If you liked Uncharted: Golden Abyss on PlayStation Vita, then you’re in luck. It appears that Sony Bend, the first party studio behind the game, is working on a new Vita offering.

Gamasutra has a job listing for a senior staff technical animator at Sony Bend (as Tweeted to us by IGN reader NKilburne), and the job description gives away that Bend is toiling away on a new Vita game.

“Bend Studio[,] the creators of Sony’s flagship Vita title Uncharted[:] Golden Abyss is currently looking for the entertainment industries [sic] top artistic talent to help us create AAA content for Sony’s powerful new hardware,” the listing reads. “We just scratched the surface on what the Vita can do with Uncharted[:] Golden Abyss and expect to push the platform even further with our future projects.”

Sony Bend was originally known as Eidetic, and was founded in 1994. In 2001, Sony purchased the studio outright, renamed it Sony Bend after the Oregon town the small developer is located in, and unleashed them to develop almost exclusively for handhelds from that time forward. Bend is best-known for its Syphon Filter series, though it also created the 2009 PSP shooter Resistance: Retribution before moving on to Golden Abyss.

Bend has been rumored to have been working on a new Syphon Filter game since 2009; the rumor most recently reared its head right before Vita’s western launch. However, the project has yet to materialize. Could this new Vita game be the much-anticipated return of the Syphon Filter franchise? Could it be a new Uncharted game? Or is it something else entirely?

We’ve reached out to Sony for comment and will update when we hear back. In the meantime, why not read our complete history of Sony Bend?

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Every Tuesday, Sony drops a bunch of new stuff onto the PlayStation Network. Those with a PlayStation 3, Vita or PSP can download these goodies, which include PSN games, movies, themes and more. While the Official PlayStation Blog outlines these updates in full each week, we thought we'd help truncate the good news into something more digestible.

PSN Games

Here are this week’s new games for PS3.

• Planets Under Attack ($14.99)
• PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale ($59.99 - Preorder)
• SingStar Digital ($0.00)
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 ($49.99)
• Wicked Monster Blast! HD ($9.99)

Vita Games

And here's a new game for your Vita.

• Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified ($49.99)

PlayStation Plus

Here are this week’s new PlayStation Plus perks. Remember that some of the perks from previous weeks are also still available.

• Quantic Conundrum (PSN, Free)
• Machinarium (PSN, Discount)
• Choplifter HD (PSN, Discount)
• Super Stacker Party (PSN, Discount)

PSone Classics

There aren’t any new PSone Classics this week.

PS2 Classics

No PS2 Classics this time.

DLC

As always, let’s examine this week’s new DLC offerings.

First, for PS3 and PSN...

• 007 Legends - Various (Free)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Season Pass ($49.99)
• Darksiders 2 - Maker Armor ($2.99)
• Dead or Alive 5 Swimwear Packs ($4.99 - $12.99)
• F1 Race Stars Accessory Packs ($0.99 - $4.99)
• Just Dance 4 - Sorcerer ($2.99)
• Mugen Souls Equipment Packs (Free - $2.99)
• Naughty Bear Panic in Paradise Pennybear Costume ($0.99)
• Pure Chess Easter Island Chess Set ($2.49)
• Rock Band 3 – Various Tracks ($0.99 - $17.99)
• RockSmith – Various Tracks ($2.99 - $11.99)
• Sleeping Dogs – Various Mission Packs ($2.99 - $7.99)
• Sniper Elite V2 -- Multiplayer Expansion (Free)
• Street Fighter X Tekken -- Shared Assist Gem Pack 5 ($2.99)
• Zen Pinball 2 -- Fantastic Four ($2.99)

Now, Vita DLC…

• New Little King’s Story – Various Weapons and Clothes ($0.99-$1.99)
• Pure Chess -- Easter Island Chess Set ($2.49)
• Street Fighter X Tekken – Palettes and Gem Packs (Free - $2.99)
• Zen Pinball 2 -- Fantastic Four ($2.99)

Demos

A couple of PS3 demos for you…

• Need For Speed Most Wanted
• F1 Race Stars
• Planets Under Attack
• Zen Pinball 2

And how about a Vita demo?

• Ragnarok Odyssey

Discounts

Finally, some fresh discounts and sales.

