Commander Fury

Email us at blogcast@sony.com! Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google or RSS, or download here We’re back with the first-ever episode of the Official PlayStation Podcast! In this inaugural outing, we share our spoiler-free final impressions of Final Fantasy VII Remake and interview Illfonic, the studio behind next week’s Predator: Hunting Grounds. Listen in! Stuff We Talked About Final Fantasy VII Remake — we finished it! Our favorite remakes Predator: Hunting Grounds interview with Illfonic Trials of Mana (out next week!) The Cast Justin Massongill – Content Communications Manager, SIE Tim Turi – Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE Kristen Zitani – Content Communications Specialist, SIE 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

The memorable opening moments of the original Predator film play out in almost every round of Predator: Hunting Grounds. Snappy one-liners and stealthy jungle infiltration quickly explode into a hectic firefight that, slowly but surely, turns dire as an otherworldly foe picks off an elite Fireteam with grisly precision. But this time, you get to choose which side of the battle you’re on – a skilled Fireteam loaded with cutting-edge weaponry, or the agile and otherworldly Predator. While the humans may appear outmatched, if you know your objectives and communicate with your fellow team members, you’re sure to make it out alive. Get in, get it done, and get to the chopper! For a full list of new games coming to PlayStation next week, read on. And enjoy The Drop! Aces of the MultiversePS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 23) Aces of the Multiverse is a game that is played in multiple parallel realities. On the one hand, we have science fiction characters competing in an exciting tournament. On the other hand, there are players from their real universe and with the help of their Xplora smart watch they can unlock new characters, teams and stadiums. Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker PackPS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 24) Azure Striker Gunvolt Striker Pack brings the electrifying 2D side-scrolling action games Azure Striker Gunvolt and Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 to PS4 in one single package. Featuring a robust cast of characters that are fully voiced (in Japanese) and over 25 vocal tracks, the world of Gunvolt provides excitement at every turn. Exclusive to the PS4 version, a brand new vocal track, ‘Final Station,’ is included! Deliver Us The MoonPS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 24) Deliver Us The Moon is a Sci-Fi thriller set in an apocalyptic near future, where Earth’s natural resources are depleted. A lunar colony providing a vital supply of energy has gone silent. A lone astronaut is sent to the moon on a critical mission to save humanity from extinction. Will you save mankind or be forgotten in the dark abyss of Space? Guard DutyPS4, PS Vita — Digital (Cross-Buy) Discover how the story of a mysterious Agent in the future and a Castle Guard from years past are linked in this traditional point and click adventure game. Under the watch of a loyal castle guard, someone has snuck into the kingdom and kidnapped the princess. A thousand years later, join Agent Starborn to save the Earth, and vanquish an evil that has been around for centuries! Help Will Come TomorrowPS4 — Digital In a Siberian wilderness, on the eve of October Revolution, passengers must survive a catastrophe on the Trans-Siberian railway train. Manage scarce resources and stay alive in the frosty wilderness of Siberia until help arrives, facing dangers, their own weaknesses and, above all, their own prejudice. MotoGP20PS4 — Digital, Retail (Out Apr. 23) Rev up your engines for a new chapter of the MotoGP series! MotoGP 20 is back with a revived Managerial Career mode and more. Awaiting you are even more realistic graphics, improved gameplay, a new way to experience the historic content and all the excitement of the 2020 season! Obey MePS4 — Digital Set in the modern world, Heaven and Hell are locked in a millennial conflict for the souls of mankind. Vanessa Held, a lowly Soul Huntress in the infernal ranks, and her Hellhound companion, Monty, will tip the balance of war with their own hands. Predator: Hunting GroundsPS4 — Digital, Retail (Out Apr. 24) Hunt or be hunted in this asymmetrical multiplayer shooter that pits human against Predator. As part of a Fireteam, complete missions before the Predator finds you. Or be the Predator and hunt your prey. Spuds UnearthedPS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 24) Fight to build your own Spud tribe and make your planet prosper in this hilarious action-strategy game with a dash of playing god. Journey to different planets, upgrade your heroes and create new weapons for your galactic conquest! Super Dodge BallPS4 — Digital This isn’t your regular dodge ball, you can’t just eliminate the whole team by hitting them with the ball. You’ll need to reduce the opposing team’s HP to zero to win the game! Trials of ManaPS4 — Digital, Retail (Out Apr. 24) The Trials of Mana remake seamlessly brings the beloved story and characters of Seiken Densetsu 3 (the third game in the Mana series) to the modern gamer. When the world was shrouded in darkness, the Goddess of Mana drew forth the Sword of Mana to smite the eight Benevodons, monsters of destruction… Wonder BladePS4 — Digital The princess was captured by a villainous maniac again! What are you waiting for? Grab your weapon, free the princess, and save the world! With all those sweet combos, killer finishing moves and devastating magic abilities, the bad guys won’t know what hit them. Don’t forget to wear a costume to make you a one-of-a-kind adventurer. Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island The Rhythm Section What We Do In The Shadows | Season 2 Pardon our dust! In the coming months, you may notice the occasional discrepancy in The Drop as we’re updating the back-end systems we pull game info from to populate our list. We will, of course, strive to correct any mistakes as they arise. Thanks for your patience! View the full article

On the heels of Death Stranding delivering a new photo mode, we tasked you with sharing your best moments from Sam Bridges’ journey. Using #PS4share and #PSBlog, you shared poster-ready visuals, dramatic scenery, and moving portraits and connected with Kojima Productions to have them select this week’s highlights: OGameart created a colorful poster-style share. Cliff looks back in this haunting share by Yi_iMMY. Sam stays on the move to avoid MULES in this share by assaulTORI. Sam cradles BB gently in this moody shot by uraisam8232. Sam makes the trek to shelter as shared by tisi_BBKanColle. Sam get his motorcycle ready to move in this cinematic share by cyberpunkdealer. Search #PS4share and #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week? Theme: Final Fantasy VII Remake Share by: 9am Pacific on Wednesday, April 22 Next week, we’re headed to Midgar. Share your most fantastic moments of Cloud, Aerith, and the Avalanche crew in Final Fantasy VII Remake using #PS4share and #PSBlog for a chance to be featured. View the full article

Since we launched the micro-strategy game Kingdom Two Crowns, monarchs have been building their Kingdoms in the classic medieval and feudal Japan-inspired lands. While we have many ideas on new locations, especially historical settings, our first new setting since launch is inspired by a fan-favorite. Every year in the prequel title, Kingdom: New Lands, we have a Halloween event that our players love. This passion for a spooky setting made us think “what if we actually create something similar but as a full setting and even darker”? That led us into the idea of making Dead Lands, a gloomy mystical world with eerie mounts and shrouded in darkness. Building a Kingdom has never been more frightening than this! Along the way, we met publisher 505 Games at an indie game event and discovered they are big fans of Kingdom Two Crowns! Now, what’s a game they published that is also set in a dark world? Gothic horror action-RPG Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, of course — published by 505 Games and created by legendary game developer Koji “IGA” Igarashi (a design hero of mine) and his studio ArtPlay. So, the four new playable monarchs of Dead Lands all come directly from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night! These new characters include Shardbinder Miriam and three unlockable characters — demon hunter Zangetsu, summoner Gebel and alchemist Alfred. This challenged us to add these action-oriented characters and led to a big new feature for Kingdom. Now players will not only be able to change their mounts as they explore and expand their Kingdom, but they’ll also be able to unlock and switch between these four different characters, each with a powerful and unique trait that can be used when defending against and eventually overthrowing the Greed. We call Kingdom Two Crowns’ visual style modern pixel art aesthetics. Inspired by retro video games, but without the limitations of that era. Think improvised visual effects, more sprites on screen and intricate lighting system. The world of Bloodstained has the special retro-inspired 8-bit Nightmare levels in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Recreating the four main characters in the graphical style of Kingdom Two Crowns meant that we could use the retro style as reference, while also having the luxury of adding details and elements based on concept art and the beautiful 3D characters from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Besides the playable monarchs, you’ll also be able to find the mythic demon horse Gamigin in Dead Lands. And Bloodstained fans might recognize other cameos, take a peek in the background to see if you recognize anything. To set the right mood, the cover illustration for Kingdom Two Crowns: Dead Lands, with Miriam riding the Gamigin surrounded by lurking Greed, is drawn by ArtPlay’s Mana Ikeda, who created the original package illustration for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Dead Lands also contains many other news, such as new creepy steeds to be found and moon phases that might give a hint to when the next Blood Moon will arrive… Kingdom Two Crowns: Dead Lands is a free update coming April 28 to Kingdom Two Crowns on PS4. Kingdom Two Crowns is published by Raw Fury, developed by Fury Studios, Coatsink and Gordon Van Dyke from Stumpy Squid. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is developed by ArtPlay, Inc. and published by 505 Games, S.p.A. ‘505 Games’, “ArtPlay, Inc.” logos are the trademarks and/or registered trademarks of 505 Games S.p.A. and ArtPlay, Inc. All rights reserved. View the full article

