Gaming

Here’s the first wave of games coming to the all-new PlayStation Plus

A bunch of AAA titles

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All-new PlayStation Plus

In case you haven’t heard, PlayStation is revamping its subscription service called the PlayStation Plus. In fact, it’s already coming to Asian countries, except Japan, on May 24.

You can check out the tiers and pricing here. But for this article, we’re taking a look at the initial game titles coming to the service.

PS4 and PS5 Game Catalog

These games will be available to those subscribed under the PlayStation Plus Extra and Deluxe (or Premium) plans.

PlayStation Studios

  • Alienation | Housemarque, PS4
  • Bloodborne | FromSoftware, PS4
  • Concrete Genie | Pixelopus, PS4
  • Days Gone | Bend Studio, PS4
  • Dead Nation Apocalypse Edition Housemarque, PS4
  • Death Stranding and Death Stranding Director’s Cut | Kojima Productions, PS4/PS5
  • Demon’s Souls | Bluepoint Games,  PS5
  • Destruction AllStars | Lucid Games, PS5
  • Everybody’s Golf Japan Studio, PS4
  • Ghost Of Tsushima Director’s Cut | Sucker Punch, PS4/ PS5
  • God of War | Santa Monica Studio, PS4
  • Gravity Rush 2 Japan Studio, PS4
  • Gravity Rush Remastered | Japan Studio, PS4
  • Horizon Zero Dawn Guerrilla Games, PS4
  • Infamous First Light | Sucker Punch, PS4
  • Infamous Second Son Sucker Punch, PS4
  • Knack | Japan Studio, PS4
  • LittleBigPlanet 3 | Sumo Digital, PS4
  • LocoRoco Remastered | Japan Studio, PS4
  • LocoRoco 2 Remastered | Japan Studio, PS4
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man | Insomniac Games, PS4
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales | Insomniac Games, PS4/PS5
  • Matterfall |Housemarque, PS4
  • MediEvil | Other Ocean, PS4
  • Patapon Remastered | Japan Studio, PS4
  • Patapon 2 Remastered | Japan Studio, PS4
  • Resogun | Housemarque, PS4
  • Returnal | Housemarque, PS5
  • Shadow of the Colossus Japan Studio,  PS4
  • Tearaway Unfolded |Media Molecule, PS4
  • The Last Guardian | Japan Studio, PS4
  • The Last of Us Remastered Naughty Dog, PS4
  • The Last of Us: Left Behind Naughty Dog, PS4
  • Until Dawn | Supermassive Games, PS4
  • Uncharted The Nathan Drake Collection |Naughty Dog, PS4
  • Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End | Naughty Dog, PS4
  • Uncharted: The Lost Legacy | Naughty Dog, PS4
  • WipEout Omega Collection Clever Beans & Creative Vault Studios, PS4

Third Party-Partners

  • Ashen | Annapurna Interactive,PS4
  • Assassin’s Creed Valhalla*** Ubisoft, PS4/PS5
  • Cities: Skylines | Paradox Interactive, PS4
  • Control: Ultimate Edition 505 Games, PS4/PS5
  • Dead CellsMotion Twin, PS4
  • Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition | Square Enix Co. LTD, PS4
  • Hollow Knight | Team Cherry, PS4
  • Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy | Square Enix Co. LTD., PS4/PS5
  • Narutoshippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 | Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., PS4
  • NBA 2K22 | 2K Games, PS4/PS5
  • Outer Wilds Annapurna Interactive, PS4
  • Red Dead Redemption 2 | Rockstar Games, PS4
  • Resident Evil Capcom Co., Ltd, PS4
  • Soulcalibur VI Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., PS4
  • The Artful Escape | Annapurna Interactive, PS4/PS5
  • The Crew 2*** | Ubisoft, PS4

Classic Games

Now, for those who subscribe to PlayStation Plus Deluxe/Premium, the draw is the access to classic games. Here are the first wave of titles that you can expect.

