Category: IGN

Twitch streamer Perri Karyal has taken down two major Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree bosses using a hands free ‘mind control’ virtual controller, which decodes electrical information fed directly from her brain in real time.

Prior to Shadow of the Erdtree’s release, FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki was quoted as saying that the challenge posed by the DLC “really pushed the envelope in terms of what we think can be withstood by the player”. True to his word, the days following Shadow of the Erdtree’s June 21 launch have seen many players take to social media to lament that the new content is simply too hard, while others complained of performance issues, leading to a ‘mixed’ review on Steam.

However, its fearsome difficulty hasn’t stopped Karyal from attempting to take on the DLC using a very unconventional method of controlling her tarnished, which also proves that 90 percent of a FromSoftware boss fight plays out between the ears.

Thought I’d post a clip of what mental controls I use and how I get around

Getting to the boss is often harder than the boss😅#shadowoftheerdtree #EldenRing pic.twitter.com/RmetlwJb8h

— Perri (@perrikaryal) June 23, 2024

Karyal made headlines last year after beating Elden Ring’s base game content while using an electroencephalography (EEG) brain monitoring headset to control specific in-game actions such as attacking, and rolling. EEG technology is ordinarily used by physicians as a diagnostic tool. However, after encountering the brain-scanning headwear while studying for a masters degree in psychology she became curious as to whether the technology could be adapted to control video games as part of a virtual controller.

To that end Karyal was able to use some fancy coding to train the software that came with her commercial EEG headset to recognize patterns in her brain’s electrical activity that were brought about when she imagined a particular object, action, or emotion. Each pattern was then assigned to an input on a virtual controller, which allowed Karyal to execute actions with her mind by imagining things during gameplay. For example, by imagining herself pushing a cube forward she could execute a roll, or alternatively she could imagine a plate spinning to make her tarnished perform an attack, or simply make herself angry to heal.

WE DID IT

Shadow of the Erdtree, first boss, COMPLETED with mind control, and ZERO HANDS

I can’t believe it. This was the hardest thing ever. We’ve come SO FAR! Let’s gooooooo pic.twitter.com/INrwrgOH0Y

— Perri (@perrikaryal) June 22, 2024

WE DID IT AGAIN

Shadow of the Erdtree, SECOND boss, Renalla, DEFEATED with mind control, and ZERO HANDS. Absolutely INSANE

Let’s gooooooooooo

If you have any questions, look at the full VOD below – I do set-up, training, and troubleshooting all LIVE pic.twitter.com/H0UpxUj8hz

— Perri (@perrikaryal) June 23, 2024

During the 2023 Elden Ring runthrough Karyal had still been beholden to a physical Xbox controller to dictate the movement of her tarnished warrier. However, for Shadow of the Erdtree, the streamer opted to attempt a completely hands-free run, by using eye-tracking software to track the movement of her head to control her character’s movement, and voice prompts to trigger more nuanced actions, including saying “I choose you” to summon a spirit ash. Navigating to bosses also required a completely different command setup to the one used during the climactic fights themselves, adding another layer of mental gymnastics to the process.

Impressively, Karyal has already managed to use her mind-control approach to take down two challenging early DLC bosses in the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, and Rellana, the Twin Moon Knight. Of course this isn’t the first time that FromSoftware fans have employed a non-traditional controller to shame Elden Ring bosses. Just last year Twitch streamer MissMikkaa managed to beat two Malenias simultaneously in two separate instances of the game while using a Dance Pad and a PS5 DualSense. Another FromSoftware challenge runner by the name Dr. Decomposing was also able to complete a no-damage run while using a modified electric saxophone as a controller.

Be sure to check out IGN’s interactive map and comprehensive guide for all the tips, tricks, and walkthroughs that you need to get the most out of your time in the Land of Shadow, or read up on how modders are already finding ways to make the game easier on PC.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

Good news, From Software fans: Future Press is set to release Bloodborne Complete Guide: 25th Anniversary Edition on September 30. You can preorder it now at Amazon for $59.99. This officially licensed guide is a hefty tome, ringing in at 736 full-color pages. It gets into the nitty gritty, covering the main game of Bloodborne, plus The Old Hunters expansion. It also has lots of behind-the-scenes info we’ll dive into below.

Preorder Bloodborne Complete Guide 25th Anniversary Edition

The Bloodborne Complete Guide has all the resources you need to get the very most out of the game. It reveals all the secrets and hidden areas for you to fully explore Yarnham. It’s an excellent resource for all the items, weapons, and characters found in the game. It also dives deep into the game’s lore, much of which you might have missed in previous play-throughs.

Plus, it contains a good deal of bonus material. There’s a new, exclusive interview with Bloodborne creator Hidetaka Miyazaki. It includes a 20-page concept artwork gallery, and a dedicated Lore Index to help you tell your Vilebloods from your Scourge Beasts.

