Latest news with #AlexGarland
Metro
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Hell Is Us hands-on preview: ‘AAA games are so bloody bland'
GameCentral goes hands-on with an original sci-fi action adventure where the emphasis is on unguided exploration, with some throwback Zelda inspirations. You might already have heard the name Hell Is Us, as the game was first announced way back in April 2022. We previewed the sci-fi tinged adventure title, developed by Rogue Factor, for the first time last year but now it's now on the home-straight, with a launch slated for September 4, and it's shaping up to be a peculiar but intriguing mix of influences and ideas. Our original preview covered the opening portion of the game, so we'll avoid recycling the same beats here. But for the general gist, you play as a United Nations peacekeeper named Rémi who absconds to the war-torn country of Hadea to track down his parents. A stroll through the tutorial woods later, however, and you realise this isn't your average civil war. If you're a fan of Alex Garland's Annihilation, the strange, faceless alien from the film's conclusion seems to have been a major influence here. The Hollow Walkers, as they're called, are very creepy, as they lurch towards you unpredictably, with morphing limbs which give way to vivid, crystallised attacks or, in some cases, attached entities you have to kill first. Their glossy white exteriors act as a stark contrast to the muted eastern European landscapes and dungeons you explore. As a game, Hell Is Us is somewhere between Bloodborne and The Elder Scrolls. Combat wise, it's pulling from the former, as you manage a stamina bar, study enemy patterns for the best moment to strike, and rely on aggressive play to replenish a magic gauge for special skills. You also have access to a drone which has various uses tied to cooldown meters, between distracting enemies for crowd control andmaking a charging lunge to dash across the field. Rogue Factor has stressed Hell Is Us isn't a Soulslike though. You're not scrambling for bonfires or any equivalent, but exploring and chatting with characters to piece together where you need to go next, discovering new places of interest, and encountering side objectives which bleed into the overall experience of navigating each semi-open world area. The ethos behind Hell Is Us is discovery and the organic feeling of finding your feet through clues in the world, rather than using obvious quest markers. This might bring to mind acclaimed games like Elden Ring and The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, in their attempt to declutter open world exploration, but the game's director, Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, believes the roots of what Hell Is Us is aiming for goes much further back. 'Honestly, something like Zelda: A Link To The Past is much closer to what we're doing now than a Breath Of The Wild,' said Jacques-Belletête. 'Sometimes people are like: 'I really can't put my finger on what kind of game it is, what is it?' It's just a bloody adventure game man. Look, you've got a combat system, you've got enemies, you've got a world to explore, there's a mystery, you're not exactly sure of this and that, there's some secrets, there's some dungeons, we did a game like that. It's called an adventure game,' he laughs. 'There were even side-quests in A Link To The Past that didn't tell you they were side-quests.' Hell Is Us might have roots in classic adventure games but Jacques-Belletête, is keen to highlight the fatigue around Ubisoft style open world bloat, where checklists and quest markers are traditionally used in abundance. With the success of Elden Ring, there's a sense many players are craving a return to the hands-off approach, where you discover and navigate without guidance – something which Hell Is Us is hoping to capitalise on after being in development for five years. 'It's so much of the same thing,' he says, when talking about Ubisoft style open worlds. 'It loses all meaning. Things within these open worlds lose a lot of their taste because too much is like not enough. Do you know what I mean? You have to fill up these spaces with stuff and they just become a bit bland. Like once you've seen one, you've seen all of them. 'It's not Assassin's Creed, it's not that, it's all these things. We've all played them. I've got hundreds of hours in Elder Scrolls, all the Elder Scrolls, and that's not the point. It's not that I don't like them. It's just trends do their time and then you have other ideas. It's a pendulum as well. Games used to be a lot more hardcore that way, we're trying to go back to that.' The crux of my time in Hell Is Us is spent in the Acasa Marshes, the second semi-open area where the game lets you off the leash. The swampy lands are crawling with Hollow Walkers in various forms, from hulking monstrosities to mage-like foes that hurl projectiles from clifftops. A swirling black vortex is a key focal point but it's surrounded by enemies, while a settlement of villagers sits on a hill in the distance. According to the developer, this area is one of the largest areas in the game, 'if not the biggest one', and it seems pretty expansive. We found ourselves heading towards the village, whose militaristic leader points you towards your main objective with only a vague mention of going 'north east'. You have to dig out your compass to get a grasp on your position, as you try and navigate towards, and identify, the next location based on this information. The lack of quest markers makes the experience more involving, as you have to pay more attention to your surroundings and what characters say, but I wasn't entirely sold on the story or writing. It's something which will hopefully become more engrossing as you get a better grasp of what's going on, but I wish I was drawn to interact with the characters based on something beyond the need to progress. When you are exploring aimlessly though, Hell Is Us offers some captivating chaos – even if some areas did appear to be gated off. We fought our way to the aforementioned swirling black vortex, encountering enemies beyond our skill level, only to find it was inaccessible due to not having a specific item. We later found an underground tunnel filled with