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We’re back with another Capcom Spotlight presentation, this time focused on new content for Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, a deeper dive into the newly revealed Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen, and a new look at Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Here’s a roundup of what you need to know. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection New content for Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection launches today, with the arrival of the paid DLC, Additional Side Story: Rudy, as well as a free update that adds powerful endgame challenges. Fans of Monster Hunter Stories and Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin will recognize the return of Navirou, who once journeyed alongside the protagonists of each respective game, and is an ancestor of the Royal Felyne, Rudy. Additional Side Story: Rudy digs deeper in Navirou’s fate in the past 200 years, bringing ancestor and descendant face-to-face in an unexpected twist. Nergigante, the iconic flagship monster from Monster Hunter: World, returns as a formidable threat in this DLC. This destructive Elder Dragon is a bit too rowdy to tame as a Monstie, but you can expect a memorable challenge as you take on this spiky predator in a climactic battle. How will Rudy, Navirou, and crew overcome the power of the extinction dragon? Additional Side Story: Rudy is available as a standalone DLC as well as part of the Deluxe Edition and Premium Deluxe editions. Check PlayStation Store and see what awaits you in this new adventure. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection also receives a free update adding powerful endgame challenges called Royal Monsters. Riders can load their completed save file and take on an even harder version of the final boss. Defeat this version of the final boss, and the existing world will be populated with powerful Royal Monsters. You can also test your limits even further by taking on Royal Monster versions of invasive monsters and Calamitous Elder Dragons. New details on Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen Two years after the original launch of Dragon’s Dogma 2, the grand fantasy adventure has returned as Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen. Enhanced with major updates and the Dark Arisen Expansion, Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen arrives both as a bundle package for new players, and as a standalone expansion on October 9. During Capcom Spotlight, Director Kento Kinoshita – who also directed the original Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen – shared the team’s desire to deliver on requests from fans to continue exploring the world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 even further. With that in mind, the team invites players to a mysterious new frigid northern area called Norgan. You’ll uncover the story behind a Fallen Dragon, bearing an eerie form with a missing heart, along with its pursuer, a mysterious woman named Eir. In the Norgan area, the addictive gameplay loop first established in Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, makes a return as the Relic Expedition Cycle. Battle through formidable foes and gather relics, then bring them back for appraisal into stronger weapons and armor. Powerful treasure awaits with every adventure during your pursuits in Norgan. Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen also introduces 12 new unique dungeons called Lost Rites. Rare equipment once held by past Arisen awaits you in these dungeon challenges, which take place in the existing world of Dragon’s Dogma 2. Additional hairstyles and tattoo options are coming with the expansion as well, bringing even greater variety to the versatile character creation options. The base Dragon’s Dogma 2 game was recently updated with a variety of quality-of-life features, too. Ahead of the launch of the expansion, we’ll be releasing a second free update in late August which adds further gameplay improvements highly requested by players, such as additional save slots, an increase of weapon skill slots from four to six, and performance improvements. Pre-orders begin today on PS5 in most regions and will roll out to all countries in early July. Those who pre-order will receive the Norgan Fashion Set – Northern Attire, which can be obtained whether you pre-order the bundle or standalone expansion. Those who pre-order the bundle will immediately receive access to the base Dragon’s Dogma 2 game. Whether you’re a new Arisen or are returning to make the adventure into Norgan, we can’t wait for you to experience what awaits in Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen when it arrives on PS5, October 9. New enemy revealed in Onimusha: Way of the Sword The latest swordplay action game in Capcom’s acclaimed series is nearly here with Onimusha: Way of the Sword. The iconic samurai swordplay series which first began on PlayStation 2 is back with an all-new entry for the first time in 20 years, bringing its signature