"Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars" Announced for the PLAYSTATION(r) Network
Psyonix Studios Creates One of the Longest Named Games Ever Online

El Segundo, Calif.- Aug. 8, 2008 Psyonix Studios today announced Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, an arena-based online vehicle sports game for PLAYSTATION(r) Network that brings together animated vehicles in sports-like gameplay.

The game features vehicles with incredible physics-based maneuverability, including boosters for launching high into the air or accelerating at break-neck speed on the ground. In the air, cars can roll, flip, jump, dodge or spin. In this team-based soccer-inspired game, the vehicles maneuver to perform breathtaking saves, awe-inspiring shots on goal, and gruesome demolishes of opponent cars. These abilities, combined with the players' own creativity, create a unique and thrilling experience every time.

Wide-ranging community involvement is supported through team and league play, as well as extensive statistical tracking, rankings, and rewards for individuals and teams. The game features mini-games and single player matches as well as team and league matches and scrimmage matches online. Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars will also feature PLAYSTATION(r)3 computer entertainment system trophies and players will be able to upload videos of their most exciting games to YouTube.

"It takes a pretty special game to carry such a lengthy title and be able to hold its head high amongst games with much shorter names," commented Dave Hagewood, Director of Development at Psyonix Studios. "Thankfully, we don't have to worry about fitting this title on a package."

Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars is expected to be available in early fall 2008.

The deal we made for The Cars is a full album game download and Rock Band is the only game title out there putting full albums up as downloadable content. Having said this, we would not license the full album out for a similar use; however, we can and will (when opportunity presents itself) license single tracks from this album for other games. Nonetheless, moving forward we will be licensing more full albums from the Warner Music Group Catalog for game download to Harmonix for Rock Band.

Croal notes that doesn't prevent singles from showing up elsewhere, but it does point to a growing battle of the bands that is sure to eventually lead to some major coups as things heat up.

The Great War of Rock Continues to Rage: Rhino Records Tells Level Up That The Cars' Debut Album Was a Rock Band Exclusive

• All Mixed Up
• Bye Bye Love
• Don't Cha Stop
• Good Times Roll
• I'm in Touch with Your World
• Just What I Needed
• Moving in Stereo
• My Best Friend's Girl
• You're All I've Got Tonight

Big fan of this site. One of my employees brought us out to his car to show us what he created under the hood. I laughed so hard. He loves the original NES and wanted to make a tribute under his hood. Whatever excites him. I wanted to share this with everyone.

While this is precisely the news that all Rock Band fans have been waiting to hear, it raises a ton of new questions. Is $14.99 the new standard album price? And how often can we expect new albums? Luckily, we had the chance to discuss the announcement with Harmonix's CEO Alex Rigopulos, who was more than happy to answer all of our fanboy questions. We posted an abridged, cleaned (sans-Mark's-question-stuttering-and-boring-parts) Q&A after the jump.

What took you so long?
...a big reason that it's taken us so long to get them to market is that the actual technical delivery of the assets required for any one song - they're actually pretty complicated. You're often dealing with masters for the older stuff that were recorded on analog. Often it takes a long time to even locate those masters. The right takes and the right edits have to be found, and in some cases old gear that's not in use anymore has to be resuscitated to transfer the stuff to digital. And so for any one song, the actual process of finding the right tape, resuscitating it and transferring it to the right digital format that we need and all that is an undertaking...

If you're just going for a handful of tracks by a particular artist and they're slow to locate one of them, well you just pick a different track and go on. Well when you're looking for a dozen tracks ina a particular album, you cant really release the album until you've tracked every one of those assets.

What happened to The Who?
We will have a specific announcement about that coming up soon regarding some work that we have coming down the pike with The Who in general that I think people are gonna be pretty happy about...and in general what you're gonna see sorta deep dives with particular artists, where with some artists...of the appropriate stature, you'll see us doing more than whole albums, potentially even entire catalogs.

What kind of schedule will album release be on?
For album releases, in particular, there isn't a set schedule like an album a month...we do want to release albums regularly...generally, the amount of content we release in a week you'll see growing over the course of the year substantially.