enemies, where an individual connected to a side0quest was trapped at the other end. Along with these open areas, Hell Is Us also offers dungeons built around puzzles and combat encounters. Aside from the opening introduction, we were shown a later example in the Lymbic Forge, which offered a nice dose of visual variety, with flowery gardens surrounding the boggy marshes. We didn't get a whole lot of time to explore, but it did highlight the breadth of the combat upgrades and customisation with late-game weapons. Hell Is Us is a melting pot of influences, and while we're not sold on everything it's trying to accomplish, it's certainly another AA game with big, exciting ambitions – a trend amplified this year by the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. For the game's director, who has a long history in the AAA space working at Eidos Montreal, the jump to AA, with a smaller team and less financial pressure, means you have a better chance of striking gold. More Trending 'Look at what's happened to the industry over the past few years,' Jacques-Belletête said. 'Everything is crumbling. The big ones are crumbling. It's unsustainable. And the games are so bloody bland, man. Everything is starting to taste the same. 'I find there's nothing worse than starting a game and right away, in the first two minutes, you know how everything's going to work. You know how every single mechanic is going to work. They might have a little [extra] in how it's going to feel, or this and that, the user interface will change a bit, but you've gone through the ropes a dozen times. 'A game has to occupy a space in your brain that your brain can't really compute just yet. When you turn your console off and it stays there, that's because something is going on. Your brain is processing. And I think that's a lot easier to do in the AA space than the AAA.' Formats: Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PCPrice: £49.99Publisher: NaconDeveloper: Rogue FactorRelease Date: 4th September 2025 Age Rating: 16 Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Cyberpunk 2 release date narrowed down as production ramps up MORE: Xbox handheld delayed claims report as Microsoft refocuses on Windows MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 fans expecting secret Christmas game at Summer Game Fest 2025
Forbes
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Alex Garland Is A Great Choice To Direct The ‘Elden Ring' Movie
The 'Elden Ring' film is to be directed by Alex Garland The A24 film adaptation of Elden Ring is officially moving forward with Alex Garland as writer/director, and the announcement was met with mixed responses on the internet. For some, the prospect of an Elden Ring film doesn't make sense in the first place, while others expressed doubt that Garland was the right man for the job. Elden Ring, the gargantuan, open-world entry in the FromSoft game catalog, is famous for invoking a mood rather than telling a coherent story. That's not to say there is no story in the game—there is, but the game isn't particularly concerned with communicating it clearly to the player. Elden Ring (and the Dark Souls trilogy) are more about vibes—themes of decay, insatiable greed and the terrible, destructive efforts of maintaining an empire in the face of entropy, but the exact details of how these civilizations turned to ruin are often hiding in the shadows. These games do contain strong characters, rich settings, and detailed lore within item descriptions, as well as contextual clues in the landscape. While game franchises such as Grand Theft Auto and The Last Of Us use cinematic cutscenes to tell their stories, Elden Ring uses the strength of the medium, trusting that players will understand something about the story from their experiences. However, players will never really see the full picture, and that's by design. The general online reaction to Garland writing and directing the Elden Ring movie was mixed, but FromSoft fans are likely judging him too harshly. Many film buffs turned on Garland after his misogyny-themed horror film Men proved something of a misfire, while reactions to his most recent film, Civil War, were mixed. Garland may have stumbled here and there, but the man is a gifted storyteller—Garland's first novel was The Beach, a compelling book, remarkable for a first novel. Notably, The Beach tells the story of a failed attempt to build a utopia, a concept that Elden Ring also explores. In fact, several of Garland's films show thematic similarities to FromSoft games. Garland wrote (but did not direct) 28 Days Later and Sunshine, the former depicting an undead apocalypse, and the latter a space crew that flies too close to the sun, leading to madness, delusion and violence. Ex Machina warns against playing God, depicting the dehumanization of a conscious machine by a Silicon Valley sociopath, ending with bloody rebellion. Annihilation tells the story of an alien life that melds itself into the surroundings, tainting everything it touches and merging the boundaries between human, plant, animal and alien entity. Thematically and visually, Annihilation resembles the strange atmosphere of Elden Ring, which contains many hostile landscapes, grotesque human-animal hybrids and otherworldly gods that drive the hapless inhabitants of The Lands Between insane. Garland has talked about how much he loves the Dark Souls games (which are very similar to Elden Ring), and seems to understand why players find them so compelling. However, many FromSoft fans fear that Elden Ring just can't be adapted into a film without losing the elements that make it such a unique experience. There's probably truth to that—these games aren't about protagonists, but Elden Ring is more of a hero's journey than Dark Souls is. It should be noted that legendary game director Hidetaka Miyazaki, who is credited with the success of Dark Souls and Elden Ring, has spoken positively about a potential film adaptation in the past. 'I don't see any reason to deny another interpretation or adaptation of Elden Ring, a movie for example,' Miyazaki told The Guardian. 'But I don't think myself, or FromSoftware, have the knowledge or ability to produce something in a different medium. So that's where a very strong partner would come into play.'
