Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki has discussed that, while he doesn't think the game is necessarily easier than previous FromSoftware titles, he does believe more people will be able to finish it this time around.

Speaking to PlayStation.Blog, Miyazaki was asked about the "ongoing discourse" that surrounds the challenge and accessibility of FromSoftware's games, if the team was more mindful of these conversations when developing Elden Ring, and if they have impacted the way the team "tailored and maintained FromSoftware's trademark difficulty" for the game.

"Yes, we have," Miyazaki said. "It’s a valid discussion. I feel like our approach to these games, not just Elden Ring, is to design them to encourage the player to overcome adversity. We don’t try to force difficulty or make things hard for the sake of it. We want players to use their cunning, study the game, memorize what’s happening, and learn from their mistakes. We don’t want players to feel like the game is unfairly punishing, but rather that there’s a chance to win a difficult encounter and make progress.

"We understand that Souls-like games are regularly associated with impossible levels of difficulty with high barriers to entry. But we try to design the games to make the cycle of repeatedly trying to overcome these challenges enjoyable in itself. So we hope that with Elden Ring and the new options it provides, it will be a success in that respect."

He continued to discuss how the level of freedom Elden Ring offers in its more open-world format should also lead to more players finishing the game, even though FromSoftware did not "intentionally lower the game's difficulty."

"In Elden Ring, we have not intentionally tried to lower the game’s difficulty, but I think more players will finish it this time," Miyazaki said. "As I mentioned, the player’s level of freedom to progress through the world or return to a challenge later are all elements that I feel will help people get through the game at a more leisurely pace. Also, there isn’t a focus on pure action. The player has more agency to dictate their approach against, for example, the field bosses in the overworld and how they utilize stealth in various situations.

"We’ve even reduced the number of hoops that you have to jump through to enjoy it in multiplayer. So we hope the players embrace that idea of receiving help from others. And we feel like the overall clear rate will go up this time because of these things."

For those who may still be a bit worried Elden Ring may not be for them, Miyazaki did offer one further piece of advice when picking a class - don't choose the Wretch!

"As for a starting class, it’s entirely up to the player," Miyazaki said. "It’s an RPG, and they can approach it however they like and choose whichever looks the coolest to them. But I would recommend against choosing the naked one (known as the Wretch). As before, it’s probably the most difficult starting class!"

For more on Elden Ring, which will be released on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC on February 25, 2022, be sure to check out our hands-on preview of the game's closed network test, how long it will take to beat, and more details on its multiplayer.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Sea of Thieves has laid out its coming year's worth of updates, and it includes brand new adventures, a murder mystery and the closure of the game's Arena mode.

Revealed today as part of a 2022 preview, Sea of Thieves is getting changes to its Seasons, as well as all new Adventures and Mysteries.

Adventures are new narrative-led live events designed to offer new story content more frequently, with each adventure part of a wider storyline that the playerbase will directly affect with their actions.

The plan, according to creative director Mike Chapman, is to release one Adventure every month with each lasting around two weeks. Additionally, each season will include a major Adventure that ties together plot threads and moves one of the game's larger stories forward.

Mysteries, on the other hand, are a new storytelling style that will take place both inside and outside the game, adding side quests and ARG elements. New clues will be added as players begin to solve the mysteries.

“Mysteries are something that we’re super excited about,” said executive producer, Joe Neate. “These are going to be stories that players are going to have to work together to uncover, and this will happen in-game and out-of-game, in terms of clues being released, and they will evolve over a longer time period than a typical Adventure will.”

“We’re going to be teasing and hinting and looking at how people are solving this – are people figuring this stuff out?" added Mike Chapman. "When’s the right time to move this forward? It’s based on players uncovering the next stages of these mysteries.”

What exactly will these new mysteries be about?

“We see certain genres fitting really well in terms of mystery telling," said senior designer Chris Davies, "so you’ve got murder mysteries, whodunnits, ghost stories, that certainly take inspiration from those kinds of mysteries in other media.”

Although little has been released about them, for obvious reasons, the first mystery will involve players solving the murder of a well-known character in Sea of Thieves.