mix of satisfying samurai action and dark fantasy. Take up the katana of protagonist Miyamoto Musashi, slain by twisted creatures called Genma, and suddenly revived with mysterious Oni powers. Now bearing an Oni Gauntlet, Musashi searches for his reason to fight amidst hordes of powerful Genma in a twisted, dark fantasy version of Edo-period Kyoto. During Capcom Spotlight, Director Satoru Nihei revealed a look at a powerful new Genma enemy: Dohatsu-ten. Have a look at this fearsome new foe for yourself. Dohatsu-ten is a powerful boss enemy with both strength and speed on his side, relentlessly attacking our protagonist Miyamoto Musashi with swift and devastating movements. Unique to this Genma is the bloodthirsty nature of its sword, which becomes increasingly powerful when stained with Musashi’s blood. Beware its surging power as it absorbs souls and becomes even more dangerous. Onimusha: Way of the Sword slashes onto PS5 this September. Get a taste of early action in the game with the free demo on PlayStation Store! View the full article

Even back in the 1977 original film, Star Wars has always been a universe full of vehicles that move at incredible speeds. While its spaceships are famously fast — just ask anyone about the Millennium Falcon’s record-breaking Kessel Run — its land vehicles might be more impressive as they tear through forests and canyons at breakneck, often deadly pace. Star Wars: Galactic Racer continues a video game tradition of capturing that speed by putting you behind the controls of landspeeders, speeder bikes, and podracers. I played about an hour of Galactic Racer at Summer Game Fest and came away excited for a game that expands on the Star Wars universe, and goes fast doing it. Set after the fall of the Empire, Galactic Racer places you on the Outer Rim, where lawlessness has allowed for the rise of an unsanctioned racing circuit called the Galactic League. You play a helmeted human called Shade, who is recruited by the League’s creator, Darius Pax, to defeat the circuit’s reigning champion. Turns out, Shade also has a history with the champ, Kestar Bool, and so you jump into the circuit for a personal vendetta as much as a love of speed and a need for credits. The story portions of Galactic Racer show glimpses of the larger galaxy, beyond the usual battles between good and evil. The SGF demo focused mostly on the campaign mode, and the portion I played centered on racing the more stable and reliable speeders, rather than the barely-held-together podracers (though podracers appear in the game too). Speeders come in three types: the car-like landspeeders, the fast and fragile speeder bikes, and the agile skim speeders. Each type has its own strengths and weaknesses, as well as its own specific abilities that can help you win races. Landspeeders are bigger and heavier than the other options, allowing them to take more of a beating than other vehicles if you bounce them off walls or other racers. They also have the ability to drift around turns to help you keep your racing line clean. Speeder bikes are faster than landspeeders, but much easier to wreck. They have an ability called Kinetic Burst, which gives a quick blast of speed that helps you re-orient your bike to handle tight turns. Skim speeders are a little more like starships than speeders, and are the most graceful of the three types. They offer the most maneuverability thanks to the Knife Edge ability that lets you flip them on on their sides for tighter turns. All your speeders also come equipped with an Afterburner you can activate with X, which can give you a quick speed boost to overtake racers or extend a lead, and a powerful booster called a Ramjet, activated by pressing and holding R3. The Ramjet can boost for a long period to greatly increase your speed, but as you use it, a heat meter slowly fills on your screen. If it heats up too much, your speeder runs the risk of exploding, but if you release the Ramjet early, you’ll have to wait for it to charge back up completely before you can use it again. You can also unlock and equip special abilities, such as shields to protect you from impacts or weapons to use against other racers, that can be activated by hitting L1. Events are scattered across different, famous Star Wars planets, which brings a lot of character to each race. For example, courses on Jakku take you through the graveyards of crashed Imperial ships, while Lantaana’s tracks mix dense jungles and fiery volcanoes. In the campaign, the circuit takes on a roguelite structure — while you race across each planet in a specific order, which specific events you face on each planet is randomized. You’re presented with three different “paths” at the start of a run, which show you what kinds of events you’ll face so you’ll have some idea of what to expect. Events include standard races, Field Tests that require you to hit a certain time with a new vehicle, Eliminators that remove the bottom competitors over the course of a race until only the top three remain, and Mystery Encounters that seem like they could be anything from a race to a story-driving