Hey everyone, I’m Cyrille Imbert, Executive Producer of Streets of Rage 4. It’s been 26 years since the last episode of the Streets of Rage series, but today I’m happy to announce that we’re finally launching the new chapter on April 30! Everyone at Dotemu, Lizardcube, and Guard Crush Games is super excited to finally make this dream a reality. As huge Streets of Rage fans ourselves, we can’t wait for you to play and enjoy the game. This blog is about more than just the release date. We’re also ecstatic to reveal the return of Battle Mode, a game mode that will help you and your friends decide once and for all who truly is Wood Oak City’s finest alley-clearing ruffian. But enough talk – check it out for yourself in the trailer above! Battle Mode lets you select your favorite characters and test your skills against one to three friends across several memorable levels. While it’s true that Streets of Rage 4 is all about cooperation, we thought it would be fun to let you guys play around with the characters and discover which of them is the most powerful, and which ones best suit your playing style. Whether you want to train your combos and specials, or just have some fun, Battle Mode is the place to do it – and it will be available right from the start. As shown in the trailer above, you can try out Battle Mode with the Streets of Rage 4 characters, as well as the complete roster of twelve retro characters that we announced last week (once you’ve unlocked them, of course!). These retro features have us super excited, and I want to take this opportunity to provide you with more details: In Streets of Rage 4, you’ll be able to use the characters from previous Streets of Rage installments. We brought back almost everybody (sorry Roo) – complete with their own shiny pixel-art outfits and unique characteristics, for a total of 17 playable characters. You may already know this, but you’ll also be able to choose between two different soundtracks for Streets of Rage 4. One is an all-new soundtrack composed by an all-star line-up of musicians (including Olivier Deriviere, Yuzo Koshiro, Motohiro Kawashima, Yoko Shimomura, Das Mörtal, Scattle…). The other consists of tracks selected from Streets of Rage 1 and 2 – for those who want the full nostalgic trip! Plus, you can switch soundtracks in-game whenever you want. Go Straight Bringing these pixel characters back to life was no easy task, but as fans it was something we were committed to and wanted to surprise you guys with. Everything started right at the prototyping stage of development. We didn’t have any Streets of Rage 4 characters ready then, so in order to start testing things and working on the gameplay, Jordi Asensio, our game designer, ripped some sprites from previous Streets of Rage games and integrated them into the Guard Crush engine. As the development went along, we realized that these sprites actually looked really good visually – with the lightning effects and all – and that having them playable was something we knew fans would love. The same was true for the music. We didn’t have any new tracks to work with at the beginning, but we knew we wanted something with the same spirit as the previous soundtracks. We used classic Streets of Rage 2 tracks like “Go Straight” as placeholders in order to maintain a “Streets of Rage flavor” while testing the game. What we ended up with was a mix between beautiful new sounds and old-school 16bit-era music, and it felt so right that we decided to put all our effort towards integrating this as a feature in the final game. Fighting in the street As mentioned above, bringing back all these characters wasn’t easy. First, our team had to rip each and every character, one by one, frame by frame. This was an exhausting process because we were dealing with around 1,500 different frames. But the next phase was even more complicated because we had to reconstruct all the animations with the right timings from the original games. Because of how intricate this process was, everything had to be done by hand. Once the animations felt authentic, it was time for the real fun: the gameplay Because all the characters come from different games and because Streets of Rage 4 is a brand-new title, Jordi and the Guard Crush team had to adapt everything to the Streets of Rage 4 system. This meant going over all the characters and reproducing the properties of all their moves, one by one. This process required a lot of research and tuning, because our goal was to be very faithful. Thus, the team had to go over every timing and every hitbox, frame by frame. Hitbox comparison for the same move: on the left, Streets of Rage 4; on the right, Streets of Rage 2 Occasionally, exactly reproducing the original properties didn’t work because Streets of Rage 4 works differently from the previous episodes and the old gameplay did not feel as fun as expected. So, for some characters or moves, we had to adapt and do even more fine tuning to make their move-sets work in a way that felt fun and on-point, which also meant adding some new subtleties. I don’t want to spoil those for you here though – I’ll let you discover them on April 30! After months of seriously hard work, voilà: 12 freshly tuned classic combatants and five new fighters, for a total of 17 playable characters! We hope you enjoy playing Streets of Rage 4 as much as we enjoyed making it. Thank you all very much for your support since we first announced the game. It has been an exceptionally long, extremely rewarding journey for us, and you can’t imagine how excited we are for you to enjoy the finished product. Don’t hesitate to keep sharing with us on social media your love and thoughts for this amazing series. Reading your feedback, ideas, and encouragement was a real pleasure, and it most definitely helped us to give our best all the time. Grand Upper! View the full article

On May 12, PlayStation fans will finally get to experience the original Star Wars Episode I: Racer when it launches for PlayStation 4. Episode I: Racer was an intergalactic kart racer that included a variety of racers spanning the Star Wars galaxy and a satisfying upgrade system that let you develop and customize the stats for your racing style. You were able to choose your destiny; racing over lava pits and through ice caverns, it was entirely possible you might just crash in a fiery wreck. Of course, we wanted to capture the feeling of the original, but just delivering a one-for-one port of this classic wasn’t enough for Aspyr. Our teams wanted to bring the definitive experience to life, combining the best elements of all versions of the game into an experience that was worth the 20-year wait. Here’s just a sampling of what you can expect from Star Wars Episode I: Racer on PS4: We uprezzed all of the FMV sequences in the game. Output resolutions have massively changed in the past 20 years, as have file size restrictions. This allowed us to natively re-export everything into greatly increased resolutions that will look better than ever on your 4K TV. Despite the age of the original models, these cutscenes look stunning and will take you back to seeing the track on Tatooine for the first time in 1999. We re-mapped all of the controls to feel right for DualShock 4. This might sound trivial, but to really feel like you’re piloting a Podracer takes a very special touch. The controls that captured the thrill of Podracing in 1999 simply don’t feel as natural on the modern controller, but our team was dedicated to creating the ultimate Podracing experience. You can expect controls that feel natural and modern. Trophy hunters will be happy to hear that we’ve added Trophies. You’ll even be able to prove you’re the ultimate Podracing champion with a Platinum trophy! If you’re new to Star Wars Episode I: Racer, the only word you need to know is speed. This game is all about the speed and fans of Star Wars: Racer Revenge will be pleased to see that the original delivered on the promise of exceeding 600 MPH. Racing purists will drift through turns, discover shortcuts, and break lap records, while kart-racing fans will defer to bumping, smashing, or even using Sebulba’s secret flame jets to knock opponents out of the race. Please accept a massive Thank YOU from the teams here at Aspyr for all your support! It’s an honor to be able to bring our favorite games back, and we’re looking forward to watching y’all hop in :) If you’re looking for more classic Star Wars games from Aspyr, check out Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. View the full article

People all over the world are doing the right thing by staying home to help contain the spread of COVID–19. We are deeply grateful to everyone practicing physical distancing and take our responsibility as a home entertainment platform seriously, so we are asking our community to continue supporting the safe choice and the need to Play At Home. As a thank you to all who are doing their part to lessen the impact of this pandemic, Sony Interactive Entertainment is pleased to announce the Play At Home initiative. Play At Home has two components: first, providing free games to help keep the PlayStation community entertained at home; and finally, establishing a fund to help smaller independent game studios who may be experiencing financial difficulties continue building great experiences for all gamers. Free Games to Play At Home To support Play At Home, PlayStation will try to make those occasionally dull moments more exciting by offering Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey available for free* for a limited time through digital downloads from April 15 at 8pm PDT through May 5, 2020 at 8pm PDT Once you redeem the games, they are yours to keep. For most of you, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection will need no introduction. This three-game collection from the masters at Naughty Dog includes Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception—all meticulously remastered for PS4. We can’t imagine a better time for globe-trotting adventures with Nathan Drake, an iconic cast of characters, and thrilling treasure-hunting action gameplay. Then there’s Journey, a beautiful, celebrated adventure that is as moving as it is mysterious. The game’s life-affirming message is timeless, and perhaps more important now than ever before. In alignment with SIE’s goal in preserving Internet access in the US and Europe, game downloads may take a little longer, but we appreciate the understanding from our community as we take these measures in an effort to preserve access for everyone. Creative Funding Independent developers are vital to the heart and soul of the gaming community and we understand the hardships and financial struggles that many smaller gaming studios are facing. With that, SIE has developed a fund to support them during this time. We have earmarked $10 million to support our independent development partners. More information about the fund, including participation criteria, will be made available soon. During these days of physical distancing, fans have turned to gaming for moments of respite and enjoyment. At Sony Interactive Entertainment, we are privileged to bring this much-needed entertainment. We know this is just one small step and we are thankful to be able to offer this support to our players, our communities, and our partners. *In Germany and China, users will have access to Knack 2 and Journey for free for a limited time (April 15, 2020 at 8pm PDT through May 5, 2020 at 8pm PDT). View the full article

