Category: PlayStation

Los Vaqueros and the Las Almas Cartel not only rebuild — they also reload.

The fight escalates to epic proportions in Season 03 Reloaded for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, launching May 10 on PlayStation 4 and PS5.

With new content coming to Special Ops, Multiplayer, and Battle Royale, there’s plenty to look forward to in the midseason update!

New Special Ops Raid and Mission, 6v6 Multiplayer map and modes

Whether you’re teaming up in co-op or looking to compete against the best in the world, Season 03 Reloaded has your six with a new Raid, Special Ops Mission, and Multiplayer map, as well as new modes.

Special Ops Raid Episode 03: As Gaz breaks off from the team to contact Laswell and set up an exfil, Captain Price, Farah, and Alex push deeper into the Soviet base in pursuit of Hadir and the missing armament. Descend into a massive pit punctured with old train tunnels, electrically charged waters, and heavily armed enemy combatants.

Special Ops Mission — Defender: Hafid Port: Take on the cartel’s latest operation in Al Mazrah’s Hafid Port. Eliminate the first line of defense and then defend your position against multiple waves of incoming enemies.

Alboran Hatchery (6v6): Drop into Alboran Hatchery, a medium-sized core 6v6 map set on a remote hillside beneath towering wind farm turbines. Use copious cover to set up more stealthy takedowns, or ascend to upper vantage points for a clearer line-of-sight across the storage and warehouse facilities. Expect this map in featured Playlists throughout Season 03 Reloaded.

Giant Infection and Faceoff: Take on the horde across larger Battle Maps that support a greater number of players in Giant Infection, and get tactical on small-scale Gunfight maps in modes like Team Deathmatch and Kill Confirmed via 3v3 Face Off. 

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New Warzone Modes, Equipment, and Ranked Play

New Tactical Equipment: Up your strength in the early game through preset Perk Packages found in Supply Boxes and at Buy Stations. On the go and need to resupply? The Deployable Buy Station’s got your back. And don’t forget to grab a Gulag Entry Kit to fight for your chance to redeploy, even if you’ve already been there once before.

Plunder Is Back: Don’t forget: Plunder from the original Call of Duty: Warzone is currently in Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0. In this frenetic mode, Operators benefit from respawns and can equip their custom Loadouts at the start of the match. Gather Cash, complete contracts, and take out enemy Operators to amass riches before time runs out.

Introducing Warzone Ranked Play

Put your Battle Royale skills to the test in Warzone Ranked Play, featuring competitive settings, progressive ranking, a visual skill system, and seasonal rewards.

Start in the Bronze ranking and survive to climb your way into higher Skill Divisions, utilizing a Skill Rating (SR) custom-made for Battle Royale. Increase your SR through assists and eliminations and by earning a high placement in the match. Pay a modest SR entry fee for each match and see the end-of-match SR summary for a rundown of your losses and gains. The most skilled players will be visible for all to see in the Top 250 Skill Division leaderboard.

New DMZ Exclusion Zone

There’s something going on deep underground in Al Mazrah. Operators who deploy to that Exclusion Zone should keep an eye out for one of several entrances into a new facility known as the Koschei Complex, accessible during Season 03 Reloaded. Gain access and fight the combatants within to secure high-value loot.

General Overview

Weapon Camos: Complete a series of challenges and earn two new Weapon Camos for all weapon categories in the game.

Two New, Full-Auto Handguns

Season 03 Reloaded is introducing not one, but two new sidearms to the weapon roster:

FTAC Siege: Designed to be a compact and maneuverable machine pistol, this has a jaw-dropping fire rate and rapid swap speed. A trusted secondary for upl-close engagements. Unlock it by completing the in-game Weapon Challenge (get 50 Sidearm Hipfire Operator Kills) or by purchasing via Store Bundle.

GS Magna: This fully automatic .50 GS boasts a thunderous rate of fire and enough power to put an end to anyone crossing your path. Unlock it by completing the in-game Weapon Challenge (get 30 Operator Headshot Kills) or by purchasing via Store Bundle.

Kevin Durant, Reporting for Duty

Step into the shoes of one of basketball’s greatest players of all time as Kevin Durant arrives in a special, limited-time Store Bundle releasing as part of the midseason update.

