The Fortnite Icon Series, like its more general list of crossover cosmetics, has grown enormously as of late. Over the past year, players have seen not just Marvel heroes, Star Wars Jedi, and other fictional characters come to the island, but several real-life celebrities.
Since Chapter 2, Season 1, Epic has been adding new outfits to Fortnite based on musicians, streamers, athletes, and more. Each of these Icon sets also includes their own cosmetics such as back bling, gliders, and more. The first Icon to ever arrive in-game was Ninja, the professional Fortnite player and Twitch streamer.
He would later be joined by other streamers who were each at the height of their Fortnite powers when they hit the Item Shop. While some streamers have moved onto new games as their primary streaming material, you’ll still find plenty of players donning their outfits in-game in any given round.
Sometimes being really good at Fortnite will lead to your immortalization in the game itself.
Retroactively, masked DJ and the first in-game concert headliner, Marshmello, as well as one member of the Jamaican-American EDM trio Major Lazer were added to the Icon Series, though their debuts in Seasons 7 and 10 respectively both predated the creation of the Icon Series that would come months later. Today, the modern-day Icon Series is also home to athletes like LeBron James, who arrived in the game in a custom outfit as well as his Toon Squad jersey from Space Jam: A New Legacy.
The Icon Series’ versatility also makes it unpredictable. As it can apparently encompass any real-life celebrity big enough who deserves the Fortnite spotlight, it keeps players guessing as to who will be next. For now, the Icon Series still isn’t as big as, say, the list of every Fortnite Marvel skin, but it’s growing fast. Here’s the list of every Icon Series so far. As Epic seems intent on growing this list at least once per season, stay tuned as we continue to update it as often as the world of Fortnite requires.
Vacation Friends premieres on Hulu on Friday, Aug. 27.
Vacation Friends, starring Lil Rel Howery and John Cena, may not reach the absolute heights of comedy, but it’s still an enjoyable hang featuring fun chemistry and another standout performance by Cena (in what’s become a summer bubbling over with good ol’ John).
When headlining wrestlers transition over to movies, the first instinct is usually to start them out as a straightforward action star. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson traveled this path, with films like The Scorpion King, The Rundown, and Walking Tall, and while he was fine in those films, Johnson was able to separate from the pack because of SNL and Be Cool.
Similarly, Cena began with stunted actioners like The Marine and 12 Rounds, but it was Trainwreck and Blockers that helped him ascend. It took someone being able to see beyond a dude seemingly sculpted out of stone to give him a chance to show off his true charisma. The same can even be said of Dave Bautista and his MCU Drax role. The actual comedy, and improv, talents of top-level wrestlers cannot be understated.
So, naturally, Cena is pure joy here, as he’s able to use his wit and charm to their fullest while also borrowing another key ingredient from wrestling: finding the right dance partner. Like Johnson, who was lighting up the screen this summer with Emily Blunt in Jungle Cruise, Cena is able to make magic with fresh and formidable scene partners. Both Howery and Insecure’s Yvonne Orji are great here as the “reactors” to Cena and co-star Meredith Hagner’s wild antics. Howery and Orji’s Marcus and Emily aren’t fully free, but also not firmly rigid, so they’re able to take a few beats to absorb the craziness while still having a blast partaking in it.
Vacation Friends isn’t mean-spirited. At first glance, it may seen like Cena and Hagner’s Ron and Kyla are destructively chaotic, like something out of a Hangover movie. It’s all a little warmer than that. This is not a “one guy annoys another guy for 90 minutes”-style comedy, though the ads may steer you into thinking that. Marcus and Emily genuinely like Ron and Kyla, and during their week in Mexico, the two couples have a good-natured (and only slightly debaucherous) time. It actually makes the petty and predictable blowup near the end of the movie feel a bit too forced, since this foursome only ever benefits from being friends. That third act conflict aside, the medium levels of shock here help the movie feel less aggravating overall and more enjoyable.
