Most Recent: PS4

Apex Legends is a new Battle Royale game from Respawn and it’s available to download right now

Posted on February 4, 2019 by John Scalzo

Respawn Entertainment is breaking into the Battle Royale scrum with Apex Legends, a free-to-play game for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One that takes place within the Titanfall universe (but which doesn’t actually include any Titans).

Available to download right now, Apex Legends will feature a variety of unique characters who will compete against each other to be the last one standing (and to collect loot, of course):

Overview
Conquer with character in Apex Legends, a free-to-play* Battle Royale shooter where legendary characters with powerful abilities team up to battle for fame & fortune on the fringes of the Frontier. Master an ever-growing roster of diverse Legends, deep tactical squad play and bold new innovations that level up the Battle Royale experience… all within a rugged world where anything goes.

Features

  • A Roster of Legendary Characters: Master a growing roster of powerful Legends, each with their own unique personality, strengths and abilities that are easy to pick up but challenging to truly master.
  • Build Your Crew: Choose your Legend and combine their unique skills together with other players to form the ultimate crew.
  • Strategic Battle Royale: Use your abilities (and your wits) to make strategic calls on the fly, adapting your crew’s strengths to meet new challenges as the match evolves.
  • Genre-Evolving Innovation: Experience a brand-new array of innovative features that level up the Battle Royale genre, including Respawn Beacons, Smart Comms, Intelligent Inventory and an all-new way to drop into the action with Jumpmaster deployment.
  • Sweet, Sweet Loot: Drop in and loot up with a host of powerful weapons, diverse attachments and useful armor to protect you in battle. After the fight, collect a wealth of cosmetic options for personalizing your character and weapons, and unlock new ways to show off during the match.

Respawn has uploaded a trio of new trailers to help you learn more about how Apex Legends works. A Cinematic Trailer, a Gameplay Trailer, and a Gameplay Deep Dive Trailer have all been embedded after the break. (more…)

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Madden 19 flubs Super Bowl LIII prediction as the Patriots defeat the Rams 13-3

Posted on February 4, 2019 by John Scalzo

There were a lot of big moments at Super Bowl LIII, but they all seemed to be happening on the defensive side of the ball, and that is not what Madden NFL 19‘s official Super Bowl Simulation promised.

The latest entry in EA Sports’s long-running franchise predicted that the Los Angeles Rams would push past the New England Patriots in a tight-knit (but high-scoring) game. But instead of a 30-27 shootout that ultimately favored the west coast franchise, the Patriots managed to stumble their way to victory in real life thanks to a fourth quarter touchdown and a winning score of 13-3. That minuscule scoring line actually made it the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever.

Super Bowl LIII was one for the old guys as Tom Brady became the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl (at age 41), and Bill Belichick did the same as the oldest coach to win “The Big Game” (at age 66). With six Super Bowl Championships, the Patriots tied the Pittsburgh Steelers as the most successful football franchise of all time.

But there’s no joy at EA Sports, for this loss drops Madden’s predictive powers to 10-6 since the publisher first ran an official Super Bowl Simulation in 2004. But EA Sports’s picks have been especially bad in the last six years, correctly picking the winner only twice.

For those keeping track at home, that’s worse than a coin flip.

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Sony will release Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son for PlayStation VR later this year

Posted on February 2, 2019 by John Scalzo

Get your torches and pitchforks ready, Sony has announced they’re working on a sequel to Groundhog Day…

But perhaps put them down, as the story’s continuation will actually be a game sequel and not a movie that couldn’t possibly live up to the original. Announced earlier today, Sony will release the PSVR-powered Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son for the PS4 sometime this year.

Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son is in development at Tequila Works, and rather than rope in Bill Murray, the game follows Phil Connors Jr. as he becomes trapped in his own time loop. More details about how it’ll all work are available on the PlayStation Blog thanks to Creative Director Raul Rubio:

In Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son, you’ll play the charming but arrogant Phil Connors Jr., who grew up in the shadow of his father — a man who spent a lifetime repeating a single day until he had made it perfect. But for Phil Jr., today is the worst day of his life. He’s trapped back home in Punxsutawney, the small town he thought he’d escaped — where he can’t even get a decent cappuccino — and he’s going to have to repeat the day over and over until he learns the true value of friends and family.

Like the film, the game will branch out into wildly different scenarios depending on the choices made by Phil (no word yet if the game will include a variety of gruesome suicide options):

This game contains a time loop mechanic with multiple branching narratives, as well as individual meaningful stories that we can build upon. It also includes the same dark humor of the original film, letting us play around with the inherent instinct of every VR player to mess with everything around them. James Siciliano of Rick and Morty and Joshua Rubin of Telltale lent their expertise to help us build this original story from the world of the beloved movie. We have developed an ever-changing experience through deep branching narrative gameplay and full interaction with all NPCs. Because what would you do with eternity if there were no tomorrow?

Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow this morning, so that means Spring is right around the corner. Unfortunately, the rodent doesn’t control Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son’s release date, and all we know for sure is that it’ll be available “later this year” through the PlayStation Store.

Posted in News, PS4 |

NetherRealm konfirms that Kano will appear in Mortal Kombat 11

Posted on February 1, 2019 by John Scalzo

Mortal Kombat fans, lend me your ears…

Kano, the leader of the Black Dragon Clan and nemesis to Sonya Blade, will be joining Mortal Kombat 11 as a playable character. NetherRealm Studios delivered the news yesterday via Twitter, likely in lieu of Wednesday’s canceled Kombat Kast stream. The polar vortex hit Chicago particularly hard and the developer moved the broadcast for the “safety of [their] team.”