People have returned to West Virginia in Fallout 76: Wastelanders, a brand-new expansion for Fallout 76 that is now available worldwide. All PlayStation 4 players who own the base game can download Wastelanders for free right now. Wastelanders takes things back to Fallout’s roots with rich NPCs, dialogue trees with choices and consequences, and a brand-new main storyline to enjoy. If you don’t already own Fallout 76, you can grab the Fallout 76: Wastelanders version of the game and receive every update to date. Lead Designer Ferret Baudoin at Bethesda Game Studios spoke with us about some of the biggest changes you’ll experience in the new expansion. How does the new questline fit into the existing main quest? Do players need to be a certain level to enjoy the new quest material? The Wastelander questline is really two separate stories. The first story arc you get immediately after leaving Vault 76 and it’s centered around a new watering hole called The Wayward. The Wayward is run by the friendly (and sometimes grumpy) bartender, Duchess, who has a fair bit of trouble she needs help getting out of. Duchess points players to Fallout 76’s base questline, as well, and players can mix and match between doing the new storyline and the original. The original quests also have additional life breathed into them with new NPCs here and there, plus full conversations with some of the launch characters (like Rose and MODUS). The second quest arc (and the meatier of the two) starts in Sutton after players have hit level 20. In this quest you’ll meet the Raiders and Settlers and get to the bottom of the mysterious treasure of Appalachia. Although the Wayward line doesn’t get you to level 20 by itself, doing the original questline plus exploring the Forest and Toxic Valley should get you there in no time at all. Protip: Do the Bureau of Tourism after the Wayward and then do the Toxic Valley Dailies you’re introduced to every day. You’ll fly through the early levels. How do the new NPCs change the overall experience for players? Having human NPCs return to Appalachia is a real game changer. They add so much life across the board. They need help, tell some stories, offer quests… and in addition to all that they fundamentally react to the world of Appalachia and give players a chance to roleplay and express themselves. The changes made by people coming to Appalachia are evolutionary in nature. A year has passed, and as new people have arrived, they’ve adapted to what they’ve found and have tried to find their place in West Virginia. There are also new hostile human enemies you can face, which add more tactical nuances to our combat system. There are the chem-addicted Blood Eagles, who are enemies to everyone not in their gang (even, and maybe especially, the Raiders). And then there are the mysterious members of the Cult of the Mothman. Besides adding more variety to the enemy line up – they’re also a good source of secondhand armor and Stimpaks. New NPCs are everywhere. You’ll find them along roads or in settlements, and they’ve even taken over quite a few existing locations and made them their own. Players can find NPCs in the greatest concentration around the Forest and Toxic Valley. The more dangerous areas of the map are a challenge for them, just like they are for players. The two new factions have their own base locations: Crater and Foundation. What can players do in both locations? Crater and Foundation are dynamic settlements full of shops, work benches, and people you can talk to and learn about the Raiders and Settlers. If you’ve played any Bethesda title, it should feel like coming home. The NPCs have their own routines as they go about their daily lives. They sleep, they work, and sometimes they all gather for a good old fashion Appalachia jam session in the evening. So either settlement is a great place to make your home away from home among people you’ll come to care about. Settlements are also a source of new Daily Quests for the player to explore. How does the new Reputation system work with the new Factions? Will I be able to experience the storylines for both factions or do I have to side with one over the other? Both the Settler and Raider factions have a Reputation track that can be adjusted in both positive and negative ways based off a player’s actions and activities. Players start hostile with the Raiders (meaning Raiders outside of their base, Crater, will shoot the player on sight) but as players climb the ranks they can eventually be allied with them. It’s well worth getting in good with these new factions because they offer a variety of useful and powerful gear and recipes for sale. During the main quest, players will get to interact with both factions. But there is a point of no return where players must choose one over the other. The side the player chooses will get hefty reputation bumps as the story continues, but players can still work towards becoming friends with both by doing the faction’s Daily Quests. How has dialogue been revamped and how does it work with the game’s existing Perk card system? Players can now have deep, fun conversations with living characters. When we were designing the system, we were really using Skyrim and Fallout 3 as our touchstones. There’s no set number of choices and there are many options based off of a player’s S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes or previous decisions they’ve made. We tried internally to have responses based off players’ Perks, but since players can swap out their Perk Cards at will, it led to a lot of micromanagement that was more annoying than entertaining. Instead the writers went nuts adding a host of S.P.E.C.I.A.L. checks. The upshot is seen through the course of the story; players will feel like it’s reflecting who they are and the decisions they’ve made. What new event and activity types have been added to the game? The new Wastelander events (Riding Shotgun and Radiation Rumble) both involve some of the NPCs you’ll be interacting with. With Riding Shotgun, players sign on to help the Blue Ridge Caravan Company escort pack brahmins through the dangerous Big Bend Tunnel. Players don’t do this alone, with Blue Ridge NPCs helping and talking as the event progresses. It adds interest, humor, and reactivity that feel really fresh in Fallout 76. Radiation Rumble is a Public Event geared for level 50+ players who want to help scavengers mine the irradiated Emmett Mountain Disposal Site. Besides braving the toxic goo, the site is teeming with enemies eager to kill anyone they come across. If all the scavengers die, then the mission is a bust, so it will require coordination between some players defending the scavengers and others mining ore. All of this while the clocks (and the Geiger Counter) are ticking. One of the core activities Wastelanders adds is gathering Gold Bullion to buy the fantastic end-game gear that’s sold in Crater, Foundation, and a third location that’ll be revealed during the main quest. After completing the main quest, players get Treasury Notes from Wastelander Dailies and Public Events that can be turned into Gold Bullion at Gold Press Machines (up to a certain limit per day). This gives players something to work for over time as they unlock more and more of the cool gear unique to Wastelanders. We can’t wait to see you in Appalachia! View the full article

Email us at blogcast@sony.com! Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google or RSS, or download here This week, Marvel’s Iron Man VR director Ryan Payton checks in for a development update. Then, we gush about how much we love Final Fantasy VII Remake… it’s really good. Listen in! Stuff We Talked About Final Fantasy VII Remake Marvel’s Iron Man VR Our “comfort games” Persona 5 Royal No Man’s Sky The Cast Justin Massongill – Content Communications Manager, SIE Tim Turi – Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE Kristen Zitani – Content Communications Specialist, SIE 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