Will albums ever represent the majority of your music releases?
I don't think albums will be the dominant release. I don't think we're going to switch to primarily releasing albums, but I will say, in addition to these three we've just mentioned, we actually have MANY in the pike...suffice it to say, it will be a substantial portion of our content offering going forward.

So is $14.99 the new standard album price?
It's not a standard. There's not going to be a standard album pricing. It's going to be a function of how many songs are included in the album...essentially there will be a volume discount applied.

Do you think a variable price rate on albums is disadvantage, especially when stores like iTunes sell albums for a flat rate?
Perhaps, but I think...consumers have demonstrated that they feel that the value they're getting for a game level based at $2 is enormous...[and] there's quite a lot of appetite for music at $2 a song...[so] volume discounts for more music represents quite a good value for the consumers.

Will you ever offer 3-Pack discounts for album tracks?
At this time we're not...I'm not ruling that out as something we're doing in the future. It's just not something we're doing right now.

Would you ever consider releasing "greatest hits" albums?
I don't see any particular reason why we would rule them out...I think that for the right artist under the right circumstances, there's no reason we wouldn't consider doing a greatest hits album that either exists in the world already as a recorded compilation, or [as] in some cases, we've actually had artists come to us who are interested in kind of curating their own new greatest hits compilation for the purpose of Rock Band release. And so I think we're really pretty versatile to ideas of that sort.

So basically, a Rock Band Greatest Hits album?
Exactly.
(Ed note: Rigopulos later explained that they kind of did this with Grateful Dead tracks already, unofficially.)

At the end of the interview, Rigopulos let me know that Rock Band had recently surpassed 8 million song downloads. That's about 2 million just since their new store opened (and Still Alive became offered for free).

To help promote the game the developers will be holding a little in-game competition this weekend and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday Xbox Live will be randomly giving away prizes, including a racing wheel and autographed copy of the game, to people who play the game.

Hit the jump to check out a gallery of the new cars and the full list.

March Car Pack
2008 Audi S5
2007 Audi TT Coupe S-Line
1971 BMW 3.0 CSL E09
2008 BMW E92 M3
1989 Ferrari F40 Competizione
1996 Ferrari F50 GT
2007 Ferrari 430 Scuderia
2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640
2007 Maserati GranTurismo
2006 Maserati MC12 Corsa
2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR
2008 Porsche 911 GT2 (997)
2007 Peugeot #1 Peugeot 207 Super 2000 (Xbox liveried 2007 IRC championship winner)

We will not stand for these lies, Zipfel! Give the Bungie design team their due and all associated royalties should the car come to production. We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more, etcetera, etcetera.

Hummer denies Halo influence on HX concept [mLive - thanks, DigiMish!]

Detroit Auto Show: Hummer HX Concept Embargo Totally Fragged [Jalopnik]

"We envision future cars will be able to monitor brain and emotional activity to back up elderly drivers," said Kawashima, a Tohoku University scientist who worked on Nintendo Co.'s best-selling "Brain Age" games _ and whose smiling image is the guide in the series.

While I am all for promoting driving safety, I just don't know about helping the elderly drive longer. I respect the elderly. I have some of the elderly in my family. I just think there is a certain point where you have to resign yourself that you can no longer safely operate a vehicle. I know Kawashima's heart is in the right place, but age happens.

Kawashima hopes to extend the technology towards all ages of drivers in the future.

"Ultimately, we hope to develop cars that stimulate brain activity, so that driving itself becomes a form of brain training," Kawashima said.

Toyota and brain-game professor to develop cars for the elderly [The Sydney Morning Herald via Gizmodo]

Driver Frank Krmel appeared to struggle more with maintaining a smile in the face of wearing a DK suit and tie than he did piloting the new monster truck. He said of the new ride, "Donkey Kong has been around since 1981, and everyone's seen it all over the place, so they figured Monster Jam was the next natural progression." Truly. Where could the series have gone but to monster trucking? A full shot of the truck is after the jump.

In fact, there's a bunch of new images, possibly even one of a slap wheelie, at the official site.

The full interview with Krmel is available at Monster Jam Online, for anyone who wants to delve deeper into the world of monster truck driving.