Much of the tension and conflict in Vacation Friends is fairly easy to map out ahead of time. It’s basically all misunderstandings which we’re way ahead of, and while that stifles the story a teensy bit, it doesn’t fully squash the fun. After Marcus and Emily have their raucous romp with Ron and Emily, who are wackily cordial and earnest (especially with drugs and sex), they go back to their old non-vacation lives until their wedding day arrives seven months later. Ron and Kyla unexpectedly show up, never realizing that they’d gotten the brush-off, and the stuffy affair (lorded over by Emily’s disapproving father, played by Robert Wisdom) livens up.
Vacation Friends isn’t mean-spirited.
The only times Vacation Friends doesn’t really work is when it strains to make Marcus and Emily actually angry with Ron and Kyla, because, aside from a few instances, they’re actually incredible people who are liked by almost everyone. They just commit the sin (for the sake of comedy) of speaking freely in front of the repressed and uptight. Another bright spot here is Hagner, who you may have seen in Search Party or Palm Springs, as Cena’s zany partner in crime. These two obviously need Marcus and Emily to bounce their nuttiness off of, but they also need each other as perfectly synced-up social pterodactyls always willing to live every moment in life to the Nth degree.
The Saints Row series is coming back with a reboot that takes players to a brand-new city and a new cast of characters. In a new video, voice actress Bryce Charles and the team at developer Volition discuss the project and reveal gameplay footage for the first time following a CG reveal trailer at Gamescom. Some people were upset over the lack of real gameplay footage in the announcement trailer, and now we’re seeing some.
Chief creative officer Jim Boone said one of the challenges at the onset of development of the new Saints Row was figuring out how to up the ante in a series known for being over the top. The studio initially looked to its past for inspiration, but this ultimately felt limiting, so the team opted to “zoom out” and forge ahead with a plan to reboot the series instead of making a sequel.
The new Saints Row is set in a fictional American southwest town called Santo Ileso, and the developers spoke about how the “postcard imagery” of the setting lends itself to new opportunities in the context of Saints Row.
There are four main characters in Saints Row, including The Boss, Eli, Nina, Kevin, each of whom have their own distinct personalities and quirks. Kevin, for example, always has his shirt off and aspires to be a TV chef.
We also learn a little more about the different factions of enemies who will come after you, including Marshall, an international corporation headquartered in Santos Ileso known for their advanced technology. The Panteros, meanwhile, are all about pure physical strength. The Idols, meanwhile, are a cult of personality enemy faction that relies on overwhelming you with their sheer numbers.
He’s All That premieres Friday, Aug. 27 on Netflix.
He’s All That, a reworked and gender-flipped reboot of 1999’s teen rom-com She’s All That, is a deftly charming and capable update that takes the original premise, revolving around a glow-up “makeover” bet, and slides it effortlessly into 2021.
Directed by Freaky Friday and Mean Girls’ Mark Waters, He’s All That isn’t laugh-out-loud funny per se, but it does sweetly pull off the magic trick of presenting us with a handful of somewhat insufferable characters at the start and then slowly chipping away at them until they’re vulnerable and engaging. As Tanner Buchanan’s anti-everything grouch, Cameron Kweller, states at one point, high school is filled with scared people pretending to be something they’re not. He’s All That cradles this notion and uses it as a storyline strength for its two leads as they both discover what’s really underneath all that emotional armor.
TikTok star Addison Rae strikes gold with her first major role, parlaying her social media fame into a character who, similarly, lives her life online in an attempt to craft and cultivate a persona that helps her fit in at a rich and privileged school. Rae is able to give us a character, Padgett, who’s shallow, but has also workedvery hard to become shallow, in an odd way. She’s a paid makeover influencer with an enormous following, but it’s all a means to an understandable end. Meanwhile, Buchanan nicely channels some of his angry outsider vibe from Cobra Kai to give us Cameron, who’s off-putting to the point where you can understand why he’s ostracized.
One of the lingering jokes/tropes from She’s All That, which also permeates a lot of other rom-coms, is the idea that an attractive person, like Rachael Leigh Cook’s Laney, somehow isn’t beautiful until she takes off her glasses and puts on makeup and formal wear. That’s ridiculous, obviously. He’s All That still has a bit of this as background noise, though it gives us more of a reason why Cameron makes for a perfect “I can make him Prom King” bet. No one thinks Cameron is unattractive; he’s just an unbearable malcontent. He’s a growling culture snob who would be an absolute pain in the ass to hold a conversation with. In that regard, He’s All That’s biggest triumph may be making him actually enjoyable by the end rather than redeeming the so-called superficial Instagram girl.
