Just Dodge Elden Ring Nightreign update offers solo players a helping hand not even 24-hours after launch because cowards cried too loud What happened to the game that I loved, to the spirit of persevering through adversity? Image credit: Bandai Namco News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on May 30, 2025 Elden Ring Nightreign hasn't even been out for 24 hours, and already the game has been made easier for solo players. Those tackling solo runs will get one free revive during the Nightlord fight that's part of the run, and will get increased rune aquisition the entire time. A solo run, which is already scaled so that bosses have less health and offers a purchasable revive before the Nightlord fight for a measly 10,000 runes, was added for those who enjoy the challenge of taking on a game intended for group play on their lonesome. Fair play, y'know. It's not how I best enjoyed the game but godspeed captain, take the wheel. For those who were actually excited to take on the game this way with all its struggle and in the name of fufilment through overcoming adversity, however, their dreams have been hampered by the wails and moans of wittle babies who want the solo experience to be easier. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. They want their warm bottle, a little bib, and for the process of actually overcoming the challenge present in Nightreign to be lowered so they don't have to work as hard to succeed. Was I able to solo every boss during the review period? No. I did like four of 'em. Was I looking forward to improving and doing so over the next few weeks? Absolutely. This journey has been stolen from me and likeminded adults by the feeble among us. "But Connor, what if these people are struggling to beat bosses on their own and need help?", you may ask. Here's a hot tip. Go and ask your dad if you can use the internet, shake the gent's hand, then take the on the boss online. Once you've cracked that with the help of other people, and are better at the game, then try it solo. You'll find that it's easier than before. Wow! It's almost as though that playing the game more and with other people (the way the game is intended to be played) helps make these challenges less daunting. It's almost as though that's a major theme of the game itself. You are meant to ride a bike with your hands on the handle bars. You can ride without doing so, but it's harder. If you try riding a bike without touching the handle bars and wipe out on the pavement, you don't ask for stabilizers to be put on, right? You practice riding your bike normally until you can crack it. The worst part isn't even the revive - you can just take your hands off the controller on your first death and welcome the game over if you want a real "deathless run" - it's the rune aquisition boost. In my opinion it taints the whole thing. There are relics that give rune aquisition boosts but you have to earn them. The game gets easier as you play, as in all games like this. I do understand why this change has happened from From Software's perspective - the company wants all the people playing it to have a good time and not bail out after a few too many frustrating losses. Totally get it. But why not leave it a week so the sickos can claim their laurels? Then, provide this olive branch for everyone else. Maybe I'm an jaded 27 year old but I remember a From Software community that would cheer and pop bottles upon hearing that a new game was really hard as a solo player, and would smash their heads against it like rabid animals until they managed to beat it. These people still exist I'm sure, they are likely as disapointed as I am that the game has already had part of it neutered, but it's too late now. At least with Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree regular players had a few days to soldier on before the early hours of it were made easier. Whatever, enjoy your pram. Elden Ring Nightreign is out now, and is doing really well on Steam at the moment. So, there's a solid chance a lot of you playing it right now are having a good time, which is swell.

It's over. Well, for about ten minutes. Helldivers 2's battle for Super Earth has ended, with the Helldivers emerging from the siege victorious and seeing off the Illuminate. For now. Read more

Unity The battle to play Borderlands Online continues, as dedicated archivists ask for help in pursuit of the long lost MMO The team working on bringing this game back is now asking for help from experts to get the game playable. Image credit: 2K China News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on May 30, 2025 The Borderlands Online archival saga continues, with the small group of people hoping to get the game playable putting out a call-to-action for those with coding experience (specifically with software like DNSpy and Unity Ripper) in order to break through the game's character selection screen. Previously, we covered YouTuber, game designer, and dataminer EpicNNG managing to get to the game's class selection screen, but it seems he and his small team working on the archival project have hit a brick wall. Not in terms of skill, but in terms of time. They have a version of the game at their finger tips, they just need more hands to get the build working. He states: "Number 1: We know that we have the full game, we have confirmed we have the full game. Number 2: We know that we can get in eventually, it is just a matter of when." To see this content please enable targeting cookies. In this call-to-action, a lengthy video detailing the journey so far, EpicNNG showed the perilous task as his small team went through old Chinese Borderlands Online websites in the search for a way to actually play the game. Doing so, they found ghost links and viruses, so it's worth emphasising here that you should only really help out with this effort if you know what you're doing. The video is covered in statements making it clear that this is purely for archival purposes, and that he nor his team are looking to infringe on 2K's intelectual property as to avoid the possibility of a cease and desist. However, it's made equally clear that this project may be nearing a dead end thanks to the release of Borderlands 4 and the potential actions of 2K's legal team, unless it gets more people on board to help. It's worth noting that this article was only written following an exchange of DMs with EpicNNG, in which he stated that he understood the potential risks of this call-to-action being further publicised and was happy with it being covered nonetheless. In the video, EpicNNG acknowledges that time is of the essence here, pointing to Activision's take down of the H2M Call of Duty mod in fears it would suck attention away from the next Call of Duty. The worry is that, unless the team gets the game working soon, 2K would fear a similar thing with Borderlands 4 and send out a Cease and Desist. This archival project, if successful, would be somewhat of a white whale for the video game archival scene. Not only is archiving any game difficult, Borderlands Online is a Chinese-only MMORPG that has been dead for years. Getting it working is an admirable goal. Here's hoping that folks that can help see it and lend a hand before it's too late. Though, if you're a greenthumb when it comes to Unity or video game software in general, maybe it's best to leave it with the experts and wish them luck.

