Marvel Rivals' season 9.5 launches today, and it will be bringing with it magical supervillain and hooded cloak aficionado, The Hood, who'll be appearing on August 7. Ahead of that, let's dig into the patch notes.

The gist of the season 9.5 adjustments is that most Vanguards have been buffed. Devil Dinosaur, Doctor Strange, Magneto, and Rogue have all got some small adjustments which are as follows:

• Devil Dinosaur: Minor buff to Frenzied Feast and his Team-Up ability with Jeff now lasts longer with more healing for allies.
• Doctor Strange: Daggers of Denak do more single-hit damage and Gamma Maelstrom cooldown (Team-Up with Hulk) has been decreased.
• Magneto: His Metallic Chaos projectile (Team-Up with Scarlet Witch) now adds a minor launch up effect to enemies.
• Rogue: Her damage reduction multiplier has been upped while in Defensive Stance and her Regen Shield capacity has been increased.

Unfortunately, at least if you play them, two Vanguards have been given the opposite treatment. The first being Venom, who has had his bonus health reduced and swing cooldown increased "to ensure he has to swing with a bit more strategy". Basically: NetEase needed to stop Venom players diving the backline with almost no consequences.

The second is Peni Parker: "We are slightly weakening Peni's control and survivability," a dev note reads. "In particular, the Immobilize effect applied by her Cyber-Web Snare was too frequent and oppressive, leading to a poor counter-experience for her enemies. We've decided to increase the cost of applying this control, but in return, we will also increase the freedom of her secondary fire." There are more adjustments including some Duelist buffs and a rare couple of Strategist nerfs which you can check out also.

But the main draw of season 9.5 isn't the balance changes, it's the new villain joining the Vanguard crew, The Hood. His design looks cool, some have even noted similarities between his ultimate form to none other than the Gun Devil from Chainsaw Man. But his kit looks very familiar to other Marvel Rivals heroes like Hela's ultimate, Deadpool's primary fire, and CnD's blind. There's even some similarities with Overwatch's latest addition Shion. Hopefully his kit will be more interesting to play than it is to look at.

Cinder City, the upcoming "open-world cinematic third-person shooter set in a fallen near-future Seoul," popped some eyes earlier this year when it came to Steam recommending 64GB of RAM. That turned out to be a mistake, but the minimum requirement is still 32GB, which is a lot—more than the majority of respondents to the most recent Steam Hardware and Software Survey have, anyway—and as PC Gamer's Nick Evanson noted at the time, either the remaining specs contain other, still-uncorrected mistakes, "or the game is an unholy mess of non-optimization."

That complicates the usefulness of those system requirements somewhat, so here's a more practical way of determining whether your rig is up to snuff: A pre-alpha playtest set to run August 14-16, and you can sign up for a shot at access right now.

A few things to note: The playtest is open only to people in the US, you have to be at least 16 to take part, and it's all under NDA: "Recording gameplay, taking screenshots, streaming, publishing posts, or uploading any content related to the playtest is strictly prohibited."

But if you fit within that demographic and don't mind keeping your secrets, the playtest presents an opportunity to see Cinder City in a live environment and get a sense of how it's going to handle on your PC. Naturally it won't be the final word on the topic: It's a "pre-alpha" version, and publisher NC said when it corrected that wild RAM recommendation that "as optimization work continues, the final system requirements at launch may be lower than those currently listed."

Still, if the playtest runs reasonably well on your PC, you can pretty safely expect the final release version will too—and if it's a train wreck, hey, at least it was free, right? There's also the possibility that Cinder City will be a good game, which is always a nice bonus when it comes to this sort of thing.

And yes, there will be further opportunities to see how that optimization work is going, if you don't get into this round or find it kind of iffy: More playtests, which will seemingly be open to more regions, will follow this one.

The Coalition is finally talking about the multiplayer half of Gears of War: E-Day, and its pitch is a bit different from other big-budget multiplayer shooters of the moment.

As I talked about in my hands-on preview that went up today, E-Day multiplayer is split between Horde Siege (PvE) and Versus (PvP). Both formats were fun, and I was pleasantly surprised by how 2007 everything feels—classic arena modes, mirrored loadouts, and light customization.

I speculated that The Coalition might be making an 'anti-live-service' game, and now that I'm reading the studio's own words about multiplayer, the stated vibe of E-Day is literally "return to old school." The Coalition is not holding back regarding its progression and cosmetics plans, especially.

"Remember the good ol’ days when you bought a game and you could unlock all the customization items just by playing because you already bought the game? Us too! So, when it comes to growing your own collection of customization items in E-Day, we’ve taken a more old-school inspired approach," a multiplayer deep dive blog reads.

"Nearly every single item in Gears of War: E-Day can be earned by simply playing the game. That means no battle pass, no tour of duty, no gimmicks, no bullshit."

E-Day will launch with 60 unlockable characters across the two main factions, nearly all of which are either unlocked through challenges or in-game currency. Free maps, modes, and cosmetics will arrive throughout five planned seasons (which sounds like a year of support). There will be the occasional "partnered item" sold for cold hard cash, but The Coalition says these will be "thoughtfully" considered within the world of Gears.

"Cosmetic items in E-Day are designed to feel gritty, grounded or inspired by the spirit and vibe of our brand. We love this universe and wanted to expand on it in exciting ways, so we skipped promotional cross-overs and IP partnerships for skins to focus on our own characters, world elements, and design," the blog reads.

"In the rare cases where we have partnered with another brand or artist, we’ve tried to be thoughtful and consider what would be the coolest way to experience that brand in-game. While our multiplayer cosmetics are not always considered canon, a lot of our character skins are inspired by the lore, themes, and events of the Gears universe. Our Legendary tier of skins can be a bit more over-the-top and imaginative, occasionally pushing into designs that build on the imagery and symbolism surrounding the Gears franchise."

The studio also feels strongly about not making E-Day too grindy. Some items can be unlocked with Coins, a free-to-earn currency gained by playing, leveling up, and earning medals. There is a weekly cap on Coins earned through grinding matches, but The Coalition is open to adjusting it through feedback.

"Earning Coins shouldn’t be an arduous grind. Chasing your favorite skin and unlocking new items should be fun. As such, we’ve carefully tuned the rate you earn Coins with this principle in mind and we’ll pay close attention to player feedback to adjust as necessary in post-launch."

This all sounds very classic and reasonable, until you get to the bit about E-Day's paid stuff—because yes, there will be plenty of paid stuff, too. Iron is the premium currency that can shortcut your way to cosmetics you don't feel like grinding Coins for. I guess "return to old school" is more of a suggestion than a rule.

About two months back, during Warhammer Skulls 10th anniversary showcase, Helldivers 2 revealed that its next Warbond was going to be a crossover with Warhammer 40k.

It was exciting news, especially considering the similarity of the settings, both beset on all sides by endless tides of terrifying aliens and robot men, though at least Super Earth doesn't have to contend with Chaos… yet.

However, all we got to see of the Warbond was some clips of folks painting minis with the info that the full reveal would come later. Well, as of today, Arrowhead Studios has shown off the contents of the Warbond and given us a release date of August 12.

You can find full details about what's contained in the Warbond in the following Steam blog post , but the broad strokes are:

• R/40-K Hot-Shot (a hot-shot las marksman rifle)
• P/40-K Bolt Pistol (your standard bolt sidearm)
• 40-K Meltagun Stratagem (a beam-firing anti-armour weapon)

And for grenades and armour:

• TG-8 Sharpshooter (Cadian-style Astra Militarum armour)
• TG-122 Demo Trooper (Kasrkin-style Astra Militarum armour)
• G/40-K Meltamine (a throwable anti-armour proximity mine)

There was also a load of new vehicle patterns, though these looked a little drab and lackluster to me.

As expected, though, the 40k Warbond is styled around the Imperial Guard instead of the Space Marines, which makes sense since the Astra Militarum are the closest comparable force to the Helldivers, being thrown, as they are, into impossible and frequently suicidal battles

We got a Lasgun with the R/40-K Hot-Shot and a bolt weapon with the P/40-K Bolt Pistol, but I am a little surprised we didn't get a Bolter or a Heavy bolter. The lack of any Chainsword is also a little disappointing, though melee weapons aren't exactly common picks in Helldivers 2.

Still, the Warbond is looking decent enough, especially the two iconic armour sets, though it would've been nice if it had included a few more weapons or Stratagems.

Getting older means you might wake up one day and realize you've missed Gears of War. I never counted the cover shooter that birthed a thousand copycats among my favorites, but the seven year break between Gears 5 and E-Day has reminded me how rarely a grungy, uncomplicated third-person shooter comes along these days, and just how good The Coalition has gotten at making them.

Last week, I played a few hours of Gears of War: E-Day multiplayer split between Horde Siege—this game's expanded take on its long-running PvE co-op—and standard Versus PvP. Both modes were unexpected, but not because Gears is venturing into uncharted territory. It's actually the opposite: There is no surprise battle royale, no extraction elements, not even Call of Duty loadouts.

E-Day is The Coalition saying loudly, and proudly, that multiplayer as it was 20 years ago was good for its own reasons, and I'm inclined to agree.

Versus

Take the sampling of E-Day Versus I had access to, which could've been plucked out of 2007: We've got 4v4, classic modes, and Locust v. COGs. My first round of team deathmatch couldn't have had a more perfect beginning: four meaty grunts sprinting toward the center of the map, immediately equipping the gnasher shotgun, and hipfiring wildly for an instagib. E-Day is appropriately gorey, though I noticed sustained damage doesn't produce the volume of blood it used to—perhaps an allowance to readability, or a consequence of hitmarkers now serving as the primary damage feedback.

Speaking of sprint, yes, the iconic roadie run is gone. The thick combatants of prequel Gears now run upright like normal people, which makes sense for E-Day's new emphasis on mobility, but is sad nonetheless.

Instead of pulling the camera in, sprinting now zooms out so you can survey surroundings and improvise where to go next. It's pretty much the inverse of the roadie run—which scrunched you down so you wouldn't get shot running in a straight line to the next piece of cover.

The Y button (on controller) is a dedicated jump (more of a heavy hop) that will also vault up or over cover, and you can also slide out of a sprint. It speaks to the consistency of Gears that the ability to hop on top of a waist-high planter is a newsworthy change. I'm not sure that's a big deal for combat, as cover is still the place to be in Gears, but it will let you easily take shortcuts across maps.

Movement struck me as the single biggest mechanical shift of E-Day, and it'll take more time than I had to fully judge it, but first impressions? Gears feels a little faster now, but still hefty. I like it.

I also like Gears' classic modes: Scatter power weapons with learnable locations around a map in 2026 and I will howl at the moon. Finding the torque bow or longshot was like leaping to the top of the food chain, and the predictability of starter weapons (lancers, gnashers, pistols) means 1v1s are decided by the little things like headshots, positioning, and map control. I can't speak to these changes myself as a lifelong casual, but it's also encouraging that The Coalition wants to clamp down on annoying "wall bouncing" techniques that turned past iterations of Gears Versus into inscrutable bumper cars with shotguns.

Horde Siege

It should be no surprise to report that the co-op PvE that helped popularize "horde" modes in general is still good, though E-Day's take on it is pretty different. Horde Siege is an 12-player variant that divides two squads up between missions on a large map.

The format almost seems inspired by Helldivers 2, or recent Black Ops Zombies: you drop in, complete objectives, and maybe hit up side missions along the way before extracting. There wasn't much to do or see on the city streets between mission zones—I spent a surprising amount of time sprinting down empty roads to where the action was, but the missions themselves are great little instances of wave-based survival. The preview build included a shorter beginner playlist with just one survival mission—took about 10 minutes total—but the full format is more like 30 to 45 minutes, depending on how many times your squad wipes.

I mostly played with randoms, but was able to squad up with US editor-in-chief Tyler Wilde for a full length match. I'm no Horde expert, so forgive me if this is old news for The Coalition's run of games, but I love how enemy aggression and health ramps up throughout the match.

Our first two defense missions were chill enough that we could comfortably banter about non-Gears things while sawing Locust in half, but that eventually changed when three-story mantis monsters and flying eyeball wraiths started showing up in numbers. The last mission—a king of the hill thing that had us "calibrating" zones in a park—gave us a lot of trouble. We wiped three times before wising up enough to prioritize targets and conserve power weapons. This was all on the lowest overall difficulty, mind you. I can't imagine the higher tiers will be feasible without a particularly lucky set of randoms or some mic'ed up friends who are decent at Gears.

Horde Siege also has permanent progression. You level up its four classes independently—Assault, Medic, Sniper, and Breacher—and each has a class ability. I mostly played Medic, whose area-of-effect heal bot that also revives downed allies seems essential. Guns can take attachments that upgrade core stats or add new functionality, like the bayonet I affixed to my gnasher for a gnarly one-two-punch. There's also armor mods and squad perks purchased mid-round with the same energy currency you use to build turret stations or resupply ammo.

Not a "forever" game

All fairly simple stuff for those who've kept up with co-op shooters since the advent of Horde—I don't foresee these customizations rising to the rank of "build crafting"—but maybe approachability is the point. The Coalition clearly doesn't want gear score or random chance to upstage good coordination, resource management, or finding the perfect camping spot where you can mow down Locust in relative safety. It's not mindless work, especially if you pick your difficulty accordingly, but it is more about endurance than grinding.

I wonder, though, if Horde Siege will be the only version of Horde in E-Day. There is a 10-wave version of the mode I didn't have time to try, so there's that box checked, but I wrapped up the playtest wanting a more focused, classic option with less empty space. Maybe that'll be a thing in the full version, or an eventual milestone on a yet-to-be-seen roadmap.

But I also suspect The Coalition isn't approaching this Gears like a live service forever game. It sounds like cosmetics will be a thing and seasons are in the works, but with those classic Versus modes especially, E-Day multiplayer is taking the shape of something meant to be enjoyed for dozens of hours, not thousands.

That's a good thing, in my book: it shows an awareness on The Coalition's part that Gears wouldn't really be Gears anymore if it padded everything out with Call of Duty-level loadouts or roguelike deckbuilding. It's those older qualities that make E-Day refreshing in 2026, and could help it stand out come October.

Embark has been on a bit of a matchmaking kick recently. It announced some weeks ago that Arc Raiders would be getting a more thorough system which takes into account specific player behaviour across solo, duo, and trio lobbies as well as a more nuanced look at self-defence. Both are solid updates to the game in theory, but in practice it's become clear that you just can't balance for assholes.

Update 1.36 added a more stringent matchmaking system which takes into account every player action across various lobbies. But because this new system was so reactive, it also meant that all it took was downing one aggressive raider to throw players from the comfort of PvE lobbies into the hellscape of PvP. Now, I actually enjoy PvP lobbies, but they aren't for the faint of heart, so before long Embark was backed up with complaints from players who were mistakenly hurled into these death matches.

