It's Friday night! Time to gather the supplies. One sensory deprivation tank ensuring complete darkness, silence, and numbness? Check. Approximately three pounds of Pixie Stix ensuring all hallucinations are as giddy as they are disturbing? Check. Tom Waits, Portishead, and Cibo Matto CDs to start blasting when the visual hallucinations begin? Check.

Oh wait, you don't have any of those things? Don't worry. Vib-Ribbon, the PlayStation classic newly released in the US for the first time, provides the same experience. A sugar-fueled fever dream about skittering sketch rabbits jumping through hoops to the music in your soul. That's what this game's all about!

Starting at 4:00PM EST on Joystiq.com/Twitch, we'll be streaming a whole lot of Vib-Ribbon in order to give you a transcendent psychedelic experience. Why? Because it's the weekend and Vib-Ribbon is awesome. Richard Mitchell (@TheRichardM) digs deep into his CD collection while Danny Cowan (@db_cowan) and Susan Arendt (@SusanArendt) riff on the cultural detritus that birthed this beauty of a game.

That's Joystiq.com/Twitch at 4:00PM EST, just like we do every Tuesday and Thursday. If you want to see every freaky stream we do, make sure to follow us on Twitch.

According to an MCV report, Sony devotees in the UK planning to pick up a PlayStation 4 will soon have a new option to consider: a bundle including the console, FIFA 15 and Minecraft for £350. That price point matches that of the Glacier White PlayStation 4, which will be appearing in the UK on October 17.

We attempted to contact Sony to see if there's any chance the aforementioned bundle might appear outside of the UK - specifically, in North America - but the company would neither confirm the UK bundle, nor reveal an upcoming bundle aimed at the North American audience. Given the relative popularity of the FIFA series (and soccer in general) in the UK versus North America, it would come as little surprise if the bundle were exclusive to that side of the Atlantic.

The launch of Project Cars has been delayed to March 2015, Bandai Namco announced today. It will now arrive on March 17 in North America and March 20 in Europe and Australasian regions. The delay affects the game's Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC versions, which were previously scheduled for November 18 and November 21 in North America and Europe, respectively. The decision "positions the title away from the competitive holiday scene dominated by household names while affording the team at Slightly Mad Studios additional time to extend and polish" the game, according to the publisher.

Slightly Mad Studios also has a Wii U version of Project Cars on the way, though it was already planned for 2015. It's currently unknown if the Wii U edition will align with the others in March 2015; we've asked Bandai Namco as much and will update as we learn more. The Wii U version was announced in January 2012 prior to Xbox 360 and PS3 versions being cut from the developer's plans in November 2013.

Update: Bandai Namco says "the announced date is still 2015" for Project Cars on Wii U.

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The PlayStation Blogcast often quietly slips out a surprise or two in its weekly rundown of new releases, and this week is no exception. According to the podcast, Race the Sun and Escape Goat 2 hit PSN in North America next week, which would pin them for October 21 release dates. There's been no other official word on that and Blogcast details have been off the mark before, so we've reached out to devs Flippify and MagicalTimeBean to confirm.

[Update: Sony's confirmed Race the Sun indeed hits PSN in North America on October 21, priced $10. Flippify's Aaron San Filippo told Joystiq the team's working on confirming the date for Europe, and the game will be available there at a roughly equivalent price]

Race the Sun is already confirmed as a cross-buy game for PS4, PS3 and Vita, meaning if you buy the game on one PS platform you get it for free on the others. Cross-save is also supported to carry scores across systems.

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The Trine series has surpassed 7 million sales worldwide, Frozenbyte announced today. That includes sales of Trine and Trine 2 across PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Wii U, PC, Mac, Linux and Android. To celebrate seven figures, Frozenbyte has launched the level editor for Trine Enchanted Edition and Trine 2: Complete Story on Steam.

"The editor for the Trine games gives users a first-hand look at the development process," Frozenbyte says in a press release. "Players can now do the same things to Trine or Trine 2 as the developers; they can edit existing maps to their liking, create entirely new ones from scratch, or even create a completely different game."

Both Trine and Trine 2 are free to play this weekend as part of Valve's biggest free weekend ever. Trine wasn't listed in the original free weekend announcement, so that's a nice surprise. Games in the deal are free through Sunday, October 19, at 1PM PT, and they're on sale through Monday, October 20 at 10AM PT.

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PlayStation has revealed a fresh slate of changes coming to the PS4 interface in the upcoming 2.0 system update alongside a few items we already knew about, such as the ability to gussy up your console with themes.

As part of the new update, PlayStation 4 owners can jam out to their own beats with the USB Music Player. Though players can't transfer music to the console, they will be able to play MP3, MP4, M4A and 3GP files directly from an inserted USB stick as background music during gameplay sessions.

In an effort to increase social interaction, the PS4 will now list suggested "players you may know," recommending PS4 users your friends frequently game with. Additionally, if purchasing themes doesn't interest you, the update will allow players to customize the background color of the PlayStation 4 user interface.

Saving hard drive space, the new update will feature an option to add a game to your library, rather than forcing you through the steps of canceling a download. Growing libraries will also be easier to manage, with improved filters to organize your collection.

Enhancements to the PS4's live broadcasting tool are perhaps the most anticipated tweaks in the update, allowing users more control for following broadcasts, searching for specific games and, finally, archiving sessions.

A comprehensive list of changes coming to the PS4, including some tweaks coming to the Vita and PlayStation App, can be found on the Official PlayStation Blog.

[Image: PlayStation]

The gaming industry continues to grow with each passing month, though the rate of said growth in North America seems to be slowing, according to the NPD's latest report.

