New tactical FPS Wardogs has been out in early access for just over a week, and players the world over have been putting it through its paces. The uber-popular game has garnered a community that's already several hundred thousand strong, and they're finding the weak points, like a balancing problem where if you're on a certain side, you're practically destined to fail.

For context, the standard Wardogs format involves three teams of 33 players vying for control over a patch of land. It's a mix of battle royale and king of the hill, with each team assigned a color: red, green, or blue.

Anecdotal evidence points to losing streaks for all of them, leading to the boss of developer Bulkhead to point out who's the ultimate loser and acknowledge this is a problem being looked at. "We definitely have a balancing issue," John Brammer, Bulkhead's CEO, says on Twitter in response to a claim that red wins disproportionately.

"But it's green team who win most of the time," he adds. "Green and red are fairly even. and that's been the same way since pre-alpha. But blue getting destroyed is definitely a problem with mixed reasons."

The streamer Wynn Gaming found that, during an eight-hour stretch on stream, red was consistently the victorious side. They fielded a couple of theories on how the shooter favors this team, but it seems their experience is counter to what Bulkhead's found.

In reality, nobody should be losing or winning on a predictable basis. These are the kinds of bugbears releases like Wardogs have to gradually confront, and I've little doubt this'll be a recurring problem in the months ahead. Just maybe avoid blue if you can manage it for the time being.

As Wardogs hits a "perfectly acceptable decline," studio boss asks players what they want to change: "Remember, we're in charge here, we're the ones with the vision"

In PUBG: Dednet, death is only the beginning, or at least that's the one-liner plastered over its marketing campaign. The new instalment from the creators of the phenomenon that popularized the battle royale genre, Dednet has learned a lot from its predecessors, taking and shaking up lessons from what came before to apply the same chaotic thrill to a multiplayer FPS by leveraging roguelike elements.

Set in the gritty '90s Pacific Northwest-inspired region of Cascadia, one design throughline is clear – this is the PUBG's edgier younger sibling Talking to creative director Dave Curd, it's clear that ethos extends beyond the grungy, graffiti style visuals that make the map pop with color. Curd says Dednet is spreading "the gospel of PUBG," and doing so by providing an "infinite" amount of gameplay opportunities in a distinct form.

I'm in

The best example of this, as Curd explains, is that this game is not balanced fairly by design. In their previous title, a lot of care and attention was given to ensure that all starting players have the same opportunities at the start of a match.

PUBG: Dednet however is not that game. The biggest contributor to this is its roguelike mechanics. It's commonplace in battle royales to wash out and go again. With Dednet, not only is this factored into the game's design, it's encouraged. Each run you're more powerful than the last, regardless of your placing, and with this comes opportunity to tip the scales.

"What if an OK player on a long run crashes into a very good player at the beginning of their run, like what does that do for balance?" asks Curd. We've seen imbalance like this before, as Call of Duty experiments with alternative approaches to traditional skill-based matchmaking, and the infamous XDefiant ditched it altogether.

But, that friction seems to be exactly what Dednet is aiming for, just on a smaller and faster scale.

As Curd puts it, it’s a game for those who are "tired of games being too safe." With each run you earn more ways to gain the upper hand, and with each punishing loss, the urge to jump back in to redeem yourself. "What if you could go on a run where I'm on my eighth game and I catch you on your first game, and hey, if you're still a better gunfighter, you're probably going to win – but I might get you," says Curd, describing the loop as "a chip that's so spicy, you can't just eat one."

It's a risky approach, and sure to turn players not so gluttonous to punishment away, something Curd has already observed in previous builds. "I think early on we had a real big power discrepancy. [...] If you had five powers and I joined as a new guy, I would have zero powers, and we would just smash into each other. It was really tough, and it was a very love it or hate it feature, and I think it really bounced [off] a lot of new users that were just like 'Guys, you're killing me!"

Killing with unkindness

Effort has been made to bring control to the imbalance. Each player has five powers, which activate at intervals during the game. At phase one, all players are roughly equally matched, but by phase five the gloves are off, and the players on their 5th, 6th, or higher runs will have the clear advantage.

This promotes risky aggressive strategies, as the longer the game lasts, the harder it becomes for players on fewer runs to come out on top. "We want them to have fun with the powers. We want them to enjoy the chase and play freely. The second we noticed players stopped taking fights and started hiding, we were like: 'Ooh, ooh, ooh! Don't do this. This is wrong.' There are other games like this. We want to encourage conflict and shenanigans," says Curd.

Dednet is about speed and momentum, extending a gameplay session beyond the usual amount of games, and creating a snowball of a character build, enduring gruelling losses until eventually coming out on top through sheer perseverance and an increase in both skill as well as powers.

PUBG: Dednet looks like an ambitious and chaotic new approach to the Battle Royale formula, but it remains to be seen just how much punishment new players will be willing to take before the new roguelike mechanics sink their teeth in. After all, spicy food isn't to everyone's taste.

Gaming to-be-played hitting a ded end? Unlikely. But, we still have plenty to tempt you for more like this, from our games like PUBG recommendations, to our best co-op games ranking!

Wardogs error codes are popping up for a lot of players as a result of server issues while players cram in, legitimate errors, or just random bugs. Those that played in the beta might already be aware of some of these and that many of them don't necessarily have definitive fixes, but there are still plenty of things you can try that might help. If error codes are preventing you from playing Wardogs, I've laid out some potential fixes you can try below.

Possible fixes for Wardogs error codes

Here's a list of fixes you should try if you're encountering an error code. I've also tried to give some more specific advice for common error codes that seem to be affecting lots of players, but this serves as a general list you can work through. Hopefully at least one of them will fix your problem:

• Ensure your internet connection is stable and check if the Wardogs servers are down – social media and the Discord are probably the best places for this information
• Ensure your game is up to date
• Restart your PC
• Run the game as an administrator
• Delete past Wardogs builds, such as beta builds
• Verify the integrity of the Wardogs game files:
  • To do this, right-click on Wardogs in your Steam library, select 'properties', then move to the 'Installed Files' sub-menu. From here, select 'verify integrity of game files' then let Steam do its thing.

If there's a specific error code that you keep seeing, then take a look at the details in the next section to see if it's covered there.

Wardogs errors and error codes

Here's a list of common Wardogs error codes and issues that might be affecting your ability to play the game. I've listed some information and fixes for each, but be sure to go through the list of potential fixes above if you're unsure on what you can do:

• Kicked from match: Apparently a random bug that the developers are looking into.
• 1147405308: Failed to authenticate with online services. Check your connection and check if Wardogs is down.
• 1413677057: An unexpected error has occurred. No clear fix for this one but try some of the above suggestions.
• WD-L014 and other WD-L0… error codes: Any error codes that starts with WD-L0 are a launch-related issue. One fix that seems to be working for some players is repairing the Elytra anti-cheat system:
  • To do so, right-click on Wardogs in your Steam Library, mouse over 'Manage', then click 'browse local files'. Open the Elytra folder, run the 'Elytra-Setup' executable within, and choose the 'repair' option. You may need to restart Steam or your PC to see any results, but hopefully this fixes Wardogs and allows you to launch it.

If error codes aren't causing you problems, perhaps vehicles are. If you're not sure how to fly a chopper, I've explained how Wardogs helicopters work here. Those that prefer to drive should also know how to earn Wardogs Driver XP. But if you want to know when Wardogs PS5 and Xbox versions are coming out, you'll be waiting a while.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Bulkhead, the studio behind current FPS hotness Wardogs found itself at the centre of controversy this week, since CEO Joe Brammer made some inadvisable comments around crunch at the company. Essentially, he said it's part of the development there, prompting pushback, and now clarification from him on what he really meant.

For context, this started when he discussed Bulkhead's culture with The Game Business. "A lot of people who may have an issue with crunch," he said.

"Rightly so, I understand that issue, we always try and avoid it, but we don't hide that this is going to happen at some point," he continued. "[Those people] often don't make it in the door, because we want to be known for that: this is a place you come to work hard."

He added, "If you care about the work you're making and the result of what you make here, this is a place to work," because "you'll feel really valued." But "if you don't, you will feel slave-driven," and "it's a constant to-and-fro with that."

I have to say, these comments do not make the team sound too appealing. Regardless, they started doing the rounds, leading to backlash against Brammer, who made a couple of clarifications on Twitter. "I’m not going to get into a public debate about this, or any other of these out-of-context articles," he starts.

He notes he never used the word "mandatory" when it comes to crunch, and adds there are a number of employee benefits, such as a four-day work week for half the development cycle of Wardogs and the full month of December off. It's worth pointing out he does say it's known that he "expects" crunch and that he "doesn't believe" in working from home during his appearance on The Game Business.

He elaborated further on Bulkhead's policies in comments to Eurogamer. After Wardogs missed the June beta deadline, two hours of crunch per day, Monday through Thursday, for four weeks were introduced. "We admitted to the staff that this was crunch; we clearly stated that we needed to crunch," he says. "It was optional; four people opted out, nothing happened to them and nothing will."

He concedes, however, "that maybe the social pressure within a very tight-knit team might make those individuals feel less than great." He then doubles down on experimenting with a four-day work week, and how 80% of the company's shares are distributed across half the current employees.

"If we're going to be a company who says, 'We do crunch', then we have to also say, 'But you get something for it,'" he told The Game Business to tie up his stance on the subject. "We want people to know that those people who do work hard get that return, and it is life-changing."

Wardogs publicly launched in early access last Friday to a resoundingly positive reception, peaking at over 428,000 players on Steam so far.

Wardogs devs are "d*** heads," according to Wardogs devs feeling sorry for prioritizing streamers in the FPS' giant queue

Racking up Wardogs Driver XP isn't easy, but your best options are to try and ferry around your teammates and supplies for FOBs. The short of it is that, yes, increasing your Driver level is very slow due to the limited sources of Driver XP and how little of it you get. It's not just you that's struggling and it means tanks and other heavy vehicles are out of reach for most players. Hopefully some rebalancing comes to make the vehicle grind less tedious but, in the meantime, here's how you can earn Driver XP in Wardogs.

How to get Wardogs Driver XP

These are the three main ways you can earn Driver XP in Wardogs – be aware that even by using the following as efficiently as possible, Driver levelling is still very slow:

• Drop off palettes of supplies at a FOB: Ideally you need to have increased your Driver level and earned enough cash to unlock the Ural truck for this method. Buy and Ural and then load it up with palettes of FOB supplies, then deliver them to your team's FOB(s) over and over – you'll get Driver XP when you offload the palettes within the FOB area. If you've got plenty of cash, you can just quickly respawn back at HQ, buy another Ural, and repeat or you can save money and drive all the way back. If you're new and don't have the Ural unlocked just yet, load up a Kodiak with supply-filled crates instead.
• Drop off teammates: If you drive teammates from your HQ to the control zone, you'll get Driver XP when they bail out and a few seconds later if they don't die in that time. But good luck trying to convince people to get in a car when helicopters are so much faster – speaking of which, if you're not sure how to fly one, I've covered the Wardogs helicopter controls here.
• Drive the APC and get teammates to spawn on you: Once your team's score reaches 20, an APC that players can spawn on using the HQ computer will appear at your HQ. Get in and drive it to an appropriate location in the control zone and you'll get Driver XP when players spawn on you. However, be aware that there seems to be a limit on how much Driver XP you can earn using this method as you'll eventually stop earning any. This method also relies on you either camping at your HQ or being there at the right moment, and you might not be the only player that wants to drive it.

As you can see, the current methods for earning Driver XP in Wardogs are neither very fun nor efficient. The logistics method is definitely the best but still isn’t great. Dropping off teammates can be good but, as mentioned, it's very difficult to convince players to ride with you. The best option is to persuade some friends to let you drive them to the control zone as much as possible during a match.

Wondering if Wardogs on PS5 and Xbox is happening? I've got good news and bad news. Otherwise, if you're having problems launching the game or other errors, take a look at these Wardogs error codes and possible fixes.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Destiny is not being merged with Marathon in a bid to revive the series after the end of development on Destiny 2, Bungie has confirmed as rumors make the rounds.

Bungie veteran Julia Nardin, now Marathon creative director but also known for myriad Destiny releases, addressed this rumor on Twitter in a post shared by principal community manager Cozmo.

"As someone who’s worked on both Destiny and Marathon, I can confirm that the 'leak' about us merging the two IPs is fake," she says. "They share a lot of the same Bungie DNA, but like siblings they’re also their own independent entities. Please don’t believe everything you read online."

Nardin seems to be shutting down a detail pulled from a lengthy post (shared to the Marathon subreddit) from a user or group claiming to have insider knowledge of upcoming Marathon plans.

"There has been some vague testing the waters internally to rework Marathon and Destiny into a single IP with Marathon representing the beginning of Mankinds Golden Age and to foreshadow more threats to be used in a future Destiny project," it reads.

"Expect many ideas in Marathon that were planned for the many Destiny 3 preprod vertical slices [former CEO Pete Parsons] kiboshed and shut down," the post adds.

The problem with this purported leak, of course, is that a majority of the people who made Destiny have been laid off. Never mind just how ridiculous the Golden Age tie-in would be, and the fact that this post is originally from famous knowledge bastion 4chan.

The far-reaching post also claims that Marathon "is going F2P in December," adding a PvE mode called Investigations with "Destiny raid style bosses," introducing Destiny-themed cosmetics, getting a new runner called Shrike, dividing stored loot between PvE and PvP modes, and at this point, let's give everyone a free car too.

Bungie ends Marathon's seasonal schedule, delays a September update to December, and makes it more like Destiny 2.

It's been one week since Wardogs launched in early access and only three days since the 100-person firefight reached its peak number of players on Steam, but that figure has already dropped by over 100,000 as of writing. That's to be expected for any new game as its shininess dulls and some people realize they'd rather play Nintendogs – all of which developer Bulkhead is cool with. At the same time, CEO Joe Brammer wouldn't mind some advice on how to slow some of that decline.

He writes on Twitter, "We're entering the first phase of @WARDOGS perfectly acceptable decline where people start to find issues with the balancing, or just disagree with design decisions." Wardogs hit a peak of 428,666 players on Steam, and it's currently sitting at a still wildly impressive 292,471 concurrent players, according to SteamDB.

"So, let's start the next phase of development…" Brammer says before patronizing fans with a reminder that they should, "Remember, we're in charge here, we're the ones with the vision," referring to Bulkhead.

"However, you have a voice," he continues politely. "Season 2 is going to bring lots of new content and changes. But…What is the biggest ISSUE you are seeing right now that you would change mid-season? Let me know your thoughts."

I find it notable that Brammer is tentatively asking players for advice when, in the past, collecting as much player feedback as possible was the whole point for developers when launching a game in early access; Pocketpair publishing lead John "Bucky" Buckley recently told GamesRadar+ that he worries, "The culture has changed and early access, essentially, has lost its meaning. People just buy an early access game like they buy a normal game and treat it like that's the game." Perhaps the same is true for some developers – especially now that games like Palworld, TCG Card Shop Simulator, Hades 2, and so many more found huge success on Steam as in-progress early access titles.

In any case, Wardogs players are eager to share some of their best ideas with Bulkhead.

