Commander Fury

Falcon Age is a game about Ara bonding, hunting, fighting, and reclaiming her land from automated colonizers. It’s available tomorrow from PlayStation Store for PS4 in non-VR or if you have a PS VR you can pet a falcon in virtual reality. We spent a lot of time getting the falcon to look and feel like a believable bird of prey. Let’s do a deep dive of the design of the falcon, animation, rig setup, and feather tech.

Falcon Design

Our falcon design combines multiple raptor types. She is big as a golden eagle, fights like a hawk, has some eagle-hawk resemblance, some owl-like tufts, and falcon tendencies. She’s one of the last of her kind left in our world and we wanted to make her unique visually for the story and also visually stand out during gameplay against the sky and desert like environments.

One of the early inspirations for Falcon Age came from videos of golden eagles hunting large mountain goats. That led to some research on falconry and the idea of having a falcon as a pet and designing mechanics and gameplay around that core idea. We made a rough prototype early on to test out the ideas. The first time we successfully whistled for the bird in VR and saw the scale change from it approaching from a distance to landing on our hand, we knew we were on to something that could serve as the core of a unique game.

Animation and Rig

Falcon Feet Tracking

There are lots of animation options out there, but none of them would easily solve our specific falcon feet tracking needs. Inverse kinematic setups, root motion and other complex plugins could do the job if we had a bigger team and more time to dedicate to it. We wanted a more predictable outcome so we went with a multiple pose based solution made in 3dsmax.

However, the biggest reason for not using IK, is that this is the best way we could come up within a couple of days. We were building the prototype so fast back at the beginning of the project that we didn’t have time to look at what other solutions are available. This is the most reliable and least ugly way we found and we’ve stuck with it since. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
Here is how we imagined the bird claws blending IRL. The ball is the fist that is attached to the VR motion controls. There are limits to this method. The claws needs to be able to wrap around a fair chunk of the fist and the fist pose needs to be as spherical as possible.

Short version of how it’s done: the fist is a ball and the bird’s feet rotate around the ball using 30 blend poses and shuffle animation to get the feet back to center when the ball (motion hand) has rotated too far.

30 Blend Poses on a ball

A shuffle animation let feet recenter

And the the blends start again after that quick shuffle animation from the new rotation of the hand. According to our programmer Justin, he is doing some regular old quaternion and linear algebra math. And I’m using three float values that he’s giving me and feeding them into those anim blend states.

For baby bird, the second knuckle on the index finger is treated like a ball.

The one edge case where the ball concept doesn’t work is when the glove is pointed directly down. Pictured below.

We had several ways we could’ve dealt with that case. One solution was to have a collider on the forearm part of the glove and have the bird fly away if bird’s collision intersects with it. Ultimately we decided to let it be as is. It’s more player friendly that way since it lets you scratch your left hip while in VR without having the bird leave you. Also most people would never have their hands positioned that way in normal play.

Unless they’re playing in a headstand for some reason. All kinds of animation features would look wrong or broken in a headstand.

Falcon Head Tracking

Short version of how its done: the head (bone_Head) is a direct child of the highest object in the bird skeletal hierarchy (bone_Root).

Bone_Root’s position (not rotation) follows the position of the motion controller and bone_Head counters that motion. Basically a two-object hierarchy where a positional blend is used to counter motion of the parent object to keep the child object in same global position. The rest of the bird body uses a blend of 27 poses to try its best to keep the bird looking natural.

With the size of the adult bird we have, a 12cm translation in all axis (24x24x24 cube) seemed ideal for getting the stabilizer effect without stretching the neck too much. The head will also move at the edge of that range and when the motion hand stops moving, that new position is now the new center and another 24cm cube is formed there. Math-wise, headlock is mostly just a vector transform with a lot of extra ‘fluff’ for limiting speed, transitioning in and out, and moving the lock point when it gets too far from the body but the bird is still in the area.

Feathers and Rendering

The small body feathers, or contour feathers, on our birds flutter in the wind, and react to the player’s hands brushing against them to give a greater sense of tactile interactivity. The short description is each small feather on the bird is treated like many grass or vegetation shaders. Several overlapping sine waves are used to calculate some simple noise used to flutter the feathers and give them some life. Their timing is offset by a random value per feather stored in the vertex color, and the flutter movement is scaled also using the vertex color. This means the base of the feathers don’t move, but the tips do. It also means longer feathers move more than shorter ones.

Unlike most grass shaders, we need the feathers to not move in random directions, so we can’t use world or local space directions. Plus this is on a skinned mesh which makes the direction even more dynamic. Instead we use a combination of the feather’s vertex normal and tangent so the feathers flutter in and out and side to side relative to their orientation. This isn’t strictly accurate, but for small movements like this it won’t be obviously wrong.

To handle hand interactions, the player’s hand has a script which tracks the bones and creates a list of capsules that follow the shape of each finger, and a sphere for the palm. If the hand is in range, the vertex shader iterates over the list of capsules to find closest distance to one and softly scales down the flutter if a capsule one is overlapping it. The feathers are also squished down towards the body. The capsules are oversized as the overlapping tests are soft, so this isn’t an instant on-off, but a gradual change. It’s roughly tuned so that once the visible finger is touching the feather it has stopped moving entirely and will push down.

Here’s an early test of this system in action. You can see how the feathers react to the sphere before it actually touches it, but the interaction is still convincing.

This is a small sample of the work we put into making our falcon visuals believable. We hope you enjoy petting, dressing up, hunting, and fighting with your falcon.

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HOLD IT! Put on your best blue suit and polish your attorney’s badge to a mirror shine, because
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy is coming to PlayStation 4 tomorrow! Phoenix and company have never looked better thanks to crisp new artwork and an updated UI that brings each intense courtroom battle to life.

You might remember the original versions of these games, with the first one released back in 2005:

The pixel art looked quite nice for the early 2000s, but as games change over time, so do the graphics that go into them and the screens you can play them on. The team behind the trilogy has worked hard to replace that pixelated Phoenix with gorgeous, hand-drawn artwork that retains the original charm:

Now, that is one sharp-looking suit, Mr. Wright! It even looks a little more blue than before. Phoenix and company really come to life with the updated art of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, and you’ll be able to enjoy their new — but familiar! — looks from the comfort of your couch. Of course, that also includes a new UI to match, taking the original format…

And updating it for modern wide screens with a 16:9 presentation.

The Maya Intelligence Network has never looked better! The game’s backgrounds have been touched up too, making each environment both vibrant and fun to look at. Before we move on, here’s one last comparison of security guard Wendy Oldbag to give you an idea of just how much has changed:

New presentation, same Oldbag.

For greenhorn attorneys who are just breaking in their badge or veterans looking for a refresher, I’m also taking the stand to bring you some tips on how to make the most of your time in the courtroom. Isn’t that right, Wright?

Let’s Get Legal

The legal system in the world of Ace Attorney is quite different from our own. Instead of a typical trial with a jury delivering their verdict after days or weeks, cases in Ace Attorney are decided by a single judge presiding over the defense and prosecution as they plead their case. You won’t be stuck behind the defense bench the whole time, though; while Ace Attorney games are known for their dramatic courtroom battles, most trials will take place over a maximum of three days, allowing you to investigate crime scenes when you’re not verbally slugging it out in court. Interrogating witnesses and gathering evidence is key to strengthening your case before heading back to the courtroom to slam on desks, raise an “OBJECTION!” or two, and prove your client’s innocence!

