Commander Fury

Captured entirely from in-game footage on PlayStation 4 Pro, watch this introduction to Red Dead Redemption 2’s gameplay in 4K. Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming October 26, 2018 to PlayStation 4 systems. Pre-order now. View the full article

Hey readers, I’m super excited about this post, because we’ve been working hard for the past few months to bring Divinity: Original Sin 2 to you not only improved and bigger than its initial launch, but also earlier! We’ve been having many discussions with the team at PlayStation about what we can do to ensure that you don’t have to wait any longer, and we’ve collectively come up with a plan. On August 14, you’ll be able to start your journey through Rivellon right through to the end of the game’s first Act, which is about 20-30 hours of content depending on how you play. After launch, you can continue where you left off. Easy! We’re dropping a trailer on Tuesday that’ll bring you up to speed, featuring pizza crafting, thieving with a bucket on your head, and lots and lots of turn-based combat. If you’re new to Divinity: Original Sin 2, you’ll want to know that it’s the sequel to the 2014 RPG hit that offered a deep, systemic sandbox experience to two players online or in split screen. The sequel is much larger and offers a lot more content. In the first game, you could play as only humans, but now you can play as humans, elves, dwarves, lizardmen, and even undead variants of each of these. It remains one of the only (if not the only) RPGs of its class to offer split-screen co-op from the start, all the way to the end of the game. This is special because of our Origin System, where each of our characters have their own unique story in the global narrative of the game. Though you’ll work with your friends as a team, certain objectives along the way will often conflict with one another. It’s a very human game, and a very interactive one where your skills and your wits can be used with, or against one another to reach the world’s conclusion: replacing the Gods that since abandoned the world of Rivellon. Whether you’re playing alone or as a party of up to four friends, your party will be tested as only one of you can ascend to become Rivellon’s new divine! So buy Divinity: Original Sin 2 on August 14 and start your adventure early! Oh, and by the way, you’ll also get access to Sir Lora, a furry little friend with a big Napoleon complex. He even has some useful skill crafting recipes to give you a helping hand. View the full article

Hey all, Arizona Sunshine’s Dead Man DLC is coming to PlayStation VR on August 14! I spent a lot of my time designing this prequel mission to our VR zombie shooter over the past half year. I’m really excited about finally welcoming our PS VR player community to the final days before the zombie apocalypse. Designing this DLC was a unique opportunity and challenge. On the one hand, there was a solid foundation to build on and many lessons learned from developing the base game. On the other hand, I was eager to design something that would feel new and would offer a challenge to the most veteran of our VR zombie apocalypse survivors. With Dead Man DLC, players get an all-new, military perspective on the zombie apocalypse of Arizona Sunshine. We took the most compelling and challenging parts of Arizona Sunshine to craft a prequel full of suspense and action. Playing solo or with a friend, you find yourself heading a frantic military mission and last-ditch effort to contain the outbreak. As you battle your way through the silo to fire off the missile that is to save mankind, your surroundings will be dark and narrow, your ammo will soon be sparser than ever, and zombies quick and slow will come at you from every shadow. Expanding on the world and lore of Arizona Sunshine, we’ve put an interesting twist on the story — one that we’ll let you discover for yourself! As this is the largest Arizona Sunshine level to date, the biggest technical challenge was making sure Dead Man DLC runs just as fluidly as the base game in VR. We implemented a new, advanced level-of-detail (LOD) system that manages the level of detail that in-game objects have based on where the player is looking. In other words, a lot of fancy stuff is being done in the background to ensure you have an immersive and smooth VR experience. Oh, and there are three new weapons including some two-handed weapons for the PS VR aim controller, and new thematic masks too. Crafting Dead Man DLC was quite the ride and to celebrate the upcoming release, we’re sharing a couple new screenshots today. I can’t wait to see you guys play when it lands on PS VR on August 14, and I hope you’ll enjoy it! View the full article

Steel Crate Games is the small-but-plucky team of four behind Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. We are beyond excited to announce the release of “Flatscreen Mode” on August 16! What is Flatscreen Mode? Dear reader, we’re so glad you asked. All will be explained in due time. But first, let us give you the rundown. In Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, one player is trapped in a room with a ticking time bomb. The other players are the “Experts.” They must help defuse the bomb by deciphering information from the Bomb Defusal Manual. But there’s a catch: the Experts can’t see the bomb. Survival will rely on teamwork, creative thinking, and a bit of trial and error. At its core, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a local cooperative, party-puzzle game. Rounds are fast. And success hinges on your team’s ability to communicate effectively. So choose your words wisely. One mistake and it could all be over. No one said it was going to be easy. The puzzles are designed to be tricky to communicate. And the manual? Tricky to interpret. But the rules are fair, and they are always correct. No bomb is ever the same. The puzzles will change. If you plan on getting out alive, you and your team will need to keep your wits about you. How did we come up with the concept for this game? A bit of history: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes was first designed for virtual reality. In the early days of concept development, we noticed there was something missing from the VR experience. After demoing to friends and family, we saw that bystanders were left out of the experience completely. Watching someone else play VR? It’s not much fun. What if players were separated by roles? Each with only half the information needed to solve the problem? We could turn bystanders into active participants. We knew we were onto something. Just about no one has two to six VR headsets lying around, but almost everyone has a phone, laptop, or some sort of smart device with a browser. By creating a manual, we turned bystanders into players, giving them an essential role and the means to easily join in! This translates beautifully to Flatscreen (aka non-VR) Mode as well. Only the Defuser sees the TV screen. So if you can talk to the Defuser, you can be their Expert, even remotely. “But wait!” I hear you ask, “You said this was a local co-op game?” We did. It’s true that local co-op is exclusively supported, but unlike other co-op games, you just need to talk to your friends to be able to play. PS4 voice chat provides the perfect medium to play with your friends. Grab a copy of the Bomb Defusal Manual—which is available for free—and join in as an Expert. You can even browse it on your phone. Both PS VR and Flatscreen Modes are included together. Players who already own the game for PS VR will get the Flatscreen Mode in an update for free on August 16. Save 10% on Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes from August 16 to August 23 at PS Store. View the full article

Today, I’m thrilled to reveal that Sony Interactive Entertainment has officially sold more than 525.3 Million PlayStation systems worldwide! With 500 Million PlayStation systems sold, that means countless adventures into the unknown, courageous stands against evil, and life-long memories of playing with family and friends. Thank you to all our fans for your passionate support over the past 24 years, which made all of this possible. 500 Million Limited Edition PS4 Pro | Image Gallery As translucent colors are always a fan-favorite, this is a great opportunity to bring this color to the PlayStation 4 Pro system as a ‘thank you’ to our fans. To celebrate this exceptional milestone, we are announcing today a global release of the 500 Million Limited Edition PS4 Pro, featuring a translucent dark blue console shell and matching DualShock 4 wireless controller, PlayStation Camera, Vertical Stand and mono headset. This PS4 Pro also comes with a massive 2TB hard drive for you to store tons of games, apps, videos, screenshots and more. It will be available for $499.99 USD (MSRP) / $639.99 CAD (MSRP), and will be limited to 50,000 units worldwide. In addition, each system will have a commemorative copper plate on its front, with its limited edition serial number etched on. And, for the very lucky few who can get them, we have a few ‘extra special’ hardware units with serial numbers that commemorate important events in the history of PlayStation. Keep your eyes peeled for these ‘extra special’ serial numbers like 09995 (U.S. Launch Date of the original PlayStation – September 9th, 1995), 01115 (U.S. launch date of PS4 – November 15, 2013) and 01013 (U.S. launch date of PS VR – October 13, 2016). The 500 Million Limited Edition DualShock 4 will also be available as a standalone for $64.99 USD (MSRP) / $74.99 CAD (MSRP). What’s more, a 500 Million Limited Edition Gold Wireless Headset featuring the same dark blue translucent design with copper detailing, will be available separately at $99.99 USD (MSRP) / $119.99 CAD (MSRP). The limited edition PS4 Pro will be available on retailer websites starting August 24 – check out the PS.com page for the list of participating retailer websites in the U.S. and Canada. The limited edition DS4 and Gold Wireless Headset will be available in select retailers across the U.S. and Canada in early September. Please note, these special hardware units will be available in very, very, limited quantities. Since its launch back in 2016, our portfolio of PS4 Pro supported content has continued to grow, truly showcasing the power of 4K TV gaming, HDR, and more. This year has been packed with even more incredible PS4 Pro enhanced games, like Detroit: Become Human, God of War and Monster Hunter: World. And we couldn’t be more excited for upcoming enhanced games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption 2. In the world of PlayStation, the possibilities of play are endless and we’d like to once again thank you for the tremendous love and support that has made PlayStation the best place to play since 1994. Here’s to 500 million more epic moments and experiences ahead! View the full article