"Maybe add a dildo to put on the vehicle dashboards," suggests one fan.

"Change blue to yellow," John Buckley adds helpfully.

Well. It's a good thing Bulkhead is the one with "the vision."

Wardogs feels like Call of Duty without the pressure to kill or be killed – as long as you're making phat stacks.

The Wardogs helicopter controls aren't the easiest to understand and get used to – then again, helicopters aren't easy to fly in real life. It doesn't help that the starting helicopter, the MH-6 is an incredibly nippy and twitchy chopper. It's highly manoeuvrable but also highly prone to being crashed with a novice pilot in control. As if flying wasn't hard enough, you've also got to bear in mind that helicopter ammo is limited, and repairs can only be done back at your HQ. So, to help you get used to the helicopter controls in Wardogs, here's a full explanation and some flying tips.

Wardogs helicopter controls

Flying a helicopter in Wardogs can be tricky because of how twitchy and unstable they can feel – in fact, I highly recommend loading up the firing range and practicing there until you become confident enough to start flying your fellow troops in real matches.

I also reckon that piloting a helicopter is far easier with a controller over mouse and keyboard, mainly because you don't have to tie your fingers in knots quite so much while trying to pitch, roll, and yaw – sometimes all at once.

Here's a quick rundown of all the important controls you need to bear in mind when flying a Wardogs helicopter:

Wardogs helicopter tips

Now that you know the basic helicopter controls for Wardogs, I've laid out some tips for aspiring chopper pilots so that you hopefully won’t crash and lose lots of cash:

• Use pitch, roll, and yaw to turn: Yaw is great for turning on the spot or at low speeds but if you're flying in for a hot drop for your passengers, you need to master using a combination of yaw and roll to pull off sharp high-speed turns to go back to HQ. Then to keep things level, you also need to throw in a little bit of pitch as well. This takes some practice, but the crucial thing is to be gentle with the controls, particularly for the larger helicopters – roll a little too much and you'll plummet straight to the ground!
• Pitch is a bit like your throttle: How you tilt your helicopter's nose (that's pitch) is the main way you can control its speed. Tilt the nose down with collective lift applied and you'll start going forward. Too much pitch down and you'll move very quickly but also down towards the ground, so you need to find a balance. Then you can also pitch the nose up if you need to suddenly slow down.
• Change your camera angle: Make use of Wardogs' first-person, third-person, and free camera options when in the pilot's seat, letting you get a clear view for any situation. I like third-person for regular flying but switching to first person is a good idea if your chopper has guns, as you can much more accurately aim them with a cockpit view. As for the free camera, this is very useful if you're coming in to land as you can see all around you for a clearer view of your landing area.
• Avoid trees at all costs: This sounds incredibly obvious but if you're used to other games, you might be surprised by quite how much damage a little brush with a branch can do. To keep your chopper intact, I strongly recommend keeping it well above the tips of trees as it can be quite unclear from which point a tree can be harmlessly clipped through or violently crashed into.
• Go back to your HQ to repair and resupply: Land (or gently hover just above the ground) at your HQ and refuelling and repairs will begin automatically, draining the necessary funds from your in-game earnings. As for getting more ammo and countermeasures, you need to open the shop by holding B on mouse and keyboard or D-Pad Right on controller while at your HQ, then buy ammo and flares from there.
• Listen for lock-on warnings: These beeping noises give you a rough indication for when an enemy has locked onto you and has fired. Deploy countermeasures to hopefully get any incoming missiles off your scent but then fly away as quickly as possible, because it's likely that follow-up shots will seek you out shortly after.
• You will start as a flying taxi service: Wardogs features lots of helicopters, including the Havoc attack helicopter, but you can't use any besides the MH-6 transport helicopter until you've increased your Pilot level. To do so, you need players to hop into your chopper and then take them to the control zone or wherever they want to bail out. You'll get Pilot XP for every player that jumps out while you're flying, and more if they make it to the ground alive – you can even get assists if they go on to kill any enemy players (the same goes for Wardogs Driver XP but it's much slow to level up).

Helicopters might be the least of your problems if you can't even launch the game, so here are some possible fixes for Wardogs error codes. If you'd rather not play on PC, make sure you know when Wardogs console versions are coming out (you'll be waiting a while, unfortunately).

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Destiny's Taken King expansion is officially 11 years old, and former Bungie studio vice president Mark Noseworthy marked the occasion by saying what many Destiny players have thought a million times: this game is so good, but it could be so much better.

In a post on Twitter, Noseworthy, who left Bungie in 2024 along with some other senior staff amidst layoffs, describes The Taken King as his personal pinnacle.

"Of all the parts of Destiny I’ve worked on, this remains my personal favorite as a player and the one I’m most proud of," he reflects. "We knew Destiny 1 was so close to great; it was just missing some ingredients and a different preparation. 'I love playing Destiny. I hate that it’s not better' was our mantra while making [The Taken King]."

The early days of Destiny were some of the series' messiest, with players and Bungie both unsure of what the game was meant to be. The Vault of Glass, the first raid, helped crystallize the vision and, frankly, resuscitate the game, but it was The Taken King – a blast of new content, an immeasurably stronger story, added buildcrafting options, and improved progression and endgame pursuits – that really pushed the game over the top. This is what Destiny can be.

The Taken King is still remembered as one of the best expansions in Destiny's history – to some, the best, though I personally put it behind The Witch Queen and, at the top, The Final Shape. (It's no coincidence that most of the best expansions are Hive-themed, as the Hive have the best lore.) It also cemented a pattern that would come to define much of Destiny's life, and a slightly meaner mantra that many players adopted: I hate Destiny, it's my favorite game.

Throughout its life, Destiny has often felt like it's about to turn the corner, with only its finest expansions actually delivering on everything expected or imagined, and avoiding systemic missteps that another expansion would have to fix.

Looking back, a lot of Destiny expansions really were fixers. Destiny 2's Forsaken, for example, was a near shot-for-shot replay of The Taken King: after a troubled launch, Bungie stepped in to correct a bunch of errors. That became my acid test for expansions: how much of this is fixing Destiny, and how much of this is celebrating or expanding it? Is the game great now, or could it be great later?

The final update for Destiny 2, stuck in stasis after Bungie ended active development and began to really prioritize digging Marathon out of its rut, left it in arguably the best place it's ever been, with FOMO removed, loot updated, and many events available. But with the end of development, the game also stopped chasing those new horizons. We'll never turn the corner now.

Bungie ends Marathon's seasonal schedule, delays a September update to December, and makes it more like Destiny 2.

Crunch culture is one of the most controversial and maligned aspects of video game development, right up there with generative AI and mass layoffs. Forcing employees to work well beyond their normal hours to ensure a game ships on time is generally viewed as not a good thing, but Wardogs studio Bulkhead very much embraces crunch as an inevitability and sees embrace of crunch as part of a strong work ethic.

"A lot of people who may have an issue with crunch—rightly so, I understand that issue, we always try and avoid it, but we don't hide that this is going to happen at some point—they often don't make it in the door," Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer tells The Game Business. "We want to be known for that: this is a place you come to work hard. If you care about the work you're making and the result of what you make here, you'll feel really valued. If you don't, you will feel slave-driven."

Throughout his interview, Brammer strongly suggest there's a major financial incentive tied to employees' willingness to work extra hours, which is certainly better than unpaid crunch, but it's still crunch. My critical view of crunch is probably already enough to get me disqualified from working at Wardogs, because Brammer even says the hiring team scans the social media profiles of applicants to make sure they aren't posting negatively about crunch online.

"We check people's socials, and if you're constantly tweeting anti-crunch messaging: 'This should never ever be a thing', we know that and go, 'Look, you're not going to be happy here, so we're not going to go with you,'" he says, adding that there's a financial "upside" to working long hours at Bulkhead.

"If we're going to be a company who says, 'we do crunch,' then we have to also say, 'but you get something for it,'" Brammer says. "We want people to know that those people who do work hard get that return, and it is life-changing."

While awareness around crunch at game studios has improved over the years thanks to whistle blowers and industry reporting, the practice is far from behind us. As recently as this past July, unionizing Rockstar employees alleged crunch is "built into" contracts as a way to get around labor regulations.

Wardogs devs are "d*** heads," according to Wardogs devs feeling sorry for prioritizing streamers in the FPS' giant queue

Wardogs isn't quite like anything else that I've ever played. It is, at first glance, nothing more than your standard multiplayer FPS. It has the same guns that you've seen in Call of Duty or Battlefield. It has many of the same vehicles, even. Then you play it a little bit, and then a bit more, until the differences become entirely obvious.

Above and beyond winning matches or killing foes, your aim in Wardogs is to earn cold, hard cash. You're a mercenary, explicitly so, drafted into one of three Private Military Companies (PMCs) vying for control over the map. There are many different ways to make your daily bread. That's good, since you'll need money for almost everything from progression to buying your loadout each time you respawn. You could opt to go to the frontline along with most people, directly battling your opponents and netting a tidy sum in the process. The gunplay is satisfying, and the time-to-kill/time-to-die is rapid enough to make it an exhilarating experience. You can also make a heap of cash up on the frontline as a medic.

But if you don't fancy that, there's an almost Foxhole-like bevvy of support roles that you can step into.

All about the Benjamins

From flying helicopters full of newly-spawned players to the combat zone, driving trucks laden with supplies to your team's Forward Operating Bases, or putting those supplies to good use by constructing defences, there's no shortage of lucrative possibilities in Wardogs.

You're ranked on the scoreboard by how much cash you've made, so it's not unusual to see top-ranked players with no kills; they're probably working as a dedicated air taxi service and getting paid well for it

The maps are large enough that you really do depend on these non-combatants, too. It reminds me of MAG back on the PS3, or the sprawling landscapes of the Arma/Operation Flashpoint series. You don't always have to wait for a taxi, though, as a vehicle parked in your FOB can be spawned at once your team racks up 20 points. To get those points – 100 of which wins your team the match – you need to have more players in the circular Control Zone than either of the other teams. Every 30 seconds, a point is awarded to the team with the most players in the zone.

It's strange, really, that in two of the best games of Wardogs I've played so far, I've not actually been playing offensively. In one, I was a driver, ferrying supplies back and forth to keep my team stocked up on ammo, building supplies, and fuel. In the other, I was technically playing recon, but spent most of my time with a virtual eye glued to the spotter scope, keeping watch rather than using my rifle.

Scoping it out

There are definitely issues with the game as it stands. The lack of Linux support is a big one, and is particularly frustrating since Linux users are able to play earlier playtest builds from before the anticheat software changed.

Another issue is tied to the game feeling unnecessarily harsh for your first few levels. You can't buy body armor or a helmet right from the get-go, so your lives tend to be as nasty, brutish, and short as any envisioned by Thomas Hobbes. It's immensely discouraging. The fact that your starter weapons, while technically lethal, feel as effective as a peashooter doesn't help. Luckily, you'll likely be able to buy such essentials after an hour or so of play. The vehicles feel pretty wonky on keyboard, too, giving the impression that you're sliding around an ice rink.

Having 100-person servers split into three teams is also a little odd, resulting in two teams of 33 players and one of 34 given that the science of making one person take up a third of a player slot yet evades us. Short of the developer just upping the server count to a number more easily divisible by three, this slight imbalance is just one of the game's many quirks right now.

Playing with friends or a clan is probably the best way to go. But once you dig into Wardogs, especially if you're happy using a mic and joining random squads, you'll find a generally very pleasant community even going in solo. There have been a few of the inevitable exceptions, but I've felt more welcome than not so far.

Players come here for different purposes, because Wardogs really is a mishmash of genres. Depending on your role, you could be playing it like a stripped-back survival game, a truck simulator, flight sim, or an FPS. You could quite easily dedicate your entire playtime to becoming a fantastic driver or pilot, saving lives on the frontline while barely firing a shot. You could also become a saboteur, a sniper, or special forces operator. Whichever roles you choose to take on, there's always a way for you to make money as a mercenary.

Time will tell if its diversity will be enough to keep players coming back for more. But since Wardogs launched into Early Access, I've struggled to play anything else.

Load into the best FPS games to play next if you were hoping for a first-person shooter with, well, a little more shooting...

Bungie has delayed a September 22 Marathon update to December 8 as part of a larger live service overhaul that will end the game's "strict seasonal schedule" in the hopes of delivering more significant content drops – on the surface, not unlike the strategy Arc Raiders has pivoted toward.

In a blog post, Bungie agrees that "Marathon needs more depth, more variety, stronger progression, and better reasons to keep playing over the long term." Destiny 2 players may feel a strange sense of deja vu toward this line: "Addressing that feedback requires us to change both what we're building and how we deliver it."

"The content originally planned for September will now arrive as part of our Symbiosis update on December 8," Bungie writes. "Alongside the new Runner shell, permanent PvE experience, and refreshed Perimeter zone, the update will also include a social space/firing range, an experimental TDM mode, and improvements to new player onboarding."

That December update, Symbiosis, is called "the first major step in Marathon’s next chapter." I have to wonder if it will ultimately be positioned as a relaunch of sorts.

"Symbiosis is an important milestone for Marathon and the beginning of a broader evolution through March and beyond, shaped by what we learn from players along the way," Bungie says. This timeline is roughly in line with Marathon's original season roadmap, but content drops will now move more freely as a way of "giving the team the time needed to deliver the larger experiences."

In addition to the above Symbiosis features and additions, players can expect an updated Perimeter map that, hopefully, makes the dang thing worth playing past the opening hours of Marathon. Bungie is also looking to add "the first of several improvements to the new-player experience."

Between the PvE, social space, and team deathmatch PvP, Marathon is looking more like Destiny 2 by the day. It's even got the new-player struggles down. Bungie's flagship MMO ended development just months ago, but it still averages upwards of 8x Marathon's daily peak Steam concurrent player count, reflecting the struggles the studio's new game has faced post-launch, despite delivering a genuinely compelling shooter experience. In our Marathon review, Andy calls it "my favorite multiplayer shooter in years."

A smaller update is now planned for October 6 to help refresh the game. It very literally "refreshes rewards," Bungie says, and it also resets progression and the in-game economy much like a seasonal wipe.

Additionally, the October update will bring a tuning and balance sweep, a new rewards pass, and miscellaneous quality-of-life improvements. Marathon's recent PvE experiment, Vault Breaker, will also be revived, albeit only for another "limited time" run. Between this and Symbiosis, Bungie is seriously looking for a way to ensure "PvE fits into progression," seemingly in response to Marathon's intimidating PvP.

Shrugging off concerns about Marathon's health and its own – the studio has listed enormous chunks of its floor plan for sublease, which isn't a good sign at the least – Bungie reiterates that this is "only the beginning of what we’re working toward. As players spend time with these updates and share their feedback, we’ll continue refining and expanding Marathon."

Bungie reportedly had "5 or 6 games" in development, including Marathon and Destiny 2 – but most fell apart after Sony's $3.6 billion acquisition.

Fresh FPS Wardogs has quickly become a Steam phenomenon, with a Very Positive rating across 32,134 reviews as of writing. But developer Bulkhead isn't letting success change it, recently announcing in the Wardogs server, "We are dick heads."

