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This week's PlayStation Store update brings the release of Techland's first-person shooter Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, along with an upgraded, HD version of Insomniac Games' PlayStation 2 platformer Ratchet: Deadlocked.

PS Vita owners can opt for the budget-priced janitor sim Men's Room Mayhem or the Cross-Buy enabled tower defense game Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, which includes a free copy of the PlayStation 3 version with purchase. Reminder: Ratchet: Deadlocked is available as a free download for players who purchased the retail PlayStation 3 version of Full Frontal Assault.

Pinball Arcade and Germinator headline this week's PlayStation Plus update, and subscribers also have access to discounts for ten DLC-bundled Ultimate Edition titles.

The full list of this week's store additions is available on the PlayStation Blog.

Here it is, as promised: more about Panopticon, or, as it likes to call itself now, Freedom Wars. And although the trailer up top is little more than a reiteration of what we've seen before, we now know that Freedom Wars is a multiplayer action game coming to the PS Vita in 2014.

Starting tomorrow, PlayStation Plus members in North America can download FarSight's Cross-Buy pinball sim Pinball Arcade and Creat Studios' PS Vita puzzler Germinator free of charge.

Pinball Arcade, regularly priced at $10, features the classic tables Tales of the Arabian Nights, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Theatre of Magic, and Black Hole. PlayStation Plus members will have access to both the PlayStation 3 and Vita versions of the core four-table download, and 24 additional machines are available as paid DLC.

Vita owners also receive free access to Germinator, which originally premiered in March at $10. Similar in premise to Taito's bubble-bursting puzzler Puzzle Bobble, Germinator challenges players to match like-colored germs, causing them to grow and eventually explode in a gooey mess.

Member-exclusive discounted items for this week include Metro: Last Light's season pass, the newly released Vita janitor sim Men's Room Mayhem, and Capcom's Darkstalkers Resurrection and Super Puzzle Fighter 2, along with a collection of DLC-bundled Ultimate Editions.

