Like what? Like Patchwork Heroes for one thing, the visually creative PSP game that’s just 10 US bucks, and Groovin’ Blocks for the PlayStation 3, featuring the grooviest blocks you’ll download today. Other possible purchases include the PSone Classic One, the Heavy Rain soundtrack and a newly cheapened 1942 Joint Strike.

For the full list of new PlayStation 3 and PSP additions to the North American PlayStation Store, look out below.

Games & Demos for PlayStation 3

Groovin’ Blocks ($9.99)

Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Pre-order ($29.99)

PSone Classics: One ($5.99)

PSone Classics: Jigsaw Madness ($5.99)

Brain Challenge demo

Games & Demos for PSP

Patchwork Heroes ($9.99)

The Red Star ($14.99)

LUXOR Bundle – LUXOR Wrath of Set & LUXOR Pharaoh’s Challenge ($9.99)

PSP minis: BreakQuest ($3.99)

Price Promotions

1942 Joint Strike sale (now $US4.99, original price $US9.99)

Trine price drop (now $US14.99, original price $US19.99)

Expansions & Add-ons

Aliens Vs. Predator Multiplayer Swarm Map Pack ($6.99)

Dragon Age: Origins Awakening ($39.99)

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast Ultimate Warriors Pack 2 (free)

Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce Quest Pack #2 (free)

Need for Speed SHIFT Exotic Racing Series ($9.99)

Guitar Hero 5 tracks

• “(No More) Paddy’s Lament” by Flogging Molly ($1.99)
• “Requiem For A Dying Song” by Flogging Molly ($1.99)
• “The Seven Deadly Sins” by Flogging Molly ($1.99)
• Flogging Molly Track Pack ($5.49) – “Requiem For A Dying Song”, “The Seven Deadly Sins”, and “(No More) Paddy’s Lament” by Flogging Molly

Rock Band tracks

• “It’s Not My Time” by 3 Doors Down ($1.99)
• “Control” by Mute Math ($1.99)
• “Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ (South Park Version)” by Eric Cartman ($1.99)
• “Oh Yeah” by The Subways ($1.99)
• “Rock & Roll Queen” by The Subways ($1.99)
• “The Who Super Bowl S-mashup” by The Who ($1.99)
• “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga ($1.99)
• “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga ($1.99)
• “Monster” by Lady Gaga ($1.99)
• “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga ($1.99)
• Lady Gaga Pack 1 ($6.99) – “Bad Romance,” “Just Dance,” “Poker Face,” and “Monster” by Lady Gaga.

Game Videos

Pulse 3/18 Edition

SOCOM 4 – Announce Trailer

File size: 55 MB (HD) 92 MB (1080)

“Sam & Max” The Devil’s Playhouse Trailer

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Gameplay Reveal Trailer

Heavy Rain Immersion Video

Heavy Rain Story Video

Heavy Rain Testimonials Video

Army of Two: The 40th Day Chapters of Deceit Trailer

MLB 10 The Show Pick Off Trailer

MLB 10 The Show Catcher Mode Trailer

MLB 10 The Show Launch Trailer

Music

Heavy Rain Soundtrack ($9.99)

PS3 Themes & Wallpaper

Heavy Rain Mars ARI Dynamic Theme ($2.99)

Acid Trip Theme ($1.49)

World of Outlaws Sprint Cars Theme ($0.99)

Feeding Frenzy 2 Shipwreck Showdown Wallpaper

If you didn’t catch our admittedly late recap of last week’s show, in which The Tester contestants LARPed awkwardly for a chance to appear on future episodes, mousy Brooklynite Luge was given the boot. Why? Her impaired LARPing leadership skills were to blame, leading to her removal and the flowing of tears by her admirer and fellow contestant Doc.

What will happen this week on The Tester? Plenty of promotion for Sony’s game show series Buzz. Yes, in this week’s episode, The Tester competitors will play their most relevant game yet, one in which video game trivia appears to play some part. Let’s hear it for relevance!