Mortal Kombat 11’s first Kombat Kast will now be held on Tuesday, February 5, at 4:00 PM (Eastern Time), and we’ll likely learn more about the game’s roster then.

And don’t forget, Mortal Kombat 11’s launch is coming up very soon after that. It’ll be available for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One on April 23.

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Ed Boon responds (in typical Ed Boon fashion) to a fan petition asking to add Scooby Doo’s Shaggy to Mortal Kombat 11

Posted on January 29, 2019 by John Scalzo

Did you know that Scooby Doo’s pal Shaggy has godlike powers? It’s one of the stranger memes currently circulating around the Internet (even Matthew Lilliard is somehow involved), and Mortal Kombat fans recently took it one step further by asking NetherRealm Studios to add the mystery-solving teen to the upcoming Mortal Kombat 11.

The Change.org petition has more than 165,000 signatures as of this writing, and it even prompted a response from Ed Boon, NetherRealm’s Creative Director. But in typical fashion for Boon, the developer spent the day teasing his fans about Shaggy’s possible inclusion in Mortal Kombat 11 on Twitter.

First, he sarcastically told his followers that it wasn’t happening (“Let me know how that works out for you…“). But he followed that up a few hours later with a second tweet that hinted Shaggy might make it into the game after all.

Mortal Kombat and Scooby Doo both live under the vast corporate umbrella of Warner Bros., so Shaggy could easily be added to the blood-soaked series if the right executives signed off on it. But while it’s unlikely that Warner Bros. would want one of their family-friendly characters fighting for his life in the game, it wouldn’t be first time Shaggy was involved in a more adult adventure. DC Comics’s Scooby Apocalypse series is absolutely drenched in blood and gore, so that version of Shaggy would be right at home in Mortal Kombat 11.

The comic also features a cybernetically-enhanced Scrappy Doo and a dream sequence where Velma becomes the bikini-clad “Monster Queen”… it’s a weird book.

Mortal Kombat 11 will be released for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One on April 23. I have my doubts that Shaggy will make the cut, but nothing seems to be impossible for NetherRealm Studios.

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MLB The Show 19’s newest Teaser Trailer features “Big Sexy” Bartolo Colon

Posted on January 29, 2019 by John Scalzo

Even though Bartolo Colon is 45 years old, he still wants to play Major League Baseball in 2019. And he just might get the chance, because Bartolo Colon is possibly immortal. The seemingly-invincible pitcher has amassed 247 career wins and a comically rotund physique that has earned him the nickname “Big Sexy” (and a legion of fans to go with it).

He is also the star of the newest Teaser Trailer for Sony’s MLB The Show 19.

At first parodying a commercial for cologne, the pitcher is shown whacking his one career home run (in sexy live-action), before transitioning to show the same highlight in MLB The Show 19. You can view it for yourself above, but it’s as glorious as you’d expect.

MLB The Show 19 will be released exclusively for the PS4 on March 26, and stay tuned for the first Gameplay Trailer, which will be unveiled on February 5.

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Madden NFL 19’s Super Bowl LIII simulation predicts the Rams will beat the Patriots

Posted on January 28, 2019 by John Scalzo

Tom Brady will spend this Sunday looking to capture his sixth Super Bowl Ring, but he might not want to call his jeweler just yet. According to Madden NFL 19‘s official Super Bowl XIII Simulation, the Los Angeles Rams will defeat the New England Patriots by a score of 30 to 27.

EA Sports also uploaded a video featuring gameplay footage from their simulation, and it’s been embedded above. But if everything breaks the same way in real life, Aaron Donald will capture the MVP Award with four sacks, while Jared Goff will throw for over 300 yards:

Aaron Donald finished his dominant season with a Super Bowl record four sacks to cement his first MVP award. Other player highlights included Jared Goff topping Tom Brady by throwing for 303 yards to Brady’s 287 yards, while both garnered two touchdown passes and one interception. Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman and Rams wide receiver Robert Woods both hauled in eight catches and one touchdown for a total of 104 and 103 receiving yards respectively. Pats running back Sony Michel was the top rusher with 103 yards and touchdown, while no Rams player rushed for more than 100 yards, with running back C.J. Anderson maxing out at 64 yards on 18 carries.

Will the Madden series make yet another correct prediction? We’ll all find out this Sunday, February 3, when Super Bowl LIII kicks off at 6:30 PM (Eastern Time).

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New Retail Releases: Kingdom Hearts III, More

Posted on January 28, 2019 by John Scalzo

It’s been a little more than a decade since Square Enix released Kingdom Hearts II for the PS2 back in 2005, but they’ve been very busy producing spinoffs and compilations in the years since.

That all changes this week, as the publisher is finally ready to launch Kingdom Hearts III for the PS4 and Xbox One. The threequel is the first game in the franchise produced exclusively for current-generation consoles, and it will finally give fans a conclusion to the “Dark Seeker Saga”.

A handful of other games will be available on retail shelves this week, but they don’t pack quite the punch as Square Enix’s RPG does.

The Council is an investigative adventure game for the PS4 and Xbox One that gives players the chance to explore an English secret society in the 1790s. Genesis Alpha One will also launch for the PS4 and Xbox One, and it’s a futuristic adventure that’ll allow players to explore and build a space habitat.

PQube’s Song of Memories will be available exclusively for the PS4 this week, and it’s a romantic RPG that also includes an apocalyptic virus.

Finally this week, THQ Nordic will resurrect PS2-era platformer Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy for the Switch. And PM Studios will bring their musical adventure, Deemo, to the Switch… and it also includes support for the Piano Toy-Con from Nintendo Labo: Variety Kit.

That’s it for this week’s new retail releases. But we’ll be back soon with updates for the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.

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