PS3 Fanboy

There have been many dual-analog space shooters in the past. Geometry Wars popularized the genre on Xbox, and Sony attempted a similar effort with Blast Factor. What makes the newly released Super Stardust HD so much better than its genre predecessors? It's easy to see, literally. Super Stardust HD looks eons better than any of its competitors. But, not only does it feature good looks ... it features easy-to-understand gameplay and a great deal of subtle complexity that will appeal to casual and hardcore gamers alike.

The basic concept of the game is simple. You control a spaceship with an infinite supply of destructive capabilities. The left analog stick controls movement of the ship, while the right analog stick controls the direction of your weapon. Using swift maneuvering and careful aim, players will have to destroy a seemingly endless onslaught of meteors and alien space craft.

Meteors will fall towards a planet, and players will have to traverse the globe, trying to defend the planet. Each Armageddon-sized rock will splinter into smaller pieces of debris in a beautiful and chaotic spectacle. As players progress through the various stages, an even greater amount of objects will fall from the sky, providing players will a daunting challenge that borders on the insurmountable. Thankfully, players have a number of tools at their disposal.

We've had two weeks of good PSN updates so far. Can Sony make it a hat-trick with a third? In short, yes. Check the full release list below.

• Super Stardust HD (£4.99)
• Championship Sprint (£1.99)
• Gauntlet 2 (£1.99)
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo (free)
• Superman Returns BD trailer (free)
• Full Metal Jacket BD trailer (free)

That's right. Sony were good to their word and have released Super Stardust HD worldwide within 24 hours. This is an excellent game and we will have a review up before too long to tell you exactly why. The other two available games (ah, it feels good to be able to say that ... ) are midway remakes, so have a think about it before you buy. Having said that, we've heard that Gauntlet 2 was pretty good online.

The Ninja Gaiden demo is a must get, if you haven't already nabbed if from the US store. Hopefully it will be compatible with the full title's in-game rewards for completing the demo, as the US version will be. Keep these killer updates coming, Sony.

After a pretty killer week for boxed game releases, the PSN is also doing its part to beef up the PlayStation argument. This week we have a game, a demo, a major trailer and some other accompanying fancies. No PS1 games, though. They've all been funneled into the Japanese PSN store. Not that we mind. We've got more than enough to keep us busy. Super Stardust HD is one of those games that popped up a couple of weeks ago yelling "I'm going to be amazing. Buy me." The full release list is as follows.

• Super Stardust HD ($7.99)
• Dynasty Warriors: Gundam demo (free)
• Grand Theft Auto IV trailer (free)
• I know who killed me film trailer (free)
• Superbad film trailer (free)
• License to Wed film trailer (free)
• The Invasion film trailer (free)

Great stuff. Keep it coming, Sony!

Are you ready for this? We feel like, for the first time, we are relaying some good news to all the Europeans out there. Read on to see what your PSN Store now contains.

• Rampart game (£1.99)
• Joust game (£1.99)
• Motorstorm Time Attack Mode (free)
• Lair trailer (free)
• Haze trailer (free)
• Super Stardust HD trailer (free)
• The Darkness story trailer (free)
• An interview with Paul Hollywood video (free)

Where to start! Yes, the games are Midway rehashes (and you know how we feel about those) but, really, it's the thought that counts. Sony are finally pulling their collective finger out and releasing some decent content to the European market. As a quick aside, we can't stop watching that Haze trailer. Honestly. It's on repeat in the background at this very moment.

But what of the Motorstorm Time Attack Mode? We only just got done telling you that it has been delayed, which it has. In America, at least. For those of you about to download it, take heed. There are reports of problems occuring unless you do things in the proper order. Load Motorstorm and update to version 1.2 in the online menu, then download the Time Attack Mode and install.

