Start SlideshowStart SlideshowImage: The Pokémon Company, Arrowhead Game Studios, Blizzard, The Pokémon Company, Screenshot: Capcom / Samuel Moreno / Kotaku, Bethesda / Brandon Morgan / Kotaku, Nintendo, Bethesda / Brandon Morgan / Kotaku, Capcom / Samuel Moreno / KotakuYou know what we all need sometimes? A little advice. How do I plan for a future that’s so uncertain? Will AI take my job? If I go back to school and use AI to cheat, will I graduate and work for an AI boss? We can’t help you with any of that. But what we can do is provide some tips for Helldivers 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, Oblivion Remastered, and other great games. So, read on for that stuff, and maybe ask ChatGPT about those other things.Previous SlideNext SlideList slidesDon’t Rely On Ex Pokémon In Pokémon TCG Pocket AnymoreImage: The Pokémon CompanyDuring the initial months of Pokémon TCG Pocket, ex monsters dominated the competitive landscape. These monsters are (usually) stronger than their non-ex counterparts, and they can come with game-changing abilities that determine how your entire deck plays. In the past, players could create frustratingly fearsome decks consisting of two ex Pokémon supported by trainer and item cards. However, unless you pair together very specific ex Pokémon, you’ll now find yourself losing nearly every game you play. - Timothy Monbleau Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesPlease, For The Love Of God, Defeat All Illuminate Stingrays In Helldivers 2Image: Arrowhead Game StudiosYou know what? Screw the Illuminate. I played round after round trying to get the Stingrays, also known as an Interloper, to spawn at least once, and those damn Overseers and Harvesters kept walking up and rocking me. In the end, I was victorious. A Stingray approached the airspace with reckless abandon, swooping in with practiced ease as it unloaded a barrage of molten death beams upon my head, and you know what happened? I died. A few times. But eventually, I managed to pop a shot off and I quickly discovered how to defeat Illuminate Stingrays in Helldivers 2. - Brandon Morgan Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesDefeating Monster Hunter Wilds’ Demi Elder Dragon Might Be The Game’s Hardest Challenge So FarScreenshot: Capcom / Samuel Moreno / KotakuAlthough Zoh Shia is the thematic boss of Monster Hunter Wilds, other beasts can put up a tougher fight. Gore Magala (and especially its Tempered version) are easily in contention for being the most deadly enemies in the game. Not much is more threatening than their high mobility, powerful attacks, and unique Frenzy ailment that forms the basis for your Corrupted Mantle. - Samuel Moreno Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesDon’t Forget To Play ‘The Shivering Isles’ Expansion In Oblivion RemasteredScreenshot: Bethesda / Brandon Morgan / KotakuWhether you’ve played the original Oblivion or not, chances are you’ve heard tales of the oddities awaiting you in the Shivering Isles. This expansion—the largest one for the open-world RPG—features a land of madness under the unyielding control of Sheogorath. It’s a beautiful world, yet so immensely wrong. But that’s why this DLC is one of the best in the franchise, so no matter how many hours you may have already put into the main story and the main world, you don’t want to miss this expansion. - Brandon Morgan Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesHow Long Of A Ride Is Mario Kart World?Screenshot: NintendoThe Mario Kart franchise has been entertaining us all for decades—even with sibling fights and fits of rage over losing a race from a blue shell at the last second—but Mario Kart World is the first game to go open world. There hasn’t been a truly new entry in the series since 2014's Mario Kart 8, so being stoked to dive into this exciting adventure is perfectly reasonable. Equally reasonable, especially given the game’s controversial price tag, is to wonder how long it’ll take to beat and what type of replayability it offers. Let’s talk about it. - Billy Givens Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesMario Kart World Players Are Exploiting Free Roam To Quickly Farm CoinsGif: Nintendo / FannaWuck / KotakuMario Kart World is full of cool stunts and lots of things to unlock, like new characters, costumes, and vehicles. The last of those requires accumulating a certain number of coins during your time with the Switch 2 exclusive, and while you could do that the normal way by just playing tons of races, you can also use the latest entry’s open world to farm coins faster or even while being completely AFK. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesOblivion Remastered’s Best Side Quest Is A World Within A WorldScreenshot: Bethesda / Brandon Morgan / KotakuIt’s been a long time since I kept a spreadsheet for a video game, or even notes beyond what I need for work. I had one for the original Oblivion run back in my school days. Back then, I knew where to find every side quest in the game. There were over 250. Still are, but now they’re enhanced, beautified for the modern gamer. One side quest retains its crown as the best, despite the game’s age. “A Brush With Death” is Oblivion Remastered’s best side quest by far, and here’s how to find and beat it! - Brandon Morgan Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesDiablo IV: How To Power Level Your Way To Season 8's EndgameImage: BlizzardWhether you’re running a new build, trying out a new class, or returning to Diablo IV after an extended break, (a break in which you were likely playing Path of Exile 2, right? I know I wasn’t alone in farming Exalted Orbs!) Whatever the case, learning how to level up fast in Diablo IV should help you check out everything new this season, along with hitting endgame so that your friends don’t cruelly make fun of you! - Brandon Morgan Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesThe 5 Strongest Non-Ex Pokémon To Use In Pokémon TCG PocketImage: The Pokémon CompanyIt’s official: ex Pokémon no longer rule unchallenged Pokémon TCG Pocket. While these powerful cards are still prevalent in the competitive landscape, the rise of ex-specific counters have made many of these monsters risky to bring. It’s never been more vital to find strong Pokémon that are unburdened by the ex label, but who should you use? - Timothy Monbleau Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesSome Of The Coolest Monster Hunter Wilds Armor Can Be Yours If You Collect Enough CoinsScreenshot: Capcom / Samuel Moreno / KotakuIt goes without saying that Monster Hunter Wilds has a lot of equipment materials to keep track of. The Title 1 Update increased the amount with the likes of Mizutsune parts and the somewhat obscurely named Pinnacle Coins. While it’s easy to know what the monster parts can be used for, the same can’t be said for a coin. Making things more complicated is that the related equipment isn’t unlocked all at once. - Samuel Moreno Read More

In a crowded field full of online survival sims, Dune: Awakening is kicking up storm. The adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novels lets players build bases, rid sand worms, and smash Ornithopters into one another. That last part has become a problem, and the developers are already looking into a fix. Suggested Reading10 Minutes From The Last Of Us Part II’s Roguelike Mode Share SubtitlesOffEnglishview videoSuggested Reading10 Minutes From The Last Of Us Part II’s Roguelike Mode Share SubtitlesOffEnglishDune’s Ornithopters are helicopters shaped like dragonflies. In Dune: Awakening, they’re one of the many vehicles players can build that serve as both a resource and an end-goal of sorts. They require a lot of equipment and resources to craft if you’re playing solo, which is why most of them belong to players working in groups. It turns out that they’re pretty indestructible too, making them lethal weapons for ramming enemy players with in PVP. Reddit user Bombe18 shared his run-in with Dune: Awakening’s man-made scourge in a recent clip that blew up on the subreddit showing him repeatedly being accosted by multiple Ornithopters. Shooting at them does nothing. They’re unscathed by constantly smashing into the ground on top of him. At one point, he tries to wall-jump off a ledge and stab one. “Yeah sorry about this,” wrote game director Joel Bylos. “We have people working on fixing the goomba stomping ASAP.”Players have been debating the role of Ornithopters in Dune: Awakening since its beta tests last year. On the one hand, they’re a lot of fun and a cool reward for players to build toward. On the other, they sort of trivialize trying to travel around the desert and survive, the two things the game is supposed to be about. They can also shoot missiles, completely dominating the ground game. Now that’s real desert power. In terms of stopping players from griefing one another with Ornithopters, there are a few different suggestions. Some players just want the vehicles not to be able to be used as weapons at all. Others want them isolated to specific PVP areas. Another solution is to make it easier to destroy them. “Seems like they should just make guns deal more damage to them,” wrote one player. “They’d think twice about doing this if their orni could get wrecked by gunfire.” Another wrote, “Make Deep Desert crashes do significant damage. Two crashes or something past a certain physics threshold should disable the vehicle.”However the developers decide to address the recent outbreak of Ornithopter “goomba stomping,” Dune: Awakening is having a great launch so far. Out earlier this week on PC, it’s nearing a 90 percent positive rating on Steam with almost 20,000 reviews. The concurrent player-count is very healthy, too, peaking at just under 150,000 heading into the weekend. Unfortunately, console players will have to wait a bit to build Ornithropters of their own. A PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S release isn’t planned until sometime in 2026. .

Photo: Kotaku, Screenshot: Build A Rocket Boy / ExtraEmily / Kotaku, Nintendo / Kotaku, Image: Marvel / AMC / Kotaku, Nintendo / Kotaku, Wizards of the Coast / Joshua Raphael, 1047 Games / Kotaku, KotakuIt’s a little funny to consider the following stories “news” given the state of the world right now. I’m tempted to explain what I mean by that, but I’m just as happy to let that sentence be an inkblot test, revealing just what type of person you are based on the first thing that pops into your mind. (If the thought of that angers you, then I guess you have your answer.)Nevertheless, read on for very important information about expensive popcorn buckets, Switch 2 settings (and astronomical sales), a disastrous launch week for MindsEye, an editorial revolt at Wikipedia over AI (okay, that one actually is kind of important), and more.

1047 Games cofounder Ian Proulx took the stage at Summer Game Fest on Friday to promote his new game Splitgate 2 by calling out the current state of online shooters. Eschewing the marketing speak of most of his peers at the glossy showcase, he said he wants Titanfall 3 to come out and called his new game’s surprise battle royale mode “fucking awesome” while wearing a “Make FPS Great Again” hat. Suggested ReadingThe Week In Games: A Star Wars Classic Returns & More New Releases Share SubtitlesOffEnglishview videoSuggested ReadingThe Week In Games: A Star Wars Classic Returns & More New Releases Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSplitgate 2 is a free-to-play arena-style shooter where players deploy portals to mess with physics and the fabric of reality to outwit their opponents. “I grew up playing Halo and I’m tired of playing the same Call of Duty every year and I wish we could have Titanfall 3,” Proulx said on stage alongside host Geoff Keighley. He added that the new battle roayle mode aims to combine the old-school arena shooter sensibility with a mechanic to portal to other worlds. Out today on console and PC after a beta last month, 1047 revealed that the new mode is going live alongside the rest of the game. The subtext of Proulx’s pitch channeling President Trump’s slogan was clear: while EA cancels games and Activision leans into predictable cash-grabs, the underdog team at 1047 is shaking things up with a game by gamers for gamers. Meanwhile, the riff on “Make America Great Again” took place shortly after a clash between Los Angeles residents and law enforcement over ICE raids in the city’s garment district only blocks from where Keighley’s Summer Game Fest Play Days industry event takes place this weekend. Trump has ordered the immigration agency to arrest a record number of people every day for deportation even as ICE detention centers are criticized for overcrowding and lack of food. The original Splitgate launched in early access in 2019 and spiked in popularity. The party didn’t last, however, and by 2022, the studio abandoned the game to work on a new project. Last year it revealed that new project was actually just Splitgate 2. .

