Since the official PlayStation Twitter account didn’t say anything about this being optional, we’ll assume that the new firmware update going live “soon” (probably within an hour or two) is a mandatory one.

Rather than just the usual “improved system stability” teaser we always get, 4.45 also brings along Trophy notification options. They didn’t go into further detail about that last part, but it’s likely new options to allow the Trophy unlocked icon to not appear when you’re in the middle of a game and do something special.

As always with these updates, we’ll be our best to let you know when it’s live, but if you’ve noticed it’s out before we get a chance to tell you, please let us know in the comments below, or by sending a tweet to @PSLifeStyle.

Essential Reading:

• Capcom: Deep Down is “Still Quite far off,” Dead Rising 3 has “no Current Plans” for PS4, Other Platforms
• Daily Reaction: What The PS4’s Paid Online PS Plus Service Really Means
• Volition Talks Saints Row IV, The Death of THQ and Next-Gen Consoles

With E3 over, the dust has finally settled and it’s time for the triumphant return of Daily Reaction. Today, Seb and Dan discuss the most controversial announcement from Sony at the show – the fact that you’ll need to pay to play online on the PS4. We talk PS+ and what it means for you, for indie developers and the price point of future games as a whole.

Seb: We’re back baby! So, let’s get down to it: At E3 Sony revealed that you have to have a PlayStation Plus subscription to play online with the PS4. There’s been a little confusion over what that really means, so first a quick recap – it can be the same PS+ account as the PS3/Vita one, 12 months costs $50, 3 months $18, and most F2P games won’t require it. Unlike XBL, services like Netflix will also not require PS+.

As a PlayStation Plus member already, I personally have no issue with the subscription. The service is an absolute steal, and worth every dime already on PS3/Vita. My only complaint this gen has been that I already own a lot of the games I end up getting free, but the awesome thing is that, as the PS4 isn’t backwards compatible, all the games we’ll get are new.

You are guaranteed at least one free PS4 game a month, with the first being a watered down DriveClub, and future titles including the truly awesome Outlast. These are games that you obviously won’t have yet, so you’re guaranteed a giant library of titles while paying less than what Xbox Live costs (not to mention all the discounts).

On top of that, it simply forces Sony to embrace indies. Think about it – they’ve promised a huge number of free games, and they won’t all be able to be big budget titles like DriveClub, otherwise they wouldn’t make a profit. So their only option is to get a ton of indie games and, as they can’t be sure that devs will meet their release date targets, or agree to be on PS+, they need to have far more than the 12 promised each year.

PlayStation Plus will be a great way to ensure that Sony continues to bring on indies, while at the same time essentially gifting indie games to casual CoD/AC/BF players who usually just play those games online, hopefully opening their mind to the diversity this industry has to offer.

Also, the profits from PS+ will go to making the PSN a better service, and it could do with some improvements. Downloads are still too slow and maintenance is still too often. With the PSN running at a loss so far, it’s no wonder it has its problems, but now we should hopefully see change.

Of course, while this is great for people like me who would have bought these games anyway, it’s still a $50 fee every year for the foreseeable future, which is hard to swallow for gamers who don’t invest as much time into their hobby, or stick to playing a few games – especially when many of them have been used to free online this gen.

Dan: Yeah, the concept of having to pay to play online might be a difficult premise for some PS3 owners, but I think the benefits will definitely bring them around eventually. Xbox gamers have been paying for a service, much like the PSN, for years and have grown accustomed to the idea without having any of the major benefits we are seeing now with PS+.

The concept of being able to purchase a console and pay $50 annually to get a growing library of games is a phenomenal value and is a great deal for parents or anyone looking to keep costs down. Also, the fact that you will only need one account to continue playing online with a PS4 instead of needing separate ones like on the Xbox, is definitely a sign that Sony understands that they can’t use the service to milk money out of consumers by forcing families/friends to double up on subscriptions.

One minor issue with this is that you don’t get to choose which titles are going to be released for free, meaning that parents relying on the service could get games outside of an appropriate rating for their child.

Also, we still have yet to see how PS+ will actually be able to keep up with providing a new title each month, as developers will need to be able to produce games at expedited rates. This new constraint being placed on development could cause studios to push through titles simply to meet this new demand, forcing corners to be cut and even bugs to be missed.

With the push to a free market, gamers will have very little reason to purchase other smaller products – meaning that developers will almost be forced to launch for free on PS+. This toll could take the industry into new directions, much like we have seen in the MMO genre that is now having difficulties finding ground on any form of non-F2P model.

Are you happy to pay for PS+? Or are you going to move to PC because of consoles requiring subscriptions? Let us know what you think in the comments below, email DailyReaction@PlayStationLifeStyle.net thoughts on how PS+ will impact developers, and pay us $5 a month to subscribe to our twitters at Seb and Dan.

With the number of games out there that have focused on killing everything in sight, the notion for a developer to design a game that focuses on doing the exact opposite would seem unlikely. Luckily, Eidos Montreal has decided to bring back a franchise that not only focuses on staying in the shadows, but also one that very few console gamers have ever heard of. Thief, last seen in 2004 on the PC and Xbox, was finally shown getting a next-gen reboot at E3 2013 – here is what we thought.

