We are not sure where 2021 went, but it feels as if it just flew by and the holiday season is already upon us. We are so thrilled to see this community continue to grow and thrive in the jungle with us! In this month’s Paid DLC we wanted to bring a great group of Hunters to the game for the holiday season. We have heard some chatter in the community asking for it and we are happy to announce that December’s DLC is the Hunting Party. 

The Hunting Party includes Falconer, Captured, and Mr. Black Predators. This fearsome trio is sure to raise heart rates in the jungle over the upcoming holiday break. (Note the Falconer and Mr. Black include the bodies only since the masks have already been released in-game.)*

These three members of the Yautja race have been roaming the world for some time. Mr. Black, also known as a super, or berserker, Predator, was identified by Isabelle Nissenbaum while stranded on the Game Preserve Planet, and was involved in the first known instance of Predator subspecies conflict. Falconer, also part of the breed of Super Predators, employs unorthodox tactics and masterful reconnaissance on the hunt, but has shown a willingness to face his enemy on an even field. And then there’s the Captured Predator, a prisoner and victim of the evident blood feud happening on the game reserve planet, he is rumored to have belonged to the same clan as the original Jungle Hunter. An unfortunate encounter with this group of super Predators led to this Yautja being held captive, with a tarnished mask.

December’s free update includes the release of the Exiled Predator’s hook weapon from October. In addition, we all know that Yautja are not invincible, and these new cosmetics show that they can definitely bleed. This update also contains the Predator Mask Scars cosmetics. We are pretty certain that the Predators wear their scars with pride. Now you can choose which war wounds to show off too.

All of us here at IllFonic want to wish you a wonderful holiday season! We hope to see you in the jungle over the break! And as we round the corner into 2022 and make our way to the 3rd Anniversary of Predator: Hunting Grounds we are honored to continue hunting next to you all! We have more coming in the New Year and cannot wait to share details in the future.

*Cosmetic masks shown on Falconer Predator and Mr. Black Predator may also be purchased in-game with earned currency.

Hello PlayStation community! I’m Jemima, a writer here at Roll7, and I’m super excited to bring you all some exclusive insights from a few of the amazing folks who are currently working on OlliOlli World.

New art, new design

A bold new art direction is inspiring the design team at Roll7 to improve and innovate the mechanics of OlliOlli World. “Our previous OlliOlli titles were 2D,” says Co-Director John Ribbins. “But now with a 3D art style we have the ability to move the camera in and out as the player progresses through levels, which means more space for super gnarly huge airs – and that means more time for tricks and combos. As a result, we’ve been able to include grabs in the game for the first time ever. Grabs feel pretty rad on their own, but they also make existing mechanics like spins way more interesting and versatile.” 

“One addition that I’m particularly fond of is being able to do Firecrackers, which is when the player performs a Manual down a staircase,” says Senior Level Designer Sam Robinson. “This ties into new ways of skating because in this game, the player has more opportunities to recover from their mistakes. If they miss a jump and are about to land on a staircase, the player has the opportunity to save themselves by performing the right trick as they land to carry on through the level.” 

“There are also wallrides now,” adds Ribbins. “Not really for any particular reason, we just all thought they were cool.” (They really are.)

Player choice

“The visual and audible presentation of the game is joyful, vibrant, and welcoming to audiences – and this has also been reflected in the game’s design,” says Robinson. And, while this game is much less punishing to inexperienced players than previous OlliOlli titles, it still retains the incredibly high skill ceiling that enables players to come back time and again as they work to improve their scores. 

“This ultimately means that the player will experience more of the game, rather than get stuck early on – and then they can return and replay the levels later to improve their score, complete challenges, or discover new routes through levels,” explains Robinson.

Narrative Designer Lizz Lunney also emphasizes what a huge impact the zany new art direction and mechanics have on their own work: “The concept design, by Germán Reina Carmona, really worked hand-in-hand with the narrative and the gameplay to bring this world to life. I also worked closely with (former Lead Game Designer) Craig Thomas, to ensure that the story blends seamlessly with the gameplay. Ideally after a few hours spent playing OlliOlli World you’ll not only be dreaming about the flow state of the game,” says Lunney, but you’ll also get “a sense of true skate culture – one that is not so much about competing but more about hanging out with your mates, celebrating each other’s tricks, going on epic road trips, and meeting weird new people along the way.”

Taking an alternate path will provide a fresh challenge for seasoned players to sink their teeth into, as skating off the beaten path will reveal routes with a bit more risk… and, if they play their combos right, possibly

When the Steel Wool development team was given the opportunity to work on Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach, we dug deep for inspiration from our childhoods, high school jobs, and parental party planning duties to build the most fantastic pizzeria to ever exist.

We decided the best course of action was to begin with the star and central figure of this particular pizzeria, Glamrock Freddy. Everything in the Mega Pizzaplex revolves around Freddy and the new glam rock band. Just like the original game, Freddy deserved a main stage surrounded by pizza and party tables filled with fans. However, this new state of the art animatronic band would need even more room to move and perform. We decided to add elaborate stage lifts to raise Freddy and the gang above the audience flanked by stadium-sized concert monitors. The stage would be as updated as they are.

