Now you can complete Sackboy’s epic journey in some cool costumes. But not just ANY costumes, no. We’re being offered costumes that are based on Killzone:Liberation, MotorStorm Arctic Edge and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Here’s the breakdown of the costumes from each of the games:

Uncharted 2 Character Costumes: Nathan Drake and chloe Frazer

Killzone 2: Helghast Officer and Tank Costume

MotorStorm: Arctic Edge – Lucky Jack Flynn and Candy Buzzbomb.

The offer is only available at Best Buy, Amazon, Gamestop and Gamecrazy. So if you’re a fan of LittleBigPlanet and like the PSP, check out the game. Excited? Let us know below.

The video, titled “Out For Revenge,” shows main character Huang Lee, and all the violence, mayhem, and weaponry, the game has to offer.

Additionally, Rockstar today released new additions to the Rockstar Games Social Club including Peking Duck Hunt, a browser-based mini-game that earns players in-game cash and other goodies.

Check out the entire Rockstar announcement at the Rockstar Newswire

Visually, this game is very impressive. The crisp details are shockingly clear. I haven’t played a racing video game on the PSP with such sleek and impressive graphics. The courses designed for the game are beautifully done and crafted to be exciting and with a varied experience. The visuals are on par with those of PS3/PS2 games which is very impressive. The visual experience definitely helps keep players addicted to the game and leaves an impression. When you see your vehicle crash, it will leave a mark. Especially if you get it to explode (props!).

The game itself is easy to understand. You’re playing as a racer in the MotorStorm Festival which is being held in the Arctic. You race around using one of 8 types of vehicles and fight to win each race. This sounds like there isn’t alot of variety, but the fact is, there is so many modes to go through, the replay value is immense! The main modes you’ll play through are Festival Mode, Time Attack and Free-Play Mode. Time Attack and Free-Play mode are like most standard racing modes. Festival Mode is the basic career mode. You race against opponents, and earn Badges as you win. The more badges you win, the more features you unlock which allows for more control over customization of your vehicles. People who love customizing their rides will love this aspect of the game.

The best way to play this game is online. When you go head to head with other players, it feels amazing. Once you’ve played through Festival Mode, Online mode is where you test your skills. If you think you can hold your own, you may be right. Or you may be dead wrong and have your ass handed to you by your opponents. This brings us to difficulty. The difficulty levels are like a standard videogame. You start out on a relatively easy level and the A.I. lets you get the hang of what’s happening. Once you’ve one a few races, the difficulty ramps up a lot. By the time you’re finishing up Festival mode, you’ll be cursing how hard the A.I. is going against you. With over 100 levels and such a difficulty range, the game doesn’t get boring anytime soon.

The levels provided are very dynamic. There are numerous routes around the track and the terrain varies quite a bit at times. The ramps and turns on each level will effectively teach you how to race with each vehicle type at your disposal. Now the eight vehicles are: Bikes, Snowmobiles, ATVs, Buggys, Rally Cars, Snowpluggers, Big Rigs and Snowplows. Each type is especially designed to tackle a certain type of terrain. When you play, you need to be ready to execute moves perfectly with your vehicle or else you’ll end up losing badly.

Two other noteworthy aspects of the game are its soundtrack and Photo Mode. Photo Mode allows you to take pictures while you drive, so that you can save it and send it out to your friends. This is a very cool feature which allows for showboating when you take down your opponents! And there’s no better way to take down your opponents than by doing it to a kick ass soundtrack. The game’s soundtrack helps get the blood flowing as you drive frantically around the track. It can wear on you a bit after 30 or so races, but Arctic Edge anticipated this: The game allows you to import your own soundtrack into the game when you need it, so if it gets annoying just rotate it out and race to your own soundtrack.

Now while this game doesn’t break new ground, it does everything right. There are a few technical problems which are apparent during races, but they are minor and do not ruin the overall experience. When racing against more than six players, the game can lag a tiny bit but it’s not a big deal. This is counteracted by the smooth visuals of open track and the tiny effects which make the game all the more impressive. So if you see a cool visual effect, be sure to have the Photo Mode ready!