Rae and Buchanan work very well together, as he begins to soften and smile and she — well, see, she’s always been a good person. Mostly. There’s an element of Padgett’s online personality that requires a bubbly and ever-positive demeanor, but that’s also Padgett’s factory setting. She’s able to connect with Cameron, to his surprise, because she’s not the person most people think she is. The romance here comes easily and naturally, and the film smartly leans heavily on the winning charisma of these two. It’s a reboot that has a few nudging nods to the original but also stands on its own as just an adorable and appealing story.
Original She’s All That stars Cook and Matthew Lillard also appear in supporting roles, but not as their O.G. characters, as this isn’t a legacy sequel. After all, Cook plays Padgett’s mother, and there’s no way a grown-up version of Laney would let Padgett coat herself with the false front she uses for her high school life. Here, simply playing Padgett’s hard-working nurse mom, Cook can be a supportive wisdom-dispenser without the baggage of being Laney. Lillard’s earnestly befuddled principal, meanwhile, makes for a silly third act scene stealer.
A new trailer for Metroid Dread has gone live, which features Samus apparently at odds with the Chozo. The race of warrior-like alien bird-people has long been referenced in the Metroid series, although the actual details on the disappearance of the entire race have only been vaguely hinted at over the years.
The new trailer shows Samus under attack from a mysterious Chozo warrior, with Nintendo describing the species as a “highly intelligent and technologically advanced” race that once sought to bring peace throughout the galaxy. Something eventually went wrong once the Chozo civilization reached its breaking point, and it’ll be up to Samus to uncover this mystery.
In addition to that revelation, the trailer features other notable scenes which include a beast that appears to be Kraid, an enemy that Samus has fought before. Just like in older games, Samus will be able to upgrade her arsenal throughout her journey, with tools such as Flash Shift that gives her a brief burst of super-speed, the classic Grapple Beam, and the Storm Missile which can lock onto multiple enemy targets.
Back in July, Nintendo revealed that the light-blue suit Samus wore in an earlier trailer is the same suit that she wore in Metroid Fusion. “In Metroid Dread, Samus’ suit appears to have changed quite a bit from her previous missions,” Nintendo wrote. “This is the result of the organic suit from Metroid Fusion–which was greatly transformed following the attack by the X parasitic lifeform and the injection of the Metroid vaccine–gradually returning to its original, mechanical Power Suit form.”
Metroid Dread is out on October 8 for Nintendo Switch, which just so happens to be the same day that the Nintendo Switch OLED model launches.
One of the next TV show reboots is Dexter: New Blood. Showtime is bringing the crime show back this November, and now star and executive producer Michael C. Hall and showrunner Clyde Phillips have shared some updates on what to expect. In particular, Phillips said he believes the reboot will be “satisfying and controversial.” The show is no stranger to controversy, as the series finale received a mix reaction, to put it mildly.
Hall says in the preview video that part of what caught he eye about the project was that it would give fans some answers about Dexter’s life after the events of the original show.
“I’m excited to put something out there that answers some questions that have been floating around, which are essentially, ‘What the hell happened to this guy?'” he said.
Also what convinced Hall to come back was the behind-the-camera talent. Phillips, the showrunner for Dexter Seasons 1-4 is returning, as mentioned, along with writer Scott Reynolds and Marcos Siega, who was one of the “foundational” directors on the original show.
Phillips, Reynolds, and Siega coming back “gave me that sense that were was a collective appreciation for the fundamentals of the Dexter DNA,” Hall said.
Phillips said he is particularly excited for the Dexter revival because it’s a fresh start with a new look for the series. The original show was set in sunny Miami, Florida, but the new one takes place in a fictional upstate New York town called Iron Lake. When we meet Dexter, he’s living under a new name and he finally believes he can change his life. However, something’s gotta give, and he gets pulled back in.
Hall said the concept for the new Dexter show feels “fresh and new and bold.” He acknowledged that viewers might miss the sunny locales of the original show, but he remarked, “Snow is pretty cool, too.”
