Commander Fury

We at Oasis Games are back with another VR game for you guys. Light Tracer combines platform-style movement with clever puzzles — and a unique style of game control. It launches on PS VR this September. Developed by our friends at Void Dimensions, Light Tracer lets you play as a mysterious, godlike entity who can wield a magical Light Staff in one hand while you use the other hand to interact with the game world. So with one hand you’ll guide the Princess up this giant tower while with the other you spin the world to get a better view (more on this in a bit) and interact with game objects to flip switches, move items, etc. So who’s this Princess? Well, you’re not sure at first but her people are afflicted with a serious sickness and she needs to reach the top to restore them. Do you want to help her? Of course you do! As you help the Princess get higher and higher up the tower, you’ll gradually learn about your relationship (as the entity) with the Princess. And you’ll have lots of fun puzzles along the way! A Better View As you guide the Princess, you’ll quickly find that your point of view is important. Sometimes solving a puzzle is a matter of seeing things from the right perspective, so you’ll find yourself constantly grabbing and spinning the game tower with the controller in one hand to figure things out — and then clicking on triggers to open portals or moving objects to free up a path. With the other hand you’ll be pointing the way for the Princess to guide her safely — and clicking to have her jump or swing her little sword to fight off enemies. This keeps you busy. But as a godlike entity, you’re up to the challenge! The Princess’s journey up the tower is contained in eight very different chapters, each of which has a unique environment (such as ice or mechanical devices) and a different style of puzzles (Gravity puzzles, anyone?). Each level is packed with action-platform stages requiring jumping, timing, and enemies that you must defeat. And while the game looks very cute, levels end in a tough boss fight where you have to figure out the boss’s style as well as use your reflexes. Can you beat a sinister snowman or a tough rock giant? A Rising Platformer We think that Light Tracer is a fun new kind of VR puzzler. As a player, you’ll exercise the powers of a god as you brandish your powerful Light Staff in one hand to guide the Princess while interacting with the tower world with the other to open a safe path upward. With the VR headset on, you’ll be immersed in an almost toy-like world come to life, but the challenges are anything but easy! However, we have confidence you can beat the odds and get the Princess to the top of the magical tower. We sincerely hope that you find the climb worthy of your time when Light Tracer launches for PS VR this September. View the full article

Back in June, we announced an expansion for Horizon Zero Dawn called The Frozen Wilds. Set in icy territories to the north, this new chapter of Aloy’s journey adds a new area to explore, new mysteries to uncover and new, highly lethal machines to take on. Today, we’re happy to share that the release date for Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds is November 7th, 2017. We look forward to sharing more information about The Frozen Wilds as we get closer to the release date. In the meantime, there’s an exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn avatar available for those of you who pre-order the expansion from the PlayStation Store. To stay up to date on all the latest news for Horizon Zero Dawn and The Frozen Wilds, keep an eye on the PlayStation Blog and on Guerrilla’s Twitter and Facebook pages. View the full article

It’s a quiet, reserved day of programming at the PlayStation Blogcast studio today. We discuss the upcoming Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, LawBreakers, Justin’s continued love of Pyre, and the one game we haven’t gotten to this year. Then, Ryan and Justin celebrate the achievements of Master of None and the gorgeous documentary series Chef’s Table. Yes, we go a little off topic. Enjoy the show! Subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Google or RSS, or download here Stuff We Talked About Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice Pyre LawBreakers Master of None Chef’s Table Recent Episodes 257: Hungry Like the Wolfenstein 256: Destiny’s Child 255: Kill it With Pyre The Cast Justin Massongill – Social Media Manager, SIEA Ryan Clements – Sr. Social Media Specialist, SIEA Send us questions and tips! blogcast@sony.com Leave us a voicemail! (650) 288-6706 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

Explore the depths of pain and madness in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, launching August 8 on PS4. Developed by Ninja Theory (Heavenly Sword, DmC: Devil May Cry), Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice follows a tormented celtic warrior on a twisted vision quest to rescue the soul of her lover. Hellblade fuses myth and madness together to pave Senua’s brutal journey, created in collaboration with neuroscientists and people living with psychosis. Also leading the lineup next week is LawBreakers, the gravity-defying competitive shooter from renowned game designer Cliff Bleszinski. Fight in omnidirectional arenas using 18 characters and battle for supremacy. For a full list of new games coming to PlayStation next week, read on. And enjoy The Drop! New Releases: Week of August 8, 2017 Armello Deluxe Edition PS4 — Digital Armello is a grand swashbuckling adventure that combines three styles of play: the deep tactics of card games, the rich strategy of tabletop board games, and a character role-playing system. Get all major Armello DLC in one place and at a special discount with the Deluxe Bundle! Batman: The Telltale Series Season 2 – Episode 1 PS4 — Digital Both Bruce Wayne and Batman will be forced into precarious new roles. The Riddler has returned to terrorize Gotham City, but his gruesome puzzles merely foreshadow an even greater crisis. With the arrival of a ruthless federal agent and the return of a still nascent Joker, Batman must navigate uneasy alliances while Bruce Wayne undertakes a perilous series of deceptions. Blackhole: Complete Edition PS4 — Digital When the crew of the spaceship Endera is sucked into a black hole, it seems like the end. Fortunately, the ship crashes on Entity — an unidentified object resembling a planet. After the crash, the first member to wake up is the guy who makes coffee for the crew — you! Comet Crash 2: The Kronkoid Wars PS4 — Digital Building on the award-winning original, Comet Crash 2 is a strategy gamer’s dream with intuitive real-time action combined with tons of depth. The endless variety of gameplay plus online and offline multiplayer battles and co-op delivers a thrilling time whether you are solo or with friends. Graceful Explosion Machine PS4 — Digital Skillfully pilot the Graceful Explosion Machine, a fighter ship armed with a ludicrously overpowered quad-weapon array! Lost in deep space, you’ll shoot, dash, and combo your way through jewel-hued alien worlds, fighting crystalline enemies to find a way home. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice PS4 — Digital From the makers of Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and DmC: Devil May Cry, comes a warrior’s brutal journey into myth and madness. Created in collaboration with neuroscientists and people who experience psychosis, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice will pull you deep into the melancholic fury of Senua’s shattered mind. Icey PS4 — Digital Icey is a 2D side-scrolling action +meta game. As you follow the narrator’s omnipresent voice, you will see through Icey’s eyes and learn the truth about her world. LawBreakers PS4 — Digital Bring your skills and get ready to deliver death from every angle as you compete in unprecedented gravity-defying-combat in LawBreakers, the new first-person shooter from legendary game designer Cliff Bleszinski and team. Masquerada: Songs and Shadows PS4 — Digital Masquerada is a single-player tactical RPG adventure where real-time combat can be paused for tactics with Venetian-styled masks that grant deadly magic. Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 PS4 — Digital, Retail The Blue Bomber is back in this second collection of classic Capcom titles! Featuring faithful reproductions of Mega Man 7, 8, 9, and 10, this collection is bursting with additional content, from time trials and remix challenges to a music player and an extensive gallery of rare illustrations. Neon Drive PS4 — Digital Neon Drive is a slick retro-futuristic obstacle-dodging game that will make your brain melt. You’ve been warned. Neptune Flux PS VR — Digital Neptune Flux is a story-driven, open world adventure game set in a sci-fi ocean full of mystery and haunting beauty. Discover supernatural wreck sites, ancient artifacts, and dark secrets. Sine Mora EX PS4 — Digital Sine Mora is a side-scrolling shoot ’em up that provides a unique challenge, where time is the ultimate factor. Mixing classic shooter sensibilities with contemporary presentation, Sine Mora is a gorgeous shooter offering both a Story Mode that weaves an over-the-top tale and an Arcade Mode that provides deep, satisfying gameplay to challenge fans of the genre. ASAP Twelvyy – 12 Mystery Skulls – One of Us Mondo Cozmo – Plastic Soul Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (plus Bonus Features) Hard Knocks- August 8 at 10/9c (HBO) You Can Do Better- August 8 at 10:30/9:30c (truTV) The information above is subject to change without notice. View the full article