In September, Borderlands 4—the next main entry in the popular first-person looter-shooter series—launches on consoles and PC. As a Borderlands sicko, I’m very excited. And if you’ve been wanting to replay the older games or check out some of the spin-offs or DLC you might have missed over the years, a new Steam sale is here to help.Suggested ReadingThe Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: August 2023 Edition Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingThe Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: August 2023 Edition Share SubtitlesOffEnglishThe Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: August 2023 EditionOn June 5, a totally day quiet news day with nothing big happening like, say, the launch of a new Nintendo console, 2K and Gearbox announced a big Borderlands sale on Steam. Over on Valve’s digital PC gaming storefront, you can grab almost the entire franchise for just $35. The only thing missing from this massive bundle are WonderlandsTiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep. But that’s not a big deal as Wonderlands isn’t really a Borderlands game and Dragon Keep is just a standalone version of the excellent Borderlands 2 DLC of the same name. Everything else, including Tales from the Borderlands, New Tales, and all the DLC for all the games, including Director’s Cut and Designer’s Cut for Borderlands 3, is included in this massive bundle. It’s only available for the next two weeks and then goes away on June 19, though, so don’t miss out on this great deal. Oh, and if you just want Borderlands 2, you can get that for free right now on Steam. That offer is also available until June 19. Many consider this the best entry in the series, though I’m more a fan of Borderlands 3. Either way, it’s a great game to snag for free. And if you just want one specific game or DLC, well, they are all on sale on Steam separately, too. Even Wonderlands and Dragon Keep! .

Today, during Sony’s big State of Play, IO Interactive revealed a new trailer for its upcoming James Bond game, 007 First Light. The big news out of the trailer is the first official reveal of the game’s new James Bond, which you can see in the image above. Read more...

Today, Sony held its latest State of Play and while it didn’t include some of the bigger games that people were likely hoping for, like a new God of War spin-off, it did include some cool surprises, including what might be the best-looking fighting game I’ve seen in years and a remake of a beloved Final Fantasy title. Suggested ReadingTears Of The Kingdom's Newspaper Questline And The State Of Hyrulean Journalism Share SubtitlesOffEnglishview videoSuggested ReadingTears Of The Kingdom's Newspaper Questline And The State Of Hyrulean Journalism Share SubtitlesOffEnglishHere’s the full State of Play if you want to watch it all: State of Play | June 4, 2025 [English]Lumines Arise Lumines Arise - Announce Trailer | PS5 GamesThis fun announcement kicked off the 45-minute show. It’s from the devs behind Tetris Effect, and it looks (and sounds) awesome. This one is coming to PS5 and PSVR2 in Fall 2025.Pragmata delayed againPragmata - First Contact Trailer | PS5 GamesCapcom had a new gameplay trailer for its long-awaited space-adventure-action-horror game featuring a young robot girl and a cool astronaut dude fighting robots. The game was set to come out in 2022, got delayed until 2023, and then got delayed again. Now it’s set to arrive in 2026. Romeo Is a Deadman looks wildRomeo is a Dead Man - Announce Trailer | PS5 GamesZombies attack, nearly killing Romeo, but luckily his grandfather shoves a big sci-fi thing into his head and turns him into a sword-wielding half-dead undead killer. Okay, I’m interested. This one is “maybe” arriving in 2026. No shock that Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture are behind this wild-looking game. Silent Hill F arrives in SeptemberSilent Hill f - Release Date Trailer | PS5 GamesI’m very happy that we’ve entered a new and better era for the Silent Hill franchise after so, so many years of crap and lukewarm slop. This latest entry looks very different than past games, but still seems properly foggy, spooky, and creepy. And that’s all I need in a Silent Hill sequel. Don’t have to wait long for this one as it launches September 25, 2025.Bloodstained: The Scarlett Engagement is revealedBloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement - Announce Trailer | PS5 GamesSurprise! We are getting a new Bloodstained game. What started back in 2015 as a crowdfunded attempt to make a new Castlevania-inspired 2D action game has expanded into a large franchise of its own. And it’s about to get bigger when this new entry arrives sometime in the future on PS5. Digimon Story Time StrangerDigimon Story Time Stranger - Release Date Trailer | PS5 GamesWow, it’s wild how much better Digimon games look than Pokémon games. This latest time-traveling RPG set in the universe features some slick visuals and a lot of people screaming about the digital world. As someone living in 2025, I’m fine with the digital world being burned to the ground. Time Stranger is out October 3, 2025. Final Fantasy Tactics is finally getting a remakeFinal Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles - Announcement Trailer | PS5 GamesYou can read more about this in our story here, but suffice it to say that the legendary tactics RPG is, at long last, getting the remake fans have been clamoring for for ages. Sony devoted a few minutes to sharing trailers and a few bits of info on these four games, one of which is launching on PS4. Wild. Baby Steps - Release Date Announcement | PS5 GamesHirogami - Pre-order Trailer | PS5 GamesCairn - Release Date and Demo | PS5 GamesNinja Gaiden: Ragebound - Release Date Announcement | PS5 & PS4 GamesMortal Kombat Legacy Collection looks amazingMortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection - Announce Trailer | PS5 & PS4 GamesDigital Eclipse, the retro game wizards behind some excellent old-school video game collections, is taking on the Mortal Kombat series in 2025. Legacy Collection will contain a ton of games from the series, including handheld, console, and arcade ports, as well as rollback netcode and documentary content. I’m very excited to see more of this thing.Sony is making a fight stickProject Defiant Wireless Fight Stick - Teaser TrailerNot much info beyond that. Here’s Sony’s official description of the device:Join the fray at home or away with the Project Defiant wireless fight stick*. Take the fight to your opponents with the included sling carry case, and enjoy precise in-game response with ultra-low latency wireless and wired play options, along with a durable, ergonomic design that’s built for battle.New Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater trailerMetal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater - Gameplay Trailer | PS5 GamesThe Ape Escape mode is back and looks bigger than before. But the big news is at the very end, where Konami is teasing what looks like a multiplayer mode. Is Metal Gear Online returning? I hope so. Nioh 3 is coming in 2026, a demo is out nowNioh 3 - Announcement Trailer | PS5 GamesTeam Ninja is back with Nioh 3. The game will let players swap between a samurai and a ninja on the fly during combat, and looks slick as heck. This one drops in 2026, but you can check out a demo for it today on PS5. Thief VR spin-off coming to PSVR2 this yearThief VR: Legacy of Shadow - Reveal Trailer | PS VR2 GamesWhen I saw this trailer, I thought, “Hey, this looks like a new Thief game.” And I was right. Thief VR Legacy of Shadow arrives in 2025 and is being co-developed by Eidos-Montréal and Vertigo Games. Tides of Tomorrow looks like a colorful Waterworld gameTides of Tomorrow - Release Date Trailer | PS5 GamesI love colorful-looking games, so Tides of Tomorrow instantly caught my eye. The mix of online asynchronous gameplay and having to deal with other people’s decisions in a dying and flooded world sounds interesting. Tides of Tomorrow arrives in February 2026.Astro Bot is getting even more levels! Astro Bot - Challenge DLC Trailer | State of Play 2025One of the best PS5 games ever made, Astro Bot, is getting even more free levels later this month. Five new levels will soon be added to Astro Bot. And Sony is bringing back the fan-favorite Astro Bot PS5 controller that sold out instantly last year.Sea of Remnants is another colorful pirate gameSea of Remnants - Announce Trailer | PS5 GamesWait a minute, another colorful and fun-looking ocean-based adventure game? That’s strange. But anyway, this third-person pirate game has a cool style and big bosses to fight. and ship gameplay. And mermaids. It arrives on PS5 in 2026. Sword of the Sea is coming to PS PlusSword of the Sea - Launch Date Announcement | PS5 GamesThe people behind Abzu and Pathless have a new game coming out, and it looks like you’ll be doing a lot of sick sword surfing. This launches on PS Plus on August 19. More games coming to PS Plus Classic CatalogDeus Ex’s PS2 port - Jun 17Twisted Metal 3 and Twisted Metal 4 - July 15Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 - Later this summer007 First Light reveals its new Bond“Bond is a bullet without a target. Let’s give him one.” This new trailer looks exciting as heck, but I’m really bummed by how boring the new Bond himself looks. This is out in 2026. Read more here. Ghost of Yotei will get its own digital eventSony is promising a big gamepaly deep dive for Sucker Punch’s upcoming samurai game. Expect to learn more in July. MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls | Announce TrailerWell, this is a wonderful surprise. Sony, Marvel, and Arc System Works (Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, Dragon Ball FighterZ) are teaming up to make a 2.5D Marvel Comics tag-team fighting game. And it looks sick as hell. Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is coming out in 2026 on PS5 and PC. Here’s a separate video Sony posted about how the game came about and the work going into it: MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls | From Japan to the World

AlienScreenRant, Ridley Scott explained how he’s done with the franchise, and reveals his true feelings about the franchise, beyond the films that he directed.Suggested ReadingBlasphemous 2 Developer Interview Share SubtitlesOffEnglishview videoSuggested ReadingBlasphemous 2 Developer Interview Share SubtitlesOffEnglishScott laid the groundwork for what the Alien franchise became. The first film establishes its setting, the Nostromo spaceship, as a claustrophobic labyrinth that induces more terror than the Xenomorph hunting and killing its crew members, and the moment a tiny alien bursts through the chest of Kane (John Hurt) is burned into the memory of anyone who saw it. While Scott returned to direct the 2012 prequel film Prometheus and 2017's Alien Covenant, he knows his time with the Alien franchise is likely done. “Where it’s going now, I think I’ve done enough, and I just hope it goes further.”His time with the franchise may be done, but he’s still probably the most trusted authority on what does and doesn’t work in Alien films. To him, the series “deadened after 4,” referring to 1997's Alien: Resurrection film. Part of the reason he thought there was nowhere else the franchise could go after the Jean-Pierre Jeunet-directed film is because he just didn’t think the movies after his and James Cameron’s films were that good.“I think mine was pretty damn good, and I think Jim’s was good, and I have to say the rest were not very good. And I thought, ‘Fuck, that’s the end of a franchise which should be as important as bloody Star Trek or Star Wars,’ which I think is phenomenal.” He did have very nice things to say about Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth TV series coming to FX starting August 12. As an executive producer on the show, Scott told The Hollywood Reporter that he appreciated how Hawley definitely respected the original Alien.” As he made clear, there’s much of the Alien franchise Scott doesn’t like, so him praising the upcoming series bodes well for the saga’s upcoming earthbound chapter.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a tough-as-nails game that blends the beloved roguelike and soulslike genres into something fans of both should find appealing. However, unlike most games in either genre, this one’s inherently designed around working together in a group of three. So, you may be wondering if you can strike out on your own in Elden Ring Nightreign. While the game is about to get easier for folks who choose to go it alone, right now such a style proves an exceptionally difficult challenge.Suggested ReadingThe Most Sought After Elden Ring Sword Has A Storied History Share SubtitlesOffEnglishview videoSuggested ReadingThe Most Sought After Elden Ring Sword Has A Storied History Share SubtitlesOffEnglish Elden Ring Nightreign solo?Let’s get this out of the way first: Yes, Elden Ring Nightreign offers the option for solo play. To do so, you’ll need to open the expedition menu at Roundtable Hold, then switch over to the matchmaking settings tab. At the bottom of the menu, set the Expedition Type to “Singleplayer.”The real question is whether Elden Ring Nightreign’s single-player experience is manageable or fun, and that really depends on your skill level, class choice, and patience more so than in any other similar game I can remember playing. If you really want to go at it by yourself, [play as] Ironeye or Wylder.Elden Ring Nightreign is already pretty damn challenging when running with a group of three other folks. The game’s sense of randomness adds a lot of unknowns to an expedition, and things can go wrong very quickly. But with a team, you can be revived, have someone else available to take some aggro from you when things get hairy, and use your character’s abilities to complement one another in difficult showdowns. It’s often still hard as hell, but victory usually feels possible even when things don’t go quite as planned.However, when you’re alone…Well, you’re all alone. If you die on a solo expedition, that’s it. You’re done. Back to the Roundable Hold with you, loser.With this in mind, some folks may find the anxiety-inducing pacing and chaotic showdowns enjoyable even while solo; but those who struggle to succeed without a group may find it demoralizing to watch hours go by without making any meaningful progress. And since some classes are much better for solo play than others, it can be even more frustrating to go it alone for someone who prefers to play one of the support-focused classes.If you really want to go at it by yourself, I’d recommend taking a look at Ironeye or Wylder.Ironeye’s ranged playstyle is the safest in the game, giving you a lot of freedom to tackle enemies your own way. For instance, you can take the high ground against some foes to avoid their attacks altogether, or use his sliding ability to dodge an attack and get behind an enemy for better positioning.Wylder, meanwhile, is a jack-of-all-trades character with a solid health pool and balanced stats that make him great at adapting to whatever type of loot a run provides. Simply grab any melee weapon and you’ll probably be doing alright with this fella. Plus, he has some of the coolest skins in the game. That doesn’t help you in battle, but like…come on. He looks rad.In conclusion, while things can certainly go poorly even with a team, I’d argue playing by your lonesome leaves too little room for error for a game that requires such a hefty time investment and minimal payoff for failure. Elden Ring Nightreign is designed from the ground up to be played with others, after all. Your mileage may vary, though, so play however you have fun with it! You can pick up Nightreign now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs. You’ll have to look elsewhere to pick up two other friends to play with, though.