The first-person stealth mechanic has been seeing a bit of a rebirth as of late with games like Dishonored and Deus Ex: Human Revolution showing off just how much can be done on current tech with stealth gameplay. Thief, the game that pretty much gave birth the the first-person stealth genre, is back. But, from what was shown off at E3,  it looks a bit late to the show.

Garret, the main protagonist, uses the darkness to creep around behind enemies, pick pockets, extinguish torches and climb walls to bypass guards, but these mechanics are far from anything we haven’t seen before. As combat is slowly becoming a decision that must be made in games, the ability to have a full fledged stealth mechanic as well as a well defined combat system is becoming standard. Thief, while not without some ability for combat, looks to be little more than just half of that system based on the footage shown behind closed doors. Games like Dishonored and Deus Ex really set a bar this generation, giving players the choice to be quiet or to kill everything in their path, and it seems that Thief is now trying to play catch-up to that without bringing much new to the table. Thief may have helped create the genre, but it now seems far too much like Dishonored.

While it is still too early to write off Thief completely, as they still have plenty of time to announce just what is going to push it beyond its competition, I would just make sure to temper expectations until we find out more.

Stay tuned to PlayStation LifeStyle for more information on Thief as it gets announced, as well as a full review once the title hits store shelves on the PS4 sometime next year.

Each week Sony brings PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation Portable owners new content, add-ons, games and more. PlayStation LifeStyle catalogs the PlayStation Store updates for the major regions across the globe. Check back every Tuesday and Wednesday to keep up to date with each week’s PlayStation Store Update.

** Note for other regions **

European PSN is updated on Wednesdays.

North American Update

PlayStation Plus

PS3 Demos

• NCAA Football 14
• Dungeons & Dragons Chronicles of Mystara HD
• Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams

Soundtrack

• Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier Original Soundtrack – $9.99

Price Change

• Tomb Raider – PS3 Game (now: $44.99 original price: $59.99)

Sales

• Demon’s Souls – PS3 Game (now: $14.99 original price: $19.99)
• Daytona USA – PS3 Game (now: $4.99 original price: $9.99)
• flOw – PS3 Game (now: $2.79 original price: $5.59)
• Flower – PS3 Game (now: $3.49 original price: $6.99)
• Hell Yeah! Bundle – PS3 Bundle (now: $9.99 original price: $19.99)
• Nights into Dreams – PS3 Game (now: $4.99 original price: $9.99)
• Renegade Ops – PS3 Game (now: $4.99 original price: $9.99)
• Breakquest: Extra Evolution – PS mini (now: $1.99 original price: $3.99)
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Explosive Mission Pack – PS3 Add-On (now: $1.74 original price: $3.49)
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution: The Missing Link Pack – PS3 Add-On (now: $7.49 original price: $14.99)
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Tactical Enhancement Pack – PS3 Add-On (now: $0.99 original price: $1.99)

PSN

• Dungeons & Dragons Chronicles of Mystara HD ($14.99)
• Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard ($9.99)
• Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams ($14.99)
• Storm ($9.99)

PS Vita

• Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two ($29.99)
• Jak & Daxter Collection ($26.99)

PS2 Classics

• Castlevania: Lament of Innocence ($9.99)
• Corvette Evolution GT ($9.99)

Bundles

• Carnivores Bundle (2-in-1) ($5.99)
• Sonic The Hedgehog Master Collection ($29.99)

PS3 Add-ons

God of War: Ascension

• Legendary Spears Pack ($4.99)
• Spear of Hyperion Multiplayer Weapon ($2.99)
• Spear of Phobos Multiplayer Weapon ($2.99)

GRID 2

• Unlock All Cars ($6.99)

Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory

• Neptune Idol Costume Set ($1.99)
• Noire Idol Costume Set ($1.99)

Injustice: Gods Among Us

• Zombie Mode ($0.99)

Resident Evil Revelations

• Jessica’s G18($0.99)
• Jill’s Samurai Edge ($0.99)
• Parker’s Government ($0.99)

LittleBigPlanet 2/Little Big Planet Karting

• Chun-Li Costume ($1.99)
• Guile Costume ($1.99)
• Racing Driver Pack ($1.49)
• Ryu Costume ($1.99)
• Street Fighter Costume Kit ($5.99)
• Zangief Costume ($1.99)

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

• Ancient Parts Pack ($9.99)
• Chloe Artifact Mask ($0.49)
• Chloe Aztec Mask ($0.99)
• Chloe Aztec Skull Mask ($0.99)
• Cutter Dogu Miyagi Mask ($1.99)
• Drake Spartan Helmet ($0.49)
• Japanese Mask ($0.49)
• Sully Moai Mask ($0.99)
• Talbot Aztec Statue Mask ($0.99)
• Talbot Noh Mask ($0.49)

