Originally released in 2005, first- and third-person action-adventure Stranger’s Wrath marks the multi-million-selling series’ first appearance on a PlayStation® console since 1998’s Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus. The game will be made available as a digital download via PlayStation® Network.

Stewart Gilray, Managing Director of JAW, said: “Since word got out that we’ve been working with Oddworld Inhabitants there have been many rumours circulating about what we’re working on. Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is the first project in what we believe will be a long and fruitful relationship. Having the chance to update this great title and release it on PS3 is just a brilliant opportunity, not least for us, but for the fans too.”

JAW has worked closely with Oddworld founders Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna to ensure the remake is faithful to the original moolah-chasing epic, while offering a raft of enhancements, including: stunning 720p visuals; much more detail in the characters; normal mapping and self-shadowing; re-mastered dialogue, support for PlayStation®Move; and additional bonus material still to be revealed.

In Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, players step into the role of the Stranger, a rough and tumble bounty hunter who tracks down outlaws for moolah. Using a special weapons system that gives a whole new meaning to “live” ammo, players encounter deviant species and hostile challenges along the way.

The 2005 original has a Metacritic rating of 88, was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Animation at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’ Interactive Achievement Awards, and received numerous awards from the gaming press.

[ABOUT JAW] Boasting over 100 years’ combined development experience, from handheld projects all the way to multi-format AAA titles, the JAW team’s portfolio includes releases such as: Pinball Fantasies, Spec Ops, PowerMonger, Synnergist and Soldier of Fortune. The studio’s most recent release was the well-received PSN retro-shooter Gravity Crash.

HOORAH!

We are so glad we’ve got this baby out the door, glad that a) it’s finished, and b) that it’s now out.

The official release date is today in SCEA and tomorrow in SCEE. With SCEJ and SCEH not far behind.

So come on folks, celebrate with us, by buying it, cos we will be. There is something hugely satisfying about buying your own game, to know that it’s out and when you buy it so can everyone else.

Anyway, here are some links on the release over at the SCEA Blog and the SCEE Blog.

Here’s a list of the biggies!

• We’ve added a third ship. An anti-gravity ship. When playing, if you let go of the Analog Stick you will now no longer plunge to your doooooooom.
• We’ve increased the number of special weapon slots from 3 to 5.
• We’ve added a lot more weapon pickups throughout the levels.
• We’ve made the Primary Objectives more recognisable on the radar (BIG FLASHING DOTS).
• We used the old school concept of 3 lives then game over. It seems however that modern game players are not only unfamiliar with this concept, but also just don’t get it. So we’ve removed it. If you Game Over, you can start from where you left off.
• We’ve altered a bunch of the levels to take that extreme difficulty edge off of them.
• We completely re-wrote the “paint” aspect of the editor, to make it faster and cleverer in relation to holes.
• We’ve added a new game mode, “Survivor mode”, where you have an ever decreasing time limit, but an ever increasing difficulty level, in which to collect 10 gems.
• We’ve also unlocked the hidden game “Gold Grabber” which was only unlocked by completing the game on the PS3 version.

So to just make sure you know, it’s out on PSN only next week, the 20^th in SCEA and the 21^st in SCEE territories. Look out for more info on the various PlayStation Blogs over the next couple of days!

Whilst we cannot go into specifics right now, we can tell you that over the coming weeks and months we will be announcing these exciting projects starring all of your favourite Oddworld characters.

“To work with the team at Oddworld has been amazing; being able to tap the minds of Lorne Lanning, Sherry McKenna and others has been fantastic,” said Just Add Water’s Managing Director Stewart Gilray.

“It’s almost symbiotic in that when something moves forward on any of the projects we just start chatting about new items, or what if we do this,” Gilray continued. “We’re all extremely excited to breathe life into the Oddworld universe and indeed to let it breathe life into us.”

Why not follow that loveable Mudokon, Abe on Twitter at twitter.com/abemudokon.

As this is E3 week, it’s only fair we give you some NEW stuff. Later in the week we will be sharing some truly cool stuff with you, however in the meantime we’ve added some screenshots from the now in submission version of Gravity Crash™ Portable. A release date for which will be coming soon.

As the site is new, can you please tell us via twitter, or our contact page if you have any problems.

We’re also sitting at 453 followers on Twitter, we’d love to break the 500 in the next 24hrs, and perhaps a 1000 by the end of the week… Time will tell.

So please tell all your friends on twitter, that we’re cool and that we’ve got some cool stuff coming…

During this time do not worry that we’re not about, as when we return there will be lots and lots of nice NEW things (of the shop) …

See you on the other side.

We were responsible for Sponsoring the Game Art category, and our winners were …

Just Add Water (Developments) Ltd, award for Game Art

1. Stephen Florence, Sheffield Hallam, Character rigging muscle system
2. Tom Bramall, Sheffield Hallam, Knight and Beast
3. Creative Block Games, Bradford Uni, The Big Tidy Up Game.

Whilst all of the entrants were extremely impressive, the above 3 stood out.

For full details, and I believe some pictures and video soon, check out the Game Republic website.

If you’d like to vote for us, you’ll find us on the “Vote Now” section of http://www.goldenjoystick.com website.

The categories we’re in are … Downloadable Game of the Year, and UK Developer of the Year.

Oh, if you could also tell all your friends too, we’d be hugely appreciative.

• Get a PSP Go!
• A PSP version of Gravity Crash
• And the top levels will be released in a Exclusive PSP DLC Pack.

Well we’re proud to announce the winners are as follows …

• Nyoro-n who created the level “Go!Go!Go!”
• Coldmath who created the level “War or Peace”
• MiusEventnick aka PrincessMiu , creator of “Cloverleaf Valley”
• Zidanerfox, creator of ” Astroplex”
• BasketSnake, who created “Honeyland 0003″

For full details, check out the following post over at the PlayStation EU Blog site …

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2010/05/07/gravity-crash-winners/