Today has been quite the day for gaming.  After the months long hiatus, gaming news is back baby!

First up we have confirmation that Resistance: Burning Skies developer Nihilistic will be the developer behind Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified.  Here’s a look at the debut trailer.

I’ll be honest, I’m very surprised to hear that Nihilistic is the developer.  Their last two offerings were very poorly received, so let’s hope they can knock one out of the park for Call of Duty fans.

Next up we have news from Media Molecule, the fantastic developer behind LittleBigPlanet.  The team’s latest game is being developed exclusively for the PlayStation Vita, and looks really unique.  I’m not going to bother filling you in on the details, as the trailer does a much better job than I could.

What do you guys think? I think Tearaway looks very original, and could make a surprise hit on Sony’s new portable.  I also really dig the art style the game has going for it.

Next up Sony revealed that PlayStation Plus members should be on the lookout for a special invite to the God of War: Ascension multiplayer beta.  No official word on when this would happen, only that it will be “soon”.  Sony also confirmed new features will be hitting the service.  To begin cloud storage will be updated to 1GB from the current 150MB.  Ok so that’s pretty much all they said, except they finally confirmed the service will arrive on the Vita, along with a special firmware update which will allow PS1 games to be playable on the go, which is about time.   The new firmware hits on August 28th and includes the following changes.

  • Control the home screen and some features in applications, such as Video, Music, or Settings, using the buttons on PS Vita.
  • Variable speed playback, fast-rewind and fast-forward, and repeat play will be supported in the Video application.
  • Music playlists which are imported from PlayStation 3 (PS3) or iTunes 1 under Music application will be supported.
  • “Cross-Controller” icon will be added to the LiveArea under the Remote Play application to enable users to play PS3 format software by using their PS Vita as a controller. (Depends on title, both PS3 and PS Vita software titles will be required.)

Sony also announced some interesting games and promotions at Gamescom.  Cross Buy is a new promotional terms that gamers will really dig.  Basically if you buy the PS3 version of select titles, you will automatically get the Vita version for no additional cost.  Thus far PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, and Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault have all been confirmed as Cross Buy titles.  Now let’s get to the trailers for the newly announced games!

First up we’ve got Killzone: Mercenary for the PS Vita.

As usual Guerilla Games is behind the title, and it’s looking quite nice from this early build.  I know that trailer was more live-action than anything, but I’m a fan of the series so any news is good news as far as I’m concerned.

Sony also took the time to announce two new games from their Japan studio.  One is called Puppeteer and the other is called Rain and is a PSN exclusive.  Both look really unique, as you can tell.

Here’s Rain.

Like I said, both look really interesting.  Sadly no update on The Last Guardian and at this point I think it’s safe to say it likely will never see the light of day.  It’s been over a year since we’ve had any update on the game, with key developers leaving the studio.  Sad, but at least we’re getting what appears to be some really unique titles from the studio.

Now you get to see what I think looks really intriguing, and has this campy Evil Dead feel to it.  I give you, Until Dawn, a brand new IP for the PlayStation Move.

I’m really curious to hear what Steven thinks of this as he has a hard time with survival horror games ;)

Finally Sony announced a concentrated effort to market the Vita, and a new Mobile platform push, which we had heard about earlier.  PlayStation Mobile will be available on any qualifying device.  Both Asus (one of my favourite PC parts manufacturer) and WikiPad both join the fray and will have devices out this fall which support the new platform.  PS Mobile will offer users a wide assortment of games on a newly designed PlayStation Network app, of sorts.  We’re still getting information on this, but for now it appears as though it will be a separate type of storefront where users can download games to their tablets and smartphones to play PS-branded software.

Ok so that’s everything for now.  We’ll have much more information as it breaks, and heck, I might have missed a thing or two in all of this.  Needless to say, it’s been a crazy day!