DONKEY KONG MAKES SURPRISE DEBUT IN MINNEAPOLIS [Monster Jam Online]

According to a press release we were handed, Nintendo VP George Harrison said "Donkey Kong has always been a force to be reckoned with. The new Donkey Kong truck lets us show off his rowdy behavior to his fans, whether they have been playing his games for decades or just discovered them." Somehow, I just can't picture him saying this. It seems forced.

Monster Jam Online

Bionic Commando-Volvon [GameReactor - thanks, Rugg!]

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]

"Best European Import" - Marcel Horn; 2007 Audi TT
"Best Domestic Automobile" - Gary Cheney; 2007 Factory Five GTM
"Best Hot Rod" - Jim and Mike Ring; 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback
"Best Japanese Import" - Michael Chung; 2007 Nissan 350Z
"Best Truck / SUV" - Mike DeFord; 2007 Dodge Ram

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]

We calculated what the internal volume of the enclosure was supposed to be for maximum performance and based on that made a box that had that volume but was also the size of 2 cubes side by side. Also the enclosure was built from scratch, but the Woofer is actually a 12" Shiva for those wondering. And yes, the sub sounds amazing in my car!

That is just straight up badass. I'll have two, please.

The Super Mario Subwoofer [Flickr]
[via GayGamer, via Engadget]

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]

Customized Forza 2 paint jobs are ground we've covered before, but ground worth covering again. Reader Jeffrey Thomas sent us a link to his delightfully nerdy page "If Tinkerball Could Drive," which features customized Disney cars. As Kotakuite Jmel explains: "The forza2 paint system is all done using vector shapes. It is a layer system with over 4000 layers possible, allowing you to fit together shapes of the same color to make new shapes." That means creating this kind of paint jobs is HARD. So far, Jeffrey's done very impressive cars featuring Tinkerbell, Scar, Stitch and Jafar. He's not finished and making more. Oh, goodie! Brian Ashcraft

Disney Forza 2 Cars [Disney High Performance]

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]

• Dino 246 GT, Ferrari Challenge Stradale
• Cadillac Cien
• RUF RK Spyder
• Lamborghini Murci lago Roadster
• TVR T440R

Players can also download the Saturn Curve for free. I'm still holding out for my 1996 Nissan Sentra with a bad oil leak and nasty front end damage, but I doubt the devs have the time to create the stalling at red lights functionality to make things truly realistic. Michael Fahey

Brand New Test Drive Unlimited Downloadable Content

Available Now on Xbox Live Marketplace, Test Drive Collection Volume 4

LYON, FRANCE - 14 May 2007 - Atari today announced that the Test Drive Collection Volume 4 downloadable car pack is available now on Xbox Live Marketplace for Test Drive Unlimited, the ultimate automotive and lifestyle gaming experience for Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.

Available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace for 350 points, the Test Drive Collection Volume 4 features six highly desirable cars, the Dino 246 GT, Ferrari Challenge Stradale, Cadillac Cien , RUF RK Spyder, Lamborghini Murci lago Roadster, and the TVR T440R. In addition, players can download the Saturn Curve completely free. Once downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace, players will be able to buy each of the cars as normal from the relevant in-game dealerships.

"At Eden we've worked hard to keep the new cars coming for Test Drive Unlimited, with all the dedicated design and rendering time that doing so involves," said David Nadal, Studio Head, Eden Games. "With this latest pack and recent Lexus pack, there are now more than 30 brand new, meticulously modelled cars that we've made available on Marketplace since launch, plenty for the thousands of committed Test Drive petrol-heads to get their teeth into."

Released in late November 2006, Test Drive Collection Volume 1 contains the RUF RGT, Koenigsegg CCR, Noble M400, Corvette C6 Convertible, Ferrari 250 GTO 1962 and the Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Edition, with the Chevrolet Corvette C1 1957 Hardtop and Lexus IS 350 available free. Test Drive Collection Volume 2 was launched in late December 2006 and features the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, McLaren F1 GT, Dodge Viper SRT-10 Coupe, RUF Rt 12, Alfa Brera, 1971 Dodge Challenger RT and Edonis, plus a free download of the 1971 Dodge Challenger RT . Launched in March, Test Drive Collection Volume 3 features the Ferrari F40, Chrysler Crossfire SRT6 Roadster, RUF Rturbo, Audi S6, Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible 1971, and Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, plus a free download of the Cadillac CTS-V. The Lexus GS 450h hybrid-powered luxury sport sedan and Lexus LS 460 premium luxury sedan are also available for free download. Once downloaded, all cars can be bought as normal from the relevant in-game dealerships.

