Search

Game News

This week on Destruction AllStars: Bluefang Challenge Series and Season 1 sneak peek

Game Ace Pro 0 0

Launching Destruction AllStars has been an amazing experience for the team at Lucid. We’re truly humbled by the community’s reception to the game and are extremely grateful for all the support we’ve been seeing on social media. 

It’s thanks to the community that some of our first patches and hotfixes have been able to target and improve certain areas of the game, as well as improving our direction on future patches. Today, we wanted to run through our progress since launch as well as revealing more about the road ahead for Destruction AllStars, including our first season of content!

We’ve been responding to a wide range of community feedback around the game as fast as we can, some of the highlights of these changes include being able to earn Destruction Points from in-game challenges, adding new server regions and adding higher rarity character skins for you to further personalise your AllStars. Community feedback is important to Destruction AllStars as we’re committed to building a game that you’re excited to play, week on week. 

In our last blog post, we outlined the new content coming to the game in the form of featured playlists. Over the next few months, we’ll be changing up the rules a little on our core game modes and inviting players to try a new perspective during online matches. Our first featured playlist, Mayhem 8v8, went live last week and we’ve been listening to everyone’s thoughts and impressions of the game mode whilst jumping in for a few games ourselves. Stockpile 4v4 is our next featured playlist on the horizon and we’re eager to see how you’ll all tackle the smaller, more focused team size when trying to maintain control of your banks.


Alongside our featured playlists, we’re still delivering brand new content each and every month. These include our Challenge Series which are single player experiences based around an AllStar and their Rival. They offer a small cinematic experience along with some gameplay challenges to earn some awesome cosmetics! You can learn more about our Challenge Series in one of our other blog posts.

Bluefang’s Challenge Series has just gone live. It’s time to explore more about his backstory and motivations for competing in Destruction AllStars whilst demolishing your way through the arena in his Hero Vehicle, Shredder. Face off against Bluefang’s Rival, Angelo Avello, in seven gameplay challenges and earn exclusive cosmetics including an epic skin and emote. Be sure to let us know which AllStar you’d like to see featured in a Challenge Series in the future.

Oh, and we’re hosting a Double XP Weekend starting this Friday. It’s a great chance to earn AllStar Coins and grab some of our Heroic or Legendary skins.

DA-Roadmap-US-ENG

Introducing Seasons in Destruction AllStars

Destruction AllStars was built from the ground up to deliver content to the community at regular points throughout the year. We knew that we’d always want to be adding to the game and giving you more things to do whilst keeping old game mod

Returnal: Four mysteries from the new story trailer answered

Game Ace Pro 0 0

Today, we are very proud to debut our new story trailer for Returnal with you all and reveal more information about the game’s story ahead of next month’s release. This PS5 exclusive combines explosive action, roguelike elements, and cinematic storytelling to create a dark, sci-fi action thriller.

Storytelling is a big new feature to Housemarque games and we have a bold story to tell. Our goal with Returnal is to tell a mysterious, layered, and haunting story that – like our explosive action gameplay and roguelike twists – is something you discover, replay, and rethink on every play.

Our narrative direction and storytelling philosophy with Returnal is that the story should not compromise the gameplay. Instead it should rationalise, deepen, and blend with it. We’ve already touched upon the game’s combat systems, so in today’s blog post I’ll shed more light on some of Returnal’s mysteries and the challenges Selene faces from a narrative perspective . . First, make sure to watch our Story trailer below.

Returnal: Four mysteries from the new story trailer answered

1. An unauthorised recon mission gone wrong

Our story follows Selene, a Greek-American ASTRA deep space scout who is a complex and layered character that is driven to a fault, intelligent, and resourceful. For the first time in her career she goes against orders to travel to the alien planet Atropos to follow the “White Shadow” broadcast signal. Upon arrival she crash lands in an alien forest. Here she discovers the ruins of an alien civilisation filled with statues, gates, xeno-tech, and alien corpses. But she’s not alone. The planet’s surface is teeming with hostile creatures that attack Selene on sight, as well as other threats left by the world’s former inhabitants

Across Atropos everything is hostile, alien or mysterious, leaving Selene to be one of our sole human elements. So it was important for us that our lead was a compelling, complex character that players would root for and want to understand better. I am very happy to share that Selene is voiced in a raw and grounded performance by Jane Perry (recently Diana Burnwood in the Hitman Trilogy), while her visual appearance and facial capture is performed by Anne Beyer.  

