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Sega’s Gamescom 2018 lineup includes Team Sonic Racing, Valkyria Chronicles 4, Persona 3: Dancing, Persona 5: Dancing, and more
Sega has big plans for this year’s Gamescom show, and the publisher will give attendees the chance to try out six playable demos, as well as give gamers their first look at the soccer-centric skills needed for Football Manager 2019.
Strategic planning is at the center of several of Sega’s Gamescom offerings, including “epic strategy RPG” Valkyria Chronicles 4 and team-based racer Team Sonic Racing. But if you want to kick off your shoes and dance, the publisher will also have kiosks available for Persona 3: Dancing in the Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in the Starlight.
Here’s a look at their complete Gamescom 2018 lineup:
Team Sonic Racing, developed by award-winning studio Sumo Digital, is the ultimate arcade and fast-paced competitive style racing experience, featuring your favourite characters from across the Sonic Universe. Visitors to the stand will have the opportunity to race on an all new track, Ice Mountain, and experience two brand new playable teams.
Creative Assembly’s Total War: Three Kingdoms will also showcase never-seen-before content and consumers will get the chance to go hands-on with the game for the very first time. Players will witness an exclusive look at the exotic lands of ancient China in a campaign map flythrough before being thrust into the midst of a night-time ambush battle. Sun Jian’s army, led by Sun Ren and Sun Quan, must defend against waves of incoming heroes and warriors or choose to make a break for freedom.
As if that wasn’t enough, epic strategy RPG Valkyria Chronicles 4, frantic action/adventure Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, and the hugely anticipated rhythm games Persona 3: Dancing in the Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in the Starlight will feature on the stand in a collection of some of the hottest unreleased Japanese IP on the planet. Make sure you leave yourself enough time to play everything!
Football Manager 2019 will make its Gamescom debut this year as an official partner of the Bundesliga, with an activation that will put football fans in the firing line for questioning from renowned ESPN Football Journalist, Raphael Honigstein. After they’ve been grilled, they’ll get to line-up in front of a Football Manager themed step and repeat for an authentic Football Manager photo and leave with a Football Manager notebook. A must have for would-be managers! The game itself will not be playable.
Gamescom 2018 will take place, as always, in Cologne, Germany. This year’s show will open its doors beginning on Tuesday, August 21.
WarioWare Gold, Dead Cells, Overcooked! 2, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
It is another big week for the Switch, but this Nintendo eShop belongs to the 3DS as Wario makes his debut on Nintendo’s dedicated handheld.
WarioWare Gold is the latest microgame collection starring Mario’s (other) nemesis, and this time around players will be able to tackle more than 300 new and returning microgames. Players will need to “use the touchscreen, tilt the system, push buttons, and rock the mic” when WarioWare Gold is available to download for the 3DS beginning tomorrow.
But Switch owners will once again get to choose from dozens of new releases this week, including today’s eShop launch for Salt and Sanctuary, a brutally challenging 2D Action RPG from Ska Studios. Also available to download today is comedic side-scroller Guns, Gore, and Cannoli 2 and picture puzzler Picross S2 (now with a Story Mode!).
And early next week, on August 7, Switch owners will be able to download Dead Cells, a MetroidVania-style roguelite from Motion Twin; Overcooked! 2, another multiplayer cooking sim from Team17; Slam Land, a basketball-style party brawler from Bread Machine; and 1979 Revolution: Black Friday, an interactive adventure set during the Iranian Revolution.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop (including Iconoclasts, Not A Hero, Flipping Death, and more) after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Switch
Tagged Dead Cells, Salt and Sanctuary, Slam Land, WarioWare Gold
Nintendo scored both the best-selling game (Mario Tennis Aces) and console (NES Classic) of June 2018
Nintendo can lay claim to the top-selling console in June 2018… but it wasn’t the Nintendo Switch. Instead, it looks like the relaunched NES Classic was the month’s best-selling console.
However, that’s not to say that the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch (as well as the Super NES Classic and 3DS) were slouching. According to the NPD Group (via GamesIndustry.biz), the three major consoles, both of Nintendo’s retro microconsoles, and the 3DS created a 52% increase in overall hardware sales versus June 2017.
All told, the game industry tallied $1.1 billion in sales in June, which was good for a 25% year-over-year increase.
June is typically a slow month for new releases, and that was reflected in the NPD’s companion report on best-selling games. Mario Tennis Aces was the top-selling game during the month, with The Crew 2 (#4), and Lego The Incredibles (#7) also breaking into the top ten. Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy‘s debut on the PC, Switch, and Xbox One also helped it re-enter the list at #9.
