Last week, we asked you to explore the beautiful world of Kena: Bridge of Spirits and share heroic moments using using #PSshare #PSBlog. From cute portraits to intense action shots, here are this week’s highlights: 

danliest shares Kena moving through a dark cave, lit only by the blue crystal on her staff.

RevolutionAndre shares a selfie moment with Kena and the adorable Rot she’s collected.

crisg_art shares Kena leaping to shoot her bow.

samito01xz shares Kena standing before a swirling glowing mass.

mnaxer shares Kena using her Spirit Guide energy..

Yuric83 shares Kena holding a spirit’s wooden fox mask.

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: Death Stranding Director’s Cut

SUBMIT BY: Wednesday 9 AM PT on October 8

Next week, we’re braving the dangerous terrain of Death Stranding Director’s Cut. Share daring moments along Sam Bridges’ journey using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Happy Halloween season, friends. We’re excited to open up the voting boo-ths for the month of September 2021. Deciding your favorite will be no easy task, as the past month was packed with some scary-good games. Think hard before casting a vote for Deathloop, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Life is Strange: True Colors, Tales of Arise, or any of the other contenders listed in the polls below. Happy voting!

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 Shadow of the Colossus 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.

Halloween is almost upon us and – like a mischievous ghost hiding behind your bedroom door with a party popper — the Dreams community is prepared to scare. For our second-ever All Hallows’ Dreams celebration, we asked players to help us create the ultimate haunted fairground by carving pumpkins, creating scarecrows — and building parts of a collaborative ghost train.

Today, we are thrilled to announce the full title of this year’s event… All Hallows’ Dreams: Ghost Train!

(Who saw that name coming? Oh, literally everyone? Fair enough.)

We can also now reveal when we’re launching All Hallows’ Dreams: Ghost Train. The fun and frights will begin on October 15 and run through November 1 for all Dreams players! 

Read on to find out about the tricks and treats we and the coMmunity have in store for you this Halloween…

The Ghost Train

The headline attraction of our carnival, whispers of this haunted fairground attraction have travelled far and wide across the Dreamiverse. Buckle up as the Dreams community takes you on a tour through terrifying tracks made with our creation kit, which we’ve stitched together into the ultimate thrill-ride.

Choose your path across the ghost train’s many rails, shoot targets to set high scores and enjoy scares galore! And for the bravest among you? Try putting on your PlayStation VR* headset to experience the entire ride in virtual reality. Gulp.

Don’t own a copy of Dreams? Never fear: All Hallows’ Dreams: Ghost Train will also be available to play in the free Trial version of the game. 

Pumpkins and Scarecrows

Last year’s pumpkin patch has had a bit of an upgrade. This year, in addition to giving our community creators a template to carve their own jack-o-lanterns, we challenged them to design their own scarecrows. The results are… horrifying.

Which is to say: fantastic job, everyone! You’ve officially creeped us out.

It’s well worth popping by the carnival’s creepy cemetery to admire these creations for yourself. Before you do, why not swing by the costume tent, and get in the Halloween spirit with your choice of fancy dress?

Quests and Minigames

A carnival wouldn’t be complete without prizes. Our Halloween hub is so much more interactive and alive this year, and the more you explore this strange and magical place, the more rewards you’ll discover…

Firstly, anyone who logs into the full version of Dreams from October 15 until November 1 that missed out on the Halloween Imps from last year’s event will instantly receive all of those imps.

In addition to this, we’ve got three brand-new imps to give out!

Everyone who logs into the full version of Dreams during the above time period will be rewarded with our friendly clown imp, Pag.

You c

Badass gunslinging anti-hero Grave is back in the upcoming action-packed gun kata game Gungrave G.O.R.E, where you’ll face a multitude of ruthless enemies, some with the power to evolve and transform into Superior versions of themselves. One of the most fascinating and deadly of these is without a doubt Yensen… 

Today we can reveal that legendary artist Ikumi Nakamura is working alongside developer Iggymob on a number of character designs, bringing her own unique, elegant style to the game with spectacular results. 

