Greetings, Travelers! Today we are excited to announce that Genshin Impact‘s version 4.6 Two Worlds Aflame, the Crimson Night Fades is arriving on April 24. With this update, we can’t wait to show you the power and the past of our frenemy, Arlecchino. After the crisis of Fontaine, the Fourth of the Fatui Harbingers is finally ready to meet us again as both a recruitable team member and a formidable Weekly Boss.

More surprises continue to pop up across Teyvat. A large submerged ancient empire that flourished and demolished before the birth of the Court of Fontaine is finally revealing itself in the Sea of Bygone Eras. Meanwhile, Arataki Itto and Dvorak are going to rock Inazuma with a music festival and concert tour.

The Knave and the Father

In the Archon Quests of Fontaine, Arlecchino made an indelible debut even without showing her hand, balancing the fine line between ally and adversary. Upon version 4.6, we can discover more about her power, the roles she plays, and the past that made her who she is today.

As the Fourth of the Fatui Harbingers, Arlecchino aka The Knave shows an overwhelming strength in combat with her use of Pyro and a polearm, as well as her special mechanic — Bond of Life. First found in some Fatui Operatives and certain weapon effects around Fontaine, the Bond of Life effect stays on its target and prevents healing until the victim receives the same amount of healing equal to the active Bond of Life. However, Arlecchino is able to utilize the Bond of Life on herself to strengthen her own attacks.

When Arlecchino becomes a member of your team, piling up her Bond of Life with her Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst is the key to surviving and sustaining an efficient offensive rhythm. When Arlecchino is affected by a Bond of Life greater than or equal to a certain percentage of her Max HP, she will enter the Masque of the Red Death state, converting her Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attacks to deal Pyro DMG which cannot be overridden, and consuming a portion of her current Bond of Life to increase her DMG of Normal Attacks and reduce her Elemental Skill’s cooldown time. Arlecchino’s Elemental Skill can apply Blood-Debt Directives and deal DMG to multiple targets. The Blood-Debt Directives can be absorbed to increase her Bond of Life when she uses a Charged Attack, or heal herself when she uses her Elemental Burst. And her Elemental Burst is the only way to heal herself in combat due to her unique Talent.

If you encounter The Knave as your enemy in the new Trounce Domain, out-healing the Bond of Life and repaying the Blood-Debt Directives she applies to you will be crucial to victory. So long as you are affected by the Bond of Life, all her attacks against you will be enhanced. But if you manage to out-heal the Bond of Life and repay the Debt, you will be rewarded as your Charged Attacks against her are enhanced. As the fight proceeds to later phases, The Knave will gradually reveal more of her true power as her crimson bone wings unfold. Travelers who reach Adventure Rank 40 or higher can now challenge her directly via the

Mixing style, action, and fearsome monsters is a familiar formula for success in action games. However, with its first PlayStation title, Stellar Blade, developer Shift Up is adding a lot of unique flair to the equation. A large point of this distinction comes from its creature design, which quickly became a focal element of the upcoming action-adventure experience.

Stellar Blade incorporates many assets in the creation of its race of behemoths called the Naytiba. These resources include real-life animal research, 3D clay models, and the assistance of famous Korean movie monster designer, Hee-Cheol Jang, who originally came on board as consultant, but ultimately became more involved on the actual design and production of the Naytiba.

We sat down with the studio and monster designer to find out what makes the Naytiba unique, delving into many of their variations, such as the Raven, Stalker, and Gigas to understand the process behind creating a new face of horror in gaming.

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The birth of the Naytiba

PlayStation Blog: Hee-Cheol Jang, how did you get involved with Shift Up and Stellar Blade? Was it your creature designs from The Host and Okja that got the conversation moving?

Jang: I remember visiting the studio one day after being contacted by Mr. Kim [Kim Hyung Tae, Stellar Blade director] and being surprised to see a workshop full of models and drawings. I think he made the offer after seeing my experience in creating clay models – scannable maquettes – for communication and 3D scanning during the design process of [movies] ‘The Host’ and ‘Okja’. At the time, the film industry was moving towards digital models using ZBrush for efficiency reasons, so I was shocked by the idea of using traditional modeling/3D scanning for creature creation for a new console game project.

How did Shift Up decide on what kind of enemy types Eve would face?

Director, Hyung Tae Kim: What Eve encounters is an unknown entity powerful enough to destroy humanity. We deliberately tried to design them to be eerie and unnerving, with missing eyes and faces stuck in the wrong places, which ties in with the content of the game.