Check Everything – and I Mean Everything

Investigating a crime scene is no easy task, with several areas to scour for clues and evidence. Both newcomers and veterans of Ace Attorney will have an easier time investigating than ever before, thanks to the helpful magnifying glass that appears when you’re searching an area for clues. As you examine the environment, the icon will change from blue to yellow when you’re hovering over something interesting — a clear indicator that it’s worth investigating. Even better, a handy checkmark appears once you’ve investigated an object! These are brand-new features for this collection, so you’ll never have to ask yourself “can I check that?” or “what did I miss?” while you play. It pays to inspect everything you can, and you never know what might be useful. Even if something isn’t essential to the case, it’s still worth checking out — there’s lots of fun chatter between characters that you might miss otherwise!

Show ‘Em Your Badge (And Everything Else You Have)

Speaking of chitchat, you’ll need to talk to people involved in the case as you search for clues outside of court. As you explore, you’ll be able to gather more information from your client by visiting them at the detention center. You’ll also encounter various other colorful characters when you check out the crime scene and surrounding areas. Talking to people can provide you with vital clues and evidence that you can take back to court. Some witnesses can be a bit cagey, so you’ll need to provide a little motivation by presenting the right piece of evidence to squeeze some extra information out of them. Starting with the second game, Justice for All, you’ll also gain access to a unique item that allows you to draw out people’s closely guarded secrets, hidden by mental barriers known as “Psyche-Locks.” A puzzle in and of itself, you’ll need to present the correct evidence to break each lock, convincing witnesses to talk about their deepest secrets. You never know what will work with a witness, so try showing them everything you have!

Review the Court Record

Everything you know about any given case is stored in the Court Record, including photographs, witness testimonies, autopsy reports, and lots more. You’ll also have access to profiles for various people you meet throughout each case — useful if you forget a name, or if you need to show someone a person’s face to jog their memory. Any time you need to present a piece of evidence you’ll be using the Court Record, so be sure to familiarize yourself with key items from each case. You never know when you’ll be put on the spot, so it pays to be prepared. Plus, your prized attorney’s badge is in there, too. Without that, how would anyone know you’re a lawyer?

Point Your Way to Victory

The courtroom can be an intense place, and you’ll watch heated battles impact the characters themselves. A big part of Ace Attorney is the colorful cast of characters and how they react, with Phoenix and rival prosecutors alike seeming to take physical blows from verbal arguments — though some of them really are physical, thanks to Franziska von Karma and her whip in Justice for All! Still, by the time you get to court, you’ll have everything you need to solve the case. If you can’t present a piece of evidence to catch a witness in a lie, try pressing their statements for more info. They might be forced to clarify a statement, or you just might trip them up into revealing more than they wanted to. If you miss a statement the first time, don’t worry — you can move back and forward through testimony to re-read or press anything you might have missed! Use everything at your disposal to bring the truth to light and save the day!

It’s time to take those initial steps into the Fey and Co. Law Offices, and join Phoenix on his first foray into the legal system. Don’t forget to pre-order for an instant reward theme featuring pixel art of the heroes, rivals, and mascots of all three games. You can’t have an OBJECTION to that — right, Wright?

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy comes to PS4 tomorrow, with a language patch including French, German, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese coming August 2019. I’ll see you in court!

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Can you believe March is already behind us? Reflecting on the month, the PlayStation Store charts tell us that players showed up ready to wield swords, bats, and guns. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Devil May Cry 5 clashed blades, with FromSoftware’s challenging shinobi adventure securing third place. MLB The Show 19 scored second, confirming that baseball season is back in full swing. Finally, congrats to Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 winning the top spot. This polished shooter sequel grabbed gamers’ attention with a wealth of missions to execute.

Feast your eyes on the rest of March’s top downloads below.

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Who wouldn’t want to befriend a falcon? Think of the possibilities! Sending it to get things for you… working together to disarm an encampment of deadly drones… dressing it up in cute hats…

Falcon Age, a new avian adventure fully playable on PS4 or in PS VR, launches Tuesday from the team at Outerloop Games.

For a full list of new games coming to PlayStation next week, read on. And enjoy The Drop!

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The information above is subject to change without notice.

In A World: Tom Holkenborg Takeover Playlist

Hip-Hop and Play T-Pain Takeover Playlist

Hellboy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Justice League vs. the Fatal Five

Escape Room

A Silent Voice – The Movie

Season Premiere Sunday, 4/7 at 8PM PT
on BBC America

Series Premiere Tuesday, 4/9 at 10PM PT
on FX

The information above is subject to change without notice.

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The iconic prison island of Alcatraz is your next destination in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s Blackout mode. The intense map pits 40 players against each other. That means the action kicks in faster and more furiously than the original, sprawling Blackout map. Make the most of your time on the Rock with a few critical tips.

• If you’re lucky enough to find a sensor dart, pay close attention to the color of enemy pings. A smaller, dark red ping means that an enemy is either above or below you. With the verticality of Alcatraz, this can be key information for survival.
• Zombies fans will notice that Wall Buys can be found throughout Alcatraz. You’ll be even happier to know that the Wall Buys in Alcatraz are free of charge, aside from the battle to get there. These will provide a rotation of guaranteed weapons throughout the course of the match, so keep an eye out for their blue glow.
• The Outlander and Brawler Perks can be very useful on the island. You’ll often be forced outside of the collapse or end up right next to an enemy, and these Perks may just be your saving grace.
• The close quarters gameplay of Alcatraz lends itself to certain pieces of Equipment, Weapons, and Perks well-suited for tighter spaces. We suggest the Cluster grenade for clearing out rooms, the Cordite submachine gun for its mobility and high-capacity magazine, and Skulker or Dead Silence for moving quickly and silently among the living and the dead.
• If you find yourself warping through a portal in the later collapses, keep your head on a swivel. Redeploy heights will be gradually reduced throughout the match to keep you closer to the fight. Consider late drops to be very hot.
• For the final collapse, get towards the center point as early as you can. Battling in as the collapse closes will pit you against two types of enemies: other enemy teams and high circle damage.

Have some words of wisdom for other soldiers deploying onto the shattered remains of America’s infamous prison? Share them in the comments below.

New to Black Ops 4’s Blackout mode and want to give it a try? A limited-time Blackout Free Access period is running now through April 30, 2019. PS Plus required.

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Last week, we sent you back to 1500s Sengoku Japan, fighting for vengeance as the One-Armed Wolf. From serene natural settings to portraits of our stealthy hero, you sent us your bebst shots using #PS4share and #PSBlog. Here are this week’s death-defying shares:

Sekiro stands before a slithering enemy in this ghostly share by @FWNiightmare.

The environments in this game are absolutely breathtaking, as seen in this tranquil share by @Gamer_XI.

I’m gonna be real with y’all, I just really loved the framing of this nighttime shot by @Eng_M7Alharbi.

@DotPone shared this shadowed portrait of ally Emma.

Sekiro faces danger at every fiery corner in this share by @TheDevine13.

A beautiful temple can hide dangerous enemies, like in this share by @mode_floto.

Search #PS4Share and #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in next week’s Share of the Week?

Theme: Spring
Share by: 9am Pacific on Wednesday, April 17

Spring has finally sprung! For the next two weeks, celebrate the new season by sharing the best springtime settings from your favorite games using #PS4share and #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

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You may not have heard of Three Fields Entertainment, but you may be familiar with our past work. We started the Burnout series back in 2000 and were Creative Director (Alex) and Executive Producer (Fiona) on every game in the series. In 2013, we left Electronic Arts and in 2014 started Three Fields Entertainment, which with just seven people is a return to our early days — a small passionate team working together more like a music band than a typical development team.