As is the plight of many new and popular multiplayer games, Wardogs has been suffering from agonizing queue times. Three days after its early access release, on September 13, its peak player count already hit 428,666 – which is many more guys with guns than the game's Eastern European mountain setting can handle. Bulkhead tried releasing the pressure the worst way, by prioritizing influencers in queue, and it's already regretting the decision.

In a clip from FPS YouTuber TheBurntPeanut's recent Wardogs game shared by games media personality Jake Lucky, you can see a short server announcement flicker on the screen: "The devs put influencers in a queue jump." It swaps to a new message explaining, "We are dick heads."

In case that admission was still too vague for you, Bulkhead tries again with another set of server announcements, clarifying that, "The streamers didn't ask for it," and "The devs are dick heads." The sentiment seems to have been reserved for the 100-person warfare game's busy launch day. Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer also added a personal message as part of that day's apology artillery, saying – according to a screenshot posted on Reddit – "We're sorry boys. Tomorrow we have put all influencers at the end of the queue."

First of all, Wardogs is for boys, confirmed. Second, influencer priority is, I think, an annoying but common strategy for FPS developers, so Bulkhead isn't a lone sinner – but that doesn't make its transgression any easier to accept. I empathize with the 356,282 queued Wardogs players who struggled to get a game going while a random Twitch star gets VIP treatment, and I question the utility of giving influencers right-of-way with the hope of their content attracting more players… when you could just give more players better access.

That said, Wardogs only ever prioritized 11 influencers. 11 out of 356,282.

"I wouldn't say we were predatory," a reflective Brammer says on Twitter. "I'd say we have 11 influencers on a list and they totalled over 300,000 views, while our systems were struggling! For me, that's just a smart move.. We're an entertainment company who make games. 11 people provided entertainment for 300,000 people."

"BUT, maybe I'm just way off base here," the CEO concedes. But, to his point, a comment on a Reddit thread on the topic says, "Having someone to watch play was good while I waited in queue. I wasn't complaining."

Another comment says, "I think the funniest part is that I went and looked a few twitch streamers, and the few that supposedly did have some sort of favoritism and was already in game were just sitting there AFK because their lobbies weren't full yet." Ultimately, Wardogs devs aren't the tragic dickheads they thought themselves to be. And, based on the early access game's still Very Positive rating, it seems that most players agree.

Palworld lead worries Steam early access has "lost its meaning": players treat it like "a normal game" and the program has been "abused for a lot of reasons."

Blizzard is making enormous changes to the ever-divisive Sombra in Overwatch Season 5, grabbing her from the DPS category and transforming her into a support hero instead, as game director Aaron Keller admits that she's been considered "anti-fun" for some time now.

Sombra was added to Overwatch all the way back in 2016, and for 10 years she's been one of the most frustrating heroes to face. Between her hacking abilities that prevent enemies from using their skills, the fact that she can turn invisible, teleport out of harm's way, and generally cause chaos from a comfortable distance – away from her team, at that – it's fair to say that she's not everyone's favorite.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ during an interview at Blizzcon, Keller admits that for anyone who's been keeping up with Overwatch, "it's probably apparent that we've had issues with Sombra for a while." Poor Sombra ends up sounding like an unloved child the way Keller describes her though – even if he's right on the money with what players have found frustrating, you can't help but feel a bit bad for her when even her own creators are calling her unfun. But I suppose if the shoe fits…

"We've tried multiple reworks on her, and they're all kind of centered around some of the same issues," he explains. "You know, like she can be described as unfun to play against, or her mechanics are anti-fun. She takes away buttons, or agency from players. The way that she can escape, I think, a lot of times can be frustrating to play against, and the way that she's sort of popping in and out or invisible for large portions of the match can be frustrating too. And it's not that any one of these things is a problem in and of itself, but when you start getting a lot of these sharp mechanics all in one character, it really exacerbates the problem."

Keller acknowledges that the frustration isn't just limited to the team facing Sombra, but also anyone siding with her. After all, if you're trying your hardest to push a payload and one of your allies is nowhere in sight, it can feel like they're not being a proper team player.

"As Sombra is doing her Sombra things, even if she's doing them well, sometimes your team might not realize it. She's just not there enough, and you get that with some other heroes in the roster, but never to the degree with a Sombra," Keller notes. "You know, like Tracer can disappear for a while, Wrecking Ball can disappear for a while, but they typically come back. Sombra will come back when she does her ult, you know, that's the moment you kind of see it."

This brings us to her latest rework, which will certainly offer the biggest changes to the hero we've seen so far. Keller tells us that the devs have tried to solve Sombra's issues "in a lot of different ways because our goal is for her to keep her identity," so it doesn't sound like she's going to be a complete shadow of her former self, though.

"We do want you to be able to do a lot of those same things with Sombra, and I think by moving her over to support, we're able to still allow her to do a lot of that," he continues. "It's just for a much more limited amount of time.

"So, as you put heals on your team, it does give you that opportunity now to go stealth, hit the back line for a bit, do the Sombra things that you're used to doing. But you have a limited duration to do it before you need to get back to your team, start supporting them with heals again, hopefully, for them to be happy with you as a teammate again."

As an Overwatch support main, I'm personally really excited to see what Blizzard does with Sombra next season – she was always conceptually one of my favorites on the roster, but I was never able to click with her (and felt maybe that was for the best if I was just going to annoy everyone around me). Blizzard is also making more changes to Roadhog which we'll see at the same time, alongside the introduction of new hero Doctrine.

Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred and Overwatch's resurgence reportedly drove Blizzard to its "first back-to-back years of growth" in almost 10 years.

All the rumors were true - well, some of them were. StarCraft is finally making a return, but this time as an open-world shooter led by a developer who knows a thing or two about the genre. Former Far Cry boss Dan Hay is in charge of the project, and he told us he's taking the "honor" of bringing back the series "very seriously."

"It is an honor," Hay says in an interview with GamesRadar+ at BlizzCon 2026. "We take that very seriously. It's an honor. You get a chance to work on something that so many people love and care deeply about. We take that very seriously, and you can hear it in my voice. We won the cosmic lottery. We get to work on StarCraft. We get to pick up the baton that really great people made. We get to hear about it. We get to think about it. We get to stew on it, and then we get to make something new, but that feels familiar, and that's powerful."

The original StarCraft RTS gems were some of the defining games of Blizzard Entertainment's early years. Not only has it been a decade since the last proper game in the series came out, Blizzard itself has been trying to turn StarCraft into a shooter since at least the early 2000s. (See: StarCraft Ghost.) It's no surprise Hay is so excited about finally turning that ambition into a reality, then.

Not too much is known about the upcoming game, simply called StarCraft. We have a typically gorgeous animated mood trailer (embedded above), we know it's set 70 years after Legacy of the Void, and Blizzard's slapped a 2030 release window on top. Hay told us that putting a release year on StarCraft this far out is proof "we're serious" and "confident."

Diablo 5's first confirmed classes are the Demon Hunter, Monk, and the all-new Plague Knight: Blizzard says the sequel has "more classes than ever before"

BlizzCon 2026 brings big news for reigning hero shooter champ Overwatch. Season 5 will introduce a new "cool vampire" hero called Doctrine, it'll finally rework Roadhog to become less annoying, and in a very surprising turn, Sombra will become a support hero.

First things first, Doctrine. Game director Aaron Keller introduced the crowd to the game's upcoming support hero with an animated trailer that shows him joining forces with bad guy Doomfist and his entourage. He can apparently heal and dish out damage with a sceptre, rush across maps "shrouded in darkness," and utilize drones to buff allies. Keller also made mention of mechanized bats. Very cool...

BlizzCon attendees can try out Doctrine on the show floor, while players at home should have access to his 'Hero Trial' in-game that'll stay live through September 14. He'll properly end his slumber and stalk into the roster next month when Season 5 goes live.

As for next season's reworked heroes - or re-reworks, I should say - Roadhog will become much less annoying from here on. The developers say his signature hook and one-shot kill combo will be retired, and the chunky tank will finally be able to help out his team in a more meaningful capacity.

Overwatch's other super divisive hero, the sometimes invisible hacker Sombra, is getting an even bigger revamp. The DPS hero will become a support hero starting next season, rather surprisingly. Both heroes' new skill kits are under wraps, but we should see more as BlizzCon 2026 chugs on throughout the weekend.

Overwatch's huge "battle pass revamp" is out tomorrow and makes things a lot more complicated but, seemingly, better

After multiple credible rumors and a glitched out website, Blizzard Entertainment has finally revealed the return of StarCraft. The next game in the legendary sci-fi series is coming sometime in 2030, and unlike the strategy hits that made StarCraft a household name, this one's an open-world shooter.

Announced at BlizzCon 2026's Opening Ceremony, details on the new StarCraft game are light. It's called StarCraft, it's an open-world shooter, and it's being led by former Far Cry executive producer Dan Hay - but we did get a gorgeous, tone-setting debut trailer for the Blizzard project. Check it out below.

"We are here to make StarCraft, and it's about damn time," Hay said on stage.

StarCraft (2030) is the beloved series' first game since 2017's StarCraft Remastered and the first all-new experience since 2016's single-player DLC, StarCraft: Nova Covert Ops.

This isn't Blizzard Entertainment's first attempt at turning its traditionally strategy-based series into a shooter, however. The infamous StarCraft: Ghost was in development decades ago for PS2, OG Xbox and GameCube consoles and was set to be a stealth-shooter, but it was quietly canned. More recent reports indicate that publisher Nexon might be working on a different entry in the series, which seemingly separate from this upcoming StarCraft.

There's not much more information about StarCraft (2030), but you'll be able to stay updated over on the official website. The big news is simply that StarCraft is back, baby, and it's back in a huge way - if Far Cry is any indication, a really huge way. Despite years collecting dust, Blizzard's hoping it can return in style.

Blizzard suddenly remembers StarCraft exists, but only long enough to squeeze some Diablo 4 cosmetics out of it

Wardogs PS5 and Xbox Series X versions are indeed on the way, but they won't be releasing for over a year, so it'll be a long wait. For now, early access takes priority and that means Steam is the only mainstream platform you can currently play it on, so you're out of luck if you don't have a PC that can run it. But it's nice to know that the developers at Bulkhead already have a plan for a console release for their hit all-out warfare FPS, even if it is a way off. With that, here's what's going on with Wardogs on consoles and early access plans.

Is Wardogs on consoles?

No, Wardogs is currently only available on PC via Steam, having just released into early access, but there are plans to bring the game to consoles. The problem is a PS5 and Xbox Series X release isn't due until 2028, so it's a long way off.

Given Wardogs' proven popularity – it sold over two million copies in less than a week of early access – perhaps there's a chance developer Bulkhead will shift resources to get console versions out sooner, but that seems highly unlikely. Especially given that it sounds like much of the game's early access development has been planned.

According to the early access notice on the Wardogs Steam page, this period is expected to last one to two years and is dedicated to gathering feedback and "iterating alongside the community", with players helping to shape the game's systems and balancing during development. There are also plans for expansion during early access, with new weapons, maps, and vehicles on the cards, as well as adding more depth to progression systems, rewards, and the seasonal cash meta game - hopefully fewer Wardogs error codes will affect players when the console release comes around!

Bear in mind that Bulkhead have also stated that the full version of the game will be more expensive than the current PC early access build. That currently costs $39.99 /£36.99, so expect the console versions to be more than this.

However, if you are playing Wardogs at the moment, make sure you know how to get the most out of vehicles, whether that's by earning Wardogs Driver XP or mastering the Wardogs helicopter controls.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The new military shooter hotness is here in the form of Wardogs, from developer Bulkhead. Playing similarly to a popular Arma 3 mod, it puts an intense spin on King of the Hill, and after several successful betas, it has just entered early access. I wouldn't advise jumping in right now, though, because there's a substantial queue.

Joe Brammer, the CEO of Bulkhead, posted on Twitter yesterday that over 135,000 players had been let into the FPS thus far. "This is how many people are through the queue," he writes, with a screenshot. "We are letting people through in waves."

He admits he's "gotta take the 'L' on this one guys, we've got it but it's on me." The actual concurrent peak player count is 340,171, per SteamCharts. This is a popular game, and sadly, the backlog of people trying to get in has led to a surge in review-bombing on Steam.

Wardogs now sits at "Mostly Positive" on Valve's store, but was as low as "Mixed" due to an onslaught of fans deriding the online infrastructure and apparent "preferential treatment" given to streamers.

"It is absolutely ridiculous that streamers and other influencers are given preferential treatment by being allowed to skip the login queue," reads one negative review with over 13 hours on record.

"If you are a regular paying customer, do not buy this game," reads another frustrated review. "I paid full price on launch day expecting to actually play the game. Instead, I bought a full-priced login queue simulator. I have been stuck waiting in queue positions for hours, watching the numbers barely crawl, only to get an authentication error and be booted to the back of the line."

That's an annoying experience, to be sure. It should be noted Bulkhead has denied giving video makers any kind of fastpass for access. "These issues are affecting players across the board," Greg Medlin, senior community manager at publisher Team 17, says in a Steam comment. "Streamers aren't receiving preferential access; it's simply more visible when they're able to get into a serve because they're broadcasting it."

To be frank, this just seems par for the course for a smaller developer launching a big live-service game. There will be structural issues for some time until the servers stabilize. Give the devs a little space here, because maintaining games like this is always harder than it looks.

If you're wondering when Wardogs on PS5 and Xbox is happening, we've got bad news for you. Otherwise, here are more of the best FPS games you can play right now, if you're looking for something to do while waiting in a queue.

Battlefield 6 codes have had an unlikely resurgence almost a year after the game launched, offering a fresh wave of cosmetic items to customize your game with. These include various exclusive Titles to display on your Playercard, with some tongue-in-cheek options such as "Skill Issue" and "Battledad", but the best news is that the rewards from these BF6 codes are also unlocked in the free-to-play Battlefield Redsec so anyone can use them. To get involved, here are all of the codes for Battlefield 6 and how to redeem them.

All Battlefield 6 codes

The following BF6 codes can be claimed for rewards:

• ACE – "Buzz the Tower" Playercard Sticker [179]
• PHOENIX – "Phoenix Flight" Attack Helicopter Skin [178]
• AVIATOR – "Top Aviator" Playercard Title [176]
• GHOSTRIDER – "Ghostrider" Uniform Patch [175]
• SKILLISSUES4 – "Skill Issue" Playercard Title [172]
• ILOVEPORTALS4 – "Built Different" Playercard Title [171]
• BATTLEDADS4 – "Battledad" Playercard Title [170]
• AKAJOHNS4 – "AKA John" Playercard Title [169]

As you can see, there are a decent number of Battlefield 6 codes available that mainly unlock Playercard Titles, though other cosmetics including a uniform patch and a vehicle skin for the Attack Helicopter are also included. The number in brackets shown after each reward represents what is displayed when you redeem each promo through the website.

How to redeem Battlefield 6 codes

To redeem BF6 codes, you need to visit the official code redemption page and log in with your EA account. Next, click on the REDEEM button and an "Enter your product code" pop up will appear, with a text box to type in a promo before hitting the Next button. You should then see a "Confirm code activation" pop up stating product Battlefield 6 Reward - [xxx] with the number matching the one shown next to the reward on the list above.