The excellent, expansive Batman: Arkham City was always going to be a tough act to follow, and Batman: Arkham Origins, this fall's next in the series, does not immediately make a strong case that it will surpass its predecessor. That may seem like a harsh assessment of a game that was just shown to press this spring and is still five months away from release. I played about 15 minutes of the game last week and listened to the game's creators discuss their plans for this Batman prequel. I'm feeling extra-skeptical about this one. Arkham Origins' worst current offense may simply be that it feels awfully similar to Arkham City and even its predecessor Arkham Asylum. It's bringing some new stuff—stuff that's hard to judge the potential of. Arkham City had it easier. Well, in retrospect it did. Rocksteady Studios' surprise 2009 hit Arkham Asylum had treated players to a smooth-yet-deep combat system, gritty graphics and a carnival of great comic book characters. But it confined its action to an island. Rocksteady's Arkham City blew that out across an open section of a city, filling its Gotham with sidequests and intensifying all aspects of the Asylum formula. It featured nearly every major villain from Batman lore and many of the Dark Knight's friends as well. Arkham Origins, developed by the new WB Games Montreal studio, tries to escape these shadows by gliding into Batman's past. This adventure is set in its own sprawling, open sections of Gotham, they too filled with sidequests. The game occurs on a Christmas Eve, with the villain Black Mask tasking some top assassins to hunt our hero down. The city is decked with snow and is more colorful than the last game's, but it appears to function in the same way: serving as a playground in which gamers can beat up street thugs, grapple to the tops of buildings, glide down alleys and activate new missions. In a section of Origins' city that will be shown at E3—and that was shown to some reporters, including me, last week—Batman zips through part of the city, encountering a gang to pummel, a device to hack and a mystery to solve. The pummeling looks and, as I learned later when I played it, feels familiar. Montreal hasn't changed Rocksteady's system of easily-chained strikes, counters, lunges and gadget attacks, though they've added a stats read-out that shows players what they did well. The combat is freshened a little by the addition of some new bruiser enemies as well as, as seen later in a rooftop fight, some martial artists who counter many of your moves but whose counters can be countered. The additions add wrinkles but feel minimal. Later, we see the mysterious figure Anarky railing against the government. He's one of the game's sidequest villains you can track down. He's planted a bomb. If you've read the comics, you'll know that Anarky has an important secret; it's not clear if the game's version of him has the same. Much of the game's gadgetry is familiar. Gels and batarangs return. So does the hacking device that forces Batman to combine two halves of a word. He uses that to defuse Anarky's bomb. If you played Arkham City, you did it before. Inside buildings, as before, Batman might come upon a room full of enemies and topped with gargoyles from which he can hunt them or even hang them. It's another series staple and another without any apparent major changes. There is a new gadget that works well in these situations, at least. It's called the remote claw. This gadget is meant to be fired twice rapidly, first at one point to define where a tether will be place and then at another point to define where the tether will end. Tethering an enemy to an explosive barrel snaps the two together and hurts that enemy. Tethering one enemy to another causes them to collide. And tethering two points of a wall creates a tightrope for Batman to walk across. So what really feels fresh? Not much, but the game's detective work could be the big change. The previous Arkham games made minimal use of clue-finding gameplay. The new game, however, appears to make Batman a busier sleuth. I'd be more confident if the instance of it that we got to play hadn't been presented as an optional side mission. In the demo I saw and played, making Batman walk to a certain part of the city triggered a sequence involving a helicopter behing shot out of the sky. The investigation that followed built on the sort of CSI Gotham searches for forensic evidence seen in Arkham City's handful of Deadshot missions. But this chopper investigation involved many more clues, some red herrings and, most importantly the ability to both fly through a crime scene and scrub through the events leading up to the crime while searching for clues—sort of like rewinding or fast-forwarding a video (and sort of like Capcom's upcoming Remember Me but with freedom of camera movement). Scrubbing through the moments right before the crash, you need to look for clues, select them and then see how Batman's understanding of the events right before that plays out. This involves watching the helicopter hit the ground, rewinding enough to see how it began to break apart, following events further back to see how its tail