To try and help, Embark decided to add a self-defence clause to the matchmaking system which meant that players would stay in nice PvE lobbies even if they shot and killed another raider if they weren't the primary aggressor. I don't actually know how the system figures this out—I guess it takes into account whether a player is damaged before shooting or not—but regardless this update fixed one issue and started another.

Before long, Arc Raiders rats realised that this self-defence patch basically gave them a free pass to run rampant in PvE lobbies, killing and looting everyone they could find, as long as they didn't shoot first.

But how do you convince a pacifist player to put a bullet in your head? Maybe you say mean things about their mum, perhaps a little jab at their unstylish last-season skin? Or you could just jump in front of their gun while they're shooting at something else—that last one works the best.

PSA: ABMM workaround already in use for the Queen from r/ArcRaiders

"It was bound to happen, we had two free kits with hairpins healing everyone and picking them up. I realised one kept trying to jump in front of my Equalizer and I decided to use what I thought was a Queen beam to make a break given I 'shot first'." Player craybe managed to capture the exact moment a rat jumped in front of his gunfire. "I then get hit by the quick wheel bug when going for a snap to make distance. So, beware these dickheads on Queen and Matriarch as they will surely multiply to mess with your ABMM."

The rat then proceeds to pretend as if they're the victim, telling the rest of the lobby that they'd been shot and pointing some naive do-gooders towards craybe. They kill him before he can plead his case or get away.

"I had three queen cores up my butt (he means in his safe pocket) so no huge loss and I was more amused to see them use the strategy after calling out that we had a sniper north of us, and all the false friendly crap. All they got was a busted Equalizer and a Bettina I barely use. I'm more annoyed the snap turned into a smoke at the end of the clip."

I'm glad that nothing too valuable was lost, but it's still a sucky situation. It could very well just be rose-tinted glasses, but I do feel as if Arc Raiders' matchmaking was better when the game first released and players knew very little about how it actually worked—cheesing the system was harder and assholes were easier to identify and kill back then.

Now, you don't know who you can trust and who's out to stab you in the back, so keep your eyes peeled for any suspicious behaviour raiders—the rats walk among us.

With Destiny 2 now fully embalmed, I find myself wondering—as do a great many others—'how did this happen?' A new Game Business interview with Sheldon Carter, president of Warframe developer Digital Extremes, has me pondering that question even harder: It turns out that while Destiny 2 was floundering, its foremost rival was enjoying "a few years of straight massive growth."

Sheldon said that the original Destiny "really hit us" when it launched in 2014, well over a year after Warframe's 2013 release, and his initial instinct was to "aggressively" compete with Bungie. But that changed over the years, and like others at Digital Extremes, Carter doesn't see the end of Destiny 2 development as a welcome development.

"Over time, what happens is developers from their team come on to your team. New people who you started, they learned what looter shooters are and how that works because they put thousands of hours into Destiny," Carter said. "And so, at our studio, it was kind of a bit of mourning when they released that news. The mood in our studio was pretty dour because of all the connections that you end up having."

But while Destiny 2's player numbers were in significant decline before Sony pulled the plug, Warframe has apparently been headed in the opposite direction. Carter said that "four or five years ago," Digital Extremes began to worry that Warframe had peaked, and it was time to start thinking about what's next. That kicked off development of Soulframe, the studio's second project—but at the same time it also brought about some changes on how the studio handlined Warframe.

"We changed our focus on how we were developing the game, how we were promoting the game," Carter said. "And now we've had a few years of straight, just massive growth ... Now we're in this happy position where Warframe's really thriving, and that gives us the ability to give Soulframe a ton of rope [and] time to really try stuff out and connect."

That's something else Digital Extremes seems to be doing differently: Where Bungie poured valuable time and resources into numerous "incubation projects" that went nowhere, Digital Extremes is moving very deliberately on a single project—Soulframe—which, four years after it was announced, is still in pre-release and not available on Steam.

"I think one of the things you learn as you do a second game that you're trying for the same scope as something like Warframe is that expertise doesn't necessarily mean you don't make the same mistakes as you did before," Carter said. "It just means you can recover from them a little bit faster.

"So that's been the journey of Soulframe—relearning a few of the things that we forgot after so many years, but at the same time using that core [audience], which is just establishing communication, building trust with the audience, and taking our time to get it to a point where we feel like there's enough content, enough story, enough gameplay that when we release it to a wider audience, um it's going to have its core."

Proof that Warframe has the juice: Werner Herzog explaining the game in the most inexplicable yet cool way possible.

But while Soulframe may be the future, there's no interest in stepping back from Warframe—in fact, Carter said skyrocketing prices driven by the rampocalypse could actually help keep Warframe relevant for years to come.

"You can play Warframe on your PS5 Pro and it looks sweet, cutting edge. And you can also play it on a four-generations-ago Android phone," Carter said. "And so for me, I hope that if console demands aren't able to be kept up with, or people need to look at older hardware because the new stuff is so expensive, they're still going to have Warframe to play, because it's a forever game that's always being updated."

Capcom just released its Q1 2026 financial report, and to absolutely no one's surprise, the company is doing well, really well. But to my surprise, so is Pragmata. As part of the report Capcom shared sales figures for its recent releases, and Pragmata sold more than 2.5 million copies since it was released earlier this year.

Now, to be clear this isn't because I think Pragmata is a bad game—I liked its old-timey shooter vibes and QTE hacking when I played its preview way back when. And Justin Wagner really loved its puzzles, main duo, and "poignant" narrative moments in our Pragmata review. But even still it's a completely new story from Capcom with no existing fanbase to go to bat for it.

I also felt that its release fell a little flat as hype seemingly petered out rather quickly—I certainly didn't feel the need to tell the world about my adventures around the collapsing moonbase. Nevertheless, I'm happy that Pragmata was successful and that it translated into healthy sales numbers. Hopefully this gives Capcom renewed confidence when it comes to pursuing new worlds and ideas.

Capcom also touts the Devil May Cry animated series and the latest Resident Evil game as facets that "helped to drive sales", with Resident Evil Requiem selling over 8 million copies since its release—a sizeable jump from its 6 million units sold back in March.

All of this success means that Capcom is "on track to achieve its full-year earnings forecast" as net sales increase 54.7% year-on-year, alongside a 66.9% year-on-year increase in operating profits. It's certainly a massive improvement on last year's report which was hampered by cratering Monster Hunter Wilds sales, falling more than 95% from its launch quarter. It ended up selling fewer copies in Q1 2025 than Devil May Cry 5, Resident Evil 4 remake, and Resident Evil Village—so yeah, it's only up from there.

Over the past few months, Embark has been pulling some levers behind the scenes to improve Arc Raiders' matchmaking. Despite the devs previously saying matchmaking wasn't "binary," it didn't feel like that in practice. My solo lobbies were peaceful walks in the park, while trio lobbies were much more violent.

From these experiments, "one change has stood out with the community," Embark explains in a new blog outlining changes. That being, "defending yourself is no longer treated the same as starting a fight."

At launch, fighting back against aggressors would, for some reason, contribute to your playstyle profile, so to speak. In a mythbusting update at the end of May, defending yourself was finally changed so that it mattered less than initiating the fight, but it was still considered aggression.

In today's update, 1.39.0, defensive PvP no longer has any impact on your matchmaking tendencies: "Only the fights you choose to start will influence your playstyle estimate, and defending yourself won't affect it at all."

To avoid any confusion, Embark has explained how this new system works:

• You and your entire squad will be considered 'defending' if an enemy player damages, downs, or knocks out any of your crew.
• The more drawn-out the fight, the more weight is given to the aggressors. A sustained shootout with high damage and downs is more impactful than a brief exchange with one side fleeing.
• Third-partying, meaning entering a fight between other squads, counts as starting a fight.

In the same blog, Embark has also confirmed that the separate squad-size matchmaking changes from 1.36.0, and the matchmaking optimisations in 1.38.0, are still active.

The changes so far have been well-received by the community, and hopefully set the massive Frozen Trail update in October on course to be a resurgence. Arc Raiders has been in a bit of a slump since the announcement that major updates would now come every six months instead of the, frankly absurd, one month.

The biggest thing to happen in Arc Raiders recently (if you don't count the Expedition near miss) was Embark's decision to rework the matchmaking to be more attuned to players' actions in solo, duo, and trio queues. The only problem with having better matchmaking is having to wait a bit longer in queue for the game to actually fulfil this promise.

"Starting today, we'll be testing adjustments to our matchmaking algorithm aimed at improving the quality of your matches," a dev explains in an official blog post. "One thing to note: the algorithm may take a little longer to find a match, since it's now working harder to find you a better one."

Hopefully, after waiting a bit longer than usual, you'll run into raiders with a similar mindset to yours when you head Topside, those that match your playstyle and squad size "making for more fair and enjoyable raids". This is thanks to the matchmaking taking into account an individual's behaviour while in different squad sizes, meaning you can be a bloodthirsty murderer in solos and a happy-go-lucky team player in squads.

So far it seems as if the biggest issue players have isn't with the matchmaking, but what it takes to get there. As always "there is room for improvement—especially during low-population hours, in certain regions, or in specific map conditions."

Ever since matchmaking was first discussed for Arc Raiders, there were those that asked why all of this was necessary when Embark could just manually split PvE and PvP via different gamemodes. If only it were that easy. But it's clear that all this effort is going into matchmaking because Embark wants players to be comfortable in their games up to a point.

Even in predominantly PvE lobbies there is still a chance of you coming across a PvPer in disguise, or just someone having a bad day—that's what keeps the suspense high and players on edge.

Regardless of intent, though, Embark clearly has its work cut out when it comes to perfecting matchmaking, and with the promises that "we're working to improve those cases" let's just hope the next stage will be speeding up the queuing process.

Less than a week after Ubisoft promised that a new Ghost Recon game is coming but probably not anytime soon, the company says it will mark the series' 25^th anniversary in August with some proper news on what's coming next.

"It’s been a while Ghosts!" the announcement excitedly states. "We know some of you saw some updates, we’ll have more to say on the 6th of August when we celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Ghost Recon. Intel coming soon."

My initial impression was that this is basically a scaled-down version of last week's big Bethesda blowout: A blast of the hype machine intended, at least in part, to help you forget about all the bad stuff going on, specifically the sweeping layoffs at Xbox that are putting thousands of people out of work.

Obviously an update on the Ghost Recon franchise, whose most recent game is now seven years old and was decidedly not great (although it has gotten better in the years since), doesn't have the hype heft of Fallout 5. But Ubisoft's condition is dire, and sometimes the best gun is the one you can reach.

My second and more lasting impression, however, is one of annoyance, and I'll tell you why. After a few seconds of pondering this Ghost Recon update, I thought to myself, perhaps there will also be news on Splinter Cell! After all, Tom Clancy is Tom Clancy, right? Hard men doing unpleasant things for freedom and stuff. The Ghosts, the Rainbows, the Echelons—it's all Clancyverse underneath, right? And if anyone in that gang is overdue for some attention, it's Team Splinter Cell.

Ah, but they are not all the same, at least not in the way that matters at the moment. I popped around to the Splinter Cell X account and found a Ubisoft 40^th anniversary retweet from earlier in July, a half-dozen 2025 posts (mostly about the Splinter Cell animated series on Netflix), one retweet from 2023, and a relative flurry activity from 2022. I thought for a second that would correspond to the announcement of the Splinter Cell remake, but no: That was actually announced in 2021, believe it or not. (Hint: Believe it.)

The 2022 activity marked the 20^th anniversary of the first Splinter Cell game; it was also the year that remake director David Grivel left Ubisoft for "a new adventure." He's had enough time since then to work on Battlefield 6, then return to Ubisoft and resume directorship on the Splinter Cell remake.

In that same stretch we've also seen Netflix make its Splinter Cell cartoon without Michael Ironside, the Splinter Cell movie starring Tom Hardy get cancelled, and Ubisoft making everyone mad by posting the wrong picture of Sam Fisher, which I genuinely think was intentional because at this point it's clear that Ubisoft just gets off on screwing with us.

Of course, this isn't a problem unique to Splinter Cell. Consider the Sands of Time remake, which was cancelled after six years of futility, or Skull and Bones, which came out six years late, or Beyond Good and Evil 2, which will soon celebrate 20 years of non-existence. Timeliness just isn't Ubisoft's strong suit, which is how we got here—"here" being the recent announcement of a "quieter year" in Ubisoft releases before things start happening in 2027-28—in the first place.

One possible spot of good news, relatively anyway: The 25^th anniversary of the first Splinter Cell game lands on November 18, 2027, about a year and a half from now. Maybe Ubisoft just really digs big anniversaries and has decided that at this point it might as well hold out for a good one before it drops any more Splinter Cell news. So there's something to look forward to. In the meantime, we'll let you know what's cooking in the world of Ghost Recon when it happens.

Gears of War 2 featured a campaign you could blast through over the course of a weekend. The perfect length for the kind of story that strings together a bunch of setpiece spectacles that won't tax your thinking muscles. At one point you end up inside a giant worm and have to fight your way out. It's great.

But it's one of a couple of Gears of Wars that never made it to PC. Maybe because Cliff Bleszinski was going through a "down with piracy phase" at the time, saying things like, "the person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card, is a person who is savvy enough to know bit torrent to know all the elements so they can pirate software."

Whatever the reason, we didn't get Gears of War 2 or 3 on PC. There was a leaked build with Windows binaries back in early 2008, however, and that's what xHeliosx has used to make Gears of War 2: Hollow, an unofficial port of the Xbox 360's greatest celebration of gleeful meatheadedness, which you can download and play today.

This port contains the Road to Ruin DLC and saves your progress at the completion of each chapter, and while you can try the multiplayer it's not guaranteed to work. "It just wasn’t tested honestly as my focus was pure single player", xHeliosx said.

The launcher's available on ModDB, and while the other files you need to run it were available on xHeliosx's Discord server, that's now been rammed with so many requests to join that it's gone down and you'll have to source those files from elsewhere.

The upcoming Gears of War: E-Day is coming to PC, as a Microsoft representative confirmed when we asked, so that's something at least.

Clearing your raider for Expedition is a pretty big deal in Arc Raiders. It involves tons of prep and a dedication that you're willing to start the next season with a fresh character and stash (alongside some perks that the Expedition offers your new avatar). It's not something that everyone is willing or able to do, which is why this latest bug left players in such disarray.

The bug in question impacts those who manage to finish the 100K damage challenge: Once completed, players would be automatically signed up for the upcoming fourth Expedition, whether they wanted to be shoved out into the wasteland or not.