Blast Factor: This game is beautifully done. It’s entertaining, it has everything you could possibly want from a racing game – cool cars, great visuals, and dynamic tracks. The replay value is fantastic but the online mode is one of the best ways to truly test your racing prowess. The game deserves to be recognized as one of the best games available on PSP today. If you’re a racing aficionado or a casual gamer looking for a road trip game, this is one you should definitely consider.

Motorstorm: Arctic Edge is available exclusively on the PSP, and retails for $39.99. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

Right off the bat you’re treated to a tutorial of how to use Beaterator properly. An animated Timbaland gives you a play by play on how to make music and the options available: Live Play or Studio. Live Play is an animated mixing session where you use 8 different looping tools to play during your songs. The loops and beats initially available are the preprogrammed settings on the game, but when you get better you can make your own loops and beats to replace them. You can record the songs you’re making and gradually make changes so that the song transitions itself naturally to the next one. Once you finish your song you can edit it bit by bit to tweek any problems you encounter. Live play is for easy on the freestyle song making.

The in depth song making comes with the Studio option. In the Studio option, you are presented with hundreds of loops and beats to choose from and must sample them one by one to see if it’s a loop you want to use. The loops themselves range from “inspired” to “half-assed” and can annoy someone who is casually exploring the game. You can create songs from these beats or upload your own sounds and music from your computer in order to expand the type of songs you can create. The Studio is definitely for a musician with a basic knowledge of Synthesizers and willing to put a lot of time into carefully molding songs.

The app itself is a very good tool which musicians will love. But there are numerous problems which will keep it from being embraced by the general public. While Live Play is easy and quick to use, Studio is complex, and not as well explained in the tutorial. Using the Song Crafter part of the application is difficult, since you need to change numerous things in order to get a song just right, and the PSP’s controls can be a very big hindrance. The beats and loops are for the most part great, but you can tell that too much was put into the application. Sampling beats can take a while to load, even for clips which are a few seconds long. This can be problematic to say the least, and the lag indicates just how much data is on the UMD.

Blast Factor: This is a music mixer which will take a lot of people time to fully access. The studio mode is very comprehensive but can be a little bit of a turn off because of how complex it seems. The beats and loops available are very impressive for the most part, and can be expanded upon with sounds from your computer. The tutorial doesn’t go in depth, so the mixer is not as simple to use as the casual user would like. The undertaking was ambition, and the end result is effective but not terribly efficient. It feels as if a touch screen based media player/system would be better suited for the creation of music, so I’ll probably end up checking out Beaterator on the iTouch. For the price it’s being sold at though, it’s a very affordable solution for artists who can’t afford to buy the PC software.

Beaterator is available for $39.99 on the Playstation Store and all major retailers. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for review purposes.

For any readers heading over to California, be sure to go to the Irwindale Speedway on Saturday (Oct 17), since there will be a Need for Speed booth at the Formula D Round 7 Championship. Pro drift racers will compete to see who can post the best lap in the Royal Purple Need for Speed Shift Time Attack Challenge, so be sure to check them out. If you want to read our review of Need for Speed Shift, check it out here.

You ever heard that “the clothes don’t make the man”? That saying is false. So we’re going to teach you that a Bancho’s outfit does more than make you look cool. The amount of clothing you’re wearing decides how much stuff you can carry. If you’re naked, you can carry three items, but you’ll look stupid. If you dress right, you can carry twice as many items (up to 8). Visit the Kagura Threads shop to buy some clothes from the smart mouthed shopkeeper.

Verdict? Kagura Threads where all the Banchos go.

The game’s coming out January 12 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP, so mark your calendars and start saving up! Comment below with you thoughts on the score sample and video.

Chinatown Wars for PSP is bulkier than its DS counterpart. Its got exclusive missions, music, and graphical enhancements that you can brag about to your dual-screen-wielding friends/family members/strangers if you’re so inclined.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars comes to the PSP and PSPgo October 20.

Much like the system already in place for Xbox Live content and WiiWare games, Amazon.com will sell you a download code for a game or piece of content of your choice and immediately email you the code to download in the PlayStation store.

What I like about this is the ability to gift content to friends and family. That is, if I’m feeling generous.

“With more than 600 million pieces of content downloaded to date, consumers are turning to PlayStation Network more than ever for digitally distributed entertainment content,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president of Marketing and PlayStation Network. “We are excited to team with Amazon.com to expand our reach with Amazon’s market leading ability to target current and future PlayStation consumers.”

