As we near the release of Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty: Vanguard on November 5, we’re excited to share with PlayStation players a deep-dive on two of the game’s core modes. It’s time to take a closer look at the epic characters and stories you’ll encounter across the single-player Campaign mode and in Zombies, the latter of which is developed by Treyarch, the studio responsible for bringing Zombies to Call of Duty more than a decade ago. 

From the international heroes forming the original Special Forces group, Task Force One, to the undead threat of Kortifex the Deathless, Vanguard is set to take PlayStation players on one wild ride on November 5, in addition to the massive amount of content players will experience with 20 maps coming to the Multiplayer mode at launch.

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“Der Anfang”: The Next Chapter in the Zombies Saga

The next iteration of Zombies, developed by Treyarch Studios, is coming to Call of Duty: Vanguard on November 5.

Prepare to face a new type of evil, bond with new allies, and meet terrifying new enemies in a gameplay experience that gets you to the fun faster, all wrapped in a brand-new dimension of Zombies that you’ve never experienced before.

In Call of Duty: Vanguard, Treyarch is introducing a Zombies experience that builds on the Dark Aether universe introduced in Black Ops Cold War, in a franchise-first crossover that provides continuity from a lore standpoint while innovating on the core gameplay loop.

It began with the opening of the Dark Aether gateway at Projekt Endstation. As the Nazi experiment went catastrophically wrong, punching a hole through the dimensional veil, the effects traveled far and wide.

You are now stranded in the snowy graveyard of Stalingrad, held in by the dark magic of Kortifex the Deathless, one of five Dark Aether entities bonded with mortals via their otherworldly artifacts. The other four — Saraxis the Shadow, Norticus the Conqueror, Inviktor the Destroyer, and Bellekar the Warlock — are in revolt against Kortifex, and are now there to help you defeat him and Von List.

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How high are the stakes in the all-new Battlefield Hazard Zone? Let’s just say it’s definitely not for the faint of heart. A tense, squad-focused survival experience, Hazard Zone combines edge-of-your-seat gameplay with the best of the Battlefield sandbox. 

Before we dig into the details, let’s give you a little of the in-game history that will help you understand this new mode. In the year 2040, a worldwide event known as The Blackout took out roughly 70% of satellites in orbit – decimating worldwide communication, navigation, and surveillance. Prior to this mounting tensions caused by rising sea levels, economic collapse, and massive waves of the displaced set the stage, but it was The Blackout that completely destabilized a world already on the brink. 

International distrust inspired both the US and Russia to engineer a surveillance solution: the use of satellites equipped with capsules containing radiation-hardened data drives. These capsules (and the precious intelligence they contain) are dropped into their respectively controlled territories for the Occupying Forces to secure.

Of course information isn’t only prized by the superpowers, many of the Non-Patriated (or No-Pats) are very interested in getting their hands on the data drives as well. Some want them for the price they’ll fetch on the Dark Market, while others are more focused on using it to keep themselves and their friends and families safe. Regardless of their reasons, the No-Pats are very motivated to intercept as many data drives as possible – so much so that they’ve organized and funded Task Forces for this sole purpose. And in Battlefield Hazard Zone you and your squadmates will make up one of these teams. Your job: locate, gather, and extract data drives before a storm overtakes the area. 

Oh, and did we mention you only get one life to do it? Hey, we did warn you the stakes would be high.

So how does this all play out? Well, there are five elements to every match:

Step 1 – Strategize and equip 
Step 2 – Insert on all seven maps from 2042
Step 3 – Retrieve the intel 
Step 4 – Extractions
Step 5 – Pat yourself on the back and claim your rewards

You’ll start with a Mission Area Briefing where you’ll get the info you need to succeed, from regions of the map with a high probability of enemy combatants, data drives, and Uplinks. The latter are powerful items that can turn the tide of battle. Three types of Uplinks will be available at launch: Vehicle, Ranger, and Reinforcement Uplinks. Whether you need to bring back a buddy, gain a quick tactical advantage, or get the heck out of Dodge – Uplinks have got you covered.

You’ll then select the Specialists and loadouts you and your squad will join the fight with. Choose wisely (and strategically) at this stage and you’re likely to do well. So balance your squad and skills carefully before you deploy. 

From this point on you’ve got just one mission – securing those capsules and data drives. Of course you won’t be the only ones doing so. Rival squads will have the same objective and then there are Occupying Forces who will guard the contents of those capsules with their lives.

Hi, my name is Spencer Ham and I’m a game director at Jackbox Games. It’s time to dust off your cell phone because we’re releasing The Jackbox Party Pack 8 at PlayStation Store on October 14! That’s right, we’ve broken the record for most Party Packs. Please text us back, Guinness World Records. 

This year’s release feels especially rewarding since our studio was completely remote during production. Although that brought on its fair share of challenges (seriously, Allard, you’re still on mute), it also inspired us to work in new ways. Gone were the days of us huddled in a room, brainstorming game concepts with quick paper tests. Being forced to move to a completely digital landscape meant we had to adapt and find new approaches to our (record-breaking) method. 