had been knocked around the side of a building, discovering the vantage point of a possible shooter, seeing why that shooter couldn't have felled the helicopter and so on. Each discovered clue is a step toward the truth. Expand on this more—make the investigations varied and complex—and this could be Origins' most valuable addition to the series. With any preview there tends to be a gap between what is promised and what is shown. In this case, the gap involved the very hero we're controlling. The new game was presented to reporters, as it is likely to be presented to fans, as a game about a younger, more raw Batman. One cutscene showed a Batman who was willing to hang his enemy from a clock and then drop him. But Batman doesn't kill. Batman kept the guy's fall from being fatal. Arkham City threw everything in but the Bat-sink. Origins needs more or different ideas. Is this a new Batman? A different one? The new game's gameplay doesn't even hint at a difference in our hero. This younger Batman seems to be as skilled and ruthless a combatant as his older self. He is as quick and precise with a gadget as he was/will be in Arkham Asylum and City. There's nothing in the gameplay shown so far that screams prequel. So far, Arkham Origins seems more like WB Games Montreal's proof that they can make a game similar to Arkham City. That alone is not exciting, though, as marketing plans go, perhaps this is the foundational point WB wants to make to ease fans with the familiar before surprising them with the new. Or perhaps, more worryingly, the series is just exhausted. Arkham City threw everything in but the Bat-sink. Origins needs more or different ideas. Something seems to be missing. Hopefully it's just something we haven't been shown yet. A note about the voice-acting: Reports about Arkham series stalwart Kevin Conroy's involvement or lack thereof have been confusing. Conroy had played Batman in the last two games, but early coverage of the game suggested he was not in Origins. This game's younger Batman will be played by Roger Craig Smith, who played Chris Redfield in recent Resident Evil games, Ezio in Assassin's Creed II/Brotherhood/Revelations, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Mark Hamill won't be the Joker this time. BioShock Infinite's Troy Baker will. What of Conroy recently saying he's working on a new Arkham game? Either he's talking about a different game or he has a surprise role in this one. A PR rep for the game confirmed the new voice actors for Origins' leads but declined to clarify what Conroy was talking about nor even clarify whether he is in the game at all or not. This preview is based, in part, on our hands-on time with the game. We played about 15 minutes' worth. To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo

The console port of last year's Resident Evil: Revelations leads the list of this week's new titles, accompanied by the Wii U version of LEGO Batman 2, a downloadable sequel to Call of Juarez, and an adaptation of the latest Fast and Furious movie. Tuesday • Sniper Elite V2 (Wii U) • Resident Evil: Revelations (360, PS3, Wii U, PC) • Fast & Furious: Showdown (360, PS3, Wii U, PC, 3DS) • Worms Collection (360, PS3) • LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Wii U) • Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault (PS Vita via PSN) Wednesday • Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (XBLA, PSN, PC) • The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing (PC) • Enchanted Cavern (Mac) Friday • Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (3DS) Follow Dealzon on Twitter.

The once-delayed PlayStation Vita version of Insomniac's hybrid tower defense-action game Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault will launch next week as a downloadable PlayStation Network title in North America and Europe.

Full Frontal Assault was originally released as a retail and downloadable PlayStation 3 title back in November, boasting cross-play features with a Vita edition that was subsequently hit with a series of delays. Buyers of the retail version of Full Frontal Assault - and its renamed European counterpart Ratchet & Clank: QForce - will be able to download the Vita edition for free starting May 21 in North America and May 22 in Europe by accessing the game's "Disc Benefits" option.

Those who purchased Full Frontal Assault's retail edition will also receive an additional bonus after redeeming the PS Vita version when it launches next week. Ratchet Deadlocked HD, an Idol Minds-developed PlayStation 3 port of the fourth PS2 entry in the Ratchet & Clank series, will be available as a free download for Full Frontal Assault buyers when it launches in the PlayStation Store.

A release date for Deadlocked HD (also known as Ratchet: Gladiator in Europe) has not been announced.Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault launches for PS Vita next week

The former Sony Liverpool devs at Sawfly Studios are bringing Men's Room Mayhem to Vita next week, via PSN. It should arrive on May 21 in North America, although as always with news revealed by the PlayStation Blogcast, dates can be subject to change.