PS3 Themes

• 8-Bit Crown — $2.99
• Arabella Drummond 1 Dynamic Theme — $2.99
• Breathtaking Bree Static Theme — $1.99
• Chuck Testa Dynamic Theme — $2.99
• Cyberpunk Dynamic Theme 3 — $2.99
• Hannah Martin 1 Dynamic Theme — $2.99
• Lucy Pinder 1 Dynamic Theme — $2.99
• Military (Aircraft) Dawn Before the Storm Dynamic Theme — $2.99
• Military (Aircraft) Fighter Jets Dynamic Theme — $2.99
• Military (Aircraft) Heavy Lifting Dynamic Theme — $2.99
• Military (Aircraft) Prepare for the Skies Dynamic Theme — $2.99
• NY Knicks Theme Bundle — $4.99
• Surreal Train to Nowhere Dynamic Theme — $2.99
• Surreal Milky Way Dynamic Theme — $2.99
• Surreal Moon Light Yoga Dynamic Theme — $2.99
• Surreal Moon Tan Dynamic Theme — $2.99

PS3 Videos

• Muramasa Rebirth ‘Warriors Of Chaos’ Trailer
• The Bureau Burn Room Trailer

Next Page: Japanese & Hong Kong Update »

While at E3, I got a chance to sit down with the incredibly nice and candid Jim Boone, Senior Producer for Saints Row IV at Volition Studios, and speak with him about the latest sequel in the over-the-top franchise, as well as find out about future development on the Xbox One/PS4 and what it was like during the collapse of THQ. Also, make sure to stay tuned to PSLS, as we will be having a full preview for Saints Row IV this week.

Were you the Senior Producer for the previous Saints Row games?

I was on Saints Row 2, but I wasn’t on 1 or 3. So, I guess I’m doing the even numbered ones.

How long after Saints Row 2 did you start development for Saints Row 4?

It was at the very end of Saints Row: The Third, a couple months before that was finished that we started working on Saints Row IV. So it has been a few years now that we have been working on this one.

Was there any difficulty trying to develop a game for an audience that was still adjusting to Saints Row: The Third?

A little bit. The biggest issue with it was when we were working on Saints Row: The Third, and thinking about all the things we had done in it and how crazy and over-the-top it was. I think the biggest thing that a lot of people were thinking on our side was, what the hell do we do next? Like how do you go further than this? We’ve got clones, you’ve got missions to mars, you have helicarriers – like what the hell else is there to do? Then when you take a step back and start to relax and recover from finishing the game and everything, now suddenly ideas start flowing, and the first big one for us was superpowers. That was the one that started it all, because we loved the thought that we could use superpowers – where you could do things that worked well with our core mechanics. Driving around is awesome, and you still can, but, the ability to also super jump and glide through the air to get where you want to go – it is just a fun way to change things up.

The same thing with combat. If I wanted to take out my gun, I can still shoot, but, I’ve also got these powers where I can pick someone up and use TK to launch them. It’s cool. It just changes the mechanics up by doing that, but once we did that, then we realized that if we are still just fighting gang members – how are we going to balance this game? It’s like you are a god in the world, with a bunch of gang members coming at you – they don’t really pose much threat. So, we decided to strike up the notion of ‘what if we do aliens? What if aliens invade?’ They have a bunch of technology, they have their own super powers and things like that.

The presidency was the last one to come, and that was just us being goofy. Thinking about how its logical in a demented way… in Saints Row you are just trying to join the Saints, then you ultimately become the leader of the Saints, then a pop-culture Icon, so, why not become president? It seems like the logical next step.

Did you have any issues developing the fourth title in the series, while still finding ways to keep the game accessible to new players?

We spent a lot of time trying to balance that stuff out, what we did was a combination of things where we brought people back all the way from the first Saints Row even. So, as an example, Ben King, who is the leader of the Vice Kings and hasn’t been seen in Saints Row 2 or 3, is he’s your Chief of Staff in Saints Row IV. What we tried to do was that if you are a long time fan of Saints Row, you will be like ‘oh shit that’s Ben King, that’s awesome,’ but if you never played Saints Row before it is just, ok, there’s this cool new character named Ben King, and he seems to have had some relationship to the Saints. But we try not to do it in such a way where you feel like, ‘ok, I don’t know what the hell is going on, I don’t understand any of this’. We try to do a lot of those types of things, and its been difficult to balance, but I think we have done a really good job of trying to strike that balance between paying it off for the people who do know, but not losing people that have never had a chance to play this series before.

You talked about being in development for Saints Row 2 and and Saints Row 4, and 1 and three were handled by a different team…

There are members of the same team – one of the things with Volition is that we go back and forth with different team members because we were also working on the Red Faction series at the same time. So what will happen a lot of times, is that team members will go back and forth between the project – just to get a change of pace from not just doing the same thing all the time.

Would this mean that there could be a team working on Saints Row 5 right now?

[Laughs] Nothing to announce like that, but, obviously we are always looking at whatever the next thing is going to be, and we definitely have some people thinking about ‘what is the next thing? Is it a Saints Row?’ Who knows at this point? A lot of our studio has just been so focused on Saints Row IV and getting it out the door. At this point it is just more high level brain storming, just what is next? We don’t even know.

Have you looked at the next-gen consoles?

Not much, we obviously have been following it like everyone else in our industry, checking the specs and everything like that. We are dying to get our hands on this stuff and dig into it, but not as much.