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Here’s some insight into how three of the games in this year’s Party Pack came to be.

Drawful: Animate

As you may know, each Party Pack has at least one sequel in it. This year, it’s Drawful’s long-awaited turn. An astute observer will notice that it’s not called Drawful 3, and that is intentional. Since it’s an exciting new twist on the core mechanic, we view it as having its own identity rather than just a continuation of a franchise. 

In this version, players create looping, two-frame animations based on absurd prompts. This concept thrived as a digital prototype because it would’ve been much harder to showcase how fun and effective the animations are if playtesters had to awkwardly fumble through a paper flipbook. 

The Wheel of Enormous Proportions 

The inspiration behind The Wheel of Enormous Proportions came very organically. One of the morale boosters for us this past year was using a digital wheel to raffle off random items. The prizes weren’t even that good—they were things like a t-shirt or a mouse pad, but that didn’t matter because wheel frenzy would take over. During a spin, chat would light up with comments like “Obey the Wheel,” “The Wheel knows all,” and “WHEEL.”

So that got us thinking. What if we replaced a branded mouse pad with a prize just as, if not more, fun? Winning a trivia game. So that’s exactly what we did. The more trivia questions a player answers correctly, the more slices t

Ayrton Senna was a legendary Brazilian driver who changed history – his name is still commonly remembered as one of the most iconic racers of all time.

So what better way to honor his memory than to have a Brazilian-made PS4 game relive his steps in a nostalgia-driven arcade-style racing game? ;)

Horizon Chase Turbo: Senna Forever is the game’s largest expansion to date, debuting an entirely new set of cars, tracks, and features inspired by Senna – which, by the way, is all thanks to the partnership and support of Senna Brands. Part of the profits obtained with the expansion will also be dedicated to support Ayrton Senna’s Institute educational programs, isn’t that amazing?

But let’s get to the fun part: racing! The trailer below shows just a little bit of everything we’ve packed for you, check it out!

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Career Mode? Championship Mode? Achievement system? New exclusive skins? Multiplayer? You name it, we got it. If you heard a familiar tune in this trailer, your ears are also quite right, because it was made by our dearest Barry Leitch, the very same composer for the soundtrack of the main game. The expansion also features tailor-made new tracks for you too!

Imagine being in the shoes of such an amazing driver, especially in first-person view gameplay. That’s exactly what you’ll do on Senna Forever’s Career Mode. There are five different chapters, each with a set number of races from his life you’ll have to go through – oh, there are also his own achievements, which we call Senna’s Marks, that you can complete here as well!

Oh, did I mention you get a cool narrative screen like the Rain Master for completing these? Yeah! Senna was known as the Rain Master because he was so good at racing in this weather – will you too? Let’s find out!

Shuhei Yoshida, head of PlayStation Indies, Sony Interactive Entertainment, introduced the world to PlayStation VR by stating that it was going to be “the next innovation from PlayStation that will [shape] the future of games.” And boy was he right.

For the past five years, PlayStation VR has provided the industry, specifically VR developers like us, with an incredible opportunity to create worlds and games that push entertainment and emotional connection beyond what today’s more traditional game technologies provide. VR is the only platform that truly immerses players in other worlds, allowing them to be a part of a narrative experience. You are a part of the story. Characters look at, converse with, and react to you. Not only do you have presence in beautifully rendered worlds, but you can also interact with the world in a physical way that feels intuitive and true. For instance, in Moss, whether it’s dragging a giant, heavy device to solve a puzzle, or poking hanging vines to sway them back and forth, players convince themselves that they are interacting with a genuine world. That is, until they take off their headset.

But it’s not just the physical interaction that makes VR special, it’s also the emotional connections that you make with virtual characters. When developing Moss for PlayStation VR, we learned that VR gives players the ability to build deep connections with characters over time through shared experiences. And in doing so, players believe that this connection is real—because, it kind of… is. These connections and the emotions they elicit—excitement, joy, and even heartbreak—are mind-opening for players who didn’t know they could feel so strongly within a digital experience.

Since releasing Moss on PlayStation VR in 2018, we’ve continued to experiment, learn, and advance our understanding of VR. In fact, Tyler Walters, principal technical artist, and Richard Lico, animation director, have provided a quick behind-the-scenes look at the work we’re doing to enhance both the thrill of physical interaction, and the joy of emotional connection, in Moss: Book II.

Tyler Walters: Moss proved that dynamic interactive visuals are very enjoyable and rewarding in VR. With additional team members on Moss: Book II, we found an opportunity to create many more visual effect systems and shaders that can only be experienced at their fullest within VR. This ranges from snowflakes falling in the mountains, to candle flames that move around as the player creates wind with their hands. Each of these systems create a different mood and sensation, so much so that some of us even feel colder while playing in the snowy levels of the game.

We’ve also added a new player ability that allows players to grow traversable foliage for Quill in the game. This includes a vine bri