Ontos devs on the centered around a server of ratspsychological gameplay https://ift.tt/XTPwV6B
After working on Ontos for over a decade, it is incredibly exciting to take a deep dive into the gameplay. Ontos is a spiritual successor to Soma, posing deep philosophical questions to players. Because of this, it is also always hard to figure out how to make it understandable in a short video. The focus of the game is not a tight, moment-to-moment gameplay loop, but a slower-paced experience of researching, testing, and eventually making a few critical choices. Now that we have a chance to showcase 10 minutes, it feels much easier to convey the intended feel of the game.
The main idea of the game is that you encounter complex experiments, each with its own setup, questions, and philosophical dilemmas. In this video, we get to see Crombie, who has been trapped in a computer server made of rats. Or at least that is what he says…
As you can see in the video, the game starts by exploring nearby locations. These are often filled with information that helps you better understand the people and issues involved. In this case, there is even a small experiment, a strapped-in rat, that gives a taste of the difficulties to come. Here, players can test theories and make mistakes before encountering the main experiment.
Another early character is Zike – who we hear briefly over an intercom. Zike is a man seemingly obsessed with finding the soul. Understanding stuff like this is not just fun lore, but a critical part of the game. The better you understand how a character works, the more informed decisions you can make. Sometimes it is best to avoid certain questions or give answers contrary to your own feelings to achieve the intended results.
Once we enter the lab, we finally get the Rat Server revealed. I love this setup. Our thinking behind it was just to let a person be made from something that feels highly unlikely. Someone being simulated by a computer is not so hard to accept in this day and age. But by 60 rats strapped to a server rack? That is a harder pill to swallow. The hope is that these setups act as catalysts to other thoughts and questions. Are the rats conscious too? Can two conscious beings inhabit the same physical substrate? This is a good taste of what we want to provide in Ontos.
After you have met the Crombie (or the rat server, however you wanna feel about the situation), it is time for an experiment. You need to manipulate the probes on the Crombie’s head delicately. Now the player faces many options. You can follow the instructions or try other things based on things you’ve seen and read. The goal with all of this is to create a tense scene by mixing goals, unclear instructions, and always the risk of royally screwing it all up.
The experiments can end in many ways, and it is never clear what your options even are. This also makes the game very replayable. The more you play, the more you understand, and the clearer the approaches will be.
Players’ Choice: Vote for August’s best new game https://ift.tt/LVTa4uj
Last month was filled with superhero spectacles, bonding with friends, and a few heavy hitters! Some big new releases included MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls, Big Walk, Beast of Reincarnation, and Madden NFL 27. Which game was your favorite?
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. After the polls close we will tally your votes, and announce the winner on our social channels and PlayStation.Blog.
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? Note: re-released games don’t qualify, but remakes do. We define remakes as ambitious, larger-scale rebuilds such as Resident Evil 4 (2023) and Final Fantasy VII Remake.
How are nominees decided? The PlayStation Blog editorial team will gather a list of that month’s most noteworthy releases and use it to seed the poll.
Spooky cute puzzler Fangtopia launches on PS5 October 26 https://ift.tt/MCZAFPl
It’s nearly time to rise from the crypt and build your kingdom! Our upcoming cozy puzzle game Fangtopia has been lurking in the shadows and is ready to creepy-crawl onto PlayStation 5 on October 26 – just in time for Halloween!
Fangtopia is a world filled with merry monsters and goofy ghouls, crafted by your own hands. You’ll put it together piece by piece, placing tiles onto a hex grid that surrounds a creepy castle of your choice. There are no time limits, so you can carefully consider each placement and enjoy forming the world at your own pace. However, there is a tile limit, and you’ll need to deploy every trick (and treat) in your rotten repertoire if you want to top the leaderboards and perfect your devious domain.
What’s this?
Tiles come in six types: fields, towns, mountains, forests, railroads, and rivers (only in Ghoulish mode – more on that later), and you’ll often see two types within the same tile. Connecting tile edges to matching terrain types will score points, and advance objectives that spring up as you play. Watch as tiles combine to form a beautiful, coherent world: sprawling forests border quaint little towns, railways wind across lush fields, and yetis gaze down at the world from misty mountain ranges. Unhappy with your placement? You can undo every move you make, pondering which spot is just right for each tile.
As you gain points, you’ll be offered landmarks to place in your world, plucked from a collection that expands the more you play. Placing these special monuments is the key to expanding your world – each landmark has a special objective attached which, once completed, will award the player with new tiles for their deck. For example, place a volatile volcano close to a field and surrounded by mountains and watch your tile stack increase, giving you the chance to expand even further
A monster mash
From otherworldly oaks and whirling windmills to frightful fountains and creepy carousels, there are plenty of Landmarks to find and introduce to your kingdom. Make sure to keep track of them all in your Stickerbook, where you’ll be able to able to inspect all the playful details that bring these buildings to life.