conversation. Never quite knowing what you’ll face next helps Galactic Racer maintain the sense of being an up-and-coming racer who might be a little out of their depth. You’ll have to hone your racing skills and strengthen your speeder on each run in order to stay competitive, and you can earn and buy upgrades that power up your vehicle, as well as some that persist between runs. The races I played were satisfyingly tough — there are canyon walls and hunks of debris everywhere, and you’ll need to react quickly, as wrecks can be devastating. Crash too many times, and you’re bounced from the circuit, forced to restart your run from the beginning. If you’re skilled and devious, though, you can wreck your opponents in spectacular fashion by forcing them into walls or obstacles, giving Galactic Racer a bit of a Burnout: Takedown feel. In addition to the campaign, Galactic Racer includes a multiplayer mode, a Scenarios mode that includes longer-term challenges focused on specific characters, and an Arcade mode for quick races. I also tried the Arcade mode, jumping into a podrace as the villainous Sebulba from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and running a treacherous track on Tatooine. Podracers feel very speedy in Galactic Racer. The tradeoff is that they’re much more unstable than speeders, and just about any impact blows them apart. That made racing as Sebulba — whose podracer spits fire to take out other racers when you hit L1 — an exciting but tough proposition. His racer is incredibly fast and maneuverable, and great at taking down other racers, but you also need to be careful in managing your speed and making tight turns to avoid clipping the rocky canyon walls of Tatooine. Star Wars: Galactic Racer looks to be both a deep and interesting look at a specific pocket of the Star Wars galaxy, with all the speed Star Wars fans expect. You can jump into your speeder’s cockpit yourself when Galactic Racer hits PlayStation 5 on October 6. View the full article

Jackbox isn’t rocket science but we take our task of silliness seriously. We’re proud of our Chicago comedy roots, and every aspect of our games is high-touch to set fans up for a successful night. Play Video What sets The Jackbox Party Pack 12 apart? It’s a pack especially focused on helping players build deeper human connection in fun ways. We’re excited to share more about what to expect this fall, along with some work-in-progress screens from each of the games. We Forgot a Card For Party Pack 12, we wanted to lean into the special events our games are often paired with. “We were inspired by all the funny cliches around greeting cards,” says Studio Creative Director Arnie Niekamp, “and that familiar feeling of being in a not-great store but you have to find something fast because you’re already late to a party.” Players design a card that fits an unusual gathering with limited time and bizarre options, pairing stock imagery with player-written taglines for the funniest outcome. “‘Quick, get to the jokes’ is practically the theme of this game,” says Niekamp. In the final round, players create a talking plush to pair with their card. It’s a gift that keeps on giving! MegaPals In MegaPals, players are given a one-word prompt and must submit as many associated words as they can before the timer runs out. Points come from matching with other players. Match the most and you’re MegaPals! “We were inspired by folk games like Mind Meld and Contact where you try to think alike in very few words,” says Game Director Alina Constantin. “The pitch was an idea from Editorial Lead Liz Anderson. We wanted to spotlight the common takes as well as the weird misses, and allow players to riff off their group’s train of thought.” Prompts for subsequent rounds are based on player inputs, giving the game endless replayability. “This game is great for players who enjoy adding a personal flair to simple word association and discovering unexpected compatibilities,” says Constantin. Idol Factions Idol Factions is a team-based game where words are served up to be sorted into the right category. The words don’t stop coming, so players must communicate and work together to land them in the right spot. “This game was pitched by Lead Engineer Chase McClure and started as a solo experience. Even then, Chase had made it so that players had to communicate quickly and clearly, which was immediately fun,” says Game Director Warren Arnold, “We want players to be the right amount of stressed out.” “This game is going to be perfect for gathering on a big ol’ comfy couch so you can scream your heads off about why an answer belongs in the category ‘Type of Cheese’ and not ‘The Last Name of a British Prime Minister.’” said Arnold. Debate and Switch In Debate and Switch, you’re in a town hall that has gone sideways. Everything up for discussion is a bizarre hypothetical and you need to form an opinion and defend it. Fast. “The original inspiration was the movie Rat Race, and then I realized there was already a board game version of what I was working on: Pricetitution. So we ditched the terrible scenarios and