Returnal

We wanted Selene’s suit to be in stark contrast to the dark and outlandish world she’s stuck in. Bright and clean design is a canvas to show her journey on, an

Mega March promotion comes to PlayStation Store

Game Ace Pro 0 0

The Mega March promotion ushers in a vast boutique of discounted games onto PlayStation Store! Starting Wednesday March 17 and running until Wednesday, March 31* there’s 60% off a bunch of titles. That includes the likes of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, Need for Speed Heat: Deluxe Edition and Fallout 4. 

Below is a select list of games that are part of the promotion. For the full list plus your regional discounts, head here (for EU players) and here (for US players). 

  • Assassin’s Creed The Ezio Collection
  • Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Deluxe Edition
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops III – Zombies Chronicles
  • Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time
  • Control
  • Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot Deluxe Edition
  • Dying Light
  • Fallout 4
  • Far Cry New Dawn
  • FIFA 21 Champions Edition PS4 & PS5
  • Middle-earth: Shadow of War Definitive Edition
  • Need for Speed  Heat Deluxe Edition
  • The Sims 4
  • Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege Deluxe Edition
  • Watch Dogs 2

*Mega March promotion ends at 23.59pm local time on March 31. For regional discounts, please check related product pages on your local PlayStation Store. 

Rainbow Six Siege’s latest season Crimson Heist starts today

Game Ace Pro 0 0

Greetings Operators. The team at Ubisoft wanted to drop an update on Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege’s latest season. Please read on.

—-

Hello Operators, and welcome to Year 6 Season 1 of Rainbow Six Siege: Crimson Heist. We want to give you an overview of what to expect from the game’s latest update, which is going live today on PS4 and PS5. As well as a look at our new operator and reimagined map, we’ve got details on an upcoming Free Weekend. 

Rainbow Six Siege’s latest season Crimson Heist starts today

Meet Flores, master thief and remote-controlled explosive expert 

Firstly, let’s introduce you to the game’s newest operator: Flores. This brand-new addition to team Rainbow from Argentina is a food-truck owner by day, and most importantly, a master thief by night.

Flores has access to a remote-controlled explosive device: he can deploy this at his feet, and drive it through the map during a limited period. At the end of the timer (or earlier if you choose), the device will arm itself, become bulletproof, and start a short fuze countdown, at the end of which it detonates in a powerful explosion. Flores also comes armed with an AR33 and a SR-25.

If you want to make the most out of team Rainbow’s latest recruit, you will need to be sly. His ability makes him a powerful support operator to use from the backline. He has excellent area denial and soft breach capacities. But in Rainbow Six Siege, you can never win alone, and it is especially true for Flores. He is vulnerable while he is guiding his drone, so make sure your friends are protecting you.

Oh, and do not forget to check if there is a Mozzie or a Mute in the enemy team. You would not want something bad to happen to your RCE, don’t you?

A reimagined Border map

You will also have access to a reimagined Border map, which has been newly reworked with an interior balcony connecting the east staircase to the break room. The bathroom has also been extended to be connected to the tellers. It is a new challenging environment with some entry blocked, a reduced number of destructible walls and an additional outside staircase.

Rainbow Six Siege Free Weekend 

If you are waiting to invite your friends to Rainbow Six Siege’s intense close-quarters multiplayer action, there is no better time. Assemble your squad and invite them to play for free on PS4 from March 18 to 24.

Introducing Haven, a new Montreal-based independent studio

Game Ace Pro 0 0

It’s been a strange and difficult past 12 months. The pandemic, social injustice, and job elimination have impacted many of my closest friends, family, and co-workers. All of these factors, paired with an inability to see friends and family face-to-face, lulled me into a kind of self-reflective cocoon where I had to ask myself some tough questions about what really matters.

I’ve been making games for a long time — over 25 years now! I’ve had the opportunity to lead the creation of two highly successful original IPs and build multiple teams and studios from the ground up. Some of these adventures have been more successful than I could have ever imagined, and others less so. 

Several people have asked me recently: “After all of these experiences, do you still want to be in the games industry?” The answer is always an unwavering YES! The games industry is where I belong!

