Our first encounter with The Callisto Protocol was back in June, when its creator Glen Schofield shared an exclusive look at the horrors that would await PS5 players on the surface of Jupiter’s moon. The Striking Distance Studios CEO took us on a tour emphasizing the tech powering this return to the sci-fi horror space: the subtle strength of Horror Engineering that’d perfect each shock and scare, the near-future weaponry that gives Jacob Lee a fighting chance against the mutated Biophage, and how 3D Audio and haptic feedback would pull us deeper into the danger-filled corridors of Black Iron Prison. 

Today at Gamescom, he returned to dig deeper into how the game’s combat will work and share new gameplay. Prior to that reveal, we sat down to talk about the journey towards the game’s launch on December 2, its soundscape, story, and more about his team’s techniques to craft a horror story you’ll be unable to forget. 

PlayStation Blog: While the game’s still a few months out from release, that will mark (just under) two years since it was originally announced. Have you had much chance to come up for air and reflect on that journey thus far, or do you keep your focus solely on those pre-launch milestones?

Glen Schofield: The last few years have been a blur. We’ve built a new studio, created a new game based on a new IP, with a new team, on a new engine, for a new generation of consoles … during the pandemic. What a ride!  The team at Striking Distance Studios can’t wait to finally share The Callisto Protocol with the world!

The support that we’ve received from players—and especially the PlayStation community—has been one of the things that has inspired us to finish so strong. The feedback has been incredible, and it means the world to me and the team.  This game is a labor of love.

What’s left between now and going gold?

We’ve reached what we call “content lock,” which means that basically everything is in the game at this point. Levels, creatures, visual effects, cutscenes—it’s all in there. Right now, we’re making all those last little tweaks. Changing the timing on a sound here, brightening up a light there, tuning the difficulty, stuff like that. And of course, we’re optimizing performance and squashing bugs every day.

This last phase of development is a lot of work, but it’s when the game really starts to shine. It’s very satisfying to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Can you go into more detail as to your approach to the game’s score? Is it primarily diegetic, backed with cues from The Apprehension Engine?

I can’t overstate how important audio is to a horror game. It’s half the experience. In fact, I consider audio to be a feature, like combat or anything else. It’s that critical.

What’s interesting about audio for a horror game is that you have a ton of room to experiment and do some really wild stuff.

Let’s say you have a machine off in the corner of the room. We think about how we can make that machine scary. How do you turn people’s expectations for what an industrial machine sounds like, and just tweak it a little bit, so it sounds foreign and intimidating? We want the world to feel familiar but threatening and a little off.

These diegetic elements really help immerse the player in the world, but keep them off balance.

Music and other non-die

Today, we are thrilled to unveil the DualSense Edge wireless controller for PlayStation 5, the first-ever high-performance, ultra-customizable controller developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Designed to give you an edge in gameplay by allowing you to create custom controls, the DualSense Edge wireless controller invites you to craft your own unique gaming experience tailored to your playstyle.

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The DualSense Edge wireless controller features a number of hardware and software-based customization options for creating a completely personalized controller experience, including:

●       Ultra-customizable controls: You can make the DualSense Edge wireless controller uniquely yours by remapping or deactivating specific button inputs and fine-tuning your aim by adjusting stick sensitivity and dead zones (the distance your analog stick moves before it’s recognized in a game). In addition, each trigger is adjustable with options to tailor travel distance and dead zones to your preference. For example, you can manually reduce travel distance of the triggers for faster inputs in competitive FPS games or reduce the dead zone for precise throttle control in racing games.

●       Ability to save multiple control profiles: Once you’ve found your ideal control settings, you can save them to unique profiles and swap between them on the fly. With the DualSense Edge wireless controller, you’ll always have your preferred controls for your games ready to go, whether you’re facing Norse gods and monsters in God of War Ragnarök, or rival players in an online battle royale.

●       On-controller user interface: The dedicated Fn button allows you to easily adjust your setup whil

Think you’ve got what it takes to be a Team Principal of an F1 team? As we draw closer to launch day, we thought we’d share a few more details about F1 Manager 2022 with PlayStation players as we’re very excited to be bringing an officially licensed F1 management game to console for the first time.

From August 25, you’ll be able to sit on your sofa or armchair of choice and drive every decision for your chosen team. Pick one of the 10 current teams in F1 and manage all the action both off and on the track with authentic broadcast-style presentation and unrivaled depth and detail.

