Weekend Headlines March 24-26th: Wasteland 3, The Surge and More

By Rebecca Smith,

There were eight announcements over the weekend and it proved to be similarly quiet for other gaming news too. Below are the handful of headlines that you may have missed if you weren't paying close attention.

Absolver

This "online multiplayer combat RPG" puts players in the role of a Prospect who is under the control of the Guides, the new rulers of the fallen Adal Empire. The Guides, the new rulers of the fallen Adal Empire, will determine whether you are worthy enough to join. The latest video for the title showcases 15 minutes of alpha gameplay footage complete with commentary provided by the game's creative director.

The China Hero Project

Sony recently announced their latest initiative that supports Chinese developers to create new titles for the Playstation market. Dubbed the China Hero Project, the team located and supported developers as they entered the Chinese and global market. While over 400 demos and product plans were originally submitted, only 10 titles reached the end of the project. Some of these titles are in the final stages of development while others need a little more time. Nearly half of the titles embrace the new Playstation VR technology too. The list of titles that are in development for the Playstation 4 is below, while some of them can be seen in the project trailer.

Code: Hardcore
Kill X
Lost Soul Aside
Pervader
Project Boundary
Project X
Tiger Knight
The Walker
War Rage
The X Animal

Dragon Quest Heroes II

The latest series of videos for this upcoming RPG introduces a total of six characters. The first trailer announces Lazarel, Teresa and Healix. Lazarel and Teresa are dedicated military cadets while Healix is their healing slimekick. This band of heroes must defeat evil and save the war torn world of the Seven Realms.

Desdemona and Cesar appear in the next video. The former is an axe-wielding envoy of the High King while the latter is the powerful Prince of Dunisia. How did they encounter each other and how will they fare in battle?

The third video introduces Maribel and Ruff. Otherwise known as "Little Miss-Long Range" and "The Boy Who Ride Wolf" respectively, they both have unique moves and abilities that will help the team on the battlefield.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PS4)

If you tried the free 14-day trial for this MMORPG then you might have found yourself out of time before you'd had a chance to try everything out. Well, that will no longer be an issue as Square Enix has removed the time limit for the demo. Now, players can play for as long as they like and experience all content up to level 35. This includes jobs, the first 10 levels of the Deep Dungeon and all activities at the Gold Saucer, like Chocobo racing. If you've already given the trial a go and run out of time, you will find that your account has been reactivated and you can continue from exactly where you left off. What are you waiting for?

Category I Shisenjou no Survivorconoclasts

Another week, another teaser for this upcoming title. Here's teaser number eight.

Limited Run Games

If you're interested in physical copies of your favourite games, especially those that are limited in availability, the latest announcements from Limited Run Games might be of interest. On April 14th, players will be able to order a PS4 copy of Flinthook, four days before the game is released digitally. During the same month, Ray Gigant (Vita) will be available on Vita. At a later date, Cosmic Star Heroine will be available on PS4 and Vita, although this won't be available until after digital release to allow for post launch patches and content to be included on the disc.

Finally, if you're interested in physical copies of Astebreed, Pang Adventures and Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae then these will be available from this Friday, March 31st.

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

No details were released with them, but publisher Bandai Namco did release a trio of screenshots showcasing the beautiful artwork in the upcoming RPG.

Orphan

Substantial news for this title is still hard to come by, so we'll just have to make do with teaser screenshots and far-too-brief videos for now. The first two videos tease an in-game location known as The Mill.

The third video shows the progress that developer Windy Hill Studio has made in the game over the past three years.

Radial-G: Racing Revolved

This title has just been released for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Razer OSVR, although it is still only "coming soon" for Playstation VR. Still, we may as well take a look at the launch trailer for the arcade racer.

Full Kiss Skyforge

This MMORPG has just entered Early Access on Playstation 4 — you may have already tried it? Players who purchase one of the "Early Adopter" packs will receive an exclusive "Immortal Pack" when the game releases fully on April 11th. The pack includes a Cyber Costume, Halo and Glowing Eyes. PS+ players that log in for the first time will also be given extra rewards, like the the Wings of Vows that is a cosmetic item that makes sure that other players can recognise that they were one of the first Immortals to join the game.

Full Kiss Snow Moto Racing Freedom

Zordix's latest racing title has received a release date: April 11th. To celebrate this fact, they also released a series of screens.

Full Kiss Statik

This title also received a release date, although it will release two weeks later on April 24th. Instead of celebrating with screenshots, developer Tarsier Studios celebrated with a trailer.

