Yakuza 5 launching for PS3 this month, Yakuza 0 announced for PS4

By Danny Cowan December 7, 2015

Sega confirmed during this week’s PlayStation Experience event that a prequel in its long-running Yakuza series is due to launch for the PlayStation 4 in North America in 2016.

The publisher also nailed down a release date for its promised localization of Yakuza 5, announcing that it will premiere digitally for the PlayStation 4 this week.

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Tracing its origins back to the PlayStation 2, Sega’s Yakuza series features a crime drama narrative that unfolds over the course of an open-world adventure. Players navigate the crowded streets of Japan as they complete missions and hunt for rival gang members throughout each mainline series entry.

The Yakuza series made the jump to the PlayStation 3 with 2010’s Yakuza 3, and a sequel followed in 2011. Though a fifth game in the series hit Japan in 2012, a localization never surfaced in the years afterward, leaving fans wondering if future Yakuza games would ever arrive stateside.

Sega finally confirmed its plans to localize Yakuza 5 earlier this year, revealing that an English-language version would launch digitally for the PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Network by the end of 2015. After missing a scheduled November launch date, Sega finalized its release plans, and Yakuza 5 will make its North American debut on December 8th.

After confirming the sequel’s release date this week, Sega revealed that it also plans to localize the PlayStation 4 prequel game Yakuza 0. Released in Japan earlier this year as Ryu ga Gotoku Zero: Chikai no Basho, the game takes place in the years leading up to the events in the original Yakuza game.

Set on the streets of Kabukicho and Shinjuku Golden Gai in 1988, Yakuza 0 features Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima in starring roles. Yakuza 0 features open-ended gameplay in the same vein as its series successors, and marks the series’ first stateside appearance on the PlayStation 4.

Yakuza 5 premieres for the PlayStation 3 on December 8th. A release date for Yakuza 0 was not announced.

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Gaming

God of War Ragnarok shares a key strength with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Hafgufa flies away in God of War Ragnarok.

God of War Ragnarok’s main story is memorable, but some of the smaller moments are what have stuck with me most since completing it. I'm not just talking about its moments of quiet, but its optional Favors as well. These sidequests can be entirely ignored, but skipping them is a mistake as they contain some of the game’s best scenes. It's a trait that God of War Ragnarok shares with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, one of the best RPGs of the last decade.
In some large RPGs, sidequests can often boil down to boring fetch quests, or they simply may not have as much polish put into their writing. As a result, they can feel like content bloat that does more harm than good to the game’s pacing. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and God of War Ragnarok avoid this problem by elevating these sidequests, making the entire adventure feel more cohesive and ensuring that the small moments stick out as some of the best.
More than a side thing
Like God of War Ragnarok, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt features a lengthy main story full of memorable characters, set pieces, and boss fights. While those alone would have made it a strong RPG, it’s remembered as an all-time great because of how rich its world is, something that's reflected in its side content. There were quests like Ghosts of Past, which pays off the character arc of Witcher 2 character Letho, but it's entirely possible to finish the game without ever seeing it.

Others, like Return to Crookback Bog, turn what could just be some fun supernatural fights into a chilling tale about abuse and broken families. While The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s main narrative is strong, these side moments are what make it a game that sticks with you years after release. I can already tell the same will be true of God of War Ragnarok, as some of my favorite missions in the game are entirely optional Favors.
An early game Favor called The Weight of Chains sees Kratos, Mimir, and Atreus freeing a giant Lyngbakr sea creature that Mimir imprisoned while working with Odin. They manage to break its chains, but find that it now struggles to move and do what it used to. This sidequest takes a series of somewhat standard combat encounters and puzzles and spins them into critical aspects of a memorable tale. The Weight of Chains reflects on how Kratos and Mimir’s reckless actions have had irreversible consequences, but they now have an opportunity to be better people in the future.
Another standout Favor called Secret of the Sands, where Kratos and Atreus free a trapped jellyfish-like creature called a Hafgufa, is also quite beautiful. The short story shows what Kratos will do to be able to spend more time with his son in the face of Ragnarok. However ordinary these sidequests may be from a gameplay standpoint, their narrative relevance and level of polish are on par with some of God of War Ragnarok’s main quests. This high effort even applies to some side missions that wholly exist with NPCs in the game’s overworld, ones that aren't even built around huge set pieces. For example, there’s The Lost Treasure quest.