What appealed to you most about working on Gungrave G.O.R.E? 

Nakamura: I used to play the PlayStation 2 version of Gungrave. Since I was a fan of Naito-sensei’s Trigun, I naturally thought “I will buy Gungrave”. 

When Iggymob contacted me, I was happy to hear that it was an offer to work on a piece that I had once purchased. It was an honor to work with Naito-sensei indirectly.

They told me that they knew how they would like to approach the visual aspect, but the core visual concept and its impact was not quite there. 

The fact that I could refine the visual concept was the most interesting part when working on Gungrave G.O.R.E. In terms of the actual work process, I had to think of how to transform and bring Naito-sensei’s characters to life. This was both an appealing and challenging part of the project. 

Maintaining the main worldview of GORE and adding the “Ikumi-nized” style was the most challenging of all. I used to think “Wow, what am I going to do?” because of the pressure that I felt, but still moved on with the visualization. 

Yensen is the boss of the Hong Kong branch of Raven Clan, a criminal organisation hell-bent on their goal of spreading the dangerous drug “SEED” across the world in an effort to control humanity. Yensen is hungry for more power within Raven Clan, and will go above and beyond to make sure he succeeds (and Grave fails). As a Martial Arts specialist he prefers things up close and personal, making him a tricky target for Grave’s trademark pistols. 

What inspired the design of Yensen Superior? 

Nakamura: Everything is related to how Yensen was raised in Hong Kong. I was inspired by Bian Lian, the traditional form of Chinese entertainment where the faces would change in a split second. This translated into Yensen’s movements during the battle to be unusual and eye-catching. I also had a vision at one point that Yensen Superior’s mask would move like Rorschach from Watchmen. 

How did you approach mixing your art style with the style of the game? Did you have to approach the challenge/work flow differently? 

Nakamura: I’m also working on other characters and bosses’ designs as well. Additionally, there is a special design of Grave that I’m working on, so please stay tuned for the upcoming news. 

Gungrave G.O.R.E will launch in 2022, published by Prime Matter. 

Hey everyone, we’ve been rolling out some new maps and modes in Destruction AllStars over the past few months and it’s been fantastic to see the community’s reaction to the new content along with all the carnage and destruction in the arena*! If you haven’t been keeping up, we’ve added two new smaller arenas to Mayhem in the QuickPlay playlist, along with a brand new game mode, Mayhem Falls.

This weekend, we’ll be hosting a special event previewing our next game mode, Carnado Falls! Be sure to jump into the game to check it out before we add it into the Quickplay rotation later this month. Lets give you the lowdown on all of these updates and what you can expect from these new modes. 

Mayhem Falls

At first glance, Mayhem Falls looks like a standard game of Mayhem taking place on a Gridfall map. Whilst that’s certainly what got the idea rolling, the final result has a bit more nuance to get to grips with. Players start off with a flat arena where the objective is to smash, wreck and KO your opponents to rise to the top of the leaderboard. As the game progresses, sections of the arena begin to fall away, creating precarious ledges for players to fall into due to poor driving or get knocked off by your opponents.

If you happen to fall into the pit below, you’ll lose 30% of your score. We wanted to find a balance between punishing players who ultimately fell off the map, but still give ample room to climb back up the ranks if you suffer an early plunge. The higher up the board you climb, the more you’ll want to watch your step and make sure you keep knocking players off the map. This really raises the stakes and makes games feel more intense and action packed! Each decision you make, every slam, evade or wreck has more impact on the game than ever before. A single mistake could send you tumbling down the scoreboard, it’s all to play for until the end of the game!

Mayhem Falls is available for all players in the Quickplay Playlist in online multiplayer*.

