Old Diablo heads will remember the Annihilus charm from Diablo 2 as one of the iconic ARPG's most powerful and coveted items. Even in its worst-rolled form, having one in your inventory granted +1 to all skills, +10 to all attributes, +10 to all resistances, and +5 to XP gained. It's the only small charm in the game that grants bonuses to all skills and attributes, and because it's small, it only takes up a single inventory space. It's the crown jewel of Diablo 2's endgame, and now it's in Diablo 4 as a Unique Horadric Seal.

The unfortunate thing about Annihilus in both games is that it's really freakin' hard to get. The exact parameters required to initiate the encounter in Diablo 4 are still being figured out by the community, but we know from various reports on Reddit as well as an in-depth video from Diablo creator Rob2628 that one of the ways you can get your hands on the Annihilus seal is by triggering an encounter with Uber Diablo, which in every case seems to follow a battle with the World Boss Azmodan. After that fight is over, an on-screen message warns, "Diablo walks the earth." Annihilus recipients say Diablo Clone drops the item when slain, just like in Diablo 2.

Also similar to Diablo 2 are the ridiculous passive buffs you get from the item. At max roll, this gloriously, stupidly over-tuned seal grants +20% to all stats, +20% resistance to all elements, +10 to all skills, and +10% bonus XP. Best of all, you can re-roll it at the Cube until you get the stats you want, although reports indicate it becomes account-bound once you do so. If you manage to get your hands on one of these bad boys, that's a genuine game-changer for literally any build.

While I don't have anywhere near the patience to try my luck at spawning Uber Diablo, much less beating him, I'm very much enjoying seeing all of these callbacks to older Diablo games in Diablo 4. The recreation of Diablo 1's campaign as a new Waking Nightmares activity was heavily marketed from the jump, but it seems there are still plenty of more niche discoveries to be made in season 15.

A broken Diablo 4 charm is dominating Season 15, but Blizzard has "decided not to make changes to it" for now

It's a day ending in 'Y', thus Blizzard is having to navigate some balancing problems in Diablo 4. In this instance, though, the devs have made the rare choice of just embracing what's going on, maintaining an unintended change from the Hellfire Torch in Season 15.

The Hellfire Torch is a new Unique Charm that came with the current season. Between serving as a Set Charm and a number of powerful bonuses, it's a particularly worthwhile bit of equipment that was even better than Blizzard bargained for.

In execution, players found they could get the bonuses of having three Unique Charms and a complete five-set of them at once through the Sea of the Golden Epiphany and the Seal of the Diamond Mind. This has rippled through the community pretty heavily, leading it to be a dominant force in the action-RPG's landscape. As such, players have been quick to feed this back to Blizzard, who're just rolling with it for now.

"While we've confirmed that this interaction is resulting in behavior beyond what was originally intended, we’ve decided not to make changes to it during the current season," Dan Tanguay, design director on Diablo 4, says on the official forums in a statement published by Rich 'Filthierich' Bantegui, a senior community manager for the Diablo series.

"We know many players have spent significant time earning the Hellfire Torch and building characters around it," he continues. "Because of that, we want to be thoughtful about making adjustments mid-season that could disrupt those investments."

It reads to me like the solutions right now involve either damaging people's builds in a way the devs dislike, or causing further disruption in a flailing house of cards sort of way. Tanguay asserts this will change, just not for the time-being.

"We’d like additional time to investigate the underlying issue and ensure that any future changes are implemented correctly and behave as intended," he says. While this may be frustrating, the acknowledgement demonstrates complaints haven't gone unheard. While you wait for a patch, see if the Hellfire Torch has any other quirks you're unaware of.

Diablo 5 "won't be ready for spring 2029," Path of Exile co-creator says, and "Blizzard money" won't change that

The Testing Facilities in Control Resonant are all part of the Unsupervised Science quest, with six of them hidden in underground locations all around Manhattan for you to find and solve. There's two recurring puzzles that appear across the six Testing Facilities, and below I'll take you on a full walkthrough of the entire process: How to find every facility for the Unsupervised Science quest, how to solve the puzzles and challenges in each one, and what to do when they're all completed.

Want to find other challenges around the game? Discover all the Control Resonant Shum Arcade machines!

All Testing Facility locations in Control Resonant

There are Six FBC Testing Facilities hidden around the map in Control Resonant: one for every region, with the exception of the Underpass, which has none. You can find them all on the map below, along with blue arrows that mark their hidden access points.

For a bigger map with more detail, click the icon in the lower left.

1. Downtown. Entered via a pipe in the ground floor of the Deserted Area construction zone. Soda Machine puzzle.
2. Central. Entered via a hole in a construction zone East of the Field Office Station. Power Distribution Puzzle.
3. West Incursion Zone. Entered via a hole in the road in the middle of the region. Soda Machine puzzle.
4. Evacuation Zone. Entered via a hole in the road North of the Survivalist's Bunker, right next to the Fast Travel Door. Soda Machine puzzle.
5. The Park. Entered via a divergent tunnel in the sewer system, marked by an electronic sign that says "Restricted Facility: No Authorized Entry". Power Distribution Puzzle.
6. Unknown. Entered via a hole in the road on the "Ground" side of Unknown, Southwest of the Twisted Rooftops Fast Travel Door. Power Distribution puzzle. Also serves as the location to access the Threshold for the final part of the quest.

Once all puzzles are solved, you'll be given a final objective to Go into the Threshold, explained further down.

How to solve the Testing Facility puzzles in Control Resonant

There are two puzzles that appear at the Testing Facilities: Power Distribution, about moving charges around, and Soda Machines, about placing these drinks machines on marked locations. Here's how they both work and how to solve them.

Power Distribution

After pulling the console lever, you'll be shown several Power Cores attached to machines with flashing lights, some of which have charges in. If the red light on a machine starts flashing, you need to quickly install a charge. If the blue light starts flashing and sparking, you need to remove the charge. The goal is to quickly move charges between machines for a minute without any machine going without a charge for an extended period of time, or having one for too long and overloading. Once completed, all lights will turn green, and you'll get a reward.

Soda Machines

Around the facility are random objects that you can pick up, but every time they cross a yellow line on the floor, they transform into other random objects. The goal is to turn them all into "Thirst Station" Soda Machines, then place those Soda Machines on the marked squares in the Facility. There is a complex pattern to the transformations (a repeating cycle that resets by one if you go back across a line you just crossed), and with the more complex layouts and spread out squares, I suggest that you find a T-intersection of yellow lines and run in circles through the three zones until the cycle is where you need it to be, then go from there. Once all squares have Soda machines in them, pull the lever on the main console to progress.

Go into the Threshold

After all six are completed, go back to the Unknown Testing Facility and into the side room East side, then pull the lever. This will open a metal door to a tunnel filled with glitching objects. Interact with Doctor Grant's body at the end to complete the quest and get the collectible: Dr Grant's Final Report. There's also a power core charge you can transfer to open a side door and get some resources.

Finally, completing the quest for good will get you the Untapped Scrunchie artifact, which increases the damage of Primary weapons by 10% when equipped.

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The Control Resonant Shum arcade machines are recurring side quests and unlockable minigames wherein Dylan is transported into challenges with high scores to beat for rewards. There's eight different Shum cabinets hiding around Manhattan, all of which need to be unlocked in some way, usually by increasing the Zone Level to the point where it turns on and you can play it. Below, I'll show you where to find all Shum arcade machines, as well as how to beat them and unlock the rewards involved.

All Shum arcade machine locations in Control Resonant

There are 8 Shum arcade machines in Control Resonant: one for each Zone, plus an additional one that unlocks after you complete the game. You can use the map and information laid out below to find them all.

1. Defend: Downtown. Reach Zone level 6 to unlock. Defend three crates from enemies who are trying to destroy them, minimizing damage to those crates and taking out enemies as fast as possible. Score at least 80,953 points for an Outfit reward.
2. Parkour: Central. Reach Zone level 4 to unlock. A parkour course around the outside of the Patterned Factory with multiple threats. Damage adds three seconds to your timer. Complete in at least 01:18 for an Outfit reward.
3. Entropy: West Incursion Zone. Reach Zone level 3 to unlock. Defeat waves of enemies as quickly as possible while the playable area occasionally contracts in size. Score at least 42,503 points for an Outfit reward.
4. Entropy: Evacuation Zone. Reach Zone level 6 to unlock and complete the "Evacuation Procedures" story mission. Defeat waves of enemies as quickly as possible while the playable area occasionally contracts in size. Score at least 25,322 points for an Outfit reward.
5. Entropy: The Park. Reach Zone level 4 to unlock and complete all three "Carbon Copy" side quests. Defeat waves of enemies as quickly as possible while the playable area occasionally contracts in size. Score at least 26,032 points for an Outfit reward.
6. Clocked: Underpass. Reach Zone level 5 to unlock. Defeat all waves of enemies before the timer runs out. Killing an enemy grants you more time. Complete in at least 00:22 for an Outfit reward.
7. Parkour: Unknown. Reach Zone level 5 to unlock. A parkour course around an Unknown island with multiple threats. Damage adds three seconds to your timer. Complete in at least 01:14 for an Outfit reward.
8. Conquest: Retro. Unlocked in Dylan's apartment after completing the main story. Go back into the Retro video game recreation of Ordinary and defeat all the enemies around town. Score at least 110,000 points for an Outfit reward.

Shum arcade machine rewards

Shum arcade machines give the player rewards that scale according to their position on the leaderboard, as well as Zone Level experience that scales to their score. Here's what else the leaderboard offers you:

• Fifth place: Nothing
• Four place: Nothing
• Third place: Outfit / customization unlock
• Second place: Power Upgrade Point
• First Place: Control Resonant Reset Item

Obviously these rewards do stack: if you get first place, you also get the rewards for second and third place. However, because Shum arcades are usually tied to the late/endgame of Control Resonant and most players will have ample Power and Reset Items by that point, you're probably in it for the Outfit and clothing at this point.

How to beat the Shum arcade machines

One thing that isn't made clear about the Shum machines in Control Resonant is that these are intended as late-game challenges and you'll really struggle to beat them the first time that you encounter them. This may make you think they're doing something wrong, but in actuality they're just scaled for high-level players who are in the endgame of Control Resonant. I definitely recommend levelling up to the point where you're level 8 minimum, or just go into the accessibility options and play with the challenge if you want the rewards early.

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As of now, the release of Diablo 5 is set for 2029. That may seem like plenty of time for Blizzard, and it is, since it's three years away, but one of the co-creators of Path of Exile believes we'll likely be waiting at least a little bit longer for the next installment in the iconic series.

In a YouTube video discussing the game's announcement, Chris Wilson, lead designer on Path of Exile, provided his thoughts on Blizzard's plans. "They've announced they're targeting spring 2029, which is both quite specific and quite soon," he says.

He notes that Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred arrived in April of this year, indicating that development then shifted toward a sequel rather than another full-on expansion, a pivot similar to what Blizzard did at the end of Diablo 3's lifespan as well. Using this as a speculative benchmark, Wilson believes Diablo 5 has only been the team's central priority for around five months so far.

"This would explain why they did not show gameplay at BlizzCon, and mostly had concept art, design plans, and a short announcement cinematic," he reasons. "So how long will it take them to finish the game? Well, conveniently, in my past life, I ran a studio that was developing a similar-sized game."

He then points out that although Grinding Gear Games has "mature content pipelines and a custom engine specifically designed for that genre," development on Path of Exile has been going for eight years and counting. "Diablo 5 realistically needs around as much content at launch to be competitive, and they've even said that they have more character classes than any previous Diablo game, including expansions," he mentions.

"Their three-year timeframe feels like a very tight deadline to me," he adds. He concedes that, yes, they have "Blizzard money" and can pump up the team's numbers, but with rampant layoffs and budgeting concerns, that'd be a precarious strategy. Throw in the desire for in-depth playtesting before launch, especially for fine-tuning drop rates and balancing, and you have a cycle that could easily take longer.

"My best guess here is the game won't be ready for spring 2029," Wilson concludes. "But that's OK, delays happen and are normal in this industry. I can't count the number of times I had to delay a Path of Exile league release, and players were OK with it."

An underlying question here is why Blizzard made the announcement at all. Revealing plans too early can be troublesome; just ask Todd Howard about The Elder Scrolls 6. Wilson pins it on "Blizzard management," because Microsoft "wants more frequent releases for their core game series."

Around BlizzCon, Johanna Faries, the president of Blizzard, told Bloomberg that the company is "going to ship, and ship big, and ship on time." This was regarding both the new Diablo and the upcoming StarCraft, which is set for 2030.

Whatever the reason, we know this is coming. The release just mightn't reach our keyboards and mice before the 2030s roll around - but hey, patience is a virtue.

Diablo 5 director responds to concerns the action RPG is more action than RPG: "Any challenge can be overcome with the right build"

New Growth in Control Resonant is a quest for Doctor Underhill, in which players have to help her find various test subjects before making a final, challenging choice about whether to tell the FBC or to let her continue her experiments in secret. Below I'll take you through a full walkthrough of New Growth, as well as explain the larger consequences of the Underhill Choice you make at the end, and what it means for Control Resonant.

How to complete New Growth in Control Resonant

New Growth is a quest given by Zoe in the Watchtower after you complete the main story and speak to her again. She'll tell you about an FBC scientist called Underhill who was investigating the Mold when she went missing. Here's the steps you need to take.

1. Ask about Underhill in the FBC Base in The Park. The guard Busken will direct you to a rooftop nearby.
2. Head to Underhill's last known location. You'll find a desk on a rooftop with a Level 6 Clearance Keycard and a Resignation Letter document, both of which you need.
3. Head to the Oldest House and specifically Central Executive (the room with the Fast Travel Door) to find a room you can open with Underhill's Apartment Key and notes inside.
4. Clear out the Mold outside Underhill's Apartment building in The Park and head inside to find her. She'll ask you to help with her experiments by harvesting from test subjects.
5. Collect the Test Equipment from the laboratory inside the sewers.
6. Track down the Test Subjects by triggering the white Mold and following it as it crawls away. At times it will split and go in two directions: you need to go to all of them to find all three Test Subjects. Once you find them, simply kill them to tick this challenge. All their locations are marked on the map above.

After this, you simply need to revisit Underhill in her apartment, but things have become clearer: She's working without FBC oversight and, in fact, they're actively worried that she's going to make the situation worse, whereas she sees them as too risk-averse to solve the situation. It's up to you to decide what to do with her in Control Resonant, but what's the right answer?

What's the best Underhill choice in Control Resonant?

Put simply, there is no real consequence to the Underhill choice, so it doesn't matter what you pick. Dylan is given the choice to either report her to the FBC, give her the chance to escape, or to let her escape but keep the samples so she can't keep doing her experiments.

There are no long term consequences to any of these choices. Later on you'll have a call with Zoe where you relate to her the choice you make and she expresses an opinion on it, but the mission rewards are the same either way: the Brass Dusters artifact (Combat abilities deal +50% damage but no Falter effects), and an increase to the Zone Level of The Park region.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Today, FromSoftware is known for creating the Soulslike: a particular brand of dark fantasy action-RPG that's helped to define the modern gaming landscape. But the spirit of the genre goes all the way back to the '90s, when FromSoftware's own King's Field series started endearing itself to a small cult of devotees. Now, that same spirit is influencing a new generation of indie developers, and the upcoming Queen's Domain is one of the most impressive tributes we've seen yet.

You might've heard about Queen's Domain before – like last year, when we reported about it reaching 50,000 Steam wishlists in a week. Now that wishlist number is over 180,000, and the game finally has an October 30 release date. The best part? Not only is it launching on Steam, it'll also hit PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch 2 on the same day.

Queen's Domain is a first-person RPG with "retro-fantasy" aesthetics. It doesn't actually look like a PS1 game, as the environments are far too dense and detailed to fit that old hardware, but the dithering effects, sparse UI, and chunky creature designs certainly create that vibe.

The lonely atmosphere of King's Field certainly seems intact here, as you find yourself washed ashore on a mysterious island and given little direction on how to proceed. Instead, you've got to figure out your own way in the interconnected world and build up your arsenal of weapons and powers. In other words, it's catnip for those who appreciate punishing RPGs.

And yes, of course there are skeletons. Modern gaming machines can produce mind-boggling effects, after all.

There's a demo for Queen's Domain available on Steam right now if you want to give it a spin ahead of launch. And if the idea of "King's Field but from an indie dev" speaks to you, it's become a bit of a cottage industry. We covered Lunacid years ago, which has enjoyed very positive reviews since 2023, and the more recent Verho: Curse of Faces has enjoyed similarly positive buzz. If you're the right kind of RPG sicko, it's an absolute feast out there.

Here are the upcoming indie games you need to know about.

With a spring 2029 release window, Diablo 5 is still a ways off and presumably early in development, and as such there's a lot we don't know about it. We know it takes place about 100 years after Diablo 4 and that it won't have towns or safe zones outside of a Baldur's Gate-style caravan of traveling companions, but most of the sequel's core design pillars remain a mystery. Chiefly, we know next to nothing about how combat will work in Diablo 5, and considering Diablo games are almost exclusively about clicking demons to death, the ARPG community is waiting eagerly for more details.

