The Drop: Week of October 17th 2011 New Releases

This week, the PlayStation.Blog team is three for one! I’m sure you’ve read our extensive coverage on some of this week’s new releases. Take Sid’s awesome Q&A session with Rocksteady Studios on the highly anticipated Batman: Arkham City in glorious 3D. Jeff and I traveled to FantasticFest and gamescom to play Payday: The Heist. The sizzling Miami weather invited me back to my hometown where we kicked off our dancer diaries for Everybody Dance. Also, lets not forget the quartet of awesome in Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One for PS3.

PSN delivers more titles to its already extensive catalogue of exclusives. Follow Kumulo and Nimbe in their unique and original adventure in the co-op puzzler, Okabu. Dead Space redefined horror when it originally came to Blu-ray years ago. Now you can relive, or experience for the first time, Issac Clarke’s manifestation of horror on-board the Ishimura on PSN. Finally, Street Fighter Alpha 3 comes to PSone Classics.

This week’s The Drop is massive. Enjoy it.

PlayStation 3

Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One — In Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, we find our heroes in the midst of a dilemma of intergalactic proportions when Dr. Nefarious’ latest evil plan goes awry leaving Ratchet, Clank, Qwark and Nefarious himself caught in the snare of a powerful and mysterious machine. Begrudgingly, the Galaxy’s biggest do-gooders and its most sinister criminal must work together to discover a means of escape in this action-packed installment of the Ratchet & Clank series.

Another rousing entry in the blockbuster action/platformer franchise, Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One for the first time lets gamers play as Ratchet, Clank, Captain Qwark, or even Dr. Nefarious in co-op gameplay. In four-player story quests, teammates must work together, using each character’s unique skills as well as sharing weapons between players, in order to solve puzzles and eliminate the opposition.

Everybody Dance — Everybody Dance delivers a high-energy dance experience set to a soundtrack of 40 chart-topping party hits. Using the PlayStation Move motion controller and PlayStation Eye camera to track and score moves, players can test their dancing skills with three difficulty levels, each featuring unique routines for every track produced by world-renowned choreographers.

Everybody Dance allows players to hit the floor solo style, team up with a second player for a cooperative Partner Routine, challenge a friend to a competitive Dance Battle, or use the Party Play mode where up to 20 players can go head-to-head for the ultimate dance-off. Players can also use Everybody Dance’s Dance Class feature to improve their skills through detailed routine breakdowns and then take their game to the next level by developing original choreography using the Dance Creator feature.

Batman: Arkham City — Batman: Arkham City builds upon the intense, atmospheric foundation of Batman: Arkham Asylum, sending players soaring into Arkham City, the new maximum security home for all of Gotham City’s thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds.

Set inside the heavily fortified walls of a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City, this highly anticipated sequel introduces a brand-new story that draws together a new all-star cast of classic characters and murderous villains from the Batman universe, as well as a vast range of new and enhanced gameplay features to deliver the ultimate experience as the Dark Knight.

Rocksmith — Rocksmith is a music game based around the use of a real guitar — players can plug any real guitar with a standard quarter-inch input jack into their game system and play through an in-depth library of music including everything from the latest hits to classic rock songs. Featuring gameplay that automatically adjusts to the player’s skill level and innovative game design that makes reading music visually fun and intuitive, Rocksmith engages experienced musicians and those who are picking up a guitar for the first time. The game includes a sizeable library of music from classic rock bands to current artists, such as The Animals, The Black Keys, David Bowie, Interpol, Nirvana and The Rolling Stones.

The Sims 3: Pets — For the first time in franchise history, players will be able to take full control of their pet and play out their life story. They’ll also be able to determine their pets’ personality traits to create their perfect pet for their Sims. The Sims 3 Pets allows players to add a new member to their household to control and find new ways to play with life!

Ben 10: Galactic Racing — The first kart racing game set in the popular BEN 10 universe and based on the hit Cartoon Network TV series features Ben and his alien friends competing in an over-the-top, galactic grand prix race through a variety of tracks on five different planets! Compete for the best times in the high-speed grand prix modes or engage in four-player multiplayer mayhem!

National Geographic Challenge — National Geographic Challenge allows players to explore our planet through its history and geography, providing a journey through the ages and an inside look at the extraordinary extent of mankind’s achievements.

Jimmie Johnson’s Anything With An Engine — Jimmie Johnson’s Anything with an Engine will allow players to race in vehicles created from the most unlikely of everyday objects – from dumpsters to lawnmowers fulfilling Jimmie’s “Anything with an engine!” motto. Lead-footed drivers will engage in elimination-style circuits across progressively challenging tracks, complete with pyrotechnics-laden theatrical sets strewn with wicked hazards, traps and jumps.

J.A.S.F. Jane’s Advanced Strike Fighters — Advanced Strike Fighters is set in the fictional country of Azbaristan; the once-great nation has been torn apart by a decade of civil war, followed by almost a decade of uneasy peace. The ten year war resulted in huge territorial gains for Northern People’s Republic Azbaristan and their controlling political party, the Northern People’s Party, giving them control of the country except for the oil-rich province that is all that’s left of South Azbaristan.