Commence downloading bliss over at the Amazon PlayStation Network Hub!

Source: PlayStation.Blog

According to the PlayStation.Blog, the overly cute project for PSP and PSPgo, will hit retailers and the PSN, November 17 in North America.

Here’s the final boxart for the game. Nothing too special, but creative enough for me to believe MediaMolecule made it!

In other LittleBigPlanet news, Sony unleashed a “Who Sacks the Watchmen?” DLC pack on the PSN for the PlayStation 3 version this week.

We’ll have a review of LittleBigPlanet PSP next month, and stick with us for our continued coverage of the game!

Fans of the console versions of Gran Turismo will love how you can just jump right into the action here. First and foremost, the controls, the physics, and the feel of the handling are done amazingly right. Even on the PSP, Gran Turismo still feels like a racing simulator. The sensation of speed mixed with great graphics further assures a true GT experience.

Beyond that, there are the cars and tracks. 35 tracks full of variety and challenge around the world make sure that you’ll have plenty of road to conquer. And you’ll need to learn them well to make enough money to buy even a fraction of the 800+ cars in the game. Like all Gran Turismo titles, every car is a real, licensed vehicle, ranging from familiar Toyotas and Mazdas, amazing and challenging supercars, and a huge variety of gorgeous exotic dream machines. The dealerships in the game offer a limited amount at a time, rotating models and styles at random, so there’s almost always something new to offer.

All the cars and tracks are modeled with remarkable accuracy as well, and GT is certainly one of the best looking racers (if not the best) on the PSP. Still, there’s regular, if slight texture tearing on the tracks, but the framerate is rock solid and there’s little else to complain about. The audio is pretty good as well. Certainly not as powerful as the console versions, the car engines and race sounds are still modeled with an ear for detail and realism.

If there’s a real problem with the portable GT, it’s in the lack of a true career mode. You can instead jump right into a single race with whatever cars and tracks you have access to at any time. Choose the number of laps, the car, the track and go. The only options are to race against a measly three other cars, or race yourself in a time trial or drift event. The latter is an interesting feature for diehard racers, as drifting in GT requires a good deal more skill than in more arcade-styled racers.

The closest thing the game has to a career mode is the challenge mode, which starts as a training ground for drivers. In this mode, you complete an wide array of driving tasks to build your track skills. There’s little actual bonus rewards for the challenges though, and while these events add some needed variety to the racing, a full-on career mode is still sorely lacking.

The other big problem with the game, especially as a Triple-A launch title for the PSPGo is the lack of online multiplayer. For a game meant to show off an entirely internet-centric gaming system, only having local wireless play is awfully anticlimactic. The multiplayer action is certainly rock solid, but this would have been a golden opportunity to evolve GT into an online community with leaderboards and tournaments much like the competition on the big consoles. On the upside however, you’ll actually be able to boost your garage in the upcoming PS3 version with the cars you unlock now.

Blast Factor: Gran Turismo has made an overall successful leap to the portable realm. The driving and variety of cars is still amazing, the graphics are excellent, and for lovers of serious racing, GT is still king. It’s a great racing game in need of evolution, but those are mostly complaints that are easier to level on the PS3 version. As far as portable racers go, GT is still the king.

Gran Turismo is available exclusively on the PSP and PSP Go, and retails for $39.99

In an interview with website Examiner, Doug Wells, creative director at Naughty Dog said “We’d love to see Uncharted grow beyond the PS3. It would be interesting to see what sort of changes to the design one would make for a portable system. But right now Naughty Dog is purely focused on PS3 development so we can’t promise anything from us in the near future.”

Naughty Dog did however promise another Uncharted game on the PlayStation 3, likely after another 2-3 year development cycle.

Would you enjoy an Uncharted experience on your PSP?

These little guys are all priced at below $10, and are meant to be like a one night stand; quick and special for the time being, but not much more.

All kidding aside, there are 7 of them available today, two of which are Tetris and Soduku, and we know those are fun!

All the Minis run on both the PlayStation Portable and the PSPgo, which launched today.

Here’s all 7 Minis. Anyone snag any of them yet?

