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I’m excited to announce that the PlayStation Experience is back on tour for 2012 and we have some awesome games and experiences planned for you, our community. For those of you new to the PlayStation Experience, every year we tour the country’s biggest concerts and festivals to show off all of our latest games and gadgets. This is your chance to meet other local PlayStation enthusiasts, compete in your favorite PlayStation titles, and most importantly, get your hands on unreleased games! I guess there are also the live performances to check out too, but who goes to music festivals for that? Especially when you can play:

• LittleBigPlanet Karting
• PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
• Starhawk
• Twisted Metal
• MLB 12 The Show
• PixelJunk 4am
• Journey
• Mortal Kombat
• Street Fighter X Tekken
• Soul Calibur V
• Madden 13
• FIFA 13
• NBA 2K13
• NHL 13

…and that’s just the list of games that I can share with you! To top it all off, we will be giving away loads of PlayStation prizes everywhere we go. Trust me when I say, if you love video games and PlayStation, you will definitely want to make your way to the PlayStation Experience. Here’s a list of our confirmed stops:

We’re constantly adding new stops to the tour, so be sure to check the PlayStation Experience page regularly for updates. You can also follow @HeyPlayStation on Twitter for live Tweets from the road as well as other event updates and weekly giveaways.

I hope to see each and every one of your game faces out on the road!

Hello again! You were so nice to me the last time around, I thought I’d come back for another visit. We at Gearbox were delighted to see the enthusiastic response to our recent Borderlands 2 posts. But that wasn’t enough. You see, Borderlands 2 is all about MORE. More weapons, more enemies, more story, more environments, and most of all MORE LOOT. A commenter on one of the previous posts said, “You’ll get my pre-order as soon as the collector’s / limited editions are revealed in full.” Well, “Baron_Von_Bonbon,” that day has arrived as we’ve recently announced our Borderlands 2 Deluxe Vault Hunter’s Collector’s Edition and Borderlands 2 Ultimate Loot Chest Limited Edition.

However, you also had more questions, and we have the answers! Character customisation options, voice chat, Mechromancer, a unique reward for Borderlands 1 players – I’ve done my best to answer as many of your questions about Borderlands 2 as possible. Read on…

Can we expect better more consistent framerate this time around? (via @Is_It_JustMe @Iantheausguy)
That’s certainly the plan! We’re entering the phase of development right now where we are focusing on framerate and stability, so it’s too early for me to give any final numbers, but you will see an improvement over the first game.

Can a second player on local splitscreen be logged in to a separate PSN ID and gain Trophies and stats? (via @frag123456)

We’re looking into this as well, but right now the answer is no.

The only important question: will voice communication be fixed? It was unusable in BL1. (via @keithschon)

Good timing – you’ll hopefully be pleased to know that a portion of our programming team is working on voice chat issues right now so they will be working for everyone when the game launches!

Will there be more character customization (individual skills, armor, etc) than in the first one? (via @justtom2012)

You’ll be able to choose from a large variety of swappable heads/hairstyles/headgear in addition to choosing from hundreds of unique color and decal themes, and both together offer a ton of options for customization. As for skills, each class offers a bigger quantity and more interesting variety of skills to choose from in the skill trees.

Will vehicle-based gameplay be enhanced? It was fairly basic in the original game.

We’re introducing a new vehicle, the Technical, which can hold 4 players at once and also has a few weapon configurations to choose from. Some are better than others depending on the types of enemies you’ll face and the environment you’ll be fighting in. On the other hand, Borderlands is mainly a game about weapons and loot so we don’t want to force people to stay in vehicles for too long.

Will there be a shortcut button for health kits? Going thru your backpack sucks, especially during battles! (via @TheVic82)

Yeah, that sucked. Pausing wasn’t really fun in combat. It was a tough decision, but we decided to remove carryable health packs and instead fill that need with new relics and shields that can help keep you out of that emergency state to begin with. The result is a more fluid combat experience since now you’re not worrying about when the best time to pause the game is and you still get that fun sense of preparing for a battle by choosing the right gear.

Health Packs will still appear and drop and they will now heal you up in the middle of battle.

What enhancements have you made to the weapon interface, inventory, and pickup system?