As you place tiles, mysterious portals will appear in the oceans around you. Opening these portals will summon a coterie of creatures that bring even more character to your world – once you’ve found room for them. Meet grotty gremlins, wily werewolves, bawling banshees and many more. Each has a natural habitat, and when you find them a home, they’ll reward you by gifting bonus tiles to expand your world. Why not try interacting with them after they’ve been placed? Perhaps a spooky surprise awaits…
Would you like to play a game?
There are multiple ways to play based on what you enjoy the most. The titular Fangtopia mode includes all of the above and is perfect for a quick session. If you’re itching for more, Ghoulish mode is for you – it adds a new tile type in the form of rivers, lets you swap which tile you want to place, and introduces and introduces bigger tile groups that have to be placed together. Your stack is also larger in Ghoulish mode, making for longer, trickier sessions. More modes may emerge from the shadows in future… keep your eyes peeled for more info in the future.
Fangs for everything
We’re so excited to share Fangtopia with all of you. It’s come a long way from the bones of an idea into a fully formed creation, and we think it’s going to be the perfect game to cosy up with during the spooky season and beyond. Whether you’re lounging on your sofa and playing on the big screen on PlayStation 5 or hiding under your blankets in bed with your PlayStation Portal, we hope it’ll give you a care-free, scare-free time. Draw the curtains, turn off the lights, and lock up your werewolves – we’ll see you on October 26.
Marvel’s Wolverine Inside Insomniac Games’ location-scanning trip to Japan https://ift.tt/zBKNdYF
Early in the production of Marvel’s Wolverine Insomniac Games sent team members to Japan as part of a broader series of location-scanning trips. These trips involved sending our scanning team to various places around the world to record real-world assets, examine natural environments, and acquire an understanding of the real and fictional locations based on real-world biomes and cultures. This article concentrates on the most ambitious and satisfying scanning missions the team has carried out so far.
Japan scanning team left to right: Jonnathan Mercado, Christen Borras Alicea, Niina Taniguchi, Reiko Sekine, Chris Devens, Nathaniel Bell.
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Planning the route
A successful scanning trip starts long before anybody has gotten on a plane. There had been months of virtual location scouting and route planning, with huge help from our Sony Interactive Entertainment teams in Japan. The Marvel’s Wolverine environment team blocked out levels and put together detailed requests for assets and biomes. So, our task was to create a route that would give us tons of variety, capturing as many requests as possible within the limited time available.
Tokyo to Joetsu to Tsumago-Juku/Magome-Juku to Kyoto and back to Tokyo.
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On previous trips, we usually tried to minimize travel between scanning locations. Less travel means more time to scan, more time to back up data, and fewer chances for something to go wrong. Our plan for Japan was different. The environments we wanted to capture were spread across several distinct regions, so we committed more in-trip travel than we had ever attempted before.
We spent hours traveling down Japanese highways, playing “I spy,” debating whether hexagons are truly the best-a-gons, and buying mysterious drinks from roadside vending machines with very little questioning.
Why scan in Japan?
For a game like Marvel’s Wolverine, authenticity is built on many layers. High-resolution scans help capture the physical truth of a place: rock, bark, pavement, moss, metal, signage, soil, and all the small imperfections that make environments feel believable.
Scanning architecture to create modular art asset kits.
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But the value of a trip like this goes beyond the scan data. Being in Japan allowed the team to observe how structures are designed and constructed, how materials have weathered, and how local cultural details appear in the environment. Even when a location in the game is fictional, firsthand research gives artists a stronger foundation to build from. Location scanning helps us create places that feel grounded and thoughtfully inspired rather than worlds pieced together from generic library assets.
Multiple biomes, one trip
Over the course of the trip, the team captured assets across several dramatically different biomes. We moved from the mountainous, snow-covered regions in the east to an underground train station; and from bamboo forests to sunbaked city streets, and to remote side-of-the-road temples. Each location presented its own challenges and opportunities.
A Japanese wall transformed into a reusable scanned asset kit.
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In the mountains, we focused on natural surfaces and cold-weather details: snow, stone, bark, ground cover, and the way winter conditions affect materials. In the bamboo forests, we captured vegetation, organic layering, and the unique density and rhythm of the landscape. Urban locations gave us access to pavement, walls, street-level details, public infrastructure, and the subtle signs of wear that make a city feel lived-in. Underground transit spaces offered a different kind of reference, with distinct materials and architectural patterns.