Waiting right there alongside us is Chris Wilson, Grinding Gear Games co-founder and original Path of Exile designer. Wilson recently published a video on his YouTube channel in which he gives his in-depth reaction to the announcement of Diablo 5. Wilson says he's "tentatively hopeful" about Diablo 5 overall, but goes over a number of concerns he has about the direction Blizzard may or not be taking it. One of those concerns is the combat, which he says has been trending more and more "arcadey and actioney" since Diablo 3. His hope is that Diablo 5 goes back to the completely build-centric combat favored by his beloved Diablo 1 and 2, but he predicts it'll move even further into action territory.

I mention this in the context of a new tweet from Diablo 5 senior game director Joe Shely, which sounds like a response to Wilson's questions on combat even if it isn't intended as such.

"While Diablo V will continue to feature some DEX (moment-to-moment execution) mechanics, on balance the game will be an INT/STR game (planning and investment)," Shely says. "We are designing to the core tenet of ARPGs that any challenge can be overcome with the right build."

I've listened to Shely talk enough to know he's incredibly media-trained, so it's no surprise that his written remarks here don't actually reveal anything specific and substantive about Diablo 5's combat beyond some level of "moment-to-moment" mechanics. That could literally just mean you'll have to position your attacks in the direction of enemies and get out of the way of incoming attacks, or it could suggest a deeper embrace of action-like combat, but it's reassuring that the focus is still on build composition instead of, as Wilson puts it, "a dexterity player focus."

As a Diablo player from the very beginning, I'm not too worried about Diablo 5 having a slightly more intricate combat system so long as the fantasy is still about constantly iterating synergies between gear and abilities to make killing monsters easier and easier, and it sounds like that's still the case. I do agree with Wilson that monster scaling should probably be ditched or at least dramatically scaled back to make the world feel uncompromising and dangerous, but I suspect I'll be waiting a while longer for nittier, grittier details like that.

Diablo 4 seasons will continue after Diablo 5 launches "similar" to Diablo 2 and 3, Blizzard confirms

The painting puzzle in Control Resonant is all set within a shadowy gallery, in which players can spotlight certain paintings on the wall. But the only clue is a note that mentions that certain paintings have been sold this month, but doesn't specify which paintings those are except mentioning their names: "Journey, Windows, Thunder and Tides". Unfortunately the paintings on the gallery walls aren't labelled in any way, leading to some rough interpretations about which ones the note is referring to, and even then, what do you do with that information? I'll explain below.

To find another of the Secret Rooms in Manhattan, check out our guide to the Control Resonant Washing Machine puzzle!

How do you solve the Painting puzzle in Control Resonant?

To solve the painting puzzle in Control Resonant, you need to interact with the spotlight controls on the gallery pillars, so that certain paintings are illuminated, specifically those that match the names on the note left on the countertop. It's not always particularly clear which paintings they mean, but I'll show you what you need to mark below.

1. Journey: Left wall, middle painting (road beneath a tree).
2. Windows: Far wall, left painting (curling, looping vines in the forest)
3. Thunder: Far right corner, left painting (tree split by lightning)
4. Tides: Right wall, middle painting (tree fallen into water)

Once you enter this correctly, the spotlights will flash and a secret door in the corner of the room will open up. Down below, you'll find several collectibles, as well as a resource container with a Health Upgrade Point inside.

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The Blood of Dawnwalker has been a blur. It's been four weeks since RPG Club entered Vale Sangora, and in that time I've killed one bear, overthrown three vampires, accidentally consigned a fourth to hell, and ate more vermin than any man should have to endure. But that's all in the past (unless you'd like to refresh yourself). It's all been for the greater good, and this week we're marching into Greifberg Castle to save our family and dethrone the valley's undead ruler.

Quest Log

Midnight snack

At the beginning of September, I struggled to win one swordfight. But one month with Duelist difficulty has pried open combat's inner-workings. Playing on the hardest difficulty guts Coen's stamina, so perfect blocks have been essential – they don't cost stamina, so are the only way to fight without being staggered and killed. Landing those last-second parries comes naturally now, and in tandem with Coen's supernatural powers, Brencis' mortal soldiers no longer pose a threat.

I'm fairly confident we could stroll up to Brencis and stake the sucker now, but I promised to make Coen the strongest vampire I could. Lacra, the vampire ally we met in part two, promises one more opportunity to do so. We meet at her hideout, now one vampire fewer – having drained elder undead Isbrand and accidentally leaving his spirit in hell – and wade into another of Vale Sangora's gloomy swamps. Will-o'-the-wisps lead us to an ancient crypt, where cutting down ghosts and zombies pays off with a mandrake – a flower of condensed vampiric energy, sourced auspiciously from a body now overgrown with corrupting red tendrils.

It's now abundantly clear that Coen's vampiric powers, along with his witchcraft and the dark sorcery we've encountered throughout Vale Sangora, is sourced from the same hellish realm we left Isbrand in. Drawing upon it leads to madness and, gesturing at the corpse grown into the wall, that. But the sanctity of Coen's soul comes second to the rules of RPG Club. This mandrake is the most tangible promise of vampiric power we've encountered yet, so down the hatch it goes.

Drunk on the mandrake's power, Coen and Lacra spend the rest of the night having weird vampire sex – I'm talking claws through flesh, drinking blood, the works – and in the morning, I have two new abilities. The mandrake grants a unique perk that revives Coen from death once per night (where were you two weeks ago?), and the last vampiric power in my perk tree – mesmerizing enemies – is unlocked.

Goodbye tour

I return to Svartrau with unfinished business. Rebel leader Crake stormed out on us in part 3, furious that I messed up a reconnaissance mission, and I'd like to make amends – or at least give him the cursed tome he sent us to find before our falling-out. I'm thrilled to see him back in the hideout, and while there's no option to pick up our last conversation, he takes the tome off my hands. Out of his sulk, Crake announces that it's time to storm Castle Greifberg. I politely ask him to wait, but secretly I've already decided to overthrow Brencis with Lacra's help instead of the rebels. Besides putting mortals in danger, I think Crake's plan – which is to ally with the previous despot's heir and restore Vale Sangora's bleak status quo – is flat-out dumb. Hold off for just… two seconds, would you?

Before leaving, Crake impresses that the rebellion can't wait much longer. I'm 99% sure that nothing will happen without my go-ahead, but I don't want to risk tripping up at the finish line and prepare to meet with Lacra. There's just one problem: I've finally hit maximum notoriety with Brencis, who enacts his final edict. Svartrau's gates are lowered, sealing it from the outside world. The intent is to keep Coen out, but instead I'm trapped inside. It's also morning – which means I can't just shadowstep over the city walls.

It's a good thing my notoriety can't go any higher. The streets are flush with Brencis' men, but they can't hurt what they can't hit. Even en masse, they're fodder for the flow state – dying in scores as I comb the streets for a way out; Svartrau resembling a gothic Dynasty Warriors. But I can't find an exit, and fast travel has been disabled at the city's shrines. After 20 minutes of fruitless slaughter, I pass time at a shrine until nightfall and then flit over the walls, transforming into a wolf as I hit the ground and galloping to Lacra.

Endgame

Proceeding with Lacra will lock us into an ending, warns a pop-up – meaning we won't be able to use the hidden passage that Father Florin tipped us off to, nor help the rebels. That's fine by me: speaking purely to my odds of beating Brencis, I feel better with Lacra at my side.

Sneaking into Castle Greifberg via underground ruins, we arrive at the site of Brencis' mysterious ritual. Corpses are suspended in the air, their juicy innards drawn towards a vast orb of swirling blood above us. Brencis isn't here, neither is Coen's family, and Lacra seizes initiative – destroying an ancient font that misfires the ritual's power through the castle. Our goal is the throne room, but the ritual's energies make getting there difficult. One moment I'm fighting guards in dingy dungeons, the next fending off spirits from Vampire Hell, then back in boring stone again.

My odds of finding Coen's family in one piece look slim, but there is a silver lining. Having spared Xanthe earlier in our playthrough, the vampire boyaress honors her promise to help. Her chambers are empty of their usual foes and traps (a colleague tells me I would have faced a nasty maze if I'd killed Xanthe), leaving the last stretch to Brencis clear.

In the throneroom, tendrils have nearly finished growing over Coen's family. Brencis is here, and offers one last deal: walk away with my family, and we'll call it quits. That's not the cathartic revenge story I'm here for – and I'm not convinced Lacra can handle the battle alone – so into the boss fight we go.

30 hours ago, Brencis slapped me aside in the prologue. Now, he can barely keep up. I've juiced Coen's vampirism as far as it will go, and in tandem with Duelist mode's teachings, Brencis' lightning-fast swipes and underhanded shadowsteps are easily anticipated. Lacra is nearly taken out of the fight with a talon to the guts, but the mandrake's powers allow her to shrug off the blow – which is more than can be said for Brencis, who is torn to shreds two-on-one.

Unlike our prior vampire conquests, Brencis continues the fight in Vampire Hell, albeit far gnarlier than he was in regular un-life. But Coen is practically immortal by this point, and we have a surprising ally – the spirit of Ambrus, whose soul I spared weeks ago, appears to help kill our sire. As Brencis struggles to deflect my claws, Ambrus strikes at his exposed side, landing the final blow.

Victory! Sort of. As Brencis' spirit materializes for one last soliloquy, I decide not to invite him in, which takes me longer than expected to decide – For all the heartbreak Brencis has put Coen through, I have a real soft spot for the baddie. He even gets the last laugh: fading away, Brencis tells Coen that he's prepared one last surprise…

Epilogue

We don't get to see the surprise just yet, as we're fast-forwarded to Coen's village, Laslea, for an epilogue. Winter is approaching, and although our playthrough has been a fairly selfish pursuit of power, it bears surprisingly pleasant fruit. The village is rebuilding with the help of Vale Sangora's rebel faction, who have taken reluctant control in the power vacuum left by Brencis. Coen's family survived, with one catch. Lunka, Coen's youngest sister, is a semi-turned vampire creature who lives feral in the caves above Laslea.

There's hope for Lunka yet, though, as Lacra – revealed to be a vampire in the ancient order of Augurs – joins Coen along with her superior, who promises to finish Lunka's transformation if Coen joins their ranks. We've already done much worse to save Coen's family so with Lunka in tow, we leave Vale Sangora – and The Blood of Dawnwalker behind. There's a beefy post-credits scene detailing the impact of our choices – I'll note the most interesting ones below, and we can discuss how it differed in the comments.

• Coen's mortal family survive, but he never sees them again
• Without the vampire's blood as protection, the Black Plague returns to Vale Sangora
• With no replacement for Brencis, Vale Sangora descends into lawlessness – leaving the manumit rebels to defend the valley
• Lacra continues her work with the Augurs
• Xanthe continues to live with her daughter – but I'm pretty damn miffed, as she goes back on our deal and returns to killing young women
• The nun's convent from part one remains cursed (oops)

As for Coen, he learns to live with his vampirism – a slight understatement, given I've spent a month forcing gallons of blood down his throat. As for myself, I'm thrilled that The Blood of Dawnwalker's happy(ish) ending isn't mutually exclusive with going all-in on vampirism. There are still a lot of loose ends, least of which being a post-credits scene of a leather-clad Coen in the modern-day, and I'm keen to see how Rebel Wolves continues its planned series.

As we come to the end of September's RPG Club, how did you find The Blood of Dawnwalker? Whether you followed the same rules or struck a different direction for Coen, let me know – I'll be hanging around in the comments to answer questions and chat about our decisions. And lastly, thanks for joining me on this 30–day odyssey. I'll always save you from Vampire Hell, dear reader.

The Urban Survival quest in Control Resonant occurs in the Evacuation Zone, where players have to follow a trail of unauthorized mines through a parking lot and back towards the lone survivalist who's somehow still plugging along, despite the extradimensional horrors stalking the streets. There's a few strange elements to this quest, as once you find the survivalist, they're happy to send you out on missions around the city before they'll consent to evacuate, but I'll lay out the particulars of it all below in a full walkthrough, so you know what to do and all the key locations you need to find.

For more involved walkthroughs, check out our guide to the Control Resonant The Complete Set quest!

Full walkthrough for Urban Survival in Control Resonant

Urban Survival is broken into several steps in Control Resonant, all of which are marked below on the map and listed beneath that.

1. Approach the Unauthorized Mines in the Evacuation Zone, and read the "Investigation Order" collectible outside the entrance to the Parking Lot to start this quest.
2. Follow them through the Parking Lot and out back to the South to find the Survivalist's Bunker inside a warehouse. Speak to the Survivalist via the Intercom, and he'll ask you to find Olivia and his granny.
3. Olivia is inside the back office of the Pulse Fitness Gym, but isn't a person - she's a potted plant. Clear out the Hiss to get inside, then pick her up to tick off this section of the quest.
4. Granny is in the Northeast apartment building, which you can access via the rooftop entrance. Head down the elevator and into the one accessible apartment to find Granny (in an urn). With both Granny and Olivia, head back to the Survivalist, who now wants you to find his brother.
5. The first thing is to find the Survivalist's Car and to get his keys. It's a large, boxy vehicle in the Far North Evac Zone, in front of a street blocked off by Mold.
6. With the keys, head into the apartment building and upstairs to find the brother, taken by the Hiss. Take the picture of the two brothers instead and bring it back to the Survivalist to end the Urban Survival quest.

As a reward for this questline, you'll get The Plate Carrier M1 outer layer outfit piece, as well as the Untapped Heart Monitor Artifact, which gives you a one-time free respawn when you would have normally died. You can also now access the Bunker, which has a container of materials.

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The washing machine puzzle in Control Resonant is set in a laundry, wherein players are given numerous washing machines to play with, and a note on the wall with a grid of ones and zeros. It's easy to be a bit confused by what's expected of you here, but I'll lay out how to solve it and what you need to know about the washing machine puzzle solution.

Did you know that this puzzle might secretly be linked to the lore of the Control Resonant FBC Terminals that ask you questions? Check out the link to find out more!

How to solve the Washing Machine puzzle in the Control Resonant laundry

The key to the Washing Machine puzzle is that the grid of ones and zeros on the poster is meant to represent the rows of washing machines inside the Laundry, and which ones should be turned on and off. If you interpret a One as meaning "on", you can activate specific machines, which solves the puzzle.

However, if you need a simple guide, we've got both written and visual representation below. Rows of machines are numbered left to right, with orange marks to represent which ones you should turn on. If a machine has no mark on it, it either can't be interacted with, or it should be switched off.

• Row 1 (Left side/West): Turn on the machine next the break in the middle.
• Row 2: No machines turned on.

• Row 3: No machines turned on.
• Row 4: Turn on the machines at each end of the row, closest and furthest from the entrance.

• Row 5: Turn on the two machines next to each other in the middle.
• Row 6 (Right side/East): Turn on the machine in the middle.

If done correctly, this should open a secret door in the Laundry backroom. Heading through will reveal a secret area with several collectibles, as well as a crate with a Health Upgrade Point.

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With the surprise announcement of Diablo 5 at BlizzCon 2026, some fans of the series are left with a bittersweet feeling. Sure, a new game sounds great, and with Diablo 5 looking like the darkest entry in the series since OG Diablo, it does look great. But what does that mean for Diablo 4, which is only three years old? Well, Blizzard itself has confirmed it means no more Diablo 4 expansions, but the developer has made it clear seasonal updates will continue despite Diablo 5 being the apparent main focus within Blizzard's Diablo team. But with Diablo 4 seasons being as meaty as they are these days, complete with miniature remakes of legacy Diablo campaigns in the case of season 15, how long can Blizzard really keep that going? Apparently, as long as players keep showing up.

"We are planning on supporting seasons as long as the community continues to show up for D4," game director Brent Gibson tells Icy Veins. "Similar to what we have in D2 and D3. There are still people who play those games, and as long as you're showing up, we’re going to continue to be making content."

As Gibson alludes, this isn't a huge surprise considering Diablo 2 and 3's seasonal structures still haven't been abandoned, not to mention Diablo 2 getting a whole new class as recently as this year. That said, those games aren't really getting new seasons as in actual new content; they're essentially on maintenance mode with old seasonal themes on a rotating schedule. It seems to me Gibson is suggesting Diablo 4's seasonal updates will take a similar structure once Diablo 5 is released, which makes sense. I can only imagine the resources required to consistently update two mainline Diablo games with whole new storylines, regions, items, etc. at the same time. Not even the Xbox-owned Blizzard has pockets that deep.

Diablo himself is the reason Diablo 5 is coming instead of more Diablo 4 expansions, says project lead: "We needed to give him his own game"

We haven't seen much of Diablo 5 yet beyond the cinematic announcement we got at BlizzCon 2026, but Blizzard has been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs indicating a dramatic departure from previous entries in the series, and in other cases, a return to its roots. I've written at some length about how Blizzard is doubling down on the Diablo series' trademark darkness and why that's the best way to pay tribute to the original 1996 action RPG, and now Path of Exile co-creator Chris Wilson is pointing out a few more clues that seem to suggest Diablo 5 is taking inspiration from its early forbearers.

