Category: PlayStation

The God of War Ragnarök New Game Plus (NG+) update is available now. To make sure you’re ready to jump back into the Nine Realms, we’ve put together everything you need to know below.  

Change the way you play

New equipment, an increased level cap, new Enchantments – all this and more is introduced with God of War Ragnarök’s NG+ mode. As soon as you’ve beaten the game, you’ll be able to dive right into a NG+ save to experience the story again with many more gameplay options available from the start.

Your equipment, weapons (including the Draupnir Spear), and skills will carry over from your previous save, so you’ll be able to use your entire arsenal from the beginning of your journey. 

Please note that you will not start the game with access to Sonic and Hex arrows. All areas requiring either those arrows or the Draupnir Spear to access will not unlock until you have reached the point in the main questline in which they become available via the story.  

New Equipment

Armor of the Black Bear

Rest assured, we’ve been taking note of the requests to add Kratos’ cloak from the opening scene since the launch of God of War Ragnarök.

The Armor of the Black Bear will keep Kratos bundled up against the Fimbulwinter frost even after the sled chase. Its stats focus on Strength and Defense with a perk that rewards your last-second evades with a volley of Bifröst shards.

Your NG+ run will begin with the Armor of the Black Bear already equipped. 

Spartan Armor

If you want a serious test of your skills and to take on the toughest challenge you can get in God of War Ragnarök, the Spartan Armor is for you. With no Perk, no Stats, and locked at Power Level 1 – the Spartan Armor lets you take a more… well, spartan approach towards protection.

This set is perfect for those of you who want to strip down your power to the minimum and leave no room for error. If you’re brave enough to face the coming of Ragnarök pecs-first, then give the set a try!

If you’re more into the Spartan General look and less into the challenging gameplay, you can always transmog this armor onto another set to achieve the look without sacrificing protection.  

The Spartan Armor can be acquired for Hacksilver at Huldra Brothers’ Shop. 

Ares Armor

Returning favorites from God of War 2018’s New Game Plus are the Ares and Zeus armors with new visuals and Perks.

The Ares Armor rewards the lucky with a chance to drop a Health Stone on hit. When you stomp the Health Stone, you also get a rage gain alongside a bigger explosion.

The Ares Armor can be purchased for Hacksilver at Huldra Brothers’ Shop.

Zeus Armor

The Zeus Armor will enable the ultimate risk-reward playstyle. This set greatly increases your Melee and Runic damage, while also increasing incoming damage.

A single hit could be enough to take even Kratos down with the Zeus Armor equipped, so you’ll need to be mindful of where your enemies are while you prepare to deal out punishment with the raw power this armor provides.

The Zeus Armor can be acquired by defeating Gná the Valkyrie Queen and completing certain Remnants of Asgard on a NG+ save.

Spartan Aspis – New Shield

The Spartan Aspis returns in God of War Ragnarök and displays Kratos’ heritage boldly.

The Spartan Aspis is similar to the trusted Guardian Shield, but it has a significantly tighter Parry window. While more challenging to time, successful Parries yield a more damaging reward.  

The Spartan Aspis can be purchased at Huldra Brothers’ Shop with Hacksilver.

Armor Appearances

For those of you looking to keep things fresh, we’ve also remixed 13 of our existing armors with new color combinations and styles that were previously unavailable.

These appearances can be bought at Huldra Brothers’ Shop and applied to any of your existing Level 9+ armor in the transmog menu. The new Berserker Armor appearance can be acquired after defeating the Berserker King on NG+. 

New Level Cap

In NG+, both Kratos and your enemies will become more powerful with an increased level cap. You will be able to convert all your Level 9 equipment (armor, weapons, weapon components, and shields) into new ‘Plus’ versions that will provide additional levels of progression.

Converting your equipment will also yield a Gilded Coin that can be used to purchase one of the new Enchantments from the shop.