pricing and delved more into debate mechanics.” says Nate Sandberg, Senior Audio Lead, who originally pitched the game. “We loved building out the running characters, created by Senior Art Lead, Hector M Padilla, to act as voters during debates. Those little guys are just the best,” says Game Director Michael Siciliano, “It was harder to hone in on tone for the debate topics. We’ve had to pivot on exactly how strange or detailed they get. Allowing players to craft their own topics was an evolution we’re really excited for people to play with.” Hyperface In Party Pack 11, we played with the phone’s microphone for Hear Say. In Party Pack 12, we’re playing with the camera! In Hyperface, players edit a photo in response to a prompt. Players can choose to use a stock photo or they can take a selfie and edit their face in wild ways. “The reveal is often the highlight,” says Game Director Tim Sniffen. Seeing what others chose to do, whether going all-out or doing a tiny subtle eyebrow-raise, is usually the high point of any playthrough.” We want players to smudge, squash, stretch, and draw on their photos to create the wildest result possible. “Who among us hasn’t added a mustache to a magazine photo? If you’re ready for the power-user version, where you’re smudging someone’s nose like it’s made of taffy, this game is for you,” says Sniffen. The Jackbox Party Pack 12 is coming to PS4 and PS5 this fall. View the full article

There are two types of players. One type enjoys high-octane gameplay – fluid movement, satisfying gunplay, the thrill of pure destructive chaos. On the other side of the axis are players who like to strategize. They’re driven by a need to optimize for the most efficient outcome. What if I told you there’s a solo developer – Daniel Stubbington – who decided to make a game for someone who has both of those in them? A roguelite shooter with fluid, fast-paced movement, where survival means mastering an environmental destruction system and combining it with a weapon modding system deep enough to create synergies crazy enough to make even the developer gasp? That game is Void/Breaker. And it’s coming to PS5 – we think this is going to be the best way to play it. What’s changed since we announced the PS5 version? The arsenal has grown. To the Pistol, Assault Rifle, and a Shotgun, we’ve added the SMG and the Sniper Rifle (Daniel’s own personal favourite). These weapons are the archetypes, and each one has its own character and that’s where the gun modification system comes in place. Every weapon has its own grid, and into that grid you place modules – weapon mods, ability mods, fire mode mods, melee mods. The modules aren’t isolated upgrades. They interact with each other, sitting next to one another on the grid to form combinations that are often more powerful than the sum of their parts. A mod that freezes enemies. Another that guarantees a critical hit against frozen targets. A proximity mine that deploys every time you slide. Some modules even expand the grid itself, unlocking more space. Stack the right things in the right place, and you’ve built something that carves through a room before your brain has caught up with what just happened. On PlayStation 5, the developer is exploring how adaptive triggers and haptic feedback can bring each weapon’s identity into your hands – so the resistance and feedback of firing the Sniper Rifle feel distinct from the rapid pull of the SMG. Gyro aiming is also being looked at, giving players who want it an extra layer of precision for a more immersive feel. That thinking extends to abilities, grenades, and the gravity tether too. All are being explored for how haptics could make each one feel distinct and satisfying to use. Gameplay built with the community, not just for them Daniel has remained firmly committed to the early access roadmap, working closely with the community and incorporating feedback to make Void/Breaker the best it can be ahead of its PlayStation 5 launch. And the community has been a huge part of shaping where Void/Breaker is today – not in a vague, “thanks for the feedback” sense, but in ways you can point to directly in the game. Wallrunning is the best example. Daniel experimented with it early in development, but decided against adding it. Players kept asking for it anyway. He listened, brought it back, and it’s now one of the features that gives the game’s movement the fluidity it’s known for. Melee tells a similar story. It used to be a fallback for when in a tight spot. Now it’s a genuine playstyle. New melee-specific mods arrived alongside a rebalance that scales damage relative to enemy health, so it holds up deep into a run rather than falling off. It’s another area where the DualSense controller’s options are being looked at, in the hope of making melee combat in particular feel memorable and satisfying. The story that grows Underneath all of this sits a narrative that gives the gameplay real meaning. You’re a prisoner, caught up by a malevolent AI entity whose goals aren’t clear, and your goal is to break free from an endless cycle. You’re not doing it