In a new video, Bethesda has shown a behind-the-scenes glimpse at three of the locations that players will be able to visit in Starfield. Narrated by design director Emil Pagliarulo, the videos show off the United Colonies capital city of New Atlantis, the pleasure city of Neon, and the capital of the Freestar Collective, Akila.
New Atlantis is described as a metropolitan melting pot of cultures set in a spaceport, where players can interact with a diverse cast of characters.
On the other side of the galaxy, there’s Akila, a city on the frontier inhabited by people who believe in the sanctity of personal freedom and individuality. Akila is a walled city and for good reason, as beyond its borders lie predators that have been described as being a cross between wolves and velociraptors.
Finally, Neon is a city that was originally meant to be a fishing planet, but after the discovery of a fish with psychotropic properties, plans changed. A drug was synthesized from the fish, and once legalized, Neon became a tourist attraction for people looking to experience a new type of high.
Starfield is currently scheduled for a November 11 release in 2022 on PC and Xbox Series X|S. Like other first-party games from Xbox Game Studios, the sci-fi RPG will be available on launch day through Xbox Game Pass.
More details on Starfield since its last release date trailer from E3 have been revealed by Bethesda Game Studios executive director Todd Howard. As he explained in an interview, that the game is going to be “a bit more hardcore of a role-playing game than we’ve done.”
What isn’t too hardcore about Starfield though is its classic cheese and salami sandwich, which someone has figured out how to perfectly replicate in the real world.
Pending approval from the court, Apple will payout $100 million and also clarify several of its app store policies. Most notably, it will allow developers to reach out to customers (with permission from the user) to collect information inside their apps, allowing them to email about alternative payment options available outside the App Store.
Developers on the App Store could previously communicate with customers outside of their apps and even collect payments outside of their apps (e.g. renewing a Netflix subscription on the official Netflix website). But prior to this proposed settlement, developers were not allowed to communicate with iOS customers about other payment options available outside of the App Store.
However, the potential changes to the app store would still not allow developers to inform iOS users about alternative payment options from within the app itself so that developers could bypass the “app store tax,” a 30 percent cut Apple receives from the in-app payment system. Apple’s in-app payment cut has been the subject of a different lawsuit filed by Epic Games last year, which a federal judge is currently reviewing after the case was argued in May.
Another concession Apple will make should the proposed agreement get approved for the case Cameron et al. v. Apple Inc, is that the iPhone maker will create a Small Developer Assistance Fund. It will payout $100 million, divided among small developers who make $1 million or less, with payouts varying depending on how many people submit and are approved for their claim. The remaining funds will be donated to the nonprofit Girls Who Code. The website is up, but it is not fully operational, likely due to the settlement pending approval from a judge.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Despite how little we’ve seen of Elden Ring, those familiar with From Software’s catalogue will have a good idea of what to expect. Surprising absolutely no one, Elden Ring is a dark fantasy action RPG set in an intricately constructed world. It delivers its narrative in fragmented pieces, leaving the player to make connections, fill in the gaps, and draw conclusions. Its gameplay marries the tension of venturing into the unknown with the joy of discovery and, most importantly, it emphasizes a sense of accomplishment that comes from conquering seemingly insurmountable challenges.
Elden Ring is the exact kind of game that From Software is known for creating, but it’s also an exciting evolution that takes the best of what came before and extrapolates it out onto a much grander scale, potentially realizing that open-world Soulsborne fantasy that many fans have been eager for.
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Elden Ring – Everything We Know So Far
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According to From Software’s Yasuhiro Kitao, however, the team didn’t set out to make an open-world title. In fact, From Software isn’t even sure if it has the correct definition of what encompasses an open-world experience, and so isn’t quick to call Elden Ring one. When watching the gameplay, the reticence to categorize Elden Ring as what it seems to be begins to make sense. To be clear, it is unmistakably an open-world game, but one that is cut from the same cloth as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, rather than any of the recent Assassin’s Creed titles. The distinguishing factor between them, for me, is how deliberate the construction of the world feels and what the moment-to-moment experience of adventuring is like.
