"Ranni's Promised Consort Tarnished" isn't the most descriptive title for a mod, but the images on the Nexus Mods page get the point across: You can wear everyone's favorite moon witch on your back like Godfrey's lion or a certain boss in the DLC. She doesn't do anything special back there but if you're a newlywed in new game+, you can think of it like a honeymoon in the Lands Between.

Comments on the Nexus Mod page say it can be tricky to install. You need to unzip the folder, which can throw up errors (it did for me), and drag the files into a Mod Engine 2 folder. A few people in the comments have uploaded "fixed" contents of the folder, but I'll let you decide how much you trust downloading files from random Nexus Mod strangers. Some commenters say they got it working without any extra help. It's worth scrolling through the comments though, there are instructions for how to prevent Ranni from showing up misaligned on your character and how to switch which weapon makes her appear (by default it's the Finger Seal).

Modder ApolloHoo has a similar mod available that will spoil a fight in the DLC for you, but it could help you understand how to get backpack Ranni working properly if you're having trouble. ApolloHoo actually has several mods that recycle NPC and enemy models for alternative uses, like a mod that turns your horse into the Divine Dragon from Sekiro or one that makes Fia's bed into a weapon for some reason.

Hopefully ApolloHoo can clean up the mod files or write out an installation tutorial because I need backpack Ranni to cast some frost spells and maybe even let you exchange some runes for buffs or level ups. The Seamless Co-op modder had better watch out; backpack Ranni could be the only co-op partner you'll ever need.

The PC system requirements revealed today are a little on the heavy side. My own rig could probably sneak in under the "recommended" wire, but it'd be closer than I'd like—which, alas, is becoming more and more common with each passing year. Getting up to the "performance" level at 2K/60 fps, you'll need a pretty capable rig, including a Core i7-10700K CPU and RTX 3080 GPU.

The details:

Minimum (1080p, 60 fps, low graphics preset)

• OS: Windows 10 64 bit (Creators Update)
• CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
• RAM: 8GB DDR4
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT
• Storage: 30GB SSD

Recommended (1080p, 60 fps, medium graphics preset)

• OS: Windows 10 64 bit (Creators Update)
• CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
• RAM: 16GB DDR4
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
• Storage: 30GB SSD

Performance (1440p, 60 fps, high graphics preset)

• OS: Windows 10 64 bit (Creators Update)
• CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
• RAM: 16GB DDR4
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
• Storage: 30GB SSD

Ultra (4K, 60 fps, ultra graphics preset)

• OS: Windows 10 64 bit (Creators Update)
• CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
• RAM: 16GB DDR4
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
• Storage: 30GB SSD

You'll also require a broadband internet connection across the board, because (of course) this is an online shooter.

Those are pretty heavy specs, especially if you want to roll at 4K. Another concern here, noted by PC Gamer shooterman Morgan Park, is the absence of specs for frame rates above 60. That's not entirely surprising, given that Concord is essentially a PlayStation 5 game that's also coming to PC—60 fps is the standard console target—but generally speaking, high frame rates are preferrable to glorious eye candy in competitive PC shooters, and hardcore players may find 60 fps a little less than ideal.

These requirements are strictly for the upcoming beta tests—Sony said final specs will be released closer to Concord's launch—and it's possible the game will offer unlocked frame rates on PC, although hitting 144 fps will naturally require better hardware. Hopefully the graphics settings are heavily tweakable for those who prioritize fps over particle effects.

Concord's early access weekend beta, for those who pre-order the game, runs July 12-14, and will be followed by an open beta running July 18-21. The full game is set for launch a month later, on August 23.

Poor Malenia, Blade of Miquella, Elden Ring's training dummy for testing some of the most ridiculous builds. If she isn't getting bullied by a naked man wearing only a jar, she's getting flies thrown at her until she can't take it anymore and gives up her Great Rune. Now, thanks to two players who realized Shadow of the Erdtree's new hand-to-hand weapon type won't even let her retaliate, her status as the hardest bosses in the game has been called into question.

