1. Sit your ass on the couch.
2. Load up your PS3.
3. Download Calling All Cars or Everyday Shooter for just $5, or 50% off
4. Download flOw or PixelJunk Racers for just $5, or 30% off
5. Play games, laugh at freezing masses, scratch testicles at will—should you have them. The deal is going on now through Nov 29th.

PlayStation Store Update [via vh1]

You know, these smaller games are interesting. They sort of merit an appreciative nod at worst and like you said, a grassroots fan base at best. But there hasn't been a game on either system yet that I think has really been able to compete with the noise of big games like say Grand Turismo or Heavenly Sword or God of War or whatever. And so I think until that happens, until we as the makers and creators of smaller games are able to find a way to bust through the noise of the bigger games, then that will continue to happen. Looking at the movies, you rarely hear about an independent film over the roar of the big summer movies. But every now and then an indie film is so good and so compelling and so interesting that it does become what people are talking about, and that is the thing that gets the push and the cover of Entertainment Weekly, when "Blair Witch" gets on there or something like that.

Sure, I care what people think. I'd love it if I could find a way to be honest and truthful and not give people the PR spin and at the same time be as liked as Miyamoto and CliffyB. I'd love that. That would be awesome to have people who don't take swipes at me every five fucking sentences I say. But I'd rather be honest than give you a bunch of PR bullshit because that stuff makes me physically ill.

It's hard to image the game as a standalone title, if only because the PS3 version was only $10—which could set a dangerous (though awesome) standard for PS3 to PSP ports. What about a few extra bucks for a portable version? Or just including the PSP version free with PS3 download, ala PS1 titles? Then jack up a retail version for boxing, shipping, etc. How's that plan sound to you, Kotakuites?

Calling All Cars speeding towards PSP [pspnews]

If Jaffe hadn't specifically written that "the game a lot of you guys seems to think we are working on, we are not"—probably in reference to God of War 3 or Twisted Metal rumors—I'd have guessed he has something he and his crew had something up their sleeves to satisfy our car combat sweet tooth. But since David is only promising to talk about one of the games with which he's involved, I expect many disappointed fanboys.

However, Jaffe says the announcement represents a "very, very big change in my work life" which I can only assume to mean one thing. He's pregnant.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT COMING FRIDAY [Jaffe's Game Design]

As speculated here last week, Jaffe seems to have made good on his intention to set up an independent studio, one that may focus on the kind of games he's been specializing in since his departure from overseeing the God of War franchise.

According to 1UP's report, the unnamed Jaffe and Campbell studio will be based in Utah, presumably not too far from the Warhawk developer's location in Salt Lake City. If true, it will be interesting to finally hear the unbridled thoughts of Mr. Jaffe. Michael McWhertor

Jaffe Forming Studio with Head of Incognito [1UP]

UPDATE: David Jaffe himself wrote on message board NeoGAF: "I can promise you guys I am still part of SCEA...I just got a paycheck from them! I am still 100% a Sony employee and unless I got fired today and they didn't tell me, I'm still working for them. Also, I love working with the guys at Incog and hope to work with them for a long, long time but I sure as shit ain't moving to Utah...nice as it is, I don't think I could live there long term and I don't think the good people of Utah would want me to."

Unless David Jaffe's God of Commercial Retail Estate Development shows up as an SCEA trademark, I'm going to assume that he's making good on his intention to "explore" building an independent studio as he told Geoff Keighley on Bonus Round earlier this year. Of course, that's just speculation, but based on his response to questions about pursuing development outside the official walls of Sony, it's certainly a possibility.

I guess we'll be watching this space to see what Jaffe's post CAC plans are. Michael McWhertor

Coming Soon [Jaffe's Blog]

Lippy game developer David Jaffe works for Sony. Don't you forget it! He makes SONY games for SONY consoles, not MICROSOFT games for MICROSOFT consoles. Yet, the website for Microsoft Messenger for Mac just so happens to to list a certain "David Jaffe" as a Yahoo! friend you can chat with via Messenger. Reader Bobby writes:

David Jaffe seems to be on MSN messenger's:mac friend list along with Kam Foo Aw (test manager for Office it seems) and Joe Andershak (Product Manager for Office developer technologies). Could just be someone with the same name for all we know. Did the colossal M do it out of respect? Perhaps Jaffe has a loves the program (enough to have his name in a screenshot, but not enough to use it). He's away at the moment, maybe we'll find out soon. Who knows.