If you're curious about the curiously named game, Phil Gaskell from publisher Ripstone describes it as "Flight Control meets Carry on at Your Convenience." - No, it's not the flight paths of... that stuff, but about getting patrons to where they need to go.

"In Men's Room Mayhem you're hired as the janitor of your very own chaotic men's room," said Gaskell on the PlayStation Blog. "You're responsible for directing patrons, keeping everywhere sparkling clean and steering patrons away from trouble! You need to get your customers safely to the urinals and cubicles in time - otherwise there'll be a few nasty accidents for you to clean up!"

The Blogcast also outed a wee (ahem) bit of other content in next week's PS Store update. A "smattering of DLC" is coming to Aliens: Colonial Marines, although the podcast wasn't any more specific than that. A digital PS3 version of Mugen Souls is also due.

The PlayStation Vita is a good, powerful handheld machine that's run some piss-poor first-person shooters. After rushed, clunky Resistance and Call of Duty shooters, the system will get a Killzone in September. It merely needs to be mediocre to improve Vita FPSing dramatically. After having played the Vita's Killzone: Mercenary last night at a Sony PlayStation preview event near the beach in Santa Monica, I think it's safe to say the game is at least non-awful. Yay! Put that on the back of the box. Resistance's problem was bad, boring level design and moronic artificial intelligence. Call of Duty had barely any content. Neither looked particularly good. Taking the last point first, Mercenary's got the looks. See the trailer above for proof. It also controls nicely, allowing for twin-stick and button-based controls but also allowing for taps on the screen as an alternate means for activating some special weapons. Enemies in the game seemed less stupid than the Vita Resistance ones, but I'd need to play for more than five minutes each of competitive deathmatch and single-player to be sure. I'm not sure how seriously to take the story, which puts the player in the boots of a mercenary who will take jobs from both sides, ISA and Helghast, during the brutal war that has occurred across the PlayStation 3's Killzone 2 and Killzone 3. A developer for the game told me that the game looks at the subjectivity of right and wrong during war-time, what with the player being able to work for either side. I didn't get a sense that this is a game with deep messages. You are, after all, shooting bad guys to earn money to upgrade weapons and, oh, see that bit in the trailer where we stab a guy in the crotch? In terms of content, there looks to be a lot. Nine missions, estimated to take an hour or so to play through each. Eight-player multiplayer. The virtual money earned in solo or multi-play can be used across both modes for upgrades and unlocks. If you're into the Killzone lore, here's the official plot summary: Arran Danner, an ex-UCA soldier turned mercenary, helped deliver a crucial blow to the Helghast in the liberation of Vekta and is hired once again to spearhead the ISA counter-attack against Helghan. A seemingly routine mission to evacuate the Vektan Ambassador and his family from Pyrrhus goes awry, leaving Danner in the middle of a deadly power struggle for the life of the Ambassador’s young son. As the invasion unfolds, it becomes clear that the boy’s fate could change the course of the war and both sides will do whatever it takes to get hold of him, forcing Danner to question whether the price of victory can sometimes be too high, no matter how big the paycheck. I like a good first-person shooter campaign, but after being burned by Resistance, and appalled by Call of Duty on Vita, I can't help but be heavily skeptical. The developers might deserve more mercy than I'm giving them. This is a different studio: Guerilla Cambridge, formerly Sony Cambridge, dev team behind LittleBigPlanet Vita. For me, it's hard to shake the memory of being done wrong by the genre on a platform that has, increasingly, become a device for playing delightful indie games. Obviously, the machine can specialize in more than one thing. Technically it should be able to get the FPS genre right. Third big try's the charm? This preview included a hands-on preview of the game. We played about 10 minutes' worth; could have played more if time permitted. To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo

Foosball 2012 and One Epic Game developer Grip Games announced the upcoming PlayStation Network release of Atomic Ninjas, a multiplayer action game for the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.

Atomic Ninjas is a competitive 2.5D platformer in which up to four players compete in trap-filled arenas to be the last ninja standing. The twist is that players aren't able to harm each other directly; instead, you'll need to make clever use of environmental hazards, hiding spots, and item pick-ups in order to lead competing players to their doom. The game offers seven arenas and multiple gameplay modes, including a selection of team-based competitions.

Creator Grip Games describes Atomic Ninjas as the theoretical love child of Fat Princess and Crash Commando -- a worrisome mental image, for sure, but potentially a worthwhile gameplay mix. Atomic Ninjas is set to launch this summer.

It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about?

Guacamelee! is all about kicking ass and saving the girl.

Sell Guacamelee in one sentence:

Guacamelee is a Mexican-themed cross-platform cooperative multiplayer metroidvania dimension-swapping brawler. Warning: reading this sentence out loud may cause seizures or loss of bowel control.

European PlayStation Plus subscribers have plenty to keep themselves busy with when the rain inevitably lashes down on Wimbledon next month. June's Plus update brings two very different breeds of RPG to the PS3's Instant Game Collection in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Demon's Souls, as well the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection. All three games arrive a wee bit early on May 29.