We’ve worked closely with F1 to ensure that every aspect of the game authentically showcases its fast-paced, exhilarating world, and the team at Frontier has been hard at work to make sure that console players have a smooth and immersive experience. F1 Manager 2022 offers the same gameplay experience across every platform, and on console the controls have been designed from the ground up to create seamless navigation between menus and racing action.

It’s race week

Coming into the historic Belgian Grand Prix at the beautiful Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, you’ll certainly need your wits about you.

Before the race weekend starts, you’ll need to ensure any parts you’re developing for this race are finalised and fitted, ready to test your new set-up at the track. Be sure to make the most of the data available back at your HQ, including circuit data that will provide details about the track, timing data from previous races, safety car likelihood and potential weather forecast.

Let’s touch on weather, shall we? For those of you that know Spa and those that don’t, rain is always a threat. How you, as Team Principal, prepare your drivers for this possibility will make or break your race weekend.

Your Weather Centre back at the factory will provide a weather forecast for the weekend, based on real-life, historic data. As you go into the race weekend itself, each day you’ll be greeted with a predicted forecast for the entire session, based on the accuracy of your Weather Centre. You’ll need to upgrade this facility if you want more accurate forecasts!

Time for tyres

Last week, we asked you to share the gaming critters and creatures you’ve encountered using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s animal highlights:

call_me_xavii shares the titular Stray crawling under a car.

Dande_Lion55 shares a sweet fox amongst the falling leaves in Ghost of Tsushima.

Amianan_NiRaGuB shares detailed shot of a flying raven in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

M_Joe_Hort shares a pug on the beach next to some sand castles in GTA Online.

Take6_MT shares a wolf nearly being struck by lightning in Far Cry 6.

Mujirooooo shares a monarch butterfly chilling on a rock in Away: The Survival Series.

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: Platinum Trophy
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on August 24, 2022

Next week is all about the glory. Share a moment from a game you unlocked the Platinum Trophy using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

It’s been one year since our launch. To celebrate, we’re thrilled to share our biggest update yet – the Anniversary Update! As a thank you for your amazing support we’ve expanded the Kena experience with many new features, including: New Game+, Charmstones, Spirit Guide Trials, Kena Outfits, accessibility features, and more.

The Anniversary Update will be a free update available to all PS4 and PS5 players, new and old, on September 27.

During development, we aimed to take fans’ comments into consideration while also adding more unique features and gameplay to expand the experience. New Game+ has been a big one! Once players have completed the game, they will have the opportunity to convert their save file into a New Game+ game. From there, they will restart Kena’s journey with all of their previously unlocked Abilities, Upgrades, Outfits, Rot, etc. as they face redesigned and more challenging combat encounters. Combat encounters adjustments even include new enemy types unique to NG+. Many bosses even have some additional phases.

Charmstones are another big addition coming in our September 27 update. Individually equipable – these unique collectibles each provide different adjustments to Kena’s stats and abilities. Some Charmstones contain a benefit and a drawback, encouraging players to strategize about how they want to take on certain enemies and challenges. Rare Cursed Charmstones are aimed at players who want a serious challenge by attacking the game with reduced abilities. Players will find most Charmstones hidden around Kena’s world, with a few connected to another big addition: Spirit Guide Trials.

In a whole new game mode accessed from the Mask Shrine, the Spirit Guide Trials will challenge players’ skills. By building a variety of replayable challenges, we wanted to encourage all players to test out different combinations of their upgrades and deepen their combat experience. The Spirit Guide Trials fall into three different categories: Obstacle Courses, Wave Defenses, and Boss Reflects. 

Each Trial can be played as many times as players want and include various objectives to complete within that particular Trial. In the Obstacle Courses for example, players focus on Kena’s primary abilities: the Bow, Bomb, and Dash as they navigate through courses

Hey, I’m Goldie, the art director for Wayward Strand, coming to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on September 15 (that’s so soon!!)

For the first time in the six years since Ghost Pattern was formed, me and the team are sharing a deep dive into the making of our real-time, simultaneously told story, Wayward Strand, starring Casey, a 14-year-old aspiring journalist, as she follows her curiosity wherever it takes her.

Early artwork of how the ship might be loaded up with supplies, by me! Goldie Bartlett

From the start, the game was heavily inspired by immersive theater, slice-of-life comics, and graphic novels. Something I love about this format is that there’s a lot of space and area to tuck moments in amongst the larger plot points and knots of storylines.

Cast away! Creating our characters

Our team created Wayward Strand’s characters based on personal experiences and stories from people in our lives, particularly older people. We wanted our characters to be active within the story, as opposed to waiting around for the player to come by before they do anything. Georgia Symons, one of Wayward Strand’s writers, remembers that “the goal was to give each character the potential to ‘move the story forward’, through whatever actions they take.”

