PSN update has new special offers

By Robert Purchese Published 22 January, 2010

Plus: Comics! ModNations beta! Songs!

This week's PSN Store brings a whole new batch of special offers for PS3 and PSP downloadable games.

LocoRoco and Super Stardust Portable are cheapened on PSP, while Digger HD - among others - sheds pounds on PS3.

There's the ModNations Racers beta client to download, but only for the first 100,000 people (for whom testing starts today), and the usual slew of Rock Band and Guitar Hero songs.

This week's PSP Minis offering is a retro-styled tower defence game called, practically, Vector TD. - and you can find out more about it (with pictures) on the European PlayStation blog.

Or you can buy comics like a child on your PSP. New additions include Wallace and Gromit, X-Men, Blade, The Avengers and more.

Special Offers (valid until 4th February)

  • Smash Cars (was £11.99/€14.99 now £6.29/€7.99)
  • Digger HD (was £7.99/€9.99 now £4.79/€5.99)
  • Cuboid (was £7.99/€9.99 now £5.49/€6.99)
  • Interpol (was £7.99/€9.99 now £5.49/€6.99)
  • Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom (was £7.99/€9.99 now £5.49/€6.99)
  • Unbound Saga (PSP) (was £11.99/€14.99 now £3.99/€4.99)
  • Buzz! Master Quiz (PSP) (was £19.99/€29.99 now £14.99/€19.99)
  • Elemental Monster TD Portable (PSP) (was £6.29/€7.99 now £3.19/€3.99)
  • LocoRoco (PSP) (was £14.99/€19.99 now £11.99/€14.99)
  • Super Stardust Portable (PSP) (was £6.29/€7.99 now £3.99/€4.99)

PS3 Demos

  • ModNation Racers beta (100,000 download limit)

PS3 Game Content

  • Dragon Ball: Raging Blast: Warriors of Justice Pack (free)
  • Rock Band: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Live Anthology Pack 2 ("A Woman In Love (Live)", "Breakdown (Live)", "Century City (Live)", "Jammin' Me (Live)", "Nightwatchman (Live)", "The Waiting (Live)" - £4.99/€7.99
  • Rock Band: "1901" by Phoenix, "Blue Jeans" by Silvertide, "Lisztomania" by Phoenix (£0.99/€1.49 each)
  • Guitar Hero 5: Metal Track Pack ("Laser Cannon Deth Sentence" by Dethklok, "Still I Rise" by Shadows Fall, "Twilight Of The Thunder God" by Amon Amarth - 4.39/€5.49 (£1.59/€1.99 each)
  • Guitar Hero 5: The New Blues Masters Track Pack ("Broken Man" by Scott Mckeon, "Lonesome Road Blues" by Joe Bonamassa, "Who I Am" by Tyler Bryant - £4.39/€5.49 (£1.59/€1.99)

PS3 Fancy Themes

  • Heavy Rain Dynamic Theme (£1.59/€1.99)
  • Singstar Dynamic Theme (£1.59/€1.99)
  • Buzz! Dynamic Theme (£1.59/€1.99)

PSP Games

  • Need for Speed Underground Rivals (£15.99/€19.99)
  • The History Channel: The Great Battles of Rome (£7.99/€9.99)
  • Ben 10: Protector of Earth (£9.99/€14.99)

PSP Minis

  • Vector TD (£2.49/€2.99)
Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • JahB #1 2 years ago

    anybody got the modnation racers demo? i tried to get, but couldn't find it on the store.

  • awb83 #2 2 years ago

    That is a poor udate.

  • Roarrr #3 2 years ago

    ModNation takes ages to load and has framerate issue but the customisation. It was the best part. different engines with different engine sounds, hi-tech, v8s etc. Nearly as featured as FM3 in a more cartoon sort of way.

    Plus quite a social aspect. You went into a hub with real players racing about between game features. looks kind of promising. Though didn't have time to actually race.

