Square Enix has released a limited demo version of their upcoming fan service filled spin-off World of Final Fantasy across all major PlayStation Store regions. Unfortunately for handheld owners in North America the PS Vita demo version is not a random encounter on the PlayStation Store despite an English localization of the handheld demo being available in European countries.
World of Final Fantasy is the latest spin-off for Square’s long running RPG franchise and could be considered a “best of” collection, as the game features allusions to prior entries as well as chibi versions of characters from previous titles. In World of Final Fantasy the player guides a pair of siblings as they explore a fairy tale world where “giants” are able to transform from the chibi-style of character to full sized human beings at will. Featuring the classic Active Time Battle system combined with an intriguing “Mirage catching mechanic” not unlike the monster collecting in Nintendo’s Pokemon titles, World of Final Fantasy includes a heavy dose of nostalgia for the well informed and some new toys to play with that may intrigue newcomers.
The demo version is said to be light on plot, as it features the same combat tutorials and single explorable dungeons to the version that we sampled at the September Penny Arcade Expo.
World of Final Fantasy releases next Tuesday October 25th with the “day one” edition including extra DLC – the Japanese voice add-on pack probably being the most noteworthy. It is a bit of bummer that Square Enix chose to forgo releasing the PS Vita demo version in North America considering that the handheld version will be launching here in just a week’s time. Perhaps the best move for players who want a taste now is to create a separate European PSN account in-order to play the localized demo.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2follows up on its predecessors with a strange proposition. Imagine you’ve grown accustomed to driving a car without brakes. You hit other cars, you die, so you learn how to avoid doing so. You follow the road, you swerve correctly, you do fine, right? Then, one day, your car suddenly has brakes. And, when you hit other cars, it takes a couple hits before you actually crash. This would be disorienting, right? Because you’d have to completely relearn how to drive that car.
In Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, Pac-Man literally has a brake button.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 follows a recent tradition of modifying Pac-Man’s classic formula. Games like Pac-Man Battle Royale and Pac-Man 256 have proven that Pac-Man’s basic maze gameplay has a lot of unexplored depth, and the Championship Edition series has led the charge in showing off how interesting and unique Pac-Man can become.
As with its predecessors, Championship Edition 2 is gorgeous, with a blissful neon aesthetic and incredible techno music that will keep you going for hours of play. CE 2 takes advantage of its new position on next-gen hardware to deliver mind-bending visuals at a consistently high frame rate.
The game’s new 3D flourishes exemplify this, offering fluid animations as a new reward for skillful ghost busting. It’s not surprising that Namco’s sound team has outdone themselves, either, with clever sound effects and arguably the series’ strongest soundtrack.
In addition, fans of previous outings will find some of their favorite songs, like Pac Rainbow, left in tact, along with some series favorite mazes like Championship I & II, Highway, and Spiral. While the aesthetics remain the same, and callbacks to previous games will make series regulars feel at home, there’s a mountain of modifications to the gameplay that might not excite everyone.
From Pac-Man Championship Edition‘s release, Namco has shown it’s not afraid of changing Pac-Man in subtle ways. In the first Championship Edition, players initially play the game at the speed of the classics, collecting pellets and regenerating the maze’s layout as they collect fruit. DX changes things up a bit by allowing you to collect a “Ghost Train” rather than having to avoid the traditional four ghosts on the map.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 piles on new systems in a way that isn’t as satisfying as the natural evolution and simplicity found in the older titles. Pac-Man CE 2 adds, in no short order: Angry Ghosts, Boss Ghosts, a brake button, jumping, Ghost Routes, Runaway items, several new modes, and a compulsory tutorial just to cram all this in. It’s clear that Namco doesn’t want the series’ first proper numbered sequel to feel like a gentle iteration, but all of these revisions don’t gel with the simple gameplay of the original two titles.
Players who were looking for a game more similar to the original Championship Edition will be left out in the cold. CE 2 will feel more familiar to DX players who are used to chasing after Ghost Trains. In 2, rather than building up speed after collecting members of Pac-Man’s Ghost Train, the player starts off at full-speed, and any ghostly minions collected become trails behind the four main ghosts, Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde.
