Archive for the ‘sega’ Category
Valkyria Chronicles II Marches Today – Multiplayer Preview
Posted by Jeff Rubenstein in PlayStation Games, psp, sega, valkyria chronicles II on August 31st, 2010
Every time we post anything on Valkyria Chronicles, someone pipes up about how they never got past Chapter 7 in the first game. That battle threw a late-level boss and a massive (but by no means the game’s massive-est) tank at you – at the same time. It separated the men from the boys, if you will, and if you beat that chapter, you probably went on to beat the entire game.
SEGA has heard your pleas. In Valkyria Chronicles II – out today – you can bring a friend or 3 for the ride. I tried out the multiplayer recently, and it didn’t behave how I’d expect; even though this is a turn-based Strategy RPG, the you and your colleagues move at the same time, in real time. SEGA’s Aaron Webber tells us more:
Valkyria Chronicles II is out today, both on UMD and via the PlayStation Store.
A Few Rallies with Virtua Tennis 4 and PlayStation Move
Posted by James Gallagher in 3D, Demos, PS3, PlayStation Games, playstation move, sega, virtua tennis 4 on August 30th, 2010
As dark clouds have taken residence over London and the weather resembles a certain interactive drama, I don’t think I’ll be stepping onto a tennis court any time soon. Luckily, I have a PlayStation Move motion controller, a 3D TV and an early demo of Virtua Tennis 4 to tide me over.
I recently spoke to the game’s Executive Producer, Mie Kumagai, and asked why she had chosen to develop a tennis game when she served us the first in the Virtua Tennis series, back in 1999.
“When we first started the series, we wanted to make a casual arcade game that everyone could pick up and enjoy,” she said. “Sport seemed like a good place to start because it appeals to many people that wouldn’t usually play games. That was the start of the series, but we reached a point where we were looking for something new; it’s around this time that we heard about PlayStation Move.”
Virtua Tennis 4 lets you step into the shoes of some of the world’s best tennis pros. Every swing of the racquet can be performed with the PlayStation Move motion controller and you can judge the approach of the ball better than ever, thanks to stereoscopic 3D support. I asked Kumagai for her thoughts on Move and her philosophy behind working with a motion controller.
“I saw PlayStation Move at quite an early stage in its development,” she replied, “and I remember being curious about what Sony [Computer Entertainment] had been working on and excited about the new technology.”
“We have two points of consideration when it comes to the game’s controls. The first is that we want the game to be playable without the user having to press any buttons at all; in other words, you are relying entirely on your own movement.”
“The second consideration is to achieve a good balance between first and third person points of view. If we wan the game to be totally realistic, then first person would be the way to go, but that way you kind of lose the fun of controlling top tennis players like Roger Federer, so we have aimed for the right mixture of the two.”
The demo available to play at gamescom (and my desk) features Roger Federer and Andy Murray. Your character’s left and right movement is automatic but each swing of the racquet must be performed by the player and you can drop back or rush to the net by physically stepping back or forward. There’s a dynamic camera system in place, so when the ball is in the other half of the court, the camera pans out so that you can see your position.
When the ball is coming towards you, it glides seamlessly into a first person viewpoint where you can see your racquet in front of you and time your swing accordingly. You can even twist the racquet to adjust its face when it connects with the ball, allowing skilled players to apply spin. It’s accessible and extremely intuitive, especially when playing in stereoscopic 3D.
“The balance between accessibility and realism in very important when it comes to gameplay, but I think that Virtua Tennis with Move has a really good system, where the gameplay and the controls are in perfect sync. Building the game up from this existing system wasn’t too hard for us,” Kumagai added.
Virtua Tennis 4 will be available on PlayStation 3 in Spring 2011.
Vanquish DEMO Coming to PSN Next Week!
