Sony's latest PS3 promotion asks, "When was the last time $4.99 brought you hours of entertainment?" We don't have the heart to remind them that bunches of XBLA games – like Space Giraffe – are only $5. Also, that coloring book we bought last week for less than $5 has brought us dozens of hours of entertainment ...

Regardless, here's the deets of their promotion: four of the highest-profile (and, as luck would have it, best) PSN downloadable titles are being offered for the low, low price of $5. Did you miss the normally $10 Calling all Cars' discounted $5 price last month? Well, the gods at Sony have granted you a second chance. How about indie-darlings Everyday Shooter (normally $10) and flOw (normally $8)? Pick 'em up for, you guessed it, $5 each. Last on the list is PixelJunk Racers (normally $7), which will also be available for $5.

You've got until November 29th to catch 'em all and add them to your collection of Black Friday steals.

David Jaffe's PlayStation Network title Calling All Cars, a pseudo-basketball arcade game of moral/automotive proportions, will soon be made available for download play on Sony PSP, according to European magazine PSP: The Official Guidebook (via CVG).

Though we know it will feature both ad hoc and Infrastructure multiplayer, Sony has yet to reveal anything else about the title. Will it will be pushed as an update to the original or a separate download? Will we have to pay again? No release date has been given.

David Jaffe's crackdown on criminals, epic games and disc-based content, Calling All Cars, will become available on the US PlayStation Network today. Having seen its fair share of delays and drama, the high-speed, cartoon cops 'n robbers clash is undoubtedly the PSN's biggest and most scrutinized release thus far. Engage in all the hootenanny, hijinks and hubbub online for a $9.99 fee.

[Via SCEA press release]

Dear David (can we call you David? We hope so ...),

We could be very wrong, of course, but we're pretty sure the "unnamed" website that drove you to swear off blogging was (the potentially French) Joystiq, and we think we know why.

First, a discussion on the simile which we presume set you off: "Like a little girl struggling to keep her favorite doll out of the garage sale bin ..." Obviously, neither you nor we have ever been a little girl, but we imagine that it's pretty tough to part with something so dear. A garage sale bin -- though we can see the implications to a "bargain" bin -- is just the most likely way said little girl would be forced to give her precious friend away. Perhaps a better simile would have been, "Like an overprotective mother carting her still-suckling toddler to kindergarten for the first time," ... actually, you know what? Let's just forget about the similes for now and concentrate on what else we wrote.

Like a little girl struggling to keep her favorite doll out of the garage sale bin, David Jaffe is returning to the world of Calling All Cars to make some fixes and revise some of the criticisms the title received via reviews, even after announcing that the title has gone gold, according to a post he left on the NeoGAF forums. The title, therefore, has been delayed for an unspecified time.

The bug fixes concern network connection and voice chat issues. Jaffe apologizes, of course, and notes that the previously-mentioned release date was never official. ("Sony was kinda annoyed that I claimed 5/3 as release date," he said.) Would gamers have preferred the game be released on time with a patch promised at a later time? We're leaning towards no, given the importance of multiplayer in the game, although our opinions might sway depending on how long these two "key bugs" take to fix.

David Jaffe plays by his own rules, mister. So don't think you can go around town giving a 6.7 to Calling All Cars and he won't have anything to say about it. Because he totally will. In an admittedly pretty even-tempered blog response to Gamespot's middle-of-the-road score, Jaffe tries to explain why he thinks the problems that the site has with the game (lack of content, etc.) aren't really that big a deal.

Jaffe's real beef is with the criteria by which his $10 game is being judged. He says he wanted to create "a trash talking fun ass time with your buddies," and feels like it's that goal on which the review should be based. (Surprising no one, Jaffe feels the game is between an 8 and 10 in this category.) But in the same breath (or is that keystroke?) he goes on to admit that it may not be fair for him to ask that. The post continues as an interesting, slightly schizophrenic, view into how a developer deals with watching their baby enter the world. Go ahead Dave, wear that heart on your sleeve, we still think you're a maverick. ... A maverick of caring.

David Jaffe has announced on his design blog today that Calling All Cars (formerly Criminal Crackdown) has gone gold and is expected to hit the PlayStation Network on May 3. The game had been previously delayed for focus testing and other minor tweaking, but it now seems that Jaffe is happy enough with the product to let it go.

Has it been worth the wait? Reviews are slowly coming in, but IGN is calling it "Sony's first truly original, must-have title on the PlayStation Network" and claiming it bests just about everything on Xbox Live Arcade. Strong words; we'll see for ourselves next week.

[Thanks, Pete]

Prompted by a panicked glance at a nearby calendar, Sony has blasted out a list of "key titles" slated for release on all manner of PlayStation devices during the second quarter of 2007. Starting over two weeks ago and ending on the last day of June, this period of time sees us paralyzed by F.E.A.R. and having to resort to Calling All Cars to save us from The Darkness brought by ninjas, pirates and Transformers. We'll likely run the Gauntlet in a Final Fantasy of Harvest Mooning... oh forget it.

