Karma: The Dark World out on PS5 March 27

Karma: The Dark World out on PS5 March 27 https://ift.tt/CodLhJX

Hello everyone, I’m Yonghe Wang – Creative Director at Pollard Studios and today I am very excited to announce on behalf of my team and our publisher Wired Productions that Karma: The Dark World will be launching on PlayStation 5 on March 27. The game will also support PS5 Pro enhancements.

To celebrate, we thought we would share a breakdown of how the team is making the most of the PS5 Pro features to enhance the games visuals and performance – and to share the second in a trilogy of trailers – showcasing some of the surreal environments and characters in the game hinting at their relationship to you – the player. Please Enjoy!

What Is Karma: The Dark World?

Karma: The Dark World is a first-person cinematic psychological thriller which takes place in a cassette future alternate timeline set after World War II. In our game, a company known as Leviathan obtained unfathomable technology that allowed them to wrestle Eastern Germany under their control, installing a regime that oppresses the citizens and places productivity and obedience as gospel.

They achieve this through a variety of means, from mass surveillance and mind-altering substances, to their secret organization of Nightcrawlers, special ROAM Agents who have the authority to investigate crime scenes and arrest citizens for interrogation and for Mind Dives – a special technology that allows them to dive into the memories of their subjects, and inhabit their memories, living and interacting with the events in their memories as they seek out the truth – dealing with the horrors of peoples pasts and twisted interpretations of emotions, guilt, and trauma from their harshest experiences.

You play Daniel McGovern, a ROAM agent tasked with investigating a theft at one of the Leviathan scientific institutes, and a job that leads to much greater investigation into love, humanity, empathy, and the complexities of morality.

Creating the Dark World

I believe creation is a profound dialogue with the human soul, transcending books or films to encompass real-life experiences and emotions. We focus on integrating philosophical reflection into game design, as reflected in the title of this work. The relationship between cause and effect is interlinked, with each moment, character connection, event, and more spirally constructing the entire world.

Through Karma, we aim to break the boundaries of traditional storytelling, crafting an experience that entertains while provoking thought. It is not just a virtual journey but a mirror to reality, urging players to seek their own answers within the game.

Our team employ stark contrasts in lighting and bold color palettes, aiming to immerse players in an experience that merges realism with surrealism—inspired by the vibes of games from Remedy (Alan Wake, Control) and the abstract nature of visual storytelling found within the works of the late, great David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me, Eraserhead) whose artistry profoundly influenced our game development, inspiring us to pay tribute to and learn from his works. At the core of our creation is a pursuit of a unique experiential quality—something hauntingly beautiful that lingers even after closing one’s eyes, and an effort to blur the boundaries between reality and illusion.

Within the game, we pay homage to Mr. David Lynch, and we hope players will cherish this journey.

The power of PS5 Pro

During development we had the opportunity to start utilizing the PS5 Pro kit, and further enhance the visuals and performance of the world that we have created. We’d like to take a moment to share with you the features that PS5 Pro players can look forward to – as well as some exclusive environmental footage captured directly from a PlayStation 5 Pro.

PSSR integration

Our game fully leverages PlayStation’s Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) technology, delivering:

• Superior image quality with advanced reconstruction techniques
• Enhanced edge definition and texture clarity
• Minimal performance overhead while maintaining visual fidelity
• Improved detail preservation in motion

Performance metrics

Through careful optimization, we’ve achieved:

• Native 4K resolution (3840×2160)
• Rock-solid 60 FPS performance
• Consistent frame pacing for smooth gameplay
• Enhanced texture streaming utilizing PS5 Pro’s increased memory bandwidth

Visual enhancements

The PS5 Pro version delivers:

• Higher quality texture filtering
• Enhanced volumetric effects
• Improved distance rendering
• Superior temporal stability

Technical Infrastructure

Our implementation takes full advantage of PS5 Pro’s hardware capabilities:

• Optimized memory utilization
• Enhanced shader processing
• Improved asset streaming
• Advanced post-processing effects

I hope you’ve enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look into how we crafted the visual design of Karma. Whether you are playing on PlayStation 5 or PS5 Pro – we promise this is a story that will stay with you for a long time.

Karma: The Dark World launches on PlayStation 5 on March 27. And we are excited for you to step into the shoes of a ROAM agent – but remember… the mind is a dangerous place.

Promise Mascot Agency PS5 demo out today

Promise Mascot Agency PS5 demo out today https://ift.tt/LDMjskG

Hello! I’m Oli, the game director at Kaizen Game Works, the creators of Paradise Killer. I’m thrilled to announce that the playable demo for our new open world mascot management crime drama, Promise Mascot Agency, is out today on PS5!

