PlayStation Update for 4-29-14: Child of Light, massive RPG sale, and free Velocity Ultra

Note: PlayStation Plus prices listed.

New Releases

Lots on the docket this week, especially for PlayStation 3 owners. They'll get two of the biggest releases also on PlayStation 4, along with five more games. Strangely enough, there's no Vita releases this week, not even Cross-Buy.

This week's highlight is "Child of Light," a must-own for traditional JRPG fans. The reviews are coming in extremely positive, and the hand-drawn 2D look looks great on either console.

PS4

• The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $49.99 (Digital/Retail)
• Child of Light - $14.99 (Digital)
• Daylight - $14.99 (Digital)

PS3

• The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $39.99 (Digital/Retail)
• Child of Light - $14.99 (Digital)
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle - $49.99 (Digital/Retail)
• Raiden IV: Overkill - $9.99* (Digital)
• Rambo The Video Game - $31.99** (Digital/Retail)
• Scourge: Outbreak - $14.99* (Digital)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium Duels - $14.99* (Digital)

VITA

None

CLASSICS/IMPORTS

• Bust-a-Move 4 - $5.99 (PSone)

PRE-ORDERS

• Wolfenstein: The New Order - $53.99** (PS3/PS4)

DEMOS

• Child of Light - PS3/PS4
• LEGO The Hobbit - PS3
• Scourge: Outbreak - PS3
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium Duels - PS3

*Projected price, not official.

**PS+ discount.

PSN Discounts

A wide variety of games are on sale this week, including RPGs, action, fighting, and sports genres. There's a number of great deals here, so scan through the list and blow that paycheck.

• Armored Core: Verdict Day - $5.00
• Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk - $24.49
• Atelier Meruru Plus: The Apprentice of Arland (Vita) - $19.59
• Atelier Totori Plus: The Adventurer of Arland - $19.59
• Chrono Cross (PS3/PSP/Vita) - $3.49
• Chrono Trigger (PS3/PSP/Vita) - $3.49
• Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (Vita) - $32.39
• Daylight - $9.59
• Devil May Cry HD Collection - $8.99
• Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z - $15.00 (Vita - $10.00)
• Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational - $5.00
• Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory - $14.69
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - $14.99
• Metal Gear Solid HD Collection - $11.99 (Vita - $8.99)
• Muramasa Rebirth - $7.49
• Persona 4 Golden - $14.62
• Rain - $3.75
• Saint Seya: Brave Soldiers - $15.00
• Soulcalibur V - $5.00
• Tales of Symphonia Chronicles - $10.00
• Time and Eternity - $9.79
• Ys: Memories of Celceta (Vita) - $19.59
• Zone of the Enders HD Collection - $10.49

Instant Game Collection

Vita didn't get the complete sham this week. Not only are a number of games on sale, but Velocity Ultra is free this week. The exclusive racer received an overhauled look and is defiitely a must for those that the played the previous racer on Vita.

Enoy your week, everyone!

PlayStation Plus: April's free games include Mercenary Kings, Batman: Arkham City

Sony has officially announced all the free games that will be available in North America in April, including some new games and the latest, best Batman game.


According to the PlayStation Blog, the tradition of adding a new PlayStation 4 game to the Instant Game Collection each month continues with Mercenary Kings. This was much anticipated after this was both confirmed in the Asian markets and rumored for European release.

The other games will be Batman: Arkham City for PlayStation 3, Stealth Inc. A Clone in the Dark for PS3, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse for PS3, Velocity Ultra for PS Vita, and Pixeljunk Monsters Ultimate HD for Vita.

It's a slightly old list of games, with the exception of Pixeljunk, but it's one of the bigger varieties of games that we've had with the service lately. Arkham City is a definite must play to those that didn't catch the game yet. I'll be excited to play Stealth Inc. myself.

What are the games you recommend or will be trying out when they get released in April?

First impressions: Payday 2 on PlayStation 3

There's nothing more boring than watching the standard, cliche heist movie. It's over 90 minutes of watching actors work out a gameplan with witty dialogue, knowing that everything will work out in the end no matter what snafu they get into during the attack.


Mercifully, Payday 2 takes all that garbage out. Everything is planned out at the beginning, leaving just the execution as players step into action in first-person perspective.

The heist simulator has all the seriousness of an actual heist before it happens, but then it resembles a more cartoon-like atmosphere in action. Players can absorb multiple bullets in normal difficulty heists, and some of the masks that are available can reach the ridiculous.

There's a lot of details in the environment, but the game can get bogged down at certain places or when there's too many things going on at once. Nearly every time I head to the bottom level of the safe house, the game pauses for about 5 seconds without a loading indicator.

