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PSN Today: Madden NFL 25, Final Fantasy XIV, Lost Planet 3, more

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A quintet of new PS3 releases have made their way to the PlayStation Store on the same day as their retail release.

The games include Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, Square Enix’s second shot at an MMORPG; Lost Planet 3, the latest entry in Capcom’s alien ice planet action series; Hatsune Miku Project Diva F, a rhythm game from Sega; Killer Is Dead, the latest game from Suda 51; and Madden NFL 25, EA Sports’ annual prfessional football simulation.

Also available this week is Spelunky, a quirky platformer that comes to the PSN and PS Vita as a Cross-Buy title, and Sweet Fuse: At Your Side, a PSP game where you play as Keiji Inafune’s niece. Sure, why not?

More information on all of these titles (and several others) can be found after the break. And, as always, a complete list of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)

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Ubisoft’s PAX Prime 2013 Lineup: Watch Dogs, The Crew, AC4: Black Flag, Rayman Legends

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After a big showing at last weekend’s Gamescom, Ubisoft is gearing up for another big demonstration of their upcoming lineup at this weekend’s PAX Prime. The publisher plans to show four games at their booth with an additional pair (The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot and Might & Magic: Duel of Champions) in the LAN Area.

Ubisoft’s booth (#612) will include demo stations for The Crew, and Rayman Legends. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Watch Dogs will also be on hand, though both will be hands-off only.

Ubisoft’s booth will include a host of other activities such as a picture station with Black Flag’s pirate assassin, Edward Kenway. Black Flag fans will also be able to score an inflatable cutlass sword while Watch Dogs watchers can collect a logo-branded lanyard.

Ubisoft’s only playable next-generation game at PAX Prime is the “massive open world action-driving game” The Crew. In addition to a hands-on demo, fans will be able to drive away with an exclusive keychain.

PAX Prime 2013 will take place this weekend, August 30 through September 2, in Seattle. I hope you’ve already got your tickets, because they’ve been sold out for months.

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Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD will include a harder “Hero Mode”

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Not content with just offering the normal difficulty setting, Nintendo has announced that The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD will feature an additional difficultly setting called Hero Mode. The higher difficulty setting, also seen in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, will remove healing hearts from being found in the environment, forcing Link to seek out fairies or potions. Not only that, but enemy AIs will dish out double the damage they do in Normal Mode.

This new feature is one of several to be added to the original game, including Swift Sail, which allows players to control the King of Red Lions ship directly, rather than indirectly changing direction by controlling the wind. The GamePad’s second screen will also allow players to effectively play the game as an FPS, in a similar way to Link’s Crossbow Training on the Wii. Along with the improved HD graphics, this version of Wink Waker is shaping up to be a must-own game.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD will be available in October.

[Source: Polygon]

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Shadow of the Beast remake spilling blood on PS4

Sony has announced that Heavy Spectrum Entertainment Labs, best known for its PlayStation mobile titles Bullion Blitz and Puzziball, is reviving the old Amiga classic Shadow of the Beast. Originally developed by Reflections Interactive and released in 1989, it was published by Liverpool firm Psygnosis, which was later enveloped into the Sony brand as SCE Studio Liverpool. Although that studio was shut down last year, Sony still retains the rights to the game.

The original side-scrolling game was well known for its then-superior graphics and high quality score composed by David Whittaker, who is now Head of Audio at Traveller’s Tales. Other than the brief CGI teaser trailer, very little else is known, although Sony may be looking at this title to carry on the God of War crown. Hopefully Heavy Spectrum will find a way to make the material fresh as well as paying homage to the original.

Now all we need is for Sega to revive Altered Beast!

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CoD: Black Ops II Apocalypse DLC now available on XBLM

Call of Duty: Black Ops II‘s Apocalypse DLC Pack is now available to download through the Xbox Live Marketplace. The downloadable content includes four new maps and new Zombies scenario, “Origins.” You can get a taste of the Apocalypse in the gameplay trailer posted above. You’ll note that it features not one, not two, but three massive robots.

Season Pass owners will be able to download the Apocalypse DLC Pack for free, while the rest of us will have to pay $14.99 (Microsoft Points are officially dead). Presumably, the pack will also be available to download on the PC and PS3 by the end of September.

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Sony is bringing playable demos of EVERYTHING to PAX Prime 2013

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With 25 playable games, Nintendo has a pretty impressive PAX Prime 2013 lineup. It’s perhaps the most impressive group of titles available on display this year and… wait… Sony is going to have how many games at this year’s PAX Prime? I see. That certainly is a lot. But is it more than Nintendo? Oh, well alright then…

Ladies and gentlemen, Sony will have nearly 40 playable games to this weekend’s PAX Prime expo! There’ll be ten PS4 games (including InFamous: Second Son, DriveClub, and Killzone: Shadow Fall), nine PS3 games (including Beyond: Two Souls, Gran Turismo 6, and Rain), and 20 Vita games (including Killzone: Mercenary, Tearaway, and Luftrausers). Basically, the publisher is bringing nearly every announced, but unreleased, game they have to Seattle. That’s impressive.

You can find the full list of playable titles after the break and you can Sony’s massive PAX Prime presence at Booths 112, 122, 212, and 222. (more…)

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Blizzard teases Diablo III: Reaper of Souls will come to consoles at some point

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Speaking to Polygon during this weekend’s Gamescom expo, Game Director Josh Mosqueira hinted that Diablo III: Reaper of Souls wlll likely come to consoles at some point:

“Our philosophy has always been we work on one project at a time,” said Mosqueira. “We’ve got Diablo 3 on PC, we released it and then a small team splintered off to work on Diablo for the current consoles. Now the team’s really focused on Reaper of Souls for PC. So if you look at the past, you can probably infer what the future might bring. We don’t have any announcements at this point.”

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is currently on track for a 2014 launch and it is the first expansion to the PC version of Diablo III, which was released in May 2012. The PS3 and Xbox 360 editions of Diablo III will be released next week. So it might be a while before Reaper of Souls does any reaping on the PS3 or Xbox 360.

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Gran Turismo 6 on PS4 may be released as Gran Turismo 7

granturismo6-logoBringing Gran Turismo 6 to the PS4 has always been part of the plan at Polyphony Digital. But if Kazunori Yamauchi has his way, the game might appear on Sony’s next console in a slightly altered form.

Speaking to Joystiq, Polyphony’s CEO said that when Gran Turismo 6 finally does come to the PS4, it may actually be retitled to Gran Turismo 7.

Aside from saying that a PS4 addition to the franchise of the game wouldn’t be released for a very long time, Yamauchi revealed that the “vision” of Gran Turismo 6 might not properly carry over to the PS4, which would require a numbering change.

So to recap, Gran Turismo 6 is likely coming to the PS4, though it won’t be happening anytime soon. But it might be so different that Polyphony Digital would be forced to upgrade it to a full sequel when it is finally released. And all of this leaves us… right back where we started. So now I wonder, why did Yamauchi even say anything?

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