Now that we had a concert venue as the centerpiece, we needed to surround it with activities and attractions of every type. We wanted a putt putt golf course, go-karts, laser tag, retro arcades, modern arcades, dance floors, a movie theater – everything. However, Five Nights at Freddy’s is not a series about set design, it’s about the horrific animatronic stars. So we decided to design a character specific attraction for each member of the band. 

Due to the ongoing adventures of Freddy in Space, we immediately went to work on Glamrock Freddy’s Fazer Blast lasergame. It was the first set mock up completed in the entire game. Not only did we want to honor the source material, but we really wanted to include solid references to Scott’s super fun side-scrollers. 

Everyone in the studio looked at Roxanne Wolf and just knew she was meant to be a racer. She would become the brutally competitive go-kart champion of Roxy Racers. The art team had a blast making her a trophy winning daredevil in the raceway’s surrounding art. Not only was the location heavily inspired by Roxy’s rebellious look, the raceway art then informed her elitist personality and VO performance. She is the best and will let the losers know it.

Montgomery Gator inspired the Monty’s Gator Golf indoor putt putt golf course. Toxic barrels of brightly colored ball pit balls flow through a blacklight course of wooden shacks, water hazards and rock n’ roll iconography. We wanted Monty’s to have arguably the worst hazards of any course ever. Have you ever tried golfing while surrounded by ball pits?

Finally, we had to put ourselves in the mindset of Fazbear Entertainment. What do they want? What are they really after? Does anyone know for sure? What we do know is that they want to squeeze as much money as possible from every visitor! We looked at a lot of real world references to develop a Fazbear appropriate list of money making schemes throughout the building.

Real world experience 

The Mega Pizzaplex has very personal ties to me. I was a child of the ‘80’s in Tacoma, WA where I grew up hiding from the rain in movie theaters, bowling alleys, arcades, and indoor

Hi everyone,on behalf of everyone here at Dotemu, we are very happy to finally announce the release date for Windjammers 2!

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Windjammers 2 will be available on January 20, 2022 for PlayStation 4 (PlayStation 5 via backwards-compatibility). Developing this sequel to the 1994 classic was quite the journey for us and we’re thrilled to only be weeks away from seeing you play it.

Thanks to the game community’s feedback, including from our PlayStation beta in August, we’re now ready to offer the sequel we’ve dreamt of making since we worked on the port of the original game back in 2016. This is the first game we’ve developed entirely in-house, so it’s extra special for us. To celebrate the release date announcement, we’ll talk a little bit about how we approached this sequel.

A sequel from the ground up

When working several years ago on the port of the first Windjammers game for PlayStation, we used our own emulation technology to provide an authentic experience for new players. This was not without challenges though, as it was our very first online game.

Porting the game gave us a glimpse of how the gameplay was built. It was always our intention to work on a sequel after the port, so we pushed our investigations even further. First, we tried to analyze the game frame-by-frame in order to recreate the movements of the characters and the disc, and most importantly the game feel. But our development team felt that they were missing some subtleties that were impossible to recreate this way. The solution then was to disassemble the original code and try to understand how it worked, in order to find answers – or as my colleagues called it, ‘archaeologist work’. Deciphering code from 1994 was key to capturing the essence of Windjammers! We also got help from the French Windjammers community, who tested our different builds to confirm that we were heading in the right direction for capturing the fun and authenticity of the original game.

Call of Duty is celebrating the holidays in a big way on PlayStation with the Festive Fervor event taking over Vanguard and Warzone Pacific starting December 17. Get in on the fun with new holiday-themed modes, Bundles, challenges, and more. Here’s what’s in store throughout the event:

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Vanguard brings cheer to Multiplayer and Zombies

In honor of the holidays, Vanguard will roll out several limited-time Multiplayer features, all in the name of good cheer. Let’s kick things off with a closer look at some festive foes you’ll encounter in the field, and where the development team drew their inspirations.

Elf Team Six: Seek out and destroy the fabled Elf Team Six, hidden around Vanguard’s Multiplayer maps, to earn Killstreak progress and extra match score. Find them before they disappear…and stay on your guard when approaching.

Developer Insights: The new tradition of hiding an elf for people to find is something that the team at Raven wanted to poke fun at. The team feels some people who deal with that tradition would rather blow that annoying elf away! SO they decided to let you do that.

Elf and Seek development was fun to put together at the Studio. Having fun on the new map, finding little nooks to place the elves, making people explore and see that pesky elf is a fun experience, and to some, terrifying. I mean, they’re creepy! We are very excited to have some fun rewards tied to destroying the elves for players. We placed them all over the Caldera, and we hope you have some fun finding them and taking them out however you want to.

Krampus: Campers beware! The folk-horror figure Krampus will appear in designated Multiplayer matches to hunt down those who ignore the objective. No time on the Hardpoint? Haven’t taken a single Domination flag? Then you can bet he’s coming for you.

Developer Insights: Ever since the devs at Raven learned about the Krampus after getting caught eating chocolates, they’ve been fans of this mythical and downright terrifying Anti-Santa. When the opportunity came up to get Krampus in Warzone, they could NOT wait. Raven’s goal was to create gameplay that would show players what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a Bounty Contract carried out by a demon!

As the team developed Krampus, they dug deep into how it would stalk, attack, and choose its victims. They tested those decisions with playtests and got to see firsthand what was the most exhilarating for players. Raven created a robust NPC system for Krampus, and they hope you enjoy taking him down…or you know the latter. For those Krampus hun