Last week, we asked you to return to the dangerous world of Returnal to explore its newly released Photo Mode using #PSshare #PSBlog. From out of this world portraits of Selene to well framed foes, here are this week’s highlights: 

XxPAGZxX steps out into the mysterious world of Atropos.

Noobiablos shares Selene’s back turned to some creeping tentacles.

ccf_photomode shares a looming portrait of the first biome’s boss Phrike.

adambomb2mk shares Selene approaching a blue-soaked relief.

GeekNamedMike shares a portrait of Selene in her space suit.

MdeavorVP shares Selene wading through water in a red-light area.

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: Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

SUBMIT BY: Wednesday 9 AM PT on November 10

Next week, we’re cranking up the volume on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Share wild and heroic moments in the cosmos using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Taking the reins of a series as iconic as Ghostbusters would be a daunting task for any director. But Jason Reitman, the mastermind behind the franchise’s latest chapter Ghostbusters: Afterlife, has Ghostbusters in his blood – not only is he a massive fan of the legendary 80s adventures, he is also the son of Ivan Reitman who brought the first two entries to the big screen, and who also adds his producing chops to Afterlife.

Rather than being weighed down by the shadow of his father’s films, the younger Reitman saw his dad’s involvement and presence on the set of Afterlife as a huge boon to this entry. “I was lucky enough to have not only the world’s foremost expert on Ghostbusters sitting next to me,” Reitman told me when we sat down, “but also one of my favourite storytellers.” 

“It’s funny,” he laughs, “I’m the child of a Ghostbuster, so I guess it should be no surprise that when it came to making a Ghostbusters movie, I would make a movie about the granddaughter of a Ghostbuster. And there was no way to do this except with my father right by my side.”

This father-son relationship has created a high level of consistency between Afterlife and the original Ghostbusters movies, to which the new film is a direct sequel. Despite over 30 years passing, Afterlife truly feels like a part of the same world we were first introduced to in 1984. Its tone, comedy and design will be instantly recognisable to fans of the originals.

“We were trying to echo the original film in every way possible, and most of all in comedy. That’s why we cast actors like Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace.” These big stars are joined by relative newcomer Logan Kim who plays Podcast, a wise-cracking misfit with a penchant for microphones and audio recorders.

“You know, audiences don’t know him yet,” Reitman nods, “but I think they’re gonna love him. He feels exactly like the kind of guy you would have cast in the original.”

But the sense that you’re jumping back into the world from the original movies doesn’t end with the humor. Afterlife starts with an as-yet-unnamed family discovering they’ve just inherited a ramshackle farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Formerly inhabited by Phoebe (Grace) and Trevor’s (Wolfhard) absent grandfather, the house is packed floor-to-ceiling with books on the paranormal, unused farming equipment and, as it turns out, ghostbustin’ gear.

And when it comes to the appearance of iconic Ghost Trap and other classic tools, there’s no sleek redesigns here. The clunky, worn-down 80s look from the original movies is preserved perfectly; these could be lifted straight from the studio’s archives. Practical effects and physical props are heavily featured, with CGI limited to a small selection of scenes to preserve the style of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II.

“We always wanted to get at the original recipe of what was a Ghostbusters movie. And that involved really doing the archaeology, understanding how they made the original, and finding ways to mix the bleeding edge of computer technology with the most old school Hollywood effects.”

Reitman’s wish to blend different technologies is showcased best in a scene which sees the return of the Terror Dog, a fan-favourite monster whose image is surely seared into the minds of an

Skyrim fans are in for a treat with Saints & Seducers, a quest-filled creation that’s included in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition when it launches November 11. Saints & Seducers will also be made available free to owners of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition the same day.

Despite introducing a new storyline across two quests (and of course, side quests), there’s even more to get hyped for in Saints & Seducers. We reached out to Senior Artist and Creation Club Lead Daniel Lee to get the inside scoop on this upcoming piece of free content and why you Dragonborn out there ought to keep it on your radar.

The Shivering Isles return

Those familiar with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will get a kick out of Saints & Seducers with the return of The Shivering Isles, Sheogorath’s Daedric Realm. In this creation’s main story, a devious mage aims to weaken the barrier between the Isles and Tamriel itself, risking immense chaos for the continent. 

As you play, you’ll uncover armor, weapons and even side quests referring to Sheogorath’s otherworldly domain. “The Shivering Isles holds a special place in my heart,” Lee reminisces. “This creation is packed full of nostalgia.”

Gear, gear, gear

Speaking of weapons and armor, Saints & Seducers is chock full of new items to collect, including new artifacts, pets, armor, weapons and alchemy ingredients. “Enjoy heavy armor?  Like to use a bow?  Prefer to conjure allies?  Are potions and poisons your weapons of choice?  This creation has it all covered,” says Lee. “There really is something for everyone.”