Posted by Julian Mehlfeld in Demos, PS3, PSN, PlayStation Games, sega, vanquish on August 27th, 2010
Hellooo PlayStation.Blog – my name is Julian Mehlfeld and I’m the community manager on Vanquish here at SEGA. I’m very happy to be writing this blog all about our soon-to-release Vanquish demo for PlayStation 3, which should be out on August 31 across PSN. For everyone at SEGA, this is very exciting news, and we hope you enjoy taking a spin on SEGA and PlatinumGames newest offering. Before we jump into the details, I want to give you a quick bit of info on the setting, the game, and then offer you a bit of a challenge.
The Story So Far…
Vanquish is set in a desperate future, one that centers around exponential population growth, a demand for resources, and a political power play from Russia that lands you in the heart of the action aboard an orbiting space station. You play Sam Gideon, DARPA Agent and co-designer of some very advanced technology – the Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS). Your mission is to work with the infiltrating military to restore order, find your fellow agents, and prevent an attack on New York City, among other American targets.
The Secret to Success
Vanquish is the newest game from the mind of Shinji Mikami, creator of such classics as Resident Evil. Known for his epic games, Shinji Mikami has taken on the 3rd person shooter in a way that only he could. Working with PlatinumGames, together they’ve come up with a very fast, very fluid, and very intense cover to cover shooter. How you operate the Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS) system and the key abilities it grants you will be the deciding factor in your success – or failure. The two abilities that I find the most useful are Boost and Augmented Reaction (AR).
The Augmented Reaction Suit, you’ll find, is incredibly fast and agile when you use Boost to navigate around the demo area. Boost allows you to dash over to save wounded marines, evade attacks, or quickly close the distance on any enemy to deliver a punishing melee attack. Boost into cover, boost out of cover – boosting is one of the best tools you have for both defensive and offensive action in Vanquish.
While Boost grants you speed, Augmented Reaction (AR) will grant you time. Time will save you in both a reactive and proactive manner – push forward with your Boost and flip on AR to destroy enemies while you dash past them. Jump out of cover into AR to line up headshots and stop a guarded threat behind cover. Roll into AR, plant your body, and focus fire at heavily guarded targets for maximum efficiency. Defensively – you’ll enter into AR when you take on too much damage, granting you a moment to kill your main threat, or evade into cover to recharge and continue the fight.
I highly recommend checking out the tutorial before jumping into the full game to see how these two abilities play out. You’ll get a chance to mess around in a safe environment and become comfortable with how the game works. Trust me, you can adapt while you play the game and absolutely get through it – but you will benefit from a bit of practice!
The Demo Challenge
So as a spot of fun, I figured I’d leave you with a challenge to see if you can best what I consider to be a very impressive clear-time on the demo. Our own internal producer, Keith, has become quite good at the demo from various trade shows and has a clear time of 6 minutes and 12 seconds. I challenge you to beat this time! Keith is good, but I’m betting the community will be able to best him in a few short days after release – prove me right, post screenshots if you can, and show them what community can do!
The Vanquish Demo releases on Tuesday, August 31 at a time to be specified by PSN – we hope you enjoy the demo and look forward to your impressions!
Valkyria Chronicles II Demo Available on PSN Today
Posted by Aaron Webber in Demos, PlayStation Games, psp, sega, valkyria chronicles II on August 10th, 2010
Howdy Valkyria Chronicles fans – the time is almost here!
As Valkyria Chronicles II gets close to its August 31st release, we’d like to give you all a little sample of the game to try out and play for yourselves! If you’ve been wondering how Valkyria Chronicles II holds up to the first game, today you can experience the glory of getting those lovely headshots on a rebel (or ten) while on-the-go.
If you loved the first game, you’ll be glad to see that the feel of battle has been not only preserved, but also improved upon greatly. The new multi-field battle layout also adds another level of strategy, giving some missions a number of paths for you to send your squad through. Jeff and I also talked about the multiplayer in one of the recent blogs here, which offers both cooperative and competitive play in addition to the full RPG storyline.