alone, though. Early into the escape, you find an unexpected ally – a chip left behind by a former prisoner makes contact and starts offering support, guiding you through the zones as the story builds toward its conclusion. Void/Breaker’s narrative leans heavily on Returnal as an influence, not just for its gameplay loop but for how it builds a story into a roguelite structure. It’s a big part of why the zones aren’t just combat arenas – they’re chapters in something larger. Five zones have been completed so far, each with its own distinct theme and identity, and the plan is for Void/Breaker to launch on PS5 with six zones in total, with the final zone bringing the story to its conclusion. Try it yourself A PS5 demo is available right now, letting you explore Zone 1 and get a feel for the core of the game. It’s running without DualSense-specific features for the moment – the adaptive triggers, haptics, and gyro support we’ve talked about here are still being built, and they’ll be ready for the full launch. Add Void/Breaker to your PS5 wishlist. View the full article

Free Update 4 releases alongside Doom: The Dark Ages | Revelations on July 7, allowing all PlayStation 5 Pro players a new way to experience idTech8’s vision of medieval Hell with the advanced version of PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR). This upgraded version of PSSR, rolled out on PS5 Pro earlier this year, means players can jump straight into the cleanest image we can deliver on the platform. The Doom Slayer moves fast, and that is exactly why image reconstruction matters. A still screenshot can show sharp armor edges, icy cliff faces, weapon silhouettes and distant demons, but the real test is what happens when the player is sprinting, turning, parrying, Shield-Sawing and filling the screen with particles. PSSR uses machine learning reconstruction to build a higher quality image from the frame idTech8 renders, using information such as motion, depth, exposure and sub-pixel sampling to keep the final picture sharper and more stable. In practical terms, the image feels cleaner. Fine details that may shimmer with traditional temporal upscaling, such as snow patterns, broken stone, chains, spikes, sparks and thin geometry, hold together more consistently. The result is a sharper and cleaner image, even in motion. The supplied image pairs are meant to be read less as a color-grading comparison and more as a clarity comparison. Look at the places where the scene has many small shapes competing for attention: cliff edges, weapon geometry, snow, sparks and distant enemies. PSSR’s value is that it keeps more of that information coherent from frame to frame, not just in a paused image. PSSR gives idTech8 an enhanced reconstruction path for Doom: The Dark Ages | Revelations on PlayStation 5 Pro. The game is constantly pushing large combat spaces, dense effects, high octane combat, and a lot of fine surface detail, so stability matters as much as sharpness. With PSSR, idTech8 can preserve more of that detail in motion while maintaining the performance and gameplay feel players expect from DOOM. idTech8 was built to scale across a wide range of hardware while keeping the things that make Doom feel like Doom. Responsive input, high framerate action, large battlefields, rich materials, dynamic physically based rendering (PBR) lighting and shadows, blistering particles, and a renderer that can react quickly to whatever the player does next. Adding PSSR to that pipeline lets us take advantage of the PlayStation 5 Pro’s dedicated machine learning reconstruction path while continuing to lean on idTech8’s dynamic resolution and temporal data. It is extremely important because Doom: The Dark Ages is full of high frequency detail. The Slayer’s armor has scratches, grooves, and bright highlights. The world is packed with jagged silhouettes, layered architecture, cloth, metal, ice, fire and Sentinel technology. PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution helps preserve those details while reducing the visual noise that can appear when many thin elements overlap or move across the screen. The difference is especially noticeable in wide combat arenas. Distant enemies and environmental edges stay easier to read, while surfaces keep more of their texture definition. In close-ups, characters and weapons look more resolved. During effects-heavy moments, bright particles and lighting remain less distracting because the underlying image is crisper. The best image reconstruction is the kind players don’t have to think about. With PSSR on PS5 Pro, idTech8 can push detailed environments, aggressive combat, and effects-heavy scenes while keeping the final image sharper, steadier and true to the speed of DOOM. For players, the short version is simple: if you are playing DOOM: The Dark Ages on PlayStation 5 Pro, PSSR is designed to give you a sharper, more stable presentation of the same brutal idTech8 action. DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations is available July 7th on PlayStation 5, with PSSR support exclusive to PlayStation 5 Pro. View the full article