The Naytiba have a terrifying, cosmic horror feeling to them. Why choose that direction instead of a more grounded approach?

Kim: Since these creatures never existed, they didn’t need to be realistic. We ac

Pac-Man fans have been eating dots and chomping ghosts for years and there’s no sign that our collective appetites will be satiated any time soon.

But what happens when Pac-Man fans challenge each other to find out whose hunger reigns supreme? This is the question we can finally answer in the arena of competitive eating, offered by Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs coming to PS5 and PS4 with cross-play on May 9. Early access starts May 2 for those who pre-order the Deluxe Edition.

Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs is an online-only 64-player Pac-Man game, played across just as many interconnected mazes. Eat everything in your own maze

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The developer behind the title is Amber Studio, an incredibly diverse team with Pac-passion and excited by the challenge of bringing this gameplay to a wider audience.

In Chomp Champs, every choice made was geared towards bringing more players into the action. For example, a tutorial maze was added at the start of the game to help new players ramp up and get comfortable. Different game modes are included so that hard-core competitive players and casual fans can all find a mode to enjoy.

While there have already been multiplayer Pac-Man games where players compete to be the last Pac standing, what sets Chomp Champs apart is that you can directly travel to other mazes and interact with other players. There’s a variety of mazes like the Autumn maze, showing how Pac-Man’s world changes throughout the seasons, or you can feel some nostalgia with the Mr. Driller maze.

In each match there are 64 players, each with their own maze laid out in a grid connected to neighboring mazes by Mega Tunnels. When the tunnels open you can take the action to your neighbor which opens up a world of crazy gameplay possibilities. 

As the match goes on, the lowest-scoring mazes get slowly eliminated from the playing field. The maze border flashes as a warning, so players know to get out of that maze before it’s too late. Each time a maze is eliminated the remaining mazes click together.

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Rely on your wits in Animal Well, slip into a wetsuit with Dave the Diver and journey through mystical 2.5D realms in Tales of Kenzera: Zau. All three games launch onto PlayStation as part of the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. And there are even more games joining April’s Game Catalog lineup. Let’s take a closer look at each. Aside from Animal Well and Tales of Kenzera: Zau, all titles will be available on April 16.

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Animal Well* | PS5

Explore a surreal, forsaken labyrinth and unravel its many secrets. Discover a mysterious, non-linear, interconnected world as you solve puzzles in over 250 rooms in whatever order you choose. Rely on your wits to avoid danger in this combat-free Metroidvania. You’ll encounter creatures both beautiful and unsettling, and have to decide what is safe and dangerous. Manipulate a pixel-art world in surprising and meaningful ways and try to survive what lurks in the dark. In Animal Well, there is more to the world than what you c

Destiny 2: Into the Light starts today, and in case it wasn’t apparent during the multiple livestreams last month, it’s a great time to be a Destiny 2 fan. In fact, there’s so much in today’s release that this article is only going to focus on aspects that might appeal to three different types of Guardians:

• Cooperators (I win when the team wins)
• Perfectionists (I win when my run is perfect)
• Collectors (I win when I own everything)

Feel free to skip to the section that sounds most like you or try a little bit of everything; you might discover a new type of fun.

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For Co-op Thrill-Seeking Guardians

Into playing with friends and turning the heat up to see how much your finely honed teamwork can take? Meet Onslaught, a new wave-based defensive activity where teams of three will face increasingly challenging waves of enemies hellbent on destroying your Advanced Defense Unit.

It’s a new type of gameplay in Destiny 2 that gets even more interesting when you start constructing upgrades like turrets (that until now have mostly been pointed at Guardians) and decoys (that until now have only been sweeping up after Guardians).

“We’ve had turrets in the game for a while, but rarely have they been on our side,” said Clayton Kisko, a designer on the Destiny 2 team. “Having support with this much enemy density is exhilarating. It’s really rewarding when a turret that you or your teammates built has your back when you’re surrounded by enemies.”

But who’s cleaning up the mess these turrets make? Well, it turns out that your decoy comes with a broom. “It is a Sweeper Bot!” Kisko says. “They are amazing at pulling aggro from enemies and clumping them up for the perfect grenade opportunity. And they start sweeping right away. Enemies can’t stand this one simple trick the Sweeper Bot does. Just watch as they surround it with hatred.”

