You can’t throw an entirely-made-in-Dreams convention one year and not do it the next, can you? With DreamsCom ’21 opening its virtual doors today, here’s a quick rundown of what you can expect over the next four days from the Dreams coMmunity and us here at Media Molecule!

The DreamsCom show floor

Of course, everything you see at DreamsCom has been made with the Dreams tools, from the opening Media Molecule hall to the incredible coMmunity-created booths that populate over 40 halls throughout the show. This year, we really went for it when it came to the presentation of the show, and our amazing team of Molecules have really exceeded any and all expectations (as they always do, the talented bunch that they are). If you thought last year’s show was amazing, just wait until you step out of the DreamsCom monorail. Yes, really.

The livestreams

Last year we kicked the festivities off with an hour-long showcase of some upcoming coMmunity creations, as well as announcing our VR update for Dreams. This year will look slightly different, but is still full of exciting announcements from our coMmunity – as well as sneak peeks at some upcoming games from us at Mm.

Kicking off DreamsCom ‘21 on July 27, we’ll be live on Twitch at 9am PST / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST with some of that previously-mentioned Mm sneak-peekage, as well as a preview of what’s to come throughout DreamsCom, leading up to the moment the doors open to the DreamsCom show floor in-game! From then on, tune in at 9am PST – 11am PST / 5pm BST – 7pm BST / 6pm CEST – 8pm CEST each day for coMmunity interviews, trailers, demos and everything in between.

And hey, if you’re a Dreams streamer checking out the show floor on your channel, let us know! We’d love to pop by your stream and check out your reaction!

The Impsider coverage

This year, we revealed The Impsider – Dreams’ first and official publication! As well as hosting all our streams, it’ll be covering #DreamsCom21 in full force – daily news roundups, a virtual DreamsCom magazine featuring tonnes of articles and fun activities, and even a handful of recipes to keep you fed while you explore the show. It’ll be the one-stop destination for anyone and everyone attending DreamsCom, as well as those who may miss a day or two!

Download The Impsider’s free DreamsCom companion magazine here.

We’ve got one great week ahead of us, don’t we? As always, you can get involved on social media with the hashtags #DreamsCom21 and #MadeInDreams! If you’re visiting the show, make sure to let us know on Twitter, and share your favourite booths and demos with us! 

Welcome to the brightest Ragnarök you’ve ever seen! Tomorrow, we launch Tribes of Midgard, and while many of you are already in the game chasing down our big boss, Fenrir, we thought it’d be helpful to give some quick tips and tricks, as well as break down some of the enemies you’ll encounter along your journey. 

Many mighty creatures stand between you and stopping Ragnarök, but first here are some tips & tricks for survival in general!

Survival Tips

• First up, let’s get you some clothes, Einherjar! While some Vikings did indeed fight in their underpants (it’s true, look it up!), it’s probably not going to be the best way to take down the Jötnar, Fenrir and all the other creatures in our game. To get started, you’ll want to immediately grab some Flint and Branches – this will get you an axe to chop wood and a pickaxe to mine stone. After you’ve picked up a few resources, go make some clothes! 

• Midgard is a well-trodden world, with numerous beaten paths that mark the journeys of past Vikings. If you stay on the path, you’ll move much faster. This is key for both the early game and for when you need to venture forth to find an approaching Jötunn. Apparently, the Jötnar prefer paths, too, so you can almost always find them by sticking to these existing roadways. 

• Every enemy in Tribes of Midgard has their own special set of attacks and skills. We won’t bore you with all of them, because there are a lot. But, and this is especially helpful for the early game, all these special attacks will knock down trees, break stones and leave resources just hanging out on the ground, ready for you to grab. It’s kind of like how you can Viking-kick down a tree, but more “beastly.”

• As you explore Midgard, you’ll see notifications pop up that tell you about all the new biomes and environments you’re entering. If you see red text, it’s probably best to stop! This indicator is telling you that your Einherjar is probably not strong enough to defeat the enemies you’ll encounter here (I mean, sure it’s possible…but it’s gonna take a while!) You can also always check your Power Level in the inventory window, and mix and match gear to make sure you’re putting your strongest foot forward. 

