The Evolution Championship Series (Evo) returns to Las Vegas this weekend, from July 19 to 21. Every summer as the temperature rises, so does the competition. Fans and competitors from the fighting game community head to Las Vegas to celebrate the games that bring us together. Champions will return to defend their titles while new blood tries to make their mark on Evo history. 

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For the second year, Evo 2024 broke the world registration record for an in-person esports event, with over 10,000 registrants and over 50,000 attendees from 63 countries around the world. As the fighting game community continues to grow, Evo is heading to a new, bigger venue: the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Attendees will experience an expanded show floor alongside an arena finals experience for all eight Evo tournaments. The lineup this year is epic: Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Mortal Kombat 1, The King Of Fighters XV, Guilty Gear -Strive-, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes.

New and returning show floor experiences

This year’s event features brand-new show-floor attractions, alongside the return of fan favorites like the Free Play Arcade, Arcade Stick Museum, Cosplay Competition, and hands-on demos of upcoming games.

Evo attendees will also get a hands-on look at new and highly anticipated fighting games, including 2XKO, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Rivals 2, Marvel vs. Capcom: Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, Marvel vs. Capcom: Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, and HunterxHunter NenxImpact.

Make sure to check out the debut of the Evo Art Gallery, a celebration of fighting game history. The Gallery will feature over 100 pieces, including illustrations, promotional posters, and more. 

The Evo Cosplay Competition will showcase world-class cosplayers dressed as characters from your favorite fighting games.

The Arcade Controller Museum highlights the brands and communities of fighting games. Experience the history of the arcade controller and check out a vast collection of Evo controllers, community pieces, game-licensed fight sticks, and more. 

The team at Red Barrels is extremely excited to dive deeper into our very first seasonal update, Project Lupara. For any newcomers, The Outlast Trials is a cooperative PvE experience where up to four players, known in-game as Reagents, participate in experiments that push their psyches to the absolute limit. Our imminent (and free) update, Project Lupara’ packs a major wallop, including a brand-new story trial (it’s gross), a brand-new map (even grosser), and a brand-new Rig. 

On top of all that, we’re proud to introduce what all our Reagents have been fearfully waiting for: The sniffling, whining, bloodthirsty Franco ‘Il Bambino’ Barbi. The first of his kind, Franco hunts players with his beloved Lupara, a sawed-off shotgun that gives him range beyond any Outlast villain thus far.

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The perverse son of New Orleans mafia don Salvatore Barbi, Franco is driven by craven entitlement, greed, and psychosexual violence fueled by his impotence and insecurities, a freakish “big baby” obsessed with his Pacifier the titular boom stick he suckles on when he’s not using it to blow some poor unsuspecting Reagent to smithereens (including all that fun gore and viscera you’ve come to expect from us). With a face even his mother couldn’t love, players will be introduced to Franco in the new story Trial, Poison the Medicine, which will transport Reagents to The Docks, a brand-new map, and Barbi’s home turf.

Can’t get enough Barbi? During the four weeks following the release of the update, the fine folks at Murkoff have taken it upon themselves to shuttle Franco around to the other trials in the Bambino special event. Mother Gooseberry and Sergeant Coyle have promised to play nice, though I’d continue to keep my distance if I were you.

Escalation Therapy, a new game mode being introduced alongside this update, will allow hardcore Reagents to partake in a seemingly never-ending experience that will pit them against a series of randomized Trials, with randomized variations, and randomized upgrades. No playthrough will be the same, but each one will have you clawing your eyes out until you beg for mercy. And just when you think it’s over, the cycle begins anew. Start with nothing, survive as long as you can, and reap your rewards.

Hi PlayStation community—I’m Chris Stair, the creative director of Squid Shock Studios, and I’m excited to have an opportunity to share some insights into our first game, Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, a hand-drawn action-platformer coming out on PlayStation 5 on July 17.

