11-Year Willamette Reunion – The Road to Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package

Several years have passed since we’ve had a full Dead Rising release on PlayStation, and thankfully the wait is over as Dead Rising 4 comes to PS4 on December 5. Since some time has passed, now is a great opportunity to reflect on the series’ history and the road to this release, both in terms of the story and the evolution of the core zombie-slaying, open-world action. Considering we’re offering the original Dead Rising as a gift for pre-ordering (at PlayStation Store or Gamestop/EB Games), you’re invited to take the trip down memory lane with us – from Willamette Mall to the entire infected town itself. Let’s look back through the franchise’s history and how it’s evolved from scavenging for helpful objects in a shopping mall to crafting ridiculous combo weapons and mowing down zombies in an armored Exo-Suit.

Dead Rising made its bloody debut in 2006, when the open-world genre was still relatively young. The game stars Frank West, who travels to the town of Willamette, Colorado, to investigate why it’s been quarantined by the government. Frank puts his photojournalistic skills to use in one of gaming’s most memorable introductions – snapping photos of the city’s doomed population as they fall victim to a zombie outbreak. Eventually, Frank finds himself in the Willamette Parkview Mall, where he has three days to investigate the mysterious pandemic before his rescue chopper arrives.

The resulting gameplay of the original Dead Rising is a smorgasbord of zombie-slaying variety. Hundreds of objects are available to slice, bludgeon, and explode the undead into itty bits, from flat-screen TVs to full-on battle axes. Dead Rising ratchets up the tension of surviving Frank’s plight by implementing a timer system and dozens of survivors begging to be rescued. Deadly Psychopaths also defend their mall turf, like Adam the chainsaw-juggling clown (who you can slice and dice with in Dead Rising 4’s new Capcom Heroes mode). That terrifying tension was balanced with the game’s quirky sense of humor, helped in part by Frank’s ever-expanding wardrobe – from fashionable skirts to Servbot masks. These elements combined helped it win a place is would-be zombie killers’ hearts.

A new chapter opened for the series when Dead Rising 2 hit PlayStation 3 in 2010. Chuck Greene, a former motocross champion, takes main stage as the protagonist this time. Chuck competes in a deadly reality TV show that pits daredevils against the undead, in order to earn cash for his daughter Katey’s Zombrex medication, which she needs to hold her infection at bay. The TV shows’ pen of zombies ultimately breaks free, sparking a new infection in Fortune City – a gambling, vice-driven town that gives Las Vegas a run for its money. The plot thickens as Chuck is framed for the outbreak, and he works with reporter Rebecca Chang to discover the true culprits behind it all.

Speaking of journalists, Frank West makes his return to the series in both Dead Rising 2: Off The Record, a reimagining of Dead Rising 2 with West cast as the main hero and in the add-on content Dead Rising 2: Case West, where he makes a colorful ally for Chuck as they dig deeper into the Fortune City incident.

Dead Rising 2 adds more to the series’ formula than a new story and setting. While the glitz, glamour, and trained tigers of Fortune City offer an exotic backdrop do the trusty zombie-slaying action, the true evolution of Dead Rising 2 lies in the gameplay. Frank could use nearly any object as a weapon in the first Dead Rising, but Chuck adds more malicious ingenuity to common items with his handyman skills. Chuck can create lethal improvised weapons like the Paddlesaw by combining a paddle with a chainsaw, or the Defiler by crafting a sledgehammer together with a fire axe (Dead Rising 4 expands combo weapon options even wider). Chuck needs all the tools at his disposal to hunt down caches of Zombrex for Katey, which adds another layer of tension to the constant ticking threat and mounting zombie threat. Thankfully, the addition of co-op enables a friend to join you in Fortune City for a bloodbath. Dead Rising 2’s exciting expansion of the original games’ zombie outbreak gameplay makes it a special entry for the series.