The original Elden Ring allowed you to create a character and deck them out in any number of unique pieces of armor to truly show off your fashion skills. However, multiplayer spin-off Nightreign features fixed character classes and progress that resets after every run, so you won’t be finding any sick armor to wear in this one. Instead, you’ll need to purchase and change full outfits for each character if you want to look different. Suggested ReadingThe Most Sought After Elden Ring Sword Has A Storied History Share SubtitlesOffEnglishview videoSuggested ReadingThe Most Sought After Elden Ring Sword Has A Storied History Share SubtitlesOffEnglishElden Ring: NightreignTo change your outfit in Elden Ring Nightreign, you’ll first need to complete two full expeditions. This could take quite a few hours, depending on your skill level, luck, and access to a decent group. This is a brutally challenging game, after all, so nothing comes quickly. Give it time.After completing two full expeditions of your choosing, you’ll unlock the “Change Garb” feature in your menu, which you can select to instantly access the outfit-changing menu. However, you can also manually access a mirror on the east side of the Roundtable Hold to access the same menu—though that generally sounds like a bit of unnecessary work.Screenshot: FromSoftware / Billy Givens / KotakuWhen you first unlock the ability to change garbs, you’ll find that you only have access to a total of three outfits per character. You’ll have the default skin automatically, of course, and you can purchase two additional skins, Dawn and Darkness, for each character using Murk (currency).If you don’t like either of the extra outfits available in the beginning, don’t worry about it. You can purchase additional outfits much later in the game, so keep at it. It’s an ultra-hard game, but practice makes perfect. Elden Ring Nightreign is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.

Start SlideshowStart SlideshowImage: Nintendo / Kotaku / Jake Randall / Burndumb, Nintendo / Kotaku, Fox / Disney / Kotaku, Sandfall Interactive, Nintendo / Kotaku, Arrowhead Game Studios / Kotaku, Screenshot: Подкаст «Пóпы и культура» / YouTube / Switch 2, a2dubai / YouTube / KotakuFrom mergers to memes, the landscape of interactive entertainment is always in motion. Here’s your cheat sheet for the week’s most important stories in gaming.Previous SlideNext SlideList slidesTarget Leaves Dozens Of Switch 2 Consoles Locked In A Cage On The Store FloorNintendo’s next big console, the Switch 2, is set to arrive on store shelves in just 10 days. So it’s not surprising to see photos showing dozens of Switch 2 consoles sitting in store warehouses and back areas. However, I wasn’t expecting a bunch of Switch 2 consoles to be sitting in a metal cage in the middle of a Target already. - Zack Zwiezen Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesSwitch 2 Leaker Explains How He Got The Console Early And Why He's Not Afraid Of NintendoImage: Nintendo / KotakuIt was the middle of the night when Fedor Volkov found himself anxiously waiting on the streets of Moscow for a ride back home. In his arms he held a Switch 2 box and nestled within was the console fans had been waiting years to get their hands on, but which still didn’t officially go on sale for more than a week. He was too nervous and excited to remember to bring something to hide it in. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesSomeone Take Away Randy Pitchford's PhoneImage: Fox / Disney / KotakuSometimes you just gotta walk away. And this might be one of those times. Earlier this month, Gearbox co-founder and CEO Randy Pitchford replied to someone on social media about the studio’s next game, Borderlands 4, possibly receiving an $80 price tag. He said it wasn’t his call and then infamously added, “If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen.” This didn’t go over well with people online. A few days later, on May 22, he said he didn’t intend to sound like an asshole. - Zack Zwiezen Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesSwitch 2 Startup And Menu Settings Appear Online As Early Player Shows Off Console In 'Code Red' Leak For NintendoScreenshot: Подкаст «Пóпы и культура» / YouTube / Switch 2The Switch 2 is just days away from its official June 5 launch, but already footage is beginning to spread online of people going hands-on with Nintendo’s next console. One fan based in Russia recently uploaded a nearly 10-minute video that includes the Switch 2's startup sequence and a tour through its menu settings. “Respects to this man for sacrificing his life to unbox the console a week before launch,” reads the top comment on YouTube. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesClair Obscur: Expedition 33 Publisher Says Fans Would Never Guess The Hit RPG's Budget: 'I'm Sure Mirror's Edge And Vanquish Cost More'Image: Sandfall InteractiveClair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the top-rated games of the year and has sold over 3.3 million copies. And it did it all with a very small budget, according to publisher Kelpler Interactive. How small? Portfolio director Matthew Handrahan isn’t saying, but he thinks everyone’s guesses are probably wrong. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesOnly One First-Party Nintendo Game Won't Work On Switch 2Image: Nintendo / KotakuThe Nintendo Switch 2 will be able to play most original Switch games without any issues when it launches on June 5. According to an update from Nintendo, most big games and all first-party titles (with one tiny exception) will work on Switch 2, though you might need an update or an old Joy-Con. - Zack Zwiezen Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesHelldivers 2 Players Are Pulling Off Incredible Feats In A Last-Ditch Effort To Save Super EarthImage: Arrowhead Game Studios / KotakuHelldivers 2's Galactic War has come to Super Earth and it’s going very, very badly. Players have lost every major city on the planet save for two, but are making a triumphant last stand against the Illuminate as fans from across the real world band together to hold the line. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesSomeone's Unboxing A Switch 2 But Claims It Needs A Day-One Patch To WorkScreenshot: a2dubai / YouTube / KotakuSwitch 2 hardware appears to be officially out in the wild, but it doesn’t sound like anyone will be able to play the console early. A day-one patch is needed for it to fully work, according to someone who uploaded a brief unboxing video of the new Nintendo console to YouTube. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesGameStop Doubles Down On Crypto With Massive Bitcoin Purchase As Stores CloseGameStop Doubles Down On Crypto With Massive Bitcoin Purchase As Stores Close Share SubtitlesOffEnglishThe company continues its pivot away from selling games and toward doing anything else to stay afloatPrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesPlayStation’s Days of Play Brings Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, NBA 2K25 & More To PS PlusPlayStation’s Days of Play Brings Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, NBA 2K25 & More To PS Plus Share SubtitlesOffEnglishBomb Rush Cyberfunk is hitting PS Plus alongside NBA 2K25 and a Destiny 2 takeover in June

Kai Cenat became Twitch’s top showman long ago, but the secret to his ongoing success is continuously finding new ways to take his streaming stunts to the next level. Last year it was turning a 1,700-death-filled Elden Ring marathon into the gaming event of the season. In 2025 it was a riff on reality TV and Hogwarts called Streamer University that crammed a bunch of streamers into a dorm and let the algorithm-fueled drama unfold. Suggested ReadingGameStop Doubles Down On Crypto With Massive Bitcoin Purchase As Stores Close Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingGameStop Doubles Down On Crypto With Massive Bitcoin Purchase As Stores Close Share SubtitlesOffEnglishGameStop Doubles Down On Crypto With Massive Bitcoin Purchase As Stores CloseThe multi-day event got underway on May 22 with 120 rising streamers handpicked for an all-expenses-paid stay at the University of Akron to participate in Cenat’s Saw-like social experiment of watching his peers and protégés vie for attention, clout, and maybe learn something about getting famous monetizing that fame in the modern creator economy along the way. There were fights, expulsions, late-night parties, and actual classes. It was heavily manufactured and also brought in tens of millions of views. Streamer University Best Moments!A great report by Vulture interviewed some of the participants and offers an incisive recap of the entire spectacle. One “student” named Winston Groves recalled getting hazed with a hot dog in a condom left around his doorknob and said the cafeteria food tasted like it was gruel out of Minecraft. One of the floors was called the “demon floor” because of the stink. “The whole floor smelled like wild fumes, mysterious funk,” Groves told Vulture. Nobody slept. Everyone was constantly filming. There were apparently a lot of hot dogs and baby oil, seemingly the modern-day prank comedy equivalents of whoopee cushions and cream pies. “They had this prank where they made fake poop with fart spray and it had literally stank up our room to the point where my roommate’s eyes were tearing up,” said attendee Kieya Jennings, “There was water everywhere, baby oil, baby powder, noodles,” recalled Mari Franklin.There are over 10 hours of streams on Cenat’s Twitch channel from the weekend-long saga, and many, many more from the channels of the individuals in attendance. Comments on a video for the final day’s awards ceremony were filled with nothing but love for the streaming world’s current master of ceremonies. Streamer University’s valedictorian was Tylil James, a rising star with a big following that’s still only a fraction of Cenat’s. “Kai put on so many different type of creators and let them just create and do whatever they was great at,” reads the top comment. .

