Have you ever wanted to eavesdrop on a conversation between Batman and Shaggy about the offensive capabilities of a certain mysterious machine? Well, you finally get your chance in the latest Lego Dimensions trailer, which has been embedded above.
The crossover game will include characters from dozens of different franchises when it launches on September 27 for the PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. A huge number of Lego playsets that’ll add new levels and content to the game will also be available throughout the Fall.
Sony kicked off their PSN Play promotion for 2015 this week with the release of Journey on the PS4. The lyrical adventure from thatgamecompany has enchanted gamers all over the world with its wordless story and its even downloadable for free if you already own the PS3 edition.
Also available this week is a whole slew of wacky and weird games that are sure to find their niche:
Tembo the Badass Elephant is a colorful side-scroller for the PS4 from Game Freak (the creators of Pokemon) and Sega. If that’s not enough for you, need I remind you that this is a BADASS elephant?
F1 2015 is the latest Formula One simulation from Codemasters and the first for the PS4.
Game of Thrones: A Nest of Vipers, available for the PS3 and PS4, is the fifth episode in Telltale’s episodic adaptation of the wildly popular HBO series.
Hatoful Boyfriend is a “pigeon dating simulator” that’s available as a Cross-Buy title for the PS4 and Vita.
Onechanbara Z2: Chaos is the latest game in the “bikini girls versus zombies” franchise and the first to be released in the US in more than five years.
More information on all of these new releases (and a few others) can be found after the break. And don’t forget, a complete rundown of this week’s discounts and new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog.
Stephen Colbert will be returning to TV soon. And just in time, too. As The Daily Show draws to a close with Jon Stewart at the helm, an old familiar sadness — which I first felt at the end of The Colbert Report — has crept back into my life as another door shuts in the era of damn fine fake news reporting. I wish Jon Stewart well, and also ask that maybe he come over for Shabbos dinner some time (Spoiler: It will be Arby’s).
Although we don’t know what’s next for Mr. Stewart, fans of Stephen Colbert can begin to live again, damnit, for he will return to our television screens in September. The character Stephen Colbert’s Colbert Nation may be gone, but the man Stephen Colbert’s Colbert Nation is just beginning! Just two more months, people! During his onscreen sabbatical, however, he has been busy behind-the-scenes preparing for his new hosting gig with tweets and hijinks and posts on The Late Show site. His most recent engagement with his cabal of Colbert-ites is in the form of a really awesome point-and-click text adventure game that reminds me of a Choose Your Own Adventure book. But much better because in those books I was never locked inside of a cabinet so long that I DIED.
So check out Stephen Colbert’s Escape from the Man-Sized Cabinet and save Narnia a public domain fantasy kingdom from an evil wizard. Do what I did and read it in your head in his voice. Play it a few times to make sure you hit all your options. It’s the American way.
There’s a brand new Humble Bundle available now! It’s the Humble Jumbo Bundle 4. Pay what you want for Outland: Special Edition, Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes, and Mercenary Kings. Beat the average to unlock Endless Space: Emperor Edition, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II, and one of my personal favorites, The Stanley Parable. Pay $18 or more and unlock early access to Space Engineers.
The Midweek Madness over at Steam is the Homeworld Remastered Collection, which is on sale for $17.49. You can also get the soundtracks for $15.98. The Daily Deal is Not a Hero, which is on sale for $6.49.
FIFA 16 will become one of the first games to include female teams and players when its released this Fall. But EA Sports isn’t stopping there. In another first, the publisher also plans to include a trio of stars from the 2015 Women’s World Cup on the game’s cover as part of its series of region-specific covers for the game.
FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi is the “featured” cover athlete, and he will share the spotlight with the following footballers:
Alex Morgan, a Forward on the World Cup champion Women’s National Team, will appear on the cover in the US.
Our neighbor to the North, Canada, will receive a cover featuring Christine Sinclair, the Canadian team’s Captain.
Stephanie Catley will sprint alongside Messi on the Australian cover, along with a player to be named later on August 13.
The United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland will see Liverpool FC’s Jordan Henderson on the cover.
C.D. Guadalajara’s Marco Fabian will break out of the midfield as the cover athlete for Mexico.
Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid will represent his home nation on the French cover.
Chelsea FC’s Juan Cuadrado will appear on the cover throughout Latin America.
Finally, Borussia Dortmund’s Shinji Kagawa will grace the cover in Japan.
