All Topics older than one year ago

Back at E3 2013, the PS Vita version of Dead Nation was announced, and today I’m pleased to confirm that the game will be launching tomorrow. You’ll finally be able to carry the zombie apocalypse in your pocket.

For those of you who still aren’t in the know after the launch of the PS4 version last month, Dead Nation is a top-down, shoot ‘em up style game set in an apocalyptic zombie world. This classic PSN game was originally developed by the talented team at Housemarque, also known for Resogun and Super Stardust HD.

Like the PS4 version of the game, the PS Vita version has been developed by our friends at Climax Studios, and they’ve faithfully recreated the classic experience of the original PS3 game. Journey through the campaign as Jack McReady or Scarlett Blake, or replay your favorite levels and compete for top scores in the single mission mode. Prefer not to experience the apocalypse alone? You and a friend can play the game in both online or ad-hoc co-op. Make sure you upload your stats whenever possible to support your country in the global standings.

Dead Nation will cost $7.99, and the Road of Devastation DLC can be purchased separately for $3.99. Anyone who has previously purchased the PS3 game or Road of Devastation will be entitled to the PS Vita versions at no extra cost, thanks to cross buy.

Dead Nation feels right at home on PS Vita, and everyone who has seen it so far has really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to hear what all of you think once you get your hands on it.

If you recognize the name Castle of Illusion from back in the day, you should know that this remake doesn’t just offer upgraded graphics, but also periodic restructuring of the classic 2D side-scrolling platforming gameplay into a 3D space. Although the graphics and gameplay are different, the storyline here is the same – dear old Minnie has been kidnapped by an evil witch and its up to you to save her. As an added bonus, if you download this during the first two weeks it’s available in PS Plus you’ll receive the Castle of Illusion Sega Genesis Bundle, which adds the original Sega Genesis version of Castle of Illusion (1990) and a Mizrabel (that’s the evil witch that kidnapped Minnie btw) dynamic theme for free. This bundle will only be available until 4/28 so be sure to download it before then!

In addition to Castle of Illusion, Plus members can purchase a number of titles at a discount including LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and Ethan: Meteor Hunter, and as a nice bonus you can download the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles OOTS avatar pack for free.

You can download Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse after PlayStation Store updates tomorrow, 4/15.

Free for PS Plus members

Last Chance (Leaving on 4/22)

Instant Game Collection
Street Fighter x Tekken(PS Vita)

Discounts
Ethan: Meteor Hunter
Ethan: Meteor Hunter
LEGO Batman 2: Dc Super Heroes
LEGO Batman 2: Dc Super Heroes
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
LEGO Legends Of Chima: Laval’s Journey
LEGO Lord Of The Rings
LEGO Lord Of The Rings
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: OOTS – Character Avatar Pack
Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut

If you’ve got feedback on today’s Plus update make sure vote in the poll and leave a comment below. To discuss all things PlayStation, including this update, you can also head over to the PlayStation Community Forums where you’ll find topics you can contribute your thoughts to, or start one for yourself.

Every morning, my inbox contains at least one email pointing in the direction of a less complicated and/or complex Dwarf Fortress. There was a time when I believed in the dream of an approachable Dwarf Fortress with a friendly interface but I’m starting to think that even the slightest simplification invalidates the comparison. Dwarf Fortress is complexity, of simulation and control, and the games that do have something in common with it often have far more in common with more traditional management sims or roguelike adventures. KeeperRL, sensibly and pleasingly, plays more like top-down Dungeon Keeper than Dwarf Fortress with the edges smoothed and the corners cut. The alpha is available and crowdfunding has begun.

… [visit site to read more]

Today we’re really happy to announce a trio of brand new PS Vita games from our JAPAN Studio: Soul Sacrifice Delta, an expanded edition of last year’s acclaimed dark fantasy adventure; dystopian action RPG Freedom Wars; and stunning JRPG Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines.

Soul Sacrifice Delta will be first to arrive on May 13th, and we’ll confirm more details around Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines and Freedom Wars in the coming months. For now, I’ll hand over to the games’ respective producers to tell you more about each title. And then later today look out for an interview with JAPAN Studio chief Allan Becker.

Soul Sacrifice Delta

Soul Sacrifice Delta is the ultimate edition of Soul Sacrifice with tons of new content and improvements. Grim, the faction who believes in neutrality in all things, joins the blood thirsty Avalon and the merciful Sanctuary, and adds a third angle to bring the Delta in Soul Sacrifice. Grim’s beliefs, rooted in the prophecy they will seek to realise, will bring about irrevocable changes to the world as we know it.

