If you’ve been following the development of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond since its initial announcement in 2017, then chances are you’ve heard the name ‘Sylux’ mentioned in passing along the way.
If you’re not completely up-to-date on your Metroid Prime history (and not everyone is, that’s okay), then you might not know who this enigmatic bounty hunter is. Given that it shows up at the end of the latest gameplay trailer for Beyond, however, it’s clear that Sylux is due to play a pretty prominent role in Retro Studio’s upcoming FPS.
After a long wait, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree launches tomorrow on PS5 and PS4. With a massive new world to explore, weapons to be found, skills to master and, of course, bosses to face, FromSoftware’s latest expansion could seem like a daunting undertaking. But fear not, Tarnished, as our tips – spoiler-free and covering the first few hours – will help set you on the right path. To begin, a crucial step: what’s required to enter the Shadow Realm.
Entering the Shadow Realm
If you’ve ever played a FromSoftware expansion, you’ll know that gaining access is never a straightforward process. Shadow of the Erdtree continues this tradition. In order to enter the Shadow Realm, you’ll need to complete a few tasks in the base game.
On your journey through the Lands Between, you’ll firstly need to have defeated Starscourge Radahn, a notoriously challenging boss. To face him, traverse Redmane Castle in Caelid during the Radahn Festival and take the elevator down to fight him on the beach.
You’ll also have to have bested Mohg, Lord of Blood. He can be found at Mohgwyn Palace, reached by following Varré’s questline or using a Waygate hidden in the Consecrated Snowfield. Mohg is known for being a particularly tough fight, but other Tarnished have been setting up summon spots next to the battle to help shepherd fighters through and open the DLC.
At the back of the Mohg boss arena you’ll discover Miquella’s cocoon. If both foes have been conquered (and expansion downloaded) a new interaction option will appear when you stand by the cocoon. Accept, and you’ll enter the Shadow Realm and begin your journey into the Shadow of the Erdtree.
Navigating the world
If you put dozens of hours into Elden Ring’s base game, it’s easy to forget that you originally had to collect map fragments in order to build up a picture of the world around you. In Shadow of the Erdtree, this feature returns, meaning when you first enter the Shadow Realm, your map will be blacked out, with one exception; a single bright spot somewhere in the darkness.
One of your first objectives should be to navigate to this point, where you will find a map fragment beneath a tall obelisk. Collecting this will reveal the region’s map, but be warned — Shadow of the Erdtree’s world design uses verticality on a scale unlike almost anything seen in the Lands Between, meaning there is still so much more to be discovered – both above and below – what the map can show you.
This world is dense with secrets, so be sure to explore every nook and cranny. You’ll no doubt be rewarded with weapons, spells and items for your effort.
Making friends and enemies
The starting area of the Shadow Realm is full of friendly (and not-so-friendly) characters who can help fill you in on the story, point you in the direction of hidden areas, send you on missions or challenge you to a duel.
You’ll come meet warriors, tribesmen, worshipers and devotees among others within your first hour or so of gameplay. Speaking to them, bringing them items they require, or taking the correct action in front of them can help progress their story arc within the overall narrative. And of course, they may reward you with items, join you as companions in battle and more.
Using Shadow Realm Blessings
While you can still level up your character as before, within the Shadow Realm, character progression comes in the form of special blessings. Two new consumables, Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes, can be found around the world and used at a Site of Grace to buff your character and their skills, so seeking them out during your first few hours is a worthwhile endeavor.
Scadutree Fragments: These increase both damage negation and attack power for your character, meaning you receive less damage from enemy attacks and deal more with your own.
Revered Spirit Ashes: These have a similar purpose but apply to your Spirit Ashes, granting your summons more survivability and power, so you can beef up your Mimic Tear or Black Knife Tiche before facing that next boss. (Other Spirit Ashes are available…)
Note that both of these special blessings only apply to the Shadow Realm, and therefore will have no effect in the base game.
