Commander Fury

Hey everyone, today we are thrilled to unveil the exciting announcement that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is officially coming to PlayStation 4! Bringing PUBG to the PS4 has been an ambitious project for us, and we are beyond thrilled to finally be sharing this news with the world.

What is PUBG?

PUBG is a battle-royale shooter where 100 players drop into a map and fight for survival. It’s a game of life or death as you explore and loot the map for weapons and armor. Internet and PlayStation Plus are required to play on PS4. Be the last one standing to achieve the elusive Chicken Dinner – bragging rights included.

Pre-order Bundles

PUBG will launch on December 7 with three iconic maps – Erangel, Miramar, and Sanhok – with the highly anticipated snow-themed map coming this winter. The game will include all major features like custom matches, ranked system, event mode, Trophies, and much, much more.

Today, we’re kicking off pre-order sales with various options:

• Disc Edition
  $29.99 USD (MSRP) / $39.99 CAD (MSRP)
  Includes: Base Game
• Looter’s Digital Edition
  $29.99 USD (MSRP) / $39.99 CAD (MSRP)
  Includes: Base Game
• Survivor’s Digital Edition
  $59.99 USD (MSRP) / $79.99 CAD (MSRP)
  Includes: Base Game, Survival Pass: Vikendi, 2,300 G-Coin Pack, 20,000 BP
• Champion’s Digital Edition
  $89.99 USD (MSRP) / $119.99 CAD (MSRP)
  Includes: Base Game, Survival Pass: Vikendi, 6,000 G-Coin Pack, 20,000 BP

Pre-order Bonuses – Digital Skins

We teamed up with our friends at Sony to bring you some amazing pre-order digital skins that will be included in each pre-order bundle.

Nathan Drake Desert Outfit
Uncharted Series

Ellie’s Backpack
The Last of Us

We are also offering a PUBG avatar and theme to rock on your PlayStation Network User ID as an instant download for pre-ordering!

The Unknown Avatar

Miramar Theme

A few words from the PUBG HQ Team in Korea

From Koo Sung Jeong, PS4 Lead Project Manager:
“One of most memorable moments while developing PS4 PUBG was the first time we had 100 people join a test match. Before the test, the dev team’s mission was to deliver the finished product this year – it was a big challenge and it felt almost impossible. But as soon as we had 100 people drop in for the test, our confidence started to build and and we pushed ourselves harder to make everything happen. We are proud of the game we have created and can’t wait to get it into your hands!”

From Changmin Lee, PS4 Engineering Lead
“It’s always exciting and tense presenting our work to the players as a developer. Getting our game into the hands of the PS4 community that haven’t experienced PUBG is a thrill equal to creating a new game. Everyone on the PS4 dev team have worked passionately on every single moment of the game to create a perfect experience for our players – we hope you all enjoy your journey on getting a chicken dinner!”

As we prepare for the official launch on December 7, be sure to stay up to date on the latest news at our website and social channels. The team here at PUBG have worked tirelessly to bring our unique Battle Royale experience to this platform, and we can’t wait to start this new journey with you.

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Creed II is sure to get your blood pumping in the theater– but nothing matches taking on Viktor Drago and Danny “Stuntman” Wheeler yourself. On November 27, Creed: Rise to Glory’s first free content update adds the hotly anticipated sequel’s antagonists to the game’s roster of Freeplay and PvP opponents on PlayStation VR.

In Creed II, Adonis Creed finally faces off against his old Delphi Gym rival Danny Wheeler (Andre Ward) as the lead-up for a much larger showdown with his past: Viktor Drago, son of Ivan “The Siberian Express” Drago, the Soviet boxer who killed Adonis’ father Apollo during an exhibition bout.

Creed: Rise to Glory brings the drama of Creed II’s climactic bouts to your VR playspace with these two Freeplay opponents inspired by their cinematic equivalents. Plus, Wheeler and Drago join the extensive roster of playable PvP characters, including PlayStation VR timed exclusive Classic Rocky.

Creed: Rise to Glory puts players in the gloves of Adonis Creed as he trains with the legendary Rocky Balboa to become a champion in his own right. Physically active, immersive gameplay powered by proprietary Phantom Melee Technology brings a new level of uniquely cinematic intensity to the boxing-game genre, whether facing off against the game’s opponents in Career or Freeplay mode or getting personal in PvP.

The Creed II content update goes live for auto-download on November 27. Want to hone your moves or get a friend into the ring before it arrives? Pick up Creed: Rise to Glory now in a PlayStation VR bundle pack or for 50% off during PS Store’s Black Friday sale.

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Here at Insomniac Games, we’ve had a terrific time expanding our new and original Spider-Man story. We hope you enjoyed returning to the game recently, whether it was for New Game+ and Ultimate Difficulty, or to meet Black Cat in the first chapter of Marvel’s Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps – The Heist. And, of course, if you haven’t yet checked out Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Heist, what are you waiting for?

With that said, we’re ready to give you a first look at the next chapter, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Turf Wars.

As we hinted in Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Heist, Hammerhead is the main antagonist in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Turf Wars. First appearing in the 1970s via the pages of Amazing Spider-Man comic book, Hammerhead — the organized crime boss known for his obsession with the mob’s glory years and a cranium surgically enhanced into a deadly weapon — has declared war against the other Dons of the Maggia, and are using equipment left by Sable International during its occupation of Marvel’s New York. Spider-Man and Yuri Watanabe will have to team up to put an end to the violence that has erupted in the streets of the city.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Turf Wars features brand new story missions, bases, crimes, challenges, and trophies!

In addition, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Turf Wars features three great new suits. We heard from many fans last May who were excited to see the new version of the Iron Spider suit in the game, but several wanted the classic Iron Spider Armor from the comics. With Marvel’s Spider-Man: Turf Wars, we’re glad to bring it to the game! Speaking of armor, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Turf Wars will also have the Spider-Armor MK I to help round out your MK set in the game.

Finally, we have my favorite suit in this drop – the Spider-Clan Suit, which leaps directly out of the pages of the Marvel Mangaverse comic books. We know how much you love these animated-style suits — and we cannot wait to see what you do with this one in Photo Mode!

As with Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Heist – we have a brand new piece of art to share.​ We once again worked with famed Marvel illustrator and suit designer Adi Granov on this new image. It’s been a pleasure to continue working with him to create amazing new art for the post-launch DLC. You’ll also notice it features Spider-Man in his Velocity Suit – which was designed by Adi and that you can unlock in Marvel’s Spider-Man (we know many of you have already!).

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Turf Wars releases on November 20! It will be available for MSRP $9.99 USD, but of course, you can also purchase the entire Marvel’s Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps bundle for MSRP $24.99 USD, which includes Marvel’s Spider-Man: Turf Wars, the previously released Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Heist chapter, as well as the upcoming Marvel’s Spider-Man: Silver Lining chapter.

Haven’t played Marvel’s Spider-Man yet but want to check out the game and its DLC? The Digital Deluxe is an especially good value, including the full-game and all three Marvel’s Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps chapters for MSRP $79.99 USD.

That’s all for now – as always you can keep up with all the latest by following Insomniac Games on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds for all the latest!

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With Knowledge is Power: Decades releasing today, I’m back again to share some shiny new screenshots of our latest PlayLink game.

While 2017’s Knowledge is Power was all about a world’s worth of knowledge, this time around we’ve focused exclusively on entertainment and pop culture specifically from the last forty years. In Knowledge is Power: Decades, you’ll be traveling through ‘Decades of Trivia’ testing your knowledge on the 80s, 90s, 00s and the 10s. If you’re nostalgic for the 90s, or just aching for the 80s, you can keep the questions to whichever decade takes your fancy, before showing off your knowledge across other categories such as Movies, Music, Pop Culture and more.

To keep the quiz fast-paced, you’ll play six different Challenges between questions including Chain Reaction, Fill the Blanks, Odd One Out and Spin to Win! With points available at every swipe and tap, each of these touch-controlled challenges gives you a chance to get closer to the winner’s spot at the top of the Pyramid of Knowledge.

You’ll need a strong competitive spirit to make it there, but you’ll also need to get acquainted with our Power Play system.

For those familiar with Knowledge is Power, you’ll remember Power Plays as sneaky ways to sabotage your foes midgame to unleash against your opponents as they answer trivia questions. We’ve kept our favourites, but joining the selection from the first game are brand-new Power Plays such as Disco Fever, Zipper and Lockdown… For example if you throw a Zipper Power Play, your opponent has to unzip the answers on their touch screen before they can find the right answer!

We’ve also created a completely new roster of eight marvelous characters for you to play as, complete with era-themed filters for all those beautiful and ridiculous selfies. These are a great ice-breaker to your multiplayer party and let you showcase your love of your favorite era!