Carnado Falls

Carnado Falls takes things to the next level and challenges you to balance offensive and defensive play whilst the arena falls away around you. Whilst there are many similarities to our other Falls game mode, the scoring system for Carnado Falls is still based on classic Carnado: Smash, wreck, and KO your opponents to build gears inside your car. Drive your car into the Carnado to score and get onto the scoreboard. The only difference here is with the map falling away from beneath your wheels as the game goes on, you need to take care not to fall off the map and lose all your gears whilst causing even more wrecks and KOs in the shrinking arena.

Keeping your vehicle alive long enough to build up plenty of gears is always a challenge in Carnado, but these changes really ramp up the pressure as you’re dodging between gaps in the arena, along with your opponents, in this fast-paced game mode. You’ve really got to strategise and pick your wrecks a little more carefully if you want to score highly in Carnado Falls, you can just as easily follow your opponents off the side with a poorly timed slam.

Carnado Falls will be arriving for a special preview this week

Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin was announced at E3 in June, alongside an initial Trial Version that allowed us to get to grips with this new vision. Through a survey included, the team took feedback from those who played the Trial version, made some changes and have now launched a new Trial Version for the game, available now on PlayStation 5.

A new trailer for the game was also revealed alongside the Trial Version 2 announcement, check it out below!

Play Video

The team has clearly been hard at work implementing many changes, here are a few things you can expect.

A new area:  Refrin Wetlands

This new Trial Version opens up a whole new area to explore: the Refrin Wetlands. Far from the dark, gothic aesthetic of the Chaos Shrine, the Refrin Wetlands is a rainforest setting that will see you battle a diverse set of monsters through a lush, green land. Keep an eye out for some familiar weather changes you might remember from elsewhere. 

Improved combat

Battling your way through the two areas in this new version remains a thrilling and challenging experience, there’s such fluidity to switching between job classes, finding enemies’ weaknesses or turning their strengths against them. The combat has been rebalanced in Trial Version 2 with ability adjustments and tweaks to the break gauge and MP recovery speeds, creating an even more exciting high-risk high-reward battle system.

New difficulty settings

Whether you’re new to Action RPGs or a stone-cold pro, the new Story, Action, and Hard difficulty settings will tailor the experience accordingly.

Graphical updates

There are also a ton of striking updates to the game’s graphics, and although this isn’t the final version, the visual improvements are plain to see in Trial Version 2. 

AI improvement

Final Fantasy is all about teamwork, and you’ll a

Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin was announced at E3 in June, alongside an initial Trial Version that allowed us to get to grips with this new vision. Through a survey included, the team took feedback from those who played the Trial version, made some changes and have now launched a new Trial Version for the game, available now on PlayStation 5.

A new trailer for the game was also revealed alongside the Trial Version 2 announcement, check it out below!

Play Video

The team has clearly been hard at work implementing many changes, here are a few things you can expect.

A new area:  Refrin Wetlands

This new Trial Version opens up a whole new area to explore: the Refrin Wetlands. Far from the dark, gothic aesthetic of the Chaos Shrine, the Refrin Wetlands is a rainforest setting that will see you battle a diverse set of monsters through a lush, green land. Keep an eye out for some familiar weather changes you might remember from elsewhere. 

Improved combat

Battling your way through the two areas in this new version remains a thrilling and challenging experience, there’s such fluidity to switching between job classes, finding enemies’ weaknesses or turning their strengths against them. The combat has been rebalanced in Trial Version 2 with ability adjustments and tweaks to the break gauge and MP recovery speeds, creating an even more exciting high-risk high-reward battle system.

New difficulty settings

Whether you’re new to Action RPGs or a stone-cold pro, the new Story, Action, and Hard difficulty settings will tailor the experience accordingly.

Graphical updates

There are also a ton of striking updates to the game’s graphics, and although this isn’t the final version, the visual improvements are plain to see in Trial Version 2. 

AI improvement

Final Fantasy is all abou