Game Feed

Stellar Blade’s combat takes a lot from Sekiro, so why does it feel different?

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I know exactly what you’re thinking after reading this headline. Why would you go into one game expecting it to play like some other one you like? After all, it doesn’t make sense to burden it with the expectations we have from playing another, especially if it never explicitly positioned itself as a spiritual successor or anything. Something about Stellar Blade - the upcoming PS5 action RPG from developer Shift Up, however, always gave me Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice vibes, and I’d wager it has a lot to do with its parry-heavy combat. So I couldn’t help but get into the Stellar Blade demo with that mindset. Read more

Despite fan theories, Elden Ring's Malenia doesn't look to sneakily be the twin of a Sekiro boss we never got

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For a good while now, one of the many fan theories that’ve been buzzing around the Elden Ring community has concerned Malenia. She looks a bit like a Sekiro boss and moves a bit like a Sekiro boss, so there’s a chance she might sneakily be a Sekiro boss we never got, right? Well, sadly, I’m about to rain on your parade. Given the amount of digging folks have done into ER, it’s arguably surprising that this particular rumour, which points to the waterfowl dancer being something akin to a twin of a character you hear about - but never encounter - in Sekiro, has rumbled on so long. Now, though, one of the game’s loreheads has decided to take their own look into it, via some interesting animation comparisons between the two games. “There's one question I get asked about Malenia almost every time I include her in a video, and I've never really had a solid answer for it,” FromSoft YouTuber and community figure ZullieTheWitch wrote in a tweet. “I realised it might actually b...

This week’s Games Done Quick 2024 includes Starfield, Baldur’s Gate 3 and the world’s first speedrunning dog

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Charity speedrunning extravaganza Games Done Quick has kicked off its first week-long event for 2024. Among the highlights are speedy plays of 2023 highlights including Starfield, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Lies of P, along with a marathon from the world’s first canine speedrunner. Read more

If you liked 2023's soulslikes, you should go play Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice—because they're all great tutorials for its unrivalled combat

by Harvey Randall

ny soulslike game—usually characterised by a rigid checkpoint system, weighty combat, punishing deaths, and deep RPG customisation—is going to be compared to Dark Souls. It is what it is... Read more.

One determined modder managed to cram Elden Ring's hardest boss into Sekiro, and she hardly seems to stand a chance

by Ted Litchfield

It always kind of felt like Elden Ring's super hard megaboss Malenia was a transplant from Sekiro, FromSoftware's fast-paced, parry-focused ninja action game. Her aggressive swordplay could just about do laps around my sluggish Tarnished⁠—she almost seems to demand a Wolf's precision... Read more.

Now it’s sold 10 million, can we finally get a Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice sequel?

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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice represents a period of experimentation for From Software. Eschewing some of the heavier mechanics of Dark Souls in favour of something altogether more fast-paced and aggressive, Sekiro is the product of a developer at home in its own skin – one that has learned all the rules purely so it can break them. Again. As From Software celebrates a massive 10 million sales for its esteemed action-RPG, it’s worth looking back on Sekiro to see a game that excels at what it sets out to do. It’s a game that wantonly puts distance between From Software and the genre it pioneered, intentionally twisting the mechanics of the ‘Soulslike’ into something wholly new. Even today – with a new Armored Core game and Elden Ring continuing to iterate on the FromSoft formula – Sekiro acts as the single biggest departure from the developer’s modern oeuvre. And only for good reasons. Though that indefatigable Souls DNA permeates almost every aspect of Sekiro being (menu UI, controls, came...

Elden Ring's Malenia looks even scarier in an impressive Sekiro mod

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If you've ever thought about what it might be like to fight Malenia from Elden Ring with Sekiro's combat system, there's a mod that lets you do just that. You know her, you hate her, it's none other than Malenia, Blade of Miquella. She's easily one of the toughest bosses that FromSoftware has ever made, in no small part because of her wide range of fast paced moves, as well as how many she has of them. Of course, Elden Ring does give you a number of ways to make the fight a lot easier, thanks to the range of weapons and magic at the game's disposal. But what if we just got rid of all that, and plopped her right into Sekiro? A mod from modder shintheweapon lets you experience just that very thing. The mod in question is called Malenia - Blade of Ashina, with the Ashina clan being the main antagonists of Sekiro. A fitting name to give the Elden Ring boss, given just how tough she is. A video from Twitter user KentoAmemiya above shows off the fight in action, and to the surprise of no one...

