Category Archives: PS3
Saints Row IV revealed, coming to 360/PS3/PC on August 20
Saints Row 4 has been officially announced and will be hitting store shelves on August 20th on 360, PS3, and PC. For whatever reason there will be no Wii U version despite it making a boatload of sense.
In the game the leader of the Saints has been elected President of the United States and must thwart alien invaders. Yes, in Saint’s Row you will be fighting aliens. You will have superpowers like flying through the air and others.
Deep Silver and Volition are handling this game. August is a rough time to launch a game like this with only a few weeks between it and GTA V. Then again they’re changing the theme so drastically with the addition of aliens and super powers that maybe it will do well in the face of Rockstar’s latest game.
Its somewhat disheartening as a Wii U owner to see an easy port like this not come our way. The excuse of games that released in early 2013 or late 2012 not coming to Wii U was developers didn’t have enough time with final devkits to get those games running on the system. But with a game like this that isn’t releasing until August its perplexing why Nintendo’s new console isn’t receiving the game especially when its in dire need of open-world adventures.
NPD sales data for February 2013: Xbox 360 takes #1 and Wii U rebounds
The NPD data for February 2013 is out and we’re piecing together who did well and who did badly.
Good news for Nintendo as Wii U sales increased from 57k in January to 65k-80k.
Early estimates for Sony’s struggling PS Vita put it between 35-40k. The Xbox 360 once again took the top spot with 302k consoles sold. Somehow Microsoft keeps selling those 360s after all these years, marking their 26th straight month atop the NPD.
It will be interesting to see how the 360 sells once the next-gen Xbox is revealed. Will it take a nose dive or stay steady?
Software wise Dead Space 3, Sly Cooper, Madden and Call of Duty all grabbed spots in the top 10. Sadly the top 10 software list from NPD counts all SKUs of one game so we’ll never know if Fire Emblem: Awakening’s nationwide sell outs would outsell some of the heavy hitters in February. We know that Fire Emblem did sell over 180k copies during February. Considering the last FE game on DS sold 250k lifetime this isn’t bad at all. Add into that supply shortages and I’m sure Awakening will be very successful here in America.
We’ll update with 3DS, Wii, PS3 numbers when they become available.
Kingdom Hearts 2.5HD Collection to feature KHII, Birth By Sleep, Coded
Kingdom Hearts Insider is reporting that the end credits of the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Collection confirm another collection featuring Birth By Sleep, Kingdom Hearts II and Coded.
They say that during the credits this happens:
There are certain images shown from select titles, specifically KINGDOM HEARTS II, Birth by Sleep and coded. This seems to suggest that the next remaster, KINGDOM HEARTS -HD 2.5 ReMIX- will be comprised of these titles!
This isn’t a solid 100% confirmation but it isn’t terribly surprising either. It will be interesting to see if the next KH HD Collection comes out in 2014 on PS3 or next-gen consoles.
Ken Levine: The ‘FP is more important than the S’ in first person shooters
EuroGamer recently conducted a fantastic interview this Bioshock creator Ken Levine. The interview is pretty long and touches on a bunch of different subjects.
One topic and statement from Levine that stood out to me is why Levine likes to make games that you play in first-person instead of third-person. Most of his recent work have been classified as first-person shooters. Why is that? Levine says:
“I like making… to me the FP is more important than the S, right? The first-person is very powerful. It is at the end of the day where interactive experiences, where the ultimate goals, lie, because that’s what our experience is.
And it allows us, in the kind of detail we put in the world, to get close to it in a way you can’t otherwise and most importantly it’s not a ‘him’, it’s a ‘you’. Booker is not forming a relationship with Elizabeth, some weird hybrid of you and Booker is forming a relationship. That’s incredibly powerful. If Infinite was third-person Elizabeth would not be the same.”
A solid explanation from Ken Levine. I really enjoy his emphasis on the first-person aspect of the FPS genre. Too often we forget that the first-person perspective can add to more than just the combat aspect of games and make the exploration and adventure aspects even more fun.
New Batman Arkham game will be powered by Unreal Engine 3
The LinkedIn profile of Daniel Wang points towards the latest Batman Arkham game, which should be coming to consoles later this year, using Unreal Engine 3 once again. His profile lists Unreal Engine 3 as powering the new game.
Previous games in the series have used Unreal 3 and this one doesn’t look like it will stray from that path. Arkham Asylum is one of my favorite games in recent memory and I’m all for another adventure with the Dark Knight.
I would imagine this brand new Arkham game will hit 360, PC, PS3, Wii U and possibly some next-gen consoles at the end of this year.
Images of Star Wars: First Assault surface, game in limbo
Kotaku reportedly has some images from the long-rumored Star Wars: First Assault. First Assault was leaked last year by a listing on the Xbox Live marketplace.
Kotaku says the game is meant to be a predecessor to Battlefront III and they have a few images of the game in action. It uses Unreal engine 3 and is currently in development limbo for whatever reason.
Even the game’s developers don’t know if First Assault will see the light of day:
So since September, employees at LucasArts have been working on the game with no knowledge as to whether or not it will actually come out. According to our source, LucasArts is “bleeding talent” as employees wait to see what executives at Disney and LucasFilm want to do with First Assault and other games the studio is working on.
Not good. It doesn’t sound like we’re getting any Star Wars games anytime soon. 1313′s future is also in question after Disney acquired Star Wars.
The lack of a console Battlefront game (excluding the DS/PSP versions) is baffling and truly becoming one of the greatest gaming mysteries in recent memory. It seems like a no-brainer to make another entry in the popular third-person shooter series but it appears LucasArts just doesn’t want it to happen.