Both Frank and Chuck sit out for Dead Rising 3, which released in 2013. This entry shifts the setting even further west to the city of Los Perdidos, as the young mechanic Nick Ramos fights for his life in yet another outbreak. The military plans to prevent further infection by bombing the city in a number of days. The stakes may be high, but Nick rises to the occasion by employing his mechanics skill to take the series’ trademark crafting system to the next level. Not only are the combo weapons more sadistic (the Sledgesaw combines a sledgehammer with a cement saw), but Nick’s gearhead nature enables him to create the all-new combo vehicles. The brutally efficient RollerHawg combines a motorcycle and steamroller into a revving, rolling, flame-spewing death machine. Nick knows how to get around Los Perdidos in style.

This history of thrilling zombie outbreaks and empowering gameplay evolution brings us to Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package. The man himself, Frank West, returns to Willamette as the unlikely hero of this massive entry in the series. Frank’s comes equipped not only with his grizzled journo veteran status (he’s covered wars, ya know), but also the wealth of gameplay improvements the series has benefited over the last 11 years. Frank’s investigation into a new outbreak in Willamette brings him back to the unforgettable mall, and extends out into the sprawling city itself. Dead Rising 4 touts the iconic hero and setting of the original, the vastly expanded combo system of Dead Rising 2, along with the combo vehicles and open-world exploration of Dead Rising 3. The addition of high-powered military Exo-Suits also gives Frank the hulking strength to wield parking meters as bludgeons or freeze his zombie foes with an arctic vortex by adding an Ice Slushy machine to your Exo-Suit. Taking combo even further from weapons to vehicles, now to “Combo Yourself”.

Frank’s Big Package delivers more than just the latest incarnation of the franchise – it also comes with tons of additional content and gameplay improvements implemented since the initial launch. PlayStation owners get every piece of previously released content, like the wacky Super Ultra Dead Rising 4 Mini Golf and dramatic Frank Rising, where Frank finally succumbs to the zombie virus and becomes imbued with powerful abilities. We’ve heard fans’ feedback since the initial launch, and have worked tirelessly to implement improvements to the fundamental gameplay experience. The changes include new difficulty levels, survivor rescue missions, improved Maniac encounters, and more.

Most exciting of all is the ultimate experience for Capcom fans: Capcom Heroes. This new mode empowers Frank to take on the appearance of beloved characters from over 30 years of Capcom history. Outfits look great, but when you add the ability for Frank to perform outrageous special attacks from these characters, it make zombie slaying all the more fun. Signature moves and weapons include Dante’s stylish Rebellion sword, Mega Man X’s signature X-Buster, Zangief’s iconic Double Lariat and Pile Driver moves, Ryu’s famous Shoryuken, Amaterasu’s celestial brush, and more.

The full lineup includes:

• Frank West (Classic), your default character
• Zombie Frank
• Adam the Clown
• Mega Man X
• Bass
• Ryu
• Cammy
• M. Bison
• Mecha-Zangief
• Akuma
• Morrigan
• Arthur
• Dante
• Viewtiful Joe
• Sissel
• Amaterasu
• Jill Valentine

Everyone at Capcom Vancouver truly believe that the franchise’s rich history has been building towards Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package. Now is the perfect time to jump in and see how much has evolved over the years. The inclusion of the original Dead Rising game as a pre-order gift also invites players to appreciate the series’ origins and latest incarnation side-by-side, making for the ultimate open-world zombie-slaying adventure. Thanks so much for reading, and even more thanks from the entire Capcom Vancouver team for sticking with us — one zombie outbreak after the other.

Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package launches on PlayStation 4 December 5. Pre-order now to receive the original Dead Rising free.

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Sling Spells in Wizard of Legend, Out Early 2018 on PS4

No wands, long beards, nor drawn out incantations needed here. Wizard of Legend is a no-nonsense, action-packed take on wizardry that emphasizes precise movements and smart comboing of spells in a randomly generated dungeon crawler you can go at alone or with a friend.

The dev team of Contingent99 is two high school friends who decided to tackle gamedev co-op style. The two are big fans of action and fighting games, so they’ve made fluid combat the main focus of the game. Think of Wizard of Legend as a pixelated hybrid of Devil May Cry or Bayonetta style hack-and-slash with Street Fighter combos and super moves.
 