We have made four games to date, and Dangerous Driving is the most exciting yet, as it is a return to a genre that we love and have always been passionate about. All genres have their core ingredients that become genre standards and the games we have made have had a bit of influence in forming the core ingredients of the aggressive racing genre.

It has been over 10 years since we last made this genre of game, so appropriately enough here are 10 ways we’ve taken the game further by revisiting it with fresh eyes and new technology:

1. The widest range of game modes seen in any game in this genre​

The game has nine different single player game modes all tied together in a 69-event single player progression. We looked at what all our favorite game modes have been over the years and included them all: races where Takedowns are what fuel your speed; eliminator races where you literally fight to survive over five laps, with the last place being eliminated each lap; 1-on-1 races where the other guy is in a faster car and the only way to win is to try and take him down repeatedly; 3-race GPs; Pursuit where you play as the cops; Survival where it’s survive against the clock and the traffic (one crash and it’s game over) and genre-favorite Road Rage is back, but with some new rule sets… (see #4 below)

2. Persistent wrecks​

One of the best things about coming back to this genre with the benefit of PS4 hardware is the ability to do things we could never do before — and one of those is what we call persistent wrecks. Every time you take someone down their crashed wreck remains on the road, making each subsequent lap even more dangerous. And we’re excited about what this is going to mean online. (see #10 below!)

3. New types of Takedowns​

We couldn’t put persistent wrecks in the game without using them as a crash-and-Takedown variant. Take someone down into a persistent wreck and it’s a Junkyard Takedown, crash into one yourself and it’s a Nervous Wreck. And believe us: you will be one when you’re on the last lap, desperately hanging on to first place hoping a wreck isn’t going to take you out.

4. Familiar modes; new rule sets​

Road Rage is back but we wanted to introduce new ways to play, so in later events we have upped the challenge level. ​How many Takedowns can you score when Shunts are disabled — or when only Traffic Takedowns count? This can get really challenging and we can’t wait to see the leaderboards for Traffic Takedowns. Our office best is only about 10!

5. Pursuit mode with up to five Target vehicles​

We’ve always been fans of playing as the cops. It’s a recurring theme in much of our work and one of the reasons that we chose to make our version of Need for Speed a remake of the classic Hot Pursuit.

At the start of the game it’s you against one Target vehicle but as the game progresses and you unlock better cop cars you’ll take on faster and more numerous opponents. This is a really intense mode played on our Point-to-Point tracks and you need to stop all the targets before you reach the end.

6. Cars that are tailor-made for modes

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In this genre vehicles can end up being the same, just a model swap with very similar stats. In Dangerous Driving we wanted to make car choice more meaningful.

So for example the Tuned version of each car earns and uses boost much quicker than any other, making it perfect for Heatwave events (see #8 below). Advanced vehicles are stronger, hit harder and take less damage. Prototype vehicles are the ‘best’ in that they are the fastest, but they’re made of carbon fiber so they’re the most fragile. We didn’t want there to be just one ‘best’ car when we take the game online (see #10!). You make a choice based on the mode and your playing style.

7. AI based on real player performances​

Another staple for the genre is AI that is designed to stay around the player and give them a good race. In Dangerous Driving we used real player performance to ‘teach’ the AI to drive and in most of the game modes the AI is racing to a time set by a real human player. Take Face Offs for example — these guys are gunning for it just like the human player that was used to create their data making for an incredibly intense experience. The only way to throw them off is to take them down — repeatedly.

8. Modes where we genuinely don’t know the limit​

Following the theme of cars tailor-made for modes — take a Tuned vehicle into a Heatwave mode and you get a very special and unique advantage. Heatwave events are purer race events (more similar to races in, say, Burnout 2) and dropping a whole boost bar in one go refills the boost, meaning you can chain your boost repeatedly. Tuned vehicles are perfect because they earn and use boost more quickly so you can chain them quicker — but also each successful chain in a Tuned car adds 2 mph to your top speed… until you crash. Interestingly, we have no idea what the limit is on this as we have always crashed after about 30-35 chains!! So we’re looking forward to seeing the YouTube videos of how far players push it!

9. Spotify integration​

We’ve long believed that the music people drive to is intensely personal so we really wanted to integrate Spotify and give people endless choice. Authorize your premium Spotify account in the Audio menu and you will then be able to control your music inside the game. Follow the development team’s own Spotify account or choose your own personal playlist (we are fans of Spotify’s Mixed for you ‘Songs to Sing in the Car’).

10. Online play

In the first month after release, we will release DLC that adds online capabilities to the game and we’re really excited about how all the new features will transfer into online. There will be online racing and of course online Road Rage — and persistent wrecks, Junkyard Takedowns and Nervous Wrecks (see above) will all feature strongly!

Dangerous Driving releases on PS4 on April 9. You can pre-order it now until April 8 and receive an exclusive car (only available to digital pre-order customers).

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Hello everyone,

As creative director and co-founder of Panache Digital Games, it’s with great pleasure that I’m presenting to you the first of our three videos in which we’ll dive into our first game Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, a game where you will get the chance to experience the greatest adventure of all time: our own!

Starting 10 million years ago and spanning over 8 million years, Ancestors will have you explore the beautiful, yet unforgiving world of Neogene Africa. You’ll need to expand your territory and grow your clan as you evolve through the ages, gaining new abilities and passing them on to the next generations. These videos are here to scratch the surface of the main pillars of the game without spoiling anything for you. I truly believe that discovering something for the first time is part of what makes this game unique and exciting. That’s why we say “Good luck, we won’t help you much!”

We’re now getting closer to release and I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved in the four years since we first started Panache in my living room with a handful of other veteran friends from the video game industry. Because, yes, in the early days of Panache, there were only six of us meeting at my condo on the Montreal Plateau to set the table to what would later become a talented team of 35 working on Ancestors.

Back then, I could see how the landscape of gaming was rapidly changing. There were lots of really talented studios releasing cool indie games while AAA quality games were getting bigger, more graphically stunning and offered almost infinite content. And in the middle, there was what seemed to be a huge void in what was being offered. Smaller AAA-quality games didn’t seem that viable. It was either small indies or gargantuan blockbusters. But with development tools more democratically available and digital downloads becoming the norm, I knew there was an opportunity to make something great even as an indie studio.

Then, as we were working on building the studio and putting together the concept for Ancestors, we started talking with who would become our dear friends at Take-Two. They were setting up an independent publishing division which would later be called… Private Division. Their mission: to team up with the best proven talent that had independent studios and help them achieve their ambitions. After a year of organically growing the company and working on a prototype, we all felt that we had something incredibly special in our hands.

Fast-forward to today. Ancestors is a unique gaming experience where we ask players that simple, yet interesting question: Can you, Modern Homo Sapiens, survive like our ancestors did? To answer the question, players will have to be observant, careful, agile and wise. Besides, there isn’t a good or bad way of playing it. It’s all about you daring to experiment. At the end of the day, you’ll be playing and creating your own particular adventures each time you press start… I can’t wait for you all to play it later in 2019!

“Evolution is not set in stone, it is your path to forge”.

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Hey fellow Humans,

Michael speaking here on behalf of Curve Digital – I am the Senior Producer of Human: Fall Flat.

Last December, we announced that more content is coming in 2019. I’m pleased to announce to you that our first big free 2019 update is coming on April 16! It will offer you a brand-new level called “Dark” and 13 customization elements!

