The Last Guy, I am thoroughly enjoying its 'old skool' gameplay, and it now stands as my favourite 'high score' PSN title. Unfortunately, nobody else on my friends list (30 in total) plays the game, so I don't have any potential bragging rights. Be nice to get some fans of the game on my list. Nudge, wink.
Ive got more psn games than ps3 games, downloaded about 15 in total. Im very surprised that flower and home got mentioned above pixel junk minsters and the last guy. Both are excellent titles.
I really like the psn service, it may be lacking in content but overall I think it has more stuff on there that I like compared to xbla. PJ Monsters, the last guy, Tekken dark resurrection, PJ Eden are excellent. Im waiting for the blu ray version of siren, dont have the harddrive space.
I wish that I had waited for the Blu-ray version of Siren as it does take up a lot of space - but it is a great horror game and well worth the money. I especially like the episodic nature of the game - allowing you to progress in nice bite-size chunks.
As for The Last Guy, I am thoroughly enjoying its 'old skool' gameplay, and it now stands as my favourite 'high score' PSN title. Unfortunately, nobody else on my friends list (30 in total) plays the game, so I don't have any potential bragging rights. Be nice to get some fans of the game on my list. Nudge, wink.
I generally dont play for scores (saves me the embarrassment of losing), however feel free to add me.
And can I just say that MS and Nintendo could learn something from Sony's pricing policy. That is one thing that Sony gets right.
So you are happy paying 19p extra for the same content that is available on both the PSN and XBL platforms?
That increases to 52p extra for the same content on PSN, if someone buys a points card from an online retailer.
Sorry, but Sony's pricing policy seems to be making up for the fact that the service is free.
Hey, fanboys can twist it whichever way they want. My argument is based on:
a) PSN allowing me to easily keep up with how many POUNDS that I spend, rather than POINTS.
b) That some of the best games can be bought for as little as Ł3.49 (i.e. PJ Monsters, Flow) and Ł4.99 (PJ:Eden and The Last Guy). Those are nearly half the price of what MS charge.
Regardless of the differences in a few (rare) instances, there is still better quality for your buck on PSN.
Though don't get me wrong, there are some fantastic games on LIVE Arcade, GW being my personal fave. However, I don't get to see the quality of games like Braid and Castle Crashers as I refuse to pay Ł10 or more on a 'play and throw away' title. Now if they were Ł5.00 to buy, I would be in download heaven, as would a lot more people, for sure. The sweetspot is definitely Ł5.00 or less in my opinion.
So you are happy paying 19p extra for the same content that is available on both the PSN and XBL platforms?
That increases to 52p extra for the same content on PSN, if someone buys a points card from an online retailer.
Sorry, but Sony's pricing policy seems to be making up for the fact that the service is free.
One reason Microsoft set up the points system was to avoid handling charges from credit card companies. When buying something for Ł6.50 most credit card companies would add a typically 5% surcharge. It's the same reason shops have minimum amounts before they accept a card. You could argue as Microsoft avoid these charges they should be cheaper as well. As for your other point about the pricing policy making up for the service being free. I'd be in favour of that. At the moment I'm paying Ł40 a year for a service that I would only use for a few hours a month. If Microsoft did make it a pay as you use/play service and past the costs onto the games you download I'd go for it. Especially as you don't have to download the games.
I'm not even going to go into the global cost variation in Microsoft points.
i got into the public beta too (infact i have 2 keys)and i agree with the game play is fun but the lag is amazing i was waiting for a game for 3 hours and the sound barely ever works the servers are crap so i stopped playing it.
And can I just say that MS and Nintendo could learn something from Sony's pricing policy. That is one thing that Sony gets right.
So you are happy paying 19p extra for the same content that is available on both the PSN and XBL platforms?
That increases to 52p extra for the same content on PSN, if someone buys a points card from an online retailer.
Sorry, but Sony's pricing policy seems to be making up for the fact that the service is free.
Hey, fanboys can twist it whichever way they want. My argument is based on:
a) PSN allowing me to easily keep up with how many POUNDS that I spend, rather than POINTS.
b) That some of the best games can be bought for as little as Ł3.49 (i.e. PJ Monsters, Flow) and Ł4.99 (PJ:Eden and The Last Guy). Those are nearly half the price of what MS charge.
Regardless of the differences in a few (rare) instances, there is still better quality for your buck on PSN.
Though don't get me wrong, there are some fantastic games on LIVE Arcade, GW being my personal fave. However, I don't get to see the quality of games like Braid and Castle Crashers as I refuse to pay Ł10 or more on a 'play and throw away' title. Now if they were Ł5.00 to buy, I would be in download heaven, as would a lot more people, for sure. The sweetspot is definitely Ł5.00 or less in my opinion.
I do agree that sonys price mechanism is much better, paying in cash allows me to know exactly what im spending, i can work points out but its all a little annoying really. Biggest thing for me though is the ability to purchase using a debit card, i dont have a credit card and with the xbox you cant use debit, the ps3 allows me to which is really useful for me.
And can I just say that MS and Nintendo could learn something from Sony's pricing policy. That is one thing that Sony gets right.
So you are happy paying 19p extra for the same content that is available on both the PSN and XBL platforms?
That increases to 52p extra for the same content on PSN, if someone buys a points card from an online retailer.
Sorry, but Sony's pricing policy seems to be making up for the fact that the service is free.
Hey, fanboys can twist it whichever way they want. My argument is based on:
a) PSN allowing me to easily keep up with how many POUNDS that I spend, rather than POINTS.
b) That some of the best games can be bought for as little as Ł3.49 (i.e. PJ Monsters, Flow) and Ł4.99 (PJ:Eden and The Last Guy). Those are nearly half the price of what MS charge.