Just read the list.

PSN

• Calling All Cars -- 18 May
• Nucleus -- 25 May
• Super Stardust HD -- 15 June
• Championship Sprint
• Gauntlet II
• Joust
• Mortal Kombat II
• Rampage World Tour
• Super Puzzle Fighter II HD Remix
• Rampart

[Note: PSN release dates as published by "semi-official", semi-accurate Sony blog, ThreeSpeech.]

Insomniac Games (Resistance: Fall of Man, Ratchet and Clank series) interviewed David Jaffe (God of War) for the second episode of their new podcast, The Full Moon Show. Of note is Jaffe's explanation for the delay of his upcoming PlayStation Network title, Calling All Cars.

Jaffe said that during playtests people were enjoying themselves more when the scores were close, rather than when the scoring gap was wide. He talked to some industry vets who had worked on a few Midway titles to see if they had any code that could be used to narrow that scoring gap, and sure enough they had some code.

"We certainly don't want to go into and put in tons of that, but we've gone in and added just a little bit," he said. He continued to say that his hope is folks who are within 20% of each other's skill levels to have very competitive matches. Jaffe also explained that this was the reason for another playtest, and if the code's effects are noticeable then they will take it out.

Jaffe noted that they are still planning for a release during the month of April.

The interview starts 21 minutes into the 2-hour podcast. Jaffe also talked about his frankness in discussion, his love of playtests (the fifth one is coming up) and his ambitious, now on permanent hiatus, PSP tearjerker Heartland. The podcast also includes updates on Resistance: Fall of Man and the upcoming Ratchet and Clank Future.

[Via Aeropause]

We'd been expecting Calling All Cars, David Jaffe's PlayStation Network followup to God of War, to hit the service in March. Actually, we were looking forward to it, anxious to spend some serious time with another e-distributed title. Unfortunately the title, outfitted with prison stripes an awkward fetters, is running from its March release date. According to IGN, we won't catch up with the perp until "mid-April." While it's not an extension of Castle Crashers proportions, we ain't overjoyed about holding out another couple weeks. We'll just go back to carving the days out on our wall ...

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

The most-watched GameTrailers video, a trailer for Calling All Cars, is our pick for today. We've been wanting this title ever since we saw a tiny glimpse of it at Sonys Gamer's Day back when it was called Criminal Crackdown. The trailer shows some of the party title's fast, overhead racing gameplay.

Look for the downloadable PS3 game soon, and watch the trailer after the break.

We know that some of you out there don't appreciate Jaffe's verbose language or feel like the designer, who's probably known best for God of War, hasn't "earned" his street cred yet, but naysayers can still walk away from this transcript with an understanding of the inordinate amount of anxiety put on game makers when they watch their projects get critiqued and criticized by various demographic representative, for better and worse, and how technical issues will vastly affect the situation.

Calling All Cars is planned for a release next month in the range of $5 to $10.

David Jaffe and Incognito's secret PlayStation 3 project has been revealed as Criminal Crackdown, a downloadable action/party game running at 60 fps in 1080p. With big names on board and "the right" numbers, could this be the first in a series of Xbox Live Arcade killers?

Jaffe has suggested that Criminal Crackdown will lead a wave of "shorter, less expensive" titles (developed in under a year, and presumably distributed digitally) created by established development studios -- the future of the industry, he supposes. But is a throwback arcade romp (with just four levels) what the PS3 was built for?

See also:
Sony's Geometry Wars (and other e-Distributed titles) leaked

David Jaffe didn't have to make a game to "make you cry," he just had to cancel it. After boisterous claims that he was working on a game that would bring tears to our eyes, Jaffe blogs -- yep, back from his hiatus -- that this mysterious Project HL is now "on the shelf." For you optimists, the foul-mouthed designer adds, "fuck it. We'll do HL later ... maybe."

As it turns out, Jaffe has focused his spastic energy on an unannounced PlayStation 3 project, which apparently shares characteristics with Twisted Metal and Bomberman and, well, Jaffe's not ready to say much else ... Interestingly, the game has only been in development for 6–7 months, but being on the verge of goin' Alpha, Jaffe expects the final version to hit retail between November and January. A surprise launch title? Perhaps.

In typical Jaffe fashion, the post explodes, in ALL CAPS, into an excited ramble, envisioning the future of games as "SHORTER, LESS EXPENSIVE" projects, akin to the churn'em-out-style of old Warner Bros. cartoons. "...just knocking them out," blogs Jaffe, "and some are -- worst case -- just average, while some are amazing ... but it adds up to a hell of a batting average over time and lots of fun games." You have our attention. Now please deliver.

[Via PSP Fanboy]