Welcome to another instalment in our weekly news digest where the team at PSU Towers picks our favourite slices of gaming gossip from the past seven days, before proceeding to offer our two cents on each story for good measure.
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Call of Duty reveal confirmed for May 1
Activision’s officially confirmed that this year’s Call of Duty game will be revealed on U.S. TV on May 1, during the basketball playoffs. While the game currently remains under wraps, I think that most people have resigned to the fact we’re likely getting a sequel to 2010’s Cold War-era shooter Black Ops, again developed by Treyarch. Whatever its identity, Activision has promised ‘meaningful innovation’ for the military blaster, so hopefully things will be less formulaic this time around, at least as far as the single-player campaign goes. Black Ops ended with a pretty shocking revelation, so it’ll be interesting to see how things progress for the follow-up.
Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition unveiled
Who saw this coming? Let’s face it, it’s not as if Batman: Arkham City isn’t a prime candidate for a Game of the Year makeover, boasting immense critical acclaim and a boatload of downloadable content under its belt. Unsurprisingly, that’s exactly what Warner has in the pipeline, with the Game of the Year Edition of the Caped Crusader’s latest outing due out in the U.S. next month, though U.K. gamers will inexplicably have to wait until September. But perhaps the most tantalizing tidibt to come out of the announcement is the confirmation of the rumored Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC, which will come packaged with the GotY Edition alongside all existing DLC. However, if you don’t fancy picking up the content-heavy bundle, then you can simply plump for Harley Quinn’s add-on pack separately on May 29 in the U.S. and May 30 in Europe. Regardless, those of you who have yet to make the jump to Arkham City’s crime-ridden streets have virtually no excuse not to plonk down the cash for this tasty morsel come release date. Read our review of the game here if you need convincing still.
New Sackboy costume coming alongside Journey costume this week
Sony has been busy kitting out LittleBigPlanet 2’s SackBoy with fresh clobber for over a year now, with the latest addition to the stitched mascot’s wardrobe coming in the shape of a Journey outfit and Escape Plan costume. The former was already confirmed as in the pipeline, though the Escape Plan-themed outfit was previously kept under wraps, making for a pleasant surprise. Hit the link above to check out an adorable shot of SackBoy donning his latest clobber.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 announced
Konami’s PES series has slowly but inexorably conceded its crown as the king of footie sims to rival FIFA since the mid-00s, though that hasn’t stopped the Japanese developer from attempting to inject more meat into its annual series all the same. This latest entry, due out in the fall, promises to go back to the series roots by giving players total control of the ball, with the players themselves crafted in such detail that they mirror their real-life counterparts down to the T. From the sounds of it PES 2013 is perhaps the most ambitious entry in the past few years, though it remains to be seen just how well it’ll stack up against FIFA, which will inevitably offer its own wealth of innovations in the genre.
Sony unveils Uncharted 3 Game of the Year Edition
Following hot on the heels of Monday’s announcement of a Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition, Sony’s confirmed that Uncharted 3 will be getting the same treatment at some point this year, as was the case with its predecessor. Again, the decision isn’t really all that surprising considering Nathan Drake’s latest treasure hunting adventure is oozing DLC, and the GotY Edition will feature all 14 post-launch content packs. Needless to say if you for some reason haven’t picked up the game yet then there’s no harm in saving your pennies until this version is out, as you’ll be getting considerable bang for your buck. The DLC itself supplements the already meaty multiplayer component, packing alternate costumes, maps and some great co-op antics – not to mention the appearances of some classic characters from previous games, such as Harry Flynn and Eddie Raja. If that wasn’t enough, Sony also topped off the announcement by confirming the series has now moved 17 million units since its inception almost five years ago. Not too shabby, eh?