• Choplifter HD (PSN)
• Super Stacker Party (PSN)
• Dragon’s Lair (PSN)
• Family Feud (PSN)
• Family Feud Decades (PSN)
• Hollywood Squares (PSN)
• Press Your Luck (PSN)
• The Price is Right (PSN)
• The Price is Right Decades (PSN)
• Who Wants to Be A Millionaire (PSN)
• Game Show Party Bundle (PSN)

Greg is the executive editor of IGN PlayStation, cohost of Podcast Beyond and host of Up at Noon. Follow IGN on Twitter, and keep track of Greg's shenanigans on IGN and Twitter. Beyond!

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

It’s been long rumored that Polygon Man is the final boss in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Today, we can confirm that this is, indeed, the case. In PlayStation All-Stars’ introduction video, seen below (and viewable whenever you turn on the game), you’ll see each of the game’s 10 rivalries culminate with a quick glimpse of Polygon Man himself.

Who is Polygon Man, you ask? In short, he’s the original PlayStation mascot, designed to tease the power of the PlayStation before it launched in the west in 1995. Interestingly, the ad campaign was pulled before the console launched in North America. According to Edge, this reportedly occurred when Sony Computer Entertainment founder and former CEO Ken Kutaragi “went absolutely insane” upon seeing it on Sony’s E3 booth in 1995. In other words, he wasn’t pleased.

But that hasn’t stopped Polygon Man from persisting in the minds of the most hardcore PlayStation faithful, and his inclusion in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale indicates that the team at SuperBot Entertainment has its roots firmly planted in the same soil PlayStation sprouted from nearly two decades ago. But the intro video itself also serves a purpose apart from simply showing off Polygon Man, as SuperBot Entertainment’s Omar Kendall explains.

“We really wanted to play up the concept of rivalries” in All-Stars, Kendall said, the hypothetical “what ifs” of the universe they’ve created where the unlikeliest of characters can face-off against one another. The intro video allows SuperBot Entertainment to do that. With the video’s script and design concocted in-house, SuperBot utilized the skills of Zoic Studios to render and create the intro itself.

But for Kendall, a veteran of the fighting development scene, an intro such as this serves another purpose. “This was another note that we could hit that was very much in line with the overall message that PlayStation All-Stars really is, or at least has roots in traditional fighting games.” He mentions games like Soul Calibur and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as examples of great fighting games with epic intros like the one they’ve attempted to put in their game.

With all 10 of the rivalries shown-off in full, Kendall noted that there were some “fantasy matchups” in there, like Ratchet & Clank versus Jak & Daxter, as well as some “in your face” rivalries, and some more subtle “easter egg” rivalries, like the one between Nathan Drake and Sly Cooper that play off of the fact that both are treasure hunters… or perhaps thieves. He describes the entire scenario as being “big notes” complemented by “subtle cues.”

The rivalries are as follows:

• Ratchet & Clank versus Jak & Daxter
• Sly Cooper versus Nathan Drake
• Fat Princess versus Evil Cole MacGrath
• Sir Daniel Fortesque versus Colonel Radec
• Sackboy versus Big Daddy
• Nariko versus Dante
• Heihachi versus Toro
• Spike versus Parappa the Rapper
• Good Cole MacGrath versus Raiden
• Sweet Tooth versus Kratos

Kendall stressed that the story in All-Stars should be loose and act as an excuse for these characters to come together. But it shouldn’t be construed as canon. He “didn’t want a big, sort of heavy story that was going to feel really arbitrary and cheesy and kind of pull the players out. Because these characters… come from these really rich worlds already, and I knew that this game wasn’t going to serve to paint the sort of official storylines of these individual characters. I knew it was going to be something that they experience together mutually, in some ways exclusively, and then go back to their worlds. You’re really not going to see their experiences in PlayStation All-Stars reflected in God of War IV or God of War V.”

Yet, citing the famous Michael ad (seen below), Kendall admits that “all of these characters live inside this shared space,” later noting that “we thought it would be really cool if we, as opposed to trying really hard to create this fiction and explain why Kratos and Sackboy are in the same world together, just sort of casually acknowledge the fact that this world is living inside of your PlayStation.”

It’s that very notion – the world living inside of your PlayStation – that influenced the team to put Polygon Man in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale as the final boss.