Of course, Path of Exile wouldn't exist without Diablo 1 and 2, so Wilson has a thoroughly documented obsession with those iconic ARPGs. He's also been outspoken about not having clicked with Diablo 3 and 4 for various reasons, and in a new video, he explains why he's "tentatively hopeful" that Diablo 5 will be closer in spirit to the first two games in the series.

"I felt the Diablo series had just moved on from the type of game that I loved, but when I watched the Diablo 5 announcement, I felt a glimmer of hope," Wilson says. "This wasn't just due to the words they were saying, but also what they intentionally chose to show." Wilson points out that the Diablo 5 logo features the letters of the title engulfed in flames similar to Diablo 1 and 2, and decidedly not similar to Diablo 3 and 4's flameless logos. Similarly, inventory concepts revealed in Diablo 5's announcement show items with distinct sizes and inventory management just like Diablo 1 and 2, something that was ditched in favor of uniform item sizes in Diablo 3 and 4.

"These are specific signals to players like me that there's a chance they're taking things back to basics and learning from the original games that established this franchise to begin with," says Wilson.

Those might seem like small details to draw any significant implications from, and indeed, Wilson says there are much bigger questions waiting to be answered that'll decide whether Diablo 5 is the return to form he's hoping for, or another evolution that drifts further from the core design ethos that inspired him to form his own studio and start making games for a living.

Crucially, in Wilson's view, Diablo 5 needs to ditch the enemy scaling that ensures Diablo 4's mobs are proportionate power-wise to the player's leveling. He says, "In my opinion, Diablo 5 absolutely must use a traditional system where the world has progressively more powerful monsters and you can choose how fast you progress through it and where to grind based on your current capabilities."

But Wilson also thinks Blizzard's decision to go back to linear world structure is a positive indication that Diablo 5 will, in fact, abandon monster scaling, pointing to a PC Gamer interview in which game director Joe Shely said the sequel will take a "somewhat different approach" to level scaling.

Maybe the strongest evidence yet that Diablo 5 is embracing earlier games in the series is its confirmed return to procedurally generated environments in dungeons and the overworld, something Wilson is "very excited about."

And yet, Wilson still has some serious concerns about the direction Blizzard is taking Diablo 5; including whether it'll be online-only or include an option for offline single-player; how item trading will work; and whether the combat system will be designed to reward physical dexterity, i.e. via a dodge and attack system, or well-composed character builds.

Again, Wilson's a big fan of the different sized items, but he also says the 84 inventory slots, compared to Diablo 2's 40, could mean you'll be returning to town a lot less in Diablo 5. And of course, by "town," he's referring to your mobile caravan of traveling companions, which coincidentally was inspired by narrative director Jennifer Hepler's time at BioWare.

Wilson also says the early Diablo games were full of obscure mechanics and obtuse interactions that made them endlessly interesting to unpack even as years passed, which contrasts with the much more polished systems in Diablo 3 and 4, which he says are easier to get into but lack that same depth.

"I'm tentatively hopeful for Diablo 5," Wilson concludes. "I wasn't expecting to be, but they've said enough of the magic words and picked the right font for the logo. I have my fingers crossed that they'll do a good job with it."

As for why he wants Diablo 5 to succeed when he has his own unannounced ARPG in the works, Wilson says, "Every other action RPG developer" benefits when the genre's ecosystem is thriving – and it certainly would be with a banging new Diablo game.

As someone with a similar love for Diablo 1 and 2, I agree with most of Wilson's points, especially the stuff about monster scaling. There was an uncompromising danger in those early games' exploration that made getting back to town thrilling and satisfying, and I'd even go further and say Blizzard should bring back open PvP outside towns, or caravans, like the Wild West that was Diablo 1 multiplayer. That last feature was left behind as early as Diablo 2, though, and I'm not expecting that level of embrace of unhinged online gaming culture.

Diablo 4's 30th anniversary event is "pretty distasteful," Path of Exile co-creator says: "Games should have respect for their core storylines."

To eat the Mold in Control Resonant is a strange choice, but one that is nonetheless provided when you're hunting down the Resonant Boss Fight in The Park. Characters have been repeatedly telling Dylan not to eat the Mold up until this point, but they've not been especially clear about the perils or consequences of doing so, which begs the question... what happens when you do eat it? I'll explain below.

Warning: The following guide contains spoilers for The Park Resonant questline.

What happens if you eat the Mold in Control Resonant?

Yes, you should Eat the Mold in Control Resonant, as that's the only way to progress The Park Resonant questline and you can't do so otherwise.

Don't worry, there's no negative impact to eating any of the Mold, which is good as you'll have to eat several more pieces of it across the quest afterwards. Having eaten some in the middle of The Park, you then need to find four more pieces at marked locations and defeat the Mold enemies nearby to access (and eat) them.

After eating all of the pieces, Dylan will be able to return to the first location and pass through the barrier that's been preventing him from reaching the Resonant beneath. It's implied in Control Resonant that eating the Mold warps the brains of people and absorbs them into the hive mind all this cosmic fungus operates under, but Dylan's paranatural power means that he's able to largely resist its influence, so no worries there. Head through the barrier to the boss fight beyond, and you'll be able to use all the Mold-themed powers and combat abilities in Control Resonant.

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This year's BlizzCon brought the announcement of Diablo 5. Although we're still a few years out from the sequel, development is already winding down on Diablo 4, to the point we're not getting any more major expansions. One of the co-creators of fellow action-RPG Path of Exile isn't enamored by Blizzard's strategy here, believing it undermines the series and the fanbase.

Chris Wilson, one of the central designers of Path of Exile, made these points in a YouTube video. "It feels like they're abandoning Diablo 4," he says of the announcement. "They even clarified there would be no more expansions developed for Diablo 4, but there would be some content released, I assume by the small team left running it."

He finds the proposed roadmap disappointing, to say the least. "One of those pieces of Diablo 4 content is a 30th anniversary event called Season of Hell's Legacy," he comments. "To be honest, this event feels pretty distasteful to me. I feel that games should have respect for their core storylines, and treat their antagonists with the respect that they deserve."

As you might have guessed, he doesn't believe the proposed gameplay additions or their presentation manage this. "Diablo 4 was slowly building up to you eventually getting to fight the Prime Evils, and then they introduce them all at once in this special event that isn't really tied into the game's storyline," he observes.

"They brought back Deckard Cain for the event, even though he was canonically killed in Diablo 3," he adds. In his mind, this makes it seem like "causality and story events" don't hold the appropriate weight, and "that we shouldn't take them seriously."

This is compounded by Blizzard calling Diablo, the big bad himself, "the birthday boy" on-stage. "If your franchise is called Diablo, and you've made billions of dollars from games that sell a fantasy of players working towards getting to confront and defeat Diablo, the Lord of Terror, then you should treat him with the utmost respect," Wilson states.

Not really the place for kiddy nicknames, is it? Despite all of this, Wilson is "tentatively hopeful" for Diablo 5. It's going back to more RNG-heavy world design, it has a truly desolate worldview, and he's pleased by the font choice for the logo. Hopefully Blizzard stays the course in its decision-making.

Diablo 5 tells "three stories" across the past, present, and future, and biomes will change shape depending on which of Diablo's minions is in charge

The FBC Terminals in Control Resonant are strange, as they have clearly been hacked to allow a mysterious character to ask Dylan questions about what's going on, giving the choice to answer or not. As you play more of Control Resonant, you'll discover more of these FBC Terminals, inquiring more and more details about the Bureau, Jesse, Dylan and the eldritch entities that they're encountering. If you want to know more, I'll explain the correct answers for the FBC Terminals: or rather, explain that there aren't any.

What answers should you give to the FBC Terminals in Control Resonant?

The reality is that it doesn't matter what answers you give to any of the FBC Terminals throughout Control Resonant, as the rewards given to you are the same no matter what answers you give, with the exception of refusing to answer at all, which gives you nothing. Those rewards are:

• 200x Source
• 1x Guest Echo
• 1x Aberrant Slivers

There are also no long-term consequences for the answers you give in Control Resonant, at least as I've encountered. This has led some fans in the community to speculate that this is a teaser for a sequel or DLC to come later down the line.

Who's asking questions through the FBC Terminals?

The identity of the person communicating with you through the FBC Terminals is never revealed in Control Resonant explicitly, though there are some clues. While exploring the Manhattan, players can find puzzles that reveal hidden rooms, where it appears as though a mysterious third party has been hiding and spying on the FBC.

Some fans have speculated that this is the "Blessed Organization", a criminal organization variously mentioned in Control 1, Alan Wake 2 and now Control Resonant, a criminal syndicate, person or entity that uses AWEs and supernatural items to its own benefit. The Blessed Organization has only been mentioned sparingly and off-hand up until this point, but it's possible that they'll be a larger factor and presence in future Control games.

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The Karaoke machine in Control Resonant is a cursed object that you encounter as part of a side quest called "The Party Won't Stop", where it's forcing people to dance until somebody can recite all the lyrics to a song from memory. The problem is, get a lyric wrong and the machine kills one of the dancing party members, and clearly nobody wants that to happen. If you want to know all the correct song lyrics and how to solve the Karaoke puzzle in Control Resonant, I'll lay out what you need to know clearly.

For more quests in The West Incursion Zone, check out our full Control Resonant The Complete Set walkthrough and find all the speakers in the cursed SINKKI D50 speaker system!

All karaoke song lyrics and answers in Control Resonant

To solve the puzzle of the Karaoke machine in "The Party Won't Stop", you need to choose the word or sentence fragment that rhymes with the previous lyric sung by the machine. There's a few outliers than can throw people off, but this is the general rule. If you need help, I'll lay out all the answers and lyrics for you here:

• It's the greatest party you've ever seen....
  • Gasoline
• No end in sight, no end to happiness...
  • Stress
• When you move your feet, your heart starts beating...
  • So fleeting
• When you're singing the sweetest song...
  • Too long
• What would you do without this groove?
  • Move
• When you move your dancing feet...
  • Fear
• Music gives you the power to sing...
  • Everything
• It keeps you going, fuels your fire...
  • Higher and higher
• So find your voice, just belt it out...
  • Shout

No matter whether you get the song lyrics completely right or whether you get a few of them wrong, you'll get the same rewards either way: the Varsity Jacket, an outer layer outfit piece for Dylan, and the Bar Blade, an untapped artifact that causes your health to passively regenerate when you have a summoned ally close by.

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The Complete Set is one of Control Resonant's longest and strangest side quests, tasking you to find a set of SINKKI D50 speakers and subwoofers around the world and set them up in a singular location, which itself leads to a peculiar choice at the end. There's five separate speakers and subwoofers to locate around the world and bring back to the Auction House to conclude the questline, and having done the mission myself and found the locations of every speaker, I'll lay out a full quest walkthrough below so you can complete... well, The Complete Set, for yourself.

Struggling with other puzzles in the main story? Find out how to solve all the Control Resonant Power Lines here.

How to solve The Complete Set in Control Resonant

Here are the basic steps for The Complete Set quest, where to find all the speakers, and what you need to do with them afterwards (we'll go into more detail on each major step below).

1. To start The Complete Set quest, go to The Museum of Curiosities in the West Incursion Zone and read the note on the reception counter.
2. Examine the SINKKI D50 speaker at the back of the Museum to cause it to start leaping around. Grab it when it pauses in its movements.
3. Head to the marked Auction House in Downtown to find a Civilian seemingly possessed and in need of help. There'll be another speaker that needs containing here.
4. Pick up the "There's People in There" collectible in the Auction House to discover the locations of the other speakers - the Auction Buyer's Apartment and the Collector's apartment, and the Subwoofer with Langston. These can be done in any order.
5. Go to the Collector's Apartment, then pick up a Speaker from the dumpster across the street.
6. Go to the Auction Buyer's Apartment, then head to the nearby coffee shop to find a Speaker there.
7. Speak to Langston in Central, then head to the Oldest House to pick up the Subwoofer from Executive Research.
8. Go back to the Auction House and place the speakers around on specific surfaces to complete the ritual.
9. Choose whether to turn the subwoofer off or turn it up, closing or opening "the Gate".

How to contain speakers

There are multiple occasions in The Complete Set quest where you'll have to contain the speakers of the SINKKI D50 set, which is hard to do when they bounce around the room causing flashing pulses that knock you back and stop you from getting close.

The key is to keep your distance until it pauses moving, then quickly move in close and hold L1/LB (depending on your controller). If you're fast enough, Dylan should extract or suppress its power to move, containing it. At that point, you can pick it up like any other item.

The Collector's Apartment speaker location

Enter the Collector's Apartment and listen to the collectible "Pete, Nina and Lester" to find out that the speaker was thrown out. To find it, leave the building via the main entrance, go directly across the street to the entrance to the construction site, and on the right hand side are several dumpsters with the speaker among them, as shown above.

Once you try to get it, it will try and escape and you'll have to contain it as normal, chasing it through the construction site.

The Auction Buyer's Apartment and Coffee Shop speaker location

The Auction Buyer's Apartment is in Central, marked on your map as part of the quest chain. Go there and look at the shelves next to the front door to find the Exchange Location Note, which tells you that you should be looking at the coffee shop nearby.

Head to the marked coffee shop, "Atlantis", and you can enter via the main door at street level. Inside, one of the speakers is resting on a table. Interact with it to begin a chase to contain it, as before.

The Confiscated Subwoofer location

Speaking to Langston at the Field Office in Central, he'll tell you that the Subwoofer speaker is in the FBC Oldest House, near Executive Research, as well as granting you a new Control Resonant Clearance Keycard so you can access it.

Head back to the Oldest House in Downtown, and retrace your steps from the game's tutorial back to Executive Research. Next to the bunker you can find a locked door marked SR, which you can now open.

Interact with it, and the Subwoofer will spawn in some Hiss enemies, which you'll have to kill, before chasing it around the room to contain it as before.

How to complete the Ritual at the Auction House

Back at the Auction House, interact with the table near the possessed civilian to lay out all the speakers. At this point, you need to complete a puzzle and a particular ritual, based on where in the room you place each speaker and subwoofer. Reading the collectible "The SINKKI D50 Speaker Set" tells you that each speaker needs to be placed on a specific kind of surface, which you can find within the Auction House somewhere.

The Speakers are all interchangeable here - it doesn't matter which one you place where, with the exception of the subwoofer, which does need to be on a particular spot.

1. Place one speaker on a glass surface. This is the table leaning against the pillar down below in the direction that the possessed woman is looking at, opposite the main stage next to the ascending stairs.

2. Place one speaker on a stone surface. This is on the stage itself, on the palette of crisscrossed stone slabs.

3. Place one speaker on a blue surface. There's a blue tarp hanging off the edge of the East mezzanine overlooking the stage, across from where the speakers are kept.

4. Place one speaker on a wooden surface. Directly across from the possessed woman, on the east mezzanine, is a wooden bench on a spotlight between two generators, very easy to spot.

5. Place the sub-woofer in water. There's a puddle of water from a spilled mop and bucket just behind the possessed woman where you can place the subwoofer.

At this point, you need to turn off all the speakers except the subwoofer. The speakers will start pulsing with energy, trying to knock you away, but there's pauses where you can get in close and shut them down.

Head up to the woman and speak to her, and she'll tell you to turn off the subwoofer. However, voices are coming from that subwoofer telling you to turn its volume up.

Should you turn the subwoofer off or turn the volume up in Control Resonant?

You're going into the this choice fairly blind, with the only clue being that this opens or closes "the gate", but I've played out both versions and can tell you there's no really good outcome, unfortunately.

• Turn the subwoofer off. The civilian dies immediately. The quest is concluded and you get the "Untapped Bout Guard" artifact.
• Turn the subwoofer up. The civilian's body is possessed by the spirits or consciousnesses of multiple people, all of which seem dismayed to be in this situation. They are not aggressive though, and Dylan says that the FBC will come to pick them up. The quest is concluded and you get the "Untapped Bout Guard" artifact.

The Bout Guard, when unlocked back in the Gap, increases power recovery by 50%, but increases the damage you take by 20%.

The rewards for both outcomes are the same, and as far as we can surmise, there's no follow-up quest or real change to Control Resonant beyond this point. That means that there's no truly better or worse option, though considering the narrative outcomes, it might be better to turn the subwoofer off.

Though much of it is implied or left specifically unclear, the SINKKI D50 Speaker set and the "Gate" they connect to appears to be some sort of portal to another plane of existence, and potentially some sort of afterlife. If you choose the second option, the figures possessing the body seem scared that the Gate now being opens means that some unrevealed bad thing might come through, though this isn't followed up on.

For clarity, I double-checked, and "SINKKI" doesn't have an obvious connection that I could decipher at a glance. It's a Finnish word (which makes sense, considering developer Remedy's strong ties to Finland) that translates to Zinc, but can also refer to a medieval instrument, and sometimes has connections to a snake, or serpent, as the Sinkki instrument is often presented as a long, serpentine, snake-like creation.

If the latter, it might suggest that the Gate is tied to some sort of Hell: serpents and an afterlife to be feared. Still, that's a bit of a reach on my behalf, and it's possible that there's other ideas at play.

