Arc Raiders' Frozen Trail update adds a series of upgrades that let you create "Amplified" weapons, but to do this you'll need a Level 4 Gunsmith bench, which requires an Emperor Modulator to craft.

To get this item, you first have to acquire an Emperor Gateway Conduit blueprint to craft the key required to open The Emperor on the Pendola Pass map. You can apparently find this as a rare drop in Arc Couriers and on other maps, but you can also get it the same way you acquire the materials to craft it:

• Arc Conductive Coupler
• Arc Insulated Coupler
• Arc Plated Coupler

You get all three of these as random drops in the Redirection event on Pendola Pass. Wait for one of the Damaged Emperor Relays on the map to activate, grab the beacon from it, place it down in a quiet open area, and stand back. Harvester payloads will drop in—loot the big central one sticking out the ground for a chance to get one of these materials. You could also try entering The Emperor when someone else unlocks it.

How to complete The Emperor dungeon

Once you have your key to open The Emperor, you're ready to attempt the dungeon by opening the door in the west of Pendola Pass, though you'll need to bring a decent amount of equipment:

• Snap Hook: This is mandatory in my opinion for the platforming puzzles. You could even bring a Grappling Hook as backup in case it breaks, which is a real possibility your first time.
• Anvil or Renegade: You'll need this to destroy the yellow nodes in the more puzzly encounters.
• Hullcracker: This is for destroying the Hydra turrets inside The Emperor. You could also use a Rascal, though it'll slow you down a bit.
• Plenty of healing and shield rechargers: There are many hazards inside the dungeon, so you'll want plenty of healing.
• A Looting augment: You'll want plenty of space to pack in loot, plus a couple of safe pockets for more valuable items, including the modulator.

In terms of a play-by-play of the specific encounters, this walkthrough by crazymrpipz is really good and I can vouch for its accuracy having completed the dungeon myself, though I'll also lay out the encounters below.

The initial section with the corridor, the Hydra turret, and the electrified elevator you make safe by destroying the yellow nodes is always the same, but at the top of the elevator, The Emperor has multiple possible encounter layouts:

The Emperor layout one

The Emperor layout two

There might be more layouts than this, but the Hydra room seems to be a fixed encounter no matter what. After this point you will:

1. Descend down a tube, carefully dropping from platform to platform.
2. Enter into another room filled with pillars, but this one is a maze.
3. Ascend up a couple of tubes by Snap Hook-ing between boxes, avoiding the electrified ones, and climbing ladders to reach a door.

You will enter the final room, drop down onto a lower platform and descend a ladder to the base, though when you touch the floor, the big door at the far end will open and a load of Arc enemies will appear. Hiding is a good idea to see if they leave as opposed to fighting them all. Afterwards, you can loot the containers and also destroy the yellow nodes on either wall to reveal even more loot payloads which pops out of the racks.

One or two of these will contain Emperor Modulators, so make sure to stow one in your safe pocket. After that, you can either leave via the big hatch that opened, or the side doors if you destroyed the yellow nodes.

Arc Raiders has made lots of new tweaks and additions with Frozen Trail's 2.0 update, but one long-requested change of significant note is that you can turn off the light on your backpacks.

To do this, you need to:

1. Select the "Raider" menu.
2. Enter "Customization" on the bottom left of the screen.
3. Go to the "Style" menu at the top.
4. Choose "Backpack" on the left side.
5. Toggle the Emissive option to "off".

As you'll see, while looking at the backpack, the light will disappear and reappear as you toggle this, though where exactly the light is varies from pack to pack. This should help you be a little sneakier, though it might make your character a bit harder to spot in some of the game's darkest areas.

You'll need to find the new plank and sheet metal items in Arc Raiders for the new Sheltered Retreat project, after you've taken a picture of the Ruined Homestead, and are ready to start committing resources.

There are a few ways to get both items:

• Celeste sells planks and sheet metal for three seeds a piece.
• You can find loads of planks in residential and old world areas, particularly in the houses in Old Town in the southwest of Pendola Pass, as well as research items and furniture blueprints, too.
• You can find loads of sheet metal in technological and industrial areas, such as the Assembly and Loading Bay in Stella Montis, where every yellow drawer container (pictured above) seems to be a guaranteed drop for sheet metal.
• You can also find planks and sheet metal in other areas, though less frequently.

Thankfully, you don't need much for the project, so you might want to simply spend the 24 seeds required to just buy them all from Celeste.

The Tracks of the Beast quest in Arc Raiders involves travelling along some train tracks and pinging the new Pendola Pass enemies, the Bully and the Skulker.

First off, head to the northern tracks area in the north of the new map—this area encompasses the entire north, so it's easy to complete. After that, head to Almaterra Station to the south, preferably following the train tracks, since there are often Bully and Skulker enemies in this area for the next step.

Ping a Bully

The challenging part of Tracks of the Beast is you have to do all of the steps in a single round. The Bully is the first enemy you have to ping and it's kind of like a big arc horse-dog robot:

• There's usually a Bully in Old Town in the southwest of the map.
• I've also encountered one on the tracks north of Almatera Station.
• Also at the Railroad Junction to the east.

Ping a Skulker

The harder enemy to track down is the appropriately named Skulker, a little turret on four wheels that rolls around and emits a beep beep noise:

• I've found a lot of Skulkers in the ravine between the Railyard and the Commissary Supermarket.
• I've also encountered them by the Gondola exfil north of Old Town.
• Or in the northern tracks area north of Almatera Station.

There are plenty around the map, they're just quite sneaky and small, so you have to keep an eye out and listen for the beep beep. They're also hard to damage before they've deployed their turret, though a heavy ammo weapon can still kill them.

Once you've pinged both and completed the other steps, you're all done. You could attempt the optional steps to destroy three Skulkers and extract a Skulker Targeter, but frankly, it's hard enough to find one, so I wouldn't worry about that just yet.

Arc Raiders' To the Skies quest involves finding a few arc parts to repair one of the Prototype Gondolas being used to shuttle raiders to Pendola Pass.

First things first, to complete To the Skies you're going to need a variety of arc parts:

• 1x Arc Performance Steel: Salvaged from big arcs like Bastions, Bombardiers, Leapers, or Baron Husks.
• 1x Pop Trigger: Salvaged from small exploding Pop robots or couriers.
• 1x Arc Thermo Lining: Salvaged from Pops, Fireballs, or Baron Husks.
• 1x Arc Synthetic Resin: Salvaged from intact Arc Probes or Baron Husks.

There are a number of other ways to get the materials above, generally by salvaging arc enemies, so if you don't have one of each yet, keep your eyes peeled.

The first step is to scan a crashed Arc Probe and an Arc Courier. These spawn on almost every map and you can find them by following smoke plumes and looking for their icon when you're close on the map. Your best bet for finding lots is the Electromagnetic Storm map condition (you can see the current event schedule here). To scan them, simply interact with the icon at the head of each.

Repairing the Gondola Prototype

After this, you'll have to find and repair the Gondola Prototype on any one of four maps—I did it on Spaceport, so that's the one I'll show you. Grab those listed arc materials and head to the spot above, just east of the eastern exfil elevator, north of Communications Tower and south of East Plains Warehouses.

There, you'll find the Gondola Prototype resting on its side on some crates by a raider structure. Now just install those four parts and interact to activate the Gondola Prototype and complete the quest, though you might want to back away from it a bit.

Dragon's Dogma 2's Dark Arisen expansion introduces the new northern, wintery region of Norgan, long abandoned by civilised folk, the realm is home to many monsters and mysteries.

To start Dark Arisen, you'll have to speak to Captain Brant in The Stardrop Inn in Vernworth at nighttime. Vernworth is accessible relatively early via the main story. When speaking to him you'll see two new dialogue options:

• "About the new Arisen…" This starts the DLC quest, Chilling Tidings, which will take you to Norgan and the new region's content.
• "About the uncovered ruins…" This starts the Lost Rites quest, which sees you trying the 12 new endgame dungeons.