Scanning a unique underground station to create authentic transit-themed game assets, capturing the area-specific surfaces, transitions, and details that make the location feel real..
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Scanning temple details to build authentic game-ready environment assets.
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Along with scanning assets, we also captured a ton of photo references of the area’s shape language, texture, and scale.
A unique bamboo gutter system captured on location, highlighting the culture-specific construction details we traveled to document for authentic environment creation.
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Trip stats
Unloading gear in a remote landscape before a long day of scanning, capturing the unique environments and details that bring authentic locations to life.
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By the end of the Japan trip, the team had captured an enormous amount of material:
Over 600 scans across 4 biomes
More than 100 miles walked, often carrying around 20 pounds of scanning gear
5.6 TB of captured data
189,589 photos taken, not including additional reference photography
Locations ranging from snow-covered mountains to underground train stations, bamboo forests, and hot city streets
3 broken pieces of gear: 2 cables and 1 plastic case
1 shattered phone glass back
Bringing the work back home
The trip to Japan gave us assets and references that couldn’t be captured anywhere else. More importantly, it gave the team a deeper understanding of the places, materials, and cultural details that would help shape our vision for the game.
Alongside other scanning trips around the world, this work helps us build Marvel’s Wolverine with greater specificity, and respect for the real-world inspirations behind it. It was a challenging trip, but an incredibly successful one, and a meaningful step forward in how we collaborate, research, and bring believable worlds to life.
Halloween: The Game – first look at the East Haddonfield map https://ift.tt/68nykaD
Along with the music and iconic killer Michael Myers, the quiet suburban setting of 1970s Haddonfield is a pivotal element to capturing the legendary horror atmosphere and aesthetic of the Halloween franchise. As the design director for Halloween: The Game, it’s my job to help create the title’s technical and visual identity alongside my colleagues, and that challenge becomes a lot easier when you’re working within one of the greatest horror stories of all time.
While our game features recognizable locations and landmarks from the films, we also have an opportunity to showcase lesser-known parts of Haddonfield as we give killers and heroes different sandboxes for the multiplayer survival horror gameplay. One such area is our new map, East Haddonfield, and I’m excited to give PlayStation players a look into it for the very first time today.
The typical midwestern town
Halloween: The Game’s other maps are primarily areas we’ve seen and explored throughout the movies. For East Haddonfield, we felt it was important to expand our vision of Haddonfield so that players could explore aspects of the setting that were only subtly touched on in the original 1978 film. We wanted to create spaces that fill in the gaps of the movie’s story.
East Haddonfield is a departure from the suburbs of the Midwestern town, going from residential houses to large industrial structures and small businesses flanked by farmlands, highways, and train tracks. It’s a more open, rural playspace centered around a huge grain mill, while also featuring silos, storage areas, and all sorts of nooks and crannies.
The mill itself hosts several interior and exterior spaces that lead to unexpected confrontations and escapes. And in between the buildings, you’ll find wrap-around porches, farm equipment, dirt parking lots, and other signs that you’re on the outskirts of town.
This map also includes the neon-soaked Rabbit in Red Lounge and Phelps Garage, which should both look familiar to fans. All told, it’s a more chaotic version of the maps you find in the city: haphazard sight lines, uneven fence configurations, and buildings piled up and knotted together in ways that encourage strategic stealth and unique evasion tactics.
The openness of the map can create enticing exit routes, but players will have to be cautious taking those chances as they try to avoid Myers.
A dominant killing force
In the original Halloween movie, Michael drives everything. I think we can all recall seeing him for the first time and how he awakens that powerful, deep fear in the audience. As developers, we needed to make sure that powerful fear was present in our game: this premise of creating a very safe neighborhood atmosphere, and then introducing an agent of unimaginable chaos. We wanted to make sure that every single time you see Michael in-game, you are fearful for your life, knowing that your chances of escape are minimal.
His arsenal, his capabilities, even his walk—everything about him had to be unsettling. Michael does in the game what he does in the movies: appearing where you least expect, keeping up no matter what, and killing in unexpected ways. He’s a threat at all times, and his existence drives the terror. We made sure that playing as Michael felt satisfying and powerful, to create that quintessential slasher feel.
That’s also why we went for a 1v4 asymmetrical approach. Michael is trying to kill everybody, and everyone else is trying to save as many people as they can, all while ensuring their own survival. Michael gains power as matches progress, becoming a dominant killing force moving through the map. And if you’re playing as one of the survivors, you know that every minute that you’re still alive risks that moment of encounter. So you’re constantly on edge.
