The release date for Unknown 9: Awakening has been announced.

During Gamescom Opening Night Live, developer Reflector Entertainment along with publisher Bandai Namco revealed Unknown 9: Awakening will release on 18th October. It will be available across PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC (Steam).

You can check out the live action trailer for Unknown 9: Awakening, which stars The Witcher's Anya Chalotra as the game's protagonist Haroona, below.

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Just when Geoff Keighley had started to fade from your memory, he comes rubber-banding back with a vengeance - snap! It's Gamescom week and it kicks off with Opening Night Live this evening from 7pm UK time (other Opening Night Live timings here). A pre-show with additional announcements will begin at 6.30pm UK. We'll be watching and reporting on it live, as always, right here, so you can either keep abreast of announcements while you do something else, or you can join in with your thoughtful and amusing comments. Please keep us company. Please.

What do we expect to see today? Well, probably Geoff Keighley, but also the new Indiana Jones game, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Dune Awakening. We're also expecting Little Nightmares creator Tarsier to unveil its new project, which could be exciting. On top of that: Diablo 4 expansion Vessel of Hatred, Civilization 7, hero shooter Marvel Rivals, Lost Records (the project made by the creators of Life is Strange), Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (which was recently delayed), and Black Ops 6. Keighley's best pal Hideo Kojima has also been tweeting enigmatic silhouetted pictures of actors who are presumably playing roles in Death Stranding 2.

And before you ask, "Yes, there will be new game announcements," Keighley said on X.

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Sony has announced August's PlayStation Plus games.

Those on the subscription's Extra tier will get the following titles:

In addition to the above, those on PS Plus Premium will also get access to the below:

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Bandai Namco has published its first quarter financial results, and has recorded a significant increase in both its net sales and profits.

For the three months ended June 30, 2024, net sales increased by 24.8% year-over-year to ¥280 billion ($1.9 billion), while profit rose by 56.3% to ¥34 billion ($233 million).

The publisher saw a boost in its digital entertainment sales, which increased by 55.8% to ¥106 billion ($725 million).

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In Little Nightmares III, players follow the journey of Low & Alone, two best friends looking for a way out of the Nowhere.

Trapped within the Spiral, a cluster of distorted areas within the Nowhere, they will have to work together to survive in a dangerous world full of delusions and escape the grasp of an even greater threat lurking in the shadows.

Little Nightmares III returns to Gamescom with a brand-new trailer, highlighting the synergies between the two characters and teasing new environments to explore!

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Co-operative features and new puzzle-solving mechanics

Little Nightmares III is the first game in the franchise to feature 2 players online co-operation. The latest trailer shows some of the co-operative gameplay mechanics that will be useful when players play together in co-op, or solo with the other character controlled by AI. 

Low and Alone, the two playable characters, are both best friends and very complementary. They each have an iconic item: the bow for Low and the wrench for Alone. 

Working together will be key to progress in the game. For example, in the trailer we see that Low can bring down smaller enemies with his bow, while Alone has to finish them off on the ground with her wrench. 

You can also see Low put his bow to good use at the end of the trailer, saving Alone from the petrifying glare of Monster Baby. 

However, teamwork isn’t only about using items. It is also about clearing the way for your partner so they can help you move forward in turn. You’ll need to be proactive and take initiative for both of you to make it through. 

“The relationship between the two characters is very strong, and we were keen to explore that bond in the game. It is even more relevant when we see them working together to escape the many threats that make up the Nowhere”, mentioned Wayne Garland, Little Nightmares III Game Director at Supermassive Games.

New settings, faithful to Little Nightmares’ atmosphere

Teamwork is at the heart of the trailer, but it’s not the only new thing players will experience as they play through the game’s compelling story. By including co-op, we wanted to offer something fresh for the players, unique to Little Nightmares III, while retaining the beautifully disturbing atmosphere of the series. 

You’ll feel it in the new environments, which are full of mysteries and revelations. You’ll also find the same tension and suspense as these two charming new characters face even greater risks than before, searching for a glimmer of hope in a world filled with darkness.

Necropolis is a good example of a new type of location in the game. In spite of its abandoned state and warm desert colors, the city feels eerie and unsettling. Don’t be fooled by this windswept, brightly lit environment. Danger is everywhere, and Monster Baby is easily roused when new toys tumble into her crib… 

In the trailer, you can also spot a variety of other regions of the Nowhere, each one more unsettling than the last. Some of them might be reminiscent of places you might have explored in previous Little Nightmares games, like dank and gloomy vents and the gears and pistons of pitiless machinery. Some are more unfamiliar, like a rickety Ferris wheel, a shadowy circus tent, or a massive, complex clockwork mechanism. 

