Latest news with #Soulslike
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How to watch Summer Game Fest's kickoff stream
It's almost that time of year again. Summer Game Fest starts on June 6. The annual kickoff stream begins at 5PM ET on that date. Yeah, we know. The time isn't ideal for folks with regular jobs, but we'll be in Los Angeles to cover the event in person, so you can just hit up the site for updates. The best way to watch this is likely via the YouTube stream. After all, the event is being hosted at the YouTube Theater. There will also be a Twitch stream for the YouTube-averse. The organizers, including host Geoff Keighley, are promising "spectacular new video game announcements, surprises and reveals." I like all three of those things. We don't know that much about what games will be discussed during the two-hour event, but we aren't going in totally blind. The stream will feature a new look at Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, which is a nifty-looking Soulslike action RPG. The open-world MMORPG Chrono Odyssey (no relation to ChronoTrigger) is also making an appearance. There's also the Kojima of it all. This event is taking place just a couple of weeks before we get our hands on the long-anticipated Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. The legendary game creator will be on-hand to discuss the title during a dedicated event on June 8, but maybe he'll pop up at the kickoff to give viewers a peek at whatever else he's been working on. However, the kickoff stream is just the beginning. The weekend is host to the Day of the Devs showcase, the Devolver Direct, Wholesome Direct and really so much more.
Engadget
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Engadget
How to watch Summer Game Fest's kickoff stream
It's almost that time of year again. Summer Game Fest starts on June 6. The annual kickoff stream begins at 5PM ET on that date. Yeah, we know. The time isn't ideal for folks with regular jobs, but we'll be in Los Angeles to cover the event in person, so you can just hit up the site for updates. The best way to watch this is likely via the YouTube stream . After all, the event is being hosted at the YouTube Theater. There will also be a Twitch stream for the YouTube-averse. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. We're proud to welcome a record-setting 60+ partners for #SummerGameFest 2025, a global celebration of video games in Los Angeles this June. — Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) May 28, 2025 The organizers, including host Geoff Keighley, are promising "spectacular new video game announcements, surprises and reveals." I like all three of those things. We don't know that much about what games will be discussed during the two-hour event, but we aren't going in totally blind. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement The stream will feature a new look at Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, which is a nifty-looking Soulslike action RPG. The open-world MMORPG Chrono Odyssey (no relation to Chrono Trigger) is also making an appearance. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. There's also the Kojima of it all. This event is taking place just a couple of weeks before we get our hands on the long-anticipated Death Stranding 2: On the Beach . The legendary game creator will be on-hand to discuss the title during a dedicated event on June 8, but maybe he'll pop up at the kickoff to give viewers a peek at whatever else he's been working on .
Metro
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Elden Ring Nightreign review
FromSoftware transforms Elden Ring into a co-op roguelite that turns everything you know about the game upside down. We're more convinced than ever that Nightreign must have started off as DLC for 2022's Elden Ring. Developer FromSoftware's post-launch plans for the game evolved quite a bit and ultimately the only paid-for DLC was Shadow Of The Erdtree. All of From's Soulslike games have included co-op, so focusing Nightreign purely on multiplayer is not much of a stretch for them, even if it's not necessarily what most fans were hoping for from a new game. The Duskbloods for Nintendo Switch 2 proves that this is not a one-off experiment but while that title is being built from the ground up, as an entirely new IP, Nightreign is much less expansive in scope. It's a roguelite that jams together randomised section of the original game (actually, just the Limgrave area) to make new maps, as you face off against new and old enemies, using both familiar and brand-new weapons and abilities. If it had stayed as DLC it would have been welcomed as a clever reuse of existing assets but as a mid-budget standalone game its flaws are brought into sharper focus. There's a reasonable chance this will be the last Elden Ring game, at least for some time, but inevitably there's no sense of closure or any real explanation for what's going on. The storytelling is much more limited than the parent game and technically the whole thing takes part in a different reality, so it's not clear that any of it is even really canon. A successful run will take around 45 minutes and begins with you selecting which Nightlord boss you want to take on. Your quest takes place over three days, with the boss battle being the whole of the final one. The other two have you exploring and levelling up as quickly as possible, trying to find the best weapons and armour, and taking on mini-bosses to try and acquire runes to spend on levelling up. The explorable area shrinks, Fortnite style, in the second day, as you focus your exploration on specific points of interest, that are clearly labelled on the map. The obvious intention is to try and encapsulate the whole of Elden Ring with a single run, although the minimal amount of time available means that everything is very rushed and often extremely simplified compared to the parent game. Nightreign can be played on your own, and we're sure some smartass will soon be demonstrating how they beat it