The perfect blueprint
The original 1978 film was the perfect blueprint for us—I think I’ve watched it a billion times at this point. We drew inspiration from the craft that went into making that film: the camera work, the lenses, the color grading, the time period. We conducted a lot of research of the 70s for authenticity and we also had priceless access to pillars of the film’s creative team. We had Nick Castle, the actor who played the original Michael Myers, doing mo-cap and sharing his insight on how to best capture kills. We continually speak with Malek Akkad at Compass International Pictures about his knowledge of the film and its legacy, and also spoke with the legendary John Carpenter himself for his perspective. These conversations influenced our emphasis on the game’s story mode and its chapters—one of which occurs on the East Haddonfield map.
I feel very proud of every piece that went into developing this game: the thousands of decisions and elements we’ve created that come together to make sure playing feels fun, thrilling, and unmistakably Halloween. We’ve come a long way, and I can’t wait to share the game with fans everywhere!
Live TV on PS5 launches today, bringing free ad-supported TV to PS5 players in the U.S. https://ift.tt/nebHlaQ
Starting later today, Live TV on PS5 will be available to PS5 players in the U.S., offering a free ad-supported experience from Sony Pictures Television. Players can discover more than 100 live channels and a growing selection of on-demand entertainment including news, sports, movies, TV shows, anime and more – all from the Media section of the PS5 console.
Players can access Live TV on PS5 from the console’s home screen by following these steps:
Go to the Media tab:
Select the Live TVon PS5 icon.
Select “Sign In With My PlayStation Account” to connect your PlayStation account and start watching.
At launch, Live TV on PS5 will feature a broad mix of programming across movies, TV, anime, sports, news and more.
Here are some of the featured entertainment and programming available at launch:
Movies – Free movies across action, horror, sci-fi and more, with channels including MovieSphere by Lionsgate, 50 Cent Action, FilmRise Free Movies, Sony One Horror Hits and Cinevault.
TV Shows – Fan-favorite programming including Community, The Shield, Hell’s Kitchen, The Walking Dead, Forensic Files, Unsolved Mysteries, Deal or No Deal USA and Fear Factor, plus Ice Road Truckers from A+E’s HISTORY.
Anime – Anime favorites including Naruto, Sailor Moon, Hunter x Hunter, Death Note and more, including exclusive channels Black Clover and Box Sets channels from Crunchyroll.
Sports – Sports programming from FOX Sports, NASCAR, NBC Sports Now, UFC and more spanning MMA, football, hockey, motorsports, golf, boxing and soccer
News & Weather – National, local and international coverage including NBC News Now, Fox Weather, and LiveNOW from FOX
Creator & Specialty Programming – Programming featuring Hot Ones, Spotify’s The Ringer, Futcrunch, Idle Mode, comedy, action sports, gaming, esports and other creator-led content.
Additional Programming – Discover gaming and esports, creator-led entertainment, documentaries, podcasts and other specialty programming, including eCLUTCH (exclusive) and more.
Live TV on PS5 will continue to evolve with regularly refreshed programming, new channels and additional content over time. We’re also looking to expand the experience to Canada and will continue to explore additional regions. We hope you enjoy this new easy way to discover and watch free entertainment directly on PS5.
State of Play & State of Play Japan return on September 3 https://ift.tt/8SWArfG
State of Play returns Thursday, September 3 with two broadcasts airing back-to-back.
First, tune in for a new State of Play featuring updates and announcements from PlayStation Studios and our third-party partners, concluding with an extended look at the vast world of Final Fantasy VII Revelation from our friends at Square Enix.
Immediately following, stay tuned for a new episode of State of Play Japan, once again hosted by Yuki Kaji. State of Play Japan will offer deep dives into upcoming games from game studios in Japan and Asia, including new gameplay, announcements, and more.
Watch both broadcasts live on September 3 starting at 6:00am PT / 9:00am ET / 3:00pm CEST / 10:00pm JST on YouTube and Twitch. State of Play will air in English, with Japanese subtitles also available. State of Play Japan will air in Japanese, with English subtitles available.
See you there.
Regarding co-streaming and video-on-demand (VOD)
Please note that this broadcast may include copyrighted content (e.g. licensed music) that Sony Interactive Entertainment does not control. We welcome and celebrate our amazing co-streamers and creators, but licensing agreements outside our control could interfere with co-streams or VOD archives of this broadcast. If you’re planning to save this broadcast as a VOD to create recap videos, or to repost clips or segments from the show, we advise omitting any copyrighted music.