[Embark] Update on Expedition sign-up bug - Sign-ups reverts starting tomorrow Friday, July 17, 2026 5:00 PM. (done in waves) from r/ArcRaiders

Thankfully Embark is intervening now, before anyone's exiled Topside. "We want to err on the side of caution," Embark explains in a message to players via social media. "We will revert the Departure sign-up for players whose sign-up behaviour appears representative of this issue. This may be done in several waves, starting tomorrow, Friday, July 17, 2026 5:00 PM."

But even with the intervention scheduled for the weekend the devs still advise players to "check the in-game Expedition tab and verify that it shows the correct information for your case," just in case your raider is still ready to be sent off.

"If you had previously been signed up for departure automatically and this does not revert by the end of day tomorrow, please reach out to our support team as soon as possible. If you have changed your mind and want to depart, you can still opt in to do so. Additionally, Last Call will be available as usual for those of you who aren’t able to sign up for Departure before the deadline."

It seems like Embark are on top of the situation, but there are still some players who are deciding to take extra precautions: "I'm taking a screenshot of my intentional signup, damage completion and Expedition vault contents so I can open a ticket when they fuck this up," one declared on Reddit. I guess it is better to be safe than sorry.

I do not possess the required amount of brain cells to digest and discern whatever happens in a Marvel Rivals team fight. I've tried, but anytime I get caught up in the middle while waves of crowd control abilities, ultimates, and everything in between are thrown at me, my brain just turns off. Which is why I'm happy to hear NetEase is trying to dial it all down.

As part of its latest patch NetEase has included some fixes and optimisations which include softening the blinding glow of its hero abilities: "We've dialled back the visual effects for a lineup of heroes to cut down on battlefield chaos and keep your superhero clashes crisp and clear."

All of Jubilee's base abilities have been tuned down alongside most of the new Team-Up abilities: "The list is extensive, so we won't detail every single one here; just know the battlefield is looking clean! We'll keep the scanner running and make ongoing optimizations."

After hearing the news that my eyes will no longer burn mid-game, I decided to check the changes out. While I can't say I noticed any huge changes for hero abilities—there were still frequent moments of blackout when every hero popped their ult at the same time—having a Jubilee on my team didn't actually give me a headache this time—so that's something.

Marvel Rivals' visual creep is a hard aspect to manage, especially considering how many characters NetEase has added over such a short period of time. With so many heroes, abilities, and now Team-Up abilities, things are bound to look messy. Especially considering many luxury skins add even more visual confusion into the mix with unique VFX which change how some abilities look.

It's also not helped by the fact that Marvel Rivals has always had a pretty bad UI and that the maps add yet another layer of clutter onto everything else. Seriously, some are so bad I find it hard to distinguish what's part of the map and what's a hero ability.

Starting off from such a poor place means it'll be increasingly difficult for NetEase to manage the visual aspect of Marvel Rivals. I don't think we'll ever achieve a 'clean' looking game—part of the appeal is also apparently the chaos—but hopefully it'll be managed just a little bit with frequent checks and balances such as this latest patch.

It took all of one day for Marvel Rivals to enrage players after the release of season 9 with a new, unasked for, and slightly confusing patch. It buffed tons of heroes some of which in no way needed a helping hand.

"Our temporal scanners have been working overtime, analyzing battlefield telemetry and listening to chatter from you, the community," a blog post explains. "We've seen the meta shifting, and to ensure the combat arena remains as dynamic and competitive as possible, we are deploying this emergency hotfix. Rest assured, our Watchers will remain vigilant, and further recalibrations will be made as new threats emerge."

My guess is that by 'temporal scanners' NetEase means 'hero pick rate list' and a decision has been made to try and get each and every hero's pick rate up, or at least above 1% (looking at you Storm). Unfortunately, the way in which NetEase has gone about this isn't exactly slick.

LIke buffing Cyclops and Gambit—yes you heard that right—I've played against both Gambit and Cyclops since this patch, and it sucks just as much as you'd expect. It's also improved Black Widows kit while also making her completely homogenous with other hitscan heroes. But the most frustrating part of the latest patch is all the general buffs to Strategists.

Other than Gambit getting more self-regen and Bridge Boost healing, we now have Invisible Woman, Jubilee, Rocket Raccoon, and Ultron buffs alongside a class buff that gives Strategists more ult charge for healing. Now the healing to energy conversion efficiency is at 70%—a mere decrease of just 5% of what it was pre season 9 compared to the 15% decrease Vanguards and Duelists got.

Strategists that were somewhat nerfed include Ultron and Mantis, as her healing provided by Healing Flower has gone down from 15+3% of max health to 12+3% of max health. Even this is just a small change.

"The front lines of season 9 have been intense," the patch notes explain. "We've seen our Strategists absorbing more pressure than ever, which has suppressed their efficiency in gaining ultimate ability energy. Therefore, we will be partially reverting the efficiency of ultimate ability energy gained from healing actions for Strategists."

And, in completely forseen circumstances the change hasn't left people happy. "What are we doing with this one," streamer Flats says in a social media post. "EVEN IF they had data showing the character is weak. No exaggeration Gambit is a PERMA BAN in ranked and has been for four seasons. I know they likely want every character to be 'broken' this season but this guy isn't seeing the light of day."

It's become predictable that whenever NetEase decides to dial up the fun and dial down the balance players begin to yearn for said balance: "Revert this change please, I want more neutral gameplay that takes skill." The complicated part is that players will also yearn for the fun when NetEase decides to prioritise balance. Personally, I think NetEase needs to pick a lane for Marvel Rivals and commit to one or the other before everyone gets estranged.

After NetEase's best attempt at competitive balance in Marvel Rivals season 8.5, this latest season has done a complete 180, with flamethrowing sharks, lethal dive comps, and ridiculous CC counters. I'm certainly not a fan of chaos comp, but my wishes for NetEase to pick a lane are starting to supersede any desire for actual balance.

The new Team-Up system is as extensive as it is busted. With every character getting to pick between two base abilities and then having a further couple of enhanced effects that they can utilise when the other character is on their team. One of the most ridiculous I've encountered so far was Invisible Woman's team-up with Human Torch, which enlarges her shield and covers it in flame, so that anyone who shoots through it adds flame damage to their shot.

Jeff can become a flamethrower with Invis’ new teamup from r/marvelrivals

This is busted in and of itself, but add Jeff the Land Shark into the mix and you get a special kind of terror, as his primary-fire water gun essentially turns into a flamethrower. I actually came across this comp earlier today, and let me tell you that little monster was having a great time flambée-ing my team to a crisp.

There's also Iron Man's new gamma shield, which adds another layer of protection to the billionaire in a killer tech suit with a terrifyingly short ult-time. What can I say? The rich get richer. Plus there's Luna's White Fox ability: it's lethal down chokepoints as she sends a huge fox racing forward which heals allies and pulls enemies in together, so they're like fish in a barrel for your dear teammates to kill.

NetEase has clearly gone for the mantra of 'more is more' in this latest season, which is cool on paper when you have mountains of new abilities to sift through, but in practice it's a right pain.

I can't help but feel that so much of what's been added, like the shield regen or CC counters, is just there to patch over issues that are a result of existing abilities or unbalanced hero behaviour. You wouldn't need so many CC counters if there weren't so many bloody stuns in this godforsaken game.

But this is where I think NetEase finds itself in a tricky predicament. It seems like the devs have been trying to cater to absolutely everyone, and just adding whatever players scream about loudest. In many cases, players don't know what they want, and the loudest group usually doesn't offer the best advice.

Players that say they want wacky abilities for creative kills really just want the space to pull off cool plays, which you can't actually do when you have a billion different abilities being hurled, usually randomly, your way. Likewise, players who claim to want balanced comps usually want tough games with the small caveat that they'll always win them. They also don't tend to like it when their main gets nerfed according to that balance.

Which is why the devs need to make a tough decision. Instead of flopping around from 'sort of balanced' to 'no balance at all', NetEase should draw a line in the sand and decide whether it wants Marvel Rivals to be fun, creative, and casual or tough, balanced, and competitive.

If it's going to be casual and creative, great, have at it and balance for fun, but know that it'll mean there's even less of a competitive scene than there already is. For competitive games to thrive it needs a fair and slightly punishing ranked system that doesn't just reward time played over skill, and consistent comps.

If it's going to be competitive then that's also great, but that'll mean forsaking some of the wackiness that Rivals has at its disposal. Either way you lose out on players and will piss people off, but clarity is kindness and at the very least it won't mean everyone's alienated for different reasons—a game for everyone is a game for no one.

The first hotfix since Arc Raiders' 1.36 update has rocked up, and while it may be small it does tackle some important issues, namely a new duplication exploit which has popped up recently and saw mountains of explosives spawn even faster than the throwables glitch.

"We have just pushed a hotfix on all platforms to mitigate a duplication issue, an official blog post explains. "As we stated before regarding the use of exploits, we will continue issuing bans on accounts that have been gaining significant advantage."

All's well that ends well, right? If only it could be so easy. Like most things that happen on the internet, this hasn't satiated all players, as some question why Embark can fix this glitch but not one that is seen to be considerably worse.

"This hotfix proves embark can respond overnight, so why is weapon duping still here?" player Loose_Fish5725 asks. "A dupe that literally anyone could abuse gets discovered, spreads like wildfire, and gets patched in less than 24 hours. Meanwhile, we've had duplicated Bobcats and weapons circulating for weeks. Entire kits are being duplicated, sold, and recycled, destroying the economy, yet that's somehow a lower priority?"

The weapon dupe glitch in question is like many others but the issue is with it flooding Arc Raiders lobbies with 'fake' weapons and ruining the economy as rare weapons become pretty common. If you've seen players with hordes of Bobcats on your travels that'd be why.

"The speed of this fix proves the developers can react quickly when they choose to," the player continues. "That's why it's frustrating watching the in-game economy continue to suffer while the most impactful exploit remains unresolved."

The reality of the situation, though, is likely quite simple. Embark was probably able to fix the new duplication glitch because it was new and came from the most recent patch. Older duplication glitches are harder to deal with simply because it's been around for longer and is relentless in how it just keeps popping up.

It's also easy to ban accounts with ridiculous stack value, but it's harder to correct the internal economy when much of the duplicated gear has been spread across accounts that found items fair and square during matches and not by duplicating them. That's all to say that Embark will likely be fighting duplication glitches for the rest of the game's lifecycle, the important thing is to try and stay on top of it.

Marvel Rivals will open the doors to the "most massive overhaul to the combat system since launch" that affects roughly 80% of its hero roster when Season 9 kicks off in a couple of days. There's hero reworks, a massive change to Team-Ups, and a substantial ultimate charge nerf.

The state of Marvel Rivals has been slightly contentious and some may say even stale over the last few seasons. Among frustrations with misdirected balance patches, suffocating Strategist strength, and barrages of ultimate contests, players didn't have a lot of love to give for the game's state of affairs. But it seems like NetEase went into Season 9 with the intention of taking a hammer to everything. For better or worse? It's debatable.

I'm certainly happy to see another huge nerf to ultimate charge as Vanguard and Duelists get a decreased conversion rate of 70% down to 55%, while Strategists get a conversion rate for damage of 75% to 55% and for healing 75% to 60%. This will hopefully tone down the frequency of ultimates and stop team fights ending with whatever team has the best ults coming out on top.

There's also been a huge change to the Team-Up system. "As the sheer number of abilities grew, our dev team gradually started feeling the strain," lead combat designer, Zhiyong, explains in a dev diary. "Some of the newer Team-Ups started feeling a bit uninspired. Existing just for the sake of ticking an update box. Once we realised this we decided it was time to absolutely revolutionise the Team-Up system."

NetEase has scrapped the Team-Up Anchor bonus and replaced it with each hero getting two separate Team-Ups with a base effect and an enhanced effect. The base effect will be active regardless of whether the other hero is in their team.

For example, Hulk now has a Team-Up with Captain America and Wolverine. His base perk with Captain America deals AoE and reduces cooldowns regardless of whether Cap is on his team, while the enhanced version sees him deal increased damage when Cap is on his team. Oh—and Hulk gets CC immunity as his base effect with Wolverine.

I've always thought that Marvel Rivals' Team-Up abilities were one of the more creative, interesting and impressive parts of the game, so I'm glad to see it given an overhaul. Even if that does mean a slew of new and old busted abilities will come creeping out the woodwork.

It seems that Season 9 rejects previous attempts to bring heroes in line with "perfect" balance, opting to balance for fun instead. That's great in theory, but unfortunately in practice it's simply too chaotic to be any good.

You can see this if you look at the balance notes on each hero. Sure there have been some good, much-needed nerfs like Cyclops, who's had his damage output dialled back, but there's also been some weird changes like Magik being able to chain hook people together, Luna Snow being able to combo kill tanks, and whatever the hell this is.

Dive certainly seems strong with some monster one-hit combos. It's not helped by the fact that NetEase has also added regenerating shields—which it is for some reason discussing as if regen shields aren't already a thing and common in most shooters. It lets heroes regenerate a chunk of shield health if they don't get hit for five seconds, perfect for sneaky flankers in the backlines.

The main problem I foresee with these changes is that, in trying to make everyone's life easier and more fun, it'll just make things miserable. The whole idea of 'if everyone's busted, no one is' doesn't actually work, because it just means everyone's a nightmare to play against.

Another good example of the current state of Marvel Rivals is Black Widow and her new changes. The team have tried to make her more accessible by tuning down her one shot and upping her overall damage capability. But that removes the whole point of specialising as a sniper. High risk, high reward means a high skill ceiling which most players shouldn't be able to master. Not everyone is good at sniping, and that's ok. It may seem like having high-skill characters would be boring because most people can't play them, but actually lowering the bar and homogenising heroes just makes the game boring by removing any need for skill.

But I hope I'm wrong. I hope Season 9 kicks off a resurgence for Marvel Rivals. Maybe throwing mountains of new characters, busted abilities, and cosmetics at the problem will actually work this time.

There's been more duplication exploits in Arc Raiders at one point or another than I can shake several suspiciously identical sticks at. It's the get rich quick scheme that a lot of raiders opt in to, there's been multi-million rubber duck hauls and prisons made of just ziplines. It seems like there's no end to the creativity of a dupe exploit, but Embark has confirmed that it's been cracking down on them.

"Like with anti-cheat, we are always working against duplication exploits. We’re keeping a close eye on the game economy, and constantly catalogue, investigate and seek to counteract exploits," Embark explains in the latest patch notes. "Recently, we’ve fixed some exploits related to duplication. We always want to make sure fixes are widely effective, so we make sure to monitor and evaluate our success before sharing that progress with you."

