If you love cute robots make sure you don’t miss The Colonists when it comes to PlayStation 4 on May 4. You’ll need to help the bots build their dream home by automating a whole city to meet their needs.

Think of city builders and you probably visualise gray tower blocks and industrial cranes. But The Colonists has a much friendlier face in the form of a grinning robot. The hard-working bots are the stars of the game so we hope you fall in love with them as much as we have.

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Each bot is defined by the specific job they have to fulfil within their community. We want to introduce you to a few of them as by learning what each bot does you will understand the basics of how The Colonists works.

Carrybot

First up is Carrybot. This energetic bot’s job is to carry resources along roads to the various buildings. This means you’ll need to consider the layout of your roads and where you place buildings in relation to them in order to maximise this bot’s productivity. 

That said, if Carrybots do run out of items to transport they’ll just start dancing on the spot. They clearly have a lot of energy and know how to use it to have a good time. You’ve got to admire that!

Farmbot

Where do Carrybots get all of that energy? You can thank Farmbot for that. These bots till the soil and grow crops in it that go towards feeding the entire city. If there are no Farmbots then there’s no energy to power your bots. It’s that simple.

You’ll notice that Farmbot is fit for its job by taking the shape of a plough. There’s no better design for cutting lines in the ground, tending the orchard to make apple juice, and growing whe

Oddworld: Soulstorm is not a remake in the traditional sense. Remakes are very popular right now and we have seen several wonderful games in that vein recently. Soulstorm differs in that it builds on what we originally wanted to do 22 years ago.

Back then, we weren’t afforded the time to execute our vision for the second game in Abe’s five-part quintology. We had just successfully released Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee (a.k.a. Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty),  the first game in Abe’s quintology, and we were asked to deliver a sequel to it within nine months.

We had to chop and cut down what we wanted to do to get it done. That meant Abe’s Exoddus was a wildly different story and experience than what we initially intended in the grand dream of the overarching five-game quintology.

Soulstorm is our grand dream come true. It is a new game. It is our attempt to make the deeper and more conceptually unsettling second episode in the story of Abe that we originally intended all those years ago. The story takes place after the events of Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty, when Abe follows his destiny to save his fellow Mudokons from corporate oppression. Soulstorm also features new gameplay mechanics including a scavenging and crafting system, where Abe can make versatile items like mines that knock enemy guards unconscious.

Our partners at Sony, Microids, and Unity helped us tremendously along the way and we would not be here without them. Most importantly, if not for fans of our games, Soulstorm would never have happened. Thank you for your continued support all these years. 

Tomorrow is the day our original vision for the second game in Abe’s five-part quintology, when Oddworld: Soulstorm launches. Let’s dive into things you should know before you embark on Abe’s next adventure.

PlayStation Plus

The digital version of the game releases April 6 on PS5 and PS4. The PS5 version will be free for PlayStation Plus members during April. Also, if you purchase the PS4 digital version, you can upgrade to the PS5 digital version at no additional cost.*

The physical retail versions of the game will be in stores on July 6. If you purchase the physical retail PS4 version, you will get the PS5 digital version at no cost.

Save your followers, they’re important

There are nearly 1,400 Mudokons that you can save in Oddworld: Soulstorm. How you decide to play is up to you, but keep in mind there are multiple endings in the game, and we recommend you try to save at least 80% of the Mudokons in each level (more info below).

There is strength in numbers with followers being a plus multiplier for Abe.  In New ‘n’ Tasty, Mudokons followed you or stayed put.  They were beasts of burden you led through deadly obstacle courses in the hopes they’d be rescued. Your followers gave you no real support or power of scale; they just made your job harder.

In Soulstorm, it’s more than just saving all those Mudokons for a better Quarmic score and nar

Hey there! We at HypeTrain Digital are incredibly happy to present you with the fruit of our glorious labor – Breathedge, an awesome space survival adventure with humorous flair, which launches on PS4 tomorrow, April 6! Stepping out into space isn’t nearly predictable as it would seem. Breathedge has many life-threatening hazards, including but not limited to suffocation, freezing, burning, getting beat up and/or shot, dying of hunger and thirst, electrocution and so much more. 

