Sony brought more than 30 playable game demos to PAX Prime 2014

Posted on August 29, 2014 by John Scalzo

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The 2014 PAX Prime convention kicked off a little less than an hour ago and Sony plans to have a big presence in Seattle this weekend. The consolemaker will offer playable demos of more than 30 games including some of 2015’s most anticipated PS4 titles (Bloodborne, Until Dawn, and The Order: 1886). A variety of upcoming PS4 indies (including Nuclear Throne, Broforce, Galak-Z: The Dimensional, and N++) and Vita games (such as Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, Natural Doctrine, and Tales of Hearts R) will also be on display.

Sony also has a few activities planned for their booth including (via the PlayStation Blog):

Tim Schafer Signing
Tim Schafer from Double Fine will be in the booth on Friday and Saturday from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. to sign special posters for Grim Fandago Remastered. The posters will be in limited supply, so come early for a chance to get one!

Win a PS4 Signed by Ready At Dawn
Visit The Order: 1886 area for a chance to win a PS4 signed by members of the development team, Ready At Dawn. We’ll have all the details on how to win the console in our booth, though it may involve wearing #TheGalahad…

Freedom Wars T-Shirt Giveaway
All PAX goers are welcome to come by our booth for some four-player, Freedom Wars co-op. On top of that, fans that preorder the game at the show will walk away with an extremely limited PAX-Exclusive Freedom Wars t-shirt, featuring the ever so charming Percy Propa! For the Greater Good!

The full list of Sony’s playable demos can be found after the break.

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Gone Home leads Nintendo’s upcoming slate of Wii U and 3DS eShop releases

Posted on August 29, 2014 by John Scalzo

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Fullbright’s award-winning Gone Home will be coming home to the Wii U (via the Wii U eShop) this Fall. That’s rather fitting as a stash of Super NES games play a small part in the game’s plot. Gone Home is just one of more than three dozen games that Nintendo plans to add to the eShop through the end of the year and into early 2015.

Other highlights include the announcement that Slightly Mad’s Project CARS will be available exclusively through the Wii U eShop sometime in 2015 and that Renegade Kid has three 3DS games planned for this Fall: Treasurenauts, Xeodrifter, and Moon Chronicles: Episode 2.

Nintendo’s complete eShop release calendar for the next six months (or so) can be found after the break.

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Bayonetta 2 will be released on October 24

Posted on August 29, 2014 by John Scalzo

bayonettaWoo hoo witchy woman
See how high she flies
Woo hoo witchy woman
She got the moon in her eye

Nintendo unleashed a flurry of announcements this morning, so let’s get started with one of the biggest… Bayonetta 2 will be released for the Wii U on October 24.

Saying “the witch is back,” Nintendo also wants to remind everyone that the original Bayonetta will also be included with Platinum’s sequel.

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Bringing Ubisoft’s U Back to the Wii U

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Andrew Rainnie

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Ubisoft has been sending out mixed signals regarding Nintendo’s beleaguered home console over the last few months. Despite a renewed momentum in sales thanks to the likes of Mario Kart 8 and the release of Hyrule Warriors in Japan, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot announced that Watch Dogs would be the last mature game published on the Wii U. Guillemot pointed to the fact that the Wii U accounted for a mere three percent of the company’s sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014. The Xbox One doubled the Wii U’s total with 6%, and the PS4 tripled it with 9%. Impressive, considering they were both launched half-way through this period. The original Wii chipped in for 11%.

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Posted in Opinions, Top Story, Wii U |

Nintendo Download: Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, Azure Striker Gunvolt, SteamWorld Dig, more

Posted on August 28, 2014 by John Scalzo

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If you’re a fan of retro games, then I recommend taking a gander at this week’s Nintendo eShop update… you might just find something you like.

Wii U owners will be able to download Mega Man X3, the final Mega Man game released for the Super NES. SteamWorld Dig, Image & Form’s critically-acclaimed 3DS platformer, is also available for the Wii U today. Finally, The Fall, a moody platformer that the developer has compared to Super Metroid, was released earlier this week.

