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Pop quiz, hotshot: you’ve got three minutes to defuse a bomb, and the only way to do so is to listen to your friend’s suggestions as they try to make sense of the puzzling instruction manual.
What do you do?
A new cooperative game for the Oculus Rift, aptly named Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, looks like it’s an absolute riot – and more than likely will cause quite a few arguments. No concrete information has been released on the title, but the video pretty much speaks for itself.
Atlus today revealed that four new titles in the highly popular Persona universe will be making their way to the North America over the next two years.
First on the list is Persona 5, set to hit the PlayStation 3 in 2015. Persona 5 will be a traditional RPG, but details are slim. The game’s director, Katsura Hashino, only provided us (via the PlayStation Blog) with one cryptic hint of what to expect: “The storyline will be about throwing off the chains of oppression to find one’s true self.’
Second is the next installment of Persona’s fighter, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. A direct sequel to last year’s Persona 4 Arena, Ultimax will host several new features, including new characters, story, and fighting modes. Expect P4AU to hit the PS3 and the Xbox 360 in Fall 2014. You can take a look at Ultimax in motion on Atlus’ YouTube page.
Next, Persona 4: Dancing All Night is a rhythm action game, using tunes from the series. This PlayStation Vita title features 30 tracks, along with a full story mode. Not many details were given about this title, other than that instead of traditional attacks, characters combat each other with dance moves. Hey, why not? It’s worked before. Hold on to your dance shoes, though; this one won’t hit the Vita until 2015.
Finally, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth will unite the Persona users across space and time on the 3DS this Fall. A teaser trailer is available through Atlus’ YouTube page.
Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation is an upcoming book by Blake Harris that details the struggle between Nintendo and Sega starting from the beginning. “The battle was vicious, relentless, and highly profitable, eventually sparking a global corporate war that would be fought on several fronts: from living rooms and schoolyards to boardrooms and Congress. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, no-holds-barred conflict that pitted brother against brother, kid against adult, Sonic against Mario, and the US against Japan,” the book’s blurb reads.
But what’s even more exciting is that, before the book has even come out, the movie rights have already been purchased. According to Booktrade.info, the movie is being developed by Sony Pictures and Scott Rudin, and will be directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who also wrote the book’s foreword, and will be writing the screenplay as well. Harris, who is already co-directing a documentary about this, will be the Executive Producer, and Goldberg, Rogen, and Rudin will also be producers.
Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation is due out in hardcover on May 13.
Dean Hall, the game designer from New Zealand who brought us the ArmA II mod DayZ, told Eurogamer he will be stepping down as the leader on the game. He plans to return home to New Zealand and create a game studio there, where he will “keep trying to create that elusive, perfect multiplayer game.” He knows the process won’t be overnight, so his people are going to “start it cooking” now.
It doesn’t hurt that Hall already has five ideas for games – three that are already written, and two that are rough. “‘A lot of them have similar DNA [to DayZ],’ he said, because he’s ‘fascinated’ by multiplayer games and because he’s ‘very interested’ in survival games.” But with DayZ, he feels like it’s “kind of like cooking in someone else’s kitchen: I don’t want to be constantly telling Bohemia that this is how I do it and this is the way we do it.” He’s not going to screw them over, though:
Much can change in a year, of course. Is Hall’s mind set? “Oh, it’s set. Definitely,” he nodded. But he won’t leave DayZ in the lurch – won’t leave at a crucial time. “I would extend my involvement here as long as Bohemia wanted – needed – me,” he stressed. In other words, there’s flexibility.
Check out the full interview over at Eurogamer.
Capcom has released a new trailer for their upcoming RPG, Deep Down, and it’s a good one. “Bad men took me away… and I woke up here, in the dark… you’re coming for me, aren’t you?” says a small child. Also, check out that Mimic at the 32 second mark. Yes.
Deep Down is scheduled to be released on the PlayStation 4 sometime this year.
It’s almost time for one of our favorite events of the year: PAX East! They’ve announced their selections for the Indie Showcase, which has six “of the best indie games you’ve never heard of available on mobile platforms.”
The games are Crowman & Wolfboy (which has “an unlikely pair of shadow creatures on a bizarre journey to escape their own nature and find the mysterious ‘humans'”), Duet (no, not Cypher Prime’s Duet – “a hypnotic new ‘hex-like’ mobile action arcade game with a mesmerizingly beautiful soundtrack by Melbourne composer and Gotye multi-instrumentalist Tim Shiel”), Framed (“an award winning narrative-puzzle game that plays like an animated comic book”), The Spookening (“a 3D scare ‘em up game à la Tim Burton, where you die every night and spawn as a ghost trying to resurrect”), Tiny Dice Dungeon (a game that “brings RPGs back to their roots… no more mysterious battle stats, instead you directly control what happens by rolling the virtual dice”), and Wayward Souls (“an action-adventure dungeon crawler with randomized levels and permanent death”).
For a full description of the games, head to the PAX East Indie Showcase page.
Oculus Rift is suspending production of Dev Kit 1 due to a lack of materials, the company posted on their subreddit. Andres Hernandez, the company’s Community Manager, explained the situation:
Certain components used in the Oculus Rift developer kit are no longer being manufactured, meaning they are no longer available to us for production. As a result, we don’t have the necessary materials to produce additional kits. We still have some stock available, but we’re quickly running out. We are looking into alternate sources for the needed components, and we don’t yet have a timeline for when additional units will be available. We’ll be sure to keep everyone posted.
He went on to say that the only locations they are selling and shipping to are the United States, Canada, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Switzerland, and Norway.
Finally, he thanked the supporters of Oculus, saying it couldn’t have been done without them – trying to put a positive spin on this obviously negative situation.
Over at Road to VR, Ben Lang speculates that the missing component is most likely the screen:
The screen is the most likely bet for the component Oculus is missing. The Rift developer kit (DK1) was originally planned to use a 5-inch panel. When it was discontinued before Rift production, Oculus moved to the current 7-inch 1280×800 panel. I can’t imagine that such a panel, previously found in devices like UMPCs, draws much demand in 2014.
He goes on to make the most important point: “High demand for the developer kit is a good problem to have, but suspended sales is not one that you want to have for long; the Rift would be dead in the water without content made by developers by the time it hits the consumer market.” Hopefully there will be news soon on Dev Kit 2.
It’s Tuesday again, which means game release day! Today marks the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, as well as the new Professor Layton game. Too bad I’m nowhere near caught up enough in either series to be that far along!
But at least there’s one thing I’m caught up in, and that’s deals. Best Buy is having a pretty great sale right now – they’re offering 20% off prepaid Nintendo eShop cards. If there are some digital games you’ve been looking to download to your Nintendo systems, this is a really great way to save yourself some money doing it!
As usual, there are some new deals over at Steam. The Midweek Madness deals are on RPG Maker VX Ace (marked down to $17.49) and State of Decay (marked down to $9.99). Their Daily Deal is on Strike Suit Zero, which is $9.99.
I’ve got a few t-shirts for you today as well…
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