Meanwhile on Vita, June features Rayman Origins and Coconut Dodge Revitalized for the portable. Both Vita games join the Collection on June 5. Coconut Dodge Revitalized is the next Futurlab PS Mini to get the HD treatment. As before, the self-explanatory (or not) 2D high-scorer gets leaderboards and trophies support on Vita.

As ever, the revolving door that is PS Plus means new arrivals are countered by departures. Hitman: Absolution, Joe Danger 2, and Dead or Alive 5 leave the service on May 29, followed by Sine Mora on June 5, and Futurlab's Velocity Ultra on June 12.

It's quite the week for content on Sony platforms, with several major releases making their debut on the PlayStation Network today. Metro: Last Light, the 4A Games' sequel salvaged by Deep Silver, launches today. If you haven't had a chance to read our review yet, be sure to give that a gander.

It's joined by CCP's EVE Online offshoot (get it?) Dust 514, available free to all PSN users. Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery eases its way onto PS Vita today as a $3 download, while Rockstar makes good on its promised Manhunt for $10.

PlayStation Plus subscribers' freebie this week is Knytt Underground, which is flanked by discounts on both Metro: Last Light and a special pre-order price on Grid 2. For the full list of what's in this week's content dump, hit up the PS Blog through the source link below.

Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery sets off for Vita and iOS this week. Lucid's cutesy-looking Unreal Engine 3 puzzler pitches up in North America via PSN on Tuesday, May 14 - it should be Wednesday in Europe. Then iOS welcomes it on Thursday. No prices are announced as yet.

The game features Jacob, a kid who prefers traipsing the outdoors to milling around with his peers. Thankfully, his trip to Camp Eagle Feather includes bumping into Bigfoot, an event that always brightened our summer camp excursions.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting on Lucid's mid-May announcement, which looks to be a racing game, and one possibly tied to Microsoft's own mid-May announcement. The studio, comprised of ex-Bizarre devs, gave a brief shout-out today to fans of Blur and Project Gotham Racing who'd sent the studio messages recently. Which group will be the more pleased later this month, if either, remains to be seen.

This week, PlayStation Plus members in North America can snag a free copy of Knytt Underground, along with a sizable discount for Metro: Last Light.

Knytt Underground, normally priced at $15, is an exploration-based 2D platformer in which players solve environmental puzzles by swapping between their default humanoid form and a bouncy "ball" shape that can access hard-to-reach areas. Knytt Underground is available as a Cross-Buy title, and is playable on both the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.

4A Games' first-person shooter Metro: Last Light, due for release tomorrow, is available to PlayStation Plus members for $48, or $12 off of its retail price. Codemasters' motorsports title GRID 2 also gets a discount ahead of its launch later this month, and PlayStation Plus members can pre-order it this week for $54.

Other free titles coming to PlayStation Plus this month include Pinball Arcade, Germinator, and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend.

Final Fantasy X-2 HD could feature content never previously released outside of Japan, although Square Enix is reportedly "undecided" about including it. According to Famitsu (via Yahoo Japan), the publisher is considering the "Last Mission" content from the Japan-only 'International Version.' It features an extra mission set after the original's ending.

Extra content would definitely make the HD remaster more enticing for western fans - although some might argue X-2's perfect ending (spoilers) tinkered with the storyline quite enough thank you. In any case (we're not bitter honestly) the remasters of X and X-2 come west (really we're not) later this year, arriving together on PS3 but separately on Vita.

THQ's bankruptcy couldn't kill it. Now, Metro: Last Light finally arrives for the big three—PC, PS3 and 360. Manhunt resurfaces on PSN and Zen Studios' awesome pinball simulator debuts on Steam. Tuesday • Metro: Last Light (360, PS3, PC) • Nancy Drew: Ghost of Thornton Hall (PC, Mac) • Star Wars Pinball (PSN) • Manhunt (PSN) Wednesday • Thunder Wolves (PC) • Sanctum 2 (PC) • Anomaly 2 (PC) • Velocity Ultra (Vita) Thursday • Raiden Legacy (PC) • Mega Man 5 (Nintendo eShop) Friday • Bad Bots (PC) Saturday • Helicopter Simulator: Search and Rescue (PC) Follow Dealzon on Twitter.

Atlus released the sixth character trailer for Dragon's Crown today, and it features the Amazon - remember when you saw that word and thought of female warriors rather than online deals? What this Amazon lacks in outerwear (or anywear), she makes up for with brute strength.