The recommended level for the DLC content and Norgan is 40, though it can be accessed earlier, and the dungeons each vary in difficulty.

If you've progressed the main story to the Unmoored World section, you won't be able to access the DLC until New Game+. While you can complete the game and start again, if you want to get to the new stuff right away, you can also use the new save option to go straight there.

1. Select "Change save slot".
2. Hold X on controller (or shift on keyboard) to create a new playthrough from your save file.

As the game warns, you also won't be able to access your current save anymore, as you'll have started new game+ on the character, but this will let you start again with the same level, equipment, and items, only resetting quest progress and quest items.

Arc Raiders' new Boarding the Frigate quest is about finding a way up onto the giant flying Arc fortress during the new Arc Frigate map modifier. Since this is a colossal arc event, you'll want to bring plenty of ammo and healing. A Grappling or Snap Hook will come in handy, too.

You can get onto the frigate (as shown in the video) by finding one of the circular Arc drones that it spits out when it arrives on the map, climbing or grappling on top of it, and then interacting with it to disrupt the drone. This will cause it to fly back to the frigate, allowing you to climb aboard.

The ship is absolutely massive, and as you make your way through it with other raiders, it'll spit out Rocketeers, Vaporizers, and Hydra turrets will pop out on the top level as well. To finish off the quest, you'll have to damage all three, though you don't have to get the killing blow on any of them. Rocketeers and Vaporizers (if you somehow haven't encountered them before) are big flying arcs that fire rockets and lasers, respectively, while the Hydra is a multigun turret that's pretty deadly.

Presumably, you can also damage these enemies elsewhere to complete this step, though I haven't encountered a Hydra anywhere else except on top of the frigate so far, so that's likely your best bet. If you're struggling to navigate the ship, you can open new platforms with switches and by shooting the yellow nodes sticking out, though a Grappling Hook will also help skip some stages.

Arc Raiders' new Sizing Things Up quest sees you help Celeste analyse the Emperor corpse splayed across Pendola Pass, but like Clean Hands, some of its locations are tricky to track down.

The first step is to "take a picture of the Emperor's leg by the bridge outside Old Town," and you can see me doing just that in the video above. As with taking a picture of the Ruined Homestead in the Sheltered Retreat project, you'll need the camera Celeste gave you, or to craft another at the workbench or buy one from Shani.

The spot you need to take the picture is directly east of Old Town on the bridge that runs parallel to the Emperor's southern front leg (the Emperor is the giant robot dominating the west side of the map.) Take a picture of the leg's lower portion to complete this step.

Analyse the exposed area on top of the Emperor's leg

Now, skip the second optional step and "analyse the exposed area on top of the Emperor's leg near Railroad Junction." As above, here's another video of me doing that, but you can find the spot directly south of Railroad Junction, where you can see the base of the Emperor's leg on the map—simply climb up and interact with the marked point.

Reach the base of the Emperor and search the payload

Your last step is to "reach the base of the Emperor" and "Search the Buried Harvester Payload". Here's one final video showing both of those, but seeing as the Emperor is the giant robot on the west side of the map, you can simply head to the base of its corpse, directly east of the Fallen Emperor marker on the map, just by the P in Piazza Della Rupe. There, you'll find a chest at the very front and centre (the Harvester Payload).

Interact with it to drop the Arc Conductive Coupler and stow it in your safe pocket. Extract with the item for Celeste and that's the quest done.

Arc Raiders' skill rework has added new abilities such as the wall run at the top level of the mobility tree, and Nomadic Crafting at the top of the survival tree—just a shame it doesn't say what the items you can make actually are.

The items that Nomadic Crafting unlocks are as follows:

• Shotgun ammo
• Light ammo
• Medium ammo
• Heavy ammo
• Grappling Hook
• Zipline
• Shrapnel Grenade

This adds to all of the crafting items you already unlock via the earlier In-Round Crafting and Traveling Tinkerer skills in the survival tree, including traps, hatch keys, and all the usual craftable bits and pieces.

Clean Hands is a new quest in Arc Raiders Frozen Trail update which sees you searching for a Nomad Camp under the Railyard in Pendola Pass.

You can enter this camp via a pipe (shown in the video above) that's between the Railyard (towards the centre of the map) and the Transit Tunnel to the west of it—though I'd advise maybe not doing it when there's an Arc Frigate hanging about like i did.

Once inside, climb up onto the middle section of the walkway and interact with the highlighted yellow bag container to "search for the polluted item", producing an Equatorial Sundial. Pick this up and stow it in your safe pocket.

Bring the Equatorial Sundial to the top of the Old Town church

The next step is to "Bring the Equatorial Sundial to the top of the church in Old Town". Again, here's a video showing the location, but the church is easy enough to spot in the center of the Old Town; an area in the east of the map by the Arc Emperor corpse.

You'll want to:

1. Climb the spiral staircase in the southeast corner of the church all the way to the top.
2. Use the zipline to ascend into the tower.
3. Interact with the railing to hold up the sundial.

The final step is extracting with the item, so simply stow it in your safe pocket. If you haven't extracted on Pendola Pass yet, you have to activate a gondola console (marked on the map) and then head to the location where it drops to leave, a little like calling in a supply drop.

The first step in Arc Raiders new Sheltered Retreat project to build your outpost is to "take a photo of any farmland house around the Ruined Homestead on The Blue Gate map."

You can find the Ruined Homestead in the south of the region, just by the Olive Grove where everyone used to fight over lemons and olives for Scrappy. First, though, you'll need a camera item. Unlike in the past, when you could just interact with a structure to take a picture, you now need an actual piece of gear to do it. You can get a camera by:

• Purchasing one from Shani for 1.9k.
• Crafting one at the basic workbench for:
  • 8x Plastic Parts
  • 1x Wire
• Certain quests, like the new Sizing Things Up also give you a camera upon accepting them.

Of course, having to bring a camera also means you can no longer use free loadouts to complete quests involving photos. I suggest storing your camera in your safe pocket until you need it.

Now, head to the Ruined Homestead, equip the camera, use right mouse button to aim, and then left mouse button to take the snap. Any of the main farm buildings in that area seem to count, so it's easy enough to finish this stage.

The Dark Arisen expansion for Dragon's Dogma 2 releases this week, over two years on from when the base game launched back in 2024.

The DLC arrives on October 8 in the US, but October 9 for the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world. Here's exactly when you can play:

• West Coast US: 5 pm PDT (October 8)
• East Coast US: 8 pm EDT (October 8)
• UK: 1 am BST (October 9)
• Europe: 2 am CEST (October 9)
• Australia: 11 am AEST (October 9)
• New Zealand: 1 pm NZDT (October 9)

You can see the rest of the release times in the image above. If you're looking for PlayStation instead, then the game releases at midnight local time on October 9 everywhere except PST, where it releases at 9 pm on October 8. The size of the DLC is 25 GB and you can view its current requirements on the Steam page.

This week it's spring in Forza Horizon 6 and there's another challenge to complete. We've got the Nangan Treasure Hunt to track down, and doing it will grant you some season progress. The British Automotive Festival Series is currently underway and there are a couple of season reward cars to grab, namely the Lotus Esprit V8 and Lotus Emira. Finding and smashing this chest will get you a little closer to earning them.

Forza Horizon 6 Nangan region Treasure Hunt location

You can find this chest at the Irokawa Space Center in the far south of the Nangan region. It's an easy one to track down via the map screenshot above.

Basically, you need to:

1. Head to the southern end of Nangan where the space center is.
2. Drive to the upper level.
3. Find the chest in the north corner just to the left of the big rocket and all the fuel tanks.

Simply smash into it as usual and you'll get 100,000 credits, 5,000 XP, and three Season Progress points towards those two season cars. For more progress, make sure to complete the Ruriko-Ji Temple photo challenge, too.

The Wolven armor is a medium set of witcher gear that functions as a bit of an all-rounder, buffing sign intensity attack power, and adrenaline point gain. It also has a passive that increases sword damage against bleeding enemies. It has four armor pieces, two swords, and no crossbow, similar to the Griffin set.