Use the Confirm button to finish this process and claim your reward, but note that expired codes or promos you have used before will still appear on the activation pop up, and an error message won't appear until you hit that Confirm button. Once claimed, your reward will be available next time you log into Battlefield 6 or Redsec, and confirmed by an inbox message.

Expired Battlefield 6 codes

• TAKEOFF – Standard XP Booster [173]
• WELCOMES4 – 60-minute Hardware XP Booster [168]

There have been a couple of recently expired Battlefield 6 codes, which were both for XP Boosters and these seem to have been cut off faster than the cosmetic rewards. There's no guarantee how long the rest of the promos will remain active for, so make sure you add them to your account now even if you don't currently have access to BF6 or Redsec as they'll be there waiting for you in the future.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Destiny 2 and Marathon maker Bungie is "exploring options" to lease out most of its Bellevue, Washington studio following heavy layoffs and a shift to a "digital-first" employment model.

Bungie confirmed that it's looking to "sublease its campus" in a statement to The Game Post, which spotted a listing for 210,984 rentable square footage at the studio's building. The lease offer runs through 2035.

You should not read this news as a sign that Bungie is imminently closing its doors. In many ways, it's no surprise. It more accurately reflects the physical and financial needs of the studio's dramatically smaller team. But it certainly is bad news.

"The studio transitioned to a digital-first model several years ago, and this move reflects the team’s evolving workplace needs and the effectiveness of its remote collaboration," as Bungie puts it.

There are fewer people employed at the studio and more of those people are remote, in other words, so they don't need as much space.

Bungie expanded into this building years ago as part of a Pete Parsons-backed plan to become a multi-franchise studio. In the years since, Parsons has left, his replacement has left, multiple incubation projects have been culled, Destiny 2 has been canceled, and Marathon – the only other game Bungie has actually made and released in a decade – has struggled to maintain an audience.

Counting Marathon and Destiny 2, Bungie reportedly had five or six games in development at one point, apparently including a Genshin Impact-like fantasy game. These projects seemingly evaporated not long after Sony bought Bungie for $3.6 billion, and studio executives have been criticized for allegedly juicing incubation to pump up the company's perceived value.

I've spent a lot more time inside Bungie HQ than your average person who doesn't work there, and as ever, game studios are less exciting than they may sound. Mostly, I remember seeing pretty standard office space workstations, production and meeting rooms, a cafeteria, a gym, lockers, and other expected facilities – just, you know, dotted with life-size Destiny statues. A buyer likely wouldn't need to make dramatic changes to the space.

This lease offer represents a supermajority of Bungie's footprint, but as it pokes at Marathon and spins up new ideas, Bungie says it "will continue to maintain a physical office presence in Bellevue."

After the end of Destiny 2's development, it was announced that "most" of the game's team was being laid off. Some developers on Marathon, whose team had grown into the hundreds over its development and absorbed many Destiny 2 devs at various points, were also impacted.

The Destiny 2 team has been pruned to the point that, apart from keeping the servers on, Bungie "can't promise" responses to in-game issues like bugs, at least not in the way it used to.

Meanwhile, Marathon is limping toward its third season, with player numbers down significantly since release. It remains a fun game, but it has struggled to find a foothold and its season 2 content didn't move the needle.

People don't understand Steam player numbers, Palworld lead says: "Poor Marathon and stuff are getting dragged through the mud ... I'm sure our day's coming."

As part of today's PlayStation State of Play, we got a new Metro 2039 trailer showcasing gameplay on PS5 Pro. The trailer confirmed that the apocalyptic FPS sequel is set to launch on February 4, 2027. We already knew the game was set for a February launch window, but the exact date will certainly help if you're planning your gaming time in an already stacked month.

That February 4 launch puts Metro 2039 out just ahead of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis on February 12, God of War Laufey on February 16, Persona 4 Revival on February 18, and Fable on February 23. Woo, boy. As if the pre-GTA 6 rush we're entering into wasn't a big enough feast.

Metro 2039 looks impressive enough to stand out even in that crowd, however. The PS5 Pro footage in the trailer below looks absolutely incredible on a purely visual level, which is par for the course for developer 4A Games. The action looks pretty familiar in this footage, but there's plenty of depth that doesn't necessarily show in a three-minute demo, as evidenced by our hours of Metro 2039 hands-on time.

Just as with the previous Metro games, 4A Games is building 2039 on its own internal engine. "For Metro 2039, we’ve built on everything we’ve learned in years since to deliver the best-looking Metro to date," brand boss Robbie Cooke says in a PlayStation Blog post. "and of course we’re delighted to confirm that both PS5 and PS5 Pro players will be able to experience Metro 2039 with ray tracing, including at a smooth 60fps with a dedicated Performance Mode."

Here's hoping we can all find the time to actually play it this February.

For all of this year's biggest games, check out the GamesRadar+ Fall Preview 2026.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 is even faster than its predecessors, with a best weapons meta dominated by mobile submachine guns and versatile assault rifles that can keep up with the game's movement. All guns are viable for the most part, but there are some clear standout best that keep showing up in the hands of top players.

Some guns received serious changes after the MW4 beta weekend, and the list of reigning champs might look different still as the game gets more updates. Even something like aim assist adjustments - something that Infinity Ward were actively tinkering with during the beta - can seriously alter the MW4 meta. As it stands, these are the best weapons to use in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.

Best Modern Warfare 4 Weapons

There's an extensive collection of guns to choose from in Modern Warfare 4, and the game's arsenal will only get larger as Infinity Ward delivers new weapons with seasonal updates. The meta is ever-shifting, and even the MW4 beta saw some serious changes to certain weapons and mechanics.

These are currently the strongest weapons in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, even after the adjustments from the initial beta weekend:

• ISO Nightshade
• M4
• Kastov 762
• KG-7 Vulcan
• PPSH-41

If some of looks familiar it's because Infinity Ward aren't going to throw out the classics. The strongest options change and adapt as the games progress and while new things do shake things up from time to time, the meta tends to be more evolution than revolution.

ISO Nightshade SMG

The ISO Nightshade is Modern Warfare 4's most dominant weapon, even after several nerfs during the beta period. Infinity Ward has reduced this SMG's headshot multiplier and long-range performance, but nothing can stop this weapon's lightning-fast time to kill.

The ISO Nightshade is on the upper end of MW4's TTK spectrum, boasting one of the quickest kill times in the entire game. It absolutely shreds anything at close range, and it's surprisingly easy to control when targeting enemies from a distance.

MW4's movement is too fast for anything other than a highly-mobile SMG like the ISO Nightshade to sit on the meta throne. Plus, the removal of weapon bloom makes this SMG even easier to control at close range since bullet spread is much more manageable in Modern Warfare 4.

M4 Assault Rifle

The bread and butter of the assault rifle category, the M4 remains a dominant weapon in Modern Warfare 4. It's one of the most versatile weapons in the world, and that translates perfectly to MW4.

You can build the M4 as a long range laser beam or a short range shredder, and hybrid loadouts work really well with the M4 as well. It's the cornerstone of MW4's armory - unlocked for all players by default - so you can't really go wrong with any M4 class setup.

The M4 does falter a bit as a jack-of-all-trades. Even a fully-optimized short range build will get outmatched by SMGs like the ISO Nightshade, and there are better assault rifles for long distance encounters on bigger maps.

Kastov 762 Assault Rifle

Another Modern Warfare staple, the Kastov 762, returns for its third appearance after debuting in the rebooted Modern Warfare 2. It's a generic version of the iconic AK-47, and it handles exactly as you'd expect.

The Kastov 762 is a true workhorse with serious stopping power, but that extra damage comes at the cost of accuracy. However, with MW4's extensive gunsmith customization, you can reduce the recoil to the point where it's hardly a problem. This makes the Kastov 762 a very capable all-around weapon.

Just like the AK's appearances in previous CODs, the Kastov 762 has a very reliable set of iron sights that work just as well as any red dot or reflex sight. You can save a gunsmith slot for a different attachment, letting you further fine tune the weapon to your preferences.

KG-7 Vulcan Sniper Rifle

Sniping is a hot topic every year with Call of Duty, and sniper rifles don't seem as oppressive in Modern Warfare 4 as they have been in more recent entries. The current list of snipers is quite limited, but one of them easily wears the crown as the best: the KG-7 Vulcan.

This weapon is a classic bolt-action rifle, but unlike MW4's other snipers like the Signal 50, it works well in close quarters engagements. The KG-7 Vulcan has a shockingly fast rechambering speed that lets you fire off shots in rapid succession, perfect for quickscoping. It also only needs one shot to the chest to bring someone down.

The KG-7 becomes less appealing in large-scale modes like Ground War and Warzone, where long-range snipers like the Signal 50 become much more viable. Still, the KG-7 will surely remain a staple in most MW4 sniping loadouts because of its ammo capacity and fire rate.

PPSh-41 SMG

Another rapid-fire SMG, the PPSh-41 is an iconic World War 2 weapon that is shockingly effective against MW4's modern arsenal. It takes the best parts of the ISO Nightshade and doubles down on them, hindering its performance in some areas but making it truly unstoppable in others.

The PPSh's best quality is immediately apparent as soon as you load into a match. This thing has a ridiculously fast fire rate. It'll shred anything you put in front of it, and even after a few nerfs, the PPSh-41 is still the fastest-firing SMG in the game. With its huge base magazine, you can prefire around corners and spray through smoke without a care in the world.

The PPSh struggles a lot outside of close range encounters, however. You really need a good set of attachments to keep this bullet hose under control. If you're playing on one of MW4's smaller maps like Transit 213 though, you can easily rack up dozens of kills.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

GTA 6 isn't the only upcoming video game that has suffered from extreme leakage in 2026. While the spotlight is undoubtedly on Rockstar Games right now – the publisher has thus far been unable to stop a hacker from revealing aspects of an old build to the public without authorization – it's worth remembering that 4A Games went through something similar earlier this year.

Shortly before Metro 2039 was revealed to the world, a bold return to the Moscow Metro system, a playable build of a canceled Metro game found its way onto the internet. While the source remains unclear, the leak put a lot of 4A's early work on a sequel to Metro Exodus out into the public sphere.

Speaking with Jon Bloch, the executive producer of Metro 2039 says that seeing work never intended to be seen by the world is a "strange" feeling that he'd rather not see repeated. "It never feels good. It can be frustrating to see."

The canceled Metro game shows that 4A once had a very different vision for how it would follow Exodus. The leaked material suggested that the studio was exploring a full open-world space, had aligned a story featuring differing protagonists, and a wildly different approach to customization and survival.

Work on this Metro sequel was abandoned in 2022, and the project was ultimately rebooted. 4A has explained that the Russian invasion of Ukraine (where the studio and much of its staff originated) necessitated a change in creative direction, and inspired the studio to tell a different type of story – Metro 2039 is the result of that work.

Still, Bloch assures me that seeing community reaction to work it once had in progress hasn't impacted development or the direction of Metro 2039, as frustrating as the leaks may have been. "I wouldn't say that it's affected the work that we're putting into what we're doing now. I mean, it's out there. It happened. There's nothing we can do about it. It sucks, but it could be worse. There's a lot of other things, frankly, that have gone on during the development of this game that I think are much worse."

The war in Ukraine has had an unimaginable impact on the people working to bring Metro 2039 to life. It's impossible to truly understand the strain the 4A Games team – working primarily out of its headquarters in Kyiv and a support studio in Malta – has been under over the past four years. In fact, having played the game myself, I find the quality of Metro 2039 undeniably astonishing.

Metro Exodus released in 2019 and Bloch admits that 4A "didn't set out for this game to take seven years" to create, but he does acknowledge that players will certainly see a benefit in the final product of Metro 2039. "We're benefiting from that time on the technology side, the gameplay side, and the feature side," he says. "The story had to be redone, and we did have to move on from some other location ideas that had fed the story we were working on before. But we tried to save as much of what had already been built as we could, and changed elements to meet the new story."

Bloch says that, ultimately, while a sequel to Metro Exodus may have been rebooted, the Metro 2039 you'll experience come February 2027 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X will ultimately have benefited from the "continued development, iteration, and polish" that was maintained across the entire process. And if what I've played so far is any indication, it's clear that 4A has something truly special on its hands.

Metro 2039 is a "journey back into Hell" and darker than you've ever seen the series: "You're in a completely different system"

A massive archive of games and unreleased builds uploaded to Steam from 2003 to 2013 has leaked online, and it includes never-before-seen versions of Portal 2 and many other games, alongside materials that could be related to the Half-Life 2: Episode Three that never saw the light of day.

The 12TB leak was spotted by GabeFollower earlier this week, who says it features "internal builds and game assets" that stretch over the course of a decade. The materials include in-development builds of classic Valve games - Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - alongside materials related to unreleased games, such as the Portal prequel called F-Stop and "potentially" information on Half-Life 2: Episode Three.

The Steam Terraleak doesn't seem to have been the result of a hacker, but Valve's now-retired content-delivery pipeline that was replaced more than a decade ago. "There has been no hacking. This is 100% Valve's fault," YouTuber Scolcer tweets online. "The Steam Teraleak was obtained from a site that was 100% accessible to the public. It was there for everyone to download. No passwords. Nothing. Hidden in plain sight, but with no protection whatsoever."

Different Portal 2 builds have already surfaced, showing off levels and gameplay ideas that never made it into the final game. Notably, a 'bullet time' mechanic that slowed down time mid-air seems to have been scrapped sometime before release.

Since the huge Valve leak contains almost everything uploaded to Steam over a decade, it's said that a large amount of third-party content is also floating around. Games made outside of Valve's offices could be similarly affected, then. Aesthetic Gamer tweets that beta builds for Alan Wake, Sonic 4, American McGee's Alive, and Fallout New Vegas could be part of the files. Pre-release content related to Dragon Age: Origins and Batman: Arkham Asylum might also be kicking around.

GabeFollower does mention that it will take days, at least, for fans to comb through the entire 12TB of information. We probably won't get a full picture of everything hiding in these Steam leaks for a while, so don't get too excited about the prospect of Half-Life 3 news just yet.

"This has been the most humiliating and surreal experience in 20+ years of game making": Dev pleads with Valve as Steam brands his PEGI 12 game as pornography

The Metro series has traditionally deployed a pretty interesting system to help determine which ending scenes you ultimately receive. In Metro 2033, Last Light, and Exodus, Artyom would be awarded 'Karma Points' for actively and passively undertaking different actions – this is largely hidden away from the player, operating quietly in the background to help encourage you to better understand the Metro, its people, and the strange phenomenon hanging over it.

Metro 2039 is bringing players back to the Metro system after Exodus steered us into the wilderness beyond Moscow. There's a new protagonist, the Stranger, an exile returning to a world that's now under the rule of one centralized faction – the fascistic Novoreich.

This new frame means that 4A Games is changing the way that we see and perceive the world. "If you look at our previous games, they're dealing with preventing war in their themes – and in the morality of the player's actions, choices, and the story around them," says Jon Bloch, executive producer.

