The third installment of Shenmue III downloadable content releases today, March 17th! This time, players will see the arrival of the Big Merry Cruise. Sure cruise ships are not a popular destination right now in the real world, but in the world of Shenmue they sure look enticing. The DLC features a huge cruise ship that has arrived at Chobu harbor, and inside is an all new gambling area. The ship also features special items that can be acquired by completing mini-quests onboard the ship.
Players must have reached Niaowu or have a cleared save file in order to access the latest DLC. DLC can be purchased on the PlayStation store or on the Epic Games store.
If you are looking to get back into Phantasy Star Online 2, they will be opening up the servers for a ‘open beta’ starting on March 17 at 5:00 p.m. PT. According to the twitter account you’ll be able to use the old ‘closed beta’ client with an update that goes live on March 16 at 10:00 AM PDT. I assume that the new client will go live for anyone that didn’t play it during Closed Beta.
The sad part is that we still don’t know when PC gamers will be able to join the fight, but I guess this is a way to get PSO gamers on Xbox consoles.
Regardless of when you purchased Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami for PC through Steam, SEGA has upgraded all versions to the digital Deluxe Edition. This means if you take a peek in the game’s “Extras” folder you’ll find a digital manga, wallpapers and avatar icons.
Project GG will be headed by Hideki Kamiya (who directed Bayonetta & The Wonderful 101)
Its the last entry in Platinum Games ‘Hero Trilogy’ which started with Viewtiful Joe and The Wonderful 101 (we forgetting VJ2?)
Will be a ‘big hero’ action game inspired by Ultraman
Will be the first self-published IP by PlatinumGames
Targeting all existing platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and of course PC
PlatinumGames still has two unannounced games and they are new titles; not ports.
Seems like a lot of new information, just surprised we haven’t actually gotten a name for the game. Project GG, well… good game? What do you guys think?
Streets of Rage 4‘s publisher Dotemu has teased that they will be showing off a fifth playable character for the game. According to them the new character will be revealed with a “little” surprise… maybe? They have also confirmed that Streets of Rage 4 and Windjammers 2 will be playable at PAX East Boston.
Some people would suggest it might be Eddie “Skate” Hunter, but seeing as this game already has Cherry Hunter, Eddie’s sister and Adam Hunter; how many Hunters do we need? Some say this could be the return of Max Thunder, but he isn’t little at all. Maybe a Streets of Rage 3 character like Dr. Gilbert Zan or Roo? Eh. We shall see.
Who do you think the fifth playable character for Streets of Rage 4 will be?
If you are planning on buying Streets of Rage 4 to play the game online with your old buddies that have moved around the world, you might want to hold that excitement because a user on the Steam forums have asked the developer behind the game if they will feature online co-op and this is what he had to say:
“Going to be local co-op actually but we’ll keep the online coop idea in mind.”
Not really much to discuss but you’d think having online co-op in 2020 would be a no brainier. I do know that Steam now has a feature called ‘Remote Play’ that allows users to play multiplayer offline games, online with the feature. I don’t think PlayStation 4, Xbox One or Nintendo Switch has these, so it seems this could be a negative for the game. Personally I play most of my games offline, but what do you think?
We are getting closer and closer to the release of the Phantasy Star Online 2 closed beta, which launches on February 7th. While Phantasy Star Online 2 is only officially coming out in North America (at least this Microsoft published servers), some European fans have asked if they will be blocking players from outside of the North America:
Hi there! There are no plans to region lock Phantasy Star Online 2 at this moment. Thanks for reaching out! 😊
Quite frankly, I don’t see why Microsoft doesn’t just open this server to anyone that wants to play it in English. I mean, technically anyone can join the Japanese servers and is it bad to have a popular game? I think it would be good for Microsoft’s brand more than anything.
If you are excited for the Western Xbox One closed beta, which starts on February 7th and goes through the 8th, then you’re in luck since we got more details about the event including ‘exclusive closed beta missions and items’. According to Microsoft you will be able to pre-load the game on February 3rd, if you want to start playing the first nano second the game goes live. You can sign up for the closed beta via the ‘Xbox Insider Hub’.