Regardless of the differences in a few (rare) instances, there is still better quality for your buck on PSN.
Though don't get me wrong, there are some fantastic games on LIVE Arcade, GW being my personal fave. However, I don't get to see the quality of games like Braid and Castle Crashers as I refuse to pay Ł10 or more on a 'play and throw away' title. Now if they were Ł5.00 to buy, I would be in download heaven, as would a lot more people, for sure. The sweetspot is definitely Ł5.00 or less in my opinion.
While I agree that some games could do with being cheaper, I also disagree with your comment about there being more bang for your buck on PSN.
You are denying the fact that there is a lot of content available on XBLA for the 400 point price point, that's Ł3.40 to those that can't work it out.
Games like Geometry Wars, Jet Pac Refuelled, Marble Blast Ultra, Small Arms and Assault heroes to name a few on that Ł3.40 price point. Ok, some of those have been marked down permanantly from their original prices, but that is now their permanent prices.
Virtually every release of old arcade games also have the Ł3.40 price mark and let's not forget, a lot of these have online multiplayer added to them, something that seems to be lacking in a lot of the downloads on PSN.
About the only game I have bought off of PSN, is PAIN. Absolutely brilliant game with friends and family and an absolute steal at Ł4.99, well, until you realise that they charge you 69p for every character in the game. I have now spent about Ł10.20 in total on PAIN and I still haven't got all of the characters. There is still more stuff coming, of which, most of it is going to be at a cost. The price point that they are looking at for the Amusement Park download, is apparently going to cost about $5.99 which will translate to about Ł2.99 over here.
I personally think the pricing for the characters at 69p each is a bloody rip off, they should have been made as unlockables within the game.
I do agree that sonys price mechanism is much better, paying in cash allows me to know exactly what im spending, i can work points out but its all a little annoying really. Biggest thing for me though is the ability to purchase using a debit card, i dont have a credit card and with the xbox you cant use debit, the ps3 allows me to which is really useful for me.
Wrong, plain and simple. I use a debit card for all my purchases on the 360. Always have done, as I do not have any credit cards and never will.
About the only game I have bought off of PSN, is PAIN. Absolutely brilliant game with friends and family and an absolute steal at Ł4.99, well, until you realise that they charge you 69p for every character in the game. I have now spent about Ł10.20 in total on PAIN and I still haven't got all of the characters. There is still more stuff coming, of which, most of it is going to be at a cost. The price point that they are looking at for the Amusement Park download, is apparently going to cost about $5.99 which will translate to about Ł2.99 over here.
I personally think the pricing for the characters at 69p each is a bloody rip off, they should have been made as unlockables within the game.
I guess they'll keep on charging if people keep on buying. If you don't like it don't use it.
I do agree that sonys price mechanism is much better, paying in cash allows me to know exactly what im spending, i can work points out but its all a little annoying really. Biggest thing for me though is the ability to purchase using a debit card, i dont have a credit card and with the xbox you cant use debit, the ps3 allows me to which is really useful for me.
Wrong, plain and simple. I use a debit card for all my purchases on the 360. Always have done, as I do not have any credit cards and never will.
I tried setting up a 360 debit card payment and it wouldnt work, it only gave the option for credit card.
I do agree that sonys price mechanism is much better, paying in cash allows me to know exactly what im spending, i can work points out but its all a little annoying really. Biggest thing for me though is the ability to purchase using a debit card, i dont have a credit card and with the xbox you cant use debit, the ps3 allows me to which is really useful for me.
Wrong, plain and simple. I use a debit card for all my purchases on the 360. Always have done, as I do not have any credit cards and never will.
I tried setting up a 360 debit card payment and it wouldnt work, it only gave the option for credit card.
I do believe it classes a debit card as a credit card. It just uses a general term for cards that can be used for payments of goods.
Cards with a Visa symbol are accepted, which is what I use.
I do agree that sonys price mechanism is much better, paying in cash allows me to know exactly what im spending, i can work points out but its all a little annoying really. Biggest thing for me though is the ability to purchase using a debit card, i dont have a credit card and with the xbox you cant use debit, the ps3 allows me to which is really useful for me.
Wrong, plain and simple. I use a debit card for all my purchases on the 360. Always have done, as I do not have any credit cards and never will.
I tried setting up a 360 debit card payment and it wouldnt work, it only gave the option for credit card.
I do believe it classes a debit card as a credit card. It just uses a general term for cards that can be used for payments of goods.
Cards with a Visa symbol are accepted, which is what I use.
Must admit that I use a debit card on 360 as well.
I do believe it classes a debit card as a credit card. It just uses a general term for cards that can be used for payments of goods.
Cards with a Visa symbol are accepted, which is what I use.
If your debit card is a Visa debit card then its more than just a debit card. You pay for something using it and you have the funds in your account to cover it then your account is debited accordingly. If you pay for something and don't have the funds in your account you get credit from Visa to cover that purchase and have to pay them back with interest if not paid back within a defined period (normally 28 days). If you have a Switch or Delta card without MasterCard or Visa etc on it you have just a debit card and if you buy something without the funds in your account your purchase is rejected.
I do believe it classes a debit card as a credit card. It just uses a general term for cards that can be used for payments of goods.
Cards with a Visa symbol are accepted, which is what I use.
If your debit card is a Visa debit card then its more than just a debit card. You pay for something using it and you have the funds in your account to cover it then your account is debited accordingly. If you pay for something and don't have the funds in your account you get credit from Visa to cover that purchase and have to pay them back with interest if not paid back within a defined period (normally 28 days). If you have a Switch or Delta card without MasterCard or Visa etc on it you have just a debit card and if you buy something without the funds in your account your purchase is rejected.
he's right. i couldn't use my maestro card on live but a visa or mastercard debit card will work. psn accepts all cards.
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