In early demos we were excited by how simultaneous storylines give the player the opportunity to happen upon scenes or storylines in mid-flow. It helps the player both understand and feel that there is a world of activity going on outside of their character.

Ghost Pattern’s earliest mock-up of the Day 1 schedule in 2016/2017. Each row, a different character and each column a time of day.

Wayward Strand’s other writer, Jason Bakker, feels like telling many storylines at the same time means we can really round out our characters. “It allows each character to have quiet moments, time to themselves. Each character can be the centre of attention for a bit, then the player can follow them as they return to their rooms, and be with them as they process what just happened.”

Screenshot of the current build, at the front of the ship overlooking the coast.

We’ve challenged ourselves to make every character as interesting as possible over the course of three in-game days, and that’s a part of making Wayward Strand I’ve absolutely loved. Often I’d have a conversation with someone — my mum or an aunty or a friend — they’d tell me some story about someone they once knew and I’d think, “that is SUCH an Esther thing to do” or ‘that’s exactly how Joe (one of the nurses) must be feeling about Dr. Bouchard’. Over the past six years, little nuances that relate to people we know have been added to the characters piece by piece.

By the sea-nery

An early rendering of Casey visiting Ida using 3D modeling.

We’ve gone through many generations of the visuals for our liv

Sega’s Yakuza is one of the most distinct and charming story-driven action-adventure franchises out there. The series is unassuming at first, mostly seeming like a straightforward action-crime drama. However, each game betrays this first impression, weaving a masterful blend of beat ‘em up combat, intriguing stories full of twists, memorable characters, absurdist humor, and a living world to explore.

Yakuza comes from the mind of Toshihiro Nagoshi, who wanted to create a game telling a story based on Japanese crime syndicates. While the project struggled to be greenlit due to a perceived limited appeal, it eventually got a 2005 release on the PlayStation 2 with its debut entry.

While the series has long garnered a cult following, it achieved Western success in 2017 with Yakuza 0, an inviting new prequel set at the beginning of the series’ timeline. Years later, thanks to continued localization from Sega, the help of memes, and the love of its established cult audience, Yakuza has earned popularity and become one of Sega’s most successful IPs.

With multiple games in the series coming to PlayStation Plus*, now is the best time to become a Yakuza fan. Join us as we highlight each game and how it evolved the series. 

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Yakuza

Yakuza | U.S. Release: 2006 | PlayStation 2

Yakuza Kiwami | U.S. Release: 2016 | PlayStation 4

Yakuza debuted on the PlayStation 2 and introduced us to the longest-running protagonist of the series, Kazuma Kiryu, a yakuza lieutenant that makes it his mission to protect an orphan targeted by a criminal organization called the Tojo Clan. The story that unfolds is gripping, emotional, and exciting, setting the stage for the franchise’s decades-spanning crime saga.

As expected, the first game laid the early groundwork for what makes the series’s gameplay so memorable and iconic now. It takes place in a fictionalized version of Tokyo’s Kabukicho district, known in-game as Kamurocho. At the time, critics praised Yakuza for its authentic depiction of Japanese culture within its setting. While Kamurocho is a relatively small space to explore, it’s densely packed with side quests and activities that offer experience points upon completion, tying into the game’s role-playing mechanics. Everything in the world feeds into the growth of Kazuma Kiryu, allowing you to unlock more perks for the hero.

Yakuza marked an exciting beginning for the then-fledgling series, undoubtedly leaving a mark on those fortunate to play it. The game

Fallout 76 players are about to venture into new territory. This September, the Expeditions update whisks players to a perilous location outside the wild reaches of Appalachia: The Pitt!

Built on what’s left of Pre-War Pittsburgh, The Pitt is a rough place. The local Union faction is beset on all sides as bloodthirsty Raiders and once-human Trog beasts close in, so grab your friends, pack your best gear and steel yourself…it’s time to go on an Expedition.

Gear up and head out

“Expedition missions are randomized and repeatable story-based missions on the scale of our most epic end-of-line quests, such as the Vault 79 raid at the end of Wastelanders,” explains Steve Massey, Lead Designer on Fallout 76’s Expeditions. “We developed a new Quest Module system which allows us to easily randomize and retheme quest objectives in order to make each mission playthrough feel truly unique and blend seamlessly into the overarching mission story.”