Keegan has grand, evil ambitions, but he can’t realize them without your help. Embark on an adventure of espionage, evil, and romance in Blind Men, coming to PS4 and PS Vita next week. For a full list of new games coming to PlayStation next week, read on. And enjoy The Drop! AFL Evolution 2PS4 — Digital (Apr. 16) The Evolution Continues. A true reflection of the modern AFL game. Pursue your goals with greater depth, improved draft, free agency and state leagues. Includes Guernsey Creator, Player and Team Management. Create/ share online on FanHub. Play head to head and top the leaderboard, or team up with up to eight mates online. Blind MenPS4, PS Vita — Digital (Cross-Buy) Can Keegan make a name for himself or will he fall victim to the charms of his enemy? As the nephew of a retired super villain, there’s nothing Keegan wants more than to become one himself — and what better way than to join the League of Evil? All he needs to do is commit a crime to complete his application. Crash’n the Boys Street ChallengePS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 16) Coming from the city of Springhill, Crash and his friends have chosen to take on Todd’s sports challenge, but for the 5 entering teams, the trials aren’t your usual athletic disciplines. Pole vault is used to jump between buildings rooftops, golf is played with a throwing hammer, the 400m hurdle allows your opponents anything to hinder your performance!! Come on and show Todd the spirit of Springhill’s sportsmen! Double DragonPS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 16) The explosive original game that sparked the worldwide fame of Beat them all games: Double Dragon!! In order to rescue your girlfriend Marian, use your legendary fighting style Sosetsuken to make your way through the street thugs! Make good use of the new techniques you will unlock as you level up, and rescue Marian. Double Dragon ⅡPS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 16) The second episode of Billy and Jimmy’s saga: Double Dragon II: The Revenge! The Lee brothers are back to avenge the death of Marian at the hands of the Shadow Warriors! Fight your way through street gangs, ninjas, giant mutant fighters as well as spiked ceilings and mechas with sharp claws, by using the newly acquired Hyper uppercut or the Flying knee kick! Double Dragon ⅢPS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 16) Another episode of the Lee brothers’ saga. The third episode and the most famous of the series. Travel round the world searching for the Marian and the Rosetta Stone, as both went missing! This time not only Billy and Jimmy are playable, as the strong opponents you defeat can rally your cause and become playable! A content-rich adventure for this third Double Dragon game. Fishing Sim World: Pro Tour Collector’s EditionPS4 — Digital, Retail (Out Apr. 15) Compete in career mode against over 100 pro anglers to become the best in the world. Play your way in custom multiplayer and online tournaments whilst using equipment from over 50 partners on real world venues targeting 29 different species of fish. Freakout: Calamity TV ShowPS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 17) Freakout: Calamity TV Show is a juicy Top-Down-Dual-Stick-Shooter inspired by old school arcade games and more recent Die & Retry shooters. In a disturbed dystopia filled with mutants and killing machines, you’re the star of a reality show which might get a bit too real. Fight your way through the deadly enemy waves, join the revolution, and try to take down the evil Fizzy Corp. RenegadePS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 16) The gem of side-scrolling beat them all gets its revival!! Be the one to make all these lawless street gangs bite the dust! To preserve peace in the city, Mr. K. takes a stand against the street gangs! The amazing action game is back to life and you wouldn’t believe this is 8-bit action. River City RansomPS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 16) Play as Alex and Ryan and cross River City to fight street gangs and save your girlfriend from the hands of a bad guy named Slick. Improve your fighting experience by powering-up your characters in River City’s shops, picking up items for bonuses and using the trash bins and pipes you find in its streets. Spider Solitaire FPS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 16) In Spider Solitaire F we have prepared challenges that range from easy to very challenging there are a total of 100 sets to solve. For those learning how to play there is a Hint function, and you can also go ‘one back’ in moves. Spider Solitaire F is perfect for calm and relaxing moments. We hope it will be an enjoyable challenge! Trolls: World Tour Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge Underwater Pardon our dust! In the coming months, you may notice the occasional discrepancy in The Drop as we’re updating the back-end systems we pull game info from to populate our list. We will, of course, strive to correct any mistakes as they arise. Thanks for your patience! View the full article

Welcome back! Last month, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was PS4’s most-downloaded game at PlayStation Store, followed by MLB The Show 20 and Grand Theft Auto V. Newcomers Doom Eternal and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered landed in the #4 and #5 spots despite releasing later in the month. Speaking of Call of Duty — its new free-to-play Warzone topped the free-to-play charts last month. As we march into April, what are your predictions for this month’s charts? PS4 Games 1 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 MLB The Show 20 3 Grand Theft Auto V 4 DOOM Eternal 5 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered 6 Minecraft 7 NBA 2K20 8 Nioh 2 9 THE FOREST 10 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey 11 Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 12 Persona 5 Royal 13 TOM CLANCY’S RAINBOW SIX SIEGE 14 EA SPORTS FIFA 20 15 Rocket League 16 RESIDENT EVIL 2 17 The Sims 4 18 EA SPORTS NHL 20 19 DOOM 20 EA SPORTS UFC 3 PS VR Games 1 Beat Saber 2 Job Simulator 3 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR 4 SUPERHOT VR 5 Creed Rise to Glory 6 Arizona Sunshine 7 ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission 8 Until Dawn: Rush of Blood 9 Drunkn Bar Fight 10 L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files Free-to-Play Games 1 Call of Duty: Warzone 2 Fortnite 3 Apex Legends 4 Brawlhalla 5 Dauntless 6 Cuisine Royale 7 DOGFIGHTER -WW2- 8 Warface 9 Warframe 10 3on3 FreeStyle DLC and Expansions 1 Fortnite – The Iris Pack 2 Fortnite – Bassassin Challenge Pack 3 The Division 2 – Warlords of New York – Expansion 4 Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege – Year 5 Pass 5 GTA Online: Criminal Enterprise Starter Pack 6 Need for Speed Heat – McLaren F1 Black Market Delivery 7 Destiny 2: Shadowkeep 8 Mortal Kombat 11 Kombat Pack 9 ARK: Genesis Season Pass 10 Dead by Daylight: Chains of Hate Chapter View the full article

Final Fantasy VII Remake arrives tomorrow! Taking on an organization as powerful as the Shinra Electric Power Company won’t be easy — even with a former SOLDIER on your side. But don’t worry — we’re here to help. We’ve put together 7 (see what we did there?) top tips to help you make the most of your trip to Midgar. Get Final Fantasy VII Remake at PlayStation Store 1. Use ATB as much as you can Final Fantasy VII Remake’s combat system revolves around ATB. As you battle, two bars will fill up beneath the characters’ HP indicators. When one of these is full, you can spend it on an ability, spell or item. Standard attacks don’t do much damage, but they do fill up the ATB gauges faster so you can issue more commands. Switching between characters regularly also helps, as your input will fill their gauges faster too. When you have ATB available, use it because these spells and abilities are the best way to cause damage to enemies. 2. Remember that you can block There are two basic defensive techniques available from the start of Final Fantasy VII Remake: a block and a dodge-roll. If you block, you’ll take reduced damage from enemy attacks. Rolling away, on the other hand, can negate damage entirely. With that in mind, you’d be forgiven for assuming that the dodge-roll is always the best option. It’s not. For one thing, the timing can be quite tricky — if the enemy lands a hit, you’re going to suffer the full effect. Blocking the attack is much more reliable and is often the safer tactic — particularly if you’re facing a speedy foe like the Shinra Shock Troopers. Blocking has other useful effects too. Some enemies have attacks that knock you off your feet, but blocking often negates this effect. While you will take a little bit of damage, it leaves you close enough to counterattack very quickly. Also worth noting is that if you block a melee attack while Cloud is in Punisher mode (activated by pressing triangle), he will retaliate with a powerful counter. This is fantastic against certain enemies – like the afore-mentioned Shock Troopers. 3. Heal between battles The denizens of Midgar are dangerous — many can deliver dramatic damage to your party. So make sure you enter every fight in tip-top shape. You can heal in battle with magic or items, but this will cost you a bar of ATB. That means that if you dive into the fray with your HP in the red, you may be taken out before you have a chance to even issue a command. Fortunately, you can use items and magic freely outside of battle, so make sure you take a few seconds to heal up when you get a break in the action. 4. Take advantage of enemy weaknesses Many enemies are weak against certain elements — if you can hit them with one of these attacks, they’ll definitely feel it. In the introductory sections of the game, a good rule of thumb is that if the enemy is mechanical, they’re likely weak to electrical attacks. Squishy, fleshy organic beings, on the other hand, won’t like fire. Past the opening stages though, things get a lot more complicated. You’ll have to experiment with different types of attacks to uncover what works on what enemy. That said, you can get a bit of assistance. At some point in the adventure, you’ll be able to acquire the Assess Materia. When equipped, you’ll be able to use it to see a detailed view of your foes’ various vulnerabilities. It’s very handy! 5. Understand how to stagger If you want to really dominate in battle, you must learn how to stagger enemies. As you fight, a stagger gauge beneath your opponent’s health meter will fill up. When this maxes out, not only will your foe be unable to attack you, all of your hits will deal much more damage! Staggering is very powerful, so it’s useful to understand the basics of how you can fill that meter. A good first step is to deal a lot of damage to the foe very quickly, so try to coordinate your party’s spells or abilities to hit in quick succession. If you do a lot of damage in a short time, your foe may enter a ‘Pressured’ state. While Pressured, your target’s stagger bar will fill up much quicker than usual, so use stagger-building attacks like Cloud’s Focused Thrust and Barret’s Focused Shot to max it out fast. Of course, things are not always quite that simple. Some enemies are easier to stagger than others, so you’ll have to experiment with your ever-expanding options in battle to develop strategies that work for different encounters. 6. Take the time to explore Midgar Final Fantasy VII Remake typically points you to your current objective, but most of the time, there’s no need to rush. Make sure you explore and look around — not just because Midgar is often staggeringly beautiful, but because it’s also stuffed full of things to find. From restorative items, to MP-regenerating Mako shards, to music discs that you can play on a jukebox… there’s all sorts of goodies hidden away. What’s more, many of them will make your adventures easier, or help you out of a difficult situation, so it’s well worth going out of your way to poke around at the corners of the world. 7. Try Classic Mode If you’re not a big fan of action mechanics, or merely want a change of pace, you should try out Classic Mode. You can activate this from the System menu. In this mode, characters move, attack and defend automatically, so you can focus entirely on giving them instructions via the Command Menu. Because you don’t have to focus on standard attacks and blocks, you have more time to consider your overall strategy. It’s a little bit reminiscent of the menu-based system of the original Final Fantasy VII, so fans of that game will hopefully enjoy it too. View the full article