Hi, everyone! I’m Mark Xiao, the Producer from Fantablade, a game development team in Shanghai, China. This goes without saying, but the opportunity to have our game join PSN is both extremely humbling and very exciting! About Icey Icey is a side-scrolling action game. On the surface, players take on the role of a young girl with no memory, with only the voice of an omnipotent narrator to guide them through Ultimopolis on their quest to find Judas, a dangerous and powerful enemy. Look deeper, however, and players are actually acting as themselves. Should they resist the narrator’s instructions and instead help Icey discover her own self-awareness? It’s up to you, really. Do you prefer to see through Icey’s eyes and act as she would? Or do you prefer to remain “yourself” and see the world through your own eyes? Only you can decide what the real story is. Hack and Slash There are plenty of combo attacks to tie together during battle in Icey. Once enemies are sufficiently weakened, you’ll be able to dispatch them quickly in a flurry of slashes. Absorb energy released from kill shots to then release a massive attack which damages all enemies within view. Combine all of these together to build up devastating combos. Resist the Narrator and Find Your Own Path It’s possible to play Icey as a simple action game, but if you want to discover the real story behind Icey you need to realize that the narrator can be directly disobeyed. For example, the narrator will tell you to activate a bridge. Of course, you don’t have to listen. Resist these instructions enough times, and the narrator will prevent your progress and even teach you how to play the game. Resist further, and the narrator will create a “temporary” zone for you. And, of course, try to force you to finally follow the arrow. Feel free to once again disobey these commands. Only by annoying the narrator throughout Icey will players be able to uncover some semblance of the truth about the game world. Looking Forward In the beginning, I started making Icey because I wanted to make a game that provoked players’ emotions in a unique way. For example, if players were to enter Icey’s world and treat it as an action game, only to find that as early as the new player tutorial they could ignore the narrator’s directions, wouldn’t that be cool? Wouldn’t it be nice to feel that the narrator was actually a real person who could be resisted and annoyed? We showed a few of our classmates an early demo with these ideas, and their response was overwhelmingly positive. As a result, we moved forward with producing the full version of the game. My classmates and I began producing Icey immediately after we graduated in 2014. This was the first time any of us had ever tried to produce a game. There will probably be parts of the game we didn’t develop well enough, or ideas that could be further expanded upon. We hope that we’ll be able to continue improving Icey and create even better games in the future through sustained suggestions and feedback from all of the awesome people enjoying the game! View the full article

When you deploy into a match of Star Wars Battlefront II this November, you’ll need to make an important choice: which of the four trooper classes will you venture as? There’s the nimble Assault, the tricky Specialist, the commanding Officer, and – of course – the powerful Heavy trooper. Today, we’re really thrilled to reveal some new information on the Heavy with PlayStation Nation, including an exclusive first look at different versions of the Heavy you’ll be able to play as, depending on your era and faction. It makes sense, right? While combat tactics between classes might not change a ton over the years, the troopers themselves will visually adapt to fit into their situation in Star Wars Battlefront II. When it comes to gameplay, these different classes will follow the same rules of engagement no matter their era. When it comes to the Heavy, that means focused firepower with heavy weapons. Whether you need to lay down a rain of suppression fire, hold the line near a capture point, or brute-force your way through a narrow corridor, the Heavy is uniquely qualified to pull this off thanks to their two primary abilities: Combat Shield: A small forward-facing shield that allows the user to fire the primary weapon while slowly advancing. Sentry: Enter a powerful medium-range combat mode where you deploy a heavy repeating blaster with massive damage output, at the cost of severely limited movement. You’ll be able to try your hand at the Heavy and all the other Trooper classes in the Star Wars Battlefront II open beta*, coming October 6 (or October 4 if you pre-order). After that, the worldwide release on November 17 is right around the corner. Stay tuned for more news leading up to the game’s release. *Conditions and restrictions apply. Click here for details. View the full article

Hey everyone! James Windeler here, Lead Writer on episode one of Batman: The Enemy Within. Just last year, we launched the first season of our series, offering an original take on the iconic hero and the characters around him. A few weeks ago at San Diego Comic-Con, we were thrilled to announce that our second season, Batman: The Enemy Within, will be premiering for download on August 8th! Since we’ve revealed the game, we’ve made it no secret that we’re upping the ante with the number of villains we’ll see. Our friends and partners at DC Comics have left the door open for Telltale to develop our own take on canon, and we love seeing how we can turn elements just enough on their heads to make this version of Batman our own. Just as in the first season, we take pride in giving our own spin on the classic villains, as well as Bruce and the Wayne family… as players found out early in our story that Bruce’s father was actually corrupt himself. This time around, Batman will face off with a decidedly more vicious take on Riddler than we’ve seen in any other Batman canon. He has far less time for goofing around and much more of a penchant for pain. Beyond Riddler, there’s another major impending threat in play this season, something that we seeded in Batman: The Telltale Series with a character by the name of ‘John Doe.’ Internally, we refer to John as our ‘Proto-Joker’ — a man on the brink of madness who helped Bruce escape Arkham Asylum, only to come back this season with reason to believe that his ‘friend’ Bruce not only likes him but also owes him a favor. We want fans to know that their relationship with John Doe (and eventually, the Joker) is something they’ll be affecting with the decisions they make throughout the season. As Batman and Bruce attempt to stop the immediate threat to Gotham, John will be watching your every move and learning from your choices. By the end of the story, you will have created your own version of Batman’s classic nemesis through your interactions. Fan feedback has always been a crucial part of our development process, and we’ve heard our fans loud and clear: they want longer episodes with more variety. This premiere episode alone clocks in at over two hours in length, and includes more puzzles, more dynamic choices in the middle of the action, and more consequence to each choice as you carefully navigate the character relationships. Throughout all Telltale Games, it can often be difficult to understand how relationships change or are affected until later episodes (or even a second play-through), so we’ve also begun to implement all-new stats screens at the end of each episode that will allow players to see where they stand with their favorite characters like Jim Gordon, Amanda Waller, and so forth. There are a TON of surprises in The Enemy Within, and we really don’t want to spoil too much. If you haven’t played season one, don’t worry! Although the story continues from season one and save files can carry over into The Enemy Within, we’ve created a story that enables players to start fresh here after getting caught up with a recap before the new season begins. You can also use a story configurator before you dive in to emulate the choices you made last season if for some reason you don’t have your save file from last year on your current system. Beyond that, we just can’t wait for you to play it! Check out the trailer, play the premiere on August 8th, and let us know what you think in the comments! View the full article

It’s an exciting time for everyone here at Naughty Dog. After spending just over a year developing Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, in just a few short weeks it’ll be in your hands. In preparation, last week we revealed nearly 14 minutes of new gameplay footage and now, we’re excited to share a behind-the-scenes look at the game. Our friends at PlayStation recently visited the studio to sit down with Creative Director, Shaun Escayg, and Game Director, Kurt Margenau to discuss how the project began, the story we ultimately wanted to tell, and some of the new gameplay elements you’ll experience when the game launches, beginning on August 22. Watch the video above to hear directly from Shaun and Kurt and see some brand-new footage from the game. As we enter the home stretch for launch, we’ll have more exciting things to share in the days and weeks ahead. Keep your eyes peeled and be sure to follow Naughty Dog on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to see all the latest. View the full article

Hello! I’m Vladimir, a game designer at the studio Fraoula. We’ve been hard at work to bring our newest game Neon Drive to PS4, and I’m excited to announce it will hit Playstation Store on August 8. Neon Drive is a journey back into the 1980s – a time when people still wrote letters, and when they thought — as Douglas Adams put it — that “digital watches were a pretty neat idea.” To be fair, back then we were secretly expecting to have robot coworkers and drive flying cars by the year 2000. The 1980s were also a time of the first computer music — digital synthesizers were all the rage. Computers made simple games possible, and game designers started exploring new genres such as racing, lane dodgers, top-down shooters, side-scrollers, and platformers. But back then the equipment was not cheap — you had to go to the arcades to play the best looking games, which were often so challenging that you had to spend dozens upon dozens of coins just to complete a single level. Neon Drive takes all this and blends it into a nostalgic love letter to the ’80s. With a couple of exceptions, though: you won’t have to go to the arcades every time you want to play, and neither will it cost you an arm and a leg. Au contraire, once you purchase the game, you’ll have all the time in the world to finish it. You’ll even get a complimentary dynamic Theme for free! Neon Drive brings you eight levels, each with a unique theme and a surprising twist in the gameplay. Using a two-button control scheme, you’ll have to make your car avoid oncoming obstacles, timing your moves to the rhythm and melody of an awesome custom-made synthwave soundtrack, composed and produced by Gustav Eriksson Pengus. Now I suggest that you simply take a deep breath and relax. It will help you sharpen your senses and prepare you for a battle with your own reflexes that you won’t soon forget. View the full article