Whether it’s playing Settlers of Catan with my kids or Valheim with my team, games continue to bring me joy. They’re a way to relax, connect, and share experiences with people I care about. And the act of making games is, in many ways, even more fulfilling. Getting to bring together experts across so many different creative fields – from music composers, to concept artists, to programmers (yes! programmers are creative too!) into a perfectly synched orchestra that delivers new worlds for players to explore. For me, there is nothing more fulfilling or rewarding I can imagine doing.

As I took stock of my career over the last few years and started to think about what to do next, I came to a very simple conclusion: I need to get back to what I love doing most, and do so in a way that gives our team the freedom to explore, inspire, and create. 

And so today I’m announcing Haven, an independent studio where many of the talented game developers I have worked with for years (and love dearly!) are coming together to do what we are most passionate about. It’s time for us to refocus on GAMES in a place where we can practice our crafts without any barriers or impediments. We want to create worlds where players can escape, have fun, express themselves, and find community. We want to pour our passion into a project. We want to make something wondrous for people to experience. Because we believe in the power of games to bring joy to people’s lives. And Sony does, too. Their commitment to excellence is unmatched. It’s why I couldn’t be happier for their backing and support.

Together, we want to create games that are a haven for players, and we want to build a studio that is a haven for developers. So, while we don’t have many details to announce today, I want the PlayStation community to know that Haven Studios is already hard at work on an unannounced IP. We can’t wait to show you more!

Mundaun invites you to a world of hand-drawn horror on PS4 tomorrow

Game Ace Pro 0 0

Hello, everyone. I am Michel Ziegler, the creator and developer behind Mundaun, a folklore-inspired horror game and my first full-length title as a one-man game development studio!

Mundaun has been a passion project for me since I began development in 2014. Every character, scene and even environmental textures in the game are hand-pencilled – you can imagine how much drawing I’ve had to do over the years.

It’s amazing to finally share the game with you all after working on it for so many years. Creating a game as a solo developer has certainly been an exciting journey, one with plenty of ups and downs.

Collecting references for inspiration

The Alps hold a special importance to me, and everything from Mundaun’s story to its characters and environments celebrate the remarkable culture of the Swiss region of Grisons. Mundaun is heavily inspired by the Alps’ rich history of myth and culture, and pays homage to the oppressive atmosphere of works like Jeremias Gotthelf’s “The Black Spider”.

In order to do so, I tried to gather as many books and references for many of the elements I’ve included in the game. I have been scavenging thrift stores over the years, and must have collected at least 50 books with old photographs from rural life in the Alps, which are my biggest visual inspirations for the look of the game. The atmosphere these black and white pictures have, to me, is a window into almost a different world, and I wanted to immerse myself in the world in a way.

Scouting real-life locations

The chapel in Mundaun was the very first thing I modeled for the game. I didn’t really have a plan for a game, but I started to create this small piece of a world that featured a chapel, and the ideas continued to flow from there.

It’s still one of my favorite places in the game, and one where you can see that the game is entirely drawn by hand. Everything from the ceiling to the windows and the benches were inspired by this chapel in Platenga, which is full of these incredible drawings and paintings. It’s like a drawing inside of the game.

Another location in the game is the Painter’s House, which is a real house that was built and used by an artist named Alois Carigiet in the 1950s. He was a very well-known Swiss painter and illustrator of children’s books. He put a variety of drawings on the house walls, one of which inspired a puzzle i

Severed Steel – a new FPS big on bullet time and stylish gunplay

Game Ace Pro 0 0

Hi, I’m Matt and I’m thrilled to announce my FPS project Severed Steel. Severed Steel is a single-player shooter featuring a fully destructible voxel environment, loads of bullet time, and a unique one-armed protagonist.

Severed Steel – a new FPS big on bullet time and stylish gunplay

Maybe the most unique aspect of Severed Steel is its protagonist, Steel. Steel loses her arm in an accident just before the start of the game. EdenSys, the gigantic corporation responsible for her injury, decides to abandon her rather than help. The campaign is about Steel liberating others crushed under the boot of EdenSys while seeking revenge for her abandonment. 

The missing arm concept came to me while thinking a lot about gameplay mechanics. I wanted to subvert the concept of reloading in shooting games, and I liked the concept of players constantly throwing, ditching, and picking up new weapons. I considered the idea of a one-armed character. Someone that would find creative ways to keep well-stocked with ammo in the midst of battle: rather than worry about reloading, they’d use their agility to steal weapons from enemies’ hands. Having a one-armed character who can’t reload opened a lot of unique gameplay. But the decision to have a protagonist with one arm meant I was dealing with a subject outside my own experience. And if the game were to star such a protagonist, it must be playable by people who can relate to Steel’s experience.