You can get the Wolven armor diagrams at the old signal tower just south of Kaer Mohern keep itself. There's a little puzzle involved in finding these, which I show in the video above, but otherwise:

1. Head inside, climb the ladder, and loot the chest to read Hieronymous's note.

2. Climb back down and use Aard to activate the teleportation crystal on the right side of the opening in the far wall.

3. Go back to the entrance and climb through the broken wall to the right, jump on the scaffolding on the north side of the tower, and walk along it to find the second teleportation crystal on a ledge to your right.

4. Go back inside and place the teleportation crystal in the housing on the left side of the opening in the far wall—use Aard to activate it.

5. Jump through the now-stable portal to land in a cave with a corpse. Defeat the wraith that appears and then loot the armor diagrams from the body.

Read the notes written in a shaky hand, which are also on the body in the cave, to unlock the locations of the Wolven Silver Sword and the Wolven Steel Sword diagrams, also in the Kaer Mohern area:

Once you've crafted the basic armor, you can upgrade it to enhanced, superior, and mastercrafted by finding the relevant diagrams.

• Enhanced: Buy the well-preserved notes (boots, armour, silver sword) from Éibhear Hattori once you complete the Of Swords and Dumplings quest. You can find his home northwest of Novigrad's Glory Gate. Then buy the slightly torn notes (gloves, trousers, steel sword) from Lindenvale's armorer to the east of Crow's Perch in Velen.
• Superior: Buy the damp, moldy notes (armour, silver sword, steel sword) from Kaer Trolde's armorer in Skellige. Then buy the heavily faded notes (boots, gauntlets, trousers) from Hierarch Square's armorer in Novigrad.
• Mastercrafted: Buy the worn out and faded notes (armour, silver sword, steel sword) from Éibhear Hattori and the notes on parchment (boots, gauntlets, trousers) from Kaer Trolde's blacksmith.

For grandmaster, when you head to Toussaint in the Blood and Wine DLC, speak to Lazare Lafargue in his armor shop in south Beauclair to start the 'Master Master Master Master!' quest to find the diagrams.

The Griffin armor is a medium witcher gear set mainly focused around buffing the power of your signs, but also turning your Yrden into an AoE that reduces the damage you take, and further increases sign intensity when you're in it. There are four armor pieces, two swords, but no crossbow.

The diagrams to forge the basic Griffin witcher armor are located in Dragonslayer's Grotto in east Velen, to the northwest of Downwarren. The video above shows the route through this ruin, but otherwise:

1. Head inside, fight the wraiths, take a left at the end of the corridor and use Aard to blow open the cracked wall on its left side.

2. The next section is filled with poisonous, flammable gas and wraiths. I suggest just ignoring them and running straight through to the far end, where you'll find a rock barrier you can blast open with Aard, and a room with an ekimmara to slay on the other side.

3. After killing the vampire, grab the armor diagrams from the chest up the stairs on the platform above.

Read Witcher George's Journal, also in the chest, to get the location of the Griffin Silver Sword and the Griffin Steel Sword, both of which are also in the Velen region. Remember, there is no crossbow in this set.

Once you've crafted the basic armor, you can upgrade it to enhanced, superior, and mastercrafted by finding the relevant diagrams.

• Enhanced: Buy Edwin Greloff's first and second map from Midcopse's armorer in west Velen, southwest of Crow's Perch.
• Superior: Buy Edwin Greloff's third map from Hierarch Square's armorer in the center of Novigrad.
• Mastercrafted: Buy Edwin Greloff's fourth map from Éibhear Hattori once you complete Of Swords and Dumplings. His home is northwest of Novigrad's Glory Gate.

For grandmaster, when you head to Toussaint in the Blood and Wine DLC, speak to Lazare Lafargue in his armor shop in south Beauclair to start the 'Master Master Master Master!' quest to find the diagrams.

The Ursine armor is a fan favorite set in The Witcher 3, mainly due to its incredibly high damage resistance as the only heavy set of witcher gear available. It consists of four armor pieces, two swords, and a crossbow.

The diagrams to forge the basic Ursine witcher armor are located in northeast Skellige in the ruined castle on Urialla Isle, near the top of the Yngvar's Fang trail. I show the route in the video about, but otherwise, head to the Urialla Harbor fast travel and then:

1. Take the northeast path out of the village and go right at the fork until you hit the Trail to Yngvar's Fang fast travel.

2. Kill the rabid rock troll just ahead.

3. Follow the path along the cliffs and kill the sirens.

4. When you reach the collapsed section of the trail, slide down onto the broken stone walkway and jump across the gap to enter the fort via a wooden door.

5. Take a left down the spiral staircase, go to the end of the corridor, turn right, and pull the lever—this will open the cell doors and spawn some wraiths.

6. Drop down through the first cell to your left when facing back down the corridor.

7. Follow the path past where the next wraith spawns and climb through the broken hole in the wall into the throne room.

The chest containing the diagrams is just right of the throne, though be warned that taking these and pulling the lever to let yourself out will spawn three wraiths to fight.

Read the Chronicles of Clan Tuirseach, which is also in the diagram chest, to unlock the Ursine Crossbow and Ursine Silver Sword locations:

Finally, read Knight Chalmir's Letter, from the corpse carrying the Ursine Silver Sword diagram, to get the location for the Ursine Steel Sword:

Once you've crafted the basic armor, you can upgrade it to enhanced, superior, and mastercrafted by finding the relevant diagrams. You can get all of these locations if you buy Ibrahim Savi's first, second, third, and fourth map from the Kaer Trolde Armorer and follow the quest markers to acquire each upgrade diagram.

For the grandmaster upgrades, when you head to Toussaint in the Blood and Wine DLC, speak to Lazare Lafargue in his armor shop in south Beauclair to start the 'Master Master Master Master!' quest to find the diagrams.

One of the big changes in The Witcher 3 Remastered is that you can now transmog armor and swords, swapping their skins at will.

You can't transmog at every blacksmith, only the two master smiths in the game, Yoana at Crow's Perch, and Éibhear Hattori in Novigrad, who will let you reskin armor and swords, respectively.

First, though, you have to complete their quests:

Once you've unlocked Yoana and Hattori, simply choose the "reforge" tab on the top right when purchasing or crafting with them.

A couple more quick things about transmog:

• Transmog armor dyes the same colour as the base armor.
• You unlock new sword and armor skins when you place them in Geralt's inventory.

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be retrospective, so for endgame saves, unless you've kept every armour piece, you'll have to acquire them again, or at least take them out of your stash and place them in your inventory to unlock them—not the best system I'll admit, hopefully this will be patched.

Despite being a smith who forges grandmaster witcher gear, for some reason Lazare Lafargue in the Blood and Wine DLC can't transmog armor either. Again, fingers crossed this gets patched in.

The Feline armor is a light set of witcher gear that turns you into a bit of glass cannon. It has less damage resistance, but it buffs attack power, and provides a passive where strong attacks buff fast attack damage, and you can "backstab" enemies, with rear attacks hitting harder and stunning opponents. The set has four armor pieces, two swords, and a crossbow.

You can get the Feline armor in a cave on the north side of Temple Isle (the northernmost island) in Novigrad. You'll also need Keira Metz's Eye of Nehaleni from her questline to dispel the illusory rock blocking the entrance. I show the route in the video above, but otherwise:

1. On the map, head to the northwesternmost house on Temple Isle and follow the path you can see snaking around it, down the trail into the cave.

2. Fight the golem inside now or later and then take a left through the tunnel to the room with the statues in a circle.

3. Pull the lever beside each as many times as necessary to make them all face inwards—this will open a pool in the centre with drowners.

4. The key you need is on a corpse at the bottom of the pool. I recommend saving first, and then diving as fast as you can to grab it, sticking close to the wall to limit the drowners hitting you.

