Yakuza 3 on Playstation 3 Review.

It’s essentially the variety of Yakuza 3’s world that make it so engaging. The relatively small open-world environment is literally teeming with side-missions and mini-games, all of which complement the soap opera-esque plot driving the adventure.

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It Is Going To Rain Some In Yakuza 5 By The Looks Of All Those Umbrellas.

We only just got Yakuza 3 in the West last week. Japan gets Yakuza 4 this month. And guess what? SEGA’s just announced Yakuza 5.

SEGA announced the game at a press event in Tokyo last night. The trailer SEGA showed starts with a shot of Yakuza’s Kamurocho night-spot, followed by the words, “A young guy appeared in Kamurocho. The young guy knew it, the weight of the crimes he continued to commit. However the young guy didn’t know it yet. A cruel fate awaited him. And thus the young guy knew: battle is my destiny.”

The introduction of a new character is leading many to suggest that the game will be somewhat of a reboot without protagonist Kazuma Kiryu.

We’ve still got our fingers crossed for Yakuza 4 hitting the West. It’s certainly too early for us to get excited about Yakuza 5.

Justified: Why You Need Yakuza 3 In Your PS3 Collection.

We’ve been playing Yakuza 3 this weekend and have fallen in love. We’re in head-over-heels admiration for Sony’s risky Japanophile experiment. But why’s it so good? Well ahead of our review (check back mid-week for that), we wanted to justify the reasons why you should rush out to your local game store and pick up this under-rated gem right now.

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PushSquare's Playstation Pick Of The Week: Final Fantasy XIII.

It’s a really crazy month here in the PushSquare office. Game-a-geddon is in full swing and no sooner are we done with one game, than we have to move on and get to work on another. Still, at least you’re not going to be bored this month, as not only is there lots to talk about, there’s lots to play. So let’s get started with what’s releasing this week.

PushSquare’s Playstation Pick Of The Week: Final Fantasy XIII [US/EU]

Is it flawed? Absolutely: Final Fantasy XIII takes far too long to get going and when it finally does gather steam, it’s hard to pick up the enthusiasm to keep playing. Still, it boasts a fantastic universe, some interesting characters and stunning CGI cut-scenes. Oh, and the battle system is pretty nifty too.

Also:

Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition launches in the US, which is well worth a look if you’re yet to play Capcom’s next-gen horror shooter. SEGA release Yakuza 3 on the West at last in both Europe and the USA (please buy it, someone has to). On the PSN, Mega Man 10 is due a release in the ol’ USA – get ready to throw you controller at the wall.

Whadda’re Ya’ Buyin’?

Hello Japan!

Hey folks, how are you finding the wait for Yakuza 3? Yeah, it’s been a long year hasn’t it? Still, at least we have a firm March release date to look forward to an announcement of a demo for, erm, Yakuza 4! Yep, Yakuza 4 is on the horizon for Japan, so if you have a Playstation Store account for the region you’ll be able to check out the next installment in the franchise on March 4th thanks to a nice demo SEGA’s announced. Lovely.

Let’s hope the wait for Yakuza 4 ain’t quite so long, eh?

Yakuza 3: Still Likely To Be Proper Awesome.

Sadly, SEGA’s confirmed to IGN that the Western release of Yakuza 3 will have less content than the Japanese version. Apparently, due to time constraints and cultural differences, the hostess clubs have been removed from the experience. Hostess clubs are somewhat a Japanese tradition, in which males essentially pay for female company. Sure it sounds seedy to a Westerner, but much of the Yakuza charm comes from exploring a different culture.

“The content between Yakuza 3 US/UK and Yakuza JP is a little different in that we took out certain bits in order to bring the game to the west in the time alloted for us to do so. The parts we ended up taking out were parts that we felt wouldn’t make sense (like a Japanese history quiz game) or wouldn’t resonate as much (such as the concept of a hostess club),” SEGA told IGN. “We didn’t replace the parts we took out, but we made absolutely sure that the story continuity stayed intact so that the story experience was the same as the Japanese version and that it didn’t take away the human drama so inherent to the Yakuza series.”

It’s a shame that the content got cut, but we suppose the good news is that everything else in the game has remained in tact. Karaoke here we come.

Yakuza 3 on Playstation 3 Hands-On Impressions.

It took about, ooh, five minutes. We were excited. We’ve wanted to play Yakuza 3 for a long, long time and finally we got to go hands-on. It took about five minutes and then it dawned on us. “Dude, we’re playing Yakuza 3.”

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