Elden Ring Nightreign is out, and players are already diving into the shifting lands to fight the Nightlord. If they warmed up a bit on the original Elden Ring, though, they might be finding themselves a little turned around by some control changes.
While the controls in Elden Ring Nightreign are mostly the same as the original Elden Ring, a few changes have been made, either to accommodate new abilities or simply move things around a bit. Some of these are just for new moves, or updated versions of old tools. One in particular, though, seems to be causing at least a little confusion: the flask.
In FromSoftware’s Souls games and Elden Ring, the “flask” is a mainstay of your kit: a refillable potion holder that acts as your main source of healing in combat. Usually, the flask is one of several consumables, and you’d cycle through them and use them mid-combat. In Elden Ring Nightreign, the flask is a static element. You hit the left-most face button (X or Square, depending on your controller) to drink it, by default, while Up on the D-Pad becomes your ‘use item’ option.
Alongside the flask, there’s now the Nightreign-specific super-sprint mapped to L3. Though you won’t have your trusty steed Torrent in Nightreign, FromSoftware has instead given players a surprisingly fast sprint option. The wrinkle is, there’s also a sprint option from the traditional method of holding your dodge button. And as one player notes, they keep defaulting to the original Elden Ring sprint, rather than the new one.
The really odd change, though, is that there doesn’t seem to be a way to crouch now. I booted up Elden Ring Nightreign myself just to check and, sure enough, I couldn’t find a crouch option anywhere in the controller settings. While it was clicking in the left-stick on controller, by default, it seems like the option didn’t just move, but was completely ejected. Granted, Elden Ring Nightreign does seem like it’s more about moving fast and wiping out enemies than sneaking around.
Other players report that mouse-and-keyboard default controls also feel strange in comparison to the original Elden Ring. Granted, this is not the first time FromSoftware has shifted control schemes. Every Souls or Souls-like usually has some degree of change, especially for games like Bloodborne, which have very notable mechanical and systemic differences from other FromSoft Souls-likes.
Ultimately, controls are re-bindable, so you can still make things fit as comfortably in your hands as you’d like. Maybe take this article as a PSA, then, to spend some time acquainting yourself with your control scheme for Elden Ring Nightreign and fine-tuning it before heading out on your first venture. And maybe spare some sympathy for a player who keeps accidentally chugging their Estus mid-fight. We’ve all been there.
I have spun out on wet tarmac again and I am furious with myself. JDM: Japanese Drift Master requires a different mentality to most other racing games. Drifting around a corner is not the side gimmick that you’ll do a few times during races. Drifting is the race. In this self-described “simcade” game, you’ve got to slide around the bendy roads of sunny (and rainy) Japan while delivering sushi and chasing boy racers for style points. It all adds up to some remarkably weighty speedfreakery that is bitingly frustrating when I’m bad at it, and rumblingly compelling when I’m good at it.
One should really never the doubt the tenacity of modders. Elden Ring Nightreign is now live, and within 24 hours of its launch, one well-known FromSoftware game modder has already demonstrated a Duos mode mod.
Luke Yui, the modder behind popular co-op mods for games like Elden Ring and Armored Core VI, uploaded a short video to their YouTube channel yesterday. It shows off an Elden Ring Nightreign two-player mod, allowing just two Nightfarers to team up rather than forcing the choice between one or three.
It’s important to note that, as of this writing, this is not a public or playable mod, but a short demonstration from Yui. They noted that the mod runs without connecting to the matchmaking server, so while it’s possible to use additional mods during gameplay, that also means you’re not running through the normal channels. Whether this becomes a real solve or just an interesting curiosity, we’ll have to see.
While Elden Ring Nightreign can be played solo or in a group of three, there’s no option to run it with just two players; you’d need to either kick your friend and run solo, or matchmake and find a third. It might sound like a small hindrance, but for those who like to play with just one pal, it can be a frustration.
Speaking to IGN, Elden Ring Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki said the team “kind of overlooked and neglected the duos aspect,” but it was something the Nightreign team was looking at and considering for post-launch support. With this much desire for a duos-specific mode, I’d imagine it’s hard not to take notice.
Elden Ring Nightreign might replace its source material’s sprawling RPG exploration with a mad dash around tightly-nestled hotspots, but under the bonnet, this is still essentially just Elden Ring with a quicker sprint and character models of hitherto-unseen birdpeople. Even the system requirements are, save for a minor CPU bump, a copy and paste job, confirming the feathers aren’t even that high-poly.