Managing new discoveries
Like all FromSoftware games, Elden Ring is chock-full of items and consumables, some useful, others mysterious. Alongside Shadow of the Erdtree, Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team have introduced a new quality of life feature that allows you to more easily explore the recent commodities you’ve discovered on your adventure.
This new feature, which is turned off as standard, will highlight new pick-ups with a “!” in your inventory, making it easier to survey your collection. It also offers an optional Recent Items Tab, where everything you’ve found recently is collated into one easy-to-understand menu. Both of these features make it simpler to uncover the use of the many new items in Shadow of the Erdtree, but the choice of whether to use them or the original system is entirely yours.
If you wish to turn these features on, they can be found under the Display section of the Settings menu. Here you can turn on either Mark New Items or Show Recent Items Tab, or use both together.
These tips should help you enter the Shadow Realm and make smooth progress during your first few hours. But there is still so much to be discovered when Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree launches tomorrow, June 21.
The newest trailer for The Alters has Jans asking himself, “What if?” about his life – a question we as players will get to see the answers to in 11 Bit Studios’ upcoming survival game in which you’ll pull in alternate-dimension versions of yourself (Jans) in order to try and survive a hostile mining planet. Watch it above, and you can see more about how the branching narrative will work in the video below.
We’ve been covering The Alters exclusively all June long as part of our IGN First editorial “cover story” initiative. We kicked off the month by announcing the playable demo before showing you exclusive footage from that demo before it dropped, and then posted the branching narrative explainer video below. You can also read our recent hands-on preview of The Alters.
Wishlist The Alters on Steam if you’re interested. We also have more exclusive IGN First coverage on The Alters coming next week to close out the month of June, so stay tuned!
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
A phoenix is a mythological firebird that is periodically reborn from its own ashes, a symbol of cyclical renewal. It’s also, according to several former employees of Chorus developers Fishlabs in Hamburg, an internal title for the massive cost-cutting project begun by Swedish conglomerate Embracer Group in June 2023.
The current incarnation of a bewildering series of mergers, renamings and acquisitions that date back to the founding of Nordic Games in 2004, Embracer have spent much of the past decade buying up video game studios and licenses, from Deus Ex developers Eidos Montreal to the adaptation rights for The Lords Of The Rings. According to a February 2023 earnings report, by the end of December 2022 the conglomerate had 134 internal studios on the books (including table-top developers) and owned or controlled over 850 IPs, with 224 games in development. Our Graham warned of the perils of such consolidation in 2019, and his misgivings have been borne out. Following the reported collapse of a billion dollar Savvy Games investment deal, Embracer set out to recover their debts by cancelling projects, laying off staff and closing whole studios. Fishlabs – acquired by Embracer in 2018 alongside their parent company Koch Media, nowadays Plaion – were among those burned by “Project Phoenix”, first losing a dozen people in September 2023, and then around half their remaining workforce in November. In the process of these reductions, Embracer also binned off two video game projects – a sumptuous sci-fi metroidvania that was in full development, and a “visual prototype” for a brand new Red Faction game.
Steam Deck users looking forward to the release of Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdtree tomorrow, June 21, 2024, may grow a tad concerned to realize the latest patch 1.12 includes a bug which can make the entire game inoperable.
FromSoftware revealed on X/Twitter it is working to fix an issue on Valve’s handheld PC where inputs stop working if the game is left inactive for more than five minutes. Unfortunately for Steam Deck players, FromSoftware said “the date and time of the hotfix will be announced separately,” suggesting it won’t be released in time for Shadow of the Erdtree launching.
“A Steam Deck related issue has been identified and a hotfix is being worked on,” FromSoftware said. “Leaving your Steam Deck inactive for more than five minutes may stop the game from accepting inputs. We apologize for inconvenience.”
Leaving your Steam Deck inactive for more than five minutes may stop the game from accepting inputs.