• Alien Havoc ($4.99)
• Tetris ($9.99)
• Hero of Sparta ($6.99)
• Brainpipe ($4.99)
• Fieldrunners ($6.99)
• Sudoku ($4.99)
• Funky Punch ($4.99)

The car is a 2009 GT-R Spec V in a sleek and stylish Metallic blue finish and the game is available today on the PlayStation Network and at retail, though to score the car, you’ll have to buy on the PSN.

Sony’s latest handheld, the download-only PSPgo also released today and Gran Turismo, in our opinion, would be a great way to commence the gaming goodness on the go.

The free-car promotion ends October 15. So what does that mean? You’ve got two weeks and Gran Turismo PSP bundle purchasers will be left in the cold, as that edition hits 5 days late on October 20.

Story mode focuses on the ten heroes fighting for Cosmos. Each player has their own unique storyline which plays out as you progress through the game. Each character’s arc is a piece of the larger story, so the game requires you to play through the battles with each character. It can get a bit tedious, but the antagonist section “Shadow Impulse” definitely makes the Story mode worth playing. These chapters let the story of the war between Chaos and Cosmos unfold naturally, without cramming too much into a few cut scenes.  Story mode not your thing? That’s fine. If you’re just looking for a quick fight, the Arcade and Quick Battle modes allow for quick one on one battles with the computer. Communications mode allows you to fight friends using the PSP’s Ad Hoc wireless system. Additional levels can be unlocked for an expanded game play experience.

The fighting system of the game is fantastically designed. The 3D arena allows fighters to go head to head while using the arena itself to enhance the experience. During the fights, timing is everything. You need to be able to block and evade the attacks while launching counter attacks as quickly as possible to get the upper hand. During the battle, you rely on your HP and Bravery Points. Using Bravery attacks allows you to steal your opponent’s Bravery and then use a Limit Break to launch an attack that will decimate your opponent using the accumulated Bravery Points. This brings a level of balance to the fight which is reminiscent of the fighting systems of the original games. The coolest aspect? When you fight, you can glide across walls and fly across the arena in order clash against your opponent with very cool special effects.

Which brings us to graphics. Graphics wise, Dissidia is on par with Crisis Core and in some ways exceeds it. The special attacks are presented in a fantastically colorful and creative manner. When your character slides across mako energy streams, the graphics sleekly show the character glide through the air as if it was natural. Sometimes when executing special moves, the graphics can lag a little, but this isn’t a major detractor from the game. When the graphics are coupled with the RPG element, you are given a truly fantastic experience.

One of the best aspects of the game is customization options. Armor, weapons and accessories help customize the characters and boost your fighting stats. One of the highlights for me was being able to unlock Squall’s Cadet uniform and Cloud’s Advent Children costume. The customization is optimized by Dissidia’s character play styles. Each character has their own fighting style which makes playing each fighter a unique experience. Each fighter is forced to face off against their nemesis in a final epic showdown which will help guide their story arc. While most fans will recognize that the pairings make sense, some will obviously point out the Jecht wasn’t Tidus’ main villain (but then again Tidus was about as real as the spoon in the Matrix, so we can disregard that small issue).

As a Final Fantasy fanboy, this game delivers on all fronts. As a fighting game fanatic, this game holds up to some of my toughest criticisms. The game is an experience, with a lot of unlockable content and beautiful graphics. The story comes together in a good way that can satisfy the diehard fans but could leaves something more to be desired. There is a secondary card battle system which players may want to explore for additional fun, but multiplayer is definitely where the game shines. Points accumulated throughout the game (fighting and card game) allow you to unlock the numerous bonus features (including two hidden characters that fans will be happy to unlock). When you go head to head with your friends, it’s a fun way to see who is better at coordinating themselves within the arena. My advice is to train on the highest difficulty level in order to train your reflexes during the harsh battles. Playing on difficult is incredibly brutal, but rewarding when you fight on normal and can easily block and counter your opponent’s moves.

While this game is fantastic, there are some points where it disappoints. Like most Japanese to English games, sometimes it is very apparent where the lip moves are not in sync with the voice track. This is no big deal, but it’s a little issue that can take away from the experience. While the roster is strong, the new story doesn’t give the characters the depth their original games did. In this respect, new comers may not appreciate the full scope of the characters and think that they are not as fully developed. The scheduling system for the game could be a bit of a turn off from casual players, but it isn’t a major feature if you’re just looking to fight.

