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PlayStation Europe saved the best til The Last of Us, ending its 12 Deals of Christmas sale with Naughty Dog's PS3 apoco-sim and the Vita delight that is Persona 4 Golden. The enhanced Atlus JRPG goes down to £15 (€20/AU$25), while Joel and Ellie's feel-good adventure for the holidays is just £20 (€30/AU$40).

If you want, you can go all in on The Last of Us by chucking in the season pass; the game and pass bundled together are priced £30 (€37.49/AU$55.47). The pass grants access to three major DLC packs, including the already released Abandoned Territories map pack for multiplayer, and the Left Behind single-player prequel episode which is due in 2014.

Two things to add: Firstly, there's an extra holiday bonus for PS Plus subscribers, 'cos they get a further 10 percent off all those prices. Second, the deals are active for 48 hours, so you have until the end of tomorrow to ensure you're a happy camper come Christmas Day.

You know, that Vita and PS3 of yours have WiFi capabilities. If you were to open this with your browser on those devices and flip through the gallery while rapidly tapping buttons, it'd almost be like you were playing Ragnarok Odyseey Ace! I mean, maybe. Not really. But you can still pretend!

Tecmo Koei Europe has opened its present to us before the holidays, announcing on Twitter that Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends will wage war on European PS3s in Spring 2014. PS4 and Vita owners will also be getting some Xtreme love in the form of Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition, which is a bundle of DW8 and DW8: Xtreme Legends. Tecmo Koei Community Manager "Insp. Chin" also updated his blog to confirm a North American release of both versions.

Tecmo Koei explained on their Tumblr that due to DW8's unavailability on the Vita or PS4, they decided to include it with DW8: Xtreme Legends in the Complete Edition. Story content involving Lu Bu, secondary EX attacks for all characters and a boosted level cap are among the changes present in DW8: Xtreme Legends, which is an expansion for the previous game.

All Dragon's Crown wants for Christmas is a massive new dungeon, increased level cap and a bit more soul-crushing difficulty. Fortunately, developer Vanillaware has an in with Saint Nick.

Previously, Dragon's Crown allowed players to develop their chosen brawlers to level 99. As of today, that cap has been raised to 255. To complement the extra 156 levels, Vanillaware has introduced a new Ultimate difficulty level that unlocks once players have cleared the ninth layer of the Labyrinth of Chaos. Not only is the Ultimate difficulty level intensely hard, it also offers players better rewards than lesser difficulty settings.

In addition, Vanillaware has introduced a new dungeon, dubbed "The Tower of Mirages." This dungeon is only available in the Ultimate difficulty setting, and is seemingly designed to break whatever self-confidence you might have. Each time to you enter The Tower of Mirages, its levels are randomized, which is problematic given that there are "tens of thousands of levels" for you to hack and slash your way through.

On a more generous note, Vanillaware has also included a few stability fixes in this new update, along with a new feature that allows anyone who has completed the Story Mode to skip right past it when creating a new alternate character.

"Monster Hunter with plot" is how God Eater was once described to me. Well, after the runaway hit that the Monster Hunter series has turned out to be, it's no surprise that everyone and their grandmother is out to catch lightning in a bottle twice with the same formula. So how does the third God Eater game, God Eater 2, hold up?Read more...

This week's PlayStation Store update adds thatgamecompany's Flow ($6, Cross-Buy) and FarSight's Pinball Arcade to the PlayStation 4's digital library. Downloading the console pinball revival is initially free, expanded with options to download various bundles featuring classic tables.

The Walking Dead: Season Two, Episode One also launched today, available for $5 on PlayStation 3. The first in a five-part series continues the story of Telltale's award-winning first season, which is based on the graphic novels by writer Robert Kirkman. Read the Joystiq review for more.

This week's update includes Minecraft's long-awaited jump to the PlayStation family. The PS3 version is available for $20. Versions for Vita and PS4 are planned, but will arrive sometime in 2014.

Other highlights include Vita launches for Terraria ($15), Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien ($10), and more. Check the PlayStation Blog for a complete listing of this week's PSN offerings.