Were you on hand at the press conferences and what were your thoughts on the differences between Microsoft and Sony’s unveil?

We weren’t, because were in the middle of Saints Row IV stuff. But, of course we are all gamers at heart, never mind just being developers, so we are pouring over all of that stuff as it is coming out. We have been hearing it along the way of course, when we were with THQ, obviously we were being informed of where things were going, what kind of specs were out there and the same with Deep Silver. So, from a hardware standpoint, we’re kind of being kept up to date on that sort of thing, but, it’s one thing to be kept up to date and it’s another thing for it to be ‘there it is!’ Now we know, so that’s pretty cool.

Were you expecting there to be such a big difference in the pricing models between Microsoft and Sony?

Honestly, its a little surprising. It’s been a little interesting to me because this seems like the first time I can remember where both consoles are coming out at the same time. So, it’s been fascinating to watch how they are kind of going at it. It isn’t at all surprising, but it is fascinating to watch because both sides have their distinct message and the way they want to do things. It will be interesting to see which one has the momentum and which one maintains it. But, in a lot of ways, to be honest, I feel it is really good for the industry – because you feel like if they are competing with each other that way. Ultimately, they are trying to do things that are going to innovate on their individual platforms.

From a developer standpoint, that is awesome, because it gives us a chance to dig into it and come up with new ideas. Of course we are going to do the obvious things, like things are going to look better and things are going to be prettier and everything, but I’m more interested in [knowing] what are the exotic things we can do with these platforms, and the fact that they are pushing each other is hopefully going to make things more interesting along those lines.

With Microsoft including the Kinect 2 with the Xbox One, but the PS4 not being bundled with the PS Camera. Do you think that will be an issue moving forward in regards to developing things that could utilize that functionality?

It is going to be interesting for sure, it’s one of the challenges you have when developing games. How do you do it in a way that will maximize one platform, but not necessarily at the cost of the other one? I’m looking forward to digging into it and figuring that aspect out. Ultimately, I think its all good in a sense that these are now choices we can make as a developer, and from what I’ve seen, it’s not like Microsoft is saying you must – fill in the blank. It’s just here’s this thing that is there, and if you want to use it, great. That is the same with Sony, here are these items and if you want to do it.

So, I like to have those kinds of options and we can just look at it and see what makes sense – a lot of it is also simply ‘how much would it take to develop for something like that?’ If it something that is really easy, then maybe its ok if it is just for one platform vs. the other, you could use some of the more customized features with the individual platforms and see how it goes.

Since the acquisition by Deep Silver of Volition, how has that affected the development of Saints Row IV and the studio as a whole?

We have been lucky to be honest with you, it was a pretty sad time with THQ going away. We had been with them for quite a while now, had a lot of friends over there and everything like that. But once we got to the phase where we were starting to be shopped around, we kind of had a feeling that, based on the success of Saints Row IV, we weren’t worried about being out of business or anything like that.

What we were concerned about was if someone was going to come in and maybe try to change our culture or change our game, and with Deep Silver it has been awesome, because they haven’t changed anything. Like, the game we are doing is literally the game we conceived of, with no changes whatsoever. So it could not have gone better from our perspective, and that we just keep getting to do exactly what we wanted to do with the game.

So, it will be the same moving forward?

Exactly.

Now that E3 is over, Christian Svensson, Corporate Officer/Senior Vice President at Capcom, has returned to answering questions on the Ask Capcom forums.

Dispelling any notion that Deep Down on PS4 might be related to their successful Dragon’s Dogma franchise, Sven made it clear that “[Dead Rising 3] and Deep Down have nothing to do with Dragon’s Dogma.” As for when we can expect to hear more on Deep Down, he just said “it’s still quite far off” and pointed everyone towards a Yoshinori Ono tweet, which basically stated that it would be playable at E3 2014.

Looking at Dead Rising 3, which is an Xbox One exclusive, he said there’s “no current plans for any other platforms,” which is due to the fact that Microsoft is publishing the game, “so it would be tantamount to asking Nintendo to put their key franchises on other platforms.”

And finally, when asked about the poor sales of Resident Evil: Revelations (which didn’t even crack the May NPD top 10), Sven replied with, “All I’ll say is that the teams in Osaka have a clear vision for where they are going with the brand.”

Are you excited to hear more about Deep Down at E3 2014? Let us know in the comments below.

We’re not going to waste anytime warning you about the SPOILERS: If you haven’t beat The Last of Us and watched the credits roll yet, turn back immediately! There are massive spoilers ahead.

Seriously, you don’t want to read this if you haven’t beaten the game.

Still here?

Okay, let’s continue.

As part of a postmortem on Edge, Bruce Straley, Game Director, Neil Druckmann, Creative Director, and Ashley Johnson, Ellie, discussed numerous aspects of The Last of Us.