The most interesting part of this is the graph Embark includes as part of their update on tackling cheaters. It shows the percentage of players "with unusually high 'profit per minute'". Looking at the graph, you can see that things got particularly bad towards the beginning of June, which may have coincided with the 1.33.0 update that tested a ban on free loadouts.

Since then, however, things have gotten better. The percentage of players that may be guilty of using duplication exploits has apparently dropped to under 1%, the lowest it's been in months.

As for the regular old cheating Embark also notes that work on snuffing that out has been going well: "Over the past few weeks, we’ve completed our rollout of Denuvo Anti-Cheat. It is now enforced for all players, and the results we’ve seen so far have been promising. Thanks to the efforts of our anti-cheat team, we are continuously getting more effective at identifying and acting against cheaters."

Embarks recent efforts to rid Arc Raiders of cheating have seemingly gone quite well over the last few months, as it's treated as a "top priority" for the team to handle. All I can say is, good. Cheating in Arc Raiders was a right pain, and one of the reasons I stopped playing as much as I used to. So let's hope it's only up from here.

Understanding matchmaking in Arc Raiders has been something of a white whale for players, especially since we first got confirmation that aggression-based matchmaking did actually play a part in creating lobbies. Since then Embark has been more open about what actually goes into its matchmaking and is more responsive to players who asked for changes, with its latest update adding perhaps the most sought after change.

Following on from the matchmaking survey Embark put out in May, Arc Raiders has "implemented one of the most requested matchmaking features," according to the latest patch notes. "We now track your playstyle separately for Solo, Duo, and Trio rounds, and match you accordingly.

"Say you are a friendly solo player, but your two squadmates always want to dominate trios in PvP. Before, being friendly solo could push you into more cooperative trio rounds, and playing PvP-focused in a trio could push you into more PvP-focused solo rounds—so changing squad size meant matchmaking took a bit to adjust."

This has actually been an issue I've encountered. My friends are split down the middle with different playstyles, with some being cooperative and others bloodthirsty killers. That's always meant that we've rarely played together as everyone likes keeping their solo lobbies just the way they are, and can't be arsed with having to retrain the matchmaking after briefly switching styles.

"Now there's no overlap," the patch notes explain. "You'll be able to go from friendly questing and plant-picking in Solo rounds to adrenaline-fueled PvP trio games (if that's how you usually play in those respective cases), by simply changing your squad size. The same holds for Duo—all three are tracked on their own."

I absolutely love this from Embark and is yet another example of how the devs have been slowly and consciously improving the quality of Arc Raiders, especially since the initial hype died down. It's so good, in fact, that I really wish we'd gotten this change sooner, but it's better late than never. At least I've got a new reason to drag my friends back into Arc Raiders now.

When I recently spoke to Stellar Jockeys lead artist Jack Monahan and lead designer Hugh Monahan about Brigador Killers, a big focus for me was approachability versus depth. Most of my favorite games are super-crusty and complex RPGs or immersive sims, and the studios that made them⁠—Troika, Looking Glass, Obsidian, to name a few⁠—often found sustained financial success difficult or impossible.

You need some level of mainstream buy-in to keep the lights on, but something that's too focus-tested or homogenized won't please anyone. Stellar Jockeys' first game, Brigador, is a hardcore mech sim that initially bombed sales-wise, but is now a cult classic, so the Monahans are well-positioned to comment on the subject.

I appreciated the philosophical stance they had toward people who bounce off Brigador and Killers. "We love our games, we're very in this world," said Jack, "But you only need to have an encounter with your mom or someone else's mom to realize none of this makes sense, and we're all speaking Greek all the time."

They see getting people to buy into it all as a design challenge, but don't begrudge the ones for whom it doesn't click. "We had a vtuber recently, she streamed Brigador Killers," Jack recalled. "It wasn't quite her [thing]. She's very polite. She said, 'This is not really for me.'

"People kept asking her in the chat … And she just goes, 'I don't care about mechs! I care about the engineers! I care about the people who pilot them! Give me that stuff. All this mech stuff, it's all boy slop!'

"I think we make boy slop, but that's okay. First of all, somebody's got to do it, but I think for us, it's the willingness to get that crunchy with stuff."

Hardcore

Even if a lot of players may not pick up what they're putting down, Jack argued that there's just not enough room in the current market for games that aren't born of real passion, and that creative compromises can also have unintended side effects.

"I think the great irony is that, when you're trying to deliver what you think people want, you're actually holding a weird mirror not to them, but to yourself," he said. "It creates this weird inversion of saying, 'Actually, I think you're idiots, and I think you're idiots in this way, and so here's what I think idiots want.'"

And no matter what, Jack argued, creators can't help but leave a thumbprint on their work, whether they intend to or not. As an example, he pointed to the 50+ '90s-style, pre-rendered portraits in Brigador. Jack recalled a fan telling him "Oh, they've got your cheekbones"—without intending to, the artist had inadvertently given a similar profile of cheekbones to his own to every character in the game.

"You don't really have a choice," Jack concluded. "Be honest, be true, because it's all going to come leaking out one way or another, either in a good way⁠—which is to say, the stuff you're really into. Don't pretend like you're not into stuff, it comes out anyway."

Min spec player

Hugh Monahan told me he thinks of approachability and difficulty in a similar way to reading comprehension. He cited the influential sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guin as someone who produced works of great depth that were approachable for a wide audience of readers, while the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, by contrast, was a genius who wrote extremely challenging literature.

If we take The Left Hand of Darkness as Baldur's Gate 3, I guess the Brothers Karamazov can be, I dunno, Daggerfall? CyberMage: Darklight Awakening? Fallout developer Tim Cain expressed a similar idea as the "minimum player spec:" What's the minimum amount of prior videogame knowledge someone needs to complete⁠—let alone enjoy⁠—a given game?

Much as his brother feels you shouldn't dilute a creative vision to meet market demands, Hugh argued that challenge and complexity are key not only to making games more memorable, but also getting communities to form around them.

"If Dark Souls were an easier game, you would not have nearly as vociferous of a community around it," he said. "It's tough, because if there's a barrier to entry, that means people aren't going to make it through the barrier … But by making it something that is difficult to earn, if someone is willing to overcome that hump, then that's an implicit in-community.

"You actually need some of that friction in order to help build more of an identity amongst the players, and that's something I feel like I'm starting to really come to understand now after working as a designer for 15 years. But I'm sure I can look back on this in 10 years and go, 'What an idiot.' But you know, taking steps."

Stellar Jockeys' first game, Brigador, is currently $6.50 in the Steam Summer sale. Brigador Killers does not yet have a release window, but you can wishlist it and try the demo on Steam. I loved that demo, and Killers also boasts one of my favorite game mechanics: It's a mech game where you can get out of the mech.

Last week, Marvel Rivals made the headlines for a familiar reason: one of its new skins is on the bleeding edge of horny superhero costume design. But in a refreshing change of pace, it was the boys' turn this time around—Captain America got a summer swimsuit skin with proportions so absurd they'd make a Gears of War character blush and an egregiously huge bulge for his… Washington Monument.

It jiggles around, it's visible from the back, it's the sort of treatment Steve Rogers rarely gets in a big-budget superhero videogame (even if the comics do this song and dance every summer). Granted, Marvel Rivals already had risqué skins for its male characters here and there, I think the giant dong just caught everyone off guard. Anyway, people think it's been nerfed.

Or perhaps a more appropriate term would be 'reined in.' You see, a comparison post from user Used-Earth8767 went up on the Marvel Rivals subreddit titled, "Captain America's bulge has been nerfed. It no longer goes through the chair." You can see before and after shots of Steve's little Avengers Tower, and indeed, it seems to have shrunk a bit. "As a proud straight man, I can say that WE, yes, ALL us straight men, want Captain America's bulge back and his ass in our face," OP elaborated in the thread.

If that's true, the fourth of July is a hilarious day to make such a change. But it may not be true. Down the thread, a reply from user L9-45 said, "I extracted and pulled the model. There are no changes directly to the model or rigging from what I can see. It's possible they fixed the bulge to parent it to his pelvis which would fix the stretch down (and inward) in the first pic." In other words, some of that janky jiggling players noticed may be the unintentional result of an animation oversight.

As a journalist, it is my duty to find, nay, fight for the truth. But whether NetEase nerfed the hog or not, there's no way for me to know Captain America's canon hog size, so I couldn't say whether any nerfs would be warranted. Until Marvel editorial speaks on the matter, I'll have to defer to what I see in-game.

Marvel Rivals' Creator World Cup Championship took place over the weekend, and with a $300,000 prize pool on the line creators from around the world banded together to compete for first place. Team AMER United ended up winning top spot and the $75,000 that went with it, but their win has been slightly overshadowed by some emerging drama.

It all surrounds a professional player named Warn and the rest of Team Canada, which included aramori, Dokibird, Fanfan, xQc, and Surefour. This gist of it is Warn doesn't play as much Rivals as the rest of the team, was asked to switch heroes by his team and didn't. It doesn't sound too bad, but as others on the team will attest there was money to be had not just for the teams who placed on the podium, so every win helped.

"I got Zazza'd in a tournament 10x the prize pool as Basim," aramori says. "Kingsman was so much meaner and got a bajillion followers."

If that sounds familiar, that's because this has happened before, specifically in a creator-led Marvel Rivals tournament. Anyone remember the name Zazza? I sure do, but that's because my gamertag is just one letter off hers. That meant any match I went into for the couple weeks after the incident I was met with some wise-guy asking me if I was going to stick on sniper and suck ass for the rest of the game. Little did they know there's no 'if' about it.

But I digress. Zazza may sound familiar to some because of the drama that swirled around a $40,000 tournament after one player refused to actually try and made fun of Kingsman, their teammate who actually wanted to try and win matches.

It's certainly a little strange that this keeps happening. Although, I suppose this comes with the territory when gathering players with vastly different levels of ability, investment, and streamer income. These prize-pools and tournament wins can be worth more to some than others.

The situation took another turn for the worse post tourney after a clip circulated around of Warn blaming his teammates, saying he'd previously won a couple of tournaments with xQc. Although he has since apologised and explained how that clip had been taken out of context: "that out of context clip has nothing to do with them being women, and they're all incredible players."

Regardless of how it played out during the tournament, from what I saw it seemed like NetEase didn't put a great deal of time into balancing the team comps or even organising the event with Warn explaining that the invitation was last minute. It also doesn't help that in NetEase trying to widen its audience it brought in some creators who don't play Rivals anywhere near as much as others, again meaning the playing field wasn't exactly balanced. Hopefully, the next Rivals tournament won't see any more drama, although that's likely wishful thinking.

Do you know your airbursts from your airstrikes? Your stalwarts from your heavy machine guns? Have you spent hours perfecting your high score in Stratagem Hero just so you can boast to your fellow Divers?

For your sake, I hope so, because today's dastardly quiz will test your Helldivers 2 Stratagem know-how, and a failure means you're getting reported to my local Democracy Officer (Sorry, I don't make the rules, though I guess technically I do).

You have two minutes to work out the ten Stratagems below. I guess, theoretically, you could process of elimination by typing through every one there is, but that's equally impressive. To make this monumental test of Diver knowledge a little fairer, I've also only included Stratagems from the base game, meaning there are none in here that you acquire from Warbonds, which narrows the playing field somewhat.

My final words of advice? If you're struggling, try picking up your controller and entering the code into your D-Pad—you might be surprised what your muscle memory surfaces. Otherwise, you're on your own. I look forward to reporting another glorious victory for Super Earth upon your return. If not, well, there's always cryo storage.

You can tell Embark is still figuring out what to do with Arc Raiders expedition wipes, because they keep changing every season.

The studio announced this week that the fourth expedition is completely changing the main incentive for wiping from permanent extra skill points to a mixture of premium currency and blueprints.

Indeed, time has shown that players care more about blueprints than the opportunity to be a little bit quicker than the competition. In the new format, each completed departure objective guarantees you 150 Raider Tokens and one blueprint that will carry over through the wipe.

There are a total of five departure objectives, so you can rack up 750 Raider Tokens through grinding—equivalent to roughly $7 of premium currency. In case you're wondering, that's around half the price of a single standard store bundle in Arc Raiders. The blueprints earned are randomly pulled from a pool that includes some really valuable stuff:

• Heavy Gun Parts Blueprint
• Complex Gun Parts Blueprint
• Padded Stock Blueprint
• Extended Barrel III Blueprint
• Muzzle Brake III Blueprint
• Stable Stock III Blueprint
• Vertical Grip III Blueprint
• Venator Blueprint
• Rascal Blueprint
• Osprey Blueprint
• Trailblazer Blueprint
• Anvil Blueprint
• Bettina Blueprint
• Hullcracker Blueprint
• Tempest Blueprint
• Vulcano Blueprint
• Dolabra Blueprint
• Aphelion Blueprint
• Combat Augment Mk 3 Flanking Blueprint
• Tactical Augment Mk 3 Defensive Blueprint
• Looting Augment Mk 3 Safekeeper Blueprint
• Looting Augment Mk 3 Survivor Blueprint
• Wolfpack Blueprint
• Powered Descender Blueprint
• Snap Hook Blueprint

As Arc Raiders diehard Tim Clark pointed out to me, this is actually the second way Embark has enabled blueprints to make the trip through wipes. You can already purchase up to five expedition vault slots from Ermal that will preserve anything stored in them, so if you make full use of the challenges and vault, then you can get a headstart on the next wipe with 10 blueprints.

Sounds like a decent change for folks that have been keeping up with expeditions this whole time, but if you haven't already started on the first three, then this information isn't all that useful. Embark seems to know that this is a core problem with its unique wipe mechanic—because they have to be done in order and only once per season, if you haven't already been doing them you're less and less likely to ever engage with the option. To that end, it sounds like expeditions will undergo bigger changes in the future:

"We understand the frustration of new players that are only now starting to do their Expeditions. We need to find the right balance of rewarding our veteran players but also give new players fair and fun ways to catch up and not feel like they are always behind. This is a continuous effort and we'll keep you updated as we have more to share," the blog post reads.

The window for the fourth expedition opens on July 7th at 1pm CEST/11am UTC/4am PT and closes on July 21st at 10am CEST/8am UTC/1am PT.

The GTA 6 pre-orders are going live soon, letting you pre-purchase your chosen edition of the game for when it launches in November. You might be wondering why there's so much fuss around a pre-order, but since GTA 5, a GTA release has become a once-in-a-decade global phenomenon, even if it isn't confirmed when we'll be getting it on our personal computers.

Rockstar has officially released info explaining when pre-orders go live for each region, so I'll explain that down below, plus a few other things we've learned today.