The concept of faction is now at the heart of the game with players able to join the side of their choice, each with their own strengths and play styles. Players from each faction can now register their overall progress.

Soul Sacrifice Delta brings a lot of new content as well, with new Archfiends inspired by dark retellings of classic fairy tales, new sorcerers, arenas, spells and even more quests.

We have also made many improvements to the game design and systems: the graphics engine has been optimized, some arenas are now dynamic with weather effects and structural changes during battle, the spells system has been refined and allows for more collaborative and deeper gameplay.

We’ve also improved the AI of the Archfiends, who are now more vicious than ever. Finally, we’ve taken character customization to a new level, with the ability to mix custom parts and accessories.

What if you have played through Soul Sacrifice already? Well, just transfer your save data over to Delta and carry on the adventure! So that’s Soul Sacrifice Delta in a nutshell, but please stay tuned for more information soon. – Kumi Yuasa

Freedom Wars

We’re excited to finally announce that Freedom Wars is coming to North America! Some of you may have caught wind of the team working on this title, but JAPAN Studio, Shift and Dimps have joined forces to create an action-packed RPG on PlayStation Vita!

Freedom Wars is set in a dystopian world which harbors prisoners, each with a million-year sentence set from birth. You take on the role of a prisoner, forced to fight for your freedom by completing rescue missions that will reduce your seemingly insurmountable prison sentence.

Supported by a robust multiplayer suite, up to four players can play via Ad-Hoc and eight players via Online to fight civilian Abducters; the more civilians you set free, the shorter your sentence becomes. In addition to the challenging co-op gameplay, you’ll be pleased to know that the game has many customizable features ranging from weapon load-outs to the protagonist itself! Check out our new trailer and make sure to stay tuned for more news on Freedom Wars, launching later this year! – Dais Kawaguchi

Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines

Next up we have Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines which is one that you JRPG fans need to have on your radar. “What does ‘Oreshika’ mean?”, I hear you cry. Actually the full title in Japanese is ‘Ore no Shikabane wo Koete Yuke’ which means something along the lines of ‘Go Forth Over My Dead Body’.

In case you haven’t guessed it by now it’s an RPG in which you take charge of an ancient Japanese clan that have been cursed with a maximum lifespan of just 2 years. Your task is to lead the clan on their quest to lift the curse and enlist the help of gods inspired by Japanese mythology to make sure each new generation of the clan is more powerful than the last.

We’ve got some screenshots to show off the beautiful Japanese art style of the characters and environments, but it looks even more fantastic on the PS Vita screen! We’ve got lots more details to share on this one very soon so stay tuned. – Tomoyo Kimura

Half-Life begot the mod Natural Selection, which begot standalone sequel Natural Selection 2, which together with NS1′s Combat mode incestuously begot NS2′s Combat mod, which now begets standalone game Natural Selection 2: Combat. It’s all a bit like Chronicles with assault rifles.

Faultline Games are taking their Combat mod standalone, they’ve announced, expanding and polishing it up as one would expect. Combat’s a murder-oriented version of Natural Selection, focusing on the asymmetric humans vs. aliens FPS combat while doing away with RTS-y bits like resource-gathering and commanders. It also splashes in RPG-y levelling, with murder-earned skill points unlocking new weapons, tech, life forms and whatnot.

… [visit site to read more]

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, the game that has earned more than 30 “Best MMO” and “Best RPG” awards, is available today for PS4.

Join players from around the world as you seek to uncover the mysteries of the realm of Eorzea. What are the ferocious Primals that threaten the world? Can you stop the relentless Garlean Empire as they seek to conquer all the free peoples of the realm? Experience an ever-evolving Final Fantasy story with your friends, and forge your name in the annals of history as a true Warrior of Light.

Utilize the unique features of PS4 and take your adventuring to a whole new level. Share your experience live with built-in streaming, or post a triumphant screenshot when you finally defeat the ferocious Titan. Busy day at the office with no time to play? Use Remote Play on PS Vita to continue your quest, or to finish up your crafts while at the office (We won’t tell!).

The Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Collector’s Edition and standard edition are both available from your favorite retailers! Pick it up today and begin your adventure in Eorzea!

I’ll tell you what’s in space: a big load of nothing. Oh I’m sure it’s very pretty and makes you think and all that, but I’ll find my abyssal mirror in the ocean thank you very much. You know what’s down there? Iron snails, radiant deathworms, giant woodlice, immortal jellyfish, and colossal creatures we discover by finding bits of them in other monsters’ stomachs. So naturally I’m pretty jazzed for Unknown Worlds to plumb watery depths in Subnautica.