Start SlideshowStart SlideshowImage: FromSoftware / CD Projekt Red / Bethesda / KotakuWith this weekend comes the close of another month in 2025. We’ve had a few ups and downs this past week. For us fans of CD Projekt Red’s adaptation of Cyberpunk, we just got a little bit closer to its sequel. That’s exciting! But, if you were eagerly anticipating the Black Panther video game, sadly that project’s been killed and the studio has been closed. Awful stuff. But on a more positive note, there’s a new console out next week! The Switch 2 arrives on June 5, but we’ve already seen consoles hanging out in Target aisles while unboxing videos have sprung up on the internet. We even had a chat with someone who got his hands on a unit already. Until the Switch 2 arrives, however, all of us are stuck with our old consoles and PCs. Luckily, those still work, so we’ll be playing some games this weekend. If you’re looking for a few recommendations to fill up your next couple of days, why don’t you have a look?Previous SlideNext Slide2 / 8List slidesCyberpunk 2077List slidesCyberpunk 2077Image: CD Projekt RedPlay it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Verified”) and soon, Switch 2Current goal: See if Night City can seduce meGenerally, here in the Weekend Guide, we write about games we already know that we like, that we’re looking forward to spending more time with, and that we can enthusiastically recommend. But this weekend, what I’ll be doing is enthusiastically revisiting, with fresh eyes, a game I didn’t care for much the first time I finished it: Cyberpunk 2077. That experience was back around launch, and though I’ve returned to CDPR’s much-revised open-world role-playing game a few times in the years since then to replay its excellent first few hours, and I even visited the new district of Dogtown when the Phantom Liberty expansion arrived, I have not actually given the full game another proper chance. What’s compelling me to do this now, of all times? Well, the fact that it’s landing on Switch 2 next week alongside the console itself, in a version that looks mighty impressive for running on handheld hardware. There’s little doubt that Mario Kart World will absorb the bulk of my time on the new device in those first few weeks after launch, but I also have an itch to pick up another impressive game or two. And I do greatly appreciate that Cyberpunk 2077’s physical release will be an actual cart with the game on it, none of this “Game-Key Card” nonsense. But before I shell out another $70 for a game I already own elsewhere just so I have something else to play on my shiny new console, I want to be sure I actually feel Night City calling to me. There was some mystery and poetry to be found on its streets at launch, but also a lot I didn’t care for, and I don’t just mean glitches and other technical issues. Still, I’m open to being seduced by the game after all these years, and I think revisiting a game years later can often be an immensely fascinating and rewarding experience. So if you’re looking for me this weekend, look no further than The Afterlife. — Carolyn Petit Previous SlideNext Slide3 / 8List slidesElden Ring NightreignList slidesElden Ring NightreignImage: FromSoftwarePlay it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: Playable)Current goal: Defeat the Gaping JawI’m prepping for a gaming all-nighter with the boys tonight. I somehow convinced my Rocket League crew to go all-in on Elden Ring Nightreign, and after trying to insulate them as much as possible from all of the current criticisms swirling around about FromSoftware’s messy new multiplayer experiment, they have it installed and ready to go. It’s the first time in years we’ve managed to get everyone together for a new multiplayer launch. Even though I’ve been playing the game for review prior to release I’m excited to finally experience the magic of navigating its battle-royale-infused Elden Ring horrors with the proper level of laughter, anguish, and friendly negging. Despite its flaws, I feel an incredible rush every time I drop into a new Nightreign run, and the boss fights have the aura at times of mini-raids. I can’t wait to play it all weekend. I will not let my crew abandon Limveld before our work is done. — Ethan GachPrevious SlideNext Slide4 / 8List slidesBalatroList slidesBalatroImage: LocalThunkPlay it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Verified”), MobileCurrent goal: Break 1 billion in a single handI’ve fallen back into Balatro hard. Almost every night this week I’ve snuck in a run or two before bed. Encouraged by the card-playing prowess of PS5 architect Mark Cerny I’ve decided to try to go for the platinum trophy now that it’s free with PS Plus. Progress has been decent so far. I’ve been able to complete most decks in a single run, though Ante 12 when things quickly scale into the hundreds of millions continues to elude me. Things were going decent the other night when I got a deck full of Kings, a Barron Joker that gives 1.5X for each one held, and the Blueprint Joker that mimics that effect a second time. Unfortunately, some critical miss plays left me unable to break 500,000,000 for the small blind. But the constant churn of new unlocks and achievements has me, for now at least, feeling buoyed by my obsession. — Ethan GachPrevious SlideNext Slide5 / 8List slidesProject Warlock IIList slidesProject Warlock IIImage: Buckshot SoftwarePlay it on: Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Playable”)Current goal: Complete more levels and get more powerfulProject Warlock II is a boomer shooter that recently left early access. It is also a retro-inspired FPS that feels like it’s always terrified that you might get bored and stop playing. So the fast-paced shooter is filled with weapons to find, achievements to earn, collectibles, big fights, power-ups, stats to boost, perks to unlock, challenges to complete, things to upgrade, and much more. And I’m here for it. The combat in Warlock is punchy and satisfying, while moving around levels feels smooth and buttery. There’s something really wonderful about killing a giant horde of imps and skeletons using two super shotguns. Or mowing down a giant pig demon with a machine gun. I’m not sure Project Warlock II is going to land on my game of the year list, but I’m diggin’ it. – Zack Zwiezen Previous SlideNext Slide6 / 8List slidesBorderlands 3List slidesBorderlands 3Image: Gearbox SoftwarePlay it on: Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: Playable)Current goal: Replay the campaign ahead of Borderlands 4Yeah, yeah, I know some people don’t like Borderlands 3 as much as 2, but I’m not one of those people. I agree that 2’s Handsome Jack is a much better villain, but I prefer basically everything else in Borderlands 3 over the earlier sequel. Combat is better, moving around the world feels nicer, and the larger levels and various planets provide perfect places to explore and loot. My wife and I have jumped back in and are running through the game with new characters ahead of Borderlands 4’s arrival. I’m curious to see how many of the jokes land, and I will be very curious to see how the upcoming sequel compares. If we finish this entry with enough time, we might go back and play Pre-Sequel, which is one of my favorite games in the series. — Zack Zwiezen Previous SlideNext Slide7 / 8List slidesThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion RemasteredList slidesThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion RemasteredDid you know the horses smile??Screenshot: Bethesda / Claire Jackson / KotakuPlay it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Verified”)Current goal: Avoid violenceYou know, the problem I have with Bethesda games is that I usually take the premise of “play however you want” a bit further than the games are actually designed to support. Such was the case when I tried to resist violence in Starfield. While I enjoy rolling the dice on these games by developing a unique character concept and trying to see just where adhering to it will take me, the games are typically designed in favor of violent playthroughs, which means my less violently inclined characters have a really rough time. It’s a shame when an open-world game promises so much, but then it turns out I can’t just chill there and experience things other than swinging swords and using explosive spells.Apparently not having learned my lesson, I’m gonna try for yet another low-combat Bethesda run, this time in Oblivion, knowing full well that violence will show up whether I want it to or not. Maybe it’ll work in a narratively satisfying way for me this time around. Whether I’ll pivot my existing Oblivion character to this or just make a new one, I’m not sure, but the plan is to roleplay as either an alchemist or some kind of really obsessed botanist. I just wanna stroll through these fantasy landscapes, collecting herbs that I’ll use to brew potions and sometimes even sell back at market. But I’m sure there’ll be some damn dog, or fish, or demon from hell that’ll show up to wreck my day. Maybe I’ll have enough potions to make it through the forests alive. In any case, as frustrating as it can be, that challenge of trying to resist what a game wants me to do often makes it worth playing all on its own. — Claire JacksonAnd that wraps our picks. Happy gaming!

ZeniMax Workers United just became the biggest game developer union in the country yet to win a contract at a major publisher. The group of over 300 quality assurance testers across franchises like Fallout and Doom secured an agreement with Microsoft that includes wage increases, salary minimums, and crediting procedures. Suggested ReadingWhy People Are Rushing To Sell Their Xbox Series X To GameStop Right Now Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingWhy People Are Rushing To Sell Their Xbox Series X To GameStop Right Now Share SubtitlesOffEnglishWhy People Are Rushing To Sell Their Xbox Series X To GameStop Right Now “Video games have been the revenue titan of the entire entertainment industry for years, and the workers who develop these games are too often exploited for their passion and creativity. Organizing unions, bargaining for a contract, and speaking with one collective voice has allowed workers to take back the autonomy we all deserve,” ZeniMax QA tester and bargaining committee member Jessee Leese said in a press release. “Our first contract is an invitation for video game professionals everywhere to take action. We’re the ones who make these games, and we’ll be the ones to set new standards for fair treatment.”The contract will now go to the full membership for review with a ratification vote planned for June 20. Once completed, ZeniMax devs, including staff at Bethesda Game Studios, will have won the biggest collective bargaining agreement yet of any of the major gaming unions that have formed in recent years. Sega of America staff secured their first union contract last year, while developers at other Microsoft-owned studios, including the Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft teams at Blizzard, as well as Call of Duty testers at Raven Software, continue bargaining. The ZeniMax contract comes just two months after union employees there threatened to go on strike if an agreement wasn’t reached following a nearly two-year-long negotiation process. The Communications Workers of America, which represents ZeniMax Workers United and other Microsoft gaming unions, previously filed an unfair labor practice charge against the tech giant claiming it was slow-walking the talks. The new contract, once ratified, will provide important benchmarks for other teams currently hashing out agreements. Correction 5/30/2025 6:56 p.m. ET: Sega of America workers were the first union at a major gaming company to secure a contract. .

“The President of Super Earth has been killed in action by the Illuminate during the fall of Prosperity City.” That was the message that greeted Helldivers 2 players when they logged on last night in one last bid to repel their invading squid-like foes. Some truthers think the hit was inside job. When the dust settled Friday morning, the battle to save Super Earth was over and players had succeeded in winning the extraction shooter’s biggest showdown since it launched. Pus they got a new battle station to celebrate. Suggested ReadingThe Week In Games: Co-Op Bug Blasting And More New Releases Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingThe Week In Games: Co-Op Bug Blasting And More New Releases Share SubtitlesOffEnglishThe Week In Games: Co-Op Bug Blasting And More New Releases“The devastation wrought upon our home is immense,” read the latest in-game dispatch from Arrowhead Game Studios. “Only two Mega Cities remain standing: Prosperity City and Equality-on-Sea. The remainder have been vacated by the enemy, having suffered catastrophic damage at their hands.” New Major Orders are still pending, but in the meantime players get to vote on where to move the new DSS battle station that aided in the fight, and that provides extra military bonuses to Helldivers fighting on whatever planet it orbits. For anyone who missed the last two weeks, a brief series of entries on the Galactic Map recaps the events from the Illuminate’s arrival and torching of Mars and other planets, all the way through players’ epic last stand to protect Equality-on-Sea (Helldivers’ version of Shanghai). A lot of creative military tactics were improvised and deployed to take down the massive invading Leviathan ships, and a wave of negative Steam reviews, purportedly from Chinese players angry, due to a potential mistranslation, about why they couldn’t seem to fully liberate Equality-on-Sea, appears to have subsided.What happens next is anyone’s guess. Arrowhead Game Studios might take some time before kicking off whatever it has planned to let players catch their breath. Maybe the development team is lining up a revenge campaign, or maybe there’s still another shoe to drop and Super Earth isn’t quite in the clear after all. A new president? In this economy? Maybe they’re just an Illuminate plant after all, ready to control Super Earth from within. The beauty of Helldivers 2's fascist space satire is that nothing is ever quite out of the question. May kicked off one of Helldivers 2's biggest balance patches and content updates in some time, including a new Warbond battle pass with additional melee weapons and the ability to level up and customize most of the shooter’s guns. I wouldn’t bet on any other big updates anytime soon. That said, Summer Game Fest is just around the corner and Arrowhead used host Geoff Keighley’s last big gaming showcase to announce the addition of the Illuminate to the fray. Who knows what’s in store for the second half of Helldivers 2's second year?.

