Opinions aside, however, there’s no denying that Nexon’s free-to-play shooter has many issues, ranging from irritating to frustrating, that it needs to sort out and fix immediately. Let’s take a look at ten such things here.

Matchmaking in Hard Mode

As you properly dive into the end game, Hard mode becomes available for many activities. Infiltration Operations, for example, have more modifiers to up the difficulty, and you can tack on some more for an increased Kill Score (which raises the chance of certain rewards). The same goes for Special Operations and Void Intercepts, the latter required to open different Amorphous Materials. In theory, it’s not a terrible way to repurpose a lot of existing content. The problem is the lack of matchmaking, making things much more challenging than they need to be and effectively handicapping solo players, especially since you must redo segments like bosses if you die before they’re slain (that too with limited lives).

Looking for Group

The only option then is to play with friends, but what if (no offense) you don’t have any, or at least any online at the time? Why isn’t there a Looking for Group tool? Even Bungie eventually smartened up and added the Fireteam Finder, allowing players to create listings in-game and seek out others to help them in group activities. Your options in The First Descendant include going to Albion HQ and messaging random players (like many were wont to do in Destiny 1). Maybe they’ll join you for the activity in question. Maybe they’ll immediately leave and flame you for the unwanted invites – roll the dice and find out. If Nexon is deadset on no matchmaking for its Hard mode content, then an in-game LFG tool is the least it could offer.

Kicking AFK Players

I feel like I’m in a time machine, reading some of the complaints for this game since they mirror many of the issues that Destiny 1 had at launch. That includes the lack of options to kick AFK players. Say you’re on a mission, whether it’s a Void Intercept or a particularly difficult Infiltration Operation. The assistance of your team is paramount, but you get that one player who idles around and does nothing. You can’t kick them, and the game itself lacks anything to detect their AFK behavior, so you can do nothing but watch as they leech off of hard work and reap the rewards. It’s 2024 – the fact that this is still something that happens in a looter shooter is baffling.

Drop Rates

There are mixed opinions about drop rates currently. Some feel that the best items and materials should be rare and that’s fair. Others think that abysmally low drop rates that run in the single digits are just straight-up unfun and that’s also fair. Considering how many rewards are tied to a low drop rate, I’m inclined to agree – some more guaranteed sources would be ideal.

Also, raise the drop rates or implement methods like a knockout system in harder activities where players have an escalating chance to receive the rarest item with each completion. Maybe there’s some concern that players will run out of things to grind for, but the bigger issue is grinding for hours and not getting what they want, potentially causing them to leave and not return. It’s happened before in other loot games and it can absolutely happen here.

Encrypted Vaults

The concept of Encrypted Vaults isn’t bad – find some holographic doodads, ping them and follow the sounds to find the Vault, “???”, profit. It’s the third step where the problems begin and seemingly never end. First, you need a Code Analyzer to open it. Next, you need to complete a timed-button press mini-game. Miss the inputs within the given time, thus failing to open it, and the Vault won’t open.

Also, your Code Analyzer is consumed. Better get another one (and hopefully it wasn’t a Precision Code Analyzer, which is rarer). The more annoying thing is that even if you successfully hit the many inputs, you don’t slightly extend the time (and the timing is iffy). I get it – Nexon wanted to rip off the lockpicking mini-game from Warframe. Unfortunately, it’s one of the few copied mechanics that feels significantly worse than its inspiration.

Caliber Purchase Issues

Caliber is the premium currency, meaning have to pay real money for it. Used for directly purchasing Descendants, accelerating research and whatnot, it’s pretty important. If players aren’t receiving Caliber after purchasing it, that’s a big problem, yet somehow it’s occurred a couple of times within the first few days of launch. Perhaps it will be resolved sooner rather than later, but regardless of how you or I feel about the monetization, there’s nothing worse than paying for something in a game and not getting it.

Consumable Paint Jobs

Speaking of terrible monetization, why the heck are paint jobs consumable? Why do players only get one use out of paint colors and then have to spend the cash for more? Has Nexon not learned from Destiny 2, which received backlash for this at launch? Warframe has you pay for entire sets of color palettes, but they have unlimited uses. It’s one thing to sell Ultimate Descendants at absurd prices to skip the grind, but shaking down players for paint? Absurd.

Boss Design

A new hotfix is available and nerfed Eterllick the Tracker’s use of shield skills per phase. That’s good. Bosses like Devourer still don’t scale well for four players, leading to endless frustration. That one boss in that story mission can easily chunk down your health with fire damage, even if you have Fire Resist Modules. Then there’s the Dead Bride with her annoying immunity phases, especially if your teammates don’t prioritize breaking her parts. Ordinarily, a challenging boss would be nice, but this isn’t a Souls-like. There are plenty in The First Descendant that need a few balance passes to reduce their more annoying characteristics.

HUD Customization

If you’ve seen any gameplay, especially on consoles, the heads-up display can get a little…busy. Between displaying objectives, items you’re tracking, the map, your abilities and so on, there can be some clutter. While the HUD can be turned off for a more immersive experience, it would be nice to remove some information for a cleaner appearance. Add a dynamic option as well, turning the HUD invisible after some time for good measure.

Melee Combat

Aside from the absolute lack of melee weapons, melee combat just lacks punch overall. Whether you’re initiating a grapple strike, using a charged or uncharged melee or abilities like Sharen’s electric slash, they all lack impact. The first order of business is to revamp the system to be less clunky, then add some greatswords, lances and whatnot into the mix. Turn them into heavy ammo weapons if necessary, but they’re a must.

So, whilst there are indeed elements in Black Myth: Wukong’s combat and exploration that evoke the best of FromSoft, there are equal parts Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, and Monster Hunter amongst others at play here too. Indeed, in a recent Chinese interview with Game Science co-creator Feng Ji the dev explained that the team behind Black Myth: Wukong aren’t trying to replicate any particular game or style. They’re very much focused on creating something new; Black Myth-like, or something akin to that, might be their ambition. See, according to Feng Ji replicating a specific style “corresponds to different focus and handling of details.” They go on to say that an action type game “should focus on performance and execution,” whilst learning from Monster Hunter means prioritising “animation of massive enemies.” Troublingly for the likes of other Soulslikes already out there such as Lies of P or Stellar Blade, Feng Ji reckons matching against a specific product means naturally making a B game, or in other words, something inferior and – damningly – unoriginal.

Now, Lies of P and Stellar Blade are inarguably great games with breadths of originality, so this final quote might be a little too sensationalist, but Feng Ji is at least making a serious point about their own game. Black Myth: Wukong needs to be its own thing. The overall experience, they want, is for players not to go in with an established game design in mind. To enjoy something they’ll perceive as fresh, maybe genre expanding, and certainly original. So, the next question really is: from the wealth of footage we’ve seen so far are they succeeding in this goal?

