When you hear the term ‘background,’ you think of something rather dull and boring with no movement. With Bayonetta’s case, it’s exactly the opposite. Background is just a simple term for what we like to call a living stage.

Washi, the lead background designer for Bayonetta, took some time to discuss the design process of the game on Platinum Games blog. Mari Shimazaki also makes an appearance to speak about character design with Jeanne. Top it all off with a few questions answered by director Hideki Kamiya and you have one action packed Bayonetta blowout…

Picture the scene. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 has just come out, and you stroll up to your PlayStation Eye with your favourite coffee mug in your hand. A few seconds later, that mug has become your 3-wood and you’re using it to drive a ball 300 yards down the 1st at St. Andrews.

Now, thanks to a patent application from Sony, that could happen. As well as the recently demonstrated ‘motion wand’, Sony have now registered an idea that will see any object become a game controller.

In today’s world of entertainment, movies and video games go hand in hand like milk and cookies. That’s why we would like to introduce to you a new feature entitled, “The Reel Deal.” We’ll bring together the latest and greatest news that bridge the gap between video games and films.

Today we’ll discuss the latest news regarding the Uncharted film, what Uwe Boll said about Alone in the Dark 5, and look at the release of films and their video game adaptations…

Announcing the opening of the official Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 website, Activision have also revealed that early-bird adopters of the new title will receive the gift of the unstoppable force known as Juggernaut when pre-ordering the game with GameStop.

The website is also a hub of activity with “VIP members earning exclusive and early access to insider content” which includes – but is not limited to – classified game information, character reveals and community prizes.

Chronicling what is sure to be the cause of every gamer shunning the sun and staying pasty white this summer, Mike Kebby from the PlayStation Store Team has dropped some new information regarding a swath of PSN titles planned for this summer over at the official EU blog.

Everything from Battlefield 1943, Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage, Bomberman Ultra, Zombie Apocalypse, TV Show King and Shatter gets a mention but there are at least two much anticipated titles suspiciously absent.

Namely Trine and Fat Princess.

Don’t worry PSN-fanatics, Mike has popped up in the comment section to mention why some titles are not listed and how we’ll still see them this summer.

The guys over at Obsidian have put out a new dev diary outlining how realism and the concept of cause-and-effect feature heavily in their new tactical RPG, Alpha Protocol.

Published by Sega and due out this fall, the game looks to be shaping up very nicely with this new footage describing the level of character customisation and freedom available to players.

What’s also interesting is to what extent the designers have gone to make the game feel “real”. Lead Artist at Obsidian, Aaron Meyers, talks about the setting of the espionage filled adventure and how his objective was to “nail reality as hard as possible.”

Not long now before we finally get our hands on the belated Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Conscious that most gamers have the memory span of fruit-flies, Rocksteady have been keen to fill the delay by releasing oodles of video of the game in action in an effort to keep our appetites suitably whetted.

Valve do not like the PS3.

This position may change though as, speaking to Joystiq at a press-event in London yesterday, Valve hinted towards embracing the console but only when the time is right. Namely when they have the right people to do so.

The Dragon Ball franchise has been with Atari for quite some time, that is, until now. It looks like the series will be heading back home to its original Japanese publisher, Namco Bandai. The company states that they will publish all Dragon Ball games for five years starting January 2010. They will also take over the most recent DB games; Dragon Ball: Raging Blast, Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo, and Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans all this year. Looks like Atari is going to be sailing through some rough waters…

EA’s DICE are the well-loved creators of the (recently confirmed) Mirror’s Edge franchise. It is no secret that there are those of us in the team who simply love this title.

As a result, we have studied the team’s next title, Battlefield 1943, with a distinct sense of growing excitement.

Imagine, therefore, our delight when we discovered earlier today that the release date of the game is far sooner than we thought?

The Homerun is back to give you another dosage of PlayStation Home goodness. We’re delighted to say that there is a lot of new content for everyone this week!
We’ll start this time with the massive European update. As we have said countless times before, we are big fans of Killzone 2 and so were really happy when Sony announced that a Visari Throne room apartment for PlayStation Home.

Did Europe get the superior update this week? They certainly have more downloadable games, a demo and a PSone Classic than North America. However, North America got balls. High Velocity Bowling Ball packs not found in Europe. Coincidence? You be the judge.

Cross Edge gets free items and a free dungeon while 007 Quantum of Solace gets a map pack. All this is exclusive to North America’s PlayStation Store, but is that enough to best Europe? Did they really have the best store update this week?

From costly equipment to rare vinyl, the price of entry into the cool DJ sub-culture has always been somewhat astronomical.

It appears however that this trend is also now bleeding into the burgeoning “fake-DJ arena” with a report over at GamesIndustry.biz (via their sister-site Eurogamer) that Activision are suggesting a whopping £109.77 be set for the upcoming DJ Hero game plus necessary deck peripheral.

We were scared for a moment there. After a brief hiatus from the special E3 editions of PULSE, presented by the PlayStation Network, brings life back to the cold digital PlayStation world.

Take a look at today’s PULSE, presented by the PlayStation Network, after the break and don’t forget to get the HD version from the PlayStation Store later today.