Players can tackle missions either solo or in a group with up to four people – either with friends or by using the new Expedition Public Teams feature included in the update. Players can earn a unique item plan once per week upon completing an Expedition, as well as collect Stamps in order to claim specific items from the reward pool. Players can also earn repeatable rewards including legendary items, Scrip, Treasury Notes and even an all-new method for gaining Legendary Modules.

Legends never die. Last Stand, the fifth and final season of Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone, gathers Call of Duty’s most infamous villains for an epic finale. In Warzone, Caldera’s Peak rumbles; in Multiplayer, deploy to two new fast-paced maps, Beheaded and Fortress; in Zombies, continue the Dark Aether saga in Vanguard’s round-based finale, “The Archon.”

Last Stand launches on PlayStation on August 24. Read on for the highlights.

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Wreak havoc or defend Caldera

A new era of Warzone is upon us, with a major content update along with weather and lighting changes on both Caldera and Rebirth Island.

Peak — Volcanic POI

There are reports of heightened volcanic activity at Caldera. Navigate the transformed Peak as lava pours down its slopes in all modes and blasts into the sky during Operation: Last Call. 

New Gulag

Fight for redeployment in the new volcanic-themed Gulag. Best your opponent in this map inspired by an old favorite and get another shot at securing victory.

Beware the Doomsday Station

Discover this seismic device found within Caldera’s primary Battle Royale game mode. Trigger the device and defend against the incoming soldiers to get rewarded with powerful items and a unique Watch cosmetic for your Operator.

Supply Box UAV

Activate the new Supply Box UAV Killstreak to mark nearby unopened Supply Boxes on the Map for around 15 seconds. Find the Supply Box UAV in Supply Boxes or purchase one at a Buy Station.

Personal Supply Box

Track down this extremely rare crate with the assistance of the Supply Box UAV to acquire a massive XP boost and your favorite Loadout weapons in Warzone.

Rage Serum

This Field Upgrade allows you to become violently unstable, resulting in a viciously effective boost to your close-quarters fighting. Test subjects were shown to have superior melee damage, increased lunge distance, and enhanced stun power while fighting with melee weapons or fists. However, defensive forces have confirmed that while affected by Rage Serum, an Operator becomes louder, and seems to recoil with more confusion while stunned or flashed.

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The time has finally come, Cursed to Golf is out TODAY on PS5 and PS4. It’s been 2 years of hard work and passion to get here. The team and I are immensely proud of our game, and we hope you all take our virtual trip to the afterlife to live out your days in Golf Purgatory. Last time I was here I spoke about the general rules of supernatural golf, the incredible power of the Ace Cards and some of the shenanigans you can get down to in between holes. Today, let’s get down and dirty with some of the more perilous elements of Cursed to Golf. After all, if you want to make it out of Golf Purgatory, it pays to take some risks.

Who’s the Boss?

At the end of each biome lies its ultimate challenge – the Legendary Caddie that oversees that part of the course. In Purgatory you’ll find The Scotsman, in the Desert you’ll face The Explorer, and the Caves are home to The Forgotten. These golf battles mix up the gameplay slightly and offer up a few differences to the traditional purgatorial golf gameplay you’ll encounter on the rest of the course. Not only do you have to keep tabs on your shot counter, but you also need to beat the boss by sinking your ball before them. However, in addition to Shot Idols that replenish your shot count, these battles include Stun Idols. Smashing through one of these will knock the boss down, making them miss a turn.

These golfers don’t play around, hitting incredible shots that defy the laws of physics! If you want to take down a Legendary Caddie, you’ll need to master your Ace Cards, make use of the best shortcuts, and ensure to smash through a load of totems on your way to the flagpole. Luckily, the boss hole will always stay the same, so you can learn it as you play and experiment to find the best strategy to complete it.

The High Road or the Low Road?

The Scotsman’s hole is designed for his characteristic long drives. It’s also peppered with both hazards and shortcuts both up high and down low, so don’t forget to use your Birdie Eye to get a true lay of the land and plan which road you want to take. Beating The Scotsman will unlock the “Comeback” boon, giving you the chance to place a checkpoint flag once per run. Upon your (almost certain) death, instead of being booted back to the beginning of the course, you’ll be transported back to your flag. Not only that, but you’ll have all the Ace Cards and cash you had when you placed it originally, ready for another swing at the course!

The Dune Sea

The Explorer’s hole is a sand dune filled nightmare, expect to be perfecting your wedge game over there, because you’ll be landing in the bunker constantly. On top of that, The Explorer has a special ability – she can alter the hole right in the middle of it being played. You may land on a suspiciously flat and safe area, only to find a towering dune erupt ou