The new “Dark” level is the very first level set at night-time, with a flavor of a nightmare rather than a dream – but not scary, just atmospheric and mysterious. We wanted to try something a bit different, a level that would stand out yet was still undeniably Human: Fall Flat. A night-time level hadn’t been done yet, so why not?

Moreover, we had electricity already used in the Power Plant level and this made us start to think about swinging lanterns and Tesla coils, and how cool electricity arcs would look in the dark. As far as the level theme is concerned, the main inspirations were horror movies like the Universal Classic Monsters and movies such as Beetlejuice and A Nightmare Before Christmas.

Moving forward, we tried a few different horror movie tropes: abandoned buildings, the big creepy clocktower, a mansion on a hilltop, whilst trying to keep the puzzles based in reality and science, and to the Human: Fall Flat formula.

When we started building the level, we used the two previous levels, Power Plant and Aztec, as benchmarks to make the new level as big as the Aztec level in size. However, it ended up being much larger. The puzzles themselves required a lot of iteration and tweaking due to Human: Fall Flat’s unique physics.

I hope you like what we did with the level and the team is really looking forward to seeing you discover all the puzzles and surprises it has.

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Have you noticed a lack of party games that allow you to fight friend or foe using underpants as your arsenal? We did too. Luckily, I can finally announce that Brief Battles, our cheeky underwear-fuelled party game, will be available on PS4 on May 7.

Check out our new trailer to see what it’s all about and read on as I bare all about the undies, Underwearriors, and game modes in Brief Battles.

In Brief Battles you can play as one of six adorable, plump, wobbly Underwearriors. Despite their often stout and jiggly physique, these characters are spry climbers with astounding agility, using sticky nub-hands to utilise any safe surface to navigate hazardous arenas.

All Underwearriors start out underpant-less with equal abilities and a hefty pant-pound at their disposal. You’ll pick up neat powers from the underpants you collect in game. Battle your friends and foes by equipping Buns of Steel, Toxic Tighty-whities, Flaming Hot Pants, and more!

Each pair of underpants has unique pros and cons when facing off against other players. You’ll grab random undies from presents spawning around the arena and keep these undies until you’ve been popped or pick up another pair – both of which happen frequently!

Presents often pop up in your path during battle. In the heat of the moment, you might be going after another player with your Buns of Steel before suddenly picking up Underpants of Protection, and your strategy immediately changes.

My favorite part of Brief Battles would have to be playing local multiplayer modes. I’m usually either focused and competitive in Knockout, or laughing and shouting at the screen in Hold the Gold: Bare Buns, as myself and three friends run around pantless, trying to nab a hefty pair of golden undies.

There’s a full lineup of competitive battle and underwear-themed party modes available on launch.

Prefer to play solo or work together with a friend? Train up and test your skills in solo challenges to unlock Underwearrior skins and Trophies, or battle cute beasties with a friend to take back arenas from hordes of foes and bosses in Butt-em-up Battles.

Hardcore trophy hunters can push their skills to the limit to reach the hardest challenge goals, while accessibility options open the game up to everyone.

We’ve packed Brief Battles with 50 unique and sometimes treacherous arenas, with interactive elements and distinct hazards to keep every play session interesting.

We’ve had a heap of fun bringing this cheeky underwear-laden adventure to life and we can’t wait to share it with fellow party game fans.

Get ready to embrace the power of the butt when Brief Battles releases on May 7, with English, French, Italian, German and Spanish support on launch.

I look forward to any questions or thoughts in the comments below! May your butt reign supreme.

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Attention Vault Hunters! After years spent developing the game behind closed doors, I am thrilled and relieved to finally say this out loud: Borderlands 3 is real, and it’s coming out later this year. We unveiled the game at PAX East last Thursday, and today I can confirm Borderlands 3 will launch on September 13, 2019. I’m also proud to share our third Borderlands 3 trailer (assuming you count the “Mask of Mayhem” teaser we posted last Wednesday and the footage we debuted at PAX East).

If you’ve already watched the trailer at the top of this page, you probably noticed four brand new Vault Hunters, all of whom will of course be playable, customizable, and totally badass. Let’s get the ball rolling with some quick introductions: Moze is a nimble soldier who can digistruct and hop into her mech—Iron Bear—anytime she needs some additional firepower. Amara is a Siren who can summon ethereal fists to pound enemies. Zane is a semi-retired hitman who can cause chaos with his Digi-clone and other gadgets. And FL4K is a wandering robot who’s always accompanied by one of their loyal and battle-hardened pets.

You may have also noticed a couple villains in the trailer – you know, the ones with the hair? Those are the Calypso Twins, who are uniting the bandit clans and attempting to get their hands on the galaxy’s ultimate power capable of destroying, well… everything. Only you and your Vault Hunter allies will have the unique abilities, uncommonly deep skill trees, and seemingly never-ending arsenal of guns and gadgets to stop them.

You’ll be capable of tackling the Calypso Twins and their fanatical followers alone, but when you team up with other Vault Hunters, you’ll really feel unstoppable. With that in mind, one of the things that I’m most excited about in Borderlands 3 are the improvements that we’ve made to co-op. Regardless of your respective levels or mission progress, you and your friends can play together online or on the couch, and not only will each of you deal a meaningful amount of damage, you’ll also receive your own discrete loot stream. No more loot ninjas! Of course, if you prefer to play with classic Borderlands 2 co-op rules—where loot is shared—you can choose to do so.

Regardless of which mode you opt for, every fight in Borderlands 3 will be an opportunity to score new gear. If you’ve adventured in the Borderlands before, you’ll recognize most of the weapons manufacturers, but I think you might be surprised by some of their latest innovations. Atlas now offers guns that fire tracker tags and Smart Bullets; DAHL weapons feature alternate fire modes; and the Maliwan range now incorporates firearms that can toggle between two elements and deal guaranteed elemental damage.

Looking for something a little crazier? Okay, how about rifles that spawn fire-spewing volcanoes, or guns that grow legs and then chase down enemies while verbally abusing them? We’ve got those too. All of us at Gearbox are excited for you to get your hands on these weapons and bazillions more like them come September, when you’ll get to take the fight to the Calypso Twins not only on Pandora but on other planets throughout the Borderlands as well.

We’ll be offering an extended look at Borderlands 3 during our worldwide gameplay reveal event on May 1. To catch all that and more, be sure to follow @Borderlands on Twitter. We’re also making pre-orders available today for those who might be interested in picking up some extra loot in addition to the game itself. And hey, if you’re down for an action-packed Borderlands history lesson while you wait, both Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition and Borderlands: The Handsome Collection are available on PS4 and, as of today, playable in 4K on PS4 Pro. Catch you again on May 1!

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The infamous prison island of Alcatraz is now a standalone Blackout location! Available for all players on PS4, Alcatraz is completely separate from the main Blackout map, allowing for two distinct game experiences. Focused more on close-combat battles, the Alcatraz action takes place throughout the overcast island shrouded in a fog-filled gloom, creating a dramatic and intense atmosphere, where you’re dropped in from skybound portals with only limited time to gear up and start taking down enemies.

Size-wise, the prison is far more compact compared to the main Blackout map, leading to more focused and immediate combat as dozens of competitors fight for control. Expect thrilling and chaotic firefights almost immediately, with you and your teammates vying for items and strategically-advantageous positions both in and around the many structures dotted throughout this prison island.

It’s time to change up your tactics compared to the main Blackout map. In Alcatraz, a greater reliance on twitch skills and close-quarters combat leads to shorter, more frenetic battles where you’ll spend far less time to concoct a long-term plan, and more time scrambling for items and cover! Stalk your enemies across the claustrophobic prison yards, warehouses, jail cells, and dockside structures… many of which will feel right at home for Zombies fans.

