Welcome aboard the Alithea, a luxurious state-of-the-art space cruiser, where nothing is what it seems. Cue ominous music. What began as a relaxing vacation to outer space has erupted into a full-blown A.I. uprising, and those “friendly servants” who’ve been providing bottomless champagne are now trying to kill you!

First Class Trouble is a social deception party game, which means communication with the other players is key. Unfortunately, it also means you can’t trust anyone. The situation may sound dire, and things can get chaotic quickly, but don’t panic yet (even if you catch on fire, or get shoved into a pool)! We’ve put together a few tips and tricks to help you survive the wrath of C.A.I.N.

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First, let’s start with the basics: At the beginning of each game, you’ll be randomly assigned the role of either Resident or Personoid. Residents are human passengers, and Personoids are mechanically engineered assistants whose programming has been overwritten.

Although everyone plays together, you’ll have different objectives to complete depending on your role. Here you’ll have a crucial decision to make: collaborate or deceive?

For Residents, your main goal is to shut down the rogue A.I. at the heart of the Alithea. To reach C.A.I.N., you’ll need to collect three keycards to progress to the next level deeper inside the ship.

For Personoids, your main goal is simple: stop the Residents from succeeding at all costs. That means lying, tricking, and ultimately ridding the ship of those pesky humans.

Despite the many potential perils in the game (and there are a lot), deception is arguably the most deadly weapon to wield in First Class Trouble. Who can you trust? Should you follow the player asking for your help with a co-operative task, or are they leading into a trap?

Only you can decide, but here’s a few helpful things to keep in mind:

• Residents need oxygen to survive and can replenish the ship’s supply by finding spare canisters and turning them in at designated oxygen stations. Personoids don’t need air and can sabotage those same stations, so be on the lookout for anyone suspiciously lingering near one.
• Personoids are tricksters and will always be looking for opportunities to shove an unsuspecting Resident into fire or lock them in a freezer. However, Personoids can also use syringes against Residents for an up close insta-kill. If you see another player grab a syringe, watch out!

Attention all SNK and KOF fans across the globe: Today, during State of Play, KOF XV’s newest character Dolores and the announcement of a KOF XV Open Beta Test was broadcasted worldwide! In this article, I’d like to talk a bit about Dolores, the upcoming Open Beta Test, and what makes KOF XV so awesome.

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About KOF XV

The King of Fighters (KOF) first came onto the scene in 1994 and became one of SNK’s leading fighting game series. Excluding spinoffs, the series has now reached 15 mainline titles (currently KOF XV), and its classic 3-on-3 team battle system is as robust as ever. KOF is also known for its large roster, and KOF XV does not slack in this department either as it boasts 39 playable characters on launch. Vibrant and powerful special moves shake up the stage as Shatter Strike, a new gameplay mechanic introduced in KOF XV makes fights more exciting than ever. Try out the Open Beta Test when it launches to experience the game and all its crazy fun fighting systems.

About the New Character, Dolores

Our newest character is quite mysterious, as she’s a medium who can speak to the earth and control holy soil. Also, she’s joined arms with the general Heidern and another new character, Isla. Some may have noticed the details on her clothing are similar to the embroidery found on another character, and so along with that info and the fact that she’s paired up with such a strange team means this story is something you won’t want to miss! Get ready for some awesome fights with the cool and collected mysterious Dolores.

For those of you who love listening to music in addition to playing games, we are pleased to announce that Apple Music is launching on PS5 – the first gaming console to introduce an integrated Apple Music experience, bringing their expansive music catalog to PS5 players globally.

Starting today, PS5 users with an Apple Music subscription can enjoy more than 90 million songs from Apple Music, tens of thousands of curated playlists, music videos in 4K, Apple Music Radio streaming today’s hits, classics, and country live, and personalized playlists based on your music preferences.

PS5 offers seamless integration with the Apple Music streaming service with background music and music video playback, so players can listen before, during, or after their gameplay session.

Background Music Play

PS5 users can either start the Apple Music app before hopping into a game, or during gameplay by pressing the PS button on the DualSense wireless controller to access the Control Center and select the Music Function card.

From there, Apple Music subscribers can find recommendations that match the game they are currently playing, or choose from a playlist in their library or other Apple Music-curated playlists for gaming.

Seamless Music Video Playback

Apple Music subscribers can also find and watch music videos from a wide selection of artists in the Apple Music app. Start by playing the video in full screen; if you decide you want to go back to your gameplay or navigate elsewhere on the PS5’s home screen, the audio from the music video will continue to play. If you want to go back to the music video, it’ll also pick up seamlessly from wherever you are in the song, with no interruption to the music.We hope you enjoy Apple Music on PS5. To get started, PS5 owners can download the Apple Music app from the Media space on PS5, and follow the on-screen instructions to link their Apple Music account. For more information, please visit our website.