Namco Bandai has released a pair of gameplay trailers for its upcoming anime-based brawler Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z, giving a lengthy demonstration of the game's single-player mode and cooperative multiplayer component.

Contrasting the many one-on-one fighters (and occasional Kinect oddities) based on Dragon Ball Z in recent years, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z revolves around a single-player story mode in which players square off against series villains and wreak the kind of landscape-ruining havoc only Goku is capable of wreaking. Gameplay is inspired by the beat-'em-up genre, and stages take place in wide-open areas suited for flight and ranged attacks. Fly, Goku. Fly.

Dragon Ball Z is set to launch in North America on January 28 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PS Vita, with pre-order bonuses available at participating retailers. A multiplayer trailer can be seen after the break below.

Tearaway, I write in today's New York Times, is a system-defining game for the PlayStation Vita. It's as perfect for Vita as Super Mario 64 was for the N64 and Brain Age was for the DS.Read more...

Dyad on PS3 is free to PlayStation Plus members this week, starting today. Dyad is a transcendent game about traversing the cracks between time and space, or something equally mystical that involves maneuvering a particle through kaleidoscopic tunnels. When we played it last year, we called it "magic."

The PS Store's Holiday Sale enters week three with special discounts for Plus members, including Far Cry 3 for $18, Guacamelee for $3.75, Limbo for $3.75, God of War Ascension for $10 and Hitman: Blood Money for $4.25.

A free trial of Killzone: Shadow Fall's multiplayer modes will hit PS4 from December 28 - 31 for Plus members, with pre-loading available today. Check out the full list of sale items and Plus goodies on the PlayStation Blog.

If all you wanted for Christmas was a set of PlayStation Europe deals on Rain and Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut, we'd say you ought to expand your horizons. As such, it's not for us to judge your lack of imagination, but to simply inform you that a Christmas miracle happened, and all your wants have been met. Huz-zah.

So, shun that 179-gear mountain bike and that Game of Thrones box set complete with 100 percent genuine dragon eggs, and make your Christmas complete by grabbing PS3 artistic puzzler Rain for £5.49 (€7/AU$10.35) and the enhanced Director's Cut of The Lone Survivor on Vita for £4.79 (€6/AU$8.85).

Those prices drop an additional 10 percent for PlayStation Plus members, and as with all the discounts in PlayStation Europe's 12 Deals of Christmas campaign, they'll be available for 48 hours across today and tomorrow.

One of the survivors who didn't make it through Season 1 of Telltale's The Walking Dead talks us through his or her demise.

Mutant Mudds Deluxe is coming to the PS3 and Vita tomorrow. The Renegade Kid-developed platformer is a Cross-Buy affair, offering players both versions for $9.99. A sequel has already been discussed, but the developer has said it will focus on a new 2D platformer before returning to the Mudd-world.

The holidays are here, and we’re happy to be launching Pinball Arcade on PS4 tomorrow! We’ve been working hard all year on remastering and relighting the classic pinball tables in our game to take advantage of the PS4′s power. And you’re getting a table on PS4 for free.

That table happens to be one of the best pinballs of all time, Tales of the Arabian Nights, which was designed and manufactured by Williams in 1996. We can’t wait for people to try it who may never have tried pinball before. Pinball is a much deeper game than some people think.

Out Tomorrow

The digital version goes live this week in North America. The blu-ray is also getting delivered to a few retailers this week — a great stocking stuffer for anyone who likes pinball (hint hint).

We’re launching with all of our Season One content available. That’s more than 20 tables worthy of first ballot Pinball Hall of Fame inductions. In fact, nine of the top fourteen ever, according to pinside.com are available from day one on PS4. We’re humbled to get to recreate these masterpieces for all of the real pinball fans out there.

Lighting Tech

Since we started re-creating pinball tables digitally, a decade or so ago, we’ve wanted to implement point lights — the illumination of light from specific points. Pinball tables are a great way to show off this technology. Some tables have more than 100 points of light that have been designed to flash on and off during the different modes and features of the table. I’ll always remember the PS4 for being the platform that we developed this on first.