In addition to his Operator, the Bundle will also include “Reap This” AR Blueprint and the “Easy Money” Sniper Blueprint, the “Deadly from Downtown” Finishing Move, the “B-Ball” Weapon Charm, the “Ankle-Breaker” Loading Screen, the “Hoops” Sticker, and the “KD Baller” Animated Emblem.

Watch for other Store Bundles arriving in the midseason, including the Throwback Pack: ’09 Weapon Audio Bundle, VII: Wrath, and more.

Season 03 Reloaded Launches May 10

For the best midseason experience, purchase Modern Warfare II on PlayStation today, offering access to additional content across three modes, including the ability to unlock 14 exclusive Operators for use across both games. Modern Warfare II owners also get awarded Premium XP at the end of every match while playing Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0.

Stay frosty.

When humanity meets its end what will be left of Earth? This is the question Piccolo Studio’s platforming adventure title, After Us, looks to answer. As Gaia, the Spirit of Life, you are tasked with sprinting, jumping, airdashing, and rail-grinding your way across the surreal and barren planet while freeing the souls of extinct animals. Along the way you’ll encounter the monstrous Devourers, countless tear-jerking moments, and a lot of somber, yet beautiful, scenery.

In our hands-on time with the game we were met with all this on top of a wonderfully unique and expressive gameplay core that proved After Us is a great addition to the pantheon of platformers.

A unique powerkit

Bring life back into the world: Gaia is the Spirit of Life, bestowed with the ability to bring beauty back into a world consumed by a dark void. Pressing L2 fires a boomerang-like orb of light, used to retrieve lost souls, attack enemies, and even make simple wires into green grindable rails. Holding L2 down instead charges her with light and upon release unleashes a blast of bright energy that replaces untraversable goop-covered land with safe grass and fauna to traverse.

Battle the dark with life: Not only is Gaia’s power used to return greenery into the world and unlock secrets, but it can be used to defeat dark hordes of enemies as well. The Devourers, oil-covered monstrosities that trap souls, wait beyond many corners. To free the trapped souls Gaia must use her boomerang-like spirit ball to fight back while using her superb movement options to avoid their attacks.

Platforming in a post-human world

Free, expressive platforming: Gaia can jump to various heights, double jump, dash through the air, float, wall run, and rail grind through the world. Putting all these together allows players to freely express themselves no matter the challenge encountered. Those that master these movement options never have to stop moving on the journey to free the animal spirits.

An open-world platformer journey: You don’t have to stick to one path when soul-searching in After Us. The world is crafted masterfully and encourages completing tasks in whichever way you want. Want to use your airdash to reach a floating car to skip over a dangerous street? Or maybe you saw a far-off island you’d rather detour towards? The direction you take exploring this platforming wasteland is up to you.

Challenges aplenty: Around every corner is a new trial to tackle and it’s up to you to triumph over each of them. This includes puzzle-platform challenges where you must put your platforming skills to the test in tandem with Gaia’s special life-force powers. 

Many require combining Gaia’s movement and attack options – such as jumping over a large gap while perfectly timing an energy burst to create a plant-covered path. Other challenges push players to react to their environment to create rail grinding and wall run opportunities. Just be ready for incoming plastic bags that seek to stop your momentum and impede on your progress.

An emotional journey

You can pet the dog, cat, raccoon, horse, and more: After Us is a game with a message that we are responsible for the innocent animals of the planet. Not only is Gaia’s job to free the trapped spirits of the extinct critters of the planet, but she can comfort them with a pet using the DualSense controller’s touchpad once they’re saved.

There will be tears: After Us presents players with a unique vision of a post-human Earth. You’ll find statues of humans that once were, presenting a visual of their last moments. This feature is shared by some animals, some that passed away due to simple loneliness and sadness. Freeing these souls not only gives a bittersweet ending to a sad tale, but it also gives you a vision of their memories before the end of the world. Yet another turn on the emotional rollercoaster.

A beautifully empty world: While thematically somber, the surreal world of After Us is filled with beautiful visuals that will have you taking a breather to enjoy. From floating roads to Babylon-like post-apocalyptic cities and crumbling buildings that signify a civilization that once was, the world around Gaia and her mission makes venturing this sad world a joy.

The journey to save the last spirits on Earth starts when After Us releases May 23, 2023 for PS5.