Valkyria Chronicles II may be a PSP game in relation to its older PS3 brother, but trust me when I say not to take it lightly. This little gem not only manages to do justice to one of my favorite RPG Battle systems – ever – but also brings back the CANVAS system for a beautiful watercolor finish that looks just as good as it plays.
Finally, I’d like to include one other confirmation here on the blog: We’ve added a few new exclusive items to the Western version of the game! Among the many stickers that you can get for your tank or vehicle, we’ve added in a few brand new ones that both old and new SEGA fans are sure to smile at. Those of you who loved the first game will also be happy to note that we’ve included a few original characters as unlockable Easter eggs, just like in the Japanese version.
I could write about my love for this series for pages and pages – but the easiest way to experience Valkyria Chronicles is truly to play it. We hope you all will enjoy the demo when it goes live later today, and I’d love to hear what you guys think.
As always, hit us up with any questions or comments below, and I’ll do my best to respond to them all. All the best, and have fun!
Valkyria Chronicles II Coming to PSP Later this Summer
Posted by Jeff Rubenstein in PlayStation Games, psp, sega, valkyria chronicles II on July 29th, 2010
Valkyria Chronicles is one of those hidden gems from the early-ish days of the PS3; a strategy-RPG with third-person shooter controls and stunning anime styling. If you’re into any of those genres (or World War II, for that matter), I highly recommend you procure a copy.
While Valkyria Chronicles didn’t top the sales charts, it inspired intense fandom among many who played it (be prepared to open your wallet wide if you want to get ahold of the detailed Valkyria figurines coming out of Japan). Like many of these fans, I’m particularly excited about the prospect of carrying the game’s sequel with me for most of the 2nd half of this year.
So I took the short trip to Sega’s US HQ to play an English build of Valkyria Chronicles 2 for PSP, and report back to you. VC2 may be shrunk down to portability, but there are significant advancements in this sequel, including multiplayer.
We’ll have more details on Valkyria Chronicles II soon.
Yakuza 4 Coming Exclusively to PS3 in Spring 2011
Posted by Aaron Webber in PS3, PlayStation Games, sega, yakuza 4 on June 11th, 2010
Alright Yakuza fans — time for some good news.
After some amazing passion seen across the board from fans regarding the release of Yakuza 3, SEGA is proud to announce that the fourth installment of the Yakuza series is heading West, and will be releasing exclusively on the PlayStation 3 in the spring of 2011!
Yakuza 4 also builds on the style of the original Yakuza foundation by adding three new playable characters, each with a distinct personality and fighting style. They all have connections to the Tojo clan — but what those connections are, and what they mean with regard to a man named Kazuma Kiryu, is just one part of what will truly make things interesting.
We’d also like to confirm what we feel is important news for our fans: the Hostess Clubs will be returning in Yakuza 4!
Finally, we’d like to let you guys field questions to the man whose name goes hand in hand with the Yakuza (or Ryu Ga Gotoku in Japan) series himself: Nagoshi-san! Write your questions in the comments below, and with a bit of luck, your question will be among others asked after next week’s E3!
Good luck, and we hope all you Yakuza fans out there just found your day got a little brighter. If you’ll excuse us, that plush cat in the UFO Catcher at Club SEGA has been making fun of us all morning, and it’s about time we showed him our perception skills.
Yakuza 3 Hits Western Shores!
Posted by Aaron Webber in PS3, PlayStation Games, sega, yakuza 3 on March 9th, 2010
The big day is finally here. As Yakuza 3 begins the journey to stores across the west, we take another look at what makes Yakuza 3 something you’ll find only on the PS3.
“If there’s one thing about Yakuza that these last few months have taught people,” I thought as I sat at lunch on Monday, “It’s that the fans are a force to take seriously…usually.” Fans can be the biggest allies and proponents of games that may not be the huge, multi-million sellers like (insert generic FPS here), or (insert additional generic FPS here). They can create amazing successes for games that were never expected to have them – looking at you, Valkyria Chronicles – and they can just as easily do the opposite, in some cases.
