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Buzz! developer's new game will be a social, PSN title
Relentless Software lives up to its name by releasing even more Buzz! games than necessary, but this latest one from the British studio, which was just teased the other day, is hinted to be something different. It's also said to be a PSN title. According to producer Darren Tuckey, who recently spoke with VG247, the game will be "a PS3 PSN title in the social game genre."Tuckey says that the company plans "to release more info when [it gets] back from GDC." Perhaps that means we'll hear something in April, as GDC runs until the 27th of March. Until then folks, keep those fingers on the buzzer.
For 250 points: What is Buzz! developer Relentless working on next?
Actual, obscured screenshots Look, if the above question ever comes up, the answer's almost always going to be more Buzz! games. If you want to impress the audience with your esoteric trivia prowess, however, you might elect to answer, "Why, a new, unannounced project, of course!" You'll point out that quiz game developer Relentless Software recently updated its website, noting an ongoing hiring process not only for future Buzz! titles, but a secret, self-published project."Sony keep us very busy with our Buzz projects but there's something bubbling under at Relentless Towers," reads the site, referencing its agreement with Sony to pump out family-friendly knowledge-em-ups and shockingly omitting the exclamation mark in the game's title. "We've taken everything we've learned about making social games and the result is what, for the time being, is known as Secret Project #1."For the time being? Don't be silly, Relentless. Who wouldn't buy a game called Secret Project #1?[Via Eurogamer]
Killzone 2, Buzz and Heavenly Sword LBP DLC revealed
The observant among you may have noticed that Sony's LittleBigPlanet 2009 DLC roadmap has now finished and we're still clueless as to what's coming next. The PlayStation Blog has updated with some new costume images, as you can see above, including Sev from Killzone 2 (almost certainly due to arrive today, in time for the game's launch tomorrow), Kai from Heavenly Sword and Buzz from, uh, Buzz!. While unlikely, the low-res textures and low poly-count of the Buzz model have us thinking ... maybe, just maybe, this may be a model from the upcoming PSP version?
Little Caesars, Pepsi team up for PlayStation promos
Would you like to win a new PS3, PS2 or PSP along with a bunch of Buzz! games? Sure you do. Who doesn't like to win free stuff? Little Caesars pizza chain and Pepsi have teamed up with SCEA to give away up to 450 "PlayStation Trivia Packs" from today up until April 27. 50 packs will be given out each week. Those who participate could win one of the following: PS3 with Buzz! Quiz TV PS2 with Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz, Buzz! The Mega Quiz and Buzz! Jr. RoboJam PSP with Buzz! Master Quiz But what's the catch, you ask? To enter, participants will need to grab a "Buzz in to Win" scratch-off card from any US Little Caesars restaurant after purchasing a "Hot-N-Ready" pizza with "any Pepsi beverage." Participants will then need to take the scratch-off code to this website, enter their code and see if they've won. If you enter and win, wonderful; if you don't win, you'll still get a $5 coupon (redeemable only at GameStop) for any Buzz! game.
Buzz! Brain of the UK coming to PS3, PSP and PS2 in March
Buzz! is coming to the UK and he's taking no prisoners. Whether you're a PS3, PSP or PS2 owner, you'll be able to get your hands on the latest Buzz! title, Buzz! Brain of the UK. Due out in March, Brain of the UK's questions will focus on UK culture, including "bands, cities, sports personalities, television favourites, wildlife, food and more."The PS3 version will feature over 4000 questions and, just like Buzz! Quiz TV, a national leaderboard as well as MyBuzzQuiz.com and premium question pack support. The PSP version will feature 6-player multiplayer on a single console as well as a single player mode with collectible medals and awards. The PS2 version will support "thousands" of questions, which is apparently enough to keep you "buzzing for hours."No word on the price or exact release date for any version of Brain of the UK yet, but we should hear something more concrete before its release in March. We've contacted Sony to ask whether the PS3 version will support currently available Buzz! question packs.[UPDATE] Sony has confirmed that Buzz! quiz packs will work with "every iteration on the PS3."%Gallery-43477%
Celebrate Obama's inauguration with a new Buzz! Quiz TV pack
Now that Barack Obama's officially the President of the United States some things are going to change. First up? A new Buzz! Quiz TV pack that focuses on American Culture will be released on the American PlayStation Store this Thursday. See? Big, life altering changes. The question pack will contain 500 questions "covering everything from national history to U.S. icons." For some examples of the sort of questions that will be included make sure you check out the PlayStation Blog post. In other Buzz! news, a pack of five Buzz! Jr.: Jungle Party mini games are being released in February and more Buzz! Jr. titles are planned for the coming year.