Here’s what we can expect for the rest of the year when it comes to Sea of Thieves updates:

Sea of Thieves Season 6 will begin in March 2022 and will introduce these new Adventures and Mysteries as well as six new Sea Forts to the game. Sea Forts are designed to offer smaller scale raiding opportunities for solo players and small crews, and will be tied into the wider storyline. There will also be mysterious new missions for those that have reached Pirate Legend status. You can also expect a new Plunder Pass and an update to the monthly Emporium content.

Among all of these additions however, one element is leaving Sea of Thieves for good – the PvP Arena mode is being taken out of the game to allow the developers to focus solely on the much more popular core game.

With the player base rapidly exploding to record highs since last year, it seems Rare has a lot more ideas for its ongoing project.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Sea of Thieves has laid out its coming year's worth of updates, and it includes brand new adventures, a murder mystery and the closure of the game's Arena mode.

Revealed today as part of a 2022 preview, Sea of Thieves is getting changes to its Seasons, as well as all new Adventures and Mysteries.

Adventures are new narrative-led live events designed to offer new story content more frequently, with each adventure part of a wider storyline that the playerbase will directly affect with their actions.

The plan, according to creative director Mike Chapman, is to release one Adventure every month with each lasting around two weeks. Additionally, each season will include a major Adventure that ties together plot threads and moves one of the game's larger stories forward.

Mysteries, on the other hand, are a new storytelling style that will take place both inside and outside the game, adding side quests and ARG elements. New clues will be added as players begin to solve the mysteries.

“Mysteries are something that we’re super excited about,” said executive producer, Joe Neate. “These are going to be stories that players are going to have to work together to uncover, and this will happen in-game and out-of-game, in terms of clues being released, and they will evolve over a longer time period than a typical Adventure will.”

“We’re going to be teasing and hinting and looking at how people are solving this – are people figuring this stuff out?" added Mike Chapman. "When’s the right time to move this forward? It’s based on players uncovering the next stages of these mysteries.”

What exactly will these new mysteries be about?

“We see certain genres fitting really well in terms of mystery telling," said senior designer Chris Davies, "so you’ve got murder mysteries, whodunnits, ghost stories, that certainly take inspiration from those kinds of mysteries in other media.”

Although little has been released about them, for obvious reasons, the first mystery will involve players solving the murder of a well-known character in Sea of Thieves.

Here’s what we can expect for the rest of the year when it comes to Sea of Thieves updates:

Sea of Thieves Season 6 will begin in March 2022 and will introduce these new Adventures and Mysteries as well as six new Sea Forts to the game. Sea Forts are designed to offer smaller scale raiding opportunities for solo players and small crews, and will be tied into the wider storyline. There will also be mysterious new missions for those that have reached Pirate Legend status. You can also expect a new Plunder Pass and an update to the monthly Emporium content.

Among all of these additions however, one element is leaving Sea of Thieves for good – the PvP Arena mode is being taken out of the game to allow the developers to focus solely on the much more popular core game.

With the player base rapidly exploding to record highs since last year, it seems Rare has a lot more ideas for its ongoing project.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Ubisoft has announced that its free-to-play battle royale game Hyper Scape will be shut down on April 28, after less than two years of operation.

In a short blog post, Ubisoft announced it has made “the difficult decision to end development of Hyper Scape and shut the game down as of April 28th.”

The company says that its vision of creating a vertical, fast-paced shooter may not have gone as far as it could but that Ubisoft “will be taking key learnings from this game into future projects.”

There is no word on whether current players will receive any sendoff bonus, but Ubisoft thanked the community for their devotion and passion.

Hyper Scape was Ubisoft’s answer to the battle royale boom following success seen by games like Fortnite and Apex Legends. Unfortunately, Hyper Scape didn’t have what it takes to stand out in the field, despite its map design and vertical gameplay.

Ubisoft hasn’t completely given up on the genre, however. In October 2021 the company announced Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Frontline, a battle royale game set in the Ghost Recon universe.

However, Ghost Recon Frontline has been delayed indefinitely. It’s unclear if Ubisoft will examine what happened to Hyper Scape first before proceeding with Frontline’s release.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Elder Scrolls Online's next expansion will be heading to a brand new region. Earlier today, Zenimax Online announced The Elder Scrolls Online: Legacy of the Bretons, a new DLC set that will take the popular MMO to the never-before-explored Systres Archipelago.