Thankfully the issue isn’t too game-breaking as long as players don’t step away from Elden Ring for more than a few minutes, but it will likely lead to a few frustrating moments for those who forget or aren’t aware of the problem.
A hard reset will presumably be required in these instances, but doing so for Elden Ring, as is the case with previous FromSoftware games such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne, poses a chance of save data corruption.
The odds of this happening are slim, but FromSoftware games insist players officially quit from the main menu instead of closing them outright. Not doing so, regardless of whether the player quits intentionally, their system crashes, or a bug like this Steam Deck issue stop them from logging out proper, poses a slight risk of data corruption.
The changes come just in time for Shadow of the Erdtree, but accessing the DLC isn’t as simple as installing the update and selecting it on a menu. Players must instead tick off a handful of obscure feats beforehand, including beating an optional boss.
“Like the base game did before it, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree raises the bar for single player expansions,” we said. “It takes everything that made the base game such a landmark RPG, condenses it into a relatively compact 20-25 hour campaign, and provides fantastic new challenges for heavily invested fans to chew on.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
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?
Microsoft has announced plans to return to gamescom this year with what it says is its biggest booth ever at the German games show.
Gamescom 2024, which runs from August 21-25, will see Xbox maker Microsoft showcase the likes of Obsidian’s Avowed, Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76, and Blizzard’s Diablo 4 expansion Vessel of Hatred and World of Warcraft expansion The War Within. It is Blizzard’s first gamescom following Microsoft’s $69 billion aquisition of Activision Blizzard last year.
Sony and Nintendo, meanwhile, have confirmed they are skipping gamescom 2024. Sony told Eurogamer it has no plans for the show, and Nintendo confirmed the same back in April.
While Sony’s decision was expected (it hasn’t attended gamescom in years), Nintendo’s decision came as something of a surprise given it has turned up at gamescom in recent years. But given the Nintendo Switch successor console isn’t due out until 2025, a quieter 2024 makes sense.
Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo outlined what to expect from PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch respectively during each company’s summer showcase: Sony’s got Astro Bot, Lego Horizon Adventures, and Concord due out in 2024; Microsoft has Avowed, Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, and World of Warcraft: The War Within; and Nintendo has The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Mario & Luigi: Brothership, and, creeping into early 2025, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
These days, roguelites and deckbuilders are a dime a dozen, but it seems like developers are finding ways to get creative with the genre mechanics to produce something that sticks out from the glut of releases these past several years. Dicefolk offers one such creative take on the roguelite formula, mixing in a dash of Pokémon-esque monster catching as part of its unique approach. Those who love deckbuilders will find tons to appreciate here, as it builds around an addictive and strategically in-depth combat system that’ll keep you constantly coming back for one more run.
Dicefolk’s story is pretty basic. A girl named Alea, a member of the titular folk, discovers she can use her powers to tame and befriend powerful creatures called chimeras which roam the land. Using this newfound ability, Alea sets out on a quest to battle an evil wizard who was sealed away years ago, hoping to stymie his dark influence and bring peace to the world. Those of you looking for a lot of narrative elements in a roguelite may be disappointed at the relatively thin worldbuilding and plot here, but we didn’t feel that the lack of a strong storyline took away much from the core monster battling.
Armed with a bouncy grapple hook and an arsenal of guns, swing your way through desolate landscapes in Rusted Moss, an action-packed metroidvania with complex and powerful movement, where the only limit is your creativity and skill.
In this bittersweet tale, humans are at war with the cold and capricious fairies who have invaded their rusting world. You play as Fern, a changeling determined to put an end to the war. Uncover forgotten tales and pick a side – fae or human? The world of Rusted Moss is inspired by our love of English folktales, which portray fairies as malevolent tricksters rather than gentle beings.
Traversal is physics-based and designed to be mastered. Aside from the grappling hook, players can use juicy gun recoil to boost their momentum (think classic FPS action – rocket jumping and bunny hopping).