We’ve spent a long time working on this game, and the whole team is excited for PlayStation players to get their hands on it. Let me kick it to you straight; the PS5 rules. All of us at Kaizen primarily play on PlayStation, and we all grew up with the original PlayStation, PS2, PS3 and PS4. I collect PlayStation and PS2 games, and that era directly influenced the design of Promise Mascot Agency.

I love PS2 games where you Hangout And Do Stuff. Have you ever played Way of the Samurai, Raw Danger, Boku No Natsuyasumi and Steambot Chronicles? You should! You can really chill in those games, meet interesting characters, make important choices and explore at your leisure. That’s the kind of game we wanted to make; a fun world with mysteries, weirdos, secrets, good gameplay friction and immaculate vibes.

Take control of the exiled yakuza lieutenant Michi, and team up with the chaos goblin Pinky to save a bankrupt mascot agency and solve the underworld conspiracy that got Michi sent to a cursed town on the coast of Japan. In this game, mascots are living creatures and the town of Kaso-Machi is filled with misfits that can’t find work anywhere else. Michi is going to need to build a new family of mascots and help them achieve their dreams, so he can save the business and his yakuza family back home.

Kaso-Machi is a town living under a supernatural curse. The mountain in the centre of the island is a playground for spirits and gods. The town is steeped in superstition and occult stories. Michi is able to try to solve the mystery behind ghost sightings, escaped sin talismans and the mythical Tsuchinoko creature. However, his time in town might be limited; the curse that hangs over the town kills any yakuza that come to visit. Can Michi save the mascot agency and solve a conspiracy before the curse rots his body?

We started this project four years ago, collaborating with Ikumi Nakamura and Mai Mattori to design the characters and world. We have blended the Kaizen style with Nakamura-san’s style to create a bizarre, nostalgic, unique game. We’re a western company, so we have worked with Japanese artists, musicians and creatives to bring our world to life and fill it with authenticity. Often we provide very little creative direction, allowing our team members to craft something that is authentic and meaningful to them. This has filled the game with lots of different influences and lived experiences.

We recently unveiled some of our voice actors including the voice of Kiryu Kazuma, Takaya Kuroda as Michi. We never expected to be able to include voice acting, and we CERTAINLY didn’t expect Kuroda-san to just turn up to the audition like it wasn’t a big deal. He teams up with Ayano Shibuya as Pinky to create a buddy-cop dynamic between Michi and Pinky. The game features many great voice actors, along with the first voice acting roles for Shuhei Yoshida and SWERY.

We’re a small team and it has taken everything we have to make a big, silly, generous, bizarre 20 hour open world RPG. We’re so happy to share it with you all. We hope you enjoy the demo (and the DualSense controller haptics, adaptive triggers and speaker features) on PS5. We’ll have more to share about the full release date soon. Now, get out there, keep promises and achieve dreams!

Grab the demo on the PlayStation Store today!

Official PlayStation Podcast Episode 508: Come Back Stronger

Official PlayStation Podcast Episode 508: Come Back Stronger https://ift.tt/zHnkCxq

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or download here

---

Hey, everybody! Tim and Kristen discuss all the big news for this week’s State of Play, including Saros, the upcoming new game from Housemarque, and some of their other favorite moments from the show.

Stuff We Talked About

• Next week’s release highlights:
  • Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered | PS5, PS4
  • Afterlove EP | PS5, PS4
  • Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii | PS5
  • Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 1 | PS5
• Astro Bot’s five new levels
• Announcing Saros
• Days Gone Remastered announced for PS5
• Borderlands 4 arrives on September 23, with a special State of Play deep dive coming this spring
• PlayStation Plus February Game Catalog
  • Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
  • TopSpin 2K25
  • Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 1
  • SaGa Frontier Remastered
  • Somerville
  • Tin Hearts
  • Mordhau 
  • Patapon 3
  • Dropship: United Peace Force
• Resident Evil 4 VR Mode
• Metaphor ReFantazio

---

The Cast

Kristen Zitani –  Senior Content Communications Specialist, SIE

Tim Turi – Content Communications Manager, SIE

---

Thanks to Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music.