    Heavy rain dynamic theme is so poor though. It doesn't even have the heavy rain logo on it.
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 12:13

  • DaftVice #4 2 years ago

    @JahB

    It disappeared after the 100,000th download.
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 12:12

  • Murton #5 2 years ago

    Hmmm, Cuboid reduced to £5.49, looked like a nice little puzzle game, might give that one a go. Shame that the rest of the update is a bit meh.

    Got the modnation beta though, loving the look of the game but so many features are locked it leaves you wondering if there's going to be another beta or full demo closer to release.

  • kangarootoo #6 2 years ago

    "Or you can buy comics like a child on your PSP"

    What?!?

  • oreillymj #7 2 years ago

    Got Modnation racers, but can't say I was hugely impressed.

    The UI is lovely but the constant loading screens become tiring very quickly. I want to turn on the console and jump into a quick race within 2-3 minutes. I haven't played Mario kart, but I'll bet the setup time for a game is much quicker then with MNR.
    This is all from the HDD, so presumably the retail Blu-Ray will be slower again.

    I don't like the 3rd person camera view and cannot switch to 1st person. There's no rumble and I can't find an option to enable it, so I get the sound of passing over cobbles, but don't feel it.

    The online races take time to set up. You can't just quickly jump into a spot in a race taking place, so you sit around in a lobby.

    Finally, I tried to create a track, and found the editor to be tricky enough. I just can't figure out how to place a ramp. Now, maybe if I had hours to waste, that wouldn't be a problem, but when I just want to quickly throw a track together it's a bit of a pain.

    So I think there's plenty of scope for polish that just isn't there at the moment.

  • 52pickup #8 2 years ago

    I managed to get the beta too. It crashed on me during a load screen, and i agree there is far too many of them. I was hoping for a really good substitute for mario kart, coupled with the creation range of LBP. I've enjoyed it, but i think it needs a bit more work before it gets released.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #9 2 years ago

    @oreillymj

    I think your missing the point that its a beta to test the track editor and online sharing, its not a demo. Framerate and load times will be fixed before release, it wouldnt pass Sonys TRC checks in its current state.

    Your comments about using the track editor are fair enough but as a beta tester you should give that info back to the developer so they can act on it, that is the point of a beta after all.

  • TopKatt #10 2 years ago

    @kangarootoo

    Yeah, that was a strange comment from someone who makes his living writing about computer games!
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 12:54

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #11 2 years ago

    Hope you have a good day Rob playing video games like a child.

  • Zebula77 #12 2 years ago

    Oh, and US Store has PSP Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, for those who might be interested. Think I'm gonna check it out a bit later (if my bank account will allow it!)

  • Beano #13 2 years ago

    Modnation Racers need A LOT of work. It's very promising featurewise and I really like the approach but currently it's barely playable due to framerate issues and over-sensible controls. I hope they delay it to Q3 to deliver a better game!

    AND YES.. I know it's a beta, but it still need a lot of work before release :D
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 13:41

  • twoism #14 2 years ago

    was a bit disappointed when I heard they'd ran out of beta downloads for ModNations, but judging from the comments here it doesn't seem like I'm missing much anyway.

  • Yidarmyuk #15 2 years ago

    ModNation gone already?? Snooze you lose..

  • menage #16 2 years ago

    Well, that beta reaaalllllly put me OFF the game. Slow loading stuttering piece of fiddly shit from what I saw.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #17 2 years ago

    I personal think the issues of MNR are down to server load and lag (mainly the load times), if anyone has their router in the same room as their system it's blinking a little intermittent and not as smooth as it should - but aye the groundwork is there for a damn soild racer if i little ruff around the edges system wise..