With the intensity dialed up to 11, expect matches to last around ten minutes, quicker than the 25-minute games in the main Blackout map. Shorter matches, tighter areas, and condensed player counts mean higher chances for more nail-biting victories!

The divergent environments across Alcatraz range from rocky shorelines and caves, rusting Navy vessel wreckage, abandoned field hospitals and tents, a temporary helipad, industrial warehouses, apartment blocks, a variety of overgrown foliage, a powerhouse with a cooling tower, and dominating the “top of the Rock” is the derelict prison itself, where you can expect the firefights to be the most intense.

As well as looking out for foes, you’ll need to look up too. Traversing the nine named destinations across Alcatraz is totally different compared to the original Blackout map. Alcatraz has a ridge-like topography, with a much higher building density, more tight corners to ambush and attack from, and a real sense of verticality as you ascend to the main prison on the highest ground.

With such a change from the original Blackout map, it’s worth reassessing your item choices as you prepare for combat. As the circle closes in on you, it could be worth stuffing your backpack with equipment you normally might not think about employing: While close-combat weapons are obvious choices, the Grapple Gun is a great asset when maneuvering through the tight prison hallways, shadow-filled staircases, or treacherous balconies littered with barriers. Why go through them when you can grapple over them? Also, take some time to drop Razor Wire or Barricades to provide chokepoints in any narrow space, be it a corner, doorway, or stairwell, and stop potential flankers while you finish your adversaries off.

Oh, and do keep an eye out for flesh-eating zombies.

Blackout: Alcatraz is available on PlayStation 4 starting April 2 for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

Fight Across Alcatraz as Part of Blackout Free Access

All PlayStation Plus members can take part in Blackout Free Access on both Alcatraz and the original Blackout map, including all the latest spring color and weapon updates. You’re able to matchmake with all Blackout players, including Solos, Duos, and Quads, and any progression you make can be saved and transferred if you upgrade to a paid version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

There’s never been a better time to play Blackout. Leave none standing to win!

The limited-time Blackout Free Access period begins April 2, 2019 and ends on April 30, 2019.

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Hello, PlayStation Now fans! Today we’re adding nine new games to the PlayStation Now library of more than 750 games in all, including hits from Konami and Codemasters. Check out Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, DiRT 4, and more, available starting today! Subscribers can stream any game in the service to PS4 and PC, and download any PS4 game and PS2 game in the service directly to their PS4.

Adding to our lineup of Metal Gear Solid games, starting this month PS Now subscribers can download or stream both Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and the epic Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The Phantom Pain takes place in 1984, nine years after the events in Ground Zeroes, delivering immersive open-world tactical gameplay, feature-rich game design, and cinematic storytelling.

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For a change of pace, take things offroad with DiRT 4 for some rally, rallycross, and landrush action. With over 50 iconic rally vehicles from throughout the history of rally motorsports, courses in the US and Europe, and a custom driver/team creator, get your rally on with DiRT 4 for PS4 (stream or download).

We’re also adding three classic Star Wars PS2 games to the PS Now library to stream or download. Take to the skies in Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, become Jango Fett in the 3rd person shooter Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, and test your Podracing skills in Star Wars: Racer Revenge.

Here is the full list of the nine games joining PS Now this month to download (PS4 and PS2 games) and stream (all games):

• Bang Bang Racing (PS3)
• Clouds & Sheep 2 (PS4)
• DiRT 4 (PS4)
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
• Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4)
• Shadow Complex Remastered (PS4)
• Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (PS2)
• Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter (PS2)
• Star Wars: Racer Revenge (PS2)

Here are the most played PS Now games during the month of March:

• NBA 2K18
• WWE 2K18
• Mortal Kombat X
• Mafia III
• Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution
• For Honor
• Red Dead Redemption
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited
• Sniper Elite IV
• Fallout New Vegas
• Saint’s Row IV Re-Elected
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

If you haven’t tried PlayStation Now yet, now’s the perfect time to give it a spin with the seven-day free trial for PS4 and PC. (Terms apply. New Subscribers only. Credit card required. See here for details.)

Stay tuned for more updates on PS Now. Happy gaming!

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I did it: I played No Man’s Sky in virtual reality! As announced during our first-ever episode of State of Play, Hello Games’ spacefaring epic gets full PS VR support this summer, and at a recent hands-on event I immediately beelined over to try it out.

No Man’s Sky’s VR implementation is not a separate experience — it’s the full game, completely playable in virtual reality.

The small, Guildford-based team at Hello Games has put in extensive work to rebuild the interface around VR — the demo I played was even set up with dual PS Move motion controllers. Using this control scheme, holding up your left arm and pointing at it with your right hand brings up a menu with your standard options (Quick menu, torch, mining tool, etc.). Hello has also implemented teleportation-based controls for getting around: Just hold the left move button to manipulate a marker that you can place anywhere within around 30 in-game feet (by my approximation). In a clever touch, rotating your right wrist before letting go of the left Move button will allow you to adjust your orientation before initiating the teleport.

All the tools and upgrades you’ve accumulated in the No Man’s Sky universe are present, including the Terrain Manipulator. Just reach your right hand behind your shoulder and squeeze the Move controller’s trigger to grab it, then point and click to reshape the topography in front of you. Having 1:1 control here should be a boon for all you creative types — especially when perfecting the custom design of your home base!

Climbing into the cockpit (fully built out for VR — nice!) of your trusty starship and exiting a planet’s atmosphere is a powerful experience, and it’s even more stunning in virtual reality. Punching the thrusters for the first time in VR felt similar to the first time I did it in the original game: surprisingly kinetic, and wholly exhilarating. Ship controls have been revamped for VR, too: manipulate the ship’s throttle with your left hand, and its flight stick with your right. Need to cover a lot of distance in a little time? Hold the left Move button to boost, or hold both Move buttons to activate your Pulse Engine for a dramatic speed increase. Looking around in the midst of a high-speed jaunt through the stars, pink and purple streaks zipping past the sides of your ship, is a sci-fi dream come true.

I’ve enjoyed checking in on No Man’s Sky as Hello has continued to evolve and improve the game, but the addition of VR support may be the catalyst that gets me to sink dozens more hours into exploring its endless universe. Learn more about No Man’s Sky’s massive upcoming Beyond update here, and stay tuned for more info as we get closer to its summer launch.

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Hi everyone, I’m Jeff Brown, a Creative Director at San Mateo Studio. Dominic Robilliard of Pixelopus recently shared the latest trailer for Concrete Genie, an upcoming game about a boy named Ash who, through the power of creativity, paints his ruined seaside town of Denska back to life.

Dom also announced that we are working hard on two very special PlayStation VR modes* included alongside the core Concrete Genie PS4 game at launch. The team and I are super excited to share more about these VR modes with you today.

When our Art Director, Dave Smith and I first sat down with Dom to have a look at what he and Pixelopus had created, we knew immediately that this world and its magic could provide some incredible inspiration for a PS VR experience. We wondered, amongst the beautiful art and storytelling of Concrete Genie, what it might feel like to get to know a Genie one-on-one. Where would we go? What kinds of things would we do together? In our first PS VR mode, VR Experience, you’ll follow a curious Genie named Splotch beneath Denska’s ominous lighthouse on a quest to unlock a mysterious power while using your Living Paint in a completely new way. I don’t want to give away too much, but what we came up with is pretty special. We can’t wait for you to try it yourself!