We’ve also added a quality-of-life adjustment to the shop, so you’ll be able to purchase and sell resources incrementally. Buy and selling materials to get your equipment in tiptop shape for your NG+ run is now smoother than Kratos’ scalp.

New Enchantments

Gilded Coins – Engraving and Badge Enchantments

If you ever agonized over an armor choice because you couldn’t choose a favorite Perk, the new Enchantments available in the shop are for you! These take a selection of powerful and versatile perks from Armor (Engravings) and Shield Rönds (Badges), allowing you to equip them in your Amulet as Enchantments.

For example, you can purchase the Dragon Engraving, which has the Dragon Scaled Breastplate Perk, Dragon’s Fury (Blocks and Parries grant a Strength/Defense stacking buff). You can equip that in your Amulet while wearing a different chest piece like the new Cuirass of Ares, allowing you to combine two different chest armor perks at once.   

The most powerful enchantments from the Gilded Coins will require certain Stat thresholds to be met to encourage and reward you for getting clever with your builds. With so many new options available, we can’t wait to see which combinations you make.

Berserker Soul Drops – Stat Boost Enchantments

Defeating the Berserker Souls on NG+ will also reward you with new Enchantments to equip. While not as flashy as some of the Perk Enchantments, these will give you big boosts to select stats so you can lean into whatever build you like best even more.

Burdens

Burdens are a new set of Enchantments that will allow you to equip negative Perks for a tailor-made challenge.

For example, the Burden of Evasion will automatically give Kratos the Frost status effect when he rolls.

For those of you seeking to ramp up the difficulty with an exceptionally brutal experience, you can combine Burdens with the Spartan Armor.

We’ve also added a new UI option called Show Difficulty (Difficulty HUD Visualization), which will display the current difficulty setting on the HUD, as well as how many Burdens you have equipped. Feel free to flex a little bit for your friends.

Burdens can be purchased at the Huldra Brothers’ Shop with Hacksilver.

New Progression Paths

New Skill Mod Plus

Upgrade your existing Skill Mod tokens using XP to further enhance the effects of your favorite Mods.

Platinum Tier Labors

Carry over any progress from your Kill Labors or Ratatasks and continue to unlock a new Platinum Tier of rewards.

Additional Stat Gains

Nornir Chests will now provide Yggdrasil Dew to allow players to push Stats far beyond their previous limits. 

Expanded Niflheim Arena 

The Sparring Arena in Niflheim in NG+ will give you a ton of new options to play with! Alongside a selection of new enemies for you to face off against, you will now be able to play as either Kratos or Atreus and choose any of the following companion characters to fight beside you: Atreus (with Kratos), Freya, Brok, Sindri, Angrboda, Ingrid, Thor, and Thrúd.

With any companion combination possible, we can’t wait to see how creative you can get in gameplay and in Photo Mode.

Endgame Bosses

Got comfortable fighting the Berserker Souls and the Valkyrie Queen Gná? We’ve made sure the toughest optional fights have a few switch-ups in NG+ so even if you’ve beaten them before, they’ll still pack a punch when you meet them again.

Other Enemy Adjustments

Available on All Difficulties in NG+

The Hateful and the Ormstunga, two of our optional mini-bosses, have been given a few new tricks. Be sure to pay them a visit when you can in your NG+ run.

Available on Give Me No Mercy and Give Me God of War in NG+

If you choose to play on Give Me No Mercy or Give Me God of War difficulties, all bosses and mini-bosses will have Runic Armor. Strategic Runic usage in these fights can make the difference between victory and defeat.

In NG+, enemies turning elite can now also happen on Give Me No Mercy in addition to Give Me God of War. Elite enemies will gain an increase in Power Level, so make sure you keep a special eye on them when you see one transform in combat.  

Black and White Render Mode

Looking to experience the story again with a more cinematic twist? After you beat the game once, you will have access to a new Black and White Render Mode for any subsequent NG+ or standard New Game saves. 

You can find the new mode under the Graphics & Camera settings menu.

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We hope you enjoy NG+ in God of War Ragnarök, available now.