all while only using a saxophone and a dance mat. For mere mortals though the game is far too difficult to ever consider playing on your own. Although the problem is not just that it's hard, but that it's horribly unbalanced if you don't have two other people with you – especially as there's no one to revive you if you die. That's not really a fault – the game makes it perfectly clear that it expects you to be playing it as a three-player co-op experience – but what is a problem is how difficult it is to get a capable team together and keep them focused long enough to get anywhere. Most people end up playing Elden Ring for hundreds of hours, carefully exploring and learning, often through trial and error, how to overcome enemies – as well as the tells and weakness of bosses. That takes commitment and so does Nightreign, so when one of your team suddenly decides it's time for their dinner, or just happens to be off their game, suddenly progress for everyone comes to a halt. FromSoftware is known for purposefully making things difficult for players but the lack of cross-play and the inability to play with just two people (the game will find you someone random to fill in the third slot) is just perverse. So too is the lack of any in-built voice chat option – in a game that practically demands it. The requirement for three highly skilled players, all with plenty of time on their hands, is unreasonable and yet From seem to acknowledge this, given much of the game's design is an attempt to artificially reduce the time commitment. Neightreign encourages speed and aggression at all times, but that's the complete opposite of the original game and none of the existing systems are set up to work that way. In terms of combat, Nightreign is essentially identical to the original, but other aspects are awkwardly truncated, such as the automatic levelling up and the fact that, since Torrent isn't part of the game, you can now awkwardly run up vertical cliffs instead (From's next game is in desperate need of a proper mantling ability, that doesn't look like you've broken the game by merely trying to climb a wall). Some of the new features are more welcome though, with the new class-based characters working very well, since they all have unique abilities of their own. The Wylder, for example, has a grappling hook that lets you yank lesser enemies towards you, jump towards bigger foes, or just shoot yourself forward. The Executor is also interesting, as they don't play like an Elden Ring character at all, but instead have a parrying technique that's very similar to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Each class also has their own story objectives, called remembrances, that can earn you extra powerful relics, which can be kept between runs and confer various bonuses and special abilities. You also get these if you beat a run, but they're randomly distributed and can often be for a class type you're not using at the time. More Trending In perfect conditions, Nightreign is a very enjoyable game, with a full suite of excellent bosses that are very original and all of which require unique strategies. Although even this underlines the game's inherent flaws, as the bosses are clearly designed to be taken on by three people, often in specific roles – such as attracting aggro or long range support – and if your teammates don't play their role effectively then there's close to zero chance of you persevering on your own. On top of that, there's the inevitable fact that the whole thing gets very repetitive, worryingly quickly. The bosses are great but there's only eight of them and having to start again if you all die becomes increasingly frustrating, as the novelty of battling through the first two days begins to fade. It's hard not to think that Nightreign just isn't a very good idea and while From has forced it to work, even when it's firing on all cylinders it still feels janky and contrived. Some people are going to love it – especially those who have easy access to talented teammates – but for most ordinary players Elden Ring Nightreign seems like one unreasonable demand too many, in terms of both their time and patience. In Short: FromSoftware struggle to force the square peg of Elden Ring into the round hole of a co-op roguelite, and while they just about manage to make it work the whole game feels like only a half-successful experiment. Pros: The core gameplay and combat of Elden Ring is as entertaining as ever and the boss battles are excellent, even for a From game. As usual, the art design is superb and the class types work well. Cons: Turning Elden Ring into a fast-paced roguelite just doesn't seem like a good idea, especially given how difficult it is to put together an effective team. Quickly becomes repetitive and the wall jumping is embarrassingly bad. Score: 6/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PCPrice: £34.99Publisher: Bandai NamcoDeveloper: FromSoftwareRelease Date: 30th May 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: Persona 4 remake is happening as actor reveals he was rejected by Atlus MORE: Pokémon Legends: Z-A release date announced with Switch 2 upgrades MORE: Apple to rival Switch 2 launch with new gaming app
Daily Mirror
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Blades of Fire review – forging a new style of hack-and-slash combat