You’ll have to be patient before we can tell you more about these places and their inhabitants! More news about Little Nightmares III will be revealed in the near future, so stay together, little ones.

Little Nightmares III will be released in 2025 on PS5 and PS4.

In Little Nightmares III, players follow the journey of Low & Alone, two best friends looking for a way out of the Nowhere.

Trapped within the Spiral, a cluster of distorted areas within the Nowhere, they will have to work together to survive in a dangerous world full of delusions and escape the grasp of an even greater threat lurking in the shadows.

Little Nightmares III returns to Gamescom with a brand-new trailer, highlighting the synergies between the two characters and teasing new environments to explore!

Play Video

Co-operative features and new puzzle-solving mechanics

Little Nightmares III is the first game in the franchise to feature 2 players online co-operation. The latest trailer shows some of the co-operative gameplay mechanics that will be useful when players play together in co-op, or solo with the other character controlled by AI. 

Low and Alone, the two playable characters, are both best friends and very complementary. They each have an iconic item: the bow for Low and the wrench for Alone. 

Working together will be key to progress in the game. For example, in the trailer we see that Low can bring down smaller enemies with his bow, while Alone has to finish them off on the ground with her wrench. 

You can also see Low put his bow to good use at the end of the trailer, saving Alone from the petrifying glare of Monster Baby. 

However, teamwork isn’t only about using items. It is also about clearing the way for your partner so they can help you move forward in turn. You’ll need to be proactive and take initiative for both of you to make it through. 

“The relationship between the two characters is very strong, and we were keen to explore that bond in the game. It is even more relevant when we see them working together to escape the many threats that make up the Nowhere”, mentioned Wayne Garland, Little Nightmares III Game Director at Supermassive Games.

New settings, faithful to Little Nightmares’ atmosphere

Teamwork is at the heart of the trailer, but it’s not the only new thing players will experience as they play through the game’s compelling story. By including co-op, we wanted to offer something fresh for the players, unique to Little Nightmares III, while retaining the beautifully disturbing atmosphere of the series. 

You’ll feel it in the new environments, which are full of mysteries and revelations. You’ll also find the same tension and suspense as these two charming new characters face even greater risks than before, searching for a glimmer of hope in a world filled with darkness.

Necropolis is a good example of a new type of location in the game. In spite of its abandoned state and warm desert colors, the city feels eerie and unsettling. Don’t be fooled by this windswept, brightly lit environment. Danger is everywhere, and Monster Baby is easily roused when new toys tumble into her crib… 

In the trailer, you can also spot a variety of other regions of the Nowhere, each one more unsettling than the last. Some of them might be reminiscent of places you might have explored in previous Little Nightmares games, like dank and gloomy vents and the gears and pistons of pitiless machinery. Some are more unfamiliar, like a rickety Ferris wheel, a shadowy circus tent, or a massive, complex clockwork mechanism. 

You’ll have to be patient before we can tell you more about these places and their inhabitants! More news about Little Nightmares III will be revealed in the near future, so stay together, little ones.

Little Nightmares III will be released in 2025 on PS5 and PS4.

Rubber Arm Bandit Misfits

Following on from it’s PlayStation, Xbox and Windows release One Piece Odyssey has finally shipped it’s way to the Nintendo Switch in the form of a Deluxe Edition but is it a Pirates life for you or a sunken ship better left in the depths? Read on to find out.

One Piece is a well established manga and anime series well known in Japan that follows a band of misfit adventurers, the stories are usually built on wackiness, humour and its storytelling. One Piece Odyssey is a game that follows that formula but envelopes it into a JRPG, with quests, turn based battles and a story that fans will pretty much fall in love with.

The story follows D. Luffy and his fellow band of pirates as they lose all of their power and fall deserted to an island. The games premise is set up quite well although the beginning of the game has you navigating small areas whilst a lot of tutorials play out with small segments of gameplay thrown in. You will almost obliterate all enemies that stand in your way before you are soon stripped of your powers by a local mysterious girl for the sole reason of that she hates pirates. Your characters shrug it off like Okay we will just get them back and then the adventure really begins. This sets the tone of what is to come as the game is very eccentric in all aspects and does not stop.

In the first hour of the game you may ask why these characters all have rubber arms and why is everyone so mismatched in the way they dress? Well this follows the popular manga stories that has been versed for some time now so if you are playing this game for the first time like me without any prior knowledge to the books it all feels odd but once you get past the initial crux of it all there is some fun in the game to be had.