We are so excited for the release of Meet Your Maker, available today on PS5 and PS4, and included Day 1 with PlayStation Plus memberships as one of April’s Monthly Games.

We launch today with a full arsenal of traps, guards, weapons, Custodians, and more already included for Builders and Raiders to discover and master. This is a game driven by user-generated content, and so for us, the next step is making sure our players are taken care of with a steady stream of new content to keep the possibilities, personalization, and creativity firing on all cylinders.

There’s a lot to look forward to, so let’s celebrate today with some tips and tricks plus everything we’ll be adding to the world of Meet Your Maker in the first three months after launch.

Tips & tricks

We hope you’ll have a blast building incredible Outposts and raiding the insane creations of other Builders. To close things out, we wanted to share a couple of quick tips for both roles to help you get started whether you’re playing solo or with a friend.

Builders:

• Build Step-by-Step: Use a 3-step approach – build the basic structure, add traps and guards, then cosmetics.
• Second Wave: Raiders still have to escape once they’ve grabbed the Genmat. Make getting out just as hard as getting in.
• Anticipate: Think like a Raider as you set traps. How can you lure, herd, and trick them while using their reactions to your advantage?
• Test: Test your own Outposts as a Raider. It’s the best way to know what’s working and what’s not.

Raiders:

• Hardware: Stock up on useful consumables like speed boosts, deployable shields, and even respawn beacons.
• Grapple Hook: This is your best friend. Master it. It gives you incredible mobility for both attacking and escaping.
• Danger Signs: When a trap is tripped you get both a visual and audio cue before it deploys. Train yourself to react quickly.
• Second Wave: Some traps and guards only activate after you grab the Genmat. Trust nothing on your way out.

Three-month content roadmap

Keeping things fresh, ever-changing, and always unexpected is our mission when it comes to adding content to Meet Your Maker.

We also want to make all this content easily accessible to all players, and so a lot of what you’ll see below is either free, or unlockable just by playing the game and earning in-game currency.

Hellscape Deco Pack – free/instant access (April 18)

Arriving a few weeks after launch this Deco Pack will be free and instantly accessible to all players. Deco Packs in Meet Your Maker are essentially themed building materials that add a totally new aesthetic to the game. Hellscape combines organic matter and industrial materials to create eerie, pulsating, and all-around unsettling Outposts that feel alive in the worst possible ways.

New Mods and Augments – free/unlockable with playtime (regular drops)

Over the first several months, we’ll also be dropping multiple new Mod and Augment additions for existing traps and guards which players can unlock with in-game currency. If Deco Packs are all about style, Mods and Augments are all about being a more effective killer. Builders get new ways to affect traps and guards for even more control over their setups and combos. Raiders are suddenly faced with fresh challenges to overcome just when they thought they’d figured everything out.

Major Content Update – Sector 1: Dreadshore (end of June)

Meet Your Maker’s first major DLC will come at the end of June and add a completely new environment to the game, as well a new Deco Pack, Custodian, trap, guard, weapon, and even a cosmetic collection.

When it comes to Sectors, new environments and new deco packs will always be instantly available for free to all players upon release. The environment introduces a completely new region along with a Sector-themed set of building blocks to create a completely different style of Outpost. All the gameplay elements are unlockable via playtime.

“A Sector is our way of traveling to a new location and uncovering weapons, guards, and other supplies that can be useful to the Custodian,” says Joe Dermo, Meet Your Maker’s narrative designer. “Each Sector has lore that can give us a clearer idea of what was happening in the world before its downfall.

“There are many Sanctuaries out there, so we envision how their inhabitants might have lived, how they’d adapt to their environment, and how their morality, or lack thereof, could lead them down a different path. Dreadshore will bring us beyond the sandy wastes to a very different location. The backstory will shine a spotlight on one of the themes of our universe: what happens when science and experimentation is pushed beyond its ethical limits.”

Meet Your Maker is available now on PS4 and PS5.