As a result, this spinoff runs equally well on the Steam Deck, even appearing to take advantage of the same SteamOS/Proton tweak that made Elden Ring less stutter-prone on Valve’s handheld specifically. My Steam Deck settings guide for the base game works here too, though having been yanked around Limveld at greave-splintering speeds by loothounds Nic and Ollie, I actually think further quality cuts could be prudent. This is FromSoft at their paciest, and it makes sense to help framerates keep up.
It’s early days for Elden Ring Nightreign, but already developer FromSoftware has announced a patch that will make solo play easier.
Patch 1.02, due out next week, will include bug fixes as well as improvements for solo expeditions, FromSoftware announced in a post on social media.
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. We’ve already reported on Elden Ring Nightreign’s ‘mixed’ Steam user review rating, with most of the complaints revolving around a lack of a duos option as well as no voice chat.
Playing Elden Ring Nightreign solo is proving to be a particularly difficult experience. 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.”
It seems FromSoftware is moving fast to address solo play. According to the early patch notes, below, next week’s update will add the effect “Automatic Revival Upon Defeat,” which allows revival once per night boss battle, to solo expeditions, and will increase the amount of runs gained.
Despite these issues, Elden Ring Nightreign has enjoyed a massive launch on Steam, with an incredible 313,593 peak concurrent users on Steam overnight. That was enough to make Elden Ring Nightreign one of the most-played games on Valve’s platform.
Elden Ring Nightreign update 1.02 early patch notes:
The following improvements for solo expeditions will be added to the game: – The effect “Automatic Revival Upon Defeat”, which allows revival once per night boss battle, will be added to solo expeditions. – The amount of runes gained will be increased. Thank you for your support.
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.
After four years of service, Square Enix and FuturLab have released the last content update for PowerWash Simulator, titled ‘The Muckingham Files 6’.
Fittingly described as the “final stop” on the PowerWash journey, this free update leaves us with a mucky tube train in need of a scrubbing and the Sculpture Park — a new location where you’ll have to blast away the dirt on a few pieces of artwork. Both of these fresh locales hide a handful of Easter eggs for PowerWash Simulator 2 (which still isn’t confirmed for Switch 2, but we remain hopeful), so be sure to pay attention to the details.
How to Survive Your First Run in Elden Ring Nightreign
As the saying goes, the night is dark and full of terrors. That adage is proven true time and time again in Elden Ring Nightreign, the latest game from the merciless game design wizards at FromSoftware. Taking a page (or, rather, multiple pages) from their entire catalog dating back to the first Dark Souls, Nightreign somehow manages to offer an experience that simultaneously feels familiar and brand-new.
A lot of the familiarity is due to the fact that the environments, weapons, and combat look and feel a lot like Elden Ring. On the flip side, the game’s multiplayer-only focus and its bevy of new gameplay mechanics, from wall-jumping up cliffsides to sprinting around the countryside, almost make Nightreign feel like a totally different game than anything From has made before. Of course, there’s one way in which Nightreign feels like every other game in FromSoftware’s oeuvre: It’s going to kick your butt and it’s going to kick it often.
The basic gist of the game is this: three players swoop into Limveld to survive for two in-game nights as they battle their way around the map, leveling up and collecting gear so they can eventually defeat the Night Lord on the third night. It’s obviously much, much more detailed than that, so we’ll leave it to you to read the Elden Ring Nightreign: Answering 20 Burning Questions feature we wrote earlier this year while we focus on something more important. Namely, helping you to stay alive.
Hopefully these tips will not only help you survive the night’s terrors but can even give you a fighting chance at taking down the first Night Lord on your first try. [Editor’s Note: you won’t, but it’s nice to have dreams.]
Take a Few Minutes to Get Acclimated
As mentioned above, there are a number of new gameplay mechanics introduced in Elden Ring Nightreign that might take longtime players some time to get used to. You can sprint, you can climb up to high areas thanks to a double wall jump, and you’ve got a number of new attacks like Character Skills and Ultimate Arts to play with. Thankfully, the game does offer a tutorial of sorts when you fire it up for the first time, so you can learn the basics.
The Roundtable Hold has also returned from Elden Ring, offering a new area to test your skills against dummies (while also allowing you to tweak the combat settings to your heart’s desire). Finally, you can also launch a solo mission from the Hold; while we can essentially guarantee you won’t survive the first night, it’s a great way to get your bearings and figure out the new mechanics.
Find Your Fighter (and Your Friends)
When you start Nightreign, you’ll see that there are six different characters to choose from, each with a different gameplay style (there are two more that are unlocked after you defeat your first Night Lord). A very quick breakdown: Ironeye is a ranged fighter, Guardian is the defensive bulwark, Raider acts as massive, up-close-and-person brawler, Executor is a high-dexterity Cuisinart, Recluse is an elemental sorceress, and Wylder is an all-around, middle-of-the-road fighter.
