For the full details check the press release below.

Xperia(TM) PLAY 4G Keeps Favorite Video Games at Your Fingertips Beginning Sept. 18

First PlayStation®-certified smartphone from AT&T available for $49.99 in AT&T stores and att.com

DALLAS, Sept. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ –

Key Facts

— The Xperia(TM) PLAY 4G, combining a PlayStation®-certified gaming
device with the capabilities and portability of an Android smartphone,
arrives in AT&T* stores, and online on September 18 for $49.99 with a
two-year agreement.
— The Xperia PLAY 4G has dedicated gaming controls built into the phone
through a slide out controller including directional keypad, dual analog
touch joystick, two shoulder buttons and the four iconic PlayStation
symbol keys: circle, X, square and triangle.
— Running the Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) platform, the first
PlayStation-certified smartphone in the world features a brilliant 4″
480 x 854 screen and stereo speakers.

AT&T Exclusives

Only AT&T customers can choose the 4G-capable Xperia PLAY, offered in an exclusive “stealth blue” color. The smartphone package is complete with bonus accessories including the Sony Ericsson Multimedia Dock DK300 and MC100 music cable. In addition to providing a convenient charging station, the DK300 converts the Xperia PLAY’s screen to a large clock display, and the music cable lets you connect to external speakers.** The DK300 and music cable come in the Xperia PLAY box, only from AT&T.

In addition, the device is pre-loaded with seven games, some of which are exclusive, at no additional cost including:

— Dungeon Defenders(TM) Second Wave by Trendy Entertainment
— Asphalt(TM) 6 Adrenaline by Gameloft
— Star Battalion by Gameloft
— Madden NFL(TM) 11 by Electronic Arts
— The Sims(TM) 3 by Electronic Arts
— Tower Bloxx(TM): My City by Digital Chocolate
— Crash Bandicoot® by SCEA/Naughty Dog/Universal

AT&T customers will have access to 150 Xperia PLAY optimized games including Minecraft(TM) Pocket Edition, Battlefield: Bad Company(TM) 2 and Dead Space(TM) 2 for download and purchase through the “Get Games” recommender screen, easily accessible when you slide open the Xperia PLAY’s game controller.

Handheld Gaming and Smartphones Converge

The Xperia PLAY 4G offers a gamer’s wonderland by providing the on-the-go capabilities of an Android smartphone with the immersive entertainment appeal of a portable gaming device.

— Snapdragon chipset including a 1GHz CPU and Adreno 205 graphics
processor (GPU)
— Runs on the Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) platform
— Sight and sound: 4″ 480 x 854 screen, up to 60 frames per second
graphics, stereo speakers
— Dual camera: 5MP rear and VGA forward-facing, with video recording and
chat capabilities over Wi-Fi
— Hundreds of Xperia PLAY optimized games through Android Market or
directly from the publishers
— Pre-loaded with seven Xperia PLAY optimized games from publishers such
as Gameloft and EA.

Along with the great gaming and Android capabilities, the Xperia PLAY 4G from AT&T includes Facebook Inside Xperia, a suite of Facebook functions integrated into various applications, such as friends’ birthdays in the phonebook, a “like” button in the music player, photo tags in the media gallery, and YouTube video recommendations from friends.

Pricing and Availability

The Xperia PLAY 4G arrives in AT&T stores and online on Sept. 18 and will be available for $49.99 after a two-year contract with minimum data plan.

Quotes

“Gamers and smartphone fans alike will delight in the Xperia PLAY 4G’s instant access to gaming and entertainment,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, Devices, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “We’re excited to offer a device that allows consumers to have fun while still staying on top of everything in their life.”

“Our fans on AT&T have been asking for Xperia PLAY and now we’re giving them everything they need in a smartphone with what they really want – an immersive gaming experience on AT&T’s 4G Network,” said Peter Farmer, Head of Marketing for North America, Sony Ericsson. “In addition to a constantly growing list of games exclusive to and optimized for Xperia PLAY, we know AT&T customers are really going to enjoy the uniquely Sony Ericsson social experience, including Timescape and Facebook Inside.”

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

**External speakers not included.

4G speeds delivered by HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul. Available in limited areas. Availability increasing with ongoing backhaul deployment. Requires 4G device. Learn more at att.com/network.

References to screen size are measured diagonally.

Important Information: Limited-time offer. Mobile broadband coverage and other coverage not available in all areas. See coverage map at store for details. Two year agreement with qualifying voice plan and a minimum $15 a month smartphone data plan required. Subscriber must live and have a mailing address within AT&T’s owned wireless network coverage area. Up to $36 activation fee applies. Equipment price and availability may vary by market and may not be available from independent retailers. Early Termination Fee: None if cancelled in the first 30 days, but up to $35 restocking fee may apply to returns; thereafter up to $325. Some agents impose additional fees. Other conditions and restrictions apply. See contract for details. Sales tax calculated based on price of unactivated equipment.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile broadband and emerging 4G capabilities, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T |DIRECTV brands. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com. This AT&T news release and other announcements are available at http://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT.

