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Savathûn revealed – Planting the seeds of the Witch Queen’s deception

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The threads of Destiny’s narrative are far-reaching, touching practically every aspect of the game. Over the past year or so, Destiny players have experienced a narrative unfold around one of the game’s most beloved characters: Osiris. From the death of his loyal Ghost, Sagira, to his increasingly suspect behavior, questions have followed the famed Warlock and former Vanguard commander for months.  

At the start of Season of the Lost, the truth was revealed. In case you didn’t already know — SPOILER ALERT — Osiris wasn’t Osiris. In fact, Osiris hadn’t been himself for quite a while. Savathûn, the Sister of Shapes, the Witch Queen herself, revealed to Guardians that she had traded places with Osiris months prior, and had been sowing discontent in the Vanguard ever since, creating rampant speculation and spawning wild theories among Destiny lore hounds throughout the community along the way. 

And that’s exactly the way the Bungie Narrative team planned it.  

Over the past year the Narrative team has dug deep, planting the seeds of Savathûn’s deception throughout the game in unexpected ways. Today we’re looking back at some of these pivotal moments and talking with the team about what it was like to bring this story to life. 

The First Glimpse 

The Savathûn/Osiris narrative was the result of countless discussions within the Destiny Narrative team and something that was planned long before it unfolded in the game. The team had an overarching goal of raising the narrative stakes in the game without resorting to killing characters. They also knew they wanted to embed Savathûn into the Last City; as a born trickster, having her impersonate someone and walk amongst the people felt right in line with her character. Furthermore, the Last City was chosen because Savathûn knew it was the last place her sister and rival, Xivu Arath, would look for her.  

“From there it became a conversation in the writers’ room about who the best candidate was for her to impersonate,” said Bungie’s Senior Narrative Lead Julia Nardin. “We landed on Osiris because of his relationship with Ikora, his former apprentice, which gave Savathûn the most direct access to the Vanguard.” 

The first moment where the Witch Queen took over for Osiris came during Season of the Hunt. Early on, players found a series of audio messages from Mara Sov and Osiris in Zavala’s office. The line where Osiris declared that his Ghost, Sagira, had died in an attack – that was not Osiris at all, but rather Savathûn taking the Warlock’s place for the very first time, beckoning players to the Moon. For extra credit, Savathûn orchestrated the player’s first meeting with Crow, creating the situation where players witnessed him “rescue” Osiris from one of Xivu Arath’s minions.

What followed was a carefully calculated campaign of Savathûn manipulating people and spreading distrust and doubt within the Vanguard. Nardin said one of her favorite examples of this was how quickly Savathûn-as-Osiris tanked the initial meeting between Caiatl and Zavala at the start of Season of the Chosen. As soon as Caiatl proposed the alliance between the Cabal and the Vanguard, Savathûn stepped out of the shadows and began questioning Caiatl’s trustworthiness. 

As Na

Building the blasters of Nerf Legends

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Hello! I’m Mihai Preda, studio head here at Fun Labs, and we’re the studio behind Nerf Legends. GameMill Entertainment, our publisher, had been discussing the opportunity of a potential Nerf game with Hasbro and when they brought the pitch to us, we really liked the idea of bringing the toys to life in a video game and creating a unique universe to go along with them. From the start, everyone was very supportive of having creative freedom to come up with a unique set of characters, levels, and story and to create a universe never before seen in any Nerf game before.

Nerf Doomlands The Judge real toy on left, in-game model on right.

In terms of my personal history with the Nerf brand, my son loves Nerf blasters – it’s one of his favorite toys and he has been a source for lots of inspirations and creativity throughout the project. There is something about his adventurous spirit and wonder that just brings me joy. I see it when we’re chasing each other around with blasters or challenging each other to shoot targets across the room. Mostly, though, I think he likes to pretend I’m an alien so he can fire darts at his old man. 

It has been a lot of fun taking those Nerf blasters my son and I play with and translating them into the game. We were fortunate to receive the 3D CAD models used to make the plastic molds for the toys. This was a great starting point for us because they were basically blueprints which allowed us to quickly make high quality game-ready blasters that we knew were authentic to the real-life counterpart.

Nerf Elite 2.0 Shockwave real toy on left, in-game model on right.

For the game, we wanted to take things up a notch and make the blasters come alive to match the new universe we were creating. We did this by taking inspiration from the shape and look of the blasters and imaged them with sci-fi coatings, animated lights, and other effects without changing the identity of the blaster. That was important to us because we wanted to ensure that the blasters still looked recognizable to what people played with as kids (or as adults who still enjoy Nerf blasters). 

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Tips and strategies for Grow: Song of the Evertree, out tomorrow

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Greetings gamers! My name is Stephen Takowsky, and I am the community manager for Grow: Song of the Evertree. Discover a vibrant unique world at your own pace, build the town of your dreams, and prepare for a wonderful sandbox adventure with Grow, launching November 16 on PlayStation 4. Australian-based Prideful Sloth is the developer of Grow and they wanted to share some important tips and strategies to help you on your journey to restore the Evertree.