Tension and release. Chase and escape. Blasting my last precious shotgun shell, then discovering a hidden ammo cache around the corner. The greatest Resident Evil games deliver an intoxicating ebb and flow of survival, and Capcom’s relentless RE3 remake delivers on this pedigree at a ruthless pace. The solo horror adventure is coupled with RE Resistance, a refreshing asymmetrical online multiplayer game where you play as one of four Survivors or a singular sadistic Mastermind. Resident Evil 3 is an intense horror gauntlet of razor-thin escapes, built upon the rock-solid foundation of last year’s RE2 remake (one of my all-time favorites). The new thrills come from not knowing when the faster, stronger, and less forgiving Nemesis will burst through a wall to dunk on Jill. I adore the invaluable new dodge maneuvers Jill has for shaking off her pursuer. Tapping R1 to quickly dodge lunging zombies or Nemesis’ swinging fist is responsive and satisfying. Perfect timing scores you a satisfying slow-mo window to blast enemies in retaliation. This remake holds true to the 1999 original’s action-movie pace and key story beats, while injecting intriguing new locations, revamped enemy types, and other twists. I loved returning to the role of heavily armed mercenary Carlos Oliveira and exploring the RPD station. And now, Nemesis can attach parasites to zombies’ heads, arming them with a long-range tentacle attack and beefed-up defenses. These delectable deviations kept me guessing throughout — the best horror is always unexpected. RE3 carries forward one of my favorite elements from RE2 – permanent weapon upgrades. Attachments like bigger magazines, suppressors, accuracy-boosting stocks, and more are the ultimate rewards for backtracking or confronting Nemesis himself. Be sure to unlock every sealed container, as most weapon upgrades make your precious ammo even more potent (and way cooler looking). Expanding your inventory with stylish RPD fanny packs is also spaciously cathartic. Need a break from the harrowing pursuit of monsters? Resident Evil Resistance, a 4v1 asymmetrical online multiplayer game included with RE3, lets you control them. I love taking the Mastermind helm and summoning RE2’s hulking Tyrant (a.k.a. Mr. X) or G-Birkin for a brute-force rampage against human-controlled Survivors. Becoming some of these iconic monsters is an RE fan’s evil dream come true. Also satisfying is spying on enemies via security cameras and foiling their escape with carefully placed zombies, bear traps, and other hazards. Entering the mindspace of an RE villain is alarmingly intoxicating. Teaming up with other Survivors for a more traditional RE experience is also a blast. Navigating devious stages and Mastermind traps together brings me waves of nostalgia from hours spent online playing RE Outbreak back on PS2. My favorite Survivor is January with her handy camera-hacking ability — perfect for reducing the Mastermind’s control. Escaping through that final door is a gratifying thrill I intend to repeat many times (hopefully as a team). Capcom’s two-for-one of terror delivers on all fronts, whether you prefer to survive alone or with friends… or dish out the mayhem yourself. Next stop, Raccoon City! View the full article

We’ve reached an exciting milestone with PlayStation 5, as we’re starting to ship our new controller in its final design to developers who are implementing its unique features into their games. But first, we wanted everyone in the PlayStation community to get a first look at the DualSense™ wireless controller, and hear our vision for how the new controller will captivate more of your senses as you interact with the virtual worlds in PS5 games. The features of DualSense, along with PS5’s Tempest 3D AudioTech, will deliver a new feeling of immersion to players. When PS4 launched in 2013, the DualShock 4 wireless controller garnered a lot of positive feedback from gamers and developers for being the best PlayStation controller yet, and for introducing forward-looking features like the Share button. This brought us to the next question – how do we build upon that success? After thoughtful consideration, we decided to keep much of what gamers love about DualShock 4 intact, while also adding new functionality and refining the design. Based on our discussions with developers, we concluded that the sense of touch within gameplay, much like audio, hasn’t been a big focus for many games. We had a great opportunity with PS5 to innovate by offering game creators the ability to explore how they can heighten that feeling of immersion through our new controller. This is why we adopted haptic feedback, which adds a variety of powerful sensations you’ll feel when you play, such as the slow grittiness of driving a car through mud. We also incorporated adaptive triggers into the L2 and R2 buttons of DualSense so you can truly feel the tension of your actions, like when drawing a bow to shoot an arrow. This provided us with an exciting challenge to design a new controller that builds off of the current generation, while taking into account the new features we were adding. For example, with adaptive triggers, we had to consider how the components would fit into the hardware, without giving it a bulky feeling. Our design team worked closely with our hardware engineers to place the triggers and actuators. The designers were then able to draw the lines of how the exterior of the controller would look and feel, with a challenge of making the controller feel smaller than it really looks. In the end, we changed the angle of the hand triggers and also made some subtle updates to the grip. We also took thoughtful consideration into ways to maintain a strong battery life for DualSense’s rechargeable battery, and to lessen the weight of the controller as much as possible as new features were added. For the buttons, you’ll notice there is no longer a “Share” button as we had with DualShock 4. Don’t worry – it’s not going away. In fact, we’ve built upon the success of our industry-first Share button to bring you a new “Create” button feature. With Create, we’re once again pioneering new ways for players to create epic gameplay content to share with the world, or just to enjoy for themselves. We’ll have more details on this feature as we get closer to launch. DualSense also adds a built-in microphone array, which will enable players to easily chat with friends without a headset – ideal for jumping into a quick conversation. But of course, if you are planning to chat for a longer period, it’s good to have that headset handy. Now, let’s talk about the colors. Traditionally our base controllers have a single color. As you can see, we went a different direction this time around, and decided on a two-toned design. Additionally, we changed the position of the light bar that will give it an extra pop. On DualShock 4, it sat on the top of the controller; now it sits at each side of the touch pad, giving it a slightly larger look and feel. In all, we went through several concepts and hundreds of mockups over the last few years before we settled on this final design. DualSense has been tested by a wide range of gamers with a variety of hand sizes, in order for us to achieve the comfort level we wanted, with great ergonomics. Our goal with DualSense is to give gamers the feeling of being transported into the game world as soon as they open the box. We want gamers to feel like the controller is an extension of themselves when they’re playing – so much so that they forget that it’s even in their hands! We are thrilled about sharing the final look of the DualSense controller with our fans, and we can’t wait for everyone to get their hands on it! I’d like to close with a message from SIE President & CEO Jim Ryan to the community: “DualSense marks a radical departure from our previous controller offerings and captures just how strongly we feel about making a generational leap with PS5. The new controller, along with the many innovative features in PS5, will be transformative for games – continuing our mission at PlayStation to push the boundaries of play, now and in the future. To the PlayStation community, I truly want to thank you for sharing this exciting journey with us as we head toward PS5’s launch in Holiday 2020. We look forward to sharing more information about PS5, including the console design, in the coming months.” – Jim Ryan, President & CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment “DualSense” is a registered trademark or trademark of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. View the full article