5. Head back to the main room and use the key to unlock the door behind the golem.

6. Defeat Mad Kiyan, the crazed witcher in the room, and loot the armor diagrams from his corpse.

Read the laboratory log, also on Kiyan's body, and you'll get a marker for the location of the Feline Crossbow, which is in the Novigrad region as well.

Read Professor Sigismund Glogger's notes, also in the chest with the crossbow diagram to get the locations of the Feline Steel Sword and the Feline Silver Sword, again, both in the Novigrad region.

Once you've crafted the basic armor, you can upgrade it to enhanced, superior, and mastercrafted by finding the relevant diagrams.

• Enhanced: Buy the Adalbert Kermith's first and second map from Blackbough's merchant to the west of Crow's Perch.
• Superior: Buy Adalbert Kermith's third map from the Crow's Perch quartermaster.
• Mastercrafted: Buy Adalbert Kermith's fourth map from Lindenvale's armorer, east of Crow's Nest.

For grandmaster, when you head to Toussaint in the Blood and Wine DLC, speak to Lazare Lafargue in his armor shop in south Beauclair to start the 'Master Master Master Master!' quest to find the diagrams.

The Witcher 3 Remastered releases this week, bringing updated visuals, a tonne of quality of life tweaks, and even some new features like armor transmog, to the 10-year-old RPG.

The update arrives on September 29 everywhere, with a rolling release time throughout the day that's the same for both PC and console. Here's exactly when you can play:

• West Coast US: 3 am PDT
• East Coast US: 6 am EDT
• UK: 11 am BST
• Europe: 12 pm CEST
• Australia: 8 pm AEST
• New Zealand: 11 pm NZDT

You can see the other times in the image above. Since this is an update to a pre-existing version of the game, there is no preload, except apparently from Battlenet, since it's coming to that platform for the first time. The update is around 45GB.

What does The Witcher 3 Remastered add?

• Improved visuals
• Reimagined skill system
• Expanded photo mode
• Improved combat
• Transmog
• Other upgrades and QoL tweaks

Opening the auxiliary lines at the end of Part 6 in Silent Hill: Townfall is perhaps its most complicated yet simple puzzle. By this point in the game my brain was completely fried and my nerves were shot. So in case you're also in a bad spot, here are some tips to point you in the right direction.

Spoilers ahead for Silent Hill: Townfall

How to get to the Auxiliary Room

Before you head to the elevator and go up to the auxiliary room, you'll need to get the key. This can be found in the command centre, and the code to get into it is 0825. Inside, you'll find the key to the auxiliary room. Now you can head downstairs to the elevator, but be warned—this is where The Weight and other monsters are lurking, so you need to be cautious. You can make a mercy dash to the elevator as the doors close quickly, but it'll be tight.

Once you've made it to the next floor, there'll be a couple of smaller monsters who you can easily circumvent. Make sure to close the door to the auxiliary room once you're inside.

How to open the auxiliary lines

Here you'll find a pipe running across the walls with levers at various intervals. There's also a locker and a desk with a terminal. The first step is to open the locker and find the floppy disk. Then, head to the terminal and use the floppy disk to get your clue: a bunch of lines.

At first glance, this could look like morse code or some other cipher, but actually it's much simpler than it seems: It shows whether each lever needs to be horizontal or vertical. But not every lever is included: only the ones which are adjacent to one white line for the first row, two lines for the second, and three lines for the third.

Auxiliary Line 1

Auxiliary line 1 solution: | _ | | _ | _ | |

The first line starts on the wall next to the locker, just by the white arrow at the bottom of the wall, and includes all the levers which are next to the singular white lines on the pipes. The pattern goes like this:

1. vertical
2. horizontal
3. vertical
4. vertical
5. horizontal
6. vertical
7. horizontal
8. vertical
9. vertical

If you've done it right the light next to the last lever should turn green.

Auxiliary Line 2

Auxiliary line 2 solution: | _ _ _ | _ _ | |

The second line starts on the wall next to the locker by the middle white arrow. The pattern should be:

1. vertical
2. horizontal
3. horizontal
4. horizontal
5. vertical
6. horizontal
7. horizontal
8. vertical
9. vertical

Again, if you've done this right, then the light next to the last lever should turn green.

Auxiliary Line 3

Auxiliary line 3 solution: _ | | | _ | _ |

The third line starts on the opposite wall to the other two, above the second light that just turned green and the pattern should be:

1. horizontal
2. vertical
3. vertical
4. vertical
5. horizontal
6. vertical
7. horizontal
8. vertical

Again, if you've done it right the final light will turn green. That's the end of that, and now you can leave the room (be careful of the creepies), head back to the elevator, and make your way back to the control room (avoiding The Weight and other monsters) to wrap up your segment in the command centre.

It wasn't a long wait for some of my favorite Valheim mods to start working again after the 1.0 launch, and just as I expected, there were plenty of new fan-made features to tinker with. I'm still digging through the sea of new creations, but here's a list of some of the best Valheim mods I've found so far—along with advice on your mod manager options.

Valheim mod managers and required mods

Best gameplay mods

Best building and furniture mods

Best quality-of-life mods

Best visual tools and texture mods

This week there's another challenge to complete in Forza Horizon 6. This time we've got the Shimanoyama Treasure Hunt to track down, and doing it will grant you some season progress. The British Automotive Festival Series is currently underway and there are a couple of season reward cars to grab, namely the Vauxhall Astra VXR and Bentley Bentayga. Finding and smashing this chest will get you a little closer to earning them.

Forza Horizon 6 Shimanoyama region Treasure Hunt location

You can find this treasure chest in the far south of Shimanoyama, on a winding road that goes through the snowy hills. It's north of the Izu Skyline and southwest of Matsumi Great Bridge, just north of the big freeway that connects Tokyo to the stadium in Shimanoyama.

You can see the location above, but the best way to get there is:

1. Head northwest out of Tokyo.
2. Continue along the winding trails into the Shimanoyama region.
3. Navigate to the point shown above, keeping an eye off to the side of the road where the chest is easily visible.

Simply smash into it as usual and you'll get 100,000 credits, 5,000 XP, and three Season Progress points towards those two season cars. For more progress, make sure to complete the photo challenge at the Bamboo Forest .

Much to my embarrassment, while I was mid-complaint about my new wall of Valheim storage chests, a fellow Viking hit me with, "You know you can color code those signs, right?" Duh, of course I know that. Well, I swear I did, but totally forgot about the handy feature that doesn't require a single mod. In case you forgot too, I'm here to remind you—or teach you a quick tip for organizing Valheim storage with colorful text codes for signs.

Codes for sign colors

You can change a sign's text color in Valheim through markup codes. For those even vaguely familiar with traditional HTML, you won't need to close these style commands, but keep in mind you still have limited text space on a sign, so keep them short.

You can use any 6-digit hex value, so check out the color code calculator on W3 Docs to find more, or reference the table I used from Unity. It's a fairly straightforward process, but I'll leave you with a few extra color-changing tips:

• Some of the color names listed above work in place of their hex code
• If using a color name, remove '#' and replace it with 'color='
  • Example: Red becomes Red sign

Codes for sign text size and style

Other markup attributes from the Unity guide also work in Valheim. You can use a few at a time for text styles like bigger italics, colorful bolds, or extra spacing and alignment.

Unicode characters for signs

You can take your Valheim signs even further by adding Unicode characters. I find the W3 Schools chart to be the most helpful, but they don't all work, so I've included a few below for reference.

Example Valheim signs

You don't have to stop at just one code when customizing your text, so I've made a few examples you can use to test things out. Change the variables as needed, and remember to heed the 50-character limit—lest your signs wind up with awkwardly cut-off words or floating text.

World of Warcraft: Forever is a new branch of the MMO that's making its debut this week in a month-long beta before the whole thing drops in November. It will be the first opportunity to experience some of the new quests, dungeons, and class abilities that Blizzard has added to a version of the MMO that will never move on past the original game.

Here's everything you need to know about the WoW: Forever beta, how to get access, and what's available in it.

When does the World of Warcraft: Forever beta start?

