The PlayStation Recap

Happy Memorial Day! With the long weekend ahead, I’ll be catching up on Red Dead Redemption (if I can tear myself away from skinning animals long enough to complete the story missions), ModNation Racers, and 3D Dot Game Heroes. What will you guys be playing?

• Playtest God of War: Ghost of Sparta for PSP! — Kratos explodes back onto the PSP in this prequel to God of War II, and we let lucky fans take first crack at the game.
• Killzone 3 Announced and Playable in 3D — Nuff said!
• Robin Hood Joins Minis This Week — Blast away with your bow-and-arrow in this new twist on the lightgun game genre.
• Coming Tomorrow to PSN: Super Stacker Lined up for PS3 — Co-op and competitive multiplayer beef up this new PSN puzzle game. Who are you to resist?
• ModNation Monday: 6 Reasons Why This Game Rocks! — One more brief, action-packed tour of ModNation Racers. If you’re still in the dark, peep this!
• UFC Undisputed 2010 Out Today With Bonus PS3 Content — This heavyweight fighter slams onto the PS3 with exclusive content, fighters, and full-length fight videos.
• BUZZ! PS3 Scores New World Soccer Quiz DLC Today — The 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off next month — why not brush up on a bit of soccer trivia with Buzz!?
• ModNation Racers for PS3: Launched and Unwrapped — ModNation Racers burst onto the PS3 and PSP this week with months of pent-up energy! Read our launch day festivities.
• PlayStation Store Update — The Green Day: Rock Band demo, new-school arcade shooter Soldner X-2, and a slew of new minis take the spotlight this week.
• Kung-Fu Live for PS3: You Are the Controller — Drop the controllers and put up your dukes! PlayStation Eye enables controller-free jumpkicks with Kung-Fu Live.
• ModNation Racers Blasts into PlayStation Home + Buy 1 Get 1 Free Personal Spaces — The ModNation Racers Home game space is open to the public! Get the full details here.
• LittleBigPlanet 2: Dissections and Interviews — A boatload of podcasts, interviews, and more LittleBigPlanet 2 info than you can shake a Sackboy at.
• PlayStation Comics Store Update — New Thor (2007) and offerings from Liquid Comics highlight this week’s geeky delights.
• ModNation Racers PSP: Behind-the-Scenes launch video — Making games isn’t easy! The team at United Front Games pushed it to the limit with ModNation Racers, as evidenced by this vid-doc.
• May the Hexyz Force Be With You! — This beefy PSP role-playing game is out now on UMD and digital PSN download. Read Atlus’s primer here.
• UNCHARTED 2: New Multiplayer Playlist “The Lab,” and new PSN Avatars — Double Cash weekend now in full effect! Read up on Uncharted 2’s new multiplayer playlists here.
• SOCOM 4 Soundtrack Composed by Battlestar Galactica’s Bear McCreary — The composer who made Battlestar Galactica’s soundtrack a legend is lending his talents to SOCOM 4. PLUS: A contest!
• Coming to PlayStation minis: Stellar Attack for PSP and PS3 — Inspired by the ancient classic Star Castle, this new PSN game fuses arcade shooting with puzzle mechanics.
• Coming to PlayStation minis: Telegraph Crosswords for PSP and PS3 — Drop the pencil and pick up your PSP: Telegraph Crosswords has arrived on PSN. Read about the slick UI here.
• PlayStation Network Video Content Update — We got your Sopranos, your True Blood, and your Entourage right here. HBO content now on PSN!
• Coming Soon to PSN: History Egypt – Engineering an Empire for PSP & PS3 — For you strategy-sim gamers, read how Slitherine is adapting the controls for easy use on the PSP.

Courtesy of Jeremy Dunham

Patch Alert: MAG v1.06 Coming in June: Slated for sometime next month, MAG v1.06 will add a number of requested new features to the game that should please fans regardless of their play style. Read on for the full list.

Zipper Profile: CJ Heine: This week we meet up with CJ Heine, senior designer here at Zipper. CJ started in the QA department and worked his way up to his current senior designer position, so it shouldn’t be long before he’s heading up the CIA and while simultaneously juggling hosting duties on Survivor.

Courtesy of Arne Meyer

REMINDER: “The Lab” and Double Cash Weekend: This weekend’s installment of “The Lab” Playlist series is 2 vs. 2 Team Deathmatch. Parties are limited to two people only, obviously. We’ve set the match conditions to a 15 minute time limit and 25 kills.

Unboxing The Art of UNCHARTED 2: We got copies of all three versions in the studio recently and thought it was only fitting to take a bunch of photos and put together an unboxing video below so you can get a good look at what you get when purchasing The Art of Uncharted 2.

UNCHARTED 2 PSN Avatars: The PSN Avatars were created from renders we made from UNCHARTED 2 and include Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher, Victor Sullivan, Chloe Frazer, Jeff, Tenzin, Karl Schafer, Zoran Lazarevic, Harry Flynn, and an image of the Phurba dagger.