As you navigate the world you will use your characters abilities to navigate such as using Luffies stretchy arms to reach across deep chasms, there are areas of interest and Items lying around either on the ground or in pots and other smashable objects. Enemies themselves can be seen on the map and you will approach them to initiate combat.

Combat takes place in a separate field to navigating and requires you to tactfully take out the enemies who are if not just as strange as the characters of One Piece Odyssey. The combat can also be jarring at first even for veteran JRPG players. Battles can have each character in a different area of the battle fighting different foes to that of your comrades however this is not really explained. Characters have an advantage over certain monsters that essentially plays like rock-paper-scissors. The three attack types are technique which beats power, power which beats speed and speed which beats technique. It’s a little confusing at first but at least the game tells you if your current character is strong against the monster that you’re up against. Switching out characters can see you overcome this advantage but allowing the team to come together in the battle is the overall goal. I would say that the early battles are relatively easy anyway so it gives you enough time to get used to this system and if you can’t then you can still breeze through the story. Battles also use a TP system, TP is a power that can be accumulated by attacking normally and then used to carry out special attacks, it can also carry over into future battles allowing you to easily build it up for the more bigger fights.

Character abilities are equally just as weird as the rest of One Piece. Nico Robin has a move where she literally causes manhood inducing pain, ouch! it didn’t really occur to me what was going on until I saw the crotch view of the camera which became apparent after a few times using it. Usopp has move where he flicks a rubber band which lands poorly on the ground in front of him but dishes out huge damage on the enemy. It makes no sense but with what we have already seen of the game then I think we can let it slide.

If you’re into the super weird wacky world of One Piece then this game may be just the thing. There are new features in the game which will alleviate you from the main story such as side quests and crafting but these are by no means a requirement. The game remains relatively easy and grind free. The characters themselves while vividly different all have their own personality and clearly different traits but are all very likeable.

The games sound and music is really superb and some of the music later differs in that it grand and orchestral and sets the tone. The game has an English language but unfortunately lacks an English dub so a lot of the humour may be lost in translation however it is still a blast to play.

Performance on the Switch so far has been really good and there have been no noticeable frame drops during docked and undocked mode, while the game is not remarkable graphically it is good enough, the game whilst vibrant, graphics have definitely been toned down for it’s Switch version but if you want the full experience that can be played on the go this may just be the best way to play One Piece Odyssey.

A Nintendo Switch review code was provided by Bandai Namco

The post Review – One Piece Odyssey Deluxe Edition (Switch) appeared first on GameHype.

A new update for Elden Ring has been released, bringing multiple balance adjustments and boosting Spirit Ashes.

Update 1.13 is now available for all platforms. However, localisation staff removed from the credits are still yet to be added in.

As previously reported by Eurogamer, some Latin American translation staff were removed from the credits with the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, differing from the base game.

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This is your friendly reminder that Microsoft is set to close its Xbox 360 digital store on 29th July – that's next Monday – so you have just a few days left to make the most of those last discounts on some of the best Xbox 360 games of the generation.

Microsoft announced a raft of discounts on Xbox 360 digital games back in May. Whilst some games will live on via other platforms and services – including Microsoft's comprehensive backwards compatibility system – there are a handful of games that will disappear from sale forever. So, if you've ever fancied one, now's the time to pick it up.

X user Kalyoshika has shared a list of the games/DLC that "will not survive", as well as "a couple of games that are going from cheap, easy-to-get digital copies", to "impossible-to-get, expensive, piracy only, jump-through-hoops to play".

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A new update for Elden Ring has been released, bringing multiple balance adjustments and boosting Spirit Ashes.

Update 1.13 is now available for all platforms. However, localisation staff removed from the credits are still yet to be added in.

As previously reported by Eurogamer, some Latin American translation staff were removed from the credits with the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, differing from the base game.

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This is your friendly reminder that Microsoft is set to close its Xbox 360 digital store on 29th July – that's next Monday – so you have just a few days left to make the most of those last discounts on some of the best Xbox 360 games of the generation.

Microsoft announced a raft of discounts on Xbox 360 digital games back in May. Whilst some games will live on via other platforms and services – including Microsoft's comprehensive backwards compatibility system – there are a handful of games that will disappear from sale forever. So, if you've ever fancied one, now's the time to pick it up.

X user Kalyoshika has shared a list of the games/DLC that "will not survive", as well as "a couple of games that are going from cheap, easy-to-get digital copies", to "impossible-to-get, expensive, piracy only, jump-through-hoops to play".

