Playstation 3

Insomniac Reveals Overstrike

Up
until now, despite technically being a third-party studio, Insomniac
Games has remained exclusive to Sony’s platforms with series like Ratchet and
Clank and Resistance. That’s all changed with Overstrike, their latest
title revealed at this year’s E3. While gameplay footage has yet to be shown, the CG trailer demonstrates
Insomniac’s trademark sense of humor and fun with the tone of the game
seeming to sit nicely between realism and cartoony madness. Centralizing
around an elite team of four specialists, all of whom seem to have
distinct
personalities and abilities, including the leader Dalton Brooks (an
ex-mercenary), Jacob Kimble
(a detective), Isabelle Sinclair (a scientist) and Naya Deveraux (a
thief). What came to mind initially for me were the likes of Team Fortress
but with the production values and expressiveness of a Pixar film.
Being made by Insomniac you know it will have a well realized narrative
full of colorful characters and, given the primary focus on the four, it
should be expected that co-op will be seamlessly weaved into its
design.

Street Fighter x Tekken Comes to Vita

Yoshinori
Ono made an appearance at Sony’s E3 press conference to reveal a
(sort of) new title for the PlayStation Vita: Street Fighter x
Tekken. The game will make the jump from console to handheld just as
Street Fighter 4 has done before it. No announced date for release or
even expected time of year for release was mentioned.

Ono did
reveal that bizarrely Cole, of Infamous fame, will feature as a
playable character exclusive to the Vita. Cole is an odd choice as he
doesn’t exactly fit in perfectly with the Street Fighter style that
maybe Kratos did in regards to Mortal Kombat. Nonetheless it is an
interesting addition. Ono did show some gameplay of the Street
Fighter x Tekken running live on the Vita. At first glance it looked
at least comparable to the game’s console counterpart. However, it
looked significantly choppier in the frame rate department and
only time will tell how well the Vita’s controls will be able to
handle the precision required to succeed at a Street Fighter style of
game.

Ken Levine Reveals BioShock Infinite to Contain Move Support; New Vita-Based BioShock

Ken
Levine made an appearance at Sony’s E3 press conference in support of
BioShock. Along with presenting a new trailer for Infinite, Levine
also discussed a feature that will of course be exclusive to the PS3
version of the game. After joking around a little over the relevance
of motion controls, Levine revealed that BioShock Infinite will in
fact support Sony’s Move Controller. It was never made clear exactly
how the motion controls would be integrated into
Infinite, but Levine made sure to stress the fact that it would have
no effect on the ‘core’ way to play the game.

Ico/Shadow Date and New Details

It’s no surprise that we enjoy HD remakes of popular games, and the biggest one is yet to come. The Ico/Shadow of the Colossus remake has finally been announced and dated for this fall in Japan – and there is even some news for those of us that are state side. The HD collection is being handled by Bluepoint Games, the same developer that did the God of War Collection and that are currently working on the Metal Gear Solid Collection. The games will, of course, offer the standard trophies for both games, and they will also both offer the option of being in 3D as well as HD. 

As for Japan, they’ve got a different deal from their US counterparts; and maybe a less lucky one. While they will have the games by this fall, they will be getting them in parts, with a 100 page book with art from the games included. Both games with the book will be for $87 (¥6,980), or you can get them separately for $50 (¥3980) apiece. While you should not have to worry about paying that much in the US, do not expect any sweet art book outside of a pre-order bonus from a vendor like GameStop or Amazon.

Ubisoft Announce Brothers in Arms Furious 4

Ubisoft has announced they will be releasing a new game in
the Brothers in Arms series by developer Gearbox which is set to take the series
in a completely new direction.

Brothers in Arms Furious 4 is a gleefully overdone FPS set in World War
II and follows four men who are trying to reach and assassinate Hitler.
Players have special weapons and unusual individual combat abilities, all to fight a secret experimental Nazi army. The four main characters
are a Texan called Crockett who carries a cattle brand, a man called Stitch who
has an electric torture device, an Indian named Chok with a tomahawk, and man known as Montana who has a
chainsaw. The game contains a campaign mode playable with four players in co-op,
and an extensive multiplayer mode.

Ubisoft Shows Assassin’s Creed: Revelations at E3

Although the
game has been known about for a few weeks now, Ubisoft gave us more information
and an extended trailer for Assassin’s Creed: Revelations during their E3
Press Conference. We are told the fourth game in the franchise will be the most immersive experience from the series to
date and will mark the end of Ezio’s adventure. The game is set to arrive
on PS3 and Xbox 360 this November.
 
In
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations Ezio walks in Altaïr’s footsteps on a
journey to Constantinople at the heart of the Ottoman
Empire, where Templars are destabilizing the region. Ubisoft have refined existing elements of gameplay like
the combat and stealth aspects from previous Assassins Creed outings, while
also bringing some new aspects to the game, such as the use of bombs and a zip
line hook. In addition to the single player campaign, the multiplayer returns, with more
modes, more maps and more characters. The game also includes new gameplay
elements “allowing players to manipulate the construct of Desmond’s memories
and the Animus to decipher the mysteries of his past and gain insight into the
future.”

Sony Launches Welcome Back Program

Sony
announced earlier in the week that the PlayStation Network and
Qriocity services would be fully restored in the United States,
Europe, and most of Asia by the end of this week. This, however,
excludes Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea, but the company is excited
to welcome back its customers. The PlayStation Network and Qriocity
online services were fully restored on June 3rd and are now completely
operational. This means that the PlayStation Store is finally open
for business once again and Music Unlimited members can get back to
using their accounts normally. Along with the addition of some great
new content being available for PS3 and PSP, June 3rd also marked the
start of Sony’s “Welcome Back” Program. This offer gives existing
members, those who held PSN accounts before April 20th, the chance to
get their hands on some awesome content—free of charge!