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I’m quietly stunned by how quickly 2012 has kicked into gear: This week gave us major new releases in the form of Soulcalibur V and Final Fantasy XIII-2; next week sees the release of The Darkness II and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, followed by Twisted Metal and the PS Vita First Edition Bundle the following week. What upcoming release are you most interested in playing?

This week saw a deluge of information for 2012′s gaming crop: Game Informer revealed its The Last of Us cover story, Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford discussed Aliens: Colonial Marines and what he knows about Prometheus, Drinkbox Studios showed off Mutant Blobs Attack for PS Vita, the team behind MLB 12 The Show served up two new videos devoted to the improved batting and pitching gameplay, a new video revealed MotorStorm RC’s online features and PS3-to-PS Vita competition, Starbreeze Studios gave us a tour of its well-received Syndicate co-op demo, The Tester 3 revealed a sneak peek of its first episode, NIS America showcased Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention for PS Vita, and Team 17 revealed its PSN release plans for Worms Ultimate Mayhem.

• I’m playing: Mortal Kombat for PS Vita, Twisted Metal Multiplayer Demo, Soulcalibur V
• I’m watching: Homeland
• I’m reading: The End of Business as Usual by Brian Solis
• I’m listening to: Official PlayStation Blogcast 010: The Curious Case of Final Fantasy XIII-2

So you are probably thinking “Mutant Blobs Attack? Never heard of it. Why should I care about this game? Also, why does Reddit always have so many cat pictures on the front page?” Well, the first thing you need to do is unsubscribe from /r/aww. After that’s done, let me tell you a few reasons you should care about Mutant Blobs Attack.

First, you enjoy platformers but are maybe a bit tired of the typical offerings, and are looking for something fresh. You were thinking of buying a Vita, and need something fun to play in between your sessions of Michael Jackson the Experience. You also have a sense of humor and are tired of games that take themselves too seriously. Maybe you also enjoy monster movies that feature the destruction of all mankind, or perhaps have a slight Blob fetish?

And, if all of the above items apply, then this is REALLY the game for you.

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack is a follow up to Tales from Space: About a Blob released early 2011 on the PlayStation 3 (via PSN). Mutant Blobs Attack differs from its predecessor in a number of ways. We want to leave SOME surprises for those who buy the game, so without giving too much away here is some more info about what’s in Mutant Blobs Attack.

This time around the Blob has some new abilities that were designed to take advantage of the Vita’s inputs. The first of these is Telekinesis, which allows the Blob to move objects/platforms around in the game world. These objects are indicated to the player with a green dot, which can be touched and dragged on the Vita’s touchscreen. Having movable objects in the world allows us to challenge the player with unique platforming puzzles.

The second new ability the player will encounter in the game is Rocket Mode. While in this mode, the Blob begins floating in the air, and is controlled using a rocket thruster. While flying around, the back touch pad of the Vita can be used to apply an additional “boost” of speed to the Blob.

Those of you that played Tales from Space: About a Blob will already be familiar with the Magnetic power, which is making a return. Magnetism allows the Blob to stick or repel from fixed metal surfaces, and also pull / push smaller metal objects that are not fixed in place. This power is often used in the game to solve puzzles.

As a break to the normal platforming gameplay, and utilizing another input feature of the Vita, we have spread tilt-based bonus levels throughout the main story. We made these levels all take place in unique and interesting environments like a wooden labyrinth, an old-school retro hand-held device, and maybe even Tom Selleck’s moustache (Editor’s note: Tom Selleck moustache level is not actually included in the game).

We are really proud of how the game turned out, and can’t wait to share it with the world! With the Vita and the game coming out very soon, we really hope that you guys & gals will take some time to check it out.

For up-to-date development news, make sure to follow us on Twitter @DrinkboxStudios and @MutantBlob, and check out our blog at www.mutantblobsattack.com. Also, feel free to shoot us any questions you have in the comments below, and we will try to answer them the best we can!

Sports fans -

Zone Analog Batting is a by-product of our original Zone Batting hit mechanic and our most recent Analog Batting feature so we wanted to give users the best of both. From talking to our community, we found that some of our Zone Batting players weren’t using the Analog Batting because they couldn’t choose the zone they wanted to swing at. So, we decided to mix the two features and came up with ZAB (Zone Analog Batting). We went through many prototypes before we ended up with what we think may be the most realistic way to bat, ever, in a baseball game.

The concept is both intuitive and challenging at the same time. Getting your stride down with the right stick and simultaneously using the left stick to choose your zone was difficult at first. The key was getting your foot down early (stride with the right stick) to give yourself time to read the pitch and use the left stick to push in the direction of the ball. It’s the most organic and satisfying way to hit and dangerously close to feeling what it’s like to hit a CC Sabathia fastball!