But that’s not all! While looking at other possible PS VR modes for the game, everybody had a simple, common desire – to stand in one of Denska’s alleyways, paintbrush in hand, using Living Paint to bring our surroundings to life. A completely immersive, first-person painting experience.

This was the springboard for building the first prototype of what would become our Concrete Genie PS VR Free Paint mode** (an immediate favorite around the office). You’ll have the choice between four unique Denska locations where you can play and experiment with all the Living Paint and Genie creation brushes you collect during your Concrete Genie adventures, all with the intuitiveness that the two PlayStation Move Motion controllers provide***.

We think our two PS VR modes make a great complement to the world of Concrete Genie, and we love the way things are shaping up. Keep an eye out for more in the coming months, and we can’t wait for you to get your hands on the game later this year!

*Please review and follow all safety guidelines for use of PlayStation VR. PlayStation VR is not for use by children under age 12. PlayStation 4 system, PlayStation VR and PlayStation Camera are required to experience VR functionality.
**Players must complete VR Experience in order to unlock VR Free Paint.
***Two PlayStation Move Motion Controllers required for PS VR Modes.

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“What would happen if you could play Everybody’s Golf in VR? Could VR be the key to creating more realistic courses, ones where players feel like they are actually there?”

These were a couple of the questions that first launched this project alongside Everybody’s Golf for PlayStation 4. We wanted to take the series somewhere it had never been before and do something entirely fresh with it.

After we began working on Everybody’s Golf VR*, we soon realized that we were on to something great. The nature of golf proved to be perfect for VR. The VR space itself further pushes the immersion, so you feel as though you are really on a golf course surrounded by natural scenery.

From there, our focus was on developing a golf game that felt real while still remaining accessible. We didn’t want to make it a simulator, but instead something that players could easily enjoy. A big part of creating the realistic golf experience was making it compatible with the one PlayStation Move motion controller** as well as the DualShock 4 wireless controller, both of which you can use to take your golf shots***.

In addition to a variety of original courses (with dinosaurs?!)****, we also built a practice ground (a first for the series) for players to practice their shots before hitting the courses. And, of course, we couldn’t forget caddies. Not only are they on hand to give advice as before, but now they also appear in random events during the rounds. We thought that VR created a unique opportunity to interact with them and hope that these events provide a fun little break between holes.

Pre-order Everybody’s Golf VR now to receive bonus content at launch, including:

• Additional Caddie – Steve
• Everybody’s Golf VR – Seaside Theme
• Everybody’s Golf VR – Forest Theme
• Everybody’s Golf VR – Custom Theme

The game is set to be released on May 21st for PS VR. See you on the fairway!

*Please review and follow all safety guidelines for use of PlayStation VR. PlayStation VR is not for use by children under age 12. PlayStation 4 system, PlayStation VR and PlayStation Camera are required to experience VR functionality.
**One PlayStation Move Motion Controller optional.
***Please review and follow all safety guidelines.
**** Must complete certain levels to unlock additional courses and features.

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Salutations! Last week, Kristen, Sid and I journeyed to the exotic land of San Francisco to attend a hands-on event featuring a bundle of upcoming PlayStation VR experiences, many of which had just been announced during our first episode of State of Play.

We were plenty impressed by the lot of ’em, but we found time to write more detailed impressions of five new games coming to the platform in the months ahead. Peruse at your leisure, and hit the comments to let us know which ones stood out to you in last week’s show.

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Marvel’s Iron Man VR is proving itself to be a highly intuitive VR action experience, offering up an immersive mix of flying and shooting that is sure to make Marvel, and especially Iron Man, fans cheer.

My demo’s setup was simple. As teased in the announce trailer, classic villain Ghost has taken control of Tony Stark’s private jet. As Iron Man, my job was simple: recover the plane and save Pepper.

During my short gameplay demo, I switched between firing Repulsors blasts, flying, and Repulsor blasts while flying, all using the versatile PlayStation Move controllers. Whether blasting Ghost’s drones or dodging incoming debris, I never felt overwhelmed or confused by the action. The feeling was exhilarating: more than in any other PS VR game I’ve played, I actually felt like I was the character.

Some quick notes and observations:

• Flying feels more natural than I expected. It’s simple: You hold the Trigger button on both PlayStation Move controllers and position them opposite to the direction you want to fly. I picked up on it almost instantly.
• A quick double-tap of the Trigger button prompts a high-speed “dash” that boosts your flying speed considerably – helpful, say, for dodging incoming enemy fire.
• Shooting Iron Man’s iconic Repulsors is similarly intuitive. Simply aim one or both PS Move controllers and press the Move button with your wrists pointing upward. With a little practice, you’ll be flying and shooting like Iron Man.
• If you need some extra practice, there’s a well-thought-out tutorial set outside Tony Stark’s Malibu Mansion that shows you the ropes: hovering, flying, Repulsor blasts, and more. VR pros are free to skip it, though.
• Though I didn’t get a chance to try it, the final version of the game is said to allow players to customize Iron Man’s suit and upgrade its abilities in Tony Stark’s garage.

More than any other VR game I’ve played, Marvel’s Iron Man VR made me feel like the character I was controlling. If you’ve ever posed in front of the mirror pretending to be Iron Man, this is the game for you.

If the full game can keep building on these solid fundamentals, PS VR owners will be in for a treat when the game launches later this year.

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Freddy Fazbear and his band of animatronic antagonists are back in Five Nights At Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted, and I’m thrilled (and chilled) to report that yep, they’re still pretty dang scary. The goosebumps came as soon as I strapped on the PS VR headset, where Freddy and co.’s eyes leered down at me from the menu screen, following my movements with their oversized plastic eyes. The new PS VR entry takes us back to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, where a night-shift security guard tries to stay alive while the animatronic band characters become mobile and deadly overnight. Fans of the grizzly point-and-click puzzle series will be thrilled to see 20 classic levels from the original games come alive in Help Wanted, accompanied by 20 all new mini-games that pack an equally terrifying punch.

The demo I played through featured three fright-filled minigames. The first was a recreation of Night 2 from the original Five Nights At Freddy’s. Alone in the back office, I had to survive the night monitoring several security cameras tracking the locations of the ragtag restaurant band members, strategically closing the office doors when they got too close. Switching between the security cams built a classic horror sense of anticipation, but VR introduces a new element of terror. It was one thing to see the creepy characters disappearing as I looked forward at the monitor. It was another for me to lose track of one, turn my head, and feel my heart leave my chest as Foxy rushed the room to make me his prey. Even when you close the doors in time, watching them amble past the office windows will only keep the horror at bay for a moment. Monitoring the power levels and strategically leaving the doors open will help you make it to morning. I took a different approach, frantically (and wastefully) closing my doors for too long, eventually cutting the power, and leaving me in the dark with only Freddy’s glowing eyes to keep me company.

Next up was a new minigame, where I was set to perform repairs on Bonnie the guitar-playing bunny, whose instrument went out of tune. The feeling of unease sets in immediately, with the crooning critter perched disturbingly close, looming over me. There are a number of these repair-themed vignettes in the full game, and each requires following the technician’s audio instructions very, very carefully as just one mistake will spell your gut-clenching demise. And trust me, I messed up quite a few times. By my third try I was so nervous that even following the instructions to the letter had me feeling anxious, eyes wide while I unhinged Bonnie’s jaw or reset his eyeballs. Knowing the horror was held in my own hands made it a spine-tingling experience from rough start to finessed finish, and I let out a breath I didn’t even realize I was holding once I successfully completed the repairs.