As we strive to make gaming more accessible for all players, today we’re excited to announce that Accessibility Tags are rolling out globally this week on PlayStation Store on the PS5 console.

Accessibility Tags allow game developers to provide detailed insight on accessibility features supported in their games. As you browse various game hubs on PlayStation Store game hubs on PS5, you’ll see a list of accessibility features by pressing the “Triangle” button if the game you select supports Accessibility Tags. These can range from visual and audio accessibility settings to DualSense controller options, difficulty settings, and online communication features like chat transcription.

Clip showing Accessibility Tags in the Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut game hub on PS5.

Accessibility Tags will be available for PS5 and PS4 games on PlayStation Store on PS5. If both PS5 and PS4 platform versions are available, you can compare Accessibility Tags for each through a dropdown menu.

With Accessibility Tags, you’ll be able to easily see if the game you want to play features the accessibility options you’re looking for. Here’s a sampling of the more than 50 Accessibility Tags available for game developers to choose from, across six categories:

• Visual accessibility features, such as clear text, large text, color alternatives, audio cues and directional audio indicators. 
• Audio features, such as volume controls, mono audio, screen reader and visual cue alternatives.
• Subtitle and caption options, including subtitle size, clear captions, and large captions.
• Control options, including button remapping, thumbstick sensitivity, and ability to play without button holds, rapid button presses or motion control.
• Gameplay options, such as difficulty settings, skippable puzzles, simplified quick time events, and game speed.
• Online communication options, such as text or voice chat transcription and ping communication.

Accessibility Tags on PlayStation Store for PS5 will gradually release for players this week. At launch a variety of games such as Days Gone, Death Stranding Director’s Cut, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, God of War, God of War Ragnarök, Gran Turismo 7, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and Returnal will support Accessibility Tags. We are just starting to roll out this feature and are collaborating with a wide range of developers to implement this feature in their game hubs on PS5 in the coming weeks and months.

Together with the wide array of accessibility settings within the PS5 console UI, Accessibility Tags will empower you to personalize your PS5 gaming experience to your individual gameplay needs. They’re the latest step in our journey to make gaming more accessible, alongside inclusively-designed games from PlayStation Studios and upcoming products like Project Leonardo.

Thanks for your continued support. We’re eager to hear your feedback on this feature and how we can continue enhancing gaming accessibility for our community.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a galaxy of fleshed-out worlds that aims to surpass its predecessor in every way. The numerous spectacles I witnessed within my three hours playing Respawn Entertainment’s upcoming sequel ranged from dynamic vistas, diverse communities, and an ecosystem of friendlies and enemies that your in-game actions directly impact. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is not striving to only be a great Star Wars game but an overall excellent game of galactic proportions. 

Enhanced combat options

One key to living out any Jedi fantasy is the feeling of complete control over the Force and your weapons, and Survivor does not disappoint. There are now five different combat stances to unlock throughout the game as your primary and secondary: 

• Single – The standard balanced “all-rounder” lightsaber option 
• Double-bladed – Good for crowd control and keeping enemies at bay 
• Dual Wield – Great for high-octane and versatile combat, requires finesse 
• Crossguard – Powerful but slow
• Blaster – Great for dealing with enemies at a distance and pestering foes 

Yes, you will be able to wield a blaster. Protagonist Cal Kestis can also perform blaster and lightsaber combos, wielding one in each hand to dispatch foes in creative and visually spectacular ways. 

The new options provide unique ways to tackle enemies. The crossguard lightsaber acts like a traditional longsword with slow windup times but deals massive damage to anything it comes in contact with, while dual wield allows you to deliver quick and precise strikes while staying agile. 

“One thing I think we looked at in the first game is that that power curve came in a little bit too late,” said Stig Asmussen, game director at Respawn. “You didn’t really start feeling like you had [power], which is by design, you’re this raw and incomplete Padawan that hasn’t been trained in years. We wanted the player to feel that. And it’s around 60% into the first game, you start to feel like, ‘hey, I got a lot of powers right now that I can use to manipulate and eventually dominate both combat and the environment.’ And we definitely want that to come in a little bit sooner on this game because Cal is further along on his path.”