• Your village is populated by several useful crafters. These folks aren’t just great when you need a new axe; they’ll assist you in fending off the nightly Helthing invasion. Level them up by depositing the Souls you’ve collected and you’ll not only have access to better gear, but they’ll be stronger fighters when it’s time to beat back the darkness.

With the basics under your belt, it is time to bring on the baddies! While we can’t explain every enemy you’ll face in Tribes of Midgard, we wanted to break down some of them that you should approach with caution.

Enemies

The Varúlfur

Roaming the edges of the Bright Forest, Varúlfur are wolf-like warriors who got a little too into their wild side. Once Vikings like you and me (at least when we’re playing the game), they drank elixirs made from forbidden plants found in meadows. Seriously, who leaves that stuff lying around for someone to make elixirs out of?

• If you hear their howl, be on gua

Hello everyone, it’s Alexandre Pernot Lopes from Trebuchet. Winds & Leaves will be available tomorrow on PS VR, and we thought it’d be a great time to share some tips to help you get started before you jump on the Gardener’s stilts.

If you have not yet heard of it, Winds & Leaves is a flora-builder game where you grow forests with your own two hands to restore life in a barren world. Here is the launch trailer:

Play Video

Exciting, isn’t it? Now let’s look at the tips and tricks:

Tip #1 – Expand your forest to explore further

When you try to go too far from your trees, the roots will start to bring you back to the forest. With your bundle of roots fully charged you can venture quite far, but you should always plan ahead, either by having enough fruits to plant and expand the forest into the barren land or by making sure you save enough energy for the way back.

Tip #2 – Your fruit pouch is like your Gardener’s palette

As you progress further in the world, you uncover ancient trees that yield fruits with different traits. Each new variety of fruit will go to one of the six pockets in your pouch. When you start to mix and match fruits with traits that fit new terrain, your pouch will start to fill up and you will have to decide which fruits to keep. Always try to maintain a good variety so you can mix and match to overcome the different soils you will encounter.

Tip #3 – Master time and check on your trees at night

One of your most powerful tools is the Time Mill, which lets you live on the same time scale as trees, passing years in a matter of seconds. When it’s nighttime, you can stop and observe the bond between the trees you planted, it will show you if a tree is not “connected,” meaning it is too far from other trees to be

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

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

Despite the temptation to upload an hour of silence for the sake of the 404 gag, we did, in fact, record a piping-hot episode of the Official PlayStation Podcast for your auditory enjoyment this week. Hope you like it!

Stuff We Talked About

• Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut
• Aloy in Genshin Impact
• Ratchet & Clank in Fall Guys
• Tribes of Midgard
• Demon’s Souls
• Dead Space
• Strategy guides
• Mythic Quest

The Cast

Justin Massongill – Content Communications Manager, SIE

Brett Elston –  Manager, Content Communications, SIE

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Last week, we celebrated the one year anniversary of Ghost of Tsushima. In honor of Jin’s journey we asked you to share honorable (or dishonorable) moments using #PSshare #PSblog. Here are this week’s highlights: 

justinphotomode tries to outrun a storm from horseback.

Virtualaaron1 strikes a daring red pose.

MdeavorV shares the solemn beauty of the Sakai family resting place.

jabivgp captured a fox leaping against the nighttime sky.

Xenolith3D shares Jin ready to face an enemy.

El_K_ma2um0 shows off the details of Jin’s blade.

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: A Plague Tale: Innocence

SUBMIT BY: Wednesday 9 AM PT on July 28

Next week, we’re returning to the rat-infested corners of A Plague Tale: Innocence. Share heart-pounding moments from Amicia and Hugo’s dark journey using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Ready to get back behind the wheel? Revealed today during EA Play Live, welcome to Grid Legends, launching in 2022 on PS5 and PS4.

A thrilling and unpredictable driving experience from Codemasters and EA Games, Grid Legends combines thrilling motorsport action, incredible race variety, and an immersive story that puts the player at the heart of the action. Blending brand new features with a quarter-century legacy of fantastic racing experiences, today’s official reveal trailer kicks off a new chapter for a legendary racing series. 

