Gamescom 2014: 'Tearaway Unfolded' headed to PS4 in 2015

An enhanced version of the former PlayStation Vita exclusive, Tearaway, is coming to PlayStation 4.

Sony announced during their Gamescom 2014 press conference that the new Tearaway would be coming to the new console sometime next year. From Polygon:

Tearaway Unfolded is an expanded version of the original game and will feature 1080p, 60fps and new capabilities. Players will use the DualShock 4 controller to interact with the game's world by flicking or poking the touchpad, using the light bar to interact with the world or shaking the controller.

The news comes as a bit of a mixed bag. While it's great to see an update to Tearaway, it also gives another reason for gamers not to even bother with Sony's handheld system. There's already zero first-party development going into it at the moment, and the only thing that's thriving on the system is the indie community.

Still, the update is welcomed and for those that haven't played Tearaway -- well, if you have a Vita, why wouldn't you have it? And if you don't, you'll be treated to a fantastic game. The game has received high praise across the board and features a score of 87 over at Metacritic.

Tearaway is developed by Media Molecule, the same developers who created the LittleBigPlanet franchise, and it is published by Sony.

Photo from Flickr

PlayStation Vita first impressions: Smart As...

Brain training games are a hard sell on PlayStation Vita; children and young adults want entertainment instead of being challenged while adults would have more enjoyment but the platform just isn't as attractive to them.


It's a shame, because Smart As... is one of the most complete brain training games available on a mobile device.

Beginning January 28th, Smart As... became a free game for a limited time in the Instant Game Collection for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

The game is easy to set up and play at the beginning. Once the options it requires are set, four daily challenges await. Each of the following categories will test the players' knowledge in the four events: arithmetic, logic, observation, and language.

Things started off a bit rough for me. I received "Chain Reaction" as my first challenge, needing to connect a number of pegs together with the same color without crossing the other color's path. While I struggled with that event, the other three were much easier like "Calculations +," which just requires the player to right the sum of two numbers on the screen.

After completing the daily challenges, players cannot go back to redo them. However, once the challenges are complete, a different set of games were unlocked for free play. Once all four difficulty settings (easy, medium, hard, genius) are complete, another game is unlocked in the section.

There's such a big jump from "hard" to "genius" in many challenges, but there's also some events that are just insanely easy. The brilliant thing about this game is that different people will decipher what's hard or not. Everyone's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to thinking will be different as the game tests all parts of users' minds.

With the game being free, it's hard not to recommend Simple As... because it's fun to do the challenges. But for someone that could have bought the game at retail, it's certainly not worth even the $15 sale price that's currently on Amazon. It's simply an overpriced game that should be found on iOS or Android mobile devices for a couple bucks

Quality is certainly there with beautiful graphics and John Cleese as the narrator that will take anyone back to the days of LittleBigPlanet. But there's not enough depth and it's a shame that players can't access any of the 20 events at free will if there's no serious objection.

This game is recommended for those that enjoy brain trivia games.

Image credit: Flickr