We have five levels of ZAB to choose from, starting with Rookie, where you can get your stride down extremely early without getting penalized, all the way to our most challenging level, Legend, where you get to hit just like a true Major Leaguer.

Pulse Pitching spawned from our first ever pitching style for The Show, Classic Pitching. We like to keep the “classic” features around since we know there’s still a lot of people out there who use them. Pulse pitching is a more interactive and challenging way to pitch, combining both user skill and pitcher attributes that creates a unique way to deliver a pitch. There are five levels of Pulse Pitching, all the way from Rookie to Legend. The better pitchers will have a smaller pulse ring based on the command they have with that particular pitch. Alternatively, the worse command a pitcher has, the bigger the ring and the harder it is to hit your spots. It’s a really fun way to pitch, you may never go back to what you were using before! Here’s a look at our video…

Don’t forget, MLB 12 The Show for PS3 and PS Vita will be hitting store shelves in just a few weeks on March 6th. Be sure to keep an eye on the PlayStation.Blog and TheShowNation.com for more information in the coming days and weeks on this year’s game. And for our Canadian fans, if you haven’t seen yet, we recently announced that Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista will be gracing the cover of MLB 12 The Show in Canada. Here’s a look at our announcement video featuring Jose in action!

Welcome to The Show!

inFAMOUS 2 and inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood received widespread acclaim from the gaming community in 2011 not only for their amazing open-world super hero gameplay, but also for one very important, very unique feature: the ability to make your own missions. To bring out the best aspiring developers, we launched a contest late last year to see who could build the best mission within inFAMOUS 2. This mission needed to focus on telling a story about the main character Cole McGrath that could fit within the fiction of the universe. It also needed to play great, meaning good gameplay balance, strong action set-pieces, and a compelling narrative to pull you through.

From the missions that we’re submitted on infamousthegame.com, PlayStation and Sucker Punch reviewed only the most-played and highest-ranked missions as voted on by the community that plays. This tool not only makes it easy to find great missions in-game, but you can also browse and queue up missions to play in-game on the web by logging in with your PSN ID.

After much debate with the team from Sucker Punch, we’re ready to share the grand prize winner of the Cole’s Missing Mission contest. Introducing PSN member Seth9977 with his mission: Spying on the Spies. His mission brought a great story that matched the tone of Cole’s character while providing sweeping travel segments, awesome combat, and just the right amount of humor. He also goes a bit in-depth with Cole’s character to imply some deeper issues he’s struggling with and has some great call-backs to Cole’s time in Empire City. It’s now playable in inFAMOUS 2 under the Featured Missions category.

Hi everyone; Seth9977 here.

The thing that inspired me to make that mission was the story mission: “Alden Strikes” from inFAMOUS. I put my own little twist of Zeke being captured to bring back some good old memories of rescuing Zeke from inFAMOUS 1.

My advice to other mission builders:

It’s always best to get an idea of what you’re about to make, rather than sit there with nothing. Find something to spark your creativity, and don’t be afraid to try something new. It’s also best to learn how to use the tools. If you don’t know how something works, look at a template, play around with it, or come ask the friendly users at suckerpunch.com for help. Another thing that is a must for creating a fail-proof mission would be play testing and polishing. It’s always best to constantly test and play your mission whenever you make a change, look for ways that a player can break your mission. It will help you in the long run!

Whenever play testing a narrative, make sure to check your grammar, and read it out loud to make sure it sounds right. There are three questions that you should always ask yourself: 1) “Will this be enjoyable for the player?” 2) “Can less experienced players beat this?” and 3) “Will they be able to break my mission?” If you design around these questions, I’m sure you will have a great and fun mission for users to play!

My thoughts on the design tools:

The design tools overall are well made and allowed me to do a number of things. From creating a simple sentence to making an intense fight. I enjoy working a lot with narrative type stuff, so when I first picked up inFAMOUS 2, and fired up the UGC creator I was glad to see there was a way to implement a story into my mission. The variety of tools in the UGC creator has expanded upon the months, and I’m eager to see what else the people at Sucker Punch have to offer to us!
I would also like to thank everyone who has made this possible for me. I’ve learned a lot on my own, but when I got involved with the community at Suckerpunch.com and infamousthegame.com, I’ve learned a lot more on how the UGC creator of inFAMOUS 2 works. It wouldn’t have been possible without the players too! A lot of thanks have to go to the PlayStation.blog and PSN Community Management team too! Thanks for playing all my missions and inspiring me to keep on creating!

We also want to include mentions for the runner ups in this very heated competition. PSN members jedicam10 (Karma Police), The_Golden_Hero (Children of Empire City), and codybean1 (Cole in Time) also made some stellar missions. These missions are also now easily accessible in-game under the Feature Missions category.

