Elden Ring Nightreign’s evil Deep Of Night mode gets a release date, but some people are already playing it

Elden Ring Nightreign will get a new rock-hard Expedition mode called Deep of Night on 11th September. “Rock-hard” is a cliché worn to uselessness, of course: to be more specific, this is at least tungsten-carbide-hard, possibly even as hard as stishovite, though the exact degree of toughness is variable.

It’s variable because Deep of Night gets statistically harder, the more you win, with a difficulty rating or “depth” that fluctuates based on wins and losses. Enemies are tougher than usual by default, and you can’t specify which Nightlord you’re hunting, so be prepared for nasty surprises. There are new special Depth Relics, exclusive to this mode, which sadistically bundle together additional buffs and debuffs.

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Coffee convos, demonic detectives, and cow life simming are part of a pro-Palestine charity bundle coming to Itch.io

A bundle of games aiming to raise money to aid the United Nations’ Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in their efforts to help Palestinian refugees is set to go on sale via Itch.io next week. Just over 380 games are part of it, including the likes of Coffee Talk, Lucifer Within Us, and a cow life simulator that features an alligator who’s really into arson.

Organised by Junch and the South East Asian Games for Good initiative, the bundle’s dubbed Play for Peace – Games for Palestine. It’s taken over 10 months to come together. The result’s a 382-game strong bundle that includes a huge variety of creations that contain not a whiff of AI or NFTs.

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Atomfall’s second expansion, The Red Strain, unleashes its crimson tendrils next month

Dig your finest cricket bat out of the loft – Atomfall developers Rebellion have revealed its second story expansion is set to arrive in September. It’s dubbed The Red Strain, and looks to star a not-Robobrain who’s connected to a bunch of crimson plantlife filling the Cumberland quarantine zone.

This second DLC follows Wicked Isle, the first Atomfall expansion that you got automatically if you plumped for the deluxe edition of the radioactive pasty survivathon. I still need to go back and play that expansion, and this next add-on looks like an intriguing excuse to do so.

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“A culture of intimidation, retaliation and oppression”: How Microsoft’s Gaza stance fuelled an industry-spanning boycott

Every October, Microsoft host an Employee Giving campaign for charities chosen by staff, with the company matching any funds they raise. During last October’s Giving month, a group of Microsoft workers organised a vigil for Palestinians killed by the Israeli military during the current invasion of Gaza, stumping up donations for organisations such as the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, while paying tribute to fellow tech workers who’ve lost their lives in the war.

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Bioshock successor Judas emerges from hiding as Ken Levine explains how you’ll choose the game’s final villain

You know when you’re friends with three people, then one of them suddenly pulls a Robbie Rotten and morphs into a real villain who terrorises your existence? No? Just me then, and also the protagonist of Ken Levine’s Judas, whose main foe you’ll get to dictate the identity of through your actions in the game.

It happens via a villainy system, which Levine and the crew at Ghost Story Games discuss in the first ever Judas dev log they’ve just put out. We’ve only seen this non-corridory BioShock-like with evil dentist chairs and an evil Brum in spits and spurts since the announcement in 2022. This looks to the first sign of more regular updates in the offing.

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Tomb Raider developers Crystal Dynamics lay off more staff, say the series’ future is “unaffected”

Tomb Raider developers Crystal Dynamics have laid off an unspecified number of staff, their second round of jobs cuts this year. The studio say that the future of the Tomb Raider series won’t be affected by this latest taking away of folks’ livelihoods.

The news comes not too long after the Perfect Dark reboot Crystal Dynamics were working alongside The Initiative was cancelled amid Microsoft’s mass cuts in July. The Initiative were shut down as part of that culling.

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The creator of Dread Delusion is making a turn-based JRPG set in another Morrowindy fantasy world

Dread Delusion developers Lovely Hellplace and their sinister backers at DreadXP have announced Entropy – a turn-based party RPG inspired by classic Japanese RPGs, which retains Dread Delusion’s fungal pixel aesthetics.

Like Final Fantasy 9, it starts with a theatre show. You play a rank thespian initially equipped with a simple prop sword. But then horrible creatures crash the stage, and it’s time to armour up your troupe and quest forth to snuff out a demon incursion. What’s the best Shakespeare line to invoke here, hmm. Ah yes: “target their elemental weaknesses!” Hamlet said that before he shanked Polonius through the curtain. No, don’t google to check, dear reader – I am in haste. Quickly, watch the below trailer.

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Vaults are open, flames are thrown and ghouls are sick, as Doom mod Fallout: Bakersfield shows off more shootering

We’re back again, gang. Bang bang. The Doom modder behind Fallout: Bakersfield, which recreates the city of Necropolis from the original Fallout as the backdrop to irradiated boomer shooting, has followed up their first trailer in ages with some more footage of the mod in action.

Alexander ‘Red888guns’ Berezin, the modder in question, caught most of us off guard last month, when he whipped out that trailer for a GZDoom WAD plenty had assumed wouldn’t ever see the light of day. After all, Berezin had plenty of other stuff on his plate. He’s definitely working hard to show it off now, though.

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No Man’s Sky’s Voyagers update adds in big custom ships crewed by you and your mates

Have you ever wanted to swim out of a spaceship’s backside while it sits in orbit, the sound of two dear friends arguing over whether it really needs a fifth teleporter room not seeping with you into the inky blackness? You know, because space is a famously scream-free zone. Well, the latest in No Man’s Sky‘s endless string of free updates has you covered. It’s called Voyagers, and adds in custom multi-person ships dubbed corvettes.

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