GTA 6 pre-order release times

You can pre-order Grand Theft Auto 6 on June 25 at midnight local time. Yes, that means no simultaneous release across the globe, but it'll actually vary based on where you live. The info was shared on Rockstar Games official instagram, so you can believe the validity of the source. Sadly, there's no word of a PC release date yet, but it'll most likely come later on as with the previous game.

Rockstar has released info about each edition of the game and their bonuses on its official site. It does look like GTA 6 will also cost $79.99 and $99.99 according to info that's emerged, which is a little more expensive than many were expecting.

We might also get to see a new trailer when pre-orders drop as an added incentive, though I guess with where the hype's currently at it might not even be necessary. Hopefully those pre-ordering will get to see more of the game before they do anyway.

Arc Raiders has had its fair share of cheaters and game-breaking exploits, so much so that some players and big-name streamers have sworn it off. There are your usual wallhacks and whatnot, as well as exploits to spawn endless rubber duckies and equipment. Just recently, TheGamingMerchant put the duping exploits to the test, discovering just how bad it can be in high-end PvP.

But the time has finally come when we might start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Towards the end of May, Embark added Denuvo Anti-Cheat to "initially to a limited player pool" after finding success in The Finals. In the new update 1.33 patch notes, which brought the surprise Forgotten Relics event and Converging Paths project, Embark has confirmed it's ready to kick things up a notch.

"As part of our ongoing efforts against unfair play, we’re continuing to expand Denuvo Anti-Cheat to more players," the developers explain. "We’re pleased with the progress so far, and expect further improvement as we scale up." For what it's worth, I had to accept it when I downloaded the update today.

"Our commitment to anti-cheat initiatives remains a top priority, and we will keep you informed as we work to maintain a fair environment. We appreciate your ongoing feedback and reports, and we thank you for being a part of the incredible journey through Topside."

Embark is also specifically honing in on the duplication exploits that have been undermining the item economy, noting that it's "taking strict measures against those involved." This includes detecting issues and addressing them directly, but also "building safeguards to prevent them from happening in the future." It's a little vague, sure, but it's good to know that it's a priority for Embark, given how disruptive it's been for many players. It's an extraction shooter after all, it's literally all about the loot you find and risk.

On the flip side, if you've faced off against a cheater, there are a few improvements you'll be glad about. There's now a messaging system to let you know when a player you've reported has been banned, and/or when any loot you lost thanks to a cheater is returned to you. You don't necessarily need to report the player to get your lost loot back, so long as Embark has taken action against them it'll happen automatically.

Literally since launch, free loadouts have been a source of contention in Arc Raiders. They're great if you just want to chill, shoot some things, and not have to worry about losing loot. But on the flip side, their prevalence undermines the loot economy and incentivises everyone to avoid risk. Why use your best gear when your opponent has nothing on the line, and you've got nothing to pilfer?

Well, alongside the surprise Forgotten Relics event and Converging Paths project, update 1.33 finally looks to address this issue with an experiment. Free loadouts have been outlawed specifically on Night Raid and Close Scrutiny—two of the hardest map conditions.

"We are disabling free loadouts for Night Raid and Close Scrutiny to increase the barrier of entry," the patch notes read, "so that players commit to appropriate risk and reward in these scenarios that have better loot."

However, this is only for the next three weeks, ending on (presumably) July 7. Judging by how this experiment goes, "We may add this limitation to more map conditions in the future after we’ve observed its impact," the devs explain.

I'm surprised it took this long to run a test like this—maybe I'm just too used to Bungie's willingness to experiment with every Marathon update—but I'm glad it's here. Night Raid and Close Scrutiny are among the hardest activities in Arc Raiders, and it was always a bit silly that you could face off against players with free kits. Even if you beat them, you'd have nothing to gain. It undermined the difficult and risk-reward balance that these modes were aiming for. Now you'll at least have to pony up something of value.

On the topic of free loadouts, Embark has also made a number of quality-of-life improvements. Firstly, your current loadout is no longer cleared when you choose to use a free loadout until you're loading into a match, in case you need to make a last-minute change. And when you are ready, your inventory will now display the free loadout's equipment, rather than an empty inventory. Small but neat changes for those who love running with the basics.

Arc Raiders gave us a surprise player project in the latest update to keep us busy for a few weeks while Embark is cracking on with Frozen Trail coming in October. The Converging Paths project works in tandem with the Forgotten Relics event, asking you to donate your new trinkets to build a display stand for them.

I'll outline everything you need to do below, but I'll warn you now that it's a limited-time event, running from June 16 through to July 27. I do wish we could customise our den and show off our achievements long term, though. You're teasing us, Embark.

How to complete the Arc Raiders Converging Paths project

The Converging Paths project has six stages to complete, but unlike most projects, it actually starts and ends with a simple quest objective—I recommend you save the mine and trap rewards for the final stage. You'll also need to find a bunch of the new trinket items, which you'll also need for the Forgotten Relics event.

The best place to find these new relic trinkets is in Residential or Commercial areas, since they commonly spawn on shelves, and inside cupboards, drawers, and other containers. I recommend searching Grandioso Apartments, Santa Maria Houses, and the Plazas in Buried City, and inside the chimneys during the Bird City event.

• Train Model (common - 10 Merits)
• Sextant (uncommon - 15 Merits)
• Vintage Steering Wheel (uncommon - 15 Merits)
• Equatorial Sundial (rare - 25 Merits)
• Colorful Shoes (rare - 25 Merits)
• Tellurion (epic - 50 Merits)
• Colorful Shoes (epic - 50 Merits)
• Colorful Shoes (legendary - 150 Merits)
• Elephant Obelisk (legendary - 150 Merits)

Here's everything you need to do, and what you'll earn:

Secure safe passage (1/6)

You need to deal 1,200 damage to Arc enemies in the Swamp, which is on the west side of Dam Battlegrounds. You can complete this task anywhere between South Swamp Outpost and presumably Hydroponic Dome Complex, and there's no shortage of machines roaming this area, including Rocketeers.

A great way to complete this step quickly would be to take advantage of the Close Scrutiny map condition when it's active on Dam Battlegrounds, as the Arc Assessor's spawn waves of bots to kill.

• Rewards: 3x Pulse Mine, 3x Lure Grenade Trap, 25x Raider Tokens

Collect supplies (2/6)

From here on out (until the final step), it's back to the usual 'collect items and donate them' objectives that we're used to from projects.

• Reward: 3x Smoke Grenade Trap, 3x Explosive Mine, 25x Raider Coins

Procure relics (3/6)

• Reward: 3x Blaze Grenade Trap, 3x Jolt Mine, 1x Rascal II, 50x Raider Coins

Create emergency caches (4/6)

• Reward: 3x Surge Coil, 3x Blaze Grenade Trap, 3x Explosive Mine, 50x Raider Coins

Finish the cabinet of curiosities (5/6)

• Reward: 1x Combat MK.3 (Flanking) augment, 1x Photoelectric Cloak, 1x Bobcat II, 50x Raider Coins

Use nomad tactics to fight Arc (6/6)

The final task is to deal damage to Arc using mines or traps, including Blaze Grenade Traps, Pulse Mines, Jolt Mines, Explosive Mines, and Surge Coils. You'll have earned a bunch from completing the stages so far, so now it's time to put them to use. You can do this on any map and mode, so pick your poison.

• Reward: Sextant backpack charm, Red Black Saltwalker outfit colour, 100x Raider Coins, Surge Coil blueprint

Arc Raiders' latest update has given us the Forgotten Relics event and the Converging Paths project, both of which intertwine slightly. It's not super complicated, but they're intended to be a snack to tide us over until the big Frozen Trail update in October.

Below, I'll explain how to earn Merits to complete the Forgotten Relics event, as well as the rewards you'll get for being such a diligent treasure hunter.

Like Converging Paths, this is a limited-time affair (June 16 through to July 27), so get in while you can.

How to complete the Forgotten Relics event in Arc Raiders

To progress the Forgotten Relics event, you need to earn Merits, which is done by:

• Earning XP during a match—Looting, killing bots and players, and time spent increase how much you'll earn.
• Looting and extracting new trinket items.

There are nine new trinkets you can find, which give an increasing number of Merits based on their rarity. You can also donate these relics to the Converging Paths projects once you've returned to Speranza with them, so it's two birds with one stone.

The best place to find these new trinkets is in Residential or Commercial areas, on shelves, or inside cupboards, drawers, and the like. I recommend searching Grandioso Apartments, Santa Maria Houses, and the Plazas in Buried City, and inside the chimneys during the Bird City event. Here's what each is worth Merit-wise:

• Train Model (common - 10 Merits)
• Sextant (uncommon - 15 Merits)
• Vintage Steering Wheel (uncommon - 15 Merits)
• Equatorial Sundial (rare - 25 Merits)
• Colorful Shoes (rare - 25 Merits)
• Tellurion (epic - 50 Merits)
• Colorful Shoes (epic - 50 Merits)
• Colorful Shoes (legendary - 150 Merits)
• Elephant Obelisk (legendary - 150 Merits)

Since XP is the main source of progression in the Forgotten Relics event though, you'll want to maximise your earnings. Map events like Night Raids are a great opportunity to rack up high scores, and you can do this while looting for valuable trinkets, too.

Merits are automatically converted and redeemed in the events page, so head there to track your progress.

All Arc Raiders Forgotten Relics rewards

There are 21 rewards available, including an exclusive outfit and 100 Raider Tokens, requiring you to earn 3,150 Merits to unlock them all:

Arc Raiders has had a big problem with various duplication exploits since its release. In a genre all about looting—finding it and fighting to keep it—that's a pretty nasty issue to have. While these bugs have generally been patched pretty quickly, and often related to specific items (like endless rubber duckies), the spoils of free-flowing loot spread like wildfire among players. A weapon's locker full of Bobcats? Who's gonna say no to that?

YouTuber 'The Gaming Merchant' decided to investigate how these glitches have impacted the game. First, they began by infiltrating PvP servers. While Embark has said matchmaking isn't that binary, the gist is that the more violent you are, the more violent your lobbies tend to be. The Gaming Merchant started encountering very geared-up players consistently—equipped with Bobcats, gold-quality weapon mods like the Kinetic Converter, and even more. That's not an immediate red flag as you'd expect PvP players to be armed to the teeth.

Then they encountered a player who murdered them and dropped a mountain of Bobcats on the ground, touting via voice chat that they had even more stockpiled in their stash. Hard to argue they're all legitimately acquired, if you ask me.

Venturing into Facebook and Discord groups, it's clear that there are even some people buying and selling various in-game weapons and equipment for real money for some reason. How's this all acquired? More than likely from item duping or other dubious methods like third-party tools. I doubt these services do too well, but they do exist, despite breaking Embark's terms of service.

From The Gaming Merchant's research, it seems as though a good deal of this item duping and trading is handled on Asian servers—you can tweak this in the settings menu at any time. My guess is that it's quieter over on the Asian servers, so easier to arrange dealings with other players. Some of the players they encountered had inventories full of duped gear, and even admitted to trading the items, which can then be taken into other server regions.

Even though the latest duping glitch might be patched, history has shown that it's more or less a matter of time until a new one is discovered, or a new tool comes along for cheaters to abuse. And the effects of these exploits are apparent, especially for those playing in PvP inclined lobbies. Just a quick glance at Reddit, and you're bound to come across someone (rightfully) moaning about such exploits.

Since Arc Raiders' Expedition wipe system is optional, there's little to counteract economy-breaking issues like this outside of weapon degradation and, ideally, banning these accounts and patching the holes. Even those who do leave on Expeditions will frequently use friends to 'mule' for them and hold onto gear.

With how the in-game item economy has been manipulated by numerous exploits since launch, mandatory wipes sure sound pretty good to me now.

Gears of War: E-Day had its big coming out party today at the Xbox Games Showcase, with an extended look at gameplay and confirmation that it will be an "Xbox console exclusive"—still coming to PC, but not PlayStation 5. It was a decidedly nostalgic presentation, particularly for a game positioned as leading the way into the future of Microsoft's console biz: "It's only fitting that as we return to Xbox, we return to Gears," Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said during today's showcase.

And despite what sounded like some early consternation, the new game has been given the official seal of approval from original Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski—although he was clearly a little nervous about the whole thing.

Bleszinski's first major success in the games industry came in the form of Jazz Jackrabbit, a long-ago hit for Epic Games, and his work on Unreal Tournament made him one of PC Gamer's "Game Gods" of the year 2000, alongside American McGee, Stevie Case, and Alex Garden. But it was his work as the lead designer of the first three Gears of War games that really cemented his legacy.

Bleszinski left Epic in 2012, and while he's not fully retired—he said so in another post today—he hasn't been up to much on the game front in the years since aside from the ill-fated LawBreakers (which I will once again remind you was quite good). But he's still a man of many opinions, about videogames as much as anything else, and he's not afraid to put 'em out there.

"Those Locust are dying mighty easy, just sayin'," Bleszinski posted on X during the first part of the showcase. After noting that Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford called the first Gears of War "a grinder" when he played it, Bleszinski continued, "Locust should have thick skin and armor and the game feedback loop should evolve to show that—damage on 'em/animation feedback, etc..."

Later on though, as the full-on Gears of War: E-Day Direct kicked into gear, his opinion shifted—not that he was being bluntly negative about it in the first place, but his tone on E-Day clearly lifted as the more detailed showcase got rolling.

"Yes, there's that sweet destruction I was hoping for. The longer glimpse of what the Coalition has been up to is exciting. Super low cover is a nice touch too," Bleszinski posted. He also enthused about the updated look of the Reavers and Seeders, and the increased fatness of the Boomers.

When all was said and done, Bleszinski liked what he saw. "So yeah, E-day looks great, amazing feature set, great tech improvements—and, most importantly—looks like it has heart. On top of all sorts of insane violence and destruction. Now get off my fucking lawn already!"

Gears of War: E-Day is set to launch on October 6, and is up for preordering now on Steam—but not, somewhat ironically, on the Epic Games Store.

El Paso, Elsewhere is an acclaimed indie gem—dropping in 2023, PC Gamer contributor Dominic Tarason called it "one of the boldest, freshest games of the year"—it followed the harrowing adventures of one James Savage as he slow-mo shot his way through a reality-warped 46-story subterranean motel filled with vampires, werewolves, and other nasties.

Well, now it's getting a sequel—as announced at the PC Gaming Show, El Paso, Elsewhere 2 will be coming to Steam next year. There's no specific release date, but there is a trailer. Rather than being stuck working over hospitality with his arsenal of weapons, Savage will be travelling along the United States this time in a journey that'll eventually see him pulled into the void itself, all to save the person who betrayed him.

