If you’ve never played the Yakuza series before, I highly recommend you download the demo and give it a whirl. Today’s demo is built around brawling, and in it you’ll get to play as all four unique characters in the game. Oh, and if you’re glowing blue and you see the triangle button appear, make sure to press it – those are called HEAT actions, and they’re both brutal and pretty amazing.

Also, hidden tip – we’ve equipped each character with a special weapon to use! Tap down on the d-pad to equip a weapon, and you’ll find yourself armed with everything from nunchucks to spears to katanas. Kazuma Kiryu, the final character in the demo, also comes equipped with all three for you to try out.

If you own a PS3, you owe it to yourself to see why this series is exclusive to the console. And there’s even more good news: following the great positive support from fans who picked up Yakuza 3 last year, we’ve made a massive effort to include as much content in the game as possible this time – which means that you’ve got hours upon hours of bonus side-content and mini-games added in. Like Hostess Clubs? Worry not – we’ve got ‘em. Pachinko? Check. Baseball, bowling, a date at the hot springs, massage parlors, table tennis in kimonos – it’s all here.

Yakuza 4 is much more than just brawling, though we hope you’ll really enjoy just how deep the combat is within the demo. You can experience everything the game has to offer firsthand soon, on March 15th! (Our friends over at Gamestop also have a shiny Hostess premium theme if you support the game by pre-ordering!)

As always, thanks to you guys for supporting series like Yakuza and Valkyria Chronicles. Drop a line in the comments if you’d like to fire away any questions.

SEGA!

Gaming has come a long way since it became popular with the release of the Atari 2600. As the industry continued to build steam over the years that followed, we saw some iconic classics emerge. One publisher, SEGA, has definitely had its fair share of games that brought mass appeal in the early stages of gaming.

Whether it was our favorite blue hedgehog or playing couch co-op as two centurions tried to free Zeus’ daughter, SEGA created some of the most defining titles in video game history. Now, the SEGA Genesis Collection is coming to PlayStation Store. Starting March 29, SEGA will be rolling out the SEGA Genesis Collection, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Altered Beast, and more. All six of these titles will be playable on the PlayStation 3 and will include trophies. As a special gift and exclusive offer for our PlayStation Plus subscribers, the upcoming games (an almost $30 value) will be available two weeks early and free for one month each to download. To kick off the event, Sonic the Hedgehog will be available a full four weeks early on March 1 to PlayStation Plus subscribers!

View the full list of titles below (including release dates) and enjoy jumping into some gaming nostalgia.

PlayStation Plus Releases (free)

• Sonic the Hedgehog – Available March 1 – April 5
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – Available April 5 – May 3
• Streets of Rage 2 – Available May 3 – May 31
• Golden Axe 2 – Available May 31 – July 5
• Comix Zone – Available July 5 – August 2
• Altered Beast – Available August 2 – August 30

Regular PlayStation Store Release ($4.99 each)

• Sonic the Hedgehog – March 29
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – April 19
• Streets of Rage 2 – May 17
• Golden Axe 2 – June 14
• Comix Zone – July 19
• Altered Beast – August 16

As the holidays inch closer, the PlayStation Store decided to partner with two publishers who shaped many gamers’ youths –SNK and SEGA. Both have released some of most noteworthy titles of the 1990s, including Sonic the Hedgehog and King of Fighters. SEGA has done a great job of bringing some of their most popular titles along with revitalizing one of our favorite blue hedgehogs and now SNK is following in their footsteps.

As an early holiday gift, both of these publishers will be offering sales on a handful of great PSN titles. SNK will be offering PlayStation Plus subscribers a 20% discount on all SNK games when they release in tomorrow’s PlayStation Store update. Also, SEGA will be holding a sale that includes some of their newer releases, such as Valkyria Chronicles 2, Phantasy Star Portable 2, and the re-release of Sonic Adventure. All these items can be found in the “Featured Publishers” category on the games section of the PlayStation Store. See the full list below:

SNK Discounted Titles

• Alpha Mission (20% off) (PlayStation Plus price $7.19, regular price $8.99)
• Art of Fighting (20% off) (PlayStation Plus price $7.19, regular price $8.99)
• Baseball Stars Professional (20% off) (PlayStation Plus price $7.19, regular price $8.99)
• Fatal Fury (20% off) (PlayStation Plus price $7.19, regular price $8.99)
• League Bowling (20% off) (PlayStation Plus price $7.19, regular price $8.99)
• Magician Lord (20% off) (PlayStation Plus price $7.19, regular price $8.99)
• Metal Slug (20% off) (PlayStation Plus price $7.19, regular price $8.99)
• Samurai Showdown (20% off) (PlayStation Plus price $7.19, regular price $8.99)
• Super Sidekicks (20% off) (PlayStation Plus price $7.19, regular price $8.99)
• The King of Fighters ’94 (20% off) (PlayStation Plus price $7.19, regular price $8.99)

