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DLC Digest: Mad Riders, Golden Axe, Rayman, Batman Arkham City DLC, Gravity Rush demo
| Date Posted | Author |
|---|---|
| 3rd June 2012 | Matt Bailey |
Techland are often referred to these days as the people behind Dead Island, but it is the other half of the developer who have previously been responsible for off-road racing games like nail'd who have put together the new Ubisoft-published XBLA and PSN release Mad Riders. The crazy racer features more off-road antics, but at a cost of just 800 Microsoft Points (£6.80) on the 360 or £7.99 on PS3. A trial version is available for each.
Last week SEGA brought a bunch of retro games to both the 360 and PS3, with the former getting them in bundles and the latter as individual titles. This week there's another collection for the 360, but the three games in it aren't available for the PS3. The SEGA Vintage Collection: Golden Axe bundle brings the first three games in the classic top-down hack-and-slash series for another 800 MSP. There's one more Vintage Collection on the way (which was due this week): Streets of Rage, though again it's likely to be 360-only, for some unspecified reason.
On the 3DS Virtual Console is a port of a port, with the Game Boy Color version of the original Rayman. This is itself a sort port of the classic PlayStation platformer, though the "sort of" part comes as a result of it being based on the music and worlds from Rayman 2, but oddly featuring the storyline of the original. This is in contrast to the DSiWare version of Rayman which is already on the eShop which is a dual-screen port of the original with easier gameplay. On the 3DS you're getting the full Game Boy Color version, but including the limitations of that platform. It's £4.50.
We haven't been talking about actual downloadable content all that much on the DLC Digest lately but there's a couple of notable new pieces this week. The first is the "Rebellion Multiplayer Expansion" for Mass Effect 3 - curiously known simply as "Map Pack 2" on the PS3, with the full title reserved for the 360. It offers two new maps, and update in-game reinforcement packs which include three new weapons (Reegar Carbine, Krysae Sniper Rifle, Cerberus Harrier) as well as equipment and six new classes: Quarian Engineer and Infiltrator, Vorcha Soldier and Sentinel, Phoenix Adept and Vanguard. It's free on both platforms. For Batman Arkham City comes a new piece of single-player content, Harley Quinn's Revenge, which features the crazy super-criminal and a new gang she's put together. The pack costs another 800 MSP on the 360 and £6.49 on the PS3 - refreshing not to see 800 MSP become £7.99 when moving between consoles.
There's a few new demos this week, and a personal highlight is the ability to try out upcoming Vita-exclusive action game Gravity Rush. The game was well received when it arrived on the handheld in Japan earlier this year, but was pushed back in Europe when it made the switch from digital-only to a full retail release. It's due out on June 15th here in the UK, but you can give it a go for free now by grabbing the demo from the PlayStation Store. Also on the Store, and the Xbox Live Marketplace, is a chance to try out Top Gun: Hard Lock. 360 owners with Kinect can also sample Summer Stars 2012, an Olympics-themed sports game, without any official connection the event (hence the carefully chosen name).
The PS3 has also received a couple of new PS2 classics this week, and they're games you've probably heard of too. The Conflict series was a popular series of action games on the PS2, and Conflict: Vietnam joins Conflict: Desert Storm II in getting a digital re-release on the PS3 for £5.49. It's joined by the original Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon from Ubisoft for £7.99. Lastly over on the Wii Virtual Console there's Mega Man X2 for 800 Wii Points (£5.60). When this was released it featured a new graphics chip for 3D effects, although it is still a 2D side-scrolling platformer.