"Where there was kind of a moral grayness in our previous games, we wanted to make sure that the morality was clear in Metro 2039. There is no hope, no future – except the one the Führer is promising to bring in," he adds. "Metro 2039 is exploring the consequences of war, because war is here."

I wondered whether this change in how morality is viewed would also affect how 4A handles Karma. Bloch assures me that the system is alive and well for this descent into a more hellish Metro system, but there will be some changes to how it functions.

"Every game has had a different way of approaching the same idea of a karma system, and Metro 2039 is no different. The same idea of actions having consequences, that remains. We're just approaching it a little bit differently this time. We have to every time because it needs to serve the story."

Bloch won't be drawn on how the system will be interpreted in Metro 2039, or which actions will ultimately affect the Stranger's Karma in both positive and negative ways. I can say from my time with the game that it didn't appear to indicate when Karma Points were received with any type of colored HUD hue, as in Metro 2033 and Last Light – and that's despite me doing the best that I could to listen in on every conversation that I could, explore every corner of the overworld, find every abandoned stalker nest and frozen story, and dispatch human antagonists with non-lethal takedowns.

Still, with the Karma system making a return for a far darker, more hostile world – one where the Stranger is on a mission to not only tear down a fascist empire that has overtaken the Metro, but contend with the haunting ghosts of his past – I'm certain 4A will have found another unique approach to judging morality in a fractured world.

Metro 2039 is a "journey back into Hell" and darker than you've ever seen the series: "You're in a completely different system"

Call of Duty publisher Activision is severely ratcheting up its years-long campaign against cheaters, publishing actual footage of a cheat maker being served a cease and desist order.

The game's main line of defense against cheaters is its kernel level Ricochet anti-cheat system, which is installed at the kernel level of your operating system and loads with the game to detect cheats from a privileged position in your PC's security system. That alone stirred some controversy when it was implemented back in 2021, but there's no denying it works. Since then, Activision has caught hundreds of thousands of Call of Duty and Warzone cheaters, but the fight rages on as they adapt and circumvent the latest anti-cheat measures. Now, Activision is going after something closer to the root of the problem: the people actually making cheats.

"RICOCHET Anti-Cheat doesn't end when your match does. Cheat makers operate around the world. So do we," reads a tweet from the official Call of Duty Twitter account. "We're taking the fight directly to cheat sellers.

"Last weekend during the Closed Beta, we went to Ohio to takedown Elocarry. That's not an isolated case..."

In the above video, you see what appears to be an attorney or process server drive up to a purported cheat maker's home, ring the doorbell, and hand a legal notice over to the accused. "What's this?" the person asks. "Attorneys for Activision and, uh, it's a cease and desist order for you."

When the recipient asks for more information, the server tells them to contact the attorney involved and the conversation ends. Naturally, the accused's visual identity is blurred out and their name redacted, but Activision confirms the video is "an excerpt from a real recording." Unnamed but still shamed.

In follow-up tweets, Activision shows the receipts apparently backing up its claim that this isn't the first or only person it's taken legal action against due to cheating in Call of Duty, with several more images of alleged cheat makers being served legal notices.

"In our ongoing fight against cheat developers and sellers, we've disrupted more than 375 cheat reseller operations, served more than 80 cease-and-desist demands and shut down more than 30 vendors," the publisher says. "And there's more to come, including litigation when necessary. We're prepared to take cheat developers and sellers to court to protect fair play.

"BUILD CHEATS. SELL CHEATS. WE WILL FIND YOU."

Activision adds that its latest anti-cheat measures are targeted at "the people and businesses behind cheating products" so that it can "disrupt the ecosystem that profits from them." Included is a screenshot of what appears to be a cheat seller informing its customers of a pause in operations.

"It's another way we're working to make cheating harder - not just for the people using cheats, but for the people building and selling them," Activision says.

Activision is obviously no darling, but this is an easy win for their PR team. If the accused cheaters and cheat sellers are really guilty, they're actively getting in the way of thousands of people simply wanting to enjoy the games they bought with their hard-earned money. Cheating will always be a thing, and Activision itself seems to acknowledge that, but anything that makes it harder and more legally risky to do is a good thing in my book.

Now onto more important matters: After Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta, devs promise to fix Captain Price's hair as his unexpected balding goes viral

In the Metro universe, pre-war military-grade (MGR) 5.45x39mm rounds are used as a primary currency for trading amongst the survivors living beneath the irradiated ruins of Moscow. It's always been a fascinating system. It not only fuels Metro's exceptional sense of place and immersion, but always forces players to make a difficult decision:

MGR ammunition is a powerful alternative to the standard rounds most weapons take, but every round ejected from a Kalash in combat is akin to literally shooting your money away. And given the increased challenge in Metro 2039 – a new global faction of human combatants, and monsters who have suffered further mutation in the four years since Artyom and the Spartan Rangers fled the Metro system – currency is king if you want any chance of survival.

Speaking to the decision to bring this system back in Metro 2039, executive producer Jon Bloch tells me the decision was easy for the team at 4A Games. "That is the currency of the Metro, so how could we go back to the Metro without having the currency come back as well?"

This was a prominent part of Metro 2033 and Last Light, but was ultimately removed from 2019's Metro Exodus due to the story taking place far beyond the confines of the Metro system. "It didn't make sense from a lore standpoint to have it in Exodus because you were leaving. Who are you going to trade it with? Who has established MGR as a currency out in the middle of nowhere, right? So we found other ways to approach how the players can interact with the world to upgrade themselves, because that's effectively what the in-game currency does," says Bloch.

Metro 2039 may be bringing back ammo-as-currency but that doesn't mean that it's stepping back from the crafting systems introduced in Exodus. "Now that we're going back to the Metro, we're able to revisit that idea and intertwine it with the solutions that we brought to Exodus," says Bloch.

So you'll still be able to craft rudimentary items (like medkits and gas mask filters) and basic ammunition from your backpack while exploring the irradiated wasteland of Moscow, and build more powerful weapon components and secondary ammunition types from Workbenches strewn around the world. Workbenches are also where you'll be able to clean weapons to prevent them from jamming, choose between one of two protective suits, and upgrade your equipment – perhaps you want to strengthen the visor on your gas mask, or expand the battery in your backpack.

A new feature in 2039 sees the introduction of Blueprints, which let you craft bigger and better upgrades for your equipment and weapons once discovered. All of this means there's a bigger impetus than ever to explore environments carefully, both to collect more MGR ammunition to trade for vital materials at outposts, but also to ensure you're ready to craft items in the field.

Bloch tells me that the team listened carefully to feedback concerning resource scarcity in Exodus as it approached Metro 2039. "As you may have noticed, you can now get resources from mutants. You weren't able to do that in Exodus, so by putting these two systems together we think that it's the best of both worlds – a solution that I think people are going to enjoy."

Metro 2039 is a "journey back into Hell" and darker than you've ever seen the series: "You're in a completely different system"

Former Halo series lead and Halo 3 ODST creative director Joseph Staten has praised The Witcher 3's new expansion, reflecting on what the team could've done with more expansions for Halo games.

Over on Twitter, Staten posted the Songs of the Past trailer, saying that it's "super inspiring to see CD Projekt Red deliver new Witcher 3 adventures," with the next expansion set to release 12 years after The Witcher 3 first released in 2015. He adds, "I often think about what it would have been like if we’d kept building on Halo 3 with ODST-like expansions – new stories, innovative mechanics, etc." Saying that it "Would have been great fun."

Halo 3 ODST is one of the most beloved games in the franchise for many. Originally starting as DLC for Halo 3, it took a different approach to campaign design than the main series had at the time, trading a lot of the spectacle for a film-noir-inspired title that's a bit smaller scale than the threat of world-ending catastrophes found in Halo 3.

When asked if this would've potentially been a smaller team within Bungie working on Halo side stories while the main team was focused on Destiny, Staten responded, "In theory, this only would have happened if we never left Microsoft, which likely means Destiny never existed."

While spinoffs aren't exactly rare, Halo 3 ODST is exactly the type of project I'd love to see from devs more often, smaller scale stories that perhaps focus on side-characters to bridge the gap between major sequels, Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales being another great example of this. And who knows, perhaps more titles like ODST could get Halo back on track.

Give Master Chief a break – I want more Halo games like ODST and Reach.

Metro 2039 is undoubtedly the darkest instalment to the series yet. If Metro Exodus was about hope – looking for a brighter future beyond the shattered ruins of Moscow – then its sequel is charting a "journey back into hell."

Having played Metro 2039 for a number of hours, I was keen to understand more about the way developer 4A Games is framing this descent into a metro system that abandoned hope long ago.

Thankfully, creative director Andriy Shevchenko and executive producer Jon Bloch were on hand to help us understand the ways this universe has evolved – mutated – in the years since the Spartan Rangers fled the metro, leaving it defenseless against a threat nobody could have seen coming.

Metro 2039 takes place four years after Artyom and the remaining Spartan Rangers fled the Moscow Metro. What has changed in that time?

Andriy Shevchenko, creative director:
For the first time in the Metro universe, almost the entire metro is united under one banner. It's a huge change. Now, the Führer, Hunter, is leading the metro into the future – you're in a completely different system compared to the one seen in previous games. It's darker, and even more ugly in a lot of ways.

The Metro games were always pretty dark. What should we expect as we lead the Stranger back into the metro system after years of exile?

Andriy Shevchenko:
We are showing the horrors of tyranny. We are talking about the cost of silence and the price of freedom – for me, these are the main topics. It's the combination of these three filters that bring us into this Metro world.

Jon Bloch, executive producer:
If you look at the previous games, they're dealing with preventing war in their themes – and in the morality of the player's actions, choices, and the story around them. Metro 2039 is exploring the consequences of war, because war is here. That's one of the main reasons why we needed to approach the story this way. It carries a lot of weight in how we approach things this time, making the story a lot more personal, as opposed to being about the Metro and about the people within it.

In Metro 2039, we find a populace living beneath the poisoned ruins of Moscow united by a single leader – Hunter, a former Spartan, who rules the brutal Novoreich regime through propaganda and fear. What should players expect from this new story frame?

Jon Bloch:
This story is about our protagonist – the Stranger. It's about him – his past, his journey, and his mission. And it's about showing that, when these things happen, there is no good. It's all bad in these sorts of situations – when a regime takes over and does the things that they do. Where there was kind of a moral grayness in our previous games, we wanted to make sure that the morality was clear in Metro 2039. There is no hope. There is no future – except the one the Führer is promising to bring in.

I think players would probably agree that the Metro games have always been pretty dark, even in their brightest moments. How does this story compare tonally to what we experienced in Metro Exodus?

Jon Bloch:
Metro Exodus was about hope. It was about leaving the Metro. It was about going out to discover brighter and bigger futures. Metro 2039 is the reverse of that. It's this journey back into hell. Back into the depths. And the further you go, the darker it's going to become – meaning, the more claustrophobic and oppressive it needs to feel.

Andriy Shevchenko:
You're going back into the Stranger's past to understand the roots of everything in the Metro.

Hunter is an important character who ultimately exists on the periphery of Artyom's adventure in the first three Metro games. Why elevate Hunter to the position of Führer of the fascist Novoreich faction?

Andriy Shevchenko:
Think back to his words in Metro 2033: 'We are the protectogrs of the Metro. If it's hostile, you kill it." You can find more answers and details in Dmitry Glukhovsky's books, but that ideology is core here…

Jon Bloch:
…and what that ideology can turn into.

The atmosphere is thicker in Metro 2039, the people more clearly reckoning with the weight of these ideologies and decision-making of a central faction. How do we discern fact from fiction?

Jon Bloch:
Propaganda factors into this game in a big way. When you listen in on conversations, there's always a reason why people are saying what they are saying – and why different people will say different things. If you pay attention, you'll begin to understand what they believe in and where they got their information. We've always had a little bit of that in previous games, particularly when you were around fascist factions in the past, but it's really more important now – and something that deals in parallels to the real world as well.

Warped ideology isn't the only thing we'll need to contend with – a return to the Metro means a returning focus on the Dark Ones and discoverable anomalous zones. Why were these aspects important to bring back?

Andriy Shevchenko:
Ghosts and paranormal activity were a huge part of the original Metro, and with 2039 we are getting back to our roots. The best way for me to describe it is to quote Khan, a character from [Metro] 2033: "It appears that the devastation we brought upon ourselves was complete; Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory were atomized. So when a soul leaves the body it has nowhere to go, and must remain here, in the Metro."

If even souls can't leave the Metro, then there is no hope even after death. I really like this side of the Metro games. But it's not about just having ghosts for the sake of it – they tell stories frozen in time. We didn't use them back in Exodus because we left the Metro, and this limbo between the worlds. But now we are back there, and we're bringing back all of the series' best elements.

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It only took four hours for Metro 2039 to become my most anticipated first-person shooter of 2027. Developer 4A Games has always had this talent for creating singular experiences – solemn descents into hellish landscapes. That's especially true this time around, as the studio draws us back to the depths of the irradiated Moscow Metro system.

If Metro Exodus was a story of looking for hope beyond the outskirts of Russia's ruined capital city, Metro 2039 is a return to hell itself. The mutants which stalk the surface have been twisted beyond recognition, as have the uneasy alliances which once connected underground networks of surviving factions. Metro 2039 is a darker, more claustrophobic experience – and all the better because of it.

A lot of questions have been asked of the FPS genre in the PS5 and Xbox Series X generation, and Metro 2039 feels like the answer. Weighty stealth-action gameplay and a truly stunning attention-to-detail come together to create an experience that feels quite unlike anything else. If you've been desperate to play a single-player, story-driven shooter set in meticulously-crafted environments then you needn't look any further.

There's still so much of the game to be seen before its February 2027 release, but here's five things I think you need to know about the game while we countdown our return to the wasteland.

5. Exploration is better than ever before

Metro 2039 blurs the lines between the claustrophobia of Metro 2033 and the more expansive elements of Metro Exodus. This fourth entry in the series has a tighter structure, mixing linear storytelling through densely-detailed subway tunnels and wider surface exploration of an irradiated wasteland.

In my playtest I'm able to transition from the underground Sevastopolskaya Station to an overworld that's packed with distraction – it's possible to head straight to the main objective, but creeping through decaying structures is well worth my time (and gas mask filters). Resources for item crafting are strewn around the landscape, hidden blueprints can be uncovered which allow crafting of upgrades for your equipment and weapons, and stories frozen in time help reveal more about the world you inhabit.

4. Movement and weapon handling has been improved

The Metro games have always been defined by two elements: the weight of movement and the gratifyingly tactile interactions you have with your equipment. With the absurd fidelity 4A Games has captured here, even the smallest acts – physically wiping debris from the visor of your gas mask, pumping the triggers to power up your kinetic torch, rifling through your backpack to desperately craft medkits and ammunition – fuel total immersion in the space.

Tiptoeing heavily through environments is essential, with even the smallest noise able to bring hell down upon you. Mutants harass in groups, quickly cutting off escape routes; human factions are more aggressive, necessitating use of non-lethal takedowns to thin out a crowd before you have to begin burning through limited ammunition reserves.