Blast Factor: This game helps unite all the Final Fantasy games in one spectacular game.  The pinnacle is definitely the head to head fighting between each game’s hero and villain. Those battles alone are the realization of the final battles from each and every Final Fantasy game and beautifully remind diehards why they fell in love with the games in the first place (and continuously email Square Enix to remake certain chapters for the new consoles – *cough* Final Fantasy VII *cough*). This is a fantastic game and definitely one PSP owners should have. For a compelling story and an excellent fighting experience, check out Final Fantasy Dissidia. You’ll spend hours exploring this game fully and won’t want it to end. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go play some more.

Here’s the first lesson in becoming a Bancho: You need to find banchos before you can fight them. Earn experience and fight until you discover an Itinerary to tell you where your enemies are hanging out. To get an Itinerary, just beat it out of some schoolmates.

Sound like something you’d be interested in? Pre-order the game before it’s November 10 release. For more information, check out the official website.

Ghostbusters released on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, DS, and PC five months ago but finally Sony’s portable faithful, and new adopters of tomorrow’s PSPgo debut, can enjoy the ghost bustin’ game.

Red Fly Studios, the team behind the Wii and PS2 versions, handled the development duties for the PSP project, so we can likely expect much of the same, but this is a good thing.

No longer will the digital copy files be housed on a separate DVD, rather they’ll be packed right in on the disc easily transferable through your PS3, and will begin November 10 with the release of Godzilla and will continue with “select releases” moving forward including The Ugly Truth.

“Blu-ray is already known as the best way to watch movies at home, and now SPHE & SCEA are also making it the most convenient way to watch movies on the go,” said Rich Marty, Vice President of New Business Development at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Marty continued, “This latest enhancement to Blu-ray and Digital Copy demonstrates the versatility of the format and its ability to deliver a multi-platform video experience. It also showcases the unique advantage that the PlayStation 3 brings to the Blu-ray consumer.”

Anybody do this? I never have. Though I likely should, with my shiny new PS3.

Once you buy the game be sure to check out  the Social Club RockStar Games has set up for users. Users can go on the website and share their music and also check out the song battles and contests RockStar Games will release for Beaterator.

Beaterator is available at any major gaming outlet and also for digital download on the PlayStation Network. Fans of the iPod Touch and iPhone can also look forward to the Apple Store release sometime later in the fall. Comment below with your thoughts on the game!

Hint: they like it. But do you? Check out the video and let us know! And if you missed Artists Series Part 1, it’s right here.

Beaterator comes to the PSP and PSN tomorrow, September 29.

Ever wonder what a massive  blue PSP 3000 looks like on the sunny Las Vegas strip? Well, know you know!

via Kotaku

Comment below with your thoughts on the trailer. The game is coming out on 11. 10. 09 on the PSP.

Sony also unearthed the boxart for the project today, and it looks quite chilling. Pun intended.

Additionally, Sony detailed the game’s reservation goodies, naming two powerful new multiplayer units outfitted with new lethal weapons as your day-1 advantage, and your gift from Sony for throwing down to reserve at Best Buy, GameStop, Amazon, etc.

However, reserving the title isn’t the only way to score the goods. Buying the title from the PlayStation Network within the first 30 days of availability also earns you the bonuses, but shh, don’t tell GameStop.

Read more on the game and the pre-order campaign at the PlayStation Blog.

It sounds like the sequel will be as epic as the first, what with a game description like this, it clearly has deep ambitions.

“What was once a small but strong unified country is instantly plunged back onto the battlefield. But the day and age of the last war’s heros is already fading out – with families to protect and children to raise, they are the ones who must now be protected. While numbers split and tensions rise, the spotlight shines to a handful of up-and-coming students at a Gallian Military Academy.”

SEGA promises that the team behind the PS3 original is working on the “Chronicles II” for PSP and that you’ll be playing the project in the “Summer 2010″ season.

But if that’s not enough for you, follow the game on Facebook and Twitter for up to the second updates, and watch this debut trailer below.

- Amazon: 2002 Enzo Ferrari in “Giallo Modena” yellow

- Gamestop: 2009 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 in “Black M” color

- GameCrazy: 1974 Lamborghini Countach LP400 in “Arancio” Orange

- Best Buy: 2008 Citroen GTbyCITROEN in yellow

Here are some photos so you can get a look at what’s what.