Woah! Crash Bandicoot’s long-awaited N. Sane Trilogy spun to the top of the PS4 download charts last month, followed closely by Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (there’s still time to catch up before Shadow of War!). The insanely stylish (and just awesome overall) Superhot VR took the top spot for PlayStation VR, which makes sense since the game can, ya know, control the flow of time and everything. Seems like an unfair advantage, to be honest. Miss any of July’s top games and want to see what the fuss is about? Head to PlayStation Store to pick ’em up! PS4 Games 1 Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy 2 Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor – Game of the Year Edition 3 God of War III Remastered 4 Friday the 13th: The Game 5 Rocket League 6 Grand Theft Auto V 7 Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition 8 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered 9 Ratchet & Clank 10 EA SPORTS UFC 2 11 Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age 12 STAR WARS Battlefront Ultimate Edition 13 Madden NFL 17 14 Battlefield 1 15 Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands 16 How to Survive 2 17 MLB The Show 17 18 Mad Max 19 ARK: Survival Evolved 20 Elite Dangerous PS3 Games 1 The Last Of Us 2 God of War: Ascension 3 God of War Collection 4 Shadow of the Colossus 5 Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition 6 Jak and Daxter Collection 7 Grand Theft Auto V 8 God of War: Origins Collection 9 LittleBigPlanet 2 10 The Last of Us: Left Behind Stand Alone 11 Twisted Metal 12 Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 13 UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception Game of The Year Digital Edition 14 Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 15 Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition 16 Ratchet & Clank: Collection 17 inFAMOUS Collection 18 Need for Speed Most Wanted 19 LittleBigPlanet Karting 20 Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – Ultimate Evil Edition PS4 Add-ons 1 Call of Duty Black Ops III: Zombies Chronicles 2 Diablo III: Rise of the Necromancer 3 Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – DLC3 Absolution 4 Black Ops III – The Giant Zombies Map 5 Rocket League – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Car Pack 6 Call of Duty: MWR Variety Map Pack 7 Rocket League – The Fate of the Furious Ice Charger 8 DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE 2 Dragon Ball Super Pack 4 9 Battlefield 1 Premium Pass 10 Injustice 2 Darkseid PS VR Games 1 SUPERHOT VR 2 Arizona Sunshine 3 PlayStation VR Worlds 4 Until Dawn: Rush of Blood 5 Job Simulator 6 Tumble VR 7 The Bellows 8 Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality 9 Archangel 10 The Brookhaven Experiment PS Vita Games 1 God of War: Collection PS Vita 2 Jak and Daxter Collection 3 UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss 4 Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom 5 Ratchet & Clank Collection 6 Gravity Rush 7 LittleBigPlanet PS Vita 8 Minecraft: PlayStationVita Edition 9 The Sly Collection PS Vita 10 Killzone: Mercenary PS Classics 1 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2 THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2000 3 Bully 4 SAMURAI SHODOWN VI 5 Psychonauts 6 Crash Bandicoot 7 FATAL FURY BATTLE ARCHIVES VOL.2 8 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night 9 Crash Bandicoot 3: WARPED 10 Resident Evil Code: Veronica X View the full article

When we set out to create a new entry in the beloved Sudden Strike series, we knew that WW2 aficionados and hardcore strategy gamers would highly value authenticity and historical accuracy. But, we also knew that we were creating a game, not a documentary. No matter what, gameplay is paramount, so striking the right balance with authenticity was going to need a lot of hard work. In this blog post, I want to show you guys some examples of things we did to make Sudden Strike 4 the most authentic – and fun – WW2 RTT experience possible. 1. Read the manual! Surprising to no one, there is a metric ton of published material about the Second World War. So we set out to find as many different reputable sources as possible for Sudden Strike 4, spending a significant amount of dev budget on books from all over the world to check out the details of tanks, battlefields, soldier equipment and more. Just check these out: And these: 2. Field Trip To portray the areas in Sudden Strike 4 as accurately as possible, sometimes we had to go the extra mile. Literally. For a few levels in the game, we went out on location for field research. One example was the Battle of Hürtgen Forest – a particularly fierce and bloody series of battles in WW2 that took place in a densely forested area south-east of Aachen in western Germany, where both sides struggled to use heavy machinery and a lot of the fighting was done by soldiers from tree to tree. So we drove out to Hürtgen Forest to get a real feel for the area, taking hundreds of photos, including the slate slopes and rock formations that characterize the area, for our artists to use as inspiration for the map, seen here in-game: Pretty close, right? One of the key moments of the battle was the detonation of the Urfttal dam shortly before the Allies could reach it, which significantly set back the efforts to push into mainland Germany. The dam is the final objective of this mission, and we had to make sure we got it right. There is a restaurant near the Urfttal dam, but we wanted to have a view that would be more like a soldier’s, rather than a tourist’s. Thankfully, we found a way – the nearby Dreilägerbachtal dam, which is in the same forest and also built by the same architect (Dr. Otto Intze) in the same style. So here is a look at the Dreilägerbachtal dam as it would be if you were a soldier spying from the woods: And here is the Urfttal dam structure in the game: Of course, not all sites of the battles could be visited, so a lot of research had to be done through archives, historical videos and photos. In fact, Sudden Strike 4 features over 30 minutes of historical archive video material, some of which has never been digitalized before. This material can be invaluable when it comes to nailing down details that can’t be seen anymore today. Take for example the Reichstag, today restored as the seat of the German parliament, and adorned with a glass cupola structure. In 1945, the building was pretty deteriorated, not just from the bombing of the city but also from neglect, following the burning of the building in 1933. It was mainly used as a defensive position, so if you look closely you can see the windows are shut with brick barriers. And even before 1933, the cupola was very different from the one today, with the roof sporting a greenish hue thanks to the withered copper plating, which we were able to replicate from early colour pictures of the time: 3. Four eyes see more than two! I think everybody that looks at the unit models, details, explosions, environments in Sudden Strike 4 can agree with me that our artists did an awesome job. And I can’t thank them enough for their patience and hard work during the early phases of development when every single unit model was subjected to the scrutiny of several proof checkers (including me), criticizing every little detail. As a result, our units (especially tanks) underwent a lot of changes to get to the point you see now in the game. If you think most players wouldn’t notice these details, think again! Right after we released the first few trailers for the game, we had feedback from one player who noticed that the King Tiger model we used in those trailers had a Hentschel-style body but a Porsche-style gun variant, which did not make sense. And he was right. So here is the King Tiger before and after that feedback: Can’t see the difference? Well it’s there, if you look closely at the bottom end of the gun. OK, even if you can’t see it, some players will, and hopefully they’ll appreciate the extra work. These changes aren’t always just cosmetic, either. Take sloped armour for example, a certain way of producing tank armour that was heavily used by the soviets and some late-war German tanks. The idea is that an armour plate sloped at the right angle will deflect an incoming projectile, even if that would theoretically have enough power to penetrate the armour. And it worked very well in most cases, producing some of the most successful tanks of WW2. Look at the beauty that is the design of the T-34/76 and T-34/85 soviet tanks of the time: The effect of sloped armour is very hard to pinpoint and simulate in a strategy game. But we wanted it to be portrayed as well as possible, and so Sudden Strike 4 employs an intricate armour system that simulates front, back, side and top armour separately and also takes deflections and sloped armour into account. That is why you will see some projectiles bounce off the armour of some tanks in some situations in the game. It is a nice historical detail and has gameplay value. Plus it looks cool, don’t you think? View the full article

It’s that time of year again… A long couple of months have passed since that match in Cardiff where Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo showed the world just why he’s the FIFA 18 Cover Star, but the football season is finally back with us. We’ve been spending the summer break tracking transfers and studying squads, planning our perfect eleven for when we boot up Ultimate Team for the first time when FIFA 18 drops on September 29th. Oh, and we’ve also been hard at work adding a load of awesome new features to FUT 18 to make it the best and most enjoyable one yet. So let’s kick this blog off with the one I’m most excited about as a PlayStation player. As you may have heard, we’re bringing some of the most iconic players in the history of football to FUT 18 on PS4 as FUT Icons. Back in June we revealed the first five you’ll be able to add to your team when FIFA 18 drops on September 29th: “Il Fenomeno” Ronaldo Nazario; The King of Football, Pele; The original Argentine wizard Diego Maradona; The effortlessly brilliant Thierry Henry and the only goalkeeper to ever win the prestigious Ballon d’Or, Lev Yashin. Not a bad start right? Well, how good does a squad featuring Peter Schmeichel in goal, Carles Puyol and Roberto Carlos at the back, Ruud Gullit, Jay-Jay Okocha (so good they named him twice), Patrick Vieira and Deco in midfield with Alessandro Del Piero and Michael Owen up top sound? Strong, but missing a bit of that classic Brazilian flair in attack, right? That’s an easy fix… legendary World Cup and two-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldinho is a FUT Icon too! If like me you spent hours in the garden trying (and failing) to replicate his famous elastico then Ronaldinho will be top of your transfer list when you start building your Ultimate Team next month. I can’t wait to see how my opponents cope with that move. But that’s not all we have to announce about Icons today. Oh no! Each FUT Icon will have three different versions in-game with different ratings reflecting how their style and attributes evolved at three different points of their illustrious careers. Take Ronaldinho for example. He’ll have one item focused around his time at PSG and winning the World Cup in 2002, another based on 2010 and winning the title in his final year with AC Milan, and a final Prime version from that time where he was the best player on the planet in the mid-2000s. Two of the three items for each Icon will be available in packs at launch, while the Prime version will be available a little later via limited-time packs and Squad Building Challenges. All of that leads me on to some other great additions and improvements this year. We’re making Squad Building Challenges more accessible with some great unique items this year (such as those Prime Icons), adding a new Objectives feature that lets you earn great rewards every day, as well as a new single player Squad Battles mode that lets you compete against squads built by other players, celebrities and even pro footballers to work your way up a leaderboard and earn more rewards. You can even get a head-start on the competition in FUT with three days early access when you pre-order the FIFA 18 Icons edition, which will also net you plenty of great FUT content including Cristiano Ronaldo and Ronaldo Nazario loan items. Because two Ronaldo’s are better than one! We’ll have plenty more to reveal about FUT and FIFA 18 over the coming weeks too, so stay tuned! View the full article

