BioWare’s lore-rich fantasy RPG series makes its long-awaited return when Dragon Age: The Veilguard comes to PS5 on October 31, after nearly a decade since the last installment. The Veilguard takes place across the northern region of Thedas, giving players a chance to finally explore the magical city of Tevinter. As a first-time visitor to Thedas’ world of magic, my recent hands-on with the game was an enlightening introduction to the deep storytelling of the series grounded by the game’s intuitive real-time combat and enchanting visuals. 

Customize everything

My hands-on journey began by thoroughly exploring The Veilguard’s extensive character creator, following an opening animation highlighting where the story left off in Dragon Age: Inquisition. The Dragon Age series is known to offer highly detailed character customization, but I was surprised to see just how in-depth The Veilguard went with options to customize nearly every physical aspect of your character, from diverse head and body shapes to tattoos (options for face and full body), make-up, and facial scars. In particular, the various hair textures shown in the selection of close to 100 hairstyles look so detailed and realistic that you can see the care developers put into each hair follicle.

Once I finished customizing my character for nearly half an hour (I could have spent hours on this), I played around with the new lighting preview feature. The new feature allows you to see your character in up to four different lighting settings to ensure your creation is faithful to your vision before you commence your journey through Thedas.

Similar to past games in the series the character creator is where you choose your combatant’s race and class. Additionally, The Veilguard adds a feature to pick between six Factions, including options for Grey Wardens, Veil Jumpers, Shadow Dragons, Lords of Fortune, the Mourn Watch, and Antivan Crows. Be sure to select carefully as a chosen Faction directly influences a character’s unique backstory and even future dialogue choices.

Combat with companions

The fast-paced and intuitive combat in Dragon Age: The Veilguard was the cherry on top of my experience with the game. As a self-described beginner when it comes to most game genres, the combat controls were easy enough to pick up while providing a high ceiling for the more advanced players to put together combo attacks with companions.

As we continue our celebrations leading up to the 30th anniversary of the first PlayStation console launch, we have a special treat to reveal today that brings the past together with the present.

Introducing our PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection to celebrate this wonderful milestone.

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The new limited edition designs pay homage to 30 wonderful years of gaming, a journey made possible by the passion and support of our fans and talented game developers. Reminiscent of the very first PlayStation console to launch on December 3, 1994, this limited edition offering utilizes the original PlayStation color design and integrates it into the latest line of PS5 hardware products.

The PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection will be sold in highly limited supply in the following options:

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The world-famous Dragon Ball saga is no stranger to game adaptations, but there’s one Dragon Ball game series in particular that fans have held in high regard: The Budokai Tenkaichi series. The original Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi debuted on the PlayStation 2 back in 2005, followed by two sequels in 2006 and 2007 and a PSP installment in 2010.

Now, after years of fans waxing nostalgic over their love of those classic titles, Bandai Namco Entertainment and developer Spike-Chunsoft are bringing back the much-beloved 3D arena-fighting gameplay of Budokai Tenkaichi in Dragon Ball Sparking Zero – launching on PS5 October 11. We got our hands on a pre-release version of the game, and we’re here to tell you all about the awesome fighting that awaits.

A universe-rocking roster

Dragon Ball is a sprawling saga filled with a menagerie of memorable characters, and one of the first things you’ll notice about Sparking Zero is how huge the selection is. Besides familiar faces from Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, you’ll be able to control numerous characters from Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Super–and, if you preorder, you’ll have access to Goku (Mini) from the much-anticipated new Dragon Ball DAIMA series. Several characters have variations and transformations that reflect their growth over the series’ timeline, and these can be dramatically different from each other. Taking into account all of the characters, variations, fusions, and transformations, Sparking Zero’s starting roster is a whopping 181 playable characters.

But don’t feel intimidated by the amount of choices you have: many of the base controls are shared between characters, so you should be able to pick up a new character quite easily. You can also equip various capsule items acquired in the in-game shop to bolster your characters’ base abilities if you want to give yourself a bit of a boost, along with cosmetic items to up your aesthetic power level.