Starting at the very beginning of the game with the prologue, the interviewer put it out there that, even though the outcome should’ve been obvious, it still comes as a bit of a surprise to players, with Neil responding:

I wonder why that is. I wonder if it’s because there are so few games where kids can die, where kids are in real jeopardy. You look at GTA: let’s just take kids out of the equation. You look at Oblivion: let’s just take kids out of the equation. Yeah, I know it’s controversial and I know it’s harsh, but it’s part of the world, and it’s part of the story we’re trying to tell and it was so important to show that. I kept telling Evan, I was like, I’m waiting for some Sony executive to come in and say, ‘you have to take out this scene, you have to cut it, it’s too much’. And it never happened.

Continuing with the prologue, Neil talked about just how difficult the scene was for Troy Baker (Joel) and Hana Hayes (Joel’s daughter), especially when they had to do a re-shoot:

It was toward the end of production when we shot that scene, and the mistake I made is that I prepped him for hit. I told him, we’re going to do this really heavy scene, it’s going to be your daughter dying and stuff, and I built it up so much that when it came time to shoot it, it was just so big. His reaction to it was just so big, I was having a difficult time bringing him down.

We went in circles a little bit, and then by the end we’d done I think eight or nine takes, and I was like, okay we got it. It came down to a point where I felt like we had it. Maybe not in a single take, but I felt like we could cobble something together. And then we did, and I was looking at it with our editor and our cinematographer, and it’s just not there. It was like, it works and it’s a better scene than I’ve seen in most games and I think most people would feel for the daughter, but something about it just didn’t feel right. I felt like we could do more with less.

Troy invested so much of himself into that scene. Between takes, he’s really crying and he’d have to leave for a few minutes and come back, and the girl that was playing it, Hana, every take she’s fully crying. If you watch the behind-the-scenes video, you will cry just watching them, it was so intense. It was so intense that we had a stunt guy on the set who said, I can’t watch this anymore, and he walked off the set. He was like, I can’t watch another take of this.

So I’m shooting some other scenes with Troy and I don’t know how to break this to him because he’s sure this is his best performance ever, and I’m like, remember that scene with Sarah dying? He’s like, yeah, and I said, we’re going to reshoot it. We’re so sarcastic around the office that we have this gesture to say we’re serious [Druckmann wags fist with thumb and pinky extended]. So I tell him we’re going to reshoot the scene and he looks at me and does the gesture, like he’s silently asking, are you serious? And he’s like, no, fuck you. And I’m like, no we need to do it. And he says, why? I’m like, well I feel like we can do something better. So at this point he’s upset, he’s visibly upset with me. And he’s like, dude, we can’t, it’s so good. And I tell him, it could be better.

So we schedule everybody to come in and reshoot it and he’s just pissed off at me. We do a few takes and he’s, again, throwing everything he has into it and I’m trying to get him to forget what you think this scene should look like. It doesn’t need to be big, and I try to tell him, don’t think of it as your daughter, think of it as your best friend, it just happened to your best friend. And he’s like, that’s stupid. And I can’t get him to get in that space so, eventually, I just tell him, here are the things you need to do: I want you to walk over to her, don’t worry about emotions at all, just walk over to her, check her wound, calm her down, whatever you need to do to calm her down, start picking her up, look around to decide where you’re going to go next. It became very mechanical in that way. Just think about the next step you have to take. And then we got it. It was this really beautiful, subtle and – I felt like – really honest performance.

Going from the prologue to the ending, Bruce said the final moments of The Last of Us “could really be read in several different ways, and it is open-ended and it is a somewhat ironic ending. It’s not your typical ending, but it’s still a nice resolution to me. It has a nice finality of, okay, all right.” Re-iterating something they’ve said before, Neil addressed the thoughts of people thinking they left it open to a sequel by adding, “what we’re saying is, if we never make a sequel, that’ll be alright. In our mind the journey has been wrapped up.”

Offering a bit more observation of that ending, Neil talked about how they had “focus tests toward the end of production and we do these exit interview, and there are people who have said, ‘I love the game, love the mechanics, love the combat, but you’ve gotta fix the ending, you really have to fix the ending.’” In fact, according to Neil, one of the most painful comments they received from a focus tester was, “‘Because she kind of reminds him of his daughter, he’s going to sacrifice mankind? Whatever.’”

Giving his thoughts on the ending was Bruce, who thinks that “in stereotypical games, the ending would be, everything’s good, we saved the day and everybody’s happy, and we’re all, yay, awesome! But this is two flawed characters in an ambiguous situation, the world is a dark world, hard choices have to be made.” To this, Neil added, “The journey was kind of for nothing, but at the same time it was for everything.”

In fact, the ending was something changed just prior to shooting it, with Neil explaining the reason for the change:

The original ending that for a long time we discussed is Ellie would believe the lie and you’d see them walking off to Tommy’s town and the camera would track up and you’d feel like, they’re going to be okay. It was about a week before we shot that scene and we thought, this isn’t honest, this doesn’t feel right, Ellie would know, I don’t buy it, we have to change this.

This is an Ashley thing but no matter what the acting direction is, she’s going to nod her head and be like, ‘okay…okay’. And throughout shooting, a lot of her improvisation for Ellie involved saying, ‘okay’. And I thought, you have to end on that. Whatever it is Joel tells her, she has to just be like, ‘okay’.