Gaming

If you love game history, you need to try Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration

Video game collections are becoming more common these days as companies look back on their past. That’s great for game preservation, but collections like Super Mario 3D All-Stars can ultimately feel underwhelming when the end product is little more than a simple port. Atari’s classic lineup of games is no stranger to this treatment; you can play an Atari 2600 game collection on pretty much any platform you desire. Due to the overwhelming amount of Atari collections out there, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration might not seem like a compelling release at first.
That’s why it’s more of a surprise that it sets a new standard for this kind of game collection.
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Trailer
In practice, Atari 50 feels like a museum exhibit-turned-video game. It made me feel like I was walking through the Smithsonian’s The Art of Video Games exhibit for the first time, except everything is about Atari's 50-year history. Not only does Atari 50 contain everything from Pong to some of the weirdest titles the Atari Jaguar had to offer, but it embellishes those games with trivia, scans of game-related material from the time, and video interviews with people connected to them. Anyone who loves gaming history owes it to themselves to check out Atari 50.
Eclipsing other collections
Digital Eclipse has been bringing old games to new platforms for years -- it made Atari game collections for the original PlayStation. Over time, it has slowly put more effort into its approach, moving beyond mere emulation. Earlier this year, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection included the Turtle’s Lair, which had boxes, manuals, ads, catalogs, comics, TV show clips, and development document. Atari 50 takes that one step further by transforming similar content into exhibit-like Interactive Timelines.
From its title screen, you can immediately access almost all of Atari 50’s 100-plus game lineup. The real draw, though, is choosing one of five Interactive Timelines recounting Atari’s 50-year history. Arcade Origins focuses on the founding of Atari, its earliest success, weird prototypes, and classic arcade games that were released from 1971 to 1984. “Birth of the Console” is about the creation, hits, and triumphs of the Atari 2600, while “High and Lows” discusses the video game crash of 1983 and how the Atari 5200 and 7800 fared during it.
The context art is created in and the legacy it leaves behind are as important as the art itself ...

Meanwhile, “The Dawn of PCs” recounts Atari’s efforts in the PC space from the Atari 400 and 800 in 1979 until the rare Atari Falcon’s release in 1992. Finally, “The 1990s and Beyond” covers everything else, emphasizing the Atari Lynx handheld and 32-bit Atari Jaguar home console. Games will pop up as players navigate these timelines, and you can play them at the press of a button. As is always the case with Digital Eclipse collections, the emulation is smooth, and players can access various visual filters and even the instruction manuals when pausing.
On top of that, almost every game included has some piece of trivia, scanned development document or ad, preserved commercial, or relevant interview to check out. Notable former Atari developers like Pong creator Al Alcorn and programmer Tod Frye frequently appear in these videos, but other prominent industry figures like Double Fine’s Tim Schafer and former Epic Games dev Cliff Bleszinski show up to offer their thoughts. The context art is created in and the legacy it leaves behind are as important as the art itself, so it’s incredible to see Digital Eclipse’s effort to include all this supplemental information.

Gaming

Fallout 4’s PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrade launches for free in 2023

Power armor suit in Fallout 4.

In celebration of Fallout's 25th anniversary, Bethesda has announced that Fallout 4 will get an upgrade for the current generation of consoles in 2023. This free update will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC and comes with a variety of new features that take advantage of more powerful hardware.

The upgraded version will include a performance mode that prioritizes high frame rates, in addition to new quality features that boost the game to 4K resolution. This new version of Fallout 4 also offers bug fixes and Creation Club content. Players who already own the game on PS4, Xbox One, and PC will gain access to the current-gen upgrade at no additional cost. It's unclear how much the game will cost for players buying it for the first time on PS5 or Xbox Series X/S.