The challenge comes from chasing pellets at full-speed while avoiding both the roaming ghosts and their new trails. It’s a race against time, as before, trying to accumulate as many points as you possibly can before time runs out. At its strongest moments, CE 2 is a fast-paced score chaser that feels reminiscent of the gameplay offered by DX with some new and interesting twists.
Sometimes, those twists end up tangling up in one another and bog down the gameplay with undue complication. Changes pile upon each other and lead to series regulars needing to rethink their traditional CE play.
Grinding on the wall of the maze is still there, for instance, but because of Pac-Man’s increased speed and the unpredictable new behavior of ghosts, it doesn’t feel the same, and it’s something you typically want to avoid.
When eating ghosts, instead of going after the Ghost Train behind you in a satisfying finish, you’re sent on a frustrating chase after the four ghosts and their trains along Ghost Routes, colored escape routes that require memorization and constant attention.
New rules constantly interrupt basic tenets of gameplay put in place by DX, and while offering something new can be fun, the amount of relearning necessary might be challenging to those who have been playing CE DX for the past six years.
If all these new details weren’t aggravating on their own, they’re paired with new modes that only serve to highlight the game’s shortfalls. As in prior outings, the game is rife with unlockables, but rather than simply mastering each maze to seek rewards, players must conquer a new mode, Adventure. Adventure fails to deliver the classic, simple fun of the traditional score attack mode, and most players will likely avoid it altogether.
The new mode challenges players to complete several time attack missions in order to unlock Boss Battles, which are in themselves just a more challenging brand of time attack. Time attack isn’t very rewarding when failure is often found in having to battle stuff like Ghost Routes.
The process of completing stacks of time attack missions only to unlock even harder time attack missions isn’t rewarding, and if it weren’t for the promise of Galaga sprites for use within score attack, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. Within the context of 2, Adventure mode serves as an unfortunate annoyance.
Conclusion
By no means is Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 the weakest entry in the Pac-Man universe. At its best, Championship Edition 2 is fast and engrossing, pulling you in with engaging visuals and throbbing music. It’s a unique evolution on the classic arcade gameplay that you’d be hard-pressed to compare to its 1980 progenitor. Compared to its contemporaries, however, it lacks cohesion. At its worst, skillful play feels more like a wrestling match against new mechanics.
Pac-Man 256 and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX proved that you can iterate on the maze game formula without feeling overly complicated, without needing coercive tutorial levels, and without muddling what makes Pac-Man simple and fun to play. Mastery in titles like these is rewarded by a building sense of speed that motivates and excites.
Championship Edition 2 starts fast, stays fast, and ends with Pac-Man crashing into a wall of minions behind an Angry Ghost. If you’re ready to rethink the way you play Pac-Man, or you want to enjoy one of the best video game soundtracks this year, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is absolutely worth a shot, but you’d be remiss without playing stronger entries in the series first.
Circle Entertainment announced a new game at the Tokyo Game Show today which is being developed by Skipmore, developers of the Fairune series. The game, titled Picontier, is a pixel art slow living miniscape RPG which allows you to enjoy a slow living on the island.
In the game you spend your time farming, crafting, mining and fishing. And apparently if you’re the adventurous sort, you can take a journey to the dungeons to fight off monsters. What you do in the game and how you spend your time is all up to you as you follow the charming story by communicating with the strange beings on the island.
Designed by indie label SKIPMORE, who are known for their high quality pixel art and sound design, the game will be available in both English and Japanese. The game is currently on Steam Greenlight but is also being planned for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation 4.
Bandai Namco Entertainment announced today that they are partnering with Bigben Interactive to publish Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter in North America. The game will be released for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter is scheduled to launch in the Americas in October 2016.
Developed by Frogwares Games, Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter is a unique single-player adventure game where players take the role of Sherlock Holmes. Using Holmes’ superior powers of observation, deduction, and his uncanny photographic memory, players will explore the streets of London to chase and interrogate subjects in order to unravel five different mysteries ranging from a series of disappearances in the heart of Whitechapel to uncovering a mysterious Mayan treasure.
The awarding winning unique mashup of Tower Defence and Demon monster apartment management, Unholy Heights, is being brought to the PlayStation 4 by Teyon next week.
In the game you adopt the role of the Devil, who creates an apartment for monsters to defend against pillaging wannabe heroes! In this interesting Tower Defence game you sucker monsters to live in your apartment building by buying them furniture according to their needs. Once they are in your apartment, have them breed stronger offspring, charge them rent or KICK THEM OUT!
