Category: PlayStation

Sony Opening North West Studio

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Sony is starting up a new first party located in England, which will be focused exclusively on developing VR games. All Games Beta broke the news after spotting a job listing on playstationjobs.co.uk.
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Sony's getting serious about building a launch library for their VR headset, although with a launch in early 2016, it'll be a challenge for a studio that hasn't been finalized to build content so quickly.

PSN Flash Sale, Grab Games Up to 80% Off

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Sony's at it again, slashing prices left and right on 20 PS4, 51 PS3, and 21 Vita games, some of which are cross buy.
If you've held off on buying excellent games like Nidhogg, Don't Starve, Peggle 2, or you just want an excuse to buy the entire Mass Effect Trilogy for under $5, today's you're lucky day!

My other recommendations are Ni no Kuni, DuckTales Remastered, Flower, and Tekken 6 PSP, but you'll have to head over to the store yourself to see all of the deals.

Uncharted 4 Has Surprisingly Detailed Face Animations

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Uncharted 4's developers are raising the bar for facial animation. With twice the granularity in motion capture detail, more complex models, and finer skeletal control, expressions come across very convincingly.
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In an interview with GamesTM, Naughty Dog describes their achievement by comparing it to their well regarded hit, The Last of Us. "Think about that, how detailed Joel and Elli's pained facial expressions were, how well the game captured the respective actors ... Now, the faces have anywhere between 300 and 500 bones," says Josh Scherr, writer on Uncharted 4. That's almost five times the complexity.

Uncharted 4 is targeting 60 frames per second, and although animation is recorded from actors at 30 frames per second, interpolation will be used to smooth it out during gameplay and cutscenes, a technique that was also used in previous games.

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"If you look at the first Uncharted and how that looked versus how The Last of Us looked versus how The Last Of Us looked... I have difficulty fathoming that we'll have that kind of graphical leap in the next several years. The reality is, we probably will as we learn the systems better, so it's all up from here, and that's exciting."
Source: GamesTM

New PlayStation Store Releases: Project CARS

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Project CARS hits the US this week and if you're an American like me, then you no doubt can't wait to catch up with all of those lucky Europeans who inexplicably got the game a week early. I'll bet they've been having lots of fun over there, racing around on all of those legendary European racetracks with all of those powerful and stylish European sports cars...actually, I guess it does makes some sense why they got the game first. Also out this week, a couple of high profile rereleases, a new PixelJunk title, a cross buy twin-stick Robotron clone, an old arcade favorite, and more. It's actually a bit of a crowded course this week, so go strap yourselves in, fire up your engines, and then race past the break to see the complete list of new releases.
PlayStation 4

[Image: Bandai Namco Games]

Do Not Delete P.T. From Your PlayStation 4

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Unlike most games which have been de-listed from the PSN Store, P.T. has been completely wiped from Sony's servers. Contrary to what was previously reported, if you've deleted it from your hard disk to make space, you can no longer re-download it through your Library. 
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When I first noticed the official message on my PS Vita, I was honestly surprised. Out of all of the games that I've downloaded across various console services, this was the first time I've been told that an application in my library is no longer accessible.

I realize that this was something given out for free, and meant as promotional material for a game that no is no longer in production. Why should Konami spend any resources or money to make it available? Why throw good money after bad? Still, I'm a bit annoyed, and also concerned. I've always been partial to purchasing retail physical copies of games specifically because of worst case scenarios such as this. If I own the disc, I can keep on playing it as long as the hardware works.

A game that you could never play again? As a retro enthusiast, that actually bothers me. Especially considering how much enjoyment I've got out of P.T., it seems like something I'd want to go back to and re-experience, if only to reminisce. Catching me completely by surprise, P.T. turned out to be one of my favorite PS4 experiences.

Tell us, how do you feel about the security of your digital library? Do ever go back to older games, or do you live in the moment and only look forward?

