However, there is a Digital Deluxe Edition, which costs $74.99. It includes the base game and the Legendary Pirate Crew Pack, with Kazuma Kiryu, Daigo Dojima and other iconic characters able to join Majima’s crew. You also get the Legendary Outfit Pack with the iconic outfits worn by Kiryu and Taiga Saejima.

There’s also a Ship Customization Pack for customizing Goromaru, Majima’s ship, with designs based on Kiryu and Ichiban Kasuga. If that weren’t enough, you get an Extra Karaoke and CD Pack, which adds the Majima Construction Song to Karaoke and allows playing Karaoke songs while traversing locations.

Those who pre-purchase any edition will receive the Ichiban Pirate Crew Set, containing Ichiban as a crewmate and Nancy as backup crew, and the Ichiban Special Outfit Set, providing outfits based on Kasuga’s appearance in Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Infinite Wealth.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii launches on February 28th, 2025, for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and PC. Check out all the different locations and playspots available here.

Majima, the protagonist, utilizes the Mad Dog Style from previous games and allows for quick attacks with a tanto. He can even summon shadow clones to fight alongside him and mirror attacks. However, there’s also the Sea Dog Style, with Majima equipping dual cutlasses for exceptional area attacks. There’s even a flintlock pistol for ranged attacks and a chain hook to pull towards enemies.

While you explore locations like Hawaii from Infinite Wealth, the new Rich Island and Madlantis, there’s also sailing on open waters. The developer also confirmed a Colosseum in Madlantis, presumably where you’ll tackle numerous pirate foes. Notable playspots include Crazy Delivery, the return of Dragon Kart and Karaoke, and a live-action scenario with the Minato Girls.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii launches on February 28th, 2025, for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and PC. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Washing up on Rich Island, not far from Hawaii, Majima suffers from amnesia. After help from a boy, Rich Noah, he battles with pirates before becoming the captain of a sea-faring vessel. Things only escalate as Majima encounters an organization known as Madlantis and its leader, Queen Michelle.

There’s also something about the Lost Treasures of Esperanza, another island where nuclear waste is stored, and, most shockingly, Samoa Joe. Hawaii looks to still be a location (though Ichiban Kasuga is not in the game), with Majima battling enemies and even taking on biking jobs.

Unlike Infinite Wealth, this is an action-adventure game with the goal of players enjoying being a pirate. The combat looks especially tight, with Majima wielding dual sabers.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is coming to Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and PC. Stay tuned for more details shortly.

The mode lets you fight AI opponents created by analyzing “countless online battles” from Ranked play. You can select a fighter, their Rank (including different leagues in their tier), and the Control Type before entering combat. While players will receive feedback following matches, talking to Li-Fen allows for a “more detailed assessment.” You can also spectate other V-Rivals and fight your own.

It may sound familiar to those who have played Tekken 8 and dabbled in Ghost Battle. The upside is fighting the same character within a rank and potentially encountering new moves and mix-ups, thanks to the sheer volume of data analyzed. Time will tell if it’s effective, so stay tuned.

Street Fighter 6 is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. Check out Terry’s Character Guide for more details on his fighting style and Overdrives.

Director Jiwon Choi didn’t provide an ETA for the same, but he did share some new artwork in a recent Director’s Letter, showcasing the protagonist and a lighthouse off in the distance. There’s also a new track, “Lisrim,” an emotional piece with a violin and accordion as the centerpieces. Both media are likely from the upcoming DLC, though Choi didn’t confirm as such.

He did say that the team is aiming “to do better than what we did well and improve in areas we have room to grow” with the DLC and sequel. After musing how time seems to fly when working on an anticipated game, Choi said, “We will get back to work for now. When we return, we hope to turn your anticipation into delight.”

Lies of P is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. Check out our review here. You can also look at the first two pieces of artwork for the DLC, which may involve the Titanic.

Comparatively, God of War (2018) reached 73,529 concurrent Steam players on January 16th, 2022. Given that it launched on January 14th and saw impressive numbers over the weekend, Ragnarok could repeat this success. Of course, the previous title didn’t mandate linking Steam with PlayStation Network to play (despite being a single-player title), so you have to wonder how much impact that has on the sequel.

It also creates concern for Ballistic Moon’s upcoming remake of Until Dawn, which launches on October 4th for PS5 and PC, and also requires a PSN account on Steam. Stay tuned for updates on the same.

In the meantime, check out our review of God War Ragnarok for PS5. You can also check out our feature for more details on PC-exclusive features.