It’s worth experimenting at the aforementioned training ground to see if any of them strike your fancy, but a lot of your decision will boil down to choosing a character that compliments the others in your group of three. We found great success in using two melee fighters in Raider and Wylder, with Ironeye hanging back and reviving us with his arrows whenever we fell (in addition to taking off big chunks of enemy health with his Ultimate Art). It’s definitely worth experimenting and mixing things up the more you play though. Or, hey, try going with three of the same character just to see what happens!
Use Your Map and Plot a Course
After you land in Limveld, it’s natural to want to get fighting. After all, you’ve got a storm closing in on you! However, it’s always good to take a minute to check your map to see what’s nearby. Flask upgrades found in chapels always come in very handy, as do easy-to-defeat mini-bosses (lol “easy”) often found under churches that can help you get a few levels right off the bat. The pin system in Nightreign works quite well, as your teammates can essentially accept your pin to prioritize it on the directional map at the top of their screen. While plotting a course is helpful, the most important survival tip is knowing when you’re better off turning tail and running away from a mini-boss that’s too powerful – or any time you’re stuck in a bad situation.
Bigger Isn’t Always Better
If RPGs have taught us gamers anything over the years, we should always pick up gear with bigger numbers. While that might sometimes be the case when it comes to Nightreign’s weapons(particularly the ones you get from defeating bosses and mini-bosses), there’s a new strategy at play here. In addition to raw attack power, each weapon possesses passive bonuses that you’ll get just for having them in your inventory. So take a minute to look past that red number that’s lower than the one you’re already holding and see if this so-called weaker weapon can provide an advantage to your build – even if you never swing it – that might help you make it just a little further.
Communication is Key
We all know that communication is essential in multiplayer games, but I’m convinced that it might be more important in Nightreign than any other. Breaking free from the group and going your own way is almost always a recipe for disaster, both for you and for whatever unfortunate teammate comes to rescue you (I’ve been on both sides of that equation). There will also be plenty of times when you’ll pick up an item that would be better suited to a teammate’s character. And while Nightreign does offer a number of great, easy-to-use non-verbal communication tools (like the pins mentioned above), they’ll never be as good as good old-fashioned microphones and party chat.
Cooperation? Collaboration? Yep, Do Those
Sticking together and communicating won’t matter much if you’re not actually working together. There are plenty of examples in Nightreign where three heads are better than one. For example, we found great success when our Ironeye plinked away at an enemy’s shield from the front, allowing us melee gents to circle around and attack from the back. There were also a number of occasions in which one of us would find an item that would provide a minor passive upgrade to our character but would be much better in the hands of another. Timing our Ultimate Arts made a huge difference in some boss battles, as one Ultimate would stun the boss and allow the others to land theirs without the risk of missing and wasting it.
If at First You Don’t Succeed…
The tips above are definitely going to be helpful, but let’s be real: you’re probably going to die a few times before you even get to the first Night Lord (a three-headed, sword-wielding canine named Gladius) – and then die again a few times before you can defeat him.
It’s OK though! Not only will every run reward you with precious Relics that can give your character a boost heading into the next run, you’re almost guaranteed to learn something along the way that will help you the next time.
We’ll see you in Limveld, Nightfarer!
[Editor’s Note: a tip of the cap to Will for not try to work “Night Train” by Guns N’ Roses or “Midnight Train to Georgia” by Gladys Knight and The Pips into this Nightreign feature. Woo woo!]
ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN is a standalone adventure within the ELDEN RING universe, crafted to offer players a new gaming experience by reimagining the game’s core design.
RISE TOGETHER
Join forces with other players to take on the creeping night and the dangers within featuring 3-player co-op.
BECOME A HERO
Take command of uniquely skilled heroes, each possessing their own abilities and distinct flair. While individually formidable, their skills create powerful synergies when they unite as a team.
TAKE ON THE NIGHT
Overcome a relentless environmental threat that sweeps through a land that changes between each game session and defeat the magnificent boss of that night!
*There is also a Deluxe Edition product available. Please be careful not to purchase the same content twice.
Helldivers 2’s ongoing Galactic War appears to have reached another turning point, with the Federation declaring victory over the Illuminate.
“The Illuminate have retreated from Super Earth battlespace,” reads the in-universe message to the game’s community. “The Heart of Democracy has been defended. The Battle of Super Earth is won.”
The Illuminate’s invasion certainly took its toll on Super Earth, with only two Mega Cities left standing: Prosperity City and Equality-on-Sea.