The sequel promises over 20 levels with a bigger remit of scenery than the prior game—libraries, nightclubs, the lairs of eldritch horrors, and perhaps the most horrifying place of all: American suburbia (God help us all, these cities aren't even walkable).

Like the first game, Elsewhere 2 will have an original hip-hop soundtrack, produced again by RJ Lake, alongside fully-voiced cutscenes. It plays very similar to the original Max Payne games—third-person shooting with plenty of slow-mo thanks to Savage's vampiric powers.

"Strange Scaffold nearly closed in the process of making the first El Paso, Elsewhere. It's a game I never thought we'd have a chance to build a sequel for," studio head Xalavier Nelson Jr. tells PCGS.

"We're going to build on the things that worked in the original game, including our existing pieces of art, to create exciting gameplay we never could have even imagined before. I can't wait for folks to see how far James Savage can go."

You can expect high-octane shooting, biblically accurate angels, werewolves, vampires, and plenty of sick backflips along with a hefty dose of interpersonal existential dread. El Paso, Elsewhere 2 will release sometime next year, though you can wishlist the game now.

Check out everything revealed at the PC Gaming Show.

New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced during today's Xbox Games Showcase that Gears of War: E-Day is an "Xbox console exclusive."

I don't recall E-Day having been announced for PlayStation in the first place, so I momentarily wondered if the emphasis was on console there—no PC?

Nah, a Microsoft rep has confirmed to PC Gamer that Gears of War: E-Day is still coming to PC. (It has a Steam page and everything, after all.) Microsoft also announced a launch date: October 6, 2026.

The term "console exclusive" is often used in this way—to say that the console version is exclusive to one console, not that it's skipping PC—but we've got to be on our toes these days. The console wars are back on, and Sony has pulled away from PC releases for its big first-party games. Meanwhile, Xbox has new leadership, and we're still not sure how its strategy is going to evolve.

You can see the gameplay reveal in the video above; there's more to come, as E-Day is getting a deep dive after the main Xbox Games Showcase.

There's a good chance you haven't heard of That's No Moon. The Los Angeles-based studio is one of many that cropped up amidst the Covid-fueled videogames gold rush of the early 2020s, and up until now it's been working in total silence. The South Korean publisher backing the startup, Smilegate, is known for free-to-play shooters and MMOs, but much of the top brass at That's No Moon cut their teeth at Naughty Dog making Uncharted and The Last of Us.

It's an odd pairing, but it has produced a genuinely intriguing debut game. What if I told you:

1. It's called Crossfire, the same name as Smilegate's long-running FPS colloquially known as "Korean Counter-Strike"
2. But it's not an FPS, or competitive, or even multiplayer at all. This Crossfire is a singleplayer, third-person, "stealth-forward" tactical shooter
3. The main character is voiced and performed by Claudia Doumit, known for her roles in The Boys TV show and the Modern Warfare 2019 reboot
4. It's mashing the cinematic stylings of a prestige console game with the systemic friction of a milsim—high lethality, limited healing, manual magazine reloading, etc.

Weird! But also: Cool!

That's No Moon is drawing from the world of the competitive FPS—particularly its factions—but this is an original story with new characters. CCO Taylor Kurosaki is well aware that most of the West doesn't know the first thing about Crossfire, let alone its fiction, and you don't have to. During a visit to the That's No Moon studio in Los Angeles, Kurosaki called Crossfire a canvas.

The world had lore, but not much in the way of stories, until now.

This Crossfire takes place in a militaristic theatre, but its story won't take the shape of a Call of Duty-style global conflict. The game centers on the relationship between protagonist Layla Qassem, an idealistic gun-for-hire, and Delroy Cross, a mercenary who "fights for institutions." Kurosaki danced around the specifics of their meeting and the conflict that brings them together, but in an interview with PC Gamer he compared Layla and Delroy's relationship to classic "unlikely duo" cinema like Midnight Run.

As I watched Crossfire played live by game director Jacob Minkoff, my eyes widened with surprise. The behind-the-back camera angle, cinematic cutscenes, and believable exchanges between Layla and Delroy had all the markings of The Last of Us (on which Minkoff was lead designer), but when action broke out, we quickly left PlayStation prestige behind.

Firefights were loud, scrappy, and brief. Minkoff fired in controlled bursts, as full-auto recoil seemed difficult to control at distance. Tanking just a few shots would tear through Layla's ceramic plates, triggering a bleed that he had to mend within seconds or pass out. There was no first-person view as far as I saw, but in its place was one of the coolest on-screen reticles I've ever seen: a projection of what your current gun's sights would look like in first-person, instead of a traditional cross or dot. What a neat way to convey an experiential difference in FPS guns (preferring one gun's iron sights over another's) that third-person shooters are usually left out of.

That's just one of the ways Crossfire is pulling from milsims like Escape From Tarkov, Arma, Squad, or what have you. After stealth-killing a soldier, Minkoff looted the body and revealed an elaborate, Tarkov-style modular inventory with slots for backpacks, vests, and ammo belts. At one point he replaced Layla's busted helmet with a fresh one, then looted ammo from a pack, which required the extra steps of loading bullets individually into magazines.

Covered

None of these mechanics are wholly unique on their own, but it's the context they exist within that excites me. This isn't a battle royale, an extraction shooter, or an Arma scenario—it's a linear, authored campaign. We just don't get singleplayer shooters with characters and stories that you (ideally) care about and this level of simulation. The closest analog is Ubisoft's recent run of Ghost Recon, though to call those sims is a long stretch.

Minkoff's vision for Crossfire is to bridge the gap between a milsim and an accessible action game. The third-person camera certainly helps in that way, but so does one feature that Kurosaki and Minkoff were endlessly excited to show off: adaptive cover.

Essentially, Crossfire's cover system isn't a binary state of standing or crouching. Cover comes in all shapes and sizes (not just waist-high boxes), and so Crossfire's cover system automatically adjusts Layla's stance to obscure her behind whatever cover is available. Minkoff said the system is based on how real-life soldiers use cover—ducking and lurking behind shallow rock croppings at whatever height and stance is necessary to break line-of-sight.

"I love milsim, but I recognize that the experience is somewhat niche," Minkoff told PC Gamer. "When I play those games for my own enjoyment, I'm always thinking about how I can make this more accessible to a wider audience, so that was the vision for adaptive cover from the start."

Stance management is, again, not a new concept for the Arma crowd, but it will be for most people, and the way Crossfire automates a stance through the blending of hundreds of animations is impressive. That doesn't mean the game will always automatically hide you—it's still up to the player to survey the area for adequate cover and avoid patrols. After watching Minkoff fail twice in an encounter he's likely played a hundred times, I was reminded of how I like to play stealth action games: taking risks in the pursuit of doing something cool, getting curbstomped, then trying a new route the next time. Crossfire will be hard by default, but the full game will have a range of difficulty settings.

"If I can give somebody an experience where they can learn the controls in just a few minutes, but they have all the challenge and tactical freedom that would get from a lighter milsim, then they get to unlock this flavor of game that I love so much," said Minkoff.

Minkoff also talked about how this one-of-a-kind system allowed the team to make more fluid and organic levels that were "completely illegal" in this type of game 20 years ago, sharing screenshots of his own "rectilinear cover" in Uncharted 4 with the same grimace of someone looking back at their questionable hairstyle from high school. Minkoff seemed genuinely giddy to leave behind rooms full of waist-high walls and boxes that prompted players to snidely ask "I wonder if a fight is about to break out in here?"

Throughout my day at That's No Moon touring its pleasant West Hollywood studio and visiting its on-site performance capture volume, I kept looking for a catch. It's rare enough these days to get a narrative-focused action game with a significant budget at all, let alone one that isn't pressured to have a live-service plan to extract money for years to come. Why the heck is Smilegate placing a bet like this?

To hear Kurosaki recount how the studio formed back in 2021, it's pretty simple.

"When we met the folks from Smilegate, they were very clear. They said 'Smilegate wants to be associated with high-quality games, so the only goal for you guys is to make the game of your careers.' That's it." Kurosaki told PC Gamer. "They did not micromanage us."

I had assumed that part of the offer included working within the Crossfire franchise, but Kurosaki says there was no such mandate. It was actually That's No Moon that pushed to use the name.

"We did a deep dive into the Crossfire lore and said hey, we can actually tell the story that we want to tell in the Crossfire IP. We asked them if that'd be OK. I actually loved that name, Crossfire, because it's what Delroy and Layla are going through."

Nothing but surprises from these guys. Crossfire was the first of a dozen-plus new games I'll see in Los Angeles throughout June, but even on the other side of that gauntlet I expect it'll be the one I can't stop thinking about. As a fan of both extremes that Crossfire is harnessing, That's No Moon has identified a bullseye I didn't know I had.

The free-to-play shooter The Division Resurgence has taken another step on its strange journey, as Ubisoft announced today that it's set to launch on Steam later this year.

The Division Resurgence was announced in 2022, with a release target of 2024, but in typical Ubisoft fashion there were delays, and it didn't actually go live until March 2026. Just a month later, with pretty much zero warning, it quietly dropped onto PC as well, in early access, to enable "technical testing ahead of its official launch in August."

It was something of a surprise: As PC Gamer's Shaun Prescott noted at the time, there was no hint that Ubisoft had any plans for it beyond mobile platforms, and had in fact emphasized its mobile-focused nature: "Our objective in bringing the Division universe to mobile, is to enable more people worldwide to enjoy this open world experience whenever and wherever they want. We feel very lucky that the mobile market has evolved to the point where we can develop such an ambitious game."

But just as Blizzard opted to bring Diablo Immortal to PC, Ubisoft decided to broaden The Division Resurgence's base as well. And after a little over a month of being available on Ubisoft's own storefront, it's now up for wishlisting on Steam.

"Over the next few weeks we will be hard at work polishing the last elements of the game for a truly seamless experience, whatever your preferred platform may be," The Division dev team wrote. "The game is fully cross-platform and cross-play, meaning you can continue your journey in The Division at any time."

The announcement doesn't get into why Ubisoft decided to make the move to Steam just a month after dropping it on its own storefront, but we can make a pretty good guess: Despite everyone's best effort, Steam is where it's at. Just like everyone else, Ubisoft came crawlin' back in 2024, and whether it wanted to take one last kick at the flying solo can with Resurgence, or just needed a little more time to get its ducks in order, it's not really surprising that if it wants the game on PC, it wants to do it on Steam.

Last month, a game called Shrimp Game: Krill Confirmed launched on Steam. It's a self-contained demo for the upcoming shrimp game, Shrimp Game, and as a game about shrimp it has all the features you'd expect: You can pilot one of 11 weaponized combat shrimp-forms, imbue them with a cocktail of violent elemental powers, and equip them with dozens of armaments like shotguns, sniper rifles, and explosive cannon rounds.

I'll admit I'm not a marine biologist, so there's a chance that isn't all standard shrimp behavior. But there's zero chance that it doesn't make for a surprisingly rad third-person shooter that we, as a culture, collectively failed to properly acknowledge for an entire month. It only has 126 Steam reviews, for God's sake. We call ourselves a society?

Thankfully, nothing is stopping us from correcting this oversight except the brief amount of time it takes to download its less than 2 GB install size. I confirmed some krills of my own earlier today, and I was glad I did so.

After starting a game in Shrimp Game, I was tasked by a terrifying eldritch being to revivify a decaying seascape by purging a series of biomes of villainous sea life. To complete this horror-given duty, I had to choose between a selection of shrimp classes and sets of elemental abilities.

I could be a quick-dashing shrimp assassin who could fire shadow blades, or a sturdier shrimp frontliner who could produce eruptions of solar energy. Ultimately, I chose to become an ice krillemental: a shrimp with high mobility stats, a charge-up long-distance ice ray, and the ability to launch myself backwards while leaving a damaging cloud of frost. Again, I assume shrimp are doing this kind of thing all the time.

My inaugural mission proceeded smoothly: I tumbled my shrimp-shape through a den of undersea spires, hammering sea scorpions and squids with bubble shots and comparing the weapons they dropped in the carnage. I quickly grew attached to a loadout of a sniper pellet and a quick-firing spray gun, offering all-range solutions for my crustacean shootouts. It was enjoyable work, if a little straightforward; even as a novice shrimp pilot, dodging the incoming fire from other sea life didn't demand much of my talents.

That changed once I crossed a critical threshold of sea-murder, which called a massive enemy eurypterid to the battlefield: one of the Late Silurian mixopterids, by the looks of it—a nightmare of spined claws and exoskeleton plating, its meter-long bulk dwarfing my shrimpish dimensions.

Where other enemy sea life fired lazy bullets, the eurypterid launched walls of projectiles at once, forcing me to be more mindful with my dodges. And when the walls of projectiles stopped, it sent inverted meteors erupting from across the sea floor, driving me to jockey for safe firing positions. (The real eurypterids may have possessed these abilities. But only their fossils remember, and they are reticent to share.)

Anyway, I learned how to fuse my ice magic with an enchanted rock and that let me summon a giant rectangular glacier that bisected that eurypterid freak for like two thousand damage. In return I earned a few hundred SP, which until I'm corrected I will continue to believe stands for "shrimp points." I spent my winnings to turn my shrimp yellow. Victory is sweet.

Shrimp Game: Krill Confirmed is available on Steam now.

Special commentary on this classic PC Gamer review provided by:

James Bond: Blood Stone review - PC Gamer issue #210 (US, February 2011)

From the archives: The review below appears as originally written, with only minor changes in formatting and newly taken screenshots. By Tyler Wilde

Out of respect for you, the Bond franchise and the English language in general, I had planned to avoid using hackneyed puns in this review. Plan aborted. Blood Stone doesn't deserve bad wordplay immunity, and I refuse to give it a single quantum of solace. Well, maybe that's too harsh—it can have one quantum. Blood Stone isn't entirely un-fun, but it's no more fun than, say, watching Quantum of Solace. (Double zing!)

This licensed shooting-and-driving game was built by Blur developer Bizarre Creations, which is why I expected more going in. Most of the shooting follows a "find cover, shoot wave of dudes, move to new cover, shoot next wave" pattern. When enemies get close, you can drop them by triggering a motion-captured "Takedown" kill, and performing these earns "Focus Aims." Those really aren't worth going into. The best of the fighting is the few stealthy segments, which actually require a smidgen of care.

It doesn't break the game, but the camera is a constant annoyance. It seems to be attached to Bond's back via a limp bungee cord. Walking around is like steering a boat with half a rudder, and it's as awkward as describing something with three different metaphors.