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Heihachi Mishima, the mustachioed malevolence of the Tekken series, is going to be the next DLC character for Tekken 8. He was last seen with his loving son Kazuya, who threw him into a volcano. Of course, to be fully submerged in impossibly hot liquid rock is merely a long-running family prank for the cast of this 3D fighting game, sort of like forcing your granddad to do the ice bucket challenge, but with lava. Nobody truly expected the horn-haired headbutter to be fully removed from the series. But I am a little surprised to see him back so soon.

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Heihachi Mishima, the mustachioed malevolence of the Tekken series, is going to be the next DLC character for Tekken 8. He was last seen with his loving son Kazuya, who threw him into a volcano. Of course, to be fully submerged in impossibly hot liquid rock is merely a long-running family prank for the cast of this 3D fighting game, sort of like forcing your granddad to do the ice bucket challenge, but with lava. Nobody truly expected the horn-haired headbutter to be fully removed from the series. But I am a little surprised to see him back so soon.

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The pre and post launch hype behind Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has been impossible to ignore, but has it managed to convince any of you 'never-Souls' players to finally give the game a try?

The oft-mention difficulty curve of the Souls series can be an instant turn off for some. I mean, what possible fun could there be in getting your Tarnished butt handed to you every 10 minutes or so? That sounds rubbish! But also, deep down, maybe you just can't shake that feeling that you might be missing out on something incredibly special?

That's how Maddie Cullen felt as she saw our internal chats about Shadow of the Erdtree, so she decided to test out whether or not following tips and guides could help her to embrace the pain and help her get into the game. Join Maddie as she documents her first few hours of the game to see if tips and guides are essential tools for a newcomer on the video player above or, if you'd prefer to watch it on YouTube, you'll find that embedded just below these words.

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With the release of DLC Shadow of the Erdtree, Elden Ring players are back to their old tricks by playing the game in weird and wonderful ways.

Take Twitch streamer Perrikaryal, who's already played the game with her mind and is now tackling Shadow of the Erdtree. Yes, you read that right.

Perrikaryal uses a bluetooth, portable EEG reader to analyse patterns of brain activity and, along with an eye-tracker, convert these to inputs. She then thinks about specific actions, which trigger rolls, attacks and the like in game - here's an explanation clip.

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Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco has "called out" Elden Ring fans struggling with the dfficulty by suggesting they "level up your Scadutree Blessing".

In a brief message posted on social media platform X, Bandai Namco US said simply: "This is a suggestion".

"The best advice coming straight from the source," said one Tarnished.

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I always get lost in games like Elden Ring and Dark Souls. The impossible architecture, the improbable geography and the way that the levels twist and turn and fold back in on themselves really muddles my head and stops me from being able to visualise the locations properly. Put me in those same places in VR though and suddenly, because it feels like I'm actually there, their spaces make so much more sense. The depth, the distance, the perspective, every visual trick that VR provides makes From's abstract scenery much easier for my brain to understand.

Not only that though, VR also allows me to appreciate the finer details of the game's assets. Little bits of stitching on a robe, the thin whisps of incense rising from a burner, these are things I'd just blunder right past without noticing in flat. Which leads me nicely to today's VR Corner, in which I take a leisurely trot around Elden Rings' Shadow of the Erdtree DLC in VR!

Thanks to the most recent update for Luke Ross' REAL VR mod, I was able to toggle on a 'tourism' mode and become invisible to all the enemies in the Lands of Shadow. That way I could really drink in the visuals and enjoy the scenery of Shadow of the Erdtree without worrying about getting a foot to the face from a Furnace Golem (until I turned tourism mode off specifically for that purpose!).

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Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has fallen to a "mixed" user rating on Steam after players logged their disappointment with difficulty and the PC version's performance issues.

An aggregate score of almost 15,000 players has seen the critically acclaimed DLC stumble on PC, and whilst most players comment favourably on the game's stunning presentation and world building, others take issue with the capped FPS, stuttering, and "bosses with jerky roll-catch movements and a plethora of physically nonsensical moves".

"I love running for 20 minutes in an open area with absolutely nothing to pick up random consumables that I'll never use against bosses that are insanely tedious to fight. Very miserable experience," said one unhappy Tarnished.

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Elden Ring pros are helping players beat two key bosses to enable fellow Tarnished access to its recently-released DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree.

As Shadow of the Erdtree isn't accessible until you've taken out both Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood – something a surprisingly high number of Elden Ring players have yet to do – Elden Ring experts are offering their time and expertise to fell the great enemies and help players jump into the new content.

As spotted by TheGamer, the r/BeyondTheFog subreddit – a community dedicated to "online multiplayer in the Elden Ring game" where you can "request help with a boss or area or offer help with bosses and areas" – is full of friendly Tarnished offering to lend a helping hand across PC, PS5, and Xbox.