Though sales of video game hardware jumped an impressive 136 percent year over year - which makes sense given that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 had yet to launch in September 2013 - total industry sales only grew by two percent. This is due to a 36 percent decline in year over year sales of new, physical console and portable games, that, while countered by a 33 percent increase in accessory sales, is complemented by a 35 percent decline in total software sales, which includes the aforementioned console games as well as their PC counterparts. However, the NPD notes that a direct comparison is difficult as September 2013 saw the launch of Grand Theft Auto 5, a game that holds the record as the most successful launch in history.

Despite the dip in software sales, Sony claims September 2014 was a "record-breaking month" for the PlayStation Network Store. "Last month's PlayStation Store revenue increased nearly 90 percent compared with Sept. 2013," stated Sony Network Entertainment International vice president Eric Lempel. "Working closely with Activision and Bungie, we wanted to make the launch of Destiny a special experience for PlayStation fans. We're thrilled to see this high engagement from PS4 and PS3 owners."

The top ten best-selling games saw a shakeup in September, with Destiny pushing Madden 15 out of the top spot and both Super Smash Bros. 3DS and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor joining the list, at spots four and five, respectively. That success, Nintendo claims, is largely responsible for the sale of 140,000 3DS units during September. Likewise, Nintendo believes the Wii U's double-digit increase in sales can be attributed to Mario Kart 8 and Hyrule Warriors. Beyond the break, you'll find a full rundown of the top ten best-selling games for September 2014.

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Developer Evolution Studios has issued a new patch for socially-connected racing game Driveclub, which it hopes will alleviate the ongoing connectivity issues that have plagued the game since its debut.

"Over the next 24 hours we are rolling out a new game update alongside server upgrades that will help to improve server performance, clubs and multiplayer functionality," reads a recent post on the game's Facebook page. "We are also running essential diagnostics periodically to help us continue to improve server performance, which may disrupt online play for you when you get connected. This will be kept to a minimum."

Evolution then goes on to apologize for the connectivity issues that are especially troubling in a game based around a core gimmick of social networking, and claims it is "working around the clock to improve connectivity."

Our review of Driveclub was middling. Ludwig awarded the game three of five stars, and while he praised its undeniably attractive graphics he also noted that the game features braindead AI and a career mode he quite diplomatically described as "old-fashioned." These ongoing server woes have not improved our opinion of the game.

In a brief statement posted to its official support page, Sony notes that the PlayStation Network is currently down.

"PSN is currently offline, and we are hard at work to resume service," the message reads. "At this time an estimate as to when PSN will be online is unavailable; however, we will update this article as soon as there's additional information." Those affected by the outage are urged to follow the @PlayStation Twitter account for updates on when service has resumed.

Anecdotally, reports we've received suggest that the PSN Store is available to some players, while connecting to an online match results in a server error. Internal testing reveals that Joystiq staffers are unable to connect to Destiny's multiplayer Crucible mode.

Update: As commenter Mule points out, Sony's Twitter suggestion isn't quite accurate. For updates on the status of PSN, follow @AskPlayStation. The @PlayStation account may let you know once the service is back up, but for now is just angry PlayStation owners complaining en masse.

Update 2: PSN is once again online.

2K Sports submitted an update to Sony and Microsoft for certification to patch issues with NBA 2K15 in the "coming days." The publisher's support team noted on Twitter that the patch will address a number of issues, including the game's MyPark mode. Since the game launched last week, players have been regularly booted from the online mode.

NBA 2K15 is the latest in the publisher's annual pro basketball series, and was generally met with critical approval last week. The game also received a card-battling companion app this week on iOS and Android. While the details of NBA 2K15's patch are not yet known, here's hoping it alleviates the nightmarish results of its face-scanning feature. The game is available for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Arc System Works' eminently stylish 2D fighter Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- debuts for the PlayStation 4 and PS3 in December, North American publisher Aksys Games revealed today.

Abandoning sprites in favor for a stylized polygonal approach, Xrd features a roster of 16 playable fighters, and expands on series-standard mechanics like the Roman Cancel for deeper and more complex brawls than ever before. If you're wondering how to pronounce that nonsensical title, by the way, here's a quick primer.

Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- premieres on December 16 at retail and digitally via the PlayStation Network. A limited edition release that includes a soundtrack CD, an art book, and a keychain modeled after Sol Badguy's belt buckle will also be available at launch.

The majority of shares in Warframe developer Digital Extremes have been acquired by two Chinese companies, Multi Dynamic Games and Perfect Online Holding. As a subsidiary of Sumpo Food Holdings Limited, Multi Dynamic Games purchased 58 percent of Digital Extremes' shares for $69.6 million, whereas Perfect Online acquired three percent of the developer for $3.6 million. Negotiations for the agreement began in late June.

The value of the transactions, a total of $73.2 million (approximately HK $567.3 million according to Sumpo Food Holdings), is subject to future adjustment by the companies. Warframe launched in March 2013 for PC before the free-to-play shooter arrived on PS4 when the system launched in November 2013. The game hit Xbox One last month, after it reached 10 million registered users in July. Digital Extremes was founded in Ontario, Canada in 1993 and had a hand in the development of the Unreal and BioShock series.

A patch available now for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One introduces a new photo mode, letting users play around with some camera tech to get just the right image of Monolith's action-RPG. For all its magic and mystery, we're not sure the ancient art of photography has ever reached the shores of Middle-earth until now.

Toggled on and off, the mode lets you adjust things like the angle, depth of field, zoom, texturing, shading, frames, filters, borders, logos and so on. For example, trigger-happy types can apply a film grain texture or a saturated filter, very much comparable to the Photo Mode introduced to The Last of Us on PS4.

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