Enemy police and hostage NPCs take a design hit to keep the FPS level. They lack fluid motion when chasing after the robbers, especialy further away. There's no animation when tying up hostages, leaving little satisfaction as the ring meter circles around the action being done.


Despite some performance shortcomings and having armor as strong as a tank, it's fun to pull off all the objectives, keeping the police at bay while stealing jewlery, robbing a bank, or sabotaging certain areas. There's nothing too complicated to get tasks done, simply a press-and-hold of a trigger button while not getting shot at.

There is no campaign mode or main story to the game. Missions are selected via the Crime.net computer in the safe house, and players can practice with using tools and their arsenal with unlimited ammunition during down time; a welcome addition.

The game is basically pick-up-and-play. Players can selct to play online or offline, although playing it with team AI is equivalent to a 5-year-old picking up the controller. They'll barely take down enemies and they won't aid the player in stealing loot and throwing it in the back of a van.

Methods on how to do a heist aren't completely explained, which is why I opted for the offline mode in the first couple of runs. But it's worth looking like a dumbass and trying to figure out certain methods to do a heist while playing with humans instead of bots.


The problem with some heists is that while players can be sneaky, there's not enough penalty to just get in the building that's being robbed, putting on the mask, and going to town. It takes a long time for the health bar to go down, but perhaps this isn't the case in harder difficulty leves (which I haven't played yet).

Payday 2 may tire in repetitiveness, but it's a game that's better taken in small doses. There's a lot of value to come back and play as four different levels of skills can be unlocked and plenty of weapons and gadgets can be obtained and upgraded. Some items or upgrades are a lot of cash, but the harder the difficulty of the heist, the bigger the payout.

The verdict: Three out of five stolen bags of cash. The game is for first-person shooter fans that love multiplayer, and don't want all the stealth that's involved in similar games. Just don't expect a graphical beast or any form of a campaign mode. Which could have bogged this down into a boring heist movie anyway.

Payday 2 is developed by Overkill Software and published by 505 Games. The PlayStation 3 version has received positive cumulative scores of 70 percent on GameRankings and a 74/100 on Metacritic It's currently available for free on PlayStation Plus' Instant Game Collection for a limited time.

Image credits: Flickr

PlayStation Plus Update for New Year's Eve: IGC adds Urban Trial Freestyle, but no sales

There are no scheduled sales for PlayStation games this week, but the Urban Trial Freestyle will be added to the Instant Game Collection for Vita owners.


UTF is, for the most part, a clone of the Xbox 360 exclusive, Trials HD. It's developed by Tate Interactive and was released back in February this year on both PlayStation 3 and Vita.

Don't expect a full-fledged adventure in the stunt-bike game. While Chris Carter at Destructoid had some fun with it and didn't become frustrated playing the game, some points were a bit tedious.

You'll trek across 40 levels, and unlock five minigames as you complete each set of stages. Well,technically there are 40 levels, but you replay the same maps multiple times to complete either the stunt or timed requirements. Fundamentally, the way you approach the repeat level is different, given the varying requirements for each set of parameters, but the repetition of exact maps is still somewhat jarring.

Interestingly enough, both games are nearly identical on PS3 and Vita, but they don't support cross-play or cross-buy for those that happen to have the console edition already.

That wraps it up for the PS+ update this week. According to the PlayStation Blog, there are no new sales this week. Don't forget that this is the last week to pick up Contrast on PS4 and GRID 2 on PS3.

Image credit: Flickr

PlayStation Plus will be $20 off on Black Friday

Some retailers will have the full year subscription of PlayStation Plus discounted at $29.99 on Black Friday.

From TechnoBuffalo:

Black Friday will see the drop of PlayStation Plus to $29.99 for the one year entry fee. This will land you countless games in the Instant Game Collection, cloud space to store save game data on, and discounts on a wide selection of other hits. PlayStation 4 owners also will need it to play online.

This is beneficial to all PlayStation owners. Those that don't have it already and don't plan to pick up a PS4 anytime soon should still get it. At this discount, it's $2.50 per month, well worth all the freebies that Sony sends to their customers.

For those that have resubscribed lately, don't fret; any additional subscription that is purchased is added on to the account. Meaning that if someone re-upped for a year last July and decided to buy this now, they would have another year of PS+ beginning next July.

Note that no exact retailers are listed, but expect many standard retailers like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, GameStop, etc. Also, don't expect to just grab these online - to take advantage of this offer, it looks like that it will have to be done in-store on Black Friday. But it wouldn't hurt to keep those eyes peeled online throughout the day in case some stores throw the price up online or if Amazon has it available in a "Lightning Deal."

[Image credit: Flickr]