The googly-eyed Patapons march to the rhythm of the drum! First released in 2007 to worldwide critical acclaim, a remastered edition is out today on PlayStation 4. Described by its creators as “Command & Carnival”, Patapon is a mash-up of strategy, simulation and music game elements. In order to reach the end of the earth and defeat the foes that stand in their way, the player commands their little guys to march, fight and much more, just by beating a drum rhythm. This hit series’ three games made their way into players’ hearts with their addictive blend of rhythmic drumming, strategic character development and troop composition, and of course, the characterful, lively little Patapons themselves. 4K image captured on PS4 Pro. 4K display requires PS4 Pro and compatible 4K display We interviewed producer Hiroyuki Kotani and Sound Designer Kemmei Adachi prior to the game’s release, where we discussed the sound design process, the secret identity of the theme song’s singer, and shed light on a whole load of the game’s secrets. Hiroyuki Kotani, Producer (left) and Sound Designer Kemmei Adachi (right) The Inspiration for Patapon Striking like a Bolt of Lightning Patapon was originally released for PSP in 2007. Can you tell us about the process that led to its creation? Kotani: The first step on the road was when I saw a character design by Rolito, the French artist. One day, I was visiting the offices of Interlink Planning, who did overseas artist management including Rodney Greenblat of PaRappa the Rapper fame. They showed me a piece of work from an artist called Rolito which had done in Flash. I was completely taken aback! Loads of these alien little creatures that were basically just eyeballs waving spears around. They were these simple characters, made only of circles, no ornamentation. On a gut level, I felt drawn to them and told the company I was interested in his work. The illustration by Rolito, full of the then unnamed little eyeball creatures that would inspire Patapon. It was around the launch of the PSP, and plenty of new developers were being welcomed into the fold. There was this development house called Pyramid, who were making games that really stood out, even among the new crowd. I proposed a war strategy game involving war drums to them using these characters, and right off the bat, they thought the idea had merit. That’s when I started thinking up systems for the game. So it was then decided right away that your group would make a strategy game featuring those spear-wielding eyeball characters? Kotani: Right. My first idea was an image of the little guys swarming into battle. So, I’ve always liked picture books, and I’ve always wanted to create something fairy tale-esque. At the time though, I was involved in this project to discover talent through Game Yaroze! (“Let’s Make Games!”) and had to provide support to quite a few teams. I think it’s fair to say that Patapon was actually my first project that I conceived entirely from scratch. The monsters started as drafts from the development staff, which were discussed with Rolito, who upon approving them would provide the finalised design. From that first idea, how did you finalise the game’s systems? Kotani: It was something of a long and winding road to get there! Our first thought, looking at the four buttons, was to consider them parts of a drum, and designate them “March”, “Attack”, and “Defend”. But make it too complex and even we would have trouble remembering the commands, while making them too simple would be boring. Looking at the rhythm action games of the time, I considered having command prompts pop up on screen to tell the players what to press, but I had this idea that the game should be about communicating with this tribe that doesn’t understand your words, so we shouldn’t place a lot of emphasis on giving commands. I rolled these ideas around in my head for what seemed like the longest time. Around that time, Rolito came to Japan. I asked him to name the little eyeball creatures, and sometime later, he sent me around four naming conventions. I saw “Patapon” there in the list, and knew that was the one! Thinking about “pata” and “pon” as drumming noises, I envisaged drumming out “pata, pata, pata, pon,” and the creatures would start marching. From that, I knew anyone could remember the commands, and it even felt like communicating rather than commanding. I had Pyramid make a prototype right away, and after playing that build, I knew that this was what I’d wanted to make all along! After settling on this, the rest of this part of development was much smoother. “Throw” was “pon, pon”; the remaining two buttons could be given fun sounds like “don” and “chaka”. A screenshot from the early days What stage of development did you join, Mr. Adachi? Adachi: I joined pretty much at the start. I remember going to the studio when Mr. Kotani was saying, “I have this sort of idea for a game”. It was pretty rare for a Sound Designer to be present at a brainstorming session. Kotani: Sound was absolutely essential to Patapon after all, so I wanted ideas from the sound designer! That’s why I asked you to join during the brainstorming stage! Adachi: In the end, the concept of call and response became central to the game, but it took a lot of ideas from everyone to get there. Kotani: We also discussed what kind of music we should use. Since we were envisioning something quite primal, drums seemed like a natural fit. We listened to a lot of drum-based music as the picture of the game became clearer in our minds. And we even… well, it didn’t have anything to do with the game in the end, but we even learnt to play the didgeridoo! (Laughs) Adachi: There was always room for fun while making the game! Recording Off the Cuff: Secrets of Sound Design, Revealed! Once the basic design of the game was decided to be call and response, how did you decide on the four noises that would represent “pata”, ”pon”, “don”, and “chaka”? Adachi: Well, we tried a load of different sounds. We wanted pressing a button and hearing the sound to simply feel good, bearing in mind “pata” and “pon” were to be the call to attack. We wanted the sounds to feel commanding as well as satisfying to hear. What did you use to make the sounds? Adachi: A blend of a lot of noises. Congas and bongos just on their own didn’t seem satisfying enough, so we had to come up with a signature sound for Patapon. On top of the African instrumentation in the foreground, we mixed in percussive instruments from a lot of different countries. Kotani: Even after settling on “pon”, getting “pata” right proved quite difficult. I knew I was asking a lot when I requested the team to keep trying for something better (laughs). Adachi: Everyone was asking a lot, eh! (Laughs) Kotani: At first, I was quite pleased that after inputting a command, the Patapons would repeat it back to the player, but eventually I got the feeling that something was lacking. It was Pyramid who thought it might be interesting if the Patapons actually sang back to the player. I wrote the lyrics, and Mr. Adachi wrote the framework for the accompanying music. Adachi: I just added the melody to Mr. Kotani’s lovely lyrics. Kotani: Mr. Adachi initially wrote a very strange placeholder song for “Goroch’s Theme” that you hear at the start. Those are definitely your lyrics too, Mr. Adachi! Adachi: The process of composition was totally different from normal. We had booked the days for recording, and I’d come up with some frameworks for pieces, knowing that Mr. Kotani was writing the lyrics. They arrived before we were due to record, and somehow, I was in the studio, adjusting the pieces as we were recording and fitting these lyrics into them! Normally, you’d start with the melody, but here I’d come to the studio without any, so it ended up being a rare instance of composing right off the cuff! Kotani: The themes were locked down, but that was about it. This piece would feel African; that piece would feature yodelling as it was for a mountain level; etcetera (laughs). Adachi: I would make an instrumental base, and then change the instruments out for voices to make a piece. For example, a guitar line by The Ventures would sound like “tickatickatickaticka” when expressed vocally. Vocal percussion also turns sound into words, right? Using that method, I would turn the instrumental sounds into these words and have them sung in a child’s voice. Every piece was made in this way. Who did the singing? Kotani: My son! (Laughs) I thought it would be fun to have children sing, but since we didn’t have the budget to hire, I asked my son to have a go. (Laughs) At the time he was about 10. We threw the little bundle of energy into the studio and asked him to sing for us! Adachi: It was our first time doing it that way, so it was as difficult as you might expect. It was really hard to have a child maintain the energy needed. It was the summer holidays and he just wanted to play, and he got brought into the studio when he was still half asleep. Kotani: He laid down the ya-ho-hois and woo-ha-has while listening to the backing track. Adachi: It was all done quite spontaneously. Before working on Patapon, I’d worked on LocoRoco, which was a similar approach. My voice is actually in that game too. I got up in front of the mic and laid down some chorus and gradually added to it. Patapon ended up quite similar in terms of the method. Kotani:. We rigged it up so my son could hear me through the mic, and I sang an improved little song based on the backing track and had him copy me. Turns out even the recording utilised call and response! (Laughs) It felt a bit like a concert. Adachi: I remember some songs turning out completely different to the melodies that were sung because of that. Those ended up being pretty good though! Kotani: Putting the same vocals over a chorus wouldn’t have been any good, so we split it up where we had weak Patapons, weird Patapons, and angry Patapons, etc. all singing for us. Mr. Adachi would say, “Next we’re going to do some weak Patapons, okay?” to my son, and he did it like a stone cold pro (laughs). It really helped give the feeling that there were loads of Patapons in the game. Adachi: Once the template was completed, I’d redo my vocals. We added the musical elements together like we were putting chords together. In a previous interview, talking about LocoRoco, the director mentioned that the greater the number of LocoRoco on screen, the fuller the sound of their singing became In Patapon, FEVER, earned by chaining a big combo together, makes the music grow more lively. Did you re-employ this method from LocoRoco? Adachi: Exactly right. The music consisted of two mixes split into three tracks, which would respond to the state of the game. Was that difficult, on top of your compositional duties? Adachi: Every track has the same tempo. Marching tempo is 120BPM. It was tricky writing music to fit this. Rhythm games usually try to vary the tempo to create variety. Introducing variations at the same tempo, well, it was tricky to say the least. I had to be very careful that the tracks didn’t get too samey. Do you have a favourite piece? Adachi: Goroch’s Theme, I think. I also like the Patapon 2 tracks with funk elements. Whenever I got stuck, I added in my usual style of melody and got surprisingly into it. Kotani: Bibiricchi’s Theme, from the first boss fight is also great. Adachi: At the 23rd Game Symphony Japan Concert, celebrating PlayStation music, Patapon’s opening theme was performed live on stage. It was really moving, to have Patapon performed live! How important do you both think music is to video games? Adachi: I think it’s important to expand the scope of a world. Whenever I begin work on a project, I ask to see some art. Before even seeing the design documents, I look at the art and decide on a concept. Even if someone asks me for a specific kind of piece, the inspiration I take from the art will still form the base. I think this is a good way of expanding the scope. Sometimes, the music I provide has even ended up changing the direction of games I’ve worked on. Kotani: When the player gets feedback from a game, the most satisfying stimulus usually comes from the sound and music. Music plays an important role in three recent HD remasters; PaRappa the Rapper, LocoRoco and Patapon. Since music is tied in so closely to the gameplay, it seems players tend to recall them fondly. Adachi: Yeah, I believe so. We focussed hard on how to represent the swarms of Patapons musically. I think we managed quite well in the end, if I do say so myself. Kotani: It feels like each individual Patapon is singing in the game, doesn’t it? Whenever they’re marching, they would raise their spears to the rhythm. This animation wasn’t included at my behest, but actually one of the programmers made the decision to implement it independently. As soon as that animation was in the game, seeing them move and sing to the beat really gave the impression they were marching. That tiny bit of animation really brought them to life; I was totally awestruck. The animation and the commands were really brought together by the music, and made the whole experience that much better. Kotani: The music of Patapon is far more important than simply sound-tracking the action. Together with the visuals, they breathed real charisma into the game. Being Bold Enough to Use “Chaka Chaka” to Win! What feedback did you receive after release? Kotani: It was well-reviewed, but quite a few people said the rhythm for executing “Miracles” was too difficult. The irregular “don, dodon, dodon” rhythm seemed hard for some players. I’d previously made Mad Maestro! to allow people who didn’t play an instrument to enjoy playing music in game form. The music would react to your inputs in a simple and fun manner. I wanted to make a game anyone could enjoy, but it seems I made Patapon a little too hard. Is there any kind of trick to it? Kotani: Mad Maestro is the same, but keeping steady to the rhythm is deceptively tricky. Especially in Patapon, where you have to keep an eye on your enemy’s movements while inputting the next command. It’s not especially forgiving; if you don’t defend when you need to, you’ll take huge damage. That’s why “chaka chaka” (the defensive command chaka, chaka, pata, pon) is so important. Don’t underestimate the value of chaka, chaka! (Laughs) You only have two seconds or so to decide whether to attack, defend, or run away, which is both Patapon’s difficulty and its greatness. It’s all the harder to maintain the rhythm when you’re shaken up after taking damage too. Kotani: Right! When you’re shaken up, it shows in your rhythm. Which is exactly why you need the courage to chaka, chaka in order to succeed! (Laughs) Patapon seems popular around the world and went on to have sequels. Why do you think it became such a hit? Kotani: The characters. I thought a certain kind of person would definitely find them immediately appealing. I remember writing in the design doc that this would be a game for adults with good taste and an interest in art. Rolito came up with the catchphrase “delicious poison” for Patapon, as there was something “poisonous” in the Patapon’s design. The visuals were also very striking, and without them, the game wouldn’t be the same. Adachi: The scale was also great. These little beings swarming around made it really charming. You mentioned the game being made for adults. What’s the player base actually like? Kotani: We held a survey, which revealed that 40% of players were women and was great to hear. Most games’ user bases are 80% male. And it seems people grew really attached to the little Patapons. Different-looking Patapons debuted in Patapon 3, and while we were observing play tests, a common bit of feedback was, “Do Patapons grow up to look like that!?” I heard somewhere that “patapon” means “child” in French, and a lot of fans thought the Patapons were children. Even I think of them as my kids, and Rolito calls me “The Patapons’ other father”. Experiencing the full power of the “Don” with the PS4 How has your impression of the game changed with the PS4 remaster? Kotani: We did testing on PlayStation Vita, and despite the small size of the characters, they looked pretty sharp. The games live and die by the simple silhouettes of Rolito’s designs, the characters’ crispness only served to increase their charm. Can you offer any advice to players coming to the game for the first time? Kotani: It’s fun to try to play through the game without any outside help. Rarepons can be created once you make a certain amount of progress, which might actually happen by chance. It’s possible to create a Rarepon unknowingly while casually making a new Patapon. Have fun testing them out, seeing how they move and how they fit in with the others. Is there anything that hasn’t yet been discovered by fans? Kotani: Hah, I think the players have seen everything there is to see at this point! They’re far more knowledgeable about the game than I am! Try out lots of different combinations, as when they’re compatible, they can really boost your performance. For example, using Yumipons in conjunction with Tikulees massively increases your fire-rate. And since your play-style will be dictated by the Rarepons you’re using, it can be fun to go back and challenge bosses, even after you’ve beaten them, just to try out new combinations. Finally, anything you’d like to say to fans anticipating Patapon Remastered’s release? Kotani: Newer televisions tend to have display lag, making rhythm games harder to play than before. This was my biggest fear going into the remaster project. I thought that if the lag made the rhythms of the game too difficult to grasp, then the whole project would have to be scrapped. However, after a lot of work by the development team, it’s actually easier to get into the rhythm than even the PSP version! (Laughs) Even if you couldn’t manage it on the PSP version, Fever is awarded for only a 3-combo now. You might still experience lag with an older television, but it shouldn’t ruin your fun at all. I’m absolutely certain of it! Adachi: I always felt that on the small screen of the PSP, “don” never really had the impact I’d hoped it would. I have to admit I’m a little obsessed with the “don” sound. That’s why for the PS4 version, I’d like everyone to hear it at high volume, even once. Definitely take the opportunity to experience the full power of the mighty “don”! Patapon, the game that fuses the primal thrill of drumming with deep gameplay that’ll have you hooked. Experience the weirdly wonderful charm of the Patapons, and the impact of their sounds, beautifully remastered on PS4. View the full article

