Take a trip to the 16-bit era on the Sega Mega Drive bus

Pick up four brilliant Double Fine adventures for free this weekend, playable on macOS Catalina for the very first time.

Double Fine, Tim Schafer’s legendary adventure game studio recently acquired by Xbox, has been remastering its back catalogue over the years. Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango have all received the spit-and-polish treatment, bringing these classic adventures to a new audience, a whole new generation of players.

But if you recently upgraded your Apple Mac to macOS Catalina, you might have found they no longer worked. To be fair, you’ll have found lots of things stopped working. Indie development Twitter is filled with horror stories of games that suddenly broke on Catalina, while the economics to put it right often doesn’t stack up.

Thankfully, Double Fine has managed to find the time to fix the issue, and those classic remasters – Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango – plus the more-recent Broken Age have all been fixed up and ported to macOS Catalina.

To celebrate, Double Fine is making these games free for Mac users for a limited time. You can pick up Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango and Broken Age from the Apple Mac app store for absolutely nothing until the end of the day on Sunday, July 12.

(They’ll be back up to full price on Monday, but they’ll still be brilliant.)

---

Follow Thumbsticks on Facebook, Google News, Twitter, and Flipboard for the latest video game news.

Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima headlines next week’s lineup of new PlayStation 4 video game releases.

Another month, another eagerly-anticipated PlayStation 4 exclusive. This time it’s open-world action-adventure Ghost of Tsushima from Sucker Punch Productions.

We recall playing Infamous Second Son shortly after the launch of the PlayStation 4, so it feels appropriate to bookend the generation with a demonstration of how far the studio has come. We have a suspicion that Ghost of Tsushima is going to do very well. It’s also another late-generation example of how much power the PS4 still has to give.

We’re not so sure about Rocket Arena, which, following a long period of development, was unveiled at month’s EA Play Live. It’s an artistically bland 3v3 third-person shooter that looks both fun and forgettable.

We’re more excited to get our hands on Superhot: Mind Control Delete. The game began life as DLC for Superhot Team’s acclaimed time-bending action game, before becoming a full-blown follow-up. If you purchased the first game – i.e. you paid cash and didn’t get it through PS Plus – you can download Superhot: Mind Control Delete for free. It’s a fantastic gesture from a talented studio.

Other new PS4 releases include Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus and Neversong.

We are still waiting on release date confirmation for a couple of new PS4 titles. We’ll update this page as soon as we get it.

New PlayStation 4 releases: July 13-17, 2020

Monday, July 13, 2020

• No releases

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

• Neon Abyss
• Rocket Arena

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

• Ultra Hat Dimension

Thursday, July 16, 2020

• #Funtime
• Neversong
• Radical Rabbit Stew
• Superhot: Mind Control Delete

Friday, July 17, 2020

• Ghost of Tsushima
• Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus

---

Bookmark the Thumbsticks new releases page for the latest video games. You can also follow us on social media via Flipboard, Facebook, Google News, and Twitter.

A much-loved Harvest Moon game gets a new lease of life on Nintendo Switch.

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is a ground-up remake of Marvelous Interactive’s classic Game Boy Advance life simulation, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. (The reason for the name change is that Harvest Moon is now used exclusively by Natsume following a split between the two companies in 2014.)

The game is out today for Nintendo Switch in Europe and Australia, and will be released in North America next week, on July 14, along with a PC edition on Steam.

The new version of the game retains the gameplay of the 2003 original but adds bold cartoon-like HD visuals. The new look reminds us of recent Pokémon games, which is no bad thing. It’s also accompanied by new animal-themed cosmetic DLC that lets players dress up like a cow, chicken, dog, chick or sheep. Dreams can come true, it seems.

On the surface, Friends of Mineral Town might look similar to Animal Crossing: New Horizons but it’s a distinctly more structured experience. In our humble opinion, the game’s core loop of farming, animal husbandry, and relationship building has never been bettered by the franchise, and we’re looking forward to playing a life sim that keeps things simple.

The game has its own easy-going rhythm and is well worth a look if you have exhausted Nintendo’s effort or had your fill of Stardew Valley.

---

Check out the Thumbsticks new releases page for weekly Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 updates. You can also follow us on Facebook, Google News, Twitter, and Flipboard.

Sony has revealed the box art design for PlayStation 5 games with the cover of Spider-Man Miles Morales. Here’s how it compares to PlayStation box art layouts from the past.

There’s not a huge amount to say about the PlayStation 5 box art design. PS5 games will come in a standard-sized Blu-ray case, and the cover art will feature the PS5 logo in black on a white stripe. The design is pretty consistent with the box art layouts Sony has used in the past, with a couple of notable exceptions.

Here’s a look back at previous PlayStation box art designs, using old Spider-Man games as examples.

PlayStation 4 – Marvel’s Spider-Man

The PlayStation 4 design includes a similar stripe across the top of the box, but in blue. Late PS3 games also adopted this design in 2015. We love the cover art for Marvel’s Spider-Man. It’s bright, bold, dynamic, and refreshingly simple. Top marks.

PlayStation 3 (Second version) – The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Sony revised the PlayStation 3 cover art layout with the introduction of the PS3 Slim console in 2009. It’s a sleek and stylish improvement over…

PlayStation 3 (First version) – Spider-Man 3

The original PlayStation 3 branding caused much mirth by using the same typeface as Sony’s Spider-Man movie franchise. The font is not particularly readable and when used on a Spider-Man game, it’s all kinds of messy.

PlayStation 2 – Spider-Man

The PlayStation 2 branding retains the original PlayStation font and colour version of the logo. The design is now so iconic that it’s almost impossible to critique. Simple and timeless.

PlayStation 1 – Spider-Man

We’re in CD-ROM country. Again, it’s basic, but all the better for it. The layout does a much better job of selling a game than Nintendo managed with its fussy and inconsistent N64 boxes.

PSP and PS Vita

The box art branding for PSP and PlayStation Vita games is also reflective of their respective eras.

We apologise for bringing up memories of bad Activision Spider-Man games in this article.

---

Swing by the Thumbsticks news page for the latest in gaming. You can also follow us on Flipboard, Facebook, Google News, and Twitter.

Sony Corporation has invested a cool $250 million into Fortnite and Unreal Engine developer Epic Games.

PlayStation owner Sony has ploughed $250 million into Epic Games via a wholly-owned subsidiary, acquiring a minority interest in the Fortnite creator. In a joint press statement, the two companies say that the investment will broaden collaboration across Sony’s entertainment portfolio and Epic’s social entertainment platforms.

Sony chairman, president, and CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida says:

“Epic’s powerful technology in areas such as graphics places them at the forefront of game engine development with Unreal Engine and other innovations. There’s no better example of this than the revolutionary entertainment experience, Fortnite. Through our investment, we will explore opportunities for further collaboration with Epic to delight and bring value to consumers and the industry at large, not only in games, but also across the rapidly evolving digital entertainment landscape.”

Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic, adds:

“Sony and Epic have both built businesses at the intersection of creativity and technology, and we share a vision of real-time 3D social experiences leading to a convergence of gaming, film, and music. Together we strive to build an even more open and accessible digital ecosystem for all consumers and content creators alike.”

Epic and the PlayStation-side of Sony have long been on good terms with both the PS4 and upcoming PS5 used to demonstrate the capabilities of Unreal Engine.

---

Follow Thumbsticks us on Facebook, Google News, Twitter, and Flipboard for more gaming news.