Early in the game, you’ll have access to three stances and all of the basic Force abilities Cal acquired in the first game. Along with some new ones, including Force Confusion which allows players to turn enemies against each other briefly, and Tame giving the ability to mount various creatures to navigate the environment for faster traversal or puzzle solving. 

The power of PS5

The game looks stunning and has been optimized to take full advantage of what the PS5 has to offer. When flying around the world with the help of a Belter, a new flying mount, it becomes apparent just how massive and detailed the new worlds Cal will explore are, with looming structures in the distance casting vast shadows, enemies on patrol, and glimpses of the unknown on the horizon. All this is rendered in real-time and detailed regardless of distance. 

“With the PS5, we’re really digging the haptics and what the controller is bringing, and it’s been a lot of fun to see how that works with push and pull [Force powers],” said Asmussen. “And a [DualSense] controller, it feels really good, and we’re taking advantage of that. You’re going to feel it on the triggers when you’re doing push and pull. If you really [push] on the triggers, it’s going to give a different response. Compared to if you’re lightly feathering them, and the game is going to react to that. It’s the nuance within the vibrations on the controller that is pretty outstanding. Our audio team and our combat team is really dialed into how the things that are happening in the world, the effects, and everything that are like translating to how it feels in your hands.”

A galaxy of cultures

The galaxy is a lively and beautiful place, and the planets are not just a collection of biomes for the players to run and slash their way through. Cal finds himself temporarily stranded on Koboh, which features a sprawling open-world design. Instead of featuring a core environmental theme, there is a wide range of biodiversity. Open arid sears, dense jungles, and puzzle room-like Jedi Chambers that will test your critical thinking skills and ability to wield the force. 

Koboh is also inhabited by friendly prospectors trying to make a living among the small-town communities who are being oppressed by The Bedlam Raiders, a gang that terrorizes the nearby system. The Bedlam Raiders are also in conflict with The Empire encroaching on their turf leading to an open world that constantly has different factions of people interacting and fighting even without Cal’s involvement. 

A new addition to the sequel is Rambler’s Reach, a place where you will meet colorful characters, plant gardens, and recruit different people you meet to the town to help with repairs or even to be a DJ. These and other activities will improve the lives of the locals and possibly aid Cal on his journey. The game features town-building mechanics for those who genuinely want to make the galaxy a better place. 

Customization & controls 

Like a Jedi honing their skills, Cal’s movement feels more fluid and responsive in this sequel. You have more control over what direction Cal dodges incoming attacks, and platforming feels organic and purposeful. Facial animations and characters’ interactions in and out of combat are more natural. 

Climbing, hanging, and jumping animation reflect what you’re jumping on or toward instead of a generic jumping animation for all situations. There was also a heartfelt yet somber reunion with Greez where the contents of the conversation could be perfectly conveyed with facial expressions alone in both cutscenes and gameplay. 

The game incentives exploration with a plethora of robust cosmetic options for Cal and the many forms his lightsaber can take. I indulged in customizing my lightsaber down to the tiniest details, from accent colors to the sheen and wear on my weapon. 

Cal now has the option to change hairstyles, rock some facial hair, and switch up his clothing to take him from space cowboy to galactic entrepreneur. With a more customizable Cal, lightsaber, and droid buddy BD-1, it’s possible no two players will look exactly the same.

Optimizing Respawn’s Star Wars recipe

Respawn is taking what they learned from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, optimizing the formula to make Survivor an even more exciting experience.

“The game is built on the fundamentals of the best games that we played throughout our lifetime, like the things that we point out in other games. Can we make that work in Star Wars? It’s kind of a soup, right?” said Asmussen. “We got to make sure that we’ve got all the right ingredients there. We taste a little bit, and it’s like, let’s add a little bit of this. Let’s add a little bit of that. Star Wars is always a part of it, but those tried and true design fundamentals are the backbone of everything that we’re doing.”

