Greetings, Wanderers! Get ready to immerse yourself in a world of boundless exploration and adrenaline-pumping battles. Tower of Fantasy, the immersive open-world RPG brought to you by Perfect World Games, is making its grand debut on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on August 8th (UTC+0), and pre-order is officially open today. Brace yourselves as you craft your very own one-of-a-kind character and embark on an unforgettable journey, either alone or alongside your friends. This world awaits your arrival.

Let’s dive into some of the amazing features that will make your journey truly extraordinary. 

Liu Huo, the fierce fighter with an artistic soul

After the release on PlayStation, all wanderers can take an adventure in the map called Domain 9, filled with eastern aesthetics. You’ll also encounter an intriguing character named Liu Huo—a spirited and formidable girl with an undeniable passion for martial arts. She loves to wear a vibrant red dress reflecting her prowess in combat and her role as the guardian of Farewellville. However, there’s more to Liu Huo than meets the eye. Beyond her rough exterior lies a burning passion for the arts, particularly painting, and calligraphy. Join Liu Huo as she strives to balance her pursuit of elegance with her spirited nature, and witness firsthand the extraordinary journey that awaits her.

To reflect Liu Huo’s personality, we put a lot of thought into designing her appearance, combat actions, and skill effects. There are many eastern elements can be found in Liu Huo’s appearance. Her outer garment is made of silk with embroidered golden patterns on the collar. Her weapon is a giant brush called Pine Comet, which suits her refined taste. Additionally, the character “霸”  is written on her legs, symbolizing her dominant personality. 

When designing her combat moves, we fused calligraphy and martial arts, capturing the essence of ink painting. We utilized vibrant blue and orange flames to intensify the visual impact, employing brushstrokes to convey varying levels of intensity. As Liu Huo unleashes her weapon “Pine Comet” in battle, it’s as if she wields a brush, evoking a formidable presence. However, keen-eyed observers familiar with Chinese characters might catch a stroke error. It appears that Liu Huo still has room to grow on her path to be a real artist.

Immersive PS5 features

The DualSense wireless controller allows us to provide an immersive experience through haptic feedback. During intense battles, when hitting enemies or facing moments of crisis with significant blood loss, the controller’s haptics help you accurately assess the current combat environment. Outside of combat, appropriate haptics during key story moments create a thrilling experience. When racing, the controller’s vibrations accompany intense collisions, making it feel like a steering wheel and immersing you in the e

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This week the team talks Summer Game Fest 2023 and discusses their hands-on time with the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1. Plus the team gets into Diablo IV and the sinister legacy of the classic franchise.

Stuff We Talked About

• Final Fantasy XVI
• Crash Team Rumble (w/ Wumpa Fruit deep-dive)
• PlayStation Plus Game Catalog for June + PS5 Game Streaming news update for Premium members
• Summer Game Fest 2023
• Mortal Kombat 1 hands-on report (starts at 6:35)
• Diablo IV

The Cast

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Last week, we asked you to find shiny things in the game of your choice, sharing using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights: 

ps5_raz shares a shiny golden helmet in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

secondcapture shares Rivet with a shiny glowing gadget in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

danliest shares Aloy swimming amongst shiny glowing bioluminescent plants in Horizon Forbidden West

TheFourthFocus shares the shiny fender of a silver car in GT7

Mur4dQ shares the shiny dog and weapons of the humans in Humanity

imroyank shares a shiny butterfly in Fortnite.

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: The Last of Us
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on June 21, 2023

Next week, we’re celebrating ten years of The Last of Us. Share your favorite moment from the series using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Before Escape Academy, Coin Crew Games produced location-based entertainment (LBE) experiences such as escape rooms and arcade cabinets. Producing an escape room called Space Squad in Space is how Wyatt Bushnell and Mike Salyh met, placing them on the path to founding Coin Crew Games. 

The original goal for the studio was to design casual arcade experiences for large groups of friends to have some friendly competition. These first arcade cabinets took the shape of the licensed racing machine Hot Wheels: King of the Road and Coin Crew Game’s first original title, Battle Bowling.

Battle Bowling pits up to four people against each other who must frantically spin a large orb to navigate a hazardous track and knock over the most pins. It will bowl your mind.

During the development of our third cabinet, the pandemic struck, forcing the closure of physical entertainment spaces. We figured out how to translate our talent and experience into a digital title. This exploration brought us to the idea of bringing the escape room experience to the digital space. 

And thus, Escape Academy was born!

The difference in physical versus digital and making the transition

Unlike most digital titles, physical experiences range from three to sixty minutes, so a key component is ensuring the game is immediately understandable with zero tutorialization. Players need to understand the objective simply by looking at the cabinet. Becoming practiced at simplicity was a key component in making Escape Academy accessible.

In the case of Hot Wheels: King of the Road, the goal is simple. Outdrive your friends and be the first to the finish line.

Regarding puzzle design, an essential component is building clues and ways for players to deduce the solution. In real-life escape rooms, everything is a potential clue at first glance, so players spend much of the experience inspecting objects to determine their relevance to the puzzles. To recreate this digitally, every object in the environment must be programmed as an interactable, which posed a challenge scope-wise.