Well, a bit of a cop out answer coming here, but until we get our hands on the finished game a 2-hour demo isn’t going to conclusively illustrate the breadth of originality Black Myth: Wukong has up its sleeve. What we can say, and what most of you are probably thinking, is Black Myth: Wukong looks fantastic. Thus, a follow-up question could be: are Game Science maximising the potential presented in their source material? Another could be: have they created something distinct enough to stand out from the crowd? And, yeah, you know what to answer both follow-up questions it looks like they are.

Black Myth: Wukong is evocative in ways many other games could only dream. Taking command of the monkey hero known as the Destined One, a character loosely based on Sun Wukong from Journey to the West, the most immediately striking thing is the game’s visuals. Crafted in Unreal Engine 5, the mythical environs are so impressively detailed. It wasn’t long ago we were all wondering if Black Myth: Wukong would be another one of those East Asian tech demos that look incredible but will never see the light of day. Well, this one’s legit. Demo players in Los Angeles were given access to the PC version for their run through the 2-hour demo and whilst the hardware spec wasn’t disclosed (presumably you’ll need something immensely powerful to run Black Myth: Wukong with all its graphical bells and whistles) not one demo player reported frame rate drops, texture pop-in, or any other graphics-related anomaly.

Action is reported as buttery smooth too which is a must given this game’s combat focus. The Destined One moves with speed and ferocity; for this reason, frame rate drops during bouts would be a disaster. There’s plenty of info out there regarding the depth of Black Myth: Wukong’s combat, so this feature will just outline the highlights.

Combat is an outwardly humble affair, our Wukong warrior wielding a staff throughout. Light and heavy attacks comprise the bread of butter of fighting. Based on game footage swift light attacks, with the chance to build combos, appear the principal means to overcome enemies, and there’s an extremely enticing flow to utilising light attacks. Heavy attacks come with a warmup animation – a potential risk versus reward – but the damage dealt to enemies following heavy attacks, at least on the footage seen, doesn’t appear too great. Perhaps the game’s deep, complex combat-centric skill tree unlocks more powerful, and more useful attacks for your staff arsenal.

We also know that, at least initially, parrying isn’t available, except when spinning the staff to deflect long-range missiles. Instead, dodging has been preferred by Game Science, yet not unlike Sekiro’s demanding perfect parry or Stellar Blade’s dodge mechanics Black Myth: Wukong harbours a perfect dodge itself. However, there is more risk versus reward here as over-utilising dodge maximises its cooldown meter rendering the manoeuvre momentarily unavailable. Execute a perfect dodge however and you’re acquire focus points which can be used to unleash powerful special moves.

Stamina is another system which governs attacks and dodges, so whilst the combat on display here isn’t as methodical as FromSoft’s style there is a modicum of thought process demanded of the player; button bashing certainly won’t win battles.

Elsewhere there’s magic – because this being Chinese mythology – of course there is magic, with spells operating on a cooldown meter too. And again, this being Chinese mythology there is shapeshifting. There are alternative fighting stances for the staff unlockable through progression too, with the most notable being the pillar stance whereby Wukong mounts the staff akin to a giant pogo stick, simultaneously avoiding damage from ground attacks (at the cost of stamina) whilst charging a devastating ground slam.

Everything governed in the combat will be tweakable via the skill tree too, so there’ll be numerous builds to compliment your playstyle, which is no mean feat from the developers given a single weapon is used throughout the game’s reported 30–40-hour runtime.

So yes, again, Black Myth: Wukong is more than a Soulslike. It’s a composite of subgenres whipped into something fresh thanks to its tantalising mythological setting. Worth pointing out is its environs are said to be linear – at least the demo was – with explorable areas and secrets to discover sure, but a much more curated experience than something open world. This has raised concerns that Black Myth: Wukong will play more as a boss rush type game, but we don’t know that for sure yet. If anything, a curated, linear affair will give Game Science a more suitable platform to tell Wukong’s story.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

That’s why it’s interesting to see the response to The First Descendant, Nexon’s upcoming looter shooter.

The Earth has seen better days after an invasion by the Vulgus and the mysterious Colossus, but there is some hope in the form of the Descendants. These are humans with something in their genes called Arche that awaken powerful abilities, whether it’s lightning and gravity control or jumping on enemies until they die. Different strokes for different folks.

Announced as Project Magnum in 2021, it was easy to dismiss it as little more than attempting to cash in on the genre too late, ignoring other failures over the years like Anthem and Marvel’s Avengers. However, as the years have gone by, it’s slowly come into its own as a strong alternative that seeks to combine the genre’s best mechanics into one package.

The shooting and overall build-crafting – especially the Modules, polarities, mod capacity and skill-changing options. The Battlefields and their various objectives and activities are reminiscent of Destiny’s Patrol Spaces. There’s even a hint of Nightfall-like difficulty with the modifiers for its Infiltration Operations and Special Operations. However Amorphous Materials can be farmed from various activities and opened in boss battles known as Void Intercepts for rewards.

The latter sees you taking on a Colossus, either solo or with friends, and breaking off its parts to expose its weak spots. It’s very Monster Hunter-esque, right down to grappling onto a point and battering a part to destroy (which I admittedly had little success with when playing the recent preview build). There are also form changes and Enraged states where you must maneuver around the arena to survive.

Then there’s the crafting and research, with the former playing a part as you tinker with Ultimate Weapons and Reactors, both farming a core part of the end-game reward loop. The latter is necessary to unlock new Descendants, as you gather resources for each component and you even have a requisite waiting period before it’s available to use.

It may sound like The First Descendant is shamelessly stealing from other established looters, but I see it more as iterating on what works. A library of all the relevant Modules, Descendants, crafting materials, Amorphous Materials and weapons a la Destiny 2’s Collections tab? Sign me up. There are also some quality-of-life features from gacha games like Honkai: Star Rail.

If you want to unlock Sharen as a playable character, you don’t need to look up each component and each material required and then check where they drop from. Click on the material, and the missions where it’s available will open up. You can then select the mission and question and launch into it. There’s even a Monster Hunter-like wishlist feature for the items you’re targeting and a Laboratory that lets you test our weapons and builds against various enemies.

Some may view this kind of imitation as more than just flattery, but as history has shown, ignoring the competition isn’t always the best idea. See Anthem’s leadership reportedly not wanting Destiny even mentioned during its development, forget looking at it for what works and how that all turned out. Even a big name like Tom Clancy’s The Division suffered at launch before looking to other games for revamping its end-game loot and build-crafting.

Then you have The Division 2, which did away with the Incursions of its predecessor and embraced raids like Destiny. Their success is probably up for debate, but they were still a step up. Even the recent Diablo 4 took some cues from Last Epoch for its crafting overhaul. Between The First Descendant having those quality-of-life features or not having them and then garnering feedback from players demanding the same, I’ll go with the former. Of course, having so much available content, both in the story and end-game out of the gate, doesn’t hurt either.