Your army is the only thing in the way of you and the sickeningly sweet good folk who try and erase the monsters presence.
WayForward issued an update on the progress of their HD Shantae game, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, and the news wasn’t happy news. The update is by no means dire, but the game is going to be delayed up to six weeks or more.
Developers have stated that the delay is for bug fixing and adding additional polish, which is definitely a good thing. With the rush to get many games out these days, many games are released relatively unfinished. Day one patches aren’t at all uncommon.
The release date has been pushed back from September 27th to sometime in mid-November. Still plenty of time before the height of the holiday shopping season. And while it’s certainly not great news, if it means a more polished and better game. It’ll be worth the wait.
Sony’s PlayStation Meeting is scheduled for just two and a half weeks from now, the world will finally know what Sony’s R&D department have been quietly working on for the past few years and get a fresh look at the upcoming PlayStation VR as well as the confirmed PlayStation NEO. Not only has the PlayStation Slim’s final production design been leaked but rumors are suggesting that Sony may unveil a mysterious third product. Here is why that makes a lot more sense than you think.
PlayStation 4 Slim Confirmed In The Wild
Prior to the PlayStation NEO’s official confirmation fans speculated that a ‘PlayStation 4 Slim’ and ‘PlayStation NEO’ could indeed be one in the same. This has now been confirmed false as the PlayStation 4 Slim’s final production model & retail packaging have leaked. At least one person has a retail unit in their hands at this very moment and comparisons to the 2013 PS4 are popping up all over the place.
According to The Verge the production PlayStation 4 Slim originally appeared on an online auction. The soon to launch configuration would include a 500GB hard drive, one Dual Shock 4 and the newly redesigned console. Ideally this would replace the existing larger PlayStation 4 launch model from 2013 rather than exist alongside it, there is no need for three separate SKUs + holiday bundles on the shelf. Now would be the perfect time to phase out the launch model and offer the re-design to consumers who don’t want to spring for the premium NEO experience.
Here is a look at the retail packaging thanks to Twitter:
What We Know About ‘PlayStation NEO’
PlayStation NEO is an iterative version of the PS4 architecture that will offer players a ‘premium experience’ thanks to several pieces of upgraded hardware under the hood. Not only will it provide support for 4K media & Ultra-High-Definition Blu Ray disks but it will also offer a specific ‘NEO Mode’ for games launching as early as this October. The hardware was initially rumored for months before being confirmed by Sony’s Andrew House back in June.
So what has changed under the hood? Given that this is not the PS5, don’t expect anything too radical, instead think of the NEO as the difference between a game on Medium or High graphics settings on a PC versus Ultra.
Here is a quick run of some of the rumored changes, it should be noted that multiple outlets have vetted these changes through development sources:
Base clock speed increase from 1.6GHZ to 2.1 GHZ
GPU clock frequency upped from 800 MHZ to 911MHZ
GDDR5 Memory BUS speed upped from 176 GBS to 218 GBS
Unanswered Questions Surrounding PlayStation NEO
While we have a detailed breakdown of the specs on offer by the upcoming PS NEO there is still a lot of things we simply don’t know.
First off is how much of a boost that the NEO specific mode will give players, with only a 100MHZ~ boost on the GPU this jump is very similar to the increase is similar to the one that Microsoft included with the Xbox One S, and digitally foundry found it only meant a few frames per second in select titles. Really the core improvement will be in the memory transfer speed and processor clock speed, let’s hope they give devs enough headroom to improve beyond the base PS4 model.
How will PS4 NEO interact with the PlayStation VR which is set to launch this October? It has already been confirmed that the PlayStation NEO does not exist because the PS VR experience on the original PS4 was subpar – this rumor was swiftly and officially debunked. PSVR requires an external processing box, about half of the size of an original PS4 console, in order to provide the processing needed to render two simultaneous images for the headset. Will NEO’s updated specifics mean that the processing box will not required? Hopefully we will find out at the PlayStation Meeting!