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Nier: Automata director Yoko Taro has a reputation for being weird and esoteric – not that the giant, moon-faced Emil mask he always wears in public has anything to do with it. The idiosyncratic dev's games have a reputation for dark, twisted narratives that care more for their philosophical underpinnings than offering happy conclusions for their characters.

With the first Nier, released in 2010, the game featured two different protagonists, with a gruff older character on Xbox 360 and a boyish lead on PS3. In the West, both versions used the older protagonist. That approach "didn't end in great sales," Yoko told The Guardian in 2018, "so we stopped overthinking it."

Things changed for the launch of the RPG's follow-up in 2017. "For Nier: Automata, I wasn't told to target anyone," Yoko explains. "I just made what I wanted to, and I tried to stay hidden from Square Enix as much as possible."

Clearly, that approach worked. Nier: Automata turned out to be a breakout hit, selling over 10 million copies and becoming widely recognized as one of the best RPGs ever made. It blended approachable action with Yoko's trademark esoteric storytelling, and developed a following that went well beyond the typical cult RPG fans.

"To be honest, I think I am making normal games targeted towards normal people," Yoko said. "But ultimately when I release those normal games, weird people find them to be weird games and enjoy them. Which probably means there's something wrong with me."

That kind of self-deprecation also seems to be part of Yoko's mask – though maybe it's just as much a part of him as the Emil face he encases himself in. He says it wasn't any great ambition that led him to become a director, but rather the mere fact that he regularly spoke up. He figures he's a "warped person" who's "insufferable at work," but maybe that's just the cost of making normal games for weird people.

As PlayStation kills discs, Nier Automata creator Yoko Taro is "saddened by the loss of physical media" and despairs over "the future" of games: "That's just the way things are going."

I've been thoroughly enjoying my time with Diablo 4 Season of Hell's Legacy even if it just makes me really, really want a Diablo 1 remake, but I'm not alone in experiencing some pretty bad server wobbles, not to mention the launch-day delay of the new seasonal realm and Solo Self Found mode. As a token of appreciation to players who continue logging in despite these problems, Blizzard is giving away one of the game's rarest and most valuable crafting resources for free.

As reported by Icy Veins and verified by yours truly, if you log into Diablo 4 and head to the newly added Horadric Post in any major town, there's a good chance you'll find yourself a lovely little note from Blizzard explicitly apologizing for "unexpected issues" with season 15. And if you're super lucky, like me, you'll also find a single Resplendent Spark with your name on it. Well, your name won't literally be on it, but it'll be yours to keep, again, if you're lucky.

I mention luck here because it seems not everyone is getting Resplendent Sparks. In a Reddit thread discussing the freebie, several users report simply receiving the written note without any attached Spark, while others say they aren't seeing anything in their inboxes at all. That could just be an issue of the game client not being fully up to date, but the fact that some people are getting just the note and no Spark suggests Blizzard isn't sending out the crafting material to just anyone. I've reached out to Blizzard for clarification on that and will update this story if I hear back.

Resplendent Sparks are incredibly hard to find, which is why we have a whole guide on how to get them, and they're essential to crafting Mythic Uniques, which are of course the game's most powerful gear. You'll need more than one Spark depending on what you want to craft, but I'm certainly not turning my nose up at Blizzard's offer.

Diablo 5 goes back to a pre-Diablo 4 world of "constant discovery" and procedural dungeons: "The only thing beyond the fog of war is more questions"

Power Lines in Control Resonant is a quest wherein Dylan has to solve exactly that: rerouting three sets of Power Lines in the Perimeter Station, the Factory Station, and the East Park Station in order to supply the FBC with enough energy for a project that they're working on. Each Station ends up being a puzzle in its own right, some of which are fairly complex and involved, rounded off by an incredibly complex puzzle with a Vanished Station that is more than likely to confused many. If you're having trouble, I'll lay out the solutions to all the Power Line puzzles throughout Control Resonant, broken up by location to make it easier to manage.

How to solve the Power Lines puzzles in Control Resonant

The general solution for every one of the Power Lines puzzles in Control Resonant is to place "Calibration Units" at specific locations, then activate the large machine referred to as the "Tuning Device", as explained by the "Calibration Instructions" document that appears at all three locations.

This sounds simple, but each location in Control Resonant adds layers of complexity and obscurity that make that simple-sounding task more difficult, before a final test that's a genuine brain-melter. Below I'll take you through all of them individually, so you know what to do.

Perimeter Station Power Lines puzzle solution

The Perimeter Power station is likely to be the first place that you experience this puzzle, and it's certainly the most straightforward version, making it a good place to start.

The challenge here is that you need to place all three Calibration Units (the little devices you can pick up and carry) inside the square areas marked with yellow tape. Specifically, you need to place two of them in squares as far away from the Device as possible, and one of them as close as possible, as explained by the scrawled note near the Device itself. We'll explain how to do that below.

1. On the platform, head South and look behind the half-formed wall of Mold to see one Calibration Unit. Bring it out into the open for easy use.

2. Go up the platform stairs to the North to find a dead end blocked by Mold, a marked yellow square and a second Calibration Unit.
3. Go up the platform stairs to the South (the way you entered) to find a Power Core with Charge in it keeping a store door open. Take the charge down to the platform and along the tracks to the North to find another Power Core. Power it up to open a door with the third Calibration Unit.
4. Now you have all three units, you need to place them. Firstly, take the charge back upstairs and open the Store door with a yellow tape trail leading to it. Place the Unit inside the marked square there.

5. Take the second unit and place it up the North stairs at the dead end, as marked in step 2.
6. Finally, there's a square right next to the Device, on the platform. Place the final Unit there and trigger the Tuning Device to complete the puzzle.

East Park Station Power Lines puzzle solution

Here the goal is more straightforward, to put a Calibration Unit on every one of the three marked yellow squares on the platform, and then trigger the device. However, incomplete placements have a habit of teleporting people who trigger the device to different locations, which is both useful and frustrating, depending on how you use it.

1. Upstairs from the Platform, get the Calibration Unit in the North store and bring it to the platform for easy access.
2. On the platform, shatter the Mold clumps blocking off the marked areas with some basic melee attacks.
3. A second Calibration Unit is simply waiting on the platform's South side.
4. Take the two Calibration Units and place one each in the North and South marked squares, by the staircases.

5. Trigger the Tuning Device to be teleported into a closed store with a third Calibration Unit. You can open the door from the inside by hitting the electrical panel.
6. Take the third Unit downstairs and place it on the final unoccupied marked square. Press the Tuning Device to finish this and activate the Power Lines in the East Park Station.

Factory Station Power Lines puzzle solution

The final Power Lines puzzle starts off very simple, but is by far the most complex of all three, as events conspire to actually teleport you out of the universe once it's done and extend things. First of all though, you need place three Calibration Units in a straight line.

1. Go around and behind the North platform stairs to find the first Calibration Unit, and take it to the platform.
2. For the second Calibration Unit, head back upstairs to find it inside an open storefront ahead of you.
3. The third Calibration Unit is on top of the train's roof on the West track.
4. With all three units, you need to place them in a line - two between the benches on the track, and one next to the stairs. You can use the image below for reference.
5. Activate the Tuning Device to complete this puzzle and move onto the next phase.

Reroute the Vanished Station puzzle solution

Having completed the last station, you'll be teleported to a new area (and a new station) outside of reality. After fighting some Mold enemies and speaking with some survivors via a payphone, you'll have to use another Tuning Device to reconnect with Manhattan and return the station outside of its pocket dimension.

There are several things to note here: firstly, there are two Tuning Devices on two different platforms (the A and B platforms), and triggering the Devices causes you to teleport between them both. Secondly, there are four Calibration Units total, and you'll need all of them. Thirdly, there are clumps of Mold that have two unique properties: they grow when exposed to light, and they conduct electricity. That means that if you shine a spotlight on an area, it can cause the Mold to grow, and that Mold can be used to link broken electrical cables and conduct the charge between them. However, it can also obstruct things, depending on where it's growing, and you can't get rid of it while light is shining on it - it grows back too fast.

With all that in mind, here's the solution to reroute the Vanished Station:

1. Trigger the Tuning Device to be teleported to platform B. Head up the stairs and break the electrical box to open the gate and link the two platforms without the need to teleport.

2. Head upstairs and take the charge from the Power Core linked to the spotlight focused on the Mold. Smash the Mold clump to raise another gate and meet the survivors. There's also two Calibration Units with them, which you'll need. Place them on Platform A for easy use.
3. Move the electrical Charge on the Power Core from outside their hideout to the one just further West to open a shop door and get a third Calibration Unit to put on Platform B.
4. Finally, grab that Charge from the Shop and take it to Platform A's Power Core. This will open the gate up the Northern Staircase, letting you get the Fourth Calibration Unit. Now you have all four, put two on each platform to save a tedious commute.
5. On Platform A, place one Calibration Unit in each of the two marked squares. If the floodlight is causing Mold to grow in one of the squares, move the Charge back to the Survivors' Power Core upstairs to shut down the light.

6. On Platform B, use an electrical charge to get all the Mold to grow everywhere it can, then move the Charge back upstairs to shut everything down, or just keep it in your weapon if you move fast.
7. Destroy all Mold on Platform B except for those clumps that are linking the wires.
8. Place the two Calibration Units on the now-exposed marked yellow squares of Platform B, then rush to the Tuning Device and pull the lever.

At this point some Mold enemies will teleport in for you to defeat, but now all you need to do is head upstairs and talk to Dr. Florez to round everything off and complete the Power Lines quest. You'll even get one of the valuable Control Resonant Living Shards, which are used to unlock new weapons!

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Konami has celebrated Castlevania's 40th anniversary with a video covering the series' history that some believe is teasing a collection of the 3D entries.

We're finally getting a brand new mainline Castlevania game for the first time in 12 years with Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, set to release on October 15. But unlike Metal Gear and Silent Hill which were just gone during Konami's hiatus from making games, Castlevania was still pretty present. Not only was there the massively popular anime series, but over the years, almost every mainline entry in the series got a re-release as part of its many collections.

The exceptions, however, have been the 3D games in the series. The N64's Castlevania and Legacy of Darkness, the PS2's Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness, and the Lords of Shadow trilogy have all remained bound to their original platforms. However, Konami might be teasing a return for some of them, fans speculate.

At the end of a video celebrating the series 40th Anniversary, Simon Belmont walks the halls of Dracula's castle, with the series first protagonists walking past four portraits before arriving at his surprise party. These portraits show artwork from Belmont's Curse, Lament of Innocence, Curse of Darkness, and the first Lords of Shadow (the best one, and only Castlevania produced by Hideo Kojima at that). Naturally, this has led to speculation (thanks, Time Extension) that these games will have a collection of their own following the release of Belmont's Curse.

While not as beloved as say, Symphony of the Night or Aria of Sorrow, the 3D Castlevania games definitely have their fans – especially Curse of Darkness which introduces one of the series most-beloved characters, Hector. However, outside of the excitement, some can't help but notice that Castlevania 64, Legacy of Darkness, and Lords of Shadow 2 are missing from the lineup. It could just be a case of Konami choosing to highlight the three favorites, but there's a chance this lineup could be incomplete.

That is, if it is a teaser at all, as it could just be a way to represent these games in the party finale of the video, given that they don't have 2D sprites.

A Castlevania: Belmont's Curse demo kicks off the Halloween season in October, with save data transferring to the full game.

Control Resonant codes can be used to get exclusive fresh looks for Dylan, by unlocking cosmetic items that you wouldn't otherwise be able to get through progress in the game. While these outfits aren't going to do anything to help you in your battle against the Hiss, it's always nice to get something for free, right? To find out more, here are the current redeem codes in Control Resonant and how to use them.

All Control Resonant codes

The following Control Resonant codes can be redeemed now:

• EV172-LN211-PL279 – MIO Specialist's Robe
• [unique Control newsletter code] – Communications Department Headset, Optical Filtering Goggles

The current redeem code for Control Resonant can be used to unlock the MIO Specialist's Robe cosmetic, which appears as a Top Layer item when customizing your appearance. The in-game description says this is "A robe left by a Specialist from the Ministry of Immaterial Objectives; a Chinese Government Entity dedicated to protecting public order through the discovery and containment of Paranatural Phenomena."

You can also receive a unique Control Resonant code via email for the Communications Department Headset and Optical Filtering Goggles by signing up for the newsletter using the link above, plus there is a Twitch Drops campaign running until October 13 where you can unlock the Sierra Suit, Sierra Vest, and Sierra Helmet for watching participating Control Resonant streams for a total of four hours.

How to redeem Control Resonant codes

To redeem codes in Control Resonant, open the Options menu from the main menu or in-game and then make sure you're on the Gameplay tab, before scrolling down to find the Enter Redeem Code button. Hit that to bring up a text box, then enter your 15-digit promo to claim your reward.

Expired Control Resonant codes

• No expired codes

At the time of writing there are no expired Control Resonant codes, though this isn't surprising as the game has only recently launched. As always, grab any active promos you see as soon as you can to avoid missing any rewards.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Remedy has released a new patch for Control Resonant to address some early criticism for the game, which is good news if you don't mind downloading the entire game again on Steam.

Control Resonant review scores have been generally positive, but there were a number of criticisms that came up frequently in reviews, with those being the focus of discussion ahead of its launch today. One such thing is the strength of protagonist Dylan, or just the general health of enemies making things feel a bit drawn out at first.

Thankfully, Remedy has taken this on board for a patch released today alongside the launch, and addressed the criticism. In the patch notes, Remedy acknowledges "Dylan's overall combat strength early on in the game not feeling powerful enough (even if the man just woke up from a coma)." The developer says that with its new combat balancing, "We strongly believe these changes will improve the gameplay feel and flow while still providing a challenge."

These changes include reducing the base health and how long it takes to stun most enemies, including the Dancer and Deserter boss fights, with the maximum Aberrant and Ability strengths also being buffed. These are the patch's major focus, but Remedy is also making respeccing easier by increasing the stock of the "Reset Items" across the game's vendors, as well as some updates to the game's UI.

Unfortunately, PC players who had pre-loaded the game on Steam discovered that they were unfortunately then forced to download the entire 92 GB game again, with this patch releasing one hour before the game's launch. Remedy addresses this on Twitter, saying: "This triggered certain platform mechanisms on PC, forcing players who had already downloaded the game to download it again, thereby causing you unnecessary inconvenience.

"This was an oversight on our part. We don't have an excuse, we would only like to sincerely apologise to everyone affected. We will learn from this experience and strive to prevent similar issues in the future."

It's a pain, but if it results in a better game experience, hopefully the extra wait for some is worth it.

Control Resonant Metacritic score places it higher than its predecessor, but it can't touch 2026's top 20 bangers like Resident Evil Requiem and Pokemon Pokopia.

Wondering what to do first in Control Resonant and where to go? The game puts you on rails until you defeat the Artist and make it to Central and meet Zoe in the Watchtower for the first time, but after that point you're given multiple quests and side quests to take on. Below I'll lay out the best order of things to do first after beating the Artist and starting Control Resonant properly, so you're not struggling to find a foothold against the Hiss.

What should you do first in Control Resonant?

After speaking to Zoe in the Watchtower and passing through the underground tunnel into Central, here's the best order to take the quests and side quests that Control Resonant gives you.

1. Welcome to Manhattan. After leaving the tunnel, you'll be given an indicator to obtain one of the Control Resonant Clearance Keycards. Grab that before doing anything else, as it'll introduce you to the main FBC Field Office, a useful hub zone. You should also trigger the Fast Travel Door that's here.
2. Central World Feats. At this point I recommend you explore Central and do some of the appearing World Feats that appear, as you'll want to level up a little before moving on.
3. Jesse Sighting: West Incursion Zone. Head to the West Incursion Zone and West from the House of Mirrors hub area to find a Fault in the Parking Garage. This'll give you the power to use Gravity Anomalies, one of the most useful Abilities and powers in Control Resonant.
4. West Incursion Zone Resonant. Afterwards, progress to the North section of the West Incursion Zone to the Theater Hall to battle the Dancer, another Resonant.
5. Jesse Sighting: Evacuation Zone. Afterwards, head to the Evacuation Zone and head North to the Dense Patterning to experience another Fault, that will give you the Reach power.
6. Main Story: Evacuation Procedures. Still in the same area, head to the Evac Building to meet with Arish and continue the main plot.
7. Central Resonant. Back in the Central Zone, head to the Patterned Factory in Control Resonant to fight the boss within, the Deserter, and gain your choice of fire powers.
8. The Park Resonant. Finally, head to The Park in the Northeast of Central to encounter an area overrun by Mold. A quest triggers in the centre marked "new Mold Strains?" that leads you eventually to an encounter with a boss called The Collective.

You should absolutely feel free to do other quests and side activities along the way, as otherwise you risk becoming underpowered, but the advantage of the general order presented above is that it's escalating difficulty, with some advantages gained by doing it in this order. For example, the Factory Central Resonant gives Dylan pyrokinetic abilities, which are extra effective against the Mold enemies which appear at The Park.