Guess if Microsoft can't get you to design their games, they'll borrow your name for their website! Brian Ashcraft

Jaffe? Microsoft? [Microsoft.com]

He reveals one interesting tidbit about his new PlayStation Network title, Calling All Cars. In response to a question about whether Wacky Races, the 60s-era Hanna-Barbera cartoon, was an influence on the game, Jaffe says:

No. R Crumb was an influence - the cartoon artist who did a lot of comics back in the 60s and 70s. Originally, it was not going to be so much of a G-rated family game - it was going to be more of an X-rated, kind of cartoony Ralph [Bakshi, director of the animated Fritz the Cat] kind of thing, and for a number of reasons we ended up moving away from that. One was a gameplay reason, one was an issue with guys on the team, where guys didn't know whether we wanted to take it that far. Wacky Races is more benign than where this actually started out, which was much more X-rated.

X-rated, eh? David, I'm sure there are plenty of Japanese developers looking for their next Hentai game hit who would love to chat with you. Michael McWhertor

ThreeSpeech Interviews David Jaffe [Three Speech]

Also available, as promised, is Sony Online Entertainment's port of Rampart for $4.99. Consider it bought, SOE! On the trailer front, videos of Warhawk, Burnout Paradise and Rampage World Tour will make appearances.

Anyone up for some Rampart matches this weekend? Michael McWhertor

Over at game forum NeoGAF, everyone's favorite jiggly game dev David Jaffe hints that his downloadable PS3 title Calling All Cars won't be hitting its May 3rd drop date. There are still a few last minute bugs to squash, apparently. According to game blog Game|Life, Gaming-Age editor Jim Cordeira says the game won't be out this week and that Super Rub-a-Dub will be in its place. Note: Jiggly Jaffe himself confirmed the May 3rd release date on a recent blog post. Still, his NeoGAF post after the jump. Brian Ashcraft

Hey guys...Sony was kinda annoyed that I claimed 5/3 as release date as it was never official. The game got kicked out of format as two very key bugs were found at the last second. Fixing those allowed us time to go back in and fix the issue (or what we think is the issue) that IGN had with the magnet. We are back in format q/a at the moment and we'd all be stunned if it did not sail thru...but we've learned to keep our mouths shut on it so as to not get people's hopes up and then let them down. The two big bugs tho- so you realize we didn't hold it up for no reason- were:

a- About 30% of the time if the host of a network game quit to the XMB or powered off his PS3, the other folks in the game would experience a hang/crash when going back to the game lobby. This was way too frequent for a crash bug and we wanted it fixed.

b- If players were doing voice chat and one player unplugged his head set and quit out of the game, when he tried to jump into a new game, about 50% of the time the player would be able to play the game but no one could hear him over voice chat.

I hope you will agree these bugs were worth ironing out. Granted, they should have been bugs that were squashed 2 months ago, but for whatever reason, they were not. So we had to do it now.

I was trying to find a way to make it up to those who care about our game and I think what we are going to do is like the first 50 or so people who find me online and can beat me, get a free CALLING ALL CARS bobble head figure. Is that lame? Not sure. But we'll prob. do it. Cause we really do feel really, really bad.

Sorry.

David

Jaffe Hints At Delay [NeoGAF via Game|Life]

We're not supposed to write about it yet, but GameTrailers got the A-OK, apparently, to post up this video of the game in action on the PS3. Interested? Bored? Don't care? Can't wait? Brian Crecente

The Mickey Mania developer writes:

CALLING ALL CARS will be out either next week or the NEXT week. It's not May 18th in USA...that seems to be the date for Europe (I am not sure on this, I'm just getting that date from the net like alot of your guys). We are shooting to have the game out next week but it's not us at this point as the game has been done for about a week now. There's just some format stuff we gotta clear and as soon as we do-and thus get the street date- I will let ya'll know. So thanks for being patient!

Okay, Jaffe, but our patience is wearing thin. Make with the transferrable executable already! Michael McWhertor

Here's the official line on new content.

• Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Trailer (free): Ratchet and Clank are making their debut on PS3 with a new epic adventure set in a massive playground of explosive mayhem.
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Trailer (free): The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is an open-ended RPG where you can create any kind of character you can imagine. Experience the main quest at your own pace, explore the vast world, or join numerous factions, such as the thieves or mages guilds, each with its own complete storyline.
• Movie Trailers (free): Check out trailers for upcoming summer flicks, Ocean's Thirteen and No Reservations.