Soul Sacrifice is cranky. Soul Sacrifice is surly poetry, like what you’d find in an angsty high-schooler’s Moleskine. Soul Sacrifice doesn’t trust you. Y’know, man, do what you want… but Soul Sacrifice really wishes you cared more. These are the things that blew through my mind while coming to grips with the new game for the PlayStation Vita. Playing Soul Sacrifice made me wonder what’s rattling inside of the brains of the men who made the recently released title. The vibe that SS gives off is so bleak and nihilistic that it actually makes me concerned for Keiji Inafune and the people who worked with him to make the game. Inafune, of course, is the guy who created Mega Man for Capcom more than 25 years ago. But he split from the company that he'd infused with so much success over the decades and his signature creation has languished in his absence. He’s been talking harsh truths about the Japanese video games industry ever since. Soul Sacrifice feels like a game that Inafune poured his heart into, probably because he very much had to. There’s a lot churning underneath the game’s surface and it’s possible to interpret it two different yet connected ways. Screw Mega Man. There are elements of Mega Man lurking inside Soul Sacrifice. It’s easy to imagine Inafune having a complex love/hate relationship with his most famous creation. On one hand, it made him famous and beloved. On the other, he’ll never escape the Blue Bomber’s shadow. And, oddly, Soul Sacrifice could be read as a refraction/repurpose of what Inafune’s done in the past. The sorcerers in Soul Sacrifice give over their right arms for power. Like Mega Man. They also absorb the energy and traits of the enemies they defeat. Like Mega Man. Granted, these sort of ideas show up in lots of other games but it feels like more than a coincidence in this instance. The key difference between the two is that Mega Man’s mostly optimistic bright-hued future gets traded in for a burnt-down medieval past in Soul Sacrifice. The latter game looks back and catalogues where things got so messed up, giving you a play mechanic where you have to suck up people’s souls. It feels like the kind of thing that someone who had an acrimonious break with a big game company would come up with. This Is What They Want, Huh? From a more practical standpoint, you can also read Soul Sacrifice as a reaction/response to Monster Hunter and Demon’s Souls/Dark Souls, popular games that have captured players’ imaginations in both Japan and the West. Both of those series feature giant, daunting opponents and a loot system that encourages players to sift through the world for oodles of specialized gear. While it has similar design, the central premise of Soul Sacrifice is that you’ll have continually end the existence of people you’re adventuring with. Or they'll do it to you. One of the central plot elements in Soul Sacrifice is an epic, ill-fated bromance between the player character and another powerful mage. There’s so much pathos and repressed emotion there that I got taken by surprise. It’s the kind of thing that Monster Hunter lacks, a narrative hook to spur you to commit to more and more gameplay. Soul Sacrifice tries to advance the MoHun/Souls formula by adding emotion. If you were looking to try and inject new blood into a pre-existing template, going for players’ collective gut is one important trail to blaze. And if you look at comments that Inafune has made in the past, it’s clear that he puts his own experience into his game ideas: As a kid, I was the one who tried to stop fights, not start them," said Inafune. Once in school, another student punched him, setting off a fight. "I wanted him to stop punching me," said Inafune. There were in a classroom in front of the other students, and Inafune looked to his friend for help. "He just turned away and didn't do anything," said Inafune. "I thought he was my friend." It never seemed like he was happy with the end of his tenure at Capcom, either: "I don't think the greatest motivation for people is money. It's to feel needed—and I didn't feel needed." Couple that with this new interview about Soul Sacrifice at the PlayStation Blog and you get a picture, I think, of a game designer with an aching heart: I learned that in life, you must sacrifice something big in order to gain a bigger outcome. If you want to become rich, you need to work hard; when you’re gambling, you may win big only if you bet big and risk losing a lot of money. So the idea of sacrificing and the consequence associated with it came to me first. The biggest sacrifice, I thought, would be the limbs of your body. Or your own life or even your friends’ lives… I’ve been in the game industry for a long time and gaming in general seems to be headed towards emotion. I think we’re in the era of incorporating feelings and emotions in video games and it’s about how to design these. Soul Sacrifice, for example, asks you who to sacrifice–be it yourself or your friends. You could make a decision not to sacrifice anything and let it be, too. You can’t make these decisions without being emotionally involved. I think future games need to incorporate emotional elements. At times, Soul Sacrifice feels like a game that comes from a lot of hurt, hurt that Inafune hasn’t been shy about divulging. I spoke with Inafune last year at GDC and, while he was confident about his future efforts, he was clearly a man in transition. He was doing some soul-searching and asked the Japanese video game powers-that-be to do the same. Clearly, much of that soul-searching went into Soul Sacrifice. It feels oddly fitting that he’s been able to channel it into a fun, unpredictable game on a platform that could use some love itself.

Sony reports that DrinkBox Studios' side-scrolling luchador brawler Guacamelee emerged as last month's biggest seller on the PlayStation Network, topping the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita sales charts in North America and Europe.

Guacamelee launched in both regions the week of April 9, and was bolstered by a week-long sale for PlayStation Plus members. The game beat out Terraria and the downloadable version of Square Enix's Tomb Raider for the top PS3 chart spot stateside, and overtook Sony's Soul Sacrifice and Muteki's Dragon Fantasy Book I to lead PS Vita sales.

Over in Europe, Guacamelee toppled PSN favorites Journey, Hitman: Blood Money HD and Crysis to champion the PS3 sales list, and outsold Urban Trial Freestyle and Sound Shapes in a no-holds-barred Triple Threat match on the Vita.

