Set to touch down on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on Thursday, July 9, Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok is a massive new expansion built to significantly evolve the high-flying action RPG that first captivated players in 2024.

At a recent press event, we had the chance to experience the new additions coming to Endless Ragnarok firsthand through an exclusive developer presentation and an early hands-on gameplay session.

For newcomer captains eager to take to the skies, a playable demo of the main Granblue Fantasy: Relink title is now available on PlayStation Store.

Dynamic character synergy power-up the evolved battle System

Endless Ragnarok injects a wealth of new content into the experience, introducing an all-new story arc, new playable characters, the game-changing Summon battle mechanic, a punishing new quest difficulty, the Master Trait progression tree, and a dedicated single-player endgame mode called the Conflux.

The expansion adds six fan-favorite faces to the playable roster: Gallanza, Maglielle, Beatrix, Eustace, Fraux, and Fediel. In addition to these allies, players will square off against formidable new skybound threats, including iconic bosses like Beelzebub and The World.

The new Summon system unleashes fresh tactical depth and spectacle

The crown jewel of Endless Ragnarok’s new mechanics is undoubtedly the Summon system. By equipping summons, earned as you progress through the narrative, you can call upon various characters during battle and take control of them. Because your character gains complete invincibility while a summon is active, this mechanic works beautifully not just as a devastating offensive push, but as a clutch counter against a boss’s most lethal attacks. With a diverse lineup of summons offering specialized roles in offense, crowd control, and support, your tactical options have never been broader.

The visual spectacle reaches a fever pitch with the introduction of Primal Burst. When your party performs a full chain of Skybound Arts under specific conditions, Lyria will unleash a powerful follow-up attack through a summon.

Battles heat up under the punishing new Chaos difficulty

For our hands-on session, we booted up a save file positioned right at the opening act of the Endless Ragnarok storyline. The moment the curtain rises on this new chapter, the quest counter unlocks its highest, most unforgiving difficulty rank: Chaos. In a terrifying show of force, even the very first quest—which functions as a tutorial for the expansion’s mechanics—plunges you straight into Chaos-level danger. Quests in this tier feature merciless new adversaries, like the apocalyptic beasts ragnalia, and bosses will aggressively utilize a terrifying, unique ability known as EX Burst.

When a boss enemy’s body radiates a distinct purple aura, it is your cue that an EX Burst is imminent. Facing these catastrophic attacks for the first time brings an incredible amount of tension. However, reading the telegraphs, d

Five years ago, we wrote about how the visual effects in Returnal came to life, including the real-time voxeliser that dissolved Phrike into volumetric fog. If you haven’t read it, that post is a good companion to this one.

This is how that story continues.

With Saros, we didn’t just extend what we’d built for Returnal. We stepped back, looked at thirty years of accumulated engine development, and rebuilt it as a unified framework: Graphite.

What we had, and why we changed it

Our proprietary particle engine, NGP (Next-Gen Particles), started as a prototype for Resogun in 2013 and grew with every game since, all the way to Returnal. By SAROS, NGP was mature, but it was also a product of twelve years of incremental decisions, each one made in the context of a specific, isolated game.

Then something else changed: us. Joining PlayStation Studios meant delivering experiences at the level our players expect, and our tools, and the names we’d given them, no longer matched the studio we were becoming.

Enter Graphite. It brings GPU simulation, rendering, tooling, and DCC integration under one architecture, built directly for PlayStation hardware. NGP didn’t disappear, it became part of Graphite, evolved and more capable than ever.

Every Housemarque game has a visual identity players recognise immediately. Graphite is what makes that possible.

And what it actually does, frame by frame, is best explained by the incredible people who built it:

Housemarque Graphics Architect Sharman Jagadeesan and Senior Graphics Programmer Konsta Toivanen will walk you through the volumetric fog in Saros: how it evolved from Returnal, and the two systems we built to make Carcosa’s atmosphere feel alive.

Risto Jankkila (VFX Architect) will explain how we extended Graphite with data from Houdini, including a full breakdown of the player spawn sequence.

Volumetric fog

Fog

Hello! I’m Amélie from Miju Games. We’re so excited for you to finally get to try our survival game The Planet Crafter when it launches on PS5 next month. 

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The Planet Crafter is unlike many of the survival games you’ve played in the past. When we were designing it, we sought to make a chill, non-violent survival experience. The Planet Crafter will still challenge you. The player has to carefully manage needs like oxygen, food, and water; especially early in the game, you can push your limits too far and discover that there’s a fatal result to that.

But this isn’t a game with jump scares and monsters. There’s nothing to dread behind that boulder or in the depths of that cave. But there is wonder. We’ve made some big worlds for you to explore, and secrets to uncover. The planets and moons you will find are evolving as you start the long journey to terraform them.