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is shaping up to be a spectacular galactic adventure and compelling showcase for what PS5 games can truly offer. The game drops on April 28, and if it wasn’t already on your radar, it should be.

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Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

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Tetris creators Henk Rogers and Alexey Pajitnov join PlayStation Podcast to chat about bringing the iconic game’s origin story to the silver screen. After diving into the discussion, sit back and watch Tetris now on Apple TV+ with free trials on PS5 and PS4.

Stuff We Talked About

• Tetris (the history)
• Tetris (the movie)
• Tetris (the game)
• Tetris 99
• Tetris Effect
• Tetris in space!
• Tetris

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The Cast

[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.]

Last week, we asked you to set sail and explore the soulful world of Tchia using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:

call_me_xavii shares Tchia wearing casual clothes and a baseball cap sitting by a fire

asensualmanatee shares Tchia sitting on a hill with the sky red with the sunset

photo_station5 shares Tchia on her boat headed towards land with a mountain and the sun in the center background

godhatesash shares a close up look at golden brown cow with white horns

kani3_sun shares Tchia soul-jumped into a cat sitting in a field of grass

FMJLullaby shares Tchia and her father out of focus as their friend arrives on his boat.

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: Resident Evil 4
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on April 5, 2023

Next week, what’re ya sharin’? Share action-packed moments exploring and fighting back as Leon S. Kennedy in Resident Evil 4 using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Set to be released for PlayStation 5 on June 22, Final Fantasy XVI is the next mainline installment of the Final Fantasy series, which follows Clive Rosfield, the protagonist, as he harnesses the power of multiple summons to overcome his tragic destiny. The game is the first full-fledged action RPG in the Final Fantasy series and features high-speed battles in which players switch between the powers of various Eikons, as well as large-scale Eikon vs. Eikon battles.

We spoke with the main director, Hiroshi Takai, about how the game harnesses PS5’s power and how it was optimized and developed for PS5.

As a developer, what were your first impressions of the power and technology of the PS5?

Hiroshi Takai: The two main things that struck me were the size of the memory and the speed of the SSD. I’ve worked with a lot of different hardware over the years, and many have failed to strike the right balance between the capabilities of the hardware and the size of the memory. However, the PS5 is different—it comes with enough memory installed to take full advantage of the hardware. As for the SSD, as we were building the game, I was simply blown away by how fast it was.

The Final Fantasy franchise is known for the quality of its graphics. Final Fantasy XVI was developed as a PS5 game first and foremost, so how did you take advantage of the power of the hardware when it came to the graphics and the gameplay?

Naturally, we wanted the graphics to be the best that they could be, so we put a lot of focus on the fine details of the character and environmental models, as well as the quality of the lighting and the shadows, to really make them shine. It’s really resource-intensive just to render these models on screen, and the lighting and shadow effects are then layered on top of that. We’re only able to do this thanks to the size of the PS5’s memory. Clive, the protagonist of FFXVI, can unleash a wide range of attacks, and the animations and effects for them can all fit in the memory, too. And the way that the game seamlessly flows between resource-intensive gameplay to equally intensive cutscenes and back again wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the speed of the SSD.

 

Could you explain a little bit about how FFXVI makes use of the PS5 DualSense controller’s adaptive triggers and haptic feedback in battle and exploration?

There are certain sections where the player will have to open heavy doors or lift up portcullises, and we use the adaptive triggers there to put across that feeling of effort and resistance. They’re also used when riding chocobos. The haptic feedback can produce extremely subtle vibrations, which we use to create a heightened feeling of presence in cutscenes. We converted the sound effects used in each scene into haptic data, which let us portray details that we’ve never been able to before, like the movements of the air.

Final Fantasy XVI will be the first fully-fledged action RPG in the history of the series. It’s a bold move to abandon the command system entirely. What was your aim with this?