MercurySteam have created a deep and intriguing fantasy world where creative melee combat is unequivocally the main attraction. Providing you don't mind getting turned around every so often, Blades of Fire delivers a worthy twist on the Soulslike template thanks to its unique combat and weapon-crafting system. Don't be fooled by the protagonist's broad shoulders and burly beard. There's far more thought given to Blades of Fire than what its Xbox 360 era aesthetic and character designs may initially suggest. It's a third-person action-adventure about going on a quest to protect a fantasy kingdom from the forces of evil, yes, but beneath this relatively ho-hum premise is a new kind of combat system that quite literally puts out the more you put in – thanks to the ability to create and modify your own weapons. As such, taking on enemies is always stuffed with a lot more meaning and risk than you'd find in other typical hack-and-slash fare. And while the systems outside this core hook aren't quite as exciting, it's hard to deny the thrill that comes from repairing, recycling, and creating your own spin on the game's namesake whenever heading back to the forge. At the centre of this fiery tale is Aran De Lira, part-time reluctant hero and full-time master forger, who finds himself in the rather unique position of being one of very few still able to craft steel following Queen Nerea's spell that has since turned everyone else's weapons into stone. His determination to do something about this properly begins after being gifted with a magical hammer by a young squire, Adso, that inspires the pair to fight their way to the queen's royal palace. It results in a road trip of sorts that challenges Aran to fight and forge through all kinds of interlocking dungeons and areas. From here Blades of Fire falls into a structure that is very Dark Souls in style, although in a way that reshapes your expectation due to the nature of weapons that will over time become blunt and degrade. Knowing that the weapons you've hammered into shape and spent time gathering better materials to make will eventually wear might sound disheartening. And yet, it's a core part of the Blades of Fire experience, one that forced me to think better about my actions both in and outside of combat. See, specific weapons are more and less susceptible to different enemy types, to the extent that, say, a polearm won't do as much damage to someone in full body armour. From here you can either switch weapons from the four Aran can carry at any one time, or you have two other options: change the stance with your equipped weapon or try to target a part of the enemy's body that is vulnerable to a certain directional swipe. As you can probably already tell, developer MercurySteam has placed a lot of depth into the way you not only can – but should – approach combat scenarios; a fact that quickly prevents you from being able to just continually button mash your way through crowded areas. The god of war Aran De Lira is not, and therefore it always pays to seek out the green outline on enemy limbs, being the best way of quickly telling whether your crafted weapon will deal out the most damage it's capable of. From Twin Axes to Greatswords to Spears, there are seven different weapon types you craft at the forge in total. The better you hammer the metal into each one's shape at the forge, the more damage they'll do when swung – not to mention the more times you'll be able to quickly repair it so as to avoid the need to start forging entirely from scratch. Forged in fire Once you get past how to swap weapons in and out on the fly and how to switch stances to slash, thrust, or otherwise, facing down goblins, spirit creatures, and bosses becomes a delicate dance of knowing not just when to attack, but how. The result is a genuinely unique and refreshing mode of third-person hack-and-slashing that is more meaningful than it is mindless, and something totally different to the usual combat language of 'attack, parry, block' that most modern action games can sometimes use as a crutch these days. Outside of combat is where the light that usually burns bright within Blades of Fire tends to dim somewhat, since story-wise there's not a whole lot going on here surprisingly. I spent a good ten hours, for example, barrelling my way through zones before I was reminded about Aran and Adso's mission, and it's still a while longer before Queen Nerea makes a full appearance. Sure, this makes the extent of her evil and power all-encompassing. But in terms of actually having a tangible adversary present in the narrative? Meh, I personally would have enjoyed learning more about her whole deal much earlier on. Thankfully, there's a small but impactful cast of quirky characters that the central pair bump into, such as the magical witch Glinda and Melcart the old and forgetful spirit. As opposed to the villain, these personalities help coat Blades of Fire's world with some much-needed texture. Speaking of which, the locations you visit throughout Blades of Fire could have absolutely been the stars of the show, were they not a tad irksome to navigate. The huge map being interconnected is one of the most effective ways MercurySteam sold me on Aran and Adso's adventure being a colossal road trip. However, it's when exploring each individual zone, fort, or dungeon that navigation can often be a real pain, where more than a few times me working out where to go next simply boiled down to guesswork. There's a compass on screen at all times that points to the closest forge or previously dropped weapon, but they weren't enough to keep me set on the correct path. Thankfully, some areas like The Doyen Graves are better laid out than others. So often, however, did I find myself turned around due to some inconsistencies in layouts more than I'd like, which led to me being occasionally frustrated with traversal and exploration. Shallow narrative hooks in the early game and the odd annoying biome aside, Blades of Fire excels in presenting an alluring and brand-new fantasy world I couldn't wait to dive into and chip away at further. Even in instances where I was bashing my head at a wall unable to find the next best route forward, I knew that persevering would be worth it since it meant getting to test out my newly forged, more powerful weapon at the next gaggle of enemy soldiers who lined up for slaughter. I can't say I ever truly invested in Aran's personal plight, but I very much enjoyed the way he goes about resolving it, all thanks to one of the most unique and thoughtful melee combat systems I've experienced in the past few years. Blades of Fire borrows from the past, but when it comes to combat and creativity it also forges its own way forward.