Classic Games Catalog – Original PlayStation and PSP

PlayStation Studios

  • Ape Escape | Japan Studio, Original Playstation
  • Hot Shots Golf | Japan Studio, Original Playstation
  • I.Q. Intelligent Qube | Japan Studio, Original PlayStation
  • Jumping Flash! Japan Studio, Original PlayStation
  • Syphon Filter | Bend Studio, Original PlayStation
  • Super Stardust Portable Housemarque, PSP

Third Party Partners

  • Mr. Driller | Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., Original PlayStation
  • Tekken 2 | Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., Original PlayStation
  • Worms World Party | Team 17, Original PlayStation
  • Worms Armageddon Team17, Original PlayStation

Classic Games Catalog – Remasters

PlayStation Studios

  • Ape Escape 2 | Japan Studio, PS4
  • Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits | Japan Studio, PS4
  • Dark Cloud Japan Studio, PS4
  • Dark Cloud 2 | Japan Studio, PS4
  • FantaVision SIE, PS4  
  • Hot Shots Tennis Japan Studio, PS4
  • Jak II Naughty Dog, PS4
  • Jak 3 Naughty Dog, PS4
  • Jak X: Combat Racing Naughty Dog, PS4
  • Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy | Naughty Dog, PS4 
  • Rogue Galaxy Japan Studio, PS4
  • Siren | Japan Studio, PS4
  • Wild Arms 3 SIE, PS4

Third Party Partners

  • Bioshock Remastered | 2K Games, PS4
  • Borderlands The Handsome Collection | 2K Games, PS4
  • Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning THQ Nordic, PS4
  • Lego Harry Potter Collection | WB Games, PS4

Original PS3 Games (Streaming)

For PlayStation Premium subscribers (only open to select markets), you get the option to stream PS3 games. Here are the titles that will be available.

PlayStation Studios

  • Crash Commando | Creative Vault Studios, PS3
  • Demon’s Souls From Software, PS3
  • echochrome | Japan Studio, PS3
  • Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds | Japan Studio, PS3
  • Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational | Japan Studio, PS3
  • Ico | Japan Studio, PS3
  • Infamous | Sucker Punch, PS3
  • Infamous 2 Sucker Punch, PS3
  • Infamous: Festival of Blood | Sucker Punch, PS3
  • LocoRoco Cocoreccho! Japan Studio, PS3
  • MotorStorm Apocalypse | Evolution Studios, PS3
  • MotorStorm RC | Evolution Studios, PS3
  • Puppeteer | Japan Studio, PS3
  • rain | Japan Studio, PS3
  • Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty | Insomniac Games, PS3
  • Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time |Insomniac Games, PS3
  • Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus | Insomniac Games, PS3
  • Resistance 3 | Insomniac Games, PS3
  • Super Stardust HD Housemarque, PS3
  • Tokyo Jungle | Japan Studio, PS3
  • When Vikings Attack | Clever Beans, PS3

Third Party Partners

  • Asura’s Wrath | Capcom Co., Ltd., PS3
  • Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 |  Konami, PS3
  • Devil May Cry HD Collection Capcom Co., Ltd., PS3
  • Enslaved: Odyssey to the West | Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc., PS3
  • F.E.A.R. | WB Games, PS3
  • Lost Planet 2 Capcom Co., Ltd., PS3
  • Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Koei Tecmo, PS3
  • Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare |Rockstar Games, PS3

Time Limited Trials

The time-limited game trial benefit will enable you to try select games before you buy. After downloading a trial of the full game, you can play it for two hours for most games – the playtime counter only counts while you are in the game.

PlayStation Studios

  • Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection | Naughty Dog, PS5
  • Horizon Forbidden West Guerrilla Games, PS4/PS5

Third Party Partners

  • Cyberpunk 2077 | CD Projekt, PS5
  • Farming Simulator 22 Giants Software GmBH, PS4/PS5
  • Tiny Tina’s Wonderland |  2K Games, PS4/PS5
  • WWE 2K22 | 2K Games, PS4/PS5

New Games Added Regularly

The games available in our PlayStation Plus games catalog will continue to refresh and evolve over time, so there is always something new to play.

PlayStation Plus Essential

  • A monthly refresh will occur on the first Tuesday of the month for the PlayStation Plus Essential plan (and both higher tiers), with new PS4 and PS5 games added to the service — same as what PlayStation Plus members get today.

PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium/Deluxe

  • An additional monthly refresh will occur in the middle of each month with new games across the PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium/Deluxe plans. The number of games refreshed will vary per month.