Concept of a Madness Battleaxe – Find enough elusive Madness Ore and you can craft one of the strongest weapons in the game for yourself.

More than a quest

“The creation isn’t confined to its main quest, there are plenty of secrets to discover,” Lee adds. Even after completing the main storyline of Saints & Seducers, players have plenty to do from smithing side quests to everything offered in Rare Curios, a bonus creation that comes as part of Saints & Seducers. With Rare Curios, players can obtain special items from all over Tamriel via Khajiit caravans, including ingredients to craft all-new potions and poisons. 

New threats to encounter

Skyrim’s roving bandits and ferocious wildlife are fine enough foes when traversing the wilds, but why not spice it up? Saints & Seducers features new enemies to fight, including Corrupted Spriggans and juvenile Elytra Nymphs. Don’t let their smaller size fool you, those Nymphs can sometimes be just as deadly as their fully grown counterparts!

We’re super excited to announce you’ll be able to don your time travelling shoes on January 27, 2022. Get ready to take a step back (and forward) in time as you attempt to prevent the collapse of civilization. 

Unite a generation through music. Take the stage in 1969 and give the performance of a lifetime. 

An epic PlayStation VR time travel adventure game, Wanderer takes you back through the ages to reshape the course of history. Playing as Asher Neumann, you find yourself in an alternate, apocalyptic timeline where the search begins for your grandfather’s lost apartment and the mysterious artifacts that are hidden within. 

With the announcement of our imminent release and retail pack (yes, you’ll be able to hold Wanderer with real hands) we wanted to share a few new areas and mechanics that offer unique in-game challenges and discoveries. 

Black holes 

Time travel within Wanderer is anchored in the concept of black holes and singularities, and harnessing these to manipulate time and space. Learn what it takes to manipulate time to help you in your quest to reset the clock.

Temporal transporter

Harnessing these black holes will need some management. Learn how to operate and programme the mysterious time transporter – the more you progress and time jump, the closer you’ll come to understanding the transporter, and, more importantly, how to use it.

The future’s looking a bit grey

Messing with time can lead to multiple versions of the future. See Boston 2061 in a new light, with a modern, futuristic setting that’s designed with all the modcons one could dream of or is this the nightmare you were warned against? 

One aspect I’m particularly proud of is the all-new Chaos Theory mode. Here you’ll take charge as you revisit pivotal moments from the Jurassic World film franchise in a series of ’what if’ scenarios. The rich lore of the Jurassic World Universe provided such amazing inspiration for Chaos Theory mode. We wanted a way for players to rediscover and reimagine their favourite movie moments. By focusing on each of the five films, and one particular, cornerstone moment within those films, we’re able to include iconic characters, stories, and locations that we then work into different challenges.

Whether realising John Hammond’s dream of an operational Jurassic Park, showcasing a T. rex in the San Diego Amphitheatre, or building and running a new Jurassic World park, control events like never before in the Jurassic World franchise.

There are five levels in total. The first takes place where it all began: Jurassic Park. Here you’ll bring John Hammond’s original vision to life. Taking place on Isla Nublar, you’ll endeavour to avoid the disasters we see in the film and welcome in the park’s first guests. Authenticity is key, so we’ve made sure to include all the era-specific Jurassic Park Buildings, such as the iconic visitor centre, as well as that famous entrance gate, alongside all of the familiar dinosaurs you remember.

In the Jurassic Park 3 level, you’ll work with Simon Masrani to rescue the dinosaurs that will birth Jurassic World. This one takes place on Isla Sorna and involves you locating, monitoring, and releasing dinosaurs. One of those dinosaurs is the ferocious Spinosaurus, a towering carnivore that gave a T-rex trouble in the film. From this scenario’s beautiful tropical environment, you may even spot the iconic aviary nestled in the distant valley, it captures the feel and excitement of Jurassic Park 3.

The last Chaos Theory mission I want to expand on is our homage to Jurassic World. This level see’s you picking up where you left off with Simon Masrani, to create the Jurassic World, working alongside another iconic character Dr. Wu (voiced by BD Wong) to see if you can avoid the mistakes of the past. You’ll be responsible for creating iconic landmarks and moments such as the Innovation Centre, Mosasaur’s lagoon, Gyrosphere Tour, and even create a one-of-a-kind hybrid dinosaur: the Indominus Rex.