Geek Tyrant
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Here's the Story That Alex Garland's ELDEN RING Movie Should Tell — GeekTyrant
Alex Garland is officially heading to The Lands Between. A24 and Bandai Namco have tapped the Ex Machina and Annihilation filmmaker to write and direct a live-action Elden Ring movie. This is a big move for both Garland and A24. Known for cerebral sci-fi and grounded psychological storytelling, this is uncharted territory, a sweeping dark fantasy epic loaded with monster gods, obscure lore, and more emotional trauma than a family reunion at Stormveil Castle. It's easily the biggest swing either has taken: a sprawling, high-fantasy world born from the minds of Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki and Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. Expectations are appropriately colossal. But the big question is: What story are they going to tell? If you're familiar with Elden Ring , you know the game gives players the freedom to piece together their own path through fractured lore and cryptic NPCs. It's not exactly screenplay-friendly. That's why the best approach for Garland might be to focus not on your Tarnished, but one who came before: Vyke the Dragonspear. Before the player ever touched grace, Vyke wasn't just another warrior trying to become Elden Lord, he was the Tarnished to watch. A once-loyal knight of Leyndell's Ancient Dragon Cult, Vyke's story is tragic, beautiful, and perfect for the screen. According to lore, Vyke trained under Lansseax and pursued the Elden Ring with a determination that mirrored the player's own journey. But everything changed when he tried to save his Finger Maiden from her destined sacrifice. That's where the tragedy really kicks in. "Vyke's story revolves around his desire to save his Finger Maiden from being sacrificed to become Elden Lord, a fate that seemed inevitable for him. He sought out the Three Fingers, potentially on the advice of Shabriri, and embraced the Frenzied Flame, ultimately becoming a Lord of Frenzied Flame." A man chasing glory gives it all up for love, not for power, not for dominion, but to save someone who was viewed as disposable. And in doing so, he loses his mind, his purpose, and is eventually imprisoned, his journey cut short. 'A fate worse than death' doesn't begin to cover it. This is pure Garland material, a character at war with himself, torn between love and destiny, slowly unraveling under the weight of a cursed world. Vyke isn't a Chosen One. He's not a god or a myth. He's a tragic reflection of the player, the path that could have been, and that makes him the perfect protagonist. "Vyke's story is a cautionary tale about the consequences of choosing the Frenzied Flame path and the struggle between love and duty. He represents the player's mirror image, a Tarnished who embraced the Frenzied Flame to avoid a seemingly inevitable sacrifice." With Garland's eye for psychological nuance and A24's appetite for boundary-pushing cinema, this could be as massive and epic as The Lord of the Rings. This could be a stunning fantasy film that gives us something intimate, brutal, and emotionally honest, and Vyke's story is exactly that, a poetic nightmare about love, power, and the cost of choosing your own path. If A24 and Garland are serious about doing this right, they'll let us burn with Vyke first.