The Tester – Episode 5

As you may recall from the previous week, Tester contestant Fame Girl was eliminated for not being very skilled at playing some bizarre spin on football that no one has ever played before. Also, last week I had the pleasure of bumping into contestants Amped and Cyrus in real life at Sony’s God of War III party. They didn’t seem to hate me too much, so I’ll keep doing this thing.

Read on for our recap of the previous episode, in totally-not-liveblog format, then stay “tuned” for the more current liveblog of today’s episode later today.

This episode of The Tester stars not with a Dr. Pepper commercial featuring Dr. Dre, but a MLB 10: The Show spot with Joe Mauer and Kevin Butler. You know, the one with Kevin in swim trunks?

First, a recap of last week’s episode. Sorry for nesting recaps, but I suppose it’s important to remind you that two weeks ago, the Red Team and Blue Team took the challenge to the gridiron, launching footballs in some wacky physical contest. That was the one in which *spoiler alert* Fame Girl was ejected from the show. We miss you already, Fame Girl.

On to this week’s episode! The Tester contestants are shown sleeping, which is always great creepy footage to have. Doc is snoring, kind of a throat-clearing snore, the kind that might make a roommate justified in smothering him while he sleeps.

Cut to dream sequence warp-wipe of Luge and Doc saying “awesome” and Doc touching her. Ew. He “can’t help but flirt with Luge, she is so damn cute.” Keep your paws to yourself, Doc!

Hey, some Luge face and accent time. The group is mocking poor Luge’s speech. She can’t help the way she says “walk” and “helicopter”, guys.

OK, the weekly PlayStation message comes in through the XMB and we’re about to get our LARP on. That’s “live action role-playing” for anyone in the crowd who doesn’t own at least one piece of chainmail.

Amped doesn’t know what to expect today. Poor kid. :(

The Testers head out to the park, meet up with the lovely Meredith and are immediately invaded by a group of LARPers. The Testers look amazingly confused by the appearance of men in make-up and Rennaisance fair outfits/Minotaur heads. The mental strain may be too much to bear.

Luge voices her confusion. “What does this have to do with our challenge?” What does any of this have to do with QA testing, you may be asking as a follow up. Both are valid questions!

Cut to a battle between LARPer one and LARPer two, in which one is instructed to tear the other limb from limb. Interpretation: whack his “mirror shield” with a hammer to the squeaky sound effects.

Human LARPer casts, I think, “glacier ball”. Non-human LARPer takes that “spell” right in the breadbasket, hilarious on an America’s Funniest Home Videos level. I think this exchange just involved the saving of a fair maiden.

Speaking of fair maidens, Meredith explains the challenge. “Today, you’ll all be LARPing.” The first Tester to really get this is Cyrus, who says he LARPed once in university. Oh, Cyrus. I hope your parents aren’t watching this episode. :(

Let’s re-meet the judges one more time. Brent Gocke, of PlayStation employment. “Our favourite funny-man gamer, Mr Hal Sparks,” Meredith says. Hal prefers to be addressed as Haldorf for this challenge. Finally, special guest panelist, PlayStation Home producer Katherine De Leon. I guess she would know about LARPing, based on the number of men role-playing as women in Home.

Luge and Nauseous are selected as team captains. Luge feels good about this, she says. Since we have an odd number of contestants, they flip a coin to see who gets to pick first and who gets the extra team member. Luge wins the toss, picks Star, much to the chagrin of Doc, who appears to want to do some role-playing of his own with his lady team captain.

Who will be the last one picked? More importantly, will they cry?

Luge wanted Star because she was “totally into it”, explaining that in full LARP costume… which actually works on her, even though she should totally have a pair of prosthetic elf ears.

Nauseous picks Doc, Luge picks Cyrus, leaving Amped and Big D to join the Nauseous team. It’s nice that there’s no individual person left as the last choice. I think we’ve all been humiliated enough by this point.

Luge’s team gets a “deep space” LARPing theme for their… act? What do LARPers call this sort of scenario. Is it just a LARP? Is this a verb?

Nauseous’ team goes “barbarian”. Big D and Amped work out their barbarian-themed fiction. I feel a little nauseated myself right now.