God of War New Game+ will be available as a free patch update on August 20 (that’s our four-month anniversary already). Remember, to access all the greatness of New Game+, you’ll need to complete the story campaign of God of War on any difficulty. If you already did, New Game+ will be ready and waiting for you on August 20 once you’ve patched. If you haven’t beaten the game yet, you’ve got two weeks, friend. Your boat and Axe and BOI are waiting. So what is God of War New Game+? It’s inspired by your feedback first and foremost. With New Game+ comes along a host of new gear, more difficult enemies, and cinematic skipping! Relive the journey of Kratos and Atreus with all of your previous armors, enchantments, talismans, resources and abilities on the difficulty of your choosing. Test your skills against higher level enemies; some of which might even have a few new tricks up their sleeves! Unique to New Game+ is a brand new rarity level of equipment to craft and upgrade! Collect ‘Skap Slag’, a new resource to upgrade your gear to the best of the best from our finest blacksmiths. Play the game in a whole new way by exploring new customization options with extremely powerful new armor sets and enchantments. Finally, get right back into the action with the newly added ability to skip through cinematics in both normal and New Game+ modes once a full play through has been completed. This is easily our biggest update to God of War. We’re certainly looking forward to seeing who completes Give Me God of War New Game+ mode first. That’s a feat! Thank you, thank you, thank you for your patience and allowing us the development time necessary to create New Game+. It arrives August 20. Follow @SonySantaMonica on Twitter for the most up to date everything God of War. View the full article

Hi all, I’m back again to share more with you as we ramp up to the release of Firewall Zero Hour! Firewall Zero Hour is the 4v4 team-based tactical shooter we developed exclusively for PlayStation VR.* And it comes out August 28! Today, we unveil the second half of our Firewall Zero Hour 101 video series. Last week, we introduced the first two videos in the series: Game Overview and VR Immersion. Now, it’s time to delve into team strategy! In Firewall Zero Hour, you’ll play each match as either an Attacker, or a Defender. Within the next two videos of our series, Attacking and Defending, we go over several strategies you can use to lead your team to success. Firewall Zero Hour 101: Attacking Here we learn what you do as an Attacker: infiltrate a location, find the access point, and disrupt the firewall. Once the firewall has been disrupted, your task is to find and hack the laptop that the Defenders are trying to protect. Keep an ear out, because your contract handler will give you cues along the way. As an Attacker, you have an arsenal of equipment at your disposal, including assault rifles, SMGs, shotguns, pistols, frag grenades, flash grenades, and smoke grenades. With the PS VR headset, you can scan your environment carefully, turning your head in all directions. Communication is a key element of team success, and you can easily stay connected to your teammates thanks to the PS VR headset’s directional audio with built-in mic. As an Attacker, you’ll want to organize a plan of attack with your teammates, call out enemy traps or locations when you spot them, and of course shout out when you’re down and need a teammate to revive you. Explore using different Contractors with special abilities that can help when Attacking. Like Fang, who has the Lightspeed skill, which lets him reload magazines faster. Or Red, who has the BangBang skill, giving him a whole extra frag grenade. Or Nala (Contractor unlocked at level 20), her Ghost skill lets her walk past mines without setting them off– easily bypassing the ones placed by Defenders. Firewall Zero Hour 101: Defending Here we go over what it means to be a Defender. You’ve been hired to stop Attackers from getting to the laptop. You have a plethora of strategic items at your disposal, such as lethal traps you can set like a C4 Charge and Proximity Mines. You also have other items you can place that will impede Attackers from success. Like Door Blockers (unlocked at level 42), that you can place on doors which Attackers have to dismantle. Or Signal Modifiers (unlocked at level 21), that you can place near the Laptop which Attackers must dismantle before they can begin the download. Strategize with your teammates to set up traps, go on lookout, or camp near the laptop. Protect the laptop at all costs! Try out different Contractors to see how their special skills can help when playing as a Defender. Like Okoro with his Heavy Duty skill, allowing him to take less explosive damage. Or Raha, her Scout skill heightens her ability to detect incoming enemies (visually via her wrist tablet mini-map, as well as audibly hearing their footsteps). Or Texas (Contractor unlocked at level 10), with her Bullet Sponge skill letting her take less bullet damage overall. Firewall Zero Hour 101: Contractors Each Contractor comes with an embedded Skill and a customizable Skill. Skills are abilities available for Players to apply to their Contractors to further customize their classes. For example, you can gear your Contractor to be more of a support role in your squad by using the Quick Fix Skill (unlocked at level 38) to revive your teammates faster. In Firewall Zero Hour, you can customize your Contractor to the way you want to play. Unpredictable outcomes of 4v4 gameplay Whether playing as an Attacker or Defender, experiencing map layouts in PS VR is a whole new level of immersion. Every match begins with a randomized spawn point for Attackers, and a randomized spawn point for Defenders (and their laptop). With nine different maps to choose from, you’ll have a ton of tactical hiding spots, choke points, staircases, doorways, trenches, and cover points to explore–all in PS VR. Round after round, experience the unpredictable outcomes of 4v4 gameplay based on the choices you make: the maps you play, the Contractors you choose, the loadouts you equip, and the teammates you work with. Progress by earning XP and Crypto after every match, and unlock new Weapons, Items, and Contractors. Communication is key in Firewall Zero Hour and it starts even before you take on a Contract. You want to communicate with your squad in the lobby and strategize your plan. For example, as defenders, we had multiple Contractors equip the Signal Modifier. The plan was to plant two Signal Modifiers near the Laptop and defend the Jammers, not the Laptop. We’re excited to see the growth of our community leading up to Firewall Zero Hour’s release date. There will be several Firewall Zero Hour content drops coming up over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more! *An internet connection is required for all game modes. An active PlayStation Plus membership is required for multiplayer. View the full article