© 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. Mobile broadband not available in all areas. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. Xperia and the Sony Ericsson liquid identity logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB. PlayStation and Sony are the trademarks or registered trademarks of Sony Corporation. Ericsson is the trademark or registered trademark of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericson. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

About Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson celebrates its 10th year as a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Ericsson in October, 2011. Over the years Sony Ericsson has brought together the best communication technologies with superior entertainment user experiences to create its Xperia(TM) line of the ‘most entertaining smartphones’ in the mobile handset industry. With its global corporate functions in London, Sony Ericsson has sales and marketing operations in all major regions of the world, as well as manufacturing in China, and product development sites in China, Japan, Sweden and Silicon Valley, California. For more information, please visit: www.sonyericsson.com/press.

SOURCE AT&T Inc.
AT&T Inc.

Details are on the PS Blog.

I’m just getting around to playing Mafia II on PS3, which came out a year ago, and I was SHOCKED to see this storefront window in the game’s second mission! I wonder what the Vita would have cost in 1945 dollars?

I have it on good authority that the 360 version of Mafia II has a picture of a Windows 7 Mobile Phone in this store. And the Wii version has a picture of Yoshi.

GAME> Kingdom Hearts (2002)
SYSTEM> PS2
SOURCE> Kingdom Hearts Official Strategy Guide, 2003

One of these days, Disney is going to wake up, call Square Enix and ask “Hey, why haven’t you guys made a decent Kingdom Hearts game in the last five years?”

Sure Sony loses out on Holiday 2011, but they need to come on very strong at the outset, and if they can secure a lineup that capitalizes on the handheld’s strengths — a big IF to say the least — it will be worth it for them to get their ducks in a row before launching.

As someone who can’t get near my PS3 or TV much before late at night these days thanks to my kids getting older and staying up later, I’m excited about the prospect of a souped up handheld aimed at the hardcore gaming crowd. If I have to wait maybe six more months for it at the most, that won’t kill me. I still have a decent backlog on the PSP itself to work through.

Seen on Shacknews.

First, if you register with the site under your PSN ID, you instantly receive a PSN code good for a small pack of PlayStation ephemera: PSN avatars, theme and Home goodies. Not the most amazing free offer ever, but I’ll take it.

Second, check out the goof in the registration survey (after the jump). Apparently our pals at Joystiq are a genre unto themselves.

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One is in stores November 18, and that’s the real reason why PSN members are getting this notice.

It’s a unique idea, Dead Block. The $9.99 PSN/XBLA release takes the usual third-person zombie-killing action approach and jams it into an intriguing tower defense format. The hero characters are locked in a building and must survive waves of zombies that keep piling in through the open windows. Rather than focusing on shotguns and gore, Dead Block asks that you deal with the horde by quickly installing silly traps inside the windows and door frames. While the undead are being frozen into popsicles or whacked on the head with rolling pins, you’re kept busy by turning the rooms inside-out in search of the hidden items that will let you finish the level.

The game bears a superficial resemblance to beloved trap-oriented franchises Dungeon Keeper and Deception, although Dead Block is nowhere near as complex.

But first: the setting. Yes, this is yet another zombie game (although at least this is one that gives us something to do aside from shooting them.) Dead Block also happens to be set in the 1950s, transposing a whitebread “Leave It to Beaver” world against the slow-moving horror of rampaging ghouls. Interestingly, the playable characters sort of aren’t 1950s cliches at all. I would have expected a Grinning Omnipotent Dad, or a tough teen greaser. Instead you cycle between Jack Foster (burly construction worker), Mike Bacon (chubby boy scout) and Foxy Jones (tough traffic warden.) Is there anything specifically ’50s about that cast? This is not a complaint, just an observation.

The reason for the trio is that Dead Block revolves around three key actions: building, searching and shooting. Each character specializes in one of the three, and I’ll let you figure out which is which because it won’t take long. Each character also has a specific set of barricade only he or she can build. Only Jack can build the mighty Concrete wall that will never crumble; only Foxy can install the Bomb barrier that clears out a zombie-packed room. And only Mike can build the trap that dumps poop on enemies as they shamble through, which somehow reduces their health bar and allows them to inadvertently spread the crap infection to nearby zombies.

Even though you do not always get the option to play as all three in the same level, the general idea is to take control of the one you need, when you need to make sure his or her special skills need to be best levied. I tended to walk Jack into a room full of stuff and let his AI take over to start demolishing furniture for wood, while I built the awesome Bomb traps with Foxy.

If you absolutely must kill zombies with your bare hands, you can whack them with a frying pan or other character-specific weapon. In a one-on-one contest, you’ll probably be okay – characters self-heal over time – but if you’re surrounded it is unlikely you’ll survive. For the direst of dire situations, each character also has a unique mega-attack that automagically upgrades over the course of the game. Foxy ends up with a shotgun (sigh) that kills the twelve nearest zombies without you having to aim, while Mike is granted the ability to toss a distractingly delicious cheeseburger into the room to pull the horde’s attention away from you.

