All Articles: PS4

Jamestown+ Review – Get Your Bum to Mars

Posted on December 11, 2019 by John Scalzo

Final Form Games is a small developer based out of Philadelphia, and they originally released Jamestown, a vertically-scrolling “neoclassical” shooter, for the PC in 2011. Three years later, they brought their game to the PS4 as Jamestown+, adding a pair of bonus levels and several new ships.

But here we are in 2019 and it looks like the game is finally ready to reach its “final form” (or rather, how the developer “originally intended” to release it). That’s because the development team will bring Jamestown+ to the Switch this week with even more updates and improvements. (more…)

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Shovel Knight’s King of Cards and Showdown expansions will be released on December 10

Posted on November 13, 2019 by John Scalzo

Yacht Club Games has announced that the first chapter of the Shovel Knight saga is finally coming to a close after four expansions and five glorious years (though you’ll need to tack on an additional year if you want to go all the way back to the Kickstarter campaign). Yesterday, the developer confirmed that Shovel Knight: King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown will both be released on December 10.

King of Cards is a followup to Plague of Shadows and Specter of Torment, and it’ll be the final side-story starring a member of the villainous Order of No Quarter. Meanwhile, Showdown breaks from tradition and isn’t a platformer at all. Instead, it’s a multiplayer fighting game that features the franchise’s entire cast, along with a huge single-player adventure.

Fans who originally backed the Kickstarter campaign for Shovel Knight, or who own the Treasure Trove bundle, will receive both expansions for free. The King of Cards expansion will be available for the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One, while Showdown will be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U, and Xbox One.

Yacht Club will also release King of Cards and Showdown as standalone downloads for fans who are digging into the franchise for the first for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

Finally, the developer will try to also take over your favorite game store on December 10th with the release of a pair of Amiibo sets (a Treasure Trove 3-Pack and a Gold Edition Shovel Knight), as well as a Physical Edition of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (which includes the original game and all four expansions) for the Switch and Xbox One. A PS4 version of the Physical Edition will follow in 2020.

Whew, that’s a lot of Shovel Knight. But don’t forget, Yacht Club is also hard at work on a 16-bit-styled sequel/spin-off known as Shovel Knight Dig.

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EA Sports cancels NBA Live 20

Posted on October 30, 2019 by John Scalzo

Executives from Electronic Arts delivered a pretty hefty amount of announcements during the company’s most recent quarterly financial report yesterday. But they also (once again) put the kibosh on this year’s entry in the NBA Live franchise.

NBA Live 20 was expected to launch during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend in February, but now EA Sports has confirmed the basketball sim was canceled. The publisher shared a few more details about the cancellation on their official website:

For the past few years we’ve been making real progress with NBA Live, but we’re still not where we want to be. So with continued support from the NBA and the NBPA, we’ve been working on something new and meaningfully different – an experience that operates at the pace of culture, and will change the way you can play, connect and create in basketball.

We’re excited by what we’ve built so far, and yet we know the world is changing. New platforms are coming that will bring social connection, accessibility and player creativity to the fore. In a future of new possibilities, players shouldn’t be content with a game built for today’s realities and based on what we know to be possible, we feel we can go so much further with the new design.

That mention of “new platforms” is telling, as EA Sports plans to bring their next NBA experience (which may or may not be released as NBA Live 21) to “leading edge platforms” like the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett. A release date for this new project wasn’t announced, but we should learn more about it sometime next year.

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EA: Multiple unannounced games coming in 2020, next Battlefield scheduled for 2021, and Dragon Age 4 is in the works for 2022 (or later)

Posted on October 30, 2019 by John Scalzo

Executives from Electronic Arts had a lot to talk about yesterday during their latest quarterly financial report. So let’s dive right in…

CEO Andrew Wilson kicked things off by confirming that the next game in the Battlfield franchise is being prepped to launch sometime during the company’s 2022 Fiscal Year (which runs from April 1, 2021 – March 30, 2022) for the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett. In the meantime, developer DICE will spend 2020 creating updates and new content for Battlefield V:

Our Battlefield franchise and its community are also a major focus for us, and we’ll add new content and new ways to play Battlefield V in FY ’21. Targeting new innovation that will be enabled by next-gen platforms and a growing install base on the new consoles, our next Battlefield game is set for FY ’22.

With one of the company’s strongest developers taking an extra year to polish their next game, you might be wondering what EA has on tap for 2020. Thankfully, COO Blake Jorgensen used his portion of the presentation to fill in the gaps.

Jorgensen said that EA has multiple unannounced titles scheduled for release in 2020, including a pair of games from the publisher’s EA Partners program, and possibly at least one remaster (which would release alongside the already-announced Command & Conquer Remastered). He also talked quite a bit about Apex Legends, and confirmed that EA’s shooter will be coming to “new platforms and mobile” in the near future. While it’s possible he’s referencing the Switch in that quote, he’s more likely referring to the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett.

Looking further out, Jorgensen even mused about the status of Dragon Age 4. According to the executive, fans shouldn’t expect the next entry in BioWare’s acclaimed RPG franchise to arrive before EA’s 2023 Fiscal Year (which begins on April 1, 2022).

Finally, Andrew Wilson came back around to comment on the recent decision by the NCAA to allow college athletes to receive monetary compensation for their name or likeness. While many fans are hoping this means that EA will resume production on the NCAA Football franchise, Wilson would only say that the company is watching the situation closely:

With respect to NCAA Sports in general, yes, we have been in that business before as well. We saw the news today as did you, said by the NCAA Working Group. That news today was new to us. We’re still digesting it. We would anticipate that there is still a number of things that would have to happen over the coming years before we will be able to get back into that business, but certainly we’re watching closely.

