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In November, Atlus revealed four new games in the Shin Megami Tensei spin-off series, Persona. Notably absent from that announcement was any information on a North American release, but now Atlus has revealed its plan to bring those games to the West.

Chibi-style dungeon crawl Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth will reach the 3DS in the Fall of 2014. Atlus describes the dungeon crawl as a cross between Etrian Odyssey and Persona, that sees characters from Persona 3 and 4 plumbing the first-person depths of an alternate version of Yasogami High School.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, an enhanced re-release of Persona 4 Arena, is slated to debut on the PlayStation 3 in the Fall of 2014. Atlus' description of the fighting game mentions the addition of two characters from Persona 3, Junpei Iori and Yukari Takeba, as well as a wholly new character, the mysterious Sho Minazuki.

A more nebulous "2015" release window has been attached to Vita rhythm game Persona 4: Dancing All Night. According to Atlus' description, Dancing All Night stars pop idol Rise, who returns to Inaba only to discover something called the "Midnight Stage." This Stage is populated by evil shadows, but these foes can't be defeated by simple elemental attacks. Instead, Rise will have to rely on funky fresh dance moves.

Persona 5, the latest entry in Atlus' fan-favorite series, will also reach the PlayStation 3 in 2015, though Atlus offers no further information on this heavily anticipated roleplaying game.

Alongside this confirmation comes a swath of new media. Above you'll see a new Persona 5 teaser, while footage from both Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth can be found below the break. Screenshot galleries are below this text. [Image: Atlus]

If you're like me, then you love it when board games get the big screen, hollywood treatment. Jumanji, Battleship — They're almost all unimpeachably amazing. Now finally, Checkers gets its chance to shine.Read more...

Persona 5 -- easily the most-anticipated upcoming JRPG -- is officially coming westward, exclusively on PlayStation 3. You'll just have to wait a bit.

In addition to the big news confirming Persona 5's western release window comes word of the other three Persona games in development.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4 is Now Available on Steam!

Epic Battle Fantasy 4 is a light-hearted turn-based RPG, heavily inspired by old classics. You will battle through waves of adorable enemies, grow your characters, explore a diverse world, solve puzzles, and finally, save the world from the destructive Godcat.

Welcome to day two of games with across the board review scores. Yesterday, it was Thief. Today it's Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. Once again, we skewed higher in the spectrum in our review, noting the game has the "same presentation quirks as the original," with awkward (potentially infuriating) stealth sections.

• Game Trailers (83/100): "The combat system is sufficiently deep and gives you enough mobility to manage varied groups of enemies. The timing for blocks and dodges doesn't always feel intuitive, but the more time you spend with the system, the more it grows on you."
• Gamespot (70/100): "Lords of Shadow 2 should have been a much shorter game."
• Game Informer (60/100): "This shambling monstrosity is composed of chunks from other, better games. Rather than blend them together into something new like its predecessor attempted, this one just feels like a patchwork mess."
• Eurogamer (50/100): "Sharpening the disappointment is the fact that the team at MercurySteam has already made a good game, and perhaps had an opportunity here to make a great one."
• Edge (40/100): "Lords Of Shadow 2 is clunky, ugly and deeply misguided. ... MercurySteam says this will be the final game in the Lords Of Shadow saga, and on the evidence of this cluttered, bloated and forgettable mess, it's just as well."

[Image: Konami]

Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge is Now Available on Steam!

Galactic hero Serena S has been trolled on Spacebook. This is obviously a cause to embark on an epic quest to punish the troll in question, who just happens to be The Space Prince. Guide Serena through 7 stages of shmup action, jumping, shooting, and yet decidedly more jumping and shooting to her ultimate goal of total testicular annihilation of her foe. Ultionus is a love-letter to the home computer arcade games of the late 80s and early 90s, particularly Halloween Harry, Astro Marine Corps, Duke Nukem 2 and especially Phantis/Game Over II. The game features tons of lovingly crafted pixel art, and a rockin' chiptune soundtrack by the legendary Jake 'Virt' Kaufman.

Rocksmith 2014 The Doors Song Pack, all new content for Rocksmith 2014 is Now Available on Steam!


Play "Light My Fire", "Riders on the Storm", and "Roadhouse Blues" by The Doors on any electric guitar or bass. Each song includes a new authentic tone.