Research for Chaos Theory was a lot of fun since it mainly involved us watching every movie in the series many, many times in order to dig out details we thought were fun or interesting. For example, when we were recreating the San Diego Amphitheater in game, we h

Hi everybody, how have you all been doing? Over the past few months, we have been delighted to receive messages from fans around the world telling us how much you have been enjoying Astro’s Playroom. What particularly stuck out were comments regarding Astro’s look, so we figured it would be nice to get arty and share with you a couple of drawing tips from three artists who worked on the game. We hope you find this fun, and it inspires you 😊

But first, let’s quickly explain where Astro came from. To find his roots, we need to time-travel back to 2013 when Team Asobi was just formed and started working on The Playroom, a collection of augmented reality experiences that came preloaded on PlayStation 4. One of those experiences saw a dozen of small, funny robots living inside the DualShock 4 controller that would come out to play with you on your living room floor. These tiny guys nicknamed “AR Bots” would go on to become the origin of all the bot-like characters appearing in subsequent games. To be truthful, while designing the original bots, we had constraints and focused on getting an impactful look while keeping the shape and design as simple as possible. We aimed to strike a balance between cuteness and coolness, something that would reflect the Sony legacy of product design. And after a few tests, voila! The AR Bots were a thing. It was love at first sight.

“The AR Bots as originally found in The Playroom for PS4”

The bots then returned in The PlayroomVR (2016); a collection of multiplayer party games available as an introduction to PS VR. One of those games was Robot Rescue, a single-stage 3D platformer featuring a heroic bot going on an adventure looking for his lost comrades. Our robotic hero (he had no name yet) came complete with a jetpack, hover boots, a holographic scarf and that iconic blue livery pattern that would later define the Astro look.

“Original artwork from Robot Rescue”

Astro then took centre-stage in 2018 in his very own PS VR game Astro Bot: Rescue Mission to great acclaim and later returned to become your guide into the amazing world of PS5 and DualSense wireless controller in Astro’s Playroom (2020).

Today, we’d like to pick your creative curiosity and share with you a few tips on how to draw Astro, directly from the hand of three members from Team Asobi: Toshihiko Nakai (concept artist), Miho Kinebuchi and Mayu Kawaguchi (3D artists). Each member had a go at drawing Astro using their very own style and have shared some of their thoughts on what makes Astro a special character. Enjoy watching and reading!

Toshihiko Nakai (Team Asobi – Concept Artist)

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Finch debuts this Friday on Apple TV+, so I caught up with director Miguel Sapochnik to learn more about what makes this Tom Hanks sci-fi tale tick.

What is it about the end of civilization that people find so fascinating?

I would say, one of the best things to write is the beginning or the end of something. In the middle is always a mess. And I feel like a movie about the beginning of mankind or humankind… it’s been done, right? 

So now, we are definitely fixated with our own demise. It’s an interesting moment for us all, and I think probably reflected by [the character] Finch. Finch is starting to look back on everything that he’s done and wondering…what did he actually achieve? Was it worth it? It’s a point of reflection.

I definitely feel like movie storytelling right now is our point of reflection, where we have to look at ourselves and wonder about the choices that we made and figure out whether we’re prepared to make the changes that need to happen in order for us to continue to survive.

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Do you think Finch is an optimistic, hopeful story, despite being focused on the end of humanity?

I do, actually. At the same time, I feared my own personality might overindulge itself with the dark side of nature and I feel like something definitely came out of it.

I showed [Finch] to a couple of friends after I’d finished it. When you’ve just finished a movie, you’ve lost all perspective as to what it is that you’ve really made. And I showed it with full expectation of them to smile politely and say, “interesting” or something like that. And they laughed. A lot. All the way through it. And then they cried at the end…and they said that it was lovely. And I felt I’d never had that experience before.

All Finch has left is a dog and a robot. I wanted to start with the dog — what do you think it represents? How does that play out in the story set amidst the end of days? 

One of the turns that I always liked in the script is that you meet this guy, [and] he’s building a robot to look after his dog. So he really likes this dog. That’s his focus of attention. He doesn’t like humans. He’s obviously had bad experiences with humans….And then gradually, this story unfolds and you realise that the dog is the survivor of a traumatic event he experienced when he was younger, right

What do ghostbusting and game development have in common? More than you’d think, it turns out. But there’s one thing that comes to mind above all else: teamwork. Available to play in Dreams from today until February 28, 2022, Ghostbusters: Afterlife in Dreams is the result of an 18-week-long collaboration between Media Molecule, Sony Pictures, and the Dreams community.  

After being contacted via social media, Impy-award winning community creators **Guillaume Chevrier** (aka [SlurmMacKenzie] and **Alfred Nilsson** (aka [byvsen]) soon found themselves in meetings with Mm’s Director of Operations and Strategic Initiatives, Gemma Abdeen, to discuss an opportunity. 

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“Like, what is this?” Nilsson found himself thinking. “This could be literally anything. Then when Gem told me what the project was and what I would be doing, I got really excited and hopped on.” Chevrier nods. “Same for me. I think it was the first call with Gem where she told me it was a Ghostbusters project, and I was really excited.”  