Calling The Last of Us “the hardest game that both of us [Neil and Bruce] and probably the whole entire team have ever made,” largely due to the fact it’s grounded in reality, the two game makers joked that they would give Ellie super powers where she can control plants and open up new mechanics, but clearly (and thankfully), it didn’t happen.

It’s obvious that the ending for The Last of Us has a lot of people torn, so if all goes according to plan, you should be reading about both mine and Anthony’s thoughts regarding the finale in the very near future.

If Ellie was given plant-controlling super powers, what do you think her super hero name should be? Let us know in the comments below.

After a leak yesterday about its existence, Activision has confirmed that the next piece of DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is titled Vengeance, with a July 2nd release date on Xbox 360 announced. Like all new Call of Duty content, it’s a timed exclusive on Xbox Live, so don’t expect to see this on PS3/PC until about a month from then, with August 1st a good bet.

Inside Vengeance, you can expect four brand new multiplayer maps – Cove, Detour, Rush, and Uplink, a re-imagining of the classic Summit map – a new Zombie map with Buried, which features the new Zombies weapon, the Ray Gun Mark II.

Giving you an overview of Vengeance are members of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 development team, including David Vonderhaar, Game Design Director, who calls the DLC “one of my all-time favorites:”

Do you think you’ll spend the money on some more Black Ops 2 DLC? Let us know in the comments below.

Ridge Racer! The racing game that was a staple of many an arcade has been on every single PlayStation console to date. While there was no news of a new Ridge Racer on the upcoming PlayStation 4, Ridge Racer Driftopia was announced, and is unique in that it is going to be a free-to-play racer. So how does the free-to-play system work? Find out in our E3 preview.

Driftopia is completely free to play. You are given a number of cars from the start, fully ready to race. You can play as often as you like, unlike the free-to-play Tekken Revolution, which relies on a coin system and may require you to stop from time to time if you don’t want to spend some money. The way Namco Bandai hopes to make money is in the repair system. Much like many free-to-play racers on mobile platforms, if you damage your car in a race, the damage is persistent from race to race. The only way to repair your car is to use a repair kit, which are automatically added to your inventory over time. Of course, if you have to use too many within a short period, you are given the option to buy one or a pack of the repair kits. Otherwise, you simply have to wait an unspecified amount of time so that your account will automatically generate a free repair kit.

While many of us will be able to wait for a repair kit to generate, others may not be so patient. That is when things get interesting. Should you choose to not repair your car, it can actually get damaged enough to explode. The car will then be lost forever. So there is a risk-and-reward system in place as well. Do you shell out a couple bucks to continue playing without hazard? Or do you try to keep going and not hit anything on your way to victory? For many this will be a complete turnoff – this isn’t the F2P style of games like Dust 514 or PlanetSide 2 where most purchases are cosmetic, this is a deep rooted constriction of the gameplay itself.

So all of that free-to-play business is new to the series. But what about the game itself? While we were unable to get our hands on the preview we were shown, what we saw told us that the game plays more or less like the Ridge Racers in the past. There’s moderately-detailed cars, fantasy tracks, a booming soundtrack, and of course, over-the-top, car-sideways-on-a-straightaway as is typical of this game series. Just be careful on those turns from now on!

Ridge Racer Driftopia is coming your way on the PlayStation Network and Steam sometime this year (no specific timeframe was given), and will be completely free at launch. Until you crash.

It is always great to show up to a booth tour at E3 and be genuinely surprised when you turn the corner and see a game you never expected. My moment this year was inside the XSEED booth when I found my way to Ragnarok Odyssey Ace, a 1.5 edition to the hit game Ragnarok Odyssey, which released October of last year for the PlayStation Vita. Big things are coming this time around and something that you might not have expected.

In Ragnarok Odyssey Ace, you have 6 different classes to choose from, ranging from Archers and Clerics to Mages and Swordsman. Each character has a weapon, outfit, and hat. After you select your character and set them up, customizing your hair and facial expression, you are at a public square. Here you have the ability to buy new weapons, items, outfits, hairstyles, and cards. These cards are assigned to your outfit, with each card having a point value and each armor only allowing a set number of points.

After selecting all of this, you are able to select a quest and get to fighting. Combat in the game is very much like the Monster Hunter series and plays almost exactly like the first game with a few differences. You are still able to do your main attack, jump, and dodge out of the way. However, in this 1.5 edition, you can now assign up to four skills to your character and then pull off this skills during battle. Each chapter of the quest is basically fairly straight forward; fight through the mission to kill a certain amount of monsters or collect a certain amount of items in the allotted time limit.

There are two big changes that really make Ace stand out from the original game. The first is the Yggdrasil tower, which works very similar to the dungeon in Persona 4. Players can enter this tower and try to fight there way up the 100 levels to gain money and items. The tower is also completely random, changing up the levels each time you exit and enter again. This mode adds replay value to the title and gives players a new way to grind for items or money.

The other big change is the ability to hire mercenaries. One of my big gripes with the original game was that if you could not connect online to play levels with three other people, then you were left to take on some of the more challenging levels in the game solo. This time around, the players are given the option to recruit three mercenaries into their party to help them fight through the missions. This ability really adds a lot to the game, especially for those that aren’t always near a wi-fi connection.