Congrats again to Seth9977! Your $1,000 in PSN Voucher Codes, limited-edition Cole statue, and signed copy of inFAMOUS 2 from the Sucker Punch team is on its way!

Previously on the PlayStation.Blog, I introduced you to Skullgirls’ story and characters and discussed its unique gameplay systems. Today, with the game racing towards completion, I’m here to shed a little more light on the game’s features.

Even though Skullgirls is a downloadable game for PSN, we’ve got a feature set consistent with a full-priced fighter.

• Story Mode
• Arcade Mode
• Tutorials
• Practice Room
• Ranked and Unranked Online Play
• Custom Soundtracks
• PS3-exclusive Trophies

The world of Skullgirls is vast and full of colorful characters well beyond the eight playable characters we’ll have in the game. These characters will show up throughout the characters’ stories, which are told with a series of short vignettes, and are told with over 200 pieces of unique art, character portraits and new music.

Check out our new Story mode trailer above, which features Skullgirls’ awesome attract mode and glimpses at some of the characters’ stories.

While there is a “true,” canonical story kicking around in creative director Alex Ahad’s head, the Story mode shows a number of “what if” scenarios playing out across alternate timelines. The characters are true to themselves in these altered circumstances, but events are unfolding differently.

In Arcade Mode, you get a single player campaign at its purest. You can pick any team size and make-up you like and fight a handful of rounds against the CPU and end with a climactic fight against… oh, I’ve said too much.

When you think about it, fighting games are really the only games left that doesn’t actually teach the basics of how to play them, so we’ve created an extensive series of tutorials.

Not only will these teach you how to play Skullgirls, but they should also help you learn the concepts underlying the fighting game genre as a whole. There are 17 courses explaining basic and advanced concepts, from movement to hit confirmation and advanced tactics, some of which use AI to help you learn. Of particular note, we’ve put a heavy emphasis on teaching defense, something of vital importance that is glossed over in most other games.

Of course, for the most dedicated of players, we’ve got a Practice Room to help you work on your game. In addition to a visual timer to display hit-stun and block-stun to help you learn combos, we’ll also have attack data and hitboxes to help you wring every bit of damage out of your favorite characters.

Of course no fighter these days is complete without online play, and we’ve got that covered. Skullgirls features ranked and unranked online play using the excellent GGPO networking library.

We went all out on Skullgirls’ music and signed the legendary composer of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Michiru Yamane, but after hundreds of hours of play even the best soundtrack can wear thin.

One of the first feature requests we had from PlayStation 3 owners was a custom soundtrack option, so I’m happy to announce that we’ll be delivering this surprisingly rare feature with the game.

Finally… Trophies. Trophies are a requirement for all games these days, but we went the extra mile and created four exclusive Trophies for PlayStation 3 users.

There are a lot of complaints out there about fighting Trophies in fighting games, so we sought out forum feedback before designing ours so we could deliver the most satisfying Trophy-hunting experience possible. We think we’ve come up with a pretty good set.

We’ll be releasing more information about the specific Trophies in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for that!

And that wraps up the features — in the coming weeks, we’ll be announcing the 8th and final character, the release date and price, and… more.

If you like what you see here, visit our website, Twitter @Skullgirls or Liking us on Facebook for the latest on the game! Thanks for reading!

The Alien films have always held enormous power over me, occupying the same sphere of significance that Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings do for many others. So it’s been with great interest and no small amount of hope that I’ve watched the development saga of Aliens: Colonial Marines. This Gearbox Software-developed first-person shooter promises to pick up where James Cameron’s 1986 classic Aliens left off — an irresistible premise for any diehard fan of the series. A recent trailer (watch it below) presented a convincing succession of sound and images, yet carried the sadface news of a new fall 2012 release date. What’s an impatient Alien fan to do?

Well, I went to Randy Pitchford to get some answers. The gregarious CEO of Gearbox Software was all too happy to share new insights into the studio’s plans for Aliens: Colonial Marines, including multiplayer concepts, the control scheme, play style…and, perhaps most tantalizing, what he knows about the upcoming Ridley Scott-directed origin tale Prometheus.

Alien fans: Something tells me that 2012 is going to be a mighty fine year.

PlayStation.Blog: Aliens: Colonial Marines was recently confirmed to be a fall 2012 title. How will the game’s new fall 2012 release date benefit the final product?

Randy Pitchford, CEO, Gearbox Software: Aliens: Colonial Marines has been a dream project – a labor of love. We’re fully committed to our vision for the game. Creating deadlines is helpful to the process, but we do regret where it creates expectations that cause us to choose between changing expectations or compromising the vision.