Also adding to the eye candy is the amount of real-time environment map reflections we can add. Pinball tables are made up of lot of plastic and metal parts. Lots of chrome, combined with lots of colored lights going on and off makes for a beautiful light show!

Improvements

Since we first released the Season One tables on PS3 and PS Vita, we’ve been making fixes and improvements to our engine and each table. These fixes will soon be released for those platforms in a big patch that should be out in January. The PS4 version will get this updated gameplay on day one.

Discounts

We want to give players who own the PS3 and PS Vita content a discount on PS4. There have been some technical hurdles, but we’ve been able to work with PlayStation to implement a loyalty discount on PlayStation Store for the Season One Table Packs. Players who own all of the Season One tables can buy either of the Season One Packs for half price! We’re also giving 10% off of these Season Packs to PS Plus members for the next two weeks.

Happy holidays to all of you guys from everyone at FarSight!

Well, this is a bit of a surprise: The Vita gets Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster on the same day as the PS3. The $40 Vita version looked set for an extended delay after being left out of last month's release date announcement, but Square Enix revealed today that the PS2 remakes hit both systems on March 18, 2014 in North America, and March 21 in Europe.

If you're the kind of Spira-nut who's getting both versions, the good news for you is the game supports cross-saving, meaning you can pick up your Vita progress when switching to PS3, and vice versa. A word of warning on the physical version: the Vita cartridge includes Final Fantasy X, and a voucher to download Final Fantasy X-2 from the PlayStation Store - the PS3 disc will have both games on it. The two remasters are also coming to the PlayStation Store in a combo pack.

Square Enix also announced a PS3 Collector's Edition today, featuring a 40-page hardcover art book, a FFX HD Remaster soundtrack, and five art lithographs. The CE's going at the price of $80, and it's available only at Square Enix's online store.

Here's our first look at the colorful plastic world of LEGO The Hobbit. Announced officially late last month, the 2014 TT Games developed adventure will span the first two movie in the trilogy, paving the way for the inevitable complete version once the third film is out, followed by a bundle of both it and LEGO Lord of the Rings. Read more...

If you were thinking you could just purchase Final Fantasy X-2 HD Remaster on Vita and forego the game that opens with a stunning musical number, think again. In a post on the PlayStation Blog today which also detailed the PlayStation 3 Collector's Edition, Square Enix confirmed the Vita version of the remakes are separate no more. Read more...

Hakoom, one of the more prolific and visible trophy hunters in the PlayStation Network, just broke through to level 100—a rank that requires a user to win some 30,000 trophies. Three others have also breached the 99 barrier, thought to be the limit when PSN instituted trophy support back in mid-2008.Read more...

Europe's seasonal batch of PlayStation Plus freebies comprises Borderlands 2, DmC: Devil May Cry, Soul Sacrifice, and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend, and in what's very much a case of Christmas coming a day early, they'll all arrive on December 24.

PlayStation 4 owners have to wait a bit longer for their next Plus-wrapped pressie, because Klei's survival forager Don't Starve is due on January 8 - it'll probably hit North America the day before, but a release date hasn't been confirmed.

It's a cracking line-up of games to dig into on Christmas Eve - forget all that quality time with family nonsense, amirite? However, Christmas isn't just a time of giving, but also a time of taking, in this case games removed from the Plus service: Grid 2, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, and Sonic and Allstars Racing Transformed head off on December 24, while PS4 platformer Contrast exits stage left on January 8.

One final bit of PlayStation Europe news: The 12 Deals of Christmas continues to chuck discounts at continentals, with Battlefield 4 bombing to £25 (€35/AU$45) and The Walking Dead on Vita sliced to £7 (€10/AU$15) - with a further 10 percent off the latter for PS Plus members. If those deals take your fancy, you have until the end of tomorrow to grab them.

Square Enix has sent forth another five trailers for FInal Fantasy X/X-2 HD, its update of the PS2 JRPGs. That's on top of the five that were issued last week - though we're still the only ones who have one with Rifftrax.

Amazon in the UK now has a dedicated PlayStation storefront where you can purchase PS Plus subscriptions, game download codes, season passes and select DLC for PS3, PS4 and PS Vita games. Hotline Miami, Journey, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and The Unfinished Swan are just a few of the games you can purchase through the online retailer right now.