But more than anything, most fans just want to be heard. Fans want interaction, and to be responded to. So let’s begin this blog post by jumping right in to one of the biggest things fans have been asking about: the content.
Yakuza 3 is huge. Besides exploring Tokyo and Okinawa, you can also visit restaurants, pick up ramen at a local convenience store, go golfing, bowling, fishing, karaoke, or bust some heads in a local street fight.
As someone who enjoyed Shenmue, my love for Yakuza grows in knowing that some of the people who developed the original Shenmue games also work on Yakuza now. The similarity in feel between the two is no coincidence – and the epic feel of exploration, and Japanese culture, that the game offers are things you won’t find anywhere else. I’m also a big fan of playing darts while drunk – the extra level of difficulty is quite entertaining, besides being notably safer in Yakuza 3’s virtual world than it is in real life. (Note: I do not condone playing Darts while intoxicated. You’ll probably take someone’s eye out.)
Also, we’d like to make special note that while not everything from the Japanese version made it to the western shores, our community team has been – and will be– reading, compiling, and passing all of that feedback upwards here at SEGA. I can’t say more than that presently, but know that you are being heard, and we’ll make sure of that for you. To clarify additionally, as has been mentioned: Hostesses are in the game, and you can take them out on dates, build relationships, and sing karaoke with them to your heart’s content.
As Yakuza goes out the door and into the homes of hundreds of thousands of fans, I’d also like to take a moment to give some thanks to the people that really deserve it – and that’s you guys. It goes to the people who pushed from the beginning to show SEGA how much they wanted this game here. To those who post in the comments sections encouraging us, offering bright and helpful viewpoints even when the going got rough. And finally, to those who continue to support this PS3 exclusive by picking up the game, and in doing so give the franchise the legs on which to stand.
Know that we appreciate the support so many of you have already given to this series – and that we are now, and will continue to listen to your feedback.
That said – here’s to Yakuza 3!
Peruse Yakuza 3’s Pre-order Bonuses
Posted by Aaron Webber in PS3, PlayStation Games, sega, yakuza 3 on February 10th, 2010
Hey there Yakuza fans, it’s been a little while, but we’re back with more news on Yakuza 3 – today, we’d like to show you guys what we’ve got set up as a pre-order bonus for all of the fans who support the game by throwing in their reserve ahead of time!
What’s in store for those of us here in the US? A fair bit, actually – here’s what you score when you pre-order the game:
4 pieces of DLC will be packed into the game via a special code card. This will allow players access to the following content:
• Battle for Survival – Take on all the bosses of Yakuza 3 as Kazuma
• All-Star Tournament (7 character tournament)
• All-Star Tag Tournament (8 team tournament)
• Haruka’s Request – This unique series of challenge missions will send you on a task of exploration throughout the entire Yakuza world, playing mini-games and entertaining Haruka.In addition to this, Yakuza fans who pre-order the game at their local GameStop will receive additional content via the Challenge Pack. This will allow them to enjoy 2-player mini games, competing against their friends at Pool, Bowling, Darts and Golf. They will also be able to customize their principle characters with four alternative costumes for Kazuma, Haruka and Rikiya.
Besides the pre-order content, are there any specific parts of the game you guys out there are interested in? Let us know here in the comments, and we’ll see what we can do to get some spotlights out there on the things you all would most like to see.
With just over a month until Yakuza releases, the wait is almost over. Until next time!
Aliens vs. Predator: Your Questions Answered
Posted by Chris Morell in PS3, PlayStation Games, aliens vs. predator, rebellion, sega on February 3rd, 2010
Last week we called for your questions (via Twitter) on SEGA’s upcoming PS3 shooter Aliens vs. Predator. And as usual, you delivered some good ones, covering off on all areas off the game’s single and multplayer modes, the special Hunter edition and more. Tim Jones from AvP developer Rebellion was on hand to field as I fired a list full of inquiries.