Explore the worlds of Alaria

Who knows what strange and interesting things you might find when you explore? Oh! There’s a chest over there. What’s that? A recipe for a World Seed! I wonder what’s in this cave… WELL! We will just let you discover that one for yourself <3

Shop til you drop

Buildings aren’t just a great place for your residents to live and work in. They also sell items.  Need some new clothes? Plonk a tailor down. In need of a new do? Well, the Hair Salon is the place for you.  In need of adventure supplies, the General Store has everything you are looking for (and some things you didn’t even know you needed).

Visit the Everkin often

The Everkin are helpful companions you will meet on your adventure, and they have their own mini city known as Where-Ever. It is a fantastic place to visit and a great place to trade items – you see, the Everkin don’t have much care for worldly possessions. But you just might!

Sort/Organise your tools to save time

There is so much to accomplish each day and you might not want to waste time. You can access your tools in more than one way so make sure you play Grow in a manner that is best for you! You have the option to sort your tools for the best efficiency for the way you want to play.

Interact with the world

Pick flowers, shake trees, cut grass, play with critters, solve puzzles, engage with townsfolk, design an incredible layout for your town, and so much more. One of our goals was to create an interactive sandbox game with life management and adventure elements. You will not only get to build your town, but you will also take your experience to the next level by creating a unique community.

Make the Worlds you want to explore

Does a warm and tranquil world sound nice to you? Then make it. Want to try out a world that’s a bit squishy and smells? If you really want that, well we got you covered. What about a cute and dreamy world with heaps of sparkly goodness?  We’ve got you.

You are in control of the world seeds you create. Have fun, mix things up, and don’t be afraid to experiment. Sometimes even the strangest combinations lead to interesting things.

You can also take it easy and not rush things

Even the most dedicated of Everheart Alchemists’ needs to take some time off for themselves. Why not find a nice fishing spot, pull out your fishing rod, and enjoy the scenery? Or spend some time cuddling up with some of the adorable critters and maybe even snap a selfie with them?

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The award-winning A Short Hike hits PS4 November 16

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Hey everyone! I’m Adam Robinson-Yu, the main developer behind A Short Hike. I’m excited to finally announce that the launch date for A Short Hike on PS4 will be… November 16! With the release just around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to share a bit more about the world of Hawk Peak Provincial Park, and how it took shape while I was developing it.

The award-winning A Short Hike hits PS4 November 16

In A Short Hike, you’ll be exploring the park and working your way towards the top of the mountain. There’s plenty of areas to find and explore, but it didn’t start this way. In the beginning, I just started sculpting areas that were fun to climb and glide between. At this point, the world and the player’s movement were being designed hand in hand, and I created hills and valleys on whim to test out every tweak to the character’s controls.

Through this process, I started to get an idea for what types of terrain were interesting, and how I could make areas unique from only the shape of their geometry. I also started brainstorming a list of landmarks that I could scatter around the world for players to discover. I collected a variety of references, of either places I wished I could visit, or places that I had been in my own life. For example, the firetower in the game is directly inspired by the one I visited in person when hiking to Mount Pilchuck.


I also used photos to help me establish the primary color palette for the world. I found a photo of a breezy fall landscape that really captured the feeling I was aiming for, and I then sampled colors directly from the photo to build a palette for texturing the rest of the game with.

After this initial experimentation phase, I eventually needed to settle on the general structure of the game. I wanted freedom of exploration to be a core aspect of the level design. To me, this meant avoiding any sort of invisible barriers or cutscenes that force you down a specific path – even from the very start of the game. I wanted the player to always feel free to explore any direction they wanted. However, this can make it difficult to design the game, since I can’t be certain about what the pla

Official PlayStation Podcast Episode 416: Time Flies

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Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google or RSS, or download here


Join Tim and Justin for a look back at the first year of PS5, in-depth Elden Ring impressions, and oh-so-much more. Plus, as always, next week’s new release highlights and some fresh news that you very well may choose to use. Listen in!

Stuff We Talked About

  • Elden Ring
  • One year of PlayStation 5
  • Playing classic games on old TVs

The Cast

Tim Turi –  Manager, Content Communications, SIE

Justin Massongill – Content Communications Manager, SIE


Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music.

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Share of the Week: Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

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Last week, asked you to turn up the volume and share your galactic hero moments in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy using #PSshare #PSBlog. This week’s portrait highlights are out of this world: 

onananomariano shares Star-Lord ready to call a team huddle.

killshot_studio – I am Groot.

PeteyReilly shares Drax studying very intensely.

DotPone shares Rocket striking a pose.

imroyank shares a deadly portrait of Gamora.

RatchetBlaster shares Rocket grabbing a lift from Groot.