Top Gear
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Top Gear
Doom The Dark Ages review: a shooter where shooting is the least interesting option
Doom The Dark Ages review: a shooter where shooting is the least interesting option id Software could have copy-pasted Doom Eternal into a castle, but instead they go bold with a new vision Skip 10 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Turn on Javascript to see all the available pictures. 1 / 10 Imagine being id Software. You've released not one but two of the best shooters in the last decade, games that easily lived up to the revered Doom name. Where do you go next? That's right, you set your next shooter in a sci-fi medieval hybrid world, give the player a shield and introduce a Soulslike block and parry system. Obviously. Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal are impossible to top. And one suspects id Software knows that as well as anyone, which is why it's so admirable that the studio's latest release is full of so many bold design calls. It would have been easy to keep all the systems and mechanics untouched and just sketch out some more levels to enjoy them in, this time with some parapets and moats and things. Advertisement - Page continues below Instead, Doom: The Dark Ages lays out a completely different vision of a shooter, one that's in some ways more in touch with the 1993 genre progenitor than ever, and in others veers wildly into new territory. There are so many different abilities and mechanics in combat now that simply aiming a gun at something and pulling the trigger feels somehow unimaginative. You've got your shield smash, which you perform by locking onto an enemy with block engaged and then hitting attack (RMB then LMB if you're using mouse and keyboard controls on PC). You've got timed parries, quick taps of the block command that stun enemies. Melee attacks that give you more ammo when you use them to kill a demon. A throwable razor shield. A giant mech. A dragon. So many interlinked combat options, in fact, that the game spends its first three levels just onboarding you to how they all work, which enemies and situations you should consider them for, and all the different currencies and trinkets you should be looking out for. It isn't overwhelming, nor is it plodding or patronising. Then come the next 19 levels, a constant barrage of arena fights, scored by drop-tuned metal, that seem stacked hopelessly against you until you start chaining attacks and abilities to shred huge swathes of enemies at once, harvesting health and armor from them and clearing just enough space to see light at the end of the corridor. In that way, Doom: The Dark Ages isn't too far removed from its two older brothers. Advertisement - Page continues below And in plenty of others, it is. The setting is the most obvious example, and honestly we've got no idea what's going on here because our eyes glaze over whenever a cut-scene plays. Which is surprisingly often. If you thought a trip to the dark ages might be handled in that same moody, enigmatic, zero-exposition manner that Quake did when id last went there in 1996, prepare yourself for way more narrative than you bargained for. Some Star Wars characters seemed to have escaped from their pen and wandered into this game, along with villains with names that read like Haas title sponsors. Storytelling is the game's weakest element, and that's absolutely fine, because none of us came here expecting it to spin us a particularly fantastic yarn. In terms of place, though, it just about pulls off the odd futuristic Middle Ages locales. The arena fights here take place in cobbled villages, cathedrals and muddy rolling hills just as often as steely corridors and sinister facilities with floaty screens. We expected to see a lot more of the former, but the variety doesn't go amiss. Variety seems to have been a buzzword during this game's development, in fact. Because just as you're acclimating to a new gun, or a new ability upgrade, it throws in something else. A bespoke set-piece, like the early mounted turret fight against a titan, or your repeated journeys from inside a giant mech, or riding the aforementioned dragon. Top Gear Newsletter Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox. Success Your Email* And this is a rare mis-step, because there's already more than enough to experiment with in your core moveset. You don't need to be pulled this way and that by gimmicky sequences and sadly, that's how the mech and dragon sections come across. You can see how and why they were included: the new idTech 8 game engine is fantastic at scale, and at destruction. It can render vast, towering beasts who'd dwarf Godzilla in real-time among numerous smaller fodder, all with distinct AI combat routines. And it can do all that while enormous chunks of the scenery are being smashed to rubble. It's incredible to watch. From the ground, that is. But once you get inside a giant mech of your own, you become the same size as the titans and all the impressive sense of scale is lost. At that point you're just two lolloping combatants punching each other. The emphasis in these sections is all about parrying attacks and building up specials by landing standard attacks of your own, which mirrors the Doomslayer sections in some ways, but changes the controls slightly. Ultimately, that feels like a distraction from the core pleasure in Doom: The Dark Ages, which is mastering the deep and broad range of tools and attacks at your disposal. Same goes for the dragon rides: they're there to show you what the engine can do and it's certainly an impressive ride, but it's a distraction from the main event. And the main event is a shooter of a quality that everyone with a passing interest in games would appreciate. The negatives here are things that diehard FPS fans would raise – are the projectile speeds just right, do the Imps look and sound authentic to the '93 sprites, are the levels labyrinthine enough – and then quickly forget about when they turn a corner and see three different ways to chain together their weapons and attacks, and turn a horde of hellspawn into benign puree.
