With its simple gameplay and perfectly portable nature, independent studio Roll7 surprised a lot of people when it released the side-scrolling, skateboarding game-cum-reaction test OlliOlli; and the title quickly became one of the handheld’s best sellers. That success earned them a place at this year’s EGX London; where at 3pm today, the small team of indie developers announced what to expect next.

Currently in development, OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood is, as the name suggests, a sequel to the PS Vita hit, with much loftier targets in sight – not least emphasised by the franchise’s move from handhelds to the big screen. With the sequel hitting the Playstation 4, OlliOlli 2 features a complete visual overhaul to make it fresher and more HD-quality in order to be more appealing for TV and emphasise the fact that sequels always aim to be bigger and better. But it’s not just for show – the game now includes 7,000 more frames of animation making tricks look more realistic and fluid than ever.

The reason for the need to add detail to tricks is because, in OlliOlli 2, there’s going to be a lot more of them. In addition to all-new grinds and jumps to complement the existing set of tricks from the first OlliOlli, Roll7 has listened to player feedback and added the ability to perform manuals – lifting the board slightly and riding on two wheels, for the non-skaters – while on solid ground. An enhanced combo system makes it a lot easier to chain tricks together for higher points; plus there’s an extra incentive to the game’s overarching purpose of timing your landings to perfection: perform a perfect grind and you’ll be able to “switch” it, repositioning your board to perform another trick mid-grind and adding one more multiplier to your combo bar. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater fans should be very familiar with this mechanic, though the controls are slightly different.

Levels and Worlds in OlliOlli 2 are also taking on a whole new shape – quite literally. Thanks to a whole new engine for which the sequel is being built from scratch, OlliOlli 2 sheds the straight-line nature of levels in the original game; to bring in curved terrain and even ramps for greater air time. If you wanted to speed all the way downhill and perform a massive jump off a ramp at the bottom, you’ll get to do it in OlliOlli 2. Levels also feature split paths, allowing multiple ways to trick through each location – you might find yourself choosing from a low grind or going up high for massive air time. The “Welcome to Olliwood” part of the title references part of the game’s new theme – levels will be split into “Worlds” based around popular film genres, with decals and obstacles to match; such as an Aztec world with vibes of Indiana Jones.

Roll7 explain that, like the old OlliOlli, the current plan is for the levels in OlliOlli 2 will be procedurally-generated. Obstacles, rails and ramps will be generated based on what you’ve already skated, rather than a fully randomised affair – allowing players who regularly bail at one part of a level to memorise the layout and prepare for it next time, such that players hopefully progress further with every run and ultimately overcome any roadblocks they experience. This plan is regularly debated within the team, with some feeling an infinite-scrolling layout to allow levels to continue randomly for as long as the player can survive would be better; while others like the current method for ensuring that players cannot get completely stuck during a run. It will be interesting to see which camp finally wins out.

Of course, if one tires of taking on the game’s challenges and story or simply trying to beat their best runs, there’s always the fun of competing against others. Roll7 admitted that, on realising that they missed an opportunity in the original PS Vita title to implement online leaderboards comparing your run to other players, “we still wake up in a sweat wondering why we didn’t”. OlliOlli 2, therefore, will be incorporating them from the very beginning, letting you know just how your skating and reaction times compare to other players. But that’s not the only concession to multiplayer being considered. OlliOlli 2 will also feature a local split-screen multiplayer mode called “Combo Rush”, allowing up to four players to compete simultaneously to achieve the highest scoring run in 60 seconds. Roll7 claim the new multiplayer mode is also being used as a basis to look into potential future additions, such as online multiplayer and other types of competition.

OlliOlli 2 is planned to hit the PS4 sometime in 2015.

Omega Mode is free DLC for Street Fighter IV takes all 44 characters and gives them different (I’m hard-pressed to say new) abilities making them feel bigger, better, or in some cases, like the old versions of themselves. Capcom had a little something to say about it on its blog:

“As the primary goal for this mode was fun, we placed more emphasis on making the characters feel new, than on their balance.”

The video above gives far more detail and pretty moving pictures, so watch it and let us know what you think in the comments. Then look for the Omega Mode DLC later this year.

The dev sessions at EGX kicked off today with a presentation by both Yager and Deep Silver and a video with some demo gameplay from a pre-alpha build of the game.