“Remaining Illuminate forces were last observed making FTL jumps from Super Earth orbit,” the message continues. “The enemy has also vacated New Haven, Pilen V, and Widow’s Harbor, burning the surface of those planets as they fled. No stations detect Illuminate forces — the enemy has gone into hiding. They will be found.
“After days of nonstop fighting, Super Earth stands. The mettle of Managed Democracy has been tested; the will of the people has overcome the enemy. The Helldivers have achieved victory.”
The thing is, no-one actually believes the Helldivers have achieved a long-lasting victory here. As is developer Arrowhead’s way, Federation communication is by default propaganda, and further turmoil is almost certainly coming down the pipe. And players really want to chase the Illuminate as they retreat, potentially to their home planet to stamp them out for good.
Meanwhile, an in-game message revealed the President of Super Earth was killed while fighting back the Illuminate forces. But again, there was a healthy dose of scepticism from players, with some saying it might have been an Illuminate communication in disguise. What’s really going on here?
In the days since the Heart of Democracy update went live, players have fought to hold the various Mega Cities of Super Earth, which correspond to major cities in real-life. York Supreme, for example, corresponds roughly to New York, and Remembrance to Buenos Aires. As the invasion continued, more and more cities fell, leaving only Equality-On-Sea (Shanghai) and Super Earth’s capital, Prosperity City (Stockholm) standing.
Efforts rallied behind Equality-On-Sea to make a last stand. But Equality-On-Sea never hit 100%; the current arc closed with the cities’ percentage meter at 99.9783%. Many of the negative reviews are in Chinese, and while the machine translation doesn’t seem accurate enough to quote, there are some recurring points one can easily glean: frustration over driving the narrative, the perception of a thumb on the scale from Arrowhead, and repeat mentions of “99.9783%.”
What’s next? Well, for a start, the Federation needs a new president. Let’s see what Game Master Joel has up his sleeve.
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.
Since its reveal, Hell is Us has been something of an enigma. As an action-RPG that hones in on detective-style investigations within a hauntingly alluring world filled with weird monsters to explore, it’s a type of game that tasks players to meet it on its strange and unorthodox terms. For its developers, Hell is Us also represents a game that pushes back against contemporary trends of gaming that places its story and gameplay in a neat package and instead trusts players to piece together just what the hell is going on within the corrupted land of Hadea, and how to survive it.
After playing several hours of the opening of Hell is Us along with some mid-game dungeon crawling, I came away with a clearer idea of developer Rogue Factor’s new-weird-influenced take on an action-adventure game that pushes players to mind the finer details of the world and maintain poise during some of the intense engagements. So far, Hell is Us is a game that makes charting out into a familiar yet deeply alien world feel captivating.
Hell is Us takes place in an alternate 1990s where the fictional European country Hadea is in the midst of a civil war following the events of a mysterious, supernatural incursion known as the “calamity.” Playing as Remy, a United Nations peacekeeper and former resident of Hadea, he’s detained by a mysterious organization following his mission into Hadea to find his parents. With the organization and its leader pressing down on Remy, he has to recall the fateful decisions he made with the surviving factions and how he fought off the seemingly otherworldly creatures known as Hollow Walkers.
The main plot of Hell is Us reminded me of a mix between Death Stranding and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
The main plot of Hell is Us reminded me of a mix between Death Stranding and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which focuses on immersing players into a world that takes a sudden and violent turn to the weird and with a seemingly unreliable protagonist recounting his interpretation of events. Hell is Us fully commits to its premise of a bleak setting and being a stranger in an even stranger land, one that feels familiar with its backwoods and small towns clinging onto survival, but feels so disorientingly strange with the rise of Hollow Walkers and portals that have turned the European countryside into an alien landscape.
What immediately drew me into Hell is Us was its unusual approach to storytelling and immersing players within its strange world. The sense of mystery is palpable in Hell is Us, and I was constantly walking into areas that had grotesque monsters or strange anomalies that drew my eye. I was especially taken in by the plight of the surviving characters, who struggled to endure in their ramshackle sanctuaries held together by duct tape and dwindling hope. This story very much chucks you into the deep end with its narrative and gameplay flow as you explore the different open zones filled with their puzzles and points of interest.
What I found most intriguing, and what I suspect many players will have to come to grips with, is how Hell is Us takes a largely unguided approach to gathering intel and charting out to complete quests with no mini-maps or waypoints to help you in your trek. This very ’90s adventure game approach puts the onus on players to listen to the details that the surviving characters bring up in conversations and read the well-organized intel from Remy’s personal datapad. It’s the type of game that demands a certain level of attention, or else you can find yourself wandering at length to figure out where to go next.