Boy, that escalated quickly. Elden Ring Nightreign, as I write this, has been out less than a day. So, of course someone's already put out a video demonstrating a duos mod for it. Read more

A Rising Tide The studio behind Atomic Heart is kicking up a publishing arm, looking to help get more "big and bold" games made With Atomic Heart selling over 10 million copies, Mundfish is widening to support other devs achieve similar success. News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on May 30, 2025 Mundfish, the studio behind Atomic Heart, has announced it's opening up a publishing arm it's calling Mundfish Powerhouse. This comes alongside the studio's celebratory declaration that Atomic Heart has sold over 10 million copies. Speaking to Analogue Stick Gaming CEO and founder of Mundfish Robert Bagratuni stated, "For quite some time, studios and investors have been approaching us seeking support [...] We’ve decided to make this direction official. Powerhouse will only partner with projects where we see great potential to make noise. Not just a handful of indie hits, but big and bold games that can set a new standard for quality and creative risk.” To see this content please enable targeting cookies. According to the article, Mundfish Powerhouse will be offering developers it works with "deep production expertise and high-end tools, a proven, scalable development pipeline, hands-on support from concept to launch and a focus on fewer, bigger, bolder games, built to shake up the industry". As for Atomic Heart's 10 million sales milestone, Bagratuni gave the following statement, "What started as a dream has become a reality beyond anything we imagined. Thanks to our team’s relentless dedication, bold vision, and unwavering focus on quality, we’ve achieved something truly special. We’re incredibly grateful to our players for their passion and support - it’s their enthusiasm that brought Atomic Heart to life". Atomic Heart stands out to me as one of those lesser-talked-about games that launched to its own healthy audience, and has continued trucking away as the months flew by. We've seen a decent chunk of these sorts of games from smaller studios as of late, a sign of changing tides in the industry as massive companies struggle to hit the astronomical targets set for the developers working there, while these smaller studios with clear vision manage to sneak through the gaps. What do you think of this news? Let us know below!

The Witcher 3. It's a decade old now. CD Projekt's well on its way with The Witcher 4. However, in a really cool turn of events, the studio's now realed it'll be putting out one more patch for TW3 later this year, finally bringing mods for it to consoles. Read more