The world of We Happy Few has proven a true touchstone for a great number of side projects, including this PS VR exclusive. It’s hard not to be inspired by the era, the unique visuals, and the premise of a British town defying acknowledgement of its own history through the use (abuse) of a powerful and dangerous drug known as “Joy.” The original goal for Uncle Jack Live VR was to provide players with a chance to meet and work with Wellington Wells’ most prominent celebrity figure. Initially, the experience simply involved ways to manipulate a broadcast camera within a standard Uncle Jack episode, but the project evolved from watching Uncle Jack in-studio to actually building a full broadcast with him, featuring dynamic content and multiple outcomes. We owe the enhancement of the concept to the multi-medium expertise and masterful execution of our partners at Signal Space Lab. By their design, each phase of the broadcast tasks the player with selecting the perfect news article for Uncle Jack to read aloud on-air, ensuring Wellies everywhere stay entertained and remember to “take their Joy.” If you happen to get it wrong, UJ will expertly roll with the punches, spinning the bad news in hilariously positive ways—but you can count on his opinion of you changing as a result. Anger him enough and he’ll outright cancel the broadcast. Make good decisions, and you’ll be his favorite guest producer ever! But impressing Uncle Jack isn’t your singular concern. There happens to be a Downer Outbreak developing throughout the broadcast center, and it’s up to you to find a way to turn all those frowns upside down (hint: it involves dosing them with a whole lot of Joy!). Over the course of development on We Happy Few, the team amassed a huge amount of content that we wanted to collect and share with our biggest fans, so we included an “Archive Mode” in Uncle Jack Live VR to do just that. When you’re done playing producer, you can spend some downtime in the media archives where you can explore over 40 Uncle Jack episodes, listen to official We Happy Few soundtrack selections, and watch bonus materials like trailers and animation reels. That’s hours upon hours of content to absorb in a nice cozy virtual space! Dedicated fans will be happy to know we’ve included plenty of fun We Happy Few Easter eggs within the PS VR experience. You’ll find a number of our favorite assets decorating the spaces, including the “salty dog,” authentic happy masks, a very British phone booth, and a worn-out poster given to us by our good friends at Gearbox Publishing. We Happy Few: Uncle Jack Live VR is out today and available for free at PlayStation Store. We hope it not only brings you and Uncle Jack a little closer, but also serves as an entertaining introduction to the unique—and often quite insane—world of We Happy Few. The full We Happy Few game is coming to PS4 and PS4 Pro in just a couple days on August 10. Pre-order now at PlayStation Store and get $10 off plus the exclusive Jolly Brolly weapon at launch! View the full article

With Strange Brigade launching in just three weeks on August 28, it’s high time we lifted the lid on a couple of very exciting surprises we have in store. Previously, we’ve only talked about the game’s campaign mode – an incredible 1930s story-based adventure for 1-4 players full of death-defying heroics and third-person shooter action. But we’ll also have two extended modes that will be available free at launch! And like the campaign, both modes are also playable in single-player or in co-op for two to four players. So we’re thrilled to announce for Strange Brigade… Horde Mode and Score Attack! A STRANGE TWIST! Developed by our crack team here at Rebellion, in Horde Mode you’ll face off against waves of increasingly deadly enemies, but the real twist comes from taking some of the gameplay mechanics of the campaign and reinterpreting them in a fresh new mode. Just as you’ll spend gold you earn in the campaign to unlock new weapons and the special limited-ammo prototype weapons, in Horde Mode it’s how you spend the cash you accumulate by killing enemies. Will you spend your hard-earned haul on unlocking the crowd-splitting Blunderbuss, knowing that once it runs out of ammo that it’s gone for good? Or maybe you’ll save up your gold to satisfy the spirits who guard the locked doors in each level, opening up new areas of the map where you might find even more goodies like vital health potions and other lucrative loot? This rejigging of the main game is really smart, and we’ve got a great mode now that adds a lot of interesting tactical decisions to that classic premise of staying alive for as long as possible against an enemy that will eventually overwhelm you – or will it? RACK UP THOSE SCORES, STRANGE BRIGADE! If Horde Mode is more about endurance, Score Attack is all about cutting through the chaos with speed and panache. It’s a really fast-paced mode with lots of opportunity to show off your skills. The basic idea is to complete a small slice from one of the campaign levels, except it’s been tweaked to be positively teeming with enemies! The most obvious and important difference, however, is the combo-multiplier. This ticks up as you take down enemies in quick succession, and depletes if you go too long without scoring a kill. So if you speed through as quickly as possible you’ll maximize your final score exponentially in your quest to top the online leaderboards! But you’ll also earn big bonus points for completing certain objectives – like not taking any damage, scoring enough headshots, making enough kills with just your bullets, and so on. So it’s not all about putting pedal to the metal – you’ve got to tear through all those mischievous mummies with style! Traps, explosives, and the wide variety of powerful special weapons on offer allow you to do exactly that, although just getting to the end isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Again, the team took a simple premise and ran with it to make a really exciting mode that massively exceeded our original blueprints. Score Attack is a pure arcade thrill that will keep you coming back for more! ON THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE OF… STRANGE BRIGADE! We’re really pleased with how both Horde Mode and Score Attack have turned out. In both modes you’re going to be playing modes that could be stand-alone games in their own right. They both take elements from the campaign game, remix them and turn them into new games with totally new flavors! We’re also excited to confirm that we’ll be adding brand-new (free!) content for both modes, and we are hoping that long after you’ve completed the main adventure of Strange Brigade, you’ll be coming back to Horde Mode and Score Attack to compete with your friends – and against them! View the full article

Madden season is nearly here. You can almost hear the pending flood of nonsensical trash talk and see the rage quits on the horizon. With new features and updates for fan-favorite modes, Madden NFL 19 will push the franchise higher than ever before. Before diving into the digital gridiron, it’s important to know what Madden 19 has to offer. Here’s a quick breakdown on some of the biggest features this season. Real Player Motion Likely the most significant change existing Madden fans will notice is Real Player Motion (RPM). RPM not only delivers a boost to player motion authenticity, it brings a higher level of control to Madden. Through new animations, players will get a more realistic football experience, being able to make the same insanely quick cuts their favorite NFLers do on Sunday. Push the Pile is the perfect example of what RPM produces. Just like in the NFL, players can now use their blockers to edge out some tough ground yards by holding the Right Stick as they make contact to trigger different animations based on player ratings and type of running back being used. A big RB might truck through an engaged defender while a smaller RB might put his hand on the back of his blocker to plow through traffic. Gamers will have to respect the Acceleration mechanic even more, too. The quick cuts introduced by RPM are a part of your arsenal as long as you’re not spamming the Sprint button. Speed is no longer the I-Win button it used to be in Madden; it’s all about stick skills and player control. User-Controlled Celebrations Another feature RPM brings to the table that I have to highlight, though, is an entire arsenal of celebrations, ideal for pouring salt in the wound of victory after a game-winning score. Following a big sack, touchdown, safety — anything worth celebrating, really — players will have a window to add some swagger to their game with the Right Stick. Check out this breakdown of options: RS UP – Team/Group Celebration RS RIGHT – Spike RS DOWN – Player Signature RS LEFT – Dance RS CLICK/R3 – Swagger: Steal a Signature animation from the opponent team You’ll see tons of team celebrations as well. Keep an eye open for new ones too, as we’ll be adding them throughout the NFL season via updates post-launch. Longshot: Homecoming Last season, Madden broke ground, introducing the franchise’s first-ever story mode, Longshot. In Madden 19, you’ll continue the story of Devin Wade and Colt Cruise following the results of the TV competition that propelled them into the spotlight. But this time around, you’ll control both Wade and Cruise as they resume their journey of personal growth and NFL stardom. Part of the community feedback around Longshot was that they wanted more action. You ask, we delivered! This season, Longshot: Homecoming features four times the amount of gameplay and on-field action, offering even more reason to dive into this emotionally-driven story. Franchise and Ultimate Team Your favorite manager modes are back and better than ever in Madden 19. Progress any player to become the foundation of your roster by playing games, unlocking training points, and unlocking special abilities throughout the season. MUT Squads was a big hit last season, as the mode allowed gamers to combine efforts to form stacked rosters to take on other players in 3 vs. 3 matchups. In Madden 19, you can now combine those efforts against the CPU in difficult challenges built by MUT designers. Also, no more contracts. With Franchise, it’s all about building an NFL dynasty the way you want. You can achieve individual and team rating boosts by matching Player Archetypes to your scheme. Picking up and starting the players that fit your scheme best leads to on-field benefits. As you earn XP on the field, use Skill Points to boost a player’s specific skill set. If you’re using a scheme that utilizes a mobile QB, then using a Skill Point will provide an increase to appropriate stats to make your player more effective on the field. Get in the Game Early Grab the inside edge on the competition and start playing today with the Hall of Fame Edition. You’ll not only score the full game, but you’ll get tons of content to immediately boost your MUT roster. There’s no better beginning to a dynasty than a dynamic WR, like Hall of Fame Edition cover athlete Terrell Owens. You can choose between Owens or four other NFL legends (Brian Urlacher, Rod Woodson, Dan Marino, and Terrell Davis) to be the cornerstone of your team. If that wasn’t enough, you also get 12 Gold Team Fantasy Packs, one Elite Madden 19 Antonio Brown, and two All-Madden Uniforms. With all this, Madden 19 is the season to not miss! View the full article