Reddit user oRezyn posted video proof that Shadow of the Erdtree's new spin kick ash of war, Dryleaf Whirlwind, can completely trivialize the duel against Malenia, provided you have a buddy with the same loadout. In the video, oRezyn and another player, known together as 'Let us duo her', take turns kicking Malenia—which interrupts literally anything she tries to do—for a solid minute without taking a single hit.

"Imagine being one of the strongest demigods and getting stunlocked into infinity by two naked dudes," Vagabond_Charizard wrote in the comments.

oRezyn says the build they're using isn't even a build at all: It just requires Dane's Footwork and the Dryleaf Whirlwind Ash of War (with bleed) from the DLC. "With how we found this fight to go, we did not need to put on any specific talismans," they wrote. The only thing stopping you from becoming kick gods is that you have to reach the final area in Shadow of the Erdtree to get the right weapon and know someone else who has done the same.

Or you can hope Let us duo her show up in your game to summon as allies for the boss fight. oRezyn and their buddy helped several players fight Malenia during a stream over the weekend and maybe they'll do more assists. If you see two summon signs named Let us duo her, you know what to do. Just don't try to help because oRezyn says other people attacking her can mess up the infinite stun lock and cause Malenia to flee. "Then we just scream and run away."

Elden Ring's original folk hero Let Me Solo Her has moved on from Malenia to help people with the expansion's brutal final boss—a fight that took the legendary player a full three hours to beat. But who better to pick up the torch than two dudes who can kick real good?

Shortly after the similarities were noticed, an explanation was put forward: Destiny 2 and The First Descendant both appear to make use of free-to-use icons sourced from a site called Iconduck. That seemed to make sense at first blush, but it raised an obvious follow-up question: Why the hell would Bungie use free artwork? We're not talking about a one-person indie working on their first project, after all: Destiny 2 is one of the biggest shooters on the planet.

That question led me down the real rabbit hole. Iconduck does indeed host a pile of "free open source icons and illustrations"—nearly 274,000 of them, according to its website—which can be used "for personal and commercial purposes," but many of them appear to be stolen from other companies or games.

The Destiny icons collection, for instance, includes 204 icons which are offered as open source under a Creative Commons license. The set includes everything from the Destiny logo and class icons to faction logos, weapon icons, and even the Xbox and Microsoft Windows logos. It also carries a completely baffling set description calling Destiny icons "a bit obscure," which is not a word I would use to describe the game Sony paid $3.6 billion to get.

Other offerings on Iconduck include various Pokémon icons, which the site says "can be used on your website, branding and designs," for "both personal and commercial purposes and projects."

I'm not a copyright lawyer, but I'm pretty sure Pikachu cannot be used for commercial purposes not approved by The Pokémon Company. It's also very clearly in violation of Bungie's terms: Bungie does allow the use of Destiny data and game content for non-commercial use—things like interactive Destiny 2 maps or item managers—but "you don't own our stuff, so you can't sell it, use it to sell other things, or give other people permission to use it."

Yet that's what Iconduck is doing. Like the Pokemon collection, the Destiny icon repository states that "all icons can be used for personal and commercial purposes."

Tom Chapman, the maker of the Bray.tech websites for Destiny 2, is credited as the designer of the Destiny icon set. But he said on Twitter that he doesn't want his work used in this way, because the actual designs aren't his at all.

"Most of the icons are ripped from the font files created by Bungie and its designers," Chapman tweeted. "Most of the remainder are designed by Bungie and recreated by me or whoever contributed them to that repo. I don't want @iamiconduck to use my work like this."

The question now is whether Nexon snagged some of these Destiny icons from Iconduck with the belief that it had permission to use them, since the site claims they are free for commercial use, or if they wound up in The First Descendant some other way.

Whatever the answer, it only leads to more questions. How did absolutely no one at Nexon not recognize a single one of these icons? How did Nexon's legal team not vet these icons thoroughly the moment someone in the art department said, "Hey, it's cool, they're free?" And getting back to what started all of this: Why would Nexon use free artwork? It's not like it lacks the resources to make its own icons.

The particulars of this story remain unclear for now, but for developers who do rely on free and open source resources, it is perhaps a useful reminder that not everything on the internet is what it says it is.