Hey everyone, I’m Daniel Robinson, Game Director from Odd Bug Studio. I’m really excited to announce that our first ever game The Lost Bear, a 2D platformer exclusively for PlayStation VR will be available from PlayStation Store this month! It has always been our dream to make a game for players to experience and immerse themselves in. It’s been a very long road and we can now finally tell people the story of ‘The Lost Bear’, I hope you all enjoy the journey! What is The Lost Bear? The Lost Bear is a 2D cinematic platformer for PlayStation VR, as you control a young girl named Walnut who sets out to rescue her teddy bear and bring her back home. The player sits inside a 3D diorama, inspired by puppet show theatre, that reflects what’s happening within the game and alters as the game progresses. Walnut’s story originates from my little sister, who always wandered off to the woodlands with her teddy bear by her side. She has always inspired me through her bravery and willingness to overcome her fears. And so, this game is all about a young girl called Walnut also overcoming her fears when she is alone in a wondrous, surreal and dangerous world. The project started at Norwich University of the Arts and ‘Dare to be Digital 2013’ where myself and two close friends wanted to accomplish a dream by creating our very own game. We were inspired both by Limbo and Eastern European puppet shows (our art director Harry is from the Czech Republic) and we teamed up with Fabrik Games to create and release The Lost Bear on PlayStation VR. Why PS VR? As developers, we are always intrigued by new mediums and different ways to convey our games. PlayStation VR was a new platform we could use to create an experience that felt like the player had been transported into a puppet show set in The Lost Bear world. The Lost Bear and the PlayStation VR work together to create a unique, immersive experience. This gave us the ability to place the player directly into an ever-changing theatre, as the environment shifted around them as they progressed through the story. Using the Dualshock 4 motion controls, we are able to give the player the ability to interact with the world around the player. We wanted to create mechanics that didn’t intrude on Walnut’s story, but would give the player control of the 2D environment using the 3D space. The evolution & importance of the diorama The diorama, the environment that surrounds the player, was created to help fully immerse the player into Walnut’s world. It’s a 3D/2D diorama that mirrors the 2D world; offering a visual language in which it subtly reflects the progress of Walnut through the game. For example, to the enviroment to the left of the diorama space the environment will reflect where Walnut has been previously, while the right will foreshadow elements of what she will encounter next. The challenge of making VR work in a 2D world Creating an art style that worked collaboratively within a 2D and 3D form was a key focus; we had to make sure that everything visually linked together. The VR mechanics of the game took a lot of time to get right. We didn’t want Walnut to be aware of the player and we wanted to avoid any mechanics that did not fit the feel of the experience or break the flow of the game. During the prototyping phase we tried many gameplay iterations, and other gameplay prototypes. The decision was made that if they didn’t ground the player within the experience, or feel viable to coexist between 2D and 3D, then they wouldn’t make the cut. From Odd Bug Studio Creating our first game for everyone to experience has been a big milestone for us, it’s been a tough road with many sleepless nights but with everything we have learnt, I’m excited for the future and the next dream. I hope you have enjoyed reading about our story and the production of The Lost Bear we are looking forward to everyone playing the game! View the full article