First, a little background. My name is Phil. Two years ago my friend Oli and I released a co-op cooking game called Overcooked. It’s the first game we’ve released from our two-person studio Ghost Town Games, and it was developed entirely in my front room on a shoestring budget (You can still see Oli’s dent in the sofa!). It’s safe to say that our expectations for the initial release were fairly low. We’d had a great response from anyone who would play the game with us, but every time we tried to pitch the game to publishers it more or less fell on deaf ears. We were delighted when Team 17 agreed to help us promote the game, but our main goal at that stage was to recover the cost of our development, so we could… pay next month’s rent! Nothing could have prepared us for the success of Overcooked after launch. We suddenly found ourselves inundated with messages from players all around the world, people playing the game with their friends, hoovering up each new content drop and clamoring for more. But while the number of players was increasing, the number of people working on the game… wasn’t. We have always maintained that one of our greatest strengths as a studio was our small team size and the freedom it gives us to take risks, make mistakes and change our minds, but as a two-person studio there was no denying we were going to struggle to keep up with the demand for new content. There was another issue: On Twitter, Facebook, forums, even on YouTube we were constantly being messaged by players who wanted to play the game online. We’d always maintained that Overcooked was a local multiplayer game, but when we saw messages from gamers wanting to play the game with their siblings living overseas it was hard for us to ignore… Sharing our Toys We were talking with Team 17 about this dilemma around the time were working on the release of our second DLC for the game, when they made an interesting suggestion. Team 17 aren’t just a publisher, of course — they’ve been developing games for over 25 years, and it just so happened they had a group of developers free. Would we consider meeting with them to discuss a potential sequel? We were hesitant at first, but we decided to meet with the developers and talk through how we would envisage the potential sequel. We spoke for hours, tossing around ideas and scribbling down suggestions for new mechanics and new levels, talking about the art, the audio, the animation, it was a really exciting time and we came away feeling really energised. Suddenly we had a way we could respond to the fans, giving them the new content they wanted and adding online multiplayer for all the players who couldn’t play the game locally with friends. So What’s New We learned a lot when we were making Overcooked, we built the foundation for what a co-op cooking game could look like so with the sequel we set to work building on this as much as possible. With Team 17’s help we’ve been able to expand the game to include all the content we wished we’d been able to include in the first game as well as brand new ideas we never would have thought of. Here’s just a taste of what’s in store: Online Multiplayer: Get together a group of your best chefs from around the world and work together to take on the game’s brand-new campaign. Dynamic Levels: We have a handful of exciting new levels which change on the fly as you play them (Ever seen a hot air balloon kitchen crash land into a sushi kitchen? You will soon!) Throwing: Raw ingredients can be thrown between chefs, or directly into pans… and bins. This brand-new mechanic will really put your skills of co-ordination to the test. New Story: The Onion King has unwittingly raised an army of unbread which are laying siege to the Onion Castle. Help satisfy their hunger by exploring the Onion Kingdom for new recipes. New Chefs: We have a whole host of chefs returning from the original game as well as some brand-new faces joining the squad. New Recipes: Sushi, pancakes, steamed buns and so much more! New Mechanics: Travelators, fire barriers, moving platforms, moving rafts and much more to be discovered! New Kitchens: Sushi kitchens, swamps, alien planets, mines the list goes on! So What’s Next? We’re going to be watching the release of Overcooked 2 very closely and we’d love to hear from you. What do you love to cook? What’s your favourite new feature? What’s missing? We want to continue to add content to the game so we’d love to hear from every chef out there, so we can keep making the game better and better. Thanks so much for reading. See you in the kitchen! Phil & Oli View the full article

Hey everyone! 428: Shibuya Scramble is a visual novel with branching paths set in the streets of Tokyo that uses real actors and real locations for a totally unique narrative experience. The demo will be available for download at PlayStation Store tomorrow! Today we have David Kracker, 428: Shibuya Scramble’s localization director, for a special interview. First off, how did this project come together? David Kracker: My favorite Japanese video games have a certain sensibility that you don’t find in Western titles. They’re off-kilter, but in a good way, you know? 428 is the most “Japanese” game in our back catalog, so when I joined Spike Chunsoft, I made it my mission to localize it. The titular Shibuya Scramble crosswalk is a Tokyo landmark, something like the Times Square of Japan, and the game captures the vibe of the city that anything could happen at any time. Eventually, I convinced my producer that there’s a demand for niche Japanese titles and somehow got the green light. Help prove me right, everyone! AA: I believe there’s a demand for niche Japanese titles! So, tell us about your role as localization director. DK: Well, it started with digging through thousands of photo stills and deciding how each scene should be handled… but nobody wants to hear about that, so I’ll say my most important contribution was bringing on Kajiya Productions as the localization team. The English script from editor Alexander O. Smith and translator Kevin Frane had me laughing and crying at all the same places as the Japanese original, which I think is the hallmark of a great localization. AA: What can players expect to get in the first hour of 428: Shibuya Scramble? DK: You meet two of our five characters—Kano, a rookie detective working a kidnapping case, and Achi, an ex-gang leader turned volunteer trash collector. You’re probably wondering, “What could these two possibly have in common?” In 428, multiple stories run in parallel, and at numerous points you’ll be asked to make a choice with the current character. An innocent decision for one protagonist can have tragic results for the other, so it’s up to you to puzzle out how their destinies intertwine. (Make all the bad decisions you can, it’ll pay off in the end, trust me!) AA: Nice! After the first hour, the character routes expand to include journalist Minorikawa, brilliant researcher Osawa, and part-time cast mascot Tama. What was the hardest part of the localization process? DK: The original uses dynamic text for dramatic effect—for example, if a character is shouting, the font size is blown up, or if someone is thinking of what to say next, there will be a pause between words to create a natural sense of rhythm. “Translating” these effects into the English script was no easy feat! I’m not sure Alex knew what he was in for when he signed up… AA: The game deals with some heavy themes like kidnapping, murder, and bioterrorism, but it balances the mood with light-hearted elements like Tama, the part-time mascot! How did you set the tone for the localization? DK: The script has a very wry, absurdist style of humor that’s rare in Japanese media but a natural fit in English. So the challenge was to keep from going overboard! For example, Kano carries around a notebook of maxims by a senior detective he admires. It was tempting to slide a joke in and call these “Dick Tips,” but to maintain the restrained tone of the original, we went with the more subdued (but still catchy) “Dick Dictum.” AA: So aside from the main protagonists, there’s also the bonus “Mean Clean” scenario! How does he fit into things? DK: Like all recycled items, Mean Clean didn’t start his life in his current form. I don’t want to spoil his backstory, but I will say Shibuya’s streets are littered with Easter eggs. Pay close attention during the main scenario and you might spot Mean Clean hiding just out of sight. If you miss him, don’t worry, you’ll receive post-game clues to help find him and unlock other bonus content. AA: What do you hope players will get out of playing 428: Shibuya Scramble? DK: The old adage says, “There are two sides to every story.” In 428, there are five (or more). Each character reveals different elements of the rest of the cast, so I hope players will take the time to explore all the narrative nooks and crannies the city has to offer. Shibuya’s story is yours to tell! 428: Shibuya Scramble comes to PlayStation 4 on September 4! Let’s open up our discussion to the PS Blog readers. Drop some questions below and David and I will try to answer them! View the full article

