Here’s this week’s essential round up of everything PlayStation. As you might guess there’s plenty of PS Vita stuff: including a chance to win one and a round up of PS Vita reviews. Then there’s Metal Gear Solid 5, some Starhawk beta tips and loads more. Make sure you don’t miss out.

Official PlayStation Magazine UK

Whether it’s Metal Gear Solid 5 or Project OGRE, Hideo Kojima is sticking girls in a 3D scanner for some reason.

Check out ALL the games’ scores in our PS Vita review round up.

See the pics from the PS Vita’s midnight launch this week.

Now it’s live for everyone here are our StarHawk beta tips: the things you have to do.

Bought a PS Vita this week? How many of these affectations are you now suffering from: Things that are now a thing because of the PS Vita.

UK.PlayStation.com

Weekend Essentials 114 – Your one stop info shop for PS Vita, Syndicate, Binary Domain, SSX, StarHawk and more.

Discover cross-play in WipEout - Studio Liverpool’s senior designer Karl Jones explains Wipeout 2048′s Cross Play features on PS Vita.

Jak and Daxter: The story so far – with the original games remastered in HD get up to speed with the backstory

Download six sensational PS Vita demos - get a tast of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, FIFA Football, Wipeout 2048, Dynasty Warriors Next, ModNation Racers: Road Trip, and Unit 13

Trophy Cabinet: Battlefield 3 – crowd sourced tips for cleaning out EA’s shooter’s cups.

EU Blog

Win a PS Vita – watch a video, answer a question, get a chance to win. Easy. There’s one to win everyday until the 28th.

Jak And Daxter HD – a word from Naughty Dog founder Even Wells and a video on the return of the big eared hero and his Ostel sidekick.

StarHawk Beta – videos, tips, maps and more from producer  Florence Kum

Unit 13 trophies - there’s over 40 trophies to snag in Unit 13. Here’s a teaser of what’s on offer along with a new video.

Andy House interview – President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment talks Vita, prices and the future.

This week on Access there’s an high level of PS Vita coverage. Anyone would think it launched this week or something. FIFA Football is the game of the week (unsurprising really as we gave it 8/10 in our FIFA Football review). There’s also a look at the top Vita games, Dirt Showdown on PS3 and sneak peak behind the scenes at game T-shirt manufacturer Insert Coin. 

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection gameplay trailer

We recently had the chance to sit down with Batman: Arkham City director Sefton Hill to look back at the game and talk about both the making of the sequel and his thoughts on it now it’s finished. There’s some great stuff in there about working with DC and how it was made. Essential stuff if you’re a fan of the game. There are spoilers though so if you’ve not played it yet stay away. 

OPM Rocksteady’s first game was PS2’s Urban Chaos: Riot Response. It didn’t sell that well, but was critically well-received. Did the good press give you the confidence to do justice to a licence as big and beloved as Batman?

SH As a developer, we were just really excited to take on Batman. How could you not be excited about working on something as phenomenal as The Dark Knight? We felt the world deserved a good Batman game and that’s something we really wanted to deliver. We knew Batman’s past was chequered.

At the same time, it was a fantastic opportunity. When we started, the team was only something like 35 people, if that. But everyone was still super-excited. Back then, we were just looking at different concepts. And we had an idea for Batman that [then-publisher] Eidos just happened to love.

We’ve always felt our studio’s philosophy has been to make games that are just inherently fun. With Urban Chaos, even though it was made in a relatively short space of time, it was critically pretty well-received. So we felt, given more time and the right opportunity, we could make something special.

OPM How did making City compare to making Asylum? Were you given more freedom by Warner Bros to go where you wanted with the sequel because you’d already earned their trust?

SH We were given more freedom, to a certain extent. But I think that came about more when we were six to eight months into the development of Arkham Asylum, when Warner Bros finally got a chance to really play the game.

When we first met them and DC and started talking about the initial story, they were very positive and supportive. But when they finally got their hands on it and got to properly understand what our vision for Asylum was, I think that’s when they got the feeling we were huge Batman fans who weren’t going to try to make the character do things he shouldn’t do.

I think that’s the point they really got confidence in us. After Asylum came out and we were planning Arkham City, that’s when Warner Bros was even more excited. Because we’d already had this critically acclaimed game on our hands, it knew we could make something special.

I feel like the relationship with DC has been really strong. We’ve worked with Paul Dini on the story, but also DC specifically has given us a lot of freedom. Generally, the feedback from DC is all positive. It’s usually like, ‘Oh, so you’re using Deadshot in City? Do you know he does this and this and this?’ It’s all about throwing ideas our way, rather than saying ‘you can’t do this’ or ‘we don’t want to see that’. The things DC contributes are really positive, and as the licence holder, it’s always said it wants to be adding to rather than restricting from our games.