If you’re doing the math to figure out just how long ago Bloodborne came out (it was released in 2015 as a PS4 exclusive), you’re not losing your mind. The 25th anniversary in the book’s title is how long Future Press has been printing books.

Our critic gave Bloodborne a 9.1 in the review, and the game was a runner up for IGN’s Game of the Year 2015.

This isn’t Future Press’s first rodeo giving such thorough coverage to From Software’s games. The publisher released the beautiful Official Strategy Guides for Elden Ring (Vol.1 & Vol. 2), which are currently down to $44.99 at Amazon. It also released an incredibly popular Dark Souls Trilogy guide.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Threads.

Dungeons & Dragons players will finally be able to drink potions as a Bonus Action in One D&D, meaning the popular homebrew and Baldur’s Gate 3 mechanic is becoming an official rule in the next iteration of the game.

As reported by Comic Book, a video from D&D game designers Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins walked fans through some changes to the Player’s Handbook, which will be refreshed for the first time in more than a decade in 2024, including the long-requested ability to have a cheeky heal as a Bonus Action.

Crawford specifically said that health potions can be used as a Bonus Action in One D&D — which arrives beginning September 17, 2024 with the Player’s Handbook but won’t launch fully until the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual arrive on November 12, 2024 and February 18, 2025 respectively — but it’s unclear if the rule change will apply to other potions too.

As a health potion can theoretically be drank at the same speed as any other kind of potion, however, it would certainly make sense for the Bonus Action rule to affect all of the magic smoothies. The current 5th Edition of D&D forces players to use a potion as a full Action, meaning players miss a turn of doing potentially more interesting things if they need to heal.

Using potions as a Bonus Action has long been a popular mechanic in players’ homebrew or home rules though, and even Baldur’s Gate 3, the hit D&D video game which follows most of 5th Edition’s rules, let players drink them as a Bonus Action.

The release of the updated rules, meaning the transition from 5th Edition to One D&D, comes alongside the tabletop role-playing game’s 50th anniversary. Publisher Wizards of the Coast announced the biggest miniature booster set ever to celebrate, and has been slowly but surely sharing tidbits of information about the new set of core rulebooks.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

War Thunder developer Gaijin Entertainment has apologized after using the explosion from the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in key art for the World War 2 massively multiplayer online game.

A forum post from community manager magazine2 said Gaijin “accidentally” used the explosion as it was part of a reference pack used by its artists. The explosion, which killed all seven crew members of the Space Shuttle Challenger when the spacecraft broke apart 73 seconds after take-off, had a fairly distinct shape and was thus recognized by War Thunder players when used in the key art.

“Hey guys, we have accidentally used the explosion from the Challenger disaster in one of our key art images,” magazine2 said. “Please accept our sincere apologies for this. The picture was part of an aerial explosion reference pack used by our artists and the context was lost.

“We’ll be altering this artwork as soon as we can and will take measures to ensure that this doesn’t repeat again in the future.” Gaijin didn’t say what these changes would be and the image is still available on official channels.

This isn’t the first time controversy pertaining to real world events has surrounded War Thunder, though it’s usually in hot water due to real military documents leaking through its forums.

Documents related to the M2A2 Bradley Armoured Infantry Fighting Vehicle were posted on the forums in December 2023, for example, and while not legally classified, still contained in-depth details the military considers sensitive.

Another instance saw an image of the DTC10-125 Tungsten Penetrator alongside a technical document detailing its specifications appear in June 2022. That followed others on War Thunder’s forums that revealed classified information on British Challenger 2 and French Leclerc main battle tanks.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Square Enix has asked Final Fantasy 14 players not to spoil the highly anticipated Dawntrail expansion upon its early access launch on June 28, 2024.

A blog post from Square Enix outlined the early access period, which begins at 2am Pacific / 5am Eastern / 10am UK and is available to anyone who preorders Dawntrail, but closed with a message asking players to be considerate to those waiting for the full launch.

“During the early access period, there will be no restrictions on what content you can discuss, post, or stream while following the Material Usage License Agreement,” Square Enix said, making clear spoilers will be out in the wild.

“However, we ask that early access users please be considerate and do their best to avoid posting spoiler-related content as there are those players who may start at the official launch or play at their own pace.”

The expansion officially launches July 2, 2024, but as it includes a major extension of the Final Fantasy 14 story, a whole new map, the Viper and Pictomancer jobs, plenty of raids and dungeons, and more, it will likely be much later before many players can experience everything.

Dawntrail promises to add a difficulty spike to the long-running MMO too, while a major graphical overhaul will refresh the entire Final Fantasy 14 experience. In March, chief developer Yoshi-P joked that Square Enix had hoped to release the early access a week earlier, but… “Elden Ring DLC.”

That was a reference to Shadow of the Erdtree, which came out on June 21. “We figured everybody would be interested in playing the Elden Ring DLC… I’ll give you one week!”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

One of the developers of Steam and Xbox hit Palworld has teased the release of a PlayStation version.