When you build heat pumps and drill into a planet’s core to raise the atmospheric pressure and temperature, you’ll find that the changes are more than just cosmetic. Maybe a glacier has melted, revealing a new valley you couldn’t access before. When life starts to take root in your world, perhaps you’ll notice trees growing that provide a bridge to a new location. The Planet Crafter is not a violent game, but we promise that it is full of adventure.

One point of inspiration for us when creating The Planet Crafter surprises people when we tell them. We’ve always appreciated idle games, and you’ll find some of that DNA in our game. When you build terraforming machines they keep operating as long as your grid has power. You’re always making progress towards that next terraforming milestone. We think that’s a great way of encouraging you to explore.

Let the machines do their thing while you go hunt for relics from a lost previous expe

Assassin’s Creed Shadows will launch its final update on June 16, featuring a final story quest which sees Naoe and Yasuke face off against a mysterious pair of Templars and includes a few narrative connections to the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. Plus, a whole new endgame feature called Domains will bring new ways for players to test their skills and builds in the ultimate arena. We sat down with Associate Game Director Simon Lemay-Comtois to dig into what Domains is and how it’s designed to break your beloved gear builds.

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What is Domains?

Simon: Domains is a new Animus-bending activity that remixes some parts of Shadows and puts them into a very different, more fantastical context. It’s basically the final exam for Shadows players who love the RPG elements of the game.

It features five maps, known as Domains, and each time you play there will be different modifiers thrown in. You’ll need to switch up your build to suit the map, the challenges, and the modifiers.

What kinds of challenges can players expect?

Simon: Killing the Daishos in each map will unlock the final boss arena where you will take on one of three corrupted, Animus-altered boss fights, all while dealing with the modifiers. The harder the difficulty, the more modifiers you’ll have to deal with at once, and the more negative modifiers you are likely to get.

For example, in the easier challenges maybe you’ll get a health boost, but as you progress the deck becomes stacked against you. We also have Animus Exploits which you can use to nullify some of those modifiers, but if your build and skills aren’t on point, then you’re still going to have a rough time.

Are builds unique to Domains?

Simon: Builds carry over from the main game and anything you create in Domains will be usable there too, since it uses the same interface. The Animus Exploits can’t be used anywhere else, but equipment that you already have will be accessible in D

Last week, we asked players to share Duality using reflections, opposites, or anything that comes in pairs using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here’s are this week’s highlights:

Crimsonashtree shares two different Conor’s in Detroit: Become Human

ContinuousGojo shares Cal Kestis undercover in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Mur4dQ shares Mio and Zoe escaping a city in Split Fiction

Rorottino shares Sam in a climactic battle in Death Stranding

Call_me_xavii shares Atsu and her mother in Ghost of Yōtei

Parmindernangla shares Miles and Peter in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme, or be inspired by other great games featuring Photo Mode. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?

THEME: Saros
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on June 17, 2026 

Next week, Saros takes the spotlight. With the new photo mode update share your favorite moments from exploring Carcosa using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is a fresh, reimagined take on Lara Croft’s first adventure. I recently played about an hour of Legacy of Atlantis at Summer Game Fest 2026, and saw first-hand how developers Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog are bringing elements from the original game and its first remake, 2007’s Tomb Raider Anniversary, into the modern era.

The preview took me to the Lost Valley area in Peru, where I was tasked with solving a new version of Tomb Raider’s iconic cog puzzle. Here, two cogs are needed to reconnect a mechanism that can stop the flow of a nearby waterfall, revealing the door that will let her deeper into the hidden jungle. The mechanism sits in a small pond, and while the first cog is easy to come by, you’ll have to discover the second on your own.

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This first portion of the Lost Valley contains no combat, instead putting an emphasis on finding your way through an area full of side paths that can lead you to collectibles and hidden items. Pointedly, Legacy of Atlantis provides little guidance on where to find your missing cog. Instead, you have to use clues in the environment to figure out where to go for yourself. It’s an intentional choice that plays into Lara’s character as an archaeologist and explorer — and finding the right path through the area was, at times, pretty difficult.

“If we put you in the boots of Lara Croft, and then hand you a map, or give you Waze directions on where to go, you’re going to feel like, ‘Where’s the challenge in that? Where’s the connection to the character and the headspace that she’s at?'” said Jeff Adams, Experience Director at Crystal Dynamics, during an interview after my session.

But Game Director Raul Siqueira at Crystal Dynamics also noted that the team didn’t want to give the impression that Legacy of Atlantis is meant to be a difficult game. Instead, he said, it’s meant to give players the tools they need to create the experience they enjoy, including the ability to increase guidance, and to set the difficulty of puzzles and combat independent from one another.