Not only have we translated all the questions to work just as well across multiple languages, we’ve also added in thousands of specifically localized questions for other countries!

Knowledge is Power: Decades is out today – for fans of the original it’s bigger and better than ever, and for new players it’s the best quiz game show on PlayStation. We hope you love it!

Don’t forget about the rest of the PlayLink titles also available today, including
Chimparty, Just Deal With It, WordHunters, Melbits World and Ticket To Ride!

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Hey everyone! We couldn’t be more excited to be launching the Megalith beta tomorrow for PlayStation VR. Creating this game has been a real adventure for us, and we can’t wait to share that adventure with you.

We started Disruptive Games with one simple overriding goal: make great online games. Our first step was to assemble an amazing team. That done, we have spent the last two years working extremely hard on our first game, Megalith. The good thing is that a big part of our “work” has been playing Megalith almost every day! We have spent countless hours discussing, debating, and even arguing over the details to ensure Megalith is fun, beautiful, and highly competitive. But something has been missing…you! So, for the next couple of months all of you will be able to play with us for free in our open beta. Also, to thank early adopters we are offering a ton of rewards for pre-ordering the game.

Now to the details…

During the open beta you will have access to two of the five Titans at any time. The ones you get change every week, and not every player will have the same rotation of Titans; so there will be plenty of variety when you play. But if you pre-order the game, you’ll immediately be able to choose from any of the five titans anytime you want during the beta. And you get all the bonuses listed below, too!

Pre-order Megalith to receive the following:

• Immediately: Unlock all Titans available during the Beta.
• Bonus: Avatar pack including the starting five Titans.
• Bonus: One DLC Titan granted when the game releases.
• Exclusive: Epic skins for each of the starting five Titans when the game releases.

How to play

In Megalith, choose from one of five starting Titans and work in teams of two to take on other Titans in battle. The Titans each wield unique powers and abilities derived from their origin. These abilities can be used alone, but become even more effective when coordinated with an ally.

Each team must protect their side while attempting to lead their minions into enemy territory and breach their defenses. Titans will need to destroy enemy walls and towers in order to make their bases vulnerable to attack. Powerful siege minions can be summoned to aid in the path to
Victory.

The Titan Roster

Here are the five starting Titans and their abilities:

1. Tundra: Frost Blast (Primary), Ice Shield, Ice Shackles, Permafrost, Ice Age (Ultimate)
2. Cipher: Bounce Launcher (Primary), Boomerang, Tether Pull, Rupture, Tracker Orbs (Ultimate)
3. Taur: Swipe (Primary), Charge, Acid Spit, Rage Mode, Stoneblock (Ultimate)
4. Aurora: Ethereal Burst (Primary),Chain Lightning, Ion Shell, Tempest, Wrath Of Heaven (Ultimate)
5. Hunter: Crossbow (Primary), Arrow Volley, Explosive Arrow, Talisman, Solar Beam (Ultimate)

More details about their abilities can be found in the images below:

We can’t wait to finally play Megalith with you! Don’t forget we are continuing to improve the game during the beta, so please join us in making the game even better. See you in battle!

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Hello again Spyro fans! We are less than 24 hours away from the launch of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and we are brimming with excitement here at Toys For Bob. With such a great response to our last blog post, we wanted to follow it up with an inside look at the making of one of our favorite realms in the trilogy, Dragon Shores. A couple members on our team who worked closely on this level, Josh Nadelberg (Art Director) and Ray West (Lead Level Designer), share their experience with bringing back the best theme park in all the Dragon Realms.

Josh: The art team had a blast revisiting Dragon Shores for Spyro Reignited Trilogy. As the final “bonus” level in Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage, we wanted to make sure that Dragon Shores lived up to its reputation as the premier vacation spot in the Dragon Realms. As was our intention with each of the 100+ levels in the trilogy, we wanted to stay faithful to the layout and themes from the original, while enhancing the storytelling and mood with the additional detail we were able to add to the world. In this case, we had a literal Fun Park to play with, and we didn’t pull any punches. For example, to spice things up we designed a giant mechanical dragon to encircle the park and a huge nest of golden dragon eggs perched above the square.

Ray: Thinking through the level design, for a project like Spyro Reignited Trilogy it was very important to determine which are the crucial elements that need to be spot-on for parity versus altering it to give the player an updated experience. The original game’s level art and placement/pathing information were invaluable to the design team because it takes away a lot of the challenge with level reconstruction and we could instead focus on building the mechanics/minigames. Dragon Shores was one of those levels where we experimented with making significant changes but all in all it was much more satisfying to experience the original attractions and let the fantastic artwork make them shine.

Josh: From an art standpoint, we began production of every level by having concept artists paint over screenshots that we captured of the original game geometry. This approach ensured that our artistic decisions mapped one-to-one with the levels and don’t interfere with gameplay. The concept art guided the environment and lighting artists as they translated the work into 3D, but there’s always room for creativity at every step along the way. Our first pass at Dragon Shores had a more restrained color palette, just like the original, with cream colored stone walls and archways. We didn’t feel like we were evoking the playful energy of a theme park quite yet, so we tried giving the whole place a bit of a paintjob to cheer things up and it made a huge difference. We also added colorful flags and banners throughout to liven things up, and even hung some Spyro Reignited Trilogy posters at the entrance to the theater. To make the Tunnel of Love feel more like a theme park attraction, we built a giant heart and signage to dress up the entrance, and added vibrant red carpets to help to guide the player to each of the different attractions.

Ray: Speaking of the Tunnel of Love, it almost had a gigantic cast of characters from all three games in it, but in the end we opted to just stick with the OG list (and because I’d already made FAR too many last-minute surprise animation requests to our animators). We did add a new character into the Dunk Tank, though; he’s the Boat Gnorc from Spyro 1’s Wild Flight level. I initially put him in as a placeholder while the Spyro 2 assets were still under construction, but it was so satisfying to dunk him that I made sure he stayed in there for the final game.

Josh: Dunk tank, Tunnel of Love, the rollercoaster — this level really exemplifies the fun and sort of off-the-wall spirit of the Spyro games. Having the opportunity to bring new life to these legendary games has been an amazing opportunity, and we can’t wait for people to have the experience of helping Spyro make his way to Dragon Shores again after all these years. We are excited to share a little tease of the level here with you now. It’s also a reminder that as you’re working your way through Avalar over the coming weeks, don’t forget those gems and orbs!

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Music plays an integral role in the overall gaming aesthetic in Desert Child, coming to PS4 December 11. This was all done by design, as the creator of the game, Oscar Brittain, set out to create a unique gaming experience in this stylized, hoverbike racing RPG.

But before we continue, you must be asking yourself, who is Oscar Brittain?

To provide some context, Oscar Brittain is a one-man indie game developer from Fremantle, Australia, and is the sole creator of Desert Child. Everything, from game design, art, animation, programming, and music, was created by him, as all elements of the game were carefully designed and curated.

How Music Affects the Game

As mentioned in the opening, music plays a vital role in the game, especially during the racing element. Initially, there isn’t a clear indicator to notify the player of the distance to the finish line during the race, as this was done be design; after competing in several races, one will quickly discover that the duration of the race matches the duration of the song. To put it bluntly, if you are able to identify the end parts of each track, you will be able to know when the finish line is coming up.

Soundtrack Influences

The soundtrack to Desert Child mostly consists of lo-fi and 90’s influenced hip-hop, with most of the music, created by Oscar himself. His musical influences, which range from Tokimonsta, Eevee, Central Parks, A L E X, anything from Inner Ocean Records, and the Wu-Tang Clan, are reflected in the tracks created for the game. You can check out his eclectic Spotify playlist of the various tracks he listened to that inspired the creation of Desert Child.

Soundtrack Creation

As Oscar did create most of the music himself, a lot of time and effort was put into each song. Below is a list of equipment and software that was used during production:

• Ableton Live 9 (plugins iZotope Vinyl and Glitch 2 by Illformed)
• EDIROL Sound Input
• AKG Perception 420 Condenser Microphone
• Micro Korg XL Keyboard
• Fender Stratocaster
• Custom Teabox Guitar
• Roland Cube Amplifier

Here is a sampling of some of his music that can be found in the game:

• The Filth
• Beats To Live By
• Man, How Wicked Were the 90’s?
• Gravity’s Rainbow

Enlisting Other Artists

As there is a burgeoning artist scene in Fremantle, Oscar had to look no further than his own neighborhood to recruit artists for the soundtrack. Several local indie artists, such as Puncture Repair Kit and Girlfriend Material, have all contributed to the soundtrack, with most notably Girlfriend Material’s “Spatula” being used for the promotional E3 2018 PlayStation Trailer. My Freind Marcus is also credited and featured prominently in the game as well, but Oscar has admitted that Marcus contributed nothing to the game, and only left him in there to forever remind Marcus of a blown opportunity to have his music featured in a video game.

