Enlarge (credit: Bandai)

Elden Ring was my first leap into FromSoftware titles (and Dark- Souls- like games generally), and I fell in deep. Over more than 200 hours, I ate up the cryptic lore , learned lots of timings, and came to appreciate the feeling of achievement through perseverance.

Months ago, in preparation for Elden Ring's expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree (also on PlayStation and Xbox, arriving June 21), I ditched the save file with which I had beaten the game and started over. I wanted to try out big swords and magic casting. I wanted to try a few new side quests. And I wanted to have a fresh experience with the game before Shadow arrived.

I have had a very fresh experience, in that this DLC has made me feel like I'm still in the first hour of my first game. Reader, this expansion is mopping the floor with me. It looked at my resume, which has "Elden Lord" as its most recent job title, and has tossed it into the slush pile. If you're wondering whether Shadow would, like Elden Ring , provide a different kind of challenge and offer, like the base game, easier paths for Souls newcomers: No, not really. At least not until you're already far along. This DLC is for people who beat Elden Ring , or all but beat it, and want capital-M More.

Enlarge / "Look, everybody! It's the one thing that ties the whole story together! And it's pointing us toward this legacy dungeon, inside which must surely lie safety and salvation. Let us go forth." (credit: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)

There are lots of ways to enjoy Elden Ring , beyond the core attack/dodge/survive gameplay. You can obsess over builds, appreciate the mastery of speedrunners and grand masters like Let Me Solo Her , or mix and match the huge variety of armor in pursuit of Fashion Souls . And then there is lore. There is so much of it, and most of it has the consistency of campfire smoke.

Elden Ring tells its backstory (written in part by George R.R. Martin ) primarily through item descriptions and environmental hints. The scraps of narrative that do exist stand unsteadily against unreliable narrators, contradictions, cut content , and lovably enthusiastic fans who take small hints to their illogical extremes. Developer FromSoftware and primary creator Hidetaka Miyazaki do almost nothing to disprove misunderstandings or reward accurate conclusions, although they appreciate the energy. Miyazaki will just casually tell IGN that there's a "small element" that hasn't been discovered, offer nothing more on that, and leave fans like me craven with an unmet need for conclusion.

I love this and cherish the way FromSoftware will never in my lifetime confirm my hopes or expectations. So with the surprise arrival of an honest-to-goodness story-based trailer for the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion , due out June 21, I was given yet another feast of vague notions and evocative images.

Enlarge / A big erdtree casts a big shadow. (credit: Namco Bandai)

The good news for Elden Ring fans is that the two-plus-year wait for the game's first DLC, "Shadow of the Erdtree," will end in just a couple of months . The bad news is that "Shadow of the Erdtree" will also be the last bit of DLC for FromSoftware's multi-million-selling action RPG .

In a wide-ranging interview with Chinese site Zhihu ( machine translation ), Elden Ring producer Hidetaka Miyazaki said "Shadow of the Erdtree" contains a lot of existing lore and content that was created for the original game but couldn't fit into the final package. Miyazaki said the team decided to release all of that unused content as one large DLC expansion, rather than multiple smaller bits, because "if they were sold separately, the freedom of exploration and sense of adventure would be reduced."

As for just how big the DLC will be, Miyazaki balked when the interviewer asked how long it would take players to complete. Miyazaki brought up memories of being called a liar after estimating in an earlier interview that the original game would only take about 30 hours of play to complete—crowdsourced game length database HowLongToBeat puts the "main story" estimate closer to 60 hours .

Enlarge / Like the Beach Properties DLC itself, this property looks a bit unfinished and in need of some focus. (credit: Paradox Interactive)

Perhaps the first clue that something was not quite right about Beach Properties , the first $10 DLC "expansion" for the already off-kilter city-building sim Cities: Skylines 2 , was that it did not contain a real beach house, which one might consider a key beach property. The oversight seemed indicative of a content pack that lacked for content.

C:S2 's developers and publisher now agree and have published a letter to Cities fans , in which they offer apologies, updates, and refunds. Beach Properties is now a free add-on, individual buyers will be refunded (with details at a FAQ page ), and Ultimate Edition owners will receive additional Creator Packs and Radio Stations, since partial refunds are tricky across different game stores.

"We thought we could make up for the shortcomings of the game in a timeframe that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that should not have been published in its current form. For all this, we are truly sorry," reads the letter, signed by the CEOs of developer Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive. "When we’ve made statements like this one before, it’s included a pledge to keep making improvements, and while we are working on these updates, they haven’t happened at a speed or magnitude that is acceptable, and it pains us that we've now lost the trust of many of you. We want to do better."

Enlarge / Sometimes your infernal-engine-powered heart just isn't in it. (credit: Larian Studios/Hasbro)

Swen Vincke, director of the colossal entity that is Baldur's Gate 3 , is not leaving the door open to future expansions of that already fully packed game.

At this week's Game Developer's Conference (GDC), Vincke made it clear during a talk and in interviews that Larian Studios is not going to make any major new content for Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3)— nor start work on Baldur's Gate 4, nor make anything, really, inside the framework of Dungeons & Dragons' Fifth Edition (5e).

Not that Vincke or his team are bitter. Their hearts just aren't in it. They had actually started work on BG3 downloadable content and gave some thought to Baldur's Gate 4, Vincke told IGN . "But we hadn’t really had closure on BG3 yet and just to jump forward on something new felt wrong." On top of that, the team had new ideas that didn't fit D&D 5e , which "is not an easy system to put into a video game," Vincke said.

Enlarge / There's a lot of meaning in this image for studied fans of Elden Ring , but confirmation will have to wait until June. (credit: Bandai Namco)

A gameplay reveal trailer for a heavily anticipated expansion to Elden Ring has arrived , and it suggests that more of the big bosses, cryptic but epic-scale storytelling, and brutal combat fans have come to expect will be available in the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. The downloadable content arrives June 21, 2024, and costs $40; preorders are available now ( Steam , PlayStation , Xbox ).

Shadow of the Erdtree takes place in "The Land of Shadow," seemingly a kind of prequel setting to the main Elden Ring, potentially inside a deity's dreams. You can never be too sure, but the presence of certain characters, and the suggestion that you will access the new content by touching the arm of a major but previously unexplored character, suggests you will be traveling through their memories, their dreams, or some combination thereof. The very first image you see is of a player character riding up to a cliff and seeing a flaming tree—perhaps not the Erdtree central to the main game, but a precursor of it that is hinted at in the game's lore.

Gameplay-wise, there are many new things to notice, including hand-to-hand combat, far more powerful crossbows, new spells and weapons, and a whole host of large, epically detailed, seemingly unfair boss battles.

Enlarge / Welcome back my friends, to the horde that never ends.

In our review of Vampie Survivors , we noted how it seems like "you're always unlocking some cool new toy or character to play around with." Unfortunately, that's not literally true. After dozens of hours, most players will be able to find every secret and unlock every one of the game numerous unlockable characters, maps, and weapons.

The game doesn't instantly lose its hypnotic, epilepsy-inducing appeal at that point, of course. But once you've finally met all of the game's many "official" goals, it becomes a bit more difficult to come up with new self-imposed challenges.

Enter Legacy of the Moonspell , the first piece of official paid DLC for Vampire Survivors . While we welcome any new content for one of our favorite games of the year (especially when it's offered for just $2), this addition feels a little limited, especially for a game that has seen dozens of free updates since its 2021 launch in Early Access.