The WoW: Forever beta begins on Thursday, September 17 on PC. Anyone who has preordered the Skyborne Epic Pack or the Warcraft Forever Collection will have access as soon as it opens.

Blizzard says the WoW: Forever beta will go live after the live Q&A at 10:30 am PT. It's unclear how long the stream will go, but I'd expect it to last around 30 minutes.

Here are the stream times across regions on September 17:

• 10:30 am PDT (Los Angeles)
• 1:30 pm EDT (New York)
• 6:30 pm BST (London)
• 7:30 pm CEST (Berlin)
• 3:30 am August 29 AEST (Sydney)
• 5:30 am August 29 NZST (Auckland)

You'll have about a month to try the game out before the beta ends on October 21.

How to access the World of Warcraft: Forever beta

There are two ways to get into the WoW: Forever beta. The first requires purchasing one of the two premium versions of the game from Blizzard's store. Both the Skyborne Epic Pack ($59.99) and the Warcraft Forever Collection ($79.99) will grant you beta access. Alternatively, you can leave it to chance and sign up for it on the WoW: Forever website by clicking the "Beta Opt-in" button at the top of the page.

You can check if you have access to the WoW: Forever beta by opening the Battle.net launcher dropdown menu under World of Warcraft and selecting "World of Warcraft: Forever".

What is available in the World of Warcraft: Forever beta?

The WoW: Forever beta will be split into two phases. At the start, you won't be able to go past level 20. Then, after two weeks, the level cap will be raised to level 30 and will stay there until the beta ends.

Every race and class will be available to play, including the new Skyborne elves (if you preorder).

Here's how each phase will work:

Phase 1 (September 17)

• Level 20 cap
• New class abilities and talents
• New Profession items
• New dungeons: Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron
• Legacy system

Phase 2 (~October 8)

• Level 30 cap
• New class abilities and talents
• New Profession items
• New dungeon: Excavation Site: Wetlands
• Legacy system

Aniimo codes can help you buy items to alter the stats or appearance of your adorable (only occasionally intimidating) Aniimo companions, or just straight up give you the items to do so. Whatever gift codes contain, they're free! So even if you don't need the rewards right now, it's best to redeem Aniimo codes as soon as pawsible, before they expire and your rewards are gone furever.

All active Aniimo codes

• aniimofreetoplay - 3 Growth Flower and 10,000 Credits NEW
• aniimotogether - 50 Glimmer, 5 Aniipod Pro, 5 Growth Flower NEW
• aniimoidyll - 5 Aniipod and 10,000 Credits
• aniimowelcome - 50 Glimmer, 5 Aniipod Pro, 5 Growth Flower
• twinewithaniimo - 50 Glimmer, 5 Aniipod Pro, 5 Growth Flower
• anyoneaniimo - 5 Aniipod and 10,000 Credits
• aniimoopenworld - 5 Aniipod and 10,000 Credits
• aniimolaunch2026 - 5 Aniipod and 10,000 Credits
• aniimobonus - 50 Glimmer
• ANIIMOGIFT - 10 Glimmer, 20,000 Credits, 10 Growth Flower, 5 Aniipod Pro
• Aniimo2026 - 20 Glimmer

Expired codes

• aniimoparty - 50 Glimmer, 5 Aniipod Pro, 5 Growth Flower

How to Redeem Aniimo codes

Aniimo codes are redeemed in-game from the settings menu, which is accessed from the main phone menu. You also need to complete "Chasing The Clouds" with Dr. Lewis to unlock the in-game mail menu to receive your rewards, though.

To save you getting lost in the tabs, here's step-by-step instructions on how to redeem codes in Aniimo:

1. Press ESC to bring up the phone main menu
2. Click the cog symbol in the column on the right to go to Settings
3. Select the Account tab on the left
4. Click the Gift Code Redemption option
5. Input the code and press Redeem
6. Open your in-game mail in the Esc menu
7. Press "Claim" to receive rewards

Codes are case sensitive, so you need to enter them exactly as shown.

Your reward will then be sent to your in-game mailbox. It should show up right away, but the message can take a few minutes to appear. If you haven't received your rewards after five minutes, try fast travelling to another area. If that still doesn't work, restart the game and check your in-box again after your log in.

What's the best item to get from codes?

There's usually a clear winner when it comes to items and currencies dished out via codes when it comes to live service games like Aniimo, but seeing as Aniimo isn't a gacha anymore the best items you get from codes is a little more subjective.

Aniipod Ultras guarantee a 100% catch rate with Elite potential for any catchable Aniimo, and they're one of the pricier items, so they're always welcome. Likewise if a Sparkling Cube or Prismana Orb ever shows up in codes, they guarantee a shiny Perfect potential, and rare Prismana form Aniimo, respectively. These two are even rarer than Aniipod Ultras, so if you ever see a code including one of these two Aniipod variants, make sure you redeem them before they expire!

Glimmer is the best currency to get, as it can be exchanged for a lot of helpful items, including Aniipod Ultras, Primegy (your daily stamina currency), and items to customize your player character and Aniimo. Otherwise, eggs are always nice, as even if you already have Aniimo included in an egg's specific hatching pool, there's always the chance it could be a rarer variant with better stats.

Aniimo smooshes cute creature capturing and open world exploration together to serve us a meal with notes of Genshin Impact, Infinity Nikki, and the grandaddy of trapping critters in balls: Pokemon. But although it may look like developer Pawprint Studio has included a side of gacha with that meal, it's actually a little more complicated than that.

Is Aniimo a gacha game?

Is Aniimo a gacha?

No, Aniimo is not a gacha game. Despite having all the bells and whistles a gacha usually throws at us—including about a thousand currencies and menus to stress over—Aniimo doesn't have any banner systems that gacha games like Genshin Impact or Infinity Nikki do.

All Aniimo, their equipment, Aniimo eggs, and anything related to cute critter combat and fashion is not linked to random odds, or reaching an arbitrary "pity" number that eventually guarantees something after enough pulls. You get Aniimo (and most other items) just by playing the game, seriously, and instead most (but not all) cosmetics are linked to coughing up a fixed amount of cash in the store.

I swear I heard Animmo was a gacha though

That's because Aniimo did have a gacha system, but only during its final beta. The Rift Exploration event—AKA a banner—was a very sneaky inclusion, because these rifts involved spending a premium currency for the chance to catch a Legendary Aniimo by filling up a bar, not pulling on a banner with a button press.

It didn't look like your regular banner system, but the capture rate for the Legendary Aniimo was so miniscule that unless you got very lucky, you probably had to rely on reaching "pity" to finally guarantee catching it—just like a banner in any other gacha.

Rift Exploration was very poorly received by beta testers and future players alike. The rifts reportedly got stale and repetitive real quick, plus, lots of people pointed out the developers had promised many times that Aniimo wouldn't be locked behind gacha. For Aniimo's full launch, Rift Exploration has been replaced with a token collection system.

Developer Pawprint Studio never mentioned Rift Explorations were changed because of the gacha backlash in the official blog post, but I'm willing to gamble (one last time) that it sure contributed to the change.

Aniimo monetization

Then how is Aniimo trying to get my money?

As a free-to-play live service game, Aniimo is of course still trying to shake down your wallet, even without a gacha system. Its monetization model of choice is a cosmetics shop where you convert real life money into Lumin Crystals, then exchange that currency for outfits and accessories for your playable character and Aniimo. Some cosmetics are available for free by using one of the other in-game currencies, but the coolest and cutest sets will inevitably be locked behind a paywall.

Another "give us your money" tactic is Aniimo's shop bundles, which asks for Lumin Crystals (your real money) in exchange for Aniipods, profile backgrounds, Aniimo stat alterations, guaranteed ways to get rare versions of Aniimo, or other types of currency. You can still get some of these items by spending the Glimmer or Credits currency instead, or from rewards by just playing the game, but you bet they're far harder to get this way.