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Update Sunday 23rd June, 2024: FromSoftware has responded to CD Projekt Red's congratulatory tweet, saying it is "truly an honour" for the Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree to be "placed alongside" The Witcher 3's Blood & Wine, long considered one of the greatest DLCs ever made.

In a response to CDPR's original X post, FromSoft said: "It is truly an honour to be placed alongside Blood and Wine, one of the all time greats.

"We are humbed by your kind words. Thank you."

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FromSoftware's Soulsborne games are notoriously difficult to beat, but creator Hidetaka Miyazaki has said it would "break the game itself" to turn down the challenge.

In an interview with The Guardian, Miyazaki discussed how high difficulty is not only creatively part of the game, but also has led to its success.

"If we really wanted the whole world to play the game, we could just crank the difficulty down more and more. But that wasn't the right approach," he said.

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I play Elden Ring like a Hoover. I explore the The Lands Between while hammering the button to acquire new materials. In all honesty, I've barely bothered with crafting unless I really need to, but all those leaves, stones, shards of bone, and strips of meat? They get sucked straight up into my inventory regardless.

But then I get a really great looking item. Maybe it's a new talisman, or an Ash of War. Maybe it's a really important story item with a description that's integral to the plot. But too late! It's already gone, lost in the black hole of my inventory, never to be found again. It's all very well finding an item while exploring, but finding it in your inventory is a whole game in itself.

Now, though, that's a problem of the past. FromSoftware has released an update for its iconic Souls adventure that's available for all alongside its Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree. It includes two new inventory features: a recent items tab, and exclamation marks above new items. They're game changers.

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With one hand FromSoftware giveth (a goat-horse in a more opportune location, for instance) and with the other it taketh away; Elden Ring's newly released 1.12 update has introduced a bug that can break things on Steam Deck - but FromSoftware says it's investigating.

As detailed on the developer's social media feed, leaving Elden Ring inactive for too long on Steam Deck renders the game unplayable in some instances - something you'll probably want to be mindful of if you need to wander off and punch something, or have a little cry.

"A Steam Deck related issue has been identified and a hotfix is being worked on," the studio wrote on X. "Leaving your Steam Deck inactive for more than five minutes may stop the game from accepting inputs. We apologise for inconvenience." For what it's worth, I left Elden Ring running for multiple five-minute windows in the interests of science and had no problem resuming each time - so it's possible this isn't an especially widespread issue.

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With Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC mere hours away from release, you might think there's not much FromSoftware could possibly do to refocus your excitement on the base game. But Elden Ring's previously promised new 1.12 update is now here, and it's already caused a bit of a flutter among fans - not least because it finally lets you take your trusty steed Torrent into the base game's concluding Elden Beast boss fight.

Now, I'll readily admit I haven't fought the Elden Beast myself - the short explanation being my wildly misguided decision to do a melee-only first run-through and, uh, Malenia - but even I'm aware of the boss' notoriety. Not due to its difficult, mind, but because it teleports itself around an arena so massive, players have frequently found the ensuing on-foot chase-the-monster action utterly exhausting. This Reddit thread from two years ago called it the "single worst designed boss" in Elden Ring, and, well, it's a fairly common opinion.

Plenty of people have speculated the Elden Beast was originally designed to be tackled on the back of Torrent given its cavernous arena - and wondered why everybody's favourite goat-horse wasn't accessible in the final release version - but, some two years on, he's finally here. "Added new feature to summon spectral steed during the Elden Beast boss battle", explains today's 1.12 patch notes - and the Elden Ring fanbase rises for thunderous applause.

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My first steps into the Shadow Realm are with bare feet and an empty head. After reaching out to Mohg's crusty egg, I materialise in a vast, rolling field dotted with ruins. In the distance is a dimmed, sickly twin of the Erdtree ringed by shadowy drapes. It takes a minute to remember my buttons, but I summon Torrent to sprint through the long grass like a dog being let off the leash, and almost immediately experience death from above – some gnarled freak just two-shot me into the dirt. It takes a while to get a rhythm going again, and sort out whatever I was trying to do with my NG+ build. I decide for the sake of efficiency to stick to my Moonveil/Carian Glintstone Staff setup, because one does not simply walk into a FromSoft DLC.

It takes more time to feel at home again, but soon I'm puncturing hearts and obliterating minds, executing small huddles of gibbering NPCs as they pray, finding ways to slip past hard-hitting knights. Everyone I meet is all about Miquella, and it's a lot, but such is the way of the cult. Miquella has left crosses scattered about the Shadow Realm for his devotees, to denote where he has shed parts of himself and his flesh; Jesus himself couldn't have pulled off this kind of postmodern brand campaign.