The Pinball Arcade

Last week, console players finally caught up with the massive backlog of tables that had been released on PC and mobile platforms but were yet to materialise on the Playstation 4. Everything up to "Table Pack 58" has now been released and the Season Six Pass is also available. The pass gives players access to all of the tables that were/will be released in Table Packs 51-61 at a cost of $29.99 or regional equivalent, plus players get a free bonus table Doctor Who: Master of Time. The three tables that are still to be released for the Season Pass are Al's Garage Band Goes on a World Tour, Cactus Jack's and Swords of Fury — none of them yet have a release date. Meanwhile, the last of these three tables got a teaser trailer to show what to expect.

The Sexy Brutale

Another character was revealed for the upcoming murder mystery title. Clay Rockridge is the former head of security at The Sexy Brutale. Now he's on the guest list and passes his time on the blackjack tables. He's also partial to trying his luck against some of the "grimmer" card dealers at the mansion. His wife has gone missing but Cliff hasn't noticed — he's too distracted with his drink.

Meanwhile, the staff at the casino are known for their impeccable attire, immaculate manners, attention to detail and dedication to the tasks they perform. This year, their tasks are a little different. As they systematically murder the guests, no-one is safe. However, the main question is whether they are acting on their own initiative while the boss is away, or is it his bidding that they continue to perform?

The Surge

After he wakes up from his cryosleep, protagonist Warren will explore the CREO Factory’s districts as he searches for answers in this upcoming RPG. In the following pieces of artwork, we get a glimpse of some of those environments. CREO is launching rockets around the world to restore the Earth's damaged atmosphere. The laboratory that Warren will explore is built around three of these launch pads and they're the core of the facility — a rocket launches every 10 minutes. Then there are the state-of-the-art research facilities where scientists from all over the world gather to develop the Project Resolve formula that is being used to restore the atmosphere. There will be dark and dangerous tunnels and factory halls, as well as state of the art robotics, chemicals and man-machine interfaces. Players will be able to see all of these, but they might not always be positive experiences.

Elsewhere there is the Medbay that installs and upgrades workers' Exo rigs, as well as treating injuries. Work is completely autonomous and surgery can be performed based on artificial intelligence and a vast medical database. This is one of the first locations that players will encounter as it appears in the game's intro sequence. Finally there is the Executive Forum that is located at the top of CREO One, the company's central tower. This is where the board meets to make decisions of the highest level. Crafted with only the finest materials, its aim is to deliver a feeling of peace and tranquility.

Nucleus - Rocket Launch Pad

Unnamed Project Research Facilities

Medbay

Executive Forum

The Watchmaker

In the latest video for Micropsia Games' upcoming title, we get a three minute sneak peek at some gameplay, albeit from the PC version of the title.

Wasteland 3

The Denver zone plays an important part in Wastelend 3. At the end of the old world, a nuclear weapon exploded in the sky above the city, leaving most of the buildings in ruins and most of its inhabitants dead. Crumbling buildings form mazes and subterranean tunnels that are battlefields for predators, treasure hunters and scavengers. The Denver Airport Commune lies to the east of the city and is home to "artists, hackers, conspiracy nuts, mad scientists, and assorted eccentrics". Centred around the Space Shuttle Atlantis, the commune focuses on strange experiments and cyber espionage against the Patriarch, amongst many other things.

To the north of Denver live the Gippers. This faction's leaders are priestesses known as Nancies. They are wives to the divine God-President Reagan, lawmakers, and judges. Mother Nancy Reliance is their overall leader. Originally this faction was going to be present in Wasteland 2 but now they will definitely be appearing in this upcoming title. While we don't have any images of the Denver zone, we do have a quick glimpse of Mother Nancy Reliance.

Release Dates

Game	North America	Europe
Full Kiss Snow Moto Racing Freedom	April 11th	April 11th
Full Kiss Statik	April 24th	April 24th

Updates and Patches

Game	Version	Release Date	Details
Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival	1.01 (NA)	Available Now	Patch Notes
Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival	1.07 (EU)	Available Now	Patch Notes
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PS4)	3.56	Available Now	Patch Notes
Games of Glory	Day One Patch	TBA	Planned Improvements
Nioh (PS4)	1.06	Available Now	Patch Notes
Paragon	v.38.5	Available Now	Patch Notes
Verdun (PS4)	1.05	Available Now	Patch Notes

That's it for this week. Join us next week for more weekend headlines!

Written by Rebecca Smith

Rebecca is the Newshound Manager at TrueGaming Network. She has been contributing articles since 2010, especially those that involve intimidatingly long lists. When not writing news, she works in an independent game shop so that she can spend all day talking about games too. She'll occasionally go outside.