Amazon France outs Resistance Trilogy bundle
Insomniac’s prepping a meaty Resistance Trilogy bundle, according to a listing on Amazon France. The retail giant is pretty accurate when it comes to outing upcoming games, so we can safely assume an official announcement will be dropping in the not-too-distant future. So far the bundle has only been listed for Europe, though we don’t see any reason why a U.S. version won’t crop up at some point. As you might expect, the pack contains all three PS3 Resistance games for a budget price, in this case €59.99. A great introduction to the series if ever there was one, and a nice little send off for Insomniac Games, who cut ties with the series following the release of Resistance 3 last September. Sony has since confirmed the bundle is indeed the real deal.
Shinji Mikami working on survival horror game
Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami is returning to his roots for Tango’s debut project, with the legendary developer working on a new survival horror title. If this doesn’t mean anything to you then you probably should brush up on your history. Mikami-san previously worked for Capcom and was the driving force behind survival horror’s rise to mainstream success in the 90s, having established both the Resident Evil and Dino Crisis series. Not only that, but he also worked on stylish hack-‘n-slash Devil May Cry, as well as churning out some cult classics in the shape of God Hand, Vanquish and Shadows of the Damned, the latter a collaboration between himself and Suda51. It’s been a while since Mikami has worked on the survival horror genre, and as such we can’t wait to see what he comes up with next. Hopefully the game, codenamed Zwei, will see a revival of the genre much like Resident Evil achieved 15 years ago.
Konami patching Silent Hill: Downpour, HD Collection
If you’ve been following our coverage of the latest Silent Hill games over the past month or so, then you’ll probably have cottoned on to the fact a lot of punters were upset with Konami’s treatment of Downpour and the HD Collection. As you can tell from our Downpour review, the game suffered from some horrendous frame rate issues and other technical hiccups, which marred an otherwise decent survival horror romp. Even worse are the issues that plagued the HD Collection (featuring Silent Hill 2 & 3), which include missing textures, lip-synch issues and various other annoyances. Fortunately, Konami has been listening to fans and is prepping a patch for both games, which will hopefully remedy these aforementioned gripes. Whether or not the ‘missing fog’ problems with the HD Collection will be ironed out remains to be seen, but it’s at least good to know both game will receive a bit of spit and polish. It’s just a shame it’s taken them this long to sort it out, given the fact both games were delayed months beyond their original release date.
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale announced
It’s been rumored since 2011 and probably made the wish list of the majority of Sony console owners for a decade or so, but PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is now officially happening. As expected, the game is essentially Sony’s stab at the Super Smash Bros. series adored by millions of Nintendo lovers, pitting the likes of Kratos, Fat Princess and Sweet Tooth against each other in furious battles for up to four-players. Not much has been shown at present, though it has been confirmed we can expect the brawler on shelves by Holiday 2012 for PS3. A couple of stages have been shown, depicting vibrant battle grounds based on popular PlayStation games, though only six characters have been revealed thus far. No doubt the roster is going to grow substantially as we get near to release, and with the promise of third-party characters appearing too, we should be in for a right treat come Christmas. The question is can Sony make it feel unique without come off as a shameless Smash Bros rip-off? The ball’s in their court.
PlayStation 3 leads European hardware sales in 2012
Most of us are used to hearing about Microsoft dominating the hardware sales in the U.S., though things in Europe are often left in the dark, save for a few updates. However, Nintendo kindly divulged some key figures during a recent investor’s conference, confirming some rather interesting facts – PS3 is leading hardware sales in PAL regions so far this year. Not only that, but it’s beating out Xbox 360, with Microsoft’s machine coming a distant third behind 3DS. This is a pretty encouraging start for Sony, though it’ll be interesting to see if they’ll be able to keep up the pace. Unfortunately, Nintendo’s data doesn’t paint a pretty picture for PS Vita, with the handheld struggling to sell more than 25,000 units a week, putting it behind PSP and Wii in Europe. Hopefully the next batch of software will help stimulate its performance at retail, since things are looking pretty bleak right now, and not just in PAL territories.
The Best of the Rest…
Heavenly Sword 2 was in development back in 2008
Analysts: Next-gen consoles to sell less than current hardware
Fan turns Uncharted series into full-length films
Dead Space 3, Army of Two 3 appear on resume
Bethesda details Dishonored story