Author: Game Infliction

Stellar Blade director and producer Kim Hyung Tae reportedly “fully supports” mods and is looking forward to trying them out.

According to several sources, Kim was reportedly asked about his stance on modding at a recent press conference in Yeouido, South Korea. “First of all, I fully support the phenomenon of players using mods. In fact, I myself also want to try out some of the more exciting mods,” he replied.

“I look forward to seeing many players create their own mods and engaging in healthy competition with them to see whose mods are more attractive. I also hope that more players can get involved in mod creation.”

Which is just as well, really, as the game isn’t even out on PC yet, and already there are dozens of mods listed on Nexus for the PC demo, covering everything from new skins to reshaders and VR to nail polish. There are also several more hidden carefully from public display and categorized as “adult.” Let’s leave it at that, shall we?

IGN’s Stellar Blade review returned a 7/10. We said: “Stellar Blade is great in all of the most important ways for an action game, but dull characters, a lackluster story, and several frustrating elements of its RPG mechanics prevent it from soaring along with the best of the genre.”

The PC version of Stellar Blade launches via Steam on June 11 along with a raft of PC-specific features, including AI upscaling via Nvidia DLSS 4 and AMD FSR 3, an unlocked framerate, Japanese and Chinese voiceover, ultrawide display support, higher resolution environment textures, and DualSense support for haptic feedback and trigger effects. It was originally region locked in 100+ countries, but is now available to pre-order on PC in “over 250 regions.” And no, there is no Stellar Blade multiplayer mod… but there are signs of multiplayer in the game files.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Private servers are coming to Dune: Awakening, albeit with “concessions” to ensure players retain the large-scale aspects of multiplayer worlds.

Developer Funcom confirmed the news in an update posted to the Steam store page, revealing “rentable private servers” will be available from the moment the game goes live for “head start” (read: early access) players on Thursday, June 5.

“We’ve previously communicated that private servers are for post-launch, but we’re happy to share that progress has been faster than expected,” the team said. “We do, however, want to manage expectations about how private servers work in Dune: Awakening. As you know, this is not your typical survival game.”

Each server will belong to a World consisting of “several other servers,” all of which will share the same social hubs and Deep Desert. Funcom said that by doing this, it’ll help retain a “neighbourhood-like feel.”

“We decided early on that we did not want to remove the large-scale multiplayer aspects of the game as that is such a crucial part of the Dune: Awakening experience, and the game’s content and mechanics are deeply rooted in this setup,” the update explained.

“That meant we had to make some concessions in terms of how much control players have over their private servers. The result is a model where you have fewer settings available than you would in some other survival games such as Conan Exiles.”

So if you decide to rent a private server, you’ll have one Hagga Basin, just like the official server, and belong to a World of other private servers (and you’ll be able to pick which one when signing up). You will not be able to rent or control social hubs or the Deep Desert, but you can still “take full advantage of Dune: Awakening’s large-scale multiplayer content and mechanics.”

Enough of what you don’t get — what about what you do get if you rent a private server? Funcom said you’ll be able to disable security zones entirely, “making all parts of Hagga Basin PvP enabled,” or you can have pockets of PvP, much like the official servers. You can also disable taxation and sandstorms, as well as name your server and set a password for it. Private server owners can also visit other World servers if they know the password and even claim land (something you can’t even do on the official servers).

“Enabling private servers for Dune: Awakening has not been trivial considering our unique large-scale multiplayer setup, and it was important to us to retain the fundamental MMO-like gameplay that makes Dune: Awakening so unique,” the team concluded. “That means it does come with some restrictions on how you can configure them compared to some other survival games such as Conan Exiles.

“But we hope that this service will still be meaningful to those of you who prefer to play on servers you do not have to share with others, and we hope that the shared World structure will add an extra dimension without taking away from the unique content and mechanics that makes Dune: Awakening what it is.”

“As a longtime fan of Dune, it also just feels so good to explore and learn more about a world that I’m quite fond of, and Funcom has clearly put a ton of effort into worldbuilding and lore, even despite taking quite a bit of creative liberty by placing Awakening within a parallel reality and canon than the books/movies,” we wrote in IGN’s Dune: Awakening closed beta impressions preview.

“There are little details that have a massive impact on gameplay. I won’t go into spoilers, but this kind of attention to detail touches just about every aspect of the world, including the factions and characters you meet along the way, which should be a treat for any fan of the setting.”

