Silent Hill 2, a remake of the iconic 2001 PS2 survival horror game, takes players on a journey as the main protagonist, James Sunderland. Venture through the mostly deserted town of Silent Hill, a place filled with memories of his late wife Mary, as he comes to terms with these memories while encountering monsters and a cast of characters. The remake launches on PS5 October 8.

I recently had the opportunity to play the highly-anticipated remake. Join me for a chilling recap that stretches from the opening scene to the imposing boss encounter with Red Pyramid Thing (a.k.a. Pyramid Head).

Play Video

The story begins in a grimy public restroom

The game begins with James recollecting the content of the letter he received from his deceased wife in the dimly lit public restroom of the observation deck at the outskirts of Silent Hill. Back in 2001, the level of dirt and detritus in this bathroom was a high-watermark for realistic, atmospheric visuals in games.

At first glance, I noticed that although the public restroom was almost proportionally identical to the original, it looked more detailed and realistic, with graffiti and scribbles on the walls, dirty floors, and a filthy toilet bowl. This instilled eeriness as if to foreshadow the grueling journey that James was about to embark on.

A new, immersive over-the-shoulder perspective

The first thing that struck me when I started the game was the new over-the-shoulder perspective. While the original’s overhead perspective felt like I was watching a movie, the remake’s updated view put me closer to James’ point of view, supporting greater immersion and the feeling of being in Silent Hill. 3D Audio also deepens the immersion, making swishing leaves and James’ footsteps feel audibly real.

Thickening fog shrouding James’ state of mind

In the original game, the observation

Last week, we asked you to dive into your inventory to share essential items from your favorite games using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

call_me_xavii shares Alan holding the angel lamp light clicker from Alan Wake II.

laya_photo shares a detailed close up of Kratos’ weapons in God of War Ragnarök.

sorathluna shares Jin’s katana blade held out near a butterfly in Ghost of Tsushima.

Valkyrion126 shares Eve holding a master core from Stellar Blade.

RhodWulfLeon shares a close up shot of Aloy’s Focus being used in Horizon Forbidden West.

horace0816 shares the P-Organ from Lies of P.

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: Teachers
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on August 21, 2024

Next week, we’re going back to school and shining a light on gaming mentors. Share moments with characters that teach or impart knowledge from the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Greetings, Travelers! As Genshin Impact approaches its fifth year, we are excited to welcome the sixth major nation of Teyvat — Natlan, in the upcoming version 5.0 Flowers Resplendent on the Sun-Scorched Sojourn going live on August 28. Known as the Nation of War or the Nation of Pyro where Saurians have lived alongside humans since time immemorial, Natlan and her people are distinguished from other nations not only by their unique tribal traditions and natural environments, but also by their agility and their unparalleled movement capabilities blessed by the power of Pyro. Today, we’ll share some useful tips to help you explore this new region like a local or in the form of a Saurian!

We would also like to invite all Travelers who have completed Archon Quest Prologue: Act III Song of Dragon and Freedom in Mondstadt to visit Natlan using an unlocked Teleport Waypoint located at its entrance. Travelers who reached Adventure Rank 28 or above who have completed the Archon Quest Chapter I: Act III A New Star Approaches in Liyue can move on to the Archon Quests in Natlan without having to first complete the prerequisite quests of other nations.

Become a Saurian

The dragons in Natlan are called Saurians, and they are the result of a long evolution and coexisting with humans. Located west of the Desert of Hadramaveth in Sumeru, Natlan has a varied panorama ranging from canyons and cliffs to flowing waters and hot springs, and even dangerous volcanoes. Version 5.0 will offer the opportunity to meet three of the six local tribes, the Children of Echoes, the Scions of the Canopy, and the People of the Springs, to discover how their members move in steep and difficult-to-cross landscapes thanks to their respective Saurians.