There’s a lot to do in Sparking Zero, but perhaps the best place to start is the Episode Battle, which has you playing through some of the series’ most important sagas through the eyes of its most prominent heroes–or villains. We tried out a few characters in this mode: Goku’s story and combat were a fairly simple introduction to the game’s mechanics, while characters like Frieza and Goku Black faced significantly more challenging one-against-many fights from early on. Depending on how fights go and the narrative choices you make, you might see the well-loved stories take some unexpected new directions.

If you’d prefer to get straight into battle, Tournament Mode is also open from the get-go. Here you can play recreations of famous events like the Cell Games and the Tournament of Power. You can even set up your own rules and fantasy bracket if you’d like.

We fight like Saiyans

When you leap into a battle, you’ll be using 3D space to move in every direction to get the advantage over your foe as you dash, fly, attack, fire energy blasts, charge your ki, and react to your opponent’s actions. It feels incredible to utilize your combat techniques and the environment sk

God of War Ragnarök is available tomorrow on PC. *  

All of us at Santa Monica Studio, alongside our development partners at Jetpack Interactive, are thrilled to be able to bring the sequel to God of War (2018) and the final chapter of the Norse saga to all our fans on PC. Alongside a new trailer, we’re also happy to share a short overview of the additional features and support we’ve included for launch.

New features in God of War Ragnarök PC

Debuting in the PC version of the game and soon to be added to the console version are two new settings to help you customize the way you play.

Reduced puzzle hints option

A new option in the Gameplay Settings tab, enabling this will reduce the frequency with which you hear puzzle hints from your companions.

 Cinematic Audio Description

Enabling the Audio Description setting under the Audio Accessibility menu will play audio descriptions of visual events during cinematics. These descriptions will provide additional contextual information alongside the spoken dialogue to create a more detailed experience for players with low vision.

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Streamer alerts

As a thank you to all of our fans who take the time to stream the game to their friends and communities, we created custom alerts for you to use.

Want Kratos to give your new subscriber a nod or Thor to rejoice at a channel follower? Get the full set or download individually on the Santa Monica Studio website!  

• New follower 
• New subscriber
• New donation
• New gifted subscription 

Fan kit

We’ve got a new fan kit ready for our launch on PC! Head to the Santa Monica Studio website here to get access to social media banners and wallpapers, includ

UPDATE: PlayStation 5 Pro will launch in Singapore on November 7, 2024 with Suggested Retail Price (SRP) of SGD 1,069. Pre-order will begin from September 26, 2024 in participating retailers

Over the last four years since the launch of PS5, we’ve worked hard to continuously evolve the console experience and deliver the great games our players expect from us. Today, I’m incredibly proud to announce the next step in that evolution and welcome PlayStation 5 Pro to the PlayStation family – our most advanced and innovative console hardware to date.

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We developed PS5 Pro with deeply engaged players and game creators in mind – as many have asked for a console that runs even higher fidelity graphics with smoother frame rates at 60FPS. We achieved this on PS5 Pro with several key performance features.*

• Upgraded GPU: With PS5 Pro, we are upgrading to a GPU that has 67% more Compute Units than the current PS5 console and 28% faster memory. Overall, this enables up to 45% faster rendering for gameplay, making the experience much smoother.
  
• Advanced Ray Tracing: We’ve added even more powerful ray tracing that provides more dynamic reflection and refraction of light. This allows the rays to be cast at double, and at times triple, the speeds of the current PS5 console.
  
• AI-Driven Upscaling: We’re also introducing PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, an AI-driven upscaling that uses a machine learning-based technology to provide super sharp image clarity by adding an extraordinary amount of detail.

PS5 Pro provides gamers with amazing graphics at high frame rates. You can hear Mark Cerny, lead architect for PS5 Pro, discuss the key innovations from PS5 Pro in the following video presentation. This presentation provides a deep dive into the key performance features that make PS5 Pro truly special.

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Howdy folks! The PlayStation Podcast gang returns to continue the discussion on Astro Bot, including segments with and without spoilers. The team also talks Animal Well and A Short Hike.