Echo 3-1, reporting for duty. Alex, the Operator last seen in the Modern Warfare Campaign, returns to battle in Season Three in Multiplayer, Special Ops, and Warzone. Alex is available for purchase as part of this Season’s Battle Pass system which includes two free weapons, a canine Finishing Move that lets man’s best friend finish off the enemy, vehicle skins, and more. Read on for more intel on the latest Season in Modern Warfare and the exclusive* content available for PlayStation. Fight with Two New Weapons Available in the Battle Pass system, players can earn two free weapons – the Renetti handgun (Tier 15) and the SKS marksman rifle (Tier 31). Renetti handgun – A balanced semi-auto pistol includes a three-round burst attachment and is deadly in close-range combat. SKS marksman rifle – This lightweight, semi-auto chambered sniper rifle is extremely agile and boasts a faster fire rate than any other weapon in this class. Customize this weapon using blueprints or in Gunsmith to tailor its capabilities for your Multiplayer or Warzone needs. Ready Up in New Modes for Warzone and Multiplayer Looking to add to your trio? Quads makes its Warzone debut at the start of the Season and more modes will join the mix mid-season. Experience New Multiplayer Battlegrounds Season Three of Modern Warfare gives players three 6v6 Multiplayer maps – Talsik Backlot, reimagined from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’s Backlot, Hovec Sawmill, a rural battlefield, and Aniyah Incursion, a tightened, tactical version of Aniyah Palace. Tips for Hovec Sawmill 1. Look Around… and Up. The rooftops of Hovec Sawmill may be littered with enemies hoping to pick off unsuspecting targets. Keep your eyes peeled and look for a glint to determine if a sniper has you in their sights. 2. Silent and Deadly. Because the rolling river in Hovec Sawmill gives off a distinct sound, consider using the Dead Silence Field Upgrade, as crossing over the river may give away your position. 3. Battle with Range. Mid to long range sightlines both find a home on Hovec Sawmill, consider a weapon with a hybrid scope to ensure you find your target at any distance. Get More On PlayStation: Sony Exclusive* Modern Warfare Season Three Content Shoot House (Survival) Outlast the enemy on this fan-favorite Multiplayer map, Shoot House. Battle with your squad and find choke points to take down waves of opponents. Consider taking the high ground in the office. Barricade the entry ways with traps and explosives and show off your marksmanship skills. Or, claim the Alpha or Bravo gates to give yourself more room to maneuver and eliminate the oncoming foes. With new tactics and strategies required, rediscover Shoot House to best the enemy in Survival. Call of Duty: Warzone – Combat Pack (Season Three) Free for all PlayStation Plus subscribers, Modern Warfare and free-to-play Warzone users can get the Call of Duty: Warzone – Combat Pack. Here’s details on the pack including when and where to download. The Pack includes: Epic Operator skin for Wyatt Epic sniper rifle blueprint Epic handgun blueprint Epic tactical knife Epic weapon charm Animated Calling Card Spray 60-minute Double Weapon XP Token Download the Pack for free on April 8 by heading to the PS Plus section of the PlayStation Store. Get a New and Exclusive* Weapon Blueprint through Missions (Multiplayer) Players can head to the Barracks tab in Multiplayer and scroll down to find the newest PlayStation mission in Season Three. Visit the Barracks tab in Modern Warfare to activate this mission and complete the steps to get the final reward – an exclusive assault rifle weapon blueprint. Season Three of Modern Warfare launches on April 8. * Timed Exclusive content until October 1, 2020 View the full article

PlayStation Now players, prepare to perform super heroic feats this month as a trio of PS4 titles join the service. Protect Marvel’s New York by battling Super Villains in Marvel’s Spider-Man, survive weaponized superstorms and hi-tech mercenaries in South America with Just Cause 4… and get a hole in one at TPC Scottsdale’s No.16 hole in The Golf Club 2019. Let’s take a closer look at the games. Marvel’s Spider-Man Available to download (PS4 system only) and stream until Tuesday, July 7 Explore a new chapter in Marvel’s Spider-Man universe as a more experienced Peter Parker. Starring one of the world’s most iconic Super Heroes, Marvel’s Spider-Man features the acrobatic abilities, improvization and web-slinging that the wall-crawler is famous for, while also introducing elements never-before-seen in a Spider-Man game. From traversing by parkour and unique environmental interactions, to new combat and blockbuster action, it’s Spider-Man unlike any you’ve played before. Just Cause 4 Available to download (PS4 system only) and stream until Tuesday, October 6 Epic action awaits as you wage war against The Black Hand, a hi-tech private military organization ensconced in the exotic open-world of South American country Solís. The group are packing military-grade hardware and have found a way to weaponize extreme weather from towering tornadoes to tropical lightning storms. But as rogue hero Rico Rodriguez, you have unparalleled aerial mobility thanks to your instantly-deployable wingsuit and parachute. Add in your fully-customizable grappling hook, growing arsenal of weapons and the ability to drive — or pilot — any vehicle and you’ve got the makings of a blockbuster adventure. The Golf Club 2019 Available to download (PS4 system only) and stream …or to give it its full title: The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA TOUR. The “featuring…” part is an important one, as it sees seven real-world spots – including TPC Scottsdale – join the already sizable range of fictitious courses that will challenge golf fans. This sim has game modes aplenty to suit your golfing preferences: make a name for yourself in the PGA TOUR Career, challenge other players in multiplayer, or build your dream course in Course Designer. New to PlayStation Now? If you haven’t tried PlayStation Now yet, now is the perfect time to give it a spin with the seven-day free trial** for PS4 and PC. Download the more than 300 PS4 (and PS2) games in the service to play on your PS4 or PS4 Pro system, or stream any of the 800+ PS2, PS3, and PS4 games to your PS4 or PC. Stay tuned for more updates on PS Now. Happy gaming! *Replaces the current PS3 version on PlayStation Now. **Terms apply. New Subscribers only. Credit card or PayPal required. See here for details. View the full article

Hello! It has been a few weeks now since we released the Living Ship update for No Man’s Sky, and it seems like PS4 players can’t get enough of exploring the universe in these crazy organic beings that they’ve grown from an egg! It’s been especially satisfying to see PS VR players jump inside their ship for the first time and marvel/recoil at the organic innards! Since the Beyond update last year, we have resolved to increase the frequency of our updates and ensure that, as well as working on larger, more all-encompassing content, we are also able to deliver more digestible drops to keep our PlayStation community entertained. This seems more important now than ever. And so, today, we are able to announce the latest free update to No Man’s Sky for PS4 owners: the Exo Mech update. Players are already familiar with the suite of exocraft which players can research and unlock in the game: the Nomad, the Roamer, the Colossus and the Pilgrim. Today, we introduce a fifth: the Minotaur. The Minotaur Exocraft is a unique new exocraft / suit hybrid and introduces a different way to explore planets. This mechanical walker shields its pilot against hostile extraterrestrial atmospheres, providing immunity against hazards such as radioactivity and extreme temperatures. Its special defining feature, though, is the freedom of movement it affords. The Minotaur’s powerful jetpack allows it to soar powerfully through the air, and land on terrain with a satisfying slide. We think it’s a lot of fun to stomp around in, especially in PS VR. We hope you enjoy this latest update and look forward to bringing you more in the coming months. Until then, keep safe. Our journey continues. Sean View the full article

Email us at blogcast@sony.com! Subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, Google or RSS, or download here We’re back! We’re recording the show remotely this week, so please excuse any audio quality issues. This week, Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann gives an update on The Last of Us Part II. Then, we discuss the demon-destroyin’ tour de force that is Doom Eternal, catch up on Persona 5 Royal, and do a quick news roundup. Hope you can listen in! Stuff We Talked About Doom Eternal The Last of Us Part II Interview with Neil Druckmann Persona 5 Royal The Cast Sid Shuman – Senior Director of Content Communications, SIE Justin Massongill – Content Communications Manager, SIE Kristen Zitani – Content Communications Specialist, SIE 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