PSB: Are you excited to see Prometheus? Will any of the Space Jockey lore hinted at in the film make it into Aliens: Colonial Marines?

RP: I’m very excited about Prometheus. 20th Century Fox invited us to read the script and check out production and ACM’s director, Brian Martel, had a discussion with Ridley Scott about the matter years and years ago, so it’s been a really interesting seat for us on this one. A bunch of our guys went out to read the script a while back. I chose to decline because I didn’t want the spoilers — I can’t wait to see the final film! Ridley is such a master storyteller and filmmaker and I’m thrilled that he’s spending some more time in science fiction. Oh, and I haven’t dodged your real question. Yes, ACM will bring you inside The Derelict on LV-426. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll leave it at that!

PSB: Would you describe the FPS feel as grittier and more realistic, or focused on arcadier accessibility?

RP: I would say that the player’s experience for Aliens: Colonial Marines will tend closer to the gritty realism side. I say that because sometimes the gameplay footage we use for marketing will tend to focus more on the action — which is definitely in there — but you can’t really feel difficulty and challenge as well when you’re trying to promote and market the game using promotional footage.

PSB: How are you approaching the control scheme? Does the game feature aim down the sight and a two-weapon limit? Are there any equipment slots or ways to customize your character?

RP: Looking down the sights properly is a big deal. Gearbox is really proud of its heritage in the evolution of down-the-sights views having really pushed that feature forward in the first Brothers in Arms game. Since then, every shooter we’ve created has featured direct down the sights views with ballistic weapons — including Borderlands. There are still some things we’re bouncing around between with respect to how we’re managing weapon slots and equipment with ACM, so I’ll reserve making a commitment on that right now.

Peer review and testing with customers is really important to us in the tuning process. If any of your readers are in Dallas, TX and want to be part of our user testing program, they should check out our website for more information.

PSB: Displaying the aliens themselves is a tricky balance between showing too much and showing too little. What’s your philosophy when it comes to showing them in the game?

RP: It’s been fun for us to dream up the presentations, but we’re not approaching it like no one knows what a xenomorph looks like. We do have some awesome new variants to reveal for the first time, so we try to get value out of those moments for the experience when you’re playing the game.

PSB: Finally, how important is the multiplayer experience to Aliens: Colonial Marines? Can you give us any hint as to the way it will play?

RP: Multiplayer is a big deal for us. It’s getting a huge amount of attention. I think we’ll be looking for some opportunities very soon to get some people outside of our studios, including some journalists, to have a chance to preview the multiplayer game and play a bit of it. We’re really looking forward to testing it against other eyes and getting some feedback from that, so it shouldn’t be too long before we make that happen.

Head over to the new Sony Entertainment Network Blog today for the latest updates on new movies, music and more!

This week, the Video Unlimited library adds Dream House, In Time, and The Thing. Plus, watch Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie before it hits theatres. See this week’s update here.

The Music Unlimited service features new releases from Lana Del Rey, Leonard Cohen, and The Jealous Sound, as well as titles from Jack White, M.I.A, Gotye, Scorpions, and more!

Subscription Links:

• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe via RSS here
• Download the MP3 here

This week, we tackle one of this winter’s biggest PS3 releases: Final Fantasy XIII-2. We invited IGN editor, renowned JRPG expert, and K-pop enthusiast Ryan Clements to give us his detailed analysis of a game that Square Enix has described as “exceed[ing] Final Fantasy XIII in every aspect.” Ryan wrote IGN’s FFXIII-2 review, so he was able to lead a deep and thought-provoking discussion of how Square Enix incorporated fan requests to make a nonlinear, exploration-focused RPG, how Eastern RPG design differs from Western RPG design, and much more. Definitely worth a listen!

We also reveal the new PSN game lineup for Tuesday, February 7th, serve up a new PSN Gem of the Week, and answer a slew of user questions related to PS Vita: the PSN launch-day game lineup, Bluetooth capabilities, and where to go to play it right now (hint!).

In other news…Woo-hoo! PlayStation Blogcast has hit the big 1-0! Frankly, I’m shocked: it feels like only yesterday that we were taking crash courses in Garage Band and cobbling together audio gear in order to get our long-promised podcast off the ground. And now, 11 weeks and 10 shows later, we’re in a regular weekly recording routine. It just goes to show that if you work hard, take your vitamins, and trust in Nick Suttner, anything is possible. Thanks to PlayStation.Blog readers for your support and feedback!

How’s our driving? We want your feedback, comments, questions, and suggestions, so leave ‘em in the comments below!

-Twisted Metal community event in San Francisco tonight!
-Final Fantasy XIII-2 IGN review by Ryan Clements
-Vita Hill social clubs now open in eight US cities
-Soul Calibur V
-Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (aka Jeff’s post-Skyrim obsession)

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]