Matterfall, Housemarque’s dazzling new sci-fi shooter, is only a few weeks away from release. But before you plunge into the frantic fast-paced action on August 15, find out the thinking behind the title’s gameplay and story from its creator in this all-new video. Go behind the scenes at Housemarque as key staff explain the terror that’s gripped a futuristic world and detail your role in saving it from destruction. Find out the inspirations that have forged the team’s creative thinking, and why, for the minds behind Resogun and Nex Machina, art is always in the service of gameplay. View the full article

Hi PlayStation Nation, It’s Wonder from Runic Games, here with a jam-packed update on Hob. Let’s get straight to the big news in our new trailer: Hob launches on September 26! This is a big milestone –we know you’ve been waiting patiently for a release date. Test Your Knowledge We’ve released several gameplay videos, dev diaries and trailers, so you might feel like you know quite a bit about Hob. Let’s test your knowledge! Here are six facts about Hob we bet you didn’t know. 1. The sprites are plants These cute little creatures that magically zip in and out of your life are actually sentient plants! Our lead Engineer, Marsh Lefler, gives you more clues in our dev diary, Meet the Sprites. Which makes us wonder, would a grouping of sprites be called a bouquet? 2. The world is a puzzle You’ve seen some impressive in-game footage of land masses shooting out of the mechanical depths to fall and lock into place. But did you know the whole world of Hob is this way? Forests, dungeons, meadows, and areas we’ve kept super secret can only be accessed once you raise or activate those parts of the world. Want a hint about one of the (unannounced zones) you’ll be discovering? Make sure you watch to the end of our release day trailer above, but we warn you… spoilers! 3. Are you really the first? Along your journey, you’ll collect sword shards in the world and be able to upgrade your weapon. But where you get them just might be more intriguing than how. Dotted throughout the world are the Fallen Soldiers – cloaked figures with a silhouette not unlike your own, kneeling beneath a patina of age and rust. Around you are the ruins of a civilization, so what happened to these Fallen Soldiers? And could you possibly be related? You’ll have to play to uncover the mystery! 4. The world is true-neutral From twitching purple claws of Rogue Life to the majestic stilt-horses wandering the plains, the world is teeming with life. Nothing, however, is inherently good or evil. Instead, all of the life forms are locked in a Darwinian struggle for the survival of their own species. Some creatures may try to eat you, others could become your friends. Where do you fit in? 5. Hob isn’t his or her name At the very beginning when we started development, we just called it “adventure game.” Later, like most projects, we had an internal code name for the game, which was Hob. That name obviously stuck! But what’s important is that “Hob” isn’t his or her name; in fact, the Hero in Hob is gender-neutral. We want you to see yourself in the story! 6. Created by the Torchlight team Hob is our third title, after Torchlight and Torchlight II. We know it’s a big change from what our fan base is used to, but we are gamers ourselves who, like you, love playing a wide variety of games! Just like we put our own style and spin on the dungeon-crawler genre, we’ve put our own style and spin on the puzzle-platformer genre. We are immensely proud of Hob, and hope that if you loved our previous games, you’ll love Hob as much as we do. If you learned something new, tell us in the comments or on social media! And don’t worry, we know that discovery is part of the joy of Hob, and we are keeping back plenty of surprises for when you play yourself. Hob Pre-Order Incentive If you love the world-shifting of Hob, you need our dynamic theme! Hob launches on September 26, and if you pre-order, you get 10% off the sale price of $19.99, as well as the world-shift theme. See the full theme, including music from Matt Uelmen, here! Calling All Trophy Hunters! What’s better than collecting Trophies? Naming them! That’s right, you have the chance to name one of the Trophies in Hob. If we pick your name idea, we will even put you in the credits! This is must-have bragging rights for any serious Trophy collector. We also have tons of other prizes including a free copy of the game and exclusive Hob swag. Here’s a quick look at how the contest will work! Ready to do some naming? Head to our blog post for more information and find out how to submit your entries! I’ve played a lot of Hob since we started development, and I still fall in love with the experience each time I pick up the controller. In fact, I love it more now than I ever did. The artwork is gorgeous, the world sounds and music are immersive, and there are discoveries to make around every corner. Playing feels charming and meditative. We can’t wait for you play it on September 26. Start your countdown clock … Fifty-six days to go! With love, Wonder & The Runic Team View the full article

Hello, PlayStation Blog! I am thrilled to announce that X-Morph: Defense is coming to the PlayStation 4 on 30th August. In my last PlayStation Blog post, I described the game’s general concept and its core features. This time I’d like to tell you a bit more about X-Morph’s story campaign, unique destruction system, and split screen co-op. Take over the world! The X-Morph’s goal is to take over the entire planet by placing their harvester cores in key strategic locations. These structures transform Earth’s surface around them and drain energy straight from the planet. Landing sites are divided into primary and secondary areas. You are rewarded with new upgrades and technologies after securing each harvester core. You can observe X-Morph influence affecting the globe after each successful mission. There’s a large variety in gameplay sceneries ranging from urban centers and industrial complexes to dense forests. Destroy everything in your path The destruction system in X-Morph: Defense lets you destroy practically everything. It’s not just about collapsing bridges or tearing down buildings. Each single object can be destroyed and breaks up into small individual pieces. We’ve put extra effort into making the world respond to your actions. Every piece of debris that falls into the water creates a splash effect. The destruction algorithm is entirely physics based and buildings collapse depending on which of their parts are destroyed. You can shoot their top off, cut them down at the base or blow up the middle section. Dropping airplanes can destroy buildings revealing their interiors. It took us quite a lot of work to model all of these fancy interiors, but we think it was well worth the effort. The same goes for bosses ramming buildings. When a massive Mecha slams into a skyscraper, it will collapse depending on the force of the attack. Split screen co-op enhanced on the PS4 Pro Fighting humans is much more fun with a friend. We wanted to give the co-op campaign a special feel, so we’ve taken extra care in rebalancing each enemy wave in each mission.We added new enemies and additional human attack formations to create a different take on the story campaign. As you can imagine, two players wreaking havoc at the same time in split-screen, combined with even more enemy units, can put a lot of stress on a gaming system. We’ve put a lot of effort into optimizing our Schmetterling engine to handle all of that action. The game’s performance is additionally enhanced on the PlayStation 4 Pro to give you a solid 60 FPS in split screen co-op, even in the thickest of battles. Thank you all for your support since X-Morph’s announcement on the PlayStation Blog. We’re eagerly waiting to hear what you think about the game when it launches on 30th August! View the full article