3. Combat is absolutely brutal in Metro 2039

The gunplay in Metro 2039 is extraordinary. Combine limited ammunition reserves with a punishing recoil model and you're suddenly left with combat encounters that feel exceptionally desperate. Each weapon has a unique profile, with meticulous firing and reload animations constantly drawing the eye away from enemies pushing relentlessly to flank and overwhelm your position.

4A Games has clearly improved handling over Exodus, all while adding more destructible cover and a new lean mechanic – perfect for when you're battling in tight corridors through the hazy green hue of night-vision goggles. 2039 remains a stealth-action game, so there are opportunities for (lethal and non-lethal) takedowns should you avoid detection, but the game really comes to life once firefights erupt.

2. Ammo is your primary currency once again

A return to the Metro means ammunition is back as currency. As you hunt around you'll come across military-grade ammunition – this is used to barter for items with traders, but can also be used in a pinch to fuel a chattering Kalash in combat. Other changes have been made to bring Metro 2039 more in-line with earlier titles too.

You can once again equip three primary weapons, with a fourth slot reserved for a signature weapon. Aspects of Exodus have been refined too; you have the ability to craft limited items from your backpack while exploring, but you need to find Workbenches to properly equip weapon and suit upgrades, craft key ammo and resources, and clean-up your guns to prevent malfunctions.

1. The horror has been dialed up

If there's one aspect of Exodus that disappointed, it was how 4A pulled back on the more supernatural elements that defined 2033. Metro 2039 features a new protagonist – a fully-voiced soldier equipped with Spartan armor known only as 'the Stranger' – and they seem to have more demons to exorcise than poor Artyom.

In my time with 2039, the returning presence of the Dark Ones has a clear impact on the new horrors that have befallen the Metro system, while unlabeled anomalous zones found in the overworld completely warp exploration. A faint echo of children's laughter on the wind, dancing shadows in a decaying playground, a kindergarten that the surviving stalkers of the Sevastopolskaya Station warned against approaching… Metro 2039 isn't afraid of getting dark and truly weird.

Final Thoughts: Metro 2039 makes a great first impression

I was only able to play around four hours of Metro 2039, but if this early hands-on playtest is fully representative of what 4A Games is able to deliver then I do truly believe that we'll have an early Game of the Year contender on our hands come February.

The attention-to-detail in environments is astounding, so too is the quality of weapon handling and animation. The weighty movement grounds you in a world where all hope is already lost, and the tactile approach to every small interaction builds this overwhelming sense of claustrophobia.

The seven year wait for a new Metro game has been brutal, but its return is impossible to ignore. Metro 2039 is expected to land on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X February 2027.

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4A Games resurfaced at Gamescom: Opening Night Live 2026 with a brand new look at Metro 2039. The latest trailer was designed to give a little more insight into the plight of the Stranger, the protagonist we'll be controlling throughout this long-awaited return to hell. But it's difficult to ignore everything else contained within this sneak peek at the story-driven shooter's development – it looks absolutely stunning, and a genuine evolution over 2019's Metro Exodus.

Putting the absurd visual fidelity that 4A is capturing here to one side for a second, this new Metro 2039 trailer also gave us a better feel for what a return to the claustrophobic tunnels and irradiated ruins of Moscow will really mean. We see lived-in stations in decay, a populace buckling under the weight of fascistic propaganda, and plenty of new tools to help the Stranger survive this journey.

Pay close attention and you'll see a few new items on display. There's a gas-powered blowtorch which can be used to access barricaded areas above ground, a UV lamp which appears to aid in exploration, the tease of a blueprint system for weapon parts and upgrades, and monsters who have suffered further mutation in the four years since Artyom set out for new horizons. These new items join the breaching charges which were glimpsed in a trailer earlier this year, indicating that exploration is still being highly encouraged despite the more linear structure of 2039 versus the open-ended environments of Metro Exodus.

Speaking of Exodus, this new Metro 2039 trailer teases that in-field weapon customization is returning, letting you swap out key attachments such as barrel, stocks, and sights straight from your backpack. Also returning are some of the more overt paranormal phenomena that was present through Metro 2033 and Last Light – it wouldn't be a return to the Metro system without the Dark Ones making their presence known, after all.

It's another impressive showing for Metro 2039. The attention to detail is astounding, so too are little touches to familiar objects. Watch carefully for fluid reload animations on some of your favorite returning weapons; the intricate adjustments of hands as the Breacher is checked for radiation signals and filter timings; and the way 4A has retained that heavy movement and tactile approach to every interaction that helped define the quality and immersion of the original trilogy.

What's better still is that developer 4A Games and publisher Plaion have confirmed that Metro 2039 is still on-track to release in February 2027 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. Here's hoping that wide window becomes a firmer date soon, because I honestly can't stand the wait any longer.

Metro 2039 is set to release on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X as one of the most anticipated new games of 2027.

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Halo co-creator and art director Marcus Lehto says he disagrees with some of Campaign Evolved's decisions, but is rooting for the franchise nonetheless.

The former Bungie creative director recemtly commented on the Halo franchise, with Lehto saying that "talk of Halo's future is certainly very exciting," but that it's "fanciful and that I doubt Asha [Sharma, Xbox CEO] really gives a shit."

He added that fans may not actually want him to return to the franchise, saying, "If I were to make another Halo these days, I bet many of you would not like it." This also followed his comments that he is unhappy the new Halo remake left multiplayer out of the package.

In a post on Twitter, Lehto acknowledges there's been "Lots of discussion about my thoughts on Halo lately." He explains, "I genuinely enjoyed Campaign Evolved and think there’s a lot of great work in it. I may disagree with some decisions, but I’m rooting for the team and for Halo."

Lehto adds, "I helped create it, and I’ll always care deeply about it."

Unfortunately, Halo hasn't had the best time since Bungie stopped working on the franchise. Halo 4 was received well enough, but Halo 5 and the subsequent messy release of Halo Infinite have left the fanbase burnt out. While remaking the first game in the series certainly feels like setting the stage to reboot it altogether, there's no denying that Halo has lost its luster along the way.

Give Master Chief a break – I want more Halo games like ODST and Reach.

The Modern Warfare 4 beta started over the weekend, and besides all the chatter about balancing and time-to-kill, it's Captain Price's haircut that's caught the attention of many. Our man should maybe get a new barber, and this iteration's developer, Infinity Ward, and Call of Duty publisher, Activision, are actively working to find him one.

Soon after the preview period started, fans began to notice how the handlebar-mustache-sporting soldier wasn't looking too good this time around. Gone is his well-kept head of hair, and what remains is a choppy-looking mess. "Lieutenant Cost," he's been dubbed by online revelers.

Developer Infinity Ward is on the case, since the number of comments and pictures on social media was hard to ignore. "We're aware of an issue with Price's hair not appearing correctly when viewed at the lowest level of detail," a tweet from one of the official accounts says. "The team will be addressing it in a future update."

This is an important caveat: the screenshots aren't from the game running across all standard machines. They're from people on lower specs. There are always trade-offs when it comes to making sure the game runs on low-powered machines, and it seems Captain Price's bedhead was one of them.

The post actually makes a slightly passive-aggressive pass at this fact. "Ultimately this will not be an issue if players meet our recommended specs," the tweet adds.

While it's understandably frustrating to be the butt of a joke that's missing context, there's a substantial audience whose specs are low for whatever reason, and they shouldn't feel like their experience is substandard. It's not the first time the franchise accounts have posted like this either. At least the Captain's hair will be done up properly, likely with a better hair transplant than your uncle got on holiday that time.

"CoD got it. Halo didn't" – Black Ops 1 and 2 ports battered Halo Campaign Evolved on PlayStation last month, analyst says, because $60 for a "graphical touch-up" is a rough sell

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 pre-orders are now live and with two editions up for grabs, a couple of bonuses to choose from, and some early discounts in the UK, things are already heating up ahead of October 23.

Here's what you need to know. Both $69.99 / £69.99 Standard and $99.99 / £99.99 Vault Edition MW4 pre-orders are now available, though retailers are adding their own bonuses onto the former. Amazon's standard edition copies also come with five hours of double XP (at launch) and Best Buy's (Currys in the UK) comes packaged up with a free steelbook. That's if you're not interested in any digital extras.

The Vault Edition is your digital deluxe, available via Xbox or PS Store (or with a Steelbook at Best Buy if you're in the US). The boosted MW4 pre-order comes with:

• Hostile Alliance Operator Pack
• Special Forces Operator Pack
• Signature Weapon Collection
• BlackCell
• DMZ Deployment Bonus
• Hunter Killer Operator Skin
• Gilded Pearl Camo Pack
• Campaign Early Access (October 16)

So here's what I would do. Amazon is your go-to if you're after the standard edition. You're still getting something extra in that double XP, but the site is still currently guaranteeing release day delivery. Best Buy will swap those points for a steelbook, but speedy delivery isn't confirmed as such on the listing itself.

In the UK, you'll be heading to Currys. Amazon is matching the same price, and swapping the steelbook for double XP, but strangely delivery times are a little less concrete at the time of writing. On the flip side, Currys has free release day delivery advertised with that shelf piece as well.

Pre-order Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 in the US

Standard Edition

Vault Edition

Pre-order Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 in the UK

Standard Edition

Vault Edition

We're also rounding up all the latest Marvel's Wolverine pre-orders and showing you where to pre-order Wolverine PS5 consoles, controllers and more.

The beta for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is currently underway, and the next patch will focus on fine-tuning time-to-kill. Complaints have been coming in about how quickly players are getting popped, leading developer Infinity Ward to get under the hood of various weapons in the FPS.

The studio tweeted about the incoming changes earlier today, August 24. "Another [Modern Warfare 4] Beta update is headed to you soon," says the post. "We're working on adjustments for several weapons that will increase the minimum TTK. Bug fixes too."

If it's not obvious, time-to-kill - or TTK - refers to how long it takes to bring someone down from after you first pull the trigger through to their actual death. It's the kind of thing you probably don't actively think about, but would notice if it's too off-kilter, either because it's taking too long to get a kill, or you feel you're dropping too soon.

From the sounds of things, it's an issue across much of the inventory in the upcoming shooter. Tinkering with even just a few of the guns requires careful attention, because any overcorrections will just breed other problems.

For a franchise that's been going as long as Call of Duty, what feels right can be a matter of perception. One back-and-forth in the responses to Infinity Ward's tweet demonstrates this perfectly.

A fan says the TTK should be more like Ghosts, because that "was perfect." But then, in a reply to that one, another player shoots Ghosts down and says that Modern Warfare 3 should be the benchmark.

I'm sure the devs have their own goals and ideas of where these numbers should land. Infinity Ward says fuller patch notes are coming tomorrow, so we'll see then how much gameplay is to be impacted.

New Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 PS5 update turns the ports into Modern Warfare 4 ads

Earlier this year, PS4 and PS5 got native ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2. Now, Microsoft and Activision are turning these beloved FPS titles into billboards for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, with a big ol' pre-order button for the upcoming game stuck right there in the main multiplayer menu.

These new "pre-order MW4" options appeared after recent updates to the PlayStation versions of both Black Ops 1 and 2. Call of Duty news account CharlieIntel tweets images of both the updated menus, which gives the Modern Warfare 4 pre-orders equal billing with such features as "play online" and "options."

Of course, it's not unusual for modern online games to include regularly updated "news" feeds that often include what are basically ads for new DLC or upcoming sequels. But ports of the OG Black Ops games were well-received, in part, because a big chunk of the COD fandom is frustrated with the state of the modern games. Those same players are, at their most polite, giving a big "yeah, no thanks" to these ads.

Clearly, Microsoft wants every eye it can get on Modern Warfare 4. While Black Ops 7 sales are monstrous compared to almost every other game in the industry, it failed to beat Battlefield 6 on the US sales charts last year. That's the first time in the long rivalry between the two series that EA's FPS has come out on top. Certainly, not the outcome that Xbox was looking for after its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

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Halo universe co-creator and former Bungie creative director Marcus Lehto is having all kinds of strange ideas about the future of the franchise. But before you get too excited and start shooting your Needler pistol into the air, you should know the former Bungie creative director is certain you'll hate what he's thinking, and IP owner Xbox won't care.

"While talk of Halo's future is certainly very exciting, I'm aware that it's fanciful and that I doubt Asha [Sharma, Xbox CEO] really gives a shit," Lehto writes in an August 19 Twitter post. "Also, Halo MUST be built by a local team together," he adds, jabbing at Microsoft's reputation for internal layoffs followed by external contracting, "not outsourced around the globe to a group that has ZERO investment in making something great."

That could be that. But whatever Lehto's been mulling over sounds compelling, and Xbox has lately been experiencing more drastic changes than a little Halo revival, so...

Lehto teases in another Twitter post, "If I were to make another Halo these days, I bet many of you would not like it. It would be a lot darker with a more grounded military feel."

Then, while Halo games have always offered multiplayer PvP – Lehto despises the fact that the new Halo remake left this feature out – they aren't as reliable when it comes to PvE. But it sounds like Lehto wants to rectify this with a truly PvPvE Halo à la Arc Raiders, saying, "PvP would be the brains, PvE the heart and soul."

Ultimately, "It would not be 'everyone's' Halo," Lehto says confidently. In case he hasn't yet sharpened that point enough to tear through your gauzy memories of 2001, he adds that, "I would probably bench much of the current lore – respect it, but build a new future narrative for both the old and new audiences which makes much more sense."

Halo fans finally bared their teeth at this. A spooky, more militaristic Halo? Sure. PvPvE? Interesting. Xbox is currently an unsightly lump of job cuts and drooping revenue – fine, maybe it doesn't even deserve a new Halo game, that's not Lehto's fault. But threats to the lore are simply offensive, fans say, even if they come from the man who helped establish 26th century alien colonization.

"The lore is the only good thing about halo," one person argues on Twitter.

"I know this is just your aspirations, but Halo really can't afford another soft reboot," frets another.

Lehto gets it. If lightning strikes at the right time and his unconventional Halo sequel eventually gets approved, he says, first, "We'd need to sit together, break bread, and enjoy some deep conversation – along with some fine beverages of course." Can we get that in a Halo game?

Give Master Chief a break – I want more Halo games like ODST and Reach.

Oh, what could've been. It's been a rough year for Bungie, what with updates stopping on Destiny 2. the muted response to Marathon, and now the whole outfit essentially reduced to a skeleton crew. Turns out, we could've been seeing a lot more of the developer, since the teams therein had around a half-dozen games in the works before, during, and after the Sony acquisition, according to a new report.

No, really - that many releases were purportedly in various stages on the slate for the original home of Halo prior to Sony buying the outfit for $3.6 billion. This comes from Jason Schreier of Bloomberg, who spoke about the studio in a new YouTube video.

"As part of that acquisition, Bungie also had a whole bunch of other live service games in the works that Sony wanted to see come out in the subsequent years in addition to, of course, Destiny 2, which is Bungie’s big ongoing project," he says. There were "five or six" in total, and this portfolio was integral to Sony's interest in the company.

But "for a variety of reasons," he explains, "most of those projects fell apart." He doesn't provide any further clues on what these games were, but we can piece together the likely candidates.

There's the aforementioned Marathon, for a start, then the mobile game Destiny: Rising, that came out in 2025. Another game, known as Project Gummy Bears, was taken in-house at Sony and is still in development, though to what degree is unknown.