Additionally, we were able to secure two tracks from Mega Ran at this year’s The Mix showcase during E3, as he was DJing at the event. As we had a relationship with him from a previous game we worked on (The Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor), we literally walked up to him, pitched him the game, and came back with permissions to use two of his songs.

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Treat your family, friends, and (maybe) yourself to PlayStation this holiday season. We’ve got you covered during Black Friday week, November 18-26 (November 22-30 in Canada).

As Black Friday rolls in, we are giving everyone more reasons to stay inside and play. This new commercial playfully welcomes the arrival of winter, celebrating this time of year as perfect the opportunity to stay at home, bundle up, and play games. The TV spot premieres November 16, and we’re sharing a sneak peek here.

From a new PS4 Bundle to sales on PS VR units and digital content at PS Store, this Black Friday delivers great value across the PlayStation portfolio, including:

• A new Marvel’s Spider-Man Standard Edition PS4 Bundle for $199.99 USD (MSRP) / $259.99 CAN (MSRP).This jet-black 1TB standard PS4 system includes a matching DualShock 4 wireless controller, and a physical copy of the critically acclaimed Marvel’s Spider-Man game from Insomniac Games. A great addition for you or friends who are aching for a chance to play and experience a brand-new and authentic Spider-Man adventure.
• Select DualShock 4 wireless controllers available for $39.99 USD (MSRP) / $49.99 CAN (MSRP) at participating retailers. Now you can customize the look of your gaming set-up with a wide variety of colors, ranging from the new Blue Camouflage color to Magma Red, Midnight Blue, Gold and Crystal for a great price.
• PlayStation VR systems available for $199.99 USD (MSRP) / $249.99 CAN (MSRP) at participating retailers. If you haven’t already tried it, now is a great time, with newly released titles such as Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Firewall, and Creed: Rise to Glory alongside upcoming games like Borderlands 2 VR coming soon.
• PlayStation Plus is offering discounts on their 12-month subscription, while special deals on popular game titles, will be offered at PlayStation Store this November 16-27, 2018. PlayStation Plus subscribers can also purchase the most recent addition to the Call of Duty franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, for a great price starting today.

Black Friday offers will be available at participating retailers starting November 16 in the U.S., and November 22 in Canada, while supplies last. In the meantime, be sure to stay tuned for more details to be confirmed soon!

From all of us at PlayStation, we hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

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Hello, PlayStation fans! It’s Lau again, the Creative Director behind Chimparty*. I’m here to tell you that it’s almost time to stop monkeying around, swing over to PlayStation Store, and grab your copy of Chimparty ! We’re super excited to share it with all of you tomorrow!

You might be wondering what it is you can expect from Chimparty?

Well, the first thing you should know about our family-friendly and accessible party game is that it’s got four great game modes and ninety mini-game levels to enjoy! Whether you’re up for a session with the fam or a group of friends, you’re sure to have a blast competing to see who’s top of the troop!

Whether the stakes are for who’s doing the dishes in a family challenge, or you’re just playing for bragging rights against your pals, Chimparty has a game mode to fit the scenario. But it is up to you to find a good reason for a rematch, should you be “unlucky” the first time around!

If you like to roll dice, then I suggest you start up the Board Game mode. This is the main game mode of Chimparty where two to four players will adventure through a beautiful game board, and play mini-games across the Jungle, Haunted, Pirate, Wizard, and Alien themes.

In the Board Game mode, you move spaces on the board according to the score you get in the different mini-games. Don’t worry too much on lagging behind the other players, if this happens you get to roll the die to see if you can catch up!

When you get further through the board, the dice will change based on the area you are currently in. This is where you can get to take back the lead from the winning player with a cannonball effect from the Pirate dice, or even stir up some havoc with the Wizard dice that can allow you to swap places! Who said anything about Chimps playing fair?

Chimparty also allow you to traverse the board game world on your own in the Solo Challenge game mode. Here, Orangutan Bob will be chasing you through different levels of difficulty. This is where you can really put your skills to the test, as you will need to score a lot of points to avoid getting caught!

If you are in the mood for a more curated experience, you should look into the Custom Game mode that allows you to make a game pack with your very own mini-game favorites. Some of my own favorites include Basket Head and Monkey Shot!

If you’re low on time and want to get into the action right away, then check out Quick Play, our last game mode, a studio favorite for getting straight into the action. In Quick Play you’ll be thrown into 10 random mini-games in rapid succession to quickly determine who’s the real ‘Chimpion’ of Chimparty!

…Oh. And did I mention that this is a one-button game? It always leaves one hand free for grabbing snacks and beverages without having to worry about getting your phone sticky!

Perfect fit for a party game, if I do say so myself! Get your pals, grab some snacks, and pick up your copy of Chimparty tomorrow!

And don’t forget about the rest of the PlayLink titles* available tomorrow, which includes Knowledge is Power: Decades, Just Deal With It, WordHunters, Melbits World and Ticket To Ride!
* Compatible mobile device and Companion App required. For more information, visit www.playstation.com/playlinkcompatibility.

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Spyro means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but one thing is undeniable: He’s one of the most iconic, memorable, and feisty characters in the pantheon of gaming history.

Our purple pal takes flight once again next week on PS4 in Spyro Reignited Trilogy, featuring scaled-up graphics, a re-orchestrated soundtrack created with the help of original composer Stewart Copeland… and all the sass you remember from the game’s 1998 debut.

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

Travel the globe and track your targets across exotic sandbox locations in HITMAN 2. From sun-drenched streets to dark and dangerous rainforests, nowhere is safe from the world’s most creative assassin, Agent 47 in the ultimate spy thriller story.

Bohemian Rhapsody: Songs Inspired By the Film

For Honor Playlist

Imagine Dragons – Origins

Crazy Rich Asians

Christopher Robin

KIN

Watch live on Sunday, November 11 at 6PM PT on E!

Don’t miss the final episode Sunday, November 11 at 6PM PT on CNN

The information above is subject to change without notice.

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Last week, we asked you to stop and smell the roses (or horse manure) throughout the world of Red Dead Redemption 2. From riverbanks and farmland to stunning mountainscapes, you shared your best landscapes using #PS4share and #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

@Raffu42 shared a double rainbow, all the way across the sky.

@Ps4_Photomodeshared a moment from this wood’s golden hour.

Bluebells grow alongside this lush farmland, shared by @juliusjgreen.

There’s something calming about this lakeside share from @siaplays.

@TheHomoHero shares a look at this foggy roadside.

The sun sets over this beautiful farmland share from @VishuPS4.

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: Emotion
Share by: 9am Pacific on Wednesday, November 14

Next week, we’re getting in our feelings. Share moments where emotions run high in the game of your choice with #PS4share and #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

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When I was first approached about working on a new God of War comic, a prequel to this year’s PS4 game, I was both intrigued and intimidated. Intrigued, because I knew from the early promotional stuff I’d seen that the new game would move Kratos away from his roots in Greek mythology and transplant him in a new setting, drawing instead from Norse myths and legends, which I’ve been obsessed with since I was a kid. Intimidated, because it promised to be a huge job.

I’ve always loved stories that take characters from one setting or era or genre and drop them into another—samurai warriors in the Old West, western gunslingers in the African jungle, and so on—and the story-telling possibilities of taking a character like Kratos and running him up against the kinds of obstacles he might encounter in a world filled with ice giants and trolls were too intriguing to pass up. But at the same time, I was intimidated to be tackling such a recognizable and well-established character and to be contributing to a franchise with such an enormous scope and backstory. Because it was clear from the outset that what Santa Monica Studios and Dark Horse Comics had in mind was a direct prequel to the events of the new game that would be in continuity, and I knew from past experience working on similar projects that meant a lot of moving parts.

Thankfully, everyone involved with the project from my artistic collaborator Tony Parker to the editorial team at Dark Horse to Cory Barlog and the rest of the team at Santa Monica Studio really showed up and helped bring the story to life. I had the basic outline of the plot worked out in the course of my first conversation with Spencer Cushing at Dark Horse, who was the one who originally approached me about the project, but it took some time to work out if it made sense in terms of the continuity of the new game.

I was sent a massive amount of background on what the team at SMS had come up with to that point, from outlines to world-building materials to incredibly detailed character backstories, and learned that the antagonists that I’d originally considered using in the prequel comic had already been incorporated into the game. But I noticed that some of my favorite bits of Norse mythology hadn’t yet been used, and fired off a series of questions to the team at SMS about their thoughts, and they sent back more ideas of their own, and from that point, the story came together really quickly. In the final stages, some very productive discussions I had with Cory and the team at SMS helped to bring Kratos into full focus and to really tie our prequel story to the character’s emotional journey in the new game, and then the scripts were off to Tony to do the heavy lifting of bringing the pages to life. And now all of that hard work finally pays off as readers get to see for themselves what we’ve come up with. I hope that everyone who enjoyed the new game checks out the prequel comic, and I hope that they enjoy it, too!