Lastly – what kind of fabrication process and AMD APU architecture does the NEO use? The original PS4 utilized AMD’s Jaguar Core, which originally made its debut on store shelves in 2012. Graphics card technology & processor tech have come a long way in the past four years, with AMD’s own Radeon 480 (based around the long in development Polaris core) not only setting the standard for price point but also enabling mainstream to enter VR at an affordable $200 USD. Polaris has been so successful that retailers can barely keep the cards in stock – could AMD pack in the latest version of their GPU technology into the NEO?
Here Comes A New Challenger
This is the part where things go off the rails completely with absolutely no factual basis whatsoever. Notice how one particular Sony platform was not only absent from this article so far but also missing from Sony’s E3 press conference? Yup, the PlayStation Vita seems to be missing in action for the past few months – especially after a Sony Exec referred to the platform as a “Legacy Platform” cast a shadow of doubt on the 4 year old handheld.
Today on NeoGAF someone reiterated rumors that sprang up in June – that Sony would announce 3 products at their next big reveal including a “PSP like device”. It seems that the leak of the PS4 Slim spurred the resurfacing of these unsubstantiated rumors but with Sony recently patching a Kernel Exploit on the console within a matter of days perhaps there is hope for a PS Vita revival.
It doesn’t seem likely that a PS Vita successor would be announced at the PlayStation Meeting, word about this would have simply leaked from development sources unless Sony is going to chock both the general public and the development community with an early teaser – the same way that Microsoft did with the Project Scorpio announcement at E3.
Fans have stated they’d an all new handheld with a lot more power – perhaps something in line with what Nintendo is planning for its unannounced NX Handheld. Others have speculated that Sony may embrace an open source platform like Android to power a PS Vita successor.
Realistically we are more likely to see a new PS Vita SKU sometime in 2017 rather than this holiday season. Not only does Sony have two large products launching this October – PS Neo & PSVR but PS Vita and Sony is already going to have their hands tied to selling consumers on VR and iterative hardware. With the Vita continually losing retail shelf space, developer support and facing an all-digital future perhaps a refreshed hardware SKU could include often requested like triggers for use with remote-play and HDMI out port.
The Choice Is Yours
Even if a potential PlayStation Vita successor or upgraded SKU does not appear there is a lot to be excited about. This wrap-up is over 1200 words and doesn’t mention any GAMES, you know the things that you own the multi hundred $ box for. Sometimes it can be hard to get wrapped up in specs and the future of technology but there is a lot to be excited for in the near term. Sony is going to have a bit of a challenge selling console owners on VR given how niche VR experiences are on the PC – which has had access to high-end VR for months. With the availability of the NEO potential owners will have a new choice to enter the 8th generation of games and it should drive down the cost of second hand launch PS4s, making the platform even more accessible.
We will see what Sony has in-store on September 7th!
Tripwire Interactive’s co-operative FPS zombie slaying title Killing Floor 2 will be coming to PS4 in both digital and retail flavors on November 18th thanks to publishers Deep Silver and Iceberg Interactive.
Killing Floor 2 was first playable on PlayStation 4 back at E3 where Tripwire demo’d the title on PlayStation 4 dev-kits, allowing attendees to try out the co-op action for themselves. The PS4 version was originally revealed at the 2015 PlayStation Experience alongside a PS4 Developer Diary Video.
We covered Killing Floor 2 back in August of last year while the title was still in Early Access on Windows PC. I really enjoyed the games high energy and upbeat soundtrack and the bright splashes of color Killing Floor 2 brings to the usually drab world of the post-apocalyptic undead. Tripwire interactive have been busy iterating on the title in the subsequent months since I last previewed the game, adding new maps and expanding upon existing player roles.
Completely reinventing the Match-3 genre, containing fast-paced action-puzzle multiplayer gameplay as well as a deep and cerebral single-player mode, Tumblestone arrives in the Wii U eShop today.
Tumblestone is being billed as the first original action-puzzle game of the past fifteen years. The game has the standard online and local multiplayer but also has a single player story mode. The story mode is said to boast a 40+ hour campaign that will test your puzzle-solving prowess. The game also features more than ten gameplay modifiers, challenge puzzles, and boss battles.
Check out a trailer for the game below, as well as some screens from the puzzler. In addition to the Wii U eShop, the game is also being released on the Xbox Live and on Steam today. Some last minute technical issues has delayted the PS4 digital release. While there is no price listed on Steam or PlayStation, the game is set to retail for $24.99 USD / $27.99 CAD in the Wii U eShop. The game will also be released in stores at a future date.