I mean, I feel like I don’t even need to write an intro for this one. Final Fantasy VII Remake launches Friday. Enjoy The Drop. AFL Evolution 2 PS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 9) The Evolution Continues. A true reflection of the modern AFL game. Pursue your goals with greater depth, improved draft, free agency and state leagues. Includes Guernsey Creator, Player and Team Management. Create/ share online on FanHub. Play head to head and top the leaderboard, or team up with up to eight mates online. Below PS4 — Digital Explore, Survive, and Discover what lies Below in this brooding, atmospheric dungeon-crawler. Below presents a vast underworld of ever-shifting labyrinths where deadly monstrosities, cunning traps, and a shadowy presence lurk in every passage. What lies below? Only the brave will find out. Biped PS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 8) Biped is a physics-based 3D co-op action-adventure game with a strong focus on moment-to-moment collaboration between two players. Two little bipedal robots, Aku and Sila, will walk side by side and embark on a fun and bonding journey to accomplish their mission on planet Earth. Braveland Trilogy PS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 10) The story takes place in a hand-drawn world and covers many interesting places and characters. Various warriors will join your army – archers, scouts, healers, footmen, arbalesters and more. Construction Simulator 3 – Console Edition PS4 — Digital Construction Simulator 3 returns to Europe! Discover an idyllic European town with officially licensed vehicles by famous brands. Take on diverse and challenging contracts. Shape the skyline of your city and expand your vehicle fleet. Convoy: A Tactical Roguelike PS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 8) Convoy is a tactical roguelike in which you cross a wasteland in search of parts for your broken ship. You travel with your combat vehicles and convoy across a wasteland to find parts needed to repair your broken spaceship. Keep your convoy and its cargo safe from raiders, privateers and other enemies during your journey. Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories PS4 — Digital A calm summer day turns into catastrophe when a massive earthquake strikes the city, throwing buildings and lives into chaos. In order to survive, you must navigate familiar locations under unfamiliar circumstances. The fellow survivors you meet and crucial decisions you make will ultimately determine how your journey through this crisis will end. Final Fantasy VII Remake PS4 — Digital, Retail (Out Apr. 10) A spectacular reimagining of one of the most visionary games ever, Final Fantasy VII Remake rebuilds and expands the legendary RPG for today. The first entry in a multi-part saga, delivering a level of depth inconceivable for the original. Mind-blowing story, unforgettable characters, epic battles and technical excellence collide. Form PS4 — Digital Enter a surreal adventure where puzzles are built from dreams and memories. Solve the mystery behind an ancient artifact. Advance through a world that transforms around you. Transcend this existence. Charm Games brings you Form, a surreal adventure that unfolds within the confines of the human mind. Galaxy of Pen & Paper +1 Edition PS4 — Digital Galaxy of Pen & Paper is a turn-based meta RPG about a group of players rolling dice in the year 1999! Create your own game master and RPG party, as they roleplay, explore distant planets in their imagination, fight weird aliens and save the galaxy in the era of dial-up internet and floppy disks! Null Drifter PS4 — Digital Blast into a 1-bit lo-fi simulation that will gradually train your skills up to become the ultimate space-fighter pilot! Secretly part of the Project Starship world, this twin-stick shooter is designed to prepare pilots for their mission against the awakened forces of the void. A Room Where Art Conceals PS VR — Digital (Out Apr. 8) In the distant future, many masterpieces of art have disappeared in the turmoil, and people have lost their emotions in the indifference of survival. Well you accidentally opened the door to a mysterious old space and woke up the robot guarding the paintings in some way, who will guide you to find those lost paintings by entering the world within those famous paintings and experience the emotions of such fascinating paintings Rush Rover PS4, PS Vita — Digital (Cross-Buy) Rush Rover is a 2D top-down shooter game with game play mechanics similar to traditional shmups. It includes random map generation, unique weapons, lots of different enemies, exciting boss battles and a dynamic chip tune soundtrack. Sharknado VR: Eye of the Storm PS VR — Digital (Out Apr. 8) Fight your way through swarms of hungry flying sharks in Sharknado VR! Slice them with the Chainsaw, shred them with machine guns or explode them with the RPG! Can you survive the Sharknado? Troubleshooter PS4 — Digital (Out Apr. 9) Why did dinosaurs go extinct? Bad weather? Meteors? Or because of a maniac with rainbow hair? Who knows! Troubleshooter is a top-down arcade shooter. Fight through endless waves of unsuspecting dinosaurs and prove you are the best! Grab a friend and rampage together. Use meteors showers and upgrades to your advantage. Dolittle Gretel & Hansel Ip Man 4: The Finale The information above is subject to change without notice. View the full article

Last week, we asked you to share a laugh from a game of your choice using #PS4share and #PSBlog. From hearty chuckles to sinister cackles, here are this week’s highlights: Kratos and Atreus can crack a smile thanks to God of War’s photo mode, as shared by leonardo_.montemayor. 84_bulldawg snaps a funny photo in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Joker sure thinks this moment from Batman: Arkham Knight is funny, as shared by baby_nass_ . fabianhazuki shares a Goofy selfie from Kingdom Hearts 3. Harley Quinn gets the last laugh in this share from Injustice 2, shared by alittleblonde.fox. vikingdad278 shared a hearty laugh from Red Dead Redemption 2. Search #PS4share and #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week? Theme: Death Stranding – Photo Mode Share by: 9am Pacific on Wednesday, April 8 Next week, strap in with your BB and head back to the world of Death Stranding. Share photos using the new photo mode with #PS4share and #PSBlog for a chance to be featured. View the full article

Resident Evil 3 hits PS4 today, and it’s bringing a few friends with it — both the hulking Nemesis that will be chasing Jill through the city streets as well as the 4v1 survival horror game, Resident Evil Resistance. In this new experience, four Survivors must outwit a sinister Mastermind determined to prevent their escape throughout a series of gruesome experiments. Resident Evil Resistance is included alongside Resident Evil 3, so you’ll have two horror experiences to dive into. You may have already caught up on Tim’s blog with some excellent Resident Evil Resistance tips for Survivors and Masterminds alike, so today we’ve put together a little guide on how to make the most of your time in Resident Evil 3’s Raccoon City. Bright Lights, Big City Jill will be spending some time on the streets of the city she once called home, and fortunately for you, a map of Raccoon City is readily available to navigate your way around. Make good use of it, as your map can tell you if you’ve missed items in an area, and even keep track of locked doors. Sharp-eyed fans of the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis might recognize familiar stores like Eagle’s Pet Shop, while new locations, such as Moon’s Donuts, are a great place to stop and take a moment to rest. Keep your eyes and ears open, too. Rattling doors or distant groans mean that there are likely enemies approaching — though zombies may soon be the least of your worries as you venture through the streets and buildings of Raccoon City. Mix It Up Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: One green herb mixed with one red herb is a recipe for full health. Resident Evil 3 continues this long tradition, making for an easy way to restore your health in a pinch. Red herbs are less common, but they don’t have any useful properties on their own. Make sure you have some spare green herbs to mix with them to create powerful healing items! Speaking of mixing, ammo mixing from the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (and re-introduced in last year’s Resident Evil 2) makes a return. There are different kinds of gunpowder, and different mixes yield different types of ammunition. Craft the type of ammo that fits your playstyle, and what you’ll need for the trials ahead – but make sure to plan ahead! A single bottle of gunpowder doesn’t do anything on its own. Tall, Dark, and Deadly If you’ve already played the Resident Evil 3 Raccoon City Demo — and if you haven’t, go download it after reading this! — you already know that Nemesis is a towering force to be reckoned with. It won’t go down without a fight, but you can knock Nemesis down… for a short while. What you do after that is your call, but sticking around won’t do you much good. If you want to stand your ground, bring your strongest weaponry, and make sure to practice your perfect dodges (R1 when an attack is about to hit) to maneuver out of the way and mount a counterattack by holding L2 to aim and slow things down for a moment right after a perfect dodge. Dear Diary… This is an easy one — remember to save your game at typewriters regularly, especially if you just did something cool, saved a bunch of ammo, or made a flawless escape from a hungry horde. You never know what’s lurking around the next corner, so locking in your progress is always a good idea. Saving is free, so safe often! Before wrapping things up, how about a couple of extra tips for Resident Evil Resistance? You’ll want to make the most of your first few matches, so here’s a couple of recommendations for new Survivors and Masterminds: Did You Hear That? Tim mentioned this already in his article the other day, but voice communication can make a huge difference for the Survivors. No matter if you squad up with a trusty group of allies, or make some new friends as you play, being respectful and supportive of your allies while talking through matches will help you make it to the end. There’s a flip side to voice chat, though; crafty Masterminds can choose to use their own mic to taunt the Survivors and listen in on their conversations, adding a psychological layer to the proceedings. A keen Mastermind can listen in, and play mind games by selectively responding to their test subjects. Sometimes silence is the most terrifying sound of all. Know Your Limits Both Survivors and Masterminds have a suite of abilities at their disposal, so don’t be afraid to take the time to learn the ins and outs of each as you play a few matches. For Survivors, that means figuring out the best time to use your powerful Fever Skills. Tyrone’s Rally can lessen damage when a Tyrant shows up, for example, while Becca’s Bullet Storm is great for clearing out rooms of enemies with the right weapon in hand. Masterminds, on the other hand, should keep track of how much energy they have and how many creatures they’ve placed. It might be tempting to fill a room full of enemies, but a well-placed grenade can ruin all of that effort in a flash (and a bang). Keep some energy on hand, and plan ahead — try to wear down the Survivors and run down the clock instead of going for an all-out attack. That’s all we’ve got, now go brave the streets of Raccoon City in Resident Evil 3, available now. And don’t forget — Resident Evil 3 includes the 4v1 survival horror game Resident Evil Resistance, so get a few friends together online and try to escape as Survivors, or take on the role of a Mastermind to crush their attempts. I’ll be seeing you from behind the Mastermind’s cameras! View the full article