SEGA Discount Titles

• After Burner Climax (sale price $4.99, original price $9.99)
• Gunstar Heroes (sale price $2.99, original price $4.99)
• Sonic Adventure (sale price $4.99, original price $9.99)
• Sonic Adventure DX Upgrade (sale price $1.99, original price $4.99)
• Sonic The Hedgehog Episode 1 (PlayStation Plus price $7.49, sale price $9.99, original price $14.99)
• Football Manager Handheld 2010 (sale price $15.99, original price $39.99)
• Iron Man (sale price $15.99, original price $19.99)
• Phantasy Star Portable 2 (sale price $15.99, original price $39.99)
• Sega Genesis Collection UMD Legacy (sale price $9.99, original price $15.99)
• Valkyria Chronicles 2 (sale price $15.99, original price $39.99)

Still looking for more great games to play over the cold winter break? Be sure to check the previously released dedicated storefronts for Disney, EA, Sony Online Entertainment and TikGames, which hold some of the best downloadable games and DLC released on the PlayStation Store.

Have a great holiday!

Here’s what we talked about during the demo, and some extended gameplay video to hammer home the points he makes about the game’s detail and frenetic gameplay.

Jeff Rubenstein, PlayStation.Blog: What are we seeing here?

Julian Mehlfeld, SEGA of America: This section of the game takes place in a forested area. In the last section you’re in a transport escaping from what I will not describe – you can see it from yourself when you get the game when it comes out. You’ve crash landed in a park. A lot of areas of the game are very industrial – if you’ve played through the demo, you’ve got a good sense of that. In this section there’s more trees and grass, and kind of a change of pace both in color and environment.

You’ll have different cover points, different environmental obstacles. So you’re working your way deeper and deeper into a facility, and towards a larger dam area.

PSB: Something that immediately pops out when seeing this game is attention to detail, especially in the character’s armored suit.

SEGA: The detail in the suit is incredible. Whenever I demo this game, I have people take a look at the character, take a look at the suit, and take a look at the weapons. If you’re not familiar with Vanquish, the suit is developed by Darpa, and your character, Sam Gideon, has created it. It has a couple of key features: a dash that gets you around the environment very quickly, and one where you can slow down time using the Augmented Reaction System.

These two abilities open up the suit. The dash in particular, you’ll see a larger jet and vents on the legs too. As you move through the environment the suit opens up, the jet comes out. If you use up your “juice,” the suit opens to let out the exhaust. You’re a bit vulnerable at that point so there’s a nice color change to make you aware of that. You can see an indicator on your back when it’s ready to go again and you’ll see the suit come back together – it’s a very nice, very clean effect. When the action is so intense, it’s a very key point of information for you as well.

Also the weapons, they work off a kind of “keyring” system called the Blade System. Basically, any time a weapon is picked up, you can slot it into your keyring. You can have 3 weapons at any given time. As you switch weapons within the ring, it basically forms from one core, and the weapon builds out to form the weapon you’ll be using – machine gun, heavy machine gun, sniper rifle, shotgun – you can just see bit by bit as it comes together. It’s a quick animation that looks really, really good. [play the video above to see it in action]

PSB: Bayonetta was really over the top, as well as other Platinum Games produced titles. What’s larger than life in Vanquish?

SEGA: What we’re playing through right now, there are two very big baddies who do all kinds of crazy stuff. In Vanquish, in both environment and enemy, you’re going to find yourself in a lot of unique situations different than you’ll find in any other shooter. Basically, it is very fast, very intense, and very action oriented. Even the mid-level guys you’ll come across, they do not stand back, they do not wait for you to come to them – they come to you. So you’ve constantly got to be on your feet, constantly be ready to take on whatever the game is going to throw at you.

PSB: Speaking of Bayonetta – that was a great game, but the PS3 version of the game had some technical issues. Tell me that Vanquish be different.

SEGA: Vanquish was developed on PlayStation 3 first and foremost, and then ported over to other systems. The experience you’ll get on PlayStation is incredible. It runs really clean, it’s very smooth. I know there were concerns after Bayonetta, which is totally understandable. I wrote on the Blog for you guys, and there were a lot of questions about this. My feeling is: play the demo, it runs just as clean as it does in the demo. It’s not like there’s a fakeout.

PSB: Why is there no multiplayer?