Dune: Awakening is set to release on June 10, 2025, on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S after a three-week delay to fix issues identified during its beta testing. Players with a “head start,” however, get to play five days early, from June 5. For more, check out details on the MMO’s business model and post-launch plans. We’ve also got the global release time schedule for Dune: Awakening right here for you, too.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Kojima Productions recently announced that VTuber Usada Pekora will be making a guest appearance in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. However, this surprise cameo seems to have ruffled the feathers of some rather vocal Japanese Death Stranding fans on social media, some of whom are now proclaiming that they won’t buy the game anymore.

Usada Pekora is a Hololive VTuber whose carrot-loving avatar is an anime girl with rabbit ears. As well as singing, she often streams games and has recently been playing Elden Ring: Nightreign. Fitting with her hungry, mischievous rabbit girl avatar, she is known for frequently adding the made-up word “peko” into her sentences (which probably comes from the casual Japanese expression “pekopeko,” which means “very hungry”).

As seen in Kojima Productions’ video below, Pekora will appear as a hologram in Death Stranding 2, calling out greetings to Sam and thanking him for his hard work (she says “otsupeko deshita” instead of the actual Japanese phrase “otsukaresama deshita”).

新たな繋がりを確認🐰#DeathStranding2 #デススト2 pic.twitter.com/Xy5lsFS2FK

— KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (@KojiPro2015) May 29, 2025

Some Japanese fans reacted strongly to the announcement of Usada Pekora’s cameo, with some commenters on X saying “I won’t buy Death Stranding 2 now.” Others elaborated on their reasons. “Death Stranding 2 is done for. When a game I planned to buy gets treated like this, I definitely won’t buy it,” said one user. “Stop pandering to VTubers. I won’t buy it now,” added another. It could be that these users find the VTuber and her affected speech annoying, or feel that Pekora doesn’t match Death Stranding’s more serious tone. In response, defenders have been giving equally terse replies such as, “Then don’t buy it then!” and, “If you are not going to buy DS2 just because Pekora is in it, then don’t!”

This is not the first time that Usada Pekora and Hideo Kojima have crossed paths. As reported by Denfaminicogamer, Pekora visited Kojima Productions back in August last year, posing with Kojima for the obligatory snap in front of Ludens.

兎田ぺこらさんと🐇 pic.twitter.com/S0JuGcBqVe

— 小島秀夫 (@Kojima_Hideo) August 30, 2024

Players familiar with Kojima’s work will know that his past games feature many unexpected crossovers, Easter eggs and bizarre elements. These include fourth wall-breaking mentions of other games, as well as the inclusion of real-life products and people (creepy developer “ghosts” in MGS2, anyone?). Metal Gear Solid 3 introduced the Kerotan frog character and featured the real-life Japanese snack Calorie Mate, both things that technically don’t match its 60s jungle setting — not to mention the Ape Escape monkeys that pop up in Snake Vs. Monkey.

Even the first Death Stranding got Horizon: Zero Dawn-themed holograms, with the PC version getting even more crossover references to other games (Half Life, Portal, and Cyberpunk 2077) in the form of items. With Kojima’s penchant for putting all kinds of references and crossovers into his games, it seems likely that Usada Pekora will be one of many that players can discover in Death Stranding 2 when it releases on June 26.

Earlier this week, we reported on Death Stranding 2: On the Beach‘s ESRB rating, which suggests players will be able to use an unconventional melee weapon. Hideo Kojima is also working on a live-action Death Stranding film with A24, and we recently learned that a Death Stranding anime is also in the works. He’s also working on a PlayStation exclusive action espionage project called Physint, and called the upcoming Xbox-published OD “a game I have always wanted to make.”

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

Funcom has confirmed the global release times for Dune: Awakening.

Inspired by Denis Villeneuve and Legendary Entertainment’s blockbuster films, Dune: Awakening is a survival MMO set on the most dangerous planet in the universe, where players can explore Arrakis in an open-world game for the first time ever.

You survive by learning the ways of the Fremen, and expand your potential through combat, the spice, building, and trading. It’s set to release on June 10, 2025, on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S after a three-week delay to fix issues identified during its beta testing. Players with a “head start,” however, get to play five days early from June 5.

We had a great time with it, writing in IGN’s Dune: Awakening beta preview: “As a longtime fan of Dune, it also just feels so good to explore and learn more about a world that I’m quite fond of, and Funcom has clearly put a ton of effort into worldbuilding and lore, even despite taking quite a bit of creative liberty by placing Awakening within a parallel reality and canon than the books/movies.”