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

Share of the Week: Romance

Share of the Week: Romance https://ift.tt/Jg3IwZG

Last week, you to share the love and showcase romantic moments from the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

fsantos1697 shares Scott and Ramona sharing a kiss in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game

Couch_Gamer2k23 shares Dina and Ellie leaning in with romantic tension in The Last of Us Part II

Skania__ shares protagonist Makoto and Aigis spending time together in Persona 3 Reload

garagaraarga shares V framing Panam Palmer with a hand heart in Cyberpunk 2077

jobolts_ shares May and Cody sharing a kiss against fireworks in It Takes Two.

ct_tomtom shares Cloud and Tifa spending time together in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

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: Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on February 19, 2025 

Next week, Lara Croft is back! Share adventurous moments from Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered as a still or with the Flyby Camera Maker feature using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Split Fiction hands-on report

Split Fiction hands-on report https://ift.tt/ETDbNJh

Everybody has a story in their mind that they’d love to tell, but maybe they don’t feel like they have the ability to tell it effectively. But that’s about to change in Hazelight Studios’ Split Fiction, which launches March 6 on PS5. 

In the game, the publisher Rader has a new, advanced machine capable of bringing a person’s stories to life and letting the authors live through their tales. They’ve invited some aspiring storytellers to give their tech a try–among them Mio and Zoe, two women with dramatically different backgrounds, tastes, and personalities. But when the on switch gets flipped and the stories emerge, an unexpected development causes these two’s most elaborate tales to intertwine. Mio and Zoe need to team up to survive each other’s stories–and figure out some of the secrets Rader’s been hiding from its test subjects. So begins Split Fiction: a co-op adventure about unlikely companions, imaginations running wild, and very strange adventures.

Double vision

Developer Hazelight is a studio known for creating memorable cooperative gameplay experiences like A Way Out, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and the award-winning It Takes Two. Their games are known for unique themes, strong emotional moments, surprise gameplay twists, and a good dose of off-kilter humor. We’re pleased to report that Split Fiction offers plenty of everything players have come to love from their previous works, all while amping things up to new heights.

Players who jump into Split Fiction will take control of one of the two leading women. Mio, a somewhat cold and curt city girl, is a massive sci-fi nerd who loves interstellar battles, cyberpunk aesthetics, and futuristic weaponry. Zoe, a chatty lass from the countryside, enjoys high-fantasy tales of heroic trials, dragons, trolls, and magic. A glitch in the system is causing the pair to journey together while switching between each other’s stories: They might be cyborg ninja assassins in a dystopia one moment, only to turn into magical shapeshifters on their epic quest through the wilds the next. All the while, the machine generating these story worlds is digging much deeper into each girl’s memories and story ideas than either one expected.

You’ll start by playing split-screen co-op, with both players traversing the same route. You’ll soon discover obstacles that can’t be overcome by just one person, so you’ll have to cooperate to proceed. As the story environments they encounter change, so do Mio and Zoe’s abilities– each character will often have a different skillset where one player can perform attacks or movements that the other can’t, such as Mio being able to transform into a giant gorilla-monster while Zoe gets to be a tiny, nimble faerie. You’ll need to work together to figure out how to use these asynchronous abilities to get past the obstacles and enemies impeding you. We were able to play a boss fight against a massive robotic law enforcement machine in Mio’s cyber-ninja story that required some careful coordination: Mio had to use her gravity abilities and swordplay to expose the boss’ weak point, while Zoe had to dodge attacks and use a whip-like weapon to grab leftover objects and smash them into the enemy.

Tales to tell

Not every story players will encounter in Split Fiction involves combat. One area was a callback to classic extreme sports games where the duo had a friendly competition performing tricks on futuristic hoverboards. Another surreal story area transformed the women into a pair of portly pigs powered by springs and rainbow-colored farts–and it only got weirder from that point. Many of these areas are optional side stories that can be discovered during the main quest, giving players an incentive to explore a bit and rewarding them with unique experiences and character moments.

The gameplay in each section can change dramatically, too. While third-person split-screen action and exploration was the most common experience during our test run, there were sections with fast-paced vehicle chases, side-scrolling run-and-gun action, and even some tricky puzzles that tested players’ skills at pinball. Every new world we saw in Split Fiction felt like a delightful surprise, since we never knew what sort of theming or gameplay twist to expect. 

We’re eager to see more of this odd duo’s strange adventures, and fortunately, we won’t have to wait much longer–Split Fiction will debut on March 6 on PS5. Bring a friend–it’s about to get wild.

(For Southeast Asia) Astro Bot: five new levels and Special Bots begin rolling out today

(For Southeast Asia) Astro Bot: five new levels and Special Bots begin rolling out today https://ift.tt/G5ypgPJ

It’s a great pleasure to see you with our first post of 2025. From all of us at Team Asobi, we wish you a wonderful year ahead.

Last year saw the release of Astro Bot, our biggest game to date. As well as picking several game awards, we have been blessed with countless comments and lovely words from you, the players. 

This has made the hard work of everyone at Team Asobi even more worth it. So from the bottom of our lil’ robotic hearts, hearts, a huge thank you to you all.