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As we enter RPG Club's third week in The Blood of Dawnwalker, allow me to refresh your memory. After learning to fight in Duelist mode in the first week, followed by a second week where we killed our first ruling vampire, we're now ramping up our fight against Brencis. With our 30-day deadline to save Coen's family fast-closing, there's a lot that still needs to be done – so this week I'm sinking my fangs into the main story proper, chasing every lead that will give me the upper-hand come next week's confrontation.

When we left off in part two, we'd just killed Ambrus, the youngest undead in Brencis' court, and agreed to harbor a piece of his soul in Coen to prevent him from being consumed by an evil presence outside our realm. I'm still not entirely clear on what that presence is, but it seems to be a corruption that feeds on anyone who deals with its power; be it vampires, witches, or (in Coen's case) both. It's likely going to be a problem: per the rules of RPG Club I've seized every opportunity to further Coen's vampirism, so if there are consequences for doing so, I'm all but guaranteed to see them.

Quest Log

The one where Isbrand goes to vampire hell

Our first port of call for the week is Lacra, our new vampire ally. We saved Brencis' sire, Isbrand, but two years of having his flesh eaten by kobolds means he's not much use – so instead we take the night to search through his memories. In snatches we see Brencis, then a mortal Roman soldier, turned by Isbrand in Teutoburg Forest. The freshly-undead Brencis then attempts a grisly reunion with his wife, despite Isbrand's warnings, and she sets herself on fire rather than join him in undeath.

Brencis' story is fascinating, though I'm falling out of love with The Blood of Dawnwalker's combat. This quest is fight-heavy, filled with spectral enemies I've killed many times before, and the repetition turns directional combat into paint-by-numbers. The upshot is a recently-acquired ability that lets me pop creatures from the inside-out using their blood, killing even ghosts (who are presumably just happy to play along) in a single satisfying hit.

We eventually meet Isbrand's spirit as we did Ambrus in part two, shifting hazily in crimson fog. Lacra has a bitter relationship with Isbrand, refusing to invite his soul in, and although I have the choice to offer myself, it doesn't really feel like my place to weigh in. Still, I'm surprised by how quickly Lacra moves on. We return to the real world, where I realize my awkward silence has condemned Isbrand to otherworldly hell.

Moving swiftly on

Isbrand's demise reminds me that we have unfinished business with another old vampire. Specifically, St Mihai – the gnarly Dawnwalker we killed last week. He left us with a broken sword hilt, and while a capable smith proves easy to find, the blade's shards are scattered in kobold nests across Vale Sangora. While zig-zagging to collect them I do everything in my power to enrage Brencis' surviving court members, Bakir and Xanthe, by smashing distilleries and disrupting recruitment efforts.

I also follow a lead on the gruesome golems we encountered last week. Working with the rebels points to a tower in the south of Vale Sangora, where I find an old tome used to create Brencis' monsters. Climbing the tower traps Coen in a Groundhog Day-style loop, imagining a day back home with his family, and requires digging into his deepest trauma – the untimely death of Coen's youngest brother – to escape. My colleague Jasmine wrote this excellent feature on Home Sweet Home, so I'm not going to go into too much more detail, but consider this an essential side quest if you're playing along with us.

Before handing in the book, I detour to a rural village where rebel leader Crake would like me to spy on someone without being seen. Still thinking about Home Sweet Home, I fumble the stealth and blow Coen's cover. When I return to Svatrau, Crake is furious, storming off before I can hand him the pilfered tome. His second-in-command offers to tell me where he's gone to cool off, but I misread the room (I thought he wanted to be left alone!) and in no uncertain terms I'm told not to count on Crake when it comes to fighting Brencis. Reloading is banned in this playthrough, so we'll just have to make do without the rebels' help going forward – though it does mean I'm left with the cursed book in my inventory.

I handle the break-up as anyone would – by reforging the rest of St. Mihai's sword and anointing the blade in an orb of floating blood. But just as I fall for my big goth Master Sword, it's taken away. One of Bakir's lackeys approaches with an opportunity to kill the vampire, offering to help Coen infiltrate one of his master's nocturnal 'games' – where all outside weapons and gear are banned. After losing the rebels, striking at Brencis' court seems prudent – so away we go.

Bakir's blood sport involves masked contestants racing through winding ruins by moonlight, fighting hellhounds, the undead, and each other, to reach a silver coin hidden in the center. Coen is competing in 14th century Fortnite incognito, which means there's no using vampiric powers – y'know, everything I've built into – lest Bakir clocks Coen.

I commit to the pretense, even cutting the silver coin out from a living contestant's stomach when asked, only to fumble the whole charade when Bakir asks me to take my mask off. I oblige, though in hindsight I'm not sure what I thought would happen – of course Bakir recognizes Coen immediately. Reloading my save is against RPG Club rules, so I'm thrown into a two-stage fight against Bakir's allies and the main vampire himself.

It's the hardest boss fight yet: Bakir alternates between powerful blood magic and good old-fashioned brawling, with a special attack that kills me in one shot if it lands. It does (often) and there is no checkpoint between stages, so each time Bakir punches Coen to smithereens, I have to fight his henchmen before getting to the main boss fight. But it only delays the inevitable – Bakir folds under Coen's claws, but unlike Ambrus, his spirit goes willingly into hell. Different strokes, eh?

Two for two

Xanthe is the last vampire standing between Coen and Brencis. An opportunity to take her out presents itself when two of Brencis' soldiers accost Coen on the road – not to try and kill him, for a change, but to ask for help. Young women have been disappearing in Xanthe's domain, as have the men they've sent to investigate. They offer a lantern that grants access to Xanthe's mansion, which I'm happy to take in exchange for finding the missing girls.

I find the girls inside Xanthe's hilltop abode. Rather, bits of them – their arms and legs piled in bloody pyramids, the rest unidentifiable gore in a hellhound's kennel. Xanthe appears shortly afterward, but the ensuing boss fight is far shorter than Ambrus or Bakir's as she's a rather squishy caster. I cling to her with shadow-step, chaining claw-swipes with vampire abilities until Xanthe calls for a parlay. Spare her, she says, and the sorceress will be on our side when it's time to fight Brencis. I'm tempted to drain her anyway, but now having almost every vampire ability now unlocked, it seems more effective to team up on the condition that her killings stop.

With only Brencis left to defeat, there are just two things left to handle. Lacra has one more lead to gain a leg-up over Brencis, while a mysterious letter from beyond Vale Sangora offers help in the form of powerful armor – provided I source the rare materials to make it.

My plan for next week is to meet Lacra, snag the armor, and head straight to Greifberg Castle. The less I risk screwing up, the better: I've fumbled a lot this week, and don't know how losing the rebels' help is going to affect us. But we have a sick sword, two vampire allies (plus a third's ghost), and a monstrously evolved Coen on our side. What could possibly go wrong?

Clearance in Control Resonant is broken up by different levels, each of which requires an associated keycard. Some levels of Clearance are accessible as part of the main story, while others are found as part of optional side quests in which different levels of clearance are required to progress. The reality is that you probably encountered several doors that require clearance that you don't have during the tutorial where you escape from the Oldest House, but while you couldn't open them the first time around, you can come back later with the keycards and see what you find beyond.

How to get all Clearance Keycards in Control Resonant

There are 5 Clearance Keycards players can obtain in Control Resonant, all of which open different doors in different locations.

• Level 1 Keycard. Given to you inside the Central Field Office as part of "The West Incursion Zone Resonant" story quest. This quest should be given to you automatically after speaking to Zoe in the Watchtower for the first time in Control Resonant.
• Level 2 Keycard. Given to you by Arish in the Evacuation Zone Evac Building as part of the "Evacuation Procedures" main story quest.
• Level 6 Keycard. After completing the main story, speak to Zoe in the Watchtower to get the "New Growth" side quest. Follow that quest until you're told to "Investigate Underhill's Last Known Location", at which point you'll be directed to a research station in The Park that includes the Level 6 Clearance Keycard.
• Mobile Research Station Keycard. After discovering a body in a garage West of the Central Field Office, it'll give you the "Crossing the Threshold" quest. This will direct you eventually to the Central Dig Site Threshold. Investigate the body in the marked yellow square to take the Keycard off his body.
• Oldest House Storage room Keycard (SR). Obtained during "The Complete Set" side quest, which is started at the Museum of Curiosities in the West Incursion Zone. After that, follow the quest until the SR Keycard is given to you by Langston next to the Panopticon as part of the mission.

Can you open Clearance level 18 doors in Control Resonant?

Across Control Resonant you'll occasionally encounter doors with a Clearance Level 18 requirement. However, at no point in the game is Dylan given a Keycard that allows him to open these doors. On the occasion that one is opened, it's always done so by an NPC who has their own clearance, and it seems as though some doors with Level 18 are never opened at all.

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Instant Photos in Control Resonant are tied to a special Camera that appears in different locations throughout the map, all broadly part of an ongoing side quest called Freeze Frame that lasts even past the main credits of the game. Each zone in the game has two instant photos that you have to reverse engineer the location of to find the special AWE camera, which itself needs to be rounded up carefully, as approaching it from the front causes it to freeze you in place temporarily and then make itself disappear.

That means each camera location is broken into three steps: find the instant photo, track down the camera's position, and then work out how to approach it from behind without setting it off. Effectively you have to do a stealth takedown on the camera, which is sometimes a little puzzle you need to solve in the process. Below, I'll explain everything you need to know, including the locations of the photos, the cameras, and how to sneak up behind them.

For more collectibles around Manhattan, find out how to discover all the different Control Resonant Taxi locations and the many Mysterious Dog locations, as well as how to solve the puzzles associated with each one!

Full map of Camera and Instant Photo locations in Control Resonant

Control Resonant has 14 Instant Photos to decipher locations for, broken up into two locations per zone/region in the game, as well as the seven more locations to find the photos in question. You can use the map below to find out the locations of both the photos themselves (blue), and the hidden camera locations (orange).

1. Instant Photos (Downtown). Inside the entrance to the Oldest House, on a table near the whiteboards.
2. Camera location (Downtown). In an upside-down building in the East corner of the Dense Patterning.
3. Camera location (Downtown). Inside a portable FBC office with a glass wall that needs to have its Power Core charged to open it.
4. Instant Photos (Central). Inside the large FBC main field office, on the tables in the same room as the Outfit Wardrobe.
5. Camera location (Central). Inside the Watchtower, accessed via the room beneath Zoe's office.
6. Camera location (Central). On the warehouse roof, looking out of the doors.
7. Instant Photos (Evacuation Zone) Inside one of the raised portable FBC offices in front of the Evac Building.
8. Camera location (Evacuation Zone). On a rooftop South of the Sinkhole, inside a small structure with a power core behind it.
9. Camera location (Evacuation Zone). On top of an apartment building behind a billboard, South of the Railyard Street Station, next to a giant wall of Mold that blocks off the street.
10. Instant Photos (West Incursion Zone). Inside the House of Mirrors FBC base, resting on a counter.
11. Camera location (West Incursion Zone). Up on the gravity-anomaly wall at the North corner of the region.
12. Camera location (West Incursion Zone). On one of two window-cleaning platforms attached to a building down the road from the Museum of Curiosities.
13. Instant Photos (The Park). At the FBC base inside a room you can smash through the roof of, to drop down into.
14. Camera location (The Park). Outside the South entrance to the Sewers, behind you as you leave, up on a window-cleaning platform.
15. Camera location (The Park). Inside the Nomad Avenue Station. After you come down the stairs from street level, it's on the right.
16. Instant Photos (Underpass). Found at the Spire, on the tables under the covered tents.
17. Camera location (Underpass). On the island East of the Underpass Vendor.
18. Camera location (Underpass). At the unnamed island south of Tubes Island, on the East side.
19. Instant Photos (Unknown). After reaching Unknown, progress through the story until you unlock the region's Resonant, part of a mission at the Field Office island to the North. Follow the mission until you reach the room with the Fast Travel Door for the "Patterned Field Office". The photos are in the same room, resting on the map table.
20. Camera location (Unknown). In the Mold-covered construction building, looking out through a hole in the fungus.
21. Camera location (Unknown). Inside the "Wear 'Em and Wash 'Em" laundromat, at street level, looking out of the entrance.

We noticed that any photos that you didn't pick up can spawn in Dylan's apartment after the main story of Control Resonant is completed. You can also look back at any photos you've collected in your inventory in the "Key Items" section.

How to solve the Camera puzzles in Control Resonant

The AWE Camera and Freeze Frame quest in Control Resonant is a recurring puzzle that works in several stages:

1. Locate the Instant Photos in a zone, then study the image to work out where they were taken from.
2. Go to that location to find the Camera. However, it will freeze you and disappear if it sees you.
3. You need to work out a way to get behind it and interact with it to close the Camera Lid. Doing so completes the puzzle.

The precise method needed to perform what is effectively a contextual stealth kill on the camera will vary depending on where you encounter it, but usually involves studying the environment and landscape around it to find some path where it won't see you.

Downtown

1. Instant Photos. On returning to the Oldest House via the broken wall, once the FBC have retaken it, you'll find the photos on a table inside that first room once you enter through the broken hole you first left through.
2. Camera location. In an upside-down building in the East corner of the Dense Patterning, looking through a door. To get at it, approach the building from behind and stick to the roof with gravity anomalies, then use a heavy attack to smash open the hatch on the roof to drop down into the same room behind it.
3. Camera location. Inside a portable FBC office near the Chasm. Get a charge from the Power Core Station in the Deserted Area to the North, and bring it back to open the doors behind the Camera. There is a deactivated Core Station on the rooftops between them that you can use to transfer the charge before it fades.

Central

4. Instant Photos. Inside the FBC main field office, on the tables in the same room as the Outfit Wardrobe.
5. Camera location. Inside the Watchtower, on the floor below Zoe's office. Head to the Underground Supply Route to go to the room beneath her and drop through the hole in the floor, then come up again on the East side to find the camera. To get it, follow the path around to understand how it loops, then jump up from that initial ascent past the Camera's level so you're above it. This will allow you to drop down behind it.
6. Camera location. On the warehouse roof, looking out of the doors. Let it freeze you, then head into the Warehouse and kill the Hiss inside to open up the building properly. Then reverse your steps to sneak up behind the Camera.

Evacuation Zone

7. Instant Photos. Inside one of the raised portable FBC offices in front of the Evac Building.
8. Camera location. On a rooftop directly South from the Sinkhole at the edge of the region. The camera is looking out through the door of a small rooftop building, and you need to get a Charge to activate a Power Core that'll open the door behind it. There's a Power Core Station down the road at the Evac Building, with an empty Power Core halfway at the checkpoint barricade for you to transfer the energy and reset the timer, and again just past the Parking Lot besides the exterior elevators.
9. Camera location. On a rooftop besides the street blocked off by a huge Mold wall, beside a billboard advertising Florida holidays. Let the camera freeze you, then enter the building and use the elevator inside to go to ground level. Open the building doors from inside, then retrace all your steps to surprise the camera from behind.

West Incursion Zone

10. Instant Photos. Inside the House of Mirrors FBC base, resting on a counter.
11. Camera location. Up on the gravity-anomaly wall at the North corner of the region. Once aligned in the same direction, use the raised rooftop it's backed against to drop down behind it.
12. Camera location. On one of two window-cleaning platforms attached to a building down the road from the Museum of Curiosities. Use the floating platforms made of bollards and road barriers further down the street to leap up to the camera from behind.

The Park

13. Instant Photos. At the FBC base inside a room you can smash through the roof of, to drop down into.
14. Camera location. Outside the South entrance to the Sewers, behind you as you leave, up on a window-cleaning platform. Power up the exterior elevator to the West with a charge from the FBC Base street section, then use that raised platform to jump across the window cleaning platforms to the Camera.
15. Camera location. Inside the Nomad Avenue Station. After you come down the stairs from street level, it's on the right in a Mold-filled hallway. Head down the stairs further to the main platform and come up the other side, where you'll find a door you need to burn through. Follow that path around back behind the Camera.

Underpass

16. Instant Photos. Found at the Spire, on the tables under the covered tents, near the Fast Travel Door.
17. Camera location. On the island East of the Underpass Vendor. Drop down onto the stepping stones under the island itself so you go beneath the camera without setting it off, then adhere to the ceiling and kill the Hiss blocking the hole upwards (or downwards, depending). Go through the hole, and this should bring you behind the camera.
18. Camera location. At the unnamed island South of Tubes Island, on the East side. Go to the West side of the island and invert your gravity so that you're standing on the wall, and there'll be a hole you can drop down. With your gravity changed, a little bit of careful accuracy means you can "fall" down the hole sideways across to the other side of the island and land behind the camera.

Unknown

19. Instant Photos. After reaching Unknown, progress through the story until you unlock the region's Resonant, part of a mission at the Field Office island to the North. Follow the mission until you reach the room with the Fast Travel Door for the "Patterned Field Office". The photos are in the same room, resting on the map table.
20. Camera location. In the Mold-covered construction building, looking out through a hole in the fungus. To get at it, enter the building via the floor above and drop down into a room full of Mold enemies. Kill them to get the barriers down, which will allow you to access the camera from behind.
21. Camera location. Inside the "Wear 'Em and Wash 'Em" laundromat, at street level, looking out of the entrance. To find it, let the camera freeze you and go through the Laundromat then through the back door, and hit a panel to open up the garage door beyond. Go back around so that the camera respawns, then use the back entrance you just opened to sneak up on it.