Another thing I like about The First Descendant is how the Descendants are more than just suits – they’re actual characters with roles in the story. Bunny isn’t just the speedster of the group – she’s happy-go-lucky and charismatic on the surface but has abandonment issues and a history of misdemeanors. Then you have Sharen – a no-nonsense assassin who sought to kill an enemy commander, failed, ended up in a prosthetic body and deals with near-constant pain, all for the sake of revenge.

The jury is still out on their overall impact on the narrative. However, you also have individual stories for each, starting with Bunny’s when the game launches (and more to come for the other Descendants). You’ll play as Bunny during this and get to know her better, which goes a long way towards fleshing out the character. Does it put a dampener on those who enjoy creating their own characters? Sure, but this is an interesting way to tie the various Descendants into the story while providing players with different play styles and classes.

This isn’t to say that I have no concerns for The First Descendant. As content-packed as it looks at launch, the post-launch is a completely different story. Nexon will add more Descendants and their stories alongside new weapons, but will there be new activities, limited-time events, bosses and objective types? How will it expand on the story? These are questions that remain unanswered.

There’s also the question of monetization. Much of what the preview showcased is no different from contemporary titles. You have the Destiny 2-style Season Pass, which includes weapons as potential rewards (but at level 1, so an instant power gain isn’t possible). The shop allows for directly purchasing Descendants, though you can also get them by just playing the game.

However, you can’t earn farm premium currency like Platinum by trading items in-game, at least not at this stage. The sheer amount of purchases may turn some people off, even if it’s a free-to-play title, but I’m worried that Nexon will go even further. It doesn’t necessarily have the best reputation with monetization (see Dungeon Fighter Online), but we’ll wait and see.

For now, The First Descendant has made several of the right moves before and after its launch, showcasing its end-game loop and, more recently, delving into all the build-crafting that players can expect. While it won’t likely challenge the genre’s best or most established, another viable alternative for looter shooter fans to dive into is always good. Who knows? Maybe it can grow beyond that into something other titles will emulate in the future, if not stem some criticism that looters tend to garner.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Going further back, on the other side of the so-called “console war” fence, you look at the Xbox 360, which was in the fourth year of its active lifecycle in 2009, a year that saw the console adorning its blooming library with a litany of all-time classics, including the likes of Resident Evil 5, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands, Halo 3: ODST, Forza Motorsport 3, Dragon Age: Origins, and Shadow Complex, to name just a few.

All of this, incidentally, wasn’t just a one-off year for either of the consoles we’ve mentioned, nor were their fourth years where they really got going. Before entering their respective fourth years, both the Xbox 360 and the PS4 had already enjoyed consistently excellent support from both first- and third-party support over the preceding years, with both consoles having already built up solid libraries of games that weren’t available on last-gen hardware. The PS4 had games like Bloodborne, Batman: Arkham Knight, Fallout 4, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Dark Souls 3, Overwatch, Dishonored 2, and Titanfall 2, to name just a few. The Xbox 360, meanwhile, was heading into its fourth year with a library that already boasted the likes of Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Fable 2, Mass Effect, Forza Motorsport 2, Grand Theft Auto 4, Left 4 Dead, Dead Space, The Orange Box, BioShock, Burnout Paradise, and Halo 3, among several others.

Compare this to where we’re at with the PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S. We’re four years into both their lives, which – seeing as console generations typically tend to last about 7-8 years at best – means we’re at roughly the halfway point in this generation, if not even a little bit past it. Have the PS5 or the Xbox Series X/S managed to build up the sort of library of games that cannot be played on previous-gen hardware that you would expect any other console to have racked up by this point in its lifecycle? Four years in, we’re only just now getting to the point where it feels like most major games are beginning to drop cross-gen releases and focusing on current-gen consoles instead- though even now, you have the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Sonic X Shadow Generations, and a handful of lingering cross-gen releases like them casting doubts over the necessity of current-gen hardware.

Of course, we need to give credit where credit is due. 2023 was an excellent year in terms of great new game releases- maybe even the best ever had. Then again, so many of the year’s best releases weren’t games that can only be played on current-gen hardware. Even outside of high-profile exclusions like a number of Nintendo releases, there were multiple major new titles that were cross-gen, including Resident Evil 4 Remake, Street Fighter 6, Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, Hogwarts Legacy, Like a Dragon: Ishin!, and others. Even Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is getting last-gen releases. And that, of course, is on the back of prior years that had also seen a consistent and widespread trend of major games choosing to release across generations rather than only for the newer consoles, with some very few exceptions.

All of which is to say that, nearly four years into their lives, the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S haven’t really come close to justifying their existence, much less their respective price points. It’s be foolish to ignore the many factors that have led to these circumstances – like a two-year pandemic completely messing up development pipelines, or longer and costlier development cycles leading to fewer AAA releases from developers in general – but the incontrovertible fact at the end of the day is that if, at this point in the console generation, you’ve hung on to, say, your PS4 and have yet to upgrade to a current-gen console, until about a year ago, there were rarely any major releases that you would have missed out on- and even now, there are several that you will get the chance to play on the console that you have.

So what’s the solution? Well, the obvious one is for companies to just start releasing more current-gen exclusive games. By default, we’re going to get plenty of those going forward, because at long last, we’re finally at the point where the majority of major new games won’t be cross-gen, whether that’s first-party or third-party. Microsoft and Sony themselves also need to start doing much more of the heavy-lifting though, because so far, the platform holders themselves have hardly made current-gen hardware seem anywhere close to unmissable.

To its credit, Microsoft has quite a lot in the pipeline. In 2024, 2025, and beyond, the company is lining up several promising first-party releases, including the likes of Avowed, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Fable, South of Midnight, Perfect Dark, Gears of War E-Day, and more. On Sony’s end, the company does have some notable upcoming first-party releases that have been officially announced in the form of Astro Bot, Marvel’s Wolverine, and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, though hopefully, there’s plenty more that will be announced in the relatively near future. All of that is, of course, on top of third-party publishers that’ll be bringing their own flagship releases to current-gen consoles as well, like Grand Theft Auto 6, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Star Wars Outlaws, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, Monster Hunter Wilds, and the like.

And of course, it’s also likely that the games industry is going to get a huge adrenaline boost in the not-too-distant future when Nintendo launches its own next-gen console. The Nintendo Switch 2 – or whatever it ends up being called – is going to be announced before April 2025, and is widely expected to launch sometime next year. That, of course, will also mean a wave of shiny new flagship releases for the new console, all of which can only be good for console gaming as a whole, especially if the Switch 2 is powerful enough to keep up with multiplatform third-party releases the way leaks have consistently claimed it will be.