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That’s why we’ve decided to provide you with a helping hand (on a stick!) and guide you during your first voyages outside.

Get better gear

The civilization is built with tools. Too bad the tools you create don’t match the blueprints at all. But don’t worry, comrade, they still get the job done. Venture outside your shuttle and start touching things. Somehow, your suit’s onboard AI will figure out how to make something useful with what you find. It could be anything – metal, paint, an old back scratcher, batteries, even stale shawarma may come in handy.

Get yourself a new oxygen tank, a booster, and a flashlight – ta-daaa, exploration is now a whole lot more enjoyable. Don’t skimp on exploring around your starting area – all the good stuff is scattered around there somewhere. Pay extra attention to floating shipping containers – these often have some goodies that you would have to craft or harvest elsewhere. 

Take advantage of the environment

Flex your ingenuity. Do things that make sense, and things that really don’t. It all works out! When feeling cold, look for a warm place. Need to connect two broken wires together?…throw a corpse between them! Chased after by a bad police robot? Short-circuit it with your own bodily fluids. The list goes on.

April’s PlayStation Now lineup is a titanic team up featuring Marvel’s Avengers, Borderlands 3, and The Long Dark. Save the world, shoot up a galaxy, or survive an icy wilderness: take your pick from tomorrow when the games launch into the service.

Let’s take a closer look at each in turn. 

Marvel’s Avengers

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Marvel’s Avengers is an epic, third-person, action-adventure game that combines an original, cinematic story with single-player and co-operative gameplay. In a future with Super Heroes outlawed, a young Kamala Khan must reassemble the Avengers to stop AIM. Marvel’s Avengers continues the epic journey with new Heroes and new narrative delivered on an ongoing basis, for the definitive Avengers gaming experience. Assemble into a team of up to four players online, master extraordinary abilities, customize a growing roster of Heroes, and defend the Earth from escalating threats.

●      Marvel’s Avengers is available until Monday July 5, 2021. 

 Borderlands 3

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The original shooter-looter returns, packing bazillions of guns and a mayhem-fueled adventure! Blast through new worlds and enemies as one of four new Vault Hunters, each with deep skill trees, abilities, and customization. Play solo or with friends to take on insane enemies, score loads of loot and save your home from the most ruthless cult leaders in the galaxy. Play with anyone at any time online or in split-screen co-op, regardl

As we enter our fourth year of the FIA Certified Gran Turismo Championships I am no less excited than I was back in 2018. Last year was a fantastic season of racing and we eventually saw a dominant display from Japanese racer Takuma Miyazono that saw him become Nations Cup Champion as well as being part of Team Subaru, alongside Mikail Hizal (TUR) and Daniel Solis (USA), who won the Manufacturer Series.

Due to the effect of Covid-19, we are missing the atmosphere of our live World Tours and the opportunity to meet our wonderful competitors directly, but we’re lucky that we can still test new ideas and continue to grow the FIA Gran Turismo Championships even in this online only environment.

We’re excited by the new format for the series this year and, with new developments in our broadcast production integrating new technologies, we are certain that we can show everyone even more exciting racing action.

While we are looking forward to getting back to meeting up with competitors and audiences in person, we feel it is right to keep the Championships purely online in 2021. I wish the best of luck to all of the fantastic competitors who will participate within the competition. 

The FIA Gran Turismo Championships will start on Wednesday, April 21 – so if you want to enter then make sure you sign up in Sports Mode on GT Sport  – you can find the full terms and conditions here. 

Details of the different stages and all of our new broadcasts can be seen below. As a reminder, the Championship comprises a ‘Nations Cup’, where drivers compete for their country, and a ‘Manufacturer Series’, where they compete for one of the manufacturers featured in-game, each has a slightly different structure. For anyone interested, make sure you follow us on our social channels and check out gran-turismo.com to be sure not to miss any of the action and get full details on how to participate, and watch the 2021 Season. No doubt we will see some breath-taking, high-level racing again this year in both the Nations Cup and Manufacturer Series.