Stuff.tv
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Stuff.tv
I (just about) survived Elden Ring Nightreign's unforgiving co-op chaos
Stuff Verdict Adapt to its initial frustrations and Elden Ring Nightreign is one of the most challenging but rewarding co-op action fantasy games around. Pros The best of Elden Ring in digestible sessions Cool variety of character classes and skills Rewarding boss fights include a best-of from past FromSoft games Cons Faster structure sometimes at odds with traditional FromSoft mechanics Some bosses feel spongy and unbalanced A miserable time for solo expeditioners Introduction More than three years since its release, Elden Ring has sold over 30 million copies. Not bad for a fantasy RPG that seems to hate you as much as co-creator and Game of Thrones author George RR Martin seems to hate his characters. But you can see why there's demand to keep the cycle spinning, with a movie adaptation in the works (28 Days Later's Alex Garland is attached to direct), and now this new online co-op spin-off, Elden Ring Nightreign. It doesn't sound like an idea that should work on paper, even if one of the magical parts of Elden Ring (and the Dark Souls series that preceded it) was the jolly cooperation between strangers. Given how influential FromSoftware's games have been in the last decade, it's also peculiar that the developer would be chasing other genre trends. And yet after taking a while to adjust your expectations, there is something special here for players up for working together to overcome some fiendish challenges. The night is young Nightreign is essentially Elden Ring condensed into a run-based roguelite, with random loot and persistent upgrades – but also the gradually shrinking open world map of a battle royale. Once you match up in a team of three fellow Nightfarers, or by yourself (there's sadly no way to play this as just a pair), you drop into Limveld; over the course of three game days, the goal is to defeat the Nightlord on the final day, by ensuring you've gotten strong enough with the necessary resources from the previous days. It's just the first of many nightlords, just to keep these runs on your toes. After defeating the first one, more become available and you're free to tackle them in any order. That's just as well, because the second one is an absolute nightmare – you'd do well to not continue successive runs bashing your head against the wall on them. The map is also constantly changing for each run in terms of what structures and enemies you might encounter. One version of Limveld might contain snowy mountains, while another has lava-filled volcanoes, though it's also sometimes prone to duplicating the same ruins and soldier camps. How you explore the map is also dictated by the Night Rain, an encroaching storm that drains your health if you're caught in it. This happens each day, leaving a large-ish circle on the map, while by night you're forced into a smaller arena to face a mini-boss. It then means you have to prioritise your objectives: do you hit up the churches first to upgrade the number of times you can heal from your flask, do you seek out rare resources for upgrading your weapons in the caves, or do you focus on defeating other formidable enemies on the map to gain more gear or abilities they drop as well as more runes for levelling up? Do you risk continuing these tasks even when the rains close in or try to save them for the second day when the cycle restarts? Souls stars This more streamlined, turbo-charged approach may be appealing for players already into the likes of Apex Legends rather than the commitment of a 80+ hour RPG, but it does mean some elements of what has defined FromSoftware's hardcore RPGs are lost. When you have to be so quick on your feet, the careful, methodical approach of both Elden Ring and Dark Souls doesn't really gel. It's why you won't be examining items for lore, can't leave messages for other players, and why your nightfarers are pre-set characters rather than ones you can customise yourself. The archetypes you're presented with are nonetheless an interesting bunch that play quite distinctly. Wylder is your typical jack-of-all-trades knight, Raiders hit hard and can also take quite a few hits without being interrupted, while Duchess (who's unlocked later) moves and attacks swiftly though also more fragile. Perhaps best of all is IronEye, who actually makes bow combat very viable – you can actually get in decent attack damage while maintaining a safe distance. In that hero shooter-inspired vein, each nightfarer also has their own unique passive and active skills, the latter relying on cooldowns before they can be used. IronEye can slide into enemies to mark them, doubling the damage they receive, while Revenant can summon phantoms as temporary allies. Naturally, each also has ultimates, like how duchess can cloak everyone with invisibility to give you a quick respite from hostile enemies, while Executor transforms into a primordial beast with unique and powerful attacks for a brief time. To match the faster pace, everyone can sprint and clamber up walls quickly, while using spiritstreams and spectrals hawks can also help you traverse the map at greater speed. It's not always well implemented though; it can take just a rock or branch on the ground to stop you in your tracks. You're also still reliant on classic Soulsy combat mechanics such as stamina management and the loss of your runes if you die (though your teammate can revive you, assuming you're sticking together). You can even shield parry, but why would you stand still to attempt it when there are better options? Three to play You've not just got nightlords to deal with; a plethora of bosses encountered both on the field and at the end of each night have cheekily been pulled from both Elden Ring and the Dark Souls series. A shrewd case of recycling content, though it does add to the feeling that this is the work of modders rather than an official FromSoft joint. The one striking change from how these bosses were before is they're super spongey now, compounded