I'm not built for whatever I heard in Phasmophobia's Chronicle update, which adds terrifying new sounds you can't afford to run from

The big Phasmophobia Chronicle update launches tomorrow, June 24, and brings a long list of bug fixes and tool reworks with it. As part of the tool shake-up, developer Kinetic Games also overhauled the journal's media section for capturing evidence. It's great if you're tired of being limited to a photo camera. But, if you're a coward like me who usually takes pictures of salt and runs, I've got bad news.

The bad news being you can't do that anymore (I tried) and holy shit the new ghost noises are scary. Instead of demanding you strictly take photos as evidence of a haunting, Phasmophobia's ghost-hunting bosses now want pictures plus recorded audio and video. Apparently, all my slightly off-centered photos of disturbed salt piles are no longer worth money. I tried to sell several over the weekend in my early hands-on with the Chronicle update, but no dice.

Evidence of a Chatty Cathy

Chronicle adds a bunch of little things, like new social elements to Phasmophobia's UI and other quality-of-life goodies, but I honed in on playing with the new Sound Recorder. Since my old cheap habits were no longer a valid means to score a perfect investigation, I had to confront ghosts and stay in the room to use the Sound Recorder when they acted up. Sure, Phas players are used to all manner of ungodly racket, but forcing you to run toward the noise for a clip is a whole other ask.

Especially with so many new sounds, too. I heard the usual creaky footsteps and door-slamming, but Phasmophobia added more hellish whispering and actual phrases. It captures more of the original Spirit Box charm, prompting ghosts to respond with their own disembodied voices instead of relying on bits and pieces of radio broadcasters. It's not as funny as hearing a Microsoft Sam demon get snippy in the dark, but I like it way more than the more boring Spirit Box audio of today.

It's not just voices, either. At one point, I heard what sounded like two pieces of metal slamming into each other in a bathroom, and I still don't know what it was (not that I really tried to figure it out, anyway). As soon as I heard the last of it, I was already back in the truck and mashing the control panel to leave. I did a lot of that before finally working up the nerve to truly investigate a haunting.

After a solid few rounds of growing annoyed by my own cowardice, my sense of self-preservation was finally out the door, and I barreled into Camp Woodwind demanding a ghost by the name of Jim Emmett tell me how old he is. He kept his age a secret, but he did whisper, "I'm watching you," over the Parabolic.

Phas says I need 13 pieces of evidence like this for a perfect game, but I think one instance of ominous murmuring is proof enough—camp's haunted.

When it comes to actually recording—not hearing something over the Parabolic from the other side of the map—I struggled with the Tier 1 Sound Recorder. Upgrading to the Tier 3 device predictably made the task way easier, but I still wasn't always clear on why some recordings didn't make it into the journal as evidence. I'm assuming it's some combination of being a huge wuss and good ole Phas jank, but it was never so cumbersome that I drove off in frustration.

Get in loser, we're going ghost hunting

If it's not obvious already, sometimes I'm the truck friend, but that's more acceptable now. Chronicle makes things harder in plenty of ways, but it's also kind to your easily spooked buddies by adding more options for monitoring the action from a safe distance. They can watch for the usual ghost behaviors from a much nicer video interface or participate in recording footage, assuming you set the cameras up properly.

On more than one occasion, I did wind up back in the ghost room trying to move cameras around for a more accurate picture, but it's nothing players aren't used to now. Sometimes a ghost would do multiple things at once, like trigger a motion sensor and throw something, so I'd wind up with a duplicate recording trying to score something unique. Duplicates are worth less and don't count toward a perfect investigation, so it's a bummer when it happens. But I just took it as a chance to play more strategically by picking up tools I was done with or taking a little more care with the record button.

It's a patch I was feeling a little on the fence about, not convinced a media rework was a big deal, but I'm happily wrong. It's impressive how careful little tweaks to the Phasmophobia formula so easily reinvigorate a ghost hunt. Add a few unfamiliar sounds and limit some of my old habits, then I'm floundering like it's day one again. It's not punitive either, I don't feel punished for limiting my old shortcuts to bonuses. Instead, the Chronicle update just forces more of that giddy terror, tempting my ghost-hunting gang with more rewards for playing with an expanded toolset.