ONLINE STAGE 1 – runs from April 21 and concludes on June 26. Competitors from around the world will race online over 10 rounds of the Manufacturer Series (taking place on Wednesdays) and 10 rounds of the Nations Cup (on Saturdays).

‘WORLD SERIES’ 1 & 2 – this period will also see the global top 16 Nations Cup and top 12 Manufacturer Series competitors (initially selected from the 2020 World Finals) taking part in two new ‘World Series’ events that will be broadcast on Sunday, June 6, and Sunday, July 11, respectively.

‘WORLD SERIES SHOWDOWN’ – The end of Online Stage 1 gives a chance to its best 16 Nations Cup competitors to challenge for a place in the World Series and World Finals against the 16 elite players who contested the first two World Series events. At the same time, team duties will return for the Manufacturer Series with 12 teams of three racers contesting their ‘Showdown’ with World Finals points at stake. The Manufacturer Series World Series Showdown will be broadcast on Saturday, August 21 and the Nations Cup on Sunday, August

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google or RSS, or download here

Welcome back! This week the team shares thoughts on the immersive feel of Doom 3: VR Edition, and the perfectly paced co-op variety of It Takes Two. 

Stuff We Talked About

• Oddworld: Soulstorm
• Destruction AllStars
• Virginia
• Superhot
• A Plague Tale: Innocence
• Moss
• Doom 3: VR Edition
• It Takes Two

The Cast

Tim Turi –  Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE

Kristen Zitani – Content Communications Specialist, SIE

Brett Elston – Manager, Content Communications, SIE

We are excited to announce a new partnership with the NBA 2K League that makes PS5 the official console of the NBA 2K League. Starting this month and into the league’s fourth season tipping off this May, you will see all 23 NBA 2K League teams and 138 players in the league compete on PS5 during games and events.

And the partnership doesn’t stop there! The multiyear deal with the NBA 2K League will also give you, our global community of fans, the opportunity to take part in online fan tournaments hosted by us throughout the year, featuring NBA 2K League‑related prizing. 

We are happy to announce that the first online fan tournament is taking place just next week! Starting now, PS5 players based in the United States can sign up to net a spot in an online Three for All Showdown Qualifier tournament, taking place on Monday, April 5 – Tuesday, April 6*.

The winner of our online qualifier tournament will go on to compete in a 3-on-3 team with influencers Troydan and PoorBoySin in the second annual NBA 2KL Three for All Showdown competition from Friday, April 9 – Saturday, April 10 at 5:00pm Pacific Time / 8:00pm Eastern Time on the NBA 2K League’s Twitch and YouTube channels. This is a super exciting opportunity to be a part of the NBA 2KL Three for All Showdown event, which will feature NBA 2K League players, fans, WNBA players, and social media influencers, all competing in NBA 2K21’s “The City” game mode for a share of a $25,000 USD prize pool!

Whilst the PlayStation Three for All Showdown Qualifier online tournament is for PS5 players in the United States only, we have a lot of NBA 2K21 online tournaments coming to PS4 and PS5 very soon which will be open to our community of fans in regions all around the world. We can’t wait to share more on this soon!

You can also expect to see us collaborating with NBA 2K League on an exclusive custom content series that will run during NBA 2K League broadcasts and on the league’s social and digital channels: Twitter (NBA2KLeague), Instagram (nba2kleague), Facebook (NBA 2K League), TikTok (nba2kleague), Twitch (NBA2KLeague), YouTube (NBA 2K League) and NBA2KLeague.com.

Are you excited about our new partnership with NBA 2K League? Let us know in the comments! 

 *PS Plus membership required. Must be 16+ and resident of US. [4/2-4/10]. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. See full rules here.  