Buzz! Junior: Jungle Party rated by the ESRB
Looks like there's more buzzing in store for the PS3. IGN reports that a new listing has appeared on the ESRB ratings database: Buzz! Junior: Jungle Party. A recently release PlayStation 2 game goes by the same name, so we're thinking this will be a PS3-enhanced port.The original PS2 game was aimed towards children and families and featured 25 mini-games for players to partake in. The games didn't involve answering trivia questions. Instead, players used the four colored buttons on the buzzers to slide down trees, or skydive, etc.
Sony says 'we're leading in user-generated content'
At least Sony has one thing to smile about this morning. According to Sony's Michael Denny who spoke with Gamesindustry.biz, Sony is leading the charge in user-generated content for home consoles. Denny backs the claim by counting successes for LittleBigPlanet, Buzz! and SingStar. "... SingStar is now an online community of over 300,000 users. With Buzz as well ... there's over 100,000 user-generated quizzes that have had over seven million plays." Denny also noted that LittleBigPlanet has almost 180,000 community created levels having been played for a combined total over 22.4 million times. Denny admits that a strong community backbone in previous hardware generations eased the move to the PS3 for some of these key Sony games -- speaking specifically about Buzz! and SingStar. While LittleBigPlanet hasn't performed in terms of sales as many, including us, would have predicted, it looks like the community response to the original IP has shown a tremendously healthy sign of interest.
Trophy Guide: Buzz! Quiz TV
Read more 'Buzz! Quiz TV' stories Our friends across the Atlantic are going to have an edge when it comes to Trophies, with the release of the new Buzz! Quiz TV Trophy patch. The multiplayer quiz game encourages you to play all the game modes to unlock the Trophies. Over time, it should be easy -- but what about those secret Trophies? Hmm. View Trophy Guide | View Trophy List | Visit Trophy Portal
SCEE's Maguire explains why LBP, EyeToy can only be from first-party dev
Games development is expensive. No wonder third party publishers are avoiding exclusives, working on as many multiplatform titles as possible. However, SCEE's Ray Maguire argues that the most innovative creative risks cannot come from third-party ventures. Speaking to GI.biz, he explains that it's the responsibility of first-party studios like Sony Computer Entertainment to make the most innovative (and perhaps, risky) gaming ventures."It's really important, because if anybody has a responsibility to take a risk, to take a chance on development - and this is a huge expense - then it has to be us as a first party. There are many people who have said that everything from the original EyeToy all the way through to LittleBigPlanet wouldn't have happened from a third party publisher, because the risk is too difficult, or too much to take when you've got a potential multi-platform strategy in front of you."Certainly, adapting LBP to multiple platforms would've created a far different experience for Media Molecule. In a gaming era where it's even more important to differentiate your platform from competitors, first-party successes like LBP can really cement a platform's position. "So we take those risks - some of them come off, and some of them don't. We've been reasonably lucky in that most of them have been okay. With SingStar, Buzz!, EyeToy and now with LittleBigPlanet we think that's typical of overall investing in something, taking a risk, but when it comes right? My God, it comes right."