Driving is better, but inconsistent. Some sections feel truly Bond-like—time slowed down as I sped under tumbling big rigs (without pausing to consider how many bystander deaths just happened). Other parts, however, contain multiple hairpin turns that'll end the chase if mishandled. Checkpoints are plentiful, but some took more tries to reach than was good for the enamel on my clenched teeth.

Shaky, not stirring

The action is justified by an original story by Bruce Feirstein, whose words have been uttered in three Bond films and two games. So it's a passable spy yarn about bioterrorists with names like Bernin and Pomerov. It's not bad, but it's not interesting, either. The voices of Daniel Craig (as James Bond), Judi Dench (as M) and singer Joss Stone (as the Bond Girl) advance the story in frequent, soporific cutscenes and phone conversations.

They're dull, but they offer a short, welcome break from the mediocre shooting, which is in turn broken up by hands-off moments meant to ensure that Bond's nick-of-time escapes look properly cinematic. All of that is better than the inane scanning and "hacking" of stuff with Bond's magic smartphone.

Blood Stone's five-hour campaign, like the world, is not enough. It also comes with three generic multiplayer modes, all of which leave out the best part (the driving)—but trust me: you don't care.

I am nothing if not a coward and a rat. Not in the sense that I'd be lurking around any extracts in Arc Raiders waiting to jump someone—I could never do something so evil—but in the way that I like to scuttle around in the shadows, staying out of fights, and attacking arcs from odd angles so they can't hurt me back. Like I said: a coward and a rat.

But some people don't have to stoop to such levels, as you can see with one Arc Raiders player, rI1975, who recently took us through a masterclass on how to destroy a Bastion with no Deadline mine in just 16 seconds.

How to kill a bastion in 16 seconds (without deadline). from r/ArcRaiders

"Too often I see people with hullcrackers or anvils just spending multiple minutes fighting Bastions, wasting ammo and time," rI1975 adds. "It's much easier than you think."

I see your surgical take down of a Bastion and raise you my inherent fear of getting too close, missing a shot, and then getting squished? As other players pointed out in the comments this video makes it look way too easy.

One player manages to summarise my amazement: "You need to be wearing the doctor's outfit with this kind of surgical skin". While others just seem in awe of the accuracy and fearlessness of this player.

All it took to take the Bastion down in the end was three shots to its knee with a hullcracker, knocking it down, three shots to its core at the back to blow it open, and one brutal kill-shot into the internals of the Bastion itself. While it was a close call, from when the first shot hit it did indeed all only take 16 seconds to take it down.

Since Embark recently added the Nomadic Envoy, who only trades for big arc parts, learning how to quickly flatline Bastions is a useful skill, especially as they drop a tonne of cores, and so are one of the most efficient ways to grind valuable big arc parts.

I have certainly relied on Deadlines to take down bigger arcs since they were introduced, but the hullcracker is also a fantastic weapon that shouldn't be taken lightly, as the video above demonstrates. It was actually my favourite weapon from all the way back in the preview and has continued to be a stalwart in my stash ever since.

Being surprised at seeing cheating in online competitive multiplayer games is like being surprised at seeing a fish in the ocean, you're going to encounter some every now and then, that's just how it goes. But Marvel Rivals has had a particularly rough time with cheaters as of late. To stretch out the above analogy as far as it'll go, it feels like the salmon rush right now.

It got so bad even, with cheaters boasting about exploits, streaming and posting their crimes, alongside bad mouthing high elo players for their lack of skill that NetEase stepped in with a ban wave and confirmation that its anti-cheat system will be getting a hefty update. But some didn't think that was enough, and to be fair, it didn't massively address the issue many players are having in-game right now.

So to help ease things just a bit, NetEase announced a new anti-cheat rank compensation system that will rollout later this week: "We're sending the TVA to prune the cheaters! Our new Anti-Cheat Rank Compensation System will begin its trial run this week. If you encounter a cheater in your match, successfully report them, and the system verifies the cheat, you will be fully refunded ALL Ranked Points lost during that match. (Note: Placement Matches do not award points and are therefore excluded from this compensation)."

We've seen something similar just a few months ago with the "Victim Compenstation Protocol" system which NetEase greenlighted after a 'throwing' epidemic meant that players were becoming collateral for those purposely throwing comp games. Systems like this are also commonplace in other online multiplayer games such as Overwatch or Valorant.

It's certainly a good temporary measure, but it doesn't address the root of the problem: how to dissuade cheaters. There just aren't enough meaningful punishments to deter the vast majority of cheaters. Unfortunately, with Marvel Rivals being a free-to-play game account bans aren't enough as new ones are so easy to make; instead, harsher restrictions are needed like hardware or IP bans. NetEase is dishing a few of these out as we speak, but it's such a small proportion of the ban waves that I doubt it's making that much of a difference.

It's been a bad weekend for Marvel Rivals after a small update opened the floodgates for more cheaters to scurry inside, wreaking havoc in games all the way from Bronze to One Above All. How bad is it you ask? A slew of cheaters actually took to streaming their crimes over the weekend to a sizeable audience, promoting their software, and dunking on high elo players. So yeah, pretty bad.

In response to this NetEase has now issued a warning to cheaters alongside a new ban wave and even took the time to post receipts.

"Recently, our telemetry detected that following the weekend update, a faction of rogue players began promoting and deploying unauthorized third-party enhancements," NetEase says in a blog post. "This blatant disruption of our fair battlefield has sparked widespread concern across the Chronoverse. In response, our security teams have initiated an immediate, targeted purge.

"Maintaining a fair and honorable arena is our primary directive. We continuously combat cheats, scripts, and illicit tech through multi-layered anti-cheat monitoring, abnormal behavior detection, historical data reviews, and manual verification. This recent enforcement wave is a targeted crackdown addressing newly updated cheats, building upon our foundational security frameworks."

Alongside this notice there's also a behemoth account ban list including 485 names, their UID and Rank all shared. However, there's just three accounts in this wave that have been found guilty of "severe violations" resulting in permanent hardware bans.

Seeing the entire ban list of cheaters is insane from r/marvelrivals

While some players are just happy to see NetEase doing something, citing it as a "step in the right direction" others are surprised about how few accounts have been banned compared to the total player population and just how bad cheating is in Rivals.

NetEase goes on to assure players that any new cheating hardware has been "logged by our security team" and "integrated into our automated penalty system". So moving forward any account which gets flagged for using these cheats or software will be "permanently banned".

There in lies the problem. Account bans in a free to play game are like putting a bandaid over a gaping wound. It's so easy to create a new account for Rivals that there's an argument that NetEase needs to start handing out more severe repercussions aka hardware bans, and three accounts out of 488 just isn't enough.

Players have been begging NetEase to take cheating more seriously and bring down the hammer for as long as I can remember now. And while NetEase is clearly trying to stay on top of the issue it doesn't seem as if any great strides have been taken recently, at least not ones that could match the sheer number of cheaters in the game right now.

To end the post NetEase once again reminds players to not download cheat software (that'll do it), to report anything malicious in-game, and sets the record straight concerning "completely false" rumours about its anti-cheat system being bypassed: "Our anti-cheat launches concurrently with the game client and cannot be disabled independently. The parameter in question merely hides the pop-up window; it does not deactivate the anti-cheat software in any capacity." That's something I guess.

To PvP or to PvE? This is a question that's plagued Arc Raiders ever since its launch, with players split between their love for banding together and killing arcs, as opposed to their love for tearing each other limb from limb and taking the scrap to trade for more scrap—it's a tough choice.

Embark has hinted at Arc Raiders being a more friendly extraction shooter, with CEO Patrick Söderlund explaining that it's not about "shooting other players", even if they didn't expect such a passionate PvE crowd to emerge. Since then there's been a PvE-forward event which saw players band together against the machines, plus more information shared about the matchmaking that supposedly splits off the more aggressive players.

But one player has had enough. Forward_Problem_7550 took to Reddit with an idea for a 'Rival Gangs' PvP mode, and honestly, I like the sound of that: "Sick of hearing about PvE. Give the PvP players what we actually want."

Sick of hearing about PvE, Give the PvP players what we actually want… from r/ArcRaiders

The Rival Gangs idea would see players jump into a high difficulty map modifier which would provide them with increased loot value and less active return points and hatches. But the catch is raiders would need to be equipped with at least 30,000 raider coins worth of weapons: "Hostilles have been spotted in the area. Only well-equipped Raiders are getting clearance to head Topside."

The concept of turning PvP into a map modifier is a very appealing option to have, especially if you could go in, wreak havoc, and not have any of it damage your matchmaking standing. The idea that you'd need a minimum amount of gear would also be a sound idea, not just to give players more of an incentive to take out other raiders, but to ensure there's somewhat of a level playing field and that everyone has something to lose. Having a minimum loadout value entry requirement is something that Marathon has also toyed with for its Ranked mode and Cryo Archive map.

But this is all just the hopes and dreams of a fan. Even with all the good will, we likely won't be seeing the Rival Gangs map modifier in Arc Raiders. Although that's not to say something similar couldn't make an appearance later down the line—it's certainly within the realms of possibility.

Are PvE-only lobbies a thing in Arc Raiders? Will one measly kill mark me as a hostile player in future matches? These are questions Embark tackles head-on in a new matchmaking-focused blog post. This is by far the most the developer has spoken in detail about its unique aggression-based matchmaking system since we first learned about it, and it's a genuinely interesting read.

"We take multiple factors into account when forming a lobby. One of the strongest is your playstyle across previous rounds, especially as it relates to how you engage with other Raiders," the post reads. "It's important to understand that playstyles aren't binary. This isn't 'friendly' vs. 'shoot on sight.' It's a continuous scale."

Embark says that while some players are always friendly and others are bloodthirsty maniacs, "most raiders fall somewhere in between—maybe friendly until threatened, maybe opportunistic, maybe cautious, maybe unpredictable on a bad day."

What Embark wants to make exceedingly clear is that Arc Raiders' matchmaking does not exclusively match you with those who play exactly the same. "Our system tries to place you with players who sit closer to you on that scale, while still keeping Topside from becoming completely predictable."

To communicate that point, Embark included an illustration of the range of playstyles you're likely to encounter based on your behavior. The graph, which does not represent "real matchmaking telemetry," shows that you're most likely to play with players in adjacent ranges of aggression—as in those who are slightly less or slightly more PvP-hungry than you are. With my extremely small kill count, that explains why the majority of my matches have no PvP at all. But if you're in that middle majority, spicy lobbies are a lot more common.

Embark has recently made two changes to its behavioural judgments based on feedback:

1. Defending yourself is no longer treated the same as starting a fight. Previously, your playstyle didn't capture whether you started a PvP encounter or merely defended yourself. This meant cautious Raiders could be treated as more PvP-focused than they actually are. Now, the two are treated differently.
2. Low-activity rounds carry less weight in your playstyle history. Rounds with little Topside interaction—like spawning and surrendering—used to impact player's estimated playstyle more than expected. Reducing their weight helps the system reflect how you genuinely play when you're out there making choices.

The studio also took this opportunity to clear up common misconceptions about how matchmaking works in Arc Raiders:

• There are not only two kinds of lobbies—friendly and aggressive. It's a scale, not two buckets. Most players land somewhere between the extremes, and matchmaking is more likely to pair you with Raiders whose playstyle is similar to yours on that scale—without guaranteeing a specific outcome every round.
• One shot or kill does not immediately put you in "PvP-focused" lobbies. Matchmaking isn't meant to overreact to single moments - it looks at patterns over time, and changes tend to be gradual rather than instant.
• There are no "PvE-only" lobbies/servers where other Raiders will never attack you. Topside always carries risk. You may trend toward meeting Raiders with similar preferences, but there's no guarantee you'll never be attacked by another Raider.
• Your end-of-round feedback does not affect matchmaking. The survey is valuable for us when we look at trends and make design decisions, but it isn't used as a "next lobby" lever.
• Your loadout does not affect matchmaking. Matchmaking isn't driven by your kit, and we don't scale lobby difficulty based on how much your loadout costs.
• Patches and updates don't reset your matchmaking profile. Your playstyle history carries over across patches. You may notice slightly rougher matches in the first few minutes after an update—that's just because the pool is small while players are still updating - but it recovers quickly as more Raiders come online.
• Looting knocked-out players doesn't affect your matchmaking. Matchmaking looks at how you engage with other Raiders, not what you do with their gear afterward.
• We don't matchmake based only on the squad leader. Each member influences the squad profile - the leader has no special weight compared to their squadmates.
• Turning crossplay on or off does not impact the level of cooperation/PvP in the round. Changing crossplay changes who's in the matchmaking pool (and thanks to that, the matchmaking time), but it doesn't guarantee the tone of your encounters.

Good to know, though I doubt this reassurance will totally squash the superstition around Arc Raiders' invisible social machinations. Guides lead Sean Martin singled out the "One shot or kill does not immediately put you in a 'PvP-focused' lobby" claim in our work chat:

"I don't believe them lol. I literally killed like two people defending myself over the weekend and my next match was hell."

I think we've all had days like that.

Arc Raiders' has had somewhat of a long struggle with cheaters. It's plagued the extraction shooter pretty much from day one, with the few players who are guilty of it ruining the game for the masses as they'd use wallhacks or extra-sensory perception to ruthlessly hunt down other players.

Over the months since Arc Raiders' launch, Embark have attempted to combat cheaters by targeting Steam family sharing, dishing out strict consequences for those caught in the act, and systematically dolling out ban waves. Embark even recently published a short blog post on the subject, announcing that the studio is still taking the fight to cheaters with their kernel-level anticheat and are looking at more ways to eliminate this behaviour from the game. Which leads us to Denuvo.

Part of the latest Arc Raiders patch notes which introduced the new weapon, durability buffs, and a trader from Topside, also included a segment about Denuvo anti-cheat: "As mentioned in our Ensuring Fair Play article, we want to continue improving our anti-cheat solutions and more accurately detect foul play across the Rust Belt. Following a positive rollout in The Finals, Denuvo anti-cheat will also come to Arc Raiders starting May 19th, initially to a limited player pool, with plans to expand after close monitoring."

It's not uncommon for the mention of Denuvo to ruffle feathers. This anti-cheat is renowned for claims of it plaguing games with performance nerfs and stutters alongside it having ample access to your PC as it's a kernel-level anti-cheat. Embark has addressed some of these concerns, however, as it promises: "We will not be using Denuvo's Digital Rights Management (DRM) service, and are working to ensure minimal impact on performance."

It doesn't seem to be much of an issue anyway though, as most Arc Raiders players seem more concerned about riding their lobbies of cheaters and who will be the first hit with this new anti-cheat rather than concerns about the anti-cheat itself: "If this actually nukes ESP/ wallhack users the game might genuinely recover."