Dead Island 2 is set in ‘sunny California’ with different locations located in and around LA and San Francisco and will be a co-op multiplayer game for up to 8 people in which the goal seems to be to move around the area, scavenge as much as possible and then upgrade yourself and your weapons to make surviving the apocalypse as much fun as it’s possible to have while fighting for your life.

The game will have a number of different playable classes, including 2 not yet seen in video demos, and all will have their own unique styles of attacking and special moves. For example the Berserker can execute a special move that lets them kick a zombie. Either into other zombies, creating a domino effect or just sending them flying over the horizon. You can also launch zombies with a moddable weapon that combines a bowling ball and a baseball bat, so I think you can see why this game is about making survival fun. And somewhat ridiculous in a hilarious way.

One of the things that this game does differently from previous Dead Island games is that crafting is no longer tied to worktables – you can now craft on-the-fly. However you’ll either need teammates to watch your back or to find a safe and secluded little corner of the map to do it, the world does not stop just because you need to equip some parts to your weapon. however crafting does allow you to add extra effects to your weapon, such as the ability to set enemies alight and electrocute them. The zombies will even blacken as they take fire or shock damage. There are set to be more weapons, more blueprints in the game and while weapons will still need repairing, they won’t ever be so broken they can’t be saved. There’ll even be a in-built system to distribute level-appropriate loot so that even if you’re a different level to your friends, no battle together ever feels like it’s a waste of your time.

The environment is set to be dynamic with interactable elements such as canisters of gas that can be used as flammable explosives and the ability to set traps. and obviously a lot of noise means that zombies will inevitably be attracted towards it, and some of the in-game tasks revolve around keeping said attracted zombies away from the noise source.

Dead Island 2 is being planned for release sometime in Spring 2015 for PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One.

It has been announced that the PlayStation TV, which is basically, a Vita microconsole has been slated for the November release slot ready for the holiday season. The console  plays some Vita and PlayStation 1 (PSX)  classics at the moment and allows for PS4 remote play to be shown through a television. It will cost £84.99 and will ship with vouchers for OlliOlli, Velocity Ultra and Worms Revolution Extreme.

Are you excited for this new gadget? Let is know below!

Seems that the rumours were true. Today Microsoft, Mojang and Notch himself have all confirmed that Mojang now belongs to Microsoft.

In a blog post Mojang said “remember that the future of Minecraft and you – the community – are extremely important to everyone involved” before answering a number of the most regularly posed questions fans might have about the acquisition. About the Playstation and other game editions that fall outside of Microsfot’s area or might represent some conflict of interest they said “There’s no reason for the development, sales, and support of the PC/Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Vita, iOS, and Android versions of Minecraft to stop”, although they did note that they couldn’t predict the decisions of another company with regards to it. The main reason they were sold up is obviously down to Minecraft and because no one had ever expected it to grow as big as it did upon its original alpha release. Simply, it grew too large for Notch to handle. They also reassured everyone that “Stopping players making cool stuff is not in anyone’s interests.”

Notch himself talked about the deal on his own site, saying that he felt he’d become a ‘symbol’ and that was not what he wanted to be. He described himself as “not an entrepreneur… I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter” and said that he wanted to break away from Minecraft so that he could focus on smaller things again, citing that despite leaving the development to Jeb a while back he still got a wave of hatred in the wake of the EULA episode a few months back. He thanked the fans for helping the game to grow but said that despite that he couldn’t be responsible for the game and its grown community anymore. He said that even though now Microsoft technically owned Minecraft that it’d always belonged to the community more and that the deal was less about the money but his own sanity at this point.

Microsoft issued a press release as well to announce the deal saying about the game “Minecraft inspires millions to create together, connects people across the globe, and is a community that is among the most active and passionate in the world.” They then talked more about how Minecraft added some diversity to their portfolio of titles and that “we see great potential to continue to grow the Minecraft community and nurture the franchise.” They also said that they planned to continue with making Minecraft available to all the platforms it is currently on.

The news will probably come as a shock to some, or you might be in favour of this development. The future for mojang and Minecraft though is as of yet is unknown.

Mojang “Yes, we’re being bought by Microsoft”: [x]
Notch “I’m leaving Mojang”: [x]
Microsoft “Minecraft to Join Microsoft”: [x]