Elden Ring Nightreign had a huge first night on PC. It’s already FromSoftware’s second-biggest launch ever on Steam. But the multiplayer spin-off of the 2022 hit open-world RPG is also already getting hammered by user reviews as fans complain about the lack of onboarding, poor communication tools, and the need to play with friends to have any real shot at surviving the challenging boss fights. Suggested ReadingThe Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: August 2023 Edition Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingThe Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: August 2023 Edition Share SubtitlesOffEnglishThe Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: August 2023 EditionOfficially out today on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, Elden Ring Nightreign went live on PC last night at around 6:00 p.m. ET. The latest release from the Dark Souls team immediately sprang up the Steam charts to reach over 300,000 concurrent players. That made it the fourth-biggest game on Valve’s storefront and the second-biggest FromSoftware launch on PC behind Elden Ring. Its namesake and its $40 price point clearly did the experimental multiplayer spin-off some favors. But it didn’t take players long to realize that Nightreign is very much not Elden Ring. Unlike its slow, plodding predecessor, the spin-off is a battle royale-influenced loot race in which sessions see an entire Soulsborne experience condensed into just 45 minutes. It takes some getting used to, and players are already coming to grips with Nightreign’s notable hostility to explaining itself, even for a FromSoftware game. And while it does allow for offline solo play, its steep difficulty curve—more of a right angle really—heavily rewards group play and coordination. “If you don’t have 2 other friends to play with in voice chat, don’t waste your time,” wrote Steam user Hishamm. “Game is Elden Ring, but 3p, and the solo queue is abysmal.” “Gameplay itself seems fun but I can’t possible leave a positive review if a game released in 2025 has no way to communicate in a coop game (neither voice nor text chat),” wrote Lynni. “Impossible to make progress without voice chat,” wrote Vahit Horoz. “If you have 3 friends you can talk to and play regularly, you will have a great time, the connection is smooth, the map is full of events and the game loop is very interesting.”The game currently has a Steam rating of 65 percent, making it the lowest-scored FromSoftware release on the platform outside of Dark Souls III’s Ashes of Ariandel DLC. The reviews are full of complaints about the lack of duos (you have to either play alone or with a three-stack) and how matchmaking with strangers often leads to people randomly running around the map without coordinating, a task made harder by the lack of communication tools outside of pings and emotes. I think that might even out in the days and weeks ahead as players learn the basics of the randomized Nightreign map and how much more efficient you are together than split up, but the lack of modern multiplayer features is a real issue. Screenshot: Valve / KotakuPrior to launch, director Junya Ishizaki told IGN that duos support wasn’t planned any time soon. “We are trying to cater to a fun experience with three people,” he said. “So making sure the experience is fun at its core with a group of three, but it also doesn’t collapse if it’s a solo player as well … 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.”It’s also unclear if FromSoftware is planning to dial back the difficulty for solo players in an upcoming patch. Nightlord bosses are practically impossible at the moment for all but the most experienced and hardcore Elden Ring loners. A mysterious day-one patch alluded to balance changes and other improvements, but didn’t spell out exactly what those changes are. If FromSoftware does decide to dial things back a bit, it wouldn’t be the first time it’s made one of its games easier. The studio quickly made Shadow of the Erdtree’s final boss much easier when it kicked everyone’s ass last summer. We’ll see if Nightreign eventually takes mercy on players without friends as well. .

Elden Ringbandai namcoByEthan GachPublished2 hours agoWe may earn a commission from links on this page.Image: FromSoftware / Bandai NamcoElden Ring Nightreign’s bosses can be a real struggle, even working alongside two other teammates. Solo, however, they’re downright brutal. While the game allows fans to play offline by themselves, it’s an experience best left to only the most hardcore Soulslike sickos. Will FromSoftware address that in a day-one update? The predictably opaque patch notes don’t say. Suggested ReadingThe Most Sought After Elden Ring Sword Has A Storied History Share SubtitlesOffEnglishview videoSuggested ReadingThe Most Sought After Elden Ring Sword Has A Storied History Share SubtitlesOffEnglishBandai Namco revealed a day-one patch for the multiplayer roguelite RPG— arriving May 30 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC—and the update apparently addresses character handling, bug fixes, and game balance. But what precise changes were made? The publisher doesn’t say. Here are the full patch notes:Improved handling of playable charactersSoundtrack addition and adjustmentsText adjustmentsBalance adjustmentsAdded character scenariosBug fixesNeat! But what does it mean?! Early reviews, including my own impressions of Elden Ring Nightreign after 10 hours with the game, paint a picture of FromSoftware’s latest spin-off being a messy but intriguing experiment in old-school (read: hostile) game design, built on modern twists (randomized loot, a closing battle royale circle of death). Throwing yourself against that brick wall as a group can be fun, suffering the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of great FromSoftware bosses together. But some of the pain points and uneven friction are a lot harder to negotiate when just playing by yourself. From simple things like enemy aggro, to more intricate nuisances like loot RNG and grinding a run just to discover your never got the weapon-type to exploit a Nightlord’s weakness, is even more frustrating solo with no friends to help bail you out. While there are some early players who have seemingly cleared the game in single-player, I can confidently say that’s not a viable option for most of the 30 million people who bought the original Elden Ring. Does that matter? Maybe not! But it would be nice to know if it’s something FromSoftware is looking to tweak in the day-one patch, or whether it intends to maintain it as a cornerstone of the experience, with the extra challenge of solo play pushing more people toward multiplayer matchmaking. Director Junya Ishizaki said earlier this week he was all “nerves and excitement” approaching the game’s launch, but that the team is “continually tweaking and balancing the game.” We’ll see what that amounts to in practice when Nightreign goes live, starting at 6:00 p.m. ET May 29 for players on PC, then midnight on console..