“When we were thinking about a boss for PlayStation All-Stars, we asked ourselves ‘what was the ultimate manifestation of PlayStation?’ And for us, it was Polygon Man. If you could look at some of the original material that Polygon Man appeared in, he makes these crazy statements, these sort of almost nonsensical statements, like ‘power is an illusion’, ‘absolute power is a seamless illusion’. These really weird, grandiose statements. He doesn’t really come off as a bad guy, but he comes off as kind of this representative of power, the power and potential and what PlayStation represents. So we thought it would be really cool if at the center of this shared universe all of these PlayStation characters inhabit was Polygon Man, waiting as the ultimate challenge for this world.”

Kendall went on. “If you look at the rivalry cutscene, it takes place in this kind of blue polygonal space. That, for us, is kind of the PlayStation universe at its base. You’ll see the XMB power waves flying in the background, you’ll see the PlayStation shapes flying around in the background. That’s kind of like the PlayStation landscape stripped bare to its essence… You see that space transition into the purple Polygon Man colors, and for us, Polygon Man is made of the same stuff, I guess, as the essence of the PlayStation universe.”

Believe it or not, however, Polygon Man wasn’t the original idea for the final boss in PlayStation All-Stars. The team at SuperBot came up with many ideas, including ones that took from certain games. An idea floated early on was the Helghan Army from Killzone being the game’s villain. But those sorts of ideas didn’t jive with the idea of what PlayStation All-Stars was all about.

“I think what we realized when we were going through our exploration was that yeah, certainly we could identify a single evil entity from one of our characters’ universes,” Kendall explained. “It could be Zeus (from God of War), it could be Dr. Nefarious (from Ratchet & Clank), it could be any of our sort of standard villains. But we felt that as a game called PlayStation All-Stars, we really wanted the final challenge to not draw from a single, particular IP, but really, we wanted the final challenge to be against the entire PlayStation brand itself. And when we began to think about it that way, Polygon Man really became the obvious choice.”

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

The biggest PlayStation-exclusive game of the fall is undoubtedly PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, the cross-play PS3/Vita brawler in the style of Nintendo’s famous Super Smash Bros. series. And its release is only a short time away.

There have been a lot of questions swirling around regarding All-Stars’ character roster and stages, specifically concerning if there will be DLC characters, stages and more after All-Stars is released later this November. Today, Sony has confirmed to IGN that there will be both.

“Yes, we will be adding additional gameplay content to PlayStation All-Stars through post-launch DLC,” a Sony representative told us, “including new characters and environments.” Unfortunately, Sony has no further specifics to share.

Keep an eye out on IGN in the coming two weeks for a deluge of PlayStation All-Stars coverage, including a smorgasbord of videos, strategies and – of course – our full review.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

It looks like PlayStation gamers will be getting more Nathan Drake. Why? Because the Australian Classifications Board seems to have unveiled a new game in the Uncharted series.

Multiple sources have reported on the seemingly unintentional reveal, most notably GameSpot, which was re-Tweeted by Sony executive Shuhei Yoshida, all but verifying that the game is real.

So what does the classification listing tell us? Well, quite a bit, as it turns out.

For starters, the publisher, not surprisingly, is Sony Computer Entertainment, which owns the Uncharted franchise. What’s strange is that the developer of Fight For Fortune is a studio called One Loop Games. The Uncharted trilogy on PlayStation 3, as well as the PlayStation Vita iteration in the series, were developed in-house by Sony-owned developers Naughty Dog and Sony Bend, respectively. It appears this entry will leave the first party development stable.

One Loop Games’ website shows a picture of both an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The company claims its “team has over 30 years of interactive entertainment experience behind it,” with projects having appeared on XBLA, PSN, and elsewhere. Interestingly, the studio worked on God of War: Betrayal and Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, indicating it already has a relationship with Sony. The studio also had a hand in the development of consoles games like Full Spectrum Warrior and The Saboteur.

The rating also indicates that Fight For Fortune may not be your typical Uncharted game. Australian games are rated in six categories: Themes, Violence, Language, Drug Use, Nudity and Sex. Each of those categories can be ranked from “none” to “high impact”, with four other classifications in between. Fight For Fortune scores a “none” in Themes, Language, Nudity and Sex, with “very mild impact”, the next step up from “none”, in Violence and Drug Use.