In the end, of course, it’s enormously disappointing that we’ve had to make it to more than the halfway point in the current console generation for it to finally start feeling like maybe things will finally get going at some point in the near future. It’s literally unprecedented- no console generation has ever required this long to finally begin making a case for why it was even needed in the first place. About four years from now, we’re probably going to be heading into the PS6 and next Xbox generation, which is absolutely wild to think about, because this generation feels like it has effectively only just kicked off.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

What immediately stands out in the gameplay trailer is just how faithful MGS Delta is to the original source material. David Hayter’s recognizable gravelly tones echo from Naked Snake’s mouth like it’s 2004 all over again. Yes, all voice lines in MGS Delta are reused from the original game, as confirmed by Konami rep Tommy Williams. Speaking of sound, we can likely expect a lightly arranged version of the original soundtrack, if the trailers are anything to go by. The odds are pretty good that we’ll be able to switch between classic and MGS Delta soundtracks just like we are with the camera angles and control scheme, as we discuss further in the article.

And then there’s how the trailer is shot and framed. There are nearly a dozen 1-to-1 shots you can compare with the original, and it all looks so faithfully captured and enhanced. The cockpit inside the helicopter looks particularly stunning in MGS Delta. Just look at that dimly lit center console topped with oodles of dials and switches; it really does put the original shot to shame despite how good it looked back in the day. Slow panning shots make for great sun flare moments, and that’s exactly what the MGS Delta trailer showcases with its recreation of Snake shimmying across the bridge edge as the sun glimmers through the ropes.

The most interesting shot comparison to me is when Snake sneaks across the scaffolding above the broken wall. The original had a cloud of mist enveloping the surroundings, which provided lower visibility and a unique atmosphere. MGS Delta’s version of this scene clearly shows every bush and cranny with remarkable detail and narry a cloud to be seen overhead. I’ve heard some say they prefer the foggy atmosphere and color filter of the original, but the clarity of MGS Delta retains the classic MGS3 look with added realism giving a slightly different vibe.

Unlike other recent remake projects (I’m looking at you, Silent Hill 2), the redone characters look amazing without any instances of uncanny valley plaguing character faces. Snake looks exactly how we’d expect him to look with the modern fidelity treatment and I wouldn’t change a thing about his new design. Augmenting Snake’s facial design are his characteristic animations, which the trailer captures perfectly. I especially like Snake’s eyes scanning the environment with separate iris movement. MGS Delta’s character animations manage to look natural while fitting the mannerisms and familiar motions from the original. And you know what defined MGS3 back in the day? Rain. The rain looks spectacular in the Metal Gear Solid Delta trailer, with little dapples of drops flitting about in between the jungle branches. My goodness, it all looks so good. Konami is clearly putting that Unreal Engine 5 shadow technology and Lumen lighting to good use here.

The visual tone seems too good to be true, but what about the unique Kojima aspects? Kojima’s quirky tone even seems untouched in Metal Gear Solid Delta. For example, that classic Rambo Snake scream when firing the LMG is alive and well, along with the iconic exclamation mark visual cue and sound. Based on the trailer, we have little reason to doubt that Konami will keep all the zany Kojima aspects from the original into MGS Delta. Everything the trailer showcased has been an enhancement of the original game with little altercation to the intent or artistry of the original, so we’re hopeful the full experience delivers a full-blown modern enhancement of the classic.

This is exactly what fans want, and if the final game can stick the landing of what the trailer showed, how can Metal Gear Solid Delta not be a beloved remake? The original game wasn’t perfect though; certain gameplay elements are rough to return to, defining the janky controls of games from the era. Thankfully, MGS Delta is giving us a new control scheme that addresses many of the original’s shortcomings. Konami calls this modern control scheme, ‘New Style’ and will also include a classic ‘Legacy’ control scheme to compliment it. The New Style control scheme incorporates a dynamic over-the-shoulder camera and updated third-person shooter controls.

You can already see some of this control scheme in action with Snake smoothly going prone and aiming the gun while crawling backward in the trailer. And please, please give us finely tuned gradient aiming this time. The finicky sensitivity of the previous versions’ aiming is notoriously clunky. The Legacy controls feature the classic overhead camera and, in the words of Konami, “the original controls from the original Metal Gear Solid 3”. It’s such an awesome package having both control schemes in one, and it gives us hope that the original soundtrack will be an option as well.

We have yet to see or hear any details on how menus are implemented in Metal Gear Solid Delta. Based on all the improvements shown so far, it would be shocking if they didn’t fix the unintuitive menu hopping of the original. Remember having to manually update camouflage and refill stamina every time you stepped into some new terrain? That constant in-and-out of menus was a flow-breaker, but thankfully patching up wounds has been updated in a big way in MGS Delta, giving us confirmation that they’re overhauling healing.

Metal Gear Solid Delta is going all-out on the wound healing system, now making wounds permanently visible on Snake even after healing them. Footage shows just how detailed Snake’s wounds look. Bullet wounds and deep scars remain on Snake’s body even after healing him, resulting in a dynamic real-time wound system that adds even more player connection to Snake based on how we perform in the game. There’s plenty of other gameplay details that we don’t have info on. Like, are they overhauling the Survival Viewer? Is the Tranq Gun better balanced so it isn’t as game-breaking this time around? Only time will tell! I’m curious about boss fights. Konami has an excellent opportunity to fix the shoddy CQC mechanics of the Volgin fight, in particular. Some of the boss arenas were too open for stealth to function prominently in the fight, so hopefully we’ll get some enhanced stealth boss mechanics.

Lastly, MGS Delta also marks the first time we’ll likely have a version of MGS3 that is well-optimized for PC. The Master Collection is tied to the internal game speed making the game feel fast-forwarded and clunky when playing it above 30 fps on PC. MGS Delta is likely giving us that consistent 60 FPS PC release we’ve been waiting for. The unanimous fan approval the recent trailers have received is a clear sign that Metal Gear Solid Delta is shaping up to be a solid (pun intended) remake. Think about it, It’s not an easy task to satisfy fans for a game as sacred and beloved as MGS3, yet the latest MGS Delta showing did just that. Konami just needs to fulfill what the trailers have promised and we’ll have one of the best remakes we’ve ever had. MGS Delta hits all the requirements for a great remake: faithfulness, enhancement, and fixing archaic design. We’ll have to wait and see if Konami nails this one, but it already looks like it has the potential to be one of the best remakes of all time with what we were shown.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Shadow of the Erdtree launched on June 21st and immediately soared to “Overwhelmingly Positive” on Steam. In the past 24 hours, Elden Ring’s concurrent player count on Steam was 766,158 – quite impressive, considering its lifetime peak of 953,426. Circana’s Mat Piscatella also confirmed that on June 19th, the game had its highest share of active US players on PS5 since December 2022 and on Xbox Series X/S as of February 2023. One can thus assume exceptional player numbers on console and good times for fans of FromSoftware, Souls-likes and Elden Ring in general.

As you probably guessed by now, something happened.

Players dived into the Realm of Shadow, thoroughly sifting through its secrets, unlocking new weapons, admiring the sights and jokingly chiding director Hidetaka Miyazaki on yet another poison swamp. They fought the initial bosses, died a bunch and kept going back, again and again. However, the Steam user review score suddenly dropped.