BUTTPEACH Quantum Witch is a story of religious oppression, queer emancipation, and a dancing skeleton that hopes to popularise the ‘plotformer’ genre We spoke to Quantum Witch’s lone developer – NikkiJay – about how her experiences as part of a religious cult shaped the development of her game, an 80s-style ‘plotformer’ about finding your lost flock of faer. Image credit: NikkiJay Article by Kelsey Raynor Guides Writer Published on May 29, 2025 You might not have heard of Quantum Witch, but if you’ve an affinity for pixel-art platformers with engaging story-beats, meta-narratives, and an array of kooky characters, then you should be all over it. To just call Quantum Witch a colourful platformer with a strong narrative (read: ‘plotformer’) is to do it a disservice, though. Quantum Witch is so much more than its vibrant pixels; it is NikkiJay’s personal story of fleeing a religious cult, embracing her LGBTQ+ identity, and seeking solace in video games. There’s a dark undercurrent, but ultimately, Nikki chooses to tell her story – and a story that many others will no doubt see themselves in – with humour and pride. To get a better idea of exactly what informed Quantum Witch and how the indie ‘plotformer’ came together, VG247 sat down with NikkiJay to ask how growing up in a religious cult led to the development of the game and what she hopes audiences will get from it. The below interview discusses religious trauma, coercive control, and the abuse of power. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. VG247: I’m aware that Quantum Witch is largely informed by your own personal experiences of fleeing a religious cult; would you mind sharing some more about your experience, and how it has informed Quantum Witch’s story and characters? Nikki: I was born into the group and my family on both sides were third generation. Age 10, I needed my tonsils out and I had to tell the surgeon that I would rather die than accept certain medical treatments. As a 10-year-old, it's one of the questions they ask when you go for CPTSD diagnosis: “did you at any point honestly really believe you were going to die?” Yeah, I was told I had to be prepared for that. I had to die for God if that was the option that was presented to me. Either take this medical treatment that God said I couldn't have or die. I had to choose death. This cult literally kills kids for God. A lot of people stayed because the alternative was to lose your entire support structure and social network. You were literally by yourself with nothing, which was the option I chose in the end. It’s high coercive control. This way, they say that you have the personality God wants you to have. Religious control and abuse of that power is the biggest theme that made it into Quantum Witch. It is very much again about urgency and choice: I think if people have been through similar things, it's going to resonate with them. VG247: During the demo, I got the impression that Ren is largely not interested in the religious beliefs shared with her by others in Quantum Witch, but she still appears to have a fascination with the Old Gods. I have two questions about this: is Ren on the fence, so to speak, about her beliefs? Does this align with any of your thoughts and feelings about religion now? Nikki: Yeah, I am agnostic. I am a skeptic. I have to be open to the possibilities. A skeptic who isn't open to possibilities isn’t a skeptic. They're a cynic, and Ren is very much a skeptic. The majority of the characters in the game are just aspects of me that I've made into a character, it's just a little piece of me that I've enhanced without turning it into a stereotype as far as I can. Tyra [Ren’s partner] is more cynical: ‘come on, it's nonsense’. And Ren’s like, ‘no, let's go find out’. Her desire to go explore is going to lead her into things that she shouldn't have explored in the way that she's going to. But yeah, she is definitely that part of me who would like for there to be magic. Image credit: NikkiJay VG247: Quantum Witch’s marketplace – which features unnamed characters that bear uncanny resemblances to some iconic video game mascots – is what I assume to be a representation of some of your favourite games. The game itself regularly reminded me of themes and mechanics from Undertale, The Binding of Isaac, and even Stardew Valley. What other games or pieces of media helped inspire Quantum Witch, and how? Nikki: I love Undertale. What I loved about Undertale is the mixture of all those styles and then you'd be talking to a character and suddenly you have to play a really fast reaction game. I can't do that. I'm too old. But it was a big inspiration in the style of game I wanted to create. As for the reason why the video game characters are there in the plot of [Quantum Witch’s] story; they do tie into the plot and there's a little hint that they say. And I just loved putting in my alternate takes on who these characters were. You might know Paul Rose from Digitizer. At the very beginning of the project, I had all my story beats worked out. This is what's going to happen. This is how it's all going to interact, but I could not – for the life of me – start it. I couldn't build the bridges between these beats and Rose helped me a lot. He did a script treatment and some of the dialogue in the marketplace is directly from him; [one of the characters you meet is] talking about pills and I was like, ‘that that just fits in perfectly because there is a character later on who might need that pill’. It’s also a bit of a cue for me to have the characters talk about medication. . I also wanted to add some queer flavor to them, so Princess Nectarine – who is similar to but legally distinct from a certain Nintendo character – is in a polycule with Bowser and Mario and they like to roleplay kidnapping. I did not set out to make a queer game. It's turned out that way because I can't help it, but it's not all these characters are. VG247: I know you’re a solo developer and this is a largely solo project, but I’m aware you’ve received some help with the whole endeavour. You mentioned Paul Rose. So could you tell me more about the people who have helped you with creating Quantum Witch and what they did? Nikki: I must absolutely shout out Jerden Cooke for the music. We composed a lot of it together, [with] me mostly on the ukulele which you can hear in Ren's theme. I don't know if you've seen the video clip of David Lynch helping compose Laura's Theme from Twin Peaks. Working with him is like that. I got some fantastic music which was like the music I could hear in my head when I started playing on the ukulele. He was able to put it down, basically extract it from my head, and put it into a word file. And Paul Rose; I knew him through Digitizer meetups. We just got talking on Twitter one day and met up. He's a great guy and things came about quite naturally because it was when Covid hit and a lot of TV work got cancelled. I said to him, look, you should get yourself on Fiverr. Put your writing services out there because people should be paying for this. I will be your first customer, and so I was! Without his help, this would have still been a collection of little story beats that I would have had no idea how to wire together. And I've always wanted to work with Stephanie Sterling. What if I just ping her on Bluesky and say, "Hey, want to write a chapter of this game? It's got a dancing skeleton in it." She said, "Yeah, I'm in." She said that when she started to do it, she wasn't entirely sure whether it would be the right project because she just saw a [dancing] skeleton. The more she wrote for [Quantum Witch] and the more she played the game, she went, "Yeah, this is my wheelhouse,” and she poured her religious trauma into it, which happened to just fit absolutely perfectly. It's like I could not have asked for a better group of people to work with, and this is kind of what I want to say to indie developers who are solo. You're not alone. You might just want one name on the credit, but it takes a village to raise a child. Image credit: NikkiJay VG247: I was taken aback by just how cosy the game is. Admittedly, even with the subject matter, I didn’t expect – largely given the art style – for this to be all doom and gloom, but I definitely didn’t expect something so jovial and honestly, straight-up funny. How did you decide that this was the approach you wanted to take when creating Ren’s story? Nikki: [Stardew Valley], Chrono Trigger and Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door are my three most played games. I love the style of Stardew Valley and I love that there's some darkness hidden in Stardew Valley. I really liked the humor in it. I mean, if you thought I shouldn't be laughing at this, but I am, then that’s an achievement. That's exactly what I wanted. My main coping mechanism is humor. I'm not saying it's a healthy coping mechanism, but it kind of works. And I mean, I was heavily influenced by reading a lot of Douglas Adams. and he was able to find humor in the most bleak situations. And the graphical style… When I started this, I couldn't draw a convincing stick figure. I look at the art that I did four years ago when I started messing about with this idea and it's just embarrassing. Objectively terrible, but my main influences were Stardew Valley and The Darkside Detective. I loved the low-resolution style art, but there was so much character in them. So, I took a pixel art course on Udemy and a color theory course and… then just found, hey, I can do this now. That's weird. VG247: While looking into Quantum Witch and yourself, I found a lovely quote of yours from The Guardian: “A lot of religion is about giving up autonomy to some mystical power that you’ve never seen, heard or met. Over the course of the game, Ren takes that agency back… It’s a queer emancipation story.” Could you expand on this? Nikki: The consequence of being yourself in a group that says ‘no, being yourself is wrong’ is that you just get thrown out. It's weird because I think of my experiences as unique, but the themes they really do seem to be universal. Stephanie Sterling from The Jimquisition: she wrote a chapter of the later part of the game. I originally said to her, can you write these three scenes? She came back and said “I couldn't stop writing. I just love this universe” It's weird, because you wouldn't know it was a different author. The religious oppression of queer people is the same wherever you go. I'm really hoping just that I've got that balance right between a game that's fun and cozy and humorous, – that there is a dancing skeleton who can see through time – but also has that deeper meaning and that message that you take back control. A lot of people would look at this and think ‘you must be anti-religion’ and I'm 100% for freedom of religion, but that also means I'm 100% for freedom from religion. Whether you've got faith or not, nobody wants somebody else's faith forced on you. You can't have freedom of religion without freedom from religion. Image credit: NikkiJay VG247: How long is Quantum Witch set to be, and how many endings will there be? I know you also mentioned some side quests having various conclusions, as well as the game’s main endings being different depending on your decisions. Nikki: I watched a tester play from beginning to end. It took him about three and a half hours, and he got my second favorite ending. He had questions about the lore and I said, "play it again and make different choices, and you'll get a different ending, which will probably answer that for you." It's difficult to say how many endings there are. There's three definite categories of endings. There's bleak. There's interesting, where you kind of get a bittersweet ending, and then there's the super happy ending, and there are variations on each of those. [These depend] on the characters you've helped. There's also little puzzles that you can go and solve which can enhance the happy ending. It's kind of like an open-world choose-your-own adventure book, but in pixel format. If I'm going to do a full playthrough of all choices and all stories, I will easily put aside six or seven hours to do it and I wrote it. So, I'm not trying to discover it. I think it's like The Stanley Parable in that sense. VG247: I also learned that Quantum Witch could have been a novel. It could have initially started out that way and you then obviously decided to turn this into a game. How did that come about? Nikki: One of my friends was doing the National Novel Writing November. I thought, I've got this story in my head which might fit, so I started writing it. I don't know if anybody's realized this, [but video games] are quite difficult to make, and novels are very easy because you just type... I was wrong and I really did not enjoy writing it. I decided, thinking back on my childhood, I want to make this into a game. I want to make this interactive. Choice is a big theme. I want to give the player a choice. And it did end up as a point and click [game] for a while, rather than a plotformer. No matter what you do, it is a valid choice. There are no game over screens in Quantum Witch. Anything you do is just a part of the story and the game is over when you get the credits. Quantum Witch is a surprisingly cosy and jovial take on topics of religious trauma and queer identities, but if your curiosity about this game is piqued, it’s up to you to find out all of its secrets. NikkiJay stresses that there’s so much to discover for those who are eager to explore the game and discover all of its various paths, endings, and dialogue. For those who want to try Quantum Witch out, you can find a demo for the game on Steam, and it’ll also be participating in Steam’s Next Fest during June.