Stuff We Talked About

• Next week’s releases:
  • The Plucky Squire | PS5
• PlayStation Plus Game Catalog for September: The Plucky Squire, Night in the Woods, Road 96, Chernobylite, and more
• PS5 Pro announcement
• Astro Bot – How team Asobi created a unified vision for fun
• Destiny 10^th Anniversary
• The Plucky Squire – Reveals explorable city Artia
• Animal Well
• A Short Hike
• Astro Bot (Spoiler-cast starts at 31:50)

The Cast

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Last week, we blasted off into a new adventure with Astro Bot, and asked you to share your favorite moments using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

Boargs shares Astro leading a pack of bots across the Crash Site.

i3ecci_ shares Astro riding down some colorful railing into a level.

AutomotiveVP shares Astro in a gold costume cheering at the end of the casino level.

T0minator_ shares Astro kicking a soccer ball.

kunai_kirika shares small mouse Astro being observed by a cat bot.

HazzaniVP shares a full portrait of Astro facing forward.

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: Astro Bot – Abilities
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on September 18, 2024 

Next week, we’re showing off Astro Bot’s many abilities and power-up suits. Share action-packed moments utilizing his special abilities using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

The Plucky Squire will leap from the page to PlayStation 5 on September 17, and one of the many magical places you’ll visit on your adventures is the colorful city of Artia, the creative capital of the land of Mojo.

Artia is the home of Jot’s best friend, Violet, and is full of all types of artists, some of whom you might recognize.

Shortly after arriving in the city, you’ll meet Rola Lightbrush, Violet’s proud mum, who informs the crew that Violet’s Uncle Umber has gotten himself into a pickle; his roly-poly Rubboinks have escaped! The gang offers to help and begins searching the city.

Jot and his friends quickly set about securing Uncle Umber’s pesky pigs, but they’ll need to uncover a portal lurking beneath the stubborn backside of a resident artist’s pet pooch in order to complete the task.     

Jot springs from the book to find the tool he needs to return Uncle Umber’s final piggy. Navigating the desk is easier said than done, however, with more and more of Humgrump’s minions manifesting in the real world.

Finally, Jot ascends to the puzzling Toy House to find his prize: The Turn Gauntlets! Once acquired, Jot can tilt the book to manipulate the characters inside, including one extra-large Rubboink…

Artia is just one of many magical locations you’ll discover on the pages of The Plucky Squire. You can experience this dimension-hopping adventure for yourself when the game launches on PS5 on September 17 as part of PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium.

Will brave Jot be able to defeat the wicked Humgrump and restore peace to the land of Mojo? The fate of the realm is in your hands.

Helldivers, when you’re on the warfront, emptying magazines into hordes of Terminids, do you ever feel like you’re a space bug exterminator? I know I do and that’s why I’m really excited to tell you about our next Warbond*: Chemical Agents! This one has some seriously deadly toys.

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I’ll start with everyone’s favorite part of a Warbond: the offensive gear. The first thing a Terminid exterminator needs is a good, high-pressure sprayer. The TX-41 Sterilizer is the tool of the trade, ready to spray down the threat with chemical gas. 

A literal spray and pray with the TX-41 Sterilizer.

And in case the bugs got behind you, don’t worry–your gassy little pal the AX/TX-13 “Guard Dog” Dog Breath won’t let them get the drop on you before it hoses them down with its corrosive gas sprayer. If there’s still some standing after the stratagems are done, hit ‘em with the G-4 Gas grenade. Cover the whole area in a cloud of noxious fumes, Helldiver!

The AX/TX-13 “Guard Dog” Dog Breath gassed up and ready to go.

Adding stratagem variants to Warbonds is new with Chemical Agents, but our designers felt that since gas is a crowd control tool, it made more sense to release stratagems and let Helldivers choose the primary weapons they love the most. Not only that, but this is bringing some serious variety to Chemical Agents that we hope players will enjoy.

Breathe easy in the AF-02 Haz-Master armor.

Now let’s talk drip. The exterminators of Super Earth have access to some killer threads in Chemical Agents. Firstly, these armors have the Advanced Filtration passive, which gives the player resistance to the gas clouds they’ll be generating with their new toys, including the toxic cloud put off by the Orbital Gas Strike stratagem. The AF-50 Noxious Ranger is a lightweight armor, best paired with the Standard of Safe Distance cape. If you really want to go full on with your protective gear, you’ve got the medi