OPM What was the mission statement going into Arkham City? 

SH The biggest thing for us was to take Batman into the city. We’d realised Batman within the confines of the asylum, but his spiritual home is in Gotham, so that’s where we wanted to take him. From there, we had to work out what taking him to Gotham City means.

So, for example, what would be your worst nightmare being in that metropolis? That’s how we came up with the concept of the walled-off city where all of these villains are locked in together. Obviously, that’s a nightmare scenario, whether you’re a tooled-up billionaire vigilante or not.

OPM You’ve gone from an asylum to a sectioned-off part of Gotham. Is the next natural step to give players the whole of Gotham to explore?

SH What, like Batman: Universe? [Laughs] Well, it’s never a specific goal of ours just to make a bigger game. It was just a specific goal to try to make a better game. If we felt that a better game would have been focused on just Batman and one other character, then that’s what we’d make. There’s not necessarily an exponential explosion in terms of game scale, it’s purely just what we think will make the best title.

1/3

It looks like that Project Ogre title might not be a codename, more a literal description. Kojima has tweeted “Oh BTW, my Ogre Project doesn’t mean a game like a ogre nor a game create w/ soul of ogre but a game w/ the use of ogre”. That sounds a bit different to anything Metal Gear-y. However, Andriasang have some more information on the possible translations of the original Japanese tweet. 

According to Andriasang the original Japanese word that translates as “ogre” is ‘Oni” which means several things including “demon, devil, and, of course, ogre”. They conclude that, “Based off Kojima’s Tweets, it’s unclear if he’s saying that the game deals with Oni as a subject matter, or if it’s the player who handles Oni in some form (collecting spirits and so-forth)”.

Thanks Andriasang

The info was revealed in the latest Official PlayStation Blogcast over on the US PlayStation Blog. In it they say “They’re going to release the standalone Killzone 3 multiplayer mode. It’s going to have all the maps and you’re going to be able to get it for free and it’s going to have a level cap and when you hit this level cap you’re going to be able to buy the entire game”. They also call the single player game ‘bodacious’. Like, for real. They’re not even joking. 

So far only the US release is being mentioned with a price tag of $14.99 to unlock the level cap. Chances are localisation issue will mean it’ll take a while until it reach the EU. They say it’s to keep the “multiplayer mode out there and active” but I’d say it’s a free-to-play experiment to gauge the success for future release. What do you think? Do you want to see free-to-play games hit PlayStation? Think it’ll work?

Thanks Official PlayStation Blogcast

File this under ‘Hmm’. Metal Gear Solid 5 is obviously on the cards because Hideo Kojima is hiring for “the next MGS” but it’s not specifically been mentioned by name apart from Kojima’s begrudging admittance that he’d “have to make [Metal Gear Solid 5] at some point“. 

Now it’s been mentioned by a 20-year-old guitarist Umar Arar on his Facebook page where he states “Got an awesome career opportunity to work on the soundtrack for Metal Gear Solid 5. One problem. Gotta work out in California and Japan.”

The reason for the ‘Hmm’ is that Googling his name doesn’t really turn up much. A couple of videos, a guest turn on stage with 3 Doors Down but not much else. Assuming it’s session work it seems odd for someone with such an apparently low profile to land such a high value gig – his Facebook info says he’s a “Sales Operative at Primark & Freelance Guitarist”. There’s mention of working on a game called Devil Bunny for Myth Studios although that appears to be a one man hobby job. Plus you think someone would have mentioned to maybe not post it on Facebook.

I’ve contacted him for more information.

A little-known fact: the woman who plays Mo Harris off Eastenders is the real-life sister of Gary Oldman. And after watching her little bro play an emotionally repressed, calculating MI6 agent with all the precision of a Swiss pocketwatch in this classy Cold War-era thriller, it’s a fact that’s damn near impossible to believe. 

Oldman is George Smiley, a weary intelligence officer who’s been worn down by decades of employment in Her Majesty’s sneakiest service. Even in a flick packed with heavyweight British actors, the Dark Knight thesp’s transformation into the greying, sullen agent is the undisputed highlight.

Lured back into MI6 to try to uncover a Russian mole within the organisation, Smiley is a reserved shadow of a man, equal parts muted presence and chilling authority.