Here at Troglobytes, we were all born in the 1980s, surrounded by pop culture that was characterized by cheesy action movies and classic video games. You can tell that by having a look at our small studio — the walls are plastered with action movie posters and we also collect vintage consoles and games from that era. We have an arcade cabinet in the office with Avenging Spirit running on it. One day, as we were taking a break from developing and getting our fix of retro gaming, we were suddenly struck by its concept: you played as a ghost that could possess various characters. We then asked ourselves: why don’t we make a game that features all of the best things we loved from the 1980s: wrestlers, aliens, renegades, green berets, etc., combined with the possession mechanics? With so many great options to choose from, we were not able to decide who the protagonist of this game could be, and that’s how HyperParasite came to be: a game in which you can control them all! With HyperParasite, we wanted to take players on a journey to the dark side of the 1980s: forget about heroes; in our game, you will be playing the bad guy, and the good guys are the enemies. Have you ever dreamt of fighting against your favourite 1980s characters? Then HyperParasite is the game for you. You are able to snatch and control any character on the screen, exploiting its own unique abilities, weapons and special attacks in a neon and mullet-based mega-brawl. In order to immerse you in this atmosphere, we needed a few things: retro graphics and SynthWave music, combined with relentless action, permadeath (typical of rogue-like/rogue-lite games) and deranged bosses. The game that you can now play on Playstation 4 is the result of three years of hard work; we put everything we had into it, and we made it as a heartfelt love letter to the 80s. Seasoned players will also feel more than one similarity with old classics, and we’re pretty sure you’ll recognize every single cameo, and reference, we put into the game. View the full article

You know that big, snappy **cr-unch** when biting deep into a perfect, crisp apple? Take that moment of sensory satisfaction and extend it for hours, swap in demons for fruit, and you’ll know what it’s like to play Doom Eternal. Thy Flesh Consumed Id Software has created a shooter that will shake you to your bones. This sequel to 2016’s Doom reboot is an ode to the blistering, balls-to-the-wall gaming sensibilities of the 90s. Here, the story takes a backseat to relentless white-knuckle action, capably propelled by Mick Gordon’s muscular metal score. The game is fast paced and often difficult, but it rewards an aggressive playstyle — diving headfirst into combat is usually the best way to cheat death for another few milliseconds. Once this ruthless rubric clicks, Doom Eternal becomes one of the most enjoyable action games released this generation. Bullet Hell In addition to its Doom heritage, Doom Eternal borrows liberally from the Quake III: Arena catalog of play. Many of the ferocious campaign encounters play like old-school multiplayer matches, as you launch off bounce pads and strafe through gothic passageways while inflicting as much damage as (in)humanly possible against hordes of gibbering ghouls. And that arsenal! My favorite is the Plasma Rifle, a blistering death machine that I upgraded with a secondary attack to vent superheated gas at nearby enemies, shotgun-style. Later, I unlocked a Weapon Mastery that buffed my primary attack for a few seconds after. Fire, vent gas, fire again with enhanced damage — it’s a virtuous circle with a deliciously visceral edge, and a perfect example of Eternal’s constant chaotic creativity. Of course, old favorites like the Rocket Launcher, Super Shotgun, and Chaingun are well represented here. Most weapons are replete with a focused skill tree that veers into different playstyles depending on your upgrade choices. This design adds depth and an experimental quality to the combat. The game encourages you to play again and again to try all the offensive options – and you will. I’m also pleased to report that the iconic BFG 9000 has never been better. Buckle up! Master Level Be warned: Doom Eternal is challenging, even on the stock “Hurt Me Plenty” setting. But here’s a game worthy of the struggle — once you master the drum-tight combat loops, you’ll breeze past tough early encounters and leap into the gnashing teeth of late-game battles, pecs flexed and howling havoc. It’s a hoot! Helpfully, Doom Eternal lets you swap difficulty levels on the fly. And, between friends, there is no shame in dropping the difficulty a notch or two in order to sneak past a particularly tough battle, especially the game’s unforgiving boss encounters (btw, if you’re given a chance to use the Sentinel Armor, take it). Doom Eternal is a masterpiece of mechanical mayhem, and an exquisite follow-up to 2016’s Doom. Id Software has done it again — see you on the shores of Hell. View the full article

After years of quietly toiling away, 5 Lives Studios is excited to emerge from the shadows and reveal our latest creation. Once we had completed the rain-slicked neon streets of our debut title Satellite Reign, we turned our attention to the beauty of nature and set sail on our next adventure: Windbound. Windbound takes place on a long-forgotten archipelago, once home to an ancient civilization. The game begins shortly after Kara — our protagonist — is separated from her fleet during a fierce and mysterious storm. Awakening on the shore of a strange island, the player’s initial motivations are purely survival-focused, with the goal of simply returning to their tribe. However, with the storm seemingly surrounding the whole area, it’s immediately apparent that there’s something unusual about these islands, with strange structures and monuments left behind by a long-gone people. As players progress through the world they’ll uncover the history of the ancient people, their relationship with the sea and the mysterious sea creatures that still swim beneath the waves. Survival will be their initial focus, but the world is also rich with materials they can use to craft items to make their journey easier. Critical to success is building seafaring vessels. Starting with simple grass canoes and escalating to large multi-hull boats with a number of sails, players will learn to harness the power of the seemingly never-ending wind to traverse uncharted waters. But the seas are not always friendly, and the player is certainly not alone in the water. Throughout their adventure players will travel to unique islands, featuring a cornucopia of flora and fauna in varied environments. Truly no two adventures will be the same with the archipelagos procedurally generated every time a new adventure begins. Each environment has different resources available, from wild berries to hitherto unknown beasts. To truly prosper players will need to craft new weapons and develop new strategies to neutralize natural threats. Explore the scattered ruins and artifacts, unlock pieces of the islands’ past and uncover Kara’s connection to it. Unravel the mystery that enshrouds the islands and you may find your way home. We can’t wait for you to set sail into the world of Windbound, coming to PS4 August 28. View the full article

Hello! I’m Dong from NExT Studios, producer of Biped — our upcoming co-op action adventure game with a strong focus on moment-to-moment collaboration between two players. Today, I’m very happy to share with you the release date for the game: April 8! Biped may take place on planet Earth, but it’s actually Earth in another dimension and time, where human beings don’t inhabit the planet and bipeds have built planetary facilities in the wild. At the beginning of the game, a galactic anomaly unexpectedly “turns off” the light beacons on Earth, and it’s up to these little robots to descend to Earth, locate the beacons, and restore them. The game is primarily composed of three parts: co-op missions, solo missions, and extra hard pro missions. The co-op missions are for two players and cover the main playbook in a balanced way, but the most difficult challenges are in the pro missions where all the experience and skill players have learned from coop will be put to the ultimate test. You’ll also unlock lots of decorative items by collecting coins and buying them in the in-game shop. These are anything but serious, meant to toss a few extra laughs into your time with the game. Two years ago, two of our developers were trying to make a climbing game using full ragdoll animation tech on characters, just like Human Fall Flat. While iterating on this idea, they found it was very difficult to control and they decided arms might not actually be necessary, opting instead to let the character’s two legs do everything. And that’s how the Biped idea was born. When we started working on Biped, we were trying to make a lot of prototypes. We had a big biped, a tall biped, a strong biped… even a dog with two bipeds. This is fun because you can see a lot of possibilities. But it’s also hard to choose which mechanics we should put into the game. The theme of Biped is a joint adventure. So we wanted the visual style to illustrate a warm, vibrant, and whimsical world in which players can have an emotional adventure. It’s colorful, easy on the eyes, and hopefully will provide a soothing backdrop to the game’s otherwise demanding challenges. We tried to make our game literally for everyone! The control scheme and fundamental mechanics of the game are so simple and straightforward that everyone, of all ages, has not yet had any problems picking it up and having a fun time instantly. It goes without saying that the game is great for couch cooperation among friends and family members, but it also works magic when absolute strangers are paired together and compelled to cooperate for the first time. It brings out the empathetic inner selves in all of us. One thing we really want players to look out for is the mini-quests with the various NPCs in the game, who have a lot of harmlessly strange personalities. One day, one of our game designers made a little guy who drops coins while complaining if you try to bash him. If you are familiar with old school Capcom side-scrolling beat ’em ups you might even recognize where this comes from. We decided to keep this in the final game, along with many other Easter eggs you may find along the way. It’s exhilarating to finally talk about Biped — thanks to everyone who has read this story. If you find Biped interesting and you are curious about more, please check out Biped on PS4 when it launches next week! View the full article