It went from “Overwhelmingly Positive” from a few thousand reviews to “Mixed,” with 63 percent of 28,719 reviews positive as of this time of writing. Some reviews pointed out issues with performance, like frame rate drops or micro-stutters. These issues are reportedly affecting the base game as well, though – once again – your mileage will vary. While we saw performance issues when reviewing the PC version in 4K, lower resolutions were fine.

However, those are only part of the complaints. Many others have also been verbal about its difficulty. It’s not isolated to Steam either, as several Reddit threads have cropped up over the past few days complaining about the same. But why? It’s probably easier to list the reasons why they aren’t.

You have a mounted boss whose hitboxes are considered too unforgiving, another mounted boss that starts unleashing bullet hell-style attacks, an Ancient Dragon with absurd damage, that other somehow worse dragon, and, of course, the final boss. Bosses with too much health, bosses that deal too much damage, bosses with high poise that are impossible to stagger, bosses that fly high, bosses that make you cry – it’s a warzone out here.

Naturally, there were the counter-threads, mocking players with “Well, what did you expect?” Others provided tips on how to deal with the difficulty and whatnot. However, it feels like an extension of boss habits that some players disliked in the base game, namely long combos with multiple hits to dodge and brief windows for attacks. Throw in area-of-effect abilities and spells, status damage, little time to recover, incredible speed, etc., if that wasn’t enough already.

There’s also the opinion that the Scadutree Fragments, which grant additional levels of damage resistance and output, aren’t enough to withstand many bosses. Pair that with complaints of camera and visibility issues for some fights (you probably know which ones), and it feels like the deck is stacked against players.

As many have already pointed out, this is nothing new for FromSoftware. Dark Souls was already difficult until Artorias of the Abyss arrived and raised the bar. The most challenging bosses in Dark Souls 2, from Sir Alonne to the Fume Knight, are in the Crown of the Old Iron King DLC. Dark Souls 3’s most challenging DLC foe was Sister Friede…until The Ringed City and Darkeater Midir. Then you have Bloodborne and The Old Hunters, which introduced the Orphan of Kos.

Such is the view with Shadow of the Erdtree, where the concern is amplified further due to the sheer size of the expansion. However, in many ways, the approach to bosses reminds me somewhat of certain raids on Contest Mode in Destiny 2. Some of the most challenging didn’t just demand your best weapons and builds – they also required excellence in execution. Raids like The Last Wish and Salvation’s Edge demand that everyone on your team plays perfectly – a single death can be a huge setback. That also applies to solo dungeons, where the bosses not only have immense health pools but conditions to fulfill for short damage windows.

Do you need to play the raids on Contest Mode, where everything deals more damage and takes less? Not any more than you need two or three-man them when it’s not active. The same goes for the dungeons, but there’s another aspect: Knowledge. The best tools and damage set-ups are only one part of the equation – knowing the fights well enough to employ them, never mind getting to the damage phase, is more vital.

The same can be said for Fatalis in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. You could have the best build, but if you don’t know the fight and the best opportunities for inflicting the most damage – because it has a 30-minute time limit, compared to the usual 50 for most hunts – then forget about beating it.

Shadow of the Erdtree is very challenging – there’s no doubting that. It may contain the most difficult bosses that FromSoftware has created. There’s inevitably a learning curve for even the most experienced players, just like the base game, whether it’s how to dodge specific attacks or the best weapons and builds for each fight. If winning means using everything at your disposal – Summons, Incantations, NPCs, Bleed, Frostbite, Scarlet Rot, dual-wielding Greathammers, consumables for damage reduction, the Black Knife dagger – so be it.

You can go without them – I’ve seen one player defeat a certain Ancient Dragon capable of one-to-two-shooting them without any Summons or Scadutree Blessings. On the other hand, I’ve seen another defeat one of the most challenging bosses in the expansion with a Mimic Tear, Moonlight Greatsword magic, and an immortal NPC summon. That doesn’t mean they didn’t struggle, but they got the job done.

There’s certainly an argument about aspects of certain bosses that could use fine-tuning, whether it’s hitboxes or camera angles. FromSoftware may opt to tone down certain things without overly impacting the fight. However, it’s okay if the expansion’s difficulty isn’t everyone’s cup of tea at the moment. Some players have enjoyed the experience immensely, from the art direction and gorgeous environments to the killer themes and new weapons, while also feeling down on one or two bosses. It’s possible to have it both ways.

While it’s certainly a balancing act for FromSoftware, it’s worth noting Miyazaki’s views on difficulty. As he recently told The Guardian about the base game, “If we 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.

“Had we taken that approach, I don’t think the game would have done what it did, because the sense of achievement 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.”

Whether you agree with that sentiment or not for the expansion – be it the entire experience or only parts – ultimately depends on you and your approach to its combat. However, one thing is certain: Shadow of the Erdtree celebrates everything Elden Ring offers, from its scale and depth of secrets to its environmental design and bosses. The sense of satisfaction and achievement from conquering its challenges is one that few games can replicate, regardless of how many deaths it takes to get there.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

You know what is a surprise, though? That somehow, in spite of the ridiculously high expectations everyone had heading into Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, the expansion is still better than you thought it would be. Yes, on paper, it would be accurate to say that Shadow of the Erdtree is more of the same. That’s also incredibly reductive though, because it fails to capture just how much more of if there is, how unbelievably good all of it is, and how effectively it’s able to stand toe-to-toe with the seminal experience that was the base game itself.

Shadow of the Erdtree is much larger than you think it is. It’s roughly half as large as the base game itself, which is far larger than what FromSoftware said pre-launch it would be, which means even after pouring over 40 hours into the expansion, it can still have plenty of juice left in it to squeeze out. It’s essentially Elden Ring 1.5, which means it’s far larger and meatier than most games you’re going to find.

Of course, this being a FromSoftware joint, what makes Shadow of the Erdtree stand out is not just how much content it has on offer, but how good all of it is. The Land of Shadow, the new map that you explore in the expansion, isn’t huge so much as it is dense, with FromSoftware choosing to focus on vertical and intricately layered design in the open world rather than something that stretches out over large expanses. Mastermind Hidetaka Miyazaki said in the lead-up to the DLC’s launch that From’s goal during development was to blur the lines between open world and legacy dungeons in terms of how the two are designed, and Shadow of the Erdtree does that masterfully.

Exploration in the expansion is, as such, immensely satisfying, to the extent that words truly cannot do it justice. There’s a bevy of shortcuts, secrets, hidden branches, and what have you in every nook and cranny of the map, and you never know where a winding path might lead you. There’s daunting and formidable dungeons to find, vastly varied biomes and locations to discover, secret areas to stumble upon, and so, so much more. Just as the base game did, Shadow of the Erdtree keeps finding ways to boggle the mind with its sense of scale, the ingenuity of its design, and how cohesively and neatly all of it ends up getting tied together. It’s the sort of thing that you just can’t find in anything not made by FromSoftware, with maybe a few, rare exceptions.