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Okay, I’ll be honest: I just wanted an excuse to feature the launch trailer for Tetris Effect on PlayStation.Blog. You should watch it! Right there, at the top of this post! It’s really good!

But, while I’ve got you… I suppose I can share a few tips for anybody interested in dipping their toe into the tetromino-filled waters of Tetris Effect. I know the readers of PS Blog probably have pretty wide-ranging levels of Tetris expertise, so apologies if you already know this stuff. In fact, I’d encourage the pros out there to share your advice in the comments! I’m still trying to master the art of the T-spin, myself…

The tips below are reflective of Tetris in general, since I haven’t had a ton of time with Tetris Effect yet and as such don’t yet know the intricacies of its scoring system (except for Zone Mode, which I’ll address a bit further down). Let’s go!

Line ’em Up

There are lots of ways to play Tetris. Generally speaking, though, you’re pretty much always going to be trying to get a big ol’ stack built up while leaving a single column open for the infamous long (or line, or “I”) block. Use that long block to clear four lines at once and earn a Tetris, usually accompanied by a hefty score bump. Bonus points (no, really, you get bonus points for this) if you can score back-to-back Tetrises by using your held pieces wisely (or stumbling upon the rare double line block drop).

Know What’s Next

Sure, it’s tempting to keep your eyes on the ghost piece at the bottom of your playfield, but as you start getting better at Tetris and pieces start dropping more quickly, pasting your peepers to that one spot can cost you precious milliseconds of reaction time. Knowing what piece is coming up next (look at the top-right corner of the playfield in Tetris Effect) can mean the difference between a Decahexatris and a demoralizing defeat.

Zone Out

This tip is specific to Tetris Effect, as it pertains to the new “Zone” mechanic Enhance has introduced. On its surface, going into Zone mode is a great way to recover from a tough situation (since, ya know, it stops time and all), but it also affords more advanced players with new strategic options. When you enter the Zone, lines you clear no longer count toward your progress toward the next level. Used efficiently, this mechanic can help you stretch levels out far longer than they would usually last, ultimately resulting in far more points tacked onto your final score. Not to mention the significant bonuses you get for clearing more than 8 (Octoris), 12 (Dodecatris), or 16 (Decahexatris) lines at once during a single Zone activation. Do not ignore this mechanic!

Tackle Those T-Spins

This one’s a bit more of an advanced tactic, but it’s worth ingraining into your playstyle early on. I grew up playing Tetris before T-spins were really a thing (or at least before games started handing out generous score bonuses for them) so I’m still struggling with this myself, but it’s important! A T-spin is when you spin a T-block into an open T-shaped space that is obstructed by other pieces. There are lots of tutorials out there that can do a much better job than I can explaining the how here, but I’d encourage you to start small learning how to pull off some T-spin double line clears, then once you’re starting to feel comfy with those move on to trying to set up some triples.

Don’t Despair!

This is the most important piece of advice I can impart on any aspiring Tetris Grandmaster. No matter your skill level, you’re going to end up in tough situations. If you find yourself creeping further and further toward the top of the matrix (that’s the official name of the playfield in Tetris), try not to let your increasing heart rate and sweaty hands distract you from the task at hand: clearing those blocks. It’s almost always possible to recover from even the most desperate situations in Tetris, and remaining calm will increase those odds.

Whether you heed the above advice or set off on your own path toward Tetris mastery, Tetris Effect is an excellent venue in which you can practice your block-droppin’ skills. Share your own advice in the comments, and I’ll see you on the leaderboards this weekend.

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One year ago this week, we released The Frozen Wilds – an expansion for Horizon Zero Dawn that adds a whole new chapter to Aloy’s quest, including new territories to explore, new quests to complete, and dangerous new machines to hunt. In honor of the expansion’s one-year anniversary, we sat down with two of our developers, Richard Oud and Pinar Temiz, to talk about breathing life and character into one of Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds’ fiercest additions: the bear-like Fireclaw.

The Bear Essentials

“Originally we were going to have a bear-like machine in Horizon Zero Dawn, but we had to abandon the idea because of time constraints,” Lead Animator Richard Oud recalls. “It was a shame, because everyone felt it had potential. So when we started working on Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds, the bear concept seemed like a natural choice right away.”

The team set out to develop the bear concept into a pair of full-fledged machines, starting with a set of design document and visual design concepts. 3D models of the machines were then created and delivered to the animation department. “From there, we started creating tests and animations for the machines based on the movements and attack areas that were outlined in the design documents,” Richard says.

Not everything in the design documents was implemented one-to-one. After a few tests the animation team felt that certain head-on attacks would be too difficult to read for the player. A bit of back-and-forth between the design and animation departments led to a mutually satisfying solution. “We were able to improve the readability of the movement by having the machines attack at more of an angle,” Richard says. “This opened up its silhouette to the player, allowing for a much better impression of speed and motion.”

Once the machines were able to move and attack, the AI department put them in the game and Senior Sound Designer Pinar Temiz began the process of providing them with sound effects and vocalizations. “The timings of the animations largely need to be locked before I can start implementing their corresponding sounds,” Pinar explains. “Of course, I can already start collecting materials and textures based on what the design doc tells me– in this case, that it’s a huge bear-like machine with lava-based attacks.”

In addition, the basic movement sounds of the Fireclaw drew from a similar set of materials as the other machines in Horizon Zero Dawn, which gave Pinar a clear starting point. “The machines in Horizon Zero Dawn are all supposed to be constructed from special alloys and high-tech polymers,” Pinar says, “so I tried to avoid making the movements sound too clunky or metallic.”

Finding Refurrence

For the basic movements and walk cycles of the Fireclaw, the animation team had planned to reference nature footage of grizzly bears. “We quickly switched to polar bears, though, because their movements are much more distinguished,” Richard says. “Polar bears have slightly longer necks than grizzlies and when they run, it almost feels like they’re pulling themselves forwards with their heads.”

Another important source of inspiration for the Fireclaw’s movements came from an unlikely place: YouTube clips of Red Pandas play-fighting. “I felt like we needed something extra, to prevent the machine’s movements from becoming too straightforward and predictable,” Richard says. “So I started looking at reference footage of other species, and that’s how I came across the Red Pandas. They looked adorable, but I was struck by the way they dropped and rolled and use their weight to pull their opponents down.”

Pinar also looked beyond the target species for inspiration. “For the Fireclaw’s vocalizations I initially studied recordings of bears – in particular their grunts and sounds of exertion while moving around,” Pinar says. “Then I began searching for other animals that sound intimidating in a grumpy and gurgly way, and I quickly arrived at walruses and seals.” Combining their grunts with synthetic sounds and even human performances, Pinar then began layering and processing the snippets to achieve the desired vocalizations.

Overcoming Beariers

A dilemma that animators and sound designers frequently encounter is repetition: if the motions or sounds of a character are presented in the exact same manner over and over, it quickly becomes artificial and grating to players. At the same time, development time and memory are finite resources, so throwing endless amounts of varied content at the problem is not a workable solution.

At Guerrilla, the animation and audio departments devised systems that use randomness to pick and mix from a limited pool of content in order to achieve variation. “We actually ran into this issue very early on in the development of Horizon Zero Dawn,” Richard says. “When Aloy rode her mount it would feel repetitive – you could tell it was a cycle, particularly when travelling greater distances. Our solution was to create different versions of the walk cycle for the mount, and then randomly blend between them to achieve a natural, non-repetitive look.”

“Audio’s solution works along the same lines,” Pinar adds. “In the walk cycle example, we’d have a container of ten to twenty snippets of sounds and then randomize through them, combining them into different layers of sound with every footstep. We’d add a little bit of pitch shift on the fly to add further variation, and we even differentiated between front and back footsteps on the quadrupeds.”

One particular barrier the animation department had to overcome stemmed from the fact that the Fireclaw and the Frostclaw could walk on four as well as two legs. “As soon as we added a set of bipedal animations, it instantly started feeling like a guy in a metal bear suit,” Richard laughs. “So we had to comb through a lot of nature footage to find ways to fix that impression. Locking the hips of the machine during bipedal movement, which made its strides more awkward and ungainly, was one way we were able to mitigate the issue.”

