It's another Flash Sale Friday on the North American PlayStation Network. Today through Monday morning, you'll be able to save on PlayStation 4, PS3, and Vita games that you've probably put off buying a few times before but might just be inclined to buy now that it's the right time and place.
On my end, I like the look of Nex Machina and Titanfall 2: Ultimate Edition for a meager six bucks a piece. You can also go all in on the wonderful episodic adventure series King's Quest for ten dollars.
The Vita lineup is seriously lacking, but it's got one standout deal: Persona 4 Golden for $7.99.
This week sees another classic SNK title resurrected on modern platforms by retro-fans Hamster. It's time to batter up as 1990's Baseball Stars Professional is back, on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
Released in arcades and on the Neo Geo home platform, this was SNK's first attempt at a baseball game, though it certainly wouldn't be their last. Unlike the more prolific 2020: Super Baseball from the following year, Baseball Stars Professional is an altogether more traditional affair, although it does play very similarly, in terms of engine mechanics.
One or two players can pick from one of a selection of teams, all with great names like "The SNK Crushers" "The Lovely Ladies" and "The Ghastly Monsters" (Yup, BSP even featured inter-gender matches, nice one, SNK) before taking to the field for some simple-but-fun baseball action.
If you fancy entering a league of your own, then Baseball Stars Professional is available worldwide on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, and in Japan on PS4, priced at around $8.
It's clear Arkane Studios isn't done with Prey, one of our favorite games of last year.
A couple of months ago, the developer posted teaser-y images and hinted at an announcement scheduled for June 10 (the same day as Bethesda's E3 press conference) with some real gross eyes. Earlier today, Arkane added a batch of conspicuous new achievements to the PC version of Prey.
Together, they spell out the message "If you believed they put a man on the moon."
After a fortnight of dust-ups, the North American and European Splatoon 2 communities will face-off, one more time, to decide who is the greatest Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle: Raphael or Donatello?
Raphael beat team-leader Leonardo in round one, with Donatello taking the victory over Michelangelo in round two. Interestingly, in both cases, the popular vote went the loser's way, but the eventual winner scored both Team and Solo Play points.
Pearl is sticking with her original choice of Raphael, while Marina has got Donatello's shell for this Grand Final. Donatello is my favourite TMNT, but I'm still sure that Raph (or "Ralph" as Marina, the dolt, insists on calling him) is gonna take this tournament. We'll find out in just a couple of days' time.
The Raphael vs Donatello splatfest begins this evening in North America at 21:00 PT until the same time tomorrow. In Europe, it's shell-time from 15:00 CET until the same time on Sunday. Cowabunga!
Blighttown was infamous for running poorly in the original release of Dark Souls, so it's no surprise that fans are eager to see how the dreadful swamp area holds up in Dark Souls: Remastered. If it's good, we're good. The recent off-screen Switch footage of Blighttown was a promising start, but today's analysis of the PlayStation 4 and PS4 Pro versions from Digital Foundry seals the deal.
I had forgotten just how awful the original Blighttown was on Xbox 360, but Digital Foundry does a good job of recapturing what that bewildering experience was like back in 2011. By comparison, the area runs at 60 frames per second in Remastered on a base PlayStation 4 model.
"Despite flaunting a new lighting model, ambient occlusion, updated effects, and higher native 1080p resolution, PS4 is still delivering on its 60fps promise in a big way," writes Digital Foundry.
"Equally, Dark Souls' signature problems with 30fps frame-pacing is also resolved thanks to the remastering effect - a new frame is synced with every refresh of the display."
As for PS4 Pro, which runs Remastered at 1800p, "there's no sign of any GPU stress points throughout this area of the game, and the hand you're dealt is the same: 60fps all the way, bar one solitary, single, unnoticeable frame drop." Digital Foundry wasn't able to fully test the game on other platforms yet, but I think it's safe to say that Blighttown is finally going to be alright. Just one more week to go.
Like a lot of Wii U games Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker went unnoticed. At least, it wasn't as widely known as it should have been, given that it's one of the purest puzzle games Nintendo has ever crafted.
Fueled by the simple quest to discover stars with Toad, the charming adventure puzzler really grows on you, providing extra quests to keep you busy as well as one of the most effective uses of amiibo yet. On Switch you'll be able to enjoy a few more levels (Odyssey themed) and engage in two player co-op, where the second player basically just makes everything easier by throwing objects at the screen -- you know, typical "helper" Nintendo co-op type stuff, so don't expect a full-on split-screen Toad and Toadette mode.
