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FIFA 15 reclaims top, The Crew cuts in at sixth in UK charts
Captain Toad isn't adventuring in Europe until next month, so that leaves The Crew as the only major new release in this week's UK charts. Ubisoft's online-roaming racer takes to the grid in sixth place, cruising just behind the typical glob of big hitters. You can tell the silly season's beginning to die out when the latest FIFA is back on top, sat just in front of the latest Call of Duty. Just to prove it's not too predictable, this week the UK chucks Lego Batman 3 back up to fifth on the back of retailer promotions, while lower down Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix debuts in 31st place. For the full top ten and the customary (but not predictable) music video, head past the break.
Joystiq Weekly: Free Radical's Haze, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Tony Hawk and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. Yes okay, BlizzCon 2014 was full of announcements. A new team-based shooter called Overwatch, a Hearthstone expansion, Warcraft movie details, the next StarCraft 2 expansion ... Blizzard fans have plenty to look forward to. Thanks to an unexpected announcement however, Tony Hawk fans also have something to look forward to (or dread, depending on cynicism) in the form of a 2015 console game. Sure, the Skate series was a cool take on realistic tricks, but we wouldn't mind getting back to the outlandish challenges, yellow-text specials and SKATE letters of the original killer skateboarding series. If you've never enjoyed injury-supplementing planks of wood with wheels, there's still plenty of good stuff from this week. News of Grand Theft Auto 5's first person mode, reviews for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Lords of the Fallen, a feature exploring the development of the unfortunate PS3-exclusive Haze, and more is all waiting for you after the break!
Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix Collector's Edition features almost the whole series
Square-Enix is giving the PlayStation 3 one last dollop of weird anime melodrama and Final Fantasy fan service when it releases Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix in December. Anyone who waited on picking up last year's Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix, though, is in for an extra treat. The Sora obsessed can pick up the Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix Collector's Edition to get not just both remaster collections in a single package but a whole lot of other goodies from the Disney crossover series. With both Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 in the package, anyone who drops $100 on the Collector's Edition gets HD remasters of Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, Re: Chain of Memories, Birth By Sleep, and streamlined movie adaptations of 358/2 Days and Re:Coded which first appeared on Nintendo DS. Both collections come in a steel box. More appealing to diehards than a box will be the 30-page art book and Heartless plush toy, a stuffed animal version of the series freaky, shadowy enemies. As with Square-Enix's other lavish limited editions released in the past year, Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix Collector's Edition is only available through Square-Enix Shop, the publisher's official online shop. [Images: Square-Enix]
Stick a pin in your Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix pre-order
Customers who pre-order Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix will automatically be upgraded to the Limited Edition, Square Enix announced today via the PlayStation Blog. Along with updated versions of Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts: Re: Coded, those who score a copy of the Limited Edition will also receive a nifty pin featuring Sora and Mickey. Now, a pin may not seem like a big fuss, but this is an official, collectible Disney pin - and thus, it is part of the pin trading tradition that officially kicked off in 1999. Disney pin trading is serious business to those with a passion for it, as some pins have reached prices upward of $1,000 on the secondhand market. So you take care of that pin, young man/lady! It just might be worth something someday. [Image: Square Enix]
Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMIX is equally surreal in SD and HD
Eight years on from the release of Kingdom Hearts 2, Sora's grand PlayStation 2 adventure seems even more hallucinatory. Just look at this video of the little dude's quest comparing the original standard definition version and the shiny new HD version featured in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMIX. The glossy PlayStation 3 presentation does nothing more than enhance how weird it is to see Jack Skellington running around with a tiny anime guy with Final Fantasy hair. Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMIX hits the US in December. [Images: Square-Enix]
Play it again, Sora: Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix due in December
Kingdom Hearts' second collection of HD remixes hits North America on December 2 and Europe on three days later. The release dates come courtesy of a new E3 trailer, and if you stick around for the end you'll also see a storyline tease for Kingdom Hearts 3. Returning to the present, 2.5 Remix brings Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix, Birth by Sleep Final Mix and remastered cinematics from Re:coded to PS3. The high-def compilation revisits the RPG series' blend of Disney and Square Enix characters, with the likes of Cinderella, Ariel and Scar mixing it up with Auron, Tifa and Zack. 2.5 Remix also marks the first time the Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts 2 and Birth by Sleep will be available in the West. The PS2 and PSP re-releases were previously limited to Japan, and the duo add features like new difficulty modes, cut scenes and mini-games. [Image: Square Enix]
Disney stars highlight new Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix screens
It's redundant to mention that the latest batch of screenshots from Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix are highlighted by their various Disney guest stars, but without the characters spawned by the House of Mouse this would be just another moon-eyed Japanese roleplaying epic, so we'll take it. In this particular batch, we see Cinderella, Ariel, the neon-lit characters from Tron, and, of course, Mickey, Goofy and Donald, among others. Though Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix is an enhanced reissue of Kingdom Hearts 2 and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, the inherently cartoonish Disney style loses nothing in the jump to the higher-definition aesthetics of the PlayStation 3. The inevitable Kingdom Hearts 3 will likely make Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix pale in comparison, but these images suggest that fans won't be bothered by jagged polygons or blurry textures during this adventure. No solid release date has yet been established for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix, but Square Enix hopes to release the PlayStation 3 exclusive compilation at some point during 2014. [Image: Square Enix, Disney]
