Batman: Arkham Knight

How ironic is it that Batman: Arkham Knight looked incredible on PS4 and Xbox One while running better on both consoles than on PC? Probably as ironic as it looking better than Gotham Knights, even though it’s also stuck at 30 FPS on consoles. I digress. Either way, there’s no denying that Arkham Knight is gorgeous with excellent texture quality and character models.

The rain effects and how they realistically interacted with the environment; the lighting and fog quality; the draw distance, and sheer attention to detail – it’s spectacular and ran at a rock-solid frame rate. Regardless of the Batmobile hate, almost everyone can agree that Arkham Knight is a technical marvel. Again, on consoles, but the PC version has improved over time.

Check out the range of titles coming to both Extra and Premium:

• Adventure Time Pirates of the Enchiridion (PS4)
• Ben 10: Power Trip (PS5, PS4)
• The Escapists 2 (PS4)
• Evil Genius 2: World Domination (PS5, PS4)
• Far Cry 5 (PS4)
• Far Cry New Dawn (PS4)
• Far Cry Primal (PS4)
• Gigantosaurus The Game (PS4)
• Judgment (PS5, PS4)
• Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4)
• Middle-Earth: Shadow of War (PS4)
• Mortal Shell (PS5, PS4)
• The Pedestrian (PS5, PS4)
• Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire – Ultimate Edition (PS4)
• WWE 2K22 (PS4)
• Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (PS4)
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PS5, PS4)
• Worms W.M.D (PS4)

Some heavy hitters include Judgment and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, playable on PS5 and PS4. Far Cry 5 and New Dawn may also be worth jumping into, while Far Cry Primal offers a prehistoric spin on the series’ open-world gameplay.

Premium subscribers also get new Classic titles this month, including Pinball Heroes and Ridge Racer 2 on the PlayStation Portable. Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus on the PlayStation One and Ninja Theory’s Heavenly Sword on PS3 are also being added. For more details on the free titles offered with PlayStation Plus Essential, head here.

PlayStation Plus Extra is available for $14.99 monthly and $99.99 yearly. PlayStation Plus Premium costs $17.99 monthly and $119.99 yearly. Stay tuned for more details on future additions to both tiers in the coming weeks.

Later this year, Yakuza 3 Remastered, Yakuza 4 Remastered, Yakuza 5 Remastered and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life will be available. Interestingly, while the remasters of Yakuza 3 to 5 are listed for PlayStation Plus Premium, Sony indicated earlier in the article, “Later this year, for Extra and Premium members, Kiryu’s story concludes with Yakuza 3 Remastered, Yakuza 4 Remastered, Yakuza 5 Remastered and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.”

It’s possible that the separating listings are an error and the entire series is indeed coming to Extra and Premium. Stay tuned for more clarification on the same but at least Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is confirmed for both. As for Yakuza: Like a Dragon, it’s free for PlayStation Plus subscribers on PS4 and PS5 from August 2nd to September 6th.

Parliament Of Serbia in Belgrade – Half-Life 2

City 17’s European-inspired architecture and aesthetics are fairly easy to recognize, though the Overwatch Nexus is perhaps the closest to being based on an actual building. As the main building for the Overwatch forces, the Nexus was formerly a political building before the Combine invaded. It turns out that it’s actually inspired by the Parliament of Serbia in Belgrade. The similarities between the two buildings, from their general structure to the opening archway are noteworthy, though the signature dome isn’t as defined on the Nexus. Though it’s not outright confirmed in-game, browsing through the texture files reveals the word “parliament” which further hints at the inspiration.

It’s a day for high-profile titles on Xbox Game Pass. After Square Enix’s Octopath Traveler, Sega’s Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is now available for Game Pass subscribers on PC and console. With this addition, the entire mainline Yakuza series is now available on Xbox One and PC. Steam users will see the game available today at 4 PM GMT/9 AM PST on the storefront.

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life sees Kazuma Kiryu out of prison (again), only to find that Haruka has gone missing. After finding her in a coma following a hit-and-run accident, Kiryu seeks to discover the truth while also caring for Haruka’s son Haruto. Though sporting familiar locations like Kamurocho, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life makes a number of changes to exploration and combat.

It also marks the debut of the series’ Dragon Engine, which would be used for Yakuza Kiwami 2, Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Judgment. Check out our review here to learn more about the title. Along with Xbox One and PC, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is also available on PS4.

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is now available on Xbox Game Pass and Windows 10!

