Innovation is king when it comes to video games, especially when reinventing a beloved franchise. Developers are challenged with balancing what fans loved about the series’ origins while modernizing the experience and providing surprising gameplay enhancements that players didn’t even know they wanted. Few developers understand this task better than Santa Monica Studio, which reimagined Kratos’ mythological melee in 2018.

The sequel God of War Ragnarök launches November 9. This new entry is poised to deliver more of the satisfying combat introduced in God of War (2018), including Kratos’ trusty Leviathan Axe and the Blades of Chaos, increased verticality in combat, versatile shield options to customize play, a host of new mythical beasts to battle, and more.

Ahead of God of War Ragnarök’s release, we invited talented game developers from PlayStation Studios and third-party studios to reflect on God of War (2018)’s impactful combat. These creators dive into everything from Kratos’ crunchy, boomeranging Leviathan Axe to the intimate camera perspective, while also sharing their personal perspective on what makes for satisfying melee combat.

“God of War 2018 was hugely inspirational. It took many aspects of action-focused games and merged them to establish a new standard that directly impacted how we approached combat when creating Ghost of Tsushima.

For example, the yellow and red ‘rings’ in God of War that indicated required player actions were highly influential and inspired the blue and red ‘glints’ in Ghost of Tsushima for unblockable/parryable attacks.

Valkyrie boss design was also a huge inspiration for us and had a major influence on the ‘Six Blades of Kojiro’ mission in Ghost of Tsushima, which involved tracking down and fighting duelists across the island. Each duelist had a unique move, but the final duel incorporated all of the various moves of the previous duelists, just like the Valkyries. I will say Sigrun the final Valkyrie kicked my butt more times than I would like, and my secret hope is that Kojiro in Ghost of Tsushima defeated many players in the same way!”

– Ted Fishman, Lead Combat Designer, Sucker Punch

“When players use heavier weapons [in Monster Hunter World] that have slower movement and attack speeds, it’s more difficult to hit monsters. An important part of designing combat for us is to create a mechanism that converts the stress of slow movement into a sense of accomplishment when the player successfully hits a target.

There are a number of ways to achieve this, and it is obviously important to have a special move that feels satisfying when you hit the target because of its heavy weight. But what is even more important, is giving players the movement options necessary to precisely position themselves in order to land that hit. These can even be small things such as taking a few steps closer to attack/taking a step back after the att

September has come and gone, and with it some amazing games! Which new release will take the Players’ Choice crown? Vote in the poll below to help decide!

How does it work? At the end of every month, PlayStation.Blog will open a poll where you can vote for the best new game released that month. Soon thereafter, we’ll close the polls, tally your votes, and announce the winner at PlayStation.Blog. PlayStation Store will also showcase some top Players’ Choice winners throughout the year.

What is the voting criteria? That’s up to you! If you were only able to recommend one new release to a friend that month, which would it be? In keeping with our long tradition in the Game of the Year Awards, remastered or re-released games won’t qualify. Ambitious, larger-scale rebuilds and remakes like Demon’s Souls and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy will.

How are nominees decided? The PlayStation.Blog and PlayStation Store editorial teams will gather a list of that month’s most noteworthy releases and use it to seed the poll. Write-in votes will be accepted.

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

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

Hey y’all! This week the team sits down with Amy Allison and Mark Lester of Skydance Interactive to chat about The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution, currently in development now for PS VR2.

Stuff We Talked About

• The Last of Us on HBO Max
• Valkyrie Elysium
• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Destruction AllStars
• The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution (interview begins at 11:17)
• Stellar Blade
• Tunic
• Sly Cooper series

The Cast

Kristen Zitani –  Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE

Brett Elston – Manager, Content Communications, SIE

Last week, we asked you to spin your gears and share robots, droids, and machines from the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

RevolutionAndre shares Kit from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart in macho machine mode.

sorathluna shares a Slitherfang coiling up in the desert in Horizon Forbidden West.

HomuraChihiro shares the robot from Abzu staring out into an underwater city.

Boargs shares the cat from Stray aboard a floating pallet with a robot that is fishing.

coalabr14 shares a spider bot overlooking some hacking victims in Watch Dogs: Legion.