Theories of who exactly the "limited player pool" will encapsulate are floating around with some debating whether it could be distributed by region or PvP lobbies. The consensus so far seems to be that PvP lobbies are where anti-cheat is needed the most, because players using cheats against other players is far worse than using cheats to kill Arcs quicker.

"PvP lobbies are where the majority of cheaters will end up anyways," one player says. "There are still cheaters in PvE lobbies, but none of us PvE players care if they have aimbot or can see our inventory or position anyways, as long as they don't kill us."

Hopefully, this next step in Embark's journey towards fairer play will deliver visible results for players who are tired of being hunted for sport by cheaters. But it doesn't sound as if Embark is dusting its hands of the situation, more so that this is just another step on the road to recovery: "With Denuvo anti-cheat and Anybrain, we are working to strengthen Arc Raiders' systems even further. Keep sending us reports of any information that you believe might help us to do so, it's highly appreciated."

The first Arc Raiders patch since Embark shook up its update schedule has arrived. Major updates are only coming twice a year, but regular balancing changes continue unabated. That's what we have in patch 1.29.0: Embark is targeting a handful of bugbears while also introducing a new anti-ARC grenade launcher.

Perhaps the biggest change for active players is a partial reversion of weapon durability. Speranza weaponry isn't holding up like it used to. The idea was to force players to use more resources to keep their gear true, but the overwhelming response is that's actually annoying. Embark acknowledged in the patch notes that the lowered durability of some guns was "too much," and so it's toughening up some of the most common guns in the game.

Specifically, the Ferro, Anvil, Canto, Osprey, Renegade, Torrente, Bettina, and Jupiter can be shot more before they break. The percentage increase is different for each gun, ranging from 18% to 54%. The biggest durability boost by far goes to the Renegade, going from 175 to 269 shots. All of the numbers below assume a tier 1 weapon.

Embark classified these as the "worst offenders," but also said it will "monitor for any pain points that come up around durability in the coming weeks, and continue to adjust accordingly."

Then there's the Rascal, a new pocket-sized grenade launcher that functions as a lower-tier option for anti-Arc offense. Embark's official description:

"Lightweight, compact, and easy to carry, this unconventional launcher packs a punch despite its… quirks. While it’s slower to reload, and a bit unpredictable on the aim, the Rascal shines as a reliable side-arm for those who want anti-ARC firepower without the risk of lugging around a Hullcracker."

Patch 1.29.0 is also packing quality-of-life stuff, like the ability to view your teammates' info after an unsuccessful match, as well as the Nomadic Envoy, a new trader with Elie covered in detail today.

Last week Embark explained to players that it would be scaling down the frequency of major updates in Arc Raiders, citing the need to slow down to provide concise and "more impactful" changes. But now, just one week later, we've got another patch with quite a few highlights: a new weapon, durability adjustments, and a new trader from Topside.

The trader is the standout addition in my book. Part of a group of nomadic envoys who roam Topside, his name's Ermal, and he'll turn up in Speranza every week with a bunch of new items and perks for raiders that are level 25 and over to get their hands on. This is what will be on offer on a weekly rotation:

• Cosmetics
• Blueprints
• Raider Tokens (the premium currency)
• Progression items such as items needed for current Raider projects
• Expanded Stash space (although this resets post-expedition)
• Expedition Vault access which allows raiders to store up to five items for retrieval post-Expedition

Players will be able to trade "high-value Arc materials and stockpiled rare weapons" in exchange for all of these items and perks. But all of this trading isn't cheap. One cosmetic costs a total item value of 500,000 coins, I'm talking Queen Reactors, Matriarch Reactors, and Rocketeer Drivers just to name a few.

I've been waiting for some real trading to arrive in Arc Raiders for quite some time. Although I was hoping for an official trading route to open up between players, instead of using third party sites, this is still a hugely welcome addition. And I'm not the only one who thinks this.

"Has anyone realised how good this new trader is," Head-Chance3425 says in a social media post. "This will completely turn the game in favour of killing Arc because rewards are madness. To be able to earn coins and skins just by killing big Arc is amazing. Not to mention stash, blueprint carryover, and other cool stuff. I think this is one of the best updates so far in favour of gameplay and I love it."

Arc Raiders has always been at its best when Arcs have been the primary target. It encourages raiders to work together to take down bots three times their size and I think it provides a more compelling reason to go Topside rather than to just hunt down fellow raiders.

The Rascal is a new gun randomly dropped in Arc Raiders' 1.29.0, alongside the Nomadic Envoy rotating trader. This little pocket-sized rocket launcher (it's adorable) is designed to be a cheaper, easier-to-maintain alternative to the Hullcracker. It's a reliable anti-Arc sidearm, and we certainly need it with how dangerous the Riven Tides map is.

So, how do you get the Rascal? While the patch notes suggest Tian Wen sells it, that's unfortunately not the case—apparently she just crafted a bunch and stowed them in containers throughout Topside, laughing maniacally as she did. You'll need to put in some work to get this grenade launcher and its blueprint, plus a little luck.

How to get the Rascal in Arc Raiders

The Rascal is a rare (blue) quality weapon, so it can spawn in basically all the usual hot loot spots—there's no set location, as was the case with the Dolabra and Canto. I recommend looting inside locked key rooms, opening Security Breach cabinets (you need the skill of the same name), and doing Beachcombing on the Riven Tides map. The long gun cases will also be a pretty good option, since these regularly spawn blue weapons.

These activities have a higher chance of giving you rare items like the new Rascal, especially after the recent buff to key rooms. Likewise, the Night Raid or Hurricane modifiers, which offer increased loot value, will also have a higher drop chance.

In fact, while Riven Tides has the fewest number of Security Breach lockers with just nine, you can combine it with Beachcombing if the match is quiet enough. With a bit of luck, you'll get the Rascal blueprint in just a few attempts. YouTuber 'TooFumed' has a playlist of all the Security Breach locations that I recommend you watch.

If you're looking for the blueprint, it's also worth keeping an eye on the new Nomadic Envoy Trader, as he sells blueprints, which rotate over time, and he might well get one for this gun.

If you find the Rascal blueprint, you'll need the following materials to craft it:

• 2x Advanced Mechanical Components
• 3x Heavy Gun Parts
• 5x Canister

Given that the Rascal is intended to be a more affordable Hullcracker, don't expect the same performance. It's got only one shot in the chamber and a painfully slow reload, though upgrading it speeds this up. It's also pretty inaccurate, so I recommend using it against larger Arcs like Bastions or Bombardiers that are harder to miss. It'll kill a Shredder, my archnemesis, in three shots, which is worth it to me.

Marvel Rivals season 8 has begun and with it comes a new battle pass, patch notes, and a massive T.rex known as Devil Dinosaur. This dino is complete with seven passives, a shield, and a massive red laser beam, just as the cherry on top. But do you know what's better than a huge red T.rex? A bunch of Strategist nerfs.

Well, they're not massive nerfs, but we'll take what we can get right now. Multiple Strategist characters have had their offense capabilities dialled down: Invisible Woman, Loki, Mantis, Rocket Raccoon, and White Fox have all been tweaked in this patch.

Loki, Mantis, and Invisible Woman are getting damage nerfs: Loki's illusions will now "heal more reliably" and deal less damage while Mantis will provide a speed boost instead of a damage boost to allies, and Invis' knockback damage has also been dialled down. Loki's ultimate cost has also increased from 4300 to 4500, meaning it'll take a little more time for him to get his ult up and working for a team fight.

This seems like a pretty decent move for both of these Strategists, and while I don't think either of these are among the most problematic cases, I'm always a fan of supports doing less damage output and focusing on healing their team instead. Sure, the backline needs to be able to defend itself from flankers, but in no world should a Strategist be able to do as much damage as a Duelist or even a Vanguard.

Some higher elos can also get away with being more aggressive. But by and large most Strategist players often get distracted with damage output when the most valuable thing they can do for their team is keep the frontline alive.

Unfortunately, the nerf didn't go as far as to involve the rest of the support roster, as Rocket Raccoon and White Fox both got buffs. Rocket will output more healing and damage, and get his ultimate faster, while White Fox's change will "provide a more consistent healing" while in and out of combat.

Other adjustments include Deadpool (Vanguard) getting slightly nerfed, while Emma Frost survivability has been buffed and The Thing's base health has increased from 700 to 750. Duelist buffs include:

• Iron Fist: Dragon's Defense cooldown reduced and Kick strike damage increased from 35 to 40.
• Moon Knight: Moonlight Hook cooldown reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.
• Spider-Man: Increase ultimate damage from 13.6 to 15.
• Squirrel Girl: Mammal Bond cooldown reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.
• Star-Lord: Increased ammo capacity from 40 to 50.
• Wolverine: Cooldown for Regenerative Healing Factor reduced from 105 seconds to 90 seconds.

Mister Fantastic has been rebalanced by swapping out some slow effects in favour of a boost in "direct damage", alongside Phoenix who's explosive AoE attack has been reduced to make it more precise and "feel far more lethal." But her ultimate has been nerfed slightly: "Without damage buffs, Phoenix can no longer one-shot a 250 Health hero with a single mark + direct hit from her Endsong Inferno. However, the increase to her primary attack damage makes her far more threatening in baseline combat."

Control Resonant is going to be an RPG—that much we knew, with PCG's very own Robin Valentine being actively surprised by just how much of a Diablo-like it was when he saw it back in March. But did you know the Control series was always meant to be an RPG? Me either.

Per creative director Mikael Kasurinen, who spoke with our friends over at GamesRadar+ during Gamescom Latam this year, it was always destined to become an RPG series. No, more than that—Control was actively the first step towards making it so.

"When I was thinking about Control, and it wasn't called Control or anything like that, but I had this kind of thinking in my head that I wanted to create an RPG franchise," says Kasurinen, "The question was, 'What would it be? What's the Remedy version of that?' The way to learn is to start by doing, and that's how Control was born."

Hearing Kasurinen talk on it, though, it seems like the plan wasn't to jump headfirst into RPG territory—but instead to figure out how to make the structure of an RPG without any of the usual elements: "There was a main story, but there's also these other stories as well. You had side quests. We'd never done that before. We'd never done dialog choices before, where you talk to a character [and] you can choose what to say. All that stuff was new."

I'd hesitate to call Control an RPG—during our morning meeting, we settled on it being more like a metroidvania—but hey, that makes sense to me. Why completely reinvent your process when you can just Ship of Theseus it—replacing little planks and design intents until you've got a full-on RPG series?

Control Resonant, Kasurinen adds, is the next step towards that eventuality: "I wanted to stop calling it action adventure. Instead, like, no, it's an action RPG. This is Remedy's RPG franchise, and we're gonna kind of embrace that, fully commit to it, and so on, and go even further into that direction."

As Robin noted in his preview, Resonant has stat screens, talent trees, and customisable weapons—looking more like Diablo than Alan Wake, so that's absolutely mission accomplished, there. And while the shift might seem somewhat strange, the way I figure it, Remedy's always done something a little weird with each of its titles. Even if it doesn't always work out (cough, Firebreak, cough).

Anyway, I fully expect the next Control game to be a full-on Disco Elysium text-based adventure, where all of the voices in your heads are SCP-style cognito-hazards, and… wait, hold on. That started as a joke but I'm talking myself into it. Get Kim Kitsuragi in there, too.

Embark is slowing down the live service treadmill for Arc Raiders. The hit extraction shooter will now receive major updates twice a year. That's in contrast to its current run of monthly updates, which have been hit or miss in the seven months since launch.

Arc Raiders' bi-annual updates will be "larger in scale, more impactful, with the goal to genuinely change how you play the game," according to a blog post penned by executive producer Aleksander Grøndal.

"When Arc Raiders launched, we planned to offer monthly updates. The intention was to keep you all engaged, to ensure the game always felt fresh, and to give you reasons to keep braving topside. But once the game was in players' hands, we saw that the kind of long-term experience we want to create for Arc Raiders requires more transformative updates."

Arc Raiders will not go dark in the months between milestone additions: a dedicated "live service team" will continue to deliver "regular live updates," cosmetics, balance changes, bug fixes, and in-game events. In the post, Grøndal says its current schedule makes it impossible to pursue larger changes the game needs.

"Some of the progression improvements we want to implement simply need more development time that we haven't been able to address properly while running on a monthly cycle. Moving to larger updates allows us to spend more time refining the systems players engage with the most," Grøndal wrote.

The first test of Arc Raiders' new cadence will be Frozen Trail, a major update planned for October that Embark says is its biggest yet:

• A Sprawling New Frontier: Explore a new landscape in the Rust Belt with layered design and new mysteries to uncover in the largest map in the game.
• Our Most Ambitious ARC Operation So Far: Including new ARC enemies with fresh designs, and unique behaviors that will challenge Raiders in new ways.
• New Systems of Progression: Many players have maxed out their Raider Den and hit the Skill Point ceiling. Frozen Trail will introduce new goals and more ways to shape your Raider’s progression.
• Exploring the origin of Arc: What are Arc and where do they come from? Frozen Trail gives Raiders the opportunity to begin uncovering that mystery.
• Improved Skill Tree
• Alongside new weapons, items, instruments, cosmetics and more

That's exciting stuff, but it's also five months away.

In the short term, Embark is also introducing a new nomadic trader that offers unique rewards and cosmetics in exchange for high-value items. The trader is a targeted response to "a few common problems" that Embark is monitoring:

• You’re holding a lot of high-value items with no way to offload them in rewarding ways.
• Your Stash is filling up with the game’s new items and we haven’t increased the capacity.
• Very few of you are going on the Expedition, either because it is not rewarding enough, or because it is too painful to part with your favorite items and Blueprints.

While larger changes to the Expeditions system are in the works, the nomadic trader will offer a perk that allows players to carry five items over with them into the next Expedition (including blueprints).

I've been away from Arc Raiders for months now, but we have several PC Gamer staffers still playing daily. I solicited editorial director Tim Clark's reaction to the news:

"I can tell you that with my many thousands of hours in Destiny 2 I could see this coming a mile off. Some players genuinely don't understand how hard the process of producing new high-fidelity assets and animation are, let alone complex systems that require testing. The monthly cadence never looked sustainable, and the thinness of those updates was seen in the increasingly grumpy playerbase.

"But October now looks an awful long way off, and Frozen Trails will have to blow people's minds if Arc is to avoid falling into the same trap as so many live service games that have struggled to keep their audiences sated with new stuff to do."

The trajectory of Arc Raiders mirrors the ways people are playing it. Embark began with a roadmap that fit the blueprint of PvP-focused shooters, but many players have glommed onto its MMO qualities as a highlight: social collaboration, grinding, and completionism. As Tim says, it has a lot more in common with Destiny than Call of Duty. Arc Raiders does not call for updates—it demands expansions.