The Lands Between, where Elden Ring is set, is an interconnected world that, while vast, didn’t look like it was big just for the sake of being big. That much comes through when looking at how dense the world is visually. Whether standing atop craggy cliffs, peering out over a land blanketed in an ominous fog, venturing into snow-capped mountains, or trudging through flooded cities, From Software wants you to always be drawn towards something of interest on the horizon and hopes that, along the way, you may accidentally stumble upon the unexpected. A lot like Breath of the Wild, the developer is counting on curiosity to be your guide instead of dozens of icons on a map.
Similarly, the things that you stumble upon–or have thrust in front of you–feel more emergent than in most open-world games. In a hands-off gameplay demo I saw, one such moment was a dragon suddenly swooping down and engaging the player. In any other Soulsborne game, the telltale signs of a scripted boss fight would appear–a terrifying but epic orchestral score accompanied by a health bar, and a fog gate that signifies that you are definitely trapped–but these elements didn’t appear. It was just an incredibly pissed-off dragon looking to pick off a wandering warrior.
Scattered throughout the overworld are dungeons that can be stumbled upon while exploring. These, in classic From Software fashion, are sometimes deadly detours that invite players to overcome traps, enemies hiding in dark corners, and the occasional boss in order to find treasures. Interestingly, the one I saw felt reminiscent of a Bloodborne Chalice Dungeon. Depending on your opinion of the divisive Chalice Dungeons, that may not sound particularly enticing, but I didn’t see enough of these dungeons to say whether each of them is bespoke in design or procedurally generated like many of Bloodborne’s. Everything you know and love from a Soulsborne dungeon is otherwise present: intimidatingly large blades swinging around environments, ready to cleave you in two at the slightest misstep; monsters that pounce on you as you emerge from a doorway; and a wooden chest with a chain curved upwards. Hmmm.
Also scattered around the world are what From Software calls “Legacy Dungeons.” The name is intended to signify that these areas present something akin to the traditional Soulsborne gameplay in a contained environment. The Legacy Dungeon we ventured into was Stormvale Castle which, in classic Soulsborne fashion, is an expansive medieval structure that dares players to breach its gates. However, a weathered, beastly-looking figure wearing an ornate book as a necklace, who can be found skulking in a dark corner nearby, advises you to do otherwise. Stormvale’s gates are closed, but he can request they be opened for you, a foul Tarnished in search of the Elden Ring.
Here’s where things change in a more obvious fashion: the player is presented with a choice. They can either request that the strange figure give the signal to open the gate or heed the warning and take a back route that is much safer. Bold adventurers will want to go through the front gate, but given the immediate barrage of arrows that followed the moment the Tarnished crossed the threshold, I suspect they’ll realize the back route is the smarter option. Picking one doesn’t lock you out of the other path, however. Instead, this choice is presented as a kind of on-the-fly difficulty decision. Does the idea of overcoming a Sisyphean task sound like a good time to you? Or do you want to take an easier, but still challenging, approach?
Difficult challenges are the cornerstone of From Software’s games, but in Elden Ring the developer seems to acknowledge that there’s more room to explore the idea of overcoming hardship in ways that preserve the sense of satisfaction. According to Kitao, From Software’s intention is never to create a difficult game just for the sake of it. Instead, the team wants players to enjoy the experience, clear hurdles, and see the game through. It creates games with a sense of value derived from overcoming hardships, and Elden Ring implements new ways to do this. One of these is by taking mechanics from its last game, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Like Sekiro’s protagonist, Wolf, the Tarnished is agile, capable of leaping into the air at a moment’s notice. In terms of gameplay, this means that platforming is now more integral to the gameplay experience and, as such, Stormvale Castle is designed with verticality in mind. The Tarnished is shown jumping from rooftop to rooftop, slinking through an open window, and down into the castle. Out in the fields of the Lands Between, the Tarnished can engage in stealth, opting to circumvent combat entirely, or adopt an assassination-oriented playstyle. In outright battle, meanwhile, a leaping heavy attack will break through an enemy’s stance, leaving them vulnerable.