This may all sound very cool and inventive, but Dead Block seems to simply not have had enough thought put into it. The zombie traps tend to be unbalanced and one-note, never creating opportunities for the ridiculous trap combos of Dungeon Keeper or Deception. So you can more or less focus on putting Bomb traps EVERYWHERE since they are easily the most useful barricade. There is no incentive to branch out into the other types (unless you’re in one of the early levels where Foxy is not a playable character… and in that case you’ll probably just use Jack’s freeze door and do a lot of ice smashing.) You end up building the same traps and using the same strategy on every map.

Searching items is meant to invoke the B-movie suspense of the harried hero rushing through closets and drawers looking for weaponry. Dead Block creates that tension by making you click through the shoulder buttons to simulate rooting through junk, but all you find is a nut. Nuts are used to build traps, but I’ll be damned if the game ever explains how it decides what traps you earn by finding nuts. You just collect yer nuts and watch your inventory count to see what traps are made available.

Then there’s the level finisher, a supposedly triumphant display of the power of rock-and-roll. Your primary goal is to locate the three parts of the world’s cheapest Rock Band kit: a guitar, an amp, and something else that hooks up to a guitar and an amp. Once you find all three, you end the level with the worst rhythm minigame ever designed, a slow-yet-picky PaRappa pastiche set to a barely-variating series of guitar riffs. For some reason, hearing rock music stops the zombies. If I’m to believe the end-level cutscenes, it doesn’t even kill them. Just stops them. So I’m not sure why we’re bothering.

And while Dead Block deserves points for including some pleasantly genuine-sounding 1950s proto-Elvis music, it promptly loses them for making us listen to the same moany song at the end of every level. Also: the game’s final level scoreboard (where you get some nice stats on how much furniture you destroyed and how many zombies were killed) popped up on top of the credit scroll. That is just plain unpolished. The cinematics that preface each level – poorly mimicking 1950s horror movie trailers – are also no great shakes.

However, Dead Block does a great job at modeling 1950s furniture! It is all viewed through a kooky MAD Magazine lens, but I liked seeing the bean-shaped designs and smooth chrome that define ’50s America.

While crafting a third-person action-oriented tower defense is a laudable goal, I spent the entire game wishing I was seeing the events from the usual top-down perspective, placing traps and protecting innocents from my comfortable birds-eye view. Which Bomb trap just went off? Hey, I don’t know, I’m stuck inside a bathroom two floors up.

This is indie developer Candygun Games’ first release, so we can chalk up Dead Block as a learning experience. My suggestion is to learn to avoid zombie games.

For an unfinished, poorly explained take on a decent tower defense concept, Dead Block gets 2 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.

Dead Block was released July 2011 (NA) on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.
Rated T

Check out Dead Block and other PSN reviews at Test Freaks.

Hello one and all, Aeropause Games is at E3, and will will have a slew of stuff to talk about today that we are seeing at the show.  Coming up this evening will be a rundown of the three major press conferences, as well as a rundown from the Ubisoft conference.  Quick summary on all – Microsoft was good, Sony surprised us all with a $249.99 price tag for the PS Vita and the Wii U looks and plays amazing.  Oh, and for once, the Ubisoft presser was actually upbeat, exciting and to the point.

Today, we will have coverage coming from games hosted by Bethesda, a close look at what OnLive is doing with their new apps and content, and a detailed look at Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Hitman: Absolution.  Roberto will have his own share of hardware and peripheral companies that he is visiting, and Fourhman will have some input with more on Ntntendo later today.

It’s a jam-packed show and we are looking to bring you the best in content with out own opinions and chatter on what we see at E3 this year.  Enjoy!

To me this is just crappy programming. They had a whole month to get ready for anything — load issues, security issues, anything, and still, STILL this pile of crap Store software throws ridiculous looking Error codes instead of doing any of the following when under heavy traffic:
* let users opt to enter a queue to access the page or start the download
* make a server-side queue of downloads just like on those PC download sites
* just say it’s fricken busy and to try back later! NOT SOME ERROR 0x234987sd#$*(@ nobody is going to understand!

Come on Sony, we’re grown-ups, we know that not paying for an online service has its limitations, or even that when paying for it bandwidth and server infrastructure isn’t infinite, but a tiny bit of intelligence in the software can go a long way to managing these limitations and not making you look like complete imbeciles when you’re trying to make your customer base happy enough to use your systems again.

And what do they say on Twitter and the Blog to make up for this? You have plenty of time to get your games so don’t panic? You want your customers to be happy and use your system, not GO AWAY and maybe NOT COME BACK! THIS is supposed to inspire CONFIDENCE?!

Note to Sony: Learn Faster. FASTER!

The Store update looks to be making good on that month of downtime… a staggering eleven full games, six demos, and a list of add-on content, price drops and ancillary downloads that will cramp up your scrolling finger. Plus over 75 Rock Band tracks!

The Welcome Back packages are, unbelievably, still not available. Sony is still working on that. The company promises “soon” on those, as well as regular fresh Store updates during E3 week.