Decoys can be upgraded into Redjacks and a final secret version. Just make sure someone on the team is building them because this tidy technology might be the difference between a victory and a total team wipe.

“Things ramp as you progress through the waves and eventually get to a point where if everyone dies at once, the run ends. On Legend difficulty, this is how Onslaught works from the start! We can’t wait to see how people work together, master the mechanics, and clear the fi

Beat Saber is not stopping! Hip Hop has long been one of the most requested music genres and the least represented within the game, but the wait is over: the Hip Hop Mixtape is out now on Beat Saber for PS VR2 and PS VR. The track list includes some of the biggest names in Hip Hop like Snoop Dogg, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, and 2Pac, covering different eras and styles of this influential music genre.

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Last year, the music industry celebrated the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, and since its earliest days, the genre quickly dominated charts, becoming popular with music lovers around the world.

Hip Hop Mixtape features 9 hits:

• 2Pac – All Eyez On Me (feat. Big Syke)
• Nicki Minaj – Anaconda
• Snoop Dogg – Gin and Juice
• Eminem – Godzilla (feat. Juice WRLD)
• Outkast – Hey Ya!
• The Notorious B.I.G. – Hypnotize
• Dr Dre – Nuthin’ But A “G” Thang
• Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – The Message
• Pop Smoke – The Woo (feat. 50 Cent, Roddy Ricch)

For the first time ever, Beat Saber brings uncensored tracks to the game, this means that players can experience all songs in the Hip Hop Mixtape in their original and raw form. We also introduced “Explicit Lyrics Toggle” that empowers players to choose their preferred in-game experience, allowing them to opt in or opt out of songs and music containing explicit lyrics. The toggle is available on all platforms for users over the age of 13.

The Hip Hop Mixtape comes with a brand new environment, inspired by urban spaces heavily painted with graffiti like basketball courts, underpasses, and subway stations, helping to build the vibe alongside the iconic tracks.

As usual, the release is accompanied with the base game + music pack bundle offering, available since the launch date. The bundle costs $38.99 and includes all 9 songs from the mixtape together with the base game Beat Saber.

Stellar Blade launches in just a few short weeks on PS5. You may have already sampled the action adventure firsthand by way of the recently released demo in which Eve, a member of the 7th Airborne Squad, is sent to a desolated Earth on a mission to reclaim the planet from the mysterious, malevolent Naytiba and save humankind. If so, you’ll have had a taste of the game’s mechanics and combat, its story, and creature design. To dig in further, we sat down with Stellar Blade director Kim Hyung Tae (who is also founder of Stellar Blade development studio Shift Up)  and technical director Lee Dong Gi to learn more about the studio’s background, the game’s inspirations and more. 

Stellar Blade director, Kim Hyung Tae (left), and technical director, Lee Dong Gi (right) of Shift Up

It all began with a collective passion to create action games for video game consoles

PlayStation Blog: As Stellar Blade is a brand-new title, how and when did the idea of developing this game emerge?

Kim Hyung Tae (Kim): About five years ago, when we were talking about what mobile game title should be released after Destiny Child. We were initially thinking about creating Goddess of Victory: Nikke into a duology game for the Android and iOS platforms. It was during that process that the urge to develop a console title emerged as our second project. I have been a long-time fan of video game consoles and have always wanted to develop action games for them. The idea attracted a group of members with a shared passion, and that’s how the idea of developing Stellar Blade emanated.

With Stellar Blade being Shift Up’s first title developed for video game consoles, did you encounter new challenges or hurdles?

I am being realistic in thinking our fans would not be lenient and forgiving just because this is our debut title for game consoles. Instead, we held the same high standard that console gamers hold for their games and ensured that Stellar Blade would be on par with those games in terms of quality.

Can you tell us about the concept and theme of Stellar Blade?

The theme I dedicated to Stellar Blade is humanity. The story is about what makes us human and defines us as human–it’s quite universal. The story came to my mind one day as I witnessed taxi drivers on strike.

The strike erupted when technologies for self-driving cars began advancing, almost hinting at the implementation of autonomous cars in the near future. This instilled fear among taxi drivers that these technologies would eventually take over and replace their jobs. As I watched them on strike, I asked myself what I would do if this were to happen to me, if one day humans were entirely replaced by something non-human. This is where the theme for Stellar Blade originates. Having said that, the game’s focus should not be on that; we tried to create an action adventure game that players can enjoy as they follow Eve’s story.