How to capture the Camera and complete the Freeze Frame quest

With all photos located, you'll get a message from Zoe telling you that the Camera has been seen Downtown. Head to the marked location at the "Lookout Point", and now you'll see lines of Cameras that you need to sneak up behind. They appear in different locations in that Field Office complex in the ordered sequence below, though keep in mind that if you get caught, this sequence goes back by 1. So if you screw up catching them at position 3 and get caught, the cameras move to position 2.

1. East side of the FBC office (marked area), looking in the East gateway. Easy enough, just enter the office through this gate and shut the lid as normal.
2. On the rooftops overlooking the office to the North, next to the box with the Health Point inside. Approach that building from the back so that they don't see you, then drop behind them.
3. On top of one of the FBC offices buildings in the South section. Leap onto the rooftops South of the complex and jump over the barrier wall so you can land behind them.
4. North side of the complex, both on the offices and at ground level. Simply enter through the Northern gate to jump them.
5. On top of the Southwest corner wall. Like in Step 3, simply use the rooftops to jump up from the South side.
6. On the exterior elevator on the Northwest corner of the office. Drop down from the North rooftops again to catch them.
7. In the middle of the office complex, looking at the frozen workers. It's just one this time. Walk up behind it to end this quest for good.

Freeze Frame quest rewards

For completing this quest, you'll get an untapped Artifact called the "Shiny Pebble", which slowly restores your health up to 50% while you're using a Gravity Anomaly. Each camera you individually locate will also increase the Zone Level of the area you found it in.

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The success of Diablo 2 Resurrected proves there is hunger for updated versions of Blizzard's original genre-defining ARPGs, and the next remake should be 1996's Diablo. It's one of my favorite games ever and probably the most formative to my career in games. It's aged incredibly well for a 30-year-old game, or at least I thought it did until I saw parts of it beautifully reimagined in Diablo 4's latest update, Season of Hell's Legacy.

In case you missed it, which is understandable in the wake of Diablo 5's surprise announcement at BlizzCon 2026, Diablo 4's 15th season is one giant trip down memory lane for longtime fans of the series. Diablo himself, the Lord of Darkness, is one of the main highlights, but he joins other returning baddies like Mephisto and Baal, not to mention friendlier faces like Deckard Cain, who acts as your guide through the seasonal questline.

Waking Nightmares are the big highlights of the new season. Aptly timed to coincide with Diablo's 30th anniversary this year, these seasonal dungeons take you through iconic moments and boss battles from the series' history, with my favorite being an almost complete recreation of Diablo 1's main mission, all the way from Tristram Cathedral, down to the catacombs, the caves, and then into Hell itself to face off against the Dark Lord himself.

New Tristram

I can't think of a game more consequential to my love of gaming than OG Diablo, so this dungeon was super special for me. But when I found out you can actually return to a fully recreated version of Old Tristram, complete with the same landmarks and NPCs featuring original voice lines from the first Diablo, I knew I had to explore my old stomping grounds. Tristram – that music, those characters, they're like my virtual home. Diablo is the first game I ever became obsessed with as a kid, and I would spend hours chatting with strangers in Tristram, unknowingly forming friendships that would endure decades. Going back was intense, but more than anything it made me want a full-blown Diablo remake.

There are still three long years to go until we get to play Diablo 5, and that's assuming there won't be any delays. Diablo 4 is great, especially this new season, but three years is a long time, and we need something to do in the meantime. A full-fat remake of Diablo, not a remaster like Diablo 2: Resurrected, would not only give ARPG fans more demons to click to death while they wait for Diablo 5, but it would also give newer fans of the series, who might've started with Diablo 4, or Diablo 3, or even Diablo 2, a reason to go back and experience the very beginning of the whole saga, which could provide key context or at the very least a narrative foundation for Diablo 5.

Diablo 1 is also just a sick game with a great story and ridiculously vibey world that I think everyone should experience at least once. But with 1996 visuals and designs being what they are, I understand why someone under, say, 30, might bristle at the idea of sitting down for a full playthrough of a game that old. I would certainly accept a touched-up remaster with gratitude, but a ground-up remake would be a much stronger draw for people who've never played the game.

Blizzard missed a big opportunity to announce something like this during the series' 30th anniversary celebrations at BlizzCon 2026 – I suppose it was a little preoccupied – but it's not too late! Getting it into players' hands before Diablo 5 would be ideal, but even outside the context of a new game that's shaping up to bring the whole series full-circle, a Diablo remake just makes sense. It's a super old, equally beloved game that hasn't been updated meaningfully in 30 years. Diablo 4's bite-sized recreations are nostalgic treats, but they're mere teases of what's possible in a proper remake.

Check out all the best Diablo games to play while we wait for D5!

The makers of Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero are taking a different route for upcoming action game Nodusfall, going for a more of a downtrodden, Elden Ring vibe. Although it seems grim and scary, HoYoverse states the adventure isn't meant to be impenetrably hard.

The studio takes to Twitter to answer a few frequently asked questions of the upcoming release. "We don't want difficulty to be a barrier for players entering Nodusfall," the post reads.

"The game is designed to be accessible even for players who are new to this type of action gameplay," it continues, "while still maintaining a high ceiling in terms of controls, coordination, and builds, giving players who love a challenge plenty of room to dive deeper."

The line about people who're unfamiliar with the trappings of challenging action games is important here, because there are inevitably going to be converts. Zenless Zone Zero, Genshin Impact, and Honkai: Star Rail each have massive communities, a portion of which will very likely hop into Nodusfall to check it out.

Going for the complete FromSoftware experience and putting everyone through an absolute gauntlet in the first hour probably won't do much for player retention. We don't need everyone to sit through HoYoverse's version of the Undead Burg, inching forward bit by bit.

The use of the term "accessible" suggests there'll be a number of settings people can tinker with to make the experience comfortable to themselves. Such options are always welcome, and that's coming from someone who loves a good gauntlet.

Further details on Nodusfall are limited, but we know it's a co-op focused game that sits somewhere between FromSoft's output and Monster Hunter, since the overall goal is to take down gigantic beasts roaming the land. Done well, it could be very captivating – though I suspect many of us will be dying plenty of times regardless.

Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki was always "fascinated" by the "weird" executives of other companies: "I use some of them as enemy characters in our games."

Hero x Hero codes will provide you with a helping hand if you're trying out this VR experience in Early Access, as it can be tough stepping into the virtual shoes of a Super Hero. As you smash your way across the city fighting demon mobs and huge bosses, you'll unlock fresh abilities as you become more powerful and gather unique Hero Souls so you can transform into different characters. To get the lowdown on this, here are the current Hero x Hero VR gift codes and how to redeem them.

All Hero x Hero codes

The following Hero x Hero VR gift codes can be claimed now:

• 361821 – 300x Chips

Hero x Hero codes most often provide Chips, which can be used to power up your Super Hero, as well as cosmetic items to change your appearance. They usually are only valid for a week or even just a few days, so you'll want to check back here regularly for the latest promo additions.

How to redeem Hero x Hero codes

To redeem gift codes in Hero x Hero VR, you just need to launch the game on your device and then head to the code keypad. Use the number buttons to type in a promo, then hit the CLAIM GIFT button next to them to receive your reward.

Expired Hero x Hero codes

• 150000 – Imp x Imp Suit
• 26353 – 300x Chips
• 12012 – 120x Chips
• 98660 – 100K Glasses Cosmetic
• 33912 – 1,000x Chips
• 43064 – Level 2 Prize
• 15580 – 1,000x Chips
• 90674 – Level 1 CC Armband
• 80085 – CC Prize
• 82918 – Level 2 CC Armband
• 34249 – Creator Hero

There are a fair number of expired Hero x Hero VR gift codes, which goes to show that promos don't stick around for long before they stop working. Make sure you've claimed any active codes we've listed earlier, so you don't lose out on their rewards.

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Needless to say, things could've gone better for Monster Hunter Wilds on PC. The hit game suffered a plethora of performance problems and other issues, leading to a decidedly mixed reception on Steam. Ahead of new expansion Ascendance, the devs are hoping to learn more about adapting to the platform, compared to the needs of consoles.

"We've been working hard on bringing the lessons learned from the launch of Monster Hunter Wilds to bear on Ascendance," Ryozo Tsujimoto, a producer on the series, tells VGC, "and it just takes a lot of time and research to examine what it is you need to achieve on PC to make the game perform well on a variety of hardware."

Therein lies the difficulty. You need to optimize for a spectrum of potential hardware rather than the particularities of the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch 2. That doesn't necessarily excuse the wide berth of problems players have encountered after buying Monster Hunter Wilds on Steam, especially given we were getting PC-specific patches right up to January of this year, but it does explain the struggle Capcom faced in getting the game right.

"It's just a matter of experience really, so I'm hoping that we can bring those lessons forward into Ascendance," he adds.

This much is correct. The team now has a lot of feedback on how to make sure Wilds runs well regardless of your setup. These days, one year and four months removed from the launch, the Steam reviews sit at Mostly Positive, suggesting the release now runs much smoother than it did back in May of last year.

That alone is a sign of good tidings for Ascendance, which is due to arrive some time next year. We don't yet know everything that'll be in this DLC, but it's expected to be a large addition to the base game. There'll be fresh parts of the map, newer creatures, and all sorts of other bits and bobs for players to enjoy. Should it run well on PC, it should give the community on that platform a second wind. And probably a third, given how many hours the average Monster Hunter fan sinks into these games.

Capcom is finally removing scummy character customization vouchers from Monster Hunter Wilds, players immediately dance on their grave.

Monster Hunter series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto says there's still an appetite at Capcom to make another live-action movie after 2020's Paul W.S. Anderson-directed box office bomb.

"Speaking as producer and also as overall series producer in the past, I'm definitely interested in the idea of revisiting a Monster Hunter movie if the stars align in future," Tsujimoto told Postmode.

But, of course, we need to talk about the Gammoth in the room: 2020's Monster Hunter, to put it mildly, was not a success.

Yes, its low box office (under $50 million) can be partly attributed to a cinematic landscape emerging from the after-effects of COVID-mandated shutdowns, but a 45% score on Rotten Tomatoes and scathing reappraisals in the years since has done nothing to help Monster Hunter's cause. Hot off the heels of Zach Cregger's Resident Evil – an adaptation of another beloved Capcom property – it only holds up worse.

Still, that hasn't deterred Tsujimoto, nor the wider Capcom shot-callers.

"Capcom as a whole, not just Monster Hunter, has said publicly that it's putting real effort into film and visual media," Tsujimoto underlined. "Within that, we're of course very interested in Monster Hunter on screen and want to do it in the future. But it's not something we can do on our own."

There, then, is the rub. Much like Monster Hunter's beastie-thwacking gameplay, it requires a team effort to get the job done. To that end, Tsujimoto seemingly requires a certain set of conditions to be met before trying again.

"It depends on the companies involved, on a director, on timing," Tsujimoto said. "And we'd need to think hard about what we want to depict. The desire is there, but it happens when the timing and those things line up. We want to do it in the future."

Elsewhere, Monster Hunter Wilds is receiving a new expansion, titled Ascendance. It promises new gear, new locations and – of course – new monsters to hunt. It's set for release on PC, Xbox Series X, and PS5 next year.

For more, check out the new PS5 games and upcoming Xbox Series X games in the works, then cast an eye towards the upcoming video game movies that are on the way soon.

If you've been exploring Control Resonant you've probably seen pillars of light that form changing symbols above them as you get close, dotted around the map. The game doesn't explain what these are, though you might be kicking yourself once you find out, as we'll explain here.

The changing symbol pillars in Control Resonant explained

The shifting symbols around Control Resonant are checkpoints / respawn save points that automatically trigger when you get close to them. Before being activated, these pillars simply fire a beam of light into the sky, but when you get close, a changing sequence of symbols appears above them, several of which are associated with saving games or files (such as a retro floppy disc).

Keep in mind that the world state and your progress in the game is saved automatically whether you find these checkpoints or not, it's simply that the pillars log your position within the game. That means that if you're about to go into a dangerous area, or just want to save the game to quit, look around for one of these pillars firing off a beam of light, and walk over to it.

They're generally distributed around the game pretty evenly and frequently, so they shouldn't be too hard to find, especially with how the light tends to stand out and they're usually placed pretty prominently (such as in the middle of streets).

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Combo Finishers in Control Resonant are special unlocks that add additional moves to the end of your standard primary weapon attack combo, and are usually the most powerful moves you can do with your primary Aberrant Form. With six different Combo Finishers to chose between and each of them costing you a Living Shard to purchase, it's understandable to want to make sure that you're getting the best possible one for such a significant cost.

What are the best Combo Finishers in Control Resonant?

Of all the Combo Finishers in Control Resonant, the best two are the Concussive Beatdown (which is good for boss fights) and the Wide Edge (which is good for groups), each of which are well-suited to certain purposes.

The Concussive Beatdown does respectable damage, and, most importantly, rapidly deals large amounts of Falter, so is very useful as a way of setting up tough enemies for executions. It works quickly and is good at allowing players to quickly cancel out of it if they're in danger. As a result, it's well-suited to fighting singular, tough opponents, like bosses or minibosses.

The Wide Edge is the opposite, a single spinning sweep that hits all near opponents and knocks them back. It's very useful for quickly clearing space around you and doing decent damage, which can be very good if you're fighting groups in Control Resonant, especially of weak enemies.

What are Combo Finishers?

Combo Finishers are additions to your existing Primary Weapon combo that add an attack (or several) to the end of that basic combo. When you use your standard primary weapon attack to the end of its three-hit combo (by tapping Square on PS5 controllers and X on Xbox Controllers), the combo finisher adds a new attack on the end, which changes depending on which Finisher you have equipped (though it makes no difference which Control Resonant weapon and Aberrant Form you're using).

You can only have one Combo Finisher equipped at a time, which you choose via the Loadout section of the pause menu. You can choose between all the Combo Finishers that you've purchased, each of which costs one Control Resonant Living Shard to initially buy, and has its own series of upgrades that you can get in the Gap. Of course, if you change your mind, you can always grab a Reset Item and pick out new options.

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I've just slain a dragon by air-parrying it into the ground and impressed my new boss, Liu Bei – Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember's original but familiar take on the Chinese warlord many of us have come to know across years playing Dynasty Warriors. Set in the same period, in the run-up to the Three Kingdoms conflict, this supernatural take on real warfare sees Liu Bei offering to complete the rest of the mission at my side as he directs me to a bridge to tackle the mission's battlefield, which is scoped like a miniature open world of its own. I immediately take off my shirt, grab some nearby nunchuck-like flails, and prepare to unleash a can of demon whup-ass.

Developed by Team Ninja, it'd be easy to see Wo Long as the Chinese history equivalent of Nioh's equally supernatural take on Japanese history – the developer's Dynasty Warriors to their Samurai Warriors. Especially as, just like Nioh 3, Wo Long 2 is a sequel that shrugs off tighter mission design in pursuit of more open action. Yet, while the DNA they share is obvious – from brutal combat to a horde of loot with detailed stats and buffs – Wo Long and Nioh feel incredibly different to play. Even though both these recent entries are more open, the approach they take is very different. Through my hands-on spending a couple of hours in one large mission, I grow to really appreciate and love how Wo Long 2 sets itself apart from all Team Ninja has done before, while still feeling like a natural evolution from the master of action game development.

Demonic warfare

In the mission I get to play, Wo Long 2's open world puts much more emphasis on the feeling that I'm actually fighting through a contested battlefield as I help push Liu Bei's forces toward Cao Cao's fortress by spinning my flails. From enemy camps to a village in danger, and even a fight up to an occupied shrine, conflict is around every corner.

Though there's a Soulslike level-up mechanic, Wo Long 2 sees the return of the first game's morale system that has you gaining additional, mission-specific boosts to both your and your allies' stats. While it's possible to rush headlong into danger and, most likely, get shredded by enemies with morale far higher than yours, canny navigation of conflicts can see you erecting banners, clearing enemy camps, and completing snappy sidequests to increase your faction's hold on the No Man's Land, while reducing enemy morale in turn.

Be slain, and you'll lose accrued morale levels and your unspent experience points in Soulslike fashion, with one chance to reclaim them. However, these battlefield bonuses will remain, each sub-region affecting your overall minimum amount of morale while also raising the cap, pushing momentum in your favor. It goes a long way to taking the sting out of failure to know your forces are holding position.

While some of these control points are obvious (and can be added to the map if you find enemy strategy maps), some are less so, such as routing out hidden supernatural creatures. Along the way, enemy drops and big shiny chests hide more loot that can further push your advantage, though I keep the wrestler armor type active at all times so foes can see my sweat drip as I box their ears with a flail to the face.

In a way, this battlefield structure does nod to the likes of Dynasty Warriors, but I'll flag that these missions are conquerable through methodic play – once you push forward, enemies won't be claiming their morale back. You'll only be risking losing some of your own if you fall but, even then, you can earn more quite easily over a few respawning encounters.