Gameplay might seem diabolical due to its complexity – players will juggle a physics-based grappling hook with a variety of guns – but Rusted Moss has one of the most powerful traversal mechanics in any metroidvania. A player can break our game so long as they have the skill, determination, and creativity to do so.
Developed by my friend (Emlise), my sister (Sunnydaze), and me (Happysquared), we wanted to create an uncompromising game that prizes player skill and exploration. Rusted Moss is truly nonlinear. Unlocking new regions does not depend on discovering a “key” or getting a new ability. Instead, progression in Rusted Moss is determined by a player’s creativity and capability.
In one platforming challenge, five players each found a different solution!
Did we design that challenge to be solved in five different ways? Not at all. We didn’t design our puzzles to have an “intended” solution. We wanted to encourage players to “break” our game and show us moves we didn’t even consider during Rusted Moss’ development. The open level design, combined with the physics-based movement and momentum, is the perfect playground for players to express their creativity and skill.
We also didn’t want to limit our game to just our vision of how it should be played. Before Rusted Moss’ release, the QA team found a bug that gave players an unintentional movement ability we found hilarious. We decided to keep it in. We hope that perceptive players who discover it get as much joy out of it as we did; it’s a feature, not a bug!
We’ve also included highly customisable accessibility options so players can make the game easier (or harder!). Though we developed Rusted Moss’ default settings to match our own tastes, we really didn’t want to stifle the way some players might prefer to experience our game.
Along with the Xbox release, Rusted Moss is getting 7-8 hours(!) of additional content. Much harder content. It is funny to think about because Emlise had no plans to develop Rusted Moss into a game because she felt its grappling hook would be too difficult for players to grasp (we ended up having to peer pressure her into actually making Rusted Moss). In fact, during the development of Rusted Moss’ base content she had made an extremely difficult challenge course that was cut as it was extremely difficult. However, our playerbase has exceeded all expectations: due to popular demand, this area will be an optional challenge in our major update.
So if there’s anybody raging at that content, please blame our players and not us.
The Xbox release and update will also include a boss rush mode, two new areas of more reasonable difficulty (for the not insane players), and an unlockable playable character! All of this adds seven to eight more hours of additional gameplay.
We worked hard on this update and hope you enjoy it!
[Metroidvania with a Physics-Based Grapple]
This metroidvania utilizes your grapple and weapons with a full 360° aiming system. The freedom created by these controls creates a smooth experience for users to feel in complete control of their character. Find creative solutions to flexible traversal challenges, and blast away witches and machinery with precise aiming.
[Now for the Hook…]
The grappling hook is hard to learn yet rewarding to master. This unique physics-based elastic grappling hook uses your kinetic momentum to propel your character forward. Similar to rock climbing, there’s no set path through this melancholic abandoned wasteland. Latch onto any moss covered structure and swing your way through this rugged terrain.
[Shotgun blasts, Precision shots, Rocket jumps!]
No more aiming in just 8 directions. As a twin-stick shooter, Rusted Moss emphasizes tight and precise gunplay. Quickly switch between your arsenal of weapons to best suit your playstyle and situation. Get up close and personal with a shotgun before grappling away and pulling out a sniper for the killing blow!
[Boss fights!]
Push your gunplay and grappling hook skills to their limits! From powerful witches to machine monstrosities, each boss fight throws its own unique challenge at you. Dodge swords, avoid energy fields, and blast away at conjured spiders.
[Story]
Journey across desolate landscapes drenched in melancholy; witness the remnants of humanity and their rusting iron inventions… Humanity is on the brink of collapse and will soon be invaded by faeries. In a desperate bid to survive, humans have empowered their own witches with stolen fae magic.
But all is not lost, as the humans were deceived – for one of their own is not what she seems. The fae have stolen a human baby, and replaced it with something else…
Raised by unsuspecting human parents, Fern is a changeling whose true loyalties have emerged. Alongside a mysterious shadow named Puck, she sets off on a journey to return fae to the world and end the Age of Men.