That’s right, when it came to designing FFXVI, we wanted to see what would happen if we took it in a new direction and made it a full action RPG. We fine-tuned the gameplay so that when you take the DualSense controller in your hand, your every input produces a reaction that you can really feel. One of the main features of the battle system is the wide range of Eikonic abilities that Clive can unleash, and this results in a great deal of freedom in how players can approach battle. There are also the Eikon-on-Eikon battles, where the player controls the series’ famous summons directly, to add to the action. It’s a non-stop, white-knuckle ride from start to finish.

 

While the details of every Final Fantasy game might differ, they are always centered around a captivating story. The story of Final Fantasy XVI has a sense of tragic heroism at its heart, but could you tell us more about its themes?

When we started thinking about making a game for the PS5, we wanted to create a world where there was no disconnect between the graphics and the story. While it might go to some pretty dark places, it’s a world where that darkness only exists because light exists too, and our heroes go through the trials that they do precisely because  they have hope that things can get better. A world where every man, woman, and child has their own sense of what a “just” world should look like.

What other PS5 games have impressed you? From a developer’s point of view, how did you feel that they took advantage of the PS5’s capabilities?

I think God of War Ragnarok is a fantastic game. It’s a seamless experience from beginning to end, and paints a perfect picture of the relationship between a father and his son.

The world of Horizon is vast and majestic, featuring lush landscapes crowned by seemingly endless skies. When the team at Guerrilla began creating this world, developers of various disciplines considered how to bring an immersive level of life to the world. For Guerrilla’s Atmospherics team, this meant populating the skies with lifelike clouds. 

This work was evolved for Horizon Forbidden West. And now, in Burning Shores, Aloy will soar through more breathtaking, realistic skies than ever before. 

The approach  

“When we think of a horizon, we imagine vast expanses like the open ocean and how the clouds and the sun arc down to touch them at some immeasurable distance,” says Andrew Schneider, Principal FX Artist at Guerrilla. “Open-world games present developers with metaphorically similar challenges. How do we push the experience so that the player feels that they are in an environment that could be endless?” 

It was one thing to ask the question but another to break it down into technical tasks. 

In the early 2010s, feature film and animation VFX started using volumetric rendering to create clouds. For video games, this technique took too long to render with high-quality results at interactive framerates, but developers knew it held game-changing potential.

With innovations in hardware, this began to change. At the nexus of the PlayStation 4 in 2015, Andrew partnered with Nathan Vos, Principal Tech Programmer at Guerrilla. Together, they developed the highly efficient open-world volumetric cloud system that can be seen in Horizon Zero Dawn. The intricately detailed clouds framed Aloy’s world as a hopeful, beautiful one. It supported changes to the time of day and realistic animations, creating the sense of a fully living, breathing world. 

This established the foundation the team would build upon for Horizon Forbidden West. 

The evolution 

In video games, clouds can help convey a mood. Along with the abundance of green, clear waters and cragged cliffs, the clouds of Horizon punctuate the world with emotion. To achieve this, they had to be more than white wisps far above the Aloy’s head; they needed movement, variety, and definition. 

“We looked to artists who were part of the luminism movement for inspiration, like 19th-century painter Albert Bierstadt. These painters had mastered the interplay between clouds and the land beneath, using light and detail to create space, producing truly dramatic landscape paintings.   

“To recreate this effect in 3D, we had to develop a way to model clouds. For Horizon Zero Dawn, we’d explored various methods for creating cloudscapes. Voxels are blocks that can build volumetric 3D clouds. We’d actually made a cloud simulator and experimented with rendering three-dimensional ‘voxel’ data in real time.” 

“But technologically, it was too early for this,” Andrew recalls. “The hardware and software just weren’t at the right stage of development. So, we settled with modeling clouds in an efficient-to-render way that still yielded high-quality results, but with more modeling effort than simulation.” 

The solution was to paint fixed layers of clouds rather than individual formations. But this process would need to be expanded to support the addition of flying mounts in Horizon Forbidden West. 