Combat in Wizard of Legend revolves around using magical spell cards known as arcana. Each arcana is unleashed with a simple button press. Unleashing them in quick succession to create a combo will become second nature, as you navigate through the challenges of the Chaos Trials. While you begin the game with just a handful of your favorite arcana, you’ll quickly discover more as you progress, boosting your hand and allowing you to pull off longer, more devastating spell combos.
 

With over 100 different arcana to find and master, there are countless combinations of starting hands to suit your playstyle. In addition, you can equip magical outfits and relics that have a wide variety of effects, ranging from summoning helpful familiars, to raining down lightning on all enemies in the area. Each run through the trials will allow you to permanently unlock additional tools that will help you achieve victory, and shopkeepers will help you even further with the different currencies you collect.
 

You can also grab a friend and tackle the Chaos Trials together in Wizard of Legend’s couch co-op mode. While jumping headfirst into the Chaos Trials as a duo will increase the difficulty of the run, it also allows you to come up with strategic synergies only possible when teaming up with another wizard. Also, the fun isn’t over when your friend goes down in battle, as defeating multiple enemies in a show of skill will grant your partner a new lease on life!
 

We can’t wait for you to enjoy Wizard of Legend’s fast-paced spell-slinging, single-player or co-op style, early next year. You can be the first to play the PS4 version at PlayStation Experience this December at booth 101. See you there at the Presented by Humble Bundle booth!

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Mothergunship Co-Op & Crafting Details, Hands-on Demo at PSX

Hello Playstation Fans! Joe Mirabello and George Mamakos here of Mothergunship, a bullet-hell FPS where you craft your own guns and face off against an invasion of robotic alien monstrosities.

First off, we’re excited to announce Mothergunship will be at this year’s PlayStation Experience in Anaheim, where we will be putting the game in front PlayStation fans for the first time! Those of you who are planning to attend can find the Mothergunship booth in Hall A, booth #102 and go hands-on with the game.

During the past months, the Mothergunship team has participated in several gaming showcases and the big questions on people’s minds have been whether Mothergunship will include multiplayer action and how the gun crafting system will work.

Today, we would like to confirm that multiplayer will be included in Mothergunship when it will launch in 2018 on digital and retail stores. The game will offer an intense co-op action where players can join their friends online on the main campaign, jump into daily missions together, and compete with other pairs on the Leaderboards!

Apart from the co-op system, we would also like to talk a bit more in depth about crafting in Mothergunship. We’ve mentioned it briefly here in the past and we knew it was a fun system, but we weren’t expecting quite the reaction that the community has had to the system. At every tradeshow this is the thing people bring friends over to tinker with and it quickly became clear that Mothergunship’s flexible and empowering crafting system is its standout feature.

Mothergunship presents the player with a lot of enemies to fight, and those enemies have ludicrous amounts of firepower. Crafting in Mothergunship lets players dance toe to toe with that firepower with its modular system of barrels, splitters, and caps.

The player can snap these pieces together like building blocks to create powerful arrangements; letting them change obvious qualities like adding barrels or creating funny shaped weapons, but also letting them manipulate and tailor the very behaviors of the gun. Perhaps you want a shotgun rocket launcher? Perhaps you’re more interested in a triple barreled laser? Maybe you want to make a gun that has barrels arranged in a heart shape, allowing you to profess your love to your Co-OP partner?. Well, more power to you; Mothergunship won’t stop you.
Here are some of the recent favorite combinations the Mothergunship team has found.

We’re calling this one “the window”

Making a grid-gun is an efficient way to make sure you can hit pretty much everything on screen at once.

Flamethrowers are always an interesting weapon. Slapping a “bounce cap” on them makes them instantly more glorious though.

All these creations don’t come without some careful balance considerations, but here, too, we empower the player to enjoy Mothergunship their way. Every piece added to a gun has a shot cost associated with it. Building an enormously powerful gun is a completely legitimate way to play the game, but you might only be able to fire it once every few seconds… and your ability to respond to situations quickly is crucial for survival in Mothergunship. Fortunately, you can dual wield these contraptions, allowing you to tailor each gun for different circumstances.

Crafting is a toy within this game, and we encourage players to really dive in and experiment.We give the player the tools they need to construct the things they want to, and then we get out of the way and let them surprise themselves. We can’t wait to be surprised too.

We’re looking forward to seeing you in Anaheim!

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PS4 Remaster of Star Ocean: The Last Hope Launches Today

Hello everyone! My name is Takaaki Kai and I am the producer for Star Ocean: The Last Hope 4K and HD Remaster.

When The Last Hope originally released on the PS3, I was still a student, and it was the first game from the Star Ocean series I ever played. I was captivated by the beautifully scenic outer space, as well as the spectacular effects displayed in battle that were generated through the capabilities of the next-gen hardware. The battles were challenging, and I remember being late to class countless times back then.

It must have been some kind of fate that I have now had the opportunity to take part in the development of Star Ocean -anamnesis-, a mobile game released in Japan. Some anamnesis players became interested in the series through the mobile game, and desired to play the previous console titles. We wanted these players to enjoy the beautiful experience and exhilarating battles from The Last Hope, and then began planning for its remaster.

The game already had gorgeous graphics, so in order to really elevate the value of its beauty, we didn’t want to do a simple remake. Instead, we decided to support 4K resolution, even if it meant that the cost would increase drastically. I thought that the sense of awe I felt looking at the beautiful visuals would not translate appropriately in this day and age unless it was displayed in 4K. On the other hand, there is an established sense of enjoyment in the battles and the game itself, so we kept those intact, since we wanted people to experience those aspects as close to its original form, rather than having us inappropriately meddling in those areas. Thanks to this, the exhilarating actions (i.e., Sight Out, among others) that had been enjoyed since the original release feels better than ever with the beautiful 4K graphics. I’m sure those who played the game back in the day on the PS3 will also be satisfied with what we’ve accomplished.

For this particular title, we focused on maintaining the gameplay experience from the original, while elevating the visual expression. Some of the more representative work done on this title include:

• Upconverting the textures, and upresing the UI textures to 4K
• Implementing graphical options, such as camera blur, self shadow, and shadow quality selection.

tri-Ace’s proprietary engine, the Aska library, has also been overhauled since then, so it allowed for a more realistic lighting that also contributed to the overall quality. A big hurdle was realizing 60fps with a 4K resolution. Since a wider area needs to be rendered, the post-processing load was heavier, so when the tri-Ace programmers repeatedly worked to optimize the game, and reached the point where the frame rate was stabilized at 60fps, it was a true moment of relief for all of us.

There were a few more hurdles we had to overcome to get the game where we wanted it to be for the fans. For example, the texture colors appeared different, areas that shouldn’t be transparent appeared transparent, the dynamic processing changed as well, so suddenly the sizes of the characters had changed. As a result of the cleaner textures, areas that were previously hidden became clearly visible, and as a result of the improved hardware, glimpses of scenes that weren’t dropped due to a slowdown are now visible. There were so many incidents needed to be dealt with until the final stages of development, it was truly a project in which we felt the progress in game development that occurred over the past 10 years.

There were many hurdles, but the team also still had a lot of fun remastering the game as well! For example, there’s an important scene with Deputy Director Shimada that is only played once, but the voice played over the scene is randomized, or whenever the player opens the bathroom door, there’s a 1/16 chance that Bacchus would be sitting there. There are truly many instances that reflect the love and attention that was poured into such small, random moments throughout the game.

For all the Star Ocean fans out there, thank you for waiting. This remake has finally been realized 7 years since its original release in 2010. Rest assured, the high-speed action battles that had been one of the joys of the original experience remain intact, and players can now enjoy their adventures through the cosmic sea with graphics supporting 4K resolution when played on a PS4 Pro. We hope those who experience The Last Hope for the first time, as well as those who played the original game, enjoy its drastically improved, beautiful, spectacular visuals. Lastly, we hope to continue various developments/activities for the overall seires in an effort to satisfy Star Ocean fans, so your continued support for the series is much appreciated.