Looks like the fanficing skills of Luge’s team are a little lacking. Either that or they’re too embarrassed to actually LARP. “So.” “Um.” Uh. Cyrus steps up to the plate to start improvising a little deep space fiction, as the judges watch on. Cut to a few scenes of Testers trying on costumes and props and that little montage is just about done. Here we go. I’m nervous on their behalf. I may be the one to cry first during this episode.

Here we go. “Are you ready to LARP?!” asks Meredith.

Cyrus lays out the deep space mall fiction. Space coffee. Space doughnuts. It’s gold. I feel dizzy from embarrassment by proxy. Luge and Cyrus banter about something that I can’t quite follow while Star stares on, a little stage fight holding her back it seems.

Doc’s insightful “This is like watching Waiting For Space Guffman’” comment is spot on.

I really can’t express in words how awkward this is. With the exception of the brilliantly improvised line “Good thing my gun shoots lightning!” from Cyrus, I have no idea what’s happening. Neither does Amped, which makes me feel better. I guess there’s some twist here, in which Luge was… stealing? She went to space jail? Star is promoted to new space cadet?

Thankfully, the deep space LARP ends.

Now, onto the barbarians. Amped starts us off with a little gymnastics to spark our interest in the Battle for the Helm of Power. Big D is way into it, sporting a fabulous, horned barbarian helmet and some barbarian calibre dialogue with Nauseous. Honestly, I can’t follow this one either. Maybe that’s due to the editor.

Star accuses the barbarians of LARP plagiarism. A bold claim, space cadet!

Something tells me Star is about to go. It’s either her or Luge, who feels her team is “in deep space shit.” Oh, Luge!

Big D is not worried about his team’s performance, as he shouldn’t be.

Luge, on the other hand, is really worried. Doc is there to console her and look for any opportunity to lay his hands on Luge. Sounds like he’s given up on snuggling up to Amped.

On to the elimination. Star is a little bit nervous. Yeah, I would be too if I was her.

First up, the deep space team, which Katherine De Leon slams as “uninspired”.

“It’s deep space, you could have done anything. You did mall cops. Why?” she says.

Haldorf offers his opinion to the barbarian team, also noting, like Star, that they were too “inspired” by the original LARPers… LARP… thing. Big D disagrees, thinking his team’s LARP was pretty original. “I’d like to see [Hal] LARP,” Big D says. That makes exactly one of us.

Big D gets the VIP nod from Brent Gocke, which must make him feel good after last week’s non-VIP showing. The barbarians are safe, with Cyrus, Luge and Star up for elimination. Brent lays into Luge for her lack of leadership. But Brent and Katherine give Star the business too. Katherine tells her she was “the worst performer out of everyone today.”

“By a mile,” she annunciates. Katherine looks like she wants to beat Star to death. I hope she doesn’t, because that really wouldn’t be fair.

Oh god. It’s so close. Oh no, Luge! Luge is not the next PlayStation game tester. I’m never watching this show again. Instead, I’ll focus on my pouting. I blame Doc. For everything. At least Luge will have more time to dedicate to her music video career, the only silver lining in this elimination.

Wow. It’s Doc, not Luge, who breaks the seal and starts crying about losing her as a contestant. Didn’t see that coming.

The preview for next week’s episode (rather, today’s episode) is all about Buzz, the PlayStation quiz game. We can look forward to trivia about Uncharted, Twisted Metal and more, plus the elimination of one more contestant on …. The Tester!!

Creat’s Wakeboarding HD takes some seriously over-the-top liberties with the extreme sport, promising “crazy, high-speed racing and obstacle courses” to North American PlayStation 3 owners. The game, from the same folks responsible for Mushroom Wars and Digger HD, will arrive this Thursday for $US14.99.

Wakeboarding HD Coming to PSN March 25 [PlayStation.blog]

Damn good, based on our hands-off preview of developer Capy’s high-definition upgrade to Clash of Heroes. The game’s hand animated characters and hand painted backgrounds alone, on par or better with the gorgeously rendered graphics seen in the developer’s past PSN effort Critter Crunch, make double-dipping on another Clash of Heroes purchase easy to justify.