In addition to creating exciting new gameplay prospects within the Soulsborne framework, this new injection of agility means people who may not be as confident in standing their ground and fighting towering beasts, imposing knights, or deadly magicians have a way to take some semblance of control in battle by dictating the pace a bit more. Another way they can turn the tides in their favor is by summoning what are essentially minions that will fight for you. These function similarly to a co-op partner, but with decidedly less staying power. The summons I saw didn’t seem like they could stand-up to a boss, but against a mob of enemies they were effective at taking the pressure off and even thinning out the crowd.
Venturing into Stormvale Castle, in many ways, felt like a slice of stepping into the world of Dark Souls and having that kind of gameplay experience, so to that end the Legacy Dungeons seem like they’ll live up to the name. However, what’s most exciting is that From Software has said the world is made up of a variety of distinct areas, each with their own aesthetic, vibe, and feel. While we’re yet to see what that means, the prospect of venturing into a part of the world that feels like something out of Bloodborne, or Demon’s Souls, or something entirely new is incredibly exciting.
Again, Kitao said that Elden Ring aims to make the most of its sprawling world, so there will be plenty of interesting places to discover. Perhaps more importantly, there will be plenty of interesting people to discover too. From Software describes the story of Elden Ring as a “multi-protagonist drama.” While facing old heroes and demigods in search of the Elden Ring, the Tarnished will encounter a variety of characters, and the game is more focused on them than any of From Software’s previous titles.
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Characters have always been crucial to the narrative of the Soulsborne titles–you only have to look at the fandom around Solaire, Siegmeyer, Micolash, or Genichiro, among many others, to know how important they are to From Software’s games and the people that play them. Elden Ring aims to double down on characters to address the fact that, for many, From Software’s games have stories that are difficult to parse. By focusing on characters and the drama surrounding them, the narrative is painted in a much clearer way, establishing a strong baseline that anyone can enjoy.
That’s not to say it’ll be as straightforward a tale as Sekiro. George R.R. Martin’s involvement all but guarantees that. The Song of Ice and Fire author laid the foundation for Elden Ring’s mythos, creating characters, rivalries, political intrigue, corrupted lineages, and more. And From Software has built upon this foundation with its own brand of storytelling. According to Kitao, not all of Martin’s work is represented in the final game, in some cases, characters he created aren’t in the game, but their place within the history of the world is represented. This is the kind of thing that will no doubt serve as fodder for the obsessive Soulsborne community to dig into.
My biggest takeaway from the short gameplay demo I saw is that, yes, Elden Ring is an open-world game, but not the kind that I’ve become thoroughly exhausted by in recent years. It doesn’t seem like we’ll be going through the motions of repeating three kinds of side-mission in between moving from one designated main story point to the other, and occasionally being distracted by some sort of meaningless trinket to collect. Based on the little I saw, there’s a deliberate nature to its design; a focus on a rewarding sense of exploration and discovery, and content that’s curated to ensure that the experience as a whole is faithful to the design philosophy and general vibe of From Software games.
I guess… Elden Ring could be the Dark Souls of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Sorry.
When I interviewed Hidetaka Miyazaki back in June about Elden Ring, one of the things that really stuck with me was how so many of his answers came back around to this core theme of Elden Ring being all about freedom and choice. Having now watched about 15 minutes of gameplay from a variety of sections of the game, I now fully get what Miyazaki was saying, and how Elden Ring offers more options and flexibility than anything From Software has worked on in the past.
The gameplay demo opened up with a look at Elden Ring’s first open field, which spread out in every direction with a number of easily visible points of interest. To the left was a small watch tower, far off in the distance straight ahead was the gigantic glowing Erd Tree, and just in front was a site of lost grace, which will serve as the game’s bonfire checkpoints. But what’s interesting about them is that some will cause a light to lead the way towards a recommended path, but of course, it’s up to you whether you actually follow that path or not.
One of my takeaways from watching the open field gameplay was this feeling that you could encounter almost anything while exploring. In one section, the player approached a group of enemies gathered around a campfire, when all of a sudden, a gigantic Dragon swooped down in typical Souls fashion and took them all out in a single blow, which then prompted a massive boss fight. In another section there was a group of passive enemies walking along a trail escorting a giant carriage that could presumably be attacked and robbed of its contents, should you be skilled enough to survive the fight. In a different area, there was another carriage that was guarded, but this time by a large encampment of enemies that the player carefully snuck through without alerting the whole camp, even going as far as using a sleep arrow to silently pacify a guard.