Some games nearly make me miss my subway stop. Some games tempt me to keep on playing them while I'm walking down the street. This is one of them. It's Rymdkapsel, and it's the minimalist real-time-strategy game with a Tetris twist. It's downloadable and out for PlayStation Mobile platforms now. It's brought my PlayStation Vita back into rotation. The developers call it "meditative space strategy." Sure. Though I think I was hypnotized. Can't stop playing! Got five minutes? And five bucks? You'll need those minutes to see why the game has displaced my 3DS this week as my go-to portable gaming platform. You'll need that much money to buy the game. Here, watch: I was predisposed to liking this game, because I'm a fan of minimalist games. I like games that take a familiar genre and strip it (back) down to the fewest visual elements needed to convey the interactions of its system. These games eschew the sprites and models that trick our eyes into thinking we're looking at little tanks or fighter planes or whatever. Instead, we play with symbols, with more abstract visual metaphors that may stand in for spacemen and bases but allow the gameplay to come to the fore. These games show how little we actually need to see to play a game; they make other games seem needlessly baroque or overly garnished. The excellent minimalist racing game Artstyle: Light Trax on the Wii (and the Japan-only Dotstream on the Game Boy Advance before it) did the same thing: Keep it simple. Let the gameplay be the star. I'm a fan. Rymdkapsel Genre: Real-Time Spacebase-Building Strategy Game Plus TetrisDeveloper: Grapefruky (Martin Jonasson) with music by Niklas Ström.Platform: PlayStation Mobile devices (including PS Vita) with iOS to followPrice: $4.99 Get Rymdkapsel for PlayStation Mobile

Folks who pre-order Vanillaware and Atlus' forthcoming 2D hack-and-slash game, Dragon's Crown, will also receive a 64-page limited edition art book for their troubles. The paperback tome includes character and environmental artwork by Dragon's Crown designer/artist/Vanillaware president George Kamitani, in addition to pieces by other Japanese video game artists, such as Capcom alumnus Kinu Nishimura and Akira Yasuda.

Atlus has also revealed the game's North American box art, which does a good job of obfuscating the art design's more controversial aspects. Dragon's Crown will drop for PlayStation 3 and Vita August 6, at $49.99 and $39.99 respectively.

Konami has released details of its financial performance in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, reporting sizable year-on-year losses in its digital entertainment and pachinko divisions but growth in its social gaming sector.

Company product sales and service revenue for the year amounted to ¥226 billion ($2.4B), down 15 percent from its earnings of ¥266 billion last year. Net income sank to ¥13.2 billion ($140M), a decrease of 42.8% compared to last year's reported income of ¥23 billion.

Konami saw its largest losses in the pachinko sector, in which revenue fell more than 70 percent compared to last year. The company's Digital Entertainment division reported a loss of 17.1 percent in year-on-year revenue, though solid worldwide performances for titles like Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance boosted earnings.

Konami's finances are buoyed by the success of Metal Gear Solid Social Ops and another popular online game, Dragon Collection, which it operates in partnership with Japanese social networking service GREE. Konami's social games currently boast more than 35 million registered users worldwide.

The PS Vita is doing much better these days. The game library is still not as robust as I'd like, but I don't get depressed so much when I check the Vita section of my regular game store these days. Sadly, the hand-held powerhouse is still not performing as well as Sony would probably want it to. While it is currently no longer undersells its predecessor, the PSP, on a weekly basis, it still has a long way to go before it manages to sell as many units (The PSP has sold over 19 million units in Japan, whereas the Vita took 11 months after its release to breach the 1 million mark) The recent Japanese price cut did help to boost recent sales numbers, although now these numbers are currently suffering due to a shortage of units. Japanese gaming magazine, Weekly Famitsu conducted an online poll for Vita owners on their satisfaction with the hand-held console and the current software lineup. The results were not unexpected: While on average, most users appeared satisfied with the console itself (average score out of 100 was 74.92), roughly 40% of responders said they were either dissatisfied or somewhat dissatisfied on the software side. Here's some of what they had to say: Console "It's revolutionary, but does not utilize its full potential. I think things would change if you could use it in business as well." 40 year-old male (score: 45) "There are too few exclusive games." 44 year-old male (score: 50) "At present, I give it a 50 out of 100. If there were more games, my score would be higher." 21 year-old male (score- 50) "It's well made, but everything is too rigid. It's no different from a home console." 27 year-old male (score: 60) "At last there seem to be a decent library of games." 30 year-old female (score: 70) "I love being able to play high quality games on a hand-held. I've stopped using my PS3." 22 year-old male (score: 70) "I use my smartphone, but [the Vita] makes me feel that 'games should be played on game machines.'" 38 year-old male (score: 75) "In terms of specs, it's probably the best hand-held console out there right now." 42 year-old male (score:80) "I like the unique controls and the visuals are gorgeous. I want more games for a female audience!" 22 year-old female (score: 80) "I'll give it 100 when a killer title comes out." 37 year-old male (score: 90) "You can do everything with one PS Vita." 23 year-old male (score: 90) "With not only games, but video and music, communication apps, coordination with nasne, it's become an easy-to-use multi-device." 34 year-old male (score:100) Software "When the Vita first came out, I expected more games from big titles to small indi games. I wish the lineup would be more robust." 33 year-old male (dissatisfied) "There's too much DLC and pay-for items. Simply knowing that I'll eventually be able to play them for free on PS Plus kills any enthusiasm I have to buy a game." 36 year-old male (dissatisfied) "Most of the games I look forward to are also available on the PSP. I don't think the PS Vita is being utilized to its full potential." 36 year-old male (somewhat dissatisfied) "The UMD Passport was supposed to be the savior of the PSP software is woefully under-supported. At the very least, games that are available for download on the PS Store should support it." 39 year-old gender unspecified (somewhat dissatisfied "Every game I've purchased has been of high quality and overall I'm satisfied with the good games. However, something should be done about the sparse number of games." 22 year-old male (neither) "A lot of game sequels are being put out on the PSP, but once you get used to the high resolution of the PS Vita, it makes you wish they would release those games on the Vita instead." 39 year-old female (neither) "I think there still aren't many original titles. However, a lot of the games that have been ported or been multi-platform releases are games I would not have gotten if they weren't available on the Vita." 28 year-old male (satisfied) "I'd say that processing specs aside, simply the increase in visual quality has made the games stand out, but the fact that I can play the same games that are made for home consoles is revolutionary." 44 year-old male (satisfied) "There aren't that many well-known titles out yet, but what they have are all well-made. Playing the games, I can tell that the developers are putting a real effort into it." 28 year-old male (very satisfied) "I feel the lack of games has been solved. Games for the Vita rival the quality of home console games and the satisfaction I get from each game is high." 45 year-old male (very satisfied) (1549 valid responses) ファミ通.com [ファミ通.com] 13年4月ゲーム販売 ： PSVita品不足で売り上げ激減 [MANTANWEB] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Sony had a net income for fiscal 2012 (ending March 31 2013) of ¥43 billion, which converts to $458 million. It's the first time the company's posted annual net profit since 2008. A far better situation than the company's $456.7 million loss last year.