Ringo_Danshaku shares the mech bunny protagonist of F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch.

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: Customization

SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on October 5, 2022

Next week, it’s getting personal. Share armor, weapons, characters, or vehicles you’ve customized in the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

It’s October, and you know what that means–freaks and frights are abounding! There’s no better time to dive deep into some wildly experimental and stylish survival horror than the Halloween spooky season, and this month’s PlayStation Indies delivers on that front. As for the “freaks”–well, we’ve got a gaggle of very strange creatures and some beastly brawlers straight outta the barnyard. Oh, and a geometric object so terrifying it makes alien apex predators tremble in fear. Let’s take a look at what you can look forward to on PS4 and PS5 this month.

The Eternal Cylinder 

The imaginative minds at developer ACE Team (Rock of Ages, Zeno Clash, Abyss Odyssey) have returned with an otherworldly adventure. A majestic planet exists far away in the universe, teeming with strange lifeforms all struggling for survival. Yet even in this harsh environment, one threat looms above all others: the crushing, destructive might of the Cylinder. 

You take control of a Trebhum, an odd pack-traveling creature blessed with the power to transform and adapt to environments by eating. Explore four beautiful alien biomes–savannah, tundra, desert, and a freaky mutated infected sector–all while metamorphosing your herd of Trebhums to react to the dangers posed by the environments and other creatures. Grow extra legs to build your stamina, extendable eyes to get a better view of your surroundings, and bloat up your body for extra inventory space. Explore, evolve, and discover the Cylinder’s secrets before it destroys everything.

Release Date: October 13 | Publisher: Good Shepherd | PS5

Play Video

Them’s Fightin’ Herds

Small, cute animals bring big-time rompin’, stompin’ action in this unorthodox one-on-one fighting game from Mane6. Made by and for fans of the genre, Them’s Fightin’ Herds is a beautifully animated, humor-filled critter combat game featuring character designs from acclaimed animation producer Lauren Faust. These fuzzy, scaly fighters might run on four legs, but they’ve got just as many slick fighting skills as their human counterparts, bolstered by magic energy that can be used for movement and offense skills that are unique to each character. If beating down the barn doors with your local buddies isn’t enough, you can battle hoof-to-claw with friends both on and offline, thanks to smooth rollback netcode. 

Spooky season is nearly here – and what could be scarier than a purgatory dimension haunted by half-finished ideas and forgotten concepts? Our annual made-in-Dreams Halloween celebration is nearly ready to welcome you – and all of your cruelly abandoned WIPs, you monster – to The Land of Lost Dreams.

This year, we asked the Dreams coMmunity to design strange and unusual glades for players to explore in our Forest of Gloom, and Cursed Trinkets that represent the essence of their creative energy. And oh boy, do they have a lot of that. Our eyes have seen some truly inexplicable things. The cosmic void will be eating well this year.

‘But when will we get to visit the cosmic void?’, we hear you cry and wail and gnash (you should really stop doing that, it’s terrible for your teeth). We’re delighted to reveal that All Hallows’: The Land of Lost Dreams will be live in Dreams and open to visitors from October 20th, 2022! (Internet connection required for online play.)

What awaits you there? Here’s a quick look at some of the main attractions of the area…

Tall Tales and Quirky Quests

The Land of Lost Dreams is a curious place, with a rich and unnerving history to uncover. You’ll meet, and help out, plenty of odd characters on your main quest by sneaking around, solving puzzles and much more besides. Some faces may even be familiar to those who’ve been following Dreams’ development for a long time…

The Forest of Gloom

One of The Land of Lost Dreams’ most beautiful and unpredictable locales, this explorable wooded area contains all manner of interactive oddities made by the Dreams community. Take a stroll! See the sights! Don’t think too hard about what might be hiding in the bushes!

Cursed Trinket Shrines

Want to soak up some culture? Look no further than The Land of Lost Dreams’ fabulous collection of cursed trinkets, hand-crafted by dreamers. You’ll have to visit some odd-looking places to find them, but we’re assured that as long as you’ve had your tetanus shot, they’re probably safe to visit.