Test Drive Unlimited is packed with 90 vehicles, one thousand plus miles of open roads and a host of online options. Players can win races, challenges, missions and tournaments both on and offline to earn credits and purchase new cars, bikes, apparel, homes and garages, all in the wide open tropical setting of Hawaii's Oahu island paradise. A new benchmark for racing games, Test Drive Unlimited is racing reinvented.

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

Man, I am exhausted. I got up at 4am this morning to get an early jump on blogging. That's a couple hours earlier than I usually get up, and I'm really feeling it. Family wanted to do something, so we went to the Tomica (Japanese toy car brand) expo. Mini-Bash has been talking about going to the event for months now, and is already plotting when he'll go to the next one. It was actually pretty neat! You pay something like 7 and a half bucks to get in, and that includes a toy car. In this case, we got some futuristic police car. They give all entrants toy cars, so that little kids won't fight over toy cars in the elaborate play tracks and roads they have set up. There were a bunch of carnival games, too. Fishing type games and what not. Cool bit was that even if you lost, you still got a car, which was more often than not a ramen truck. We brought four ramen trucks home today, plus those police cars.

What you missed last night

• New contest


• What game is more popular than Phantom Hourglass in Japan? This one.


• Reader Torokun is a good dude


• Microsoft drops the hammer. And the ball.

Alrighty, see ya in the morning.

All the drama! Earlier, jiggly game developer David Jaffe whined about Calling All Cars' review scores. Then, there was chatter and hints from Jaffe himself that the game was being pushed back for retooling. And, now Jaffe is just gonna shuddup. He blogs:

But for the time being, I'm going to go dark. My stylings have upset some folks within the biz I care very much about and that I can not live with. For me, it's always been silly, stupid fun...you know, giving what I get, talking like alot of folks on geeky message boards do, trash talking,etc. But I guess some folks have taken it to heart and that's not cool for me. End of the day, even the folks who spew much venom my way, I probably would like very much in real life. As I've said before, we're all geeks and if you can't get along with a fellow geek, then what's the point.

Anyway, so CAC is coming out...soon? I dunno. It's done, so I'm just waiting now for the official word. I'm sure you'll see the press release when Sony lets it out. But I will be playing online for sure, so hope to see you guys in the game!

The bit about us all being geeks is rather touching, actually! But, Jaffe being Jaffe, he's not one to relax and pussy out before going dark. He doesn't mince words, and he gets in few jabs at a mysterious, unnamed website. Hit the jump for the fireworks.

TO THE LAME ASS WEBSITE THAT SHALL GO UNNAMED- Fuck you, guys. Go fuck yourselves. What other developer makes a fucking change to a game when a review (IGN's in this case) has a good, valid point and is willing to open the fucking code up at the risk of more bugs to make the game better? Amazing.But hey, you guys are great, you guys rock. I hope Kotaku fucking puts your ass out of business, wanna be fucktards. And if you were actual journalists you would have read the motherfucking quote I posted on NEOGAF where I said because of the two bugs we needed to fix (not because I was afraid of the bargin bin) we had a window of opp. to fix the magnet problem. Assholes...total fucking assholes.

That Jaffe, he's tangy! Brian Ashcraft

Jaffe Going Dark [JAFFE'S GAME DESIGN, Thanks Chris!]

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]

Calling all Cars hit the Playstation debugs last week to mixed, very mixed reviews and David Jaffe was, well, he was himself.

His two post response raises some interesting issues, if you can get through all the crap. (Like Jaffe telling some gamers to 'GO FUCK YOUR MOTHER UP HER JIGGLY ASS TWAT' ? Seriously? That's just sad. I expect more from Jaffe.)

The first post is far less rambly, but it too suffers from the same issue, it comes off as Jaffe being incredibly defensive.

