Author: seo

Elden Ring has been the most funny game in years. This is due to FromSoftware’s excellent understanding of player behavior and absurd comedy. You can see the gothic atmosphere of Souls: ruined camps, piles of dead bodies and warriors grieving over their lost companions. These people also wear huge hats.

Absurd comedy happens when a logical world is disrupted. This is the abrupt transition from coherence into incoherence. You think you understand the world, but then some thing comes in and starts fussing over everything. It doesn’t matter what type of world, it just matters that it’s clear and consistent. Then it gets confused by anything that is contrary to it. It will be more funnier the stronger its coherence and the more disorienting the incoherence.

Every grafted creature, pre-eviscerated great, and skeletal bird makes the bizarre stunts and You-Died humor of Elden Ring even more obvious. But that’s only the most obvious edge of FromSoftware’s creative chops. They’ve mastered a kind of comedy that’s available to any game developer, but which is rarely used: environmental jokes.

Watch the video above to learn more about how FromSoftware crafts their jokes in Elden Ring and beyond.

Gloomhaven, the 2021 video game adaptation of Isaac Childres’ tabletop role-playing game, will receive its first expansion next month. The game’s official Twitter account announced today that the DLC, titled Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, will launch May 17 on Steam and GoG. As part of a special promotion for the upcoming expansion, players will be able to pre-purchase Jaws of the Lion with a 15-percent discount for $15.29.

The Jaws of the Lion expansion will include 25 new scenarios, include 10 new enemies and bosses, and offer players four new mercenaries to choose from, including the Demolitionist, the Hatchet, the Red Guard, and the Voidwarden. In addition, new items will be available through both the Guildmaster and Gloomhaven game modes. As in the base game, Jaws of the Lion can be played either in single-player or through four-player online co-op.

Image: Flaming Fowl Studios

Players will be able to access the Jaws of the Lion campaign directly through the game’s existing map following the expansion’s release and the completion of the core game’s second scenario.

In our review for Gloomhaven, which launched on PC after several years in early access, Charles Theel wrote that, “the depth and quality of that card-based combat system is extricated wonderfully in the digital version,” further stating that, “the digital adaptation does away with all of the work while still retaining the essential assets.”

Elden Ring can be a deeply lonely game. As Tarnished, the player navigates through poison swamps and castles as well as other dangerous locations, they are accompanied by only the ghosts of others and occasional messages. As you move through the story, you will meet a couple of in-game friends, such as Blaidd and Sorcerer Rogier. But players can also call in help, in the form of summoning other players who can assist in battle. And in this sea of friendly summons, one figure has established himself as a legend of the Lands Between.

His nickname is “Let Me Solo Him”, and his appearance differs from what you might expect of a legend. He’s completely naked, with only a pair sweet katanas on his head and a small pot in his hand. The “Her” in question is Malenia, Blade of Miquella, the Goddess of Rot, and one of the hardest boss fights in the game. If you were a fool, you might look at this weird little guy and think “there’s no way he can actually solo her.”

But, he is able — and has done so countless times to assist Tarnished in their journeys over this difficult-but-optional boss. His deeds have become the stuff of Reddit legend.

My first experience defeating Malenia was very tough and took me nearly 170 times, so I decided to help other players fight her so they could feel relieved,” Let Me Solo Her told Polygon over Reddit DMs. By consuming the right elixir players can summon helpers. Sometimes these NPC friends are used to summon them. Sometimes, it’s a guy like Let Me Solo Her, who was inspired by content creator Fighter.PL.

It certainly is a relief to kill Malenia, since she has a barrage of elaborate attacks using her massive blade. Her weapon and her augmented limbs allow her to perform fluid, fast attacks which heal and inflict massive damage. Her encounter with scarlet rot is also dangerous because she’s the one who causes it. This kind of fight can be a nightmare for some. For Let Me Solo Her, it’s a blast. “I really love her design and her attack animations,” he writes.

Other players have come to love Let Me Solo Her for his unexpected appearance and subsequent victories. To pay tribute to him, they have created fan art on the Elden Ring subreddit.

Despite fighting Malenia so often, Let Me Solo Her admits the boss still keeps him on his toes. “The most memorable one is actually pretty recent in which Malenia had some weird RNG and I had to dodge up to 7 waterfowl attacks in close range without being hit,” he writes, and humbly adds: “One of my best moments.”

While Elden Ring is full of tragedy and loss, it’s also full of surprising moments like this where Tarnished connect with one another. Fans are connecting with Let me Solo Her because it is a special experience that makes the world feel more connected and Tarnished appreciates this in return. He said that he didn’t expect to be a legendary member of the Eldenring community. “Seeing this support for my journey has been a blessing, and I love it .”

