Weekend Essentials - Issue 34

It's a packed weekend on PlayStation with the arrival of LEGO Harry Potter, Tiger Woods, PlayStation Plus and a whole host of fantastic deals up for grabs on PlayStation Store.

This week's releases

You've never seen Hogwarts like this before! LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 transports you to the world of the famous wizard and gives it a brilliant LEGO spin. Available on PlayStation 3 and PSP, LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 is perfect entertainment for fans of J. K. Rowling's creation and LEGO fans alike.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 tees off on PlayStation 3 this week, challenging you to lead your team of pro golfers to the top of the leaderboards in the prestigious Ryder Cup tournament on the Celtic Manor course, as well as a whole host of other renowned championship greens.

Created by acclaimed developer Raven Software, Singularity hits store shelves this week and throws you into the heart of a conspiracy sending you hurtling through time. Fight your way through an ever shifting environment to unravel the conspiracy behind this timeline calamity.

SingStar Chart Hits for PlayStation 3 delivers you 30 more original tracks straight from the top of the charts. Get your friends around and battle it out with Lady GaGa, The Pussycat Dolls, Guy Sebastian, Empire of the Sun and plenty more! Also available on PlayStation 2 with 25 tracks.

Everybody's Tennis has arrived and you can either download it direct from PlayStation Store or snap it up on UMD and start creating a racket on PSP. Packed with features including Wireless multiplayer modes, customisable characters, a slew of different courts, locations and opponents, it's the best reason in the world to take up virtual tennis.

PlayStation Plus is here

Want to get even more from your PlayStation 3? Then PlayStation Plus is exactly what you've been waiting for. Joining PlayStation Plus opens the door to a whole of premium and exclusive features, including one-hour trials of PlayStation Network and Blu-ray Disc releases, and is your gateway to over AUD$340 worth of cool content a year. Plus, you'll also receive the latest PS3 system software updates, game updates and game demos without lifting a finger!

Become a PlayStation Plus member today.

PSN application launches on Facebook

Want to give your Facebook profile a PlayStation Network make-over? Well now you can with the newly launched PSN Facebook application. Once you've linked your Facebook account to your PlayStation Network online ID and a PSN application has been installed to your Facebook profile, you'll have a world of options available to you from your Facebook profile page including browsing your PSN friends list, check their PSN status to see if they're online, skim through their trophy information and more.

What's new in Store?

Do you hear that? That's the sound of asteroid-blasting action winging its way to you, which must mean one thing: Super Stardust HD is celebrating its third birthday this week. In honour of this, you can download the full game plus two additional game packs - Solo and Team Mode - at a whopping great reduction until 7 July 2010. So go on, sprinkle a little stardust on your PS3 and download it now from PlayStation Store.

Everybody's favourite chubby chick - the lovely Fat Princess - is getting the special treatment this week on PlayStation Store including a full game price reduction, additional avatars and a belly busting software update that includes same screen co-operative mode, clan tag functionality, password protected games and four free maps from previous fat game updates. Oh, and if that's not enough there's the brand new Fat Princess Fat Roles expansion pack for you to download too. And if you're a PlayStation Plus subscriber you get a 20 per cent discount on the pack and free exclusive avatars.

Also new to the Store this week, Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse - Episode 1: The Penal Zone, a Death Track: Resurrection playable demo, LittleBigPlanet "Sacktue" of Liberty Costume pack, plus new trailers for Fallout: New Vegas, After Burner Climax, Burn, Zombie Burn! HD, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Naughty Bear and more.

And don't forget about our SEGA Mega Sale with reductions on a range of best-loved Sonic games and downloadable content plus there's also reductions on a range of other games and downloadable content including Super Stardust Portable, Blue Toad Murder Files Episode 1, PixelJunk Monsters and heaps more. Check out our PlayStation Store special offers guide for full details, and be sure to get in before 7th July 2010 to make the most of these offers.

Seeing SingStars

This week sees a stage full of new features added to SingStar including SingStar Remote, that lets you connect to SingStar with a PSP and create a playlist of up to 20 songs while someone else is singing. There's also player feedback, a SingStar Clubs upgrade (single clubs can now feature up to 1,000 members) and the awesome Online Battles mode where you can use your vocal talents to duel against friends in SingStar.

The SingStore has been updated this week with a Depeche Mode SongPack featuring Strangelove, Master And Servant, Stripped and more, plus an A-ha SongPack featuring their hit Take on Me. Other additions include Dexy's Midnight Runners' "Come On Eileen", "Pray" by Take That, the Marvin Gaye & Tammi Tarrell classic "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", The Cure's "Pictures of You", "Gold Lion" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs and more.

This week's announcements

As a long running sponsor, PlayStation along with Columbia Sportswear are proud to be part of the King of the Mountain event this year down at Perisher. The event will see Australia's best skiers take on Slopestyle, Super Half-pipe and Giant Gap Jump disciplines in a bid to be crowned best overall free-rider, in Men's, Women's and Grommet categories, with a truckload of prizes up for grabs!

SEGA and Twentieth Century Fox announced this week that the Bughunt Map Pack, the second downloadable content pack for Aliens vs Predator™, will be available from PlayStation®Store on the evening of 7th July 2010. The Bughunt Map Pack contains four new multiplayer maps, and for the first time, will include environmental hazards and new weather effects.

Also this week...

An update to the PS3 system software was released on 29 June 2010. In PS3 system software update 3.40 you'll find that PlayStation Plus membership is now supported on PlayStation Network. You can also now use Photo Gallery to browse photos from Facebook® or Picasa™ Web Albums. Adding to this, you can share photos from Photo Gallery with your Friends on PlayStation Network. There's also the new Video Editor & Uploader which allows you to edit video content that is saved on your PS3 system's hard disk and upload it to Facebook or YouTube™ and more.

Media Go 1.5 was also released on 29 June 2010. This update includes progressive download for video content, so you don't have to wait for a download to complete before starting to view it, a feature that automatically checks for future Media Go software updates and more.

Get involved

To celebrate the release of the highly anticipated PS3 exclusive Demon's Souls, we're giving you the chance to win one of five copies of the game. Enter now and experience this darkly beautiful and uniquely captivating RPG game unlike any other.

Enter the whacky world of Media Molecule and find out everything you need to know about LittleBigPlanet 2. That's right, we're giving you the chance to talk play, create and share with Media Molecule by posing your questions to the game's developers. So, to get in on the action you need to head over to the official PlayStation Forums to leave your quirky questions. As always, the best ones will be picked and put to the team at Media Molecule.

Check out what online gaming and community events are happening in July 2010 with the newly updated Community Calendar. This month you can become the ultimate weapon and join the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons in our Transformers: War for Cybertron nights, and we continue our Manic Mondays with ModNation Racers and Friday's Track of the Week, or just get online each night with the rest of the Australian and New Zealand PlayStation community with some of the biggest blockbuster releases including MAG and Killzone 2.

Keep an eye on PlayStation Blog at blog.au.playstation.com for the latest PlayStation news as it happens.

Be sure to opt in to receive PlayStation emails when you sign up for a PlayStation Network account. If you already have an account, sign in to your PlayStation Network account settings at au.playstation.com/registration or via the XMB (XrossMediaBar) and opt in. That way, you can keep bang up to date and receive the latest PlayStation news direct to your inbox.