We’re really just scratching the surface here – there’s even more to discover in The Land of Lost Dreams when it appears in Dreams next month. If only there were some kind of travel brochure for would-be visitors to read for more information, provided by a totally legit tourist board? Now that would be useful. Better keep an eye out for anything like that over on our editorial blog, The Impsider.

Streams and Screams!

We’ll also be running two Halloween-themed livestreams over on the official Mm Twitch channel to celebrate the season! The first will be our launch day stream for All Hallows’: The Land of Lost Dreams, at 9am PT / 5pm BST, 20^th October, in which we’ll be playing through the full event and checking out plenty of the coMmunity-made goodness on display.

That’s right! PlayStation’s iconic woolen hero is heading to PC! We’re so excited that a whole new audience of players is going to get the chance to join Sackboy on his big adventure.

Today, we’re delighted to be able to reveal details of the new features and enhancements that you can look forward to when the game releases on October 27 . There is also some great pre-purchase content available, see below for more details!

Play Video

The first thing to call out is the new visuals. We wanted this game to visually stunning on PC, so with that goal in mind here are some of the new graphical features we’ve added to make the most of your hardware:

·   4K with target @ 120FPS¹. The stunning patchwork of Craftworld is rendered in beautiful 4K detail.
·   Deep Learning Super Sampling. NVIDIA DLSS2 increases graphics performance using dedicated processors found only on GeForce RTX GPUs, boosting frame rates with uncompromised image quality.
·   VRR. Variable refresh rate support makes Sackboy more responsive than ever.²

• Wide screen! The game supports a wide range of display ratios, including ultrawide 21:9.³

While we have added all these new graphical features for players with high-end machines, we’ve also worked hard to make sure that a range of different hardware is supported. Here are the details of the minimum and recommended specs:

	MINIMUM	RECOMMENDED	HIGH	VERY HIGH	ULTRA
AVG Performance	720P @ 30FPS	1080P @ 30FPS	1080P @ 60FPS	1440P @ 60FPS	4K @ 60FPS
Graphics Settings	Low	Medium	High	Very High	Custom
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660AMD Radeon R7 265	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060AMD Radeon RX580	NVIDIA GTX 1070 (8 GB)AMD RX 5600 (6 GB)	NVIDIA RTX 2070 (8 GB)AMD RX 5700 XT (8 GB)	NVIDIA RTX 3080 (10 GB)AMD RX 6800 XT (16 GB)
CPU	Intel Core i5-6400 @ 2.7GHzAMD FX-6300 @ 3.5GHz	Intel Core i7-4770K @3.5GHzAMD Ryzen 5 1500X @3.5GHZ	Intel i7-4770k (4 Read more PlayStation Stars launches in Asia today, with additional markets coming soon Game Ace Pro / Wednesday, September 28, 2022 0 0 What an exciting moment for PlayStation!  Today marks the first regional launch of our new loyalty program – PlayStation Stars. I am pleased to usher in this new initiative for our PlayStation community, launching first in Asia, which celebrates our players’ achievements with fun and delightful campaigns and the ability to earn rewards such as points and digital collectibles. With this launch, we commence our global rollout for PlayStation Stars, and this is just the beginning.  We will continue to evolve the program by adding new features, rewards, benefits and ways to enjoy what you love about PlayStation.   Let’s take a look at some of the key details of the program. When is PlayStation Stars launching? Below are the following launch dates for PlayStation Stars: Asia, including Japan: September 29 (local time) North and South America: October 5 (local time) Europe and Australia: October 13 (local time) What do I need to join PlayStation Stars? Is a PlayStation Plus membership required? PlayStation Stars is free to join. You’ll only need to have an adult account for PlayStation Network and accept the program’s Terms of Service. While you will earn certain benefits for being a PlayStation Plus member, a PlayStation Plus membership is not required to join PlayStation Stars. How can I access PlayStation Stars? The full PlayStation Stars experience is accessible through the PlayStation App on iOS and Android. You can also join PlayStation Stars via playstation.com. We have plans to expand to console devices in the future. How does the program work? With PlayStation Stars, you earn rewards by completing a variety of campaigns and activities. Our “Monthly Check-In” campaign simply requires you to play any game to receive a reward. Other campaigns will ask you to earn specific trophies, or even be among one of the first players to platinum a blockbuster title in their country/region. One of our first campaigns is called “Hit Play/1994” where members who correctly launch games that match song-based clues receive a special collectible. Campaigns are updated regularly so check the PlayStation App to see new campaigns.  What rewards can I earn? There are two types of rewards – loyalty points and digital collectibles. Points can be redeemed in a catalog that may include PSN wallet funds, exclusive digital collectibles and select PlayStation Store products. As an additional benefit, PlayStation Plus members enrolled in PlayStation Stars automatically earn points for purchases on PlayStation Store.* Digital collectibles are beautifully rendered, digital representations of things that PlayStation fans enjoy, including figurines of beloved and iconic characters from games and other forms of entertainment, as well as cherished devices that tap into Sony’s history of innovation. There will be new collectibles to earn regularly, ultra-rare collectibles to strive for, or something surprising to collect just for fun.  The digital collectibles you earn or acquire can be arranged on a display case within the PlayStation App.  You can also set the display case to be viewed by others, if you choose. At launch, by simply joining, all members will receive the Star Gazer Telescope.  We’ll have Read more The PS5 features bringing A Plague Tale: Requiem to life Game Ace Pro / Wednesday, September 28, 2022 0 0 Hi everyone! I’m Nicolas Bécavin, Lead Engine Programmer on A Plague Tale: Requiem. The game launches on October 18, and I’m here to give you a little preview of what you can expect tech-wise!  Play Video Verify your age to view this content. Taking the next-gen leap  We decided to develop A Plague Tale: Requiem on PlayStation 5 to set ourselves completely free from last-gen constraints and make the most out of the features brought by the new gen. The potential it offers is incredible! Take the load time for instance: it is reduced in a way that makes new map and level design possible. With an increased memory on top, we get better draw distance which means you’ll be able to see way farther. Horizons will literally expand! The result is a much more open environment than introduced in the first game. Unleashing the rats  Rats are a key feature of A Plague Tale, and for this second game we wanted to push new-gen possibilities to the max to bring the rats-induced horror and trauma to a next level. The number of rats on-screen has been multiplied by 60, growing from 5,000 to 300,000! It’s a good number to convey the vision of the apocalypse which keeps increasingly oppressing our heroes. We’ve also changed the aspect of their movement, so that they look like a giant wave, much like a tsunami crashing down on you. We’re lucky to work with our own, in-house engine and rely on it to tackle challenging renderings like this one, of an element which is completely specific to A Plague Tale.    Shedding a new light on an overcast world  Thanks to the power of the new GP Read more PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for October: Hot Wheels Unleashed, Injustice 2, Superhot  Game Ace Pro / Wednesday, September 28, 2022 0 0 Today we’re happy to reveal the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup for October. There’s superhuman clashes in the form of Injustice 2, big racing thrills with tiny cars in Hot Wheels Unleashed and the electrifying strategic combat of Superhot.  PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra and Premium members can add these three titles to their game library from Tuesday, October 4 until Monday October 31. The PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium Game Catalog lineup for October will be announced later this month.  Let’s take a closer look at each of the Monthly Games.    Hot Wheels Unleashed | PS4, PS5  Collect, build and race in this fantastic arcade sim based on the Hot Wheels universe. Earn new vehicles then take them to the track to race side by side with friends in two-player split-screen, or face up to 12 opponents in online challenges. One you’ve raced, why not try and build your own course? Create amazing layout inside and outside the track editor. Ad loops, special boosters, obstacles and special elements to make an incredible amusement park for your races, then share your creation online for other players to try.  Injustice 2 | PS4  The creators of Mortal Kombat return to the DC universe with the biggest superhuman roster. Select from twisted versions of iconic heroes and supervillains and bring epic-scale battles to awe-inspiring locations across the globe. Take on other players locally and online, or immerse yourself in the story-driven single player campaign as Batman struggles against Superman’s regime. You’ll earn gear after every match to equip, customize and evolve your roster.  Read more RSS Load next 10 article(s) (1167 left)Loading...