“It is an incredible honor to be one of the first women featured on the cover of FIFA 16,” said Alex Morgan. “I know people all over the world play this game and I’m really excited that FIFA 16 is putting such an important spotlight on women’s soccer. And now to share the cover with today’s greatest player is surreal.”
“This year’s World Cup showcased the unbelievable talent and skill in women’s soccer,” added Christine Sinclair. “I’m thrilled that EA Sports is celebrating female athletes in FIFA 16. To be featured in the game and to promote women’s soccer with Alex is really special and another exciting step for women in sports.”
FIFA 16 will be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on September 22. You can view all nine covers (including Messi’s solo cover) at the official FIFA 16 website.
It looks like Slightly Mad Studios couldn’t coax enough horsepower out of the Wii U to properly port Project CARS to Nintendo’s console after all. Speaking to Nintendo Life, Studio Head Ian Bell confirmed the cancellation this morning:
The official line is that we’re awaiting an announcement from Nintendo on new hardware. As of now [Project CARS] is simply too much for the Wii U.
After a number of delays (and the cancellation of planned PS3 and Xbox 360 ports), Project CARS was released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in May. Nintendo plans to reveal more information about their next console, the “NX,” in 2016. Perhaps it will be powerful enough to handle Project CARS 2, Slightly Mad’s recently announced racing sequel.
In early 2012, Double Fine nearly broke the game industry when they introduced the words “Crowdfunding” and “Kickstarter” to many gamers for the first time. The crowdfunding model has become a fixture of the gaming landscape in the years since, and while Double Fine’s campaign may not have been the first, they certainly made it a viable option that developers such as Brian Fargo and Keiji Inafune would eventually use.
Along with the game that would eventually become Broken Age, Double Fine also produced a behind-the-scenes documentary series with 2 Player Productions known as Double Fine Adventure. In Schafer’s words, he wanted to “show us how the sausage was made.”
After more than three years of filming, and twenty main episodes (along with countless extra “Sidequest” episodes), the documentary reached it’s grand conclusion over the weekend. Originally, the series was an exclusive for Kickstarter backers, but as the game neared completion, Schafer decided to unleash the series to the public early.
Regardless of what you thought of the game, the documentary series has made the whole ordeal more than worth it. As someone who backed the Kickstarter campaign all those years ago, I can’t tell you how inspiring and informative these episodes are. Before this, the world of game development always happened behind closed doors, but no longer.
This series has been different. It’s showcased game development from the very start of the creative process to the release of the game, and it’s aftermath, and it did it with a relatively large studio as well. We like to think game development is all sunshine and lollipops and that everything is all fun all the time, but this series goes to show that isn’t the case. I heartily recommend it, even if you’re not interested in game development because it’s so much more than a behind the scenes, how-to documentary, it’s a captivating look into the creative process.
2 Player Productions recently began work on a Blu-ray release for Double Fine Adventure and you can pre-order it at adventure.DoubleFine.com.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes has been out for over a year now, and it seems to keep providing Easter eggs. One major Easter egg that may hint at the recent strife between Konami and Director Hideo Kojima was recently found by YouTube user “timeSplitter88.”
In the Metal Gear Solid throwback mission “Deja Vu,” you’re given a weapon with a blue light that erases words found throughout the level. Those words aren’t random though, they’re all past titles and logos from Metal Gear’s history.
Hideo Kojima had nothing to do with some of those games, such as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance or Metal Gear Acid, so they can’t be erased by the light. However, the ones designed by Kojima, such as Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, can be erased. Once you’ve deleted all the titles created by Hideo Kojima, players get a message from Kaz reminding them to cherish their memories. Kojima himself then comes on the com to thank you for your support.
The “Deja Vu” mission has been available since the release of the game, originally exclusive to PlayStation consoles before coming to the Xbox 360 and Xbox One several months later. But it seems that no one put together the possible hidden meaning of erasing all the titles until now. It seems likely that everyone at Kojima Productions knew they were getting the boot months before the information became public.
Since the release of Ground Zeroes, Konami has removed “A Hideo Kojima Game” from all marketing and packaging for both Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. No one outside of Konami knows why this messy divorce is happening, though I’ve got a good feeling once it becomes official after the release of The Phantom Pain, Kojima won’t remain silent for long.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be released on September 1.
There’s a brand new Humble Bundle available now! It’s the 