Something else that stands out with Shadow of the Erdtree is how well it manages to raise the stakes on the base game in every way imaginable. FromSoftware could have taken the easy way out and made the expansion geared towards mid-game builds and no one would have batted an eye, but Shadow of the Erdtree is specifically built for high level, late-game players, which means the vast majority of the challenges that the base game will throw at you are no longer going to phase you. What, then, could Shadow of the Erdtree possibly have up its sleeve to make you take pause, right?

As it turns out, a whole damn lot. Shadow of the Erdtree is crawling with enemies that are going to stalk your nightmares for weeks to come. Even some of the regular, trash mob grunts you’re going to run into are surprisingly formidable foes, while the roster of multiple dozens of minibosses and bosses that you’re going to take on across the length of the new campaign are going to put up the kind of challenge that is going to make your blood boil. It is, however, also tuned to absolute perfection, in a way that only FromSoftware can manage- difficulty that will push your patience to its absolute limits, but will never quite feel like it’s unfair, all of which makes the satisfaction of eventually overcoming those challenges that much more gratifying. Bosses and enemies in Shadow of the Erdtree are the perfect blend of perfect game design and bizarre, utterly creative, and strikingly gorgeous visual design. It’s FromSoftware it its absolute best, which is really saying something.

Adding to the added sense of challenge and renewed wonder of exploration is how mechanically rewarding progression continues to feel, in spite of the fact that anyone playing this expansion will very likely already have clocked close to a hundred hours into the base game at the very least. That’s down to the introduction of Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes, items that you can find and turn it at Sites of Graces to increase attack and resistance stats for yourself and your Spirit Ash summons respectively, and these upgrades work only in the Land of Shadow. It’s a brilliant way of not only making progression still feel rewarding and necessary in the expansion, but also ensuring that it doesn’t break the late-game or endgame challenges of the base game itself.

It’s not often that an expansion is both good and expansive enough to be considered not just as good as a full-fledged game, but even better than the overwhelming majority of them out there. In fact, that has almost never happened. Maybe you could argue that CD Projekt RED has done it a couple of times – once with The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine and once with Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty – but that’s pretty much it- and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is a far, far more monumental achievement than even either of those two. Maybe it lacks the majesty and novelty of Elden Ring, given that, at the end of the day, it technically is just more of the same, but there’s an argument to be made that the epic dark fantasy adventure it offers is as unforgettably spectacular as the one FromSoftware served up in the base game, if not even more so.

Yes, we’re saying that Shadow of the Erdtree is at least as good as one of the greatest games of all time. That’s how good it is. It may not technically be an actual, standalone game, but it’s better than the overwhelming majority of “full” games you’re going to find out there. And no, that’s not an indictment on the quality of any of those games. Shadow of the Erdtree is just that damn good. FromSoftware is a studio that has grown into the habit of setting new standards for the medium as a whole over the last decade and a half or so, and typically enough, that’s what the studio has done with Shadow of the Erdtree again. Obviously, it’s unreasonable to expect that every expansion for every game is going to be like this- and nor should it be. The point, however, is that we now know that expansions can be this unbelievably good. Not that long ago, even that thought would have been deemed unreasonable.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Immersion, freedom to explore, opportunity to ‘self-create’ adventure (or at least provide a sensation of ‘self-creation’); these are qualities in which open world games excel. For a basic definition we can say open world games must provide vast spaces with little to no predefined trajectory. Rather, any waypoint – for lack of a better term – is more akin to coordinates players are free to travel via heeding the path which most takes their fancy. Linear games in contrast centre on pre-determined routes. More than one way from getting to point B from point A can exist, sure, but there’s an ever-present notion of distinct start and end points. There are games with worlds that sit between these two ends of the spectrum too, less constrained but not-quite-open non-linear games, or those so called ‘semi-open’ world games, but this feature isn’t overly concerned with those. No, what we’re hoping to get at here is that if the excellent, immersive, freedom-granting qualities open world games provide are known, then why do so many feel flat, drab, uninspiring, bland, or boring?

Perhaps we need to look at the essential design considerations developers must take to foster this unrivalled immersion. For instance, numerous landmarks must be visible in the vicinity, or on the horizon. Points of interest leading to areas with different experiences and tests of a player’s specific skillset. However, the challenge when designing an open world is to not over-stuff the landscape with points of interest, and as there’s no definitive order players will choose to experience these events designers are best avoiding placing too many similar types of experience in the same vicinity. Too many points of interest can equate to an overabundance of mini-map markers and on-screen icons; elements regarded as immersion shattering for many players. To go even more granular, the time taken to travel between points is also an important consideration. Too many seconds between events and the world might feel too vast and empty, too short a time and it’ll feel congested, like there’s a constant interruption to exploring.

It’s all a matter of balance, and whilst balance is deeply subjective developers can skew these design considerations one way or another to communicate to the player what they’re trying to achieve with their open world experience. Large and empty doesn’t necessarily equal bad, just look at the acres of contemplative space in Shadow of the Colossus. An excessive smattering of map and on-screen icons won’t always ruin immersion and we can take Cyberpunk 2077’s densely packed Night City metropolis as an example. And opposed to large and empty, small and condensed isn’t always a bad thing either. Just look at the Japanese city districts Kamurochō, Sotenbori, and Isezaki Ijincho that have featured in Yakuza games over the years.

If we’re to assume that there’s the right balance of distinct points of interest dotted throughout an open world, we can then look at player mechanics, and perhaps more specifically means of traversal. Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man series is stuffed with points of interest, sure, but the ways in which Spidey freely web slings between skyrises is so satisfying, and so well implemented by the studio, that boredom is hard to come by when travelling. It’s clear that movement mechanics came first in the equation for Insomniac Games when they were designing the Spider-Man’s open world Manhattan. Infamous Second Son is another example which nails traversal. In both these superhero-centric titles the cityscape is a playground to freewheel through. For all its praise, Batman: Arkham Knight and its introduction of the Batmobile felt like a downgrade on the Caped Crusader’s exceptional traversal up to the final entry in Rocksteady’s excellent Arkham series. Worse still is much of Arkham Knight’s combat was built around using the Batmobile as a tank, using it to solve puzzles, and to race through Gotham’s streets. A core facet in what made the series’ two prior games so compelling was eroded.

For all their greatness, Marvel’s Spider-Man and its subsequent sequels do befall a trope of open world games that has risen out of perceived consumer demand for more value in their playtime. Developers have been artificially inflating the runtime of their open world games for some time now, and it’s been coming in the form of tiresome, repetitive side content; same-old fetch quests, over-numerous camps to clear out, rinse, repeat. Marvel’s Spider-Man isn’t especially reliant on these artificial inflations, but it does harbour numerous collectibles dotted in their abundance. Backpacks and the tokens within are used to craft gadgets, suits, and mods, but their inclusion for what boils down to RPG mechanics substitute player freedom in exploration for humdrum routine. They’re a step up from Grand Theft Auto IV’s pigeons – of which there’s no motivation to complete the task of shooting them all – but the perceived reward of Backpack Tokens will vary between players. Also, RPG mechanics in open world games aren’t necessarily bad. They’re a clear sign of progression for a player, but they’re shoehorned into numerous open world titles when they really don’t need to be, and the result is the wealth of boring content just described.