For reasons that are still unclear, Travelers are unable to unlock the power of the Pyro element upon their arrival in Natlan, but you will be able to transform yourself into a Saurian temporarily by indwelling them or their Spiritsconce to roam around during your adventure!

The first Saurian you may indwell is a Tepetlisaurus. They are faithful companions taken in by the Children of Echoes, the tribe known for its expert miners and talented dancers inside the canyon. Transforming into a Tepetlisaurus allows you to burrow underground and climb cliffs. By indwelling a Yumkasaurus, you will be able to move travel through mid-air swiftly, reach high places with ease, and experience for yourself why the Scions of the Canopy that hang fr

Marvel’s diabolical despot Doctor Doom has seized a foothold on the Battle Royale Island after obtaining the devastating power of Pandora’s Box. Whatever it takes, Doctor Doom and his army of loyal henchmen must be defeated! Join Marvel Heroes Gwenpool, the Wakandan royal Shuri, and War Machine to defend against Doctor Doom’s legions in Fortnite Battle Royale Chapter 5 Season 4: Absolute Doom available today!

Play Video

Battle against Doom’s domain

Take on Doctor Doom’s domains, and the legions guarding them, in new POIs stationed around the map.

Castle Doom emerges

Castle Doom casts dark shadows over the island, with its forge burning hotter as Doctor Doom’s empowered armor inches closer to completion. Time is of the essence, Heroes.

Battle at The Raft

Doctor Doom has summoned The Raft to the Island, in a bid to recruit like-minded allies amongst a prison of extraterrestrial threats and supervillains.

Explore Doomstadt

Doctor Doom governs over the Latverian village of Doomstadt from his castle on high, surveilling all within his dominion.

Ready your gear, check your ammo count and prepare to head Into The Radius on PlayStation VR2 on September 19. We at CM Games are immensely proud to be bringing our hit VR survival shooter to the PlayStation platform for the first time ever.

Play Video

We believe VR is a powerful medium that allows you to immerse yourself further into the gaming experience. And, like many of you, we want deep experiences with rich gameplay, intense action, and smart interactions that get the best out of VR. Our goal with Into The Radius was to deliver exactly that kind of experience.

But, wait, what is Into The Radius? We’re glad you asked!

An intense survival FPS, built for VR

Into The Radius is a grueling, hardcore VR survival shooter set in a mysterious, supernatural wasteland known as the Pechorsk Anomaly. This desolate, surreal landscape is filled with mysterious and deadly anomalies. To explore its mysteries and return home with loot, players must carefully manage their inventory, and use their tactical skill and situational awareness to overcome, outsmart or outrun various dangers in the Radius.

Besides using a variety of weapons with realistic handling, different ammo, attachments and upgrades, you need to clean and maintain firearms in order to ensure they work well in the field. Neglect this maintenance and you’ll be putting yourself at risk, so make sure to check in on their status between missions.

Physical interactions with items are also core to the Into The Radius experience. We’ve gone to great lengths to make players feel like they’re really stepping into the harrowing world we’ve created. You’ll interact with a paper map and compass, audio cassettes and food as if you were really using them in the physical world. Never has survival gameplay felt so real!

New features for PS VR2

The PS VR2 version of the game will feature the entire original experience with 20+ hours of gameplay, but we’re also working hard to make sure this edition really reaches its full potential. That means a smooth, native 90FPS experience that uses the power of the PS5 console, combined with eye-tracked foveated rendering, to get the best balance of performa

I hope everyone’s been having a fantastic summer filled with many hours of great gaming! Today, we showcased three indie titles coming to PlayStation that we hope will encourage players to try something new. I hope you try everything from classic adventures to fast-paced action and imaginative worlds. 

The Plucky Squire | Coming to PS5 September 17

Play Video

This world filled with imagination from All Possible Futures will be a day one PlayStation Plus title on Game Catalog, available to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members, so don’t miss your chance to jump into this story literally. Join Jot in this platforming adventure on his quest to save his storybook fantasy and the world beyond. Switching between the 2D worlds found on items throughout the 3D environment of the desktop creates wonderful platforming challenges that use the creative powers you acquire on your journey.