Similarly, Pinar’s use of human performances in the mixes for the machine vocalizations proved tricky to get right. “Our hearing is just really adept at recognizing human voices. I pitched them down and mixed them in with other sounds, but there are still certain samples in the final mix that come close to what I would qualify as a human voice,” she says. “Oh no, I hope people don’t go searching for them now!”

Diffurentiating the Machines

The differences between the Fireclaw and the Frostclaw actually go beyond their distinct models and sizes. “Certain Fireclaw-specific attack animations, such as the one different attack where it grabs and throws rocks at the player, required us to figure out a whole new posture for the machine,” Richard says. “When it handles the rock you can see the machine actually tilt its center of gravity back, to compensate for the extra weight.”

The reference for the postures came from watching blockbuster superhero movies. “Hollywood has become really adept at giving CGI characters, particularly supernaturally strong ones, a sense of weight and exertion without inhibiting their speed and responsiveness,” Richard says. “They’re masters at striking that delicate balance.”

“For me the difference between the two machines wasn’t so much their personalities but their powers,” Pinar says. “The Fireclaw and the Frostclaw are both grumpy and dangerous, but the Fireclaw has lots of fire and lava elements, which affects not just its attacks but also its vocalizations. I even put little lava bubbling sounds in the gurgles of the Fireclaw.”

Despite their different fields, Richard and Pinar both had very similar goals for the Fireclaw: to make it move and sound like a heavy, dangerous machine that could quickly attack and respond to the player without losing its sense of weight and physical presence. The end result meets those goals in every respect, presenting players with a formidable challenge with every encounter.

Even bigger and more powerful than its ice-based little brother, the Fireclaw can shrug off fire-based attacks and explosions like they’re nothing. It’s a lumbering hulk of steel and polymer that can easily rip huge chunks of rock out of the ground to use as shields or weapons. Seasoned players will find that taking down a Fireclaw is no simple task… but then, neither was building it in the first place.

We hope you enjoyed this look into the creation of the Fireclaw! We’ll be celebrating the anniversary of Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds all week, so keep an eye on Guerrilla’s official Facebook and Twitter accounts for more content.

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Get your PS Move controllers ready, it’s time to slash some beats!
Beat Saber is coming to PS4 on November 20, bringing the thrilling rhythm experience right into your living room. You won’t want to put it down.

In case you aren’t familiar with Beat Saber’s gameplay, your goal is to slash the beats, represented by small cubes, as they are coming at you. Every beat indicates which saber you need to use and the direction you need to match. This immersive rhythm experience is embodied in an appealing futuristic world filled with lights and mist. And of course, accompanied by exclusively made electronic dance music and tons of levels made entirely by hand.

We know the development took us a while, but here comes the best Beat Saber ever made!
These are some of the exclusive new content and features:

• Challenging campaign: Improve your game style every day by completing levels in our complex campaign, exclusively created for PS VR players.
• Exclusive new songs: Everyone loves Beat Saber’s Original Game Soundtrack. That’s why we bring you, above our well-know music hits, five new exclusive songs coming straight from excellent electronic dance music artists and talents from around the world.
• Tons of modifiers: The game contains many modifiers to make your gameplay even more challenging and exciting every day.
• Epic sabers: Get ready for those shiny beasts because they look just amazing. Watch them glow and slash the cubes with style!
• Practice mode: We know practice makes perfect. In Beat Saber, you can start from any part of the level or even slow the game to practice problematic parts.

The game offers much more! From solo modes to competitive multiplayer modes, Beat Saber is fun to play alone or with a bunch of friends.

• Party mode: Entertain your friends and family and have fun together! Everyone can join and start playing in seconds! Who is going to win today?
• One saber mode: Use only one saber for playing but be aware – there is no time for slacking. You will feel like a real life swordsman.
• No Arrows mode: The direction of your swing depends on you. How fast can you decide and make the best cut?
• Global leaderboards: Climb the global leaderboards and compete with other players from all around the world.

Excited? Fresh content is our priority and we want to bring you new music regularly. The first Expansion Pack with 10 songs is coming to the game very soon after the release. You can choose between different music genres and enjoy well-known artists together with emerging indie talents.

Are you ready to lose yourself in this unique and addictive music experience? Beat Saber can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of skills or previous experience with VR. Everyone can understand the basic mechanism in seconds, grab a pair of PS Move controllers and swing right into the music.

Invite your friends and family over and prepare to spend the best time together, surrounded by energizing music and your best dance moves. Get ready for November 20. This is going to be a ride!

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Bring in the charts! October has come and gone, and we’ve got some huge new games to prove it. Which one claimed the coveted “most downloaded” spot, though?

In a highly competitive month, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 managed to secure the #1 spot on the PS4 chart. Japan Studio’s fantastic Astro Bot: Rescue Mission sits atop the PlayStation VR list (well-deserved, I’d say), and we event got some slick new PS4 Themes from the likes of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and The Last of Us: Part II.

Now that we’ve nearly made it to the end of 2018, what are your predictions for the rest of the year?

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“This thing is tiny!” That was my first thought upon meeting PlayStation Classic in the flesh. It’s around the size of a small paperback novel. It even fit snugly it into my back pocket. It’s slim, trim, and charmingly reflects the visual look of the original PlayStation in almost every way.

Next came the controller, a recreation of the model that launched alongside PlayStation in North America. I wrapped my hands around it, and the feel of those ergonomic grips sent me tumbling back to 1995, when I was huddled in a friend’s basement playing Battle Arena Toshinden for the first time. The directional pad felt a bit more comfortable to me, but otherwise, it was almost a carbon copy of the original controller.

I turned on the PlayStation Classic system and was pleased to see the original opening screen, compete with the teeth-rattling original system sound. Here, I noticed the logo was updated to Sony Interactive Entertainment. How things change!

Then I browsed the 20 pre-loaded titles, a lineup that includes essential classics like Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, and Tekken 3. While navigating through the UI — which is charmingly rendered with a lower-res aesthetic circa 1995 — each title depicts its original year of release, publisher, and the number of players supported.

I moved to the memory card management screen and encountered a UI that appeared to be nearly identical to its original incarnation… right down to that rainbow-hued Delete button.

Speaking of memory cards, PlayStation Classic adds some nice quality-of-life improvements in regards to saving game progress. At any time, you can press the Reset button on the system to exit your game and return to the main menu. Pressing the Reset button creates a Resume Point, which means you can play another game and return later to pick up your progress.

You can also use in-game save functionality to create traditional save files on the unit’s virtual memory card. In a nice touch, each game can accommodate 15 save slots’ worth of save files, so you’ll have plenty of headroom.

Meanwhile, the system’s Open button has limited application, and is solely used to change “discs” in multi-disc games like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid. It’s a cool touch and well implemented.

Then I fired up Twisted Metal, Grand Theft Auto, Jumping Flash, and a few other titles. Overall, the games played as I remembered them, 4:3 aspect ratio and all. I noticed that some of games on PlayStation Classic are sourced from PAL (European) versions of the games, with the remainder being NTSC (American) versions.

Overall, PlayStation Classic’s cute formfactor, nostalgic interface, and overall ease of use point to a well-designed trip down 32-bit lane. Let me know if you have any questions, and I’ll do my best to answer in the comments!

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The leaves are changing colors, Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and I’m excited to tell you about the 11 new games available in PlayStation Now as of today, ready for you to download or stream on-demand.

The recently-added game download feature gives subscribers the option to download almost all of the 230 PS4 games in the service (and all of the PS2 games as well), in order to play locally with DLC and add-on support (DLC and other add-ons sold separately). And starting today, we are starting to roll out Collections, a new way to browse the full library of nearly 700 games as well. Here you can find the entire catalog grouped into different collections based on platform, genres, and themes.

From the main PS Now screen, press the Circle button and move to the Browse tab to start exploring. This feature will be rolling out to more users over the next week, so you may not see the option right away.

Leading this month’s batch of new PS Now games is Mafia 3. Set in 1968, this epic open-world game lets you build a criminal empire and seek revenge against the mafia gang that wiped out the closest thing you had to a family. Stream the game, or download it to your PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 4 Pro. Downloading the game also allows you to use any of the free and paid DLC available for the game (paid DLC sold separately).

Also available new this month is Steep: explore a gorgeous open-world mountain range with snowboards, skis, wingsuits, and paragliders, compete and complete challenges, ride solo or with friends, and create your own paths down the mountain. Strap in, suit up, and drop in.