That’s as per VGC journalist Jordan Middler, who has claimed on Twitter that Sony Bend’s post-apocalyptic open world action-adventure title has a remastered version in development. Discussing Grub’s aforementioned claims, Middler recently tweeted, “If he was angry that his character is in Astro Bot, he’s going to lose his mind at this,” referring to Days Gone creative director John Garvin recently expressing outrage at protagonist Deacon St. John being included in the recently released Astro Bot as a cameo appearance. 

Days Gone launched in 2019 for the PS4, before coming to PC a couple of years later. The game went on to sell over 7.3 million units, as per leaked internal Sony documents that emerged last year. A pitch for a Days Gone 2 was rejected by Sony, following which developer SIE Bend Studio started working on a new IP, which will be a live service game. A movie based on Days Gone is also currently in development.

Yars Rising drew me into its world as soon as I saw its strikingly colorful art style. And the sharp colors aren’t just for show either, serving as a thematic evolution of the binary, yet strong color usage of the original Yars Revenge on the Atari 2600. The bold use of neon blues and pinks carries over into the menus and UI, oozing with stylish animations and cool little details. Speaking of animation, Emi and the supporting cast display a good amount of emotion and nuance considering how mid-budget this game is. Every new ability you get has a unique animation paired with it, and it all looks fluid and sleek in motion. Everywhere you look in Yars Rising will be pleasant for the eyes, but it’s also a feast for the ears.

Whether it’s the sea shanties of Shantae or the energetic beats of River City Girls, WayForward is known for their quality music. Yars Rising continues this trend with a disco-laced soundscape featuring a surprising amount of vocal tracks. I can’t express how absolutely ingrained a few of these tracks got in my head; they’ve been repeating since I started playing this for review and haven’t left since. The groovy music accompanies the high tech atmosphere of Qotech’s hallways well, and there’s even some in-game earbuds that tell you the track name and musician as the particular song plays.

"The map in Yars Rising tells you everything you need to know at a glance."

You’ll be soaking in the rich sights and sounds of Yars Rising as you traverse a traditional platforming structure. Emi slowly adds more ‘Yar abilities’ to her arsenal, gaining her entry into previously closed off areas of the map. The map in Yars Rising is about as good as you can ask for. Everything you need to know is indicated at-a-glance. The floors of Qotech are easy to discern, with crystal clear color coding. Red areas indicate that you don’t have the abilities to enter that location yet, while white areas inform that you can go there. It’s a testament to the map and the area design that I never once got lost while navigating Qotech’s halls.

Though, there are some gripes that I have with the level design itself. For one, there’s not as many shortcuts or looping design elements as I’d expect from a platformer. If you want a shortcut, the only option is using the elevators, sparsely placed at the end of particular hallways. To compound the lack of interconnectivity is the complete omission of fast travel. I don’t need a fast travel in every platformer, but the rooms in Yars Rising are often separated by lengthy loading screens, making a fast travel option that much more necessary.

Regrettably, the pacing suffers significantly from these frequent loading screens. Backtracking isn’t as smooth or fun as it should be because every couple rooms or so greets you with another dreadful loading screen. Skipping levels by using the elevator can only alleviate so much, since that too is accompanied by a loading screen. At least you’re not backtracking too much in the game, as the path of the main story mostly tackles new rooms and environments. Aside from persistent loading times and a desire for more shortcuts, Yars Rising has a strong platforming structure that will satisfy most fans of the genre.

A platformer is nothing without solid controls, and Yars Rising satisfies on this front. Jumping is non-committal and precise, allowing for correction when your arc is leading to a laser or other obstacle. Your basic Zorlon Shot cannot be held down for automatic shooting though, requiring manual inputs to fire bullets. I didn’t mind manually tapping the shoot button, but other players may find the lack of an auto shoot irritating. I found the stealth to be rather fun. You can slowly tilt the control stick to slow walk, or press a trigger button to do so in a binary fashion. Enemy patrol units all outline predictable routes, making your sneaky infiltrations as irritant-free as possible. And if you miss a ledge above you, Emi will hang and mount up it if you’re close enough, so that’s another convenience.

"Death pits are indicated by purple mist. Yars Rising does a good job with its visual distinction."

I also appreciate how conveniently color coded deadly pits are. I still encounter modern platformers that don’t distinguish between a death pit and an explorable area below; Yars Rising does this with its purple haze swirling around the deadly ones. The game exhibits great visual distinction across the board, with every missile and ledge boldly outlined for you to easily discern.