ThreeSpeech announces release dates for first-party titles
The semi-official blog ThreeSpeech has announced European/UK release dates for their upcoming titles. Most of you are probably most interested in the Resistance 2 release date, which has been floating around as rumor but never confirmed. Buzz! Quiz TV Special Edition was suppose to come out next month, so its release date of tomorrow is a little earlier than expected. Rest of the release dates are below: Buzz! Quiz TV Special Edition - October 31st LittleBigPlanet - November 5th MotorStorm Pacific Rift - November 7th SingStar Volume 3 - November 14th SingStar ABBA - November 14th Resistance 2 - November 28th
PS3 Fanboy review: Buzz! Quiz TV
It's amazing to see how far Buzz! has come. The popular PS2 quiz game makes an incredible leap onto the PS3, with great success, in Buzz! Quiz TV. Quiz enthusiasts and newcomers alike will find a lot to appreciate about Buzz's first outing on the PS3. The intelligent organization of topics, new online functionality, quickened pace and very easy-to-use wireless buzzers all make Buzz! feel like a new game in the "next gen."In preparation for the PS3 game, we familiarized ourselves with the earlier PS2 versions of the game. While they were fun party games, we hated the frustrating process of detangling all the wires from our PS2 buzzers. Thankfully, we're able to get rid of those tacky peripherals with this new package. Simply open the Buzz! box, insert the wireless dongle into the system and put AA batteries (not included) into your buzzers. What we really appreciated was how quick the installation process was. The buzzers are already synced to the system, making it quite possible to start a game within just a minute or two of opening the box. When you want to jump into a party game, that kind of speed is quite important.%Gallery-19132%
Deal of the Day: Buzz Master Quiz for only $15
Are you a PlayStation Underground member? If you are, you may have already seen this one in your inbox. The latest e-mail from the official PlayStation community sends you a link to a coupon that's good for Buzz! Master Quiz or Buzz! Quiz TV on PS3. It knocks off $5 off the MSRP of $19.99. That's a brand new PSP game for only $15.The offer is only good at Best Buy retail stores and will last from now until October 25. Just follow this link to grab the coupon. Go print it out and then head on over to the store to get the discount. Anyway, you've still got a month to decide if you want to take advantage of the offer or not; while you mull things over, have a read of our review.
Deal of the Day: Get $5 off Buzz! Quiz TV at Best Buy
Don't be fooled by the image. Despite what it may look like, you can actually take advantage of that $5 coupon sent out in a recent PlayStation Underground newsletter and use it for Buzz! Quiz TV. Just follow this link to grab the coupon. The offer is only good at Best Buy retail stores and will last from now until October 25. The offer does sound enticing if you've been slightly on the fence for awhile. Anyway, there's no need to rush. You've still got an entire month to think it over before the deal expires.
Buzz! Special Edition coming to Europe in November
A lot of you have probably grabbed yourself a copy of Buzz! Quiz TV already (particularly the trophy whores among you), but those who haven't will have another opportunity to pick up a "better" version of the game when the Special Edition is released. This second release of the game will be available in early November in Europe and will contain 1000 bonus questions, trophy support, ten extra buzzer noises and four extra characters, plus a few other features, all on the disc.So basically this is geared at families who may not have their PS3s hooked up to the PlayStation Network, as all of this content is downloadable via the PlayStation Store or via free automatic patches. The 1000 bonus questions are made up of two downloadable quiz packs: a National Geographic safari pack and a videogame pack, each containing 500 questions each. The videogames pack is not yet available on the PSN Store, but should hopefully be available by the time the Special Edition of Buzz! Quiz TV ships to retailers.[Via press release]
PSP Fanboy review: Buzz! Master Quiz
Have you ever seen the game show Temptation? Probably not. It's a game show with an incredibly low budget -- so low, in fact, it doesn't have a studio audience. Prizes are worth only a few thousand bucks at best, and it's syndicated on stations that used to be the UPN. If Buzz! Quiz TV on PS3 is "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" then Buzz! Master Quiz on PSP is "Temptation."Unfortunately, PSP isn't very well suited for a Buzz! game. The franchise is best in front of a television with three of your friends. However, Master Quiz simply can't offer the same kind of competitive spirit, especially on a system like the PSP. It's not to say the developers at Relentless Software didn't try -- there are a number of creative multiplayer modes included. However, they're ultimately unsuccessful in emulating a fun Buzz! experience.%Gallery-15139%
US gamers, create quizzes on MyBUZZ! and win
While our friends across the Atlantic have had Buzz! on their PS3s for quite some time, we'll be getting our hands on the popular quiz title later this month. In order to get ready for the launch, the MyBUZZ! website has launched for the US. This service lets you create, share and play quizzes, for use on the website and in the game. It's incredibly simple to get started: just log in with your PSN ID, and you're ready to begin!There are already a handful of quizzes to play with. Make sure you create your own, as SCEA will be offering prizes for the most prolific and successful quiz designers. Check the PS.blog for more info on that. (Remember: creating quizzes is vital for one of Buzz!'s secret Trophies.)Want to check out a quiz we already created? Check out this Joystiq Network quiz and see how much you know about our community.