Personally, I’m going with the 1974 Lamborghini. What do you want to go with? Comment below so I can get a feel for which way everyone else is leaning.

Need for Speed: Shift will be released September 15 for PS3, PSP, Xbox 360 and mobile phones.

In this third trailer for the game, an average kid, Jason, an aspiring drummer and  musician, displays the ease of creation in Beaterator. With in-game images and phat beats we like this trailer alot, but until we get our hands on, we can’t be sure. Anyway, feast your eyes!

In the vein of fighters such as Tekken, Fate/Unlimited Codes is a basic fighting game where you go head to head with other characters while trying to execute combo moves to beat the other player. The game starts with 14 characters, with all the main Fate/Stay characters from the anime present along with some original characters. You can also unlock three other characters as you fight through the Arcade mode. There are three initial fighting modes as well as an unlockable Survival Mode which adds to the amount of fun you can have. When you begin the Arcade Mode, the character you selected follows their own storyline in order to obtain what they want when they win the Grail War. This gives each of the characters a certain amount of depth and also rewards repeat game play since each character’s story unfolds as you fight through the Arcade mode.

When you begin the Arcade Mode, you start with a small cinematic introduction where the two fighters tough talk each other (a la most anime). The arena stages are instantly striking and visually impressive, but you’re only given as much room as in a regular fighting game. The soundtrack creates a tense mood which helps to get players into the fighting spirit. As fights progress, players can utilize special combo moves which can also trigger cinematic sequences which are seamlessly integrated into the fight. With each battle, more and more information and bonuses are unlocked. Once the Arcade mode is completed, you can also undergo numerous missions to unlock various other things. Mission Mode is where players are forced to show their fighting abilities.

Now, while these positive aspects exist in the game, the game is rather two dimensional. Fights can easily be won by pressing various buttons, even on the highest difficulty level. The A.I. controlling the opposing fighter is not very impressive and can’t really put up an entertaining fight. This reduces the experience of the Arcade mode to a series of button mashing sessions and robs players of the ability to truly display any level of skill against their opponent. Fighting, the main focus of the game, is where the game is lacking. The combos are easy to use but barely essential and the character graphics are lacking, especially considering the level of graphics available which have been utilized among other fighting games.

Another large detractor from the game is the fact that it is mainly in Japanese. While most of the pre-fight sequences are subbed in English for background, the cinematic preludes to the fights are not. It can be a little distracting to have to read while the characters speak in Japanese, and it can get downright annoying when coupled with the lousy fight put up by the A.I.

However, the game has an Ad Hoc multiplayer which completely removes the computer’s limited A.I. In the multiplayer, you and a friend can go head to head against one another in order to showcase your skills and see who is the better fighter. The gameplay on the Ad Hoc network gives the game a much needed boost in fun and is one of the highlights of the game.

Blast Factor: All in all, this game is acceptable. The lame  A.I., subpar graphics, lack of English voicework and limitations of the arena definitely bring down what could be an awesome fighting experience. Multiplayer is where the game shines, and the survival mode presents more of a challenge than the Arcade mode can at “Hard.” If you’re a fan of the visual novel or anime fighting games in general, then this game was made for you. If you’re just looking for a fighting game for long road trips, this game is entertaining enough with its plot to keep you interested.

Fate/unlimited codes is available on the Playstation Network for download at the cost of $29.99

That’s not all. For those of us who are a little tight on cash, Capcom has also released a Super Pack which contains five of the 8 games for $29.99. Anyone who wants 1942, Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 HD Remix, Rocketmen: Axis of Evil, Rocketmen: It Came from Uranus mission pack, can pick that up for 20 dollars less and still get a really nice deal.

Capcom’s new game Fate/Unlimited Codes is also on sale for $29.99. I wasn’t to fond of the anime fighting game, but if you’re curious about it check back here in a day or two to read our review of the game.

Good deal or rip off? Comment below with your personal feelings on the matter.

RockStar Games has released the debut trailer for the game with Timbaland himself presenting the different modes and functionalities of the musical presentation of Beaterator. However, they have also released Beaterator Sessions: Max & Clay, a live action video of two young kids creating original songs from the application. This hilights the easy to use nature of the game. Check out the videos embedded below.

Comment below with your thoughts and opinions about the trailer.