Some of the big inspirations for Bō are the 2D action-exploration games I grew up playing. I love the wonder and mystery that comes with exploration, the thrill of finding new abilities, and the sense of satisfaction when you figure out how to use those skills you’d found to uncover a secret path.

Some of my favorite games in the genre also have really memorable traversal: bombing yourself up a wall, launching yourself off enemies, or just backwards dashing through a castle hall. In Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, we wanted to create a movement and combat system with its own distinctive, rewarding rhythm—something that can make you feel like you’ve entered a “flow” state when everything comes together—and wanted to talk a bit more about that with you today.

Get the flow going

Bō isn’t capable of doing a double jump by default, so one technique you’ll need to learn early on is what we call the Bump. When Bō strikes an object or an enemy with the Equinox Staff while airborne, you’ll glow teal, giving you the ability to do a mid-air jump. If you strike something again after that second jump, you’ll glow again and can do a third jump, and so on.

You’ll frequently combine this with Bō’s Pogo move to get even more airtime. If you press down and strike an object while you’re on the descent, you’ll not only immediately bounce up and get some height, but you’ll reset your jump ability too, enabling you to perform another mid-air leap right afterward.

And as long as there are objects or monsters in the environment to hit, you can keep Bumping and Pogoing basically indefinitely, staying airborne for as long as you can keep up the rhythm. It becomes a little game of its own.

Eventually, you’ll discover other traversal abilities that let you dash or smash downward forcefully through the air. We hope that as you play and get familiar with your abilities, you’ll start to see opportunities throughout the game for all of these things to work together—enemy spawns during a boss battle, seemingly incidental environmental objects, curious platform placement—and get into a really rewarding groove.

Trouble brewing 

These abilities aren’t just for movement; they power your combat skills, too. One critical component of the action is the mystic Tea Kettle you get early on from Asahi, a rabbit tentaihana (a sprite-like being) who plays a central role in your entire journey.

When you strike enemies with your Equinox Staff, including when you Bump or Pogo, you’ll siphon their energy into the kettle and brew up some tea. You can then use that tea in a number of ways, such as restoring your health (if you can find a moment of peace) or summoning one of the Daruma Dolls you’ve collected, which unleash some of the game’s most powerful attacks.

The Daruma Dolls especially love hot tea. The hotter your tea is when you summon a Daruma, the more devastating their at

MLB The Show 24 is gearing up to be your source for all things All-Star. From the Futures Game and Skills Showcase to the 2024 Draft, Home Run Derby, and All-Star Game, you can count on finding all-new content, including Programs, Moments, and Missions that let you relive some of the biggest plays from All-Star Week, as well as plenty of brand-new player items featuring some of the biggest 2024 All-Star athletes. So be sure to pick up those sticks and get into a game with MLB The Show 24 during All-Star Week to experience All-Star excitement from the comfort of your own home.

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Team Affinity Season 2: Chapter 2

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Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or download here

Howdy! This week the PlayStation Podcast crew talks gamer rage, and the team sits down with Vertigo Games Creative Director Martin de Ronde and Game Director Samar Louwe to discuss Metro Awakening’s upcoming PS VR2 release. And of course, more Elden Ring DLC talk.

Stuff We Talked About

• Upcoming releases
  • Darkest Dungeon II | PS5, PS4
  • Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn | PS5
  • EA Sports College Football 25 | PS5
• PlayStation Plus Game Catalog for July: Remnant II, Crisis Core – Final Fantasy VII – Reunion, and more
• Astro’s Playroom Update Blog
• PS VR2 Day highlights
• Interview w/ Martin de Ronde and Samar Louwe (starts at 13:05)
• Listener letter
• Elden Ring DLC

The Cast

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Last week, we players to travel the world through their favorite games, and highlight real-life tourist locations using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

call_me_xavii shares Aloy taking in the Golden Gate Bridge in Horizon Forbidden West.