First revealed back at Capcom Cup 2017, G and Sagat have officially joined Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition as the final two characters from Season 3! In a pleasant surprise to our fans, who may have only suspected G to be released in August, also available at the same time is the much-anticipated Sagat to finish off this spectacular season that began with the launch of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition back in January. Both of these imposing characters have their own unique story and move set, which makes them welcome additions to the roster. G, the Man of Mystery, is perhaps the most elusive character to be added to Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. As the self-proclaimed “President of the World,” he suddenly appeared vowing to unite the citizens of Earth under his name. Although he is initially ignored, Rashid agrees with G’s cause and sets off to spread his message. Who is G? Are these his true intentions? Is G even human? There’s much more to him than meets the eye… In a fiery move set that hints at his true nature, G is able to draw power from the Earth to improve his “Presidentiality.” With every level his Presidentiality increases, his special moves become stronger and new combos are unlocked. Being able to charge up in the midst of a fight is vital in G’s game plan as his Presidentiality will decrease when he’s knocked down. With magma, Earth energy, and a penchant for giving speeches, G is a character who should not be taken lightly. Bow down before Sagat, the Solitary King, for his arrival beckons your attention! Sagat first appeared as the final boss in the original Street Fighter and has become a fan-favorite ever since. His main goal? To become the strongest fighter in the world. After his fight and subsequent defeat by Ryu, he vows to one day win in a fair fight against the man who gave him his trademark scar. In Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, Sagat has been in hiding in the mountains to overcome his inner demons of self-worth. Sagat’s move set remains true to his previous appearances with his signature Tiger Shot, Tiger Uppercut, and Tiger Knee Crush. Known as a master of keeping opponents away, Sagat utilizes his two versions of Tiger Shot to control the ground and Tiger Uppercut to control the air. He makes up for his slower speed by having long-reaching moves, just like the Sagat you know and admire. G and Sagat are available individually for $5.99 or 100,000 Fight Money OR as part of the Season 3 Character Pass for $29.99, which also unlocks Sakura, Blanka, Falke, and Cody. If you purchase G or Sagat as part of the Season 3 Character Pass or with real money, you will also get their Battle Costumes with colors 3-10 and default costume colors 3-10. Play the president and the king tomorrow in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition on PlayStation 4! View the full article

Dead Cells puts you in control of a failed alchemic experiment trying to figure out what’s happening on a sprawling, ever-changing and seemingly cursed island. Created by Motion Twin, Dead Cells is a challenging and intense action platformer experience. The customizable controls are highly responsive, resulting in fast and fluid movement throughout the game. Roll through enemies, unlock new abilities, and learn enemy patterns to survive… at least for a while. For a full list of new games coming to PlayStation next week, read on. And enjoy The Drop! Dead Cells PS4 — Digital Experience a Roguevania, mixing an interconnected world, branching paths and unlockable skills with the constant adrenaline-pumping threat of permadeath. Defenders of Ekron – The Definitive Edition PS4 — Digital Defenders of Ekron in an adventure/shmup game that mixes the classic action of a shmup and the exploration of an adventure game, including dungeons and a sci-fi experience. The Dreamlands: Aisling’s Quest PS4, PS Vita — Digital The Dreamlands: Aisling’s Quest is an adventure game that blends fantasy and mystery elements to present a gripping story. Venture into a world shaped by Aisling’s dreams and nightmares, and go on a quest to face The Mourner. Electronauts PS VR — Digital Ever wanted to ride the vibes of a top DJ playing a packed festival’s main stage? Here’s your chance to shine: all it takes to be an Electronaut is the passion to become one with the beat. Flipping Death PS4 — Digital When Penny dies under mysterious circumstances, she wakes up and finds herself filling in for DEATH HIMSELF! This temp job comes with a new power – the ability to flip between the worlds of the living and the dead! Madden NFL 19 PS4 — Digital, Retail (Out 8/10) Madden NFL 19 gives you game-changing control on and off the field. Real Player Motion transforms the way you play Madden, delivering gameplay control with precision and intent. Overcooked! 2 PS4 — Digital, Retail Overcooked returns with a brand-new helping of chaotic cooking action! Journey back to the Onion Kingdom and assemble your team of chefs in classic couch co-op or online play for up to four players. Poop Slinger PS4 — Digital A casual poop launcher game where poop and slingshots combine for one heck of a smelly experience! Slam Land PS4 — Digital Dunk your friends to amaze a giant blue man in Slam Land, a magnificent 4-player couch-competitive party game by Bread Machine. Tetra’s Escape PS4, PS Vita — Digital (Cross Buy) Tetra’s Escape is a platforming puzzle-game all about blocks named Tetras, which can turn into different Tetrominos to fill holes and master puzzles. We Happy Few PS4 — Digital, Retail (Out 8/10) We Happy Few is the tale of a plucky bunch of moderately terrible people trying to escape from a lifetime of cheerful denial. Discover the retrofuturistic city’s dark history as you play through the intertwined narratives. Word Search by Powgi PS4, PS Vita — Digital Word Search by POWGI includes more than 300 puzzles to keep you – and your friends – puzzling for hours! Up to four can play! Travis Scott – Astroworld YG – Stay Dangerous Mac Miller – Swimming Deadpool 2 (plus bonus features) The Rider Show Dogs Season 4 Premiere Monday August 6 at 9/8 c on AMC PlayStation Vue has your favorite sports, news and must-watch shows. The information above is subject to change without notice. View the full article

Email us at blogcast@sony.com! Subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Google or RSS, or download here Join Kristen and Justin as they struggle valiantly to keep Sid on track! Plus, a country-fresh selection of usable news and next week’s new release highlights. Enjoy! Stuff We Talked About Vampyr The Persistence Call of Duty WWII and Black Ops 4 Destiny 2’s Solstice of Heroes Monster Hunter: World’s new FFXIV event Dead Cells The Cast Sid Shuman – Director of Social Media, SIEA Justin Massongill – Social Media Manager, SIEA Kristen Titus – Social Media Specialist, SIEA Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. [Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.] View the full article

