Shun Akiyama revealed for ‘Yakuza 5′

Sega today announced a 3rd playable character for their upcoming but unnamed 5th game in the Yakuza series. (Not including spin-offs)

Yakuza 4’s Shun Akiyama will return with a pair of nifty handguns to join existing cast of badass Goro Majima and tiger puncher Kazuma Kiryu.

Each character so far has had a gun or guns in hand, what does this mean for the series that has always been a brawler… Well I hope that they have incorporated shooting levels and areas into the existing game play as they did chasing people down in Yakuza 3 and not all out changed the game into some kind of 3rd person shooter.

We’ll just have to wait and see but I will say one thing… I think this game will have the best playable cast yet.

Vanquish trailer 05/08/10 shows new areas and enemies

For those worrying about the same level repeating itself again and again, the latest trailer show cases a new forest level and some new baddies Sam will have to take care of, including a robotic dog and a giant robot which he takes down in a fashion reminiscent to one of Mikami’s previous games.

Aliens vs Predator sells over 300,000 in the UK

 

The success of the new Aliens vs Predator game has no doubt taken everyone, including SEGA, by surprise and recently released figures from January – June 2010 just shows how much of a big impact the title has had for SEGA’s fortune in the United Kingdom. Not only did the title manage to get into a top ten position at eighth, but it even managed to outsell Final Fantasy XIII (Though to be fair to the latter, it was released a month later)

Top 10 selling games in UK (Jan-Jun):
Position / Title / Publisher / Sales
1. Just Dance (Ubisoft) – 940358
2. Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar/Take2) – 819161
3. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Electronic Arts) – 590580
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard) – 540761
5. Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo) – 499998
6. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo) – 439920
7. 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa (Electronic Arts) – 396858
8. Aliens vs Predator (SEGA) – 359968
9. Final Fantasy 13 (Square Enix Europe) – 339996
10. FIFA 10 (Electronic Arts) – 318719

It rounds off an excellent achievement for both publisher and developer and no doubt spells good news for Aliens fans eagerly awaiting either a sequel to Aliens vs Predator or the up and coming Aliens: Colonail Marines. It’ll be interesting to see what final sales figures for the title will be, as in console specfic charts for the UK, the title still retains a high title position but no doubt that Aliens vs Predator has been a massive success for SEGA.

[Source: Chart-track]

New Sonic Colors Screens and Iizuka Sez


Thanks to VideoGamer.com, we have Iizuka’s thoughts on the Sonic Cycle (aka that thing made by Sonic fanboys in Photoshop that has led to many lols, derps and omfgwtfs). Check out Iizuka’s comments at VideoGamer.

Also in Sonic Colors news, we have some new screens from a yet-to-be-demo’d stage! The stage looks as though Eggman has established some sort of logging empire on an alien planet. Great to see massive buzz saws return, and gotta love those Egg Pawns wearing hard hats.

Transformers Arcade Trailer

Here is the first trailer for both of Sega’s new Transformers Arcade games. The games are quite obviously geared towards a much younger audience.

Like many of Sega’s recent Arcade games this one requires you to collect real world playing cards with transformers on them then you can scan them into the game and use the transformer on the card. It appears that the same cards work on both machines.

One game is seems to be a simple onrail shooter where you play as your selected autobot and then shoot down other transformers. The other is a racer, I’m less clear on what this one involves but you seem to have to switch between your ‘car’ mode and ‘robot’ mode to chase down other transformers.

New Bayonetta info coming this week

It seems all the big news these days has to be processed through twitter for whatever odd reason. New Bayonetta news is not any different, a tweet from director Yusuke Hashimoto informs followers that there will be some news, although to the extent of which, from a spinoff, sequel or DLC, is not address;

“Good morning. It looks like we’ll be able to share new information related to Bayonetta this week. Look forward to it”

So there you have it, if you’re a fan of Bayonetta, expect some sort of news this week.

[Source: Andriasang]

Vanquish difficulty modes revealed

Check out this screenshot of the Vanquish start menu, it seems to suggest that Vanquish will follow in Bayonettas footsteps with an ‘Easy Automatic’ mode now called ‘Casual Auto’. I’m not entirely sure how that would work with a 3rd person shooter so that’ll be interesting to see.

It also has a ‘God Hard’ mode, Always a pleaser with the more hardcore gamers out there… I wonder if that could be a little nod to ‘God Hand’ one of Mikami’s pervious games at Capcom? Who knows.

Pengos back!

Who remembers Pengo in the arcades? Probably not many of us as it was released way back in 1982. But it seems Sega are giving us another chance to catch Pengo in Arcades… Yep it’s coming back on Segas RingWide arcade hardware.

This time with a multiplayer vs. mode, it looks pretty fun too… A bit like Bomberman. Who said Sega don’t remember their classics huh!?

Conduit 2 Official Boxart Revealed!

I considered making the headline different from the one on the SEGA Blog, but hey, it says what it is! The Conduit 2 boxart has been revealed! Big dude in a suit with a gun, I swear I’ve seen this somewhere before…

Well, the flames coming out of the floor is rather cool. Also, the subhead says the game’s best features right there. Works for me! What do you all think?

[source: our gaming overlords at the SEGA Blog]

Yakuza hostess voting – First Week Results!

It’s the moment no ones everyone’s been waiting for! Week one results of the Yakuza 5 hostess results.

The results are as follows,

1. Satomi Tateishi – She could get revenge!

2. Haru – She took second place with her enigmatic charms.

3. Ai Sakura – The Agejo maid is in in third place.

4. Yuka Ohnishi – She was apparently cheered on by soccer players. Yuka is a soccer coach.

5. Saaya Kawai – A nail stylist who loves the Yakuza series.

So there you go… One step closer to knowing who we’ll all be fapping over in Yakuza 5.

-Stolen from SegaShiro

BB.TV Vol.010 Border Break action!

Boy I haven’t wanted to play an Arcade game THIS much in years and I love Arcade games. Here’s another BB.TV episode to tease us poor fools in the west and show us exactly what were missing.

It’s like Team Fortress on crack, with robots.  WANT!

Shogun 2 – New Screens & Concept Art

The Sega of America Blog has a lot of new concept art and screenshots of the Creative Assembly’s up coming ‘Shogun 2 Total War’ a revisit to the shores of ancient Japan in what is arguably the best RTS series ever.

Do your selves a favour and head over to their blog for some really cool artwork and screenshots in high res with info about each one.
RIGHT HERE!

Sonic Spinball Ride and Sonic’s new voice!

As you may know a well know theme park in the UK, Alton Towers has a new ride based around Sonic the Hedgehog! The ride is called Sonic Spinball, no relation to the video game of the same name. The ride is similar to a roller coaster but the seats actually spin in a round-a-bout style motion as it goes around for maximum vomit inducing fun.

Sonic himself can often be seen walking around the grounds of Alton Park and having pictures taken with fans. There is also a Sonic UFO catcher on the video with Sonic toys inside.

But most interesting of all, when they go into the Sonic branded room (that is now open to the public) when you open the door Sonic says a few phrases… With Sonic’s new Voice Actor Roger Craig Smith. Give it a listen at the 01:33 mark on this video.

I’m afraid I don’t know who took this video but it’s very interesting so well done who ever it was!