I've reached out to Bungie, Nexon, and Iconduck for comment and will update if I receive a reply.

Here are the two biggest changes:

• There'll now be two 60-tier battle passes per season instead of one 110-tier pass
• Premium battle pass tracks will only be purchasable with real money

So, instead of spending 950 Apex Coins (approximately $9.99, but alternatively earned by playing) on each season's premium battle pass track, players are now invited to spend $9.99 cash per "half season" premium battle pass track. A $19.99 Premium+ track has also been introduced for each half season battle pass, replacing the old premium bundle.

What makes this nouveau structure better, according to Respawn, is that it'll be easier to get the most desirable items in each of the smaller half-season passes. Their 60 tiers will still include the same number of legendary skins as the old season-long passes, with a Reactive weapon skin at the top tier, plus more Crafting Metals and Apex Packs. Meanwhile, items that weren't seeing much use, such as weapon charms, will appear less frequently.

"We've seen the numbers, and things need to be more approachable and realistic for our global player community," said the developer. "Each of these updated aspects allows us to make the Battle Pass more attainable and valuable for your time and money."

A player who purchases a half-season battle pass premium track should therefore get as much for their money as they did with one of the old season-long passes, but faster and with less filler. Meanwhile, players on the free track will now get twice as many Apex Coins and Apex Packs per season (because there are now two battle passes per season), as well as a small assortment of epic skins each half-season.

It's not all bad—I like the idea of cutting out filler items—but removing the option to pay for the premium track with Apex Coins obliterated any possibility of a cheerful reception. It doesn't help that Respawn's explanation for that part of the change isn't very coherent. The blog post says that switching to real money will "up the value" of the premium tracks, but you'd have to be a supernaturally-skilled rhetorician to make anyone believe that. Since Apex Coins earned in the battle pass can no longer be used to unlock future premium battle pass tracks, I'd say their value has been seriously reduced.

It's also worth noting that more battle passes per season also means players have less time to finish them. The new 60-tier setup makes them quicker to complete, but compressing a three-month window into six weeks changes Apex's FOMO formula. Now if you buy a pass, you better be sure you're going to be playing a lot of Apex over the next few weeks, because the next one is just around the corner.

Already, one player has laid out a protest plan on the Apex subreddit. The top responses are skeptical that such a boycott will accomplish anything—the specter of that one Modern Warfare 2 "boycott" screenshot always hangs over these things—but it speaks to the level of affront some players are feeling. The titles of other rising posts in the subreddit include "Alright guys I'm out," "Farewell Apex, it was fun while it lasted," and "Is Apex Dying?"

The first half-season battle pass will launch with Apex Legends Season 22 in August. To promote the new format, its premium track will be free for players who complete "a set of challenges within the first two weeks."

You can watch the entire fight, which is just under five minutes in length, and honestly, it looks rough. Using attacks and abilities to close ground on Isshin and deflect attacks with precision timing instead of relying on mikiri counter for thrusts, which can deal a ton of posture damage to your opponent. There were a few times where GroeneWolf420 was on the back foot during the fight, but on their 45th try, they somehow managed to pull it off and defeat Isshin. 

But it looks like this fight was just the start. In the thread below, GroeneWolf420 asks, "Are there any other bosses you guys want me to fight like this?" Someone suggests the next opponent should be Inner Isshin with all the restrictions of their first fight. Although, it looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer to see the outcome of this fight: "I'm still doing it," GroeneWolf420 says. "[I] had to beat the game yesterday again to activate charmless [but] I'm still doing it right now." 

Another player suggests that the Great Shinobi Owl would be a worthy adversary: "I am gonna say fight Owl, but with thrusts. I know there are openings that Owl has where you can thrust, so it would be educational for me."

Some other onlookers chipped in to try and give more helpful tips and tricks for future fights. A couple of people recommend using iframes (invincibility frames) to their advantage. "At the start of phase 2, when Isshin takes the spear from the ground if you iframe the moment he stomps the floor, you can dodge that," a player says. While jumping isn't allowed during the fight, grappling or dashing will afford you some breathing room. 