We have a completely new inventory screen and all of the other interface screens have received various upgrades. There’s a lot more useful data for gear comparison and also more descriptive text on the item cards as well. Having said that, the best way to know what a gun does is to use it – and some weapons are *very* special…

Money and ammo now automatically pick up if dropped from enemies as well!

Will the environments be more varied, instead of one big desert? (via @DoctorMous3)

Absolutely! We’ve shown a tundra, cavern, grasslands, and Hyperion tech environments so far, but there are many more in the game – I think you’ll enjoy the environmental diversity in BL2.

What are you doing to extend the variety of enemy types and combat encounters?

There are brand new enemy families in Borderlands 2, and the total count of unique enemies (including special elemental variants with unique AI) is in the triple digits. New environments + new enemy types and behaviours = much more varied combat encounters!

So when will we get the Mechromancer class and is it a exclusive to any version of the game ? (via @Tenkisin)

We’re hoping to release her to the world as soon as possible – but we have to get the game through the certification process as right now she only exists as a sketch and we need to finish up Borderlands 2! The good news is that the Mechromancer will be compatible with all versions of the game and she will be free if you preorder at participating retailers through the Borderlands 2 Premiere Club!

Is the story going to be more cut-scene based like UNCHARTED, or more audio log based like the original BL? (via @Ejsponge61)

We’re mixing it up a bit this time: few short cutscenes (and title cards) where necessary, lots of in-game moments, ECHO logs, missions, and environmental storytelling – not to mention the significant NPC improvements we made so it doesn’t just feel like a cardboard cut out of a dude is sending you on a quest.

What’s great is that we catered it towards both audiences that love story telling through NPCs and those who prefer to go kick some ass! If you choose to do the latter, you can run off as the NPC is talking to you and the discussion will appear as an ECHO transmission. No chains attached!

Will we be able to use custom soundtracks on PS3? (via @Nem0905)

No, but hopefully you’ll like the huge amount of new music we’ve composed just for this game!

Will there be any in-game bonuses in Borderlands 2 if you have a save file and completed the first game? via (@CFinalBlade)

Yes, if we detect a save file from the first game on your console then you’ll be rewarded with a unique swappable head and skin for every class!

Will the max level be past 69? (via @Martothedragon)

We’re balancing the game to cap at level 50; in the first game we ended up pushing the cap to 69 through post-launch patches and DLC. I don’t have DLC plans for Borderlands 2 yet but we tend to want to one-up ourselves each time, so… we’ll see what happens!

It’s been too long since I’ve posted to PlayStation.Blog…but soon you’ll see why! We recently joined Spike’s Geoff Keighley on the latest episode of GTTV tonight to show off some cool new Carmelita gameplay in addition to a very special announcement: Sly Cooper is coming to PS Vita this fall!

First off, a look at new gameplay. As every Sly fan knows, Sly Cooper and Carmelita Fox have a long and torrid history — a history that’s destined to continue in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. The game picks up where Sly 3 left off, and Sly is feigning amnesia so he can be with the love of his life, Carmelita. But when he rejoins the Cooper Gang on their time-traveling escapade to restore his family’s legacy, you can be sure Carmelita will quickly become embroiled in their wild adventure.

Carmelita is radiant on the PS3, and the powerful graphics hardware allowed us to make her much more detailed and expressive than in the past titles on PS2. She is, of course, a fully playable character in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and so we also spent a lot of time evolving her gameplay. We have gone with a more precise over-the-shoulder aiming technique that allows players to lock on the targets quickly and easily. You can see how this can be put to good use in the multi-layered boss battle.

Now for more big news! Ever since we revealed the game, fans have been asking me about PS Vita, arguing that Sly would be a great game to take on the go. I completely agree…and I can now confirm that Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time will be shipping this fall on BOTH the PS3 and the PS Vita, on the same day.

The portable version will contain all the same awesome Sly Cooper action you will find on the PS3 along with cool Vita-specific features that incorporate the front and rear touchscreens and motion controls. The game will also feature cross-save capability, so you’ll be able to save the game from either machine and then pick up right where you left off — whether you’re at home or on the go.

So there you go! We are thrilled to finally show Carmelita in action — she’s a big fan favorite and I know everyone will love how she looks and plays in the latest installment of the series — and to be announcing the PS Vita version of the game. It’s been a crazy ride over the last few months, but when we see the results we know it was worth it. :D So stay tuned for more PS Vita details including date and price coming very soon.