Back in 2017, the game that would eventually become Backbone was entirely different: a stealth game in a science fiction setting. During a conference call brainstorming session, the team was interrupted by a crash that came from outside co-founder Nikita Danshin’s home in Vancouver. Raccoons had attacked his composting bin, so to scare them off, Nikita (also the game’s composer) picked up the loudest thing at hand — his trumpet. We were unable to stop laughing about how fun it would be to play as a raccoon strategically stealing people’s garbage, and after a few iterations, Backbone’s world of anthropomorphic animals was born.

Left: Character art for the sword-wilding Samson / Right: Final in-game appearance

Character designer and senior artist Kristina Dashevskaya worked up concepts for swearing, trench coat-wearing raccoon Howard Lotor. We instantly fell in love with this character, and the rest of the world building stemmed from there.

In this world, apes are on top — they are the architects and rulers of society, and they eventually make decisions on where everyone else sits. Lions and bears are slightly below, cats and dogs lower (but still in the upper class), raccoons and foxes are smack dab in the middle, and rodents like mice and rabbits are the working class. Just like in real life, these rules are often broken, but any deviation is looked down upon, while conformity is celebrated. Different neighborhoods are inhabited by clusters of species, so while exploring the world of Backbone, players might notice that subtle segregation.

Left: A sketch of the Granville location in Backbone / Right: The final in-game destination

Unlike boring humans, with anthropomorphic animals there are so many ways to tell a cohesive story through costume, facial features, tails, and coloring. Species each have a heavy connotation in Backbone’s lore, so every rat and lion comes with a set of inherent stereotypes that characters in the game believe. But apes and hamsters can be the same height and size, and their species is mostly an example of the social construct rather than a set list of biological features. Just like people, we all have different faces and bodies — but it’s the artificial order and economy and propaganda that decides where we’re placed on the social ladder.

While Backbone seems like a story about animals, it really is about the human condition and the beauty and pain of our common struggle. We don’t rely on biological determinism in our design and writing — even though the in-world characters do judge others based on their species. The animal factor helps distance ourselves enough to examine and deconstruct these real world biases about real people, but there is a very fragile balancing act of trying to never hit too close home, to not appropriate and to not diminish the real human experience. 

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The November Savings promotion comes to PlayStation Store on Wednesday, October 27. Yes: that’s a few days shy of November proper. However, we’ll waive that technicality and offer you savings on a number of games and add-ons early. You’ll have until the end of Tuesday November 19* to pick out discounts from the likes of NBA 2K22 Cross-Gen Digital Bundle, The Crew 2 Gold Edition and more. 

• 8-Bit Armies
• 8-Bit Armies – Deluxe Edition
• 8-Bit Hordes
• 8-Bit Hordes – Deluxe Edition
• 8-Bit Invaders!
• 8-Bit Invaders! – Deluxe Edition
• 8-Bit RTS Series – Complete Collection
• A Plague Tale: Innocence
• Aces of the Luftwaffe: Squadron – Nebelgeschwader
• Action Arcade Wrestling
• Adam’s Venture: Origins
• Adam’s Venture: Origins – Deluxe Edition
• AereA
• AereA – Deluxe Edition
• Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield – PS4 & PS5
• Age of Wonders: Planetfall
• Age of Wonders: Planetfall – Deluxe Edition
• Age of Wonders: Planetfall – Premium Edition
• American Fugitive
• Anthem
• Aragami
• Archangel
• Arizona Sunshine® – Deluxe Edition
• Assassin’s Creed Antiquity Pack
• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – Season Pass
• Assassin’s Creed Unity
• Assetto Corsa
• Assetto Corsa – Season Pass
• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• Asterix & Obelix XXL 2
• Asterix & Obelix XXL 3: The Crystal Menhir
• Asterix & Obelix XXL: Romastered
• AVICII Invector: Encore Edition
• Azur Lane: Crosswave
• Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Editions
• Banner Saga Trilogy
• Batman: Arkham Knight
• Batman: Arkham Knight Season Pass
• Battle Worlds: Kronos
• Beach Buggy Racing 2: Hot Wheels™ Edition
• Ben 10: Power Trip
• Blacksad: Under the Skin
• BlazBlue: Central Fiction
• Bless Unleashed: 1,000 Lumena + 10% (100) Bonus
• Bless Unleashed: 10,000 Lumena + 25% (2,500) Bonus
• Bless Unleashed: 2,000 Lumena + 15% (300) Bonus
• Bless Unleashed: 5,000 Lumena + 20% (1,000) Bonus
• Bloodborne: The Old Hunters
• Bloons TD 5
• Borderlands: The Handsome Collection
• Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia
• Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition
• Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Duke Nukem Bundle
• Bus Simulator
• Call of Duty Ghosts & Season Pass Bundle
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Digital Pro Edition
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Digital Pro Edition (Day Zero)
• Call of Duty: Ghosts – Digital Hardened Edition
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – Digital Deluxe Edition
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – Legacy Edition
• Car Mechanic Simulator – DLC Mega Pack
• Chess Ultra
• Chicken Police – Paint it RED!
• Chivalry 2 PS4 & PS5
• Chivalry 2 Special Edition PS4 & PS5
• Chronos: Before the Ashes
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We had planned for Deathloop to have a PvP element from the very beginning. Colt and Julianna’s dynamic is the heart of Deathloop’s story, and we wanted to reflect that in the gameplay as well. And how often do you get the chance to play as both the hero and the villain in games? Obviously, Colt’s journey is the core campaign, but giving players the chance to jump into his story and hunt him as his rival Julianna was such an interesting idea for us. Too interesting to pass up. 