by having mobs spawning in to distract you. This makes it clear how vital it is to level up at checkpoints regularly. If you reach the end of the second day and your level's still a single digit, you're unlikely to survive the boss at the end of that day, let alone the nightlord on the final one. In some team-based games you might count on a strong player to carry the team, but Nightreign demands that you be in synergy with one another to stand a chance. The game doesn't scale down in difficulty either, meaning the solo expedition option is really just for the most hardcore of masochists. For the rest of us, it means hoping you match up in a competent trio – in other words, nightfarers who don't run off randomly, or try tackling a big dragon when they haven't levelled up sufficiently – though it's definitely recommended organising a party of likeminded pals on voice chat. Summoning a stranger to help you with a boss in Elden Ring is one thing, but trusting two others for three in-game days that can take between 30-45 minutes can feel like a risky commitment. There are many crushing lows that make you question the time you've spent and your poor decisions. Yet when the team is in sync, you feel fully prepared by the final day, and someone's able to revive you without you having to yell into a headset, it turns out that Nightreign still, against all odds, keeps the spark of what makes Elden Ring special in the first place. You know what they say about how the night is always darkest before the dawn. Elden Ring Nightreign verdict In its streamlined online co-op structure, Elden Ring Nightreign often rubs up against the foundations of the FromSoftware action RPG formula in ways that frustrate, and in many ways it really shouldn't work. This isn't necessarily going to be one for every Elden Ring devotee who enjoys spending many hours in the Lands Between. Yet with a compelling roster of nightfarers, each who also have their own optional arcs, a mash-up of past and present FromSoft bosses, and the right team synergy, triumphing over the nightlords brings a new challenge and reward that redefines our expectations of jolly cooperation. For those who felt that this year's Monster Hunter Wilds had made its core loop a little too frictionless to widen its appeal, here's a co-op game that keeps its uncompromising teeth intact. Stuff Says… Score: 4/5 Adapt to its initial frustrations and you have one of the most challenging but rewarding co-op action fantasy games around Pros The best of Elden Ring in digestible sessions Cool variety of character classes and skills Rewarding boss fights include a best-of from past FromSoft games Cons Faster structure sometimes at odds with traditional FromSoft mechanics Some bosses feel spongy and unbalanced A miserable time for solo expeditioners
Daily Mirror
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
‘Unfilmable' video game adaptation officially announced as fans left divided
One of the best-selling games in history is finally getting the live-action film adaptation fans have been yearning for Gamers are torn after the announcement of a live-action movie based on one of the best-selling video games to date. The iconic title, which has shifted over 30 million copies as of April 2025, is none other than the open-world fantasy epic Elden Ring. Bandai Namco set social media abuzz today (Friday, 23rd May) by revealing plans for a live-action film adaptation of Elden Ring, with critically acclaimed director Alex Garland of Ex Machina and Warfare fame at the helm. In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), they proudly proclaimed: "We're thrilled to announce that Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. and A24 are teaming up with writer and director Alex Garland to bring FromSoftware Inc.'s world-renowned video game ELDEN RING to life as a live-action film. "We're truly excited to bring the world of ELDEN RING to fans in a new form, outside the game", reports the Mirror US. "Stay tuned. The path ahead is only beginning." Developed by FromSoftware, the open world game puts players in charge of a 'Tarnished' protagonist on a quest through the perilous Lands Between, with aims to conquer powerful enemies and claim the title of Elden Lord. Despite millions relishing the immersive universe – co-envisioned by Game of Thrones author George RR Martin – with its absorbing exploration and combat, there's doubt among some about how well it will make the leap from console to cinema screen. Casting more shadow, a doubtful user on X responded to the news posted by Bandai Namco querying: "Isn't this the game which notably has no plot, just hints of one?" One sceptic voiced concerns, saying: "This won't work out well, especially for a movie instead of a TV series. Elden Ring is full of Show, Don't Tell style writing. "Hollywood doesn't know how to properly do that and resorts to Tell, Don't Show writing where everything has to be explained on screen by someone." Mirroring this thought was another commenter who questioned: "Uhhh... Why a film? "Given the sheer length of the Game's plot and amount of Lore, would a series not be more logical?" A further doubter on Reddit expressed: "I would love for this to be good but I don't see how this can be adapted and be accessible to most audiences." Yet, some gaming enthusiasts remain hopeful, buoyed by Garland's involvement. He most recently led the helm of Warfare, which received applause as one of the finest war films in recent memory, boasting a stellar 93 percent approval on Rotten Tomatoes. An aficionado praised, "Garland makes amazing stuff," going on to remark, "And I was gonna say this is an out there director choice but he did make Ex Machina which is all sorts of f***ed up. Could be epic." As the industry buzzes, many wonder if we are on the brink of witnessing the next cinematic fantasy phenomenon akin to Lord of the Rings with anticipation hanging thick in the air. Elden Ring is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Warfare is available to rent or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV.
