Jurassic World Evolution 2 releases on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 November 9, bringing a bold new era of management simulation. Whether you’ve played Frontier Development’s much-loved 2018 original, or you’re coming in fresh to this even deeper and more dynamic sequel, Jurassic World Evolution 2 welcomes you to experience a world evolved.

One aspect I’m particularly proud of is the all-new Chaos Theory mode. Here you’ll take charge as you revisit pivotal moments from the Jurassic World film franchise in a series of ’what if’ scenarios. The rich lore of the Jurassic World Universe provided such amazing inspiration for Chaos Theory mode. We wanted a way for players to rediscover and reimagine their favourite movie moments. By focusing on each of the five films, and one particular, cornerstone moment within those films, we’re able to include iconic characters, stories, and locations that we then work into different challenges.

Whether realising John Hammond’s dream of an operational Jurassic Park, showcasing a T. rex in the San Diego Amphitheatre, or building and running a new Jurassic World park, control events like never before in the Jurassic World franchise.

There are five levels in total. The first takes place where it all began: Jurassic Park. Here you’ll bring John Hammond’s original vision to life. Taking place on Isla Nublar, you’ll endeavour to avoid the disasters we see in the film and welcome in the park’s first guests. Authenticity is key, so we’ve made sure to include all the era-specific Jurassic Park Buildings, such as the iconic visitor centre, as well as that famous entrance gate, alongside all of the familiar dinosaurs you remember.

In the Jurassic Park 3 level, you’ll work with Simon Masrani to rescue the dinosaurs that will birth Jurassic World. This one takes place on Isla Sorna and involves you locating, monitoring, and releasing dinosaurs. One of those dinosaurs is the ferocious Spinosaurus, a towering carnivore that gave a T-rex trouble in the film. From this scenario’s beautiful tropical environment, you may even spot the iconic aviary nestled in the distant valley, it captures the feel and excitement of Jurassic Park 3.

The last Chaos Theory mission I want to expand on is our homage to Jurassic World. This level see’s you picking up where you left off with Simon Masrani, to create the Jurassic World, working alongside another iconic character Dr. Wu (voiced by BD Wong) to see if you can avoid the mistakes of the past. You’ll be responsible for creating iconic landmarks and moments such as the Innovation Centre, Mosasaur’s lagoon, Gyrosphere Tour, and even create a one-of-a-kind hybrid dinosaur: the Indominus Rex.

Research for Chaos Theory was a lot of fun since it mainly involved us watching every movie in the series many, many times in order to dig out details we thought were fun or interesting. For example, when we were recreating the San Diego Amphitheater in game, we h

Hi everybody, how have you all been doing? Over the past few months, we have been delighted to receive messages from fans around the world telling us how much you have been enjoying Astro’s Playroom. What particularly stuck out were comments regarding Astro’s look, so we figured it would be nice to get arty and share with you a couple of drawing tips from three artists who worked on the game. We hope you find this fun, and it inspires you 😊

But first, let’s quickly explain where Astro came from. To find his roots, we need to time-travel back to 2013 when Team Asobi was just formed and started working on The Playroom, a collection of augmented reality experiences that came preloaded on PlayStation 4. One of those experiences saw a dozen of small, funny robots living inside the DualShock 4 controller that would come out to play with you on your living room floor. These tiny guys nicknamed “AR Bots” would go on to become the origin of all the bot-like characters appearing in subsequent games. To be truthful, while designing the original bots, we had constraints and focused on getting an impactful look while keeping the shape and design as simple as possible. We aimed to strike a balance between cuteness and coolness, something that would reflect the Sony legacy of product design. And after a few tests, voila! The AR Bots were a thing. It was love at first sight.

“The AR Bots as originally found in The Playroom for PS4”

The bots then returned in The PlayroomVR (2016); a collection of multiplayer party games available as an introduction to PS VR. One of those games was Robot Rescue, a single-stage 3D platformer featuring a heroic bot going on an adventure looking for his lost comrades. Our robotic hero (he had no name yet) came complete with a jetpack, hover boots, a holographic scarf and that iconic blue livery pattern that would later define the Astro look.