Grounded: The Making of The Last of Us, a documentary that chronicles the creation of Naughty Dog's post-pandemic PlayStation 3 action game, is now free to watch on YouTube.

Previously available as an exclusive bonus for The Last of Us Season Pass buyers, Grounded tackles the game's development from pitch to release, explaining a number of design choices developer Naughty Dog made along the way. This week's YouTube release follows up on Grounded's recent launch on Amazon Instant Video.

Fair warning: Grounded occasionally delves into spoiler territory, so you might want to hold off on watching it until after you've completed the game's single-player campaign.

[Image: Sony]

You can see the Xbox One's new dashboard update in action in this video released by Microsoft's Major Nelson today.Read more...

Men Of War: Assault Squad 2, or MOWASTWO for short, is now available to those who buy into the ongoing beta. Full release is scheduled for the 20th of March. Needless to say, Jim dove in, headfirst.

I’ll admit that I’m a bit in love with the Men Of War games. It clouds my judgement. The series is flawed, even occasionally lame, but always so beautiful to my eye. Many games have attempted to sell us the idea of War, and even more the idea of Men, but it is only in Men Of War that these two ideas fused together, like desperate lovers, to produce a simulationist battlefield mutant that looks at us with terrible eyes and says: “Aim is in the reach zone!”

I’m sorry, it’s been a while since I wrote anything. All my metaphors seem to have become sticky from neglect.

… [visit site to read more]

Right everyone, this is it. Basement Crawl is landing on PS4 March 25th, which means that you can grab the game on PlayStation Store after it updates this afternoon. We have been pretty secretive about what we have been planning over the past few weeks, but just stay right there because it’s time to let you guys know what’s up.

First though, a quick recap for those of you who don’t know what this game that looks kinda like Bomberman on an acid trip is.

Basement Crawl is multiplayer, PS4-exclusive, fast paced, grid based death. It’s inspired by the likes of Bomberman and Spy vs. Spy, as well as more than a few horror movies. It features 4-player local multiplayer, 8 players online, or a mix of the two so you and a few friends play locally against a group of strangers online.

So, what have we been doing the past month? We’ve been taking feedback we got from journalists about Basement Crawl and building on it. We changed the way bombs react when kicked or when they crash into another player to make it a more fluid and balanced system. We also worked on the the game’s aesthetics — the feedback we recieved was positive, especially for the minamilistic on-screen display, but we did have a complaint from one journalist (I’m looking at you Chris Bratt) about the leaderboards covering the entire screen when viewed. We addressed this by adding a small indicator on the screen, eliminating the need for a large scoreboard.

I know you guys probably have questions about the game — details I might have missed, what the best bomb or power up is, and more about what you’ll get for your hard-earned $9.99. So feel free to ask away, I will be lurking around the comments and will answer any questions you guys have.

The Yotaphone 2 is a dual-screen phone with a full-color AMOLED screen up front and a touch sensitive e-ink panel on the back.

BLOOD IS EVERYTHING. BLOOD IS AIR. BLOOD IS DESK. BLOOD IS SANDWICH. EAT THE BLOOD SANDWICH.

Not only that, but the result looks surprisingly great. The only video is an animation test for the moment, but it definitely looks like the test was successful.Read more...

Remember Pokémon 3D—the first-person perspective Pokémon Gold/Silver? Well, it's been made compatible with Oculus Rift, letting players see the world of Pokémon through the eyes of their trainer.Read more...

Pinkerton Road's crowdfunded point-and-click adventure game Moebius: Empire Rising will make its debut on April 15 for WIndows and Mac platforms via newly formed publisher Phoenix Online Publishing.

Phoenix Online Publishing is the indie-focused publishing arm of Phoenix Online Studios, developer of Cognition and The Silver Lining. Moebius, indie RPG Quest for Infamy, horror adventure game The Last Door: Collector's Edition, and mobile puzzler Lost Civilization are the first games slated for release under Phoenix Online's new label, as additional projects for PC, mobile platforms, and consoles loom on the horizon.

Revealed in 2012, Moebius was one of many point-and-click adventure games that turned to Kickstarter for funding, surpassing its goal of $300,000 and earning more than $435,000 in backer pledges. Developer Pinkerton Road also plans to produce a remake of designer Jane Jensen's Gabriel Knight later this year.

[Image: Pinkerton Road]

Ubisoft has confirmed the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of South Park: The Stick of Truth have been censored in Europe.