*And literally as I’m typing this, we just received word that an AvP online multiplayer demo is hitting the PlayStation Store tomorrow! So at around the 6:00 mark in the video when Tim mentions the demo, add your own mental voiceover with Thursday, Feb. 4. The demo will feature Deathmatch mode in the Refinery map, and will allow all three species to battle it out online.
What you probably didn’t know is that earlier in the week, I sat down to a solid two hours of multiplayer inside SEGA HQ, taking a shot at each of three species: human and alien primarily, with a short stint as a Predator. Going in fresh (I hadn’t seen the game in action), I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of actual multiplayer gameplay, but I knew the competitive mode would most likely vary depending on what character I chose. My first instinct was to draw Marine (hard to turn down a gun), but instead I went alien. Feeling overwhelmed by a short controls brief, I quickly settled down and learned some alien-specific moves that turned out to be incredibly devastating, including a lightning-fast lock-on “pounce” maneuver and a deadly stealth attack. It seems you really get the most out of playing as an alien if you stick to the walls and ceilings, and virtually out of other species’ sight.
As a Marine, firepower is your main offense/defense, and a handy sprint helps keep you out of harm’s way. I really enjoyed Alien Infestation, a mode where every player starts as a Marine, and soon after, one randomly selected player becomes an Alien. From there it’s only a matter of time before another Marine is killed by an alien, thus re-spawning as alien. And this continues until there’s one Marine left standing…and then it’s only a matter of time.
I think Rebellion’s done a great job of balancing the multiplayer gameplay, and the sense of Marine claustrophobia is a nice nod to the films. Can’t wait to jump into the single-player campaign when AvP releases on February 16.
Qore Episode 20 – Featuring Dante’s Inferno, Heavy Rain, Bayonetta and BioShock 2
Posted by Kevin Furuichi in 2k marin, EA, Inside PlayStation, PlayStation Games, PlayStation Network, QORE, bayonetta, bioshock 2, dante's inferno, heavy rain, quantic dream, sega on January 6th, 2010
January’s Episode 20 is on the way, featuring eternal damnation, ceaseless precipitation, stylish decapitation and undersea exploration.
Hell is the last place you want to be—unless you’re impatient for the mythical adventure of redemption found in Dante’s Inferno. Veronica Belmont circles around EA to experience how the developer plans to bring the epic 14th century poem to life. There’s also an interactive quiz built into this episode that will determine your degree of sinfulness.
We’ve been keeping an eye on Heavy Rain since the Qore team’s first visit back in 2008. And, as promised, Quantic Dream has crafted a film-noir world that is both graphically impressive and psychologically disturbing. As you play the part of four different characters whose lives intertwine on the trail of a serial killer, your every decision has an effect on the story around you. This extensive preview also includes an interactive cinema demonstration of the consequences of a few of the choices you can make.
BioShock is one of the most critically-acclaimed games of the past few years, putting pressure on the developer to outdo itself for the sequel. We head back to Rapture, ten years after the events of the original game, to find out if life under the sea is really better as a Big Daddy in BioShock 2.
With Tina Fey-esque librarian glasses and holsters in her killer heels, Bayonetta is no soft-spoken angel. In fact, she’s a shape-shifting witch who battles angels and other assorted creatures with style. There’s a lot of video out there about this game, but we’ve got a full HD preview of this fascinating title and nine reasons you’ve got to love Bayonetta.
Audrey’s also got a look at the latest and greatest Blu-ray movie releases coming your way in early 2010, and we’ve got exclusive Dante’s Inferno and Heavy Rain PS3 themes to go along with this month’s video features for both subscribers and single-episode purchasers.
Episode 20 debuts tomorrow.