BBSnakeCorn shares Ellie navigating the Seattle public transit system in The Last of Us Part II.

Amianan_NiRaGuB shares the Palace of the Green Dome in Assassin’s Creed Mirage.

krazydriver88 shares Delsin gazing up at the Space Needle in inFAMOUS Second Son.

gra_o_pada shares Deacon looking out at Wizard Island in Days Gone.

Couch_Gamer2k23 shares Jin riding through the beautiful forests on the island of Tsushima in Ghost of Tsushima.

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: Sailing
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on July 17, 2024

Next week, get your towels ready, it’s about to go down. Share moments sailing on a boat in the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

The eve of Evo, the world’s biggest celebration of fighting games, is almost upon us. This massive event in Las Vegas Will host over 10,000 participants in 2024, making it officially the biggest esports event yet on record. Prepare for plenty of world-premiere announcements, upcoming game showcases, and the main draw: tournaments for eight carefully selected fighting games.

Are you unsure what’s on the roster or what to expect from the different games? We’ve assembled a handy primer on what makes each game special and what to look out for. 

Street Fighter 6 

Publisher: Capcom | Developer: Capcom

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The newest installment of Capcom’s legendary, genre-defining fighting game series. Released last year, it quickly became (and remains) Evo’s biggest game.

Street Fighter 6’s gameplay is built around the all-new Drive gauge. By spending Drive, players can perform all sorts of advanced techniques: the momentum-shifting Drive Impact, the defensive Drive Parry, a fierce Drive Reversal counterattack, the aggressive Drive Rush dashing movement, and the special-move enhancing Overdrive. Drive management is crucial to strategy: running out of Drive puts a competitor in a very bad Burnout position, restricting their Drive usage and inflicting other disadvantageous effects. 

Street Fighter 6, having the largest pool of competitors, is undoubtedly going to have some major upsets in the brackets. Plenty of the biggest names in the Street Fighter series’ competitive scene will be in attendance, but just because you’re a big name doesn’t mean you can’t be caught off-guard by a fresh-faced player who happens to be really good and with two recent DLC character additions, fan favorites M. Bison and Akuma, a lot of surprises could happen. 

Tekken 8

Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment | Developer: Bandai Namco Studios Inc.

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Hello! I’m one of the developers who made Exhausted Man, an absurd sitcom depicting an exhausted life coming to PS5 and PS4 on July 25. In this game, the protagonist can only crawl and does everything while lying down. You can see that in the teaser trailer below.

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Today, I want to tell you how I designed such weird characters.

Origin

It all started with a phrase: running out of energy, which became the theme of a respective game jam. I like to participate in such events, as making a game from scratch in 48 hours is a great way to relax.

Based on the theme, I came up with the idea of “people running out of energy” and built a simple character who was slumped on a couch. I posted a screenshot of it and got a lot of likes – not because of my modeling skills, but due to the resonance of exhaustion the character exuded.

I decided to make a game with this exhausted character – so he couldn’t just stay slumped on the couch, he needed to move. We’re all familiar with how our bodies feel when we’re extremely tired, standing up was not an option, so I made him crawl on the floor.

This crawling animation got even more likes. I tested the crawling maneuver on the ground in real life and it hurt all over. But since people liked it, I kept it.

Crawling like a bug

To crawl, especially on walls, humans need to learn from bugs. First, we made a ladybug that can crawl on any surface in a 3D environment.

The character’s head could

Hello everyone, this is Simon Dasan, A44’s creative director on Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. Today we shed some light on one of the most mysterious aspects of our upcoming game, set for release on July 18 – the gods that have taken over the world of Kian. To do so we’ve released a brand new story trailer and are giving more information below!

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Before the Siege

Before the Door to the Great Below was abruptly torn open, the people of Kian saw the ancient stories of gods and magic as nothing but myths. A new age fueled by black powder technology brought previously bickering nations closer together. Even the most conservative of places such as Three Peaks began to abandon the old ways in pursuit of the riches both trade and technology had to offer.