A quick rundown of the remainder of June 2018’s best-selling games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Retro, Switch, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Crash Bandicoot, Detroit: Become Human, Far Cry 5, FIFA 18, Grand Theft Auto V, Lego The Incredibles, Mario Kart 8, Mario Tennis Aces, NPD, The Crew 2
Chasm, 1979 Revolution, Pixel Ripped 1989, more coming to PS Store this week
Step back into history with this week’s PlayStation Store update…
First up, PS4 and PS Vita owners will finally get the chance to download Chasm, a medieval MetroidVania designed and developed by Bit Kid. In development for more than five years, the procedurally-generated adventure asks players to explore a dungeon teeming with monsters and mayhem.
Also available to download for the PS4 this week is 1979 Revolution: Black Friday, an interactive adventure that takes place during the Iranian Revolution.
Finally this week, Pixel Ripped 1989 is a PSVR-powered trip back to the earliest days of gaming, and players will need to travel inside the games themselves to save the real world in this “wacky multi-dimensional homage.”
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break. (more…)
New Retail Releases: WarioWare Gold, More
Nintendo is showing 3DS owners that there’s still some life left in their dedicated handheld with this week’s release of WarioWare Gold. Featuring more than 300 new and returning “microgames,” WarioWare Gold is the biggest entry in the series to date and the first to appear on the 3DS (though it’s only playable in 2D).
The remainder of this week’s new retail releases are games making their Switch debut, including THQ Nordic’s Diablo-like hack-and-slash action RPG, Titan Quest; Nicalis’s anime-inspired hack-and-slash RPG, Code of Princess EX; and a 25th Anniversary Edition re-release of Paul Cuisset’s “cinematic platformer,” Flashback.
This quartet of games is it for now, but as always, we’ll be back later this week with a look at more new titles coming to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
Posted in 3DS, News, Switch
Tagged Flashback, WarioWare Gold
The Banner Saga 3, Titan Quest, Flashback, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
It looks like it’s time for another Nintendo eShop update. As usual, more than 20 new games will be available to download for the Switch. Here’s what’s on tap for this week…
RPG fans should be on the lookout for The Banner Saga 3, the grand finale to Stoic’s strategy RPG series, as well as Titan Quest, an action RPG that was originally released for the PC in 2006. Also set to launch this week for the Switch is Flashback, a modern remake of Delphine Software’s “cinematic platformer,” which was first released in 1992.
Finally this week, Nintendo will partner with Hamster Corporation to bring Sky Skipper, one of the consolemaker’s earliest arcade games, to the Switch.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop (including Go Vacation, Code of Princess EX, The King of Fighters ’97, and more) after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Switch
Tagged Flashback, The Banner Saga 3
Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 + 2, The Banner Saga 3, more coming to PS Store this week
Travel to a far-flung future and a distant past in this week’s PlayStation Store update.
If you’re a fan of side-scrolling platformers, you’ll definitely want to look ahead to 20XX and this week’s release of Mega Man X Legacy Collection and Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2. Available for the PS4 separately or as a bundle, the Legacy Collection compilations include all eight games in the Mega Man X series, as well as a wealth of behind-the-scenes material in the Museum Mode and the brand new X Challenge Mode, which pits players in a battle against two different bosses at the same time.
Also available for the PS4 this week is The Banner Saga 3, the finale to Stoic’s trilogy of strategic RPG series. Things are not looking bright for our Viking heroes, as the developer asks, “As the world continues to crumble around you, who can you trust, how will you protect your allies, and what choices will you make as the Darkness draws near?”
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Mega Man X, The Banner Saga 3
Blizzard will team up with Titan Comics to release Diablo comic miniseries later this year
We missed this one during Comic-Con last week, but it looks like Blizzard and Titan Comics will team up to produce a brand new miniseries based on the Diablo franchise. Set to launch this Fall, the four-part comic saga will be written by Marv Wolfman (Crisis on Infinite Earths) and illustrated by Piotr Kowalski (Wolfenstein):
The [Diablo] comics will follow a group of zealous scholars and crusaders as they discover the true origins of humanity. Will their faith survive these shocking revelations?
For those keeping score at home, Titan’s untitled Diablo series will actually be the third comic adaptation of Blizzard’s battle between the angelic Nephalem and the hordes of Hell. The developer worked with Dark Horse to publish Diablo: Tales of Sanctuary in 2001, and partnered with DC Comics ten years later to produce Diablo: Sword of Justice in 2011.
More information about the Diablo miniseries (and presumably, a collected edition) will be announced soon. But for now, you can take a gander at a pair of teaser images from Kowalski after the break. (more…)
Posted in Etcetera, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Comic-Con 2018, Diablo III