“Original artwork from Robot Rescue”

Astro then took centre-stage in 2018 in his very own PS VR game Astro Bot: Rescue Mission to great acclaim and later returned to become your guide into the amazing world of PS5 and DualSense wireless controller in Astro’s Playroom (2020).

Today, we’d like to pick your creative curiosity and share with you a few tips on how to draw Astro, directly from the hand of three members from Team Asobi: Toshihiko Nakai (concept artist), Miho Kinebuchi and Mayu Kawaguchi (3D artists). Each member had a go at drawing Astro using their very own style and have shared some of their thoughts on what makes Astro a special character. Enjoy watching and reading!

Toshihiko Nakai (Team Asobi – Concept Artist)

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Finch debuts this Friday on Apple TV+, so I caught up with director Miguel Sapochnik to learn more about what makes this Tom Hanks sci-fi tale tick.

What is it about the end of civilization that people find so fascinating?

I would say, one of the best things to write is the beginning or the end of something. In the middle is always a mess. And I feel like a movie about the beginning of mankind or humankind… it’s been done, right? 

So now, we are definitely fixated with our own demise. It’s an interesting moment for us all, and I think probably reflected by [the character] Finch. Finch is starting to look back on everything that he’s done and wondering…what did he actually achieve? Was it worth it? It’s a point of reflection.

I definitely feel like movie storytelling right now is our point of reflection, where we have to look at ourselves and wonder about the choices that we made and figure out whether we’re prepared to make the changes that need to happen in order for us to continue to survive.

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Do you think Finch is an optimistic, hopeful story, despite being focused on the end of humanity?

I do, actually. At the same time, I feared my own personality might overindulge itself with the dark side of nature and I feel like something definitely came out of it.

I showed [Finch] to a couple of friends after I’d finished it. When you’ve just finished a movie, you’ve lost all perspective as to what it is that you’ve really made. And I showed it with full expectation of them to smile politely and say, “interesting” or something like that. And they laughed. A lot. All the way through it. And then they cried at the end…and they said that it was lovely. And I felt I’d never had that experience before.

All Finch has left is a dog and a robot. I wanted to start with the dog — what do you think it represents? How does that play out in the story set amidst the end of days? 

One of the turns that I always liked in the script is that you meet this guy, [and] he’s building a robot to look after his dog. So he really likes this dog. That’s his focus of attention. He doesn’t like humans. He’s obviously had bad experiences with humans….And then gradually, this story unfolds and you realise that the dog is the survivor of a traumatic event he experienced when he was younger, right

What do ghostbusting and game development have in common? More than you’d think, it turns out. But there’s one thing that comes to mind above all else: teamwork. Available to play in Dreams from today until February 28, 2022, Ghostbusters: Afterlife in Dreams is the result of an 18-week-long collaboration between Media Molecule, Sony Pictures, and the Dreams community.  

After being contacted via social media, Impy-award winning community creators **Guillaume Chevrier** (aka [SlurmMacKenzie] and **Alfred Nilsson** (aka [byvsen]) soon found themselves in meetings with Mm’s Director of Operations and Strategic Initiatives, Gemma Abdeen, to discuss an opportunity. 

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“Like, what is this?” Nilsson found himself thinking. “This could be literally anything. Then when Gem told me what the project was and what I would be doing, I got really excited and hopped on.” Chevrier nods. “Same for me. I think it was the first call with Gem where she told me it was a Ghostbusters project, and I was really excited.”  

Chevrier would be working on gameplay design, and Nilsson on animations. A short brief had already been put together by Mm and Sony Pictures. The game would have to last 60 seconds, as the cast of Sony Pictures’ Ghostbusters: Afterlife would be setting their own scores that fans could try to beat.  

Chevrier laid down the basics of the controls, including creating a version of the iconic Ghostbusters proton beam that the player could fire in first-person view, and set up much of the underlying Logic for the destructive environments. Media Molecule lead designer Richard Franke then came aboard to direct and help the team make some of the game-defining decisions (as well as do a bit of environment modelling, which Mm’s Dreams specialist Martin Nebelong would polish with lighting and effects). 

“We asked ourselves, ‘What is the core experience of being a Ghostbusters team member?’” Franke says. “To me, that felt like the most important thing: we need to make the player feel like a member of the Ghostbusters team. Before you do anything else, you’ve got to get that catching of the ghosts to feel right.”  