We were fortunate enough to sit down with famed sci-fi director Neill Blomkamp to discuss how he adapted the legendary racing simulator, the innovative camerawork devised to capture all the action on the track, and where he found inspiration from racing films of the past. 

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PlayStation Blog: The Gran Turismo Movie is a notable departure from previous films you’ve directed—it’s not based on one of your screenplays, nor is it dystopian sci-fi. What drew you to this project?

Neill Blomkamp: So, it’s actually a dystopian science fiction script I sold to Sony that started the conversation. As the pre-production process went on I started to get very eager just to work on something, and at that point they said, “How about Gran Turismo?” My first thought was, “Wait, how do you make a film out of a racing simulator?” But I read the screenplay, and I personally own three [Nissan] R35 GTRs—I have a personal obsession with Nissan and the whole Nismo lineage—so I was immediately intrigued as a car lover. 

I’ve also been very close to video games in a lot of ways throughout my career, and I had never come across something like Gran Turismo where the movie itself treats the game as a game. It’s based on a true story about Jann Mardenborough who learned to drive playing the game before driving professionally in real life, competing against other real drivers. It’s just an amazing story. 

Another reason I signed on was because my stuff tends to be a lot darker and more dystopian, as you mentioned, but this movie felt, well, very inspirational. It had never crossed my mind that I would direct a movie where the audience would leave the theater feeling uplifted and inspired. This was really appealing to me.

Are there any particular creative challenges—or benefits—to working within an IP like this? 

One great thing is that there weren’t a bunch of executives who would say, “Well, actually, we think it should be like this.” If you’re working on another IP with a more established universe or narrative everyone has preconceived ideas about how things should be. But, with Gran Turismo, you have a well-known IP that doesn’t carry these preconceived notions about what its film adaptation should look like. This gave me a ton of creative freedom to just go out and, you know, make it. 

Without an established plotline or fictional universe to draw on, in what ways did you pay homage to the game? How did you extract the game’s DNA into something recognizable for a film?

For one, the film tries to take you along the journey of someone who first experienced these legendary tracks virtually, and then took what they learned within a simulation and applied it to a real-life scenario. And so, I tried to visually connect those two points together using a lot of the imagery from the GT games, like the lines you’d take driving the track and the markers and checkpoints, as well as the awards for leveling up and things like that. 

And then there are a whole bunch of smaller easter eggs—tiny moments like recreating some of the in-game victory poses that we got our actors to do in the movie. There’s also a ton of cool cars for gearheads to spot as well; we did our best to drop interesting cars all over the place whenever we could.

On that note, what are some of your favorite cars that make an appearance? 

I mean, there’s a Generation 1 NSX at the beginning of the film, which is a big deal for me. I have a lot of love for that car. 

And at the other end of the spectrum, we also wanted some really glitzy choices that would be true easter eggs for car lovers—like the Koenigsegg Gemera, a still-unreleased car, a 4-seater with 1700 horsepower. It’s kind of like a Bugatti Rolls Royce.

From the limited clips we’ve seen so far, it looks like some of the cinematography directly references the in-game chase camera. We also get glimpses of a pretty serious looking rig to film the cars at high speeds. Can you walk us through your process here?

Well, it really came down to creating something that would just be cool to watch on a large cinema screen, and for that we doubled down on FPV drones to carry IMAX sensor-approved cameras. There’s a ton of airborne, high-speed drone work in the film, and we utilized a pursuit-arm mounted to a high-speed vehicle. In this case, we actually mounted it to an R35 GTR, which could actually keep pace (pretty much) with a lot of the GT3 cars in the film.

So between that car and the drone work, you already have some cool dynamic angles. But, I was also obsessed with recreating camera angles players know from the game: so, for the third-person chase perspective, we built an R1 rig that could position a camera such that the entire car would fit within the frame. 

To capture the driver’s POV (cockpit view), our stunt driver would lie back so we could mount a camera where his head should be. We liked including nods to the game in these kinds of ways.

There’s a rich history of movies that depict the on- and off-track drama of motorsport, from classics like Le Mans and Gran Prix to the more recent Ford vs. Ferrari. Which films in the genre did you look to for inspiration, if any?

The one film that I can genuinely point to and say is directly referenced in Gran Turismo is Steve McQueen’s Le Mans. That movie is insane. You can tell how fast they’re going. You can tell how dangerous it is. You can even tell how polluting the cars are. It’s amazing.