Ubisoft are one of the worst offenders and are often notorious for these tropes over the years. Otherwise decent games like Watch_Dogs, Far Cry 4, and countless Assassin’s Creeds are bogged down by unrewarding, paint-by-numbers quest design. Maps become chores to clean icons off. Items squashed into every nook of map space provide little if any narrative weight. Towers become tasks to unlock more tasks. It’s filler, ad infinitum. The world exists as a checklist, with “things to do”, rather than being something that lives and breathes in and of itself. Even open world games highly regarded for their stories or combat are oftentimes held back by derivative side content: both Horizon games, Final Fantasy XV, Fallout 4, et cetera. Outside of the main quest, activity can feel vacuous.

Elden Ring challenges this notion by being a world that’s already dead. Destruction happened a long time ago; a husk of landscape is all that remains to wander through. The Lands Between is beyond saving, yet this world provides freedom Ubisoft games simply cannot fathom. Many other games like Red Dead Redemption 2 offer veritable sandboxes to foster player creativity. Outer Wilds with its pocketsize galaxy reveals more of itself as the player explores and discovers.

Perhaps, alongside balance in activity and creating environments which complement character mechanics, developers should trust players without feeling the need to hold their hand. Being taught every mechanic, being signposted to everywhere, ideas on what to do hidden in sub-menus, overbearing UI – Elden Ring, Red Dead Redemption 2, Outer Wilds; these games prove players can be trusted to explore without these constant distractions, and they’re intensely immersive as a result. Ultimately, being shown everything drags otherwise decent open world games to tedium. The time is now for these tropes to dissipate else the open world genre will stagnate beyond redemption.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Numerous US states have no NFL team, so passionate football fans flock to college level. People impose a strong identity on their college, and into their sports teams; they steep themselves in intense inter-college rivalries that have brewed since the 19^th century. Amongst the oldest sports in the USA, football is rich in history and tradition, and College Football demonstrates it’s magic in ways more profound than its professional counterpart, such as iconic pre-game rituals from Ohio State’s ‘dotting of the I’ to Colorado’s live buffalo wrangling and Auburn’s War Eagle. Fans play their part too, with face painting and hours-long tailgating parties electrifying the atmosphere by the time the marching bands commence.

Exactly why EA Sports have waited 11 years since NCAA Football 14 to release another College Football video game given the sport’s endearing popularity is perplexing. Sure, the NCAA’s failure to fairly compensate its players for appearing in EA’s prior College Football games is probably somewhere near the top of reasons but given this year’s iteration doesn’t bear the NCAA’s name it’s still a strange decision to drop the series until now. But, alas, the game is returning, and its returning with all new bells and whistles alongside some returning game modes.

First though, it’s that electrifying game day atmosphere EA Tiburon are encapsulating here with aplomb, if EA Sports College Football 25’s pre-release trailers are anything to go by. It’s an element EA have been injecting into its other annual sports titles for a couple of years now, but it’s demonstrated marvellously here. Locker room hype, lifelike mascots whipping stadiums packed with chanting fans into frenzy, traditional team run outs, plus the aforementioned marching bands and rivalry rituals underscore the thrilling spectacle of College Football perfectly. Game day audio in the form of fight songs and commentary voiced by Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler in marquee matchups and Jesse Palmer, David Pollack, and Rece Davis on the mic for all other games ramps the fever up some more. This is personality unique to College Football, and its integral EA Tiburon nail this aspect if they’re to produce an authentic experience.

EA were restraining themselves from spilling every detail in EA Sports College Football 25 until this week’s gameplay deep dive. Before this, they had already confirmed the return of fan-favourite Dynasty franchise mode and Road to Glory career mode. In the former, you’ll create a coach to build a powerhouse college football program from the ground up. Staffing, recruitment, and transfers – as you’ll probably expect – play important roles on the road to success. NCAA’s Dynasty Mode was much more rewarding than its Madden equivalent as it saw you cherry pick high school prospects before nurturing them right through their graduation to the NFL. The Road to Glory career mode has you live the life of your self-created student-athlete, managing your training schedule, earning coach trust, and building your brand portfolio to gain more time on-field during your rise through the ranks.

Additionally, the web-based Team Builder is returning. This feature allows players to set up their own college football program via creating uniforms, logos, helmets, and stadiums. These assets can be imported for use in Dynasty Mode and offline exhibition matches, with players also having the ability to browse other user creations.

Principal in College Football 25’s innovations though are something EA Tiburon dub CampusIQ, and we’ve finally got a good look at this thanks to the just-released gameplay deep dive video. This suite of gameplay features is intended to provide the pinnacle of strategic, fast-paced college gameplay, encompassing player ratings that fluctuate throughout a game based on their performance, unique Player Abilities encompassing both mental and physical abilties, and all-new in-game passing mechanics, dubbed Unique Playbooks. Pre-snap recognition promises to provide intel at the line before a play is made, the aim being to help players make the right decision when it matters most. Trick plays, fake passes, reverse handoffs; there’s a whole host of special moves you can execute on the turf to snake through defensive lines.

The highly promising Wear & Tear System, however, seems like a real game changer. It’ll require you to manage your player’s health and stamina via a progressive system, limiting their fatigue, and assessing the risk of on-field injury else you’ll heighten the chance of key mid-game mistakes. Wear & Tear explores granular effects of certain scenarios too. For instance, as EA state “not every hit is the same”, in other words, every hit scales differently. So, a certain takedown on your star quarterback could injure their shoulder, which of course can have severe ramifications on the outcome of your game, and the rest of your team’s season. Or your quarterback could evade injury altogether, depending on their current Wear & Tear levels.

It’s a unique approach to in-play management, and whilst fatigue and injury are factors in EA’s other sports titles it seems EA Sports College Football 25 is pushing this mechanic to a limit not yet seen. Imagine your striker flunking a match winning last minute penalty through mental fatigue in FC. It’ll rile some players up the wrong way for sure, but it’s certainly more akin to real-life sportsmanship than not, and should it prove worthy here without dipping into frustration or feelings of unfairness then it could be adopted across the rest of EA Sports’ canon.

Homefield advantage is another interesting new gameplay feature that promises to shake up the on-field action in more ways than one. Take USC on a road trip to their fierce Notre Dame rivals and you’ll feel the tangible effect homefield advantage has on your ability to make the right play – missing pre-play icons, moving play art, and screen shaking are set to serve up distractions that’ll test your squad’s confidence and composure. What’s more, players with lower composure stats will be worse affected by Homefield Advantage than those more head-strong players, creating an interesting dynamic across your line-up.