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is FromSoftware's biggest Steam launch (that isn't Elden Ring)

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Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon represents something special for fans of FromSoftware, and anyone with even a passing interest in the rise of the popularity of the Japanese developer. Elden Ring was one of the biggest launches in 2022, so it stands to reason that anything the studio releases afterwards will have a much larger audience potential. No one expects Armored Core 6 to do Elden Ring numbers, of course, but it's already beating every other game FromSoft released before Elden Ring - at least as far as Steam is concerned. The mech shooter, which launched yesterday, has been gradually climbing through Steam's list of most played games. At the time of writing this, the game has peaked at 150,959 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB. That's up from a peak of just above 127,000 shortly after launch. Read more

After Elden Ring, Sekiro, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne, a key member of FromSoft is saying goodbye to the studio

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If there's one thing fans and non-fans of FromSoftware agree on, it's that the studio's games contain some stellar music. Even as early as the Dark Souls series, through Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Bloodborne all the way to Elden Ring you'd be hard pressed to find a single game without its own list of iconic tracks. But while the music is well-recognised, the name behind much of that body of work sadly may not be. Yuka Kitamura is a longtime FromSoftware composer, whose name should be quite familiar to anyone who counts the studio's work among their favourites. Having been a core part of the storied Japanese team for 12 years, Kitamura is sadly moving on. The legendary composer announced her departure on Twitter, confirming that she'll continue to compose music - just in a freelance capacity. Read more

Hidetaka Miyazaki named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2023

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Time Magazine has named Dark Souls and Elder Ring creator Hidetaka Miyazaki as one of the most influential people of 2023. The magazine puts out its list of the 100 most influential people annually, and this year, the FromSoftware boss made the list with Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann adding comment. "Miyazaki’s games make the player feel accomplished and smart—and it's all thanks to his and his team's uncompromising approach," said Druckmann. "He refuses to overexplain the mechanics or the lore, but rather puts his trust in the player to figure it out on their own. Read more

Steam Global Top Sellers for the Week ending 20 November 2022

by SteamDB

* Steam Deck; * Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II; * Warhammer 40,000: Darktide; * Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II - Upgrade to Vault Edition; * Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II - Vault Edition; * Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice - GOTY Edition; * Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales; * Nobody - The Turnaround; * Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Imperial Edition; * American Truck Simulator - Texas; View more information and data on SteamDB

Absolute chad beats every Souls game back to back, without taking a single hit

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It might not come as news to you that one player with the patience of a saint has managed to beat every Souls game, including Elden Ring, back-to-back without taking any damage. We’ve previously seen players take on Elden Ring while limiting themselves to one hit per boss, in a display fit for an episode of One Punch Man. We’ve also even witnessed one player complete all the Souls games (excluding Elden Ring) back to back without taking any damage, and another player even did a successful pacifist run of Elden Ring. And while he didn’t necessarily take part in any similar feats, we should also pay homage to another Elden Ring chad, Let Me Solo Her. This player took on Malenia countless times, helping others while improving their own techniques for the fight; while not a 0 damage run of the game, or any other Souls game, it’s an impressive feat nonetheless. Read more

Sony and Tencent buy almost a third of FromSoftware’s stock in joint deal

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Sony Interactive Entertainment and Chinese conglomerate Tencent have bought a combined 30% of stock in Elden Ring and Souls series developers FromSoftware, parent company Kadokawa Corporation have announced today. The transaction leaves Sony with a 14% stake in FromSoft, and Tencent acquiring 16% of the company’s shares. Kadokawa remain the largest shareholders, holding almost a 70% stake in FromSoft. Read more