Sadly, it appears that the PSone Classics on the PlayStation Store are still PSP only, despite the recently added PS3 support in the latest firmware and my wishful thinking. Michael McWhertor

In part two of GameTrailers' Bonus Round interview with the God of War designer, David Jaffe talks more about his decision to make Calling All Cars and his current game design philosophy that's more arcade than console epic. But, in the preview for part three, as spotted by GameDaily.biz, Jaffe plays hypothetical PLAYSTATION 3 hardware designer, saying that he "would've taken the Blu-ray [drive] out, sold it for less money." Sure, it's a little out of context, but an interesting opinion from a Sony Computer Entertainment employee.

Jaffe also talks about his potential for building or joining an independent studio, outside of the Sony family, similar to Insomniac Studios. Oh, don't worry, PlayStation fans, he says he's committed to the Sony brand.

It would certainly be interesting to see what Jaffe has to say when not in the direct employ of Sony. He'll run his mouth something fierce. Michael McWhertor

Jaffe basically sums up the design philosophy of his current project with the following:

It should be clear from the interviews I've been doing as of late, right now in my work, I'm no longer interested in going head to head with the likes of Halo, Mass Effect, Resistance, Devil May Cry 4, etc. Hell, I don't even want to go head to head against our own GOD OF WAR. I just want to do smaller, simpler games that focus on the fun.

Now, it may not come across in a brief gameplay clip, but the game is indeed a blast. I all-too-brief hands on time with Calling All Cars at GDC and had to be pried from the SIXAXIS by Gizmodo's Jason Chen. It really is frantic (and often adrenaline-fueled frustrating) fun, but as Jaffe says, it just may not be your cup of tea. Sucks for you. Michael McWhertor

It May Not Be For You... [David Jaffe's Blog]

Jaffe and crew's upcoming PLAYSTATION 3 download Calling All Cars hasn't quite sold me yet. While I trust the team at Incognito to ultimately deliver a solid game, my eyes just kind of glaze over when I watch this. Still, the online multiplayer, 1080p at 60 frames per second graphics, and copious fart sounds might sway my opinion. Michael McWhertor

David Jaffe's downloadable PS3 game Calling All Cars is still set to come out sometime this spring, but last night Sony sent over this new batch of screen caps and art for the game. I'm still kinda not that interested. Fl0w, I think, is going to be hard to beat. Brian Crecente

If you've ever wanted a seedy look inside the world of video game focus testing, here's your chance. God of War director David Jaffe yesterday live blogged the focus test for the upcoming PS3 title Calling All Cars, formerly Criminal Crackdown. It's a candid look into what goes on in the mind of a developer as people get their hands on his game for the first time.

1:49- Moving to split screen...man tester #5 is a fucking dolt!!! What the hell?!?! He is just driving in circles...not even playing the game...is that fucking spit drooling out of his stupid fucking mouth!?!?! Ahem,well...anyway.... :)

LIVE BLOGGING THE FOCUS TEST [Jaffe's Game Design]

Following the Rumor Reporter's posting that an anonymous inside source "working on a high profile title for the PlayStation 3" tipped them off that said title had "stalled completely" and could change from full-fledged retail release to PlayStation Store download came the wave of internet speculation. The game, allegedly an SCEA developed title, was widely assumed to be Icognito's update to Warhawk.

Since Warhawk hasn't been seen playable since E3 2006, most recently skipping CES, it seemed like a reasonable guess. But SCEA's David Jaffe—who was recently at Icognito to help tune up Calling All Cars!—chimed in with his take on the rumored current issues the game is having at NeoGAF:

So just because some disgruntled ex-worker- who thought the game should have been made HIS way- is now getting his 15 minutes by spouting off to some news source, does not mean he is bringing any meat to the table in terms of valid information. It may be TRUE information in terms of a game having been down a tough road, but again- that is par for the course.

We also got the following statement from a Sony spokesperson:

We haven't made any official announcements regarding Warhawk since last year. At this time, we have nothing new to report regarding this title.

My take? Sony is still evaluating (and developing) Warhawk but has not made a decision to go the download route (yet). I'm still expecting to see a retail release, but wouldn't be surprised to see it slip into next year. Michael McWhertor

High Profile PS3 Title in Trouble [Rumor Reporter]