NCAA games prior toyed with home team advantage in the form of replacing away team artwork with squiggly lines before, but much like the Wear & Tear System its being pushed to unprecedented limits. There’s a depth of immersion in this feature that isn’t replicated in EA’s other sports games. Together with the Wear & Tear System, this gameplay innovation could conceivably roll out to the rest of EA Sports’ output should it prove a worthy addition here. Both systems do aim to replicate emotions and situations athletes encounter for real and given College Football 25’s in-game footage recently shared, we can see the palpable affect this can have on you and your ability to make clear cut decisions when it matters most. Specifically, the screen shake uncannily recreates the electric atmosphere of a rampant, bouncing crowd right there on-screen. It’s as intimidating as it is distracting.

Road to the College Football Playoff is a new competitive online mode which will have you choose a college to compete towards winning a national championship. Winning games to earn rank will foster progression, so even though it’s not entirely novel some players will get some mileage out of it even if others won’t. Perhaps in the same ballpark is College Football 25’s inclusion of microtransaction-laden Ultimate Team. On the one hand, this mode will have meaning given this game’s inclusion of real-life college football players, but on the other manufacturing a team of 50 plus superstars becomes an overstuffed experience, far away from the honed craftwork of 11-a-side teams ala FC 24.

The truth is though that EA Sports College Football 25 might not appeal to many beyond Madden players, but the efforts gone to present an experience distinct from its NFL equivalent does position College Football 25 as something worth a punt on if you’re interested in soaking up the unique prestige and electricity of College Football. Launching worldwide on July 19^th 2024, EA Sports College Football 25 will be available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with three different versions to pre-order. Given its innovations, it stands a fair chance of being one of the biggest sports titles of the year.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Not that this is a bad thing, mind you. Yet it’s interesting how, despite so many changes and new additions, the experience of a new FromSoft expansion boils to making you feel like you’re experiencing the base game for the first time. That sense of wonder returns. Everything feels exciting again when it’s not overwhelmingly difficult and makes you despair.

The same applies to Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, the first (and probably last, for the foreseeable future) paid expansion to the open-world action RPG. It features a new region, The Land of Shadow, with a mysterious history shrouded until now. Queen Marika set foot here first before The Lands Between and – surprise – became an Empyrean that would establish a dominant empire.

What went down? What is the violent purge that took place? Who exactly is Messmer the Impaler? For that matter, what does it have to do with Miquella, Malenia’s brother, who ventured to The Land of Shadow for some unknown purpose?

Whatever the case, it’s your job to pursue. Right off the bat, the quest feels much more personal and not just for you. Also pursuing Miquella is this group of warriors. Leda welcomes you to the entrance, conveniently located at the cocoon in Mohgwyn Palace, where Mohg, Lord of Blood, was fought (and is required to beat to access the DLC). While exploring the region, you encounter other characters like Freya, formerly allied with Radahn and Hornsent. They’ll provide updates on Miquella’s progress through the region at some points, not quite understanding what he’s after, but knowing their role all the same.

Based on previews and impressions, The Land of Shadow – despite being roughly larger than Limgrave – is absolutely massive. That was intentional, per director Hidetaka Miyazaki to PC Gamer, because “we wanted an experience for the player that was going to match that of the base game. We wanted them to experience that sense of discovery, and that sense of wonder and exploration again. We needed a map that was going to uphold that and bolster that.” Density is just as important, especially the “ratio of legacy dungeon to open field areas and how they intertwine.”

When asked by the publication if it’s pursuing a more Dark Souls-style of world design, Miyazaki said, “There was a sense of that as we were building it. I think what you’re describing there is what we tried to achieve this time with something that’s not quite an open field and not quite a legacy dungeon. It’s something that kind of blends the two and creates that better sense of verticality.”

While you’re going to have those large fields to explore, providing that grandeur and sense of wonder, there will be more variety as well. “So we hope what you were experiencing was that attempt to add to the variety of how we space out and structure the open field to the legacy dungeons,” he noted.

We’ve already heard about some of the dungeons, like Belurat and its eclectic mix of scorpions and Gravebirds (both new enemy types) alongside the traditional armored threats, or Caria Ensis with its magic-based Carian foes (including giants who unleash powerful spells). Based on impressions of both, they’re not quite Legacy Dungeons, but also not exactly on the scale of something like, say, Castle Morne. It’s an interesting middle ground, and the fact that they’re more tightly packed with less downtime in between should make for an altogether different experience from the base game.

Of course, the fundamental Elden Ring experience is changing in other ways. There are about 100 new weapons, and FromSoftware is letting its imagination run wild. A blade that splits into two swords you can dual-wield, with a Weapon Art that’s essentially a dashing side stab? A lighter Greatsword in the form of Milady, which also activates a stance to transition into different follow-ups? The Dryleaf Arts, which are more akin to martial arts than probably anything FromSoftware has offered to date? They’re much less like weapons and more like brand-new playstyles to explore and build on, which is exciting.

Other exciting prospects are the Scadurtree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes. The former reduces the damage received from enemies, while the latter increases the damage dealt by your Spirit Summons. You could look at them as no different from the temporary buffs available throughout the game, whether it’s through consumables or Incantations, but they’re always (and only) active in The Land of Shadow. So, unlike the base game, you have an avenue to make the experience somewhat easier on yourself, though enduring the various horrors of the new region to find them is necessary. Then again, you can not use them and keep the same level of challenge throughout.

While there could be some concern over whether FromSoft is balancing around these Fragments, I’d like to think it’s giving that extra degree of freedom to players who want a more challenging experience. Think of all the powerful builds that already exist and what Shadow of the Erdtree is going to make possible with its new weapons, Sorceries and Incantations. Having a difficulty that goes further beyond the norm is almost a gift. Finally, a way to truly test one’s self beyond installing mods.

There’s also the possibility that the expansion’s launch will offer a patch that re-balances and adjusts the entire game. Some excellent weapons could get knocked down to the “still very good” tier, while others could make it to “shadow of their former self.”

There’s no telling how many builds could be made worse…or even better, for that matter. Of course, that’s another part of the appeal – that feeling of a clean slate and building up towards something brand new, struggling against all the entities of this new world while making a name for yourself. Of dying numerous times but learning a bit more on each go-round till you finally claim victory.

Whether you’re looking at it from the perspective of build-crafting, a different flavor of open-world exploration or a new kind of story that’s less “one ring to rule them all” and more “what is even going on,” Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is a game-changer for long-time fans. Yes, it’s innately familiar, but it expands on what players already love about the original while potentially giving them something they didn’t even know they wanted.

If it ends up standing out, much like the base game did, it could become FromSoftware’s best expansion to date, and another shining example of what works on top of other quality content. With the expansion launching on June 21st for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC, it’s thankfully not that long before we find out first-hand.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.