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Kingdom Hearts series director Tetsuya Nomura offered fresh insight into the world of his next game, Kingdom Hearts 4, in an interview with Japan’s Famitsu, explaining how the Tokyo-like game world of Quadratum is connected to other worlds in the series and why protagonist Sora looks much more realistic than fans are used to. Nomura also confirmed that, yes, Sora’s fancy new apartment, his base of operations in Kingdom Hearts 4, is located in Tokyo’s swish Aoyama neighborhood.

In the interview, which was translated by Kingdom Hearts superfan and streamer Audrey (aka aitaikimochi), Nomura says that Kingdom Hearts 4 will explore the “contrast” of the real world known as Quadratum and the fictional worlds of Kingdom Hearts.

“From Sora’s perspective, Quadratum is a world that exists in the background, a fictional world that is different from his reality,” Nomura told Famitsu. However, Quadratum is not a real world. It exists only in the background. [In Kingdom Hearts 4], we will explore the theme of the contrast between the two perspectives.”

Nomura said that Donald and Goofy are looking for clues to Sora’s whereabouts in “the normal world” in Kingdom Hearts 4‘s debut trailer. Nomura stated that Sora looks better because he is in this world. “However, if he were to return to his own world, his appearance would look similar to [how he would look with] the shaders used for Donald and Goofy.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Nomura teased that a series character will be voiced — he’s heard in the trailers for both Kingdom Hearts 4 and Missing Link — for the first time in Kingdom Hearts 4.

Square Enix has not revealed a release window or platforms for Kingdom Hearts 4, but based on previous entries in the franchise, fans shouldn’t expect it to arrive any time soon.

The London police arrested three for cloning Disney’s once popular, but now closed website Club Penguin .. The company closed Club Penguin and its follow-up, Club Penguin Island in 2017 and 2018, respectively, but clones have been popping up since. The penguin-based social media hangout spot for kids launched in 2005 and was extremely popular; at its peak, it had more than 200 million registered members.

Unofficial clones, like Club Penguin Online and Club Penguin Rewritten, increased in popularity and activity at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, BBC said, but Disney has continuously tried to shut them down. Club Penguin Online was forced offline in 2020, with one person arrested “on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children,” the BBC reported. Once that website was closed, players allegedly moved on to Club Penguin Rewritten.

During a BBC investigation, Club Penguin Online was found to have poor moderation, allowing “homophobic, anti-Semitic and sexual messages” on the site. A Club Penguin user informed the BCC that Club Penguin was also “unsafe” because of a lack in moderation.

Image: City of London Police

Three more were arrested in connection to Club Penguin Rewritten, on “on suspicion of distributing materials infringing copyright.” All three have been released pending investigation, London detective constable Daryl Fryatt told Polygon in an emailed statement.

“Following a complaint under copyright law, PIPCU have seized a gaming website as part of an ongoing investigation into the site,” Fryatt said.

The website has since been taken over by London police’s intellectual crime unit as part of the ongoing “Operative Creative” campaign, which kicked off in 2013 and with the goal of combating alleged copyright infringement online. A message from London police is now displayed on the Club Penguin Rewritten website: “This site has been taken over by Operation Creative, Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU).”

Polygon reached out to Disney in order for comments.

Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast will host a special streaming event on April 21 at 9 a.m. PT. Called D&D Direct, the approximately 30-minute presentation will “unveil upcoming products, along with other announcements, and updates” according to a news release. It will be broadcast live on both Twitch and YouTube.

Wizards has a lot of irons in the fire at the moment, especially when you consider it also publishes Magic: The Gathering. For the D&D brand, there is at least one new book on the way. It’s called Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, and it’s the first project penned entirely by Black and brown authors in the franchise’s nearly 50-year history. There’s also a major motion picture in the can, starring Chris Pine with Bridgerton‘s Rege-Jean Page, Fast and the Furious’ Michelle Rodriguez, and Paddington 2‘s Hugh Grant. Meanwhile, we haven’t heard much on the live-action TV show in a while either. Then there are the video games. Baldur’s Gate 3 is still in early access, and an as-yet untitled third-person open-world game is on the way from Hidden Path Entertainment.

Wizards’ parent company Hasbro, announced Wednesday that it has acquired D&D Beyond. This is the most widely used digital toolkit for gaming. The acquisition comes on the heels of a banner year for the Rhode Island based toy company, which cleared $1 billion in sales for the first time in 2021.