Time must fly when you're having fun. Or at least when you're defending Super Earth from a huge Illuminate invasio. Helldivers 2's latest major order is the "final phase" of the battle for the divers' home planet that's been raging since the Heart of Democracy update dropped on May 20. I must admit, I thought the Galactic War twist that's brought the biggest number of Helldivers back to the game of any update it's gotten so far would last a bit longer than three MOs. Then again, this is Helldivers 2 - the war ain't anywhere close to over while there are still troops on the march and enemies to surf on. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. First of all, the last major order, which expired earlier today, was a proper heartbreaker. After casually killing 2.5 billion Illuminate in the first stage of Super Earth's defense, players weren't quite able to successfully extract from missions against the Illuminate 20 million times. They got damn close, though. So, with that, while the divers have worn the Illuminate fleet's strength down to an estimated "24% of its original operating power", only four of Super Earth's seven Mega Cities are left standing. Yep, two more have joined the brilliantly-named Eagleopolis as smouldering wrecks. Cue Arrowhead's latest order, which declares the third phase of Super Earth's defense to be the final one. "High Command anticipates an all-out assault to take the final four Mega Cities," the studio wrote, "The Illuminate have spent a century preparing for this invasion; they will hold back nothing. What has come before was the preamble; this is the endgame...The Helldivers have their orders: HOLD Super Earth." To see this content please enable targeting cookies. In order to do that, players'll need to dig in on Super Earth against the squids, while also scrapping 200 million Automatons so they can bring the Democracy Space Station back online to aid that first bit. As of writing, nearly 98 million bots have already been bashed in since the order debuted this morning. Folks are seemingly going all out, no doubt buoyed by the fact today's little Helldivers 2 patch - 01.003.003 - made a very popular change to the Reinforced Epaulettes passive that comes with the armour sets from the recently deployed Masters of Ceremony Warbond. As well as making your limbs less likely to snap like twigs, you'll now be able to reload your primary weapon 30% faster and do 50% more melee damage when rocking the Parade Commander and Honorary Guard sets. Cue celebrations on Reddit. Are you planning on jumping in to help out with this final phase of Super Earth saving? Let us know below!

Akuma, huh Monster Hunter Wilds' Street Fighter collaboration is all about Akuma The first Monster Hunter Wilds Capcom collaboration is close, and it brings an unlikely friend from the world of Street Fighter. Image credit: Capcom News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on May 23, 2025 Capcom has officially announced that, yes, in case all the teasers weren’t clear enough, the first Monster Hunter Wilds collaboration event will be with none other than Street Fighter. Collaboration events provide an opportunity for Capcom to bring elements and characters from other games into Wilds. The Monster Hunter series certainly isn’t a stranger to that sort of thing, and this one appears to be following in the same footsteps. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. First things first, the Monster Hunter Wild x Street Fighter event kicks off next week, on Wednesday, May 28. It’s going to arrive alongside a free patch, version 1.011 - though Capcom didn’t say what else we can expect from the update itself. As for the Street Fighter event, it’s going to introduce Akuma to Wilds. The update will add a new side mission, completing which earns you materials that allow you to craft gear from the collaboration event. The side mission will be available at Hunter Rank 21 and beyond, so it’s pretty accessible to most players. You’ll be able to pick it up from Quinn at the Oilwell Basin Base Camp. There are three sets of rewards you can expect to craft as part of this collaboration. Watch on YouTube There’s the Akuma full armor set and lawyered equipment, as well as a Blanka-Chan full armor set and layered equipment for your Palico. There’s also a hunter profile background, nameplate, pose and titles - all sporting new designs. The mission itself will also unlock two new Arena Quests: Demonic Strength and True Strength, which will offer more ways for you to earn the materials required to craft all that gear. It wouldn’t be a collab without some paid cosmetics, of course, and so you can look forward to some new DLC in the store. It’s all Street Fighter 6-themed, and includes two outfits for Alma that change her look to that of Chun-Li or Cammy, three gestures - Hadoken, Shoryuken, Tatsumaki Senpu-kyaku - a sticker set, and a Blanka-Chan Doll pendant.

Thrempshs npmopw apnn Oblmpmphon Rmphstrpmshrd mphd aphmt etmphing rshks. Sorry, I've finished chewing. There's now an Oblivion Remastered mod that lets you, the almighty Hero of Kvatch and saviour of the empire (well, in the short-term), eat rocks. Leave room for dessert - there are gemstones too. Read more