PlayStation Network

Okabu (Demo Available) — Okabu follows the adventures of Kumulo, Nimbe and the cloud-flying heroes as they battle to save their people and their world from the industrialized threat of the Doza. The world of Okabu is a hyper-tactile toybox filled with a huge number of puzzles, playthings, adorable creatures and devious machines –all spread across an epic co-op campaign

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken (Demo Available) — Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken builds upon the critically-acclaimed browser-based game Rocketbirds: Revolution!, with new characters, missions, puzzles, exclusive music videos, retro cut scenes, stereoscopic 3D support and more.

Step into the clawed feet of badass rebel Hardboiled Chicken, the original Coq of War who sets out on a mission to assassinate the totalitarian penguin leader and take down the evil regime that has taken over Albatropolis. Destroy enemies with a slew of weapons and bear the yolk of Hardboiled’s past as his missions unlock the secrets to his mysterious past and illuminate the truth behind the penguin government. Master fowl play in the co-op campaign as a pair of Budgie commandos on a mission to save the general’s daughter. Many lives will be destroyed, countless penguins will die!

Payday – The Heist (Demo available) — Payday: The Heist is a high-intensity squad-based first person shooter where players take on the role of a hardened career criminal pulling death-defying heists in the never-ending pursuit of the next “big score.” Quick wit, an equally fast trigger finger and above all teamwork are the rules of engagement as players will embark on a spectacular crime spree of six heart stopping heists, including blasting their way through a downtown bank vault robbery, managing hostages in an armored car hijacking and even a midnight infiltration of a top-secret, high-security facility.

Dungeon Defenders — Developed by Trendy Entertainment, Dungeon Defenders throws action-RPG and tower defense gameplay into the proverbial blender to create a seamless mix of leveling, looting and high-action territorial combat for casual and core players alike. Dungeon Defenders features a lovingly-rendered watercolor art style and allows up to 4 players, online or locally, to take one of four distinct classes into fierce battle against ever-increasing waves of baddies and bosses across 15 arenas and multiple modes.

Real Steel (Demo Available) — In Real Steel, the player assumes the role of an owner of a fighting robot, and must battle against many different rival robots in an attempt to become champion of several levels of fighting tiers. Players earn in-game money by winning matches and, using this money, must periodically improve their robot, making it stronger and more fit to compete in the higher level match tiers. The vast amount of customizable parts and selectable equipment makes for over 100 million possibilities of custom robots!

Beat Hazard Ultra (Demo Available) — Welcome to a new experience in gameplay mechanics: Beat Hazard Ultra – Gameplay Powered by YOUR Music! Experience your music collection like never before with this intense music driven arcade shooter. Each of your songs will have its own unique ebb and flow based on the music. Power up your spaceship and watch as the music boosts your firepower. Unleash hell on the enemy ships when you max out with weapon pickups! Beat Hazard seamlessly mixes the love of gaming and music. Together they become greater than the sum of their parts.

Dead Space — Gamers step into a third-person sci-fi survival horror experience that promises to deliver the ultimate in psychological thrills and gruesome action. Set in the cold blackness of deep space, the atmosphere is soaked with a feeling of tension, dread and sheer terror. In Dead Space, players step into the role of engineer Isaac Clarke – an ordinary man on a seemingly routine mission to fix the communications systems aboard a deep space mining ship. It is not long before Isaac awakes to a living nightmare when he learns that the ship’s crew has been ravaged by a vicious alien infestation. He must fight through the dead silence and darkness of deep space to stay alive.

Ridge Racer 7: 3D Version — The PlayStation 3 driving experience Ridge Racer 7 is reborn as the arcade Ridge Racer 7 3D Version. The arcade attraction makes use of a special television that uses filters to make the images burst out at players once players don special 3D glasses to play the game. Now you can experience the amazing speed and on-the-edge control of Ridge Racer in a whole new dimension!

Technologically, the game makes use of a technique called Xpol. Developed in conjunction with NHK Technical Service, this technology promises 3D visuals without player fatigue. The technology works at 1080p and 60 frames per second.

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space — Sam & Max are on the job again in Season Two of their infamous adventure series! This downloadable package features five Sam & Max episodes chock full of adventure, crime-fighting, and chaos. The season starts with a giant battle robot attack and never lets up, taking our valiant crime-fighters on a gut-wrenching mission from the North Pole to Easter Island, from outer space to Hell and back.
Special features! Experience hours of special features and behind-the-scenes goodies that rival any TV series boxed set on the market today. Hear commentary from the team who made the games. Peek behind the scenes at the game design process through concept art and designer notes. And if you’re a savvy viewer, you may even uncover some surprises…

• Episode 1 – Ice Station Santa
• Episode 2 – Moai Better Blues
• Episode 3 – Night of the Raving Dead
• Episode 4 – Chariots of the Dogs
• Episode 5 – What’s New Beelzebub

Demos

• Everybody Dance
• Need for Speed: The Run

PSone Classics

Street Fighter Alpha 3 — Street Fighter Alpha 3 gives you the choice from 34 different characters including four brand new characters, all with three different fighting styles. All of the characters from the previous games in the ALPHA series have returned, while many old favorites like Guile, E. Honda, Blanka, Balrog, Dee Jay, and Fei Long make their fist appearance in the ALPHA series. There are also four new characters: Karin Kanzuki, Rainbow Mika, Juli, and Juni, making 34 characters in all. Further, each character has three different fighting styles, meaning you’ll have your hands full if you want to master this game.

minis

• 1000 Tiny Claws
• The Treasures of Montezuma
• Street Smart
• Speedball 2 Evolution

[Editor’s Note: The following dates are subject to change. Game details are gathered from Press Releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]