When PSN content made its debut on Amazon's North American site last month, select purchases were eligible for a $5 PSN credit. Unfortunately that doesn't appear to be the case with the Amazon UK launch, though Amazon UK does allow users to purchase special "top-up" cards for directly adding funds to their PlayStation accounts.

Sony continues its PS Mobile promotion with another pair of free downloads today. If you have a PlayStation Certified device or PS Vita, you can grab Super Crate Box and Fuel Tiracas for free right now.

Super Crate Box, from Vlambeer, is an arcade action game where players must battle waves of encroaching enemies while collecting crates - which have weapons inside of them - on a multi-tiered 2D level. We found the PS Vita installment to be the definitive version.

Fuel Tiracas, a PS Mobile launch game from FutureLab, is a resource-management puzzle variation on the classic Whac-a-Mole carnival game. Players must boot up generators in the correct order so the titular planet of Tiracas can have breathable air.

To grab either (or both) of these games, simply head into the PlayStatin Mobile section of the PlayStation Store on PS Vita or, if you're on a PlayStation Certified device, simply head into the PlayStation Mobile store.

This is Deal 6 of PlayStation Europe's 12 Deals of Christmas, practically the halfway point in essentially a December's worth of PSN savings. Today's is a good one for those who missed out on Velocity Ultra when it was on PlayStation Plus. The puzzler/shoot-em-up hybrid is down to £2.39 (€3/AU$4.35) on Vita, and stays at that price across today and tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the super-crazy but super-good Saints Row 4 plummets from its lofty PSN price of £50 to the much more affordable figure £20 (€30/AU$340) - it's also staying discounted for 48 hours. If you're looking to shave off some more savings, a PlayStation Plus subscription razors a further 10 percent on both games.

This week's PlayStation Store update is headlined by the painfully cute Doki-Doki Universe, a game about empathy and space exploration. In our review, we called the cross-buy PS3/PS Vita game "uplifting in a way that few games are; it will make you more optimistic about the world around you, and it'll make you feel like a better person for playing it."

On the PS Plus side, the PS3 version of Borderlands 2 is this week's free download for subscribers. The PSN Holiday Sale also continues unabated, with discounts on Tomb Raider, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Dragon's Crown, Spelunky and more. In addition to that, Saints Row: The Third: The Full Package and Dead Island Riptide have had their prices permanently reduced.

For the full list of this week's content, head on over to the PlayStation Blog.

Doki-Doki Universe is a game about empathy, and that's weird.

In many of the games I played this year, you often solve problems by shooting people in the face. That, I can handle. In Doki-Doki Universe, your antagonists aren't clearly defined, and your progress is measured by your ability to seek out societal problems and solve them indirectly through non-violent means.

Doki-Doki Universe's gameplay lands somewhere in between Animal Crossing and a Myers-Briggs personality test. It's like nothing else I've ever played, and it's pretty awesome...in a totally weird sort of way.

A retailer in the UK has accidentally sent some customers a free PlayStation Vita. And is now resorting to some heavy methods in an attempt to get them back.Read more...

Sony announced that this week's PlayStation Plus update will give subscribers access to a free downloadable copy of 2K's Borderlands 2 on the PlayStation 3, among other member-exclusive perks.

Starting tomorrow, Plus subscribers can also pick up a variety of PSN games for cheap, as part of the PlayStation Store's ongoing Holiday Sale. Featured games include Capcom's arcade brawler compilation Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, classic tag-team fighter Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Mossmouth's tough-as-nails roguelike platformer Spelunky, all of which are available for $3.75 each for Plus members.

This week's sale also spotlights retail releases like Vanillaware's Dragon's Crown ($26.99), Namco Bandai's One Piece Pirate Warriors 2 ($12.50), and Crystal Dynamics' DLC-bundled Tomb Raider ($13.49).

