Dirty Bomb's "Containment War" update goes live this week

Dirty Bomb is a free-to-play online shooter set in a near-future London, which has been abandoned in the wake of some mysterious disaster. Now, various private military companies do battle to seize control of the vast wealth left behind, turning the shell of the city into "the Merc Capital of the World." It's a thin setup for a game, but as shooters go it's actually pretty good; in fact, we declared in August that you should be playing it. All of which brings us to the point: Containment War, the biggest update to Dirty Bomb since it went into open beta this summer, is out on October 28.

Containment War adds new maps, including the massive Dome map for Objective and Stopwatch modes, fully implements Execution Mode, and brings in a new mercenary named Stoker who can resupply teammates with a deployable ammo station. "Limited-edition" Containment War loadout cards will be available for 30 days following the release of the update, and anyone who plays the game between October 28 and November 4 will also permanently unlock the recently-released medic, Phoenix, at no charge. Players who have already unlocked Phoenix will be given two Elite Cases and an Obsidian Loadout Card for Phoenix instead.

The only downside to Containment War as far as I can see is that Execution Mode really isn't as cool as it sounds. It's a best-of-ten contest in which one team attempts to plant a bomb and blow up an objective while the other tries to prevent it, which strikes me as almost identical to Counter-Strike's Bomb Defusal mode. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but feels disappointingly lacking in actual in executions.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.