"Kept you waiting, huh?" whispered Konami, before dropping a collection of news bombs this morning. For starters, the company announced a price cut to the physical PS4 and Xbox One versions of Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes. Rather than costing $40, the two consoles' retail versions are now priced at $30. The company says it wants to "provide as many people as possible an opportunity" to play the game - awwwwwwww.

Other versions of Ground Zeroes remain at the same price; you can check out the game's still highly-convoluted pricing structure here. Incidentally, the price cut is matched in the UK, where PS4 and Xbox One retail versions will set Brits back £30.

In addition, Konami confirmed the previously speculated inclusion of Phantom Pain DLC with early purchases of Ground Zeroes. The codes, which include additional staff to utilize in Big Boss' Mother Base headquarters, which apparently plays a "central role" in The Phantom Pain, are available in the first batch of retail copies and for an undisclosed "limited" amount of time with download versions. In case you've been living under a rock or with bandages wrapped around your ears, MGS5: Ground Zeroes is being billed as the prologue chapter to MGS5: The Phantom Pain.

If you'd rather wait before you Snake, the good news is all copies of Ground Zeroes have some integration with the Mother Base in The Phantom Pain. The POWs and VIPs you rescue in the prologue will carry over to the follow-up, as will character skins you unlock.

Finally, it wouldn't be Metal Gear without some peripheral capers, and if you so choose you can download a free second-screen "iDroid" app on iOS and Android to use with the game. The app, which is integrated into SmartGlass for Xbox, lets you view maps, play cassettes you discover, and summon air support in the game ... Oh, the game! Yes, the small matter of Ground Zeroes itself arrives on March 18 for PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PS3. [Image: Konami]

Some players of South Park: The Stick of Truth won't get to see the game in its entirety—a handful of 20-second scenes are censored in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) version of the upcoming RPG on consoles.Read more...

Today's selection of articles from Kotaku's reader-run community: What Fire Emblem Gets So Right • Pushmo: The TAY Review • Should More Games Let You Choose Your Gender?Read more...

My ears will always prick at news of a new Warhammer 40,000 game. One day, The Dream Game will happen. One day. This one I’m can’t quite draw a bead on, though. Is it a kind of casual moba? Or is it more Plants vs Zombies with Games Workshop dudes in? I suspect more the latter (and with an added multiplayer mode), but we’ll find out when Eutechnyx’s ‘lane strategy game’ Warhammer 40,000: Storm of Vengeance launches at the end of next month. Turn the dread eye of the Imperium towards the below trailer to see if you can get a clear sense of what this mobile-focused-but-also-on-PC dude-marching game is going to feel like. … [visit site to read more]

Christopher Livingston runs the DayZ blog "hey are you cool" (heyareyoucool.tumblr.com), in which he recounts hilarious, sad, and boring stories from the apocalyptic frontlines.

Just in time for Titanfall. Imagine that!

RPS isn’t quite so involved in Rezzed this year, but a couple of us will be popping along to the Eurogamer-organised UK PC & indie show (which returns to Midlands capital Birmingham next month), so possibly see you there? It bears a new name – EGX Rezzed – but retains a snazzy purple colour scheme and an intention to be the UK’s friendlier, calmer, more offbeat games expo.

You’ll also see and play some very exciting-sounding videogames from the worlds of mainstream and indie alike. … [visit site to read more]

Deus Ex: The Fall is Now Available for Pre-Purchase on Steam

Deus Ex: The Fall is set in 2027 a golden era for science, technology and human augmentation, but also a time of great social divide and global conspiracy. Powerful corporations have seized control from governments and command the drug supply needed by augmented humans to survive. In this chaos Ben Saxon, a former British SAS Mercenary who underwent physical augmentation, is desperate for the truth behind the drug conspiracy. Betrayed by his private military employers, the Tyrants, not only is his own life at risk but for all augmented humans, time is running out…

Developed in collaboration with the original DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION team at Eidos-Montrl and N-Fusion; Deus Ex: The Fall includes full Steam Achievements, Mouse & Keyboard control configurations, and Control Pad support.

Over nearly three decades and dozens of games, the Castlevania series has let players battle through iconically fragmented gameworlds and crack the Belmont family's whips against Dracula. Now, with Lords of Shadow 2, the biggest, baddest vampire of all is yours to control. The shift from implacable archfiend to playable hero changes everything about him, though, and that's where this game's troubles start.Read more...