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged | Coming to PS5 September 19

Play Video

Adventure games are the foundation of many titles we enjoy today, and the original release of Broken Sword is a timeless classic brought back to life by the people at Revolution Software. The new enhanced version features over 30,000 animation frames and over 50 times the resolution than the original PlayStation version, with the graphics redrawn in 4K. It delivers a modern experience that brings its puzzles and adventure to new generations with updated modern controls. 

Sul

Welcome to the wonderfully twisted world of Sulfur – where every weapon is a canvas, and each modification adds a new layer of strategy and chaos. Today, we’re thrilled to dive into our FPS Roguelike’s weapon modification system – a feature as unpredictable and exciting as the game itself.

Play Video

In Sulfur, weapon customization isn’t only about tweaking stats – it’s about creating your own combat experience. Our system is designed to let you experiment with a wide range of modifications, including attachments, magic scrolls, changing the caliber of guns, and a staggering variety of oils. Each choice can dramatically alter your weapon’s performance and how it fits into your playstyle. Expect to experience the action on PS5 and PS4 in early 2025.

Attachments: The basics

Let’s start with attachments. These can be added to any weapon at any time, without needing to unlock special slots. Attachments come in different main types:

• Scopes: Enhance weapons and improve long-range targeting, hopefully providing precision in your shots.
• Suppressors: Reduce the spread of your shots, helping you maintain accuracy during rapid fire.
• Barrel Extensions: Barrel extension and manage recoil, making your weapon more stable during sustained fire.

In addition to these there is a Gun Crank, making any weapon semi-automatic, and red-dot-sights providing precision even when aiming from the hip. Each attachment modifies your weapon’s stats, such as spread, recoil, and critical chance, allowing for a more personalized combat experience.

Improving Your Weaponry

As your weapons gain experience and rank up, they unlock additional slots for enchantments and oils. These modifications provide deeper customization, letting you tailor your arsenal to match your unique playstyle.

• Enchantment scrolls add elemental effects to your weapon, such as fire or ice, or other magic enchantments making your bullets explosive, or into flying rockets, making e

Many of the Broken Sword fans that I meet today first discovered the series in 1996 when a demo of ‘Broken Sword – the Shadow of the Templars’ was included on the Official PlayStation magazine’s cover-mounted CD. I am thrilled that subsequent Broken Sword games have continued to be hugely popular on PlayStation platforms. 

A year or two ago, encouraged by enthusiastic fan communications which have continued over the thirty years since then, I decided that the time was right to undertake a substantially enhanced version of the game for PlayStation 5. We would redraw all the graphics in 4K – over 50 times the resolution of the original PlayStation version, and I was determined to ensure that the adventure gameplay felt utterly contemporary for a modern PlayStation audience.

Play Video

With over 100 backgrounds, and 30,000 sprites (animation frames) creating this enhanced, or Reforged, version was always going to be a huge undertaking. 

The original backgrounds were hand drawn in pencil on A5 (or larger) sheets by extraordinarily talented layout artists who had worked for most of their lives at the Don Bluth animation studios in Dublin. I decided that the game’s ‘canon’ should be those original pencil layouts, and where the game screens varied for whatever reasons, we would base the new high resolution art on the pencil layouts. This allowed us to digitally repaint over the original linework in 4K, which we had scanned at very high resolution, with confidence using the original game screens as reference.

View and download image

Read more

Finally, the heroic tale of brave warrior Jot is ready to be told! We are thrilled to announce the release date of The Plucky Squire, which will be coming to PlayStation 5 on September 17. This means you’ll be venturing into the game’s colorful, adventure-filled storybook world – and beyond – in just a month. Woah! Here’s a shiny new launch trailer to tide you over until then.