So, before we really get stuck into that trailer, let’s take a cruise down memory lane… 

Grid Legends: A racing legacy continues

The Grid franchise has been busy tearing up the circuits and streets since 2008, when Race Driver: Grid burst onto the scene to critical acclaim – though in truth, the roots of our racing series stretch back into the 1990s. TOCA Touring Car Championship in 1997 created a buzz with its impressive handling and gameplay, and at the beginning of the millennium, TOCA Race Driver took things to another level. A wide range of racing experiences and a gripping story, introducing us to Nathan and Ryan McKane, set the tone for four Grid games to date, expanding the car list, racing disciplines, locations, online action, and engrossing single-player options.

Whilst the series has taken plenty of different forms in the past 24 years, every title has remained true to three vital factors: Action-packed racing, incredible motorsport variety, and creating memorable racing stories on and off the track. Grid Legends delivers on these key features – and then some. Take a closer look at today’s trailer, and you’ll see what I mean…

Play Video

Trailer Breakdown

The Grid Legends story

A first for the franchise, Grid Legends’ story will be played out via innovative virtual production, blending a fantastic real-life cast, stunning set, and thrilling gameplay to bring you closer to the action than ever before. As the legendary Grid World Series returns for another year, you will be in the spotlight, as a fly-on-the-wall documentary captures every confrontation, all of the paddock politics, and every pivotal moment in the championship, as you challenge the infamous Ravenwest Motorsport, and the McKanes, for dominance on and off the track.

The whole team here is incredibly excited to introduce this new form of storytelling to Grid, brought to life by a world-class crew and cast, including the brilliant Ncuti Gatwa (Netflix’s ‘Sex Education’). Prepare to watch the drama unfold off the track, but also be ready to handle your business on it

Greetings, Agents! Schell Games’ Community Marketing Specialist Adam Kuta reporting in with an exciting update direct from HQ. As you may know, it’s nearly time to hop back into the field and help The Agency put a stop to Zoraxis’ evil plans for world domination. Rise from the ashes and dive deep undercover with six brand-new missions in I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy and The Liar!

Veteran agents who completed the first I Expect You To Die game will feel right at home with the sequel, as many of your favorite elements return. Telekinesis? Check! Immersive environments? Check! Memorable characters and witty dialogue? Check! Various ways to die? Oh, you can expect LOTS of death.

As with all great sequels, we have some exciting new things to discover. Eat delicious cupcakes. Wear mysterious masks. Make your own flamethrower. Reflect deadly lasers. On top of that, your missions have also been given a musical boost as each level will now feature dynamic music that changes as you progress. We’ve even made it easier to relive the magic and mystery of your missions – or share the experience with other new Agents – by implementing three save slots!

Did I mention the theme song? We know how much fans have loved the original’s opening credits, so we created a brand new 360° intro sequence featuring Puddles Pity Party’s smooth baritone vocals!

Play Video

Of course, new recruits are equally fit to take on these new missions, as well – no prior intel of the first game is required! I Expect You To Die 2 features a coh

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Season 5 released this week with an adventurous new theme, inviting players to a super-colourful stumble in the jungle…but not everything is as it seems! Ratchet and Clank have tumbled through a rift to the Blunderdome and have decided to stick around to host two Limited Time Events; extra-special opportunities for players to unlock unique costumes and rewards, fresh for Season 5. We’ve teamed up with PlayStation to let you know what to expect from this dimension-hopping extravaganza, with an artistic insight into how the team brought Insomniac Games’ iconic duo to life… in bean form!

Play Video

Building a Bean…

Designing Fall Guys costumes based on well-established characters such as Ratchet and Clank is always an exciting and interesting creative challenge. As an Art Team, we always want to make sure that our creations feel like a Fall Guy wearing a costume—as if our little beans are championing and cosplaying a character rather than ‘becoming’ them.

Our goal is to reflect this back onto our players’ experience. Sure, a player may pick a costume just because it looks cool and that’s great! But we’re hopeful that many choose to rock a costume because they love the collaboration characters as much as we do and want to show off their fandom to the world through expressing themselves in the Blunderdome.

Concept art created by the Fall Guys team as they began to imagine how Ratchet and Clank could look in bean form.

Bringing Ratchet and Clank to the Blunderdome

When picking characters for a Fall Guys collaboration, one of the defining factors is asking ourselves; “do we think this is cool?” We’re huge gaming fans as well as artists, so if there’s not passion behind the selection, we’re never going to get the great results Fall Guys players deserve.