If you've been waiting to tie all three of your PlayStation portables to one Sony Entertainment Network account, today's PSN maintenance will make you smile. For everyone else it's five hours of downtime starting at 9AM PT (12PM ET, 5PM UK time) and ending at 2PM PT (5PM ET, midnight UK - that's right, two hours extra for the extra special UK).

There are some other, minor improvements being implemented during the maintenance, but the main one is the bumping up of portable activation slots to three. Once it's done, users will be able to tie SEN accounts to three Vita systems, or three PSPs, or a three-hit combo of Vitas and PSPs - go crazy with your combos, the world is your portable oyster.

As for the downtime, as usual the PS Store, Home, and account management go offline, but if you've signed into PSN sometime in the last few days it won't affect online play or apps.

Sometimes life sends a challenge our way, and we need to work through it to better ourselves, and those around us. Other times, life sends us an adorable robot who’s ready to solve our problems and learn about humanity. With its friend, Alien Jeff. You know, the usual stuff.

This week sees the charming and unusual adventure, Doki-Doki Universe, arrive on PS4, PS3, and PS Vita — with total cross buy support across all three platforms. From the creator of ToeJam & Earl, Doki-Doki Universe features the quirky adventures of QT3 and the memorable characters it meets along the way. A Starter Pack will enable you to play for free before investing in the full experience, so give it a try.

For those of you craving some spice this week, consider Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God for PS Vita. This grid-based JRPG follows the aspiring sorceress Pupuru in her attempt to save her friend’s curry restaurant from going under. Explore dungeons, defeat wacky creatures, and gather ingredients for the perfect curry!

For a full list of games coming to the world of PlayStation this week, head below. And enjoy the Drop!

New PlayStation Releases This Week Doki-Doki Universe PS4, PS3, PS Vita — Digital Guide the adorable QT3 along its journey to better understand humanity — all through curious conversation. Learn more about your friend Alien Jeff, take personality quizzes, and help self-conscious snowmen. Cross buy. Mahjong Royal Towers PS Vita — Digital Enjoy mahjong across more than 100 unique levels, set in 6 regal locations. Build up your skill, and perhaps the royal treasury’s door will open to you… Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God PS Vita — Digital, Retail Aspiring sorceress Pupuru sets out to save her friend’s curry restaurant from the big, bad curry chain that moved in. Crawl through dungeons and defeat creatures to find ingredients for the legendary curry. But beware: failure will rob Pupuru of her levels and items! Strength of the Sword 3 PS3 — Digital Prepare for a brutal challenge. A brawler with dozens of combos to use across 12 stages. Unlock new swords and shields to take down baddies and bosses alike. Includes a challenge pit with four difficulty levels. Demos and Betas Doki-Doki Universe Demo — PS4, PS3, PS Vita
Puppeteer Demo — PS3

The information above is subject to change without notice.

Curve Studios, the developer behind Stealth Inc. - A Clone in the Dark, has announced some new DLC for the PS3 and PS Vita versions.

The "Lost Clones" add-on slaps another 20 levels, including new Trophies and a DLC-specific leaderboard, on top of the base game. "Lost Clones" is available for download today for $3.99 in North America and £2.99 in Europe. In Curve Studios' announcement post, the studio says it currently has no plans to release the DLC for the iOS version, though it hasn't ruled out the possibility.

Stealth Inc. - A Clone in the Dark, previously known as Stealth Bastard on other platforms, is a stealth puzzle game where players must stick to the shadows while guiding a clone through a testing facility chock full of traps and robot sentries. The game is both cross-buy and cross-save enabled on PlayStation platforms.

Sony has committed to giving away two free PlayStation Mobile games each week throughout the rest of 2013. This week's freebies are Gun Commando and Mononoke Slashdown.

Gun Commando is a stylish first-person shooter from Ripstone Ltd. inspired by retro shoot-em-ups. As a veteran commando, you must single-handedly quell an alien invasion.

Mononoke Slashdown, from F K Digital, is a side-scrolling action game starring Kagemaru - a ninja on a quest to save innocent townspeople from monsters and demons.

If you're on PS Vita, you can grab these games from the PlayStation Mobile section of the PlayStation Store. Those on PlayStation Certified mobile devices can find these games in the PlayStation Mobile Store.