Puny Oomies Getz Proppa Warhammer Games, Waaaaagh!

Hulst Talks PlayStation Studios, God of War Ragnarök Delayed until 2022

In an interview with PlayStation Blog, Herman Hulst talked about the future of PlayStation Studios, Sony's first-party development group.

He emphasized that single-player, story-driven games are essential to the PlayStation first-party strategy, and that they will “keep making them as long as gamers enjoy them”.

Here's what we learned from Hulst:

• Gran Turismo 7 and God of War Ragnarök will release on PS4 as well as PS5
• God of War Ragnarök delayed until 2022
• Horizon Forbidden West expected for a holiday release but could be delayed into 2022
• Bend Studio has started work on a new IP, similar to the open-world system of Days Gone
• PlayStation Studios have 25 titles in development

Hunger: Hulst also mentions the recent PC releases, and confirms that more PlayStation exclusives will come to PC in the future. Horizon: Zero Dawn's success on PC “shows there’s an appetite”.

No rush: Obviously, PC releases will still remain an after-market for Sony. Horizon: Zero Dawn and Days Gone both arrived on PC years after their console debut, and that pattern is unlikely to change any time soon.

What was the first RPG in North America for the Nintendo 64?

a) Paper Mario
b) Quest 64
c) Gauntlet Legends
d) Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today's issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

Copyright is more terrifying than monsters

Monster Party for NES was called Parody World: Monster Party during its development, and many of its monsters were all knock-offs of popular (and copyrighted) movie monsters. The cover art also featured red blood rather than green slime.

The man-eating plant, for instance, is essentially Audrey II from the 1982 horror musical Little Shop of Horrors, the giant cat-in-a-box was a gremlin from, well, Gremlins and the baseball umpire was the hockey-masked serial killer Jason Voorges from Friday the 13th.

Join our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today's fact.

Warhammer Skulls Showcase round-up

The Skulls Showcase stream featured a number of announcements and gameplay reveals of games from the Warhammer universe, including the last-ever DLC for Creative Assembly's Total War: Warhammer II before the sequel.

Showcase highlights

• Total War: Warhammer II – Silence & Fury – Steam
  Final DLC for Total War: Warhammer 2 overhauling Beastmen.
  July 2021 (PC)
• Total War: Warhammer III – Steam
  Skarbrand Legendary Lord for Khorne announced.
  Late 2021 (PC)
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall – Steam
  Exclusive gameplay reveal trailer in the showcase.
  Summer 2021 (PC VR, Oculus Quest)
• Warhammer: Vermintide 2 – Steam
  New Kerillian Career as Chaos Wastes launches for Xbox.
  Out Now (PC, Xbox)
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide – Steam
  Black Library Author Dan Abnett Confirmed as Co-Writer
  TBA 2021 (PC, Xbox)
• Blood Bowl 3 – Steam
  Closed beta on Steam June 3, as Elven Union showed for the first time.
  September 2021 (PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch)
• Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector – Steam
  Sisters of Battle announced for the turn-based strategy game.
  July 15, 2021 (PC, Xbox, PlayStation)
• Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef – Steam
  World premiere for 2D action platformer featuring four-player classes and online co-op.
  TBA 2022 (PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch)
• Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters – Steam
  World premiere of the turn-based tactical game featuring Grey Knights in a story-driven campaign.
  TBA 2022 (PC)

7 PlayStation VR titles get the Spotlight

Sony has showcased seven upcoming virtual reality games for the PlayStation VR, alongside a gameplay montage giving a taste of the entire buffet.

• Arashi: Castles of Sin – Announce Trailer
  Summer 2021
• Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey – Announce Trailer
  TBA 2021
• Wind & Leaves – Gameplay Trailer
  July 27, 2021
• After the Fall – Closer Look: Enemies & Combat
  Summer 2021
• Fracked – Fracked – Full Gameplay Reveal
  Summer 2021
• Wanderer – Wanderer – Game Reveal Trailer
  TBA
• Sniper Elite VR – Sniper Elite VR – Release Date Trailer
  8th July 2021

Astro Bot creators Team Asobi expanding

The team behind Astro Bot Rescue Mission for PlayStation VR and the PlayStation 5 launch title Astro's Playroom is growing bigger, and has a brand-new Astro-themed logo.

New PRISMS update for No Man's Sky

Hello Games have announced the third free update for No Man's Sky, which introduces a visual overhaul just in time for the game's fifth anniversary. The update leaves no stone unturned, and introduces new weather effects with better lighting, greater plant variety, new fur effects and DLSS support for PC.

• Nintendo gets specific about WarioWare in a survey asking what fans feel about a $49.99 price tag
• Luigi's Mansion modded into Mario’s Mansion in a romhack that puts Mario in charge of the vacuum cleaner and traps Luigi in a painting
• EA hire former Call of Duty and Destiny executive to help grow Battlefield franchise into a world-conquering military machine
• E3 2021 schedule revealed as registrations open, Microsoft and Nintendo will hold press conferences on June 13th and June 15th respectively
• UK indie dev Robot Turtle reveals Viewfinder, a “mind-bending” first-person adventure where you transpose the subjects of photos to solve puzzles

What was the first RPG in North America for the Nintendo 64?

ANSWER: Quest 64!

The Nintendo 64 had a lot of great games, but RPGs were pretty thin on the ground. While there were a few examples, the PlayStation was definitely the dominant platform for the genre. The first one released in North America was actually published by THQ and was called Quest 64. Developed by Imagineer and released in 1998, it features a pretty typical fantasy story: The hero's dad has vanished while looking for a stolen book, and you gotta track him down.

Critics praised the graphics, but pretty much everything else about Quest 64 was less convincing. There was no money or equipment to collect, and the story wasn't very involving. Fortunately, its battle system – with a strong emphasis on magic – is supposed to be jolly good fun. Still, not exactly a match for Square's brand of slick melodrama.

Today's issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Simon Priest, and Jamie Davey. If you have any feedback or news tips for the team, please email us!