Closed Beta Test Schedule
Starts: Friday, February 7th, 5 PM (PST)
Ends: Saturday, February 8th, 11:59 PM (PST)
Official Website: Opens Friday, February 7th, 10 AM (PST)
The beta will also have ‘Urgent Quests’ during the closed beta which include the following missions:
It looks like this year’s Taipei, Taiwan ran Game Show will be going all out by having a brand-new SEGA game announced to end the event. Here is the schedule for SEGA, which is showing off a ton of Atlus/SEGA/NIS games:
We heard not that long ago that SEGA and Atlus are working on a new game for next generation consoles, but it seems that development teams are already working together. It was announced that Persona character designer Shigenori Soejima actually worked on a unique character for Project Sakura Wars, introducing Hakushu Murasame (pictured above).
She was revealed during a Project Sakura Wars Japanese stream, where it showed her talking to her student, Sakura Amamiya and Seijuro Kaimiyama. She plays a competent, composed character through the presentation. We also know she will be voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro who played Elizabeth from the Velvet Room attendant and made her debut in Persona 3. While Hakushu Mursame is getting the attention, it seems that Ken Sugimori (Pokemon) is also making a character for the game, which is shown off in this new video.
You can check out the two hour Project Sakura Wars stream right here. So this project has the redesign done by Tite Kubo (Bleach), Shigenori Soejima (Persona), Ken Sugimori (Pokemon), and even Noizi Ito (Fire Emblem Heroes)? That’s quite the art team.
We already posted that the Yakuza games are coming to Xbox One and Xbox Game Pass, which we posted. But now we got another SEGA classic coming to Xbox Game Pass… Streets of Rage 4! You can check out the full Game Pass line-up so far in the screenshot above.
It seems that Microsoft is going all in with their Game Pass, are you interested?
Shenmue III has been rumored since I first started coming online as a little Georgie boy, it was one of the main reasons I joined the SEGA community. Then we got a Kickstarter and waited some more, but it seems that we are very close to ‘not waiting’ for Shenmue III since its coming out in a few days on November 19, 2019. Now we get to enjoy a launch trailer above.
The publisher behind Streets of Rage 4 posted up a “Behind the Gameplay” video allowing us to see the environment, people and tools being used to bring a ‘brand new’ ‘classic feeling’ Streets of Rage 4. One of the cool bits is around the 2 minute mark where they are playing the animation from Streets of Rage 4 side by side with Streets of Rage 2. They both move exactly the same, which will make Streets or Rage 4 have that heavy feel we all love in the originals.
Part of the video talks about the engine being used, which was created by Guard Crush Games, and how easy it is to modify things within the game. They even go into combos and we have the development team showing off Street Fighter III combos that inspired them? Is this game gonna get that crazy?
If you’ve been enjoying Sonic Mania and wanted to know what the teams behind the game have been up to, we got our answer for Headcannon games. It seems that Headcannon has been working on Vertebreaker and has now launched a Kickstarter. According to the project’s description:
“Rest in Peace?!” You wish! “Vertebreaker” is a brand-new and authentic pixel-based side-scroller from Headcannon, the studio that helped bring “Sonic Mania” to the masses. Starring a stubby-yet-seemingly-unstoppable skeleton who’s thrashing their way to victory, it’s gothic, cartoonish, and unabashedly retro!
Take control of our bony hero in a crusade to crush the undead and look cool while doing it! In “Vertebreaker”, traversal is key as you slash, bash, and grapple your way through the most wicked 2D adventure yet! “What is ‘traversal'”? It’s slinging, swinging, and launching from floors, walls, and ceilings to propel yourself forward or even upward with serious speed!
Save the day with our pearly-boned mascot, their mysterious golden half-skull, and their sick grappling hook made from the spine of a demon! “What demon”? It doesn’t matter … does it … ?
Vertebreaker is only seeking 275,000 dollars to make the project, with tiers allowing backers to transform the final game. Some of the high tiers, like the one for $500 dollars even allows you to design enemies. But if you just want a regular digital copy, its at the $15 dollar tier which includes your name in the credits. You can also try the Vertebreaker demo right now on PC and see if the game is for you. So far the game is only announced for PC and is suppose to come out Q3 2021, if the project games founded. One of the extended tiers includes a Nintendo Switch port at $330,000. Pretty smart to launch this Kickstarter on Halloween.