As the company predicted following several cost-cutting measures across the previous year - including the sales of major buildings in Tokyo and New York, as well as thousands of layoffs Sony posted an operating profit for the fiscal year, which came in at ¥230.1 billion ($2.45 billion).

Sony shifted 3.4 million PS3 and PS2 units across the last quarter, while the Vita and PSP came in at 1.3 million. Sony's fiscal year figures were in line with projections made last quarter, with the home consoles at 16.5 million and the portables at 7 million.

However, the portables' figures compare unfavorably with the company's initial estimate for the year, which was 16 million. Sony is being much more cautious for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, predicting only 5 million units in what's approximately the Vita's second year at retail. PS3 figures are estimated at 10 million, while Sony chose not to include PS4 projections.

The PlayStation division saw 12.2 percent year-on-year decline in sales, coming in at ¥707.1 billion ($7.52 billion). Operating income saw a much sharper drop, down 94.1 percent to ¥1.7 billion, or $18 million. Sony put the declines down to decreased hardware sales, as well as the "strategic price reduction" for the Vita in Japan earlier this year.

One area where growth is predicted is software, even without including the PS4. Sony projects an increase from the 266 million units sold in fiscal 2012 to 319 million (including digital units).

Megaman creator Keiji Inafune's Soul Sacrifice is hardly a cheerful game, but it is certainly a joy to look at, if what these people are saying is anything to go by. The story, the world, the choices—all interesting setpieces of a grotesque, tragic world, held together by combat that, at times, can get repetitive, but fundamentally works well. Here's what six critics have thought. EGM Comcept has constructed a game that revolves entirely around slaying monsters. Big, small—Soul Sacrifice has got ’em all. Players assume control of a personality-deprived customizable character that interacts, primarily, with a sentient tome named Librom. Through this book (who functions as a talkative menu), the player magically relives the past life of a powerful sorcerer—one who spent a great deal of time with the game’s main antagonist, Magusar. It’s through these retellings that the player gains and masters more and more magical powers—and learns just what happened to bring the world to its knees under Magusar’s cruel rule. Polygon The concept at the heart of Soul Sacrifice is the player's option to save or sacrifice fallen enemies, from lowly goblins and orcs—twisted mutations of rats and cats, it turns out—to the archfiends, humans who have transformed into grotesque boss monsters. Choosing to save a fallen foe grants the player energy toward their life and defense, while sacrifices devote that energy to magic and attacks. The system doesn't challenge players to make moral choices, but rather has broad-reaching implications on a player's individual strengths and weaknesses, frequently resulting in difficult decisions with equally compelling outcomes. Weighing the risks and spoils of each sacrifice is rewarding. But your choices can also be easily undone and overwritten, so there's not as much weight to them as there could be. Eurogamer The enemy designs lie somewhere between Japanese folklore and Greek mythology, and while the cannon fodder is limited to demonic cats, rats, crows and spiders, the Archfiends get pride of place with around 20 nightmarish designs. There's the Hydra that chases you down with its multiple snake heads, the Cyclops that burrows underground before impaling you with its trident and the glutinous Slime that spews an endless torrent of grizzly confetti. Each one has been animated to a pleasingly high standard and they can absorb a considerable amount of punishment before returning to their human forms. IGN Once I got used to the way Soul Sacrifice feels, however, it was easy to get pulled into its satisfying scoring and loot systems as I delved deeper and deeper into Librom’s story. Players can fight with Offerings they earn after each battle, rummaging through and organizing them to create various permutations that will best fit the desired play-style. For instance, in your six available Offering slots, you’ll likely want to have some curative moves, perhaps a missile-based attack, and some melee strikes that take advantage of different enemies’ weaknesses. There’s considerable depth here, whether you’re looking to get up close and personal with the monsters you fight, keep a safe distance and launch spells from afar, or just about anything in between. Offerings can be upgraded and combined, too, opening up yet another door through which you can easily get lost in customizing bliss. Destructoid The game can be taken online or played locally in a team of four, allowing for some jolly cooperation. Multiplayer fights play out exactly like a solo fight, with the addition of some fun little chat commands that can be brought up with a pleasantly convenient flick of a touch-screen pop-up. Going online to show off one's acquired moves and costumes is a good laugh in and of itself, and the potential to sacrifice your own friends for personal power is likely to prove a most engrossing aspect of the co-op experience. Unlike similar games, Soul Sacrifice's multiplayer doesn't feel like the main focus, with solo play proving the robust draw, but its inclusion only helps round out the package. Cheat Code Central Soul Sacrifice is a tense game. With so much choice thrown at the player so consistently, it becomes easier and easier to make these choices, but the constant doubt of choosing correctly never really fades. There’s an intricacy to the world building here that is truly exceptional. The game would be better served, though, if that intricacy extended to the combat. Kotaku Soul Sacrifice feels like a game designed by somebody in a bad mood. This exclusive for Sony’s handheld is all about using your own pain—or the agony of others—for power. Grim? Sure. But, it’s also the best reason I’ve had in months to keep my Vita charged and in my bag. Top image courtesy of Gergő Vas. Questions? Comments? Contact the author of this post at andras-AT-kotaku-DOT-com.

CounterSpy, an upcoming indie game for PS3, Vita, and mobile, looks pretty neat, like a stealthy Metroidvania stuck inside a Pixar world. More on the PS Blog.

In its ever-vigilant push to become a heavy hitter in the independent development scene, Sony has made it free to publish games on PlayStation Mobile. Previously, developers had to pay a $99 publisher license fee, but Sony has waived that to encourage more developers to sign up.

That means the barrier of entry to bring games to PlayStation certified devices and the PlayStation Vita is now effectively zero. You know, except for programming knowledge, talent and a head for game design. You still need that stuff.

The PlayStation Blog earlier today was all about indie projects for Sony platforms, highlighting four games that, for different reasons, all look great. First up is Vita (and mobile) strategy game Rymdkapsel, which strips just about everything away from the RTS genre except coloured planes and mechanics. It's out today. Next is Hohokum for the PS4, PS3 and Vita (pictured above), which is out in 2014. You play a snake/kite/thing, and the collaboration with artist Richard Hogg looks gorgeous. Third is CounterSpy, for the PS3 and Vita. A side-scroller, it's got a vintage art style and side-scrolling action. The last one is Doki-Doki Universe, a...strange series of titles from Greg Johnson, the creator of Toejam & Earl. It's for PS4, PS3 and Vita. While each game looks interesting in its own right, it's also great to see that each is coming to the Vita. Which may give me reason to stop calling it my "thing that only plays Persona 4".

Greg Johnson, creator of the funky Sega Genesis classic Toejam & Earl, is heading up studio HumaNature's development of Doki-Doki Universe, a newly announced game for the PlayStation 4, PS3, and PS Vita.

Doki-Doki Universe, which Johnson describes as an "RPG/Simulation/Interactive Story game," stars an abandoned robot who travels across the universe and interacts with a host of living creatures, growing more human-like as the narrative progresses. The expansive game world features a wide variety of collectible items and character-driven puzzles, and players will develop a unique, shareable personality profile as they play.

Doki-Doki Universe will launch as a free download that allows players to fly around the game's universe, take personality quizzes, and send animated cross-platform messages via the included Doki-Doki Mail messaging app. The game's full story mode will be available as add-on content.

Sony will publish CounterSpy, the first game from developer Dynamighty, a San Francisco outfit comprised of former LucasArts and Pixar talent, on PS3 and PS Vita. CounterSpy (working title) is a 2D action and stealth game set during the Cold War, in which you infiltrate Soviet and US military installations and sabotage war efforts to prevent the destruction of mankind. And just maybe set it straight, this Watergate.

Lead designer David Nottingham calls CounterSpy "primarily" a single-player game in the PlayStation Blog announcement, though he adds Dynamighty is "working on some interesting ways to let you compete with friends that go a little beyond traditional high scores." In an interview with Game Informer, Nottingham says an endless mode with procedurally generated levels is also in the works for the extended replay crowd.

There is no launch timeframe for CounterSpy at the moment. All we know is that the game will launch on PS3, PS Vita and mobile platforms - no mention of PS4.