Now, Drake and his friends have never been known for running around naked or using drugs -- so there are no surprises on that front -- but the four Uncharted games have, so far, relied a great deal on death-by-gun. So perhaps Fight For Fortune is something that deviates from the Uncharted formula.

Interestingly, the game is also listed as being multi-platform. Since Sony owns Uncharted and is publishing this game, indicating it will never appear on a non-Sony owned console or handheld, this could very well indicate that Fight For Fortune is a cross-play game PS3/Vita game. Or perhaps it’s a PS3/next-gen game. Or maybe it’s all just a mistake.

Developing…

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

If you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber in North America, you’ll be pleased to learn that the service will get a refresh with November 5th’s PlayStation Store update.

For starters, Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition, which comes packing extra content, will be completely free for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

Additionally, the digital version of Portal 2 will be 30% off (from $19.99 to $13.99), and its newly-announced Portal 2 In Motion DLC will also be discounted 30% (from $9.99 to $6.99). Finally, the new PS3/Vita cross-play game When Vikings Attack will also be 30% off, bringing its price from $9.99 down to $6.99. And Absolute Supercars will be discounted at 20%, bringing its price from $9.99 to $7.99.

European gamers will get Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Cubixx HD and Crysis 2 for free beginning on November 7th. As a result, Just Cause 2 and Borderlands will be removed from the Instant Game Collection at that point, so download them now if you haven’t already.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

EA has announced release dates for Battlefield 3’s Aftermath downloadable content. Battlefield 3 Premium members on PlayStation 3 can get Aftermath on November 27th, while Premium Xbox 360 and PC players can get it on December 4th. Non-premium players on PlayStation 3 can get Aftermath on December 11th, and non-Premium Xbox 360 and PC players will round out the schedule on December 18th.

As with all Battlefield 3 content, Aftermath will cost $14.99 (1200 Microsoft Points) and will be free to Battlefield Premium members. Aftermath is the fourth of five packs for Battlefield 3, coming ahead of End Game, which will be released in March 2013.

Separately, EA announced today that in celebration of the 10 year anniversary of Battlefield and the milestone of Premium passing 2 million members, it will offer Battlefield 1942 as a free download. Players can get 1942 on Origin’s official site, which notes that it will require an Origin account and will expire on March 1, 2013.

EA also revealed some interesting stats for Battlefield 3, noting that since its launch in 2011, players have passed 95 billion total heals and four billion total revives, destroyed three billion vehicles and fired two trillion bullets. "[Premium] has been an ambitious way to give our fans fresh, high-quality content at a great value," said DICE vice president and general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson. " This achievement is helping us define the new standard by which all other shooters deliver content and exclusive bonuses to their player communities."

For more on Aftermath, check out the details DICE revealed in July. For any other Battlefield 3 needs, look no further than our Battlefield 3 wiki guide.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Back at E3, Portal 2 In Motion debuted, and now, it has a release date. Tuesday, November 6th, you'll be able to plunk down $9.99 and pick up a PlayStation Move exclusive "DLC campaign." If that's too rich for your blood, the original Portal 2 single-player and co-op campaigns will be patched for PlayStation Move controls Tuesday, as well.

Created by developer Sixense, the DLC -- according to the PlayStation Blog -- "introduces gameplay mechanics, including scaling and rotation of objects as well as portal surfing. These new abilities are all required as the player progresses through an increasingly challenging set of test chambers that look familiar from Portal 2, but require new thinking to solve."

If you're a PlayStation Plus member, you can get Portal 2 In Motion at a 30 percent discount. Tuesday also marks the digital release of Portal 2 on the PlayStation Network and the aforementioned PlayStation Move patch. While the original game will now support Sony's motion controller, the blog calls out the fact that only Portal 2 In Motion has puzzles built for the PlayStation Move.

So, you buying the DLC Tuesday?

Greg is the executive editor of IGN PlayStation, cohost of Podcast Beyond and host of Up at Noon. Follow IGN on Twitter, and keep track of Greg's shenanigans on IGN and Twitter. Beyond!

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

A new version of the PlayStation 4 dev kit is currently being distributed to developers with the final version expected next year, according to a new report.