Open beta is off the ground, which means the battlefields of the Solar System are now accessible to all captains! We’re adding new maps, launching a PS4-exclusive premium ship and continuing to improve core elements of the game. There’s never been a better time to be an outlaw captain. Ready to blow up some giant, thundering capital ships? I know I am. If you haven’t yet taken to the skies of Dreadnought, check out this overview of the game and this post on our latest, PS4-exclusive game mode, Havoc. Once you get your bearings, read on to find out everything you need to know about the open beta. Wage War on 8 New Battlegrounds The biggest change open beta brings to the table is maps: eight of them, to be exact. These include variants of all four battlegrounds that have been available throughout the closed beta, plus two brand-new maps (which have one variant each). Check out the map of Ryugu Haven—a gritty outlaw mining base hidden deep within the asteroids of the Scum Belt—and the ominous, eerily lit variants of Kappa Base and Rings of Saturn below! Own the Hactar—for free As a thanks for playing Dreadnought, we’re giving all PS4 players the Hactar Hero Ship—for free! Keep in mind, this is no rookie vessel. It’s a menacing, Tier-IV Tactical Cruiser with a screaming head at its bow. Take this beast onto the battlefield and channel the fighting spirit of the Dead Horde, the ruthless faction it once led into the asteroid belt during the Great Solar War. Just make sure you’re ready to unleash some serious destruction. New Features for Friends List and Squads Decimating enemy fleets is definitely more fun with friends. We’ve added an in-game friends list that enables you to see all your PSN friends who play Dreadnought and easily add them to it. You can also add friends to a squad, which allows you to fight alongside two of your most trusted allies. More social features are coming soon, so stay tuned! More Open Beta Updates Besides releasing tons of new, sprawling space battlegrounds, we’ve also added new content to the market: The Trident Hero Ship: One of the most famous vessels from the Great Solar War. Check it out! The Knight bundle: Now you can pick up this shining, bravery-inspired emblem and striking, green and yellow coating. GP packs: Purchase GP packs to buy Hero Ships, ship vanity items, captain accessories and more. Open beta also brings several additional changes: SHAREfactory theme: Easily share footage of your favorite battles with video clips and images taken from across the Solar System. Download it for free! 2 Dynamic themes: Customize your home screen with a view of Sinley Bay or one of its massive, cavernous ship hangars—for free. PS4 Pro optimizations: Get even better graphical fidelity on your PS4 Pro. Currency conversion: Spend GP to convert Ship XP into Free XP, or turn GP directly into Credits. New languages: Command the skies in French, German or Spanish. Brand-new battlegrounds. Epic new ships. Droves of freshly-minted captains flooding colonies and bases across the Solar System. Take the helm and explore all that’s new in the open beta—and let us know what you think in the comments! View the full article

Brainchild of our friends on the LATAM team, “¡Vota Por Tu Favorito!” launched a few years ago – giving fans the power to choose the next game that would go on sale at PlayStation Store. We loved the concept so much, earlier this year we brought “Vote for Your Favorite” stateside. Here’s how it works, we match up two different titles, along with their prospective discounts, and give PS Blog readers the sole power to decide which game we’ll set on sale that weekend. Today, we’re kicking off another edition with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition vs. The Evil Within Digital Bundle! Only poll votes will be tallied. Comments, tweets or replies on our social posts do not count! Vote for your Favorite Poll Take Our Poll Select your favorite by voting above until Wednesday, August 2, 2017. We’ll announce our winner this Friday, August 4! The winning title will remain on sale through the weekend. View the full article

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is showing a lot of promise. My recent hands-on time with an early build of the game pointed to a more confident, more polished follow-up to 2014’s subversive hit Wolfenstein: The New Order… which still stands as one of the best story-driven shooters on PS4, by the way. With Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, developer MachineGames is shifting the fight overseas to a Nazi-occupied “United States of Amerika.” The themes are heavy, and MachineGames doesn’t pull any punches in its depiction of this dark alternate history — though the studio wisely punctuates the tension with moments of shocking humor, such as the infamous milkshake scene shown at E3. The New Colossus picks up with William “BJ” Blazkowicz recovering from the crippling injuries inflicted by Wilhelm “Deathshead” Strasse during their duel at the end of Wolfenstein: The New Order. The Resistance leadership has survived by commandeering an enemy U-boat, but the bad guys have finally tracked them down. In the first sequence I played, Blazkowicz has to fend them off while confined to a wheelchair. This impressive scenario wasn’t just a graphical reskin or an on-rails affair. Though the wheelchair’s movement and handling felt more rigid, more tank-like, I maintained a good deal of mobility as I carefully rolled through the corridors of the surprisingly accessible U-boat, ambushing the invaders and carefully navigating a maze of tricky microwave traps. Later, I went undercover to transport a nuke around occupied Roswell, New Mexico. I wandered around town while taking in the disturbing sights and sounds in a sequence that reminded me some moments in Bioshock Infinite’s Columbia. Even though this sequence was unsettling, I enjoyed being able to slow down and explore at my own pace. The game is riddled with bits of lore: books, propaganda, audio recordings, and overheard conversations add meat to the game’s narrative bones. As for the actual shooting gameplay, expect a more refined approach to combat. Building off one of The New Order’s most satisfying features, BJ can pretty much dual wield any weapon, or combination of weapons, in the game. Dual shotguns? Dual sticky bomb launchers? One pistol, one assault rifle? All possible, and all with unique benefits and drawbacks. You’ll also find weapon upgrade kits that can trick out your favorite guns in multiple ways. But because they’re scarce, you’ll need to choose carefully. Magnum bullets or a suppressor for your pistol? Armor-piercing rounds or reduced recoil for your assault rifle? The upgraded Perk system also grants more passive benefits for hitting certain tiers of headshots, grenade kills, and so forth. In general, the character customization here is far deeper and more satisfying than in Wolfenstein: The New Order. All in all, a promising early showing here from MachineGames, complete with the excellent writing and performances that made the last game such a pleasure. Look for Wolfenstein: The New Colossus to hit PS4 October 27, and the studio already has big plans for post-release content. View the full article

Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon! The iconic rhythm RPG marches onto PlayStation once again with Patapon Remastered, which brings the classic adventure to PS4 on August 1. Behind the Patapon tribe’s cute exterior beats the ferocious heart of a warrior. Pound the drums of war and lead the Patapon tribe into battle against the evil Zigoton army. Every command, from surging attacks to strategic retreats, requires the rhythmic beating of the drums. Campaign across more than 30 missions to discover 100+ items and weapons in the Patapon’s noble quest for victory. For a full list of new games coming to PlayStation, read on. And enjoy The Drop! New Releases: Week of August 1, 2017 Aven Colony PS4 — Retail Build a new home for humanity. Discover Aven Prime — an alien planet of deserts, tundras, and jungles lightyears from earth. CastleStorm VR Edition PS VR — Digital Catapult yourself onto the battlefield like never before in CastleStorm VR, an exciting new take on the tower-defense action-RPG phenomenon! Pit knights, soldiers, archers, and even griffins against formidable foes in full VR castle versus castle combat. Demetrios – The Big Cynical Adventure PS4 — Digital Demetrios is a quirky adventure game packed with tons of humor! Bjorn Thonen, a slob of an antique dealer living in Paris, is robbed one night after coming home drunk. Forced to conduct his own investigation with the help of his neighbor Sandra, he ends up involved in a murky, mysterious affair. Will these unlikely heroes be able to rise up and discover ancient secrets? Dino Frontier PS VR — Digital Build and manage a frontier settlement in a world where the wild west and jurassic collide. Dino Frontier is a virtual reality simulation where players assume the role of Big Mayor. They must carefully balance resources while growing their town and surviving bandit attacks. Drawfighters PS4 — Digital Drawfighters is a turn-based combat game with funny, amazing visuals. Fighters face each other in their struggle for victory in the Great Tournament of the Three Volcanoes. Frisky Business PS4 — Digital You are Mr. Falco Frisk, private detective of Frisk Investigative Solutions! Develop your relationships with your team as you take on your very first case. The Long Dark PS4 — Digital The Long Dark is a thoughtful, exploration-survival experience that challenges solo players to think for themselves as they explore an expansive frozen wilderness in the aftermath of a geomagnetic disaster. Patapon Remastered PS4 — Digital Patapon returns to PlayStation with all new enhancements taking full advantage of PS4 and PS4 Pro! For years the Patapon tribe has lived in the desolate frontier, driven from their home by the evil Zigoton army. Finally, their wait has come to an end as the drums of war are heard once again. Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun PS4 — Digital, Retail Japan, 1615. A new Shogun seizes power over Japan and enforces nationwide peace. In his battle against conspiracy and rebellion, he recruits five specialists with extraordinary skills for assassination, sabotage and espionage. But how much are they willing to sacrifice in the name of peace? Vic Mensa – The Autobiography Joywave – Content Cage the Elephant – Unpeeled Alien: Covenant (plus Bonus Features) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul Alien: Covenant/ Prometheus Bundle People of Earth – July 31 at 10:30/9:30c (TBS) OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes – 6:30/5:30c (Cartoon Network) The Sinner – August 2 at 10:01/9:01c (USA) The information above is subject to change without notice. View the full article