Outer Wilds is a particular example that inspired the dev team for its approach to a largely unguided adventure game that gradually expands in scope as more players use their growing knowledge. Speaking with creative director Jonathan Jacques Belletête, the approach the devs took with Hell is Us was all about trusting players with figuring out the mystery and embracing the campaign’s more methodical approach to progression.
“So at first we really wanted to go full hardcore with this game, like players would have a little notebook and a pen to write notes, because that’s where we came from when we played games in our youth, but what inspired us was the general fatigue we’ve felt with this new contemporary era, like games should never have a problem too big for players to solve because you have to reach every type of player possible,” said the creative director.
Hell is Us is equal parts an investigation game and an action-RPG, and there’s a surprising amount of combat to engage with while you’re on the desolate road. On the surface, Hell is Us has the makings of a soulslike – and it certainly has some of those elements under the hood – but it goes in a direction with combat and power progression that’s more about managing your poise and picking the best moments to strike against enemies that can easily take you out. Some of my favorite moments came using my powered-up weapons to dish out some chunky damage while sending in my drone to stun other enemies off in the wings.
Hell is Us is equal parts an investigation game and an action-RPG, and there’s a surprising amount of combat to engage with while you’re on the desolate road.
The Hollow Walkers in Hell is Us are some of the most visually distinct and unnerving video game enemies I’ve seen in a long time. They’re highly aggressive and can come in large numbers. Still, things get more unnerving once you face off against the powered-up walkers that can summon support enemies that were very much giving The Angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion vibes. Once these enemies appear, you’ll have to switch up to take them down fast before you can finish off the main walker.
Much like a souls game, stamina management is critical for survival, and I found myself constantly having to be decisive with my skills so as not to overexte nd myself against unforgiving enemies. One interesting wrinkle that took me time to get used to was the fact that health and stamina share a single bar. With your health being your primary source, the more health you lose in a fight, the less stamina you’ll have to fight.
While you have limited health items, the Lymbic Pulse skill is the best way to help you stay in the fight. Similar to Nioh 1 and 2, activating the pulse immediately after seeing a glow around Remy will instantly restore health and stamina based on the attacks you dish out. It’s a very risk-reward approach to combat, and depending on how intense the combat gets, it can be easy to forget to hit the pulse and lose out on health. I found the engagements surprisingly challenging and unrelenting, yet I still felt good about scraping through once I figured out how best to clear out the foes.
Combat took the most time for me to get used to, as it’s far more survival- and resource-driven than Dark Souls or Elden Ring. Some battles were so unforgiving that I felt unfairly outmatched by the numbers and aggression of the walkers. Still, I managed to rally and rethink my approach by going for it. According to the creative director, he likened their approach to combat with the act of boxing, which is also about managing stamina and dealing with decisive blows when you can.
“This is us trying to put our own spin on third-person melee combat, and we’re always a bit inspired by From Software, but it was important for us to put our spin on,” he said. “Like in real life, you pretty much just have one hit point, right? It’s all stamina, and when once you’re tired and you get hit, you’re done. Like, I boxed for a very long time, and when your stamina is done, you’re done. So that’s where we were coming at it. The more damage you take and the more health you lose, that’ll directly affect your efficiency in combat, but we also added in our balance to that with the Lymbic Pulse, to help your restore your health when you do take those risks to lay in damage – and that gives us a bit of a signature to the game as well.”
I was thoroughly impressed with the visuals and atmosphere of Hell is Us, and it presents such a compelling yet still bizarre mix of fantasy and science fiction. Along with the other games mentioned, another piece of media that served as a key influence was Alex Garland’s 2018 film Annihilation, which dealt with exploring an environment that underwent radical and violent change. It presents such an intriguing setting, but at times, the hardened and traditional adventure game approach Hell is Us takes to taking in the details and surviving this world felt a bit too stoic for its own good.
Still, I was very invested in the bizarre, new-weird setting that Rogue Factor has crafted, and it so far has the makings of being one of 2025’s more original and creative takes on the action-RPG experience. Given that this year saw the rise of Blue Prince’s reinvention of a roguelite puzzle adventure, it’d be fitting for Hell is Us to succeed with its own reinvention with its new type of role-playing experience.
It’s pretty self-explanatory stuff here, really. The first video focuses on graphics and performance, showing how Switch 1 and Switch 2 differ while our protagonist is hacking away at a tree. The Switch 2 demonstrates some clear improvements with graphical fidelity and frame rate, with Level-5 even zooming in on the character model to further highlight the stark differences.