With several routes to my ultimate goal, there's plenty of points of interest along the way and reasons to explore off the beaten track. One diversion has me clearing an enemy camp on the walls of ancient ruins, which allows me to raise a banner to control the battlefield, deploy a commander to it for a further boost, and kick down some ladders to create shortcuts.

Then, I'm able to optionally descend within the ruins to slay supernatural beasts, which both unlocks a path to a massive chest of shiny, multi-colored loot, and allows me to kill a mini-boss beastie which then boosts my army's morale even further. Elsewhere, I can find baby panda creatures that I can feed my unwanted equipment to in exchange for a new accessory of similar rarity before it has a well-earned snooze. Trading a sword I've outgrown for a new belt buckle is very fashion forward, and the kind of upcycling I could use in my real life.

The ancient ruins chunk of map on the other side of the woods can be avoided if I instead worm my way through to another exit, battling up a tower that spirals upward to give alternative access to the enemy fortress, enabling me to outflank the gates and allow more of my army to penetrate within. Fast travel can be used at any time to jump between banners, making it easy to hop around (though not every checkpoint can be used to level-up and deploy allies).

Two weapons can be equipped at a time, making it worthwhile to score those chunky chests. Even though I love the fast-strikes of my nunchuck-style weapons for throwing enemies off balance, I can supplement that with my longer-reaching spear when the situation demands. On top of that, elemental magic can add buffs to my equipment, or simply allow me to hurl fireballs and icicles at enemies to keep the pressure up at distance. Separately, martial arts skills can be dropped using Spirit energy mid-combo to deliver strikes that will batter an enemy's stagger bar, softening them up for delightfully extra finisher moves.

Spirit, is, essentially, Wo Long 2's stamina system, but rather than be a single bar that refills, it's always represented as a push-pull line with neutral being in the middle. Land clean hits, and it'll fill up in your favor with a blue color, but give too much ground and it'll drop in the other direction, turning red and putting you at risk of being staggered. You can even use special abilities to put yourself deep in the red if you're confident enough you can earn the Spirit back without being knocked about – but you have to be careful not to write a check you can't cash.

Big gains can be made to this meter by parrying and deflecting enemy strikes, which repositions you and the enemy as you redirect incoming blades (you can even punt demonic minions like footballs with an ability upgrade) – there's a sense of finesse to some of Wo Long 2's toughest battles that reminds me of the action in Sekiro. Though, while the first game very much felt like Team Ninja's take on that game, there are more options in combat this time around.

Spirit is one of Wo Long's most inventive systems, and it really helps to sell each individual fight as one where momentum really matters, building on the morale that underscores each mission. By chipping away at the whole battlefield, you can feel the odds shift in your favor as you loop back to previously deadly looking encounters to discover you and your allies can now take your revenge much more easily.

At times, the wider spaces do result in me jogging for a fair bit before getting back into the action. And, it feels like the parries that defined success in the first Wo Long are less vital here, with you and your allies surrounding enemies with big sticks often being perfectly viable instead. Even so, I'm impressed with how distinct Wo Long 2 manages to feel, not only as a 'masocore' Soulslike, but as an entry in Team Ninja's impressive gaming catalog. Despite Nioh's relative success, the original Wo Long felt like an underrated gem – but Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember has what it takes to burn brightly.

Longing for more like this? Check out our best Soulslike games ranking!

How long is Control Resonant, and how long will it take you to beat it? Those hours will vary depending on whether you're just in this game for the story or whether you're out to be a full completionist and fully 100% the entire game. Control Resonant is certainly bigger than the last game was, with a full open world and more things to do, so I'll lay out how long it takes any sort of player and what you can expect in terms of length and time to beat for your playthrough.

How long does it take to beat Control Resonant?

Depending on what sort of playthrough you're planning, here's how long it will take you to beat Control Resonant.

• Just Story Campaign. 20-25 hours.
• Standard Playthrough (Story + major side quests). 25-30 hours.
• 100% Completion. 40-50 hours.

There's some variation here as not only does Control Resonant have a lot of side content, it's also prone to difficulty spikes in both combat and puzzles, so depending on a player's skill level, some might find themselves struggling to progress in sections more than others, which we've taken into account in our estimations above.

The reality is also that most players will have to engage with side content to some degree or another, as the rewards earned through doing so are, if not essential, then at least incredibly helpful to surmounting the enemies and challenges in the main story.

It's also helpful to keep in mind that, yes, Control Resonant does have new game plus. Once you've completed the story and done everything you want to achieve, you are fully enabled to go back around and do the whole thing again without losing your abilities and unlocked gear.

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Reset Items in Control Resonant are aptly named consumables used to reset Dylan and respec his abilities, but the problem is that Reset Items are rare and costly, with very few of them to be found around the game. To help out, I'll explain where to easily get Reset Items in Control Resonant, as well as what you need to know about how the game's respec system works.

How to get Reset Items in Control Resonant

The easiest and simplest way to get Reset Items is to buy them from the Vendors spread around the Control Resonant map, which cost 5000 Source each. Each Vendor will only sell a couple of Reset Items total, depending on their Vendor Level, but that should still be more than enough for the majority of most people's playthroughs. We've marked the locations of all Vendors in Control Resonant on the map above for reference.

Reset Items can also be obtained occasionally from the completion of certain missions or quests, but it's pretty sporadic and inconsistent. Vendor purchases are much easier and straightforward.

How to respec

Once you have a Reset Item, heading back to the Gap hub zone will allow you to respec certain attributes about Dylan. Specifically, going to any of the associated menus and holding down the button displayed at the top will allow you to spend a Reset Item, and completely respec one of the following:

• Your chosen Abilities and powers
• Your weapon and Aberrant Form upgrades
• Your Talents / skill tree
• Your Combo Finishers

If you're looking to change either your Weapons or Talents, I'd consider at least finding the materials or Talent Points simply needed to buy the new upgrades you want, rather than spending a rare and expensive Reset Item (for example, if you want Control Resonant Living Shards, we can show you where they're obtained). However, with the choices of powers and abilities excluding certain options, that's more understandable.

Ultimately though, spending a Reset Item should be your last resort choice, as there's simply a limited amount within the world for you to find and use.

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Living Shards in Control Resonant are something that players will be looking for from a very early point, as new weapons and Aberrant Forms are locked off behind Living Shards. However, these aren't necessarily easy to get, though players should have earned enough to have unlocked the majority of purchases by the end of the game. If you want to know how to get Living Shards easily in Control Resonant, I'll explain how to get them below.

Where to get Living Shards in Control Resonant

Living Shards in Control Resonant can be obtained from major story quests and side quests (such as hunting Resonants), and also purchased from Vendors around the map for 4000 Source each.

Vendors have a limited stock, but you'll be given a Living Shard at the end of major quests (especially in the late-game of Control Resonant), meaning that if you're falling short and want more of them, the best thing for you to do is to simply progress with the story. You'll likely earn a Living Shard at the next major story beat, and along the way you'll be acquiring Source in combat encounters that you can spend at Vendors for the sake of earning additional Shards.

If you want to know where the Vendors in Control Resonant are found, you can find them all shown on the Control Resonant map below. All Vendors sell Living Shards, though not in unlimited amounts. They also sell the Control Resonant Reset Items, if you want to respec.

Living Shards can be spent on new Control Resonant weapons and Aberrant Forms and new Combo Finishers at the Gap hub area, as well as the final upgrades for each of forms' upgrade tree.

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The distortions, warped orbs and balls at the edge of ledges and rooftops in Control Resonant are something that most players will notice fairly early on, but won't go explained or utilized until about halfway through the game, depending on the progression choices you make. In fact, these spherical bubbles of distorted space are actually tied to one of the essential traversal abilities in Control Resonant, as I'll explain below.

What are the distortions in Control Resonant and what do they mean?

The spherical orb distortions in Control Resonant are tied to the Reach Traversal Ability that players unlock later on in the game. The Reach power acts very similarly to a grappling hook, with these distortions being the fixed grapple points that Dylan can zoom towards, and having access to this power allows you both to access new areas, and speed up travel generally. However, until the point where you have Reach unlocked, these little markers serve no gameplay function.

How to unlock the Reach power

To unlock Reach, players need to go to the Evacuation Zone to the East, and then to the Northeast of that area to the Railyard Street Station, as marked on the Control Resonant map above. When you get close, you'll see a vision of Jesse, and automatically get a quest called The Subway Fault that will lead you to it.

Inside the Station they can access a Fault that unlocks the Reach power after being completed, though keep in mind that it's something of a maze, with Mold enemies and moving trains that players will have to evade to progress.

For more info on all the Abilities and powers in Control Resonant, check out the attached guide.

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The Patterned Factory in Control Resonant is seemingly sealed off when you approach it for the first time, with enemies guarding its exterior and heat bursting from the pipes if you're not careful. It's an area where it's dangerous simply to be standing, but it's easy to find yourself patrolling the exterior trying to find the entrance to no avail. Fortunately, I've managed to find my way in, and I can show you how to do the same. Keep in mind though that the Patterned Factory is no joke, and if it's the first thing you're doing after reaching Central in Control Resonant, you might encounter challenges you'd be well-advised to come back to later.

How to enter the Patterned Factory in Control Resonant

When sent to investigate the Steam coming from the Factory in Central as one of the early quests in Control Resonant, what you want to do is jump up the ascending platforms on the East side of the building, dodging the steam jets as you go.

Once you reach the roof, you need to cross from East to West, jumping over the pipes until you reach the attached building structure. What you're looking for specifically is the boarded up entrance shown above. When you get there, hit it with a heavy attack to break through and you can walk into the factory inside.

Once you get inside, there'll be doors you can open from within to give you easy access through the factory back and forth in the future. After entering the main building and clearing out the Hiss, you can take the elevator down to the tunnels beneath, where the Resonant is located. This'll lead you to unlocking one of the best Abilities and powers in Control Resonant, but be warned - it's not easy, and you may need to walk away and come back later.

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The Last Taxi in Control Resonant is an ongoing side quest about finding the locations of taxis hidden around Control Resonant and solving the puzzles in the dimension that they give you access to (which are themselves about picking the correct taxi from a group). Some of these puzzles are more challenging than others, but the principle is usually the same: either find the taxi that differs from the others in some small way, or ensure that the taxi you're getting into doesn't have something wrong with it. It'll differ depending on each puzzle, but we've got all their locations and solutions laid out for you below, so you can find them all and resolve one of the longest side quests in all of Control Resonant.

If you're doing more side quests around Manhattan, find out where to find all locations of the Control Resonant Mysterious Dog, or all the Control Resonant Camera and Instant Photo locations!

All Taxi locations in Control Resonant

All seven taxi locations are shown on the Control Resonant map above, with one Taxi in each major region of the game. Press the indicator in the lower left of the map to see in more detail.

1. Downtown. Found at the North end of a road, in a traffic jam.
2. Central. Found around the back of a warehouse.
3. Evacuation Zone. Found in a dead end between two buildings, with Hiss Spikes and Lasers making it risky to approach.
4. West Incursion Zone. On the path to the Theater, on a gravity wall near the Empire Avenue station.
5. The Park. On the top floor of a car park, which is accessible at ground level.
6. Underpass. After using the Cable Car, head North from "Research Site... Again".
7. Unknown. On the Southernmost island, West of the Evac Building, on an empty space of road.

When you get close to any of them, it should appear on your minimap and in-game menu map, allowing you to narrow down its location easily enough. You'll also be able to hear its horn honking and see its lights flashing, if you need an audible pointer to help guide you in. Don't expect to see many Control Resonant checkpoints nearby - these taxis usually tend to be hidden away from even enemies.

Once you get close, interact with the open door and you'll be escorted to a new dimension that looks like a shadowy New York, reminscent of certain sections from Alan Wake 2. Follow the indicator to the back alley to speak to Mila on the payphone, at which point you'll be able to do the taxi puzzles.

Keep in mind that despite the numbering, you can do these in any order.

Taxi puzzles in Control Resonant explained

Once you've spoken to Mila on the phone, you'll have to solve three puzzles tied to taxis on the main street. These are usually based around spotting the taxi that's different to the others in some way, though there are a couple of exceptions where the puzzles are about assembling the taxi or finding one that's entirely complete.

Once you think you know the right taxi, get inside. If you're correct, you'll get a cinematic showing a green light. If you're wrong, you'll see a red light. You'll then be brought to a new puzzle based on similar concepts as to the first one. Complete three rounds of puzzles, and you'll be returned to the main map.

1. Downtown Taxi puzzle solutions

The Downtown puzzle is all about focused on the noise and blinking indicator lights of the taxis.

1. Only one of the taxis is making the ticking noise associated with indicating. Get in that one.
2. All the taxis' rooftop signs turn off when you get close to them, except one, that remains on and lit. Get in that one.
3. All the taxis' rooftop signs are turned off, except one that only does so when you get close to it. Get in that one.

2. Central Taxi puzzle solutions

Probably the one that most people will encounter first, the Taxi puzzle here is also the most straightforward.

1. Only one of the taxis has its lights running and engine turned on. Get in that one.
2. Only one of the taxis has its rooftop sign lit up. Get in that one.
3. Only one of the taxis has its rooftop sign, headlights AND rear breaklights all lit up at once. Get in that one.

3. Evacuation Zone Taxi puzzle solutions

Here the challenge is studying the blinking and/or flashing lights of each Taxi to look for discrepancies.

1. All the taxis' lights are flashing in unison, except for one that's flashing on the off-beat. Get in that one.
2. The taxis' lights all flash one after the other, but one of them flashes multiple times in succession, not just once. Get in that one.
3. The taxis are all flashing erratically and out of time with one another, but one of them doesn't flash at all and remains dark. Get in that one.

4. West Incursion Zone Taxi puzzle solutions

Many of the taxi puzzles in Control Resonant focus on light in some way, and this one is no different. Here the goal is not to study the taxis, but the streetlights above each one shining down on them.

1. Only one of the streetlights above the taxis is blinking. Get in the taxi marked this way.
2. Now all the streetlights above taxis are blinking, except for one that remains on and lit at all times. Get in that one.
3. Now all the streetlights are blinking, but there's only one not in sync with the others, flashing on the off-beat. Get in that one.

5. The Park Taxi puzzle solutions

Appropriately enough, the puzzle in The Park is all about handling the Mold, and finding the pieces inside it to repair the taxi and drive away.

1. Shatter the grey Mold build-ups to pick up the pieces inside and place them on the taxi to repair it. You'll need the hood and the trunk.
2. Avoid the explosive Mold clumps and pick up the vehicle pieces to assemble the taxi. You'll need to find two wheels, and yellow-colored hood, as the game provides you two (a yellow one and a blue one).
3. Attack the grey Mold build-ups linked by grey threads to the taxi, otherwise the one on the taxi will keep growing back. After that's all cleared, you need to assemble the taxi from the many pieces lying around, some of which are redundant. You'll need a wheel protector, a rear bumper, a hood and a taxi signlight. Putting in the wrong one will either simply put it next to the taxi, or it will look clearly incorrect and not match the one's you've gotten in before.

6. Underpass Taxi puzzle solutions

The Taxis accessed from the Underpass are focused on patterns of lights and behaviour of both cars and streetlights.

1. When the streetlights go out, only one taxi will have its lights ON. Get in that one.
2. When the streetlights go out, only one taxi will have its lights OFF. Get in that one.
3. One taxi has its lights turned OFF until the streetlights turn off, so it and the streetlight are never turned on at the same time. Get in that one.

7. Unknown Taxi puzzle solutions

One of the most surprising puzzles, the Taxi taken from Unknown plays on shadows that don't behave as shadows are supposed to. Use the light you can pick up to study the shadows from each taxi. For example, you can see the taxi above is casting the wrong shadow, that of an industrial digger.

1. Only one taxi actually casts a shadow shaped like a taxi. Get in that one.
2. The puzzle is the same as above, but now there are more taxis to check, including some parked across the street.
3. All the shadows are shaped like taxis, but only one includes the shadow cast by the sign on top of the taxi's roof. Get in that one.

Completing all these puzzles completes The Last Taxi sidequest, though oddly enough, there don't appear to be any rewards for doing so that we could find. We'll update this if we find out more, however, but for me the quest was closed and there was never any follow-up to this story.

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The Mysterious Dog in Control Resonant is exactly what it sounds like: a dog that keeps showing up in odd places as part of a side quest called "Every Dog Has Her Day", and, while friendly, is clearly no ordinary mutt. Each time you encounter it, the puzzle is to find its missing dragon toy and bring it back to her, which is sometimes easier said than done depending on where the Mysterious Dog has placed itself. If you want to complete this questline, I'll explain where to find the dog in every region of Control Resonant, and where to find the dragon toy so you can bring back to her.

For all the other major side quest around Manhattan, find all the Control Resonant Taxi locations, or all the Control Resonant Camera and Instant Photo locations!