Bad To The Bravil “What if I was the bad guy?” Oblivion Remastered’s best new faction quests so far exist because a modder was doing evil stuff, and they’re now teasing “a secret project” Also, it’ll take some work for the remaster’s modding scene to get to the next level without Bethesda helping "grease the wheels". Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 Article by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 23, 2025 If there’s one thing us folks who love a good RPG can never have enough of, it’s quests. Oblivion Remastered has plenty in its base form - The Elder Scrolls 4 not being short on stuff to do - but of course modders were always going to add to that. We’re still at a pretty early stage in terms of folks digging underneath the Unreal Engine second skin Virtuos has cocooned the classic game in and seeing what they can accomplish by pushing the boundaries. However, there’ve been plenty of mods that have already come out and had everyone going full Uriel Septim ‘I’ve seen you in my dreams’ mode. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The latest of these, in my case, had been modder ColdTyrant’s “Infinitum” series, a bunch of mods released in rapid succession that overhaul Oblivion’s already pretty stellar faction questlines by adding in new infinitely accessible radiant quests and systems. They offer nice rewards in return for your character doing more of the job they signed up for - be it assassin, warrior, thief, gladiator, or mage - in a way that’s perfect for roleplaying. So, having also been intrigued by his earliest works that made it possible to join the Mythic Dawn and become a necromancer in Oblivion Remastered, I decided earlier this week to reach out to ColdTyrant. We chatted about how the quest mods he's created so far came together, what the next steps in Oblivion Remastered modding might require, and what his future modding plans are. Here’s that conversation: VG247: What drew you to modding Oblivion Remastered, and has your previous modding experience come in handy when getting up to speed with it? ColdTyrant: I've been playing Oblivion since I was a kid, in 2007 on the PS3. At that age I was absolutely astounded that I could do whatever I wanted, go wherever I wanted, fight, kill, or help whoever I wanted - the game absolutely blew me away and had a fundamental effect on myself and my creativity. I've been modding Bethesda games ever since my dad first let me play on his PC, and I was able to download the Construction Set for Oblivion and start poking around to see how things work and what I could make. I had been following the rumors of an 'Oblivion Remake' since January of this year leading up to its eventual shadow drop, and was absolutely floored by the incredible visuals and gameplay overhauls made by the extremely talented team at Virtuos. They breathed new life into one of my all-time favorite video games, and it's been so exciting to see everyone playing and talking about Oblivion again just like when I was a kid. Naturally, after I'd already sunken about 100 or so hours into Remaster, I started feeling that itch to get back into the Construction Set. People were (and still are) pumping out mods, tweaks, and tools for Oblivion Remastered like crazy, and I really wanted to sort of get on that wave and see if I could contribute my own content to help enrich players' experiences further. Being back in Cyrodiil can do that to a guy. | Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 VG247: How did you go about creating your first couple of quest/faction expansion mods, Mythic Dawn Rising and Dark Path of The Necromancer? Was it a case of wanting more evil options and finding out what was possible, or did you go in with a set vision? ColdTyrant: When I decided it was time to start modding Remastered, I really wasn't sure where to start. I've always been fascinated with the villains Bethesda has created, and I know many players (including myself) have a desire to explore the idea - what if *I* was the bad guy? I started re-learning Oblivion's scripting and quest system, and ultimately decided I wanted to create an alternate path to the Main Quest, where the player could decide to explore what it would be like to actually be a member of Mehrunes Dagon's Mythic Dawn cult. This mod was sort of a test of what I could get away with mechanically - a proof of concept to myself, and it's a bit light on content and needs a big update (I'm working on this!). After I released Mythic Dawn Rising, I just kept playing around with scripts and variables and seeing what could be done. When I discovered the different types of systems I'd be able to create with what I'd discovered, my ideas really began to run wild. Dark Path of the Necromancer started as just a mod that would add an alternative way for players to create Black Soul Gems, but as I'd finish one feature I'd think of another, then get to work on it - then another, then another. It quickly sort of snowballed into this big project with multiple necromantic-centered systems, and I really love how it turned out. Sort of accidentally, I'd wound up creating another mod that allowed the player to explore membership with another previously forbidden faction. Who wouldn't want to join a group of folks who can cast armour illusions this cool? | Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 VG247: I’ve noticed that in both of those mods’ descriptions you note that you’re hoping to add more to them once more advanced Oblivion Remastered modding tools are out there. What kinds of tools are you most keen to see emerge going forwards and can you paint me a picture of what the ‘ideal versions’ of those mods might look like? ColdTyrant: So, with modding the original Oblivion, it's a lot simpler - anything you put into the game world will just be there when you load up the mod. No requirements, no difficult installation instructions, just plug and play. If I dropped a new NPC named Bob the Mage into Anvil, he'd just be there! Oblivion Remastered is a bit more complicated. Virtuos has created an incredibly remarkable hybrid engine that combines both Gamebryo (an earlier version of Creation Engine) and Unreal Engine 5. Gamebryo handles the scripts, quests, and gameplay mechanics, while Unreal Engine 5 handles all rendering - meshes, textures, menus, lighting, shadows, effects, lines of text, pretty much anything and everything the player sees on their screen. What this means in layman's terms is that if I dropped Bob the Mage into Anvil in Remastered using the Gamebryo Oblivion Construction Set, well... that's not enough to make him show up. At best, a visit to Anvil will result in him being completely invisible, and at worst, a game crash. This is because Gamebryo no longer handles rendering. Unreal Engine needs to be told by Gamebryo via strings what actually exists and what to render into the game. Everything needs a table string entry that connects back to Unreal, or you'll have problems. Fortunately, some incredibly talented modders (I like referring to them as engineers) have created tools like TesSyncMapInjector or the Fix & Port Script for xEdit that do this job for us - so Bob the Mage can exist in Oblivion Remastered. Ok, so this particular mage isn't called Bob, but you get the picture. | Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 However, this means players will be required to install these tools on their end to experience mods that add new items and systems to Oblivion Remastered, and it can be frustrating for new people that want to get into modding their games, but feel intimidated by all these requirements and specific installation instructions. So ideally, we'll get to a point where either Bethesda/Virtuos release official modding tools for the remaster or talented mod engineers are able to create tool(s) that make mods fully compatible with Unreal, without the end user needing to install extra requirements. For the ‘Oldblivion’ versions of my mods, they are all plug and play - no requirements. But for Remastered - for now - you'll always need UE4SS and TesSyncMapInjector. VG247: What inspired you to take on your Infinitum series, how was it putting together each of the radiant quest systems and deciding on the unique twists you were going to give each faction’s system? One of the things I found most interesting about the Dark Brotherhood one was the gacha-style Dark Token reward system, so how did the idea for that specifically come about? ColdTyrant: The ‘radiant quest system’ I've designed was actually initially a side feature in another currently unnamed mod project regarding the Blackwood Company, as my original intention was to continue the ‘join and play evil factions’ genre of mods I'd released so far. When I discovered during testing how much fun I was having just doing infinite quests, I thought to myself - I need to adapt this to the main factions. From there, once again, my ideas started to kind of run wild. I ‘extracted’ the radiant quest system from my Blackwood project, ported it into a new project, and reworked it for the Dark Brotherhood. I think a lot of people feel this way, but Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood is by far my favorite questline in the game, and I say that while really loving all of the major factions. I wanted to be able to take contracts to assassinate people forever, and I hoped others would too. In the end, Dark Brotherhood - Infinitum was born, and the series kicked off. Creeper, gacha master of the Dark Brotherhood. | Image credit: Bethesda/ColdTyrant As far as the ‘gacha reward system’, I wanted to create a unique way for the player to get random rewards, but also be able to choose what type of reward they're interested in. Creating a gacha that may or may not give the player something good for their Dark Tokens I thought would be a fantastic way to motivate the player to keep doing infinite contracts besides just the fun of sneak killing and gold. If the popularity of certain gacha games is any indicator, people really love being able to take their chances and roll for rewards, even if the odds are stacked against them. Fortunately, however, Creeper does NOT charge the player any real-world money! Some players complained that Creeper being in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary is not immersive (hence my 'No Creeper' optional version), and I totally get it - but I love Morrowind just as much as Oblivion and Skyrim, and I'm sure any Morrowind player is aware of the "meme" of selling Creeper hundreds of sets of Dark Brotherhood armor. Why wouldn't he show up? He wants more of that stuff! It was just a fun reference in the end, and I was hoping people would get a kick out of it! VG247: What are your personal plans and general hopes for Oblivion Remastered modding going forwards, especially when it comes to quest mods - are there any complex ideas you've not tried yet that you’re keen to give a go once the tech’s there and do you think there’s a high ceiling in terms of what people might eventually pull off? ColdTyrant: Similar to what I mentioned earlier, the ideal situation for Oblivion Remastered modding will be the release of official modding tools to ‘grease the wheels’ on the mod development process - but given the complexity of the hybrid engine, I'm not sure if this will happen. It would be really nice, though, so our friends playing on console can hop on the hype wave of Remastered modding too. As far as my plans - the next (and final, for the major factions) mod in the Infinitum series will be Mages Guild - Infinitum. This mod will feature an endless Creature Research system, a brand new Elixir-crafting system separate from regular Alchemy, and radiant quests to deliver those Elixirs to the various Mages Guild Halls. Additionally there will be an endlessly-available staff-crafting system. Since we had our chat, ColdTyrant's released his Mages Guild mod, so you can try it right after you're done reading. | Image credit: Bethesda/ColdTyrant Since the Mages Guild is a bit different, and focused more on scholarly endeavors and magical power, I'm hoping people really enjoy it! Once the main Infinitum Series is complete, I'll likely shift my focus to a big Mythic Dawn Rising update, and a secret project I've been writing up, that I think people will really love! As far as whether or not I've tried certain ideas due to current limitations (I consider Remastered modding to currently be in its infancy), there are certainly a few. I try not to lean *too* heavily into NPC dialogue, for example, since we can't use custom voice files yet, or have an elegant solution like ‘Elys Universal Silent Voice’ which exists for Oldblivion. I think there is a high ceiling for learning and getting into more complex scripting if you've never done it before, but really, the sky is the limit when it comes to Bethesda modding - there are hundreds and hundreds of mod authors far more talented than myself that have created incredible content for all of Bethesda's single-player masterpieces. As time marches on, I'm really excited to see the things people continue to pump out for Oblivion Remastered. It's really exciting to see what people can come up with!