Then there's the inevitable battle pass, which Aniimo calls a "Companion Handbook" (for twee capitalism purposes, I guess). A free tier is unlocked automatically, but two premium tracks include extra goodies, including Aniimo, cosmetics, and a fast-track to higher battle pass levels.

So how do you get Aniimo then?

So many ways. The main method is throwing an Aniipod to capture one minding its own business while you explore, during Alpha and Omega battles, or at an activated Bloom spot.

Another way to get Aniimo is by hatching eggs. These come in different rarities, with lots of variety in which Aniimo can hatch from what egg. You can even choose an Aniipod during the hatching process to turn that Aniimo into a guaranteed shiny, or one with elite stats to terrify the halls of PvP.

Other Aniimo are rewarded by completing events, the battle pass, or just playing the game. This includes Legendary Aniimo, which you get by collecting unique tokens, then playing through the Legendary's story before chucking your special Aniipod at it and guaranteeing a capture.

Wondering how to fish in Valheim? When you're not slaying Odin's enemies in the Norse underworld, it makes perfect sense to kick back with a relaxing bit of fishing. And if you've spent time on a raft or ship, or even just wandered close to a body of water, you've probably already seen a few fish swimming around. But how do you catch them? Don't worry, it's not hard, but you'll need a little bit of gear and a lot of stamina.

Valheim fishing rod: How to get it

It's a bit unfortunate that in a world where you craft all your own gear, you can't craft a fishing rod. But at least there's Haldor, the vendor you'll (eventually) find in the black forest.

Haldor sells fishing rods for 350 coins, and sells 20 pieces of basic bait for 10 coins.

If you haven't found Haldor already, you can check our guide on how to increase your Valheim inventory size for a few tips on locating Valheim's NPC vendor.

If you're a real gambler, you can attempt to find a fishing rod out in the world. They are very rarely found as loot in frost caves in the mountains biome. I'd probably stick with buying one from Haldor, though: I've got over 150 hours in Valheim and I've never found a fishing rod in a frost cave.

How to fish in Valheim

Fishing is stamina based: you'll need to spend stamina to reel your fish in, so prepare yourself as you would going into battle: by eating enough food to give you a full stamina bar and by bringing some stamina meads with you.

With the rod equipped and the bait selected in your inventory (by right-clicking it), press mouse 1 (or your attack button) to cast your line into the water. When a fish swims near and nibbles—your bobbin will be tugged—click mouse 2 (or your block button). That will instantly hook your fish.

To reel in your fish, hold down mouse 2: that will drain your stamina while reeling in the fish. If you run out of stamina before you finish reeling it in, the fish will escape.

When the fish is close to you, you'll be able to target it with your crosshairs and press E (or your use button) to pick it up.

Fishing tips

• Fish are physical entities that spawn into the world, so if you don't see any fish in the water nearby, you're not going to catch anything.
• To find fish, run along the edge of the water and try to spot them swimming around, then aim your cast there.
• You can also take a boat out into the water to look for groups of fish. Just watch out for sea serpents, which are a little too big to land with a fishing rod.
• You can craft bait from fish you catch using the food preparation table. The food preparation table can be made with 5 iron, 15 leather scraps, and 20 finewood.
• Make sure you have spare room in your inventory for your catches!
• You can also catch fish by hand if you're fast enough. They sometimes wash up on beaches, too.
• There's a fishing hat you'll learn to craft by catching at least one of every different fish in Valheim. It gives you a +20 to your fishing skill.

The Aniimo release time is almost here, unveiling the world of Idyll and its many creatures for you to catch. This game certainly seems to be trying to tap into that Palworld vein of an open world filled with recruitable monsters, though admittedly with fewer guns and survival crafting elements. Aniimo is also free-to-play, though apparently not a gacha game, so expect some slightly different monetisation. All that said, here's when you can play Aniimo.

Aniimo release times for each region

The Aniimo release date is September 15 or 16 depending on your timezone. For folks in the US, it'll be the former, while for those in Europe and the UK, it'll be the latter.

Here's exactly when you can load in:

September 15

• West Coast US: 7 pm PST
• East Coast US: 10 pm EST

September 16

• UK: 3 am BST
• Europe: 4 pm CEST
• Australia: 12 pm AEST
• New Zealand: 3 pm NZST

If you're unsure whether you can run Aniimo, you can find its specifications on the Steam page.

Can you preload Aniimo?

Yes, the Aniimo preload unlocks on September 14 at 10 am (UTC+8), which means it's already available. You can download the Aniimo launcher from the official website and then preload the game itself—the size is about 40gb, though the actual download was only 28 for me.

Whether you're a Valheim veteran or playing for the first time, at some point you're going to stop and ask "Is there any way to increase the size of my inventory? And finally, as of Valheim 1.0, the answer is yes, you can!

Inventory size in Valheim is famously small, with just eight hotbar slots and 24 inventory slots. Especially since worn armor takes up slots, your inventory is going to be full quickly and constantly, making it tough to haul back all the loot and resources you find in the world. At long last, there's something you can do about it.

How to increase your inventory in Valheim

1. Defeat bosses. This is important: before you can increase your inventory you'll need to defeat a couple of key Valheim bosses.

The first inventory upgrade becomes available once you've defeated Moder in the Mountains biome. The second inventory upgrade becomes available once you've defeated the Queen in the Mistlands.

2. Visit Haldor. The NPC merchant in the Black Forest now sells two inventory upgrades in exchange for coins, with each upgrade giving you an extra row in your inventory, meaning you can add a total of 16 extra slots.

Here are the inventory expansions Haldor sells:

• Wider pockets (+8 slots): 1000 coins
• Deeper pockets (+8 slots): 2000 coins

How to find Haldor

If you're new to Valheim, you may not have run into Haldor yet, and he can be hard to find. The vendor will only appear in the Black Forest biome, and there's not many ways to find him besides just going out into the world and looking.

To find Haldor in a Black Forest biome, you'll need to be at least 1,500 meters away from the center of the map. (There's a console command, "pos", that shows your coordinates and distance from the map's center—to learn how to use it, please visit our page on how to use Valheim console commands.)

You can also try putting your Valheim world seed into a third-party utility like the Valheim World Generator, though it may not show Haldor's location reliably until it's been updated to support Valheim 1.0.

When you get within a couple hundred meters of Haldor's camp, a white bag icon will appear on your minimap.

As for the coins you can spend at Haldor's camp, you can find them in chests, dungeons, and by killing monsters like trolls and fulings. You can also sell items like rubies, amber, and silver necklaces to Haldor in exchange for coins.

If you've started a new character or world in Valheim 1.0 from the beginning (or are playing it for the first time ever), you may be wondering about the Battle Idols and Protection Idols you've found. While opening chests in Valhiem's various biomes, you will occasionally come across an item called a Battle Idol or Protection Idol made of wood, bronze, iron, or other materials.

These Idols don't seem to serve an immediate purpose, but hang onto any you find because you'll eventually be able to use them to upgrade your weapons and armor.

Valheim Idols: Where to find them

Idols can randomly be found as loot in chests, and chests can spawn in various places in the world: abandoned houses, burial chambers, ruined towers, shipwrecks, Viking graveyards, and other points of interest.

Which type of Idol you find will depend on what biome you're in:

• Wooden Idol: Meadows biome
• Bronze Idol: Black Forest biome
• Iron Idol: Swamp Biome
• Silver Idol: Mountains biome
• Black Metal Idol: Plains biome
• Black Marble Idol: Mistlands biome
• Flametal Idol: Ashlands biome
• Bloodgold Idol: Deep North biome

The Idols will allow you to upgrade your weapons and armor: the Battle Idols are used to improve your weapons, and the Protection Idols are used to improve your armor. You can only use Idols at one place: the Forge of Potential.

How to find the Forge of Potential

To find Valheim's Forge of Potential, you'll need to search the Mountains biome. Since it's so cold there, be sure to have items that keep you warm, like frost resistance mead, or a wolf fur cape or wolf fur armor chestpiece to avoid freezing.