Sword Saint without walking, running, jumping or miriki countering from r/Sekiro

Despite Sekiro releasing just over five years ago, there's no DLC or story expansion in sight. Which is probably one of the reasons some seasoned players think up brutal and impressive ways to take on the game's bosses. GroeneWolf420 even admits: "I really need a DLC."

Right now, it feels like Elden Ring's DLC Shadow of the Erdtree is the closest thing Sekiro players will get to any expansion. While that may seem odd, Hidetaka Miyazaki actually said that "Sekiro was a big turning point" for FromSoft games, and many subsequent games take inspiration from its fighting systems. Shadow of the Erdtree's bosses fight much the same as Sekiro's in that they are more aggressive and less forgiving. Shadow of the Erdtree even has a Sekiro-like leveling system, just so players can't steamroll the DLC.  

The official narrative aside, however, the hardy defenders of democracy have discovered a new variety of bug: the good kind. Helldivers 2 incorporates fall damage which, depending on the situation, can be as deadly as any Bile Titan. It's mostly a minor factor, with players having to be careful about what heights they jump from, but it can become lethal when you're fighting on higher ground or, particularly, when you're in the epicentre of explosions. With the latter, even if the Helldiver survives the initial damage they tend to get ragdolled across the map (some players think this in itself is a function of the somewhat glitchy physics) and the impact from that can be a killer. 

Players have now discovered that fall damage can be reduced significantly through the simple method of triggering an emote animation once airborne. The below clip shows a Helldiver coming in hot and landing their pod atop an Automaton tank, destroying it, and triggering an explosion as their avatar exits the Hellpod. The explosion sends them into the stratosphere but, partway through the arc, the emote is triggered and the Helldiver character swiftly changes from flailing about to a weirdly rigid posture. They sail through the air like this and land safely from a fall that should have been fatal several times over.

To whoever said emoting reduces fall damage, thanks from r/Helldivers

Players have been testing this and checking just what the damage reduction is at various heights, and it does consistently reduce damage and make fatal falls non-fatal. Even more curiously, it works with both the "hug" and "salute" emotes but the former is ever-so-slightly more effective.

The speculation is that this is a function of Helldivers 2's physics, which are a weird mix of precision and pratfalling. For example: landing on your ass is a surefire and intentional way of reducing damage, whereas landing on your head is always going to be bad news. But players don't usually have any degree of control over this: if you get launched towards a rock head-first, you can't under normal circumstances re-orient your body. But the emote animation does exactly this.

So theory has it that the rigid posture caused by emoting in mid-air causes the Helldiver model to land in a manner where the damage is applied to a single limb such as an arm, rather than being applied to multiple limbs at the point of impact and stacking to fatal levels.

The funniest thing about this is undoubtedly the way the Helldiver's body goes all stiff in mid-air and, needless to say, this most meme-happy of communities has a new one. I give it a day before someone's stuck a helmet on this diver:

Helldivers emoting to avoid fall damage be like: from r/Helldivers

The emote fall glitch has been unofficially christened the T-pose of democracy, though whether Arrowhead will lean into the bug or ruthlessly excise it in the next patch remains to be seen. Until then, get out there, get some action, and if you get too much action then stiffen up for the win.

After repeatedly rejected expense requests for nuclear bombs to test this hypothesis (apparently they're "out of budget"), I'm pretty excited to see how Fallout: London shakes the series up, even if it's in an unofficial capacity—despite its ambitions, though, Fallout: London has yet to see the light of day after a "next gen" Fallout 4 update (which didn't look very next-gen at all) went ahead and nuked its development timeline.

The mod's development team has put years of work into the dang thing, so to miss a release date for reasons beyond their control is frustrating—and project lead Dean Carter was sure to let the BBC know when it happened, lamenting a lack of communication I'm not sure Bethesda was obligated to give.

Still, Fallout: London's almost here, according to the game's official Twitter account and Discord server: "There has been a lot of speculation regarding our upcoming release, and we wanted to open up and clear the air for our core supporters."

Fallout: London is, the announcement reads, simply "waiting for the final green light" while working with GOG to distribute the mod. "Once they've completed the process of double-checking that Fallout: London and its installer work on all supported machines, we should be good to go."