The expansion was introduced via a new trailer that you can watch below. It serves to set the mood for a more traditional medieval fantasy this time around, spotlighting the Bretons in a story that will focus more on the politics between the world's various factions.

"The Bretons are the one race that has never really had an opportunity to shine in the sun," Elder Scrolls Online creative director Rich Lambert said in a recent interview with PC Gamer. "They've never had a spotlight in any Elder Scrolls game. Even when we did bits and pieces of them in both Glenumbra and Stormhaven, we never really focused on their culture. So that was something we wanted to rectify."

In addition to cloak-and-dagger politics, Legacy of the Bretons will introduce a new card game in the vein of Gwent, Triple Triad, and other in-game CCGs. Called Tales of Tribute, it will allow players to take on both NPCs and ranked opponents. Players will be provided with four starter packs that can be earned by completing a tutorial.

The new expansion will begin in March with the Ascending Tide DLC, which will add two new dungeons and provide backstory for the new content. It will be followed by the High Isle chapter, which will begin the expansion proper.

The Elder Scrolls Online has made new expansions a yearly event, exploring established regions including Skyrim and Morrowind. Last year's expansion, titled The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood, revisited Oblivion. In our review, we said that it "delivers more of the same," but that it's buoyed by funny writing and striking map layout.

The Elder Scrolls Online first launched in 2014, and Legacy of the Bretons will be the franchise's sixth major expansion. It will be out June 6 on PC and June 21 on console.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN

Ron Perlman and Guillermo del Toro were a perfect match when the two brought Hellboy to the big screen back in 2004, and in a sequel four years later. Now, on the eve of turning 72, Perlman says he’s willing to step into the make-up room again for Hellboy 3, if only for the fans.

In an interview with Variety, Perlman was asked whether he’d be game to make a Hellboy 3, to which the actor responded: “Am I eager to do Hellboy 3? No, I’m 71 f*cking years old,” Perlman says. “[But] we owe this to the fans, and we should give it to them because it would be an epic conclusion.”

Hellboy, based on the Dark Horse comic by Mike Mignola, is the story of a covert government agency tasked with fighting supernatural forces. Hellboy, a half-demon summoned from hell by the Nazis, is one of the members of this agency.

A sequel, titled Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, was released in 2008. While both films were praised for bringing an original superhero movie to the big screen with Guillermo del Toro’s trademark style, particularly the focus on practical effects and costuming, the series was never a financial giant the way later comic movies were.

However, The Golden Army was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup, a testament to the film’s quality design.

Perlman and del Toro have spoken about a desire to make a third Hellboy movie together in the past, but the movie was never more than a wish by the two creators. Instead, in 2019 a Hellboy reboot starring David Harbour was released, but it was a critical and box office bomb.

So now, 13 years after The Golden Army, Perlman is on record to say he would like to make another one despite being in his 70s. And it’s all for you, the fans.

Perlman and del Toro are teaming up again for an upcoming stop-motion Pinocchio movie for Netflix, produced by the Jim Hensen Company.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

UFL, the football game looking to take on the genre dominance of FIFA, has revealed its first gameplay exclusively with IGN. The game will arrive "when it's ready" in 2022 after 6 years of development, and has made a major statement of intent by signing on superstar Cristiano Ronaldo as its cover star.

The new gameplay trailer (below) shows off its Unreal Engine looks, player likenesses, in-game menus, customisation options, and a confirmation that UFL will arrive this year for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4. The game is in it "final stage of development", so it hopefully won't be too far away.

During a reveal event, Strikerz revealed that UFL will include ranked and unranked modes, and allow for offline play, with 2v2 and 3v3 matches supported, as well as unspecified "special events". However, the game will be built primarily around a flagship mode, UFL's global online football league. Here, players will create their own team and play within "a fair, division-based matchmaking system." Divisions will be linked by promotions and seasons will take place over a full year – at the end of that year, a single player will be crowned UFL Champion.