The changes don’t just stop there, as Ace adds new story elements, maps, weapons, and so much more. Weapons themselves can be customized not just in looks but also in strength. The game will also have new missions constantly updated online. Just when you think that is it for all the changes, perhaps the biggest change is that a PS3 version is in the works, though no details were given to me outside of that it will be coming to the PlayStation 3, which is great news for console only gamers.

Ragnarok Odyssey Ace does enough with this 1.5 to easily bring back players of the original and also bring in new Vita owners who are desperate for a good game to play. The addition of a PS3 port will only further the amount of people playing, as it will hopefully have a cross buy/cross save feature. If you own a Vita, this is a game you need to check out once we are given a release date.

For those of you out there who don’t like the Disgaea series, please kindly switch the page to something else because this preview will not be for you, sorry. The Guided Fate Paradox is a strategy RPG from Nippon Ichi Software that runs off the Disgaea engine, and the similarities are immediately clear. We sat down at E3 with publisher NIS America to check out how far along the title is and what makes it special.

The Guided Fate Paradox is a spiritual successor to Z.H.P Unlosing Ranger Vs. Darkdeath Evilman, which released back in 2010 for the PlayStation Portable. In GFP, players will play the part of high schooler Renya Kagurazaka, who has struck gold by winning the lottery and turning into a god. As a god, instead of conquering the world, Renya is tasked with making people’s wishes come true by traveling to a copy world and making changes to it. It’s just the kind of script you would expect to come out of Japan.

In our demonstration, we were shown a fair amount of the combat, which if you have played either ZHP or Disgaea, you should be familiar with. For those who haven’t – players move the main character Renya on a chess like map, taking out enemies that he comes across. One thing to note is that you will only control your main character, with side characters attacking based on preset commands. The combat is all about over the top attacks, which have become a staple of Nippon Ichi Software. Combo your attack with an ally and all of a sudden you are throwing the enemy 40ft into the air, doing a 720 spin into a bicycle kick. It is all about flair when you go into battle and we wouldn’t have it any other way. The combat is incredibly complex and in-depth while managing to make you laugh at the same time.

Your goal during each level is to fight your way around until you find the exit on the floor. There are 10 story levels to be played plus dungeons. The catch here is that each time you move and attack, your energy starts to countdown until you reach the end or eat something like armor and food. If you reach zero you will then start to lose HP until you of course die. Death in the game forces you to not only start over, but you will also lose any equipment or money gained during the level, so you don’t want to die. The game also offers an insane amount of customization, letting you put tank treads on your legs as boots or something crazy as a weapon. It’s all about making your guy combat ready while also giving him some serious style!

The Guided Fate Paradox looks great as well, with artwork done by Noizi Ito, who some might know from the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The high-resolution 3D sprites really pop onto the screen and the levels are all bursting with a lot of color. I know this might be beating a dead horse, but the game looks so much like Disgaea 4 it’s crazy, and that’s not a bad thing either.

As a fan of this genre, I couldn’t help but get excited during the presentation. It’s over the top, insane, complex, and a game that people should really be keeping an eye on. The Guided Fate Paradox is currently slated to release this fall exclusively for the PlayStation 3.

The Witcher 2 was a marvelous game that pushed the western RPG to new heights, so of course it was no surprise when Polish developer CD Projekt started work on a sequel. We sat down at E3 and got a full 45 minute demo of The Witcher 3: Wold Hunt, a new title in development for next gen consoles.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt puts players in the shoes of a Witcher named Gerald. Witchers are basically assassins for hire who will take any job given to them as long as it pays. Players will have a lot of things to do in the new game with the world being over 30 times larger than the previous installment. From what we saw in the demo, the world was massive, with travel done by horses and even by sea. The game even has it’s own built in weather, so you will need to take notice before going on your travels, especially if you plan to go by sea.

One of the first things I noticed when the demo popped up was just how gorgeous this game really is. The level of detail as Gerald was walking through the town was incredible and, at one point, the view of the vast sea from a clifftop was breathtaking. Things really start to shine in exploration where there is so much attention to detail in the environment, as well as during combat as enemies you set on fire really burn.

Combat and exploration are where The Witcher 3 are going to shine and thankfully there is an abundance of both and what’s there is very refined. There is a lot of strategy to be found here as you must pay attention to your enemy movements, dodge, and then attack. Gerald also has a slew of spells at his disposal to throw into the mix, presenting players with plenty of options during combat. In fact at one point during the demo, our presenter lured a monster out of some ruins to get him into an open field and better his chances of victory.

Speaking of the enemies, there is a lot of detailed paid to each and every enemy I saw during the presentation. In all, there are said to be around 80+ different monster types to be found in the game. Each enemy I saw moved in very distinctive patterns and all had very different attacks to guard against. Another interesting nugget was that there are no bosses to be found in The Witcher 3. Instead of bosses, the group at CD Projekt have given each enemy more attention and made sure that each battle will force you to really be on top of your game.