The third minigame, also an original setting, spoke to two of my greatest and totally reasonable fears: tight spaces, and giant creepy-crawling rat-faced animatronics intent on murdering me. It’s an escape-the-room challenge set within the restaurant’s ventilation system, where I had to rush to push buttons, flip switches, and turn valves in a strategic order, all while one of Freddy’s demented buddies is scurrying through the vents trying to catch me. Shining light scares the rat off, but each step of the puzzle opens a new part of the vent in a different direction, forcing me to juggle focusing on the task at hand while throwing my head back and forth to catch the rat before it caught me. It felt like a race against myself, panic setting in while I searched for the next valve to turn.

Each minigame has a unique goal and different set of mechanics, and they all successfully had me on the edge of my seat. Horror games thrive on the anticipation of what might go bump in the night. Bringing Five Nights At Freddy’s to PS VR makes that night bump up right beside you from every angle, with Freddy, Chica, Foxy, and the full gang nightstalking you at a terrifying real-life scale. The dingy, greasy pizzeria comes to life like a brilliantly interactive haunted house.

The frights aren’t too far away, either. Five Nights At Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted comes to PS VR this Spring.

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Last week, I got to be an action movie hero. More specifically, I attended a PS VR demo event and strapped into the world of Special Forces soldier Ryan Marks, living out what can only be described as an explosive action spree in Blood & Truth. The London Studio blockbuster has come a long way from its London Heist origins, the popular PlayStation VR Worlds experience that set production of this game into motion. Where London Heist gave a small taste of the action, Blood & Truth rockets you into the fray, saturating the senses with pulsing action sequences, an adrenaline-fuelled soundtrack, and kinetic gameplay that had me cackling with glee.

My playthrough started off where the new trailer revealed during last week’s State of Play begins. Seated at a table in a rusty abandoned building, facing a government official who reads a laundry list of his supposed misdeeds, Marks is keen to set the record straight. From there I was dropped into a mission from Marks’ Special Forces past – infiltrate an enemy base, rescue a fellow soldier, then blow that popsicle stand. Traversing the desert base was smooth, with indicators popping up allowing me to move forward or strafe. Creative Art Director Anthony Filice says this guided movement is intentional — Marks is a Special Forces soldier with a trained sense of infiltration strategy from the get go. Exploration is still encouraged, like looking behind crates or pulling open desk drawers for ammo or other secret collectibles.

What makes the game so delightfully immersive is how natural the weapons feel. At the beginning of my playthrough I calibrated the camera so the gun holster appeared at my waist, allowing me to simply move the Motion Controller down to my hip and squeeze the trigger button to draw my weapon. Similarly to reload, I raised the other controller to my chest where the ammo pack was strapped, pressed trigger, and then moved to slap the clip into the bottom of the handgun. Y’all, I cannot stress enough how deeply satisfying that slap is. Moving through the base and taking down enemies felt exciting, but quickly slamming a fresh clip into my pistol put a wacky smile on my face. It’s a small mechanic in a larger-than-life game, but it made me feel like a real part of the world in a way that no other PS VR game has before.

The level was expertly paced, seamlessly switching between high-stakes shootouts to quieter stealth lock-picking sequences. I had a moment when I finally located my imprisoned ally where he stood up beside me, and I just marvelled at how grounded he and the entire setting felt. We then immediately barrelled out of the base into a frenetic fight sequence featuring a few focused movement shots — sequences where the world shifts into slow motion while you lay the enemy to waste. I treated these moments like challenges, taking advantage of the slow-mo to throw in some stylish flair like catching a grenade and throwing it back, or switching between my handgun and SMG like a practiced gunslinger. The final showdown was a harried escape sequence from the passenger seat of a truck, where I felt myself leaning out the window to shoot, as if I could feel the phantom truck door below me. As enemy trucks and motorcycles whizzed by, my eyes lit up with every opportunity to blast an enemy truck’s gas tank, or make them spin out on their bikes while my ally cheered me on from the driver’s seat.

All this, and the thumping cinematic soundtrack, had me feeling like the star of a major action movie moment. I can’t wait to dive back into Ryan Marks’ world when Blood & Truth comes to PS VR on May 28th.

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Concrete Genie, the second game from Pixelopus, is set to arrive on PlayStation 4 this fall, and as revealed during State of Play it will have two PlayStation VR modes packed in. After playing its “VR Experience” mode at a San Francisco-hosted hands-on event, I came away with a newfound appreciation for the artistry on display from the small San Mateo-based studio.

My demo began in a dark, stifled room built of brick and devoid of light, color, or life. After being equipped with a large, magical paintbrush and Ash’s book of memories, I used my PS Move controller to select a picture of grass from the book held in my left hand, then painted a row of the stuff across the of the wall in front of me. When I did so, a few lights strung along the ceiling lit up. At this point I realized these lights almost completely encircled the room I was standing in… a-ha, a goal to pursue!

Every so often, after bringing more life to the room, an envelope would fly toward the book held in my left hand. Giving the envelope a gentle tap with my paintbrush opened it with a whimsical flourish, unlocking a new artistic element I could then paint on the walls. Over the course of my play session I unlocked trees, dandelions, even fire (no, it doesn’t set the grass or trees on fire — think more like a campfire). The more comfortable I became with my expanding toolset, the more options I unlocked to complement my work.

My guide throughout this experience was an adorable little sprite named Splotch, a fiery character with personality to spare. As I painted each room’s drab walls to life, Splotch interacted with elements of my artistry in amusing ways: blowing on bamboo shoots in an attempt to create music (you’re doing great, buddy), eating apples I placed on tree branches, and generally just being a mischievous little bugger. I love him.

After painting enough to illuminate every light bulb in the no-longer-dreary room, something surprising happened: the wall in front of me cracked and broke, leading me into a new room where I used my newly expanded toolset to create a new piece. This happened a few times, easing me into an expanded set of tools. I was grateful for the gradual introduction to each new element in my kit, as I predict the full set would be rather intimidating if I had access to it all up front.

Finally, after lighting up a few of these rooms, something incredible happened: the walls around me broke away entirely, giving way to a vibrant field where I was given free reign to paint in a fully 3D space (was I in the painting at this point?). Even Splotch was an actual creature now, rather than a painting on a wall! He trotted to and fro, collecting flowers I placed around the field and fashioning himself an adorable little floral headdress that we wore for the rest of the demo. Again, I love him.

This sudden injection of color, a third dimension, and a general feeling of life to my work was almost overwhelming; the contrast to everything I had experienced thus far really accentuated the “wow” factor of the new world I inhabited. I’d wager anybody watching from outside the headset saw a nice, dumb grin on my face for most of this demo.

Pixelopus has gone to great lengths to ensure even the most artistically challenged players can pick up a brush and create something beautiful. I’m not sure what kind of witchcraft they’ve baked in here, but even for an uncultured lug like me the act of painting felt graceful… even elegant. I found myself subconsciously getting into a sort of rhythm with it, channeling dramatic scenes of artists sweeping a paintbrush over a canvas in a creative frenzy, driven by some invisible force. And yes, despite my absolute lack of talent, everything I created looked gorgeous.

Concrete Genie launches on PS4 this fall with two PlayStation VR modes. Until then, I’m going to brush up with some Splotch fan art.

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Welcome back! Got a tough one for you this month: March saw the launch of multiple blockbuster new releases, including Devil May Cry 5, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, The Division 2, and San Diego Studio’s very own MLB The Show 19. Looking at this list, I’m not even sure which one I would vote for… so it’s a good thing I can’t!