Kick-start the weekend with a flash sale at PlayStation Store! Starting today, save up to 40 percent on games like Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, Dragon Ball FighterZ: Fighterz Edition, The Crew 2 Gold Edition, and more. Check out the full lineup below! Then hurry over to PS Store, this flash sale ends August 6 at 8 a.m. PT. Games <-- Swipe left on mobile for full table Platform Title Sale Price Original Price PS4 ASSASSIN’S CREED ROGUE REMASTERED $17.99 $29.99 PS4 BRIDGE CONSTRUCTOR PORTAL $8.99 $14.99 PS4 DRAGON BALL FIGHTERZ $41.99 $59.99 PS4 DRAGON BALL FIGHTERZ – FIGHTERZ EDITION $56.99 $94.99 PS4 DRAGON BALL FIGHTERZ – ULTIMATE EDITION $65.99 $109.99 PS4 DRAGON’S CROWN PRO $34.99 $49.99 PS4 FAR CRY 3 CLASSIC EDITION $20.99 $29.99 PS4 FAR CRY 5 $38.99 $59.99 PS4 FAR CRY 5 DELUXE EDITION $45.49 $69.99 PS4 FAR CRY 5 GOLD EDITION $58.49 $89.99 PS4 LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA $34.99 $49.99 PS4 MOTOGP18 $34.99 $49.99 PS4 MXGP PRO $39.99 $49.99 PS4 NI NO KUNI II – DELUXE EDITION $47.99 $79.99 PS4 NI NO KUNI II: REVENANT KINGDOM $35.99 $59.99 PS4 RESIDENT EVIL 7 BIOHAZARD GOLD EDITION $29.99 $49.99 PS4 SOUTH PARK THE VIDEO GAME COLLECTION $31.99 $79.99 PS4 SPACE HULK: DEATHWINGS $27.99 $39.99 PS4 STAR TREK BRIDGE CREW + TNG DLC BUNDLE $38.49 $54.99 PS4 STREET FIGHTER V $9.99 $19.99 PS4 STREET FIGHTER V – ARCADE EDITION $23.99 $39.99 PS4 STREET FIGHTER V – SEASON 2 CHARACTER PASS $9.99 $19.99 PS4 STREET FIGHTER V – SEASON 1 CHARACTER PASS $4.99 $9.99 PS4 STREET FIGHTER V: ARCADE EDITION DELUXE $41.99 $69.99 PS4 STREET FIGHTER V: CPT PREMIER PACKAGE $12.49 $24.99 PS4 STREET FIGHTER V: CPT PREMIER PACKAGE 2017 $12.50 $24.99 PS4 STREET FIGHTER: 30TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION $29.99 $39.99 PS4 SWORD ART ONLINE: FATAL BULLET $23.99 $59.99 PS4 TEKKEN 7 $23.99 $59.99 PS4 TEKKEN 7 – DELUXE EDITION $33.99 $84.99 PS4 THE CREW 2 $41.99 $59.99 PS4 THE CREW 2 GOLD EDITION $69.99 $99.99 PS4 THE CREW 2 MOTORSPORTS DELUXE EDITION $48.99 $69.99 PS4 TOM CLANCY’S RAINBOW SIX SIEGE ADVANCED EDITION $29.99 $59.99 PS4 TOM CLANCY’S RAINBOW SIX SIEGE GOLD EDITION $44.99 $89.99 PS4 YOKU’S ISLAND EXPRESS $14.99 $19.99 Note: All pricing is for U.S. only and subject to change. View the full article

The Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Private Multiplayer Beta premieres exclusively on PlayStation 4 today! Pre-order the game from PlayStation Store or a participating retailer* and jump in to experience gritty, grounded, fluid Multiplayer combat ahead of the launch on October 12! To give you a boost on the battlefield, the team at Treyarch put together the following five tips that could help keep you alive as you face off against a field of foes. Each Specialist has unique equipment and weaponry that they can utilize, there are new gameplay systems at work, and even new gameplay modes to learn. Study up, because knowledge is power, and we’ll see you in the Beta! HEALTH Players in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 have more health overall, along with the added ability to choose when they want to refill their health bar. This is a new mechanic for Call of Duty, so concentrate on nailing it in your first few matches. Soon you’ll be strategizing on when to hit L1 to inject yourself with a health boost. However, pay attention to the cooldown period between uses, and plan wisely. CONTROL Control is a brand-new, objective-based mode. In this mode, teams alternate between attacking and defending two objectives. Each team has a pool of 25 lives to draw from and can win rounds not only by Controlling points on the map, but also by draining the opposing team’s lives. The first team to win three rounds wins, so be sure to keep an eye on the objectives, and on the number of lives. OPERATOR MODS AND UNIQUE ATTACHMENTS Each gun in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has its own unique Attachment Tree, and most have Operator Mods, which are new to Call of Duty. These Operator Mods can push a weapon’s capabilities even further. For example, the Auger DMR Tactical Rifle’s Operator Mod is Burst Accelerator – each burst fires progressively faster while the trigger is held down. Just be aware that you’ll need to equip the Primary or Secondary Operator Mod wildcard, which will unlock the Operator Mod slot. That will cost one Pick 10 point, and the Mod itself will cost two, for a total of three points. SPECIAL ISSUE EQUIPMENT The Pick-10 system is back in Black Ops 4, allowing you to choose a total of 10 items for your loadout. However, it’s worth noting that Special Issue Equipment does not count against that total. That means items you can equip Ruin’s Grapple Gun, Seraph’s Tac Deploy, or Firebreak’s Reactor Core, and still have 10 slots at your disposal for attachments, perks, and more. DIFFERENT MODES, DIFFERENT TEAM In objective-based modes, teams are limited to one specific Specialist per team. That means two players on the same team can’t use the same Specialist. However, in Chaos modes (Team Deathmatch and Kill Confirmed), teams can take up to two of the same Specialist per side, and the maximum number of players is increased to six per team, making these matches 6v6. So, you could stack up your side with two Ruins, two Recons, and two Seraphs to truly create some Chaos. There’s a lot to experience in the Black Ops 4 Private Multiplayer Beta, and we’ve just scratched the surface with these tips. Be sure to experiment with all of the different Specialists, try out their Special Issue Equipment and Special Issue Weaponry, mix and match with the Pick 10 system, try out new modes, and above all… good luck and have fun! *MP Beta starts August 3, 2018 on PS4 system. Actual platform availability and launch date(s) of MP and Blackout Beta subject to change. See www.callofduty.com/beta for more details. Minimum Beta duration is 3 days. Limited time only, while beta codes last, at participating retailers. Internet connection required. View the full article

Last week we asked you to take advantage of No Man Sky’s NEXT update, and share stunning moments from across the galaxy using #PS4share and #PSBlog. After looking through your celestial shares, here are this week’s highlights: @YouSpoonyBardd takes in the sight the this planet’s glowing rings. @depressedgaymer shared this electric portrait of their traveler. @ilikesomegames floats in the rocky orbit of this dark planet. @louisylou enjoys a hazy sunrise on this colorful planet. @DarkLink1987 caught this moment zooming past a planet cast in shadow. @OfficerBeefstk stares out into deep space in this contemplative share. And just for fun, here is a stunning timelapse captured by our very own Justin Massongill. #PSBlog #PS4share #NoMansSky pic.twitter.com/iSMlMVTzM5 — Justin Massongill (@j00zt1n) August 1, 2018 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: No Man’s Sky – Landscapes Share by: 9am Pacific on Wednesday, August 8 Next week we’re staying in No Man’s Sky orbit and focusing on the unique and exotic planet landscapes. While you discover new worlds to build a base on, take in the scenery and share on social using #PS4share and #PSBlog for a chance to be featured. View the full article

With no shortage of reprobates across Los Santos and Blaine County, Maude Eccles has put the dream of a white-picket fence, a husband, and a dog named Skip on hold to reignite her burning passion for justice. Keep an eye out for a text message from Maude for bounties. Collect these new bounty targets dead or alive to complete this challenge and unlock the location of the Stone Hatchet in GTA Online. Once you acquire this brutal melee weapon, complete the Kills Challenge for a GTA$250,000 bonus and to unlock it in Red Dead Redemption 2 on PS4. And if you haven’t already uncovered the Double-Action Revolver, keep an eye on your iFruit for the in-game email from vanderlinde@eyefind.com that will lead you on a treasure hunt to recover this lost relic – which includes a Headshot Challenge that will bank you an additional bonus GTA$250,000 and also unlock it for future gunslinging exploits in Red Dead Redemption 2 on PS4. Pre-order Red Dead Redemption 2 from PlayStation Store and get instant bonus GTA$ along with a slew of Story Mode and online content. Also pre-order before August 15 to receive the Treasure Map for Red Dead Redemption 2 Story Mode. View the full article