Eventually I find myself in the Specimen Storehouse, which is in many ways a classic convoluted FromSoft library/lab level, and perfectly in line with Elden Ring's weird fascination with eugenics and taxonomy. There are many artefacts here, including a preserved giant suspended face-down from the ceiling, a waistcloth draped over his rump. As soon as I see him, I am seized with wild Miquellan fervour and run behind him to write "hole ahead." I am the first to write this here; I am message-seeding for the most prominent hole in the game like an enterprising SEO writer. Later, as I'm about to get evaporated by a boss, my message gets a "like" that saves my life. We're so f***ing back.

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Elden Ring creator and FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki has said mass layoffs won't happen at the studio "as long as this company is my responsibility".

Speaking to PC Gamer, Miyazaki discussed layoffs across the games industry, in particular the number of studios being closed under Embracer.

"Speaking to myself and this company, I want to say that this is not something I would wish on the staff at FromSoftware in a million years," said Miyazaki. "I'm pretty sure our parent company Kadokawa understands that and shares that view."

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Fallout has seen a renewed spike in popularity following the release of Amazon's TV adaptation. However, despite this, Bethesda doesn't feel under pressure to rush a new game out to placate fans.

Speaking with YouTuber MrMattyPlays, Todd Howard acknowledged that the Fallout series is probably at its most popular, with the franchise boasting some record player numbers over recent months. Howard went on to state the studio gives "a lot of thought to franchise management" when questioned specifically about the future of Fallout as a whole.

"I spend a lot of time thinking about franchises I love... so, for us, it is sort of game planning out - number one, making sure Fallout is relevant in the world, and well, I think, clearly it is," the studio exec said.

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One of those rare clarifying moments in my life came when I was told that the whale in Moby Dick didn't symbolise anything. Or rather, it didn't symbolise any one single thing in a fixed and coherent way. The whale might symbolise a handful of things, and those things might contradict one another and you'd just have to live with it. Also the whale was simultaneously a whale - no just or merely a whale, because there is never anything "mere" to be had when a whale is involved.

This was a brilliant thing to learn, and I still think about it often. Symbolism and things like that were very exciting when I was first learning about art and literature, but the danger, I guess, is that they become binary, a kind of substitution cypher. If the whale is a single thing, then Moby Dick is a puzzle that can be solved and we can all move on to other things. But it's not a single thing. It contains multitudes, to borrow a handy phrase from a contemporary of Melville. This frees it and sets it loose in the wild oceans of the mind. It is forever a thing of inference and speculation, of contradiction and dark wonder.

I may have written about this before. No bother. At the moment, anyway, these thoughts very much remind me of Elden Ring, which is getting a DLC this week in the shape of Shadow of the Erdtree. Inference and speculation, contradiction and dark wonder. I have my own relationship with Elden Ring, as I do with almost all FromSoftware games. I have played them a bit, some of them really quite a bit, and always enthusiastically. And then I have inevitably stalled on a skill issue or a simple matter of cognitive overload: too many threads to keep track of, so when I step away for a week or two, further progress becomes unthinkable. But this is only part of my relationship with these games, and it may actually be the weaker part. I love FromSoftware stuff and I think I love it passionately. I just love to talk about it, think about it, and most of all hear about it.

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Lords of the Fallen publisher CI Games is gearing up to release a sequel in 2026.

The announcement comes from a filing from CI Games, shared by Polish site Bankier, which also confirms Epic will have the exclusive worldwide distribution rights to the sequel on PC.

Elsewhere, the rights to publish and distribute the game worldwide "on all other platforms, including the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S platforms for which the game is currently in development, will remain with the company".

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Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree is out soon, and in anticipation developer FromSoftware has asked that people are considerate with what they post on social media to avoid any spoilers.

Greeting its many Tarnished players (it was recently announced Elden Ring has now shipped 25m units worldwide) the team wrote: "With the release of the expansion of Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree, please be mindful of spoilers for those who want to tread into the Realm of Shadow with nothing but their determination and their minds unclouded."

It closed its post on X by preemptively thanking the Elden Ring community for their cooperation on this.

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Elden Ring creator Hidetaka Miyazaki is "still in the process" of creating his "ideal fantasy RPG", despite the huge success of the game and the previous Souls games.

When interviewed by PC Gamer, Miyazaki discussed the influence of tabletop games on his work. "You might say that trying to capture that excitement of those old tabletop games and game books was one facet of making Elden Ring," he said.