It’s a shame the rest of the stellar cast don’t hold up as well. With the likes of John Hurt and Colin Firth onboard, you’d expect the meatiest of acting chops to sink your chompers into. Yet most of the cast are underused or forgotten for large chunks of the story, as the plot see-saws between flashbacks in Hungary and Istanbul and the grimly lit present of ’70s London.

Tom Hardy and Sherlock’s Benedict Cumberbatch thankfully show the old-timers how it should be done, with Hardy turning a character that could have been an obnoxious poser into a layered, conflicted creation.

Yet despite Oldman and Hardy’s best efforts the story plays out at a plodding, confusing pace that only manages to capture the imagination in fits and starts. The telegraphed ‘twist’ at the end is also approximately as subtle as a giant monkey smashing biplanes atop a Chicago skyscraper.

What should continually hold your interest is the look and sound of the piece, though. The cinematography subtly echoes the uncertain, overcast political times of the ’70s, bathing everything in unsettling, understated shades of grey. Score-wise, the music of Spanish composer Alberto Iglesias rekindles the spirit of the ancient Alec Guinness-fronted TV show that informs much of the film’s tone.

Moving back to Oldman, it’s hard to fathom that this is the same man who played Sid Vicious in Sid And Nancy or a drugged-up, scene stealing cop in Leon. In short, he’s a ruddy acting chameleon. And that’s why this film demands to be seen: purely for the sensational turn from its leading man. Aww, cheer up, Big Mo – they say talent skips a generation, so we’re sure your sprogs will be mini De Niros or Meryl Streeps if they ever enter the acting game.

I spoke to Studio Liverpool and Wipeout senior designer Karl Jones at this week’s PS Vita UK launch and he had an interesting insight into how the console was created. Several developers had talked about having a say in the PS Vita’s birth, including MotorStorm RC’s director Paul Rustchynsky who talked about having “input into what we thought would be a really good idea for the console.”

When I asked Jones if he was there at the start of the Vita’s development he answered, “We had Vitas a long time ago but back then they were a little piece of glass with some wires hanging out the side and a Dualshock kind of glued to it”. He explains: “I think there was a big shift a few years ago where the ethos was ‘let’s not made hardware and then ask developers to produce some content for it. This time lets ask the developers what they want to make their games good, and then go and make the hardware for it’”.

It’s part of the reason so many developers have praised the ease of working on Vita. Jones says it’s “been evident all the way through PS Vita. You ask any developer they’re all so happy with the tool set they’ve got.” That’s something Rustchynsky has also previously mentioned, stating, “The Vita’s just been a joy to work with really. All the tools, all the hardware – everything we need was there right from the start”.

This developer-centric approach seems to be here to stay as well says Jones, “I think that seems like the ethos going forward as well. I expect that in future hardware they’re going to ask us.”

Of course the big question is, if something the size of a PS Vita is capable of producing a PS3 sized experience what could the future hold? “I think personally it’s not going to be about visuals and audio,” says Jones. “There’s going to have to be some other differentiator. There’s only so far you can go with graphics, there has to be other things. I’m guessing interfaces, controllers. It can’t just be about horsepower.”

With a brand new, doe-eyed handheld console arriving fresh from Sony’s technological womb this week, you may well be feeling the pinch having dropped a couple of hundred nicker to make it your own. Well never fear, for here’s our weekly roundup of the best gaming deals out there.

The big release:

Vita is here, and Uncharted: Golden Abyss is, for the moment at least, the cream of the launch title offerings. Check out our Official PlayStation Magazine UK Uncharted Golden Abyss review to find out why. If you didn’t pick it up in a pre-order bundle, buy it from Zavvi for £34.95. Free delivery, of course, and it’s about £5 cheaper than any other retailer. Adventure ahoy!

The best deal:

If the unthinkable happened and you missed Uncharted 3 when it came out, there’s never been a better time to embark on Drake’s latest PS3 adventure – you can pick the game up at Gamestop for £26.97, which is frankly bargainous.  To hear lots of praise for UC3, have a gander at our Official PlayStation Magazine Uncharted 3 review - we gave it a perfect 10.

Worth a punt:

Cross every appendage possible, but it looks like the Skyrim 1.4 patch has made rimlag a thing of the past. No longer must you trudge through Bethesda’s impossibly detailed RPG world at the pace of a three-legged dog, so if you’ve been avoiding it until now, it’s time to buy Skyrim.

For how much? If you want that new box smell and enjoying tearing cellophane apart, the best deal for a new copy is at Playr2 for £36.97. You can save a few quid picking it up used, of course – if that appeals, you can pick up a copy at Amazon for £29.00, although that doesn’t include the £2 delivery charge.