It’s going to get seriously creep in July. Capcom showed off a teaser trailer for Resident Evil 7 biohazard at the Sony Interactive Entertainment E3 press conference last night. And it looks slick.
Resident Evil 7 looks to be going back to its roots as it puts the story right back to where it all began – in the middle of nowhere. And to make things even more terrifying the game is going to be set in first person view in a photorealistic style. There hasn’t been a first person Resident Evil game since the side-game Reside Evil Survivor.
Resident Evil 7 is scheduled for release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC in North America and Europe on January 24th, 2017. The full gameplay experience will also be available via the included PlayStation VR Mode.
In perhaps the most unexpected, and at the same time exciting news, Crash Bandicoot is coming to Skylands! Of course Crash Bandicoot has been a longtme sibling game to Spyro the Dragon, on which the entire Skylanders series was based.
Crash will be exclusive to the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions of the game.
In this next game, a wormhole has opened in Skylands and the great Aku Aku appears! He has come to announce the once-in-two-decades Synchronization Celebration–a time when all of the worlds align perfectly. All the inhabitants of Wumpa Island are having a party and they want to invite the Skylanders. But with Kaos on a quest to take over Skylands using his army of Doomlanders, the Skylanders must focus on stopping his evil plans. Never one to shy away from danger, the legendary marsupial Crash Bandicoot leaps through the wormhole to join the Skylanders in the ultimate battle against Kaos!
While not officially announced by WayForward that I’ve seen, XSeed announced today that Shante: Half-Genie Hero will be among the upcoming games being released by XSeed Games to be shown off at E3 next week.
With vibrant, high-definition graphics bringing new detail to the series’ charming hand-drawn sprites, the newest entry is set to be released in the near future. According to XSeed’s release, they will be handling the physical release for PlayStation 4, PS Vita, and the Wii U.
In the game Shantae is roused from a deep sleep, suddenly alert. She plunges into the moonlit forest in search of answers. In nearby Scuttle Town she discovers a mysterious trapdoor, and beyond that, a luminous subterranean cavern. A familiar voice calls out, drawing Shantae to a beautiful fountain. Touching its waters she is immediately spirited away to the fabled Genie Realm. At her feet a magical seal swells as some powerful evil seeks escape. The chamber trembles with a deep, bellowing roar and everything goes white. Shantae sits upright, back in her bed. Was it just a dream? Or a vision of things to come?
Image & Form announced today that SteamWorld Heist will release worldwide on Steam on June 7th! The price will be $19.99 USD and comes with a 15% launch discount for the first week after release.
On the same day, SteamWorld Heist will also be released for PlayStation 4 and PS Vita in the Americas. The game will be released one day later in Europe. The PlayStation versions will feature cross-buy (buy the game on one platform, get the other one for free).
“The Outsider” DLC pack, which adds new levels, hats, weapons and a playable character, will be available on the day of launch for both Steam and PlayStation for $4.99 USD.
Aksys Games and Arc System Works announced on Friday that BlazBlue: Central Fiction will be released this Winter in North America physically and digitally on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3.
BlazBlue: Central Fiction is the newest installment in the BlazBlue franchise in the 2D fighting series. The game will feature a brand new story, new characters, levels, modes, and system mechanics, and there will be over 33 fighters to choose from.
Abstraction Games announced today that their upcoming game Kick & Fennick will be released this June.
The game is an exciting action-filled adventure about a little boy, a big robot, an even bigger gun. The game is a physics platformer where the game’s charming namesake character Kick, must bounce, dodge, dash and leap their way through 45 levels and find his way to the Core Tower to save Fennick
Kick & Fennick tells the story of a young boy named Kick who finds himself waking up in a bright and colorful, yet dangerous world. Armed with a giant gun that can be used to shoot down enemy robots, while also allowing him to make huge jumps using the weapon’s powerful recoil, Kick searches for a way to the highest tower in the city to find a new energy core for Fennick, his helpful flying robot friend. Together they must explore this strange new world, jumping and shooting their way through 45 levels of collapsed skyscrapers, treadmills, bounce-pads, magnets, teleporters, and a big guard robot that are out to stop Kick at all costs!