Emi does more than just run and jump though. Her augmented abilities open up new areas and bolster her offensive weaponry against the Qotile forces. Abilities are divided between Biohacks, which are small passive buffs, and new powers like wall jumping, which are Augments. You obtain both upgrade types by hacking a terminal and playing a creatively arranged stage from the classic Yar’s Revenge Atari game. The primary goal of these classic arcade minigames is to shoot the missile (usually located behind your Yar) at the opposing Qotile. This basic concept gets arranged in some really neat ways, always surprising and keeping me on my toes throughout the span of the main game. Oh, also, the UI for these minigames is staggeringly cool. The amount of info presented on the arcade UI while moving the little Yar around is insane, and the portrait of Emi reacting to her gameplay is wonderful. I simply loved playing these classic arcade games and found the gameplay variety between them and the normal platforming to be refreshing.

"The hacking minigames comprise fun variations on the classic Yar’s Revenge Atari game."

If you want to just play the classic Yars game without all the modern platforming, there’s a mode in the main menu made just for that. Emi’s Hacklist compiles every Yars minigame found in Yars Rising and saves your high scores, making for good old fashioned retro fun. That said, if you’re not keen to play these classic Yars minigames at all, you can turn on minigame invincibility in the menu settings and get through them pretty quickly without much fuss. The Biohacks you earn from playing these minigames can be equipped by placing Tetris-like blocks on a Yar-shaped grid. The buffs allow you to customize your playstyle in flexible ways, granting you health increase, faster hacking minigame speed, or even a three-way Zorlon Shot.

Most of the footage for this review was taken during the early stages before acquiring the air dash or super missile Augments, so don’t let the basic run and gun moments fool you. By the second half of the game, you’ll be wall jumping, air dashing, and breaking through locked doors like nobody’s business. The game has some fun boss battles that require you to use your full arsenal of augmented abilities. These boss battles remind me of Mega Man robot masters in a way, but there’s only a total of 5 throughout the game, so they’re few and far between. But these augmented abilities do more than serve a combat role, they’re a core part of the game’s story.

"Emi is constantly quipping with voiced narration throughout the adventure"

As you could have guessed from the cover art, Emi’s bond with the ‘Yar’ species and her subsequent augmentations play a key role in the game’s story. What I didn’t expect was the sheer frequency of dialogue throughout the adventure, and all of it is voiced. Emi is constantly quipping about her circumstances, and plot beats never slow down throughout the game’s runtime. Thankfully, the voice acting is engaging and solid, but players may find Emi’s persistent sarcasm to be annoying after a while. Still, I can appreciate the fun and upbeat characters in this game; the voice direction helps liven up the experience even more, adding to the rich colors and popping soundtrack.

Yars Rising does a great job recontextualizing the Atari 2600 classic to a new generation. It provides a fun mix of old Yars gameplay with newer platforming concepts, all told through a narrative within a colorful world. There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about the platforming aspects, and the game itself is over pretty quick, taking about 6 or so hours to complete for me. I’ve been enjoying my time collecting all the stuff I missed with my fully augmented character, but lament the persistent loading screens and lack of fast travel between save points. The loading really hampers traversal, making it cumbersome to backtrack and explore previously closed off areas. This cumbersome traversal is the fatal flaw in Yars Rising, which is a shame considering all of the other aspects it executes so well. Still, Yars Rising is a class act in its ability to fuse old with new, and its presentation quality shimmers with delight.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

In a PlayStation Blog post, developer Santa Monica Studio has revealed two new gameplay customization settings. One will let you reduce the frequency with which companion characters offer hints for puzzles, which is something that many were annoyed back when the game first launched a couple of years ago. The second new setting, meanwhile, will allow you to enable audio descriptions.

Both settings will also be coming to the game’s PS5 and PS4 versions “soon”, but a specific date hasn’t been confirmed.

Ahead of the action-adventure title’s release on PC, Sony recently also unveiled a new launch trailer, highlight critical acclaim for its original PlayStation release. Check it out through here.

God of War Ragnarok launches for PC on September 19. It is currently available on PS5 and PS4, and as of December last year, has sold over 15 million units worldwide. Check out our review of the base game through here, and the Valhalla DLC through here.

The premise involves a far-flung future where humanity is confined to Panopticons, fighting over resources. As a Sinner, you have a one million-year sentence to serve and must participate in combat operations against the Abductors to fight for freedom. While it retains the same combat and story, Freedom Wars Remastered features a 4K resolution, 60 FPS support, and improved textures on PlayStation and PC.

Alongside difficulty settings and a revamped crafting system, it also features “refined” controls. The eight-player co-op remains intact, though it remains to be seen if the League of Panopticons online feature carries over. Stay tuned for more details on Freedom Wars Remastered, and check out some extensive gameplay below courtesy of Famitsu.