Other new games this month include the quirky puzzle platformer LocoRoco Remastered, the intense 2.5D anime fighter Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, and unique titles like the top-down dungeon crawling RPG Vikings: Wolves of Midgard and the turn-based RPG Battle Chasers: Nightwar.
A complete list of all the new games available to stream on PS4 and PC, and download to PS4, includes:

• Baja Edge of Control HD
• Battle Chasers: Nightwar
• Destroy All Humans! (PS2)
• Destroy All Humans! 2 (PS2)
• Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2
• Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland (PS2)
• LocoRoco Remastered
• Mafia 3
• Steep
• Vikings: Wolves of Midgard
• World to the West

Check out the seven-day href=”https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/IP9101-NPIA90010_01-PSNOWSUB1MOTR000″ target=”_blank”>free trial for PS4 and PC to experience the streaming service today. PS Now provides unlimited on-demand access to a growing library of nearly 700 games, with streaming for all games and download access to most PS4 and PS2 games in the library.

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

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The wait is over! Runner3, the third entry in the Bit.Trip Runner series, is coming to PS4 on November 13. The game will retail for $19.99, with a planned 50% discount for the first two weeks of release to celebrate our 10th anniversary as a company!

For the uninitiated, the Bit.Trip Runner games are rhythm-music auto-runners with a heavy emphasis on the “rhythm-music” element. Every action your character performs in the game has a sound associated with it, and these sounds contribute to the music as you play the game. You’re instrumental (pun intended) to creating the game’s soundtrack!

Runner3 has proven to be a very special game for our studio, thanks in large part to our very vocal (and very helpful!) fanbase. They’ve been generous enough to share their thoughts with us from day one of development, and their input has proven invaluable. We feel confident the finished product lives up to and honors their expectations for the game.

Those of you who played the first two Runner games are in for quite a few new additions this go-around. There are branching paths in every level, vehicle sections (an eggplant airplane somehow being the normalest of them), quests that unlock new characters, an item shop, new Retro Challenges, and more Charles Martinet dialog than your ears will know what to do with. It’s the ultimate Runner experience, and no doubt CommanderVideo and friends’ greatest adventure yet.

Oh, and Unkle Dill is returning. He wanted us to make sure we told you that.
Now, understandably, you may think you know all there is to know about Runner3. We get it. But do us a favor, if you will, and shed all of that knowledge before reading on. We have a lot to say about this game that we haven’t said before, so buckle up.

When Runner3 first launched, some people mentioned they missed the difficulty options from Runner2. This made a lot of sense to us, which is why we’ve worked to make sure they’re included from here on out. And you can get real granular with them, including toggling enemy density, adding more checkpoints to levels, and getting assistance with perhaps the most treacherous villain in all of Runner history: The Stairs.

Players have also requested the ability to “self-bonk” in the game, and who are we to say no? If you’re going for a perfect run in a level and miss a gold bar or a gem, briefly press L3 and R3 and voila. A bonking of your own creation.

These items only make up some of the improvements we’ve made to Runner3, however. Here’s a (still incomplete!) list of what players can expect:

• All character moves are available from the start of the game – You can double-jump to your heart’s content!
• Made the jump and avoid enemies/obstacles more forgiving – We love tinkering with hitboxes over here. We’re cuckoo bananas for it.
• Added more on-screen communication regarding the Impossible Levels, the Retro Levels, and the overall difficulty of the game – Don’t say we didn’t warn you when you fire up one of the game’s nine “Impossible Levels.”
• Added a “break” sound effect to kickwalls in addition to their musical tone – We received more requests for this than just about anything else. We were happy to oblige.

We hope you’re ready for the Commanders’ latest and greatest journey. It was a lot of work bringing it to life, but it was also a lot of fun. We think you’ll get a very good sense of that when you play it, so brace yourselves for the game’s November 13 release. And, as always, feel free to ask us any questions you have in the comments!

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Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon brings Vikings, Persians and Demons together in an epic war for control of the perfect shawarma! Our side-scrolling strategy game has all the good stuff you’d want…

The single-player campaign tells a story leading from the Viking homeland all the way to Persian deserts and the depths of the netherworld itself! On top of this 10-hour tale you can practice against the AI in skirmish battles and try for high scores in a series of hilarious mini-games, before taking on online opponents.

Multiplayer support includes split-screen and online play, and a custom army builder feature which allows you to mix and match your favorite units, spells and structures from across the three factions. If you want to combine Viking berserkers with carpet-riding fakirs and demonic magic, go for it! You can also skirmish or mini-game while waiting for an online match-up, then return to the skirmish after your multiplayer battle is complete.

Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon is running a special week-one bundle! That bundle includes a 10% launch discount and four special avatars from the game in a Launch Promo Pack: Phil the Genie, delicious Sheep, solid Shield spell, and the Persian ‘Dance of Daggers’ super spell! More avatars will be available at PS Store of course, both free and paid, as the variety in our factions and units mean there’s something for everyone. Let’s take a look!

Unleash your inner genie with Phil, the djinn of a magic lamp which plays a large part in the story of Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon. He looks very serious compared to the Vikings. We wouldn’t recommend asking him for any wishes! He’s included in the Launch Promo Pack, along with two magical avatars — literally! The Dance of Daggers spell offers a dynamic, dashing and deadly demonstration of a delightfully distinguished disposition, while the Shield spell avatar will protect you from trolls*.

*May not actually protect you from trolls, but it does look cool…

If these avatars sound too serious you could choose to represent yourself as… a sheep! A delicious, delicious sheep. Source of shawarma, bringer of brilliant flavor, utterly useless in a fight. In fact, one of our mini-games involves dropping meteors to defend one of your tasty four legged friends from waves of demonic sheep rustlers! If that’s not enough sheep for you, the Vikings also have a spell to transmogrify troublesome enemy units into a harmless fluffy food source.

Factions

We really wanted to emphasize differences between factions, from unit and spell variety to how they collect the mana for spell casting.

The Vikings generally rely on brute force, with tough but expensive units backed up by Freya’s Healing and Thor’s Lightning. They use valuable real-estate for putting up mana menhirs to generate more of the magical blue stuff, and they can summon snowstorms or call Thor’s hammer Mjolnir to smash into massed enemy ranks if lightning isn’t enough.

For beard-lovers, there will be a free Viking Avatar Pack featuring both the Viking leader Redbeard and Gramps, whose beard is less huge but makes up for it with fetching tartan and a traditional tam o’ shanter cap. The other Viking representative in the pack is Helga, their faction hero unit in the game. This valkyrie is as skilled with her operatic singing as she is with that enormous hammer, and will inspire friendly units to fight harder!

Other avatars that will be available at PS Store will be from the Demon armies, who offer a mix of cunning and brute strength! Two demonic leaders, Sir Loyn and Miss Chief, are featured alongside the humble boggart Charles (boggarts are the demon workers in-game). The fourth demon avatar is the sinister Necromancer, who raises the dead to fight again as spooky skeletons. We think the Demon units are great fun – particular favorites include explosive barrel riders and the enormous Troll hero, who can literally hurl friendly units over enemy defenses or hurry them into the fray!

Practicing dark magic, the Demons can sacrifice their own units to suck mana directly from their health bars, leaving behind a skeleton to fight on (they also have a Crypt structure that pops out a stream of skeletons… you may be noticing something of a theme here)! Their spells can explode corpses, transform their workers into cash stealing fighters, or summon kobold trappers who float above the battlefield waiting for enemies to catch and consume — fiendish!

The ancient Persian armies can hit hard and turn the tides of battle with stealthy Desert Stalkers and subtle magic with the ability to leap allies forward, bribe enemy units into switching sides, creating mirage doubles of units. To generate more mana, the Persians can switch their Gold Mine to become a Mana Mine. This combines excellently with their hero unit, Phil the Genie, who can activate his wish-granting mode to halve spell costs and cooldowns!

Art

The art style for Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon was initially heavily inspired by French comics and traditional animation. Here at Ronimo we really love the specific way of drawing characters and finer hints of detail in the art of comic artists like Albert Uderzo (Asterix & Obelix), and we strived to emulate that in Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon. A good example of this can be found when looking at the iconic berserker unit: compared to our previous game his lines now have a lot more variation in width to create the traditional “inked” feeling. Parts in shadow generally tend to have thicker lines, while parts that are in the light are a little thinner. Increased detail can be found in both the face and the detailing on the armor itself.

To contrast with this comic look we chose to have the backgrounds in a more painterly style reminiscent of traditional animated movies like Aladdin. It also contrasts nicely with the characters to make it easy for the player to see what’s relevant to the gameplay and what’s not.

For a long time we’ve also looked at older animations to guide our choices in what we would use outlines for and what we would keep painted. The rule ‘only outline what moves/interacts with other objects’ was at first used as an incredibly strict guideline, but that lead to results that, in the eyes of the team, were not ideal. A good example of this was an early iteration of the Viking base: only the tires were outlined (as the Viking base is able to drive in certain parts of the game), and everything else was painted. This, however, caused the team while playtesting to feel a jarring visual disconnect between the two parts of this single structure. Therefore we revised our plan to the more liberal use of outlines in the game that you see right now.