For the sequel, Andrew and Nathan upgraded the rendering quality of the base system used in Zero Dawn, expanding it to support a new fog-like cloud that the player could fly through at low altitudes. This allowed for awe-inspiring atmospherics, like a superstorm with sinister vortex motion and internal lightning effects. Now, the clouds were a character of their own, rumbling with atmospheric tension. 

The next technical challenge 

Naturally, the next step was to continue innovating this system for Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores. For the expansion, the team has elevated the experience using voxel technology, among many other technical improvements throughout the world. 

“The cloud systems that we developed for Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West were fast because they didn’t store clouds as 3D objects, but rather instructions on creating 3D clouds from limited 2D information. The PlayStation 5 can handle larger datasets. So, after Forbidden West wrapped, we set to work writing a voxel cloud renderer prototype that could live up to our standards for quality, and actually allow the player to fly through highly detailed cloud formations.” 

Achieving the balance between performance and quality when the player can be on the ground, and high up in the air was an ambitious challenge. Yet the prototype paid off, generating dense, dynamic results at low and high altitudes, a feat made possible by hard work, as well as the increased power of the PlayStation 5. 

But creating a single cloud was a long way from building an entire cloudscape. 

Andrew had created what he called “Frankencloudscapes” — large cloud formations so that the sky could be treated like as a landscape would by a terrain modeler. As a result, the cloudscape acted as both a background element and an environment to explore. 

To make this work at the scale needed for Burning Shores, a strike team at Guerrilla tackled the challenge of flying through clouds – the real test of performance and quality. Andrew teamed up with Nathan and brought in Hugh Malan, a Senior Principal Tech Programmer. 

The first hurdle they encountered was deeply technical: how do you handle a huge quantity of volumetric voxel data? 

“Hugh and I divided this issue to conquer it. I developed a way to take low-detail voxel data and add detail during rendering. Meanwhile, Hugh worked on compressing the data so it could be accessed faster from memory. Together, these processes made rendering Volumetric Voxel Clouds exponentially faster.” 

“But it still wasn’t fast enough,” Andrew recalls. “The costliest part of this process was calculating cloud lighting, which, in itself, is complicated. To get around this, Nathan engineered a method to reduce rendering time to a speed that would work for both standard and high frame rate modes.” 

“This was also one of those rare situations where an optimization produced a better visual result. It allowed us to cast cloud-to-cloud shadows over a much larger distance, improving realism. At this point, we had a method to render volumetric clouds from the ground and in the air, right up next to them.” 

The second challenge was balancing. “There is a dance that real-time graphics engineers do to balance quality and performance,” Andrew continues. “Quality usually comes at a ‘cost’ in terms of processing. So, every time we improve the quality of our clouds, we need to do so in a way that costs either as much as, or less than, the current cost of the cloud system.” 

To find this balance, Senior Principal Tech Programmer and graphics engineer James McLaren helped the team understand how the code behaved at a low level on the PlayStation hardware itself. His expertise allowed them to take full advantage of the hardware by optimizing code for the PlayStation 5. “James’ contributions were fundamental in the early stages of development, allowing Guerrilla to push the boundaries during production,” recalls Andrew.  

In the end, the pieces add up to give the player the awe-inspiring feeling of soaring through and around a cloudscape as accurate and varied as the land below. All on the back of their Sunwing. 

What awaits in Burning Shores 

When heading to the Burning Shores, Aloy will run into familiar machines and faces. But she will also discover new ways to explore her world. 

“It was important to us to make the experience fun and joyful on its own outside of the main gameplay. The clouds are not simply immersive scenery but an explorable landscape in themselves. Among the clouds, players will be able to explore tunnels, caves, and other surprises that make for fun flying,” says Andrew. 

“The best part is that depending on when you try any of these features, the experience will be different. As the day progresses, the quality and direction of light change, hiding and revealing some of these features and changing the feel of each journey. 

And I don’t want to spoil anything – but we hope you aren’t afraid of a little lightning.”