Picture this: you’re a star NFL wide receiver. The play is called in the endzone. You run the route, the ball soars through the air towards you, you’ve just scored a touchdown. What do you do? If the answer wasn’t do a celebration dance, you’re not cut out for the NFL. What’s the point of success on the field if it isn’t accompanied by an elaborate, meme-able celebration? Madden NFL 19 is bringing more celebrations from the NFL into the game than ever before. Watch the videos below to see how we captured them in the mocap studio and how the final versions look in the game. JuJu Smith-Schuster: Kamehameha Wave Important distinction: this celebration is a Kamehameha Wave from Master Roshi’s Turtle School, not a Hadouken from Street Fighter. There’s been a lot of debate (not really) about this on the internet and we had to set the record straight. Look at Juju’s stance, the way he brings his hands together to channel his chi/the football. Textbook Kamehameha. Rating: 10/10, would successfully keep Vegeta from destroying Earth Green Bay Packers: Bobsled Now, everything we know about bobsledding comes from Lolo Jones’ Snapchat and the 1993 Oscar-worthy film, Cool Runnings. All this is to say, we don’t know much about bobsledding. But much like in Cool Runnings, experience doesn’t matter—what’s important is heart. That’s what the Packers showed with their bobsledding celebration. A true inspiration for all to behold. Rating: 4/4, would set world record for NFL Bobsled League Marshawn Lynch: Get Stupid This will need further explanation for the less hip among us. See, Marshawn Lynch is from the Bay, Oakland to be specific. Without Oakland, we wouldn’t have slang like hyphy, hella, and yee. Needless to say, in the Bay Area, they dance a little different. What you see here is not teachable. The way Marshawn is moving to Get Stupid by Bay Area luminary Mac Dre cannot be found in YouTube tutorials. This isn’t the Cupid Shuffle or the Cha Cha slide. This is Oakland. Rating: 510/510, would Thizzle Dance at First Fridays View the full article

Earlier today, Telltale Games launched The Walking Dead: The Final Season Story Builder, an interactive, browser-based experience that allows you to relive the series’ most impactful choice moments. Your choices in the Story Builder produce a unique version of Clementine which can then be imported into the game itself, in place of a save file. In honor of the Story Builder, season lead writer James Windeler decided to look back at Clem’s most formative moments and explain how the final chapter in Clementine’s story first took shape. When we first met Clem all those years ago, she was a sweet eight-year-old girl talking to us over her walkie talkie. Though she’s introduced to us as the epitome of innocence, she’s clearly smart as well, taking refuge in her treehouse where walkers can’t reach her. She’s also brave enough to come to Lee’s aid with a hammer during a near-fatal fight with her undead babysitter. Even then, she showed the survival instincts that have kept her alive longer than almost everyone else she’s encountered in the years since. Of course, she was small, alone, and in need of someone to take care of her. And we were there, as Lee, to fill that role. In The Final Season, Clementine is all grown up. She’s now a hardened, capable survivor who’s been on the road for some years travelling with AJ, an orphaned boy she took charge of at the end of Season Two. Clementine owed so much to Lee, the team thought the final chapter of her story needed to involve her repaying some of that colossal debt by passing her knowledge on. She started as a tiny, innocent, utterly dependent child. For us, it was natural and inevitable that she come full circle and step into Lee’s shoes. A New Kind of Mentor While we wanted to honor the starting point of Clem’s story, we were determined not to mimic it. AJ is nothing like Clem when she was little. He’s a child who has known only life in the post-apocalypse, and as a team, we were excited to explore how a kid born in that world would behave. Strong and dexterous beyond his years, he can forage for food and handle a gun. Dealing with walkers is second nature to him, as is being wary of strangers. In contrast to young Clementine, AJ really needs guidance in the ethical realm more than anywhere else. The world before the apocalypse, with all its social mores, is a distant memory, and the question is no longer simply “Will we live or not?” It’s also “What is the right way to live?” As Clementine makes difficult, sometimes brutal decisions, AJ watches her, forming a fledgling sense of right and wrong. In our most grandiose moments, the team frames the story as a battle for AJ’s soul. But we also put the player in charge of more child-like aspects of AJ’s growth, like whether or not he should be allowed to use foul language. We know that little, well-behaved Season One Clem would say, “Swear!” But what about adult Clem in the final chapters of her story? Even though Clem adopts Lee’s role as mentor, she’s very different from him. Whereas Lee’s backstory existed in a world before the apocalypse, Clem’s has been shaped by players over the course of years of hard survival. In The Final Season, players define her character in the present, roleplaying her as compassionate or dark or sassy, depending on how they see their version of Clem. But they also pick up with a character who has suffered a great deal and learned she can rely on no one but herself. To me, when she says goodbye to Lee at the end of Season One, Clem also says goodbye to childhood and to dependence on others. Through no fault of his own, Lee abandons her to this hideous world, and she is forced to carry on alone. Later, she loses another dear friend, Kenny, unable to stop his breakdown into madness. Most of the other adults prove to be unreliable at best and homicidal tyrants at worst, so by the time Clem holds Javi up at gunpoint early on in The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, she’s hardened, violent, and indifferent to the needs of those around her. She’s driven by single-minded obsession to find the one person that won’t let her down: little baby AJ. The Long Road Home For the concluding season of Clem’s story, we really wanted to move her character forward from what might be described as the bitterly angry adolescence of A New Frontier and explore what fully-grown Clem might want. Though the search for AJ once offered a powerful engine for her character, we wanted to move away from that as a goal. To that end, we had Clem find AJ in the gap between seasons, leaving their reunion as a traumatic memory to be touched on during The Final Season. And since Clementine had been running for a very long time, it felt right that she’d be exhausted, at the end of her rope, and looking for somewhere to finally call home. As we thought about what that home might look like, the team became convinced it should feel different from all the other communities Clem has seen fail. Ericson’s Boarding School for Troubled Youth is distinct in that there are no adults in sight. The teenagers that live there — though they’ve survived this long — are relatively sheltered, and when crisis threatens their idyll, they look to Clem for answers. Time and again through the series, Clementine has been a child or an outsider in a harsh adult world. In her final chapter, we wanted to give Clem a chance to define her own home, to fight for it, and to become a leader in her own right. Episode one of The Walking Dead: The Final Season will be available for download starting August 14. Pre-order before August 14 and receive The Walking Dead Collection as a free pre-order bonus. Play the first fifteen minutes now by downloading the free demo on PS4. View the full article

Hi PlayStation nation, I’m really excited to announce that State of Mind will be available to pre-order starting tomorrow! Today, I want to talk to you about what transhumanism means and how it relates to the game. Generally speaking, transhumanists believe that humanity’s technological development is exponential and we are inches away from the event transhumanists call Singularity. Singularity presumably marks the point when artificial intelligence surpasses that of the human mind. After that point, many fantastic and incredible things will happen very quickly. We will transform into a new form of beings, a new kind of humanity. We will be masters of the material world surrounding us. Super intelligences will be created; humans and AIs will merge. We will be able to upload our minds, defeat poverty and illness, create artificial life and change our bodies and even forms of existence like clothes. Abundance, perfection, immortality. These are the bullet points of transhumanism and if these sound like religious promises to you, you make the right assumption because transhumanism is essentially exactly that: the promise of paradise in the guise of technology. What could possibly go wrong? This is what we want to investigate in State of Mind. What if the fantastic technologies which transhumanism promises are not available for everyone? Maybe the people with access have different visions and intentions regarding humanity’s future, and maybe perfection is a tempting prospect or a dreadful threat depending on individual perspective. This is why the central character in our narrative is someone whose life is less than perfect: Richard Nolan, a technology skeptic journalist living in the year 2048. Richard would probably not be considered a nice guy. Maybe he isn’t even a great father. Richard is a human — with all the problems and contradictions that package contains. And that is just what makes him the right kind of character to tackle the questions inherent to transhumanism: where are the cracks between the layers of reality and fiction, between truth and deception, between artificial and biological life? What could be the reasonable downside to paradise? We send Nolan on a trip through a world one step away from transhumanist revolution. We literally take everything away from him, even a part of his identity, so we can find out together what he’s made of and what is actually important to him. Richard must deal with humanoid bots, artificial humans, and anti-tech terrorists. Last but not least, he must face his own shortcomings: his mistakes, flaws, bad calls, and lies. All this is what makes him human. But is being human desirable? Which side has the better arguments eventually? Isn’t it more desirable to be “more than human” after all? We hope that State of Mind is a game that will not provide an easy answer to these questions. View the full article