The Steam version arrives Mar 25th at 4PM GMT/9 AM PST. pic.twitter.com/xRauzCFxWy

— RGG Studio (@RGGStudio) March 25, 2021

It’s almost hard to believe, but not that long ago the Yakuza series was pretty firmly locked into the PlayStaton ecosystem. Now, however, the games have leaked out into the Xbox and PC world, even getting the latest game (Yakuza: Like a Dragon) getting a day and date release on various platforms. Now one of the missing links will be coming to PC, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, and now we know what kind of rig you need.

The game was originally released on PS4, so it’s not too intense, as seen on the recent Window Store listing. On minimum settings, you’ll need an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 and AMD Radeon HD 7870 with an Intel Core i5-3470 and AMD FX-6300. You’ll need 4 GB of RAM. Recommend only bumps things up to an Intel Core i7-6700 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 or AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 with 6 GB of RAM. Both see 40 GB of storage.

Yakuza 6: Song of Life is currently available on PlayStation 4. It will release on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC, including day and date on Game Pass, March 25th.

Minimum 

• OS: Windows 10 version 18362.0 or higher
• Architecture: x64
• Memory: 4GB
• VRAM: 2GB
• Processor: Intel Core i5-3470 | AMD FX-6300
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660, 2 GB | AMD Radeon HD 7870, 2 GB
• Storage: 40GB

Recommended

• OS: Windows 10 version 18362.0 or higher
• Architecture: x64
• Memory: 6GB
• Processor: Intel Core i7-6700 | AMD Ryzen 5 2600
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, 8 GB | AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, 8 GB
• Storage: 40GB

Even after adding 20 Bethesda titles to the service, Microsoft has even more games coming to Xbox Game Pass. It announced that Empire of Sin would be available for Xbox consoles, PC and Android devices via the cloud on Mach 18th along with NieR: Automata and Torchlight 3 on PC and Star Wars: Squadrons on consoles.

Next week is even more interesting as Square Enix’s Octopath Traveler arrives for Xbox consoles and PC on March 25th. This will mark the RPG’s debut on Xbox One after previously releasing for Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia and PC over the years. Galactic-scale adventure title Genesis Noir will also be available on console and PC along with Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire – Ultimate Edition and Supraland for PC on the same day.

But that’s not all as Sega’s Yakuza 6: The Song of Life also comes to Xbox, PC and cloud on March 25th, followed by pixel platformer Narita Boy on March 30th for the same. As announced yesterday, next month’s Game Pass offerings begins with People Can Fly’s Outriders coming to Xbox and cloud (but not PC) on April 1st. Stay tuned for more details on other titles in the meantime.

Microsoft had a fairly decent presence at The Game Awards this year with The Initiative revealing its reboot of Perfect Dark at last. It also showcased a new trailer for Xbox Game Pass with current and upcoming titles. Sure, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim – Special Edition coming to the service is great but more importantly, The Yakuza Remastered Collection and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life have also been confirmed.

This means that remasters of Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 along with Yakuza 6 will be playable on Xbox platforms and PC for the first time. But that’s not all – they’ll also be available on Steam as per an official tweet. The Yakuza Remastered Collection arrives on January 28th 2021 for the platform (with each game also being sold separately) while Yakuza 6: The Song of Life arrives on March 25th 2021.

Other upcoming titles for Game Pass include Neoverse, Killer Queen Black (for console), Cyber Shadow and Among Us (for PC). The Medium is also out on January 28th 2021 for Xbox Series X/S and PC players. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

https://twitter.com/RGGStudio/status/1337222817205653504

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj5JBytPij4

Along with updated lifetime sales numbers for Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, Sega Sammy also revealed that the Yakuza series hit 14 million sales in its lifetime. The company noted that the series was “highly evaluated by overseas users.” However, Sega feels that it’s still a niche series meant for a select market of players.

Thus, the current strategy going forward is to release for multiple platforms and services worldwide, with the PC platform playing a big part. This can be seen in the release of Yakuza: Like a Dragon which launched earlier this month for Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One and PC. Whether we can expect future titles to follow suit remains to be seen.

For that matter, it’s unknown whether Yakuza 3 to 5 and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life will be coming to PC or Xbox platforms in the near future. Ryu ga Gotoku Studio will host a livestream event on December 8th with announcements for “future developments” so we could receive more details there. Stay tuned in the meantime and check out our review of Yakuza: Like a Dragon here.

Characters Modeled After Real Actors

Getting the likenesses right for a group of bad-asses like the Yakuza cast isn’t easy. However, it’s interesting to note how many of the characters are modeled after and voiced by well-known Japanese actors. Takeshi Kitano, for instance, serves as the template and voice for Toru in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. Meanwhile, Riki Takeuchi lends his face and voice to Daiki Awano in Yakuza 0.