Strikerz promises that matchmaking will be built entirely around putting players and teams together that are a match on skill, with no handicaps involved. Progressing high enough up the divisions will get you to UFL's Premier Division, which offers spots in pro tournaments among other rewards. There will be a separate team ranking too, allowing you to play competitively with friends.

A free-to-play game that developer Strikerz says will be "fair-to-play", UFL will allow players to build their own football teams from a pool of around 5,000 real-life players. While exact details haven't been revealed, it appears that the game will allow for paid and earned progression for your created team. Strikerz explained that the more you play, and the more you win, the more opportunities you'll get to strengthen your team – both by securing new players, and upgrading the ones you have.

Shots of in-game menus reveal that the game will include squad, management, and cosmetic customisation for your club. There are also mentions of a "Team Pass" (presumably a battle pass system of some kind), quests, and challenges.

Squad management looks to be familiar to those who have played FIFA's Ultimate Team mode, with teams of individually rated players being put together based on skill and chemistry ratings. Customisation of those teams includes kits, items and stadiums. It's not clear how those customisation options are earned (or paid for) at this point.

Announced at Gamescom 2021, UFL is striving to take on the two titans of the football game genre, FIFA and eFootball – and it's been snapping up club and player licenses to help make that happen.

Aside from Ronaldo, UFL has brought on Kevin de Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Roberto Firmino, and Oleksandr Zinchenko as ambassadors, while West Ham United, Sporting CP, Shakhtar Donetsk, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bayer Leverkusen, Beşiktaş, Monaco, Celtic, Rangers and Hashtag FC have become partner clubs. More are set to be announced.

Speaking during a reveal event, Strikerz CEO Eugene Nashilov said that those partners would become a key part of the game: "With UFL, we’re building an ecosystem unique in sports video gaming. We are planning to hold special events featuring our ambassadors and partner clubs — a hybrid of on- and offline activities."

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

UFL, the football game looking to take on the genre dominance of FIFA, has revealed its first gameplay exclusively with IGN. The game will arrive "when it's ready" in 2022 after 6 years of development, and has made a major statement of intent by signing on superstar Cristiano Ronaldo as its cover star.

The new gameplay trailer (below) shows off its Unreal Engine looks, player likenesses, in-game menus, customisation options, and a confirmation that UFL will arrive this year for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4. The game is in it "final stage of development", so it hopefully won't be too far away.

During a reveal event, Strikerz revealed that UFL will include ranked and unranked modes, and allow for offline play, with 2v2 and 3v3 matches supported, as well as unspecified "special events". However, the game will be built primarily around a flagship mode, UFL's global online football league. Here, players will create their own team and play within "a fair, division-based matchmaking system." Divisions will be linked by promotions and seasons will take place over a full year – at the end of that year, a single player will be crowned UFL Champion.

Strikerz promises that matchmaking will be built entirely around putting players and teams together that are a match on skill, with no handicaps involved. Progressing high enough up the divisions will get you to UFL's Premier Division, which offers spots in pro tournaments among other rewards. There will be a separate team ranking too, allowing you to play competitively with friends.

A free-to-play game that developer Strikerz says will be "fair-to-play", UFL will allow players to build their own football teams from a pool of around 5,000 real-life players. While exact details haven't been revealed, it appears that the game will allow for paid and earned progression for your created team. Strikerz explained that the more you play, and the more you win, the more opportunities you'll get to strengthen your team – both by securing new players, and upgrading the ones you have.

Shots of in-game menus reveal that the game will include squad, management, and cosmetic customisation for your club. There are also mentions of a "Team Pass" (presumably a battle pass system of some kind), quests, and challenges.

Squad management looks to be familiar to those who have played FIFA's Ultimate Team mode, with teams of individually rated players being put together based on skill and chemistry ratings. Customisation of those teams includes kits, items and stadiums. It's not clear how those customisation options are earned (or paid for) at this point.

Announced at Gamescom 2021, UFL is striving to take on the two titans of the football game genre, FIFA and eFootball – and it's been snapping up club and player licenses to help make that happen.