This engineering limitation made us decide to be very selective about what pieces of the environment became interactable, which afforded us much control over guiding the player’s path through the room. This was a critical way that balanced our rooms and ensured that all the puzzles remained accessible instead of overwhelming. Naturally, this “balancing” process takes some trial and error. However, Coin Crew Games had already established a rigorous playtesting regiment for their physical experiences which was another essential part of the process needing a digital translation.

In the past, we would observe people playing and note how they moved through the space, their body posture, and how many quarters they put into the machine. The shift to digital evolved into running 2-6 playtests a week while the players’ screen shared their game view and team members observed the play patterns. We encouraged our playtesters to discuss their thought processes while solving puzzles to hone in on misleading clues.

Art and environment

Operating in the digital space allows for immense latitude in environment design because the laws of physics, space cons

SEGA is pleased to announce that Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is slated for release on Nov. 9, 2023 Pre-orders are now available and the first official trailer for the game has been released. Pre-order for the PlayStation® Store will start at a later date.

A brand-new title that depicts Kazuma Kiryu’s story after the events of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. Featuring improved combat, new stages, and characters, an abundance of entertaining minigames, and a star-studded cast!

Story

An Untold Story from Kazuma Kiryu’s Point of View – What must you sacrifice to protect the ones you love?

Having faked his own death to protect his loved ones, Kazuma Kiryu, the once-renowned yakuza, now lives in obscurity.

He occasionally receives missions as a secret agent for the Daidoji Faction, a shadowy organization that once operated as a fixer for the government. Kiryu’s very existence is kept a closely guarded secret within Daidoji. There he languishes away each day in his self-imposed solitude. Until one day, somebody arrives to drag Kiryu back into the fold.

ULTIMATE COMBAT WITH TWO HIGH-IMPACT FIGHTING STYLES

Dynamically switch between the Yakuza and Agent fighting styles in visceral melee combat. With the Yakuza Style, strike fear into enemies by unleashing wildly aggressive moves powered by Kiryu’s unparalleled strength and flair. Alternatively, up the ante with the Agent Style by delivering blows with absolute speed and precision, while using an array of high-tech gadgets like electrified bind wires to stun enemies and then send them flying. Strategically adapt to the situation and leverage both styles to dominate and destroy hordes of enemies.

Read more

Arriving June 20 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom introduces a brand-new way to play with the introduction of the Arcanist class. Boasting three unique skill lines and an all-new combat mechanic called the Crux system, Arcanists wield the eldritch powers of Apocrypha to obliterate their foes and protect their allies.

Get the inside scoop on each of the Arcanist’s three new skill lines from Brian Wheeler, Lead Combat Designer for ZeniMax Online Studios, and discover the arcane powers you can wield when exploring the Telvanni Peninsula and worlds beyond.

Herald of the Tome

“The Herald of the Tome skill line is designed mostly around dealing damage to your enemies,” explains Wheeler. “There’s a wide variety of abilities here too, with some dishing out area-based effects while others focus on specific targets. There’s versatility in how you want to inflict pain on your enemies.”

When in design, the team knew the Arcanist had to stand out, so they focused on themes of cosmic horror and Hermaeus Mora’s Black Books, opening an eldritch portal to a wide selection of powers.

“Some abilities have a very crisp and precise look, while others are more chaotic and visceral,” says Wheeler. “In our testing, we saw players load up their entire action bar with Arcanist abilities, so we wanted to ensure that this skill line had a wide breadth of supporting visuals.”

If any one ability captures the feel of the Herald of the Tome skill line, it is Fatecarver, which makes powerful use of the class’s new combat mechanic.

“We wanted players to channel pure arcane energy into a beam they could aim anywhere without requiring a target while also interacting with our new Crux system,” explains Wheeler. 

“The more Crux you have, the harder the beam hits when you cast it.”

Curative Runeforms

“Curative Runeforms adds healing and support to the Arcanist suite of abilities,” says Wheeler. 

“Like the Herald of the Tome line, you can find some good synergies here blending single-target and area-based healing along with some new toys like Apocryphal Gate, granting mobility via a pair of portals.”

Being able to quickly identify what heals and what hurts is vitally important in the heat of battle, so the team made sure that despite having shared origins in Apocrypha, the damaging and healing skill lines appeared distinct.  

“This skill line has less ‘brutal chaotic’ looks to it, and we leaned into some of the watery or inky feel of Apocrypha,” says Wheeler. “For example, Arcanist Domain has a watery edge around its ability while also showing a cool animation as you fling out runes.” 

Soldier of Apocrypha

“The Soldier of Apocrypha skill line is focused mostly on taking damage and surviving,” explains Wheeler. “But there’s also some u

MLB The Show 23 introduced a new game experience celebrating the rich history of the Negro Leagues called Storylines. We couldn’t be happier with the overwhelmingly positive response to this new game experience passion project for the development team. Storylines wouldn’t have been remotely possible without the amazing partnership with the Nego Leagues Baseball Museum and its President, Bob Kendrick.  

A few short weeks ago, plans to build a brand-new museum were announced. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is the world’s only museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African American baseball and its impact on the social advancement of America.  

In partnership with Major League Baseball, The Players Association, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  

Play Video

From today through June 30, only on US digital platform stores where MLB The Show is sold, you can purchase the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Charity Pack ($4.99 USD). PlayStation and San Diego Studio will donate 100% of the proceeds* from this pack after store platform fee deductions are applied to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  

Your purchase of the Negro L