The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs Expansion Pack* is ready for its PlayStation 4 debut, and it’s about to get weird. If you want it to, that is. With this pack, you can create posh poodles, goofy German Shepherds, and terrific Tabby cats. But you can also get pretty experimental. Enter the mashup — the mixing of a few elements to create something beautiful, outrageous, or even gross. Picture this: your Sim is coming home after a long day working at the vet clinic. Her feet are killing her. She’s hungry, cranky, and all the other post-work adjectives we’re too familiar with. But there’s a little twinkle in her eye, because your Sim knows who’s waiting for her at home. That’s right, it’s a pastel-colored unicorn dog. Wait, what? That can’t be right! Oh, but it can. With a little something called the paint tool in The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs Expansion Pack. Not only does this Pack offer cats, dogs, a veterinarian clinic, and a new world, you can cross-breed and customize every inch of your furry friends! Is your Sim more of a feline fan? Well, we’ve got ’em covered. In spots! You can paint your Sims down to every whisker in whatever way you like. Really. Can’t stress this enough. Let your creativity run as wild as this cat. And just to be clear, that glowing red nose means our little buddy is not feeling so well. Which means it’s time to take a trip to the vet, and the perfect moment to show off your creative cat to other Sims in the neighborhood. Ready for some rainbow-inspired pet mashups? The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs releases tomorrow on PS4. *Requires The Sims 4 game (sold separately) and all game updates to play. View the full article

Today, we’re excited to reveal the latest free content update for GT Sport, packed with gorgeous new cars, a stunning new track (with three unique layouts), GT League events, and much more. Plus, we’re soon making over 200 of GT Sport’s vehicles available to purchase from PS Store and Brand Central as DLC. The 1.23 update is available to download right now, and you can check out the full patch notes at gran-turismo.com. Downloadable Content While there are many car enthusiasts young and old among Gran Turismo’s players, there are many who don’t have enough time to play and save the in-game credits needed to acquire their favorite cars. By making cars immediately available to purchase as DLC, we hope to make it so that players busy with work (or those who’ve just entered the world of GT) can acquire attractive and competitive cars quickly, and take their position on the starting grid. However, to keep things fair and balanced for our existing players, all cars can still be purchased with in-game credits as before; there are no cars that are only available for cash, and nothing will change in the way you currently earn cars, or the present car system. Furthermore, GT Sport’s priciest vehicles can only be bought with the in-game currency – meaning drivers will still have to prove their ability and effort out on the track to acquire the very best cars on offer. New Vehicles Seven spectacular new vehicles have been added to Brand Central this month, from the historic Mercedes F1 machine that won the championship with Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel, legendary Ferraris, and K-Cars which represent the unique side of Japanese car culture. Take a look at the complete line-up here: Mercedes-AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ 2017 Daihatsu Copen Active Top ’02 Honda Beat ’91 Honda S660 ’15 Ferrari 250 GTO CN.3729GT ’62 Ford GT LM Spec II Test Car Mazda 787B ’91 New Track – Sainte-Croix Circuit (A / B / C) Based on the scenic Lake of Sainte-Croix in the Provence region of France, this original 10km course (with three distinct layouts) features tricky radial corners, long straights, and requires high driving skill to achieve fast lap times. The track is truly designed to test drivers’ adaptability. Furthermore, all three track variants are also playable in reverse, making six unique races possible. GT League Adding to the GT League line-up, we’ve introduced three new events to test drivers of all skill levels, including: Light Weight K Cup – Beginner League Nostalgic Car Festival – Amateur League Mercedes AMG Grand Prix – Professional League Additional Updates Finally, a few additional features have been added to the game. One of the most notable changes is that the Livery Editor that was only available for cars is now compatible with racing suits and helmets. In addition, an update has been added to Scapes Mode to allow players to place driver avatars in their scenes. There is also a new location: Tokyo Outer Ring Road, Chiba. And following last month’s track update, the stunning Circuit de la Sarthe has been added to the Circuit Experience. Remember: you can find all the latest info on upcoming GT Sport content here at PlayStation.Blog or on the official Gran Turismo website. Until next time, drivers, we’ll see you out on the track. View the full article

Restore peace to the kingdom! Plunge into the depths below a remote mountain town in Chasm on PS4. In Chasm, players face a host of dangerous foes within a procedurally generated dungeon. Customize your courageous hero with a variety of weapons, armor, and spells, and uncover the secret of the disappearing townsfolk. For a full list of new games coming to PlayStation next week, read on. And enjoy The Drop! 1979 Revolution: Black Friday PS4 — Digital Based on true stories and historical events, 1979 Revolution: Black Friday is an interactive drama about choice and consequence, chaos and order. 8 to Glory – The Official Game of the PBR PS4 — Digital 8 To Glory – Bull Riding, the official game of the PBR, gives you the full experience of being a professional bull rider. Show your skills as one of the world’s top bull riders against the toughest bulls in the sport today. Anamorphine PS4 — Digital Tyler, a young man in post-traumatic denial, revisits a succession of milestones that define his relationship with his wife Elena. Told with no dialogue or action button, Anamorphine’s narrative comes together in Tyler’s dream-like memories. Castaway Paradise PS4 — Digital Your adventure starts when you get stranded on a tropical island. This is your island, your adventure! Do whatever you like! It’s the ultimate sandbox sim! Chasm PS4, PS Vita — Digital (Cross Buy) Welcome to Chasm, an action-adventure game in which you play a new recruit undertaking your first mission. Embark upon an epic adventure with deadly battles, cunning monsters, exploration in a procedurally generated dungeon. Maximum Football 2018 PS4 — Digital This is North American football with your teams and your rules. Maximum Football 2018 allows you to play with Canadian or American football rules, customizable teams and players. Pixel Ripped 1989 PS VR — Digital Pixel Ripped 1989 is a wacky multi-dimensional homage to the early days of gaming. The player embarks on a journey into the screen of a classic videogame and beyond. Road to Ballhalla PS4 — Digital (Out 8/1) Move with the music to overcome even the most difficult hazards, like laser beams or insane camera angles. The dynamic music by Emmy-nominated composer Nicholas Singer is tailored to the rhythm and style of each level. State of Anarchy: Master of Mayhem PS4 — Digital (Out 8/1) State of Anarchy: Master of Mayhem is a hilarious shooter that will put a smile on your face. You were an ordinary citizen in a small town… Now it’s on fire! Rioters are storming the houses, aliens rampage in the sky! Touhou Sky Arena: Matsuri Climax PS4 — Digital Based on Japan’s popular game series Touhou Project, Touhou Sky Arena is a fired-up 3D battle action game on PS4! Enjoy dramatic battles in the sky! The Wardrobe PS4 — Digital The Wardrobe is a 2D point & click adventure game in which you play as Skinny, a teen-skeleton with an impertinent attitude and a sparkling wit, willing to do anything to save his best friend’s soul from eternal damnation! Bob Dylan – Live 1962-1966 – Rare Performances From The Copyright Collections Tom Grennan: Game. On. Greta Van Fleet – Classic Rock Retrogamer Takeover Avengers: Infinity War The Miracle Season Season 1 Premiere Tuesday, July 31 at 10/9 c on Investigation Discovery Season 2 Premiere Wednesday, August 1 at 10/9 c on USA PlayStation Vue has your favorite sports, news and must-watch shows. The information above is subject to change without notice. View the full article