From there, we know of Project Sunspot, another Destiny spin-off, that was canceled in 2023, and Project Payback, a game inspired by Warframe, which was shuttered in 2024. We could speculate all day on the circumstances behind these decisions - Sony paid a lot of money for Bungie and clearly wanted a return on investment.

Whatever state these games were in, they probably just didn't seem promising enough to do that kind of business. But if at least one was moved to another team, the potential must be there to some degree.

It's all a pity, because now Bungie's a shell of what it once was. Whatever the future holds, we can only imagine how these games would've looked had they come out.

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Halo is renowned for two things. First and foremost is its revolutionary FPS formula – Halo: Combat Evolved is often cited as a turning point for the genre, with a lot of its core principles still prevalent today. The term 'Halo killer' was thrown about in the mid to late 2000s as many developers sought to dethrone the shooter as the pinnacle of console FPS gaming.

The second aspect, though sometimes overlooked, is Halo's narrative. It's all that common, even today, for FPS games to offer little context for all the nonsense other than 'that target is bad and deserves to be riddled with holes'. But Halo's original outings were surprisingly multi-faceted and gripping, with plot twists and intrigue that reached far beyond 'these aliens are bad and they should feel bad'.

The story so far...

This narrative was vastly expanded upon in Halo 2. By Halo 3, the universe's core pillars – Humanity, The Covenant and The Flood – were so fleshed out that seeing their motivations intersect in the trilogy created one of the greatest space operas in all of gaming history.

Halo 3: ODST, Reach, and Halo Wars further fleshed this conflict out, telling stories through other Spartans, regular marines, their commanders, and even a squad of elite Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. These perspectives showed the war not through the visor of a super-soldier, but through regular humans facing overwhelming alien doom. The approach helped these titles stand apart from the original trilogy – bolstering the story, rather than competing with it.

I don't think the 343 Industries era of Halo reached that level of narrative prowess. Halo 4 did have the personal drama with Cortana's rampancy and Chiefs reluctance to let her go, but even that at times felt shallow, as did the conflict with the Didact and his Prometheans. As for Halo 5, the only truly gripping sequences in that game were those on Sanghelios dealing with the remnants of the Human-Covie war; a shadow of the franchise's heights.

Halo Infinite was somewhat of a revelation, at least gameplay-wise. 343 made an obvious effort to reference what made Halo so much fun to play in days gone by, and to a certain degree, this was a success. But the story? Not since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has a sequel backpedaled on its predecessors so quickly. Somehow the Covenant has returned…. Again.

Keep an eye on the horizon

But 343 is no more, following a rebrand in 2024. Now we have Halo Studios, and a precedent has already been set. Learning from what worked from Halo Infinite, Halo Studios is now looking back at the successes of Halo, and using that to shape its future. Halo: Campaign Evolved is a clear example of this, taking the original stellar game, and more effectively modernizing it than Combat Evolved Anniversary's Reach-colored paintjob could ever even hope to. But the one thing that gives me even more hope for the future of Halo, is locked away in the bonus missions – Operation: Meteorite.

With three new campaign levels set a year before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, this mini-campaign sees Chief and SGT. Johnson infiltrate a gigantic Covenant research vessel. The plot may be soft touch, but there's enough intrigue and environmental storytelling to keep you engaged, and even a couple of narrative easter eggs to make you go 'oooh'. It may just be the re-inclusion of the Battle Rifle, but the prologue genuinely feels like Halo 2 Anniversary in its level design and combat encounters, and the Seraph space combat closer reeks of Reach's Long Night of Solace. Bonus point if you picked up on the use of Reach's OST here.

It makes me think that Halo Studios is making the right call in looking backwards at what came before. But is it looking at the right games?

Full-circle

Narratively speaking, Halo could take cues from Star Wars. The sequel trilogy was undeniably divisive, but much less so are the standalone stories that have popped up filling the timeline. The Mandalorian, Maul - Shadow Lord and Andor to name a few, all succeed in fleshing out the Star Wars narrative, flourish in their independence and aren't crushed by the pressure of continuing the same story beat for beat.

There are examples of this in Halo's timeline too, with Reach being the most prominent. But ODST and both Halo Wars titles offer interesting and provocative windows into the long-running conflict. There's over 25 years of Human-Covenant war before the start of Bungie's trilogy, and we've barely scratched the surface.

This is where Halo Studios could thrive, finding or creating unique story-telling opportunities within this rich history. Halo Wars is the only time we've seen another conflict on humanity's colony worlds, for example. We've not seen a Covenant perspective of the great war, in the games at least, since Halo 2, nor have we seen a UNSC perspective outside of chief's since Reach, (not counting Halo 4: Spartan Ops or Halo Wars 2 as those are post-war).

There's also Pre-Humanity. The Flood-Forerunner war has been covered in extended material, and in-game flashbacks via secret terminals, but playing an FPS from the perspective of a Forerunner soldier, witnessing the fall of their civilization and the buildup to firing the Halo array would be absolutely haunting.

There are so many possibilities for Halo Studios to expand the Halo timeline, and while the main campaign of Campaign Evolved may be a strong, albeit somewhat safe, introduction to this 'new' studio's tenure of Halo Titles, it's Operation: Meteorite that excites me for Halo's future.

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You can reset the timer, because once again, there's tension between Call of Duty devs and players over online multiplayer. In this instance, Modern Warfare 4 utilizing the matchmaking system from Black Ops 7 Season 5, at least during the upcoming beta, is causing a stir.

To put it succinctly, players simply don't want it, and the official Call of Duty Twitter account's responses aren't helping. "Players are sticking around longer and playing more matches," a tweet reads.

"Since Season 05, quit rates are down across every skill group. For more than half of players, they dropped 41%," the post continues. "Search times are also down vs. Season 04. Average ping has improved too."

The Call of Duty account then revealed more stats on what the devs saw in open matchmaking. There were over 32% higher quit rates, over 14% fewer kills, and over 50% left "Not Fun" ratings. Those are substantial numbers, and paired with the 141% hike in players quitting Nuketown, suggested another structure for doing things was favorable.

Members of the fanbase are contesting these figures. Community notes state search times are actually up, pointing to a video testing such from YouTuber XclusiveAce. Infinity Ward's later claim that 50% of players exit a game when there are disbanding lobbies, a figure that's been dubbed "misleading," citing a guide from the franchise's official site.

Replies by now have gotten a little petty and barbed, and it's worth keeping in mind the beta hasn't actually kicked off yet. ModernWarzone, a dedicated outlet for this FPS series and Battlefield, has been involved in back-and-forths with various representations of Call of Duty on Twitter.

A final statement was made by the central, namesake account. "We asked for feedback and you definitely gave it to us. And that's what a Beta is for," the tweet reads. "We’ll be here online, and in your lobbies, improving as we go. Matchmaking isn't just data, it's a feeling. So jump in, feel it for yourself in Beta."

The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 early beta runs from August 21 through to August 25.

"CoD got it. Halo didn't" – Black Ops 1 and 2 ports battered Halo Campaign Evolved on PlayStation last month, analyst says, because $60 for a "graphical touch-up" is a rough sell

For five years, a developer named Thomas Brush has been working on a BioShock-inspired horror shooter called Twisted Tower. Now he and a small team of other devs have finally released that game – albeit with pretty low expectations for its success. But Twisted Tower is well on its way to getting a coveted "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating on Steam, and even Brush himself can hardly believe it.

"So Steam has this rule (it's actually a really good rule) that if you hit 500 reviews at 95% you get a big fat gold star called 'Overwhelmingly Positive,'" Brush says on Twitter. "And when you get that gold star, you get to tell your friends you did it. Ofcourse, to be honest, I would have been okay with Mostly Positive. That's how much I doubted this project. To see Twisted Tower approaching that Overwhelmingly Positive dream that I thought was completely out of reach is pretty wild."

As it stands, Twisted Tower has 421 Steam reviews, and 95% of them are positive. If that ratio holds for 79 more reviews, that "gold star" is in sight. And the trends have been promising. Just yesterday, the game had 166 reviews, with 95% of them being positive. "I truly expected my game to flop," Brush tweeted at the time. "Months ago my goal was just to not release something embarrassing… and now I’m thinking… maybe just maybe…. It’s maybe good!!!!"

In a video celebrating the launch, Brush describes Twisted Tower as "a love letter to Bioshock and Willy Wonka and mascot horror. It's basically like Willy Wonka in a creepy Disney World kind of game." The creepier bits of BioShock's atmosphere are clearly present, though it does appear that this game is a little heavier on the action than its inspiration.

But hey, 421 very positive reviews can't be wrong, right? If you're holding out for that Overwhelmingly Positive badge before trying Twisted Tower for yourself, it doesn't seem like you'll have to wait very long.

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The scariest noises in Hell Let Loose: Vietnam are the quietest. The dry-rattle of gunfire is too constant, and helicopters' telltale thwup-thwup gives plenty of warning before dropping fresh troops. Maps are big, so sound is one of the best tools for gauging the flow and geography of a match. When the fighting isn't as loud – if you're separated from the capture point or creeping through the jungle behind enemy lines – rustling leaves and snapping twigs may as well be fireworks.

My reaction speeds are slow, so when that crunch is a half-second warning, I'm often the first to die. But that's a fair price to pay for atmosphere. The best FPS games don't underestimate immersion: Marathon sparked my imagination earlier this year, and now Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is doing the same; pairing Battlefield-style 50v50 matches with gritty realism and more emphasis on teamwork.

"From day one, we wanted to be immersive and intense," says game director Paul 'Rushy' Rustchynksy. "We're trying to capture moments of 'If you put yourself in the boots of this conflict, how would you feel?' You would feel like you're exposed at all times, at any moment you could die."

Hell Let Loose: Vietnam doesn't hone in on the human cost of the Vietnam War, as many games and films have done before. Instead, its source material funnels directly into how the game is experienced as a shooter. "Stress can really affect how you play. It's not the sort of thing where you're running around on maps at 20 miles an hour, dashing between gaps," Rustchynksy explains. "You're thinking about every move you make. You're leaning around corners. You're talking to your squadmates about where [enemy] infantry are, and you're never running headfirst into things."

"Well… Maybe some players do. Initially."

(Don't) run through the jungle

Hell Let Loose: Vietnam's setting creates a different dynamic to Hell Let Loose. More weapons are fully-automatic, sightlines are shorter, and factions have unique tactics to reflect their real-world counterparts. The North Vietnamese Army can dig tunnels to cross areas undetected, while the US Armed Forces use helicopters for similar utility.

"The pacing of the game is generally faster because there's more modes of transport," says Rustchynksy, "and [there's] generally much more close-quarters combat this time around, whereas World War 2 was much further away."

But the "heart" of Hell Let Loose: Vietnam, Rustchynsky argues, is its asymmetric design. I agree: having two functionally unique factions brings out the character of both sides, whether it's pulling off the perfect flank as the NVA or being flown over the jungle and dropped into the frontline in a U.S. chopper. It's part of a broader tactical layer (each team is led by a commander, who gives orders through squad leaders) and feeling like a small cog in the machine lends itself well to immersion.

At times, merely being part of something bigger is enough to get the heart racing. I recently played as a crewman, operating an unwieldy tank turret while my friend managed the armor's gears to drive us to the frontline and support infantry. We won, and it was even sweeter because I could point exactly to how our contributions helped. Sometimes those moments are more dramatic: in the final throes of that match I fired a frag round into a descending helicopter's cockpit, taking out a full flight of troops who would have reinforced the capture point's defenders. The game after, I was a sniper separated from my spotter, and spent 15 minutes picking off marching troops – at one point lying in a bush to hide from a passing tank – before we could link up in friendly territory.

"It's these little things that really stand out," says Rustchynksy, speaking to my favorite part of the game: the stories you get from playing. "It's not something you can overly engineer. It's just making sure that the tools and things we allow the player to do inside the game [create a] free-form, sandbox-like experience [...] Where these emergent moments can happen."

"It's also really rewarding to see when some of the strategic plans come together," agrees Sam Warren, development director on Hell Let Loose: Vietnam. "Bits like that are magic."

The original Hell Let Loose brought in many players from beyond the usual military-sim crowd, and in the years since, the likes of Arc Raiders and Marathon have pushed punishing shooter mechanics to the mainstream. There's more interest in traditionally 'hardcore' experiences, especially as many players jump in and find there's a lot more to the experience than shaky aim and quick deaths.

Put simply: more people are trying games they aren't immediately good at. I ask Rustchynksy whether that's good for Hell Let Loose: Vietnam, and while he believes it is, he seems more enthused by the prospect of generally harder games. "I think this is a fantastic trend in general, because if you take away too much friction from games, it removes so much of the enjoyment. You need that little bit of friction so that when something satisfying happens, it feels really good. And also typically with games that have a bit of friction, the ceiling for mastery is often a lot higher."

In some ways, Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is harder than conventional multiplayer shooters. A hidden sniper or mortar team can send you back to HQ without ever being seen, and it takes confidence to jump into a random squad and follow orders. But when you take a step back, its chewier features are in service to an immersive and more deliberate experience, rather than simply making a tough shooter. Wits and vigilance pay off more than being quicker on the trigger – though on many occasions I've wished I was faster – and if you slow down to meet Hell Let Loose: Vietnam at its own cautious pace, you'll find there's oceans more to discuss beyond difficulty.

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Halo: Campaign Evolved's lack of PvP multiplayer is probably the remake's biggest drawback, a baffling letdown for fans of the original 2001 classic FPS with beloved memories playing against friends in the same room on the same TV. I'm having a great time playing through the campaign in co-op mode with a few pals, but what good is playing games with friends when you don't end up hating each other at the end?

Anyway, Halo: Campaign Evolved doesn't have PvP, and Halo Studios has provided zero indication that it'll be added at any point. One prominent analyst has suggested this fact is one of the key reasons the Halo remake isn't selling nearly as well as a pair of newly released Call of Duty ports, and now one of the progenitors of the Halo franchise is straight-up calling the game's lack of PvP a mistake.

"Split screen MP in Campaign Evolved should have been included. There's little excuse aside from lack of oversight and poor planning that led to this misstep," says Halo co-creator and OG Combat Evolved art director Marcus Lehto on Twitter. So sad this wasn't included."

Lehto confirms in a follow-up tweet that he's specifically referring to Halo: Campaign Evolved not having "PvP".

Of course, there's always the possibility that Halo Studio ends up adding PvP to Halo: Campaign Evolved, but honestly, even just considering the title of the remake, which clearly indicates the specific mode included in the package, it seems pretty unlikely. Still, Lehto adds that it would be "awesome" if that were to happen.

Lehto hasn't been shy to share his thoughts on the remake online, calling the campaign "simultaneously a blast from my own past and fresh re-envisioning of the game I helped create." However, in addition to the whole PvP thing, or lack thereof, Lehto also criticized the look of the new ring world.

"While Forerunner tech was metal (not stone) it was also ancient, vast, alive, and a tomb to the horrors that lurked within," he said. "It had seen hundreds of millennia of conflict. Yet the game shows it as shiny metal that looks like it was built a few years ago."