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Meat Your Maker in Gang Beasts, Launching December 12 on PS4

Prepare to scream with horror and delight as gangs of saggy, pugnacious thugs from Beef City punch, kick and slapstick their way across your screen, hurling their foes into hazardous machinery or mercilessly head-butting them into flaming incinerator pits! That’s right folks, the long awaited Beef-em-up Gang Beasts is coming to PlayStation 4 on Dec 12th!

Gang Beasts will launch with a whole glut of customization options, and with several new modes, including clumsy-yet-brutal 2 vs. 2 soccer matches, and a cooperative mode where up to 4 players battle against waves of thugs.

Settle all your holiday arguments with a trip to Beef City, where harmless, brutal, violence is fun for all the family! Gang Beasts is heading to your neighborhood on December 12th, until then please enjoy the new trailer above and get ready to FIGHT!

One more thing! If you are heading to PlayStation Experience, Gang Beasts brawls and a tournament await you at the Double Fine Booth!

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From Kara to Detroit: The Evolution of Quantic Dream

First came Connor, then Markus. Finally, with Quantic Dream revealing the third of its Detroit leads, Kara, we thought it the best time to look back on the tech demo that sparked the android revolution. Five years after its creation, we asked David Cage to revisit Kara, offering his commentary to the demo, and in this exclusive story, offer his insight into the evolving technology that has defined Quantic Dream’s games.

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Quantic Dream is one of the few studios in the world to develop a new engine for each game. The objective of this ambitious endeavor is to push the envelope (and the hardware) as far as we can and give our fans the best looking game possible.

We also try to improve the quality of acting performances game after game, which is strongly related to the quality of our technology.

Our evolution from Kara to Detroit illustrates the progress we’ve made in these areas.

Learning from Heavy Rain’s motion capture

One of the objectives in making the Kara short was to complete our first shoot in Performance Capture. Heavy Rain was shot entirely in “Body” Motion Capture, with facial movements and voices shot separately.

All our actors did an amazing job, but their performances were captured in two parts: first we filmed all body animations, then we recorded voice and facial animations in a sound booth, hoping everything would synch together.

As a result, the performances were disjointed – the eyes could never look in the right direction and it was very challenging (for both us and the actors) to get the level of performance we were looking for.

For the Kara short, we upgraded our Motion Capture system to be capable of recording body, face and voice all at once – what we call Performance Capture.

We really wanted a setup that wasn’t intrusive. This meant no helmet, no face camera, no backpack and no wires. We wanted the setup to be as invisible and light as possible, so our actors could quickly forget it. So we installed a wireless mic for the actors to wear and developed a system for tracking markers without a helmet or a projector, a system precise enough to track eye movements simultaneously.

Last but not least, we needed to capture data good enough to minimize the need for post-animations. We shoot massive volumes of dialogue, so we couldn’t afford a system that would provide data of a quality that would require a lot of work to look good in the game.

In short, we wanted high quality data captured with a very light setup, which was a very interesting challenge…

How Kara helped refine the capture system for Beyond and Detroit

The Kara short is the result of this first iteration. When I saw the first captures, I realized that there was no going back. The gain in quality of acting performance was so high that we couldn’t understand how we were doing it before…

After Kara, we kept improving the precision of our capture system. We also greatly increased the area in which we could capture: working on Kara, we were capable of shooting one actor in performance capture in an area of 2 meters square; on Beyond it was four actors in 9 meters square, and on Detroit we were able to shoot six actors in 16 meters square.

The precision of the data we capture has improved dramatically. We now capture details on Detroit that we could only see on set before.

We have also continued to improve all the technologies linked to the quality of acting performances.

We have developed a muscle simulation system, a wrinkle simulation, a shot by shot lighting rig to have soft and detailed shadows, real time translucency (like how your ears become red when there is a light behind you — yes I know, it’s not a common situation) and many other technologies that you may not see but that play an important part in the impression you get playing the game.