"But I think more than anything it's just my personal preference when it comes to RPGs and exploring fantasy worlds, so you might see some of my personal idiosyncrasies come into play. I'm still in the process of making my ideal fantasy RPG. While Elden Ring is not quite it, it's pretty close. It's getting close."

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Among Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree's more fearsome bosses is the Dancing Lion, a festive prancing terror inspired by Chinese Lion dances. Looking at it, you might expect this costumed nuisance to be another grafted abomination, its layers of papier-mache, binbags and repurposed carpets hiding a rippling quilt of flesh and bone, perhaps a real lion that has been shaved and stitched to its theatrical double. The truth is more appalling still: it's just two guys in a lion suit. They aren't even sewn together mouth to backside, like in the Human Centipede. Way to bait-and-switch, From!

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Despite an overwhelmingly strong reception with critics, Shadow Of The Erdtree is currently sitting at a ‘mixed’ review rating on Steam, with nay-sayers citing performance issues and overbearing enemy design. The Elden Ring DLC is currently metacritic’s highest rated expansion of all time at 95, beating out the The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Blood And Wine’s 92. However, roughly a third of the 41,000 user reviews on Steam are negative.

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After years of anticipation, Elden Ring’s first - and only - expansion Shadow of the Erdtree is finally out as of today. While there are plenty of intriguing secrets hiding in the new corner (it’s a big corner) of the Lands Between, Steam Deck players might stumble upon a not-so-welcome new discovery too, courtesy of a bug that can make your game unresponsive.

Read more

Update: Whelp, spoke too soon. Apparently some Steam Deck players are seeing an "Innapropriate activity detected" message upon launching Elden Ring, blocking them from playing online. I haven't had this myself, and some have reported the issue fixing itself after they installed the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, but hopefully there's a proper patch in the works.

Elden Ring on the Steam Deck has long enjoyed a smoothness that desktop play has lacked. Not so much in simple framerate terms – the handheld spends far more time around the 30fps mark than it does bumping into Elden Ring’s 60fps cap – but thanks to a Proton compatibility update back in 2022, it’s drastically less prone to the flow-breaking stutter that still plagues the RPG in 2024. That now goes for Shadow Of The Erdtree as well, judging from my portable time in the new expansion.

Read more

I realised recently that a juicy subject for another Should You Bother With has been staring me in the face – or rather, I’ve been staring at it. Ultrawide gaming monitors have clearly avoided non-starter status, given they’ve been around for years, seemingly being exchanged for currency – and yet they’re nowhere near what you might consider the 'default' option when making a display upgrade. Regular widescreen monitors, with regular 16:9 aspect ratios, remain the go-to. So why switch?

Read more

We’re less than a day now from Shadow Of The Erdtree’s launch, and as promised, FromSoft have just released the latest patch (notes here) for the open world game. It’s only 6GB, and you’ll need it to play the expansion, so do click that button if you haven’t already. The updates headline features - new hairstyles, plus inventory and summoning QOL tweaks - were announced last week. However, it seems they buried the lede deeper than my disgust at the game’s Albinuaric murdering community: Torrent, the game’s spectral steed mount, is finally summonable in the fight against the final boss - just as the community have long speculated it was always intended to be.

Spoilers for the name of that boss below, if you’d rather not know.

Read more

Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree has finally been released on PC, adding a fat, rancid helping of open world role-playing to an open world RPG of already trouser-wetting, skirt-soiling scale and hazard. You can find this "first and last" Elden Ring DLC expansion on Steam, the Xbox Store and in the suppurating depths of your very worst nightmares. Am I overdoing it yet? No matter. Let's press on.

Read more

With Shadow Of The Erdtree about to launch this week, From Software president Hidetaka Miyazaki has been doing a round of interviews discussing next steps for the venerated action-RPG developer, or at least, hinting at them in the manner of a Dark Souls NPC suggesting that you might want to have a poke around New Anor Londo. In one such chat, Miyazaki strays perilously close to airing the "themes or core elements" of whatever game or games FromSoftware are working on post-Elden Ring, commenting that he has been inspired, albeit perhaps in a "short-term way", by the experience of having a daughter.

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I'd been in Paris to see open world action-RPG Shadow Of The Erdtree early and when I got back, Edwin messaged me. He asked whether I thought it was big enough to consider the DLC a pseudo-sequel, and at the time I said something along the lines of, "It's hefty, but I think that's probably pushing it".

I was wrong. The Land Of Shadow may not be as expansive as the base game's Lands Between, but it's knottier, denser, more of a twisting mass that burrows into the earth and soars into the skies. For this reason I think it produces some of Elden Ring's finest moments, as exploration leads to a truer sense of discovery reminiscent of old Souls. But I also think its sheer density exposes more chinks in its open world format, where its interconnected sprawl leads to even greater recollection paralysis.