PlayStation peeps, Lordy, we’re nearly there. Our LawBreakers launch on August 8 is coming up soon… um, in less than two weeks. TWO WEEKS. Madness. Really quick, I want to drop some tips and tricks on you PS4 players to put to use in our open beta this weekend. That’s right, I said it! OPEN BETA! Everyone, come in and try the game and help us test our servers one last time before we ship it. It’s important, especially since we want to make sure servers are in order for launch. We’ve only done one closed beta on PS4 previously, so the playing field is relatively untapped – time to get an edge, right? A few pointers: We do have some aim assist on PS4 but it’s pretty minimal, so you’re going to have to, uh, aim and earn those kills and cap those objectives Enforcer’s “run” isn’t just a run, it’s a DISTORTION FIELD BUBBLE that speeds up everything in it, including your shots and teammates Assassin’s grapple has some “wiggle room” to adjust as you zip through the maps The Titan may seem slow but if you blindfire (d-pad) you can fly through low-gravity maps like you’re Mary Poppins, y’all Gunslinger’s “warp” is omni-directional — so look anywhere, hit it, and you GO THERE Juggernaut’s run ability also doubles as a butt stomp when you’re in mid-air – and yes, you can get kills this way Our Battle Medics are surprisingly powerful on offense, so make sure to shell, shell away Vanguards can create a giant zero-G bubble for their ultimate – make sure to use it for extra air time Wraith can triple jump and wall jump, making this role pretty much “the floor is lava” all the darned time So there you have it, a few key tips that’ll help you play better. Please, get the hell off the ground for godsakes. =) The team and I will be watching and playing this weekend, so go to PlayStation Store, download LawBreakers now and play it this weekend! If you like what you play, you can support us before August 8 — pre-order the game now to snag some exclusive skins. We’re happy to give ya something special for doing so. See you online, -B View the full article

Since our last PS Blog post about Mages of Mystralia, we ran a successful Kickstarter campaign and have been hard at work polishing up the game and even adding a few new modes to the game that we’ll share in a future update. For now, we just wanted to announce that we’ve locked in our launch date on PS4. Mark your calendars, because Mages of Mystralia is hitting your favorite console on August 22! As we mentioned in our last post, we wanted to capture the feeling of what it might actually be like to be a mage. To us, this meant that our spellcrafting system had to be both deep and intuitive. By our internal definition, “deep” meant that there needed to be a very wide range of possible spells you could design, and “intuitive” meant that new players would be able to understand the system and play around with it without feeling overwhelmed. It is said that good design seems obvious in retrospect. When you look at a well designed user interface, you might think to yourself, “Well of course they designed it that way. How else could you do it?” As it turns out, most elegant user designs are the result of hundreds of iterations – removing what’s unnecessary, clarifying functionality, streamlining, and testing, testing, and more testing. The majority of our team comes from the AAA space, so we put a high value on polish and usability. Here’s how it works. When you begin the game, you are introduced to the four spell categories: Immedi (for close range spells like melee attacks), Actus (which creates orbs that persist over some amount of time), Creo (for conjuring spells), and Ego (for spells that affect yourself). Each of the spells can be modified by runes that you collect on your journey. There are three categories of runes: Behaviors, Augments, and Triggers. Behavior runes make the spell do something. For example, if I add the Move behavior to an Actus spell, it will make the orb move. Simple enough. You could also add the Move rune to the Ego spell, which would make you move in a quick dash. (And not to worry – when you discover the Move rune, you can use it in multiple spells. You won’t need to take a rune off of one spell to put it on another.) Behaviors stack, so you can add, say, Duplicate and Bounce, which will make it a multishot fireball that bounces off of walls. The more runes you add, the more mana it costs to cast the spell, so you have to balance the cost and benefit. If Behaviors are analogous to verbs, then Augments are adverbs. Augments only affect the rune they’re directly attached to, so the same Augment rune can have a very different effect depending on where you put it. An example of this would be if you add the Right augment to the multishot fireball we made. Depending on where you put it, it can make it do exactly what you want. The Triggers are used to connect one or more spells together to create something greater than the sum of its parts. For example, we can make a decoy of ourselves by adding the Duplicate rune to the Ego spell. We can then add a Period trigger – meaning that we want this Ego spell to call another spell periodically. The system will ask what spell we want to call, and we can select the multishot fireball we made. We can also play around with things further by connecting a Right Augment to the Ego + Duplicate to make the decoy rotate around. And now we’ve got ourselves a spinning fireball-shooting turret! Here are some other spells that we came up with. See if you can figure out how we made them! In contrast to the way the current spell system works, here are some screenshots of earlier attempts at it from older to newer. If you don’t understand how they work, don’t worry! Neither do we anymore! We’re very proud of how we were able to keep iterating on the spellcrafting system to the point where our playtesters were coming up with interesting spells and strategies that had never occurred to us. One person made a shield that pushed enemies away and shot lightning bolts at them. Another created a 1-2-3 punch in which he shot a fireball at an enemy, which in turn conjured up a sheet of ice and froze the enemy in place, and then rained down boulders on its head. We’re looking forward to seeing what you create when Mages of Mystralia launches on PlayStation 4 on August 22! View the full article

Hey everyone. My name is Med, and I’m Thunder Lotus’s QA tester and resident speedrunner. As you can imagine, I’ve played Sundered quite a bit. In total, I think I’ve logged more than 1,000 hours in the game! Today, I’d like to go over some advanced techniques that you should definitely learn if you want to master Sundered. In case this is the first time you’re hearing about the game, Sundered is a horrifying fight for survival and sanity. You play Eshe, a wanderer in a ruined world, trapped in ever-changing caverns filled with hordes of terrifying enemies. We’re the same studio that made Jotun, a hand-drawn epic set in Norse mythology. Sundered launches today on PS4, so let’s get started! Elite Techniques I’ve always loved the idea of “elite techniques” in games. Hidden moves that occasionally slip through as bugs, but end up as core features of the game. Great examples include “wavedashing” in Smash Bros. or “skiing” in Tribes. One of my greatest pleasures in Sundered’s development has been discovering these strange interactions and convincing the team to leave them in the game. A bug is not a bug if it’s a feature. For reference, dodging and using the Cannon effectively are critical to your enjoyment of the game, but the following techniques are meant for advanced players! 1.) The Cannon The Cannon’s knockback might seem like a downside, but it is actually one of its best assets when used properly. You can use the knockback’s momentum to your advantage by firing, immediately dodging, then jumping to keep your speed going. The momentum will be kept regardless of the dodgeroll’s direction. Using this technique, you can zoom through the levels with record pace as well as entering Ability-gated areas you aren’t suppose to be in. 2.) Air Attacks The mid-air up-attack has more than an offensive purpose. You get an extra sliver of vertical lift every use, so it comes in quite handy for platforming. It resets every jump, and your double jump is reset when an enemy is hit. Use it wisely. You can scale high walls by wall-jumping/up-attacking/side-attacking back towards the wall. The mid-air up-attack can also be reset with good enough timing, enabling Eshe to essentially fly away by spamming the up-attack, but it is really hard to maintain a good streak. 3.) Momentum Never stop moving. Movement is important as it is what makes you progress through the levels and keeps you alive. A way to create speed is through using the Strength Amplifier, an Ability that grants you chargeable heavy attacks. Charge them towards flat or upward terrain, immediately roll mid-smash, then jump. This creates a massive swing that launches Eshe forward if used with proper timing. Using this technique, you can skip entire sections, fly into areas you should not be able to reach, and utterly break the intended progression of the game with record time. The gun can also be used for this purpose, but requires ammunition and an extra Energy charge. That’s it for now. We can’t wait to watch people play and completely break the game! I’m sure there are many more undiscovered interactions hidden deep within Sundered’s code. We’ll find out soon enough, since Sundered launches today on PS4! Make sure to tell us what your favorite “bugs that became features” are in the comments! Resist or embrace. Med and the Thunder Lotus Team View the full article

Hello friends and welcome back to another episode! On today’s show, Sid interviews Machine Games on Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus — a game that is equal parts blistering action and heart-pounding narrative. We apologize in advance for the quiet echo, but recording in secret underground bunkers produces less than ideal results for our audio quality. Enjoy the show! Subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Google or RSS, or download here Stuff We Talked About Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Destiny 2 Beta final thoughts Pyre Busy week at the ol’ PlayStation.Blog Recent Episodes 256: Destiny’s Child 255: Kill it With Pyre 254: Sid Deleted the Intro The Cast Sid Shuman – Director of Social Media, SIEA Justin Massongill – Social Media Manager, SIEA Ryan Clements – Sr. Social Media Specialist, SIEA Send us questions and tips! blogcast@sony.com Leave us a voicemail! (650) 288-6706 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