In the beginning of that movie, they spend a ton of time pushing in on each character before the race—the hero, the villain, the clock—and then it starts rapidly cross-cutting between them. There’s a very similar sequence in our film with our protagonist and his opponents that was directly inspired by the McQueen classic.

Usually there’s someone exploding or some, like, genetically mutated creature running amok in my films. I just never would have thought in a trillion years that I would have made a race/sports movie. It’s even surprising now, saying it.

Gran Turismo 7 is now available on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, as well as PlayStation VR2 following a free update earlier this year. 

Gran Turismo arrives exclusively in theaters this August.

A month ago, we launched our little fishing game Dredge on PS5 and PS4, and we’ve been overwhelmed by the positive response. We’re grateful that you’re enjoying your time fishing in The Marrows… and exploring the dangerous waters beyond. 

Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we have more eldritch experiences planned for Dredge throughout the year, including three free updates and a new paid adventure featuring the Ironhaven Corporation, an entity you may have heard mentioned in passing from some of the game’s inhabitants. More on that in the depths below.

One of the features requested by so many of you is extended functionality for the in-game map, and we’re excited to introduce this with our first free update in May. The addition of map markers will allow you to select from different coloured icons representing everything from dangers, shipwrecks, mysteries, and more, enabling more effective navigation between locations than before. Additionally, this update will include some fixes and balance changes.

In our second update, two new modes will introduce very different ways to experience Dredge. The first is Passive Mode, which caters to players who prefer a less intense experience. Monsters that usually attack fishing boats will no longer be aggressive, allowing players to focus on fishing and enjoying the serene surroundings. 

This update’s second mode is another much requested feature: Photo mode. But rather than just add the ability with a simple menu option, we’re taking a different approach. When it launches, our photo mode will see the addition of a new in-game character who’ll help players unlock their camera ability and share clues on where to find some of the local marine wildlife as subjects for your photography, some of which will be brand new in this update. The mode will be ‘hooked’ into the PlayStation’s screenshot sharing ability so you can share your captures, whether that be of majestic whales or nightmarish abominations from the deep.

Our third free update will introduce boat customisations such as paint schemes and flags. As you explore the coastlines and bayous of Dredge, you’ll unlock new boat paint schemes and flags to make your fishing vessel really stand out. We’ll have more information on both updates two and three later in the year.

Finally, we will be developing a paid and entirely optional DLC featuring the mysterious Ironhaven Corporation. They’re looking to establish an innovative drilling operation in the area to revitalize the towns and populations, but their ultimate goal is unknown. As you gather materials to construct new buildings and biomatter to fuel the rig, meet new characters, craft new equipment, and catch new fish, you may uncover the truth behind their potentially nefarious operations.

We hope you continue to enjoy your time in Dredge, and we can’t wait to share these new updates and adventures with you. Happy fishing!

Knights, defend your nobles! Starting May 2 PlayStation Plus members can get Chivalry 2 as part of May’s Monthly Games on PS5 and PS4. To accompany this awesome launch, Torn Banner Studios has crafted an all-new Raiding Party update – available for free this week for all owners of Chivalry 2.

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New map – The Sacking of Bridgetown

Join us for the newest Chivalry 2 map The Sacking of Bridgetown, a 64-player Team Objective experience. Defend as the honorable Agathans or spoil the party as the fearless Tenosians.

A decadent celebration by Agathian nobles is rudely interrupted by the terrifying blast of war horns: Tenosia is invading the verdant countryside of Irilla.

In this huge map’s first stage, defenders spawn as Agathian peasants – who must frantically take up arms to defend their Lords’ vineyards against Tenosian attackers. Can you survive long enough for the Agathian Knights to arrive? Probably not, but you’ll return to the fray as a proper warrior after valiantly dying for your kingdom. 

After the lush vineyards and farmlands fall to slaughter and flames, it’s time for attackers to raid old Bridgetown itself. Like a Renaissance fair gone deeply, deeply wrong, players will smash up the celebration as they turn the festivities upside down and let the streets run red with wine and, naturally, blood.  

Finally, it’s defenestration time. The ultimate objective for the invaders is to toss as many nobles out of windows as possible. Talk about a pane in the butt! 

