Sega has announced that Valkyria Chronicles Remastered, a remake of the underappreciated turn-based strategy game from 2008, will be available for the PS4 on May 17.
Part of Valkyria Chronicles’s appeal (and part of the reason why it flew under the radar for so long) is its unique battle system, which Sega has chosen to highlight in the trailer embedded above. Newcomers and veterans alike will be able to familiarize themselves with the game’s BLiTZ System, which Sega describes as “part overhead turn-based strategy, part RPG, and part real-time third person shooter.”
With its jump to the PS4, Valkyria Chronicles Remastered will receive a full graphical overhaul, along with every piece of downloadable content (“Hard EX Mode,” “Edy’s Mission,” “Selvaria’s Mission,” and “Challenge of the Edy Detachment”), dual Japanese and English audio, and Trophy support. The first print run will also “come protected” in a collectible metal “Squad 7 Armored Case.”
For the last few years, Sony has flooded the PlayStation Store with quality titles in the Spring as part of their “Spring Fever” event. “Spring Fever” is no more, but the spirit of that event lives on in this year’s “Launch Party,” which will deliver a half-dozen new games to the PS4 and Vita this Spring.
Head over to the PlayStation Blog (or keep reading) to find out more about each of these titles:
Salt and Sanctuary (March 15)
We’ve admired Ska Studios’ games from afar for years, and we’re so thrilled to have their latest masterpiece debut exclusively on PS4! If you’ve enjoyed games like Bloodborne or Dark Souls you’ll feel right at home in Salt and Sanctuary’s brutal but beautiful world (brutiful?). Deep combat and rich RPG elements, all set in a cursed realm of forgotten cities, blood-soaked dungeons, and desecrated monuments. What else could you want? (PS4 + PS Vita Cross-Buy)
Day of the Tentacle Remastered (March 22)
We’re so excited to be working with Double Fine on bringing another classic LucasArts adventure to PS4, after their fantastic work on Grim Fandango. Originally released in 1993, Day of the Tentacle is a mind-bending, time travelling, cartoon puzzle adventure game in which three unlikely friends work together to prevent an evil mutated purple tentacle from taking over the world! This loving remaster features all-new, hand-drawn, high-resolution artwork, with remastered music and sound effects. (PS4 + PS Vita Cross-Buy)
Enter the Gungeon (April 5)
Enter the Gungeon is the latest in our ongoing partnership (more of a kinship, really) with Devolver Digital, developed by the devious geniuses at Dodge Roll. Making its console debut on PS4, Gungeon combines The Binding of Isaac-style dungeons with an action-packed repertoire of shooting, looting, dodge-rolling, and table-flipping (and two-player local co-op!). All on a quest to reach the ultimate treasure: a gun that can kill the past! (Of course.) (PS4)
Stories: The Path of Destinies (April 12)
Spearhead Games was one of the very first developers to jump on the PS4 train with their underrated multiplayer puzzler Tiny Brains. They’ve been working hard ever since on a sumptuous action-RPG called Stories: The Path of Destinies, a madcap epic fantasy where each choice you make takes you through a different story. Each story — some dark, some romantic, all action-packed — is true in its way, and will lead you to victory if you pay enough attention… (PS4)
Invisible Inc (April 19)
If you’re anything like us, you’re still playing Klei Entertainment’s singular PS4 survival sim Don’t Starve, over two years later. Invisible, Inc. is a very different beast, but similarly applies Klei’s whip-smart design prowess and beautifully stylized aesthetic to a tactical turn-based adventure. Take control of Invisible’s agents in the field and infiltrate the world’s most dangerous corporations. Stealth, precision, and teamwork are essential in high-stakes, high-profit missions, where every move may cost an agent their life. (PS4)
Alienation (April 26)
If you’ve ever played Super Stardust, Resogun, or Dead Nation, you know the visceral pleasures Housemarque is capable of. They’ve collaborated with SCE Worldwide Studios on another amazing PS4 exclusive, where 1-4 players can team up online against alien hoards with an array of conventional and hybrid weaponry. All taking place in massively destructible environments where collateral damage can literally bring the house down! (PS4)
All six games are currently available to pre-order from the PlayStation Store and buying any of them early will net you a 20% discount on the final price.
Telltale Games has been busy, busy, busy over the last few years. Since 2013, the developer has launched five different episodic titles (The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead Season 2, Tales From the Borderlands, Game of Thrones, and Minecraft: Story Mode), and they don’t seem to have any plans for slowing down. This year, Telltale will release the final episode for Mincraft: Story Mode, along with The Walking Dead: Michonne and maybe even Game of Thrones Season 2. They’ll also release the first episode of a brand new Batman series this year, possibly their biggest game ever.
Telltale CEO Kevin Bruner recently sat down with Kotaku Australia to discuss the company’s future, and he had a lot to say about the Caped Crusader:
“Our Batman series is looking fantastic. I think it might become one of the best things we’ve ever done. I can’t go into much detail, but the Batman team is amazing and they are really on top of it. It’s not like any other Batman game out there. This game really explores all aspects of Batman, not just the the ‘fighting in the suit’ side of him. There’s a lot of subplots to explore and some really amazing choices that have a big impact on the story being told. I really think it might be the peak of the mountain for us so far.”