Once you're close to the Forge of Potential, an icon that looks like an Idol will appear on your map:

In both worlds I've found it in, the Forge of Potential has been very close to boss Moder's summoning altar, but I don't know if that's a rule for where it appears or if that was just luck. Both times it has been near the top of a tall peak, however.

How to use the Forge of Potential

The forge is a workbench you can use to upgrade your gear if you have an Idol and suitable gear in your inventory. Each Idol will work with gear made of the same material: if you have a Bronze Protection Idol, for example, you can upgrade a piece of armor made of Bronze. An Iron Battle Idol will let you upgrade an iron weapon.

Interacting with the Forge will let you select the gear you want to upgrade if you have an Idol in your inventory. Press the "Attempt Refinement" button to activate it.

Important: The Forge has a chance of failure. If your refinement fails, the gear you're attempting to upgrade will be destroyed, though you'll recover the crafting materials needed to remake it. You won't be able to use the Forge of Potential to recraft it, however: it can only be used for upgrades.

You'll also take damage if your upgrade fails, so be sure you're at full health!

Forge of Potential upgrade results

Is upgrading worth it? Here's a look at one example of a bronze sword I upgraded at the Forge of Potential:

You can see that the durability increased by 50 points, slash damage went from 41 (11-24) up to 47 (13-27), and block force went from 25 to 30, but all other stats remained the same.

Wardogs is pretty approachable for a milsim, but very complex for a military shooter. The 100-player king of the hill FPS is somewhere between Battlefield and Squad in terms of realism, but it's also got elements of Counter-Strike and extraction shooters. It's a weird game, but very fun.

If you have experience in both, you're already ahead of the game, but if you've never played an FPS with dedicated driver and logistic roles, then let me ease you into it. These are my best beginner tips for understanding Wardogs, including its unique economy systems and transportation.

When you're done reading them, it's also worth checking out my guide to making money fast in Wardogs.

Never leave spawn without these

If you're about to jump on a heli without any of these, turn around:

• Two extra magazines
• 3-5 bandages
• A dot sight (unless you really like iron sights)
• A class gadget, like binoculars, a hammer, or RPG

Yea, it all costs a few extra hundred bucks, but you'll make that back by simply standing in the zone for a few minutes. Better to be prepared.

Don't buy 5 magazines, buy loose ammo

Wardogs' streamlined vendor makes it easy to buy extra magazines, but it doesn't explain the value of loose ammo. Loose ammo can be purchased in stacks of 100 that only take up two inventory slots. When your magazines run empty, you can press C from the inventory screen to automatically replenish magazines from your stack of loose ammo. Filling magazines takes time, but the inventory and wallet savings are worth it.

Never drive to the zone if you don't have to

There are very few scenarios where it makes sense to drive from spawn to the zone. It's a 3km journey that can take 4-5 minutes depending on the car, so you're almost always better off waiting for a transport chopper. Typically, every team has volunteer helicopter pilots eager to ferry people back and forth to the action (the job pays pretty well). Even if you have to stand around in spawn for 30 seconds to a minute waiting for the next chopper, it's way faster than buying a set of wheels.

Hold Shift to steady aim

You can momentarily reduce aim sway with any gun by holding Shift while aiming. This will also slightly zoom in your view—great for firing in controlled bursts from dozens of meters away.

Use the rebuy button

If you want to buy the same loadout you had last time, press the "Re-buy Loadout" button in the bottom left of the vendor. You'll be shown a list of the gear and its total cost, and you can make last minute subtractions if desired. The button will go away if you purchase something before pressing it.

Don't just sit at your FOB (unless)

Helicopter pilots will often drop you off at the nearest friendly FOB (forward operating base) by default, but you shouldn't stick around there unless you have something to do, like build, snipe, or use artillery. Leave the FOB and go do something productive, like capture the Hot Zone (yellow circle), disrupt enemy FOBs, capture towers, blow up enemy vehicles, whatever really. The FOB is a safe place to get your bearings, but you don't need to stand around and defend it constantly (unless there's an active siege, of course).

Loot bodies

You can loot any dead body and pilfer all of its gear. You should do this constantly to replenish ammo, bandages, and swap out your banged-up armor for a fresher set. Bodies themselves will disappear once the player "gives up," but a lootable backpack will remain for several minutes.

Don't snitch on your medic

If you go down around enemies, read the room before calling for help. Enemies can hear every word you're saying over mic. If you can see a teammate is nearby, assume they're coming for you but don't want to reveal their position by running straight toward you. Calling out their name or even saying "thanks" as they're reviving you could tip off nearby enemies. Play it cool and make sure the coast is clear. If you want to tell nearby friendlies where enemies are, use the team text channel.

Target the enemy APC

Each team gets one boxy, rectangular APC painted the color of their team (red, blue, or green). This is a mobile spawn point for that entire team, and blowing it up is both strategically helpful and very profitable. If you see one, pelt it with RPGs, IEDs, or C4.

When in doubt, bring binoculars

If you don't have any other class gadgets unlocked and don't want to build FOBs, just buy binoculars. They're cheap and incredibly powerful: Looking through them makes it easy to spot enemy players, and holding LMB over them will reveal their position to the whole team. This earns you a bunch of XP, money, and extra assist cash when spotted targets are killed. This is one of the easiest ways to help the team by far.

The new British Automotive Festival Series has begun in Forza Horizon 6, and that means some new regular challenges. This week's Ito Treasure Hunt has you searching for a chest in a pretty hard-to-locate field, with few landmarks to gauge its location except a house in the background and a mountain. However, if you want the Summer Season progress points towards the Ginetta G40 Junior and McLaren 620R, this is one to complete.

Forza Horizon 6 Ito region Treasure Hunt location

This week, the treasure chest is located south of Ito Airfield towards the centre of the region. Ito is on the east side of the map, by the coast, but you've likely driven through it before. All you need to do to find the chest is:

1. Head south from Ito Airfield until the farmlands are to your west.
2. Take the road going between the north and south sections of the farmland.
3. The road will cross a train track with a house to your right—turn left before crossing into a small tree-less area where the chest is located.

Simply smash into it as usual and you'll get 100,000 credits, 5,000 XP, and three Season Progress points towards those two Summer Season cars. For more progress, make sure to complete the photo challenge at Shimanoyama Circuit.

Have you met Valheim 1.0's mountainous menace, the Gammeltroll? If you've made your way to Valheim's final biome, the Deep North, you've probably seen and fought it already: the Gammeltroll is a 30-foot tall rock monster who pelts you with tree trunks from range and stomps you into paste if you get too close.

Most interestingly, when you defeat the Gammeltroll, it doesn't fall down. Instead, it turns into a statue called a "Petrified Gammeltroll." You can chip away at its legs all you want, but even the toughest pickaxe in the game won't make a dent. And as you might have guessed, inside the Gammeltroll awaits a critical new resource you'll need to conquer the frozen biome. So, how do you mine it?

Valheim: How to mine the petrified Gammeltroll

The key to destroying the petrified Gammeltroll lies in the previous biome, the Ashlands, plus a new resource found in the Deep North.

Once you have ember charges, equip them and throw them at the petrified Gammeltroll. I find it best to throw them at its ankles from point blank range, then run away before they explode. With this method, it only takes two ember charges, one for each ankle, to destroy the statue.

(I wouldn't advise using ember charges as weapons against a living Gammeltroll. It'll damage the troll, but not enough to be worth it.)

When the troll collapses into a pile of rubble, collect your new resource, Petrified Tissue! Be warned, it's very heavy so you can't carry much, and it won't pass through wooden portals, only stone ones. Back at your base, throw it into your blast furnace and see what you get!

Playing Wardogs is a bit like playing Battlefield, except you have to buy every gun, magazine, helmet, and kevlar vest yourself. It's a milsim FPS that runs on a personal wallet—doing useful things for the team makes you money used to unlock permanent upgrades and temporary gear.

Wardogs is designed in a way that lets you play any role you want and still be a profitable teammate. But especially early on, it can be tough to make enough cash to consistently fund unlocks, and the game doesn't spell out some of the most lucrative playstyles. Based on dozens of hours in closed beta tests, here are some early tips for making money fast in Wardogs.