That installer is key, since it'll also be accompanied by a "downgrader", which should future-proof Fallout: London against any more of Bethesda's meddling. "It is in all of our interests that this final QA process is carried out in full, and we are very thankful that GOG is assisting … The end is in sight."

Honestly, I'm quite excited to see Fallout: London in action. While Todd Howard maintains that the faded sheen of Americana is a huge part of the series' identity, I can't help but wonder if that's been holding it back.

After all, while the Cold War is seared into American history, it's not like they invented glitzy capitalism, bombs, war, and secret government facilities. Us Brits can get just paranoid, and we basically invented the whole empire thing, which is—not something to be proud of, actually, nevermind. Forget I said anything. Go put a hat on Daniel, instead.

Once you know how they work, Amorphous Materials are pretty easy to navigate—think of them as in-game loot boxes with a couple of extra hoops to jump through. If you're having trouble figuring out where to get them, or indeed how to get them open when you do, here's how Amorphous Material works in The First Descendant.

How to get Amorphous Material 

You have a chance to get Amorphous Material from various open-world missions, though be aware that these only have a chance to drop and aren't guaranteed—you'll see the percentage chance next to them in the rewards list. The missions are: 

• Zone Recon missions
• Void Intercepts
• Special Operations
• Mine Blocking

You'll notice that there are different types of Amorphous Material, denoted by their "pattern" number. Each one contains specific components that can then be used to make new weapons or descendants. 

Whenever you open an Amorphous Material, you'll receive one of the items that it contains though there's no way to guarantee which one you get—that's down to RNG. But an Amorphous Material Pattern 001, for example, will always contain the same four components, so if you're after a part for a specific weapon and you're unlucky the first time, you would need to farm the mission that drops that specific Amorphous Material to try again.

Handily, you can hover over the Amorphous Material in your inventory and press the F key to bring up the Acquisition info. This tells you where the item came from.

How to open Amorphous Material 

So, how do you actually open an Amorphous Material? Now this is where things might become a little more confusing. In order to open them, you need to kill the associated boss that is tied to that pattern number. To find which one, hover over the item in your inventory and press the L key. 

When you kill a boss linked to one of your currently held Amorphous Material patterns, interact with the floating green orb where the boss went down at the end of the fight and you'll be prompted to use the Reconstructed Device. You should see a list of the Amorphous Materials you have available so select the one you want to open to receive one of the components contained inside.

Which makes it all the stranger that, well, it's quite good now—especially with the 2.0 update and the release of expansion Phantom Liberty. I've had plenty of complicated feelings about it myself, but that didn't change the fact that 65 hours of my life melted away in front of my eyes.

According to the game's lead quest designer Pawel Sasko in an interview with The Gamer, though, we might have that shoddy launch to thank.

In the interview, Sasko discusses his experience with therapy and self-improvement through the lens of his career, which began over 19 years ago: "I believe that when you have scars, you should become proud of your scars and carry them. There were many hardships in my past, games that I worked on that were cancelled and then, of course, Cyberpunk.

"Phantom Liberty worked significantly better at its launch because we completely changed the production style," Sasko adds. That's not to say it was bug-free by any means, I feel obligated to note, but sure—having a few fires to put out is probably better than your house burning down.

Sasko goes on to credit Cyberpunk 2077's negative reception as the kick in the rear the team needed: "That couldn’t have been possible if the initial reception of the game wasn’t as negative as it was, it changed me and us as a studio."

I do think Cyberpunk 2077 got the amount of flak it deserved—critically speaking, not in terms of inexcusable harassment—but I do pity the ground-level developers who watched their game burst into flames upon entry.

There are, certainly, jobs that are harder on the body and mind than video game designer, but this is also an industry that has a long history of gruelling work weeks, unsavoury workplace scandals, harassment dire enough to require police intervention and sudden and unexpected layoffs.

Not to mention the frustration you might feel at something you've worked on for years suddenly vanishing into thin air—so I'm not at all shocked that Sasko points to Cyberpunk as something he had to work out on a couch somewhere. Let's just hope history doesn't repeat itself with The Witcher 4.