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Remember Lords of the Fallen? No, not that one. This one. Last year’s reboot of the 2014 game of exactly the same name - despite the successor originally being a numbered sequel, then at least having a ‘The’ at the start of its title to help tell them apart a little - will now get its own follow-up in a third Lords of the Fallen game. The upcoming sequel doesn’t have a name yet, but I really hope they stick with the bit and just call it “Lords of the Fallen” again.

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This once verdant ground is now wrecked by the passage of time. My terrible nemesis looms before me, inevitable and devastating. Many have fallen to it, but I will overcome. Oh, Elden Ring? I was talking about male pattern baldness. It will eventually destroy all that was once beautiful about my hairline, but at least I’ll have five fancy new hairdos to pick from when the open world RPG’s newest free update releases this Thursday, 20th of June. There’s also some QOL tweaks to inventory management and summoning pools, but I can’t wear those, can I?

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Shadow Of The Erdtree is out in under 10 days, but some players must be in for a surprise if they expect to be able to jump in straight away. As it turns out, most players on Steam haven’t even progressed far enough in the original game to access the DLC - something publishers Bandai Namco have now issued a friendly FYI about.

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Among Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree's more fearsome bosses is the Dancing Lion, a festive prancing terror inspired by Chinese Lion dances. Looking at it, you might expect this costumed nuisance to be another grafted abomination, its layers of papier-mache, binbags and repurposed carpets hiding a rippling quilt of flesh and bone, perhaps a real lion that has been shaved and stitched to its theatrical double. The truth is more appalling still: it's just two guys in a lion suit. They aren't even sewn together mouth to backside, like in the Human Centipede. Way to bait-and-switch, From!

Read more

Despite an overwhelmingly strong reception with critics, Shadow Of The Erdtree is currently sitting at a ‘mixed’ review rating on Steam, with nay-sayers citing performance issues and overbearing enemy design. The Elden Ring DLC is currently metacritic’s highest rated expansion of all time at 95, beating out the The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Blood And Wine’s 92. However, roughly a third of the 41,000 user reviews on Steam are negative.

Read more

After years of anticipation, Elden Ring’s first - and only - expansion Shadow of the Erdtree is finally out as of today. While there are plenty of intriguing secrets hiding in the new corner (it’s a big corner) of the Lands Between, Steam Deck players might stumble upon a not-so-welcome new discovery too, courtesy of a bug that can make your game unresponsive.

Read more

Update: Whelp, spoke too soon. Apparently some Steam Deck players are seeing an "Innapropriate activity detected" message upon launching Elden Ring, blocking them from playing online. I haven't had this myself, and some have reported the issue fixing itself after they installed the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, but hopefully there's a proper patch in the works.

Elden Ring on the Steam Deck has long enjoyed a smoothness that desktop play has lacked. Not so much in simple framerate terms – the handheld spends far more time around the 30fps mark than it does bumping into Elden Ring’s 60fps cap – but thanks to a Proton compatibility update back in 2022, it’s drastically less prone to the flow-breaking stutter that still plagues the RPG in 2024. That now goes for Shadow Of The Erdtree as well, judging from my portable time in the new expansion.

Read more

I realised recently that a juicy subject for another Should You Bother With has been staring me in the face – or rather, I’ve been staring at it. Ultrawide gaming monitors have clearly avoided non-starter status, given they’ve been around for years, seemingly being exchanged for currency – and yet they’re nowhere near what you might consider the 'default' option when making a display upgrade. Regular widescreen monitors, with regular 16:9 aspect ratios, remain the go-to. So why switch?

Read more

We’re less than a day now from Shadow Of The Erdtree’s launch, and as promised, FromSoft have just released the latest patch (notes here) for the open world game. It’s only 6GB, and you’ll need it to play the expansion, so do click that button if you haven’t already. The updates headline features - new hairstyles, plus inventory and summoning QOL tweaks - were announced last week. However, it seems they buried the lede deeper than my disgust at the game’s Albinuaric murdering community: Torrent, the game’s spectral steed mount, is finally summonable in the fight against the final boss - just as the community have long speculated it was always intended to be.

Spoilers for the name of that boss below, if you’d rather not know.

Read more

Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree has finally been released on PC, adding a fat, rancid helping of open world role-playing to an open world RPG of already trouser-wetting, skirt-soiling scale and hazard. You can find this "first and last" Elden Ring DLC expansion on Steam, the Xbox Store and in the suppurating depths of your very worst nightmares. Am I overdoing it yet? No matter. Let's press on.

Read more