This month, explore the once-prosperous dark fantasy world of Valisthea in the grip of a blight in Final Fantasy XVI, spin dash through the dark past of the one known as the ultimate lifeform in Sonic X Shadow Generations, work your way up from a humble blacksmith’s forge in medieval Bohemia in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, or forge allies and pursue suspects across two versions of reality in Life is Strange: Double Exposure. All these titles and more are available in June’s PlayStation Plus Game Catalog lineup*. Meanwhile, PlayStation Plus Premium welcomes rhythm classic Gitaroo Man. 

We’re exploring new ways to deliver PlayStation Plus Game Catalog titles in select markets. Games will be available on varying dates as noted below in the US, the UK and Japan. The full lineup will be available to play on June 16 in all other regions.

PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium | Game Catalog 

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Gran Turismo 7 is about more than finishing 1st — it’s about mastering what you love.

Today marks the start of Endurance racing’s biggest stage: The 24-hour Le Mans race. To help players get into the feeling, this game update drops a stacked grid of modern legends, from the Ferrari 499P that brought the Prancing Horse back to glory, to Porsche’s title winning 963, BMW’s hybrid V8 powerhouse, and Peugeot’s boundary pushing 9X8, plus a 911 Turbo S Safety Car to keep it all in line.

Also arriving in Update 1.70, a new Menu, five new World Circuits events including the legendary 24 Heures du Mans Racing Circuit. All of this will be available for free beginning today at 11:00pm PDT / June 11 at 7:00am BST / 3:00pm JST*.  

Want to know which Hypercar from this update best suits your personality? Answer a few quick questions and keep track of your answers. We’ll match a Hypercar built for your style.

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New Cars** 

The Quiz (5 Questions) 

Q1) Your favorite “win” in GT is… 

1. Setting a clean lap and watching the delta go green
2. Out-strategizing everyone over a long race
3. A fearless pass that makes the replay look unreal
4. Nailing the perfect photo/livery and sharing it
5. Keeping the race clean, controlled, and penalty‑free 

Q2) You’d rather drive a car that feels… 

1. Surgical and precise
2. Unshakeable and stable
3. Aggressive and alive
4. Weird, unique, and totally different
5. Predictable, stable, and trustworthy 

Q3) Your ideal track is… 

1. Technical with rhythm sections
2. A long endurance test (practice → qualify → race)
3. High-speed with heavy braking zones
4. Anything cinematic with great lighting (sunset/night)
5. Clear visibility, strong flow, and consistency 

Q4) When the car feels “off,” you… 

1. Adjust brake balance and keep pushing

Summer Game Fest Play Days featured a ton of new titles this year, with developers and publishers giving lots of chances to see, and play, a variety of games coming to PS5. I visited SGF Play Days this year to see these upcoming titles in action, and go hands-on with many of them. Here’s everything I played and saw at Summer Game Fest.

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Summer Game Fest Play Days featured a ton of new titles this year, with developers and publishers giving lots of chances to see, and play, a variety of games coming to PS5. I visited SGF Play Days this year to see these upcoming titles in action, and go hands-on with many of them. Here’s everything I played and saw at Summer Game Fest.

Alien: Isolation 2 | Release Date: TBD 

Publisher: Sega | Developer: Creative Assembly

More than a decade after the original was released, Alien: Isolation 2 slithered through a vent to terrify at SGF. I played the game’s prologue, taking on the role of a Weyland-Yutani executive who just arrived on the remote colony planet that serves as the game’s setting. As you’re riding in a rover with two other characters, there’s suddenly a flash and a nearby explosion. The three of you pile out of the rover and you set out into the woods to try to find out what happened.

As you make your way through the barren forest, you soon come across the site of what looks like a crashed ship. Alien: Isolation fans will quickly realize this isn’t a ship, it’s the Project KG-348 lab that Amanda Ripley jettisoned from Savastopol station in the first game. That’s the lab where she trapped the alien that had hunted her for the entire first half of Alien: Isolation before she sent it off into space. Of course, the ill-fated group of humans venture inside.

After you spend some time exploring and restarting the lab’s power with similar chunky, tactile controls as in the original game, like mashing X to start a generator, the creature reveals itself, dropping from the vents above and stomping away, barely missing you.

At least in this prologue, Alien: Isolation 2 feels just like its predecessor. You can crouch to stay tow and quiet with Circle, keep out of sight by ducking behind objects and under tables, and peek around objects to get an eye on the creature by holding L1 and using the analog stick. You can also use tools to distract the xenomorph; in the prologue, I found a couple of flares that could be lit and thrown to draw its attention.

But with no motion tracker, you have to rely on your senses to keep