Before committing to the character design I researched what it is like to be a gamer with one arm. Through that I discovered a lot. For instance: Did you know there is a vibrant community on YouTube of highly skilled console FPS gamers who play with one arm? Taking my learnings from that, I made sure to include a custom button binding option to be dictated by the player. Once I was confident I could realize the character of Steel in an inclusive way, I committed to the design. 


Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

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


This week, the team fielded your listener letters with quality recommendations on games that can be completed in a night or two. Plus, we get the soundtrack from Astro’s Playroom stuck in our heads again.video gamespodcastplaystation

Stuff We Talked About

  • Little Nightmares II
  • Sackboy: A Big Adventure
  • Astro’s Playroom
  • Limbo
  • Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture
  • Firewatch
  • We Were Here
  • Outriders

The Cast

Tim Turi –  Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE

Kristen Zitani – Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE

Share of the Week: Inspiring Women

Game Ace Pro 0 0

In celebration of International Women’s Day earlier this week, we asked you to share the amazing women in games that have inspired you over the years using #PSshare #PSblog. We didn’t just ask for your shares, but to tell us what about these heroines and anti-heroes struck a chord with you. Here are this week’s inspiring highlights: 

“Remaining strong after a great loss in her life, Aloy is nothing short of a strong heroine. All while projecting kindness to others. Something I relate to and try to do daily.” – @kaytanaa on Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn

“Lara Croft will always be special to me –  This character has genuinely helped and inspired me.” – @XxPAGZxX on Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider series

She is a supporting antagonist in Ghost of Tsushima.
She is not samurai, but she is a born killer. Strong & Beautiful.” – @azuazu1202luna on Tomoe from Ghost of Tshushima

“Jesse takes in so much and adjusts her perspective on reality without fully understanding what’s going on. All she knows is that if she doesn’t fix things, the world is in danger.” – @MdeavorVP on Jesse Faden from Control

“A unique female character that held her own with her brother and ended up becoming his savior from Jack the Ripper. She had strength, smarts & leadership skills. BONUS: We also got to play older Evie!” – @MisthosLiving on Evie Frye of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

“Seeing Raven overcome her past hardships and grow as a person was amazing to see and carries a meaningful message. Her teaming up with Kat in Gravity Rush 2 was one of the game’s highlights.” – @Draikin on Raven from Gravity Rush 2

“Not all strong women in video games need carry a weapon. Hailey Cooper is know in East Harlem for her talent

Crash 4 dev shares top 10 skins to celebrate launch on PS5

Game Ace Pro 0 0

Everybody’s favorite Bandicoot spins onto PlayStation 5 today with Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. The dev team at Toys for Bob is thrilled about the improved graphics and performance, DualSense controller features, and all the other enhancements on the way. Of course, Crash and Coco also have a host of colorful skins fans can unlock by playing. To mark the occasion, I run down my favorite outfits from Crash 4, in no particular order. 

Also, in celebration of Crash Bandicoot’s 25th anniversary, with the franchise’s original entry launching all the way back on the original PlayStation in 1996, players can enjoy the Bare Bones skins in Crash Bandicoot 4, available for free upon completion of the game’s second level.

That, of course, is in addition to the Time Shattering skins that players can get first on PlayStation (pictured at the top of this article).*

Through the Ringer Crash

The inspiration for this one was how at the end of every Jackie Chan movie, there were always out takes and bloopers where you would get to see how injured Jackie would get pulling off these incredible stunts.  So, we thought it would be fun to award a skin upon completion of the main story, showing that Crash and Coco “went through the ringer” and came out the other end of this adventure a little worse for wear.  I think this one is hilarious, and the stickers the art team added to the casts push it over the top for me.

General Rule Coco

This Skin is one of the many skins we added in the game that touch on a reference or idea from previous Crash Bandicoot games, but with a fun, unique Toys for Bob spin.  The idea behind this one was a fun “what if” scenario – What If Neo Cortex Successfully trained Crash and Coco to lead his mutant armies? What would they look like?  The concept for this is just so much fun with the old-school evil villain details all over – I especially love the Neo Cortex “N” on the brim of the hat and Coco’s boots here.

RSS