Sad Eagle Scream Eagleopolis has fallen despite Helldivers 2 players slapping up 2.5 billion squids for an opening victory in the battle for Super Earth, leaving six Mega Cities to defend "To unleash the flames of Justice and triumph over Tyranny, we must battle through the inferno before us." Image credit: Arrowhead News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 23, 2025 Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Well, good news, Helldivers 2 managed to win the first major order of the battle for Super Earth by slaughtering over two billion Illuminate. The bad news? It's not stopped Eagleopolis from falling. As it turns out, not even the biggest number of Helldivers the game's had since last spring diving in to help try and hold off the invasion of fresh Illuminate baddies was enough to stop one of Super Earth's seven Mega Cities being reduced to ruins. It's ok, don't cry. Hug your SEAF buddy and watch a clip of someone surfing on a Leviathan if that'll help. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The previous major order, which was the Helldivers' initial defense of Super Earth after the Illuminate invasion of their home planet began with the arrival of the Heart of Democracy update, ended this morning. Things looked good, the goal of casually killing 2.5 billion Illuminate had been achieved. Let the good times roll right? Nope, said Arrowhead. "Eagleopolis, a venerable stronghold of Managed Democracy since time immemorial, lies in ruins," the studio informed us all via its latest MO briefing, "Its tattered shopping centers stand in warning as to the fate that awaits the rest of Super Earth, should our mission fail." So, that's one of the seven Mega Cities which make up Super Earth destroyed, but there's still a long way to go in the battle for Super Earth, and that win has seen folks make some progress towards wiping out the entire Illuminate fleet or forcing it to retreat. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Illuminate Fleet Strength currently stands at 49%," Arrowhead continued, "Six Mega Cities remain standing. The Helldivers must dig in, alongside their SEAF allies, and continue to fight, day and night, to defend the heart of our Federation. The surviving Mega Cities must be defended at all costs. The Helldivers must deploy to the Mega Cities as Illuminate pressure shifts among them to prevent them from falling. Once they fall, they cannot be reclaimed." Hence the latest order's goal - successfull extract from missions against the Illuminate 20 million times, in order to strike a further blow to the fleet's big invisible health bar. And, of course, to avenge Eagleopolis, which I'm sure people on the game's subreddit would be cut up about if they weren't too busy post fan art about loving their SEAF trooper buddies in a fashion that totally isn't getting a bit creepy. Are you shedding super tears for Eagleopolis? Let us know below!