In case you forgot Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is also coming to 3DS on the same date -- July 13.
Pocket-sized battle title Fire Emblem Heroes will be getting another wave of DLC characters next week, as part of a new event known as Bridal Bloom.
On May 21 at 12:00 PT / 03:00. ET / 07:00 BS, three Special Heroes will be available in-game and ready for battle. These include the demure Ninian, from Blazing Blade, young empress Sanaki, from Radiant Dawn and Path of Radiance, and the immensely-popular sorceress Tharja, from Awakening.
As well as the new roster additions comes a new story paralogue, so you can check out the sisterhood in action. In keeping with the Bridal Bloom theme, these characters all appear wearing wedding dresses and carrying bouquets. Look, I just report it, folks.
Fire Emblem Heroes is available now on iOS and Android devices.
Devolver Digital held its first ever E3 press conference last year and it was a trip, the kind of subversive show you'd hope and expect these folks to put on. Thankfully, it wasn't a one-time deal. They're doing another event! The E3 2018 presser will be streamed on Sunday, June 10 at 8:00pm Pacific.
— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) May 18, 2018
If you missed last year's conference, you'll only need to set aside 15 minutes for the madness.
"Potential concurrent viewers are encouraged to re-watch last year's press conference as this year's event aims to extend the Devolver Digital Press Conference Cinematic Universe (DDPCCU) through the blatant reuse of jokes and vague callbacks to the original. Pray for us."
It's been a weird....past six years for the Vita. Sony kind of fumbled the messaging out of the gate, showcasing an amazing OLED with exorbitantly priced proprietary memory cards. Fans just didn't take to the strategy when they could buy standard SD units for their 3DS for half the price and hold twice as much memory, and that, among other things, is what lead to the system's slow death.
While it's hung on by a thread thanks to developers like Atlus that continued to support it, Sony is basically taking it out back and shooting it in the west. Just recently they announced that in addition to stripping the system off of PS+, they're going to stop physical cartridge production in March 2019.
Again that's for the west, and Sony has just re-confirmed to Japanese outlet GameSpark that "cartridge production will continue in Japan. Sony even says that in Japan fans will continue to "enjoy a broad linuep of titles." It's weird that the Vita is still a viable option for Sony in Japan, but it definitely is when games continue to sell for it.
Another Friday brings another wave of DLC advertisements for Atlus' upcoming rhythm-action titles Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night.
The first of the two trailers stars Persona 3's Shinjiro Aragaki. Rarely seen without a hat, and perpetually pissed-off (I can relate) Aragaki turns out to actually be a kind and caring person! Shocker! Aragaki is seen here on the floor with fellow Persona 3 star, Akihiko.
Representing Persona 5 is the maddeningly unlikeable Goro Akechi. The smug-as-fuck junior detective busts a graceful groove with a confidence unlikely for a guy who has never been invited to anyone's party. Things step up once he is joined by P5's Best Dude: Joker.
Both Goro and Shinjiro are DLC characters, and as such will be available for purchase for either title. Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night are set for release in Japan May 24 on PS4 and PS Vita.
The early story of Pokemon is fairly well guarded. Although the original team might come out of the woodwork every so often and give us a nugget or two the initial designs for the first 151 can be somewhat of a mystery. But the curtain is being pulled back a bit thanks to a Japanese kids book of all things.
Recently Japan dropped a manga compilation called Satoshi Tajiri: The Man Who Created Pokemon, which will mostly serve as an educational book -- that also happens to have original designs of some early Pokemon. In one page from Twitter user James Turner you can clearly see some unused creations, including an imposing moose/deer and a creepy crocodile.
If there's more here I kind of want to get my hands on this! Leave it to Game Freak to guard secrets for years and then drop them on us, like the fact that there was another evolution of Pikachu with horns.
You knew it was just a matter of time. Just weeks after Fortnite launched on iOS, Epic has confirmed that its battle royale title (and really, cultural phenomenon) is coming to Android sometime in the summer. There's not much more to say at this stage, but it's safe to presume iOS' touch-native interface will carry over. And crucially, it should reflect some lessons learned since the mobile game arrived to ruin people's productivity.
Capcom's million-selling adventure title Monster Hunter: World has been big on the freebies lately. Last week saw players pick a free pack of Armour Spheres, while this week offers a new gift to budding hunters everywhere.
Logging into the game today will bag you the Play Together! Powder Gift Set. This set, released in part to celebrate the ongoing Monster Hunter Championships, includes 30 Life Powders, 20 Dragon Powders, 20 Hardshell Powders and 20 Herbal Powders. All for just being a part of the game's expansive community. Pretty neato.
