Sony has announced PlayStation Network PLAY “a new program showcasing four of the season’s hottest action titles.” If you’re thinking “that’s a terrible title”, you would be correct. However, the idea behind it is pretty cool. In short, it’s ‘Summer Of Arcade’ for the PS3.

After all the recent troubles Sony has faced with it’s PlayStation Network service, it really needs a boost. Microsoft’s ‘Summer Of Arcade’ program has had massive success over the past three years, and it’s about time Sony offered something similar. Sony will be offering fans four games (see below) at $15 (£10) a pop. Buying all of the four will net you a code for Payday: The Heist – a game that can be bought separately for $20 (£15) after the fact, if you don’t want to bother.

The four games are as follows:

• Street Figher III: Third Strike Online Edition – August 24th
• The Baconing (read: A new Deathspank) – August 31st
• Bloodrayne: Betrayal – September 7th
• Renegade Ops – September 16th

Those who purchase all four will receive a voucher code for Payday after purchasing all the games. You have to be 18 or older to use the service (or be willing to lie when you signed up for PSN). Other than this, very ‘Summer Of Arcade’ sounding offer, Sony have thrown in the following. Presumably this has been done to separate it from any similar promotions.

• You can pre-order each game. Pre-ordering will net you a theme.
• “PLAY also offers gamers a separate gift with purchase for each order made throughout the duration of the program” – Your guess is as good as ours.
• PlayStation Plus subscribers get 20% off each game in the promotion.
• It doesn’t look like there’s any exclusivity deals on any of the games, except Payday which has already been announced as a PS3 exclusive title.

You can get full details by looking at the press release.

Jaffe went on to say that, although the game is far from bad in it’s current state, he made sure to assure fans about the state of the project: “If we shipped Twisted Metal tomorrow — going off the response from folks who have played it — I assure you, it would never be a bad game.”

Twisted Metal is set to be a highlight at this summer’s big gaming conventions, kicking off with GamesCom in less than two weeks and PAX Prime. We’ll be bringing you all we can from Cologne, so be sure to look for that.

Well what do we have here? Is this a new podcast? That’s exactly what it is! This is Fans Of The Genre a new PlayStation-centric podcast from the editors of ThePlayStatioNetwork. Seeing as we work with a skeleton crew nowadays, it’s been hard to keep up with the masses of news each day, so we decided to start a new podcast to deliver your news in a big chunk at the end of each week. Cool, right? Enjoy!

This inagural episode didn’t exactly get off to a flying start. We were a man down as Ryan had gone AWOL so we (Anthony Barlow and Ian Ball) started the show without him. We talked about the awesomeness of LA Noire, Ian gives us the lowdown on DiRT 3, we discuss ‘Call Of Duty: Elite’ and how great it is to have the PlayStation store back.

We also talked at length about Sony’s plans for E3 and made some pretty bold predictions as to what we were going to see. At this point Ryan had joined us, which was nice of him. Why not listen to three nerds struggle to think of a franchise Sony could bring back.

Fans Of The Genre #1: Lazarus, The Phoenix & All That Shit

(Download/Stream or Subscribe on iTunes)

We hope you enjoy the show and please feel free to submit any questions and queries to anthonyb@theplaystationetwork.com

Clements!

With a new game on the horizon, it seems Mortal Kombat is seeing a bit of a resurgence. Last year a video showcasing what looked to be a new Mortal Kombat movie surfaced, and it looked fantastic. Despite not getting a movie deal, the creators were commissioned to create a new MK web series. Today the first episode, alongside a new trailer, has finally gotten over here (sorry) and it’s pretty damn good. Check out the trailer (above) and the first episode (below).

Source: JoyStiq

Sony have released a couple of new inFamous 2 videos for all us wannabe superheroes to drool over. The first movie (above) shows, a new enemy, ‘The Behemoth’ in all of it’s disgusting glory. The second (below) details, another new addition, user generated content.

Be aware these videos are filled with spoilers, but if you can’t wait until June 7th then be sure to check them out. Make sure to look for a knock at the 360 around the 3:30 mark in the first video.

Source: PlayStation Blog

There was a few out there who saw Sony’s attempt at motion control as a little outdated, that Kinect was the new hotness when it came to flailing around like an idiot for the sake of a good time. Rather than cave in and drop the cash on one of Microsoft’s sleek, new black boxes Shantanu Goel decided to try something different. He took the Frankenstein approach. Anyone for Killzone 3…using Kinect?

Of course, it’s still rough around the edges (it’s often hard to have two different species mate with oneanother), but Goel’s claims are pretty impressive. His pre-Alpha software appears to show Kinect and the PS3 playing nice (after a few modifications), but this being a fake is certainly not out of the question. Check out the video (above) and tell us what you think in the comments below.

Source: Joystiq

Sony has revealed to IGN that PS3 users will soon be able to use a cloud-based save game service, allowing access to your save games from any console. This new feature will go live tomorrow, in a new firmware update (v. 3.60) for PlayStation Plus members. When asked about making this feature available to non-Plus subscribers, Sony said: “We haven’t announced any plans for it to be available to everyone at this time.”

Up to 150MB of space will be allotted to each user, with a maximum of 1,000 save files per PSN account. Users can check how much space they have left via the XMB. Copy protected saves can also be uploaded and all data can be restored once per 24 hours. Sony says “most” current games will make use of this feature, but it will be mandatory for all future titles.

Those wanting to back up, once the update goes live tomorrow, should follow these instructions:

• Select ‘Game’ and then ‘Save Data Utility’
• Select the data you want to back up
• Press the triangle button and click copy
• Select ‘Online Storage’ as the storage destination

This is certainly a nice feature, and one that’s not been seen on a console before. Those holding out on their PlayStation Plus subscription might want to take a second look when this goes live tomorrow.

Maintenance began at 4pm (GMT) today. You will be able to access these services again at 3am.

Sony is yet to comment on what the maintenance entails. We should find out later today.

Source: Joystiq

If you start shooting terrorists and one goes down holding their ankle, you’ll know that the tech was taken right out of the latest FIFA.