Be sure to check out our Halo: Campaign Evolved review to hear our full thoughts on the game.

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Halo: Campaign Evolved, a ground-up remake of the original 2001 Halo's single-player campaign, is a visual and technical triumph, but its lack of PvP maps is a big letdown for people like me: 30-somethings with extremely fond memories of mowing down friends in Warthogs while guzzling Mountain Dew. In fact, that demographic is the reason Halo: Campaign Evolved is seriously lagging behind recent ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 on PS5, argues one prominent industry analyst.

Alinea Analytics' Rhys Elliott recently broke down the numbers for Halo: Campaign Evolved's launch, which saw an almost exactly even split of 42% Xbox players and 41% PS5 players. The game has reportedly sold 1.2 million copies (544 thousand on PlayStation) and earned Halo Studios $67 million in gross revenue in the two weeks it's been available, which Elliott calls "a soft performance for a ground-up remake of one of the most iconic console shooter."

Compare that to Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2, whose PS5 ports launched a little over a month ago, and there's a pretty decisive favorite. The two 1080p ports (not remasters or remakes) have sold a combined 12 million on PS5 in the month they've been available, with Black Ops 2 taking up the lion's share at 8.9 million copies sold.

"So two 15-year-old CoD ports outsold a remake of the iconic Halo 1 on PS5 by more than 16-to-1, at a lower price, and with worse graphics. And the difference is a key one: PvP," argues Elliott, pointing out that only 21.7% of Black Ops 2 players on PS5 have even started the campaign.

"PlayStation players clearly bought BO2 for the multiplayer, for the nostalgia of those lobbies, the killstreaks, and harkening back to a different, less predatory era of online shenanigans.

"This is in stark contrast to Campaign Evolved, which is campaign-only (co-op too, to be fair), but no competitive multiplayer at all. Except for CoD, Halo is arguably the most multiplayer-defining console franchise in history. Split-screen Halo and LAN parties are a foundational memory for exactly the 30-something demographic this remake was chasing."

It's hard to say whether competitive multiplayer would've been enough to completely close the gap between Halo: Campaign Evolved and the Black Ops ports in terms of raw sales – Call of Duty is a global juggernaut whose annual releases are reliable cash cows while Halo hasn't seen a fully new installment since 2021's Halo Infinite – but I'm definitely not alone in my disappointment that it isn't there.

After playing Halo: Campaign Evolved's prologue, I don't want another Halo remake – it's time for a new game

Vietnam was a truly hellish experience for all concerned, and Hell Let Loose: Vietnam, from Expression Games, has absolutely nailed that. I don't even mean for that to come off as backhanded. The game's firefights are intense, often unfair, sometimes heroic, and occasionally funny. Following on from the success of the original game's medley of WW2's Eastern and Western Front greatest hits, Vietnam is a mixture of what works in that game and a complete abandonment of peer-conflict battlefields. On one side, you have the USA, a military superpower, on the other, the North Vietnamese Army, who are, on paper, vastly outmatched. Just as in real life, however, the NVA have a host of tricks up their sleeves to level the playing field.

The most notable trick at the NVA's disposal is the ability to create tunnels that stretch across the map, linking tunnels and garrisons. While only four of these can be connected at any one time, they create an incredible sense of asymmetric warfare. Enter a tunnel, select where you want to exit, and you'll cut to a first-person cutscene of your (hopefully) claustrophilic soldier crawling to their destination. This is explicitly designed as a counter to the US-exclusive helicopters that are also capable of whisking soldiers across the map, albeit more slowly, and while vulnerable to RPGs and anti-aircraft fire.

M-I-C-K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E

Balance is always a fine line for a multiplayer game to walk, and it must be said, Expression Games has largely done very well. Most of the games I've played across the review period have been proper tug-of-war affairs, but a few times I've questioned whether the balance was actually a little too finely-tuned in favor of the NVA. Part of this is somewhat realistic, in fairness. The maps themselves are a tight mix of jungle, urban environments, and even some fairly desert-like sand dunes, and being able to pop up from a tunnel into the dense camouflage of the jungles accurately represents the home-field advantage of the NVA. That doesn't make it any less frustrating, however, to be shot by an enemy that you can't even see from 150-200 meters.

Part of the terrifying nature of the Vietnam War, for both sides, was that sightlines were appalling. Here, too, if an enemy gets their eyes on you first, you're pretty much done. It's no coincidence that the most memorable firefights in my matches are essentially urban warfare, reminiscent of the climax of Full Metal Jacket. One highlight takes place in a fairly self-explanatory Industrial Zone, all railway lines and warehouses, while another revolves around a dense pier, dodging fire and ducking between cargo containers. Crucially, in both of these battles, I could actually see the enemy.

What's less fun are the moments on certain maps where you spawn and walk 500 meters towards the objective, only to be gunned down by an enemy sniper concealed in a bush half a mile away. Realistic, sure, but fun? No.

When you're in a blazing battle, however, the weapons are an absolute joy to use. Whether you're using an M16 or Type 56, M60 or RPD, they're tremendous fun, and crucially, all sound very distinct from one another. It's easy to identify whether a nearby machine gun is an enemy or a friend, and iconic weapons like the spectacularly bloopy M79 grenade launcher are lovingly rendered. Each weapon also gets a fantastically detailed analysis voiced by the Royal Armouries' Jonathan Ferguson, with this treatment even extending to obscurities like Soviet smoke grenades.

Much like its predecessor, Hell Let Loose: Vietnam is a game that really lives and dies by communication. Hopping on voice chat is almost compulsory if you want to play well and be a good teammate. On the rare occasions that I end up with a completely silent squad, the game's fun takes a notable dip. The importance of teamwork is woven deeply into the game's DNA. Each side has a multitude of roles for you to step into, from your standard rifleman all the way up to grenadiers, pilots, tank commanders, and sniper spotters. Thankfully, the game does feature a tutorial this time, making it a much easier affair to get to grips with, and it's very comprehensive, teaching you the basics of a wide variety of specialisms.

Playing as a medic is where I feel like I make the biggest impact so far. In a game that's as brutal as this one, being able to resurrect players (who can be revived unless they've been shot in the head or blown to pieces) is very helpful, indeed. While I still rack up the occasional kill as a medic, it's a slightly less intense affair, but one that still makes you feel like a hero after dragging an ally to safety beneath a hail of gunfire.

I'll be curious to see whether Expression add more factions to the game over time, and what roles each faction may inherit. Let's not forget that when the original title launched, only the United States and Germany were present, and while we're unlikely to see Squad levels of factions – Anzac forces, the Viet Cong, South Korea and the Pathet Lao could all make for interesting additions. It would have been nice to see this at launch, but there's a very good selection of arms and equipment available already, so you're unlikely to get bored anytime soon.

For a game that's so rooted in history, with a strong sense of the atrocious nature of the Vietnam War, Hell Let Loose: Vietnam largely succeeds in recreating reality in all its bloody business. That is for both good and ill, but its undeniable frustrations are never quite able to take away from the game's stomach-churningly brutal battles or its moments of sublime teamwork.

Hell Let Loose: Vietnam was reviewed on PC, with a code provided by the publisher.

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If the Overwatch battle pass already made your eyes glaze over with its multilayered doodads and rewards, cover your eyes now, because Blizzard is about to make it substantially more complicated – but also better, if Blizzard plays its cards right.

The Overwatch "battle mass revamp" will arrive tomorrow, August 11, as producer director Chris McCabe explains in a newly minted blog post. You can also see a bit of the new BP in action in the new Season 4 trailer (below).

With it, Blizzard is splitting today's 80-tier battle pass system into five shorter "tracks" which players can choose from at the start of each season. Each track leads to different rewards, letting players select what goodies they want to unlock first.

As McCabe explains, "if you’re a Support player, you may want to unlock a Brigitte skin as soon as possible. By selecting the track that features Brigitte’s skin first, you’ll now earn a new skin for our cat-loving engineer far faster than if her skin was placed in, say, tier 70 of the previous Battle Pass design."

Importantly, you can still unlock and clear all five tracks to obtain absolutely everything. "Play through one last track and you’ll finish the 80-tier pass; you’ll then start earning the usual prestige titles after that," McCabe adds.

I've progressed more battle passes than modern medicine would advise, and in my mind this proposition immediately raises two red flags: how long do these new tracks take compared to the old system, and how can I tee up all five tracks?

Blizzard is quick to address these points. "It’s important to call out that the number of tiers in the Battle Pass isn’t changing and you won’t have to work harder to complete your Battle Pass," McCabe tells Overwatch fans. So, the total reward count and the amount of time (or pass XP) it takes to unlock those rewards should stay the same.

Additionally, McCabe says "you can also change which track is active at any time, giving you total control over which rewards you want to progress toward."

The cherry on top is what Blizzard is calling a "Tier Hack" system. Uncover your battle pass-fearing eyes, because this bit sounds like a meaningful upgrade.

The buyable premium version of the Overwatch battle pass will now come with one Tier Hack that can be used to replace "any skin at the end of a track" with "a different Legendary skin of your choice from a curated list of past Overwatch Shop and Loot Box skins."

The selection of skins available to be hacked in will change each season. "This pool will always include skins for Heroes in all 3 roles, and it’s our goal to also represent Heroes that may not show up in seasonal Battle Passes as often," McCabe explains. "Season 4 is launching with 12 Legendary skins in the curated 'Tier Hack' pool, pulling from some fan-favorite skin collections of the past."

If everything works as described – and McCabe says the BP revamp will be shown in an incoming livestream alongside improved UI – this could be a nice change for Overwatch. Ideally, players get the new skins they want faster and have another way to acquire old skins they've missed.

"We also have other exciting BP updates coming in the not-so-distant future as well, including our Legacy Battle Pass Unvault system, arriving at the Season 4 midseason in September," McCabe concludes.

Overwatch escapes "Mostly Negative" Steam reviews 3 years after becoming the worst-rated game on Valve's store: "In 2026, we finally got back to just Overwatch."

Blizzard Entertainment is reportedly Xbox's best-performing studio and is enjoying its first back-to-back years of growth in almost a decade, and it's mainly thanks to Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred and Overwatch's big resurgence.

In an internal email seen by Windows Central, Blizzard President Johanna Faries reportedly told staff that the company "ended the year as the top-performing studio in Xbox's studios division, and this past year has marked our third highest fiscal for top line revenue in Blizzard's history."

That puts the World of Warcraft and Diablo maker above of Activision (Call of Duty), King (Candy Crush), and Bethesda (Fallout, The Elder Scrolls).

Blizzard's 2026 and 2027 fiscal years also marked the company's "first back-to-back years of growth since" fiscal year 2027, shortly after the first incarnation of Overwatch came out.

"Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred and Overwatch drove exceptional performance in particular, with Overwatch delivering its strongest quarter since 2022," Faries says.

Overwatch kickstarted its big comeback at the start of the year with five new playable heroes, a seasonal reset, and smaller changes to almost every corner of the shooter. A jetpacking cat was sure to drive tons of hype, but since then, the team's put out exciting heroes and solid updates in every season. I'm sure collabs with Hello Kitty, Persona, and K-pop group Le Sserafim moved a bunch of players unable to control their wallets - it's me, I'm players. Blizzard's next tank is another mech-based fighter with a sick-looking sword and shield, for example.

Still, the comeback story comes during a pretty grim time for parent company Xbox. The console maker recently cut 1,600 jobs across its studios, with plans to cut another 1,600 roles within the next year.

Blizzard ends support for Overwatch's MOBA-inspired Stadium mode, no more heroes or maps to be added

A developer still working at Doom steward id Software has criticized corporate owner Xbox for laying off such a big portion of the iconic studio and seemingly misunderstanding the business its trying to dominate.

Xbox's sweeping layoffs recently hit 1,600 people across the gaming division, with another 1,600 job cuts yet to come. But one developer that was hit especially hard was id Software, the famed game maker behind Doom, Quake, the original Wolfenstein, and more.

Speaking to the Auf ein Bier YouTube channel about the cuts, a 16-year veteran at the studio and current lead services programmer Chris Hays had some critiques about Xbox management.

"They fundamentally don't understand art. They don't understand games. They don't understand that business model," Hays says, before noting a company that organizes itself in fiscal quarters maybe isn't best suited to make art that can take years to nurture. "How can we get this financial quarter or year to look good? Those don't align with the same things that make a successful game."

Since mass layoffs began impacting many an Xbox subsidiary, there's been lots of questions about what state id Software is in now. The developer reportedly lost half its staff, and some laid off devs speculated the studio is in no shape to make games like they used to. Doom: The Dark Ages director Hugo Martin did refute the claims, however: "We're the size we were when we made Doom 2016 and id Tech is very much alive and well."

Regardless, Chris Hays isn't sure what happens now. "It's hard to make a game when there are entire departments that are gutted [and] you need entire disciplines that are gone." Xbox has apparently yet to communicate how id Software would make games of a similar scope to The Dark Ages with trimmed down team.

"Who will do that work now? We had like who's going to make our skyboxes when we get rid of our skybox artist? How are we going to maintain infrastructure when we get rid of our infrastructure team? How are we going to maintain our engine when so much of our engine team is let go?" Hays adds, "we're not the same iD, we're half the same iD."

"There are no benefits to being owned by Microsoft," says Doom dev: "They have destroyed immense amounts of value that I don't even think that they're aware of"

Rampant online hate against Halo: Campaign Evolved is overblown, according to Marcus Lehto, the series' co-creator and father of Master Chief himself, who's having a real good time with the new remake despite a few wrinkles here and there.

Halo: Campaign Evolved launched late last month, and it's since been subject to some pretty mindless discourse on social media. For a gorgeous remake of an already iconic game, you might not expect to see so many posts complaining about everything from recycled reload animations to a literal rainbow lens flare, because that obviously does irreparable harm to a game.

Halo's former art and creative director, Marcus Lehto, who was at Bungie for decades, has now shared his thoughts on Campaign Evolved. And, yep, he likes it.

"Been slowly playing through Campaign Evolved on Heroic (the diff we designed the game for 25 years ago). Overall, I really love the upgrades - movement, cinematics, visuals - damn the lighting is brilliant. Do I have gripes? A few, but they are taking a back seat to the fun," he tweets.

As for the hate you might see online, Lehto acknowledges that social media sites in general aren't indicative of how your everyday player might feel about games: "This platform fosters that hate. Get us all in a room - in f***ing person - and I bet we would all eventually have a pretty damn good time playing the game together."

Elsewhere, Lehto is pretty generous with his thoughts on the remake of his classic shooter. He says the levels featuring the zombified Flood enemies "looked great," and he's also really impressed by the alien Covenant weapons, which feel "much more brutal with a solid punch."

Not everything's a total home run, including the overhauled cutscenes. "I like many of the liberties taken and additions with the cinematics, but a few are absolutely cringe," he writes.

While many fans might look to Lehto as a definitive authority on the subject, he hopes his comments don't "shut anything down." In fact, he wants his opinions to add "comment to the conversation" since "this is passionate and often polarized community."

Here's hoping the heavily teased Halo 2 remake goes down a bit smoother.

Halo: Campaign Evolved was the 4th most popular game on Xbox at launch in the US but only 29th on PS5, analyst says