The Door to the Great Below itself remained as the one, grim reminder of the old world. Once upon a time, the city of Dawn had been built around it by those who struggled to let go of the dead. In modern times the Door had become an unexplainable curiosity, a landmark for a city that was forgetting its past.

The Siege of Dawn

Ten years before the events of the game an unprecedented disaster struck Kian; the Door opened and the Dead themselves marched into the world of the living, overrunning the unsuspecting city of Dawn. By the time there was any understanding of what had transpired the city was lost entirely, those lucky enough to escape the massacre having abandoned the city by the thousands.

The Dead threatened to overrun the entire world. The Coalition was thrown together to answer them, volunteers from many nations gathering themselves into a makeshift army. At tremendous cost, they pushed their enemy back, but ultimately failed to progress further than containing the Dead within the city walls. The Door to the Great Below remained open – and The Siege of Dawn had just begun.

Ten years later, black powder technology has finally advanced far enough to convince Sama, Field Marshal of the Coalition, to sign off on a mission behind enemy lines. Sama entrusts her unit of Sappers with the task of blowing the Door shut and ending a decade of suffering. However, the mission has overlooked a crucial detail; even after all these years, the Coalition remains in the dark concerning exactly how the Door opened… and who opened it.

The Sappers make it deeper into Dawn than a

Concord’s Early Access Beta is almost here! All of us at Firewalk are so excited to finally be able to welcome you all into the Concord galaxy. We can’t wait to hear who your new mains and favorite Freegunners are, or what combos and strats will cook up as you build your crew. Most importantly we can’t wait to queue up and play right alongside you!

Before we head into both our Early Access and Open Beta weekends, we wanted to share some more important information with you like, when you can pre-download, when the servers go live, some goodies you can earn from participating, and more. So, let’s dive in!

Concord Beta Early Access (July 12 – 14) and Open Beta (July 18 – 21)¹

The Concord Beta Early Access weekend on PS5 and PC will begin tomorrow, Friday, July 12, at 10am PDT. If you are playing on a PS5, you can pre-download the Concord Beta starting today, Thursday, July 11 at 10 am PDT.

Pre-ordering any edition of Concord will grant you access to the Beta Early Access weekend, as well as four extra codes you can share with friends so you can squad up with your own crew and take on rival crews together. Your extra codes will be for the same platform you pre-ordered on. Additionally, we’re excited that PlayStation Plus is also inviting all members to participate in the Beta Early Access weekend. Just look for the option to download and play the beta when you boot up your PS5.

Our Open Beta will begin next week, from Thursday, July 18, at 10am PDT, through Sunday, July 21. You will also be able to pre-download on PS5 starting Wednesday, July 17 at 10 AM PDT.

Get to know the Concord galaxy  

During the Early Access and Open Beta, all 16 of our launch Freegunners will be unlocked and available to play and customize. Whether you want to snipe from afar, lock down an area, provide support for your teammates, or… just dive head-first into the fight, our roster of Freegunners has something for everyone. It’s been a minute since we’ve checked in with the Freegunners of the North Star, so we’ll also be sharing our first Vignette during our Early Access Beta and can’t wait for you to learn more about the crew and their tidy ship.

We will have three modes, Clash Point, Trophy Hunt and Cargo Run, available to play during the Beta Early Access weekend. It was important to us when developing Concord to make sure we had modes for everyone, so whether you are looking to queue up for a quick round of Trophy Hunt or want to prove you and your crew have the best strats to retrieve Blue Buddy in Cargo Run, there’s something for everyone. There will also be four maps you’ll get to explore and play on: Freewater, Star Chamber, Water Hazard, and Shock Risk.

Once we head into our Open Beta next weekend, we’ll also add a new mode, Area Control, and new map, Bone Mines. Check ou