Play Video

But wait, there’s more big news! We’re also very excited to reveal that The Plucky Squire will be available for PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members as part of the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog at launch. So, if you have a membership, you’ll be able to dive right into the game when it releases. We’re looking forward to inviting PlayStation players to the land of Mojo to help Jot embark on his incredible multi-dimensional quest.

In The Plucky Squire, Jot can leap from the pages of his storybook world into a three-dimensional realm beyond. But wherever he travels, danger awaits—whether it’s a terrifyingly huge insect in the 3D world, or one of cruel wizard Humpgrump’s monstrous minions in the storybook. Luckily, a friendly shopkeeper named Martina is here to lend a helping hand.

As you explore The Plucky Squire’s twin realms, you’ll encounter inspiration in the form of lightbulbs. Whack trees, cut bushes, or slay enemies, and these illuminating collectibles will drop, which can then be traded for stuff at Martina’s many shops. You’ll want to gather as much inspiration as you can, as they’ll let you unlock a series of super cool, and super effective, combat moves for Jot.

One of these moves lets Jot throw his sword at distant enemies—and if you spend more bulbs to upgrade it, you can throw it even further. This lets you attack foes from a safe distance, and if you lose your sword or get it stuck in a wall, you can draw it back to you—like magic!

Another move lets Jot unleash a powerful spin attack. He’ll swing his sword in a circular flurry and, if used at the right time, damage multiple enemies at once. Use this power in the midst of a group of foes for maximum damage—and if you upgrade it, you can even add a second spin to the mix.

You’ve spent dozens of hours in Tartarus, you’ve maxed out numerous social links, and you’ve finally conquered all of the challenges Persona 3 Reload has to offer–or so you thought. In the upcoming Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis DLC coming to PS5 and PS4 on September 10, you’ll meet a new companion, face a new onslaught of threats, and tie up many of the loose ends of the story. At the heart of it all stands Aigis, an android who has come to know human feeling and the grief of loss.

A wrap gone awry

At the end of your challenging, emotionally fraught journey in Persona 3 Reload, you put the embodiment of death to bed and ended an unforgettable school year–at great cost. Now it’s March 31st, a few weeks post-graduation day, and all of the former S.E.E.S. members are getting ready to pack their bags and leave the dorm for good. At the low-key but somber goodbye dinner gathering, android Aigis reveals she’s going back to the lab that originally built her. 

But as soon as the clock strikes midnight, the day starts over. It’s discovered that nobody can leave the dorm. And then, a strange assailant attacks the remaining S.E.E.S. team out of nowhere…

A disastrous family reunion

The strange assailant turns out to be another android named Metis, and she seems to be of a similar model to Aigis. So similar, in fact, that she’s claiming she’s Aigis’ sister. She also makes it clear that she is very attached to and protective of her “sibling” — in fact, that’s why she attacked the dorm: to protect Aigis.

This is all news to Aigis, who has been encountering her own strange occurrences lately, capped off by a trip to the famous Velvet Room after repelling Metis’s initial attack. When she wakes up back in the dorm, she’s got new armor, a new Persona, and a massive problem in the form of a combination time loop, barrier from the outside, and huge mystery door in the dorm’s floor.

These ominous doors lead into the Abyss of Time, the cause of all these bizarre happenings. First stop is the Desert of Doors, a place that looks exactly like the name suggests. And who’s that strange figure seen entering one of the doors? Only one way to find out: make a party and make chase. 

A door to mystery

The focus of Episode Aigis is on the heroic android. She assumes the leading role easily, taking center stage on the title and status screen, and assumes the Persona-changing power of the Wild Card herself with ease. Being stuck in the dorm means she won’t be able to go out and do activities or forge Social Links, but there’s still plenty of story and character development to dive into throughout the DLC’s roughly 30-hour runtime as Aigis and the S.E.E.S. members face the emotional baggage their initial adventure left behind.

After playing through Persona 3 Reload, you are probably familiar with the flow and feel of the game’s dungeons, and Episode Aigis continues t