EA’s next major releases, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Need For Speed Heat, will both be released in November.

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Batman Day comes to Fortnite for the next two weeks

Posted on September 21, 2019 by John Scalzo

Today is Batman Day, DC’s annual celebration of the Caped Crusader and everything that makes him one of the great comics characters of all time. So naturally, they decided to team up with Fortnite for a special “Fortnite X Batman” crossover.

Beginning today an running through Sunday, October 6, the event will give players access to some of Batman’s most famous gadgets (the Batman Grapnel Gun and an Explosive Batarang), as well as a pair of costumes (the Batman Comic Book Outfit and The Dark Knight Movie Outfit). A Catwoman costume will also be available.

According to Epic’s official website, part of Gotham City will also be recreated on the map:

A Rift Zone has brought Gotham City to Fortnite. Of course, it wouldn’t be Gotham City if villainy didn’t come along with it. This POI lets you be the hero the citizens of Gotham City need by giving you your own Batman cape and the power of Glider Redeploy!

More details about the Fortnite X Batman crossover can be found on the Patch Notes page.

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Terminator: Resistance will be released for PC, PS4, and Xbox One on December 3

Posted on September 19, 2019 by John Scalzo

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton will be back this October in Terminator: Dark Fate, and now Reef Entertainment has announced that they’re going to release Terminator: Resistance for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on December 3.

Based on The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Reef Entertainment’s Resistance is a first person shooter that takes place during the Future War. The game’s story follows a Resistance soldier named Jacob Rivers as he leads a team to smash Skynet’s Defense Grid, and if you remember your Terminator lore, you know that Kyle Reese was part of that mission before being sent back in time by John Connor:

About Terminator: Resistance
This story takes place in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, nearly 30 years after Judgement Day, and stars a brand new hero in the Terminator universe, Jacob Rivers, a soldier in the Resistance led by John Connor. Despite the fact that Jacob is just a lowly private, he’ll soon discover that he’s been specifically targeted by the latest threat from Skynet and marked for termination!

Skynet may be destined to lose the war, but at what cost to Jacob? Experience the events leading up to the decisive final battle for the fate of mankind in the war against the machines!

Features

  • Resist the machines! Fight against a selection of iconic enemies from the films, including the T-800, as well as a host of enemies that are brand new to the Terminator universe.
  • Equip an arsenal of plasma weaponry to run and gun or sneak and hack through sprawling environments! The world isn’t as forgiving as it used to be so you’ll need to search for scraps to trade and craft.
  • Choose the kind of hero you want to be by levelling up your skills while exploring post-Apocalyptic Los Angeles. Complete story missions to rise through the ranks of the Resistance as well as side-quests to help your friends.
  • Change the fate of mankind! Protect a motley crew of survivors, each with their own motivations and backstories. The actions you take throughout the game will impact their survival and change the ending you get.

While we’re just officially learning about Terminator: Resistance now, the game has actually been in development in one way or another since 2013, when Reef Entertainment first acquired the rights to create games based on the franchise.

Then known as Terminators, the publisher said they were “studying all aspects and influences of the Terminator universe” to create a game that “does great justice to the motion pictures.” We’ll find out if developer Teyon managed to crack the code in just a few months.

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Catherine: Full Body Review – Not Everything Improves With Age

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Nicole Kline

Catherine: Full Body is a remaster of 2011’s Catherine, a bizarre and somewhat infuriatingly difficult game that I reviewed back then.

The remaster introduces a new character, Rin, and calls this new storyline a “love square” instead of the original game’s “love triangle” between Vincent, Katherine, and Catherine. It also adds in some different mechanics to the block puzzles. But is all of this enough to warrant a full remaster of the game – other than to introduce it to a new generation of potential fans? (more…)

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Yakuza: Like A Dragon transforms the franchise into a turn-based RPG… and it’ll launch in 2020

Posted on September 13, 2019 by John Scalzo

The seventh game in the Yakuza franchise is taking the series in a wild new direction…

Yakuza: Like A Dragon will introduce fans to a new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, while also transforming the game’s signature hand-to-hand battles into a turn-based RPG. Sega has recruited actors Kazuhiro Nakaya, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Ken Yasuda, and Kiichi Nakai to lend their appearances and voices to the game’s main cast, and the foursome will help tell a dramatic crime saga that spans nearly two decades:

Yakuza: Like A Dragon introduces a new main protagonist for the first time since the series’ inception over a decade ago – Ichiban Kasuga, a low-level yakuza member looking to prove his self-worth, and follows him and his motley crew of unlikely allies as they attempt to rise from rags to riches in this modern human drama.

Yakuza: Like A Dragon is much more than just a new chapter in the Yakuza series. Much like the new English title itself, Yakuza: Like A Dragon is a complete reimagining of the franchise, a landmark to coincide with the series’ 15th anniversary. With the bulk of the game taking place in the large-scale, painstakingly-realized setting of Ijincho in Yokohama, players will explore an entirely new side of Japan never-before-seen in the series. Not only that, but Yakuza: Like A Dragon’s combat system has undergone a major overhaul, combining Yakuza’s established brawling action with a turn-based RPG battle system.

Yakuza: Like A Dragon will be released exclusively for the PS4 sometime in 2020. An Announcement Trailer has been embedded above.

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