Phantasy Star Online 2’s new update to feature crossover with BlazeBlue

If not having Phantasy Star Online 2 released in the west made you bitter before, its going to make you even more bitter now. Especially if you’re a BlazeBlue fan because BlazeBlue is joining the Phantasy Star Online 2 universe this upcoming August.

So what is this collaboration going to have? There is going to be new scratch items, which include costumes to make your avatar look like characters from the BlazeBlue universe. Each character has a male and female variant of their costume.

BlazeBlue characters represented in the update: 

Each character will have their respective iconic weapons unlockable in Phantasy Star Online 2, which are shown in the trailer above. This update is being called ‘Phantasy Star Online 2: Darkness Shrouded Domain‘ and will continue the story in the game as well as add this big crossover. Hey SEGA West, I’d play the crap out of this game if you brought it over. Just sayin’!

[Source: Siliconera]

Company of Heroes 2’s stand alone expansion ‘The British Forces’ comes out September 3rd

Not only did SEGA announce that ‘The British Forces‘ was coming out on September 3rd, it also announced it would come with a ‘major design upgrade’ for the whole Company of Heroes 2 multiplayer. The upgrade will balance out the game’s five factions and further improve animation and graphics.

As for The British Forces, you won’t need a to own a copy of Company of Heroes 2 to play it and if you get The British Forces only, you’ll still be able to access the multiplayer content available in Company of Heroes 2. The stand alone expansion is set to introduce players to 15 new units, 6 new commanders with unique abilities and 8 whole new multiplayer maps.

The stand alone expansion will retail for $12.99, if you pre-order it now on Steam you get 10% off. If you have any other Company of Heroes games in your library you get a additional 10% off (making it 20% off). Pretty good deal for long time fans and a cheap entry point for new comers that want to get into the multiplayer portion of Company of Heroes 2.

SEGA unleashes trailer for Blade Arcus from Shining 2.0

Never heard of Blade Arcus from Shining? Its a Shining series spin-off that takes characters from Shining Hearts and Shining Blade and pits them against each other in a 2D fighting game, with a look that is very comparable to Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax. The game hit Japanese arcades on November 11th of last year and is now setting up for an updated release being called ‘2.0’. The update is set to hit game centers early this summer.

Version 2.0 will have the following additions:

Four new playable Shining Hearts  characters

New game systems

  • Rejection card
  • Reversal strike

Its also set to feature new stages, motion frame adjustments for all characters and other system improvements. The game has only been officially released in Japanese arcades, no plans are set for a console release at this time. What do you guys think of this spin-off? Would you guys give it a go if it was released in the West?

[Via: Gemastu]

Typing of The Dead: Overkill update adds Custom Dictionaries with Steamworks support

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Everyone knows that typing funny words is part of what makes SEGA’s Typing of the Dead video games so much fun, especially since SEGA embraced the wackiness early on with the first entries to the series. For Typing of the Dead: Overkill, SEGA dipped their fingers in adding DLC for new word content and now it seems they are going to drop all that to allow users to make their own ‘Custom Dictionaries’ of words.

Not only that, SEGA is adding Steamworks support, meaning that you will be able to share your custom dictionaries with all of Steam. Want to make a themed dictionary based on delicate words, words that describe your mom or quotes from ‘Back to the Future’? Well, you are in luck, now you can.

Since SEGA is having their Steam sale, you will be able to pick up Typing of the Dead: Overkill for 75%.

Relic removes Game for Windows Live from Dawn of War II and adds dedicated servers

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Dawn of War II is a Warhammer 40k based RTS that was massively successful when it came out in 2009. To many people’s dismay it used Game of Windows Live as its multiplayer and even with these hurtles it was massively successful. Fans asked for years for the developer Relic Entertainment and its then publisher THQ to remove Microsoft’s Game for Windows Live.

Relic was bought by SEGA in 2013 and with that all their game’s transferred ownership to SEGA. Seems they don’t have plans on abandoning support for older titles since a new update (2.6.0.10216). Not only that, this and its predecessor Dawn of War 1 have now been moved to dedicated servers. This is a big update for the game that fixes a lot of  lag experienced by players. 

Game also uses Steamworks for matchmaking, but since the removal of GFWL it will be impossible to unlock achievements, but there will most likely be a update on steam to add Steam achievements in the near future.

Strike the Blood’s Yukina & Black Bullet’s Rentarō added to Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax Cast

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Dengeki announced that two new playable characters will be featured in a update to SEGA and ASCII Media Works’ arcade fighting game, Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax, featuring Yukina Himeragi, a 14 year old middle-school Sword Shaman from Strike the Blood, and Rentarō from Black Bullet, a second year student in Magata High School and also a Promoter in Tendō Civil Security who lost his right leg, right arm and left eye in a fight with Gastrea to protect Kisara, and was saved by Sumire’s “New Human Creation Plan” which replaced his lost limbs with Varanium. He uses an XD and is a beginner in Tendō style martial arts.

Along with them will be two more support characters included which happens to be Kojō Akatsuki (Strike the Blood) and Enju Aihara (Black Bullet).

SEGA are still planning to release the game to consoles soon but nothing is announced on that at the moment. Hit the jump for screenshots featuring the two new fighters!

Phantasy Star Online 2 June update features the return of the SEGA Collaboration with new SEGA items and more!


In early June, there will be an update to Phantasy Star Online 2 that will feature the return of SEGA Collaboration.

This time around, SEGA Collaboration 2 will have more SEGA related special costumes and items available in PSO2 based on several SEGA key franchises featuring Sonic the Hedgehog, Valkyria Chronicles, Yakuza Ishin and 5, and last but not least for the space cats out there, Space Channel 5!

Be sure to keep an eye out for the next PSO2 live stream with Sonic Retro and SEGAbits on our Twitch channel in June as we show off the update features and perhaps Sonic’s 23rd Anniversary as well.

Special Thanks to Shadix for the tip!

SEGA teasing Shadow the Hedgehog for Sonic Dash

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SEGA posted the image above on their Facebook page with the message saying, “Get ready for the ultimate challenge!”. If you have played a bad Sonic the Hedgehog game in the last 10 years, you will probably know who the above character is. Shadow the Hedgehog!

Seems that Sonic Dash will be letting you play as Shadow the Hedgehog soon. If the character will be a free update or a pay to play, we don’t know yet. So far, Sonic Dash is only available on iOS platforms.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed on consoles getting a software update as early as Monday

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Steve “SOL” Lycett who happens to be producer over at Sumo Digital posted the following message on the SEGA America forums.

…as I figured I’d have some interested parties 😛 All being well we’ll be able to push the PS3 and 360 updates live on Monday. I’m waiting for confirmation on Wii U but that also shouldn’t be too far behind.  I know it’s a been a wait, but hopefully it’ll be worth it! The updates feature lots of tucks and tweaks, should address many of the issues you’ve reported to us and also pull in improvements we’ve been doing on PC. Don’t expect any extra tracks or characters though, just before you ask…!

So there you have it, expect an update for Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed on Monday if you are playing it on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. If you are on Wii U, you might have to wait a bit longer.