To further reinforce the feeling of playing a game that looks and feels like a cartoon or a comic, we also put a lot of time in making the special FX feel like traditional animation. We did this by combining frame-to-frame animation and effects like particles and glows that our custom Ronitech engine takes care of.

We’re excited to show off Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon to the world, and we hope everyone will have as much fun playing it as we’ve had making it! With three powerful factions willing to go to any lengths for the perfect shawarma — the only thing certain is that there will be the battle of a lifetime!

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For those wondering, the answer is yes. Road Redemption was heavily inspired by the classic Road Rash series, particularly the Road Rash entries on the original Sega Genesis/Megadrive, Road Rash on 3DO (later ported to the original PlayStation), and Road Rash 64 on Nintendo 64. Motorstorm was also a big inspiration for us, as were Burnout 2 and 3.

With Road Redemption, our goal was to make a game that lives up to people’s memories of those classic Road Rash titles, which, of course meant that Road Redemption had to be much better than those early games in order to be successful. Thankfully, we’ve had 15 years of hardware progress to help us out and allow us to do things with physics and AI that simply weren’t possible in the heyday of the Road Rash series and I think we’ve achieved our goal.

Road Redemption’s gameplay, like its inspiration from Road Rash, is different from anything else on the market today. In addition to being a racing game, it’s also a full-fledged action game where the environment plays a huge role in a player’s moment-to-moment tactical decisions. Faced with a tough opponent on your left side, do you go at him hard and fast with your sword, putting yourself at risk for counters, or do you play defensively until the moment when you can kick him into oncoming traffic? The interaction with an ever-changing environment allows for combat possibilities that no other game offers.

Adding to the combat challenge, Road Redemption is an incredibly fast racing game, with average speeds of about 175mph. Early on we decided that we didn’t want to compromise on the combat complexity despite the speed of the action, even if it means the player has to engage in Dark Souls-level combat while simultaneously navigating hairpin turns and taking advantage of shortcuts.

In other words, while it’s easy to jump right in and have fun straight away in Road Redemption, becoming a master requires time, persistence, and practice using its many many weapons.

We wanted variety in Road Redemption to come from building on top of the game’s core mechanics as someone plays through the campaign. For instance, in the campaign’s opening races, players will mostly stick to simple (yet satisfying) weapon swings, kicks, and parries. However, late in the game a player might zap a heavily-armored racer to his right with a stun baton, fire off a few AK-47 rounds into the racer dropping pipe bombs in front of him, then take out the truck trying to edge him off the road via a sticky C4 bomb, before knocking the racer to his right off his cycle with a sledgehammer… all in the span of three seconds!

Making a game that was both immediately satisfying in its first 30 seconds and deep enough in its twentieth hour wasn’t an easy task, but we think it’s something we achieved and we hope players enjoy it!

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Overlord is a WWII-horror-scifi mashup coming to theaters on November 9, and we’ve got four minutes of new footage you can watch above.

It’s a simple setup. An elite group of US paratroopers are tasked with infiltrating a Nazi installation outside Normandy and taking out a radio tower that will enable the Allies to launch a massive attack. Instead, they find a secret Nazi laboratory tasked with the creation of a generation of grotesque supersoldiers.

I never skip a chance to speak with a horror movie director, so I leapt at the opportunity to chat with Julius Avery, the director of Overlord, on the film’s genesis and themes.

PSB: How did Overlord come together?
Bad Robot brought me in to talk about about what I wanted to do next. We spitballed a few ideas, and [showed me a script] for Overlord. I read it, and it was this completely bonkers adventure story that was like Indiana Jones on acid. I’d never read anything like it. It originally started as a pitch by Billy Ray. He took it to JJ Abrams, and what JJ loved was the same thing I loved: it’s this crazy mashup between war, horror, and sci-fi. There’s a lot of emotion, and great characters. JJ always talks about getting the audience to lean in. To do that, you have to care about your characters… you gotta love them before they go into Hell.

We spent a lot of time getting the emotion and the action right, the depth and balance. I wanted it to have a sense of jeopardy, of high stakes, to create this tense horror film.

PSB: What inspired you to direct Overlord?
As a young boy, I looked through my grandfather’s photo album. He was in the North African campaign of WWII. And he used to tell me about his adventures, show me his medals and bayonetts and stuff. Even as a kid, I could tell he was part of something big. That’s why I’ve always wanted to make a war movie.

My hero growing up were, at the video store, was John Carpenter. I was a big fan of Big Trouble in Little China… it’s this great blend of action and horror and character in that movie. It’s something I always remembered.

PSB: How did JJ Abrams enter the picture? What did he like about the treatment for Overlord
I’ve always been a big fan of JJ…You expect the unexpected. They like to take risks, they take something familiar and add something fresh and new.

There’s not really anything like [Overlord] out in the theaters. [JJ] likes to take a B-movie or a C-movie and throw high-level execution at it. A big budget, great story, great characters. Overlord is not exactly horror, or action, or sci-fi… it’s all of those things combined. And that’s a risk, because it can’t be clearly defined. But I love that it’s completely surprising. When people see the film, I think they will be surprised by all the different layers in the film.

PSB: Were there any WWII films you used as a reference to ground the war scenes in Overlord?
There are obviously amazing war movies over the past 20 years, especially [depicting] WWII. It’s hard to mention them, because you don’t want to be judged against such classics…. I had to come up with my own way to tell the story. I knew I wanted to keep everything in-camera, to be as practical as possible. I wanted you to connect with the characters. A lot of the film is shot from the point of view of the lead character, Boyes. We ground the movie in his point of view.

PSB: You’re a horror fan. What were your influences and philosophy for Overlord?
I think horror should be very visceral, tactile experience. It’s the same as action – you want to make it real for the actors, with real explosions and squibs flying around. Most of the horror elements [in Overlord] were done in-camera. [Some of the makeup effects] required actors sitting in a makeup chair for five hours. It’s much better if it’s real.

I wanted it to feel like the old-school horror movies I used to watch, to make it as ‘analog’ as I could make it, to use CG only when I needed to. [We prefer] puppets, animatronics… we only used CG just for cleanup, to remove poles and things like that.

I think people get off on the real and the tactile. The uncanny valley… the audience knows something isn’t quite right no matter how much money you throw at it. With the action and the horror, I try to keep it as practical as possible.

Most of the stuff we’re talking about borders on supernatural. I tried to bring a logic to the world, but what they’re doing in this movie is not medically accurate. [laughs]

Overlord opens in US theaters Friday, November 9.

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In real life, Venus is that bright, pretty “star” you see in the early night sky named after the Roman goddess of beauty and love. In the world of Warframe, however, Venus is something much different. Terraformed by the ancient Orokin masters, it’s now defined by skies burning bright with hues of orange and blue, towering mushrooms, craggy cliffs and silken coolant lakes, guarded by enormous mechanical spiders. This is Fortuna, Tenno, and it’s your next stop in the Origin System.

Coming later this winter to PlayStation 4, Fortuna is Digital Extremes’ new open-world creation, three to four times bigger than last year’s super popular Plains of Eidolon, vibrant, surprising, and fantastically imagined. For new players, Venus is the second planet available on your star chart (after Earth), making it fast and easy to get to. Just download Warframe and you’ll find it quite easy to access Venus within about 1-2 hours. And getting there is simple: Follow the Lotus’ very clear suggestions and consult the Star Chart’s Venus Junction to complete five quick prerequisites. You’ll get there in no time!

Upon arrival, you will experience a vastly divided world. Below the ground in the dark, gritty city of Fortuna, you’ll meet the debt-interned Solaris Faction, a people so deeply in debt, they have sold off their body parts as payments. On the planet’s surface, aka the Orb Vallis, you’ll encounter the money-driven Corpus Faction overlords and the egocentric leader Nef Anyo who patrol the research bases and four strategically placed towers.

You may feel overwhelmed by the sheer scale of Orb Vallis, but fret not! The new K-Drive hoverboard makes it easy. A futuristic snowboard (skateboard? wakeboard?) that glides above the Venetian surface, the K-drive is a customizable vehicle designed for Tenno to explore the world and, quite frankly, to get rad! Without losing a hint of space ninja coolness, Tenno can call up the K-drive from their inventory, hop on their new decks and charge into the alien landscape. If you’ve played too many skateboarding, snowboarding or surfing games like I have, you’ll immediately see the Orb Vallis is a brand new light, suddenly filled with gaps, grinds, trick spots, and combo opportunities. Even those giant mushrooms can be properly tamed by the glowing blue hue of the wicked-cool K-drive.