Will Tenosia make it past Bridgetown to continue their assault on the lands of the North? Victory or defeat will reveal what tale you weave in this epic assault on all things decent and proper. 

Interested in a quick lore recap? For each game update the tale of Chivalry 2’s saga of war takes another major step forward. Bridgetown is the sixth post-launch Team Objective map added to the game (alongside various maps for other game modes). After successfully blasting through the bulwark in the Breach of Baudwyn map, the Tenosian Empire has begun the second phase of their invasion, advancing inland, which means crossing Bridgetown. The Agathian wine festival they interrupt? A celebration of King Argon’s successful defense of the recent Thayic Stronghold map against the Mason Order. Knowing is half the battle, right?

New weapon – Heavy Cavalry Sword

Deft in your hands but capable of truly ferocious slashes and special attacks, the new Heavy Cavalry Sword is designed to give players unique new methods of expressing themselves in the dance of Chivalry 2 combat. 

This one-handed weapon has long reach and slow swings, and can be equipped by the Footman Man-at-Arms and Knight Guardian subclasses. 

The Heavy Cavalry Sword enables unique attacks on horseback, with slash attacks that differ from its slashes on foot. Gameplay tip: input a special attack when on horseback to hold the weapon forward and lead your team’s charge to victory!

Various new unlockable skins will be available for the Heavy Cavalry Sword. Armour and Heraldry to match are included in free and paid tiers of the Raiding Party Campaign Pass. 

Cross-play parties and more

The Raiding Party update is one of our biggest ever, with the most quality-of-life improvements we’ve added in a single patch so far. Our team has been committed to continuously improving Chivalry 2 since launch, with new content, bug fixes and tweaks to better the experience. 

Chivalry 2 already features cross-platform matchmaking and a server browser, but one of the most requested features among the community is the ability to form parties with your friends across different gaming platforms. 

We’re excited to release Cross-play Parties Beta alongside this update, allowing players to share Invite Codes to add pals to their friends list, party up and matchmake into servers together. As a Beta there will be some minor issues present that we are already working on resolving in a future update.

So grab your friends, unsheathe your weapons and lead your forces to victory in the Raiding Party update. 

Onward – For victory and glory!

It was only a matter of time before the war to defend humanity reached new battlegrounds. Starting on May 2, players of World of Tanks Modern Armor will get to fight against Orks and the forces of Chaos in a brand-new Warhammer 40,000 event on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

This Imperium-sized event features incredible content to immerse players in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Five new tanks, two new 3D Hero Commanders with exclusive voiceover, and a limited-time community event are all available for those who swear to defend the Emperor.

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“Both Warhammer 40,000 and World of Tanks Modern Armor have a rich history of vehicular combat,” says Daniel Burr, live game director for World of Tanks Modern Armor. “Whether you are in a Sherman or a Leman Russ, tanks are powerful!”

So let’s talk about tanks.

The tanks

Five new tanks will be available as part of the Warhammer 40,000 event:

·   The Nemesis tank destroyer

·   The Teefbreaka light tank

·   The Reaper’s Scythe medium tank

·   The Ignis Purgatio medium tank

·   The console-exclusive Leman Russ heavy tank

“The single most challenging aspect was fidelity,” says Burr. “Warhammer 40,000 tanks and Commanders are very detailed, and getting those details right required a lot of work and a lot of communication with our partners at Games Workshop.”

Leading the effort to faithfully reproduce these tanks for a 20th-century battlefield was Andy Dorizas, Art Director for World of Tanks Modern Armor. Dorizas is quick to acknowledge, though, that this wasn’t a one-person task. “The Commanders and tanks were a massive group project that spanned four continents and took several months,” he says. “The Warhammer 40,000 tanks were very much an exercise in accuracy.”

A special part of the challenge was recreating the Leman Russ, the Astra Militrum’s primary battle tank. As a tank exclusive to World of Tanks Modern Armor and unavailable in other games in the World of Tanks family, it required a certain amount of creativity.

“We painstakingly studied the physical tank so it would be spot-on accurate,” Dorizas explains. “Then we had artists translate our concepts into usable geometry for our game. Once we had the model for the Leman Russ battle tank, we then painted the tank to match its most iconic colors from the universe, a lot like fans of their models do every day.”