• Calling All Cars - 22nd of June (£4.99)
• Super Stardust HD - 29th of June (£4.99)

Not too shabby, eh? While our US cousins have had Calling All Cars for a month now, Super Stardust HD should be a worldwide release. If you're as impatient for these games as we are then you might also like to know that this coming friday, the 15th, sees the release of the highly anticipated Motorstorm patch.

Looks like Sony are finally pulling their finger out with their PSN releases. Let's just hope it continues beyond the end of June.

We're not very secretive about it: the latest selection of PS Store games are lackluster. While it's nice for the two people who actually want to download classic arcade titles, we'd all like to see some new, original games that actually benefit from a high definition experience. One such title, we anticipate with cautious optimism, is Super Stardust HD. The guys at Housemarque sat down for a very lengthy interview, perhaps too lengthy for a downloadable title. With that in mind, we'll summarize for you.

• You should already know what the game's about. If not, let us educate you on the basics.
  
• The temptation to put the title on the PSN instead of a budget PS2 title was too great! Online distribution, the developers claim, is so much more efficient for these types of games. We can see their point.
• As with most virgin PS3 projects, Housemarque had trouble programming for the PS3 from the PC version, but after hacking away and not giving up (see F.E.A.R., Splinter Cell: Double Agent), they got the hang of it and are pleased with the console and their results.
• What does the Cell bring to the table? Glad you asked: "the physics, collisions and particle effects run natively on Cell ... We are able to get over 10,000 active objects with physics and collisions and over 75,000 particles simulated and drawn @60fps." Wow!
• You can have real friends play with you! A shared-screen co-op mode will be available.
• No word on future downloadable content for the game, but we've got a feeling we'll see something.

We have been assured that we won't be disappointed with this game and heaven help us, we believe them. The game is due out by the end of June, but we'll be having dreams about it every now and then. If our brains can actually dream up "over 10,000 active objects with physics and collisions and over 75,000 particles simulated and drawn @60fps." That would be a challenge.

How do planets survive, you ask? Well, you shoot a rocketship into orbit and force it to fly around your planet and shoot a bunch of rocks, debris, intruders, and other assortments of material to keep it safe and sound. That's basically the premise of Super Stardust HD and while simple on the surface, the gallery we've got shows that there's actually a lot going on on-screen at any time. We're excited for this one, because while Blast Factor was fun, it just didn't deliver on the Asteroids-style game we truly wanted. Maybe this will.

We've covered the upcoming Super Stardust HD before, so we're not going to focus on that one quite as much as the newly announced Snakeball game for the PlayStation Network. The former, SSHD, features the systematic annihilation of asteroids, avoidance of the resulting debris, and the destruction of enemy units who want to stop you from annihilating asteroids. Just look at it! It looks pretty fun, but will it deliver what Blast Factor wasn't quite able to? Let's find out in June.

Snakeball seems pretty cool. It's like... bumper cars meets Snake meets rugby meets children minus the children. It makes more sense if you check out our gallery. You glide across a funky disco flooring, collect colored balls to increase the length of your snake car thing, and slap other players with your tail or some kind of weaponry. Along with the recently announced PlayStation Eye, you can map your own face onto a rider to get a more unique experience. There are three modes of play which we'll paraphrase: make your snake as long as you can, master the different arena challenges, or play against 8 other people online. It's coming in July.

[Via Joystiq]

ThreeSpeech, the semi-official blog under Sony's umbrella of ultimate justice, have posted a quick reminder of what titles are coming to the PlayStation Store in the next month or two. Not surprisingly, more delays! Awesome.

• Calling All Cars - May 18th
  
• Nucleus - May 25th
  
• Super Stardust HD - June 15th

Will Calling All Cars ever come out? Probably not. Will the US ever get Super Rub-a-Dub? Of course. While it is surprising to see the two crazy spaceship-ish shooters coming out so soon, we really wanted to get our hands on Calling All Cars back on March 22nd. Jaffe, you're a crazy guy, but you shouldn't drive us to insanity, too.