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We made it, everybody. We’ve reached the end of HBO’s The Last of Us. Wait, sorry, I’m getting word in my earpiece that…we’re only halfway done with it because this show’s going for four seasons. At this point, I’m mostly feeling deflated. Last week’s episode was such a catastrophic bummer that it cemented for me that the show fundamentally misunderstands The Last of Us Part II, the game this season and those that are still yet to come are adapting. But you know how your mother would tell you not to play ball in the house because you might accidentally break the priceless vase on display in the living room? Well, if you’ve already broken the vase, you might as well keep playing ball, so we’ll probably be doing this song and dance into 2029. For now, we’re on the season two finale, which essentially wraps up Ellie’s side of this condensed revenge story and reveals the premise of season three. Most game fans probably assumed this was where the season would end and, if nothing else, it’s still a bold cliffhanger to leave off on.Suggested ReadingNintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go Higher Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingNintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go Higher Share SubtitlesOffEnglishNintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go HigherGuilty as chargedAfter last week’s flashback-heavy episode, we open on Jesse (Young Mazino) tending to wounds the Seraphites have inflicted on Dina (Isabela Merced), which means we get a real heinous scene of him doing some amateur surgeon’s work to remove the arrow she took to the knee. He douses it in alcohol and offers her a sip to dull the pain, but she staunchly refuses without explaining why. They made Jesse an asshole in this show, but he’s still a smart guy. The gears start turning in his head about why she might turn down a swig right now. Nevertheless, he takes that motherfucker out with no anesthetic, booze, or supportive bedside girlfriend to help Dina through it.Speaking of the absent girlfriend, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) finally returns to their theater base of operations. Now that she’s back, all her concern is on Dina, but Jesse is still wondering where the hell she’s been this whole time. Dina is resting backstage, and even though we only see these details for a few minutes, I once again want to shout out the set designers who recreated this little safe haven, which is covered in old show posters and graffiti from bands and artists that performed there before the cordyceps took over. I’m sure Joel would have loved to have seen it.Dina stirs awake and Ellie checks her wound. Jesse’s effort to wrap the injury leaves a lot to be desired, but it should heal in time. Ellie asks if the baby’s alright, and Dina says it’s okay.“How do you know?” Ellie asks.“I just do,” Dina replies.The one who is not okay in the room is Ellie, who is bleeding through the back of her shirt. Dina helps her undress and starts to clean the scratches on her back. As she does, she asks what happened while they were separated. Ellie says she found Nora (Tati Gabrielle), and she knew where Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) was, but only said two words: “Whale” and “Wheel.” Ellie says she doesn’t know what it meant. It could have been nonsense. She was infected, and it was already starting to affect her cognitive state.“I made her talk,” Ellie whispers. “I thought it would be harder to do, but it wasn’t. It was easy. I just kept hurting her.”Image: HBODina asks if Ellie killed her, but she says she just “left her,” meaning that somewhere in this timeline, Nora is wandering the depths of a Seattle hospital with broken legs and an infected mind. I thought the show couldn’t possibly concoct a worse fate for her than what happens in the game, but they found a way. It takes commitment to put down a character like showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have done for Nora across both video games and television. Personally, I think when you already know that people are wary of the way you treat one of the few Black women in your franchise as if she doesn’t deserve the same dignity as everyone else, maybe you should do better by her when given a second chance, rather than worse. But that’s just me. I’m not the one being paid a bunch of money to butcher this story on HBO Max every Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern. So what do I know?Maybe this is just part of the contrived sadism the show has attached to Ellie. She thinks violence is easy and it comes naturally to her, so I guess she would beat a woman nearly to death until the fungal infection made her lose her mind. Meanwhile the game version is so traumatized by what she’s done in this moment, she’s practically speechless by the time she reaches the theater. God, I knew this shit was going to happen. Mazin has repeatedly insisted that Ellie is an inherently violent individual, something he’s communicated both in interviews and by having Catherine O’Hara’s Gail, the therapist who tells you what the story is about, say that she’s always been a sadist, probably. Now, when we get to moments like the post-Nora debrief which used to convey that Ellie is Not Cut Out For This Shit, the framing instead becomes “Ellie likes violence and feels bad about how much she likes violence.”Before The Last of Us Part II came out, a lot of Naughty Dog’s promotion for the game was kind of vague and even deceptive in an effort to keep its biggest twists under wraps, and some of the messaging it used to talk about the game’s themes have irrevocably set a precedent for how the game’s story is talked about years later. When the game was first revealed in 2016, the studio said the story would be “about hate,” which paints a much more destructive and myopic picture of Ellie’s journey than the one driven by love and grief she actually experiences through the course of the game.One of the most annoying things about being a Last of Us fan is that its creators love to talk about the series in ways that erase its emotional complexity, making it sound more cynical and underhanded when the actual story it’s telling is anything but. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard people reductively parroting notions that The Last of Us Part II is just about “hate” and “guilting the player” for taking part in horrifying actions when they literally have no choice but to do so, rather than cracking the text open and dissecting that nuance. Mazin’s openly-expressed belief that Ellie is an intrinsically bloodthirsty person similarly bleeds into how a lot of the public perceives her as a character, seeing her as a violent ruffian rather than a grieving daughter who was only ever taught to express her pain by inflicting it on those who made her feel it in the first place. Discussing these games as a fan means having to fight against these notions, but they’re born from a game built on subtext, and thus willingly opens itself to those interpretations.Its willingness to dwell in ambiguity only makes it a more fascinating text to unpack, or it would, if we lived in a world where discussing video games wasn’t a volatile experience in which you constantly run the risk of being targeted for performative online dunks, or running up against rabid console tribalism. Now, the Last of Us show has decided to lean into the most boring interpretation of what this story is about without an ounce of subtlety, nuance, or even sympathy for Ellie’s plight. She is a sadist who does terrible things not simply because she’s grieving her father figure, but because this is just who she is. Mazin has deemed it so, and here we are, and this vision of her will no doubt weave itself into the fabric of how we talk about Ellie Williams, even in the game.This story only has any thematic weight if Ellie’s violent outbursts are rooted in pain, not pleasure. Yeah, what we’re seeing in the show is her acting from a mix of those things but, in the game at least, the most affecting moments of Ellie’s Seattle revenge tour happen when she has to confront how she is not built for acts of violent excess in the same way Joel was. She never has been. Back in Part I, she was sick to her stomach when she committed her first kill to save Joel, and the entire point of Part II was that we see her cut off parts of herself to do what she feels she must, only to find that she’s unable to recognize herself when it’s all over. In the show, she is instead mesmerized by carnage, only to decide she doesn’t like that she feels that way, actually. But all this self-reflection is fleeting, because she’s only killed one person on her list, and there’s a lot more work to do. How many Joels is Nora’s life worth to Ellie? One-fifth?While Ellie is wrestling with these feelings, Dina is about to see things with more clarity than ever. At first, she says that Nora may have deserved this fate worse than death, to which Ellie says “Maybe she didn’t,” before telling her girlfriend everything. She tearfully recounts Joel’s massacre of the Fireflies at the base in Salt Lake City, how the group was going to use her immunity to create a cure, and how Joel killed Abby’s father to save her. Dina puts it all together and asks Ellie if she knew who Abby’s group was. She says she didn’t, but she did know what Joel did. Dina sits with that for a moment, then flatly says the group needs to go home.So I guess this is how the show gets Dina, who’s been pretty revenge-hungry thus far, back onto the track she’s on in the games. Without spoiling scenes in the late game for the uninitiated, some major points of conflict at the end of Part II require her to be less on-board with Ellie’s vendetta, so the fact that she’s been egging her girlfriend on to track down Abby was an odd choice. I wasn’t sure how the show would handle it down the line, but it seems the way HBO’s show has course-corrected was by having her condemn Joel’s actions. Dina had her own relationship with the old man in the show, so I imagine that in a later season she’ll interrogate how she feels about him in light of this new information, but having her more or less get off the ride when she learns what Joel has done sets up a contrast between her and Ellie that I’m curious to see how the show handles.The shame of it, though, is that this is just one more thing that undermines one of the core foundations of the source material, and I have to get at least one more jab in on this topic before we end the season. In The Last of Us Part II, when you look at what is actually expressed in dialogue, you see that characters are often lacking important information about each other. This lack of communication is an important part of its storytelling, but the show is instead having characters tell everyone everything. In Part II, Joel and Ellie don’t know who Abby’s father was. It’s strongly implied that no one other than Joel, Ellie, and Tommy knew about what happened in Salt Lake City, not even Dina. The more the show bridges these gaps of communication, the more senseless this entire tit-for-tat feels. To be clear, it was senseless in the game, but it was in a tragic, “these people are so blinded by their emotions that they can’t fathom another path forward” sort of way. This time around, everyone knows exactly what’s happening and chooses to partake in violence anyway. We don’t have any mystery or lack of communication to fall back on as a we struggle to understand why the characters keep making these self-destructive decisions. Everyone is just knowingly the worst version of themselves this time around, and I guess Mazin thinks that’s the point, which is the kind of boring interpretation that makes the show such an inferior version of this story.Family mattersWe now begin our third day in Seattle. Ellie and Jesse are packing up to get going in the theater lobby. The plan is to find Tommy (Gabriel Luna) somewhere in the city and then head back to Jackson. However, Jesse is a lot less talkative this morning. Dina limps into the lobby, and after a brief scolding for being on her feet, she gives Ellie a bracelet for good luck.“I’m not sure it’s been working for you,” Ellie jokes.“I’m alive,” Dina replies.Jesse is clearly uncomfortable watching his ex (or are they technically still together now? I’m not sure) give Ellie a prized possession, and says he can go alone if Dina wants Ellie to stay. Ellie says they’ll be safer together. Jesse relents and says they should be back by sundown. The tension is radiating off him, but the pair leaves Dina in the safety of the theater.Image: HBOEllie and Jesse awkwardly walk through the remains of Seattle. She finally breaks the silence by asking how he found Ellie and Dina’s theater base. He recounts his two days of tracking, giving a shoutout to the horse Shimmer who’s still vibing in the record store the girls left her at, but he’s clearly pissed. Ellie assumes it’s because he and Tommy had to cross state lines to come find them, but no, there’s something else on his mind. Why do Ellie and Dina look at each other differently? Why did Dina turn down a free drink for the first time in her life? He’s putting it all together. Dina and Ellie are no longer just gals being pals, and his (now ex?) girlfriend is pregnant.“None of this has to change things between us,” Ellie says.“Everything changing doesn’t have to change things?” Jesse asks. “Well, how about this for something new: I’m gonna be a father, which means I can’t die. But because of you, we’re stuck in a warzone. So how about we skip the apologies and just go find Tommy so I can get us and my kid the fuck out of Seattle?”Wow, okay. Judgey, much? I mean, you’re right, Jesse. This is a no good, very bad situation, and Ellie has put your kid in danger and won’t even tell you she was torturing a woman last night. But god, I miss kindhearted Jesse. I miss Ellie’s golden retriever best friend who, when finding out Dina was pregnant, firmly but gently told Ellie it was time to get the fuck out of Seattle. Now that the show has created a messy cheating love triangle out of these three, I’m once again reflecting on how The Last of Us Part II could have very easily made this storyline a dramatic, angry one, and instead it was one of the brighter spots in a dark tale. Meanwhile, in the show, the whole thing feels like it’s regressed to a rote and predictable earlier draft of the story that’s much less refreshing and compelling than the one we already know. Justice for Jesse. This is character assassination of the goodest boy in all of Jackson. Well, actually, that’s Abby’s job. Sorry, sorry. That’s actually not for another 35 minutes.As the two move further into the city, they see more art praising the Seraphite prophet on the buildings, but she looks notably different than in images we’ve seen previously. This art depicts a Black woman, whereas others have typically portrayed the prophet as white. Ellie wonders aloud if there’s “more than one of her.” Jesse says it’s possible, but ushers her forward as rain starts pouring down. I’m curious what the show might be doing here, as this is a divergence from Part II. Could the Seraphites be a kind of polytheistic group in the show that follows multiple prophets? Could they believe the Prophet was reincarnated into a different woman at some point? All we can do is theorize, but we haven’t seen much of the Seraphites this season so we don’t have much to go on. Which is by design, and feels pretty in-line with Part II, which didn’t tell you much about the group during Ellie’s three days in Seattle. We’ll pick this thread back up next season, I’m sure.The pair takes shelter but before they can catch their breath, they hear the popping sound of gunfire nearby as a W.L.F. squad corners a lone Seraphite. Ellie and Jesse watch in horror as the wolves strip and drag him away. Just as Ellie nearly gets out from cover to intervene, Jesse pulls her back. Once the coast is clear, Ellie walks away in a huff. As Jesse follows, he points out that they were outnumbered and would have lost that fight.“He was a fucking kid!” Ellie shouts.“Ellie, these people [are] shooting each other, lynching each other, ripping each other’s guts out,” Jesse says. “Even the kids? I’m not dying out here. Not for any of them. This is not our war.”Who the fuck is this man? I touched on it in episode five, but what is with this show putting all of Ellie’s unlikable traits on other characters so she keeps getting to be the hero? Jesse turns from a selfless guardian into a selfish asshole who will watch a kid get tortured to save himself while Ellie is suddenly very concerned about a war that, in the game, she seemed largely indifferent to. It’s as if The Last of Us’ second season is so concerned with us liking Ellie and feeling like we can root for her that it’s lost sight of anything else.So Jesse gets to be the belligerent asshole and Dina gets to be the revenge-driven one in the relationship. Ellie? She’s just bee-bopping through spouting cool space facts, and so when she tortures Nora, it feels like tonal whiplash. I don’t recognize Jesse. Most of the time, I don’t recognize Ellie. But really, the more I watch this show, the more I hardly recognize anyone, and I don’t have any faith in the series to figure these characters and their relationships out, even if it’s going to go on for two more seasons.Will the circle be unbroken?We shift away from the Jackson crew to check in on Isaac (Jeffrey Wright), who we haven’t seen in a few episodes. Sergeant Park (Hettienne Park) updates the W.L.F. boss that the incoming storm will get worse as the day goes on, but even so, the group is still preparing some kind of operation. She also lets him know the rank and file is a little nervous about whatever’s going on, but Isaac’s only concerned about one person: Abby. From the sound of it, she and most of her crew have all disappeared over the past few days. We’ve seen what happened to Nora, Manny is still around, but Owen and Mel are gone without a trace. Again, Isaac isn’t concerned with them. He’s nervous that they’re going into whatever operation they’re planning without Abby. Park is clearly exhausted by this lane of thinking and asks why he cares so much about the girl.Image: HBOShe starts off asking why one “great” soldier is so important when they have an army, and then gets into a weird aside where she exasperatedly asks Isaac if he’s harboring feelings for the girl when he’s at least 30 years her senior. I don’t know if this line is supposed to be a joke, but it’s not funny, even though Isaac laughs at it. She acknowledges it’s an out-of-pocket question, but says he “wouldn’t be the first old man” to make decisions based on such inappropriate impulses. As much as it’s a stupid thing for Park to say, it’s also a stupid thing for the writers room to nonchalantly whip out in a humorous fashion given The Last of Us’ history of old men preying on young women with the character of David. Why write this non-joke into your script if you don’t want viewers to possibly view his fixation on Abby as potentially untoward? Isaac’s following speech focuses on the preservation of his militia, in a very similar way to how David’s preoccupation with Ellie in season one was born from the cannibal’s warped views on longevity, and if you’re not trying to make this direct connection, why even gesture at it? Yeah, I don’t imagine anyone considered the optics of this obviously flippant, throwaway line, but Christ, if you’re that desperate for a joke or moment to cut the tension, this was the best you could come up with? Amateur shit.Isaac sits Park down and tells her why he cares so much about one soldier. He says there’s a very strong chance that the W.L.F. leadership will be dead by tomorrow morning. If that happens, who can lead the militia in their stead? He wanted it to be Abby. It was “supposed” to be her.“Well she’s fucked off, Isaac,” Park says as she leaves. “So maybe it wasn’t.”We go back to the Jackson crew as Ellie and Jesse reach the rendezvous point in a bookstore, and Tommy isn’t here. The place is in bad shape like most places are in this city, but Ellie gravitates to the children’s books section. She picks up an old Sesame Street book, the Grover classic The Monster at the End of This Book, and picks it up for the bun in the oven as Jesse says she picked a good one. As the quiet creeps in on the two, Ellie tries to break the silence by clarifying what happened, but Jesse says they have enough problems for the moment, so he wants to bury the issue.He says he loves Dina, but not in the same way Ellie does. He remembers a group that passed through Jackson, and how there was a girl he fell hard for. She asked him to leave with her to Mexico, but he declined because he’d found purpose and community in Jackson, and he was taught to put others first. People look to him to become the “next Maria” and lead the town, and he couldn’t abandon them for a girl he’d known for two weeks, even if she made him feel things he’d never felt before.Ellie immediately sees through this story. It’s not about him pointing out how he’s felt love and knows that he and Dina aren’t the real deal; it’s about how she’s putting her own needs and wants ahead of everyone else’s.“Okay, got it,” Ellie says. “So you’re Saint Jesse of Wyoming, and everyone else is a fucking asshole.”