Court Dismissed The FTC has dropped its lawsuit against Microsoft following the Activision Blizzard acquisition, letting the tech giant loose After years of legal debate and courthouse clashes, the FTC x Microsoft saga is at an end. Image credit: Activision, Treyarch, Raven. News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on May 23, 2025 The FTC has officially dropped its legal case against Microsoft following the American tech giant's aquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023. Microsoft is now free from scrutiny, and can now proceed with all manner of business shenanigans with Activision Blizzard in tow without worrying about the courts. This legal battle, which has been raging for roughly the past two years, concluded as the FTC filed an order to dismiss its case. This comes now as the FTC recently had its appeal for an injunction on the aquisition declined, meaning in simple terms the FTC didn't really have any more cards left to play. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Brad Smith, Microsoft Vice Chair, responded to the announcement gleefully in social media, posting: "Today’s decision is a victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington, D.C. We are grateful to the FTC for today’s announcement." The FTC, in its filing to withdraw from this legal battle, conceeding the clash with the following statement: "The Commission has determined that the public interest is best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case. Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Complaint in this matter be, and it hereby is, DISMISSED." So that's that. The end of a saga of great legal consequence for the video game industry. Now, Microsoft is free to spread the wings it has recently bought and strapped on, and fly out in pursuit of large sums of money unimpeded. Whether or not the FTC's fears were well placed, and Microsoft will start leaning on the large market share it now has, is something video game fans will have to keep an eye out for. How do you feel about this conclusion? Happy, or bummed out? Let us know below!

Couples Therapy Elden Ring Nightreign director says Fromsoft "kind of overlooked and neglected" playing as a duo, but 2 player-friendly "post-launch support" is being considered Good news, anyone who was planning a Chuckle Brothers-themed boss rush. Image credit: Bandai Namco News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 23, 2025 Elden Ring Nightreign's director says that while FromSoft prioritised getting the three-player and solo experiences the game offers just right for launch, folks who prefer to take on the challenges of the night as a pair might be getting some duos-focused "post-launch support". You can play Nightreign as a duo right out of the gate, provided you don't mind being matched up with a random third wheel to make up your team, much in the same way anyone playing solo will end up with two strangers that gaming law dictates will either be unbelievably skilled or utterly hopeless. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Speaking to IGN, Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki was asked why the game doesn't have an option for a duo to drop right into a game as a twosome if they wish. "The simple answer is that this is simply something that was overlooked during development as just a two-player option, so we're very sorry about that," Ishizaki re-iterating that trios play the game's three person teams naturally facilitate and solo play were the two options that it made most sense for the studio to focus on from the get go, especially when it came to balancing. "We did put a lot of effort into creating this experience that was playable for solo players in as much as the rules and new systems allowed," he explained, "So 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 makes sense. Trios action is "at the core of Nightreign", so that's gotta be the main focus, and FromSoft games are famous for letting you solo bosses, so to cater to the usual single-player crowd playing by yourself has to be a priority in terms of striking a difficulty balance that's in the Godskin Goldilocks zone. You've only got finite time and resources, so the couples take a backseat. Ishizaki outlined the sort of work that's gone into making sure the game for individual players a bit further on in the interview, explaining: "Solo play is generally encouraged and is a natural part of the game loop, but also in general for those solo players — and this might be something that's difficult to notice in multiplayer — but the activeness and aggressiveness of enemies towards any one single player has been adjusted so that you don't find yourself in any unreasonable multi-foe fights. And just generally, when you're playing single player, the parameters adjust dynamically depending on the number of players in that session." If you want a picture of what the Nightreign playing experience is like, make sure to read our hands-on preview from earlier this year. Also, it's now been confirmed that an Elden Ring movie is in the works.