Anonymous sources have reportedly told VG247 that new versions of the Orbis kit are winging their way to developers, replete with Blu-ray support and housed in the humble cases of normal PCs.

This is apparently the second iteration of the dev kit; the first, which appeared earlier this year, was in essence just a graphics card, while this version is now a "modified PC". The report asserts that the next update will come in January, when it'll be close to final specifications, with the ultimate version landing with devs next summer.

The shipping of the Orbis kit apparently follows a series of meetings held by Sony in the US this week, where the company explained what the machine was designed to do and how to get the most out of it. Interestingly, at these meetings it's been claimed that Sony didn't refer to the machine as "the PlayStation 4" at all, instead opting to use the "Orbis" title at all times.

The dev kits are apparently based on the AMD’s A10 APU series and come with either 8GB or 16GB of RAM, as well as the Blu-ray drive already mentioned and a 256GB hard drive as standard. This is to ensure that the console will be able to run 1080p60 games in 3D.

The Orbis kits have both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity, as well as HDMI out slots; so pretty much exactly what you'd expect to find on your current PlayStation 3. However, the big reported difference comes with the UI, which has been designed to be more fluid and allow extensive navigation anywhere on the system simply by pressing the PS button mid-game. This was demoed to the assembled masses by purchasing DLC from the PS Store without quitting the game.

No details were leaked about the system's controller. IGN reached out to Sony for comment, but were told the company "doesn't comment on rumour and speculation."

If you're looking for more info on the Orbis, we've dissected the reported components that make up the dev kit before, as well as what it could mean for Sony's prospects in the next generation of consoles.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and lifelong PlayStation owner. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

The Artorias of the Abyss downloadable content for Dark Souls is now available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Artorias of the Abyss adds PVP mode to Dark Souls, allowing players to battle against each other, as well as new maps and environments, new bosses and enemies, new NPCs and new weapons and armor.

Artorias of the Abyss is available now for $14.99 on PlayStation 3 and 1200 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360. The content was first released on PC in the Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition and was confirmed for consoles in May.

“Artorias of the Abyss is primed and ready to bring console gamers more destruction, more pain, and more ways to die,” said Namco Bandai vice president of marketing Carlson Choi. “Our console fan base absolutely loves the challenge the Dark Souls franchise has given them. Artorias of the Abyss is sure to up the death toll with the inclusion of PVP and its Match-Making features.”

For more on what’s new in Artorias of the Abyss, read about what’s in the new content and our breakdown of how it affects the game. For more on Dark Souls, look no further than our Dark Souls wiki guide.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Activision has announced that Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse will be released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 23, 2012.

It also revealed details of the game's 'Multiplayer Challenges', which will let you invite up to four friends to assume the roles of popular characters from the show – including Peter, Brian, Quagmire and, of course, Stewie – and head into an "epic battle" or a "wild team battle". No more details were forthcoming but the multiplayer component is said to be in keeping with the Family Guy 'spirit', with "unexpected gags and cameos at every turn".

Here are some new screenshots of the challenges:

There hasn't been much information released on the game so far, but you can find out a bit more about here.

Daniel is IGN's UK Staff Writer, and you can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

We already knew that the PlayStation 3 version of Assassin’s Creed III would be getting exclusive missions, but now, thanks to the PlayStation Blog, we know the exact nature of those missions. It just so happens that they revolve around the most infamous traitor in American history, Benedict Arnold.

As the Blog explains, “Benedict Arnold’s secret plot to betray West Point and sabotage the American Revolution earned him the ultimate mark of infamy: a name that will forevermore be synonymous with deceit and treachery.” And the four mission arc surrounding him, exclusive to PS3, deals with this “most reviled turncoat.”

The missions start “with a special request from George Washington” having to do with bringing to light the very plot at West Point Benedict Arnold was so heavily involved in. “Across four missions, Connor will flush out Loyalist spies and work undercover for Benedict Arnold, culminating in a full-blown assault on West Point that Connor must halt at all costs.”

Assassin’s Creed III’s scriptwriter, Matt Turner, has promised this story arc to be more realistic than the alternate history take of The Tyranny of King Washington, including actual dialogue thought to have been spoken by Arnold and those around him.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Fifa 13 eBay auctions you should keep an eye on:

[wprebay kw="fifa+13" num="0" ebcat="-1"]