The first version that Chevrier had been working on featured fast and furious ghostbusting. “You could really quickly catch the ghosts,” he

Where were you when Grand Theft Auto III launched in October 2001? I was standing in a GameStop, perusing the new PS2 releases, when it caught my eye. Following a hearty recommendation from the store manager, I bought the game and took it home. The rest is history.

Twenty years later, it’s virtually impossible to overstate the impact of Rockstar Games’ open-world crime saga on the gaming medium. And it all began with GTA III, a bold shift from top-down action to a fully 3D open world epic, interwoven with unprecedented interactivity. I remember being blown away by Liberty City itself: a sprawling cityscape packed with cars, colorful characters, challenging side-missions, and ever-present cops. I’d never seen anything like it.

GTA III’s launch sent ripple effects across the entire gaming industry, captivating players and inspiring game developers to take a different approach to game design. To mark the groundbreaking game’s big 20-year milestone, we reached out to creators from PlayStation Studios and top third-party developers to reflect on GTA III’s megaton launch.

All screenshots in this article from Grand Theft Auto III — Definitive Edition, out November 11.

“GTA III changed my perspective of what makes games fun. Games had always been about making the jumps, killing the enemies, solving the puzzles – doing the tasks the designer laid out for you. GTA III was the first game where you really made your own fun. That led me to reimagine how exploration and open-ended gadget and weapon usage in Ratchet & Clank could allow players to find their own fun and approach the gameplay in their own creative ways.”

– Brian Hastings, Head of Creative Strategy, Insomniac Games

“GTAIII was a game with an astonishing degree of freedom, released at a time when we were struggling to make a single-path game within the capabilities of the PS2. I was impressed by the way the game was made. It embraced the realities that come with an open-world concept instead of restricting gameplay to avoid every potential glitch that might come up. The Japanese version of the game was released by Capcom, and I remember thinking, ‘I’m glad I’m on their side’.”

– Hideaki Itsuno, Director, Capcom

“I grew up playing 2D side scrolling platformers that had a clear path from A to B and could be worked out with a bit of trial and error. The thing that really stood out for me in GTA III was the freedom it gave you to play the way you wanted in a game world that felt believable. Gone were the automatic loading, level-end, and mission-over transitions. You don’t get out of the car… you don’t progress. You seamlessly went from driving, running around the city, and entering buildings to get your next mission objective at the pace that you wanted. In some ways the freedom was overwhelming but the ability to play your way, and in doing so change the tone of the game, was not lost on me. This was likely one of the first major shifts in self-directed play in game design.”

– Tara Saunders, Studio Head, PlayStation London Stud

Crime sprees, perilous mountain climbs, fantastical battles, and questionable delivery skills await with PlayStation Now’s November lineup. Mafia: Definitive Edition, Celeste, Final Fantasy IX and Totally Reliable Delivery Service all await subscribers starting tomorrow, Tuesday, November 2. 

Let’s take a closer look at each. 

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Mafia: Definitive Edition

The Definitive Edition faithfully recreates the organised crime epic with expanded story plus gameplay and visual improvements. Rise through the ranks of the Mafia during the Prohibition era, experiencing a faithfully recreated 1930’s cityscape, filled with interwar architecture, cars and culture. After a run-in with the mob, cab driver Tommy Angelo is thrust into a deadly underworld. Initially uneasy about falling in with the Salieri crime family, Tommy soon finds that the rewards are too big to ignore.

Mafia: Definitive Edition is available on PlayStation Now until Monday February 28.  

Totally Reliable Delivery Service

Buckle up your back brace and fire up the delivery truck, it’s time to deliver! Go it alone to ensure the safety of your deliveries, or join your friends and put your teamwork to the test and haphazardly get the job done in an interactive sandbox world. Unpredictable ragdoll physics meets snappy platforming. Sprint, leap, dive, and grapple with ease, but collide with something and you’ll be knocked out cold! Want to take a break from deliveries? Then play around. The world is chock full of toys, vehicles, and machines that can be used for work or play.