Search #PSshare #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: Hi-tech
SUBMIT BY: Wednesday 9 AM PT on November 17

Next week, it’s tech’s time to shine. Share a moment in a game of your choice featuring computers, machines, or any other hi-tech gizmos using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Genshin Impact Version 2.3: Winter camp in Dragonspine

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Hello Travelers! Your Genshin Impact dev team is back, bringing you the latest information about Version 2.3 Shadows Amidst Snowstorms that releases November 24. As winter is approaching in Teyvat, we’ve been planning a series of challenges and activities in snow across Dragonspine. Meanwhile, Inazuma’s Bantan Sango Detective Agency is also calling for helpers for investigation and rescue operations regarding mysterious mass disappearances of little animals.

With Version 2.3, we’d also like to bring more friends, both old and new, to join your adventure. Albedo and Eula will return, and Arataki Itto and Gorou will also join the game as new playable characters.

Genshin Impact Version 2.3: Winter camp in Dragonspine

Training in Biting Cold

Covered by snow all year round, Dragonspine is an enormous frozen mountain range in the south of Mondstadt. In this season’s event, Shadows Amidst Snowstorms, the Adventurer’s Guild has decided to hold a winter training camp in this area, and old friends such as Albedo and Eula will also make an appearance in the story. It’s time to sharpen your skills, enjoy the snowy weather, and earn loads of rewards including the new 4-star Sword Cinnabar Spindle to enhance your characters.

The Dragonspine Special Training will provide participants with three different types of challenges. The first one is Agility Training, which will put your speed to the test in specially-designed race tracks with various buffs, collectible seals, and obstacles. The second challenge is the Tracker Training which requires participants to spot and melt certain Ice Crystal Piles to collect Snowman Components. If you’re already a veteran treasure hunter who never misses a chest, this one should be a piece of cake. Last but not least, we have Combat Training

PlayStation 5 Turns One Today

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Happy birthday, PS5!

A year seems to have flown by rather quickly since the first day that gamers were able to get their hands on PS5 — and I am deeply honored and humbled to celebrate this amazing first year with all of you.

So much has happened in just one year from the day we lit up landmarks and other iconic places all over the world to mark the arrival of PS5. Incredible games such as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Returnal, and Deathloop launched. SIE acquired the talented development studios Bluepoint Games, Firesprite, Housemarque, and Nixxes. We revealed our next-generation VR system for PS5. And most recently, we’ve unveiled new footage and exciting updates for upcoming titles such as God of War Ragnarok, Gran Turismo 7, and Horizon Forbidden West all from PlayStation Studios, and announced Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Remake during our September showcase.

A busy year indeed, and we are just getting started with PS5. The imaginative game creators and publishing partners we work with have launched more than 360 games on PS5. Additionally, there are currently more than 25 games in development for PS5 at PlayStation Studios.

Most importantly, the passionate support we’ve seen from you, our players, makes this past year truly special for us. PS5 gamers have collectively played more than 4.6 billion hours of gameplay on PS5 and broadcast more than 26 million hours of content. Here is a look at the top ten PS5 games played during PS5’s first year, based on gameplay hours:

  • Fortnite
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
  • FIFA 21
  • NBA 2K21
  • Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
  • Destiny 2
  • MLB The Show 21
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
  • Demon’s Souls
  • NBA 2K22

You’ve made PS5 the biggest console launch in history, and I truly can’t thank you enough for your support and dedication this past year.

I also want to thank everyone in the community for your patience. We continue to see historic demand for PS5 and we understand the inventory constraints remain a source of frustration for many of our customers. Rest assured that we are laser-focused on doing everything in our power to ship as many units as possible, it’s something we work on every day across the company and remains my top priority. Again, we appreciate your patience as we navigate through these unprecedented global challenges.

There’s plenty of great things to come for PS5 in the future, and I look forward to sharing more of these extraordinary moments with you. Thank you again for being part of the PlayStation community and celebrating this milestone with us.

All data between November 12, 2020 – September 30, 2021

Listen to playlists featuring hit songs from Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition

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Step into the worlds of Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas in Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, and get behind the wheel to find your favorite station or host on the radio dial, each thoughtfully curated and packed with hits and hidden gems. 

The team at PlayStation is so excited to dive into these enhanced classics and their iconic soundtracks, that we curated a trio of Spotify playlists. Now Spotify users can listen to timeless tunes of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas, whether they’re fleeing the law in game or going about their daily life.

Please enjoy!

Grand Theft Auto III Playlist

Cruise to the radio stations of Liberty City, from the classical motifs of Double Clef FM to Scientist’s Dub classics on K-Jah.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Playlist

Indulge in nostalgic tunes from the melodrama of Emotion 98.3 to the quintessential 80s pop of Wave 103.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Playlist

Ride in style with sounds ranging from the West Coast rap of Radio Los Santos to the Chicago house of SF-UR.


Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is available now on PS4 and PS5. Grand Theft Auto III – The Definitive Edition will be available on PlayStation Now starting December 7.

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