Essentially Jaffe argues that the game is worth the price and that it's unfair to knock its review score for a lack of content since it only costs $10. The thing that seemed to get Jaffe's goat specifically was Gamespot's score of 6.7/10.

While I think their score is a little low, I have to agree with them. Calling All Cars is a fun game to play for a short period of time, but its limited maps really hurt the game. And I don't buy into the it's-only-$10 argument. The game could have been made a lot more sustainable, a lot more fun to play with just a few more maps and maybe an extra game play mode or two.

I really enjoyed playing with Calling all Cars, but with only four maps and one gameplay mode (offline and online) it kinda got old quick. The different cars are nice, but they didn't seem to handle differently enough to change the gameplay experience.

What I suspect, and I could be totally wrong here, is that new maps and new modes will be hitting the game for extra pay. Something that would mean, to at least me, that the game is in fact being released piecemeal and that we don't yet know the true final price.

If that's the case I'd probably lower my impressions of the game, which I'd currently give a solid 75 to 80 percent, to something closer to the Gamespot score.

As for the Jaffe outburst, it's great to see a developer so passionate about his trade, but I just wish he wouldn't dip into those juvenile tirades. Brian Crecente

Ugh! No Fucking More and My Response to Gamespot [Jaffe's Game Design]

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

Being released on everything but the PSP (was easier to type), the new game features all new racers coming to Radiator Springs to complete in the First Annual Mater-National Race Festival. You'll see new tracks, new characters, and new mini-games, all while exploring the open city environment. When I say you, I mean your kids...though of course you'll be watching them play, as a responsible parent.

If we're lucky we'll get to hear America's most loveable fake redneck once-again utter his famous line, "I can't believe they pay me for doing this shit." Michael Fahey

THQ Announces Multiplatform Cars Follow Up [Gamasutra]

Adding to Luke's demo info that he posted just a step a couple of steps back, Microsoft has also released the latest list of ricerockets that will be available for Forza 2:

1998 - Toyota - AB Flug S900 Supra Turbo
2000 - Honda - Aerogear Integra Type-R
2003 - Toyota - APR Performance Celica GTS
2000 - Audi - AWE Tuning SilverBullet S4
1995 - Toyota - Border MR2 Turbo T-bar
2003 - Chevrolet - Corvette Guldstrand Edition
1994 - Honda - Do-Luck NSX
1992 - Toyota - Do-Luck Supra
2003 - Nissan - Fairlady Z Custom Edition
2003 - Ford - FocusSport SVT Focus
2003 - Lexus - Foose Design IS430 Project Car
2000 - Dodge - Hennessey Viper 800TT
2006 - Mitsubishi - HKS Time Attack Evolution
1995 - Mazda - INGS RX-7
2002 - Chevrolet - Lingenfelter 427 Corvette
1999 - Mitsubishi - MINE'S CP9A Lancer Evolution VI
1993 - Nissan - MINE'S R32 Skyline GT-R
2002 - Nissan - MINE'S R34 Skyline GT-R
2004 - Honda - Mugen Civic Type-R
2002 - Honda - Mugen Integra Type-R
2003 - Honda - Mugen S2000
1995 - Mazda - RE-Amemiya RX-7
2003 - Mitsubishi - Sparco Lancer Evolution VIII
1998 - Subaru - Tommy Kaira Impreza M20b
2002 - Nissan - Tommy Kaira Skyline GT-R R34
1995 - Toyota - Tom's T020 MR2
2002 - Toyota - Tom's W123 MR-S
2002 - Toyota - Tom's Z382 Soarer
1998 - Toyota - Top Secret 0-300 Supra
2000 - Nissan - Top Secret D1-Spec S15
1998 - Toyota - VeilSide Supra Fortune 03
1998 - Toyota - VeilSide Supra Fortune 99
2000 - Acura - VIS Racing Integra Type-R
1995 - Toyota - VIS Racing MR2 Turbo T-bar
2004 - Honda - Wings West Civic Si

Any car I've highlighted in italics are noted to be the "most likely to be stolen" autos according to most insurance companies, which therefore more make them hotter. Kim Phu

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]