This isn’t to say that the ruling Corpus will make it easy on you. Led by Nef Anyo, the Corpus aristocrat driven by greed who has created entire buildings built around his likeness, he is prepared to thwart any resistance — be it Solaris or Tenno — to keep his face polished and unscathed. You’ll find Nef has ushered in a small army of new enemy soldiers to bear, along with a new alert system — one that escalates with increasing numbers of enemies. So, either keep it cool, or just go for broke, but either way, turn to your new friends the Solaris United to arm yourself with powerful weapons, trick out your K-Drive, and defeat the “prophet of profit.”

If you’re still wondering how to get ready, download Warframe from your PS4 browser and come join our awesome community! If you’re a PS+ member, grab the free Booster Pack II and start figuring out your favorite Warframe!

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Hey guys, this is Sebastian Gana, Co-Founder and Technical Director here at AOne Games, creators behind the fighting game “Omen of Sorrow”. Today is a very important day for us, where we are presenting our fans (and those of you who might not know of us yet!), our brand new Release Trailer — in which we are introducing 2 new characters: Arctorious, the Headless Horseman, and Thalessa, the Invisible Queen. Please enjoy the video above!

Omen of Sorrow is a 2D fighting game which is inspired in classical horror but with our own twist for each of them. Some of these characters include Caleb, the fearsome Werewolf, or Adam, Frankenstein’s Monster. The famous Dracula has inspired our own Vladislav III; and Quasimodo, the Watcher, hails from the classic tale of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. With a dark tone, you will feel the intensity of battle in different stages, such as a flaming forest, Doctor Frankenstein’s Lab, or the bell tower of a derelict church in the heart of Paris.

It has been our intention to provide players with varied single player content, which is why we’ve added a dark Story Mode, in which you will be able to be part of the despair and madness in which the characters are involved in, as they search for the manuscript known as the Omen of Sorrow. The story plays out in branches, and you will have to play as different characters as you continue to progress and unlock new chapters in the story. Staying in the single player mode offerings, you will also find a classic Arcade Mode, in which you will have to go through the gauntlet and end up facing a final boss. You will have to learn to dominate these battles so that you can unlock new characters for your roster!

For fans of the genre, and for those who want to learn more about the mechanics present in Omen of Sorrow, we’ve provided a full fledged Training Mode in which you will be able to test all the different options that will lead you to dominate in combat!

The game will include a local Versus Mode for one or two players, as well as a robust Online Mode in which you will be able to engage in casual or ranked matches, as well as join or create a lobby that supports up to 12 players at once!

We’ve not forgotten those who live to collect, which is why we’ve also added ways to unlock a ton of content in the Image Gallery, as well as videos, custom avatars and player titles — more than 200 unlockables in total!

One thing we really want to do is to surprise players with our unique roster. In them, we’ve worked really hard to include unique gameplay mechanics that will allow you to take advantage against your opponents with different styles of play. For example, Caleb is able to walk while crouching – a unique feature that can even allow him to avoid projectiles! Radegonda, our Gargoyle, can fly around the screen, where she is much more effective thanks to unique moves only available while doing so. The decrepit mummy, Imhotep, can switch to an exalted state in which his body separates into different parts to confuse your adversary. Another great example is Quasimodo, who can summon a bell that traps both you and your opponent inside of it, reducing the size of the arena and letting him use his agility in a very effective way!

One of the defining characteristics of the game is how aggressive the combat is: being offensive during battle is rewarded by increasing your Fortune gauge, which in turn lets you go into “Blessed” state. In this mode you will be able to chain attacks and special moves in new and unique ways that, when matched to your agility and cunning, might create insane upsets that turn the tide of battle! The flipside to this is, of course, playing defensively. Do so too much, and your Fortune will decrease while your Destiny gauge increases – once this gauge reaches its limit, you will fall into “Doomed” state, a very bad thing! While doomed, your attacks and special moves will be significantly hindered, so be careful or you might lose the battle!

We’ve worked hard to make sure that the game mechanics are entertaining to both casual and experienced players. The different levels of depth in the systems and mechanics will allow that anyone that grabs a controller will have a fun and challenging battle, whether that’s on the couch with friends for a few matches, or even to organize a complete tournament to determine who is the best!

We know just how important a good online gameplay experience is to the Fighting Game community at large. This is why we’ve really gone all out, and based our online mode on an implementation of the reknown GGPO middleware for our netcode, which will allow for battles to feel good and smooth. Additionally, we’ve complemented this feature with a custom built matchmaking system, that allows us to future-proof the online experience in the game.

Before signing off, we need to give a special shoutout to all players who’ve enjoyed Omen of Sorrow during development. We’ve gone to great lengths to be present at countless local and international events, in order to make you a part of this development process too — and believe me when I say that your feedback has been invaluable to make the game as good as it can be.

We really hope that this sneak peek, and the new trailer, has you hungry for more! You will be able to enjoy amazing battles with Omen of Sorrow when it launches on November 6, 2018 at PlayStation Store!

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Déraciné launches tomorrow, exclusively for PlayStation VR! We’re big FromSoftware / Japan Studio fans around these parts, so we reached out to Hidetaka Miyazaki himself to learn more about this intriguing new collaboration.

Watch Déraciné’s new launch trailer below, then read on for a new interview about the inspiration behind the project, how FromSoftware took their first steps into virtual reality, and more.

PSB: Déraciné is a thoughtful, story-based adventure game on PlayStation VR. Have you long wanted to explore creating a narrative title?
HM: Actually, no. This title was an opportunity for me to explore the theme of existence versus non-existence as is only possible using VR. And in order to tackle that theme, it was necessary to give the title a stronger narrative bent. If I had the opportunity to design a game where the story itself was the theme, I think I would have taken things in a different direction.

PSB: Does Déraciné represent a “passion project” for you? Why or why not?
HM: Yes, I have developed a very unique affection for this project, unlike any of the titles I have made in the past. For me personally and for FromSoftware, this was a title rife with experimentation and novel ideas. The reasons for this are varied: the game being on PS VR, the genre being something we have never worked with before, the small scope of the project which gave a lot of autonomy to the development staff, and the focus on theme and narrative over game systems. As a result, we struggled a lot, and we learned a lot. I think that’s where this strange affection was born.

Or maybe I’m just letting my own particular tastes, always kept in check until now, color the project a bit more (laughs).

PSB: How do you see VR leaving a lasting influence on game design and development?
HM: While the bar is high, VR truly is interesting. It straightaway has the potential to create entirely new game experiences, but there’s also enough room for curveballs such as this one. The fun of developing games– the fun of developing games over the long term, depends a lot on the technology, which is a major reason why this is a media that plays host to dramatic changes. I feel like VR is an important facet to those changes.

PlayStation.Blog: Your games traditionally feature a strong emphasis on death. How does death factor into Déraciné?
Hidetaka Miyazaki: This particular title does not employ death as a concept or a system, at least as far as player character dying through gameplay is concerned. I think death is a crucial element when designing games around the theme of the satisfaction of overcoming overwhelming odds. However, that is not the theme of this title.

PSB: How do you get your team to ‘change gears’ from working on frantic action games to something more peaceful and serene like Déraciné?
HM: I don’t think that was really necessary, to be honest. In fact, the team was made up of people who had made it through the development of frantic action games and who were ready to do something a little bit calmer and more peaceful.

PSB: You’ve said before that you like working on multiple titles simultaneously. Can you share any examples of ways that working on one title has influenced another one?
HM: There are a lot of cases where ideas thought up for one title ended up not being used in it, and instead were used to solve problems encountered in a different title. When facing a problem, sometimes you get an incredible amount of inspiration from an entirely different angle.

PSB: This is From’s first foray into virtual reality. Did working in this new medium lead to any challenges during development?
HM: There were many, but I think the characters in the game are a good example. Due to the title being on PS VR and due to necessities with the narrative, we used natural faces and expressions as the key visuals for the characters, a rarity for FromSoftware titles. Most of our titles up until now had characters with faces completely covered in armor or blindfolded. (laughs)

So as odd as it might sound, designing and creating natural faces for our characters was a new challenge for us. And to be honest, it’s really hard, and we had a lot to learn.

PSB: What mindset would you like fans of your recent games to approach Déraciné with?
HM: I would like to start off by saying this game is unlike any I have made before in a myriad of ways. The gameplay, the approach to game design and even the volume of the title are dramatically different. It is also quite strange, and probably difficult to understand. All that being said, if your curiosity is piqued, don’t worry about it and just give it a try.

PSB: What do you hope players will take away from Déraciné after they’ve finished playing it?
HM: There is a kind of emotion I’d like players to take away from this title, connected to the theme I mentioned earlier. It would be difficult to explain without giving away spoilers. I guess the one thing I can say is that I hope this little title, and the characters that live inside it, will linger on in the memories of those who play through it.

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.

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