Capcom have also updated the game's Event Quest Schedule, so you can check out what bounties and rewards are out there just waiting to be claimed. You can find the updated schedule right here.
Monster Hunter: World is available now on PS4 and Xbox One.
Owlboy is a great adventure platformer, but it's also an amazing story of perseverance. D-Pad Studio started to work on the project in 2007, and it took them nearly 10 years to release it. When they did though, it earned the respect of other studios and fans alike, and went from a modest PC release to a booming console launch.
It did so well on Switch actually that in a developer AMA on reddit, D-Pad confirmed that Owlboy has turned a profit within 24 hours of launch on Switch alone. The developer explains that it took them "completely by surprise," and that it "bodes well for funding future projects."
The big takeaway from this? Expect more projects from D-Pad Studio on the Switch. Heck, expect a lot of Switch projects from indie developers in the future.
Making a Deadpool movie involves a lot of nuance. Yeah, an absurd statement for the character that yells the word "chimichangas" constantly, but hear me out. Go too far down the spectrum, and you end up with a Deadpool that becomes an "LOL SO RANDOM!" unbearable meme. On the other end, Deadpool could become standard superhero fare that the character thrives in satirizing. To make such a movie successful, you have to get it just right.
So here's my hot take on Deadpool 2: it's the Goldilocks of Deadpool movies.
DC can't get its ass out of it's head (yes, I said that backwards, that's how backwards they are) with its movies, but on the TV side of things the "Arrowverse" has been solid as a whole. By taking some of the smaller DC characters, "CW'ing" them just a bit, and delivering solid, season-long stories that get way darker than you expect, they've delivered year in and out. Hell, Supergirl is doing Superman better than Superman does Superman.
And now they may get a chance to do Batman better than Batman, as Batwoman is going to roll into the shared multi-verse of the shows when the next big crossover lands. This also pulls in Gotham city and, one would assume, Batman -- in the same tangential way that Supergirl has included Superman. To be clear, this isn't the announcement of a Batwoman show, just a cameo by the character when Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, and Flash (probably not Black Lightning) all come together once again to battle some big bad.
SNK have announced that, sometime early next month, the developer will hold an online presentation to physically reveal the Neo Geo Mini console to the world, after it's initial announcement just last week.
The company are currently receiving questions from fans up until May 28 on their Twitter, and will answer some of the queries submitted during the reveal. Although there are no specific details on what the presentation will entail, it is likely that we'll get a release date and, hopefully, a price for the quirky little device.
The Neo Geo Mini launches later this year worldwide. It contains 40 SNK arcade classics, a 3.5 inch LCD screen, HDMI connectivity to monitors and USB ports for further controllers, which are rumoured to be based on the Neo Geo CD's gamepad design.
Swashbuckling pirate MMO Sea of Thieves will receive its first major update on May 29th. Microsoft's Xbox team made the announcement on Twitter with a short CGI trailer for 'The Hungering Deep' -- the first of six free expected DLC packs. Of all the criticisms leveled at Sea of Thieves, the most common (apart from bottlenecked servers) seem to be over its lack of content. But that's precisely what developer Rare has pledged to address in continued updates.
Kirby Star Allies is a short romp, like most Kirby games, but the meat is in its ability to entice you with multiple playthroughs. That's a lot easier to get on board with given that Nintendo is doling out free post-launch DLC, giving us iconic characters from the series to play with.
That includes an upcoming new batch, found in what's being called "Wave 2" of the free DLC, which was just teased on Twitter. It could be something completely out of left field, or it could be a character from this datamined list a while back.
Speculate away! I'm jazzed to go through it yet again once this wave is finished.
Microsoft is treating Xbox One owners to another firmware update today. The headline addition is Discord integration, allowing players to link their Xbox Live and third-party chat accounts. The process is a little convoluted — you have to start in the Discord app (on PC or a mobile device), link your Xbox account, then hop back to the Xbox One and dive into account settings. Here, you'll find a unique code that you need to punch into the Discord app. Once you've done all that, though, your Discord friends will be able to see what you're playing on Xbox Live, which is pretty neat.
Choice Provisions (classically known as Gaijin Games) has a pretty sweet thing going on. Since 2009 they've mostly made Bit.Trip games, while enjoying the occasional non-Bit success.
What's surprised me the most about them is just how much of a knack they have for incorporating sound into their projects, allowing players to up their game if they can play to the beat. Runner3 might be the best realization of their penchant for synesthesia yet.