    If ppl know MMOs as well as those that play them these days betas, mainly closed betas as this is the case, should never be the source of your 'to buy or not to buy' judgements - I'm 100% sure the framrate issues WILL imporve by the time on release
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 13:54

  • TopKatt #18 2 years ago

    Just to echo gamesprogrammers comments; anyone having issues with the ModNation beta, please make sure you let the devs know so they can maybe get something done about it before the actual release.

  • kangarootoo #19 2 years ago

    @TopKatt

    I thought maybe I had misunderstood something. If it was a joke it didn't carry in the text. It was just like this bizarre, out of place insult.

  • Zebula77 #20 2 years ago

    One thing about the Modnation beta. Only gave it a quick few laps in the time trial mode, but didn't experience any frame-rate issues. Perhaps this is located to the online section?

    Loading times were outrageous, tho.

  • TonyHarrison #21 2 years ago

    Yeah, I got the modnation beta, it looks like it could be alright when the obvious issues are ironed out... It's not a very user friendly beta though, there isn't much instruction on how to do stuff, be it creating or actually playing the game, it's kind of just a case of figuring it out for yourself.

    Also, going off road onto grass or whatever doesn't seem to slow you down at all, so this is one big thing that needs sorting out before release if this is to be a true rival to Mario Kart.

  • optimusprym8 #22 2 years ago

    As others have said, a beta is not a demo [although I know marketing teams these days treat them as so].

    Don't expect user manuals, tutorials, guides, instructions etc.

    Personally I've had a bit of initial stutter whilst connecting to the central lobby area, loading other people in etc but once in, it settles down. My main problem with it is nothing to do with the game, more the platform, or rather the DS3 controller being crap for racing games and very spongy.

    The track editor has a few quibbles but mostly it's me expecting too much from the editor and trying things that can't be done for obvious reasons, like running into the track when looping back on it etc.

  • Beano #23 2 years ago

    "One thing about the Modnation beta. Only gave it a quick few laps in the time trial mode, but didn't experience any frame-rate issues. Perhaps this is located to the online section? "

    Racing in time-trial (or even online) does no stutter badly - but there's a strange jittering and uneven framerate.

    The lobby/square is terrible reg. framerate though.
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 15:12

  • Graftonator #24 2 years ago

    I love the quick turnaround eurogamer have on the PSN store updates! Updated at 5-6pm last night, with news of updates released during the day. Eurogamer eventuall telling their readers at lunchtime today! Hmmmm, wonder why some people on Eurogamer weren't able to get the limited availability beta of modnation.

    Another pretty poor week of updates. I live in hope of a dynamic theme one day being worth buying! Bring on the demos of Heavy Rain and AvP.

    Agree that loading screens are too long on modnation but it's way better than I thought it was going to be!

  • Murton #25 2 years ago

    GamesProgrammer: it wouldnt pass Sonys TRC checks in its current state.

    Wouldn't be so sure, they gave Failout a pass and that had a framerate comparable to powerpoint at times, loading times were on par with Modnation too. That being said Sony offer great support for their exclusive games so I'm more than confident that the issues we're seeing right now will be fixed long before launch. I just wish the beta had a couple more features we could look at, as it stands we're seeing the concept but not the game, I suppose it suits the developer as a bench test but it could have proven itself as a marketing opportunity also.

    I'm sure we'll see a proper demo closer to release.

  • JahB #26 2 years ago

    i fail to see the comics/games comparison.

    one of these is an interactive form of entertainment. the other is a dumbed down version of a book.

  • KRadiation #27 2 years ago

    Heavy rain dynamic theme is so poor though. It doesn't even have the heavy rain logo on it.

    Why would you want a stupid logo clogging up your screen? The theme is awesome, one of the best.

  • oreillymj #28 2 years ago

    @GamesProgrammer. I'd love to give feedback, but where? The 10,000 people who downloaded the "beta" got no direction on how or where to leave feedback, as far as I'm aware, unless it was within the 6 pages of legalese I quickly scrolled through.

  • rogueJT #29 2 years ago

    Cuboid ordered.