No Sony Press Conference At Gamescom 2015

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If you are planning on visiting Cologne for some fresh Sony news, you might be out of luck. Sony Computer Entertainment just confirmed to Videogamer.com that they won’t be attending Gamescom this year.
The reason stated for this step? Well, you see, E3 got pushed back a week, Gamescom is a week early and they found out that I would be attending. So to save themselves the embarrassment of not having anything to show me that wasn’t already at E3, they decided to just skip their Gamescom press conference and instead hold an “international media briefing” at Paris Games Week in October.

Bummer.

New PlayStation Store Releases: Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

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This week on New PlayStation Store Releases, return to the role of BJ Blazkowicz in Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. Set during the events leading up to The New Order, help BJ dispense ruthless justice to the Nazis in the form of a cold lead pipe upside the head (or by just using lots of guns).

If you're in the mood for something lighter, you can check out the Rez-inspired rhythmic shooter, Cosmophony. It's being offered as a 3-way Cross-Buy. Or you can put your brain to the test on a puzzle solving adventure with Ether One or Syberia II. Go grab a section of plumbing and a rifle and then shoot past the break to see the full list of new releases.

PlayStation 4

PlayStation 3

[Image: Bethesda Softworks]

Doujin Shmup Genso no Rondo Coming to PS4

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Touhou Project, a series of doujin (essentially Japanese indie) bullet hell shooters, is getting a big time release on the PS4 with Genso no Rondo. What makes this entry particularly innovative is the focus on one-on-one arena combat. Offering many tactical moves such as basic and advanced offensive barrages, special moves, bullet clearing abilities, dashing, and spellcards, there is a ton of depth here. Read on for a closer look.
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Cinematic melee attacks are possible when two characters enter close quarters, and in addition to using bullets for distanced attacks, players can also drop bombs for an area attack.

All Touhou Project (or Shrine Maiden Project) games are made by a one man team called Team Shanghai Alice, and its sole member ZUN is responsible for nearly all of the production, including music, art, and programming.

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Pictured here is the Windows version, the PlayStation 4 version will get a full HD overhaul with enhanced graphics. There will be a single player mode, Boss Rush mode, scenario mode, and balance adjustments as well as all new characters.

For now, on a Japanese release date has been set for June 11th on the PSN as a downloadable title, with a bonus PS4 theme included. It is my hope that this unique game garners enough attention for a western release, and additional entries from the series follow!

Source: Siliconera

China: PlayStation Pulls Ahead of Xbox in One Month

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Image courtesy of K73.com

After its Chinese debut in March, the PlayStation 4 has rushed to meet and exceed the sales of its competitor, the Xbox One. Combined with the PlayStation Vita, Sony has quickly made a deep impact that has quickly overtaken almost eight months of Microsoft's marketing efforts.
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K73 suspects that the lead is due to the availability of Dynasty Warriors on the PS4, perhaps due to the familiarity of Chinese writer Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, on which the story is based.

The numbers reported in the chart specify online and retail units that are in the hands of end users, and although Microsoft has shipped 100k Xbox One consoles in its first month, these have not yet been sold through.

Please note that details of this story have been attained through a web translation of a Chinese news site, and we will update as soon as possible when a localized source is available.

Source: N4G

Xbox Founder Ed Frieds Admits PS4 Will Stay Ahead

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Ed Fries, Microsoft's former vice president of game publishing, says the Xbox company won't be able to close the gap. Partially blaming this on the bungling of the Xbox One launch and marketing, he believes the winner of the console wars to already be evident: "I think it’s PS4 by a nose."
He is quick to point out that there are a lot of changes going on for the Xbox, slashing prices and an emphasis on core games as opposed to the general audience to which they originally focused their products and services.
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Fries says that the market could see a shake up with the launch of VR and AR accessories, although it's difficult to see a peripheral making a difference, considering the history of attach rates, as well as the additional expense after a large initial investment.
Source: BizJournals