All Mysterious Dog locations in Control Resonant

The Mysterious Dog shows up seven times in Control Resonant, once for every major region, and is usually quite obvious to see once you're in the area:

1. Downtown. On a rooftop at the edge of the region.
2. Central. On a rooftop North of the East Park Station.
3. Evacuation Zone. On a red-lit rooftop Northeast of the Sinkhole.
4. West Incursion Zone. On a rooftop West of the Parking Garage, near where the city bends upwards into a sheer wall.
5. The Park. On a rooftop at the Northeast edge of the region.
6. Underpass. High up on top of a structure Northeast of the Research Site.
7. Unknown. On a garden rooftop on the Northwest island, close to the fast travel door.

The Mysterious Dog tends to be relatively easy to find once you're in the area, as it will be marked on the map, and the environment usually highlights it in some way, such as having a spotlight on it. Once you're close, it'll be marked on the map by a white pawprint-shaped symbol.

Every time you find the Mysterious Dog, it wants you to find and bring back its Dragon toy. There's usually some sort of clue in the environment to mark where to look, such as a billboard advertising dog food. Still, we'll explain everywhere to look below.

1. Downtown Mysterious Dog

Found at the Southern edge of the area down from the early Control Resonant Power Core Puzzle. If you look East, you can see a lower rooftop with a dog food commercial on the side. On the roof above it, you may even be able to make out the little dragon by the stairwell door. Float over to grab it, and simply bring it back.

2. Central Mysterious Dog

From where you find the dog, look directly North and you'll see an alleyway with lasers crisscrossing it below. However, at the end of the alley is a dog food billboard illuminated by a streetlight. The toy is right there: jump down to grab it and avoid the lasers on the way back.

3. Evacuation Zone Mysterious Dog

Nestled in the red-lit space between two folded buildings, look West from the dog to see two mirrored billboards for "Chowrap." Use the raised rooftops in front of them to jump up and adhere to the rooftop above you, and the Dragon is lying there in the lit area for you to pick up.

4. West Incursion Zone Mysterious Dog

Look South from where the dog is waiting and you'll see another dog food billboard for "Chowrap". The Dragon is waiting on an air condition on the rooftop to its left, which you can use your gravity powers to adhere to.

5. The Park Mysterious Dog

Look East from where you find the Mysterious Dog, and from here you'll see a higher rooftop that you can access by exterior elevator, with a dog-themed billboard up there. The toy is waiting up here on a desk table, lit by some floodlights. Grab it and bring it back down to complete this section.

6. Underpass Mysterious Dog

If you look directly up from the Mysterious Dog, you'll see the toy on the ceiling, as a result of a gravity anomaly. However, it's too high to just jump up. Instead, go round to the North area of the structure, where there'll be a raised platform high enough to reach the ceiling and stick to it. Follow the path back around, this time from above, and grab the toy, then all you need to do is cancel the inversion and you can drop down.

7. Unknown Mysterious Dog

This one's fairly far away - from the Mysterious Dog, look left to see the above billboard on the building nearby, the one with multiple dogs on it. Next to that is a sign that says "BAR", pointing downwards. Presumably it should say Bark, because the toy is on the balcony where the arrow is pointing.

After finding all Mysterious Dog locations, return to the Gap and you'll discover that it's living there now, next to the weapon upgrade station! The quest will close and you'll get a new artifact, the Trusted Spanner, which increases your Raw Damage by 15% when equipped.

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The puzzle to Move the Charge to Central Checkpoint between Power Cores in Control Resonant as part of the early "Welcome to Manhattan" quest is probably the first confusing bit of the game that most players will encounter. Here the goal is to get an electrical charge by hitting it with your weapon, and bring it from one power core to another at the Central Checkpoint and power it up. Problem is, the charge doesn't last long enough for the journey to said Checkpoint, dissipating and forcing you to go back. How do you solve this? I'll explain below.

How to move the Charge to the Central Checkpoint Power Core in Control Resonant

The key to solving this puzzle lies in the Power Core Servicing Diagram, a document found at the starting point that shows locations of Power Cores between you and the Central Checkpoint that you can use as stepping stones to the final one.

If you open the Control Resonant map, you can see Power Cores like the one you get the charge from marked over Downtown by the icons of the boxes with electrical symbols on them. By using them as a makeshift path, you can move the charge from one Core to another until you reach the Central Checkpoint.

Keep in mind that you'll still have to be quick, especially as you don't have many traversal abilities and powers in Control Resonant yet. Sprint the whole way, and avoid fighting enemies altogether - you don't need to kill them, and they'll just delay you. Some of these Cores are on rooftops, so plan your route ahead for the quickest possible ascent or descent.

Every time you encounter a Core, make sure you transfer the charge to it. This resets the timer and allows you to collect from it before moving forward to the next one.

Keep in mind that Power Cores and puzzles based around this sort of challenge are found all over Control Resonant, so it's important to remember how these function!

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In Control Resonant the Panopticon Service Request is a mission all about dealing with a magical radio, but things quickly get out of hand in what's meant to be a simple repair job about putting that radio in the right containment cell, especially with a confusing moment where you're supposed to help Langston contain the World's Fair Radio and it doesn't seem to take. If you want to solve this early puzzle in Control Resonant, I'll explain all the steps involved.

How to solve the Panopticon and Radio puzzle in Control Resonant

The job of setting up the Panopticon for the World's Fair Radio in Control Resonant is broken up into several stages, as we'll explain below.

1. Repair the Security Terminal. Here the goal is bring several pieces to the terminal marked in the North side of the Panopticon. There's a piece right besides it, another next to the entrance that slots into the main terminal, and a radar dish next to cell C-03 that has to be installed high up on the antenna next to the alcove that the radio is kept in, as shown above. After that, use the terminal to start up the Panopticon systems properly.

2. Give Langston the Correct Containment Cell ID. Langston offers to open the Cell, but an error in the labelling system means that numbers are on them wrong. A nearby note reveals that Langston got clockwise and counter-clockwise mixed up, meaning that the correct Cell ID code to give him is D-04. This should open the cell with the Radio in.

3. Find and Contain the World's Fair Radio. Pick up the World's Fair Radio in cell B-02 and take it to cell E-05. This is a bit weird and fiddly, but you want to put the radio down while the broadcaster is talking about the World's Fair specifically. If you put it down at the wrong moment, you're reset back and the Radio starts up from a random point. To some extent you can brute force this bit by just repeatedly slamming the radio down over and over until it works, but for us it worked while the Broadcaster was talking about the World's Fair.

Completing this mission will give you the Aramid Work Clothes, an outfit option, and the Untapped Feeding Bottle, an Artifact that you can awaken back in the Gap.

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Pattern Break world feats in Control Resonant are recurring puzzles where objects begin to float into the air, and striking them usually causes a shockwave that knocks you back. If you want an explanation on what you need to do to resolve these world feats, here's how to solve these puzzles and secure what are maybe the easiest rewards in the game once you understand what's going on.

How to solve Pattern Breaks in Control Resonant

When you encounter a Pattern Break in Control Resonant, you need to "break the patterning," which is effectively playing a game of spot the difference. Of all the objects levitating into the air, one of them will be moving much more erratically and jerking around, whereas the others will be relatively slow and stable.

What you need to do is hit the mismatched one that's moving erratically. The puzzle will reset and a new random object will become the odd one out. Keep hitting these mismatched, erratic objects until the Control Resonant World Feat is complete and you get the rewards at the end.

Pattern Breaks usually result in a mixture of Source and mid-tier crafting materials, as well as some progression in the Region Level wherever you completed it. The rewards aren't usually particularly impressive, but considering that this is certainly the easiest of all the World Feats in Control Resonant once you understand the premise, it's definitely worth doing when given the chance.

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To unlock every power, ability and skill in Control Resonant takes time, but it's worth it. Dylan's adventure has multiple combat and traversal powers to unlock throughout, ranging from a standard double jump, to gravity control, pyrokinetic blazes, mind control and more besides.

Perhaps more importantly, sometimes Control Resonant has players choose between two or three abilities after defeating one of the main bosses, forcing them to decide on which superpower they'd like to take with them. There are ways to reverse this process and remake the choice that was given to you, but it's expensive and requires rare items, so better to get it right the first time.

Below I'll lay out for you how to get every power and ability in Control Resonant, as well as the best of them, so you know what to equip and choose when those choices are given to you.

Want to focus more on your gear? Check out the truth behind the best weapon in Control Resonant.

How to get all abilities in Control Resonant

Below we've laid out the locations of every traversal and combat ability on the Control Resonant map, as well as the rough order that they'll be unlocked and thus recommend pursuing them.

Combat abilities are marked in orange, traversal powers in blue.

1. Double Jump traversal ability. Complete the Fault in Downtown. Allows you to double-jump as well as air-dash and elevate for greater distance.
2. Barrage / Volatile Anomaly / Shield combat ability. Defeat the Artist Resonant boss fight in West Downtown. Either fire projectiles, summon an explosive ally, or conjure a protective shield.
3. Shift traversal ability. Complete the Fault inside the parking lot in West Incursion Zone. Allows you to align your gravity with Gravity Anomalies and walk along certain surfaces.
4. Ground Slam / Push combat ability. Defeat the Dancer Resonant boss fight in the West Incursion Zone Theater Hall. Either slam the ground from the air, or fire a telekinetic pulse that knocks foes back.
5. Ignite / Inferno combat ability. Defeat the Deserter Resonant boss fight in the Central Patterned Factory in Control Resonant. Allows you to either set your weapons ablaze, or to unleash short range waves of fire.
6. Reach traversal ability. Complete the Fault inside the Subway in The Evacuation Zone. Allows you to grapple to the various Control Resonant distortions for quick movement.
7. Spore Burst / Growth combat ability. Defeat the Collective Resonant boss fight under the Park after eating four types of Mold (no, really). Either fire a barrage of projectiles that build the Infected Status, or summon a Mold turret that fires Infected projectiles.
8. Spike / Astral Rebuke combat ability. Defeat the Physicist Resonant boss fight at the top of the Spire in the Underpass. Allows you to either summon an ally that attacks enemies, or a spike from the ground that raises up and hits enemies. Both inflict the "Astralized" status, which leaves enemies more susceptible to other status effects.
9. Command combat ability. Defeat the Co-Director Resonant boss fight in the Unknown Field Office. Allows you to turn hostiles into allies and have them fight on your side. Requires unique "Command" charges.
10. Resonant Combat Token. After completing the main story, complete the "Pope's Research" side quest in Unknown. This Token allows you to get one additional combat power from any of the previous choices without giving up the other one.

These is a bit of leeway on this ordering: some powers are mandatory (such as the Double Jump), while others are side quests, such as the Fire abilities in the Patterned Factory. The ordering above is a rough guide that is occasionally enforced by certain mechanics and story events.

What are the best combat abilities in Control Resonant?

With multiple combat abilities being split into choices and having the player decide which one sounds better to them, it's important to know which of the options provided are best. Below I'll lay out what I consider to be the best "build" of combat powers and abilities based on the choices given to you, and go into further detail beneath that.

• Shield / Barrage / Volatile Anomaly
• Ground Slam / Push
• Ignite / Inferno
• Spore Burst / Growth
• Spike / Astral Rebuke
• Command
• Growth (Purchased with Resonant Combat Token)

The philosophy on this build is generally focused around the idea that the Summons in Control Resonant aren't particularly impressive as a rule, in part because they tend to be a bit weak and need constant direction, which somewhat defeats the purpose of having a Summon who can do the work for you.

The Growth Summon is sort of the exception to the rule, but this build generally is built around speed, agility, and most importantly, the relationship between Infection and Burn damage. When both are maxed out on a single target, they cancel each other out and cause a powerful explosion, so the goal here is to use Spore Burst to infect opponents, close the distance, and hit them with Ignited Weapons until they pop for massive damage. It's a pretty simple strategy that works even into the post-game.

Barrage, Volatile Anomaly or Shield?

After defeating the Artist boss fight, you'll choose between these three powers for the first time. Having tried them all, I'd say that Shield is actually the best, especially when you unlock the talent that allows you to Detonate it for increased damage. Shields are a bit of a power drain, but they do serious Falter when you dash into an enemy, and can give you the safety needed to close the distance for Health pickups.

Ground Slam or Push?

After defeating the Dancer in the West Incursion Zone, you'll be given the choice between Ground Slam or Push. These powers are probably roughly equal in viability - Ground Slam is more damaging while Push is easier to use - but in terms of the build laid out above, I'd say Ground Slam is definitely more useful. Control Resonant tries to give players several types of projectile attack, but you only really need one, and Push isn't the best of them.

Ignite or Inferno?

After defeating the Deserter Resonant in the Patterned Factory in Central, you'll be given the choice between two fire-themed powers: Ignite, which lets you add Burn to your weapon attacks, or Inferno, which is a series of short-range fire attacks.

Ignite is absolutely the best one: it massively increases the damage your weapons are already doing, allows you to inflict long-term burns on enemies, adds Falter effects to every hit, and allows you to quickly set up the fiery side of the combo mentioned above incredibly quickly.

Spore Burst or Growth?

After a bizarre quest in the Park where you have to eat several sorts of Mold to access the Collective Resonant boss fight, killing it gives you the choice of two Infection-themed powers. Spore Burst is a machine-gun barrage of Infection projectiles, and Growth is a summoned turret that fires infection at nearby foes.

I definitely recommend you choose Spore Burst, as, you can max out an opponents' infection status with a single burst - a seriously useful ability, especially on late-game opponents.

Spike or Astral Rebuke?

When you reach the Underpass region, the Spire leads up to a gap in the Astral Plane that ends with a fight against the Resonant known as the Physicist. Defeat them, and you can choose between Spike, a controlled summon that hampers opponents, or Astral Rebuke, which is a.... uh, spike that comes out of the ground and knocks foes upwards. Are the labels mixed up on these?

Either way, I suggest you choose Astral Rebuke, though I don't think either power is particularly impressive as an addition to your arsenal. Astral Rebuke is better simply for requiring less thought (tap one button and off you go), though keep in mind it can only be used on grounded opponents, not flying ones.

How to respec abilities in Control Resonant?

If you're not happy with your choices of combat abilities in Control Resonant, you can change your choice of powers around by going back to the Gap hub area and interacting with the mural on the left when you enter, as shown above. At the top there'll be an icon to "Reset All" by holding down the Square / X button (depending on controller).

This will cost you one of the Control Resonant Reset Items, but will allow you to make all your choices of Powers again from the start (and yes, I do mean all - one Reset Item lets you rechoose all your powers).

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The full map for Control Resonant is laid out below, along with all the key locations and zones that players can uncover along the way. Control Resonant's map is largely based around a warped and distorted version of Manhattan, with seven different regions for players to uncover and explore. If you want to find the full map and learn how to uncover it in your own game, it's all laid out for you below.

Warning: The following guide contains some minor spoilers for Control Resonant, but are kept to a minimum and only where relevant to the guide.

The Full map for Control Resonant

The full New York map for Control Resonant is shown above, though this doesn't include interior "Dungeon" locations like the Patterned Factory, which don't come with maps at all and have to be explored blindly.

Keep in mind that you won't be able to access all of this from the beginning. More locations and regions will unlock as you progress though the plot of Control Resonant and complete certain side quests.

All zones and key locations

There are a total of seven different zones in Control Resonant, across which the map is divided, as shown above. Many of these have a particular gimmick or angle, while others are more broad.

1. Downtown. The starting zone, where The Oldest House is located. General Hiss enemies and few wildcard elements are found here.
2. Central. A zone that links to several others. Both Hiss and Mold enemies appear here, as well as the FBC's field office.
3. Evacuation Zone. A location of heavy Hiss presence, as well as a Sinkhole anomaly that descends into the Earth.
4. West Incursion Zone. An area of extreme anomalous gravity and fractured space, with the city folding and bending in different directions.
5. The Park. A region overtaken by The Mold, as well as linking to the sewer networks.
6. Underpass. A subterranean realm beneath the city and connecting to The Oldest House, with abyssal drops and distorted time.
7. Unknown. A patterned and fractured section of the city floating in the sky, with islands orbiting each other and heavily distorted gravity. All enemy types appear here.

These are (sort of) laid out in order. Players start off in Downtown, before moving to Central and being able to visit the Evacuation Zone, West Incursion Zone, and The Park in order of preference. After that, Underpass is unlocked as part of the story, and Unknown after that, serving as the final area.

How to reveal the map in Control Resonant

When reaching a new zone of the map in Control Resonant, the first thing you should do is reveal the map for that area, which isn't hard. The one thing that will be shown on the map is a Map Kit, a small radar pylon.

When you pull the lever on the pylon, your minimap will show three nearby radar dishes, or "Sensors", represented by broadcasting signal icons and visible from a distance by red lights. Simply trigger all three sensors by walking up to them and holding L1/LB, and pull the lever on the central Pylon again to reveal the area.

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The best weapon in Control Resonant (or Aberrant Form) is chosen out of Cleave, Strike and Glaive, with the choice of Secondary Weapon coming not long afterwards, where you have to pick between the Crush, Extend and Drill Forms. If you want to know more about the best weapons in Control Resonant, I've laid them all out below and what you need to know about each and every Aberrant Form, as well as a full tier list for both the primary and secondary weapons.

For more help with Dylan's firepower, check out all the best powers in Control Resonant.