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When you’re playing as Colt, the invading Julianna can be controlled by either another player or the AI, but this wasn’t always the case. There was a point in development where the game was always online and there was no AI Julianna. After a lot of consideration, this seemed unfair. We wanted players to be able to experience the game in whatever way they prefer, and if that means letting them turn off online invasions, then we needed to make that happen. 

This is just one of the many things we had to consider as we developed the PvP. We knew we needed to build a fair, fun, and challenging experience for Colt, and we needed to avoid the invasions becoming a nuisance. Of course, we also wanted to create a fun experience for Julianna players and try to highlight the pleasure of the hunt more than the pleasure of winning the match. 

Julianna’s Masquerade ability in the dev test environment

For Colt players, this meant adding in the Reprise ability, allowing Colt to “rewind” time if he dies. Julianna doesn’t have Reprise, so it certainly gives our Colt players an edge. We also needed to include the opportunity to avoid Julianna altogether by hacking the antenna and exiting the map. We didn’t want Colt players to feel forced into an encounter, especially if they were concerned about losing valuable gear. Julianna has some tricks up her sleeve that make her a fierce opponent, but we created balance by making it so that if Colt is playing as stealthy as possible, he’s pretty damn hard to track down. 

As you progress in the game, you will learn Wraith abilities such as Sharpened Senses that help you track your objective and the movement of other spirits, Wraithgrasp that lets you pick up heavy objects from a distance and Insubstantiality, that grants you the power to walk through solid walls. There are also items you will find to aid you, like a camera to reveal memories in the mansion and a flashlight that has more than one use… The game is made exclusively for the PlayStation Move controllers, so you need to use your arms and hands to play with the powers and items at your disposal.

Being a Wraith does not mean that you are safe from harm. Even though your powers eventually enable you to walk through solid walls and manipulate items from a distance, there are sinister beings inside the Ba

Hello everyone! Over the last few months, we have been having a great time seeing you play Returnal and learning about your experiences, and hearing all the great stories of how players are overcoming the myriad challenges of Atropos. It’s had a fantastic reception, and we are truly pleased and grateful to see people having so much fun with the game. Here at Housemarque we’ve been listening to all your feedback too, and so it is with great satisfaction that I’m here to announce our update 2.0, launching today.

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Suspend Cycle

One of the main features of this update is the Suspend Cycle functionality, which will allow you to pause your cycle to be continued later, letting you exit the game and turn off your console without losing your progress in that session. The structure of the game remains unchanged, so this functionality is not a traditional mid-game “Save Game” option: by suspending the cycle, Returnal will simply create a single use suspend point, and once you resume playing the suspend point is deleted and cannot be used again. Your game will continue directly from the moment you left it, and if you want to suspend the cycle again, your progress will be captured from that new point onwards. There are some limitations in place – for example, players won’t be able to create a suspend point during Boss battles, cinematics, first-person sequences or during intense combat scenarios – as we felt there are certain moments in Returnal that are best experienced unfragmented to preserve the intended challenge and flow.

With this approach, we can keep the roguelike spirit and “high stakes” commitment to your run intact, while still providing some quality-of-life convenience for players who like to experience Returnal in shorter bursts. So next time you’re deep into a lengthy session on Atropos and life comes knocking at your door, you’ll be able to simply Suspend Cycle and jump back in at a more convenient time.

The Call of Duty franchise has always been about great gunplay, underlined by the diversity of weapon classes and multiples of attachments creating a vast breadth of options to choose from before heading into battle.  But experienced players know it’s more than how much damage a particular weapon does, or how quickly the downsight speed of another allows you to strengthen your K/D ratio – – how a weapon feels to a particular player has as much to do with success as anything. 