Capybara Games co-founder and president Nathan Vella’s claims of shooting for Miyazaki-quality animation don’t appear to be outrageously bold. The high-definition port of the DS version is packed with detail and tons of new animation, stuffing the screen with big, beautiful characters and a more helpful UI.

If a high-def coat of paint may isn’t enough to convince the Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes to upgrade, some of the gameplay tweaks might. The game appears to move a little quicker than the portable original, with node-to-node movement speedier.

The console port also brings with it a two-on-two cooperative mode, putting two battlefields side-by-side, and offers online multiplayer versus modes. Vella says that Capy is also tweaking a few other Clash of Heroes quirks, with adjusted boss battle difficulty and better ability-modifying artefacts. Players can also revisit levels of the game after completing those chapters, a chance to max out your characters.

Capy’s also adding a little “cheat sheet” button, giving players a quick glance at unit hit points, toughness and other important data. What it won’t be adding is an “undo” button, something some players (read: me) have asked about.

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes HD is due to release on XBLA and PSN in “late summer”. Capy wouldn’t rule out ports to WiiWare and PC, but it certainly didn’t confirm anything either.

Ubisoft and Capy’s high-res port of 2009’s best puzzle-RPG looks to maintain the same solid strategic gameplay but with completely redrawn graphics and, as seen in the debut trailer below, more spectacular spell animations.

IGN’s write up of the game indicates that Capy will be tweaking some of the game’s mechanics as well as taking the multiplayer portion online. We’ll know more about Might & Magic: Clash Of Heroes HD when we speak with Capy at GDC later this week.

Now, it may not be fair to label Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light a “reboot” as Crystal Dynamics is clearly making the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade release as a Tomb Raider game with clear boundaries between it and the “pillar” releases. Guardian of Light is set outside of the series chronology, an independent side story. It also plays differently from every other Tomb Raider game, a top-down, sometimes cooperative adventure that adds a second player, the Mayan warrior and spear expert Totec.

The side story is a straightforward one, involving an ancient and powerful artefact, the Mirror of Smoke. Given that this artefact is both ancient and powerful, Lara isn’t the only character on the hunt for this thing, which happens to have an evil spirit contained within – but not for long.

We also probably wouldn’t call Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light a twin-stick shooter, even though it uses the familiar dual-analogue movement and aiming seen in many XBLA and PSN games. But the combat, simple in its Diablo-like point and shoot action, looks fluid and fun. Move with the left, aim with the right, pull the right trigger to fire, both for Lara, equipped with dual pistols, and for Totec, normally armed with spears, but capable of picking up a machine gun when necessary.

Guardian of Light’s most appealing feature is its puzzle-solving and platform traversal, much of which requires cooperative planning and execution. For instance, Totec can throw spears at walls, which Lara can use as improvised platforms to get to higher elevation. Lara can also aid Totec in his bottomless pit avoidance, using her grappling hook. She can fire the grappling hook at an object, letting Totec use the hookline as a tightrope. She can also fire the grappling hook at Totec himself, giving her Mayan buddy a repelling line to climb up walls too high to scale otherwise.

Perhaps the most interesting use of Totec and Lara’s cooperative platforming mechanic was during a puzzle filled with instant-kill spikes. In the centre of one of the game’s tombs near the base of a set of stairs was a tall pillar with spikes jutting out, a much-needed puzzle piece atop it. This particular puzzle required that Totec stand on a pressure plate, deactivating the spikes. After throwing a spear into the pillar, it was clear that Lara wasn’t high enough to reach the rim of the pillar’s top. The solution? Totec had to walk back up the stairs, elevating himself, then throw additional spears at the pillar, creating a makeshift ladder for Lara to climb.

Some of the other coop action involved one player pulling a lever or rolling a ball while the other fended off a swarm of massive spiders. Players will also need to keep an eye on their partner’s health helping to revive their fallen teammate when fatigued.

Crystal Dynamics teased some competitive aspects in the form of loot collection and a straightforward contest for high scores. Developers at GDC also briefly touched on a player progression system, but wouldn’t provide specifics about how that system worked.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light also features a single-player only mode. There’s no option for an AI-controlled coop buddy, so solo players will play a version of Lara with beefier platforming abilities.

While Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light may not be a full-fledged “pillar” entry in the Tomb Raider series, it’s perhaps the most refreshing, most enticing take on the character in a long time. That it evoked fond memories of pick and play games like Diablo and the console-only Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance games may have had something to do with that, but the smart puzzle mechanics and arcadey gameplay have already ensured that Crystal Dynamics’ side-story spin-off is one of summer’s most interesting downloadable games.

Don’t worry, above the fold Kotaku readers, we won’t spoil the outcome of previous week episodes on the front page, but should you have ventured this far, all bets are off. Last week, professional breakdancer Goof, to whom money is no object, was canned, handing in his PlayStation Tester badge. It was sad. So many tears.

What will happen this week? Well, we’re about to watch and find out. Let’s do this!

The Tester – Episode 3

Two years after Mega Man 9 returned the classic Capcom series to 8-bit, classic Nintendo Entertainment System design, Mega Man 10 is upon us, with an offer that is decidedly not old school: An easy game. But it’s easy only if you want it to be.

Loved

Speed Run: I tried playing Mega Man 10 on normal difficulty. I tried to let the game’s simple sprite graphics and bleeping music take me back to my childhood self – he of the greater dexterity and higher tolerance for dying – but I could not survive in Capcom’s game for more than five minutes before touching an instant-kill spike, falling down an instant-death pit or (the worst!) experiencing that horrible old-school thing of killing an enemy on the screen, moving ahead, retreating to the earlier area and seeing that that enemy was back. Easy Mode was the thing for me. Easy Mode, my salvation and a numbered Mega Man first, according to Capcom, presents fewer and different enemies laid out in levels that have red safety platforms capping some of the bottomless pits. Hooray! Best of all, playing through this game on easy mode allowed me to witness some of the clever – occasionally wickedly clever – jumping challenges. In theory, I could try them with the safety net of Easy and then have a better shot of clearing them in Normal. Great. That way I could actually play the excellent truck-jumping section. That’s better than having to “play” this game by watching someone speed-run it on YouTube.

Nostalgia Not Necessary For Enjoyment: There are moments during Mega Man 10’s dozen or so levels in which you fight new bad guys like Sheep Man and robots that emulate what I assume are classic Mega Man foes. Some girl who may or may not be from Mega Man lore gets sick with Robofluenza, a sickness that afflicts robots and may or may not be a hallowed element of Mega Man lore. It doesn’t matter. If you are such a huge Mega Man fan that you know Mega Man’s middle name (what is it??) then I’m sure you’ll love the parts of this that refer to classic Mega Man fiction. If you’re me, who hasn’t played a Mega Man since I was learning trigonometry and remembers none of it, you instead get the experience of visiting a foreign country that seems to have its own evolving culture. Who cares if I miss the references? At least there’s some sort of bizarrely consistent dream logic to the sci-fi fiction here.

Extras:Mega Man 10 can last you longer than 90 minutes not just if you subject yourself to the game’s normal and hard modes or replay the game using alternate hero Proto-Man, it will also last you a while to beat the game’s 80 or so unlockable challenge stages, which involve everything from running across a room to beating one of the game’s eight main bosses without taking damage.

For some gamers, old-school is a turn-off. For others it’s a delight. How to please all? Mega Man 10.

Mega Man 10 was developed by Inti Creates and published by Capcom for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on their respective downloadable services on the week of March 1. Retails for $US10.00. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Beat this game in 90 minutes, or did I mention that already?

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board has rated a quartet of titles originally released for SNK’s arcade/home console platform, the Neo Geo. The first four to be outed are Baseball Stars Professional, Alpha Mission II, League Bowling, and Super Sidekicks, perhaps not the Neo Geo classics you were hoping for, but a step in the right direction.

Hopefully, that leak portends the inclusion of other platforms, say the Sega Dreamcast and Sony’s own PlayStation 2, making their way to PlayStation Stores worldwide.

Perhaps the Neo Geo Archives, following the naming convention established by Hudson’s PC Engine Archives, will be announced in the coming days (or later at GDC).

ESRB Game Ratings [ESRB]