“You can make fun of me all you want,” Jesse responds. “But let me ask you this, Ellie: If I go with that girl to Mexico, who saves your ass in Seattle?”Before she can reply, they hear W.L.F. radio chatter about a sniper taking out a squad and assume it’s gotta be Tommy. The two head out to higher ground to get a better look, and Ellie sees a Ferris wheel in the distance. She finally puts Nora’s final words together: Abby is in the aquarium at the edge of the city. Immediately, her focus shifts away from Tommy as she starts trying to figure out how to reach Abby’s apparent hiding spot. Jesse is confused and says that Tommy’s got the W.L.F. pinned down in the opposite direction. Ellie starts coming up with justifications for her plan. They don’t know if that’s actually Tommy. If it is him, he’s got the group pinned down. Either way, he would want her to go after Abby to avenge Joel. Ellie doesn’t understand why Jesse is so against this. He voted to go after Abby’s crew back in Jackson, right?Image: HBONo, actually. He didn’t. He believed this vendetta was selfish and “wasn’t in the best interest of the community.” That sets Ellie off.“Fuck the community!” she screams. “All you do is talk about the fucking community, you hypocrite. You think you’re good and I’m bad? You let a kid die today, Jesse. Because why? He wasn’t in your community? Let me tell you about my community. My community was beaten to death in front of me while I was forced to fucking watch. So don’t look at me like you’re better than me, or like you’d do anything differently if you were in my shoes, because you’re not, and you wouldn’t.”Jesse takes a beat, then tells Ellie he hopes she makes it to the aquarium as he leaves. While this scene does exemplify the show’s typicalal “no subtext allowed” approach to writing that I find so irksome, the storyline of Ellie feeling ostracized by the people of Jackson while constantly being told that she must make compromises for them even as they are incapable of extending the same to her is one of the few embellishments The Last of Us makes that resonates with me. It’s easy to write off Ellie’s revenge tour as a selfish crusade that puts everyone else in harm’s way, but when she’s also one of the few out queer people in a town that mostly coddles bigotry and she’s being constantly belittled and kept from doing things she wants to do like working on the patrol team, why would she feel any kinship to this community? Now, when she’s so close to her goal that she can almost taste it, Jesse wants her to consider the people of Jackson? Why should she do that? They’re hundreds of miles away, and the only people who came to save her and Dina were the ones who already cared about her. Ellie’s disillusionment with her neighbors is one of the few additions to the story that The Last of Us manages to pull off.Ellie reaches the harbor from which she can use a boat to reach the aquarium and finds several Wolves meeting up on vessels heading somewhere off the coast. Isaac is here leading the charge, but it’s unclear where they’re going or what they’re doing. Game fans have the advantage of knowing what’s going on, but the W.L.F. storyline feels underbaked in this season, which is one of the real issues with the show dividing the game’s storyline into multiple seasons. During this section of the game, you get a sense that there’s an untold story happening in the background, and you can learn more about it through notes you can find in the environment and ambient dialogue from enemies. The show doesn’t have those same storytelling tools, so I wouldn’t be surprised if newcomers felt a little disoriented every time we hopped over to Isaac.Once the W.L.F. forces make their way wherever they’re going, Ellie finds one of the spare boats and starts to make her way to the aquarium. The storm is hitting hard, though, and the tide is not on her side. A giant tidal wave knocks her out of the boat and into the sea. (Good thing you learned how to swim, queen.) As she washes up onto the shore, Ellie hears Seraphites whistling as a group of them descends upon her. She’s too weak to get onto her feet and run, so the cultists grab her and carry her to a noose hanging from a tree in the woods. She screams that she’s not a Wolf and that she’s not from here, but they don’t listen. As they wrap the noose around her neck and start to hoist her upward, a horn sounds off in the distance. The lead Scar says to leave her, their village is in danger, so I guess that’s what the W.L.F. operation is targeting? This concludes our latest little exposition detour, as Ellie gets right back into the boat to the aquarium.Image: HBOShe manages to reach the building and finds a broken window through which to enter. Inside, she finds several makeshift beds. Whatever Abby’s doing here, she’s not alone. As Ellie makes her way deeper into the aquarium, she finds a ton of medical supplies, including bloody bandages and surgical equipment. Was Abby injured? Is that why she’s been missing in action as the W.L.F. undergoes a huge, all-hands-on-deck mission? Who’s to say?Quick sidenote: When Ellie infiltrates the aquarium in the game, she’s attacked by a guard dog named Alice. The W.L.F. used trained canines in their war against the Seraphites, but that element has been notably absent from the show. Between this and sparing Shimmer from her explosive fate, The Last of Us has been toning down the animal murder.Ellie keeps walking through the desolate aquarium and eventually finds fresh footsteps. She follows them and soon finds their source: Abby’s friends Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer). The two are arguing about something, though it’s not clear what. Owen wants to go somewhere behind enemy lines, even in the midst of the battle Isaac has just initiated. He says he doesn’t have a choice because “it’s Abby.” Mel says he does have a choice and so does she, and the Abby of it all is why she’s not going along with whatever the plan is. Owen says he’ll do it on his own, and if Mel’s still here when they get back, she can “keep going with [them].” Either way, Owen’s leaving. Mel let’s out a hearty “fuck you, Owen” before realizing that Ellie is there. Sure seems like there’s a whole other story that’s been going on while we’ve been hanging out with Ellie, huh? I wonder if we’ll ever get any further insight into whatever this is. Perhaps in a season entirely dedicated to the other side of what’s going on in Seattle? Maybe in a couple years it might premiere on HBO Max (or whatever it’s called by then)? That would be something!Ellie holds the two at gunpoint and tells them to put their hands up. When she asks where Abby is, Owen realizes who she is and points out that he was the one who kept her alive. Ellie isn’t swayed by this, so he says they don’t know where Abby went. But, of course, they were just talking about her, so Ellie knows that’s not true. She spots a map on the table and decides to pull out an old Joel Miller standard: She tells Mel to bring her the map and point to where Abby is, saying that next she’s going to ask Owen the same question, and the answers had better match. Owen looks at Mel and says that Ellie will kill them either way, so there’s no reason to comply. Ellie says she won’t because she’s “not like” them. When she crosses state lines to torture and kill someone who killed somebody important to her, it’s very different than when they do it, of course.Owen stops Mel from grabbing the map by saying he’ll do it. He slowly turns to the table, but instead of picking up the map, he grabs a handgun stowed under it. Ellie is quick with her trigger finger and shoots him right in the throat. The bullet goes straight through him, and hits Mel in the neck as well. She falls onto her back and, instead of cursing Ellie, she asks for her help. Not to save her life, but someone else’s. She opens her jacket to reveal her pregnant belly, and asks if Ellie has a knife to cut the baby out of her before she dies. Ellie is in shock and doesn’t know what to do. Mel tells her she just needs to make one incision. That isn’t enough direction, and Ellie panics. She doesn’t know how deep or which direction to cut. As Mel starts to become delirious, she repeats “love transfers” and then asks Ellie if the baby is out. But she hasn’t even made one cut. Mel finally drifts off, and Ellie realizes it’s too late. She sits there until, eventually, Tommy and Jesse find her. Tommy attempts to comfort her, but she’s in shock and doesn’t speak. Finally they leave and head back to the theater.Naughty Dog / Cinematic GamingWhy can’t this show stop giving the audience outs to not turn against its leads? The death of Mel, specifically, feels like the show bending over backward to teach Ellie a lesson without laying blame at her feet. Mel’s death here is an accident. She’s an innocent bystander who dies because Owen and Ellie made choices, and she was, quite literally, caught in the crossfire. In Part II, by contrast, Mel “shot first.” Well, she tried to stab Ellie, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it. Ellie reacts in self-defense and stabs her right back, but she did it fully knowing she was about to send Mel to an early grave. The gut punch Ellie feels upon learning that she’s pregnant is a moment of dramatic irony, because the game’s shifting perspectives had already revealed her pregnancy to the player way back in the opening hours. So when you’re slamming the square button to fight back, you know that Mel isn’t the only one about to reach her untimely end. Here, she doesn’t even get that moment of agency to fight to protect herself. She’s just collateral damage. It’s a small but important distinction. At this point in the show, Mel’s only real trait is a clear distaste for Abby’s violence, and now, when she finally shows up again, she’s just an unintended victim of Owen pulling a gun on Ellie. Sure, season three will fill in those gaps, but the end result will be the same. Mel died not because she was fighting back, but because she was an inch too far to the left.Then there’s the matter of her pregnancy. Again, in the game players already knew about this by the time Ellie reached the aquarium, while the show kept it secret until the end. It’s hard not to see this last-minute reveal as a knife being twisted for shock value, but that’s only half the problem. My friend Eric Van Allen (co-host of the Axe of the Blood God podcast) would often joke with his college friends about how Michael Caine’s characters in Christopher Nolan films so often show up just to tell you, the viewer, in very literal terms what the story is about. Throughout most of this season, Gail has been this character, the one burdened with the heavy task of diegetic literary analysis, but Mel’s delirious “love transfers” line may be even sillier than anything Gail spouts; homegirl is bleeding out and telling Ellie that pain is not the only thing we inherit from our parents? Just one week after Joel tearfully told Ellie that he hopes she does better when she has a kid than he or his abusive cop father did?Perhaps in a show that hadn’t already spent two seasons using literalism as a writing crutch, Mel speaking her final hopes for her unborn child might have landed for me. But I think I’m just too jaded towards it now for even what should have been a genuine expression to feel like anything other than a heavy-handed, patronizing declaration of what lessons I’m supposed to take away from the story. I don’t think characters overtly communicating their beliefs and feelings about a situation is an inherently poor way of writing dialogue. In fact, some of my favorite works have managed to execute this well thanks to strong acting and stories that lent themselves well to this style of writing. The Last of Us, a series that often relishes in grounded dialogue that forced you to read between the lines and unearth that meaning yourself, the Last of Us show’s inability to let nearly any emotion, belief, or theme go unspoken feels so contrived and tiresome that even someone expressing something thematically resonate feels like being told what to feel. Mel uses her last words to tell me the themes of the story. Just in case I forgot. Thank you, Last of Us show, I don’t know how I would have ever understood your thematic richness if you didn’t make your characters tell me about it, even in their death gasps.The group makes it back to the theater and Ellie is still in shock, so much so that she doesn’t even look at Dina as she enters the building. Some time passes, and Tommy and Jesse are mapping out their route home on the stage. The storm is still pretty rough, so they’ll stay overnight and hope the sun is out when they wake up. Ellie finally joins the group, and Tommy reassures her that Mel and Owen played their part in Joel’s death, and they made the choices that brought them to that fateful end. Ellie can only fixate on what she didn’t get to do.“But Abby gets to live,” she says.“Yeah,” Tommy responds. “Are you able to make your peace with that?”“I guess I’ll have to,” she says, defeated.She looks to Jesse, who won’t even look up at her. Tommy realizes they might have something to talk about and walks to the lobby to pack. After some awkward silence, Ellie thanks Jesse for coming back for her, even though he had no reason to after the way they clashed.“Maybe I didn’t want to,” he says. “Maybe Tommy made me.”“Did he?” Ellie asks.After a second of contemplation, Jesse drops the act and says, “No.”“Because you’re a good person,” Ellie responds.“Yeah,” Jesse agrees. “But also the thought did occur, that if I were out there somewhere, lost and in trouble, you’d set the world on fire to save me.”Ellie says she would, and the two finally see one another, even if just for a moment. Jesse acknowledges that Ellie’s vendetta isn’t entirely selfish, and that when it comes to defending the people she cares about, dead or alive, you won’t find someone more loyal in all of Jackson. It’s good that they finally had this moment of connection after all this drama. But damn, I miss Ellie and Jesse being bros, and I miss her giving him shit for being a sap in these final moments. But most of all, I miss that dopey good ol’ boy with a heart of gold saying his friends “can’t get out of their own damn way.”All that understanding is short-lived, as the two hear some ruckus in the lobby, grab their guns, and book it to the entrance. The second Jesse opens the door, bam. A gunshot rings out in the lobby, and he is on the floor. We don’t even see that it was Abby who fired it until after we get a gnarly shot of him with his face blown open. He’s gone. It was instant. The Last of Us Part II tends to draw out death. It’s either long and torturous like it was for Joel or Nora, or it’s short like Owen’s and Mel’s, but in any case, the game typically lingers on the fallout for a bit. Jesse’s death, by contrast, happens so fast that you can’t even process it before you have to deal with the situation at hand. The show follows suit, and it’s recreated practically shot for shot. But that’s hardly the most disorienting (complimentary) thing that happens in these final minutes.“Stand up,” Abby growls forcefully from the other side of the desk Ellie has taken cover behind.She repeats herself: “Stand. Up. Hands in the air or I shoot this one, too.”Ellie can see Tommy on the ground with a pistol aimed right at his head. He tells Ellie to just run, but she tosses her gun where Abby can see it and crawls out from cover. Abby recognizes her immediately. Ellie asks her to let Tommy go, to which Abby replies that he killed her friends. Ellie says no, she did.“I was looking for you,” Ellie says. “I didn’t mean to hurt them. I know why you killed Joel. He did what he did to save me, I’m the one that you want. Just let him go.”Naughty Dog / VGS - Video Game SophistryHm. Okay. We’re almost at the end. I gotta get another little quibble in before the curtains close. I mean, come on, we’ve been through seven episodes of me complaining together. You can’t take one last gripe? This line from Ellie is slightly altered to account for the fact that she knows more about Abby in the show than in the game, and it means we miss one of the most important subtle interactions in all of the story. As I mentioned earlier, Ellie doesn’t know anything about Abby’s father in Part II. She assumes that Abby killed Joel because he took away any chance of the Fireflies developing a cure, so she cites that in this high-stakes moment. The original line is almost identical to the one in the show, but instead, Ellie says “there’s no cure because of me” and suggests that killing her would be the extension of Abby’s presumed vendetta. Then, we get some incredible, subtle acting from Abby actor Laura Bailey, who hears what Ellie’s saying, has a brief moment of angry disbelief on her face, and then scoffs under her breath before picking right back up where she left off. In just a few seconds, you see Abby realize that, after everything, these fuckers have no idea how much pain she’s been through over the past five years. But they’re not worth the breath it would take to explain herself. They don’t deserve to know the man her father was and what he meant to her. All that matters right now is that Ellie pays for what she’s done.Abby still views herself as the righteous one here, as she points out that she let Ellie live when she did not have to do that. It turns out that Ellie wasn’t deserving of her mercy, that she squandered it by killing her friends. Part of me has wondered if all the exposition-heavy dialogue in this show, such as Dever’s villain monologue in episode two before she murdered the shit out of Joel, was written to give its actors more words to say in front of a camera. When you’ve got big names like Kaitlyn Dever, Catherine O’Hara, and Pedro Pascal in your cast, you don’t want them to not talk, right? But all these elongated exchanges have also robbed actors like Dever of those subtle moments. Hell, she led an entire film with next to no dialogue in 2023’s No One Will Save You, and was great in it, so she has the chops to pull off that kind of acting. Communicating something through body language and expression is just as powerful as a poetic piece of dialogue (or in this show’s case, the most literal, unpoetic dialogue a person can fathom), but this show rarely, if ever, understands that.Image: HBOAnyway, Abby says that Ellie wasted the chance she was given when the ex-Fireflies spared her, and points her gun right at Ellie. We hear a bullet fire and Ellie shouts before a hard cut to black. But wait. That’s the season finale? You expect us to wait for two years, probably, to find out what happened? Well, about that. You will probably have to wait even longer.We do have one more scene this season, however: a flashback. We see Abby lying down on a comfy couch with an unfinished book resting on her stomach. She’s in a deep sleep before Manny (Danny Ramirez) loudly enters the room and wakes her up. He says Isaac wants to see them, and she stirs awake. She gets up and walks out of this cozy living space and into a giant football stadium. The entire field has been repurposed for agriculture, manufacturing, and housing. Abby takes a second to look at the whole operation before heading to Isaac’s, but the camera lingers over the field as bold white text flashes on the screen: Seattle, Day One.Alright, TV newbies, welcome to the second divisive twist of The Last of Us Part II. In the game, the player goes through Ellie’s three days in Seattle, killing Abby’s friends and mostly ignoring the war between the W.L.F. and the Seraphites. Meanwhile, Abby has been kind of an enigma the whole time. Every time Ellie finds a new lead, Abby has already come and gone. When Abby finally shows up at the theater for another round of vengeance, it’s clear that a lot of the story happening in this game has happened off-screen. That’s because you’re about to see an entirely different perspective on the last three days, and you’re going to play as Abby when you do it.As you can imagine, this shit drove some players nuts at the time, and you’ll still find angry people online complaining about it to this day. For all my problems with this season, I have to commend the show for actually going for it. HBO has taken the coward’s route in adapting this story for so long, it’s almost surprising that it’s ending here and, from the sound of it, season three will be entirely about Abby and what she’s been doing these past three days. It’s very likely we won’t see Ellie again until next season’s finale after we’ve followed Dever’s character for several episodes. Despite some ham-fisted attempts by the show to build sympathy for Abby early on, it seems like swaths of TV newbies still demand blood. Will viewers complain for an entire season as Dever takes on the lead role? I’d like to think they won’t. I hope that new audiences are more open to her than the worst people you’ve ever met were when the game launched.Despite all the golf club swings I’ve taken at this show, I’m looking forward to examining it further as HBO rolls out the next two seasons. The Last of Us Part II is one of my favorite games of all time, but I genuinely fucking hated The Last of Us’ second season. I don’t expect my feelings to improve in season three. At this point, the rot of Mazin’s poor creative decisions runs too deep for the show to be salvaged and reach the highs of the games. But if nothing else, it’s been a rewarding ride. Thank you for joining me on this seven-week journey. I think I’m due for a replay of The Last of Us Part II to wash off this stink. This shit was ass, HBO. I’ll see you in the ring again next time.