The Natural Selection 2 devs over the weekend pulled a virtual gold tasselled rope to open digital red velvet curtains and reveal the open-world oceanic build-o-explorer, and it looks quite pleasant.

… [visit site to read more]

You can literally smell the excitement here at VooFoo towers, and it’s not (only) due to the lack of personal hygiene time we’ve had as of late. We’ve teamed up with publisher Ripstone to bring you our latest, greatest version of Pure Chess, which hits PS4 tomorrow. And we’re extremely proud of our baby.

If you don’t know who we are, VooFoo Studios is a small team of passionate developers based in sunny Birmingham, right in the heart of England. We’ve always prided ourselves on making highly playable, photo-realistic games, and thanks to the power of the PS4 hardware we’ve been able to turn the dial up to eleven.

Displayed at 1080p and running at a silky-smooth 60 frames per second, Pure Chess on PS4 is a visual tour-de-force. We’ve doubled the texture sizes, added many extra layers of post-processing, added contact shadows, and applied ultra-realistic depth-of-field… which is a rather boring way of saying that this is a seriously good looking chess game! Couple this with a massively improved custom networking system to provide a much slicker online experience and we’re confident you’ll love Pure Chess just as much as we do.

Pure Chess is available on April 15th and will be $7.99, but you can also get your hands on the best value Complete Bundle for $14.99 which includes all the DLC. PlayStation Plus users can look forward to some cheeky discounts at launch, too!

Both VooFoo and Ripstone will be doing some code giveaways, so get following us.

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Five great Nintendo 3DS games, including the top three best-selling Nintendo 3DS games of all time, are getting a new lower price. Together these five games have sold more than 9 million combined physical and digital units in the United States alone, and represent some of the most fun game experiences available today. The five games are must-haves for anyone who owns a Nintendo 3DS or Nintendo 2DS system, and their new price represents an even better value for consumers.

Starting April 22, Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land, New Super Mario Bros. 2, Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D will be available in the Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS and in retail stores at a suggested retail price of just $29.99 each.

In order, Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land and New Super Mario Bros. 2 represent the top three best-selling Nintendo 3DS games of all time in the United States - each one has sold more than 2.15 million physical and digital units in the U.S. alone. All five of the newly discounted games star classic Nintendo characters and franchises, and their strong sales over time demonstrate the longevity of Nintendo's games. The games make great gifts, engaging entertainment for families and other spring break travelers, or just a way to introduce kids to the fun of video games.

For more information about these products, visit http://www.nintendo.com.

*Data regarding physical sales of games are from the NPD Group. Data regarding digital downloads of games and combined physical/digital life-to-date numbers are from Nintendo's internal sales figures. All numbers, unless otherwise stated, are specific to the United States only.

Source: NoA PR

current mood: Optimisticcurrent song: Lou Reed – NYC Man

It’s a Monday and you’re back at work, but outside your window the sun is shining. You know you’re going to go into it later and have an adventure, but for now things aren’t so bad. You have friends here. You have music playing. Boots had your favourite sandwich in stock for your £3.29 lunchtime meal deal. And there’s a collection of in-development games to browse, to help you get excited about the future.

Dreams! Pilotable spider robots! Heists!

… [visit site to read more]

There is no hammer time in The Elder Scrolls Online, unless you count the mashing of monster-skulls with war-mallets. If you want to sell your ill-gotten gains though, you’ll notice that there’s no auction house in Tamriel. To trade goods and equipment, players have to work within guild stores, although exchanges can now operate through a newly opened fan-created Marketplace. I quite like the idea of the guild stores, which allow members to barter with one another. Theoretically, they will prevent destabilisation of the economy by creating pockets of value and could also lead to guilds with specialised commercial outlooks. More details on the marketplace under the counter, below.

… [visit site to read more]

Sean Hogan recently released a demo for Even The Ocean, the game that he is developing with artist/writer Jon Kittaka following the release of the marvellous, mysterious and melancholy Anodyne. The fruits of a cursory glance suggest that the game is a lo-fi platformer with survival and crafting elements – a genre most of us are intimately familiar with, whether through exploring Terraria or bounding between the stars. The first glass doesn’t reveal Even The Ocean’s depths though – it’s actually two games in one, a narrative adventure and a parkour platformer with a central energy conservation mechanic. Take a look. Have a play.

… [visit site to read more]