But Dorizas and team didn’t stop there. “Of course, we added a ton of wear and detail to make the tank look… battle hardened. Our dedicated tank artists rigged it with our special track system, designers added special World of Tanks collision and balancing parameters, and bam. You can drive the Leman Russ in our game.”

The Commanders

Every ground-shattering vehicle needs a formidable warrior. Available to players during the event are two new 3D Hero Commanders, battling in the name of the Emperor: Volusad Thassius of the Ultramarines and Patricia Laserian of the Sisters of Battle.

Just like the tanks, these animated 3D Commanders required exceptional care to be brought to life

“The [3D] Commander models went through several iterative sessions to make sure we got all the details correct. Then they were textured and painted by some super-talented artists here at Wargaming,” says Andy Dorizas. “Then we did a special motion capture session just for these Commanders and our animator had a blast giving them attitude.”

Once the visual models were down, it was time to let these two Commanders’ unique voices be heard

Guiding the voiceover for this project was gaming industry veteran Jason “Jay” Baughan, whose previous voice direction credits include LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. “It all comes down to authenticity and creating an experience that feels true to fans of Warhammer 40,000,” says Baughan. “Working with actual Warhammer 40,000 voiceover veterans, I think we achieved that.”

Baughan and the voice talent recorded over 300 unique lines for each Commander. The result?

“We’ve set a new bar for ourselves in terms of quality: hearing your Ultramarine Commander or your Battle Sister Commander praising your victory in combat really elevates the gameplay experience,” says Daniel Burr.

The battle

Appropriately enough, all of this content is part of World of Tanks Modern Armor’s current epic season, Gladiators. It’s offered alongside a two-part community event in which players can ally themselves with either the Space Marines or the Sisters of Battle and do battle first against the Orks, then the agents of Chaos.

Whether players are familiar with Warhammer 40,000 or simply ready for a fight, this May, champions are needed.

FromSoftware is one of the most beloved developers around, creating modern classics like Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring that have enchanted and engrossed players worldwide. But let’s go back in time–back to 1997, when FromSoftware released the cult hit Armored Core on the original PlayStation, and players were enthralled by its mix of intense mech fighting action and strategic customization. The series has been cherished in the eyes of fans since, garnering multiple spin-offs and sequels over the years. Now, 25 years after players first built their custom Cores and 10 years after the last entry, Armored Core returns August 25–and it’s packing plenty of heat. 

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We sat down with FromSoftware to get a first look at the gameplay of Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon and learn about the latest in mech action.

Engage in high-speed mech combat

Those whose primary experience with FromSoftware comes from games like Bloodborne or Elden Ring might be curious about what to expect from Armored Core VI. 

You play an augmented mercenary piloting a huge, customizable mech. Yet while the pace and structure of mech-piloting action fundamentally differ from other games in the studio’s catalog, players can rest assured that the smooth, responsive controls they’ve come to expect in FromSoftware games is still here–just in a different context. Think giant, heavily equipped robots with the ability to zip around across ground and air, reacting at lightning-fast speeds to attacks and threats while trying to one-up dangerous foes with even more firepower at their disposal.

Rubicon, the ruined planet

Armored Core VI is a new story that takes place on the planet Rubicon, where a powerful energy source called “Coral” has been discovered. But this isn’t stuff that looks pretty in aquariums–Coral is extremely volatile, and it’s already caused a massive disaster that nearly turned all of Rubicon to ash many years prior. But those futuristic megacorps just can’t resist the siren song of Coral and continue to war for it to this day.

The various areas of Rubicon are filled with contrasts, as the hollowed-out industrial ruins from the aforementioned disaster smolder beneath a shiny shell of state-of-the-art mining constructs encasing the planet. 

“It’s an intricate and multi-layered world, brimming with mega-structures and enormous underground facilities built by its former inhabitants. These structures cover a planetary surface wracked with extreme cold and contamination in the aftermath of the great disaster, and the player will be exploring these various environments as they proceed,” says game director Masaru Yamamura. 

The expansive environments will deliver an incredible sense of scale, maintaining the quality we’ve come to expect from FromSoftware’s world-design maestros. And with your Armored Core’s (AC for short) advanced movement skills, you’ll be able to explore these large, open spaces to your heart’s content. You’ll be encountering lots of different scenery and objectives as you advance through the game’s mission-based progression structure (like previous entries).