Launch of the all-new PlayStation Plus is just a week away. It starts with Asia on May 24, followed by Japan on June 2, North and South America on June 13, and finally Europe, Australia, and New Zealand on June 23.

Gaming

LEGO 2K Drive to arrive on May 19

Build, explore, race

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LEGO 2K Drive

2K and the LEGO Group has announced May 19 as the official worldwide release date of LEGO 2K Drive for multiple consoles.

The driving adventure game is developed by Visual Concept. It is the first title to be released as part of a multi-title partnership between 2K and the LEGO Group. They seek to evolve the LEGO experience in exciting new ways.

The game will feature a combination of open-world driving and competitive racing. Players can explore the vast world of Bricklandia, build any vehicle LEGO-style, drive anywhere, and become a racing legend.

The Sky Cup Trophy is the game’s coveted prize. Players will have to compete against a series of rivals across a broad range of tracks while taking advantage of unique power-ups that can guide them throughout a race.

LEGO 2K Drive also offers unique customization, with over 1,000 LEGO pieces available when building a vehicle. Color designs, stickers, flairs, and more are likewise customizable.

Players may also collaborate with others in a two-person split-screen mode or multiplayer mode.

There will be three editions for the upcoming game:

  • Standard Edition – US$ 59.99 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch; US$ 69.99 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S (both physical and digital)
  • Awesome Edition – US$ 99.99; includes new vehicle, flair, in-game LEGO minifigure, Year 1 Drive Pass (covers four individual post-launch seasons of Drive pass content)
  • Awesome Rivals Edition – US$ 119.99; includes multiple new vehicles, flair, in-game LEGO minifigures, Year 1 Drive Pass

Preorders are now open, and those who purchase before launch day will receive an Aquadirt Racer Pack.

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Gaming

All TEKKEN 8 characters revealed so far

Get ready for the next battle!

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TEKKEN 8

Even though TEKKEN 8 is still miles away from being released, there’s no stopping the train on what you can expect. Starting off, no fighting game is complete without the list of fighters themselves. Of course, TEKKEN 8 is no exception to this. Several familiar faces have been revealed over the past few days, with more incoming.

Without further ado, here’s all the confirmed characters for TEKKEN 8 so far. Don’t worry, this list will be updated as more fighters and gameplay trailers are revealed.

Jin Kazama

Honestly, it wouldn’t be a modern TEKKEN game without the main protagonist himself, Jin Kazama. After spending most of TEKKEN 7 healing up and watching from the shadows, Jin is ready to strike back in honor of the Mishima Zaibatsu. Overall, he sports a much buffer look than before. Jin is now rocking the whites and reds compared to previous versions.

What makes Jin different this time around is how he’s harnessing the Devil Gene inside him to power his moveset. From the trailer alone, we see glimpses of the power he wields as he unleashes a barrage of attacks. Also, his character model even reveals one of his Devil’s wings, which most likely means he’s embraced the Devil in him.

Now, the one on our minds is, well, will the Devil Jin character from previous games also make its way onto this one?

Kazuya Mishima

In every TEKKEN game, someone portrays the ultimate villain that holds all the power and will not yield for anyone. For TEKKEN 8, that man is Kazuya Mishima, the leader of the G Corporation and Jin’s biological father. After the events of TEKKEN 7, Kazuya seemed more poised to take over the world than ever before with the G Corporation continuously waging war.

By this point in time, he has fully embraced the Devil and has since showed flashes of its power since TEKKEN 7. It’s not to say that just him alone isn’t already a ton to deal with, as his moveset is just as hard-hitting as before. With the addition of his Devil form as he enters his Heat State, it turns him into a wrecking ball of chaos.

Nina Williams

Nina Williams returns to the roster and is one of the characters that has appeared in every TEKKEN game since its release. The silent assassin has made quite the list of alliances and enemies through the years, and is on the hunt for her next target. However, after the events of TEKKEN 7 and her failure to locate Jin, she’s taking an approach from the shadows.

From a design standpoint, she loses the wedding dress she had on from the previous game and goes back to the leather jacket and purple dress — something familiar and comfortable. Moveset-wise, she retains the cat-like reflexes she showed off in previous titles and can throw punches with the best of them. Also, she had dual pistols now, so be careful when going up against her.