We'll Take Astaroth Diablo 4's Season 9 finally lets us fight Astaroth in the endgame, but the rest of what it brings feels like a re-skin of old systems Diablo 4's Season 9 may not be the one that saves the game, but at least it's bringing back that Astaroth boss fight. Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment. News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on May 23, 2025 Right on schedule, Blizzard delivered a long and detailed livestream covering Diablo 4’s upcoming patch 2.3.0 PTR (Public Test Realm). The developer revealed when the PTR will be going online, and what it’s actually going to include. The PTR will, as previously revealed, only be available on PC through Battlenet. It will go live next week, on Tuesday, May 27, ending one week later on June 3. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. As you may recall from the Diablo 4 roadmap, Season 9 is titled Sins of the Horadrim. The structure of the next season will be similar to recent ones: there’s going to be a new activity or two, with the new gameplay revolving mainly around powers you can acquire as you play said activities. For Sins of the Horadrim, the new endgame activity is called Escalating Nightmares (previously Dungeon Escalation), and the powers will be Horadric Spellcraft. Astaroth will also return as part of the season. The highlight of the new season is the ability to create Horadric Spells, a new system that relies on three elements to function: Catalysts, Infusions, and Arcana. Catalysts are the base, unmodified powers, which you can then alter with Infusions. This changes the elemental damage type of the spell, but you can also change the baseline power of it using Arcana. The system, in essence, is a refresh of Season 7's Witchcraft Powers, and is similar to Season 8's Boss Powers in the way it works, too. Look familiar? | Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment. Something else being introduced with Sins of the Horadrim is Horadric Strongrooms. These are micro-dungeons that can be found within larger Nightmare Dungeons. Your goal is to claim some lost Horadric knowledge within, and fight your way out in time, as a timer kicks in after you trigger a Strongroom. Doing so will earn you Horadric Attunement, which can later be exchanged for rewards. The chances of Horadric Strongrooms spawning increase the higher your Torment level, but you can also use Horadric Phials (a new seasonal currency) to increase your chance of finding them further. Some Nightmare Dungeon Sigils will also guarantee a Horadric Strongroom can be found within. Horadric Strongrooms follow a similar dungeon design where you get to choose what sort of challenge you want to take on by interacting with one of the different Horadric Pillars. Once the ritual is performed and the pillar is satiated, you’ll get Horadric Attunement. At the end of it, there’s a boss you’ll need to fight to complete the run. Before you leave, you’ll get to use your Horadric Attunement to acquire a Horadric cache. He's back! | Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment. The big new activity in Season 9 is Escalating Nightmares, which is a fancy name for a new chain of three Nightmare Dungeons, with nightmares escalating as you go through each. The main hook here is that each dungeon’s affixes stack with the next one, meaning the third in the chain will have affixes from all three. If you manage to go through all three, you’ll get to fight an Exalted version of Astaroth. Triggering an instance of Escalating Nightmare requires an Escalation Sigil, which can be found in Horadric caches from the aforementioned Strongrooms (starting from Torment 1). The Astaroth fight itself is one of the most impressive and memorable fights from Diablo 4’s campaign, and players have been asking Blizzard since launch to bring it into the endgame. This version has something of a mechanical twist, too. Astaroth will jump off his mount, essentially forcing you to fight both him and Amalgam. This isn’t just a visual trick, either, because slaying Amalgam before Astaroth sends the hound into a resurrection state that will put it back in the fight after some time. Watch on YouTube As you might have guessed, there’s a major focus on dungeons in Season 9. Blizzard is turning its gaze to dungeons across both the Seasonal, and Eternal Realms. This will encompass a few tweaks, as well as some new quality of life changes. You’ll soon be able to activate a Nightmare Sigil from within the Nightmare Dungeon itself once it’s complete, meaning you’ll be able to re-run the same one without having to leave and re-enter to create a new instance. The pool of Nightmare Dungeon affixes is also being bolstered with a set of new ones, available across both realms. Then there’s Horadric Jewels, which will be available in Torment 1 and beyond. Completing a Strongroom has a chance to spawn Horadric Tomes, which, when consumed, let you craft Horadric Jewels. These are effectively gems, just with some powerful effects that play nicely with your Horadric Spells. You’ll also need Horadric Phials and Gem Fragments to craft them, and they can only be socketed into Amulets and Rings. Catch up on the full change log on the Diablo 4 blog, which also includes PTR-specific boosts those taking part will need to rely on if they want to get into endgame content quickly.

Supremacy: Warhammer 40,000 has just been revealed at the Warhammmer Skulls event. Developed by Stillfront, the game is a Warhammer spin on the Supremacy epic strategy game, in-development for PC, iOS, and Android. Read more

Fatshark has revealed the next class for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, as part of today's Warhammer Skulls event. The Adeptus Arbites - essentially Warhammer 40K's version of space police - is getting some representation, bringing with them a trusty cyber mastiff companion. Read more

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 got a chunky announcement during today's Warhammer Skulls event. Siege Mode, an endless PvE mission type, will be added to the game across all platforms for free on June 26. The pefect option for those wanting to take on the horde. Read more

Metal Boxes Dawn of War Definitive Edition - a modern version of the best Warhammer strategy game ever made - has just been announced All the mods made over the past twenty years will still work too, which is beautiful. Image credit: Relic Entertainment News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on May 22, 2025 This is not a drill, check on the closest 30+ year old Warhammer fan you know. Dawn of War Definitive Edition has just been revealed during the Warhammer Skulls event! A modern remaster of the legendary RTS game, it'll come with all expansions packaged together in a shiny new package, and is set to release later this year. The DOW Definitive Edition will feature 4K support, upscaled textures, new models, and various drastic graphical improvements. The camera has been improved, which is a much-needed change, plus the UI and HUD have been overhailed to support widescreen setups. But perhaps the coolest feature of all is the fact that the 20 years history of mods made for the original Dawn of War will still work with the Definitive Edition, which is a brilliant touch. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. CEO of Relic Justin Dowdeswell provided the following quote in an accompanying press release, "The Definitive Edition celebrates the original Dawn of War and preserves the legacy of this landmark Warhammer 40,000 title for years to come, Warhammer 40,000 is more popular than ever, and we want new players to experience where the classic Dawn of War franchise began, while providing a platform for our long-time fans to relive it in its entirety." This is likely the biggest reveal of the Warhammer Skulls event for many of the old heads watching, as the original Dawn of War is the crowning achievement of the old era of Warhammer games. Bringing it back now, when the IP is getting a surge of life and love, cements the time we're living in right now as the golden age of Warhammer games. It's also good to hear know that none of the voice lines or models will be changed aside from technical improvements, which means we should still be able to damn the Space Marines and their metal boxes. Are you excited for the Dawn of War Definitive Edition? Let us know below!

Back to the Past A cult classic gets some love with the Space Marine Master Crafted Edition, launching June 10 Available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Game Pass with plenty of updates. Image credit: Relic Entertainment News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on May 22, 2025 After Space Marine 2 released to a supurb level of consumer and critical acclaim, it should be no shocker that the Space Marine Master Crafted Edition has just been announced during the Warhammer Skulls event. This game is coming from SEGA and Sneakybox, the latter responsible for a sweep of modern additions like 4K resolution, updated controls, improved models and enhanced audio. In the press release sent out alongside this announcement, Sneaky Box producer Vaidas Mikelskas states it is more of "a thoughtful restoration" than a technical upgrade. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This modern recreation of the cult classic comes with all the original modes, including the campaign and PvE / PvP multiplayer. What's particularly interesting with this new and improved version of the game is that the Orks are getting a special touch up. The faction has new models and over 100 new voice lines, which sounds great of course, granted Warboss Grimskull keeps all his fantastic quips. Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine is one of those games that has carved a place in people's hearts for years, and given that we're now in a real golden age of both Space Marine love and Warhammer 40K passion in general, in makes sense we'd get a touched-up version of the classic on modern platforms. Plus, you won't have to pay full price for it either! The game will be sold for €39.99 or your regional equivilent, or downloadable on Game Pass for the subscription fee. Are you going to dive into this new and improved version of Space Marine? Let us know below!