Pocketpair community chief Bucky tweeted adding blue-colored hearts to Palworld’s existing black (PC), green (Xbox), and white (Mac) hearts. Blue is, of course, the color of PlayStation branding. With this context, a PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 release now seems likely.

🖤💚🤍Palworld🤍💚🖤

I want to add more hearts, but not sure what colour would fit…hmm…how about….

🖤💚🤍💙Palworld💙🤍💚🖤

Looks good I think!

👀

— Bucky | Palworld (@Bucky_cm) June 22, 2024

Palworld, dubbed ‘Pokémon with Guns,’ launched in early access form in January 2024 on PC via Steam and on Xbox as a day-one Game Pass title. It saw enormous popularity overnight, becoming one of the biggest game launches of all time. But it’s also one of the most controversial. Pocketpair has said its staff has received death threats amid Pokémon “rip-off” claims, which it has denied. Soon after launch, Nintendo moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod, then The Pokemon Company issued a statement, saying: “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.” IGN asked lawyers whether Nintendo could successfully sue.

Player numbers have tailed off in the last half year, but the addition of a PS5 version would certainly provide Palworld with a shot in the arm. Whether Nintendo would greenlight a release on Switch is another matter entirely, of course.

Meanwhile, Palworld gets a major new update this week, called Sakurajima. It increases the level cap, adds new Pals, a new raid, a new faction and boss, and a whole new island. This update also comes with Xbox-dedicated servers, something the game had conspicuously lacked up to this point.

IGN’s Palworld early access review returned an 8/10. We said: “Palworld may crib quite a bit from Pokémon’s homework, but deep survival mechanics and a hilarious attitude make it hard to put down – even in early access.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

It’s been a bruising weekend for many Shadow of the Erdtree players. The DLC’s extreme — and intended – difficulty has sparked a debate about the rights and wrongs of developer FromSoftware’s approach with this Elden Ring expansion. But now that debate has spilled over into Steam user reviews, which currently have a ‘mixed’ rating after a flood of complaints about the rock hard bosses as well as PC performance issues.

Ahead of Shadow of the Erdtree’s release, director Hidetaka Miyazaki signaled the DLC would significantly test players’ abilities. “The new challenges for the player are going to be the boss encounters as well as the different kinds of threats that the world will impose on people,” Miyazaki told CNET. Some of these bosses are aimed at players who’ve completed most of the base Elden Ring, meaning FromSoftware has “kind of really pushed the envelope in terms of what we think can be withstood by the player,” he added.

And so it has proved. Over the weekend, players began to complain about the extreme difficulty with bosses and performance issues. “As a huge fan of all soulgames, I would love to like the DLC, but the enemies’ damages are completely overtuned, especially for some bosses,” reads one negative review. “Some have a completely erratic moveset rendering the whole experience just painful without any fun.”

“Good DLC, but performance has gone down as of the latest update,” reads another negative review, this time focused on the PC performance problems. “Constant micro-stuttering and frame drops, freezes as well as increases in loading times make it difficult to enjoy and play the game. One of the early boss fights takes place around a puddle of water, which drops frames considerably. Wait for performance improvements before buying.”

Perhaps mindful of the growing negative feedback over difficulty, publisher Bandai Namco tweeted some advice for struggling Shadow of the Erdtree players: “This is a suggestion to level up your Scadutree Blessing.” This tallies with advice IGN itself has offered. Indeed we believe Shadow of the Erdtree’s Scadutree Blessings are the answer to the Elden Ring DLC’s difficulty (Scadutree Blessing bolsters the recipient’s abilities to deal and negate damage). You can check our guide to track down every last Scadutree Fragment.

This is a suggestion to level up your Scadutree Blessing

— Bandai Namco US (@BandaiNamcoUS) June 22, 2024

Meanwhile, the Shadow of the Erdtree review bombing continues, but it’s worth pointing out that at the time of this article’s publication, 65% of the DLC’s 32,722 user reviews are positive on Valve’s platform.

FromSoftware game difficulty has been a hot topic for years, with the likes of Dark Souls, Sekiro, and Bloodborne all called too hard by some. But extreme difficulty has not hindered their sales success. Indeed Elden Ring has sold an incredible 25 million copies, and is by a clear distance the biggest FromSoftware game ever.

Speaking to The Guardian, Miyazaki explained why FromSoftware looks to continuously push players, rather than offer easier difficulties that would theoretically open up its games to a wider audience.

“If we really wanted the whole world to play the game, we could just crank the difficulty down more and more, but that wasn’t the right approach,” Miyazaki said. “Had we taken that approach, I don’t think the game would have done what it did, because the sense of achievement that players gain from overcoming these hurdles is such a fundamental part of the experience. Turning down difficulty would strip the game of that joy, which, in my eyes, would break the game itself.”

An amusing upshot of the debate around Shadow of the Erdtree’s difficulty is a renewed nostalgia for the base game and its bosses, now said to be relatively easygoing in retrospect.