Since the engine we created for Kara in 2012 and the one we use for Detroit today, our rendering technology has also been through many iterations. The engine used for Kara was an evolution of Heavy Rain’s engine and the first version of Beyond: Two Souls’ engine.

After Heavy Rain, we wanted to improve the rendering of skin and eyes, and we wanted to have more subtle light and shadow on faces. We also worked on some improvements regarding image rendering, especially depth of field (the blurry area in the background when the camera is focused on the character).

We were quite satisfied with the progress compared to Heavy Rain, and I remember we all feared that the demo would over-promise compared to what we could deliver visually in our next game Beyond: Two Souls. Working on a short demo is always different to a full game, so we had many discussions about whether it would be fair to show this short. In the end, we decided to present it because we were confident that Beyond would look at least as good, if not better.

The evolution of engines from Beyond to the Dark Sorcerer to Detroit

Beyond used another iteration of the same engine, which improved every single aspect of the tech. To my mind, the game looks considerably better than the Kara short.

Dark Sorcerer was a major step forward for the studio as it was our very first PS4 engine. It remains, for me, one of the best-looking demos we have created.

For Detroit, we’re using a brand new engine again. We invested a lot of time in having optics that are physically correct, unlike some virtual cameras. In short, virtual cameras have no limitations and can emulate optics that cannot exist, resulting sometimes in visuals that are not very convincing.

For Detroit, we worked on aligning all parameters on real optics so we can use the rules that are commonly accepted by our audience. This little change had a massive impact on the visual quality of the game. We added many new features, from bokeh, advanced lens flares, improved lighting, real-time motion blur, volumetric lights, higher resolution on PS4 Pro and many other features.

This new engine combined with our progress in performance capture makes Detroit the most advanced title ever produced by my studio. From Heavy Rain to Detroit, Quantic continues to seek new ways and create new technologies to better capture and inspire emotion.

Although technology will never create emotion, it opens new possibilities and gives creators access to nuances and subtleties that were impossible before.

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Let It Die Celebrates 1st Anniversary, World of Tanks Collaboration Starts Nov. 30

It’s hard to believe we launched Let It Die during a surprise announcement at PSX just a year ago! Now the time has come to celebrate our first anniversary with a bang—really more of a thunderous “BOOM!” since our anniversary event includes an explosive collaboration with Wargaming’s World of Tanks. From November 30 to January 11, Let It Die will feature a host of special events to excite both veteran “senpai” and brand-new Fighters alike.

The World of Tanks collaboration event will feature 10 new and original Premium Skill Decals. Unlike other Skill Decal events, this one will eliminate the possibility for duplicate results unless a player decides to reset the event’s selection. Some of these unique decals may dramatically increase your defense or even turn your normal ammunition into explosive rounds!

On top of that, we will have a special collab armor for direct sale on the PlayStation Store. This armor is based off the design of one of the most popular tanks in World of Tanks, the T-34/76. It can even be upgraded to the mighty “4th Tier.” In addition to these store elements, there will be special decorations available for your Waiting Room, limited themed quests, and special equipment that may be obtained by defeating WARDOGS in the Tower of Barbs. The WARDOGS will be equipped with special design variants of War Ensemble equipment inspired by themes found in World of Tanks (one of these WARDOGS is being punched in the above screenshot).

Aside from the special collaboration, we are also giving out rare mushrooms for players who log in during a certain period. Closer toward the apex of the holiday season, we will have a very special bonus for players. We’ll be sending out a powerful pair of shades modeled after those belonging to everyone’s favorite mascot, Uncle Death! Extremely durable, these special specs will give a decent boost in defense and an incredible boost in stamina!

We couldn’t be more excited to share this massive event with the millions of players who made this all possible. Hopefully, you’ve been having a goretastic time exploring the Tower of Barbs and raiding the pants off your enemies (literally). Let It Die has grown and changed a lot over the last year, and you can be sure more will be coming your way sooner than you can say “secret of my success” ten-times quickly.

For more details on this and other events, you can check our official website!

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