One of my takeaways from watching the open field gameplay was this feeling that you could encounter almost anything while exploring.
Of course, in order to navigate across such a giant open field, you are able to summon a Spirit Steed, which can utilize special jump platforms to leap over cliffs, allowing for a ton of verticality in the open-world design. One big departure from previous Souls games (though one that makes sense with a world as massive as The Lands Between), is that you’ll now have access to a map. The map gets updated by finding map fragments throughout the world, and has the look of an actual illustrated parchment made by an actual cartographer who lives within The Lands Between. You can drop markers to note locations of tough enemies, NPCs, treasures, or dungeon entrances. As you’d expect, marked locations also place a beacon that’s easily visible in-game, allowing you to set your own waypoints when you’re looking for places to go next.
Dungeons can be found throughout the open field and of course, they’re full of enemies, traps, treasure, and even illusory walls. The one dungeon that I got to see seemed very basic in its design, with a room that featured a bunch of guillotine traps, and then a treasure room that was guarded by a handful of enemies ready to pounce when you went for the treasure, but since the gameplay I watched was cut up and segmented, I never really got a feel for how big or substantial it really was.
The Legacy Dungeon however I did get a feel for, and it felt massive. Legacy Dungeons are the main attraction of each of the six main areas of The Lands Between, and I got to see the first of them, Stormveil Castle. This particular Legacy Dungeon begins with a choice, you can either head through the main gate and suffer through an intensely challenging route full of enemies aware of your presence, or you could sneak around the side through a secret entrance that takes you along a lesser guarded, but still very dangerous, path with narrow walkways that will punish one errant dodge roll with a fall to your death.
Stormveil Castle definitely brought to mind comparisons to the Boletarian Palace from Demon’s Souls, right down to a section lined with explosive barrels and an enemy looking to ignite them all with an explosion of their own. Moments like these felt more like homage than anything else, and what really stuck out to me more than anything else was how enticing exploration felt with all of the various paths that were left unexplored in my hands-off demonstration. Way off in the distance was a house all by its lonesome on a narrow cliff that had me wondering how I could get to it; when the player looked back towards the cliffside I saw all sorts of unexplored platforms and shinies; and with the ability to freely jump, I constantly wondered if I could jump across certain gaps and find something on the other side. I was told that Legacy Dungeons were built with this kind of freedom in mind, and that they were designed to be complex and multi-layered, which is exactly what I had hoped to hear.
Legacy Dungeons were designed to be complex and multi-layered.
The Legacy Dungeon capped off with the player reaching a rooftop that oversaw the main path the player could have taken if they went through the main gate and fought through the army that awaited them. Since the enemies were unaware of their presence, the player was able to use a sleep arrow to incapacitate the giant beast guarding the boss door, and make it through undetected.
Finally, I got a little tease of the boss fight against the giant multi-armed lord from the trailer, and it was about the Soulsiest boss they could have possibly shown, with gigantic sweeping attacks, earth shattering slams, counter attacks that come out while it reels from being hit, and eventually, a second form with a transformed Dragon arm that spewed fire and had an unblockable grab that just roasted the poor player. It looked absolutely brutal and I can’t wait to try it myself.
Going back to the theme of player choice, all throughout the presentation I was reminded at just how much freedom and choice was offered to the player. The freedom to go in any direction right from the start in the open field; the freedom to engage or not engage the passive roaming enemies; the choice of whether to run or fight when the dragon swooped down; the choice of stealth or reckless violence when attacking the enemy camp; and the choice of whether to go through the main or side entrance in the Legacy Dungeon. None of this is all that new in the world of open-world RPGs, but in a From Software action RPG, it’s certainly an unprecedented level of choice, on top of the already existing customization of builds, weapons, and magic.
With every new bit of Elden Ring I see, the wait becomes increasingly more difficult to bear. But bear it I will, as Elden Ring is planned for release on January 21, 2022.
Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit
