Archive for October, 2008

There’s a new patch that is going to be released for both PixelJunk Monster and PixelJunk Monsters: Encore. It’s due to be released firstly in Japan on Oct 23rd (today). Then North American and European territories should get it on Thu Oct 30th, if the final testing gets the all clear.

Here is what is in the patch

Game Difficulty settings:
You can now choose between three different difficulties of gameplay! There is a Casual mode, the Regular/Ranked mode, and Hard-core mode. The great news here is that you can use any combination of difficulties to complete your progress through the islands! Is there one particular map that’s too hard? Try it in Casual mode. If you Rainbow the level, that rainbow counts and will remain on the map no matter what difficulty the other rainbows were achieved at! Only the Regular difficulty will register on the ranking boards, though.

Tower Menu selection:
You can now set the default menu to appear when selecting a tower! How many times have you sold off a tower and run over to another tower to quickly upgrade it and accidentally sell it by mistake? I know I’ve done that many, many times. Now you can choose which option appears as the default, instead of the last action you selected.

Tower Balancing:
Those of you who have purchased Encore know about the reduced cost on the Ice Tower, and balanced functionality of the Tesla tower. This patch applies those changes to BOTH islands, not just the Encore island.

Video Recording / YouTube Support:
Ever since Q-Games included this feature into PixelJunk Eden, we knew it needed to be in Monsters as well. You will be able to record up to 10 minutes of gameplay and upload it directly to your YouTube account, or send it to your video folder on your PS3’s XMB.

XMB Custom Soundtrack Support:
You can now make your own custom soundtrack to listen to as you play PixelJunk Monsters and Encore! I’ve personally been enjoying listening to the PixelJunk Eden soundtrack while I play Monsters, as well as listening to the PixelJunk Monsters soundtrack within Eden! It’s great how well those fantastic soundtracks work in other games.

TROPHIES:
Trophies are now added for both PixelJunk Monsters and Encore. We weren’t able to retroactively apply Trophies to the previously played data, but Q-Games didn’t want to force people to play everything all over again. They came up with a great idea by creating Trophy Challenges. These challenges have specific maps with set rules or objectives that will reward you with Trophies if you complete them properly.

Awesome news for fans of the excellent and massively addictive PixelJunk Monsters and Encore!!

Custom soundtracks is a great addition. I think it adds a lot to the games that currently support it so I’m pleased they are finally being supported.

I’m also really happy about the route they’ve taken to add in Trophy support. Having achieved all the Rainbows in single player mode in Encore and just needing 2 to get in PJM, I really did not want to have to replay all the missions again.

Trophy Challenges is a great way to include Trophies into PJM. Hopefully it will motivate more people to invest more time playing this absolute gem of a game. It may even tempt some people into buying it if they haven’t already.

I really can’t speak highly enough of PJM and Encore. It’s one of the most addictive games I’ve ever played and is definitely one of the best games currently available on the PS3. I rate it higher than most Blu-ray titles out there.

If you haven’t already bought PJM or Encore and you think Tower Defence games aren’t for you, I’d seriously consider getting PJM. It’s so addictive and fun and the new patch has added even more to an already excellent title.

Two player co-op is also a lot fun from what people have told me, so if you want a game to play with family/friends/partners, PJM should be right at the top of your list.

PixelJunk Monsters & Encore Patch Coming Soon