NFS Shift represents a conscious effort on EA’s part to cater to hardcore fans of the sim-based racing genre. Which doesn’t mean that the mega-developer/publisher has decided to neglect the arcade junkies who used to compose the franchise’s core audience—EA’s also putting out Need for Speed: Nitro for Wii later this year, with Need for Speed: World Online to follow. EA’s Andrew Meakin represented this new direction for the series to me as an initiative akin to the foundation of EA Sports, a large umbrella under which gamers of all tastes and persuasions have been invited to shelter.

As Andrew explained, “The idea behind the game is all about the true driver’s experience—it’s all about the g-forces, it’s about the crashes, it’s about the cockpit, it’s about being the driver. When you are at speed, you feel the speed. When you crash, you feel the concussion.”

My driving naiveté prevents me from distinguishing between true and false driver’s experiences, and I can’t tell you whether the cars handled like they should (though the fact that I was more or less able to handle them after a brief period of smashing into every available obstacle bodes well). However, I can report that Andrew wasn’t kidding about feeling the concussion. Granted, I was standing mere inches away from a very large screen, so your mileage, as they say, may vary. But EA has done an excellent job at depicting a crash as something very much to be avoided—and, perhaps, to be secretly and guiltily enjoyed.

The psychological impact of the faux-physical impact begins with the level of detail presented on-screen. Andrew assured me that in the unlikely event that I ever do find myself steering one of the game’s 67 playable vehicles (including the ’09 BMW M3 GT2 featured on the cover) in real life, I’d recognize every curve of the cockpit and light on the dashboard, since every detail has been painstakingly modeled in-game. Swiveling the joystick while playing from the in-car view doesn’t just move some disembodied camera; it shifts the driver’s head and perspective. Side and rear-view mirrors perform the functions for which they were intended, and various readouts alert the player to overheating engines and other motor-vehicle minutia.

When your inherent lack of coordination conquers these assorted aids (and the color-coded guide paths superimposed on the road’s surface) and you hurtle head-on into a thoughtfully placed barrier, another set of visual effects takes over. The screen assumes a reddish tinge, followed by a black-and-white vista drained of all color, and a blurry haze and careening camera make you want to rub your neck and blink a few times in sympathy.

The attention to detail apparent in the visuals also extends outside of the vehicles. Each course has been meticulously researched and rendered. Again, I can’t tell you how well they resemble their real-world counterparts, but they sure are pretty. Windmills turn, balloons float by, barely glimpsed spectators snap pictures, and very convincing clouds of dust accompany the squeal of tires. Velocity changes aren’t only reflected on the speedometer—the motion blur and tunnel vision employed to suggest the effect of g-forces make glancing at your instruments only partially necessary.

As you drive through NFS Shift’s scenic environments, regardless of mode, race type, or success level, the game will constantly update your driver profile in response to your tendencies and achievements. The points you earn will allow you to fan the flames of your car fetish with abandon, but the game also classifies your style as “precision” or “aggression,” depending on how you drive. Cutting corners cleanly is considered precise, while ramming opponents and knocking them off the track will result in your being labeled an aggressive driver. Fortunately, the game won’t force you to enroll in a remedial driving program if its sorting hat places you in the racing equivalent of Slytherin; these classifications are made purely for online matchmaking purposes, so you can always race how you want, and against whom you want. Even when you’re racing offline, your adversaries will show some personality; 20 different driver personalities have been included as an alternative to rubberband AI and a pack of opponents racing in unison.

Of course, every aspect of every car can be micromanaged, but EA has also included more simplistic sliders for the less seasoned automobilistas among us. In addition, the devs have inserted the option to take a test drive at the start of your experience, during which the game’s AI will determine, Left-4-Dead-director style, exactly how far it can push you before you break. Nice to know that EA’s still looking out for those of us who wouldn’t know a carburetor from a camshaft.

Be sure to check out the latest trailer and screens. Need for Speed Shift will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, PC, and a smartphone near you on September 15.

LittleBigPlanet for PSP is slated for a November 17 release, but for now we’re left the game’s wondrous art, as imaged in these hot and fresh new screens showing multiple levels, color schemes, new outfits, and most interestingly…Jessica Rabbit? Yes, that looks like her in the first screenshot, but correct me if I’m wrong.

As always, click each image to make superhugeawesome.

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