SEGA: That comes up a lot for Vanquish, and my feeling is that this is a mikami game with Platinum games. Mikami made Resident Evil and really intense single player games. Platinum Games is known for making really amazing experiences. Merge the two and you get a really good title in Vanquish. If you’ve seen the game, seen the videos or played the demos, you know this. Both the boost mechanic and the way it’s laid out, it’s very fast it’s very intense it’s very action oriented. You take those same mechanics, the Augmented Reaction System, the boost, and tie that into multiplayer, you have a slowdown mechanic and a very fast boost mechanic. It’s hard to put into a multiplayer format, I would say. It’s not impossible, but you’d have to pull back in a lot of ways on how those mechanics work. In the single-player game, those features are integral to the experience, and if you dilute those, you change the game. The single player game as they’ve come up with is amazing.

PSB: We’ve got some questions from our readers via Twitter. @jamaican27 asks: Will vanquish have alternate costumes?

The game doesn’t feature alternate costumes. Sam’s suit is an integral part of the game. There are secrets in the game, little things that you’ll find – I’m not going to spoil it for you, you can experience it for yourself. But there are things that you’re go through and discover along the way.

PSB: @Disturbed932 wants to know: What is Platinum doing for Vanquish that will extend the replay ability? I remember the demo having timed missions.

SEGA: As you go through the game, based on time, based on how many enemies you kill, based on how you kill them, your score is going to go up. We’ve got a leaderboard system, you’re going to want to play through again and again for better scores if that’s what you’re into. If you’re not into leaderboards, you just want a more challenging experience, you can get that out of the campaign; once you beat the game the difficulty will become harder and harder. In addition to that, there’s challenge modes which unlock throughout the story, which are based on time. It’s your raw skill – you have to know that stretch of the environment, know the enemies, know the waves, and it’s based on how well you can do it. They’re fun, they’re intense, there are some that I’m still having trouble getting through. It’s kind of a very fast, strategically how-am-I-going-to-get-through-this mode.

PSB: @r2wadhwani asks: When is Vanquish coming?

Vanquish is launching on October 19th, and post launch we’ll have another demo, which will show that challenge mode. So you can actually get a chance to see how intense things will get and what kinds of things it’ll throw at you. It’s a really good representation of some of the more intense areas of the game.

*****
Any more questions for SEGA about Vanquish? Julian promises me he’ll be around to answer them today.

Long time no see, everyone! It seems like only yesterday we were talking about the original Valkyria Chronicles, the Yakuza series, and the announcement of Valkyria Chronicles II for the west. Today, we’re proud to announce that our massive 22 Mission DLC Pack for Valkyria Chronicles II is going live this afternoon on the PlayStation Store, and you can pick it up at an awesome value of $4.99!

If you’ve been following our Community BLiTZ over on the SEGA blogs, we’ve been updating almost every day with free codes to unlock new characters and tank stickers in the game. Today, because we love you guys, we’ve teamed up with Jeff and the crew here at the PS. Blog to post our BLiTZ Finale exclusively here – and with it, four brand new codes for you to enjoy!

Many of these codes are exclusive to the western version of the game. You can find all four codes in the Lotte Insider’s linked here, and also below:

• Free Code #1: After Burner Climax Tank Sticker: C9SAGP8M7PJ84H5S
• Free Code #2: Resonance of Fate Tank Sticker: UJH5YB4Z7E33VCJT
• Free Code #3: Nei (Phantasy Star II) Tank Sticker: 9H1FHVBV2YAZE3A1
• Free Code #4: Unlockable Character Emelia (From Phantasy Star Portable:2), two new missions, and a Little Wing tank sticker: FSHL2DTP1EVB52AN

You can enter these codes in the Extras section from the title screen (under “Password”), and yes, they *are* case sensitive!

Those of you savvy about the Japanese release might have also noticed that instead of charging $1 or so per mission, as was the case there, we have bundled all 22 of today’s DLC missions together and then made the price about as awesome as possible, at $4.99 – a little thank you to everyone here in the west who did their part, and who continue to support the success of Valkyria Chronicles here in the US and across Europe. There are few to no communities greater than the Valkyria community in terms of massive support and dedication, in my eyes.

Thank you guys for making all of the hard work that each of our teams – from the developers in Japan all the way to our teams in the US and Europe – worth every ounce of effort.

For all of you who have been with us from the first day a little thing called the ‘Community BLiTZ’ began, to those of you who are just reading about this for the first time – thank you for sticking with us. If you’ve never experienced the glory of Valkyria Chronicles yet – and readers, back me up here in the comments if you agree – you owe it to yourself to check one of the PlayStation’s best exclusive franchises.

As the codes go out and the DLC finally goes live, we proclaim amidst the softening roar of tanks, the echoes of fading footsteps, and the settling dust, five words that for us contain both happiness and sadness:

The Community BLiTZ is complete!

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.