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PS Plus Europe in May: Stick it to the Man, Puppeteer, Muramasa Rebirth
Stick it to the Man is the next PlayStation 4 offering for Plus subscribers in Europe, starting next week on April 30. The eccentric 2D adventure is due in North America on May 6, which perhaps suggests a later start for May's stateside batch of Plus, or possibly a different PS4 game. We will have to wait and see. Returning to Europe, there are four other games entering the PS Plus service at the end of April, including two on PS3 and two on Vita. The first of the console offerings is performer plaformer Puppeteer, while the second is first-person robber Payday 2. The latter is a neat addition for subscribers who downloaded the first Payday last summer. The Vita newbies are two very different games hailing from Japan, namely hand-painted 2D adventure Muramasa Rebirth and cutesy sports sim Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational. That's Everybody's Golf if you're European, but Loads of Fun no matter where you're from. As ever, five games in means five games out: Make sure you grab Mercenary Kings, Pro Evo 2014, BioShock Infinite, Hotline Miami and MotoGP13 before Plus drops them on April 30. [Image: Ripstone]
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational PS3 drives onto PSN next week [update]
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational drops onto PS3 in next week's PSN update in North America, a treat for those awaiting the console port of the Vita game. Publisher Sony Computer Entertainment quietly mentioned a while ago the PS3 version, released in Japan last year, was in the works for the west. Similarly quietly, this week's PlayStation Blogcast spills the beanies on the arcade golfer's PSN arrival - there's no news of a physical version. In Japan the PS3 port, which supports cross-platform play, features additions including two new characters, two new courses, and two new modes, including one completely devoted to those short-but-sweet Par 3 holes. We'll keep our ears to the fairways for further details on the western version. Update: World Invitational PS3 will cost $19.99, a PlayStation Blog post reveals. It also notes the PS3 version offers local multiplayer for up to four, features PlayStation Move support, and downloadable content is cross-buy between the two versions. As per the Japanese version, cross-platform online play is available too. Finally, Europe is getting the PS3 version next week too, where it'll be priced €14.99/£11.99.
Hot Shots Golf Vita coming to PS3 in Japan
Arcade golfer Hot Shots Golf: World International will be making the jump from Vita to PlayStation 3 in Japan. PlayStation Japan revealed the news on its website, along with a Japanese release date of November 22. Given the series' history, it's likely that we'll see a Western version of the PS3 game hitting retail shelves at some point. We've reached out to Sony for confirmation of that.The PS3 version will run in 1080p HD, and will support PlayStation Move as did the previous Hot Shots Golf game. It will also support cross-platform play, letting PS3 golfers tee off against Vita opponents and vice versa. In terms of extras, there are two new modes, including one exclusively made up of Par 3 holes. The PS3 version will also receive two new courses and two new hyper-cute, hyper-deformed characters. Aww.
Hot Shots Vita update drops tonight, adds new modes and features
Sometime this evening, the feature list for PlayStation Vita's Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational will get a major – and free! – update. Update 1.04, the PlayStation Blog reveals, takes the previously Ad-Hoc only Stroke and Match modes and brings them to the world wide web (that's where you are now, reading this!).More control for tournaments will also be included in the update, allowing for private tournaments for up to eight players and trash talk via in-game text chat between holes.For a complete list of changes to World Invitational, check after the break. (Note: The game Hot Shots is still, unfortunately and totally, unrelated to this).
Snapshot: Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational (Vita)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we tell you about games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational for the PlayStation Vita. As the best selling title during the Japanese Vita launch, Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational must have some kind of spark, right? That spark, as it turns out, is very simple. It's just well executed arcade golf.
Online Pass makes it into North American Vita titles
Last month, word came out that the Japanese version of Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational for the PlayStation Vita included an online pass. With the embargo on North American Vita coverage lifted, we can now confirm that the American version does indeed feature an online pass. Of the Vita games we've acquired so far, Wipeout 2048 is the only other title to feature an online pass.Those are currently the only titles with passes available on the US PlayStation Store, so it would seem that the rest of the launch lineup is free of the online pass's ten-dollar grip -- for now.
First-party Vita games now available at GameStop
Not only can you download Vita games early, you can buy boxed copies of first-party titles early as well. GameStop currently has copies of Little Deviants, Uncharted, Hot Shots, Wipeout 2048, and ModNation Racers in stock online right now. They ship within 24 hours, the site notes, or you can use the site to check for stock at your local store.The Vita hardware will officially be available February 15 in the First Edition bundle, but it's possible you already have a Japanese unit, in which case you should be able to play these cartridges.
Some Vita games already available through PS3 in US
You'll have to search for them, but you can download five PlayStation Vita games through the PS3's PlayStation Store. The selection of early, hidden releases includes Uncharted: Golden Abyss (which is not discounted at all at $49.99), Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational for $35.99, Wipeout 2048 for $35.99, ModNation Racers Road Trip for $26.99, and the PSN-only Super Stardust Delta for $9.99.Sure, you probably don't have a Vita yet, but don't let that stop you from building up a library. Then, when the system does arrive (or if you have one right now!) you can use the Content Manager Assistant to transfer the games to that huge memory card you'd better buy.
Get in touch with Vita launch titles with ten new trailers
Sony sent out a bunch of trailers for first-party launch Vita games, focusing on the Vita-specific features each game uses. The good news: we see clever combinations of controls here, like Escape Plan's "pinch" of both the front and back touch panels. And Gravity Rush looks really neat regardless of how it's controlled. The bad news: we're not nearly mature enough to see ten references to "front touch" and "rear touch" without giggling. If that's how Sony is going to refer to those features permanently, we're going to have a problem at press events.