​​As soon as the possibility of crafting both Ratchet and Clank in bean form came up, the decision was never in doubt; we all wanted to do it! On a personal level as lead artist, Ratchet and Clank are a genuine benchmark. The games they star in show such ambition and the art direction has always left me astounded. As characters, they are instantly recognisable and appealing, so it immediately felt like a great opportunity.

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It’s been quite a year for the team at Sucker Punch (and for everyone). Last July, we shipped Ghost of Tsushima while working from home. Since then, we’ve been overwhelmed with gratitude by the positive responses we received from players all over the world. One year later, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut is set to be released on August 20. We can’t wait to share new stories of Jin Sakai with all of you! 

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As part of the Director’s Cut, you’ll be able to play a new story expansion featuring Jin, set on Iki Island with new locations to discover, characters to meet, tales to complete, and more.

Jin’s journey begins when he discovers that a mysterious Mongol tribe has gained a foothold on Iki. They are led by a revered shaman called Ankhsar Khatun, known to her followers as “the Eagle.” As both a khatun and a shaman, she is not only a conqueror of nations, but a shepherd of souls. And the danger she presents to Jin and his people is unlike any they have faced.

The only way to counter this threat is for Jin to return to Iki Island. He’s been there once before. And in confronting a new and dangerous enemy, he will be forced to face old fears, and unearth deeply buried traumas. As you explore a new island and battle new threats, you’ll also delve into the dark past of clan Sakai… 

Our semi-fictional version of Iki Island provides a stark contrast to Tsushima. It is a wild, lawless land of raiders and criminals, scarred by memories of war, and fiercely independent; the samurai have not been in control there for decades. Skilled though he is, Jin can’t take on the Mongols alone. He will have to work with—or around—a coterie of unsavory characters to take the fight to the Eagle. The cost of failure is too high. If the Eagle and her tribe subdue Iki and muster the support of its people, Tsushima and the rest of Japan will be in grave danger.

The stories you find on Tsushima are filled with action and adventure. The same is true for Iki Island. In the fight to save Iki, Jin will encounter pirates and smugglers, mad monks and haunted caves. There will be new legends to hear, and new techniques to learn. Jin will have to bring all his skills to bear to defeat this n

Hey everyone! I’m Blake Gross, co-founder and technical director at DB Creations, a VR game studio in Bellevue, Washington. We’re super excited to announce that our game, Rhythm ‘n Bullets, is coming to PlayStation VR very soon.

In the game, you will travel across the virtual zone and defend the core by guiding a pair of starfighters through multiple modes of shoot ’em up action. Enemies fly in from all sides, diving towards the core in time with the music. Time your shots to the beat for maximum effect, and grab awesome power-ups to clear each stage. Keep the core safe from danger in the multi-level campaign, and then try to top the leaderboards in endless mode, where the enemies never stop! If you just want to jive to the music, hop into relax mode and practice your skills on any of the levels – spawn any enemies you want and change the beat to fit the mood.

Play Video

Rhythm ‘n Bullets is inspired by classic retro shooters with its wireframe aesthetic, bullet color change mechanic, and music infused gameplay. We wanted to recapture the magic of those arcade games that many of us played when we were younger, while making an awesome and immersive experience for the latest generation of VR technology. Rhythm ‘n Bullets takes those classic ideas and makes them fresh and new all over again by putting you right at the center of the arcade action.

The music was composed in-house by Jesse Holt, our amazing composer and audio director. The soundtrack, like the gameplay, blends the classic with the new, infusing retro motifs with modern electronic music. Each level has a custom track composed for the environment – we built the levels and the soundtrack hand in hand, so that they would blend together harmoniously. The levels also react to the music as you progress in them – a spectrogram guides your path in the Japanese Garden, constellations light the sky to prominent notes in the Galaxy Zone, and the whole world pulses to the beat in Tech City. The music blends into the gameplay, reflecting  how well you play – as your combo multiplier increases, the music builds to match it. When you’re playing your best, you’ll feel maximum presence as the music, environment, and gameplay all seamlessly blend and draw you into t