EA has announced via their GamesCom 2010 press briefing that Bioware’s critically acclaimed Mass Effect 2 will be arriving on PlayStation 3, January 2011.
The once 360, PC only title had been rumored for some time to be making its way to Sony’s platform, but after being denied time and time again by Bioware executives, it would appear that all the rumors are in fact true, and PS3 owners will finally get their hands on one of 2010’s best titles thus far.
The next installment of the Castlevania series, the highly anticipated Lords of Shadow , will receive a limited edition priced at $79.99. The extra cash will secure you the game’s soundtrack of roughly twenty tracks and an art book with thirty to forty pages worth of art. Buyers will also receive gorgeous new box art from artist Ayami Kojima. This will be the first time that a Castlevania game has been given a limited edition in North America.
The original Mafia, released on the PC in 2002, won high praise in the industry as a well-crafted, story-driven action adventure reminiscent of the “Godfather” films and “Goodfellas”. After eight long years, Mafia 2 hopes to capture the same success as the original. In the Mafia 2 demo, you play as Vito Scaletta, a WWII vet that returns home to continue the family business.
Tim Schafer and his team at Double Fine have announced a new downloadable title that will reach PlayStation Network and Xbox Live this fall. The project is called Costume Quest, an RPG Adventure title set during Halloween where a group of friends set off to complete quests and collect various items like cards and candy, as well as additional costume parts.
Test Drive Unlimited 2, originally scheduled for release in Q4 of this year, has been delayed until early next year. The official website of the developer Eden Games posted a short news story with the information: “TDU2 is a highly ambitious game and also very big. Since locking down the final features, some months ago, we have been busy getting the bugs out of the game.” “We’re at the point now where we have a pretty solid game, which is fun and could be launched shortly. However, with a few extra months of polish it could be even better.”
Playstation PLUS content returns this week with free versions of the PSone classic Syphon Filter, an hour long trial of Red Faction: Guerilla and the latest episode of Qore. Syphon Filter dealt with themes like bioterrorism and clandestine government agencies and was one of the better stealth third-person shooters available when it was released back in 1999. Red Faction: Guerilla effectively reboots the Red Faction franchise into an open-world action game. A free hour is more than enough time to experience the game’s most impressive feature— fully destructible environments. Episode 27 of Qore continues to keep you updated on all things Sony and even includes a demo of Ter-Rover.
Half Minute Hero is one of my favorite titles for the PSP, with its common universe synonymous with an RPG, but very unique gameplay. For anyone who doesn’t know what the first game was about, I’ll give you a very basic rundown, you have 30 seconds to complete certain objectives with some RPG elements thrown in. A simple idea but it works really well and you just have to see it to understand why.
Insomniac Games, the people who brought you Ratchet and Clank and the Resistance series, have announced that they will be revealing their new game sometime between now and PAX, which is in September. They have talked a little about the forthcoming releases in a newsletter:
“Want to be the first members of the public to see our new game being played with your own eyes? We’re bringing our new game to a very special Penny-Arcade Expo panel on Saturday evening (September 4th), at 6:30pm in the Serpent Theatre. G4TV’s Adam Sessler will moderate a panel with key creative talent from Insomniac Games as we discuss (and demo!) our upcoming PlayStation 3 project.”
Black Rock Studio’s Split/Second, the high speed, explosive stunt racing game will be getting 3 content packs on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace “in the next couple weeks.” Additionally, a 4th pack has been announced by the studio, though not expected to launch until next month.
Fumito Ueda, the director of Team ICO and the mastermind behind ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, has just hinted on his Twitter page that we will finally get some more details on the highly anticipated Last Guardian at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show.
Up until now the details available for this PS3 exclusive have been thin. We know the game centres around the friendship between a giant bird called Trico and a young boy. But other than this, and what has been extracted from a few teaser trailers, there have so far been very few concrete facts. Judging by the team’s last two games though it seems likely that this outing will again contain a rich open world with the now familiar, but still completely unique, sense of style and solitude. The player will control the boy, while caring for and working with the bird, in order to solve puzzles and advance through the story.