When it ended I was left with my jaw hitting the floor from the sheer amount of detail in this title, from the combat to the environment. Even the story presents a deep level of content, with multiple dialogue choices and over 100 hours of gameplay. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a game that every RPG fan should have their eye on when it releases next year on the PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Following the news of The Elder Scrolls Online coming to next-gen consoles, and Chandler heartily enjoying it at E3, beta applications for the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game have opened up. Of course, the PS4 will be given first dibs on the beta as announced at E3, but since Bethesda has yet to announce a date for said beta, or their guidelines for choosing participants, it’s a wait-and-see approach after you sign up.

When the game does launch in 2014 on PC and consoles, Brian Wheeler, Lead PvP Designer, revealed to GZ that the studio isn’t “trying to skimp or compromise on quality across any platform. It’s going to be the same AAA experience whether you’re Xbox, PlayStation, PC, or Mac.”

Which platform are you planning on getting ESO for? Let us know in the comments below.

Essential Reading:

• The PlayStation 4 Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Paid PS+ Online, Hardware, Games, News and More
• What’s Next: A Look at the PS4′s Upcoming Unannounced Exclusives

Editor’s Letter is a series of ongoing articles on the state of PSLS, its future and the future of the industry as a whole.

Gosh. We made it past E3 without our servers going down, without someone trying to hack us and without resorting to half baked developing stories under pressure. Woo!

Ok, maybe I should back up a bit for anyone that’s new to PSLS after finding us during E3, or after being disillusioned by the offerings of a different platform. Welcome

Please allow me to be a little self indulgent and describe what PSLS is while conveniently leaving out any negatives – we’re a site that covers PlayStation: PS4, PS Vita, PS3 and, hell, even PS Mobile. However, we’re proudly not a fanboy site, our view is there’s no point reading news if it’s biased. If Sony, or anyone else for that matter, does something we see as wrong, we’ll tell you, plain and simple. For example, while we’re currently praising the direction Sony is taking with the PS4, we’ll continue to point out that the PS Vita is being neglected and PS Mobile is being mismanaged.

We’re also a site that has strong journalistic ethics, with us running numerous articles describing all that is wrong with games journalism. We hope to do right by you, and if you ever think we’ve done wrong, let us know.

Content-wise, we aim to cover everything you need to know, and then add less important stuff to a feature called The Catch-up that appears at the end of the day if required. Its aim is to make sure you are informed about everything, but we don’t have to clutter up the site with minor news just for multiple pageviews. Then we have Ask PSLS, where the whole staff answer your questions, and the PSLS PlayList where we let you know what we’re playing over the weekend.

On said weekends, we have the weirdly wonderful and often topless Morning Wood (our video eye candy), as well as a post detailing what’s coming out the next week. Monthly we have a look at the strange world of Japan, with Heath’s PlayStation JapanStyle, and then we have a constant stream of features from our staff and freelancers.

My personal favorite, of course, has to be the one involving me (and Dan) – Daily Reaction. Crazily ambitious, the plan behind DR is to create feature length content that you’d usually see once a week but do it every single weekday, and somehow we’ve managed to do two hundred and four of them to date. In conjunction with that, Dan and I do the Bad Gamers podcast.

But this would all be meaningless if we didn’t cover the news, and that’s what brings me back to E3.

This was my first E3 as editor-in-chief, and most of our staff were at E3 playing all the games and interviewing all the developers. We’d spent a huge amount of money on flying everyone in, booking a hotel during the area’s busiest week and feeding everyone for a week just so we could bring you the content you deserve – but it meant that the majority of our writing force were essentially unable to write news during the most important week of they year.

I’m pleased to say that we managed to not only cover the E3 news – with over 200 articles published by two people – but a significant percentage of the news was exclusive content, coverage of developer statements, trademarks or industry happenings not available anywhere else. As someone painfully aware of the multitude of gaming sites out there, this makes me incredibly proud.

And the result? The biggest week in PSLS’ history. Ever.

I know this post has been incredibly smug and self congratulatory, but I can’t help it. I’m so happy we didn’t mess up E3, I’m so happy to see where PSLS is going. I am so excited for the future.

Thank you for helping us with our journey, thank you for every article you’ve read, every story you’ve shared and every time you’ve commented on a post. We still have so much to give, so much planned.

Greatness awaits.

As the painstaking wait for the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster on PS3 and PS Vita continues, Yoshinori Kitase, Game Director on numerous Final Fantasy titles, talked to RPGSite recently. In the interview, he reveals that, if the HD Remaster does well, it “will pave the way for more of the previous games to [be] remade in an HD sort of quality,” calling out Final Fantasy XII as the most obvious title to do next.

While the Final Fantasy XII HD possibility is more or less his personal opinion, Yoshinori revealed that “from day one we always wanted to include X-2 and not just do X.” Since Square Enix wanted to make sure they could actually do Final Fantasy X-2 in HD, and “didn’t want to announce too big a project before we had some real conviction it could be completed”. Final Fantasy X HD on its own was shown off first.

As of right now, the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, which has “a lot of technical challenges and more issues that we had to tackle,” is dated for the always vague ’2013′, but we’ll let you know when that gets narrowed down.

When do you think Square Enix will give us the release date for the Remaster? TGS? Would you buy a Final Fantasy XII HD Remaster? Let us know in the comments below.