Start SlideshowStart SlideshowScreenshot: Cilvanis / YouTube, Naughty Dog / Kotaku, Ubisoft / Kotaku, Epic / Lucasfilm / Kotaku, Image: Atlus, Wizkids / Reddit / Larian Studios, The Pokémon Company / Kotaku, CD Projekt RED, Sandfall Interactive, GameStop / KotakuThis week saw Fortnite targeted by SAG-AFTRA for its use of an AI-powered Darth Vader voice that mimics that of the late James Earl Jones. Also, the folks behind Assassin’s Creed Shadows told us why they opted not to let you kill animals in the open-world adventure, fans of Clair Obscur react to the trollish behavior of the game’s enemies, and Neil Druckmann is once again explaining stuff about the world of The Last of Us that some fans, at least—our writer included--think would be better left ambiguous.Previous SlideNext SlideList slidesPlayers Are Obsessed With How Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Enemies Keep Trolling ThemScreenshot: Cilvanis / YouTubeOne of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's big innovations is adding a dodge, parry, and counter system to its otherwise traditional turn-based battles. It’s a clever tweak that helps keep combat engrossing for its 30+ hour journey and also an incredible opportunity for the game’s developers to troll the crap out of players. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesI Wish Neil Druckmann Would Stop Confirming Things About The Last Of UsScreenshot: Naughty Dog / KotakuYou might not know it based on my scathing recaps of The Last of Us’ second season, but I love this series. I love the moral conundrums it presents, the violent grief it depicts, and the games’ excellent writing that poignantly brings all of those complicated emotions to the surface. What I don’t like is listening to pretty much any of the creative team talk about the series, especially when it comes to weighing in on decade-long discourse around its complex storylines. Even when I agree with series director Neil Druckmann’s interpretation of something, we’d all rather he just let bad readings fester in the corners of the internet than tell us exactly what something means. Nevertheless, he continues to do so in interviews. - Kenneth Shepard Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesUbisoft Explains Why You Can’t Kill Animals In Assassin’s Creed ShadowsScreenshot: Ubisoft / KotakuAssassin’s Creed Shadows is a very good game that animal lovers can enjoy because there’s no way to harm a single creature in the game (except for people, of course). That’s a first for the franchise and I wanted to learn why Ubisoft went this route for its latest open-world adventure. - Zack Zwiezen Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesXbox Game Pass Is Getting Too Many Cool Games This MonthImage: AtlusXbox Game Pass has been killing it this year and May is especially packed. The subscription library is getting a load of cool indies as well as 2024 GOTY contender Metaphor: ReFantazio. That’s on top of all of the heavy hitters that already arrived earlier in the month. There is, quiet simply, no time to play them all. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesBaldur’s Gate 3 Figures Are So Ugly Fans Are Getting Full RefundsImage: Wizkids / Reddit / Larian Studios WizKids announced a new collection of Baldur’s Gate 3 miniatures last fall that featured Karlach, Gale, Shadowheart, and other memorably party members from the hit 2023 Dungeon & Dragons-based RPG. The $50 box set has since been released and the figurines look so bad fans are being promised their money back. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesThere’s Something Very Suspicious About These New Pokémon PlushiesImage: The Pokémon Company / KotakuRefreshing the Pokémon Center to see what new items have been added each day has become something of an obsession for me. The site adds new stock so incredibly frequently as to be constantly astonishing, and today is no different. The latest arrivals on the store are a new collection of plushies that feature Ditto in 22 new disguises. And they are adorable. - John Walker Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesFortnite In Legal Trouble After Adding AI Darth VaderScreenshot: Epic / Lucasfilm / KotakuSAG-AFTRA, the massive actors and media union with over 160,000 members, has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against Epic Games over its inclusion of an AI-powered Darth Vader in a recent Fortnite update. - Zack Zwiezen Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesCyberpunk 2077’s Sequel Will Return To Night City, As Well As Take Us Somewhere NewImage: CD Projekt REDWe still don’t know much about the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel currently in the works at CD Projekt Red. Development on the RPG, code-named “Orion,” is in full swing after the studio wrapped support for the original game last year, but the team is still keeping most details about it under wraps, other than a few informal quotes here and there about the vibe it’s trying to capture. However, Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the Cyberpunk tabletop roleplaying game, which first debuted in 1988, has revealed a pretty important piece of information: Alongside returning to the capitalist hellscape of Night City, the sequel will take us to another city as well. - Kenneth Shepard Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesClair Obscur: Expedition 33 Promises Fresh Round Of Collector’s Editions As Originals Resell For Over $800Image: Sandfall InteractiveRPG fans love their Collector’s Editions, but few guessed just how big or good Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 would turn out to be, including its own developers. The result was that a very limited set of physical releases, including Collector’s Editions exclusive to certain retailers, immediately vanished from store shelves. People are now trying to resell them for as much as $1,500 on eBay, but fortunately developer Sandfall Interactive has just announced it’s making more. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesGameStop Is Selling A Ton Of Big Games For Just $15Image: GameStop / KotakuGameStop must be trying to clear out some space, because the national video game retailer is selling a huge assortment of AAA games, remakes, and recent releases for $15 and $30 as part of a new sale. So why not take advantage of this corporate clean-up and grab some big games for less than half the normal price? - Zack Zwiezen Read More