“There will be missions where you’re fighting across sweeping battlefields–very combat-oriented,” Yamamura explains. “But you’ll sometimes be recovering data logs from wreckage and doing other side objectives too.” 

Combat features 

Assault Boost: One of the biggest new features in Armored Core VI is an instantaneous switch between long-range gunfighting and close-range melee, thanks to a button-activated movement skill called the Assault Boost. 

“Assault Boost is an offensive action that helps close the gap between enemies and lets you quickly go from long distance to close range,” Yamamura tells us. It will also provide some incredible chain abilities when fighting, as he describes vividly: “Say you activate Assault Boost to make your approach while using machine gun fire and a missile salvo to stagger the enemy, then use your pulse blade to score a direct melee hit once you’re up close.”

Stagger: Another addition to the series’ combat is a “stagger” element: if an AC takes too many hits over a short period of time, its Attitude Control System will be overloaded, making it vulnerable for a short time. Both continuous hits and big, powerful strikes will cause stagger damage, encouraging you to keep up the pressure on the opponent. The damage inflicted to an enemy’s stagger gauge varies from weapon to weapon. It can also be affected by factors like distance, adding additional strategy in equipping and using these armaments in combat. 

We asked Yamamura how the pace and feel of the game compares to previous entries. 

“The average movement speed across the game is somewhere between Armored Core 3 and Armored Core 5,” he replies. “But Armored Core VI has been developed to bolster the changes of tempo and combat. With instantaneous bursts of speed and sudden changes of tempo, combat can often reach the dizzying heights of say, Armored Core 4.”

Fight challenging bosses

The series’ big boss encounters are back, and the metal monstrosities you’ll encounter look bigger and more intimidating than ever. 

“There will be a rich variety of powerful enemies of all shapes and sizes,” says Yamamura. “Huge combat helicopters, heavily armored mobile turrets, and unmanned heavy demolition machinery that’s programmed to indiscriminately crush intruders. Armored Core VI will offer a number of explosive battle experiences that challenge players to fight against the odds and overcome these ginormous, more abnormal mechs.”

In addition to these larger bosses, you’ll even fight against other ACs and humanoid mechs in high-octane duels. And in grand FromSoftware tradition, it may take several attempts and some experimentation with your AC’s equipment to fully learn and adapt to a boss’s quirks. So better prepare yourself, as Armored Core VI will offer numerous cathartic explosive battles that’ll truly test your skills.

Build the perfect AC 

Customization is a key part of the Armored Core experience. You have access to an assortment of parts to upgrade and fine-tune the power of your AC. Four slots for holding weaponry–one in each hand and two on the back–give you a lot of space to experiment with custom loadouts.

What kind of weapons are we talking about? Bazookas, gatling guns, split missiles, plasma rifles, and all the perennial favorites. There are a bunch of new close-range weapons, too. 

“One aspect we focused on in Armored Core VI is melee weapons, exclusively equipped to the left hand,” Yamamura continues. “These can include a cluster bomb thrower, a chainsaw or pulse blade, lances, and other more idiosyncratic weapons. Since the main weapons are firearms, the melee weapons are more focused on that strength of individuality.” 

Add in custom paint jobs and liveries and you’ll be able to create a unique AC that’s all yours. 

The Arena is back

There’s more good news for longtime Armored Core fans. The Arena, a much-cherished mode where you can fight a series of battles against a wide array of specially customized mechs, makes its return in Armored Core VI as a “combat aptitude evaluation program” (simulated training exercise). 

“There are a lot of different AC frames and a lot of colorful characters to fight in the Arena, so we hope the players confront them all and aim for the top rank. You can even encounter the real version of these opponents while out on missions. These are more formidable than their simulator counterparts, and will confront the protagonist with their own ideals and motives in the heat of battle.”

Perfecting your combat skills won’t be the only reason you’ll want to return to the frontline: there will be multiple endings to Armored Core VI’s narrative, with new paths opening up on subsequent playthroughs, giving players plenty of incentive to explore the world and story thoroughly. What will be the ultimate fate of Rubicon? That’s all up to you. 

With the pedigree of FromSoftware and a long-running series behind it, Armored Core VI is going to be one to watch for fans of intense, challenging action games. Prepare for a mech action-packed end of summer when Armored Core VI launches for PS4 and PS5 on August 25.