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Welcome back! We’re live with another Players’ Choice poll as we inch ever-closer to the end of 2021… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

We’ve got quite the selection this time — I’m torn between a few picks myself, but I dare not skew the results so you’ll just have to guess which ones I’m deliberating over.

Hit the poll below to cast your vote, then head down to the comments to make an argument for your title of choice. Maybe you’ll help me make my final decision! We’ll keep the polls live until Sunday night at 11:59pm Pacific, so make sure you decide before then. See you next week with the winner!

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 Demon’s Souls 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.

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

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

Hey folks! This week the team dives into our favorite reveals and updates from the latest State of Play.

Stuff We Talked About

• Call of Duty: Vanguard
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Beat Saber
• Returnal
• Deathloop
• State of Play!
• Diablo 2
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Alan Wake: Remastered
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits
• Back 4 Blood
• The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

The Cast

Tim Turi –  Manager, Content Communications, SIE

Kristen Zitani – Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE

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Attention all PlayStation players, it’s time to rise on every front, as Call of Duty: Vanguard is nearly here! Starting November 5 on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 experience an epic, international Campaign, signature Call of Duty Multiplayer combat, and a franchise-first Zombies crossover marking the continuation of the Dark Aether saga.

Call of Duty: Vanguard is packed to the brim with content at launch: live through the heroic moments of Task Force One in the awe-inspiring single-player campaign, experience 20 maps in Multiplayer (including 16 built for core gameplay) and the all-new Champion Hill mode, and battle the undead hordes in a franchise first crossover Zombies experience, as the Dark Aether storyline continues in Der Anfang.

Yet, November 5 is only the beginning for Vanguard. Players can expect the content to keep rolling.

Read on for details on the content arriving on the road to Season One, and find out about the brand-new map coming with Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific — Caldera.  Also, just announced, Vanguard owners will get the opportunity to have 24 hours of exclusive first play access to Caldera starting on December 2.

With that, let’s take a look at what’s arriving shortly after launch.

Shipment launches free in November

Vanguard’s content drop continues after launch in the days leading up to Season One.

Headlining that batch of free content is Shipment, the classic frenetic Multiplayer experience re-fitted for Vanguard, scheduled for a November 17 arrival. Newcomers and veterans alike can ready up for a fresh take on the map that’s entertained Call of Duty fans for over a decade.

Deploy to Caldera in Warzone Pacific

Lush forests and rocky crags. White sand beaches and mysterious ruins. A dormant volcano towering over 200-plus points of interest. The new map Caldera is just the beginning of Vanguard’s full integration into Warzone. Roughly the size of Verdansk, Caldera’s design is informed by two years of research and community feedback.

Available to all players in Season One, the Vanguard Royale mode – and later, the Vanguard Plunder mode – showcase all new content from the Season One update onwards, including weaponry and vehicles like biplanes and AA trucks.

All your Operators, Calling Cards, and more from Black Ops Cold War and Modern Warfare will remain in Warzone Pacific.

As mentioned above, Caldera launches with 24-hour exclusive first play access for Vanguard owners on December 2 at 9:00 AM PT.  Then, it launches for all players on December 3 at 9:00 AM PT. 

Uncover Caldera’s history in the Secrets of the Pacific event

To get players ready for the new map coming with the launch of Warzone Pacific, starting November 24 in Warzone, discover more about Caldera in the Secrets of the Pacific. This limited-time event grants vital information on Caldera and its various points of interest across Vanguard and Warzone. Each game will feature its own set of tasks and rewards.

Last week, we asked you to take a walk on the spooky side and share some scary gaming moments using #PSshare #PSBlog. Just in time for Halloween, here are this week’s scary highlights: 

BarryPaust encounters a terrifying mold monster in Control.

CaliOcelot shares a haunting freaker in Days Gone.

Yuric83 shares a BB in some moody red lighting in Death’s Stranding.

Lunar9p has a terrifying face off in The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope.

Alien_K121 shares a spooky hallway from Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

NoomiPlay shares the adorable Rot having a darker moment in Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

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: Returnal – Photo Mode
SUBMIT BY: Wednesday 9 AM PT on November 3

Next week, we’re looping back to the alien world of Returnal. Share epic moments with the newly released Photo Mode using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.