Pain crossovers continue: Buzz joins Sackboy

A few months ago, the magazine Game Informer broke a rumor that a Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet would be making the leap to PSN’s timekiller exercise in sadism, Pain. Today Playstation.Blog announced that Buzz will be included in Pain’s second expansion environment, Movie Studio. Buzz, like, from the Buzz quiz games.

And, knowing that people are pretty much burned out on all those extraneous Pain character skins dinging you a dollar a piece, Buzz will be included in the expansion as a free unlockable.

Between these Pain add-ons and the God of War/Heavenly Sword/Metal Gear Solid outfits for LittleBigPlanet, what we’re seeing is an aggressive plan by Sony to create a Sony Universe. Nintendo has had immeasurable success over two decades by manufacturing their own world and never being afraid to share characters… starting with Mario cameos in unlikely NES games and culminating with the fanboy feast of the Smash Bros series. Sony, meanwhile, has never really had a marquee character, only a string of wannabees that Sony uses for a time and then tosses aside (PaRappa, Crash Bandicoot, etc)… or worse, trades to the competition. Plus they’ve always kept their franchises more or less separate from each other. Not any more! Who’s in for Sony Superstars Tennis?

Pain’s Movie Studio expansion is expected to launch next month. A price has not been set (I’d expect around $6) and it will come with its own set of PlayStation Trophies.

Source: Playstation.Blog

Game Finale Trivia Quiz!

I came up with this list of spoiler-filled video game trivia questions about a year ago, but since I’m about to input it all into a custom quiz for the PS3’s Buzz Quiz TV game, I thought I’d duplicate the effort here.

These are all questions based on the finales of various video games, past and present. Some are silly; some are genuine. I set up the quiz so that you’re given the spoiler and you have to come up with the corresponding game. The answers are all multiple choice, but, yes, you may find items that you didn’t want to know. These are spoilers, after all. For example:

They were all real people, and they’re all dead.

One of the old gang has let wealth and power go to his head.

The pirate is the princess.

The one-time super-hero idol is actually in league with the main baddie.

Since custom Buzz quizzes are limited to eight questions, I had enough material for three of them. You can find them by searching for “finale spoiler,” as they are all titled “Game Finale Spoiler Quiz.” For those of you who do not have Buzz Quiz TV, you can go to mybuzzquiz.com, search for “finale spoiler,” and play them from the comfort and safety of your web browser. (In either case, the ones created by user “StocDred” are the real deal.) Pretty classy move on the Buzz people’s part, I say.

Buzz hits North American PS3s tomorrow

In a twist on usual Japan-America-Europe video game supply lines, Buzz: Quiz TV has been available for European PS3s since the summer… and tomorrow, the game hits the U.S.

Just as with the late-PS2 versions, this new edition comes with four special game show-style buzzer controllers. Other enhancements include a new “Sofa vs Sofa” online mode and the ability to create your own quiz questions. The retail price is $60.

Buzz: Quiz TV has already received two updates in Europe, one that added Trophy support and a second patch that added PSEye support. While these features will not be on the retail disk, as soon as you boot it up you’ll be prompted to grab the (presumably free) updates.

I’m definitely considering this one, having never tried the PS2 editions. Seems like a nice party game, not that we truly need any more of that in this Age of Wii. But I must admit I already hate that leering, evil Muppet of a host.

via PlayStation.blog

Sony E3 2008 Press Event

Here we are anxiously awaiting the start of the Sony press event.  Not really sure what to expect from Sony.  I am sure we will see some Little Big Planet, and I would love to see the Resistance 2 8-player co-op mode in action.  Killzone 2 looking good would be a great thing to lift the clouds off of that title.  A demo of a fully functioning XMB interface, and not the sort of working XMB that was in firmware 2.40.  Maybe some good PSP games that are in development.  Final Fantasy VII for the PSN store?  Get ready to see if any of these are true or not as we live blog the Sony press event for the readers.

 The show is starting with a montage of games that are coming to the system most likely in the upcoming year.  Oohh, a quick snap of Buzz on the PSP.  And some Yakuza 2 or 3 on the PS2 or PS3.  The montage ends with a big ass Rancor screaming at the screen.

Jack Trenton comes out on stage.  He started off with some nice jokes, although his Jack Palance reference got a smattering of applause.  He feels the company is hitting their stride on the console.  He states 2008 is the year of the PS3.  Talking about how Blu-Ray is in every PS3, and that the Cell processor is powering IBM supercomputers.  Also mentions Folding at Home  and its 1.7 million uses on the PS3, which is rather amazing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pop Quiz Hotshot: Make Your Own

These days all the movie Speed is known for is the 50-mile-per-hour bus ride.  Dennis Hopper’s taunt to Keanu Reeves character when giving him clues is “Pop quiz hotshot!” followed by the question.  Back when I reviewed Buzz! The Mega Quiz for the PS2, I felt that the game would be a great addition to the PS3 library, and this fall we’ll get that game with Buzz! Quiz TV.  Back in Podcast Beyond 44 I heard that you’d be able to create your own quizzes for the PS3 buzz games and share them with friends, and it looks like that’s actually true.

Apparently you can now go online and start creating quizzes at MyBuzzQuiz.com.  The game will be hitting Europe first, then coming to the US in September or so, so you have some time to start building some great brain-teasers.

Seen on PS3Fanboy.

Buzz: The Hollywood Quiz Review

Game shows are one of those things that no matter what the show uses as a gimmick, you always find yourself sitting down to answer the questions.  So having trivia games migrate to the consoles only seems natural, and the Buzz series has found a great home on the PS2.  This time around the Buzz franchise uses Holly wood as its backdrop, asking us to test our knowledge of the movies with our friends or by our lonesome in Buzz: The Hollywood Quiz.

The first thing you notice about Buzz: The Hollywood Quiz, is that it comes in a huge package, just like its competitors, including the game and the controllers, which allow up to four people to play right out of the box.  The game also supports another set of controllers if you have some from the previous games in the series, for a total of eight players.  Buzz also starts up with several modes of play, ranging from a simple one player game to a cavalcade of rounds for multiple players.

Read the rest of this entry »