And now, into the main news! To start the year on a good note, we are delighted to announce new Astro Bot content is coming starting today. You might have noticed that a, yet unreleased, level of Astro Bot was featured at the PlayStation XP Tournament Final in London, England on January 18. That very level, along with 4 additional ones will be coming your way inside the brand-new Vicious Void Galaxy, starting today. 

As before, this new update is completely free of charge and a gift from us to you, the Astro Bot community.

These five levels will appear on a weekly basis as follows:

• Feb 13: Tick-Tock Shock
• Feb 20: Thrust or Bust
• Feb 27: Cock-A-Doodle-Doom
• Mar 6: Hard to Bear
• Mar 13: Armored Hardcore

Note: All Astro Bot updates from February 13 to March 13 will be available every Thursday at 6:00am PT, 2:00pm GMT, and 10:00pm JST. 

Unlike our last update Winter Wonder, which was a walk through the Xmas park, this new update features harder levels to test your jumping skills. Each level comes with a brand-new Special Bot to rescue and, once that’s done, can be replayed in Time Attack mode with online rankings. To access these, you will need to have completed the main game. So sharpen those skills again and let’s get rescuing.

“Tick Tock Shock”, the first of 5 new levels will release on February 13

But hold on, we still have more news. Alongside these five new levels, we are pleased to say that owners of the PS5 Pro will be able to enjoy an improved version of Astro Bot featuring a constant best resolution while still running at 60 frames per second.

That’s about all for this update. We hope you enjoy it. We want to take this chance to thank you, sincerely, for the ongoing support. We could not be happier with the way Astro was welcomed into so many new homes.  Your comments, positivity and kind words have carried us through the months and continue to warm our little robotic hearts. Thank you for your loyalty and we shall see you around.

Team Asobi out.

Darwin’s Paradox makes a splash onto PS5

Darwin’s Paradox makes a splash onto PS5 https://ift.tt/anmcxjo

Embark on an extraordinary adventure in Darwin’s Paradox. Coming to PS5 later this year, take on the role of Darwin, an octopus snatched from the sea and thrust into a mysterious food factory. This action-adventure, story-based platformer is packed with enhanced visuals and controller features that bring an exhilarating adventure with wacky characters to life. 

French developers over at ZDT Studio started working on Darwin’s Paradox with one goal in mind: to let players truly understand what it feels like to be an octopus. With the PS5’s DualSense controller, we finally had the technology to bring that immersive experience to life. 

Let’s dive in

Our protagonist Darwin has all the evolutionary features of an octopus including the ability to climb almost any surface, camouflage himself, and also the skill to shoot ink to evade his enemies. Haptic feedback on the DualSense controller’s triggers will give you the satisfying feeling of firing off multiple shots of black ink to hit hard-to-reach levers and buttons, or to blind security camera feeds to plan your escape. When swimming in underwater scenarios, the ink shot disperses into the water, creating a perfect back smokescreen to help you get past searchlights without being spotted – just like octopi do in the real world when they feel threatened by a predator in the wild.

Keeping a close eye on your environment is key if you want to survive. As a typical octopus is known to do, Darwin can also morph his skin to match the spot he’s in – essentially creating camouflage to hide and avoid detection.  

Darwin’s movements across the world are meticulously tracked with controller vibrations, giving you a sense of connection to our curious cephalopod everywhere he climbs. When you get hit, you feel it.  In a world as dangerous as the one Darwin dares to explore, there will be short-circuit shocks, crushing machines of twisted metal, and roaming packs of rabid rats looking to make Darwin a tasty meal.  

Sea and hear a whole new world

Darwin’s Paradox brings all the vibrancy and hues of the ocean floor thanks to HDR support and volumetric shadows with lighting and raytracing. Plus, it sports a Beauty Mode in 4k and 60fps and a performance mode at 60fps locked with dynamic 4K scaling. 

Listening closely to audio cues is also important to Darwin’s survival. Luckily, you can rely on the DualSense controller speakers for noises like squeaking rats on the prowl or alarm sounds to warn you of potential trouble. Sound-emitting speakers from your controller coupled with the high-definition visuals of Darwin’s Paradox bring this new world to life. 

While octopi do have nine brains and incredible levels of intelligence, sometimes everyone needs a little help. Tapping on the PS5 controller touchpad brings up clues and other messages that help Darwin solve puzzles or get through obstacles. Feeling stuck? Tapping on the touchpad gives you a small nudge to keep the game flowing and avoid getting stuck – think of the touchpad support as one of your nine brains!  

Darwin’s Paradox will be available on PS5 and is available to wishlist now – do so to stay up to date for pre-order availability and other announcements. We’ll also share more information about the game later in the year, so keep your tentacles glued to us for more.