Last week, we asked you to focus in on the detailed expressions of various heroes in the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog. From furiously furrowed brows to smiling faces, here are this week’s expressive highlights: 

Kratos flashes a ferocious face in combat in God of War, shared by GameonFocus. 

Ellie makes funny faces in the mirror in The Last of Us Part II, shared by rahlredd.

Venti from Genshin Impact has sparkling smile, shared by 00ezo.

Aloy gies a curious shrug in this share by NeoFulcrum.

Amicia’s face scrunches with emotion has she hugs her brother Hugo in A Plague Tale: Innocence shared by laviescobar1.

Sora chases butterflies with a delighted grin in this share by TurningtheKey.

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: Golden

SUBMIT BY: Wednesday 9 AM PT on April 7

Next week, we’re seeing gold. Whether it’s gleaming treasures or sunlit landscapes, share golden moments in the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.  

Want to share more of your epic photo mode moments? U.S. players can enter the Red Bull Capture Point competition* for the chance to win some thrilling prizes. See full details at redbull.com/capturepoint.

*Red Bull Capture Point Official Contest Rules:

It’s no joke, the month of March has come to a close and the Players’ Choice polls are open for you to vote for your favorite new release of the past month! From daring indie darlings to bombastic PS VR adventures, crafty co-ops and everything in between, let us know which release made the biggest impression on you.

We’ll keep the polls open until Sunday night at 11:59pm Pacific, so be sure to cast your vote before then. Then show your favorite release some love in the comments! 

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.

Returnal launches on April 30. This PS5 exclusive is the result of four years of meticulous crafting by Housemarque, the Finnish studio known for the twitch-based thrills of the likes of Super Stardust, Nex Machina, and acclaimed PS4 launch title Resogun. Returnal takes the DNA of that illustrious arcade heritage – tight controls, compact gameplay loops – and splices it with compelling character drama and a cosmic mystery in the dark, uncharted heart of deep space. The result is a third-person sci-fi action thriller and the team’s biggest, most ambitious project to date. 

Ever since last year’s first reveal, you know some of what to expect. Housemarque has touched upon Returnal’s combat; teased its story. (If you haven’t kept up to date, don’t worry: we recap below). Now, after spending several hours with a near-complete version of the game, we have a better sense of how these and more come together. And, in addition, how Housemarque is leveraging the PlayStation 5’s features for an impressive next-gen debut.

A broadcast signal of unknown origins draws Selene, a Greek-American ASTRA deep space scout to an unmapped world. Her arrival onto Atropos is a violent one: an explosive accident mid-orbit sends her ship Helios spiralling into a crash landing. This sequence is an excellent early showcase for what the studio’s got in store for us with the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback: every metal-crunching impact is mimicked on the controller. When a flaming Helios roars across the width of your TV screen, you feel that fatal flyby through your hands.   

With her ship downed but her suit’s systems still active and tracking the broadcast, Selene sets off, armed with only a sidearm and a scientist’s tenaciousness. Between the signal’s origin and her are multiple biomes, each a labyrinth of interconnected areas. In each location remnants of an ancient civilisation and highly aggressive creatures await. Selene must adapt artifacts from the former to survive the latter. And when she fails to do so, two inevitabilities: you resurrect at the site of the crash, and this weaponised world has reshaped itself around you.  

A great example of DualSense controller’s adaptive triggers at work: L2 will lock halfway when pulled for a zoomed in Focus Aim (this also highlights enemy weak spots in red). Pull fully down to activate your weapon’s alt-fire mode. You can monitor alt-fire cooldown with your HUD and keep an ear out for a specific audio ping that plays when recharge is complete. But there’s a cool detail that’s DualSense controller specific: If you keep the trigger pulled after discharge, you’ll feel a low-level vibration that’ll steadily increase in intensity, matching the weapon’s alt-fire recharge cycle. 

The procedural generation and roguelike nature of Returnal are both gameplay and story hook. Each cycle will reorder every biome’s areas and their contents. Variations that paired with the game’s brooding, bristling score make exploration ever-dangerous, even as you grow proficient in navigating throu