Free Buzz! patch adds new characters, costumes and features
Fancy some more Buzz! Quiz TV content? You've got it. Simply load up the game and you'll be prompted to update to version 1.10. This free update weighs in at 345MB and adds a number of new features to the game. There are now four new characters to choose from and new costumes for all the original characters found on the disc. There are also new buzzer noises to select from. Not only that, but you can now completely customize your question categories in the options menu. Specific question types within each category can be removed completely and you can organize and download question packs from within the game. Finally, Buzz! will now take photos while you play the game using the PlayStation Eye. These photos are then placed in albums for you to view later. Phew. That's a lot of content for a free update. Will this make the long slog towards the "Lonesome And Loving It Gold" trophy that little bit easier for you?[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
GC 2008: Buzz!, Destruction Derby going mobile in Europe
Hands on your buzzers. What two companies partnered during this year's Leipzig Games Convention to bring "key" PlayStation franchises to mobile carriers in the European market? Quickly now. 3 ... 2 ...1... buzzcrak! The correct answer, had you answered on time, would have been Sony and UK mobile games publisher Player X, though we can forgive your tardiness given that the duo's idea of a pivotal franchise is likely to differ from what you have in mind. No, rather than whipping Kratos' Blades of Chaos with the number 4 key on your handset, or tapping a put into the cup with the 9 in a miniaturized version of Hot Shots Golf, the companies have announced plans to bring virtual quiz show Buzz! and Reflection's original PlayStation racer Destruction Derby to mobile phones this fall and in early 2009, respectively. True, neither of these inspire us to reach for our phones just yet. However, Sony adds that the deal, a first for Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios with an outsider, will continue to bring PlayStation luminaries to mobile phones in Europe for the next three years. Thanks for playing.
Buzz! returns to PSP in Brain Bender
European games just can't get enough Buzz! A brand new Buzz! trivia game is coming to PSP later this year in Europe, entitled Buzz! Brain Bender. There are sixteen mini-games to find in this latest iteration of the popular trivia franchise. Eight have been revealed so far: Analysis Games:Path Finder: A maze game where players have to quickly decide what path leads to the centre.Power Struggle: A decision game based on who can win "tugs of wars" battles between different vehicles Observation Games:Match Up: Can you tell how many pairs of contestants there are in a puzzle?Pattern Match: A puzzle style game where players need to identify the correct shapes to fit into a missing grid. Memory Games:Take Away: A card game where players need to identify the missing cards from a series.Sound Bites: A game based on sounds made by animals or objects. Players have to correctly recall the order they were played out. Calculation Games:Blot Swot: Can you still solve maths puzzles when they're full of missing numbers?Sliced Up: A game where the player must decide what portion of the food on display hasn't been eaten. In a Brain Age twist, the upcoming game will also add a Test mode, which will track your progress and determine your brain power. Stay tuned for more.%Gallery-30078%