Working on a Batman game is clearly a dream for Bruner, but the executive dreams big, and he has a number of other projects that he’d love to be working on:
“Personally, I’m on record saying how much I’d love to make a Telltale Star Wars game. I’ve made Star Wars action games in the 90s when I worked at LucasArts, but a Telltale Star Wars game would be a dream come true. And Bond. James Bond would be freaking awesome. And Fletch. And Chinatown. Oh, and The Shining.”
Until just this moment, I never knew how much I wanted a game based on The Shining. Batman: A Telltale Game Series will make its debut sometime in 2016.
I still don’t know what to make of Hardcore Henry, the Sharlto Copley-starring action movie that uses a first-person perspective for its entire runtime. But I do know that it’ll be released on April 8 and that the second trailer gives off an even stronger “VIDEO GAMES!” vibe than the first one.
Watch as Henry mutely… parkours through a construction site… punches out several nameless mooks… cinematically equips a number of different weapons… drops a grenade into a moving vehicle… and rides a motorcycle into a van while spraying machine gun fire in every direction.
Despite those open-world sandbox games that eat up half the hours in a day being all the rage, Nintendo has continued to enjoy immense success with its traditional 2D platformers. They still excel at this genre, even more than 30 years after Super Mario Bros was released on the NES. Yoshi’s Woolly World is a semi-sequel to 1997’s SNES hit Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island and the N64’s Yoshi’s Story, but does it capture the magic of these past games, or does it simply unravel?
I played some amazing games this weekend! Machi Koro and Bohnanza were the board games that made the table, and I’m busily trying to get the Platinum Trophy in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on the PS4. I already have it for the PS3 version, so I’m trying to go all the way!
There are some great games that are on sale at the Humble Store this week! Plague Inc: Evolved, The Culling, and Shardlight are all $13.49, while Mugen Souls and Trulon: The Shadow Engine are $11.99.
There are 281 new Weeklong Deals at Steam – a staggering amount! RPG Maker MV is $55.99, Pixeluvo is $17.49, and Duet is $2.44. among many, many others. The Daily Deal is Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 which you can get for $8.39 or the Gold Edition for $10.49.
Rebellion has announced that Sniper Elite 4 is in development for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Best of all, the sniper simulator will be released this year. This time out, “elite marksman” Karl Fairburne is behind enemy lines in Italy in 1943:
Italy, 1943. Covert agent and elite marksman Karl Fairburne must help free Italy from the yoke of Fascism and defeat a terrifying new threat that could halt the Allied fightback in Europe before it’s even begun.
From sun-drenched Mediterranean coastal towns, to colossal Nazi megastructures, daunting forests, and giddying mountain monasteries, Sniper Elite 4 will offer breathless emergent stealth action and unrivaled sniping freedom across maps many times the size of those seen in Sniper Elite 3.
In addition to the supposedly massive single-player campaign, players will be able to team up with friends for a co-operative or compete in an adversarial mode. Rebellion doesn’t want to waste any time and plans to reveal more information about Sniper Elite 4 during next week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Blizzard has announced that their upcoming “hero shooter,” Overwatch, will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on May 24. The merry month of May will actually be a busy one for nascent genre, as 2K Games and Gearbox will release the similarly-themed Battleborn on May 3.
A brand new “Street Date” trailer will clue players in on the story so far, along with Overwatch’s many different modes:
In Overwatch, players join the ranks of a legendary force of soldiers, scientists, adventurers, and oddities, and clash on the battlefields of a near-future Earth. The game features a diverse cast of 21 heroes—each with their own unique arsenal of extraordinary weapons and incredible abilities. Teamwork is critical as players complete objectives, swap heroes on the fly, and combine their powers to game-changing effect—the action is intense, immediate, and fun.
Since the world last caught up with Overwatch at BlizzCon 2015, Blizzard has introduced a number of game features in the ongoing closed beta test. In a new map type, “Control,” teams battle to capture and hold objectives in locations such as an omnic village in the mountains of Nepal and a high-tech skyscraper in a Chinese metropolis. Overwatch’s new progression system awards players with Loot Boxes containing an array of cosmetic items to personalize heroes, including sprays, emotes, voice lines, and skins such as Punk Tracer and Safari Winston.
In addition to “Quick Play” mode, which automatically matches players with teammates and opponents of similar skill online, players can test their mettle against computer-controlled opponents in a new “Play Vs AI” mode, while “Custom Games” allow players to set special rules for hero switching, damage modifiers, and more.
Players who haven’t had the chance to try Overwatch yet will be able to participate in an Open Beta scheduled to take place May 5-9 on all three platforms. But if you’re already convinced that it’ll be great, prospective players who pre-order the game by April 29 will receive early access to the Open Beta beginning on May 3.
Telltale Games has been busy, busy, busy over the last few years. Since 2013, the developer has launched five different episodic titles (The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead Season 2, Tales From the Borderlands, Game of Thrones, and Minecraft: Story Mode), and they don’t seem to have any plans for slowing down. This year, Telltale will release the final episode for Mincraft: Story Mode, along with The Walking Dead: Michonne and maybe even Game of Thrones Season 2. They’ll also release the first episode of a brand new Batman series this year, possibly their biggest game ever.
I played some amazing games this weekend! Machi Koro and Bohnanza were the board games that made the table, and I’m busily trying to get the Platinum Trophy in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on the PS4. I already have it for the PS3 version, so I’m trying to go all the way!