Bulkhead has stated the economy of the beta will change for the early access release, so some of these figures might change at launch. I'll be sure to update figures once we know them.

Spot, spot, spot with binoculars

The safest, simplest, and surprisingly efficient way to make money in Wardogs from minute one is to buy a $75 pair of binoculars. Binoculars (and its fancier variants) allow you to spot enemy soldiers, vehicles, and structures, temporarily marking them on the map and in-world for teammates.

On top of just doing a nice thing for your team, each successful spot (holding left-click over a visible target) earns you a small cash prize immediately, and when a teammate kills that target, you get an assist worth hundreds. The nice part of this strategy early on is you don't have to stick your neck out and risk your loadout before you understand the game: just perch up on a hill with a few of the Hot Zone or enemy FOBs, lay down, and be your team's eyes and ears.

Build a FOB

Another extremely safe, profitable playstyle is to grab a hammer, buy a FOB module, and build a base for your team in a strategically useful location. The default FOB spot at the start of the match is the tower nearest to your spawn. Ask your heli pilot to load up with FOB supplies (or do this yourself), and head to a tower. Once you're there:

1. Place the FOB
2. Build it by holding LMB with your hammer (hitting the yellow X's makes it go faster)
3. Use FOB supplies to build a perimeter of walls, gates, and Hesco blocks

Every productive swing of a hammer earns cash ($15 in the beta), and completing a build can be worth more than getting a kill ($1,200 to $1,500).

Revive others quickly and often

My favorite non-lethal way to make money while staying in the action is revives and heals. Reviving teammates is worth $900 (in the beta), and you can do it without buying any additional equipment. The problem is that the default revive speed is annoyingly slow, which is where resuscitators come in. The one-use revive items are cheap to buy in introductory levels, so if you want to become a human ambulance, you could:

1. Buy the biggest backpack you can
2. Fill it with resuscitators and bandages
3. Follow teammates in the backline
4. Quickly revive anyone who goes down for $900
5. Get extra assist cash when they go on to get kills
6. Heal teammates with bandages for $200 a pop

That's what I did during beta weekends until I reached Medic level 11 and unlocked the defibrillator. Defibs are a larger investment at $1,600 (and $150 batteries), but they're the quickest way to revive teammates and each battery is good for five revives.

Drive the spawn vehicle to the zone

This won't always be an option, as only one person can do the job at a time, but driving your team's spawn vehicle (the APC with a satellite dish on top) from HQ to the zone is a quick gig that pays royalties. You can drive the APC to a FOB, leave it there, and make money every time a teammate uses it.

Be a taxi

The best way to get from spawn to the zone in Wardogs is the spawn APC. When that's not an option, everyone needs a taxi. The cheapest way to earn cash as a virtual uber is to practice flying a helicopter in the firing range, then ferry people back and forth to the zone. Not only do you get direct cash for dropping people off in the zone, but nice people will give you tips, and you'll also get assist cash if they go on to get kills.

You have to be in the mood to do this job well: Helicopters aren't cheap for a new player, and you have to be good enough at flying to not crash or get blasted out of the sky by an RPG. Plus, you're essentially ignoring the shooting part of this shooter, which won't appeal to everybody. The reward is a steady stream of money and happy teammates.

Be a cheapskate

Not much to this one: Buy the cheapest guns, fill them with the cheapest ammo, paper-thin armor, and go get a kill. It's not the most exciting playstyle, but it can be if you treat it like a free loadout in an extraction shooter. Get a kill, loot that enemy corpse, and steal all of their better gear. Saving money while making money.

Play the Hot Zone

If you hadn't already noticed, you passively earn money for simply standing in the Hot Zone—hundreds of dollars by the minute, actually. You don't even have to shoot anyone, but you will earn extra for killing and assisting in the Hot Zone. If you want to get in the action, there's no better place to be.

The Wardogs release date fast approaches, following its super popular beta last weekend before it enters early access. As our own FPS aficionado Morgan Park notes, it's a "100-player milsim that's inspired by Arma but plays like Battlefield," and its formula of cash-earning, all-out warfare is definitely appealing to a cross-section of game-hungry shooter crowds. Here's when you can expect to play the game in your timezone.

Wardogs release times for each region

The Wardogs release date is September 10 for most regions, though it'll drop on September 11 in certain territories due to timezones and its simultaneous release. Here's when you can expect to play (confirmed by Steam):

September 10

• West Coast US: 9 am PST
• East Coast US: 12 pm EST
• UK: 5 pm BST
• Europe: 6 pm CEST

September 11

• Australia: 2 am AEST
• New Zealand: 4 am NZST

If you're unsure whether you can run Wardogs, you can check its requirements on the Steam page.

Can you preload Wardogs?

Yes, there is a preload for Wardogs and it's currently available. The download is 41.7GB, though the download footprint is slightly higher—simply load up Steam and install the game to get it started before launch.

Viking survival crafting has changed quite a bit since the days of early access, and though Valheim's biome order remains mostly the same in 1.0, there's plenty of new details to keep track of for lapsed players. If you want to make it to the new biome as soon as possible, I've got a handy progression guide to hold your hand all the way from the Meadows to the Deep North.

Meadows

The shrine you spawn at is always located in Valheim's most peaceful biome, the Meadows. Since it's relatively chill compared to other zones filled with creatures desperate to kill you, I lump it in with the Black Forest as Valheim's beginner zone. Your main goal here is to set up a small base, gather leather for armor, and get a Deer Trophy to summon Eikthyr.

Feel free to tiptoe along the edge of the Black Forest for extra goodies and upgrades, but don't stray too far. Bears and Trolls make quick snacks of low-level Vikings.

Black Forest

You'll spend a lot of time running back and forth from your Meadows base to the Black Forest for new materials, so bring Eikthyr's head back to the spawn shrine to receive the deer god's buff. Use the Hard Antlers from Eikthyr to make the Antler Pickaxe and mine as much Tin and Copper as possible—you'll need a ton of ore to smelt into ingots. I always prioritize making a Bronze Pickaxe as my first upgrade so the process goes faster.

Be careful about picking fights with Trolls or Bears, and start hoarding materials from dungeons to build portals. When you're done here, we'll make a boat and set sail for muddier waters.

Black Forest dungeons

Swamps

Trudging through Valheim's Swamps can be a real pain in the ass, so pace yourself and brew plenty of poison resist potions. I tend to blow through Surtling Cores when I reach the hostile waters here, making portals for easy travel and extra bases to process Iron Ore.

Above all else, try to be patient. It's easy to get caught in a cycle of repetitive deaths, and if you aren't careful, your viking will rack up serious skill level losses.

Swamp dungeons

Mountains

The Mountains are your first encounter with Valheim's frigid cold and you'll take damage if you visit without protection, so make yourself a Wolf Fur Cape or stock up on Frost Resistance potions. Think of it as training for the Deep North. Everything here is a bit more cumbersome, including the hunt for new ore. You'll need to carry the Wishbone from Bonemass to find Silver Ore deposits, then start digging when it whirs to signal a hit.

The terrain is often your biggest challenge. Running from enemies occasionally means sprinting off a cliff or running out of stamina before a fight, while nightfall brings increasingly aggressive wolf packs and a new vicious enemy, Fenrings.

Mountains dungeons

Plains

The Plains may be easier to jog across, but everything here hits hard. Deathsquitos live up to their name with just one hit, while the cackling Fulings are good at ragebaiting me into fights I can't handle—don't fall for their taunting. You'll also find another nighttime enemy in the Plains, the Viles. They're powerful undead versions of the Black Forest's bears, but a high-risk, high-reward enemy to farm if you're keen on making the Vilebone bow armor from their remains.

When you're feeling brave and well-prepared, try raiding a few Fuling villages. They're great sources of Barley and Flax, the latter of which you'll need a ton of for crafting Linen Thread required by gear upgrades.