Over on the 3DS, players will get the chance to download Azure Striker Gunvolt, a Super NES-inspired game created by Keiji Inafune and Inti Creates. And for a limited time, players who purchase Azure Striker Gunvolt will also receive Mighty Gunvolt, an NES-inspired platformer, for free. Also available this week is Thorium Wars: Attack of the Skyfighter, a space shooter, and Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, a puzzle/crime-filled crossover of epic proportions.

You can find more information on all of these games after the break.

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Tales From the Borderlands will be playable at PAX Prime 2014

Posted on August 28, 2014 by John Scalzo

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We still don’t know what platforms it’s in development for or when it’ll be released, but Telltale Games has announced that a playable demo of Tales From the Borderlands will be present at this weekend’s PAX Prime convention, which begins tomorrow.

Telltale’s Tales From the Borderlands will tell the stories of Rhys, “a scheming, low-level data-miner within Hyperion who’s plotting his own grand ambitions” and Fiona, “a clever and classic fast-talking con-artist born and raised on Pandora out to pull off the grift of a lifetime.” Both characters will get the chance to narrate their own adventure meaning that events may not play out the same way each time. However, Tales From the Borderlands is official Borderlands canon, so whatever actually happens may affect futures Borderlands games.

If a promise of a playable demo isn’t enough to entice you, Telltale has also revealed that players will get the chance to win one of several Prime-exclusive t-shirts each day:

Players who arrive early can also walk away with one of multiple PAX Prime Exclusive T-Shirts for playing the demo! There will be different T-shirts each day, and it’s on a first come, first served basis! Arrive early and see how YOU fare upon your return to Pandora!

Tales From the Borderlands’ first episode will be released sometime before the end of the year and it is expected to be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Though, obviously, none of this has been confirmed by the publisher as of yet.

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Assassin’s Creed: Unity pushed back two weeks to November 11

Posted on August 28, 2014 by John Scalzo

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Ubisoft has announced they’ve been forced to delay Assassin’s Creed: Unity to add a final level of polish to the first Assassin’s Creed game released exclusively for new-gen consoles. Thankfully, the delay is only two weeks, so Unity will now launch alongside Assassin’s Creed: Rogue on November 11.

“Making games is not a precise science. It’s a leap of faith. There’s a good level of subjectivity and creativity,” Senior Producer Vincent Pontbriand said to the UbiBlog. He also talked a bit about some of the little things that need tweaking in the final days of development:

It’s the little things. A tiny gesture that Arno makes as he’s racing across the Parisian rooftops. A barely noticeable reaction from a solitary NPC in a crowd 3,000 deep. The subtle swaying motion of an opulent chandelier in a lavish ballroom. It’s these little things, multiplied by the thousands, that a development team focuses on during the final push to ship a game. And with a massive open-world title like Assassin’s Creed Unity, all those little things add up fast.

To ensure that Assassin’s Creed: Unity is the best game it can be, Ubisoft will also release a “Day 1” patch that will include additional tweaks and improvements.

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Harmonix reveals side-scrolling shooter A City Sleeps

Posted on August 28, 2014 by John Scalzo

While Harmonix keeps teasing the eventual return of Rock Band, that hasn’t stopped them from exploring other projects and concepts. For proof, just look at today’s announcement of A City Sleeps. The game is a side-scrolling shooter of the “bullet hell” variety that also mixes in music (of course) and an interesting art style.

A City Sleeps follows Poe, youngest member of The Silk, an ancient clan of dream exorcists that can enter the minds of sleeping hosts to rid their dreams of demons. When the residents of SanLo fall into an endless slumber, only Poe can rescue them from a never-ending nightmare. Equipped with her legendary Koto-sword “Heartstrings”, and flanked by her stable of powerful ghost familiars, she must cleanse their dreams, and uncover the city’s dark secrets.

As with all Harmonix games, music drives much of the gameplay including “player projectiles, enemy spawning, movement, and bullet patterns.” For the more traditional shooterati, Poe’s trio of ghosts will offer offensive and defensive bonuses including powerful “damage bursts” and “healing bullets.”

And we won’t have to wait long to get a chance to play it. A City Sleeps will be available to try out during this weekend’s PAX Prime convention and the game will be released on October 16 via Steam for Windows PC and Mac.

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