Last week, Funcom put on a livestream showing off Dune: Awakening’s mid-to-endgame, and a wide tour of the Hagga Basin “to emphasize the size and variety players can expect,” including the “lush O’odham, the forbidding Hagga Rift, the tall spires and imposing rock formations of Jabal Eifrit, to name just a few.” Up until now, even beta players have only seen around 25% of Hagga Basin, so the stream showcased “these huge and diverse landscapes” in all their glory.

“Before even considering the vast dunes and dangers of the Deep Desert, players will experience a full-scale survival game,” Funcom teased.

“They will rise through the ranks of the Atreides or Harkonnen; build powerful strongholds; brave Imperial Testing Stations; craft advanced schematics; explore and harvest in a variety of vehicles, and much, much more.” Furthermore, the “Landsraad feature allows anyone to contribute in the effort to impact their entire faction, whether they prefer PvE or PvP.”

For more, check out details on the MMO’s business model and post-launch plans.

Elden Ring Nightreign is now up to 3.5 million copies sold after five days on sale, with its Steam user review rating improving from ‘mixed’ to ‘mostly positive.’

Elden Ring was a massive hit, selling 30 million since going on sale in 2022, and it seems unlikely that Nightreign will come close to matching that success. For better context, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion sold 5 million copies within three days of its release in 2024.

FromSoftware’s multiplayer spin-off had launched to 2 million sales in just a day, but with a ‘mixed’ rating on Valve’s platform.

Much of the initial negative sentiment revolved around Nightreign’s brutal solo experience, its lack of duos co-op, lack of voice chat, and other archaic mechanics. That age-old multiplayer struggle to find enough friends to make up a coordinated three-player group is very much a part of the Elden Ring Nightreign experience, too.

As explained in IGN’s Elden Ring Nightreign review: “Let’s get the most important caveat out of the way first: if you are hoping to tackle Nightreign entirely solo, and are anything less than a hardcore Elden Ring player that actively seeks out ways to make that already difficult game even more challenging, Nightreign isn’t for you. Yes, there is technically a single-player option, but it is so poorly balanced that I would be shocked if it isn’t patched and adjusted within the first month of release. And this is coming from someone who lives and breathes these types of games.”

But on Monday, FromSoftware released a patch to make solo play much easier, and despite matchmaking problems over the weekend, sentiment has improved.

Last week, producer Yasuhiro Kitao took to social media to comment on Elden Ring Nightreign’s early sales success and to thank players for giving the game a go despite its quirks.

“Nightreign has some peculiar aspects to its game design and is different from our recent titles in various ways,” Kitao said. “Nonetheless, many of you have bravely jumped into this world, and for that we’re immensely grateful.

“As with Demon’s Souls or Sekiro, it may be confounding at first, but just like those games, Nightreign offers its own challenges and experiences. Once you overcome the initial hurdle, it’ll surely provide a sense of accomplishment that’s also its very own.

“We hope you enjoy it.”

So, what happens next? FromSoftware said that in addition to the DLC releasing later this year, new additions will be “gradually implemented,” including enhanced fights against existing Nightlords starting this month (June), as well as Duo Expeditions at a later date.”

The addition of duos will come as some relief to players who have questioned its omission from launch. Elden Ring Nightreign drops players into the shifting lands of Limveld, exploring and fighting for survival either solo or in groups of three. There is no way to play two-player co-op.

In IGN’s interview with Elden Ring Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki, the Nightreign lead developer discussed the choice to lean on solos and trios as the core experience options. When asked why there’s no option for a pair of players to drop in together without a matchmade third player, Ishizaki said it was overlooked.

“The simple answer is that this is simply something that was overlooked during development as just a two-player option, so we’re very sorry about that,” said Ishizaki. “As we said before, we set out to make this a multiplayer co-op game for three players, balanced for three players, so that was the main focus and it’s at the core of Nightreign.

“Of course, I myself as a player understand that and often want times where I’m just playing myself, so this is something that we considered from the start,” Ishizaki continued.

“And so we did put a lot of effort into creating this experience that was playable for solo players in as much as the rules and new systems allowed. So in putting all our efforts into that aspect, we kind of overlooked and neglected the duos aspect, but this is something that we are looking at and considering for post-launch support as well.”

This means that if you’re playing with just your favorite duos partner, you have to accept a random third into your game. Playing trios is very much what Elden Ring Nightreign is built around.

We’ve got plenty of Nightreign tips and tricks to help you take down all the eight Nightlord Bosses, and if you’re wondering how to unlock the two locked Nightfarer Classes, check out How to Unlock the Revenant and How to Unlock the Duchess, plus How to Change Characters.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.