At Sledgehammer Games, we’re happy to let PlayStation 5 players know about how Call of Duty: Vanguard is going to leverage the features of the DualSense wireless controller to elevate the sense of immersion and bring an array of tactile experiences to different weapons in the game.  In a game about warfare on a global scale, the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers of the DualSense controller provide us an opportunity to bring that experience to life like no prior generation of console could. 

Here are some examples of what PS5 players can expect to experience on Call of Duty: Vanguard when it launches on November 5:

The Art of the Trigger Pull

Our goal in Call of Duty: Vanguard was to simulate the trigger weight of real-world weapons, and to give the player the opportunity to find the trigger pull that works for them in the game. This is greatly aided by the feedback applied by the DualSense controller’s adaptive triggers.  

There are several stages of a trigger pull in the game: the “take-up” or distance a trigger travels once a player starts to press it.  Then there’s the “break” – – or the point at which the shot is fired once a correct amount of pressure is applied.  Then there’s the “over-travel” which is how far the trigger pulls after the break point, and finally, the “trigger reset”, which stops automatic firing and resets the break.

It’s at the “break” stage that the DualSense controller’s adaptive triggers apply varying degrees of feedback to help create the feeling of weight on the trigger.  This feedback is applied differently for different weapons, creating a more accurate sense of trigger weight for each.

For instance, if you’re running around with a 1911 sidearm you’ll feel a moderate amount of tension as you get to the break point, but it won’t hold the same weight as that M1 Garand marksman rifle:

Additionally, what this means is that you are really going to feel the power of your LMG as you’re blasting through those doors and walls in Vanguard’s new reactive environments …

Much more than you would, say, the fast, rolling jolts as you’re spraying fire into an enemy’s direction with your SMG or even an AR, like the STG:

Hi everyone! I’m Stephen Rhodes, narrative lead on Call of Duty: Vanguard. With me is Robert Lo, senior narrative designer at Sledgehammer Games.  We’re excited to be able to give PlayStation players an even deeper look at the human element that makes up the heart of Call of Duty: Vanguard, especially as the game’s release quickly approaches on November 5.  

Below we provide insight into a couple of the lead characters from Vanguard’s single-player Campaign, who will also be playable in Multiplayer: Arthur Kingsley and Polina Petrova.  Then, we debut a couple of characters from Vanguard’s Multiplayer we have yet to detail anywhere else: Daniel Take Yatsu and Padmavati Balan.  We will also be showcasing for the first time the Operator Bio videos for these four characters.

With that, let’s jump in.

The Humanity at the Heart of Call of Duty: Vanguard

Vanguard’s campaign is a story about a group of diverse soldiers who put aside their differences for a common cause: stopping a secret Nazi plot in the final days of WWII.  Their mission also represents the origins of a new kind of combat unit that moved and fought unlike any one before it: the Special Forces. 

Even though it’s a larger-than-life story, at Vanguard’s heart is a universal experience many of us have lived: finishing a tough job with a band of coworkers you didn’t choose and making true friendships and lasting bonds along the way.

Writing Vanguard’s campaign was a meaningful and rewarding experience for all of us on the narrative team. I’ve always had an interest in WWII, and it was exciting to do in-depth research with our fantastic historical consultant Marty Morgan. With his boundless knowledge, we were able to uncover many of the lesser-known stories and heroes to draw inspiration from. 

As writers, we also had the opportunity to write the distinct voices of characters who came from very specific locales at a specific moment in history.  For our British characters, that meant we had to delve into the Britishisms of the era, and for our Australian lead character, Lucas Riggs, it meant exploring the truly broad canvas of Aussie language.  Each of our heroes has a singular way of talking that sounds uniquely like them, and that’s the result of some careful research and close listening. 

Our goal was to tell a unique and refreshing story set within the conflict. While there might be elements of history you’re familiar with, this is a story that is unique to Call of Duty.

Today we’re extremely excited to share with you details about some of Vanguard’s characters, and provide insight into how we created their distinct personalities. We’ll discuss who these characters are, what they mean to us, and how they fit into Vanguard’s overall narrative.

We’re going to focus our time on four of our heroic operators. Two you will meet during Vanguard’s epic campaign, and the other two can be found only within our diverse Multiplayer roster. Let’s get started!

The Stories Behind Four Multiplayer Operators 

Arthur 

Arthur Kingsley is the leader of the Special Operations Task Force sent into Germany to uncover the truth surrounding Projekt Phoenix. What’s exceptional about Arthur as a leader is not his ability to comm