Aside from Ronaldo, UFL has brought on Kevin de Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Roberto Firmino, and Oleksandr Zinchenko as ambassadors, while West Ham United, Sporting CP, Shakhtar Donetsk, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bayer Leverkusen, Beşiktaş, Monaco, Celtic, Rangers and Hashtag FC have become partner clubs. More are set to be announced.

Speaking during a reveal event, Strikerz CEO Eugene Nashilov said that those partners would become a key part of the game: "With UFL, we’re building an ecosystem unique in sports video gaming. We are planning to hold special events featuring our ambassadors and partner clubs — a hybrid of on- and offline activities."

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

A skydiver has performed the world's first human flight in an electric wingsuit, pushing forward the possibilities for how we perceive human flight.

As reported by CNET, Austrian skydiver Peter Salzmann took the flight using a specially designed chest piece made in partnership with BMWi. As opposed to a traditional wingsuit flight, where the height you jump from largely determines your overall velocity and airtime, Salzmann's electric-powered design is designed to keep him up higher, for longer.

As per a separate piece by CNET, Salzmann's first outing took place over the Three Brother's Peaks in Austria and saw him reach maximum speeds of 186mph, a figure which represents a significant increase in speeds normally managed by traditional wingsuits. Jumping from 3,000m via helicopter, the stuntman was able to surmount the first two peaks via wingsuit only and deploy his electric-powered device to help him reach the third mountain.

Fitted to the front of Salzmann, the chest piece itself looks a little like you might expect from a bright yellow electric jetpack. The device contains 50V lithium batteries that can be activated to power two carbon fiber rotors while the diver is in the air.

Although the suit still requires Salzmann to jump from a height, the rotors themselves are reported to provide up to five minutes of additional thrust and can be turned on and off with a simple squeeze of Salzmann's left fingers.

As per an interview with CNET, Salzmann started as a stunt man in his teenage years before later becoming a skydiver. The daredevil explains that he got the idea for a powered wingsuit in 2017. "I was in the mountains with a friend of mine and we found this jump which was not possible with a current wingsuit," explains Salzmann in the interview.

"And, we really thought about, 'okay how could we make this possible to jump that?' We needed like [an] additional boost system, something which would increase our performance to be able to fly at a flatter angle [...] to fly down the whole mountain."

After coming up with a number of possible solutions to his problem, Salzmann ended up coordinating with BMWi to develop the all-electric thrust system, which was then tested meticulously before the diver's maiden voyage.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

A skydiver has performed the world's first human flight in an electric wingsuit, pushing forward the possibilities for how we perceive human flight.

As reported by CNET, Austrian skydiver Peter Salzmann took the flight using a specially designed chest piece made in partnership with BMWi. As opposed to a traditional wingsuit flight, where the height you jump from largely determines your overall velocity and airtime, Salzmann's electric-powered design is designed to keep him up higher, for longer.

As per a separate piece by CNET, Salzmann's first outing took place over the Three Brother's Peaks in Austria and saw him reach maximum speeds of 186mph, a figure which represents a significant increase in speeds normally managed by traditional wingsuits. Jumping from 3,000m via helicopter, the stuntman was able to surmount the first two peaks via wingsuit only and deploy his electric-powered device to help him reach the third mountain.

Fitted to the front of Salzmann, the chest piece itself looks a little like you might expect from a bright yellow electric jetpack. The device contains 50V lithium batteries that can be activated to power two carbon fiber rotors while the diver is in the air.

Although the suit still requires Salzmann to jump from a height, the rotors themselves are reported to provide up to five minutes of additional thrust and can be turned on and off with a simple squeeze of Salzmann's left fingers.

As per an interview with CNET, Salzmann started as a stunt man in his teenage years before later becoming a skydiver. The daredevil explains that he got the idea for a powered wingsuit in 2017. "I was in the mountains with a friend of mine and we found this jump which was not possible with a current wingsuit," explains Salzmann in the interview.

"And, we really thought about, 'okay how could we make this possible to jump that?' We needed like [an] additional boost system, something which would increase our performance to be able to fly at a flatter angle [...] to fly down the whole mountain."

After coming up with a number of possible solutions to his problem, Salzmann ended up coordinating with BMWi to develop the all-electric thrust system, which was then tested meticulously before the diver's maiden voyage.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.