Paul Phoenix

Another staple of the TEKKEN franchise is Paul Phoenix, one of the hardest hitting fighters in the game. In fact, the trailer literally shows off his power as he brings a brick wall with him when he enters the battlefield. Although in TEKKEN 8, he grew his hair out and didn’t really bother to fix it in an upright position as his previous character models showed.

In terms of his moveset, the trailer makes it look as hard-hitting as before, if not more than that. You can tell that the man aged like fine wine in his combat, especially with all the punches he’s thrown. As seen in the last few seconds of the trailer, he even threw a punch that had so much power in it, it resulted in a sleeve getting ripped.

Marshall Law

One of the franchise’s key returnees from previous games is Marshall Law, Namco’s tribute to the legendary Bruce Lee. As with his previous appearances, he is agile, likes to take the fight to his opponents, and has an arsenal of moves relying on quickess and dexterity. In TEKKEN 8, however, it looks like his body has grown significantly.

Law maintains most of his moves from the previous games, with a bit of fine-tuning and power added to them given his growth over the years. Also, this game shows off his nunchakus which make a comeback after appearing as an item move in TEKKEN 6. Unlike that game, however, he only gets to use the nunchakus on specific moves instead of wielding it infinitely.

King II

Yes, for all the wrestling fans out there, King is back! And he is in much better fighting shape than ever before. Of course, the man still dons the same jaguar mask as his predecessor, and is hungry for competition wherever he goes. If all goes well, the eighth edition of the tournament will give him the glory he seeks.

As one of the franchise’s elite wrestlers, his moveset only improved from the previous games. He still boasts a series of gut-wrenching blows and grapples that turn the tide on his foes in combat. Also, he uses a variety of wrestling moves that fans will recognize from a mile away. This time around, as the trailer suggests, he adds more to his kit with moves from WWE superstars, Triple H (Pedigree) and Randy Orton (RKO).

Jack-8, Lars Alexandersson, and Jun Kazama?!

BANDAI NAMCO also released a Story and Gameplay Trailer to help build more anticipation on the upcoming fighter game, and shows what the TEKKEN Saga has in store for us. Also, this particular trailer showed us a few more characters to watch out for:

From this trailer, we can find two familiar faces in Jack-8 and Lars Alexandersson. The former is the eighth iteration of the JACKs since the first TEKKEN. For Jack-8, the main objective remains the same: destruction at all costs; it’s design to learn its opponents and strike at their core. For Lars, coming from the events of TEKKEN 7, the protector of Jin Kazama must now help him in his plot to overthrow Kazuya and put an end to the war.

Perhaps one of the biggest returns for TEKKEN 8 is Jin’s biological mother, Jun Kazama. She was presumed dead prior to the start of TEKKEN 3. Jun reunites with her now all-grown up son to help Jin find some form of inner peace. Whether or not she reunites with Kazuya has yet to be shown.

Let us know who you’re most excited to play for TEKKEN 8!

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Gaming

Ubisoft announces an AI writer for video games

To streamline dialogue writing

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Video game dialogue gets a bad rep these days. Though a good number of titles come from acclaimed writers and storytellers, a sizable chunk can leave gamers grasping for a mute button. Now, in a move to streamline the writing process, Ubisoft has announced an AI writer to automatically create video game dialogue.

Conspicuously called Ghostwriter, the upcoming AI tool can create dialogue based only on a few prompts. Writers only need to input a character and the type of dialogue to create an exchange. The tool can create a few variations for writers to consider and edit as need be.

The tool wasn’t created to replace writers. Rather, according to the reveal, Ghostwriter will help writers focus on larger tasks like grander narratives and important cutscenes.

Currently, Ubisoft has not showcased any examples of how the writer can work. The company is still working on implementing the tool in its production cycles. With huge sprawling games, using an AI writer to streamline dialogue creation will help deadlines. However, it’s still an unknown whether the tool will improve quality as well.

Over the past few months, companies have tried creating their own takes on AI-based chatbots and creators. Ubisoft is the latest to integrate the technology into its own company and one of the first to try it in the gaming scene.

SEE ALSO: Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Red, Jade, showcased at Ubisoft Forward

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