Chevrier would be working on gameplay design, and Nilsson on animations. A short brief had already been put together by Mm and Sony Pictures. The game would have to last 60 seconds, as the cast of Sony Pictures’ Ghostbusters: Afterlife would be setting their own scores that fans could try to beat.  

Chevrier laid down the basics of the controls, including creating a version of the iconic Ghostbusters proton beam that the player could fire in first-person view, and set up much of the underlying Logic for the destructive environments. Media Molecule lead designer Richard Franke then came aboard to direct and help the team make some of the game-defining decisions (as well as do a bit of environment modelling, which Mm’s Dreams specialist Martin Nebelong would polish with lighting and effects). 

“We asked ourselves, ‘What is the core experience of being a Ghostbusters team member?’” Franke says. “To me, that felt like the most important thing: we need to make the player feel like a member of the Ghostbusters team. Before you do anything else, you’ve got to get that catching of the ghosts to feel right.”  

The first version that Chevrier had been working on featured fast and furious ghostbusting. “You could really quickly catch the ghosts,” he

Where were you when Grand Theft Auto III launched in October 2001? I was standing in a GameStop, perusing the new PS2 releases, when it caught my eye. Following a hearty recommendation from the store manager, I bought the game and took it home. The rest is history.

Twenty years later, it’s virtually impossible to overstate the impact of Rockstar Games’ open-world crime saga on the gaming medium. And it all began with GTA III, a bold shift from top-down action to a fully 3D open world epic, interwoven with unprecedented interactivity. I remember being blown away by Liberty City itself: a sprawling cityscape packed with cars, colorful characters, challenging side-missions, and ever-present cops. I’d never seen anything like it.

GTA III’s launch sent ripple effects across the entire gaming industry, captivating players and inspiring game developers to take a different approach to game design. To mark the groundbreaking game’s big 20-year milestone, we reached out to creators from PlayStation Studios and top third-party developers to reflect on GTA III’s megaton launch.

All screenshots in this article from Grand Theft Auto III — Definitive Edition, out November 11.

“GTA III changed my perspective of what makes games fun. Games had always been about making the jumps, killing the enemies, solving the puzzles – doing the tasks the designer laid out for you. GTA III was the first game where you really made your own fun. That led me to reimagine how exploration and open-ended gadget and weapon usage in Ratchet & Clank could allow players to find their own fun and approach the gameplay in their own creative ways.”

– Brian Hastings, Head of Creative Strategy, Insomniac Games

“GTAIII was a game with an astonishing degree of freedom, released at a time when we were struggling to make a single-path game within the capabilities of the PS2. I was impressed by the way the game was made. It embraced the realities that come with an open-world concept instead of restricting gameplay to avoid every potential glitch that might come up. The Japanese version of the game was released by Capcom, and I remember thinking, ‘I’m glad I’m on their side’.”

– Hideaki Itsuno, Director, Capcom

“I grew up playing 2D side scrolling platformers that had a clear path from A to B and could be worked out with a bit of trial and error. The thing that really stood out for me in GTA III was the freedom it gave you to play the way you wanted in a game world that felt believable. Gone were the automatic loading, level-end, and mission-over transitions. You don’t get out of the car… you don’t progress. You seamlessly went from driving, running around the city, and entering buildings to get your next mission objective at the pace that you wanted. In some ways the freedom was overwhelming but the ability to play your way, and in doing so change the tone of the game, was not lost on me. This was likely one of the first major shifts in self-directed play in game design.”

– Tara Saunders, Studio Head, PlayStation London Stud

Crime sprees, perilous mountain climbs, fantastical battles, and questionable delivery skills await with PlayStation Now’s November lineup. Mafia: Definitive Edition, Celeste, Final Fantasy IX and Totally Reliable Delivery Service all await subscribers starting tomorrow, Tuesday, November 2. 

Let’s take a closer look at each. 

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Mafia: Definitive Edition

The Definitive Edition faithfully recreates the organised crime epic with expanded story plus gameplay and visual improvements. Rise through the ranks of the Mafia during the Prohibition era, experiencing a faithfully recreated 1930’s cityscape, filled with interwar architecture, cars and culture. After a run-in with the mob, cab driver Tommy Angelo is thrust into a deadly underworld. Initially uneasy about falling in with the Salieri crime family, Tommy soon finds that the rewards are too big to ignore.

Mafia: Definitive Edition is available on PlayStation Now until Monday February 28.  

Totally Reliable Delivery Service

Buckle up your back brace and fire up the delivery truck, it’s time to deliver! Go it alone to ensure the safety of your deliveries, or join your friends and put your teamwork to the test and haphazardly get the job done in an interactive sandbox world. Unpredictable ragdoll physics meets snappy platforming. Sprint, leap, dive, and grapple with ease, but collide with something and you’ll be knocked out cold! Want to take a break from deliveries? Then play around. The world is chock full of toys, vehicles, and machines that can be used for work or play.

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