We’ll leave the polls open until 11:59pm Pacific on Wednesday, so cast your vote before then for your favorite new game of March 2019. Then we’ll tally up the votes and reveal the winner on Friday. Good luck to each of this month’s nominees!

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The Starry Eyes directors are preparing a grim new adaptation of Stephen King’s horror classic Pet Sematary, and it hits theaters next week. I took a rare opportunity to catch up with Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer to discuss their new vision for this classic horror tale.

Before diving into the interview, check out an exclusive look at a brand-new clip from Pet Sematary.

PSB: What drew you to Pet Sematary? It’s considered sacrosanct by many King fans…
Kevin: Like you said – it’s a serious one. It’s got great characters and it deals with themes that are universal. Like it or not, we’re all gonna die one day. We all deal with grief, with the death of loved ones. It’s a universal theme. My favorite horror movies are where real characters go through real things. Primal fears, real-life horrors we all go through… and what’s more relatable than that?

Dennis: Stephen King is one of those authors. He’s a gateway author. At a young age, when you’re discovering reading, he makes reading fun. You’re reading books they give you at school, they feel like homework. You get your hands on a King book, and it activates your brain. Pet Sematary was one of the first [Stephen King] books that I read. I was about 14 years old. The back of the book said “the most frightening novel that King has written.” It sounded like a dare, like they were throwing down the gauntlet. It’s easily one of his best books.

PSB: How did you leave your unique mark on this story?
Kevin: Obviously, there are changes to the story and script. Even if we worked off the original Stephen King screenplay that he wrote, we would’ve made a different movie [than the 1989 movie].

Dennis and I always say: you could give the same source material to 10 different filmmakers and you’d get 10 different films. Some people find this line should be quiet, or that line screamed… there are different takes on cinematography. So we weren’t worried about [retreading old ground]. We have our own visual style. At a certain point, you need to put the [1989] film on the shelf. You forget about it.

Filmmaking is too long and arduous a process for us not to leave our own stamp on a film like this. A lot of the story changes were designed to make it a little fresher, to give viewers a new experience. We love the original film, but we wanted to give [viewers] a companion piece. But we needed to keep the essence of the King novel.

PSB: Pet Sematary, your new film, has some weird, otherworldly atmosphere. I’m especially thinking of the scene after the deadfall, when the main characters bury the cat. How did you approach this scene?
Dennis: In the book, there’s a chapter where they bury Church the cat. If you talk to a lot of loyal Stephen King readers, Constant Readers, they’ll tell you it’s one of the best chapters that he’s written. You get the sense there’s something [lurking] out there in the distance.

We thought, look, this is such a rich sequence. We treated [the deadfall] piece like a set piece. This will be the atmosphere of the sequence, we’ll use a lot of budget. We can sell this.

The scenes before the deadfall, we shot them in a real forest to keep it grounded. Once they go past the deadfall, we built our own forest on a stage. It allowed us to control the lighting, the trees… we made them leafless, treated the trees almost like characters themselves. We could do lightning, mist. We shot it all on a soundstage because we wanted it to feel hyper-real, or otherworldly. The book captured it so well, it was important to us in the film.

PSB: How do you earn the fear and scares in a film like Pet Sematary?
Kevin: I think scaring viewers is about relatability. It’s about making characters we can relate to, that we care about. If you can understand them, then you’re going to care about them when something horrible happens. The Zelda scenes… you see Amy, or her as a young girl, they’re really selling it on their face. When I look at Amy’s shivering face, it’s just as scary as the image [of Zelda]. It fills me with dread.

And of course, the actors. We filled this film with great actors.

On an easier level, though, when it comes to jump scares, the film needed to earn them. We try to set up the atmosphere, we try to fill the viewer with a sense of unease and foreboding. And when they’re not sitting right, you hit them. [laughs]

Dennis: There’s been some talk about the changes we made to the book… but I haven’t seen [a discussion around] lot of things where we went back to the book. There were things people said we couldn’t do, such as the presence of the Wendigo. But there are ways to do those things….There’s always a way to approach these things that aren’t as literal, but are still cinematic.

PSB: What did you learn from your previous horror film, Starry Eyes?
Dennis: Sometimes when there’s a metaphor behind your film, it’s more effective to do it through the lens of the genre. We made a film before Starry Eyes, and it came off kind of pretentious… with Starry Eyes, we learned that by being more visceral, we were commenting on our mission.

When we approached Pet Sematary, the message is — communication. Everything in this film happens as a result of a lack of communication about grief and death. The parents don’t agree with how to talk with Ellie about this topic, and it festers. Lewis very reluctantly goes along with this lie … but when the cat comes back, he knows it was dead. So the lies continue. So the lie festers and grows in the corner, like a beast, and it creates a chain reaction. I think it’s more effective to tell a story about death this way.

PSB: I’m a huge King fan. He wrote a great book called Danse Macabre that deconstructs horror dynamics. One thing he points out is that horror films tend to bloom when society feels uneasy. Do you think successful horror films tap into cultural anxieties?
Kevin: Right now, I think there’s a distrust of government, and a dissatisfaction – that’s why you’re seeing movies like Hereditary, which is very bleak and nihilistic, or Get Out, which is political. We love that stuff. We love movies where the character gets what he wants, but not necessarily in the way that they want….and that’s why horror is an important genre.

Denis: I’ve had this question before, and I go back and forth about it. I think we live in an age of rabid horror fans, and whether there’s a boom happening at the box office or not, there’s always interesting, great, horror stuff being made.

PSB: Last question! What is the single most effective horror film of all time?
Dennis: I go back and forth. I think The Exorcist hits like a gut punch, but The Shining might be more entertaining overall. But The Exorcist is so raw, so emotional. It feels dangerous. It’s very adult, very mature. Probably The Exorcist, for me.

Kevin: Dennis is probably right. It’s a perfect film, it ticks every box that we like. It’s perfectly executed.

Pet Sematary arrives in theaters April 5.

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Strap into the boots of Power Rangers from across the series’ 25-year history in Battle for the Grid, a new tag-team fighter launching on PS4 Tuesday. The nWay-developed brawler pits Rangers and villains from various generations against one another in a no-holds-barred melee with controls simple enough for a novice to pick up, but mechanics nuanced enough for skilled players to excel in the game’s online battle mode. It’s morphin’ time!

For a full list of new games coming to PlayStation next week, read on. And enjoy The Drop!

The information above is subject to change without notice.

MLB The Show 19 Playlist

Billie Eilish – When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

Various Artists – The Beach Bum (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Glass

The Kid Who Would Be King

Replicas

Season Premiere Sunday, 3/31 at
7PM ET/10PM PT on HBO

The information above is subject to change without notice.

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Last week, we sent you to save post-pandemic Washington D.C. from certain doom in The Division 2 and share your heroic moments using #PS4share and #PSBlog. From sunsets over national monuments to shadowed corners, here are this week’s highlights:

The Capitol Building has seen better days, in this share by @Animanga_a.

Graffiti catches our eyes in this shadowy share by @She3shGaming.

The stars and stripes still fly in unexpected places, like this share by @mitzhor.

The sun sets behind the Capitol in this well-framed share by @SignOfZodiac.

@Spiggy_Smalls frames their agent in sunlight.

@Philt43_Yewone. shares a close-up portrait of their agent.

Search #PS4Share and #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in next week’s Share of the Week?

Theme: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Share by: 9am Pacific on Wednesday, April 3

Next week, carve a path of revenge as the One-Armed Wolf in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. While you jump from rooftops and fight against certain (or repeated) death, share your best moments using #PS4share and #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

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